The Nation 1909 : Vol 88

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The Nation A WEEKLY JOURNAL 42695 DEVOTED TO POLITICS, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, DRAMA, MUSIC, ART, and FINANCE PUS 1^ ■•■/ VOLUME LXXXVIII FROM JANUARY 1, 1909, TO JUNE 30, 1909 NEW YORK NEW YORK EVENING POST COMPANY 1 909 eusi

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4 2 S 9 5 INDEX TO VOLUME LXXXVIII JANUARY TO JUNE, 1909 (Nos. 2271-2295.) This index is divided into two parts; the first covering miscellaneous matters, the second, authors and books. A'Beckett, A. W. Obit 00 Aeronautics: Military balloons 127 Military fiying-inachines 100 Modesty of Wrights 500 Private and international law 430 U. S. squadron df dirigibles 572 Wrights receive honors 504 Zeppelin's feat 549 Alabama. Mobile sheriff removed 571 Albeniz, I. Obit 543 Alexander, W. H. Pronunciation of Latin.. 330 Ahrendt, C. F. W. Obit 40 Alden, R. M. Sidney's versification 104 Alderman, E. A. President Alderman explains 137 Allen, W. M. Obit 148 Allinson, A. C. E. Collegiate coeducation.. 404 Allinson, F. G. Original Marathon runner.. 559 American historical records 183 Andrews, M. P. Lincoln and the negro... 277 Angell, G. T. Obit 280 Angell, J. B. Resignation 183 Anthony, A. W. Pronunciation of the classics 270 Appleton, G. W. Obit 605 Archaeological Institute 11 Armes, W. D. Hawthorne, Cilley and Fancy's Show-Box 356 Arnold, W. H. Readings in Tennyson 534 Arnold-Forster, H. 0. Obit 280 Art: Algerian excavations 206 American Water-Color Society 472 Architectural League 150 Art collector 494 Boeotian excavations 314 British School of Archaeology 449 Burlington Magazine 178, 612, 636 Case of the art school 205 Christian remains in Egypt 48 Comic artist 232 Commission 233 Corinthian excavations 449 Cretan discoveries 74 Da Vinci's Mona Lisa 369 Egyptian discoveries 314, 590 Ericha excavations 125 Excavations in Assur and Babylon 259 Motya 179 Sparta 613 Triphylia 613 Explorations at Delos 449 Fair women in Paris 589 Government and 124 Holbein's Christina of Denmark 548 Leucadian discoveries 449 London International 123, 312 Messina paintings 98 Metropolitan Museum 262 Modern German painting 47 Monet's water lilies 590 Mons Janiculum 206, 262 Museum of horrors 448 New Gallery 472 Olympian excavations 545 Pagasae explorations 206 Paris salons 566 Pennsylvania Academy 177 Porta Maggiore bas-reliefs 287 Rassegna d'arte 48, 261 Robberies 636 Royal Academy 73, 518 Salonlcan excavations 544 Sardinian explorations 342 Scarabs forged at Paris 206 Site of Meroe 179 Sorolla y Bastida 151 Spring Academy 286 Stevenson portrait 178 Storico-Topografico Museum at Florence 590 Tangiers excavations 98 Tariff 313 Thessalian excavations 314 Vatican gallery 262, 343 Versailles portraits 151 Zuloaga's paintings 314 Aschehoug, T. H. Obit 142 Ashley, W. T. A correction 535 Athletics: Coaching of teams 500 Columbia's equipment 529 Golf championships 524 Nichols on football teams 500 Australia. Deakin becomes premier 573 Austria. Reorganization of cabinet 157 Automobiles: Darragh's sentence 572 Industry 7 Babbitt, I. Sainte-Beuve 622 Bachoue, A. de L. do. Obit 315 Bain, R. N. Obit 537 Baker, H. L. Bible as a literary model.. 510 A judicial excrescence Ill Baker, H. T. Dramatic monologue for Hamlet 14 Balch, T. W. Removal of Mason and Slldell from the Trent 137 Baldwin, W. W. Scope of Public Service Commission 61 Balkans: Austria and Servia 184 Austrian agreement 53 Austria's victory 349 Latest crisis 101 Situation In 290 Baize, R. Obit 287 Bancroft, F. Schurz's reminiscences 110 Barfus, E. von. Obit 2N0 Barnard, E. H. Obit 425 Barrett, R. C. Obit 253 Barrows, S. J. Obit 441 Barth, T. Obit 573, 5S1 Bausman, B. Obit 4X7 Beauregard, M.-C.-A. C. de. Obit 189 Belgium. Conditions in the Congo 34 7 Belloc, II. Ancestry of Charlemagne 218 Bertaux, Mme. L. Obit 520 Besnus, A. Obit 98 Bibliophile, 13, 34, 10!), 135, 102, 190, 216, 247, 275, 298, 327. 356, 380. 435, 459, 507, 532, 557, 577, 601, 624 Birth of a legend 533 Bischoff, J. W. Obit. 500 Boats: Motor boat show 184 Winning type of yacht .".1)4 Borelius, J. J. Obit 110 Bourgeois, E. Obit 630 Bournon, F. Obit 00 Boye, il. H. Obit 208 Boynton, R. W. Discipline of the higher criticism 36 Boze, H. Obit 98 Bradford, G. Love's omnipresence Ill Bradford, G., jr. The Bible and Shakes- peare 4"s History of Cardenio 328 The night's thousand eyes 37 Bradley, H. Lost leaf of Piers the Plowman 430 Breasted, J. H. Site of Meroe 219 Brewer, D. J. On peace 593 Brower, D. R. Obit 231 Brown, C. F. The lost leaf of Piers the Plowman 298 Brown, W. B. Obit 425 Bruce, J. D! Wit, whither, wilt? 218 Bruce, P. A. An early Virginia play 130 Bryan, W. J. To run for Senator 571 Budding genius 485 Bull, W. T. Memorial fund 4 1 0 Obit 203 Bulow, F. von. Obit 362 Burton, T. E. Succeeds Foraker 2, 52 Bush. C. G. Obit 45 Butler, A. G. Obit 11« California: Anti-Japanese agitation 99, 127 Los Angeles recall election 47.) San Francisco 550, 616 Calkins, W. Postponing inaugnral ceremonies 302 Campbell, K. Poe's Indebtedness to Byron . . 248 Canada: Earl Grey's governorship 524 Minister of foreign affairs 1M Payne bill WO Rumored navy °'2 Canfield, J. H. Obit 335 Cardelius 333, 461, 485, 534 Carmack, E. W. Murder of 15o Carnegie Institution: Index of economic ma- terial *is Manuscripts in English depositories 30U Carneri, B. von. Obit • 587 Carpenter, G. R. Obit 385,438 Carr, J. W. Obit 254 Castle, W. Obit <»m Cazelles, E. H. Obit £» Census bill. Veto of the 130 Central America. Crisis 346 Ceramano, M. Obit 520 Cervera, P. Obit 340 Chamberlain, A. F. One phase of imperialism 003 Charpentier, A. Obit 202 Children. Conference on dependent 101 Children's bureau I"'-1 China: Manchu dynasty ,29 Opium commission 211 Railway loan 617 Woman doctor 23 Yuan Shih Kai's dismissal 29 Churchill, W. Direct primary 77 Churchman, P. H. Certificates or examina- tions for college entrance 194 Civil service 28, 34s Clark, T. M. Obit 472 Clarke, B. F. Obit 8 College chair. Plea for a new 193 College: Carnegie Foundation 210 Coeducation 404 Conceit of students 500 Democratic 324 Eastern and Western 616 English requirements 323 European universities 581 Free trade professors 427 George Washington University 595 Growth of Western 109 In-breeding in faculties 576 Making scholarship attractive. 186, 300. 301, 302, 575 Muckraking in 21*0 Ph.D. degree 132, 219 Pres. Angell's Successor 620 Research 450 Stanford University 3'4 Study of classics 79 Vacations 54* Wages of Instructors 524 Colomb, M. Obit 545 Colombia. Panama treaty 28 Colorado Springs charter 374 Colson, J. M. Obit 543 Comfort, W. W. The ffineW twenty years after am Conder. C. Obit aoo Congress. Attitude toward Roosevelt 27 Coiiried, II. Obit 44s Conversation 377 Cook, A. S. Original Marathon runner 559 Copeland. A. B. Obit 126 Copyright law 2, 238, 240, 499 Coquelin, B.-C. Obit . 121 Ooquelin, K. A. H. Obit 149 Cortazzo, K. R. Memorial to Ouicla 218 Craighill, W. P. Obit 71 Crawford, V. M. Obit 3x0 Orawfurd, o. Obit ii;., Crete. Independence 595 Croswell, J. G. The late Professor Carpenter 3S2 Crowell, .1. Obit 335 Cuba: American administration 102 Gomez administration '.'.'. 54s Custom-house reforms .... r.m Cuyler, T. L. Obit '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.". '. '. '. '. 224 Dalby, Z. L. Nominated for Indian inspector. 289 Dana, J. C. Who Cardelius was 534 Darwin centenary n 203 Davidson, J. Obit. ... ' 410 Davis, M. E. M. Obit ....'.'. 17 Democracy, Reforming our 31 Democratic magazine \ ' 373 Demonlsm and faith-cure 500 Denison, C. Obit '.'.'.'.'.'. 45 Dickerman, C. H. Pronunciation of Latin"' 331 Dickinson, E. Poe eclipsed 60 Dickinson, L. Obit. . . 25 Dillon, F. Obit ..'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 520 Diplomatic service 015 Diplomats, Unknown 526 Divorce law 79 Dodd, W. E. Jefferson on Centralization...! 383 Dods, M. Obit 487 Doudemont, G. E. Obit 48 Drama : Academy of Dramatic Art. ....... 566 Anspacher's A Woman of Impulse 231 Besier's Olive Latimer's Husband 122 Bonner and Harris's Sham 341 Brieux's Les Hannetons 447 Carpenter's Barber of New Orleans . . .'. 71 Coleby's Truants 177 Du Maurler's An Englishman's Home, 149, 311 Fitch's The Bachelor 284 Happy Marriage 392 Foreign and native actors 391 Hichens's The Real Woman 177, 285 Hapwood's This Woman and This Man. ' 204 Hurlbut's Writing on the Wall 447 Indecency 175 Jerome's New Lady Bantock .......... 148 Johnston's Goddess of Reason 176 Klein's Third Degree 122 London Afternoon Theatre 149 National Theatre 46 Long's Kassa 96 Manners's Great John Ganton 470 House Next Door 392 Maugham's Penelope 122 Menander literature 423 Merry Widow 471 Mollusc 587 Mrs. Burnett's Dawn of a To-morrow.. 96 Narrow Path 588 Paris theatre 422 Robins' s Votes for Women 284 SalvinI celebration 518 Shaftesbury Theatre 177 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 367, 518 King John 258 Revival 231 Shaw's Admirable Bashville 149 Sothern In Richelieu 341 Stock company theatre 493 Walter's The Easiest Way 72 Woolf and Viereck's Vampire 71 Drummond, Mrs. F. L. Obit 254 Dubufe, G. Obit 568 Duke, C. S. Lincoln and the Negro 277 Duns, J. Obit 175 Dupray, L. H. Obit 520 Durant, W. J. No Refuge but In Truth . . 113 Earthquakes 4, 22, 105, 258 Ehbinghaus. H. Obit 284 Ebeliug. H. L. Ancient View of Destructive Natural Phenomena 164 Economic Association 9 Education: Country schools 271 Government facilities for research 223 Ideals of study 358 High sehoo! teaching 399 Idustrial S9, 401, 428 Love of study 250 U. S. Bureau appropriations 279 Edwards, G. The Hetch Hetchy Valley 15 Edwards. W. H. Obit ". 362 Egger, V.-E. Obit 258 Egypt. Lord Cromer on uprisings 3 Electoral law 28 Elkin. C. Correct Speaking 383 Elliott, H. Training of an Artist 250 Ellwood, C. A. Science of Sociology 509 Elsmie, G. R. Obit 005 Embassies of the U. S 2 Emphatic So 559 Engelmann. W. Obit 587 England: British Museum 142 Budget 455, 501, 551, 595

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Vol. lxxxviiij Incl ex. [Jan. -June, 1909 Disorder al public meetings 29 Funnellesa battleships 211 1 .ci many and 370 King Bdward In Berlin 129 Labor part; 470 Laws of maritime war 292, 345 Liberal part; 155, 239 Lloyd-George wins libel suit 290 Maxse and Dreadnought 3:>9 Naval estimates 267 Naval scare 429 New battleships 290 old age pension 239 Patent law 548 Poor laws 321 Queen Victoria's letters 2(i7 Rosebery oh war 573 Shipping 428 Taxation 153 War panic 525, 595, 617. 619 Welsh disestablishment 470 BStee, 1). Obit 02!) Evorard, 11. 0. S. Obit 501 Explorations 104 Fabcr, W. P. Strength of the church 3S Felpel, N. N. More notes on Shakespeare.. 21 s Fornald, G. B. English examinations for 0 ( • 1 - lege 4.S3 Finance: Bank of England 370 llarriuiun's views 548 Industrial boom 508 January break 48 Lending to China 613 Loudon's gold reserve 315 Present situation i.'f9 Price of metals 152 Problem of the railways 473 liaising prices by destruction 520 Reformed banking 75 Heport on exchanges 030 Responsible ministries 478 Hise in wheat 234 Rise in steel stock 5!) 1 Speculation in hard times 305 Standard Oil group 545 Steel 200, 343 Stocks and prosperity 25 Treasury problems 202 Wheat famine 407 Finley, M. Obit 116 Fisher, S. G. South and the negro 332 FitzGerald centenary 322 Flagler, I. van V. Obit 312 Fleay, P. G. Obit 368 Fletcher, J. B. A holy aud humble man of heart 438 Flexner, A. An explanation 88 Florian, W. Obit 370 Ford, H. J. Pretensions of Sociology 433 Sociology — \ rejoinder 531 Forests, Preservation of 80 Foster, W. T. Democratic American colleges 324 "Fought to a Frazzle" 14 Fowler, F. Modern German painting 47 Fox Bourne, II. R. Obit 198 France: Abolition of death penalty _ 3 Anti-Otericalism 2 12. 501 Franco-Prussian war 131 Income tax bill 266 Jaures and Morocco 156 Naval mismanagement 374 Postal strike 207. 290, 479. 501, 525 Proletarian insurrection 347 S.n-ial revolution 429 Fra/.or, P. Obit 390 Fromentln and Vermeer 410 Fuller, II. de W. Intellectual democracy... 301 Furness, H. H. Hanging of animals on a gallows .' 217 Galloway. ('. P. Obit 500, 513 Gamgee, A. obit 3»o Garaett, B. English Novels and Bnglish Life 272 Gates, J. W. Tennessee Coal Deal ....127, 128 Gates, L. Obit 121 Gay, F. L. The first American play 136 Geijerstam, G. af. Obit 335 Georgia: Negro disfranchisement 51 Railway strike 523, 54 1 Germany: Uarth on free trade 318 Diplomatic situation 39!) England and 370 Financial situation 47S Hamburg Colonial Institute 115 King Edward's visit 156 Patent treaty with the U. S 211 Reichstag 318 Relations with Russia 0(3 Tax fight 54 University courses 10s Von Bfilow's position. .211, .lis. 501.525, 017 Ghafur, s. M. a. (Shahbaz). Obit m Gibbons, Cardinal. Negro disfranchisement., is Gilbert, J. E. Obit ;:;;., Goeje, M. .1. .le. Obit r,si >'■ Ispeed, A. W. Am. Phil. Society.... 445 Gordin, J. Obit (ill Gordy, .1. P. Obit ' 1, Core, G. Obit o.-, Gottschall, R. Obit ' ' m- Gregory, A. w. Obit :y.i-} Gregory, E. J. Obit 335 Grousset, P. 1 'iiit ' .tV, , Plabieht, L. Obit s Diamond cutters' union 79 Industrial accidents 270 Judge Gray on boycott 593 Opposition to immigration 010 United Mine Workers ::i7 Lamont, II. .obit 4S0 5 in Lane, Mrs. I'. R obit .' 2S0 Lang, A. Impressions of Swinburne 506 Lang, P.. J. Obit 368 Lane, j jf Obit 165 Langen, A. Obit 51.1 Language: Minor tongues 403 Pronunciation or Latin 270. 330, 331, ins, 437, 4S4 Lanman, C. R. Leibnitz papers iu America 104. 194 Laurie, S. S. Obit 2s 1 Law: American Journal id' International..'.' 195 Journalism and 499 Lawton, W. C. Retreat from Marathon 002 Le Couteux, L. Obit 472 Lee, S. Earls and figures from Shakespeare. 110 Leisure, Mistakes about 55:', Lepeke, F. Obit 370 Le Roy, J. A. Obit 224 Lewis, D. Obit ion Libraries: Boston annual report 581 City library of Frankfurt 142 Handbooks 190, 197 Open shelves ! 141 Pittsburgh children's department 252 Providence annual report 513 Virginia archives 3S5 Lincoln, A. Contemporaries 130 Highway 77 Negro problem 15s Roosevelt on 155 Literature: American Fiction 108 Anatole France 530 Art aud Actuality 530 Bible as a mode) 350, 438, 510 Canadlau ion Craze for memoirs 1S7 Early Victorian novel 53 Edward FitzCeratd 322 English novels and English life 272 Great art and small subjects 351, 438 John Keats's porridge 505 Literary property 19:; Popularity ol Poe 55 Quarterly Review 528 Shelf-room and culture 294 Shelf-room and culture 294, 017 Studies in 021 Loeb, \V., jr. Appointment 237 Logan, O. obit 470 Lohmeyer, K. Obit 605 Lorimer, W. Elected senator 547 Love of Study 250 l.ovejoy, C. F. American Free Trade League. 220 Low, B. J. Gb.t 38o Luckock, H. M. Obit 302 Lynching: Mobile sheriff removed 571 Oklahoma 398 Supreme Court decision 523 McCall, S. W. Dartmouth presidency 183, 224 McClure, A. K. Obit 581 McCord, G. H. Obit 370 Mackall, L. L. Goethe's Conversations 249 McKie, T. Obit 40 MacLean, A. M. A question of literary property 193 Mahrenholtz, R. Obit 362 Maintaining ideals of study 300 Malburn, W. P. A new party 001 Marathon runner 533, 559 March, D. Obit 224 Martens, F. de. Obit .' 029 Maryland. Negro disfranchisement 78 Mason, E. V. Obit 169 Massachusetts: Boston city charter 28, 131 Historical Society 411 Industrial education 428 Old-age pensions 593 Mathews, R. Survival of the morally fit.... 61 Mathews, W. Obit 169 Matkowsky, A. Obit 368 Matthews, A. The Two William Shirleys .. 533 Mau, A. Obit 343 Mead, E. D. John Cotton's influence on Vane 484 Mendes, C.-A. Obit 133 Merat, A. Obit 116 Meredith, G. Obit 506, 513,554 Meriwether, C. Pronunciation of Latin .... 437 Merwin, H. C. Appeal to summer residents of Maine 112 Mesdag, S. Obit 370 Messel, A. Obit 343 Michel, F. E. Obit 591 Michigan : Anti-saloon league I 346 Minott, J. O. Obit 520 Missouri. Railway rate laws 238, 266 Modern Language Association 12 Modjeska, H. Obit 391 Molesworth, P. B. Obit 71 Moore, J. W. Obit 231 Morgan, B. Q. Hanging of Plants 579 Morlson, T. Indian statistics 15 Morocco. Franco-German agreement 150 Morse, C. E. Sentimeut for 2 Morse, E. L. C. Great Britain and Germany 401 Race Prejudice 276 Remedy for misgovernmeut 409 Work of the country school . 331 Moulton, J. E. Obit 005 Mury, A. Obit 9S Music: Blockx's Herbergprinses 285 Catalini's La Wally 47 Chinese programme music 566 Haydn concertos 286 Manhattan Opera House 393 Marriage of Figaro 73 Mendelssohn and Strauss 122 Metropolitan Opera House 393 Musicians and managers 447, 5SS Paderewski's symphony 204 Philharmonic Orchestra . . . ., 341 Roman Society of Authors 518 Russian opera 566 Sarasate's bequests 47 Sembrich farewell 149 Verdi's Falstaff 312 Verhulst's Reynaert de Vos 123 Why concerts do not pay 423 Myers, E. E. Obit 262 Nature. The comforting power ot 358 Naval expenditures 320 Neavc, J. O. Rights and lefts in slippers.. 218 Negro: Brownsville episode 209 Disfranchisement 78, 428 Foreign view of problem 1 5s Helper on slavery 209 National committee proposed 571 Race prejudice 221. 270, 277, 332 Nehring, W. Obit 109 Neidig. W. J. The First Play in America.. 80 Neumayer, G. von. Obit 635 Newfoundland: Bond Cabinet 210 Fisheries 99, 127 Newspapers: Comic supplement 594 Indictment of "World" 1S2 New York City charter 23S New York: Gas decision 1 Legal reforms 523 Tension bill 427 Publication of betting odds 399 State farm colony 317 Publication of letters 499 Reforming readers 432 Yiddish 403 Nichols. S. H. Obit 561 Noailles, E. H. V. de. Obit 109 Normand, A. N. Obit 314 Norse Text Society 412

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Nos. 2271-2295] Ind ex. [Vol. lxxxviii North, S. N. D. Removal 547 Nortou, G. Arnold's Church of Brou 136 Noyce, A. In memory of Swinburne 460 Nydegger, H. Obit ,;■■::■■ 5Si Oakley, I. G. Art collections for small cities 88 Ohio. Saloons 374 Oklahoma. Lynching 398 Olnev, W. The Hetch Iletchy Valley 00, 105 The water of the middle Yuba 250 Opium Commission 211 Osthoff, H. Obit 561 Pacific Slope. Seeing the 503 Page, A. B. William Shirley 02 1 Page, C. H. Poe in Fiance 32 Panama Canal 28, 155, 1S5, 373 Papal Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate 629 Parker (Theodore) centenary 359 Parrott, T. M. Chapman and the Classics... 381 Elizabethan revivals 406 Passage, Comte du. Obit 287 Passano, L. M. Lincoln and the Negro.. 221, 332 l'eaee Conference 324 Trace Society 427 Tease, F. H. Obit 312 Penniuglon, .1. S. The New Hope in India.. 358 Pennsylvania. Philadelphia primary election.. 571 Pernter, J. M. Obit 96 Perott, J. lie. Schoolgirls in Shakespeare.. 218 Perrachon. A. Obit 98 Persia: Crisis 291 Foreign intervention 429 New constitution 477 Ph.D., Trouble with 219 Philippines: Journals 89 Payne bill 345 Public schools 373 Withdrawal from 427 Philological Association 11 Philosophical Society 440, 462 Piers the Plowman 298, 436, 482 Tinner, A. Obit 609 Pisehel, K. Obit 40 Piatt. T. C. Retirement 241 Pleonastic So 535 Poe, E. A 32, 55, 60 Poets of Yale 484 Poire, E. Obit 232, 233 Polar expeditions 104, 340, 300, 421, 477 Political Science Association 10 Tolitics: Boss unrest 103 Humor in 214 New party alignment 478 Office-holders in 348 Recall elections 475 Porto Rico: Hostility to U. S 128 Taft's amendment to act 476 Portugal. Political corruption. 453 Potter, W. A. Obit 200 Pragmatism 450, 558 Prescott, F. C. Poe's definition of poetry 110 Primaries. Direct. 77, 128, 129, 1S2, 209, 208, 21)2, 317, 373, 015 Probation system 80, 260 Prohibition 52. 340, 374, 42S, 572 Race prejudice 54 Race-track gambling 015 Railways: Buffalo. Rochester and Eastern.. 289 Commodities decision 454 Pennsylvania R. R. accidents 548 Rail motor cars 564 Rate laws 238, 200 Stocks 4i3 Strike in Georgia 547 Rand, W. W. Obit 253 Ranke, H. von. Obit 565 Raub, F.-S. Obit 280 Bay, P. H. Retired officers for active service 88 Reade, T. M. Ohit 609 Reamy, T. A. Obit. 2S4 Recnicek, F. von. Obit 591 Reconstruction, Policy of 138 Reed, E. B. A neglected American author. . 191 Reform and common sense 616 Reform organizations 31 Regnier, A. Obit 98 Reinach, S. Animals on the gallows 331 Reinhardstoettner, K. G. F. von. Obit 465 Religion : Christian Science apostates 572 Country church 599 Goldwin Smith on 81 Higher criticism 36, 62 New York Presbytery 594 Reconstruction 81, 219 Socialization of , 552 Republic, Loss of the 77 Restieanx, R. A word about Cardelius 401 Rethwisch, K. Obit 142 Rey, L. E. E. Obit 73 Rhodes scholarship 17 Rice, It. A. A later Baconian 620 Rigg, J. H. Obit 412 Robnut. A. Obit 472 Roberts, E. J. Concentrated essence of pro- tection 333 Rockefeller. J. E. Apologia 402 Roekhill, W. W. Ambassador to Russia .... 451 Rolfe. W. J. Shakespearean notes 625 Rolfe, W. J. Tennyson's revisions of his poems 460 Variant readings of Goldsmith's poems.. 275 Wit. whither wilt 163 Ronner. H. Obit 287 Roosevelt, T. : Attitude of armv 51 Census bill 130 Forest preservation 80 Parting glance at 240 Preservation of water power 51 Quarrel with Congress 27 Secret Service " 1, 182 Tennessee Coal & Iron Co 27 Dangers of centralization 100 Root. E. : Dangers of centralization 100 Elected Senator 52 Peace policy 210 Rndovltz decision 99 Rowell, W. A. The subjects for art 438 Rozhestvensky. Admiral 53 Russia: Government loan 52, 53 Interference in Persia 429 Journalism 293 Policy at Harbin 211 Prepares for war with Germany 573 Reactionaries 477 Roekhill made ambassador 451 Rudovitz decision 99 Secret police 28, 129 Saint Yves, Marquis de. Obit 224 Samuel, B. Plagiarism 401 Sehaefer, G. W. Obit 40 Schell, F. H. Obit 370 Schools, Health in the 50 Schultz, A. Ohit 343 Schwab, L. H. The basis of faith 219 Science: Annales de Geographie 565 Culture and 598 Fossil man 44 Geographical Journal 543 Hauser s excavations 120 Manila Observatory 258 Mrs. Vanderbilt's model tenements 230 National Geographic Magazine 5S7 Nebraska Loess man 45 N. Y. Zoological Society 587 Revolutionizing surgery 230 St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.... 168 Vaccination in the Philippines 258 Secret service 1, 1S2 Seeley, H. G. Obit 45 Senate and the President 88 Sepp, J. N. Obit 005 Sherman's military policy 475, 470 Sherman, S. P. Autobiography of Josiah Flynt 188 George Meredith 554 Hammond Lament 510 Ship-subsidy 237, 238, 428 Shorter, E. Du B. Some parallels 329 Slingerland. M. V. Obit 284 Snell, S. Obit 469 Socialism 527, 579 Social reform 616 Sociology, Pretensions of 433 Solomon. J. Obit 501 Sonnenthal, A. R. von. Obit 368 South : Class problem 269 Division of politics 1 South Africa. Constitution 185, 525 South America. Our relations with.... 157, 398 Soutter, C. B. Indian statistics 62 Spain. Municipal elections 549 Spalding, J. A. Author of the Junius Letters 409 Speed, J. G. Obit 116 Stanard, W. G. Books in colonial Virginia 109 Standard Oil 205, 402, 545 State Department. Under-Secretary 100 State Legislatures. Extension of power.... 101 Stirling, E. Obit 308 Stirling. J. H. Obit 362 Stoeker, A. Obit 142 Stoddard. C. W. Obit 441 Stokes, W. Obit 441 Straus, O. Ambassador to Turkey 451 Stretton, Hesba. Obit 91 Sturgis, It. Obit 179 Stuyvaert, C. E. Obit 23 Swinburne. A. C. obit 37s, ion, 500 Switzerland. Reformation chronicle 198 Syuge, J. M. Obit 308 'raft, W. H. : Appointments :s:>7. 398, 49:1 Atlanta speech 51 Cabinet 237 Disappoints Roosevelttans 397 Inaugural 240 Independence :'.:i7 New budget committee 319 Reception in the South 523 Tanner, A. E. A question of literary property 193 Tardieu, O. Obit '. 110 Tariff: Aldrich and German report 547 Aldrich bill .175. 397, 400, 430, 453 Aldrich's budget 400 Art 313 Canada and Payne bill 320 Commission 475 Congress and 618 Corporation tax 618 Democratic attitude, 317. 375. 376. 451. 478, 499. 499, 523, 523 Dingley bill 451 Dolliver's exposures 475 Excessive 320 Free trade in colleges 427 Immoralities 550 Income tax 427 Indianapolis convention 182 Inheritance tax 28!) Inter-party alliances 596 Mythical consumer 521! On necessaries 317 Payne bill 291. 345. 347, 397 Readjustment of parties 478 Revenue • . 205 Revision 265, 615 Robbing by law 597 Senator Scott on 451 Senatorial madness 574 Steel trade 210, a(SS Taft's attitude 571 Taxes and national wealth 502 Wood pulp 209 Taylor, C. B. Obit 409 Tennessee: Conviction of the Coopers 290 Lynching decision 523 Night-riders 499 Thaeher. J. B. Obit 224 Thiersch. L. Obit 56.-! Thompson, J. Mr. Rurbank's work 002 Thomson. J. IT. P. J. Obit 231 Tillev, M. P. Moth in Love's Labour's Lost 437 Tillinghast, C. B. Obit 405 Tillman, B. R.: Charges against 27 Race hatred 428 Trusts: Agitation against 102 Continental Wall Paper Company 99 Steel Corporation 205, 343, 398 Sngar Trust 239, 452, 475, 503, 590, 615 Tennessee Coal Company 127 Tuekerman, F. G. Revival of poems 3 Tnllis, R. L. Jackson at the execution of John Brown 020 Turkey: Abdul Hamid 156, 452, 477 Constitutionalists 150, 452, 417 Cretan situation 590 Death of missionaries 390 European conference 5 Mohammedan women s'.i National Geographic Magaziue on 19. 1 Nationalities l&ti Reorganization of army 28 Revolution 4^.1 Straus made ambassador 451 Young Turks 04.1 U. S. Navy: Battleships 78, 175 Capps's appointment 2 Cruise of fleet 1S1 Naval bill 181 Navy yard reorganization 400 Mississippi valley war scare 45 1 Qualtrough's punishment 128 Removal of the Maine 78 U. S. Treasury : Economizing 349 Surplus revenue 345 U. S. War Department : Increase of army - officers 30 Major-Gen. Bell reappointed 200 Pensions 427 Reduction of general staff 78 Retired officers in active service 51 Taft's appointments 397 West Point 212 University president and professor 137 Vailati, G. Obit 505 Venard, C. Obit 259 Venezuela: Castro and 398 Our relations with 157 Vignon, V. Obit 395 Vollers, K. Obit 110 Wade, O. St. C. Legal proceedings against animals 382 Wagner, A. Obit 254 Wahl, W. H. Obit 310 Waite, C. B. Obit 335 Waite, H. R. Obit 487 Wales. National library 109 Wallis, F. A. Withdrawal 101 War: Growing dread of 212 The making of 431 Warfield, E. D. The Bible as literary model.. 438 Watson, H. C. Obit 49 Weeks, S. B. Sentiment versus history in North Carolina 330 Weerth, E. K. aus'm. Obit 449 Weir, G. R. Obit 311 Wells, J. E. Variations in the Idylls of the King 557 Welsh, C. Memorial to John Newbery 299 Werner, R. von. Obit 280 West, M. Obit 39 Weston, H. G. Obit 142 Whiting, W. H., jr. Classical Study in the South 408 Whitman, E. A. The Hetch Helehy Valley, 112, 195 Who was Cardelius? 333 Wiekhoff, F. Obit 473 Wiggins. B. L. Obit 605 Wilbv, C. B. Tariff and revenue 15 Wildenbruch, E. von. Obit 72 Wilson, A. J. E. Obit 4S7 Wireless telegraphy 77 Wisconsin: Faith cure in schools 500 Milwaukee autonomy 572 Wein. in suffrage. Albany hearing 210 Woodlnidge, H. K. Cooperation in English.. 37 Woodruff, J. L. M. Ohit 441 Wright, C. D. Obit 198 C. H. H. Obit 302 Yeames. H. H. Destruction of Berytus .... 250 Pronunciation of Latin 331 Young. B. Carl Sehurz and Marcus Aurelius 137 Zalinski, E. L. G. Obit 284 Zionists. Federation of 017 Zuber, J.-H. Obit 449 AUTHORS AND BOOKS. The entries in the following index are made under the name of author, editor, or translator, as the case may be, sometimes under two of these heads. A number of the more important books are also indexed by title. Acts of the Privy Council of England 488 Adams, O. F. A Motley Jest 231 Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, E. von. Elisabeth Christine, Konigin von Preussen 197 Adventures of a Nice Young Man 92 Atlalo, F. G. Sunset Playgrounds 515 Allen, F. H. Bibliography of Thoreau 13 Allen, H. N. Things Korean 38 Allen, W. H. Civics and Health 579 Alvarez, A. Latin America and International Law 402 American History. Writings on 001 Aueey, G. Athenes courounee de violettes.. 141 Anderson, F. M. Constitutions 221 Anderson, W. Japanese Wood Engravings... 393 Andreades, A. Bank of England 420 Andrews, E. F. War-Time Journal of a Geor- gia Girl 283 Andreyev, L. The Seven Who Were Hanged os- Angela of Foligno. Divine Consolation of the Blessed 440 Annuario Statistico 441 Anson, W. Law and Custom of the Constitu- tion 107 Anthropology and the Classics 486 Aram, K. Jugendsilnden 29i Arnold, M. Select Poems 100 Atlay, J. B. Lord Haliburton 207 Austin, S. History of Engraving lis Avery, E. McK. History of the United Stales 5]3 Avesta Yasna "29 Bacheller, I. The Hand-Made Gentleman.... 562 Bacon, J. D. An Idyll of All Fool's Day.. 282 Baedeker's Italy and Greece 114

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Vol. lxxxviiij Ind ex. [Jan-June, 1909 Bagwell, K. Irelaud Under the Stuarts 1st Balir, H. Die Rahl 85 Bain), A. L. A. Daybreak in Korea 012 Baker, B. S. Following the Color Line 91 Ballon-, Comte de Montessus ile. La Science Seisuiologlque 147 Bancroft, F., and Dunning, W. A. Remi- niscences of Carl Schurz 66 Bancroft, M. and S. The Bancrofts 635 Bankart, Q. r. Art "I the Plasterer U3u Barbler, P. Age of Owaiu Gwynedd 140 Barker, E. II. France of the French 44 1 Barr, A. E. The Hands of Compulsion 515 Banes, M. Colette Bamloehe 210 Barrett, E. S. The Heroine 410 Barrows, 1). 1'. History of the Philippines.. SO Barth, F. Calvin and Servet 02:> Bartholomew. J. G. Atlas of the World S9 Bartlett F. 0. Web of the Golden Spider... 338 Barton, J. L. Daybreak in Turkey '.'22 r.ashiord, 11. H. The Pilgrims' March 387 Batsou, Mrs. S. Summer Garden of Pleasure 468 Baumgarten, !'. M. Henry Charles Lea's Historical Writings 33 I Baziu. B. This My Son 563 Beaulieu, P. L. Collectivism 301 Beeeari, C. Reruru Aethiopicarum Scriptores. 140 Beer, G. L, British Colonial System 1578- 1660 63^ Bell, J. J. Whither Thou Goest 443 Oh! Christina 607 Bell Telephone 530 Benneville, J. L. De. More Japonico 304 Benson, A. C. Poems 200 Benson, E. P. The Climber 200 Bernstorff Papers 04 Bertholet, A. ReligionsgesehUhtliehes Prob- lem des Spiitjudeutuins 197 Beyer, A. van, and Leautaud. Poetes d'aujourd'hui 50 Les Poetes du terrolr 59 Bible, Authorized Version 359 Bible Dictionary 223 Bible Encyclopaedia 222 Bibliographical Society Proceedings 63 Bie, O. Das Fest der Elemente 472 Blackwood, A. John Silence 563 Blaine, Mrs. J. G. Letters 220 Bliss, E. M. The Missionary Enterprise 480 Bock, A. Die Pariser 00d Bode, W. Florentine Sculptors of the Renais- sance 309 Masters of Dutch and Flemish Painting.. 424 Boehm, T. Flute Playing 494 Bojer, J. Vort Rige 00 Bond, F. Fonts and Font Covers 233 Bonney, S. G. Pulmonary Tuberculosis 95 Booth, W. S. Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon 609 Bostonian Society Proceedings 463 Bostonian Society Publications 38 Boswell, C. S. An Irish Precursor of Dante.. 172 Boulenger, M. Les Doigts de fee 210 Boy lesve. R. Le Mel 1 leur Ami 215 Boyuton, H. W. Current American Fiction .. 106 Brahms, J. Herzogenberg Correspondence .... 232 Brandes, G. Voltaire In seiueni Verhaltnlss zu Friedrich dem Grossen und Rousseau 411 British Empire 115 Rrooke, H. Fool of Quality 90 Brooks, J. G. As Others See Us 490 Brown, A. The Story of Thyrza 307 Brown, P. H. Short History of Scotland 222 Bruce, H. A. Romance of American Expansion 605 Bruckner. A. Literary History of Russia.... o::o Bryan, M. Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker. 418 Bryant, H. G. Au Early American Arctic Expedition 258 Buchanan, J. Works 62, 278 Buonarroti, M. Briefe 394 Burpee, L. J. Search for the Western Sea... 142 Bury, J. B. Ancient Greek Historians 516 Buteau, H. L'Otage 215 BUttner, R. Gesehichte d-s fUrstlichen Gym- nasiums Rutheneum ,-p Gera 17 Cabell, J. B. Cords of V:. -ity 582 Cable, G. W. Kineaid's Battcy 19 Caine, H. My Story 256 Cain, G. Walks in Paris 628 California Earthquake of April 18, 1900 174 Calvert, A. F. Madrid 468 Cambridge History of English Literature.... 338 Cambridge Modern History 441 Campbell, F. W. G. Appollonius of Tyana.. 0-00 Campbell, R. J. Thursday Mornings at the City Temple 39 Canadian Literature in 1908 108 Canning, George, and His Friends 561 Carey, R. N. The Sunny Side of the Hill... 144 Caribbeana 303 Carlyle, T., and Welsh, J. Love Letters.... 416 Carpenter, G. R. Walt Whitman 304 Carr, J. C. Some Eminent Victorians 160 Carrlngton, H. The Coming Science 70 Carson, B. M. From Cairo to the Cataract.. 512 Carter, C. F. When Railroads Were New.. 463 Cartwright, J. Baldassare Castiglione 172 Catholic Church in the United States 200 Catholic Encyclopedia 68 Cena. G. The Forewarners 143 Chandler, W. M. Trial of Jesus 2(8 Chapman, J. Early History of the Vulgate Gospels 2.1 .; Chardon, H. L' Administration de la France.. 004 Chatelaine of Vergi 359 Chatfield-Taylor, H. C. Fame's Pathway 539 Churchill, W. S. My African Journey 300 Clemen, C. Religlonsgeschichtliche Erklar- ung des Neuen Testaments 464 Coerne, L. A. Evolution of Modern Orchestra- tion (2 Colnci, G. de. Of the Tumbler of Our Lady 403 Colby, C. W. Canadian Types of the Old Regime 143 Collier, P. England from the American Point of View 034 Columbia Dniversity Lectures on Science, Philosophy, and Art 166 Conger, S. P. Letters from China 633 Conyers, D. Three Girls and a Hermit 226 Cook, A. S. Concordance to Thomas Gray.. 22s Cornish, V. Panama Canal 4Sj Craddock, C. E. The Fair MlsBlsslppian .... 42 Cradle of the Rose oi Craig, K. S. Making of Carlyle 300 Crawford, F. M. The White Bister 514 Cremer, w. Das grosse Tor ooo Crichfleld, G. W. American Supremacy 63 Cullen, .1. Hundred Best Hymns 165 Curtln, .1. 'The Mongols 405 The Mongols in Russia 465 Cutten, G. It. Psychological I'hei lena ot Christianity no Dahlke, P. Buddhist Essays 173 Dalliba, G. An Earth Poem 40 Daluian, G. l'etra uud seine FelshelligtUmer. 168 Danby, F. Sebastian 583 Daniel 1X4 Darmstaedter, L. Handbuch der Naturwlssen- schafteu 148 Davidsou, Iv. L. Gardeus, Past and Present. 203 Davidsohn, R. Gesehichte von Florenz 90 Davlee, W. H. Nature Poems 40 Dawson, W. H. Evolution of Modern Ger- many 536 De Barry, Li. The Land of Promise 304 Dchinel, R. Lebensbliitter and other works. . . 464 Deland, E. 1). Miss Betty of New York 255 Delbriiek-Festschrift 141 Dellenbaugh, F. S. A Canyon Voyage 515 Doming, H. E. Government of American Cities 366 Deuison, T. S. The Primitive Aryans of America 197 Dennistoun, J. Dennistoun of. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino 93 Deutsche Charakterkopfe 512 Devine, E. T. Misery and Its Causes 536 Dickens, C. Miscellaneous Papers 119 Dickens Dictionary 579 Dickinson, G. L. Justice and Liberty 352 Is Immortality Desirable? 527 Dincklage-Campe, F. F. von. Deutsche Reiter in Siidwest 17 Dino, Duchesse de. Chronique de 1831 a 1802. 134 Dodd, W. F. Modern Constitutions 221 Dondlinger, P. T. Book of Wheat 343 Donworth, G. Letters of Jennie Allen to Her Friend Miss Musgrove 93 D'Ooge, M. L. The Acropolis of Athens.... 612 Dornenpfade der Barmherzigkeit 620 Doumergue, C. Jean Calvin 464 Dreyer, A. Der Alplnismus 537 Dryden, J. Poetical Works 585 Du Cane. E., and F. Flowers and Gardens of Japan 25 Dudeney, Mrs. H. Rachel Lorian..- 255 Dulles, C. W. Accidents and Emergencies... 390 Duncker, D. Ernst von Wildenbruch 392 Dntton, S. T., and Snedden, D. Administra- tion of Public Education in the U. S.. 304 Dvkes, J. O. The Christian Minister 485 Eekhart, R. Hundert Stimmen liber den Jesultenorden 91 Eggeling, O., and Ehrenberg, F. Fresh Water Aquarium 175 Elder or Poetic Edda 252 Ellis, W. A. Wagner's Letters to Minna.... 494 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics 173 English Dictionary 251, 530 English Formula Book 463 English Houses and Gardens in the 17th and 18th Centuries 151 Enoek, C. R. Peru 63 Ernst. W. Apologetik ftir die Gegenwart... 17 Everts, K. J. The Speaking Voice 368 Exodus H4 (Fabietti, E. Manuale per le Blblioteehe Popolari 361 Fairweather, W. Background of the Gospels. 636 Ferrero, G. Greatness and Decline of Rome.. 491 Feseh, P. Constantinople aux derniers Jours d'Abdul Hamid 141 Filippi, F. De. Ruwenzori 95 Finch, F. M. The Blue and the Gray 439 Finck, H. T. Grieg and His Music 611 Finot, J. Philosophy of Long Life 634 Fisher, S. G. Struggle for American Inde- pendence 513 Fitzmaurice-Keliy, J. The Nun Ensign 64 Flat, P. Nos Femmes de lettres 59 Fletcher, C. R. L. Historical Portraits 394 Flvnt, J. My Life 188 Foley, G. C. Anseim's Theory of the Atone- ment 512 Forsslund, L. Old Lady Number 31 419 Foster, R. F. Complete Hoyle 89 Foucart, G. La Methode comparative dans l'histoire des religions 355 Fowler, E. T. Miss Fnllowfield's Fortune. . 226 Fraedrlch, G. Ferdinand Christian Baur.... 440 France. A. Balthasar 140 Thais 538 Franklin Papers 336 Frazer, J. G. Psyche's Task 360 French fiction 481 French literature 59, 134. 210, 326, 30" Frey. J. Probleme der Leidensgeschichte Jesu 335 Frye, W. E. After Waterloo 411 Fyvie. G. Tragedy Queens of the Georgian Era 446 Gairdner. J. Lollardy and the Reformation In England 537 Galsworthy, J. Fraternitv 466 Galton, F. Memories ofMv Life 542 Ganghofer. L. Waldransch ' 290 Ganong, W. F. Plant-Physiology 120 Gardner, W. Stephen A. Douglas 18 Garnett. P. Bohemian Jinks 23 Gaskell, Mrs. North and South 139 Gaskell. W. H. Origin of Vertebrates 389 Geihel, E. Jugendbriefe 361 George, W. L. France In the Twentieth Cen- tury 444 Georgevitch, V. Die tilrkische Revolution.... 440 Georgian Verse, Book of 113 Gerdes, H. Gesehichte des deutschen Volkes 141 German fiction 85, 296, 599 German poetry 530 Gerould, G. H. The Grateful Dead 167 Geyer, A. Unsere Kultur 469 Gilbert, G. H. Acts: the Second Volume of Luke's Work 253 Gilbert, R. W. Golden Rod and Lilies 40 Gilman, A. My Cranford 360 Oilman, B. I. Hop! Songs 311 Gilman, L. Edward MacDowell 46 Glaspell, S. Glory of the Conquered 489 Glyn, M. H. Evolution of Musical Form.... 392 Gnoli, D. Have Roma 74 Goddard, 11. C. Chaucer's Legend of Good Women 56O Godfrey, E. A Sister of Prince Rupert.... 60S Goethe's Correspondence with the Humboldts 512 Goldfriedrich, J. Gesehichte des deutschen Buchhandels 223 Gordon, L. D. Home Life In Italy 196 Grant, R. The Chippendales 363 Grazie, M. E. delle. Heilige uud Menschen. 297 Green, A. S. The Making of Ireland 20 Green, H. The Maisou de Shine 143 Grieg, E. Compositions Grierson, F. The Valley of Shado 24 585 Griflis, W. E. Story of New Netherland .... 02.-S Grimani Breviary 369 Grimshaw, B. In the Strange South Seas 114 Grotthuss, E. von. Am Webstuhl der Zeit.. 17 Griitzmacher, G. Hierouymus 305 Guerber, R. A. Myths of the Norsemen.... 16 Guinness, G. Peru 384 Hakluyt Society Publications 64 Hale, L. C. The Actress 467 Hall, O. C. The Silver Cup 486 Hamy, E. T. Les Debuts de Lamarck .... 446 Hankin, St. J. The Last of the De Mullins.. 543 Hanotaux, G. Histoire de la France contern- poraine 135 Hapgood, H. An Anarchist Woman 608 Hard, H. Tagebuch elner anstiindigen Frau.. 297 Harland, H. The Royal End 539 Harper, C. M. Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve 622 Harris, J. C. The Bishop and the Boogerman 171 Hartt, R. L. The People at Play 028 Harvard Oriental Series 304 Hase, H. von. Joseph Haydn und Breitkopf & Hartel 204 Hatfield, H. R. Modern Accouuting 584 Haultain, A. Mystery of Golf 167 Hauptmann, G. Grlselda 310 Hausrath, A. Jesus und die neuestament- Uchen Schriftsteller 17 Hazell's Anrual (1909) 114 Henderson, P. E. A British Officer in the Balkans 361 Henry of Navarre 308 Henry, O. The Gentle Grafter 42 Henshaw, N. G. Aline of the Grand Woods. 337 Herder's Werke 580 Hesse, H. Naehbarn 86 Heyse, P. Die Geburt der Venus 599 Hieginson, E. Alaska 229 Hill, F. T. Story of a Street 146 Hillquit, M. Socialism In Theory and Practice 278 Hind, A. M. History of Engraving and Etch- ing 342 Hinneberg's Kultur der Gegenwart 90 Hocker, P. O. Die verbotene Frucht 600 Hodell, C. W. The Old Yellow Book 198 Holder, C. F., and Jordan, D. S. Fish Stories 421 Holz, A. Sonnenfinsternlss 284 Hornaday, W. T. Camp Fires on Desert and Lova 167 Horsburgh, E. L. S. Lorenzo the Magnificent 385 Howard, W. G. Ut Plctura Poesis 304 Hoyt, A. S. The Preacher 486 Hubbard, Mrs. L., jr. A Woman's Way through Unknown. Labrador 114 Huch, R. Das Risorgimento 168 Hueffer, O. M. Book of Witches 603 Hiigel, F. von. Saint Catherine of Genoa... 539 Hulbert, A. B. The Niagara River 190 Huldsehiner, R. Starkenberg 600 Hume-Grifllth. M. E. Persia and Turkish Arabia 517 Huntker, J. Egoists 492 The Greater Chopin 149 Hunt, G John C. Calhoun 18 Hntton, E. Country Walks about Florence.. 43 Huygens, (). Oouvrt.8 120 Huykens, A. Gesehichte der helligen Eliza- beth 411 Imperial Gazetteer of India 608 Ingleby, L. C. Oscar Wilde 116 Ibsen, H. Little Eyolf 565 A Doll's House 565 Itivuttaka 385 Irwin, W. Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy. 309 International Year Book, 1908 679 Inner Shrine 489 Imperial Gazetteer of India 69 Jackson. F. H. Shores of the Adriatic 563 Jacob. V. Irresolute Catherine 583 Jacques, N. Funchal 296 Jaloux. E. Le Reste est silence 481 James, H. Works 359, 410, 439 James, W. A Pluralistic Dnlverse 456 Jefferson, C. E. Character of Jesus 64 Jekyll, G. Children and Gardens 71 Jensen, J. V. Die neue Welt 64 Jerome, Jerome K. The Passing of the Third Floor Back 308 Jerusalem, E. Venus am Kreuz 297 Jevons, F. B. Comparative Religion 490 Johnson, C. Highways and Byways of the Pacific Coast 140 Shakespeare and His Critics 58V" Johnson, E. R. American Railway Trans- portation 425 Johnson, O. The Eternal Boy 226 Johnston, R. F. From Peking to Mandalay. 21 Joly, H. L. Legend in Japanese Art 393 Jones, E. A. Old Royal Plate in the Tower of London 544 Jones, H. S. The Roman Empire 334 Jones, J. P. India: Its Life and Thought.. 17 Jones, P. F. Shamrock Land 384 Jonsson, F. Icelandic and Old Norwegian Literature 65 Jordan, D. S. The Fate of Iclodorum 388 and Kellogg, V. L. Luther Burbank's Work 542 Joyce, G. H. Principles of Logic 222 Justi. L. Giorgione 342 Kalischer, A. A. Beethoven's Letters 470 Kaye-Smith. S. The Tramping Methodist 93 Keating's History of Ireland 38

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Nos. 2271-2295] Index. [Vol. Ixxxviii Keep, A. B. History of the New York So- ciety Library 107 Kclk-t maun, B. Der Tor 297 Kellner, L. Die engllsche Literatur im Zeit- alter der Kouigiu Victoria 580 Kent, C. K. Historical Bible 39 Keppler, P. W. vou. Aus Kuust unci Leben.. 370 Keyserliug, E. von. Duinala 86 Klugsley, It. G. Roses and Rose-Growing.... 147 Kipling, It. With the Night Mail 304 Knupp, S. Brick Presbyterian Church of N.Y. 480 Kuoop, G. O. Aus cleu Papiereu des Freiherrn vou Skarpl 537 Kuott, C. G. Physics of Earthquake Phe- nomena 174 Kobenhavns Raadhus 287 Koenigsmarck, H. vou. Die Engliinder in Indien 300 Kraetsch, E., and Mlttag, A. Lateinlsches Worterbueh 05 Kuehneniau, E. Charles W. Eliot 570 Kulturplianzen der Weltwirthsebaft 23 Kuropatkin, A. N. Russian Army and the Japanese War 583 Kyser, H. Der Blumenbiob 297 La Farge, J. Higher Life in Art 233 Lafond, P. La Sculpture espagnole 370 Lagrange, M. J. Le Messianisme chez les Juifs 279 La Mara. Beethoven's unsterbliche Gellebte . 177 Lamb, C. and M. Works in Prose and Verse 114 Lauison, Z. G. Autobiography 16 Lane, E. M. Katrine 515 Lang, A. Maid of France 109 Laut, A. C. Conquest of the Northwest . . 142 Laws relating to Trust Companies of the U. S. 473 Law ton, F. The Third French Republic... 028 Lea, J. The Romance of Bird Life 146 Lea, J. H., and Hutchinson, J. R. Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln 277 Leben des ueiligen Symeon Stylites 385 Lee, J. Simeon Tetlow's Shadow 443 Lees, F. A Summer in Touraine 02.-. Leland's Itinerary 410 Leonard, W. E. Fragments of Empedocles . . . 305 Lepelletier, E. Emile Zola 65 Leroux, G. Perfume of the Lady In Black.. 282 Levering, J. H. Historic Indiana 581 Lewis, W. D. Great American Lawyers .... 145 Liebermann, E. Die deutsche Landschaft . . . 472 Lienhard, F. Das klassische Weimar 253 Liliencron, D. von. Leben und LUge 85 Lillie, F. R. Development of the Chirk 120 Lincoln, Abraham, and the London Punch... 384 Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 1858 43 Lindsey, C. William Lyon Mackenzie 419 Lineff, E. Peasant Songs of Great Russia .. 311 Lipman, J. G. Bacteria in Relation to Coun- try Life 230 Lirica Italians nel Cinquecento 198 Lloyd, A. Every-Day Japan 419 Locke, W. J. Septimus 117 Loisy, A. Gospel and the Church 512 Long, J. L. Felice 67 Longfellow-Greene Correspondence 135 Lowndes, Mrs. B. The Pulse of Life 199 Lucas, C. Story of Musical Form 96 MacCorkle, W. A. Some Southern Questions. 221 McGhee, Z. The Dark Corner 200 Macgowan, J. Side Light on Chinese Life 419, 633 Mackall, J. W. The Springs of Helicon 444 Maekay, D. S. Religion of the Threshold.... 253 MacKaye, P. Ode on the Centenary of Abra- ham Lincolu 166 The Piavhouse and the Play 469 Mackinlay, M. S. Garcia the Centenarian.. 259 Maenaughtan, S. The Three Miss Graemes..'. 171 MacNutt, F. A. Bartholomew de las Casas.. 388 Macquoid, P. The Plate Collector's .juide.. 544 Madison, J. Writings 140 Maeterlinck, M. The Blue Bird 360 Maban. A. T. Naval Administration and Warfare 94 Makower. S. V. Perdita 43 Mallet, B. Thomas George Earl of North- brook 429 Mallock, W. H. An Immortal Soul 07 Maltzahn, C. von. Naval Warfare i 333 Manchester, A. L. Fundamentals of Voice Production 368 Margueritte, V. Le Talion 481 Mark Twain. Is Shakespeare Dead? 422 Marriott, C. The Kiss of Helen 337 Martel, E. A. La Cdte d'Azur russe 141 Mascher, I. L. The Wretches of Foverty- viile 028 Masefield, J. Captain Margaret 11 S Mason, C. A. Mystery of Miss Motte 607 Spell of Italy 603 Maspero, G. New Light on Egypt 333 Maugham, W. S. The Explorer 255 The .uagician 255 Maxim, H. Artificial and Natural Flight.... 034 May, B. Miidchenerziehung 404 Meisterwerke der deutschen Biihne 24 Melitz, L. Opera-Goers' Complete Guide . . 47 Memoirs of a Vanished Generation (Knox family) 115 Memorials of Two Sisters (Winkworth) 139 Memories of Brown 305 Merriam, C. E. Primary Elections 21 Merwln, B. The Girl and the Bill 407 Merwin, S. Dragging a Nation 033 Meyer, A. Aus guter alter kjelt 305 Meyers Konversationslex.^on 486 Micbaelis, A. A Ceutury of Archaeological Discoveries 471 Michel, H. Elements politiques de droit. . . . 004 Middleton and Rowley's Spanish GIpsie and All's Lost by Lust 176 Midsummer-Night's Dream Sources 310 Mijatoviteh, C. Servia and the Servians . . 44 Miller, K. Race Adjustment 91 Mllligan, R. H. Jungle Folk of Africa ... 63 Mlnch, W. Kultur und Erziehung 487 Molloy, F. Victoria Regina 17 Molmenti, P. Venice 118 Monroe, W. S. In Viking Land 90 Montaigne, M. Essays 362 Montenegro, C. The Two Travallers 559 Montgomery, H. B. Empire of the East.... 633 Moody, W. V. The Faith Healer 175 Moore, F. If. A Georgian Pageant 163 Moral Instruction and Training in Schools.... 305 Morawetz, V. Banking and Currency Prob- lem iu the V. S 47:1 Morel, E. Bibliotheques 44u Morrice, J. C. Manual of Welsh Literature.. 334 Morrisou, A. J. The District in the XVIIIth Century 360 Moses, B. Dreaming Hiver 144 Miiller, A. Galileo Galilei 40'.' Murdoch, W. G. B. From Edinburgh 10 India and Burniah 63 Miiller, A. Das griechische Drama 148 Mun, A. de. Ma Vocation sociale 135 Music Teachers' National Associa.-ou, Papers 2&5 Napoleons Schril'ten und G spriicbe 581 Nesbit, E. The House with No Address 502 Nevill, R. French Prints of the Eighteenth Century 313 New England's First Fruits » !:;..> Newsholme, A. Prevention of Tuberculosis.. 1-U Newton, J. F. David Swing 303 Niedieck, P. With Rifle in Five Continents.. 421 Nietzsche's Works 511 Noel-Williams, H. The Women Bonapartes.. 10 Norris, F. The Third Circle 00 1 Nott, C. C. Mystery of the Pinckney Draught 282 Novikoff, O. The M. P. for itussia 407 Noyes, A. The Magic Casement 278 William Morris 243 Noyes, E. Milau 512 Nyst, R. La Caverne 6u4 Okabe-Kakuya. Japanese Sword Guards 303 Olson, E. History of the Swedes in Illinois. 108 Oppenheim, E. P. The Missiouer 143 Orcutt, W. D. The Spell 337 urkney aud Shetland Miscellany 333 Osborne, W. H. The Red Mouse 250 Oswell, G. D. Sketches of Rulers of India... 195 Otto, W. Priester und Tempel im hellen- istischen Aegypten 253 Otway, T. The Orphan and Venice Preserved 148 Oxford Hymn Book 144 Oxyrhynchus Papyri 540 Page, J. The Black Bishop 512 Page, T. N. Robert E. Lee 18 Palmgren, V. Bibliotek och f olkuppf ostran . . 33o Parker, E. II. Ancient China Simplified.... 252 Pasture, Mrs. H. de la. Catherines Child.. 808 1'auer, R. Musical Forms 96 Paulsen, F. Aus meinem Leben B04 Peabody, It. E. John Mauley of Marblehcad. 303 Peck, E. M. H. Travels in the Far East.... 384 Pennell, T. L. The Afghan Frontier 541 Petre, F. L. Napoleon and the Archduke Charles 22T Phillips, D. G. Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig 225 Phillpotts, E. The Three Brothers 282 Pickett, W. P. The Negro Problem 6U4 Pickhardt, E. W. S. Ariadne Diainomene . . . . 40 Pilon, E. Bonnes Fees d'autan 59 Pisan, C. de. Book of the Duke of True Lovers 359 Poems of American History 13J Porter, A. K. Mediaeval Architecture ul> Posada, A. Introduccifin a los Principios de Sociologla • ■ l"' Poseher, R. Andrew Marvells Poetische Werke Pownall. C. A. W. Thomas Pownall 300 Pratt, J. B. What is Pragmatism? 456 Preble, E. A. Athabaska-Mackenzie Region. . 120 Preuss, A. American Freemasonry 63 Prinz, H. Funde aus Naukratis 20o Prout, E. Instrumentation '- Radau. H. Letters to Cassite Kings »» Rahlwes, F. Biicher der Blbel 39 Rambuteau, Comte de. Memoirs 04 Ramsay, R. The Straw «» Ramsay W. M. Luke, the Physician 190 Rankin, R. In Morocco with Gen. d'Amade. . 171 Reade W. H. V. Moral System of Dante's 'inferno ••• «f Reelus, E. La Commune an jour le jour.... 134 Recollections of a Spinster Aunt 1*>9 Reichert, A. Roman der Marianne Vanmeer. . bOO Reich, E. Woman Through the Ages 580 Reinaeh, S. Orpheus J\."'illi" 53? Reise eines jungen Deutschen im Jahre 18lo.. 334 Renshaw, G. Animal Romances 140 Reuter, G. Das Thranenhaus 85 Revelation to the Monk of Evesham Abbey. . . . 500 Rexford. E. E. The Home Garden 468 Reynolds, Mrs. B. The Supreme Test 171 Reynolds, S. A Poor Man's House 38 1 Richardson, H. H. Maurice Guest 387 Rickert. E. Early English Romances oil Ritchie, Lady. Black Stick Papers 37 Ritschl, O. Dogmengesehichte des Protes- tantismus BHO Roberts, M. David Bran 281 Robinson, E. Casts in the Metropolitan Mu- seum I51 Rod. E. Les Onis 481 Rogers, R. W. Religion of Babylon and As- syria *'M Ronsard, P. de. Selected Poems 191 Rooses, M. Jacob Jordaens 261 Rose, J. H., and Broadley, A. M. Dumouriez and the Defence of England 201 Rosny, J. H. Marthe Baraquin 210 Rossi J. Pisa 512 Ross, R. Aubrey Beardsley r>0* Rossetti, C. Family Letters 115 Rothschild, W. Extinct Birds 147 Rousse, E. Lettres a un ami 134 Ruhl. A. The Other Americans 64 Runciman, J. F. Haydn 204 Ryan, P. F. W. Queen Anne and Her Court. 303 Sabatier, P. Les Modernistes 385 St. Mnur, K. V. The Earth's Bounty 609 Saleeby. H. M. History of Snln 252 Salten, F. Die Geliehte Friedrichs des Schonen 80 Sandeman, G. Uncle Gregory 467 Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship 280 Sapper, A. Frau Pauline Brater 197 Sappho In Boston 42 Scheffauer, H. Looms of Life 40 Sehaeder, E. Kirche und Gegenwart 279 Schuff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge 501 Schechter, S. Rabbinic Theology 308 Schell, 11. Kleinere Sehrlften 17 Schinz, A. Anti-Pragmatisme 4^,0 Schjelderup, G., and Niemann, \V. Eilvard Grieg 24 Schofleiu, ... 1. Ni rvousuess 03o SCbreiber, G. Die religiose Erziehung des Meuscheu 141 Schulte, J. F. Johanna Kiukel 39 Schuilz, A. 1'. Race or Mongrel 404 Schulze, V. Die Franzosenzeit iU Dcutseh- laud 141 Schulze-Swidt, B. Fliessendes Nasser 297 Scott, A. M. Through Fiulaud 424 Scott, it. i'aul.ue Epistles 5U0 Scott, W. M. Aspects of Christian Mysti- cism 536 .Seigniorial Tenure iu Canada 305 Shakespeare, 1> irst Folio 307 Shakespeare Word Book 284 Shaw, A. M. The Lady of the Dynamos . . . 539 Sbaw, C. G. Religion in the Culture ol Hu- manity 516 Shelley. Select Poems 139 Shorter, C. Napoleon and His Fellow Trav- ellers 3S5 Sihler, E. C. Testimonium Aumue 257 Simou, G. C. La Comtesse de \ alon 134 Simon, H. William Godwin und Marv Woll- stonecraft 501 Simon, T. Buddha 110 Skarstedt, E. Washington och dess sveuska belolkuing 168 Skotland's Rimur 252 Smith, A. D. H. Fighting the Turk in the Balkans 44 Suiith, G. A Naturalist in Tasmania 517 Suaith, J. C. Araminta 337 .Snyder, H. Human Foods 231 Soddy, F. Interpretation of Radium 585 Soltau, W. Aniiinge der romischen Gesebicht- schreibuug 580 South African Natives 278 Spartali, J. Amerique et Japon 141 Spemanu's Compendieu 151 Spenser's Fowre Hymnes 90 .Spruce, It. Notes ot a Botanist on the Ama- zon aud Andes 202 Stack, F. W. Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know 5S0 Slaley, E. Tragedies of the Medici 195 Stanley, E. Before and After Waterloo.... 229 Steel, F. A. India Through the Ages 222 A Prince of Dreamers 418 Stenton, F. M. Will. am the Conqueror.... 538 Sternberg, C. H. Life of a Fossil-Hunter.. 492 .Stone, A. H. American Race Problem 91 Stow, J. A Survey of London 254 Strong. A. H. Systematic Theology 38 Stubbs, W. Germauy in the Later Middle Ages 303 Studi di Filologia Moderna 279 Studi Storlci per l'Antichita Classica 279 Sudermann, H. Das hohe Lied 20 Suess, E. The Face of the Earth 565 Sutherland, H. V. Idylls of Greece 40 Suttner, B. von. Memoiren 108 Symonds, M. A Doge's Farm 278 Taming of a Shrew 310 Tanner, E. P. Province of New Jersey, 1664- 1738 462 Tauchnitz Manual of American Literature.... 603 Tennyson, A. Works 82 Testi, N. Storia della Plttura Veneziana. . . . 394 Text Books 412 Tliaulow, F. I Kamp og i Fest 97 Theophrastus, Characters of 339 Thoma. L. Briefwechsel eines bayrischen Landtagsabgeordneten 141 Thompson, C. M. The Calico Cat 118 Thompson, E. A Book of Hours 027 Thompson, P. Shelley 439 Thurston, E. T. Mirage 20 Thwaites, R. G. Wisconsin 336 Tiedemann, C. von. Sechs Jahre Chef der Reichskanzlei 512 Tileniann, H. Tagebuchbliitter eines deutschen Arztes aus dem Bureukriege 141 Tinseau, L. de. Sur les deux rives 215 Toll, E. von. Russische Polarfahrt der Sarja 421 Towler, W. G. Socialism in Local Government 491 Traherne, T. Works 160 Train, A. The Butler's Story 419 Tremayne, E. E. First Governess of the Neth- erlands 170 Trench, H. Apollo and the Seaman 40 Trevena. J. Heather 92 Troubetzkoy, P. The Passer-By 200 Trowbridee F. B. Trqwbridge Genealogy .... 38 Trowbridge, W. R. H. Seven Splendid Sinners 16 Sisters of Napoleon 411 Tuberculosis in the United States 147 Tudor Facsimile Texts 121, 176, 51 X Turberville's Booke of Hunting 139 Ular, A., and Insabato, E. Der erlSschende Halbmond 115 Under Petraia 511 Unwin, G. Gilds and Companies of London 254 Urban, It. Die literarische Gegenwart .... 141 Vaile, P. A. Modern Golf 627 Vance, L. J. The Bronze Bell 007 Vanzype, G. Vernieer de Delft 370 Vatighan. H. M. The Medici Popes 380 Venturi, A. Storia dell' Arte Italiana 424 Vernon, W. W. Readings on t-e Paradiso of Dante 196 Vincent. E. A Modern Judas 40 Virgil's Aeneid. Translated by T. C. Wil- liams 201 Vlasto, S. I., and Gertzis, N. History of the United States in Greek 90 Wagner, R. Letters to Minna 494 Waldstein, C, and Shoobrldge, L. Hercula- neum 97 Waleffe, M. de. Les Paradls de l'Amerlque Centrale 141

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Vol. lxxxviii] Ind ex. [J an. -June, 1909 Wales, H. Hilary Thornton 48!) Wallace, C. W. Children of the Chapel at Blaekfriars 148 Waller, M. E. A Year Out of Life 632 Ward, J. J. Some Nature Biographies I7.r> Ward, Mrs. H. Marriage a La Mode 631 Watkeys, F. W. Old Edinburgh 5S Watt, G. Commercial Products of India.... 114 Watt, L. M. Attic and Elizabethan Tragedy 203 Weale, B. L. F. Forbidden Boundary 68 Webb, S. and B. Break-up of the Boor Law. 560 Public Organization of the Labor Market.. 560 Webster, 3. Much Ado about Peter 444 Wegener, H. Das niichste Gescblecht 17 Weldel, K. Jesu Persbnliehkeit 141 Weiss, J. Neutestameutllehc Wissenschaf t . . 279 Weitenkampf, F. How to Appreciate Prints. 125 Weller, C. F. Neglected Neighbors 4io Wells, ('., Joseph and His Brethren 224 Wells, H. G. Tono-Bungay 170 Wendell, B. The Privileged Classes 69 West Indies State Papers 115 Westermarck, E. Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas 196 WVyman, S. J. The Wild Geese 44:? Wharton, G. Through Ramona's Country... 140 White, A. B. Making of the English Con- stitution 68 White, E. L. Narrative Lyrics 40 Whiteing, B. Little People 489 Whitaker, H. The Planter 631 Who's Who (1009) 89 Wilbur, S. Life of Mary Baker Eddy 228 Wilenkin, G. Political and Economic Organi- zation of Modern .lapau 541 Wilhelm, J. F. " Amerikanisches Geschafts- li'bcn 223 Wilkinson, W. C. Some New Literary Valua- tions 359 Williams, F. II. The Burden Bearer 160 Willson, R. W. Sunrise and Sunset in the United Slates 310 Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique 439 Wimmer, L. F. A. Festskrift 253 Wlnslow, II. Some Wander Songs 40 Wisconsin State Historical Society Collec- tions 439 Withers, H. The Meaning of Money 390 Wollaston, A. F. R. From Ruwcnzori to the Congo' 339 Worcester, D. C. Asiatic Cholera in the Philippine Islands 71 Worcester, E. The Living Word 536 Wright, H. N. Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta 151 Wright, H.' W. Birds of the Boston Public i tarden 517 WullTen, E. Gerhart Hauptmann 170 Wyllarde, i>. Rose-White Youth 117 Yeals, VV. I:. Poetry and Patriotism 139 Zahn, A. Studien fiber Johannes Calvin ... 279 •Z,ahn, E. Die da kommen und gehen 297 Ziehen, J. Reform unseres hoheren Sehulwe- seus 411 Zielinski, T. Cicero im Wandel der Jahr- hunderte 141 Zobeltitz, H. von. Der heilige Sebastian .... 000 Zytlaun, J. Krescenz Biihler 600 ERRATA. "Fredrich, read P. 121, col. 1, line 6, for "Friedrich." P. 147, col. 2, line 14, for "M. B. Slingerland," read "M. V. Slingerland." P. 175, col. 2, line 05, for "Points" read "Pints." P. 220, col. 1, line 70, for "truths" read "breaks." I*. 220, col. 2, lines 22, 23, for "Rabbi Ben Ezra" read "Karshisb." P. 259, col. 1, line 48, for "father" read "bro- Iher." P. 259, col. 1. line 49, dele "Ihese and." P. 259, col. 2, line 1, dele "were schoolboys." P. 259. col. 2, line 2, for "Schumann not" read "Schumann were not." P. 310, col. 2, line 8, for "Gerbert" read "Ger- hart." P. 335, eol. 2, line 41, for "Revista" read "Ri- vista." P. 361, col. 2, line 36, for "and" read "which is." P. 361, col. 2, line 52, for "Revista" read "El- vis ta." P. 369, col. 3, line 54, for "Ressegna" read "Rassegna." P. 558, eol. 2, line 32, for "external" read "eternal." Vol. LXXXVII, p. 586, eol. 2, line 49, for "Tela tirata" read "lacis."

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The Nation. NEW YORE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1909. The Week. In the press dispatches summarizing the decision of the Supreme Court, in the 80-cent gas case, several large prin- ciples stand out, as they doubtless will in the complete opinion. The power of the State to regulate public-service cor- porations is implicitly affirmed in the broadest way. There is no limit, ex- cept that of confiscation of property. But it is not enough merely to allege that a given measure will be confisca- tory in effect. The fact must be proved. That the Consolidated Gas Company had not clearly demonstrated that gas at 80 cents would deprive it of a due re- turn on its capital, is the main reason assigned by the Supreme Court for dis- missing the injunction of the lower court against the enforcement of the law. As to what is that reasonable re- turn upon capital into which no Legis- lature can cut, the court fixed no rule. According to the decision, the rate may vary according to time and locality. The court suggests, in this particular case, 6 per cent. But what is its capital? That was the very point hotly in debate, both before the Legislative committee, the Master who heard evidence, and Judge Hough. The company claimed property worth $90,000,000. The Master cut this down to $83,000,000, and Judge Hough rurther reduced the sum to about $60,- 000,000. On this matter, the Supreme Court makes no pronouncement in its decision. It does, however, fix one or two principles governing the proper esti- mate of capitalization: "The rate pro- posed must be with reference to the value of the property at the time when the rate takes effect." That is to say, tte gas company is entitled to a due return, for example, on the land which it owns, and the return must be upon the present value of the land, not mere- ly upon the sum which was paid for it. This principle, if applied throughout to plant, mains, etc., would make the cost of reproduction, not necessarily actual investment, the standard of valuation. allow (we must wait for the full opin- ion), as fixed by the constituent compa- nies themselves, at the time of consoli- dation, namely, $7,781,000. At any rate, the court says that s \ch a valuation having been made "pursuant to the stat- ute," "the State should not now be heard to question the value of the fran- chises." But the court is careful to limit itself to the particular case before it. The questions respecting the capital- ization of franchises in general it ex- pressly leaves "undecided." But these questions are of the highest importance. If a public-service corporation can go, "pursuant to the statute," and fix any value it pleases upon its franchise, then the public is helpless — except in one way. It cannot by legislation compel lower rates from the company, for to do that would be to confiscate its prop- erty, if a swollen valuation of its fran- chises is legally a part of that property; but it can construct parallel enterprises of its own. Lax permission to capital- ize franchises, at inflated values, is then a direct encouragement to municipal ownership. That was doubtless in the minds of the framers of the New York Public Service Commissions Law of 1907, when they forbade the capitaliza- tion of franchises altogether. That, of course, governed only the future; but it is plainly desirable that the same prin- ciple should be applied, so far as possi- ble, to corporations organized before the measure of Gov. Hughes became the law of the State. The new era upon which the States have entered in regard to regulation of public-service corporations promises to be a long one, filled with interesting and beneficial experiments. With the way for them now fully opened, legally, the idea of municipal and government ownership should re- cede further and further into the back- ground. One vexed question remains — the cap- italization of the company's franchises. These the court allows, or appears to The President's versatility and supple political talent come out once more in the special message on the Secret Ser- vice which he sent to the House of Rep- resentatives. Throughout, he roars with a most welcome gentleness. His words give the lie to the stories from Wash- ington that Mr. Roosevelt was spoiling for a fight with Congress; that he was "collecting ammunition" for a savage bombardment, out of which many Con- gressmen would emerge badly hurt. The actual bombardment turns out to be only with cotton wool. The President is both soft-spoken and grieved. He has been misunderstood. Nothing was fur- ther from his thoughts than to charge Congress or any members of it with cor- rupt motives or acts. Let him explain. What he said was true, as intended, but had been misinterpreted. Anyhow, he begged Congress to join him in let- ting those unhappy bye-gones be bye- gones, and in striving to reorganize the whole government detective service so as to make it a real terror to evil-doev? The message thus conceived may be tak en as an apology, a plea in abatement, or a clever bit of tactics. All depends, we should say, upon the temper of Con- gress. If disposed to meet Mr. Roose- velt half way, it could drop the whole matter with a resolution of satisfaction that the President had not meant what his words seemed to mean, and intended no insult to Congress. But this is hard- ly to be expected. The feelings of Con- gressmen were mightily stirred up by Mr. Roosevelt's original language, and further action may be urged as neces- sary to vindicate the wounded dignity of Congress. Mr. Taft has again expressed his ar- dent hope that the South may soon be- gin to divide on political lines, like the rest of the country. It is plain that he means to make the breaking up of the solid South a main policy of his Admin- istration. He said on Saturday that he plans, early in his term of office, to visit the leading Southern cities. Beyond doubt he will get the heartiest of wel- comes. The South takes to him person- ally, and likes his political ideas. Just now it is peculiarly effusive, partly be- cause it looks upon him as a guest, and partly because it is glad to show how much it dislikes Bryan. The opportunity of the next President, therefore, to do something to bring about more normal political conditions in the Southern States, will be inviting. It will, however, have its perils. Mr. Taft has already shown, by his letter on the Maryland suffrage proposals, that he is not ready to consent to injustice to the negroes in order to curry favor with the South.

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2 The JSTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 It is to be hoped, also, that he will not allow appeals to be made, in his name. to the cupidity of Southern protection- ists, or to the itch of office-holders. Get- ting office is what is really meant by many when they talk about restoring to the South her old place in "the coun- cils of the nation." But if, avoiding all these political pitfalls, Mr. Taft shall be able to make Southerners see the folly of always voting one ticket, he will have deserved well, not only of the South, but of the whole country. It is good news that C. P. Taft has been induced to forego his aspirations to enter the Senate. Not only Ohio, but the country, is to be felicitated. If Sen- ator Foraker was to be displaced — and that was inevitable — it was incumbent on the State to select a successor who should have something like his ability. Apparently, this truth has finally pene- trated the minds of the powers that con- trol the Republican organization of Ohio. This means the election of Congressman Burton. His success will be a great vic- tory for public opinion over the ma- chine; for it is clear that, while the bosses, big and little, were against him, the people of Ohio were for him. Not the least hearty congratulations are due to W. H. Taft. He will be freed from that most serious embarrassment — hav- ing a brother near the throne. The Senate's approval of the bill ap- propriating $400,000 for the purchase or erection of a building in Paris, to be used as a residence for the American Ambassador, means, in all probability, that within a reasonable time the Unit- ed States will own embassies in all the important capitals. From many points of view this is altogether desirable. The strongest argument in favor of the change is that it will enable the Amer- ican diplomats to live in accordance with their station and the custom of their diplomatic associates. By reliev- ing them of the added expense, it may be, too, that we can lure back into the diplomatic service men whose chief dis- tinction is not their wealth. The designation of Rear-Admiral Capps, the chief naval constructor, as acting head of the bureau of steam en- gineering in the Navy Department is the first step toward that consolidation of bureaus which has so long been need- ed. It is final proof of our contention that many reforms could be accomplish- ed within the Department wholly with- out legislative aid or authority. Event- ually, there should be but two bureaus, one of materiel and one of personnel, and then the Department will be organ- ized more like a private business of the same scope. We cannot, however, help feeling some regret that the discredited chief naval constructor should be the one to inaugurate the system. His blun- ders in the construction of our recent battleships and his obstinate standing by these blunders, in the face of the prevailing sentiment among naval ex- perts, make it unfortunate that he is to be the link between his own bureau and that of steam engineering, which is manned throughout by line and general- ly by sea-going officers. When the cruis- er Yankee went on the rocks last au- tumn, Mr. Capps conceived the brilliant idea of floating her by pouring cement into her until the holes were covered. But he and his subordinates failed to as- certain that a jagged rock projected into the Yankee's hold. After cement worth $125,000 had been emptied into the boat, it was discovered that the to- tal effect had been to cement the Yan- kee to the rock, and Mr. Arbuckle's wreckers had as their first duty the un- doing of this folly. If this is not a scandal of magnitude, what could be? The inaugural address of Gov. Hughes was no perfunctory affair. It revealed the fact that he has been re- flecting deeply upon the nature and needs of the government of this State. The Governor did not, it is true, antici- pate the recommendations of his mes- sage this week, but he gave the gen- eral outline of his programme, and a distinct intimation of t he spirit in which he means to carry it out. Not greedy of power, he yet will not shrink from the full responsibilities of his of- fice. In his quiet statement that the Governor is the representative of the people, and that, "in common with all representative officers, it is his privilege to justify his position to the people to whom he is accountable," there is evi- dence that he will take no backward step in his plan of going to the people, if the Legislature will not heed. Nor were the Governor's powers of analysis ever better applied than in his descrip- tion of the real reason why it is desired to keep control of the party in the hands of a snug little close corporation. It is, said Mr. Hughes, in order that the domination of selfish interests may be made easy, and that protection may be given to "those who find profit in law- breaking." The entire address was in the Governor's best vein of seriousness, with an edge of vigor that undoubtedly portends further valiant efforts on his part to render, in his own words, "loyal service to the people." As truth will come out even in an affidavit, according to the saying of an English judge, so it sometimes comes out in a public document. House Docu- ment No. 1,208, of the present session of Congress, contains the correspon- dence leading up to the appointment of an American delegate to the recent In- ternational Copyright Congress at Ber- lin. In pointing out to the Secretary of State the fact that the United States had no right to be represented, because we have not adopted the Berne Con- vention relative to literary property, the Librarian of Congress suggested that this government regard itself as a "non-union participant." The phrase falls pat with current terminology. It seems to make us a "scab" among the nations, in the matter of copyright. Un- fortunately, that is very much what we are. The leading civilized nations have formed a union to protect literary and artistic property, but we have refused to join it. Under labor-union practice, they are entitled to attack and outlaw us; but instead of that, they are cour- teous enough to receive us at their Con- gresses as a "non-union participant." Their hope undoubtedly is to kill us with kindness, or lead us to see the error of our ways and adhere to the Berne Convention with the rest. Full accounts of the meeting in Bath, Maine, last week, in behalf of Charles W. Morse, show it to have been an ex- traordinary outpouring of the best citi- zens to testify to their regard for a con- victed criminal. The Mayor of the city presided, and merchants, shipbuilders, and bankers were present to prove their undiminished confidence in "a most loyal son of Bath," "in his hour of trouble." The resolutions from which these phrases are cited, are a remarka- ble hodge-podge. They recite that Morse

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. was "innocent of any criminal act or intent," but at the same time, ask only that the reviewing court give him "the benefit of every reasonable doubt," and free him, if possible, from a "dispropor- tionate" sentence of fifteen years, which, "to a man of Mr. Morse's age, is prac- tically a life sentence." But the under- lying sentiment is the really signifi- cant thing. Mr. Morse has been good to Bath, therefore he cannot be a bad man. In short, all moral and legal prin- ciples are to be lost sight of, when it is a question of "sympathy." A set of burglars passing resolutions in the in- terest of a "pal" could not be more indifferent to law and justice than these eminent citizens of a New England city. The least they can do is to refrain from any criticism of labor leaders, or any other class, who seek to have orderly legal process set aside, because it hurts their friends. One of the worst of literary offenders is the critic who drags up out of the gray sink of oblivion men and books of no importance to current life. He is fairly open to protest, even though he revives a few pleasant things, as Wal- ter P. Eaton has done while resuscitat- ing Frederick Goddard Tuckerman in the January Forum. This Massachusetts lawyer of the mid-nineteenth century did not sing for the world. He cared so little to please that he neglected the elementary technique of his art. His admirer says there is not a perfectly formed sonnet — let alone a perfectly conceived one — in his one thin volume; and the sonnet was his favorite medium. Often he surrenders rhyme and rhythm. His messages are primitive: the old love of sunsets and rain, the puzzled pain over life's mysteries, grief for a depart- ed wife. Almost every line is the voice of a simple nature-lover humming to himself in his garden, while, far away to the South, the civil war rages. There is scarcely a thought that has not been sung a thousand times before and since more exquisitely. On this score Tuck- erman himself was probably not de- ceived. Humbly he accepts oblivion in the Berkshires and learns to like it, al- most to pray for it: I walk, unknowing where or why; Or idly lie beneath the pine, And bite the dry brown threads, and lie And think a life well lost is mine. Shall we not let him be well lost? Be- tween gentlemen, it is worse than rude I to tear the winding sheet from a decent- ly interred minor poet. It is unfair to the singer himself, and still more so to latter-day readers. The limping son- neteer, the echoer of platitudes, may have been a delightful gentleman; his conversation or his intimate life may have revealed a soul above stanzas; but, revived in a later age, he falls an easy prey to the critic, the historian, or — most dismal! — the sentimentalist. Bet- ter for his good name and peace, had the spell of forgetfulness never been broken. Lord Cromer has been trying hard of late to show wherein the recent na- tionalistic stirrings in Egypt differ from those in Turkey, which have been so welcomed by the English people. Not long ago, at the time when several na- tives were executed at Denshawi for an attack upon British officers, Lord Cro- mer said that the basis of the trouble m Egypt was not political but relig- ious; that the agitators aimed at Pan-Islamism, and therefore were to be repressed unless the situation of all Christians in Africa was to become dan- gerous. But to-day Lord Cromer avers that happenings in India, Persia, Tur- key, and Egypt bear out an old proph- ecy of his that "intercourse with Eu- rope would cause the bond of national- ity to be substituted for th.nt of relig- ion." So it is a matter of nationality rather than of religion, after all. More than that, Lord Cromer thinks now that the first effect of the popular move- ment in Turkey has been to discourage the Pan-Islamists in Egypt. That is, a realized desire for self-government and a constitution in Turkey has not stim- ulated that dangerous fanaticism which was to make every European in Africa sleep upon his arms, but has weakened it. As the Manchester Chiardian points out, the net result upon Egypt of the Turkish upheaval is that the "demand for popular reform has been strength- ened and the stock European objections to it weakened." Lord Cromer insists, however, that the difference between conditions in Turkey and Egypt, is that the "Turkish movement was based on solid griev- ances; the Egyptian on sentiment." But there was a great deal of sentiment in the uprising of the Young Turks — a, sentimental desire to have a voice in their government, and it is precisely this same sentiment that is causing the stir- ring in Egypt. The only difference is that in the one case the Turks were misruled by Turks, while in Egypt the people are well ruled by the British. Human nature is so constituted, how- ever, that people of all climes prefer be- ing plundered by their own, even if it be a Tammany Hall, rather than being well-governed by lordly persons of a dif- ferent race and religion. That view does not suggest itself to Lord Cromer; but it is the secret of the Egyptian un- rest, if not of that marvellous aspira- tion for modern institutions throughout the East, an aspiration which, because of its essentially democratic character, has such a great promise for all the world. Lord Cromer goes so far as to declare that he would become an ardent Egyptian constitutionalist at once if somebody could "show him a prospect that an Egyptian constitution could be created which would truly represent the views and interests of all the inhabi- tants of the Nile Valley," safeguard the rights of Turkey, and inspire the confi- dence of Europe. Well, in the light of recent events such a constitution does not sound so impossible. After prolonged debates in Parlia- ment and in the press, the French Chamber has refused by a vote of 330 to 221 to sanction the abolition of the death penalty. The majority is not so overwhelming as to discourage those who believe in the essential wrongful- ness of capital punishment and its ineffi- ciency as a deterrent of serious crime. The French Chamber acted undoubted- ed under the stress of something like panic, induced by a succession of re- volting assassinations, and a general in- crease of crime which has been attribut- ed to the practical suspension of capital punishment through the exercise of Presidential clemency. As a matter of fact, the period of years taken to show an increase in crime is altogether too short. The case for abolition of the death penalty is pleaded in the Interna- tional by Lino Ferriani, Italian procur- eur-gcneral. In Italy, he asserts, where no sentence of death nas been carried out since the time of King Humbert, the number of serious crimes is decreas- ing, "even in those districts disposed from early times to violent crimes ow- ing to the ignorance and poverty of the population."

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The JSTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 THE EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY. The news of what may turn out to be the most terrible single calamity Europe and America have ever known failed to make at first a sufficiently deep im- pression on the minds of men. We of the modern world are spoiled for high emotion. 'We are so accustomed to have the little events of the day trumpeted tfhflt the great shock finds our senses .dulled. The adventures of Harry Thaw are spread over three pages, and the ^Mediterranean catastrophe takes no more space. The lie manufactured in the newspaper office is proclaimed as loudly as the tragic destruction of San Fran- cisco or St. Pierre. It is not that we have lost the sense of wonder, but that we are called upon twice and thrice a day to wonder at the petty ignominies and events of the market-place, the sa- loon, and the gutter. Add to this the fact that in this country, especially, our sense of the value of human life has be- come cheapened. Where Europe thrills at the loss of a dozen lives, we have grown accustomed to a yearly toll of thousands in mine and on railway. But if the newspapers have taken the edge off our emotions, they have immeasur- ably widened the range of our interest. In China, in Africa, in South America, men can no longer suffer or perish with- out the world's knowledge. And in such a disaster as has befallen the Italian people, the brotherhood of man becomes something more than a phrase. Yet here again our country occupies a position apart. Other nations can give devastated South Italy food and money. In these measures of temporary relief we, too, can join, as Russia, China, Ja- pan, and Martinique will testify. But for the means of permanent recupera- tion it is to the New World that Eu- rope's unfortunates look. Europe can help in the crisis, but she cannot ab- sorb the beggared Calabrians and Sicil- ians, who are sure to seek a new live- lihood across the seas. Thousands will .go to Argentina and Brazil, many to Tripoli, but the greater number of refugees will come to this country- Trade unions and champions of Anglo- Saxon dominance may cry out in horror, yet it is at times like these that Amer- :ca rises truest to her historic mission. This country has been peopled and nour- ished by the famines, the massacres, and the oppressions of the Old World. It is still the natural asylum for the vic- tims of Kishenev and Calabria. In so far as Italy herself is concern- ed, the vast calamity is made worse by the fact that it has stricken the region which could least bear it. It will tend to emphasize the line of separation between the northern and southern parts of the Kingdom, which constitutes one of the greatest impedi- ments to Italy's progress, remarkable though that has been. In their econom- ic condition, in education, in nearly every form of advancement, the people of the old kingdom of the Two Sicilies are far behind their northern neigh- bors. Now there must come years of poverty and disorganization. Sicily loses its second largest city. In Sicily and Calabria a population of nearly 5,000,- 000 is brought to the verge of destitu- tion. The effect must be felt in turn throughout Italy. When the government must lend its aid, instead of collecting taxes, the burden on other parts of the kingdom will grow appreciably heavier. But it must be added that admirable courage and resourcefulness have mark- ed Italy's history since unification. The enormous loss of life was due in part to the congestion of the population. Italy as a whole supports 305 inhabi- tants to its every square mile. In Sic- ily the ratio is 375; and about unhappy Messina the ratio rose to 456. We think of Sicily as so exclusively an agricul- tural country — the land of wheat, oil, and citron — that it is surprising to find over one-fourth of its population of some 3,800,000 congregated in cities having more than 25,000 inhabitants. The soil is parcelled out among great landown- ers, holders of the ancient latifundia, who, with their tenants and sub-tenants, crowd together in the cities, when the week's or the season's cultivation is done. That a tremendous earthquake coming upon such human congestion should work immense loss of life, was inevitable. Will the dreadful fate of Messina, of Reggio di Calabria, of numerous smaller towns that have gone the way of earthquake, fire, and flood, doom them as sites for future human habitation? Not if the example of other similar disasters may be taken into account. Man's capacity for get- ting used to living on a volcano's edge, actually as well as metaphorically, is an illustration both of the potency of habit and of the optimism inherent in hu- man nature. Or, if we wish, we can call it a sublimated pessimism, a disen- chantment which recognizes that death lurks as well on prairie and sandy ocean beach as on volcanic formations; so why take the trouble? It would seem that Mes- sina has had ample warning and fore taste of what has befallen her, yet for twenty-seven hundred years people have gone on believing that the blow would not come in their time, or would fall on their neighbors, never on them. Great cities are founded on sites offering some natural advantage or other, and it seems likely that the value of Mes- sina's harbor, like that of San Fran- cisco's, will continue to outweigh the danger of earthquake. And, after all, nature, which works havoc, can also De kind. She has untold riches. The wealth of the world increases rapidly, and with- in two decades a devastated San Fran- cisco or Messina may rise complete again from its ashes. SICILY. After the common compassion of hu- man nature, the Sicilian disaster must have brought to many minds a sense of tragic incongruity. The very name of Sicily is a forgetfulness of the present and an evocation of long romance; and suddenly into this charmed memory there breaks the outrageous reality that is always waiting at the heart of the world. Travellers in that island, look- ing down on the columns of great tem- ples that have lain for ages among the flowers, muse sentimentally on the beauty of decay; and in a moment the actual forces of ruin are at work, cruel and hideous and not at all considerate of sentiment. Even the dryasdust his- torian has been beguiled of his dulness by the Sicilian legend, and we have heard that Freeman, bearded pedant as he was, would wander over the hills in a kind of childlike trance. And well he might, for he walked in fairyland. On that island, in the gray dawn of romance and history, Odysseus, blown into the Western seas far from his Ithacan home, landed with his men, and by a cunning stratagem outwitted the Cyclops. Through the Strait of Messina also he sailed between the two rocks whose monstrous rage reads like the re- miniscence of some volcanic catastro-

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Jan. 7, 1909] The INTatioii. phe of the far past or tne vague proph- ecy of some disaster to come: We groaning sailed the strait. Here Scylla lay, And there divine Charybdis, with huge throat Gorging salt waves, which when she cast away She spumed with hisses (as when fire makes hot Some cauldron) and the steamy froth up- shot Wide o'er both rocks. But when she gorged again, Drunk with abysmal gurglings, one might note The dark sands of the immeasurable main Gleam iron-blue. The rocks loud bellowing roared amain. There, too, ^neas landed, fleeing from Troy to Italy. There his aged father died and was buried. On that strand the games were celebrated, and from this beach the women of the band look- ed out over the deep sea, sighing over the toils still before them, and plot- ting to surrender the promise of an eternal city for present ease. Their words, it is said, were often on the lips of Littre, the lexicographer, as without rest he finished one task and prepared for another: Heu tot vada fessis Et tantum superesse maris! From legend Sicily emerges for a while into history that is almost as romantic: Phalaris and his brazen bull, whose terrors the great Bentley renewed in England when he smote the pre- tenders to learning; the battle of Hi- mera — fought, as was popularly believ- ed, on the same day as Salamis — when the Carthaginians, losing a hundred and fifty thousand men dead on the field, left the western sea to Greece as the Persians left the eastern; the ruthless destruction of the Athenian army at Syracuse, which ended forever the su- premacy of Athens. And then from the clash of armies we pass, not again to adventurous romance, but to a literature that weaves a con- scious, voluntary spell. Some of Pin- dar's greatest odes were written for the Sicilian lords victorious in the games, and in his lines we still see the young men of Greece, as we see them in the sculpture of Phidias, moving in proces- sion with the gods, themselves divinely fair and proud. In the court of Hieron at Syracuse might be seen, perhaps at one table, Epicharmus, ^Eschylus, Sl- monides, Bacchylides, and Pindar; and in the same city Plato undertook to bring down to earth the laws of his ideal republic — and lost his pains. But. if Plato failed philosophically to make Sicily the wedding-place of the real and the ideal, another visitor from the East succeeded. Since Theocritus, a scholar from Cos, wrote his idyls of the Sicilian goatherds and fishermen, Sicily, like Ar- cadia, has been the magic pastoral land of the poets. In this secret valley the sorceress sang her midnight impreca- tions to the moon: Turn, magic wheel, draw homeward him I love. Hushed are the voices of the winds and seas ; But O not hushed the voice of my despair. In that wattled hut the two fishermen dreamed of catching golden fish. On this strip of windy beach sat the Cy- clops Polypheme, piping his songs of love to the ocean nymph Galatea, while she leaped in the foam and pelted his dog with apples. So completely was the island identified with these pastoral tales, that Virgil mingles the names of Sicily and Arcadia together as if they were one land — or no land: There forests murmur aye, and pines dis- course; And lovelorn swains, and Pan, who first re- claimed From idleness the reed, hath audience there. Begin, my flute, a song of Arcady. In that no-man's land Virgil places the one incident that seems to be reminis- cent of his own youth in northern Italy: Within our orchard-walls I saw thee first, A wee child with her mother — (I was sent To guide you) — gathering apples wet with dew. Ten years and one I scarce had numbered then; Could scarce on tiptoe reach the brittle boughs. I saw, I fell, I was myself no more. By an odd coincidence, these lines with their close of almost mystical passion — Ut vidi, ut perii! ut me malus abstulit error! — were picked out by both Voltaire and Macaulay as the best in ah Virgil's works. Modern poets, writers of epic and pas- toral and drama, have carried on the tradition to the present day. Milton, wishing to find a symbol for Paradise, could not do better than compare his garden with . . . that fair field Of Enna, where Proserpin gathering flowers, Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis Was gathered— as indeed Paradise is but an Arcadian dream among the Jews. Matthew Ar- nold's most romantic scene is from the summit of Mtna., looking over . . . that other fainter sea, far down, O'er whose lit floor a road of moonbeams leads To ^Etna's Liparean sister-fires And the long dusky line of Italy. And so again we meet with romance playing above these forces of ruin, and the mind returns to the actual devasta- tion of the land. Who shall read the lesson of this incongruity of fancy and reality? Who shall tell the moral of the present event? In a moment a whole people is obliterated, "as a wet sponge obliterates a painting," our trust in evolution and some far-off divine event seems, in the sight of such things, like another idle vision of the poets. A EUROPEAN CONFERENCE. The movement of events within Tur- key has diverted attention from gener- al international politics in the Near East, which only a few weeks ago threatened a serious crisis. We, who watch European affairs from a distance, content to make broad estimates for comparatively long stretches of time, cannot see the problem in the same way tfcat Europe does. To her, the minute shifting and balancing of diplomatic business carry serious meaning from day to day. As we look upon it here, there is no reason why Austria's annex- ation of Bosnia-Herzegovina should pro- voke war. The deed is done, and Eu- rope, including Turkey, is prepared to recognize the accomplished fact, pro- vided certain concessions and rectifica- tions are made. Such readjustment can be arranged either through a European conference or through separate negotia- tion among the various states. But the latter procedure is, on the face of it, so cumbrous, so adapted to intrigue and counter-intrigue, and so likely to excite irritation, that from the first the call- ing of a conference has seemed inevita- ble. All this aside from the fact that Austria's undoing of the work of one European congress naturally calls for another congress to lend its sanction to what has been done. Austrian diplomats have, it is true, been fencing and delaying. Thus the Turkish boycott on Austrian goods serv- ed as an excuse for protracting negotia- tions. Austria would not discuss the question of a settlement with Turkey until the boycott was suspended. Then, when in that matter the Turkish gov-

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6 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2271 eminent assumed the correct attitude and was ready to begin parley once more, Austria experienced a sudden change of mind. She was reported to have conceded Turkey's claim to an in- demnity, was supposed to be negotiating on that basis, when all at once she de- cided that an indemnity she would not pay, and a conference — well, a confer- ence she might like or mightn't, she wasn't quite sure yet. Thus the affair seems to stand at present, and thus Eu- rope, following, as we have said, the almost hourly fluctuations and rather vague "an if I woulds" and "an if I mights" of professional diplomacy, is inclined to be somewhat disheartened at the slow progress towards a definite understanding. The Paris Temps, which, as the inspired voice of the French government, came out, the first organ in Europe, for a conference, now speaks in disenchantment. Where do we stand, it asks. True, "it will never be too late to turn pessimist," but the Temps feels quite sure "that it is much too soon to play the optimist," and can only deplore the sad waste of time, "ten weeks lost for agreement and pacifica- tion, ten weeks of useless pourparlers, and ineffective intercommunication of views, ten weeks of impotent diplomacy. Europe, regarded as a moral entity, does not move forward at all." Looking, however, beyond the vicissi- tudes of the day, it seems probable that a conference for settlement of the Near Eastern question will meet. As early as the middle of October, France, Great Britain, and Russia had come to an agreement not only on the necessity of a conference, but upon a common pro- gramme. To this programme, it is true, Russia has been adding demands of her own in her private negotiations with Austria, but that does not affect the question of a conference in itself. Italy's position was clearly formulated in the early days of December, when Foreign Minister Tittoni declared formally to the Chamber that "changes effected in international agreements are not to be seriously thought of until they have secured the ratification of all contract- ing parties." Of Germany's attitude there was, and still is, some doubt. Von Biilow has stated in the Reichstag that he agrees with Sir Edward Grey in thinking that a conference "may be a great sedative or an exciting stimulant. We wish that it may act as a sedative." Von Biilow added that in any case Ger- many would stand by its ally, but the general inclination is to interpret his pronouncement as in favor of a con- gress. If Europe, then, is pessimistic, it is not with regard to the chances of a con- ference, but with regard to its outcome — as to the terms which the conference will attempt to impose upon Austria and the terms which Austria will accept. Austria is apparently determined to make no concessions to the Servian pop- ulation within or without her boun- daries. Russia is believed to be insist- ing on such concessions — substantial compensation of some kind to Servia and Montenegro, and guarantees for the incorporated population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Agreement upon the former point would not appear difficult; on the latter Austria will probably re- main firm, since she can hardly permit a foreign Power to question her con- duct towards her own subjects. Turkey will ask for money. That concession should not be difficult, since the Otto- man government can damage Austrian commerce to an amount greater than any indemnity that might be suggested. As for the programme drawn up by Eng- land, France, and Russia, in October, of its nine points, only one will be combat- ed by Austria — territorial compensation to Servia and Montenegro by a "recti- fication" of the boundary between Bos- nia-Herzegovina and Novi-Bazar. Yet greater interests than these have been disposed of by general conferences. Tan- gible ground for pessimism is therefore very slight. FIFTY YEARS OF DARWINISM. American scientists celebrated at Bal- timore last Friday the centenary of Darwin, and the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Spe- cies." Many came to praise, and some, very likely, to bury him. Buried, at any rate, his speculations about pan- genesis may easily be under the shovel- fuls of counter-hypotheses which have since been proposed or come into vogue — Kolliker's saltation, Nageli's automat- ic perfecting principle, De Vries's mu- tants, and so on. It is, of course, the prerogative of a great pioneering genius to leave some minor errors which give dozens of smaller men a chance for fame in correcting them. This has been eminently true in Darwin's case; there has been a flood of articles and pamph- lets and books setting right his ob- servations at this point or that, and checking off or enlarging his facts. Fur- thermore, we are told that Darwin was not so original as has been asserted. His theory was foreshadowed by poets like Lucretius, Emerson, and Tennyson, was anticipated by Lamarck, entered into Spencer's philosophizing, was hit upon independently by Wallace. All true, but what does it signify? Where others dreamed, Darwin saw and showed the actual fact. For guesses, he gave proofs. We know what Huxley thought of the gossamer spinnings of Herbert Spen- cer, compared with the solid structures of Charles Darwin. Not to those who dimly groped at truths "darkly joined, deep-seated in our mystic frame" do we yield all honor, but to the man who made them current coin. Honest Darwinians will admit that much nonsense has been uttered in Dar- win's name, and that his doctrines have been tortured into baneful shapes and cruel applications. It is true that the shibboleths of Darwinism have often been used to darken counsel by words without wisdom. Under the pretence of making it strictly Darwinian, education has sometimes been turned into a trav- esty. Similarly, morality has been de- scribed as merely a "protective color- ing," or a device of the strong to keep the weak in subjection. The truth has been defined as only the idea that out- lives its rivals. Murderous competition has been defended because nature is shown by Darwin to favor the swift and the powerful. For these and other per- versions of his teachings he has been, and doubtless will be again, charged with responsibility. But what does all this matter? With every allowance or needed con- cession, it remains undeniable that Charles Darwin compelled two genera- tions to think in terms of his thought. No really educated man, no scholar in whatever branch of learning, has been able to expel from his mind the ideas which Darwin lodged there. His great conceptions of descent with modifica- tion, and of environment and struggle as the chief causes of variation, have permeated not only science, but history, religion, and all studies of society and of politics. We cannot get away from them. Even if we try intelligently to attack Darwinism, we have to do it

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. 7 with the weapons of Darwinism. This is greatness enough for any thinker. He may have been wrong in a given theory, but he at least taught men for fifty years how to theorize. Setting aside all his discoveries for the mo- ment, and admitting that he put no infallible organon into the hands of thinkers, and did not solve the ulti- mate mysteries of the universe, he yet forced his contemporaries, and the gen- eration following his own, to make their thoughts flow in the moulds which he first shaped. We can no more avoid thinking in terms of evolution than we can cease breathing. This second nature, mentally, which Darwin imposed upon the world was born partly of his themes and partly of his method. His subjects were of universal human interest. How the earth about us and man upon it came to be what they are, is a question which concerns every man with a soul above the clods. Thus Darwin was sure of his audience; and, having got it, he gripped its attention by a supreme ex- hibition of scientific method. Vast and patient labor in accumulating the facts, each one tested in a very passion for accuracy and a profound belief in "sal- vation by verification"; then the em- ployment of the highest powers of the scientific imagination, controlled by the severest canons of deductive logic; fin- ally, a cautious marking out of causes and of consequences — this was the work of Darwin as exponent of the scientific way of attacking difficult problems. It was a model by which the whole world was impressed, and to which it has more and more sought to conform. Darwinism as a body of doctrines men may qualify or reject; but the methods of Darwin they cannot disavow, with- out writing themselves down cham- pions of inaccuracy and apostles of loose thinking. The indirect, subtle, and almost un- perceived effects of Darwin's teachings are more remarkable than his direct achievements. He wrote very little, ex- plicitly, about theology, yet he modi- fied it from skin to heart. Charles Darwin never figured as a polemic, but his doctrine has, to many a man, been like a sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Old be- liefs vanished, not because Darwin attacked them, but because they could not live in the mental atmosphere which he created. It is true that one doctrine of theology he directly attacked and destroyed — the doctrine of special crea- tion. All frank and intelligent theolo- gians now admit that the old argument of final causes — the argument from de- sign, the argument of Paley and the "Christian Evidences" generally — can no longer be employed. But to many another article of the orthodox faith did the dissolving acid of Darwin's scientific method quietly spread. It was not that he combated it; it simply evaporated and disappeared before him. Men could not always give an exact account of what had happened to their creeds. They simply knew that Darwin had given them a new way of looking at everything, and had made many old things pass away, for them, forever. On its practical side, Darwinism has undoubtedly had a depressing effect upon some who could not see or could not bear the whole truth. The reign of natural law may seem to crush out indi- vidual initiative, and to make mercy and justice sound like idle words. But this is only so long as we do not per- ceive that natural law covers human energy, too, and shows it how best to wreak itself. In the new way of look- ing at things, which came to the world from Darwin, there is hope and cheer, if we but take the matter aright. Only consider what his doctrine of the shap- ing power of environment is leading us to do in bettering the conditions of the poor, the defective, the prone to crime. His demonstration that circumstances may make or break a man, is a clarion call to humanitarian zeal. And his teaching of the infinite variability of species, and of the indefinite progress which man may make in the cultivation of humane and moral qualities, is one that looks distinctly to the perfectibility of the race. GROWTH OF THE AUTOMOBILE IN- DUSTRY. The annual automobile show in this city indicates that the automobile "craze" has not abated in this year of financial depression. Indeed, the bad times seem to have helped the manu- facturers in several directions. Some weak and ill-managed concerns have gone to the wall, and others have con- solidated to their mutual benefit; while the prices of the product of still others have fairly been cut in half. This is emphatically a case where lowered cost means an increase of business. The automobile has long since passed out of its original classification as a toy of the rich. It has become as much a ne- cessity as the trolley car, and the bounds of its usefulness have not yet been reached; the farmers of the West, for instance, are only just beginning to understand the financial advantage in being able to make quick delivery of produce or to send rapidly to town for some sudden need. As soon as a stan- dard cheap car can be produced, of a simple type, that does not require spe- cial mechanical aptitude in the operator, and that may be run inexpensively, there will be no limit to the automobile market. Already there are cars for $500 and $750 that give excellent service: and the extraordinary drop in the price of tires, in some cases from $96 to $37, has cut down the maintenance charge which bore most heavily upon the mo- torist of slender means. Hitherto, the manufacturers have found it difficult to supply the demand; the check the industry has received will probably enable them to catch up. In the future, then, there will be more care in the construction of cars, a greater desire to produce strong and simple engines, and that striving after improvements which is the greatest benefit of keen competition. Hitherto, almost anything called an automobile has sold, and sold easily. The whole movement now is towards the production of motor-cars that shall have in their names a recognized cer- tificate of merit. Some of the more pop- ular cars have already attained to this fortunate position, but even the speci- mens of the best of them are very un- equal. The American mechanic, al- though more versatile and self-reliant than the French or German, is not so thorough; hence cars that follow each other out of the same factory some- times give very different grades of ser- vice to the purchasers, and the fault is not altogether with the chauffeurs. The industry, in brief, has needed an opportunity to "settle down" and to get through some of the phases of growth inevitable when one considers what an infant it is in. years, and what a giant in respect to the capital invested. The value of the American motor-car prod- uct in 1907 reached the astounding fig- ure of $100,000,000. This is the output

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8 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2271 of some 253 manufacturers, of whom nearly 100 are of importance in the trade. Yet the business is only ten years old on this side of the ocean. Naturally, so sudden an expansion has brought with it evils, both in manufac- ture and marketing — witness the extrav- agant salaries and commissions, the needless outlays for press agents and racing cars. But, all in all, these ex- cesses of prosperity are easily curable, and the fact remains that within a decade the skill and ingenuity of Amer- ican workmen are producing cars that compete with the best foreign makes, as appears from the steady annual decrease in the value of imported cars. We are not of the opinion that the automobile trade would be seriously dis- turbed even if the present tariff of 45 per cent, ad valorem were wholly done away with in the coming revision. As the Italian Chamber of Commerce of this city pointed out to the Ways and Means Committee: In no other country is the material en- tering the manufacture of automobiles — viz., steel, iron, brass, wood, leather, rub- ber, glass, etc. — cheaper or as cheap as in the United States, and this economic ad- vantage, securing already to domes- tic manufacturers a natural protection, is more than sufficient to counterbalance any difference in the cost of labor, especially considering that in this line of manufac- ture, requiring specially skilled labor, the difference between wages paid abroad and in this country is by no means notable, if at all existent. In addition there are, of course, the freight rates and insurance premiums to be taken into account. Moreover, many foreign cars built for European conditions are unfitted for use in Amer- ica, especially in rural districts, such as those of th<» Middle West, where the roads are of a kind wholly undreamed of in Europe. Indeed, it is the mud of these highways that accounts for the high-wheel automobile buggies many farmers are now using. Again, foreign competition is as great a stimulus to American inventors and makers as is the domestic, and such competition Is likely to prevent the formation of an automobile Trust. Moreover, as Charles H. Sherrill pointed out to the Ways and Means Committee, our New York city carriage-makers might have been driven to the wall by the rise of the automobile, but for the fact that American bodies have been placed on 90 per cent, of the imported chassis. As the value of all the chassis entered at the port of New York aggregated $16,- 896,983.71 for the four years ended June 30, 1908, an idea may be obtained of what the 90 per cent, of this business has meant to our carriage-makers. However the tariff be adjusted, the opportunities for American makers, we repeat, are enormous. The field for low- priced cars is theirs exclusively, and with ti e $500 car they may yet invade Europe. If any one doubts that the final dis- appearance of all horse-pulled vehicles except for pleasure-driving is near at hand, let him walk up Fifth Avenue some afternoon. The success of the tax- icab is driving "back to the country" many a well-worn cab-horse. The com- mercial automobile is only at the be- ginning of its development — another great chance for the manufacturer. Al- ready large concerns like the General Electric Company and the American Locomotive Company are attacking the problem, and some of the best makers of high-priced cars are likewise turning their attention to this matter. A TEACHER OF THE OLD SCHOOL. Benjamin Franklin Clarke, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, and for more than forty years a member of the Brown faculty, died in Providence last week. This, with two or three lines more, was all the New York pa- pers printed, and indeed all the event was worth as mere news, but those of us whose memories run back a genera- tion or more cannot but be moved by the fact that these words recorded the passing of another of the few surviving college teachers of the old school. They were — we are beginning now to speak of them in the past tense — seldom great scholars or distinguished investi- gators; but they were faithful and com- petent instructors, men of cultivation and high character, whose influence was exceedingly wholesome. Of this class Professor Clarke was an excellent exam- ple. In discussing his labors and achievements we have in mind not so much the individual as the type; and our object is not to praise those who have passed beyond the reach of our voices, but rather to express our grati- tude to those of that rapidly- dwindling company who are yet with us. He came to his work when as yet the function of the highly trained special- ist was scarcely understood by our edu- cators. Nearly every college chair was occupied by a professor who was, as the phrase is, expected to fill a whole bench. One man would often have as his field mathematics and all the nat- ural sciences; another, all the modern languages; another, all the classics; and still another, literature, metaphysics, ethics, and economics. The scholarship which was possible under such circum- stances— unless the professor were a man of uncommon energy and capacity — was rather elementary. The teacher had gone but a little way beyond the point to which he carried his classes. Graduate study was hardly known in America; and the youth who had taken his bachelor's degree with credit, was thought to be fairly prepared for a po- sition in the faculty. The modern disci- pline is, of course, far superior. Three or four years of research, crowned by a doctor's degree, afford a technical equip- ment with which that of forty or fifty years ago is not to be compared. Our young Ph.D.'s know more of their sub- jects than many of their predecessors ever dreamed of acquiring. And yet, if the young Ph.D. has the defect of his virtue — an intense narrowness that makes for erudition rather than wisdom — the old teacher had the virtue of his defects, that is, a wide range of inter- est and sympathy that gave him ripe- ness and wisdom and made him an effec- tive instructor and leader of youth. He could play many parts, and play them well. Professor Clarke, for instance, was twice drafted to act as president of Brown, for a year each time. The du- ties of a locum tenens were delicate and difficult; but he discharged them admir- ably. Tact, firmness, poise, judgment, grasp of multifarious details, dignity and appropriateness in public utterances — these features of his administration would hardly be looked for in the latter- day mathematician of the straitest sect. From what we have said, it is clear that the strength of the old-fashioned teacher lay in his personality rather than in his attainments. Whether one learned much from him or not — and how little actual knowledge one gets from the best of colleges and teachers! — it was a good thing to be with him. By example as well as by precept, he in- culcated the sound gospel of attacking one's tasks steadily and without whim- pering. Boys were not expected to like their lessons, but they were expected to learn them — thoroughly. "Hinnessey," says Mr. Dooley, "it doesn't matter what

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Jan. 7, 1909J The Nation 9 a boy rades so long as he hates it." That view would have seemed rather extreme to Professor Clarke; but once at the end of a weary day he remark- ed that the kindergarten seemed to have produced freshmen who thought every- thing must be made amusing, and he feared that illustrated stereopticon lec- tures would soon be the only means of capturing the wandering attention of these lads. At any rate, he would have agreed with Horace D. Taft, who de- clared in a recent issue of the Yale Alumni Weekly: There Is In this life a great deal of work to be done that Is dry, hard, and unin- teresting, and a vital part of a boy's edu- cation, if not the vital part, is the learning to do hard things, even drudgery, with courage, determination, a sense of duty, and even cheerfulness. It was his sense of faithfulness to duty that filled the pupils of Professor Clarke as well as his colleagues with profound respect for him and a genuine affection. These lofty ideals of conduct and character are not destroyed by the pro- cess of specialization, but in emphasiz- ing as strongly as our college authori- ties do the necessity of technical ac- quirement, they appear now and then to neglect the weightier matters of the law. Sane men can have no quarrel with research and the advancement of science; but in this world there are oth- er ends also to be served. At Baltimore last week Prof. Edward L. Nichols said very truly: "We need not merely re- search in the universities, but univer- sities for research." There is a distinc- tion, however, between the university and the college; and the corollary to Professor Nichols's theorem is: "We need not merely good teaching in the colleges, but colleges devoted to good teaching." The term good teaching in- cludes not only proper drill in the vari- ous branches of the curriculum, but that more potent instruction and inspiration that come from contact with men of moral as well as intellectual substance. We hope, then, that in the visible reac- tion against excessive specialization, our colleges may remember one great source of their strength in the past, may be more content to leave to the univer- sity those graduate studies that belong to the university, to stick less rigorous- ly for the Ph.D. as the essential quali- fication for a place in the faculty, and to set a higher value on men of general cultivation and fine character; in short, to keep alive that race of teachers of the old school which, as the death of such men as Professor Clarke reminds us, is now threatened with extinction. THE ECONOMISTS AND SOCIOLO- GISTS. Atlantic City, December 31. The twenty-first annual meeting of the American Economic Association was held in Atlantic City December 28 to 31. Three smaller bodies, the American Sociological Society, the American Statistical Society, and the American Association for Labor Legislation, con- vened at the same time and place. Several joint sessions were devoted to subjects of common interest. The economists and the students of social science canvassed jointly the theme of Modern Industry and Family Life, while Employers' Liability, Industrial Insur- ance, and Public Boards of Arbitration provided matter to engage at once the attention of the economist and the re- former of labor laws. The experiment of meeting at a place where no aca- demic institution exists to play the role of host was generally pronounced suc- cessful. There was no disruption of the programme by intruding luncheons, receptions, and private dinner parties. On the closing night the Economic Association held a public dinner attend- ed by over a hundred. There was an excellent commingling of speeches by economists and jurists. Three of the judges of the Supreme Court of New Jersey spoke, and Judge J. B. Dill acted as toastmaster. The annual ad- dress of the retiring president, Prof. Simon N. Patten, of the University of Pennsylvania (previously printed in the Economic Bulletin), was devoted to "The Making of Economic Literature." Though the prescription offered by Professor Patten will hardly be en- dorsed in its entirety by many econ- omists, its central thesis— the avoid- ance of over-elaborated technical hy- pothesis and the primacy of a first-hand acquaintance with the facts of the mar- ket— is highly salutary. More disput- able perhaps is Professor Patten's am- bition to exorcise the economist from the library and to convert him into a journalist pure and simple with a hankering for the purple patch and the telling phrase. One advantage of printing the address in advance of its delivery was seen in the well-considered and judicial discussion it evoked. If the critics had not had time to reflect after reading it, a testy and perhaps a diverting, but a profitless debate would probably have ensued. The chief paper on pure economic theory was read by Prof. J. B. Clark of Columbia, on "Collective Bargaining." In essence it was a reply to the query whether law-abiding labor unions which make no attempt at monopoly through the closed shop or the closed union "can materially help men to get as much as the true standard of wages requires." (The "true standard" of wages, ac- cording to Professor Clark, is the value of the marginal product of social labor.) The conclusion drawn was that union treasuries allow the unionists to hold out longer in case of an eventual strike, and thus to drive a better bargain for the speedier adjustment of their pay to the value of their product. When rival employers invade the territory of the employer whose mills are shut down, "the enforced yielding point of the em- ployer comes earlier" than that of the men. Unfortunately there was not time for full discussion — indeed "all eter- nity's too short" for threshing out most of the issues raised in these meetings — but several suggestive criticisms were offered to the solution presented or the philosophy on which the solution was based. Prof. A. C. Miller of the Uni- versity of California, contended against the view that the wage-earners are the only class whose actual pay lags behind the values they create. Prof. T. S. Adams of the University of Wisconsin was inclined to challenge the naive pro- ductivity theory of wages out and out, insisting that bargaining power was an essential determinant of wage-contracts, and differed essentially from objective productivity. A real contribution to the facts of collective bargaining was made by Prof. G. E. Barnett of Johns Hop- kins. He made It clear that as regards money wages the individual worker un- aided can often enforce his claim to a warranted advance, but that collective bargaining alone can force concessions in the duration of the working day and in other conditions under which labor is performed. The joint session to consider legisla- tion affecting laborers was opened by an address by Prof. H. W. Farnam of Yale, president of the Association for Labor Legislation. He distinguished sharply between legislation passed in the interest of race preservation, and legislation designed to bestow benefit on operatives at the expense of other classes. Laws of the first kind are il- lustrated by enactments for the protec- tion of women and children in factories. Laws of the second kind are such as impose on employers the insurance of their employees. Race preservation, or what has been dubbed "posteritism," he held, was amply justified. The chief drawback to sane legislation in this matter is found in the fact that "of all the industries of the United States law- making is perhaps the most backward." Legislation of the second sort was pro- nounced generally fraught with risk. It was a rather notable fact that the assumption seemed to go without pro- test that additional protective labor legislation was necessary. Some of its

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io The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 practical difficulties, from the point of view of the statute draughtsman, were pointed out by Prof. M. O. Lorenz of Wisconsin ; and F. L. Hoffman, Newark, N. J., insisted on the imperative neces- sity of making a trustworthy statistical inventory of industrial accidents and the attendant, illness before embarking on a policy of industrial insurance. In the joint session with the Socio- logical Society the chief interest cen- tred in the papers descriptive of the recent social census of Pittsburgh. These papers were very much in point since the general topic for discussion was the influence of modern industry and city life upon the family. Miss Margaret F. Byington took Homestead for her text, to which she has devoted some weeks of intensive study. She spoke discriminatingly from personal knowledge, well analyzed, and certainly presented a sombre picture of the re- action of the industrial conditions upon the home life of the workers. The gen- eral purpose and results of the Pitts- burgh Survey were summed up by Dr. Edward T. Devine. The aim of the survey was to offer "a structural ex- hibit of the community as a whole," and the extent of the investigation was rendered possible through the assist- ance of the Sage Foundation. It was enough to make the ears of a sensi- tive protectionist tingle to hear this exposure of the economic life of his Mecca. The spot of all others on earth where the worker's wage should be highest is found to be characterized first, by "an altogether incredible amount of overwork by everybody, best typified by the twelve-hour shift seven days in the week in the steel mills and on railways"; second, by "low wages for the great majority of the laborers em- ployed by the mills, so low as to be in- adequate to the maintenance of a nor- mal American standard of living; wages adjusted to the single man in the lodging house, not to the responsible head of a family"; third, "still lower wages for women"; fourth, "an absentee capitalism with bad effects, strikingly analogous to those of absentee land- lordism"; and — thrown in to make good measure — such trifles as over a thousand deaths annually from typhoid fever and industrial accidents. The terrible indictment concluded by paint- ing "the contrast between the pros- perity on the one hand of the most prosperous of all the communities of our western civilization" with "the neg- lect of life, of health, of physical vigor, even of industrial efficiency." Only once during the sessions of the asso- ciation was there any spontaneous demonstration of approval. That out- burst greeted the declaration: Not by gifts of libraries, galleries, tech- nical schools, and parks, but by the cessa- tion of toil one day in seven and sixteen hours in the twenty-four, by the increase of wages, by the sparing of lives, by the prevention of accidents, and by raising the standards of domestic life, should the sur- plus come 'back to the people of the com- munity in which it is created. The unusually long programme in- cluded three other general sessions de- voted respectively to Tariff Revision, the Establishment in the United States of a Central Bank, and the Public Regu- lation of Security Issues by Corpora- tions. The paper on the Tariff by Prof. H. C. Emery of Yale, was frankly op- portunist. Historically, he maintained, the crusade against protection had been a failure so far as it had been founded on the consumer's interest. Free trade, he contended, had prevailed only when urged by the selfish interest of special groups of producers. The moral he de- duced was that economists should co- operate with producers who are now anxious to abate duties. Such coopera- tion on the economists' part need not blind him to the motives of those now urging tariff reduction, nor to the false philosophy of international trade on which the reduction is based. Years back such a proposal would probably have evoked heated repudiation, but nowadays among economists, so far as tariff reform is concerned, . . . despair itself is mild, and the discussion wandered on to the relative merits of maximum and mini- mum tariffs which N. I. Stone of the United States Bureau of Statistics weighed against the system of special reciprocating commercial treaties. The two leading papers on the estab- lishment of a Central Bank were con- tributed by Paul M.» Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York, and by Horace White, New York. In general they both supported the project. Mr. White advocated it rather on the ground that the jealousy of our country bankers would render an analogue to the Can- adian system politically unattainable in this country. To Mr. Warburg the Central Bank has demonstrated its feasibility by virtue of its workings abroad. Of special interest in Mr. Warburg's portrayal of our situation was his insistence on the absence of "modern and readily saleable [commer- cial] paper which in critical times we can offer to foreign markets" for re-dis- count. This, with our bond-secured cur- rency and our decentralized reserves, and the unfounded prejudice against anything bearing the name of a "Cen- tral Bank" are the cruces of the deplor- able state of our banking system. Mr. White did not attempt the detailed con- struction of a Central Bank as did Mr. Warburg; but his caustic scoring of those who have come to regard "clear- ing house certificates and rubber stamps" as "desirable per se" . . . "as something like Pond's extract, or Peruna. which should always be kept in the house," was deliciously incisive. The concluding session was taken up by an able but detailed paper by Prof. C. J. Bullock of Harvard, who argued that legal restrictions imposed in Mas- sachusetts on the issue of securities by transportation companies had driven capital from the State, and arrested the growth of needed railroad facilities in New England generally. The Hon. Milo R. Maltbie of the Public Service Com- mission of New York, of the First Dis- trict, broke a lance for the public regu- lation of security issues by railway companies. Mr. Justice Swayze of the New Jersey Supreme Court outlined the New Jersey law in the premises, and expressed a qualified skepticism as to the efficacy of minute restrictions by statute or administrative commission upon the terms of such issues. The next annual meeting of the Economists is to be held in New York City, and will be devoted to celebrating the quarter centennial anniversary of the founding of the association at Sara- toga in 1885. The incoming president is Prof. Davis R. Dewey, of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, and Prof. T. N. Carver of Harvard Univer- sity was elected secretary and treasurer. W. M. D. THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS. Richmond, Va., December 31. Socially, the annual meetings of the American Historical and American Po- litical Science Associations at Washing- ton and Richmond, December 28-31, were notably successful. The hotel ar- rangements, permitting the great ma- jority of members to live for the time being under one roof, facilitated the per- sonal conference which forms so large a part of the value of these meetings; for it must be admitted that the obli- gation to listen to papers and discus- sions sits less and less heavily upon the members as the years go by. In both cities there was the usual gener- ous provision of private and corporate hospitality, including at Washington a reception at the British Embassy, and at Richmond the courtesy of the New Year's festivities at the Westmoreland. The rich historic interest of Richmond and vicinity made a strong appeal, and an excursion to the University of Vir- ginia at the close of the sessions at- tracted many. The programme of papers and confer- ences, while, as usual, full of variety and information, developed fewer distinctive excellencies than has sometimes been the case, or than the announced titles would in some cases lead one to sup- pose. Of the presidential addresses, that of Ambassador Bryce before the Po- litical Science Association, on "The Re- lations of Political Science to History

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. 11 and to Practice," naturally awakened the greater anticipation. In a way at once luminous and philosophical, Mr. Bryce pointed out the essential limita- tions of the respective fields of history and political science, and the futility of looking to political science for conclu- sive guidance in matters of public con- duct. Both may, both indeed must, use the accepted scientific methods of ob- servation, comparison, and deduction, but neither can profess to be in the full sense a science. As for the elaborate speculations about the nature of the state with which the literature of po- litical science so greatly abounds, Mr. Bryce had emphatic, though courteous, condemnation, rightly reminding his hearers that facts, not theories, are the things to which they should most at- tend. The presidential address of Prof. George B. Adams of Yale before the historians, on "History and the Phil- osophy of History," while in large part to the same effect, called particular at- tention to the invasion of the field of history by political science, economics, sociology, and other branches of inquiry, with all of which, affording as they do a "common standing-ground for all workers at what are really common tasks," the historian ought to sympa- thize, while sticking to his own task of ascertaining what actually happened. That the facts thus ascertained tend to prove some theory of history, the his- torian may well believe, even though imperfect knowledge may prevent a complete verification of the theory. The frank admission that history is, and must always remain, a leading branch of literature, was a refreshing note for a time in which the flood of ill-written monographs portends the worship of an- other "dismal science" of historical com- position. It is rather a significant commentary on the nature of historical study in this country that so many of the most in- teresting and valuable papers presented at these meetings should be in the field of European history ;> and the pro- gramme this year was no exception. Prof. C. H. Haskins of Harvard, in an extremely suggestive paper on "Nor- mandy under William the Conqueror," showed how considerable was the polit- ical and social development of Norman- dy before the English conquest, and how markedly certain Norman institutions, especially the registration of land and the system of local magistrates, in- fluenced political development in Eng- land. Prof. Oliver H. Richardson of Yale, speaking on "Religious Toleration in Brandenburg-Prussia under the Great Elector, and Its Material Rewards," de- veloped the thesis of religious tolera- tion as both a political and an economic necessity for the growth of the Prus- sian state; Dr. Ernst Daenell of Kiel discussed the leading ideas of the Han- seatic commercial system; and Prof. C. W. Colby of McGlll appraised with commendation the public life of Chat- ham. The field of American history was ac- corded two formal sessions, at one of which the important subject of the use of census data and newspapers as his- torical material was discussed, while the other presented contrasted criticisms of the Wilderness campaign by Gen. Ed- ward P. Alexander of the Confederate army, Col. William R. Livermore, the well-known writer on military history, and Major Eben Swift of the present General Staff. Besides these formal ses- sions, five conferences gave opportunity for the consideration of a considerable range of American topics. A conference on geography discussed the influence of the geography of the South Atlantic States on their history; that on history in secondary schools debated, with sin- gular inconclusiveness, the need of mod- ifying the recommendations of the Com- mittee of Seven on that subject. A con- ference on the problems of State and local historical societies, a subject to which the Historical Association has given, of late, special attention, devel- oped practical suggestions regarding co- operation, the use of photography in ar- chive and historical work, and the con- duct of historical exhibitions. Three conferences on research in English, American colonial and Revolutionary, and Southern history, respectively, brought out some of the larger oppor- tunities for investigation in these sever- al fields, with special reference to bib- liographical conditions. Mr. Bryce's injunction to beware of prophecy, served to emphasize the gen- erally practical character of the pro- ceedings of the Political Science Asso- ciation. A striking though hardly pro- found paper by Prof. S. B. Leacock of McGill, on the limitations of Federal government, did, indeed, suggest the ul- timate breakdown of Federal govern- ment, if such problems of uniform and consistent control of labor and capital as have lately arisen continue to press; but, with this exception, the leading pa- pers confined themselves chiefly to the description of phenomena. A complete enumeration of papers and writers would be too extended for inclusion here, but reference should be made to a group of papers on recent constitu- tional development in New England, the Middle West, Michigan, and Virgin- ia. Prof. J. A. C. Chandler of Richmond College, discussing in this connection the Constitution of Virginia, adopted in 1902, pointed out that under the new system of registration no man could be denied the right to vote who could read and write his application and prop- erly mark his ballot, anu that more than one-fourth of those who could have reg- istered under the old Constitution are now disqualified, including in this num- ber both whites and blacks. Interesting and timely, also, was a group of pa- pers on certain active agencies in the betterment of municipal administration, in which the New York Public Service Commission and Bureau of Municipal Research, the Boston Finance Commis- sion, and the National Municipal League, were described and appraised; and another group on the increase of Federal influence and power in the Unit- ed States, as illustrated by Federal con- trol of commerce and the growing inter- ference with State activities by the Fed- eral courts. The international law sec- tion was distinctly up-to-date, with a paper on aerial navigation in its rela- tion to international law, by Arthur K. Kuhn of New York city. Stranger things might happen than that the nations should before long have to consider, as was facetiously suggested, something akin to a three-mile limit in dealing with airships. The material and scholarly activities of the two associations show healthy growth. The Historical Association adds to its established undertakings the pro- posed publication, in uniform annual volumes, of the Justin Winsor and Her- bert B. Adams prize essays. The Jus- tin Winsoi prize was awarded to Prof. C. E. Carter of Illinois College, for a monograph on "The Influence of Great Britain in the Settlement of the Illinois Country." Both associations meet next year at New York. PHILOLOGISTS AND ARCHAEOLO- GISTS AT TORONTO. Toronto, December 31. The joint meeting of the American Philological Association and the Archae- ological Institute of America, held De- cember 28-31, at the University of To- ronto, was noteworthy in more ways than one. In the first place, the soci- eties had never before met outside of the political boundaries of their coun- try, and the acquaintance of their mem- bers with the Canadian universities had been very slight. The meeting did much to quicken mutual recognition and friendship between colleagues working along similar lines on either side of the national limes. Another noteworthy feature was the admission by the council to affiliation with the Archaeological Institute of America of five newly formed Canadian societies, that give promise of much vigorous life. They will be organized, at their own desire, as a Canadian branch of the Institute, but this provi- sion will not interfere with the essen- tial equality of all the societies of the Institute, Canadian and American, as harmonious members of one great inter- national association. Several newly-born American societies were also admitted;

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12 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 and the work of the Institute, in both the native and the foreign areas of re- search, was reported as in most flourish- ing condition. In connection with the School of American Archaeology, an in- teresting item is the approval of an of- fer by the territorial government of New Mexico to give for the permanent quar- ters of the school the old Governor's Palace at Santa Fe, which has been oc- cupied by a long succession of Spanish and American rulers of the surrounding country- A museum of antiquities of the Southwest will be installed within the ancient walls. The school at Jerus- alem is also well on the way toward the acquisition of a home of its own in that city. It has amply justified its ex- istence by the execution of much good work, with a surprisingly small expendi- ture of money. Prof. Robert F. Har- per of the University of Chicago is the director for the present year. The school at Athens reports excellent progress with work in that city, as well as at Corinth, and chronicles some striking excavations on a small island off the north coast of Crete, of which much will doubtless be heard hereafter. The school at Rome has published a second volume of papers (see the Nation of December 3, 1908, p. 554), and has other important investigations approaching completion. The united societies telegraphed to the Italian government resolutions of sympathy on the disaster that has be- fallen the region about which so much of their interest is centred, and prompt- ly started a subscription in behalf of the sufferers. They also joined substan- tially all the learned societies of the country in formally petitioning Con- gress for the abolition of the import duty on scientific books published in English. The feeling was, of course, unanimous that the duty is nothing less than a burdensome tax on that portion of the population best deserving assist- ance instead of hindrance in the strug- gle after knowledge. The papers presented before the soci- eties were almost too numerous, but many of them were of high interest and importance. As usual, they covered a wide range of subjects, and a goodly number treated of previously unpublish- ed material. It is impossible even to mention all of those deserving especial commemoration. Three on themes less usually discussed in such meetings may be briefly noted. Prof. J. H. Breasted, recently returned from the Nubian ex- pedition of the University of Chicago — the first in that district since the inven- tion of photography — called attention to the existence in the Temple of Soleb of a connecting link between the basilica- like (higher nave and lower flanking aisles) construction of the well-known temple at Karnak, and the ordinary structure of high pylon and lower walls that is seen in so many Egyptian tem- ples. A. L. Frothingham of Princeton, N. J., presented arguments in favor of the identification of the porphyry sar- cophagus of the Empress Helena, in the Vatican Museum, with the sarcophagus of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The com- munication of Prof. George Hempl of Leland Stanford on his solution of the centuries-old problem of the Etruscan language (and also of the Venetic and Old Sabellian dialects), which had al- ready been flamboyantly exploited in the daily papers throughout the conti- nent, was naturally received with great interest and attention. The stubborn riddle, according to his letter, yielded to him with hardly a struggle. The con- flict began one morning, and was ended before bedtime that night. The more slow-moving minds of the assembled philologists did not so readily succumb. The conclusions regarding, for example, the lexicography of the Etruscan lan- guage, reached by the patient study of many men for many years, and the com- parison of manifold inscriptions, did not seem to deserve summary rejection, un- til many more than fifty selected In- scriptions, mostly brief, had been exam- ined by the new light, and the argu- ments of other scholars carefully dis- cussed. A fuller publication of Pro- fessor Hempl's views will be calmly awaited, and, meanwhile, Procul, 0 pro- cut, este profani! The most generally interesting ses- sion of the societies was the memorial meeting, in honor of Charles Eliot Nor- ton, the first president of the Archaeo- logical Institute. Dr. Edward W. Emer- son of Concord, Mass., read a paper analyzing the character of Mr. Norton as man and scholar with perfect acute- ness and sympathy, and in exquisite form and manner. He was followed by Prof. William Fenwick Harris of Har- vard, who described the service of Mr. Norton to liberal studies in America. The address of Mr. Harris was worthy of the high company it kept. The two societies meet again in joint session a year hence, at Baltimore, and the Philological Association showed its regard for Prof. Basil L. Gildersleeve of Johns Hopkins by electing him to serve a second time as president — an honor rarely awarded. The Philological Association appointed a large and repre- sentative committee to consider further the question brought before it last year of a possible uniform scheme of require- ments in Latin for admission to Ameri- can colleges. MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. Princeton, N. J., December 30. Owing to the good attendance and to the admirable management of the lo- cal committee of the Princeton faculty, the twenty-sixth meeting of the Mod- ern Language Association held here De- cember 28-30, was one of the most suc- cessful in recent years. The majority of the papers were about equally divided between English and French, whereas German, Italian, and Spanish were rep- resented by two or three apiece. There was a fairly even distribution between literary and philological subjects. But one contribution was strictly linguistic, that of Prof. A. M. Elliott of Johns Hop- kins, on the origin of "Chauvin," which was read only in part, owing to the ab- sence of its author. Some papers should have been relegated to the innocuous list of those "read by title": what is confessedly a mere collection of facts, bibliographical or philological, should not be inflicted even upon those whose sense of duty leads them to sit out a complete session. It seems, too, a doubt- ful practice to present anything not a genuine contribution to knowledge. A restatement of discovered truth or a discussion that throws no new light upon already published work is hardly in place at such a meeting. The address by the president of the association, Prof. F. M. Warren of Yale, was a plea for the study of mediaeval Latin. Though the subject seemed to go beyond the work of the association as defined by the constitution, it was kept within bounds by being shown to be contributory to a fuller and more exact knowledge of the beginnings of French literature. In the valley of the Loire at the close of the tenth century, the period of the early renaissance, many Latin tropes and hymns were written and have been preserved. These furnish a basis for a study of the ideas of the people which come to us in no other form, except the most fragmen- tary. Thus this Latin is the connecting link between the old literature and the new. A very interesting discussion of French literature at the other extreme of its development was presented by Prof. Brander Matthews of Columbia. He attempted to explain the phenomenon that English readers often find French poetry less satisfying than Italian or German. Three reasons were suggest- ed: First, the extreme clarity of the French tongue left nothing to the imag- ination, none of that vagueness which to the English consciousness is part of the very emotions themselves; second, the absence of pronounced rhythm in French verse deprives it of that emo- tional appeal which always goes with the rise and fall of passion from the days of primitive man to the present: the very monotony of the verse strikes the English ear as unappealing; third, words primary in effect to the French often seem secondary to us, since the simple Anglo-Saxon words are almost universally used to present the funda- mental emotions: Romance words serve for the secondary emotions. Two papers, one slightly connected with the romantic movement, the other treating of a direct influence upon this movement, were read respectively by

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. 13 Dr. R. D Havens of the University of Rochester and Prof. E. E. Hale, jr., of Union College. The former showed that along with the influence of Milton's octosyllabics upon the romantic poetry of the eighteenth century went the no less certain influence of his sonnets upon the sonneteers of the century. The sonnet was not written to anything like the same extent as poems of melancholy inspired by "II Penseroso," but it show- ed the Miltonic influence where it ap- peared. It was Miltonic in form, in con- trast to the Elizabethan and the Ital- ian, as well as in content, since it was concerned not with love, but with some special event or emotion. The other paper dealt with the influence of Sal- vator Rosa upon the work of the early romantics. The delight in the wild and the fierce aspects of nature, later called picturesque and romantic, was in mark- ed contrast to the conventional land- scape of the century. This was, in part at least, due to Salvator Rosa, as was shown by quotations from Henry Mc- Kenzie, Mrs. Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, and Scott, all of whom refer directly to him and show that they were more or less consciously affected by his wild and rugged landscapes. A paper of general interest was that of Prof. C. von Klenze of Brown, on the history of the varying attitude of the Europeans, especially Germans and French, towards the United States, from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present time. The Roussellian love for wild nature joined during the Amer- ican Revolution with the newly arisen democratic fervor and love for the sim- ple life to make America appear as the very embodiment of the highest human aspirations, as seen especially in the work of Chateaubriand. With the wan- ing of romanticism a reaction set in with Lenau, and nothing too violent could be said in detestation of the Unit- ed States. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, the civil war and the writings of Emerson re- vealed to Europe a nobler side of Amer- ican life, and towards the end of the century the rise of industrialism and the Spanish war compelled attention, to be followed by the close of the century by the critical studies of Bryce, Miin- sterberg, and — as Prof. A. Schinz of Bryn Mawr pointed out in the discus- sion that followed the reading of the paper — of De Tocqueville. The fuller knowledge of the country by the peasant class was also indicated by Prof. M. D. Learned, of the University of Pennsyl- vania, who remarked that several thou- sands of pensioned soldiers have return- ed to Germany and have given more exact information of this country than the learned class get from books. Among the papers more special in character was Percy Long's discussion of the personal allegory in Lyly's "En- dimion," a theory which he rejected as untenable with the exception of the usual identification of Cynthia with Elizabeth. He preferred to treat the leading characters as representatives of the usual dramatis persona; of Platonic love. Cynthia is heavenly, or Platonic, beauty, Endimion is heavenly love, Tel- lus is earthly beauty, and Corsites is earthly love. Such an interpretation fits in with the plot and the character- ization of the play, as all personal iden- tifications fail to do. In the business meeting of the asso- ciation it was recommended that a test of the candidate's ability to speak French and German and to Interpret them when spoken be required for ad- mission to college. It was also recom- mended that steps be taken to bring about closer relations between the as- sociation and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. A resolution was pass- ed petitioning Congress to remove the duties upon works of art and their re- productions including photographs, upon all books printed in foreign countries, and upon scientific instruments intend- ed for the private use of investigators. Prof. M. D. Learned of the University of Pennsylvania was elected president for the coming year. The other officers are: Vice-presidents, G. Gruener, Yale; E. W. Olmsted, Cornell; and W. A. Neil- son, Harvard; secretary, C. H. Grand- gent, Harvard; treasurer, W. G. How- ard, Harvard; executive council: A. For- tier, Tulane; Charles Harris, Western Reserve; John M. Manly, University of Chicago; C. A. Smith, University of North Carolina; George Hempl, Leland Stanford; Lewis F. Mott, College of the City of New York; and Henry A Todd, Columbia. The most enjoyable feature of the whole meeting was undoubtedly the brilliant and witty address of ex-Presi- dent F. L. Patton before the association in the grill-room of the Princeton Inn on Tuesday evening. J. W. T. Chicago, December 30. The fourteenth annual meeting of the Central Division of the Modern Lan- guage Association was held in the Northwestern University Building, Chi- cago, December 28-30, with a large at- tendance. The admirable address of wel- come of Dean T. F. Holgate was fol- lowed by the address of the chairman, Prof. Oliver Farrar Emerson, of West- ern Reserve, a finished and judicious pa- per, on "The American Scholar and the Modern Languages." The programme contained thirty-nine papers, including eleven read by title, and the range of subjects was gratifyingly broad. As usual, the Germanic side was the most fully represented, with fourteen contributions. Ten were devoted to English, eight to the Romance languages, two to Celtic, and five were of a gen- eral character. Both in the Germanic and the English, there was a marked tendency to deal with modern literature, a large number of the topics being chos- en from the nineteenth century. In the main, the discussion of the papers left something to be desired in the matter of definiteness. In the meeting of the English section the discussion of the in- troductory college course was confinued from two years before. In spite of some disagreement in matters of detail, the consensus of opinion appeared to oe in favor of a rather full course, combining lectures with class discussion and writ- ten work. The chief point of disagree- ment was in the proportion of time to be devoted to the earlier periods, the suggestions ranging from a study or Old English in translation to a practical ignoring of the writers before Chaucer. In the case of one institution, marked interest in Beowulf and other early works was noted among sophomores. The length of time devoted to the course varied from two hours a week to four. In the German section, the chief attention was paid to methods of teach ing the spoken language; and in the French section, in addition to the discus- sion of methods, a paper was read on the opportunities for the study of Ro- mance languages in Europe and Amer- ica. The following officers were elected: Chairman, A. G. Canfield of Michigan; executive committee, Otto Heller of Washington University, H. A. Smith of Wisconsin; and C. G. Dunlap of Kan- sas. C. R. Wilson of Iowa University was reelected secretary for a term of four years. The next meeting will be held at Iowa City. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. A "Bibliography of Henry David Thoreau," compiled by Francis H. Allen, has just been added to the series of bibli- ographies of American Authors, published by Houghton Mifflin Co. This is a volume of 220 pages printed for the most part on only one side of the sheet, with the fron- tispiece a portrait of Thoreau not here- tofore reproduced. Thoreau's life-work was his journal. His first two books, "A Week" and "Walden," the only ones printed be- fore his death, were for the most part merely selections from the journals. He sent the leaves to the printers, copying over again into a new book the portions he did not use, giving them the title, "Gleanings, or What Time Has Not Reap- ed of My Journal." After his death his contributions to periodicals, further ex- tended selections from the journal, and his letters were collected by his friends and printed. Finally, in 1906, the journals were printed in extenso, as written. Mr. Allen's bibliography comprises Thoreau's books, selections from his writings, arti- cles, and poems first issued in magazines, biographies, books, and periodicals con- taining biographical or critical matter about Thoreau, and records of sale at auc- tion of the more important items. The work is well done, and is an important ad- dition to the series.

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14 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 The sale of the third part of Henry W. Poor's library will be held by the Ander- son Auction Co. of this city on January 12-14. This section includes a number of choice books. There is one Caxton, an im- perfect copy (containing 301 out of 450 leaves) of Higden's "Polychronicon" (1482). This is probably the most common of all Caxtons, but perfect copies are ex- tremely rare. Indeed, Gordon Duff, the lat- est writer on Caxton and his books, is un- able to find a single copy absolutely per- fect, with all the five blank leaves. The Poor example, formerly Bishop Hurst's, brought $1,400 at the sale of his library in 1905. Among other incunabula are the Sermons of Saint Bernard, printed in 1481 by the Brothers of the Common Life at the first press established in Brussels, and a Latin Bible, Koburger, Nuremburg (1477). The sixteenth and seventeenth century Eng- lish books include Bacon's "Of the Pro- ficience and Advancement of Learning" (1605), first edition; Bourne's "Regiment for the Sea" (1584) ; Braithwaite's "Two Lancashire Lovers" (1640) ; Chaucer's Works (1598 and 1687) ; Daniel's "First Foure Bookes of the Civile Wars" (1595) ; Dekker's "Magnificent Entertainment given to King James" (1604) ; Coryat's "Odcom- bian Banquet" (1611); Selden's "Table Talk" (1689); Drummond's "Poems" (1656); Fraunce's "Lawier's Logike" (1588), the book from which Shakespeare Is supposed to have acquired his legal knowledge; Go- wer's "Confessione Amantis' (1554); Kath- erine Philips's "Poems" (1664), first edi- tion; John Taylor's "Workes" (1630), with the engraved title by Cockson; and Wal- ler's "Poems" (1645), one of the four edi- tions issued that year and generally called the "first genuine edition." Of later English authors there are the first edition of Gold- smith's first book," "Memoirs of a Protes- tant condemned to the Galleys of France for his Religion" (1758); the very rare "Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer" (1796), by Charles Lloyd, in- cluding a poem by Charles Lamb; vari- ous first editions, including some of the rarer titles, of Edward FitzGerald, Andrew Lang, Mathew Arnold, and Oscar Wilde. Of American authors, first editions of Bryant, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, Poe, Eugene Field, and others are included. A few items of historical Americana are not- able: the Italian Cortez, Venice (1524), but, as usual, lacking the plan of the city of Mexico; the first edition of "The Federal- ist" (1788) ; Smith's "History of New York" (1757), first edition, in the original sheep; Smith's "History of Canada" (1815), 2 vols., uncut; and the two American editions of Burns's Poems (Philadelphia and New York, 1788). This part also includes many pub- lications of book-clubs and private presses issued in limited editions. The Merwin Clayton Sales Co. of this city will sell, on January 12 and 13, a collection of books including minor Amer- icana, local histories, Burns's Poems (Ber- wick, 1801), and first editions of Ameri- can authors. With this catalogue was sent out a mimeographed price list of the sale of December 15 and 16, and similar price lists of future important sales will be dis- tributed to customers. Correspondence. APPEAL FOR THE ITALIAN SUFFERERS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The Canadian and American mem- bership of the Archaeological Institute of America and of the American Philological Association, in their meeting here, have opened a subscription for the relief of the Italian sufferers; and they beg all persons whose lives have been enriched by the memories of the Ionian Sea, to join with them. Checks may be sent to Prof. Frank Gardner Moore, secretary, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. The money will be for- warded, through Director Jesse Benedict Carter, of the American School in Rome, to the Italian government. Elmer Truesdell Merrill, Frank Gardner Moore, C. U. Clark, Committee. Toronto, Ontario, December 30. A DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE FOR "HAM- LET." lo the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The flood of discussion concerning "Hamlet" seems to indicate that this is the least clear of Shakespeare's dramas; but no one, I believe, has pointed out that the main reason for its obscurity is the unfitness of the pure drama as a literary form for the treatment of such a subject. Hamlet is a problematic character. His motives, his real purposes, are so puzzling as to lead to important differences of opinion among even the most noted critics. Not even to Hora- tio can he unburden himself fully. And Shakespeare admits the inadequacy of his exposition of Hamlet's personality by re- sorting, in four notable instances, to that clumsy device, the soliloquy. In no other play does he find himself driven to so many lines addressed merely to vacancy; and this may therefore fairly be regarded as tanta- mount to a confession of defeat. Shake- speare probably realized that, fascinating as he had made the problem, he had not indi- cated any clear solution. And this because in the pure drama it was impossible for him to explain so subtle and complex a char- acter. By a grim irony of fate it was reserved for a man with an almost hopeless reputa- tion for obscurity to discover the proper lit- erary form for the analysis of a problem- atic character. Browning, in his dramatic monologues, is much clearer than Shake- speare in "Hamlet." After reading Capon- sacchi's luminous monologue in "The Ring and the Book," it is not nec- essary to ask, What manner of man is this? Though the accusations of enemies had seemed to prove him to be a lascivious hypocrite, this impres- sion is eradicated by his speech before the court — a speech the effect of which upon the judges is admirably indicated by Browning— and the devotion, the idealism, of this "soldier-saint" become incontestable. Now turn back to Hamlet. Had he sur- vived the arrest of "that fell sergeant, Death," long enough to defend himself by a speech to the populace, by whom Shake- speare assures us he was so beloved, would there have been any danger of his leaving "a wounded name" behind him? Does not Shakespeare's device of making Hamlet pre- vent Horatio from committing suicide, in order that Horatio may render clear to the king's subjects the true course of events, prove that a dramatic monologue was neces- sary in such a case? But did even Horatio know his friend well enough to take the task of explanation from his shoulders? The spiritual isolation of Hamlet, his ap- parent inability to find any one who can understand him to the full, is the source of much of the pathos in the play. The in- adequacy of Ophelia is felt almost at the outset. Horatio is the recipient of confi- dences; but to him also the secret of Ham- let's wonderful personality — perhaps close- ly akin to Shakespeare's own — is "within the centre hid." Not only does this hero's soul pass to the "undiscovered country" at his tragic death, but that soul is during his whole life an undiscovered country to both friends and enemies. Claudius comes nearest to discovering him at one point; yet how little does even that smooth vil- lain understand ! Only Hamlet could make Hamlet clear; and by missing the mono- logue form Shakespeare has failed to make this solution possible. One may readily admit that it is solely from the point of view of clearness that "Hamlet" would have been improved by a transfer to the new literary form sug- gested. Doubtless the result of such an ex- periment would have been less interesting, less complex in its study of human life, and would not have given Shakespeare an op- portunity to show his consummate skill in painting a large canvas. It was Browning's inability to handle a great number of char- acters and to develop an action patiently and flawlessly from inception to crisis which led him to adopt the dramatic mono- logue; for it was only after several fail- ures in the pure drama that he found him- self, in the alternative form. But his suc- cess in this new form is admitted even by the most rabid Tennysonian. How infinite- ly tantalizing, then, are the possibilities opened to us when we fancy the results, had Browning made a new Hamlet. Harry T. Baker. Beloit College, Wis., December 23. "FOUGHT TO A FRAZZLE." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the interesting and extremely suggestive volume, by Eliza Frances An- drews, recently published and entitled, "The War-Timie 'Journal of a. Georgia Girl," is the following (p. 133): I might take more credit to myse'.f for keeping Lent, if I had anything to wear, but my one new dress isn't made up yet, and everything else I have is too frazzled out to wear. This is a diary entry of April 5, 1865. Gen. Gordon, of Georgia, used his expression, well-known to all students of our Civil War literature, and which pre- sumably suggested the phrase to President Roosevelt— "Tell Gen. Lee that my corps is fought to a frazzle" — about the tenth of the same month, or within a week of the date of Miss Andrews's diary record. A few lines further on, Miss Andrews records that her sister's "hair that she lost last fall, from typhoid fever, has grown out curly, and her head is frizzled beautifully ail over." The last term is,

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■ Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. 15 of course, familiar as connected with certain methods both of cooking, and of dressing the hair. The companion word, "frazzle," it is apparent, was a term in common use with South- ern women in connection with their dress, and was somewhat equivalent to "frayed out." The noticeahle thing now, however, is this example-of-record of the use of the word "frazzle" in its proper colloquial sense by a girl in Georgia almost at the very time Gen. Gordon was using it in Virginia in connection with his battle-worn army corps. C. F. A. Boston, January 4. [The "New English Dictionary" describes "frazzle" as dialectic, and used in the United States. It gives the following cita- tions, the first of which is forty years earli- er than that quoted by our correspondent: Robert Porby, "The Vocabulary of East Anglia" : Frazlc, to unravel or rend cloth. Frazlings, the threads of cloth torn or un- ravelled. 1893. American Missionary: One's gar- ments get frazzled in the grass; one's mind and body and spiritual sense sometimes be- come frazzled, torn to pieces, good for nothing. 1894. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, January 2 : Two years ago his nerves were worn to a frazzle over an attempt made to levy a tax. 1895. Nebraska State Journal, June 23: Every one believed that. Thomas would . . . plant the frazzled banner of the distillers in its place.— Ed. Nation.] TARIFF AND REVENUE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: "The belated diversion the high tar- iff people are trying to make, in their anxi- ety about the revenue," by pointing to the existing deficit, according to your editorial of December 24, recalls the fact that the McKinley act of 1890 was entitled "An Act to Reduce the Revenue and for Other Pur- poses." That law was the high tariff re- sponse to the demand of Mr. Cleveland's message of December, 1897, for a reduction of duties because of the then increasing surplus under the much lower tariff of the law of 1883. The remedy then administered by protectionism for the condition which then confronted the country was to raise the duties so as to make them prohibitory, and so reduce the revenue, resulting from the act of 1883. The remedy now, when a deficit, instead of a surplus confronts us, would seem to be, as you suggest, to re- duce the present duties ; and this was the remedy prescribed by the high tariff doctors of 1890. Chari.es B. Wilbt. Cincinnati, December 30. THE HETCH HETCHY VALLEY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The Nation and its readers can, by a prompt appeal to Congress, assist in the effort to preserve for the public one of the most remarkable of our national parks. I refer to the one embracing Hetch Hetchy valley and its watershed, in California. This, with the neighboring Yosemite, prob- ably has no superior for grandeur of nat- ural scenery. But a united and deter- mined effort is now being made to batter down the protection of the national park boundaries, to the end that its water re- sources may be commercially utilized. The farmers on the lowlands claim a large part of the flow for irrigation, and can, if they will, (impound it without entering the park; individuals and corporations wish to develop electric power plants; but San Francisco leads the fight by demanding that Hetch Hetchy be converted into a reservoir to supply her with water. San Francisco exerted great pressure up- on the Secretary of the Interior, who yield- ed, in a moment of weakness. He granted what was asked, under some limitations; but these limitations are not regarded se- riously by the San Francisco promoters, who confidently intend to eliminate all re- strictions. If San Francisco had no other source of water supply she would be justi- fied in taking this course; but this is only one of a dozen sources that are available, and of all these, this is the only one that is im- portant to protect, because of its remark- able scenic value. The Sierra pours a vast flood upon the great valleys of central Cali- fornia, and gives ample opportunity for enormous development for municipal sup- ply, for irrigation, and for electrical power. Hetch Hetchy is not well known, as yet, even in California, as it has been somewhat difficult of access. Its walls rise some 3,000 feet. The towering granite is marked by several waterfalls of great height and remarkable beauty. Its floor is compara- tively level, having a meadow at the lower end, and the upper covered with great ferns. It is shaded by a primeval forest, among which are giant pines and firs, 200 feet high. The Tuolumne River flows clear and placid through the middle of the valley, with the beauty of an emerald. The floor of the valley has an elevation of some 3,000 feet; but at its head the canon of the river rises rapidly between tremendous granite walls, which at one point extend 5,000 feet above the stream, that races and roars along its bed in a continuous series of rapids and waterfalls. This canon can be made accessible to the public by trails. Some twenty miles above the Hetch Hetchy the canon terminates and the river flows quietly through the Tuolumne mead- ows, which are some ten miles long, and vary from one to two miles in width. The meadows are surrounded by mountains hav- ing peaks covered with perpetual snow. In this neighborhood are Mt. Dana, Mt. Ritter, and Mt. Lyell, the two latter rising above 13,000 feet, and each bearing small glaciers. The entire region is finely timbered, up to the snow line, and intersected by many beautiful streams. Here and there are found the little Alpine meadows, grass-carpeted and spangled with flowers, which are the gems of the high Sierra. This wonderful region was explored by John Muir and his eloqueat pen has done much to make it known. To him is due the chief credit of having the best of it included within a national park, presuma- bly safe from invasion for all time. Indeed, had it not been so preserved for the public, San Francisco would have had no oppor- tunity to acquire it, as it would have been appropriated long since for other purposes. And if San Francisco succeeds in ousting the public from the rights which have been reserved for all, she eventually will demand the exclusion of tourist and camp- er from the entire drainage to prevent contamination of the water supply; just as armed guards now expel intruders on the drainage of its present supply. This region is part of the rich heritage of the older States of the Union, as well as of California. They should help to pre- serve it, by demanding action on the part of their representatives in Congress. There is urgent need for such support, for the controlling Oalifornian sentiment is deplor- ably avaricious and utilitarian. The chief promoters of the San Francisco water scheme are men who represent a high av- erage of the ordinary level of culture here, and who are active generally in promoting what they believe to be the best interests of the public. They denounce their oppo- nents in this matter as "scenery cranks." Their course regarding Hetch Hetchy gives point and force to a recent characteriza- tion in the British Parliament, when a matter under debate was disposed of with the remark that the measure was unworthy of cultivated England and might have ema- nated from one of the semi-civilized States of Western America. This matter has nothing to do with the national policy regarding forest reserves. It relates exclusively to the policy of pro- tecting a few localities which possess such remarkaible natural attributes as justify their being set apart as national parks. George Edwards. Berkeley, Cal., December 27. THE PICTURE OF HOMER. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: With reference to Amasa M. Ea- ton's letter about a picture of Homer, in your issue of December 24, it is possible that his engraving was taken from the pic- ture described by Andr6 Beaunier, and that Beaunier's description is correct, even though the poet's left hand rests on the boy's shoulder in the one and the right in the other, while the right arm is raised to heaven in the painting and the left in the engraving. Massard most likely en- graved directly from Girard's painting and not from its reflection in a looking glass, so that when the proof was taken from the plate, what was left in the painting was right on the impression, and vice versa. Nearly all, if not all, the old engravers worked in this way. Marc Antonio Rai- mondi so copied Raphael's drawings. Rem- brandt, Whistler, and Seymour Hayden in their etchings invariably reversed what the French call the orientation, and Pennell does so to-day. B. P. S. New York, January 1. INDIAN STATISTICS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Will you allow me a little space to correct a misapprehension which may arise among readers not familiar with Indian statistics from a perusal of your article of November 19, upon the New India? The writer of that article appears to hold the view that India is getting poorer, and that official statistics confirm this melancholy opinion. This is not the case; the state- ment that the Hindu earned four cents a day in 1850 and three cents a day in 1882, and less than two cents in 1900, which he quotes with approval, is a conjecture of the late Mr. William Digby for which he alone is responsible and which every sclen-

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16 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 tific statistician has repudiated. The es- timate for 1850 does not profess to be official and is a singularly wild conjecture, for the number of people then living in India is not known, the first census hav- ing been taken more than twenty years later. As even such elementary statistics as are recorded in a census did not exist in 1850, it is obvious that the materials for such a delicate calculation as the wealth per head of the population are absolute- ly wanting. Even now that the statistical material is much enlarged, no reasonable man can feel any confidence in these haz- ardous calculations which profess to es- timate the wealth per head to a penny or a fraction of a penny. We do not know even approximately what the annual pro- duction of wealth in India may be, nor have we yet any statistics upon which to estimate it. We have, however, since 1872 (the year of the first census of British In- dia), a few figures upon which we can rely with confidence and they certainly do not bear out the theory that India is getting poorer. We have, for instance, the figures for imports and the figures for population. Here they are: Rupees. Rupees. Year. Imports. Population. Per head. 1872 364,000.000 185,000,000 ,2. 1907 1,735,000,000 237,000,000 '7.6 The rupee In 1872 was worth one shilling and eleven pence; in 1907 one shilling and four pence, so that imports in 1873 were worth 92 cents per head, and in 1907, $2.52 per head. The reason why it Is difficult to estimate the wealth annually produced in India is that India is a land of small holdings, and there are many petty by-products on a small farm which escape the statistician, but which add materially to the comfort of the farmer's family. A patch of vegetables, a goat, and a few hens will very apprecia- bly contribute to the health of the chil- dren, but they will elude the most vigilant statistician. As a matter of fact, the gov- ernment of India does not include even the value of the straw in its estimate of the farmer's income, when imposing taxation, and therefore this not unimportant by- product of husbandry (which in India serves as cattle fodder) escapes enumeration. The truth is that both the profits and the ex- penses of the small farmer are made up of such petty items that they baffle the economist who would express them quan- titatively. An Indian proverb well sums up the situation: "If the cost of cultivation be counted up in money, not even the goad will remain." Forgetting this, industrious statisticians like Mr. Digby pore over Blue Books and come to the astounding conclu- sion that, owing to the pressure of the land tax, the Indian farmer makes nothing out of the cultivation of his holding or works it at a loss. If statistics do indeed prove this, so much the worse for the statistics. The Indian peasant certainly does not think this is the case, for he will buy land, on which he will have to pay the tax, at as high a rate in some places as 1,000 rupees ($330) an acre. The Indian peasant may be uneducated, but he is shrewd enough not to pay four or five thousand rupees in cash for the privilege of making a loss. That something more than a bare living is to be made from a small holding in India, after paying the government land tax, is further shown by the practice of subletting which prevails extensively. In Madras, for instance, where the farmers usually hold direct from the state, it is common to find the holding sublet to an under tenant upon the metayer principle; the farmer pays the land tax and receives from the sub-tenant one-half, two-thirds, and even sometimes three-quarters of the produce. The prac- tice of subletting is to be regretted, but at least it reduces most of Mr. Digby's calcu- lations to so much waste paper. T. Morison. Astalelgh, Weybridge, England, December 20. [It may be worth while to recall that the point of our article was to show the existence of widespread discontent in India and some of the reasons for it. Our cor- respondent's statistics as to imports, if offered as proof of the prosperity of the Indian peasant, have some of the defects which he attributes to Mr. Digby's cal- culations. The figures themselves may be trustworthy, but to average them over the entire population of India may be mis- leading. The total of imports includes a large amount of supplies for the con- struction and maintenance of public im- provements, for the English officials and for the rest of the 5,002,000 "persons of in- dependent means" discovered by the census takers of 1901.— Ed. Nation.] Notes. In view of the Lincoln centennial, Thom- as Y. Crowell & Co. have reissued in their Astor Edition a book first published by their firm in 1865 : "Abraham Lincoln : Tributes from His Associates, Reminiscences of Sol- diers, Statesmen, and Citizens." The book contains articles by George William Cur- tis, W. H. Herndon, Gen. Howard, and oth- ers. The "Autobiography of Captain Zachary G. Lamson" (Boston: W. B. Clarke Co.) gives all too briefly some of the incidents of an active and honorable career in the merchant service between the years 1797 and 1814. Capt. Lamson's courage and ca- pacity entitled him to unqualified success, but ill fortune seems to have dogged him at every turn. His story is extremely in- teresting. It is especially valuable in the many side lights it throws upon nautical matters during the time of the Napoleonic struggle. It is edited by O. T. Howe, who gives a painstaking and accurate account of the state of the American mercantile marine at that period and of the interna- tional complications which beset our efforts to carry on trade under the prohibitory conditions of Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees on the one side and the British Orders in Council on the other. Few books of its size, if any, contain so much in these respects that is worthy of reading and preserving. R. A. Guerber's "Myths of the Norse- men" (London: Harrap & Co.) is an agree- able reminder of a branch of legend that has been overmuch neglected. Owing, per- haps, to a certain brutality, a certain de- ficiency in grace, these Teutonic stories have rarely been chosen for treatment by the artist and the poet, nor have they stamped themselves with any great vivid- ness on the popular fancy, the English- speaking peoples in particular being sur- prisingly ill-acquainted with them. The un- prejudiced cannot but think this a matter for regret, since If these tales are not so alluring as some national legends, they are superior to most in moral elevation and human feeling. The present volume in- cludes, as well as the myths of Asgard, the Frithiof Saga, and most of the adventures of the Volsungs. It is illustrated with re- productions of various already existing works of art, and has two indices. French writers have given a good deal of attention in recent years to the femi- nine side of the house of Bonaparte. Whether in pursuance of the anthropolog- ical dictum, cherchez la mere, or from sheer interest in a fine old crusted char- acter, the study of Letizia Bonaparte is fully worth while; and her daughters, their appearance, their ideas, and their adven- tures, transcend life and glow with the enchanting unreality of the creations of Dumas. In English they have been com- paratively neglected, and here H. Noel- Williams has found an excellent opportun- ity for his art. His book "The Women Bonapartes" (Charles Scribner's Sons) makes no claim to contribute to the world's knowledge, but the literature of the sub- ject has been thoroughly and intelligently used; selection has been happily made; and the mass of material has been han- dled lightly, with a remarkable power of condensation. Even thus, the narrative could hardly have been contained in its two volumes, but for the virtual omission of Napoleon. Of course, he is felt on every page, as the very condition of existence for his family; he is to the story what Egdon Heath is to "The Return- of the Native"; his relatives watch him as a sailor watches the weather; but his own career comes before us only as it is reflected in Pauline's allowance, in Murat's infatuation, and in the cheese-parings of Madame Mere. The title and cover of W. R. H. Trow- bridge's "Seven Splendid Sinners" (Bren- tano's) are worse than its contents. The Duchesse de Chateauroux, the Duchess of Kendal, Catherine II of Russia, Elizabeth Chudleigh, to name the first four of the seven, are not savory subjects for biogra- phy, but Mr. Trowbridge writes with suf- ficient decorum, and partly justifies his choice by the historical or social signifi- cance of his subjects. The life of Eliza- beth Chudleigh, the notorious Duchess of Kingston, is, perhaps, the most interesting of the seven, and here Mr. Trowbridge has drawn on a little-read source as well as Walpole's letters and the other famil- iar memoirs of the day. Miss Chudleigh was a characteristic phenomenon of Geor- gian society. In his life of the Duchess of Kendal, Mr. Trowbridge gives the usual account of Lady Darlington's relation to George I, but in his preface he retracts all this and accepts her innocence in ac- cordance with the notes of Graf Kilman- segg's recent "Briefe des Herzogs Ernest August zu Braunschweig-Liineburg." The editor of those letters has both national and family reasons for attempting to white- wash Lady Darlington and to refine the gross portraits of the first Brunswickers left by British writers. We can only say that an examination of his notes does not

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation 17 convince us that the English sources are substantially false. The time has not yet come for a critical study of the period and the frame of mind we call "Victorian." We are still too near it and become, in discussing its chief man- ifestations, either too angry, or too rever- ential. Fitzgerald Molloy ("Victoria Re- gina," Dodd, Mead & Co.) seems to have perceived this truth. At any rate, he makes no attempt at criticism. He skates serene- ly on the thin ice of the conventional view, hurts nobody's feelings, regards with gen- tlemanly regret the events of '48, takes everybody seriously except Macaulay and Carlyle, and does his best to cast a glam- our over the stubborn little figure of his protagonist. The book ends with the death of the Prince Consort in 1862. "India: Its Life and Thought," by John P. Jones, D.D. (The Macmillan Co.), is the outcome of a thirty years' experience in this land, whose inhabitants are the least understood and the most easily mis- understood of all men by the people of the West. To all who desire to learn some- thing of the conditions and characteristics of their life and thought, it will prove exceedingly helpful. Beginning with a lu- cid account of the present prevailing un- rest, its cause, and remedy, Dr. Jones ex- plains at some length the system of caste, showing how it degrades manual labor, op- poses commerce, and is a deadly foe to nationality and individualism. Not only so. but by its laws, fifty millions of people, the outcasts, are not permitted to enter any temples and have no right to receive what- ever comforts religion may confer. An ex- position of the principal religious beliefs and ideals, together with the reforms now in progress, occupies the larger part of the volume, which closes with a chapter on Christianity in India. Though the dark shadows prevail, yet there are many bright gleams and justice is paid to the redeem- ing traits in the Hindu character and lit- erature. The make-up of the book is un- usually good and its attractiveness is in- creased by sixteen full-page illustrations. An instructive story of the ups and downs in the methods of secondary education is found in the recent Festschrift, edited by R. Buttner, under the title, "Geschichte des fiirstlichen Gymnasiums Rutheneum zu Gera," and issued on the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of this famous school (Gera: H. Kanitz), is really a history of German educational ideals in petto during these three centuries. The book is illustrated. The political training and education of the masses as a burning need of the times is the theme of the new work of P. Riihl- mann, in his new volume, "Politische Bildung; Ihr Wesen und ihre Bedeutung eine Grundfrage unseres offentlichen Le- bens" (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer). . "Das nachste Geschlecht, ein Buch zur Selbsterziehung fur Eltern: Das sexuellt Problem in der Kindererziehung" (Gies- sen: Alfred Topelmann), by Hans Wegener, author of "Wir jungen Manner," is like many other discussions that come from positivistic and monistic circles, devoted to the interests of the coming generation. Its chief purpose is to prepare young peo- ple for rational parentage. The popularity of this and kindred works in Germany can be seen from the fact that, although "Wir jungen Manner" is only recently published, 85,000 copies have been printed and the first edition of the present work is 20.000. "Deutsche Reiter in Siidwest: Selbsterleb- nisse aus den Kampfen in Deutsch-Sudwest- afrika, nach personlichen Berichten," edited by Gen. F. F. von Dincklage-Campe, issued with many illustrations in twenty parts (Berlin: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co.), is a unique addition to colonial liter- ature. It is a collection, from many sources, of adventures and experiences of German colonists in Southwestern Africa. The con- tents are exceedingly varied, touching prob- lems of missions, commerce, and culture, although naturally emphasizing military events. "Am Webstuhl der Zeit: Ein Jahrbuch," prepared by Emil Freiherr von Grotthuss (Stuttgart: Greiner & Pfeiffer), is the sec- ond issue of an exceptionally good annual, the purpose of which is chiefly to furnish an intelligent idea of the progress of thought and life during the past twelve- month in every department of activity. The different parts are written by specialists, who, in some cases, however, do not report with perfect objectivity, but rather plead for special scientific and philosophical ideas th;vt are still sub judice. Eduard von der Hellen, in his recently issued fifth volume of "Goethes Briefe: Auagewahlt und in chronologischer Folge mit Anmerkungen" (Stuttgart: Cotta), which contains letters from 1807-1818, is approaching the close of this work. The next volume will be the last. Students of the Nibelungenlied and the literature that has grown up about it will welcome Theodor Abeling's "Das Nibelun- genlied und seine Literatur," which con- tains in its 257 pages a complete biblio- graphy and four essays on the subject (Leipzig: Eduard Avenarius). The G. Grote'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung of Berlin is just issuing a new work in two volumes, "Jesus und die neutestamentlichen Schriftsteller," by the veteran Prof. Adolf Hausrath ; the first, of 712 pages, has ap- peared, the second is promised early in 1909. The author, in his introduction, de- clares that this work is not intended to be controversial, but for reading and study. Not the critical but the historical and lite- rary point of view determine the character of the contents, which are intended largely for teachers, preachers, and careful stu- dents in general. The author has sought to interpret the contents of the New Testa- ment writings, and especially the teachings of Jesus, in the light of the historical back- ground. Due attention is given to modern problems and perplexities. Wilhelm Ernst, in his "Aufgabe und Ar- beitsmethode der Apologetik fur die Ge- genwart" (Berlin: Trowitzsch & Sohn), un- dertakes, within a narrow compass, to adjust the problems and perplexities of apologetics to the thought of the times. The author, who evinces a good deal of inde- pendent thought, and writes suggestively, is evidently anxious to be fair to both sides, the conservative and the advanced. The posthumous works of the independent Catholic theologian of Wiirzburg, Dr. Her- mann Schell, have just been issued (Pader- born: Ferdinand Schoeningh) in a solid volume of more than seven hundred pages entitled "Kleinere Schriften." This vol- ume, edited by Dr. Karl Hennemann, "mit kirchlicher Druckerlaubnis," consists of essays, addresses, sermons, and the like, all with the characteristic features of Schell's progressiveness of thought. The same house has also issued lately a brochure entitled "Hermann Schell uber die soziale Frage," von W. Hohoff. Michel Epuy has just published the "CEuvres choisies de Rudyard Kipling," with preface, critical analysis, and a por- trait of Kipling. The London Times of December 17 sum- marizes the annual report on the opera- tion of the Rhodes scholarship system, is- sued December 16: The results of the year's examinations are given in detail. In the final honor schools there were 4 first, 19 second, 15 third, and 3 fourth classes gained. Of the firsts, 3 were gained by Americans, and 1 by a colonial scholar. Three scholars took the B.Litt. degree, 3 the B.Sc, and 3 the B.C.L. The School of Economics appears to attract the German scholar, 2 of whom took the diploma "with distinction." Fail- ures as well as successes are recorded. Two German, 3 colonial, and 4 American schol- ars failed to pass the examinations which they attempted. The statement made at the Colonial Institute by Professor Egerton, but not referred to in this report, that only one Rhodes scholar out of the whole body was reading for a pass degree, shows at least that the failures are incurred in fac- ing the more severe tests of tne university. The All Souls fellowship [to which a Cana- dian, Mr. Archibald, was elected] was the most striking success achieved during the year, but in addition to this there were gained a Burdett-Coutts scholarship in nat- ural science, a senior demyship at Magda- len, the Beit prize and Brassey scholarship in colonial history, the Passmore Edwards scholarship in classes and English, and a geographical scholarship. The account in the Timrs closes with this paragraph : Most satisfactory of all, perhaps, to those who watch the working out of the idea of Cecil Rhodes, is the tribute paid by Sir William Anson in the discussion on Profes- sor Egerton's paper last week in the Royal Colonial Institute, when he said it was felt that the Rhodes scholars had as a whole brought to the university a spirit of earn- est work, and were doing Oxford good. The approval of his alma mater, and the form in which it is thus given, is what the founder himself would have most valued. The Turkish Division of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian Institute for the Investiga- tion of the Balkans, in Serajevo, has re- cently received valuable additions to its collection — a large number of archives com- ing from old Turkish and Bosnian noble families, together with 160 copies of Ara- bic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts, which begin with the year 549 of the He- gira. J. P. Gordy, professor of the history of education in New York University, died by his own hand, December 31, at the age of fifty-seven. Grief for the loss of an only daughter, who had just died of pneumonia, was apparently the cause of his act. Pro- fessor Gordy had written largely on edu- cational and historical topics, including "The Growth and Development of the Nor- mal School Idea in the United States," "Text-Book on Psychology," "History of Political Parties in the United States," and "A Liberal Education in the Elementary School." Mary Evelyn Moore Davis ("Mollie E. Davis") died in New Orleans January 1 at the age of fifty-six. Her published works include "Minding the Gap, and Other

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18 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 Poems," "In War Times at La Rose Blanche," "Under the Man-Fig," "An Ele- phant's Track, and Other Stories," "Un- der Six Flags," "Wire Cutters," "The Queen's Garden," and "Jaconetta." fimile Honore Cazelleshas died at Paris at the age of seventy-seven. He was best known for his spreading the knowledge of English philosophy in France, and his pub- lished works include translations of many volumes of John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spen- cer, Bentham, and Grote. THREE AMERICAN LEADERS. John C. Calhoun. By Gaillard Hunt. Pp. 335. [The American Crisis Biog- raphies.] Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co. $1.25 net. Life of Stephen A. Douglas. By Wil- liam Gardner. Pp. 239. Boston: Roxburgh Press. $1.50. Robert E. Lee, the Southerner. By Thomas Nelson Page. Pp. 312. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.25 net. Persons who a generation ago read Von Hoist's highly metaphysical "Cal- houn" will naturally wonder how Mr. Hunt's biography of the great South Carolinian differs from it. Von Hoist knew so few personal details of Cal- houn's life that, with all his imagina- tion, he could not, he said, fancy him- self walking or chatting familiarly with the nullifier, as he might with Webster or Clay. He dealt with his hero under broad, impersonal chapter-heads, which made Calhoun seem like an extraction from history. The Calhoun of Hunt's narrative, on the other hand, is a prod- uct of personal, local, sectional, and na- tional details. As we are early made familiar with Calhoun's antecedents and traits and the shifting political influ- ences to which he was exposed, we see no mystery in his change from nation- alist to sectionalist. During the nulli- fication movement, when personal min- utiae, social conditions, and local colors are important, Hunt is ample, vivid, and instructive. During the later period — when Calhoun attacks this, defends that, and demands something else, all in sup- port of his theories of State rights, which were designed to shield, then strengthen, and then expand the inter- ests on which Southern society rested — Von Hoist became more and more psychological, yet as irresistible as a geometric demonstration. Mr. Hunt, however, having already shown us Cal- hound and the forces that affected him, does not always point out the signifi- cance of new factors during the last two decades of Calhoun's life, when he was a national leader. Von Hoist is vastly superior in his philosophical grasp, but Hunt is unrivalled in descrip- tion and literary flavor. It is no slight mutual compliment that two biograph- ers, with altogether different antecedents and tastes, writing a quarter of a cen- tury apart, and working in historical materials that were only partly the same, should reach similar conclusions. This general agreement is not much dis- turbed by the fact that Hunt looking up to Calhoun from a commonwealth calls him a statesman, while Von Hoist looking down to Calhoun from the na- tion is unwilling to grant quite so much. David Franklin Houston, in his schol- arly and independent "Study of Nulli- fication in South Carolina," says (p. 72) that not Calhoun, but Robert J. Turnbull was the father of nullifica- tion: "Only the name is wanting." Mr. Hunt, however, bluntly asserts (p. 78) that Turnbull "never presented his read- ers with a sight of the theory of the right of nullification. Apparently he knew nothing of it or thought nothing of it." But let us give Turnbull and Calhoun each his due. Turnbull, prior to 1828, was an agitator, a political recruiting officer, but he went far enough to de- scribe the general plan ("Crisis," pp. 152, 163): "Resistance, and firm re- sistance, is the only course to preserve the Federal Constitution in its pristine purity, and with it, the hopes of free- dom." Again, "Let South Carolina act for herself, and the other States for themselves." He thought that the Leg- islature could express the sovereignty of the State. His expectation was that such resistance would suffice to annul the objectionable features of the tariff, "perhaps" without even "calling out the militia." Then how did Calhoun, who, until the eleventh hour was a national- ist, become leader of the sectionalists? The "tariff of abominations" (18281 made it certain that South Carolina would resist. This certainty called for a leader who understood the require- ments of a campaign against the Feder- al government, which Turnbull did not. Calhoun, the Vice-President and new convert, was consulted and promptly wrote the "Exposition of 1828," which was a protest, a pronunciamento, and a programme, all in one. The gen- eral aim of single-State resistance within the Union, on the basis of State sovereignty, was still unchanged. Hence it is equally evident that Turnbull ante- dated Calhoun In demanding the sub- stance of what was now called nullifica- tion, and that Calhoun preceded Turn- bull in elaborating the details for argu- ment and action. Politicians, when viewed historically, are, like fordable streams, unimpressive, whereas statesmen, like navigable rivers, have a certain dignity and com- mand respect. It is not the least of the virtues of Mr. Gardner's biographical sketch — for such it is rather than a "life" — that he treats Douglas as a poli- tician. Any one who has closely stud- ied Douglas's career will find hardly a new fact or thought or phrase, and at first he will wonder why the book was written. But the reader will soon dis- cover that he is following a political sketch that is a model for clear, con- cise, frank expression, and is a remark- able example of a successful combina- tion of the usually incompatible quali- ties of sympathy and criticism. Here are a few sentences from a characteriza- tion of Douglas that show the distinct- ness of the lines in this excellent biog- raphical etching: He was a practical man of action, whose course was generally guided by the acci- dental circumstances of the hour, rather than by fixed principles. . . . He entered the great political arena with little of either mental or moral culture. . . . His real sin was that he did not rise above the ethics of the times ; that he remained deaf as an adder to the voices of the great reformers who sought to regenerate the age, and who were compelled to grapple with him in deadly struggle before they could gain footing on the stage. . . . While his ethics has fared hard, his mental gifts have been over-estimated. The availabil- ity of all his resources, his overwhelming energy and marvellous efficiency among men of intellect, gave rise to the impres- sion that still survives that he was a man of original genius. But of all his numer- ous speeches, heard or read by millions, not a sentence had enough vitality to sur- vive even one generation. The ideals, methods, and temperament of the genuine historian or biographer are very different from those of the story-teller, who deals in colors, senti- ments, impulses, contrasts, exaggera- tions, and almost anything that will help him to his desired climax. In fic- tion, it usually suffices if there is veri- similitude or plausibility. Every tradi- tion, every common belief, every posi- tive statement may be taken as good material to be wrought with, if it har- monize with the general setting. As a story-teller, Thomas Nelson Page com- pels our admiration. With the best of intentions he has written a biograpny of General Lee that would be admirable if it might be judged by the canons of fiction. Being convinced of the accuracy of traditions and reports, he accepts them without a thought of careful in- vestigation. Accordingly he believes that secession was a Constitutional right; that Virginia was a thoroughly loyal and Union-loving State, and her con- vention of 1861 was almost unanimously Unionist, until the National Govern- ment by usurpations and aggressions drove the convention into secession. Lee's well-known declaration that seces- sion would be revolution, is quoted in- cidentally, but not his opinion, written three days after Virginia had passed her ordinance: "The whole South is in a state of revolution, to which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn." It is nothing that those opinions rep- resent the historical fact, for tradition tells a different story. We recall no influential military critic who, within a decade or two, has ques- i.

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Jan. 7, 1909J Th.e ISTation. 19 tioned that Lee was great in attack, all but invincible in defence, and auout equally audacious and successful in both strategy and tactics. Then, too, Lee's moral, like his military, qualities are now, thanks to Charles Francis Adams s fascinating and philosophical acKneds, quite generally admired. But Mr. Page imagines Lee assailed, depreciated, sin- ned against, and heroically rushes to a defence that is carrying coals to New- castle. Find a first-class villain, a trait- or, even, and your hero becomes almost superhuman. It will be remembered that after Lee's death, when Longstreet had affiliated with the Republican party, the Rev. Dr. William Nelson Pendleton, a West Pointer and a clergyman, who had been Lee's chief of artillery, made a very sensational public accusation, that on the evening of the first day's fight at Gettysburg, Lee ordered Longstreet to make a flank attack on the Federal left wing early the next morning; that Longstreet inexcusably delayed and dis- obeyed Lee's order, and by various acts, delays, or failures to act then and later wilfully caused the battle of Gettysburg, and consequently the whole struggle, to be lost by the Confederates. Both Lee's and Pendleton's official reports on Get- tysburg belie the gravamen of the charge, and Longstreet continued to be Lee's favorite. Yet to thousands, this story was balm for old but lasting dis- appointments. Any one could easily gain much popularity in the South by at- tacking Longstreet, whom no one cared to defend. Longstreet's final and thor- ough answer, "Lee and Longstreet at High Tide" (see the Nation, January 19, 1905, pp. 53-55), was published soon after his death, and more recently Gen- eral Alexander's "Military Memoirs of a Confederate" (see the Nation of June 13, 1907, p. 542), refuted all the charges that were grave. Rank, fierce, and un- christian injustice to a gallant brother officer, who was not, indeed, without his faults, was supposed to have re- ceived its quietus. Nevertheless, Mr. Page acts as if the accusations against Longstreet had never been questioned, although on other subjects he refers to Alexander's "Memoirs." Beginning back in the campaign of 1862, Mr. Page grad- ually and skilfully inspires a prejudice against Longstreet until the reader is prepared for this sentence (p. 187): It used to be common soon after the war for old Confederate officers to declare that he [Longstreet] should have been shot im- mediately after the battle [Gettysburg], and that Napoleon would certainly have done so. But Lee was cast in a different mould. There's a fine climax, indeed! To make the villain all the blacker, the fleet and ready Jackson is put in contrast. But even "Stonewall" was slow and fatally disappointed expecta- tions in the peninsular campaign. Next to climaxes and contrasts, Action-writers have a genius for rescues. Mr. Page re- cently received a letter whose writer says (pp. 106, 107) that at the time of the battle of the first Cold Harbor, Jackson's guide told him that Jackson arrived late because the road had been lost as a result of changes wrought by the armies. This hearsay evidence- only forty-six years old — is conclusive, and the letter is printed as an appendix. But, alas, the serious blot on "Stone- wall's" record is that, a few days later, he lost a whole day at White Oak Swamp, when he heard the guns near Glendale (Frazier's Farm) and knew that he was expected and needed. With a light touch, Mr. Page says (p. 103) that "the failure of some of his [Lee's] lieutenants to grasp the situation pre- vented the complete success of his plans." To have named Jackson would have shown that he was twice delin- quent in a few days, and would have made a parallel instead of a contrast with Longstreet. Among many other choice historical novelties, Mr. Pages furnishes touching and conclusive evidence that Gen. Sher- man made war on women and children by saying (p. 168) that when Howell Cobb's plantation was devastated by Sherman in 1864, Cobb "was in his hon- ored grave two years ere this, having fallen at the foot of Marye's Heights, as a brave man falls, holding back brave men." Who knows but that if a kind Providence had not decided that Howell Cobb was to survive the war several years and die in the peaceful old Fifth Avenue Hotel, he might have fought in Virginia, and even have been among the honored dead at Fredericksburg? The perfect biography of Lee will be the one that gives the facts in a plain and limpid narrative, for Lee's irre- sistibly noble character needs none of the arts of fiction nor the errors of tradi- tion. And his greatest virtues and tal- ents were so superior and rare that it would be vanity to claim that they were typical of any State or section or na- tion or race. CURRENT FICTION. Kincaid's Battery. By George W. Cable. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. In "The Cavalier" Mr. Cable startled some of his old admirers and made many new ones by producing a story of adventurous and even sensational cast, where'n were many more heroic feats and hairbreadth 'scapes than seem- ed to the point — for Mr. Cable. The charm of the early tales was indepen- dent of mere happenings: it lay partly in the quaint indigenousness of his ma- terial, partly in the playful delibera- tion of his style, the affectionate rail- lery with which he pictured the life of old New Orleans. There was always the sense of historic reality in his hu- man types and their settings; but they seemed as far as possible from the stage puppet and back-scene of the or- dinary historical novel. "The Grandis- simes" belongs to that vivid moment in the life of New Orleans which follow- ed the cession of Louisiana. Who can forget the great Numa, the patriot and artist Raoul Innerarity, poor Palmyre — above all, the ladies Nancanou? The very perfume of that romantic hour is treasured up for us in this essential book. "The Cavalier" seemed neither better nor worse than other war-time romances, unless — as was not impossi- ble— one were to consider its style by itself — its style rather in the smaller sense. "Kincaid's Battery" stands upon dis- tinctly firmer ground. There are, to be sure, incidents in it of a super- fluously exciting or confounding nature, and a person or two in whom it is im- possible to believe. The beautiful and villanous Flora Valcour and her equal- ly wicked and charming grandmother- accomplice are too bad to be true. And the machinery provided for our adven- turesses— the hidden sliding panel, the stolen treasure, and that mysteriously prolonged immunity from the ordinary rewards of theft, slander, malice, and all uncharitableness — are ancient de- vices indeed. Anna Callender marks a return to Mr. Cable's earlier type of heroine from the stalwart she of "The Cavalier." She loves with a soft fe- rocity, and with a soft ferocity denies her love and beats back the object of it — till the moment of absolute surren- der comes. It is she rather than the Creole Flora who reminds us enchant- ingly of Aurore and Clotilde Nancanou. Perhaps the tale pleases us chiefly be- cause it takes us back to the old scene and the old figures. The place is New Orleans and the time the outbreak of the civil war. In Kincaid's Battery, equipped and blessed by the ladies of New Orleans, are enrolled a Fusilier, an Innerarity, divers Grandissimes, and (Ah, lovely Clotilde!) two Frowen- felds. The pale features of Doctor Se- vier and the cheerful or anxious faces of other old acquaintances hover in the background. We could well forego the story for the sake of drawing somewhat closer to these ancient intimates. From the point of view of the ro- mance-reader that is no doubt a delight- ful incident which brings together be- tween two opposing battle-lines the hero (who ought to be commanding his bat- tery), the heroine, who, without know- ing that he is anywhere near, has call- ed to him audibly on general principles, and the adventuress, who has followed him and takes the opportunity to cling about his neck in full view of and to the utter confusion of the heroine. It will be rather deplored by Mr. Cable's older readers, who yet may, by way of recompense, find so much elsewhere in the book to reassure them of his con-

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20 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 tinued power to weave the old spells. The theatrical inventions might, we say, be dispensed with. The atmosphere of me tale, the aroma of that war-time beauty and valor of the South, are as distinguishable as that perfume of the o/der Louisiana, the Louisiana of "The tfrandissimes" and "Doctor Sevier." Mirage. By E. Temple Thurston. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. If "Mirage" were less well-written, it would be less exasperating. As it stands, the old Vicomte has an undeniable real- ity that makes one resent a certain sug- gestion of gloating in the author's way of bedecking him with borrowed joys only to pull them off again, leaving him all the colder for having known what warmth might mean. One by one — not by the will of Fate, but by the unmis- takable agency of the writer — Monsieur du Guesclin is given a cottage in the country, the promise of a fortune, the ghost of an old love reincarnated in the loved one's daughter. The girl natural- ly turns to youth; her uncle, who has dabbled disastrously in speculation, re- coups himself through the generosity of her elderly suitor; the promised fortune proves a delusion, and we leave the poor old seigneur back in the detested city, the shades of the prison-house of a Lon- don lodging closing about him, stripped even of the few trinkets that linked him to the past. We are quite resigned to his loss of Rozanne — he would never have been so happy with the reality as with the dream — but we rebel against the sacrifice of the snuff-box. At that point the author crosses the dangerous line between the pathetic and the mere- ly irritating. This tendency gratuitous- ly to over-scarify the reader's feelings mars slightly even the charming quaint- ness of the loves of Courtot, the Vi- comte's servant, and Mrs. Bulpitt, kind- ly and homely souls that the average reader will pronounce the real hero and heroine of the story. Das hohe Lied Von Hermann Suder- maan. New York: Imported by G. E. Stechert & Co. It is difficult to judge the later work of Sudermann without referring to the earlier. The issues so strong- ly presented in his first story, "Frau Sorge" (known in the English ver- sion as "Dame Care"), the power- ful drama of the sins of the fathers unjustly visited upon the children in "Der Katzensteg" (called in the Eng- lish translations "Regina" and "The Cat's Bridge"), and the tragedy of wrong and repentance in the life of his Leo Sellenthin in "Es War," force com- parisons between the new writing and the old. The moralist who startled Ber- lin audiences with his early dramas of contemporary German life, "Ehre" and "Sodoms Ende," is also behind the nov- elist Sudermann. But neither he nor his readers have stood still in the twen- ty years or more. While in his early stories he was content with suggesting the moral lesson, in his recent novel he conveys it by picturing depravity with an abundance of minute and repulsive detail as needless for artistic effect as for ethical purpose. He commands re- spect for his seriousness and insistence, but he fails to win the sympathy of his readers. "Das hohe Lied" is a masterpiece of the Sudermann of to-day. For construc- tion of plot, characterization of his peo- ple, and faithful reproduction of atmos- phere few recent works of German fic- tion can compete with it. The title, too, is well chosen; for the great unappre- ciated work of genius, which the Kapell- meister Czepanek has composed to the words of the Song of Songs, strikes the keynote of the tale. The heroine had heard its sensuous melodies in her cradle; she had grown up with them until the day when the erratic musician, her father, leaves wife and child for a life of liberty in regions unknown. The manuscript remained her only solace and treasure, when, after the moth- er's incarceration in an insane asy- lum, she is alone in the world and enters upon the sordid struggle for her daily bread — a life almost commonplace in its typical sequence of poverty, temp- tation, and defection. The girl, who, in order to escape the misery of insufficient food and clothes, agrees to wed an aged libertine, is unfortunately not a rare specimen of womanhood. Nor does the inevitable awakening which comes to her with all its obvious consequences tax the author's inventive powers. Real- ity furnished him with all the raw ma- terial. The strength of the book lies in the sympathetic individualization of char- acter. A curious product of heredity, social conditions, and adventitious cir- cumstances, the heroine has withal some redeeming qualities. Without claiming for her the unsullied purity of Wasser- mann's Renate Fuchs, the author fairly succeeds in convincing us of the innate goodness of Lily Czepanek's nature. The man whom she marries, a colonel of the army, reconciles us by the sincerity of his cynicism. When their married life closes with an ugly discord, one feels that both have reaped their re- ward ; she for having sold body and soul for material comfort, he for having sought nothing but the satisfaction of his senses. The objectionable features are the minor characters and incidents which the author crowds into his can- vas, evidently for the purpose of con- vincing his readers of the hopelessly vicious life of the Berlin Boheme. Even if there are characters like the journal- ist Salmoni, the artist Kellermann, and the charming Frau Jula among the men and women of the newspaper and studio world of the German metropolis, one would rather be spared the minute por- trayal of them, and the elaborate descrip- tion of their pastimes. The Making of Ireland and Its Undo- ing, 1200-1600. By Alice Stopford Green. Pp. xvi+510. New York: The Macmillan Co. $2.50 net. A positive mania for publishing abroad the virtues and glories of the Irish race, and for correcting the nu- merous wrongs and misconceptions to which it has been exposed, has pursued Mrs. J. R. Green like an avenging fury for the past half-dozen years. The pres- ent work — consisting of thirteen essays on various phases of Irish life in the Middle Ages and Tudor times — is a val- iant effort to accomplish this double re- sult. But the book utterly fails to con- vince. Its proud scorn of the tradition- al authorities on its subject — as, for in- stance, Bagwell's "Ireland under the Tu- dors" — evokes at first sight a hesitating admiration; but on second reading we find ourselves wishing that Mrs. Green had at least kept in some touch with,, even if she could not implicitly trust, the work of previous laborers in this vineyard. On the other hand, the quo- tation of a number of objurgations and abusive epithets, culled here and there from the reports of English officials in Ireland, without the slightest regard to the circumstances under which they were written or the persons to whom they were addressed, is not a very tell- ing method of proving that Ireland has been shockingly misrepresented from the earliest times. One might as well cite Henry VIII's well-known character- ization of the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace as the "rude commons of our shire, and that one of the most brute and beestelie of the whole realme," as evidence that the English kings never comprehended the undoubted vir- tues of the inhabitants of Lincolnshire. We look in vain for a frank statement of the many causes that justified the Tudor sovereigns in taking Ireland firm- ly in hand, especially the divergence in religion and the fact that it was a con- tinual refuge and harboring place for Spanish plots and hostile expeditions. And the chief landmarks of Irish his- tory, to which we have been accustomed to look for guidance — such as Poyning's Acts, Henry "VIII's assumption of the title of King of Ireland, the landing of the first Jesuit mission there — are either slurred over or completely ig- nored. That the Irishman has been abomina- bly misunderstood and maltreated by the Englishman at different stages of his history, no one is disposed to deny, and we must be grateful to Mrs. Green for forbearing to utilize the rich material afforded by the history of the last three centuries in further support of this well-

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Jan. 7, 1909] r_L" h. e Nation 21 established fact. But that English mis- conception and maltreatment are the sole or even the most important cause of the miserable condition of Ireland to- day, that there has been a "long per- version of Irish history" in the inter- est of politics, or that it has always been supposed to be the business of the historian of Ireland "to seek out every element of political instability, every trace of private disorder, every act of personal violence, every foreign slander, and out of these alone, neglect- ing all indications of industry or vir- tue, to depict a national life" (p. xi), may well be doubted. The Irish race has always possessed certain sterling qualities — warm-heartedness and per- sonal devotion are among the most prominent — but, on the other hand, it has been singularly lacking in capacity for self-government, stability, and union. Though it has had many heroes, their work has always been of a character rather local than national, and the glor- ies of Irish history have suffered in consequence. In so far as Mrs. Green's book is a plea for a fuller and more im- partial study of the field with which it deals, it is heartily to be welcomed; but we fear that future writers who follow to their logical conclusion the lines of argument which she has laid down, will find, ere long, that they serve to ob- scure rather than to illuminate the truth. From Peking to Mandalay: A Journey from North China to Burma through Tibetan Ssuch'uan and Yunnan. By R. F. Johnston. Pp. xii+460; with maps and illustrations. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $5 net. This is the story of a wanderer in search of things strange and beautiful. His chief aim was to learn something about that wild border-land on the far west of China. Its interest lies both in the loveliness and grandeur of its river and mountain scenery, and in the num- ber and diversity of the races by which it is peopled, of whose origin and his- tory, social, physical, and linguistic pe- culiarities little is known. Having trav- • elled extensively in China and learned the language. Mr. Johnston was well qualified for his task. Leaving Peking in January, 1906, he went by rail to Hankow, and thence up the Yangtse by steamer and through the famous rapids and gorges by "red-boat." This is the name of the government life-boats now stationed near each of the most dan- gerous rapids and manned by skilful and daring river-men, who annually save many lives from the wrecked junks. At Wan-hsien he left the river and went overland to Ch'eng-tu, the cap- ital city of the province of Ssuch'uan. On his way thither he found post- ed in the towns and villages proc- lamations calling the attention of the people to a railway which the government proposed to construct from the capital to the Yangtse. The announcement pointed out the great benefits to the trade and prosperity of the province, and invited subscriptions for shares. To those who can remem- ber that only thirty years ago the pre- judice of the Chinese against railways was so great that the government bought the little road running out of Shanghai, sold the plant, and tore up the rails, this is a remarkable indication of prog- ress. In Ch'eng-tu there is a provin- cial college with about three hundred students, who are being educated in Western as well as Chinese branches of learning: There is an Englishman who lectures on chemistry and physics, there are several Japanese lecturers and a staff of Chinese teachers who have a knowledge of Euro- pean languages. From this city he went by the mountain region which constitutes the western frontier of the empire through Yunnan to Burma — the whole journey taking a little over five months. The larger part of the book is devot- ed to this little-travelled region, and as the author's object is to give informa- tion rather than to furnish entertain- ment, the work is not easy reading. There are minute details of the route followed, numerous references to the different tribes encountered, and their racial affinities and origin, a summary of the results of his and other travel- lers' ethnological investigations, a dis- cussion of Chinese Buddhism, with spe- cial reference to a visit to the shrines on the sacred mountain Omei, and many suggestions as to feasible trade-routes between Burma and China. An indica- tion of the undeveloped mineral wealth of that western region is to be found in the fact that in one place coal was so abundant that the poorest peasants freely used it for heating and cooking. The concluding chapter upon the pres- ent conditions in China is suggestive and valuable. In Mr. Johnston's opin- ion, the stage of civilization which the Chinese have reached is much higher than is generally believed. As a proof of their law-abiding character, he tells us, from his own experience as district officer and magistrate of the leased ter- ritory Weihaiwei, that in this district, 200 square miles in extent, with about 200 villages and nearly 100,000 inhab- itants, there are only eight policemen; yet during a recent period of six months there were only reported three cases of robbery. "During more than two years in Weihaiwei I have tried Englishmen and Japanese for being drunk and disorderly, but never a sin- gle Chinese." The neighboring d'stricts under Chinese rule, he adds, are just as well behaved, if not. indeed, better. The book contains an excellent index and an appendix containing notes, vocabularies of six tribal languages, and the itine- rary. The illustrations are reproduc- tions of photographs, many of the won- derful mountain scenery, a fairyland of beauty. Primary Elections. By C. E. Merriam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. $1.35. The preeminence which ancient Greece has long been accorded as a bazaar of political curiosities can no longer be conceded, in view of such an exhibition as Professor Merriam makes in his "Pri- mary Elections." The aspiration of Ed- ward Everett's school-boy orator that Columbia's soil may — Exceed what Greece or Rome has done Or any land beneath the sun. has been satisfied in this particular. It is amazing what an intricate plexus of legal regulation has grown up about what was originally, and still is in other countries, a very simple matter. And the process of change continues, pro- ducing additional complexity, in con- formity with the general principle that one organic change tends ever to initiate another. Professor Merriam remarks that no sooner was the movement for compulsory regulation of party action generally successful than a demand arose for abolishing the convention sys- tem, and for establishing the direct pri- mary. Now that the direct primary is so widely introduced that it is the pre- dominant form of party action, "there is discernible a powerful movement in ra- vor of nomination by petition < a substitute both for the convention sys- tem and for the direct primary" (p. 135) Professor Merriam himself thinks that the advantages of the direct primary outweigh the defects, but he points out that there are possibilities of abuses that have already begun to excite de- mands for further reform. Some of the defects are decidedly curious. For in- stance, Mr. Anderson has a substantial advantage over Mr. Zimmerman in can- didacy, because of mere alphabetical priority. To secure equity in this re- spect, it is suggested that "the order of printing may be changed in such a way that the name of each of the candidates shall appear first an approximately equal number of times" (p. 143). An- other point is advantage derived from casual notoriety: There is much evidence tending to show that the well-known man, regardless of v.hat he is known for, has an advantage in the race for the nomination over one bet- ter qualified, but less generally known (p. 122). So then, when the suffragettes get their inning, the name and fame of a Lydia Pinkham may become a valuable politi- cal asset. The expense of the direct pri- mary is also a trouble. Professor Mer- riam admits that there is serious dan-

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22 Tlie ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 ger that "the man without large means may find it almost impossible to enter the primary lists, or that he may incur obligations of a character that may in- terfere with his usefulness to the pub- lic." It is suggested that this danger may be mitigated by public appropria- tion "to defray a part of the expenses of candidates in primaries" (p. 174). In support of this suggestion reference is made to President Roosevelt's recom- mendation of public subsidies to party campaign funds. The adoption of this policy would be a new point of de- parture for evolutionary process that should yield interesting developments. Infant industries in party-manufacture and candidacy would naturally claim generous consideration. Altogether, the facts presented by Professor Merriam abundantly sustain his conclusion: No friend of direct nomination should in- dulge the pleasant dream that the adop- tion of a law providing for such a system will, of itself, act as a cure for the pres- ent-day party evils. Indeed, the great merit of this work is that it is a timely demonstration of the absurdity of the present multiplicity of elective offices. "While he is an advo- cate of the method, Professor Merriam admits that the direct primary "will not achieve its full results until the number of elective offices is materially reduced." Perhaps, then, the importance of the whole subject may be correspond- ingly reduced. Science. THE MESSINA EARTHQUAKE: PRE- DICTION AND PROTECTION. When the man of science is asked "What caused the earthquake?" he must confess to ignorance. It was either sub- terranean steam, or unequal yielding to internal contraction of immense blocks of the earth's crust, or deep-seat- ed movements of lavas slowly rising un- der yEtna. Or, what is still more likely, it was all three of these in mutual de- pendence. If we maintained earth ob- servatories as we do astronomical ones, we might know, and we might perhaps have predicted and forewarned. This new catastrophe is the thirteenth of the century, and brings the death- list to about 300,000, or 100 persons a day since January 1, 1901. An erup- tion of ^3tna is also beginning and may still further swell the fatal roll. The record includes Guatemala, Mar- tinique, St. Vincent, Mobile, Galves- ton, San Francisco, Valparaiso, Ja- maica, Kartaghan, India, Calabria, Vesuvius, and Messina. The prop- erty loss is countless millions. Eight of these places are American. At all of them the destruction has been wrought by natural agencies. In the cases of Mo- bile and Galveston, there was definite prediction by the Weather Bureau. This office, which systematically records the movements of the atmosphere at widely distributed stations, is now recognized as one of the most efficient, valuable, and humane scientific organizations in the world. Similar meteorological es- tablishments are maintained by all civi- lized nations. The other disasters were occasioned by volcanoes or earthquakes. The coast-lines of the world are dotted with volcanoes, and no region is known which is exempt from earthquakes. No geologist in the United States would venture to deny, for example, the state- ment that New York city is just as liable to a great earthquake disaster as was Charleston in 1886. With these facts before us, it would seem justifiable to call science to account for its attitude with regard to the lithosphere (or rock- crust) as contrasted with its point of view concerning the atmosphere. Some- times a great affliction, like this which has stunned and mutilated Italy, may work beneficently by stimulating men to a new vision of their usefulness. A great convention of American geol- ogists has just completed its delibera- tions in Baltimore. All of these men are interested in earthquakes, but prob- ably not half a dozen members of the society have any technical or mathe- matical knowledge of tbem, and not many more have ever experienced one. The idea that such experience is im- portant for a geologist would be scouted as a jest. Many of these men are teach- ers in universities. If a Martian astron- omer were to appear suddenly among them, after returning from a visit to the Lowell observatory at Flagstaff, where his own existence had been so wonder- fully interpreted, the following dialogue might be expected: "Where you know the heavens so well, of course your own earth is to you as an open book?" "Yes," reluctantly. "You have observatories for the rec- ording of all earth phenomena?" "No." "What! Did you not learn every- thing about local terrestrial motions be- fore you studied the stars?" "No, we do not know anything about terrestrial movements." "Do you mean to tell me that you have not many instruments for observ- ing them?" "We have the seismograph, but none of us understands it, and as for other earth motions, all we know we have learned from the physicist and the as- tronomer." "But you live on the earth, and have to meet every crisis as it arises; can you foretell nothing?" "Well, you see, we don't think of it that way. We treat it historically, and make notes, and use a hammer and a compass, and are very much interested in the bones of Jurassic reptiles and in making maps of the rocks, and in finding out all about iron and coal. But we have no such precise knowledge as the astronomer." "But surely, in teaching your young men in the universities, you begin by precise instrumental study of the pres- ent earth and its processes, and have a vast accumulation of experience con- cerning those processes, in the form of tables, measurements, formulas, curves, diagrams, and computations?" "No, almost nothing has been done in accumulating experience or empirical data, except by the Japanese. When a volcanic eruption or an earthquake oc- curs we send a geologist to study the results, and he writes a thick and learn- ed report. We do not know anything about what the conditions were during the months before the disaster. We teach our young geologists first a little physics and chemistry, and a few gener- alities about earth process, and then set them to work mapping ancient rocks. The highest development of geology is the unravelling of the history of the past. We haven't time to go into pre- diction and humanistic geology." The above is not exaggerated. The blame does not rest with the geologist, it rests rather with the haphazard growth of the science. The very prox- imity of the earth has made- terrestrial observation and measurement difficult, in view of the littleness of man. This plea, however, can no longer be urged in extenuation of the neglect of the study of earth process. We have a con- siderable knowledge of physical science, and there are many instruments applic- able to the earth. There is a very pre- cise science known as geodesy, which has for its object the determination of the figure of the earth. There is geology, which aims to decipher earth history. Between these two there is needed a new science, many phases of which are now being studied, and this might well be named geonomy, the science of the laws which govern the earth. There is one grave difficulty in the way of rapid development of this sci- ence, and that is expense. It is a sci- ence that calls for the establishment of observatories in many lands. These ob- servatories will have for their objects the study of the changes which are go- ing on in the crust of the earth uuder them and the relations of those changes to astronomical and meteorological changes. The new science, like astron- omy and the study of the atmosphere, deals with moving things and so re- quires continuous local records, through weeks and months and years. Seismo- graphs, microphones, magnetographs. gravity, pendulums, pyrometers, trom- ometers, gas-collecting apparatus, and many special instruments adapted to

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation 23 local needs are among the devices with which an earth observatory should be equipped. The natural places for establishing such observatories at first are lands where the earth movements are most rapid, regions of volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. In such establishment, the Japanese have taken the lead, and their island empire is girdled with observator- ies. The writer has before him a pamph- let, in English, printed in Tokio in Oc- tober, 1908, containing eleven contribu- tions to practical seismology by a Japa- nese investigator, V. Omori, the first of which bears the significant title "On the Fore-Shocks of Earthquakes." Dr. Omori declares, "My belief is that a large destructive earthquake will be foretold in its epicentral region by some fore-shocks," and this belief he sub- stantiates by exact instrumental proofs. With reference to Sicily, it is well to make note of the fact that an American volcanologist, Frank Alvord Perret, has predicted disaster on Mount Etna for two years past. Mr. Perret, who was decorated by the Crown of Italy for his splendid service to science and to hu- manity on "Vesuvius in 1906, wrote in the World's Work of November, 1907: By the rational methods of scientific re- search, we know that a great eruption of Mt. Etna is impending, the only uncertain- ty at present being which side of the moun- tain will break open. Great volcanic eruptions are preceded by great earthquakes, and the Messina dis- aster of December 28 comes on an earth- quake date ("terrestrial maximum of gravitational stress") actually platted in advance by Mr. Perret on his diagrams for 1908. Like Dr. Omori, he is a man whose whole time is unselfishly devoted to these studies, but he has no observa- tory and no adequate means of support. A few business men in Springfield, Mass., last year came valiantly to his aid, and now their foresight is worthy of all honor. When young men think of making science their life-work, it would be well to remember Pasteur, and to consider carefully whether the highest development of the investigative facul- ties may not concern itself with hu- mane rather than with historical mo- tives. To those who will give time and money to the establishment of earth ob- servatories, there will come by way of reward some of the most astonishing discoveries of the twentieth century. Plans have been prepared in Boston for an earthquake-proof observatory and museum, built on Japanese lines, to be equipped with instruments for measur- ing earth tremor, earth waves, earth sounds, earth tilt, earth gravity, and earth magnetism. It is proposed to se- cure an endowment which will provide for expeditions as the most important work of the observatory, whereby train- ed men will be sent to volcanic lands to carry on research which may not be done at home. The Geological Society of America has passed urgent resolu- tions strongly recommending "to govern- ments and to private enterprise the establishment of volcano and earth- quake observatories." What should be done in New York? It may be well to state briefly the vision of what could be done to set an example to the world: Provide $4,200,000. Erect ten small ob- servatories costing $20,000 each, in New York, Porto Rico, Canal Zone, San Fran- cisco, Alaska, Aleutian Islands, Philip- pines, Hawaii, Scotland, and Sicily. With $200,000 per annum, the income of four millions, supply each observa- tory with $10,000 per annum to main- tain its director, assistant, and expenses, and reserve $100,000 for the central of- fice for administration, exploration, and publication. Define the objects of the work to be direct measurement and rec- ord of earth process with a view to the benefit of humanity. Define three im- mediate goals for the investigators: (1) Prediction of earthquakes; (2) prediction of volcanic eruptions; (3) engineering and construction in volcanic and seismic lands. The objects of the two European stations are to cover the important volcanic fields of Iceland, the east Atlantic, and southern Italy, and to keep in touch with the advance of European science. The work would be strictly American, and if it were carried out, it would be epoch-making in the history of science. T. A. Jaggab. Jr. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. J. G. Spurzheim's "Phrenology," which attracted attention seventy-five years ago, has been reprinted, with some abbrevia- tions, by the J. B. Lippincott Co. As a lit- erary curiosity it is even more interesting than Dr. Gall's classical fantasies. "Kulturpflanzen der Weltwirthschaft" is an illustrated volume written by different authors (Leipzig: Voigtlander), containing interesting accounts of the discovery and development of tea, coffee, cotton, a.nd other useful plants, their diffusion among various nations, as well as their influence on industrial, commercial, and social life and on the growth of civilization and hu- man customs and character in general. Especially entertaining and instructive is the chapter on the origin and cultivation of tobacco. One aspect of these investiga- tions deserves special mention. The stamp impressed by the physical world upon races and its influence in determining the pecu- liarities of men and nations have long been recognized; and there are systems of an- thropology and ethnology and philosophies of history, which admit only these mate- rial causes and derive from them all so- called moral and mental characteristics. But it is only in comparatively recent times that the counterpart of this view has been considered and that the effects of human action in modifying the aspect of nature and in changing the physical condi- tion of the earth have attracted the se- rious attention of scientific men. One of I the most interesting phases of this subject is the transformations produced in the flora, as well as the fauna, of a country, a phenomenon which has been observed on a large scale since the discovery of tha Western hemisphere. In Greece and Italy these processes have greatly changed thu primitive physiognomy of those lands. Im- agine the effect of removing the aloe and the cactus from the rock coast of the Med- iterranean; and yet these prickly plants of bluish-green with fleshy leaves and gor- geous blossoms, which harmonize so well with the landscape, have been introduced from South America during the last three centuries. The cypress, with its gloomy but grateful shade, is a native of tfw mountains of Afghanistan; the orchards of olive and fig-trees are from Palestine and Syria; and the splendid palms in the cloistered court of SS. Giovanni e Paolo on the Caelian Mount and in the magnificent grove of Bordighera between Genoa and Nice are exiles from Arabia and the oases of the Sahara. The advent of the Chinese woman doctor was celebrated a few weeks ago by the con- ferring of diplomas on six graduates of the Women's Medical School at Shanghai. It was founded three years ago, the funds having been provided by Li-Ping-Shu, pres- ident of the Chinese Town Council. The principal is a Chinese woman who has re- ceived an advanced education in Canton and Hongkong; and there are thirty stu- dents. Each of the six graduates read es- says, two of which were in English. George Washington Hough, professor of astronomy at Northwestern University and director of the Dearborn Observatory, died suddenly January 1 at his home in Evanston. He was seventy-two years old. Professor Hough's greatest contributions to science were his observations regard- ing the planet Jupiter. He discovered and measured more double stars than any other astronomer now living, about 550 in all. His inventions include a device for mak- ing maps of stars during observation, and many other scientific instruments now used in observatories. Besides contributions to the magazines, he published "Annals of the Dudley Observatory." The death is announced of C. E. Stuy- vaert of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. He was born in 1851, and began his work at the observatory (then at Brussels) in 1879. He was engaged, at the time of his death, on a large-scale globe of the moon Drama. The Bohemian Jinks. By Porter Gar- nett. San Francisco: The Hicks Pub- lishing Company. Mr. Garnett has written an interesting book, describing the origin and growth of the forest dramas, produced annually in midsummer by the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. When these celebrations began, thirty years ago, they were ex- ceedingly informal., but gradually, after the club had acquired possession of two hundred and forty acres of forest land,

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V4= *j- The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2271 at Guerneville, seventy-five miles from San Francisco, they began to assume a distinctive and elaborate form, of a mu- sical, dramatic, allegorical, and spectac- ular character. Thus, within the last decade the performances have included pieces — akin both to the ancient masques and modern fairy extravaganza — bearing such titles as "The Enigma of Life," "The Man in the Forest," "Mon- tezuma," "The Hamadryads," and "The Triumph of Bohemia," the work of well known literary men and artists, mem- bers of the club, and presented with striking instrumental, vocal, and electric effects. The peculiar feature of these per- formances is that they occur at night in the natural woodland and that all ar- tificial mechanism is carefully hidden. The proscenium of the theatre is form- ed by two huge redwood trees, at the foot of a steep ascent, thickly covered by brush. A series of foot-paths connect invisible platforms, constructed one above another, on the face of the hill. From the front, the effect is one of virgin forest, but actually there is a stage of many tiers, conveying a sense of space and distance, and facilities for grouping, impossible in the ordinary the- atre. Open-air drama, of course, is no new thing, either in the old or new worlds, but these Californian Bohemians appear to have improved upon precedent, by de- vising allegorical spectacles suitable to the natural conditions and on that ac- count peculiarly impressive. They have succeeded, also, apparently, in making romance realistic by a complete avoid- ance of theatrical convention. Mr. Gar- nett, perhaps, overrates the significance of these celebrations as a new type of drama — their characteristics being direct- ly traceable to local influences and spe- cial opportunities — but there seems to be no doubt that in literary and imagi- native quality they are out of the com- mon. "Aristophanische Studien." by Hugo We- ber (Leipzig: Theodor Weicher), is a recent book which treats in scholarly fashion some leading perplexities in the comedies or Aristophanes. A noteworthy collection of famous Ger- man dramas is edited by Prof. Georg Wit- kowski under the title. Die Meisterwerke der deutschen Buhne (Leipzig: Max Hesse). Recent additions are Karl Gutzkow's com- edies, "Zopf und Schwert," "Das Urbild des Tartiiffe," and "Der Konigsleutnant," with introduction and notes by Dr. Alfred Klaar. Dr. Klaar is also responsible for the introduction and the notes of Gutzkow's tragedy, "Uriel Acosta," which is perhaps the best known of his dramas, and which has been translated into English by Rich- ard Hovey. Heinrich Laube's "Karls- schuler," the famous play which makes use of some of Schiller's experiences at the school of his patron the Duke of Wurtemberg, and his tragedy, "Graf Es- sex," are introduced and annotated by Prof. Alexander von Weilen. The Volks-Schillerpreis of 3,000 marks was recently awarded to Ernst Hardt, in recognition of his five-act drama, "Tantris der Narr." His competitors were Julius Bab, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and K. Gjel- leruv. Music. Edvard Grieg. Von Gerhard Schjelde- rup and Walter Niemann. Leipzig: C. F. Peters. Larger Piano Compositions. Edvard Grieg. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co. $1.50. Fifty Songs. Edvard Grieg. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co. $1.50. Edvard Grieg is dead, but his music is more alive than ever. In addition to the copyrighted Copenhagen and Leip- zig editions of his works, there are more than forty American reprints of them, and no name on a concert programme is more popular than his. Books on his art and personality also are multi- plying rapidly. For many years Clos- son's French brochure was the only source of information. Then came Schjelderup's biography, in Norwegian, which was followed by the first book in English, H. T. Finck's "Edvard Grieg" (in John Lane's Living Masters of Music series), of which a greatly en- larged new edition is now in press. George Bell & Sons published last spring in their Miniature Series a little book of eighty pages by E. Markham Lee. A month ago the Leipzig firm of C. F. Peters, which has published Grieg's music ever since 1863, • issued a quasi- offic:al biography by Schjelderup and Niemann; and the latest issue of the Peters catalogue also announces the forthcoming reminiscences (including 198 Grieg letters) of his friend, Julius Roentgen, the eminent Dutch composer and editor of Grieg's posthumous works. These works, which are just out, include a string quartet, eleven songs, three pianoforte pieces, and the orchestral score of the "Peer Gynt" music com- plete. During the last decade of his life Grieg was repeatedly offered large sums for his autobiography, but his health was too poor (for forty years he had only one lung to breathe with) to allow him to undertake a task requiring such a prolonged effort. This is to be great- ly regretted, for the story of his life, told by himself, would have made very interesting reading. His letters are characterized by the same clearness, in- dividuality, directness, northern senti- ment, and mingled melancholy and gayety as his songs and pianoforte pieces. His skill in literary composi- tion was publicly revealed in articles on Schumann and Mozart which he wrote for the Century Magazine and one on Verdi, which was printed in the Nineteenth Century and Littell's Living Age. Parts of an amusing and vivid autobiographic sketch covering his childhood and his student days at the Leipzig conservatory appeared in the Contemporary Review. The whole of this sketch, in the original German, is reprinted in the volume by Schjelderup and Niemann now before us, and will make every reader wish it had been con- tinued. Schjelderup, who contributes the biographic half of this volume, is one of the ablest of the younger Nor- wegian composers; and, what is more, he knew Grieg personally. Some let- ters to him from the great composer are included, but what gives this book a unique value is the interwoven let- ters to his Leipzig publisher, Max Abra- ham (head of the Peters firm), with whom Grieg corresponded forty years. These letters are not only delightfully intimate, but in some cases they take the place of chapters in the missing autobiography. After the death of this friend, they were addressed to his nephew and successor, Herr Hinrichsen, to whom he wrote among other things a most vivid account of two days spent with the German Emperor on his yacht — a letter which shows the Kaiser in one of his most characteristic attitudes as a musical enthusiast. There is also a full epistolary account of the festivi- ties attending Grieg's silver wedding. From these letters and the details supplied by the author, we learn that Grieg, despite his ill-health, enjoyed life on the whole and seldom felt the twd- ium vita*, as his friend Liszt so often did. He even joked about his infirmi- ties, regretting only that they so sel- dom allowed him to enjoy the raptures of creative work, or make arduous ex- cursions to the mountains for the col- lecting of folk songs. Concerning old age, he agreed with his friend Her- zogenberg, who said: "Life is a dinner. I have come to the cheese, which tastes very good." He might have lived longer, could he have resisted the invitations to give concerts. On this point he wrote, in March, 1906: From a financial point of view, I can get along without these concerts, and a public appearance is the most terrible thing I know of. My nerves, my entire person, suffers indescribable tortures, but a certain something, I know not what, urges me on irresistibly. A beautiful or- chestral performance of my works and a sympathetic audience are things I cannot resist. That, I think, is what makes me act so foolishly. Grieg's compositions are analyzed at considerable length in the second part of this volume by Walter Niemann, with an enthusiasm tempered by criticism. A few errors have crept into the last chap- ter. Grieg did not speak English so well as he did German and he did not write his article on Mozart in English. The Century is not published by the Macmil-

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Jan. 7, 1909] The Nation. 25 lan Company, and the Old Norwegian Romance is not opus 50 but 51. There is a good bibliography, and a considerable number of pictures and facsimiles add to the attractiveness of the volume. Greig is now also represented in the Musicians Library of the Oliver Ditson Company. Two volumes have been is- sued at once. One contains six of the more important works for pianoforte — the Humoresques, the sonata, opus 7, Sketches of Norwegian Life, the Ballade in G minor, the antique suite "From Holberg's Times," and the admirable concerto, with the orchestral part ar- ranged for the same instrument, so that it can be played on two pianos. The editor of this volume is Bertha Feiring Tapper, who has supplied a brief intro- duction. The other volume contains Grieg's best fifty songs and has a more elaborate introduction by Henry T. Finck, who is so fortunate as to be able to cite Grieg's own opinion of this se- lection: Always the critics have pointed out my least important things as the best, and unfortunately also, vice versa. How happy I am that this is not the case with you. You have In the main dwelt on the very songs which I myself consider the best. E. H. Hadow, one of the leading musical scholars of England, is at work on a life of Schubert, which will no doubt be the last word — and the best — on that subject. He has the private notes collected by Grove for his work on Schubert. Art. The Flowers and Gardens of Japan. Painted by Ella DuCane; described by Florence DuCane. New York: The Macmillan Co. $6 net. The flowers and the gardens of Japan are already the subject of so many books that every new work on the topic must, in order to secure attention, bring some fresh attraction. The present vol- ume offers us extremely interesting pic- tures in color, together with a modest and pleasing account of the principal elements which lend to Japanese land- scape architecture its peculiar charm. The pictures themselves are excellent "three-color" reproductions of delicate and truthful paintings, which convey a vivid impression of the garden beauty of Japan. Since these pictures supple- ment in a satisfactory manner the most exhaustive treatise in English that we have on Japanese gardens, namely, that by Josiah Conder, the volume is a slight but real addition to our garden literature. We wonder, indeed, at the temerity shown in undertaking the sub- ject in a small volume like this; but only the most important features are chosen, and they are treated effectively. Passing over certain slight shortcom- ings in the work, we would indicate briefly the general scheme and method. The aim of landscape gardening in Japan is to provide a restful place for pleasure in meditation. Therefore, har- mony must prevail, with no discordant note in either form or color, and with true proportions in every part, whe- ther the garden be a toy affair covering a few square rods, or bounded by the distant horizon. Every accessory must tell, each in its proper sphere. Many of these accessories are unknown in the landscape architecture of other lands, although some have their foreign equiv- alents. For us of the Occident it is difficult, for instance, to conceive of effective use of small stones, except in the "rockery," or something of the sort; but the Japanese often select decorative stones with great care and accomplish with them remarkable results. Again, symbolic lanterns and carvings, as the Japanese employ them, are seldom dis- tracting or even disturbing, whereas the obtrusive statuary of some of our formal gardens is sometimes both, or at least bewildering. Japanese management of water and of bridges is generally pleasing, and such structures as pagodas, for example, are in perfect keeping. But above all, Japanese gardeners under- stand that flowers can create confusion in a landscape; that is, a group of blos- soms of different sorts does not com- pose the mind and conduce to medita- tion, though a single group, say of cher- ry trees or of irises in bloom, may pro- mote quiet thought. Sometimes this theory is, of course, carried to an ex- treme in gardens where tree forms are the prominent feature and where blos- soms are wholly wanting. But in most instances flowering trees are arranged so as to impart pleasure, and a few trees are treasured for their brilliant leaves at certain seasons. Aside from a few herbaceous plants, like the iris, the lotus, and the chrysanthemum, woody stems of distinctive form are the favorite element in most Japanese gar- dens. To all of these plants, as well as to the bamboo and pine, the authors give due space. In fine, matters of prac- tice are lightly touched, but with suffi- cient fulness to indicate the difficulties of the art. The two important works by Josiah Conder, to which the author refers, must long remain for the English read- er the source of minute knowledge in regard to Japanese gardens. In those treatises and in the hints offered by the DuCanes, one can see to what extent the art is based upon and blended with the various ceremonial observances which are so dear to the Japanese mind. Any examination of this earnest quest for quiet meditation should be helpful to us in hurried and noisy England and America, but it is not probable that we can be weaned from our composite gar- dens with their medleys of color. It is still less probable that the art of Jap- anese gardening can be transplanted to our own country with any degree of suc- cess. But that is no reason why all who are fond of plants should not de- rive much pleasure from books so de- lightful as this. Georg Reimer of Berlin has just publish- ed for the Royal Museum of that city "Al- tertiimer von Pergamon," Band VII, "Die Skulpturen mit Ausnahme des Altarreliefs," by Franz Winter. There are many illus- trations. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are landscapes by Miss Anna Fisher at Powell's, till January 15; paintings by Willard L. Metcalf, Montross's, January 1G. From London comes the report of the death of Lowes Dickinson at the age of eighty-nine. He was known for his por- traits of eminent men, and also for his share in Christian-Socialist movement which in the middle of the last century engaged the interest of Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes, and F. D. Maurice. His son is G. Lowes Dickinson, the writer. Finance. STOCKS AND PROSPERITY. On no phase of financial conditions do opinions differ more widely, as the new year begins, than on the question as to now far the stock market is to be ac- cepted as a forecast of coming events in general business. Traditionally, the Stock Exchange performs that office. But the Stock Exchange, like many oth- er institutions- — not to mention indi- viduals— has what may be called a dual personality. From one point of view, it is a delicate and sensitive organism, which is affected for better or worse by the same fundamental influences that affect industry in general, and which re- sponds to such influences so much more quickly than outside trade, that its movements give an early warning of what is to happen elsewhere. From an- other point of view, the Stock Exchange is a huge machine which can be made to move in one direction or another by brute force of accumulated capital; its activities thus depend quite as much on facilities for borrowing upon easy terms as on any actual change of intrinsic values. Now, any one conversant with the Stock Exchange will admit that, incon- sistent as these descriptions seem, both are correct. If asked to present some typical instances in which the stock market accurately foretold the future, one may point to the market of March, August, and October, 1907, wherein the successive stages of the violent indus- trial reaction were foretold months be- fore the expansion of general trade had stopped; or to that of April, 1903, when the demoralization of the steel trade in

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26 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2271 the subsequent autumn was foreshadow- ed; or to April, 1901, when the Stock Exchange movement, extravagant as it was, gave notice of the immensely pros- perous era which followed, and which continued long after the collapse of May 9 in Wall Street; or to September, 1898, when the great rise in stocks pre- dicted a forward movement in trade, of which at that moment few positive signs were visible. This would seem strong enough to silence critics who con- tend that stock markets are manipulat- ed in defiance of real conditions, or that those whom Europe calls our "mag- nates" can force prices this way and that, at their own sweet will. But on that side there are also precedents and leading cases. Unless one is to as- sume that the stock market looks no further ahead than the very near fu- ture, what are we to say of 1906, when a positively frenzied rise in prices came but a brief space ahead of the panic of 1907?' How are we to explain the sharp advance on the London Stock Exchange in the early months of 1890, on the very eve of the "Baring collapse"? What about the exciting boom in onr indus- trial stocks during January, 1893, when the year's great panic was only six months away? What about the well- grounded tradition that the Stock Ex- change invariably indulges in a happy- go-lucky speculation for the rise, a very few months before the great financial crises? The two sets of instances seem to in- volve a paradox, and to leave the stu- dent of the markets of 1908 complete- ly baffled. The only way in which to reconcile conflicting precedents is to take not a single and temporary move- ment on the Stock Exchange, but a ser- ies of movements from which the gen- eral trend may be fairly judged, while also paying close attention to the char- acter of the movement itself. If last year's markets are in review, it will not be enough to show that prices rose 10 or 15 points in this month. 15 or 20 in that, and so on. One must ask what happened in the interval, and where the general level of values was left, when both movements had reached their end. A series of 10-point advances, followed by an equal number of 15-point declines, would, as a whole, represent a falling market, and would presumably fore- shadow unfavorable developments in trade. On the other hand, a series of 15-point advances, followed successively by 5 or 10-point declines, fairly meas- ures the fluctuations of 1908. Judged, not by its extreme and hysterical ad- vances, but by its general direction, the stock market of last year was rising and foreshadowed improvement in general industry. Whether the extravagance with which prices rose and fell ought to be accept- ed as predicting the method and man- ner of trade recovery in 1909, is a dif- ferent question. It certainly cannot be said that the excitement on the Stock Exchange, in the spring of 1901, gave in any respect an indication of the sub- sequent process of trade expansion, which was orderly and normal. Yet the short-lived and violent "bull move- ments" of 1908, with the consequent re- lapses, are curiously like the spasmodic stampedes of buyers into the mercantile markets, to replete their empty shelves on three successive occasions, with the interval of stagnation which followed each of them. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Almanach der Siiddeutschen Monatshcfte. Munich. Andro. L. Das offene Tor. Munich: Siid- deutsche Monatshcfte. Banzai, hy Parabellum. The Baker & Tay- lor Co. $1.50. Barrett, S. A. Porno Indian Basketry. Berkeley : The University Press. Barton, James L. Daybreak in Turkey. The Pilgrim Press. Beale, Harriet S. Blaine, Ed. Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine. 2 vols. Duffield it- Co. Cook, Charles A. Stewardship and Mis- sions. American Baptist Publication So- ciety. Crawford, William H. The Church and the Slum. Baton & Mains. 7.r><\ net. ('ullireth, David M. R. The University of Virginia. Neale Publishing Co. $5.00 • net. Dinner to Hon James Fitzgerald. Rogers & Co. Dvorak, Dr. Rudolph. Bakis Diwan. Lei- den. E. J. Brill. Oyer, Louis. The Olympian Theatron and the Battle of Olympia. London: Journal of Hellenic Studies. Farmer, John S. Ed. Jacob and Esau. Lon- don: T. C. & E. C. Jack. Gordon, Charles W. The Life of James Robertson. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50 net. Grandgent, Charles H. The Cleomade-o and Related Folk-Tale.s. Cambridge: Mod- ern Language Association. Grenfell, Wilfrid T. A. Man's Faith. The Pilgrim Press. Hasse, Adelaide R. Index of Economic Material in Documents of the States of the United States. California. Washing- ton: Carnegie Institution. Herford, Oliver, The Smoker's Year Book. Moffat, Yard & Co. Heywood, John. The Four P. P London- T. C. & E. C. Jack. Johnson, Emory R. Ed. Industrial Educa- tion. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science. L'Inganno. Florence: F. Lumachi. Locke, W. J. Septimus. John Lane Co. $1.50. Madach. Imre. The Tragedy of Man. The Arcadia Press. $1.50 net. Parkhurst, Rev. Charles H. A Little Low- er Than the Angels. F. H. Revell Co. $1.25 net. !'"l<rs, Rev. John P. Hilprecht's Answer. Pickering, Prof. Edward C. Foreign Asso- ciates of National Societies. Poe, Clarence H. A Southerner in Europe. Raleigh, N. C. : Mutual Pub. Co. 75c. Pumpelly, Raphael, Ed. Explorations in Turkestan. 2 vols. Washington: Car- negie Institution. Rogers, Robert W. The Religion of Baby- lonia and Assyria. Eaton & Mains, net. Scoble, Andrew H. Sun Time and Cloud Time. Severy, Melvin L. Gillette's Industrial Solu- tion. Boston: Ball Pub. Co. $1.50 net. Sherman, P. Tecumseh. General Sherman in the Last Year of the Civil War. Shurter, Edwin Du Bois. Oratory of the South. Neale Pub. Co. $3. Snow, Ellen. The Confession of Seymour Van. R. F. Fenno Co. The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the City of New York. Rog- ers & Co. Thompson, R. Campbell Semitic Magic. London: Luzac & Co. Trevena, John. Heather. Moffat, Yard & Co. Ugarte, Manuel. Las nuevas tendencias lit- erarias. Valencia: F. Sempere & Co. Venn, J. A. Oxford and Cambridge Ma- triculations, 1544—1906. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons. Is. Wager, Lewis. The Life and Repentance of Mary Magdalene. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. Worcester, Elwood. The Living Word. Mof- fat, Yard & Co. $1.50 net. jLillie's Development of the Chick An Introduction to Embryology By Frank R. Lillie, Professor in the University of Chicago, xi-l-472 pp. 8vo. $4.00. A connected account of the development of the chick to hatching. fully illustrated. It is so arranged that it can he used both as a text- book and a laboratory manual. The development of other vertebrates is considered only incidentally, as the author believes that a fairly com- plete knowledge of the development of one form is essential to real understanding of the problems of comparative embryology. E. G. CONKLIN, Professor in Princeton University: This is in all regards the most complete and satisfactory work on this subject which has yet appeared, and all teachers and students of Embryology are under a debt of gratitude to the author and publisher for so excellent a work. HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, 34 W. 33d St., New York RECENT ADVANCES IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY By A. W. STEWART, D.Sc, Lecturer on Stereochemistry in University College, Lon- don; Carnegie Research Fellow; formerly 1851 Exhibition Research Scholar and Mac- Kay Smith Scholar in the University of Glasgow. With an Introduction by J. Norman Collie, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Pro- fessor of Organic Chemistry in University College, London. 8vo. pp. xvi-291. $2.50 n'ct. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO, New York fEarly Western Travels^ ( Contains much hitherto unpublished ma- \ ( terial ; thousands of notes — topographical, geo- \ graphical, scientific. -topographical, geo- economic, and historical- two translations into English for the first time. C etc. "The annotations are abundant and high- t \ S ly valued." — The Nation. } \ THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO. } < CLEVELAND, OHIO J

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 11,, 1909. The Week. The explosive quarrel between the President and Congress must seem mys- terious to the average, inattentive citi- zen. He cannot understand the heat on either side. That Congress had some provocation, he perceives, but excuse for the great excitement and vast indigna- tion, it is not easy for him to find. The bewilderment of the general mind is not unlike that of an American who had just come home after four years in the Arctic regions. He would have left Mr. Roosevelt the hero and idol; he would find him the subject of attack and de- nunciation. Such an American would know that this strange reversal, this ef- fect defective, comes by cause, and would demand an explanation which should be, as Montaigne says, not more difficult of belief than the thing to be explained. The true account of the con- troversy and the bitterness goes far back. It was not a single unguarded utterance of the President that created all this animosity against him. His rash language let it loose, but did not cause it. The feeling of hostility had long been gathering in Congress. If the Pres- ident's message had been all, the affair could easily have been accommodated. So Mr. Roosevelt evidently thought. He expected his explanatory message to be accepted as satisfactory. But the ac- cumulation of dislike and enmity was seeking a vent, and it took this one. It was as if Congress had been waiting for years for the Lord to deliver a Philis- tine into its hands, and would not let go the opportunity to rise and smite. Was the attitude of Congress due to jealousy of his popularity? Was it envy of his fame? Was it even resentment at his dictatorial manners?* These feel- ings may have entered into the dispute, but they are not the principal matter. The truth is a delicate thing to state, but no one who has any acquaintance with Congressmen, no one who knows Washington, can have any doubt what that truth is. It is, in a word, that a great many Congressmen do not trust President Roosevelt's sincerity. They think him hypocritical. He has lectured them and the country on truthfulness, yet large numbers of Congressmen be- lieve Mr. Roosevelt himself to be habit- ually untruthful. He has posed as a champion of fair play, yet Congress- men are persuaded that he fights foul. His talk of the square deal, they scoff at as sheer pretence. They say that he protects favorites, such as Paul Morton and the Steel Corporation, while furiously prosecuting his enemies, or those whom he thinks he can make political capital by attacking. In short, leading members of both houses are con- vinced that all the superior moral ex- hortation which it has had from Presi- dent Roosevelt, has come from a man who allows in himself the thing he con- demns in others. We do not say that these Congressmen are right about it. We only state their attitude. On no oth- er theory can we account for their per- sistence in recording their deliberate conviction that the President has been guilty of assertions "unfounded on fact." It was simply Congress doing collectively what its members have long been doing individually and privately — that is, pass- ing an adverse moral judgment upon Mr. Roosevelt. This is what makes the business so serious for the President. A mere collision of authority, he could af- ford to dismiss with a smile. Even such a quarrel as would prevent him from getting the measures enacted that he de- sires, he might now snap his fingers at. His term is nearly over. But the re- buke of Congress strikes deeper. In what it explicitly says, there is an arraignment of Mr. Roosevelt from which he can escape by no diversion, and which he cannot forget or shake off by evoking the old huzzas to attest his undiminished popularity. Senator Tillman's reply to the Presi- dent's charges clears up some matters of fact. Granting all that was alleged against the Senator, his action was in violation of no law. It was an impro- priety, not a crime. The land he was trying to buy was not government land. There was no question of "dummy en- tries," or of obtaining more than the law allows to one person. Moreover, in endeavoring to secure an act to compel the land-grant company to sell its hold- ings at $2.50 an acre, Senator Tillman distinctly notified the agents, at the time, that he was acting solely in the general interest, independent of his own decision, later, to buy or not to buy. In all this, there was doubtless a lack of caution and delicate regard for his pub- lic position, on Senator Tillman's part, but no dishonesty. The sole moral ques- tion remaining is whether he had sought to deceive the Senate when he asserted that he had not "undertaken" to buy any land in the West. In the or- dinary sense of the word, he had; in the technical, legal sense, he had not. Senator Tillman now declares that he meant "undertaken" in the sense of "contracted." But, of course, it is pretty hard for a man who, like Till- man, has sneered at the technicalities of lawyers, and called himself a "cornfield lawyer," to ride off on a technicality himself. He admits that he was some- what "disingenuous," but denies that he had any intention to deceive. The most favorable view of his case, therefore, is that he does not emerge without blame; though he certainly does not deserve to be pilloried as a criminal. It is impossible to get excited over the President's recent message to the Senate about the purchase of the Ten- nessee Coal and Iron Company by the United States Steel Corporation. It raises no new issue, brings out no facts not known before, reveals no Presiden- tial trait with which we were not al- ready fully acquainted. Every one who has studied Mr. Roosevelt knows that he has never shown any grasp of gen- eral principles. He deals only with separate cases. Fully aware of this, Messrs. Gary and Frick, very naturally as well as shrewdly, went to the White House and asked whether the Steel Cor- poration would be prosecuted as the Standard Oil Company and the Tobacco Trust had been. From his lit de justice, the President told them that it would not be, which was all they wanted to know. But men will still inquire why, if the proposed undertaking were legal, a permission, or license, from the Pres- ident was needed. The public, mean- while, is left in doubt at which to won- der most: the disinterestedness of Gary and Frick in buying stock which "as a mere business transaction" they did not

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28 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2272 care to purchase; or the beautiful and child-like innocence of the President in accepting such a view of the matter. The Senate won 3,500 friends at one roll-call, when it voted that clerks for the next census be chosen by non-com- petitive examination. Congressional hangers-on to that number are rejoicing because patronage will secure for them the places, however miserable the show- ing they make before the examiners. As Senator Lodge pointed out, the candi- date without "influence" passing with a grade of 100 per cent, will be worsted by the blockhead enjoying a political pull. But has the Senate reckoned with the friends it has lost by this same act? It has placed itself on record as oppos- ed to a wholly reasonable reform of the civil service, a reform in which every intelligent citizen outside of profession- al politics firmly believes. And we hope that the stir of larger happenings in Washington will not distract public at- tention from this fact. The next cen- sus will be more complex than the last, and those who compile it must be well- trained men. There is no sure way of getting the right persons except through the classified service, and President Roosevelt has been entirely right in in- sisting that they be so picked. He should veto the bill if Congress passes it. The meeting of the Presidential elec- toral colleges in the several States last Monday passed off without incident, and no dispute is to be expected when Con- gress comes next month to "count the votes." Yet the law relating to the mat- ter is in a most unsatisfactory condi- tion, as J. Hampden Dougherty pointed out in his recent article in the Forum. To what perils the country was exposed by the uncertainties of the old statute, the nation discovered with a shudder in 1876. But even the new act of 1887, passed after years of debate, contains too many ambiguities and silences. In an election of which the result was close and contested, the opportunities for framing objections to electoral cer- tificates, before one or other of the houses of Congress, would be, as the late Senator Morgan asserted, "as nu- merous as it is possible for the ambi- tion, the cupidity, the fraud, and the skill of wicked men to invent." The Constitution omits to provide for the Presidential succession, in case the Presidentelect should die before in- auguration. Such a contingency has never presented itself, and never may, yet the awkwardness and danger would be so great, if it did, that a member of the House has introduced a constitu- tional amendment, to cure the defect. Our differences with Colombia, grow- ing out of our seizure of Panama, have at last been settled by a treaty. A mo- ney payment of $2,500,000 is to be made, nominally by Panama, really by the United States. Colombia's financial ne- cessities have, at last, induced her to abate her first demand for $10,000,000, and to jump at the chance of getting $500,000 down, with the rest to follow in annual payments of $250,000. The fact that the settlement is peaceful cannot conceal from the future historian the truth that it closes a five years' treat- ment of a weak nation by "the strong man armed," which the said strong man would never have dreamed of applying to a first-class Power. Nor does the transaction cause Panama to be any the less of a nemesis than before. Nature is more relentless than Colombia. That country we can buy off, but there seems to be no end to the money which we shall be called upon to pour into the canal. The original appropriation is now nearly exhausted, yet the most ardent optimists do not predict the finishing of the work before 1915.* And, speak as cheerfully as the officials may about Mr. Taft's trip to the Isthmus, accompanied by a body of engineers, the world knows that it is a confession of deep concern over the canal plans. . Boston's new city charter, over which a commission has long been at work, is awaiting the action of the Legislature. It is a radical revision, largely in the direction of centralization of power, with simplification of machinery. The Mayor, to whom a four-year term is to be given, will have full authority over all heads of departments. The present Common Council is to be replaced by a board of aldermen consisting of nine members, shorn of nearly all legislative powers, except that of passing upon, not originating, city appropriations. This scheme is in line with the best modern ideas concerning municipal government. The new charter has several original features. One of them is a provision for the appointment of an advisory board of five public-spirited citizens, whose duty it shall be to aid the Mayor by advice and suggestions. Again, though the term of the Mayor is four years, in the second year of service the voters shall have submitted to them, at the November election, the question: "Shall there be an election for Mayor at the next municipal election?" In case this is answered in the affirmative, the existing Mayor's name shall be put upon the ballot without renomination. This is a novel way of adopting one princi- ple of the "recall," while avoiding some of its obvious inconvenience. All nom- inations for elective city offices are to be "direct." Any man can stand for the Mayoralty who files nomination pa- pers signed by 5,000 qualified voters. If there were any hope that Col. Zavarnitsky would have to serve out his four years of penal servitude, the ver- dict just brought against this chief of the secret police at Vladivostok would brighten the outlook in Russia. But he will probably go the way of all other high bureaucrats who have been care- less enough to leave traces of their mis- deeds; there will be a few months in a comfortable guard-house, and then a pardon. Col. Zavarnitsky was convict- ed of having repeatedly placed bombs and illegal literature in the apartments of suspected persons, in order to secure their conviction. The proofs were so clear that not even a bureaucratic judge could be blind to them. The hid- eous offence is known to be common throughout the empire, and the trap- ping of police spies peculiarly difficult. One might suppose, then, that, after having established a clear case against a high official, the courts would be more than ordinarily cautious about convict- ing alleged political offenders; and not for justice's sake alone, but also that further discontent might not be stirred up by the punishment of innocent men. And yet, on the very day that Col. Za varnitsky was sentenced, it was an- nounced that twenty-two persons had at the same time been condemned to death for "crimes" committed in 1906. And this roll of victims was only a fair day's average. Nothing can discredit the po- lice spy. Among the first legislative projects to be taken up by the Turkish Parliament will be a series of bills dealing with the

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Jan. 14, 1909] The ZTSTation 29 reorganization of the army. The lead- ers of the Young Turks evidently be- lieve that the liberal regime, establish- ed by a bloodless revolution, must be based on something more substantial than luck and the good will of the for- eign world. The most important of the proposed reforms deal with the exten- sion of obligatory military service to the non-Mohammedan population, and the establishment of a national militia. The first change is both inevitable and momentous. Under a Constitution that recognizes no differences of race and religion, the army, like the Parliament itself, must represent all the elements of the Ottoman nationality, Christian and Jew as well as Mohammedan. That means the abandonment of the historic policy of Turkish conquest and govern- ment, under which the conquered pop- ulation might accept the Moslem faith and whatever political rights existed un- der the Sultans, or might remain Chris- tian, pay tribute, and remain, in respect to their rulers, a conquered class, to whom it would evidently be folly to grant the right to bear arms. The fu- ture, therefore, may see Christian levies fighting under the standard of the Prophet against fellow-Christians un- der a hostile flag. Such a situation is hard to conceive, yet Turkey's problems can be solved in no other way than by creating a feeling of patriotism strong- er than the centrifugal tendencies of differences in race and religion. Whether Macedonians, Greeks, or Armenians can learn to look upon themselves as Otto- man subjects, the future must decide. Whether the dismissal of Yuan Shih Kai means his permanent downfall is a point which the Western mind cannot decide without more evidence. Yellow mantles, peacock feathers, and purple buttons are freely given and taken away in China, and even so great a states- man as Li Hung Chang experienced the vicissitudes of Imperial favor. Should the Chinese court find itself in need of Yuan's services, it will call him back from disgrace just as Li Hung Chang was recalled to go to Japan and make the best terms he could for China, after the disastrous war of 1894-95. That the new Regent may have found Yuan Shih Kai too much of a brother near the throne is probable. The reasons that made him popular with the Western Powers may have made him an eyesore to the new regime at Peking. In all the Western talk about a new China, it has always come out that it was Yuan Shih Kai that was the new China — Yuan and his ascendency in the Grand Council, Yuan and his European-drilled army, Yuan and his European friends. It may very well be that the Regent at Peking wishes to demonstrate that it is to the Chinese government as a whole that Eu- rope must look for the long-desired na- tional regeneration. This attitude on the part of the Man- chu rulers of China was well summed up by that acute observer of Far East- ern affairs, B. L. Putnam Weale, in his "Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia," which appeared last year. In describ- ing conditions at Peking in 1907, he says; The Manchu dynasty, although now hon- estly desirous of escaping from the undig- nified position of complete and undisguised international weakness which it still oc- cupies, is equally anxious . . . that the reforms shall not come from below. . . . Thus there is a dual movement to be no- ticed in provincial China — a reform of the administration and a tightening of the Manchu hold. In other words, reform being inevitable, the Manchu rulers would rather get the credit for it themselves than have it fall to any one outside. Mr. Weale touches on the very case of Yuan Shih Kai: The Manohu party began to realize that if the new conscript army which was being slowly raised all over the empire became accustomed to the idea that the Tien-Tsin viceroy [Yuan] was the life and soul of the whole movement, and its real leader, it would only require some Peking palace disaster, such as the death of the Empress Dowager or of the Emperor, to reduce the Palace and the Manchus to a position of tutelage. In 1907, a new scheme of army organ- ization placed the control of the greater part of Yuan's trained army in the hands of a Manchu war minister. So the more recent event seems to have been long preparing. Feuds between Hindus and Mohamme- dans in Bengal have been increasingly frequent of late; and they are not un- connected with the anti-British revolu- tionary movement among the Bengal Hindus. The British press has caught the habit of contrasting the loyalty of the Mohammedan population of north- ern India with the seditious discontent of the Hindus. The British authorities have, to an appreciable extent, been playing off the leaders of the Mohamme- dan community against the "agitators" and "demagogues" so plentiful in Hindu ranks. It is not difficult to imagine that among the common people the impres- sion should spread that the British gov- ernment would back a Mohammedan mob against a Hindu mob; and relig- ious passions, always ready to break out, may thereby be further stirred. It would be wrong, of course, to suppose that the British rulers in India have been adopting the Czar's method of sup- pressing revolution by setting different races and religions at each other's throats. Such a policy would not only be morally monstrous, but very short- sighted. For what happened in Russia might easily happen in India. The op- pressed nationalities might profit by their internecine wars to turn their practised weapons against their rulers. Fine old English customs in politics are going, one by one. The latest is the pleasing habit of breaking up a po- litical meeting of the other side, by packing it with ruffians on your side, who by shrieking and violence will pre- vent the speakers from being heard. All these playful ways are now to be abol- ished. Among the last bills enacted by Parliament was one making it a mis- demeanor to "act in a disorderly man- ner" at a "lawful public meeting." An offender of this sort may now be fined, "not exceeding five pounds"; while any one inciting another person to disorder- ly acts shall also be held guilty under the new law. Its passage was, of course, contested by some horrified members of Parliament. One of them said that it was a "very grave infringement of the right of public meeting." The real in- fringers, one would think, are those who prevent the organizers of a public meeting from conducting it in an order- ly manner. Another opponent of the new measure declared that it "dealt a heavy blow at the expression of politi- cal opinion." It is hard to see why. All that you are really forbidden to do is to interfere with the expression of po- litical opinion by other persons, when they set about making it in an or- derly way. To Americans, all this seems elementary. To them, it must ap- pear odd that a special Parliamentary enactment is required in England to do what here ordinary police regulations would cover. J. . J ■'"-■>*' . ■

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30 The Nation. [Vol 88, No. 2272 THE GOVERNOR'S NEW FIGHT. When Gov. Hughes changed his mind about accepting a renomination last year, a friend reported him as giving one strong reason for seeking office again: "I should like to be able to do something to improve party govern- ment." In the Governor's message this topic overshadows all the rest. He has important information to give and rec- ommendations to make on other sub- jects, but the reform of party methods is the battlepiece. This is the part of his message that both the Governor's friends and enemies will read with keen- est interest; it is this into which he has put most thought and feeling; about these proposals of his, the chief legisla- tive struggles of the session will take place. And as Gov. Hughes now has a spreading national prestige, his words in behalf of a radical reform in party management will go echoing over the country, so that leaders in other States will get impulse and courage from the Governor of New York. Those passages which deal with the reform of the primaries and of the nom- inating system, are written in Gov. Hughes's best style. They reveal his uncommon powers of analysis and firm grasp of the fact; his faculty of lucid exposition, and his absolute frankness in stating the truth; while all is shot through with a clear integrity and mor- al fervor which make Mr. Hughes the most formidable reformer of the day. Unflinchingly uncovering political evils, he is perfectly fearless in applying the remedy. And his intellectual resources are as unfailing as his moral earnest- ness; and both are made instruments of his ambition to do some service to the State. It renews one's faith in the vital- ity of democratic institutions when a man equipped as is Gov. Hughes shows that he can find the way to the heart of the people, and acquire an authority which becomes a living power against low politics. The truthfulness of the picture which Gov. Hughes draws of the present con- trol of the party machine in this State, cannot be called in question. It is real- istic, from the life. As he says, the pro- fessed theory of party representation is denied in practice. Delegates to conven- tions are generally mere pawns; they "might as well be inanimate." Party can- didates are, in effect, appointed, not nominated, and they are appointed, the Governor laconically remarks, "by those who have not been invested with any such appointing power." As a rule, pri- maries are a farce; conventions a form gone through by wire-pulled puppets. Gov. Hughes is within bounds when he describes the existing management of parties as unrepresentative, destructive of belief in government by party, and absolutely hostile to high and unselfish leadership. And he accurately defines the growing demand for improved methods of nominating candidates for office as but a recent "phase of the long struggle against the control of the powers of gov- ernment by selfish interests." If you doubt it, listen to the anguished out- cries of Barnes, Ward, and the other lo- cal and microscopic bosses who see their control of the powers of government menaced by Gov. Hughes. What the Governor aims at is the free expression of the wishes of the major- ity of a party, instead of manipulation and misrepresentation by skilled and un- scrupulous managers. In theory, even the latter are compelled to admit that the Governor's contention is sound. The Republican Convention at Saratoga went on record as believing that "primaries and conventions should truly express the will of the voters," and as favor- ing "the freest action in the selection of delegates." But by this the party cap- tains of fifties and captains of hundreds did not mean what the Governor does. He is for an absolutely open and thor- oughly safeguarded primary, with pow- er directly to nominate all candidates for office. Heretofore, the Governor has contented himself with urging that such primaries be merely permitted; now, as he clearly foreshadowed in his speech of acceptance that he would do, he rec- ommends that the law make them "binding upon all parties." He thus puts himself at the head of the direct nomi- nations movement in this State, and, we may say, the country. So cool and level-headed a man as Gov. Hughes can never be imagined as offering a political panacea. He does not advocate direct-nominations as a cure- all. As he pointedly remarks, "politi- cal mischief will exist under any sys- tem." But it is our business to make the system the best possible, to put into the hands of the people weapons which they can most readily use in times of agitation. We shall never attain politi- cal salvation by machinery. All new devices, if left to the hands of the poli- ticians, they will soon learn to work to their own advantage. Without an alert and intelligent electorate, no system will guarantee us against misrepresen- tation or corruption. But this does not alter the fact that some systems are better than others. The one which the Governor urges is the best yet devised to give the people immediate and full control over party management and nominations. If we had had such a system last year, there would not have been the long doubt and agonizing about the renomination of Gov. Hughes. The demand of the people would have come up like the sound of many waters. And it is only to make such expression of the popular will easier and more effec- tive that the Governor presses upon the Legislature the need of party reform. None knows better than he the tremen- dous odds against him in this new fight; but he goes forth to it serenely, be- cause convinced that right and truth are on his side, and that he is battling for the common weal. THE DEMAND FOR MORE ARMY OF- FICERS. The House Military Affairs Commit- tee took prompt steps last week towards disposing of the War Department's lat- est request for increase of the officers of the army. Ever since the war with Spain, the department has been steadily at work enlarging the army. Not con- tent with getting sixteen new regiments in 1901, it has expanded the Engineers and Artillery, the Medical Corps, and the Ordnance; and last year a Porto Rico regiment and the Philippine Scouts were added to the regular army, so that the authorized strength to-day is more than four times as great as in 1898. This year 612 line officers were demand- ed to take the place of a similar num- ber detached from their regiments for recruiting duty, study at army schools, teaching in private military schools, ser- vice with the Philippine Constabulary, the Panama Canal, the General Staff, etc. Beyond doubt, this practice of strip- ping regiments of their officers is a bad one. A regiment needs all but six or seven, if its work is to be well done and the proper military spirit maintained. As a matter of record, Gen. C. L. Hodges reports from Iloilo that on June 30 the Fourth and Fourteenth Infantry had

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 31 present for duty only 24 and 21 officers, respectively, out of the fifty on each regimental roll. Yet these regiments are, as it were, on the firing line; hos- tilities, Gen. Hodges reports, ceased only a year ago, and the country is not yat wholly pacified. Absenteeism means more work for fewer men, discontent, and, generally, inefficiency. As there are twelve companies to a regiment, it is obvious that in the Fourth and Four- teenth most companies have only one officer apiece, after allowance is made for colonels, battalion commanders, ad- jutants, quartermasters, -and commissar- ies. Yet these regiments might be call- ed upon to take the field at any time against warring tribesmen. Naturally, the War Department is alarmed. But it does not take steps to remedy the evil by utilizing retired officers wherever possible, by cutting out need- less details, by refusing to strip regi- ments in the Philippines. It selects a purely arbitrary figure, 612, and then asks Congress for authority to appoint that number of additional officers. Ac- cording to Secretary Wright's figures, the number of officers on detached ser- vice was 517 in 1905, 627 in 1906, 682 in 1907, and 691 in 1908. With one stroke of his pen Mr. Wright could order nine more officers on detached service, and so make it a round 700. He offers no guarantee that five years from now his successor will not be begging for 200 more officers because of the growth of details. On the contrary, past experi- ence shows that this is precisely what will happen. When Congress added six- teen regiments to the line in 1901, it largely increased the number of officers in each regiment, at the request of the War Department, for the express pur- pose of providing a surplus of officers for detached service. Every cavalry regiment obtained seven more officers, exclusive of chaplains; every infantry regiment eleven; and there was a cor- responding increase in the artillery. These extra officers numbered in all about 526, but the absenteeism has, as is indicated by the figures quoted above, grown worse. Nobody in the army believes that it is necessary to detail 103 active officers to recruiting duty. Most of them per- form no services that cannot be per- formed by the medical officers and ser- geants in charge of recruiting offices. Clearly, retired officers — the retired list has increased over 50 per cent, since the war with Spain, and numbers 983 — could discharge every one of these du- ties. Again, the Panama Canal Com- mission, the Quartermaster's Depart- ment, department headquarters, the mil- itary prisons, the mil'tia, and other mis- cellaneous duties absorb forty officers, all of whose places could be filled by men who have retired. But the worst waste is the detail of no less than sixty- five officers to military schools. In some of these institutions the military educa- tion is a farce, and the instructor is ask- ed for merely that the school may se- cure a teacher free and boast that it is approved by the War Department. Most of those sixty-five officers could be saved to the line; so could half of the twenty- eight aides-de-camp. If some of the seventy-seven officers on duty at West Point were released, the school would profit thereby; for civilian professors would be more freely employed in the non-military departments that teach the languages, science, etc. Now that the twenty-seven officers heretofore on duty in Cuba are to return, the War Depart- ment could, if compelled, probably send 300 officers back to their regiments within two months. The House Military Affairs Committee is evidently of the same opinion, for it has obtained the passage of a resolution asking the Sec- retary of War how far he has carried out the law looking to the detail of re- tired officers to certain duties, and ask- ing how many more places in the de- tached service could be filled by them. We should not burden our readers with these details of army administra- tion were not the matter so perfect an illustration of the spirit of wastefulness and the absence of all desire to econ- omize, which characterize our govern- ment. WATCHING OUR CUSTODIANS. Reform organizations like our Bureau of Municipal Research or the projected Voters' League, are multiplying every- where. Illinois has its Legislative League, Minnesota its Citizens' League. Such bodies might be cited by enemies of democracy as evidence of the break- down of popular government. We send our representatives to watch over our interests at the City Hall or in Albany, and then we hire detectives to watch our representatives. A spasmodic re- form movement which makes a clean sweep of misgovernment every now and then may be less effective for political purity than a board of trained watch- ers permanently encamped around a Legislature, but it is also less of a sa- tire on democracy. Not a piece of ma- chinery has ever been devised that does not clog at times and call for a gener- al overhauling. Yet to be constantly on the look-out for defects argues that your machine is cheap and defective, and that you have lost all faith in it. So, if Russian despotism, to be work- able, must be tempered with assassina- tion, representative government, to be endurable, must be supplemented with some form of secret service. We came near to that ideal in the very height of the "uplift" wave a few years ago, when a band of patriotic newspaper men de- termined to constitute themselves a peo- ple's lobby at Washington to let the country know which Congressmen were thieves and which were not. Apparent- ly, the country then was not quite ready to supplant representative government with an oligarchy drawn from the fourth estate. The case might be made stronger still. Should we put forward the old defence that democracy, like everything else on earth, has its evils, but that the cure therefor lies in still more democracy, we are met with the retort that an or- ganization of a handful of experts, far from being more democracy, is really an admission that right political con- duct must be sought through the efforts of a chosen few. This fact brings us face to face with a dilemma. Either such expert surveillance is ineffective, and we have only one more failure to count up, or it is effective, and the real good accomplished by our elective institu- tions is the work of a non-elective few. Is it greater democracy that is bring- ing order into the chaos of our munici- pal administration, or is it certain pub- lic-spirited citizens backing up the work of the Bureau of Municipal Re- search? The Citizens Union, after fif- teen years of effort as a political party, is about to reorganize on the basis of a bureau of political information and re- form. Here again its work will neces- sarily fall into the hands of a few ex- pert investigators and publicists. That is the indictment. But in its severity lies its own refutation. Were democracy in truth so complete and cumbrous a failure, it would have been

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32 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 impossible for this country to live to be what it is. Our legislatures may be largely venal and our municipalities misgoverned, yet Americans have gone on securing their fair share of health, happiness, and comfort. The most that can be shown is that our imperfect de- mocracy somewhat reduces our possible store of well-being. At least it can hard- ly be proved that under any other sys- tem we should have reached the pres- ent level. Our enormous natural riches have not favored democracy. The ideal of good government has had to make its way in the face of our exuberant pros- perity. It is easy enough for German •cities to be well-governed. There pri- vate income and wages are low enough to make the slightest reduction in the tax-rate worth fighting for. With us grafters have flourished because, un- fortunately or fortunately, as we choose to look upon it, the merchant and the landowner have felt that the time spent in reducing city expenses by a dollar would, if devoted to one's private af- fairs, bring in five. If, therefore, the cry for purer government has arisen among us, it is not so much because democracy has been hurt in its pocket as in its moral sense. A nation that can afford bad government yet strives after the good, has not made a failure of ruling itself. A Bureau of Municipal Research, and a Voters' League, for the purpose of ex- ercising pressure on backsliding legis- lators, are the steps by which the voter is being led along the road of civic edu- cation. Towards that end our political vigilance committees are working. The need for them will never quite disap- pear. Sterilize as we may the progress of a candidate by direct primary nomi- nations, by campaign criticism, by laws against corrupt electoral practices, and other laws against lobbying, the inher- ent weakness of human nature will still make it possible for a candidate nom- inated and elected by honest men to turn out a rascal after he takes the oath of office. To keep the memory of his rascality green is the proper work of special organizations like those we have mentioned. The democracy at large has too much to think about to remember details. But it is still to be shown that it refuses to act on the basis of fuller knowledge when that is supplied it. POB IN FRANCE. Poe appeals to the French even more than to Americans, because the essence of his work is logic — logic entirely di- vorced from reality, and seeming to rise superior to reality. The French of the Parnassian epoch especially, found in him a kindred spirit because of his devotion to art for art's sake. The lesser, or lower, Parnassians and the Decad- ents loved him for his perversity and his grotesque horrors. The Symbolists found in him their ideal, because his work so often seems to have much great- er significance than it really possesses. I. Poe's name first became known in France through a lawsuit between two newspapers. One of them had received a story called "Les Crimes de la Rue Morgue," and had published it without knowing that it was not an original work. The second published a similar story, called "L'Orang-Outang," and,, in the suit which followed, it was brought out that both stories were independent versions of an English tale by a certain Edgar Poe. This roused interest in him; a translation of several of his tales,, by Madame Meunier, was published in 1846; and in 1853 appeared two tales, translated by Borghers. The accepted literary tradition, that Baudelaire was the first to make Poe known in France, dates back to Gau- tier's "Rapport sur le progres de la poe- sie frangaise depuis 1830," published in 1867, in which he says, speaking of Bau- delaire: "Sa familiarite de traducteur avec Edgar Poe, ce bizarre genie d'out- re-mer, qu'il a le premier fait eonnaitre en France, a beaucoup influe sur son esprit." In spite of the early translations just mentioned, Gautier is on the whole right. It is entirely due to Baudelaire that Poe has become practically a French author (his works being almost as familiar to all generations of French- men since 1856 as those of any native writer), and that he has come to be counted among the exceedingly rare for- eigners who are naturalized citizens of the French republic of letters. Baude- laire devoted the best part of his life to his translation of Poe. He con- sciously prepared himself for this partic- ular work. From the time when he first became acquainted with some fragments of Poe's work, in 1846, he haunted the English cafes, spent his time by prefer- ence with any one who could speak Eng- lish, from men of letters to coachmen and jockeys, besieged every American whom he could come at, for information about Poe, and, after four years of such preparation, began the translations to which he devoted the following fifteen years. He seems to have believed in a sort of mysterious connection between his own spirit and Poe's. "I could tell you," he wrote to Armand Fraisse, "of something still more strange and almost incredible. In 1846, or '47, I became ac- quainted with some fragments of Poe's; they moved me in singular fashion. I found among them, believe me or not, as you please, poems and stories which I had conceived myself, though in a vague and confused way, ill thought out; and which Poe had wrought into perfect works." Baudelaire's first trans- lation, of a single story by Poe, was pub- lished in 1848. In 1855, a series of tales appeared in the newspaper Le Pays, and these were collected in 1856, in a vol- ume, under the title "Histoires extraor- dinaires." The "Nouvelles Histoires ex- traordinaires" appeared in 1857, "Les Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym" in 1858, "Eureka" in 1864, and "Les His- toires grotesques et serieuses" in 1865, only two years before Baudelaire's death. These translations have become so identified with Baudelaire that they are regularly republished with the edi- tions of his original work, and they have also appeared in many separate editions. Many other writers of distinction have attempted to> render Poe into French. Besides the translations by Baudelaire, there are as many as twen- ty-three other versions, each including more or less of Poe's work; and among their authors are such men as the critic Hennequin, the poets Mallarme and Rabbe, and the novelist J. H. Rosny. As compared with this devotion of the French to Poe, I know of only four dif- ferent translations in Spanish, three in Italian, and one in modern Greek (men- tioned by Lauvriere in his thesis on Poe). Among all these, Baudelaire's version has remained the standard. He has followed Poe with absolute literal- ness, line by line, and almost word by word (so far as his knowledge of Eng- lish, which was here and there a little at fault, allowed him), and yet has made of his translation a living work. That it possesses all the qualities of an original is perhaps sufficiently proved by the influence it has exerted. As some one has said, it made Poe a figure in the world's literature. II. Not only as translator, but as critic, Baudelaire forced Poe upon the atten- tion of his countrymen, willing or un- willing. The essay, "Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses ouvrages," later used as an intro- duction in the "Histoires extraordi- naires," appeared first in the Revue de Paris early in 1852. In this introduc- tion Baudelaire makes American ma- terialism alone responsible for all the misfortunes of Poe. This "great gas- lighted barbarity" (that is, America) crushed, stifled, murdered him. The United States was simply a vast prison to him, in which he rushed back and / forth with the feverish agitation of a being created to breathe more aromatic air. "All his inner and spiritual life,

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 33 whether drunkard's or poet's, was one constant effort to escape from this an- tipathetic atmosphere," in which, ac- cording to Baudelaire, "the impious love of liberty has given birth to a new tyranny, the tyranny of the beasts, a zoocracy. Poe, in the midst of "this seething mass of mediocrity and com- monplace," cared only for the excep- tional, and painted it with faultless and terrifying artistry: Like our Eugene Delacroix, who raised his art to the heights of great poetry, Edgar Poe loves to make his figures move on backgrounds of violet and greenish tints, lighted by the phosphorescence of decay and blown upon by the breath of storms. In his work, so-called inanimate nature partakes of the nature of living beings, and like them shudders with a supernatural and galvanic shudder. . . . Poe writes for our nerves. Poe est Vecrivain des nerfs. The last phrase, be it noted, is meant for praise. One thing more is supremely praisewor- thy in Poe, according to Baudelaire: Poe not only has no lesson to teach, but he has no purpose or aim in his art ex- cept that art itself. Many of the later appreciations of Poe in France were modelled directly upon Baudelaire's, and no French writ- er has departed very much from the conception of Poe as thus first revealed to France. The recognized authorities of French criticism have not dealt with him at all. Saint-Beuve, whom Baude- laire repeatedly besought to devote one of his Monday articles to Poe, promised to do so; but the article was never writ- ten. Taine wrote to Baudelaire: "I greatly admire Poe; he is the type of the Germanic-Englishman with deep in- tuitions and an amazingly overwrought nervous system. ... He reminds one of Heine." But Taine, like Sainte- Beuve, failed to write the "weighty ar- ticle" in Poe's favor which Baudelaire had demanded of him. All the critics of a little lower order — especially, of course, the impressionists — have, how- ever, found their account in Poe. Bar- bey d'Aurevilly wrote four essays on him, and in all of them treated him as "the most beautiful thing which that off-scouring of humanity [meaning, of course, America] has produced." Poe, stranded on this "desert waste," was "trampled to death by the elephantine feet of American materialism." Villiers de 1'Isle-Adam took up the same re- frain, and PSladan, in his introduction to Mourey's translation of the poems, once more attacked this land "without civilization, without art, without nation- ality, without a language," as the "mur- derer of the greatest genius of the nine- teenth century." More worthy treatment was accord- ed Poe's genius by Emile Hennequin, himself perhaps the greatest intellectual genius among recent critics, whose first literary work was a translation of some of Poe's tales, and whose last essay, written just before his premature death, was devoted to Poe. More than the oth- ers, he appreciates Poe's intellectuality, and he is less often than the others a dupe of Poe's pretended hallucinations, realizing that Poe was even greater as a fakir than as a conjurer, and that, compared with Baudelaire, Poe was (in the cruel but true phrase of Henry James), "much the greater charlatan of the two, as well as the greater genius." Other serious critics have treated Poe less analytically and more generously: Teodor de Wyz6wa, in the Revue des Deux Mondes and in his volume, "ficri- vains etrangers," calls Poe's verse the most magnificent which the English lan- guage possesses, and his poems master- pieces of emotion and music. Jules Le- maitre, in a curious passage of his "Dialogue des morts," which seems to have been taken with all seriousness by his countrymen, but in which one may suspect at least a touch of malice, makes Poe say: You are right [in classing me with Plato and Shakespeare]. ... I was indeed a sick man and a mad man; I felt more than any one had felt it before me, the terror of the unknown, the dark, the mys- terious, the inexplicable. I was the poet of hallucination and of the dizziness of the abyss; I was the poet of Fear. I developed in a cold and exact style the secret logic of madness, and expressed states of soul which the author of "Hamlet" himself barely guessed at twice or thrice. Per- haps it might be right to say that I am less different from Shakespeare than from Plato; but it is certain that we are three specimens of the human race as different as possible from each other. Of the critics who belong to the Sym- bolistic school, Camille Mauclair and Charles Morice are the most important. They are naturally both of them devot- ed to Poe. Morice, in his "Litterature de tout a l'heure," the chief critical mani- festo of the school, includes Poe with Chateaubriand, Goethe, Hugo, Balzac, Baudelaire, and Wagner, in the parallel- ogram of forces that have produced modern literature in France. For him the true greatness of Poe consists in this: He is the poet of Love in Fear, of Love in Madness, of Love in Death; . . . the poet who in his divine works first inaugu- rated the poetic conscience; . . . who painted the grotesque, not like Victor Hugo, to our eyes, but to our souls. Such is the esteem felt for Poe by vari- ous schools in France. IV. Poe's direct influence upon creatine writing in France was perhaps less than might be expected from the esteem in which he was held. It is, of course, diffi- cult to measure, especially since it is mingled at first with that of Hoffmann, Heine, and De Quincey; and even of Anne Radcliffe and Maturin, whom Gau- tier mentions in the same breath with him; and later, with that of Wagner and the Pre-Raphaelites, who, with Poe, were the foreign masters of the Symbol- ists. To join the names of Poe and Wagner seems a little odd to us, but it is constantly done by critics and poets of the Symbolistic school in France. Both, at least, are artists in sound, and to the French mind both seemed vague- ly to suggest, meanings that might pos- sibly be of infinite significance (which was the ambition of the Symbolists). Baudelaire himself published his "Fleurs du mal" between the "Histoires extraordinaires" and the "Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym." I find in them very little of Poe's influence, and ac- cording to the latest verdict of scholar- ship (see Louis Betz's "Studien zur ver- gleichenden Litteratur-Geschichte") this is natural, since most of them were probably written by the middle of the decade of the forties, or at any rate be- fore Baudelaire became completely ab- sorbed in Poe. Many of the poems were published in the Revue des Deux Mondes of 1855, before the first volume of the "Histoires extraordinaires." Only in one of his later poems have I found any direct borrowing from Poe, and that is probably unconscious. There is a rather close resemblance (suggested by Betz) between the ideas of Baudelaire's son- net "Le Flambeau vivant," in which we find the lines: lis marchent devant moi, ces yeux pleins de lumieres. . . . lis conduisent mes pas dans la route du Beau ; lis sont mes serviteurs et je suis leur esclave. . . . and Poe's second "To Helen": Only thine eyes remain. . . . Lighting my lonely pathway. . . . They follow me — they lead me through the years, They are my ministers — yet I their slave. They fill my soul with Beauty. . . . The complete contrast between Baude- laire's verse and that of Poe may be sufficiently indicated in Baudelaire's own words: "II n'y a pas dans toute son ceuvre un seul passage qui ait trait a la lubricite, ou meme aux jouissances sensuelles." Leconte de Lisle was too great a poet and too strong a personality to be in- fluenced by Poe. But the lesser men of the Parnassian school found in him a brother, and the Decadents, partly on account of his association with Baude- laire, took him for their adopted father. Barbey d'Aurevilly called him rather oddly the Byron of Bohemia. Morice, more than oddly, found a close analogy between Poe and Pascal. Most of the Decadents, and some of the Symbolists, failed to see that Poe was not a victim of delusions, but a creator of illusions. Poe was one of the chief patron saints of the minor hangers-on of the Decadent and Symbolistic schools — of those who gathered at the Chat Noir, undoubtedly named from Poe's story, and of those

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34= The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 still lesser Bohemians who delighted in the cheaply gruesome Cabarets de la Mort, so popular in Paris during the early nineties. Mallarme, for a time the chief of the Symbolistic school, saw the greater sides of Poe. Better than any one else in France, he appreciated Poe's one sure claim to immortality, the sheer beauty of his very few great poems. Better than any one else, Mallarme has rendered these into French. Baudelaire had trans- lated only one of the poems, "The Ra- ven." Mallarme's first published work was a new translation of "The Raven," superior to Baudelaire's in almost every point. Baudelaire, for instance, ren- ders "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven," by "Bien que ta tete soit sans huppe et sans cimier"; Mallarme gives us "Quoique ta crete soit chue et rase." Only once does he distinctly fall below Poe in his choice of words, where (like Baudelaire) he renders "bosom's core" by "au fond de mon sein." Only once does he let his own love of the unusual in expression triumph over his faithful- ness to Poe, when he changes "By the heaven that bends above us" into "Par les cieux sur nous cpars." Mallarme also has the intelligence to know that "Ula- lume," "For Annie," and many others of Poe's poems are superior to "The Ra- ven." Unfortunately, his translations are in prose, and so much the larger part of Poe's effect is lost, in spite of the care and even genius which he shows in his choice of words. It was in 1888 that he published, in a beautiful volume il- lustrated by Manet, twenty of Poe s poems. The only complete translation of the poems into French, so far as I know, is that published in the following year by Mourey, who has also translated Swinburne. V. The influence of Poe is somewhat more evident in Baudelaire's prose than in his verse. Yet here, too, the resem- blance is slight. Baudelaire even seems to me to owe much more to De Quincey than to Poe. Less intellectual than Poe, and far more sensuous, he could repro- duce Poe's creations admirably, but could not imitate them. On the other hand, he could, and did, imitate De Quincey. Only in "Mon Cceur mis a nu" do I find direct echoes of Poe — both in its autobiographic method (more sin- cere, however, and less creative, than Poe's); and in phrases like this: "Au moral comme au physique, j'ai toujours eu la sensation du gouffre"; or this: "Tout enfant, j'ai senti dans mon cceur deux sentiments contradictoires: l'hor- reur de la vie et 1'extase de la vie." This is true Poe, but rather by detail of technical method than by intellectual creation of substance. Others have imitated Poe better than Baudelaire, in almost every class of short story, from the pseudo-scientific tale of adventure to the wildest exagger- ations of the grotesque and horrible; from Jules Verne's last work, "Le Sphinx des glaces," which is a sequel to Poe's "Arthur Gordon Pym," to the "Contes pour les assassins" of Maurice Beaubourg. And between these extremes are to be found such masters as Riche- pin (especially, for instance, in his "Morts bizarres") ; as Marcel Schwob, in many a collection; and as Maupas- sant himself, whose briefer tales, like "Une Apparition," descend directly from Poe, and whose story of the dead Schopenhauer's false teeth might well have been written by Poe himself. In- stances abound. Chief among them are the "Contes cruels," "Nouveaux Contes cruels," and "Histoires insolites" of Vil- liers de ITsle-Adam. Maeterlinck, by the way, was once so unguarded as to say: "I owe all I have done to Vil- liers." One might mention also, as in the lineage of Poe, the "Contes fantas- tiques" of such gentle and harmless au- thors as Brckmann-Chatrian; but these belong rather to a collateral branch, with Hoffmann for their direct ancestor. The names of Hoffmann and Poe are often linked together as forerunners of the modern tale. But certainly in France, and perhaps everywhere, in the second half of the nineteenth century, Poe's influence has been far greater than Hoffmann's. To my mind, the most remarkable thing about Poe as a mere prose-writer (for I believe his poetry alone can be of great permanent value) is his anticipation of the modern de- sire culminating in such tales as Kip- ling's "Wireless," for a pseudo-scien- tific supernatural ism to replace the mys- tic, symbolic, or merely romantic super- naturalism which Hoffmann and all his contemporaries give us. Poe even took some of his plots from Hoffmann; but where Hoffmann had made a subject mystical and vague, Poe made it mys- terious and intelligible. This does not mean that Poe is superior; but it does mean that he is both more modern and more French. To sum up, he is an in- ventive, not an imaginative, genius. And he is vastly superior to Hoffmann, and likewise to all his American rivals for fame, as an artist pure and simple, whether in the short story, or in verse. Therefore he is the one American writ- er who has been accepted and acclaim- ed by the majority of intelligent Frenchmen. Curtis Hidden Page. New York. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. In 1862 Prof. Francis J. Child wrote a little operetta, "II Pesceballo," founded (if we may use this word in connection with anything so slight) upon the old college song "The Lay of the One Fishball." His purpose was to have it sung as a public entertainment, the proceeds to be used for helping the loyalists of east Tennessee who had been impoverished by the ravages of the war. Professor Child (according- to the late Charles Eliot Norton) submitted his Italian verses to James Russell Lowell for revision. Lowell at once "dashed off" an English version, and the thing was printed as a little pamphlet of thirty-one pages, Child's Italian verses on one side of the leaf, Lowell's English ones on pages facing; and this pamphlet has been much sought after by Lowell collectors. It has no title-page, but has a "dropped head" and Dramatis Personam on p. 1, the text beginning on p. 2. The late J. Chester Chamberlain discovered that there were three distinct forms, with slight textual and typographical variations. The first edition was printed as an octavo on four sheets, with signature marks 1, 2, 3, and 4 on pages 1, 9, 17, and 25, respectively. The second and third edi- tions were printed on two sheets only, with signature marks 1 and 2 on pages 1 and 17. The first and second editions were issued as a stitched pamphlet, without cover, but the third has a pale green printed cover bearing title and imprint "Cambridge Printed at the Riverside Press 1862." The first edition contains several misprints, which were corrected in the second and third: P. 8, line 1, "piacier" was corrected to "piacer." P. 8, line 1, "pocco" was corrected to "poco." P. 18, line 8, "anchore" was corrected to "anchorche\" A fourth misprint, "Salutateto" for "Salu- tatelo," p. 28, line 7, was never corrected. The word "Saloon" in the last line of page 5 is in Roman type in the first edition, and italic in the second and third; and in line 10, p. 23, "and" is in italic type in the first and second editions, but in Roman in the third. The three editions seem to have been printed in the same office from the same font of type, perhaps set by the same compositor, but differences in meas- urements, relative positions of lines, brok- en types, etc., make it improbable that the types were kept standing. A reprint of the third edition (210 copies) was made by the Caxton Club of Chicago in 1899, with an introduction by Charles Eliot Norton. Laid in one of Mr. Chamberlain's copies is a letter from Professor Norton, dated April 4, 1902, in which he says, " 'II Pesceballo' was originally issued in brown covers." This seems to be a mistake. The earlier copies were issued without covers, and no copy of any edition with a brown cover can be traced. W. H. Arnold's copy of the first edition brought $140 in 1901, but it has since sold for less; H. W. Poor's copy went for $60 a few weeks ago. On January 18 and 19 the Anderson Auc- tion Company of this city will sell a col- lection, including five of the original is- sues of the Jesuit Relations; a presentation copy of Neal's "History of New England" (1720), 2 vols.; Dresser's "Historien und Bericht von dem Newlicher Zeit erfun- denen Konigreich China" (1598), including a German translation of Hariot's "New- foundland of Virginia," the first book on Virginia; a long series of editions of Mrs. Eddy's "Science and Health," and other books and pamphlets by her; the rare Phil- adelphia editions (1828) of the first and second series of the "Ella" Essays, in- cluding several which were not collected in England until five years later: Andrew Lang's first book, "Ballads and Lyrics of

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 35 Old France" (1872); and several first edi- tions of Scott. On January 20 and 21 the same firm will offer the library of Henry A. Smith of Milford, Conn., including Car- ver's "Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America" (1779), a special copy; Monardes's "Joyful Newes Out of the Newfound World" (1580); Smith's "Histori- cal Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio Indians" (1766), with the two plates by Benjamin West; and Phillis Wheatley's "Poems" (1773). On January 18-21 the Merwin-Clayton Sales Company of this city will offer the library of the Hon. Hiram C. Day of Buf- falo. This collection includes first editions of several of Dickens's novels, small col- lections of first editions of several promi- nent American authors, and books on Lin- coln and the civil war, one being the first edition of the Lincoln and Douglas Debates (1860). Correspondence. THE PRESIDENCY OP HARVARD. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir : More than two months have elapsed since President Eliot's resignation was an- nounced, and as yet his successor has not been chosen. At least, if the members of the Corporation have decided on a candi- date, they have not allowed anyone to sus- pect that they have done so ; and in con- versation the Fellows individually speak as if they were still perplexed. But they are a wonderful group of men for keeping a se- cret, so that no one outside really knows the situation to-day. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of the election which it may be well to describe, if only as a matter of record. In the first place, everybody familiar with Harvard or with Harvard gatherings knows that for twenty years past a favorite topic of discussion has been who shall succeed Mr. Eliot. If he had retired ten years ago, the choice might have fallen on Dean Briggs, who was remarkably popular with the undergraduates and their parents, as well as with his colleagues. A little earlier than that there was talk, especially out- side of Cambridge, of looking for a man of affairs, because many graduates doubted whether any person with only academic training could possess the qualities now re- quired to run a great institution like Har- vard University. William E. Russell and Roger Wolcott, Governors of Massachusetts, were both talked of, but death removed them too early for either tc be seriously considered. Then a man of affairs more conspicuous than they loomed up. Theodore Roosevelt was immensely popular with the younger generation of Harvard men; he was the idol especially of the sporting set, who in those years felt that President Eliot was going to an extreme in opposing ath- letics ; and he was regarded by many as a "great drawing card" — as if a university, like a circus, could really prosper by the advertising that comes from unlimited fan- fare. Mr. Roosevelt's more serious advo- cates urged that he would infuse new blood into education, break down desiccated rou- tine, cut much academic red-tape, and let loose energy which would bear fruit in every department. That he ever regarded himself as a possible successor to Mr. Eliot is more than doubtful. For several years past, that is, since the possibility was first broached, it has been no secret that the present Corporation did not favor him, and Mr. Roosevelt himself has treated the mat- ter as a joke. In 1901 Jerome D. Greene, a non-graduate of the class of 1896, was appointed secretary to President Eliot, anc1 subsequently secre- tary to the Corporation. His efficient ar- rangement of office details relieved the president of much drudgery, and at the same time it made Mr. Greene familiar with all the business and interests of the uni- versity. He showed so much capacity as head of a bureau that it began to be whis- pered about that he was being coached for the presidency. Mir. Greene, be it said, from all testimony that comes from Cam- bridge, went quietly on his way, displaying joy in his work, and never indicating by speech or manner that he dreamed of being either heir apparent or heir presumptive. Meanwhile President Eliot celebrated his thirty-fifth anniversary (in 1904) without dropping a hint of retiring. All that one heard was that he would not stay on a day after he became conscious that his powers were in the least impaired. Impairment has been the last thing to be associated with him during the past five years, when he has undertaken long journeys, spoken scores of times each year on many topics besides education, and has come to be gen- erally recognized as the foremost living American. But on November 5, he sur- prised everybody by resigning. Many per- sons said at once that he must, of course, have picked out his successor. But it soon became clear that this was not the case. The Corporation individually asked for sug- gestions— and for two months they have been searching, sifting, eliminating. The first noticeable fact was the appeal to precedent. Mr. Eliot, it was said, was elected at thirty-five; Mr. Eliot had been the greatest university president in his- tory; therefore, in order to get his counter- part, we must elect a young man now. In other words, youth was supposed to out- weigh every other consideration, and thirty-five to be the magic number. But the truth was, of course, that Eliot suc- ceeded because he was Eliot, and not be- cause he was young; for his immediate pre- decessor, Thomas Hill, also had youth on his side, but it did not avail. Mr. Greene naturally was now thought of and the various points in his favor were canvassed. Another young man, The- odore Lyman, assistant professor of physics, loomed also into view. He, too, was young and, moreover, a kinsman of President Eliot; but whatever his ability as a physicist, apparently no one could show that he had ever had any experience in executive work, or had expressed an opinion on education. The university pub- lic hardly knew him by sight, so unobtru- sively had he devoted himself to his class- room and laboratory. One heard from a considerable section of the faculty: "Pres- ident Eliot has been a man of science; now let us have a regime under which the hu- manities will flourish." Singularly enough, however, the poor humanities, which cry out so loudly for our sympathies and insist so unintermittently that they alone make all-round men, seem unable in these lat- ter days to produce the goods — if one may be permitted so unhumane an expression. The two middle-aged members of the Fac- ulty of Arts and Sciences who have been most frequently mentioned — Dean Sabine and Prof. A. Lawrence Lowell — could not be credited to the humanities; for the for- mer is the chief authority on acoustics in America, a physicist of original powers, and for the past two years dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Applied Science; while Professor Lowell, having made a reputation as a lawyer in Boston, took up the study of government and pro- duced a work on "Governments and Par- ties in Continental Europe" (1896) which led to his appointment as professor of the science of government at Harvard in 1900. Outside of Cambridge, candidates were sought for. In Boston, James J. Stor- row, member of the banking house of Lee, Higginson & Co., energetic citizen, inde- fatigable chairman of the School Board, seems to have been most widely discussed, and with the greatest favor. At a distance, Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, whose friends describe his marked ex- ecutive ability in managing a complicat- ed and extensive institution, and his tact in dealing with men of all kinds, was recommended. Chancellor David F. Hous- ton, recently transferred from the presi- dency of the University of Texas to the head of Washington University, in St. Louis, was also discussed. Like Dean Sa- bine, he is not a graduate of Harvard Col- lege, having taken an A.M. only; but this is generally held to qualify him as a "Har- vard man." That qualification is regarded as indispensable by everybody; because, it is said, if Harvard, having bred nearly a hundred presidents for other colleges, can't breed one for herself, she had better go out of business. These have been the chief candidates dis- cussed by the public. Doubtless, the Cor- poration has investigated many others. For several weeks, the canvass was much re- stricted because the idea prevailed that no "old man" had any chance. Fifty was the dead line; forty or thirty-five was the age preferred. But the feeling has increased that the advantages of youth a#-e balanced by the uncertainty as to whether youth will make good. The past few weeks the ques- tion has been, "Who is the best man?" not, "Who is the best young man?" This has led to a survey of the actual condition of the university, and of the sort of work which the next president will have specially thrust upon him. This survey has opened many eyes to the fact that the needs which were crying to be satisfied in 1869 no longer exist. The higher education has come. The professional schools are or- ganized. The elective system has been given the broadest experiment. The prin- ciple of liberty has been extended to relig- ious exercises and to the general life of the students. What is needed now is not an innovator like President Eliot, but a conserver, a solidifier, a coordinator. The schools are practically autonomous. The subject which most requires attention now is the College itself, the old "academic de- partment," which at Harvard, and at every other university of sufficient development, now leads an anomalous life. The Ameri- can college is passing through a period of transformation. It is neither a German

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36 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 gymnasium nor an English college, nor such a college as flourished at Cam- bridge fifty years ago. The problem is to find a proper sphere for it — to restore its raison d'etre and validity. This is the problem which awaits the new president of Harvard, and it is far more important that he shall have enlarged and sound ideas upon it, than that he shall be a few years younger or older than an arbitrarily fixed limit. "A young man will require ten years to learn his job ; why not take a mature man, who can begin at once — and so save all that time?" is the commonest argument to-day; and the men who utter it usually add, "Why not take Professor Lowell?" There is no doubt that the current has set strongly toward him. He has proved bis ability in every field he has entered — as lawyer, as trustee of the Lowell Insti- tute, as trustee of the Institute of Tech- nology. He is a rare combination of the man of the world, in its best sense, and of the university leader. During his twelve years' service as teacher at Harvard he has thrown himself with characteristic energy into the interests of professors and stu- dents alike. He is not only the most pop- ular, but the keenest, lecturer in the Col- lege. And so far as concerns the amenities of the president's position, including the proper entertainment of guests and the re- lations between the head of the university and the undergraduates, he could be count- ed upon. As author, he has won an inter- national reputation, his recent exhaustive treatise on England having placed him in the small class where Mr. Bryce is the acknowledged master. The chief objection raised against him is his age: he is fifty- two. If he were forty-five he might be chosen. But under ordinary circumstances he has fifteen, if not twenty, years of ac- tivity before him; and that is as much as need be provided for. X. Boston, January 5. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HIGHER CRITICISM. lo the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your editorial of December 24, "After the Higher Criticism — What?" con- cludes with the assumption that the advent of the higher criticism has meant for those who accept its methods an end of the ages of faith. Such an assertion is perhaps best met by simply stating that the very reverse is actually the case. The higher criticism nas lifted from the Bible the incubus of an impossible theory of its authority, and once more allows its narratives, laws, psalms, prophecies, and evangel to "lie as they befell, alive and warm, part of human life and of the landscape, and of the cheerful day." Does this, think you, make them therefore mere "literature," and undivine? The transition from the point of view of your editorial to that of one who has pass- ed through the discipline of the higher crit- icism and still kept the peace that passeth all understanding cannot well be managed in a few paragraphs. But the fact, as a record of experience, is worth something. It at least disposes of your notion that the disciples of the higher criticism are all "confused," and that the churches are sim- ply "drifting," as you so sweepingly affirm, "without chart, compass, or pilot." Your contention, to be accurate, is only that "most" of them are so adrift, for you fail to make the charge specific. In truth be it said, there is drifting enough. But it is among those who, as you justly put it, are "sticking desperately to the old phrases — though in a new sense" — trying to keep hold of an outworn notion of authority and to have done with it at the same time. These, however, are no true disciples of the higher criticism, which is nothing if not intellectually honest. I believe that I speak for many who have had the same experience with myself. We hav3 simply felt the necessity of facing the facts. The Bible is not, as was once be- lieved, inerrant from cover to cover. This being indubitably so, one has to discrimi- nate, and ask whether any of it is true. Critical science leads the way to such ne- cessary discrimination by exhibiting the va- rious books in their historical origin and relations. Especially it shows that in them all, as human productions, truth and erro- neous ways of envisaging truth are every- where intermixed. But like all science that knows what it is about, criticism moves in the realm of phenomena only — in this case of literary phenomena belonging to the early ages of a certain people. It does not at all raise the ultimate question of source, implied in your reference to Christianity as "of divine or miraculous origin." The high- er critic, being human, may go out of his way to pronounce on this deeper question; but as higher critic it does not concern him in the least. It is far more probable that some well-meaning tyro, such as your apoc- ryphal Chicago professor, will rise up to decide these graver issues off-hand and mis- lead the uninformed by posing as a disciple of the higher criticism. The answer to the question of ultimate origin which you raise can come only in small part from the criti- cal side. It is more properly philosophical; or better, as two of your correspondents in the issue of December 31 suggest, it has to be answered out of life. An utter confusion of mind on this final question is shown in your naive suggestion that science is to offer a substitute for the authority which you declare is lost. For light on the subject, let us go back to your figure of the "drifting" church. A church that was steering and not drifting would have a compass somewhere aboard, that through all changes in its course would keep true to the pole. Men reading that indicator and studying the eternal stars would know whither they were going and their hearts would be at rest. "Which things are an allegory," the compass being that inner sense which for want of a better name we call the spiritual sense in man; and the stars those unfading spiritual realities called in the Bible righteousness, love, truth — all held in the embracing life of God. These are not valid and eternal because they are in the Bible; they are in the Bible because the men who live in its pages saw with growing clearness in the realm of eternal things. Now only that can be authoritative over the spiritual sense which holds it true, as the needle is held to the pole. In the gospel according to Matthew, to which you strikingly allude, that which has appealed even to average minds through eighteen centuries, is sure- ly the luminous personality and utterances of the Prophet of Nazareth, not the em- broidery of pious fancy and of material miracle with which the following age quite naturally surrounded him. Men may differ about the miracle of the Gadarene swine, or about the more significant but no more credible miracle of the resurrection, with- out forfeiting the name of Christian. What constitutes a Christian, one must hope, is the instant inner response to such sayings as the Golden Rule, the commandment of love, the aspiration after the perfect, which lift the Sermon on the Mount above the region of criticism into that of inspir- ation. Whether one is to speak of the religion whose human source is to be found in the life thus reflected in Old and New Testa- ments as "miraculous" or "divine," will depend onhis habitual use of words, which in turn will depend on his general philosophy of life. But the question is not one regard- ing which science, critical or otherwise, has properly anything to say. The higher crit- icism, having set the Biblical books back into their natural relations to contempo- rary life and habits of thought, will be discreetly silent as to whether God was more in human life then than He is now. But the spirit in man, if he has kept him- self sensitive to the instant touch upon him of the living God, will not hesitate to affirm that He lives, as well as lived. But here we are in the realm of religion, not of science; the same wherein the au- thor of the "Imitation" found his rest of the heart. Religion has not gone out of life with the advent of the higher criti- cism. Far from it! Your readers ought to be told, if they do not know, that there are many men in not a few churches over whom the discipline of the higher criti- cism has passed as a freshening power; who are not confused or drifting, who have not lost the peace that passeth under- standing— all because "they dare utter the truth that is given momentarily to all faithful souls, not only in words spoken nineteen and twenty-seven centuries ago, but yesterday and to-day by an ever-living God. Richard W. Botnton. First Unitarian Church, Buffalo, N. T., Jan- uary 2. THE STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: A multiplicity of demands the last fortnight has prevented my going through the Nation till to-night, so that I have only just read your editorial of December 24 entitled "After the Higher Criticism — What?" This writer, for one, has not learned that the foundation has gone, nor the superstructure, either. For the founda- tion never was "certain traditions and doc- uments," nor the "origin of the Bible." That baneful doctrine came in a few hun- dred years ago, and it seems as if now, when Protestantism is compelled to relin- quish it, a Pope of Rome would take it over. Be that as it may, while the Catholic re- ligion never claimed, and never can claim, to be founded on a book, not even on the Book of Books, not in many centuries has there been an age when the Bible has been so precious to her sons, so full of light, of inspiration, of power in their lives. The Church is built upon a Personality. She is built of living personalities; St. Peter and St. Paul both said so. That is no "stum- bling, groping church, uncertain whence it

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Jan. 14, 1909] Tlie ISTation. 37 came and whither it goes," whose priests on every Lord's Day give solemn thanks at the altar to Almighty God that "we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of Thy Son, which is the blessed com- pany of all faithful people." Those priests in the pulpit may neither expatiate upon the Higher Criticism nor fulminate against it; they have a better message. In their studies they may welcome whatever the newest learning may bring to them; but keeping in their ministrations to the old Church's profound ethical, spiritual, and very simple principles and precepts which refresh the weary, guide the erring, warn the self-willed, and confirm the faithful, they use sacraments and sermons as ear- nest (though sometimes erring) physicians of the soul. And they find it a very blessed calling; best exercised, like that of the doctor, in quietness, devotion, and much re- liance on common sense. W. F. Faber. St. John's Rectory, Detroit, January 4. ANOTHER OBSTACLE TO CO-OPERATION IN ENGLISH. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: In the very interesting letter from Miss Agnes F. Perkins of Wellesley on "Difficulties in the way of cooperation in English," in your issue of December 17, one serious difficulty was not mentioned. I heartily agree with your correspondent that the English teacher can accomplish little unless teachers of other subjects de- mand good English from their students. But many teachers of other subjects can never do this, for the simple and excellent reason that they do not know what good English is. I have known heads of de- partments in reputable colleges who habit- ually said "He don't" and "Do it like I do." The trouble is, of course, due to the modern system of training teachers. To quote the New York Evening Post, "One must know too much about some one thing, and nothing about everything else; that is true scholarship." Professor James said three or four years ago— I quote from memory — that the most striking thing about the average college professor is his encyclopaedic ignorance. Prof. Irving Bab- bitt, in his recent book on "Literature and the American College," observes that the members of a modern college faculty have almost no training or knowledge in com- mon; they are "a collection of infinitely repellent particles." The definition is painfully apt. The late Professor Shaler, a scholar of the old type, vigorously re- sented the remark that the pursuit of sci- ence unfits a man for literature, and to prove that it does not, he wrote five plays in noble Elizabethan blank verse. Men of Professor Shaler's versatility and power have always been rare in college faculties, as elsewhere; but the typical college teach- er of his generation was a man of far broader training and interests than the typical college teacher of to-day. The old- er men are disappearing rapidly from our faculties, and men trained according to the recipe of scholarship quoted above are tak- ing their places. A man may have made important original contributions to science, and yet be so ignorant of Latin as to sup- pose that Marius is accented on the second syllable. I have heard an eminent man of science so pronounce the word, and a few minutes later inform his audience — a Phi Beta Kappa society— that "the Romans called men 'vires.' " This difficulty, I think, lies deeper than any of those which your correspondent dis- cusses. We shall never have intelligent co- operation in teaching English or anything else until we have teachers who are broad- ly trained. Homer E. Woodbridge. Colorado Springs, December 24. THE NIGHT'S THOUSAND EYES. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir : Readers who care for such things were doubtless much interested in Mr. H. E. Woodbridge's letter, entitled "A Paral- lel from Lyly," printed in the Nation of December 24. Another parallel quite as interesting, however, is to be found in the third quatrain of Sylvester's sonnet, print- ed in the "Golden Treasury," under the title, "Love's Omnipresence": Were you the earth, dear Love, and I the skies, My love should shine on you like to the sun, And look upon you with ten thousand eyes Till heaven waxed blind, and till the world were done. Still more interesting is it to note the close connection of all these bits with the little epigram of Plato in the Anthology: 'A<7Te'po5 eiaa^peis aarijp ejuo?' ei'i3e ytvoifx^v oupayos, ws 7ToAA6t5 o^/iatrii' ets <T€ phtnui Thou, my star, at the stars art gazing; would I were heaven, that I might behold tbee with many eyes. Gamaliel Bradford, jr. Wellesley Hills, Mass., December 30. APROPOS OF THE FAILURE OF "WIN- TERFEAST." To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: In spite of the fact that some of Mr. Kennedy's critics characterized his latest drama "Winterfeast" as an excellent piece of work, it nevertheless failed of success in New York. In view of this fact, I venture to quote a few words from Goethe. In a letter to Sartorius, he says: At the theatre a fresh and direct appeal is the all-important thing. People do not like to reflect, think, concede; they want to receive and enjoy. It is for this reason that inferior pieces are frequently better received than the superior ones; and, what is more, rightly so. After all, we have to remember that some dramas are better suited for the study, and others again for the stage; and I do not believe that either merit, therefore, can in any case be consistently construed to be an inherent defect so long as we preserve the proper point of view. The same standard will simply not do service for both cate- gories. Indeed, I know at least one gentle- man who prefers even his Shakespeare in the study to his Shakespeare on the stage. C. H. IBERSHOFF. Cornell University, January 4. APPEAL FOR LETTERS OF F. A. WOLF. Tc the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Prof. Siegfried Reiter of Prague is engaged in preparing an edition of the let- ters of the noted classical philologist Friedrich August Wolf. If the possessors of any such letters in this country will be so kind as to communicate with me, it will be of great assistance to Professor Reiter, to whom I shall convey any infor- mation thus received. Arthur Stanley Pease. No. 61 Sparks Street, Cambridge, Mass., January 5. Notes. The Macmillan Co. will publish soon a one-volume commentary on the Bible, edit- ed by the Rev. J. R. Dummelow. The work includes not only a commentary on each of the books of the Bible, but also a series of articles dealing with the larger ques- tions suggested by the Bible as a whole. It has been edited, according to the an- nouncement of the publishers, on the prin- ciple of incorporating the assured results of modern scholarship, while avoiding ex- treme or doubtful opinions. Among the contributors are such scholars as Canon Ragg, Principal Adeney, Professor Nairne Dr. Plummer, and Professor Kennett, in England, and in this country, Professor MacFadyen of Toronto, Professor Paton of Hartford Seminary, Professor Robinson of McCormick Theological Seminary, and Professor Ropes of Harvard. Moffat, Yard & Co. will publish in Feb- ruary "American Verse, 1625-1807," by Dr. William Bradley Otis, instructor in Eng- lish in the College of the City of New York. Dr. Otis begins with the publication of "Nova Anglia" and ends with "The Colum- biad." He discusses his subject under five heads: "Historical "Verse," "Religious Verse," "Political and Satirical Verse," "Imaginative Verse," and "Translations." Lewis Melville is engaged upon a life of William Beckford, author of "Vathek." He will have access to letters and papers now in the possession of Beckford's descendants, but he would be glad to have other letters sent to him, in care of Messrs. Curtis Brown & Massie, 5 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London. Lady Ritchie's "Black Stick Papers" (G. P. Putnam's Sons), is a pleasant volume of reminiscences deriving its title from Thackeray's Fairy Blackstick, who was in- terested in "old books, young people, schools of practical instruction, rings, roses, senti- mental affairs, etc., etc." It is written in the mellow, conversational style of one who revives for friends or records in a private journal serene memories of gracious and generous souls that have slipped into the twilight. From the rather random char- acter of the recollections, the coterie point of view, and the steady amiability of treat- ment, the papers are somewhat lacking in force and definiteness of impression — a lit- tle malice in the heart frequently imparts to pen-portraits a faithful vividness which pure benevolence cannot attain. On the other hand, few writers to-day are as hap- pily qualified by birth and associations as Lady Ritchie to link the living with the dead. Few have seen, even in a box at the opera, the ship-launching face of George Sand. Few have just missed a call from Tourguenieff, or have even had a friend who had seen him returning from a laundry with a basketful of freshly ironed dresses. Who else, one is tempted to ask, has sat listening to rare Mrs. Gaskell telling ghost

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The N" a tion. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 stories till Leslie Stephen came up the walk and gave, it may be taken for grant- ed, a more rational turn to the conversa- tion? Such delightful touches should not perish from the earth. Much as one ad- mires Lady Ritchie's fine reserve in speak- ing of her relations with her father's friends and acquaintances, we could pardon a slightly more confidential vein in one who has been so many great Achilleses in the field of literature, art, and music. "Andrew Marvells Poetische Werke," by Dr. Robert Poscher, in the series Wiener Beitrage zur Englischen Philologie, is a monograph by a professed admirer of Mar- veil. He has devoted 110 pages to para- phrases, more or less complete, of each of Marvell's poems and satires, adding brief critical comments, and a short account of the poet's life. To the English reader, ac- quainted with Marvell, this is valueless ex- cept as it shows the deadening influence of much of the so-called "scientific study" of English literature. In these unillumi- nating analyses, the poetry has disap- peared; in his criticisms, Dr. Poscher seems utterly unable to grasp the essential qualities of this too much neglected poet — his close and sympathetic observation of nature infused with a spirit akin to our modern transcendentalism, his graceful, delicate touch, his sudden flashes of imagi- nation. A single example will show Dr. Poscher's critical method: The noun most used by Marvell is prob- ably "flower," closely followed by "tear." Some passages in this poem ("Eyes and Tears") remind the reader of the "Drop of Dew" and "The Nymph and the Fawn," where tears are often mentioned; the nymph weeps, the fawn weeps, the trees weep, the heavens weep, and even the stone weeps. When he asserts in "Eyes and Tears" that human eyes have this ad- vantage, that they alone can weep, he con- tradicts himself. Grosart cites a passage from Shakespeare's "As You Like It," where the brute creation weeps, and deems it necessary to bring forward a proof from his own experience, stating that he had seen a little terrier, at the death of its master, weep bitterly and die. Possibly the dog in "Dame Siriz" might be mention- ed in this connection (pp. 47-48). This last sentence is a fine stroke, but we are sorry to see that Dr. Poscher has for- gotten that in certain versions of Lewis Carroll's pathetic ballad of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" — we have been unable to consult the original manuscript — the walrus also weeps! The remainder of the monograph is taken up with a consideration of the writers who influenced Marvell, his style, his meter. Who, asks Dr. Poscher (p. 32), in reading I am the mower Damon, known Through all the meadows I have mown does not hear ringing in his ears the lines Sum pius Aeneas fama super aethera notus. We would wager that Marvell did not hear it. In regard to meters. Dr. Poscher can count syllables and draw diagrams of Mar- vell's verse forms, but he cannot catch the charm of "The Garden," and he does not hear the Miltonic ring in those lines that Lowell admired: When up the armed mountains of Dunbar He marched, and through deep Severn, ending war. This monograph is a fair example of the thesis work in English at present produced at the German universities. To misrepre- sent the debt English studies owe to Ger- man scholarship, both past and present, is not the purpose of this review, but we certainly desire to point out to the general reader that the studies for the doctorate in English, published in our own country, dull and formless as many of them are, are more significant in the scholarship they display, and far more fruitful in the results they attain, than the too numerous theses published in Germany to-day. "The Trowbridge Genealogy," by Francis B. Trowbridge of New Haven, is the third account of this family which has been pre- pared, but it far surpasses the first issues in thorough treatment and accuracy of in- vestigation. Thomas Trowbridge of Taun- ton, England, was the first emigrant of the family, and this portly volume deals chiefly with his descendants. Other lines are not neglected, and the records of the Pension Office and the War Department yielded rich returns, proving the wide distribution of the name and the number of remotely con- nected families. The emigrant, a son of John Trowbridge, came to Dorchester about 1636, but soon removed to New Haven, which has since been the seat of the fam- ily. The finding of John's will in the Taunton records, a mere fragment as it is, establishes the English connection. It is strange that so little is known of the caus- es of emigration to America, and on this point the records are silent in this in- stance. Religious or political unrest is the usual explanation, but it would be inter- esting to know the particular pressure brought upon individual families. The au- thor assumes that Thomas emigrated with the intention of making only a temporary stay in the settlement, but he has no proof to offer. The volume, which is published by the author, is clear in arrangement and contains much of value. Some interesting contributions to the his- tory of Boston are made in the fifth vol- ume of the Bostonian Society Publications. The close connection with Boston, Lincoln- shire, in the early days, is shown in the account of a visit to that place by J. F. Hunnewell. Benedict Arnold appears in a new light in a letter written to Miss Mercy Scollay, dated Philadelphia, July 15, 1778, in which he offers to provide for the edu- cation of the children of "my late worthy friend Gen'l Warren, . . . who to my great surprise, I find have been entirely neglected by the State. ... I have sent you by Mr. Hancock five hundred dollars for the present. I wish you to have Rich- ard clothed handsomely and sent to the best school in Boston. Any expense you are at, please draw on me for, which shall be paid with thanks." Among some historic processions described was one on January 23, 1793, "in commemoration of the suc- cesses of their French brethren, in their glorious enterprise for the establishment o; equal Liberty." A prominent feature was a roasted ox on whose right horn "wab displayed the Republican Flag of France, and from the left that of the United States," and "a Hogshead of Punch, drawn by six horses." Among the illustrations are portraits of Capt. Isaac Hull and La- fayette. After an interval of about six years since the publication of the first volume of the Irish Texts Society edition of Keating's "History of Ireland," the second and third volumes have now been issued. There still remains a fourth, which is to contain the genealogies and synchronisms, together with explanatory notes, indexes, and such apparatus; but the entire body of the his- tory, both text and translation, is now fin- ished, and students of Celtic literature and tradition will rejoice to have it at last accessible in print. David Comyn, who be- gan the work of editing, was obliged to re- linquish it on account of ill health and did not live to see the publication of the later parts. The Rev. P. S. Dinneen, his suc- cessor, has been one of the most productive contributors, as author, editor, and lexi- cographer, to the work of the Gaelic League, and is well equipped for the inter- pretation of a modern Irish text. In our review of the first volume (see the Nation of May 14, 1903, p. 399) we expressed some doubt concerning the group of manuscripts which the editor had chosen to follow, and also the hope that a fuller account of the textual tradition would be given later on. Father Dinneen, we are glad to see, has sup- plied additional information on the sub- ject; and we observe, too, that he has based his text on a different manuscript from that adopted by Mr. Comyn. As a result of this change of plan the edition will not consistently represent either of the two main recensions of the work. "Old Edinburgh," by Frederick W. Wat- keys (Boston: L. C. Page & Co.), is a sort of glorified guide-book, answering much the same purpose as Hare's famous "Walks" in various cities. It has the advantage over Hare's books of being more conveniently got out, in two smallish volumes, profuse- ly illustrated, often from interesting old prints, and including a sufficient historical sketch. On the other hand, the author's style has none of that charm arising from genuine old-school culture which goes so far to atone for Mr. Hare's many curious lapses. Mr. Watkeys, for instance, insists upon calling buildings "Gothic" and, in the same breath, attributing them to Inigo Jones ; and of King James I of Scotland he risks the valuable criticism that "his poetry evinces no inferiority to that of his contemporaries." But his main purpose of bringing "before the reader the principal and interesting events in the history of the Old Town" and "some account of the man- ners and customs of her old-time citizens, together with certain details relating to the ancient life of the city," he has accom- plished in a way to afford much pleasure and profit to those who have leisure to study their Edinburgh, close by close, and wynd by wynd, under his expert guidance. The sub-title of "Things Korean" (F. H. Revell Co.), by Horace N. Allen, M.D., "a collection of sketches and anecdotes, mis- sionary, and diplomatic," gives an accu- rate description of the book. It recounts the experiences of a residence of twenty- one years in the country, the last four as our minister. Many of the incidents are entertaining and instructive, but many are trivial and hardly worthy of record. A pleasant impression on the whole is left of this quaint people who, our author says in his preface, "are now in desperate straits," from the Japanese domination. In the concluding chapters he endeavors to give some impression of the present con- ditions, while one of his principal ob- jects, it is evident, is to awaken interest in and sympathy for the Koreans in this country. Under the title "Outlines of Systematic

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 39 Theology," Prof. Augustus H. Strong of the Rochester Theological Seminary, dean of American teachers of doctrinal theology, has issued an abridged edition of his "Sys- tematic Theology," published in three vol- umes in 1906 (Philadelphia: The Griffith & Rowland Press). It contains all the out- line statements of the larger work, omitting the bibliographical and illustrative mate- rial. Dr. Strong is one of the few remain- ing defenders of the Calvinistic faith, and this compend sets forth the doctrines of high orthodoxy as clearly, forcibly, and per- suasively as could be desired. The Rev. R. J. Campbell, the chief pro- tagonist of the "J^Iew Theology" contro- versy, has published some twenty of his week-day sermons, "Thursday Mornings at the City Temple" (The Macmillan Co.). The r,abies theologorum does not induce a favorable mood for a preacher. It does not allow that "lyric expression of the soul, an utterance of meditation in sorrow, hope, love, and joy, from a representative of the human heart in its divine relations," which Martineau found to be the essence of true preaching. The pulpit, Martineau contend- ed, "should be absolutely surrendered to devout thought and utterance, and the con- secration of human life by divine affec- tions." Mr. Campbell's pulpit would ap- pear to be surrendered to exposing the foibles and fallacies of the orthodox, to whom he owes the better elements of his religion. But, whatever one may think of some evangelical dogmas, evangelicalism has been too great a force, and is too great a power for good to-day, to be treated un- advisedly or lightly. The world doubt- less has need of iconoclasts, but one does not ordinarily go to church to hear things smash, not even on a Thursday morning in a city temple. Old Testament students have often ex- pressed the wish that the several documents underlying the present text might be print- ed consecutively by themselves, not in par- allel columns. This hope has been fulfilled in part by "The Historical Bible," by Prof. Charles Poster Kent of the Yale Divinity School (Charles Scribner's Sons). Disre- garding in large measure the later tradi- tions of the priestly historians, and in part also the work of the Deuteronomist and the Ephraimitic history, he follows in his first volume, "Heroes and Crises of Early He- brew History," the Judaean document (J), dividing it into sections and commenting on the more important historical material. He professes to have produced thus, "not a new, but the original Old Testament, which is thus restored and freed from the distracting parallels and scribal additions that through the ages have gathered about it." Similarly the second volume, "The Founders and Rulers of United Israel," brings into relief the very early and graphic narratives concerning Saul and Da- vid. These handbooks will be found help- ful in the study of the history of the He- brew nation and the development of its religious beliefs, and are adapted to those for whom Professor Kent's "Student's Old Testament" is too elaborate and involved. The house of Georg Westermann, Bruns- wick, has begun to issue in parts a note- worthy work, "Die Biicher der Bibel," edited by F. Rahlwes. The purpose is to interpret the Bible, according to the idea of Goethe and Herder, as a collection of literature, and not as a work of edification or doctrin- al instruction. This edition, finely illus- trated by E. M. Lilien, and arranged from a literary point of view, is to appear in ten volumes, with brief introductions and his- torical reviews to aid in the understanding of the different groups. The translation is that of the standard Bibelwerk of the late Prof. Ed. Reuss of Strassburg. The first volume, just out, cover'ng the Hexateuch, is entitled "Ueberlieferung und Gesetz." An edition de luxe is also published in 100 copies. Dr. Wilhelm Hohoff discusses from the point of view of the Catholic Church, the problems of modern Socialism in a work of 340 pages, "Die Bedeutung der Marx'schen Kapital-Kritik: Eine Apologie des Chris- tentums vom Standpunkte der Volkswirt- schaftslehre und Rechtswissenschaft" (Pa- derborn: Bonifacius-Druckerei). A number of books have recently appeared on the history of German literature. To the series of monographs edited by Prof. Ernst Elster of Marburg under the title Beitrage zur deutschen Literaturwissen- schaft Dr. Albin Franz contributes a vol- ume of 264 pages, "Johann Klaj : Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts" ; Dr. Wilhelm Sie- bert, "Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zu E. T. A. Hoffmann" ; Dr. Richard Kyrieleis, a treatise on the famous novel of Moritz Au- gust von Thiimmel : "Reise in die mittag- lichen Provinzen von Frankreich." The eleventh volume of the collection is Dr. Hans Eichentopf's "Theodor Storms Erzahlungskunst in ihrer Entwicklung." The second volume of Alfred Biese's "Deutsche Literaturgeschichte," a volume of 692 pages, embraces the period from Goethe to Moericke. Among the Breslauer Beitrage zur Literaturgeschichte, edited by Dr. Max Koch and Prof. Gregor Sarrazin, the sixteenth volume is Dr. Fritz Karsen's "Henrik Steffens Romane: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des historischen Romans." The ninth volume of the Miinster'sche Beitrage zur neueren Literaturgeschichte is a book of 137 pages by Dr. Bernhard Lips, "Oskar von Redwitz als Dichter der Ama- ranth." All these works are imported by G. E. Stechert & Co. Some noteworthy Goethe books have been published within a few weeks : "Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe : Die lyrischen Meister- stiicke" is an edition in two volumes with an introduction and notes by Prof. Rich- ard M. Meyer; a selection from Goethe's diaries, with an introduction by Hans Ger- hard Graf, under the title "Aus Goethes Tagebiichern" ; and "Goethes Briefwechsel mit Marianne von Willemer," edited by Philipp Stein, who also edited the letters of Goethe's mother, Bismarck's speeches, and Riickert's selected works (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). A selection from the works of Hans Sachs has been edited in modern orthography and furnished with an introduction by Dr. Al- brecht Keller (Frankfurt: Moritz Diester- weg). A selection from the works of Otto Erich Hartleben has been published in three vol- umes, containing respectively poetry, prose, and dramas (Berlin: S. Fischer). It is edited and introduced by Franz Ferdinand Heitmiiller, who has written about the dramatists of Hamburg in the eighteenth century, and is one of the collaborators in the Goethe and Schiller Archiv. Three new anthologies, published in Ger- many, are worth somewhat more than pass- ing mention. "Hellas und Rom im Spiegel deutscher Dichtung," by Karl Zettel, who died before the first of the two volumes had left the press, is an interesting col- lection of German poems, relating to class- ical antiquity, beginning with the mytho- logical period. Practically all the leading poets of Germany are represented (Erlan- gen: Palm & Enke). Der poetische Cice- rone, Stadte und Lauder in der Dichtung, edited by Ignaz Jezower, begins with the v volume "Venedig," consisting of a set of poetical descriptions of Venice, its history and life, by the leading poets of Europe. The volume begins with Goethe's visit in the autumn of 1786 (Berlin: Behr). A good anthology, especially for the higher classes in the schools, is the book of Dr. M. Consbruch and Prof. Fr. Klincksieck, entitled 'Deutsche Lyrik des 19 Jahrhun- derts," the second edition of which has fol- lowed directly on the first (Leipzig: C. F. Amelongs Verlag). Practically all the Ger- man poets of the past century are repre- sented, and the distribution of space to each is wisely made. Aside from his "Michael Kohlhaas" so little attention has been paid to the fiction of Heinrich von Kleist that the edition of his stories, "Erzahlungen," with an intro- duction by Erich Schmidt, is bound to be appreciated (Leipzig: Insel- Verlag). The memory of the gifted woman who was the devoted wife and comrade of the poet Gottfried Kinkel, whom the youthful Carl Schurz aided in escaping from the Spandau prison in 1850, is revived in a little volume by J. F. Schulte, "Johanna Kinkel : Nach ihren Briefen und Erinnerungsblattern" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Two interesting studies of French au- thors have lately been published in Ger- many: Paul Mahn's "Guy de Maupassant: Sein Leben und seine Werke," a volume of 564 pages (Berlin: Egon Fleischel & Co.) ; and Prof. Paul Bastier's "Victor Hugo und seine Zeit: Eine Einfiihrung in das Studium des Dichters," a work of 240 pages (Leipzig: Xenien- Verlag). The Hague Society for the Defence of Christianity asks for competitive discus- sions of the following themes: (1) An In- vestigation of the Value of the Empirical Psychology of Religion for the Doctrines of Christianity; (2) A Scientific Discussion of Ethics on the Basis of Modern Religious Principles. The prize for the former is to be bestowed on December 15, 1909, and for the latter on the same day, 1910. The prizes are four hundred gulden and a gold medal. Scholars of all nations may com- pete. Max West, a special examiner in the Bu- reau of Corporations of the Department of Commerce and Labor, died at Washington, January 7. He was born at St. Cloud, Minn., in 1870, was graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1890, and finally took the doctor's degree at Columbia. For a time he was connected with the Univer- sity of Chicago, and later he was attached to the staff of the Chicago Herald, and then of the Record. In 1896 he entered the Division of Statistics in the Department of Agriculture, and since then his work has been mainly in Washington. From 1900 to 1902 he was associate professor of economics in Columbian University. Among

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4:0 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 his writings are "The Inheritance Tax" (1893), "Principles of Taxation" (1907), and many contributions to periodicals. The death is reported from Edinburgh of Thomas McKie, in his seventy-eighth year. He was a native of Dumfries, and a friend of Carlyle. He published several books, in- cluding "Lyrics and Sonnets" and "Sum- mer Rambles." Prof. G. Wilhelm Schaefer, whose death is announced from Hanover, taught econom- I ics at the technical Hochschule in that city. He was born in 1834, in Bremke, near Gottingen, and was graduated from the university of the latter town. From i855 to 1862 he studied law, after which he was attached for a time to the customs ser- vice and to several insurance companies. In 1872 he became Privatdozent at the Hanover Hochschule. His chief works are: "Hypothekenversicherung als Mittel zur Hebung des Grundbesitzes," "Unvereinbar- keit des sozialistischen Zukunftsstaates mit der menschlichen Natur," "Der gewerbliche Credit," "Der Handel in der Volkswirth- schaft," "Die Nationalokonomie und die neuere Gesetzgebung," "Aus einem anar- chischen Idealstaat," and "Erinnerungen eines Globetrotters." Prof. Richard Pischel of the University of Berlin has just died at Madras. He left home about the 1st of November to spend a winter of study and travel in India and to give to Hindu students in Calcutta in- struction in their ancient Prakrits, in which languages he was the first living au- thority. His wide attainments exemplify the mighty change in the scope of Indian philology which the last thirty years have wrought. Deeply versed in the Brah- manical literature, Vedic and classical, he was not merely an old-time Sanskritist; he was also eminent as a student of the sacred books of the Jainas (in Prakrit) and in those of the Buddhists (in Pali). Be- sides all this, he had been an efficient helper in the deciphering of the wonderful finds brought back by Le Coq from East Turkestan. He would have been sixty on the 18th of this month, and had every rea- son to hope for years of fruitful activity. His works include: "De Kalidasae Qfi.kun- tali recensionibus" (1870), "De grammaticis praciticis" (1874), "Kalidasa's Cakuntala," the Bengali recension, with critical notes (1877), "Hemacandras Grammatik der Prakritspraclien" (2 vols., 1877-1880), "The Deginamamala of Hemacandra" (1880), "The Theri-Gatha" (1883), "Rudrata's Crn- garatilaka and Ruyaka's Sahrdayalila, with an introduction and notes (1886), "Vedische Studien" (3 vols., 1889-1901, partly in col- laboration with Geldner); "Beitrage zur Kenntnis der deutschen Zigeuner" (1894), "Grammatik der Prakritsprachen im Grund- riss der indoaranischen Philologie" (1900), "Leben und Lehre des Buddha" (1906), "Der Hofdichter der Laks manasena" (1893), "Die Heimat der Puppenspiele" (1900), "Materialien zur Kenntnis der Apa- bhramsa" (1902). Prom Calcutta comes news of the death of Syed Mahomed Abdul Ghafur, more fa- miliarly known as Professor Shahbaz. He was editor of the first Urdu journal, Darul- Sultanut, and at one time he was director of public instruction in Bhopal. At the time of his death he was engaged on a biography of the poet-philosopher, Amir Kh usro. RECENT VERSE. Golden Rod and Lilies. By R. W. Gil- bert. Boston: Richard G. Badger. Some Wander Songs and Other Verse. By Horatio Winslow. Madison, Wis.: W. Mayer. A Modern Judas and Other Rhymes. By E. Vincent. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Apollo and the Seaman, The Queen of Gothland, Stanzas to Tolstoy, and Oth- er Lyrics. By Herbert Trench. New York: Henry Holt & Co. Nature Poems and Others. By William H. Davies. London: A. C. Fifleld. An Earth Poem and Other Poems. By Gerda Dalliba. New York; G. P. Put- nam's Sons. Looms of Life. By Herman Scheffauer. New York: Neale Publishing Co. $1.25. Narrative Lyrics. By Edward Lucas White. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Idylls of Greece. By Horace V. Suther- land. Boston: Sherman, French & Co. $1 net. Ariadne Diainomene and Other Poems. By E. W. Sutton Pickhardt. London: Elkin Matthews. That most of our current verse is the expression of a refined and elegant ego- tism, is probably true. To write verse at all in these bustling and distracted days, much more to publish it, is pretty good evidence of a certain kind of van- ity. It is nothing less than a tacit as- sumption of personal superiority, of the possession of gifts or accomplishments sufficiently remarkable to justify an ex- traordinary demand upon public atten- tion. And yet there is another side to the matter. In a slightly different in- terpretation all this multitudinous verse, which its makers will insist upon publishing in contempt of modesty and utility, becomes a natural and excusable revolt against the tyranny of means and averages and masses. In protest against a life of humdrum mediocrity and com- monplace, it reasserts the claims of charm and distinction, of the unexpect- ed and the incalculable. But, unfortunate- ly, as it has fallen upon evil days, it is either intimidated by the levelling influ- ences about it or else defiant of them; it is apt to be either weak or violent. It is seldom, however, that self-asser- tion grows quite so bold, even in the lat- ter extreme, as it does in Mr. Gilbert's "Golden Rod and Lilies." Mr. Gilbert represents himself as a disciple of Walt Whitman. He has the same unpleasant insistence upon sex; the same comforta- ble faith in the virtues of laissez-aller, which he dignifies with the convenient title of Providence; the same streaki- ness of expression, now colloquial and slangy, anon "literary" and bookish. In his versification, however, he is more conventional; he even practises the son- net— and what a sonnet! — a kind of stanzaic woodpile, rusticity laid in lengths. Withal he is very energetic — often ridiculous, to be sure, and not in- frequently prosaic — but occasionally sa- tiric with point (indeed, satire is his best vein), admirably lyric now and then, always high-spirited and amusing even when he fails to be interesting. In short, for all his indiscipline, vulgar- ity, and vociferousness, he is one of the most remarkable of those occasional poetic meteors whose brilliancy seldom survives a single flight — though so fitful and unsteady that hardly more than an uncertain glimpse can be caught of him in quotation: I rest in God, and patiently abide, Like the young willows by the waterside: My roots reach out for Him, my leaves ex- pand To catch His sun and dew on every hand. I rest in God, and loaf beneath the trees Acquiring certain subtle masteries; If I made haste would I sooner arrive? And if I wait, will he then cease to strive? I rest in God, like my good master, Walt, And let the wincing world go by default. Like him, a poet of democracy I love it well, but it must come to me. Though Mr. Gilbert may have forced the note a little, yet as a matter of fact assurance — it will hardly do to call it cock-sureness as yet — seems to be grad- ually prevailing over the humbler mood and the minor key. It was not so very long ago that all the great questions were unanswerable, all the great issues closed, all the great poems written. The season was adverse. Nothing remained save a gentle reminiscent regret or an advised and knowing resignation. The most the poet could hope for was to be no one's dupe but his own. To be sure, the old key recurs occasionally. Mr, Winslow drops into it, for instance, in his "Wander Songs," with their clear, poetic trickle, thin but musical: Came to the Workmen one who said, "The works we do are done in vain: There is no man shall live again Or hear God's praise when he is dead. "Yea, what shall be the good of us When Time has crept a little space And, leering from his later place, Has seen us one with Daedalus: "Our cunning caverns blocked with drift; Our engines rusted into earth Our strange devices nothing worth — Forgotten every trick and shift?" Yet even here it is but a survival, a mood into which the poet sinks and from which he as promptly rises. On the whole, the spell is broken. With no less characteristic confidence than Mr. Gilbert, though in a contrary sense, Mr. Vincent, too, voices the new spirit in his "Modern Judas": Warring, war; and wooing. Woo;

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Jan. 14, 1909J The 2STatiori 41 Do not talk of doing, Do. Heart Is in the winning Won Deed in the beginning Done. Wind for wanderer blowing Blow! Let the bent on going, Go. With admirable consistency he proceeds, in the letter of his own recommenda- tions, to undertake a new poetic dialec- tic, something like Browning's dramatic soliloquy, with interpolations by the party of the second part in italics — a sort of typographical poetics. Now, Mr. Vincent is no contemptible versifier: his poems have a kind of immediate relevancy, the tang of familiar things, the pungency of freshly broken soil. But if they are racy, it must be added they are only half-cured, too. His treatment of the iambic couplet — it can be called heroic only in an unflattering sense — is something atrocious. His matter, too, is often correspondingly crude: Janet, pick up the needle you let fall And go, for young DeVyne has come to call. There is something too much of this un- distilled "actuality" about the volume. What poetry most needs nowadays, all of us are probably ready to admit, is the kind of renewal that comes from fresh vision — a surrender of threadbare "lit- erary" situations and motives for more capacious and significant symbols. But it is absurd to suppose that poetry, whose word is order, can be manufac- tured of a huddle of raw material whe- ther of language or experience. Nor on this score is Mr. Trench's "Apollo and the Seaman" wholly irre- proachable. The volume contains at least two poems of unusual size and pre- tensions, the titular piece itself and "The Queen of Gothland." In both the attempt is the same, to transmute a common reality. But the result is not altogether happy. The fusion is incom- plete; the solution, cloudy and unset- tled. The former in particular consists of a decidedly unwieldy allegory, which requires a good deal of pinching and stretching to fit. the circumstances: I heard them calling in the streets That the ship I sail upon — The great ship Immortality — Was gone down with the sun. Nothing can wholly redeem such lack of plasticity in the fundamental con- ception. But during the course of the twenty-nine pages over which this doubtful figure is distended there are several short passages which produce a much more favorable impression of the poet's powers — like the following from the mouth of Apollo: I have seen Jason and his men Into bows of Argo piece Oak of Dodona, ere she slid To find the golden fleece ; Ay, and triremes of the marble isles Pursue from Salamis. I have seen master-galleys rise Dipping in mass the oar, And centaur-carven caravels, And galleons big with ore, Dromonds, and mountain'd argosies That sack the globe no more: Great sails, like yellow weeping clouds, Heap'd thunder, roaring squall— And their fadings, like the fleet of stars That floateth over all. In connection with a poem like this which harks back to an earlier and more elementary conception of art, it may not be uninteresting to notice a curious little volume by Mr. Davies, called "Nature Poems," which seems, improbably enough, to have drawn its inspiration from John Donne and the Elizabethan decadence. In such a poem as the '"Wand" the resemblance is very striking, not only in the technique, but also in the way in which matters nat- urally homely and irreducible are taken up, and, as it were, suspended in the verse, making a kind of imperfect poetic emulsion: Sometimes he roars among the leafy trees Such sounds as in a narrow cove, when Seas Rush in between high rocks; or grandly roll'd Like music heard in churches very old. Sometimes he whineth like a dog in sleep, Bit by the merciless small fleas; then deep And hollow sounds come from him, as starved men Oft hear rise from their empty parts; and then He'll hum a hollow groan, like one sick lain, Who fears a move will but increase his pain. And now he makes an awful wail, as when From dark coal-pits are brought up crushed, dead men To frantic wives. In one sense this is pretty nearly the negation of poetry. And yet it would probably be going too far to call the characteristic common to all these writ- ers a fondness for deformity, or even formlessness. But, at all events, they show comparatively little susceptibility to the charms of regularity and har- mony. What stirs them most is some- thing large, diffuse, indefinable, and un- easy. Gerda Dalliba apparently feels little compunction in writing "An Earth Poem" of 165 pages "to express in words man's needs, capabilities, and progress" — as little as Edwin Markham has in prefacing it with an enthusiastic appre- ciation. With such a subject, the won- der is, not that the poem is so long, but that it is so good— by fits and starts. The figures in particular are arresting — large and inchoate, like something emerging from stone, a half-erected statue or bas-relief: Children of Sod look up, Here is your Earth ! Here is your Air! And here your World Squat like a mammoth Urchin of the Sea. A monstrel of a hybrid breed, Red, bleared, Contagious, omnipresent, sightless, torn. Long vampire contagions sting the rose of morn, Its petals heave and weld, Now amid flames the ghost of fire stalks. Earth's breasts are built upon by steel and mail, Her mouth is gullied with the Spit of Life. Such, too, is the kind of theme which inspires Mr. Scheffauer's "Looms of Life" at its best — t his sense of intricacy and unrest. Thus his "Man and the Mountains": The winds of worlds upon the brow of Man, Valleys and gorges dark, — Twilight, and purple banners in the van Of Night's encroaching arc. Peak leaned to solemn peak. The master stirred Their granite lips to speech; Each in that sinister vast awe unheard, Darkly communed with each. What plots profound, what fathomless de- signs, Throbbed through the palsied air? What subtle secrecies oppressed the pines Or the cold moon-disc bare? Through their deep, runic syllables there ran Tides of tremendous doom, And when their council closed, the realms of Man Lay dust on Time's gray loom. Parallel to some extent with Mr. Vin- cent's attempts at a new genre are Mr. White's "Narrative Lyrics," as he calls them, though the research of novelty is not allowed in this case to encroach so far upon the form. In reality they are most of them old stories, unravelled and deftly rewoven in metrical patterns. Among others there is a "Benaiah," a "Rhampsinitos," a "Shamgar." Their likeness to the lyric consists mainly in the air of personal concern with which they are related. They are surrounded by a kind of emotional atmosphere which refracts the light in a manner quite different from epic. Indeed, it is in the creation of this sort of transpar- ent shadow that Mr. White's skill is principally displayed. The "Deioces" is a pretty good illustration: He entered as had been agreed. The moon was high among the quiet stars. Its light was stencilled on the silent floors A hand's-breadth wide below the lattices; The King's slow breathing guided him along. I heard a stir and movement from the bed, The planting of two firm unhurried feet. I looked again. The King was there, erect. His right hand held Harbanus by the throat; His left hand gripped him by the armed right wrist.

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42 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 He did not sway. I could not hear him breathe. Harbanus writhed and presently let drop The dagger and it fell upon the bed And made no noise. The King moved inch by inch, And yet without an effort, as it seemed. Took up the dagger, drove it firm and deep, And then, as gently as a father might Lay in its cot to rest his sleeping child, Lowered the body slowly to the floor. I was afraid to run or slink away, And saw him climb again into the bed, Cover himself, and soon I heard him breathe As evenly as early in the night. When he arose, Phraortes, white and tense, Asked why he had not called the palace guards. "There might have been another," said his son. "Well," said the King, "and had there been a score Which do you fancy they would have pre- ferred, To enter as he did or stay without?" This is a change. But even here the air is still sultry and surcharged; and it is something of a relief to emerge into Mr. Sutherland's "Idylls," with their rework- ing of transparent old Greek story, whose purpose is admirably expressed by the introduction to "Prokris and Kephalos" — in spite of these jolting k's: A little love makes life endurable; Much love would make us gods. And know- ing this I bide within the shadow with my harp And sing of love, and lovers who beheld Long years ago the beauties ye ignore The while ye seek, with strain'd and tired eyes. The Stairs of Silence, winding ever down. And though no more my notes may reach the skies Like his of old who charm'd the surging seas And made the thrushes listen, yet perhaps Men's hearts may gain some comfort from the strain And bless the singer though the stars be mute. It is harder, somehow, to accept Mr. Pickhardt's "Ariadne Diainomene." There is something about the form of Greek tragedy which seems incompati- ble, even in reading, with the idea of contemporary verse; it has at best the air of a tour de force, of an academic experiment. And yet Mr. Pickhardt has done his work well; he has attained the kind of success of which his attempt is capable; though, for the reason just mentioned, the recitations, meditative and narrative, seem the most satisfac- tory portions of the piece, just because they appear in themselves less of an anachronism. As an example may be cited a speech of Ariadne's: Each year I saw the victims in pale file Land from their ships at Cnossos; every spring The Labyrinth wherein the Minotaur Was hidden that the sun be not defiled, Received their inward footstep; but no mark Of issuing foot therefrom was ever seen. And each year as I waxed to maidenhood My pity waxed within me: they that came They that were offered up in sacrifice And with their flesh did help perpetuate The monstrous thing that bellowed deep within The bowels of the irremeable maze. Half-man, half-bull, and wholly horrible, How often have I wept beholding them! CURRENT FICTION. The Fair Mississippian. By Charles Eg- bert Craddock. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. An old mansion on a Mississippi plan- tation, a lovely widow with three boys, a forceful tutor, a lost and found codicil, and almost a ghost — these materials hold small promise of originality in plot. Nevertheless, they are presented in novel combinations, and are so in- terwoven with wonderful pictures of life on the Mississippi River as to prove absorbingly interesting. There are the steamboats coming and going like living actors, and the desperado on his flat- boat contributing the melodramatic shadows of the scene. There are plan- tation hospitalities and bear-hunting and yet more serious deeds of daring; and around all flows and overflows the great river, shaping the days and ways of the dwellers on its banks, making or break- ing their fortunes, feeding them, killing them, winning their bread, hiding their crimes, a mighty presence and power. This is not to say that there is not a real and well-contrived story involving love, money, and some interesting char- acters, but to emphasize the reflection that in the highest sense it is a novel of place. The fly in the amber is a habit of bow-wow in the language which sits with curious artificiality on a story absolutely clear-cut in device — as when a steamboat's electric searchlight makes "a rayonnant halo in the dim glooms of the riparian midnight." The Gentle Grafter. By O. Henry. New York: The McClure Co. O. Henry's latest specimen of Ameri- can humor exhibits less variety of plot and character than his "Voice of the City"— indeed, a few of the stories are undeniably trite. In compensation, how- ever, the harsh ugliness of treatment which characterized the sketches of New York life has given way to a sunnier, more genial cynicism. The work con- forms to the Aristotelian comic canon in displaying the follies and vices of mankind in such a way as to excite mirth without pain. The heroes of the "Gentle Grafter" are not harsh, unlove- ly metropolitans; they are affable, ex- pansive types of the migrant all-around American swindler. They find the crim- inal welter of Babylon a bit oppressive. In particular, they feel a lofty superior- ity to the ethics of Wall Street; when they consider their modest transactions in patent-medicines, matrimonial hum- bugs, and goldbricks, under the Shad- ow of New York financial Operations, they glow with the conscious virtue of Sunday School superintendents. As Jeff Peters says: Myself, I never believed in taking any man's dollars unless I gave him something to show for it — lumbago lotion, stock cer- tificates, stove polish, or a crack on the head to show for his money. Jeff, the chief narrator, is an opulent personality. His style, which will doubt- less play its part in corrupting the Eng- lish of his contemporaries, is as full and fruity as plum-cake. It is studded with puns, good and bad. It is larded with Pickwickian paraphrase and gro- tesque examples of le mot precis. It is rich "beyond the dreams of average — rich as Greasers," with malaproprisms and allusions, open and covert, to Walt Whittier, Albert Tennyson, and other celebrities of far less durable reputa- tion. In order adequately to relish its flavor, one should first digest the nead- lines of the New York and Chicago newspapers for the current year. Ten years hence it will require a commen- tary as copious as that of the "Dunciad" to elucidate Jeff's "sensations of thought and perspicacity." But what a solidar- ity of interests on the part of the Ameri- can public such a book implies — what a hearty appetite for the picturesque vul- garities and rascalities of the hour! As for Jeff himself, he approaches the uni- versal— there is probably no city, town, or village in the Union unvisited by his pilgrim feet. Sappho in Boston. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. This story, according to the publish- er's announcement, "is written delight- fully by a man of letters, who, for per- sonal reasons, preserves his incog- nito." To fix the responsibility of au- thorship would be a task not unlike the analysis of a pinwheel in ac- tion. For this is a story which does not stand still long enough to be crit- icised. It whizzes and fizzes its way through conversational smartnesses, hy- pertrophy of wealth, coruscations of epigram, and yet, reaching its end, re- veals a solidity that one hardly suspect- ed. It is as if a comet tore by, tail first, all glitter and haze, but at last ar- rived in order, bringing its head behind it. To tell the truth, the earlier aspects of the story are not wholly attractive; there is something uncanny in the glare and dazzle and something antagonizing in the wilful and, as it proves, motive- less hovering upon the brink of ill taste. The plot is a distant and semi-lunatic relative of the motive in "The Loan of a Lover." The gentleman who plays with precious stones as large as ducks' I

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation 4=3 eggs might be a child of Ouida, if he were not situated on Boston Common. Ouidaesque, too, is the man who tele- graphs to an "Eminence" for proof that a silver service in a Boston jeweller's is not the only copy of a Windsor Cas- tle original. Now will come a sentence stickily sweet with the archaic sugar of Hewlett; then one slangily terse like Richard Harding Davis. It is super- fluous to add that the book is nothing if not brisk, even breathless reading, and its unconventional denouement in- vests it with positive charm. Perdita. By Stanley V. Makower. New York: D. Appleton & Co. A desire to present something a lit- tle truer than the truth was the motive which led Mr. Makower to throw his materials for the life of the actress Mary Robinson, more celebrated as an early mistress of George IV, into the form of fiction. The book before us is of greater interest and value than most specimens of this ambiguous species, because the sound biographical element is unusually large. Indeed, the author adheres pretty strictly to the known facts of the heroine's career, and steps into the realm of fiction mainly for the purpose of interpreting his data. That the reader may have the means to dis- tinguish the Wahrheit from the Dicht- ung Mr. Makower has supplied an in- dex, a list of the characters impersonat- ed by Mrs. Robinson with dates, and a fairly lengthy bibliography. The vol- ume is further enriched by seventeen illustrations, including, besides several famous portraits of the actress, like- nesses of her royal lover, the young rake of genius, Lord Lyttleton, Col. Tarleton, Sheridan, and Charles James Fox — all of whom were closely associat- ed with Perdita's affairs. There is something legitimately tempting to the imagination in the life- history of a woman who was trained by Garrick, sat to Reynolds, dined with Burke, Infatuated a prince, wrote bad poetry, and died in wretchedness and poverty. It cannot be said, however, that Mr. Makower, with all his freedom of method, has made his interpretation of his heroine very coherent or very credible. He has been somewhat too profound and much too romantic. Un- der the spell of bewitching portraits, he has read into the spirit of Mrs. Rob- inson qualities which she never pos- sessed, and which are quite incompati- ble with the facts of her life which he himself supplies. The real Mrs. Robin- son appears to have been, like many other actresses, much more interesting in her public than in her private char- acter. Shallow and commonplace in mind and heart, she possessed uncom- mon beauty, a considerable taste for coquetry and intrigue, and a quite ex- traordinary vanity. Mr. Makower's at- tempt to represent her as a harmony of middle-class domestic virtue with an intense vein of romanticism is disas- trous. It becomes intolerable when it blends Mrs. Robinson's maternal solici- tude over her infant at home in its cradle with the "loveliness of her im- pressions" as the larks carol over her in "jubilant sweetness" after an assig- nation with the Prince. Certain cold records of bonds, certain vague hints of blackmail, suggest that for Perdita there was rather more money than ro- mance in this affair. At any rate, the veil of divine illusion was excessively thin. Illinois Historical Collections. Vol. III. (Lincoln Series, Vol. I.): The Lincoln- Douglas Debates, 1858. Edited by Ed- win Erie Sparks. Springfield: Illinois Historical Library. Premonitions of the near-at-hand cen- tenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln are already abundant, among them an activity in the press as regards this al- most the greatest of American person- alities. The material relating to Lincoln is comprised already within more than a thousand volumes, its bibliography equalling in compass those of the most distinguished figures of history. Witness the vast list of Daniel Fish in the most recent edition of Lin- coln's works. These volumes are the latest additions to the collec- tion. In the first named, President Sparks, now of the Pennsylvania State College but recently of Chicago Uni- versity, publishes what we may hold to be the definitive edition of the great Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858. In the history of American politics there are few things more creditable than this forensic struggle and its attending cir- cumstances. The champions were of the ablest, and discussed side by side in good-tempered, manly fashion, with all their power, momentous issues. The population of the State hung upon their words, appreciating and enjoying keen- ly every thrust and parry, and the whole development of the argument, basing upon what was thus so intel- ligently obtained, its memorable ac- tion just after at the ballot-box, which sent Douglas at once to the Federal Sen- ate and Lincoln two years later to the White House. In the long story of Anglo-Saxon freedom perhaps the dem- ocratic way has never more fully justi- fied itself than in the conduct, alert, dignified, restrained, of the American masses at this time. Mr. Sparks has taken all possible pains to make accu- rate the text of the speeches, comparing the best, the Columbus, edition with the contemporary newspaper reports. At the same time, he supplies ample color and character of time and place by quoting letters, reminiscences, press gossip, and comment of the hour. Helps to vividness are photographs of localities and personages concerned — among these the reporters, youths of twenty-four or twenty-five, who render- ed the immense service of taking down verbatim et literatim not only the ex- tempore utterance of the principals, but the questions and ejaculations of the lis- tening multitudes. To speak of a minor matter, as one looks at the pictures of Lincoln and Douglas, here reproduced, the oddly pic- turesque contrast physically between the two men comes home. Lincom, gaunt, six feet four inches tall, was relatively short-bodied, his height resulting from an abnormal length of limb. Douglas, stocky, only five feet four inches tall, was yet relatively long bodied, his low stature resulting from short legs. When the "little giant" had on a coat which fitted his large trunk, "the coat-tails were very near the ground." Country Walks about Florence. By Ed- ward Hutton; with 32 drawings by Adelaide Marchi and 20 other illus- trations. Pp. xv+323. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. Florence is the one city in Italy which seems to have lost character and to be at various seasons almost Eng- lish, or American, or German, and, save in the dog days, never really Italian at all. No one except the professional art critic, or the student who desires to consult the priceless archives of Flor- ence will, if he love Italy, stop there any longer than he must. Yet, once outside the gates, we are again in Italy; and it is possible to live in Florence and to buy one's native comestibles at the Anglo-American stores, and, at the same time, to see Italy and Italian life almost at its best, if one uses Florence simply as the centre of one's excursions. This Mr. Hutton has clearly perceived, and his "Country Walks about Flor- ence" is the result. It is, in fact, a new departure in guide-books, a com- panion for one's daily strolls through the 'fields and byways of the Floren- tine contado. And it would be difficult to imagine a better companion. In Flor- ence itself, a perfectly sane man may hesitate between his Ruskin and his Baedeker; for we do not all of us care to read a dozen or so of pages, however illuminating, when "To R. a Holy Fam- ily attributed to Cimabue. L. a Resur- rection. Author unknown. Sacristan expects a gratuity of 1 franc" will get us out of a cold and draughty church, our duty done, into the warm sunshine again. But in the country it is differ- ent. There, we are glad of something to read, when, tired with our walk, we lie among the corn and listen to the voices of the reapers, or sip our Chianti beneath the vine-draped trellis of some wayside trattoria; and so long as the book chosen tells us what we want to know about the places we are visiting,

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4=4: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 we can have no quarrel with its author if he is gracious enough to write beau- tifully about beautiful things. Mr. Hut- ton is withal a competent cicerone. He has read widely, and his book is cram- med with valuable information which it is hard to find elsewhere about every bridge and ford and village and castello and rdcca. It is a wise and learned book as well as a beautiful one, and no sojourner in Florence who is wear- ied with the continual round of picture galleries and churches should fail to buy it. Indeed our only possible ground of complaint is to be found on the fact that Mr. Hutton is silent upon mat- ters with regard to which we should have been glad to hear from him. How delicately could he have writ- ten on the ancient and never-for- gotten custom of cantare il Maggio, and of all the superstitions of the Tuscan peasantry he knows so well! And why does he tell us nothing of Le Signorie 0 Potenze festeggianti of the Florentine contadof Surely, when he has brought us to Campi, we have almost a right to hear something of La Cesarea e sempre Augusta Maestd delV Imperatore di Campi and of his long contest with his brother Emperor del Prato, decided, be it noted, in favor of the former in 1559. The few extra pages which some ac- count of these things would have occu- pied would hardly have increased the weight of the book or made it fit the pocket less conveniently. It only re- mains to add that there is a serviceable index, and that the topographical direc- tions leave nothing to be desired. Fighting the Turk in the Balkans. By Arthur D. Howden Smith. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.75 net. Servia and the Servians. By Chedo Mijatovitch. Boston: L. C. Page and Co. When an American citizen, in cold blood, sets out for Bulgaria, enlists in a cheta, or guerrilla band, and, in re- venge for Turkish atrocities perpetrated on somewhat distantly related Mace- donian peasants, goes to ambushing Turkish patrols in the Rhodopian foot- hills, he comes pretty close to brigand- age. Mr. Smith's excuse is that he has made a very readable book out of his adventures, and has done so without venturing too far into heroics or calling to his aid the dazzling vocabulary of the modern war correspondent. Mr. Smith and his fellow guerrillas seem to have put in a great part of the time falling into ditches and hiding in gar- rets. Yet it is recorded that on one occasion they roasted half-a-dozen bashi- bazouks in their own guardhbuse; on another occasion surprised a Turkish patrol of twenty and killed eleven of them; and on still another occasion made a fine stand in what was almost a pitched battle. Without striving un- duly, the writer has caught very well the reality of guerrilla warfare, — the long marches in the dark, the scamper- ings and evasions across hill and stream, the excitement, the fatigue, and the chill of the mountain nights. For nearly five years after 1903 Macedonia was given over to a relentless warfare in which Turks, Bulgarians, Servians, and Greeks slaughtered each other and the Macedonian peasantry besides. The new order in Turkey has brought peace to the distracted country. Should such a state continue Mr. Smith will have recorded an interesting phase of Bal- kan history. Should trouble come again, his book will be all the more timely. One reservation we would make is that the Bulgarians cannot quite be the ut- terly angelic folk our author makes them. Had his fortunes been cast with a Servian fighting band, he probably would have liked them as well. But that is a minor matter. Mr. Mijatovitch, who used to be Ser- vian minister at London, writes with equal charm and authority. There is only one chapter on Servia and that is historical; the rest of the volume is on the Servians, their customs, beliefs, lit- erature, and folk-lore. Most books that are nowadays written on primitive peoples and their ways are thin dilu- tions of very sparse fact. The present volume is a veritable little encyclopedia of national life and psychology. There is one chapter on Servian Anecdotes or traditional folk tales, which is as en- tertaining as a whole bound volume of many a humorous periodical. The story of the ehodja. or hodja. Nasradin and his pupils demands quotation: Nasradin Chodja took some trouble to teach his pupils how to behave politely. Among other things he told them to clap their hands and shout, "Hayir Allah! (May God grant that it is to your good!)" when- ever they heard an older person sneeze. Once the Chodja, mending something on the open pit in his garden, slipped and fell in. . . . The dutiful school boya soon found a rope and threw it down to their master, and with united forces began to drag him out. Yet a few feet more and he would have been out of the pit, when unfortunately, thoroughly wet as he was, he sneezed. In a moment all his pupils dropped the rope to clap their hands and to shout "Hayir Allah. Chodja!" The poor Chodja fell back down to the bottom of the pit. "Ah," he said to himself, "it serves me right! I ought to have taught these boys common sense first, and then politeness!" Interesting also is the summary, with bits of translation, of the national songs of the Servians. There are even four pages of musical notation illustra- tive of the popular melodies of the country. Science. THE FIRST RACE OF FOSSIL MAN. Paris, December 24. A possibly epoch-making report has been presented to the Academie des Sciences by Marcellin Boule, professor of palaeontology at the Museum d'His- toire Naturelle, Paris. It is the first scientific account of remains complete enough to characterize definitely what Quatrefages and Hamy classify as the first race of fossil man — that of Can- stadt, more commonly known as Nean- derthaloid. The skeleton of a young man of the same race found in August by Hauser has been taken to Ger- many and the scientific description of it is not yet published. What is known of it agrees with this report of Professor Boule on remains recently discovered at La-Chapelle-aux-Saints in the depart- ment of La Correze by the Abbes J. and A. Bouyssonie and L. Bardon. The im- portance of the find is not due merely to the connection of this earliest human race with a definite geologic and palaeo- lithic period. So far these remains mark the lowest round in the descending scale of man toward the long-sought missing link. The chief anatomical pieces discovered are the skull, with lower jaw; by dint of patience nearly all the parts have been put in place. There are also sever- al vertebrae and ribs, with parts of the pelvis and limbs. They were found sev- eral metres deep in a grot, in groundsoil which was in place and sterile, that is, unmixed with other remains. The skele- ton lay on its side, with the knees bent toward the body, in a cavity dug to fit it in the groundsoil. Stones were placed beneath the head and there was every sign of intentional burial. The grave is three metres from the entrance of the grot; it is shallow, and, at the head, there was found the hind hoof of one of the great bovidae, placed as if by design. Above this groundsoil there is an alluvial layer rich in animal remains — rhinoceros, tichorhinus, reindeer, cave hyena, marmot, and wolf. There are no signs of habitation in the grot; but flint instruments discovered with the skele- ton are of the best Mousterien period; and this agrees with the animal remains which belong to the temperate, almost cold, middle (not lower) pleistocene, fol- lowing the last glacial extension in France. Low in the order of humanity as these remains are, they still date far from the tertiary period. To situate this skull of La Chapelle, M. Boule compares it with similar hu- man remains already known, with that of a surviving inferior race, and with pithecanthropus and the anthropoid apes. It is nearly superposable on the skulls of Neanderthal and on that of the pithecanthropus, having the same low,

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 45 receding forehead and depressed arch; it is dolicocephalic, with an index of 75, with thick bone and enormous develop- ment of the penthouse projections above the eye orbits. The latter, which are so striking in the Neanderthal skull, are found almost as strong in the late sku*l of the Irish saint, Mansuy, preserved as a relic. The depressed occiput projects strongly; the torus is more accented than in the Australian, but less than in the pithecanthropus, which, in turn, has it less than the anthropoid apes. The occipital hole has the inward position ordinary in animals lower than man; and the nape of the neck must obvious- ly have been furnished with powerful muscles to secure horizontal vision. The skull is also extraordinarily large for the scant height — about five feet four inches — of its owner; the cranial sutures and dentition show that it belonged to an old man, and, by the way, there are pathognomic signs of rheumatism. Most extraordinary of all is the face. Apart from the projecting eye-roof, the nose is separated from the forehead by a deep depression and is short and very large. Between nose and cheeks, there are no canine fossae, such as exist in all present human races; but the upper jaw forms with the straight-out prolonga- tion of the molar bones a kind of muz- zle. The lateral edges of the palatine arch, which is very long, are almost par- allel as in the anthropoid apes; and all this excessive prognathism is set off by a lower jaw retreating without any chin. The lower jawbone is thick, with enor- mous condyles; it resembles the similar bones of this earliest human race found elsewhere, at Naulette, Spy, and particu- larly that of the still undescribed Hau- ser skeleton of a young man, which was also found in La Correze. Few teeth re- main; the canines are strongly develop- ed. Yet, strange to say, the temporal fossae furnish no indication of an ex- ceptionally strong masticating apparat- us. The other parts of the skeleton show that the man was not only short in stature, but thickset. The femur has a forward incurvation, as if its owner did not regularly hold himself upright on his legs. The tibia shows the platyc- nemia (flat instead of triangular sec- tion) already known in prehistoric and inferior human races and found by Quatrefages in four atavistic examples In Paris hospitals. In sum, these discoveries in La Cor- reze may be said to do away once for all with Virchow's opinion that the Neanderthaloid type is pathological. It has now to be considered normal and characteristic of a great part of Europe during the Middle Pleistocene; and the Mousterien art epoch goes along with it. It is inferior to any living human type and is relatively much nearer to the anthropoid apes than any other yet found. Between must be placed the pith- ecanthropus anatomically. Above this Corrdzien, far above both anatomically and in industry and art, is Quatrefages's second fossil human race — that of Cro- Magnon, and inferior types still exist- ing. Morphologically, its place is be- tween the pithecanthropus of Java and the existing Australian, which, as M. Boule takes pains to explain, implies no direct generic connection; and it is not a man-monkey. s. D. THE NEBRASKA LOESS MAN. Lincoln, Nebraska, December 31. For more than two years various per- sons interested have been investigating carefully all the details connected with the discovery of early human remains, designated as the Nebraska Loess Man (see the Nation of November 1, 1906, p. 380). Within this time numerous crit- icisms have appeared. It is indeed re- markable how completely some students have thought to discredit the finds by a casual visit to the spot or a mere ex- amination of the remains. A much greater area has been dug over and much additional evidence collected. This serves to confirm the view that the theory of burial is inadequate to account for all the facts. The view of the finder, R. F. Gilder, that the superficial layer of remains was deposited above an area of clay hardened by fire, has been thor- oughly demonstrated, and the extent and form of the fire-baked area deter- mined. The view that the human re- mains beneath this level were part of the same mound and were carried down by the work of gophers becomes increas- ingly improbable. Thus the discovery of a skull and some associated bones seven feet below the surface at some distance from the baked-clay area can hardly be explained as the work of a gopher. Another group of bones mani- festing anatomical association, yet found at a depth of six feet and at some dis- tance from the first, is still more in- capable of explanation on the gopher theory. Two classes of implements have also been discovered. Fine flint flake weap- ons, barely touched with a fine incrus- tation, come from the burial mound. On the other hand, a few rough, un- flaked flint pieces of a different rock, heavily accreted with lime, have been found at about the same depth with the fragmentary remains regarded by the Nebraska investigators as belonging to the older type. All the evidence points to the burial of the bones in the upper strata; no evidence has yet been secured which points to burial in the case of the other remains. That the region is remarkably rich is indicated by the discovery of another skeleton associated with mortuary arti- cles, consisting of large sea-shells care- fully placed about and beneath the cra- nium; arrow points of flint not native, and of the well-known Mound Builder type and finish; potsherds the binder of which differs from local pottery, in that the former is sand while the latter is disintegrated granite rock; the large black, and not native flint gouge; and lastly the disposition of bones in se- pulchre with head to north. The fore- head of the cranium is gone, but the skull differs materially from any other found. The archaeological evidence points towards some Mound-Building Wisconsin Indian that had strayed over into the Missouri River country. This skeleton was unearthed in a low tumu- lus on the same ridge some distance fur- ther north, and is in no wise related to anything in the Gilder mound, intru- sive or otherwise. Dr. Charles Denison, a specialist in the treatment of tuberculosis and a leader in the crusade against that disease, died at Denver January 10. He was born at Roy- alton, Vt., in 1845, and after graduation from Williams College and the medical de- partment of the University of Vermont, he began the practice of medicine. In 1873 he went to Denver, where for fourteen years he served as professor of diseases of the chest and climatology in the medical department of the University of Denver. In 1890 he was president of the American Climatological Association; in 1901, honor- ary vice-president of the British Congress on Tuberculosis ; and he was a member of various scientific societies. The list of his writings includes "Rocky Mountain Health Resorts" (1876), "The Annual and Seasonal Climatic Maps" (1885). "Exercise and Food for Pulmonary Invalids" (1895). and numerous articles and reports on sub- jects connected with climate and tuber- culosis. The death of Prof. Harry Govier Seeley, geologist and mineralogist, was reported from London, January 8. He was born in that city in 1839, and educated at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He held var- ious important positions: he was at one time in charge of the Woodwardian Mu- seum, Cambridge; from 1860 to 1870 he was assistant to Prof. Adam Sedgwick; in 1876 he was appointed professor of geography at King's College; from 1880 to 1890 he served as a university extension lecturer; since 1885 he had been lecturer for the Gil- christ Educational Trust, and director of the London Geological Field class; from 1890 to 1905 he was lecturer on geology at the Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper's Hill. He was also a member of many scientific societies, English and Con- tinental; he discovered the skeletons of par- eiasaurus, cynognathus, and other fossil reptiles in the Karroo, and presented them to the British Museum. Among his pub- lications are: "Index to Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, Reptilia" (1869), "Ornithosauria- an Elementary Study" (1870), "The Fresh-Water Fishes of Eu- rope" (1886), "Factors in Life" (1887), "Story of the Earth in Past Ages" (1895), "Dragons of the Air" (1901), and some 170 memoirs, chiefly on geological subjects and fossil reptiles, in the Transactions of the Royal Society and other learned bodies.

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46 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 Drama. The announcement is made that the rival promoters of a National and of a Shakes- pearean Memorial Theatre in London have joined hands and will now work together for a common object. In name the institu- tion is to be National, and Shakespearean plays are to be produced at regular inter- vals, as well as the works of other drama- tists, living and dead, while foreign com- panies are to be 'invited to perform upon occasion. The theatre is to be controlled by a board of trustees — representative of literature, drama, music, and education — and it is hoped that the educational and municipal authorities of the country will associate themselves with the enterprise. A bill has been introduced into the House of Commons which proposes to do away with the present stage censorship of the Lord Chamberlain's office. An introductory memorandum says : The object of this bill is to abolish the censorship of plays exercised in Great Brit- ain under the authority of the Lord Cham- berlain, and to transfer to the London County Council as the local authority the power of licensing and controlling theatres exercised by the Lord Chamberlain in the central parts of the metropolis. As to the censorship of plays, it is proposed to make theatrical performances subject to the same control as performances in music halls. In the case of music halls no censorship exists, but any impropriety can be dealt with by the police or by a refusal of the license by the licensing authority, which in London is the London County Council. The censorship of plays does not exist in Ireland. As to the licensing of theatres, this power is now exercised by or under the control of the local authority in practically the whole of Great Britain, where theatres are found, except the central districts of London, the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, and places where his Majesty resides. Fur- ther, even in the central district of London, the London County Council as the local au- thority, has already extensive powers over the structure of theatres under the Metrop- olis Management Act, 1878. At the latest meeting of the committee of the Comedie Franchise in Paris Mile. Berthe Cerny and Charles Siblot were elected so- cietaires. Mile. Cerny has been a public favorite ever since her first appearance at the Frangaise, in "Paraltre." M. Siblot has long been prominent at the Odeon. Word comes from Florence that the Mask, a monthly magazine on the theatre, is to be enlarged. Beginning with the February number, the Mask will appear both in Eng- lish and French, the French part to be under the direction of Jean Jacques 011- wier. Each number will contain a bibliog- raphy on subjects connected with the art, history, and literature of the theatre; and every alternate month a book review will appear in English. A complete edition in six volumes of the works of Christian D. Grabbe, including the correspondence, will interest the ad- mirers of that much discussed dramatic genius. They are edited, with introduc- tion and notes, by Otto Nieten (Leipzig: Max Hesse.) Moderne Biibne is the name of a new collection of contemporary German dram- as, edited by Emil Reiss. (Berlin: Concor- dia Deutsche Verlagsanstalt.) Among re- cent volumes are Eduard Stucken's tragic comedy, in one act, "Die Gesellschaft des Abb6 Chateauneuf"; his four-act drama, "Myrrha"; a comedy by Otto Hinnerk, "Narrische Welt"; and a translation of Swinburne's "Chastelard," by Walter Unus. Carl Frederick William Ahrendt, who will be remembered as an intelligent and trustworthy actor, who gave capable sup- port to Edwin Booth and other stars in the legitimate drama, died at Greenville, Mis- sissippi, January 11. He was born in Lau- terborg, Germany, in 1842, and came to this country fifteen years later. He was at various times in the companies of F. W. Lander, Thomas W. Keene, Frank Mayo, Lawrence Barrett, Edwin Booth, Tommaso Salvini, E. H. Sothern, Richard Mansfield, and J. K. Hackett. During the first ad- ministration of President Cleveland he was vice-consul at Berlin. Music. Edward MacDowell. By Lawrence Gil- man. New York: John Lane Co. $1.50. Three years ago the John Lane Com- pany published a book on America's greatest composer by Mr. Gilman which was somewhat disappointing, not so much because of what it said as for what it left unsaid. For this, the au- thor was only partly responsible; his book was one in a series called Living Masters of Music, in which each mas- ter was to be discussed in less than a hundred pages. MacDowell's death, a year ago, made it necessary to take this volume out of that series, and this change afforded a good opportunity to expand the volume to the dimensions called for by so interesting a subject — an opportunity of which Mr. Gilman has made excellent use. The new vol- ume has 190 pages, and is in every way a great improvement on its predecessor; it is not only readable, but uncommonly stimulating; it will help to enhance Mac- Dowell's fame as an artist and a man, and it will make more vivid the pre- mature loss of the one musician Amer- ica could least spare. It is commonly assumed that the fa- mous Venezuelan pianist, Teresa Car- reno, was MacDowell's first teacher, but she was preceded by another South American, Juan Buitrago of Bogota, who gave the child his first lessons, and who is still living with his pupil's par- ents. Albert Spalding, the violinist who recently won so much success, is anoth- er of his pupils. Buitrago laid a good foundation on which others built, at the Paris Conservatory (where Debussy was one of the American's fellow-pu- pils), and in Germany, where MacDow- ell began his career as teacher and com- poser, and where he had the great ad- vantage of knowing a bandmaster who was willing to try over his early ef- forts at orchestral composition. When he returned to America the musical crit- ics for once belied their reputation of being hostile to budding genius by wel- coming him as one of the elect, a lead- ing authority going so far as to express his preference for the second MacDow- ell piano concerto over Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, which was played at the same concert (March 5, 1889). In 1896 the professorship of music at Co- lumbia University was offered to him, as to "the greatest musical genius Amer- ica has produced." Of the eight years at Columbia Mr. Gilman gives the first connected account, describing his courses, his ideals, and dwelling brief- ly on the causes that led to his resig- nation. The charge that he shirked his work (as a less conscientious man of genius might have done and been for- given for it) is refuted. As a matter of fact, MacDowell worked too hard, giv- ing to the university and its students an amount of vitality and time that might have been much better expended in com- posing new music. It was during these eight years that he wrote his master- works. Had he followed his first in- clination of refusing the professorship, we might now have twice that amount of best work, and he would not have been compelled to do most of his creat- ing in summer, when he ought to have rested. It was thus that, through sheer overwork as composer, professor, and private teacher, he wore out his brain prematurely. The lectures prepared for Columbia are to be printed some day. Mr. Gil- man has enjoyed the privilege of mak- ing some extracts from them, and from notes taken by pupils; and they cer- tainly make the mouth water for more. Had MacDowell been a musical critic, he would have been as felicitous in style, as keen, as witty, as Hanslick, and much more just. Nothing could be bet- ter than his remarks, here cited, on the great composers, and on form, on na- tionalism in music, and other topics. Though as well-read as a German profes- sor, he never paraded his erudition. "Bach," he said in one of his lectures, "differed in almost everything from Handel, except that he was born the same year and was killed by the same doctor." In a serious vein: "Bach was one of the world's mightiest tone-poets, but not by means of the contrapuntal methods of his day, but in spite of them." Every musical history tells us that Mozart's piano sonatas are sub- lime, but MacDowell looks the thing straight in the face: Mozart's sonatas are compositions en- tirely unworthy of the author of "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni," or of any composer with pretensions to more than mediocre talent. They are written in a style of flashy harpsichord virtuosity such as Liszt in his most despised moments never descended to. Mr. Gilman notes that "MacDowell wrote surprisingly few letters," but he does not give the reason therefor. It was that his wife relieved him of the burden of correspondence almost en-

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Jan. 14, 1909] The ^STation. 47 tirely, writing sometimes as many as a hundred letters a week for him. This was doubtless a blessing to him, but it had the unfortunate result just stated. What the world thus lost may be in- ferred from the following lines from one of his letters to an admirer who had told him that some of the verse he had written for his songs recalled at times the phrasing of Whitman and Shakespeare : I will confide in you that if, in the next world, I should happen upon the wraiths of Shakespeare, Whitman, and Co., I would light ou€ without delay. Good heavens! I blush at the thought of it! A header through a cloud would be the only thing. Serious- ly, I was deeply touched by your praise, and wish I were more worthy of it. That "header through a cloud" is like many flights of fancy in his composi- tions. Of these Mr. Gilman gives a sym- pathetic, yet discriminating, account, in a style often characterized by great fe- licity. One thing, alas! is missing: an index. "The Opera-Goers' Complete Guide," by Leo Melitz (Dodd, Mead & Co.) has a rea- son for existence, because it is constructed on a plan differing from those of the many other operatic guide books in the market. Instead of telling the story first and fol- lowing it up with a reference to the prin- cipal airs, the author of this volume, who is director of the Stadt-Theater In Basle, always begins by giving the "Who's Who" of each opera, and then tells the story step by step, as it is enacted on the stage, mentioning the airs as they occur. This plan has its undoubted advantages, as it makes it easier for the reader to tell what is doing on the stage every moment, and it is well carried out. The stories are made intelligible wherever such a thing is possible. The number of operas described is 209, but of these at least 95 might as well have been omitted, as they will never be performed in this country or England. It is, however, better to have too many than too few; and the translator, Richard Salinger, has done his part of the work well. Arturo Toscanini is a musical missionary as well as a great operatic conductor. He became convinced, some years ago, that justice had not been done to his country- man, Alfredo Catalani, who died at Milan in 1893 after composing half a dozen un- successful operas; so he brought out his last opera, "La Wally," at Buenos Ayres, infusing so much enthusiasm into his read- ing of the score that the opera proved a brilliant success, as also later in Milan and other Italian cities. Its production at our Metropolitan Opera House last week indicated that it is an opera of much great- er worth than was the first novelty of the Gatti-Casazza-Toscanini regime, Puccini's Juvenile "Le Villi." There is no great abundance of new melody, yet there are some stirring solos, ensembles, and orches- tral numbers, which indicate that had Ca- talani enjoyed the stimulus of public en- couragement he might have written a mas- terwork — provided he could have secured a better libretto than that on which "La Wally" (a dramatization of Wilhelmine von Hillern's Tyrolean story "Geyer-Wally") is based. The present opera season in Milan began with Spontini's "La Vestale," which had not been heard there since 1825. The reper- tory of the Scala also contains Richard Strauss's "Elektra," which will be given, for the first time in Italy, on March 1; "Theodora," by Xavkr Leroux; and the Russian national opera, "Boris Goudonoff," by Moussorgsky, which was performed in Paris a few months ago. Madame Marentie, the French prima donna, will undertake the title role in "Theodora," while that of the Russian work is assigned to M. Chaliapine. Among other works announced for perform- ance are Verdi's "Vespri Siciliani," Pucci- ni's "Manon Lescaut," Mascagni's "Iris," and a revial of Manzotti's ballet. In addition to the bequests of a Stradi- varius, dated 1724, to the Paris Conserva- toire, with $4,000 for the foundation of an annual prize for the violin and $2,000 to the Aged Musicians' Society of Paris, the late Sarasate left $20,000 to the Conservatory of Music of Madrid, to be applied in award- ing a prize annually to the pupil who com- pletes his violin courses with exceptional merit, or, in default of one such pupil, to several; to the School of Music at Pam- plona, Spain, his musical library and a sum of $5,000 for a yearly prize for "the most interesting pupil from an artistic point of view"; and $5,000 to the House of Mercy at Pamplona (Casa de Misericorde). By his will he had left his Stradivarius violin, dated 1713, to the trustees of the South Kensington Museum, London, with the mention "that this gift is made by me as a remembrance of the welcome and suc- cesses which I obtained in England," but by a codicil dated June 12, 1894, he revoked this bequest, and left the violin to the Con- servatory of Music of Madrid. He be- queathed to the Town Council of Pamplona his piano from Biarritz, his violin by Guil- laume, and his Gand violin which was given to him as a first prize at the Conser- vatoire of Paris, all his watches, pins, rings, jewels, decorations — he was a knight of numerous foreign orders — wreaths, palms, diplomas, letters patent, bronzes, pictures, busts, and souvenirs, his effects at his Paris house, except his musical li- brary, his violin bows, all of which are to be exhibited in glass cases in a special room bearing his name. Art. MODERN GERMAN PAINTING AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM. The intellectual sympathy between this country and Germany, which has been strengthened by the exchange of university professors, has led to a cor- responding interchange of current art. Thus it is that an exhibition of Ger- man painting is now being held at the Metropolitan Museum. The art of painting, largely through the influence of the French, has under- gone such a revolution during the past thirty years, a revolution which has deeply affected the practice of the sen- sitive painter of other nations, that it is with peculiar curiosity that we ex- amine the effect upon Germany, that land of sentiment and emotion, of this changed point of view. The methods of modern painting and the results of modern "seeing" have spread far and wide; the Scottish, the English, the Norwegian, the American schools have been receptive of the ideas which urg- ed the French to break with tradition. But if one is expecting to see in these German paintings this legitimate and logical advance, one is likely to be dis- appointed. This exhibition, however, is not, for this reason, to be taken light- ly; and one should divest one's self of prejudice in favor of any one form of present practice, and be prepared, rather, to regard the collection as an expression of the Teutonic race of to- day. These paintings purport to represent the "new movement," and in some in- stances, which we shall be glad to note later, the artists are showing a disposi- tion to deliver themselves legitimately through the medium of paint; but for the most part they still seem to be enmeshed in the net of literary and philosophical habits which have char- acterized the German mind, and, to ex- press these sentiments, are making use of a mistaken medium. To read some passages in the laudatory introduction to the catalogue, which was prepared, translated, and printed in Germany, one might believe that these painters were the earliest "plein-airists," with that versatile and prodigiously skilful paint- er, Adolf von Menzel, for progenitor. If so, German art has been slow to evolve on that side, for Von Menzel was an accomplished painter sixty years ago; he died at ninety in 1905. In truth, Von Menzel and most of his German dis- ciples were realists in the sense of con- veying the sentiment of intimate, every- day themes, of the amusements, indus- tries, and general activities of life, through an illustrative art possessing character and color. This art was more or less didactic, appealing to the emo- tions, but not to our latest sense, reveal- ing in radiant color the vibrating opales- cent charm of the natural world of sight. Nothing could be farther remov- ed from this modern spirit of "seeing" than the contributions of Franz von Stuck, one of the younger men. The trouble with this painter appears to be that he has mistaken his medium, which should be verbal. In his Infernal Re- gions one cannot see power in thinly painted, enamel-like, unluminous flesh of careless construction, violent con- trasts, and no great distinction of com- position or of line. A mood of thought which it is the work of literature legiti- mately to express, is attempted here through pigment. It may be, also, that in the portrait of himself he intended to suggest some sentimental elation of mind; but to the connoisseur who re-

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4:8 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 gards the human face and figure as a beautiful subject on which an artist reveals his mastery of significant planes and sensitive modelling, in conjunction with fine qualities of color and of tone, this spectral vision of muddy color and indifferent form is a disappointing ex- ample of the painter's art, however sat- isfying such a statement might have been in literature. Another man, Arnold Bocklin, earlier in time, is of this same misapprehension concerning the appeal that the beautiful in the world of nature makes through the painter's means of expression. His subjects are not only literary in theme, but color- less through his use of pigment. On this aspect of German painting it may be said in summary that Von Menzel touched almost every subject with great technical skill; but he was the pictorial illustrator of his time, rather than a temperament of sensitive artistic im- pulse. He turned with apparently equal relish from one subject to another: he would paint you a blazing ballroom fill- ed with notabilities whose personalities you could identify, or he would place before you a palace garden with sway- ing trees and scudding clouds, with con- summate reality and address. This is illustrative art of a high order; but if one looks for more, the loving differ- entiation of retreating planes in the crowded room, or in the diminishing landscape, with intervening air or in- terposing atmosphere, one must exam- ine the work of some of the newer men. One of the first to depart radically from the older ways was Fritz von Uhde, whose Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me is one of those depar- tures where Biblical story is given a modern setting. In this case not only is the setting modern, but the whole sentiment of light and air is of the new sense of seeing. We have advanced since Von Uhde did this, but the picture is a valuable contribution to the subtle charm of the outside world which it has been the privilege of modern painting to discover. A still later disciple of this new sight is Richard Kaiser, who, in Field Loneliness has attempted, in landscape and sky, a breadth of treat- ment and a feeling of light distinctly modern and, except for a lack of sim- plicity in the construction of his fore- ground of weeds and grasses, a success- ful effort. Rudolf Schramm-Zittau, younger still in point of years, has given us some fresh, competent work in the progressive spirit, in his two little pictures of Ducks, and in the large one Feeding Hens. These are quite in the new mood, technically, and with years, doubtless, this painter will find more subtlety in the effects he is now so well equipped to express. One must also applaud the admirable little Polo-Play- ers by Max Liebermann, who is indeed of the modern school. Movement, light, air, and a breadth of vision which is the very essence of modernity characterize this treasure of fine "seeing" and ac- complished painting. An older painter, one more mature in method, and pos- sessed of a fine and distinguished vision is Eugen Bracht, who in Sea Calm and Mid-day Pause in Steel Works has sent two works of rare quality. In portraiture it is proper to mention first two men whose accomplished work for many years added lustre to German art. The fine characterization and dig- nified restraint of Franz Von Lenbach are always interesting, particularly in his portraits of men. That of Moltke does not appear up to his usual stand- ard, but the Bismarck, despite a certain uncertainty in execution, is a rich and handsome piece of color. Wilhelm Leibl's Portrait of a Man is also fine in color, although, to our sense, almost too loosely constructed, the hands par- ticularly of a character too suggestive of feebleness of grip. One of the younger men who is working in a wholesome, truly modern, and compe- tent way is Arthur Kampf, who sends a Portrait of Emperor William II, which, although workmanlike in paint- ing, lacks a certain spaciousness of composition that might have been more fitting to the subject; but The Two Sis- ters, by the same artist, is worthy of all praise in tonal quality and disposi- tion of spaces. There is more in this collection that it would be interesting to note, works of real merit and completeness, and much also that is tentative, experimen- tal, and that does not contribute to the strength of the show. We are left, how- ever, with the impression that the school is emerging, with effort, from the shadow of tradition, that it is evidently freeing itself, and seeking a truer form of artistic expression. This exhibition should, moreover, tend to give the pub- lic more sympathy with the earnest painters of our own country, who, though in an experimental stage like the Germans, are still well in the van of this progressive movement; who have indeed, in many instances, a great- er maturity of accomplishment than we note in this collection. Frank Fowler. F. Mason Perkins, in the Rassegna d'Arte for December, throws much light upon the early development of the painter Miatteo da Siena. We cannot follow the changes of attribution in detail. Lorenzo Fiocca con- cludes an interesting study of mediaeval buildings in Sicily. Diego Sant' Ambrogio reports from Bonaeardo, Province of Oris- tano, Sardinia, a beautiful Madonna and child in colored terra-cotta, the type of which, to judge by the illustration, is strongly Donatellesque. Minor discoveries chronicled in this number are several paintings by Matto da Gualdo in mountain sanctuaries near Nocera, Umbria. Of more importance is the uncovering in the Tem- plars' Church, Perugia, of frescoes repre- senting knights of the order and dating from the thirteenth century. This church is now used as a warehouse. It is hoped that the government will reclaim It as a public monument. In the series Kiinstlermonographien (Leipzig: Velhagen & Klassing), Vol. XCI, just issued, is "Lukas Kranach," by E. Heyck, with 103 illustrations. The work is more than a brochure, for it contains a comparatively complete biography. Vol. XIII of the Klassiker der Kunst, edited by Emil Schaeffer (Leipzig: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) brings the story of Van Dyck, with the explanatory subtitle "Des Meisters Gemalde in 537 Abbildungen." The illustrations are good, and the ac- count of the painter's life critically writ- ten. Indeed, Schaeffer, at times, ridicules Van Dyck's attention to externals and fail- ure to catch the soul of the subject. An interesting discovery of early Chris- tian remains has recently been made at Wad-el-Hadad, on the Blue Nile, a few miles north of Sennar. A number of graves were uncovered containing skeletons and a quantity of pottery in an excellent state of preservation. The latter consists chiefly of bowls and jars. The bowls are, for the most part, of dark clay, decorated with what are known as Nubian patterns. On one of them is a Coptic processional cross, which also occurs scratched inside the lips of the jars, where it is associated with two other Christian emblems — the fish and the palm branch. A comparison of this pottery with that found on Nubian sites between the first and second cataracts, makes it probable that it should be dated in the seventh or eighth century, A. D. The pottery has been sent to the Khartum Museum. The chief interest of the discov- ery lies in the fact that this is the first time that Christian remains have come to light so far south. At present very little is known of the history of Christianity in these regions, and it is to be hoped that excavations will lead to the discovery of other early Christian remains in that neighborhood, which may throw light upon this question. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are portraits by Wil- helm Funk and drawings by James Mont- gomery Flagg, at Knoedler's, till January 16; forty selected paintings by living Amer- ican artists, Macbeth's, January 21; water colors, F. Hopkinson Smith, Noe's, January 23; etchings and dry-points, Whistler, Fred- erick Keppel & Co.'s, February 3. Gustave fimile Doudemont, a member of the Societe des Artistes Francais, and for many years an exhibitor at the Salon, has died, at the age of seventy- four. Finance. I '. A "JANUARY BREAK." There had been numerous and con- flicting theories as to what sort of stock market would usher in 1909 ; but no- body predicted exactly what happened — namely, that a single stock, not one of the "leaders," would fall 42 points in two days, and that this spectacular de- cline would undermine all the rest of the market, leading to such losses, be-

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Jan. 14, 1909] The Nation. 49 tween January 4 and January 11, as 8^ points in Union Pacific, 4% in St. Paul, iy8 in Reading, 5% in Erie, and 9% in New York Central. Yet when the episode was concluded, and people had a chance to consider it as a whole, many observant Wall Street men ad- mitted that the course of events had been perfectly logical, in the light of conditions with which the year 1908 had ended. It is true that the immediate cause of the debdcle was an incident which could not have been predicted with as- surance. The decision of the Supreme Court against the Consolidated Gas Com- pany, in the company's suit to prevent the compulsory lowering of the price of its product in New York city from $1 to 80 cents per 1,000 cubic feet, was clearly what started the ball rolling. Possibly, therefore, it will be contended that the fall of stocks was, as a whole, something out of the ordinary run of financial events, since Supreme Court decisions cannot be "discounted," like harvests, earnings, and dividends. But as a matter of fact, "discounting" the Supreme Court's verdict was exactly what the stock market had been doing. It is six months since Consolidated Gas stock sold at as low a price as it touch- ed last week 'Wednesday, and the 44- point rise between then and November 28, and especially the 28-point advance between the last week of October and the last week of November, were openly grounded on confident assertions that the court would find for the company, that there had been a "leak," that 8 per cent, dividends on the basis of "dollar gas" would be resumed, and that the $9,- 000,000, held in trust, to allow for the disputed 20 cents per 1,000 feet on each consumer's bills since April, 1906, would be disbursed in extra dividends. In oth- er words, the Stock Exchange had been hoisting values extravagantly in this stock, because the buyers accepted as certainty something which was altogeth- er doubtful. Experiments of that sort invite just such retribution as has come; but the larger moral of the affair is, that Stock Exchange speculators had been doing exactly the same thing, on exactly the same sort of "rumor," to a score of other stocks, and to the stock market as a whole. This is one logical aspect of the general break in prices, which was by no means wholly a result of forced selling of other stocks, caused by "impairment of margins" in Consoli- dated Gas. The episode was, however, logical in another way. Much was said last month, as is always the case in December, of the "January disbursements" and the "reinvestment demand," which were to drive up prices. But because a great sum of money will be available for re- investment January 2, it does not fol- low that people will wait until after New Year's Day to buy the stocks. The arrival of the "coupon money" is one of the surest events in finance. One could not, therefore, fairly expect a market which "discounts" and "overdiscounts" Supreme Court decisions not yet ren- dered, to neglect the "discounting" of such a coming event as the January dividends. The market discounts in two ways. Professional speculators buy and bid up stocks which they expect to sell to the January coupon-holder; the banks lend them money for the pur- pose. But the banks also make similar advances to the coupon-holder, who, in many cases, buys on borrowed mo- ney, in December, the securities which he intends to take up with his own new funds in January. This dou- ble process will, of course, be much en- couraged and facilitated by such very low rates for Wall Street loans as pre- vailed throughout last month. The out- come of this buying in advance, when carried to extremes, is easy to predict. The speculators will have brought the supply of stocks, for sale on the Jan- uary market, up to the full proportions of the new demand; and meantime the January reinvestment demand itself is reduced in volume because the inves- tors had themselves anticipated require- ments by their December purchases on margin. This done, it would be no illog- ical result for January — the "reinvest- ment month" itself — to be marked, not by a rising, but by a falling stock mar- ket. Experience, as a rule, bears out the theory. January, 1908, did not; it saw a rapidly rising market; but then, for reasons familiar to everybody, neither speculator nor investor had been able to indulge in the "discounting process" in the preceding December. January, 1907, witnessed a break of 10 to 20 points in stocks. January, 1906, began with a vigorous rise, followed, however, by a sensational collapse. January, 1905, was a month of great irregularity and weak- ness. January, 1904, began with three weeks of intermittent declines. It is needless to multiply precedents. The question of real interest is, whether or not this recent break in prices was all that was required to bring January, 1909, in line with rule and practice. Henry Chapman Watson, editor of Dun's Review, and a well-known writer in com- mercial and financial topics, died at Engle- wood, N. J., January 6, at the age of thir- ty-eight. He was born in Port Chester, N. Y., and early in life entered journalism. He was the compiler of Dun's Index Num- ber and Dun's Commercial Failures; he prepared statistical reports for the gov- ernment and wrote for various periodicals BOOKS OP THE WEEK. Adeney, Walter F. The Greek and East- ern Churches. Scribner. $2.50 net. Barber, Edwin Atlee. The Maiolica of Mexico. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Mu- seum and School of Industrial Art. Barnes, Everett. Short American History, by Grades. Parts I and II. Boston: D. C Heath & Co. $1. Baumgarten, Paul Maria. Henry Charles Lea's Historical Writings. Joseph F. Wagner. 90 cents. Boorman, T. Hugh. Asphalts: Their Sources and Utilizations. William T. Comstock. $3. Boyer, Charles C. Modern Methods for Teachers. Philadelphia: Lippincott Co. Bradley, A. G. The Making of Canada. Dutton. $3 net. Ciairmont, Col. Ralph de. Reform. Boston: Roxburgh Pub. Co. Converse, Harriet Maxwell. Myths and Le- gends of the New York State Iroquois. Albany: University of the State of New York. Courthope, W. J. A Consideration of Ma- caulay's Comparison of Dante and Mil- ton. Henry Frowde. Cram, Ralph Adams. Excalibur: An Ar- thurian Drama. Boston: Richard G. Bad- ger. Crowther, Cornelia S. Pensees et Reflexions de La Bruyere. W. R. Jenkins Co. $1. Dubois, Professor, and de Geer, Professor. Lectures et Conversations. W. R. Jenkins Co. 75 cents. Firth, C. H. Milton as an Historian. Henry Frowde. Folk, Mrs. H. B. Heart Thoughts: Papers and Addresses. American Baptist Publi- cation Society. France, Anatole. Balthasar. A Transla- tion by Mrs. John Lane. John Lane. $2. Graham, David Wilkie. The Way to Win. Broadway Publishing Company. $1. Guatemala, Defense of the Government of, before the Central American Court of Justice at Carfcago. In the Case of Hon- duras. Washington: Byron S. Adams. Harbin, Robert Maxwell. Health and Hap- piness, or An Analogical Study of Dis- ease and Sin. Griffith & Rowland Press. flO cents. Hawkins, Chauncey J. The Quest for Health and Happiness. Pilgrim Press. Hopkins, Alphonso A. Profit and Loss in Man. Funk & Wagnalls. Kleiser, Grenville. How to Develop Power and Personality in Speaking. Funk & Wagnalls. Lincoln, Abraham. Tributes from His As- sociates. With Introduction by William Hayes Ward. Crowell. 60 cents. Lyon, Harris Merton. Sardonics: Sixteen Sketches. Metropolitan Syndicate. Mackay, Donald Sage. The Religion of the Threshold, and Other Sermons. A. C. Armstrong & Son. $1.50 net. McCarthy, John. An Amazing Scotland Yard Scandal. London: By the author. Id Madach, Imre. The Tragedy of Man: Dra matic Poem. Translated by William N. Loew. Arcadia Press. Maler. Teobert. Explorations in the De- partment of Peten Guatemala and Adja- cent Region. Cambridge: Peabody Mu- seum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Martin, William F. Sir Harry Vane. Bos- ton: Roxburgh Pub. Co. Merrick, George Byron. Old Times on the XTpper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863. Cleve- land: Arthur H. Clark Co. $3.50 net. Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 59 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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50 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2272 Murphy, Ethel Allen. The Angel of Thought, and Other Poems. Boston: Richard G. Badger. National Education Association. Journal of Proceedings, 1908. Winona, Minn.: Na- tional Education Association. Newton, Joseph Fort. David Swing, Poet- Preacher. Chicago' Unity Publishing Co. Nolen, John. San Diego: A Comprehensive Plan for Its Improvements. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Co. Oppenheim, E. Phillips. The Missioner. Boston: Little, Brown. $1.50. Perry, S. Payson. The Tariff and the Farmer. Worcester: F. S. Blanchard & Co. Potter, Henry Codman. Memorial Address- es delivered before the Century Associa- tion, December 12, 1908. Ramsay, W. M. Luke, The Physician, and Other Studies in the History of Religion. A. C. Armstrong & Son. $3. net. Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1907. Vol. 2. Washington: Government Printing Office. Reports of the Forest, Fish, and Game Commissioner of the State of New York for 1904-1905-1906. Albany: J. B. Lyon Co. Rice, Harry E. Eve and the Evangelist. Boston: Roxburgh Pub. Co. Savage, Charles Albert. The Athenian Family: A Sociological and Legal Study. Baltimore: Lord Baltimore Press. Select English Classics, A. T. Quiller- Couch, Ed. Daniel Defoe, Goldsmith, Marvell, Robin Hood, Boswell's Johnson, Shakespeare's Songs and Sonnets, Mat- thew Arnold, John Keats, R. Browning, Napier, Coleridge, Marlowe, Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, William Cowper, George Crabbe, John Milton, Shelley, Everyman, Early Lyrics, Tennyson, Wal- pole's Letters, Blake, Thomas Hood Wordsworth, John Bunyan, Izaak Walton. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 3d. each. Shurter, Edwin Dubois. Oratory of the South. From the Civil War to the Pres- ent Time. Neale Publishing Co. Squire, George O. The Present Status of Military Aeronautics. Reprint from The Journal, The American Society of Me- chanical Engineers. Stone, Matilda Woods. Every Man His Chance. Boston: Richard G. Badger. $1.60. Topfield, Mass., Historical Society Collec- tions. Under Petraia: With Some Saunterings. John Lane. $1.50 net. Wells, H. G. Tono-Bungay: A Novel. Duf- field & Co. $1.50. Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage for 1909. London. Who's Who in New York City and State. Edited by John W. Leonard. L. R. Ham- ersly & Co. Wilde, Oscar. A Florentine Tragedy. Bos- ton: John W. Luce & Co. Thoroughly Revised and Enlarged Edition of GANONG'S PLANT PHYSIOLOGY By WM. F. GANONG, Professor in Smith College 265 pp. 8vo. $1.75 The second edition, although retaining the title and the general aim of the first, has been wholly rewritten and extended to form a general hand- book of experimental plant physiology. The treatment is comprehensive. While all known methods and appliances of any educational value are dis- cussed, emphasis is laid on the methods and apparatus which are most prac- ticable for student use and best inculcate the true scientific spirit. Some of the methods described are now made accessible for the first time. Henry Holt & Company 34 West 33d St. NEW YORK Rrndil Jan. 16. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SELF-HELP An Application ot Practical Psy- chology to Daily Life By STANTON DAVIS KIRKMAN, Author of "The Ministry of Beauty," etc. Crown 8vo. $1.25 net. A book designed to show how, by a training and use of the mind, it is possible for everyone to secure at least a large measure of mental health and physical well-being. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, &% GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES, 1200-1500 By WILLIAM STUBBS, D.D., formerly Bishop of Oxford, and Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Edited by Arthur Hassall, M. A. Student, Tutor, and sometime Censor of Christ Church, Oxford. With 2 Maps. 8vo. pp. xii-255. $2.25 net. ••♦This volume completes the series of lectures given by Bishop Stubbs on Germany in the Middle Ages. A previous volume dealt with the history of Germany from 476 A. D., to the middle of the 13th century. LONGMANS, GREEN.& CO,, 93 5t„Ave.,N.Y. BEST facilities for supplying American D/"W"VI/r^ German English DUUKo Italian French ^=^===^=^= Spanish Catalogues free. Correspondence solicited. LEMCKE & BUECHNER Established over 60 years. 11 East 17th St., New York We don't buy books solely by their covers ; and yet any bookseller will tell you attractive covers help the sale. If you write your prospective customer on "The Standard Paper for Business Stationery" 0IL1 HAMPSHIRE MP "Look for this Water Mark" he won't judge you solely by your stationery, yet the crisp, kempt sheets will add a certain influence to your message you can hardly afford to miss. Let us mail you an attractive specimen book of Old Hampshire Bond, showing the paper in the white and fourteen colors ; litho- graphed, die stamped, and printed in most at- tractive form. Hampshire Paper Company We are the only paper makers in the world making bond paper exclusively South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts THIRTEENTH IMPRESSION THE LIFE OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMEE "A remarkable biography of a remarkable woman. ' ' — Transcript. With portraits and views,$l. 50 ne(.Postpaid$l. 65 WHY WORRY? You need not, if you read Dr. George L. Wal- ton's new book on the subject. Cloth, $1.00 net. Postpaid $1.10. J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO.. Philadelphia. CHAMBERLAIN'S STANDARDS IN EDUCATION INCLUDING INDUSTRIAL TRAINING By ARTHUR HENRY CHAMBERLAIN, B.S., A.M. Dean and Professor of Education, Throop Polytechnic Institute. 91.00 The first educational text written from the industrial point of view. It is simple and clear in statement, in- teresting, instructive, and inspiring to both older and younger teachers. AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY New York Cincinnati Chicago Boston ^HISTORIC HIGHWAYS] { OF AMERICA \ < "Affording knowledge not previously ) tn be had." — The Outlook. ? | THE ARTHUR H. 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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1909. The Week. President Roosevelt is at his best in his veto of a bill granting monopolistic rights in a river in Missouri, and in his exposition of the sound policy of the government in dealing with the preser- vation and use of water power. It is possible that he a little exaggerates the danger of a combination to control all the hydro-electric resources of the coun- try. Still, the possibility of abuse which he dwells upon is very real, and the need of adopting some such gen- eral and far-reaching plan as he pro- poses is urgent. Franchises in perpetuity for public-service corporations should now be thought as obsolete as the dino- saurus. The limited term, the vigilant oversight, the regulation, the revocation on breach of conditions — these are the new ideas about corporations dealing in public utilities, and they have come to stay. President Roosevelt is quite right in contending that the mistakes of the past in giving away rights in the country's natural resources should not be repeated in the immensely import- ant matter of generation of electricity from water-power. That the President, for all his love of the military and his championship of the fighting spirit, leaves office with- out regrets from the army, is the as- sertion of the Army and Navy Regis- ter in its current issue: His successor cannot do more to injure military discipline and create discontent in the personnel than has been accomplish- ed by the present head of the nation. As evidence of the kind of action that has brought about Mr. Roosevelt's un- popularity in the army, the Register cites the assignment to active duty of Lieut.-Col. Edgar A. Mearns of the re- tired list during his trip to Africa with the President. As to that, the Register says : Mr. Roosevelt has no more right to have this retired officer assigned to such duty with him after March 4 than he has to as- sign any other retired army or navy officer to accompany a private citizen who chooses to travel for his health or excitement, at home or abroad. It might have added that this course is wholly in keeping with Mr. Roosevelt's use of United States war vessels as pri- vate yachts, not only for himself, but for members of his family. The Regis- ter is also excited over the assignment to the fine new army billet, that of paymaster at Honolulu, of Major Beech- er B. Ray, the "political paymaster," who was given leave of absence to work for Mr. Taft's nomination and election during the greater part of 1908. The extent and usefulness of Major Ray's "pull" are hardly surpassed in the army to-day — and this under the administra- tion of an ardent believer in the merit system. Under the prodding of the House Com- mittee on Military Affairs, the War De- partment, which has been asking for 612 additional army officers, has sud- denly discovered that there is another way out of the dilemma, and has draft- ed a bill permitting it to place in active service 250 retired officers. This is pre- cisely what the Nation has been sug- gesting. The War Department feels, however, that it must have the right peremptorily to order these 250 men to active duty; hence its appeal for legis- lation. The War Department ought cer- tainly to have complete authority over its retired officers. They should in time of peace or war be at the disposition of the Secretary for such light duty as they may be capable of performing. Probably 400 retired officers are too old or physically too disabled to per- form any duty; but many of the oth- ers would be grateful for active work, and the difference between active and retired pay would mean a good deal to them. The navy has found it desirable to keep on active duty a number of re- tired officers; surely, of the nine army officers ordered up for retirement on Friday last because they could not ride ninety miles, there must at least be eight capable of serving as recruiting officers, of teaching in schools, and do- ing other useful work for which active officers are now employed. From the point of view of economy there will be a great saving to the government if the new bill passes. But what Congress ought to insist on is that, besides us- ing retired officers, unnecessary service away from regiments should be abolish- ed. Why should there be infantry and cavalry officers in addition to engineers and medical officers, on duty with the Panama Canal? Why should there be thirteen active officers guarding Indian prisoners and running army prisons? Mr. Taft's Atlanta speech last week was in excellent taste, and in spirit thoroughly in consonance with the oc- casion. Southern hospitality, ever gen- erous, was at its best, and no one can doubt that it was actuated only by gen- uine good-will for the next President. Mr. Taft took the opportunity to dwell upon the desirability of a strong opposi- tion party in local and State govern ments, "a substantial and intelligent minority which may become a success- ful majority," when abuses must be rec- tified. Not one of his listeners could dispute that truth. With the negro dis- franchised, the South suffers gravely from the dominance of one party, for that carries with it the danger of con- trol by cliques, the loss of public in- terest in public affairs, widespread in difference to the value of the ballot, and, thus, the opportunity of the dema- gogue to play upon prejudice and pas- sion in default of a real issue. While it is true that the South is more toler- ant than it used to be of those who dif- fer with its pet opinions, Mr. Taft went too far in saying that the expression of any political view in the South no long- er exposes him who voices it to possi- ble ostracism; but Mr. Taft is quite cor- rect in believing that his stay in the South will make for the growing in- dependence of speech and political tol- erance. So, too, beyond all doubt, will his administration. The negro voters of Atlanta are entitled to the appreciation of the public for the high sense of citizenship they exhibited yesterday in supporting Mr. Maddox and the cause of good morals. This high praise of the colored voter, from Hoke Smith's newspaper, the At- lanta, Ga., Journal, appeared immediate- ly after the recent mayoralty election in that city. This Journal is the same newspaper which, under the malign in- fluence of Gov. Smith, had been dwell- ing on the evils resulting, not from ne- gro domination, but from negro attend- ance at the polls. It brought out all the

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52 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 familiar arguments as to the necessary dominance of the white race, the un- trustworthiness, ignorance, and general unworthiness of the black man. Yet when the negro came to cast his last vote before being disfranchised, he al- lied himself squarely with the reform elements and aided in defeating for re- election the drunkard who had been Mayor for some time past. If they were all that the Journal has painted them, the colored citizens of that city would have voted overwhelmingly for the defeated candidate. If the Georgia negro is disfranchised now, he has, at' least, had another chance to give the lie to the white politicians who, for their own base ends, have so often maligned him. Mr. Root's election to the Senate is accompanied by no signs of enthusiasm. This is partly because it has so long been certain. We get excited only over what is doubtful. New York is, of course, very glad to get, instead of Piatt, a man of the new Senator's ability. For sheer intellectual quality, he has impressed himself upon good judges in "Washing- ton, both Americans and foreigners, be- yond any man in public life. That he has a sort of austere pride of bearing, which the politicians resent as "cold- ness," does no injury to Mr. Root with the judicious. Yet the fact that he is not a slap-you-on-the-back statesman un- doubtedly accounts, in part, for the lack of popular acclaim over his new honor. In addition, there is the fact that his choice was imposed upon the Republi- can party of the State from without. Roosevelt and Taft had far more to do with it than Assembly or Senate at Al- bany. Finally, to be entirely frank, there has been an uneasy feeling in this city and State that Mr. Root might have sat for the portrait which the President drew in his speech at Harvard, when he spoke of eminent lawyers who put their great abilities at the service of unprincipled speculators desiring to vio- late the law. This disquiet alone would have been enough to prevent Mr. Root's election, had there been a direct pri- mary for the Senatorship. Mr. Burton's election as Senator from Ohio is passing with little comment. Americans take their blessings quietly. Mr. Burton, be it said, owes his success to neither machine nor millions. His promotion is in line with the older and better tradition about the Senator- ship, which made it the due reward of faithful service as Representative or as Governor. There is nothing showy about Mr. Burton. He has long been a student, a hard-working member of the House, in which he has come to have great authority, and has established a reputation for poise, good judgment, and independence. The accession of such a man to the Senate is cause for congrat- ulation, not to Ohio alone, but to the whole country. The liquor dealers who announced, at a recent convention, that the agitation against their trade was rapidly subsid- ing, were trying mental science for their woes. Anti-saloon crusades seem to be still gathering force. State-wide prohi- bition was decreed last week by the Tennessee Legislature, and may perhaps be upheld over the veto just filed by the Governor. Texas politicians, includ- ing Senator Bailey, are seeking to avoid the issue by having the question re- ferred to the people. In several States, brewers have besought the courts to de- clare liquor legislation confiscatory, but the request has been denied. The Ala- bama law has just been declared consti- tutional, and Georgia is construing hers so strictly that even newspaper adver- tisements of strong drink will, as the view runs, be impossible. If all this is not enough to wake the dealers from their self-imposed hallucination, we may add the prospect of a lively campaign for local option at Albany. The acquittal of T. J. Hains brings ^up -anew the question whether the morals of New York are any better than those of a frontier mining camp. Here was a man who once before had taken human life. Beyond all doubt, while his brother committed one of the coldest- blooded murders ever known in this city, he stood by and prevented any at- attempt to stop the shooting. If he was not particeps criminis in the first degree, then there is no such thing as being an accomplice. But apparently the jury disagreed; two of its members were sick, and finally, in order to obtain re- lease from confinement, they, or some others, weakly yielded and agreed on a verdict of not guilty. This result is another evidence of the weakness of our jury system under the strain of popular hysteria in regard to certain crimes, and the long-drawn-out terrors of a "famous" trial. It is only fair to say, however, that the whole fault in this instance does not rest with the jury. The District Attorney so handled his case as to demonstrate unfitness. If Capt. Hains shall now escape on the ground of insanity, New York may well hang out a sign: "Murderers Wel- comed and Encouraged." The evidence in the Hains trial ought to open many people's eyes to the folly of asserting that in a case of this kind the sole blame rests upon the man who, to use the current cant, "ruthlessly breaks up the home." Behind the "unwritten law" is this unexercised belief of the middle ages, that, before the wrong- doer, the woman in the case is as help- less as a rabbit in a snake's cage. We have no defence to offer, Heaven knows, for the home-wrecker; we simply assert that the disposition to hold him solely responsible is a relic of the days when woman was an economic slave, who had no mind or moral standards of her own. But in this day and generation society cannot excuse her as if she were with- out free will or responsibility. If, there- fore, we are going to adopt "the unwrit- ten law" in this city, it ought to apply to both the guilty parties, and to be frankly put on the statute books. As matters now stand, any New Yorker who lifts his voice against lawlessness, South or West or East, must face the immediate tu-quoque of the Hains trial. The placing on the European mar- kets, this week, of a Russian govern- ment loan for $275,000,000 has an inter- esting bearing both on politics and on finance. The mere fact of these enor- mous loans to the Russian Treasury is an important factor in Russian politics. From the time the first Duma was con- voked, it has been recognized at St. Petersburg, both by crown and parlia- ment, that so long as the Czar and his Ministers retained the right to raise money on the public credit, just so long would the hands of the Duma be tied. To realize the significance of this au- thority, one has only to imagine Charles the First, for instance in control of the machinery for pledging England's cred- it to secure funds from foreign mar- kets, and with those markets ready and anxious to make the loan. Re-convoca- tion of a hostile Parliament might eas-

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Jan. 21, 1909J The ]STation. 53 ily have been unnecessary; "ship mo- ney" would have been superfluous; and a series of bond issues, say, at Paris, might conceivably have bridged over 1G40 and left the members of the Long Parliament to idle away their time and energy at home. It is through this pow- er over the public credit, jealously guarded against attacks from the Duma, that autocracy has intrenched itself, even after the grant of Parlia- mentary discussion. In the present case politics and finance have in turn conspired to influ- ence the fortunes of the undertaking. The loan was apparently contemplated, with a view to meeting the constant and heavy deficits of Imperial finances, as long ago as the autumn of 1906. The strain which then existed on the whole world's capital resources, which forced the London bank rate up to 6 per cent., and which drove our own great corpor- ations out of the bond market and into the market for short-term loans at high rates on their notes-of-hand, blocked the plans of Russia also. Then, too, nothing whatever could be done in the world- wide disorder of credit in the markets of 1907. With credit repaired and mo- ney easy after the liquidation of that period, plans for the Russian loan were laid again last summer; but the trou- ble in the Balkans, and the threat of open war among European states. again caused the bankers to withdraw. The announcement of the loan, the over- subscription of the part allotted to Lon- don, and the practically assured success of the Paris allotment, are evidence that both financial and political misgiv- ings have largely passed away. But the fact of so enormous a requisition on its credit facilities leaves open the ques- tion how long this Russian borrowing can continue. Germany, a state in far higher standing on the money mar- kets, has taken warning from the heap- mg-up of debt whereby future genera- tions shall be charged with payment for the extravagances of the hour, and is maturing plans for laying the burden on the shoulders of present-day taxpay- ers. Sooner or later, the Russian gov- ernment must do the same, and it is possible that then, as was the case in the Reichstag of a month ago, the Duma will find voice again. Admiral Rozhestvensky, who died in St. Petersburg last week, deserved something more than the sympathy he won as the defeated commander in the world's greatest naval battle since Tra- falgar. The thoroughness of his defeat was not necessarily an index of his skill. The circumstances of naval war- fare are such, especially in modern times, that there may be no alterna- tive between victory and annihilation. It was different with the Russian forces on land, where Kuropatkin could sur- vive such enormous disasters as Liao- Yang, Sha-ho, and Mukden, and even turn them to advantage in schooling and hardening his troops. To Rozh- estvensky no trials of strength were open, and he was compelled to meet Togo's seasoned forces with a hastily gathered fleet, manned by untrained land levies, badly officered and equipped. The celebrated episode with the North Sea trawlers shows in what a state of nerves this last despairing Armada of Russia's left the Baltic. The published journal of the chief engineer of the fleet, Politovsky's "From Libau to Tsushima," shows the state of appre- hension in which men and officers alike went forward to meet their fate. To have brought such a conglomeration of fighting ships some eighteen thousand miles safe to the scene of battle was no slight achievement. Affairs in the Balkans enter on a dis- tinctly brighter phase with the conclu- sion of an agreement between Austria- Hungary and Turkey regarding the an- nexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ele- ments of unrest still remain. Monetary arrangements between Turkey and Bul- garia are still to be concluded, though there is little doubt of a final settle- ment. The people of Servia and Mon- tenegro continue to chafe, but at present they have only Russia's somewhat ob- scure sympathy to count upon. What- ever support they may find among the other Powers will surely not go to the extent of tolerating action that may threaten war. After all, it was Turkey that was the injured party in the whole affair, and with Turkey now definitely for peace, such chances of an outbreak as may have existed are greatly re- duced. The meeting of a conference is now more probable than ever. It is true that the conference will find little to do except to ratify what the interest- ed parties have already decided upon among themselves. But if it is only the fear of what a conference might force her to do that has made Austria willing to come to terms, the calling of one has already been justified. From England it is reported that pub- lic taste has been turning strongly to Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, and other writers who are believed to have done some meritorious work during the first half of the Victorian era. For such a revival, which, we trust, actually ex- ists outside the imagination of some enterprising journalist, there would be ample justification. As against the modern realists who, largely recruited from among the women, have gone in strongly for highly-seasoned compounds of passion, politics, and sociology, we should be going back to the compre- hensive sweep and masterful handling which makes of the great Victorian novel a little world, and not a "prob- lem"— a world that cries and laughs, in- stead of whimpering and cackling, over large things like life, death, love, hun- ger, duty, pity, anger, and not the nerves of a young girl who was not brought up well or the "claims" of a woman who does not know what she wants. On the ground of economy the elder writers should be favored. Pub- lishers unblushingly call upon us to pay $1.50 for a novel that will help us wile away half an hour on a rainy day, or for just the story that goes with a hammock under the trees. Even though the original volumes of "Our Mutual Friend" or "Vanity Fair" or "Middle- march" cost three or four times the fix- ed price of the present-day novel, there can be no comparison between the ac- tual amount of protein, fat, carbo- hydrates supplied by one of Dickens's volumes and one of our modern tales. "Our Mutual Friend" has a better plot and mystery than most contemporary detective stories; more dramatic action than the great mass of cowboy, railway- accident, and sea fiction; more humor — that goes without saying— than any living author, with one possible excep- tion, can now supply; more political satire than our novels of "uplift" about honest district attorneys and dishonest Congressmen; more truth about the slums than our ordinary novel of low life. When you balance accounts, it is Dickens that will turn out the lower- priced fare.

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54= The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 FREAKS OF RACE PREJUDICE. There has been considerable stir over the anti-Japanese bills laid before the California Legislature; and in an ad- dress in Washington on Monday, as well as in his telegram to Gov. Gillette, Pres- ident Roosevelt has made a fresh de- mand for a "square deal" for the Japa- nese. Apparently, the matter is now to be threshed over again in the terrifying headlines of the sensational press. But a recent investigation by the Federal Bureau of Labor shows how little basis there is for the demagogue's frequent assertion that his opposition to the Jap- anese is neither blind nor selfish, but can stand the test of facts and logic. Two non-Aryan races are "invading" the Pacific Slope; from the West the Japanese, and from the South the Mex- ican Indians. Here is an ideal oppor- tunity to show that race prejudice is rational. The man from Nippon is of inferior stock, the Californian says, just as bad as "the dirty Chink." His personal habits, his morals, and his general view cf life are so far below the American that they menace our society. But we hear no such charge brought against the "cholos," who have been pouring into the State. They are the lowest Mexican Indians, one degree removed from sav- agery. The Federal Bureau of Labor describes them as "Indians in physique, temperament, character, and mentality; unambitious, physically weak, irregular, and indolent." Their mode of life is evidently no better than that of the Chinese. "They are prejudiced against water, believing that washing causes fever." In the large filthy Mexican quarter of Los Angeles twenty-four men were found inhabiting one small, dark room. Surely, the Japanese could fall no farther below our standards. But the yellow man has another fault; not only is he inferior, bur, declares the Californian, he cannot and will not become Americanized. Supremely con- tent with his own ways, he herds with his kind, lives in the old way, sends his «arnings to Japan, and eventually fol- lows them thither. But in this respect the yellow men is like the red man. Our government investigators find that the Mexican immigrant is a tramp laborer who comes north to pick up a few dol- lars, and, that done, returns to spend it in his cheap fatherland. He is "no- madic and outside of American civiliza- tion." He does not mingle socially with others: Intermarriage is rare, and when it oc- curs it seems to be a subject of apolo- gy- • • • The Mexican does not put himself forward or seek white society. He observes his own canons of reserve and dignity, which are never offensive. The favorite objection to the Japa- nese is, however, that he underbids the American. In this respect he and the "cholo" are again brothers. Indeed, the Mexican plays the game even more sharply. In Texas he is displacing the negro on farm and cottonfield. In Cal- ifornia, railway managers, ranchmen, and city contractors are giving him preference over Italians, Russians, Greeks, and Japanese, because he asks less, and is more easily controlled. He is particularly welcomed in some quar- ters, because he does not join labor unions and is always ready to turn strike-breaker. The Southern Pacific Railway is said to pay its Greek sec- tion hands $1.60 a day, the Japanese $1.45, and the "cholos" only $1.25. The two former nationalities hang together, an offence against one being taken as against all; but a Mexican will not leave his job for anybody else's griev- ance. If, under these circumstances, the 7,000 Japanese who entered this coun- try in 1908 are a national menace, what can be said of an annual influx of from 80,000 to 100,000 M6xicans?< It is per- fectly clear that the rational Japano- phobe should hate the "cholo" with burning fury. But the Bureau of La- bor says: The race sentiment of Americans toward Mexicans is . . . peculiar and illogical. . . . Organized labor, and white workers in general, do not appear to be opposed to Mexicans in the same way that they are to Orientals. . . . The American negro con. siders himself above the Mexican, and yet the latter receives more social recog- nition from the white man. . . . Mexican immigrants ride in white cars in Texas, and might eat at the same table with Ameri- cans. In Los Angeles, Mexican children, to the number of 1,000, sit in the same school classes with American pupils and without discrimination. Their par- ents may do whatever Boston-born per- sons might, if they have the money. And as in Los Angeles, so everywhere between Galveston apr" Seattle. Is half a continent, then, naively in- consistent or disingenuous? Some frank confessions force the latter answer upon us. An editor of a labor paper says: "The Mexicans don't trouble us much. They can't do a white man's work." And railroad bosses without number point out two differences between Mex- ican and Japanese redounding greatly to the former's popularity. The Mexi- can, they say, is unskilled and remains so, while the "Jap" swiftly masters a trade or business. Again, the "cholo" can be led about like a lamb, but the miserable Oriental always has an eye open toward his rights and opportuni- ties. And there the cat is out of the bag. The Japanese is feared for his virtues, without which he could scarce- ly be distinguished from the Mexican. THE GERMAN TAX FIGHT. "We must be inspired by the cate- gorical imperative of a burning, I might say, a passionate love of country," de- clared Herr Sydow, the German Im- perial Minister of Finance, in conclud- ing the first day's debate on the govern- ment's new tax proposals. It was a sign of the doubts he himself entertain- ed as to the success of his campaign in the Reichstag, that he should thus early resort to the familiar trick of asking blind patriotism to take the place of calm reason and financial sagacity. But the Reichstag, though yet unable to fol- low up its success in bringing Kaiser and Chancellor to book in relation to foreign affairs, has not been willing to vote offhand as Sydow wished. It reas- sembled last week for the second stage of the financial discussion which bids fair to stretch throughout the whole winter; for during the recess the Fi- nance Committee has accomplished no- thing— Ulk pictures its members in night-gowns sleeping soundly — and the general parliamentary outlook is far from reassuring. Not that the country is asleep. It has aroused itself against the new and radical taxes with a vigor that had hardly been expected. "Protests spring up everywhere like weeds," says the Munich Neueste Nachrichten, in com- menting on the discouraging delay in dealing with the issue. Under the se- vere criticism of the important Com- mercial Diet, which met in Berlin early in December, hardly a proposal of Sydow's remained unscathed, and cham- bers of commerce throughout the Em- pire, taking their cue from that body, have assailed this or that tax. Socie- ties, city governments, and local legis-

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Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation. 55 latures are deluging the members of the Reichstag with protests, and popular mass meetings in all sections are voic- ing anew the old prayer to St. Florian: "Spare my house, set fire to other peo- ple's homes!" Before this popular upris- ing the proposed taxes on gas and elec- tricity and that on newspaper advertise- ments have already gone by the board. The Commercial Diet opposed the ad- vertising tax because the yield would be too small to outweigh the disadvan- tages, and because the inevitable result would be the printing of advertisements as reading matter. The proposals re- garding gas and electricity were shown to be unworkable; they would, it is believed, not only impede industrial de- velopment, but cause the poorer classes to return to petroleum for reading. Both taxes were declared to be unscientific and unworthy of a far-sighted states- manship. As for the new death-duties, which radically interfered with the right of inheritance, they are believed to have perished in the Reichstag it- self, the Conservative and Centre par- ties having together provided coffin and headstone. Becker, the Centre leader, positively asserted, in Cologne recently, that these sections of the bill would be promptly interred "if the Centre and the Conservatives only stood firm," and there is every reason to believe that they will. Yet Herr Sydow had counted on an income of no less than $43,750,000 from this source, and from the levies on electricity, gas, and advertising. As if this setback were not sufficiently ser- ious, well-informed men believe that the Minister of Finance will also lose his proposed monopoly on spirits, to which he now looks for $25,000,000. Not a voice is raised in its behalf; apparently, each member of a beer-drinking nation sees in the plan an attempt to infringe upon his natural and inalienable right to get his beer where he chooses and at the lowest possible price. How is Herr Sydow to recover this lost ground? He obstinately persists in his refusal to draft any scheme of di- rect Imperial taxation, on the ground that this would be poaching on pre- serves especially reserved for the tax- gatherers of the individual States. This is the answer of his spokesmen every time an Imperial income or capital-tax is suggested. Hence there is in sight no direct and elastic tax which, like the English income tax, may be readily raised or lowered as circumstances re- quire. In brief, the Sydow scheme no- where places the new burdens upon those best fitted to bear them. How Herr Sydow is to fare from now on depends, of course, on the stability of Von Billow's "bloc," composed of Liberals, Radicals, and Conservatives. If the Liberals should coalesce with the still sulky Centre and the Social Demo- crats, they would control the Reichstag and be in a position to dictate to Von Bulow. Politics have made stranger bedfellows; and in this case the shock- ing condition of the Treasury affords sufficient excuse for the coalition. Then too, the Prussian treasury is in straits. Herr von Rheinbaben, the Minister of Finance, reported to the Prussian Diet last week that the deficit of $17,750,000 in 1907, had leaped to $41,250,000 in 1908, and would go to $44,000,000 in 1909. Unless there is a radical finan- cial reform of the whole business of the Empire, the condition of the sep- arate States will soon, said Herr von Rheinbaben, become absolutely intolera- ble. Meanwhile, the nation is throwing away money on army and navy with greater prodigality than ever, and the financial genius so sorely needed is no- where in sight. THE POPULARITY OF POE. If a magazine editor were to find on his desk to-day two short stories by unknown writers, one signed Nathaniel Hawthorne and one Edgar Allan Poe, it is easy to guess which would be return- ed with thanks, and which would be snapped up on the spot. And the edi- tor's choice would be dictated not sole- ly by the fact that his myriad subscrib ers would prefer a tale of breathless horror or fascinating mystery to a sim- ple study in conduct or conscience, but by the further fact that the successful story had the essential quality of "go' in which this young man Hawthorne seems rather deficient. It is true that Hawthorne's failure to impress a maga- zine editor might be cited as proof that he wrote real literature, but the ques- tion here is not of genuine merit, only of popularity. For a writer who was born one hundred years ago and died sixty years ago, Poe has, to a remark- able degree, the swiftness, the spare vigor of style which is the great re- quirement to-day. He is as careful to create interest in his first paragraph as any modern writer who has learned the secret of hitting the reader squarely between the eyes. He is eager to make his point. His language is less archaic than that of many men who have writ- ten since. By these qualities of tech- nique preeminently, he stands nearer to us of the year 1909 than any of his con- temporaries. Again the question is not whether his technique is of the high- est kind, and whether it is expended on the best material, but whether he has power to attract readers. Yet to make Poe merely a popular writer would be unfair, and would con- tradict too sharply the established be- lief that he is much more than that. The point is that there is popularity and popularity. Hall Caine is popular, Conan Doyle is popular, and Dumas the elder is popular. The popularity of the crowd and the day supplies, of course, no standard of merit. But when popularity meets the test of widely sep- arated times and places, and of taste other than that of the crowd, it be- comes in itself an important factor in the determination of literary values. In the able and extremely severe apprais- al of Poe which he has written for Scribner's Magazine, W. C. Brownell denies Poe a place in literature, because his work lacks substance and sincer- ity; because he is quite indifferent to truth, reality, life; because he was only an artist, and "literature is more than an art." Poe was intent merely on pro- ducing his desired effects — to rasp our nerves, chill our marrow, and mystify our understanding. To do this he set himself deliberately to dress the false with the semblance of truth, and to make the truth incredible. He succeed- ed in getting his effect, but not in pro- ducing literature. So runs the judgment. But, after all, of the making of defini- tions of literature there is no end, and more than one great literary name, as the world sees it, is based on no more philosophical definition than that lit- erature is managing words with nota- ble or supreme dexterity. For words often seem able to transmute rather cheap material into a fuel for strong and universal emotion. The story of easy gallantry and sword-play becomes with Dumas "The Three Musketeers." The ordinary fairy-tale takes on, with Hans Christian Andersen, wisdom, trag- edy, pathos, humor. So the grotesque, the horrible, and the outlawed, whilT

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53 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 ethically inferior to the elements that form the current of healthy, sane, nor- mal life, may nevertheless be uplifted by sheer artistry to the level of litera- ture. Fear of the dark, the hidden, the un- known is still a part of our nature. The curiosity of primitive man is still strong within us. The question be- comes, then, whether Poe's tales of hor- ror or mystery depend for their effect altogether on surprise, on the first shock, or suddenly awakened sensa- tions of disgust, or whether their effect can be reproduced on a second and third reading. In other words, is their ap- peal temporary and meretricious, or is it based more permanently on those sur- viving fears, uncertainties, and cravings after light which we share with our cave ancestors? Do Poe's stories evap- orate? To mark his superiority, we need only compare his tales of ratiocin- ation and mystery with those of his successors in a genre that he is said to have founded. No one would care to read a story of Gaboriau's twice. The historian of Sherlock Holmes gets his effects partly from his literary manner, yet we doubt whether even Sherlock Holmes will bear rereading. But one can turn again and again to "The Gold Bug" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The horror of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is not exhausted at one reading. Compact as it is, "The Cask of Amontillado" contains refresh- ment for many hours. Poe's technique, then, produces permanency, as well as strength of appeal; and fiction that is strong, permanent, and general in inter- est can hardly be put low in the liter- ary scale. , Somewhat the same reasons that have made Poe popular with a generation more high-strung, more restless, less philosophic than his own, will account in large measure for his popularity in Europe, and especially in France. Mr. Brownell puts it the other way. The high esteem in which Poe is held abroad has reacted upon as, though it ought not to do so: To put the matter crudely, the apprecia- tive foreigner has admirable writers of his own; what he most appreciates in our lit- erature is the queer, the odd, the qualities from whose associated defects he feels an entire detachment. But that is not quite the whole truth. If Europe looks to us for the odd and the queer, it is because she thinks it natural that youth should indulge in freakishness and excess. And the idea of youth is what Europe always asso- ciates with America, to her own disap- pointment. It is so with our politics as well as our literature. You are a new world and a new race, Europe argues. You are free from the ancient traditions that bind us of the Old World. You should be ardent innovators, pioneers of progress, radicals by nature, by defini- tion almost. And when Europe finds us conservative instead of radical, inimical to what is revolutionary in politics, manners, morals, literature, she is puz- zled. Sometimes, she calls it Puritan- ism, sometimes commercialism, some- times hypocrisy. Europe, unable to un- derstand why our literature should be dominated by New England moralizing, is, therefore, not insincere when she be- lieves that in the wild note of a Poe or a Whitman, she has caught the true voice of the young world beyond the seas. HEALTH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Opponents of "fad and fancy" in modern education are prone to lump the new hygiene with scroll-work, plain sewing, and other objects of their dis- like. Old-fashioned people who be- lieve that the teacher should confine himself to reading, spelling, and arith- metic, are also inclined to hold that the child's mother is the only proper per- son to call the doctor in. Medical in- spection which has for its object the discovery and extirpation of contagious disease, the fogy can, of course, under- stand; but he shakes his head when school physicians begin to test eyesight "and hearing with a view to improved scholarship, and his doubts strengthen when such mysterious matters as hy- pertrophied tonsils, adenoids, and de- fective dentition are brought within the scope of the same inquiry. The fogy, of course, will always assume just this attitude towards any form of prog- ress. But there are people, not pre- cisely doddering reactionaries, who nev- ertheless entertain suspicions regarding what we have called the new hygiene. And that is because the science, like most ambitious young sciences, some- times tries to prove too much. If med- ical inspection were to show that 10 per cent, of all school children are phys- ically defective, the figures would be credible; but when it is maintained that in certain districts of Cleveland nearly 75 per cent, of the children are physically abnormal, the plain man is staggered. For this reason, we welcome a vol- ume entitled "Medical Inspection of Schools," by Dr. Luther H. Gulick and Leonard P. Ayres, recently issued un- der the auspices of the Russell Sage Foundation. The value of the book lies in its sanity of tone as much as in the positive contributions it makes to an interesting subject. The authors do not ride their specialty hard. The com- mon impression has gone forth that the connection between physical health and progress in scholarship has been abso- lutely established. According to the enthusiast, the surgeon's knife is the longed-for royal road to learning. Cut out a child's tonsils, ^lear him of ade- noids, fit him with a pair of eyeglasses, and the school term will be cut in half, and the city will save millions of dol- lars. But our authors warn us to go slow. The case is by no means so clear as all that. The value of medical in- spection they firmly believe in, without attempting to exaggerate that value. First, then, it is reassuring to discov- er that the ordinary figures for disease among school children must be receiv- ed with caution. In so relatively defi- nite a test as that for sight or hearing, we find that the ratio of abnormality ranges from 7.7 per cent, for Bayonne, N. J., to 71.7 per cent, in the slums of Cleveland. Where the correct mean for large cities lies may be indicated by the fact that New York and Boston show a ratio of about 31 per cent. Hence, our authors declare: Such variations as this at once suggest, what is undoubtedly the case, that the results are largely influenced by the meth- ods employed by the examiners, and varia- tions from this cause are apt to be even more important than those caused by the actual differences in existing conditions. Again, a detailed comparison between New York and Minneapolis gives, un- der "Bad Nutrition," a percentage of 6.3 and 23.3 for the respective cities; un- der "Pulmonary Disease," .9 and 4.2 per cent.; under "Defective Hearing," 1.1 and 7.7 per cent. So here, too, we find "a different standard, rather than any great difference in conditions." But the question which standard is nearer to the truth is a vital one. Against such alarmist reports as 80 per cent, defec- tive for the school children of Sioux i

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Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation 57 City, we are warned that, after all, the perfect human animal is rare. In Chicopee, Mass., out of 500 pupils ex- amined, only one was reported as hav- ing perfect teeth, and he had spinal trouble. Our schools, then, are not "filled with physical wrecks." The facts are indubitably important; but there must be "moderation of state- ment in making public the results." The most interesting point made by Dr. Gulick and, his collaborator has to do with the connection between physi- cal defects and retardation, or poor scholarship. When a child falls behind in his work, when he is, in a grade for which he may be a year or more too old, the presumption is that here, if anywhere, the element of physical dis- ability comes in. Not necessarily, say our authors. Over 7,000 New York school children were examined, and among the children of normal age the percentage of defectiveness is actually higher than among the children of ab- normal age. In other words, the dunce of the class is likely to be in sounder health than the boy at the head of his class. In the very preface, we are im- pressed with this powerful fact: that prevailing opinion, general and profes- sional, is wrong when it holds "that children behind their grades were so because of the handicap imposed on them by physical defects." No, there are other and more old-fashioned reasons for poor scholarship that still hold; and, in the order of their importance, they are: (1) age upon starting to school; (2) absence; (3) slowness; (4) dulness; (5) health; (6) physical de- fects other than sight and hearing; (7) mental weakness. In other words, the good old virtues of industry and punc- tuality are still more effective at school than an operation for adenoids. THE NEW' PRESIDENT OF HAR- VARD. Boston, January 16. On January 13 the Harvard Corpora- tion elected Prof. Abbott Lawrence Low- ell president, and sent his name to the Board of Overseers. Under the rules, it must be held for at least a week be- fore confirmation. Professor Lowell's election comes after ten weeks of scru- tiny and sifting, since the resignation of President. Eliot was announced on November 5. The choosing of a Har: vard president has always been a re- sponsible business, and this time the fact that the man was to succeed Mr. Eliot, the greatest personal force that has ever been active in American edu- cation, and the leader of Harvard for two-score years — made the task tenfold harder. The Corporation, be it said at once, listened eagerly to suggestions, exam- ined all claims, weighed every interest, and looked with an open mind at the qualifications of each candidate. In se- lecting Mr. Lowell they have laid the fallacy that the "young man" must nec- essarily be the best man, and they have dispelled the geographical fallacy. The latter is the more insidious. It rests on the assumption that, since Harvard is now a national university, with grad- uates dwelling in all parts of the world, she ought to take a president bred in the great, growing Centre or West, one who has been stimulated by the hustle of new conditions, and has not breath- ed too long the effete atmosphere of the Atlantic, especially of the New Eng- land, seaboard. Harvard College, it has been sometimes hinted, has been too much in the hands of "the Boston clique"; it is the turn for the grad- uates who are captains of industry and finance in New York or in Chicago to have a president who represents them. The application of the geographical lim- it in the choice of Congressmen, of can- didates for the Presidency of the Unit- ed States, and of Cabinet officers has been so obviously a mistake, that one would regret to see this notion prevail in the selection of the head of a uni- versity. Fortunately, the Harvard Cor- poration dared to run counter to this delusion. In Mr. Lowell they chose a genuine New Englander, a Bostonian through and through — simply because he was the best man; and when it is remembered that the principles which came out of Boston were built into the fabric of the nation; that the New Eng- land spirit has been carried in succes- sive waves of migration to western New York, to Ohio, and so on across the prairies; that more recently Massachu- setts enterprise and capital and Massa- chusetts brains have helped to develop the resources of the Centre and West- it need not be feared that the candidate who to-day best combines the ideals, culture, and enterprise of New England will be provincial or local in his atti- tude towards education. It is not where a man lives, but his state of mind, that gives him a national outlook. We talk of all-round men, and they are rare; still rarer are all-round fam- ilies. The Lowells are probably the best specimens of this rare product that we have in America. Their original immi- grant, Percival Lowell (or Lowle) came in 1639 from Bristol, England, to New- bury, where he and his descendants lived the stern life of the seventeenth century. Early in the eighteenth cen- tury the first Lowell was graduated at Harvard. He was, I believe, the first minister of Newburyport. His son, John Lowell, who was graduated at Har- vard in 1760, became a lawyer, stood high at the bar, was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Conven- tion and of the Continental Congress, and was appointed by President Wash- ington a United States judge. He it was who not only introduced into the Massachusetts Constitution the declara- tion that all men are created free and equal, but also advertised in the news- papers that he would defend any person held as a slave who desired to estab- lish a right to freedom under that clause. His action abolished slavery in the Commonwealth. His son, Francis Cabot Lowell, introduced cotton manu- facture into the United States, setting up mills in 1816 on the Merrimack at the spot which was named Lowell in his honor. From that day to this the family has been represented in every generation by judges, by men of great business enterprise and success, by sol- diers, or by scholars. In the last gen- eration James Russell Lowell, poet, pa- triot, professor, man of letters, and dip- lomat— made the name familiar on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus as a fam- ily the Lowells have been developed in many directions. They have set an ex- ample most important to our American society of men of wealth and position who would neither be idle, nor would regard their wealth as merely a means to selfish gratification. They have giv- en themselves in service of all kinds. In 1864 one Lowell died leading a cav- alry charge at Cedar Creek; in 1865 another Lowell poured forth the "Har- vard Commemoration Ode." Viewed properly, it is such a collective experi- ence as this — an experience which em- braces all the larger concerns of life — that should breed the national spirit. Mere residence in New York or Chi- cago or Denver cannot give it. One other point in regard to Mr. Low- ell's background should not be overlook- ed: since 1720 Lowells in every gen- eration have been educated at Harvard, and since 1784 members of the family have served, collectively, eighty-five years on the Harvard Corporation. Mr. Lowell's grandfather, John Amory Low- ell, was a Fellow for forty years. This Harvard inheritance is indispensable in a Harvard president. Older graduates were astonished at the suggestion that a non-Harvard man should be even thought of as a candidate. As if the president of Harvard were in the same category as a railroad or Trust presi- dent, or as a star baseball player, to be engaged anywhere, if you can pay him his price! As if college loyalty, col- lege associations, the subtle working of college ideals, could be bought and sold, or the allegiance transferred froin*'Wi; stitution to institution, as a laSRWi*'' transfers his allegiance from client tof^*' client! The election of Mr. Lowell doubt- MP* LtfB^«H

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58 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 less disposes of this fallacy for a long time to come. Mr. Lowell was born in Boston, De- cember 13, 1856, his father being Au- gustus, and his mother Katherine Bige- low Lawrence Lowell. His maternal grandfather, Abbott Lawrence, was one of the founders of the manufacturing city of Lawrence and United States Minister to England. As a child, Law- rence Lowell spent some time in France; then he was fitted for college at schools in Boston; entered Harvard in 1873, and was graduated in 1877, with Phi Beta Kappa rank, having taken highest honors in mathematics. He re- ceived his degree at the Harvard Law School in 1880, was admitted to the bar, and from that year until 1897 he prac- tised law in Boston, in partnership with his cousin, Francis C. Lowell, now United States District judge; and later, Frederic J. Stimson joined the firm. In conjunction with his cousin, he pub- lished in 1884, a work on "Transfer of Stock in Corporations," but his atten- tion was more and more turned to the science of government, and, in 1889, he collected a volume of "Essays on Gov- ernment." In 1896, he printed "Govern- ments and Parties in Continental Eu- rope," a work in two volumes, which brought to American readers a mass of information not before accessible in English. The following year he gave up the practice of law to become lec- turer on government at Harvard; in 1900, his position was made permanent by his promotion to be professor of the science of government. In 1908, he pub- lished "The Government of England," a treatise in which he attempts as an American to do for England whax. Mr. Bryce has done for the United States; and the general verdict, both here and in Britain, is that he has succeeded. A little book on "Colonial Civil Service," of which Prof. H. Morse Stephens was joint-author, and a discussion of "The Influence of Party upon Legislation in England and America," complete the list of his publications. Since the death of his father in 1900, Mr. Lowell has been trustee of the Lowell Institute; he has been a guiding member of the executive committee of the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology; and for several years he worked energetically on the Boston school committeb. He has thus enjoyed a very varied expe- rience. As educator, he has seen from the inside the working of the public school system, of a great technical in- stitution, and of Harvard University. As lawyer, he was brought into relation with the so-called practical world, while his studies led him to examine into the principles on which legisla- tion is based. As trustee, he showed the remarkable foresight and prudence which have characterized so man/ of his family. As head of the Lowell In- stitute, he has not only sought out the intellectual leaders of Europe and Amer- ica, but he has extended the work of the institute, by establishing regular courses, which large numbers of per- sons unable to go to college have avail- ed themselves of. In social contacts, which play so large a part in deter- mining the success or failure of the president of a great institution, he has had few equals in Boston. Quickness, alertness, agility, are the intellectual qualities which first strike one in Mr. Lowell. He is the wittiest of talkers, with an apparently insati- ate interest in all sorts of subjects. In his books he is solid, judicial, patient — the work on England represents the la- bor of many years — indulging rarely in generalization, leaving on the reader the final impression of a complete ex- position of his subject. But if you watch him as he lectures, pacing ner- vously up and down the platform of the New Lecture Hall (his own gift to the university), stating his case with absolute clearness, stopping from time to time to emphasize an important point by a gesture, illustrating his ar- gument by the most direct, concrete ex- ample or by flashes of wit, quick to re- prove inattention, and able at every mo- ment to carry the allegiance of his four or five hundred undergraduate hearers along with him — in all this you get the best indication of his various talents in action. Of medium height, he is lithe and wiry in body, as in mind, and apparently indefatigable in both. At a time when the dream of a large part of his countrymen is either to do as little work as possible, or to get rich and do no work at all, it. is refreshing to know that the next president of Har- vard, though what is considered a rich man, has from choice worked twelve or fifteen hours a day ever since he grew up. He takes a system of government apart, as a mechanician takes a ma- chine, and shows how every piece is made, how it functions, and how far the system accomplishes what it is intend- ed for. If not a pioneer in America in this important study, Professor Lowell has been the most successful and the ablest master of it: and his course at Harvard, which already three or four thousand students have chosen, has been the most popular in the last dec- ade. He knows, therefore, from actual achievement how to stimulate students in their classroom work. He believes also that they can and should work more than they do at Harvard or at any other of our universities to-day. He has been the most efficient member of a committee which has considered the best way to improve the average schol- arship of the undergraduates; and he urged the recent plans to establish the degree with distinction and to have the leading scholars more generally recog- nized by the students themselves. What special theories Professor Low- ell may intend to bring forward he has not stated, but, if his past record can be relied upon to foreshadow his fu- ture, we may expect that he will pay particular attention to the social life of the undergraduates. He understands the value of mixing with one's fellows in college. He realizes that, through the extension of the elective system on one hand and the great increase of members on the other, it has become proportionally harder for many under- graduates to develop on their social side. He has even been heard to favor setting apart one hall as the special habitation of freshmen. He is suppos- ed to wish to foster athletics to a rea- sonable extent — but "reasonable" is a term which varies according to each person's standard. We may be sure, however, that Professor Lowell will not be an extremist. In college, he won the intercollegiate championship for the mile and two-mile runs, and he has ever since been an exerciser, which is very different from being an athletic specialist. Whatever course he may adopt, he has thus far shown himself so fully in sympathy with the under- graduates that they have regarded him as solicitous for their best interests. This harmony, if maintained, will be of immense help to him in carrying through any measures he may pro- pose. So far as I am aware, Professor Low- ell has never declared himself against the elective system. All his efforts dur- ing the past ten years have been in the direction of improving and not of abol- ishing or greatly curtailing the system. Just what the final remedy may be, no- body can predict. But it is evident that Mr. Lowell's chief task must lie in the reorganization of Harvard College. Pres- ident Eliot's magnificent achievement has been to create the American uni- versity. Until this was done, it was impossible to remodel the American col- lege so that it should be in healthy re- lation with the preparatory schools be- low and the university above it. In other words, the standard must be fixed at the top, and not in the middle or at the bottom. During the process of cre- ating the university, the college (not only at Harvard, but at every other in- stitution sufficiently developed) has fall- en out of adjustment. So serious was this dislocation that only a few years ago President Butler of Columbia ad- vocated the squeezing of the college course into two years, while other edu- cators asserted that it must be thrown over altogether. It was to save the col- lege that President Eliot reluctantly consented to the three-years' course for students properly qualified. Mr. Eliot himself has been accused of sacrificing Harvard College for the sake of the graduate schools. As we get far enough away from him, we shall per- ceive that by raising the schools to the

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Jan. 2i, 1 909 J The IsTation. 59 highest grade, he was securing a field to which first-rate teachers — on whom the fame and usefulness of a university finally depend — would be attracted. Having secured them, the standard of teaching in the lower departments is practically guaranteed. Experience has taught that the college, too, whose exist- ence seemed lately uncertain, is indis- pensable: first, in order to give to a large number of prospective American citi- zens the rudiments, at least, of culture; and, next, in order to prepare the small- er number of youths who desire to go into the professional schools. This new college will not be like the old; it will be neither English nor German, but thoroughly American, an outcome, just as the old was, of American needs and ideals. That it will be possible to cre- ate this institution without retaining the largest amount of liberty compatible with efficiency, is not believed by any one familiar with the American and the Harvard spirit. Hoc opus, hie la- bor; and, we may add, facilis descensus Averno. If President Lowell shall succeed in this, he will confer an immense bene- fit on American intellectual life, for it is not by a few preeminent scholars, but by the high cultivation of a large section of the people that a nation's capacity is judged. Thanks to President Eliot, he will inherit the tradition of publicity, of truth-speaking, of freedom in teaching, not less than the prestige of primacy which have distinguished Harvard since 1869. He finds Harvard international in the provenance of her students and teachers, national in her ideals. He himself has vital contacts with the dominant ideas of to-day and foresight of the principles which shall rule to-morrow. None of his predeces- sors entered upon the presidency of Harvard with brighter hopes, or with a more general approval. SOME FRENCH BOOKS OF VERSE. Paris, January 1. "France, where poet never grew," was Emerson's summary dismissal of French verse. Taine, after laboring through English literature, avowed: "To Al- fred Tennyson I prefer Alfred de Mus- set." The numerous verse-books which crowd each year from the Paris press will never settle for English readers this difference in national emotions and emotional rhythms. But those who can read French aloud well enough to get the swing and cadence of it, and who understand when perhaps elementary thoughts are put in fresh, colored, vivid words, will find a good deal of poetic enjoyment among the fifty-three recent poets, from whom extracts are given with biographical and bibliographical notices in the two volumes of the new revision of "Pofetes d'aujourd'hui" by Ad. van Bever and Paul Leautaud (Mer- cure de France). One word of caution is needed — the reader should strip his mind of all the technical slang about poetic schools, Symbolists, Decadents, and the rest, although Catulle Mendes, who named more than forty years ago the oldest of all, Parnassians, is still vigorous. Somehow ihese lyric coteries have evanished amid the storm of pres- ent strenuous strife. They were never much more than decorative introduc- tions for young men making a noise to apologize for their poetic existence. It was last century in more than the mathematical sense when Jean Moreas, the Greek who wrote French verses in a fascinatingly curious language which demanded a dictionary of the Pleiades for its interpretation, strode with his band of neophytes into a cafe, and halt- ed before his reflection in the glass to proclaim his self-enthusiasm: "Je suis beau!" The play of youthful spirits gave way in Moreas to work for which his native language prepared him — • "IphigSnie" and living reanimations of great Greek tragics. His new volume, "Esquisses et souvenirs" (Mercure de France), cannot but be interesting, though he is past fifty and his youthful following has disappeared — automobil- ing or playing at politics to-day in all likelihood. Many of those who gave promise have dropped out as poets. Henri de Regnier had for a time a new and noble march to his verse iand thought. Henry Bataille had lines touching deep as Cowper to his Mother's Picture; but his ability has gone into unpleasant plays. In these versified plays, with Rostand and Andre Rivoire and others, most of the effective recent French poetry has to be sought. And yet there are solitary voices like Fran- cis Jammes, piping woodnotes wild or lays of peaceful hamlets where church- bells are still ringing, which should please our English religiosity of higher emotion. Another volume with edited texts and bio-bibliographical notices by Ad. van Bever, is "Les Poetes du terroir" (Dela- grave) — French patois and province poets from the fifteenth century to our own day. It takes in order the old di- vision of regions, which was founded in the common character of the inhabi- tants— Alsace, Anjou, Auvergne, Beam, Berry, Bournonnais, Bourgogne, Bre- tagne, and so on — giving not only for- mal poetry, but also the often far more valuable popular songs. With the patois the French text is given a new utility for philologers, as well as for common readers. "Nos Femmes de lettres" (Perrin), by Paul Flat, editor of the Revue Bleue, has three who are poetesses out of five — Comtesse de Noailles, who was born a Rumanian princess, but whose books of French verse have had perhaps more vogue than any other poetry books of late years; Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, wife of the Egyptian doctor who has publish- ed the immense and astonishingly lit- eral translation of the Cairo Arabian Nights; and Renee Vivien, a name which, I believe, conceals an amcricaine of Paris. Another, Madame Henri de Regnier, is a daughter of Heredia. She is perhaps best known for her prose novels, though her occasional verse is worth collecting. In general, these wo- men poets have not yet, like the latest generation of men, enlarged their muse's outlook beyond Love-Love-Love. A book of woman's poetic invention of oth- er days, though not in verse, should be noted here. "Bonnes Fees d'antan" (Calmann-Levy), by Edmond Pilon, is a choice of the fairy tales of Mesdames d'Aulnoy, de Murat, de La Force, de Beaumont, L'Heritier, and others who wrote for hearts not born cynical — of which there must still be many. S. D. Correspondence. THE REPEAL OF THE DUTY ON BOOKS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: At the meetings of a number of the societies of scholars held during the Christmas vacation resolutions were adopt- ed favoring the repeal of the duty on books printed in English. In some cases, I fear, the matter ended there; secretaries have thought that a strong expression of opin- ion on a question on which all scholars agree was quite enough. I venture to sug- gest, however, that all such resolutions should be sent to the House Committee on Ways and Means at Washington, addressed to the chairman, the Hon. Sereno E. Payne. The Archasological Institute of America re- quested the secretaries of the local soci- eties in all parts of the country to present the matter to their own Congressmen and Senators. It would be well if all inter- ested in the subject should write to those having a hand in shaping the new tariff. Strong proposals have already been made to increase and widen the scope of the present illiberal duty. By the copyright law both printers and publishers in this country are well pro- tected ; no book may be copyrighted here which has not been manufactured in the United States. Any English publisher of a book likely to have a large sale in this country has it reproduced here in order to secure copyright and generally sells it at the price charged in England. If a book is not likely to secure large enough sale in this country to justify getting out an Amer- ican edition, it is imported; such imported copies may not be copyrighted, and pay 25 per cent. duty. Unfortunately, it is this class of books which the scholar needs, not the reprints of popular stories and the like. The income to the government from the duty is small, but the burden to the individual scholar is a great one if he has occasion to use many books printed in England. W. F. Harris. Cambridge, Mass., January 12.

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eo The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 JUSTICE FOR THE EARTHQUAKE SUF- FERERS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Messina and Reggio, centres of a large district whose chief products are oranges and lemons, found their best mar- kets in our Eastern cities until the tariff of 1897 added to a duty of one cent per pound on oranges, lemons, and similar fruit the following provision: Boxes, barrels, or other articles contain- ing oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, shad- docks, or pomelos, 30 per centum ad va- lorem: Provided, that the thin wood, so- called, comprising the sides, tops, and bot- toms of orange and lemon boxes of the growth and manufacture of the United States, exported as orange and lemon box shooks, may be reimported in completed form, filled with oranges and lemons by the payment of a duty at one-half the rate im- posed on similar boxes, of entirely foreign growth and manufacture. This paragraph in the tariff proved pro- hibitive. It fell disastrously upon the Sicili- an and Calabrian peasants, and deprived the consumers of a good quality of fruit, differing in flavor from that raised in Florida and California. It would be an act of social justice for our tariff reformers to remove this pro- vision whose benefit to Americans is doubt- ful or insignificant, and it would encourage an afflicted people now forced to accept our alms. It would also tend to decrease the number of Sicilian and Calabrian peas- ants forced to emigrate. A. Hates. Rome, Italy, December 31. POE ECLIPSED. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The enclosed item from a Cleveland paper you have perhaps already seen. It is hard to tell whether it is humorous or pathetic. The University of Virginia, which seems to depend upon a sprinter for its reputation, is entitled to sympathy. Edward Dickinson. Oberliu, O., January 11. Charlottesville, Va., January 8. — Al- though President Roosevelt has written a personal letter to "Jim" Rector, urging him to another race with Walker, the man from South Africa, Rector cannot take part in such a contest without endangering his life. Rector, who is taking law here, and has done more to bring the University of Virginia into popular notice than any man since the days of Thomas Jefferson, founder of the college, has been warned that he can- not live two years if he continues in train- ing. THE HETCH HETCHY VALLEY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your issue of January 7, 1909, has an appeal from George Edwards to the Nation and its readers to assist in blocking the city of San Francisco and the other cities about San Francisco Bay in their efforts to obtain the use of Hetch Hetchy Valley as a great reservoir for water to supply those cities. We are familiar here with the arguments with which Mr. Ed- wards supports his appeal. They have been urged by John Muir and some others who are genuine lovers of nature and undoubted- ly believe the scenic beauty of Hetch Hetchy Valley will be diminished by turning it into a mountain lake. But the fight against San Francisco and the other bay cities is made principally by the Spring Valley Water Works, a private corporation that has here- tofore had a monopoly of the water supply for the city of San Francisco. Some of us who are sincere lovers of the mountains and of mountain scenery, and have given much time and labor to securing forest reserva- tions in the Sierras, have been amazed at the arguments of persons who apparently have no connection with the Spring Valley Water Works. A fair sample of those argu- ments appears in Mr. Edwards's letter. San Francisco now has a population well on towards 500,000, and other cities about the Bay of San Francisco aggregate nearly as much more. The sources of supply of water in the neighborhood are not sufficient for a great population, and those sources of supply are held in private ownership. These facts are sufficient to show any rea- sonable person how serious the situation is for our people. The Spring Valley Water Works owns the principal local sources of supply. There is only one other corporation now engaged in the water supply business, viz., the company that furnishes water to the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, etc. We are willing to pay a fair value for the plants of these companies. Recent- ly I served a term as Mayor of the city of Oakland, and my experience has convinced me that the water companies furnishing water to the cities around the bay have been heretofore (not now, however) the most baneful sources of municipal corrup- tion with which we have had to contend. Lovers of civic righteousness should give us their sympathy and assistance to free ourselves from this burden that may at any time under different corporate management be imposed upon us. Mr. Edwards probably refers, when he mentions other sources of supply, to other streams than the Tuolumne flowing from the Sierras into the great San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, but unfortunately for his argument the waters from all those streams have been appropriated by differ- ent corporations for power, mining, and ir- rigation purposes, and any man versed in practical affairs knows that it will be im- possible to utilize the waters of any of these other streams without condemnation and paying immense sums of money. But as to the Tuolumne River, while it is the largest one of all that can be utilized for our purposes, there are probably no valid claimants to the use of its waters, except two irrigation districts in the San Joaquin Valley. These districts are provided for to their satisfaction in the agreement exacted by the Secretary of the Interior when he granted the privilege to the city of San Francisco to impound waters in the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Tuolumne furnishes, and is the only stream that does furnish, a sufficient sup- ply of water to meet the needs of the cities around the Bay of San Francisco for all time to come, and also meet the needs of farmers whose lands can be irrigated there- from. I believe all disinterested engineers agree in the proposition that the waters of the Tuolumne River are the most avail- able source of supply for the bay cities. One reason they are the most available is because none of them has a natural site for reservoir purposes equalling the Hetch Hetchy in excellence. These mountain streams run down deep canons, with now and then a little valley of a high gradient, and not one of them, I believe, and my knowledge is reasonably full, has a really good reservoir site large enough to meet the requirements of the situation, except- ing only the Tuolumne River. This river, heading on Mts. Lyall, Dana, etc., flows through extensive tracts of comparatively level land, known as the Tuolumne Mead- ows, at an elevation of about nine thou- sand feet, and then pitches into a gorge which is about twenty miles long. At the lower end of this gorge the walls of the canon expand and include Hetch Hetchy Valley, with a floor almost level. At the lower end of the valley these walls come together again, and you can easily pitch a stone across the stream where the dam will be located, with perpendicular granite walls rising on each side. A high dam can therefore be made at comparatively small expense; and, as the floor of the valley is level, the amount of water that a dam 250 feet high will retain is enormous. I venture to say there is not on this earth so fine a site for a reservoir. The conditions are ideal, and nature was kind to the mil- lions who will inhabit the cities around San Francisco Bay by providing such a place for them to get water from. This brings us to the second ground of objection, viz. : that the valley is now a beautiful meadow, and to change it into a mountain lake will destroy its beauty. It will undoubtedly destroy the meadow, but the lake that will be created will be a much greater natural attraction than the valley is in its present condition. The lower end is wet, and the mosquitoes are a fright- ful pest. In ordinary seasons it is not until late in July that people can camp in the valley, with any degree of com- fort. Very few people visit the valley. It can be reached only by a trail. I spent eight days in the valley last summer, after the mosquito season had passed, and I do not believe more than twenty-five persons visited the valley during the time I was there. If the recommendation of Mr. Pin- chot, who has done so much for forest scenery and for preserving the forests, and the recommendation of Secretary Garfield and President Roosevelt are adopted, San Francisco will turn this beautiful but mosquito-breeding meadow into a beauti- ful mountain lake, whose attractions will be unique in character, and probably as great as that of any lake of its size in the mountains of any country. It will be nec- essary for San Francisco to build good roads to the lake, and this will enable lovers of natural scenery to get to it. The charms of Hetch Hetchy Valley have been known for more than forty years, but it is rare to find any person in California who has taken the trouble to ride over the mountain trails in order to see it. If good roads are built into the valley, this moun- tain lake will then become accessible, and will be visited by thousands who will never see it if left in its present condition. The only other objection of Mr. Edwards and those who agree with him, worth con- sidering, is that when the watershed above Hetch Hetchy is made accessible by good roads, then there will be such a crowd of people desiring to go there that the city of San Francisco will attempt to restrain them, on the ground that they are pollut- ing the waters of the river. How can San Francisco keep people from going into the mountains above Hetch Hetchy? The head-

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Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation. 61 waters of the Tuolumne cannot be reached by way of Hetch Hetchy. Another route must be taken. At present only the strong- est and most enthusiastic mountain-lovers ever get to Hetch Hetchy or the watershed above. If a grant to the city is made of the valley it will necessitate good roads, and give better opportunities to the lovers of wild mountain scenery. Not enough peo- ple can go there to foul the waters of the river to the slightest degree. It is only in the late summer that the river above Hetch Hetchy is accessible at all. The watershed of the Tuloumne River includes hundreds of square miles of high moun- tains, with innumerable streams, all con- verging to the Meadows. After the most of them have reached the Tuolumne then that stream plunges into a twenty-mile canyon before reaching Hetch Hetchy. It is ab- surd to say that the people who will visit these headwaters of the river, which are only accessible for three months in the year, and then only to people who are will- ing to camp out, will foul the river. The readers of the Nation should not hesi- tate to decide in favor of the people living around San Francisco Bay in a matter so vital to them. If the grant is made to San Francisco, Oakland (where I live), and all the east shore cities will have a chance to unite with San Francisco in bringing the absolutely pure water from the Sierras to our doors. Warren Olney. San Francisco, January 13. SCOPE OF A PUBLIC SERVICE COMMIS- SION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: A reader of the Nation for many years, I wish to express a doubt as to the ultimate wisdom of confiding to the Public Service Commission authority to control the creation of indebtedness in business which you discuss in the Delaware and Hudson case (December 24, pp. 16 and 17). The company, it seems, made a purchase of coal lands to supply coal for its engines, or some other equally legitimate purpose, for the cost of which it issued short-time notes. Now that financial conditions have improved, it proposes to retire these notes (probahly bearing a high interest rate) with other notes on longer time, secured by mortgage of the railroad. The commis- sion refuses to approve the mortgage, and this decision you cordially endorse. No sug- gestion of fraud or bad faith or illegality is made; if the expenditure was for a lawful object, the right to include this debt in a general mortgage is clear. It is ap- parently a question of business policy or expediency only. Those responsible for the company's affairs find that they can secure better rates and terms by using bonds se- cured by mortgage on the railroad, but the commission holds that they can only mort- gage the coal lands for this debt. It may be that the creditor will not accept a coal land mortgage; presumably this plan for securing the indebtedness is to the com- pany's interest in the opinion of the parties interested. It strikes me as doubtful policy to em- power a commission or State bureau, whose members are politically appointed, and have no personal responsibility in the matter, with authority to arbitrarily annul busi- ness contracts and agreements of this character. You speak of the "helplessness of shareholders and creditors" in some other instances as ground for conceding this wide-reaching power to the commis- sion, and I do not understand that you have creditors of railways only in mind. The creditors and stockholders of the Unit- ed States Steel Corporation, for instance, are numerous and wid; ly scattered and are "helpless" in the same sense and to a far greater degree than those of the Delaware and Hudson Company, which must make public detailed reports of all its receipts and expenditures. What good reason can be given for State interference to protect creditors of the Delaware and Hudson from the mistakes of its managers that will not apply to creditors of the United States Steel Corporation, and all other steel com- panies, and the creditors of all corporations and individuals likewise who conduct their business on borrowed capital? You may be right that "supervision of this nature has come into our legislation to stay," but, if so, the State should cer- tainly provide for adequate compensation to those who suffer from the mistakes of the commission, who are not infallible. This is a very different situation from that pre- sented where parties in interest ask the intervention of a court to restrain illegal diversion of funds or other irregularities. The commission is not a court, and no party interested is complaining. W. W. Baldwin. Burlington, la., January 6. [The intervention of a Public Service Commission, in the cases referred to, was designed to prevent what is somewhat loosely called "overcapitalization," mean- ing particularly the unwarranted piling on the back of a corporation, of liabilities which may make trouble with its finances afterward. This practice has been the curse of American rail- way finance, and the fruitful source of railway insolvencies, from the very begin- ning of our railway history. All experience has taught that the small shareholder is practically helpless in the matter. Injunc- tions and lawsuits are always expensive and often doubtful, because of technicali- ties; the individual suitor has the immense resources, financial and legal, of his own corporation massed against him. The Pub- lic Service Corporations are a substitute, and a very desirable one, for hit-or-miss State legislation, which may be enacted either in the heat of passion or under the pressure of railway lobbyists. Our cor- respondent cites the shareholders of the United States Steel Corporation. The brief history of that company presents a very pointed argument in favor of the commis- sion theory. The indefensible undertaking of 1902, proposed by the corporation's directors, to convert $200,000,000 preferred stock into bonds without acquiring a dol- lar of new property, would unquestionab!y have been found repugnant to any proper- ly drawn law for Public Service Commis- sion supervision. Yet the Steel manage- ment was able to override protests of shareholders at annual meetings and in- junction suits brought by shareholders against the conversion plan, and the scheme was brought to a halt only when, in a Stock Exchange panic, financial in- terests as powerful as those already seat- ed in control bought into the property and served notice that the creation of mort- gages to buy nothing but the company's own shares must stop. We may add that public service corporations, by reason of their natural monopoly of traffic or com- modity, have the public at their mercy; and in such cases it is therefore pecul- iarly desirable that the rights of the public in the management of the company shall be conserved either by strict legislation or some such device as a commission. — Ed. Nation.] PURITY OF THE PRESS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Having read your editorial para- graph of December 17 anent purity of the press, and having noted your allusion to a movement in New York city to secure omission ot prurient details of evidence in criminal cases, I should like to call your attention to a movement started in this city in 1907, by the writer, with the same object in view. The circular letter sent out by the Philadelphia Section of the Council of Jewish Women received a large number of endorsements from societies and indi- viduals. An appeal to editors was issued at the time of the second Thaw trial. Be- lieving, also, as you do, that this work for reform in the press must be continuous, our National Council at its triennial conven- tion in December last appointed a standing committee on purity of the press, with the object of forming a public opinion which shall demand elimination of objectionable matter from publication. Special request was made through the Associated Press for a conservative dealing with the present murder trials in order to safeguard our homes and our children from the demoral- izing influence of prurient details of evi- dence. I enclose a copy of the resolution adopt- ed by our executive board, in November, 1907. Cornelia Kahn, M.D. Philadelphia, January 8. Be it resolved, That we vigorously depre- cate the publication of such details of trials as are a menace to public morals, and also that we ask all public-spirited persons to refuse support to those journals that in the daily publishing of this and other most objectionable and sensational material, do ignore their high privileges; and, That we oppose this evil in practical ways, and especially in the line of develop- ing public opinion to appreciate its danger. We earnestly appeal to editors to aid us in this effort THE SURVIVAL OF THE MORALLY FIT. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It seems to me that in the conclu- sion of your "Fifty Years of Darwinism" (January 7, p. S), you have overlooked a more important factor determining human progress than the conscious use of the "power of environment" "in bettering the conditions of the poor, the defective, and the prone to crime." There has been until lately a serious misinterpretation of the meaning of "the struggle for existence," and "the survival of the fittest," as applied to human so- ciety. This struggle has generally been re- garded as a brutal contest for supremacy,

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62 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 in which the fittest who survived were those who were the strongest physically and mentally, and who were either unmoral or immoral, at least so far as the com- batants were concerned. Even so great an authority as Huxley lent the weight of his influence, in his Romanes Lecture, to the above interpretation. Two of the most im- portant chapters in Darwin's "Descent of Man," the third and fifth, on the moral and intellectual development of man, seem to have been overlooked or forgotten. In these chapters, Mr. Darwin distinctly states that tihe social instincts, being the more enduring and persistent, conquer the less persistent, and that these social instincts depend for their growth upon the develop- ment of the moral sense; that this moral sense is itself the product of social con- tact, which is increased by the growth ol society, and which must go on increasing as societies enlarge and pass from clans to tribes and finally into nations; and, fur- thermore, that this moral sense is preserv- ed and increased by the action of natural selection: At all times throughout the world tribes have supplanted other tribes, and as mo- rality is one element of their success, the standard of moral'ty and the number of well-endowed men will thus everywhere tend to rise and increase (Chap, v, p. 160). It may be further affirmed that with the growth of civilized society, morality be- comes of more and more importance in determining the survival of the fittest, for by that term we mean the survival of the individual or race that is best adapted to the essential conditions of the environ- ment. Human nature is what it is because of centuries of antagonism as well as of association. It is probable that in the earliest times when men were nomads, and society had not consolidated, the preda- tory instincts were the strongest and that conflict was predominant. While even then certain moral traits, such as courage and fidelity to leaders, were very useful, yet intellectual qualities were of more im- portance, and hence we should expect to find, what is generally admitted, that a high intelligence was developed earlier than a high morality. But as society was brought into closer and closer contact through inventions and discoveries which are the outcome of the scientific method, until now the whole civilized world is in touch, by means of telegraphs, railroads, steamships, the post office, and the news- paper, the sense of solidarity has been so intensified that moral relations have become the most important, because on them will depend that "peace on earth and good will to men." towards which we all look, but which is yet so distant. We can comfort ourselves, however, with the thought that the processes of natural se- lection are yet going on, preserving and increasing the growth of those qualities in mankind which best fit him to live harmo- niously with his fellows. Robert Mathews. Rochester, N. Y., January 12. THE HIGHER CRITICISM. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: If the gospel "according to Matthew Arnold" be taught by zealous dis- ciples for the next eighteen centuries, may not much more that is desirable be accom- plished, even for the "rank and file." After all, must not the educated "inward judge" be the practical court? Does not the "in- ward judge" lead to individual responsibil- ity to a much greater degree than either fear on the one hand, or the supernatural upon the other? May not obedience to the "inward judge" rightly and naturally fol- low any doubts that may arise about the supernatural? Are not most of the de- plorable conditions which confront us more the result of disregard of the "inward judge" than any lost faith in the doctrine according to Matthew? It seems to me that instruction in "the gospel according to Matthew Arnold" is demanded by pres- ent conditions. Edward M. Hyzer. Milwaukee, Wis., January 8. INDIAN STATISTICS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: By way of comment on the letter "Indian Statistics," from your English cor- respondent, T. Morison, in your issue of January 7, it may be said that as to a useful comparison of such data Lord Cur- zon declared in his address to the Vice- regal Council, March 29, 1901: I do not say that these data are in- controvertible. There is an element of con- jecture in them [the estimates of 1898], but so was there in the figures of 1880. If one set of figures is to be used in argument, equally may the other. Permit me further, without going into the causes of poverty and discontent in India, to express the firm conviction that no unprejudiced reader ever saw in the late William Digby's writings merely "the conjectures" or the work of "an industrious statistician poring over blue books." Fur- ther, that no one, worthy of his steel, ever couched a lance with Mr. Digby, and re- tired without a high sense of his courage, honor, and address; or ever, thereafter, spoke of him with condescension — and finally, that whoever was favored with knowledge of Mr. Digby's labors and char- acter must have felt the inspiration that supported him in voluntary sacrifice of office, friendships, health, and means, and which won for him after death, a public and enduring monument to his devotion and his unrequited services. Chas. B. Soutter. Aiken, S. C, January 11. Notes. Houghton Mifflin Co. is bringing out &. new edition of Woodborry's "Life of Poe" in connection with the celebration of the poet's centenary. The book has been largely rewritten since it first appeared more than twenty years ago, and much new matter is added. It now appears in two volumes, with many illustrations. Houghton Mifflin Co. announces for pub- lication this year "The German Element in the United States," in two volumes, by Prof. Albert Bernhardt Faust of Cornell University. The first draft of the manu- script won the prize of $3,000 offered by Conrad Seipp of Chicago for the best es- say on the subject. The book will be lav- ishly illustrated and will probably appear in the early autumn. In five volumes of the Cambridge English Classics (G. P. Putnam's Sons) we are to have a reprint of the King James Bible from a copy of the folio of 1611 in the possession of Aldis Wright. G. P. Putnam's Sons announce that the fourth, and concluding, volume of Hano- taux's "History of Contemporary France," in the English version, is now in press. Prof. W. D. Lyman of Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash., is engaged in the preparation of a book on the Columfbia Riv- er for a series published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, known as Historic Rivers of America. It is the intention of the author to give some special prominence to Nelson and the magnificent lake district by which it is surrounded. A new book by the Rev. G. Campbell Morgan of London, "Mountains and Val- leys in the Ministry of Jesus," will soon be published by the Fleming H. Revell Co. A life of Abraham Lincoln, by Brand Whitlock, Mayor of Toledo and author of several novels dealing with sociological problems, is announced by Small, Maynard & Co., publishers of the Beacon Series of Biographies. The proprietors of the Morning Chronicle of Halifax, N. S., of which paper Joseph Howe was for many years the editor, will soon issue a new and complete edition of the speeches and public letters of Mr. Howe. This edition will include the ma- terial contained in that published by the Hon. Mr. Annand in 1858, and also all the important speeches and letters delivered and written by Joseph Howe between 1858 and the time of his death in 1873. The editor of the new edition is Joseph A. Chis- holm. In honor of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Stuart Blackie, his nephew, Stodart Walker, is preparing a volume of correspondence, and requests that letters bearing on the subject be sent to him at No. 30 Walker Street, Edin- burgh. Another example of the curious and rather factitious revival of interest in the Stuart family is shown by the an- nouncement of W. G. Blaikie Murdoch's new book, "The Royal Stuarts in Their Connection with Art and Letters," to be issued by J. & J. Gray & Co. of Edin- burgh. Mr. Murdoch, who begins his rec- ord with James I of Scotland, is apparently a thoroughgoing partisan. The third and fourth volumes of the Works of James Buchanan (J. B. Lippin- cott Co.) bring the series to the middle of 1841, and thus cover his career into the Administration of Harrison. The range of subjects on which he spoke was wide, and he does not appear to have left unexpress- ed his opinion upon any of the leading measures coming before Congress, whether of internal or foreign policy. Stiff and formal as are his speeches, they show the attitude of the Jackson party, and the way in which that attitude was adapted to the needs of Pennsylvania and to the political aims of Buchanan. For he represented his State rather than the nation, and resented whatever seemed to belittle him in the eyes of the Democratic voters of Pennsylvania. The continuance of the agitation Of the bank question, of the disposition of public deposits and surplus national revenue, and

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Jan. 21, 1909] The USTation. 63 of specie payments were the leading meas- ures on which his influence in State poli- tics rested. It cannot be said that his treatment of them ever rises above the level of a good stump speech, addressed more to the feelings than to the intelli- gence of his audience. His speech at the Pennsylvania convention of 1840 marks his limitations as a politician as well as a statesman. It was competent, but that is all. He was not an admirer of Van Buren, of whose ability to succeed Jackson he had strong doubts. These doubts were deepened when, after offering Buchanan the place of attorney-general and receiv- ing a declination, Van Buren formed a Cabinet in which Pennsylvania was not represented. The personal relations be- tween the two men were altered, though Buchanan does not yet figure among the Presidential possibilities. When Van Buren was defeated in 1840, the chances of Bu- chanan brightened, and he became the can- didate of his State. It is needless to say that in the matters of office-seeking and the partisan use of office Buchanan was not at all squeamish, demanding many ap- pointments and openly avowing his want of sympathy in any restrictions on the ac- tivities of Federal officeholders in elec- tions. To him the Senate was more of a political arena than a place for legislat- ing, and his rambling speeches, crowded with personalities, were better fitted to catch the popular favor than to accom- plish much in the making of laws. Since he was without a particle of humor, his efforts to lighten his address are heavy reading ; and nowhere does he give the im- pression of superficiality more strongly than in dealing with a question where a high moral issue is involved, as in slavery in the District. There is much on the ris- ing problems over Texas and the North- eastern boundaries, and he made two speeches on the McLeod case. On foreign questions he should have been an authority. The volumes are still sparing in his cor- respondence, the greater part of which was accidentally destroyed; but the few letters that are given do not alter the impression gained from the speeches. Buchanan was evidently writing with the possibility of publication before him. The editing of the volumes, by John Bassett Moore, leaves nothing to be desired. The Bibliographical Society of America has sent to its members the second volume of its Proceedings and Papers, covering the two meetings in Asheville, N. C, in May, 1907, and in Chicago on January 1, 1908. The book contains A. G. Salley's paper, "The First Presses of South Carolina," accompanied by a detailed bibliographical description of 73 imprints between the years 1736 and 1771, and mention of a few more. G. S. Godard discusses the "History and Progress of Collecting Material for a Bibliography of Connecticut," a work car- ried on by the Connecticut Library Associa- tion. There are reports by the committees on Incunabula and on Colonial Laws. The fourth number of the Society's Bulletin continues the record of bibliographies is- sued and in course of preparation. Among the latter we find "a general evaluated bib- liography of social science," edited by W. D. P. Bliss, and to be published by the Social Science Library Bureau of Biblio- graphical Information. Miss Ethel D. Roberts, a student in the New York State Library School, has prepared an American Dante Bibliography for 1896-1908, in con- tinuation of that of T. W. Koch. When a book is dedicated "To the Great American Voter . . . before whose dread opinion the mighty of the earth stand in awe," one is prepared for the worst. It is not the worst that fol'ows, in the two vol- umes of "American Supremacy," by George W. Crichfield (Brentano's), but it is pret- ty bad. The author has accumulated a good deal of material about laws, customs, and concessions in certain South American states, but his tone is embittered and vio- lent, his conclusions wild. His one the- sis is that South Americans are a set of liars and cut-throats, and his sole infer- ence is that "the United States should es- tablish civilized governments in those countries, which would make pillage by revolutionary bands impossible." Such an extreme of passion and unreason defeats itself. Arthur Preuss of the Catholic Fortnight- ly Review is the author of a severe polemic against Freemasonry, entitled "A Study in American Freemasonry" (St. Louis: B. Herder). Deriving his information con- cerning the order from the authoritative works of Mackey and Pike, he seeks to show that Freemasonry is by no means the harmless social and benevolent organiza- tion it appears to be, but rather an insidi- ous and dangerous enemy of true faith and upright morals. Mr. Preuss takes his an- tagonist somewhat too seriously. There is unquestionably a large element of deistic philosophy in the teachings of the Masonic ritual, derived from the speculations cur- rent when it attained its most rapid de- velopment toward its present form, but, as the order now exists in America, it is a fra- ternal ( rder, pure and simple, of more or less benevolence and influence, and to try to prove it something more is to stimulate the curiosity by which it flourishes. "The Jungle Folk of Africa" (F. H. Revell Co.), by Robert H. Milligan, is a remarkable series of pictures, as it were, of the life, customs, folk-lore, and relig- ion of the West Coast native, based on the incidents of a seven years' experience in the German Kamerun and French Congo as a missionary of our Presbyterian Church. It awakens, as no other book within our knowledge has done, an interest in and sympathy for the people of this region. There is no attempt at concealment of the dark side of their character, their im- morality, their untrustworthiness, their murderous proclivities, illustrated by the fact that in a year in one town where he was stationed, he did "not remember that there was one natural death," though he "never ceased to hear their mourning for the dead." But there is a bright side, of which perhaps the best illustration is the statement that "his love for his mother . . . is the strongest sentiment and the deepest emotion in the mind and heart of the African." Especially interesting are the accounts of the witchcraft practised and the fetishes, the power of which is gradually diminishing as civilization in- creases. In a chapter entitled "White ana Black" Mr. Milligan confirms with his tes- timony that of the other American mis- sionaries as to the brutality with which the natives are treated by the Belgian and Portuguese officials, and to a certain ex- tent, we regret to add, by the French. He has much entertaining matter about the amusements of the natives, especially their dancing and singing. Very little compara- tively is told about his missionary work, only one chapter being wholly devoted to it; the aim of the book is simply to "ex- hibit the human nature of the African." There are seventeen illustrations, the most interesting of which are portraits of native friends. We regret the lack of an index, which would have added much to the value of the work. "A rag-tag journal" is the apt descrip- tion given by W. G. Burn Murdoch of his latest work "From Edinburgh to India and Burmah" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). It is, in fact, the daily record of impressions of scenery and native life during a journey in 1905-06, taken simply in the interest of his profession as artist, and it reads as if it were written for a circle of intimate friends, rather than for the general public. The closing sentences of a description of women at a tank will give an idea of the style and humor of the book: The color from the red soil reflects un- der their raised arms and under their cheeks, and into the classic folds of their draperies, strong blue, and deep red, in their shadows and throws up rich reflec- tions to the undersides of the wet earth- enware bowls; the water laps over their brims, and the sky reflects like sapphire on their upper surfaces. Who will say that color is not the most beautiful thing in the world — the very flower of love and light and fire; the sign of preponderant katabol- ism or anabolism as the naturalist might possibly put it, to be perfectly explicit! Still, if the reader can overcome the feel- ing of weariness at the constant repetition of color effects, he will find much enter- tainment, though not much useful informa- tion. There are, for instance, vividly pic- turesque accounts of the reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Bombay and Rangoon. Burmah impressed the author not only as a far more fascinating country than India from its beauty, but as in a far bet- ter condition as regards the state of its people. There is nothing in Burmah, for example, to compare with "the most nauseating place in the world," the Ghats at Benares. Commercial progress is indi- cated by the fact that the Irrawaddy Flo- tilla Company, which began business in 1863, with four steamers, has now a fleet of 360 vessels. Mr. Murdoch's account of his voyage up the river to Bhamo in one of these steamers, an excursion which he characterizes as many times more interest- ing than a trip up the Nile, should attract travellers to this region. It should be add- ed that Mr. Murdoch's pastime was hunt- ing, and occasionally he varies his narra- tive as artist in search of subjects for his canvas by accounts of hunting trips in the jungle. The book is attractively made, but its excellence is marred by numerous typo- graphical errors. There are twenty-four full-page illustrations in color — one of a fakir at Benares is very striking — and nu- merous reproductions of sketches taken on the spot of interesting scenes and incidents. The most recent issue in the South American Series, edited by Martin Hume, is "Peru," by C. Reginald Enock (import- ed by Charles Scribner's Sons). Written in a less vivacious style than the "Chile," in the same series, by G. F. Scott Elliot, it betrays a wider knowledge of present

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64 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 conditions, and is especially full on Peru- vian mineral resources and agricultural development. Both volumes deal with the early history in an uncritical manner, but serve the purpose of a handbook reason- ably well. Both are freely illustrated. In "The Other Americans," by Arthur Ruhl (Charles Scribner's Sons), we get as neat and favorable an application of jour- nalistic methods to travel as one could wish. The writer always had a "story" in mind, and fell upon the picturesque and eccentric in Caracas, Bogota, Lima, San- tiago, Buenos Ayres, and Rio de Janeiro, with a sure and overmastering instinct. Rapid and superficial, he yet has a facul- ty for seizing characteristic traits; and the net result is a very readable book, though one that by no stretch /could be called thoroughly informed. Vols. XXI and XXII in the Publications of the Hakluyt Society, Series 2, are translations of Alooso de Espinosa's "Del Origen y Milagros de la Santa Imagen de nuestra Seiiora de Oandelaria que aparecio en la Isla de Tenerife, con la Descripci6n de esta Isla," and the much more precious "History of the Incas," by Pedro Sarmien- to de Gamboa, together with Ocampo's ac- count of "The Execution of the Inca Tupac Amaru." The recent publication of the text of the Sarmiento manuscript, in the library of Gbttingen, was the immediate occa- sion of this edition, to which Sir Clements Markham furnishes the introduction. He does not fail to point out the inevitable bias in a narrative designed to prove that the Incas were usurpers and tyrants, and thus justly robbed and put to death by the unselfish Spaniards. Still, Sarmiento re- mains the chief authority on the Inca civ- ilization. "The Nun Ensign" (London: T. Fisher Unwin) is James Pitzmaurice-Kelly's lat- est demonstration of his Spanish schol- arship. It is a translation into English of "La Monja Alferez," with a learned in- troduction and copious notes. At the end is printed, in Spanish, the play by Juan Perez de Montalban, also entitled "La Monja Alferez." The editor makes it prob- able that one scene from this play turn- ed up as a spurious chapter in the book. Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly's tracing of the ac- tual history of the actual nun ensign, Cat- alina de Erauso, and of the origin and fate of the account which she was sup- posed to have written of her extraordi- nary adventures, disguised as a man, shows an exhaustive sifting of all the material. Incidentally, it convicts De Quincey, in his essay on this work, of either ignor- ance or imposition, or both. An attractive feature of this edition is the inclusion of twenty-seven illustrations by Vierge. They are on glazed paper, pasted over blue-tinted pages, as a kind of framing. In his well-known style, they lose some- thing here by their uniformly small scale. The Comte de Rambuteau is not a hero of romance. To the Parisian of to-day he is remembered merely by a street that bears his name and by certain modest but useful improvements which he introduced in Paris during the fifteen years of his administra- tion as Prefect of the Seine. He died in 1869. His Memoirs, written during his re- tirement, under the Second Empire, were released by his grandson in 1904 and edited by a professor of a French lycee. They are now translated into English (G. P. Put- nam's Sons). The reader, who is looking for spicy anecdotes or malicious portraits need not open this volume, which contains only the recital of a busy life spent in the service of the state. This aristocrat was, in fact, a bourgeois with qualities more solid than brilliant. Instead of wast- ing his youth in sterile opposition to the new order of things, he entered the court of Napoleon as Chamberlain and afterwards served the Emperor as Prefect. Having retired to private life during the Restora- tion, he reappeared just in time to reap the benefit of the Revolution of 1830, which gave him the important function of Pre- fect of the Seine that he kept until 1848. His last years he spent on his family es- tate of Rambuteau, in Burgundy, quietly awaiting death, which he had eluded through five or six coups d'etat, riots, and revolutions. These long and somewhat pon- derous Memoirs will give the historians some firsthand information on at least three different subjects; first, the provincial administration during the last months of the declining empire, when sedition and conspiracies were rife on every side; sec- ond, the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 as seen by a man who was in the thick of the fight; last and most important of all, the muni- cipal administration of Paris by one of its most efficient and hardworking Prefects, who started out to give the Parisians "wa- ter, air, and shade," and won by his far- reaching reforms the gratitude of all class- es and by his public works paved the way for Haussmann and Alphand. If this vol- ume of figures and facts contains few por- traits, it is not devoid, however, of inter- esting sidelights on some of the makers of history whom Rambuteau had occasion to approach. He confirms what we knew of Napoleon's temper which more than once was displayed at the sittings of the Coun- cil of State; he gives some interesting in- stances of the blind optimism of Louis Philippe a few days before the outbreak of the revolution; finally, the reception he re- ceived from the Duchesse d'Angouleme con- firms M. Lenotre's statement about her character, showing that everybody is agreed in lamenting in the daughter of Louis XVI the absence of all that is "tender and wo- manly." The translation is edited with the usual care of American and English publishers and has a sufficient index. Few mistakes can be charged to the trans- lator, who, however, ought to know that the so-called "reformers" of Montauban are the Calvinists, known in French as "re- formes." "The Character of Jesus," by the Rev Dr. Charles Edward Jefferson, contains twenty-six Sunday evening discourses de- livered by their author in the Broadway Tabernacle of this city during the last two winters (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.). The volume is popular in character. While Dr. Jefferson professes to have studied the New Testament criticism of the last thirty years, he shows no evidence of serious wrestling with its problems. The narratives of the Fourth Gospel are employed indiscrimin- ately with those of the Synoptics. Never- theless Dr. Jefferson has a vigorous facil- ity in expressing useful truths. His chap- ters on "The Strength of Jesus." "His Poise," "His Firmness," "His Candor," and other like topics, may be read by men of all casts of mind with profit and grat- itude. A volume composed in this manner is necessarily somewhat discursive and repetitious. The Catholic priest, Heinrich Hansjakob, who as a story-teller has long been popu- lar among Protestants and his own church people, has lately added to his long list of publications "Verlassene Wege: Tage- buchblatter" (Stuttgart: A. Bonz & Co.). The collection consists of narratives of his journeys in recent years, particularly in South Germany. The Studien zur Geschicbte des neueren Protestantismus, edited by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann and Leopold Zscharnack (Gies- sen: Alfred Topelmann), will publish new or rare sources of information for the study of early Protestantism. The first Quellen- hcft contains Spalding's "Bestimmung des Menschen" (1748) and "Wert der Andacht" (1755), with an introduction by Horst Ste- phan; and Heft iii gives a translation of John Toland's "Christianity Not Myste- rious" (1696), rendered by W. Lunde, to which are added Leibnitz's "Annotatiuncu- lae" of 1701. One of the most striking figures among the Danish men of letters to-day is Jo- hannes V. Jensen, who has made his repu- tation within two years. The curious mix- ture of grotesque fancy and acute observa- tion in his early fiction set him apart from the rest of his countrymen, and, indeed, his contemporaries, and drew upon him the attention of German publishers, who at once secured him for their market. He is now a frequent contributor to Marz. Morgen, and other magazines, and his books appear almost simultaneously in Danish and German. Close upon his in- teresting novel, "Das Rad," the scene of which was laid in Chicago, comes a vol- ume of essays, "Die neue Welt" (Berlin: S. Fischer & Co.), discussing the new as- pects of life embodied in America and ap- pearing also in certain personalities of the old world. He finds in the "peasant cul- ture," of which Bjornson is such a splendid specimen, in the modern humanism of Dar- win and Grundtvig, in the work of Schil- lings and others, symptoms of that return to nature and that rejuvenation which is the true renaissance. The book is full of suggestive ideas, and is conceived in a spirit of optimism which is quite different from the tone of most European "mod- erns." Unlike so many visitors to this country, Jensen does not condemn the es- sentially American features and manifesta- tions of life that he became familiar with during his sojourn in the United States, but attempts an interpretation of them in connection with phenomena which he has observed elsewhere, and which he traces to a common source. In the introductory chapter on machines, he says that iron construction, the modern Gothic, is the natural style of the present time: The houses in America are truly heathen- ish; their purpose, their utility, was con- sidered before architecture was thought of; it will be seen in some later time that there is beauty in this style. For beauty follows truth as it does strength. The present time is pagan, and pagan is the re- naissance which triumphantly comes to all nations. In Jensen's opinion nothing could have been more fit to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of the first colonists from

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■KVU'Ma" Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation. 65 Europe than the naval reunion in New York. For "the wanderer's heart of Co- lumbus has made of the mortal man an immortal myth, which still unites all mi- gratory natures on both sides of the ocean in the one truth, that all reality be- gins with a dream." The originality of Jensen's point of view and the freshnebs of his style make the book unusually en- joyable reading. A new selection from the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann, who, owing to his spirit- ual kinship with Edgar Allan Poe, is fre- quently mentioned at this time, is being published by Max Hesse, Leipzig. There are to be eight volumes, with an Introduc- tion by Richard Sehaukal. The Germans have a new, compact, and scholarly Latin dictionary in the "Latein- isches Worterbuch," prepared by Prof. E. Kraetsch and Prof. A. Mittag (Berlin: Neu- feld & Henius). In a volume of one thous- and pages the authors have endeavored to cover the ground completely, regarding the- style of Caesar and Cicero as classical, and designating that of others as non-classical, old Latin, vulgar Latin, later Latin, and modern Latin. A list of proper names cov- ering 89 pages completes the book, which shows much independent scholarship and is well adapted to the use of students. Charles Enschede, of the firm of Jon. Enschede' en Zonen, printers and typefound- ers in Haarlem, Holland, has prepared a work on the typefounders of the Netherlands from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, which will be published soon by De Erven F. Bohn in Haarlem, with Otto Harrasso- witz in Leipzig as agent for the internation- al trade. The illustrations, with one excep- tion, will be from types made with the original matrices in the possession of the firm, representing 6 forms from the fif- teenth century, 9 from the sixteenth, 52 from the seventeenth, and 305 from the eigh- teenth. Among the contents of the volume we notice a study of the various Elzevir presses. Among this year's issues of the Society for Publishing Old Northern Literature (Samfund til Udgivelse af Gammel Nor- disk Litteratur), Copenhagen, is to be noted an edition of the old Icelandic vellum man- uscript of encyclopaedic nature, listed as No. 194 in the Arnamagnaean Collection of Manuscripts, published under the title of "Alfroedi Islenzk," by Dr. Kr. Kaalund, the librarian of the collection. This is the first edition of the manuscript in question, which is very interesting as showing the range of the knowledge possessed by Ice- landic ecclesiastic and monastic scholars at the beginning of the fourteenth century. That indefatigable Icelandic scholar and interpreter of Icelandic Scaldic poetry, Prof. Finnur Jonsson of Copenhagen Uni- versity, has recently issued two works of importance to the student of Germanic philology. One is a "History of the Ice- landic and Old Norwegian Literature (Co- penhagen: G. E. C. Gad), a one-volume ab- breviation, for the use of students, of the same author's great three-volume work on the same subject (previously noticed in these columns). The other is a text edi- tion, with interpretation, of the "Old Nor- wegian and Icelandic Scaldic Poetry," pub- lished by the Commission for the Arnama- gnaean Fund, through the Gyldendal Pub- lishing House, Copenhagen and Chicago. In the field of Scandinavian philology an au- thoritative and critical and at the same time> conservative edition of the existing monuments of Scaldic poetry is a matter of prime importance; and it is well there- fore that the work has been undertaken by a master hand. A young Scandinavian author who has lately obtained considerable European re- nown, as attested by the fact that his latest book is simultaneously published in Chris- tiania, Paris, Milan, and Utrecht, is the Norwegian, Johan Bojer, whose novel "Vort Rige" (Our Kingdom) has just been brought out by the Gyldendal Publishing House (Copenhagen and Chicago). The book, which has for hero a rather sympathetic young man who seems to be undeservedly persecuted by an unsympathetic fate, de- serves to be read by those who would fol- low literary developments in Scandinavia. The year-end at Paris has been fruitful of what was once called polite literature. Pierre Brun issues a limited edition (twelve francs) of "Savinien de Cyrano Bergerac" (Daragon), unravelling the history and le- gend of this gentilhomme parisien from Lebret to Edmond Rostand. "Etudes de la litterature franchise" (sixth series, Per- rin), by the proximately acadSmiaable Rene Doumic, extends from St. Francis de Sales to Jules Lemaltre's "Racine." While not startling or revolutionary, such criticism is full of cultivated amenity. We tread a more combative field with the veteran Edmond Lepelletier in "Emile Zola," his life and work (Mercure de France). M. Lepelletier was one of the earliest fanatics of the Naturalist school, and, though he later differed with its founder in politics, he still sees by the day that is dead. It is, perhaps, the most complete book yet published on the man who for a few years overshadowed grimly all the other writers of France. Polite literature would be little without polished language; and recent disquieting agitations have drawn out a number of useful books on French itself. Albert Dauzat's "La Langue frangaise d'aujour- d'hui" (Armand Colin) treats of the evolu- tion and present problems of the speech of France. Even as radical a Deputy as Charles Maurice Couyba (the school poet Maurice Boukay) stood up in Parliament in the debate on the university budget, to say that the glory of France, its language, was deteriorating under the modern system of education. Andre Beaunier begins at the beginning, "Contre la Reforme de l'or- thographie" (PIon-Nourrit), a spirited piece of writing pour la defence frangaise. Gustave Lanson of the Sorbonne, in a sort of university extension series, publishes "L'Art de la prose" (Annales politiques et litteraires) ; and even Emerson, though he did not care for it nearly so much as for Montaigne, would have agreed with Mat- thew Arnold that no modern language has prose like that of the French classics. Perhaps not so important, and certainly not at all of the university, but equally and superlatively French, is the Comtesse de Gence's "Le Code mondain de la jeune fille," a handbook of proper doing and act- ing for the entire life of the young per- son, from her entrance into the monde until safely arrived at her fiancailles, within sight of her goal — marriage (Bibliothdque d'ouvrages practiques). Dr. CabanSs, who is constantly peering into the most inti- mate corners of other days, publishes a contrasting "Mceurs intimes du passe"' (A. Michel), which is not always for the young person's reading, although he expounds things as innocent as how our grand- mothers blew their noses. Antonio Fogazzaro's novels, especially "The Saint," which called out a Papal bull and a syllabus, have almost obscured his poems. Yet it was as a poet that he first won recognition, and now he has collected in a single volume "Le Poesie," which com- prises what he desires to have stand as his poetic product. The book has for frontispiece a recent portrait of Senator Fogazzaro (Milan: Baldini, Castoldi & Co.). The sixth general convention of the Re- ligious Education Association will be held at Chicago, February 10-12. The special programme of the Department of Universi- ties and Colleges, just issued, announces a symposium on "The Problem of Religious Instruction and Religious Influence in State Universities." The following are the con- tributions to it: "Statement of the Prob- lem," President Henry S. Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation; "The State Univer- sity and the Religious Denominations," the Rev. Joseph W. Cochran, secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education, Philadel- phia; "The State University and the School of Theology," Dean Shailer Mathews, Uni- versity of Chicago; "Religious Instruction in State Universities from the Legal Stand- point," Chancellor Frank Strong, University of Kansas; "What Can Be Done and What Cannot Be Done," President Cyrus North- rop, University of Minnesota; "The State University of Iowa Plan for Religious Edu- cation," Chancellor George E. MacLean, University of Iowa. To a symposium on "Moral and Religious Influences as Related to Environment of Student Life" there will be the following contributions: "Dormitory Life for College Men," President Charles F. Thwing, Western Reserve; "Dormitory Life for College Women," Dean Marion Talbot, University of Chicago; "Factors in the Dormitory Problem," President Richard Cecil Hughes, Ripon College; "The Private Dormitory," President Charles W. Eliot, Harvard; "The Private Boarding-house for College Women," Mrs. Mary Bidwell Breed, adviser of women, University of Missouri, "The College Sorority as a Substitute for the Woman's Dormitory," Mrs. Cora Stran- ahan Woodward, adviser of women, Uni- versity of Wisconsin; general discussion, introduced by Prof. Charles F. Kent, Yale. "The College Fraternity as a Factor in the Religious and Moral Life of Students" will be treated as follows: "History and Early Ideals of the Greek Letter Societies," Al- bert P. Jacobs, Detroit; "The Fraternity of To-day," Clarence F. Birdseye, New York; "The College Fraternity in the State Uni- versity," President Edmund J. James and Dean Thomas A. Clark, University of Illi- nois; "The College Fraternity as an Ally in Maintaining Institutional Standards," President Guy Potter Benton, Miami Uni- versity; discussion, Prof. Ernest H. Lind- ley, Indiana University, Prof. William A. Scott, University of Wisconsin, and Prof. Henry M. Bates, University of Michigan. "The Higher Education as a Preparation for Life on the Moral and Religious Side" will be discussed as follows: "Preparation of the College Student for Social Service,"

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6G The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 Prof. John M. Gillette, University of North Dakota; "Agencies for Deepening the Spiri- tual Life of the College," Prof. Edwin F. Starbuck, University of Iowa. The Baltimore Association for the Pro- motion of the University Education of Wo- men offers a fellowship of $500 for the year 1909-1910 available for study at an American or European University. As a rule this fellowship is awarded to candidates who have done one or two years of grad- uate work, preference being given to women from Maryland and the South. All appli- cations must be sent before March 20, 1909. to the chairman of the Committee on Award, Dr. Mary Sherwood, The Arundel, Baltimore. Arthur William A'Beckett, novelist and dramatist, for many years one of the chief writers for Punch, died in London, January 14. He was born in Fulham in 1844, son of the Gilbert Abbott A'Beckett, who wrote the "Comic History of England." At an early age the young A'Beckett entered journal- ism as editor of the Glowworm. Later he was connected with the Britannia Magazine, was a special correspondent in the Franco- German war, and was editor of the Sunday Times, of the Naval and Military Magazine, and of John Bull. Some of these undertak- ings were an outlet for the energy which was not consumed by his labors on the staff of Punch, from 1874 to 1902. He was also the author of several three-act comedies, and was active in the Society of Authors. His publications are: "Comic Guide to the Royal Academy" (with his brother Gil- bert, 1863-64), "Fallen Among Thieves" (1869), "Our Holiday in the Highlands" (1874), "The Shadow Witness," and "The Doom of St. Quirec" (with Sir F. C. Burnand, 1875- 76), "The Ghost of Grimstone Grange" (1877), "The Mystery of Mostyn Manor" (1878), "Tracked Out," "Hard Luck," "Stone Broke" (1879-81), "Papers from Pumphandle Court" (1884), "Modern Arabian Nights" (1885), "The Member for Wrottenborough" (1895), "Greenroom Recollections" (1896), "The Modern Adam" (1899), "The A'Becketts of Punch" (1903), "The Tunnel Mystery" (1905), "Recollections of a Humorist" (1907). Fernand Bournon, a member of the staff of the Journal des Debuts, has died in his fifty-second year. Besides his newspaper work, he wrote many books on the an- tiquities of Paris, and published seventy- seven volumes of a collection of "Mono- graphies des communes du departement de la Seine." Hermann Jahnke, teacher, novelist, and playwright, has died, at the age of sixty- three. Much of his writing is in Nieder- deutsch, his best-known book being "Nah- wer Bismarck," published in 1875. CARL SCHURZ'S REMINISCENCES. The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz. Vol. Ill, 1863-1869; with a Sketch of His Life and Public Services from 1869 to 1896, by Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning, Pp. x+486. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. There is but one serious disappoint- ment in this third and last volume of Schurz's "Reminiscences": the Remin- iscences proper break off almost at the beginning of Grant's Administration and of Schurz's own service in the Sen- ate. This is a period which the careful, formal historians have now invaded, and it is a pity they cannot have the benefit of Schurz's intimate knowledge of its men and causes. His judgments, made always from a point of view pe- culiarly elevated and detached, yet strengthened always by a human and sympathetic intuition and by a rich ex- perience, would probably have been more valuable than those of any one of his contemporaries. The loss to the general reader is hardly less; for the autobiography keeps its engaging qual- ity to the end. Schurz's children have done well to entrust Mr. Bancroft and Professor Dunning with the task of continu- ing the story; better, in fact, than they could well have expected. For or- dinarily, when two writers collaborate, the result is disappointing in point of form; yet this sketch strikes us as rath- er better written than either Mr. Ban- croft's "Seward" or Professor Dunning's "Reconstruction." The main facts of Schurz's later career are set forth care- fully, with good judgment, with sym- pathy. The only general criticism which suggests itself is that we do not find in this biographic part what the auto- graphic part, of course, could not give — a Boswellian account of the man him- self, with ample anecdotal illustration. Schurz had a most interesting and en- gaging personality. He was extremely good company. We wish that we might be oftener introduced into his home, and the circle of his friends. But perhaps, with the modesty that characterizes the sketch, its authors have meant to leave this opportunity to whoever, notwith- standing the "Reminiscences," shall at- tempt a complete Life. Schurz's own story of the years 1863- 1869 takes up considerably more than half the volume. Gettysburg comes first, and the chapter will no doubt rank as one of the best of the many accounts of the great fight by eye-witnesses. Get- tysburg and Chattanooga, however, close the list of important battles in which Schurz had a part. In 1864, he found the call to service on the hustings, in defence of Lincoln's administration, more compelling than the rather tame military duties assigned to him for the time being; and when he went back to the front the end was close at hand. But he had proved himself no mere hol- iday soldier, and his experience of American warfare had been stern enough to make him combat vigorously, a few years later, in his native country, and in no less a presence than Bis- marck's, the assumption of superiority for the more elaborately disciplined sol- diers of Europe over those he had led and faced on this side of the Atlantic. It was but a single step from the fighting to the still more prominent role he played in Reconstruction. This last is no doubt the part of his public ser- vice which present-day historians are most disposed to criticise. His motives they will hardly assail. But his well- known report on conditions in the South immediately after the war, in which he advocated giving the ballot to the blacks at once, supplied arguments for the Congressional leaders who over- threw the Presidential plan of recon- struction and substituted a plan of their own which is now, by many students of the period, condemned as partisan, if not vindictive, in motive, and which all know to have produced, in actual opera- tion, detestable results. Not much is here added to the mass of fact and ob- servation in the "Report," but we learn a good deal about the circumstances un- der which it was written, and also — for the first time— the precise character of Schurz's break with Andrew Johnson. To that unlucky President Schurz shows little leniency; but Johnson, exasperat- ing as he remains for his tactlessness, for the matchless untimeliness of his alternate displays of stubbornness and weakness, nevertheless emerges from this particular arraignment, as from others, with some measure of the read- er's sympathy. That is a feeling which finds its way into the histories, along with a more and more unfavorable feel- ing towards Sumner and Stevens. Schurz firmly denies that the grant of suffrage to the freedmen was meant as a pun- ishment for their former masters; yet he admits that Stevens was not with- out hatred for the slave-owners. He him- self continues to justify the act by the only reasoning which appeals to the hindsight of a later generation — that it was necessary, in order to keep the whites from reducing the blacks to some form of slavery or semi-slavery. Against this view one is now bound to set the contrary view of J. F. Rhodes and Professor Dunning. We are persuaded also that Schurz makes too little of the purely partisan motive of the Republi- can majority in Congress. Perhaps, in this, he was misled by his own freedom from such a spirit. We turn with pleasure from this most painful chapter in American history back to the earliest scenes of Schurz's life. His account of his visit to Ger- many in 1867 is entirely fascinating. For an American reader, there is a curious pride in the reception he got, and particularly in the extraordinary interview with Bismarck. Probably no other passage in the entire three vol- umes will be read so often. Doubtless Schurz himself was by this time a good enough American to relish such recogni- tion more keenly than if he had re- mained a merely European republican. But he had lost no whit of devotion to his old ideals when he came back and threw himself once more into Amer- ican politics. Of that devotion there

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Jan. 2i, 1909] The ISTation. 67 is no more creditable instance than his leadership of the Liberal Republican movement of 1870-1872, unsuccessful as the movement was. Because of its failure, historians incline to neglect it. Perhaps they are right. But the Republican party stood then at the parting of the ways. It had not yet entered fully upon the course which in a few years cost it so many of its pur- est members. It was not yet irrevocably committed to high protection, or com- pletely in the control of . the interests which profited by that policy; and, on the other hand, there was in its own ranks a decided reaction against its se- verity with the South. In fine, there was still so much virtue in it that we cannot set Schurz down as a visionary because he hoped to purify it from with- in. Mere mischance had much to do with the unfortunate outcome of his en- terprise. Meanwhile, he himself had entered the Senate; and there we must leave him, on the eve of some of the fin- est triumphs of his career. How he himself felt when he took his seat as a Senator he has told us, and there is hardly a paragraph in the book which better deserves to be quoted: I remember vividly the feelings which almost oppressed me as I first sat down in my chair in the Senate chamber. Now I had actually reached the most exalted pub- lic position to which my boldest dreams of ambition had hardly dared to aspire. I was still a young man, just forty. Little more than sixteen years had elapsed since I had landed on these shores, a homeless waif saved from the wreck of a revolutionary movement in Europe. Then I was en- folded in the generous hospitality of the American people opening to me, as freely as to its own children, the great oppor- tunities of the new world. And here I was now, a member of the highest law- making body of the greatest of republics. Should I ever be able fully to pay my debt of gratitude to this country, and to jus- tify the honors that had been heaped upon me? To accomplish this, my conception of duty could not be pitched too hign. I recorded a vow in my own heart that 1 would at least honestly endeavor to fulfil that duty; that I would conscientiously ad- here to the principle salus populi supremu lex; that I would never De a sycophant of power nor a flatterer of the multitude; that, if need be, I would stand up alone for my conviction of truth and right; and that there would be no personal sacrifice too great for my devotion to the Republic. To this we may well add these sentences from a letter written by Schurz some years later, while he was Secretary of the Interior, to a Missouri correspon- dent who urged him to use appoint- ments to office as a means of strength- ening his own Liberal Republican fol- lowing: As you do not expect a reply in detail, I would only say that in the management of what is called the patronage in Missouri, I shall feel in duty bound, as far as I ex- ercise an influence, to act upon those principles with regard to the civil ser- vice which I have always advocated. This will preclude anything and everything like a personal policy looking to ulterior ends. Ever since I have been in official life 1 have adhered to the rule of regarding the official position occupied by me at the time, as the last one ever to bo held by me, and as decisive of my reputation as a public man. The proof-reading, as in the earlier volumes, has evidently not been partic- ularly good. A portrait of Charles Fran- cis Adams appears on page 344, where one would expect to find, instead, that of his father. There is an index. CURRENT FICTION. An Immortal Soul. By W. H. Mallock. New York: Harper & Bros. The problem of multiple personality has been repeatedly set forth in fiction, but never so painstakingly as here, and never from precisely the same point of view. Mr. Mallock puts it as a theo- logical poser: if a person is several persons, what about his soul? An imag- inary case is worked out with much in- genuity, the case of a young girl intro- duced upon the scene first as one per- son, then as another. With the aid of a simple machinery devised by her parents and physician, a shift of name and costume accompanies each shift of personality, and she readily passes as her own half-sister. This might easily have been made the occasion of amus- ing complications on the "Vice-Versa" order; but Mr. Mallock's purpose is a serious one, and he does not permit himself to be led astray by the Comic Spirit. Much of the time we might fancy ourselves in a laboratory rather than a studio. Yet the story is not without a leisurely, whimsical, well- nigh Peacockian flavor. The discourse of Mr. Barton the ritualistic parson, Dr. Thistlewood the materialist physician, and Lord Cotswold the dilettante, sen- sualist, and mystic, remind one of some of those immortal communings at Gryll Grange or Crochet Castle. But how Peacock would have rumbled at the ten- dency of these discourses! The story begins in an orthodox way with Miss Nest Vivian falling in love with the middle-aged baronet who has done distinguished things in the Far East. However, he amounts to very lit- tle in the end; the real hero is the high-church parson, Mr. Barton. He falls in love with her, and fancies himself engaged to her (she fancying herself engaged to the baronet) when a thun- derstorm converts her into her other self, Miss Enid Wynn. If Miss Vivian is a nice English girl of yielding sensi- bilities and churchly leanings, Miss Wynn is a brusque, mannish, sporting young person. She comports herself rather outrageously, and in turn, un- der the shock of a slight accident, gives place to Miss Vivian. Neither of these persons has knowledge of the other: the question is to which the body le- gitimately belongs? Which is the real self or soul?* The book is rather un- necessarily encumbered with scientific terminology. Felice. By John Luther Long. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. This is one of Mr. Long's character- istically pretty and sentimental and pathetic tales. The smile and the tear are present in distracting juxtaposition, as advertised. The method is rather under suspicion in these days in coldly critical circles; but it still has its pub- lic utility. The Christmas stories over which Dickens and his audience were wont to weep together, are not yet ac- tually out of date; among us Bret Harte took up the strain, and after him who more eloquently than the author of "Madame Butterfly"? We make a lit- tle less obvious use of the machinery, the Christmas bells, the yule-log, and so on; but we retain the spirit of it perfectly — that dear old "God bless-us- every-one" spirit which Boz populariz- ed rather than invented. We do not re- call that the word Christmas is employ- ed in the story of "Felice," but the at- mosphere of that blessed and somewhat emotional season is about it. The hero is a more amiable Scrooge, whose pride leads him to an act for which his susceptibility causes him voluptuously to atone. The flamboyant barber, who is represented as king of the Italian colony in New York, is an amusing fig- ure, worthy, perhaps, to be included in that edifying compilation sure to be made some time under the title, "The Barber in Fiction." The Cradle of the Rose. By the author of "The Martyrdom of an Empress." New York: Harper & Bros. The story is laid in Brittany, and deals with a recent Royalist plot organ- ized by the Lady Clanvowe, wife of an English diplomat. This unusual heroine is of aristocratic Breton birth, possess- es fabulous wealth, perfect physique, silver hair, and a ravishing skill on the violin. It is merely an accident, however, that she fascinates the rather colorless young Breton officer who fig- ures in a neutral way as the hero. The Royalist plot comes to nothing, nor does the young man's love: lover, lady, and plot sink silently together into the sea. The romantically tragic futility of it all is rightly conceived, and the author has spared no pains to work out the conception. The scene is illustrated with water-color drawings by the au- thor; each chapter is introduced with a poem by "M.M." (also, the author?) ; local color is laboriously worked in; in short, an earnest effort is made to in- terpret poetically the spirit of old Br?*-

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68 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 tany — its gray skies and stormy, sea- smitten coast, its sturdy peasantry, its loyalty, its sullen piety, and dark su- perstitions. The setting is admirable. One waits with increasing irritation for some one to do something; but, as a certain historian said of the French Con- stitution, the story "will not march." The author refuses to release the hands of his creatures and let them go about their business. The lavish descriptive impulse is allowed to run riot and over- power the narrative. In the end, one feels that the work is too heavy for an idyll and too static for a novel. The Forbidden Boundary and Other Stories. By B. L. Putnam Weale. New York: The Macmillan Co. Mr. Weale as an interpreter of Asia is possibly unrivalled. He is at onee geographer, historian, ethnologist, and dramatist. Particularly in denning the "forbidden boundary" between white races and yellow and brown, and the penalties for overstepping it, is he an expert. The Chinaman is shown in many poses, both familiar and new. He may be a gentleman and scholar, or he may be all the less desirable things that popular writing has shown him to be. Says one of the white characters: In the whole world, there are no gam- blers like the Chinese — nowhere. . . . But when they lose, they do not blow out their brains like our fools; they merely begin again, and with the aid of an en- larged experience, hope for better luck. It is the nation of the future, this China; they are the world's marvels; they are good business men and desperate gamblers com- bined." Not alone the Chinese, but Japanese, Asiatic islanders, city crowds, and weird water-people — all are as daily mates to this deeply-versed observer. Vast is his material, immense his mastery of de- tail, pungent his generalizations. And yet he is not an unqualified suc- cess as a story-teller. There is a surfeit of the dreadful, and what from an ar- tistic point of view is worse, a pro- fuseness, relevant and irrelevant, that makes of several of the stories in this volume sheer rigmaroles. The best told one is also one of the most barbarous, "Thp Cult of Sparta." Here every para- graph tells. "The Enemy," a tale of a wonderful swimmer, is anotner that ranks among the less top-heavy; and moreover, though shuddery, it is not un- speakable. But profound convictions as to the un- knowableness of Asia, and the destruc- tion that awaits the too-close investiga- tor, an eye for the cryptic and an ear for the creepy, do not establish proof of the story-telling genius. Mr. Weale's is powerful but intermittent. And gore and bore never yet went well together. The Making of the English Constitu- tion: M9-H85. By Albert Beebe White. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.00 net. This work illustrates the truth that to write an historical work that is neither chronological nor topical is dan- gerous, unless the author is able to or- ganize and interpret his period in such a way that the evolution of political ideas and institutions is made clear and definite. That Professor White does not possess such ability in marked degree must be apparent to any reader who at- tempts to follow his interpretation of the formative period of English consti- tutional history. Although interesting in parts as an exposition of the ideas of the late Prof. F. W. Maitland and of Prof. G. B. Adams, the result of Prof. White's labors can hardly be regarded as a successful textbook, and it adds nothing to our knowledge. The first part contains a brief survey of Anglo-Saxon institutions in which controverted questions are carefully avoided and loose generalizations, such as those on the shires, hundreds, and boroughs, are given prominence. The author does not seem well acquainted with the problems of the pre-conquest period, and, in fact, the whole treatment of Anglo-Saxon local government is un- necessarily vague and confusing. The account of the central organs of gov- ernment which follows is somewhat clearer, as is also the concluding chap- ter of Part i, dealing with the Anglo- Saxon Church. The author should know, however, that the old city of Lichfield in Staffordshire is not "Litchfield" (p. 65), whatever may be the Connecticut usage. In Part ii, the Norman Conquest and its immediate results are dealt with in a fairly satisfactory manner and the 'influence of Norman institutions on English government is well brought out, even if a little over-emphasized. This, on the whole, is the strongest part of Prof. White's treatise and shows care- ful study. In Part iii, the making of the judiciary, the executive, and the making of Parliament are discussed along general lines in the order named. While this arrangement may be both criticised and defended, the amount of space and attention devoted to a set of courts that are now obsolete and to the history of law seems excessive in a work on the making of the Constitu- tion. In fact, it can only De account- ed for by recognizing that the author is under the spell of Maitland. The treatment of the executive is compara- tively brief, but enough is said to in- dicate that regarding the Council the author adopts a theory that few stu- dents would endorse — namely of practi- cally absolute continuity between the Norman and early Plantagenet curia regis and the later Council. In the final chapters, considerably less space is al- lotted to the making of Parliament than to the judiciary, although the Parlia- mentary system is undoubtedly the most important part of English government. The development of the two houses is not definitely explained, and the ques- tion of borough representation is ob- scure. It is quite certain, for example, that in the early fourteenth century there were some boroughs that wished representation in order that they might claim to be royal towns, rather than mesne towns under the jurisdiction of some lord. Prefaced to the text is a well-selected and annotated bibliography of standard treatises and monographs. We note, however, the omission of a number of the older standard works that are still valuable and also of some recent con- tributions, such as Ballard's study of the Domesday boroughs and of the Great Inquest. Following the bibliog- raphy is a list of topical readings in connection with the text which will be of value to both teachers and students. It is to be regretted that the author did not include more bibliography and footnote references in the work itself, even at the cost of omitting some of the rather long verbatim extracts from well-known works. In spite of a few printer's errors, the typography and general appearance of the book are excellent. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An Interna- tional Work of Reference on the Con- stitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. Edit- ed by Charles G. Herbermann and others. Vol. IV: Cland-Diocesan. New York: Robert Appleton Co. The successive volumes of the great "Catholic Encyclopedia" appear with un- failing regularity and amply sustain the reputation of the work. The fourth vol- ume contains a number of important ar- ticles, more or less popular, which ex- hibit in general the same spirit of fair- ness that characterizes the earlier vol- umes. Only a few can be mentioned here. The long article on the Congo Free State, from the pen of a Belgian writer, presents the common Belgian point of view, but its defence of the government is commendably free from passion. The Concordat of 1801 gives occasion for a Catholic, but not unfair, review of the present ecclesiastical situation in France. Collectivism and Communism are discussed in a temperate and judi- cious way; and the subject of Coeduca- tion is handled with admirable good sense. The sacrament of Confirmation receives careful and discriminating treatment, and its history is given with conspicuous candor. Rather out of line with the scholarly character of the ar- ticle as a whole is the popular and un-

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Jan. 21, 1909J The USTation. 69 technical definition with which it opens: A sacrament in which the Holy Ghost is given to those already baptized in order to make them strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. The freedom from prejudice in the use of terms of Protestant origin, re- marked upon in the notice of an earlier volume, appears in the title Counter- Reformation, under which is given an account of the movement commonly known among Protestants by that name. It is written from the Catholic point of view, to be sure, but under the circumstances with remarkable fairness and moderation. The long article on the Crusades is scholarly and up to date, and in the articles on Biblical Criticism and on various Biblical books the crit- ical view is frankly given, though the authors themselves declare in most cases for the traditional position. This is particularly noticeable in connection with the Book of Daniel. In a long and instructive archaeological article on Cross and Crucifix, the Catholic attitude toward the use of images in worship is clearly stated and defended at some length. Deism is discussed in a fair enough spirit, but, unfortunately, the treatment proceeds wholly along tradi- tional lines and reveals no special in- sight or independent knowledge. As usual, there are a number of papal biographies. In this case all the Clem- ents come in for notice, including the apostolic father, Clement of Rome, who appears, in accordance with ancient tra- dition, long ago discredited by histori- cal scholarship, as the fourth Pope! The elaborate article on Councils con- tains a careful discussion of the rela- tion between conciliar and papal in- fallibility, which is summed up as fol- lows: Conciliar decrees approved by the Pope have a double guarantee of infallibility: their own and that of the infallible pope. ... It should, however, be borne in mind that the council without the Pope has no guarantee of infallibility, therefore the conciliar and the papal infallibilities are not two separate and addible units, but one unit with single or double excellence. The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vols. XV-XXIV, Karachi— ZIra. New edi- tion, published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council. New York: Henry Frowde. $2 net each. In 1869 the late Sir W. W. Hunter was directed by the Viceroy, Lord Mayo, to organize a comprehensive survey of the Indian Empire, a work which in- volved the compilation of local gazet- teers and their consolidation in a con- densed form. This immense task was accomplished in twelve years, during which he visited every corner of the peninsula. The results were published in 128 volumes, the condensation in nine volumes, the first edition of the "Im- perial Gazetteer." A second edition of fourteen volumes appeared in 1885-7, and now we have to chronicle the com- pletion of the third edition in twenty- four volumes. To the student of India and the life and thought of the people, it is absolutely invaluable; the informa- tion contained in it is far more exten- sive than in similar works on other countries. The general plan is well in- dicated by the article, filling 144 pages, on the United Provinces. The physical aspects are described first and, after a sketch of the history, there follow ac- counts of the people, their races, lan- guages, customs, agriculture, arts and manufactures, trade, famine, adminis- tration, finance, public works, army, edu- cation, and medical facts. A careful examination of these con- cluding volumes greatly strengthens the impression made by the earlier ones of their being a wonderful treasury of interesting and encouraging facts. The mental awakening of the Indian is man- ifest everywhere. The existence of pub- lic libraries is often noted. In one small native State, Kolhapur, there are fifteen, and eight local newspapers. In the Madras Presidency there are 125 newspapers and periodicals; while in 1904 there were 1,125 books published, of which only twenty-nine were transla- tions; a considerable number were na- tive poems, novels, and plays. In the city of Madras there is a Literary So- c'ety with a library of over 45,000 vol- umes, a Fine Art Society, an Agri-Hor- ticultural Society, a Musical Association, and an Amateur Dramatic Society. An- other illustration of the civilizing in- fluence of British rule is the fact that, while the population of the United Prov- inces is over four millions greater than in 1881, the police force is 5.000 less. The only error noticed is that the height of Mt. Godwin Austen, as given in the article on Kashmir, differs from that on the map to be found in each of the volumes, as well as the special map of Kashmir. It is difficult also to account for the omission of any refer- ence under the respective words to the Mustagh or Karakoram Range, and especially to the famous Karakoram Pass. The Privileged Glasses. By Barrett Wendell. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $1.25 net. Electing to ride in street-cars at the afternoon rush hours, Professor Wen- dell has found himself compelled, along with other passengers apparently edu- cated and solvent, to stand while cer- tain sturdy and begrimed representa- tives of labor, with dinner-pails beneath their widely-separated knees, calmly oc- cupied two sittings apiece. Instead of losing his temper — at least for publica- tion— Professor Wendell, as a philosoph- ical man of letters, fell to musing about the situation, pondering seriously, though with a saving touch of ironical humor, the strange transition by which the privileged class of the old regime, with its admitted right to space, and exemption, and support had given place in our day to the privileged class of wage-earners. What shocked him most was the fact that many of his friends, when consulted about the matter, ex- pressed no surprise, and even thought the new arrangement entirely natural and proper. The essay which resulted from these experiences and meditations, given first as an address before the Twentieth Century Club of Chicago in January last, had the fortune to be garbled by the press and somewhat sharply criticised; whereupon the au- thor wrote it out for the Boston Tran- script, and now gives it, very properly, the place of honor in his latest book. One cannot but wish that Professor Wendell would get on with fewer words and less involved and repetitious phras- ing; for the readers whom it would be most worth while for him to reach are, as a class, pretty busy. Questions of form aside, however, we are frankly of those who hold his criticism to be timely and, on the whole, much to the point. Professor Wendell is not, of course, the first to show how tyrannous is a majority once the majority has come to power, or how full of grave possibilities is a social order in which the wage-earner may successfully de- mand such startling privileges as a vest- ed right to work, immunity from dis- charge save for weighty cause, and sup- port in sickness and old age. It is rath- er the deft and cultured way in which he pricks the bubbles of our conceit and complacency that makes his writ- ing interesting. Persons of socialistic bent will not relish being told that the real American Revolution is not the war that separated us from Great Bri- tain, but the social change which has led large sections of society to view with equanimity socialistic schemes for the expropriation of private property, that so we may be rid of the embarrass- ments of great private fortunes; though this is, after all, only what the keenest students of social progress have been warning us of for years. College pro- fessors and officials, entangled in the meshes of curricula and administration, yet anxious for recognition and influ- ence, will very likely not thank a mere man of letters, as Professor Wendell is fond of calling himself, for telling them that college education to-day is chiefly notable for its ineffectiveness; yet the fact remains that the college is the least satisfactory part of our educational system, and has urgent need to justify itself. We commend "The Privileged Classes," therefore, as a use- ful and palatable antidote for national pride and self-satisfaction. To the

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70 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 weary and hungry it will not, indeed, suffice for a full meal, but its stimulat- ing phrases and flashes of social in- sight may at least afford the refresh- ment of afternoon tea. Science. The Coming Science. By Hereward Car- rington. Pp. 389. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. $1.50 net. In the growth of language, a word often gains connotations which cling to it even when it comes to be employed in a sense wholly unrelated to the orig- inal meaning. Of this process we have a notable example in the current use of the word "spirit" and its cognate terms. "Spirit" was originally employed to re- fer to a hypothetical entity inhabiting the body during life and leaving it at death. The derivation shows that it was identified with the breath of life, which for those who first used it thus must have seemed as far as possible removed from the hard, and ponderable, and measurable matter with which their daily activities mado them familiar. When we consider that, as matter is now defined, this very breath is mate- rial, we perceive that for us it would be the crassest materialism to identify what we mean by spirit with something merely gaseous; and we are too likely to assume, as some authorities have done, that those who first conceived of the distinction between matter and spir- it were thinking in what we know as materialistic terms. However that may be. it seems fairly clear that men who were led to make this distinction be- tween matter and spirit, must, on in- trospection, have found themselves mov- ed by diverse and often opposed im- pulses. Some of these impulses were due to the man's surroundings, and these, while powerful, were in the main ephemeral. Others must have been de- termined by no external influences, and hence must have appeared to arise in an indefinite way from within the man; and these were in the main less powerful than those of the first type, but were on the whole more persistent, less ephemeral. What wonder then that these latter came to be attributed to that elusive breath-like spirit which was already conceived of as maintaining a mysterious existence within the man's body, yet in a measure detached or de- tachable from it. Apart from their connection with the hypothetical spirit, these inner promptings came naturally to receive careful consideration; for they were found to guide to a more effective life, and to be thus of the most profound im- portance. On the one hand, their sig- nificance was from the earliest times bound up with religious aspirations and conceptions, and was proclaimed by priest and prophet. On the other hand, their analysis and correlation as prac- tical forces have given to us the science of ethics with all its philosophical and political implications. It is thus, prob- ably, that the word "spirit," which in the beginning referred to what seem to us quite materialistic conceptions, has come to have an ethical and even relig- ious connotation. We speak of our spir- itual life when we have in mind the realm of our higher ideals. The spir- itually minded man, as we use the phrase, is one who declines to limit his life by the considerations of opportun- ism, who aims to foster those of his in- ner impulses which have for him an essential nobility. Thus the word spirit and its cognate terms have gained fixed connotations of an ethical, but more es- pecially of a religious nature. This high- er meaning has become so firmly attach- ed to the word "spirit" and its deriva- tives that we find it difficult to use them without assuming that we are dealing with what is noble or even sa- cred; and thus it happens that when we turn to what should be a coldly in- tellectual inquiry as to the significance of the conception of a human spirit, when we ask what its nature is, and what its form of existence, we all feel that we are moving on an ideally high plane, even if we do not assume that we are actually treading upon holy ground. Only thus are we able to account for the attitude of the average man toward the hypotheses of the so-called "spir- itualists"; an attitude held even among those modern students who, wishing professedly to free themselves from all emotional entanglements, now ask to be called "spiritists." The world is nowa- days fairly flooded with books proclaim- ing this position. The writers, like our author, announce themselves as expo- nents of a "coming science," and en- deavor to confine themselves almost frigidly to the intellectual task of sift- ing scientific evidence. Nevertheless, the communications which are allowed to appear in such journals as the Pro- ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research indicate clearly much warmth of emotionalism in the wide body of those interested in the phenomena; and beyond this the same sense of the dig- nity of the research in question per- vades the writings of those more or less learned and logical authors who accept the position of judges as to the trust- worthiness and significance of the ex- periences above referred to. These ex- periences, we may add, are recorded by persons wholly given up to the view that they deal with something that is not only occult, but also sacred. This attitude is well represented by Mr. Carrington. His work Is highly commended in an introduction by Dr. J. H. Hyslop. formerly a professor of logic and ethics, who has written an excel- lent small logic, and has made certain really keen contributions to details of ethical theory; and Mr. Carrington in his preface pictures himself to us as a cool, intellectual student. When, how- ever, we turn to the substance of the book itself we find ourselves at once in a totally different mental atmosphere. In the very first chapter we are told (p. 2) that "the world has passed through various stages of evolution. First of all, there was the purely ani- mal state" in which "brute force was the ruling power": Then the era of mind began to dawn. (p. 3.) . . . Mind was first of all devoted, probably, to the furtherance of the desires of the individual organism; but later . . . pure abstract thinking became possible, and altruism . . . began to show itself through the darkness. . . . And with this higher (sic) knowledge began to de- velop that spiritual (sic) self and con- sciousness of which we are just beginning to catch the first signs. . . . This spir- itual side of man that is just becoming manifest may possess powers and poten- cies. ... as relatively great when com- pared to the purely mental world, as that was above the physical and animal world. This might pass without dissent as a gentle homiletic; but as the writer asks us to look upon him as a logical scien- tist, we must note the unwarranted and totally erroneous assumption that the "spiritual consciousness" is apart from mere mind; that it is anything other than that special impulsive part of men- tal experience that satisfies our ideals, which latter, be it noted, are also men- tal. Our author then reminds us (p. 5) "that there are few of us who do not admire, not to say envy, any man or woman in whom this spiritual side is highly developed"; there being "a spir- itual side latent in all of us, awaiting its development." He thus clearly at- taches religio-ethical attributes to his concept of the spiritual; and later goes still further in this direction (p. 14): Good health does not mean only . . . a healthy animal, but also a more highly educated and advanced, a more moral and spiritual individual, since the bodily health . . . does, without any doubt affect both the mental and moral nature of man. Having given these noble connotations to what he thus describes as the spirit- ual life, he at once turns to the ques- tion (p. 17) "whether we consider our- selves the resultant of mere physical forces, or as a spiritual essence or en- tity having persistence"; and then with- out more ado he lapses once for all into a discussion of the phenomena present- ed to us by the defenders of spiritism, and of the arguments against and in favor of the theories they advance. It is needless to say that so long as a man allows himself to study the sub- ject with the religious or ethical bias implied in such a mode of approach, he will almost certainly fail to discrim- inate the true from the false, and will

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Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation 71 be unable to advance our comprehension of the deeply significant problems relat- ing to the nature of human personality, and to the limits of its existence. Nat- urally, therefore, we discover in Mr. Carrington's work nothing new which is of special value, and small justifica- tion for proclaiming the birth of "the coming science." Beyond this proclam- ation the book does not differ in its main characteristics from many others of a type for which our publishers find a profitable market among the many men and women who look upon spiritis- tic inquiries as quasi-religious, and who, enjoying mysteries as such, delight in re-reading the records of the same al- leged facts, and the same theoretical ex- planations of them. For our author does not pretend to give more than "a very rapid survey of the field of psychic research, and of the chief theories that might be advanced by way of explana- tion of the facts"; nor does he attempt "to cite any large number of cases, or make any great showing of proof, for the reason that this field has been cov- ered in many volumes on this subject" (P. 389). When the American battleship fleet found cholera in Manila on its first stop in that port, and the sailors were consequently for- b'dden to land, and so to spend their money, the Manila merchants raged, and the press, wh'ch as advertisers they control, inaugu- rated a new campaign of criticism of the Health Bureau. This has elicited a valua- ble and interesting pamphlet of 131 pages, entitled "A History of Asiatic Cholera in the Philippine Islands," dated at Manila, November 5, 1908, and written by Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior, in the Philippine government, and therefore execu- tive superior of the Bureau of Health. He brings out many hitherto unnoted facts and figures regarding cholera under the Spanish regime, showing that it appeared at least as far back as 1819; that the mortality in the epidemics, and notably that beginning in 1882, was far higher than published figures go to show, and very much greater than under American rule; that officially the Spanish government endeavored to sup- press knowledge of it, and to combat it by methods of secrecy; and that it is more than a presumption that cholera has been endemic in the islands at least since 1882. Mr. Worcester then enters into very frank discussion of the present sanitary organ- ization of the islands, the harm done to public health by petty politics, by a press inspired by political motives, by lack of co- operation on the part of the municipal government of Manila, and by the incom- petency of Filipino district health officers. In short, for outspokenness, this document is unique among Philippine official docu- ments to date. Of the 202,172 cases and 134,102 deaths from cholera that had oc- curred in the Philippines since the Amer- ican occupation to the date of the fore- going document, only 248 cases and 124 deaths have been among Americans, "and this in spite of the fact that during much of this time there have been a large num- ber of American soldiers in the islands." Along the same line, as minimizing the terrors of the Philippine climate for whites, is a note in the Philippine Journal of Sci- ence (Section B, Medical Sciences, Vol. Ill, No. 4, pp. 349-352), which cites figures to show "the passing of abscess of the liver among Americans in the Philippines." It remarks on the terror inspired by amoebic dysentery up to 1903, and credits the researches of Oie Manila scientists with the removal of this terror, and the dis- covery of methods of prophylaxis whereby "nowadays few amcebic patients lose any time from their duties," and whereby "an intelligent person can learn in a few les- sons how to take the necessary colonic in- jections." In the same number is a paper on "Health Conditions in the Philippines," by W. S. Washburn, chairman of the Phil- ippine Civil Service Board, and himself a physician, which is also highly optimistic in tone. We have had frequent occasion to refer to Miss Gertrude Jekyll's sound knowledge of garden-craft. Her acquaintance with cultivated plants is wide, and her good taste in turning decorative plants to the best account is everywhere recognized. Therefore a book on gardens, written by her for children ("Children and Gardens," Charles Scribner's Sons), must receive a hearty welcome. The pretty volume before us is a strange medley of odds and ends, put together in rather a whimsical but at- tractive fashion, with a single end in view, namely, to interest very young children in garden-plants and their surroundings. It has a good deal of sound elementary bot- any, for the most part so completely sugar- coated as to make the disguise perfect. A child who should appropriate the botanical truths here presented in the most familiar form, would know far more about the structure and the work of vegetation than many amateur horticulturists. If Miss Je- kyll had not brought into the book quite so much about cats and cooking, one could recommend the pages to grown-up garden enthusiasts. But, as it is a volume for children, we will let it go at that, and say that adults who read it aloud to children will learn much themselves, especially if the interested listeners do their whole duty in asking questions. The very title of Otto Lipmann's new volume, viz: "Grundriss der Psychologie fiir Juristen" (Leipzig: Barth), indicates its modern character. It does not profess to cover the whole subject of psychology, but only some of its leading problems, where the science comes into practical con- tact with law and its applications. Brig. -Gen. William Price Craighill died at Charlestown, W. Va., January 18. He was born in the same town in 1833, gradu- ated at West Point, served through the civil war in the Union army, and then and later took part in many engineering enter- prises. During the days of the civil war he compiled the "Army Officer's Pocket Companion," which proved of much assist- ance in the volunteer army, and translated Jomini's "Precis de Part de la guerre," and Dufour's "Cours de tactique," the late Col. Mendell assisting in the latter trans lafion. In 1894 he was chosen president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. News comes from India of the death of Major Percy B. Molesworth, at the age of forty-one. He was stationed at Trinkomali, Ceylon, where he made a number of valua- ble observations of Jupiter and the other planets. Drama. "The Barber of New Orleans," the new romantic American play by Edward Childs Carpenter, which William Paversham has just produced in Daly's Theatre, is evi- dently the work of a beginner, but in some respects it contains more of promise than many recent pieces of superior literary quality and more skilful construction. It shows, for instance, originality and dis- cernment in the choice of a subject, imagi- nation in the invention of details, an ap- preciation of local color, and an instinctive sense of effective theatrical situation. Moreover, it is really an American play. On the other hand, it is dilatory in action, confused in plot — owing to the employment of two distinct motives — amateurish in ar- bitrary use of coincidence, and entirely conventional in its development. In se- lecting 1804 for the date of his play, the author has broken comparatively fresh dra- matic ground; and, manifestly, the notion of a Spanish plot against the newly estab- lished authority of the United States, to be foiled by a patriotic American, is rich in theatrical possibilities, of which ample indications are offered in the opening scenes; but political and national interests are unwisely subordinated to the transpar- ent problem of the heroine's color and the creation of passionate entanglements which create no suspense or illusion, because their solution is perfectly obvious. Such incidents as the improvised sale of the lady (without documents or proof of any kind), her purchase by the hero by means of a convenient lottery prize, and her ultimate identification are not only patent and futile theatrical tricks, but, by diverting the course of the play from its original chan- nel, affect it disastrously in more ways than one. If Mr. Carpenter had not im- posed his ancient and clumsily handled Octoroon motive upon the conspiracy, he might have produced a much more valuable play. But, even as it stands, the piece possesses many qualities which rarely fail to please the general public, and, as it is beautifully mounted and fairly well acted —though with but little of the true ro- mantic glow— by Mr. Faversham, Miss Julie Opp, and their associates, it is likely to prosper. On the whole, the production is creditable, though a long way below the level of "The World and His Wife." It would not be a very difficult matter to ridicule "The Vampire"— the joint com- position of Edgar Allan Woolf and George Sylvester Viereck, produced in the Hackett Theatre on Monday— and laugh it out of court, as pretentious and futile rubbish, but, for all its absurdity, it shows dramatic imagination as well as literary ability. Assuming to be scientific and intellectual drama, it is conspicuously lacking in scien- tific knowledge and common sense. All the phenomena of telepathy, mesmerism, clair- voyance, Egyptian occultism, and mediawal necromancy are controlled by this modern vampire, who feeds his own imagination by robbing other brains of their ideas. A great literary genius himself, he cultivates the friendship of the finest minds only to prey

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72 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273, upon and destroy them, and then, having appropriated their riches, throw them aside like squeezed oranges. There is the germ of a dramatic idea in this, but Messrs. Woolf and Viereck have sterilized it oy subjecting it to preposterous melodramatic treatment and involving it in obvious ab- surdities which make their pseudo-science altogether childish. Parts of the story are well, even eloquently, told, and some of the scenes have a certain theatrical effective- ness, but the piece will seem dull to the ordinary playgoer, while the more thought- ful will find it pretentious and shallow. "The Easiest Way," the latest play of Eugene Walter, which was produced in the Stuyvesant Theatre on Tuesday evening, needs only a few lines by way of record. Under pretence of enforcing a moral, which is too trite to be of any particular value, it makes a bid for popularity by dealing in bluntly realistic fashion — unrelieved by any touch of literary fancy or dramatic invention — with those coarser phases of city life which have a special attraction for the vulgar, but in thoughtful and decent minds can awaken only sentiments of pity and disgust. Briefly, it is a study of suc- cessive steps in the degradation of a fall- en woman, with incidental glimpses at some of the darker features of the lower the- atrical life. It is not unveracious in de- tail. On the contrary, regarded as a bit of reporting, it is not badly done. But it is cheap, common, unwholesome stuff, of no artistic, dramatic, or didactic value, which will not add to the reputation of the playwright or reflect any credit upon the management of Mr. Belasco, even if, as a bit of raw sensationalism, it should prove profitable as a commercial specula- tion. It is a play that would have been impossible in a respectable theatre before the demoralization of the public taste by a shameless press. John Luther Long's new play, "Kassa," will be presented in the Liberty Theatre Saturday evening, with Mrs. Leslie Carter as the heroine. From the advance notices the piece appears to be a romance full of lurid passion and sensational incident. Yet another independent dramatic so- ciety has been organized in London, the Fortune Playhouse Society, which has be- gun work with a presentation of the Ches- ter mystery plays. "Pippa Passes," "Comus," and "As You Like It" are next to be undertaken. Rudolf Besier has written a play of mod- ern life which is soon to be produced at the London Vaudeville Theatre, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as the heroine and Lynn Harding in the chief male part. It is called "Olive Latimer's Husband." The originality of the play consists partly in the fact that the husband, who is its main- spring, so to speak, is only heard of, never seen. Levin Ludwig Schiicking, editor of the letters of Levin Schiicking and Annette von Droste-Hiilshof, has written "Shake- speare im literarischen TJrteil seiner Zeit" (Heidelberg: Carl Winter). Friedrich Gundolf has evidently stepped on dangerous ground in undertaking to fur- nish a new German translation of Shake- speare, "Shakespeare in deutscher Sprache," intended to be an improvement even upon Schlegel. The first volume con- tains "Coriolanus," "Julius Cassar," and "Antony and Cleopatra" (Berlin: Bondi). The author draws freely upon the versions of his predecessors; his chief changes con- sist in making the rendering more literal and more modern. John E. Ince, the veteran comedian, who had appeared with Edwin Booth, Barrett, McCuIlough, Adelaide Neilson, Clara Mor- ris, and Mrs. John Drew, died January 18 at Sheepshead Bay. He was born sixty- eight years ago at Wigan, England. He had taken parts in the important plays by Shakespeare and in "The School for Scan- dal," "Wild Oats," "London Assurance," "Michael Strogoff," "Trial by Jury," and such comic operas as "Pinafore," "Pirates of Penzance," and "Mikado." Recently he appeared as Major Swan in "Pudd'nhead Wilson," and his last appearance was in 1907 in "The Unexpected Happened." For the last ten years he had conducted a dra- matic school in this city. Ernst von Wildenbruch, the best known of Germany's elder dramatists and a poet of high national reputation, died in Berlin January 15. He was born at Beirut, in Syria, where his father was Prussian con- sul, studied in the University of Berlin, and after a brief military career took up the profession of law. He fought in the war of 1866 against Austria and in the campaigns of 1870-71 in France. Fruit of his war experience were the Heldenlicder "Vionville" (1874) and "Sedan" (1875). After experimentation with foreign historical drama, "Die Karolinger," "Christoph Mar- low," "Der Mennonit," he began with "Die Quitzows" (1888), a series of plays drawn from Prussian and German history, on which his popularity is mainly based. Among these are "Der Generalfeldoberst" (1889), "Der neue Herr" (1891), "Der Junge von Hennersdorf" (1896), "Heinrich und Heinrichs Geschlecht" (1896), and "Die Tochter des Erasmus" (1900). From his prolific pen have also come several vol- umes of fiction (the last, "Semiramis," 1904), lyrics, and humor. That swelling patriotism which Germans admire in their kulturgeachichtliche imaginative literature, and a mastery of stage technique, are his most striking qualities. From Berlin the death is announced of Georg Kruse in his seventy-ninth year. He was for many years director of the Berlin National Theatre, and was the author of "Sie Weint," "Sie ist Stumm," "Kriegsge- fangen," and "Roland von Berlin." Music. The Evolution of Modern Orchestration. By Louis Adolphe Coerne. New York: The Macmillan Co. $3 net. Instrumentation. By Ebenezer Prout. Boston: Oliver Ditson Co. 75 cents. Orchestration is the youngest branch of music, being not much over a cen- tury old, in the modern sense of the term; but so fascinating is it to the public and so easily is a working knowl- edge of it acquired, compared with a mastery of the other branches of music, that most modern composers, in the words of Tchaikovsky, "strive to atone for their extraordinary poverty of in- vention by exaggerated coloring." His- tory shows that in all arts a decay of creativeness is likely to coincide with a craze for technical skill and complexity, such as we find in the works of Rich- ard Strauss, Max Reger, and their imi- tators. This craze manifests itself in the coloring as well as in the structure of the music, and it has degenerated into a sport — a race to see who can be the most extravagant and sensational. While deploring this latest phase of composition, one cannot but feel that music owes to the newly acquired art of coloring much of its increased pop- ularity, its power over the masses, its effectiveness in depicting moods and in- tensifying dramatic emotions. Each original composer has, moreover, his own method of orchestrating; as Pro- fessor Prout remarks: It would be no more possible to an ex- perienced musician to mistake a score of Mozart for one of Wagner than it would for an art connoisseur to mistake a paint- ing by Titian for one by J. W. M. Turner. Strange to say, Dr. Coerne is the first musical scholar who has undertaken to explain these differences by writing a comprehensive history of orchestration. Lavoix's "Histoire de 1'instrumentation" is a comprehensive work, but it ap- peared before "Parsifal" had been pro- duced, and before some of the best col- orists of the nineteenth century — Saint- Saens, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Grieg — had won their full meed of recognition. The nineteenth century therefore seemed to Dr. Coerne a fertile field for research, and to this, after giving a bird's-eye- view of what had been done by preced- ing generations, he devotes most of his space. An appendix of ninety pages in- cludes illustrative extracts from the works of the thirteen composers who, in the author's opinion, have done most to advance the art of instrumental col- oring— Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Berlioz, Men- delssohn, Wagner, Samt-Saens, Tchai- kovsky, Dvorak, Richard Strauss. Like most writers on this subject, Dr. Coerne overrates Berlioz as an innova- tor and fails to do full justice to Weber and Schubert. Berlioz is responsible for the modern tendency to make ex- travagant orchestral demands, and he invented many ingenious combinations of instruments; but it is not true that he "discovered the richness of pianis- simo brass effects"; Schubert did that before Berlioz, as, for instance, in the "Fierrabras" overture, written in 1823, when Berlioz was only twenty years old. Berlioz could not have known Schubert's orchestral works; but he did know and worship the operas of Weber, and from those he learned many of the things for which he has received credit. It was Weber who inaugurated the or- chestral use of characteristic sounds, as

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JS Jan. 21, 1909] The ISTation 73 distinguished from beautiful sounds (though the germs of such a procedure may be traced back to Mehul and Gluck), and Weber also made a subtle dramatic use of leading motives long before Berlioz, who usually is lauded as the originator of this device. Dr. Coerne gives an eloquent account of Wagner's orchestral glories and the novel means by which they are obtain- ed. He points out the shortcomings of Brahms as a colorist, and, on the other hand, he notes that Grieg's orchestra- tion is "tender, fervent, weird, brilliant, stormy, popular, effective." To Richard Strauss, as representing the latest phase in orchestration, much space is devoted in which the author ingeniously defends this composer against the charge that he forces the instruments into unnatural registers, making the piccolos play trombone parts, as one lampoonist has maintained, and vice- versa. In the Strauss music each vio- linist finds before him difficulties such as formerly only the solo violin was ex- pected to cope with. To the wood-wind are assigned passages that Wagner would have hesitated to write. The players may grumble, but did they not also grumble at Schubert and Mendels- sohn for writing passages that now seem child's play? America is not forgotten in this vol- ume; indeed, Dr. Coerne accords it more honor than it deserves. In addition to Paine, Buck, Foote, Chadwick, Mac- Dowell, and Parker, who have been so fortunate as to have had opportunity to show what they can do, "many anoth- er American could be pointed to who, even now, is worthy of being classed in the first rank and who would un- doubtedly rise to epoch-making great- ness were the opportunity but granted him." We doubt this; our country has produced some good orchestral writers, but none of them has done anything distinctively national or individual in the line of instrumental coloring. Perhaps it is fortunate that orches- tral din and complexity have reached such a climax in Strauss and his imi- tators, for a reaction is in sight, which will restore color to its normal place as a means and not an end in itself. For this reason one must welcome the issue of a new edition of Professor Prout's primer on instrumentation. It was written while Brahms, Raff, and Wagner were still living, but is particu- larly timely now, because students can learn from its pages how the older mas- ters were able to obtain with smaller orchestras effects as ravishing, and al- most as varied, as those of our day. Young composers, in particular, will do well to heed his hint that they should not write too difficult passages. Such passages, if by Brahms or Wagner, the players will take the trouble to learn; not so, if they are by Smith or Jones. There has just been published at Paris the frank, natural, intimate "Lettres de Georges Bizet" (Calmann-Levy), with all their touching details of life in the French school at Rome (1857 to 1860), and then during the tragic Commune of 1871. Bizet is known to the world at large by the mu- sic of his "Carmen"; it has been the pleasure of many besides Nietzsche, who will be glad to make acquaintance with the man. The revival of Mozart's "Marriage o£ Figaro" at the Metropolitan Opera House has proved one of the surprises of the sea- son. This opera has never been really popular here; the recitatives usually drag- ged, the arias seemed too numerous, and the action was often unintelligible. Thanks to Gustav Mahler, the Mozart specialist, all this has been changed. He omitted some of the arias, lashed the singers in the recitatives, and brought about, an act- ing ensemble that allowed none of the sig- nificant details of the plot to escape the attention of the audience. He was aided* by a cast that could not be duplicated any- where— Mme. Sembrich as Susanna, Mme. Eames as the countess. Miss Farrar as Cherubino, and Mr. Scotti as the count, who, together, completely demolished the legend that present-day artists cannot sing Mozart's music. "Die Meistersinger" will be sung on Fri- day evening at the Metropolitan Opera House. On this occasion Carl Jorn of the Royal Opera House in Berlin will make his first appearance here as Walther von Stolzing, and Emmy Destinn will be heard for the first time as Eva. Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra will give another Beethoven cycle at Carnegie Hall, at which will be performed the great master's nine symphonies grouped with other im- portant works in chronological order. The dates are February 4, 11, 18, 25, March i. 11. The second series of regular subscription concerts of the New York Symphony So- ciety will include a Tchaikovsky cycle, con- sisting of five concerts, February 21 and 28, March 7, 14, and 21. Louis fitienne Ernest Rey, who, under the name of Ernest Reyer became one of the most famous of modern French op- era composers, died January 5 in Toulon. He was born at Marseilles in 1823. Though he took music lessons as a child, he had no thought of a musical career. At sixteen, he went to Algiers as a government official, but continued to play the piano, and soon discovered that he could compose songs which the public liked. In 1848, he went to Paris and continued his musical education. Among his friends was Theophile Gautier, who provided him with the texts for sev- eral works, including the ballet "Sacoun- tala." His first opera, "Maitre Wolfram," was staged in 1854. Others followed, but his first great success was "Sigurd" (1884). His last grand opera, "Salammibo," was produced in 1892, and soon became popular. Reyer was also one of the leading French writers on musical topics. He followed Berlioz as critic of the Journal des DUbats, and in 1875 issued a volume entitled "Notes de musique." For a time he was librarian of the Grand Opera. Art. THE ROYAL ACADEMY'S NEW DE- PARTURE. London, January 2. A new departure by the Royal Acad- emy is an event to be chronicled. For some years past now, Acad- emicians have questioned the possibility or advisability of continuing the Win- ter Exhibition of Old Masters. For one thing, the supply of old masters in England is not inexhaustible. One year, there was a show of Leightons; anoth- er, a show of Watts. This winter, the problem has been solved by devoting the Winter Exhibition entirely to the collection of modern work, mostly British, made by the late George Mc- Cullough. It is really little more than another version of the Summer Exhibi- tion, the pictures better hung, but no better in themselves, representative of nothing in particular, except the taste of one collector. Mr. McCullough was a rich Scotch-Australian, who began to col- lect, towards the end of the eighties, just at the waning of that happy period for the British artist when the Acad- emician could not paint his pictures fast enough for his patrons, when he built palaces in Kensington and St. John's Wood. With the nineties, there was a marked change. The influence of outsiders, of Whistler above all, began to be felt, and there were disastrous sales of the great collections made by City men during the Academy's "boom." Millionaires decided that it was safer to buy old masters. Everybody knows upon what pitiful days, financially, Brit- ish art has been steadily falling. But, through all the evil times, McCullough was one of the few who remained faith- ful and kept on conscientiously buying the pictures of the year at Burlington House. Certainly, honesty compels one to confess that one's taste in these mat- ters differs radically from Mr. McCul- lough's. The whole exhibition seemed like some monstrous ghost of the last twenty years of press views at the Academy. Here are the old favorites in the old centres: Leighton, with his models twisted into those impossible poses of The Garden of Hesperides, and arranged in that lifeless procession of The Daphnephoria, which his admirers of old always praised as so learned; Tadema, with the painstaking archae- ological elaboration of The Sculpture Gallery; Millais, with his Lingering Autumn, fatally facile and faithful to nature. And here were the old Academ- ical favorites, Cooper, Goodall; here the old Academical anecdote in a Mar- cus Stone or an Andrew Gow; the old Academical landscape in a MacWhirter or a David Murray; here, the reminder

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74= The ^STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 of the ascendancy of the Venetian sub- ject, when De Blaas and Van Haanen, Luke Fildes and Henry Woods, were its prophets; here the realistic nights of the Newlyn School, and the "painted photographs," as the severe called them — the whole a record of dead fashions. My impression was only strengthened when, among this array of pictures of the year, I found here and there paint- ings of great distinction or genuine in- terest. Of these, the most striking are two Whistlers, beautiful Whistlers that would be striking anywhere — the early portrait of himself in a white painting coat, holding his brushes, and the upright Valparaiso, Blue and Gold. The d'gnity of the portrait, with the subtle modelling, the animation, the character of the face, the har- mony of the quiet color scheme, asserts itself in the midst of Academical ban- alities; and not even the strident hues of the Academical masterpiece can rob night of its beauty and mystery in the Valparaiso, with the boats drifting out of the blue shadows, the ships standing like vague phantoms against the dusky hills, and the pale lights trailing their gold through the misty waters. You cannot look at this nocturne again without again wondering at the paint- er's power to work anew on his can- vas the miracle of night. Fortunately, there are other pictures in the collec- tion to keep the Whistlers in counte- nance. In the same room with them hangs Master Baby, that large portrait group of mother and child, which is one of the best pictures ever painted by Sir W. Q. Orchardson. Another of the ex- ceptions is a fine landscape, Marsh- lands, golden with sunlight, decorative in arrangement, by Cecil Lawson, who lived too short a time to carry to its full accomplishment the promise he gave. There are two interesting exam- ples of William McTaggart, a Scotch ar- tist, who is only beginning to be known outside of his own country, but to whom members of the Glasgow School look up as one of the chief influences' in their development. His seas and coasts are full of light and air, and though he may not succeed, sometimes, in keeping his figures enveloped in the atmosphere — an example is Love's Whispers, now exhibited — it seems to be the excess of his interest in them that has forced them out of the picture. McCullough also patronized some of the younger Academicians, who prefer the study of nature to the repetition of old formu- las, men like Clausen, Edward Stott, La Thangue, whose pictures I have al- ready discussed in my recent notices of the Academy. There are also several Sargents, though none of his most dis- tinguished; two typical canvases by J. J. Shannon; two of Edwin A. Abbey's large decorative historical arrange- ments; and one Watts, the F&ta Morgana, which represents him but indifferently. There is an early Mil- lais, Sir Isumbras at the Ford, the Pre- Raphaelite influence still strong in it. McCullough could sometimes stray from the Academical fold. He bought Burne- Jones: Love Among the Ruins, and the more anaemic Sleeping Princess and Psyche's Wedding. He bought land- scapes by Mark Fisher and occasional paintings of the Glasgow School. And the collection is brought down to to- day with a small picture by Orpen, and a drawing by Rackham. In the choice of foreign work, the collector's preference likewise ran to the Academic. Dagnan-Bouveret, who painted portraits of both Mr. and Mrs. McCullough, and Bouguereau are prom- inent. But here, too, there are excep- tions. The present generation may not accept Bastien-Lepage as the genius he seemed to his contemporaries, but only by a long stretch of imagination could he be called Academic, while there is no denying that his work seemed revo- lutionary at the time, and that his in- fluence was widespread. The more mod- ern ideals of realism are very differ- ent, but in The Potato Gatherers, Pauvre Fauvette, and Pas Meche, there is a sincerity in the very brutality with which nature is copied, that gives a certain dignity. It is a surprise to come upon one or two Dutch pictures, like the fairly good Dutch Landscape by James Maris, and the exquisite little At the Well, by Matthew Maris, as full of detail as a Pre-Raphaelite canvas, painted with a delicacy and refinement no Pre-Raphaelite ever rivalled, even approached. With one fine Harpignies, and two or three Thaulows, the list of good work from abroad is fairly com- plete. The collection includes sculpture, and it is almost as great a surprise to find Rodin among the sculptors as Whistler among the painters. His Kiss, in mar- ble, is set in the centre of the hall. The large bronze of the Orpheus and several others by John M. Swan reappear from Academies so recent that I need only mention their presence, and there are two small statuettes of St. George and Comedy and Tragedy, by Alfred Gilbert. Popular Academicians are hardly a welcome exchange for Rembrandt and Velasquez, Holbein and Franz Hals, Reynolds and Gainsborough. It is to be hoped, therefore, that this year's new departure will not establish a prec- edent. N. N. Count Domenico Gnoli, librarian of the National Library at Rome, and one of the chief authorities on the actual monuments of the Holy City, has compiled under the title "Have Roma" (Rome: Walter Modes) a compendium of its arts and buildings. He takes up each topic chronologically, and illustrates it by views from the earliest to the latest examples. Thus, in the section "Churches," he begins with the Basilica, and comes down to the Torlonia Chapel in St. John Lateran. His narrative enables us to follow with unusual clearness the evolution of architectural styles, of designs, and of special parts. The same is true of the chapters devoted respectively to se- pulchral monuments, to piazzas and foun- tains, and to gardens and villas. In a brief epilogue, Count Gnoli mentions the changes and constructions since 1870. Not least interesting are three reproductions of plans of the city in 1490, 1600, and 1870. The hundreds of half-tones admirably illus- trate the text, and the book, octavo in size, is easily carried. The author has penetrat- ing ideas not less than a firm grasp of facts. As a sample, we quote this preg- nant sentence : The law which forbade burial in churches has almost broken asunder the bonds be- tween the church and life, and has quench- ed the pious affections for which it was the sanctuary of the family and of the com- munity, isolating it in the cold solemnity of worship. Albrecht Diirer has recently been made the theme of two interesting publications, both of which regard him as a man rather than as an artist. One, by E. Heid- rich, is entitled "Albrecht Durer's schrift- licher Nachlass, Familienchronik, Gedenk- buch, Tagebuch der niederlandischen Rei- sen, Briefe, Reime, etc." An introduction is furnished by H. W. Wolfflin (Berlin: J. Bard). The other is a smaller work, by M. Zucker, "Albrecht Diirer in seinen Brief en" (Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teub- ner). This work, which is illustrated, con- stitutes the second volume of the series Deutsche Charakterkopfe. A recent discovery made by the Italian excavators at Phastos, in Crete, is of pe- culiar interest. At the northeastern corner of the site were found a number of tab- lets, consisting of round discs about six inches in diameter, covered on both sides with symbols which are not drawn or en- graved after the usual style, but each printed from a special type. We have thus an example of typography going back about 4,000 years ago — fresh evidence of the ex- traordinary inventiveness of the early Cretans. The signs used on these tablets are heads, human forms, figures of animals, birds and fish, trees and plants, as well as pictures of utensils. They are arranged between lines drawn in the form of spirals from the centre to the periphery of the discs. Fresh discoveries have been made at Prinia, a Greek site near Gortyna, in Crete. The excavators explored the remains of the archaic Greek temple, previously dis- covered. Remains of a second temple were brought to light, differing from the first in having a back chamber, or opisthodomos, evidently used as a storehouse, as in it were found large storing vessels decorated with reliefs. Below the hill to the south- west appears to have been a cemetery. Here was unearthed a stele with a relief of the figure of a woman working the distaff. Further discoveries on this site are expected. The National Academy of Design will hold its spring exhibition in the galleries of the Fine Arts Society in this city from March 13, to April 17. The jury of selection consists of J. W. Alexander, Hugo Ballin, William Verplanck Birney,

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Jan. 21, 1909] The Nation 75 Carlton T. Chapman, Walter Clark, B. West Clinedinst, E. Irving Couse, Elliott Dain- gerfleld, Louis Paul Dessar, Paul Dougher- ty, Frank Vincent Dumond, C. Warren Eaton, Ben Foster, Albert L. Groll, Wil- liam H. Howe, Francis C. Jones, William Sergeant Kendall, J. Francis Murphy, Leonard Ochtman, Walter L. Palmer, Ed- ward W. Redfield, William Thorne, R. W. Van Boskerck, Douglas Volk, H. W. Wat- rous, J. Alden Weir, and William J. Whit- temore. Samuel Isham, Frederick W. Kost, and Herbert Adams will form the hanging committee. An international exhibition of pictorial photography will be- held at the National Arts Club, beginning February 2. This will be the most comprehensive and representa- tive exhibition of the kind ever held in this country, comprising work by the lead- ing pictorial photographers, both at home and abroad. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' gal- leries in this city are sculptures by Henry Clews, jr., at Knoedler's, till January 23; works by D'Espagnat and Zandomeneghi, Durand-Ruel's, January 30; paintings, J. H. Jurres, Kraushaar's, January 30; por- traits and other works by Howard Gardiner Cushing, Montross's, January 30 ; water- colors, Henry Plymton Spaulding, Klack- ner's January 31; early Spanish art, Ehrich's, February 1. In place of Achille Jacquet, deceased, the French Academie des Beaux-Arts, has elected the engraver Charles-Albert Walt- ner, a native of Paris, who won the Prix de Rome in 1868. He is best known for his renderings of Rembrandt, and also of Gainsborough, Lawrence, and Hoppner. Finance. A YEAR OF REFORMED BANKING. Many evils and abuses which the pan- ic of 1907 brought into strong light have been left untouched by the re- forms which that episode indicated as desirable or perhaps necessary. The in- elastic currency has not been remod- elled; few people take seriously the so-called emergency device enacted by Congress last spring. Nothing has been done to safeguard national banks against the results of an excessive "re- deposit" of their own reserves in banks of a distant city — perhaps the chief cause of the general blockade of de- positors" funds which occurs in every great American panic. But in one direc- tion there has been quick and thorough reform, which will probably prevent re- currence of the worst phase of the New York panic of fifteen months ago. Look- ing back at the years of misgiving over the restrictions upon trust companies, and over the exploits in "chain bank- ing" by unscrupulous promoters, and recalling the attitude of helplessness in the face of the recognized danger, which was taken by the most experienced financiers, one finds it difficult to realize that in the twelve past months the laws governing these institutions have been so completely reconstructed as to make them a model for both State and na- tional legislation. If, under the strain of 1907, New York showed points of weakness, such as were exhibited by no other financial market, at all events it is New York which has promptly tak- en the lead in salutaiy reform. The credit for this achievement be- longs largely to the patient and persis- tent labors of the Superintendent of Banking, Clark Williams, who came into office on the very eve of the crisis of 1907. In his report of a year ago, Mr. Williams reviewed the catastrophe and set forth his proposals of reform. In his second annual report, submitted to the Legislature last week, he reviews the achievements of the after-panic year. After referring to the excellent work of the bankers' commission nam- ed by Gov. Hughes, Superintendent Wil- liams says: Twenty bills which were drawn in the de- partment and introduced as committee measures, became law. Not less than one hundred and fifty measures affecting bank- ing institutions were scrutinized by the su- perintendent or his deputies. To the credit of our legislative system it may be noted that of this vast volume of proposed stat- utes, no measure which might appropriately be termed "panic legislation" received the approval of the banking committees. The important changes summarized by Mr. Williams apply a conservative cash reserve requirement to the trust com- panies; prohibit the ownership by one banking institution of more than 10 per cent, of the stock of another; restrict the opportunities of the "dummy direc- tor" by stipulating ownership of at least ten shares as a qualification for the po- sition of director; require, as a prelim- inary to the opening of branches by trust companies and the organization of new banks, the formal assent of the banking superintendent; reduce the maximum loan to be made to a single borrower from 40 per cent, of the lend- ing institution's capital and surplus to 25 per cent.; regulate with great pre- cision the "syndicate loan"; empower a savings bank, with the department's con- sent, to raise money in an emergency through pledge of its securities; and place in the hands of the Banking De- partment, instead of in the hands of private individuals with a "pull," the duties of liquidation and receivership of insolvent concerns. This mere enumeration gives a fair notion of the extent to which the evils exposed in the stress of panic have been remedied. To take only two instances: The receivership of the Home Bank of Brooklyn, the first under the auspices of the Banking Department, was complet- ed in forty-two days, with counsel and receivers' fees of $666, whereas the Knickerbocker Trust receivership, under the old law, lasted five months and in- volved fees of $80,000; and that of eight other insolvent banks and trust com- panies in Greater New York lasted on the average six months, with fees rang- ing from a minimum of $20,500 to a maximum of $67,000. Moreover, the prompt return of patronage and pros- perity to the trust companies which were subjected to so severe a trial in 1907 has been in great part a result of public knowledge that the old order had passed away, that conservative safe- guards had been devised, and that the State was really protecting the deposi- tor's interests. With so comprehensive a programme already enacted, the Superintendent nat- urally has only a few specific recommen- dations to make, but they are important. First, he urges, as he did last year, that each kind of financial institution be kept within its own proper field. He notes such encroachments as the oper- ation of interest or "savings bank" de- partments by commercial banks and de- partment stores, and especially the pay- ment of high interest on small depos- its, with a view to drawing patronage away from the savings banks. The second suggestion, addressed particular- ly to the banking institutions them- selves more than to the Legislature, is that New York city trust companies and "non-member" State banks be formally admitted into the Clearing House. This is sound policy; and if, for reasons of tradition or from desire to retain un- changed the present machinery of clear- ing-house supervision, the existing Clearing-House Association is unwilling to admit the trust companies on an equal footing, then the trust companies ought to organize a clearing house for themselves. Mr. Williams justly re- marks: Had such an association of trust com- panies existed last year, whether or not within the present Clearing House, the ac- tion finally taken by the then newly or- ganized trust companies' committee would have lessened to a great extent the general financial distress. Taken in connection with the events of the past twelve months, the gratify- ing record of the Banking Department abundantly warrants the Superinten- dent's closing words: The panic, the suspension, the resump- tions, the general house-cleaning, the rem- edial legislation, the material increase in reserves, the increasing appreciation of trusteeship, the growing conservatism, and the complete return of public confidence — these factors, together with the reorgan- ization of the department, have contributed to place the general banking system of the State of New York upon a basis of which your honorable body may be justly nroud. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Ayres, Steven B. Bridge. Brentano's. Beech, Mervyn, W. H. The Tidong Dia- lects of Borneo. Henry Frowde. $1.75. Belabre, Baron de. Rhodes of the Knights. Henry Frowde. $9.75. Benson, Arthur Christopher. Poems. John Lane. $1.50 net.

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76 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2273 Boehm, Theobald. The Flute and Flute - Playing. Cleveland: D. C. Miller. Bond, Francis. Fonts and Font Covers. Henry Frowde. Buchanan, James. Works. Edited by John Bassett Moore. Vol. VI. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Bureau of American Ethnology. Twenty- sixth Annual Report. 1904-1905. Washing- ton: Government Printing Office. Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. Translated by T. Rice Holmes. Macmil- lan. $1.40 net. Cambridge Modern History. Vol. XI. The Growth of Nationalities. Macmillan. $4 net. Carter, B. Frank. French Word-Lists. Henry Holt. 25 cts. Chamberlain, Arthur Henry. Standards in Education: Including Industrial Training. American Book Co. $1. Coleman, S. E. New Laboratory Manual of Physics. American Book Co. 60 cents. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Vol. XVIII. Published by the Society. Compayre, Gabriel. Yoan Gall, Le Pupille de la Marine. Edited by O. B. Super. Henry Holt. 35 cts. Coptic (Sahidic) Version of Certain Books of the Old Testament. From a Papyrus in the British Museum. Edited by Herbert Thompson. Henry Frowde. Cummings, Horace H. Nature Study by Grades : Teachers' Book for Primary Grades. American Book Co. $1. Dickinson, Thomas H., and Roe, Frederick W. Nineteenth Century English Prose : Critical Essays. American Book Co. $1. Dodd, Walter Fairleigh. Modern Constitu- tions. 2 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. $5.42. D'Ooge, Martin L. The Acropolis of Athens. Macmillan. $4 net. Driesch, Hans. The Science and Philosophy of the Organism. Vol. II. Macmillan $3 net. Ewing, Juliana Horatia. A Flat Iron for a Farthing, or Some Passages in the Life of an Only Son. Macmillan. $1 net. Forman, S. E. Essentials in Civil Govern- ment. American Book Co. 60 cents. Foster's Complete Hoyle: An Encyclopedia of Games. Frederick A. Stokes Co. $2.50 net. Ganong, William F. A Laboratory Course in Plant Physiology. Henry Holt. $1.75. 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"Whether the reader be layman, or a college student, or a biologist whose life-work is Hear- ing completion, this summary of achievements will be an inspiration. A well-chosen reading- list, an excellent index." — The Nation. C. W. Colby's CANADIAN TYPES OF THE OLD REGIME. 8vo. 18 illus. $2.75 net. "Gives much that is new. In the field of Canadian history it is the most readable book that has appeared for many a day." — W. B. Munro in American Historical Review. R. S. Holland's THE BUILDERS OF UNITED ITALY Large 12mo. With portraits. $2.00 net. Historical biographies of Alfieri, Manzoni, Gio- berti, Manin, Mazzini, Cavour, Guribaldi, and Victor Emmanuel. 'Popular, bnt not flimsy." — The Nation. DETAILS ON REQUEST. SHENRY HOLT & CO,, %SZik Keio Edition Now Ready. The Florentine Painters ot the Renaissance With an essay on their genius and a full list of their works in British and Continental Galleries. Third Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Grown 8vo. $1.50 net. "A highly competent student of Italian art: a nractitioner of the most modern methods of investigation." — London Times. "This little book is written by a man who knows his subject well and who is thorough- ly in sympathy with the spirit of the Renaissance. ' ' — Standard. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, N and LONDON WHY WORRY? You need not, if you read Dr. George L. Wal- ton's new book on the subject. Cloth, $1.00 net. Postpaid $1.10. J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO.. Philadelphia. IN A GREAT Public Library The Office Clerk is instructed to cut out the advertising col- umns of THE NATION as a guide for the Purchasing Com- mittee. To many libraries and to many individuals, books advertised in THE NATION are at once rec- ommended as desirable.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1909. The Week. There was a cutting edge to the Gov- ernor's speech Friday night before the Hughes Alliance in this city. His main theme was direct nominations, which he urged as the best available means of making party government freer, purer, and stronger, and so capable of render- ing the State better service. But Gov. Hughes's free handling of the bosses and the interests that are opposing his reforms was the thing that fills them with alarm as well as rage. It showed that he is out to fight them again on this issue, if need be, with all of his moral earnestness and formidable in- tellectual batteries. His speech was but a foretaste of the facts and arguments which he will lay before the people, if he has to make another campaign in or- der to apply a popular vis a tergo to a reluctant Legislature. His opponents will discover that he has not spoken without first taking thought. He has scrutinized the actual conditions. Last Friday night he let it be seen that he had looked into the political history of each Assembly District, for twenty years past. For the moment he con- tented himself with affirming, what everybody knows to be true, that what- ever the present theory of party con- trol, in reality the system of making nominations by delegates is nothing but a sham. The hit boss flutters; and the gyra- tions of Raines and Barnes at Albany show where the Governor's shot struck. To get his opponents to speak out, is exactly what Mr. Hughes desires. He has nothing to dread from discussion. In a fair and free debate betore the peo- ple, there is no doubt that he will be sustained. The real thing he and his friends have to dread is, not the out- spoken anger and antagonism of the bosses, but their secret machinations to defeat him while professing to favor his plans. We do not class Speaker Wadsworth with the selfish manipula- tors who think their power endangered by direct nominations. He seems to feel that the Governor's speech was somehow a reflection on the Assembly, and has come to its defence. They are, he says, a fine set of legislators, who have done excellent work for reform. Granted, but that has nothing to do with the question. All the objections that have been raised since the Govern- or's speech were really met in n by anticipation. Winston Churchill is another of the militant political reformers who is strongly for the direct primary. Like ex-Senator Colby of New Jersey, he has fought the bosses, and occasionally been beaten by them, but is convinced that the readiest weapon against them is the open, the legalized, the direct and mandatory primary. Mr. Churchill writes to the Boston Herald of his re- cent investigation of the direct primary in several Western States. Defects and maladjustments are reported here and there, of course. The new law is no- where an infallible plan of political sal- vation. But it has found great popular favor wherever it has been introduced, and no State that has tried the system now thinks of abandoning it. Mr. Churchill's survey of the field coincides with that which William Allen White made in a letter to Gov. Hughes, and confirms the latter's opinion that the movement for the direct primary is only the latest phase of the fight to wrest the control of government from selfish in- terests. The loss of the Republic, after the gal- lant efforts to save her, came as a sharp disappointment. For the wonder of the wireless telegraph's achievement is not merely the summoning of aid from all directions, but the instantaneous report- ing of this life and death struggle off Nantucket. The electric waves penetrat- ed the mystery of both sea and fog and made the whole world witnesses of what, had there been a gale blowing, must have become one of the worst of the ocean's tragedies. It may, of course, be true that there would have been no ad- ditional loss of life had the Republic been without a wireless equipment. The Florida might have groped her way into port carrying her double load of pas- sengers even with her bows smashed, as did the old Guion liner Alaska after ramming an iceberg in midocean, in the early eighties. But had the Florida her- self gone down at once, the only re- course for the Republic's passengers would have been the boats. Then the wireless would have proved of the great- est value. Surely the fortunate condi- tions of sea and wind on Saturday will not blind any one to the necessity here- after of equipping every passenger-car- rying steamer with the wireless sys- tem. It should be made compulsory, like the carrying of side lights and the blowing of the whistle in fog. The Senate adopted last week a reso- lution appropriating $50,000 for a pre- liminary survey of the proposed Lin- coln highway from Washington to Get- tysburg. The plan as urged by Senator Carter of Montana is to have a road 150 or 200 feet wide, all the way from the White House door to the battlefield at Gettysburg. Spaces along it would be set aside, here and there, so that "the States of this Union one after- another would erect groups of statuary or mon- uments, which would make it one of the most historic drives on the globe." "Historic," however, is scarcely the word to characterize the resulting horror, should the States do over again what they have done in the Hall of Stat- uary in the Capitol. The terrible collection there has caused many an ardent patriot to despair of the repub- lic. If any such grandiose project as the fifty-mile highway from Washing- ton to Gettysburg be adopted, the argu- ment for a unified artistic control, like that provided in the Council of Fine Arts just appointed by the President, is redoubled in force. If the scheme were left entirely to Congressional commit- tees, the result would be certain to make foreign visitors echo Merimee's wonder at what could be done with twen- ty millions and no taste. The Senators talked learnedly about making an Ap- pian Way in the New World, though one of them, Mr. Gallinger of New Hamp- shire, confessed that he had only "a vague knowledge of the Appian Way." But none of them denied that there ought to be a suitable memorial to Lin- coln in Washington itself. Such an one was provided for in the so-called Burn- ham plans for the beautiflcation of

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78 The ]STatioii. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 Washington. But as that was worked out by competent artists, it naturally does not commend itself to Congress. The House Committee on Military Af- fairs is not content with giving the War Department the right to employ 250 retired officers, and thus providing it with that portion of the 612 additional officers it asks for. By a passage in the Military Appropriation bill, it pro- poses to cut down the General Staff from forty-five to twenty officers by lop- ping off all the captains and half of the majors. The General Staff would then consist of four generals, four colonels, six lieutenant-colonels, and six majors, while twenty-five captains and majors would be returned to their regiments. This plan illustrates afresh the correct- ness of the committee's contention that the evils caused by absenteeism may be cured in various ways. At the same time, though, we believe with the com- mittee that the General Staff will not be irrevocably injured by a reduction in numbers. A few of the captains may well be retained, with correspond- ing reductions elsewhere; for among the captains are to be found many able young officers whose minds are still flex- ible enough to profit greatly by their General Staff studies. That body has, however, been a disappointment to the army and to the public. To the latter, its chief function too often appears to be solely the demanding of more guns, men, and forts. 000,000 for next year. The convincing argument seems to have been that of Representative Hepburn of Iowa, who says that every generation of Americans has had its war; hence, it is reasonable to suppose that the next will, too, and so we must keep the shipyards busy. Intelligent peace talk was heard in the House last week, and the peace men stood up to be counted on more than one amendment to the naval bill. They were defeated, and the passage of the bill as reported is hailed as a tri- umph for the big-navy idea. The Presi- dent can scarcely think so, after twice seeing Congress reject his impassioned plea for four battleships. Two "mon- sters" were voted by the House, and doubtless contractors are chuckling to each other: "Well, that was a good enough war with Japan to get the ships voted." One of the uses of adversity should be to make men reasonable. Tokio reduces the naval budget by 9,- 000,000 yen and the war budget in the same cool fashion, because economy is unavoidable. But Congress votes two more battleships, undisturbed by Mr. Tawney's prophecy of a deficit of $143,- In the general salary-raising propos- ed by Congress in the Legislative Ap- propriation Bill, the Federal judges are not forgotten. As reported by the Sen- ate committee, the bill would make the salary of a district judge $8,000 a year, circuit judges $10,000, while the asso- ciate justices of the Supreme Court would receive $17,500 and the Chief Jus- tice $18,000. These increases may seem large — 40 per cent., roughly — but the re- sulting salaries would still be below those paid to judges in England. There the Lord Chancellor has about $50,000, the Master of the Rolls $30,000, jus- tices of the King's Bench and Admiral- ty judges $25,000, and so on. This ena- bles one to understand Bagehot's ac- count of the ineffable satisfaction with which an English judge takes his ap- pointment, remarking to himself: "Thank Heaven, I cannot be removed from this position except by an address from both houses of Parliament!" It will not do, however, to press the Eng- lish comparison too closely. The Chan- cellorship is a great office of state, as well as a judgeship and the blue ribbon of the legal profession, so that the sal- ary is not purely for judicial purposes. Moreover, the rewards of successful lawyers, together with the costs of liti- gation, are greater in England, on the average, than they are here^ _A fairer analogy is that between our highest Federal judges and those of the Su- preme Court of New York, in this city. The latter have a salary of $17,500. It is made higher than that of other judges of the Supreme Court of this State, because of the obviously greater cost of living here. But, plainly, the same argument would apply to many Federal judges, notably to those of the Supreme Court. The expense of living in Washington must be nearly, if not quite, as great as in New York; and if the thing is to be argued on that basis, it would certainly seem that associate justices of our highest national court should be paid as much as a State judge in New York. It will be noticed that the Senate committee proposed to make the salaries of the two exactly equal. Gov. Magoon's urgent recommenda- tion that the wreck of the Maine be raised and removed from Havana, ought to be acted on at once. It is not only a detriment to the harbor, but argues in- difference on the part of the United States towards what is still the tomb of many of her sailors. No matter what the cost, the wreck should be raised and destroyed, or sunk in deep water outside. It is a ghastly sight, and serves only to stir up animosity and preserve memories that ought to be forgotten. Were it in an American harbor, it would long ago have been blown up as a men- ace to navigation. The Cuban Gov- ernment itself has never tried to dis- pose of the wreck, both because of the cost and the danger of having its mo- tives misinterpreted. If Congress should vote the sum needed as a matter of good-will to the new Republic, such an act would be heartily welcomed in Ha- vana as another proof of our friendship. Cardinal Gibbons has rendered an- other valuable service to Maryland and the country at large by coming out squarely against the disfranchising of the negro by means of the amendment to be submitted to the voters next fall. "I have no hesitancy," declares the Car- dinal, "in saying that I believe it to be both unjust and impolitic." Unjust he finds it because it is designed to de- prive a certain class of his fellow-citi- zens of rights duly conferred upon them by the highest law in the land; and im- politic because it is in the end certain to injure the Democratic party, which favors it. The Cardinal naturally does not believe in any restriction of the suf- frage whteh does not bear on whites and blacks alike. That the proposed law does discriminate against the illit- erate negro voter is the open confession of B. B. Shreeves, chairman of the Dem- ocratic City Committee, who thus illum- inates the Cardinal's declaration: Perhaps the Cardinal's opposition is bas- ed on the Christian principle of the broth- erhood of man, which is beautiful in the- ory, but which surely must be limited in its political and social application. Obviously, a mere Cardinal who tries to apply the doctrines of Christianity to our political conditions is much out of place in the eyes of the politicians— particularly when he points out with truth that if the negroes on the Eastern Shore sell their votes in droves, the same charges can be made against large

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation. 79 numbers of whites in Baltimore and elsewhere. Finally, Cardinal Gibbons gives this admirable advice as to the treatment of the negro: If he is, indeed, ignorant, educate him; if he be corrupt and venal, punish him for his corrupt practices and his venality; but, above all things, let us not condemn the righteous for the sins of the unrighteous. Let us not be guilty of the great crime of a wholesale violation of the written laws of our country in order to punish individ- uals who break those laws in isolated in- stances. Samuel Gompers must now be surer than ever that he is living under a monstrous despotism. Where else could a Department of Commerce and Labor trample upon the workingman's right as savagely as ours did last week? Bight Belgian diamond cutters were permit- ted to enter this country against the wishes of the 325 members of the Dia- mond Workers' Protective Union of America. In this immigration there was no violation of our contract labor law, but there was a gross infringement upon the privileges of a labor union. Our 325 diamond workers, most of them from Antwerp and Amsterdam, earn four or five times as much as they did on the other side, and they want to keep a good thing to themselves. What more natural and proper, then, than to league together and pass a rule limiting the number of apprentices that can be tak- en into the trade to 10 per cent, of the union's membership? And if a miser- able foreigner comes seeking employ- ment, to set the immigration officials on him? It is commonly urged that a uniform divorce law would put an end to "the disgraceful migration of thousands" to South Dakota and other States whose lax laws invite the easy snapping of marriage bonds. If divorce reform, however, has no better argument, we shall never get it; for the Census Bu- reau shows that, as a matter of fact, few discontented couples seize the op- portunity. South Dakota, the favorite scapegoat, granted in 1900 only 95 di- vorces per 100,000 of population, while twenty-one other States were exceeding that number. In the twenty years be- fore 1906, Sioux Falls granted 1,124 di- vorces; but the same period saw no less than 945,625 allowed in the country at large. For all the free advertising this famous resort has received in our comic papers, not one unhappy couple in 900 has visited it. And probably because the cure is very expensive. Even in the old days, when three months' residence sufficed, only a fat purse would see one through the mill; and now six months discourage all save those who prefer divorce to automobiling as an extrava- gant and exhilarating sport. Uniform- ity of law can, after all, accomplish lit- tle. It will not check materially the stream of divorces, for no legislation can plug the spring whence it flows. When we learn that since 1900 divorce has increased thrice as rapidly as our population, we see that the causes lie far deeper than provisions of the law. We must look to the profound changes in woman's status, in her view of life, and in wider social and economic con- ditions. The old writer who called di- vorce "a medicine for the disease of marriage" saw clearly; and the first step toward reform is to search out the flaws in modern family life which break up one-seventh of our homes. pioneers of the prairie and the Canadian wheat fields. The possibility of such a thing as a convention of Jewish farmers will be no more of a surprise to most people than the fact that such a convention should represent more than 2,000 Jew- ish farmers in the four States only of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Experiments in bring- ing back the Jews to the land have been prolonged, costly, and often disastrous. But it is a law that failure is widely trumpeted, while success is generally silent and unnoticed. Through indi- vidual initiative more than through or- ganized assistance, the agricultural idea has been making its way steadily, in this country, among a people in whom the habit of two thousand years has by no means stifled the natural human in- clination to labor on the soil. It is not to be expected that the Jew should pass at once from the confines of the Ghetto to the Western cornfields or cattle ranges. The Jewish farmers have con- centrated, as a rule, on the small-scale agriculture that goes on in the neigh- borhood of large cities — truck-farming, dairying, poultry-raising, and, in south- ern New Jersey, vine-growing. One im- portant class is the tobacco raisers of Connecticut. This industry, in its com- bination of skilled agriculture with business acumen, appeals peculiarly to the Jewish farmer. There can be little doubt, however, that these successes in tilling the soil may yet produce Jewish A generation ago the teacher, the text- book, and a few benches sufficed for in- struction in all departments of most American colleges. With the introduc- tion of scientific courses, however, ma- terial equipment began to commend it- self, and scores even of the smaller col- leges are to-day provided with costly scientific laboratories. But other de- partments have been comparatively neg- lected. The time is not yet in sight when we can abandon that culture which comes from contact with Greece and Rome, and no college professing to offer a liberal education should put it- self in the attitude of discriminating against them. Yet the failure to pro- vide suitable facilities for classical dis- cipline is having the effect, to-day, of such discrimination. There is a wide- spread belief among teachers that the narrower textual and linguistic phases of classical study should yield to meth- ods which would awaken a broader and deeper human interest, but to do this successfully requires a more elaborate equipment than trustees or donors have so far seen fit to provide, except in a mere dozen of the more richly endowed institutions. The archaeological explor- ations of the past fifty years have thrown a wonderful light upon ancient life, but few colleges and universities can offer students more than a small fraction of the printed reports, casts, models, photographs, lantern slides, etc. The ancient manuscripts of the leading classical authors have been reproduced by photographic processes and publish- ed in large folios; but only a handful of American colleges have been liberal enough to provide that stimulus. The scientific instructor usually has a good lantern right at hand; the classical in- structor usually has nothing of the kind. The scientific departments almost invariably have their special appropria- tions for equipment, aside from their allowance from library funds; the Latin and Greek departments almost never. It may be a great compliment to the classical teacher to assume that he can make bricks with so little straw; but the effect on the average student is to convince him that the authorities are not concerned whether that partic- ular brand of brick is made at their kilns.

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80 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 "PINCHOTISM." President Roosevelt has so overdone the writing of messages that he no longer gets a hearing. This is unfor- tunate when, as in his message of last Friday, submitting to Congress the re- port of the National Conservation Com- mission, he has something really impor- tant to say. That particular document was "buried" in the morning papers of Saturday. It fell into the Congressional pond without making a ripple. It has scarcely been discussed in the public prints. But in nothing has Mr. Roosevelt shown better knowledge or sounder prin- ciple than in his stand against the reck- less waste and the careless exploitation of our national resources. To preserve the forests, guard coal and mineral de- posits, and to conserve water power — this is a large national policy to which no one can openly object. It did not need the report, or inventory, of the commission which was appointed as a result of the meeting of State Gover- nors at Washington last spring, to show how vast is the national property which is in danger of devastation or exhaus- tion. All this is conceded. Yet in several Western States — notably Col- orado, Idaho, and Montana — there is a bitter and growing resentment of the policy of government regulation. Peo- ple out there are ready to fling up their hats and shout for Roosevelt when it is a question of regulating the unpopular railways or getting after the oppressive Trusts, but have only savage words for government interference to prevent tim- ber-thieving and the loose or lawless preemption of water rights or mining property. That they call in the West "Pinchotism," by which term they mean a fussy meddling with the inalienable right of the West to burn its candle at both ends. It is really an honor to Gif- ford Pinchot thus to have his name turned into a reproach. And it is also an honor to President Roosevelt that he has stood firm for the far-sighted pol- icy, notwithstanding the fact that his ■course is displeasing to his more de- lirious supporters beyond the Missis- sippi. Unmistakable evidence of this hostil- ity was given in the speech of accept- ance made before the Legislature of Col- orado by the new United States Sena- tor, Mr. Hughes. He took occasion, part- ly as a Democrat, but more as spokes- man for Colorado, to declare squarely against Mr. Roosevelt's plan of con- serving the natural resources of that State. It had been represented as a duty to our posterity, but Senator Hughes affirmed, not without humor, that we "should not make mollycoddles of our descendants by smoothing out of their pathway all the rough places and removing all difficulties and storing up unearned treasures for their spend- thrift enjoyment and dissipation." On the main issue, the new Colorado Sena- tor was very explicit. The West was be- ing hampered. What it wanted was an influx of capital, to take up and exploit the great stretches of forest and coal lands and the immense water power now not utilized. Fettering restrictions would only delay the return of boom days. Senator Hughes spoke of the just "complaints" which the Western people had against a government which sought to inhibit their putting the axe to the tree as freely as their fathers did. The result was before them all: A check has been placed upon the kin- dling enthusiasm of enterprise, upon the wise but adventurous investment ot cap- ital, upon the onward march of a sturdy- army of explorers and winners from the wilderness to civilization in this magnifi- cent field of human hope and toil. In commenting upon this speech the Denver Republican admits that it states the popular view in Colorado. It was an appeal to selfish interests and to State pride, which had often been made, and which had met with a general response. "The few whose corns have been tramp- ed upon have had the floor." Yet the Republican thinks that very soon, if not immediately, Colorado, on a square test, would support the policy of conserva- tion. It shrewdly points out: In common with the rest of the nation Colorado has undergone an economic trans- formation. The coal corporations and the railroads, most directly interested, are no longer State institutions. They are inter- state corporations with headquarters at New York. Their profits are not distrib- uted in Colorado. When the coal lands have been exhausted, when the forests have been denuded, these corporations will order their machinery, labor, and capital elsewhere. It is a case of diamond cut dia- mond. Centralization of capital means centralization of authority. When Colorado and other Western corporations took to Wall Street, the Federal government at Washington took added responsibilities. But abolition of State lines began with the corporations. But persons, East and West, who take a broad view of conditions, must per- ceive that within and without the lines of State activity, the new policy must be sustained and enforced. The idea is making its way into the heads of the people, and will prevail. There will be grumbling from individuals, and no doubt some hardships. But the nation is coming to see that it cannot waste without coming to want. We have boast- ed of our limitless resources, but the end of many of them, if lavish use is permitted, is already in sight. Hand in hand with the effort to preserve the woods and fields and waters, as the patrimony of our children, must go en- deavors to prevent rights, inconsiderate- ly granted, from vexing the next gener- ation as they have vexed this. Presi- dent Roosevelt's warning against allow- ing the corporations of to-morrow to ac- quire a vested interest in the country's natural wealth ought to be heard and heeded. PROGRESS OF THE PROBATION SYSTEM. The annual report of the New York State Superintendent of Prisons, like the Governor's message, calls attention to the remarkable growth of the proba- tion system. During the year ending September 30, 1908, more than twice as many juvenile offenders were placed on probation as were committed to the State Reformatory; more than twice as many men as were placed in Elmira; while six times as many women were put on probation as were sent to the two reformatories for women. This is a great step forward. But it is not in New York alone that this plan is spreading. Throughout the country there is an increasing rec- ognition of the necessity of preven- tive measures to lessen the number of habitual law-breakers. Just as the reformatory movement resulted from the calm conviction that the State could not afford to make a confirmed criminal of a youth by confining him with adult offenders, so the fundamen tal theory of probation is to limit the prison and reformatory population by providing for a first or second offender guidance in place of punishment. What Judge B. B. Lindsey has done in Denver is well-known. But there is a judge in Chicago, McKenzie Cleland, whose work deserves wider attention than it has received. Like Judge Lindsey, Judge Cleland does not believe that the sole duty of courts consists in sending peo-

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation 81 pie to prison. He and the other of- ficers of the National Probation League, with headquarters in Chicago, have add- ed another to the flood of magazines — The Newer Justice, devoted exclusively to the discussion of probation. Judge Cleland's court has probably paroled more men and women than any other — 1,200 in a comparatively short time. Of the large number brought before him charged with misdemeanors and even felonies, it is said: Most of them were guilty; indeed, under his system most of them pleaded guilty and saved the time and expense of a jury trial. Then the judge, instead of fining the offender or sending him to the work • house, imposed the maximum legal sen- tence, but immediately entered a motion to vacate the sentence. This motion he held over on a continuance of the case, releas- ing the offender on whatever bond he could give, sometimes on his own recognizance. But in every case the men were required to abstain from liquor or bad company and promise to go to work and support thejr families Thus thousands of dollars are saved in costs of trials, and in board of prisoners, and charitable organizations are not compelled to support the desti- tute families of convicts. The judge holds his court at night, makes the mar- ried male prisoners report there with their wives, and in cases of wilful back- sliding his punishments can be severe. His experience brings him fresh cour- age and great hopes for the future. But the success of the system depends, after all, upon those who administer it. The best of laws, in the wrong hands, may become a force for evil. Men like Judge Lindsey and Judge Cleland may save much money, and, what is in- finitely better, reclaim thousands of men, but what harm may not a Battery Dan Finn or some other low politician, elevated to the bench, effect? Therein lies the weakness of the plan in this city. The judges do not always choose competent probation officers; sometimes the appointees do not know their duties, and sometimes, knowing, devote their best energies to politics. Nevertheless, in spite of drawbacks and failures, the work extends and im- proves and commends itself to the fa- vor of thoughtful observers. Before probation stands, of course, the question of arrests. In Cleveland, the earnest and able chief of police, Fred Kohler, inaugurated on January 1, 1908, a so-called "Golden Rule policy" of letting his policemen exercise great- er judgment in making arrests, and also in taking the offenders into court. The results for the first years are extra- ordinary: there were only 10,085 ar- rests, as compared with 30,418 in 1907, a decrease of 66.8 per cent. Of the 10,085 persons arrested, no less than 4,155 were allowed by the police to go free, and 2,512 were released on waivers by officers in charge of precincts, with- out appearance in court. Only 3,418 cases were taken before a magistrate. Of course, it is too early to judge of the success of this scheme, which easily lends itself to bribery. Obviously, it presupposes a police force of a charac- ter we may hardly hope for in this city. But the experiment in Cleveland indi- cates that here is another field offering opportunity for a newer and better justice, after the probation system shall have been carried to its utmost limits. "NO REFUGE BUT IN TRUTH." "No Refuge but in Truth" is the title of a little volume into which Goldwin Smith has just gathered some of his re- cent letters and articles on religious questions. Discussing the destruction of old creeds by modern science, he says; We are 'confronted with the vital ques- tion what the world would be without re- ligion, without trust in Providence, without hope or fear of a hereafter. Social order is threatened. Classes which have hitherto acquiesced in their lot, believing that it was a divine ordinance, and that there would be redress and recompense in a fu- ture state, are now demanding that condi- tions shall be levelled here. But Mr. Smith would not, for the sake of avoiding such difficulties, shut his eyes: Whatever trouble, moral, social, or po- litical, a great change of belief may bring there is surely nothing for it but to seek and embrace the truth. . . . Supersti- tion can be of no use morally; even politi- cally it can be of little use, and not for long. He further justifies his position, as a mere practical expedient: We have still the Christian ideal of char- acter, which has not yet ibeen seriously challenged, does not depend upon miracle or dogma for its claim to acceptance, and may continue to unite Christendom. The findings of natural science, and. more broadly, the movement to apply scientific method to criticism of the his- tory of Christianity and its doctrines, have been, roughly speaking, received in three different ways. The stoutest conservatives, of whom Pius X is now the leader, have flatly refused to ac- cept the new ideas. Twenty-five years ago religionists of this school were de- nouncing and deriding Darwin and his disciples. To-day they are still pro- claiming the inerrancy of the Scrip- tures or of the official utterances of the Church. They are busy heretic- hunting among the Protestant sects as well as within the pale of Catholicism. But their number seems to be dimin- ishing, their confidence weakening; and no man who has watched the course of theological discussion since the publi- cation of "The Origin of Species" can entertain doubts as to the ultimate ex- tinction of these conservatives. The complete acceptance of the doctrine of evolution — if not of Darwinism in the narrow, technical sense — by all scien- tists of standing, has shattered that old cosmogony on which so much of ancient Christian dogma rested. Each year is throwing new light on the source and structure of the Four Gospels and ren- dering more and more untenable the old theory of inspiration. Already in the more progressive and better educated sects of Protestantism, the second way, a middle way — that is, an attempt to hold to the old and at the same time to grasp the new — has be- come the more popular. Any one who raises doubts about the Bible stories is told that these things are an allegory; and that the essential point is the "spir- itual value" or the "moral significance." In like manner the creeds are rational- ized, attenuated, or actually explained away. But this method is not satisfac- tory, chiefly because, in many instances, it is not frank. The clergyman who ut- ters an ancient formula to which he attaches one meaning while his less learned or more simple-minded auditors attach another, can never command re- spect as a great moral leader. The first requisite of such leadership is absolute sincerity and courage. Then, too, "hol- low profession," as Mr. Smith notes, "cannot fail to impair mental integrity." It is inconceivable that any church or any ecclesiastical order that indulges in sophistry or word-juggling can, in this era of universal education, long re- tain its hold on the minds and hearts of men. The estimate of human nature that is the underlying assumption of our modern via media is too cynical and contemptuous. We believe, then, that the only sound

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82 The ^LSTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 and tenable position is the third, that pointed out by Mr. Smith. Every day that passes makes it harder for men to continue in this middle way, which is virtually a denial of the conclusions that follow inevitably from their prem- ises. To say one thing while your real thought should be expressed in words far different is to try to eat your cake and have it too. It is encouraging to observe that we have entered upon an era of bolder speaking. The Bishop of Tasmania, for example, declares flatly in the last Hibbert Journal that the Old Testament is not a suitable basis for moral instruction. He is not with those who bathe the difficulties of this part of the Bible in "the glow of religious fervor, or dissolve them in the aqua fortis of an unquestioning faith." "How can we," he asks, "worship such a God" as is depicted in parts of the Old Testament? Time was when such an utterance from such a source would have provoked a furious outburst from the defenders of orthodoxy. Indeed, some of the arguments which the Bish- op of Tasmania urges are substantially those which made the name of Robert G. Ingersoll anathema twenty-five years ago. But in 1909 the Bishop of Tas- mania will not be pilloried as an heresi- arch. The only accusation that is like- ly to lie against him is that he is in- dulging in commonplaces. And since it is evident that, willy-nilly, the truth must out, the church authorities will soon have no alternative but to make a virtue of necessity. We understand what a tremendous undertaking it is to make the change and shift the emphasis. In a thoughtful and penetrating little book, "Religion: A Criticism and a Forecast," published three or four years ago, G. Lowes Dick- inson maintains that our creeds are "increasingly deriving a great deal of support from the conviction," not that they are true, but that they are "neces- sary." Churchmen think, with Goldwin Smith, that the bonds of society will be loosened; that men will not fear God for naught, but will give rein to their wildest passions. The question is ask- ed, How can men be turned from wor- ship of an anthropomorphic God, a con- crete personality, a loving Father who watches over his children and daily in- terferes with their affairs — turned from this concept to that of a cold imper- sonal force that, at best, makes for righteousness? How can men be taught to live with an eye, not to an eternity of fiery torment, or of endless bliss in a crassly materialistic and inconceivable heaven, but to the highest usefulness in this life, here and now? How shall we still make overwhelmingly attractive what Goldwin Smith calls "the Chris- tian ideal of character"? How bring high moral fervor to the support of a code of ethics? These are the perplexi- ties which confront our latter-day proph- ets of righteousness; and they are per- plexities which cannot be evaded; for the most intelligent and serious persons of the rising generation are pressing for an answer. The shuffling of the church is already a cause of alienation. That is why we urge our spiritual guides to face the truth boldly and to attack with more energy than they have yet displayed the imperative un- dertaking of religious reconstruction. TENNYSON. I. Whatever changes may occur in the fame of Tennyson — and undoubtedly at the present hour he is passing into a kind of obscuration — he can never be deprived of the honor of representing, more almost than any other single poet of England, unless it be Dryden, a whole period of national life: Tennyson is the Victorian age. He was beloved by the Queen and the Prince Consort. Men of science like Huxley were "impressed with the Doric beauty" of his dialect poems, or, like Herschel, Owen, and Tyndall, admired him "for the eager- ness with which he welcomed all the latest scientific discoveries, and for his trust in truth." Serious judges cited him on the bench, as did Lord Bowen when, being compelled to preside over an admiralty case, he ended an apology to counsel for his inexperience with the punning quotation: And may there be no moaning at the Bar, When I put out to sea. Now it is observable in all accounts of him that the personality of the man with his contempt for little conventions impresses those who lived with him as if he possessed some extraordinary daemonic power. And his conversation was like his manner. It is agreeable, when we consider certain finical over- nice qualities of his verse, to know that his talk was racy with strong downright Saxon words, that, like our Lincoln, he could give and take deep draughts of Pantagruelian mirth. I confess that it does not displease me to touch this vein of earthy coarseness in the man. But I like also to hear that his mind rose more habitually from the soil to the finer regions of poetry and religion. In a hundred recorded conversations you will find him at close grips with the great giants of doubt and material- ism which then, as in the caverns and fastnesses of old fable, were lurking in every scientific workshop and stalking thence over the land. How often you will find him, when these questions are discussed, facing them calmly and then ending all with an expression of un- alterable faith in the spirit forces that blow like one of his mystic winds about the solid earth, speaking words which sound commonplace enough in print, but which, with his manner and tone, seem to have affected his hearers as if they had been surprised by a voice of revela- tion. II. But in this chorus of acceptance there is one strange discord. Edward Fitz- Gerald was among the poet's warm- est friends; of all the great men of his acquaintance, and he knew the greatest, Tennyson alone over- awed him. "I must, however, say, further," he once writes after visit- ing with Tennyson, "that I felt what Charles Lamb describes, a sense of de- pression at times from the overshadow- ing of a so much more lofty intellect than my own: this (though it may seem vain to say it) I never experienced be- fore, though I have often been with much greater intellects: but I could not be mistaken in the universality of his mind." FitzGerald was one of those who first recognized Tennyson's Doetic genius; but, after a .while, there comes a change in the tone of his comment. "In Memoriam," which he read in man- uscript before it was published, he can- not away with; it has to him the "air of being evolved by a Poetical Machine of the highest order"; and from that time, his letters contain frequent hints of dissatisfaction. Somehow he seems to have felt, as we to-day are likely to feel, a disparity between the imposing genius of the man himself and these rather nerveless elegies and rather vap- id tales like "The Princess." He cries out once upon "the cursed inactivity" of the nineteenth century for spoiling his poet, coming close to, but not quite touching, the real reason of his discon- tent. FitzGerald, if any one, was the philosopher of the age as Tennyson was its poet. That determined recluse of Lit- tle Grange, who loved in the silent night hours to walk about the flat Suf- folk lanes, among the shadows of the windmills that reminded him of his cherished Don Quixote, who, as the years passed, could scarcely be got to visit his friends at all, but wrote to them letters of quaint and wistful tenderness — he alone among the busy anxious Vic- torians, so far as I know them, stood entirely aloof from the currents of the hour, judging men and things from the larger circles of time; he alone was

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation 83 completely emancipated from the illu- sions of the present, and this is the se- cret of the grave pathetic wisdom that so fascinates us in his correspondence. And so the very fact that Tennyson was the mouthpiece of his generation, with the limitations that such a char- acter implies, cooled the praise of our disillusioned philosopher just as it warmed the enthusiasm of more en- gaged minds. One is impressed by this quality of Tennyson's talent as one goes through his works anew in the Eversley edition* that has just been published, with notes by the poet and by the poet's son. It is useless to deny that to a later taste much, very much, of this writing seems an insubstantial fabric; that it has many of the qualities that stamp the distinctly Victorian creations as pro- vincial and ephemeral. There is upon it, first of all, the mark of prettiness, that prettiness which has been, and still is, the bane of British art. Look through a collection of the work of Landseer, and Birket Foster, and Sir John Everett Millais, and others of that group, and observe its quality of "guile- less beauty," as Holman Hunt calls it, or innocuous sentimentality as it seems to us. These scenes of maiden love, of tender home partings and reconcilia- tions, of children floating down a stream in their cradle with perhaps a kitten peering into the water — it is not their morality that offends us, far from that, but their deliberate blinking of what makes life austere and, in the better sense of the word, beautiful. And this same prettiness you will find in many of Tennyson's poems. It is notably, and perhaps excusably, conspicuous in such early poems as "The May Queen" and "Dora," but it does not stop there. In its own kind "Launcelot and Elaine" is a nobly planned work, yet somehow to all its charm there still clings that taint, shall we say, of prettiness. which is a different thing altogether. I read the words of Gawain to the lily maid of Astolat: "Nay, by mine head," said he, "I lose it, as we lose the lark in heaven, O damsel, in the light of your blue eyes." 'Tis a sweet compliment, but J remem- ber the same metaphor in an old play: Once a young lark Sat on thy hand, and gazing on thine eyes Mounted and sung, thinking them moving skies, — and by comparison I seem again to note in Tennyson's lines the something thin we designate as Victorian. There is in the same poem another scene, one of the most picturesque in all the "Idylls," where Launcelot and Elaine's brother ride away from the ancient cas- *The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson. In six Tolumes. Tue Eversley Edition. Annotated by Alfred Lord Tennyson, edited by Hallam Lord Ten- nyson. New York: The Macmlllan Co. tie and the lily maid to join the tourna- ment: She stay'd a minute, Then made a sudden step to the gate, and there — Her bright hair blown about the serious face Yet rosy-kindled with her brother's kiss — Paused by the gateway, standing near the shield In silence, while she watch'd their arms far oft Sparkle, until they dipt below the downs. You see it all — the sentimental maiden at the arch, gazing with shaded eyes after the two departing knights, while some flowering vine of an English sum- mer droops from the stones about her slender form; you see it, but again it is a painting on the walls of Burlington House rather than the reality of a more virile art. III. But however much the prettiness of "In Memoriam" caught the ears of the sentimental, it was another quality which won the applause of the greater Victorians. There is an interesting let- ter given among the editor's notes, showing how the men who were leading English thought in those days felt to- ward the new poem. "These lines," writes Prof. Henry Sidgwick of one of the stanzas that express Tennyson's trust in the fatherhood of God through all the questionings of science — "these lines I can never read without tears. I feel in them the indestructible and inalienable minimum of faith which hu- manity cannot give up, because it is necessary for life; and which I know that I, at least, so far as the man in me is deeper than the methodical think- er, cannot give up." Now Sidgwick was no ordinary man. He was, in fact, one of the keenest and hardest-headed thinkers of those days; and these tears of his were no cheap contribution of sentiment, but rose from the deepest wells of trouble. Many men still living can remember the dismay and the sense of homelessness that came upon the trusting mind of England when it be- came aware of a growing hostility be- tween the new school of science and the established creed. When Arthur Hallam died in 1833, Darwin was making his memorable voyage of investigation on the Beagle, and while Tennyson was elaborating his grief in long-linked sweetness, Darwin was writing that "first note-book on Transmutation of Species," which was developed in the "Origin of Species" of 1859. The alarm of the church over this assimilation of man and monkey, the bitter fight be- tween Huxley and Wilberforce, and be- tween Huxley and Gladstone — all this is well known, though the tumult of the fray begins to sound in our ears as distant as the battles about Troy. To these currents of thought Tenny- son was quickly responsive. "Without hesitation, he accepted the new point of view for his "In Memoriam," and those who were leading the revolution felt this and accepted enthusiastically a re- cruit from the writers of the imagina- tion, who were commonly arrayed against them. It is unnecessary to point out the many passages of the poem in which the law of evolution, the sur- vival of the fittest, and man's kinship to the ape were clearly hinted before Darwin had definitely formulated them in his epoch-making book. What more impressed men like Sidgwick was the fact that Tennyson felt with them the terrifying doubts awakened by this con- ception of man as part of a vast mech- anism, but still clung to the creed "which humanity cannot give up, be- cause it is necessary for life." And Ten- nyson, and this is the point to be em- phasized, found this minimum of faith, not outside of the new science, but at its very heart. He does, indeed, cry out at times against the harsher hypothe- sis, declaring that we are not "magnet- ic mockeries" or "only cunning casts in clay"; but the gist of his confidence, and what made him the spokesman of the age, was in a bold completion of evo- lution by the theory of indefinite prog- ress and by a vision of some magnifi- cent consummation wherein the sacri- fices of the present were to be compen- sated somehow, somewhere, somewhen —who shall say? This reconciliation of dogma and science, this discovery of a father near at hand within the inexor- able law of evolution, this vision of an eternal state to be reached in the prog- ress of time — That God, which ever lives and loves. One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves, — all this, like the prettiness which char- acterized the painting of the age and Tennyson's non-religious verse, is what we have come to call the Victorian com- promise. IV. Undoubtedly, the fame of Tennyson in his own day was due largely to his ex- pression of what may be called the offi- cial philosophy, but it is a question whether this very trait has not weak- ened his hold upon a later generation, whether, for instance, the stoic resolve and self-determination of Matthew Ar- nold, whom Professor Sidgwick in one of the most scathing essays of the cen- tury denounced as a trifling "prophet of culture," have not really more mean- ing for us to-day — though not the high- est meaning of all — than any official and comfortable middle way. I read the stanza of "In Memoriam" which de- scribes the reception of the poet's friend into the heavenly host: The great Intelligences fair That range above our mortal state, In circle round the blessed gate. Received and gave him welcome there; —

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84: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 and then I turn back to the note which gives the similar lines of Milton's "Ly- cidas": There entertain him all the Saints above In solemn troops, and sweet societies, That sing, and singing in their glory move. And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. Why is it that Tennyson here leaves us so cold, whereas at the sound of Mil- ton's words the heart still leaps as at a bugle call? Why are these "fair In- telligences" so meaningless and so frigid? Is it not just the spirit of com- promise between religion and science that has entered into Tennyson's image, leaving it neither the simple objective faith of Milton nor the honest question- ing of Matthew Arnold? It may seem that I have dwelt over- much on the weakness of an admired writer, but it was these compromises of Tennyson that gave him his historic position, and, also, it is only by bring- ing out clearly this aspect of his work that we are enabled to discern the full force of another and contrasted phase which was not of the age, but the un- fettered voice of the poet himself. As we read of the impression made by the man Tennyson upon his contemporaries and then consider the sleeker qualities of his verse, we find it difficult to asso- ciate the two together. There was no t>rettiness or convention in his charac- ter, but an elusive wildness of beauty and a noble, almost defiant, indepen- dence. Now, if we examine the spirit of compromise which made the official poet in Tennyson, we shall see that it rests finally on a denial of religious dualism, of the consciousness, that is, which no reasoning of philosophy and no noise of the world can ever quite obliterate, of two opposite principles within us, one bespeaking unity and peace and infinite life, the other calling us to endless division and change and death. Just this cleft within our na- ture the Victorians attempted to con- ceal. Because they could not discover a rational bond between the world of time and of evolution and the idea of eternity and changelessness, they would deny that these two can exist side by side as totally distinct spheres, and by raising the former and lowering the latter would seek the truth in some reconciliation of the two. Thus, in- stead of finding the real tyrant of the soul, as did William Drummond, in the dominion of "time, under the fatal shad- ow of whose wings all things decay and wither," they place the faith of religion in some far-off event of time, as if infinity were a kind of enchantment lent by distance. V. Such was the official message of Ten- nyson; but by its side there comes up here and there through his works an utterly different vein of mysticism which is scarcely English, and certainly not Victorian — a sense of utter estrange- ment from time and personality. In the notes of the Eversley volumes the editor gives an unpublished juvenile poem, "The Mystic," Jn which this feel- ing is expressed, if not so clearly as in the better-known prose confession of his later years, at least with a self-knowl- edge every way remarkable for a boy: Ye could not read the marvel in his eye, The still serene abstraction; he hath felt The vanities of after and before. He often lying broad awake, and yet Remaining from the body, and apart In intellect and power and will, hath heard Time flowing in the middle of the night, And all things creeping to a day of doom. The point to note is how Tennyson in such passages feels himself an entity set apart from the flowing of time, whereas in the religious stanzas of "In Memoriam" he — not he only, but God himself — is one with the sum of things in some vague temporal prog- ress. In that difference, if rightly un- derstood, lies, I think, the distinction between faith and rationalism. This sense of himself as a being set apart from change strengthened, if any- thing, as he grew old. Its most philo- sophic expression is in "The Ancient Sage," which was first published in 1885 and was regarded by him as one of his best later poems; it is rebellious in "Vastness," lyrical in "Break, Break, Break," purely melodic in "Far — Far — Away," dramatic in "Ulysses," auto- biographical in "The Gleam." Always it is the man himself speaking his own innermost religious experience, and no mere "minimum of faith" needed for the preservation of society. VI. , For the fullest and most artistic ut- terance of this mysticism, we must go to the "Idylls of the King." I will con- fess to be no unreserved lover of that mangled epic as a whole; it seems to me that in most of its parts the Vic- torian prettiness is made doubly, and at times offensively, conspicuous by the contrast between Tennyson's limpid sentimentality and the sturdier fibre of Mallory's "Morte Darthur," from which he drew his subject. But it is true that here and there, in a line or a mu- sically haunting passage, he has in the Idylls spoken from the depth of his heart, as he has spoken nowhere else, and that one of them, "The Holy Grail," has an insight into things spir- itual and a precision it would be hard to match in any other English poem. The holy cup, so the story runs, which had been brought to England by Jo- seph of Arimathea and had vanished away for the sinfulness of the people, was seen first in vision by a holy sis- ter of Sir Percivale, and by her Gala- had was incited to go on the sacred quest. Meanwhile, one day when the knights were gathered at the round ta- ble, in the absence of the King, Gala- had sits in Merlin's magic seat, which, as Tennyson explains, is a symbol of the spiritual imagination, the siege per- ilous, wherein "no man could sit but he should lose himself": And all at once, as there we sat, we heard A cracking and a riving of the roofs, And rending, and a blast, and overhead Thunder, and in the thunder was a cry. And in the blast there smote along the hall A beam of light seven times more clear than day : And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, All over cover'd with a luminous cloud, And none might see who bore it, and it past. But every knight beheld his fellow's face As in a glory, and all the knights arose, And, staring each at other like dumb men. Stood, till I found a voice and sware a vow. The vision, in other words, is nothing else but a sudden and blinding sense of that dualism of the world and of the human soul beneath which the solid- seeming earth reels and dissolves away, overwhelming with terror and uncom- prehended impulses all but those pure- ly spiritual to whom the earth is al- ready an unreal thing. Then enters the King, and perceives the perturbation among his knights. It is characteristic of England and of the age, although it has, too, its universal significance, that Tennyson's Arthur should deplore the search for the Grail as a wild aberra- tion, which is to bring impossible hopes and desolate disappointments to those whose business was to do battle among very material forces. Only Sir Galahad, in whom was no at- tachment to the earth, and who was bold to find himself by losing himself, had beheld clearly the vision of the cup as it smote across the hall. I do not know how it may be with others, but to me the answer of Galahad to the King has a mystical throb and ex- ultation almost beyond any other words of English: But I, Sir Arthur, saw the Holy Grail. I saw the Holy Grail and heard a cry — "O Galahad, and 0 Galahad, follow me." That is the cry and the voice, now poetry and not philosophy, which Ten- nyson had in mind when he wrote of hearing "the word that is the symbol of myself." He who has once heard it and heard also the answiering echo with- in his own breast, caD never again close his ears to its sound. To Galahad it meant the vanishing of the world alto- gether, and there is nothing more mag- nificent in Tennyson, scarcely in Eng- lish verse, I think, than Sir Percivale's last sight of Galahad fleeing over the bridges out into the far horizon, and disappearing into the splendors of the sky, while — ■ . . . thrice above him all the heavens Open'd and blazed with thunder such as seem'd Shoutings of all the sons of God; and first At once I saw him far on the great Sea,

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Jan. 28, 1909] The 3N ation. 85 In silver-shining armor starry-clear; And o'er his head the Holy Vessel hung Clothed in white samite or a luminous cloud. There, in the inspiration from Tenny- son's own visionary faith and from no secular compromise, we find the lift and the joy and the assurance that Mil- ton knew and sang in "Lycidas" and that was so sadly missed in the "great Intelligences fair" of "In Memoriam." But to Sir Percivale himself the vi- sion brought no such divine transfigura- tion. He is the one who sees, indeed, and understands, yet cannot lose him- self. Because the Holy Grail signifies a dualism which sets the eternal world not at the end of the temporal, but ut- terly apart from it, he who knows the higher while lacking the courage to re- nounce the lower, wanders comfortless with neither the ecstatic joy of the one nor the homely satisfactions of the oth- er. So the world and all that it contains turns into dust at his touch, leaving him alone and wearying, in a land of sand and thorns. Another, Sir Bors, the simple, trustful gentleman, who goes out on the word of others, following duty only and trusting in the honor of the act as it comes to him, sees in ad- versity the holy cup shining through a rift in his prison, and abides content that the will of God should reserve these high things as a reward for whom- soever it chooses. Still another, Sir Ga- wain, finding the vision is not for him, and having turned his eyes from the simple rule of duty, sinks into sen- sual pleasures, and declares his twelve- month and a day a merry jaunt. Most fatal of all is the experience of Launcelct, he, the greatest of all, who brought the sin into the court, who can- not disentangle the warring impulses of good and evil within himself. He, too, rides out of Camelot on the Quest, and then: My madness came upon me as of old, And whipt me into waste fields far away. . . . But such a blast, my King, began to blow. So loud a blast along the shore and sea, Ye could not hear the waters for the blast. Tho' heapt in mounds and ridges all the sea Drove like a cataract, and all the sand Swept like a river, and the clouded heavens Were shaken with the motion and •he sound. This is an application to the smaller field of wind and earth and water of that dizzy tempestuous motion which in Tennyson's earlier poem of "Lucre- tius" surged through the Epicurean's atomic universe. To the eye of the spir- it, Tennyson would seem to say, the material world is a flux and endless, purposeless mutation — leaving the self- possessed soul to its own inviolable peace, or, upon one that perceives yet is still enmeshed in evil desires, throng- ing in visions and terrors of madness. One need not be a confessed mystic to feel the power of these passages, any more than one need be a Puritan (standing, that is, at the opposite pole of religion from the mystic) to appre- ciate Milton. To the genuine conviction of these poets our human nature re- sponds as it can never respond to the in- sincerity of the world's "minimum of faith." With Tennyson, unfortunately, the task is always to separate the poet of insight from the poet of compromise. P. E. M. RECENT GERMAN FICTION. Detlev von Liliencron's popularity as a poet is due to his expression of the sane and simple joy of living. As a dramatist and novelist, however, he has been less successful. Loose-jointed and badly proportioned, his plays and his stories seem more like a framework for exquisite lyrical episodes. His "Knut der Herr" had to sleep many years be- tween the covers of the book before it saw the footlights, and then was not popular. His early novel, "Breide Hummelsbiittel," never reached the larg- er world of German readers of fiction. Liliencron's latest prose work is likely by its title, "Leben und Luge: Ein bio- graphischer Roman' (imported by G- E. Stechert & Co.), to attract wider at- tention. The word biographical sug- gests an element of autobiography; both those who expect to find in the novel an authentic record of a life which has shunned rather than sought publicity, and those who are familiar with the meagre facts which the poet himself made known when he first came into prominence, will be disappointed. For it is difficult to trace the thread of truth in this fanciful fabric. The wisest course is to regard the book merely as the author's spiritual confes- sion, a veiled statement of his dreams and his longings. It is evident that Liliencron has drawn somewhat upon the memories of his own early years in his story of the boyhood and youth of Kai von Vorbriigge. It is probable, too, that the leaves from Kai's cam- paign diary are based upon notes taken by the author while he fought against France in the war of 1870-71. Beyond that it would be dangerous to hazard inferences. The second half of the book must be regarded as pure fiction, though it may be difficult to reconcile the un- even course and abrupt end of the nar- rative with the accepted form of the novel. In this respect Liliencron is of those who create their own forms and make their own laws; and notwithstand- ing all the technical weaknesses of the work, one is captivated by the sponta- neity of the personality of Kai von Vorbriigge. Foremost among the women writers who struck a new note in German fic- tion ten or twelve years ago is Gabriele Reuter, whose "Aus guter Familie" still retains its hold upon German readers as a faithful picture of the cramped and narrow life to which the daughters of the better middle class in her coun- try were doomed before modern, and especially English, ideals of education opened to them fresh interests and wid- er fields of activity. Since the appear- ance of that work the author has writ- ten a number of stories, but only in her latest book has she attained the strength and the sincerity of the first. In the centre of the group of unfortu- nate women who have sought "Das Thranenhaus" (Berlin: S. Fischer), Frau Reuter has placed Cornelie Rei- mann, a writer whose works have made her name dear to the women of her country. Towering far above them by her intellect and her culture, this wo- man becomes the champion of her less favored sisters; and the reader is made to feel that it is due to her influence if they leave the place chastened by suf- fering and the sanctity of motherhood. There is nothing sensational in Frau Renter's method ; she has a message, but she delivers it with a rare artistic dis- cretion. The experiences of her hero- ine are recorded with dignity, and the pathos is relieved by touches of humor, which add to the convincing quality of this picture of real life. There are a few incidents which would grate on Anglo-Saxon nerves, but they are justi- fied by the atmosphere of the Bavarian village which is the setting of the un- usual book. Hermann Bahr's "Die Rahl" (Berlin: S. Fischer) is a fair specimen of the tact and the delicacy with which a dif- ficult problem can be treated by a genuine artist. It is the story of a schoolboy who, enamored of a famous actress, follows her daily when she drives home from the theatre. One day, touched by his devotion, she invites him into her carriage and rewards him with a kiss. In a delirium of joy he becomes oblivious of the vast gulf be- tween them and indulges in a wild self-delusion. He forces his way into her villa, and is confronted by the hus- band, a man of sagacity and experience, who has sympathy with the youthful victim of his wife's attraction and talks to him as man to man. At the end of the interview he gives the boy her lat- est photograph with an inscription by her own hand — a gift which she holds in readiness for her numerous admir- ers. When the lad returns to his widow- ed mother, all his pent-up conflicting emotions burst forth in a torrent of cynicism. Her tactful understanding and gentle indulgence succeed in restor- ing his balance. The author holds atten- tion by his vivid and natural narrative. E. von Keyserling's skill in convey- ing to the reader the tension of a spir- itual conflict or of an emotional crisis is remarkable. The very first pages of

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86 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 his new book, "Dumala" (Berlin: S. Fischer), when the village parsonage is ringing with the pastor's dramatic ren- dering of Schubert's "Am Meer," give one the key. Equally strong is the chap- ter describing a Sunday evening at the castle of Baron Werland. The char- acters stand out from their background with striking vitality: the parson with the artistic temperament; the Frau Pas- torin, with nothing but her domestic virtue and her boundless admiration for her husband; the infidel nobleman, to whose invalid chair is bound the young and fascinating wife; the pale and poet- ical secretary languishing with unre- quited love for his mistress; and the robust and unscrupulous neighbor, Baron Rast, who carries off the prize. The story closes with a note that is solemn and impressive. Hermann Hesse, whose "Peter Ca- menzind" has reached the fiftieth edi- tion since 1904, has written a volume of short stories appropriately called "Nach- barn" (Berlin: S. Fischer); for, al- though the tales are not interrelated, the scene is a little provincial town which, with all due differences of char- acter and incident, has given them a common stamp. The personages are quaint figures; "der kleine Ohngelt," with his pathetic attempts to distinguish himself as a singer; Karl Bugen Eise- lein, who cherishes the illusion of be- ing a poetical genius and is saved from making a failure of his life by the drastic intervention of his robust and practical mother; the quiet and respec- table merchant, Walter Kompff, who in his later years fell into religious mania and shocked his neighbors by his sui- cide; and finally the inmates of the poorhouse, who had been installed in the old inn "Zur Sonne." There is pathos and tragedy in the lives of some of these provincials; but there is humor, too, expressed in a style of rare strength and purity. The title of the volume of short sto- ries by Felix Salten, "Die Geliebte Fried- richs des Schonen" (Berlin: Marquardt & Co.), is derived from the first story, which is an indirect plea against the re- moval of inconvenient relatives to poor- houses and old people's homes. The gradual awakening of the heroine to the realization of her environment and the strange delusions to which she be- comes a victim in her unaccustomed idleness are depicted with great force. A curious problem of criminal psychol- ogy is the subject of "Der Ernst des Lebens." A man who has killed his friend in a fit of rage, because he could not bear to hear this friend preach suavely about the seriousness of life, pleads his case before the warden of the prison to which he had been com- mitted. "Feiertag" is a little sketch giv- ing a charming glimpse of the ordinary holiday life on a Vienna street; but against this background is outlined a love affair which an incident of this day brings to an untimely end. "Ein Tag" is a novelette in dialogue, recall- ing in the even and natural tone of the conversation and the strong dramatic climax the little masterpieces by which Jeanne Marni won for herself a place in contemporary French letters. "Die Wege des Herrn" is the pathetic story of an abandoned dog. Into the last sto- ries in the book there enters a mark- ed element of satire. The singer who gives the best of his art and fails to be rewarded by the sympathy and the understanding of his royal listener phil- osophically accepts his fate. His com- panion in a later story is a young glad- iator who believes in imperial mag- nanimity and has his throat pierced by the imperial sword. The humor of "Die Erhebungen fiber Barbara Liebhardt" is irresistible. The last novelette, "VI- comte Termilly," compares in concise- ness and facile grace with works of the French masters in this kind. A. von Ende. Correspondence. THE FIRST PLAY IN AMERICA. 'io the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The question as to the date of the first play-house in America, the production of the first play, and the writing of the first play, has attracted attention for a good many years. As long ago as 1832 Wil- liam Dunlap gave September 5, 1752. as the first authentic date, the Hallam com- pany from Goodman's Field as the players, the "Merchant of Venice" as the play, and Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, as the place. Clapp in 1853 recorded the 1750 performance in a Boston coffee house of Otway's "Orphan." Ireland in 1866 gave a circumstantial account of a company of actors that reached New York during the month of February, 1750, under the man- agement of a certain Kean and Murray. Charles P. Daly about the same time pub- lished a paper in the New York Evening Post, in which was given the following reference from the New York Gazette for October 15, 1733: To be Sold at reasonable Rates, All Sorts of Household Goods, viz.: Beds, Chairs, Tables, Chests of Drawers, ... a Negro Girl about 16 years of age, has had the Smollpox and is fit for Town or Country. Enquire of George Talbot, next Door to the Play-House. Since then many important facts regard- ing the early American stage have been brought to light by the research of var- ious persons, among others G. O. Seilham- er, Judge Daly himself, and Paul Leicester Ford, to mention only three who have en- tered the field with monographs or books. The Philadelphia records, for instance, of the Murray and Kean company have been brought to light. An entry in John Smith's "Journal" gives the name of what was probably the first play acted by them: Sixth Month (August) 22d, 1749. Joseph Morris and I happened in at Peacock Big- ger's, and drunk tea there, and his daugh- ter, being one of the company who were going to hear the tragedy of Cato acted, it occasioned some conversation, in which I expressed my sorrow that anything of the kind was encouraged. This company must have acted plays in Philadelphia during the rest of the year, for early in 1750 the Recorder, William Al- len, afterwards Chief Justice of the Pro- vince, reported to the Common Council Lhat certain persons had lately taken upon them to act plays in the city and he feared the mischievous effects thereof. The board thereupon unanimously requested the mag- istrates to take the most effectual means for suppressing the "disorder," by sending for the actors and binding them to their good behavior. The company went to New York, and in 1751 to Virginia. As an il- lustration of the difficulties they over- came, the following prospectus from the Virginia Gazette of August 29, 1751, may be quoted: By Permission of His Honour the Presi- dent. Whereas the Company of Comedians that are in New York intend performing in this City [Williamsburg]; but there being no Room suitable for a Play House, 'tis proposed that a Theatre shall be built by Way of Subscription: Each Subscriber, advancing a Pistole, to be entitled to a Box Ticket, for the first Nights Diversion. The theatre was completed and the first play produced within six weeks; but the following May the company left Williams- burg for Hobbs' Hole and Fredericksburg, not to return. It is of some interest to us to know that ycung George Washington en- ters in his ledger, under June 2, 1752, a record of money loaned his younger bro- ther Samuel to see a play by this com- pany in Fredericksburg: "By Cash at the play House 1-3," — the price of a ticket in the gallery. The later Hallam company gave what Dunlap thought to be the pioneer performance in America, on September 15 (not 5), 1752, in this subscription theatre erected in Williamsburg by these New York comedians, and abandoned by them. We have records of dramatic perform- ances in Charleston, Williamsburg, and New York before the existence of the Kean and Murray company. The Quakeress Sophie Hume, in an exhortation to the inhabitants of South Carolina, written in 1748, implies the existence of occasional theatrical enter- tainments: "You have no masquerades nor music gardens to entertain you, neither are theatrical entertainments frequent among you." The South Carolina Gazette (Charles- ton) of October 3, 1748, contains an adver- tisement of a school "over against the Play House." In 1747, and also in 1743, the same paper contains an advertisement of a ball to take place "at the theatre in Queen street." A map of Charleston, dated 1738, marks the site of this theatre as on the south side of Queen Street, a little west of Church. These Charleston records date back to 17C5, before the erection of the theatre. On January 18, 1735, the South Carolina Gazette contained the fol- lowing advertisement : On Friday, the 24th inst., in the Court Room, will be attempted a tragedy called The Orphan or The Unhappy Marriage. Tickets will be delivered on Tuesday next, at Mr. Shepheard's, at 40s. each. During the next three months at least seven performances are recorded by the Gazette in detail, the last being a benefit for Mo- nimia (a character in the "Orphan"). The plays were probably produced by local tal- ent. An advertisement on May 3, at the

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Jan. 28, 1909] The ]STation. 87 end of the season, tells us something of the method of production : Any gentlemen that are disposed to en- courage the exhibition of plays next Win- ter, may have the sight of the proposals for a subscription at Mr. Shepheard's in Broad Street. And any persons that are desirous of having a share in the per- formance thereof, upon application to Mr. Shepheard shall receive a satisfactory answer. Between that date and the date of the next theatrical reference in the Gazette, the Charleston theatre was financed and built. An advertisement of January 24, 1736, an- nounces : On Thursday, the 12th of February, will be opened the new theatre in Dock Street, in which will be performed the comedy called The Recruiting Officer. . . . Boxes, 30s.; pitt, 20s.; and tickets for the gallery, 15s. The season lasted only six weeks, and then for some reason the plays were discontinued. The Gazette of May 29 contains an epigram "On the Sale of the Theatre." The building, however, continued to be used for the oc- casional production of plays until 1755 and after. The Williamsburg records are not so continuous. Between 1751 and 1736 we have no references to the theatre; but on Sep- tember 10, 1736, the Virginia Gazette ad- vertised the production of certain plays by the students of William and Mary College, and others : This evening will be performed at the Theatre, by the young gentlemen of the College, The Tragedy of Cato, And, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday next, will be acted the following Comedies, by the gentlemen and ladies of this Country, viz., The Busy-Body, The Recruiting Officer, and the Beaux-Stratagem. Daly, in his 1896 monograph, insists, though without giving the full text of the above advertisement, that the three com- edies mentioned were produced by "an or- ganized theatrical company, who were then performing at Williamsburg, where a the- atre had been built." And he continues : It would be out of the ordinary course of things that a play-house like this, close to the market-place, should have been erected for occasional performances by amateurs. . . . It is more probable that it was an ordinary theatre, where plays were per- formed by professional actors. This view, however, is hardly tenable in the light of the exact language of the ad- vertisement. The theatre referred to is first mentioned by Hugh Jones, in his work, "The Present State of Virginia," published in London in 1724, two years after Jones left Virginia. Jones speaks of "a large area for a Market Place, near which is a Play House and good Bowling Green." This must have been in 1722, and is the earliest reference to a play-house in America. A still earlier reference, however, to a dra- matic production in Williamsburg is found in a letter of Gov. Spotswood, dated June 24, 1718. Eight members of the House of Assembly had refused him honor : Nay, when, in Order to the Solemnizing his Maj'ty's Birthday, I gave a publick En- tertainment at my House, all Gent'n that would come were Admitted; These Eight Counsellors would neither come to my House nor go to the Play w'ch was Acted on that occasion. This is all that is known of this play; but it may have been acted by the college boys of William and Mary. In New York, the records of play-acting prior to 1750 are scant but suggestive. A manuscript volume of poems by Archibald Home, "late Secretary and One of His Majesties Council for the Province of New Jersey, North America," owned by William Nelson, of Paterson, contains a "Prologue, intended for the second opening of the the- atre at New York, anno 1739." A "second opening" implies a first opening; and in a news item in the New England and Bos- ton Gazette for January 1, 1733, under the head of New York News of December 11, we have an account of the first opening of this theatre : On the 6th instant, the New Theatre in the building of the Hon. Rip Van Dam, Esq., was opened with the comedy of the Recruiting Officer, the part of Worthy act- ed by the ingenious Mr. Thos. Heady, Bar- ber and Peruque maker to his Honor. "His Honor" refers to Rip Van Dam, acting governor of New York up to a few months before the opening of 'the theatre. There are two other references to early productions of plays in America. On March 2, 1714, Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, protested in a letter against the acting of a play in the Council Cham- ber at Boston. Even the Romans, he said, were not "so far set upon them as to turn their Senate House into a Play-House." This play was probably not acted. The other reference is found in a small vol- ume, now rare, by Anthony Aston, who had been an actor in the West Indies, and afterwards came to Virginia and New York, and who, according to his statement, acted in the city of New York in 1702. Al- though he does not say so, it is doubtless upon the authority of this book that Ford, in his monograph, "Washington and the Theatre," makes the assertion: That there was play-acting in New York, and in Charleston, South Carolina, before 1702, are unquestioned facts, giving to these two places, so far as can be dis- covered, priority of claim in the first pa- tronage of the mimic art. Daly merely speaks of the Aston document as affording a possible date: The comedy with which the New Theatre [in New York] was opened, in 1732. The Recruiting Officer, is the earliest play known to have been acted in North Amer- ica, for though . . . there was a play- house in Williamsburg ten years before, It is not known what plays were acted there until 1736, when four are referred to. However that may be, these are the prin- cipal references so far adduced to per- formances of plays in what is now English- speaking North America. As to dramatic authorship, "The Prince of Parthia," by Thomas Godfrey, of Phila- delphia, is generally mentioned in Ameri- can literary history as the first play to be written in America. The play was writ- ten in 1759 for the stage, but was not ac- cepted. In 1765, two years after the death of its author, it was published by sub- scription, Franklin alone subscribing for twelve copies, and with the same William Allen who had complained in 1750 of Kean and Murray's players, also a patron. It was produced upon the stage in 1767. The play of an earlier author is mentioned by Malone in Wegelin's bibliography— "Le Pere Indien," by Le Blanc Villeneuve, writ- ten while Villeneuve was in the French service in Louisiana. This tragedy was produced in 1753 in the Governor's man- sion in New Orleans. The same author, ac- cording to Alcee Fortier (Modern Language Association, 1886), wrote a tragedy called "Poucha-Houmma," based upon a story ht had heard while employed by the govern- ment among the Tchactas. 1752-58. This constitutes the earliest play writing men- tioned by our literary and theatrical his- torians as having been done in America. None of these plays, however, was ac- tually the first either to be produced o: written in America; 1752 is not the earliest date to be attached to American stage au- thorship, nor 1732 the date of the earliest reference by name to a play acted in Amer- ica, nor even 1702 (the date cited from As- ton) the earliest date for either. Our dra- matic authorship dates back of a certainty sixty-two years earlier than that; our stage history perhaps even earlier. When, in the year 1640, Father LeJeune and the Jesuit missionaries at Quebec added cer- tain American scenes to a French tragi- comedy, they did what was probably the first dramatic writing to be done in what is now English-speaking America. Shake- speare had been dead twenty-four years. Miles Standish was still in command of the Pilgrim forces at Plymouth. William Penn was not yet born. Quebec at this time was only thirty- two years old. Nico- let, the protege of its founder, had discov- ered the upper waters of the Mississippi only six years before, and was now living near enough Quebec to help in the polish- ing, had his linguistic attainments been absolutely needed. The great Jesuit mar- tyrs, Jogues, Brebeuf, Garnier, Buteux, and Daniel, were still working among the friendly Hurons and Algonquins in the in- terior, while Gabriel Lalemant had not yet arrived from France. An account of this play is given by Paul Le Jeune in the "Jesuit Relations," dated Kebec, Septem- ber 10, 1640: Last year we made bonfires for the birth of Monseigneur the Dauphin; we entreated God, by a solemn procession to make this child like his father. Our joy and our af- fection were not kept within the bounds of one year; Monsieur the Chevalier de Mont- magny, our Governor, wishing to prolong it, has had a Tragi-Comedy represented this year, in honor of this new-born Prince. I would not have believed that so handsome apparel and so good actors could be found in Kebec. Sieur Martial Piraube, who had charge of this performance, and who rep- resented the chief personage, succeeded ex- cellently, but in order that our Savages might derive some benefit from it, Mon- sieur the Governor, endowed with uncom- mon zeal and prudence, invited us to put something into it which might strike their eyes and their ears. We had the soul of an unbeliever pursued by two demons, who finally hurled it into a hell that vomited forth flames; the struggles, cries, and shrieks of this soul, and of these demons, who spoke in the Algonquin tongue, pene- trated so deeply into the hearts of some of them, that a Savage told us, two days af- terward, that he had been greatly fright- ened that night by a very horrible dream. What the play was we do not know, but it was plainly not a religious play. It may have been a play by Hardy— a play like "Alcestis" would afford an opportunity for the Algonquin scenes. Or it may have been a play by Corneille, possibly the "Cid." In all the editions of the "Cid," from 1637 to 1644, the play was called a "tragedy-com- edy." Piraube, who doubtless selected it, was a royal notary in Quebec from 1639 to 1643, and close to the Governor. He must have seen the "Cid" played in France. As the tragedy was published in 1637, he could easily have secured the text. Or, it may

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88 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 have been one of Richelieu's composites. We only know that it must have been a published play of some acting excellence. The next reference to play-acting in Que- bec speaks of the "Cid" by name. In the "Relations" for 1616 Jerome Lalemant tells us : On the last day of the year they gave a performance at the warehouse, Enacting the sit. Our Fathers were present — in de- ference to Monsieur the Governor, who took pleasure therein, as also did the savages — that is, fathers de Quen, Lalemant and de- fretat: all went well, and there was nothing which could not edify. I begged Monsieur the governor to excuse me from attend- ance. The Lalemant mentioned is the writer's nephew, Gabriel, who had just arrived from France, and who died by torture at the hands of the Iroquois in 1649. De Fretat had also just come from France. De Quen had been in Canada eleven years; but his at- tendance at this play of Corneille's suggests the interesting possibility that he may have heard its author's name before that name became famous. Corneille, we know, was educated by the Jesuits at Rouen; and De Quen entered the Society at Rouen the year that Corneille as a boy of fourteen was awarded the important prize of a large folio volume, for proficiency. Both Le Jeune and Vimont, who saw the 1640 "tragi- comedy," also entered the Society at Rouen while Corneille, as far as we know, was a student of the Jesuits there. In 1651 the "Relations" speak of another play by Cor- neille: "December 4. There was a per- formance of the Tragedy of 'Heraclius,' by Corneille." And in 1652 the "Cid" was played again: "April. On the 16th, there was a performance of Corneille's Tragedy, 'le Scide.' " These early Quebec plays seem to have been produced usually under secu- lar auspices, but in 165S the Fathers them- selves, or rather, their French and Indian pupils at the college, gave a play: July 28. Monsieur the governor did us the honor, with Monsieur The abbe queylus, of coming to dine at our house. There he was received by the Youths of the country with a little drama in french, huron, and Algonquin, in our Garden, in the Sight of all the people of quebec. The sieur governor expressed himself as pleased with that reception. This play is the first that we know to have been written wholly in America; and perhaps it is our last example of genuine American dramatic writing — writing, that is to say, in a native American tongue. Suite adds greatly to our knowledge of it by giv^ ing the names of the parts and players. Although it was produced by a religious order, and almost certainly written by some one connected therewith, it was in no sense a religious play, but a play more like one of our minor Jacobean masques — a com- pound of tableau, allegory, and ballad. I give the names of the characters: Le Genie universal de la Nouvelle-France; Le Genie des Forets, interprete des Strangers ; Les quatre Frangais qui chantent les compli- ments; Le Sauvage Huron; L'Algonquin; fitranger du Sud; fitranger du Nord; Captif Huron, and Captif Nez-Perce. At least four other plays were produced in Quebec before 1702, the earliest date named by Daly and Ford. One of these was a religious spectacle of some kind — one of two referred to by the Fathers during this period. I quote from the "Relations" of 1659: "August 3. A representation was given in our chapel of quebec, in honor of Monseigneur the bishop of petraea. Every- thing went well." In 1668 a secular play was given twice — by whom is not clear: February The 7th and 9th. The play of Le sage Visionnaire was performed with great success and to every one's satisfac- tion. It was as well received the second time as the first. And six weeks later, a second religious play: "March The 21st. Master Pierson had a short latin play performed, on the passjon of our Lord ; it was successful." The last of these plays was Moliere's "Tartuffe," the performance of which at the castle, in 1794, caused a rupture between Governor Frontenac and the bishop, St, Vallier, which never healed. This was the only performance that was opposed by any one during the entire period, and it solely because of the subject-matter of the play. I have brought these early dates to- gether because of their interest to the stu- dents of the drama. Mexico would afford still earlier references to the acting of re- ligious plays; but the later literary and dramatic history of Mexico has no connec- tion with that of major North America. I think that 1640 will prove the earliest reference to dramatic writing in the Amer- ica that now speaks English; but I hope to find allusions to play-acting that will carry that date back to nearer the begin- ning of the century. William J. Nbidig. University of Wisconsin, January 10. it would promote culture and confer the best sort of pleasure. Isabelle G. Oakley. Newuurg-h, N. Y., January 19. INIQUITIES OF THE DUTY ON BOOKS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : In the recent articles in the Nation in regard to the iniquitous tariff on books it has been frequently stated that books in foreign languages are admitted free of duty. Of late, however, it has been rumor- ed that the duty is again to be placed up- on such books. A recent decision of the New York customs appraisers will show that a duty may be exacted from nearly all books in foreign languages under the present law. Some time ago I imported a copy of an annual publication, the Jahresbericht iiber die Leistungen und Fortschritte auf dem Gebieteder Neurologie und Psychiatrie. Like all such works it contains a full bibliography of the subject for the current year, in which the titles of books, medical journals, and articles are given in the original language. Of course, some of these titles referred to English and American works, so that the appraisers decided that the book was printed partly in English and therefore dutiable under the law! Soon some appraiser will decide that "a" and "die" are English words, wherever or however they may be used, which will enable the customs officials to collect a duty on every French, German, or Italian book. Philip Coombs Knapp, M.D. Boston, January 18. ART COLLECTIONS FOR SMALL CITIES. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: May I complain of the poverty of our small cities like Newburgh, for in- stance, with respect to collections of worics or art? Neither painting, engraving, certi mics, nor architecture can be enjoyed or studied in any collection open to the public. If some of the money that streams towards libraries could be directed into this channel RETIRED OFFICERS FOR ACTIVE SER- VICE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I trust you will have a good word to say relative to utilizing the services of officers on the retired list, which is now being agitated in Congress. No one knows except those who have had the experience what it means to an active and capable man that on his sixty-fourth birthday he finds himself with nothing to do. Too old to take up new pursuits, he has outlived and broken all ties and associations formed before he entered the service, and the cem- etery is about the only place open 10 him. Many of the officers of that class are very capable, have had long experience In responsible positions, and are of undoubted integrity. To those of us who have been busy all our lives, it is a great hardship to have nothing to do, and the army is losing the service of a large body of very capable men. p. H. Rat, Brigadier-General U. S. Army. Youngstown, N. Y., January 18. AN EXPLANATION FROM MR. FLEXNER. Tc the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I regret that absence from the city and other causes have postponed so long my noticing the objection which Dean Briggs has made in your columns to my interpretation of what he said in reference to the new method of examining students for admission to college. It is clear to me now that I have attributed to Dean Briggs a view that he was merely characterizing in phrases used by its partisans without his meaning in the passage cited either to approve or to condemn. I am very sorry, indeed, to have misunderstood his position. My criticism should have been directed al- together against the theory in question without saddling any responsibility for it on Dean Briggs. Abraham Flexner. New York, January 30. THE SENATE AND THE PRESIDENT. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In estimating the forces that make up Mr. Roosevelt's unpopularity with the Senate, should not more emphasis be laid on the feeling of envy in that august body than was done in your editorial paragraphs of January 14 on that subject? Mr. Roose- velt has achieved at one bound, rather than by the usual long and laborious path, the popularity which all politicians aim at. He was originally a political accident, was never liked by politicians anyhow, did not pursue their methods, was a man of pro- found convictions — blurted out those con- victions— and, worse than all, won the pop- ular heart by demonstrating that he had a backbone — somewhat as Cleveland did — to the horror of professional politicians. I am not discussing the correctness of his political views, but I wish to call attention to his earnestness and manliness, his frank- ness and fearlessness. To the average wire- pulling, log-rolling, trimming, and com- promising politician, such a character is

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation. 89 inexpressibly hateful; there are few pri- maries in this land in which politicians would not instinctively join forces at sight to squelch such a dangerous and iconoclas- tic personage, and, per contra, there are few districts in which such a man would not be instantly taken up by the people and given the highest office at hand, pro- vided he were brought to their notice. The gist of the situation is that Mr. Roosevelt is now shorn of all power, is practically a common citizen, but still the idol of the popular heart. Behind all the Senate's hos- tility lies the motive force of envy: really the greatest compliment under the circum- stances possible. E. L. C. M. Chicago, Jamiary 19. Notes. A. C. McClurg & Co.'s spring list in- cludes the following titles: "Bill Truetell," by George H. Brennan; "The Delafield Af- fair," by Florence Finch Kelly; "Mission Tales in the Days of the Dons," a new collection of old tales of California, bv Mrs. A. S. C. Forbes; a history and fore cast of the Panama Canal, entitled "The World United," by John George Leigh; "Letters from China," by Sarah Pike Con- ger, wife of the late minister to China; "The Empire of the East," an illustrated description of Japan, by H. B. Montgomery; "A Summer in Touraine," an illustrated study of the chateaux of the Loire, by Frederick Lees; "A Summer Garden of Pleasure," by Mrs. Stephen Batson; "The Point of View," and "A Talk on Relaxa- tion," by Alice K. Fallows; "Making the Most of Ourselves," by Calvin Dill Wilson, "True Manhood," by Cardinal Gibbons; two companion volumes, "The Art of Speech and Deportment" and "Selected Readings," by Anna Morgan; "The Railway Mail Ser- vice," by Clark E. Carr; "Jane Hamilton's Recipes," a book of old-time Virginian cookery, by Charlotte M. Poindexter; "What Is a Picture?" and "My Chums in Caricature," by Herschel Williams. "Lincoln's Birthday" is celebrated by Moffat, Yard & Co., with an anthology oi that name compiled by R. H. Schauffier. Harpers also will bring out a new and revised edition of the "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln," containing recollections by such men as U. S. Grant, Henry Ward Beecher, Walt Whitman, Charles A. Dana, and Robert G. Ingersoll. The book was first prepared by A. T. Rice, when he was editor of the Worth American. Review. A new book of "Yale Verse," covering the period from 1898 to 1908, is to be issued by the Yale Publishing Association. It will contain selections from the undergraduate magazines, together with a number of uni- versity prize poems. It will be uniform in style with the volume of 1898. We have received the fourth biennial edi- tion (1909) of "Who's Who in New York City and State," edited by John W. Leon- ard and published by L. R. Hamersly & Co. It is made on the plan of the national "Who's Who," but owing to its restricted locality is able to include many names not in the more general work and to devote more space to minor details of biography. Of the new English "Who's Who," for 1909 (The Macmillan Co.), there is nothing to say, save that the number of biographies has been again increased, and that for excel- lence of form and for general usefulness it still leads the other directories of which it is the model. The time must soon come, we suppose, when its growing bulk will make necessary the exclusion of all but British names. This could be done with less loss now that America, Germany, and France have their own guides. "Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage," for 1909 comes out in a new cover of blue and gilt, but is otherwise not changed in plan. By its lists of Titled Relatives it gives a com- plete survey of the families of the present nobility. An eighth edition of J. G. Bartholomew's "Handy Reference Atlas of the World" (E. P. Dutton & Co.) contains several new plates and shows revision of the old maps. The lettering though necessarily small is clear. Some of the city maps, however, are scarcely detailed enough to serve any probable purpose. We observe, too, that Staten Island seems to have baffled the cartographist. In the general map of the Eastern States it is attributed to New York, while in that of the Eastern and Middle States (itself a useless duplication) it goes to New Jersey. Again in the map of New York city it is called only Richmond, though the other boroughs receive their lo- cal names. Nearly one-third of the 686 pages of R. F. Foster's "Complete Hoyle" (Frederick A. Stokes Co.) is devoted to bridge and whist, and the rest to indoor games, in- cluding billiards and pool. Hoyle is proba- bly more widely quoted than any other authority, and none is more fallible. Mr Foster has, however, compiled the rules of all games in a systematic manner, and since he is second to none in this country in knowledge of the best way of playing the various games, his book will be valua- ble for reference. Hoyle, however, in this case, is merely a pseudonym nowadays. The original Hoyle would be absolutely worth- less. The progress of industrial education in this country is described by more than a score of its leaders in the January mono- graph in the Annals of the American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science. Book- er T. Washington contributes a summary of results and prospects. Carroll D. Wright reports on the work of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. All the other articles deal with special problems or schools. Miss Mary Schenck Woolman's estimates of the relative value and cost of teaching various trades in a girls' trade school bring us information much wanted at the present stage. Her figures are largely drawn from the Man- hattan Trade School, of which she is di- rector. Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Columbus, and Manila institutions give ac- count of themselves, likewise six schools conducted by private industrial corpora- tions, stores, and labor unions. Too short and inconclusive, but in excellent spirit is the closing paper by John Golden, president of the United Textile Workers of America, on "The Position of Labor Unions Regard- ing Industrial Education." Mr. Golden cites instances to show that organized labor is no longer prejudiced against such teaching. The emancipation of Mohammedan women is shown to be one of the most remarkable and encouraging results of the recent blood- less revolution in Turkey, by Miss Mary Mills Patrick, president of the American college for girls at Constantinople, in the National Geographic Magazine for January. What the first use which they will make of their freedom will be is indicated by the fact that "there is no subject that is being discussed with greater interest and vigor in the Turkish press to-day than that of the education of women." For some time past they have been permitted to become teachers; a normal school at the capital called the "Home of the Lady Teachers" sends out annually a class of from sixty to one hundred graduates, while weekly lec- tures for women are given in the new Mo- hammedan Medical College in Constanti- nople. During the past twenty-five years there have been many women writers of poetry, romances, and works on philosophy, ethics, and religion. Three new reviews for them are now being published in Constanti- nople, and women's papers in other parts of the empire. Another noteworthy indi- cation of the new spirit awakened in the empire is given in the same magazine by President H. S. Bliss of the Syrian Prot- estant College at Beirut. For three days, to celebrate the granting of the Consti- tution, there were assemblies of Jews, Christians, and Moslems in that wonderful sacred enclosure of the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, which has been for ages barred to all but followers of Mahomet. Further evidence of the progress of the English language in the Philippine Isl- ands, a matter remarked incidentally in an editorial in the Nation, November 19, 1908, p. 4S5, discussing the beginnings of a Filipino literature, is afforded by the ap- pearance of a bilingual monthly, edited and published at Manila, under the double title Biblioteca Nacional Filipina (Philippine Na- tional Library) by Manuel Artigas, a Fili- pino; and by the publication of a weekly English edition of Libertas, a daily period- ical of Manila, owned by the order of St. Dominic and published as the organ of St. Thomas University and of the Roman Cath- olic hierarchy at Manila. During the ear- lier period of American occupation, Liber- tas was bitterly, though rather covertly, anti-American, as spokesman both of Span- ish feelings of resentment and of the friars' fears and prejudices. A change in its atti- tude followed soon after the Manila arch- bishopric was occupied by an American; it has for some time been "reconciled," and is now, indeed, in general, a supporter of "the establishment,' civilly, as well as ecclesiastically. Its English edition will serve as an organ of American Catholics, to some degree; but there is also, as in the case of the English edition of El Rena- cimiento, the Filipino radical newspaper, a desire to reach out toward that new gen- eration of English-speaking Filipinos, es- pecially in the provinces, that the Ameri- can schools are beginning to bring on the Philippine stage. A new edition of "A History of the Philippines," by David P. Barrows, director of education under the Philippine govern- ment, has lately been issued, this time with the imprint of The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis. At the time of its appearance \u 1905, it was noticed in these columns-

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90 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 (Nation of March 1, 1906, p. 177) as the best brief survey of Philippine history available in the English language. The book then attracted a good deal of atten- tion, not because of its merits, but be- cause it was assailed by Archbishop Harty and others in the Philippines and by the Catholic press of this country as being unfair to the Catholic Church in what was said of the Spanish friars and Jesuits in Philippine history. The fact of the matter is, the book is very fair, and is far more considerate of the friars and Jesuits than the most notable Spanish Catholic histor- ians have been. Interested parties desired to oust Doctor Barrows from his posi- tion, and they employed Archbishop Harty and the American Catholic press to this end. It was represented that Doctor Bar- rows had used his position to introduce into Philippine schools this textbook, not only for his own profit, but with a view to "de-Catholicizing" the rising generation of Filipinos. The fact was, the book was written before he became director of the Philippine educational system, and, when it finally appeared, he declined to put it on the list of school texts, deeming such action improper, though his teachers de- sired to use it, as filling a place long va- cant. To the demand that he withdraw the book from sale, a demand addressed to the War Department and transmitted to him by cable, without comment, he had the courage to answer that he would not do so. Now, in the second edition, he says: I have carefully reviewed all these crit- icisms that came to my attention and have concluded that, almost without exception, the statements should remain as first pre- sented. The book, therefore, appears again practically without alteration, except for the correction of typographical errors and the occasional modification of a paragraph. Students of Spenser will welcome a con- venient edition of "The Fowre Hymnes" (1596), of Love, of Beauty, of Heavenly Love, and of Heavenly Beauty, by Lilian Winstanley (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons). The introduction is a study of Spen- ser's debt in general to Plato, of the in- fluence of Plato on these "simple songs," and of the influence of the renaissance Platonism of Marsilio Ficino and Giordano Bruno. This last influence, here treated more fully than in any previous commen- tary, is made especially apparent by nu- merous quotations and parallels. The notes, without being too minutely linguistic, clear up many of Spenser's archaisms. Chiefly, however, we are glad to have the poems themselves in this handy form, the only separate annotated edition available. Hard- ly in the splendors of the "Faerie Queene" itself do the enthusiasm and intensity of the poet's poet show more clearly or more significantly than in these throbbing stanzas. "The Fool of Quality: or the History Oi Henry Earl of Moreland," a novel by Henry Brooke, very popular in the eighteenth cen- tury, is issued by the John Lane Co. .n two volumes of "The New Pocket Library." The work first appeared in 1766 in five vol- umes, and ran through several editions. In 1780 John Wesley got out an abridgment In which he commended the work "as one of the most beautiful pictures that was ever drawn in the world." In 1859 again Charles Kingsley edited a two-volume edition, in which he praised the book as containing "more of that which is pure, sacred, and eternal than . . . any book published since Spenser's 'Faerie Queen.' " And now Francis Coutts in his preface to this new issue apostrophizes Brooke as a "great- hearted, wittty, worthy creature," whose volume is "gay and yet gracious; bright, yet profound; human, yet incorrupt; ideal, yet true." The purpose of W. S. Monroe's "In Vik- ing Land" (L. C. Page Co.) is "to give pros- pective tourists some notion of the bene- fits to be derived from a visit to Norway and to inform those who prefer (or are forced by circumstances) to travel within the covers of a book." This purpose the volume serves very well. The historical chapters and those on commerce, transpor- tation, education, literature, etc., give just a minimum of information, while the de- scriptive offer a clear idea of the nature of the country and the life of its people. Special chapters are devoted to the three principal cities, Christiania, Bergen, and Trondhjem. There is an appendix of sug- gestions for travellers. The illustrations are an important feature, well selected and executed. The text reads too much like a translation. On page 73 there is a curious error (misprint?), when the author says that "on the 4th of November [1905] Karl XIII, second son of King Oscar, was offered the Norwegian throne." The Atlantis, a Greek newspaper of this city, has had the enterprise to publish in modern Greek a complete history of the United states in one voiume ('ioropi'a tu>v 'Hvoneviav rioAtTeiii/ rijs 'AjaepiKTjs). The authors, Solon I. Vlasto and Nikolas Gertzis, make no pretensions, we suppose, to be specialists in the historical field, but, so far as we have looked into their work, they seem to have constructed a clear and interesting narrative. The book may be recommended to classical Greek scholars, who desire to familiarize them- selves with the modern idiom. The trans- literation of the proper names will alone afford considerable amusement. MevcpAdoup, T£wv XiyKOK, Mrrw$4>aAo, and Pwo-/3cAt, for in- stance, have a certain piquancy. "Banzai" (Baker & Taylor Co.) is a Ger- man prophecy in the form of fiction of the great war between Japan and the United States that is due this year. It was com- mented upon in the Nation (July 23, 1908, p. 73), when it appeared in the original. The translator has done his work smoothly, but without quite ridding the text of a for- eign flavor. He might have taken the liber- ty to change such names as John Halifax and Traddles, which sound unconvincing when applied to living people. In the Sammlung Gbschen (Leipzig: Goschen) Wilhelm Kroll has just issued a compact though comparatively complete "Geschichte der klassischen Philologie." It is bas°d upon the best of modern sources and is attractively written. After the exceptionally long interval of ten years, the first volume of Robert Da- vidsohn's "Geschichte von Florenz" (Ber- lin: Mittler & Sohn) has been follow- ed by the second, which, from a liter- ary and artistic point of view, is fully equal to the first. This second volume of nearly thirteen hundred pages appears in two parts: one entitled "Staufische Kampfe," covering the period of 1209-1267; the second, "Die Guelfenherrschaft und der Sieg des Volkes," coming down to the establishment of democracy in 1295. The two parts fill nearly thirteen hundred pages. The author announces that the next volume is in preparation. That monumental product of organized German scholarship, Hinneberg's "Die Kul- tur der Gegenwart" (Berlin: B. G. Teub- ner), has now reached the modern litera- tures, and the tenth part, just published, is concerned with the Romance and Celtic lan- guages. Of the valuable summaries of Gae- lic, Cymric, and Cornish, by Zimmer, Stern, and Kuno Meyer, it is unnecessary to speak, nor of Meyer-Liibke's competent survey of Romance philology. But special attention should be called to Prof. Heinrich Morf's sketch of the Romance literatures. In three hundred pages he has summed up, with admirable tact and intelligence, the liter- ary history of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, from their origins to the present day, with a glance at Rumania and South America. His work, written with equal lucidity and insight, represents German scholarship at its best; and if separated from its less interesting context, would be admirably adapted for translation into English as a sketch of the great literatures of Western Europe. The edition of German classics published by the Deutsche Verlagshaus Bong & Co. of Berlin and Leipzig, under the general title Hempelsche Klassiker-Ausgabe, is now being reissued in a revision entitled Goldene Klassiker-Bibliothek. The char- acteristic features of this edition are a crit- ically correct text, excellent introductions and biographies, copious and well selected notes, with good portraits and facsimiles. The books are very well made, but are sold at the low cost of 1.50 marks a volume. Heinrich Heine's "Memoiren" have just been published in a beautiful edition by Carl Curtius, Berlin. Wherever the fragmentary character of the materials leaves lacunae the skilled editor and Heine specialist, Dr. Gustav Karpeles, has as far as possible supplied the data from the other writings of the poet. Carl Reissner of Dresden has begun the publication of a new series of fiction under the general title Deutsche Novellen. Four volumes have appeared, containing the works of Frida von Bulow, Ottomar Enking, Wilhelm Jensen, and Marianne Mewis. "Der Rosengarten deutscher Liebeslieder" is a comprehensive and well selected an- thology, containing 628 pages of characteris- tic German love songs of all times, begin- ning with the Minnegesang and coming down to our day. Julius Zeitler edits and pub- lishes the work in Leipzig. The old Min- nesongs have been retained in their original Middle High-German garb. In the Kieler Studien zur englischen Philologie, edited by Dr. F. Holthausen, the latest addition is a "literary investiga- tion" under the title "Samuel Richardsons Belesenheit." The author is Dr. Erich Poetzsche. In view of the fact that on July 10 the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Calvin will be celebrated, special interest attaches to the selection of his letters, "Johannes Calvins Lebenswerk in seinen Briefen: Eine Auswahl von 670 Briefen Cal- vins in deutscher Uebersetzung," soon to be published by J. C. B. Mohr of Tubingen. The translator is Rudolf Schwarz.and an in-

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Jan. 28, 1909J The Nation. 91 troduction is supplied by Prof. Paul Wernle. The work will appear in two volumes. The compiler has selected from the 1,400 letters of Calvin found in the Corpus Reforma- torum those which present all sides of the man. The professed aim of the work is to do for Calvin what Carlyle has done for Cromwell. The text is to be accompanied by short explanatory notes. R. Eckart's "Hundert Stimmen aus vier Jahrhunderten iiber den Jesuitenorden" (Leipzig: J. G. H. Wigamd) is an excellent collection of material from both sides of a great controversial question. Vol. I, 200 pages, is entitled "Der Jesuitenorden im evangelischen Urteil"; and Vol. II, 175 pages, "Der Jesuitenorden im katholischen Urteil." The author has evidently aimed to select from both churches only witness- es who are scholarly and fair-minded. The angling library of the late John Ger- ard Heckscher of this city, to be sold by the Merwin-Clayton Sales Company Feb- ruary 2, 3, 4, and 5, is said to be the larg- est but one in the United States, and quite the largest ever offered at public sale. It numbers 2,320 lots. Among the principal features of the collection are copies of all the editions of "The Compleat Angler," be- fore 1824, including the rare first edition of 1653. Another uncommon book is Dame Julyans Barnes's "The Treatyse of Pyssh- ynge wyth an Angle," separated from Wyn- kyn de Wordes's 1496 edition of "Hawkyng, Huntyng and Fysschynge wyth an Angle." With this, the earliest English book on angling, stands the first American book, C. S. Rafinesque's "Ichthyologia Ohioensis," Lexington, Ky., 1820. Other important titles are: Mrs. T. Edward Bowdich's "The Fresh- Water Fishes of Great Britain," 1828-38; Phineas Fletcher's "Sicelides," 1631; P. Bleeker's "Atlas Ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Neerlandaises," with 420 colored plates; Marcus Elieser Bloch's "Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische," with 432 hand- colored plates ; and Richard Blomes's "The Gentleman's Recreation," with about 100 colored plates. Charles Rockwell Lanman, professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University, and gen- eral editor of the Harvard Oriental Series, has been elected a corresponding member of the Institute of France (Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres). He is the ninth American now holding that title. The death is reported of "Hesba Stret- ton," a novelist who received her train- ing under Dickens. Her real name was Sarah or Hannah Smith, although she was known in private life by her pseudonym. Among her many religious and philanthrop- ic stories are: "The Doctor's Dilemma," "Hester Morley's Promise." "Half Broth- ers," "Carola," "Jessica's First Prayer," "Bede's Charity," "Soul of Honor," and "The Highway of Sorrow." From Amalfl comes the report of the death of Ludwig Habicht, the popular nov- elist, at the age of seventy-six. Among his stories are "Der Stadtschreiber von Lieg- ultz," "Vor dem Gewitter," "Am Genfer- Bee," and "Unter fremder Schuld." Nikai Karasin, the Russian novelist and Illustrator, has died at St. Petersburg in his sixty-eighth year. THE RACE PROBLEM IN AMERICA. Race Adjustment: Essays on the Negro in America. By Kelly Miller. New York: Neale Publishing Co. $2. Following the Color Line. By Ray Stannard Baker. New York: Double- day, Page & Co. $2. Studies in the American Race Problem. By Alfred Holt Stone. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. $2 net. Each of these volumes is a compila- tion of more or less detached articles, many of them previously published in magazines or prepared as occasional ad- dresses, and in some instances already widely read and commented upon. None of the books, accordingly, attempts an orderly treatment of the negro prob- lem, either as a whole or in any large aspect of it. There are wholesome dif- ferences in point of view, and some ob- servable differences in the equipment of the authors. Taken together, how- ever, the writers are singularly in ac- cord in their efforts to describe condi- tions exactly as they are, and to indi- cate with precision as well as with good temper the main lines of progress and retrogression. The appearance of three such books in a single publishing sea- son testifies again to the abiding pop- ular interest in this our gravest, most difficult, and most complicated social problem. Of the fundamental change which has taken place in the attitude of even thoughtful Americans toward the negro and his future, these volumes are an interesting evidence. So long as the events of the Civil War and Reconstruc- tion were fresh in mind, the dominant political opinion of the country unhes- itatingly affirmed the essential equality of the negro and white races, notwith- standing the wide difference in social development; urged the supreme effi- cacy of the ballot as a means of strength- ening and preserving the newly con- ferred freedom; and dwelt upon the moral wrong of denying to the negro, especially in the South, equality of civil, political, and even social oppor- tunity. That this ideal, however, whe- ther as a whole or in many of its de- tailed features, has lamentably failed of realization, the most ardent believ- ers in the social philosophy of Recon- struction have been forced to admit. The ballot, widely and avowedly with- held in large parts of the South by a variety of ingenious devices, has long since ceased to be for the average negro either a means of grace or the hope of glory. Instead of social equality we have social discrimination. The sig- nificant thing about all this is, not that it has happened, but that it has been so generally acquiesced in. For ten years and more there has been growing a volume of literature which either as- sumes, or affirms as a fact, the funda- mental and eternal Inferiority of the negro race, justifies the exclusion of members of that race from effective competition with whites, denies their fitness to vote or hold office, disparages their efforts to obtain an education, and apologizes for the brutal vengeance too often wreaked upon them for their real or fancied crimes. It is no longer fashionable to praise the virtues of the negro, save as a menial, nor is it en- tirely easy to be friendly to him, save through the medium of an impersonal organization. Partly as a result of this ominous revulsion of feeling, but mainly as a thoughtful protest against its excesses, there has developed a new method of approaching the negro problem, of which the three books named above may be regarded as typical and worthy examples. Students have at last begun to realize the necessity of observing the negro as he is, without prejudice for or against him; of determining his racial status, his intellectual and moral quali- ties, his physical constitution and ten- dencies, his conduct in free contact with the whites, and his productive capacity as a worker. Where the older literature dealt with the negro in the mass, the newer deals with him individually or in small groups, and on both the eco- nomic and the political sides. Such inquiries concern themselves little with the "rights" or the "future" of the ne- gro, but much with what he is actually doing. To paraphrase Booker T. Wash- ington's happy remark, the tendency to- day is not to discuss whether or not the negro ought to be recognized, but rather to discover and make clear what he has done to entitle him to recogni- tion. Professor Miller of Howard Univer- sity, for example, himself one of the most scholarly representatives of his race, discusses in his book such practi- cal matters as the negro's part in the solution of the negro problem, the stat- us of the city negro, the surplusage of negro women, the movement for indus- trial education, the contrasted oppor- tunities for the negro in the North and in the South, the rise of negro profes- sional men, and the careers of notable negroes. His protest against lynching, already familiar under the title of "An Appeal to Reason," enforced as it is by carefully-sifted statistics, is still one of the best and sanest discussions of that hideous, but unsolved question; while his exposure of the shallow pre- tence, gross prejudice, and underlying brutality of "The Leopard's Spots" and other of Dixon's frothings is as admir- able for its calmness and good temper as for its thoroughness and skill. Pro- fessor Miller announces no programme and permits himself little generaliza- tion; but his patient and detailed ex- amination of the facts of negro indus- trial and political life, and his quiet emphasis upon that which is hopeful

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92 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 and encouraging, compels belief that the negro, despite his admitted limitations, is steadily rising in the scale of civili- zation and justifying such freedom as is, however grudgingly, accorded to him. Mr. Baker's attitude, on the other hand, is that of the experienced news- paper reporter, practised in observing closely and in following clues, skilled in choosing relevant and illustrative facts, accustomed to describing things as he sees them, but without marked sense of perspective. "Following the Color Line" is an attempt to discover ana ex- pose the facts regarding race discrim- ination and the reason for it, and to explain the attitude of the South, both black and white, towards race riots, lynching, and other less violent, but ef- fective attacks upon negro individuals and negro communities in various parts of the country. Mr. Baker's conclusion that the white man rises against the negro whenever the negro comes, or ap- pears likely to come, into effective eco- nomic or political competition with him, and that discrimination and denial of social equality, being grounded in a, conviction of white superiority, are inevitable preventive checks applied to keep the races apart, is not, of course, novel; but the wealth of illustration which crowds his pages gives telling force to much of what he says. Mr. Stone, who for several vears has been known to a small circle as one of the most acute and painstaking stu- dents of negro conditions in the South, has made a volume out of a number of addresses and magazine articles, to which Prof. Walter F. Willcox adds three papers on negro criminality, cen- sus statistics of the negro, and the probable increase of the negro race in the United States. Mr. Stone is at his best in dealing with statistics and con- crete economic conditions, and his studies of the negro in the cotton lands of the Yazoo delta have been recogniz- ed by economists as of prime impor- tance. The paper on "The Mulatto Fac- tor in the Race Problem," first publish-' •ed in the Atlantic in May, 1903, and ex- tensively commented on at that time, is a substantive contribution of perma- nent interest. In the field of agricul- tural labor, which he is apparently making his own, Mr. Stone can speak with authority; but in the broader field of social and political relations, he is less happy. His papers on "The Negro in Politics" and "Mr. Roosevelt and the Negro" are repetitious and inconclu- sive. As regards negro criminality, Pro- fessor Willcox finds "a large and in- creasing amount of negro crime . . . manifested all over the country," due to "defective family life, defective in- dustrial equipment and ability in com- parison with their competitors, increas- ing race solidarity among the negroes, and increasing alienation from the whites" (p. 474). To the extent to which the Southern whites minimize their own responsibility, or Northern whites ignore Southern conditions and the effect of Federal policy since the Civil War, each helps to perpetuate sectional antagonism. All of these writers agree in ap- proaching the study of the negro prob- lem with open mind, in keeping close to facts and avoiding vague or sententious generalizations, and in attending to small details with patient care. Mr. Bak- er, more accustomed than the others to tilting a lance, frankly affirms the intel- lectual and moral unfrankness of the South in its attitude towards the whole question; but his volume, like the oth- ers, bears testimony to the evident, though painfully slow and irregular, progress of the better class of negroes in morals, education, economic efficiency, wealth, and political capacity. The one fact that stands out glaringly, however, in all these discussions is the well-nigh universal tendency, North as well as South, to discrimination against the negro as belonging to an inferior race. We are brought face to face with the as yet unsolved problem of democracy — the ability of a democratic society to comprehend within its spirit races essentially diverse. To this hard ques- tion neither writer ventures more than a hesitant answer, an expression of hope rather than of confident faith. They leave the educated and efficient negro where they find him — on trial before a changing and unsympathetic democracy. CURRENT FICTION. Heather. By John Trevena. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. This book is the second of a moor- land trilogy, begun with "Furze, the Cruel" (see the Nation of March 26, 1908, p. 387). Heather typifies endur- ance, and the last book is to deal with Granite as embodying strength. In spite of a certain crude power in the first of the series, "Furze," one was left won- dering whether it would be possible for human ingenuity to construct a much more disagreeable book. "Heather" an- swers this question; it can be done, and Mr. Trevena has done it. After the pres- ent work, our faith in his dismal pos- sibilities is unlimited. He may have a sense of humor and produce in "Gran- ite" a thing of sweetness and light; but in this supposition the reader's hope and faith are not cooperative. "Heath- er" begins at a tomb, whence the scene shifts to a sanatorium for con- sumptives, an institution that, as por- trayed by Mr. Trevena, savors strongly of an asylum for the insane. From this auspicious beginning the tale moves on consistently through disease, filth, mad- ness, discouragement, and degradation indescribable of body and mind. By a final tour de force, Winnie Shazell, the personified Heather-spirit, is returned to her native moor and, supposedly, to happiness with George Brunacombe; but after almost five hundred pages of the ingredients specified above, one is in- clined to meet the suggestion of a pos- sibility of wholesome joy with incred- ulous apathy. The characters are for the greater part entirely unconvincing; Cruickshank at his wildest never con- ceived such a phantasmagoria of grim caricature. Their one great common bond is a strenuously dwelt upon aver- sion to personal cleanliness. Among them all only three are represented with a thoroughly sane and healthy outlook on life — Gregory Breakback, the clean- hearted peasant visionary; Tobias, the fox-terrier; and Bubo, the one-legged owl. One is compelled to believe that Mr. Trevena is endeavoring to set forth some great truth — no aim less potent could have sustained him through this grewsome task: the question is, What is he trying to tell? The Adventures of a Nice Young Man. By Aix. New York: Duffield & Co. The anonymity of this book really piques curiosity; for, unlike the general run of unacknowledged novels, it pos- sesses exceptional qualities of style and temper. Its author is an observant spec- tator of the present, but his imagination turns for contrast and refreshment to the eighteenth century — to the time of the Queen Anne wits and moralists, to the time of Pamela, Joseph Andrews, and Dr. Primrose. It is a part of the interesting reaction, of which William De Morgan's books are also a part, against the self-consciousness, the small realism, the unhealthy psychologizing of the "new literature." The success with which "Aix" has laid off the new liter- ary man and put on the old is remark- able; he has not only achieved a fluent, humorous, easy-chair style of the eigh- teenth century — we need not say exact- ly whose — but he has assumed also, with equal happiness, its moralizing and hu- manistic spirit. The special novelty of the book is that it holds this antique literary mirror up to contemporary life in New York. The hero and narrator is a young man of to-day whose youth was nourished on Latin and Greek and the English clas- sics by an almost extinct type of schol- arly clergyman in an out-of-the-way place. Like an adventurer from another age, he enters the metropolis to seek his fortune. His ideas of religion and morals hark back to Pope and Bolingbroke; his notions of polite society to Congreve and Dryden. He steps into literary circles where Fanny Burney is mistaken for a living author and Fielding for a con- temporary of "rare Ben Jonson." His scraps of Horace and Moliere cause a raising of eyebrows. In many other re-

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation 93 spects, however, he finds the modern world similar to that which Tom Jones knew. It is a pity that so dashing a piece of bravura was not more vigorous- ly sustained. In the latter part of the novel the initial mimetic impulse seems to flag, and the piquant personality of the hero subsides rather disappointing- ly into that of the author. Further- more, the narrative, episodic enough throughout, is artificially broadened to- ward the end, checked, and overburden- ed by the serious satirical purpose. As a result, the work is notable neither in structure nor in characterization. Its interest lies very largely in the archaic literary flavor and the peculiar play of the comic spirit over the selfishness, the vanity, the feverish business, the smug absorption in the present, the super- ficial culture of present-day Americans. The satire hits many marks, but it is singularly genial and entertaining; it strikes with a kind of old-fashioned wit and antique urbanity. The Tramping Methodist. By Sheila Kaye-Smith. London: George Bell & Sons. The first pages of this story give signs of its being a novel of theology and dogma. The time is eight years or so after the death of Wesley. The Meth- odists had seceded from the Establish- ed Church, Methodism was in bad re- pute, and the tramping preacher ran no small chance of ill-usage. Humphrey Lyte was born into a family of debased churchmen. Doctrine might be rigid, but life was lax, and the little boy un- derwent a quite theatrical amount of cruelty before experiencing instant con- version from reading a Kempis. Later, his yearning for a more frequent ad- ministering of the Sacrament than the easy-going parishes of his neighborhood afford, turns him from being "loyal churchman and devout Sacramentalist" to Methodism. The final impulse is furnished him by a happy falling in with a saintly Methodist trio of friends, a father and daughter, and a famous, ragged, wandering preacher, a man of "two loves, God and Nature, and two books, the Bible and the green earth." Just as the reader has settled to the ex- pectation of a novel of creeds, a wind blows through the pages and the hero, preacher though he is, proves to be a gypsy of gypsies. His mission is to save souls and it takes deep hold of him. But Nature comforts him in all his wrestlings of spirit, and in his profound personal sorrows. With him, the reader does a bit of road wandering that Stev- enson might have prompted. And now begins the fermenting of a real plot in a good old English way. It deals with past injuries and present vengeances; with faithful love and loyal self-sacrifice; with treachery, mur- der, and sudden death; with foul prison life, and freedom on Sussex downs; with fervent religious faith, even to the brink of martyrdom, and rescue by the arm of the Lord. The whole is almost a revival of the novel of an older day; rather, perhaps, a combination of sev- eral time-honored models. It has a foundation of theology, an atmosphere of "Lavengro," but a "Lavengro" less occupied with towns and more with rivers, skies, dewy mornings, and the songs of birds; it has a touch, too, of the hero-villain-and-mystery manner of "Smugglers and Foresters." After the slight preliminary depression, after dog- ma has yielded to piety, it is a story of real substance and interest, in a vein uncommon now, a welcome return to dignified ways of fiction. The Letters of Jennie Allen to Her Friend Miss Musgrove. By Grace Donworth. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. These letters are a strictly domestic product of a type sufficiently establish- ed to require no protective tariff. A New England woman, who lives in her brother's large and tumultuous family and makes her living by sewing on "rappars," writes voluminously to a friend and unfolds the heart and hearth affairs of herself, her family, and her neighborhood. She is "a woman with- out nerves" and with a capacious heart, and is disclosed by the march of her pen as a humble instrument of Provi- dence in making crooked things straight and rough things smooth. There is not a kind action or a blunder in spelling that Jennie Allen does not pro- fusely practise. From spoiling her lit- tle nieces and nephews to reuniting parted lovers runs the range of her al- truism. Her letters are written in the quintessence of dialect made up of New England, Pomona of Rudder Grange, and Jeames Yellowplush. At lamentable moments some deplorable punning and other lapses from taste pull the book down below even its own moderate level. But with those drawbacks there is diversion of a plain, amiable, rag- carpetty sort between its covers. Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino: Illus- trating the Arms, Arts, and Litera- ture of Italy, 1440-1630. By James Dennistoun of Dennistoun. A new edition, with notes by Edward Hut- ton; illustrated. 3 vols. New York: John Lane Co. "As for the corruptions and moths of history, which are epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banished as all men of sound judgment have confess- ed." So wrote Bacon in his "Advance- ment of Learning"; and his great rival Coke, showed himself of the same opin- ion: This I know, that abridgments in many professions have greatly profited the au- thors themselves ; but as they are used, have brought no small prejudice to others; . . . . for I hold him not discrete that will sectari rivulos, when he may petere fontea. Such was the counsel of two great Eliz- abethans, and who shall gainsay it? Yet the author who would follow it, not only in his own researches but also in his manner of writing, can hardly hope for his reward from the general reader; and we are, therefore, not sur- prised that James Dennistoun's learned "Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino" has (reached only its second edition, after a lapse of well nigh sixty years. That he spared neither time nor labor, that he made himself acquainted with all (available original sources, that he ex- amined innumerable manuscripts in half the libraries of Central Italj, that his work is sound and scholarly and hon- est— all these things have profited him little with the public, because he is too full, too exhaustive, and too prolix. For years to come, his book will probably continue to form one of the principal quarries, from which historians of the houses of Montefeltro and Delia Rovere must hew much of their most valuable material, but it has found and, we fear, will always find, even in its new dress, but a limited circle of readers. Its great and abiding usefulness is as a work of reference. And this is a fact which Mr. Hutton has consistently borne in mind. Except for the correction of such errors as were obviously due to oversight and the oc- casional transfer to the footnotes ot di- gressions which unpardonabiy inter- rupted the narrative, he has wisely left the text of his author untouched. His business lay with the notes; and his notes are precisely what notes to such a work should be. It would be difficult to imagine anything better. Crammed with references to all the latest Italian authorities, they form an extraordinar- ily complete catalogue of the literature of the subject, and have brought Den- nistoun entirely up to date. The in- dex, too, is remarkably full and accur- ate, and it is no exaggeration to assert that, thanks to its editor's unselfish in- dustry and zeal, the value of the book has been more than doubled. Mr. Hut- ton has done excellent work before in more than one field of literature, but he has never yet done anything for which the serious student of things Italian will feel so profoundly grateful. A special feature of this new edition is its illustrations, some of which, such as the portraits of "Giulia Diva" and Cesare Borgia, from contemporary med- als, now in the British Museum, are of a more than superficial importance. The pictures, over a hundred in number, have been selected to reflect the spirit of the book, which flings its arms wide and embraces many things besides the Counts and Dukes of Urbino. Accord-

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94 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 ingly, in addition to almost all existent portraits of the Montefeltro and Delia Rovere Dukes, their Duchesses ana courtiers, the artists and men of letters, with whom they surrounded themselves, we have a large number of pictures il- lustrating the fashions of the period, the manner of dressing the hair, the wear- ing of jewels, and so forth. In a word, both publisher and editor have done everything in their power to make the work as useful, as attractive (and, dare we say, as popular?) as its nature will permit it to become. Naval Administration and Warfare: Some General Principles, with Other Essays. By A. T. Mahan. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. $1.50 net. While every product of Capt. Ma- han's fertile pen deserves careful read- ing, this latest collection of essays pos- sesses the added merit of exceptional timeliness through the initial articles, "Principles of Naval Administration" and the "United States Navy Depart- ment." Written five years ago, they discuss calmly and with judicial detach- ment the questions of organization and method recently forced upon public at- tention by the now famous Reuter- dahl strictures in McClure's Magazine and the equally famous Newport Con- ference. In this fog it is to the de- liberate expressions of thoughtful stu- dents like Mahan that we should look for guidance, rather than to somewhat hysterical charges and personal recrim- inations which stir up bad blood with- out materially advancing our knowl- edge. In these papers, Capt. Mahan goes briefly over the history of the Navy Department from its original constitu- tion with a Secretary and one clerk in 1798 to its present form (established in 1842), with a Secretary and several bu- reaus. The number of the latter was fixed at eight in 1862. It is among these eight offices that the Secretary dis- tributes his public business under a law which grants him absolute discretion. He could, if he so desired, direct the Bureau of Steam Engineering to build guns and that of Construction and Re- pair to build engines. It follows that, the Secretary being abundantly able to organize the Navy Department after his own fashion, if anything be wrong therein the fault lies primarily at his own door, and not with Congress, which has done its full duty in devolv- ing upon him this very responsibility. The way to reforms, then, is not through fresh enactments, but, rather, through more competent secretaries. Two articles follow on the war be- tween Japan and Russia. They are in- teresting as giving, first, a careful study of the strategical lines along which the campaign was certain to develop, and, second, the proof, through the event, of the soundness of the forecast. Intellectually, Capt. Mahan is here at his best. We must regret, however, a trick of lapsing into ponderous and turgid diction, no true reflection of the clarity of his mental processes. Not- ing, with disapproval, the dispersion of the Russian naval forces at the out- break of hostilities, he draws the warn- ing, for us, to keep our battleships to- gether. No matter where they may be, far or near, they are formidable in di- rect proportion to their concentration. The space at our command forbids discussion of all the other papers in this volume, but those relating to the Pacific cruise cannot be passed over. There was no necessity for Capt. Ma- han's attributing to the critics of this move "a campaign of misrepresenta- tion" in which "an obvious and perfect- ly sufficient reason for this cruise" was "ignored in favor of one less probable and so far as knowledge went, non-ex- istent" [the italics are ours]. These last words and the guarded manner in which he qualifies his definition, as "a measure designed upon its face [the italics ours] to reach a practical solu- tion" of an important technical prob- lem, suggest a deeper and a hidden mo- tive. If the inner history of this mod- ern Odyssey is ever made public, it will undoubtedly transpire that the move- ment was originally planned in stra- tegic preparation for an eventuality which, at the time (the spring of 1907) seemed not impossible; that, when the news of the contemplated voyage leak- ed out, the immediate result was to arouse grave suspicions of its real pur- pose abroad and downright consterna- tion at home; that the ensuing tangle of confession and denial- left us at last in such a position as to make advance and retreat almost equally ridiculous; that, as the best way out the mess, the transfer of our fleet to the Pacific was ordered under the guise of "a practice cruise"; that what would have been a startling move, if made without warn- ing in March, 1907, became, through the delay till December of that year (most happily for all concerned) a peaceful round of international visit- ing; and that, save in learning better economy in the use of fuel, and in ac- customing officers and men to rely less upon dockyards and more upon their own resources, the cruise has been large- ly devoid of professional education. In- deed, the itinerary has rendered evolu- tions in general and battle tactics in particular quite inadmissible. In this connection the list of questions posed by Capt. Mahan, such as where to coal, the amount required, how to get it to the points selected, the availability of cer- tain estuaries and stretches of the ocean for this object, could as easily have been answered from the knowledge al- ready in the possession of the authori- ties in Washington. In fact, many of the questions were so answered, as the excellent arrangements made in ad- vance for replenishing empty bunkers and storerooms abundantly proves. Of course, something has been gained by the demonstration that these arrange- ments were found efficient, but, on this point, no reasonable doubt could ever exist. Had the experiment been tried under the conditions which govern in time of actual warfare, its value would have been very great; but these conditions were in no case simulated. In view of the fact that the commander-in-chief, Admiral Evans, was unfortunately incapacitated by serious and at times alarming ill- ness from going on deck, more than a very few times, after leaving the West Indies, and that his duties were neces- sarily performed in his name by others, who rendered faithful and loyal service, it is surprising that Capt. Mahan would have us "recognize explicitly the indebt- edness of the nation" to Admiral Evans. The Bernstorff Papers. The Life of Count Albrecht von Bernstorff. By Dr. Karl Ringhoffer; translated by Mrs. Charles Edward Barrett-Lennard and M. W. Hoper. 2 vols. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. $6 net. This English version of "Im Kampfe fur Preussens Ehre" puts before us, in a less inflated style than that of the original, the public career of a typical German diplomat. Count Bernstorff played some part in domestic politics. Like Hohenlohe and others, he was among those who early sighed for Ger- man unity, though with not a glimmer- ing of the fiery furnace in which Bis- marck was to forge it. Bernstorff had a brief experience in the Prussian minis- try, but his chief title to remembrance is as a representative of his country at Naples, Paris, Munich, Vienna, and, longest and most important of all, Lon- don. The latter city was the scene at once of his chief trials and his main triumphs. He was there through the Crimean War and also during the war with France in 1870. In that year, by getting off to German warships prompt warning of impending hostilities, he saved them from probable destruction by the French. Throughout the contest, he played a useful part. To his hands fell the abortive negotiations with the Empress Eugenie, under Bismarck's di- rection, when that statesman was look- ing about, after Sedan, for some one to treat with. Yet little new light is thrown by these volumes upon that epi- sode. Count Bernstorff's official corre- spondence, as here given, was icily reg- ular, diplomatically null. The really in- teresting things are the private letters of Countess Bernstorff. Her accounts of family affairs, with her comments upon ministers of state, ambassadors, and royalties, public ceremonies, balls, en-

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation. 95 tertainments at Windsor, etc., can be read with mild pleasure. Count Bernstorff's son, whose birth in London is here recorded, has just as- sumed his duties as German Ambassa- dor to the United States. Science. Ruwenzori: An Account of the Expedi- tion of H. R. H. Prince Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of the Abruzzi. By Filippo De Filippi. F. R. G. S.; with a preface by H. R. H., the Duke of the Abruzzi. Pp. xvi+408. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $8 net. The expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi to Ruwenzori, anciently known as the Mountains of the Moon, was in some important respects without a par- allel in the annals of African explora- tion. Though the range was accurately described by Ptolemy as mountains "whose snows feed the lakes, sources of the Nile," its existence has been doubted in modern times, since Euro- pean travellers have been close to it without seeing it — owing to the extra- ordinary opacity of the atmosphere which often makes it invisible even in fair weather. On May 24, 1888, the range was discovered by Stanley, who gave it its present name — the one among many native names by which it was most widely known. Since that time there have been partial explorations of the region, but it was left for the Duke of the Abruzzi, who had already at- tained a leading place among explorers, by his ascent of Mt. St. Elias and his Polar expedition, to solve the mystery still hanging over the snow-clad peaks. With ten European companions, he left Naples April 16, 1906, and so wonder- fully have the transportation facilities increased in east Africa by railway, steamer, and well-built roads that the place chosen for his headquarters camp, nearly a thousand miles from the coast and at an altitude of 12,461 feet, was reached in fifty-four days. Ten years ago, this journey would have taken more than a year. It was a singularly un- inviting spot, so drenched with the nearly continuous rain that it was diffi- cult to light a fire or to get fuel. In the ensuing five weeks ascents were made of sixteen of the ice peaks of the six mountains constituting the range. This gave the knowledge requisite to de- scribe the general formation of the line of watershed, the configuration of the mountains, the relative height of the different peaks, their connection with the several valleys, and the extent and position of the glaciers. Astronomical, geological, and meteorological observa- tions were taken and collections were made of the minerals, fauna, and flora of the region. In the 337 different spe- cies of plants collected, sixteen were found to be new genera and seventy-one new species; while the 106 new genera, species, and sub-species in the zoologi- cal collection make a valuable contri- bution to the knowledge of the African fauna. Many of the known species also in the collection had never been record- ed in this part of Africa. The chief geographical result of the expedition was the demonstration of the fact that the range is composed of six masses, each mountain having several peaks set on a curve, the long axis of which runs north and south. The central group was named appropriately Stanley, the other five, Speke, Baker, Emin, Gessi, and Prince Luigi. To the untiring energy of the leader, seconded by the zeal and ability of his companions, the great success of the expedition may justly be attributed. The account is not by the Duke or either of his associates, but by Cav. Fi- lippo De Filippi, his companion on and narrator of a previous exploration. He has made such a judicious use of the notes and journals furnished him that it is difficult to conceive that he was not an eye-witness of the scenes which he describes so graphically. The first part of the volume narrating the inci- dents of the journey from the coast, and especially the account of Entebbe, the principal town of Uganda, has the great- est general interest. The details of the exploration work and of the numerous ascents, very similar in character as to perils braved and difficulties overcome, to which the main part is devoted, can- not be made entertaining. We except, however, the account of the ascent of the highest peak. When the Duke and his three Swiss guides reached the top: They emerged from the mist into splen- did clear sunlight. At their feet lay a sea of fog. An impenetrable layer of light ashy-white cloud drifts, stretching as far as the eye could reach, was drifting rapid- ly northwestward. From the immense moving surface emerged two fixed points, two pure white peaks sparkling in the sun with their myriad snow crystals. These were the two extreme summits of the high- est peaks. The Duke of the Abruzzi named these summits Margherita and Alexandra, "in order that, under the auspices of these two royal ladies, the memory of the two nations may be handed down to posterity — of Italy, whose name was the first to re- sound on these snows in a shout of vic- tory, and of England, which in its marvel- lous colonial expansion carries civilization to the slopes of these remote mountains." It was a thrilling moment when the little tricolor flag, given by H. M. Queen Mar- gherita of Savoy, unfurled to the wind and sun the embroidered letters of its inspir- ing motto, "Ardisci e Spera" (Dare and Hope). The work of the translator from the Italian, Caroline De Filippi (born Fitz- gerald), is admirable. The reproduc- tions of the splendid photographs, near- ly 200 in number, by a member of the expedition, Cav. Uff. Vittorio Sella, make the volume one of the most sumptuous books of travel within our knowledge. The wonderful beauty of the represen- tations of the forests and the superb panoramic views of the range it is im- possible to describe. In addition to the mountain scenes there are many pic- tures of the natives. In three appen- dixes are given the main scientific re- sults of the expedition. There are five maps and an excellent index. We are glad to call attention to the fact that "the royalties on the sale of this book will be given to a Fund for the Relief of Italian Emigrants." In his "Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Its Complications" (Philadelphia: W. B. Saun- ders Co.), a handsome volume of nearly eight hundred pages, Prof. S. G. Bonney of Denver has the medical man, practitioner or student, in mind, and gives much space to purely clinical and practical matters. In the sixth part, particularly in its first fifty pages, however, there is a good deal of general interest for the intelligent lay- man as to safeguarding the community and the individual. A little further ,on there is an instructive discussion of the limita- tions of sanatoria. As to therapeutic measures, the attitude of the author is com- mendable, and he very properly protests against extending to pulmonary patients the principles of "physiological economy" in feeding, as some with more zeal than wisdom have recently proposed to do. Con- cerning current discussions of the impor- tance of bovine tuberculosis, Bonney holds that the practical danger to man fully jus- tifies vigorous measures for its extinction. Here, as elsewhere, the complete absence of reference to the literature makes it dif- ficult for the student to appreciate the sources of the conclusion. The theory of Von Behrendt is mentioned, but we fail to find the fuller discussion of it which p. 35 seems to promise. The last chapter of all contains at some length the author's personal experience with bacterial vaccines, concerning which his conclusions are de- cidedly cautious, although not altogether negative. Among the numerous illustra- tions are more than sixty very instructive X-ray pictures (why not Roentgenotypes?) which would be yet more helpful if a clear picture of quite normal conditions were giv- en for comparison. The "Encyclopadie der mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer An- wendung" (Leipzig: Teubner), which was begun about ten years ago as the joint product of the Academies of Sciences in Gottingen, Leipzig, Munich, and Vienna, and which is edited by Felix Klein and Con- rad Miiller, has now reached its fourth vol- ume, entitled "Mechanik." The first part, a book of more than seven hundred pages, has been issued. The first three volumes treated of pure mathematics. The death is reported from England of George Gore, a writer on scientific subjects and especially electro-metallurgy. He was born in Bristol in 1826, but most of his life was spent at Birmingham, where, for a time he was lecturer in chemical and physical science at King Edward's School,

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96 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 His investigations of hydrofluoric acid and the fluorides, definitely proving the ana- logy of these compounds with those of chlorine, are well known to chemists; and in 1865 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, in recognition of the value of his work. In 1877 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the University of Edinburgh as an acknowl- edgment of his services to science. Some years later he declined the offer of a knighthood, but in 1891 he accepted a civil list pension. In addition to his contribu- tions to the publications of scien- tific societies, his writings include: "The Art of Scientific Discovery" (1878) "The Art of Electro-Metallurgy," "The Electrolytic Separation and Refining of Metals" (1890), "The Scientific Basis of Morality," and "The New Scientific System of Morality." The death is announced of Josef Maria Pernter, professor of meteorology and geol- ogy in the University of Vienna. He was born in 1848 at Neumarkt, Tyrol, in 1864 became a novitiate in the Society of Jesus, taught in various institutions, and in 1882 accepted a place in the Central Meteorolog- ical Institute of Vienna. Later he was made a professor in the university. He wrote largely on his subject, his chief work being "Meteorologische Optik," 1901-6. Drama. If "The Dawn of a To-morrow," the new play by Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was produced in the Lyceum Theatre on Monday evening, is not a very powerful or logical demonstration of the direct inter- vention of a divine providence in human affairs, it is, at any rate, more wholesome in sentiment than most recent pieces pro- fessing to deal realistically with the ex- tremes of life, and tells an interesting though entirely conventional, unreal, and theatrical story. It is irritative in motive, incident, and character, and somewhat vague in purpose, but is adroitly put together, contains some effective scenes, and is like- ly to prove popular. Apparently it is in- tended to suggest the intimate relationship between what it calls the "new thought" and the orthodox faith in the potency of prayer, but it is too full of trite sensation and sentiment to merit much serious atten- tion on either the scientific or religious side. The main theme of it is the mental, spirit- ual and physical regeneration of a once powerful and brilliant baronet, now seem- ingly in an advanced stage of paresis, through the agency of a feminine waif, who, by diverting his thoughts into new channels, giving him a new object in life, and inspiring him with her own simple trust in some mysterious, unseen guardianship, effects a cure which science had declared to be impossible. Unfortunately, the source of the providential interventions, which en- able the ragged heroine to emerge trium- phantly from various melodramatic trials and perils, may be traced so easily to the wire-pulling dramatist that happy coinci- dence no longer seems miraculous. Never- theless, the story is an effective one for the stage. The "Kassa" of John Luther Long, which Mrs. Leslie Carter has produced, at great cost, in the Liberty Theatre of this city, is offered as a poetic and allegorical romance, founded on the story of a Broken Butterfly in the ancient Hunnish "Book of the Dragon of Care," but is, in fact, one of the most violent, empty, and silly melodramas seen here in a decade. It is crammed with all sorts of absurd ex- travagances, sentimental claptrap, and ridiculous anachronisms. Kassa, a lovely princess and destined vestal, flees the clois- ter with a royal lover, who betrays her with a mock marriage, and then deserts her. She is then pursued by an amatory imperial chancellor, who threatens to have her false lover executed for sacrilege, if she will not secure his pardon by self-surrender. In the end she returns to the convent, think- ing that she has passed through an evil dream. Doubtless the piece is intended to have a poetic and parabolic significance, but its construction is so crude, its per- sonages and incidents so unreal, and its dialogue so commonplace that its meaning is unimportant. Regarded simply as a ve- hicle for the display of lurid and volcanic emotion, it may fulfil temporarily the pur- pose of Mrs. Carter, who provoked loud applause by her customary demonstrations of a passion which too often degenerated into frenzied rant. She no longer possesses the physical qualifications for a character of this sort, and her acting, though marked by a certain technical proficiency, has no intellectual or spiritual message. The piece is mounted splendidly. Readers of the magazine Der Tiirmer, who have occasionally met in its pages aphorisms on life and art by Ludwig Fahr- enkrog, the artist who has provoked mucn discussion by his heads of Christ, will not be surprised to see the announcement of a drama from his pen, "Baldur" (Stutt- gart: Greiner & Pfeiffer; imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Music. The Story of Musical Form. By Clar- ence Lucas. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $1.25 net. Musical Forms. By Ernest Pauer. Bos- ton: Oliver Ditson Co. 75 cents. To enjoy music, it is no more neces- sary to understand its structure than it is to know botany in order to appre- ciate flowers. Yet the study of botany and of the anatomy of music is likely to call attention to many beautiful de- tails that might otherwise escape at- tention. Most books on musical forms are, unfortunately, so technical, so dry, so crammed with details, that the gen- eral reader shuns them. For this reason one must welcome Mr. Lucas's volume, which is not a text book, but an at- tempt to tell cultivated readers who are interested in good music some interest- ing and suggestive things about the art of composition. Students also will find it useful, because it is always an ad- vantage to get a bird's-eye view of a subject before undertaking a systemat- ic examination of details. Having held a position in this country as a profes- sor of musical composition and history and had a varied experience in England as composer, conductor, and author, Mr. Lucas has secured that thorough mas- tery of his subject which enables him to write about it in a light, gossipy fashion. He further holds the reader's attention by an abundance of modern instances and references to the works of composers now popular. There is no attempt to exalt form above substance, such as one usually finds in books on this subject: Form is the servant; ideas are the mas- ter. The function of form the servant is to help ideas the master to a better ex- pression. Mr. Lucas endorses and applies Herbert Spencer's doctrine that the cnief func- tion of the brain is feeling, not intel- lect: "the greater the brain, the more feeling." Holding this opinion, he natur- ally assigns a high place to composers whose works are preeminently emotion- al, among them Wagner, Liszt, Tchai- kovsky, Grieg, regardless of their atti- tude toward traditional form. Pedants will stone him for what he says regard- ing Mozart and Saint-Saens, yet every word is true: When the sonata form was new, Mozart put many compositions on paper that are of the slightest possible value except as excellent examples of balanced sonata form. . . . Probably not one young com- poser in a hundred would prefer Mozart's D-minor piano concerto to Saint-Saens'8 G-minor concerto for the same instrument. Why must Mozart's be held up as the standard, and Saint-Saens's as the irregu- larity? If we accept the latter work as the standard, then Mozart's is irregular. The fact is that neither is standard and neither is irregular. Any form that serves the com- poser adequately to express his thoughts is a good form. A number of illustrations and facsim- iles are scattered through the volume in a somewhat haphazard fashion. Many details missing in Mr. Lucas's sketch may be found in Ernest Pauer's treatise, which is a text book for stu- dents. The first edition was printed thir- ty years ago, and in this new edition no attempt has been made to bring the remarks on programme music and Ital- ian and on German opera up to date. These, however, take up only a few of the pages; the rest of the book, being concerned with forms established for generations, called for no revision. The variety of these forms is bewildering; of the sacred and secular forms of vo- cal music alone, Professor Pauer dis- cusses fifty-five. He also devotes chap- ters to the national dances, mediaeval and modern, illustrating his remarks with copious citations in musical type. When the student has mastered the con- tents of this volume, he will be ready for Riemann's "Kompositionslehre."

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Jan. 28, 1909] The Nation. 97 The concerts of the Philharmonic Society to be held Friday and Saturday evenings at Carnegie Hall will commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was from 1846 an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society. The third symphony concert for young people will be given in Carnegie Hall on Saturday afternoon, January 30, under the direction of Frank Damrosch. The pro- gramme will show the influence of legends on symphonic music, and Ossip Gabril- owitsch will be the soloist, playing pieces by Mendelssohn and Chopin. Art. Herculaneum, Past, Present, and Fu- ture. By Charles Waldstein and Leon- ard Shoobridge. 48 plates. New York: The Macmillan Co. $5 net. We have heard so much of Hercula- neum in recent years, so many conflict- ing opinions regarding the importance of excavating the site have been voiced, that a book was distinctly needed giv- ing an exact survey of present knowl- edge— such as a collection of data regard- ing the history of Herculaneum and the circumstances of its destruction, a full account of the excavations on the site during the past centuries, and a descrip- tion of the objects found. A book pre- senting such material in concise and ac- curate form would have been more than welcome. "Herculaneum, Past, Present, and Future" is a work of a somewhat different nature. It contains, indeed, a number of chapters on the topography, the inhabitants, and the history of Her- culaneum since the eruption, as well as some useful appendixes, passages from ancient authors referring to Hercula- neum, a bibliography, a plan of the villa, etc. But the main object of the book is the publication of Professor Waldstein's scheme for an international excavation of Herculaneum. It might have been thought that the rejection of his plan by the Italian government in the spring of 1907 would have definitely ended his campaign. That supposition, it seems, was vain. This book reiterates the history of the various controversies on the subject and gives us an account of Professor Waldstein's travels through Europe and America, as well as of his correspondence with ministers, ambassadors, chancellors, and others. That this material is unique no one will dispute, but its scientific value to the world is not quite evident. Another feature of the book is the presentation of Dr. Waldstein's advice as to the best ways and means for car- rying on the excavation. A vivid pic- ture is drawn of what an ideal excava- tion of Herculaneum should be. In Dr. Waldstein's opinion: While all the experimental and mechani- cal sciences have within the last few gen- erations been improved and have kept pace with all the discoveries of modern times, archaeological excavation has remained in the cross-bow stage as compared with the modern repeating rifle. Moreover, he thinks that "it is not only important to excavate, but also to pre- serve the monuments and objects which have been excavated," apparently im- plying that this sentiment is peculiarly his own and not generally shared by oth- er excavators. Had these statements been written twenty years ago, they would hardly have been true; but it would seem that no one familiar with excavations carried on at the present time in Greece, Crete, and Egypt could fail to be impressed with the intelli- gent and up-to-date methods adopted for the actual digging, the careful manner of keeping accurate records (sometimes with an elaborate system of photograph- ing each layer as it is found), and the manifold contrivances to preserve the various finds. Every one will admit with the author that the circumstances and methods of the Argive Heraion ex- cavations were unfortunate; but, hap- pily for the science of archaeology, this case is not typical. If it were, our meth- ods of excavation would indeed "require complete revision and reform." There are different opinions regarding the expectations we should entertain from a complete excavation of Hercula- neum. But even those who think that our future finds there will be at least on the level of the rich harvest derived from the Herculaneum villa will hard- ly go so far as to propose that the ener- gies of the whole world should be con- centrated on this one site to the neg- lect of others. And yet Professor Wald- stein, in the scheme which he has so picturesquely mapped out, proposes to have at Herculaneum a staff of one hun- dred archaeologists and other experts, together with a number of associates, and apparently an army of workmen. The facilities which he would afford to these excavators are royal, but we can- not help thinking that if the world can suddenly be made to show such an in- tense interest in archaeology, we should like to use these generous gifts to the best advantage, and instead of present- ing a spectacular show at one place, help on the work at other equally im- portant sites. For, though the finds at Herculaneum have been both nu- merous and exceptionally well preserv- ed, we must not forget that, even if often derived from Greek originals, they are almost entirely of Roman workman- ship, and that there are many sites in Greece, in the islands, and in Asia Minor, where we may look for genuine Greek works of the first importance, or perhaps the solutions of some of the problems of prehistoric and early Greek archaeology. Besides the chapters mentioned above, which deal with the historical side of the subject, and which we understand are mainly due to the industry of Mr. Shoobridge, the book has another merit — a remarkably rich series of illustra- tions. It is therefore a pity that there is not included a general chapter on the art of Herculaneum, with a short dis- cussion of the more important pieces found there. The literary style is uneven, as is nat- ural in a case of joint authorship. The English is poor in places and the sen- tences are often involved; for example: Even without the destructive hand of man, envious Time of itself sees that its own soul of change should feed on the death of the spirit of each age of man, and on his works, perennial as brotnze, on which he has imprinted his living spirit. The series known as Hausschatz deutsch- er Kunst der Vergangenheit, published for the Allgemeine Lehrerverein of Diissel- dorf by Fischer & Franke of Berlin, has lately added two numbers to its reproduc- tions. One is entitled "Aus den Kupfer- stichen Daniel Chodowieckis," by S. Rtitt- gers, with forty-two plates; and the other, "Die Kleinmeister; Auswahl aus dem Work der Kupfers'techer nach Diirer," by the same editor, with thirty-four plates. The illus- trations, especially those of Chodowiecki, are well selected, and all are well repro- duced. This series is, considering the low price (1.20 marks), one of the best of the many now being published in Germany. Among the new books recently published in Christiania none is of more general in- terest to the world of art and letters out- side of Scandinavia than "I Kamp og i Fest" ("Fighting and Feasting"), "stories about himself and others," selected from Fritz Thaulow's papers, and edited by his widow (Copenhagen, Christiania, and Chi- cago: Gyldendal Publishing Co.). To those who are interested in Fritz Thaulow's per- sonality almost all of these stories will be significant. American readers will find a special interest in the papers dealing with his trip to America, some years ago, to act as judge at the art exhibition in Pitts- burgh. It is to be regretted that the edit- ing and the proofreading has been so care- lessly (or ignorantly) done. The closing paper, entitled "Literature-Painting, Liter- ature-Music, and Literature-Dancing," writ- ten on the occasion of the Rembrandt cele- bration in the Amsterdam Rijks Museum, must be regarded as Thaulow's artistic will Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 09 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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98 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2274 and testament. Though unfinished, it will appeal to all admirers of Thaulow's art. A carefully edited and annotated transla- tion of a selection from this volume might find a considerable public in America. The superintendent of museums and monuments, Prof. Antonino Salinas of Palermo, reports that the most important picture of the collection, the altar-piece, by Antonello da Messina, has been found in the ruins of the Museum of Messina. The central painting, the Madonna Enthroned, signed and dated 1473, was found almost uninjured, but falling stones had broken the wings and the upper panels, although their principal parts were preserved. This fine work had previously been much in- jured. Three valuable Flemish paintings also were recovered, and strangely enough, over seventy specimens of vases from the mediaeval potteries of Urbino and Faenza, and seven cases of artistic silver. It is also officially stated that all the Byzantine and Greek manuscripts and the Aldine edi- tions in the university library have been found unhurt. Although the cathedral is a mass of ruins, some of the sculptures of the ancient fagade and the mosaics from the apse have been saved. A French archaeological mission has made some interesting discoveries in Tan- giers, Morocco. During some building operations in the new quarter of that city a Roman necropolis has come to light. In one tomb were found well-preserved fres- coes; the subjects are varied — a bird of bright plumage encircled by wreaths, a Ro- man standing between two horses, a leop- ard, a peacock, etc. Though several of the tombs show that they have already been at least partly plundered, it is hoped that fur- ther discoveries will throw light on Roman civilization in Morocco. Among the exhibitions in the dealers' galleries in this city are paintings by Paul Cornoyer at Powell's, till January 30; por- traits by Emil Fuchs and water colors by H. Anthony Dyer, Knoedler's. January 30; paintings, Henry W. Ranger, Macbeth's, February 4; American Society of Miniature Painters, Knoedler's, February 6; paint- ings by Edward Lind Morse and drawings by William Fuller Curtis, Bonaventure's, February 7; etchings and engravings by Schoengauer, Diirer, and others, Wunder- lich & Co.'s, February 15. The Emperor William has conferred the decoration of the order "Pour le M6rite" on J. S. Sargent, in recognition of his pre- eminence as a portrait painter. We have to report the death of several French artists: Auguste Mury of Donzy, who was in his fifty-fifth year, had studied under Rossin and exhibited first in the Salon of 1876; a flower-painter of Lyons, Andre Perrachon, at the age of eighty; Amedee Besnus, a landscape painter, aged seventy-seven, who lived in Paris; Antony Regnier, aged seventy-two; and Honors Boze, aged seventy-eight, both of Mar- seilles. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Allen, Horace N. Things Korean: A Col- lection of Sketches and Anecdotes Mis- sionary and Diplomatic. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25. Atkins, Arthur. Extracts from the Letters with Notes on Painting and Landscape. San Francisco: A. M. Robertson. Brooke, Henry. The Fool of Quality, or the History of Henry, Earl of Moreland. 2 vols. John Lane. $1 net. Bury, J. B. The Ancient Greek Historians. Macmillan. $2.25. Chittenden, L. E. Lincoln and the Sleep- ing Sentinel. Harper. 50 cents net. Denison, T. S. The Primitive Ayrans of America: Origin of the Aztecs and Kin- dred Tribes. Chicago: T. S. Denison. District in the XVIIIth Century, The. His- tory, Site-Strategy, Real Estate Market, Landscape, etc. As Described by the Earliest Travellers. Judd & Detweiler, Inc. Driesch, Hans. The Science and Philosophy of the Organism. Vol. II. Macmillan. $3 net. Fow, John H. The True Story of the Amer- ican Flag. Philadelphia: W. J. Campbell. 75 cents. Gaskell, Elizabeth C. North and South. Henry Frowde. Greenwood, Grace. Merrie England: Travels, Descriptions, Tales and Historical Sketches. Ginn. 40 cents. Hall, H. Fielding. One Immortality. Mac- millan. $1.50. Lamb, Charles and Mary. Works in Prose and Verse. Edited by Thomas Hutchin- son. 2 vols. Henry Frowde. MacNutt, Francis Augustus. Bartholomew De Las Casas: His Life, Apostolate, and His Writings. Putnams. $3.50 net. Merwin, Samuel. Drugging a Nation: The Story of China and the Opium Curse. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1 net. Orcutt, William Dana. The Spell. Harper. $1.50. Phillips, David Graham. The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig. Appleton. $1.50. Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln. By Distinguished Men of His Time. Edited by Allen Thorndike Rice. Harper. $2 net. Richardson, Henry Handed. Maurice Guest. Duffield. $1.50. Schechter, S. Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology. Macmillan. $2.25. Seager, Henry Rogers. Economics: Briefer Course. Henry Holt. Sinclair, Upton, and Williams, Michael. Good Health and How We Won It. Fred- erick A. Stokes Co. $1.20 net. Stelzle, Charles. Principles of Successful Church Advertising. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25 net. Symonds, Margaret. Days Spent on a Doge's Farm. Century. $2.50 net. Thomson, James. Complete Poetical Works. Edited by J. Logie Robertson. Henry Frowde. Wheeler, Joseph T. The Zonal-Belt Hy- pothesis: A New Explanation of the Cause of the Ice Ages. Philadelphia: Lippincott. JUST ISSUED SEAGER'S ECONOMICS (Briefer Course) By HENRY R. SEAGER, Professor of Political Economy in Columbia University. 467 pp. and index. $1.75 postpaid. Intended primarily for teachers' who wish to give only that amount of atten- tion to economic theory that is essential to the intelligent discussion of practical economic problems. Not only are several topics discussed in the author's larger "Introduction to Economics" entirely omitted, but the treatment of others is simplified as well as condensed. In the first, or theoretical, half of the book clearness and brevity have been sought; in the second, or practical half, adequacy and up-to- dateness. Henry Holt & Company chi^agSrk THE BERNSTORFF PAPERS : The life of Count Albrecht von Bernstorff By Dr. Karl Ringhoffer. Translated by Mrs. C. E. Barrett- Lennard and M. W. Hoper. 2 vols. 8vo, $6.00 net. " 'The Bernstorff Papers," to which Sir Row- land Blennerhassett contributes a brief but ad- mirable introduction, are a veritable aid to the interpretation of international politics at one of the most dramatic periods in the annals of mod- ern Europe." — Outlook. LONGMANS, GREEN.& CO., 93 5thAve.,N.Y. The Working People as They Are. Out of the Dump A Story by MARY E. MARCY. Illustrated with eight original wash drawings by R. H. Chaplin. Cloth, 50 cents, prepaid. "The book is a voice from the depths. . . . Its outlook is from the viewpoint of the very poor. Mrs. Marcy says that organized charity is unworthy ... to direct the private charity of wealthy people. . . . The little book will prove especially valuable to settlement workers and those interested in charity." — The Inter Ocean. Charles H. Kerr & Co. (Co-operative) 153 KINZIB ST., CHICAGO. New Edition Now Ready. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance With an essay on their genius and a full list of their works in British and Continental Galleries. By Bern- hard Berenson, author of "Venetian Painters of Renaissance," etc. Third Edition. Revised and En- larged. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. "A highly competent student of Italian art ; a nractitioner of the most modern methods of investigation." — London Times. "This little book is written by a man who knows his subject well and who is thorough- ly in sympathy with the spirit of the Renaissance. ' '• — Standard. G, P. PUTNAM'S SONS, ^«S5§ i THE ART OF LIFE SERIES Edward Howard Griggs. Editor. THE USE OP THE MARGIN. By Edward Howard drlzri WHERE KNOWLEDGE PAILS By Earl Barnes THINGS WORTH WHILE By Thomas Weniworth Hlnjlnsoo Each, 50 cts., net; by mail, 5S cts. Send for circular. B. W. HUEBSCH, Publisher, 225 Fifth ave. New York FOR SALE— Copies of the 1st, 2d, 3d, 6th. and 9th editions of "SCIENCE AND HEALTH." In tine order. Address. 1427 F. St., No. 3, Washington, D. C.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY I,, 1909. The Week. There is no reason for surprise at the Supreme Court's decision in the Conti- nental Wall Paper Company case, that debts cannot be collected through the courts by a Trust. The language of the so-called Anti-Trust Act of 1890 is dis- tinct and its penalties severe; one of its sections goes further even than the court went on Monday, and provides that "any property owned under any contract, or by any combination, or pur- suant to any conspiracy," as defined in the prohibitory clause of the law, may, in the course of interstate transporta- tion, be seized and condemned. Vvhat the court declared on Monday was, in the words of Justice Harlan's opinion, that the court "will not lend its aid in any way to enforce or to realize the fruits of an agreement which appears to be tainted with illegality," even when such refusal shields "a defendant who has got something for which, as between man and man, he ought perhaps to pay." This statement enunciates no novel principle. The real question at issue was whether the Wall Paper Com- pany was or was not acting in restraint of trade under the law of 1890, and therefore an illegal enterprise. The court declares this to have been the fact; for the company had obtained a virtual monopoly in its branch of trade, had fixed prices 50 per cent, above what would have prevailed in a competitive market, and had refused to sell to the defendant, a jobbing merchant in the trade, except under a signed agreement to maintain the artificial prices. The decision, it is true, is rendered by a divided court on a vote of 5 to 4, but it will be taken as cumulative evidence, in line with the decision in the Tobacco Trust case, and last week's refusal of the Senate committee to emasculate the Anti-Trust Act itself, that there is to be no diminution of the terrors of the law for capitalistic tyranny. If anti-Japanese agitators in California insist upon the passage of their bills, they may involve the nation in grave difficulties. Do the Californians wish to endanger our trade with the Orient? If they were really in danger of being submerged by an inrush of Japanese, there might be some excuse for their conduct, but that is not the case. The population of California, according to the last census, was 1,485,053, and is now much larger. The total number of Jap- anese under the Japanese consulate-gen- eral at San Francisco in the four States of California, Colorado, Utah, and Ne- vada and the two Territories of New Mexico and Arizona, is but 44,883, ac- cording to official figures. All told, the Japanese government does not know of more than 71,712 Japanese in the whole United States, of. whom 3,403 are in Oregon and 17,623 in Montana, Wyom- ing, Idaho, Washington, and Alaska. Surely, it is ridiculous to speak of peril from such a mere handful of Japanese — even though our fear may be a com- pliment to their industry and ability. The outlook for the Newfoundland fisheries convention, signed last week by Secretary Root and Ambassador Bryce, is somewhat uncertain. The fact that the treaty is to be withheld from the Senate until approved by the New- foundland government shows that such ratification is by no means regarded as a certainty. The treaty leaves the ad- justment of our dispute with Newfound- land so completely in the hands of the Hague Tribunal that Premier Bond should have no valid reasons for hold- ing back. But utter distrust of Amer- ican intentions has become a part oi the Bond faith, and he may feel that not even the Hague Court can escape the subtle effects of our corrupting in- fluence. Hence it is reported that the Newfoundland Cabinet has not accepted the Washington arbitration treaty, but has submitted counter proposals. So the modus vivendi arranged last August for the season of 1908-09 runs on, the Newfoundlanders evidently thinking that ninety-nine years of modus vivendi are better than a permanent solution in which "principle" shall be sacrificed. If Newfoundland does yield, the change will come, we imagine, as a re- sult of the play of domestic policies. Premier Bond's former unquestioned ascendency is breaking down. In No- vember's general elections for the Leg- islative Council, the government secur- ed a majority of only two in thirty- six. With less united backing Mr. Bond may become more conciliatory. Secretary Root's last official act will not count least to his credit. In dis- missing the demand of the Russian Gov- ernment for the extradition of Chris- tian Rudovitz, he has given deep sat- isfaction to thousands of American cit- izens who have seen in Russia's cam- paign against Rudovitz and his fellow- prisoner in this city, Pouren, an assault on the right of political asylum. The Russian Government charged Rudovitz with having committed murder, arson, burglary, robbery, and larceny in 1906. The defence argued that the acts committed by Rudovitz were in his ca- pacity as a member of the Social Demo- cratic party, delegated with others to inflict punishment on certain govern- ment spies. Commissioner Foote, in Chicago, held that Rudovitz was an or- dinary criminal. Secretary Root has now reversed that decision. The doc- trine of political asylum demands that the accused be given the bene- fit of every doubt; and that the absence of all intention to punish him for political offences be made a certainty. In the brief submitted to Mr. Root by counsel for Rudovitz, great stress is laid on the fact that the Rus- sian case was based on the testimony of practically a single person; and that this direct witness had made two de- positions, of which one, made less than a month after the acts charged in the indictment, is contradicted by another made sixteen months later. The first affidavit did not profess to identify the accused. The second did, besides fall- ing into other discrepancies. Counsel ar- gued that there could be little doubt of what had happened in the interval. Russia's well-known methods of deal- ing with political offenders had been brought to bear on recalcitrant or unsat- isfactory witnesses. Their memories were refreshed. And that constitutes the crux of the question. Evidence that comes from a government that tolerates tor- ture and summary execution must be received as suspect. We do not say that such reasoning entered into Mr. Root's decision. The case against Rudovitz, even if manufactured, was weak. But in

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lOO Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 the undecided case of Pouren and in all future cases of the kind, it must be re- membered that neither truth nor liber- ty flourishes under the knout. If the House concurs, a new position in the State Department will soon be created with a title unknown in our po- litical history: "Under-Secretary of State." The Senate voted this office, with a salary of $10,000, because of the overworking of all the recent Secretar- ies of State. "I know," said Senator Lodge, "that the work was so severe, the burden so heavy, that it was a leading cause in the breaking-down of Mr. Hay's health. I know how heavy the burden has been for Mr. Root to carry." Some man, he went on to ex- plain, is needed who can administer the State Department in the absence of the Secretary, or when he is engrossed with diplomatic work of such moment that it can be entrusted to no other hands. "We want a man," Senator Lodge de- clared, "in a higher position, at a larger salary, than is awarded an Assistant Secretary." No one who is familiar with the State Department could possibly deny the need Mr. Lodge described. The Secretary is so harassed by politicians and by newspaper correspondents, is compelled to give so much of his day to Visiting diplomats, or to visitors with legitimate business, or to dictation of necessary correspondence, that the won- der grows that he has any time and strength for the quiet, constructive planning and execution of large poli- cies that have marked both the recent administrations of the office. The importance of the Senate's action lies not so much in the fact that the Un- der-Secretary is to take rank immediate- ly after the Secretary and above the Assistant Secretaries, as in the sugges- tion that this may be the beginning of the introduction into all our more im- portant departments of the permanent sub-official, who shall not be removed with every change of Administration, but shall become the repository of se- crets, traditions, and customs, and there- fore an efficient coach to the Secretary himself. The function of such an offi- cer in England has been clearly set forth by the president-elect of Harvard in his notable work "The Government of England." A political chief of the department brings his administration into harmony with public and Parlia- ment. He is also charged with rooting out old abuses, correcting the tendency to red tape and routine and preventing the department from going to sleep. The Under-Secretaries, on the other hand, advise on the questions that arise, from their background of experience and knowledge. The Under-Secretary is also something like the executive of- ficer on a warship in that he gives di- rections to the proper subordinates for carrying out the decisions and policies of the Secretary. Again, he acts as a reader for his chief, making briefs on all questions requiring attention, so that a decision may be rendered quickly and intelligently. Sometimes the known opinions of an Under-Secretary make it impossible for him to stay in office, but generally, he is supposed to work with Tory or Liberal chief alike. Frequent- ly, by reason of knowledge and ability, he is the real Secretary. It was said of Sir Robert Herbert, who was permanent Under-Secretary from 1871 to 1892, that he was the man who controlled "the des- tinies of the Colonial Office." For the present, our Under-Secretary of State, if created, will probably hold office only with each Administration. Senator Nel- son, however, in the debate, expressed the hope that he would become a per- manent official and no one objected. Whatever the motives prompting Con- gress to vote $500,000 for the develop- ment of military flying-machines, the act may have important consequences. The amazing progress of the past five years in aerial navigation promises things that, but the other day, were wild dreams, and, even now. seem ex- travagant when set down in cold type. We cannot think out the possibilities of a perfect dirigible war balloon without realizing, long before we reach the end of the story, that, in the presence of such an instrument, a regiment will be as a swarm of caterpillars, and a Dread- nought scarcely more dangerous than a mud turtle. Were our government to offer a prize of $500,000 for a perfect aerial fighting machine, the naval bud- get might, in another twenty years, give us no more concern than the pensions for Mexican War veterans. The thing that stands out most sharp- ly in Mr. Root's address to the New York Legislature, last week, is his warn- ing against throwing too great burdens upon the national government. Already, he declares, the efficiency of the govern- mental machine is much impaired by the excessive strain to which it has been subjected. Here, then, we have a great central izer, speaking out concern- ing the dangers of centralization. Here is a man who has been part of the brain of Federal government, for ten years past, reporting that it is being serious- ly congested. The blood must some- how be got back to the extremities, or there will be a stroke. As it is, too much government work "smells of apoplexy, " as Scott said that his lat- er writings did. The process of heap- ing loads on the strong back of Con- gress and the administration began before Mr. Roosevelt became President, but under him it has gone on prodigious- ly. It is common to speak of this as "usurpation." Sometimes, there is pic- tured to us a dictator, greedy of power, reaching out to assume one function of the States after another. In reality, that does not seem to us the true ex- planation. We do not suppose that Mr. Roosevelt ever stops to think whether he is absorbing duties that had better be left to others. He is of inexhausti- ble energy and unbounded confidence, and sees no reason why all the trou- bles and problems of the people should not be referred to him direct. For him, it only means one sympathetic speech the more, an additional message to Con- gress, the appointment of still another commission, the enrolling of more in- vestigators and agents. That costs him little time or thought; so that he wel- comes the thick-coming appeals to un- dertake one novel task after another, and impetuously calls upon Congress to hand out legislation while he waits. But this is not government; this is high spirits tinged with general benevolence, in a man who thinks it, not a "cursed spite," but a cause of pure happiness that he was born to set right the times out of joint. The net result, however, is precisely the same as if all this bind- ing of burdens upon the general gov- ernment had been done with malice aforethought, instead of in sheer in- souciance. The only recourse is to stimulate and develop local government. According- ly, Mr. Root, whose speech a couple of years ago was thought to favor the

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Feb. 4, 1909) The Nation. IOI idea of submerging the State govern- ments in the national, put in an earnest plea for vivifying and extending the power of the State Legislatures, and for exalting home rule in every way possible. He avowed himself a con- vinced and unrepentant Hamiltonian, in the sense of believing in a strong na- tional government, but is evidently fear- ful of the consequences of an unrestrict- ed Hamiltonianism. He beholds with dismay the procession to Washington of men desiring Congress to attend to mat- ters which village selectmen are com- petent to care for; and, evidently, if he could have his way, he would send all such persons home to work out their own salvation on the spot. At Wash- ington, the President showers Con- gress with recommendations, but it, like the man in Anatole France's latest satire, who was buried under the val- uable material which he had collected, is simply overwhelmed and does no- thing. It is close observation of this spectacle that leads Mr. Root to issue his summons to this State, as well as others, to "exercise its powers." L Gov. Hughes cannot but regard as a blow the forced withdrawal of his nom- ination of Frederick A. Wallis as Su- perintendent of Insurance. The incident will be seized by all the small politi- cians of the State as proof that it is dangerous to make appointments with- out consulting the little tin gods of the machine. We shall hear again the familiar talk that the party leaders are really the only men who can exer- cise infallibly sound judgment in choos- ing persons of capacity. In fine, on the frail basis of a single conspicuous ex- ception, there will be the usual attempt to erect a general rule. But if Mr. Wal- lis had been nominated on the recom- mendation of Herbert Parsons or T. L. Woodruff, no hostile inquiry would have been made into his record. The files of the Insurance Department would not have been combed to find matter that could be used against him. And if any outsider had attempted to impeach the fitness of the nominee, he would have been denounced as a "holier-than- thou" meddler. Of course, a different standard must be applied when it is a case of the Governor making his own selection. Reformers will not complain of this. They must be ready to have their acts searched as with a light- ed candle. But it cannot be denied that the Governor acted in entire good faith, and that when he discovered his er- ror in regard to Mr. Wallis he acted promptly and honestly. The position of Superintendent of Insurance is a most difficult one to fill. The Governor is absolutely right in feeling that the in- cumbent should be, if possible, an ex- pert in this extremely complicated busi- ness. Yet the insurance expert can command a salary far greater than the State can offer him, and he may be unable to afford the sacrifice for the sake of serving the public. Then, too, the insurance business has been much demoralized by sharp practice, some of it within the letter of the law, some of it flatly illegal; and the older and more experienced agents are too often sus- pect. It may well be that under these circumstances the Governor will be com- pelled to rely simply on a man of high character and proved ability in other fields, and trust him to master the du- ties of a new office. The Conference on Dependent Chil- dren, which met in Washington last week at the suggestion of President Roosevelt, is another of the praisewor- thy undertakings to which he has lent the aid of his personal popularity and his office. In these social reforms he generally takes a keen interest, and he shows a chivalrous desire to help. This particular conference, composed as it was of 200 of the foremost workers of all faiths, who are devoting themselves to the care of destitute, orphaned, or de- linquent children, reached the unani- mous decision that the use of institu- tions for such children should continue only until homes may be obtained for them. Such a conclusion must carry great weight throughout the country. The conference decided, first of all, that children of parents of worthy charac- ter, suffering from temporary misfor- tune, should be kept in their homes, on the principle that a reasonably efficient family life is of greater value than the suppression of individuality and initia- tive by the routine and impersonal care of an institution; and that a little less cleanliness, together with the affection of a mother or of a good foster-mother, is vastly better than machine-like life of an asylum. The conference admit- ted, of course, that for certain classes of children there must still be in- stitutions, but that where they exist they should be conducted on the cottage plan, after the manner, for instance, of the excellent New York Orphan Asylum at Hastings-on-Hudson. With that po- sition every one must agree. The con- ference also recommended that the State inspect the work of all agencies which care for dependent children in any way, whether by means of private or public funds. This inspection should cover both the formal education of the children and the matter of physical wel- fare. Finally, the conference urged the close cooperation of all child-caring agencies, and the promotion of curative and preventive reforms. Since 52 per cent, of the dependent children in Troy, for example, are dependent because of the ravages of tuberculosis in that city, the reason for the last suggestion is ob- vious. The latest "crisis" in the Balkans is to go the way of its numerous predeces- sors under benign pressure from the great Powers. Bulgaria is to be reason- ed into discontinuing her warlike dem- onstrations, and the Porte is to be per- suaded to accept monetary compensa- tion for lost sovereignty. Servia and Montenegro are being made to under- stand that the Powers will not let their hands be forced. By its treatment of Greece, after its brief and disastrous war with Turkey in 1897, Europe show- ed that a little nation could not always plunge into a row and expect to be sav- ed from all evil consequences by its big brothers. Consciousness of this fact must be present in the minds of Ser- vian and Montenegrin statesmen. So far as the Powers themselves are con- cerned, the thought of war is unwel- come, not solely because of the terrific nature of a general European conflict. Even those people who have been pre- dicting the inevitable approach of such a struggle — the war-mongers of Ger- many and England, for instance — would object to having the war forced upon them at a time and on a terrain not of their own choosing. German strategists engaged in ticketing every square mile of the North Sea and every rod of the English coast, or English naval lords, plotting as to the exact way in which the German fleet shall be destroyed off Kiel, would surely be vexed to have the fighting suddenly begin on the Rumelian border, or off Salonica.

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102 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 OUR TRUSTEESHIP OF CUBA. Americans may take solid satisfaction in reviewing their guardianship of the island of Cuba, which ended last week. By the early withdrawal of its troops and its military and civilian adminis- trators, this country has again proved to the world the unselfishness of its ef- forts to establish in the island a gov- ernment that is stable and indepen- dent. We found the Palma Republic in ruins in October, 1906; in 1909 we give back to the Cubans the control of their own affairs, with their governmental machinery considerably reorganized, with a new President, and practically a new Congress. As an additional se- curity, some American troops are to re- main near Havana until April 1; after that time the administration of Presi- dent Gomez will stand alone. Thus un- der the direction of President Roosevelt the United States has kept its plighted faith in a way to make every one of its citizens proud. We may be proud, too, of the work of the American military and civilian ad- ministrators, who have been unsparing in their efforts to recreate the govern- ment in twenty-seven months. Since the island was first turned over to us in 1899, we have learned much in the art of guiding Latin peoples, and the new knowledge has been put to good use. Many of the American officials have frankly regarded their task as hopeless because of the shortness of the time; but much has been attempted, such as the redrafting of the entire body of law, an undertaking which might well have extended through at least five years, with a subsequent period for ob- serving the operation of the new stat- utes; for bestowing Anglo-Saxon laws upon a community accustomed only to a mixture of Roman law with Spanish and with American military decrees is an experiment new in colonial history. But the heads of departments have none the less given of their best, even when believing that they were asked to do the impossible. Men like Col. E. H. Crowder, Lieut.-Col. E. St. J. Greble, Col. William M. Black, Major J. D. Ter- rill, and Major J. R. Kean, who have re- spectively administered the Depart- ments of State and Justice, of Govern- ment, of Public Works, the Treasury, and the Department of Sanitation, de- serve public recognition for their fidel- ity to their arduous tasks. The army of occupation commanded by Major-Gen. Thomas H. Barry has also merited high praise. The United States has probably never had in the field anywhere a better-trained or better- behaved body of men. Only a single grave crime has marred their extraordi- nary record. Everywhere, the soldiers have made friends and wiped out the memories of the excesses of the volun- teer troops who overran Cuba in 1899. The health of Gen. Barry's army has not only reflected great credit upon his officers of the line and the Medical Corps, but it has proved that American soldiers can live in the tropics and work hard. The schooling of the troops has gone on vigorously, and the careful mapping of every foot of the island is, in itself, a valuable achievement. Gen. Barry has had every reason to tell his men, soldiers and marines, that they have lived up to our best traditions, and the President has officially extended his thanks. It would, of course, be idle to deny that mistakes have been made. The general policy of the American Admin- istration has too often smacked of com- promise, of a desire to conciliate where a vigorous grappling with discordant elements would have been wiser. Thus the retention of one-third of the Con- gressmen on the insular payroll for do- ing nothing during the interregnum has seemed an injustice and a bad example to set to the community; again, Mr. Taft's inclusion within his amnesty proclamation of the men who killed the innocent rural guards at Guanabacoa, nearly a year before the revolution, was a tactical error, as was the payment of the insurgents for the horses they stole while "in the woods." But on these minor details we do not desire to dwell to-day. Moreover, it would be unjust to hold Mr. Magoon wholly responsible for the mistakes; Havana is too near Wash- ington to make it always clear whether a given policy was Mr. Magoon's, or a superior's at the Federal Capital. As to the island itself, time alone can tell whether the new administration is ready to stand on its own feet, or whe- ther the Republic of Gomez will go the way of the Republic of Palma. There are disquieting signs, like the election of one of the reputed Guanabacoa as- sassins as the chief officer of the Senate, and of Orestes Ferrara, as President of the House — a man whom the Hague Conference would not accept as a delegate. But a land enslaved and degraded, deprived of all voice in its own affairs, corrupted by venal officials, cannot be expected in ten years or twen- ty to forget the lessons of long centur- ies of misgovernment. HARRIMAN AS A POLITICAL POR- TENT. The election of E. H. Harriman to the directorate of the New York Cen- tral has been widely discussed as an important event in the world of finance. He has proved himself a railway oper- ator of uncommon skill: under his man- agement the properties of the Union Pa- cific, for example, have largely increas- ed in value. It is not surprising, there- fore, that in expectation of improve- ments to be made in the Central when he should be in control, the stock should, within a month, rise some 15 points. The patrons of the road are like- ly to secure better service; and in that respect his accession will be for the gen- eral benefit. But there is another side to the question. The Financial Supple- ment of the New York Evening Post on Saturday published a table showing the eleven systems in which Harriman, either directly or through cooperating capitalists, now has a dominating voice: Mileage. Union Pacific 5,916 Southern Pacific 9,731 Illinois Central 4,378 New York Central 12,282 Atchison 9,350 St. Paul 8,687 Northwestern 7,623 Baltimore and Ohio 4,462 Delaware and Hudson 845 Georgia Central 1,914 Erie 2,571 Total 67,759 This means that Mr. Harriman now has in his grasp nearly one-third of the total railway mileage in the United States; and that third, embracing as it does such important interlacing trunk lines, implies a domain far wider than the bare figures would indicate. But it is on the political rather than the financial aspect of these facts that we would dwell. The two phases of the subject are, indeed, inseparable. Mr. Harriman's ventures in the stock mar- flet with the $131,000,000 which he raised a year and a half ago through the use of Union Pacific's credit and surplus, not only demoralized the stock market, but extended his sway both as a

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Feb. 4, 1909] railway proprietor and a politician. He has his creatures not only in Congress, but in the Legislatures of the many States through which his lines run. He is even reported to have owned Gover- nors. Certainly, B. B. Odell, jr., was very friendly toward him. If any one wants an example of State political ma- chines manipulated in the interests of a railway, one has only to go to California, where Harriman's Southern Pacific stretches its tentacles from the Oregon line to Mexico. There one will quickly discover that the objection to Harriman is not merely that he is unscrupulous. It is bad enough to have legislators and city officials, as well as newspapers, de- voted to the interests of a man whose methods are sometimes those of a buc- caneer. But were Mr. Harriman the Archangel Gabriel, were he the most benevolent despot alive, were the South- ern Pacific simply a huge engine run for the sole purpose of benefiting the inhabitants of California, those unhappy people would still groan under the yoke and cry out in wrath for deliverance. The American people will not view with equanimity the centralization of such vast power in one person. They say, and say rightly, that it weakens, and ocasionally even destroys, representa- tive government. It is not the voters; it is huge corporations that more than once have declared what the laws shall be and who shall execute them. This is why it is inevitable that the unbridled greed of Harriman and nis kind is sure to be made the excuse for renewed agitation against corporations. We have just passed through a panic, and from one end of the country to the other financiers have been imploring, "Let us alone!" Well, if letting alone results in one man's securing so many thousand miles of railway — the com- mon carrier of America — the advocates of government regulation, and even own- ership, will find weapons ready forged to their hands. In this State we now have Public Service Commissions, vest- ed with unusual authority; and though Harriman and the newspaper organs of Wall Street speculators may rage, the tendency will be — if we may judge the future by the past — to strengthen rather than weaken these commissions. The example, too, is sure to be followed in our neighboring States. The subject is already up for discussion in New Jer- sey and Connecticut. There, as in New The Nation. York, the corporation interests are of- fering a brute opposition, but that oppo- sition is certain to bf defeated as soon as ever the issue is fairly presented to the electorate. Furthermore, there has been a long campaign for amending the Sherman Anti-Trust law. The defects of that statute are patent; but we doubt whether, with the vision of Harriman bestriding this country like a colossus, Congress would dare run counter to pop- ular opinion by passing any amendment that might seem to favor the corpora- tions. If corporations are subject to what their managers call vexatious and unjust restrictions, it is largely be- cause men like Jay Gould a generation ago and John D. Rockefeller and E. H. Harriman to-day are fhe embodiments of corporate activity. And it is to be remembered also that much of this talk about vexatious and unjust restrictions is based on an as- sumption as to the doctrine of laissez- faire that is no longer tenable. We go as far as any one in urging that each man be allowed, within the bounds of honor, to manage his own business in his own way. We view with dread all laws that may tend to cripple industry or check initiative. But we cannot as- sent to the theory, sometimes openly proclaimed, often tacitly accepted by corporation managers, that a public ser- vice corporation, by its very nature a monopoly, is a private business; that any man can manage a railway or a gas company as if it were merely his per- sonal property. The public interest there must be conserved by firm restric- tion upon rates to be charged, securi- ties to be issued, and operations in finance. As John Morley points out in h''s last volume of "Critical Miscella- nies": Where a whole class of men is perma- nently at a disadvantage in its bargains with another, then by strict Gladstonian principle the state has a right to intervene as arbitrator, provided that it can do so with sufficient equipment of knowledge and impartiality. It is because we would have the state as arbitrator, acting through an Inter- state Commerce Commission, a Federal Bureau of Corporations, or through State Public Service Commissions, play its part with intelligence and modera- tion and avoid such violent extremes as government ownership that we are pro- foundly disquieted by the performances of the men of whom Mr. Harriman is a 103 type. They furnish the demagogue and the wild radical with inexhaustible am- munition; they rob the conservative of his strongest arguments. UNREST AMONG BOSSES. Magazine writers are analyzing "spir- itual unrest"; other great minds are ex- plaining "discontent" of various kinds, afflicting various classes; but no one has given due attention to a social and po- litical phenomenon more significant than any of them. We mean boss un- rest. The usual state of soul in a boss is one of blissful self-complacence. Suck a thing as searchings of heart — we do> not say conscience, for the practical man in politics is not fool enough to search for what does not exist — has been strange to him. But on a sudden we see his class falling into doubt, uneasi- ness, and dissatisfaction. All the well- known signs of unrest are, in fact, visi- ble to-day among the small Republican bosses of New York State. It is not necessary to take our word for this. One of the suffering body has himself gone into the witness-stand, or the confessional. William Barnes, jr., of Albany has been publicly diagnosing his own ailment, and that of his fellows. He admits a "chaotic condition" in lo- cal leadership, which is, he confesses, "thoughtless and wanting in initiative." The chief trouble with the bosses is, he concedes, that for some years they have been thinking of themselves only as divinely ordained "patronage brokers," and not at all "leaders of opinion." And Mr. Barnes would have us now believe that they are filled with contrition for their shortcomings, and are proposing to develop a true "capacity for leader- ship," together with "the requisite stam- ina to withstand alleged popular de- mand." This is interesting, but per- haps even more so is Mr. Barnes's ex- planation of the causes of the low estate to which the bosses have been brought in New York. He strikes his finger on the spot in this way: The real cause was that the astuteness and cleverness of Senator Piatt furnished for many years the thinking machine for the up-State Republicans. Being so long accustomed to having political advice given to them by Senator Piatt, they became dull and atrophied. This testimony of an expert, however, we are unable to accept as conclusive. Piatt and a "thinking machine" are con- tradictory terms — unless money thinks

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104 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 as well as talks. The power of Boss Piatt was built up on a basis which was frankly mercenary. He took in the party funds, he paid them out by indi- vidual check, and that enabled him, as paymaster of the forces, to name and control members of the Legislature, hence to sell legislation, hence to force his creatures to vote into the United States Senate a man whom they de- spised— himself. This was the sole magic of Piatt's power. He exercised it for some years through steady defeat. The party loathed him, but could not get rid of him, because he controlled its source of supplies, the campaign con- tributions. Then along came Bryan to make New York hopelessly Republican, and to deceive some into thinking that a vulgar and mercenary boss, of shock- ing morals, was really a shrewd politi- cal leader. Pushing one side, therefore, Mr. Barnes's pathetic delusion that it is the disappearance of T. C. Piatt which has disclosed the fact that his followers and understudies are men without force, grasp, or prescience, we must ask what is the true cause of the confusion and shame-facedness of the little bosses. The best answer is furnished in Gov. Hughes's speech in this city last Satur- day night. Political conditions have arisen in which the bosses are not at all at home, and with which their old meth- ods do not fit them to cope. A new spir- it is astir. People are tired of political dictators, large or small. The voters have been fixing their eyes upon the ex- act facts, and they know that the Gov- ernor is right in declaring the delegate and convention system to be, in prac- tice, a sham. It is not what it pretends to be. Instead of affording the party a means of expressing freely and accur- ately its wishes, it is, too often, the de- vice by which it is bound and gagged and delivered into the hands of a self- ish and dishonest clique. It is because the people have found out the fraud, and are determined to put something genuine in its place, that there is this great shaking of the dry bones going on. Ideas are taking possession of the pop- ular mind. Gov. Hughes is but making himself their interpreter and enforcer. Now, nothing is so fatal to political bosses as ideas. This is deliciously implied in the sum- mons which Barnes issues to his part- ners in distress to muster up "the requisite stamina to withstand alleged popular demand." In the race-track agi- tation, last year, there was an idea — a moral idea — at work which Barnes valiantly withstood, but nevertheless it was strong enough to bowl him over. He also displayed splendid stamina, along with abundant stupidity, in opposing the renomination of Gov. Hughes, but then, too, down he went. Now he is starting out on another losing fight against an idea. That is the trouble with him, al- though he does not suspect it. All his vague discontent, his restless turning this way and that, and wondering what has become of his leadership, are mere- ly symptoms that his disease is gaining upon him. Its cure is fresh-air treat- ment— that is, going out and getting into touch with the moral aspirations of the people. But, of course, that form of cure would be, to a boss, the same thing as suicide. FILLING IN THE MAP. Even so unmercenary a pursuit as geographical exploration does not escape the ineradicable taint of money-grubbing. Peary, before he sets out for the North, thinks it necessary to suggest how "useful" it would be finally to reach the Pole, or to hint at great savings to in- ternational shipping which might be effected by a definite examination into the antics of the magnetic pole. As a matter of fact, Peary knows, and those who are behind him know, that it is only the eternal lure of the hidden and the vague that draws men to the dreary regions of the Pole. Curiosity has been a sufficient reason for men's leav- ing home and kin and risking their lives in strange lands. It was primar- ily the desire to see that led on the Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, Marco Polo in the fourteenth, the great Portuguese and Spanish navi- gators in the fifteenth century, and their successors in turn down to the present day. How much of Columbus's interest in a shorter route to India and the con- version of its natives was fundamental, and how much was practical argument addressed to the cupidity of financial backers? He had the Unknown Sea to conquer, and he could think of any num- ber of good business reasons why he should make the trial. And essentially the spirit of exploration is still the same. The zoologist who goes to the Arctic with his knives and preserving fluids has little hope of bringing back a new breed of domestic animal for the use of man. He wants only to extend or rectify his lists of quite useless spe- cies and sub-species. In other words, he is curious. For the curiosity of the professional explorer, the world, as the London Times notes in a recent article, still holds large stretches of unmapped ground. There is, of course, the classic North Polar region, where Peary is now busy, and whither Capt. Amundsen is planning to lead a six-year drifting expedition, large- ly on the lines of Nansen's famous un- dertaking. There is the vast Antarc- tic realm in the partial conquest of which Charcot's French expedition is engaged. In discussing this enterprise, Charles Rabot sums up the case in the Paris Temps: Imagine that in our own hemisphere our geographical knowledge were to stop at the White Sea, at the Siberian coastland, at Bering Strait, and the northern part of Hudson's Bay, and you will have an idea of the regions round the South Pole that still lie hidden from us. Is not that answer enough as to the "use" of Antarctic exploration? The North and the South Pole are where man has still to draw the complete main outlines of his map. Elsewhere it is largely a matter of filling in — South America, which still holds two million square miles of unexplored ter- ritory; Arabia, with nearly half a mil- lion; Tibet, which Sven Hedin has not so, thoroughly mapped but that there is plenty of work left for others; New Guinea, and Africa. Strange it is that the Dark Continent should come last, far from a dark continent now, and of- fering opportunity almost entirely for the detailed work of the scientific spe- cialist. How strong is the pull of the un- known in itself, is shown by the almost complete absence of what we may call the human element in modern explora- tion. It was not so much strange lands as strange beings that the early ex- plorers went out for to see — foreign peo- ples, with their odd customs and cos- tumes, their cities and temples, their politics and beliefs. The unknown that waits for the explorer of the present day is an unknown bereft of man. In the jungles of the Amazon, a few thou- sand aborigines may still be lingering; in the wilds of New Guinea we may come across some odd subdivisions of the Papuan stock; in the Sahara, there

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Feb. 4, 1909] may be an uncharted oasis here and there. But for the most part, our terra incognita of the present day is also terra inculta, great sand wastes in Sa- hara, Gobi, and Arabia; rock wastes in the Tibetan highlands; and the dreary immensities of ice about the Pole, where life itself is inconceivable. Yet a few years more, therefore, and the romance of exploration that comes from the discovery of new faces and new minds will be gone. No other ex- plorer will have Sven Hedin's opportu- nity in Tibet, where it was given him to sketch and photograph the daily life of partly unknown races. But even here our ignorance was only partial. With the broad lines we were fairly fa- miliar; and, naturally, there is a cor- responding decrease of the charm that feeds on curiosity. Ethnologists no long- er have in store for us thrilling tales about Melanesians who eat their own offspring, or Bornese headhunters who can count only up to three and dine on steaks sliced from a living enemy. Even if some new tribe be discovered that is addicted to such unpleasant habits, the tale has lost its novelty. Besides, what the modern museum expedition lays most emphasis on is the fact that the Mulahs are brachycephalous, that they have several complicated dance steps, and that they show strong linguistic connection with the neighboring doli- chocephalous Taritari. Yet, we pre- sume that, too, is filling up the map of human knowledge. EARTHQUAKES THEN AND NOW. The flood of comment on the earth- quake at Messina continues; yet in all that is said there is — as in the case of San Francisco — but little serious moral- izing. We have the conventional ex- pressions of pity and horror, we have generous responses to appeals for help; but we view the event with a scientific detachment which would have been im- possible a century ago. Few persons speak of the hand of God; many, of the inexorable laws of nature. The differ- ence indicates, we think, a far-reaching change in our attitude toward the uni- verse. True, a writer to the London Nation asks: "Why this holocaust of human lives? . . . for what reason; to what end?" This importunate questioner adds: I have considered my faith in God to be The USTation. impregnable, my chief possession in life. 1 have questioned nothing, doubted noth- ing, but now I feel the bonds of faith snapping, and I turn to the teachers of the Christian religion and implore them to give me an explanation. . . . My reason tells me that this waste of human life, this gi- gantic sacrifice, in an unspeakably cruel form, of hard working, Innocent men, wo- men, and little children is — unnecessary. I will leave aside the epithets of unjust, un- merciful, and simply say, unnecessary. What purpose had it all? The letter called forth various answers, the tone of which is very significant. Of a dozen which are published, all but two or three point out that earthquakes are merely natural phenomena, and that man, if he is to escape destruction, must keep out of the path of nature's lethal forces. The following is a typical reply: The earth commenced its existence as a nebulous mass possessed of a vast store of heat. It has been slowly cooling down for untold ages. The solid crust which has thus slowly developed is thinner in some parts than in others. As the cooling process con- tinues, the shell, at its weakest parts, warps a little. This phenomenon of na- ture is called earthquake. That is "Why?" "Why" your correspondent should now "feel the bonds of faith snapping" I am at a loss to understand. In my turn I ask, Why? Does your correspondent require Almighty God to regulate the forces of na- ture in the interests of puny mankind? But this curt contempt for the be- liever in "special providences," who is unable to reconcile such a frightful catastrophe with the idea of an omni- potent and merciful God, could have found relatively little sympathy and support in the eighteenth century; for then the notion of divine interposition in human affairs was still widely preva- lent. Indeed, the theory of immutable law had hardly begun to penetrate the common consciousness; few men of that age could look upon our solar system as a clock wound up once for all, to run throughout eternity. Cowper in his "Task" described the great Sicilian earthquake of 1783: Revelry, and dance, and show Suffer a syncope and solemn pause, While God performs upon the trembling stage Of His own works, His dreadful part alone. His wrath is busy and His frown is fell. More striking yet are the lines of the professed Deist, Voltaire, occasioned by the earthquake at Lisbon: Comment concevoir un Dieu, la bonte meme, Qui prodigue ses biens a ses enfans qu'il aime, Et qui versa sur eux les maux a pleines mains? Quel ceil peut pgnetrer dans ses profonds desseins? . . . 105 II existe pourtant. O tristes veritSs! O melange etonnant de contrariety ! This same shock at Lisbon had a pro- found influence on Goethe, then a lad of six. In "Dichtung und Wahrheit" he tells us how the mighty terror which then spread over the world "deeply dis- turbed the boy's peace of mind." Like the modern Christian whom we have quoted, he felt that his faith in the goodness of God had been undermined: God, the Creator and Preserver of Heaven and Earth, whom the explanation of the first article of the creed represented as so wise and benignant, had, by giving both the just and the unjust a prey to the same de- struction, not manifested Himself, by any means, in a fatherly character. To the young Goethe there seems not to have been offered the ready consolation — which appears so satisfying in 1909 — that in the cooling process the thin shell of the earth warps a little, and that it is silly to imagine Almighty God regulating the forces of nature in the interests of puny mankind. The man of strictly logical bent may further sustain himself with the argu- ment that from the point of view of mere physical law, the disaster that sweeps away a hundred thousand hu- man lives may have no more meaning than the fall of that single sparrow which the Heavenly Father used to note. And even those of us who regard man as of more value than many spar- rows, must admit that the fatalities from earthquake and tempest are no more perplexing, as part of a divine and benevolent order, than the agonies of millions of mothers dying in child- birth, the slaying of countless hosts on countless fields of battle, and the tor- tures of flame-wrapped martyrs. But death's daily toll of youth and inno- cence as well as of age and sin finds our minds staled by custom; and so feeble are our imaginations that the slaughter of whole armies at distant times and places seems dim, unreal, and of little moment. We are scarcely stirred unless the event stares at us from the front page of to-day's paper, and un- less travel or reading has made us fairly familiar with the scene. But close as Messina is to us, detail- ed as is our knowledge of city and peo- ple, prompt as are our offers of aid, we seem unable to look at the happenings there as a tremendous moral lesson. Goethe tells us how the earthquake at Lisbon struck fear to the heart of the whole civilized world. "The religious

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106 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 were ready with reflections, the phil- osophic with grounds for consolation, and the clergy with warnings." From other sources also we know that this dreadful calamity was one of the stim- ulating causes of the Great Awakening. Men long dead in trespasses and sins began to reflect as never before on the meaning of life, here and hereafter. Can it be that the scientific spirit has robbed us of the old power to discern in the universe something beside the play of blind force on brute matter? Are we no longer plagued by misgiv- ings as to the justice of the smoking sacrifice at Messina? This globe seems to have dwindled to a whirling clod of dirt in blank immensity. There are no vast unknown regions from which an angry God may launch his thunder- bolts. The chemical constituents of land and water, of plant and animal, are analyzed, ticketed, and pigeon-holed; we think we know the exact laws by which they combine, disintegrate, and recombine in myriad forms. There seems to be nothing that can surprise, perplex, awe, or terrify us; nothing that can make our pulse check at a sudden vision of eternity and startle us out of our humdrum and sordid pur- suits. We see in the present fleeting opportunity nothing immeasurably pre- cious because within the hour the solid bases of the hills may heave like the sea and hurl us on "the black infinite ash-heap of the dead." A GLANCE AT CURRENT AMERICAN FICTION. Story-telling is now so important a matter to us, the art of fiction is so much a part of our daily talk and walk, that we may well take time to consider now and then what it is doing for us and what it is likely to do. We have ceased to look for the Great American Novel: the phrase suggests a kind of limitation. We produce, by all accounts, so many novels of eminence, that a dis- tinction implying preeminence must be regarded as invidious. This rather stiff- ens the problem for the busy reader who cannot give all his time to the mas- terpieces of the hour. He would really like to know what dozen or half-dozen among the novelists of the day are best worth following: to what writers he may look with cheerfulness, yet without fatuity, during the year or two to come? In America the prospect is perhaps rather pleasing than imposing. Never, we are told, has there been so "high a level of workmanship"; never, certainly, have the workmen been more sedulous, more productive of fiction in bulk. The fact remains that we have nothing colossal to point to since the prodigy of "The Scarlet Letter." That was suf- ficiently American, one would think, in substance, as the best of our subsequent fiction has been. "Huckleberry Finn," "The Grandissimes," "Silas Lapham," "Daisy Miller," the short tales of Ham- lin Garland and Miss W-ilkins and Mrs. Deland — upon these exhibits we might well allow our case to rest. Taking them together, one must be struck with the geographical range of their Ameri- canism. These writers are without ex- ception still at work; but they may be taken to have made their distinctive contribution; no new thing has come from them of late, nor can it be expect- ed in the future. Mark Twain's reputa- tion is firmer than ever before; his aca- demic honors have merely signalized the general consensus of his importance as a national figure. For a long time he was listened to with amusement not un- mingled with consternation, as some- thing odd and egregious; but he is now recognized as the bell-wether of a vast flock. His/ fun, his hyperbole, his im- perturbability are, after all, mere Wel- lerism with a different accent: it is the magnanimity of the man, literary and other, which we have come to see; and, rightly or wrongly, we take that virtue to be a property of the best American- ism, as of the best cosmopolitanism. There has been some extravagance in recent estimates of him as a man of let- ters, but he is undoubtedly a greater power in the land than the other vet- erans we have named. Mr. Cable, while he has retained much of his old charm, has made distinct concessions of late to the demands of popular romance. Mr. Howells long ago gave up the propa- ganda of realism, and has been for some time rather the amiable and humorous commentator on life than its stern 01 literal delineator: it is clear that we shall have no more Laphams. Mr. James, with an enthusiasm as indefatigable as that of Mr. Pickwick on the ice, contin- ues the refinement of his method — to the confusion of all but the adept. "Henry James's fiction," says one of that number, "is ultimate in its exposi- tion of the possibilities of a high psychi- cal entertainment." This, it appears, is the kind of entertainment which the future holds for lovers of fiction. Certainly they might fare worse: but is the jig quite up with romance? It must be admitted that, while the popu- lar romancers still command the ear of the general, their audience is brief. Masterpiece follows masterpiece, and at the end of the twelvemonth hard- ly an echo of them all lingers. Far and away the most popular American nov- el of the past season, the best-selling best-seller in the book-mart, was Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Shut- tle." It is a book of no moment what- ever, from any reasonable point of view, and the busy reader need not trouble himself with its author in the future. Of her, as of Elizabeth Robins, Ellen Glasgow, John Fox, jr., Robert W. Cham- bers, and, alas, F. Marion Crawford, it need simply be recognized that they are popular and intend to remain popular. Winston Churchill, on the other hand, shows promise of pulling ahead of what we had come to regard as his class. He remains quite without distinction of manner, and has not even learned to be firm in his syntax. But persons who found in "Richard Carvel," "The Crisis," and the rest a pretentious crudeness of substance as well as of form, must have discerned in "Mr. Crewe's Career" a quality really distinguished and rare. The singular thing is that this quality should be so pure, in view of the trac- tarian character of the tale. Mr. Churchill's experience as a defeated re- form candidate for political office in a State ridden by a great corporation would have supplied a petty person with a store of small flings and innuendoes — and little else. But Mr. Churchill has come out of it all in excellent spirits, and his novel is less a work of satire than of pure humor. He may yet be a person for the literary historian to reckon with. At all events, he prom- ises better things than he has done, bet- ter things than he has ever promised before. Meantime the cause of wholesome ro- mance continues to be supported by Mr. Cable and Mrs. Deland. On the part of Mr. Cable, as we have said, there has been of late a leaning toward the in- cidental and spectacular. He seems to have said to himself, "Go to, I am a romancer: and if people want their ro- mance spiced with adventure, with bloodshed even, they shall have it." So we find him considerably occupied, in "The Cavalier" and "Kincaid's Battery," with the purveying of incident and sit- uation— or apparently occupied, for it is clear that old New Orleans has again laid its spell upon him from the first page, and it is the communication of that spell in which he really delights. So of Mrs. Deland's "Old Chester": she never seems to breathe quite freely away from it. We grudge her absence, her excursions into more commonplace fields of romance. And we wish she might confine herself to the simpler elements and the simpler methods of the earlier tales. Another Helena Ritchie we need not ardently desire. A writer of the younger generation with a natural vein of romance is Rob- ert Lovett. One suspects him to be a little fearful of it, a little smitten with the methods of the new "psychical" realism. A confusion of motives has been his undoing hitherto. He does not know when to have done, when to let well enough alone. For example, the first part of "The Winged Victory" is

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation. 107 a well-nigh perfect thing in itself, a very beautiful idyl of youth which one is tempted to tear out its context and have bound by itself. For the ensuing parts have to do with undergraduate life in a Middle-Western coeducational university — a crude life which has the air of being reported verbatim; and with a studio life of which the writer has nothing new to delineate. No meth- od of realism, plain or fancy, physical or psychical, is likely to serve Mr. Lov- ett as his really rare instinct for ro- mantic interpretation may. It is true that most of the names which range themselves in one's mind as of the best promise, as most to be looked to in the immediate future, re- fuse to connect themselves in any way with the idea of romance. These writ- ers are concerned, they would tell us, with life as they find it, not as they fancy it, and chiefly with a life mental, psychic, or individual. Now a micro- scope is to be held up to nature, now a camera; never by aDy chance a Mirror of Shalott. The limitations of a talent so preoccupied are clearly seen in the work of Robert Herrick. In the first place, he asks us to be interested in perfectly commonplace persons, little individuals snapshot at random from the crowd, and set before us "enlarged." How much more do we know of his characters at the end than we knew at the beginning? At best they re- mind us of the people we meet every day, people with whom we have a bow- ing acquaintance, whose features may have interested us at first sight, but who seem thereafter to have no attributes of consequence beyond these same fea- tures. Mr. Herrick has, we understand, been accused of reproducing in the form of fiction actual persons and situations of his acquaintance. The charge is one that many novelists have had to face, but in this case it has an inherent prob- ability beyond the common. And if his novels are lacking in dignity of char- acterization, they are also haphazard in construction, both episodical and dif- fuse. There is a profusion of materials, but too little command of them in the large. His stories continue, incident is added to incident, and speech to speech, but there is little natural development. For example, the opening chapter of "Together" is of marked interest. A study of American marriage, ventured with the reverence and high enthusiasm which mark those introductory para- graphs— what might it not amount to? But the thing, somehow, does not come off. Various subsidiary persons and epi- sodes intervene; or, rather, there is such a reduplication of possible inter- ests that in the end one is by way of becoming indifferent to the question of their relative value. And yet one can- not feel that Mr. Herrick is born a mere recorder of the casual fact. What we have to hope for from him is an in- creased power of elimination and of sub- limation, fewer lifelike individuals and more speaking types, less of didacticism and more of free interpretation. A less experienced writer has ventur- ed with firmer step upon the very ground chosen by Mr. Herrick. "Neith Boyce" is interested in the same types of Americanism, or rather of human character as colored by the conditions of our American life; and in "The Bond" she has dealt successfully with the absorbing problem — the problem of marriage under the complicated condi- tion of modern life — which "Together" seems, after all, to have done no more than successfully circumnavigate. And there is a restraint, a compactness, a saliency, in this study of a single striv- ing and erring human pair which is lacking in Mr. Herrick's naturalistic panorama of matrimony. They are, to be sure, an exceptional pair, even in this day: their marriage is a disconcert- ingly modern "arrangement," yet a per- fectly logical and by no means unpar- alleled application of current theory. The man is a painter, the woman a sculptor. They are drawn together by the old-fashioned emotion of love as well as by congeniality; but the mar- riage is based upon the explicit under- standing that the individual life of neither is to be interfered with. The wife retains her "bachelor" quarters and studio, as the husband retains his. A flat, neutrally situate, is the common ground upon which the business of mat- rimony is to be somewhat parenthetical- ly conducted; children are not provided for in the scheme. But children occur, to appear at first as mere incidents, but later in their true light as symbols of the psychical process through which an inevitable fusion has taken place. And so, however strained at, the bond holds firm; their mutual love is real, if not heroic or exultant. They are not con- verted in the end to a different kind of pair, we leave them yet committed to the familiar and merely not hopeless task of mutual forbearance and affec- tion. A serious study of such a theme, free from sensationalism as well as from sentimentalism, is an achievement of great merit in itself, and of still greater promise as the work of so young a writer as we take "Neith Boyce" to be. Of Miss Sedgwick and Mrs. Wharton, we, of course, expect much. Their meth- ods have a common delicacy, due to common sources: without Bourget, with- out Mr. James, they could hardly be what they are. Yet we take it that finesse is really the breath of their nos- trils, and not merely the trick of their pens; and it is, in the nature of the case, a feminine finesse. Miss Sedg- wick is said to have a wider audience in England than at home; she has cer- tainly not achieved such a degree of popularity as has been accorded to Mrs. Wharton. Yet they seem at a glance to be doing much the same kind of thing. Miss Sedgwick might almost have writ- ten "Madame de Treymes"; and Mrs. Wharton might almost have written "The Rescue." Their work has the episodical quality of its kind— little epic breadth, much elaboration of detail. We breathe a rarefied air: not for us the vulgar tumult of that life so eagerly depicted by our Fielding, our Dickens; we are as little exposed to "lowness" as in an eighteenth century comedy. A cosmopolitan suavity of manner, a Gallic grace of diction, are to be ex- pected of such characters as occupy the foreground; persons like servants, tradesmen, poor relations, and others to be naturally held under suspicion of vulgarity, are strictly kept in the back- ground, as they are said to be in polite life. Such being the specifications of personnel, we are confined pretty close- ly to the Atlantic seaboard, in so far as we insist upon being interested in life upon this side of the water at all. But London offers a better body of ma- terial and Paris a better still. There is, after all, something extraneous and ex- otic in the method of such writers. It represents a degree of sophistication, of civilization if you like, to which we have not yet attained, and to which it is hardly our dearest ambition to at- tain. Mrs. Wharton seems on the whole to be more closely confined to the sit- uation, the episode, than Miss Sedgwick, so that her novels present the elongat- ed situation, or the multiplied episode, rather than a fluid or cumulative nar- rative. Her latest long story contains the suggested material of at least three novels. But she has amazing cleverness: one has the feeling that if she were to addict herself altogether to tne novel for awhile a larger power might de- velop than is likely to under the steady importuning of magazine editors for the commodity which everyDOdy knows she can turn out. One is sorry to hear of her contracting for a series of "stories about men" in the near future for a well-known periodical. This method of subsidizing talent and bending it to an editorial notion is not a promising omen for our fiction. The present worship of the short story may naturally lead to such arrange- ments. The market price of the com- modity is so high as to be practically mandatory. And, indeed, however reluc- tant one may be to admit all that is claimed for the article itself on abso- lute grounds, there is no denying that it is our specialty. The short story is certainly not so new a thing as has been asserted, nor is it, perhaps, so great a thing; but we shall leave it better than we found it — almost as good, perhaps, as it can be made. Mrs. Whar- ton is, thus far, at her best in the tale, and so are most of her contemporaries. So are Joseph Conrad, Mrs. Wilkins Freeman, H. M. Rideout, Miss Alice

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108 T h e Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 Brown, "0. Henry," P. J. Stimson. So, we should say, is Hamlin Garland, if he did not seem to have slipped al- ready into the past. "Main-Travelled Roads" was and remains the most pow- erful collection of short stories dealing with American provincial life. Mr. Stim- son's "Jethro Bacon," Mr. Rideout's "Wild Justice," and several of the ear- lier tales of Miss Wilkins, are, taken by themselves, as effective in the same field. Miss Wilkins's experiments in ex- tended narrative have lacked the pecul- iar excellence of her short stories; and some of her recent excursions in the di- rection of romance have approached the ludicrous. Her command of New Eng- land rustic life and character is as as- sured as ever, and we need only wish of her a renewed fidelity to the theme and mode of her early choice. Miss Alice Brown is another painter of New Eng- land genre, to whom we must continue to look: she sees her country folk through other-colored glasses than those of Mrs. Freeman, but with equal sym- pathy and candor. And with her again the short story form seems to be the natural medium. Short -story writers of a younger generation abound: whether creators or created of the popular maga- zines, it would be hard to say. Perhaps the most brilliant and versatile of them is "O. Henry"; but many of them are brilliant and most of them are versatile. It is hard to guess which of them will improvise best in the near future, or what their improvisation will be seen to amount to in the long run. H. W. Boynton. CANADIAN LITERATURE IN 1908. Ottawa, January 25. The last year has been notable for the number of important publications bearing upon the history of Canada. In several respects first place must be giv- en to Miss Agnes Laut's "Conquest of the Great Northwest" (Outing Publish- ing Co.). This is, as the sub-title says, the "Story of the Adventurers of Eng- land Known as the Hudson's Bay Com- pany." The two previous histories of the company — Dr. Bryce's "Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company" and Beckles Willson's "Great Company" — being notoriously inaccurate, Miss Laut's book will be the more welcome. Miss Laut found the bulk of her mate- rial in Hudson's Bay House, London, and in the Public Record Office. Prom the former she secured many impor- tant documents, the very existence of which was hitherto unknown, such as the Journals of Peter Skene Ogden and the Letters of Colin Robertson; from the latter a great deal of entirely new material bearing upon the voyages and character of Radisson, d'Iberville's ex- ploits in the Bay, etc. Covering to a large extent the same field, but from a different point of view, is L. J. Bur- pee's "Search for the Western Sea" (New York: Appleton & Co.), a history of the exploration of Northwestern America. The course of exploration is traced through Hudson Bay and inland to Lake Winnipeg, on the one hand, and, on the other, from Lake Superior west- ward, the united streams of explora- tion culminating in the famous over- land expedition of Alexander Macken- zie. Two volumes that are admirable examples of scholarship combined with readability are Prof. C. W. Colby's "Canadian Types of the Old Regime, 1608-1698" (New York: Henry Holt & Co.), and Prof. George M. Wrong's "A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs" (New York: The Macmillan Co.). Time was, and it is not so very long ago, when a Canadian professor of history would have scorned to waste his val- uable hours on Canadian history. Here, however, we have two books on purely Canadian themes, by the professors of history in two great Canadian uni- versities. In the former book, Profes- sor Colby discusses various aspects of French colonization in the New World from a novel point of view; in the lat- ter Professor Wrong tells the romantic story of the old Seigneury of Murray Bay, as gleaned from letters and papers found in an attic room of the Manor House. A. G. Bradley's "The Making of Canada" (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.) seems to be part of a series of histories of Canadian periods, of which his "Fight with France for North Amer- ica" is an earlier, and his "Canada in the Twentieth Century" a later, link. The period here covered is that imme- diately following that of the "Fight with France for North America" — the half-century to and including the War of 1812-14. Though the book contains nothing new, nothing, in fact, which has not been more fully dealt with in such books as Smith's "Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony," Scott's "Simcoe," Mr. Bradley's own work on "Dorches- ter," and Lucas's "Canadian War of 1812," it fulfils very satisfactorily the author's intention "to depict the most vital and most interesting period of Canadian history within a compass that is neither sketchy on the one hand nor monumental on the other." The year has also been marked by the practical completion of an ambitious, and on the whole creditable, Canadian series, The Makers of Canada (Toronto: Morang). Four volumes were published in 1908: George R. Parkin's "Sir John Macdon- ald," Adam Shortt's "Lord Sydenham," R. H. Coats and R. E. Gosnell's "Sir James Douglas," and Charles Lind- sey's "William Lyon Mackenzie." The latter is a reprint of an earlier edi- tion, with a considerable amount of ad- ditional material by the author's son, G. G. S. Lindsey. The four are of unequal merit, Dr. Parkin's "Macdonald" and Professor Shortt's "Sydenham" being de- cidedly superior to the other two. A sup- plementary volume, now in preparation by L. J. Burpee, will contain a complete analytical index to the series of twenty volumes, a critical bibliography of the several periods of Canadian history, and a collection of brief descriptive and biographical notes covering many topics and lives omitted from the series. All this material will be in one alphabeti- cal arrangement, and will be followed by a series of historical maps and plans. During the year, the Second and Third of the Publications of the Cham- plain Society appeared. The former is Nicolas Denys's "Description and Nat- ural History of the Coasts of North America (Acadia)," translated and edit- ed, with a memoir of the author, col- lateral documents, and a reprint of the original, by Prof. William F. Ganong, of Smith College (see the Nation of No- vember 12, 1908, p. 467); the latter is "Documents Relating to the Seigniorial Tenure in Canada, 1598-1854," edited, with an historical introduction and ex- planatory notes, by Prof. W. B. Munro, of Harvard. Apart altogether from the advantages to students of having an au- thoritative translation of Denys's pe- culiarly difficult and inaccessible text, and a serviceable collection of the more important documentary material, bear- ing on the seigniorial tenure in Canada, these publications will be found valua- ble for the sake of the full and scholar- ly historical introductions with which each is equipped. The current volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada contains a number of im- portant papers of an historical nature, in both the French and the English sec- tions. Of these, probably Dr. J. Edmond Roy's "Essai sur Charlevoix" — the first instalment of an exhaustive study of the father of Canadian history — is of the greatest value. Benjamin Suite brings together a quantity of scattered and hitherto inaccessible material bear- ing on Etienne Brule and his explora- tions; Col. E. A. Cruickshank dis- cusses Hull's Invasion of Canada in 1812; Archbishop Howley throws new light on the Labrador Boundary Ques- tion— a matter of local interest to Can- ada and Newfoundland; James H. Coyne edits the Talbot Papers, with their interesting bearing on the early history of Ontario; and Mr. Burpee edits the Journal of Anthony Hendry, of the Hudson's Bay Company — a narrative of the earliest visit of a white man to the Blackfeet. While no publication has come from the Canadian Archives in 1908, a great deal of highly useful work was accomplished — some of the results of which will appear during the current year. These will probably include a sec- ond instalment of Professor Shortt's "Documents Relating to the Constitu- tional History of Canada," and the first of the Archives Bulletins, containing

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Feb. 4, 1909] The -i-iN-a t i o 11 . 109 three journals, edited by L. J. Burpee — La Rocque's Journey to the Yellow- stone, Murray's yukon Journal, and Mc- Donell's Journey to the Qu'Appelle. A summary of the work of the Ar- chives, present and prospective, will be found in an article on "Cooperation in Historical Research," in the October number of the University Magazine (Montreal). It may not be inappropriate to men- tion here a book by the Dominion Ar- chivist, Dr. Arthur G. Doughty — "The Cradle of New France" (Montreal: Cambridge Corporation). This is a popular history of Quebec, prepared in connection with the Tercentenary. It is unnecessary to say that, while the story is condensed into some three hun- dred pages, and is intended for the aver- age reader rather than the scholar, it has none of the faults of most popu- lar histories. The Quebec celebration is also more or less responsible for F. B. Tracy's "Tercentenary History of Can- ada," in three volumes (New York: The Macmillan Co.); for a couple of small volumes by Dr. J. M. Harper of Quebec, "The Earliest Beginnings of Canada" and "Champlain, a Drama"; for a new edition of William Kirby's "Golden Dog," and for a grist of more or less important articles in Canadian, Eng- lish, and American magazines. A few other publications of an historical na- ture may be briefly mentioned. John S. Ewart's "Kingdom of Canada" (To- ronto: Morang) is a collection of lec- tures and essays bearmg upon Canada's status in the British Empire and her international relations (see the Nation of September 17, 1908, p. 262); W. B. Tucker's "Camden Colony" (Montreal: Lovell) is an interesting contribution to the romantic story of the United Em- pire Loyalists; "Through the Macken- zie Basin," by Charles Mair and R. Mac- Farlane (Briggs), contains a narrative of the Athabaska and Peace River ex- pedition of 1899, with a number of val- uable notes on the mammals and birds of Northern Canada; J. W. Tyrrell's "Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada" (Briggs) is a new edition of an old book, with additional chapters on Hud- son Bay as a sea route to Europe, and upon musk-ox hunting; and in "The Story of Old Kingston" (Musson) Miss Agnes M. Machar tells the romantic story of one of the oldest of Canadian towns. One may also mention here the appearance of a new edition of a very useful Canadian book of reference — "Lovell's Gazetteer of the Dominion of Canada" (Montreal: Lovell), edited with an introduction by G. Mercer Adam. The imaginative side of Canadian lit- erature has been rather neglected in 1908. In poetry, there is not much of importance to record beyond Dr. Wilfred Campbell's volume of "Poetical Tragedies" (Briggs). Two of these plays, "Mordred" and "Hilde- brande," were published in a small vol- ume in 1893; of the other two, "Dau- lac" tells the dramatic story of the heroic young Canadian who, with his handful of followers, held back a horde of Iroquois at the Long Sault; and "Morning" is a purely imaginative piece of work. In "The Great Fight" (G. P. Putnam's Sons), Mrs. Drum- mond has brought together a few of the hitherto unpublished poems of the late Dr. W. H. Drummond, with several brief prose sketches, interesting as re- vealing the unsuspected powers of the "Poet of the Habitant," in a different medium. During the year, Canada lost the two leading imaginative writers of Quebec — the veteran poet, Louis Fre- chette, and the young lyrist, Emile Nel- ligan. Among several of the more re- cent writers of Canadian verse, one at least must be mentioned, because of the promise of her occasional poems in the periodicals — Miss Marjory Pickthall. Her "Evening" in the University Maga- zine, reveals the character and quality of her verse. In fiction, by Canadians, one may barely name Mrs. Everard Cotes's "Cousin Cinderella" (see the Nation of October, 1898, p. 415); Miss L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables"; Charles G. D. Roberts's "House in the Water" (see the Nation of August 27, 1908, p. 187); Theodore Roberts's "Brothers of Peril"; W. D. Lighthall's "The Master of Life" (a strong historical romance) ; and Nellie L. McClung's "Sowing Seeds in Danny." Without attempting to give even the briefest summary of their valuable con- tents, mention must be made here of two recent works by Prof. John Wat- son, of Queen's University, "The Phil- osophy of Kant Explained," and also "The Philosophical Basis of Religion" (see the Nation of August 6, 1908, p. 117). Of French-Canadian publications in book form, the more important are A. G. Morice's "Dictionnaire historique des canadiens et des metis frangais de l'ouest" (Kamloops, B. C: published by the author); F. J. Robidoux's "Con- ventions nationales des acadiens" (Mon- iteur Acadien) ; F. L. Desaulniers's "Les Vieilles Families d'Yamachiche" (Mon- treal: Pigeon); Abbe Henri Cimon's "Aux Vieux Pays" (Chicoutimi: De- lisle); Eug. Rouillard's "La Cote nord du St. Laurent et le Labrador cana- dien" (Quebec: Laflamme); and Abbe Camille Roy's "Essais sur la litterature canadienne" (Quebec: Garneau). NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. Several items of Americana are includ- ed in the library of Lord Polwarth, which is to be sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, on February 15 and 16. The most interesting is a perfect copy, with the frontispiece and map, of "The Discovery of New Brittaine," by Edward Bland and others, London, 1651. The only copy of- fered at public sale in recent years Is Barlow's, which brought ?135 in 1890. That is probably the same copy that, after hav- ing been in the libraries of Charles H. Kalbfleisch and Marshall C. Lefferts, is now in the E. D. Church collection. It con- tains the curious frontispiece showing "Indian Wheat" and "An Indian Jay," but does not contain any map. The map, noted by Sabin, seems to be the identical map is- sued with the third edition of Edward Wil- liams's "Virginia Richly and Truly Valued," also published in 1651, and it may have been inserted in a few copies of "The Discovery of New Brittaine." The John Carter Brown Library copy lacks the leaf of dedication, as well as the frontis- piece and map. Among other books in- cluded in this sale are: The "^Eneidos," Caxton's translation, 1490, an imperfect copy (78 leaves out of 84); Higden's "Poly- chronicon," Southwarke, Peter Treveris, 1527; Gower's "Confessio Amantis," Ber- thelette, 1532; Sir Thomas More's "Woorkes" (1557); and a very extensive and interesting collection of English pam- phlets, several thousand in number, sold as 120 lots. On February 10 and 11, C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston sell an unusual collection of session laws, statutes, codes, etc., 1,609 lots, relating to fifty-two States, Terri- tories, and Indian nations. A few eigh- teenth century imprints are included. On February 16, 17, 18, and 19 the same firm sells the genealogical library of the late Samuel S. Purple, the most extensive col- lection of this kind ever offered for sale at auction. Dr. Purple began collecting books on American genealogy as far back as 1850. His copy of the "Genealogy of the Family of Mr. Samuel Stebbins," Hart- ford, 1771, the first Amercan genealogy to be printed in separate form, lacks several leaves, but the pamphlet is practically un- procurable in any condition. Of the total 2,807 lots, 235 are manuscript genealogies and pedigrees, many of them made for Dr. Purple. Sets of the New England Histori- cal and Genealogical Register the New York Genealogical and Biographical Rec- ord, the Magazine of American History, and other periodicals are included. Arthur Sjogren's papers on printers' marks ("Boktryckare- och folaggaremarken under 1400-talet"), which appeared in Nor disk Boktryckavekonst during 1907 and 1908, have been issued in a handsome edi- tion of 100 copies at the remarkably low price of 10 kronor. Some fresh material has been added. While containing little that is new, the volume is interesting as the first on this subject in Swedish. Correspondence. BOOKS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The recent discussion in the Nation in regard to the earliest appearance of cop- ies of Milton in Massachusetts, and, in- cidentally, in the other colonies, has sug- gested the idea that it might be of interest to carry the investigation farther and make a more general survey. It should be re-

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no The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 membered, however, that the information which remains in Virginia (and no doubt the same is the case elsewhere in the United States) is far from comprehensive. The inventories, which are the main re- liance, in a majority of cases where books are mentioned, only say "books," "a parcel of books," or "a library of books." In numerous instances where references to such inventories have been published, the persons who made the notes have not had time to copy titles, where they have been given; but only to count them. The entire or part.al destruction of the records of a number of the older Virginia counties has also deprived us of much data. I have not included Greek and Latin books which appear to have been quite numerous in all of the colonies from an early date. The following list is compiled from the William and Mary Quarterly, the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and some manuscript inventories in the col- lection of the Virginia Historical Society: Ben Jonson's "Remains," 1667. Donne's Poems, 1667. "Astrea" (French), 1667. Prynne Against Prelacy, 1667. Selden's "Titles of Honor," 1667. Bacon's "Natural History," 1690. Baxter's "Saints Rest," 1690. Homer's Iliad (in English), 1690. Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," 1701. Fuller's "Worthies," 1701. Sir William Davenant's Works, 1701. Camden's "Britannia," 1701. Taylor's "Holy Living and Holy Dying," 1701. Waller's Poems, 1701. Howell's "Letters," 1701. Herbert's "Divine Poems," 1701. Sandys's "Travels," 1701. "Hudibras," 1701. Quarles's 'Divine Poems," 1701. "Don Quixote," 1701. Montaigne, 1701. Gower's "Confessio Amantis," 1701. "Pilgrim's Progress," 1710. "Orlando Furioso," 1715. Hobbes's Works, 1715. Raleigh's "History of the World," 1715. Chaucer, 17i6. Cowley, 1716. Drayton, 1716. Erasmus (in English), 1716. Bacon's "Essays," 1716. Milton's "Paradise Lost," 1716. Shakespeare, 1719. Locke "On the Human Understanding," 1719. Machiavelli, 1722. Clarendon's "History," 1722. Evelyn's "Syiva," 1722. Burnet's "History of Own Times" and "Reformation," 1722. Pascal's "Thoughts," 1722. Locke's Works, 1734. Temple's Works, 1734. Shaftesbury's "Characters," [sic] 1734. Spectator, 1734. Tatter, 1734. Pope's Homer, 1734. More's "Utopia," 1734. Guardian, 1751. Addison's Works, 1751. Pope's Works, 1751. "Robinson Crusoe," 1751. "Tale of a Tub," 1751. Dryden's Satires, 1751. Congreve, 1755. Farquhar. 1755. Pope's Odyssey, 1760. Swift's Miscellanies, 1760. Pryor's Poems, 1760. Bolingbroke on History, 1760. JonsoD's Plays, 1760. W. G. Stanard, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va., Jan- uary 21. FACTS AND FIGURES FROM SHAKE- SPEARE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: My attention has only just been drawn to Dr. W. J. Rolfe's interesting let- ter in your issue of December 10 last under this heading. Mr. Rolfe quite justi- fiably draws attention to some inaccuracies regarding the numerical length of Shake- speare's plays, which figured in the original edition of my "Life of Shakespeare" (first published in 1898). But I should like him and others to know that all save one of the errors to which he now draws attention stand corrected in the second edition of my "Life of Shakespeare," which was pub- lished in London in 1899. In the various English reissues of my work since that year, my statistical information corre- sponds except in one point, with Mr. Rolfe's "facts and figures." It is a matter of deep regret to me that the publisher of my book in America has omitted in successive re- prints up to this date to incorporate any of the corrections which I duly forwarded to him. As a consequence I have from time to time, as on this occasion, been esteemed in America to be oblivious of misconcep- tions and misstatements which I have as a matter of fact long since acknowledged and set right. I am glad to be able to add that my American publisher has now promised to issue a revised edition of my work, which will incorporate all the correc- tions and new information accumulated by me during the past eleven years. I think that Mr. Rolfe will find in the revised American edition no discrepancy between his "facts and figures" and my own. Sidney Lee. London, January 20. POE'S DEFINITION OF POETRY. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: J. M. Robertson, in his "New Es- says Toward a Critical Method" (p. 84, note), says: It is remarkable that no one has ever pointed out that Poe's excellent definition of poetry, "the rhythmical creation of beauty," is a condensation of a sentence by (of all men) Griswold. The authority for this statement is not clear, the facts being apparently as follows: Griswold, in the preface to his "Poets and Poetry of America" (1842), has the follow- ing: "The creation of beauty, the manifes- tation of the real by the ideal, 'in words that move in metrical array,' is poetry." This preface is dated "Philadelphia, March, 1842." In the same month, if not earlier, Poe was writing the review of Longfellow's "Ballads" in which his famous definition first occurs — since this review appeared in Graham's Magazine for April, 1842. Gris- wold, then, may have slight priority; but considering the dates is it safe to assert that Poe was indebted to Griswold? There is, however, further evidence bear- ing on the point. Poe wrote at least three reviews of Griswold's "Poets," besides lec- turing in Philadelphia on the same subject. In the second of these, which appeared in the Boston Miscellany, November, 1842, he quotes the sentence from Griswold's preface given above, "because," he says, "it em- bodies the sole true definition of what has been a thousand times erroneously defined." This perhaps looks as if Poe were giving Griswold credit for the definition. In a third review, however, published anony- mously in the Philadelphia Saturday Muse- um, 1843, he says, after quoting the same sentence: Now what is this but a direct amplifica- tion by our poet [Griswold] of the definition of poetry — "the rhythmical creation of beauty" — which appeared in Mr. Poe's cri- tique of Professor Longfellow's ballads, from which we know and he knows he stole it? Would Poe make this charge so explicitly and directly without warrant? Is it pos- sible that Griswold stole from Poe, instead of vice versa"! Is it possible, for example, that Griswold, who succeeded Poe as edi- tor of Graham's (in April, 1842, as the date is usually given), had access to the manu- script of Poe's review of Longfellow as early as March, 1842, when he was writing his own preface? Or is there any other explanation of the similar 1 Some of your readers may be able to clari- fy this matter. F. C. Prescott. Ithaca, N. Y., January 28. SCHURZ'S "REMINISCENCES." To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The appreciative reviewer of the third volume of Carl Schurz's "Reminis- cences" CNation of January 21), in tran- scribing the sub-title, accidentally makes it appear that the supplementary sketch of Mr. Schurz's public career covers only the years from 1869 to 1896, instead of to 1906. It would be a pity to leave the reader of the review with the impresson that the last decade of Mr. Schurz's life had been ignor- ed. During this decade he again and again gave illustrations of his best qualities as orator, writer, and publicist. Yet the limi- tations of space positively forbade that more than a chapter, mainly about him as an anti-Imperialist, should be given to these years. Here, as elsewhere, all but a few of the most interesting personal de- tails and documentary citations had to be excluded, not from lack of material, but from lack of room. Frederic Bancroft. Washington, D. C, January 25. "LOVE'S OMNIPRESENCE." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The letter of Mr. Gamaliel Brad- ford, jr., in the Nation of January 14, with its allusion to the sonnet, "Love's Omni- presence," credited to Joshua Sylvester, moves me to inquire upon what authority anterior to Palgrave's, if any, the credit is given. In the volume of selections from Sylves- ter, prepared by myself, and published last fall, I should have liked to include the sonnet in question, but did not feel justi- fied in so doing, because I was unable to find it in any edition of Sylvester's col- lected writings, and further, because it had a more artistic finish than any other of the love sonnets of that poet. If I can make it appear to myself that I was mis- taken, by finding that the verses were at- tributed to Sylvester before the beginning of the eighteenth century, I shall be great- ly pleased. The sturdy old Puritan has been a victim of unreasonable prejudice for so long a time that I rejoice in what- ever tends to his good repute; but I don't

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation 111 believe that he himself would desire to obtain honors not actually his due. Theron Wilber Haight. Waukesha, Wis., January 25. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I am sorry that I cannot answer Mr. Haight's question. I confess that in attributing the sonnet to Sylvester I went no further back than the "Golden Treas- ury." Now that the subject has come up again, may I quote Shelley's version of the Plato epigram, which I have long looked for, and at last found introduced into the conclud- ing stanza of Canto ix of "The Revolt of Islam"? "Fair star of life and love," I cried, "my soul's delight, Why lookest thou on the crystalline skies? O that my spirit were yon Heaven of night, Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes!" Gamaliel Bradford, jr. Wellesley Hills, Mass., January 28. A PROPOSED PLAN OF COLLEGE EN- TRANCE EXAMINATIONS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : The problem of college preparation has been much simplified since the forma- tion of the College Entrance Examination Board, with the consequent tendency toward a real uniformity in requirements. But these examinations have one great disad- vantage, namely, that they are subdivided to such an extent that a student may find himself obliged to take, for example, six or seven separate examinations in Latin, as Prof. W. T. Foster of Bowdoin pointed out in the Nation of December 17, 1908. This multiplication seems caused by the effort to discover both the amount and the quality of work done by the student. The alterna- tive plan of admitting on certificate and without examination students from approved schools carries with it its own well-known evils. A third possible plan, followed by a few colleges, of admitting on examinations set as tests of the quality of work done with no attempt to determine the amount (for example, sight translation only as the language requirement) has also disadvan- tages that I shall point out later. A com- bination of these plans would, it seems to me, be both practicable and efficacious. Un- der this plan the college would require (1) a definite statement from the preparatory school as to the amount of work; (2) an examination to test the quality. Both the statement of the school and the result of the examination would thus be considered in admitting students. This plan would have certain considerable advantages for the col- lege, the school, and the student. The colleges that now admit without ex- amination, on certificate, are always in danger of accepting ill-prepared students. Under the scheme proposed, such students would show in examination their unfitness, and would be excluded. The colleges that now make their examinations a test of qual- ity of work, with little regard to amount, would no longer run the risk of admitting superficial students who manage to "bluff" their way through. Most American colleges attempt to avoid the evils of both systems by giving examinations to test both quality and amount of work. But the evidence as to amount thus obtained is not so trust- worthy as a detailed statement from the school ; nor is the test of quality so search- ing as an examination on quality only would be. The advantages to the preparatory schools are no less marked. The prepar- atory school would have an au- thoritative word as to the admission of students, without taking the undue re- sponsibility that it now really assumes In issuing the certificate. Moreover, in pre- paring students, the school would be able better to fit them for college work, with- out sacrificing interest to the necessity of reviewing over-minutely in the last years the whole requirement for admission. The student, instead of entering solely on the statement of his school, with consequent uncertainty as to his fit- ness for college work, would enter with the consciousness of having had his work thoroughly tested. On the other hand, as compared with the student now attempting to gain admission through examination only, the student entering under the plan proposed would approach his examinations with comparative freedom from uneasiness, knowing that his work in the four or five school years would be duly considered, and that he would not be denied admission on the unsupported testimony of a few days of hasty writing. He would also be spared the great number of examinations, as ex- plained above. Of greater importance than anything else would be the cooperation between col- lege and school, the placing on the college of the responsibility for admitting stu- dents, and on the school of the responsi- bility for preparing them not merely to pass entrance examinations, but to pur- sue freshman studies. Toward this desired end we have already taken a decided step in the formation and the successful operation of the College Entrance Examination Board — proof that we have the necessary machinery for making the readjustments suggested. Elizabeth Forrest Johnson. Bryn Mawr, Pa., January 22. A JUDICIAL EXCRESCENCE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In view of the recent Hains trial, and of the many other exhibitions of simi- lar character which have been witnessed throughout the country in late years, ib it not about time that we abandoned the practice of temporarily delegating sovereign power for certain purposes to a miscella- neous collection of twelve men who happen to be gathered together in a jury box? The practice is indefensible from any stand- point. It is not legally recognized; and, though a conspicuous reality in fact, in the- ory it has no existence. The theory is that the sole function of the jury is to deter- mine the facts, and that it belongs exclu- sively to the court to determine the law and apply it to the facts found by the jury. The practical application of this theory is a task of considerable difficulty, but it is ac- complished fairly well in civil cases, where the court exercises a supervisory control over the action of the jury through its pow- er to direct or set aside verdicts. But in criminal cases it is not so. There the the- ory breaks down through the operation of the principle of criminal jurisprudence that the accused shall not be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offence — "jeopardy" in this connection being held to mean "the situation of a prisoner when placed on trial before a jury duly sworn and empanelled, and charged with his deliverance." This principle effectually cuts off the power of supervisory control which the court exer- cises in civil cases, and thereby renders the action of the jury final and irretrievable, where the verdict is in favor of the accused. The result is that, in such cases, the jury may render a verdict that involves impos- sible findings — for example, a finding that white is black, or that two and two make seventeen — and there is no power of correc- tion. Here, instead of the court's applying the law to the facts as found by the jury, the jury are told what the law is, and are then virtually left to make the application for themselves, free from all power of cor- rection. In this way the jury are for that particular case temporarily vested with what is practically sovereign power. Pos- sessed thus of this accidentally acquired power, the jury may if they choose give ar- bitrary acquittal of the most heinous crimes in defiance of the plainest principles of law and the most conclusive proofs of guilt. That such power cannot safely be en- trusted to the average jury is abundantly proved by the many flagrant miscarriages of justice which we constantly see result- ing from it. Examples of national promi- nence are plentiful, but they are only typi- cal of a great number less prominent, but no less flagrant. For example, last year in this city a man sought out his wife, whom he had mistreated and from whom he was separated, and on her refusal to re- turn and live with him, promptly drew a revolver and did his utmost to kill her, fir- ing a number of shots and wounding her seriously, but not fatally. He was tried for assault with intent to kill. There was the usual defence of emotional insanity, and the usual attempt to blacken the woman's character. After a long drawn out trial the jury returned the incomprehensible and utterly preposterous verdict, "Guilty of simple assault"— a verdict which necessar- ily involved the absurd finding that the accused was sane enough to be guilty of simple assault, but not sane enough to be guilty of assault with intent to kill or to do great bodily harm. The judge was fu- rious. He scored the jury roundly and dis- missed them from further attendance as unfit for jury duty, but beyond this he was powerless. The utmost penalty prescribed for the small misdemeanor of which the de- fendant was convicted was a brief impris- onment, so that the net result of the trial was that the defendant had a few days in jail for rest and recuperation, after which he was free to resume the practice of wife- shooting whenever so inclined. Some light was thrown on the mental processes by which this verdict was reached by a remark afterwards made by one of the jurymen giving as a reason for voting as he did, that he did not like the way in which the assistant prosecuting attorney treated the defendant's attorney. With this remark as a starting point, one may imagine the great variety of influences which contributed to the rendition of this marvellous verdict. In many cases of verdicts of acquittal it is quite evident that the jury have reached that result not by finding the facts and ap- plying the law to them, but through the in-

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112 The JTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 fiuence of sympathy — thus in a manner usurping and .exercising that branch of sovereignty which is known as the pardon- ing power. The fact that the jury may be thus influenced is often the chief reliance of criminal practitioners. To induce the jury to usurp and exercise this power in violation of their sworn duty is the sole purpose of the many sensational appeals that are constantly being made to sympathy and prejudice. And it is precisely in this vulnerable point in our jury system that the insidious and anarchistic lie that is partly concealed in that highly mischievous phrase "the unwritten law" has found its most effective lodgment. There is no doubt that by the frequent repetition of this phrase both orally and in the newspapers jurymen have been led innocently to be- lieve in a vague way that besides the law given them by the court there is another and higher law which excuses the criminal act and authorizes them to disregard the law of the land and follow instead the dic- tates of their own feelings. The blame for these miscarriages of jus- tice is usually laid upon the jurymen; but this is frequently to follow one injustice by another. While the jurymen may not be altogether blameless, the chief blame rests not upon them, but upon ourselves, who complacently tolerate and perpetuate this defective system — a system which imposes difficult and highly important duties upon untrained men not fitted for their task, and at the same time further enhances their difficulties by leaving them exposed to in- sidious and powerful influences which they are unable fully to comprehend or resist. In justice to those who are compelled to do jury duty as well as to society at large this evil demands to be remedied —now as never before. The frequent occurrence of such cases in our courts is fast becoming a national disgrace, which can and should be averted. The peculiar feature of our judicial system involved in these cases is not a legitimate and necessary part of that system, but rather an accidental and unnatural out- growth from the maladjustment of the two principles above adverted to — a judicial ex- crescence which should be removed and re- placed with something more consonant with reason and common sense and more pro- motive of the ends of justice. What that "Something" shall or may be is too large a question to be discussed here. That the task of devising it and securing its adoption will be an arduous one must be admitted, but it must also be admitted that this very serious danger-point in our judicial system should be no longer left unguarded. If it be true as assumed in theory that the power in question cannot be safely intrust- ed to the courts, it is at least equally true as demonstrated in practice that it cannot be safely intrusted to the jury. And it surely should be possible to devise some method of vesting it where it will be freer from danger of abuse than it now is. Herbert L. Baker. Detroit, January 30. THE HETCH HETCHY VALLEY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your issue of January 21, Warren Olney, an ex-Mayor of Oakland, Cal., makes an appeal to the readers of the Nation to favor the taking of the Hetch Hetchy Val- ley as a reservoir for the city of San Francisco, and to aid against the "mo- nopoly" which is making the "principal fight" against it. We here in the East have been under the impression that the "principal fight" against this unnecessary invasion of the National Park was being made by the Appalachian Mountain Club, and that the good citizens of San Francisco who are clamoring for this taking are af- flicted with the same form of hysteria that seems to characterize their action when the word Japanese is mentioned to them. Their neighbors in California are not so charitable in their view. The Los Angeles Evening News said, editorially: There was never any reason or excuse for giving away this water, except that San Francisco wanted it. and was too stingy to be willing to go into the open market and buy. The Hetch Hetchy scheme is a fine thing for San Francisco, but, in plain language, it is a "steal." We concede that San Francisco needs more water and needs a municipal water system. That being true, the city should either buy the Spring Valley system outright or buy elsewhere. The facts, which the ex-Mayor neglects to give, are these: The city is now using daily about 32,000,000 gallons of water. The present capacity of this "monopoly" is 35,000,000, and it has un- developed resources sufficient to supply over 100,000,000 gallons per day. The quality of the water is good. The city engineer's re- port estimates the daily use of water in 1948 at only 57,000,000 gallons. The city and the water company have been jockeying for some years over the sale of the company's plant. The city wants it, and the company is willing to sell. The present plant has cost in actual cash over $28,000,- 000. The company has indicated a willingness to sell for $32,000,000. The city, through its engineer, has apprais- ed the value at $25,000,000, and has stated a willingness to give $28,500,000, although neither side has ever made a formal offer. The State Constitution requires the city to fix annually the water rates to be charged by the company. This it has done for the past six years at so low a figure that the United States courts have, on the appli- cation of the company, regularly and promptly enjoined the proposed rates as confiscatory. The Board of Super- visors of the city in 1906 order- ed ' the "works and franchises" for- feited to the city, because the company would not accept rates based on a 5 per cent, return on $25,000,000, above actual operating expenses without any allowance for depreciation. The city has full power to take the entire plant of the water com- pany by eminent domain, and have the price to be paid fixed by the courts. This proceeding the water company, the market value of whose securities has been much depressed by these attacks, has urged the city to adopt, but without avail. There are a number of other excellent sources of water supply open to the city by purchase, either in the open market or through the courts. It frankly prefers the Tuolumne River supply because it hopes to get that from the national government without cost. No one seriously objects to this exhibition of municipal thrift. The present fight comes because the city not only wants the water for nothing, but also wants the nation to surrender one of the natural wonders of the National Park for a reservoir, because the high walls and narrow mouth of the valley make Its trans- formation into a reservoir cheap. The pro- posed scheme will give the city 500,000,000 gallons daily, sixteen times its present needs, and it does not propose to con- struct a delivery system of more than 60,- 000,000 gallons daily, which it is estimated will be sufficient for the next forty years. Mr. Olney omits to tell us that a part of the plan of the city is to dam Lake Eleanor, a beautiful lake also within the park, and this part of the system, as at present plan- ned, will deliver 57,000,000 gallons per day, and is capable of large extension; and that, in the opinion of its engineers, this supply alone is ample for the city's needs, as in its drainage basin "there are many small lakes which can be converted into storage reservoirs of considerable capacity." There are plenty of other sites for storage reser- voirs than Hetch Hetchy. The existing reservoirs 00 -the- San Francisco peninsula will hold nearly 28,000,000,000 gallons, while the capacity of Hetch Hetchy, as at pres- ent planned, is but 33,000,000,000 and a res- ervoir can be built in the Calaveras Valley, near San Francisco, to hold 30,000,000,000, so that a supply for fully two years can be constantly kept on hand in the vicinity of the city. It must not be forgotten, there- fore, that the only reason Hetch Hetchy is desired is because it is a very cheap place to build a dam. There is one more cat in this meal. The city also has discussed using this mountain supply for the generation of electric light, and thus save its present annual expendi- ture of $300,000 a year for municipal light- ing. This is a highly commendable object, if it were not sought at the expense of the whole country. I say nothing here of the beauties of the valley. If there were mosquitoes there, I did not see them. The valley is remote because Congress has not yet seen fit to build seven or eight miles of road from the end of the present road at Hog Ranch. When that is built, the valley will be as accessible as the Yosemite itself was up to the time of the building of its railroad two years ago. The taking of Hetch Hetcny closes for all practical purposes the whole northern half of the park. How long will the city permit parties of 150 people, with attendant servants and horses, to camp along the river which supplies its reser- voir? It was with such a party that I camped for four weeks in this watershed, where we were forced to leave two dead horses. I submit that the Los Angeles News has made out its case, and the country is fac- ing, and fighting, an attempt to secure from Congress "a license to steal." Edmund A. Whitman. Cambridge, Mass., January 25. AN APPEAL TO SUMMER RESIDENTS OF MAINE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Among your readers there must be many generous persons who are summer residents of Maine, and who may, there- fore, be interested in the following stater ment: The laws of Maine provide for State agents appointed by the Governor to en- I force the statutes respecting cruelty to

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Feb, 4, 1 909] The ISTatiort 113 animals, and such an agent, Dr. J. H. Rol- lin, was appointed about sixteen months ago, at the request of the Farmington Hu- mane Society. Dr. Rollin gives his whole time to the work, goes to all parts of the State, and is, in fact, a travelling humane agent — the first of the kind, it is believed, in the world. The scheme has attracted wide attention, and seems likely to be adopted in many other States, especially if it can be continued in Maine as an object lesson. The Farmington Humane Society is a weak society, consisting chiefly of one benevolent woman, and Dr. Rollin's salary has been paid mainly by summer residents. Among those who have taken especial in- terest in the matter are, Mrs. Margaret Deland, Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, S. R. Ta- ber of Chicago, the Hon. William B. San- ders of Cleveland, Clement Newbold of Philadelphia, and George B. Dorr of Bos- ton. But the fund is now exhausted, and the work must cease unless new contribu- tors come forward. The cruelty to horses and cattle in northern New England, es- pecially in winter, and especially on re- mote farms, in logging camps, and on log- ging roads, is far greater than would be imagined by any one unfamiliar with the facts. Dr. Rollin has been remarkably successful. In two hundrel cases he has procured an improvement in dilapidated barns which sheltered horses and cattle; he has mercifully killed 150 worn-out and incurably lame horses; he has prosecuted the worst offenders, among whom was a man who tied a rope to a horse's tongue and pulled it out; he has given away blankets to poor men; he has supplied needy families with food and clothing; and has distributed books and papers among school children. The undersigned acts as agent in this matter for the Farmington Humane So- ciety, and any contributions sent to him will be received with gratitude. He refers to the Hon. S. T. Pullen, president of the Portland Humane Society; George T. An- gell, president of the Massachusetts So- ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- mals; and Dr. William O. Stillman of Al- bany, president of the American Humane Association. Henry C. Merwin. No. 3 West Cedar Street, Boston, January 26. "NO REFUGE BUT IN TRUTH." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I cannot let your editorial of Jan- uary 28, "No Refuge but in Truth," pass without a word of respectful protest. With the general principles which you lay down no man of sense will in these days refuse to agree. All of us, be we conservative, liberal, or radical, can surely come together on this point, at least, that truth which we ourselves recognize as truth cannot honorably, profitably, or, in the end, successfully, be concealed or dis- guised. Nor is it difficult to admit that a theology maintaining itself by subtle sophistries and forced interpretations must, "in this era of universal education," even- tually, and even quickly, succumb to the growing demand for openness and clear- ness of thought. But that "much of ancient Christian dogma rested" on the "old cosmology," or that "the Christian ideal of character" is all that is left of Christianity, or that sound theology sanctions the belief in a "crassly materialistic and inconceivable heaven," or that "the findings of natural science" necessitate the attenuation of theism to a half-hearted belief in Arnold's, "cold impersonal force that, at best, makes for righteousness" — such statements as these, appearing under the general impri- matur of a journal like the Nation de- mand some indication that not all of your readers yield to them their agreement and consent. Whether modern Christian thought is to be overwhelmed by the contention that the cosmology on which "ancient dogma" rested has given way before a truer sys- tem, is, to say the least, rather doubtful. 1 am not aware that the theology of to-day is in any particular inconsistent with the verified findings of astronomers, geologists, and physicists from Galileo to Lord Kelvin. Nor can I perceive any inherent opposition between Christian doctrine and the modern philosophy of evolution — even if the latter include, among its subsidiary hypotheses, the theory of abiogenesis, or "spontaneous generation." Those portions of early the- ology which have been invalidated by sci- entific discovery were in no instance es- sential to the general doctrine itself, and have long since been discarded and forgot- ten. To say, again, that present-day the- ology teaches a "crassly materialistic and inconceivable heaven," is to argue with epithets, and to educe proof from mere ac- centuation of statement. That nothing re- mains of Christianity but the ethical ideal developed from its doctrines, is an assertion against which there is here space but to oppose an earnest denial. And, lastly, the assumption that theism has been finally de- spoiled of all rational justification and basis, is not for a moment to be admit- ted. That modern science is atheistic, may by granted; but that is only because sci- ence is confessedly restricted to material phenomena, and can never penetrate, in either physics or psychology, to the supra- material, life-giving Fundament. Our greatest psychologists are precisely those who teach this doctrine. It should not require repetition, at this day, that theism is not disproved or weak- ened because the telescope has scanned the heavens in vain for an anthropomorphical- ly conceived deity; or that the theory of an immaterial source of mental activity has not lost any of its force through the in- ability of the X-ray to get beyond mole- cules and matter. Theism has nothing to fear from, has, indeed, nothing to do with, "the findings of natural science." It rests, as Cardinal Newman so gently but persist- ently urged, not on any scientific examina- tion of matter, but on an introspective ex- amination of our mental and moral life. Theism starts with the "Universal Postu- late" of Spencer that "inconceivability of the opposite is the highest assurance of truth"; it challenges any mind, scientific or other, to conceive of a thought, or a volition, or a prayer, as a material, spatial entity, so many inches long, or broad, or deep — that is, to conceive of mind as mat- ter ; and it concludes — snatching its test of truth from the mouth of the apostle of cosmic evolution — that the mind is a supra- material, i. e.j a spiritual entity. But this spiritual entity must have a source, and that source itself must be spiritual, and must be, like its offspring, possessed of intelligence and will. The question, of course, is not one that can be adequately discussed in the space that may be allotted here. Let it be recog- nized, finally, that religion is not a syllo- gism, but a standpoint ; not an inference reached after a scientific or philosophic "voyage of discovery," but a deliberate and thoroughly reasonable choice of one atti- tude towards life and its mysteries in pref- erence to any other. It finds its source in spirit and conscience; and as such is for- ever immune from a science that, on its own admission, is restricted to the spatial and material, and from a philosophy that, again on its own admission, is restricted to the phenomenal and the relative, and. per- petually excluded by its very nature from the spiritual realm that contains a con- science and a God. Wm. J. Durant. . Seton Hall College, South Orange, N. J., Janu- ary 29. Notes. The Oxford University Press is about to publish a book by W. H. V. Reade, called "The Moral System of Dante's Inferno" Mr. Reade thinks that the common opin- ions concerning "The Divine Comedy" may be considerably modified. Harpers are to issue a new edition of Trevelyan's "Life and Letters of Lord Ma- caulay," which will include Macaulay's "Marginalia," recently published in a sep- arate volume. In answer to an inquiry as to the orig- inal editions of Eugene Lee-Hamilton's poetry, we may say that all of the books, except, we believe, the two novels, were published at his own expense. The edi- tions were small and bear many imprints. We are informed that no authorized edi- tion is obtainable in the ordinary way, ex- cept "Dramatic Sonnets, Poems, and Bal- lads: Selections from the Poems of Eugene Lee-Hamilton," with an introduction by William Sharp, London, Walter Scott (in Canterbury Poets). The selection was made by Lee-Hamilton himself, but is represen- tative only as regards the sonnets. Tho same house has an edition of his novel, "The Lord of the Dark Red Star." An un- authorized edition, "Sonnets of the Wing- less Hours," has been published by Thomas B. Mosher of Portland. Heinemann of London and Duffield & Co. of this city have in preparation an amplified copyright edi- tion of "Mimma Bella," and, we under- stand, are planning a comprehensive book of selections to be made by Mrs. Lee- Hamilton. Of the attractiveness of W. S. Braith- waite's "Book of Georgian Verse," just published by Brentano's, there can be no question. A surprising amount of poetry has been packed into a single stubby lit- tle volume, printed in good type and on thin but opaque paper. On the editor's judgment in selection some strictures might be made, although in the making of anthologies, if anywhere, the rule de gua- tibus is in force. Still it does seem rep- rehensible in a book devoted mainly to the eighteenth century to pass over Chris- topher Anstey, if only for the place of Bath in Georgian society ; and there are other names missing which certainly have as strong a claim on our memory as some

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114 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 of the obscure Scottish gentlemen admitted. However, enough of every sort is included to give a good survey of verse from Thomson to Wordsworth. For ourselves, we almost forgot to criticise the book under the spell of Landor's epigrams which first caught our eye. Certainly he is the prince of anthology writers, as is natural in one who drew so much of his inspiration from the Greek Anthology. Reading his poems here amidst the work of so many other poets, we were impressed by his power of producing an impression by a deliberate restraint and, so to speak, diminution, as seen in his "night of memories and of sighs" (which a famous German scholar oncte emended to "life"!), his "tears are longer ere they dry," and a score of other minute touches. We observe that the notes forget to mention that "Mother, I Cannot Mind My Wheel" is from Sappho; and we protest against the inclusion of "The Hamadryad" in place of his wonderful masterpiece, "Iphigeneia and Agamemnon." Prof. F. A. Blackburn's edition of the "Exodus" and "Daniel," once attributed to Caedmon, is one of the most satisfactory offerings that have so far appeared in the Early English section of the Belles-Lettres Series (D. C. Heath & Co.). From a liter- ary point of view these poems are much more inviting for classroom use than Prof. J. W. Bright's specimens of the West Saxon Gospels, and though they are less brilliant than the "Judith," edited by Prof. A. S. Cook, they are not open to the objection to 'that interesting text — its extreme short- ness. It should be said, however, that Pro- fessor Blackburn has had primarily in mind the linguistic student. He has transcribed his text from the Junian manuscript with the most painstaking literainess. All pro- posed emendations are relegated to the footnotes, in which are included copious suggestions of earlier commentators — many of them worthless — to exercise the critical acumen of the young philologist. The vo- cabulary is exhaustive, even to the point of recording the 159 occurrences of the conjunction "and." The formal merits of the introductory matter are perspicuity, conciseness, and methodical arrangement. The more vital merits are a cautious judg- ment and a fondness for facts. He sets forth one original suggestion of consider- able importance, namely, that the accent marks in Anglo-Saxon poetry do not, as is generally supposed, indicate long vowels, but rather metrical stresses. He admits, however, that the evidence is as yet incom- plete, and, with the sound critical spirit that makes the whole book a model of its kind, suspends judgment. There is a place for the Oxford edition (Henry Frowde) of "The Works in Prose and Verse of Charles and Mary Lamb." Canon Ainger's edition suffers both from 'incompleteness and from deliberate and ut- terly unwarranted alterations of the text. The seven volumes edited by E. V. Lucas have the merit of scholarly exactness, and contain everything that can reasonably be attributed to Lamb; but they are not pleas- ant books to handle and read, and, After aill, comfort in reading in the case of an author like Lamb is an essential requisite. The edition in twelve volumes, edited by William Macdonald, is accurate, sufficiently com- plete, and is made up in the attractive form commonly given to his publications by Mr. Dent. We must add, however, from per- sonal experience, that the books. If dainty, are also somewhat flimsy, and do not weaT well. The edition now prepared for the Oxford Press by Thomas Hutchinson (editor of Wordsworth and Shelley in the same series) is for the "works" practically com- plete and is textually accurate. It is, too, considering its cheapness and the amount of matter (1,720 pages) crowded into two volumes, agreeable to eye and hand. The Letters are not included, and this may seem like having "Hamlet" with the Dane left out. Perhaps they are retained for a third volume, and, if so, Mr. Hutchinson, who has proved his capacity for painstaking and judicious work, may perform a true service; for the text of the Letters still needs recti- fying in many details. "Hazell's Annual" for 1909 (imported by Scribner's) is, as usual, the indispensable book for any one who wishes to have at hand a survey of the recent events of leg- islation, government, finance, civil life, education, army, etc., of Great Britain and, in less detail, of other countries. A num- ber of new titles appear this year, in- cluding, among others, Airships, Old Age Pensions, and Unemployed Question. The book is minutely indexed and thoroughly trustworthy. "The Commercial Products of India" (E. P. Dutton & Co.), by Sir George Watt, is an official publication consisting of a digest of information on the products which are of present or prospective indus- trial or commercial importance. It is an abridgment of the "Dictionary of the Eco- nomic Products of India," by the same au- thor published in six volumes in 1885-94, and now out of print. The general plan of treatment may be indicated by the arti- cle on cotton, which occupies fifty-six pages. It begins with a sketch of the his- tory of the plant in all countries from the earliest times. Then follows an account of the various species in India, the meth- ods of cultivation, the manufactures, in- cluding the wages of mill operatives, and the foreign and domestic trade. To each section is appended a list of authorities from which the facts are derived, the sta- tistical returns being brought down to 1905-6. All who carefully examine this unique work, the aim of which is to be of practical value to the commerce and in- dustry of the land, must be profoundly impressed by the enormous development of India's natural wealth under English rule. To take a few products only; the exports of linseed in 1832 were 3 cwt., in 1904 they amounted to 11,182,000 cwt. The output of the coal mines increased from 459,408 tons in 1868, to 9,783.250 in 1906. "Tea now oc- cupies half a million acres of land for- merly waste," the exports amounting to thirty million dollars a year, while the annual value of the cotton crop, insignifi- cant a century ago, is now one hundred million dollars. Some of the information, we observe, is rather trivial. Moreover, the usefulness of the work as a book of reference would have been increased by the addition of tables of measures and values. The two latest additions to the series of Baedeker guide-books (imported by Charles Scribner's Sons) are "Italy from the Alps to Naples" and "Greece." The former is the second edition of an abridgment of the three more detailed volumes, "Northern Italy," "Central Italy and Home," and "Southern Italy and Sicily." It Is designed for "travellers who have only four or five weeks at their disposal, and intend to de- vote their time either to a rapid and com- prehensive survey of the country or mainly to the attractions of Rome and Naples." It contains 25 maps and 52 plans. The "Greece" is the fourth edition, with 16 maps, 30 plans, 2 diagrams, and a panorama of Athens. "A Woman's Way through Unknown Lab- rador," by Mrs. Leonidas Hubbard, jr. (Doubleday, Page), is an account of a jour- ney through Labrador, from Hamilton Inlet, on the Atlantic Coast, toUngava Bay, a part of Hudson's Bay, by the Nascaupee and George Rivers, and Lake Michikamau. The purpose was to explore this route, which had been chosen in 1903 for the first "Hub- bard expedition," under the leadership of the author's husband, Leonidas Hubbard, jr. It will be recalled that, on account of fatal initial mistakes, he lost his life in the frozen wilderness, while his two com- panions, Dillon Wallace and George Elson, barely escaped. Mr. Hubbard's chief ob- jects were the indulgence of his love of adventure, the desire to get material for a "good story," and to pick up what scientific information he could, by a close study of the Indians and an effort to man the coun- try through which he passed. These were presumably also Mrs. Hubbard's objects, as she expresses her purpose to "complete" her husband's work. Well outfitted, and accompanied by four good woodsmen, one of whom was the faithful Indian, George Elson, who was with Mr. Hubbard, she finished her adventurous journey with sin- gularly little hardship, but at such a rate of speed, especially towards the end, that she found very little time for scientific observation. Though the party encounter- ed a few Indians, both Montagnais and Nascaupees, there was no opportunity for any study of their habits. Little shoot- ing was done, except for the pot, and al- most no fishing, which was a pity, in view of the fact that the expedition passed through a fine game and fish country. The topographical results were of slight value, and the book is almost devoid of notes on flora and fauna. In a word, it is as a volume of entertainment that the work is recom- mended, for it is excellently written, in a natural style, and with much vivacity. Though Labrador is far from being the terra incognita that many later explorers would have us believe, and journeys through it are common and by no means very dan- gerous if proper care is used, Mrs. Hub- bard's expedition nevertheless proves her a woman of enterprise, energy, and pluck. Miss Beatrice Grimshaw's "In the Strange South Seas" (J. B. Lippincott Co.) is the continuation of the story of her enterpris- ing journey in the Southern Pacific, the first part of which, on Fiji and the New Hebrides, was noticed in the Nation of January 30, 1908. Here she narrates in the same lively and entertaining way her ad- ventures in Tahiti, Samoa, the Cook and other groups of islands mostly under the control of the New Zealand government Their great undeveloped wealth in soil and climate admirably adapted to the cultiva- tion of tropical fruits and the opportuni- ties which they offer to white settlers with

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation 115 some capital are clearly shown. The chief impression left by her book is that these isles are a "garden of Indolence, a lotus- land, a place where one dreams, and wan- ders, and listens to the murmuring reef- song, and sleeps under the shade of a palm, and wakes but to dream again." For near- ly three years she voyaged from one to an- other of the eight groups in the small sail- ing vessels which are the only means of communication with the outside world. It was an adventurous journey as she was without any companion, but she was treat- ed everywhere with unfailing courtesy, es- pecially in those islands which she was the first white woman to visit. Her descrip- tions of the wonderful color effects in the coral atolls, the fruit groves, and the life of the natives, their passionate fondness for flowers, dancing, singing, and swim- ming are very vivid. One of the most in- teresting places was Tonga, one of the Friendly Islands, which has a king, "a real palace, guards of honor, a parliament, a prime minister, a chancellor of the exche- quer, and a large number of public offi- cials. All these are Tongan natives." Six or seven years ago the king, wishing to provide himself with a queen of equal rank with himself, "first applied to the Emperor of Germany to know if there was a Ger- man Princess of marriageable age whom he could have. The Kaiser politely replied in the negative." Their high opinion of their own importance is shown by the fact that "when the war between China and Ja- pan broke out, Tonga politely sent word to Great Britain that she intended to re- main neutral." The concluding chapters contain an account of a short stay in Sa- moa and a visit to the Hot- Water Country and Geysers in New Zealand. There can be no doubt that such a cruise as Miss Grim- shaw took would be ideal for the wearied toiler of the busy world. Many of the fifty-six illustrations are remarkable for their beauty. If the author would con- dense her two volumes into one, leaving out many of the descriptions of scenery which are tiresome because of their same- ness, and scores of trivial incidents, and add an index and a map, she would make a valuable contribution to the literature of a little-known part of the world. Our strongest impression on picking up W. M. Rossetti's "Family Letters of Chris- tina Georgina Rossetti" (Scribner's) is one of disappointment for a great opportu- nity lost. Mr. Rossetti has for a number of years been issuing monographs, bio- graphical introductions, and books on the greater members of his family. The pity is that he should have scattered his en- ergy on so many incomplete publications instead of concentrating it upon one solid memoir. As it is, the best of his material has gone into pamphlets and introductions, leaving his larger works, like the two volumes of 1906, entitled "Some Remin- iscences," singularly jejune and fragmen- tary. A proper history of the Rossetti family would be a book of great interest and value, and no one had better oppor- tunities for writing such a memoir than the editor of these letters; as it is, we must look to another. The present let- ters of Christina Rossetti, we must say regretfully, are of slight interest, and this slightness is emphasized by their publication in a separate volume. They are almost entirely brief notes. Here and there some reference to literary mat- ters drops in, as when she mentions the family liking for Barham's extraordinary ballad "As I Lay A-thinking," or when she speaks of Emily Dickinson's "wonderfully Blakean gift, but therewithal a startling recklessness of poetic ways and means"; but these are exceptions. Nor do the let- ters throw any new light on the charac- ter or experience of the writer. Consid- ering the intimacy of her verse, we should be glad to have any clearer revelation of her feeling toward James Collinson and Charles B. Cayley; but of such confession there is in these pages not a hint. The only excuse we can find for the publica- tion is that some day the man who shall write the desired history of the family may find in it a few sentences to his purpose. A collection of family letters of unusual charm is published under the title "Me- moirs of a Vanished Generation" (John Lane Co.). The family of Edmond Knox, cadet of a noble Irish house, had the habit of sprightly and intimate correspondence. Their letters from 1813 to 1855 mirror life with an agreeable distortion of the scale which reduces the doings of '48 to the same magnitude as Bessy's matrimonial chances. "By the time you come home," writes Mrs. Knox to her soldier-son in Canada, "I shall be occupied in taking Bessy into the world. I wonder if I shall have any luck!" Bessy was no beauty, but was "thought very agreeable in conversation." From her let- ters, she was a merry, sweet-hearted girl, and the reader hopes anxiously that one of the eligible young men with whom she dances may endow her with a title and a carriage. But fate is as inexorable as Henry James, and Bessy married a country parson and a widower, and died at thirty. The soldier-son came home in 1842 on a year's leave. He crossed from Sandy Hook to Deal in thirty days, reached London the day after landing, "ordered a complete rig- out of clothes from Jones in Regent Street," and went to the Haymarket to see Mme. Vestris the same evening. His laconic diary shows his joys in Paris, where he dined in company with "Thackeray, the author," and hired a window for five francs to see two men guillotined. In calendaring the State Papers (Colonial Series) for the year 1700, Cecil Headlam, the editor, has found a census, taken in that year, of the white inhabitants of Ja- maica. In view of the fact that many of the families in the United States are de- scendants from forefathers who first settled in the West Indian colonies, this announce- ment will be of interest in this country. It will not be practicable to print the names in the next Calendar, but the fact of their existence will be noted. Family associa- tions between the States and the West Indies were pointed out by Samuel Drake, in the Register of the New England His- toric-Genealogical Society, about fifty years ago, and since then they have been further elucidated. It is well known that Hamilton came from Nevis. Dallas, the first Secre- tary of the Treasury, was a native of Ja- maica. Gen. George Gordon Meade of Get- tysburg fame was descended from a family of colonists in Montserrat. A branch of the Winthrop family "planted" in Antigua; and a branch of the Lees in Barbados. There is good reason to believe that it may yet be proved that John Washington, who settled I in Virginia about 1657, went thither from Barbados. The British League of the Empire has just issued its text-book, "The British Em- pire: Its Past, Its Present, and Its Future," a work of about 800 pages, with 54 pages of good index. About 240 pages have been contributed by the editor, Prof. A. F. Pol- lard, on the history of the British Isles. The treatment of India, the Colonies, and their possessions, is therefore, necessarily, on a very inadequate scale. Of places in the New World, Canada is assigned 75 pages; Newfoundland less than 9; Ber- muda, less than 2; the Falkland Islands 1%; and the West Indies, about 30. One of the committee for the preparation of the history, Sir Frederick P. Pollock, has con- tributed 34 pages on "The Future Organiza- tion of the Empire." The work has been prepared from moneys provided by the Spitzel Imperial Education Trust, founded on a gift of £5,000 by the late Mr. Spitzel. Interest in Thackeray has revived in Ger- many. In a series of treatises on English and German philology, edited by Alois Brandl, Erich Schmidt, and Gustav Roe-the there has appeared a book of 152 pages by Dr. Erwin Walter, entitled "Entste- hungsgeschichte von W. M. Thackerays Vanity Fair." The first German edition of Thackeray's complete works, translated by Heinrich Conrad, has also appeared upon the market. A contribution to the Turkish question has just come from the press of Riitten & Loning, the Literarische Anstalt of Frank- fort, "Der erloschende Halbmond," by Alex- ander Ular und Enrico Insabato. The sub- title, "Tiirkische Enthullungen," is not a happy choice; for a book that frankly promises revelations of any kind is rare- ly devoid of an unpleasant element of sen- sationalism. It is to the authors' credit that they have maintained a certain dig- nity in the treatment of a subject which lends itself so easily to the methods of yel- low journalism. The work is likely to add to the reputation of Ular, who came into prominence as the author of "Die gelbe Flut," a novel of Chinese life remarkable for its insight into customs and conditions ordinarily hidden from the foreigner. The two authors merely report the facts, point out the relation between seemingly unre- lated things, guide the reader through the labyrinth, and analyze the various aspects of the economic and political problems in- volved. The city of Hamburg, Germany, has just opened a Colonial Institute, and a modest pamphlet gives the addresses on the occa- sion. Hamburg has steadily increased the number of its useful institutions — a great hospital, an excellent astronomical obser- vatory, a capital municipal library, a well planned system of schools, now culminat- ing in a local university, with a scientific academy. And finally, mindful of its large interest in the prosperity of German colo- nies, it has provided a Colonial Institute, for the training of officials, merchants, planters, and all who may seek employ- ment in the colonies. The hearty acknowl- edgment of the imperial government was made by the secretary of the colonies, Bernhard Dernburg, who was trained as a merchant in the United States, and as an official in the German African colonies. The principal address was that of Prof. Karl

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116 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 Rathgen, of the staff of the new Institute, describing its scope and organization.- In addition to chairs filled by members of the various local faculties, three new profes- sors have been called to teach law, geog- raphy, and Eastern history; and in addi- tion courses will be given in languages, natural history, medicine, and politics. A useful compendium of facts is the new work of Dr. O. Schwarz, which appears in the Sammlung Goschen, entitled "Die Steuersysteme des Auslandes." It describes in considerable fulness the tax systems or all the leading nations of the globe, except Germany. "Buddha: Seln Leben, seine Lehre, und sein Einfluss bis auf unsere Zeit," by Theo- dor Simon (Giitersloh; C. Bertelsmann), is divided into four parts which treat of Buddha's Life; Buddha's Teachings; the Spread of Buddhism in Asia; the Influence of Buddhism on Modern Thought and Life. One feature is the author's effort to show the similarity between Buddhism and the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Hart- mann. The parallels between the teachings of Jesus and Buddha are, according to thf. author's view, more seeming than real. He further insists that Buddhism does not ad- vance but retards and deadens civilization. The house of J- C. Hinrichs, Leipzig, has now, with the publication of the twenty- first volume, completed the third edition of that greatest storehouse of Protestant theological learning, the "Realencyklo- padie fiir protestantische Theologie und Kirche," originally projected by Prof. J. J. Herzog, but now edited by Prof. Albert Hauck. Some four hundred scholars have contributed more than forty-three hundred articles to the more than seventeen thou- sand pages of this edition. A supplement- ary index is yet to follow. John Gilmer Speed, grand-nephew of the poet Keats, died at Mendham, N. J., Feb- ruary 2. He was born in Kentucky fifty- five years ago, and was a graduate of the University of Louisville as a civil en- gineer. After his graduation he practised his profession, built several railroads, and at one time was city engineer of Louisville. At the Centennial Exihibition he was chief of the bureau of transporta- tion. From 1879 to 1883 he was managing editor of the New York World, and from 1883 to 1887 travelled abroad extensively, doing magazine work. On his return to America he engaged in various editorial work and wrote much for the magazines. In later years he made the horse his special subject. In 1904 he was appointed com- missioner to purchase breeding stock for the Philippines, and was afterwards em- ployed to inspect horses and mules bought for work in the Panama Canal. His pub- lished books are: "Keats' Letters and Poems," "A Fall River Incident," "The Gilmers in America," "A Deal in Denver," "The Horse in America." Miss Martha Finley died at her home in Elkton, Md., January 30. She was born at Chillicothe, O., in 1828, and spent her girl- hood at South Bend, Ind. In 1868 under the pseudonym of Martha Farquharson she put out the first story of "Elsie Dinsmore," which was such a success as to justify twenty successors, the last, "Elsie's Winter Trip," being published in 1902. She was also the author of the "Mildred Books." The death is announced of the Rev. Ar- thur G. Butler, for a time assistant master at Rugby, head master of Haileybury from 1862 to 1867, and from 1875 to 1895 tutor of Oriel College, Oxford. Besides winning distinction as a teacher he published several books of verse: "Charles I, a Dra- ma," "Harold, a Drama," "Choice of Achilles, and Other Poems." News comes of the death at Paris of Albert Merat, poet and librarian of the Senate, at the age of sixty-eight. He was in early life a friend of Verlaine's, and collaborated with him in a book of son- nets, "Avril, Mai, Juin." Charles Tardieu has died at the age of seventy in Brussels. He was a well-known figure at Paris during the later years of the Second Empire, and founded L'Art. He afterwards went to Brussels, where for several years he edited L: 'Independence beige. From Jena comes the news of the death, in his fifty-second year, of Karl Vollers, professor of Oriental philology. His best known work is "Die Weltreligionen." Johan Jakob Borelius, professor of theo- retical philosophy at the University of Lund from 1866 to 1898, has died in his eighty- sixth year. A follower of Hegel, he felt that the anarchistic and materialistic views held by the Hegelian left were caused by their not having drawn the full conse- quences from the master's dialectic princi- ples. Borelius was most widely known for his polemics with C. J. Bostrom and Bos- trom's followers, especially Sigurd Ribbing. During the last years of his life he was engaged on a large work on metaphysics, only parts of which have been published. OSCAR WILDE. Oscar Wilde. By Leonard Cresswell In- gleby. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $3.50 net. It was only a little while ago that R. H. Sherard published what professed to be an authoritative biography of Oscar Wilde; and now appears a criticism of much the same scope and intention by Mr. Ingleby. While recognizing the im- possibility at this point of anything like a final or definitive evaluation of his author, Mr. Ingleby expects to reach, if only for the time being, a relatively just, or at least a thoroughly compre- hensive, estimate. He hopes to make a correction or two, if not an entire rec- tification. In this respect his volume is a pendant to Mr. Sherard's. Unfortu- nately, however, neither of these gentle- men succeed in inspiring much confi- dence. To be sure, Mr. Ingleby has mo- ments of great sanity; but they are fol- lowed by paroxysms of enthusiasm so reckless and extravagant as to preju- dice even his more lucid intervals. His book is further compromised by the cir- cumstance that its conclusions are whol- ly inconsistent with its principles. Mr. Ingleby censures Oscar Wilde's charac- ter and condemns his theories of litera- ture; and yet he lavishes unsparing praise upon the writings which are the expression of that personality and the illustration of those ideas. At the same time he is quite devoid of petty intol- erance and unfairness. He quotes as lib- erally from detractors as from pan- egyrists. He recognizes that there is such a thing as a difference of opinion, and he looks behind as well as before. The fact seems to be that admiration has become an involuntary habit with him — a kind of tic which he is unable to check or control, and which has end- ed by suborning the intelligence to issue it a set of counterfeit credentials. For Mr. Ingleby, Oscar Wilde is sim- ply a brilliant example of the general thesis that character has nothing to do with literature — or art, as he would probably prefer to call it. He insists that "the man's life and the man's work" are wholly separate and indepen- dent, and "should not be regarded as identical," much less judged by the same standard. On the one hand, there is "the artist, all of whose works were pure, stimulating, and splendid," and who never wrote "a line that was im- moral and impure"; and, on the other hand, there is "the criminal, part of whose life was shameful," but whose "criminal side . . . was only a part of his complex nature horribly disas- trous for himself and his personal life, but absolutely without influence upon his work." For this reason Mr. Ingleby prefaces his criticism by a distinct study of "the Man" — though on his own showing such a study in this connec- tion must be merely idle, if indeed it does not prejudice his author in the very manner he himself deplores, par- ticularly as this is the most interesting and significant part of his book. And, by the bye, when will critics have done with this silly fashion of dissecting their subject into man and artist, as though an artist were ever anything but a man? In this case, at all events, Mr. Ingleby apportions his "man" among four "periods" — the period of aesthetic pose and attitudinizing, the brief heyday of literary and social fashion, an interval of obscuration and eclipse, succeeded by a sudden momentary flare and rapid extinction. On the whole, no- thing could be more moderate and im- partial in tone than this survey. That it is, if anything, over-indulgent, is a fault with which the generous reader will find it easy to sympathize. After acknowledging Wilde's "unconquerable egoism," the "self-appreciation and con- fidence which reached not only the heights of absurdity, but surely im- pinged upon the borders of mental fail- ure," the "extraordinary and abnormal divorce between will-power and intelli- gence"— in a word, the man's fatal hybris; Mr. Ingleby draws a balance in the following terms; In regarding the whole field of the poet's life . . . one finds him to be a sweet and noble nature, with much of the seren-

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation. ity of "highness" which accompanies a great genius, yet obscured, soiled, overlap- ped, and periodically destroyed by a ter- rible and riotous madness, both of talk and thought. It is a facile and dangerous thing to attribute all the good and noble actions of any man to his "real self," and to say that all the evil he wrought and did came from madness or irresponsibility. If such a doctrine were to be generally accepted and believed, laws would lose their rai8on d'etre, punishment would become a mockery, and society would inevitably end. Yet possibly it may be that some few souls exist of whom such a statement may be true. If such exceptions do exist and have existed, then surely Oscar Wilde was one of them. So be it. It is ill to crowd the dead. In view of the inequality of custom one would be as charitable as possible with a man of extraordinary gifts lest one confound too many in an indiscriminate condemnation. Yet in view of Mr. In- gleby's general proclamation of divorce as between literature and character it is impossible to avoid recalling Boileau's commentary: Le vers se sent toujours des bassesses du coeur, or, to keep somewhere near the same artistic kind, the remark of Theodore de Banville: Comme, en somme, ta poesie exprimera ton ame, on y verra se refleter clairement les vices, les faiblesses, les lachetSs, et les defaillances de ton ame. Tu tromperas les hommes peut-etre, mais non la Muse. But Mr. Ingleby goes even farther. Toward the close of his volume he vir- tually concludes a separation between a writer's opinions, too, and his work. That he himself, in spite of his pro- testations, is sufficiently under the in- fluence of common prejudice to feel the desirability of setting out his author's life in the fairest possible colors, is clear from the preceding quotation. But his condemnation of Wilde's views is thoroughgoing: Enough has been said and quoted to prove . . . that art, while it is the chief regenerative force in life, cannot pos- sibly be dissociated from morals, that Wilde's view of art in its relation to mor- als is entirely unsound and dangerous to the half-educated and those who do not know how the greatest brains of the world have regarded this question. And it is strictly in accordance with these principles, developed at length in the chapter on "The Philosophy of Beauty," that he censures "De Profun- dis" solely on the strength of its con- tent: Now if the book were merely an excur- sion in attitude, a considered work Of art without any profound relation to the truth of its personal psychology, then I think the book would be a less saddening thing than it undoubtedly is. . . . [But] if the work is absolutely sincere, as I believe it to be, then, from the moral point of view, it is, indeed, a terrible document. It shows us how little the extraordinary, complex temperament of Oscar Wilde was really chastened and purified. It provides us with a moral picture of monstrous ego- tism set in a frame of jewels. What, then, is left to a work of art in default of character and ideas? No- thing, apparently, except style. But while the conclusion may serve to ex- plain the possibility of Mr. Ingleby's enthusiasm, in the teeth of the preced- ing considerations, when he comes to examine his author's "work," yet it must also diminish the value of his praise for the serious reader. And, in- deed, this part of the volume leaves the mind in something of a turmoil. It is disconcerting enough to hear Wilde's frequently superficial and catchy trick of expression lauded through thick and thin as "the supreme art of the genius," to find his rather amateurish dramatic vein ranked with the thoroughly exper- ienced stage-craft of Sardou, to listen to the confident prophecy that " 'A Wo- man of No Importance' is certain of immortality," to read of "the supreme and splendid passages" in which he has treated of Dante's Divine Comedy — and that, too, in the same breath with "his curiously topsy-turvy views of life." But all this is nothing to the volte-face whereby the critic concludes of "De Pro- fundis," in defiance of his own criticism just cited — "I know of nothing written in recent years that comes anywhere near it as an almost flawless work of art." Surely, in reference to such "a terrible document," such "a picture of monstrous egotism," this can mean no- thing if it does not mean that a work of art is art only in as far as it is factitious. It is not so much that Oscar Wilde was not in his way a clever and even at times a brilliant writer — but that all this laudation is so entirely wanting in proportion, in the sense of measure and relativity. Indeed, the critic himself is wickedly suggestive at times of the bourgeois epate, to whom he frequently refers with some disdain — the dum- founded Philistine, who is too dazed to exercise his judgment upon the ob- ject of his detestation or admiration. And it is just this fact, that the writer does not understand exactly what he is praising, or why or how much, which damages in Us upshot and intention what is in some particulars an inter- esting and even a judicious book. CURRENT FICTION. Septimus. By William J. Locke. New York: John Lane Co. Septimus is a fresh and delightful figure among story-book heroes. Super- ficially, he is a person frequently to be seen upon the comic stage: the lack- lustre, anaemic, wool-gathering young man of genius, who cannot manage his cuffs, or remember where he lives. In short, he appears to be an ass, and the spectator is encouraged to enjoy him to the full ag such. But the point of the story is that he is gradually per- ceived to be, not an ass, but a lion in ass's skin. Septimus Dix ("Simple Septimus" he was called for serial pur- poses) is a lonely, eccentric young Eng- lishman, with the brains of a mathe- matician and the heart of a child. He has plenty of money, but insufficient presence of mind to care for or enjoy it rationally. He is at the mercy of a rascally valet, an ex-burglar, and of whatever sharp practitioners may chance upon him. Of course, the irra- tional thing about the situation is that such a born victim should have outlived an unprotected boyhood without being absolutely stripped by the sharp prac- titioners, who in real life seldom leave their operations to chance. To make matters worse, Septimus is an inventor, with heavy ordnance as a specialty. When we come upon him, however, not even the patent lawyers have succeeded in draining him dry, and he is safely if aimlessly pottering about at Monte Car- lo. At the roulette-table he meets a young Juno of an English widow, Zora Middlemist, who is, like himself, loiter- ing alone through Southern Europe. They strike up a whimsical acquain- tance. Each really needs the protection and companionship of the other, and they resume their travels in discreet proximity. Presently there enters upon the scene another man, almost as un- usual as Septimus, one Clem Sypher, proprietor of "Sypher's Cure,' and self- styled Friend of Humanity. His rem- edy is worthless, but he does not know it. On the contrary, he believes that it is destined to relieve the world's suf- fering: it is a religion with him. Vir- tually a quack, he is spiritually a "poet with an ideal." Of course, both men fall in love with Zora Middlemist. But the love of Septimus is all meekness, and he is easily convinced of the sis- terliness of Zora's feeling for him. It remains for him to prove to his own satisfaction the depth of his devotion by an act of self-sacrifice which in- volves another woman and in the end makes for his own happiness. Zora is for Sypher — not Sypher the triumphant friend of humanity, but Sypher the fall- en, robbed of his great mission, yet reso- lute and worthy of a strong mate. It all makes up a pleasant fantasia, per- haps, rather than a novel in the "stren- uous" sense now commonly attached to the term: and for this, one is inclined to say, so much the better. Rose-White Youth. By Dolf Wyllarde. New York: John Lane Co. This book will take readers of a cer- tain age back to that favorite of their youth, author of "Phyllis," "Molly Bawn," and other delectable tales Of somewhat long-drawn sentiment, who cailed herself "The Duchess." In later

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118 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 years one came to associate that title with the simulacrum of a middle-aged figure in dressing-sack and curl-papers discoursing unctuously and profitably of young love. "Dolf Wyllarde" is bet- ter bred than "The Duchess," but the style is not quite free from the shabby- genteel complacency of the middle-class romancer sure of an audience. Most of the persons, the wicked and beautiful society woman, the languid middle-aged breaker of maidens' hearts, the silly young lord, are among the ordinary properties of British fiction. And Betty, the present incarnation of "rose-white youth," bids fair at first to be a mere replica of the familiar pathetic hero- ine: the young girl whose real (and un- fortunate) parentage has been conceal- ed from her, and who is destined to be- come an heiress in time to secure the matrimonial services of the middle-aged heart-breaker. But there is something really fresh and youthful about this par- ticular Betty, something altogether un- conventional in the manner in which death is permitted to release her from the responsibilities of her wealth and the condescensions of her languid lover. The consummation is unexpected, but it retroacts upon one's impression of the story as a whole. Captain Margaret: A Romance. By John Masefield. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. Buccaneering in the seventeenth cen- tury is a theme of perpetual attractive- ness, and it would take a far less ani- mated pen than Mr. Masefield's to di- vest it of interest and spice. This, however, is only the third or fourth re- flection suggested by his romance. The first one is that he has shown atrocious- ly bad taste in the delineation of his villain, whose vices are pricked out in intolerable detail. The second thing that strikes the reader is the amazing incomprehensibility of everybody's be- havior. A stained glass window sort of lady may marry an odious animal and may ignore his vices, but she could not be so blind to his unspeakable boor- ishnesses as Olivia was to those of her husband. Captain Charles Margaret, who was forced by accident into tak- ing his old love and her brute of a hus- band on his own ship from England to the Spanish Main, was of a long-suffer- ing patience, too good to be true; too good, indeed, to be good. His friend Perrin is variously described as a burnt moth, very wretched and haggard, a broken emotional creature, with the de- fects of a woman, wearing a bright green satin lining to his coat, "for, like most vicious men, he loved the color green." And he, too, is incomprehensi- ble, minutely described but in nowise conveyed. The sailing master, an ex- pirate, is more defined, but equally in- credible in his blending of patience and violent temper. There is unquestionably power of a sort in the ruthless adventure and un- covenanted blood-curdling; and a chival- rous appeal in the unexplained worship of the boneless Olivia by all the char- acters except her husband. He, in the end, is handsomely treated in being allowed to die of yellow fever, and Capt. Margaret's long-suffering adoration finds reward. Long before these roman- tic events have run their course, how- ever, still another point has been for- cibly thrust upon the reader, namely, the astonishing language of the recital. Strong in the matter of phrase and epithet, the sentences are literally hacked into pieces by periods. And what kind of speech, for any one, but especially for subjects of King James, is here? "Don't you forget it." "She was a bute, all right." "Not on your life." No archaic cock and pye for Mr. Masefield. The Calico Cat. By Charles Miner Thompson. Boston: Houghton Mif- flin Co. This is a study in rustic pettinesses, humors, vanities, and angularities; in boyish imaginings and resolve; in com- ical situation threatening to grow seri- ous; in buffoon cowardice ultimately made ashamed. A Calico Cat was at the bottom of the events which for a time convulsed the village of Bllming- ton. Though not in permanent evi- dence as an actor, she is the propelling force behind all the commotion, and is appropriately clothed with the attri- butes of mysterious power. To be cali- co is to be without possible reproach of monotony. To be a cat is to be unap- proachable, diabolically remote, yet damagingly present; a 'model of do- mesticity, if large families and a taste for mild milk in the saucer of civiliza- tion can prove it; an untamed daugh- ter of the jungle, if pedigree may be established by voice, ferocity, and witch- like powers of prey. The mystery of the Bast and the creation being in every cat, give a competent author one, and -he has a subject made to his hand. To entangle one, and that a yellow calico one, in the meshes of a shooting affair, a hint at smuggling on the Ca- nadian frontier, a grand jury inquiry, and yet to keep it a genial family tale, doughnutty and comfortable, proves in- genuity and deserves thanks from seek- ers after the harmless necessary story of amusement. Venice: Its Individual Growth from the Earliest Beginnings to the Fall of the Republic. By Pompeo Molmenti; translated by Horatio F. Brown. Part III: The Decadence. 2 vols. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. $5 net. With these volumes Professor Mol- menti concludes his history of Venice. They cover, roughly, the last two cen- turies, from the battle of Lepanto in 1571 to the extinction of the Republic in 1797. They are written on the same plan as their predecessors — political events occupy little space, whereas the life of the people is studied in great de- tail. In so far as the outward affairs of the Signory had relatively little im- portance after the Spanish Conspiracy, this method of treatment suits very well; and yet we cannot think it right to dismiss Sarpi with a page, the twen- ty years' war in Candia with a para- graph, and the achievements of Moro- sini "the Peloponnesian" with bare men- tion. Friar Paul's management of the controversy between Venice and Rome not only typifies the policy which Venice maintained for a thousand years to- wards Papal encroachment, but it will serve forever as an example for any state which is defending itself against the attempt of ecclesiastics to get con- trol of its temporal affairs. So the Candian War and Morosini's campaigns in the Morea deserve to be treated fully, because they display the persistence, in spite of old age and of the enervation of a long period of luxury, of the spirit which made Venice great. The contrast between these truly heroic episodes and the prevailing decadence ought to be emphasized strongly. But Professor Molmenti's chief inter- est is in the social and moral conditions of the last two centuries. These he de- scribes vividly and minutely. He has literally ransacked every cupboard. He tells the life of all classes — patricians, priests, artists, courtesans, gondoliers, servants — from birth to death. He writes exhaustively about industries and finance, theatres and sanitation, art and literature, crimes and dissipation. No- where else in English can one find such an elaborate array of facts concerning the manners, activities, and morals of the later Venetians. In addition to the printed material, which is enormous, Professor Molmenti has had access to many family archives, and he enriches his notes with many striking extracts. While doing full justice to the thor- oughness of his work, and gladly admit- ting its interest, we may question whe- ther he has not devoted undue space to the period of decadence. Venice had a political existence extending over thir- teen hundred years. Of this great dura- tion, three centuries may be assigned to adolescence and two centuries to old age; but the period of old-age was not particularly significant. Gambling, jad- ed sensuality, extravagance, elaborate and vapid ceremonies, folly triumphant — these are the symptoms common to prosperous states in their decrepitude. That Venice lasted as long as she did in spite of them shows how solid her constitution, both social and political, was at prime. In reading a mass of social details such as are here set forth one must al-

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation. 119 ways distinguish between what is char- acteristic and representative, and what is unusual or unique. Naturally, the scandals are reported: how far do they indicate the average conduct of the time? Above all, when it comes to sex- ual license, it is difficult to know the exact limits; for witnesses otherwise careful are inclined to generalize from too few data, if not to accept rumor and suspicion as valid testimony. The top- ical method itself, which Professor Molmenti uses, tends to destroy the bal- ance. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that his general description is cor- rect. He has done for Venice singly what Burckhardt tried to do for the Ital- ian renaissance as a whole. This work, which is an expansion, as we have said, of his earlier monograph, deserves to have a permanent place among the so- cial chronicles of Italy. The great va- riety of its subjects, the well-chosen il- lustrations, and Mr. Brown's fluent translation will commend it to English- speaking readers, for whom the charm of Venice never grows cold. Miscellaneous Papers. By Charles Dickens. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $1.50. The "Miscellaneous Papers" of Charles Dickens, consisting of contributions to various newspapers, and now — nearly forty years after his death — first includ- ed in the authentic edition of his works are interesting chiefly as additional evi- dence of the man's enormous activity. Here are 736 closely printed pages, mat- ter enough to represent the life work of a slender literary talent of these de- generate days, and all this is but scat- tered wisps of Dickens's harvest, negli- gently left for the gleaning of an over- scrupulous posterity. Though there is much good reading between the covers of this bulky tome, there is little of rare quality. As an editor Dickens was not so much a literary genius as a mas- terful business man. He did, indeed, conceive his journal Household Words with his genius, but he edited it, as it were, with his left hand. Readers of his life will remember that it was his original design to call the paper by his own name, Charles Dick- ens, or Charles Dickens's Own — so com- pletely had he identified his sentiments with those of the middle-class house- holds into which he wished to penetrate, and so well did he understand the com- mercial value of his name. He did not pose as an intellectual leader, nor had he thought deeply on the matters which excited his editorial comment; he had, however, seen with his own eyes and felt in his own person many widespread evils against which he cried out as with the vox populi. But even in deal- ing with the gravest subjects he never sacrificed his sense of fun to his sense of dignity. For example, he writes as follows of the "late lamented Mr. Dove," a recently executed murderer: That amiable man, previous to taking the special express-train to Paradise, which is vulgarly called the Gallows, indited a document wherein he made it manifest to all good people that the mighty and benefi- cent Creator of th. Vast Universe had specially wrought to bring it about that he should cruelly and stealthily torture, torment, and by inches slay, a weak, sick woman, and that woman his wife, in order that he, Dove, as with the wings of a Dove (a little blood-stained or so, but that's not much) should be put in the way of ascend- ing to Heaven. Moreover, in spite of his fierce diatribes on the bowie-knife press of "The States," the author of "American Notes" knew the journalistic value of strong sensations. The two long papers in this volume on "The Lost Arctic Voyag- ers" will compare favorably with Jack London's best for raw and horrible shudders. The official report on the lost exploring party of Sir John Frank- lin made it fairly certain that the lat- est survivors had prolonged their lives by "eating the dead bodies of their com- panions." Dickens, under the pretext of reassuring the public, pours out all the information he possesses on the grewsome devouring of human flesh by travellers and shipwrecked sailors in the last extremities, judicially weighs the evidence, and proves — nothing at all. Few of the papers in lighter vein are specimens of the author at his best: the humor romps with rather artificial energy; the conceits have not had time to mellow. Yet the fact that they were written at less inspired moments may give them value in the eyes of the Dick- ensian. The reader of the novels is be- wildered— Dickens himself was bewil- dered— by the mysterious and unac- countable vitality of his characters. He felt rather like their man-midwife than their creator; for when he had set them on their feet and given them a start in the world they hurried with impudent independence away from his beck and call. In his work as editor he is still a writer of extraordinary vividness and abundance of impression, but he is working without daemonic assistance. He is an astonishing but fairly compre- hensible phenomenon — a captain of lit- erary industry utilizing his by-prod- ucts. Science. The Psychological Phenomena of Chris- tianity. By George Barton Cutten. Pp. 487. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $2.50 net. Many a man who had remained un- touched by the appeals of the clergy was drawn by the literary charm of Prof. William James's "Varieties of Re- ligious Experience" to consider serious- ly matters of religious interest. That work had preeminent value in that it led not a few crabbed minds to a wider religious sympathy, and awakened many of those who felt themselves estranged from the churches to see that they might still maintain a religious at- titude, though they were unable to em- brace the beliefs of their fathers. No other author treating the same subjects can be expected to entice his readers as does such a literary master as Pro- fessor James; nevertheless, the work before us may well be classed with his as a probable source of enlightenment. It approaches the subject from an en- tirely different point of view; it ap- peals to a different audience, being ad- dressed primarily to the theological stu- dent; yet being written by a theologian rather than a professed psychologist, it may well have a special and salutary influence where James's greater work might not be effective. Although Mr. Cutten cannot profess to he a psychologist of originality, he is by no means lacking in psychological learning, and his work displays few points that can be attacked on techni- cal grounds. To be sure, he seems at times somewhat credulous in minor par- ticulars, but no more than must be ex- pected in one who is not trained as a scientist. On the other hand, the read- er cannot but be impressed by the firm- ness of his conviction of the value of the religious attitude, a conviction which renders him the more willing to look facts in the face, and to accept valid interpretations of religious phe- nomena which a few decades ago would surely have barred him from Christian fellowship. In one particular his book is espe- cially timely at this moment: viz., in bringing before us in convincing form the close relation between hysterical phenomena and religious ecstasies. In these days when not a few of his cler- ical brethren, ill-informed in the his- tory of human pathology, are teaching that nervous disorders are universally prevalent and on the increase, it is salu- tary to see sketched the record of the far more violent and more morbid neurological symptoms recorded in the story of religious habits and expres- sions, of "religious epidemics," "con- tagious phenomena," and "revivals." Our author's insistence that the men- tal attitude of which prayer is the ex- pression is of the very essence of re- ligion (e. gr., p. 405) is surely funda- mentally true and cannot be too often reiterated. His references to authori- ties display wide and discriminative reading, and in the main his deference to high authorities does not lead him astray. In one respect only do we dis- cover a serious lapse in this direction. When he holds, as he does throughout the book, that "if God works directly in man He must work through the sub-

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120 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 consciousness" (p. 18), he accepts a notion which appears to he entirely un- warranted, but which he can scarcely he blamed for entertaining, for he has probably gained it directly from cer- tain words and implications found in Professor James's writings. He thus displays that unfortunate tendency, which Professor James has done so much to strengthen, to fall back upon mysticism when one finds one's self balked in the endeavor to attain clarity of conception. This "subconscious" is surely no more than what some of our psychologists now describe as "sub-at- tentive consciousness"; it is fundamen- tally of the same nature as clear atten- tive consciousness; and its manifesta- tions therefore cannot be more essen- tially indicative of the influence of the Divine upon or within the man, than are the manifestations within the nar- rower field in which life appears to be guided by intelligence and reason. "The Prevention of Tuberculosis," by Arthur Newsholme (E. P. Dutton & Co.), a volume of the new Library of Medicine, is confessedly written for the instruction and guidance of medical officers of health, to which service the author formerly belonged. Clinical and therapeutical matters are barely touched upon, save as they bear di- rectly on the general question of the pro- tection of the community. There is a good deal of historical and statistical detail, but not too much for the proper development of the argument. A longish first part treats of causative conditions with a good discus- sion of the sources of infection — and the conclusion that consumption is essentially an indoor disease, much encouraged by great density of population, general misery, and organic filth, favored by a moist soil in a manner difficult to explain, and trans- mitted by infection. Newsholme takes a firm stand that tuberculosis in man may be caused by the bovine bacillus, and that this is a constant source of danger, al- though much less frequently effective thau the human form. The view of Von Behring that most of us are infected by cow's milk in childhood, the disease having remarkable powers of latency, is regarded as untenable because it contains too many assumptions quite opposed to our knowledge of the bacillus. The second section deals with the conditions which have already led to a re- duction in the mortality. An interesting parallelism between general pauperism in Great Britain and deaths by phthisis ;s brought out, but with the distinct reserva- tion that one does not explain the other. The examination of the statistics of a num- ber of places and several countries de- velops the opinion that "the increase of institutional segregation has been associat- ed with reduction of tuberculosis in the community affected by it." The reader will find it worth while to follow the steps by which this view is reached. Then fol- lows, as a third part, a careful, but neces- sarily somewhat repetitious consideration of the methods to be employed in the re- duction and extinction of tuberculosis. Here early recognition and the full employment of the resources of the dispensary and sana- torium are urged, but of paramount impor- tance are the enlightenment of the public and a hearty cooperation at every step, few of the agencies to be employed being of a lasting value unless the patient and his friends fully appreciate the part they have to play. A bibliography of perhaps one hun- dred and fifty titles, in which we note Ruchle for Ruehle, makes no pretence to complete- ness, but will be found useful. The ease with which new material is ob- tained must always be a strong argument for the study of the embryology of the chick, although many teachers doubt the wisdom of letting the student devote as much time to this animal as is usually given to it. In either case the new "De- velopment of the Chick" (Henry Holt & Co.), which Prof. P. R. Lillie has pre- pared as an introduction to embryology, will be heartily welcomed; for there has long been need of a new text-book or a thorough revision of the best old one. This work is of medium size, about five hundred pages, liberally supplied with illustrations which, as a rule, are exceptionally clear. So special is the treatment that no ex- tended notice need be given here, but it may be added that, although the author professes to have intended his book for beginners, he seems to have in mind be- ginners of a pretty high grade. In an ap- pendix of about twenty pages are detailed references to the literature arranged ac- cording to the chapters of the book, a plan which has many inconveniences. "A Laboratory Course in Plant-Physiolo- gy" by Prof. W. F. Ganong of Smith Col- lege (Henry Holt & Co.), a second and somewhat modified edition, is exceptionally concise and clear, and is written with good judgment throughout. Professor Ganong has fully comprehended the difficulty of giving in small compass the essential facts relative to the life of plants, and he has therefore wisely omitted most of the controverted matters which might indicate the range of his study, but which are of little use to the student. The treatise is, first and fore- most, a safe guide to accurate experimen- tation. Various new devices are suggested, somewhat after Prof. W. J. V. L. Osterhout's admirable plan for constructing efficient apparatus of simple types. The author has attempted with a fair success to make his book of use also to those who have not within their reach the advantages of an in- ' stitutional outfit. When we reflect that a good part of our recent knowledge in re- gard to the distribution and habits of our native flora has been due to the enthusiasm of amateur botanists, we may confidently hope that inquisitive persons may attempt the solution of some of the perplexing ques- tions relative to the nutrition and move- ments of plants. Then, too, as a hand- book for disciplinary training in elementary exact research, the volume will be of ser- vice. Physiology is substantially the appli- cation of chemistry and physics to the in- vestigation of the activities of organisms; but it so happens that both chemistry and physics are just now undergoing certain rather radical changes in the fundamental conceptions, especially along the border be- tween the two sciences. Even such an ap- parently simple matter as osmosis has been placed temporarily on a new speculative ba- sis. To select from these subjects still un- dergoing revision, a few which will serve as a discipline in exact and satisfying re- search has not been easy, but Professor Ga- nong has done well with his task. Modern scientific work is being conducted according to broader and better methods, as is illustrated in recent reports of va- rious field workers. In place of the old- fashioned, meagre, more or less personal narrative, with a mere uninteresting list of birds or mammals at the end, we have thorough accounts of the region explored. North American Fauna, No. 27, "A Biologi- cal Investigation of the Athabaska-Macken- zie Region," by Edward A. Preble, publish- ed by the Government Biological Survey at Washington, is a most valuable paper. This central portion of Canada is the chief habi- tat of the fur-bearing animals, and is the breeding ground of most of our great flocks of ducks and geese. Here, too, the wood bison still survives in sadly depleted num- bers, for the majority of the calves are killed each year by wolves. Mr. Preble's monograph (574 pages, with colored maps and illustrations) begins with a brief itin- erary, and then treats in detail the physical geography and climatology. Though the ad- vance of spring in this boreal latitude is extremely slow, migrating crossbills, mos- quitoes, moths, butterflies, and flowers ap- pear as early as April. The next section is devoted to Life Zones and the causes underlying the remarkably sharp lines of distribution of animals and plants. The work of previous explorers — Hearne, Mac- kenzie, Franklin, and Kennicott — is re- viewed, and their errors are corrected. Finally, presented in thoroughly systematic manner, with elaborate notes on food and life histories, we have a summary of the mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fishes of the region. A list of trees and shrubs, a bibliography, and a good index bring this important contribution to science to a close. The eleventh volume of the sumptuous and admirable edition of the "CEuvres com- pletes de Christiaan Huygens," published by the Holland Scientific Society, has recently been delivered 'to American subscribers. It contains only the work of his youth, main- ly upon mathematical subjects — rectifica- tions, quadratures, tangents, magic squares, etc., and a more extended essay upon float- ing bodies, interpreting and completing Ar- chimedes's treatment of this subject. The first feeling upon opening the work is sure to be one of delight at the completeness, the admirable form, and the apparatus for interpreting the text — plates, indexes, etc. Then one wonders why much of this ma- terial was thought worthy of publication at all. Surely the literature of precocity is already extended enough. But many of these essays have content as well as form. reminding one of Maxwell's early work; and throughout they are annotated with such care as to show what is new and the sources of the old. Where are our boys of sixteen who are doing this kind of work? The current number of the Archiv fur An- thropologic contains a detailed report of the excavations made last summer at Le Moustier, Dordogne, France, by the Swiss anthropologist, O. Hauser of Bale; a crit- ical analysis of the characteristics of the human skeleton found there, and its re- lation to the Neanderthal type, by Prof. H. Klaatsch of Breslau; and ten illustra- tions and a full-page plate which give a clear idea of the form and relative posi-

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Feb. 4, 1909] The 1ST at ion 121 tions of the more important objects dis- covered (see "The First Race of Fossil Man," Nation, January 14, p. 44). These articles are published also as a separate monograph, "Homo moustieriensis Hau- seri," by Fredrich Vieweg & Sohn, Bruns- wick. The general advance in methods of exploration, and especially the great care with which every detail has been scrutinized in this instance, have resulted in establishing facts regarding their bur- ial customs unperceived in the earlier dis- coveries of skeletons of the Neanderthal type. The hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin arid the fiftieth of the pub- lication of "The Origin of Species" will be celebrated at the American Museum of Natural History in this city on February 12. A bust of Darwin will be pre- sented to the museum by the president of the New York Academy of Sciences, Charles F. Cox, and accepted by the president of the museum, Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn. Prof. John J. Stevenson will speak on "Darwin and Geology"; Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton will discuss "Darwin and Botany" ; and Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, director of the museum, 'Darwin and Zoology." Dr. Ed- mund Otis Hovey, of the museum, chairman of the Darwin Memorial Committee, has ar- ranged an exhibition of Darwiniana, and a series of illustrative specimens and groups of specimens bearing upon the Darwinian theory of natural selection. The exhibition will continue for one month. Lorenzo Gates, the well-known botanist and conchologist, died at Santa Barbara, Cal., January 30. He was of English birth, but came to this country in 1853. He was the author of "The Channel Islands," "Ab- original Weapons in California," and other works. Drama. THE DEATH OF COQUELIN. Benoit-Constant Coquelin, the French actor, died January 26 at Pont-aux- Eames, Seine-et-Marre. Only a few days earlier, Edmond Rostand, who had been giving the finishing touches to "Chanticler," arrived in Paris, ready to begin the rehearsals of the play in which M. Coquelin, who had the leading role, was expected to be as successful as in "Cyrano de Bergerac"; but M. Co- quelin succumbed suddenly to an acute attack of embolism, from which he long had been a sufferer. He was born in Boulogne in 1841, the son of a baker. His natural in- clination and ability soon led him in the direction of the theatre; and in 1859 he gained admission to the Paris Conservatory, and became a pupil of the distinguished actor, M. Regnier. From the first Coquelin exhibited extra- ordinary capacity. In less than a year he won the second prize for comedy, and made his first appearance at the Theatre Frangais in the character of one of Mo- liere's lackeys. Before he was thirty he had been elected a societaire, and was established as one of the leading attractions of the famous house. For a number of years he was seen most fre- quently in plays of the classic reper- tory, such as "Depit amoureux," "Les Fourberies de Scapin," "Les Plaideurs," "Le Mariage de Figaro," and "Don Juan." By degrees he drifted into the more modern drama. One of his tri- umphs was in "L'Aventuriere," his Don Annibal furnishing one of the most striking examples of humorous, yet real- istic, intoxication known to living mem- ory. Another famous impersonation was his Due de Septmonts, in "L'Et- rangere," which was followed by his Leopold in "Les Fourchambault." M. Coquelin early established what may be called a second reputation by his extra- ordinary felicity in the recitation of wit- ty, pathetic, and humorous poetry. His delivery of these tid-bits was a wonder- ful illustration of finished elocutionary art. As he became more famous, he be- gan to grow restless under the restric- tions of his contract with the The- atre Frangais. Objection was raised to the provincial tours which he had un- dertaken, and he was informed that he must confine his public appearances to the Frangais, or forfeit the pension to which he was entitled. He declined to yield, severed his relations with the the- atre, and signed agreements for his first American engagement. The fight lasted for three years, when a compromise was effected, by which he returned to the Frangais (in 1889), with the under- standing that he should act there for six months in the year and be at liber- ty to play where he chose during the remainder of the time. Thereafter, M. Coquelin made frequent tours in France, England, and elsewhere, until his final retirement from the Frangais. In this country his success was in- stantaneous and complete. His most characteristic performance, perhaps, was his Mascarille, long recognized as a masterpiece, but he appeared also in "L'Aventuriere," "L'Aiglon," and "Les Surprises de divorce." Another imper- sonation that was greatly admired, espe- cially for its admirable declamation and its noble death scene, was his Cyrano de Bergerac. But he was not at his best as a picturesque or romantic actor, as was shown by his unimaginative inter- pretation of the part of Mathias in "The Bells," and in his correct and clever but uninspired performance of Labussiere in Sardou's "Thermidor." Of his career viewed as a whole it must be said that he was not one of the world's great actors — he could not be ranked, for instance, in the same category with Talma, Rachel, Bern- hardt, or Salvini— but he was one of the most accomplished performers pro- duced by the French stage during the last century. Reared in the best tradi- tions of the Theatre Frangais, he was, in all the regions of comedy, a com- plete master of his art, his impersona- tions being no less remarkable for the perfection of their technical finish than for the richness of their natural hu- mor. He owed much, of course, to the endowments of nature — high spirits, great bodily vigor, a vibrant voice, and an extraordinary comic and intelligent facial mask — but his chief triumphs were mainly due to sheer histrionic skill, an exquisite appropriateness of at- titude and gesture, infallible control of facial expression, an irresistible vitality, and a wonderful elocution that gave the fullest effect to the most delicate em- phasis. In the broader classic French comedy he had no rival. He could be effective also in romance or melodrama, so long as he was not required to in- terpret the deeper springs of pathos or passion. The seven plays now added to John S. Farmer's Tudor Facsimile Texts (London: T. C. & E. C. Jack) were written proba- bly in the twenty-five or thirty years fol- lowing 1537, and thus bring to the general use of students valuable material for the study of that obscure period when the drama was passing from its mediaeval to its renaissance form. They include such varied matter as "The Life and Repentance of Mary Magdalene," by Lewis Wager, one of the latest of the old English morality plays, here printed from a British Museum copy of 1567, a copy of an earlier-dated (1566) but otherwise identical edition be- ing in the possession of W. A. White of this city; "The Play called the Four P. P.," one of the undoubted interludes of John Heywood, from the British Museum copy of 1545 (?); "The Chief Promises of God unto Man," one of the reformation plays by John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, from the unique copy in the British Museum of the first edition of 1538, a later edition being dated 1577; and the "Ferrex and Pollux" of Thom- as Sackville and Thomas Norton, from the authorized edition of 1570, one of the first beginnings of tragedy which has been fre- quently reprinted, but never before in fac- simile. The other volumes are: "Apius and Virginia," by R. B. (Richard Bower?), from the Irish find of 1906, probably written in 1563; "Damon and Pithias," by Richard Edwards, from the British Museum copy of 1571; and "Jacob and Esau," from the British Museum copy of 1568. All these collotype facsimiles have been compared with the originals by J. A. Herbert of the museum and are guaranteed by him as prac- tically perfect. Only admiration can be felt for the editor's zeal in thus at once plac- ing these rare works out of the chance of destruction and making them easily ac- cessible. As we have remarked of earlier issues of the series, the value of the under- taking depends on its bulk, and it is pleas- ant to know that already some fifty plays are in preparation. Our sole criticism we must repeat. The books could have been made doubly useful, and at relatively small expense, by printing a transliteration of the text in each volume. The Ghetto is coming in for a large share of attention in recent German drama. Be-

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122 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 sides the plays by Schalom Asch, a Yiddish writer successfully brought forward by S. Fischer of Berlin, there is a play by Arthur Holitscher: "Der Golem," a Ohettolegende in three acts, of which the scene is the house of a rabbi in the ghetto of a mediaeval city. The latest play of Charles Klein, "The Third Degree," which was produced in the Hudson Theatre on Monday evening, is an inferior work to "The Lion and the Mouse," in respect of significance and purpose, al- though it shows some advance in the art of technical construction. In general char- acter it never rises above the dignity of melodrama, although the fact that it is founded upon a. definite motive of general public interest distinguishes it from purely sensational pieces of its class. There can be no doubt that its central theme, the unscrupulous methods adopted by a certain type of police officer to secure the convic- tion of a suspected prisoner by the manu- facture of a case against him, is a legiti- mate subject for dramatic treatment, but the particular instance used is not very ingenious or convincing, while the attribu- tion of hypnotic power to a police captain of the lowest political type — apparently with the notion of giving the play a dash of the quasi-scientific flavor which is the lat- est theatrical fashion — is an expedient so far fetched as to be almost ridiculous. As a matter of fact, the piece is more of a demonstration of the occasionally decep- tive character of circumstantial evidence than of dangerous police intrigue. In other words, the dramatist almost entirely fails to maintain his original proposition, which, in the end, is lost sight of. But he has written an effective and in many respects, well made melodrama, in which the situa- tions are often interesting, if the types are conventional. The representation is helped greatly by some remarkably good acting by Helen Ware, who, in the part of the dis- tressed heroine, fighting against desperate odds, gave an uncommon display of perfect- ly natural and womanly emotion. The story of Rudolf Besier's new play, "Olive Latimer's Husband," now to be seen in the Vaudeville Theatre, London, is not a pleasant one but it seems to be told with considerable dramatic skill and knowledge of human nature. Practically the whole play is a series of conversations in the ante-room to a chamber where Mr. Latimer ^ has died. Before his death he had written a letter to Mrs. Latimer's lover, Sir Charles Weyburne. Of this letter the doctor se- cures possession, and he insists upon deliv- ering it in spite of Mrs. Latimer's tearful appeals. She fears that it is a denuncia- tion and will make mischief. Finally, after much suspense, the missive is opened, and proves to contain the writer's dying wish that his widow and Weyburne may be wed- ded at the earliest possible moment, being plainly intended for each other. But the request has an effect directly opposite from that which was intended, for it provokes remorse in the breasts of the former lov- ers and makes them both resolute to avoid union. The acting of Mrs. Patrick Camp- bell in the character of the heroine is de- scribed as remarkably effective. Somerset Maugham's latest comedy, "Pe- nelope," which has just been produced at the Comedy Theatre, in London, seems to be in the main a conventional p'.ece, but full of amusing touches and an occasional unexpected turn. Penelope is a young wife, who discovers that her husband is engaged in an intrigue. She summons her parents, and demands a divorce. But her father, a sage philosopher, bids her pretend igno- rance, arguing that the husband will soon tire of his new flame. This turns out to be true. The husband finds his double life ex- pensive, grows heartily sick of it, and final- ly makes a confession. He is told that everybody has known all about it all the time. Then, instead of professing penitence, he flies into a rage, denounces his wife's conduct as disgraceful, and proclaims that he alone of the whole family is possessed of any moral principle. This was the turn that most pleased the audience. All the critics agree that Marie Tempest is exceedingly well suited in the part of the wife, and never acted with more humor or spirit. Charles Frohman has a new one-act play by J. M. Barrie, in which Ethel Barrymore will be seen before long. Music. MENDELSSOHN AND STRAUSS. February third was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Mendels- sohn. During his brief life of less than thirty-nine years, he was the idol of the musical world, and for about a quarter of a century after his death in 1847, his popularity continued unabated. Then came a violent re- action. Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, and Wagner, who had been overshadowed by Mendelssohn, came forward, and his fame paled. For a time it seemed as if it would fade away altogether; his music was neg- lected in private houses as well as in concert halls; to be a Mendelssohnian was to be an old fogy. Presently the pendulum began to swing once more the other way, but not so far. Music- lovers were learning to discriminate between inspired work and uninspired. Mendelssohn's songs, which had so long triumphed over the far superior pro- ductions of Schubert, Schumann, Franz, and others, are now, with a few excep- tions, acknowledged to be obsolete. Much of his pianoforte and chamber music also has vanished. But his chor- al works, "St. Paul" and "Elijah," have stood the test of time, if not so well as Bach's and some of Handel's; and among his orchestral pieces several are as fresh to-day as when they were written. Musical compositions are as ephemer- al as literary works. To be able to say of any composer sixty-two years after his death that some of his works are as fresh as when they were given to the world, is to assign him a place among the immortals. That Mendels- sohn is looked on as an immortal is shown also by the extraordinary inter- est in his centenary, here as well as abroad. Apparently, every musical or- ganization in the country, small or great, is arranging a Mendelssohn pro- gramme. Everybody will thus have an opportunity to confirm or revise his opinion of the greatest of the Hebrew musicians. Richard Wagner once wrote a sensational pamphlet in which he de- clared that in none of the arts had the Jews produced creators of the first rank. In a more temperate mood, however, he declared that Mendelssohn was the greatest specific musical genius since Mozart. Wagner called him "a land- scape painter of the first order," and re- garded the "Hebriden" overture as his masterpiece; 'Wagner admired the "Mid- summer Night's Dream" overture, that marvel of genius which Mendelssohn wrote when he was seventeen, and which he never afterward surpassed or even equalled. This overture, with oth- er numbers of his incidental music to Shakespeare's play, has often appeared on concert programmes, and it bids fair to live as long as any music now in ex- istence. There is reason to suspect that the great interest in the Mendelssohn cente- nary is due not merely to a desire to pay tribute to his now acknowledged genius and his fixed place among the classics, but is partly a result of the reaction against present tendencies of music, particularly in Germany. By an inter- esting coincidence, Richard Strauss's latest opera, "Elektra," was produced in Dresden last week — only ten days be- fore the Mendelssohn centenary. The peculiarities of this music-drama have been cabled to all parts of the world, and in this city we had our own re- vival last week of "Elektra's" predeces- sor, so that an opportunity was afforded every one by attending "Salome" at the Manhattan, and one of the Philharmon- ic Society's Mendelssohn concerts at Carnegie Hall, to observe for himself the enormous difference between Ger- many's present musical hero and the hero of two generations ago. Perhaps, the American correspondent who telegraphed after hearing "Elek- tra" that it is "a prodigious orchestral orgy, with nothing that can be called music in the score," was guilty of exag- geration; yet when Mme. Schumann- Heink was studying the role of Clytemnestra, Strauss himself is report- ed to have said to her: "It is not sing- ing at all. You have only to groan, moan, and sigh, but it requires tremen- dous dramatic power." Deliberate ex- clusion of melody from both the vocal and the orchestral parts of his operatic music is Strauss's trade-mark. Long ago he discovered that the faculty of creating melodies is the weakest part of his musical equipment, so he cast about for means to hide that deficiency. The easiest way was to follow the example of Berlioz, enlarging the orchestra im- moderately and laying on the colors so thick that few would know whether or

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation 123 not a melodic pattern was sketched un- derneath. Wagner required for his stu- pendous Nibelung tragedies four clari- nets and four trumpets, but Strauss must have seven clarinets, seven trum- pets, and other instruments in propor- tion. Nor does he waste them; they are used for the weaving of a polyphon- ic web so intricate that the most expert musicians can hardly find their way. Indeed, it is conceded that much of this intricacy is not for the ear at all, but only for the eye of the reader of the orchestral score. Too much contrapuntal skill hath made Strauss mad, as it did the old Netherland masters of the six- teenth century, who wove together as many as thirty separate vocal parts, re- gardless of everything but ingenuity. Mme. Schumann-Heink tried to study the "Elektra" score with the composer h'mself, but found it "a forlorn hope"; he then advised her to apply to the man who had made the version for piano, and with his aid, at last, she "got a definite clew"! In the hands of Strauss, German music has thus degenerated into a riot of virtuosity, a mere sport, in which he and his imitators (among them Max Reger) try to "go each other one bet- ter." But there are signs of revolt — s'gns that this orchestral virtuosity will ere long be ranked by serious musicians not much higher than the vocal fire- works of the colorature prima donna. Strauss would have never come into such vogue had not orchestral conduc- tors been as eager to show off the skill of their bands as singers were to dis- play their trills and runs and staccati. The universal interest in the Mendels- sohn centenary indicates that the pub- lic is eager to return to the land where flows the milk and honey of melody. No doubt, Mendelssohn's music contains too much milk and honey; but even thus it is better than the mixture of vinegar, gall, and cayenne pepper which we get in the Strauss operas. Among the latest publications of Breit- kopf & Hartel is "Mozart as a Composer at the Age of Eight." It contains minuets and other pieces written in 1764 and found lately among autographs given to the Ger- man Emperor by Ernst von Mendelssohn- Bartholdy. The same firm has also just is- sued the third and last volume of Litz- mann's biography of Clara Schumann; a book on Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved," and the correspondence between Liszt and the grand duke, Carl Alexander of Saxony, who were close friends for forty years. Many of these letters show how energeti- cally and persistently Liszt tried to pave the way for Wagner. The grand duke call- ed Liszt his "ministre intime," and often consulted him on other than musical mat- ters, testifying: "He never gave me a bad or i< selfish piece of advice." Ever since the King of the Belgians, some years ago, made a public speech in Flem- ish, the literature of Flanders has been looking up. The latest work in Flemish to attract special attention is an opera by R. Verhulst and A. De Boeck. entitled "Reynaert de Vos," which has recently been produced at the Antwerp Flemish Opera, and which is declared to be successful from the musical point of view, though the text is rather prosy. The fact that this is the first purely Flemish piece of the kind put on the stage, and that Belgium is the early home of Reynaert gave unusual interest to the production. The story is based on the famous "Roman du Renart" and Goethe's "Reinecke Fuchs," and there is said to be an interesting analogy between Verhulst's production and the play by Rostand dealing with the tale of "Chanticler." Paderewski gave his only New York re- cital on Tuesday afternoon before an au- dience which crowded Carnegie Hall. He has crossed the Atlantic this time not with the object of giving concerts, but of helping the Boston Symphony Orchestra to launch his symphony which he has only just completed and which will be played here in a few weeks. The fears that his absorption in that work might have impair- ed his skill as a pianist were dissipated at once when he played Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue," a piece which he in- terprets as a sort of prophecy of modern music — an improvisation with modern reci- tative. He played Beethoven sonata Op. Ill in the same free and poetic manner; and then delighted his hearers with pieces by Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, and Liszt, to which he had to add seven extras. In connection with the observance of the centennial of Haydn's death, May 31, 1809, the third congress of the International Music Association will be held in Vienna May 25 to 29. There will be special selec- tions for Catholic and Protestant church music. Twelve letters by Chopin to his friend Fontana were recently sold at auction in Berlin for $600; five Brahms letters went for $42; fifteen Wagner letters $200; and a Wagner manuscript, a dedicatory composi- tion for the hotel-keeper Kraft, $240. Art. THE "INTERNATIONAL'S" EXHIBI- TION. London, January 23. Of late, the foreign element at the In- ternational has shown signs of growing less, and this winter it is very much in the minority, to the great loss of the exhibition. Comparatively little comes from France; next to nothing from oth- er European countries; from America, a disappointingly small group, though the Americans who have sent are all worth seeing. But if, for the moment, old standards are less rigidly upheld, the society still accomplishes much that an Academy of Arts, deserving the name, would never have left any other body of artists the chance even to undertake. One striking example will explain. Among the few Americans represented is Saint-Gaudens. The International was the first society in England to recognize him and to make him at all known in this country. Once it had exhibited his work, the Academy elected him an Hon- orary Foreign Academician. To most people, it would have seemed the duty, the pleasure, and the privilege of the Academy to organize a show of his sculpture, after his death. On the con- trary, it has allowed this to be done at the New Gallery by the International. The pity is the impossibility, the first time Saint-Gaudens is at all ade- quately represented in London, of in- cluding any of his large, distinguished monuments. The bust of Gen. Sherman and the Head of Victory are here, and also photographs of at least the Sher- man statue and the Shaw memorial, but they hardly give a fair idea of the orig- inals. For the rest, there are many of his beautiful bas-reliefs — portraits of Mrs. Stanford White, Justice Gray, Rob- ert Louis Stevenson, the Hon. John Hay, Bastien Lepage, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne McVeagh, and several others. But the British critics have scarcely noticed his work at all, or else have given it the faint praise that damns. It is the same with almost all the American work. Mrs. Bessie Vonnoh has some charming little bronzes, stud- ies of childhood and motherhood, of the people and things of the life she knows and understands, full of that right soul of realism which gives vitality and the stamp of truth. But, if I am not mis- taken, she has not shown in London before, her name is not as yet familiar, and she is passed over for those who are busy turning out imitations of imi- tations of Rodin's least desirable work. Miss Cecilia Beaux's full-length of Mother and Child does not fare much better, though in its restraint, its quiet color scheme, its dignity, it is a re- proach to the more sensational bids for notoriety of too many of the other ex- hibitors. But it is when the critics come to Arthur B. Davies that they are most wholly at a loss. Three of his paintings are here: Wavering Twilight, Bud to Blossom, and Four o'clock Ladies, beautiful and tender impressions of col- or and light, arranged with a poetic feeling for pattern and an entire dis- regard of that sort of meaning which degenerates into anecdote. There is lit- tle in the gallery to compare with them in decorative charm of line and color balance, but they have been ignored save by one or two of the more enter- prising critics. Henry Muhrman and Frank Mura, though more frequently seen in London, do not fare much bet- ter. Another American exhibitor is Hen- ry Wolf, whose wood-block reproductions of paintings stand quite alone — as Tim- othy Cole sends nothing this year. Mr. Wolf's prints, after Ambrogio de Predis, Couture, and R. Swain Gifford, and his impression of Morning Mists are among the most distinguished work in the lit- tle room set aside for black-and-white. To turn to the other foreign work is

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124: The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2275 to find that France has never made so indifferent a showing. The past has been drawn upon, and a small Manet — a beautiful, fresn impression of the sea at Boulogne — and an early Monet, a Daumier, and a Delacroix have been included. A prominent place is again found for Maurice Denis, the most na- tional and logical of modern Primitives. It is amusing to come direct from the labored affectations of Burne-Jones, now at the Royal Academy, to the sincere simplicity of a large design like La Vierge a l'Ecole, with its expressive spacing of flat color and large dec- orative feeling. Blanche has an amaz- ingly clever, but unpleasantly violent, arrangement of flowered chintz, in an otherwise quiet interior; and Simon Bussy a nude, which, no doubt, appeal- ed to him as a curious study in perspec- tive, but to which he has not succeeded in imparting any other interest. It is, however, more personal than Caro-Del- vaille's huge Sommeil Fleuri, which is nothing more than the able pieoo of flesh painting of the accomplished tech- nician. With the sculpture there has been careful, if limited, selection. A characteristic series of bronzes, plas- ters, and marbles, by Carpeaux has been got together, less interesting in itself than as a record of a period very near to our own in point of date, but, in aims and methods, already remote. The busts of the Empress Eugenie and the Prin- cess Mathilde, the statue of the little Prince Imperial, with his dog, Nero; the Susanna, and the Genius of the Dance have the prettiness and senti- ment of the sculptor's generation, but less of the larger beauty and distinc- tion that belong to all time. A com- parison between them and as character- istic a series of Rodin might have been most interesting, but Rodin's contribu- tions are fewer and of less striking im- portance than usual, consisting of a marble La Jeunesse de Minerve so smooth and trim and lifeless that it hardly seems to be the work of Rodin; and a plaster of the head of one of the Bourgeois in the large group at Calais, which does not explain itself when it is thus taken from the rest of the figure. Italy is represented by a good but small Segantini, and Spain by one not very striking Garrido, instead of the many Angladas and Zuloagas that more than once have decorated the walls of the International. From Holland come two examples of Bauer's romantic arch- itecture and a study of flowers by the late Vincent Van Gogh, a painter of individuality, who never won the suc- cess he merited; from Belgium, two brilliant, matter-of-fact outdoor impres- sions by Emil Claus. Beyond these things, I recall nothing from abroad in particular, except the vigorous and re- markable colored etchings by Olaf Lange, whose work I now see for the first time. It may be objected that the effects he strives after are beyond the proper scope of etching, but, at the same time, he manages very wonderful- ly to get what he wants; he knows how to put a design together, and his ar- rangements of reds and greens and golds have a distinct decorative value. The work of British exhibitors hard- ly makes up for the absence, or the in- difference, of so many foreign artists. I have said nothing as yet of George Sauter, who is a German, but he lives here and is associated rather with the British group. Of this group, not one other shows so interesting and personal a painting as his large Resurrection. It is an arrangement of nude and part- ly draped figures, the subject one the old masters loved, but the feeling and treatment essentially modern, the whole canvas full of sunshine and air. Sun- shine and air again fill the ordinary London street as he sees it through its Spring Veil of tender green and lu- minous mists. Mr. Sauter is always the sincere, tireless student of nature, con- cerned with problems of atmosphere and light, and not handicapped by conven- tion. This is why his work, whether you like it or not, has a vitality which other members of the International are in danger of sacrificing to formula. Mr. Ricketts and C. H. Shannon, for in- stance, have become so absorbed, each in his own formula, that they seem to forget the very existence of nature. Even William Nicholson, ingenious as he is, at times is so engrossed in pat- tern that everything else must be sub- ordinated to it. The large, stately in- terior in which he has grouped his Earl of Plymouth and Family is charm- ing, composed and painted with skill and unmistakable zest; but, if Lord Plymouth, as he lounges in the fore- ground, is an excellent portrait, the oth- er figures have no more importance in the picture than the furniture, no more suggestion of life than the little statu- ette introduced into a study of still life which Mr. Nicholson is also exhibiting. , James Pryde, too, is overweighted with pattern. He has a painting called The Doctor, with the explanation added that it is "No. 1 of a series of twelve pic- tures entitled The Human Comedy. This invites the inevitable comparison with Hogarth, and therefore reminds us that it is the study of character, together with a beautiful rendering of it in paint (scarcely the most salient qualities in Mr. Pryde's design), that alone can give value to the moral tale told on canvas. If I mention a fresh, radiant stretch of the sea at Dieppe by Morrice, I have come to the end of the list of paintings that had any interest for me. But though the exhibition has been finer in the past, though much that is second-rate has crept in, it still reaches an infinitely higher level as a whole than such a collection of Academicians as the McCulloch show at the Winter Academy (see the Nation of January 21, p. 73), and is far more truly represen- tative of all that is best in the art of to-day. N. N. THE GOVERNMENT AND ART. A bill is pending in Congress to ap- propriate $20,000 for the purchase of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, to be hung in the Capitol. The artist's name is not given in the dispatches, and he may have produced a masterpiece; but this process of acquiring works of art by special act of Congress is vicious. It has led to the defacing of the Capitol in the way that every visitor of taste must deplore. Some pushing Senator with a pushing artist among his con- stituents, a Representative skilled in log-rolling, will get through a bill for buying a statue by Gifted Hopkins, or a canvas by the greatest self-taught painter of Arizona; and that has been our equivalent for the art encourage- ment given in France by the label "achete par l'etat." Impulse and fa- voritism and preference without artis- tic guidance have brought together in the Capitol statues that fight with each other and paintings that scream at each other and at the spectator. One has only to go across the square to the Con- gressional Library to see the difference between official art of the happy-go- lucky sort, and that which exhibits real- ly capable direction. It is to introduce something like or- der and taste into the whole realm of the government's contact with art, that the President appointed the other day a volunteer Council of Fine Arts. The same end is sought by a bill presented on January 19 by Senator Newlands. It provides that the office of Supervising Architect of the Treasury shall be known hereafter as the Bureau of Art and Public Buildings. To this bureau is to be granted artistic control of all government art work. Of course, it is not possible to take from Congress its Constitutional right to display bad taste. Neither under the Newlands bill, if it should become law, nor under the President's order, would it be feasible to prevent the enactment of a special act to buy for a Senate committee-room a replica in marble of the pleasing bust of the Vice-President done in the best creamery butter for exhibition at an Indiana county fair. But short of in- terfering with these high prerogatives of Congress, the Council of Fine Arts can have supervision of all parks and public buildings and memorials in Washington, seeing to it that the ma- tured scheme for the beautification of that city be adhered to; and can pass upon the plans for all Federal buildings to be erected in any part of the coun- try. This would be undisputed if the New- lands bill were to pass, authorizing by

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Feb. 4, 1909] The Nation. 125 law such artistic control. Set up sole- ly by executive order, its validity has been attacked. The statute forbidding any department or officer of the gov- ernment to "accept voluntary service for the government," is cited as a fatal barrier. But the apparent intention of this was to prevent the creation of a body of officials, commissioned but with- out pay; while the Council of Fine Arts, as appointed by the President, is pure- ly an unofficial advisory body. Mr. Roosevelt simply declared that he should direct his Cabinet officers, In any public work which might fall under their power, to take the advice of these accredited artists. It does not seem possible to contest that action on the grounds either of law or of common sense. Clearly, it would be better to have the whole matter regulated by act of Congress. If there had been any chance of getting the needed legislation at this session, the President would doubtless have waited for it. As there was not, he acted, not at all in opposi- tion to the Newlands bill, but in antici- pation of it; there is little doubt that Mr. Taft will continue in force the ex- ecutive order until the appropriate law is passed. It was no reformatory spasm that led to this action at Washington. The pro- ject had been under consideration for nearly four years. It was brought to the attention of the Society of Beaux Arts Architects in 1905, and after being en- dorsed by them, was referred to the Fine Arts Federation of New York. At the prompting of a committee appointed by that body, the matter was laid before the American Institute of Architects. That being a national organization, might be expected to have more weight with Congress; and it appointed an able committee which reported at the annual meeting in 1907. Again the subject was worked over for a year, a new commit- tee making an exhaustive study of the laws and customs regulating the action of foreign governments, particularly France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, in relation to the fine arts. Thorough search was also made of the records at Washington, to discover just how much this country had spent, and Congress was proposing to spend, for works of art. The whole result of the investiga- tion, with a recommendation that Con- gress be appealed to, was laid before the Institute of Architects in Washing- ton last December. Certainly, there- fore, there has been neither haste nor lack of due consideration. On its merits, the question can be ar- gued with only one conclusion. This country has got beyond the Pleiocene age of art. With millions to lay out upon public buildings and monumental works, this government is simply bound to give the people the finest product that can be had for their money. A concrete illustration of the need of uni- fied, competent, and consistent artistic direction is furnished just now by the controversies over the proposed Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The Senate favors building a highway from Wash- ington to Gettysburg. In the House, a bill is pending to expropriate the land between the Capitol and the new rail- road station, itself a monumental struc- ture, and use that site for a memorial. Now comes the American Institute of Architects, to protest against both these proposals, and to insist that the orig- inal conception of the Park Commission plans for beautifying Washington be ad- hered to. This was to reserve a site for Lincoln by the Potomac, beyond the White House and the Washington Mon- ument, where a noble approach and sweeping and harmonious vistas could be had. Clearly, all these plans should be passed upon finally by a disinterest- ed tribunal of acknowledgd authorities in art. Only by setting up such a body of expert advisers can the government be saved from muddling and waste in its artistic work. We have received from Charles Scribner's Sons the third volume of John Murray's re- print of Crowe and Cavalcaselle. A rival edition now being published by J. M. Dent & Co. has already had the good effect of compelling Mr. Murray to promise the com- pletion of his undertaking within the year. We reserve till that date our appreciation of Cavalcaselle's original work, and our criticism of the competing editions. "How to Appreciate Prints," by Frank Weitenkampf (Moffat. Yard & Co.), differs from half a dozen approved handbooks of the subject in being written for the un- qualified beginner. Mr. Weitenkampf, as curator of prints in our public library, knows as no otber man the many interests, mostly non-sesthetic, that centre about a collection of prints, and, while his own taste is trained, he gives to each popular motive its due place in his book. For read- ers moderately well informed on these mat- ters his manual will seem diffuse and roundabout. But it is not written for them. The diffuseness is merely that of the pa- tient mentor who by repetition, illustration, and apt dilution must make his lesson clear. For its public the book will do good. It will reach many who cannot grasp such manuals as the late Dr. Lippmann's. The field is covered fully, and even the dif- ferent sorts of process engraving are in- cluded. We could wish the very summary and thin encyclopaedic portion had been re- duced in favor of a more extended apprecia- tive treatment of a few great and typical engravers; also that the inferiority of re- productive engraving had been more strong- ly insisted on. Under the soft ground etch- ing (p. 21), Cotman's "Liber Studiorum," almost the classical instance of the genre, should have been mentioned. Whistler (p. 38) had two, not one, mediocre prints in the book of the Junior Etching Club. If only for the record, John Foster, the first, and perhaps the worst, wood en- graver of America, might have had his word of mention. Somewhere, too, in the dis- cussion of autograph signatures there should have been a warning against late im- pressions, -which, being subsequently sign- ed by the artist for a fee, acquired a stand- ing as proofs. We have seen, for example, Whistler's authentic butterfly monogram upon plates from the Thames set, of the latest (though really excellent) impression, that he affected utterly to scorn and dis- own. These casual suggestions may be use- ful in a second edition of this meritorious book. Eduard Fuchs, who will be remembered as the author of "Die Frau in der Karikatur," a work which bore proof of great scholar- ship and judgment, has completed another ambitious work, "Illustrirte Sittengeschichte vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart" (Mu- nich: Albert Langen). It is in three vol- umes, each complete in itself, treating re- spectively the renaissance, the gallant, and the bourgeois period. Each volume con- tains about 450 illustrations in the text, and from fifty to sixty two-page illustra- tions, some in color, and all reproductions of the rarest pictorial documents of the history of morals and manners since the middle of the fifteenth century. The excavations of the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft in the vicinity of Ericha, the supposed site of the ancient Jericho, have resulted in most interesting discoveries. Not only have the walls of the city been un- earthed, but the entire northern part of the citadel, which is situated on the slope of one of the seven hills on which Jericho was built, has been brought to light. It was fortified by an external and an internal wall, both of which were crowned by strong corner towers and connected at irregular intervals by walls. On the northern slope of the city, outside the walls, numerous re- mains of Canaanite houses were discovered, some of which were built against the city wall. In many cases the clay partition walls were still standing. Bodies of chil- dren, buried in jars, were found beneath the clay floors of the houses. Ovens and a drainage canal were also brought to light. Besides the Canaanite houses an interesting collection of Israelite houses, dating from about 700 B.C., was partly unearthed. Of these one was exceptionally well preserved. It contained a court yard open to the air, with a bench, a long room, and a kitchen opening on to the yard, in which the great water tun still stood in its original posi- tion. In this house were found numerous domestic utensils, such as plates, dishes, pots, amphorae, corn mills of red sand- stone, lamps, torch-holders, and many iron implements. A number of graves of the early Byzantine era, containing vessels of clay and glass, were also discovered, show- ing that the site of ancient Jericho was in- habited at a much later period. Unfortu- nately, practically no inscriptions have as yet appeared. All that has been discovered are a number of stamps on the handles of jars apparently bearing the name of the di- vinity Jahu. The letters are Aramaic and probably date from the fifth to the third century before Christ. The excavations will be resumed in the course of the winter, and further discoveries are looked to with great interest. The one hundred and fourth annual ex- hibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts opened Saturday and will close March 14. There are 447 pictures and 180 pieces of sculpture, including seventy- six works from men who have never be- fore exhibited at the Pennsylvania Acad-

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126 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2275 emy. The following awards have been an- nounced: The Temple Gold Medal to Frederick P. Vinton for his portrait of Carroll D. Wright, president of Clark College. The Walter Lippincott Prize for the best figure picture in the exhibition to Thomas P. Anshutz for The Tanagra. The Jennie Sesnan Gold Medal for the best landscape in the exhibition to Theo- dore Wendel for Winter at Ipswich. The Carol H. Beck Memorial Gold Medal, now awarded for the first time for the best portrait in the exhibition, to John S. Sargent for his portrait of Miss Mathilde Townsend of Washington. The Mary Smith prize of $100 to Miss Martha Walter for her Portrait. An exhibition of the paintings of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida will be held at the His- panic Museum in this city February 8 to March 8. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are pictures by T. W. Dewing and D. W. Tryon at Montross's, till February 13. Alfred B. Copeland, artist, died in Bos- ton, January 30, at the age of sixty-nine years. Much of Mr. Copeland's work was done abroad in Antwerp and Paris, but since 1896 he has lived in this country. His large painting, "Falling Leaves," is owned by the Boston Athenaeum. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Austin, Stanley. The History of Engraving: From Its Inception to the Time of Thomas Bewick. Scribner. $1.50 net. Baedeker, Karl. Greece; Italy from the Alps to Naples. Scribner. $2.40 net each. Bousset, Wilhelm. The Faith of a Modern Protestant. Scribner. 75 cts. net. Carr, J. Comyns. Some Eminent Victori- ans: Personal Recollections in the World of Art and Letters. Scribner. $3.50 net. Combarieu, Jules. La Musique et la Magie, etude sur les origines populaires de l'art musicale. Paris: Alphonse Picard. Crees, J. H. E. Claudian as an Historical Authority. Putnam. $1.50. Crowe, J. A. and Cavalcaselle, G. B. A His- tory of Painting in Italy. Vol. III. Scrib- ner. $6 net. Darwin, George Howard. Scientific Papers. Vol. II. Putnam. $4.50. Davidson, K. L. Gardens Past and Pres- ent. Scribner. $1.50 net. Dewitt, David Miller. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Its Expiation. Mac- millan. $2.25. Dictionary of the Bible. Edited by James Hastings. Scribner. Dixon, H. Clairborne. The Abbeys of Great Britain. Scribner. $1.50 net. Dixon, Thomas, jr. Comrades: A Story of Social Adventure in California. Dou- bleday, Page. $1.50. Eaton, Isaibel Graham. By the Shores of Arcady. Outing Publishing Co. $1.25. Euclid's Elements — Thirteen Books. Trans- lated by T. L. Heath. Putnam. $13.50. Fairweather, William. The Background of the Gospels, or Judaism in the Period be- tween the Old and New Testaments. Scribner. $3 net. Hall, Angelo. An Astronomer's Wife: The Biography of Angeline Hall. Baltimore: Nunn & Co. Hazell's Annual for 1909. Edited by W. Palmer. Scribner. $1.50 net. Henderson, Charles Richmond. Industrial Insurance in the United States. 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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1909. The Week. Mr. Roosevelt's treatment of the anti- Japanese bills in the California Legisla- ture illustrates his mental processes and slap-dash methods. With his desire to prevent the passage of those bills, the Nation is in heartiest sympathy. But the President has gone about the deli- cate task of allaying race prejudice, of preventing an action which was bound to give grave offence to a friendly na- tion, as if he were anxious to centre the attention of the world upon the Cali- fornia Legislature, as if with deliberate calculation he were seeking to produce the impression that war would result from the misbehavior of the Califor- nians. A conference on the issue at the White House is immediately followed by a' conference with the Secretaries of War and Navy. Then comes the dis- patch of a column-long telegraphic mes- sage, and its immediate publication, al- though it is filled with alarming phrases, asserting that the proposed legislation "might accomplish an infinity of harm," "might cause very great mischief." All quiet and calm methods of moral sua- sion are thrown to the winds; and every opportunity is offered to the Jingoes and sensation-mongers of the press. Thus the prominence and prestige of the noisy little band of anti-Japanese agitators in California is heightened, and the position of the steady and con- servative men who have no sympathy with the demgaogues is rendered more difficult. Indeed, in this whole matter the President's course has been very perplexing. In his annual message to Congress in 1906, Mr. Roosevelt not only severely criticised the Pacific Coast, but urged the naturalization of the Japa- nese, the actual extending to them of the ballot and all the privileges of American citizenship. This week, however, he as- sures the Californians that the "policy of the Administration is to combine the maximum of efficiency in achieving the real object which the people of the Pa- cific Coast have at heart." "Let me re- peat," he added, "that at present, we are actually doing the very thing which the people of California wish to be done. . . ." The very thing? Exclu- sion, segregation, and all? To drag such issues as miscegenation, race deterioration, and white supremacy into the discussion of the Japanese question, is merely to becloud it. Sena- tor Newlands of Nevada may be right when he learns from history "that it is impossible to develop a homogeneous people by the juxtaposition of races dif- fering in color on the same soil." The eloquent Fresno editor who writes in Collier's Weekly may be right when he asserts that the Immigrants New "York swallows the country can digest, but that the immigrants San Francisco swallows the country cannot digest. But the question of race-assimilation and nation-building with Asiatic materials was disposed of when the Japanese gov- ernment agreed to limit emigration to this country. It is now for California to say whether the Japanese govern- ment shall be given the opportunity to carry out its agreement or whether it shall be badgered and harassed into a state of suspicion and hostility toward this country. The official figures are here to prove that the Japanese immi- gration has been cut down. Every sign points to a concentration of Japan's surplus population upon Korea and Manchuria. The flood that never was a flood is getting down to a driblet. There is no reason for alarm. Newfoundland's acceptance of the fish- eries arbitration treaty constitutes the last step but one in the settlement of a long-standing dispute that has engen- dered bitter feeling on both sides. It now remains for the Hague Tribunal to act. Its decision will give no room for cavil or cry of unfair play, such as un- fortunately followed upon the verdict of the Alaskan Boundary Commission. Neither party to the present case is likely to come out seriously the loser. In the first place, it is already a gain to have substituted peaceful arbitrament for quarrelling; and once people agree to have their rights weighed by an im- partial judge, it is wonderful how many a claim and "right" that has swollen to enormous size in the progess of mutual exasperation, shrinks to its proper small significance. Much attention was drawn to the ac- tion of the House of Representatives in cutting down the appropriation for ex- perimenting with military balloons from $750,000 to $250,000. Little notice, how- ever, was taken of the defeat of an amendment to permit the War Depart- ment to import balloons and material for balloon experimentation free of duty. Recommended by the Military Committee, it was at first, on a divi- sion, adopted by a vote of 48 to 33. But then the wickedness of laying a hand upon the ark of the tariff began to pene- trate the minds of the Republicans, and on a roll-call they rejected the amendment by 132 to 118. Thus was a great principle vindicated. American balloons for Americans! It was no an- swer to say, as Congressman Gaines did, that "a balloon when imported costs about $15,000 duty, and instead of sav- ing the $15,000 to experiment with, we take it out of one pocket and put it ia another." No such low and mercenary considerations could appeal to those who saw the real danger. The man who led this gallant resistance to pauper- made balloons — and to common sense and progress — was a New York Repre- sentative, Herbert Parsons. There are two distinct aspects to the facts elicited in the Senate investiga- tion of the Steel Corporation's purchase of the Tennessee Coal Company in 1907. One has to do with the financial side of the operation, pure and simple; the oth- er, with the famous "White House in- terview," in which a sort of plenary ab- solution from the legal obstacles was granted in advance. To a certain ex- tent, the two considerations bear upon each other; at all events, the main de- fence of President Roosevelt's attitude has been the allegation that a crisis of extreme gravity was averted by the Steel Corporation's purchase, and could have been averted in no other way. On this assertion the testimony before the Judiciary Committee has now thrown considerable light. No institution was in danger because of its holdings of Tennessee Coal shares; in supposing so the President appears to have been mis- led. Certain individuals, however, and, according to the testimony, at least one Stock Exchange firm, i were In

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128 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 an awkward predicament. They were so placed, because they had tried one of those rash experiments familiar in Wall Street for half a dozen years before the panic of 1907— buying up the stock of a $23,000,000 property, chiefly on bor- rowed money, "jacking up" its price to a "corner" basis, and awaiting the day when they could force a powerful com- petitor in the trade to take over the property at fancy figures. This was the nature of what Wall Street described as the financial "hold-ups" of 1902, when the enterprising John W. Gates success- fully "unloaded" his Louisville and Nashville and also Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville stock on the bankers of competing railways. Gates, as was to be expected, figured again among the principals in the "Ten- nessee Coal deal"; his presence was a pretty sure warrant of the nature of the undertaking. It was not, however, a guar- antee of its success. With the help of bank loans the process of putting up the price of this 4 per cent, dividend-paying stock to 166 was easy enough; but when the panic of 1907 swept over Wall Street, matters assumed a different aspect. Mr. Schley told the Senate committee that his banking house had borrowed five to six million dollars to carry the Tennes- see Coal stock. Banks, however, were cleaning house In November, 1907; stocks with fictitious values and an ar- tificial market were not in favor as col- lateral; the borrowers were asked to put up better security or pay off their loans. It was precisely then that the Steel Corporation managers, who had calmly refused to be coerced by the "hold-up" of the two preceding years, were begged to take the Tennessee Coal and Iron stock at their own price. The visit of Judge Gary and Mr. Frick to Washington, and the purchase of the property through issue of Steel Corpor- ation bonds, were the result. People at large will doubtless reach contradictory conclusions. Some will say merely that the Steel Corporation drove a hard and clever bargain; others, that the corpor- ation, with Mr. Roosevelt's assent, avert- ed a serious disaster; still others, that the whole transaction amounted to pull- ing a group of speculators out of a scrape which their own recklessness had invited. But no one of these conclu- sions will touch the real question at is- sue— namely, whether the President had the right to pass final judgment, in ad- vance of his legal advisers, on the legal- ity of a great industrial merger. Tulio Larrinaga, the delegate to the House of Representatives from Porto Rico, made a speech the other day in which, denying press reports that the whole of that island had become hostile to the United States, he said that, "as regards the American people and the nation, the same sentiment that existed at the landing of the Americans exists to-day." He was willing, however, to admit that there is some discontent, and that the island was dissatisfied with both its political and economic condi- tions. But to say that this spelled anti- Americanism was the greatest calumny that could be invented. He regretted to inform Congress that the agent charged with sending news to the American press was a paid employee of the gov- ernment, which takes care "to have him always in a very good office." In return this correspondent disseminates wholesale lies. The Porto Rican Execu- tive Council is, it appears, a monstrosity, an intolerable tyrant, which encroaches more and more upon the people's lib- erties; but the time has come when the people will no longer permit it to go beyond the law. Of course, the fault is with the organic act of 1900. That was specifically stated at the time to be a temporary one; but nine years later there is no sign of a change, and Porto Rico is really very hurt that Congress will neither amend this act nor care for its economic welfare. Then, too, lo- cal government is pushing the island- ers to the verge of humiliation. But barring these slight troubles, Porto Rico is quite well, happy, and loyal, thank you! The drastic punishment of Capt. Qual- trough of the battleship Georgia leads to the suspicion that the offence was more serious than the press dispatches have led us to expect, or that it was one of a series. Why else should Rear-Ad- miral Sperry have insisted upon so speedy a trial in the last foreign port of the cruise? Why could not the investi- gation have been postponed until the arrival of the fleet in home waters, when justice could have been done with- out attracting the attention of the whole world? There have been perhaps ten or a dozen officers tried since the fleet left Norfolk, but, on the whole, the behavior of officers and men has been so good as to reflect great credit upon the service. Hence the notoriety of the Qualtrough incident must cause espe- cial pain to those who have conducted themselves so well during the long cruise. If, on the other hand, the se- verity of Capt. Qualtrough's punishment means that the navy is hereafter to be stricter with its drinking officers, the sentence is to be welcomed. Naval courts-martial have, of late years, seem- ed to display too great leniency with of- fenders of this class. Gov. Hughes has at least forced his opponents to adopt new tactics. They have found out that they cannot beat him by cabal and midnight conference — by the bosses putting their heads to- gether. The latter process, as in the case of Sydney Smith's jest about the vestry of St. Paul's, has in the past re- sulted in making merely a block pave- ment, over which the Governor could ride to his goal. This year, however, Gov. Hughes is not to be the only one to go before the people with argument and persuasion. Speaker Wadsworth's long address on Friday night in opposi- tion to the direct primary shows that a new plan of campaign has been adopt- ed. The fighting is to be in the open. That of itself is a great gain. A good part of what the Governor is contending for is already attained, if it be settled that all these questions are to be thresh- ed out publicly. But Speaker Wads- worth is a little ridiculous, when he pic- tures the displacement of present party leaders by bosses of a much worse type, in case the scheme of direct nomina- tions is put into effect; and when he describes the existing boss as one whose "every act is subjected to the closest scrutiny by the people." Then, too, Mr. Wadsworth points to Senator Stephen- son of Wisconsin, who has already done such hard work as a horrible example of what may happen under the direct primary. He is said to have spent a large sum, variously estimated at from $100,000 to $250,000, in order to obtain his reelection to the United States Sen- ate. Speaker Wadsworth asks what limit to the corrupt expenditure of money there would be if the big New York millionaires should set out to buy a Senatorship under the direct-primary

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 129 system. To this it may be rejoined, first, that the new plan cannot be more expensive, or lead to more corruption, than the convention system; and, sec- ond, that the same means of checking venality in elections, which have been adopted under the latter, may be applied to the former, and extended wnen neces- sary. That is to say, a corrupt prac- tices act may go hand in hand with a direct-primary law. Not only may full publicity of election expenses, both be- fore and after election day, be compell- ed, but the sum beyond which a can- didate may not go without thereby dis- qualifying himself may be fixed by stat- ute. It has been done in England, and may be here. Mr. Wadsworth further objects that, with the people making nominations di- rect, the cities would swamp the villages and the rural districts. What the ob- jection really amounts to is to deny to the majority in the party the rights of a majority. The Speaker is confusing the government of the State, under the Constitution, with government of the party. In the Legislature, New York city cannot have, unless the Constitu- tion is changed, the weight which her population might entitle her to have, on the democratic theory. In Rhode Isl- and, the villages swamp the cities, by being over-represented, and becoming practically rotten boroughs, so as to keep Republican Senators at Washing- ton. Does the Speaker wish that sort of misrepresentation fastened upon his party in this State? His argument real- ly comes to this, that he is afraid the men who furnish most of the votes will desire to make most of the nomi- nations. That is scarcely a position which a man can defend who believes In party management on democratic principles. In practice, it is probable that the Speaker's fears would prove to be imaginary. Men of weight and compelling personality and conspicuous fitness for office would not have their political opportunities cut off simply be- cause they live in the country. The Speaker's remaining objection to the direct primary is that it would make an end of fusion movements in New York city, and be also a fatal blow to the non-partisan nomination of judges But it was not the direct primary, it was the delegate convention, that pre- vented fusion against Tammany in 1897. If there had then been an open and di- rect primary, the Republican bosses would have been compelled to endorse the nomination of Seth Low. As for a non-partisan judiciary, that has had its birth and support in the sentiment of the people, not in the benevolence of party chiefs; and there is no reasonable doubt that the same sentiment would make itself felt, perhaps even more pow- erfully, under the new system proposed by the Governor, but opposed by Speak- er Wadsworth. King Edward's visit to Berlin is in fulfilment of a promise made last sum- mer. Relations between the two coun- tries were none too pleasant then, and they have since become more strained. The Kaiser's indiscreet interview in the Telegraph let loose an immense amount of anti-English feeling which had been lurking in Germany. This set up, across the North Sea, the process of developing ill will and suspicion by in- duction; and we have just seen the na- tion stirred to the depths by a foolish play intending to show that England is exposed to invasion and ruin. The agi- tation has led the Admiralty to change its plans, so that the building of six Dreadnoughts is announced on the very day of the King's arrival in Berlin. It is naturally, then, a kind of restrained and sober hospitality which the German press and people are extending to him. The visit may be called well or ill-timed, according as the opportunity is used by the royalties and diplomats on either side. King Edward has been remark- ably successful, on his travels, in pro- moting cordial understandings. With France, Russia, Italy, and Spain, the re- lations of England are on a much better footing than when he came to the throne. But the trouble with all these ententes, from the German point of view, is that they have left Germany out, and have given to European diplom- acy the air of wishing to shut her up in a "circle." Hence the King's achieve- ments in other capitals will make his work for conciliation in Berlin all the more difficult. Yet there can be no doubt that both he and his Imperial nephew earnestly desire peace, and will do all in their power to make the fetes and speeches of the present week count for a better feeling and a firmer friendship. The definition of Russian government must now be revised so as to read, "des- potism modified by assassination regu- lated by the police." The agent-provo- cateur is a traditional feature of gov- ernment by espionage. Police officials, to demonstrate their zeal and impor- tance, will concoct plots for the pur- pose of discovering them. But that the Czar's secret police should have given their representative in the councils of the revolutionists a free hand against everybody save the Czar himself and certain favored ministers and officials, seems almost incredible. The fact that the prime leader of the Terrorists should have been a police spy, and that the head of the Russian secret police should now be tried for high treason, shows the chaos that rules both in the government of Russia and in the hearts of its citizens. If precedent counts, it will turn out that Azeff, head of the Fighting Organization of the Social Revolutionary party, who was permitted by the police to kill Sipiaguine, Von Plehve, and Grand Duke Sergius, pro- vided the police were duly notified of the forthcoming event, was not all a spy. He was probably three-quarters revolutionist and one-quarter spy, just as the degraded Chief of Police Lapuk- hin was probably three-quarters spy and one-quarter revolutionist. Men who have worked both for the police and the revolution have not been rare in Rus- sia. Father Gapon was almost certainly one of those. The sad feature of the Azeff affair is not so much in the hun- dreds or thousands of revolutionists whom the traitor must have sold into the hands of the police, but in the reve- lation it makes of the tremendous dif- ficulties against which the revolution- ary campaign must be carried od in Russia. The policy of Terrorism, al- ways of questionable wisdom, is now practically shattered. What chance is there for "coercing" the tyrants into submission, when every step made in the policy of "coercion" is watched and checked up by the police? In other words, assassination has lost even its efficacy as a check upon despotism when it is assassination regulated by the po- lice. Only a rising of the nation in mass can frighten the government, as in 1905. And for furthering such a national up- heaval, the best measures are not dyna- mite and the pistol, but education.

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130 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 LINCOLN AND HIS CONTEMPO- RARIES. The first instalments of the Diary of Gideon Welles, now publishing in the Atlantic, furnish us with one more means of measuring Lincoln with his contemporaries. In those dark days of 1863, Welles was not visibly under the spell of Lincoln's genius; he did not think that everything the President did was right and wise; the mythic faculty had not then begun to work. Yet in the matter-of-fact and impartial record hich the cool Secretary of the Navy set down at the time of the Cabinet in- trigue to secure the removal and dis- grace of McClellan, the greatness of Lincoln is builded by Welles better than he knew. Stanton appears testy, vin- dictive, scheming; Chase was jealous, vain, meddling; Seward indifferent, when not tricky and dodging. Lincoln, throughout, was calm, patient, honor- able, and of a sagacity overtopping the combined wits of his advisers. The just way of judging a man is to endeavor to see how he ranks with those of his own generation, and how he meets the highest standards of his own time. To compare him with the great ones of another century, earlier or later, or to test him by moral or po- litical principles not acknowledged, or not vivid, in his day, is to destroy his- torical perspective. It would be ab- surd, for example, to appraise Lincoln as a civil-service reformer. The thing had not swum into his ken. He prac- tised the spoils system in the inno- cence of ignorance. For the true search- ing of his character we must look to the way in which he bowed before the categorical imperatives which tried the stuff of public men at the time he ac- tually lived; and place him, to find his true rank, alongside his fellows. It may be said that Abraham Lincoln as President was as much superior to the statesmen about him as George Washington, when President, was to the men whom his lofty presence dwarfed. But there was this difference: Washing- ton's preeminence had been achieved and was generally acknowledged in 1789. Lincoln's was not only not ad- mitted, but was denied, in 1861. Neither Knox nor Hamilton, nor even Jefferson, thought of challenging Washington; but Lincoln had at least two men in his Cabinet who thought themselves much his better, and took no pains to conceal this notion. It was with something almost like contempt for Lincoln's ability that Seward wrote that amazing letter to him, early in his Administration, practically of- fering to take upon himself the func- tions of the President. Readers will re- call the gasp of astonishment with which that extraordinary communica- tion was received when it was first giv- en to the light in the Hay and Nicolay "Life." It was a fearful ordeal for the Illinois lawyer, unskilled in statesman- ship. Here was his Secretary of State, the brilliant, the admired, the favorite of the educated classes, not only pro- posing to him the madcap policy of defying the world in arms, so as to unite the dissevered parts of the country, but plainly intimating his disbelief in the President's capacity and initiative, and proffering himself as the leader and saviour of a feeble Administration. A timid man would have been frightened, and either yielded to Seward or pre- tended to yield, while planning to get rid of him. A sensitive and violent man would have flown into a passion, lost the services of Seward and disrupted his Administration at the very start. Lincoln did neither. He quietly let Sew- ard know that he expected both to di- rect his own Administration, and to have from his Secretary of State loy- al cooperation. It was as easily and naturally done as if it were merely a case of adjusting the relations of a law- yer and his chief clerk in a Spring- field office, but it was a crowning proof of Lincoln's magnanimity and fitness for great affairs of state. Seward never wrote him any more letters of that ten- or! He had got his lesson. • This incident, first known more than two decades after Lincoln's death, well illustrates the way in which his fame has been heightened by all the dis- closures of the lapsing years. Letters, diaries, archives have yielded their se- crets, but not one of them has dimin- ished Lincoln's stature. On the other hand, the reputation of his rivals has been deeply gnawed into by the tooth of time. Seward, we have referred to; he has been hurt, not helped, by what has been published since he quitted the scene. Chase has suffered almost more. His great abilities and undoubted patri- otism were eaten into by the acid of ambition, so that he stands before us often petty, querulous, exigent, intrigu- ing, and discontented. But perhaps none of Lincoln's contemporaries has had his once great fame more dimmed than Horace Greeley. He, too, felt him- self above Lincoln by a thousand diam- eters; yet from the pitch of his assum- ed greatness as a statesman, he has fall- en grievously, as history has set the forces of truth at work. Impatient, vacillating, impetuous, vainglorious (consult that letter which he wrote to Lincoln complaining that great men were getting to be few, and that even his own health was not good!), Greeley was about as ill fitted for high office as a man could be. He thought himself a great politician, but even there Lincoln beat him out of sight. Greeley's fatu- ousness in misjudging a political move- ment has just now been once more strikingly proved in a letter published by the biographers of Carl Schurz. Any- thing more pathetically absurd than his confidence that he was going to be elect- ed President in 1872, when the very heavens were thundering the ruin of his campaign, it would be hard to find. This sort of comparison may seem too feebly panegyrical for the Lincoln centenary. Yet when the poets and the orators have done their best, after leg- end and myth-making have begun, it is well to consider Lincoln in habit as he was, a man among "men. When we per- ceive how the near-great or the over- great public men of his own life-time fall away from him, as he and they re- cede, and leave him towering above them in unmatched greatness of soul and reach of mind, we can at least feel that our appraisement of him is sure. Saul is higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. THE VETO OF THE CENSUS BILL. In vetoing the spoils-tainted Census bill, President Roosevelt has splendidly met the hopes pinned to his stanchness as a civil-service reformer. He uses few words, but few are needed to expose and rebuke so obvious a fraud on the public. With great directness and en- tire frankness, the President shows that the provisions of the bill respecting the appointment of clerks in the Census Bu- reau are merely a blind for a division of the spoils among Congressmen. This veto is conceived in the spirit of the Roosevelt of the old ideals, strong on the side of good administration, and ready to put the brand upon those who

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The JSTation. 131 would cheat the people while pretend- ing to serve them. So doing, the Presi- dent deserves and will receive the sup- port of intelligent and upright men. The chief objection to the bill lies in the clause calling for the appointment of the 4,000 clerks in the Census Bu- reau by means of "such non-competitive examination as the Director of the Cen- sus may prescribe, the said examination to be conducted by the United States Civil Service Commission." That is most innocent-seeming. No spoils about that! All breathes of reform — examina- tions, the Civil Service Commission, and so on. Where do the spoils come in, along with the stratagems, if not the treasons? The facts are perfectly open, to those who care to seek for them. In the debates on the bill in both House and Senate, no secret was made of the intention to divide these appointments pro rata among Representatives and Senators. The talk about a non-com- petitive examination is merely an at- tempt to throw dust in the eyes of the people. How the same device worked in the taking of the last census has been explained by P. H. "Wines, who was at one time Assistant Director of the Cen- sus. He showed, in the first place, that all these non-competitive examinations were not free to everybody to try. The permission of the Director was neces- sary, and "such permission was a mat- ter of favor, depending upon 'influ- ence.'" Mr. Wines proceeds: In making selections from the list of those who passed the examination, no atten- tion whatever was paid to their compara- tive rating. It was a "pass" examination pure and simple, and a rating of 75, with proper political or other endorsement, was sufficient to secure an appointment, where a rating of 100 would count for nothing without it. There were numerous instances in which an unsuccessful applicant was granted a second, third, or fourth trial, at the re- quest of some Senator or Representative; and, to the best of my knowledge and be- lief, it occasionally happened that the rat- ing made by the examiner upon the papers filed was arbitrarily changed after they left his custody. In reality, there has been no conceal- ment in either house of Congress about what was actually planned. The clerks were to be parcelled out among the members — each man to have the nam- ing of six or eight. Congressman Gillett of Massachusetts, who ably opposed the spoils features of the bill, stated in open debate what was the tacit but explicit agreement. The clerks were to be "equally divided among Congressmen without regard to party." Ten years ago, a Republican member got a larger share of the spoils than a Democrat, but this year it was to be share and share alike. What was the reason for this noble spirit of equality? Why, sim- ply that the Democrats would not vote for the grab of offices unless they got their due portion; and there were enough Republicans to go against the bill and defeat the spoilsmen, unless the latter had struck hands with the Democrats on the basis of an equal "divvy." Mr. Gillett challenged contra- diction of this "understanding," and no one rose to deny it. The same thing was made clear in the Senate. Senator Lodge said that there was no use in sticking in the bark of the phrases of the bill. "We throw open these 4,000 clerkships for appointment by Senators and Representatives. That is what it means." Now, all this is not simply a dis- reputable trick, not alone a clinging to a system which has been proved demor- alizing and which Congress has pro- fessed to abandon: it is also directly to endanger the accuracy, and so the value, of the Census itself. Students know that the trustworthiness of pre- vious censuses has been seriously open to doubt. In some cases it has been damagingly impeached. We are bound to use every means within reach to put the Thirteenth Decennial Census as far beyond suspicion as possible. But if we load a lot of incompetent subor- dinates upon the Director, we directly increase the chances of bad work. He has to take the men whom Congress- men dictate, and he has to keep them whether they have any merits or not. Some of them may work out into a fair degree of efficiency, but, if a new Con- gress comes in, and their backer is not reelected, out they go to make room for the hangers-on of the new member. The method infallibly produces poor clerks, and a census dragged out as much as possible in order to continue patronage as long as possible. Spoils- men in Congress, it is true, like the glorious Hepburn, pull a long face and say that they never recommend any- body but able archangels to office, and would never think of trying to prevent the removal of an incompetent clerk who had been appointed at their re- quest— or demand. But why endeavor to deceive, when the facts are known? The truth was bluntly put by Senator Lodge in a colloquy with Senator Curtis of Kansas: Mr. Curtis— Let me ask the Senator if he believes that there is a Senator on this floor who would ask a department to hold in office an incompetent clerk. Mr. Lodge— I am afraid, Mr. President, since the Senator asks me that question that we have all of us in both houses done it a great many times. [Laughter.] The provisions of the bill are so in- defensible, so vicious, that we do not see how Congress can fail to retrace its steps. There certainly would be no possibility of passing the original bill over the President's veto, were it not for the bad blood now existing between him and Congress. But it would be a fine way of taking revenge on the Pres- ident, to injure the public service and damage the Census! THE NEW CHARTER FOR BOSTON. After nearly two years of investiga- tion and discussion, the commission ap- pointed to suggest improvements in the government of Boston has laid its re- port, with a draft of an amended char- ter, before the Massachusetts Legisla- ture. The proposed changes are almost revolutionary. At a time when the New York City Charter Revision Commission is expected soon to publish its findings, and when unusual interest exists every- where in experiments in municipal gov- ernment, the conclusions of this Bos- ton report deserve a wide hearing. The report begins by setting forth conceded facts. The municipal adminis- tration has been both wasteful and in- efficient. Expenditures have increased twice as fast as the population; yet the city is not keeping pace with its rivals, its growth is slow, "there is little de- mand for real estate, and almost none for vacant land," while there is general complaint of poor public service. The chief cause of the evil is bluntly stated to be that unscrupulous politicians have taken advantage of a cumbrous system of city government. There are "two leg- islative bodies," the members of which are "intellectually and morally incapa- ble of action in the interest of the citi- zens at large." Their power has been used mischievously. In the executive departments, men of skill and charac- ter are rare. Appointments have been made purely for political reasons, and while the number of employees in-

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132 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 creases, their efficiency decreases. It is an old story. The government of Bos- ton has been made a prey of party poli- tics. Several radical plans of reform were urged upon the commission. There was, for example, the "Greater-Boston" idea, by which outlying communities were to be brought in to sweeten and save the city proper; there was the town-meeting method, such as has been adopted in Newport; there was government by a State commission; there was the theory of limiting the municipal suffrage to property-owners. But none of these things moved the commission. It con- tented itself with urging alterations of the existing charter, designed to make administration more business-like, and to drive out, so far as possible, the evil spirit of politics. First of all is the aim to simplify. The thirteen aldermen and seventy-five members of the Common Couacil are to be swept away and replaced by a sin- gle council of nine. This is in line with general tendencies. Everywhere the bicameral system in municipal govern- ment is falling into disfavor. In Mas- sachusetts, eleven cities have now adopt- ed the single legislative body, and no- where is there any desire to go back to the old plan. Moreover, the nine mem- bers are to be elected at large — three each year. This is expected to secure more capable men than election by wards. Their power, too, is to be lim- ited. They may approve the budget, but not originate it; may reduce or omit appropriations, but not increase them. All their acts and resolves are subject to absolute veto by the Mayor. It is proposed greatly to extend and centralize the powers of the Mayor. He is not to be hampered, as now, in the choice of his subordinates, and he may remove them at pleasure. One novel limitation is, however, introduced. Heads of department must be selected for peculiar expertness in their work, and cannot take office until the State Civil Service Commission has certified that they are well qualified. Imagine the terror of Tammany at such a pro- vision! All these officials are to hold office for four years, and so is the Mayor, though in his case a modified form of the "recall" is provided for. The municipal election is to be held in January, when a Mayor will be chosen for four years. But a year from the following November, at the State elec- tion, the following question is to be submitted to the voters: "Shall there be an election for Mayor at the next municipal election?" In case this is an- swered "Yes" by a majority, then the Mayor will have to take his place on the ballot, with other candidates, in January; or, if by October 1 he files with the Secretary of State notice that he does not desire to go before the elec- tors, then his term of office shall cease with two years. As will be seen, this is an ingenious plan, short of absolute recall, to compel the four-year Mayor to have his record passed upon at the end of two. The most drastic change is a direct attempt to reduce partisan politics to the minimum. No party nominations are to be made. There are to be no city conventions, no delegates chosen to r.ominate. The commission, with a strange readiness to agree with Gov. Hughes, declares that the convention- system has "become completely discred- ited by the gross abuses" which have crept into it. Hence, the whole scheme is to be discarded, and nominations to the office of Mayor made on petition of 5,000 registered voters. No party desig- nations of any kind are to be allowed on the ballot, "and there shall not be ap- pended to the name of any candidate any such party or political designation or mark, or anything showing how he was nominated or indicating his views or opinions." Seasoned politicians, on reading this, will admit that it is not an emeute, but a revolution. This bare outline suffices to show the nature of this proposed reform of the government of Boston, and how it fits in with the general movement to clean up and strengthen municipal adminis- tration in this country. Varied methods of attacking the problem are desirable. This Boston plan will be eagerly watch- ed, both under discussion in the Legis- lature, and in operation in the city. THE PH.D. AGAIN. The uses and abuses of the Ph.D. de- gree is a subject which seems to be al- ways with us. The matter is brought up again by an article in the University of Chicago Magazine for February, "Symposium on the Doctors' Question- naire." In order to study the relation of the doctorate to the teaching profes- sion, the following questions were sent to those who have taken the degree at the University of Chicago: In view of the fact that the great major- ity of doctors are obliged to engage in the work of practical teaching, would you pro- pose that the university should in any re- spect modify its policy as to the doctor- ate? For example, would you support any or all of the following propositions: (1) That candidacy for the doctorate should be conditioned upon a higher and broader standard of general culture; (2) that candi- dates for the doctorate should be requir- ed to pursue courses in the philosophy of education or in the pedagogy of special subjects; (3) that the university should dis- courage a much larger number of persons from proceeding to the doctorate? Some seventy-five replies were received, which Dr. Eleanor P. Hammond has briefly summarized. A large majority approved the idea of a higher standard of general culture; opinion on the sec- ond question was more evenly divided; and the third "was generally regarded as allied with the first in such a way as to make any explicit answer impossible apart from a profound consideration of the whole subject." Among the prac- tical suggestions was the proposal "that a more extended command of English . . . be added to the present require- ment of French and German." Still an- other recommendation was that a spe- cial degree be created for persons pre- paring to teach, or that the A.M. be re- habilitated for that purpose. The idea of a special degree points pretty clearly to one cause of the pres- ent disrepute of the Ph.D. Several of the replies dwelt on the fact that not only colleges, but normal schools, high schools, and academies are, as one writ- er put it, making "a constant demand for doctors as members of their facul- ties." Of course, the supply is forthcom- ing. Institutions which are not at all equipped for training in research go through the motions, so to speak, and gravely confer a Ph.D. on youths who never have enjoyed any rigorous intel- lectual discipline. Other universities, whose resources are by no means con- temptible, are so eager to build up a grad- uate school that they grant the degree to any one who has studied faithfully for three years and has written what may be euphemistically described as a thesis. In fine, taking the United States as a whole, we may say that the conditions under which the degree is now obtained are scandalous. To particularize is un- safe; but we should probably be with- in the truth in declaring that, with the present mad competition for quantity of

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The Nation 133 students rather than quality of work, not half the degrees of Ph.D. represent a serious contribution to knowledge. The prospect of reforming those heads of schools and colleges who are now clamoring for doctors en their facul- ties is not at present bright. The col- lege and school catalogue is still re- garded in the light of a show-window where the goods must be displayed to the best advantage; and a list of teach- ers with "Ph.D." appended to each name is thought to have an hypnotic effect on parents and to convince them that here is the real thing in the way of scholar- ship. As a matter of fact, the man with the Ph.D. may be, as a teacher, gro- tesquely incompetent, particularly with pupils of the secondary school and of the college proper. His very training in research may have narrowed him till he is unfitted to guide any students except those who are advanced in his own little specialty. And yet some school principals and college presidents are so bent on making a cheap display that, to the neglect of real qualifications for teaching, they virtually force their teachers to secure a higher degree by hook or crook. Nor does there seem much hope of turning the small but ambitious gradu- ate school from the error of its way. The Ph.D. of Johns Hopkins and of per- haps half-a-dozen other American uni- versities really has some meaning; but for the rest it indicates nothing more than industry, frequently misguided, for a period of two or three years after the bachelor's degree. On the other hand, the results of such industry, right- ly directed, might be admirable. If the graduate student should zealously de- vote himself to what has been called "a higher standard of general culture," he might come to the work of teaching with excellent equipment — better, in- deed, than if he had vigorously pursued some recondite subject in philology, his- tory, or science. We really need, then, a higher degree to serve as a sort of cer- tificate of liberalizing study of this kind. There are many men who, whether they intend to teach or not, would profit by advanced study; but they are not cut out for investigators; and unless they take a Ph.D. which is a sham, they have nothing to show for their progress beyond the now rather colorless A.M. Instead, then, of prostituting the Ph.D. till it is worth little more than the title "professor" as assumed by a boot- black or peripatetic quack, we might well, as some of the Chicago doctors urge, establish the "non-research" de- gree. The idea is by no means new. It has been brought forward again and again in recent years. One of the most ac- tive advocates of the plan has been Prof. Irving Babbitt of Harvard. In his book, "Literature and the Ameri- can College," as well as in other writ- ings, he has argued that our doctor's degree might well be reserved, as in France, for work of considerable ma- turity, produced, perhaps, some years after a man has entered upon the la- bors of his profession. The French doc- toral thesis is often a genuine contri- bution to knowledge, presented in ef- fective literary form. Were our doctor's degree granted only for achievements of such distinction, we should obviously need the "non-research" degree. But even if we do not go so far as the French, rough common honesty, not to say the delicate conscience of the schol- ar, should dictate some change in the present method of conferring the doc- torate. THE DEATH OF CATULLE MENDES. Catulle-Abraham Mendes was found dead in the railway tunnel at Saint Germain February 8. Mendes, born in 1841, came of a line of Jewish bankers established in the south of France, but most of his child- hood was spent in Germany and Italy. At twelve, the family returned to France and settled down in a chateau of Toulouse. Catulle was not sent to college, but he was under a tutor, a Lat- inist after the old fashion. When the boy was fourteen years old he gave to the local Varietes a vaudeville entitled the "Bailiff's Garters," which was play- ed several times. At fifteen, he started a theatrical paper, and the following year his indulgent father allowed him to go up to try his fortune in Paris. Arsene Houssaye at once began print- ing his verses; and the elder Mendes, willing to give his son a start in the career he had chosen, set aside 20,000 francs to begin a magazine. So, in 1860, the new Revue fantaisiste, with its eighteen-year-old editor, made its appearance. Among the contributors are found the names of Theophile Gau- tier and Richard Wagner, Baudelaire, and the two Daudets. The review and its contributors were not looked on with favor by the police of the empire. An indiscreet poem, which, however, had nothing to do with politics, published under his own name, enabled the police to bring Mendes before the courts on the ground of bad morals. He was fined 500 francs and sent up to the prison of Sainte-Pelagie for a month. On his release, he found his review defunct and his father unwilling to auvance any more money. Now followed a period of extreme poverty. Banville brought lim four sous' worth of tobacco cacn morn- ing; and, at last, Mendes sold a short story for thirty francs. It was the be- ginning. Much later, his father accept- ed the inevitable, but only on condi- tion that his son should make another long sojourn in Germany. This had for chief result the rooting of the young man in Wagnerism, of which he was one of the first messengers to refrac- tory France. Meanwhile a thin volume of verse, "Philomela," printed in red and black with an exasperating dilettanteism of form, announced that a new school of poetry was arising in Paris. The single etching of the volume was signed Brac- quemond— a name long since at the head of contemporary engraving, but then practically unknown. The widow of Gen. de Ricard gathered together in her salon the adepts of the new school. There were, besides Mendes, her son, who has written its history, Francois Coppee, Sully-Prudhomme, Stephane MallarmS, and Villiers de l'lsle-Adam. Xavier de Ricard started a review, but Mendes found nothing better to write in it than his "Lettres a la fiancee." Barbey d'Aurevilly, the Romantic, had dubbed these poets "Parnassians" dis- dainfully. Mendes adopted the name and began a new review called he Par- nasse contemporain. Lemerre was per- suaded to take up the review, and soon a series of volumes of verse appeared under the name. The newspapers, for a while, made fun of it, and of the long hair affected by the poets, but Theophile Gautier took up the cudgel for Mendes, who had married his daughter Judith, and forced the critics to recognize that French poetry had entered into a new phase, with verse classically correct, but with a new sparkle and limpidity. To this verse Mendes remained faithful, never yielding to the experiments in prosody or to the obscurity of the Sym- bolists, who succeeded the Parnassians, and whom he lived to see disappearing in their turn. Since money was as yet lacking to the young poet, the Prin- cess Mathilde came to the rescue, mak- ing him an allowance of 1,200 francs from her own purse. During the seventies he was still an intermittent editor, and his name was then associated with men rapidly be- coming more famous than himself. A publication which had ventured to be- gin Zola's "L'Assommoir" suddenly took alarm and stopped it short; Mendes accepted it for the pages of his own erratic review. The scandal helped the

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134r The Kation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 fortune of Zola, for the novel had an enormous sale, but it did little for the charitable editor. Despite all his work as editor and journalist, he was able to turn out an extraordinary number of plays and novels, many of them tainted with eroticism — years ago the number had already passed one hundred and twenty. Yet his plays — perhaps because the requirements of the stage enforced a much-needed reserve — have been re- markable in literary quality, as well as thoroughly dramatic. "La Fille de Tabarin" and "La Reine Fiammetta" are among the most famous. And his fiction has always shown a literary touch. Of his many novels may be mention- ed "Les Folies amoureuses," "La Vie et la mort d'un clown," "Le Roi vierge," "Le Crime du vieux Bias," "Monstres parisiens," "Jeunes filles," "Jupe courte," "Tous les baisers," "Lesbia," "Mephistophela," "L'Homme tout nu," "La Premiere Maitresse," and "La Grande Maguet." RECENT FRENCH BOOKS ON HIS- TORY. Paris, January 25. In the usual abundance of French his- torical publications, there are a few works of high importance, many that form a solid underpinning of serious history, and more still that popularize readably the work of documentary his- torians. The notices which follow are placed in the chronological order of the epochs to which their subjects be- long. "Au Temps des Pharaons," by A. Moret, adds to the account of the Pharaohs as known to history some knowledge of that previous epoch of Egypt before the Pyramids, on which recent excavations have shed so much light (Armand Colin). Albert Vogt publishes "Basile I," emperor from A. D. 867 to 886— a history of Byzantine civilization at the end of the ninth cen- tury, wherein new research has also added much to the outlines drawn from scantier material by the genius of Gib- bon (A. Picard). R. Delachenal, in his two volumes, "Histoire de Charles V (1338-1364)," follows out the career of the first Dauphin of France to the death of Jean II and then through the wars of the English Edward III. It is a work of capital importance for the history of English attempts at conquest in France (A. Picard). Three new books draw on the undy- ing interest of Port-Royal and the Jan- senists, who had the great advantage over our own Modernists of pictur- esqueness, political hatreds, and emo- tional personality. Andre Hallays has taken, en fldnant, by the way, "Le P6- lerinage de Port-Royal," from the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in Paris, where its dead lie buried, and the Paris Port-Royal to Port-Royal des Champs, the Granges, and so back to Paris and Saint-Medard. Over the ex- isting remains he reads each associated fragment of letters and chronicle of the time (Perrin). A. Gazier, last of the Jansenists, though all others perish, adds another to his volumes of glean- ings by an edition of Racine's "Abrege de l'histoire de Port-Royal," with full notes and bibliographical apparatus (So- cigte frangaise). The popular and doc- umentary Ch. Gailly de Taurines in "Pere et fille" gives, without theology, the touching history of the painter Phil- ippe de Champagne and his daughter Sceur Catherine de Sainte-Suzanne, who was the Port-Royal nun cured by mir- acle; this does not hinder their friend's daughter, the great poisoner La Brinvil- liers, from flitting across the page (Hachette). "La Maison de Madame Gourdan," with a sub-title, "Vieilles facades paris- iennes," by Eugene DeFrance, is an il- lustrated history of manners and cus- toms at the end of the eighteenth cen- tury (Mercure de France). This brings us up to the Revolution, where we have a substantial work on "La France 6co- nomique et sociale a la veille de la Revo- lution," by Maxime Kovalewsky, pro- fessor in the University of St. Peters- burg (Giard). In the series of repro- ductions of the all but unknown works of L'Elite de la Revolution, the new vol- ume consists of "Discours et rapports de Robespierre," with notes by the edi- tor, Ch. Vellay (Fasquelle). Frederic Masson adds to his appar- ently endless series of documentary works on Napoleon, two volumes, "Au- tour de Sainte-Helene" — striking and intimate details of the last years and of the adventurers who still swarmed around the great man (Ollendorff). L. de Lanzac de Laborie publishes a fifth volume of his series Paris sous Na- poleon, comprising the history of pub- lic charities and assistance and the pro- visioning of it (Plon-Nourrit). Com- mandant M. H. Weil, who has already published five volumes on Prince Eu- gene and Murat, now issues a first vol- ume of completest history of the last year of reign of "Joachim Murat, roi de Naples (1814-1815)"; so far we are giv- en the preliminaries of the Congress of Vienna, from May to November, 1814. Each volume is sold separately (Fon- temoing). "Journal du Comte P.-L. Roe- derer," with subtitle "Autour de Bona- parte," and notes by Maurice Vitrac of the Bibliotheque Nationale, is a rather dear volume (400 pages, 15 francs), by a man without much imagination or sympathy, and with some prejudices, whose occupations called him to the daily presence of Napoleon (Daragon). Princess Radziwill nee Castellane has edited with notes the "Chronique de 1831 a 1862" of her grandmother, Duch- esse de Dino, the German princess, who was married passively into the family of Talleyrand, and came into his life to such a degree that she guided the veter- an diplomat to the very door of the tomb. Meanwhile, she observed with immense common sense the court world of which she was a part, at London, and in Paris, and listened with untir- ing intelligence to the sayings of the man whose own memoirs proved so cruel a disappointment to those whw in- sist on looking behind the scenes (Plon). "La Jeunesse liberate de 1830" is made up of letters of Alphonse d'Her- belot to the young Charles de Montalem- bert, and Leon Cornudet, men who reso- lutely turned from salvation in restor- ed kings and began the movement of Catholics toward Pope and people — a movement still uncertain after eighty years (A. Picard). The two volumes "Lettres a un ami," by the late Edmond Rousse, head of the Paris bar, and member of the French Academy, range from 1845 to 1880; they give the unpremeditated ob- servations and opinions of a highly cul- tivated, professionally accurate mind in the presence of public events (Hach- ette). The letters of the siege of Paris and Commune are peculiarly valuable. It is not always easy for historians to discover just what competent persons thought on the spot. "La Commune au jour le jour," from bloody beginning to bloody ending, by Elie Reclus is a book of very honest memories by one who says of himself: I was not one of the personages, not even a confidant of the personages ; I was a citizen among those who were least ill- informed — a thermometer lost in a corner. This did not prevent Elie Reclus, whom the Commune had named director of the National Library, from being forced to fly his country, while his brother, Elisee, the eminent geographer, had his sen- tence commuted only as the result of a petition of Englishmen of science, led by Charles Darwin. This book deals with none of the pbi'osophy, but only with the day-by-day realities of that enigma of terror (Schleicher). "La Comtesse de Valon," by G. Clement Simon, carries us to the opposite ex- treme of those troublous times (Plon). She was Apollonie de La Rochelambert, one of three sisters who had been close friends of the Empress Eugenie before her elevation. In spite of her friend- ship, she refused to give up her Le- gitimist prejudices and to appear at the new court. When the crash came, she was able to serve France, and later her own party, through the friends of her youthful years in Berlin, Manteuf- fel and others. Although the book is heavily put together — remembrances of life, of family and friends, and corre- spondence— it throws strong and inter- esting sidelights on the critical moment when the last and best of the Bourbons, I

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The IS ation 135 Count of Chambord, either deliberately and honestly or quixotically rendered the old monarchy forever impossible in France. Two books tell the religious and hon- orable effort of a few men who recog- nized the causes of the destruction of all they held dear, and have striven to win back the French workman to Chris- tian society. Count Albert de Mun, in "Ma Vocation sociale," tells his mem- ories of the foundation of Catholic workingmen's clubs (1871-1875); they still exert an influence, perhaps slowly increasing, under a clergy no longer bound to the state (Lethielleux). The economical theory of the movement is explained in a large book by another of its founders, Marquis de La Tour du Pin La Charce — "Vers un Ordre social Chretien" — milestones from 1882 to 1907; it is probable many more weary miles will have to be traversed before any one social order triumphs in France (Nouvelle Librairie Nationale). A. Debidour, professor at the Sorbonne, in a second volume completes his erudite work, "L'figlise catholique et l'etat sous la troisieme republique," from 1870 to 1906, when state churches, though not state legislation of churches, ceased to exist in France. "Dans la Bataille" is a collection of papers by the present foreign minister of the Republic, Ste- phen Pichon, whose activities have extended during his diplomatic careei from the French West Indies to Tunis, and then to China, when the allied Pow- ers entered Peking; they are written clearly and with point, and are good samples of the new diplomatic litera- ture, unknowing pretence or ceremony. Perhaps the chief book in French his- tory of those recently published is the "Histoire de la France contemporaine," by ex-Foreign Minister Gabriel Hano- taux. The fourth volume has just ap- peared, comprising the entire founda- tion by Gambetta of the "republique parlementaire," and ending appropriate- ly with the death of its founder (Boi- vin). It is probable trat Gambetta, of whom the author was a pupil and dis- ciple, would frown at the inordinate de- velopment since given to his main prin- ciple— the omnipotence of the legisla- tive branch of government — but the egg is very apt to grow according to the laws of its species. It is natural that M. Hanotaux should not altogether ap- preciate or even understand the posi- tion of those less and of those more radical than Gambetta; but it is much that he should completely understand that which came into existence at the time it began. S. D. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The first part of the J. C. Chamberlain collection of first editions of American au- thors, which has been frequently referred to in this column, will be sold by the Anderson Auction Company of this city in four sessions on February 16 and 17. This part includes the books of ten nineteenth- century authors: Bryant, Emerson, Haw- thorne, Holmes, Irving, Longfellow, Lowell, Poe, Thoreau, and Whittier. The rarest and most sought for books of these authors, almost without exception, are included. While the first edition of Bryant's "Em- bargo" (1808), and Poe's famous "Tamer- lane and Minor Poems" (1827), two prac- tically unattainable books, are absent, a score of titles scarcely less notable, some of works which are now offered at public sale for the first time, are included. Among these are: Bryant's "Oration delivered at Stockbridge, July 4, 1820" (only once be- fore offered at auction, Pierson sale, 1908, $145) ; Hawthorne's "Time's Portraiture," being the carrier's address to the patrons of the Salem Gazette for January 1, 1838 (only three copies known, never before offered at auction) ; "The Sister Years," another carrier's address, 1839 (six or seven copies known, two offered at auction, the record price, $290) ; Holmes's "New Eng- land's Master Key," 1863, six copies print- ed (this the only copy traceable, sold twice at auction, bringing $16 in 1894, and $110 in 1904) ; Holmes's "Lecture — 1863," six copies printed (this the only copy trace- able, twice sold at auction, bringing $15.50 in 1894, and $112 in 1904) ; Holmes's "Ora- tion before the City Authorities of Boston" (1863), twelve copies printed before the lec- ture was delivered (this the only copy to come upon the market, twice sold at auc- tion, bringing $19 in 1894, and $75 in 1904) ; the same, a second issue, with corrections, twelve copies only printed after delivery (this only copy to come upon the market) ; Longfellow's "Noel," an eight-page leaflet, 1864 (five copies known, this the only one ever offered at auction, Arnold sale, 1901, $55) ; Longfellow's "The New England Tragedy," 1860, the trial issue in prose (only two copies known, the other still in possession of the Longfellow family) ; Long- fellow's "The New England Tragedy," 1868, the privately printed first issue of the poetic version, ten copies printed (never before offered at auction) ; Longfellow's "Keramos," 1877, trial issue, printed before the poem appeared in Harper's Magazine for Decem- ber, 1877 (never before offered at auction) ; Lowell's "Poems," 1844, large paper copy (only six copies known, only once offered at auction in recent years, in the sale of Brown University duplicates, 1901, $150) ; Lowell's "Mason and Slidell," 1862, th« separate, printed from the types of the Atlantic Monthly (only once before offered at auction, in the Arnold sale, 1901, $175) ; Lowell's "Bigelow Papers," Second Series, London, 1864 (never before offered at auc- tion) ; Lowell's "Address on Democracy," private issue, printed on one side only (three copies known, once before offered at auction, in the Arnold sale, 1901, $70) ; Lowell's "Lines on Reading of the Capture of . . . Slaves etc.," a leaflet, printed with Whittier's "The Branded Hand," 1845 (never before offered at auction). In the above list the better-known, though equally valuable, titles which have occurred with greater or less frequency in the sales have been omitted. Among notable titles of this class, which would of themselves make any collection famous, are: Hawthorne's "Fanshawe" (1828); "The Gentle Boy" (1839); "The Celestial Rail- road" (1843); "Peter Parley's Universal History" (1837); Holmes's "A Family Re- cord" (1877); Irving's "History of New York" (1809); Longfellow's "Outre-Mer" (1833-34), the two numbers as first issued in the original paper covers, uncut; "Poems on Slavery" (1842); "Evangeline" (1847); Lowell's "A Year's Life" (1841), presenta- tion copy from Lowell to Tennyson; "Con- versations on Some of the Old Poets" (1845), presentation copy; "Poems of Maria Lowell" (1855), presentation copy; "II Pesceballo" (1862), all three issues of this year; "Ode Recited at the Commemoration of the Living and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University" (1865) ; Poe's "Al Aaraaf and Mi- nor Poems" (1829): "Poems," second edition (1831), presentation copy; Thoreau's "A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers" (1849); Whittier's "Legends of New England" (1831); "Moll Pitcher" (1832), in the origi- nal paper covers, uncut, probably the finest copy known; "Mogg Megone" (1836). The copy of Poe's second book, "Al Aaraaf," is one of the finest known, being in the original boards, uncut, with a presenta- tion inscription from Poe's sister. Rose M. Poe. It is from the Frederick W. French sale, April, 1901, where it brought $1,300. It had cost Mr. French about $175, four or five years before. Since that sale the Nelson copy, with presentation inscrip- tion in Poe's autograph, sold in the Peirce sale for $1,825, and a copy with trimmed edges in the Appleton sale, 1906, for $1,500. The Longfellow-Greene correspondence, comprising 545 autograph letters (37 being postal cards) from Longfellow to George W. Greene, was acquired by Mr. Cham- berlain from a member of the Greene fam- ily. The earliest of these letters was writ- ten in 1830, and the last a few days before Longfellow's death in 1882. It is not prob- able that such another collection of Long- fellow's letters has been preserved. Many of the letters, especially the early ones, are of great literary interest; and about 400 of them are unpublished. Samuel Long- fellow printed many of them in his Life o£ his brother, but a comparison of the origi- nal manuscripts with the letters as there printed shows that he has exercised undue license in making alterations in the word- ing, and has deleted long passages without indicating omissions. Among other manu- scripts are several early poems by Bryant, including one written at the age of twelve; Irving's manuscript note-book for "The His- tory of New York," and a manuscript diary kept by him in Spain in 1828-29; Longfel- low's "Hermes Trismegistus," the last poem published before his death; portions of Lowell's manuscript of "Our Own"; Whit- tier's poem on Fitz-Greene Halleck; besides autograph letters of most of the ten au- thors, many of them of exceptional inter- est. Eight books from the library of Na- thaniel Hawthorne containing autographs (several of the signatures with the early spelling "Hathorne") are valuable associa- tion items. The catalogue contains a preface by Ma- jor Emory S. Turner, a frontispiece portrait of Mr. Chamberlain, and numerous repro- ductions of title-pages and manuscripts. Part II of the angling library of the late John G. Heckscher, which will be offered by the Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. of this city February 15 to 18, includes the editions of Walton's "Compleat Angler," 127 lots. The

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136 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 first edition of Walton's "Angler" (London, 1653) is, when in fine condition, one of the most valuable bor ks of the period. The last copy sold at auction was William C. Van Antwerp's (formerly the Rowfant copy), for which Quaritch paid £1,290 in 1907. This, one of the finest known copies, in the original sheep binding, is now in J. P. Morgan's library. The Heckscher copy is described as fine and perfect, in a binding by Riviere, copied from an old English binding of the period. The Heckscher li- brary includes also the second edition (1655), both issues of the third edition (1661 and 1664), the fourth edition (1668), and the fifth edition (1676). The fifth edi- tion, with which was incorporated Charles Cotton's "Compleat Angler" and Venables's "Experienced Angler," was the last issued during the author's lifetime. C. S. Rafi- nesque's "Ichthyologia Ohiensis ; or, Nat- ural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the River Ohio and Its Tributary Streams," a pamphlet of ninety pages (Lexington, Ky., 1820), is the rarest and most valuable of American books on fishes. The Heckscher example is the first perfect copy to be sold at auction. Other notable books in this part are: Mascall's "Booke of Fishing with Hooke & Line" (1590) ; Nobbes's "Compleat Troller" (1682), first edition; Smith's "True Art of Angling" (1696); Gervase Markham's "Pleasures of Princes" (1614), as well as a number of other books by this writer; Dean Sage's "Restigouche and Its Salmon Fishing" (1888), one of the most valuable of modern books on angling. Correspondence. THE FIRST AMERICAN PLAY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The writing and acting of the first play in what is now English-speaking America may be assigned to a date at least thirty-four years earlier than 1640, the date given by William J. Neidig, in your issue of January 28. In 1606, two years before Que- bec was founded, and when Shakespeare was still alive, the Sieur de Poutrincourt brought a band of Frenchmen to settle at Port Royal, in Acadie. Among them was Marc Lescarbot, who wrote a history of New France, in which he tells what hap- pened there under his own eyes. His chief, de Poutrincourt, coming back after a cruise along the New England coast, "arrived at Port Royal the fourteenth of November, where we received him joyfully and with a solemnity quite unknown in those parts." The account continues: For just as we were looking for his re- turn (with great longing, for had ill befallen him we should have been in danger of confusion). I bethought myself of setting forth some piece of merriment, which we did. And, as it was written hur- riedly in French rhymes, I have put it in "Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France," under the title of "Theatre de Neptune," to which the reader is referred. ("Histoire de la Nouvelle-France," Book iv, Chap. 16). The third piece in "Les Muses de la Nou- velle-France " Paris, 1609, is the masque, "Le Theatre de Neptune en la Nouvelle- France," containing 242 rhymed lines. The characters are Neptune, six Tritons, four In- dians, and a jovial attendant. Neptune ap- pears clad in a blue robe and socks, hair and beard long and hoary, holding in hand his trident, seated on his chariot decked out with his colors. The chariot Is drawn on the waves by six Tritons to board the launch wherein De Poutrincourt and his followers took their places on leaving their ship to go ashore. When the chariot is made fast to the launch Neptune addresses De Poutrincourt in fifty-eight lines, call- ing him "Sagamos." Neptune tells who he is, how great his power on the sea, and how he has often protected De Poutrin- court; Neptune further promises to favor De Poutrincourt's undertaking because he foresees destiny is preparing a flourishing empire for France in the New World. A trumpet then strikes up and encourages the Tritons to speak; one after another they deliver their parts covering eighty- four lines. They praise Neptune, implore the help of France and commend De Pou- trincourt's bravery. The Indian word "adesquides," friend, is used. Strangely enough, the part of the fifth Triton was taken by a Gascon, who pronounced his verses "a peu pr&s en sa langue." Next Neptune draws aside to make room for four Indians in a canoe bringing gifts. In seventy-eight lines they offer moose meat, beaver skins, and shell ornaments, but do not forget to beg for "caraconas," bread. Neptune and the Indians are thanked for their good will by De Poutrincourt, who invites them to the fort. Forthwith Nep- tune's troop sing a four-part song of four lines. This ended, the trumpet again sounds and they go their several ways. Cannons roar for a full quarter hour. On reaching the fort, De Poutrincourt is met by the merry attendant, who speaks the last eighteen lines of the piece greeting the returning chief and bidding the cooks to make ready every kind of good cheer. We have Lescarbot's word that this masque was actually "representee sur les flots du Port-Royal le quatorzieme de Novembre mille six cens six, au retour du Sieur de Poutrincourt du pais des Armouchiquois." Here, then, is a play both written and acted in North America in 1606. As a masque it fulfils all conditions required by the definition of the word, if it is agreed that a masque was a dramatic performance in which the actors, properly disguised, represented mythical or allegorical charac- ters. Frederick Lewis Gay. Brookline, Mass., January 29. AN EARLY VIRGINIA PLAY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The following may be of interest as a contribution to the discussion as to the first play presented in America — a sub- ject which W. J. Neidig takes up in your issue of January 28. In 1665, a play, known as "Ye Beare and Ye Club," was acted in Accomac County on the eastern shore of Virginia, by three citizens, Cornelius Wil- kinson, Philip Howard, and William Darby by name. As soon as the fact was report- ed to the King's attorney, John Fawsett, he summoned them to court, where each was subjected to a rigid cross-examination. The justices of the court contented them- selves at that session with ordering the culprits to appear at the next session in the habiliments which they had worn in acting the play ; and they were also re- quired to bring with them for inspection on that occasion a copy of "the verses, speeches, and passages" which they had de- claimed. The justices must have found the performance to have been of a very inno- cent nature, for they directed the three men to be discharged, and the person who had informed on them to pay all the expenses of the presentment. Philip Alexander Bruce. Norfolk, Va., January 31. ARNOLD'S "CHURCH OF BROU." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: M. Charles Cestre, professor at Bor- deaux, printed in the November-December number of the Revue germanique an in- teresting study of Matthew Arnold in con- nection with Edgar Quinet. He points out that Arnold's poem, "The Church of Brou" — one of his most popular poems — owes much to an opuscule, "L'figlise de Brou," pub- lished by Quinet in a volume of "Melanges," in 1839. M. Cestre says courteously and sincerely that there is no fear of diminish- ing the just admiration deserved by Arnold for the poetic quality of his verses, by showing that they must have been sug- gested in their "motive," and in many of their details, by Quinet's prose. Arnold transplants the church from its real situation in the neighborhood of Bourg, which Quinet accurately describes, to an Alpine valley; but he follows Quinet, not closely, but in spirit, in his enumeration of the builders — "the working train." Flemish carvers, Lombard gilders, German masons, smiths from Spain. And he echoes Quinet's sentence, "Elle conduit elle-meme la main de son archi- tecte aveugle" with Clad In black, on her white palfrey, Her old architect beside. But it is in the last stanza that the re- semblance becomes important. Quinet sketches the main lines of a vision that had come to him of these beings who "sleep their marble sleep" in the surrounding silence: Who could relate their dreams? When they lift their cold eyelids they see the arches above their heads, the transfigured light of the windows, the motionless Vir- gin and saints, and they think to them- selves: "This is eternity." And when the wind moans in the doors they murmur to one another: "Why, my beloved, do you so loudly sigh?" And when the rain drips on the roof above, they say: "Do you, too, hear on your dais the rain of the Eternal Love?" Compare: So sleep, for ever sleep, O marble Pair! Or, if ye wake, let it be then, when fair On the carved western front a flood of light Streams from the setting sun, and colors bright Prophets, transfigured Saints, and Martyrs brave. In the vast western window of the nave. . . . Tnen unclose Your eyelids on the stone where ye repose . . . Or let it be on autumn nights, when rain Doth rustlingly above your heads complain . . . Then, gazing up 'mid the dim pillars high, The foliaged marble forest where ye lie. Hush, ye will say, it is eternity'. . . . And in the sweeping of the wind your ear The passage of the Angels' wings will hear, And on the lichen-crusted leads above The rustle of the eternal rain of love. To compare — not a small thing, but a smaller thing, with a great one, this is like Shakespeare's use of Holinshed. He takes from him his facts, even his phrases, and throwing on them the light of imagin-

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Feb. ii, 1909] The Nation 137 ation, transmutes them to something far more rich and rare. It should be said that the lines omitted in the above quotation render the passage much more beautiful. M. Cestre, in connection with this dis- covery of his, remarks that some of Ar- nold's prose writings have so much re- semblance, not verbally, but in thought, to those of Quinet, that it would seem not improbable that this was due to familiar- ity with Quinet's works. Some of Arnold's most important opinions bear the impress of French influence, and may be more or less definitely attributed to the special in- fluence of Quinet. But this is too large a question to enter on here. Grace Norton. Cambridge, Mass.. January 29. CARL SCHURZ AND MARCUS AURELIUS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your review of Vol. Ill of Carl Schurz's "Reminiscences" (January 21), this extract is quoted from one of his let- ters: Ever since I have been in official life I have adhered to the rule of regarding the official position occupied by me at the time as the last one ever to be held by me, and as decisive of my reputation as a public man. This is a splendid present-day application of the general proposition set forth by Mar- cus Aurelius: Hourly and earnestly strive, as a Roman and as a man, to do what falls to your hand with perfect unaffected dignity, with kind- liness, freedom, and justice, and free your soul from every other imagination. This you will accomplish if you perform each action as if it were your last, without wil- fulness or any passionate aversion to what reason approves. ("Meditations," ii, 5.) Burgess Young. Copper Cliff, Ont., January 29. THE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In Prof. A. Lawrence Lowell's first formal address as president-elect of Har- vard University, printed in the Harvard Bulletin, he says: It is commonly thought that President Eliot has ruled Harvard and the faculty with a heavy hand. It is not so. When I went to Cambridge one of my colleagues said to me: "If you fail to give satisfaction you will go; but so long as you give satis- faction you may teach as you please." That has been President Eliot's method of treat- ing his subordinates, the members of the faculty. Is it to be understood that as president of Harvard University Mr. Lowell proposes to retain his subordinates only so long as they give him satisfaction? The president of another great university has recently expressed his opinion of the relation between the university president and the university professor. In his re- cently printed lectures before the Univer- sity of Copenhagen, President Butler of Columbia University writes: Almost without exception the men who to-day occupy the most conspicuous posi- tions in the United States have worked their way up, by their own ability, from very humble beginnings. The heads of the great universities were every one of them not long ago humble and poorly compen- sated teachers. An 'Umble Professor. New York, January 30. PRESIDENT ALDERMAN EXPLAINS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I clip the following from your issue of January 21, and beg you will reprint it, and give me the privilege of saying just a brief explanatory word: POE ECLIPSED. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The enclosed item from a Cleveland paper you have perhaps already seen. It is hard to tell whether it is humorous or pa- thetic. The University of Virginia, which seems to depend upon a sprinter for its reputation, is entitled to sympathy. Edward Dickinson. Oberlin, O., January 11. Charlottesville, Va., January 8.— Al- though President Roosevelt has written a personal letter to "Jim" Rector, urging him to another race with Walker, the man from South Africa, Rector cannot take part in such a contest without endangering his life. Rector, who is taking law here, and has done more to bring the University of Vir- ginia into popular notice than any man since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the college, has been warned that he cannot live two years if he continues in training. The article, dated Charlottesville, of course, did not emanate from this universi- ty, but appeared simultaneously in the sporting columns of various papers. Its author is unknown to us. President Roose- velt had no communication whatever with Mr. Rector. Mr. Rector has decided not to run any races with anybody, because he feels that his time should be given to his work in the department of law, and not be- cause anybody has told him that his life is endangered. All of the facts stated, there- fore, are untrue. The sporting reporter's opinion as to Mr. Rector's part in bringing the University of Virginia into popular no- tice is his own opinion, about which we knew nothing, and for which we are in no sense responsible. I had seen the article, and thought it very stupid to pay any at- tention to such absurd statements, thinking it rather an amusing example of wild en- thusiasm on the part of a young reporter of sporting news. I know nothing of Mr. Edward Dickinson, of Oberlin, O., who felt impelled to send you the above communica- tion. His impulse to write at all, and his reflections after yielding to the impulse, seem to me to reveal him quite plainly as a man lacking in about equal degree in both commonsense and common justice. Edwin A. Alderman. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, January 26. [We should not have published the mat- ter to which President Alderman objects had we supposed that our readers would re- gard the clipping as anything more than an amusing example of American journalism. We are confident also that our readers have not missed the point of Mr. Dickinson's irony, and will not deny him either com- mon sense or common justice. — Ed. Na- tion.] THE REMOVAL OF MASON AND SLIDELL FROM THE TRENT. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Within the last year and a half, three letters of Lord Palmerston, two of them addressed to Queen Victoria and one to Mr. Delane, editor of the London Times, have been published that show beyond ca- vil that the highest ministers and legal advisers of the British crown recognized that Cant. Wilkes, in taking Mason and Slidell from a British merchant steamer and then allowing the vessel to proceed on her voyage, had acted strictly according to the rules of the laws of nations as rec- ognized and interpreted in practice by Great Britain herself. In a letter on November 11, 1861, to Mr. Delane, Lord Palmerston, the Premier, wrote that on that same day he had pre- sided at an important meeting, to consider what could be done to protect an expected English mail steamer, supposed to have on board the Confederate envoys, from being stopped and searched by an American war vessel just arrived at Portsmouth, sup- posedly with that object in view. Besides the Premier himself, according to Lord Palmerston's statement, there were present at this meeting the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Somerset, Sir George Grey, Mr. Hammond (afterwards Lord Hammond), Permanent Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the three law officers of the Crown, Sir William Atherton, Attor- ney-General, Sir Roundell Palmer, Solici- tor-General, and Dr. Phillimore, Counsel to the Admiralty. Of the conclusion at which these gentlemen arrived, Lord Palmerston wrote to Mr. Delane: It appeared that, according to the prin- ciples of international law laid down in our courts by Lord Stowell, and practised and enforced by us, a belligerent has a right to stop and search any neutral not being a ship of war, and being found on the high seas and being suspected of carry- ing enemy's dispatches; and that conse- quently this American cruiser might, by our own principles of international law, stop the West India packet, search her, and, if the Southern men and their dis- patches and credentials were found on board, either take them out, or seize the packet and carry her back to New York for trial. Such being the opinion of our men learned in the law, we have deter mined to do no more than to order the Phaeton frigate to drop down to Yarmouth Roads and watch the proceedings of the American within our three-mile limit of territorial jurisdiction, and to prevent her from exercising within that limit those rights which we cannot dispute as belong- ing to her beyond that limit. Two days later Lord Palmerston wrote to the Queen to the same effect. Two weeks afterwards, on November 29, however, upon hearing that Capt. Wilkes had taken Mason and Slidell off the Trent in the West India seas, the British Cabi- net, contrary to their previously formulated judgment, decided to demand in a peremp- tory way the release of the Confederate envoys, and began to prepare for war. The same day, Lord Palmerston wrote from Downing Street to the Queen that at a Cabinet meeting just held, "the law officers and Dr. Phillimore, counsel to the Admir- alty," in attendance, "it appeared to the Cabinet that a gross outrage and violation of international law has been committeed and that your Majesty should be advised to demand reparation and redress." When the news of the act of Capt. Wilkes

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138 The N" a tion [Vol. 88, No. 2276 reached America, every one. from Secretary Seward down, acclaimed Wilkes as a na- tional hero. President Lincoln, alone, seemed to have had doubts about the wis- dom of the bold sailor's action aiding the cause of the Union. In England, practi- cally the whole nation, except Cobden, Bright, and their friends, regarded the pro- ceeding as high-handed and an insult to the British flag. And had not Earl Rus- sell's dispatch to the American govern- ment, demanding the release of the cap- tured envoys, been revised and toned down in the cause of peace by the Queen and the Prince Consort, so as to afford the American government an avenue for hon- orable retreat, war would almost certainly have resulted between America and Eng- land. As it was, England's demands were so made that in the excited state of the public mind in America it was difficult for President Lincoln, Secretary Seward, and the Cabinet to meet the case so as to avoid an armed conflict with the mother- land. But Secretary Seward, in a dispatch written on December 26, 1861, to Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, with rare ability acceded to the British demands without, however, conceding that Capt. Wilkes had not the right to stop the Trent in order to prevent the accredited envoys of the Confederate States from reaching the theatres of their intended action. Secretary Seward maintained, in writing to Lord Lyons, that Capt. Wilkes, in stopping the Trent to find Mason and Slidell, had acted in accord with the laws of nations, and that he could properly have placed a prize crew on board of her to bring her to an American port, so that the question whether Mason and Slidell could be considered as contraband, should be reviewed before and passed upon by a prize court. But because Wilkes, since his crew was much reduced in numbers and he did not wish to cause delay to the pas- sengers on the Trent, had taken Mason and Slidell off the Trent and allowed her to proceed, Secretary Seward said that, acting under the rule laid down in 1804 by Secre- tary Madison, during President Jefferson's Administration, his government could not sustain the act of Capt. Wilkes. That American contention as formulated by Madison was that: Whenever property found in a neutral vessel is supposed to be liable on any ground to capture and condemnation, the rule in all cases is, that the question shall not be decided by the captor, but be car- ried before a legal tribunal, where a reg- ular trial may be had, and where the cap- tor himself is liable to damages for an abuse of his power. Messrs. Mason and Slidell were, accord- ingly, given up to the British authorities, and taken to England on a British war vessel as gentlemen "of distinction." The exigencies of the situation, as the British government fully appreciated, were such that the American government, be- cause of the life struggle on its hands at home, could not afford to engage in a for- eign war at that time, and was forced to yield to the British demand. Thus once more, as on so many other occasions, Great Britain's statesmen, taking advantage of the actual situation of affairs, won for her a contention to which she was not legally entitled. But at the same time, Capt. Wilkes's action and Secretary Seward's re- serving the point that the American cap- tain had acted within his legal rights by the laws of nations in stopping the Trent and taking the Confederate envoys from her, are sustained by the original judgment of the Premier of Great Britain and his legal advisers. Thomas Willing Balch. Philadelphia, February 5. THE POLICY OF RECONSTRUCTION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : Referring to your review of Schur,z's "Reminiscences," January 21, and other past utterances concurring with the now com- mon charge that the reconstruction laws were dictated mainly by revenge and party policy, and that the avowed reasons were invalid, may I suggest some considerations justly to be borne in mind : (1.) Is there not a confusion between what we now — not know, but are coming to think likely — and what was the natural in- ference from observed conditions then? The question is not of facts, but of motives ; and how can the experience of forty years be fairly cited to cast blame on a generation which had not had that experience, so long as they reasoned justly from what they had? Or rather, the question is between two sets of motives, the Southerners' and the North- erners'. That the Southerners were not trying to reenslave their ex-slaves is, if true, a good argument for pitying their unjust fate, even while we wonder at their mischance in producing so astoundingly per- fect a simulation of that process; it seems to me no argument at all for attributing worse motives to their opponents than be- fore. If we think those motives defensible, provided the reenslavement was projected, we must hold them so if the reasons for belief would convince all rational persons now. (2.) Were these reasons not sufficient? The Nation will hardly regard it as irrelevant or without weight that its conductors then thought them overwhelmingly so, and hear- tily advocated negro suffrage as the one alternative to permanent quartering of a Federal battalion in every Southern county. Mr. Godkin, Professor Norton, C. F. Adams et al. will not be termed vindictive parti- sans talking behind a mask; nor will Mr. Schurz or scores of others easily remem- berable, among the then Republican lead- ers. Then why should the members of Congress generally be not entitled to credit for a like honesty of motive, at the bottom of action, with perhaps meaner motives on top? Would not the same facts now, if existent, lead the present editors and most other Northerners to the same conclusion? Every planter was to have his own negroes permanently back on his own plantation (by understood comity that would ostracize any one who hired another's, and laws for- bidding town employment and compelling yearly contracts), hunt them down and chain them up if they ran away, and whip them at will. If this was not at least "semi"- slavery, to what would the name apply? Wherein did it differ from the old except for inability to transfer the negroes to other owners, and a nominal wage easily made a farce? When a righteous motive is sup- plied by all the knowledge possible short of Divine intuition, why is it necessary to postulate an unrighteous one? (3.) Beyond this, a further justification has commended itself to perfectly cool and very acute minds. The late Alexander John- ston— anything but a passionate or par- tisan judge — held that to have admitted the Southern whites, hot with vengeance and with every conceivable motive for resist- ing the conversion of their old labor sys- tem into a new one they utterly disbelieved in and hated, to their old power in the national councils, would have been mad- ness. The historic justification of the re- construction policy, in his mind, was pre- cisely its keeping the South busy with its internal policy till it was glad enough to let the new system remain. The truth of this view does not concern the question in hand; its honesty does, and there is no doubt that this policy of tying the hands of the South by the negro vote was entertained by many, and was not necessarily a policy of spite, but of serious and defensible statesmanship. In a word (for a type), Stevens the par- tisan and the wrathful acted no otherwise than Stevens the shrewd and sincere states- man might well have done, and as the best of the Northern liberals — the very back- bone of the later Liberal Republicans and the still later Mugwumps — did also, or ad- vised and helped others to do. Is it good logic to attribute a different set of motives to men for the same action, according to whether we like them or not, or still worse, according to our later change of mind as to the judiciousness of their action? Since a Congress composed wholly of Godkins and Nortons and Schurzes would certainly have enacted substantially the same laws, those laws cannot per se be proof of other basic ideas than theirs. Laudator Temporis Acti. Hartford, Conn., January 31. Notes. The Macmillan Company announces the following books for publication during the spring: "Peace and Happiness," by Lord Avebury; "The Melting Pot," by Israel Zangwill; "Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero," by Prof. W. Warde Fowler; "The Roman Assemblies," by Prof. George W. Botsford; "The Earth's Bounty," by Mrs. Kate V. Saint Maur; "History of the City of New York," by Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer; "Statistical and Chronological History of the United States Navy," by Robert W. Neeser; "The Story of the Great Lakes," by Prof. Edward Channing; "His- tory of the State of Washington," by Prof. Edmond S. Meany; "The Oldest English Epic," by Prof. Francis B. Gummere: "The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne." by Prof. Wilbur L. Cross; "Walt Whitman," by Prof. George R. Carpenter; "Selections from American Literature, 1607-1800," by Prof. William B. Cairns; "Robert Y. Hayne and His Times," by Theodore D. Jervey; "Principles of American Government," by Prof. Charles A. Beard; "The Government of European Cities," by Prof. William Ben- nett Munro; "The Government of Great American Cities," by Delos F. Wilcox; "The People's Law," by Judge Charles Sumner Lobingier; "Socialism in History and Practice," by Morris Hillquit; "Arti- ficial Waterways and Commercial Develop- ment," by A.Barton Hepburn; "Wage-Earn-

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Feb. ii, 1909] T h. e N" ation 139 ing Women," by Prof. Annie Marion Mac- Lean ; "The Laws of Friendship, Human and Divine," by President Henry Churchill King; "The Approach to the Social Ques- tion," by Prof. Francis Greenwood Pea- body; "Studies in Religion and Theology," by Principal A. M. Fairbairn; "A Valid Christianity for To-day," by the Right Rev. Charles D. Williams; "Modern Thought and the Crisis in Belief," by Prof. Robert M. Wenley; "The One Volume Commentary on the Holy Bible," edited by the Rev. John R. Dummelow; "History of New Testament Times in Palestine," by Prof. Shailer Mathews; "What Is Pragmatism?" by Prof. James Bissett Pratt; "History of Education Before the Middle Ages," by Prof. Frank Pierrepont Graves; "The American High School," by John Franklin Brown. The fifth volume of Ferrero's "Greatness and Decline of Rome" is promised by Put- nams for this month. Among their other early publications are: "The Columbia River," by Prof. W. D. Lyman; "Frater- nity," by John Galsworthy; "The Govern- ment of American Cities," by Horace E. Deming; "Historic Indiana," by Julia Hen- derson Levering; and "The Great Lakes," by J O. Curwood. During this month Sherman, French & Co. will publish "The Art and Science of Advertising," by George French, and "A Mctley Jest," by 0. F. Adams. The Yale University Press announces for early publication "The Beginnings of Gos- pel Story," a study of St. Mark, by Prof. BeDjamin W. Bacon. A complete edition of the works of Tolstoy will, according to an Associated Press dis- patch, be issued by a Moscow publishing house. It is announced that with the ap- proval of Premier Stolypin the censored works of Tolstoy will be included in this edition, which will number about twenty- five volumes. The Macmillan Co. has brought out an excellent edition of two of Mrs. Horatia Ewing's series: "Six to Sixteen" and "A Flat Iron for a Farthing," with illustra- tions in color, by M. V. Wheelhouse. The charm of Mrs. Ewing's style is still fresh, greater, perhaps, for the adult than for the child. An edition of Mrs. Gaskell's "North and South" in the World's Classics (Henry Frowde) will no doubt introduce many read- ers to what is certainly "one of the finest books in modern English fiction," and will help to dispel the delusion that the author has written only one book, "Cranford" — or two, if "Wives and Daughters" be added, —worthy of notice to-day. The editor of the present edition, Clement Shorter, quotes a fragment of an unprinted letter from Charlotte Bronte on the novel, and points out that two lengthy sentences have been repeated in the text with but slight al- terations. In the standard Knutsford edit- ion these sentences are omitted on their second appearance. They are here retain- ed as a curiosity in literature. The last six volumes containing North- anger Abbey," "Persuasion." "Emma," and "Mansfield Park," have been added to the ten-volume edition of Jane Austen, in St. Martin's Illustrated Library of Standard Authors (London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Duffield & Co.). The introductions, by R. Brimley Johnson, are brief, but they are sufficient; for Jane Austen needs no me- diator between herself and the reader. The illustrations, by A. Wallis Mills, ten in each volume, are, as we noted in commenting on the earlier issues, well printed, dainty in color, faithful to the costumes of the pe- riod, and cleverly designed. No one but a genius can suggest pictorially the deli- cacy, the humorouj characterization, and the irony of Miss Austen; but Mr. Mills has done as well as any one. The important point is that the type is bold and clear, the paper good, the book light to hold in the hand. Of the inexpensive editions of Miss Austen's novels, this is distinctly the best and most readable. An anthology of some 650 closely print- ed double-column pages, containing "Poems of American History," sounds rather for- midable, but as a matter of fact it includes an astonishing amount of verse which, if not great or artistically fine, has a certain go and interest. The editor, Bur- ton Egbert Stevenson, remarks in his in- troduction that his difficulty has been to keep the volume within bounds, and that he has rejected material equal to three times the bulk of what has been included. It cannot be said that his work suffers from too narrow a standard, although any one will miss a favorite or two whose omis- sion seems to bim unaccountable — that son- net of Longfellow's, perhaps, on the un- known victim of . the war which Mr. Howells has singled out as one of the best in the language. The collection errs on the side of the too much rather than of the too little, but it remains true that the level of vigor and spirit will be a sur- prise to most readers. From the anony- mous ballad on Nathan Hale, with the al- most mystical lilt of its first two stanzas: The breezes went steadily thro' the tall pines, A-saying "Oh! hu-ush!" a-saying "Oh! hu-ush!" As stilly stole by a bold legion of horse, For Hale in the bush; for Hale in the bush. "Keep still!" said the thrush as she nestled her young, In a nest by the road; in a nest by the road. "For the tyrants are near, and with them appear What bodes us no good; what bodes us no good — to the various effusions on the Spanish war by versifiers of to-day, there is an abundance of memorable work. Perhaps the least interesting section of all is that which deals with the Revolution; while the most striking feature of the later verse is the influence of Kipling and of Mrs. Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The ar- rangement is by the chronology of events, not of writers: and brief editorial para- graphs make an historical thread on which the poems are strung. Houghton Mifflin Company has published the book in a style uniform with Prof. C. H. Page's antholo- gies of British and American poets. The "Select Poems of Shelley," edited by George E. Woodberry for the Belles-Letitres Series (D. C. Heath & Co), should help Shelley to find his friends. The collection is a genuine golden treasury of the poet's most widely attractive pieces, and it is ar- ranged with unusuaJl tact and suggestiveness. Without in the least desiring to have the emphasis changed from literature to liter- ary history, one wishes that the editors of the modern poets in this series had seen fit to follow the example of the editors of the older authors in furnishing a biblio- graphy—it need not be exhaustive— and page references in the notes. To discover an editor who will render the student these mechanical aids is, however, vastly easier than to secure one who can induct the read- er into the heart of the subject. One would not dispense with Mr. Woodberry's critical preface for any number of bibliographies. Hrppily endowed by temperament for this particular task, and fortified by extensive earlier studies, he displays in the treat- ment of his difficult theme a rare union of scholarly breadth with keen poetical sym- pathy and insight. More effectively, per- haps, than any previous critic, he defends the poet against the charge that he is lacking in substance and sense of reality. Particularly to be commended is the omis- sion from this essay of everything tending to excite a petty and prurient curiosity about Shelley's private life. It has been so long since any new volume has appeared in the Tudor and Stuart Li- brary (Henry Frowde) that we had begun to fear its discontinuance. Now comes a reprint of Turbervile's "Booke of Hunting," line for line and letter for letter (with the exception of a few obvious misprints cor- rected), from the edition of 1576. It is a proper and entertaining book of venerie, which shows on every page that it proceeds from the great times of Elizabeth. "After- wardes," as may be read on a page facing a quaint wood-cut of the Queen and her court — "afterwardes when all the huntsmen be come together, they shall make their sundry reports, and present their fewmish- ings [curiously enough, the "New English Dictionary" quotes no example of this word from Turbervile] unto the Prince or master of the game in field, one after another, every man rehearsing what he hath seene." What a picture of the old life such a sen- tence evokes. It is this seriousness as it were of a royal art that gives the book its attraction. We have received with pleasure the last of the books printed by W. B. Yeats's sis- ters at the Cuala, formerly the Dun Emer, Press, at Dundrum, near Dublin. It is made up of an essay by W. B. Yeats, called "Poetry and Patriotism," interesting for its biographical details, and of a lecture by Lionel Johnson, which has never be- fore been published. Johnson's essay is somewhat of the nature of an apology for his own aloofness from the Gaelic move- ment, and a plea for a larger tolerance of outside influences. A forgetful generation may need to be re- minded by "Memorials of Two Sisters" (Longmans, Green, & Co.) that Susanna and Catherine Winkworth were agents in the importation of German thought and lit- erature into England in the last century. The letters of these worthy ladies open a window upon the "earnest," humorless, ef- ficient society in which it was possible to meet the Cobdens and the Gaskells at "an eating-tea in the Pompeii room." Susanna Winkworth was chiefly known for her trans- lation of Niebuhr's life and of the life of Luther. Catherine's main work was the "Lyra Germanica." They lived strong, wholesome, helpful lives, finding their chief excitement in theology and wrestling suc- cessively with Kingsley, Miss Cobbe, Pusey, John Stuart Mill, I'art pour Vart, Frederic Harrison and Protab Chunder Mozoomdar. The "Recollections of a Spinster Aunt" (New York: Paul R. Reynolds) deals so

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140 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 predominantly and so fluently with imper- sonal matters, the art, the music, and the social customs of the mid-Victorian period, that the reader is led to suspect that the "Dear Mary" to whom most of the letters are addressed was really the Creamshire Chronicle. Mrs. John Lane contributes to the Eng- lish translation of Anatole France's works a graceful and generally idiomatic render- ing of ••Balthasar" (John Lane Co.). This volume illustrates its author's versatile talent in the role of a teller of tales, bril- liant, ironical, and fantastic. Besides tht> story which gives its title to the book — a daringly original conception of one of the Three Wise Men, dazzling in its Oriental color — there are included here "The Cure's Mignonette," a whimsical little satire on miracles; "M. Pigeonneau," the love-story of an Egyptian archaeologist in M. France's happiest vein; "The Daughter of Lilith," based on a curious passage in the Talmud; "Laeta Acilia," dealing with an unsuc- cessful attempt of Mary Magdalen to con- vert a Roman matron; "The Red Egg," a physician's story of abnormal psychology; and "Honey Bee," which we are now en- abled to say is one of the finest fairy ro- mances in the language. This last tale, which was written virginibus puer- isque, is of singular beauty and purity, and, being long enough to make a small volume in itself, might well be detached from Its more sophisticated companions to serve as entertainment for old-fashioned children, uncorrupted by scientific story books. As for the rest, they are such things as a modern Sheherazade with masterly light- ness of touch and artful silences might de- vise to beguile the leisure of a monarch. Considering the period covered by Vol. VIII of Gaillard Hunt's "Writings of James Madison" (G. P. Putnam's Sons), very lit- tle really new material has been found. It begins with 1808, when Madison was still Secretary of State, carries him through his Presidency and the War of 1812, and runs to 1819, when he was in retirement with prestige and popularity seriously impaired. The last year of his service in the State Department had seen the fruitless negotia- tions with Rose on the Chesapeake affair, negotiations doomed to failure because the instructions of the British commissioner were based upon a profound and contemp- tuous error in estimating the American feeling on that subject. Madison had a difficult part to play, as he was still seek- ing to make effective Jefferson's commer- cial policy, and was defending to the best of his ability neutral commerce against the "sport of belligerents." He had not been President long before he found that he had been duped by the English, and again by France, and war was the only possible re- sult. Little light is thrown upon the war, though Madison was often obliged to take charge of the different departments, so in- competent were the nominal heads. For- tunately, he became reconciled to Monroe; but even Monroe brought little strength to the administration. There was difficulty in filling the Treasury Department after Gal- latin left on his peace mission, and the want of a good Secretary of War was chronic. The President was not able to attract to his service strong men, and the letters in this volume prove how restricted were his confidences. To Jefferson alone he wrote with entire freedom, and as if the outpouring of his thoughts on paper was of service to himself. John Q. Adams, minister to Russia and Monroe's Secretary of State, commanded his respect and a large measure of his confidence. This re- spect was gained by Adams's ability and capacity for intelligent management of public questions; but Madison could not follow Adams's suggestions for suppressing the Barbary pirates, deeming them too bold. Some letters on slavery and the Su. preme Court, written in his retirement, make interesting reading, and his special Presidential messages are models of brev- ity. To Robert Smith he said: "A re- sort to formal messages on every occasion where executive information might be use- ful, is liable to obvious objections." Mr. Hunt might have enlarged his notes with advantage, and filled in the missing dates in diplomatic references. Was not the Cerberus intended on p. 76, where "Cer- beau" is printed? Paul Barbier's "Age of Owain Gwynedd" (London: David Nutt) will prove of pecu- liar interest to the student of Welsh his- tory. It was in the twelfth century that the struggle was most acute between forces of the Anglo-Norman monarchy and the Celtic tribal organization, between the ideals of the Celtic Church as they pre- sented themselves to Sulien, and those of the Roman as they were conceived of by Hildebrand. Then, too, the literature of Wales revived and Celtic folklore began to penetrate into the writings of neighbor- ing peoples. Mr. Barbier has selected for treatment the years between 1135 and 1170, between the death of Henry I and the eve of the overthrow of Welsh independence by Edward I, and he has taken as his cen- tral figure Owain Gwynedd, who, along with Rhys of Gruffudd and Llywelyn Fawr, swayed the destinies of the whole country during this period. Hence the present work is a connected and chronological account of the history of Wales during the years that he ruled in Gwynedd. It is published as it was written eleven years ago for the Newport National Eisteddfod, and is a wel- come addition to the scanty literature on Welsh history. A quarter of a century has elapsed since the appearance of Helen Hunt Jackson's "Ramona," which was written with the ob- ject ot doing for the American Indian what "Uncle Tom's Cabin" had done for the ne- gro. It was promptly translated into many languages and was hailed by many as the "great American novel." It is still a good seller, but is now more modestly called "the California book" by George Wharton James in his "Through Ramona's Country" (Little, Brown, & Co.), a book of 406 pages, with many pictures, telling and showing all that any tourist on the trail of a famous story can want to know. There are Cali- fornians who profess to have known the original Ramona, or the Indian Alessandro; but Mr. James assures us that every char- acter in the book is fictitious, Ramona her- self being a composite portrait. The de- scriptions, however, and the. background, are real ; and this background of California scenery, missions, Indians, and their avoca- tions and habits, is repainted by the au- thor in sober prose. He is one of those sentimentalists to whom most Indians are white and most whites black, but let that pass. The Indians certainly were maltreat- ed by the whites, though not so badly as they maltreated each other. The most in- teresting pages in this book are those de- scribing the astonishing changes that have taken place in California since Ramona's day — the Indians nearly all gone, and re- placed by Chinese and Japanese ; Los An- geles, then a town of 5,000 inhabitants, now a city of 300,000, taxing itself this year $23,000,000 for an aqueduct to bring water a distance of over two hundred miles, and so on. A guide-book of even ten years ago is useless. "Highways and Byways of the Pacific Coast," by Clifton Johnson (The Macmillan Co.), covers more ground than the preced- ing book, beginning with the Grand Canon of Arizona, dallying in southern California, and then proceeding northward to the Yo- semite, to Oregon, Puget Sound, and Can- ada. It is not a guide-book filled with facts and figures, but simply relates what the author saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears ; and the camera has aided the pen. San Francisco is de- scribed as it was before the earthquake. Each chapter has a note appended con- taining suggestions for intending travellers. The project of publishing a great "The- saurus of the Greek Language," which, largely through the efforts of Sir Richard Jebb, had been practically adopted by the International Association of Academies of Sciences, but which was later abandoned, has now been taken up in a new quarter. The Greek government announces its inten- tion of marking the centennial anniversary of the War of Independence (1921) by the publication of such a "Lexicon of the Greek Language from the Earliest Times to the Present Age." The preparation of the work has been entrusted to a committee composed of Prof. Th. Kantos, G N. Chatzidakls, and S. Menandos, who are to select their co- workers and make all other arrangements. The government has for the present set aside 10,000 drachmas annually for the pur- pose. The committee has its offices in the Bureau of the National Library in Athens, where the manuscripts, too, are to be pre- served. Prof. Karl Krumbacher, of Munich University, the leading living scholar on Byzantine Greek literature, publishes in the Internationale Wochenschrift of Berlin, No. 51, an article of considerable length on the character and contents of such a dictionary, and makes a plea for the organization of a Greek Academy of Sciences with headquar- ters in Athens. A wealth of hitherto unavailable material is made accessible in the new "Quellen- buch," on the history of Ethiopia, published by the Jesuit scholar, C. Beccari, under the general title, "Rerum Aethiopicarum: Scriptores inediti a seculo xvi ad xix" (Rome: C. de Luigi). The new volume, "Emmanuel d'Almeida Historia Aethiopi- ca," is the third in a set of four, which contain the hitherto unknown account of the investigations and travels of the Portu- guese Manuel d'Almeida, who first came to Abyssinia in 1624 and remained there as the head of the Jesuit Mission to 1633. The three volumes that have appeared fill more than sixteen hundred pages, the bulk of which has been taken from the manuscript of the author, found in the archives of the Jesuits. The contents of Vol. Ill are di- vided into ten books, depicting the customs

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Feb. n, 1909 The Nation. 141 and manners of the people, the history of Ethiopia on the basis of native sources, the history of the rise and fall of the Jesuit missions in Ethiopia, the religion, creed and church ceremonies of the natives, etc. The biography of Abraham Lincoln by Carl Schurz has now appeared in a German translation, by Mary Nolte (Berlin: Georg Reimer). The Schwdbische Merkur of Stuttgart reports that the late Eduard Zeller had in his last years prepared some reminiscen- ces, "Erinnerungen eines Neunzigjahrigen," which, although originally intended only for his nearest friends, are now to be printed, but not published. The veteran philosopher describes particularly his student life in the seminary and the famous Stijt in Tubingen. "Die literarische Gegenwart: 20 Jahre deutschen Schrifttums, 1888-1908," by Rich- ard Urban (Leipzig: Xenien Verlag), de- serves credit for thoroughness and discrim- ination, and, so far as is possible in criti- cising contemporaries, for impartiality. It was a very happy idea of the author to have his work introduced by a few words from the pen of Max Kretzer, who was the first novelist of that curious period of transition to be acclaimed by the new school, and the first to be forgotten. Ludwig Thoma's robust Bavarian humor is so human as to appeal to a wide circle of readers, even when his subject is main- ly of local interest. His latest book, "Briefwechsel eines bayrischen Landtagsab- geordneten" (Munich: Albert Langen), of- fers irresistibly amusing glimpses of rustic types, which he portrays as inimitably as does his illustrator, Eduard Thony. "Die Franzosenzeit in Deutschland 1806-15 in Wort und Bild der Mitlebenden," by Friedrich Schulze (Leipzig: R. Voigtlan- der Verlag), contains in its two handsome volumes an exceptional amount of new mat- ter for the historical student. No fewer than 211 illustrations from contemporary sources are here reproduced, while citations ifrom letters, brochures, memoirs, periodi- cals of all kinds, sermons, reports of am- bassadors, poems, and the like, appear in their original form. The editor himself has virtually done nothing but arrange skilful- ly this rich material. The "Tagebuchblatter eines deutschen Artzes aus dem Burenkriege," by Dr. Hero Tilemann (Munich: C. H. Beck), depicts the varied experiences of a young German physician, who, immediately after his grad- uation in Leipzig, enters the service of the Boers in the war with England. It is a posthumous volume, the author having given his life for the cause he espoused. By no means blind to the weaknesses of the Boers, he furnishes an inside view of the great struggle. There are two illustrations and one chart. As the third volume of the scholarly "Geschichte des deutschen Volkes und sein- er Kultur," by Heinrich Gerdes, we have a volume of 720 pages, with the special title, "Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und Hirer Zeit" (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot). The inner development of that period, rath- er than the external events, constitutes the bulk of the author's account. The best of modern sources have been made use of; but unfortunately the index is anything but complete. The work is to be continued down to the year 1500. The excellent work of Theodor Zielinski, "Cicero im Wandelder Jahrhunderte" (Leip- zig: Teubner), which originally appeared a few years ago as a volume of one hundred pages has, in the new second edition, come to be a solid book of more than four hundred and fifty pages. In substance the work depicts the personality of Cicero and his influence on the course of history, es- pecially on the spread of Christianity and the renaissance. Some chapters, such as that on English Deism, are entirely new. "Delbriick-Festschrift : Gesammelte Auf- satze, Professor Hans Delbriick zu seinem 60. Geburtstag dargebracht von Freunden und Schiilern" (Berlin: Stilke) is an ex- ceptionally rich collection of investigations in the departments of theology, philosophy, history (ancient, mediaeval, and modern), political science, and linguistics. Leading scholars are well represented among the eighteen contributors. Adolf Lasson, for example, writes on "Geschichtswissenschaft und Philosophie"; F. J. Schmidt on "Ranke und Maxmilian II von Bayern" ; K. Lehmann on "Hannibals letzter Kriegsentwurf"; Alb. von Ruville on "Bismarck, Napoleon III und Bayern im August 1866." G. Schreiber's new work, "Die religiose Erziehung des Menschen im Lichte seiner religiosen Entwickelung" (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer), is a thoughtful book on religious education, sharply opposed to the tradi- tional methods of the church with its Bible history, catechism, and the like. The au- thor advocates a system of religious paede- gogics which shall present Jesus as the model. "Jesu Personlichkeit: Eine psychologische Studie," by Karl Weidel (Halle: Karl Mar- hold), is an effort largely along the lines of Wrede's "Messiahgeheimnis" and Schweit- zer's "Von Reimarus zu Wrede," to out- line in a scientific, yet a popular and com- pact, way a life of Christ from a mod- ern point of view. It is the character of Jesus as portrayed by the Synoptic gospels which furnishes the material for this psy- chological analysis, which throughout is suggestive, even if radical at certain points. A work akin to it in spirit but dif- fering in method and content is the "Jesus Christus" of Fritz Resa (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner), with the explanatory subtitle "Bericht und Botschaft in erster Gestalt," which has the special purpose of familiar- izing pupils of secondary schools with the results of modern research on the person and work of Jesus. A number of books on Africa have re- cently been published in Paris. Doubtless, President Roosevelt has already included in his preparations the book in which Guil- laume Vasse describes how he killed, in three years of African hunting, 2,106 pieces of game — 198 big, like antelopes, gnus, ze- bras, lions; 1,559 birds, 49 reptiles — "Trois annees de chasse au Mozambique" (55 plates, Hachette). "La Mort de Philse," by Pierre Loti, mingles with meditations which only Loti could write on the past of Egypt much deprecation of the ruthlessly unpoetic part which perfidious Albion is playing in the Egypt of to-day (Calmann-Levy). Er- nest Psichari, a grandson of Renan, plunges into an Africa which has no past, and where the dread sleeping sickness renders any present difficult, in "Terres de soleil et de sommeil" (Calmann-Levy). Edmond Doutte publishes, with a reproduction of amulets, an account of the survivals in North Africa, of underground human prac- tices of the most hoary antiquity — "Magie et Religion dans 1'Afrique du Nord" (Alger: A. Jourdan). "La C6te d'Azur russe," by E. A. Martel, describes this diligent explorer's travels on a mission of the Russian government through southern Russia, the west Cauca- sus, and Transcaucasia, with thirty-four plans, and 400 illustrations after photographs taken by the author in this delightful, but little known region (Paris: Delagrave). •'Athenes couronnee de violettes," by Georges Ancey, is literature of high qual- ity. The author's acrid plays of contem- porary life are warrant for his powers of observation ; but his vision of Greece is colored by classic myth and poetry far more than the late equally well written, but more modernist book of the romancer, Louis Bertrand. Like the "Sparta" of Mau- rice Barres, such volumes issue forth from a high culture and philosophy peculiar to France, and embodied in Ernest Renan's prayer on the Acropolis. Maurice de Waleffe in "Les Paradis de l'Amerique Centrale" offers the reader lively, and sometimes breath-taking, im- pressions of a Parisian, unbiassed by in- formation and unembarassed by reflection, on the Antilles, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico (Paris: Fasquelle). On the other hand, "La Bolivie," by William Van Bra- bant is a carefully complete description of a republic, whose possibilities, not to speak of actualities, are wonderfully lit- tle known, 476 pages (Brussels: J. Le- begue). A small book which may open eyes to the international competition going on in this other America is "L'Amerique du Sud et l'expansion beige," by R. J. Pierre. (Paris: A. Colin.) "Amerique et Japon," by John Spartali, with a preface by the French Admiral, Bienaime, is not a book of travel; it com- pares the political and economic con- ditions of the two countries, gives the rea- sons which might bring on a conflict be- tween them, and the present state of the armed fleets of each. It contains forty-four photographs, thirty plans of battleships, and three maps (Paris: Le Yacht). A similar study of Old World countries, where international relations are strained, "Constantinople aux derniers jours d'Ab- dul Hamid," by Paul Fesch, 673 pages, with 324 photographs (Paris: M. Riviere), describes the struggle between France and Germany in the economic field. It is all the more valuable that it was written be- fore present revolutionary uncertainties, in which inherited positions are not al- ways perceived. The annual report of the Public Library of the District of Columbia, for 1907-8, pre- pared by George F. Bowerman, contains an interesting passage on the circulation and the effect of "open" shelves : It is gratifying to be able to report that the percentage of fiction circulated has been further reduced. In 1903-4, when no books except fiction were on open shelves for di- rect access, fiction formed nearly 84 per cent, of the total circulation. Gradually during the last four years more and more books from non- fiction classes have been put on open shelves, and more and more

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14=2 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 help and guidance has been given to read- ers requiring assistance, with the result that the fiction percentage has been re- duced to 65. The new useful arts and sci- ence room is an open-shelf room, where those classes are directly accessible to readers. ... In spite of too frequent thefts from open shelves, the value of put- ting the people in direct contact with the books, instead of forcing their approach through a card catalogue, is so well at- tested by the gradually falling fiction per- centage with the increase of such open shelves as to justify the recommendation still further to extend such facilities until it is possible to have the cream of all classes of the library directly accessible to readers. . . . The effectiveness of the plan of having books on open shelves in stimulating circu- lation is strikingly shown by an experi- ment with a little collection of books of biography kept in one corner of the open- shelf room. The volumes of biography in the adult circulating department of the li- brary number about 6,000. During two months 355 choice volumes of biography were kept in this special collection. From them there was a circulation of 783 vol- umes out of 1,538 volumes circulated from the entire subject of biography, or 45 per cent, of the circulation from the subject. The marked increase in circulation in the classes of travel, social and political sci- ences, and literature placed on open shelves, as shown in the report of the chief of the circulating department, argues strongly for the beneficial effects on circulation from open shelves. At the Lenox Branch of the New York Public Library there is a Lincoln exhibi- tion consisting of original manuscripts, books, portraits, and miscellaneous Lin- colniana. The manuscripts include a legal "plea and notice," written by Lincoln when a young lawyer in Illinois ; a recommenda- tion for a negro boy, headed "Executive Mansion, Mar. 7, 1861," and a government document signed by both Lincoln and Seward. Among the books are all remark- able biographies of recent years and a few important eulogies, together with the works of Lincoln himself. There are a large num- ber of portraits showing the President from youth to a short time before his death. These are mostly of poor quality artistical- ly, being taken from contemporaneous mag- azines and papers; but they show the de- velopment of the strong, sad face so fa- miliar in later life. The item of special interest in connection with the assassination is the large broadside issued by Stanton offering $100,000 reward for the arrest of Booth and his accomplices. American students will find the British Museum much enlarged within the current year. The houses bought from the Duke of Bedford some years ago for £200,000, with the land on which they stood, have been cleared away, and a new building is being erected, which will be connected by passages with the main block. Two stories and the basement of the new building will be allotted to the library. In April, what is known now as the Large Room is to be broken down on the side near the new building, so that a larger room may be provided. While the alterations are going on, accommodation for students will be found in the Catalogue Room. The City Library of Frankfurt-on-Main has issued a report of the organization of the American Department of the library, and of its development during the years 1905-1908. The collection consists now of some 3,500 volumes, half of them gifts of American universities, city and State gov- ernments, and the national government. Among the works specially mentioned in the report are complete files of the Nation, the North American Review, and the Maga- zine of American History. In the reading- room thirty-four American periodicals are available. A copy of the first German Bible printed in Germantown by Sauer is one of the treasures of the collection. The Rev. Henry Griggs Weston, who had been president of Crozer Theological Semi- nary, Chester, Pa., since 1868, died February 6. He was born at Lynn, Mass., in 1820, and was graduated from Brown University in 1840. After twenty-five years' service as active pastor, he came to Crozer Seminary. Among his books are: "The Communion Lec- tures" (1867), "The Four Gospels," "The Epistle of James," "Constitution and Polity of the New Testament Church," "Outline of Systematic Theology" (with the Rev. E. H. Johnson), and "Matthew, the Genesis of the New Testament." Adolf Stocker died in Berlin, February 8, in his seventy-fourth year. At one time he was one of the favorite court preachers, but had fallen out of favor. He recently resigned his seat in the Reichstag, where for a number of years he occupied a semi- independent position as a Christian-Social- ist. Among his publications are: "Pre- digtsammlungen," "Dreizehn Jahre Hof- prediger und Politiker," "Wandelt im Geist," "Evangelienpredigt," "Eins ist not," "Salz der Erde," "Verheissung und Erfullung," and "Evangelium, eine Gottes- kraft." From Altona comes the news of the death in his seventy- first year, of Karl Reth- wisch, the Plattdeutsch poet. His best- known works are "Weihnachtsbilder" and "Kuospen." On January 20, at the age of eighty-six, died Prof. T. H. Aschehoug, the great Nor- wegian jurist, economist, and journalist. He wrote a number of books that have high standing. PIONEERS OP CANADA. The Conquest of the Northwest. By Ag- nes C. Laut. 2 vols. New York: Out- ing Publishing Co. $5, net. The Search for the Western Sea. By Lawrence J. Burpee. New York: D Appleton & Co. $5, net. In this commemorating age, the cele- brations of centenaries, bi- and ter- centenaries crowd close upon one an- other. The historical conscience, very much alive, and bent upon giving each past celebrity his due, sometimes lays an emphasis quite disproportionate upon characters and events of small sig- nificance. The books above named, however, mark a tercentenary at the observance of which few men will carp. The year 1609 is a critical date in the search for a waterway to the great Western sea, a quest not successful un- til almost three hundred years later; an incident of this quest is the opening of the Far North in America, a region by no means yet fully withdrawn from mystery, but destined plainly to be the home of millions of men. The books of Miss Laut and Mr. Burpee are both of them well-studied accounts of the same fine achievement. In each narrative, the hero first cele- brated is Henry Hudson, the inception of whose effort at Amsterdam, in 1609, bore fruit that same year in the dis- covery of the Hudson River, and the year following in that of Hudson's Bay. Hudson saw that the river would not lead him to the Western Sea. Cast out by his mutinous shipmates to perish in his little shallop, he did not see that the vast Northern bay which he had penetrated also afforded no practicable path to his goal; nor was that fact per- ceived for more than two hundred years by any one of his hardy and enterpris- ing successors. The story of these path- finders is presented very interestingly by Miss Laut and Mr. Burpee. The pio- neers were men of different strains: Radisson and La Verendrye, the Frenchmen; Munck, the Dane; Hearne, Thompson, and Alexander Henry, men probably, like Hudson, of English blood; rugged Scotch, or Scotch-Irish, like Mc- Loughlin, Lord Selkirk, Simon Fraser, and chief of all, perhaps, Alexander Mackenzie, discoverer of the Mississippi of the North, and first to cross the con- tinent. Both writers, in using their authori- ties, do not scruple to enhance the viv- idness of their recital by "reading be- tween the lines." No doubt, an historian developing the truth from the meagre jotting of some old writer, is justified in inferring to some extent what must have been and supplying from his own imagination shading and color. But the writer who does this, risks much; he is tempted to go to unjustifiable lengths, arousing the suspicion that the account is more of fancy than of fact. Miss Laut's reading between the lines helps to picturesqueness. The ship's log is usually bare and bald to the last degree, made by fingers cramped with cold amid imminent dangers. Why not sketch in the environment that certain- ly existed — the crash of splitting bergs, the black lee-shore looming dangerous- ly close by, the unending Arctic night, with its starry and auroral splendors? The Hudson's Bay trader's journal does not say that his cheek flushed and that he handled his gun nervously when he found his rival, the "Nor'wester," had anticipated him with the Indians bring- ing in beaver skins, but, of course, it must have been so and why not put in the touch? The explorer does not tell us that his heart stood still when his canoe plunged down the cataract, but whose heart would not, and why not quicken the reader's pleasurable thrill by sup- plying the suggestion? To fill out the picture is all very fine, but it is haz- ardous; and we think Miss Laut in par- ticular might show more caution. In truth, an adherence to the bare words of her sources would have given often

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The ISTation. 143 vividness enough. Says Abacuk Prick- ett, the shipmate of Hudson: We raised land to the north, and comming night, there hung on the easternmost coast point many ilands of noting ice, and a beare on one of them, which from one to another came toward us till she was readie to come aboord. But when she saw us looke at her she cast her head between her hinde legges and then dived under the ice, and so from one piece to another until she -was out of our reach. Mr. Burpee's practice as to reading be- tween the lines is more restrained than Miss Laut's, comporting better with so- ber history, and his work, therefore, does not suffer in comparison with hers. She appears to have consulted more authorities; the mass of manuscript material existing in England he seems to have used little. Yet he misses little that is essential, though it strikes us as strange that so important an affair as the conquests of Iberville in Hudson's Bay, near the opening of the eigh- teenth century, should receive almost no mention. To be sure, they were no part of the search for the Western sea, but Mr. Burpee's work is intended to be a history of the development of the Far North, as well as of the memorable search, and ought to note such episodes as this. As to geographical details, Mr. Burpee's book is admirable, the text be- ing helped out by minute and well ex- ecuted maps. He would have done his readers a favor, had he, like Miss Laut, divided his work into two volumes. His one volume is too heavy to hold in one's hand during the many hours which its perusal requires. Both books are highly creditable to their authors — the first comprehensive records, supplemented by a profusion of beautiful illustrations, of the develop- ment of Northern British America as a home for men. Canadian Types of the Old Regime, 1608-1698. By Charles W. Colby. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $2.75 net. In a characteristically modest pref- ace, Professor Colby disclaims for this series of popular lectures anything more than a new presentation of known facts. It is safe to say, however, that many of these facts will be new to the vast majority of readers; to all, indeed, who have not been close students of early Canadian history; and, moreover, they gain a novel and very real value be- cause of the author's point of view and effective presentation. His object is to set forth certain aspects of Canadian life under the French regime; and to secure distinctness he selects a single personage as typical of each class, and places him well in the front of the stage, though not to the entire exclusion of minor figures. Thus, Champlain stands as the type of tbe explorer; Brebeuf of the missionary; Hebert of the colonist; D'Iberville of the soldier; Du Lhut of the coureur de oois; Talon of the in- tendant; Laval of the bishop; Frontenac of the governor; yet one learns at the same time a good deal about La Salle, Maisonneuve, Frangois Hertel, Radis- son, Hennepin, Nicolas Perrot, La Barre, Denonville, and other men of action of the old regime. The historical back- ground against which Jhese notable fig- ures move is admirably sketched in an initial chapter; and the whole subject is rounded off by a final chapter, "The Woman," in which we are introduced to the heroine Madeleine de Vercheres, and those pious and self-sacrificing ladies, Marie de l'lncarnation, Jeanne Mance, and Marguerite Bourgeoys. The following paragraph, contrasting La Salle and Du Lhut, gives a fair idea of the simplicity and directness of Pro- fessor Colby's style: The vindication of Du Lhut [from the charges of the mendacious Hennepin] may seem a disparagement of La Salle. But the foregoing paragraph has not been written with such Intent. Nothing Du Lhut ever did is so brilliant as La Salle's descent of the Mississippi to the Gulf. These two lovers of the wilderness had different gifts, and each expressed himself in his own way. Du Lhut had a steadiness and sagacity which were lacking in La Salle. He could put his talents into joint stock with those of other people. La Salle, in his self- centred isolation, his intensity, his hauteur, i8 more impressive, but it may be doubted whether he was more useful to his coun- try. Du Lhut's task was to explore thor- oughly the lands of the Sioux, through only a part of which Radisson and Grol- seilliers had passed, to build forts among the Crees and Assiniboines, to establish the reign of peace among these western tribes, and to bring them all into cordial relations with France. Between them, he and Nicolas Perrot were worth more to their nation than a regiment of regulars. The illustrations include reproduc- tions of seventeenth-century engravings, such as the Habitation, at Quebec, and the Fight with the Iroquois, from Cham- plain's "Voyages," and the Martyrdom of the Jesuits, from Du Creux's "His- toria Canadensis"; as well as portraits of the great French ministers, Rich- elieu and Colbert, and of Champlain, La Salle, D'Iberville, and others. CURRENT FICTION. The Missioner. By E. Phillips Open- heim. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. The temptation of St. Anthony has long been a favorite theme of many arts, and Mr. Oppenheim has cast no luminously original rays upon the sub- ject in this his latest contribution to the moment's fiction. The Missioner is our old friend, the exponent of athletic piety, whose spiritual and physical beau- ty impress the weary-eyed woman of the world. In the present instance, she is so impressed, that after flouting him before her friends and denying him lodging on her estate, she gathers up her Paquin draperies and starts in pur- suit of him. Her interest, however, is at first only that of the chase; and when he discovers this fact, he leaves her in a tempest of rage, and seeks oblivion in a round of somewhat uncon- vincing Parisian dissipation. His bet- ter self, however, regains the ascendant, and he returns to his work in London, saves the lady of his heart from the consequences of a youthful indiscretion, and the story ends in the good old way, with lovers two by two entering the matrimonial ark. The most interesting point of the book is reached in the chapter entitled "The Way of Salva- tion," where the Missioner abandons his evangelization of the poor to preach the gospel of responsibility to the rich. The note is not new, but can scarcely be touched too often or too decisively. The story, as a whole, leaves the im- pression that a more leisurely handling would have resulted in better work. The Maison de Shine. By Helen Green. New York: B. W. Dodge & Co. The life of the mummer has in it in- extinguishable literary and dramatic value. Take the traditional situation of Harlequin laughing while his heart breaks with hidden pain, and you have ready-made tragedy. Take the contrast between the tinsel and glitter of the stage throne-room and the dingy real- ity of the actor's bedroom, and you have your infallible comic material at hand. That is why a book like Helen Green's "Maison de Shine," which at- tempts to chronicle life in a cheap boarding house for vaudeville "artists," is bound to carry a certain amount of interest. Unfortunately, our author has added nothing to the value of her rough material. The sketches move on in a succession of absurd plots and silly sit- uations delineated in the spirit of what is known professionally as "slap-stick" humor. After a few chapters, it is largely monotony. The Forewarners. By Giovanni Cena; translated by Olivia Agresti Rossetti; with a preface by Mrs. Humphry Ward. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. The stirring of new ideas among the artisans of Italy bears sombre result in this book. A proofreader in Turin, poor, intelligent, gentle, is moved by the re- membered sorrows of his own child- hood and the ever-present suffering around him to put into autobiographic form his griefs, his sympathies, and aspirations. To compel the attention of the King to his subjects' woes is part of his plan, and to this end he is will- ing to sacrifice his own life. His story is the story of the tenants of "Aerop- olis," an attic tenement where are hous- ed workers and idlers, geniuses and castaways, meeting on the common

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144: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 ground of poverty. It is a tale of mis- ery and degradation, irradiated here and there by neighborly office and the gleam of ideals. It is a cry of rebellion against the world's poverty, a wail of despair that "the hunger of some is due to the greed of the few." The ghastliness of some of the epi- sodes has hardly been exceeded in the literature of wretched humanity. A feature less familiar in writings of the sort is the absence of anarchism and violence from the remedial schemes of the writer. He plots against his own life only, and that to force a hearing. In his sketch of reconstruction the chief instruments are doctors and school teach- ers. Hereditary rights of property are to be abolished, but gradually. The sensation produced in Italy by the book — such as to compel, it is said, a change of ending — it is not difficult to understand, particularly since, as Mrs. Humphry Ward ooints out in her preface, the pitiable estate of the Ital- ian artisan has had hitherto less repre- sentation in literature than the condi- tions of either the peasantry, the bour- geoisie, or the cultivated middle class. It is, however, rather as a cry than a suggested cure that the book remains in the memory, and the cry is often broken, spasmodic, crudely incoherent. The Sunny Side of the Hill. By Rosa Nouchette Carey. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. This story, like others of its well- known origin, is excellently adapted to feminine youth standing just a little be- yond where the brook and river meet. As books for this class of readers are sometimes above them, and almost al- ways beneath them, a welcome is due to a story which is mild, modest, interest- ingly eventful, and well-written. The home affairs and love affairs of an Eng- lish family, district-visiting, tea-drink- ing, cycling, motoring, and gardening fill the days; and old-lavender stories of by-gone romances furnish a surrounding atmosphere. There is a loving, lofty mother, of Edgeworthy aloofness; a wise and merry spinster aunt; a lame hero with a motor car, several nice girls in addition to the bright-hearted, sensi- ble little heroine, and no dabblers in malice prepense. But to give details of this simple story would be like analyzing a sugar plum; to criticise it like sitting in judgment on a kitten. Not that the story is all sweetness and frisk. There are troubles bravely met, and round pegs living cheerfully in square holes; a tale compact of good sense, healthy sentiment, and genuine highmindedness. Dreaming River. By Barr Moses. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. This little story would be negligible were it not for its underlying theme, which possesses sufficient psychologic interest to save the discussion of the work from the pettiness of breaking a butterfly. The tale is that of a young and singularly ill-balanced poet who lives hermit-wise in a lonely farmhouse called Dreaming River. To him comes for protection a girl of sixteen, a pen- niless orphan, who turns to him as her only kin in obedience to the last wish of her dying father. The growth of love between them, perturbed by bliz- zards and cyclones, both without and within, makes up the rest of the story, which ends with Dorothy's surrender, leaving the reader somewhat uncertain as to the resulting happiness. The au- thor thus words the root of his matter: She had the secret at last! The self back of the deeds, and the thoughts, and the words; . . . and, after all, it was not the words nor the thoughts nor the deeds of a man that one loved, but the essence of his being, his self, his soul. One can hardly fail to meet this state- ment with the oft-repeated questions: "How far can that essence be dissociat- ed from those thoughts, acts, and deeds? Imperfect as these media may be, are they not the only ones through which the soul can declare itself? Is not the tree to be known by its fruits, the field by its mixture of wheat and tares?" Re- spect as we may the author's intention in this work, to these questions he gives no answer. The Oxford Hymn Book. New York: Henry Frowde. $1.15. This interesting addition to our hymnology was edited by Dr. Thomas Banks Strong, Dean of Christ Church, and Dr. William Sanday of Oxford. They invited the cooperation of Miss Mary Church, who edited the "Life and Letters of Dean Church," and the Rev. James M. Thompson, dean of Magda- len College. For advice in the choice of music Dr. Basil Harwood, organist of Christ Church, has been largely re- sponsible. In the selection of hymns the editors have been guided by principles which are at once so sound, so well expressed, and so rarely followed that we cannot do better than quote at some length from the preface: There are two ideals of hymn-book com- position. One is, to endeavor to provide as far as possible for each several occasion that arises either out of the course of the Christian Year or out of the common vicissi- tudes of human life. The other is, to make a more restricted selection of those hymns which appear to satisfy a certain standard and to be content with a more approximate application of them to particular occasions. We should expressly wish to disclaim any thought of competing with the former type of hymn-book, which is already well repre- sented. . . . The qualities that we have looked for most have been simplicity, directness, and genuineness of religious feeling. A certain sort of cheap sentiment, of conventional and rhetorical form, of weak and honeyed phrase, is what we have most sought to avoid. On the other hand, we have not been afraid of what some may think prosaic baldness, if it had the stamp of reality and if it was relieved by a few good lines. These are sometimes set off all the more by their plain surroundings. The prime trouble with most hymnals is that they are far too large and con- sequently contain a vast amount of rubbish. The "Church Hymnal," now widely used by Episcopalians in this country, contains 679 pieces, of which more than half might well be spared. Some three years ago a new hymnal was prepared for the Methodists; it was an improvement on the old, in that it con- tained only 717 hymns instead of 1,117. "The Book of Praise," edited for the Golden Treasury Series by Roundell Palmer about forty years ago, prints in the revised edition 447. "The Oxford Hymn Book" has 332 in English and 18 in Latin; but a study of these pages serves only to strengthen our convic- tion that there are not more than 250 good hymns in our language. But the significant feature of this vol- ume is the sedulous avoidance of "cheap sentiment, of conventional and rhetori- cal form, of weak and honeyed phrase." No hymnal with which we are acquaint- ed has so successfully adhered to this ideal. The key-note of the severity and directness of work is struck in the mot- to prefixed to Book i, from the "Sarum Primer" (1558): God be in my' head, And in my understanding; God be in mine eyes, And in my looking; God be in my mouth, And in my speaking; God be in my heart, And in my thinking; God be at mine end, And at my departing. From beginning to end there is nothing that may be condemned as soft or gush- ing. This austere taste is displayed as much in what is omitted as in what is put in. To take two examples of hymns with which people, both young and old, are specially familiar — Ed- mund H. Sears's "It came upon the midnight clear" and Phillips Brooks's "O little town of Bethlehem" are both left out. And so is Horatius Bonar's "I heard the voice of Jesus say." All of these may be excellent in their place, popular in public worship, and especially in Sunday-school, but they have no place in "The Oxford Hymn Book." There are, however, many substantial hymns for which an over- refined and sophisticated age seems to care but little. The editors themselves say: Our choice has gravitated toward what

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Feb. 1 1 , 1 909] The Nation 145 may be called the Old Masters — Watts, the Wesleys, Doddridge, Cooper, Newton. We have taken excerpts rather freely from the New Version of Tate and Brady; and we have been more attracted than repelled by the archaism of some of the seventeenth- century writers. That a compilation of this character should be accepted for congregational use, at least in this country, seems very doubtful. The members of our average congregations, the majority women, do not care for hymns of this vigorous but often somewhat rugged type; they are perplexed and perhaps repelled by the naivety that suggests the old ballad: A virgin unspotted, the prophet foretold, Should bring forth a Saviour, which now we behold To be our redeemer from death, hell, and sin, Which Adam's transgression had wrapped us in. Aye and therefore be merry, set sorrow aside, Christ Jesus our Saviour was born on this tide. At Bethlehem city in Jewry it was That Joseph and Mary together did pass, All for to be taxSd with many one moe, Great Caesar commanded the same should be BO. But persons who are somewhat cloyed by the saccharine quality of the cur- rent hymnals and persons who care to study the history of hymn-writing and who often discover deep significance in the ancient points of view and modes of expression, will find much that will ap- peal to them in this scholarly collection of the Old Masters. The music is, in the main, of the same character as the hymns — plain and dignified. "We have endeavored," say the editors, "to avoid harmony of a luxurious and chromatic type and we have not used any adaptations from modern secular melodies." This fur- ther restriction will also tend to lessen the popularity of the book, though en- hancing its value for the specialist. The type in which the music is set, "based upon the fount for which punches were cut in Oxford about 1683 by Peter de Walpergen," heightens the effect of quaintness, but it is needlessly difficult to read. The indexes are excellent. Great American Lawyers: The Lives and Influence of Judges and Lawyers who Have Acquired Permanent National Reputation, and Have Developed the Jurisprudence of the United States; a History of the Legal Profession in America. Edited by William Draper Lewis. Vols. I-IV. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co. Professor Lewis, dean of the Law Department of the University of Penn- sylvania, here presents a series of bio- graphical volumes of interest, primarily, to the lawyer, but by no means devoid of interest to the intelligent layman. His definition, for his present purpose, of the "great" lawyer is a broad one. It includes, of course, judges and lawyers who have acquired permanent national reputation. It also embraces both those who have permanently impressed the jurisprudence of their respective States, and those who by their teaching or writ- ings have produced either a distinct effect on the law, or have stimulated new methods of legal thought. This ser- ies will, when completed, contain nine- ty-six biographical sketches arranged roughly in chronological order, of which nearly fifty are in the four volumes al- ready issued. The secondary title of these volumes— "A History of the Legal Profession in America" — expresses an aim of the editor which the form of the work makes impossible of full achieve- ment. For the discussion in sketches such as these of the development of different branches of law is, of ne- cessity, brief and fragmentary. It is, rather, in gathering together in conve- nient form a series of able and well- written accounts of the legal achieve- ments of the leaders of the profession from the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury to the beginning of the present, that the success of this undertaking lies. In the somewhat perplexing task of selecting the subjects for the sketches, the editor, on the whole, has shown ex- cellent judgment. Yet it is a matter of regret that he has found it impossible to carry out his original plan of including in the list more names of men prom- inent in our history, who as statesmen rather than as judges or as lawyers have done important work in developing the theories of the Federal Constitution. It would have been better, we think, to have kept to the first plan, sacrificing if need be such minor legal lights as, for example, Chief Justice Thomas A. Marshall of Kentucky, Chancellor Wil- liam Harper of South Carolina, and Judge Peter Hitchcock of Ohio, who served their States well, but whose opinions do not bear the mark of extra- ordinary ability, or denying a separate sketch to Judge James Gould of the Litchfield Law School. We venture to suggest, also, that of the early members of the Federal Supreme Court, Justice James Iredell, keen of mind and bold and original in reasoning, was deserv- ing of a place in these volumes, while the long and not unimportant service of Justice Samuel Nelson on the same bench, might well have led to his inclu- sion. The editor has been fortunate in en- listing in this work some of the ablest legal writers in the country. Prof. James Brown Scott of George 'Wash- ington University, whose authority as a writer on international law is recogniz- ed, has contributed four admirable sketches of Alexander Hamilton, Chief Justice Jay, Chancellor Livingston, and Chancellor Kent, the last including an interesting comparison of Kent and Marshall. One of the most valuable ar- ticles is that on Chief Justice Taney, by Prof. William E. Mikell of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. Especially in- teresting are his comments on Taney's discussion of the merits of the case, technically dictum, in the Dred Scott decision, and of the fondness of other judges of that time for indulging in the same fascinating but somewhat dan- gerous practice. The sketch of Chief Justice Shaw, by Prof. Joseph Henry Beale, jr., of the Harvard Law School, contains a keen summing up of Shaw's service to the development of law. Judge Simeon E. Baldwin of the Yale Law School is represented by sketches of Zephaniah Swift, James Gould, and Rog- er Sherman Baldwin. And the learned editor himself contributes an adequate account of Chief Justice Marshall. Among other important sketches should be mentioned those of Daniel Webster, by Everett P. Wheeler of New York; of Justice Story, by Judge William Scho- fleld of Massachusetts; of Chief Justice Gibson, by Samuel D. Matlock of Penn- sylvania; of Luther Martin, by Judge Ashley M. Gould of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia; of Fran- cois Xavier Martin, who played the most important part in the early legal history of Louisiana, by William Wirt Howe of that State; of Andrew Hamil- ton, one of the few colonial lawyers of wide and lasting reputation, by William Henry Loyd, jr., of Philadelphia; and the article by Margaret C. Klingelsmith of the University of Pennsylvania, on Jus- tice James Wilson of the United States Supreme Court, who deserves a higher place in legal history than that com- monly accorded him. The real importance, however, of this series lies, not in its accounts of a few of our greatest judges, lawyers, and statesmen — their fame is secure — but in the biographies of men like George Wythe, Luther Martin, and William Pinkney (to name only a few of many here represented), intellectual giants and acknowledged leaders in their day, whose fame even in the profession is how in large part a matter of tradition. To bring together, in convenient, read- able shape, as Professor Lewis has done, a record by competent hands of the achievements of men like these, is a work to be commended. It may be added that the writers have shown, in general, a commendable re- straint. The enthusiasm of the biog- rapher is tempered with the intellectual caution fostered by the study of the law. Of course, one may be unwilling in many instances to accept as final the estimates here found of legal ability and attainment. The reviewer, for exam- ple, is unable to accord to Chief Justice Ellsworth the high praise given him by his present biographer, Frank Gaylord Cook. To our mind, Ellsworth, who was

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146 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 slow intellectually, but shrewd, as be- fitted a Connecticut Yankee, has been overrated. His success was due rather to his keenness as a politician than to his ability as a statesman or a judge. We are not willing to accept as valid oven the ingenious and entertaining plea of his other able biographer, William Garrott Brown, that Ellsworth has suf- fered because his lot was cast in the small State of Connecticut and his praises were not sung by some writer in the literary set of Boston and Cam- hridge. With a few exceptions where a pic- ture was unobtainable, a portrait of the subject of each sketch is given. We are glad to note further that the source of each portrait is given, and we have no fear in any case of such an unfortunate blunder as seems once to have been made in a legal history of some impor- tance, where what purports to be afpor- trait of a Justice of the United States Supreme Court is in reality the likeness of a worthy New York merchant bear- ing the same name. We are surprised to find that Chief Justice Marshall is represented by the head from the Story statue. The best portrait of Marshall is that by Jarvis, the original of which was owned by the late Mr. Justice Gray; but either the painting by Inman, the crayon profile by Saint Memin, or the portrait, with spectacles pushed back on the forehead, owned by Washington and Lee University, seems to us to be more satisfactory than the Story statue. A favorable word may be added con- cerning the mechanical excellence of these volumes. The type is large and clear, the paper good. We note the fol- lowing errors chargeable to careless proof-reading: In "Vol. I, near the bot- tom of page 266, there is a superfluous "rather," and on page 447 of the same volume "of" appears in place of "or"; while on page 283 of Vol. Ill is a mys- terious reference to "Cook [sic~\ on Lit- tleton." Wo have heard recently that a learned law professor uses in the class- room the pronunciation here indicated; but we had not expected to see so soon in print the result of his teaching. The Story of a Street. By Frederick Trevor Hill. New York; Harper & Bros. $1.60 net. Mr. Hill has chosen for his theme a true symbol of the career of this coun- try. "Wall Street" means now, the world over, something that is not con- fined within the limits of a single thor- oughfare, but shapes destinies in all parts of the globe that are untouched by any other aspect of our history or ideas. He recalls its mean origin when Gov. Kieft summoned all interested per- sons to appear at seven o'clock on Mon- day, April 4, 1644, to erect a brushwood cattle-guard along the northern boun- dary of the village of New Amsterdam. This cattle-guard marked roughly the future course of Wall Street. The south side was determined by Peter Stuy- vesant's stockade in 1653. The street was laid out in 1685 by Gov. Dongan, who contrived to cut its width down from 100 to 36 feet, the difference be- ing added to a strip of lots abutting on it which had been secretly acquired by the Governor himself through a "dum- my" purchaser. If this transaction were not enough to give standing to the street, its character was reinforced by the fact that the first house built on the north side became the property of Capt. William Kidd. In 1699 the stock- ade was removed as a nuisance, and New York ceased to be a walled city. In 1729 commerce invaded the street in the shape of a building erected by the Bayards for what they termed, more wisely than they knew, "the mystery of sugar refining." And always, from 1696, the head of the street was closed by the steeple of Trinity Church. The changing physical aspect of the street has been noted by Mr. Hill with abundance of interesting detail, but the most significant part of the record deals with the events that here took place. The trial in 1734 of Zenger for alleged defamation of government, his defence by Andrew Hamilton and acquittal was the first legal triumph of colonial sen- timent. Wall Street's part in revolu- tionary history is well known, but is told again briefly and well, for busy men to read. It should relieve for many the monotony of the daily walk to re- call, besides the pageants of occupation and evacuation, that at No. 33 (then 58) Alexander Hamilton had his office, where sixty-three of the eighty-five Fed- eralist essays were written; and that Washington's last official visit to the street, in 1790, was made for the pur- pose of passing the pipe of peace with the Creek Indians, whose self-appointed reception committee was the Society of the Sons of St. Tammany, organized in the previous year. The later history of the street is greatly condensed, being, indeed, merely outlined for the sake of the climax. The book bears evidence of careful study beneath its regrettably journalistic style, and contributes some fresh material. Science. Animal Romances. By Graham Ren- Shaw. London: Sherratt & Hughes. The Romance of Bird Life. By John Lea. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.50. In "Animal Romances" the author de- parts from his usual zoological and his- torical essays and launches into elabor- ate descriptions of wild creatures and their haunts — attempting "to present them as actually living and moving be- fore the reader." Mr. Renshaw has a vivid imagination and an excellent com- mand of language, but all this counts for nothing, because of his remarkable method of treating his facts. "Ro- mance" with him stands for an endless succession of vivid incidents, couched in extremely short sentences, following so closely together that each essay leaves the reader mentally breathless and dazed. As literature, the work is unsuccessful, and as a truthful presen- tation of actual conditions the author is equally astray. Only those who have spent days and weeks in the jungles of the tropics know how secretly and slow- ly the furred and feathered actors move in playing their parts. In such places there are untold myriads of living be- ings on all sides, but to imagine these various creatures gathered near one place and to set them all roaring, danc- ing, fluttering, bathing, or fighting — such a Noah's Ark vaudeville is "ro- mance" indeed! The preface is dated from the Sahara Desert, and the author is evidently more at home in the continent of Africa than in other regions. No definite hint is given as to the country covered in each essay, this information being deducible only from the animals mentioned. Thus we place "A Passage at Arms" in South Africa, judging by the presence of sable antelope, bateleur eagles, and the Cape wagtail. To the uninstructed reader, the scene might as well be Asia or some oth- er country. "The Hermits" is laid in some marvellous region in Canada, where everything from chipmunks and beavers to moose and mountain goats passes swiftly in review before us. The sources of the photographs are not in- dicated, but the reader is left to infer that the pictures are of wild animals in their native country. It is probable that most were taken on the Duke of Bed- ford's estate in England. Tbe scope of the work is shown by an examination of almost any page. On page 17, for example, we find twenty-seven lines of text, purporting to represent a scene in the "swamp and jungle" probably of southern Asia. Fourteen creatures are de- scribed— silver-gray squirrel, tree shrew, black gibbon, wild pig, pangolin ant- eater, flying lemur, jungle fowl, oriole, bulbul, peafowl, dragon lizard, green flower snake, cicada, and sleepy butter- fly. An average of two lines to each gives us a hint as to how much of real value as to their habits we may glean from these pages. After this one does not wonder that there is no index; the book itself is hardly more than an an- notated catalogue. Accuracy of statement may be tested in the chapter "The Forest People." The sun-bitterns, trumpeters, and horned screamer determine the scene as the Amazon and Orinoco region of South America. The hoatzin "flies across the marsh, hissing loud in alarm," but In

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The Nation 14=7 spite of such authority and that of the "Cambridge Natural History" this bird utters nothing but the most harsh and grating of cries. It is by no stretch of the imagination a "game-bird," and if Mr. Renshaw were ever compelled to taste one of these "stinking pheasants," as they are called, he would regret such a statement. He covers the shallow of a river with "multitudes of scarlet ibis, boat-billed heron, grebes, and swans," yet, if there is a swan in all this region it is still unknown to ornithologists. The "pendulum tail" with which the author has endowed the trogon is whol- ly fiction, and belongs by right to the motmot, while his theory of the red and green colors of the trogon simulat- ing a flower and thus attracting insects, is rendered rather superfluous by the fact that the American trogons are fruit eaters. As the agouti is active all night and hides by day in the deepest hollow log, it is not easy to see how its "soft hide is all scarred with the bites of "vampires." Mr. Graham is at home in short and thorough historical essays on animals, in which field he has done some admir- able writing; and it is because he is capable of so much better work that this volume has been thus criticised in detail. In "The Romance of Bird Life," by John Lea (J. B. Lippincott Co.) the word "romance" may be interpreted to mean "almost anything" concerning the life of a bird. Indeed, the sub-title ex- plains the scope of the book as "being an account of the education, courtship, sport, and play, journeys, fishing, fight- ing, piracy, domestic and social habits, instinct, strange friendships, and other interesting aspects of the life of birds." This method of presenting the various phases of life under general headings, rather than in the course of the regu- lar natural history description, has been used by Dixon, Bowdler Sharpe, and others. It Is perfectly legitimate, and the boundless wealth of bird-life gains new interest when thus viewed. Judg- ed as a compiler, Mr. Lea has been suc- cessful both in selecting and in group- ing his material. Best of all, he has not hesitated to quote at length the original descriptions, thus offering a pleasing variety of diction and a vivid- ness which are conspicuously absent from most compilations. His own con- tributions are clear and exact, but tend to become tiresome in details — the sim- plest facts being often explained at elab- orate length. Birds from all countries are brought under notice. In such a pot-pourri one naturally finds errors, but fewer than would be expected; and most of these occur in the quotations from other writers. On page 307, for exam- ple, the scientific name of the black vul- ture is applied to the turkey vulture (the local name of which is turkey buz- zard), and the misstatement is made that this latter species is the only vul- turine scavenger of Charleston. Among the scientific books to be pub- lished by the Macmillan Company this spring are "Faith and Works of Christian Science," by the author of "Confessio Me- dici"; "A System of Medicine," edited by Prof. Thomas Clifford AHbutt (second ed.. Vol. IV.); "Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom," by Abbott H. Thayer and Gerald H. Thayer; "The Physiology of Plant Production," by Dr. B. M. Duggar; "Forage Crops for the South," by S. M. Tracy; "Fruit Insects," by Prof. M. B. Slingerland; "Principles of Soil Manage- ment," by Dr. T. L. Lyon and Prof. E. O. Fippin; "Genetic Psychology," by Ed- win A. Kirkpatrick; "The Psychology of Thinking," by Prof. Irving Elgar Miller; "Applied Mechanics for Engineers," by Prof. Edward L. Hancock; "Plane and Solid Coordinate Geometry," by Profs. H. B. Fine and H. D. Thompson; "Plane and Spherical Trigonometry," by Prof. D. A. Rothrock; "College Chemistry," by Prof. Louis Kah- lenberg; "A Text-Book on Physical Chem- istry," by Prof. Harry C. Jones; "The Ele- ments of Light and Sound," by Profs. W. S. Franklin and Barry MacNutt. Aided by the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis has issued un- der the title, "The Campaign against Tu- berculosis in the United States" (New York: Charities Publication Committee), a comprehensive and useful directory of the sanatoria, hospitals, dispensaries, and associations which exist wholly or in part to combat this plague. Canada, Porto Ri- co, the Philippines, and Hawaii are includ- ed; there is no mention of Mexico, but Cuba stands perhaps prophetically between Connecticut and Delaware. In part the book, whose compilation is attributed to Philip P. Jacobs, is a revision of the di- rectory which Miss Brandt prepared four or five years ago. About seventy pages are devoted to brief statements of the legisla- tion of States and municipalities concern- ing notification, expectoration, and other matters. The estimate of the extent to which these laws are enforced is not very satisfactory, and seems to be largely guess- work, as, indeed, it must be. The copious index, in which we find Hawaii but miss Sandwich Islands, would be even better if it contained the names of all the places. Many institutions are widely known by the locality and the casual searcher is not al- ways sure as to the State to which it be- longs, and much less as to the exact title of the establishment. Koch, in his popular lectures on dendrol- ogy, calls attention to the fact that at the dispersion of the great groups of the human race, each group carried from its ancestral home a particular kind of rose. The Aryans had their own which found its way, both east and west, under innumer- able forms. In none of the descendants of these primitive peoples has love for the rose ever been lost, but it is among those who drifted westward that it is most pro- nounced. Other flowers have had their time of popularity and have passed out of fash- ion, but the rose has to-day a stronger 'bold than ever on all the European na- tions. Books on roses, even if they are not above mediocrity, find many readers, while the treatises which have real merit are on the shelves of all progressive hor- ticulturists. To amateurs and professional cultivators who wish to inform themselves as to what is latest and best in regard to roses, we can cordially recommend a mod- est volume, "Roses and Rose-Growing," by Rose G. Kingsley (The Macmillan Co.). Miss Kingsley brings to her task literary skill, nnd a fair experience in the selection and cultivation of roses, for both of which sha is indebted to the late Charles Kingsley of Eversley. She has made good use 0' the standard books, new and old, and has succeeded in preparing an attractive hand book such as Kingsley himself would have been delighted to use. She has also been exceedingly fortunate in her illustrations in color. In depth and delicacy, these repro- ductions are considerably in advance of any which have recently come to hand, and they add not merely to the attrac- tiveness of the volume, but they may serve al.°o as a safe guide in selecting varie- ties. "Extinct Birds," by the Hon. Walter Rothschild (London: Hutchinson & Co.), is a sumptuous quarto of 244 pages, with forty- three beautifully colored plates. The work introduces us, as nearly as may be, to the birds which have become exterminated within the historical period, or, in many cases, within the past six or eight hundred years. To cover completely such a vast and difficult field in a single pioneer undertak- ing is, of course, impossible, and the de- fects, especially as to incomplete lists of specimens extant, are many; still the vol- ume possesses great interest and value. Worthy of special note are the reproduc- tions of the original drawings of the dodo, and the excellent restorations of the soli- taire and moa. The causes of extinction are varied, but in many cases the blame must be laid to man. Examples are the great auk, dodo, moa, and the curious little tail- less wren of Stephen Island, near New Zea- land, of which the only thirteen ever se- cured were brought in by the cat of the lighthouse keeper. The edition is limited to 300 copies at the price of £25 each; and it is to be hoped that a new edition may be less expensive. A work of especial interest at the pres- ent time is "La Science Seismologique" (Paris: A. Colin), by Comte de Montessus de Ballore, the author of several works on this "la plus jeune des sciences." The three parts into which it is divided treat of earth- quakes, tremblings indicated by instru- ments, and their geologic results. It be- gins with an historical sketch of seismol- ogy, and closes with some useful practical considerations of 'Tart de batir" in the countries subject to earthquakes. The as- tronomer of the Paris Observatory, G. Bigourdan, calls attention in the Annales de Geographie to the conclusive evidence which the Count has given in his work showing the falsity of the old theory that the great majority of earthquakes could be traced to regions of small extent. On the contrary, the records of the exceedingly sensitive instruments now in use indicate that they are largely simultaneous move- ments of the earth's crust. Numerous ta- bles, charts, and illustrations add much to its value as a book of reference. Scientific work of timely interest, often half-official and military, meets us In

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148 The Nation. [Vol. 88. No. 2276 "Autour de l'Afghanistan," by Command- ant de Bouillane de Lacoste. The book is made up from notes taken in an expedi- tion "along forbidden frontiers," with 120 inset plates from photographs of the au- thor and five maps (Paris: Hachette). Dr. Ludwig Darmstaedter's "4,000 Jahre Pionier-Arbeit in den exakten Wissen- schaften," first issued in 1904, has appeared in a new edition, much enlarged in both size and scope, as indicated by the new title, "Handbuch zur Geschichte der Natur- wissenschaften und der Technik." The new edition not merely records the final discov- eries, but shows intermediate steps, so that the development of each discovery can be traced. Dr. Darmstaedter has been assisted by Dr. R. du Bois Reymond and Dr. Carl Schaefer, and has had the cooperation of a large number of correspondents. Walter Morrison Allen, widely known as a designer of telescopes, died in Cleveland February 8, at the age of forty-two. He had charge of the construction of the forty- inch telescope at the Yerkes Observatory at Lake Geneva, Wis., and also of the twenty-six-inch telescope at the Naval Ob- servatory. Drama. The Children of the Chapel at Black- friars, 1597-1603: Introductory to "The Children of the Revels, Their Origin, Course, and Influences." By Charles William Wallace [University of Nebraska Studies]. Lincoln: Uni- versity Book Store. Professor Wallace's book is the most thorough study we have of an Eliza- bethan theatre — to be sure, for a limit- ed period of its existence, but that the most important. He gives us a search- ing examination, based on the original records, of the history of the founda- tion and management of Blackfriars during the years indicated above, and of the influence which it exerted in var- ious ways on the history of the drama and the stage. The choice of this par- ticular theatre has a double recommen- dation— first, on account of the inter- est of singularity which will always at- tach to the Elizabethan boy-companies, and, secondly, the fact that it was un- doubtedly Blackfriars, and not the great public theatres, like the Globe, which in all essentials determined what the structure and arrangements of the mod- ern theatre were to be. From unpublished documents in the Public Record Office Professor Wallace is able to prove that both the seating capacity and the stage of Blackfriars were much larger than has been hith- erto assumed — indeed, that it was the most expensive theatre erected in Eng- land before the new Globe in 1614. He argues with some plausibility that the Elizabethan habit of selling seats on the stage originated at Blackfriars, ow- ing to the peculiar physical conditions of that theatre. The custom, of course, extended also to the Continent; but Pro- fessor Wallace is mistaken when he im- plies that it died out early in England. As a matter of fact, it continued in that country down into the sixties of the eighteenth century. Professor Wallace is also able to trace clearly and in detail the circumstances which attended the formation and main- tenance of the Children of the Chapel and to unravel the intricate history of Nathaniel Gyles, who was commissioned to obtain the boys necessary, and of Henry Evans, the lessee, in their rela- tions to the theatre. The main thesis, however, of the book is that, during this period, Blackfriars was an official theatre maintained at the Queen's expense. The evidence on this subject, we confess, does not appear to us so conclusive as it does to the au- thor. Indeed, the passages from all but one of the documents which he cites are too obscure to base any conclusion on. Only the entry (September 18, 1602) in the diary of Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, seems to us to possess any real weight. If Professor Wallace is right in interpreting this passage as relating to Blackfriars, that would decide the question. Probabilities favor this interpretation, but there are difficulties to be considered. Queen Elizabeth had nothing to do with the erection of Blackfriars, as far as we know, and it is hard to conceive that a whole hour's musical entertainment would precede the regular performance at this theatre, if the play given was of the type usual at Blackfriars. Cer- tain it is that Professor Wallace is mis- taken in inferring from the description in the diary that the play which the Duke saw was Chapman's "Widow's Tears." Apart from the cogent reasons advanced by Fleay for dating this play in 1605, it is sufficient to point out that there is no "royal" widow among its characters, Eudora being merely a countess; nor is there any Englishwo- man in the piece. Besides, the term "casta vidua" could only be applied in <an 'ironical sense to the heroine of a plot which is recognized on all hands as modelled after the notorious Matron of Ephesus. It is to be hoped that Professor Wal- lace will soon make public the docu- ments referred to in the note on page 56 — "which give the origin of 'shares' in London theatres and Shakespeare's financial interest from the first in the Globe and Blackfriars." "The Playhouse and the Play," by Percy Mackaye will be published by the Mac- millan Company this spring. A. R. Waller's edition of Beaumont and Fletcher in the Cambridge English Clas- sics (Putnams) progresses regularly, the sixth volume, just issued, carrying it be- yond the haifway point. Five plays make the present tale: "The Queen of Corinth," "Bonduca," "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," "Love's Pilgrimage," "The Double Marriage." The scheme of editing has been given in our notices of earlier vol- umes, and need not be repeated. Though Charles F. McClumpha's volume containing Otway's two masterpieces, "The Orphan" and "Venice Preserved," in the Belles-Lettres Series (D. C. Heath & Co.), does not present anything novel in the way of biography or criticism, its well-in- formed, competently written introduction, its text faithful to the first editions, and its up-to-date bibliography make it the best edition of the two plays obtainable. The only adverse comment to be made upon the preparatory essay is that in the attempt to recount the facts of Otway's career, to- relate him to his French models and Eng- lish contemporaries, to touch upon or dis- cuss all his plays in relation to hia dra- matic development, and to sketch the gen- eral state of dramatic literature in the Restoration period, the various matters are- somewhat congested, and penetration and thoroughness are sacrificed to comprehen- siveness. Racine plus Shakespeare plus an; enthusiastic temper is in the main the right formula to explain Otway's brief but striking endeavor to turn the apostate trag- edy of his time back into the native Eng- lish tradition; but Mr. McClumpha has given little more than the bare formula. There is still room for a searching inves- tigation of that half-stifled counter-revo- lution of taste which struggled through all. the years from the Restoration to the death of Dryden. To the direct imitation of French models, whether of the Cornelian or the Racinean type, the editor, in com- pany with many other commentators, im- putes rather too important influence. The tyrannies which galled the passionate Ot- way, as he repeatedly makes clear, were the pedantic critical theories imposed most obnoxiously by an audience of shallow criticasters, and the satirical and cynical spirit of the age. That he emancipated him- self from them both, where the puissant Dryden failed, is a substantial evidence that he is entitled to the rank, which Mr. McClumpha denies him, of genius. Julius Bab's "Deutsche Schauspieler,"' with sixteen full-page illustrations, is a valuable contribution to the history of the German stage, especially of Berlin ana Vienna.* Adolf Miiller, in "Das griechische Drama und seine Wirkungen bis zur Gegenwart^" the eighteenth volume in the series Samm- lung Kosel (Munich: Kosel), discusses with- scholarship and excellent literary taste the origin and character of the Greek drama; ^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Greek com- edy; and the influence of the Greek drama down to our own day. "The New Lady Bantock," which was pre- sented for the first time here in Wallack's Theatre, on Monday evening, will add no- thing to the reputation of Jerome K. Je- rome, either as humorist or dramatist. It is founded upon an idea which is not only fresh in a theatrical sense, but is clearly capable of amusing treatment. Unfortu- nately Mr. Jerome has spoiled it by gross and palpable exaggeration. There would be nothing wildly improbable in the supposi- tion that a chorus girl, married to a foolish young lord, might find herself confronted

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Feb. ii, 909] The Nation. 14:9 by inconvenient relatives in the kitchen, but that these should number twenty-three, constitute her entire family, and rule the establishment is a manifestly preposterous condition. It is not made any the more reasonable by almost grotesquely farcical handling. Nor is the performance by the star, Miss Fannie Ward, in the part of the embarrassed but ultimately triumphant bride in any way remarkable. But the rep- resentation acquires a certain artistic value through an uncommonly fine impersonation of an old, tyrannical family butler — a pom- pous, dictatorial, hypocritical, time-serving, but thoroughly capable and respectable ser- vant— by Charles Cartwright. This is a veritable embodiment and a really first-rate bit of eccentric comedy worthy of a far richer setting. The London Afternoon Theatre, that be- gan its career at least defiantly with Hauptman's "Hannele" (see the Nation of December 24, 1908, p. 636), has not proved so enterprising in its sec- ond programme at His Majesty's, but has fallen back comfortably upon George Bernard Shaw as principal attrac- tion. The play selected, "The Admirable Bashville," is one of his least good, and, though a novelty to the public, has already been produced for the few by the Stage So- ciety. Mr. Shaw describes it as a "Master- piece in the Elizabethan Style." What the plot is matters little, the whole thing is a parody, or burlesque, of Mr. Shaw's novel "Cashel Byron's Profession," never well enough known for its parody to be amusing as a parody. The characters are used to give expression to the opinions generally and the paradoxes especially that Mr. Shaw delivers to the public. Much of the ab- surdity comes from "the Elizabethan style," from the pompous verse in which modern nonsense is spoken, and from the stage setting. Two Beefeaters bring in the stage properties; they hold up a big sign to explain at the be- ginning of each act where it is supposed to take place, while the same scene does duty for a room in Mayfair, a hall at Islington, a room in a country castle, and a few "su- pers" walking undisguisedly in the same circle round and round the stage must pass for the thousands in the audience at a prize fight. All this is excellent fooling, though at times directed not so much against Eliz- abethan as modern scenic methods. The actors carried off the nonsense with a so- lemnity that was beyond compare. Ben Webster, as Cashel Byron, never relapsed a moment from his heroic pose; Henry Ain- ley, to the Admirable Bashville, brought the earnestness of a Romeo or a Hamlet; Miss Rosina Filippi, in her role of mother and actress combined, delivered her lines of twaddle with unruffled dignity. But for all this excellence, "The Admirable Bashville" is thin, its humor long drawn out. Mr. Shaw's play was followed by a common- place one-act piece, that might serve for the curtain-raiser to which no one is expected to come, called "Tilda's New Hat," made possible only by the excellent acting of Miss Agnes Thomas and Miss Fare- brother. Altogether, this second programme of the Afternoon Theatre would be discour- aging were it not for the promise of the third, a new play by Henry James, an event of no small literary and dramatic im- portance. Charles Frohman has secured the Ameri- can rights of "An Englishman's Home," the play by Guy du Maurier, which is reported to have made so big a sensation in London. Moreover, he promises to produce it in March, so that New York playgoers will not have to wait long before they will be able to judge for themselves of the quality of the piece. Written by an army officer, it takes the view of Lord Roberts and some other military men that an invasion of Great Bri- tain, under existing conditions, is altogeth- er feasible, and purports to show how it might be done. A London suburban home is suddenly seized by invading Germans, and the civilian master of it, who has ven- tured to show fight, is shot down upon his own lawn. The utter inefficiency of the "territorial" and other supplementary forces is demonstrated to the author's en- tire satisfaction. The invaders, of course, are supposed to have eluded the British fleet, which is just what British naval men declare to be impossible. In the original version of the play, the Germans were tri- umphant all along the line, but, in the amended scheme, they are ultimately re- pulsed by the Highland Brigade, whose ad- vancing pipes are heard, as in "The Relief of Lucknow." Sir Charles Wyndham has secured the English rights to Smile Fabre's play, "Les Vainqueurs," and will appear, in due course, as the influential lawyer and deputy, Day- grand. Ernest Alexandre Honore Coquelin, the French actor, better known under the name of Coquelin Cadet, died at Suresnes, Febru- ary 8. He was brother of Benoit-Constant Coquelin, who died January 27. The last public appearance of M. Coquelin, whose talents had won him something of the fame achieved by his more distinguished brother, was at the Comedie Franchise, in October, 1907. The younger Coquelin was born in 1848 at Boulogne-sur-Mer. He, too, like Constant, abandoned the paternal trade of baker in consequence of a predisposition to the footlights, studied at the feet of Regnier, and, in due course, won a first prize for comedy at the Conservatoire. In 1867 he won a series of successes at the Odeon in comic characters of the classic reper- tory, and in 1868 joined his brother on the stage of the Francais. During the war with Germany he quit the theatre for the field, where he displayed notable bravery. When peace was reestablished he resumed his profession of actor, but left the Francais because he was not chosen societaire. For a time he acted at the Varietes, but in 1876 returned to the Francais, where his repu- tation and popularity increased steadily. Among his chief successes in the more mod- ern drama may be mentioned his Ulrich in "Le Sphinx," his Frippesauce in "Tabarin," his Isidore in "Le Testament de C6sar Girardot," his Frederic in "L'Ami Fritz," and Basile in "Le Barbier de Seville." In 1879 he was admitted a societaire. Since then he has been identified with many important parts of widely diverse character, in such plays as "Le Bourreau des cranes," "Les Trois iSpiciers," "Le Chapeau de paille d'ltalie," "Le Depute de Bombignac," "Denise," "Un Parisien," "M. Scapin," "Francillon," "Margot," "Griselidis," "Le Faune," "La Vie de Boheme," and "Celimare le bien aimeV' The list, although far from complete, will give an idea of his range. which extended from the broadest of low comedy to the more refined and intellectual types of eccentric characterization. His work was distinguished by its fine humorous significance, its veracity, and its exquisite technical finish. Like Constant, he pos- sessed rare powers of recitation, and was in high demand as a monologist. He was also successful as a writer of comic pieces, being a frequent contributor to the press over the nom de plume of "Pirouette." He had been ill for a long time, and it was only the other day that he was retired from the Francais with a pension, with the understanding that h3 should be reinstated in case he recov- ered his health. Music. The fifth volume of "Grove's Dictionary of Music," revised and enlarged under the editorship of J. Fuller Maitland, will be published by the Macmillan Company this spring. In his "Mezzotints in Modern Music," published ten years ago, James Huneker had an essay entitled "The Greater Cho- pin," in which he tells of the time when he echoed the opinion of George Sand, that one tiny prelude of Chopin is worth all the trumpeting of Meyerbeer; and that was when Mr. Huneker knew chiefly the popu- lar Chopin, the melancholy dreamer, the Chopin whom schoolgirls torture and sen- timentalize. Subsequently Mr. Huneker discovered that there is also a greater Cho- pin, more masculine, grander, deeper, more daring, and revolutionary. To this day this greater Chopin is largely music of the future. "Chopin is among the immortals, and he is, it may be frankly confessed, ad- mired for his less admirable music." To help ending this anomalous state of affairs, Mr. Huneker has compiled and edited for The Musicians' Library a volume entitled "The Greater Chopin" (Oliver Ditson Co.), which contains two of the ballades, two- of the polonaises, four preludes, nine etudes, three nocturnes, three scherzos, and five others of the "greater" pieces; and to these he has prefixed one of his stimu- lating and luminous introductory essays, together with a bibliography. To play over these pieces is to understand how Saint- Saens could write that all modern music had its germs in Chopin. It has been said that singers die twice, the first funeral being that of their voice. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the Sembrich Farewell to the Ameri- can operatic stage last Saturday was a vo- cal funeral. There was a note of sadness in the ceremonies, which took up more than half an hour after the performance was over; but the prevailing opinion was that the great Polish prima donna is leaving the stage too soon. In the lesson scene from the "Barber of Seville" she was so girlish in action, appearance, and song that one could never have guessed she had been on the operatic stage thirty-four years; and she sang the "Ah, fors 6 lui" from "La Traviata" with a beauty and opu- lence of tone and a brilliancy of execution which, of the younger singers, Mme. Tet- razzini alone could have equalled. Why, then, does she retire from the operatic stage? Why not go on "farewelling" a

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150 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 decade or two, after the fashion of Pattl? Because she wishes to leave before people can express regrets that she did not go sooner. Moreover, she wishes to de- vote herself henceforth to concert work, ■which Is less exhausting than op- era, and she understands that her exquisite art is even more needed in the realm of the Lied than in opera. But perhaps the strongest motive in her mind Is the realization of the fact that there Is no new music for a singer of her type. Rossini, Donizetti, Mozart, and the young Verdi wrote for her, but they are dead long since. The only modern rdle that has ap- pealed to her Is Mimi in Puccini's "La Boheme." Wagner, Strauss, the later Puc- cini, and his Italian and French colleagues do not write for her. She has sung the only half-dozen of the old florid operas that the public now tolerates over and over and over again, till, as she frankly admits, she has become tired of them. But the Lied offers unlimited scope for the exercise of her art. The demand for tickets for the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth exceeds all precedents. On November 3 no tickets were left for the first "Nibelung" cycle. And now, six months before the festival begins, the whole of the second "Nibelung" series is disposed of, as well as all the "Lohengrin" tickets, and also those for the "Parsifal" performances except on August 7 and 8. It is probable that the tickets for all of the twenty per- formances will be sold five months ahead. Art. THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE EX- HIBITION. If the exhibitions of the New York Architectural League are to be accept- ed as a true indication of the estate of American architecture and the allied arts, it would appear that what was once called the "mistress art" has this year at least lost her primacy and be- come the mere bondmaiden of the dec- orative arts. Year by year the works of the painters, stained-glass designers, sculptors, bronze-workers, and other art- ists in the field of decoration have en- croached upon the wall spaces formerly devoted to architecture; until in the present exhibition they have taken full control of the field. What corners of it they do not care for are occupied by drawings and photographs of buildings. This, at least, is the first impression made by the exhibition now in prog- ress in the Fine Arts Building on West Fifty-seventh Street. Not only the South Gallery, which has always been devoted to the exhibits of the decora- tors, but the Middle Gallery, and even a considerable part of the Vanderbilt Gallery itself, are covered with their works; while there is an unusual scarc- ity of such large and important draw- ings or groups of drawings as have fur- nished the clou of many former ex- hibitions. Photographs of executed work constitute a considerable portion of the architectural exhibits, with the result of still further reducing the effective- ness and attractiveness of the exhibi- tion. Their small size and dark mono- tone detract materially from the effect of ensemble of the architectural part of the show, and they lack the personal quality and interest one finds in draw- ings. Properly displayed, they are val- uable adjuncts to drawings, but can never take their place in a large exhi- bition. As one surveys the great mass of dec- orative works which so dominate the exhibition, comparing it mentally with the exhibitions of earlier years, the im- pression is likely to be one of great technical progress, but with less ad- vance in originality and force than could be wished. The amateurish note of other days is gone; much of the work displays a sure hand and a good mas- tery of technic; there are evidently scores to-day where there were but a handful a few years ago, who can draw the human figure with vitality and com- pose with conviction. There are some vigorous canvases, some windows that one feels sure will be finely effective, not a little good sculpture, and, finally, there are the impressive displays of the work of the veteran painter and veteran sculptor to whom respectively the League has awarded its Medals of Hon- or this year, John La Farge and J. Q. A. Ward. These displays add a spe- cial distinction to the decorative ex- hibit, and with Edwin H. Blashfield's studies for the decorations of the Wis- consin State Capitol, and W. B. Van Ingen's frieze for the United States Cir- cuit Court at Chicago, help to complete the overwhelming preponderance of the "allied arts" over architecture. One could wish that the rest of the decora- tive work displayed more strength and originality; but we may at least con- sole ourselves with the reflection that the wild eccentricities of the European Secessionists of the Art Nouveau and Moderne Kunst, the cult of the bizarre and the ugly under the guise of protest against worn-out formulas and the com- monplace, have not taken possession of our artists. In the architectural section, the most noticeable exhibit is that of the com- petitive drawings for the new municip- al buildings, with additional illustra- tions of the successful design by Mc- Kim, Mead & White. These might well have been given the centre of the wall opposite the entrance to the Vander- bilt Gallery. They exhibit architectural draftsmanship at its best; they are dig- nified, modern, American, representative. To many the Gothic pile by Howells & Stokes will appear more interesting as an architectural composition, than the accepted design in its classic dress; but whatever one's predilections, one can hardly fail to see in the very fact of this contrast of treatment, an in- teresting illustration of the direction which American style-eclecticism is tak- ing in monumental architectural de- sign. It would have been interesting to have a more adequate presentation of the design to whose authors was award- ed this year the annual medal of honor in architecture, founded by the New York Chapter of the American Insti- tute of Architects — the Phipps mansion, by Trowbridge & Livingston. It is shown by a perspective and photo- graphs, but one might easily pass it over unnoticed, unless specially seeking it out. The same is true of the stately if somewhat frigid design for the new Post Office for this city; and of the win- ning design for the grounds and build- ings of the Western Pennsylvania Uni- versity at Pittsburgh — a vast scheme shown only by two rather small draw- ings in a corner of the gallery. A number of other important competi- tions of the past year are not repre- sented at all; and there is a large amount of interesting and significant work projected or executed in the last year or two which would have added greatly to the attractiveness and value of the exhibition, but of which no sign appears on its walls. The presentation, even of current and projected work in New York city, is inadequate. Whether the failure to secure an adequate exhib- it of work from New England and the West, as well as from our own city is due to the lack of enterprise of those in charge of the exhibition or to the apathy of those invited to contribute, the result is unfortunate. Certainly, if the object of the league exhibitions is to encourage interest in architecture, it would seem wise to ofter more architec- ture and less mere decoration, and to secure a better and more adequate pres- entation of the really vital and import- ant work being done throughout the country. The most effective and attractive part of the purely architectural exhibits is perhaps, after all, to be found in the display of students' work, in the gal- lery of the Sculpture Society at the right, as one enters the building, and in the league rooms upstairs. The com- petitive drawings for the prize scholar- ship in the American Academy at Rome, and work by students in the Carnegie Technical Schools at Pittsburgh, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and others, are shown in the sculpture room. Why the drawings from the Co- lumbia School of Architecture should all have been relegated to the upstairs room, which nobody visits unless by ac- cident or on some special quest; and why so fine and serious a piece of work as Lucian Smith's McKim fellowship "envoi" from Rome should not have been allowed the honor of a place at least in some corner of the Vanderbilt

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The ISTation. 151 Gallery, is not easy to understand. Nor does there appear any good reason why there should be no indication, either by signs in the vestibule or by explana- tions in the catalogue, that a consider- able part of the exhibits catalogued are to be found upstairs in the league rooms. The catalogue, indeed, furnishes no means of locating any of the exhibits, even to the extent of indicating in which gallery they are to be looked for. The collaboration of the "Three Arts" for the special prize of $300 offered by the league, furnishes one of the most successful and attractive features of the exhibition. The subject, A Monument to a Great American Sculptor, is a ra- tional and appealing motive, and the requirements were moderate as to scale, giving opportunity for refined decora- tive treatment. In most of the models submitted, the three arts are thorough- ly and sympathetically blended into a harmonious composition; and they fur- nish interesting evidence of the realiza- tion of the purpose of the league to se- cure the cooperation of the sister arts of painting and sculpture with architec- ture. SOROLLA Y BASTIDA. Preceded by a heightening fame in Europe, which was accentuated by the success of exhibits of his paintings in both Paris and London, the Spanish artist, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, is now to be seen in New York. More than 350 of his pictures and sketches are on view at the Museum of the Hispanic Society of America, where they will re- main till March 8. It is a collection extraordinary for range and brilliancy. To have produced at forty-six so great a body of mature work indicates un- common fertility; to have attained such striking results argues genius. Sorol- la's method is that of a modified impres- sionism, but such a seeing eye as his must be, such a rapid and sure tech- nique, would have made him a great artist under almost any method. His painting seems absolutely direct. Crit- ics are putting microscopes upon Velas- quez's canvas, to see if they can dis- cover anything like niggling under the broad free sweep of his brush, but it would occur to no one to apply such a test to Sorolla. His stroke is obvious- ly as unwavering as that of a piston, the pure color being laid on in one jet. There is no fussing; all is immediate, the drawing, the modelling, being got by the swift use of the final color. He is called a triumph of the "new" school, but such great gifts as his would have glorified any school. If definitions must be sought, Sorolla is not so much an artist of the plein air as of the full sun. His greatest mastery lies in rendering the highest notes of the Spanish sun. Especially powerful are his paintings of sea and sand in the brightest light, with fishing boats, and oxen to draw them up, and bathers and children playing on the beach or splashing in the water or rac- ing into the wave or emerging from the bath — all under the sun of Valencia or San Sebastian or Biarritz. Many of the paintings dealing with these favorite subjects of Sorolla are positive tours de force, which simply leave the gazer astounded at the artist's extraordinary talent. It seems as if he had discover- ed a new way of fixing instantaneously in paint not only form and color, but motion. In such a picture as Alegria del Mar, the happy dash of the naked boys into the surf is life caught in the act, while the turned face of the young- ster deepest in, with the one line of white to show where his teeth gleam in joy, is the keynote to the whole. In landscapes away from the sea, or un- der more sombre skies, Sorolla is not always so victorious; but flood him with sunlight, and he will flood you. Even in his portraits, he seems to desire to get his sitter out into the sun. One of his best is that of a gentleman sitting in strong light among bright flowers in his garden. The full length of the King of Spain, clad in brilliant uniform, Is done out under the open sky, with an effect, as one bystander remarked, as if the King had swallowed sunshine and it was oozing from him at every pore. A much more powerful rendering of Al- fonso's face is the darker one painted indoors, which for its unshrinking reve- lation of melancholy struggling through the mask of youth, and its air of a fatal heredity adding gloom to every feature, might well have been given the name which Sorolla has applied to his large picture of crippled children on the seashore, Triste Herencia. The por- trait of Menendez y Pelayo, done last year, is equally masterful. The entire exhibit is a noteworthy event in this art season. Sorolla is cer- tain to provoke wide discussion, in which admiration will be a common ground of all disputants, whatever their differences. It is said that his pictures may be shown in Boston, and possibly in other cities. If so, one can predict a new Spanish Conquest of America. To those who desire to get a strong im- pression of the formality and dignity of life in the good days of Queen Anne and the neighboring periods, we recommend a volume, imported by Scribners, which, to give its full title, is called "English Houses and Gardens in the 17th and 18th centuries; A Series of Bird's-eye Views Reproduced from Contemporary Engravings by Kip, Badeslade, Harris, and Others, with De- scriptive Notes by Mervyn Macartney." Some of the views are well known from the reproduction in modern biographies, but others have been for the first time res- cued from old county histories and other ob- scure books. Together they will have some value for the architect and landscape gar- dener, and a great deal of interest for the student of eighteenth-century life. The notes by Mr. Macartney make no pretence to anecdotal entertainment or biographical fulness, but give the ownership, date of building, and other details of the sort. A "Catalogue of the Collection of Casts" has been prepared for the Metropolitan Museum under the general supervision of Edward Robinson, assistant director. Brief histories are given of the originals from which the casts are taken, and references are added to the catalogue or special work in which full accounts of the originals may be found. Sources for studying in detail this great collection of models— it con- tains 2,607 numbers— are thus indicated to students of sculpture and architecture, while the merely curious will find about all they need in this single volume. The third volume of the "Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta," by H. Nelson Wright (Henry Frowde), con- tains the coins of the Mughal Emperors of India. There are over two thousand clear illustrations of these coins, together with descriptions, arranged according to metal and emperor, a map of Mohammedan mints, an historical introduction, and chronologi- cal appendices. The Ilahi era, established by Akbar in 1584, is shown in Appendix D to have begun on the "Nauroz" of 963 A. H., which occurred on 27th Rabi' II (not on the 5th Rabi', as claimed by Stanley Lane-Poole). The handsome volume of 350- odd pages is worthy of the Clarendon Press, and will be a boon to all those interested in Indian numismatics. A new volume of the Kunstgeschichtliche Monographien (Leipzig: Hiersemann) Is Carl Glaser's "Hans Holbein der Aeltere." It contains sixty-nine excellent reproduc- tions. In the first part there is a critical catalogue of the pictures of the elder Hol- bein, beginning with 1493 and reaching to 1519. The second part is devoted to a criti- cal estimate of the painter's art. Spemann's Compendien is the collective title of a series of scholarly works on va- rious branches of knowledge published in artistic form by the old Stuttgart house of Spornann. Dr. Robert Forrer, the archaeolo- gist, known not only as the author of many volumes on prehistoric man and archaeolog- ical finds, but also as the owner of remarka- ble private collections of antiquities, has written the first volume: "Urgeschichte des Europaers von der Menschwerdung bis zum Anbruch der Geschichte," a volume of 500 pages with 1,500 illustrations. The two other volumes so far published are Bruno Bucher's "Kunstgeschichte" and Dr. Max Dressler's "Kiinstler-Anatomie." The work is among the importations of G. E. Stechert & Co. In March, at the close of the Sorolla ex- hibition at the Hispanic Museum in this city, a collection of paintings by Zuloaga will be shown. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are paintings by G. Glenn Newell at Powell's, till February 13; paintings of dogs, Percival Rosseau, Knoed- ler's, February 13; etchings of Paris, Mer- yon, Keppel's, March 2. In the reserves of the Museum at Ver- sailles a portrait of Mme. de S6vlgn6 by Ferdinand Elle has been discovered. It Is twenty years earlier than the pastel by

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152 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 Monteuil, and represents her en buste with a string of pearls in her hair. The hands are said to be notably beautiful. Another discovery at Versailles is a portrait of Marie Leczinska, painted in 1748. W. Goscombe John, sculptor, and John Belcher, architect, have been elected Royal Academicians ; B. Mackennal, sculptor, has been chosen A.R.A.; and Jean Paul Laurens an honorary foreign academician. Finance. THE PRICE OF METALS. After rather long absorption in trivial and inconsequential affairs, the Stock Exchange has been suddenly confronted with a question of large scope, the prob- lem of prices in the great metal mar- kets. Present conditions are in many ways peculiar. A rather novel econom- ic doctrine was thus set forth, on April 9, 1908, by the chairman of the United States Steel Corporation: Prices should at all times be reasonable and fair. The mere fact that the demand is greater than the supply — that the necessi- ties of the purchaser are great — does not justify an increase in price, nor does the fact that the demand is less than the supply furnish an argument for lowering the price. In neither case would the auantity bought and sold be more or less. Now the fact that a theory or policy is new does not mean that it is erro- neous. The test of time, however, is likely to settle such questions, and that test has been applied. Reluctantly and under protest, the Steel Corporation made a slight reduction from $28 to $25 per ton in steel billets on June 9. This cut was declared by the average consum- er to be too small to meet the require- ments of the occasion. By the end of October, such effect on trade as it may have exerted had spent its force. With January, business on the basis of "offi- cial prices" came practically to a stand- still; last week, it was admitted that in- dependent mills, by means of secret cuts, were getting the bulk of the busi- ness offering. It was inevitable that, from the man- ufacturers' side, the discussion of tar- iff revision should be insisted on as the root of trouble. But the course of events in another industry inspires skepticism as to the tariff agitation as a primary cause of sluggish trade. The dominant corporation in the copper mar- ket, the Amalgamated Copper Company, advanced the price of copper % cent a pound between election day and the end of 1908. But manufacturers had their own ideas about an advance of 5 per cent, in the face of inactive trade. By the middle of last week, all the advance in copper, scored since October 30, had been lost through a steady fall in open market prices; last week, the Amalga- mated's selling agency lowered its offi- cial prices. The fact is pretty well established that in periods of depression following panic, prices must be reduced, in or- der to let industry get a fair start again. What has the outcome been in the past? Dun's "index number" of metal prices in this country shows that from 32.643 in the middle of 1873, the average fell to 25.254 in 1874, and continued to de- cline until 1879, when a sharp recov- ery began from the very low figure of 15.149. That year exceptional causes were at work, causing both the violence of the decline and the prolongation of depression. From the 14.030 mark in the middle of 1893 — cost of manufacture and therefore prices having been greatly re- duced in the twenty years preceding — average metal prices fell to 12.015 in the middle of 1894 and to 11.021 in 1895, an irregular recovery following. The answer of the companies which are holding out for the high prices of prosperity is that this repeated lower- ing of prices was itself a cause of the prolonged depression; that instead of attracting buyers and stimulating trade, it upset all business plans, because no- body would venture to buy large sup- plies ahead, lest he meet a com- petitor later on, who had purchased at still lower prices. In short, preven- tion of the disorganization of prices is at least one factor in preventing pro- longed depression. That there is force in this argument, considered from some aspects, most people agree. But most people will also make three points in their rejoinder. First, the argument against lowering prices despite reduc- ed consumption of trade depression is, a fortiori, an argument against ever reducing them; the policy can only be enforced by practically monopolistic control of trade, which woulvi make in theory always for higher and never for lower prices. Second, the experiment of stimulating trade by refusing price concessions was tried in 1908, and has, to all appearances, failed. Third, it is possible to use this very control of industry so as to make the requisite concessions in an orderly way, thus meeting consumers fairly while avoid- ing the demoralization of 1874 and 1894. The third point is of high importance, not less so because the experiment was successfully tried by the dry goods trade last year, and in 1903 by the steel trade itself, under the same con- ditions of control as now exist. In March, 1908, when the Fall River mills discovered the conditions of consump- tion, they acted concertedly, cut pro- duction 25 per cent., wages 10 per cent., and, not least of all, prices 25 to 50 per cent. The outcome was an orderly resumption of trade, with demand first slow, then gradually increasing, until to-day the dry goods industry is on the most normal footing of any trade in the United States. So much for one test. The other was provided in November, 1903, when, in the face of financial un- settlement and disappearing demand from consumers, the so-called "steel billet pool," acting for the United States Steel Corporation and other great pro- ducers, cut billets from $27 to $23 per ton, and bars from $32 to $26— a very drastic reduction, in view of existing conditions. The revival in demand which followed, after the lapse of a few weeks; the recovery by April, 1906, of all the November reduction in price; and, af- ter eight or nine months of uncertain- ty, a new and steady rise in the earn- ings of the steel trade, to a higher level than before — these are facts not with- out bearing on the present controversy. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. 'Aliyyu'bnu'l-Hasan 'El-Khazrejiyy. The Pearl Strings: A History of the Resuliyy Dynasty of Yemen. Vol. III. Translated by J. W. Redhouse. London: Luzac & Co. Andrews, Charles M., and Davenport, Frances G. Guide to the Manuscript Ma- terials for the History of the United States to 1783, in the British Museum, etc. Washington: Carnegie Institution. Aristotle, Works of. Translated by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross. Vol. VIII. Henry Frowde. $2.50. Atkinson, Eleanor. Lincoln's Love Story. Doubleday, Page. 50 cts. net. Austen, Jane. Works: Persuasion; Emma, 2 vols.; Northanger Abbey; Mansfield Park, 2 vols. Duffield. $1.25 each. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord. Peace and Happiness. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Baker, Charles McCoy, and Inglis, Alexan- der James. High School Course in Latin Composition. Macmillan. $1 net. Barker, Edward Harrison. Prance of the French. Scribner. $1.50 net. Barnett, Canon and Mrs. S. A. Towards Social Reform. Macmillan, $1.50 net. Bauer, L. A. United States Magnetic Tables and Magnetic Charts for 1905. Washing- ington: Government Printing Office. Beaumont and Fletcher. The Queen of Corinth, Bonduca and Other Plays. Edit- ed by A. R. Waller. Putnam. $1.50. Benson, E. F. The Climber. Doubleday, Page. $1.40. Bibliographer's Manual of American His- tory. Compiled by Thomas Lindsley Bradford. Vol. III. Philadelphia: Stan. V. Henkels & Co. Bryant. Marguerite. Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker. Duffield. $1.50. Calhoun, Frances Boyd. Miss Minerva and William Green Hill. Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co. $1. Colmore, G. Priests of Progress. B. W. Dodge & Co. $1.50. Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & GO. No. 50 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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Feb. 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 153 Confessions of a Palmist. By Clivette. Chi- cago: Laird & Lee. Coolidge, Asenath Carver. Between Two Rebellions. Watertown, N. Y. ; Hunger- ford-Holbrook Co. fl. Deeping, Warwick. Mad Barbara. Harper. $1.50. Denis, Pierre. Le Br6sil au XXe sigcle. Paris : Armand Colin. Denny, James. Jesus and the Gospel: Chris- tianity Justified in the Mind of Christ. A. C. Armstrong & Son. $2 net. Dixon, Clarissa. Janet and Her Dear Phebe. Frederick A. Stokes. $1. Dudeney, Mrs. Henry. Rachel Lorian. Duf- field. $1.50. Early English Romances in Verse: Done into Modern English by Edith Riekert: Romances of Love; Romances of Friend- ship. Duffield. $2 each. Foley, George Cadwalader. Anselm's The- ory of The Atonement. Longmans, Green. $1.50 net. Fordyce, Alexander R. Elenore. or, Love's Conquest. Newark, N. J.: Brant & Bor- den. Fry, William Henry. New Hampshire as a Royal Province. Longmans, Green. Gibb's Travellers' Route and Reference Book of the United States and Canada. Gibb Bros. & Moran. $3. Harris, Joel Chandler. The Bishop and the Boogerman. Doubleday, Page. $1 net. Hearne, R. P. Aerial Warfare. John Lane Co. $2.50 net. Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543. Parts vii and viii. Edit- ed by Lucy Touimin Smith. London: George Bell & Sons. Kennedy, James B. Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. Keyzer, Mrs. Frances. French Household Cooking. Scribner. 60 cents net. La Farge, John. The Higher Life in Art. Doubleday, Page. Latifi, Alma. Effects of War on Property. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Laughlin, Clara E. The Death of Lincoln. Doubleday, Page. $1.50 net. Lectures on Science, Philosophy, and Art. 1907-1908. Columbia University Press. MacCracken, Henry Noble. The Answere of Adam. Oxford: Horace Hart. Mackaye, Percy. Ode on the Centenary of Abraham Lincoln. Macmillan. 75 cts. net. Margolis, Max L. 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±54= The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2276 THE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE Translated by JOHN FLORIO WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS SECCOMBE New Library Edition in three volumes, 8^4x6 inches Printed at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh, on specially manufactured rag paper. Illustrated with Portraits and reproductions of Title-Pages. Edition limited to 1,150 numbered copies for England and America. Price per set (by subscription ) TEN DOLLARS, net The Publishers reserve the right to ad- vance the price on the day of publication. The Publishers are taking advance subscriptions for this new limited Library Edition of the ESSAYS with the confidence that it is one which every book-lover will appreciate. The three vol- umes are printed in a clear and distinguished type on a fine rag paper especially made for the work; the binding is strong and ar- tistic,— half buckram with a rich gilt back; the portraits are con- temporary and authentic; the editing and introduction of the very first class. 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The Nation. NEW YORE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1909. The Week. Lincoln's English style has been long admired. Where Lincoln got it, or, rather, how he beat it out for himself, has never been fully or satisfactorily explained. But it would appear that he not only had style himself, but is some- times able to provoke it in others. Pres- ident Roosevelt's address, at the Lincoln celebration in Kentucky, strikes us as the best piece of composition that ever came from his pen. Not without some obvious blemishes, it yet utters a just sentiment in fit language. Cutting away the excesses of his customary writing, the President has, in this speech, sought the simple word for the sincere feeling. With the brevity of strength, and with an awed sense of a personality too great for expression, Mr. Roosevelt's address is worthy of its theme. William Nelson Cromwell's protest that patriotism alone impelled him to serve his country in the Panama af- fair, and that he has received nothing beyond proper professional recompense, will be read with satisfaction. The country hopes that no further scandals will be disclosed in this Panama mess, if only because the canal zone itself bids fair to continue to be the grave- yard of engineering reputations. But Mr. Cromwell's denial, and the violent attacks upon the New York World and Representative Rainey in the House of Representatives last week, merely em- phasize again the necessity of thorough- ly laying bare all the Panama history. Mr. Cromwell and the Roosevelt admin- istration must not forget that they are pursued by innuendo partly because the establishment of the Panama republic was so indefensible in law and morals, so obviously a fraudulent dismembering of a sister nation by a bogus rebellion, as to make suspicion certain. There- fore, the country is entitled to know the whole truth. It has been asked for at least twice the amount of money that was at first named as ample to build the canal; the progress of the enterprise has not been what was promised; the plans have been changed; and an im- pression of uncertainty given. Under such circumstances, inquirers must not be arraigned as slanderers or critics as traitors. It is a fact open to sardonic com- ment that two such distinguished Con- stitutional lawyers as Judge Taft and Senator Knox should have forgotten that a clause in the Constitution made the latter's appointment in the former's Cabinet illegal. According to our or- ganic law, No Senator . . . shall, during the time for which he is elected, be appointed to any civil office . . . which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time. Now, the emoluments of the Secretary of State had been increased during Mr. Knox's term as Senator; therefore, he was ineligible to hold that office until Congress put back the salary of the Sec- retary of State to its old figure. His ap- pointment, when clearly ineligible, can- not fairly be said to argue a growing disregard of the Constitution. No one thought of the inhibitory clause, for the reason that there has been for so many years no occasion to invoke it. Its pur- pose was, clearly, to prevent corrupt agreements between the Executive and members of Congress. Judge Story de- clared the object of the provision to be "manifest." "It is to secure the Legis- lature against undue influence, and in- direct corruption, on the part of the Executive." The idea was, plainly, to prevent log-rolling combinations, where- by the President might get what legis- lation he desired by means of promises to put certain law-makers in fat offices. But such practices have so long ceased to be thought of as possible that the law forbidding them has been entirely forgotten. There is, of course, no likelihood that Congress will heed the President's plea for a Federal children's bureau. No- thing is now likely to pass except the great appropriation bills. As a matter of fact, however, the proposal is harm- less enough, for the children's bureau would have no functions beyond collect- ing and disseminating information. To- day, if any one wishes to find out about child-labor laws, the number of juvenile courts, the growth of the probationary system, he has no general source of in- formation. Desertion, juvenile illiter- acy, illegitimacy — these are matters of vital interest to the nation, yet no one commands the exact facts as to their prevalence. Even the Conference on Dependent Children, the admirable re- sults of whose sessions the President transmitted to Congress on Monday, be- gan its statement of findings with the confession that it did not know how many dependent children there were. Obviously, every intelligent worker in this field is handicapped by this ignor- ance, intensified as it is by the attitude of State governments, some of which will answer an individual inquiry, and some of which will not. Much of the money now wasted on battleships might better be devoted to undertakings of this kind. Trial by jury reaches its acme of ab- surdity in the case of the murderers of Senator Carmack, now proceeding at Nashville. After more than three weeks of elimination of the intelligent, a jury was found on Saturday which contains four absolute illiterates, two others who can barely read, while all twelve swear that they have not read a newspaper since the shooting, some adding, with a fine superiority like that of Mr. Bal- four, that they had not read a paper for ten years. So much for the ridiculous laws in America, ostensibly aiming to secure impartiality in a jury, but real- ly obtaining stupidity. Better openly fill the box from the idiot-asylums and the ranks of the defective. We sincere- ly hope that the Nashville jury will be capable of following the evidence and doing its duty; but certainly the law of Tennessee has done its best, not only to prove that it is an ass, but to make sure that the really competent men shall be barred from trying an issue, not only of life and death, but of civilization itself. Perhaps we needed such a ghast- ly exhibition in order to induce lawyers and judges to set about the long delayed reform of our jury-laws. The decision of the Irish Nationalists not to sever their Parliamentary alli- ance with the Liberals, leaves the As- quith government in possession of that

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156 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 dwindled majority of over 250 to which Winston Churchill recently alluded. The Liberal Cabinet seems in a condition to live out its appointed days, if it so wills. Its troubles, and these, of course, are bound to come, will arise less from the depletion of the government major- ity than from the serious problems of finance and administration that grow more difficult with the passing months. The Dreadnought mania is spreading. The strengthening of the land forces is, according to last reports, being feverish- ly prosecuted. Old-age pensions are eat- ing up over £8,000,000 a year. Ireland calls for the emission of a huge loan to complete the land-purchase pro- gramme. Where all the needed money is to come from, Mr. Lloyd-George will have to show when Parliament reassem- bles in the course of a few days. And the English voter has this Hobson's choice: that if he turns out the Liber- als and their financial plans, he must bring in the Unionists, who likewise stand for Dreadnoughts, increased land forces, and old-age pensions, and, in ad- dition, father a fiscal policy which may set English revenues topsy-turvy. It is reasonable to connect King Ed- ward's visit to Berlin with the an- nouncement that France and Germany have settled their differences with re- gard to Morocco. The meeting between King and Kaiser was received by a skeptical world as betokening no par- ticular change in the tenor of Anglo- German relations. True, the King and Kaiser kissed when they met, but in London "An Englishman's Home" was playing to frenzied audiences. Yet it is difficult to see just what King Ed- ward and the Kaiser could do to con- vince an unbelieving world of their sin- cere desire for peace between the na- tions. Germany and England have no concrete quarrels on hand, and there- fore have nothing to make peace over. It is different with Germany and France. Between them the question of Morocco has hovered as a constant source of irritation. To have removed Morocco from the sphere of internation- al contentions is to have done away with the most serious danger to Euro- pean peace that has arisen in the last half-decade, not excepting even this win- ter's Balkan crisis. Nor is it conceiv- able that Great Britain, which has con- sistently been backing France in her Moroccan policy, should have nothing to do with the new arrangement with Germany. Thus King Edward, preclud- ed from extending an olive branch on behalf of his own country, has spoken a word of good will to Germany through Britain's friend. The French statesman whose repu- tation will most profit by the Franco- German agreement concerning Morocco is neither M. Clemenceau nor Foreign Minister Pichon, creditable though the arrangement is to them, but M. Jaures. Ever since the appearance of the Mo- roccan question in acute form in the spring of 1905, the Socialist orator has fought, with tremendous persistence, against a policy of adventure in Moroc- co and in favor of a thorough under- standing with Germany. M. Jaures's de- mand that the French evacuate Morocco unconditionally, a responsible govern- ment could not, of course, entertain. But there can be little doubt that his incessant pleading for friendship with Germany has markedly influenced the course of the Clemenceau Ministry. The fact that in domestic matters M. JaurSs stands close to the revolutionary Social- ists should not obscure his services to the cause of European peace. His con- fidence in the pacific intentions of the European masses when immune from Jingo agitation, might well be emulat- ed by non-Socialistic politicians. It is a faith which the course of events on the Continent increasingly justifies. Whe- ther statesmen have grown smaller or democracy bigger, it is no longer easy for a single diplomat to bring the war clouds over Europe. This was shown in the Balkan trouble. In spite of editors trying to lash themselves into a fury, in spite of diplomatic notes, rejoinders, deadlocks, crises, mobilizations, what Aehrenthal said, what Isvolski said, what Milovanovitch said, and what the Servians and Montenegrins were bound to do, the inclination towards a pacific settlement was manifest from the begin- ning. Europe does not play with the idea of war as it did in earlier days. We may regret that differences should have appeared so soon within the ranks of the Turkish Constitutional party; yet there is reason for congratulation that the first crisis of the kind should have been settled in the proper way by a vote in Parliament and the retirement of the defeated Ministry. Dispatches from Constantinople have been meagre. Ap- parently, however, the Committee of Union and Progress, which engineered last summer's successful revolution and holds control of a majority in Parlia- ment, has grown dissatisfied with the policy of the grand vizier, Kiamil Pasha, as needlessly timid and conservative. The committee leaders have felt that ne- gotiations with Bulgaria and Austria should have been carried on more ag- gressively. For some time the organ of the Committee of Union and Prog- ress has been vigorously attacking the Kiamil Cabinet. Its editor was ostensi- bly disciplined a few weeks ago, but that was evidently because the commit- tee leaders were not quite ready to join issue. That they were not wasting their time, however, is shown by the almost unanimous vote of the Chamber against the Prime Minister. The crisis was pre- cipitated when Kiamil, a few days ago, dismissed his Ministers of War and Marine, who were actively in sympathy with the Committee of Union and Prog- ress. But in the overturn at Constantinople there was clearly involved something more than a difference between the zeal- ous reformers and cautious among the Young Turks. The difficult problem of the nationalities is now coming to the front, as was inevitable. The Young Turks who carried out the revolution, it will be remembered, were actuated in very large measure by a 3trong Otto- man patriotism. There was to be not only a constitutionalized Turkey, but a reinvigorated and consolidated empire, within which fair treatment should be accorded to every nationality, but pre- dominance should go to the Turks prop- er, who, after all, were the masters and the majority. Hence the Committee of Union and Progress is anxious that Par- liament shall not be turned into a de- vice for dismembering the Empire un- der some such name as local self-gov- ernment or national autonomy. The fact that Kiamil Pasha had his support among the Greek, Arab, and Albanian Deputies shows how the lines of nation- ality were being drawn. The downfall of Kiamil apparently means that the centralizing, patriotic policy of the orig- inal Young Turks will prevail for the time. Only on this ground can we un- derstand why the new Premier should

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The ISTation. 157 be Hilmi Pasha, who, during his long term as inspector-general of reforms in Macedonia, made these reforms a farce and a tragedy. Hilmi was constantly referred to as the Sultan's ante damnee, his jackal. Surely, the Young Turks would not choose him as vizier if it were the Sultan alone they were afraid of. The reorganization of the Austrian Cabinet has followed upon the recent adjournment of the Reichsrath amidst a glory of flying inkstands, fisticuffs, and objurgations unusual even for the Parliament of Cisleithania. Baron von Bienerth remains Prime Minister and keeps his Ministers of Interior and De- fence. All the other portfolios have been distributed among representatives of the pacific nationalities and parties. The conditions offer a striking com- mentary on the measure of Austria's sincerity in her supposedly bellicose at- titude on the Balkan question. Already rent apart by racial feuds, Austria would be playing with dynamite if she lightheartedly proceeded to an attack on the Slavs of Servia and Montenegro. The assimilation of the Bosnians will be a difficult task as it is. It would be rendered all the harder if war came first to leave behind it memories of hatred and bitter loss. OUR RELATIONS WITH SOUTH AMERICA. The settlement of our quarrel with Venezuela will doubtless be received in this country with mixed feelings. There will be general satisfaction, not alto- gether selfish, that Venezuela has enter- ed once more into the circle of civiliz- ed nations from which Castro practical- ly excommunicated her. There will be satisfaction, too, that the deadlock be- tween the Venezuelan government and foreign enterprise, a deadlock by which both sides were likely to lose, should be removed, and that commercial intercourse is to be resumed. Final- ly, there will be satisfaction at the mode by which the agreement was reached. The various questions in dis- pute have either been compromised or relegated to the Hague Tribunal for ad- judication, the latter procedure being a happy instance of the growing habit of peace among the world's diplomats. Criticism of the new arrangement will come from those who believe that on the most important of the issues the at- titude of Castro was completely justified — namely, in the affair of the Bermudez Asphalt Company. The company's com- plicity in the Matos revolution has been established, and one may well ask whe- ther under the circumstances any other government would have acted more le- niently than Castro did. President Gomez now consents to restore the asphalt company's property and permit it to resume business on the payment of the comparatively trifling fine of $60,- 000. Whether foreign residents in Ven- ezuela will assume quite the haughty air of former days, whether foreign capital will go back to playing politics in the old unscrupulous ways, time alone will show. South America is dangerous ground for the prophet. Yet certain signs point towards better things. Cas- tro has not lived and noisily wrought mischief in vain. He has served his country well by drawing notice to its wrongs, as well as to its shortcomings. The very conditions that made Castro's long reign possible were an indictment of the methods pursued by foreigners in Venezuela. It is scarcely conceivable that the country would have remained so long in a state of comparative con- tent under the rule of a despot and a grafter, if Castro had not also played the role of champion of Venezuela against foreign exploitation. The Amer- ican business corporation that organ- ized and paid for revolutions for the sake of gain, the French citizen who be- haved as if the police laws of Venezuela did not apply to him, the German citi- zen who lost a mule in a street riot and put in a claim for damages to the amount of ten thousand dollars — all this combined to mitigate the odium of Cas- tro's tyrannies and embezzlements. If he finally fell, it was because even he went too far. He had "restored" his country by restoring it almost to that blissful state of isolation which brood- ed over Venezuela before Columbus touched its shores. Thus it was that Venezuela had to get back to normal relations with the outside world, and compromise was the only way. Still, if Gomez has yielded too much, there will always be the possibility of a Castro to keep the unscrupulous foreigner within bounds. But more than by fear of vengeful dictators, the foreign trouble-maker in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America must be held back by the growth in Europe and North America of a healthy public opinion regarding the rights and duties of foreigners in these troubled southern republics. The time is, we trust, fast passing when the subject of a foreign Power may wrap his country's flag about some particular- ly nasty transaction, and have his coun- try invariably back him up, unquestion- ing and unafraid. On this point the government of the United States has some reason to congratulate itself. We have made no concealment of the weak- ness of our cause where it has been weak. The press and the administration have shown no desire to excuse the misdeeds of the Bermudez Asphalt Com- pany, and such general recognition of Venezuela's rights, even when defended by a Castro, is guarantee of a contin- ued fair dealing with Venezuela on the part of the American people. If the Bermudez Company has been let off easily, it is partly because of a desire of both our government and the new regime in Venezuela to clean all trou- bles away and make a fresh start. It is doubtful whether the Bermudez Com- pany or any other will care to appeal to Washington a second time with a story of "unjust" confiscation. The shifting of our attitude towards Venezuela is typical of our changing view of Spanish and Portuguese Amer- ica in general. The tendency now is to look upon that more than baker's dozen of republics as something beside the breeding place of comic-opera revolu- tions. The increasing prosperity of the southernmost republics, their growing prominence at international conferences, the closer intellectual intercourse be- tween the two Americas — all this means fuller knowledge and completer sympa- thy. The old conception of South Amer- ica as a continent inhabited by "greas- ers" who like to fight and hate to work, is, we regret to confess, still strong. It was formulated only a few days ago by that eminent authority on anthropology and student of alien races, Assembly- man Drew of California, when he point- ed to South America as the home of "a shiftless, worthless, mongrel race, that the world does not want , the most worthless in the world." To that view there will be fewer and fewer subscrib- ers as the years go by.

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158 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN FOREIGN EYES. Although Lincoln the Emancipator is now less spoken of than Lincoln the man of the people, the statesman, and the President, there must be many thou- sands of people whose minds have turn- ed to the extraordinary progress of the American negro since Lincoln struck the shackles from his limbs. An illit- eracy cut from the 95 per cent, of 1865 to 87 in 1870, and in the three decades between 1870 and 1900 to something over 40; the ownership of vast tracts of land, the invasion of the industries and the professions — these things would strike with amazement those who gave their lives for the liberty of the slave, could they but see the results of that great sacrifice. For to most Northern- ers in 1860 the negro was a mere beast of burden, often, as in the case of the Sea Islands blacks, among whom the first negro regiment was formed, but little changed from African habits of thought and life; always pitifully ig- norant and ragged; and, often enough, with lash-torn flesh and mutilated face. That there are discouragements enough in our national attitude toward the negro forty-four years after Lin- coln's death, cannot be denied. No one who took part in the celebration at Springfield, Illinois, last week can for- get that but a year ago innocent ne- groes were butchered in the streets there because they were negroes. In the steady filching of the uegio's political rights, we tend to revert to that con- dition of half-slave, half-free which Lin- coln declared to be intolerable. He would, we believe, be the first to say that a native-born, educated — and often property-owning — American who is de- prived of the ballot is defenceless be- fore his enemies; and he would find il- lustrations without number to prove his contention. For Lincoln to see those same poor black creatures who swarmed about him when he reached Richmond after its fall, whose pathetic, hysterical joy over their saviour from slavery he curbed with such wise and kindly ad- vice— to see these fellow-citizens now set apart in trains, street cars, and all public places, by an iron caste, would appall the greatest apostle of democ- racy. Appall, but not discourage. When to his disappointment in 1856 but two persons came to the mass-meeting he had called at Springfield to ratify the Illinois anti-Nebraska Convention of 1856, he heartened himself, his partner Herndon, and John Pain, by saying: Under all this seeming want of life and motion the world does move, nevertheless. Be hopeful and now let us adjourn and ap- peal to the people. So must those who to-day work in his spirit, so must the negroes themselves, appeal to the people in whose hearts still resides that sense of justice in which Lincoln never lost faith. Not even Lincoln himself, however, would be so optimistic as the latest stu- dent of our negro problem, Sir Harry Johnston, the African traveller and his- torian of African colonization, who has just contributed six articles on "The Negro in America" to the London Times. In his summary of our perplexities, he says, solvitur ambulando: While we are theorizing on this side and on that, predicting one extreme solution or another, in all probability the difficulty is gradually thinning out. In twenty years' time, there may be no more need to dis- cuss the color question in the United States. If this view seems almost fantastic, the standing of the writer and the fact that many of the most truthful pictures of the underlying evils of slavery came in antebellum days from the pens of such gifted foreigners as Harriet Martineau, Fanny Kemble, and George Thompson, forbid the curt dismissal of his hopes, and of his opinion as to the unique Southern attempt to carry on a demo- cratic government and an industrial system with two groups of people whol- ly set apart. To Sir Harry Johnston, even with his wide knowledge of Africa, the segregation of "the educated and colored people of good standing" is sim- ply "nonsense" that is bound, with time, to be abated. He does not believe that the recognition and humane treatment of these worthy people will either stim- ulate intermarriage of the races or lead to increased crimes against the whites. Indeed, as to the "last excuse on the part of Southern politicians, mob ora- tors, and ill-regulated journalists for slandering and oppressing the colored people," namely, the crimes against wo- men, Sir Harry Johnston declares, with refreshing vigor: "The world, the edu- cated world outside of the eleven South- ern States, has had about enough of this bogey." While he was able to find twen- ty-four cases of attacks by black men on white women in the year 1907, he has learned, on good authority, that the charges of rape of white and black wo- men by white men in the Southern States would "double the misdeeds of the negroes." The white South will be still less pleased with Sir Harry Johnston's as- sertion that it needs education more than the negro, and that he is astonish- ed at the childish ignorance of press and pulpit in the South and Central West, concerning everything, save the immediate interests of plantation or borough. "A self-satisfied ignorance," he calls it; and this "narrow, eminent- ly provincial intellect" he blames for "all the trouble and exacerbation over the negro question." Finally he adds: When the South closes down all State discussion of that indefensible Civil War, and matches the physical beauty and vigor of its white population with an equally high mental development, the negro prob- lem in the United States will be finally solved and kept in a state of solution. That the white South is sorely in need of that enlarged vision, of which slav- ery and subsequent evils have hitherto deprived it, is indisputable. Fortu- nately, as Sir Harry Johnston sees, the change is at hand; the white South is beginning to get a higher and broader education. Nevertheless, we wish the Lincoln celebration might have been marked by some great step forward for the colored people, not merely the endowment of this college or that hospital, but the cre- ation by some of our philanthropists of a great fund, the income of which might be used for the intelligent help and guidance of the race. The negro needs to be studied, to be better equip- ped for all the duties of citizenship. The complicated question of providing for his education, in the rudiments of let- ters and sciences, in agriculture and the industries, and also in the professions, must be attacked with constructive in- telligence working upon a large mass of carefully gathered facts. In this field of training the negro we still grope and stumble in the dark. Why build a Lincoln boulevard from Washington to Gettysburg when money might be spent in ways far more useful and more grate- ful to the spirit of Abraham Lincoln? CONSERVING LABOR. Nothing could be more hopeful or commendable than the recently awaken- ed interest in the preservation of our natural resources. It is high time this awakening came, and nothing ought to -

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The ]ST a t i o 11 . 159 be said to discredit it; but it may be pertinent to ask whether we understand what our real resources are, and whe- ther we are not overlooking our most destructive forms of waste. Correspond- ing to the economist's three factors of production, there are three conspicuous forms of waste — waste labor, waste land, and waste capital. The greatest of these is waste labor, but it is the form of waste which is least understood and appreciated. It is the most important because it is the human factor which is being wasted, and the human factor has always and everywhere been the greatest factor in the production of wealth. Communities have grown rich in poor environments, and poor in rich environments, but no community ever grew rich while lavishly wasting its hu- man energy; and it is doubtful if any community ever remained poor which utilized and conserved its labor-power. The term, of course, includes men- tal as well as physical energy. That waste labor-power is the form of waste which is least understood and appreciat- ed is shown by- the fact that a great many people, perhaps a majority, not only do not deprecate it, but actually think it a good thing. A leisure class to consume the products of the work- ers is thought by many to be an econom- ic necessity. Of waste labor there are four principal kinds: the unemployed, the improperly employed, the imperfect- ly employed, and the voluntarily idle. In the elimination of these four forms of waste lie greater opportunities for the constructive economist than in any other direction. Of these four the least important — from the point of view of the economist — is the unemployed, and yet it is almost the only form which has received any attention. It is the least, important be- cause: first, it is normally and on the average the least efficient labor which remains unemployed; second, because the utilization of the labor-power which is now going to waste at the upper end of the social scale will go a long way toward solving the problem of unem- ployment at the lower end of the scale. By improperly employed labor is meant that which is engaged in acquir- ing rather than producing wealth. En- terprises whose sole purpose is to cause two dollars to emerge from the pockets of other men where one had emerged before absorb a considerable fund of energy which ought to be concerned with blades of grass and similar things. It is unnecessary to mention the thief, the counterfeiter, the confidence man, and the blackmailer. Their activities are already regarded as predatory rather than productive, and the law is doing what it can to stop them. From the economic point of view, however, there is no great difference between the coun- terfeiter and the adulterator of food and drugs, or the manufacturer of shod- dy; between the confidence man and the promoter of over-capitalized corpor- ations; or between the blackmailer and a certain type of advertising agent who persuades you to advertise with him, not because it will do you any good, but because it will save you from harm. A really productive enterprise carried on by purely productive methods increases the wealth in the hands not only of those directly interested in it, but also of other people in proportion as it is successful; and the richer a man grows in such an enterprise by such methods, the richer he makes the country. The law-giver who can turn all our labor- power, mental and physical, into such channels will make the country so pro- ductive that nothing short of a foreign invasion or a geological catastrophe could prevent us from becoming rich, even if our material resources were as meagre as those of New England. By imperfectly employed labor is meant that which is employed produc- tively, but less productively than it might be. Wherever there is a man doing unskilled work who might, had he received the proper training, be do- ing skilled work, or doing skilled man- ual work who might be doing the more highly skilled and more needed work of managing and directing, there is a case of imperfectly employed labor. It is as great a waste of productive energy as it would be to have good garden land used for pasturing long-horned steers. Here, again, is a statesman's oppor- tunity for enriching his nation, by pro- viding the means for economizing to the greatest degree the labor power of the people. Much of it is now going to waste, in the sense that it has to be utilized in ways which are of little value, merely because of its over-sup- ply, while other kinds of work are suf- fering because of the scarcity of com- petent men. As a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so an indus- try can expand only so far as its scarc- est factor will permit. The scarcest factor is managing ability, and any pol- icy, educational or moral, which will in- crease the supply of managing ability will enable industry to expand and to absorb greater numbers of the unem- ployed. Incidentally, this would do more than anything else to equalize the distribution of wealth. The voluntarily idle are of two classes — those who have retired on a well- earned competence, and those who live on wealth which they themselves have never earned. The first class is not very large in America, though it is in- creasing. The American business man's habit of continuing to work after hav- ing accumulated enough to provide for all his possible wants is singularly eco- nomical of human energy, provided, of course, that his is a productive or really useful business. The longer he remains active, the greater the fund of produc- tive energy at work in the community and the richer the community will grow. It is, of course, unnecessary to say that no one is idle who is fully occupied with some useful work, even though he be not actually earning his living by it; and that we are here considering only the economic results, and not the bene- fits which the individual, and through him society, may derive from leisure, travel, and intellectual recreations. With the second class of the vol- untary idle we have not until re- cently been very much troubled, but our own prosperity is creating it, and we need to look to the future. Those who live on inherited wealth, and on wealth accruing from a rise in land val- ues, make up the greater part of this class. Here are other conditions which challenge the constructive statesman. The loss of this kind of labor-power is especially regrettable, because it might often be labor-power of the highest type, which, if set to work, might in- crease the supply of the scarcest factor in the creation of wealth, both material and immaterial, and which might, there- fore, strengthen society precisely where it is now weakest, and contribute most to our national prosperity. If a man of genuine capacity lives in idleness as a result of his fortune, all that capacity goes to waste. The effect of this is much like that of allowing our best land to run to weeds. While we are devising ways and

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160 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 means, therefore, for conserving our ma- terial resources, let us not overlook the enormous waste of human energy which is now going on, lest we be guilty of saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung-hole. THOMAS TRAHERNE. I. It is no slight thing to have discov- ered a new companion to Henry Vaughan and Sir Thomas Browne. If there was any doubt of the claims of Bertram Dobell to such an honor when, two years ago, he printed Traherne's "Poetical Works," it must be removed by the present publication of the "Cen- turies of Meditations."* Mr. Dobell has pieced together all the information — little enough — apparently to be found in regard to his hero's life. Thomas Traherne was born about the year 1636. His family was presumably of Welsh origin, so that we may conjecture a re- lation of race as well as of tempera- ment with Henry Vaughan of Brecon- shire and with George Herbert of Mont- gomery. His father was a shoemaker of Hereford, where the poet was probably born, and where a certain Philip Tra- herne, a kinsman one supposes, was twice Mayor and lies commended in his epitaph "for his fervent zeal for the Established Church and clergy, and friendly and affectionate behavior in conversation, which rendered him high- ly valuable to all the royal party." Thomas attended the local grammar school, and thence proceeded to Oxford. Here he received the degree of Bach- elor of Arts in 1656; Master of Arts, 1661; Bachelor of Divinity, 1669; and was admitted by the Commissioners for the Approbation of Public Preachers to the Rectory of Crednell, alias Credden- hill, Co. Hereford, in 1657. The only lifelike picture we get of him at college is from the preface to his own "Roman Forgeries": One evening, as I came out of the Bod- leian Library, which is the glory of Ox- ford, and this nation, at the stairs-foot I was saluted by a person that has deserved well of scholars and learning, who being an intimate friend of mine, told me there was a gentleman, his cousin, pointing to a grave person, in the quadrangle, a man that had spent many thousand pounds in promoting Popery, and that he had a de- sire to speak with me. The gentleman came up to us of his own accord: we agreed, for the greater liberty and privacy, to walk abroad into the New Parks. He was a not- able man, of an eloquent tongue, and com- petent reading, bold, forward, talkative enough; he told me. . . . It is a neat vignette from the religious *The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne. From the original manuscripts. Edited by Bertram Dobell. London: Published by the Editor. Second edition, 1906. Centuries of Meditations. By Thomas Traherne. Now first printed from the author's manuscript. Edited by Bertram Dobell. 1908. life of the day, with something about it of that mingled air of zeal and courtesy which Mr. Shorthouse repro- duced so magically in "John Inglesant." And it forms a pleasant prelude to the quiet years of study and reflection that Traherne chose for himself after leav- ing the university. The literature of the seventeenth century is rich in the confessions of those who through all the turbulence of the times, in large part because of that turbulence, remem- bered, like Falkland, "that Truth in likelihood is where her author God was, in the still voice, and not the loud wind"; but the age contains no more beautiful expression of that choice, I think, than this Meditation of Thomas Traherne: When I came into the country, and being seated among silent trees and woods and hills, bad all my time in mine own hands, I resolved to spend it all, whatever it cost me, in the search of Happiness, and to sa- tiate the burning thirst which Nature had enkindled in me from my youth. In which I was so resolute that I chose rather to live upon ten pounds a year, and to go in leather clothes and to feed upon bread and water, so that I might have all my time clearly to myself, than to keep many thou- sands per annum in an estate of life where my time would be devoured in care and la- bor. And God was so pleased to accept of that desire that from that time to this I have had all things plentifully provided for me without any care at all, my very study of Felicity making me more to prosper than all the care in the whole world. So that through His blessing, I live a free and a kingly life, as if the world were turned again into Eden, or, much more, as it is at this day. It is the modesty and moral prudence of such passages as. this that by com- parison take off the relish of the more self-assertive manner of Thoreau and the other moderns who make a pro- fession of the free life in nature. Tra- herne, it should seem, set down his Meditation at the close of his career while living as a private chaplain with Sir Orlando Bridgman. That "mighty able man," as Pepys calls him, had ap- parently summoned Traherne to London from Creddenhill when, in 1667, he had been created Lord Keeper of the Seal. Five years later, on being deprived of the seal, he had retired to Teddington, a fair spot on the Thames three miles above Richmond, and taken his chap- lain with him. He was, as we gather from contemporary chroniclers, of a precise legal habit and given to balanc- ing and weighing all questions, "a man of great integrity," as Burnet says, "and had very serious impressions of relig- ion in his mind." It is fair to believe that in the woods and hills of Tedding- ton he was a companion of Traherne in his "study of Felicity." They both died in 1674, the servant three months after the master. II. Though Traherne is said to have writ- ten much, he published little. His "Ro- man Forgeries," the outcome of his dis- cussion with the Papist at Oxford, ap- peared in 1673. Just before his death, he had sent a volume of "Christian Eth- icks" to the press, but he himself never saw it in print. Twenty-five years after- ward an anonymous work, "A Serious and Patheticall Contemplation of the Mercies of God," was brought out by the Reverend Doctor Hickes, "at the request of a friend of the author's." And at last, Mr. Dobell, from two manuscripts whose history reads like a fairy-tale of let- ters, gives to the world the "Poetical Works" and "Centuries of Meditations." Of the two books now so miraculously given to the world, the prose "Medita- tions" is the more perfect accomplish- ment, more poetical really than the verse. It consists of four sections of a hundred paragraphs each, with the be- ginning of a fifth century left incom- plete, one conjectures, by the author's death. There is a touch of pleasant mys- tery about the origin of the work. The manuscript is in a book given him, as we learn from the first Meditation, by a friend. "I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders," he writes. "And since Love made you put it into my hands, I will fill it with those Truths you love without knowing them: with those things which, if it be possible, shall show my Love; to you in commun- icating most enriching Truths: to Truth in exalting her beauties in such a Soul." There is no clue to the lady's name, who inspired these fragments of truth; nothing known of her save that she was, as Traherne says, in an inscription on the first leaf of the manuscript, "the friend of my best friend." It should ap- pear from certain notices in the fourth century that the work was to be a me- morial of one to whom Traherne had looked as to an exemplar of wisdom — "he from whom I received these things," and who "always thought that to be happy in the midst of a generation of vipers was become his duty" — and at the same time a record for the lady of a secret life which that friend could not himself proclaim "because of mod- esty." She may have belonged to the family named Skipp, of Ledbury, Here- fordshire, into whose hands the poet's manuscripts passed from nis brother Philip, and who, it seems, kept posses- sion of them down to 1888. Did she play a part in Traherne's life like that of Anne Finch, Lady Conway, to Henry More, who used to go to her place at Ragley and its woods for rest and in- spiration? III. At least it is no idle thought to bring together the names of our Teddington chaplain and the mystical doctor of Cambridge. They were products of the same Platonizing tendency that sought peace and the beauty of holiness in the

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The ISTation. 161 midst of a people who were running af- ter the bitterest fruit of zeal. To both re- ligion was known by the spirit of glad- ness. Dr. More, we are told by his biog- rapher, declared in his last sickness "that he did gaudere gaudium Animce Universi, he joyed, as it were, the joy of the Soul of the Universe"; and that in a word is the very essence of Tra- herne's philosophy. He has almost noth- ing of theology, as it was practised in those days, or of the church. Far from that, Traherne's religion may almost be reduced to the simple belief that by the recollection of his innocent childhood the Christian can recreate about him- self the happy childhood of the world. He was not the only man of that age who believed, as Wordsworth was to say later, that "heaven lies about us in our infancy." Wordsworth's great ode in fact was probably suggested by the exquisite lines of Vaughan's "Re- treat": Happy those early days, when I Shined in my angel-infancy! Before I understood this place Appointed for my second race. Or taught my soul to fancy aught But a white, celestial thought; . . . When on some gilded cloud, or flow'r, My gazing soul would dwell an hour, And in those weaker glories spy Some shadows of eternity. The idea to these poets of the renais- sance seemed a pure piece of Platonism; it was in reality one of those ambiguous products that spring from the union of Platonism and Christianity, neither quite one nor the other. Plato had taught that we carried with us into the world visions of celestial things, and that learning was a kind of reminis- cence, or rediscovery, of what was al- ready ours. But he taught also that this recollection was to be attained by slow search and experience, and he would Lave been the first to repudiate Wordsworth's child philosopher and Vaughan's "bright shoots of everlasting- ness." That is Platonism interpreted through the Gospel: "Except ye be con- verted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." These doubtful amalgamations were in the air that men breathed, but I do not recall any other who accepted the splendid vision of childhood as se- riously as did Traherne or reasoned out his faith upon it so explicitly. His poetry is a variation on the single theme, The first impressions are Immortal all, which he repeats with endless gusto. There is more of Blake than of Words- worth in such a poem as "Wonder," which, as his work is still so little known, may be quoted almost at length: How like an angel came I down! How bright are all things here ! When first among His works I did appear O how their Glory me did crown! The world resembled His Eternity, In which my soul did walk; And every thing that I did see Did with me talk. The skies in their magnificence, The lively, lovely air; Oh, how divine, how soft, how sweet, how fair! The stars did entertain my sense, And all the works of God, so bright and pure, So rich and great did seem, As if they ever must endure In my esteem. The streets were paved with golden stones, The boys and girls were mine, Oh how did all their lovely faces shine! The sons of men were holy ones, In joy and beauty they appeared to me, And every thing which here I found, While like an angel I did see, Adorned the ground. Rich diamond and pearl and gold In every place was seen ; Rare splendors, yellow, blue, red, white and green, Mine eyes did everywhere behold. Great Wonders clothed with glory did ap- pear, Amazement was my bliss, That and my wealth was everywhere; No joy to this! Cursed and devised proprieties, With envy, avarice And fraud, those fiends that spoil even Paradise, Flew from the splendor of mine eyes, And so did hedges, ditches, limits, bounds, I dreamed not aught of those, But wandered over all men's grounds, And found repose. Proprieties themselves were mine And hedges ornaments, Walls, boxes, coffers, and their rich con- tents Did not divide my joys, but all combine. Clothes, ribbons, jewels, laces, I esteemed My joys by others worn; For me they all to wear them seemed When I was born. That is nearer to Blake, perhaps, than anything else you will find in the sev- enteenth century — yet with a difference. It has not the artful naivete of the lat- er poet; we are still in the generation of Cowley and the other metaphysical writers who lead on to Dryden, whereas in Blake one seems to feel the stirring under ground of powers that will bring in the new romance. Its rhythm is stiff, with none of that pretty lilt that gives to Blake at his best a music like "the earliest pipe of half-awakened birds." Indeed, Traherne was never quite a poet. But if he misses the melody of Blake, he also lacks the spirit of re- volt that came with the later genera- tion. He would never have admitted with Blake that the moral law belongs to the deadening experience which kills the innocent joy of childhood, or that formal religion is part of "the golden net" which keeps us out of Paradise. And, again, if his "cursed and devised proprieties" (properties) look forward to Rousseau's theory that the fall from innocence occurred when the first man fenced in a bit of land and called it "mine," he is still further from the bit- terness of Rousseau than from the petulance of Blake. His wealth is in the power of enjoyment and not in pos- session; the riches he beholds are "my joys by others worn." IV. But to get the full measure of Tra- herne's force as one of those to whose imagination the gates of childhood have never closed, we must turn to the opening paragraphs of his third Cen- tury. It is probable that the "Medita- tions" were written later than the poems, and that, contrary to the cus- tom of most poets, some of these re- flections are really paraphrases of his verse, written over into more numer- ous prose. Compare, for instance, the stranzas just quoted with their counter- part in the "Meditations": Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world, than I when I was a child. . . . The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from ever- lasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold: the gates were at first the end of the world. The green trees, when I saw them first, through one of the gates, transported and ravished me, their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and won- derful things. The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims ! And young men glit- tering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the Light of Day, and something in- finite behind everything appeared: which talked with my expectation and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden, or to be built in Heaven. The streets were mine, the temple was mine, the people were mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine, as much as their sparkling eyes, fair skins and ruddy faces. The skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the World was mine; and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it. I knew no churlish proprieties, nor bounds, nor divisions: but all proprieties and di- visions were mine : all treasures and the possessors of them. So that with much ado I was corrupted, and made to learn the dirty devices of this world. Which now I unlearn, and become, as it were, a little child again that I may enter into the King- dom of God. That, I am not afraid to say, does in its own romantic kind take a place among the superbest passages of Eng- lish prose, and, indeed, the whole book of "Meditations" is f-f an almost in- effable fascination. For those who de-

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162 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 sire a companion in their excursions into the country, there is no volume of prose within my knowledge more de- sirable than this of Traherne's. It will bring enlightenment also to those who have imbibed the odd belief that the real love of nature came in with Rous- seau or with the romantic writers of the early nineteenth century. Nor does Traherne, in this trust in the restora- tive beauty of nature, stand alone. You will find it in the lyrical poems of the age, and in the sermons of men like Jeremy Taylor. It forms the splendid heart of "Paradise Lost," as displayed in the description of Eden. It is the substance also of the finer philosophy of the day, and Henry More was indulg- ing in no mere rhetorical ornament when he brought the persons of his "Di- vine Dialogues" to an arbor in a pleas- ant spot amid the beds and alleys of a garden, in the cool of the evening. For it was just the office of the principal speaker to give "such a definition of the Kingdom of God as takes in the King- dom of Nature also." In all these things Traherne was but a voice of the times, except for the precision and con- sistency with which he joined the love of nature to the innocence of childhood and found through a return to these the only path of salvation. V. We are here close to Rousseau's gos- pel of the natural man, and, indeed, these English writers are the chief source of that revolutionary creed. Yet, again, the difference is as important as the re- semblance. Traherne has, like Rous- seau, much to say of the corrupting in- fluence of the world, but he is still far from instituting a sharp dualism be- tween the individual and society. Men are rather divided by responsibility of their own choice into those who have kept or recovered the key to Paradise through a divine love, which is but an- other name for child-like openness of sight, and those who have lost the key. "There are many glorious excellencies in the material World," he says, "but without Love they are all abortive"; and with a sharper intonation of dual- ism: "That while others live in a Gol- gotha or Prison, we should be in Eden, is a very great Mystery." Nature is thus both a blessing and a curse; but this division — and here lies the very gist of the matter — arises from no belief in the loss, irremediable for us, of a di- vine state by some mythological Fall in the past, or of a perfect natural state by the institution of society, but de- pends upon the eyes of each man who looks out here and now upon visible phenomena. If a darkness came over the light of nature by man's first sin, yet even to-day, "O Lord," as he ex- claims, "Heaven and earth are infinitely more valuable than they were before, being bought with Thy Precious Blood." There is no flaw in the world as it ac- tually lies about us; here as you move in these streets and beneath these trees, as to Adam in Paradise, "the Omnipres- ence and Eternity of God are your fel- lows and companions," speaking to you in the splendor of material things, and becoming one with you by an absolute communion of the soul and nature. The perception of these privileges is by your own choice: Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father's Pal- ace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as Celestial Joys : having such a reverent esteem of all, as if you were among Angels. The bride of a monarch, in her husband's chamber, hath no such causes of delight as you. You never enjoy the world aright, till the Sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars: and perceive your- self to be the sole heir of the whole world. And again: It [the world] is a glorious mirror where- in you may see the verity of all religion: enjoy the remainders of Paradise, and talk with the Deity. Apply yourself vigorously to the enjoyment of it, for in it you shall see the face of God, and by enjoying it, be wholly converted to Him. VI. The worship and glorification of na- ture have never gone, can never go, fur- ther than this; nor is any one who has read these "Meditations" likely ever to forget them; they will return to him in certain moods to add a zest to his joy; but — alas, for these inevitable question- ings— but do they contain quite the whole truth? Is there^ not, after all, something still wanting, something, per- haps, forgotten? As I read these golden sentences that conjure up the fabric of the world before us, I seem to be watch- ing a child, who, on a strip of beach left bare by the tide, is intent on build- ing a palace of sand for his amusement, rearing arch and dome higher and high- er, adorning them with glittering shells and pebbles, lending to it in imagina- tion the spell and inhabitants of fairy- land. And all the while, the returning tide rolls inward, stealthily, slowly, and then a longer-reaching wave — and all is sand and shells and pebbles. And so it is with this transfigured world of the poets. We are entranced and lifted up, while the reality is withdrawn. But how is it when the tedium of life rolls in upon us; when the ambition for which we have striven fails and we are taught the deceitfulness of hope, or is achieved and we find to our dismay that we have no more capacity of en- joyment than before; or when a great loss by death or evil alienation darkens our ways— how is it then with this Par- adise of the innocent? While reading the "Meditations," there came into my hands the volume containing the "Se- lected Poems" of Francis Thompson, published about the same time, and I was struck by the application of a few lines of "The Hound of Heaven" to Tra- herne's nature-cult. That poem, it will be remembered, represents the soul of man as pursued by a spirit which is ut- terly not of this world. The hearer of the call seeks a refuge from its un- relenting insistence in all the varied in- terests and ties of life — in family and friendship and love and science, and in the fellowship of nature: Across the margent of the world I fled. And troubled the gold gateways of the stars. Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars; Fretted to dulcet jars And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. I said to dawn, Be sudden; to eve, Be soon; With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over From this tremendous Lover ! . . . Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat — "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me." In all this worship of nature, and Tra- herne belongs to a school whose influ- ence can be traced in a score of varying forms down to the present day — in all this fair symbolism there is a strain of illusion which melts away at the touch of the greater realities, leaving the wor- shipper naked and bewildered. Ita mag- nam in animis ccelesti doctrina carenti- bus vim habuit natura rerum, said a wise Pope. Nature is indeed a great and, it may be, a healing power; but its unquestioned domination is still in the heart of those who have missed the ce- lestial doctrine, and there are evils against which its seduction is of no avail. P. E. M. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The members of the Bibliographical So- ciety have just received Vol. IX of tho transactions of the society, containing sev- eral interesting papers. Alfred W. Pol- lard, W. W. Greg, and Falconer Madan discuss the subject of bibliographical de- scriptions, and Mr. Pollard presents a scheme of rules and models which, if they could be adopted, would bring about great- er uniformity in catalogues. In an article on "Books and Bookmaking in Early Chron- icles and Accounts," the Abbot Gasquet has gathered from scattered sources a series of interesting notes as to the cost of books before the Introduction of print- ing. An indenture dated August 26, 1346, shows that one Robert Brekeling, a scribe, undertook to write a Psalter, with the Calendar, for 5s. 6d., and the Office for the Dead, with a collection of hymns and col- lects, for an additional 4s. 3d. It is prob- able that the vellum upon which the writ- ing was done was furnished by the monas- tery. For the illumination of the capitals an extra 5s. 6d. was paid, over and above 18d., which was allowed for the gold and 2s.

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Nation. 163 for the colors. Henry B. Wheatley writes on the signs of booksellers in St. Paul's Churchyard, and gives a "provisional list" of 175 "signs," mostly gathered from the imprints of books. A Bibliography of Rich- ard Bentley, compiled by A. T. Bartholo- mew, with an introduction by J. W. Clark, although not printed for the society, has been distributed to the members. It is a volume of 125 pages, with three portraits and a facsimile letter. In an appendix is reprinted Bentley's "Proposal for Building a Royal Library" (1697) of which the only known copy is in the British Museum. Part iv of the Henry W. Poor library will be sold toy the Anderson Auction Company of this city on February 23, 24, and 25. This section is made up largely of books of special or private presses. There are seventeen lots from the Kelmscott Press, including one ("The Tale of the Emperor Coustans") on vellum, of which twenty copies only were printed; twenty-six lots from the Vale Press; thirty-eight from t>» Daniel Press, including some of the scarc- er items; a nearly complete set of the Humphreys Press publications; publica- tions of the Bibliophile Society; a large number of Mosher's books, several on vel- lum; and some of William Loring Andrews's issues, Including "Among My Books," of which fifty copies only were printed. Among first editions of English authors, the most notable is a series of Robert Louis Stevenson's books, including "The Pentland Rising" (1866), his first book; the rare Edinburgh University Magazine (1871), four numbers, all issued; and the original Sydney edition of "Father Damien" (1890). Among other English authors are first. editions of Swinburne, Charles Lever, An- drew Lang, Tennyson, and Oscar Wilde. There is a complete set of Thoreau, and a long series of first editions of Whittier, in- cluding "Mogg Megone" (1836) and "Moll Pitcher and the Minstrel Girl" (1840); and minor books of Holmes, Longfellow, Emer- son, and Lowell. Several of Surtees's books with illustrations by "Phiz" and Leech are listed, among them the first edition of "Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities" (1838). The most interesting of the older books is Walton's "Angler," second edition (1655). with manuscript notes in Walton's auto- graph on four of the fly leaves. As with the other parts of the library, there are many volumes in specimen bindings by the Club Bindery, Bradstreet's, and others. On February 23, 24, 25, and 26, the Mer- win-Clayton Sales Company of this city will offer a collection, largely Americana, including books on the American Revolu- tion, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and local histories. On February 25 and 26, C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston will sell the autograph col- lection of the late Edward Abbott, with which is incorporated the correspondence of the Rev. William B. Sprague, one of the earliest of American autograph collectors. Among the more Interesting items are sev- eral letters and manuscripts of Thoreau and letters to him from William Ellery Channlng, Horace Greeley, and others. Man- uscripts of Richard, Increase, and Cotton Mather, an A.L.S. of John Brown to his son, documents signed by several of the Presidents and signers of the Declaration of Independence, and a number of deeds and other documents relating to slavery are included. Correspondence. "WIT, WHITHER WILT?" AND OTHER SHAKESPEAREAN NOTES. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Some of the most perplexing of the minor problems of Shakespearean interpre- tation are those that have to do with pop- ular sayings, quotations from old songs or ballads, allusions to familiar stories, jokes or quibbles, and the like. One of these is "Wit, whither wilt?" in "As You Like It" (iv, 1, 168), also referred to by Rosalind in the same play (i, 2, 59), when Touch- stone enters. Its frequent occurrence in the literature of the time shows that it had become proverbial, but its origin and precise meaning have been a standing puz- zle for editors and critics. Professor Dow- den, however, has solved the enigma. In a letter received from him, a fortnight ago, he says: As the least little crumb of Shakespeare knowledge will be cared for by you, I may say that I think I can throw some light on "Wit, whither wilt?" Malone, you will remember, believed the words to belong to some song or madrigal. So it is. In that eloquent Puritan Thomas Adams's sermon, published in the same year with the same title as Webster's play (at least, publish- ed in 1612 — my copy is 1613, second edition), "The White Devill," p. 39, he writes: "Many a Pope sings that common ballad of hell: Wit, whither wilt thou? Woe Is me. My wit hath wrought my misery." These rhymed lines suit the drift of Orlan- do's speech in "As You Like It," iv, 1, per- fectly, I think. Dowden had apparently forgotten, as I am sure I had, a quotation in Steevens's note ("Variorum" of 1821, vi, 472) from the pref- ace to Greene's "Groatsworth of Wit" (ed. 1621) : Wit, whither wilt thou? Woe Is me, Thou hast brought me to this mlserle. Steevens evidently assumed that the lines (except the "Wit, whither wilt?") were Greene's, or he would have seen that they were from a song or ballad; and the prob- lem would have been solved nearly a cen- tury ago. He merely remarked that the question was "an exclamation much in use when any one was either talking nonsense, or usurping a greater share in conversa- tion than justly belonged to him." He cites examples of it from Dekker and Heywood, refers to others in Taylor the Water-Poet, and adds that the expression "seems to have been the title of some ludicrous per- formance." Johnson thought it "must be some allusion to a story well known at that time, though now perhaps irretriev- able." Malone says: "If I remember right, these are the first words of an old madri- gal." Dr. Furness thinks they were prob- ably from a ballad, and I have expressed the same opinion in my revised edition of the play. Of jokes or plays upon words that have posed all the critics, in spite of the amus- ing "tricks of desperation" by which they have endeavored to explain them, many examples might be given, but one or two must suf- fice here. In "The Tempest" (ii, 1, 65), when Gonzalo refers to the fact that the gar- ments of the shipwrecked company, after being "drenched in the sea," nevertheless seem "rather new-dyed than stained with salt water," Antonio replies: "If but one of his pockets could speak, would it not say he lies?" None of the early editors at- tempt to explain this; but a recent critic thinks that the opening of the pocket look- ed like a mouth; and another says that "the pocket would be so full of mud that it would give the lie" to Gonzalo's asser- tion. Furness quotes these suggestions, but accepts neither of them. He might have reminded the author of the second one, that the magic which had made the garments as good as new would not have left mud in the pockets, if indeed any would have been there. The Clown's remark in "Twelfth Night" (iii, 1, 25) that "words are very rascals since bonds disgraced them," gets half a page of comment from six or seven critics in Furness's edition; but he adds that "none of them affords me [him] a ray of light." He suggests an explanation of his own which he "fears is quite as far- fetched as any of the others." It certainly is, and I will not be so unkind as to quote it. The old story alluded to in "Hamlet" (iii, 4, 191) of the ape that unpegged the basket on the housetop and "let the birds fly" has eluded all critical research; like that in "Pericles" (iii, 2, 84) of the Egyp- tian who "had nine hours lien dead" (ap- parently), but was "by good appliance re- covered" ; and many another that was doubtless familiar to the theatre-goers of Shakespeare's day, but is now hopelessly lost. The eighteenth-century editors were sometimes puzzled by allusions in the plays to old customs that had changed and been generally forgotten. In "King John" (iv, 2, 198) they were mystified by the refer- ence to the tailor : Standing on slippers which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet. A full page is devoted to the passage in the "Variorum" of 1821. Good old Doctor John- son remarks: Shakespeare seems to have confounded the man's shoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally admit either foot. The author seems to be disturbed by the disorder which he describes. Farmer suggests that "ancient slippers might possibly be very different from mod- ern ones"; and Steevens, Toilet, and Ma- lone quote from writers between 1580 and 1797 to prove that shoes in former times were often "rights and lefts." The fashion was revived in the earlier half of the nine- teenth century, but shoes of the other style were made, at least for boys, seventy years ago, because (as I remember that I was told) they were supposed to wear better than "rights and lefts." Some ancient customs have bothered the commentators down to our own day; like that alluded to in the "Merchant of Venice" (iv., 1, 129), where Gratiano tells Shylock that his "currish spirit" must originally have Govem'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter. Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy uuhallow'd dam, Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolvlsh, bloody, starv'd, and ravenous. When I first edited the play (1870) I felt sure that I had somewhere met with a ref- erence to old-time trial and execution of beasts for killing human beings; but as I could not then trace it I hesitated to men- tion it in my notes. The only comment upon it in the editions of Shakespeare that I

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164 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 could find was an absurdly Irrelevant one by Steevens in the "Variorum" of 1821, which Purness ridicules in his edition of 1888. It was the only one he had discov- ered, and he adds no explanation of his own. He suggests that the passage may possibly be "one of those actor's additions which Hamlet denounces," and that "this would measurably account for its grammatical awkwardness." He adds that "the whole passage, from 'Thy currish spirit,' to 'In- fus'd itself in thee,' can be omitted without injury either to the sense or the rhythm." This is true; and I might be inclined to agree with him as to the possible spurious- ness of the passage, if the "confusion of construction" were markedly worse than many examples cited by Abbott ("Gram- mar," § 409-417), or if I had not, before re- editing the play, in 1903, found abundant evidence of animals "hang'd for human slaughter." Many cases of such judicial proceedings in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are mentioned by Baring-Gould, in his "Curiosities of Olden Times" (1896). In 1386, for instance, a sow was hanged at Falaise for killing a child. In 1389 a horse was tried and condemned for killing a man ; and in 1499 a bull was similarly sen- tenced for causing the death of a boy. The trials were conducted with all the formali- ties, either before the ordinary or the ec- clesiastical courts; and in some cases ap- peals were made to a higher court, and de- cided in due form. It Is said that during the witch persecutions in Salem dogs were hanged for supposed complicity with per- sons accused. The Jewish law (Exodus, xxi. 28) concerning an ox that had gored a man, may have been cited as a precedent. I must have learned some of these facts — I do not yet know from what source — before 1870. By the way, in the passage in the "Mer- chant" the folios read "sterv'd"; and Fur- ness (he cites my note of 1870 on the origin of this old form) asks how Pope pronounc- ed "starve" in the "Epistle to Dr. Arbuth- not": But still the Great have kindness in reserve. He belp'd to bury whom he help'd to starve. He pronounced it as we do, but he pro- nounced "reserve" as "resarve"; just as he did in the rhyme with "observe" in "Epis- tle III." So elsewhere he pronounced "des- ert," rhyming with "heart," "convert" with "art"; and there are not a few similar rhymes in Shakespeare's Sonnets and other poems. Apropos of puzzles in Shakespeare, there is one that has perplexed me for thirty years or more. Can any reader of the Nation throw any light upon it? The dra- matist has two allusions to schoolgirls. One is in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (iii, 2, 202), where Helena says to Hermia: Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent. When we have chid the hasty-footed time For parting us — O, is all forgot? All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, Have with our needles created both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion. Both warbling of one song, both in one key, As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds. Had been incorporate. The other is in "Measure for Measure" (i, 4, 47): Lucio — Is she your cousin? Isabella — Adoptedly ; as school-maids change their names By vain though apt affection. That girls of royal or noble rank were often highly educated under private tutors we all know, but what schools in which girls were taught together existed In that day? I have been unable to find any men- tion of such in any historical or other book on education, and no scholar or critic to whom I have put the question could answer it. All that Dr. Furnivall, who ought to know if anybody on earth does, could say was that "legally girls could at- tend the grammar schools" of that day; but I can find no evidence that they ever did, and all the probabilities are decidedly against it. No editor, commentator, or critic, so far as I can find, has anything to say about either passage; and nobody that I have consulted assumes that private tutors rather than schools are meant. To my thinking, there can be no reasonable doubt on that point. If there are similar allusions to schoolgirls in other writers of the time, I do not recall them. Can any of your readers cite any such? W. J. Rolfe. Cambridge, Mass., February 4. A POINT IN SIDNEY'S VERSIFICATION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Reading the second volume of Pro- fessor Saintsbury's "History of English Prosody," I rubbed my eyes at finding (in a foot-note . to page 149) this statement concerning the first sonnet of Sidney's "As trophel and Stella": It is most noteworthy that the famous final line "Fool!" said my Muse, "look in thy heart and write," discards the lumbering top-hamper [twelve syllables] of the other thirteen, as if the Muse had applied the uncomplimentary epi- thet to them also. Surely, said I, there is no such famous final line as that. Turning, however, to the reprint of the sequence in Arber's "English Garner," I found the same ten- syllable conclusion. In Grosart's edition of Sidney, on the other hand, I soon dis- covered the complete line, "Fool!" said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write !" This is the form of the text in the "Ar- cadia" edition of 1598; and evidently also that of all the quartos of 1591 (these are not now accessible to me, but there is no hint of a variant reading either in Gro- sart's edition or the far more accurate one of Dr. Fliigel). It would seem, then, that the decasyllabic form of the line is a mere error of Arber's transcript, which Professor Saintsbury has not only perpetuated, bui made the basis of a critical dictum — a dic- tum very doubtful, even if the text were itself doubtful, since an Alexandrine sonnet ending with a shortened line would seem more like the result of accident than in- tention. The mistaken text is repeated, unfor- tunately, in the new edition of the sonnets of the "Garner" — Sidney Lee's "Elizabeth- an Sonnets" — perhaps printed from the old plates; but the correct form appears in Ward's "English Poets" and in all other anthologies where I have found it. Finally I note that the erroneous form was quoted in Mr. Saintsbury's "Elizabethan Litera- ture," where it led him (page 101) to de- scribe the sonnet as "oddly compounded" of "thirteen Alexandrines and a final he- roic." An error made so conspicuously, and so long ago, has very possibly been noted in print before this; but since it has reappeared in the new volume, and since the line in question is so deservedly fa- mous, the matter evidently needs atten- tion still. Raymond M, Alden. Stanford University, Cal., January 30. AN ANCIENT VIEW OF DESTRUCTIVE NATURAL PHENOMENA. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The editorial in the Nation of Feb- ruary 4, "Earthquakes Then and Now," suggests the appropriateness of a reference to the discussions prevalent among Greek and Roman writers as to the question whe- ther lightning was Jove's bolt of wrath or merely a natural force. Epicureans, Aca- demicians, and perhaps also Cynics, with arguments probably derived from Pericles's friend Anaxagoras, were united in their at- tacks upon the Stoics, who defended the popular religious belief. Out of this con- troversy emerged a view with a decidedly modern ring. In Seneca's "Naturales Qusestiones," ii, 46, we read: "At quare Juppiter aut ferienda transit aut innoxia ferit?" To which the answer is given: Sic omnia esse disposita, ut etiam quae ab illo non Sunt, tamen sine ratione non fiant, quae illius est. Nam etiamsi Juppiter ilia non facit nunc, Juppiter fecit ut fierent. Singulis non adest, et tamen vim et causam et manum omnibus dedit. Herman L. Ebeling. Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., February 8. PAPERS RELATING TO LEIBNITZ— AN APPEAL. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Several years ago the Internation- al Association of Academies commissioned the Academies of Paris and Berlin to pre- pare a complete edition of the works of that "mathematician, philosopher, and uni- versal genius, Leibnitz." At that time the academies issued an appeal to the posses- sors or administrators of the public and private archives, libraries, and collections of Europe, with the request that they would search out and calendar and describe all the material in their hands which might prove to be of value for the projected edi- tion. It either did not then occur to the scholars concerned that there might well be hidden in the public and private collec- tions of the United States a very consider- able amount of such material ; or else they assumed that there was none. During a long experience as secretary of the American Oriental Society, I had abundant opportunity to learn that the number of scattered Oriental manuscripts in the United States was so large as to be well worth cataloguing, and this wholly apart from the very important collection of Arabic manuscripts at Yale, and of Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts at Har- vard. Considering all this, and also the American habit of travel, and the readiness and ability of Americans abroad to buy things of historic interest, it is much more than probable that well-directed inquiries among American collectors and librarians would not be unfruitful, if duly made on behalf of the Leibnitz project. Several days ago there came to me a let-

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Feb. 1 8, 1909J The Nation 165 ter from the secretary of the Royal Prus- sian Academy, Prof. Hermann Diels, re- questing that Inquiries of the kind just indicated might be set afoot by me. In his name, accordingly, and on behalf of the academies concerned, I beg that you will give due publicity to this letter, which re- cites their wishes. The appended list speci- fies the things that will be useful. In- formation concerning their existence and whereabouts Is what is in the first instance asked for, and such information may be sent to me, or, if the sender prefers, to the secretary of the Academy, Professor Diels, No. 120 Potsdamerstrasse, Berlin, W. 35. Charles R. Lanman. Harvard University, February 5. LIST OF PAPERS AlND PRINTS RELATING TO LEIBNITZ. (1.) Manuscript works (essays, memo- randa of any kind) which are known or sup- posed to be from the hand of Leibnitz. Manuscript letters known or supposed to be from or to Leibnitz. Manuscript works or letters by or to or from persons who stood in personal relations with Leibnitz. (2.) Collections of manuscripts of the pe- riod 1664-1716, not yet properly examined or calendared, among which there might well be pieces falling under head 1. (3.) Printed books in which are found manuscript notes or dedications or the like from the hand of Leibnitz. (4.) Other printed matter of the period 1664-1716, whether (a) works of which Leibnitz is the known or supposed author, or (b) letters of which Leibnitz is the known or supposed sender or receiver (such as those "De la Tolerance des religions" or the like). (5.) Broadsides or pamphlets of the pe- riod 1664-1716. HETCH HETCHY VALLEY AGAIN. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The letter of Edmund A. Whitman of Cambridge, Mass., in your issue of Feb- ruary 4, in answer to mine relating to the use of Hetch Hetchy Valley as a storage re- servoir to supply the cities about the Bay of San Francisco with water, is so mislead- ing that I beg space to reply. (1.) There is no sufficient available water for the uses, in the immediate future, of the people about the Bay of San Franciscc nearer than the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is a fact and not disputed, so far as I know, by any disinterested person who has knowledge of the local situation. The answer by parties interested in the local supply, and taken up by people who do not know the actual situation, is that a supply of 100,000,000 gallons per day can be devel- oped locally, mostly from Alameda Creek, in Alameda County. This is an extrava- gant estimate, though it is possible to ob- tain a much larger supply than the 16,000,- 000 gallons per day that are now and for many years have been diverted to San Fran- cisco from Alameda Creek. But if an at- tempt is made to withdraw more than 16,- 000,000 gallons per day from Alameda Creek the courts, at the suit of landowners in the Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol, and Niles valleys, will certainly enjoin the diversion. That question has already been decided In exactly similar cases in our courts. The rea- son the owners of these exceedingly valu- able lands in the valleys named will resort to injunction suits is that their lands are sub-irrigated by means of Alameda Creek and its tributaries through strata of grav- el and sand. Large towns and prosperous communities are situate on these lands. Either to store the flood waters in reser- voirs or to pump from the gravel beds, as the local water company has begun to do, will be of such injury to large communities and great orchard interests that the courts will, as has been done in similar cases in the Santa Clara Valley and San Bernardino, enjoin the diversion. If the courts shall fail to follow precedent, then the question of public policy would come in— shall these great communities be permanently injured in order to get water for the cities about the bay when there are other sources from which water may be obtained? (2.) The large and growing cities of Oak- land, Berkeley, Alameda, and Richmond on the east side of the bay, are acting in concert with San Francisco in this matter. The same main pipe line can supply all. These east shore cities are really in greater need of the Sierra supply than San Francis- co. It is safe to say that a succession of dry years, such as are not uncommon in this climate, will bring on a water famine for all the bay cities. , (3.) All competent authorities conversant with the subject being agreed that the Sierra Nevada Mountains must ere long furnish the greater part of water for the bay cities, to what part of the Sierras shall those cities go? The nearest and most abundant supply is furnished by the Tuolumne River. Enough water comes from that watershed to meet the wants of all the bay cities, and also of all the landowners whose lands can be irrigated from it. The waters of all other streams flowing from the Sierras are already monopolized for power, or for mining, or for irrigating, and are actually needed for the irrigation of the lands that have the first claim upon them in order to build up prosperous communities thereon. To condemn the water rights on these streams will necessitate an outlay absolute- ly prohibitive. It is simply an impossibil- ity. Nor should the water be taken from the landowners. It is to the interest of all that those lands should be made as pro- ductive as possible. (4.) Before Hetch Hetchy Valley can be utilized as a reservoir, San Francisco Is bound by its agreement with the Roosevelt administration to utilize the waters of Lake Eleanor. The outlet of Lake Eleanor flows into the Tuolumne River below Hetch Hetchy. This lake and our local sources of supply will be sufficient for the bay cities for many years to come, but ultimately Hetch Hetchy must be used to confer the greatest good upon the greatest number of people — that is to say, as an artificial lake to store water for the bay cities. (5.) The United States many years ago parted with its title to all of the land on which are the meadows of Hetch Hetchy Valley. These are at the lower end of the valley. San Francisco has purchased those lands, and now has them in private owner- ship, and can do what she likes with them. What she asks is that the United States give her the right to overflow the lands still owned by the government in the upper end of the valley. In exchange for this she will convey an equal amount of land also owned by her in other portions of the park; she will also make roads to the valley and around the lake that will be created. (6.) I know the feeling is very strong and controlling in San Francisco that the property of the local water company must be purchased, whenever it can be done at a price not excessively above what it is actu- ally worth. But we do not wish to be placed in a position where the local com- pany can say: "You cannot get water elsewhere, therefore you must pay the price asked." Mr. Whitman and his friends would put us in that position. They would have the United States say to us: "You shall not have the water from the Tuolumne River now going to waste, for we will not permit you to impound it, even on your own land, because in doing so you will necessarily flood land belonging to the United States, land that will be visited and camped on by perhaps as many as two hundred nature lovers every year." But it is said the city may resort to condemnation. Theoretically, yes, but practically, no. Besides, the court would instruct the jury to take into con- sideration lack of any other supply in fixing value of the supply to be condemned. I beg your readers to consider the fore- going facts when discussing the question whether or not the government should per- mit San Francisco to flood the floor of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Under all the cir- cumstances, is this request of San Francis- co, acting for herself and the other bay cities, unreasonable? She is desirous of providing water for a great population from the only available and practicable source of supply. I submit to all candid and fair- minded men that to characterize her efforts as "an attempt to secure a license to steal," and as an indication of hysteria, Is without justification. There have been plenty of exhibitions of hysteria in this matter, but not by the friends of San Francisco and the other bay cities. Warren Olnet. San Francisco, February 10. Notes. D. C. Heath & Co. announce for imme- diate publication Dante's "Inferno," edited, with notes, by Prof. C. H. Grandgent of Harvard. It is designed for the general reader as well as for college students. Charles Scribner's Sons have about ready for publication a volume of essays, "Ego- ists," by James Huneker ; a book on Siena, by Prof. Ferdinand Scheville of the Uni- versity of Chicago, and a translation of Ru- dolph Eucken's "Poblems of Human Life." In March Duffield & Co., in publishing a volume of stories by Helen Mackay, will make the experiment of issuing a new book in paper covers and quite in the common French form. Robert Bridges has edited a selection of the "Poems by the Late Rev. Dr. Richard Watson Dixon," which is published by Smith & Elder of London. From the same firm is coming the Rev. W. TuckwelPs "Pre-Tractarian Oxford: A Reminiscence of the Oriel Noetics," which contains sketches of Provost Eveleigh, Copleston, Whately, Dr. Arnold, Hampden, and others of that group. To Routledge's series of Golden Antholo- gies (E. P. Dutton & Co.), the latest addi- tion is "The Hundred Best Hymns in the English Language," selected and arranged by the Rev. John Cullen, vicar of Rad- cliffe-on-Trent. The editor tells us that there are about three hundred good Eng-

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166 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 lish hymns. From these he has chosen not merely the stipulated hundred, but 'thirty-three more for an appendix. These he has arranged "according to the Chris- tian seasons and other occasions, for thb convenience of those who may wish to use the book in family or social worship." That a majority of the hymns are wisely select- ed there can be no doubt; but Dr. Cullen has a decided leaning toward the sweetly sentimental, which the compilers of "The Oxford Hymn Book," as we noted in our is- sue of last week, so successfully avoided. His "foreword" closes with this sentence: May these hymns prove a consolation and comfort to all who read or sing them, and may we all at last sing in the holy choir of heaven. After this we are not surprised to find E. Codner's "Lord. I Hear of Showers of Blessing," with the refrain "Even me"; C. Elliott's "Just as I Am, without One Plea"; P. P. Bliss's "Sowing the Seed," and Miss F. J. Crosby's "Safe in 'the Arms of Jesus." Kipling's "Recessional" also ap- pears. Most devout Arnoldians would probably say, if asked for suggestions with refer- ence to a volume of select poems from Ar- nold, "Omit 'Merope,' and include all the rest." Prof. Edward Everett Hale, in his "Select Poems of Arnold," in the Belles- Lettres Series (D. C. Heath & Co.), has not followed this simple principle, but a sub- tler one of his own devising. He has chosen his specimens to illustrate five dif- ferent divisions of Arnold's poetical work, as follows: "Poems of the Personal Life," "Poems of Nature and Thought," "Poems Chiefly of Thought," "Elegiac Poems," "Narrative and Dramatic Poems." In mak- ing the first three divisions, he has done exactly what Arnold himself found fault with Wordsworth for doing. Wordsworth classified his works as "poems of the fancy, poems of sentiment and reflection, and so en." These categories, said Ar- nold, are "ingenious, but far-fetched, and the result of his employment of them is unsatisfactory." If unsatisfactory when the poet does his own grouping, it is much more so when done by an outsider. In the first place, the five classes noted above are obviously not mutually exclusive. On closer inspection, the dividing lines of the first three seem in many cases absolutely with- out meaning. For example, by what scheme of "mental physiology" can the "New Si- rens" be included among the poems of the "personal life," while "Resignation" and "Dover Beach" are excluded? The fact is, "poems of the personal life" is a misnomer. What Professor Hale meant, or should have meant, was poems connected with an early love affair, real or imaginary, of an un- happy termination. We should not insist upon this confusion, if the entire point of the introductory essay did not depend upon it. At the close of his discussion, at- tempting to define the particular power of Arnold, the editor says, "He is not great as a poet of the personal life, in spite of the charm of some of the poems of 'Faded Leaves' and 'Switzerland.' " There, again, he should mean simply that Arnold was not a great singer of the love of man for woman. But the personal life of a man like Arnold includes other pas- sions than love, and it is the poignant in- dividual note with which Arnold voices these other passions— baffled passions for creative power, for religious faith, for in- ner peace — that is drawing the younger generation of readers away from the "Ring and the Book" and the "Idylls of the King" to "Empedocles" and a "Summer Night." Arnold's lyrical poems are the record of a soul out of joint with the age, and they are scarcely less personal than the diary of Marcus Aurelius or the journal of Amiel. Nor can we concur with Professor Hale when he says : We certainly do not find in the subject, at least, of the narrative poems, anything that particularly reminds us of the view of life that has been seen in the lyric poems. The blind slaying of the son by the father in "Sohrab and Rustum," to mention only one of many instances, is a manifest ex- emplification of the "view of life" express- ed in these lines from "Dover Beach": And we arp here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of straggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. In the narrative and lyrical poems alike the plangent iteration of desires infinite and hopes impossible, subdued by stoical discipline and solaced by a certain loveli- ness in the natural world — this largely con- stitutes the power of Arnold. The Lincoln centenary inevitably bears books on its flood. Among them are re- prints of two long poems : "A Man of Des- tiny" (Lincoln Publishing Company, Spring- field, Mass.), by Ernest Linwood Staples; and "Abraham Lincoln, a Poem" (Putnams), by Lyman Whitney Allen. The first is in blank and very flat verse; the second is a series of lyrics, with higher flights but deeper falls. More ambitious, but scarcely more successful, is "The Burden Bearer: An Epic of Lincoln," by F. H. Williams (George W. Jacobs & Co.). In spite of a long succession of failure, it would be rash to assert that the civil war and Abraham Lincoln are unsusceptible of heroic treat- ment. From the unpoetic accidents, no doubt the fundamental heroism of the man and his age will be finally disengaged. Per- haps his legend is already forming in cer- tain hardy imaginations. In the meanwhile, it is just the unpoetic elements that the popular fancy has seized upon and delights in, as characteristic — the homely, the racy, even the grotesque. And it is the peculiar- ity of Mr. Williams's poem to identify him with the circumstantial even more closely — to fuse and confound the two indistinguish- ably. It is in large part a political epic. Its author has felt himself impelled to trace not only the military, but the political, his- tory of the period. In this way his poem re- sembles now a rhymed — or at least a met- rical— gazette, and anon a rhymed or met- rical newspaper. Something of the same criticism must fall to Percy Mackaye's "Ode on the Centenary of Abraham Lincoln" (The Macmillan Co.), though his task was as much easier as it was shorter. Who shall distil in song those epic years? Only the sibyl of simplicity — writes Mr. Mackaye, and, despite the stir- ring swing of the lines here and there, it must be said that as a whole he has not succeeded in fusing the humbler details of Lincoln's life with the elevation of his gen- eral theme. Turning from verse to prose, we find two little volumes that deal with the religious side: "Lincoln's Use of the Bible" (Eaton & Mains), by S. Trevena Jackson; and "Abraham Lincoln's Religion" (Boston : Badger), by Madison C. Peters. Stripped of homiletic embroidery, the facts appear to be that Lincoln was a free-thinker, in the stress of the nation's agony a devout theist, but never an orthodox or even professing Christian. His untimely taking off is the theme of two books, "The Death of Lincoln" (Doubelday, Page & Co.), by Clara E. Laughlin; and "The Assassination of Abra- ham Lincoln" (The Macmillan Co.), by Da- vid Miller Dewitt. Both follow official docu- ments, and the records of court trials, though not always agreeing as to what is the weight of evidence. Of more general interest is "Abraham Lincoln : Tributes from His Associates" (T. Y. Crowell & Co.), with an introduction by William Hayes Ward. These collected reminiscences ap- peared in the Independent in 1895, and are well worth preserving in book form. A companion to this is "Lincoln's Birthday," edited by R. H. Schauffler (Moffat, Yard & Co.). which gives a selection of the more notable essays and poems on the man, with extracts from his own speeches. Of all these occasional books the most interesting is the Life in the Beacon Biographies, by Brand Whitlock (Small, Maynard & Co.), which, despite one or two lapses in grammar and an occasional straining at heroics, tells the story of Lincoln's career concisely and entertainingly. When the Professor of Things in General comes to his chair, he will find the Co- lumbia University Press ready with a text- book. "Lectures on Science. Philosophy, and Art" contains twenty-one discourses, by as many specialists, who endeavor to describe in non-technical language "the achieve- ments and the present status of these sub- jects as concepts of human knowledge." With but one or two exceptions, lucidity, directness, and calm" impartiality mark the accomplishment of this difficult task. The contributors have wrecked the academic tradition which, as Prof. C. J. Keyser puts it in the opening lecture, regards special sub- jects as "so intricate, mysterious, and high that in all their sublimer parts they are absolutely inaccessible to the profane man." Even more admirable than clarity, how- ever, is the humility, most noticeable where least expected — in the lectures on physics, bi- ology, anthropology, and economics. The physicist calls his electron theory a "con- fession of faith." The biologist is positive that the whole truth about organic evolu- tion can never be known ; his explanation of no ultimate problem of life, he says, will ever be complete. The anthropologist's sci- ence "is only beginning to find its own bearings" — let alone reaching its last con- clusions. And the economist admits, but without regret, that his clan still talks about what it doesn't know. Following are the topics covered and the lecturers; Mathe- matics, C. J. Keyser ; Physics, E. F. Nichols ; Astronomy, Harold Jacoby ; Geol- ogy. J. F. Kemp; Biology, E. B. Wilson; Physiology, F. S. Lee; Botany, H. M. Rich- ards ; Zoology, H. E. Crampton ; Anthropol- ogy, Franz Boas ; Archaeology, J. R. Wheel- er ; History, J. H. Robinson ; Economics, H. R. Seager; Politics, C. A. Beard; Juris- prudence, Munroe Smith; Sociology, F. H. Giddings; Philosophy, President N. M. But- ler; Psychology, R. S. Woodworth; Meta- physics, Frederick J. E. Woodbridge; Eth- ics, John Dewey; Philology. A. V. W. Jack- son; Literature, H. T. Peck. «

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The IsTation 167 There is little of special salience in J. Comyns Carr's chapters on "Some Eminent Victorians" (Scribners) ; they run on from character to character, taking in poets and painters and statesmen, showing them for the most part in the usual light, but always clearly and agreeably. Here and there a more pungent anecdote or bit of charac- terization makes a ripple in the current. Rossetti was one of his early friends, and here, as in all the memoirs of the age, we feel the mysterious power of the man's personality. One emphatic dictum of his, Mr. Carr quotes: "A picture is a painted poem, and those who deny it have simply no poetry in their nature." Not less quota- ble is Mr. Carr's own saying, which Rossetti called the finest criticism ever made on Landor: "It seems to me through all his poetry that his genius is impersonal without being dramatic." Tennyson also impressed the writer with a force like Rossetti's, al- though nothing new is brought out about him, save his facial resemblance to Dick- ens— a resemblance confirmed by the por- traits in the present volume. The oratory of Bright and Gladstone is compared to the detriment of the latter, and among the other statesmen the strength and charlatanry of Disraeli are noted with clever precision. "He looked out upon the present," says Mr. Carr of the Tory leader, "as though from the recesses of a buried past, and of all the representatives of his nation whom I have known, he appeared to me the only one who possessed in any preeminent de- gree the quality of self-possession in man- ner and bearing." The most astonishing anecdote is the story of Lord Randolph Churchill hearing Irving in "Hamlet," and, as he was obliged to leave early, going back to the actor to inquire how the play ended. On next meeting Irving he report- ed that he had read "Hamlet" and several other plays by Shakespeare — "and do you know, Mr. Irving," he said, "I find them enormously interesting." Mr. Carr tells something also of his own life, and the pages on his life as a newspaper man in the old Bohemian days are the most en- tertaining in the book. The latest of the publications of the Folk- lore Society (London: David Nutt) is a more than usually interesting monograph, "The Grateful Dead," by Prof. G. H. Gerould of Princeton. This story, which starts with the ransom by the hero of an unburied corpse, Professor Gerould believes to be based on primitive beliefs as to the duty of interment, land to have arisen in the region of western Asia, inhabited by Semites at some period prior to the compo- sition of the Book of Tobit (76-135 a. d. ?), which contains the motive in a compound form. From its original home the story appears to have spread to other parts of Asia, and over the whole of Europe; for variants of it in conjunction with other well-known themes are found in lands as far apart as Siberia and Brittany, as Spain and Armenia. The most important of these are compounded with "The Poison Maiden" with a Lamia for heroine; "The Ransomed Woman"; or certain types connected with "The Water of Life." The combination with "The Poison Maiden" (e. g. the story of Tobit) was probably the earliest and was Asiatic in origin; that with "The Ransom- ed Woman," on the other hand, though seemingly Asiatic in character, is found only in Europe, so that its provenance is as yet uncertain. It is perhaps needless to add that these simple compounds do not exhaust the tale. Each when formed de- veloped on its own lines, absorbing traits or often entire themes from other sources. These complicated types are discussed at length, and the mode of their amalgamation made clear. Vol. II of the third edition of Sir Wil- liam Anson's "The Law and Custom of the Constitution" (Henry Frowde) continues the analysis of the powers of the Crown, with their working out in colonial govern- ment, conduct of foreign relations, the col- lection of revenue, the control of army and navy, establishment of religion and erec- tion of the courts. The author pursues his well-known method of minute logical divi- sion, with rigorous citation of authority. All the recent statutory changes and lean- ings of practice are duly noted. The re- sult is the accumulation of a vast amount of rather desiccated knowledge. Sir Wil- liam refers in his introduction to the pub- lication of Prof. A. Lawrence Lowell's book, "Government of England," to which he, like other English writers, gives high praise. The Briton, like the American, makes the chief cause of the success of English administration to be the extra- ordinary way in which a highly skilled and permanent civil service is put at the dis- posal of those who direct public policy. Party government, observes Sir William, is necessarily to a great extent "government by amateurs." It can be made compatible with efficient government only by the best possible civil service. "The Mystery of Golf" (Houghton Mifflin Co.), by Arnold Haultain, recalls Punch's jest about "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" —"how it sells." The enemies of the game would say that its mystery lies in the necessity of having so much talk and so many books about golf. This venture of Mr. Haultain's however, does justify itself. We refer not to the fine paper and printing of his little book, nor its brave assumption of antique speech in red-ink marginal notes, nor to the philosophizings more old than new which he draws out of his treasure-house; but to the novel and convincing pages which he devotes to the psycho-physiology of golf. It differs from most other games in eliminating reflex ac- tion. Nothing flies at you to provoke the instinctive reflex: only that passive little ball lies there waiting your initiative. Hence the need of summoning all your greatness of soul to secure that the stroke be perfect. "Camp Fires on Desert and Lava" is the tempting title of a volume by William T. Hornaday (Charles Scribner's Sons), which takes the reader to an unexplored part of the Sonoran desert, between Tucson and the Gulf of California, known as the Pina- cate region. Concerning this region the author and his three companions — a zo- ologist, a sportsman, and a geographer — could not even get enough information, written or oral, to tell them it was a lava country, although, when they got there, they concluded there must be nearly five hun- dred extinct volcanoes seen around Pina- cate. "Dore would have revelled in this scowling, contorted, wholly blasted spot"; and here, amid unearthly and nether-world surroundings, the party hunted mountain | sheep, which were quite abundant, although it seemed strange that these animals should have strayed from the Rockies to a region where the heat registers in summer 130 de- grees in the shade. As a matter of course, this expedition was not undertaken in sum- mer, but in November, a month when Ari- zona and northwestern Mexico are a para- dise, except for the facts that water is sometimes hard to procure and the temper- ature towards morning gets so low that one wants two blankets. The party started from Tucson, queen city of cactus-land, and, af- ter visiting the Desert Botanical Labora- tory, established by the Carnegie Institu- tion, plunged into the wilderness, which proved to be, not a sandy waste, but a re- gion green with its own peculiar but eco- nomically valueless desert flora, which is destined ere long to be replaced by a use- ful vegetation that can thrive without wa- ter. It is to be feared that this vegeta- tion will be infinitely less picturesque than the endless varieties of cacti, which Mr Hornaday describes with the ardor of an enthusiast. To him the whole desert is an oasis. His volume is superbly illustrated some of the pictures being in colors. There is considerable scientific information about the flora and fauna, but the work is chiefly interesting as a volume of travel and ad- venture. Prof. Adolfo Posada, of the University of Oviedo, a prominent Spanish publicist in the field of the social sciences, has com- pleted the introductory volume ("Introduc- cion") to his projected "Principios de So- ciologia." The book is one of that class which lays stress upon conceptions and methods, and affords a wide perspective of the literature, chiefly recent, of sociology. In following this modern sociology, it is noteworthy that Posada derives his points of view mainly from treatises by Ameri- cans—above all, perhaps, from Profs. Les- ter F. Ward of Brown and Albion W. Small of Chicago. It is clear enough from any se- rious work of this order that the science of sociology is still in the trial-stage; indeed, it sometimes seems as if the later so- ciological writers had deserted the line of development to which the works of Spencer lent something better than respectability, and are now applying the term sociology to a much more shaky and non-scientific mass of ideas and projects. Nothing was clearer, for example, in the last meetings of the American Sociological Society at Atlantic City than that, with the exception of Prof. W. G. Sumner of Yale and a few others, the bulk of sociologists— where they do no worse— are running out into a species of "practicality" and are even in- dulging in rash forecasts of the future; a number of the papers discussed what was likely to happen to the family, and so on. And now the collection of excerpts and condensed views put together by Pro- fessor Posada betrays something of the same general tendency in the literature he covers. There is much whittling of fine points, more or less speculative and meta- physical, and there is not a little about methodology; but there is in the survey a conspicuous absence of works based upon induction from copious materials of eth- nography and history. In some ways we can see ourselves better in the book of this Spanish scholar than in that of any one nearer the centre of sociological enter- prise; the German, French, or English au- .

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168 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 thor does not impress one as being so de- tached and so likely to attain perspective. Hence Senor Posada's work has perhaps a special value in indicating tendencies. If, then, we find him, as it were from the outside, listing as sociology and sociologi- cal principle a series of considerations as to whether sociology is a science, as to its place in the hierarchy of sciences, as to "sociology as philosophy," etc., it would appear that little has been done since Spencer's time except to rearrange and to move into this or that connection the con- cepts to which Spencer, through his toil- some case-gathering, and analysis, once gave vitality. To a natural scientist, at least, judging from the collection made by Posada, sociology must look very little like science. Two books which may be grouped togeth- er are "Washington och dess svenska be- folkning," by Ernst Skarstedt (Seattle), and "History of the Swedes in Illinois," edited by Ernst Olson in collaboration with An- ders Schon and Martin J. Engberg, 2 vols. (Chicago: The Engberg-Holmberg Publish- ing Go.). Works of this kind are welcome contributions to a field of American his- tory that has not yet been fully explored, the story of the immigrants and the part they have played in building up the coun- try- Even the biographical portions, often much decried, are not without their value in showing by concrete examples what in- dividuals have accomplished. Mr. Skar- stedt asserts, in his preface, that "the bio- graphical part that closes the book, cer- tainly is the richest and most impartial which has hitherto appeared in any Swe- dish-American work." Mr. Skarstedt has himself lived in Washington and Ore- gon and knows the country and its people intimately. He is therefore able to relate much from first-hand knowledge. His de- scriptions of the natural features and re- sources, industry, and commerce are in- tended as information for prospective set- tlers. Many of the illustrations are from photographs taken by the author. The vol- umes on Illinois are planned on a much larger scale. One is confined to biographies with portraits of nearly nine hundred Swe- dish-American men and women. The sec- ond volume, 900 pages, contains chap- ters on Churches (including the educational institutions controlled by them), Press and Literature, Early Settlers, the Bishop Hill Colony, the Swedes in the Civil War, etc. The three last-named chapters contain much new material. The whole account of the Swedes in the civil war represents much laborious research among the war records and other sources; being pioneer work, it is rather a collection of material for history than finished history. This vol- ume contains several sketches of men not included in the biographical volume, such as, Raphael Widen, the first Swedish pio- neer in Illinois; Jonas Hedstrom, the first Swedish clergyman in the State; Erik Jansson, founder of Bishop Hill; L. P. Esbjorn, founder of the Swedish Luheran Church in America; Gen. C. J. Stolbrand, chief of artillery under Logan, and Col. O. Malmborg. The introductory chapters on Il- linois and on Chicago seem unnecessarily long. Many of the illustrations are from rare and curious cuts and photographs. Dr. Ricarda Huch, who has written fic- tion and verse of distinction, has now pub- lished a volume of historical portraits from a most dramatic period of modern Italian history, "Das Risorgimento" (Leipzig: Insel- Verlag). The book traces the fate of some of the famous prisoners of the dreaded Spielberg, among them Federico Confa- lonieri, Silvio Pellico, Piero Maroncelli, An- tonio Salvotti, and Giorgio Pallavicino. The author's power of characterization is evi- dent in the portrayal of these men; also of the Emperor Francis, whose sketch closes with the words of Dante: "Speak not of him; look at him and go by"- and of Charles Albert of Savoy, whom she does not regard as worthy to be called the Hamlet of Italy, though she writes with sympathy of his weakness and his misfortunes. One of the most interesting of recent German autobiographies is the volume of "Memoiren," by Baroness Bertha von Sutt- ner (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt), well known as a writer, as the founder and president of the Austrian Friedensgesell- schaft, and an enthusiastic and eloquent advocate of international peace. Certainly the hereditary influences, under which she grew up, could not have been the cause of her ardent devotion to this pacific mis- sion. Her father, Count Kinsky, and both his brothers, were generals, and her mother was the grandniece of the poet Theodor Korner, famous for his Schwertlieder. En- tirely opposed to the military spirit per- vading these poems, and fostered by both branches of her family, is her novel, "Die Waffen nieder!" published in 1889, and soon translated into all European languages. Born in Prague, in 1843, she was remark- ably precocious, and soon learned to speak fluently English and French. She was an excellent singer and pianist, and devoted herself also to intellectual pursuits in con- nection with her cousin, Elvira Biischel, who, when twelve years old, composed a drama which elicited the praise of Grill- parzer. When she was eighteen she re- ceived an offer of marriage from a mil- lionaire of fifty-two, whose suit was fa- vored by her mother; she herself was dazzled by the prospect of villas, castles, palaces, and other splendors, and consented to the betrothal; but the first and only kis>> he gave her caused her to recognize the im- possibility of becoming his wife. "I cannot, cammot, and would rather die!" she ex- claimed, and in spite of all protests broke off the engagement. Quite romantic is the account of the manner in which she was wooed and wedded by Baron von Suttner, revealing on her part fine feeling, rare dis- cretion, and real force of character. It was due to her influence that Alfred Nobel of Sweden became so deeply inter- ested in the cause of international peace as to establish the annual prize for the most efficient promoters of it. In 1905 this prize was justly awarded to Bertha von Suttner. Without entering into further details, it will suffice to characterize this work by stating that it deserves to rank in German auto- biographic literature with Fanny Lewald's "Meine Lebensgeschichte," Karoline Bauer's "Erinnerungen," and Malwida von Meysen- bug's "Memoiren einer Idealistin." A charmingly written book of travels in Sicily, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and India is Cattina von Seybold's "Aus warmen bunten Landern," presented in an attrac- tive little volume by C. H. Beck of Munich. Gustav Dalman's "Petra und seine Fels- heijigtiimer," with 347 views, plans, maps, and panoramas (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs), is the fruit of the studies of an exception- ally well equipped Orientalist. The author, who 13 a member of the theological faculty in Leipzig, has been for several years on leave of absence, as leader of the German Archasological Institute in Jerusalem. He has made four separate scientific journeys to the famous rock city, Petra, in Southern Palestine, once the metropolis of a people related to the Edomites. Many of the ar- chaeological finds here pictured and de- scribed are new discoveries of the author, and the great majority are specimens of re- ligious antiquities, such as 160 statue idols, 29 altars, 68 sacrificial feast tables, and 144 lustration vessels. Petra was the meeting place of Oriental and Occidental culture and religious institutions and creeds; this and its nearness to Israel make the work ap- peal to the Biblical student as well as to the classical archaeologist. In the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Professor Beneshewitz reports the results of his recent investi- gation in the St. Catharine cloister on Mt. Sinai. Of special interest is the fact that he has found no fewer than 926 manuscripts which Gardthausen has not mentioned in his catalogue of Mt. Sinai manuscripts, and that there are still many other manu- scripts in this historic cloister. These deal chiefly with the lives of saints, liturgies, church polity, medicine, and a number of the most valuable of all with the history of church music. Professor Beneshewitz has also reexamined a large number of the documents, which Gardthausen described. Among the many photographs which he took of these manuscripts there is also a re- production of the important Apophthegma (aJro<£#e'yMaTa twc ayiiov ytpovriav) of the year 1064. An edition of this is announced, to be pre- pared by Dr. Nitikin, who is also a member of the St. Petersburg Academy. He will compare the two manuscripts of the Apo- phthegma text found in the Moscow Synod- ical Library. It is now about a decade since the grad- uates of all three types of secondary schools in Germany, each with a nine-years' course (namely, the classical gymnasium, the semi-classical realgymnasium, and the purely scientific oberrealschule), have been admitted practically to all the departments of the universities on equal terms. Statis- tics now show that the classical course still has an overwhelmingly strong hold. Dur- ing the past summer term there were 1,075 Protestant and 931 Catholic theological stu- dents in the ten universities of Prussia; all of them were graduates of the gym- nasium. Of the 5,441 in the law depart- ments, 4,569 were classical, 642 semi-classi- cal, and 230 scientific. Of the 2,586 in the medical department, 2,179 were classi- cal, 320 semi-classical, and 87 scientific. Of the 8.612 in the philosophical faculties, 6,085 were classical, 1,439 semi-classical, and 1,088 scientific. In eight non-Prussian universities, the proportions were about the same. Thus out of a total of 31,622 stu- dents in eighteen out of the twenty-one German universities (the Bavarian uni- versities of Munich, Erlangen, and Wiirz- burg not reporting), 24,876, or 78+ per cent., were classical; 4,417, or 14+ per cent., semi- classical, and 2,331, or 7.4 per cent., scien- tific. These statistics were compiled and

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Feb. 18, 1909] The Nation. 169 published by Dr. Tilmann of the Prussian Ministry of Education in the Monatssehrift fiir holier e Schulen. Any person who is interested in the growth of Western State universities will find much matter of significance in the thirteenth biennial report of the Regents of the University of Texas. The attend- ance in 1883-4 was 221; in 1903-4, 1,393; in 1907-8, 2,501. In the period from 1901 to 1907, the number of books in tihe library increased from 36,227 to 58,759. We quote a passage from the section of the report which treats the organization of graduate work: The university has been conservative in the work which it has offered. It has pre- ferred to undertake nothing that it could not do with reasonable credit and distinc- tion. It has heretofore not offered any de- gree higher than the master of arts. In this respect, it has stood almost alone among the universities of America. Hardly another institution of its grade has failed to offer the doctor's degree. The faculty and regents recognize that only the pre- liminary work toward this degree can be done with our present resources, but they confidently count upon the Legislature and the people of the State for making ade- quate provisions for this work in a large way. At the seventeenth annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society, in Philadelphia, February 21 and 22, papers will be read by Samuel P. Abelow, Brook- lyn; the Rev. Henry Cohen, Galveston, Tex.; Albert M. Friedenberg, Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, Leon Hiihner, Mark J. Katz, Max J. Kohler, Isaac Markens, the Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes. and Samuel Op- penheim of New York; Dr. Abraham S. Wolf Rosenbach, Philadelphia; and Israel Solomons, London, Eng. A summer school of theology will be held at Oxford from September 13 to 24. Scholars representing various churches and phases of thought will lecture. The National Library of Wales, at Ab- erystwith, chartered in 1907, has become a reality by the transference thither of Sir John Williams's collections, numbering about 20,000 items. Besides the specifically Welsh books the library contains much pertaining to Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, and Breton philology. On February 14 Prof. William Mathews, the oldest living graduate of Colby Univer- sity, died in Boston at the age of ninety. In 1862 he was appointed professor of rhet- oric and English in the University of Chi- cago, but gave up his place in 1875. He has written a number of books, including "Getting On In the World" (1873), "The Great Conversers, and Other Essays" (1874), etc. Miss Emily Virginia Mason, known for her activities in behalf of Southern sol- diers in the civil war, died at Georgetown, D. C, February 16. She was born in Lex- ington, Ky., in 1815. She wrote a "Life of General Robert E. Lee" (1871), and edited "Southern Poems of the War" (1867) and "Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia in 1798" (1871). Oswald Crawfurd, a well-known figure in London literary life, has died at the age of seventy-four. From 1867 to 1891 he had been consul at Oporto, and had rendered valuable service to the government during the Portuguese disaffections of 1889-90. As a writer he contributed largely to the maga- zines under such signatures as "John Dan- gerfield," "Joseph Strange," etc. Besides two volumes of verse and several novels, he published "Travels in Portugal" (under the pseudonym of "John Latouche"), "Round the Calendar in Portugal," "Portugal, Old and New," "British Comic Dramatists," "Lyrical Verse from Elizabeth to Victoria," and "Four Poets." Marquis Marie-Charies-Albert Costa de Beauregard, historian and, since 1896, mem- ber of the French Academy, has died in Paris at the age of seventy-three. His published works include: "Un Homme d'autrefois," "La Jeunesse du roi Charles- Albert," "Les Derni£res Annees du roi Charles-Albert," "Le Roman d'un royaliste sous la Revolution," and "Souvenirs tires des papiers du comte A. de La Ferronnays." Marquis Emmanuel-Henri-Victurnien de Noailles died in Paris, February 16, at the age of seventy-eight. He had been the am- bassador of his country at Washington, Rome, Constantinople, and Berlin; and he was author of "La Pologne et ses fron- tieres" (1863), "La Poesie polonaise" (1867), and "Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572" (1867), a work in three volumes, crowned by the French Academy. Dr. Wladislaus Nehring, professor of Slavic philology at the University of Bres- lau, has died in his seventy-ninth year. Besides works in the Polish language, he published "Iter Florianense" and "Altpol- nische Sprachdenkmaler." TWO WOMEN OF HISTORY. The Maid of France. By Andrew Lang. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. Jeanne d'Arc is about to become offi- cially beatified after a term of candida- ture that makes Mr. Bryan's seem as but a watch in the night. Her appeal from her judges at Rouen to the Pope, by them cruelly and unlawfully disre- garded, has at last been argued and de- cided in her favor. At the same mo- ment, the story of her life is told again by a man whose countrymen enjoy a unique relation to her: The Scots did not buy, or sell, or try, or condemn, or persecute, or burn, or — most shameful of all — bear witness against and desert the maid. The Scots stood for her always, with pen as with sword. Mr. Lang's book is not written in the soothing spirit of leisurely research. It has a vivacity inspired by the two mas- ter passions of literature, love of the subject as a vital issue, and a strong objection, both temperamental and rea- soned, to the author who has most late- ly treated it. What Plato is to Aris- totle's "Politics," what Mommsen is to Ferrero's history of Rome, that is Ana- tole France to Mr. Lang's life of the Maid of Orleans. Mr. Lang's own con- ception of Jeanne is very simple and un- compromising: she was gifted with "genius which should be the marvel of the world while the world stands"; she was not only saintly, brave, and a nat- ural leader of men, but of a high intel- ligence; her "voices" count for relative- ly little, since, but for her exceptional endowment, they would have been of no avail in saving France. It will be seen that battle is here offered to M. France all along the line. Mr. Lang's criticisms of M. France are of two very different sorts, disagree- ment with his conclusions, and a much more damaging scrutiny of his premises. Under the latter head, he charges him not only with an exceptional clerical carelessness, but with the citation of passages which often do not support the text and sometimes contradict it. Two or three instances will show the char- acter of these contentions, and their bearing on the general thesis of M. France. In speaking of Jeanne's visits to Robert de Baudricourt, M. France says: Le mepris du capitaine et les outrages de la garnison ne l'avaient ni humiliee, ni decouragee; el les les tenaient au contraire comme des preuves de la verite de sa mission, s'imaginant que ses Voix les lui avaient annonc€es. A footnote bases this statement on "proces," t. II, p. 53 (an obvious mis- take for I, 53). The passage runs: Ipse autem Robertus bina vice recusavit et repulit earn, et in tertia vice ipsam recepit, et tradidit sibi homines; et ita etiam dixerat vox sibi quod eveniret. It is clear that the "outrages of the garrison" are either a gratuitous addi- tion or a careless reading of "tradidit sibi homines," with the cases trans- posed, and it is open to question wheth- er the Voice referred to anything but the final success of Jeanne's application. M. France speaks twice of the scene in which the king and his advisers urged Jeanne to make clear to them the nature of her "council." In disparaging the value of the evidence of Dunois (I, xxiii.) M. France says: By a strange awkwardness, to prove that Jeanne had visions, he [Dunois] tells a sto- ry that, on the contrary, would lead us to believe that the young peasant girl was a clever impostor, and gave, at the request of the lords, an exhibition of ecstasy, like the Esther of the lamented Dr. Luys. This passage supports the opinion that Dunois's testimony has been a good deal mishandled by the translator (who put the French evidence into Latin under direction of the court) and the clerks. But, later (I, 391), the story is quoted by M. France without warning of its sus- picious nature as bearing on the char- acter of Jeanne. The lords present were struck by the heavenly expression of the young girl's gaze. But those tearful eyes, that ravish- ed air, which astonished the Lord Bastard, were not an ecstasy, but the imitation of an ecstasy. It was a scene full at the same time of artifice and of simplicity. Now the passage upon which all this

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170 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 rests ("Proces," III, 12) states simply that while Jeanne, blushing somewhat, told the King in quite unemotional terms how her Voice addressed her. "she was wonderfully happy and raised her eyes to heaven" — "ipsa miro modo ex- sultabat, levando suos oculos ad coelum." There is no more "ecstasy" in question than this, and if this be ecstasy, it is plain that the story cannot be used both as good evidence, and as proving that the testator's words had been tampered with. In describing Jeanne's retinue, M. France declares that her equerry, d'Aulon, belonged body and soul to La Tremoille, to whom he owed money. "Jeanne was in the hands of d'Aulon, and d'Aulon was in the hands of La Tremoille." According to Mr. Lang, the document on which this statement is based states explicitly that d'Aulon borrowed 500 gold crowns of La Tre- moille for two months in March, 1432, having been obliged to pay a heavy ran- som when captured with Jeanne. There is no evidence whatever that he owed money to La Tremoille in the lifetime of the Maid. These are but specimens chosen from a long list. The reviewer has verified the references in a number of instances, and in each case examin- ed Mr. Lang has been in the right. His charges form a heavy indictment and an extraordinary commentary on the way in which history is written. Apart from the question of the sources, Mr. Lang's main objection to M. France's picture of the Maid is that it underestimates her intelligence. He will have nothing to do with the theory of clerical inspiration; he holds that Jeanne was a military genius and the shrewdest politician about the King when the others were deceived by Bur- gundy; that her two examinations show a keen and strong mind, and that she was as far as possible from the ordi- nary type of mystic or hysteric. This is not the place to review M. France's book, but it should be noted that many readers of it have received a more fa- vorable impression than Mr. Lang be- lieves was intended. It has been point- ed out before, notably by Gabriel Monod in the Revue Historique, that, while M. France does not do justice to Jeanne's wits in his own commentary, he never- theless develops her objectively in his narrative in a far more favorable sense. He gives the reader material for the manufacture of as much enthusiasm as his temperament demands, and the weaknesses he allows her do but give a touching human verisimilitude to the picture. Mr. Lang's book naturally suffers somewhat in form from its polemic character, and, fighting as it marches, confuses its two objects so as to leave on the reader an impression that M. France was one of the false-witnesses of Rouen. It is, however, a strong, clear, well-ordered brief, and will be an inval- uable document for the next biographer of the Maid. The First Governess of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria. By Eleanor E. Tremayne. Pp. xxxi+346. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Of the various princesses of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries who answered to the name of Margaret of Austria, the subject of the present biog- raphy is probably the most attractive, and certainly the most cosmopolitan. The story of her various courtships and marriages carries the reader into al- most every country of Western Europe. Wedded successively before she had at- tained the age of twenty-two to Charles VIII of France (the marriage ceremony was actually performed, though the bride was less than four years old), to John, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and to Philibert Em- manuel of Savoy, she refused Henry VII of England and Louis of Hungary, and was loved by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and by Antoine de Lalaing, Count of Hoogstraten. And we hasten to add that she preserved her dignity and womanliness through it all, with far better success than most of her contemporaries in that very marry- ing age. Moreover, unlike the major- ity of them, she was something more than a mere matrimonial commodity. As regent of the Netherlands for her nephew, the Emperor Charles V, she was able and successful, especially in her attempts to centralize the govern- ment, and to gain advantageous com- mercial relations with England, though her fame as an administrator must ne- cessarily suffer from the fact that the Inquisition found its first victims in the Low Countries during her rule. The "Ladies Peace" of Cambray, in the nego- tiations for which she on the whole got the better of her antagonist, Louise de Savoie, attests her ability as a diplomat- ist; the church of Brou, near Bourg en Bresse, her skill as an architect; her patronage of Erasmus and the eulogies of Jean Lemaire de Beiges, her literary appreciation and skill as a poet. Margaret of Austria's career is one which is sure to appeal to the imag- ination of the historian who likes to reflect on the interminable problem of "what might have been." It contains passages in which the very slightest change would have profoundly affected the destinies of Europe. The tragic end- ing of her Spanish marriage is one of these. Had the Prince of the Asturias survived, or had he left issue be- hind him, Spain would have escaped the dire misfortune that dogged her footsteps for the next fifty years — the curse of a foreign ruler with whose outside responsibilities she had nothing in common, who used her for his dynas- tic purposes, and made little or no re- turn. Disburdened of the Empire un- der the rule of sovereigns such as John and Margaret promised to become, Spain's lot would have been far hap- pier, and the whole history of sixteenth- century Europe profoundly changed The life of Margaret of Austria witness- es many turning-points like this, and its interest is thereby materially en- hanced. Mrs. Tremayne's book is a welcome addition to the lighter biographical lit- erature of the sixteenth century. It is not free from errors of fact and judg- ment, which betoken hasty composition and lack of background. How Margaret could have promised "to preserve the rights and privileges of the seventeen provinces" of the Netherlands (p. 77) in 1507, for instance, it is difficult to conceive, in view of the fact that at least five of these seventeen provinces were not in Hapsburg hands at all at this date. Misprints of proper names are frequent. The name of Jean Le- maire de Beiges is given in three differ- ent ways; and the poet Marot would scarcely have recognized his prenomen under the spelling "Clemont." And Mrs. Tremayne has a wofully unhistor- ical faculty for passing over the shad- ier sides of her subject's life without comment, so that the whole impression is considerably more favorable than Mar- garet deserves. But her account is vivid and interesting; Major Hume's unriv- alled knowledge of unpublished mate- rial enables him to preface it with a very useful introduction; and the book as a whole is well worth perusal. If the present standard is maintained, the Romantic History Series, of which it forms a part, will be an unquestioned success. For the purpose of furnishing romantic biographies the early sixteenth century is an age that cannot be sur- passed. CURRENT FICTION. Tono-Bungay. By H. G. Wells. New York: Duffield & Co. This fresh lapse into mere fiction on the part of our, as it were, leading fancy scientist and millennial forecast- er, is of more than common interest. In general method it is rather frankly modelled on "Joseph Vance"; that is, it is composed with skill, though with some appearance of inconsecu- tiveness and even incoherence. And there is a similar suggestion of re- currence to the Victorian manner, although the substance of the story is of to-day. "Tono-Bungay" is a pat- ent medicine, contrived by a provin- cial English apothecary, Ponderevo, and made the basis of a great fortune. Un- like that panacea of Mr. Locke's Clem Sypher, it is not believed in by its pro- moter, who is a born charlatan. But he has the charlatan's faith in his star, and a quack philosophy of a comfortable sort which sounds, to be sure, uncom-

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Nation. 171 fortably like a familiar theory of "busi- ness." He has his authorities to quote: I suppose you must respect Carlyle? Well, take Carlyle's test — solvency. (Lord! what a book that "French Revolution" of his is!) See what the world pays teach- ers and discoverers, and what it pays busi- ness men! That shows the ones it really wants. There's a justice in these big things, George, over and above the apparent in- justice. I tell you it wants trade. It's trade that makes the world go round! Argosies! Venice! Empire! Our apothecary is a great admirer of America. The Ponderevo philosophy has no il- lusions for the Ponderevo nephew, and present autobiographer. But he is mis- erably in love with a girl who, he knows, will marry him at a certain fig- ure of yearly income. So he gives up his scientific studies, in which he has made a singularly successful start, and devotes himself to "making Tono-Bun- gay hum." It hums. But George's mar- riage turns out a wretched fiasco, and in the end the firm of Ponderevo fails to meet the test of Carlyle; for in time the nephew neglects the humming pro- cess in favor of airships, and Tono- Bungay goes to smash. The escape of the insolvent pair across the channel in a machine which is a combination of aeroplane and dirigible puts the Wells seal upon the plot. But the persons in the book are of more importance than the plot. The originator of Tono-Bungay is a notable portrait of amiable rascality; and his wife is a sweet and humorous woman worthy to rank with Mr. De Morgan's Lossie and Sally. She (though there is little enough romance in her life as we see it) is the heroine of the story rather than George's unfit wife or equal- ly unfit sweetheart. The culmination of his affair with Beatrice is cynical and disheartening, though it can — or be- cause it can — hardly be called untrue to life on a certain plane. The Three Miss Graemes. By S. Mac- naughtan. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Though it lacks the directness and artistic finish of "The Expensive Miss Du Cane," this story has the quaint daintiness of its own heroines and is a pleasant companion for an idle hour, its very gentle verbosity having a cer- tain soothing quality. The theme is of the simplest. Three young girls have been reared by the father in cloistral seclusion on a Scotch island. His sud- den death, after disastrous ventures on the turf, leaves them poor and unpro- tected, and they set forth attended by a faithful piper, to make their home with a distant relative in London. Their unsophistication is sorely out of place there, but after divers trials and wearinesses fate smiles upon them. The two elder find the nearest approaches to the Fairy Prince that prosaic mod- ernity affords, and the writer leaves them to live happy ever after. Helen Graeme is real and attrac- tive. One will not readily forget the picture of her kneeling at family prayers to give thanks for "Thy gener- ous favor in giving \ictory to the horse St. Cuthbert." She carries this simple directness of faith into all her deal- ings with the world. In the hands of a harsher author, what might not have been her fate? But Miss Macnaughtan is content to let her incredibly ingen- uous beauty simply adorn a tale, instead of pointing a strenuous moral, and here- in lies the reader's good fortune. The Supreme Test. By Mrs. Baillie Reynolds. New York: Brentano's. The visit of the captivating Kythe West to the household of Wilmot Cun- cliffe, churchwarden, produced a very ex- traordinary effect upon him. He is at the outset, in Kythe's expressive para- phrase, "a widower, a preposterous, nar- row-minded, impossible person, with three hideous, ill-conditioned children," riding two hobbies, "the iniquities of the High Church party" and "the de- plorable spread of what he called 'mod- ern ideas.' " He ends by being a preux chevalier, a champion of slandered girl- hood, a father to unprotected youth, combining the shrewdness of Sherlock Holmes with the loftiness of Don Quix- ote and the self-immolating quality of a Knight of the Grail. And this hap- pens in less than two months. In Feb- ruary, he is talking like a sanctimo- nious sniveller. In April he plucks a girl from the consequences of silliness, adroitly hoodwinks her world in order to shield her, and meantime divines her mind as never yet did prig, of all persons, divine the mind of woman. That the girl who changed his life and made a self-sacrificing lover and hero of him is utterly and absolutely a minx does not heighten the improbability of the apotheosis. If a man's soul is to widen out of all recognition in six weeks, a minx is quite as likely as an- other to do the deed. The story moves at a lively pace in and out among the pranks of Kythe, but her champion's transmutation is hard to follow. Nor is the reader great- ly helped by the explanation in the publisher's note — that "the hard ishell of his religious teaching dissolves in the liquid joy of his exquisite visitor." The Bishop and the Boogerman. By Joel Chandler Harris. New York: Dou- bleday, Page & Co. Being the story of a little Truly-girl, who grew up; her mysterious companion; her crabbed old uncle; the Whish-Whish Woods; a very civil engineer, and Mr. Billy Sanders the Sage of Shady Dale — So runs the instructive sub-title. In this sunny book, appropriately illustrat- ed by Charlotte Harding, the lamented creator of the Tar Baby worked out after his own fashion the leading mo- tive of "Silas Marner." A little girl be- reft of her parents but happy in the possession of a wholly imaginary play- mate, Cally-Lou, enters the home of her "crabbed old uncle," and humanizes him and every one else that comes near her. This theme is developed with a hearty garrulity which seems rather the effect of rapid improvisation than of premedi- tated art. One feels also the lack of structural symmetry in the patched-up and haphazard concluding chapters, in which the fantastic Adelaide shoots sud- denly into womanhood, and marries, merely, it would appear, that the tale may have an ending as well as a mid- dle and a beginning. But perhaps it is hypercritical to complain of the struc- ture of a book which exists only for the sake of its characters. To any one at all interested in the soft, fluent speech and the mental markings of Southern types, this oddly assorted group will be charming. The crabbed uncle has a young spot in his heart; the old black mammy adores children; her runaway son studying to be a bishop is himself a child in heart and head; Adelaide is an irresistible sprite; and the Sage of Shady Dale is fit to be her comrade. No writer of his time entered more sym- pathetically than Joel Chandler Harris into the playful imagination of the "folk" and into the creative fancies of children. This story is effective because it revives in the reader the innocent emotions of childhood from which it springs. In Morocco with General d'Amade. By Reginald Rankin. New York: Long- mans, Green, & Co. $2.50. When Gen. d'Amade succeeded Gen. Drude in command of the French forces at Casablanca towards the end of 1907, and commenced active operations against the Moors of the hinterland, many persons believed that his work marked the beginning of a conquest. Later, when the war between the Sultans went against the man to whom France had thrown its support, and German diplomacy spun additional difficulties in the way of the French, it looked as if Gen. d'Amade's campaign had marked the beginning of a failure. Now that France and Germany have come to terms about Morocco, it appears plainly that the fortunes of the French are to fall midway between failure and conquest. French domination in Mo- rocco is now out of the question; but it is certain that France will be hence- forth an active agent in the opening up of Morocco and will hold something of the privileged position accorded it by the Conference of Algeciras. To this extent our author is justified in saying

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172 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 that "the historian of the future will recognize in Gen. d'Amade's work an- other link in the chain of destiny first forged by Charles Martel on the plains of Tours." Mr. Rankin was correspondent for the London Times with the troops of Gen. d'Amade, and took part in most of the marching, counter-marching, and fighting which resulted in the subjec- tion of the tribes of Chaouiya — that "co- lossal cornfield" stretching some thirty- five miles to the north and south of Casablanca and fifty miles inland. About this marching and fighting there was, on the whole, an uneventful sameness which affords Mr. Rankin ample oppor- tunity for side-studies of the nature of the country, its inhabitants, its re- sources, and its promise for the future. For the military student there is much detailed material on the theory and methods of African campaigning, and on the showing made by the French troops, for whom the writer has little but praise. Mr. Rankin writes with the learning and authority we readily asso- ciate with the great journal he repre- sented. Naturally, he voices the politi- cal opinions of that paper, which are solidly on the side of the French and strong for the necessity of a prolonged occupation of the Chaouiya region. As a matter of fact, the French are still in Casablanca; but the agreement with Germany to which we have referred makes it improbable that they will re- main there in the capacity of conquer- ors. More than once in the course of Gen. d'Amade's campaign, the charge of un- necessary severity was brought against the French. Whether unnecessary or not, hard blows were undoubtedly struck and the Chaouiya tribesmen, at times brave to the point of fanaticism, suffer- ed heavily. The natives of Western Mo- rocco are not the nomads of popular fancy. The rich Chaouiya grainlands are occupied by an industrious popula- tion of whose means of livelihood the French expeditionary columns made a sad business. Whatever may have been the initial rights and wrongs of the affray at Casablanca that led to the French invasion, Mr. Rankin's account does not quite succeed in giving us the impression that Gen. d'Amade's troops had sound reasons for carrying war among a people that only asks to be let alone. Burning villages and farms was part of the French programme. In the fighting which was, on more than one occasion, hand to hand, there was no giving and asking of quarter. Prison- ers were not taken on either side. The writer's extremely British imperturba- bility enhances our sense of the dis- tressing nature of the conflict. He is very sensitive to the beauties of Moroc- can wildflowers, and rather indifferent to the value of life, human or animal. In the following passage we are re- minded almost of the Englishman who said, "What a beautiful morning! Let us go kill something": The friend raised his mighty hand and smote the hare behind the ear, at the junction of the neck, even as gamekeep- ers are wont to smite rabbits, and so great was the force of the blow that the head of the hare fell from its body and rolled away under the shade of the ground-or- chids beneath the cork tree. It was one of those delicious mornings when the heat of the sun is tempered by a little breeze, and the larks are singing in the blue for joy. On the whole, a readable and useful vol- ume. An Irish Precursor of Dante: A Study on the Vision of Heaven and Hell Ascribed to the Eighth-Century Irish Saint Adamnan, with Translation of the Irish Text. By C. S. Boswell. Lon- don: Nutt. We are tempted to apply to this book a phrase that is used frequently in its pages with reference to the classifica- tion of departed spirits, bonus sed non valde. It contributes very little that is new to the history of the vision litera- ture with which it deals; and much of the discussion, which ranges widely from Ireland to the Orient, is of a de- cidedly second-hand character. Even within the limits of Irish the author does not show thorough mastery of his subject. He fails to mention one version of the "Fis Adamnain" itself, the ab- breviated form of it which is embedded in the later prose text of the "Voyage of Snegdus and Mac Riagla" (published by Thurneysen in a .Freiburg pro- gramme, 1904, and again by Stokes in the Revue celtique, XXVI, 130 pp.); and what is stranger still, he states, by way of introducing his own translation of the "Fls," that Dr. Stokes's rendering is accessible only in the limited Simla edition, whereas it was reprinted both in Frazer's Magazine for 1871, and in Miss Stokes's "Three Months in the For- ests of France" (1895). Regarded mere- ly as details of bibliography, omissions like these are, perhaps, unimportant, but they sometimes involve ignorance of matters that are essential. If Mr. Bos- well had known Professor Thurneysen's edition of the Snegdus texts, he would probably have modified the statements made on page 162, with regard to the date of the tale; and if he had read Dr. Stokes's edition of the poem ascribed to St. Cuimmin (in the Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie, I, 61), he would hardly have followed Father Denis O'Donoghue so implicitly in assigning the piece to the seventh century (see page 208, n.). To cite only one more example of his lack of thoroughness, he makes on page 114, the extraordinary statement that the apocryphal "Book of Adam and Eve" was an Egyptian work of the fifth or sixth century, of which no mention is known outside of Ireland. The use of it in the "Saltair aa Rann" is apparently cited as evidence of early contact between Ireland and Egypt. But Dr. Stokes's edition of the "Saltair," to which Mr. Boswell refers in his foot- note, should have guided him to Pro- fessor Wilhelm Meyer's article, contain- ing early Latin texts of the "Vita Adae et Evae," and an account of numerous versions in the vernacular languages of Europe. As to the Irish knowledge of Egypt, there are other indications of It, some of them cited by Mr. Boswell, which we do not mean to question. Serious as seem the defects in Mr. Boswell's Celtic scholarship, his book is, nevertheless, of considerable value, as being the only extensive collec- tion of early Irish visions of the world to come. It brings together most of the important documents of this class, analyzes them at length, and compares them with one anoth- er, and with the accounts of the hap- py other-world in secular Irish saga. The chapters on the relation of the Christian visions to native Celtic tra- dition, though greatly indebted to Al- fred Nutt's well-known essay (publish- ed with the "Voyage of Bran"), add some new material which has become recently accessible, and they ought not to be overlooked by students of the "Celtic paradise." On the whole, the book exhibits better than any other the part the Irish took in developing the literary type which derives its chief in- terest from the "Divine Comedy," and it does this without losing sight of liter- ary values or making untenable claims of Dante's indebtedness to Celtic sources. Baldassare Castiglione, the Perfect Courtier: His Life and Letters. 1478- 1529. By Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Ady). 2 vols. New York: E. P. Dut- ton & Co. $7.50 net. That a single season should produce two elaborate English works on Castig- lione ought to signify the remarkable vitality of his reputation; for of how many men or women who flourished four centuries ago can as much be said? When we examine Christopher Hare's book, "Courts and Camps of the Renais- sance," (see the Nation, December 3, 1908, p. 548), and these even more sump- tuous volumes, we see that other consid- erations besides Castiglione's personal merits have combined to make him a favorite subject. He has so much back- ground! and this background lends itself so wonderfully for modern illus- trations! So we suspect that it is the renaissance and the paintings and buildings of the renaissance, quite as much as the character and deeds of Baldassare himself that explain these recent works. Mrs. Ady virtually confesses this by

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Nation. 173 writing a history of the times, through which Castiglione's biography flows, often no broader than a rill; occasion- ally, indeed, it disappears altogether. We do not object to this method — the whole question being one of proportion. By showing the wild crimes, the na- tional and international brigandage, the mingling of moral depravity with ar- tistic sensitiveness, of the age in which he flourished, she brings out all the more clearly his virtues, his honorable conduct, his ideals of courtesy. He had an interesting career, and he displayed talents of various sorts, but it is, after all, his authorship of "The Courtier" that chiefly attracts us. That book is still a model on which gentlemen of the highest type may be formed. Its province is manners; but whoever reads it attentively will dis- cover that the manners Castiglione teaches spring from character — they are not the mere veneer which a dancing- master can impart. This is, perhaps, unexpected, and leads us to ask how far the ideal courtier (that is, gentleman) is the creature of Castiglione's imagina- tion, and how far he had flesh-and-blood counterparts at the Italian courts of the renaissance. They abounded, we know, in guile, hypocrisy, cruelty and deceit: how then did it happen that from such an environment such an ideal arose? The readers of Mrs. Ady's books will not find this question answered directly, or even broached; but if they are curi- ous, they can disentangle the answer for themselves from her great mass of material. We think that Castiglione's biography might easily be written in one-fourth of the space which she has filled, and he would probably stand out more vividly in the briefer study; but there is so much of interest in her vol- umes that we do not complain of their bulk. She is a pleasant writer, a fair popularizer of more learned investiga- tors, and a wholesome judge of deeds and events. The beauty of her book, in binding, type and illustrations, deserves special mention. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Edited by James Hastings. Vol. I: A— Art. Pp. xxii+903. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $7. The numerous works of reference that have appeared recently in response to the demand for summary statements of the latest results of research are of var- ious grades of excellence. Some are popular compilations and have only a secondary value; in others the articles are prepared by independent investiga- tors, specialists of good standing, and are valuable for scholars as well as for the unlearned. It is in this last class that the new encyclopaedia edited by Dr. Hastings and his assistants pro- fesses to belong, and, to judge from the first volume, the profession is fairly well justified. The list of contributors includes a good number of well-known names, among them W. Bousset (on Antichrist), A. E. Crawley (Hindu Anointing), W. Crooke (many Hindu subjects), F. Cumont (Anahita), G. d'Alviella (Animism), Rhys Davids (Buddhist topics), P. Ehrenreich ( South American Indian Cults), De Groot (Chi- nese Adoption), D. G. Hogarth (iEgean Religion), M. Lidzbarski (Ahiqar), E. Littmann (Abyssinian Religions), Sir Clements Markham (South American Andean Cults), Th. Noldeke (Ancient Arabian Religion), A. C. McGiffert (Apostolic Age), Louis de la Vallee Poussln (Buddhist topics), A. H. Sayce (Early Vannic Armenian Religion), N. W. Thomas (Animal Cults). The plan adopted of describing a subject general- ly in one article and then having par- ticular aspects of the subject treated in separate articles by different persons (as in Absolute, Adoption, Alchemy, Al- tar, Ancestor-worship, Architecture, Art), though it involves some repeti- tion, has the advantage of presenting the topic from various points of view. The field to be covered by the work (in about ten volumes) is very wide; it is to describe all religious and ethical sys- tems, movements, customs, and ideas, and, the preface adds, every philosophi- cal idea, from which it would appear that it is to be an encyclopaedia of phil- osophy as well as of religion and ethics — a commendable recognition of the in- timate relations existing between the three departments of thought. The edi- tors have been embarrassed by the wealth of material that presented itself, and, not content with religion, ethics, and philosophy, have entered the fields of biology (Adaptation) and hygienics (Adulteration) ; and the article on Agri- culture, in which we should expect to find a statement of the close connection between agriculture and various relig- ious customs and ideas, is a description of ancient methods of tillage, with only two or three passing references to myth- ological facts. In general, however, the selection of subjects is good. The loca- tion of subjects is sometimes arbitrary; it is not clear, for example, why Abe- lard should have a separate article and Albertus Magnus be referred to the ar- ticle Scholasticism. But allowance must be made for the accidents of editorial arrangements. There is not much in the contents of the articles that calls for adverse crit- icism. The helpful description of the iEgean religion appears to be overbold in its constructions The assertion (in the article Ainu) that the Ainu religion was originally monotheistic, and was debased by the rise of animism, is whol- ly without support in Ainu material, and is contradicted by what we know of the history of savage cults. The concep- tion of Satan's ambition (p. 372) is to be traced not to Ezekiel xxviii (for, in all probability, the Satan figure had not been constructed in Ezekiel's time), but to the story in "Secrets of Enoch," xxix, 4. In so large a mass of material there will necessarily be points on which specialists differ, but the articles have all been carefully prepared, and in most of them the conclusions are well supported. The lists of books of refer- ence appended to the various articles are well selected and sufficiently full. The proof-reading is good; there are a few obvious typographical errors. It is strange to find (p. 147) the spelling "Ashtaroth" (a plural form) for the name of the goddess Ashtart (Astarte). Buddhist Essays. By Paul Dahlke; translated from the German by Bhik- khu Silacara. New York: The Mac- millan Co. $3 net. It is five years since Dahlke's "Auf- satze zum Verstandniss des Buddhis- mus" appeared in Germany, time enough for a translation to be out of date had the original been concerned with the historical questions now most discussed by Buddhist scholars. Fortunately for the translator, neither the time of the Buddhist councils nor the problem of their historical reality formed the sub- ject of Dahlke's studies, but the inner meaning and worth of the religion as traditionally received. So far as we have compared the translation with the original, the English version is idiomat- ic and satisfactory; but in this first Eng- lish presentation of a work that has had a large circulation in Germany we are chiefly concerned with an appraise- ment of the subject-matter, since the volume represents a school of anti- Christian thought in Germany which has led to the production of a number of manuals and text-books of similar character. At the outset let it be said that Dahlke's is by far the best of this group of tracts — for such in reality they are — notably better than the work of Frey- dank, which appeared at the same time, in that it is free from the exaggerated disapproval of all things Christian dis- played by many of the "modern Bud- dhists." Dahlke, while not a Sanskrit or Pali scholar, is a thinker, and his writing is the result not of dislike, but of conviction. He believes that Bud- dhism is a more satisfactory religion than Christianity, but he does not waste time by recounting the horrors of the Middle Ages done for Christ's sake. His "Essays" are a fair presentation of the religion of his Master; for the most part they give a presentation of the texts themselves, taken from the Middle Col- lection of the Second Book of the Pali canon. They deal with Buddha's life and with the teaching in regard to life, sorrow, Nirvana, God, morality, ascetic- ism, etc. To these the author adds his own exegesis and conclusions.

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174= The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 In the main these conclusions are just. The religion of Buddha is of value only for those who feel life to be sorrow; it is a religion of renunciation and consequently differs from the relig- ion of the poor, "which must be a relig- ion of promises." Dahlke sees too clear- ly into the heart of Buddhism to in- dulge in that shallow sentimentalism which clothes Buddhism with the mod- ern garment thrown about it by such writers as H. Fielding Hall, author of "The Soul of a People." It is a relig- ion for thinkers, with its "clear, cold, steel-like atmosphere," as opposed to the "sickly-sentimental, sweetly lan- guishing." To the true Buddhist, wo- man is merely "the object of cool re- flection," and Buddhism has put back love "into its proper place." And so it is with life, as with love. "The teach- ing of the Buddha is not for him who desires life; at any time it is suited only to a few." Herein to Dahlke lies the superlative satisfaction of Buddhism to the wise man. In Buddha's system, love, either in the Christian sense of love for our neighbor, or for God, is non-existent. There is no God. Our neighbor must look out for himself. We, too, live only to get rid of life, which as philosophers we condemn. In a word, there is more true Buddhism in a page of Dahlke than in a volume of Mr. Hall, and if only as an antidote to the per- nicious mischmasch so often offered to the general public as Buddhism this volume would be heartily welcome. Nevertheless, it is not without grave defects; and if space permitted it would be worth while enlarging on these, for they are the defects of the school to which Dahlke belongs. But at least this much must be said. The claim is made by Dahlke and others of the mod- ern Buddhists, that Buddhism is a sat- isfactory religion because it is not sen- timental, but rational. In this particu- lar Buddhism no doubt attracts many whom Christianity repels. But the fur- ther assertion that Buddhism is wholly rational, that it is not based on hypo- thesis at all, that "alone among all the founders of world-religions, the Buddha only speaks of things which he can prove" — all this is untrue. For the whole system of Buddha roots in the theory of Karma, that is, not only in the theory of metempsychosis (which is itself undemonstrable), but also in the theory that man lives his weary round of millions of births weighed down by the moral product of former births. If it were not for this theory there would have been no occasion for Buddhism. It is not this one life that is- the burden: any brave man might endure it. It is the ceaseless flow of lives which the individual has to un- dergo that makes life an endless sor- row and gives occasion for the need of some Path of Salvation. But this whole doctrine was and is accepted as a mat- ter of faith. It was not proved by Buddha; it was simply the current be- lief of his day, unscientifically, unphil- osophically, accepted, much as the "soul-belief" is accepted by Christians. To say that Buddhism (in distinction from Buddha) is without dogma is also an error. The belief of the Buddhist Church is built up not upon a rational system, but upon "the word of the Buddha." What Buddha said is de- finitive; it must not be an object of discussion. In this regard there is no difference between the faith of a Christian in his Word of God, the be- lief of a Brahman in his Revealed Veda, and the belief of a Buddhist in his "so said the Master." It is a verita- ble ipse dixit religion, not only in the later form of the Great Vehicle, but from the beginning, in the earliest Pali texts. Science. The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906: Report of the State Earthquake Commission, Andrew C. Lawson, Chairman. Vol. I, Parts 1 and 2, and Atlas. [Vol. II to appear later.] Washington, D. C. : Published by the Carnegie Institution. The Physics of Earthquake Phenomena. By Cargill Gilston Knott. Pp. x+283; figures 44. New York; Henry Frowde. The famous shock, now generally known as the San Francisco earth- quake, took place April 18. Despite the thousand distractions of this period of ruin and fire, the Governor of Califor- nia was mindful of the great scientific importance of the opportunity, and on April 21 appointed a State Earthquake Commission, consisting of A. C. Lawson, G. K. Gilbert, H. F. Reid, J. C. Branner, A. O. Leuschner, George Davidson, Charles Burkhalter, and W. W. Camp- bell. This distinguished group of geol- ogists, physicists, and engineers also as- sociated with themselves fifteen or more additional well-qualified observers, and began the work of recording carefully all important phenomena bearing on the shock. The Governor had no funds upon which to draw, and the Carnegie Insti- tution came to the aid of the commis- sion. The main work of composition has been done by Professor Lawson, but special chapters have been prepared by collaborators; and the volume yet to be issued will be a discussion of the instru- ments employed for recording shocks. The two parts now available contain chiefly the carefully assembled details of the effects produced by the earth- quake. As all the world now knows, the cause was a faulting movement along an old northwest and southeast rift or line of disturbance. The movement was chiefly horizontal, the southwestern side appearing to have moved northwest to a somewhat greater degree than the northeastern one moved southeast. The displacement ranges from 10 to 15 feet, reaching a maximum of 21. In the northwest there was a slight vertical displacement also, but it involved only two or three feet. The identified, con- tinuous length of the faulted zone is 190 miles, but if to this is added an addi- tional rift, separated from the other by a stretch of ocean, the total distance is 270 miles. The rift itself is prolonged to the south some hundreds of miles farther than the distance just given, but in the extension no movement seems to have taken place at the time of the recent earthquake. The shock, however, was felt for more than 700 miles along the line of the rift, and for 300 miles to the east of it. There must have been a grinding slip and drag, lasting for about a minute, but with diminishing after-shocks for months. The rift runs off the peninsula on which is situated San Francisco, just to the southwest of the city, but it strikes the mainland again a few miles to the north. The rift is called the San Andreas. It is not a single fissure, but a series of rather closely spaced, parallel ones. Throughout its course it is marked by displaced fences, roads, bridges, etc., and by cracks, pools, craterlets, and on the north by slight escarpments. Earlier movements have left a pronounced val- ley along its line. All of these phenom- ena are profusely illustrated in the re- port. The areas of maximum destruction have been carefully studied and mapped in the atlas. They are long, narrow belts next the rift itself, but with some outlying points, depending on the local geology. The report brings out most clearly the relative security of buildings on solid rock and the extreme damage done to those on loose sand or made ground. The areas of maximum de- struction have therefore a geological factor as well as one of geographical lo- cation. Sea-quakes receive a chapter. The shock was felt by vessels, but as there was so little vertical displacement no sea-wave rolled in on the shore. The sounds that accompanied the shock are shown to be deep in pitch and wide- spread. Some curious effects on ani- mals are recorded. Horses, cats, dogs, and cattle seem to have felt prelim- inary tremors appreciable periods of time before the men who were watching them. The after-shocks are also dis- cussed, but the records are believed to be Incomplete, largely because earth- quake news of this sort was not special- ly welcome, nor was its publication en- couraged. Comparisons are also given with earlier Californian shocks. The maps, which are beautifully pre- pared, afford valuable illustrative ma- terial. In the atlas are also printed

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Nation 175 seismograms from all over the world. The discussion of them will be one of the chief topics of Volume II, which is being prepared by H. P. Reid. A call to be the Thomson lecturer in the United Free Church College in Aber- deen was the immediate cause of the preparation of "The Physics of Earth- quake Phenomena." In the session of 1905-6, the author presented the mate- rial which he subsequently developed into a volume. Eight years as profes- sor of physics in the University of Tokio, 1883-91, had placed Dr. Knott in close association with John Milne and his Japanese colleagues in the formative period of earthquake study; and during subsequent years, as a lecturer on ap- plied mathematics in Edinburgh, he had continued to follow the subject with in- terest. The work is a condensed but very clear review and discussion of the phenomena and causes of earthquakes. The earth is consistently viewed from the standpoint of physics and of the physicist, who regards the rocky crust as a medium of greater or less elastic- ity in which vibrations are produced and through which they are propagated. In this discussion the larger features of the shocks, such as their distribution and periodicity, are explained; the means of detection and measurement are analyzed in a general way, and the more prominent instruments are de- scribed. Although doubtless often tempted to use the higher mathematics, Dr. Knott rather strictly adheres to simple treatment well within the grasp of those whose training is fairly ele- mentary. The book presents a timely and excellent statement of the subject. "Some Nature Biographies," by John J. Ward (John Lane Co.), may be regarded as a pioneer in a field which may soon be- come important, both in teaching in schools and in scientific investigation. We have on the one hand the single photograph — domi- nant up to this time — and the moving-pic- ture machine, which is just entering the field of natural science. Midway stands Mr. Ward's work— isolated photographs taken in more or less rapid succession, to show the emerging of a butterfly from its chrysa- lis or the unfolding of a horse-chestnut bud in water. The eighteen chapters include plants, insects, jellyfish, and coal. The photographs are excellent and interesting, but the text leaves much to be desired. The facts are well-nigh drowned in verbiage. There is a heaviness of diction which makes the reading far from easy. The last chapter is delightful; it consists of twelve photo- graphs of Finham Bridge, near Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, taken from the same point of view in every month of the year. The va- rious seasons are beautifully pictured, and the author is to be congratulated on his success. "The Fresh-Water Aquarium and Its In- habitants," by Otto Eggeling and Frederick Ehrenberg (Henry Holt & Co.), the second volume of Group IV of the American Nature Series, is a well-balanced, clearly written account of the more common species of plants, insects, amphibians, and fishes which are adapted for living in aquaria of moderate size. The major part of the book is devoted to brief descriptions of plants and animals, with suggestions as to special use and function— in the case of the plants, whether submerged, rooted, swampy, or free floating; and of the animals, hints as to which species will tolerate others in the same aquarium. The chapter on fish- hatching is of especial interest, as show- ing what may be accomplished in this un- usual field in one's own room in a balanced aquarium. The illustrations, photographs from life by E. F. Keller and E. R. San- born, are some of the finest in this difficult field. It is a pity that these illustrations could not have been utilized in some gen- eral natural history as well as in this vol- ume of more circumscribed interest. The German Society for Anthropology and Ethnology has decided to publish a new journal, Prdhistorisclie Zeitschrift. The ed- itors will be Dr. Karl Schuchhardt of the Berlin Museum, Dr. Karl Schumacher of the Mainz Museum, and Dr. Hans Seger of the Breslau Museum. The rigorously scientific publications of the French government mission to Mexico and Central America continue, with the third part of the "Recherches zoijlogiques," under the general direction of H. Milne Edwards and Leon Vaillant: the present number, quarto with five plates, is devoted to the study of the reptiles by A. Dumeril, Bocourt, and Mocquard. The results of scientific exploration of Africa are embodied in three works re- cently published in Paris. Commandant Eu- gene-Armand Lenfant, government explor- er, has a new volume, with 115 illustra- tions and a map of the "rivers of life and rivers of death" — Nana, Ouam, Penndfi — "La Decouverte des grandes sources du centre de l'Afrique" (Hachette). "Resul- tats scientifiques des voyages en Afrique (1886-1897)" is a severer and more costly summary of the lifework of the really great explorer and mighty hunter isdouard Foa, who went over and observed more than 300 itineraries from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, from Dahomey to the Cape, up the Zambesi and its affluents and to the true sources of the Congo (Plon-Nourrit). "L'Afrique du Nord," by Henri Lorin, professor of colonial geogra- phy in the University of Bordeaux, popu- larizes the scientific knowledge of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. The fifth congress of the Societe Prehis- torique de France will open at Beauvais (Oise), July 26. Three days will be given to discussions, including the following sub- jects: "Points d'extraction de Silex dans l'Oise"; "Architectonique des monuments megalithiques du bassin de la Seine"; "Les Tourbieres (geologie et prehistoire)." The rest of the week will be devoted to excur- sions to the dolmens of Trie-Chateau, Boury, Serifontaine, and Champignolles; to the Camp of Caesar at Hermes, the Quarternary stations of Mont-Sainte-Genevieve, to Com- piegne, etc. Under the auspices of the Min- istry of Education and Fine Arts, a special exhibition of prehistoric objects will be held at Beauvais during this congress. The Royal Academy of Science, at Turin, announces a pr.ze of 3,000 lire to be awarded in 1910 to the person who has made the most striking invention or pub- lished the most important book in one of the physical sciences. Wilfrid H. Hudleston, F.R.S., a distin- guished British geologist, has died at the age of eighty. In his earlier years he travelled much as an ornithologist, but later turned his attention to geological subjects, publishing numerous papers in the magazines. He had been president or the Geological Society, Wollaston medallist, and president of the Geological Section of the British Association. His first work was done under the name of Simpson, which he changed for that of Hudleston in 1867. The death in his eighty-ninth year is re- ported of John Duns, emeritus professor of natural science in the Free Church New College of Edinburgh. His published books are: "Memoir of Professor Fleming," "Things New and Old," "Biblical Natural Science," "Science and Christian Thought," "Memoir of Sir James Simpson," and "Me- moir of Rev. Samuel Martin." Drama. The Faith Healer. By William Vaughn Moody. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. "The Faith Healer," the new play by William Vaughn Moody, is a prose work of very different character from "The Great Divide," resembling it only in its use of symbolism, its contemporaneous significance, its compact, pregnant, and occasionally eloquent dialogue, and its dramatic interest. As the title implies, it deals with spiritual and pathological phenomena associated with the newest creeds as well as the oldest faiths. Michaelis, the hero, is an ecstatic — son of a missionary to the Indians in Mex- ico— who, after years of sheep-tending in the wilderness, sees a vision of the Living Christ, and, thereafter, himself begins to work miracles of healing. He even raises a boy, Lazarus, from the dead, after the fashion of Elisha with the Shunamite's son. Scriptural paral- lelisms are frequent throughout the piece. When the curtain rises he is visiting a farm in the Middle West. The pro- prietor, Matthew Beeler, has been a stu- dent, in a small way, of Darwin and Spencer; his wife, Mary, a rhapsodical religionist, has been a helpless paraly- tic for five years. Neither he nor his sis- ter, the bustling housewife, Martha, has any faith in Michaelis's ministrations. The latter, however, has a disciple in Mrs. Beeler's niece, Rhoda, a repentant Magdalen. Mary Beeler, it should be added, as an indication of character, receives communications from the spir- it of her dead brother Seth. Michaelis is a creature of varying moods. General- ly an enthusiast, he is often inclined to doubt his own powers, and he is espe- cially perturbed by the presence of

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176 Tlie ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 Rhoda, who strongly attracts him. Nev- ertheless, he succeeds in curing Mrs. Beeler, who arises from her bed and walks. The Rev. Mr. Culpepper, repre- senting the orthodox clerical spirit, de- nounces the healer as a blasphemous mountebank. Dr. Littlefield, the family physician, embodying modern science, says that he works by a natural force, which threatens equally the old schools of divinity and medicine, but that for- tunately he will not be able to keep up his practice, as he can only cure at the expense of his own vitality. Later on, the doctor appears to prove his case, for Michaelis, in a notably fine, passionate, and eloquent scene, declares his love for Rhoda and his willingness to sacri- fice everything for ber sake. Straight- way Mrs. Beeler relapses into immobil- ity, and an infant, whom he had been trying to cure, dies. But, then, Rhoda confesses that she has been a sinner, whereupon Michaelis, finding that she is not what he had supposed her to be — one specially sent to tempt him with the spirit of earthly joy, but simply a poor, sick girl in need of redemption and healing — sees a yet higher destiny unfolding before her and himself "with depths of life and heights of love" of which he had never before dreamed. With this access of spiritual devotion, his healing powers return to him in dou- bled force, and as he leaves the scene in fulfilment of his mission, the dead babe breathes again and Mrs. Beeler, with strength restored, walks forth to bear her testimony before a crowd of waiting pilgrims. The play would be stronger if it were clearer in meaning and purpose, more definite in argument and declaration. It is difficult in reading it to determine whether it is a profession of faith, a spiritual romance, or a mere dramatic study of existing conditions. The future relations between Michaelis and Rhoda might well have been much plainer. Perhaps Mr. Moody sought to illustrate a problem, rather than to solve it. Pos- sibly, a cue to his meaning may be found in the suggestion of Michaelis that "these lives of ours may be poured like a jelly from one mould into an- other, until God himself cannot remem- ber what they were two years ago, or two hours ago." At all events, Mr. Moo- dy has written a thoughtful and sug- gestive work, which, whether it wins success upon the stage or not, will make a strong appeal to the imagination of all intelligent readers. In literary expres- sion, it is exceedingly felicitous, not only in the appropriateness of the dia- logue to the personages concerned, but in the melody of the more oratorical passages. Charles Scribner's Sons are bringing out "Semiramis and Other Plays," by Olive Til- ford Dargan, containing work earlier than the "Lords and Lovers," but said to be re- markable for the same power and variety of expression. The latest issue of John S. Farmer's Tudor Facsimile Texts (London: T. C. & E. C. Jack) gives us two more plays of John Heywood, for whose biography the editor has collected material which is said to show the man to have been in no wise the sort of court fool commonly supposed. One of these new volumes, a folio, contains fragments of "Witty and Witless" repro- duced from the manuscript in the British Museum, probably a clean draft made by the author himself. If this is so, it is the only specimen of Heywood's writing in the Museum. The other volume, a quarto, re- produces "Of Gentleness and Nobility" from the black-letter copy in the Museum. It gives the portrait of Heywood from the engraving pasted on a blank fly-leaf oppo- site the title-page of the original. Two more volumes of the series contain re- spectively "The Play of Wit and Science," by John Redford, from the original manu- script, probably the author's, and "A Com- edy Concerning Three Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ," by John Bale. Prof. Edgar C. Morris in his edition of Middleton and Rowley's "Spanish Gipsie," and "All's Lost by Lust," in the Belles- Lettres Series (D. C. Heath & Co.), attacks one of the most difficult of the problems which confront the student of the old drama. He has attempted accurately to distinguish the lines in the "Spanish Gip- sie" written by each of two close collabor- ators. It is an admirable literary exercise to undertake, for it demands a keen liter- ary sense and an intimate acquaintance with the works of the two writers to get results at all worth while. But in such cases even the most proficient dramatic scholars must hesitate to commit them- selves beyond the roughest generalizations. Prof. Morris has tried to demonstrate de- cidedly more than is susceptible of proof. He asserts in the first place that Middle- ton and Rowley "were able to fuse their work to an unusual degree," that they "seem usually not to have set apart certain acts and scenes for each, but to have worked on the same act together"; and then he proceeds to assign their parts scene by scene, and line by line — not even hesitating to say who wrote first and speci- fically how the work was revised. This is a very pretty piece of speculation, but the results are exceedingly flimsy. Further- more, one's faith in this investigator's judgment is shaken by his general estimate of the character and literary talent of Mid- dleton. "Formality, artificiality, refined humor, and self-restraint" are the last qualities in the world which a judicious critic would attribute to the author of the "Chaste Maid in Cheapside." "Flexibility, naturalness, broad humor, and rapid move- ment," the qualities which Professor Mor- ris attributes to Rowley, are precisely the qualities which characterize the comedies acknowledged as Middleton's. With such a set of touchstones, we shall never solve the Middleton-Rowley problem. But here are the two plays, and the puzzle may be tried again. The fact that the "All's Lost by Lust" is accessible elsewhere only in the quarto of 1633 gives to this volume a value which it would not otherwise possess. With the beginning of the new year the Deutsche Biihnenverein has launched its own magazine, Die deutsche Btihne, with Dr. Raphael Lowenfeld as editor. "Gerhart Hauptmann von dem Forum der Kriminalpsychologie und Psychiatrie" (im- ported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) sounds like a formidable arraignment of the poet, but is in reality a serious and sympathetic in- terpretation of his work by Dr. Erich Wulf- fen, an attorney in Dresden. The author points to the influence which modern science and intimate association with students of psychology and psychiatry, pupils of August Forel, had upon Hauptmann during his so- journ in Zurich. The problem of alcoholism which was being studied by them furnished the theme for "Vor Sonnenaufgang," and entered largely into "Das Friedensfest" and "College Crampton." "Einsame Menschen" is to Dr. Wulffen the drama of sexual affin- ity. In "Hannele" he admires the poet's art in making use of pathological phases of ad- olescence. In "Michael Kramer" the psy- chology of creative work is treated with in- sight. Some of Hauptmann's works directly bear upon criminal psychology, as "Der Biberpelz," which is a comedy of larceny, and "Die Weber" and "Florian Geyer" which, beside their social meaning, contain touches of political criminology. The most interesting interpretation is that of the fig- ure of Rautendelein in "Die versunkene Glocke." To Dr. Wulffen she is typical of woman, striving to rise above her elemental nature and to spiritualize her physical life, an attempt counteracted by man, even as Heinrich the bellfounder hinders the devel- opment of Rautendelein. The little book is an illuminating commentary upon the ear- lier work of the poet. Some of our most influential theatrical managers declare that they are not blind to the inevitable consequences of the un- scrupulous conduct of some of their asso- ciates in pandering to the lower instincts of the mob. This utterance affords ground for hope that some measures may be de- vised to act as a dam against the rising flood of indecency. The responsibility for at least the immediate future rests largely upon the shoulders of the managers. The syndicate system, which, in many ways, has* proved so mischievous to the best inter- ests of the stage, has this merit, at all events, that it invests the men at the head of it with a summary power to say what sort of show shall or shall not be permit- ted to enter any of the houses under their control. Should they agree — as two or three of them seem inclined to agree, that some sort of a censorship might be even more beneficial to their interests than to those of public morality — they could put one Into effectual operation at almost a moment's, notice. They could not, of course, instant- ly suppress all indecent shows, but they could relegate them to fifth-rate houses, where they would attract far less notice. Miss Julia Marlowe produced Mary John- ston's poetic play, "The Goddess of Rea- son," in Daly's Theatre on Monday evening, with a considerable measure of success. Both the virtues and weaknesses of the piece, which has been reviewed already (see the Nation, May 16, 1907, p. 460), were manifest in representation. Among the for- mer may be enumerated some effective theatrical scenes — including one of genuine dramatic power in the third act — several passages of marked literary eloquence and poetic charm, an interesting story, and

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Nation. 177 three or four well-drawn characters. Con- fused and arbitrary construction — especially in the opening acts — and an abundance or halting and prosaic lines constitute the main defects. Whether considered as lit- erature or drama it is a work of very un- even quality, but bearing many marks of conspicuous if undeveloped and untrained ability. The central character, that of a peasant girl, who, becoming a local leader of the French Revolution, denounces her lover in a fit of jealousy and afterwards, failing to save him, proclaims herself an aristocrat and royalist in order to share his ifate, proves to be well suited to the per- sonality and artistic methods of Miss Mar- lowe, who enacts it with unfailing charm, sympathetic intelligence, and occasional outbursts, as in the denunciation scene, of genuinely tragic emotion. On the whole hei impersonation is one of the best which she has recently exhibited, being rich in those emotional flashes by which she has long been distinguished, and also in that quiet and unaffected pathos which is, perhaps, more artistically precious. It is announced that Charles Frohman is to become the manager of the Sicilian actress, Mimi Aguglia, for a term of years, and that he will present her in English plays, so soon as she shall have learned the language. Some of her pieces are to be translated and others of English or- igin will be added to her repertory. It ap- pears that Sardou esteemed her abilities highly and began a play for her, of which the unfinished draft is in Mr. Frohman's possession. Wilfred T. Coleby's new comedy, "The Truants," Miss Lena Ashwell's latest pro- duction at the London Kingsway Theatre, deals with the adventures of an impetuous young couple who deliberately resolve to defy social conventions. They are brought to a sense of their folly in the nick of time by the intervention of a woman who is a distinguished author and traveller, a part played by Miss Ashwell, and said to be rich in dramatic possibilities. H. B. Irving's lease of the Shaftesbury Theatre in London will expire at the end of this month and he will then bring to a close an exceedingly successful season. Under the circumstances he has decided to postpone the production of Justin Huntly McCarthy's "Casar Borgia" until the au- tumn. During his closing weeks, he has been appearing as Hamlet, Charles I, and Louis XI, thus challenging comparisons with his father in three of the latter's most brilliant successes. His Hamlet has been highly praised in the provinces, and his Charles I, which he exhibited here, is a fine performance which need fear no comparisons. Louis XI is, perhaps, a more dangerous experiment. But he appears to furnish one of the rare instances — espe- cially rare upon the stage — in which the mantle of the father has fallen upon a son worthy to bear it. Miss Evelyn Millard expects to produce Robert Hichens's new play, "The Real Wo- man," in the London Criterion Theatre, on February 23. The heroine is a young girl who has not yet awakened to the serious responsibilities of life. A visit to the East End, in which the action of an entire act is laid, opens her eyes to the misery, the squalor, and the suffering that form the daily round of so many unfortunate peo- ple. This brief, but poignant, experience brings to the surface all that is best and noblest in her nature. From a butterfly, she changes into a real woman. Mr. Hich- ens also is making a stage version for Miss Millard, of his story, "The Garden of Al- lah " A review of the plays performed in Ger- man theatres during the season 1907-1908, just published by Breitkopf & Hartel of Leipzig, shows that Schiller has been play- ed 1,441 times, "Wilhelm Tell" alone having reached 292 performances. Next in order come Sudermann with 1,202; Oscar Blu- menthal, 1,021; Shakespeare, 945; Wilden- bruch, 938, among them preeminently "Die Rabensteinerin"; Franz von Schonthan, 931; Ibsen, 876; Goethe, 705; "Faust," Part i, 213; L'Arronge, 684; Kadelburg-Skow- ronnek, 615; Henri Bernstein, 510; Meyer- Forster, 477; Hauptmann, 476; Hebbel, 409; Lessing, 370; Grillparzer, 369; and Moliere, 185. ■Sardou's books, engravings, and various effects will be sold in Paris in March and April by Lair-Dubreuil & Baudoin. Music. Beethoven's unsterbliche Geliebte. Von La Mara. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Har- tel. Beethoven died in 1827. After the funeral his brother and several of his friends carefully searched in his apartments for documents that might be of value, particularly some bank- stock certificates which it was known he intended to leave to his nephew. Dis- appointment seemed probable, when one of the searchers saw the head of a nail on the side of a bureau. Seizing it, he pulled out a secret drawer, containing the desired certificates and also a letter in Beethoven's handwriting to a woman, not named, whom he called his "unster- bliche Geliebte" — his "immortal belov- ed"— a letter which has been made the subject of countless newspaper articles and several brochures. It begins with the words: "My angel, my all, my ego," and continues throughout in this ardent style: I weep at the thought that you will prob- ably not hear from me before Saturday — however much you may love me — my own love is stronger still. The letter is dated July 6, but without year or place; incidental references in- dicate, however, that it was written at a bathing resort difficult of access, for the writer says he would have hardly got there alive had he not had an ex- ceptionally good driver. Schindler was the first to print this letter, in his biography of Beethoven. He advanced the view that the "immor- tal beloved" was the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, who for a time was Bee- thoven's pupil, and to whom he dedi- cated the "Moonlight" sonata when she was seventeen. This view prevailed for thirty years, until the American biog- rapher of the great master, Thayer, ap- plied his ingenuity to the problem and made it seem probable that, not the Countess Guicciardi, but her cousin, Theresa Brunsvick, was the "immortal beloved." There were a few weak points in the argument, and, while the writer of one brochure, Mariam Tenger, sided with Thayer, another writer, Dr. A. C. Kalischer, tried hard to prove that it was Giulietta who was Beethoven's "an- gel, all, and ego." One thing is certain, Thayer was wrong in giving the year 1806 as the date of the letter. Kalisch- er, in his complete edition of Beetho- ven's letters, dates it 1801; but the real date was 1807, as is made appar- ent by La Mara in the little book of 136 pages now before us. With an ingenuity worthy of Sherlock Holmes, she spent more than a decade in tracking the truth, searching family archives, inter- viewing relatives and descendants of the various dramatis personw, and, finally, with the aid of the Pressburg town-li- brarian, Johann Batka, removing all reasonable doubt (see p. 34) that Theresa Brunsvick was the "beloved." And Theresa was worthy of the honor, for she must have been a young woman of unusual charm of mind as well as body. She spoke four languages. She never married, devoting her life large- ly to charitable work, especially in be- half of children. At the age of seventy she began to write her memoirs, which La Mara was so lucky as to secure for her book. They give interesting glimpses of her time, in various coun- tries, for she was a great traveller. In one respect only are they disappointing: there is no direct reference to her love for Beethoven, but she writes concern- ing one proposal she received after his death: "I remained cold, an early pas> sion had consumed my heart." On an earlier page she prints an account of the lessons Beethoven gave her. In- stead of one hour, he remained four or five, and never missed a lesson during the fortnight she was in Vienna. La Mara's book is illustrated with a por- trait of this remarkable woman, a fac- simile of a Beethoven letter, and other documents. Art. THE PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY. An exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy is a sort of clearing-house for American art — or at least for painting. Conservative and select standards pre- vail, in keeping with the historic dig- nity of the institution. The present show is said to be the best in average quality ever offered here. Of the oncom- ers there are many close to the lead- ers, and one finds the ensemble most stimulating. To note standards we elim-

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178 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 inate extremes. Works beyond art's gra- cious ministry to life or out of touch with general culture, problem-plays in the visual field or attempts to reform the world or stagger humanity, are hap- pily absent. Radical departures from accepted modes, archaistic motives, Whistlerian "arrangements," fictitious romance, fond sentiment or bald illus- tration, have little place in the gal- lery. The two religious paintings by Henry O. Tanner, which might be class- ed as sentimental or illustrative, can- not, however, be summarily dismissed, for they are able and sincere. Yet they do not seem quite simple or immediate. Several pictures have a sort of re- ligious potential; we can make a Madonna at will out of the noble Mother and Child (of 1902) by George De Forest Brush, or out of Charles W. Hawthorne's good and sympa- thetic picture of the same theme, be- cause the idea is simple and eternal: C'est assez d'un enfant sur sa mkre endormi. Even landscape of elemental suggestion and with a subjective back- ground, like Winslow Homer's Early Evening, may be on the way to a vo- tive mood. In sculpture, which seems with us in a less flexible state than painting, our exhibition deserves a clos- er examination than we can give it. The technical standards here are very high; there is no improvisation or uncertain- ty, and we have some interesting works which transcend a too inveterate preci- sion and finish, coming from late renais- sance inspiration, and which suggest freer tendencies in design. Confining ourselves mainly to pictures and passing over some academic experi- ments, we come first to the so-called realists. Of records in this literal kind the powerful and often sentient land- scape of Edward W. Redfield is typical; but we might take some less familiar instance, as the Westfield River by George L. Noyes, where there seems a more flexible vision. Something in the construction here, as in the foreground flora and stones, goes beyond the near and tangible, and is on the way to revelation. A landscape by George Bel- lows, hung high in the New York Acad- emy, improves on acquaintance, and has, without a secure style, a touch of pas- sion. He has studied Winslow Homer to some purpose. Another promising realist, if not yet important, is Paul Cornoyer, who has a moving human theme. In sheer truth of literal presen- tation, with a more conventional style and without atmosphere, Frederick J. Waugh's deep-sea piece is impressive. Theodore Wendel, for all his fresh and vivid outlook, seems less actual, more forced in color, than several artists of realistic tendency whom we might men- tion. Figures or portraits may be liter- al even where they approach a decora- tive impulse, as with the two brilliant examples of William M. Paxton and the facile portrait of Miss Townsend by John S. Sargent. To come to the ideal category, we may note tentatively some bold essays, and conclude with what seems indubitable. Abbott H. Thayer attempts beauty in The Virgin, but fails of actual perform- ance. In Marcelle, an ambitious, if still academic, nude, as in two landscapes, Frederic Carl Friesike is distinguished, but not yet secure. The same may be said of Paul Dougherty's White Tide, which only needs a style corresponding to its idea and its design to be impres- sive. Among the landscape luminists truth in this kind sometimes becomes poetic. It is hard to choose, but one feels in Walter Griffin an ideal mood and a clear utterance. The Red Pep- pers of Alice Mumford Roberts have an intensity, fervor, and insight which seem like the "sudden matter" of the lyric muse. In the same brilliant room one notes two works by W. W. Gilchrist, jr., a Renoir- and Besnard-like Model's Rest, and A Study in Lavender, the lat- ter tender as Gainsborough. For what seems definite achievement and high originality we may cite — besides the Brush and the Winslow Homer already mentioned — the fine portrait of Edward A. Schmidt by the veteran Thomas Eakins, a genre-piece by Edmund C. Tarbell, and good examples of the art of J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam. In sculpture an idealized portrait by Charles Grafly and a figure for a Foun- tain of Youth by Bela A. Pratt should be noted. William Rankin. "The Acropolis of Athens," by Prof. Mar- tin L. D'Ooge, and "Greek Architecture," by Prof. Allan Marquand, are promised for this spring by the Macmillan Company. Perhaps the most interesting article iii the January number of the Burlington Magazine is that on "Whistler and Modern Art," by C. J. Holmes. Mr. Holmes remarks that the neglected masters of the immediate past are now the "object of universal praise and eager competition; tne popular favor- ites of the century are, almost without ex- ception, worthless." The result of this "salesroom collapse of Academy reputa- tions" is that amateurs have become fright- ened, and that "modern paintings are rare- ly bought" at all. In order to remedy this state of affairs Mr. Holmes proposes to in- struct the possible picture buyer how, in sporting phrase, to pick the winners, and so avoid wasting his money; and he does it in this wise. The painters now in vogue were all innovators, consequently innova- tors should be chosen for patronage. But imitation of nature can be carried no fur- ther, truth of detail having been pushed to its limit by the Preraphaelites and truth of effect by the impressionists. Innovation can no longer come by addition of new truths — it must come by the suppression of old ones, and the true novelty will be "the omission of something which has never been omitted before." The result will be "odd- ity, incompleteness, ugliness"; and the col- lector is practically bidden to "back" (the word is Mr. Holmes's) the odd, the incom- plete, and the ugly. In the present state of modern painting this should leave him plen- ty of room for choice. In all this, of course, there is an element of truth, but Mr. Holmes seems to us to neglect some im- portant considerations. In the absence of sound traditions, the nineteenth century was an age of experimenting in art, it3 strongest men innovators; tout it has not always been so, and it does not follow that it will always be so. Even in the past cen- tury there was that high priest of classicism, Ingres, whose reputation is to-day greater than ever it was, and there was Millet— an ingrained conservative whose "innova- tion" consisted in a return to the eternal principles of the grand style. Who shall say that the next revolution of a generation wearied of clever imitation of nature shall not be a frank reaction to the point of view of the great classic masters of painting? Their methods are not exhausted because they are inexhaustible, and there is infinite scope for the development of real indi- viduality within the limits of what they would have recognized as sound art. This is the attitude taken by Kenyon Cox in his article, in the same number of the maga- zine on "The Recent Work of E. C. Tar- bell," that artist being praised for "such simply beautiful painting" as is 'rarer to- day than it has been in the past." The num- ber also contains an interesting apprecia- tion of the late Charles Eliot Norton by Henry James. A somewhat bumptious little book is "The History of Engraving, from Its In- ception to the Time of Thomas Bewick," by Stanley Austin (imported by Charles Scribner's Sons). A gift of fine words the author evidently regards as an important part of his equipment. To him "Art is the child of romance which cradled in dreams has ripened into undying reality. It is the Aphrodite of the imagination, and, like its parent, is possessed of undying charm." Mr. Austin also has knowledge of some of the facts of his subject, although it is questionable if he possesses a clear idea of just what constitutes engraving. A considerable portion of the book, for instance, is devoted to book blocks and other wood cuts, which can hardly be called engravings at all. Wood cutting is a knife process, whereas wood engraving, which came in with Bewick, is a process of true engraving. One is tempted to quarrel with the proportions allotted to the different topics, but doubtless in a popular manual for English readers it is necessary to give much space to those branches, such as mezzotint and stipple, that British collect- ors have affected. The perfervid eulogies of Bartolozzi and Bewick, while not alto- gether unmerited, are lacking in restraint and sense of values. It is an unpardonable exaggeration to say that "Language can hardly err in praise of Bewick, for he was, in a sense, to Art what Shakespeare was to Letters." Apropos of the mooted ques- tion whether Holbein personally cut any of the blocks bearing his designs, the au- thor holds it probable that it was his prac- tice to draw directly upon the wood, and that both he and Luetzelburger were re- sponsible for the cutting. This opinion is not held by the best authorities. Jacques Reich of this city has added to his series of etched portraits of authors a

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Feb. 1 8, 1909] The Kation 179 Robert Louis Stevenson, fourteen Inches by eleven and a quarter. The picture repre- sents Stevenson at a desk with pen in hand, but looking up, as if to speak. And it is a speaking likeness — the marvellously keen, bright eye in a face curiously touched with melancholy. It is a portrait which, like the style of Stevenson, becomes more fascinat- ing as one studies it — in spite of the fact that the cheeks are fuller, less gaunt than most persons had supposed them to be in Stevenson's later years. Prof. A. H. Sayce has discovered the true site of the ancient city of Meroe, which had hitherto been placed near the temples of Naga, about twenty-five miles inland from the Nile. The ancient remains found and identified by Professor Sayce are about three miles from Ka'bushia Station, near Shendi, which is half-way between Khar- tum and Atbara. The identification was made possible by the discovery of the great wall ,of inner defences, and the remains of the Temple of Amon mentioned by Strabo, as well as the Avenue of Rams, leading up to the temple. There were also found a life-size statue of a king, scarabs, seals, pottery, a slab with Greek inscriptions, etc. — material dating from 700 b. c. to 300 A. D. The determining of the true site of Meroe is of special importance, since the buried cities of Ethiopia, mentioned by ear- ly historians, can be approximately deter- mined by their known distance from Meroe. The systematic excavation of the Phoeni- cian settlement of Motya, an island off Sici- ly, is now in active progress. The walls, partly composed of huge unworked rocks in "Cyclopean" style, and partly of well- wrought masonry, have been carefully ex- plored. Both the northern and southern gates with their massive battlements are fine survivals of the Phoenician fortifica- tions. Two stone staircases in the line of the walls have been disclosed. A remark- able find is a rectangular enclosure, sub- stantially ibuilt of stone, at the southern end of the island, which evidently served as a small inland harbor with a narrow channel leading to the sea. A necropolis has also been discovered at the northern extremity of the island, which seems to have been in use both in prehistoric and early Phoenician times. The remains of the buildings of Motya, which we know from the account of Diodorus to have been both numerous and magnificent, have not as yet been properly investigated, but are likely to yield a rich harvest. Among the exhibtions at the dealers' gal- leries in this city are textiles, embroideries, and Persian and Racca faience at Bauer- Folsom's, till February 20 ; miniatures by Helene Paulini and etchings by Whistler and Jacques Reich, Katz's, February 22; old pewter, M. Johnson Brown & Co.'s, March 1 ; engraved portraits of Lincoln and Washington, O'Brien's, March 9. A SoeiSte pour la Reproduction des Des- sins de Maitres has been formed in Paris for the publication of little-known draw- ings in private and public collections. Maurice Roy, in a paper read before the French Academie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, has made, out the existence of two artists, instead of one, by the name of Jean Couoin. He has not determined their relationship. In the death of Russell Sturgis on Feb- ruary 11, the Nation has lost a contribu- tor whose ready pen and whose wide knowledge of architecture and of various minor arts were constantly and generously at its service. Mr. Sturgis was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, in 1836. After graduation from the College of the City of New York he studied architecture here and in Munich, his first master being Leopold Eidlitz, who was prominent in the Gothic revival. As a practising architect Mr. Stur- gis designed a number of important build- ings, including the Yale Chapel, at New Haven, and the Farnham and Durfee dor- mitories. In 1880 ill-health compelled him to give up active business, and for a while he resided in Europe. On his return to this country he devoted most of his energy to the work of connoisseur and critic, and de- spite the disadvantage of weak eyes, wrote largely for the leading magazines and for various dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Be- sides revising Liibke's "History of Art," he had undertaken a general "History of Architecture," to be completed in three volumes (volume I reviewed in the Nation, July 4, 1907, p. 20) ; it is to be hoped that he has left manuscript for the completion o£ this which promised to be his greatest work. Other books by him are : "Manual of the Jarves Collection of Early Italian Pictures" (1868), "European Architecture, a Histori- cal Study" (1896), "Annotated Bibliography of Fine Art" (1897), "How to Judge Archi- tecture" (1903), "The Appreciation of Sculp- ture" (1904), "The Interdependence of the Arts of Design" (1905), "The Appreciation of Pictures" (1905), and "A Study of the Artist's Way of Working in the Various Handicrafts and Arts of Design" (1905). In all his writing, as in his intercourse with men, he was steadfast for what is fine and of good report. Finance. ASPECTS OF THE FINANCIAL SIT- UATION. The fact that the opening weeks of 1909 have been marked by general lack of activity and enthusiasm in American finance has disconcerted the markets in which there had been many predictions of such revival. Two opposite opinions have all along been held by experi- enced financiers, regarding the excep- tional nature of the markets of 1908 — one, that the panic of 1907 was really no such serious affair as people imag- ined, and that the rapid return to "boom- ing markets" merely reflected the quick restoration of trade conditions which never ought to have been interrupted; the other, that the Stock Exchange dem- onstrations of 1908 must be classed as psychological rather than economic phenomena, and that while a steady bet- terment of industrial conditions, as compared with the close of 1907, was undoubtedly in progress, the greater part of the Wall Street speculation was based on pure illusion. The exact truth probably lies some- where between these two extremes. The view of a neutral observer is presented in the review of finance for 1908 issued by the London office of the Swiss Bank- verein, an institution of high standing: The leaders of American finance and in- dustry have, with shrewd instinct, taken in this crisis the very action most con- ducive to the fostering of confidence. They bought boldly, assiduously, and profusely. They bought railway shares on heavy de- clines and thereby raised the credit of their companies; they bought bonds and thus encouraged and attracted investment capital. ... It is scarcely necessary to state that the entire economic fabric could not at once be restored to its former ac- tivity; that many had to contend with financial difficulties; that works still re- mained closed, and even those financially sound were only partly employed; that numerous hands continued idle ; but the lact has been established beyond disproof that by their timely and determined ac- tion, the magnates checked pessimism, which was gaining ground, and enabled a more hopeful disposition to prevail. In this view there is no doubt some force. But it must be obvious that, if expectations are raised to a pitch where the actual events in trade and industry do not and cannot justify them, disappointment and unwarranted pessimism are the penalty. This is precisely what has happened. The ex- traordinary outburst of hope, jubilation, and speculation, in November, was bas- ed on an outright fallacy — namely, that trade depression, business losses, and damaged credit could be instantaneous- ly swept away by the fact of Mr. Taft's election. The review already cited closes with the remark: Now that the first burst of enthusiasm over the result of the Presidential elec- tion has subsided, it is generally admitted, apparently even in America, that a more sober view should be taken of the pros- pects of trade and industry. What, then, will be discovered by those who now take this "more sober view"? First, that so far from a great "trade boom" having burst forth instan- taneously the morning after election, in no subsequent month have the volume and activity of business equalled the record of October. Even the earnings of the United States Steel Corporation reached in that month their high level of 1908, and have since shown slight but continuous decrease. At the mo- ment, it is probable that the steel indus- try, which is usually typical, is working at about 60 per cent, of normal. At the close of 1907, the ratio was declared on good authority to be 28 per cent.; last summer it was something like 50. This, in a general way, sums up the position of things in the majority of trades. The exception, possibly, is dry goods, where the present activity prob- ably exceeds that of most other indus- tries, largely because of last year's prompt readjustment of prices to alter- ed conditions. If, in reading the account of an old-

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180 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2277 time financial panic of the first magni- tude, one were to learn that from 28 per cent, the volume of trade had recovered within fifteen months to 60 per cent., one's vgr-diet would be that recuperation hadob^ei -<:markably satisfactory. That, m j»"t judgment, is the reasonable way '0 look at the present condition of American industry. It ought to be understood that the October panic of 1907 was not a "Wall Street flurry," not an accident due to a slip in the ar- rangements of one or two New York trust companies, not merely a senseless outbreak of distrust among depositors, and not a sudden flight for safety by people who had all at once become dis- mayed over President Roosevelt's atti- tude. By this time we have surely had enough of pointing to incidents and symptoms, and declaring that they were causes of the malady. What sensible peo- ple now know is, that the whole finan- cial world had been over-exploiting cred- it, during 1905 and 1906, precisely as it did in 1871 and 1872; that the strain had grown too great; that eminent financiers and economists had in ad- vance warned not only our markets, but Europe's also, of what was over- hanging; that the collapse began in countries thousands of miles away from us, before it came in the United States; and that the particular violence of the crisis in this country was the penalty for the particular extravagance of our great speculators' use of credit. Recovery from a downfall of this sort must in the nature of things be grad- ual; conservatism must take the place of rashness, and economy of waste. Such has been the nature of our recovery to date. Illusions fostered by Stock Ex- change manipulation cannot really has- ten the progress of convalescence. That will pursue its normal course. Nor does the present effort to place on the tariff discussion the blame for the seeming stagnation in producing markets help the matter. The Iron Age, which will hardly be accused of "free-trade sympa- thies," dismisses this argument con- temptuously, assigning present condi- tions to "lack of demand and growing domestic competition," and intimating plainly that manufacturers who, at a juncture such as this, are standing out for the prices of prosperity, are them- selves responsible for the present par- ticular slowness of improvement. With this view we cordially agree; the fact is that, up to the present time, the pace of recovery has been more rapid than there was reason to expect fifteen months ago. That this gradual recov- ery will continue, and that it will be no less sure and genuine because it is gradual, we are fully convinced. BOOKS OP THE WEEK. Aguilar, Grace. Edmund, the Exiled Prince, and Wallace, the Dauntless Chief. Dut- ton. $1.50 net. Aguilar, Grace. Macintosh, the Highland Chief: A Tale of the Civil War. Dutton. $1.50 net. Bacon, Benjamin Wisner. The Beginnings of Gospel Story: A Historico-Critical In- quiry. New Haven: Yale University Press. Baker, Ray Stannard. New Ideals in Heal- ing. Frederick A. Stokes. 85 cents net. Bardeen, C. W. John Brody's Astral Body and Other Stories About Schools. Syra- cuse, N. Y.: C. W. Bardeen. Beaulieu, Paul Leroy. Collectivism: A Study of Some of the Leading Social Questions of the Day. Translated by Arthur Clay. Dutton. $3 net. Belief, Daniel. Les Grandes Antilles. Paris: E. Guilmoto. Bell, Ralcy Husted. The Changing Values of English Speech. Hinds, Noble & El- dredge. Bonar, Horatius. Hymns. Selected by his son, H. N. Bonar. Henry Frowde. Book of Filial Duty. Translated from the Chinese of the Hsiao Ching, by Ivan Chen. Dutton. 40 cents, net. Brahms, Johannes. The Herzogenberg Cor- respondence. Edited by Max Kalbeck. Translated by Hannah Bryant. Dutton. $3 net. Bridgman, Raymond L. 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The Century ol the Child By ELLEN KEY $1.50 net Some of Miss Key's ideas are strong- ly revolutionary, but in educational questions she shows originality, and her writings have a wide appeal among progressive people. In the mat- ter of the education of children she is the foe of mechanical methods and recommends a large liberty in the bringing-up of young people. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, S^cSB AUTOGRAPH LETTERS of Celebrities Bought and Sold. Send for price lists. WALTER R. BENJAMIN, 225 Fifth Ave., New York City, Pub. "THE COLLECTOR,"*! a jr. BOOKBINDING F0Rr B00KL0VERS Carefully executed in spe- cial designs. We should be pleased to receive your orders, and will give same our careful attention. THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO. j CLEVELAND. OHIO BOOKS Not Readily Procurable In the Regular Way generally supplied without difficulty and within a minimum length of time. Our catalog of publica- tions and rarities on request. THE TORCH PRESS BOOK SHOP, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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The Nation. NEW YORE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1909. The Week. There have been many complaints re- cently that the ''Nation" comes late in the mails. In most places within 250 miles of New York it should be deliv- ered not later than Thursday noon. The publisher wishes to be notified of de- lays in order that he may take the mat- ter up promptly with the postal author- ities. For the successful ending of our fleet's spectacular cruise around the world, every American will give thanks. An undertaking of this kind involves so many possibilities of accident that the absence of serious mishap reflects great credit alike upon officers and men. That there had been moments of dan- ger appeared at the recent court-martial in Gibraltar, when there was testimony that the accused officer had repeatedly •shown coolness and skill "in critical situations." As a whole, the conduct of the men has been excellent. The only really grave lapses have been due to the navy's old enemy, intoxication, and these have been summarily punish- ed. With the whole performance the country has, therefore, every reason to be satisfied. So far as the political ef- fects of the cruise are concerned, there is even greater cause for gratification. The Nation was one of the journals which looked upon the venture as ill- timed and rather hazardous, in view of the anti-Japanese agitation by dema- gogues on the Pacific Coast. Further- more, it must not be forgotten that the foreign press regarded the cruise as a direct menace to Japan. Some of our own newspapers gayly announced that the mere prospect of the voyage had completely silenced the "hectoring Japanese." But the most significant single event of the entire cruise was Japan's invitation to the fleet to visit Japanese waters. This simple act of courtesy and friendliness took overnight from the fleet's voyage all appearance of hostility, and proved for all time how inferior the most powerful battleships -are to the conquering influences of in- ternational kindliness and good-will. Purthermore, William H. Taft added greatly to the cordiality of this display of amity by his admirable address at Tokio, in which he emphatically declar- ed that war between the United States and Japan would be a "crime against civilization," and its mere discussion an "infamous suggestion" — words that promise from March 4 on a cessation of at least one of the alarums of war which have vexed us so steadily these last four years. As to the navy, we cannot feel that it has gained much from the cruise. Its officers have navigated fleets before, not in quite such dangerous waters, per- haps, or with quite so many big ships in line. But, with all deference to the contrary views of Rear-Admiral Mahan, the best professional opinion is that fourteen months have been lost for the drilling of the fleet — longer, in fact, be- cause preparations for the cruise and repairs now to be made will take out another six months. It has been a cruise of the line ships without, how- ever, those accompanying vessels, such as destroyers, scouts, and fast cruis- ers, which are necessary if there is to be a real simulation of war conditions. But those naval officers who see in the cruise only a waste of time and effort, like those persons who lament the enor- mous cost, will be little heard to-day. As Senator Hale and Senator Tillman put it, the country has gone navy-mad, and for the moment is bound as unduly to exalt the voyage as it did the battle of Manila Bay. The passage by the Senate of the naval bill, with its enormous appropria- tion of $137,000,000, now throws that measure into the hands of a conference committee. We wish that this sum, vot- ed in the face of a Treasury deficit which bids fair to be slightly larger than the naval appropriation itself, might be reduced in committee; but of this there is no prospect, particularly as the return of the battleship fleet and the shouting over it coincide with the discussions in conference. About $137,- 000,000 will finally be settled upon, or $15,000,000 more than last year, and no less than $121,000,000 more than twenty-five years ago, 1884. In 1885 we devoted $9,242,496.82 to the navy— yet no nation insulted us, ravaged our shores, or carried off our women and children. Even in 1898 the amount was $32,574,082.43. If the next year, with its aftermath of war, took us over the hundred-million mark, we none the less spent only $55,623,422.30 as late as 1901. In the eight years of peace, therefore, during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, we have increased our naval expenditures nearly two and one-half times. But the waste is not to stop here — even though industry is still prostrate everywhere, and the Treasury surplus shrinks ominously. We are not to re- trench in this item if times are bad, for Senator Hale, the chairman of the Sen- ate committee, solemnly assures us that next year the bill for the fleet will be $160,000,000, and in 1911 not less than $200,000,000. If an armed enemy were at our doors, we could hardly do more. Moreover, the army authorities, who have spent hundreds of millions on coast defences, inform us that our coasts are impregnable to battleship attack — if any fleet, save the British, could ven- ture hostilities so many thousand miles from its base. In view of these figures, the American nation, so mighty in its extent, its resources, and, above all, its moral power, seems suddenly to have turned coward. We are apparently too frightened or too captivated by the no- tion of a big navy to mark well Sena- tor Hale's words of warning: "This means that it will soon be the un- escapable duty of Congress either to borrow money or greatly to increase the taxes." As the naval bill now stands, the mar- ines will be restored by vote of Con- gress to the battleships from which they were withdrawn by Presidential or- der. This action we cannot but regard as unwise, because the most progressive officers favor removal 'of the marines. As we have heretofore pointed out, the marines are employed only on battle- ships with English, American, or Dutch crews. Everywhere else there are regi- ments of marine light infantry affiliat- ed with the navy, for use in oversea ex- peditions, in landing parties, and in garrisoning navy yards and stations. On battleships marines are in many re- spects anomalous, because, under mod- ern conditions, the bluejackets can po-

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182 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 lice their own craft quite as well as the marines. The trouble is, however, that everything Mr. Roosevelt now urges, no matter how desirable, is suspect in the eyes of Congress. We do not think that any one can successfully controvert the arguments advanced at the Indianapolis conven- tion in favor of a permanent tariff com- mission. If we must have a tariff, let us at least be semi-scientific. At present, the whole subject is thrown into the hands of a small committee, which drafts a bill in private in the course of a few months, though in any other country the statute would be writ- ten by experts after years of study. This method gives the beneficiaries of the special privileges the best possible op- portunities to get not only their feet, but their bodies, into the trough. When the bill is passing through Congress there are further opportunities for helping those pitifully needy American indus- tries, like the Steel Trust, that cannot live without government pap. It is, therefore, refreshing to have an avowed protectionist like J. W. Van Cleave, president of the National Manufactur- ers' Association, denounce the present tariff-making machinery because the Ways and Means Committee is a par- tisan body, lacks scientific knowledge and the requisite time to readjust sched- ules, and is, finally, as Mr. Van Cleave said, compelled to consult selfish per- sons whose views of their own industry are wholly biassed — he might have add- ed, by their desire to get what they can out of Congress for their own pockets. But this is the very reason why there should not be any protective tariffs. Selfishness and sordid bargaining are the primal forces behind each schedule. And they make it probable that the ef- forts to obtain a tariff-making commis- sion or a merely advisory body will fail. The tariff is in politics because it was conceived in politics, nourished by poli- tics, and reared by politics. It will stay in politics because it is the best asset the Republican party has had. It wins victories by the sale of favors. The only way the tariff can be taken out of politics is by a general realization that it spells corruption. In his letter to Senator Hale discuss- ing the Hemenway report on the secret service, the President is more vehement than convincing. He asserts a set of facts different from those set up in the reports of the committees in Congress, while his denials and theirs do not re- late to the same thing. In a word, issue is not clearly joined between the two parties to the dispute. "Not one case," affirms Congress, "in which the detec- tive work of the government has been hampered by our restrictions on the use of the secret service, has appeared on inquiry. The heads of all the depart- ments have admitted that we have pro- vided them men enough and money enough for this kind of work." "Yes," rejoins the President, "but if the re- striction had been put in force before the Department of Justice had organ- ized its own secret service, criminals would have escaped detection and prose- cution." Obviously, this sort of recrim- ination could be kept up forever. As for the figures of the number of detec- tives employed by the government, and the money paid out on that score, so much depends upon the definition, shad- ing off a detective from a mere inspec- tor, that the controversy is barren. Be- fore deciding in our haste that all men are liars, it is well to know whether they understand what they are talking about. Indictments of the New York World for criminal libel would have caused no great excitement if the case had not been treated in so excitable a fashion by the President. He vehemently as- serted that the World had committed "a libel upon the United States govern- ment." The Grand Jury, however, found indictments for libel only of specified persons. Mr. Roosevelt's violent attack upon the newspaper has enabled it to assume the air of a victim of political persecution, and to take the heroic pose of a champion of the freedom of the press. But for all this extraneous Pres- idential fury, it is not probable that the World would have found much sympa- thy. It has admitted that it was not able to justify its assertions, or insinu- ations, against C. P. Taft and Douglas Robinson; and W. N. Cromwell now states that the World had direct and explicit notice from him, before the stories were published, that they were the concoction of blackmailers and were false in every respect. A newspa- per that coolly "takes the chances" of that kind of freedom of the press can- not complain if the law has something to say about it. It is clear that the first effect of Gov. Hughes's speech giving, as he had not given before, the details of his plan for direct nominations, has been to con- fuse people's minds. Some of his sup- porters are left in doubt; his enemies appear to waver. But whatever else may be said of his plan for primaries, this must be said: it is the conception of an honest and independent man, log- ically developed after much study and thought. For our part, we frankly state that we are not wholly satisfied with the Governor's proposals. They seem to us to multiply political ma- chinery rather unhappily. We should have better liked the application of the principle of the direct primary, pure and simple. As for giving first place on the primary ballot to the nominees of the party committees, or organization, we should have preferred to see them take their chances with all other nominations, in alphabetical or- der; but this does not seem a vital mat- ter. It is purely a question of numeri- cal order. No designation of "regular" or otherwise is to be allowed with the names. All the committees — district, county, State — he would have elected in an open, legalized, and direct primary. The nominations of these committees are, in turn, to be submitted to the ver- dict of the voters. It is a kind of in- formal referendum within the party. The thing is not the entire novelty it seems. In Prof. C. E. Merriam's recent book, "Primary Elections," he refers to a scheme of this kind, and, as it is worth while to note, intimates that the tendency is towards such a system: In many cases the direct primary is like- ly to take the form of a referendum, or a list of candidates proposed by the party managers. The leaders will present a can- didate for each office, and the verdict of the party voters will indicate the degree of their confidence in the organization offi- cials. Such a plan was presented to mem- bers of the Republican Committee of Cook County in 1902 by Professor Judson of the University of Chicago, but was not adopt- ed. A similar plan was advocated by Dr. Robert H. Whitten In the same year. Al- though comparatively little attention was given to these proposals at the time, the course of recent events indicates that a system much like this is likely to develop out of the direct primary. Conceding that the new plan has weaknesses, we must grant also that It

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation 183 is at least a great improvement over the present method. The Governor does not mince words, or exceed the facts, in describing the convention system as broken down and discredited. To vital- ize party management, and to make it truly representative, by compelling it to draw its power from the direct vote of the party membership, cannot fail to replace, for a time at any rate, many tools and puppets, with real men. And the power of actually making nomina- tions by open vote of all enrolled mem- bers, instead of by secret bargaining — the man seeking the boss, as Gov. Hughes puts it — is highly valuable. Even if left in disuse, ordinarily, it could be caught up as an effective weapon in times of crisis. It is undeniable, then, that the Governor has proposed a sub- stantial improvement in party manage- ment, even if it be not so far-reaching as might have been hoped. We ought, indeed, to make our political machin- ery as good as possible, but we ought never to forget that our salvation com- eth not of machinery. Professional pol- iticians, who work at the trade all the year round, will make themselves, in the end, masters of any party machin- ery that may be devised. They can doubtless use and flourish under direct nominations, just as they annexed the convention system, and made it malle- able to their purposes The ultimate remedy lies elsewhere. As Gov. Hughes clearly pointed out in his Brooklyn speech, the true escape from misman- aged parties is to be found in the ex- istence of a growing body of indepen- dent citizens, who, by the right of nomination by petition, and by means of a secret ballot safeguarded by law, can put the better man in the majority, regardless of party. Scarcely any of the commissions, war- rants, and instructions issued by the British government to its pre-revolu- tionary colonies are in type, either here or abroad. Not one-tenth of the corre- spondence of the British Secretaries of State with colonial officers has been published. The letters of John Adams, Marshall, Bayard, and the Federal Pinckneys — invaluable in studying the major wing of the Federalist party — have been even more neglected. The Li- brary of Congress has practically all Jackson's letters, most of Van Buren's, and many of Webster's, Polk's, Davis's, and other statesmen's known only to the occasional archive-grubber — and then imperfectly. Political and consti- tutional records for the Civil War pe- riod simply do not ex:'st in any coher- ent form. An unofficial compilation was once made, but, in addition to being hopelessly defective, it is now out of print; and yet it is "practically the only collection that can be depended upon for the documentary history of so important a policy as that of emanci- pation and abolition." War and politics have ever been the historian's favorite themes; but, if these have been treated so shabbily, we must expect utter in- difference toward the even more sig- nificant annals of commerce, industry, and finance. Statistics there are in limitless quantities, and moderately ac- curate, too; but the unabridged official story of the tariff, currency legislation, internal taxation, public lands, and many other vital economic and social matters has not been accessible. From the Journals of the Continental Congress and the Federal Constitution to the 128 enormous volumes of the War of the Rebellion and the still flow- ing stream of Philippine reports, the government has been active in compil- ing the record of our own deeds. Yet several of our leading historical writ- ers, working for the Committee on De- partment Methods, recently undertook to measure the gaps in the American historical record, due to the failure of the government or historical societies to have accessible documents reprinted. The results of the survey are amazing. I True, colleges and similar agencies have lately assumed several large con- tracts: one scholar is said to be collect- ing, on his own venture, al! the Brit- ish statutes relating to America; the American Antiquarian Society is pub- lishing royal proclamations of the co- lonial and revolutionary periods; and the Carnegie Institution is doing the same with the American proceedings and debates in Parliament. But it is out of the question to leave more than a few of the hundreds of documents to unofficial compilers. No, there are lost and secret chapters in our national biography simply because the writing of the latter has been left to chance or whim. A more rational scheme is nec- essary. In recommending, therefore, the creation of a permanent commission on national historical publications, the distinguished historians advising the Committee on Department Methods fa- vor an obvious plan for which there is an excellent precedent. Such a commis- sion was instituted six years ago by the Queen of the Netherlands, and the directive work it has already accom- plished amply proves its usefulness. The lacunw in Dutch history have been marked and are being filled in. The resignation of James Burrill An- gell removes from active life an educa- tor whose problems and his way of handling them have been unique. Thir- ty-eight years ago, when he took the reins at the University of Michigan, he inaugurated a policy which was destin- ed to influence the development of American higher education profoundly. He undertook to teach rustic lawmak- ers that a State university should be as well equipped as any other. In edu- cating Michigan up to his ideals, Presi- dent Angell inspired the Middle West — not to mention Ezra Cornell — and, through the example of his own suc- cess, brought to flower a dozen great schools. The man with this programme had to be more of a missionary and diplomat than a pedagogical theorist — and, to the good fortune of the country, he was. In handling surly, stingy legis- lators, in pleading with farmers, in swaying business men and county-fair audiences, President Angell was the archetype of the old-school "all-round" college president. Even more than the Harvard succession, President Angell's withdrawal discloses the scarcity of available men. The list of candidates at Cambridge was virtually limited to Harvard graduates, and to those grad- uates, moreover, who were pleasing to Boston. In Michigan the field is so open that even Senator Beveridge is mentioned for the post. There are no hard-and-fast traditions to break; there is no stubborn, influential body of alumni to pacify. All this creates an unusual opportunity; and yet, with all the world to choose from, where is the unusual man? Good administrators, ex- cellent teachers, and shrewd financiers are being named, but where are the three in one? Representative McCall's decision to leave Congress in order to accept the presidency of Dartmouth, inevitably car- ries with it a sense of loss to the pub-

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■*■«■ 184: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 lie service. He has been a type of Con- gressman whom we can ill spare. Able, studious, conscientious, and indepen- dent, he has been one of the men in Congress whom the intelligent and mor- al sentiment of the country has thought of with great comfort as a fit represen- tation of our best. Never blinded or carried away by popular hysteria, he has kept his head and freed his mind. Early an open critic of some of the harmful tendencies of the Roosevelt Ad- ministration, he has had less to say re- cently on such subjects, because hun- dreds are now found to utter what he was one of few to declare from the first. But regret at losing him from public life must not make congratula- tions to Dartmouth less hearty, or ren- der us unmindful of the great opportu- nity which awaits Mr. McCall as the head of that college. His very selection is a tribute to the fine qualities of citi- zenship which he has illustrated. In honoring him, Dartmouth has honored herself, and given plain notice that she regards him as a fit product of educa- tion applied to public affairs, and as the kind of man she would wish to go on giving to the country. The acces- sion of Mr. McCall, a layman, to a chair which clergymen have traditionally held is another sign of the times in the edu- cational world. Inspiring personality, knowledge of men, a vigorous mind pro- ducing, sane ideas, intellectual and mor- al leadership, all devoted to great civic needs — these are the qualities which col- leges are more seeking in their direc- tion. Dartmouth has found them in Samuel W. McCall. The New York motor boat show, which closed this week, has afforded' a fresh revelation of the usefulness of that extraordinarily beneficent inven- tion, the gas engine. The public is gen- erally inclined to think of it chiefly as a motive power for land automobiles. But the water automobile counts its us- ers by the thousands, too, and is with- in the means of many who could not afford the cheapest motor car. For the maintenance of the motor boat involves no such expenses as tires and tubes; a chauffeur is usually unnecessary. At the price of a fine touring car, one can, moreover, buy a boat which will give comfortable sleeping accommodations for four or five. Upon such a craft, a man of slender means may spend a summer out-of-doors at astonishingly slight cost and roam our coasts and rivers at will. For the price of a fine foreign motor car, one can have an eighteen-knot boat, made of excellent woods and fitted with all luxuries. In it, the marvellous little engine which produces this high speed is tucked away in a space so small as to leave plenty of room for the owner and his guests, while the one- man crew manoeuvres the craft by an automobile wheel with the ease of a child on a velocipede. From this touring car of the water down to the $200 launch is a long way, but the possibilities of pleasure in the latter are also very great. No one complains because of reckless driving on the waters, and few accidents are reported in the season when thousands of these pleasure craft swarm on our lakes and rivers and seas. A Canadian Minister of Foreign Af- fairs— Prime Minister Laurier has an- nounced his intention of adding one to his Cabinet — would satisfy local pride, arouse some anxiety among timid souls in England, and produce no very radi- cal change in Canada's future relations either to her neighbors or to the Em- pire. Since the medium of communica- tion between Washington and Ottawa will still be the British Minister, and since the Imperial veto will, of course, be retained, the innovation only means that Canada will henceforth be in a po- sition to give her diplomatic business a greater share of preliminary attention than it receives now, and to enforce her views more directly upon the British representative at Washington. That would be gain enough if the British Foreign Office were really as indifferent to colonial interests as discontented Canadian opinion would make it out to be. Yet it is best that even such dis- content should be done away with. Mr. Bryce, in his negotiations concerning Canadian waterways and the New- foundland fisheries question, has made the consent of the colonial governments concerned necessary to the validity of the engagements he has entered into. In the settlement of the Japanese immi- gration question a year ago, a Canadian commissioner cooperated with the Brit- ish Ambassador at Tokio. The double system is practicable, though anxious people in England may discern in it a step towards complete diplomatic inde- pendence for the colonies. The Balkan war scare is being work- ed with mechanical regularity. No sooner has Bulgaria consented in prin- ciple to pay Turkey an indemnity, than Turkey's financial negotiations with Austria enter troubled waters. No soon- er has Austria consented to the princi- ple of an indemnity for Bosnia, than Bulgaria takes up a menacing attitude on the question of the exact amount to be paid. No sooner has Bulgaria been satisfied, than Austria assumes a menacing attitude on the details of her indemnity payments. A few weeks ago, when a supposedly violent speech by the Servian Foreign Minister made the war clouds gather in unusually heavy masses, it was reported that the Ser- vian Minister's speech had been inspir- ed by French bankers who wished to frighten Russia into accepting a lower price for the loan she was just about to issue. Some secret interests at least would seem to be behind the present swift succession of chills and fever in the Balkans. The latest Balkan fright has to do with Austria's supposed in- tention to overrun and annex Servia. Just where this precious idea started it is impossible to imagine. By all ac- counts, the danger Of war between Ser- via and Austria these past months has consisted solely in the fact that Servia might get out of hand and bring on a conflict which Austria, no less than the other Powers, was most anxious to avoid. For Austria had secured what she was after, and it is notorious that the person who has got the better of a bargain is content to let things be as they are. Why, then, should Austria threaten war, now that Servia has been quiet for months and Austria's quarrel with Turkey is as good as settled? The answer given is that Austria is bound to press on to Salonica, and that she will pick up Servia on the way. The Western Powers are said to be indiffer- ent to the possible fate of Servia. But Russia is not indifferent; Bulgaria, whose Czar is now fraternizing with his fellow-Czar, must be far from indiffer- ent to Austria's intrusion in the Bal- kans; and the new Turkey, whose very life will be threatened by Austrian am- bitions, cannot remain indifferent. Such a combination is already quite suffi- cient to make the suggested seizure of Servia by Austria seem nothing less than felly.

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 185 OUR RECORD AT PANAMA. We know, for we have often been told, that the country ought to feel tremen- dously proud of its work on the Panama Canal. We were to make the French look like children. Their vacillation, delays, and changes of plan, with the cost running far beyond estimates, were to be things of the past when the Amer- icans took hold. This was all very glor- ious, and we should now feel patriotic thrills, were it not for one thing — the ugly facts. Huxley called it a tragedy of science when a fact killed a beautiful hypothesis. Chauvinistic boasting has its tragedies, too, and the cold recital of our record at Panama discloses one of them. First, take the figures of outlay. The Spooner Act of 1902 appropriated $10,- 000,000 for construction, and authorized continuing appropriations, year by year, "not to exceed in the aggregate the ad- ditional sum of $135,000,000." To date, Congress has appropriated for canal pur- poses the sum of $170,000,000. That is to say, deducting the $50,000,000 paid for canal rights and for the canal strip, we have already expended on construc- tion $120,000,000. In a word, all the money which was provided by the Spoon- «r Act, and which was guaranteed to be sufficient, has now been practically ex- pended, and the canal is one-third done. Three years ago, the minority of the board of consulting engineers, whose plans were adopted, assured Congress that the complete cost, not including sanitation and the expense of governing the Zone, would not exceed $139,705,000. On this they staked their professional reputations. Yet in January, 1908, the chairman of the Canal Commission had to admit to Congress that the total would not be less than $250,000,000, and might even be $300,000,000. That was sufficiently staggering, but now comes Mr. Taft's board of engineers with the cool estimate of $360,000,000! To be entirely fair, we give the en- gineers' explanation of these enormous figures. The profession is not entirely to blame. The engineers show that the expense of actual construction, as sever- ed from other expenses, will be "only $143,000,000" in excess of the original estimate — that is, only 100 per cent, out of the way! But they justly point out that nearly one-half of the increase was due to changes of plan, made since the beginning, and to the "higher unit cost of the different items of work." By this is meant that the employees have been given shorter hours of work and higher pay than had been calculated on. The engineers did not foresee this, but anybody who knows the waste and ex- travagance of government enterprises might have expected such a result. Yet whatever the explanation, the fact re- mains that the United States has start- ed to build a canal which will cost four times the French estimates, and three times the sum which we were at first solemnly assured would suffice — and we shall be lucky if we get off with that. It is safe to say that if the Spooner Act had carried $360,000,000, it could not have passed Congress. On the technical side, President Roosevelt now seeks to stop the mouths of all critics, by asserting that any one who speaks against the present plans, as re-revised and once more made abso- lutely perfect, really shows that he is against any canal at all. But the thing cannot be disposed of thus cavalierly. When eminent engineers radically dif- fer, laymen will have their doubts. Mr. Roosevelt himself refused to abide by the majority report of his international committee of engineers. Why should he now think that he has discovered infallibility? Sensible men have great respect for scientific experts. To set up an unskilled opinion against theirs would be folly. But the fact which the President ignores is that highly skilled opinion is disturbed about the present plans for the canal, or is positively hos- tile to them. It ought to be known, for example, that the sudden sinking of the toe of the Gatun Dam, a few weeks ago, was commented upon in engineer- ing circles in Europe as "the catas- trophe" at Panama. Nor is the dam at Gatun the only feature of the project which distinguished experts look upon with concern. In the flight of locks there they see a cause of grave disquiet. Both the possibility of safe construc- tion, at that point, and safety of opera- tion, if constructed, have been gravely called in question. In this connection, we may recall one ghastly blunder of Mr. Roosevelt's infallible experts which was exposed before the Senate commit- tee. The plans called for locks of a usable length of 1,000 feet, but Lindon W. Bates demonstrated that, probably because there was not room to locate I three such locks at the site chosen, the engineers had really provided for locks of a usable length of only 820 feet. This was gravely passed off as "a draughts- man's error," but as one Senator ask- ed: "If we are misled in an important matter like this, have we any security at all?" It is, indeed, a little too absurd to try to make the canal engineers exempt from criticism. They have been their own chief critics. To write down their own condemnation of their own work, in the changes which they have succes- sively ordered, would be to exhibit a sad record of uncertainty. They selected Bohio for the site of their great dam, but were driven to abandon it. They began to build a dam at La Boca, on the Pacific side, but afterwards carried it back to Miraflores. And just now, in this final and sacrosanct report, it is admitted that former equally sacred re- ports were all wrong as respects the channel and location of the breakwaters in the harbor at Colon, and a complete alteration of plan is announced, at a cost of $10,000,000. Thus do messieurs the infallibles change from year to year. We have not a word to say against the spirit in which the work on the Isthmus has been carried on. In sani- tation and administration, we have commanded the admiration of the world. Nor is there any reason to doubt the fine organization of the laborers on the spot. But the facts we have cited show how serious is the problem yet before us, to which our best wits should be invited, instead of being warned away; and how little justification we now have, after seven years, for all our pre- liminary boasting. THE CONSTITUTION FOR SOUTH AFRICA. After four months of deliberation in secret at Cape Town, the National Con- vention to bring about the closer union of the British colonies in South Africa concluded its labors on February 9. It thereupon authorized the publication of the Constitution drafted, of which the full text is now at hand. It is, of course, in the form of an act, to be passed by the Imperial Parliament, after the col- onies shall have assented to it; but in substance it is a great charter of gov- ernment for that vast stretch of splen- did country which holds so much of the future in fee. Hence it may properly be called the South African Constitution.

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:^_i_j 2a£ m m^ 186 The IsTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 In general terms, the instrument fol- lows the Australian model, which in turn was powerfully influenced by Amer- ican experience. There is to be no uni- tary republic in Soutb Africa. A fed- eral government of large powers is to be erected, but the local government of the constituent provinces will continue to be nearest to the citizen in many of the relations of life, and will retain functions not unlike those of our States. There is to be a Parliament of the federation, but the power to deter- mine the right of suffrage is to be left, under certain general safeguards, in the hands of the separate colonies as be- fore. It is provided that "no person who is registered as a voter shall be re- moved from the register by reason only of any disqualification based on race or color." This does not mean indiscrim- inate enfranchisement of the natives, but only that, where they have been ad- mitted to the suffrage, as in Cape Col- ony, it cannot be taken away from them. It is hoped, however, that in time the Cape franchise will be extend- ed to the whole of South Africa. Witb so many diverse and conflicting interests to harmonize, it was inevitable that compromise should be written plainly upon several parts of the Consti- tution. There was, naturally, a warm contest over the seat of the new gov- ernment. Each local capital wanted it. The upshot was an agreement whereby "the seat of the government of the Union shall be at Pretoria, and the seat of the Legislature, Cape Town." On the other hand, the Supreme Court is to sit- in Bloemfontein. These provisions re- mind one of the struggles over the lo- cation of the capitals, penitentiaries, and insane asylums, at the formation, of some of our Western States. The Soutb Africans may, at least, be glad, as Punch suggests, that tbeir new government is not to be at Pretoria on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at Cape Town on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and at Bloemfontein on Thursday and Sundays. More important differences were those over the basis of representation in the new Parliament. As with us, the equal- ity of the provinces in the Senate was determined upon; each is to have eight Senators elected by the Legislatures of the colonies; and eight Senators are to be nominated by the governor-gener- al. All Senators are to hold their seats for ten years. Of the eight nominated, it is provided that "one-half shall be selected on the ground mainly of their thorough acquaintance with the wants and wishes of the colored races." This speaks for itself. In the new Legisla- tive Assembly, Cape Colony is to have fifty-one members; Transvaal, thirty- six, and Natal and Orange each seven- teen. Strictly on the basis of popula- tion, the representation should have been: Cape Colony, fifty-eight; Trans- vaal, thirty-seven; Orange, fourteen; and Natal, twelve; but the larger prov- inces gave up eight members to the smaller. Provision is made for the in- crease of representation with the growth in population, but the total number of members in the lower house shall not exceed 150. The temptation to try experiments in government-making was obviously be- fore the delegates at Cape Town, but they have introduced few novelties. The chief innovation is the provision that » "the election of members of the Legis- lative Assembly shall be according to the principle of proportional representa- tion, with the single transferable vote." This seems to be an echo of recent dis- cussions of that method of voting, and informal demonstrations of its results, in England. Another thing strange to our practice is the arrangement made to break a deadlock between the Senate and the Assembly. The Governor-Gen- eral may convene them in joint sitting, when the disputed legislation may be carried by a majority of all present. This plan obviously favors the Assem- bly, with its larger membership, in any case where it is practically united against the Senate. The scheme is a modification of that already provided for Australia. It would be interesting to know how it has worked there. One of the general provisions is that "both the English and Dutch languages shall be official languages of the Union, and shall be treated on a footing of equality." The adoption of such a Con- stitution for Dutch and English, within nine years after Dutch and English were fighting each other in a desperate and lamentable war, will be a remarkable triumph of peaceful statesmanship; and that the whole instrument should be conceived in a spirit of such large amity, with so brave and keen a look to the coming years, is a wonderful tribute to the capacity and patriotism of the men who did the work. In this, the Dutch were not behind the English. High praise has been given to Gen. Botha for his statesmanlike attitude, while the conciliatory and self-sacrific- ing position taken by ex-President Steyn has been such as to lead to his being called the Washington of the South African Constitution. We are ready, then, to believe that the gov- ernment which is thus to be set up will be one of the finest, as it is certainly one of the most extraordinary, proofs of the British genius for administration. MAKING SCHOLARSHIP ATTRAC- TIVE. The Yale Alumni Weekly and the Yale Courant have been discussing ways and means of fixing the attention of un- dergraduates "on the value of success in scholarship." The trouble seems to have begun when President Woodrow Wilson of Princeton — as a bishop in par- tibus infidelium, so to speak — gave a Phi Beta Kappa address at Yale last year. "I have heard," he said, "sound- ed once or twice to-night, a note of apol- ogy for the intellectual side of the uni- versity"; and he added: You hear it at all universities. Learn- ing is on the defensive, is actually on the defensive among college men, and they are being asked by way of concession to bring that also into the circle of their interests. Is it not time we stopped asking indulgence for learning and proclaimed its sovereign- ty? Is it not time we reminded the college men of this country that they have no right to any distinctive place in any community unless they can show it by intellectual achievement? that if a university is a place for distinction at all, it must be distin- guished by the conquests of the mind? These be bitter words. They must come home to the heart of all university men. "Here at Yale," says the Courant, "schol- arship per se has no social attractions, is hardly known and rarely discussed." The Weekly is even more severe: "Probably only a handful of the under- graduates of any one class could name their chief scholarship or prize-winner or half the philosophical-oration men." But we would not imply that Yale un- dergraduates are sinners above all men that dwell in our academic Jerusalem, President Wilson has found the note of apology "everywhere." The Alumni Weekly has suggested an Honor Day in which the winners of prizes, scholarships, and the like shall publicly come into their own. This plan has been tried in various schools and colleges — at Harvard, for example — and

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 187 it is all very well so far as it goes; but as the Yale Courant points out, it does not go very far: A typical American institution, with its plethora of extra-curriculum activities, its over-emphasis on popular attributes of character and physical superiority, will not be metamorphosed in a day into a scholarly college. The Courant would therefore make scholarship a "social asset." Time was when the two highest men in each class at Yale were elected to a secret so- ciety; but to-day, says the Courant, that plan would be regarded as "absurd"; "only one fraternity, the least recog- nized of the five, can be said to be at all distinguished by scholarship." The Courant, then, wants to see accomplish- ed students secure recognition from the fraternities; partly because the ef- fect on the fraternities would be good; and partly because in the fraternity the man who is often regarded as a bore and a grind would be developed social- ly, would acquire savoir-vivre, and would become "a good fellow at the end." This sounds attractive. At Amherst, some years ago (perhaps the custom has con- tinued to the present time), the soci- eties used to compete for the leading scholars of each class, with happy re- sults for all concerned. But it is hard to see how under existing conditions at Yale and Harvard, for example, the so- cieties can be persuaded to take any vital interest in scholarship. The colleges reflect the tone of the community — a community which has been growing rich very rapidly, and which seems more and more concerned to spend money lavishly. Every wealthy man wants his son to enjoy the advan- tages of a college education. Our col- leges, therefore, contain too large a pro- portion of spoiled, lazy boys, whose hours of labor have been cut down to the irreducible minimum. Their fathers wish them to be "gentlemen" — that is, possessed of superficial graces of man- ner but agreeably destitute of ideas. A writer in the last Harvard Monthly suc- cinctly describes these undergraduates as "rich parasites." Now, it is certain that with their fathers and families be- ing what they are, these young idlers will never have any pressure from home put upon them. The interest of the in- dulgent parents will be chiefly centred on the social and athletic victories of the lads. Indeed, it is almost incon- ceivable that a man or woman in the I so-called "smart set" of New York should even comprehend the ambition of a son who, by some accident, might wish to gain intellectual distinction at college. Under these circumstances, the duty of setting an intellectual tone really rests on the college authorities and chief- ly on the faculty. It cannot be shifted to the undergraduates or to their par- ents, or even to the alumni. "The object of a university," as President Wilson has put it, "is to educate." That is what it is for; and the member of the facul- ty who does not lend his help in this task has no excuse for holding his job and drawing his pay. If the teachers at Harvard, Yale, and our other colleges, had, as a whole, sufficient backbone and energy to do their work as it should be done, they could keep the under- graduates up to the mark, the society elections would take care of themselves, the excesses of athletics would disap- pear, and we should have no commit- tees reporting that "the average amount of study is discreditably small." But the cold truth, as every one familiar with the facts can testify, is that many of our colleges are honeycombed with soft courses. We could, were this the place, print a list of the very men who, at Harvard, Yale, and elsewhere, run the big elective courses, crowded with loaf- ers from the "gold coast" — courses that are a disgrace to any institution that professes to stand for the higher learn- ing. These amiable but incompetent instructors whose names will leap to the lips of every alumnus that reads these lines, whose shortcomings as teachers are known to every college president and every vigorous member of their respective faculties, are the men who make it possible for boys who ought never to be in college to stay in, to lounge their way through, and finally to secure a degree. These benevolent gentlemen who conduct the "snaps" are largely responsible for that low intel- lectual tone of which President Wilson complains. Until their demoralizing in- fluence is checked, until we devise ad- ministrative methods that will put an end to such shallow pretences of teach- ing, and compel professors to discharge their duties with reasonable efficiency or else accept a retiring pension — in short, until our colleges themselves firm- ly assert the sovereignty of intellectual interests, serious parents will continue to feel misgiving as to the moral and mental welfare of their children who go to college. THE CRAZE FOR MEMOIRS. Something, we know, is always "dis- placing the popular novel." Macaulay's "History" did it; Green's "Short His- tory" did it; Drummond's "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" did it; people even asserted that the momentarily great but now forgotten Benjamin Kidd did it, with his newspaper scraps pin- ned together to make a revolutionary philosophy. The novel, however, does not stay displaced. Like Nature flung out with a fork, it is bound to come back. Still, the fond hope persists that people can be got to read books other than novels. Just now Englishmen seem much encouraged over the in- creasing vogue of biography. Once more the novel is displaced. We read in a letter from London: Ladies began to find that memoirs were often quite as exciting as novels and rather more scandalous. The result of this is beginning to be noticeable. At dinner par- ties and in drawing rooms the casual man home from a long time abroad would be rather struck by the apparently learned interests of his neighbors. I suppose that when such a man came home twenty years ago, he would have found himself in a network of names and allusions which would have bewildered him entirely until he had caught up with the novels of the day. But now he would hear names more familiar, but more astonishing. He would hear talk of Queen Charlotte, the Hol- land House circle, George Sand and Gam- betta, Coke of Norfolk and the Duke of Buckingham, the Panmure Papers and the Duke of Newcastle, the amusements of Napoleon's sisters and the gossip of the Comtesse de Boigne. The immense and legitimate interest of biography need not be argued. A real man is better than a hero of ro- mance; and authentic letters, diaries, conversations, and descriptions of those who have been famous in literature, art, science, or statesmanship, must al- ways make a powerful appeal to lovers of their kind and students of their time. And it is true that the English press has turned out, within the past twenty years, an extraordinary number of important or absorbing biographies and memoirs. When one thinks of the letters of Lord Acton, the correspon- dence of the Brownings, the lives of Tennyson, Gladstone, Huxley, Parnell, and Randolph Churchill, the recollec- tions of Gavan Duffy and Sir Algernon West, the memoirs of John Delane and

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188 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 the half-autobiography and half-history of Lord Cromer, it is easy to under- stand how there may be enthusiasm, if not a craze, over that kind of reading. The novel might gracefully concede first place to it. We must confess to grave doubt, how- ever, whether there can long be a "craze," or even a moderate zeal, in tak- ing up memoirs, on the part of those who look to them to furnish an intel- lectual excitement alternative to that provided by novels. In some respects, the two classes of books are alike: they deal with human interest, they arouse curiosity. But there is one difference, and it is fatal. A good biography is a genuine addition to knowledge. It il- lustrates a generation; it lights up a period. But it does this only for those who have some antecedent knowledge, and who are eager to add to their stores of it. Right here appears the disabil- ity of the inveterate novel-reader. He (take notice, ladies, we did not say she) may find much in biography to whet and satisfy his curiosity about persons, but will all the while be running upon things utterly blind to him. For the memoirs of prominent men and wo- men are filled with evidence that they thought and read, were deeply interest- ed in the politics and religion and lit- erature and art of their time, and were all the time making allusions which would be Greek to the novel-drenched reader. Such an unfortunate would all the while be crying out: "What on earth was the Gorham judgment? What was the matter with Colenso? Why was there a Fourth Party, and who were in it? What does the fellow mean by quoting French poetry so often, to say nothing of his confounded Latin?" Ob- viously, a man thus easily thrown off the track in biography, would soon get over any passing craze for that kind of entertainment, and would presently be found clothed and in his right mind, and reading the very latest novel. It is only fair to add that the writers or editors of memoirs have much to do with repelling people from biographical reading. If the "memoir craze" were not killed by anything else, it would be by the bad construction of so many memoirs. As a rule, they are far too long and far too indiscriminate. Amor- phous masses of matter are flung to- gether in haphazard arrangement. The important and unimportant are jumbled together hopelessly. The elder De Mor- gan's indictment of German— too many lines in a letter, too many letters in a word, too many words in a sentence, too many sentences in a chapter, too many chapters in a book — might be brought, mutatis mutandis, against the over-long memoirs with which the bookshelves have literally groaned during the past few years. It is not necessary to de- sire or expect a popular mania for biog- raphy, but, in order that there may be even a due popular interest in this branch of literature, it is time to insist upon the duty of selection and compres- sion in the writing of memoirs. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOSIAH FLYNT. The writer of this interesting narra- tive,* perhaps best known as the au- thor of "Tramping with Tramps," thought that an apology was due from a man who wrote his own biography before the age of forty. He justly felt, however, that his case was exceptional. He had tried an unusual experiment with his life, had obtained some novel results, and now purposed to record them and close that chapter. Before he had completed his task, death closed the book. On January 20, 1907, alone in his room in a Chicago hotel, Josiah Flynt (Willard), life-long vagabond and recently emergent author, succumbed in his thirty-eighth year to disease, drink, and we know not what of dissipation. As Arthur Symons relates with some gusto in his characteristic introduction to this volume: He shut himself away, ... as Dow- son shut himself away in his lodgings In Featherstone Buildings, and Lionel John- son in his rooms in Gray's Inn; as a sick animal goes off into a lonely corner In the woods to die in. This grim and sordid ending, of a piece with the main stuff of his days, will doubtless help hold back his memory from oblivion. It invests his brief career with a kind of sorry solemnity. He is now become one of the little body of adventurers who have been in forbid- den lands and have brought back some- thing strange at the cost of their lives. The autobiography does not suffe'- much from the fact that its author left it incomplete. The few important details of his life which he might have been willing to add are supplied by his cousin, Bannister Merwin. We are in- formed that Flynt intended to conclude his work with some chapters of sociolog- ical and philosophical comment. These we do not greatly miss. In spite of his sojourn at the University of Berlin, in spite of his dippings into Mill and Lom- *My Life. By Josiah Flynt. New York : The Outing Publishing Company. broso, and his interviews with Ibsen and Tolstoy, he was neither a sociolo- gist nor a philosopher. His views about crime, vagrancy, and pauperism lie on the surface of all his tramp books. His final opinion of the wisdom of his own career he discloses again and again in the course of the pages of his life that he was spared to write — vagabondage does not pay. The narrative does suf- fer somewhat on the side of richness and color from the fact that he hau al- ready used much of his most pictur- esque material in his other writings. But the thing that hindered him most from producing a book of intense and absorb- ing interest was his own invincible reti- cence. The spirit masked behind the youth- ful, hard, expressionless face of the frontispiece, with its premature lines in the forehead, its thick eyebrows, fixed level eyes, insignificant nose, its firmly set mouth and chin, is inscrut- able. This reticence is part of what is unique in the man. It distinguishes him from all the literary vagabonds who claim him as brother. It is no literary reserve; it is the genuine reticence of the tramp. This man has wandered so long in shady and devious ways that sealed lips and unrevealing eyes are his unalterable habit. Only with his fel- lows of the underworld is he at all at ease. Chance contact with a young literary Bohemian suggests that he turn his untreasured adventures to profit by his pen. The stuff is so rare that no lack of style can spoil it. By practice he acquires a certain freedom, power, and crude veracity of expression. But he has neither the gift nor the taste — so marked in his literary father — for self-confession. "I have given them my insides," he said to Bannister Merwin, when he had nearly completed "My Life." And Merwin seems to think he was successful. "The mere facts of life," he says, "did not seem very im- portant to him; feeling was every- thing." With due deference to Mr. Mer- win, the exact contrary of this was true. So far as his "confession" shows, the mere facts are everything — the rest is silence. The forces that drove the boy to the road are clearly enough displayed in the comparatively ingenuous portion of the biography dealing with his early life. He tries, to be sure, to make it appear that he was not a tramp by parentage, education, or surrounding, but by some mysterious call of the blood; it is hardly necessary to seek the first cause in that obscure source. It is true that there was nothing pro- phetic of a tramp in his immediate family. His father, Oliver Atherton Willard, was editor-in-chief of a Chi- cago newspaper. His mother was a wo- man of education and refinement — her father a professor of divinity in the Biblical Institute of his home town. His

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 189 aunt was the noted temperance re- former, Frances Willard. The father died when Josiah was eight years old and left the boy with two distinct im- press'ons of the paternal character. One was associated with an occasion on which the elder Willard had interrupt- ed the family prayers with the exclama- tion, "Damn the cats!" The other was associated with innumerable "whalings" administered on every possible occasion. The only permanent affection that the boy ever had seems to have been for his mother. He registers in his auto- biography his remorse for the persistent "cussedness" with which he treated her. Yet he does not fail to record that her hand was heavy upon him, and that upon one occasion she washed out his mouth with soap and water for simply ejaculating "Gee!" On the whole, it is not strange that ne struck the keynote of his career by running away at the age of five and being locked up in the engine-house. This is his earliest mem- ory of childhood. For their domestic rigor, he does not blame his parents very severely; after all, they were products of larger and equally hostile forces from which he could not escape so long as he stayed in town. Though he was born in Apple- ton, Wisconsin, his youthful recollec- tions are all connected with the little Methodist "Athens," where the North- western University is situated, at Evans- ton on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Even to-day, qualified as it is by the higher criticism, by the increas- ing number of wealthy suburbanites, and by the nearer neighborhood of creedless and tolerant Chicago, the atmosphere of Evanston preserves something of the strong religious flavor of Wesleyanism. Thirty years ago, Josiah Flynt found it an extremely difficult place in which to be a natural boy. He insists that in those days he was merely an ordinary youngster, with lively spirits and some bent for mischief, and his attractive portrait, taken at the age of thirteen, lends support to his contention. But the strenuous moral and religious discipline of the place perverted him. It wished to hold him forever upon the cold heights of holiness; he found life at that level tedious and unnatural. On several oc- casions, as he says with a suggestion of scorn, he experienced "conversion," and was scared and persuaded into joining the "mourners at the mercy seat." But a violent reaction soon followed. The de- sire for a more unconstrained and high- ly colored life gave rise to secret fore- gatherings with other backsliders and unregenerates in caves hollowed out un- der the low bluff overhanging the lake. Here the weary little Christians re- freshed themselves with dime-novels, took up cigarette-smoking, and acquired what Flynt inelegantly calls "a work- ing vocabulary of cuss words." In order to conceal this buried life from an un- sympathetic world, it soon became nec- essary to resort to an elaborate pro- cess of "explanationing." By the time he was ten years old Josiah was an ex- perienced smoker, swore freely, lied readily, and stole or "pilfered" at need. There did not appear to be any prom- ising opening in Evanston for a boy of his talents, and he made several more or less abortive attempts to run away. Before he finally reached the open road, however, his relatives appear to have made several ineffectual attempts to straighten him out. He had arrived at the critical period of adolescence in a fairly crooked state, and a strong and wise hand was needed if any reform was to be accomplished. Unhappily, his mother was then living in Germany, and none of his other relatives seems to have had any salutary influence over him. Something, they thought, might be effected by sending him out of town. Ac- cordingly, he was matriculated in a col- lege in Illinois, where he worked his way diligently for two years, and tried to keep "on the level." The account of this academic course is exceedingly scanty. The reason given for its ter- mination is almost fantastic. Disgrun- tled because of his failure in an essay contest, if we may trust the autobiogra- pher, the young collegian ran home. Af- ter a short visit in Evanston, he was next shipped off to a farm in western Pennsylvania, where, for a few weeks, he worked contentedly enough in the open air. There he met the first and last woman who inspired in him a gen- uine passion. He refers to her by the romantic soubriquet, Jeminy Jowles, and devotes nearly two pages to an account of her undistinguished conduct. When he discovered that she had jilted him, he "hopped" a freight train which landed him in Buffalo. A good-natured yardmaster gave him a place as car-re- porter, which he held for just a week. From this point his descent into pro- fessional vagrancy is swift. One has a feeling that he supplies only just enough details to outline the passage. Though he has thrown out some hints of youthful pilfering, we are a little surprised to find him suddenly a full- blown horse-thief. One day, seeing a horse and buggy standing idle in a street in Buffalo, he jumps in, drives down into Pennsylvania, and disposes of his plunder to an old acquaintance. A few weeks later he tries the same game only ten miles away at a fair, is caught, and sent to a reformatory. In due sea- son he leaps from a window twenty feet to the ground, eludes his pursuers, travels all night, and with his regained liberty passes at length over the fron- tiers of "Hoboland." He dates the pe- riod of this Vita Nuova from the mo- ment when he crawled to the top of a coke oven and called " 'Hello' to some men who were cooking their coffee in a tomato-can over one of the oven open- ings." To the eight solid months of tramp life which follow — the eight months which constitute the marrow of his literary capital and the core of his life — he gives less than twenty pages. There is only a hint here of the fierce vicissitudes of box-car travel, only a few random specimens of the grimy whimsi- calities of the jail, only a lurid flash upon the squalor of thieves and drunk- ards brawling by night. Yet he seems to have slipped into this ragged soci- ety as into his native element, and to have left no corner of it unexplored. The critical sense of the most experi- enced roadster could find no flaw in his character. "Before quitting the Road," he says, "I could have at any time claimed and secured the respect due to the 'blowed-in-the-glass' wanderer." Though this period of professional vagrancy terminated in the neighbor- hood of his twentieth year with a trip to Germany as a coal-heaver, Flynt re- mained in some sense a tramp to the end of his life. The distinction between the earlier and the later wayfaring is that in the first instance he was a fugi- tive from justice, in the second a volun- tary explorer of trampland. He had not, as he supposed, really conquered the Wanderlust ; he had rather legitimatiz- ed it. Enrolled at the University of Berlin as a candidate for the doctorate in Theoretische und praktische National- ekonomie, his fancy was still straying to the open road. When one of his pro- fessors asked him what he had in mind as the topic of his thesis, he replied that he contemplated something which should consolidate his knowledge of geography and vagrancy. When the old restless- ness became too strong for him, he made an excuse of his studies, and div- ed again into the underworld. He did it then on a grand scale; he became a pioneer in comparative vagrancy, wan- dering suitably disguised in Russia, Ger- many, and England. He had meanwhile made a start as a contributor to maga- zines. But when, about the time of the Spanish war, he returned to America he could not resist the temptation to re- visit his old paths— though this time in the role of a railway inspector. His brief literary career was diversified by detective work, slumming, tramping, and thief-chasing from New York to Oklahoma and Indian Territory. The recently popular interest in "muckrak- ing" enlisted his well-qualified pen, and made it profitable for him to renew his acquaintance with former haunts. Just before he died he was investigating pool- room gambling in Chicago. Probably no writer of fiction ever had less assistance from his imagination. Nearly everything that he wrote seems to have been a transcript, comparative- ly little altered, from his own experi- ence or from that of his acquaintances. Ruderick Clowd, in the rogue novel to which re gives his name, almost exactly

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*m 190 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 repeats the reformatory experience of Flynt as described in "My Life." "The Little Brother" is a not very skilful, though occasionally very effective, elab- oration of an incident recounted in "Tramping with Tramps." "The Itiner- ant Policeman" and "The World of Graft" betray frankly the raw material. He could not get away from his tramps, pickpockets, sharpers, burglars, and grafters. His talent was rather that of a reporter and special correspondent than that of a novelist. Indeed, litera- ture as such had very little attraction for him. He seems to have cared as lit- tle for his own books as for those of others. There is nothing more notewor- thy in his autobiography than the casual reference to his "other writings," with- out even mention of their titles. There is no evidence in the book that he ever went through the struggles of literary composition, or knew the feeling of lit- erary pride or ambition. He knew a circle of young writers in London and in New York; the only point on which it occurred to him to compare them was their proclivity for drink. Of the Amer- icans he says almost nothing. In 1892 he used to meet at a tavern with Sy- mons, Lionel Johnson, Ernest Dowson, and others, and enjoyed their company, but not especially the topics of their conversation. To quote his own words: "What Swinburne, Pater, Wilde, Ver- laine, and others were doing and saying was not half so interesting to me as what some haphazard pick-up might say to me and Symons, during our stroll after the Crown meeting was over." It was a purely fortuitous circum- stance which brought this Methodist runaway under the literary auspices of Mr. Symons. With the gaseous roman- ticism of the poet of "London Nights" and the ill-starred young men whose obituaries he has written, Flynt had no fundamental relationship. Mr. Symons's introduction to "My Life" is a valedic- tion from a vagabond of the mind to a vagabond of the body. The overlap- ping of their experiences was extremely slight. Of that moral emancipation and that restless histrionic errancy among the misty ways of the spirit which dis- tinguish the one, the other shows no sign. Flynt ran away from whalings, and Methodism, and reformatories, but he never ran away in spirit from the established social order. Whatever his practices may have been, his ideas of morality were absolutely conventional. He was skeptical before the virtuous, but not before the virtues. He judged his own conduct as one to whom good and evil are facts. He was singularly free from the enervating sense of illu- sion so prevalent among the so-called decadents. He believed in a real world, and to him the real world was fixed, tangible, external. When tramping in England he was puzzled and amused by the fact that "Symons was inveterately on the scent for 'impressions and sensa- tions,' while I found happiness merely in roving." He supposed that he re- ceived these "impreshuns and sensa- shuns" — so he spelt them later in mild derision — as well as his companion; but when he came to describe them, he found that they lacked "literary dig- nity"— that they were not the thing that his more exquisitely organized friend produced. The truth is, the external world underwent no elaborate metamor- phosis in his temperament. His pleas- ures were not imaginative, but crude, elemental, immediate. He could not make capital of his impressions, because he did not analyze or understand them. Beside the intimate and voluptuous sen- sibility of his literary mentor's work, Flynt's "confession" is a mere record of facts. Little as there was in Flynt of the literary decadent, there was still less of the romantic wanderer. Some of his friends would like to have us believe that he was of the fraternity with such poetical vagabonds as Robert Louis Stevenson and George Borrow. So one might think who had read the dedica- tion of his "Life" to all those "under the spell of that will-o'-wisp, Die Feme, the disappearing and fading Beyond." But the glamour ends with the dedica- tion. This celebrant of Wanderlust can- not tell why Die Feme lures him. He is singularly insensible to the beauty and terror of the natural world. For him, Lake Michigan is only a bathing- place. He has not a word of its waves rushing in under the wind like sea-surf, not a word of the black ships that smoke dimly across its veiled and shift- ing horizon, not a word of the long, dusty roads that wind over the rolling prairie into the sky. For him there is no sunrise nor sunset, nor "clear night of stars." No birds carol to him from dewy hedge-rows, and no startled rabbit crosses his path. He hums no old French song, he dreams no dreams, he builds no castles in Spain. He lies in no fragrant twilit dingle teaching Ar- menian numerals to a gypsy lass. To him the forest is not a greenwood, but a hang-out for hoboes, and the highway not the path to El Dorado, hut the beg- gar's marketplace. He lives in a world of discouraged criminals, whose ren- dezvous is the watering-tank, whose thoroughfare the railway, whose destin- ation, the jail or the penitentiary. "Whatever else you do or don't do," wrote an anxious friend — perhaps think- ing of Lavengro and Isopel Berners — "don't forget to get some romance into the story." He responded with Jeminy Jowles and an account of his first im- prisonment. Commenting on Symons's "glorying in the beautiful moonlight," he says: "I got pleasure out of Symons's romantic appreciation of a trip which reminded me very mundanely of other nocturnal tramps at home." Here speaks the Cervantes of romantic vaga- bondage. This book is not a romantic testament; it is rather a purge or — to borrow an expression of Lyly's — a "cool- ing-card" for all fond romanticists. Its place is with the literature of the rogue or picaro; it is very much nearer to "Jack Wilton" and "Moll Flanders" than to "Lavengro." Neither a truant literary artist nor a soured Roussellian poet and philologist, he does not at- tempt to make intelligible a rare and highly individualized personality. He aims rather to delineate himself as one of a common, widespread, but imperfect- ly known social group. Whenever it is possible he represents himself as a de- tached spectator at drinking-bouts and hang-outs. Concerning his own fatal indulgence in intoxicating liquor he maintains a curious silence. Only rare- ly does he betray the possession of other passions than that which led him to follow the piper over the hills. Yet he is so thoroughly at home in the under- world that he ignores many things in it which would impinge sharply on the consciousness of an outsider. Whether by the early and excessive use of nar- cotics or by long-continued roughing it, his sensibilities have become so blunted as to be almost indifferent to physical hardships. Cold, filth, wetness, hunger pass with little comment. Beggary and theft have become the day's work. Though he does not write of these things with the unblushing candor of De Foe, his sense of life is similar, and his style has the same matter-of-fact sincerity. There is something wholesome and manly in his declaration that he has discovered nothing precious for the spirit in the Beyond of the vagabond. Mr. Symons may speak unctuously of life among tramps as Flynt's novel and special "form of culture"; Flynt him- self sums up his impressions thus: "Laziness, loafing, Wanderlust, and beg- ging are to-day what they ever have been — qualities and habits passed on from generation to generation, practical- ly intact." The value of his work is in the clear, unrefracted light which it sheds, not over civilization on a roman- tic truancy, but over civilization going quietly, furtively to the dogs. Stuart P. Sherman. Urbana, Illinois. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The sale by the Anderson Auction Com- pany of the J. Chester Chamberlain collec- tion of first editions of American authors was another exemplification of the fact that in general it is only the rarest books of any author which are increasing rapidly in price and the purchase of which might be warranted by him who buys solely for investment. After the Arnold sale in Jan- uary, 1901. when American first editions almost without exception showed a re- markable advance upon previous records, book stores and libraries were ransacked

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 191 for first editions, with the result that some books previously regarded as rare have been comparatively common; that is, copies turn up several times every season. Such, for example, are Emerson's "Poems," Haw- thorne's "Scarlet Letter," Thoreau's "Wal- den," and Longfellow's "Evangeline." The great nuggets of the Chamberlain collec- tion, however, brought wonderful prices, some in excess of what the most optimistic would have dared to predict. Who, for in- stance, among those critics who <of late years have been crying down Longfellow's poetry would have imagined that $2,200 would be paid for a printed book of his dated as late as 1860, and absolutely lack- ing in autographic or association interest? No book by Thackeray, Temnyson, Keats, or any other of England's nineteenth cen- tury authors (with the exception of two of Shelley's pamphlets), has, so far as we can recall, ever reached such a price in the auction room. The Chamberlain collection was particularly rich in Longfellow rari- ties. Mr. Chamberlain had made his Haw- thorne as perfect as he could, and had prepared the bibliography for the Grolier Club exhibition. During the last year or two of his collecting he made a special effort to complete his Longfellow series, in view of the approaching centenary. From the Longfellow family, who were never before known to part with a book, he secured, partly by exchange, several rar- ities, including the prose "New England Tragedy," put into type in 1860, the book which brought the remarkable price of $2,200. It is a little volume consisting of title, one page of Dramatis Personae, and 130 pages of text, printed on thirteen sig- natures, varying from two leaves to eight, three signatures ending with a blank leaf not included in the pagination. The two known copies are in the original sheets, unsewn and unbound. Eight years later, now entirely rewritten and put into verse, and a second tragedy added, "The New England Tragedies" was published. The book was set up in the spring and ten copies taken off privately; one of these, the copy given to George W. Greene by Longfellow, brought $500. Mr. Chamber- lain was also fortunate in securing from the descendants of Greene, who was per- haps Longfellow's most intimate lifelong friend, all the books and letters which they owned. The collection of 508 autograph (letters and 37 postal cards, perhaps the most extensive Longfellow correspondence in existence, brought $5,100; the first edi- tion of "Outre Mer" (1833-34) in the two parts, in the original paper covers, with an interesting letter inserted, $795. The identical ccpy (but without the letter) brought $310 in the Arnold sale, though it had cost Mr. Arnold only $60. Another copy, the two parts bound in one, old half calf, with presentation inscription to G. W. Greene, went for the very moderate price of $250; a privately printed leaflet containing Longfellow's poem in French, "Noel," written to accompany a basket of wine sent as a Christmas present bo Agas- siz, five copies known, $510 (this identical copy, $55 in the Arnold sale, though it had cost Mr. Arnold $30 and $5.95 for bind- ing); an unauthorized publication of "Ex- celsior," issued as an advertisement by the Excelsior Life Insurance Company in 1872 (with an A. L. S. relating to the poem in- serted), $160; another leaflet "From My Arm Chair," addressed to the children of Cambridge, and printed by Longfellow for presentation to the children who came to see him and sit in the chair which had been made from the "spreading chestnut tree" (with A. L. S. inserted), $150; a private issue of "Keramos," put into type before publication in Harper's Magazine, six copies known, four in the possession of the Longfellow family, $400. Several of the rarer first editions of James Russell Lowell's books made new records: "A Year's Life" (1841), with in- scription in Lowell's autograph, "To Alfred Tennyson from the Author, Boston, U. S.," $375; "Poems" (1844), a large and thick paper copy, $330 (this copy at Anderson's in April, 1901, $150); "Conversations on Some of the Old Poets" (1845), presenta- tion copy, $140 (Arnold sale, 1901, $52.50, though it cost Mr. Arnold $20); "A Fable for Critics" (1848), first edition, presenta- tion copy, $150; "Mason and Slidell" (1862), a separate reprint from the types of the Atlantic Monthly, $255; "The Biglow Papers," Second Series (Lon- don, Triibner & Company, 1864), $71; the "Commemoration Ode" (1865), presentation copy with two autograph let- ters inserted, $875; Address, delivered in Birmingham (1884), afterwards entitled "On Democracy," the private issue printed on one side only, before the lecture was delivered, with corrections in Lowell's au- tograph, $420; Poe's "Al Aaraaf, Tamer- lane, and Minor Poems" (1829), original pa- per boards, edges entirely uncut, '$2,900. This copy, as we pointed out a few weeks ago, was sold privately in this city to Frederick W. French of Boston for about $175. A presentation copy of Poe's "Poems" (1831) brought $410; a similar copy without the presentation inscription, $315. The only Whittier item which brought more than $125 was the first edition of "Moll Pitcher" (1832), in the original printed blue paper covers, probably the finest copy in ex- istence, $500. The Holmes collection includ- ed three remarkable pieces, of which the Chamberlain examples are the only ones known. These three books, all printed in 1863, and presented by Holmes to the late George Livermore, are "New England's Master-Key," $750; "Lecture— 1863," $745; and "Oration Delivered before the City Authorities of Boston," $490. "Fanshawe," Hawthorne's first book, is apparently be- coming common, for the copy offered in the Chamberlain sale brought only $500; "Time's Portraiture," a single page broad- side distributed by the carriers of the Salem Gazette in 1838, $550; "The Celes- tial Railroad," a miniature book (1843), $380; and several books from Hawthorne's library, prices ranging from $110 to $390. In point of price there was only one notable Bryant item, the "Oration delivered at Stockbridge, July 4th, 1820," $175. The total of the sale, 882 lots, was about $32,000. At the auction of Part ii of the John G. Heckscher library by the Merwin-Clay- ton Sales Company February 15-18, Rafin- esque's "Ichthyologia Ohiensis" (Lexington. Ky., 1820), sold for $253. This is the first perfect copy of this exceedingly rare pam- phlet to be offered at auction, although at private sale it has changed hands at a con siderably higher price. The first editiOL of Walton's "Angler," in morocco, by Ri- viere, the margins considerably worked over and repaired, brought $3,900, the rec- ord price for a copy in modern binding; the second edition (1655), $780; the second issue of the third edition (1664), S545; the fourth edition (1668), $400; manuscript document in Walton's autograph, $650. Other im- portant records were Sage's "The Resti gouche and Its Salmon-Fishing" (1888), $180; Gervase Markham's "Pleasure of Princes" (1614), a poor copy, $105; Leonard Mascall's "A Booke of Fishing with Hooke & Line" (1590), $100; John Taverner's "Certaine Experiments Concerning Fish and Fruite" (1600), $125; and John Whitney's "The Genteel Recreation" (1700), $351. On March 1, Stan. V. Henkels of Phila- delphia will sell books belonging to the late H. Rush Kerver of West Chester, Pa. In- cluded is a copy of Poe's "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems" (1829), in the original binding, pink paper boards, muslin back, but with the edges trimmed, although the bottom margin shows a few proof leaves. Included also are McKenny and Hall's "Indian Tribes" and Lewis's "Aboriginal Portfolio," two important books with colored plates. On March 1 and 2, in three sessions, the Anderson Auction Company of this city will sell a miscellaneous collection, includ- ing books on the drama, a few specimens of early printing, first editions of Sir Wal- ter Scott, Charles Lamb, Swinburne, and William Morris; and several works illus- trated by George Cruikshank. On March 2, 3, and 4, the Merwin Clay- ton Sales Company of this city will sell the third and last part of the Heckscher library. This portion is divided into five sec- tions. The first includes books on fisheries, fish commission reports, laws relating to fisheries, etc., 121 lots; the second, books on sporting as distinguished from fishing, including a number of "Nimrod's" (Charles James Apperley's) works, with illustrations in color by Henry Aiken; Pierce Egan's books with colored plates by Cruikshank, Lane, Aiken, and others; and Surtees's sporting novels; the third, books on orni- thology, including a set, 7 vols., of the first edition of Audubon's "Birds of America" (1840-44); Edwards's "Natural History of Uncommon Birds" (1743); and Yarrell's "History of British Birds" (1843-56), large paper; the fourth, duelling literature, 53 lots, including several pamphlets relating to the Hamilton-Burr encounter. On March 4 and 5, C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston will sell the library of William H Rollins of Portsmouth, N. H., including early American almanacs, bibliography, books on Indians, and genealogies. Correspondence. A NEGLECTED AMERICAN AUTHOR. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Under the above title, I published in the Nation for December 8, 1904, an ar- ticle on Isaac Mitchell, author of "The Asylum, or Alonzo and Melissa," a two- volume novel, printed at Poughkeepsie in 1811. This book apparently was not a suc- cess, but its main episode, brought out in a single volume, under the title of "Alon- zo and Melissa," went through edition af- ter edition, in all parts of the country, and obtained a success that may rightly

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.^_* 192 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2278 be described as phenomenal. Strangely enough, "Alonzo and Melissa" is never at- tributed to Mitchell, but, on the title page of every copy I have examined a certain Daniel Jackson, jr., is named as the au- thor. I explained this fact by asserting that Jackson was a plagiarist. (See the Na- tion, February 2, 1905.) Previous to the publication of my ar- ticle, H. Bradley Jackson of Grand Isle, Vt., had written to the New York Times Saturday Review of Books, September 3, 1904, that his grandfather, Daniel Jackson, jr., born May 31, 1790, had most assured- ly written the novel. While he was teaching in the Platts- burgh Academy, in about 1808-10, he be- came acquainted with two officers sta- tioned at Plattsburgh, who were from Con- necticut. They told him about Alonzo and Melissa, gave him the points of the story, and wished him to write it out and have it published in a book. The eldest officer of the two said he was a cousin of Melissa and knew the facts he gave, and this was the way he came to write the story. . . . Previous to the death of my fath- er in 1889, he told me he had the original manuscript somewhere among his papers, but it has never been found, although, in the attic, there are several old chests which have never been disturbed since his death. Sidney S. Rider of Providence supported this statement, and finding a copy of "'Alonzo and Melissa," dated 1811, the year of the publication of the two-vol- ume "Asylum," concluded that Mitchell was the plagiarist, in spite of the fact that Mitchell had copyrighted his book in 1810, and had proved himself to be a writ- er and a man of prominence who could not reasonably be supposed to steal in this fashion. My contention for Mitchell's authorship of "Alonzo and Melissa" was supported by Edmund Piatt, the author of the "History of Poughkeepsie." Recent in- vestigations by Mr. Piatt have settled this matter beyond controversy and with his permission, I quote from the material he has kindly placed at my disposal. Mr. Rider discovered in the Poughkeepsie Political Barometer of March, 1811, a set of proposals by Joseph Nelson for publishing "The Asylum, or Alonzo and Melissa, an American tale, founded on fact, in two vol- umes, by I. Mitchell." In the course of these proposals, it is stated: The historic part was moulded into form by the writer in the leisure hours of his juvenile years; methodized and delineated, it appeared heretofore, in the Political Barometer; it will now be published on a more ample and extended scale. Taking a hint from this statement, which is one more confirmation of Mitchell's author- ship, Mr. Piatt consulted the files of the Po- litical Barometer, owned by Mrs. C. M. Nel- son of Poughkeepsie (whose husband was a grandson of the above-mentioned Joseph Nelson) and found in the first number of Volume III, June 5, 1804, "Alonzo and Me- lissa, a Tale," with the following preface: In the interim of Congressional and other legislative proceedings and the re- cess of elections, we cheerfully devote our attention to the more fanciful portion of our readers. The following story is found- ed on fact; the principal characters are still living; the incidents are yet in the memory of those acquainted with the cir- cumstances. The names, for obvious rea- sons, are fictitious. — It has never appeared in print. To quote from a letter of Mr. Piatt to me: At the end of the story as published in the Barometer, namely, in the issue of Oc- tober 30, 1804, is appended "A Note to Alon- zo and Melissa," which contains much that is interesting. It begins with an apology for the mistakes in the story and continues: But for mistakes and deficiencies the writer has excuse. The incidents from which the tale was founded were only to be found in his memory. It was written also from week to week, amidst the hurry of his avocations and more generally put to press without revision. Then follows the statement that a good many of the scenes are hurried over and shortened more than they should be: To this the writer answers that it was his first intention that those scenes should be fully completed. . . . All these errors will be corrected, deficiencies filled, should the work be published in a volume or vol- umes as is now projected. It will then be carefully revised, altered, amended, and considerably enlarged. This is particularly mentioned now for the following reasons: Although we are perfectly willing that contemporary papers should extract the story into their papers, yet it is our re- quest that they will not publish it in a pamphlet or book; and should they do this before they are legally prevented, he cau- tions the public against purchase of them, as in due time they will be presented with a more perfect and complete edition great- ly enlarged. Besides, the novel as extract- ed into the papers we have seen is mate- rially incorrect and not agreeing with the original. — What we mean by legal preven- tion is that we design at an early day to anticipate a copy-right of not only "Alon- zo and Melissa," but the other two original tales which have hitherto appeared in the Barometer, to wit, "Albert and Eliza" and "Melville and Phalez," all of which will be revised, amended and much enlarged. The first of these novels, written under similar circumstances with the two last, was no sooner completed than a neighboring print- er with whom we exchange papers whipped it into a pamphlet and had it peddled through various parts of the State and the State of Connecticut. Another printer, more distant, published it and had it bound in a book. . . . "Melville and Phalez" shared the same fate, though from another print- er. Comparing "Alonzo and, Melissa," published under Jackson's name, with the story as printed in the Barometer, Mr. Piatt writes: The story is identically the same, with only the occasional change of a word and a little occasional change in the paragraph- ing. I did not read it all, but read the beginning and the end and the first lines of paragraphs. Jackson did not even at- tempt to divide it into chapters, but crib- bed it from the Barometer just as Mitchell had written it, except that he naturally •left out Mitchell's references to previous issues of the paper. It only remains to add that the natural reason why Mitchell did not take legal action against Jackson is that Mitchell died November, 1812. There is still an interesting point in con- nection with "Alonzo and Melissa" on the purely literary side. Published in 1804, it had been written some time before this, presumably shortly after the appearance of the "Mysteries of Udolpho," 1794, of which it is a delightful imitation. I believe that Franklin's first appearance in fiction is in this novel, and certainly Alonzo is one of the few Yale heroes who is not an ath- lete: Alonzo was about twenty-one years old; he had been esteemed an excellent student. His appearance was manly, open, and free. His eye indicated a nobleness of soul ; al- though his aspect was tinged with melan- choly, yet he was naturally cheerful. His disposition was of the romantic cast! Walter Scott himself would have envied Mr. Mitchell his Gothic castle on the banks of the Sound. It was "of real Gothic archi- tecture, built of rude stone and battle- ments," with a deep moat and drawbridge. It is here that Melissa, imprisoned for her devotion to Alonzo, hears voices calling, "Away, away!" and once a "hand cold as the icy fingers of death grasped her arm which lay outside of the bed clothes." Poe himself is outdone, when, one tempestuous night, she is aroused by flashes of fire, fol- lowed by strange peals of thunder. She hears "horrible, hollow groans reechoing through the castle"; a tall, white form glides past her bed; the doors of the build- ing open and shut alternately "slapping furiously" ; she listens in terror to the sound of heavy bodies falling and "the crash of furniture." Then comes the blood-curd- ling cry of "Murder!" followed by the report of a pistol and groans, greeted by "peals of ghastly laughter." At this juncture Me- lissa proved her worth, for, writes Mr. Mitchell, "she arose, lighted a candle, and looked under the bed." Alonzo's wild ride from New Haven to New London, his ad- ventures in London and Paris, and his final discovery of the lost Melissa, should be among the classic pages of the American novel. The book must be read in its entire- ty, and certainly should be reprinted. There remains one question that thrusts itself upon the reader of "Alonzo and Me- lissa." What is the secret of the book? Why did it attract so many generations of read- ers? The answer is not hard to find. Amer- ican literature had been practically limited to two subjects— theology and politics. In the mass of sermons and controversial tracts, in the numerous appeals to patriots —and to voters— there was little to satisfy the love of romance and adventure, and yet our forefathers were none the less eager to find in their own lives and in this new land the glamor of that romance which had adorned the world they had left. "Alon- zo and Melissa" is but another witness to the inborn desire to escape from the tram- mels of every-day existence, or rather, to idealize that existence, and to render it in some degree heroic. Viewed in this light the book is more than an amusing imita- tion of Mrs. Radcliffe, it is a veritable document humain. Edward B. Reed. Yale College, February 5. THE LEGEND OF THAIS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Doubtless not a few of those who have enjoyed the performances of Massen- et's opera, "Thais," are familiar with the version of the story given by Anatole France in his novel "Thais." Perhaps a word or two about the ancient legend on which these modern works are based might be of some general interest. An account of the life and conversion of Thais, an Alexandrian beauty and fav- orite of the fourth century, was written by an anonymous Greek, and may be found in a Latin translation in the "Acta Sanc- torum," Mensis Octobris viii (Volume IV, p. 225), "De Sancta Thaide pcenitente in ^Egypto." In the same volume (pp. 226- 228) stands a poetical version in hexa- meters by Bishop Marbod of Rennes. As might be expected, the narratives touch only hastily on the more dramatic episodes, in order that more stress may be laid on

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 193 Thais's penitence and conversion, which she proved by burning all her worldly goods and allowing herself to be immured in a narrow cell for three years, from which she emerged with her sins forgiven, only to succumb to death. Hrotsvit (Hrotsvitha), that interesting nun of Gandesheim, who flourished in the middle of the tenth century, has used the legend for "Paphnutius," her fifth moral "comedy," if so it may be called. In the opening scene the hermit Paphnutius is in- troduced as unfolding to his disciples, in frigid scholastic fashion, various irrelevant matters, after which he explains his sor- row over the life led by Thais in their neighborhood, and asks their prayers for his success in his plan to bring about her conversion. Then follows a dialogue be- tween the hermit and some young men about town who politely direct him to her house, offering to accompany him. As Paphnutius desires a personal interview with her, Thais converses with him in a private room, "known to none other save God alone," as she says. This remark gives the holy man an opening, and in less than thirty words, by a frank allusion to hell- fire, he fills Thais with remorse, so that she at once burns her accumulations of gowns and gew-gaws, and meekly enters a convent. Paphnutius returns in triumph to his disciples in the wilderness and three years later liberates the forgiven woman, whose dying words end the drama. It is a far cry from Hrotsvit to Anatole France and Massenet. No contrast could be greater in form, motive, and effect, than that between the nun's crude dialogue in- tended for the edification of her sisters, and the brilliant musical spectacle of to- day, with its \aried appeal to the senses and not always to the nobler side of man's nature. George Dwight Kellogg. Princeton, N. J., February 17. A QUESTION OF LITERARY PROPERTY. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The old question of literary proper- ty rights has arisen in a form which it may be well to refer to the general public for discussion and decision. The present case is as follows: Some time ago Miss Alice E. Foote and I were engaged to in- vestigate the conditions among women in the Pennsylvania coal fields by the Na- tional Board of the Young Women's Chris- tian Associations acting through Dr. Annie M. MacLean, who was paid director of the larger investigation under which ours fell. We agreed that the data obtained should belong to the National Board, and it was understood that ultimately our facts and those obtained by other investigators should be printed by the board in one com- plete report. This, of course, would have been entirely proper, the work of a pub- lisher being one thing, that of an author another. Miss Foote and I sent in reports on individual towns as we visited them, and at the end I wrote and sent in a general report. In the November (1908) number of the American Journal of Sociology, this report of mine appears almost verbatim, under Dr. MacLean's name, with no quota- tion marks and no reference to Miss Foote and myself. The eight pages of tables are in the main our reports on single towns, alphabetically arranged; and the fif- teen pages of text are almost word for word from my report, except the first two, which were added by Dr. MacLean. Nearly nine of these pages I can prove are taken verbatim from me. Now, I wish to submit that in selling our data we sold them as an author sells his book to a publisher The author does not sell the publisher the right to claim the book as written by him. Two questions naturally arise here: First, what is the custom in such cases? Second, what is right? As to custom, government precedent has the most weight, especially as the gov- ernment does more of such investigating than any private board or individual. Ac- cordingly, I have written to the Hon. Car- roll D. Wright and the Hon. Charles P. Neill, the former and present commission- ers of labor, asking them what the custom is. Mr. Neill says: "Practically every re- port is published under the name of the person making the report." President Wright says: In most cases now when a public docu- ment is issued as the result of the inves- tigation of a single commission or indi- vidual, when the report is printed, the name of the oDe doing the work is given. Instances such as you suggest are rare in- deed. This would seem to determine the custom. The question of right is simply this: Does the fact that an investigator sells certain facts or written articles to a board or individual, justify that board or individual in claiming the fact as discovered or the article as written by them? Or is it plag- iarism? Amy E. Tanner. Worcester, Mass., February 9. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I wish to thank you for your cour- tesy in submitting to me for comment the above letter. Certain of the points raised are open to criticism as to fact, but it is not my pur- pose now or at any time to make them matter for public debate. I wish simply to state that two years ago I was commis- sioned by the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association to conduct an investigation as above intimated, and instructed to employ such assistance as I needed within certain prescribed limits. A number of women were engaged upon agree- ment that all material resulting from the investigation was to belong to the National Board, the board reserving the right to use said material in any way it saw fit. I was not informed as to plans for its final disposal. That was not my task. My in- structions were to present a report to my organization. The point therefore was to furnish a digest of the investigation into which the personal equation of the inves- tigators did not enter. These women did what I instructed them to do, and in the majority of cases they did it admirably. As organizer and director of the work, I neither claimed credit for details nor denied it to subordinates, but simply dis- charged my obligation to my superior of- ficers. Last spring, I was authorized by the National Board to publish in specified places the reports I had submitted. The article in question is one section, and states clearly that it is a part of a larger study made under my direction with two people in the field for a period of six and one-half weeks. It was not deemed of im- portance to name the two people in this preliminary article. I may say in passing that the names of all the investigators, together with the sec- tions of country in which they worked, are given in the complete report which will be issued soon. It might, therefore, seem wise to suspend judgment until this appears. A. M. MacLean. Brooklyn, February 10. A PLEA FOR A NEW COLLEGE CHAIR. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In a recent conversation with a prominent college professor I was struck with his pessimistic view as to the outlook for general culture under the present edu- cational systems, whether elective or com- pulsory, prevailing at American colleges. He deplored alike the insufficient prepara- tion of the average freshman and the in- tellectual narrowness of even the summa- cum-laude graduate. The fact is, as he put it, the college student either cannot read, from lack of time, or will not read, from lack of inclination. As a result, he leaves college ignorant of the great facts of human achievement and of the great men whose names are identified with the world's prog- ress. May I suggest, in the Nation, wheth- er it would not be possible to graft upon the present courses in our leading colleges a compulsory course in "Geschichte der allgemeinen Kultur" (History of General Culture seems but a lame adaptation of the German subject), which in one or two years would acquaint even the dullest student with the principal currents of human devel- opment? It has been said that the entire story of human achievement can be group- ed around five hundred names, and while teachers of encyclopaedic Knowledge are scarce anywhere, there are in America not a few men of encyclopaedic breadth of view and international sympathies who would be competent to fill such a chair, and would know how to awaken in their hearers a gen- eral interest in matters of culture. Such a course, so far from weakening the dis- cipline of the mind which must be the chief aim of education, would supplement it in fields which disclose now such lamentable ignorance. Let us borrow a hint from Hux- ley, who, in speaking of a truly liberal edu- cation, emphasizes the need of joining to the clear, cold, logical intellect "a knowl- edge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her opera- tions" as well as a love of "all beauty, whether of Nature or of art." If it be ob- jected that such a bird's-eye view of human progress in science, art, and all the other activities typified in the greatest of our race would encourage the dreaded "smat- tering," fear of which keeps so many ig- noramuses in their narrow grooves, let us remember the stimulus given by the de- lightful rambles of the late Professor Nor- ton to hundreds of eager minds that owe to him a permanent interest in things high- er than those provided in the usual college curriculum. The inspired teacher would find in a course such as I have suggested a thousand subjects that would serve the ends of a liberal education in the truest sense, and would create the living interest

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194, The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 without which the best disciplined mind is a lifeless machine. "Greift nur hinein in's voile Menschenleben! . . . Und wo ihr's packt, da ist's interessant." G. P. New York, February 18. CERTIFICATES OR EXAMINATIONS FOR COLLEGE ENTRANCE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The recent communication in your columns (February 4) from Miss Elizabeth Forrest Johnson on the subject of entrance examinations encourages me to outline briefly a plan that occurred to me some time ago, and that has been commended by teachers of experience with whom it has been discussed. The two competing systems — the certificate plan and the examination plan — will not, I suppose, find unqualified support among reasonable people who have had enough experience to discover the great defects inherent in both. We all know how unsatisfactory is the mere examination; let the examiners be never so skilful, un- worthy candidates will be passed and some worthy ones refused. A few months ago a college professor of long experience, who has for years been a member of the com- mittee on entering students, told me that he would be glad to see the certificate plan adopted in the institution with which he is connected. On the other hand, no one who has had a glimpse of the weaknesses of the certificate plan, and who realizes the power it gives to invertebrate school principals, as well as the persecution at the hands of unscrupulous and ignorant parents to which it subjects principals of more tender conscience, can presume to defend this method as being more than approximately satisfactory. Now, the combination method — certificate plus examination — proposed by your correspondent, while admirable for some theoretical reasons, seems to me to be weak for the same practical reason that the certificate plan is weak, except that it rather increases the pressure put on prin- cipals to recommend a doubtful boy on the plea that "he may make good in the ex- amination," to which the real responsibil- ity would inevitably be shifted. As a matter of fact, I know that certificates of character and attainments were long required by at least one college, and that they were nothing but an empty form — since abolished, I am inclined to think. The plan I humbly propose is, not the combination of certificate plus examination, but certificate or examination. The certifi- cate would be watchfully guarded as a gate- way open only to candidates whose scholar- ship could be enthusiastically endorsed by principals of unquestioned independence : the examination would then be held as at present, but it might be made more rigor- ous, and especially adapted in a number of ways to test severely candidates whose fitness had been called in question by their school teachers. But, on the other hand, the entire responsibility for a boy's failure would not be thrown on the principal; he could always reply to the angry parent: "If your son is fit to enter college he can easily prove the fact by taking the examinations. I have simply expressed my doubt, not my conviction to the contrary." That this combination plan would make approval of principals and the consequent exemption from examinations a thing to be striven for, and '• luld thus help to tone up our pre- paratory schools, I firmly believe. I am none the less sure that it would reduce the labor connected with entrance examinations, would help us more easily to exclude the unfit, and would prevent the occasional un- just exclusion of boys who have worked well in school, but whom a momentary lapse has caused to make a poor showing in an ex- amination. Philip H. Churchman. Clark College, Worcester, Mass., February 13. LEIBNITZ PAPERS IN AMERICA. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The first-fruits of the search for Leibnitz papers which you kindly aided in your issue of February 18 are already at hand. Our Harvard librarian, W. C. Lane, calls my attention to a letter, dated at Paris, April 15, 1673, from the then youth- ful philosopher to Pierre Daniel Huet, af- terwards the Bishop of Avranches. It fgrms a part of the Charles Sumner Collection in the Harvard Library and is kept in our new treasure-room in a portfolio with other autograph pieces, notable among which are those of Queen Elizabeth of England, of Louis XI, Charles IX, Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV of France, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, and Catharine de' Medici. The letter is a long one (of about a thousand words), in Latin, and in clear handwriting. A clipping from a booksell- er's catalogue conveys the amusing infor- mation that it is "very rare." Its subject-matter is of no little inter- est for the history of classical studies. It was only about a year before that the Duke of Montausier, who projected, "for the use of His Most Serene Highness the Dauphin," the famous Delphin edition of the classics, appointed Huet to undertake the manage- ment of the series and to select men of eru- dition to edit the several authors. To these and related facts the letter makes allusion. Leibnitz ends by proposing that he should edit Martianus Capella for the series. He speaks of Capella as "the only extant an- cient writer of what may be called an en- cyclopajdia of the liberal arts"; but adds that Capella is "exceedingly hard and un- couth" (difncillimum et deformatissimum) and is, withal, "throughout of a style so rough and harsh, so affectedly given to archaisms, and so overlaid with the faults of a degenerate age, that you may fairly say that he needs to be translated into Latin" (ita perpetuo salebrosus est. et hor- ridus, et affectator antiqvitatis, seqvioris a?vi vitiis incrustata?, ut jure dicere possis, versione Latina indigereMartianum). Leib- nitz laments over the decay of classical studies, and says that he first ascribed it to Huet's kindness rather than to his own fitness that Huet should have judged him worthy to take part in the Delphin edition; but that, when he saw Huet (of whose pene- trating judgment he had no doubt) so per- sistent, he thought it time to reconcile his own scruples with Huet's hopes; and adds: For I must confess that, albeit I lay no claim to talents or learning, I have at times won the praise of fair-minded critics for my diligence. And what else do you look for in a German, a man of that people to whom, of all the endowments of genius, industry alone is left (Id enim fateor, tametsi neqve ingenium neqve doctrinam mihi arrogem, diligentia tamen laudem aliqvando apud seqvos censores consecutum; et qvid aliud expectes a Germano, cuj nationi inter ingenij dotes sola laboriositas relicta est). Oddly enough, the superscription, Roberto Danieli Huetio, contains a plump error. The whole tenor of the missive leaves no shadow of a doubt that it was intended for Pierre Daniel Huet. The rationale of the blunder is, I think, clear. Leibnitz was a Saxon, born in Leipzig (Mei' Leibz'ch is e glee Baris, mei' Leibz'ch low' ich mer). To him the distinctions of surd and sonant were naturally hazy. In 1673 he had not been long in the "big and real Paris," and his ear was still unwonted to spoken French. It was easy to mistake Pierre for oert, and, under these conditions, not difficult to mis- take the combination Monsieur Pierre for Monsieur Robert. Charles R. Lanman. Harvard University, February 19. A CAUSE OF IMMIGRATION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : Why do we have undesirable im- migration in California? An answer to this question is not far to seek, but the truth is not agreeable, and no one seems to have the courage to proclaim it. One can cross almost any one of the northern countries of Europe without see- ing a Chinaman, Japanese, or negro. Take England as an example. Every one knows that the United Kingdom is a kind of cen- tre in Europe on which converge the main lines of trade from all the world. When one sets foot on British soil and behaves himself there, he has all the rights of an Englishman, land-owning excepted. The sentiment is, What do you know, and what can you do? Never mind where you were born or what the color of your skin. A fair inference is that here would flock all of the immigrants who seek employment and good wages ; but they do not ; the reason is that the British excel and do their own work. They cook their food, wash their clothing, operate their own factories, build their railways and houses. The same re- mark applies to France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland; indeed, to the countries of northern Europe generally. I speak from observation in all these countries, and a further experience of a quarter of a century on the Pacific Coast with the "yellow peril." The fact is that the white man, especially the "native born," almost a term of ridicule, will not work. That is the secret of the situation, and the end is not hard to predict. The people de- claim against Asiatic labor that is "taking the bread from their mouths," at the same time vigorously pursuing the courses that induce the immigration of the Jap- anese, Chinese, et al. The efforts of State Legislatures will accomplish little. When a people cease to do their own work, some other people must do it; and if with that labor is introduced an intellectuality equal to the domestic standard, the control of industry, the ownership of land, and even the political management of the country will pass to the most capable. In the East, especially the extreme East- ern States, we see the converse. Asiatic labor does not trouble Maine, nor in any other part of the United States does it in- terfere with pursuits efficiently conducted by our own people. Forty years ago, when laundry work in this country was done in il '

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Feb. 25, 1909] The ISTation. 195 a slovenly manner. Chinamen came in and introduced a great improvement in the art; but after a while our own people took up the business and have displaced the Chinese. When the native-born will cook their food, gather their fruit, clear the land, and do their housework, then the problem of the "yellow peril" will find a solution. Observer. San Francisco, February 12. THE DISPUTE AS TO HETCH HETCHY. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir : In your issue of February 18, War- ren Olney replies to my letter on the use of the Hetch Hetchy Valley as a storage reservoir. We differ radically upon the facts, and our difficulty in the East is that no two of our California friends, as the correspondence in your columns plainly proves, seem to be able to agree upon what the facts are. I may point out that Fred- erick P. Stearns, chief engineer of the Boston Metropolitan Water System, in the Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies for December last, gives it as his opinion that the nearby supply is far pref- erable, both in cost and quality, to the Tuolumne. Mr. Olney reiterates that San Francisco must go to the Tuolumne, because the waters of "all other streams" are al- ready monopolized, and yet he was present at the hearing in Washington when Mr. En- glebright, the member of Congress in whose district Hetch Hetchy lies, called attention to the middle fork of the Yuba River, where 100,000,000 gallons a day can be had, and where the water is now "used for nothing." The situation has now been admirably summed up by Herbert Parsons of New York city, in his report to Congress as a member of the Committee on Public Lands. He says : The real difficulty with San Francisco is that it does not wish to consider any other supply. Others might cost more. . . . Certainly, the Federal government is not bound to give up to San Fran- cisco two-fifths of a national park, sim- ply because it is cheaper. Why is it cheaper? It is cheaper because, hav- ing been made a national park, it has not been possible for private interests to file upon the water in the same manner that they could have if there had not been a national park. . . . San Francisco now desires to use it for itself by spoiling the very purpose which has made it cheap. . . . Unwilling though I would be to deny to San Fran- cisco and the other cities on the Bay o£ San Francisco the use of Hetch Hetchy if it was essential . . . for a municipal water supply, ... I believe that we owe it to all the people to preserve Hetch Hetchy uninterfered with for the use and enjoyment of all the people, and to carry out the policy intended when it was in- cluded within the boundaries of the Yosem- ite National Park. Edmund A. Whitman. Cambridge, Mass., February 19. Notes. E. P. Dutton & Co. will soon bring out a new volume of critical essays by Arthur Symons, entitled "The Romantic Movement in English Poetry." The completeness of the work is indicated by the fact that there are appreciations of eighty-six writers who were born in the last eighty years of the eighteenth century. Mr. Symons is at his best in writing of this kind. There is to be a new "Life of Clarendon,'' by the Rev. John Willcock, already known for his biography of the Earl of Argyle, Monmouth's friend. Considerable fresh ma- terial has been discovered in regard to Clarendon since Lister's "Life" was pub- lished. Some of the difficult problems which the Young Turks have to solve in establishing a constitutional government are shown in Ellsworth Huntington's account of the Turks, Armenians, and Kurds inhabiting the mountainous region of the upper Eu- phrates and Tigris Rivers. His experi- ences, as narrated in the Natwnal Oeo- graphic Magazine for February, gave him abundant evidence of the hatred of the three races for each other. Fierce and un- tractable as are the Kurds, they are, never- theless, a people of true strength of char- acter; but, being wedded to their patri- archal system of rule, they are a menace to the reform movement. Additional infor- mation in regard to Asiatic Turkey is to be found in the profusely illustrated ac- count of the Damascus-Mecca Railway and in the series of quaint pictures of the peo- ple and country. The January issue of the American Jour- nal of International Law opens with a 45- page paper by Prof. Paul S. Reinsch, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, on "International Ad- ministrative Law and National Sovereignty." He considers the status of such organiza- tions as the Postal Union, the Sugar Com- mission, and the International Institute of Agriculture. Another important paper, by Prof. J. S. Reeves of Dartmouth, discusses the origin of the Congo Free State from an international point of view; and the Supplement of Official Documents accom- panying this number gives about ninety pages to treaties, conventions, etc., relating to the Congo. Mr. Crocker's Chronicle of Current Events shows a remarkable series of treaties, agreements, and conventions that provide for arbitration between na- tions. It gives the impression that the en- tering into such agreements is decidedly on the increase. Among other matters are the notes that passed between the Japanese minister and Secretary Root last November, expressing, in very specific terms, the pa- cific disposition of the two nations toward each other. Lovers of Lafcadio Hearn will be glad to know that his translation of Theophile Gautier has been reprinted as a volume in the World's Story Tellers (E. P. Dutton & Co.). Another new volume in this series contains "The Cremona Violin" and "Mademoiselle deScudery" of E. T. W. Hoff- mann. To each book the editor, Arthur Ransome, contributes an introductory essay. The chief aim of G. D. Oswell, author of "Sketches of Rulers of India" (Henry Frowde), is to demonstrate the principles on which the English administer India. This he does by giving the salient facts in the careers of some of the most distinguished civilians and soldiers. He condenses his sketches so that they may be used as lec- tures in schools and colleges, especially, no doubt, in India. In the first volume he confines himself to the era of the mutiny, the accounts of Dalhousie, Canning, John Lawrence, and Mayo show- ing the governor-general's work during that trying period. The suppression of the re- volt is described in the lives of the great commanders Clyde, Strathnairn, Henry Law- rence, Nicholson, and Havelock. Interspers- ed in the narratives are some of the most striking incidents of those days, deeds of unsurpassed heroism and self-sacrifice at the call of duty which cannot fail to appeal to young men of every country. Though all the leaders impressed upon their subor- dinates the one preeminent duty of seeking the welfare of all the people, the despised outcast no less than the Brahman, and of understanding their needs and the best methods of governing them, the sketch of Lord Mayo shows most forcibly how a vice- roy acted up to his own instructions. An- other hero, John Nicholson, for his devotion to the people, was not only respected, but, in the true sense of the word, adored. He was raised to the position of a demi-god, and "a new cult arose called the cult of Nikal Seyn." In fact, on the tombstones of all the men of this volume might have been engraved, with only a change of name, the epitaph of the hero of Lucknow: "Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty." The period, 1786-1856, during which India was freed from the chronic anarchy which had prevailed for centuries through the raids and wars between the states, is de- scribed in the third volume of the series. The principal leaders of this conquering and organizing time were the great legislators, Cornwallis, of Yorktown memory, and Ben- tinck, and the distinguished soldiers Wel- lesley and Hastings. The noteworthy inci- dents of their careers are given, as well as those of Amherst, Auckland, and Hardinge. Though there are not so many exciting epi- sodes and heroic deeds narrated as in the first volume, yet in some respects it has a higher value in that it shows the great race and governmental problems forced on these men and their success or failure in solving them. Some famous incidents of Indian history are the subject of the fourth volume, beginning with the reign of the Buddhist monk and Emperor, Asoka, 272 B. C, and closing with the Sikh ruler. 1780- 1839, Ranjit Singh. The rise of the Mogul Empire is told in the sketches of Babar and Akbar, the greatest of India's foreign rulers, and its decay in the reign of the "great Puritan of India," Aurangzib. The Hindu reconquest under Scindia is describ- ed, and the struggle with Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, 1717-1799, the leaders of the southern Mohammedans. Here again as in the other volumes, a wise choice of inter- esting incidents and anecdotes gives a vivid personality to the subjects of the various skeaches. Considering the educational aim of the work it is strange that none of the volumes contains maps or indexes. We cannot guess to what sort of readers Edgcumbe Staley would address his book, "The Tragedies of the Medici" (New York: imported by Charles Scribner's Sons). It is plentifully equipped with adulteries, stranglings, stabbings, and poisonings; but the messenger boy or the shopgirl who devours stories of crime will turn rather to the yellow dailies or to the successors of the dime novel than to Mr. Staley's expensive pages. A verbatim report of the Thaw trial beats these somewhat anti- quated crimes hollow. The renaissance murderers had no "brain-storm," and they usually went about their business with a directness and precision that would have given a criminal lawyer little scope to

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If ~H TT.'i 196 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 display his ingenuity. There is in these stories just enough historical allusion to frighten readers who are in search of thrills; while on the other hand, there is not a page which the searcher for historic facts would dare to accept as trustworthy. For Mr. Staley indulges in astonishing flights of rhetoric and romance. He de- scribes ladies whose husbands' "love ceased to peep into" their heart; he tells of "two virgin souls . . . winging their flight to join their murdered sister Maria in the Paradise of Peace"; he assures us that "romantic attachments, full of thrilling pathos, ran then like golden threads through the vulgar warp and web of woe and death." In other words, there is too much of the trappings of cheap fiction for the historical reader, and too much genea- logy and pseudo-history for the lover of shilling shockers. The illustrations, chief- ly portraits of the Medici, are well chosen, and remind us that the greatest of the renaissance families in Italy was also the ugliest. Lina Duff Gordon (Mrs. Aubrey Water- field) has produced a charming book in "Home Life in Italy" (The Macmillan Co.). It is evidently based on letters, touched up and amplified where necessary, but keeping the freshness of a sympathetic, observant woman's correspondence. She is one of the few English who not only live in Italy, but penetrate into the life of the natives. She had an old country castle near Car- rara, and saw intimately the peasants and villagers, and occasionally the more con- ventional dwellers in the towns. So her pictures are life-like, and they are drawn of folk that have been unspoiled by for- eigners. She mingles everyday scenes with the humor, and sometimes with the tragedy, which seems never far off in Italy. From her, the stranger can learn how hard the life of the lower classes is, and how naive and sympathetic they are, with all their faults. Such chapters as those on the Evil Eye and Messer il Diavolo go deeper, and leave one wondering at the persistence of Pagan legacies and at the strange mix- ture of fetich worship and Catholicism ofwTiich the popular religion is compound- ed. But Mrs. Waterfield shows us all sides without prejudice or controversy, and with unfailing good humor. Here is the best book of the kind we have seen for a long time. In the production of serious, scholarly works on Dante, England keeps well abreast of Italy. Even if the poet had real- ly visited Oxford, as some have believed, his memory could hardly be more cher- ished there. Gratifying evidence of his ever growing popularity on English soil is afforded by a new, revised edition— after eight years— of William Warren Vernon's "Readings on the Paradiso of Dante" (The Macmillan Co.), in two stout volumes. The general plan of the book is unchanged: it consists of a discursive paraphrase of the poem (following the method of Benvenuto da Imola), interlarded with the original text, in small bits, with prose transla- tion, and accompanied by copious footnotes. It might seem, perhaps, to the ordinary reader that the poetry was almost sub- merged in the commentary; but the "Par- adiso" certainly demands a deal of ex- planation, and the matter presented is all so interesting that one would be reluctant to discard any part of it. In the second edition, numerous improvements of detail have been made in the light of recent studies, and a section on the Bargello por- trait has been added to the preliminary chapter. An excellent index concludes the second volume. In "The Niagara River" (G. P. Putnam's Sons), Prof. Archer Butler Hulbert offers a literary treatment sufficiently elaborate, one would say, for the Nile. He admits, however, in his preface, following Mr. Howells in candor, that he has not suc- ceeded in the attempt to remain "over- powered" by the magnificence of the cata- ract and the rapids during the entire two or three years he has been preparing the book; and the sanity thus admitted into the work goes far towards making it worth while. There is a good resume^ of the movement to protect the scenery about the falls, a discussion of the entire question of utilizing the water power, and a history of the Niagara frontier. Perhaps the most readable chapter is the one on "Niagara Cranks," beginning with Blondin, the tight- rope walker. There is less quotation than one expects from Niagara literature. Some of the views are excellent. The first volume of Edward Wester- marck's "Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas" (reviewed in the Nation of June 13, 1907, p. 545) gave his theory of the nature and origin of the moral emo- tions, and described customs of homicide (including human sacrifice), the duel, char- ity, and hospitality, and the subjection of various classes of human beings. The sec- ond volume (the Macmillan Co.) treats of the right of property, regard for truth and good faith, altruistic sentiments, suicide, industry, ascetic practices, the relations between the sexes, regard for the lower animals and for the dead, cannibalism, and the relation of gods to morality. The characteristics of the first volume appear also in the second: astounding profusion of examples (always with precise references to authorities), clearness and ease of pre- sentation, broad sympathy, accuracy of dis- crimination, and soundness of judgment. Ethical practices and ideas are traced from the lowest communities to the highest, with the result that the elementary moral sentiments and usages appear to be the same in all stages of society, social pro- gress consisting in an increasing limita- tion and depression of the bestial impulses and a rational definition and expansion of the better instincts. The work is an im- pressive survey of the ethical history of man; the mass of facts is enormous, and, while most of them are familiar to general readers on the subject, some of them, as, for example, those relating to homosexual relations, will be new to all but specialists. A desideratum in the work is a clear ex- hibition of the development of ethical ideals, and for this reason L. T. Hobhouse's "Morals in Evolution" (see the Nation of June 20, 1907, p. 568) will be found useful as complementary to Westermarck's dis- cussion. At the close of the present vol- ume the author restates and illustrates further his theory that moral concepts are ultimately based on emotions of indigna- tion or approval, and that these are always retributive. His position is thus sharply opposed to theories of the transcendental origin of ethical feeling, which, at the same time, he regards as having its root in hu- man nature and as being an indestructible element of human life. The proof of this position is furnished by the facts he ad- duces; the conclusions are left to the read- er to make. It need hardly be added that his view is compatible with a theistic con- ception of the world, though it does not enter into the plan of his work to insist on this point. What he does set forth clearly is the actual course of human ex- perience— ultimate forces he does not con- sider. In "Luke, the Physician" Prof. William M. Ramsay has chosen for the title of a miscellaneous collection of essays on the history of religion the subject of one of the least of the dozen papers comprising the volume (A. C. Armstrong & Son). Doubt- less the popular interest is greatest in what Professor Ramsay has to say as a critic of Harnack, whose volume of the same name he reviews in the first essay; but in this field he has less of first-hand in- formation to contribute, his conclusions are more largely founded on doubtful de- ductions, and his well-known prejudices come most prominently to view. In brief, his argument is that, since the book of Acts is found to embody authentic facts as to political, social, and religious condi- tions in Asia Minor in the Pauline era, facts which have been strikingly confirmed by recent archaeological discoveries, there- fore Luke is a trustworthy historian of personal affairs and spiritual movements in apostolic Christianity. One does not need to question Professor Ramsay's arch- aeological accuracy, or the value of his in- vestigations in the geography and history of Asia Minor, to stumble somewhat at his conclusions concerning matters on which literary documents are our only source of information, to be tested, therefore, by literary criticism. A learned archaeologist may be a most indiscreet historian. The bias of Professor Ramsay's estimate of Luke, however, does not detract from the great value of his careful descriptions of the physical conditions of Asia Minor and their influence on its political and relig- ious history, nor from the indebtedness under which all students are placed by his study of the monuments and inscriptions of that interesting meeting-place of East and West. The essays, "Asia Minor: the Country and Its Religion," "The Peasant God; the Creation, Destruction, and Restor- ation of Agriculture in Asia Minor." and "The Church of Lycaonia in the Fourth Century," are productions of a patient and experienced explorer, and a brilliant, if not always cautious, scholar. It is a pity that these papers could not have been ex- panded into a volume on the historical geography of Asia Minor. Side by side with essays which approve the assignment of dates of the parables by their refer- ences to the weather, they will hardly pass for their true worth. The Newark, N. J., Public Library has begun the issue of a series of handbooks on American Library Economy, setting forth in detail the methods and tools in operation in that library (Woodstock, Vt: Elm Tree Press). The first of the series, treating the work of the registration desk, gives in 32 pages the fullest exposition of the function of this department that has yet appeared. Copies may be obtained from the publishers.

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Feb. 25. 1909J The HSTation 197 Of all the library aids, numbering twenty- five or more, that have been published by the American Library Association, it is said that only two have proved financially profitable, "Subject Readings for a Dictionary Cata- logue" and Kroeger's "Guide to the Study and Use of Reference Books." The first edition of this latter work appeared in 1902, consisting of a classified, annotated list of all the more important reference works in the English language. At the close of each year since 1902 Miss Kroeger has prepared and published in the Library Journal a sim- ilar list of the important reference works issued during the year. These supplemen- tary lists have now been consolidated with the original in a new edition containing about a third more material than the old. A valuable feature of both editions is the analytical index, indicating the best source for information on many difficult or obscure subjects. "The History of the New York Society Library," by Austin Baxter Keep (De Vinne Press), an elaborate and sumptuous work, was projected five years ago, when the So- ciety Library celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding. The volume, containing 607 pages, is itself sufficient explanation of the time taken to complete the undertaking. Had the subject been one of national importance or interest, sources could not have been studied more carefully. No less than one hundred and sixty different authorities are cited or quoted in the body of the work, some ac- cessible only in foreign archives. More- over. Mr. Keep has brought to his task a good style, a mastery of historic method, and an engaging enthusiasm. But for all his literary skill and his long array of facts and personages, one is conscious throughout the narrative that there is something de- cidedly artificial about it all — that the au- thor is engaged in a kind of tour de force to lend interest and importance to events which, after all, have no great significance, and which therefore appeal chiefly to those whose ancestors are named in these annals. From 'The Primitive Aryans of Ameri- ca," by T. S. Denison of Chicago, au- thor and publisher, one may learn that "wig-wam" and Latin "vicus," "clan," and Sanskrit "kulu" (fam- ily), Mexican "chica" and Sanskrit "adhika" are cognates; that "skye-terrier" is com- parable with "ska-ha" (dog, in a Puge^ Sound dialect); that "Mexitli" ''is beyond any reasonable doubt simply the Persian Ahura-Hazda"; that "Tla-loc" is "In-dra- loka"; and that another Vedic deity, Push- an, is immortalized anew in "Pushita," the name of an Ohio township. In deriving "Chichi-meca" from Mexican "chi," Sans- krit "dhi," and explaining it as "pious or brave people," Mr. Denison has modestly omitted to compare the obvious cognate Chicago. His modesty is indeed as great as his bravery. "Where others have held back I have boldly entered," he says, yet he adds immediately, "I am but a pioneer and others may improve my work." We venture to doubt this. Room may be found for additions, but could any one improve on the suggestion that Manitou is connect- ed with Babylonian Anu, that Mexican Ipal is Babylonian Bel', or that Vedic Aditi Is "teteo innan, mother of the gods"? Nev- ertheless, much is due to exceptional ad- vantages, and it is only fair to other scholars, who have failed to find all these good things, to add that Mr. Denison, in preparing his Hindu and Babylonian parallels, has had the unique privilege of using a book hitherto unknown, "The Re- ligions of India, by Morris Jastrow, jr." We had supposed the only work of that title was by E. W. Hopkins. "Frau Pauline Brater; Lebensbild einer deutschen Frau" (Munich: C. H. Beck), by Agnes Sapper, is one of those portraits of a type, which through their intimate details and historic background become almost as important as a document. This book is the life of a daughter of Wilhelm Pfaff, profes- sor of mathematics and Sanskrit scholar in Erlangen, who should be remembered as Ruckert's collaborator in the translation of "Nal und Damajanti." As the wife of Karl Brater, prominent in journalism and politics of Bavaria, she was brought into contact with eminent men and women and rose to be a power in her little circle by her independence of judgment and steadfast- ness of purpose. One of the most singular of recent Ger- man books is an anthology of poems, "Poe- sie im Zuchthaus: Gedichte von Verbre- chern," collected and edited by Dr. Jo- hannes Jager, a prison-chaplain in Amberg (Stuttgart: Max Kielmann), which furnishes ample material for the student of crimes and criminals. The Hilfe publication house, Berlin, has begun a new series, Moderne Philosophic, under the editorship of Dr. Max Apel. The first volume, "Die Weltanschauung Haeckels,'' discusses principally the Jena zoologist's relation to such scholars as Dar- win, Virchow, Du Bois Reymond, Kant, and Spinoza. The second volume is a "Kleines philosophisches Wbrterbuch," by Rudolf Odebrecht; and the third, by Walter Gold- schmidt, "Der Wert des Lebens," treats of the happiness or misery of such men as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Lord Byron, Heine, and Lenau. A fourth vol- ume is announced on Darwin by six Ger- man specialists. An interesting biography and just vin- dication of the much maligned wife of Frederick the Great, and therefore a desir- able contribution to the history of Prussia in the eighteenth century, is Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem's volume of 219 pages (Berlin: A. Schall), entitled "Elisa- beth Christine, Kbnigin von Preussen, Herzogin von Braunsohweig-Liineburg: Das Lebensbild einer Verkannten." It is well known that Frederick as crown-prince was wholly unappreciated and brutally treated by his father, who forced him to marry the young Duchess of Brunswick without con- sulting him or even seeking to obtain his consent. This dictatorial procedure in such a delicate personal matter naturally ex- cited a decided aversion to the bride, a feeling which was sedulously fostered by the British faction at court, who wished to have him wed an English princess, and spoke with contempt of Christine as "an ugly and stupid bigot." In a letter to Gen. Grumbkow, Frederick wrote that his be- trothed would be "the most unhappy prin- cess in the world." Four years after his marriage he confessed to the Austrian am- bassador, Seckendorf, that she had a gen- tle disposition, pleasing manners, and fine mental qualities, which caused her to take a lively interest in his intellectual pur- suits. On his death-bed he declared that she had always been kind and sympathetic and that her preeminent virtue entitled her to reverence and love. This recognition of her noble traits renders his cold and cruel treatment of her for more than fifty years almost inexplicable. He condemned her to a lonely and isolated life and even exclud- ed her from the court festivities in which she should have taken the principal part. As a compensation for this ruin of her do- mestic and social career as queen she devoted herself to literary work and pub- lished in French several volumes of ge- nial meditations and reflections on human affairs. The present biography is the re- sult of thorough research, including, among other sources of information, the letters of Queen Elisabeth Christine to her brother Karl, now preserved in the archives of Brunswick. In this connection we may state that Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Balles- trem is the author of several biographical and historical works and is also distin- guished as a writer of German fiction. Her numerous novels, all of which have passed through several editions, are very popular and remarkable for psychological insight and a fine sense of humor. The Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin has, through its philosophico-histor- lcal section, voted the sum of 2,500 marks toward defraying the expenses of publish- ing the new edition of the Septuagint, which the German academies have decided to bring out jointly, and which is now in process of preparation. Prof. Alfred Bertholet of the University of Basel, in "Das religionsgeschichtliche Problem des Spatjudentums," the latest ad- dition to the series Sammlung gemein- verstandlicher Vortrage und Schriften (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr), discusses the religious beliefs in the last years of the national life of Israel. He explains that, notwithstanding the exclusive character of post-Exilic Judaism, Israel yet received from other religions a large number of ideas, and accepted them voluntarily and knowingly, and not unconsciously, as Pro- fessor Gunkel and others have tried to show. The book is an interesting chapter on the historical background of the New Testament. Prof. Louis Havet, the Latinist of Paris, recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday, on which occasion thirty-six of his pu- pils and friends joined in the publication of a volume of investigations in the de- partments of philology and literature, "Philologie et linguistique: Melanges of- ferts a Louis Havet par ses anciens Sieves et ses amis" (Paris: Hachette et Cie.). The "Selected Poems of Pierre de Ronsard" have been well chosen by St. John Lucas and published in delightful form by the Oxford University Press. Of all poets Ronsard needs most to have his spontaneous living work set apart from his endless machine- made verse. Writing before the critical spirit was matured, he has at his best the advantage of a naive freshness, and at his worst the dulness of unchecked prolixity. Due consideration of this mixture of quali- ties ought to have prevented Mr. Lucas from making an ungracious fling at Mal- herbe and Boileau in his otherwise excel- lent introduction. It is quite true that the

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rJ"-*- 198 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 former by example, and the latter by pre- cept, fostered a school of writing in which Ronsard's naivete is the last quality to be found, but they also made it less excusable for a. poet to ramble endlessly and aimless- ly in verse. To each age its virtue, as each age follows the art it knows. Ronsard was by no means spontaneous by deliberate choice, but was really eager to introduce critical canons into French poetry. Ease like his in the days of Racine, when that criticism was fully developed, would have meant, not graceful spontaneity, but rude indifference to art. Malherbe and Boileau were simply criticising the old method as it worked in their own age. To sneer at their lack of the historic sense is to repeat their error to-day. However, this is but a small point in Mr. Lucas's in- troduction. The story of Ronsard's life, the analysis of the mediasval and renaissance elements in his poetry, and the brief ac- count of the Pleiad are excellently written in exceptionally good English. A beautiful book, in which art and scholarship have vied to good purpose, is "Lirica Italiana nel Cinquecento e nel Sei- cento fino all'Arcadia," edited by Eugenia Levi (Florence: Leo S. Olschki). It con- tains some 400 lyrics, 70 illustrations, and nearly 40 pieces of music. The illustra- tions are photogravures of famous paint- ings, or reproductions of drawings, etch- ings, and engravings. The music scores, many hitherto inedited or unearthed from forgotten collections, add greatly to one's appreciation of the madrigals, frottole, and other lyrics which were written to be sung. Signorina Levi has added brief notes, bibli- ographical as well as critical, together with the dates of composition, and the opin- ions of well-known art critics on the paint- ings and drawings. The choice of poems is equally satisfactory. She seems to have overlooked nothing : with the result that, besides the selections which are found in almost every anthology, there are many rare and many novel pieces. Some of these last she has drawn from manuscript copies. Nor has she scorned dialects. Some of the most striking minor poems, like the "Perch6 mi'Seru mia, perche ristai?" (p. 260) of Bishop Rau, are in Sicilian. The great names — Tasso, Ariosto, Chiabrera (the fore- runner of Herrick), Trissino, and Caro — are well represented; and the effect produced by them is of a sophisticated and highly cultivated society, amid which passions and emotions even — so far as lyric poetry can utter them — are sinking into conventionality. But Michelangelo's poignant and beautiful laments redeem much that is conventional ; and scattered through the volume are many other genuine outbursts, less powerful, but not less natural, than his. The book is small and convenient in size, beautifully printed, on real paper, and bound in parchment — a fine specimen of what an artist-printer can do to supplement and exhibit the taste of an artist-editor. (Imported by G. E. Stechert & Co., New York.) A contribution to the Ghazal literature is furnished by the convenient edition of the Persian text of "Baki's Diwan," prepared by Prof. Rudolf Dvorak of the University of Prague (New York: Lemcke & Buech- ner). The text is based on the manuscripts of Leyden, Leipzig, Munich, and Vienna; various readings are given, but there is no account of the manuscripts or of the au- thor, and there are no philological notes. The committee of award has announced its decisions in the Hart, Schaffner & Marx contest for 1908 as follows : The first prize of $1,000, to Prof. Oscar D. Skel- ton, for a paper entitled "The Case against Socialism" ; the second prize of $500 to Mrs. Emily Fogg Meade for "The Agricultural Resources of the United States." Among the contributions restricted to college un- dergraduates, the first prize of $300 was won by A. E. Pinanski, Harvard, 1908, for "The Street Railway of Metropolitan Bos- ton," and the second prize of $150, by Wil- liam Shea, Cornell, 1909, for "The Case against Socialism." The Verdun Prize (3,000 marks and a gold medal), which every five years is awarded to that scholar who has, in the past half decade, made the most notable addition to German historical literature, was recently given to Dr. S. von Riezler of Munich, in recognition of his "Geschiehte Bayerns." The historian, Dr. E. Gagliardi, in cata- loguing the manuscripts of the city library in Zurich, has found a valuable Reforma- tion Chronicle, by a Swiss writer of the six- teenth century, Johannes Stumpff, a confi- dential friend of Zwingli. The manuscript, composed between 1535 and 1538, covers 600 closely packed pages. Carroll Davidson Wright, president of Clark College, died February 20, at the age of sixty-eight. He began the study of law, but was soon drawn from this into the Union army by the civil war, where he rose to the rank of colonel. After the war he settled in Boston, serving in the Massa- chusetts State Senate in 1872-3, and acting as chief of the State Bureau of the Statis- tics of Labor until 1888. Meanwhile he was appointed in 1880 supervisor of the United States census for Massachusetts, and in 1885 Commissioner of Labor, re- taining this national office until 1905. Dur- ing this time he also directed the eleventh United States census, 1893-7. In 1902 he accepted the presidency of Clark College, Worcester, Mass. Besides many pamphlets and monographs on social and econjii 0 topics, he has to his credit a considerable number of books: "The Factory Sys- tem of the United States" (1880), "Relation of Political Economy to the La- bor Question" (1882), "The Social, Commer- cial, and Manufacturing Statistics of the City of Boston" (1882), "History of Wages and Prices in Massachusetts, 1752-1883" (1885), "The Industrial Evolution of the United States" (1887), "The Public Records of Parishes, Towns, and Counties in Mas- sachusetts" (1889), "Outline of Practical Sociology" (1899), and "Battles of Labor" (1906). From Torquay is reported the death of H. R. Fox Bourne, a well-known editorial writer of London. Besides his journalistic work he published a number of books on commerce and trade, a history of "English Newspapers" (2 vols., 1887), and a life of "Sir Philip Sidney" in the Heroes of the Nations Series (1891). Of late years his principal interest had been in the native races of Africa, as shown by the titles of his books: "The Other Side of the Emin Pasha Expedition" (1891), "Matabeleland and the Chartered Company" (1897), "The Bechuana Troubles" (1898), "Blacks and Whites in South Africa" (second ed., 1900), and "Civilization in Congoland: a Story of International Wrongdoing" (1903). Dr. Johann vonKelle, professor of the Ger- man language and literature in the German University of Prague, has died at the age of eighty. His chief work is the edition, with translation and glossary, of "Otfrid's Evangelienbiicher," on which he was en- gaged from 1857 to 1883. Besides this he published "Speculum Ecclesia? Altdeutsch" and "Geschiehte der deutschen Literatur vott der altesten Zeit bis zum dreizehnten Jahr- hundert." THE SOURCE OF "THE RING AND THE BOOK." The Old Yellow Book: Source of Brown- ing's "The Ring and the Book," in complete photo-reproduction, with translation, essay, and notes, by Charles W. Hodell. Washington: Car- negie Institution. The story of the Old Yellow Book and of its transmutation into the greatest of Browning's poems is itself one of the romances of literature. As Professor Ho- dell rightly observes, we have here an incident comparable to the use of the old Italian story-books by the Eliza- bethan dramatists, with the added in- terest that in the modern instance all the details are before us, and there is no possibility that some other source unknown to us was employed by the poet. Outside of this collection of legal documents bearing on the Roman mur- der trial of 1698, which were bound to- gether at the time by some one appar- ently friendly to the accused — outside of this and one or two other documents, all of which are here reproduced, there was no other source. We know, too, just how the poet found the long-for- gotten volume amid the rubbish of a market barrow that day in June, 1860; how he read it through with absorbed attention, laid it aside for five years, and then, from 1865 to 1868, set him- self to converting its mass of legal ped- antries into a living human drama. That process of alchemy can now be follow- ed step by step, although, paradoxically speaking, the real mystery of the trans- mutation may seem more remote than ever. By the kindness of Balliol College, Oxford, where the book was deposited after Browning's death. Mr. Hodell has been permitted to publish a complete photographic facsimile of the docu- ments. To this he has added a trans- lation, which saves the labor of drudg- ing through the crabbed Latin and Ital- ian (though minute exactness will re- quire frequent reference back to the originals), together with explanatory ma- terial of his own. The plan of the work can be heartily commended. To facili- tate comparison he has prepared a ser- ies of topical notes, focussing, by refer-

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 199 ence to page and line, all the corre- sponding matter in The Yellow Book and the poem. At any point in the text of the book or of Mr. Hodell's essay all the corroborative or contradictory pas- sages may be found by turning to the indicated note. To enable one, while reading "The Ring and the Book," to reach the same material, a full alpha- betical index is given, besides a "L:ne Index to Annotations." Thus, to take an example, one is reading the "Ca- ponsacchi" and stops at the lines: There she stood— leaned there, for the sec- ond time, Over the terrace, looked at me, then spoke: "Why is it you have suffered me to stay Breaking my heart two days more than was need?" What authority, one asks, had Brown- ing for interposing this delay of two days? By means of the "Line Index" and note one finds there is only a sin- gle allusion in the "Yellow Book" (Francesca's Deposition, p. 71) to the delay: : .l:ji Then he told me he would secure the carriage, and when that had been arranged he would give me a signal by letting his handkerchief fall in passing before our house, as he had done before. But the next day went by, and although I stood at the blinds, he did not give the signal. When the day following had also passed, I spoke to him again as above, and complained to him that he had broken the word he had given me. And he excused himself, saying that he had not found a carriage in Arezzo. I answered him that, at any rate, he should have procured one from outside, as he promised to do. On this point Professor Hodell here remarks that "Browning has made this delay of two days [which plays no further part in the documents] take a profound meaning in the life of his hero, a time of rapid growth to the full stature of Christian heroism." Follow- ing the editor's reference to "The Ring and the Book," vi, 937-1,062, we read: In rushed new things, the old were rapt away; Alike abolished — the imprisonment Of the outside air, the inside weight o' the world That pulled me down. . . . Sirs, I obeyed. Obedience was too strange — This new thing that had been struck into me By the look o' the lady, — to dare disobey The first authoritative word. "Twas God's. For this spiritual struggle and conver- sion there is not a word in the docu- ments, and indeed it is not likely that any Italian of Caponsacchi's day would have felt the kind of conflict described by Browning between the dead service of the church and the living inspiration heard in a woman's words. And follow- ing the scene in the poem a few lines further, we find that in place of the sim- ple excuse of the document, "He had not found a carriage in Arezzo," Brown- ing's hero indulges in such general lan- guage as this: . . . Lady, waste no thought, no word Even to forgive me! Care for what I care- Only! Now follow me as I were fate! So, step by step, we get a notion of Browning's method; we learn that the hero of the poem is not quite the Ca- ponsacchi of the documents, and, being curious to see how far this transforma- tion extends, we turn to the Subject-In- dex, where, by means of the references s. v. Caponsacchi, we can answer the question in all its details. And, by an extension of the same process, the whole creation of the poem is laid before us. In his Essay Mr. Hodell has summed up the substance of the matter with considerable skill, although not every one will go with him in his excessive admiration for Browning, or set the emphasis just as he sets it. Thus, to magnify the poet's creative genius, he speaks of the Yellow Book as "a mass of chaotic, unpromising material"; it seems to us, on the contrary, as it seem- ed to Browning himself, that no more splendid material has often fallen into a poet's hands. It is no doubt chaotic in form, but the story within is palpi- tating with life and offers a plot at once novel and susceptible of the most pas- sionate development. One cannot read through the works of Tennyson with- out feeling how desperately he was driv- en to find suitable themes and how often he fails simply because his theme was trivial. After all, as Aristotle said long ago in good Greek, the plot's the thing; and Browning in stumbling on his Yellow Book was lucky beyond the fortune of his brothers. This is not to belittle his genius, if a large part of genius is just the cunning to wring all its capabilities from chance. Of Browning's skill in manipulating the incidents of his story there can be no doubt; but in regard to the so- called spiritual element added by him, we are not quite so sure as is the editor. Browning himself, to take one instance, has said of his Fran- cesca Pompilia: "She is just as I found her in the Book." Now, Mr. Hodell cannot find her in the Book, save per- haps in the evidence of Fra Celestino, who ministered to her while dying. For our part, with some knowledge of the priestly habit of magnifying the sanc- tity of death-bed scenes, we fail to recog- nize even there the poet's "lily-thing to frighten at a bruise." As we read the documents, she appears a good-looking but fairly commonplace young woman, not over-sensitive or nice, who was driv- en to desperation by a brutal husband. Her transformation into the saint, as Caponsacchi's change to the love-rapt champion, is wholly the poet's work — his own creative impulse, we take it, rather than any deeper insight into the facts of the actual case. The poetic value of this transmutation, including the whole motive of the "Platonic" love between the two runaways, will be ac- cepted by most readers, as it is by Mr. Hodell, without a question. After some pondering over the original story, as we now have it, we cannot escape a cer- tain doubt. At least it would be inter- esting to see that renaissance story treated in the full human manner of the renaissance used by Shakespeare for his "Romeo and Juliet" and other Italian plays. We confess the heresy of find- ing some of Browning's "spiritual" in- terpretation not quite true to spirit or flesh. But that is a matter of the per- sonal equation, and Mr. Hodell will have the majority on his side. CURRENT FICTION. The Pulse of Life. By Mrs. Belloc Lowndes. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50. Never was a book more unluckily named; the title serves as a perpetual reminder of just what this long, solid, carefully written novel lacks — the pulse of life. The principal characters are only four, and we are told a great deal about them; they are moved about and lighted up from various points of view, but they never move of themselves. Sa- bine, the Austrian Archduchess, flee- ing from a repulsive marriage, is a delicately tinted replica — a miniature in water-colors — of the youthful Marie An- toinette, easily visualized by the reader on account of this frequently mentioned likeness, but without individuality of her own. Francis Domville, heir of an ancient and impoverished Catholic fam- ily, wears the costume of Count Fersen when he falls in love with her, and con- tinues to play the part. The atmosphere of a fancy-dress ball, in fact, surrounds this couple throughout, and airs from Ruritania — though that kingdom is ex- pressly ruled off the author's map — play about their graceful forms. A shade more of interest attaches to the second couple, whose fortunes, by the way, are quite unrelated to those of the first by any but the arbitrary ties of blood- relationship. Anne Leycester, gentle, recueillie, endowed with a mysterious gift of healing, and silently enduring the long strain of an unselfish, unde- manding love, is a gracious and touch- ing, if somewhat dimly outlined, figure; and there is something tragic, even per- versely noble, in the equally unselfish but passionate and ruinous devotion of the object of her tenderness, her Rus- sian cousin, Paul Feyghine, to a heart- less little dancer, evidently studied from the portrait, at least, of "Carmencita." A clever realist would make us know these characters intimately; a vigorous romancer would at least make them do something, might even so thrill us by their emotional and dramatic life that they would pass with us for real. Mrs. Lowndes can do neither; her story does

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3"\.«>r -r*_ 200 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 not "march"; with all its elaboration of detail it remains a preparatory sketch — memoir es a servir. The one suc- cessful bit of portraiture is the charac- ter-sketch, slightly caricatured one may hope, of a Russian grand duke. The combination of the primitive animalism of the man with the artificial but unde- niable dignity of the personage is clev- erly accomplished and remains easily the most memorable thing in the book. The Passer-By. By Prince Pierre Trou- betzkoy. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. The way of the transgressor is hard. Hard too is the way of the reader who has to accompany the transgressor "as she is written" in modern fiction. Her sins are so detailed! Her conversion so incidental to the main current! And the sins of the party or parties of the sec- ond part are so prominent that the loft- iest flights of reasoning and rectitude achieved intermittently by parties of the third part do not avail to color the pro- duction as a whole. In this story a Russian saves the situation, and suc- ceeds in holding back from a precipice the chameleon who figures as heroine, with a "spell of affinity" for A., and a "chain of affinity" for B., her husband being F. It is true, too, that this Rus- sian renounces his own chances of fe- licity. Therefore, any objector to the book could well be answered that de- cency asserts itself in the end. Remains the fact that the end is only a small part of the story. In the school readers of our fathers, there flourished a certain Orator Puff, who had two tones in his voice. The same richness may be found in the style of Prince Troubetzkoy's book. At times, the text is set to the terse, curt, mono- syllabic scale of Russian fiction. At oth- er times, under the spell of "the gracil- ity of adolescence," or "accidental ex- teriority," or "supreme acuity," or of trying to "congruously deviate the con- versation," the reader, in fancy's eye, sees the Sunny South, flowering lush- ly, and invaded by the dictionary. And he turns back to the dedication: To you Amelie, who wrote "Augustine the Man," i dedicate this book because it is due to you as the light is due to the flame. The Dark Corner. By Zach McGhee. New York: The Grafton Press. Both within and without this is a lit- tle book. Its close fine print is yet neat and clear; its size and shape and weight are of a comforting fitness to the hand. Of its contents something analogous may be said. They are limited and of- ten crude, but there is a reality, a sin- cerity that impart positive quality. Its naivete is overtopped by the actual sub- stance. The burlesque humor is for- gotten in the real. The tasteless is for- given for the sake of the genuinely as- piring. It offers a picture of educational conditions, or the lack of them, in a benighted part of the South, where the presence of the school as it existed was worse than its absence. The hero, Jim Thompson, becomes a "perfesser" in a military institute, conducted on princi- ples of arrant quackery. He soon of- fends the powers of charlatanism and takes his leave. Then moved by pity for the ignorance in a poor white region known as "The Dark Corner," he de- cides to give up a cherished plan of becoming a lawyer and devotes his life to building up better ideals of educa- tion and of living. There is a nice lit- tle story of love connected with that of civilizing, and a nice little tale of chivalry to offset extravaganza. There are engaging glimpses of child life, and striking passages of realism from "poor white" life that go far to counteract the elsewhere overdone in manners, cus- toms, and speech. With many rawnesses and roughnesses, it is in some inscrut- able way a very likable little story. The Climber. By E. F. Benson. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. Mr. Benson evidently believes there is still a serious novel-reading public. He has written a solid book which re- fuses to be skimmed, and which might even bear a second reading. Yet it ex- ploits no virgin field, has no dubious scene, no purple patches, and no ap- parent purpose other than the dra- matic representation of character. The social group to which most of the per- sons belong is a cultivated section of the English upper class, or — more dem- ocratically speaking — of the "smart set." The Climber, Lucia Grimson, is a near spiritual relative of Mr. Pinero's Iris and Mrs. Wharton's Lily Bart. Living in quiet boredom with her two tea- drinking, patience-playing maiden aunts — capitally drawn and differen- tiated— she nourishes a dream of lux- urious self-realization. She finds her opportunity in the priggishly aesthetic, very correct young Lord Brayton, who is not only affected by her personal charms, but is also persuaded that she can make his home the centre of a "New Set" devoted to a very refined type of culture. This aesthetic lord seeks the beautiful in life and art with curious self-conscious and humorless gravity. Lucia, clear-headed and hard-hearted, conducts a Napoleonic social campaign, winning every battle, fulfilling every self-indulgent desire, till at last real passion touches her. Then, relent- lessly, as she took Lord Brayton from her best friend, she takes away her best friend's husband. High tragedy cannot befall the two diversely fervid egotists of the drama; but such disas- ter as their souls are capable of comes swiftly upon them. No other novel of Mr. Benson's shows such sobriety and maturity of workman- ship. The story moves firmly, harmon- iously, if somewhat slowly, forward un- der the conduct of a critical intelli- gence. The earlier chapters, indeed, make one a little impatient. The author is in no haste to get into action. He describes his field with excessive par- ticularity as if assured of an attentive hearing. He has the bad habit of ex- plaining the precise significance of every important speech, and he gives the read- er a sharp nudge when the speech is clever. He has worked with such la- borious conscientiousness that he can- not bear to let any good stroke pass un- noticed. Yet his characters are complex- ly alive, they develop, and they meet in sharp dramatic conflict. One may de- test them all; but they survive the clos- ing of the book. The Catholic Church in the United States of America: To Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness Pope Pius X. Vol. I: The Religious Com- munities. New York: The Catholic Editing Co. The publishers of this work, which is to appear in six large folio volumes of 460 pages each, containing in all nearly 7,000 illustrations, have made a strange choice in form. The book is simply im- possible to handle on account of its size and weight, and it fits in nowhere in an ordinary room of these flat times of living. Offered as a history, it must be judg- ed by modern critical standards, and by these this first volume may be set down as a remarkable collection of pictures, valuable and novel in their extent, rath- er than a record comprehensive in de- tail, exact in statement, and complete in scope. From the hour that the great- hearted and far-seeing friar of La Ra- bida put new hope and vigor into the fortunes of the dispirited and dejected Columbus, down to the present time, the religious communities have played a large part in the progress of the Cath- olic Church here. In this volume the Rev. Dr. John Talbot Smith devotes a very comprehensive introduction to an exposition of their general history, work, aims, and character. There are now about 5,000 priests, 7,000 lay-broth- ers, and 56,000 women working in the various Catholic religious communities in the United States. To each group of 3,000 Catholics there are two diocesan priests, one community priest, and nine brothers and nuns. The special work of each religious community, its foun- dation here, and the extent of the ter- ritory and the operations therein, make up the volume. The illustrations con- sist of portraits of prominent members of these orders and congregations and pictures of institutions under their charge. In going over this list of com-

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Feb. 25, 1909] The JSTation. 201 munities several serious omissions must be noted. There is no mention of the Fathers of Mercy, the Basilians, or the Servites, for instance, among the men; or of the great foundations of the Sis- ters of Charity at Mount St. Vincent-on- Hudson, New York, and at Madison, N. J.; or of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, among the women. These probably will be given the space denied them in this volume in one of the suc- ceeding four which are to be devoted to diocesan records. Dumouriez and the Defence of England against Napoleon. By J. Holland Rose and A. M. Broadley. Illustrated. New York: John Lane Co. $5.00. The aim of the writers of this volume was twofold: first, to complete the study of the defence of England against Napoleon by an account of the last phase of it, in which Dumouriez took a prominent part; and, second, to offer a life of Dumouriez that should supply a more just estimate of his acts as a public man than had hitherto been writ- ten. In carrying out the first purpose they have published in full, occupying about one-third of the volume, a detail- ed mcmoire, prepared by Dumouriez in 1803-1804, for the defence of England. The history of this document is most interesting: Some four years ago, a French MS. of 397 pages, bound in thick vellum covers strengthened by a metal clasp, came Into the possession of Mr. Bertram Dobell, in whose sale catalogue it was described as an "Important Military Manuscript Deal- ing with the subject of a French inva- sion of England." The book was purchased by Mr. Broadley, but it was not until the researches for the publication last year of "Napoleon and the Invasion of England' were far advanced, that its present owner became aware of its authorship and im- portant character. It has now been ascer- tained, beyond the possibility of doubt, and by external as well as internal evidence, that every word of this MS. is in the hand- writing of General Dumouriez, about the earlier part of whose career so much has been written, but of whose twenty years' residence in England so little is known. Such a discovery was surely sufficient justification for a supplementary vol- ume in which Dumouriez should be the central figure, with special stress laid upon his life in England. Although the detailed plan of defence was not exe- cuted, it is a monument to the military science and industry of the writer. It was the most important, but not the only, military document prepared by Dumouriez for the English government during his twenty years' residence in the island. The material found in let- ters that passed between Dumouriez and prominent Englishmen, such as Pitt, Nelson, Wellington, and others, enables the writers of this volume to furnish us with a valuable new chapter on the life of the famous Frenchman in Eng- land, a chapter that places him in a most favorable light, and that undoubt- edly led to a study of his earlier career and to the conclusion that he had been much maligned. An attempt to rehabil- itate him was, naturally, the next step. To this undertaking, the major part of the volume has been devoted. What- ever we may think of the judgment of the authors upon the conduct of Du- mouriez, they have certainly prepared the most satisfactory and complete life of him that has appeared in English. To those who look upon Dumouriez as a mere adventurer, these later chap- ters are likely to prove a revelation. The respect shown him by English statesmen, generals, and others promi- nent in the social life of England, the pension granted to him by the English government, the position that he occu- pied of military adviser to the govern- ment, his employment on important mis- sions, and the favorable opinion of him expressed by those who met him — all this would seem to indicate that he pos- sessed real ability, and suggests the idea that the role played in his earlier years was not wholly an accident. What that role was it is the aim of the first — and least valuable — part of the volume to show. This portion (pp. 1-215) contains little that is new, and in the handling of evidence leaves much to be desired. This is especially true as to the "Memoires" of the general upon his early life. Dumouriez was born in 1739; he wrote his "Memoires" not ear- lier than 1793. But what can a man of fifty-four recall with certainty about Iris youth? It tends to discredit a work if the historian persists in stating as fact what is only untrustworthy recol- lection; yet this is precisely what the authors do, and without the slightest critical reserve, for Dumouriez's first forty years. If no new material could be discovered — and it is not at all cer- tain that something might not be found, if the right places were searched — the matter should be given for nothing more than what it is — Dumouriez's account, probably highly colored, partisan, and more or less inexact. With 1778, when Dumouriez becomes commandant at Cherbourg, documentary evidence is available to control, to some extent, the recollections of the general. To this evidence the authors add a memoire, prepared by Dumouriez in 1779, on the capture of the Isle of Wight. This period has been studied locally by French historians, and the results of their investigations are here utilized. Upon this passage of their hero's career the authors lay stress, and with good reason; for his work at Cherbourg would seem to justify the statement that the revolution simply of- fered an opportunity to a man who had already won his spurs. From 1789 to 1793, the only new material consists of two manuscript letters of Dumouriez, but the authors draw upon the latest monographs and the best printed sources. It should not be forgotten, however, that it is not the purpose of the writ- ers to treat exhaustively the life of Dumouriez, but to describe it fully enough to make clear that he has suf- fered from his critics. For the severest of them, "as far as his public career up to April, 1793, is concerned, are com- pelled to admit his courage as a soldier, his sagacity as a strategist, his shrewd- ness as a diplomatist, his energy as a man of action, his foresight as a states- man, and his high-mindedness in pri- vate life. Few Frenchmen of his time were endowed with greater versatility of talent or practical knowledge of na- tions and languages; but no sooner is the word traitre uttered than all the rest is at once ignored and blotted out." Lafayette had tried to lead his army against the Assembly, had failed, and fled from the country, but no such odium has ever attached to his name as to that of Dumouriez. The explanation may not be far to seek. Dumouriez of- fered to place certain French fortresses in the hands of the Austrians; Lafay- ette committed no such blunder. After 1793, Dumouriez did not return to France; Lafayette did return, and play- ed a prominent role in French history until the day of his death. If Dumouriez "erred and failed, it was from impetu- osity and presumption." The authors add: To depict him as some sleek, designing Jacob, ever intent on his own advance- ment, even at the cost of the betrayal of his kin, is ludicrously to distort his char- acter. Rather does his restless, brusque, diffuse, and impulsive nature stamp him as an Esau. This it was that turned ali parties against him in the months of March-June, 1792, and left him an impe- cunious outcast in April, 1793. The born Intriguer and traitor seeks to ingratiate himself with all factions and ever to keep open a golden bridge for retreat. The volume is enriched with many fine portraits— among them, six of Du- mouriez— photographs of Dumouriez's residences in England, facsimiles oi. manuscripts, maps, and battle-plans. It is well written, excellently printed, and an important contribution to the litera- ture of the Revolution. The JEneid of Virgil. Translated into English Verse by Theodore C. Wil- liams. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50 net. A prose translation of the ^Eneid, it would seem, is best adapted to the needs of our generation, with its demands for historical exactness. It should be an accurate version, with the grace and buoyancy of Prof. J. W. Mackail's ren- derings of the Eclogues and the Georgics —not that detestable thing, a prose- poem, but real prose with poetic poten-

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"•^■-' I t ' 202 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 cies, prose which with the slightest dif- ference in the handling, would become real poetry. For we have suffered long enough from metrifled English JEneids, ranging from pretty poems that are not Virgil to barbarous experiments with barbarous hexameters. H. H. Ballard's recent version in hexameters is not bar- barous; in many passages it is surpris- ingly effective. But whatever further experimentation may produce, the Eng- lish dactylic hexameter is not an he- roic measure; Matthew Arnold in his essay on the translation of Homer prov- ed that it was, only to spoil his proof by giving illustrative renderings. The only English equivalent of the classical hexameter is, as Milton showed once for all, blank verse. But blank verse is a special danger to the translator: since it is the easiest of measures to construct, it most easily lapses into prose. Mr. Williams has attempted the im- possible with high success. He has built the lofty rhyme of blank verse and kept it lofty. His version is essentially ex- act; few important meanings are lost, and few intruded. The quality is poetic throughout, and the movement is sus- tained. We have tested the work min- utely for important points, and have read large sections at a stretch; it reads. The rendering of a famous pas- sage from Book iv will illustrate the difference between this version and an earlier essay at blank verse, C. P. Cranch's, which, striving for absolute literalness, misses the real goal of trans- lation. This first is Cranch's render- ing: 'T was night; when every weary frame was sunk In placid sleep; when woods and seas were still; When in their middle courses rolled the stars; When every field was hushed, and all the flocks, And all the gay-winged birds, whether they fly Abroad o'er liquid lakes, or haunt the fields With bushes rough, in night and sleep reposed. Cares were smoothed down, and hearts for- got their woes. But not the unhappy queen. She finds no rest; Nor with her eyes or heart receives the night. With double weight her cares increase. Love wakes Again, and rages, on the swelling tide Of anger fluctuating. Mr. Williams turns it thus: Soon fell the night, and peaceful slumbers breathed On all earth's weary creatures; the loud seas And babbling forests entered on repose; Now midway in their heavenly course the stars Wheeled silent on; the outspread lands below Lay voiceless; all the birds of tinted wing, And flocks that haunt the marge of waters wide Or keep the thorny wold, oblivious lay Beneath the night so still; the stings of care Ceased troubling, and no heart its burden knew. Not so the Tyrian Queen's deep-grieving soul! To sleep she could not yield; her eyes and heart Refused the gift of night; her suffering Redoubled, and in full returning tide Her love rebelled, while on wild waves of rage She drifted to and fro. Neither translator quite catches Virgil's "oculisve aut pectore noctem accipit," of which Tennyson's "Ever failed to draw the quiet night into her blood" is a brilliant variation. Other defects in de- tail occur in the new version, but it would be unjust to its high merits to point them out: the vital element is here. Mr. Williams prefaces his translation with a brief essay on Virgil, with part of which we are forced to disagree. He finds in the poem "a too visible erudi- tion, an unconvincing epic scheme, a perplexed and perplexing hero." How any success is possible for a work with such failings is hard to see, but the failing is rather in the view of the crit- ic. Virgil's epic scheme and the nature of his hero become apparent when we appreciate that he was writing tragedy as well as epic. But Mr. Williams may think what he will of the purpose of the ^Eneid, if he can give us such a trans- lation as this. It should reveal Virgil's secret to many who hitherto have been kept away by the barrier of a "dead lan- guage." Science. Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes. By Richard Spruce; edited and condensed by Alfred Russel Wal- lace. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Co. $6.50 net. It is not easy to select from the vol- uminous notes of a specialist matters which will be of general interest, and the task becomes more difficult when the observations of more than fifty years ago are to be freshened into new life. But Mr. Wallace, who shares with Darwin the distinction of having offered to the scientific world the most stimu- lating suggestion of modern times, has given to the most special matters a great attractiveness, and he has made them seem like notes taken during the past year instead of half a century ago. Few persons could have done the edit- ing so well. He has chosen the most important and interesting memoranda, and has connected these by luminous comment. Richard Spruce, born in 1817, received a good but rather desultory education. By the time he was of age he was fitted to act as tutor in a school at Haxby, and a little later he became mathematical tutor in a collegiate school. He had a fair knowledge of Greek and Latin, a good working acquaintance with French, Spanish, and Portuguese, and as explor- er he acquired colloquial familiarity with aboriginal languages. Owing to infirm health, he gave much time to out- door occupations, and fell naturally into the practice of collecting and studying the plants of his native country, York- shire. In this work he was very suc- cessful, both as an observer and as an identifier of doubtful species. Mosses and their nearest of kin, the liver- mosses, or hepatics, soon became his speciality, in which before long he was an authority. He made a journey of exploration through a part of the Pyrenees, with fruitful results, the most notable of which was the improvement of his health. Finally, he resolved to visit the valley of the Amazon. Arriv- ing in 1849 at Para, he devoted the next fifteen years to arduous work in collect- ing plants. With treacherous health and scanty means, he made long jour- neys and counted all his perils and sufferings as trifles compared with the scientific results obtained. He had a singular knack of getting into serious difficulties and of extricating himself after a fashion, frequently with loss of collections, but seldom with loss of his patience. The districts explored by Spruce were in part those which were visited by Humboldt, Wallace, and Bates, and which have inspired some of the most vivid descriptions of the luxuriance and prodigality of the tropics. Among these graphic descriptions, some of Spruce's notes deserve a place. Here and there we come upon a hint of the activity of speculation which kept Spruce always on the alert for unusual forms of plants and for exceptional phenomena. For instance, he says: A few sorts of trees, including some palms, are supported on exserted . . . roots. . . . In England, an old willow or other tree standing by a river, whose floods have washed away nearly all the earth from its roots, may give an idea of this form; which, however, is constant in many Amazon trees whose roots have never been exposed to denudation by the action of water, what- ever may have been the case with the pro- totypes of those trees. These examples led me to conjecture, at first, that the sapopema form itself might have taken its rise from denudation in the remote ancestors of the existing types of trees ; or at least that sapopemas were at first a sort of scaffold- ing to raise the crown of the root above the reach of inundations: and I am still willing to believe that to this cause their origin may be partly traced (Vol. I, 22). This was written in 1849. The Wallace and Darwin essays, setting forth the theory of evolution, were not read at the

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Feb. 25, 1909] The JSTation. 203 Linnean Society in London till 1858. In 1871, after Spruce's return to England, he lost all doubt as to the origination of adaptive and connecting forms, as will be seen by the following quotation from a letter to a correspondent: I have gone thoroughly over all my South American plagiochilas [certain hepatics], have described all the forms, and have made up my mind as far as possible about the species. The result has been to make me more Darwinian than ever. I feel cer- tain that if we had all the forms now in existence and that have ever existed, of such genera as ruhus, asplenium, bryum, and plagiochila, we should be unable to define a single species; the attempt to do so would only be trying to separate what nature never put asunder ; but we should see distinctly how certain peculiarities had originated and become (temporarily) fixed by inheritance; and we could trace the unbroken pedigree of every form. The reader can now understand why Wallace is a sympathetic editor of Spruce's notes. To botanists the author's notes about plants possess uncommon interest on account of their accuracy and sugges- tiveness, but the pages devoted to travel and adventure will attract every reader. Spruce passes lightly over all his dan- gers and discomforts in a surprising manner, and inspires his readers with a strong wish to accompany him in his short excursions into places wholly un- explored. Probably, however, it is the ethnologist who will be likely to gain most information outside of the field of botany. To indicate the author's meth- od of dealing with uncommon matters, a single citation must suffice, from a chap- ter devoted to the stimulants and nar- cotics of the Amazon Valley and the Orinoco. Some of these inebriants have been long known and well described, but the following account will strike many of our readers as quite new. The drink under consideration is made from a plant, banisteria caapi, a woody climb- er belonging to a family having over six hundred tropical species, and none in the temperate zones: In November, 1852, I was present, by spe- cial invitation, at a dabocuri, or feast of gifts, held in a malloia, or village house, called Urubu-coara (Turkey-buzzard's nest), above the first falls of the Ua- upes . . . We reached the mal!6ca at nightfall, just as the botutos, or sacred trumpets, began to boom lugubriously with- in the margin of the forest skirting the wide space kept open and clear of weeds around the mallfica. At that sound, every female outside makes a rush into the house, before the bottitos emerge on the open ; for to merely see one of them would be to her a sentence of death. We found about 300 people assembled, and the dances at once commenced. . . . The cup-bearer — who must be a man, for no woman can touch or taste caapi — starts at a short run from the opposite end of the house, with a small calabash containing about a teacupful of caapi in each hand, muttering "Mo-mo-mo- mo-mo" as he runs, and gradually sinking down until at last his chin nearly touches his knees, when he reaches out one of his cups to the man who stands ready to re- ceive it, and, when that is drunk off, then the other cup. In two minutes or less after drinking it, its effects begin to be appar- ent. The Indian turns deadly pale, trem- bles in every limb, and horror is in his aspect. Suddenly, contrary symptoms suc- ceed; he bursts into a perspiration, and seems possessed with reckless fury, seizes whatever arms are at hand, . . . bow and arrows, or cutlass, and rushes to the doorway, where he inflicts violent blows on the ground or the doorposts, calling out all the while, "Thus would I do to mine enemy (naming him by his name), were this he!" In about ten minutes the excitement has passed off, and the Indian grows calm, but appears exhausted. Were he at home in his hut, he would sleep off the remain- ing fumes, but now he must shake off his drowsiness by renewing the dance. . White men who have partaken of caapi in the proper way concur in the account of their sensations under its influence. They feel alternations of cold and heat, fear and boldness. The sight is disturbed, and vis- ions pass rapidly before the eyes, wherein everything gorgeous and magnificent they have heard or read of seems combined; and presently the scene changes to things un- couth and horrible. "Gardens, Past and Present," by K. L. Davidson, is imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. The absurdly thick soft paper on which this book is printed gives it a serious handicap in competition with garden works of similar size; but the illustrations on the paper required for half-tones are really good, and the text is above mediocrity. The little historical sketch of gardens and gar- dening is well done, especially the account of the new and important experimental garden at Wisley. It appears that G. T. Wilson, a hard-worked business man, had at Weybridge one of the pleasantest forms of avocation, namely, the care of a garden with a spacious orchard-house. His leisure was so scanty that he had to prune his trees by candle-light. After having suc- ceeded well with fruits, Wilson turned his attention to the growing of lilies with such assiduity that he soon was nicknamed by his admirers "Lily Wilson." On retiring from active business, he purchased an es- tate of sixty acres, at Wisley, six miles or so from Weybridge, and here he began with characteristic vigor to found a wild garden. The soil was exactly what was needed, for even our capricious trailing- arbutus, or mayflower, could be made to "grow rampantly in the oak-wood." It is said that thousands of species and varieties of plants were speedily introduced, and all were made to feel at home. Wild plants and cultivated grew side by side, and this continued until the death of the founder, about twenty-five years after. Then the garden at Wisley began its new life. In- stead of falling into unsympathetic hands, it became the property of Sir Thomas Han- bury, the owner of the celebrated garden at Mentone, and was soon conveyed by him to the Royal Horticultural Society, for ex- perimental purposes. The author of this little treatise does not give minute direc- tions in regard to the cultivation of plants, but offers rather a broad and often sug- gestive discussion. The centenary of Darwin's birth is cele- brated in Germany, together with the sev- enty-fifth birthday of Ernst Haeckel (February 16), by several publications- reminding the student or the great English Naturforscher. Dr. Heinrich Schmidt of Jena has translated for Alfred Kroner (Leipzig) Darwin's well-known work under the title "Geschlechtliche Zucht- wahl." Die Hilfc (Berlin: Schoneberg) publishes under the editorship of Max Apel a series of papers dealing with Darwin and his time. To this series Wilhelm Bolsche contributes "Darwins Vorganger"; Bruno Wille, "Wie die Natur zweckmassig bil- det"; Eduard David, "Darwinismus und so- ziale Entwickelung"; Max Apel, "Darwin- ismus und Philosophie"; Rudolf Penzig, "Darwinismus und Ethik"; and Fr. Nau- mann, "Religion und Darwinismus." Still another publication, "Kosmos: Handweiser fiir Naturfreunde," contains, besides a Oedenktafel and portraits of Darwin, Cuvier, Lamarck, Nagele, Haeckel, Pauly, De Vries, and Weismann, essays by R. Franc§ on "Darwin der Forscher," by Dr. Kurt Floericke, "Darwin als Ornithologe"; Dr. H. Dekke, "Darwins Einfluss auf die medi- zinische Wissenschaft"; J. H. Fabre, "Wis- senschaft und Charles Darwin"; and Wil- helm Bolsche, "Darwin als Reisender." There are also papers on "Darwins Vorlau- fer" and Darwin's personal life. Dr. William Tillinghast Bull of New- York, in his prime one of the most distin- guished surgeons of America, died at Sa- vannah February 22, in his sixtieth year. He was born in Newport, R. I., was grad- uated from Harvard College in 1869, and from the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in this city in 1872. Later he studied abroad. At one time and another he was attached to various hospitals in New York and for many years he had been professor of the practice of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was a pioneer in some of the now common opera- tions in abdominal surgery, such as that for appendicitis. He had also devoted much attention to cancer in its various forms. Dr. Frederick Irving Knight, a specialist in diseases of the throat and chest, and for many years professor in the Harvard Medi- cal School, has died in his sixty-eighth year. Besides his work in the Massachusetts General Hospital and in various societies, he contributed a number of papers to med- ical journals. Drama. There is no more interesting and fruitful literary topic than a comparison of the Greek and English dramas. And notwith- standing the excellent treatment of the question by Paul Stapfer and others, there is still much that may be said. One is naturally, therefore, well-disposed toward such a work as L. M. Watt's "Attic and Elizabethan Tragedy" (E. P. Dutton & Co.), and would like to say of it all the good possible. But what can be done with an author who writes habitually in such a style as this? Thus, the hellish terribleness of the crime in "Macbeth" is made immeasurably more

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204 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 a red-hot burden upon us by the washing of the hands so late imbued in Duncan's blood, and by the soul-chilling, pulse-ar- resting knocking at the gate, than if we saw the dagger driven home into the sleep- er's heart. Whatever else may be done with such a book, at least it cannot be read. Probably Mr. Watt has at heart to reproduce the rhythm and rodomontade of Swinburne's prose, but he falls far short of the true dithyrambic fury. A new one-act play by Arthur Schnitzler, the Austrian dramatist, "Komtesse Mizzi Oder Das Familienfest, has had a successful initial performance in Vienna and is ready in book form (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). It relies for its humor mainly upon deftly complicated situations, but the language has the usual distinction of the author and the characters are convincingly drawn. "This Woman and This Man," written by Avery Hopwood for Carlotta Nillson, and produced in the Maxine Elliott Theatre on Monday afternoon, is another of those pieces, of which we have had a good many lately, in which bald frankness of speech and extravagance in situation are offered as substitutes for a plausible story and genu- ine dramatic interest. Professing to deal seriously with one of the most difficult problems of sexual responsibility, it starts from inadmissible premises and proceeds through the grossest unlikelihood to flat absurdity. A young woman, betrayed and discarded brutally by an unscrupulous lover, compels him to marry her at the muzzle of a pistol and then promptly leaves him to his own resources. Half a dozen years afterward he discovers her living happily with her boy in the country, and, after a violent scene, demands the child, pleading his marital rights. When she re- fuses, with passionate vehemence, he car- ries off the boy by force, the mother fol- lowing, and in the final act man and wifp are domiciled together, but farther apart than ever. Then the husband, hitherto the personification of heartless selfishness, is suddenly transformed, by the subtle in- fluence of the parental instinct, into a per- fect pattern of self-denying conjugal affec- tion, and the curtain falls upon the usual reconciliation. Nothing feebler, sillier, or more futile could easily be imagined. The inequality of the penalties exacted from the sexes in cases of this kind is an old aiid legitimate subject of dramatic treatment, and the point of law raised by Mr. Hop- wood is ingeniously emphasized, but, as it stands, his story is as incredible as it is insignificant. With all its disagreeable and often minute realism in minor details — showing a useful faculty of observation — it rarely reflects life either in its personages or incidents, unless it is in its nursery episodes. In construction it is slovenly and inconsequent, and it contains much irrele- vant padding. On March 11 there will be a performance of Henry James's comedy, "Disengaged," in the Hudson Theatre of this city, for the benefit of the St. Andrew Convalescent Hospital. Miss Dorothy Donnelly will head the list of players. The experiment is one of considerable interest, for the piece has never been played in this country. Music. Joseph Haydn und Breitkopf & Har- tel. Von Hermann von Hase. Leip- zig: Breitkopf & Hartel. Haydn. By John F. Runciman. London: George Bell & Sons. Haydn's wife had so little apprecia- tion of his genius that she tore up his manuscripts for curling papers. Is it a wonder that when Breitkopf & Har- tel, in return for something Haydn had done for them, proposed to make her a present, he wrote in reply ? I formally protest against that; I love my wife, she needs nothing, but she has done nothing that deserves a reward. I ask nothing, and do not like to put myself under obligations; but if you gentlemen are in the position to requite my insignificant ser- vices without inconvenience, I shall, to be sure, not hold off. So the publishers gave him a diamond ring. This interesting incident is re- lated in Hase's brochure, which gives a detailed account of the dealings of the famous music publishing concern with Haydn. The relations began as early as 1786, when C. G. Breitkopf paid the great composer a visit in Vienna, and they con- tinued till Haydn's death, twenty-three years later. To the admonitions of these publishers the world owes most of the works of Haydn's last years; they sent him texts and suggestions. His last work was a quartet of which he could not complete the last movement, so he wrote in its place a simple melancholy canon, with the words; "Gone is all my strength! Old and weak am I." Among his last labors was the revision of some of his earlier works for a complete edi- tion of all his compositions. But al- though the plan for this undertaking dates back to the eighteenth century it is only now being carried out systemat- ically. The centenary of the birth of Chopin and Mendelssohn is also the centenary of the death of Haydn. The best mon- ument to that centenary is the complete edition of Haydn's works just referred to. As a minor contribution in his hon- or we may welcome the little volume by Mr. Runciman, which is worth more than the shilling it costs, for it is a lucid compendium of 'nuch interesting information about the composer who, born a peasant, became the friend of princes, and, while he remained a peas- ant intellectually, led music into entire- ly new paths. The eminent Austrian conductor. Johann Herbeck, declared in 1857 that while the Bohemians were excellent musicians, they had never done anything worth while in the creative way. This remark was overheard by Friedrich Smetana, who forthwith made up his mind that he would remove that re- proach from his native country. He had previously, encouraged by Chopin's fame in giving Polish dances an artistic standing in concert halls, endeavored to do the same for the Bohemian polka, but without suc- cess. With the exception of Liszt, who had a keen eye for budding genius, the profes- sionals continued to ignore him, until 1866, when his opera, "Prodana Nevesta" ("The Bartered Bride"), won for him national fame, which became international when the piece was produced during the Vienna Exposition of 1890. London heard it in 1895 and again in 1907; but New York, which is usually far ahead of London in its appreciation of operatic novelties, had to wait for its first performance till last Friday, when the piece was produced with great success at the Metropolitan Opera House under the super- vision of Mr. Dippel, with Mr. Mahler as conductor and a strong cast, including Mmes. Destinn, Mattfeld, Wakefield, and L'Huillier, and Messrs. Jorn, Reiss, Didur, Blass, Miihlmann. In this opera Smetana succeeded in doing what he failed to achieve with his piano pieces: he made the world acquainted with the polka, the furiant, and other Bohemian rhythms in an artistic set- ting. This national coloring, emphasizing a village love story, had much to do with se- curing a vogue for the opera; but the color- ing alone would not have availed had not Smetana shown also a genuine dramatic vein. The fact that his opera has a happy ending differentiates it from most produc- tions of more recent date. The dances in- troduced at the Metropolitan are genuine Bohemian village dances, and as the two principal artists concerned in the produc- tion— Destinn and Mahler — come, like the dancers engaged, from Bohemia, the per- formance took the audience into the very heart of that land. The performance of Paderewski's new symphony at Carnegie Hall last Thursday and Saturday by the Boston Symphony Or- chestra did not prove so interesting an event as had been expected. Heretofore this eminent pianist's compositions have had one important feature which has distinguished them favorably from most modern produc- tions: they have been built on themes which were strikingly original, individual, and at the same time unmistakably Polish; this is true of his songs and his short piano pieces as well as of the sonata and the elaborate set of variations which he played here last year. The symphony not only lacks this thematic individuality, but it has little Polish color, although it is in- tended to commemorate the unsuccessful revolution of 1863-4. One gets the impres- sion that Paderewski had to suppress his originality in order to adapt his themes to the exigencies of the symphonic form. That he has shown a thorough mastery of that form is not sufficient compensation for the lack of those fascinating melodies which he had previously given the world. That there are many interesting pages nevertheless, it is needless to say; and the reception of the work, which was brilliantly played under Mr. Fiedler, was enthusiastic. Report comes of the death of Mile. Clo- thilde Kleeberg, the pianist, who was born in Paris in 1866 and made her debut at the age of twelve. She was very successful in her appearances at Berlin and in the Phil- harmonic Concerts at Vienna. She was probably at her best in Bach and Schu- mann and the works of the old French

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 205 clavicinistes. She married, in 1894, the sculptor Charles Samuel. Art. THE CASE OF THE ART SCHOOL. In a recent Craftsman, the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum condemned vehemently the present methods of teaching art. A certain impetuosity in his argument tends to conceal the weight of an opin- ion that seems to us essentially sound. Mr. Borglum ridicules an education that does not teach the elements of the mat- ter in hand. On theory, a sculptor or a mural painter should as naturally turn to the graduated student of art as does a civil or mining engineer to the graduate of a scientific school. But this is the last thing the artist does. Prac- tically, a sculptor finds the accredited art student ignorant of casting and mar- ble cutting, and unable to set the sup- ports for a large work. In short, the neophyte is prematurely in the position of the master sculptor who expects chiefly to model, leaving the reproduc- tion of his work in bronze or marble to the trained artisan. In painting, the same condition holds. The "finished" art student could not be trusted to con- vert a sketch into a working cartoon, to design a decorative border, hardly to "dead color" a tracing on the wall. Both sculptors and painters preferably choose their helpers from the artisan class — the class from which in the past most of the great artists themselves were drawn. But, it might be urged, these begin- ners have been trained in the central branch of the art, drawing or modelling the figure. It is assumed that they will learn readily enough the lesser matters. Just so a college graduate enters busi- ness ignorant of bookkeeping, but he picks it up at need in a fortnight or so. Whoever takes such a view simply underestimates the difficulty of master- ing a handicraft. But we have an eas- ier way of testing the efficiency of mod- ern art education. Let us ask merely how many former students of our best schools are earning their living by the practice of their art. An insignificant fraction. The rest have given up, have become teachers, or have engaged in some form of industrial art, after tak- ing the longest and least practical road to that end. And if it should be said that the percentage of failure is large in all professions, we have only to con- sider what would be thought of a school of law or medicine that turned out only a small percentage of successful practi- tioners. Let us concede that a large con- tingent of students is made up of young women working off a restlessness that subsides with marriage, of dilettanti of both sexes who can well afford the waste of time and money. But eliminating them, how few great modern painters have openly expressed the slightest grat- itude or privately will admit the slight- est respect for the system under which they were taught? Again, how many of our best artists are virtually self-train- ed, some saving instinct having kept them aloof from the scholastic tread- mill? The causes of such an anomaly can only be hinted at here. The schools thrive mainly because of the false glam- our with which since the advent of ro- manticism the artistic life has been in- vested. They fail to achieve good re- sults chiefly because that fine growth we call art cannot be rooted in herding young people together under rare and perfunctory criticism. Virtually, the art student learns not from a master, but from the handful of cleverer students in his class. Held chiefly to a stupid routine of drawing the human body by a sort of mensuration, he has no time or inclination to saturate himself with the great art of the past. Thus the en- tire process is infected with a cheap con- temporaneousness. The prescribed task of doing large academy studies was nev- er invented until the decline of Italian painting. The great masters of the fig- ure followed the method of swift and frequent sketching. They studied the body not as an inert and bulging mass, but in its multiform actions and fugi- tive graces. Something might be done by reform- ing the methods of the art schools, but the evil, we think, lies deeper. We are afflicted by a misleading analogy be- tween training in art and in the learn- ed professions. All history teaches that the road to art is through fine handi- craft. The real fellow to the sculptor is not the young lawyer or physician, but the 'prentice stonecutter. Sham no- tions of gentility have sapped the vital- ity of art. Unreasoning democracy has nade easy of access what should be hard. Until fairly recent times, the only way to learn the practice of an art was to bind one's self for a long period to be the helper of some artist. One had to be serious enough to subject one's self voluntarily to many years of prac- tical servitude. But consider the ad- vantages that such a servant enjoyed! In his early twenties, a precocious stu- dent had acquired competence in his art and was ready to become a paid assis- tant or a partner — honorable positions, in which, according to his ability, he might spend a few years or a lifetime. His work always had its value; his ge- nius might bring him fame and wealth before his beard was grown. What is the use of citing bygones that we cannot hope to revive? The use is to gain a sound theory of the edu- cation of the artist, upon which we may hope to erect an effective practice. And the lesson of all the past is clearly that fine craftsmanship underlies all art. In the shop or studio, even in the school, we may hope to make competent crafts- men in painting, sculpture, modelling, metal work, and decorative design — in all the fundamentals of the fine arts. But to do this, we must give over the delusion that we can in any sense make artists. If we produce artisans of skill and taste in numbers, the ablest of them will become artists as surely as the finer goldsmiths of the renaissance grew into great painters and sculptors. Meanwhile the rank and file will find pleasurable and gainful employment, and the pub- lic will benefit in the improvement of all the minor arts and of manufactures generally. This, we think, is the aim of a rational education in art. Train the craftsman and the artist will take care of himself, and all the better because of the elimination of those without cre- ative vocation. One cannot, of course, summarily con- vert the art schools into those of man- ual training. The main thing for the present is to fix our ideal, to acquire a sense of aims and limitations, to admit the varied discipline and experience that must precede artistic proficiency of any sort. Some day, such an ideal will be wanted as a working principle. And that day may be nearer than one would think, for even the docile fre- quenters of the art schools are begin- ning to perceive how much of this so- called training is based on vicious doc- trine or sheer pretence. Though it is a good piece of writing one cannot say that Octave Uzanne's intro- duction to "The Drawings of Watteau," in the Newnes Series (imported by Charles Scribner's Sons), gives much enlightenment as to the quality of the art discussed. But the drawings are the thing, and they are as wonderful and delightful as ever. Two books on Scotch painters have re- cently appeared: "Scottish Painting, Past and Present," by James L. Caw (Edinburgh: T. C. & B. C. Jack), and "John Pettie," by Martin Hardie (London: A. & C. Black). Both are somewhat elaborately illustrated, the latter in colors. An inspection of the former volume conveys the impression that while it deals with some works and some artists of real distinction, it is over-weight- ed with mediocrities. From the publish- er's point of view the reason of the second volume was undoubtedly the opportunity for brilliantly colored plates. Pettie was a clever painter, but not a great one, and hardly needed a biography. He was, how- ever, an apostle of "the great British sub- ject," and his coloring was powerful, if not very subtle, and for these reasons the book should readily find a public. Hugo Prinz's "Funde aus Naukr&tis: Beitrage zur Archseologie und Wirtschafts- gesch'ichte des VII und VI Jahrhunderts vor Christi Geburt" (Leipzig: Dieterich) of- fers more than its title promises. While it fully discusses the economic conditions of this Greek colony in Egypt, a discussion based largely on recent archaeological dis- coveries, tbe body of the book is devoted to a systematic account of Greek ceramics

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■-* — " * ™»-» "' *■ ■ ±r^s*m 206 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 during the seventh and sixth centuries be- fore Christ. The materials, secured large- ly from Miletos, Clazomene, Samos, and Lesbos, consist chiefly of vases and the like. Under the direction of Dr. Arvanitopoulos explorations have been continued on the site of the ancient city of Pagasae, in north- ern Greece, with marked success. Five more towers have been discovered, which date from about 50 b. c, and for the con- struction of which an adjacent cemetery was used for a quarry. More painted grave stelce have thus come to light, which prom- ise to be as interesting as those discovered the previous year. Besides the towers, the excavators discovered the remains of a large stoa, about 170 feet long, dating prob- ably from the fourth or third century b. c. The walls of this building were lined with a thin layer of fine plaster, which appears to have been covered with pictures. Near the sloa were found the foundations of a tem- ple, about 15x10 yards. The neighboring area was apparently the agora of the city. The extent and thickness of the city walls show that Pagasa? was a town of consider- able importance. From the inscriptions on the gravestones we learn that it con- tained inhabitants from all parts of the world. It is, therefore, probable that Pagasae was once an important seaport of northeastern Greece. The finds of Pagasae, as well as the prehistoric antiquities re- cently discovered throughout Thessaly, will all be placed in a museum at Volo. The ■building is already in course of construc- tion, and is to be completed by next May. Excavations on the Mons Janiculum in Rome have led to the interesting discovery of an ancient courtyard with a sanctuary formed by a cell, having an altar in the centre. An inscription commemorates the victories of the Emperors Antoninus and Commodus, and thus supplies us with a date. There were also found a small statue of Jupiter, a fragmentary statue of Bac- chus, an Egyptian statue, and three skele- tons, placed in line in front of the cell. In the middle of the courtyard a small well came to light, at the bottom of which lay a small bronze statue representing Kronos with a serpent. All these objects are in a good state of preservation. Steady progress was made in 1908 by the French government service of Historic Mon- uments of Algiers in the work of excava- tion and conservation. The remains are chiefly Roman of the first centuries of the Christian era; but certain gaps have also been filled up in the history of Mussulman architecture. At Announa the streets of ancient Thibilis have been laid bare for more than 7,000 square metres. The dis- position of the civil basilica; inscriptions dedicated to Faustina recalling by name the town physicians ; the house of an im- portant personage — magister pagi — and three linear measures engraved on stone in the house of the aedile are of interest. At M'daourouch an inscription has been found mingling curiously the pagan diis manibus sacrum and the Christian in pace ftdelis on the sepulchral stone of one of Punic name. At Guelma the Roman amphitheatre was sufficiently repaired for the representation of four classical plays in May by actors of the Paris state theatres. Roman water- works, with conduits several kilometres long and reservoirs almost complete and ready to be utilized by the modern towns, have been discovered at Chemora and Setif (Sitifls of the Byzantines). At Kalaa particularly interesting Mussulman remains have been disclosed by Gen. de Beylie, known from his excavations in Mesopo- tamia and Birmania. This city, founded a. d. 1007, was the Berber capital of Central Magreb (present Algiers). Arab authors describe the splendor of its schools and palaces. It was destroyed by the Almohads of Morocco in 1152; and the remains which have been discovered belong undoubtedly to the second half of the preceding century — the period of Mussulman art which is least known. The triple palace of the emirs (for official receptions, for the emir, and for his harem) was 300 metres long by 170 deep. The wall ornamentation in blue and white faience, stalactites, sculptured and painted plaster (red, blue, white, and gilt), incrust- ed marbles, and glass, are three hundred years earlier than the Alhambra. They show that Berber art, which is simply a branch of Mussulman, had an Asiatic and Persian origin, and was not derived from the art of the Moors in Spain, as is often said. The immense Roman camp of Lam- boesis is being excavated ; even the havoc wrought by the notorious French prison of Lambese does not destroy the value of so unique a site. Among museum objects found are fifty small silver coins dating from Nero to Antoninus Pius. The great work done at Timgad, where the French authorities are making a veritable African Pompeii, is too extensive to be more than noted here. New streets ; an eastern gate, with an inscription where Marcus Aurelius seems to be styled "Armeniacus" ; new houses, the Christian monastery and baptis- tery; mosaics, inscriptions, and museum ob- jects divide up the year's acquisitions. The disposition of the ancient shops presents considerable interest ; also the cells and galleries of the Byzantine monks who, con- trary to accepted ideas, had a small but complete hot and cold -bath establishment. The baths were conveniently close to the baptistery, with its great basin, which was scarcely deep enough for total immersion, but to which steps led down ; the sides were ornamented with marbles and paintings of symbolic design, which are to be kept in place. Great special erudition, which did not "feed its man," has come to a tragic ending "in the Paris courts. In 1908 the director of the Belgium Museum, Jean Capart, an eminent Egyptologist, announced the acqui- sition of stone scarabs from Bubastis, with hieroglyphic inscriptions relating the peri- vlus of a Phoenician navigator under Nechao. They were forgeries made in Paris by the learned son of the late Egyptologist Bou- riant; his mother managed the sale. The son has been condemned to two years, the mother to eight months of prison. M. Ca- part receives back, if he can collect it, his 15,000 francs. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are water colors by John S. Sargent and Edwin Darley Boit, at Knoedler's, till February 27; pictures by Alexander Schilling, Montross's, February 27; illustrations and drawings by J. H. Gardiner Soper, Powell's, February 27; portraits, Charles Frederick Naegele, Bau- er-Folsom's, March 3; paintings by Arthur B. Davies, Macbeth's, March 4; water col- ors by Dutch masters, Klackner's, March 15. William Appleton Potter, younger broth- er of the late Bishop Potter, died at Rome, February 19. He was in his sixty-seventh year. After leaving college Mr. Potter studied for some years at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. He held a high international po- sition as an architect, and drew the plans for many important edifices in this country. His works included St. Agnes's Chapel, the original building of the Teachers Col- lege, and the main building of the Union Theological Seminary in this city. He also designed the library and chapel of Prince- ton University. In 1874 he was appointed supervising architect of the Treasury at Washington. Owing to ill-health, he was compelled to go abroad seven years ago and take up his residence in Rome. Charles Conder, the British artist, has died at the age of forty-one. He had stud- ied in Paris and was an associate of the So- ciete Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and socie- taire of the Societe Nouvelle, as well as a member of the New English Art Club. Be- sides his larger work as painter of land- scapes, he was known for his exquisite dec- oration of fans. Finance. THE CUT IN STEEL PRICES. During many weeks, it has been evi- dent that the steel trade had come vir- tually to a standstill. Under the insis- tent lead of the United States Steel Cor- poration prices were held, throughout the last half of 1908, nearly up to the high level of the "boom times" of 1906, and actually above that of such very prosperous periods as 1905 and 1901. As the effect of this policy on de- mand for the product in hard times grew more and more manifest, the so- called "independents" began to cut prices secretly; the natural result was that they got the lion's share of the business. This fact forced the hand of the great corporation; last week it an- nounced its purpose of openly meeting all such cuts. The price of steel has since then fallen, in the tentative efforts to fix a market, all the way from $3 to $10 a ton; the Stock Exchange price of shares in the steel-producing compa- nies, which were raised to extravagant heights in the excited speculation of Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. SO Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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Feb. 25, 1909] The Nation. 207 last November, have fallen 10 per cent, or more within a week, and the rest of the speculative market has come down with them. No one likes the violent slashing of values which has accompanied old-time "price wars" in periods of trade reac- tion. While such things were done, even the man whose business made him a purchaser of steel found his trade dis- organized; because, though he himself might buy steel at an inviting price to- day, he had no assurance that his com- petitor might not buy it to-morrow on still better terms, and undersell him on the finished goods. Such collapses as the fall in steel rail prices from $120 per ton in 1873 to $68 in 1875, and in steel billets from $22 in 1893 to $15 in 1895, were a gravely disturbing influ- ence. Judge Gary in his statement an- nouncing the "open market" last Fri- day, was quite within the facts when he said that such a cut immediate- ly after the panic of 1907 would probably have meant bankruptcy to many an unlucky merchant. But to say that one or two corporations dominant in steel manufacture should exert their influence to prevent complete demoral- ization of prices is one thing, and to say that such corporations shall stand out against any concession whatever to the reduced purchasing power of hard times is another and a very different thing. In publicly assuming this atti- tude a year ago, the Steel Corporation took an unreasonable and, in the long run, an impossible position. If high or low prices mean anything, they mean that the producer's charge is adjusted to the prevalent conditions of trade — the capacity and needs of the consumer and the margin of profit be- tween the manufacturer's raw material and his finished goods. High prices or- dinarily mean that consumers' needs are urgent, their capacity to buy unusually great, and the cost of raw material and manufacture rising. All these condi- tions existed in 1906; not one of them existed in 1908 or exists in 1909. Last year consumers of steel, in the face of a volume of trade more than cut in two, were in no urgent need; the narrowed market for their own products had im- paired their capacity to buy, and the open market price of iron, the raw ma- terial of the steel trade, had fallen no less than 30 per cent, within a year. Under such circumstances, the announce- ment last April of the policy of stand- ing out for the very prices asked in the days of high prosperity and unlimit- ed demand was, to say the least, an economic paradox. It justified the ques- tion, if no concessions were to be al- lowed under such conditions, when would they ever be allowed? The textile manufacturers, as has been more than once noted in this col- umn, faced the situation in a very dif- ferent way. They, too, were confronted with merchants loaded up with goods bought at the high prices of the "boom times"; yet, as soon as the real condi- tions of 1908 were visible, the mills at once reduced wages and production, and cut prices all the way from 25 to 50 per cent. The result we see in the present condition of the dry goods trade, which, almost alone among our standard indus- tries, is moving now on lines of normal activity. Probably, then, it will not he long before the steel trade, too, has passed through its inevitable ordeal of price readjustment, and is on the way to real recovery. "Die Finanzen der Grossmachte," by Friedrich Zahn (Berlin: Heymann), treats of the finances of Germany, Austro-Hun- gary, Itaily, France, Russia, Great Britain, the United States, and Japan. The work includes reports on the income, expenditure, and indebtedness of these states. The com- piler calls his work "Eine internationale finanzstatische Untersuchung." BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Andrews, Edward L. Napoleon and Ameri- ca. Mitchell Kennerley. $2. Balzac, Honore de. Le Medecin de Cam- pagne. Edited by de V. Payen-Payne. Putnam. 75 cents. Bartlett, Frederick Orin. The Web of the Golden Spider. Boston: Small, Maynard. $1.50. Bashford, H. H. The Pilgrim's March. Hen- ry Holt. $1.50. Dixon, Clarissa. Janet and Her Dear Phebe. Frederick A. Stokes. Dudley, Gertrude, and Kellor, Frances A. Athletic Games in the Education of Wo- men. Henry Holt. $1.25 net. Finch, Francis M. The Blue and the Gray and Other Verses. Henry Holt. $1.30 net. Frenilly, Baron de. Recollections. Edited by Arthur Chuquet. Translated by Fred- eric Lees. Putnam. $3 net. Frost, Thomas Gold. A Treatise on Guar- anty Insurance and Compensated Surety- ship. Boston: Little, Brown. $6 net. Gibbon, Frederick P. 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7d , ^OU. k i i LSt2IS_ — *-. II ■ 208 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2278 Just as every intellectual man appreciates intelligence, every man that uses fine business paper appreciates every other man's use of it. "Look for the Water Mark" is a sort of passport among the best business circles. It proclaims the fellowship of the substantial and the re- fined. That it pays always to use Old Hampshire Bond for commercial stationery is the testimony of prudent business men. Prove this for yourself — have your printer show you the Old Hampshire Bond Book of Specimens, or bet- ter still, write us for a copy. It contains suggestive specimens of letterheads and other business forms, printed, lithographed and engraved on the white and fourteen colors of Old Hampshire Bond. Please write on your present letterhead. Hampshire Paper Company We are the only paper makers in the world making bond paper exclusively South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts BEST BOOKS Kalian ________ — - Spanish facilities for supplying American rn"W/~K¥>T» English French Catalogues free. Correspondence solicited. LEMCKE & BUECHNER Established over 50 years. 11 East 17th St., New York The Musicians Library "No more beautiful music printing has yet been achieved in America." — The Independent. Send to the publishers for booklet giv- ing full descriptions, portraits of teach- ers and tables of contents of volumes published. OLIVER DITSON COMPANY DITSON BUILDING, BOSTON, MASS. FOR SALE— Copies of the 1st. 2d, 3d, Oth, and 9th editions of "SCIENCE AND HEALTH." In fine order. Address. 1427 P. St., No. 3, Washington, D. C. "STfje Jfflemotrs of a Jfatlure." With an Account of the Man and his Manuscript. By DANIEL W. KITTREDGE. Cloth, $1.25 net. U. P. James, Bookseller. CINCINNATI. BOOKS Not Readily Procurable In the Regular Way generally supplied without difficulty and within a minimum length of time. Out catalog of publica- tions and rarities on request. THE TORCH PRifiSS BOOK SHOP, Cedar Rapids. Iowa. A new Tolume In THE ART OF LIFE SERIES Edward Howard Griggs, Editor. SELF-MEASUREMENT A SCALE OF HUMAN VALVES WITH DIREC- TIONS FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION. By WILLIAM DeWITT HYDE President of Bowdoln College. At all bookstores, 50c. net. Postpaid, 55c. B. W. HUEBSCH, Publisher. NEW YORK. ^'Astor Edition of Poets is the best for schools and colleges. 99 vols. Last price, 60c. per vol. ; price to schools, 40c. SEND FOR LIST. Thomas Y.Crowell & Co., New Yor'i Learn Latin to SPEAK hv the Tnseulan System, the primer of which PALjESTKA is in course of publication in pamphlet forms, some 20 in all, comprising a worked-up vocabulary of not less than 3.000 words from ancient and modern life, witb numerous cuts, phrases, idioms, passages; tirst number out, next in press, 25 cents silver each. ARCADIVS AVELLANVS, 384 Main St., Middletown, Conn. Politics J Read L Romance Mary Johnston's Lewis Rand The great Novel of the Year Adventure | History "T0N0- BUNGAY" BINDER FOR THE NATION To receive the current numbers in a convenient (temporary) form. Substantially made, bound in cloth, with THE NATION stamped on the side in gold. Holds about one volume. Papers easily and neatly adjusted. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of 75 cents. Address, The Nation, 20 Vesey Street, New York City OUR LIBRARY SERVICE We have recently supplemented our ser- vice to Libraries, by procuring Out-of-1'rlnt and Scarce Books, and by importing English books. Our I .1 11. ;i i ii.n.i I matters connected with I |8s I x I 1 book - buying. Corre- /LP\M\JiM Lv al* spondence solicited. Monthly Btli,btin op New Books Free E. P. DUTTON & CO. 31 West 23d Street. New York The Nation and The Review of Reviews FOUR DOLLARS New subscribers to The Nation may obtain these two magazines at this special rate. Regular Price Review of Reviews . $3.00 Regular Price The Nalion $3.00 SPECIAL OFFER SAVES YOU $2.00 The Nation 20 Vesey St., New York City

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1909. The Week. On Saturday, the House of Represen- tatives voted to reduce by one-third the size of the chamber in which it meets. Benches or chairs are to replace desks. With its present too vast space cut •down to something like the oratorical range of the ordinary voice; with the transaction of private business on the floor made less conspicuous than that of public business; and with the two sides of the House brought physically closer together, so that issues may be more closely joined in debate, we are likely to see a more marked effect upon the bearing and the law-making of the Representatives than any mere altera- tion of the rules, such as is so much clamored about. These proposed changes had the strong advocacy of Speaker Reed, during his later years. After in- spection of the House of Commons and the Palais Bourbon, he came to the conclusion that our House of Represen- tatives could do its work better in a smaller room. The French C>- with its practice of compelling Deputies to speak from the tribune (though they make interruptions and hurl insults from below), conduces to more serious -discussions than are common in our great hall, with voices struggling vain- ly out of the depths. Small as one knows from books and pictures the House of Commons to be, its actual proportions bring amazement to the eye of the American who sees it for the first time. That a body with a membership so much larger than our House of Rep- resentatives should do its work in a space so much smaller, cannot fail to astonish. Yet we know that across that table between the Ministerial and the Opposition benches, close-knit debate and high eloquence have for years wing- ed their way; while the amount of public business done has not been kept small by the size of the room. Nothing will really be done about the tariff, of course, till the extra session, but some of the preliminary work is significant. Probably no item is more important than the recommendations of the special committee on wood pulp and printing paper. Appointed last year as a means of staving off action on the President's recommendation that wood- pulp be admitted free of duty, and the rates on paper cut down, the commit- tee has made long inquiry and has felt bound by the evidence to urge that wood-pulp be put on the free list, prac- tically, and that the duty on printing paper be reduced from $8 a ton to $2. This shows that the facts can at last penetrate even the triply-protected heads of protectionists. The action of Congress finally pro- vides the means by which justice may be done to the negro soldiers discharged from the army by the President. De- cision as to who was innocent is to be taken entirely out of his hand, a board of army officers is to pass upon the evidence against each man, and when satisfied that no proof of guilt ex- ists, is to certify to that effect to the Secretary of War. If that official ap- proves the findings, the soldier will be reinstated, with back pay and rating, as if he had never been discharged. Thus, tardily but surely, Congress has taken steps to undo the wrong. It. was in Au- gust. 1906, that the shooting occurred in Brownsville, and after the November elections in that year Mr. Roosevelt is- sued his order. As time has elapsed not one shred of conclusive evidence against any particular soldier has been discovered. We have so often criticised Con- gressman Hobson for his wild predic- tions that war with Japan is imminent, and for his big-navy mania, that we take particular pleasure in calling at- tention to his speech on Saturday for the bill to restore the negro soldiers. Most of the South's Representatives in Congress have supported the President, because the soldiers concerned were black. Mr. Hobson seems to have been the only one who dared to vote for the bill. "This speech," he said, "will cost me a contest in my district, and may cause my defeat for reelection." But having been an officer of the United States navy for eighteen years, he knows that the procedure adopted by President Roosevelt was wholly irregu- lar. Instead of ordering a court of in- quiry with a subsequent court-martial, the President "scattered the guilty and the innocent to the four winds and pre- vented the execution of justice." Mr. Hobson then recalled that a black man took his wounded father from Chancel- lorsville; that black men took care of his mother and grandmother after the Emancipation Proclamation had set them free; that he had seen the black man fight in Cuba and the Philippines. In his belief, the white man would re- main supreme in this country, but this, Mr. Hobson added, "makes it all the more imperative that he should give absolute justice to the black man." These generous and brave words de- serve full recognition. Among the benefits of the direct-pri- mary plan is the opportunity of the voters to consider the candidates for the less conspicuous offices. At this point it is that the control of the bosses over nominations is most evi- dent. Seldom has a more thoroughly machine-made ticket been put before the people than the remainder of the one which Gov. Hughes headed last fall. From White to Dunn it was the prod- uct of the conferences of a small group of the leaders. When Frederick Skene and Julius Hauser were nominated for State Engineer and Treasurer, respec- tively, by the Buffalo Democratic Con- vention in 1906, hardly a delegate in the hall had ever heard of either of them; the nominations were made in the closing hours of a sensational con- vention, everybody was tired out, many of the delegates had actually left the hall. If the people haa anything to say about candidates for important public office, is it conceivable that a Jackson would ever be nominated for Attorney- General or a Gaus for State Controller? Such men as these get on the ticket under cover of the fight for the place at the top. According to the plan pro- posed by Gov. Hughes, both organiza- tions would be obliged to announce nearly two months before the election precisely whom they intended to favor for each office. The enrolled voters would have opportunity, first to influence the party committee, then to propose con- testing nominations, and to support

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l^^fc— *iMll Ml IT I' v t, rvo |P_^"I l I'll" 210 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 them in the primary; and the people of both parties would have a chance to see what manner of men the machines seriously talked of putting in office. No public man could ask for a more spontaneous or more generous greeting than was given to Mr. Root at the din- ner of the Peace Society last week. The demonstrations of gratitude for what Mr. Root, as Secretary of State, has done for international amity were in themselves notable proof of the ever- growing public interest in doing away with war. Mr. Root has been so little of a self-advertiser, however, that in these days of skilled press agents and publicity managers, his achievements have not received the attention they de- serve. The signing of a great arbitra- tion treaty continues to be of less mo- ment to the press than an attack upon some unoffending foreign resident in some Western city, and the months of anxious and difficult negotiation which lie behind the treaty are seldom reveal- ed. In this field Mr. Root's services will, for at least a generation to come, be a spur to his successors to win some of those bloodless victories for peace which are so infinitely superior to those won by that "sum of all evils," the re- sort to arms. The demonstration of the woman suf- fragists at Albany last week was the most impressive yet made in this State. If there was a delegation of women in opposition, that was but one proof more that the movement has now to be taken seriously. The old way of dismissing it with ridicule is no longer possible. And it is now a country-wide and world-wide movement. People talk of it as revolu- tionary, but the main revolution — that in the economic status of women — has already come. One speaker against the franchise gravely argued that sound po- litical ideas could be acquired only in shops and offices and the professions, and that, therefore, women could not be expected to have them; but the fact is that shops and offices and the profes- sions are swarming with women. All this new stirring of theirs for political rights is the inevitable result of their having to go out into the world to make their own way. It is doubtless only a question of time when democracies will find it expedient to give them the bal- lot to go with their bread-winning. The demoralization of the steel trade may easily be explained, without re- course to the theory of "tariff agita- tion." No one denies that a proposed change in the rates of duty will have some effect in activity of trade. Manu- facturers are not likely to stock up five or six months ahead with raw mate- rial, when a chance exists that they may be able to purchase for lower prices. Such conditions would naturally mean deliberate and cautious buying. But when one compares the influence of these conditions with the influence exerted by a schedule of prices artific- ially held at so high a level that it was difficult for manufacturers, in the pres- ent reduced consumption, to figure out a profit, it will be seen at once which consideration is paramount. Not only was the recent price of steel — higher than in 1905 or 1901 — justly regarded as exorbitant, but all previous experience taught the buyer that the artificial prices could not be long maintained. In the case of an outright "corner," the simplest man knows beforehand how violent the readjustment of prices is bound to be; and it is impossible to escape a similar reckoning in such cases as the artificially bolstered market for copper in 1901, or steel in 1908. That conditions in the steel trade should be used as an argument against reduction of excessive tariff duties, illustrates cu- riously the mental processes of the high protectionist. Artificial prices, with the inevitable confusion and relapse which follow them, are largely made possible by the height of the tariff barrier. Sup- posing steel prices to have remained under control of the "stand-pat" inter- est, indifferent to the consumer's plight, there was no limit to the possible mark- ing-up of prices, short of passing the level where the tariff excluded foreign competition. No more convincing proof has ever been given of the extent to which our present protective system plays into the hands of Trusts. In the case of steel, it is the consumer's good fortune that economic law still oper- ates in this country, even in the face of accumulated capital and an absurdly high rate of duty on imported merchan- dise. The third annual report of the presi- dent and the treasurer of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, shows how steadily, under the pressure of its retiring pensions to professors and their widows, our col- leges are abandoning denominational tests in every form and are raising re- quirements for entrance and graduation. Every year makes it clearer that the college which offers the great induce- ment of the Carnegie pension, is in a position not only to hold its own most competent teachers, but also to pick the flower of the institutions that are less favorably situated. Thus the maintenance of sectarian require- ments, which are often merely nominal, is becoming altogether too costly. Within the period covered by the re- port, Drake University of Des Moines, Central University of Kentucky, Drury College of Springfield, Mo., and Frank- lin College of Franklin, Ind., have changed their charters so as to abolish all denominational tests in the choice of trustees, officers, and teachers. Bow- doin turned over to Andover Theologi- cal Seminary $50,000 that it received on condition that the president and both college boards should "always be in doctrinal and religious sympathy with the Orthodox Congregational Churches of New England"; and in the case of another gift with similar stipulation, Bowdoin secured a release from the sole heir of the donor. Furthermore, the pensions are given only to insti- tutions which demand fourteen "units"' for admission; and there is an inter- esting table showing how colleges in all parts of the country, but particu- larly in the South and West, are stead- ily advancing their standards, in some cases from as low as 5.5 units. Many of these colleges are not yet up to the requirement, but they will doubtless reach it in a few years. This means, obviously, a great increase in the effi- ciency and usefulness of the colleges, a stimulus also to the high schools and academies that do the preparatory work, and a general "toning up" of our educational system, from the profes- sional school down to the kindergarten. The resignation of the Bond Cabinet in Newfoundland will necessitate a re- adjustment of the world's mental atti- tude towards that tight and rather hard little island. Newfoundland without Bond is almost as inconceivable as Mex- ico without Diaz. Sir Robert is an ex- cellent fighter, as this country has good

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March 4, 1909] The ISTatio n. 211 reason to know. But the people of New- foundland know it, too, and so do the rulers of the British Empire whom the Prime Minister of its oldest but by no means most important colony never spared his plain speaking. He dies hard. His Ministry goes down In an absolute deadlock with the Opposition, and it may require a new general election to break the tie. A career like that of Sir Robert Bond illustrates the innate con- servatism of the British spirit, which is perhaps displayed quite as strikingly in the colonies as in England itself. Let a good man come into power in a Brit- ish dependency, and he seems uncom- monly secure against that sudden under- mining of popularity and power which statesmen must fear in most democ- racies. Sir Robert Bond came to office in 1900. The late Richard John Sed- don, Premier of New Zealand, ruled that colony from 1893 to 1906. When Sir Wilfrid Laurier has completed his third term, he will have guided Canad- ian destinies for eighteen years, of which thirteen have already passed. The British Admiralty, not content with leading the world in battleship con- struction, in the advance of submarine tactics, in torpedo-boat destroyers, in turbine engines, and in almost every other branch of naval development, has now laid the keel of a funnelless battle- ship to be propelled by internal-combus- tion gas engines. If the bureaucrats of our Navy Department follow precedent, we shall see that in about two years our chief naval constructor will begin to talk about the subject; in three years the matter will be referred to a special board of officers for a report; at the end of four years, six months will be spent in an animated departmental discussion, pro and con, of the gas engine; and in five years we, too, shall lay the keel of a funnelless battleship. The satisfaction in Germany over the new patent treaty with the United States should find its echo in this coun- try. If this enlightened agreement is ratified by the Senate, it should be fol- lowed by similar treaties with other countries— France first, we hope. But not with England, for the treaty with Germany is based on just the opposite principle of the law recently enacted in Great Britain requiring foreign holders of English patents to manufacture in England or forfeit their patents. That such an essentially protectionist meas- ure could have been fostered by a Lib- eral government devoted on principle to free trade, is one of the anomalies of recent English politics. If the Senate approves, inventors in the United States and Germany will stand on precisely the same footing. This will be another important step forward in wiping out international boundaries, by means of a compact drawn in an admirable spirit of friendliness and for the mutual ad- vantage of both countries. Chancellor von Biilow is again on a precarious footing. He has been able to make little or no progress with his bills providing new revenue, and finds that in the proposal for death-duties he is in the extraordinary position of being supported by only the Radicals and Socialists and the National Liber- als— the three Left parties. For any Chancellor to receive the aid of the So- cialists whom the Emperor has de- nounced as traitors, is almost in itself enough to alienate the Conservatives. The Centre is, of course, still at odds with Biilow and still pretending to en- joy its isolation in the Reichstag. But this situation with the Centre alieniat- ed and the Chancellor in the arms of Radicals and Socialists is too unnatural to last. Undoubtedly, the Centre would welcome a dissolution, but the chances are that, as hinted in the dispatches, a compromise in regard to the death du- ties will be effected, by which Von Bii- low will recede from what he declared was positively his last stand. In his desperation he declared, the other day, that it had become a matter of nation- al life and death to get these proposals through the Reichstag. But even this warning would not make the Conserva- tives and Clericals yield on the deatn duties. The question of Russia's administra- tive policy at Harbin in northern Man- churia turns up in very much the same form it assumed last year when there was some inclination to regard Rus- sia's action as constituting an attack on Chinese sovereignty. For that view, there is, on the whole, little basis. The Russian concession at Harbin, covering some hundred square miles and running for ninety-nine years, was obtained, of course, some years before the war with Japan. The treaty of Portsmouth has nothing in it that invalidates the pro- visions of the grant made by the Chi- nese government to the Russo-Chinese bank. The right to erect a municipal government and impose taxes, as claim- ed by Russia, is not connected with the right of policing the Manchurian rail- way. The Harbin grant carried with it the ownership of the land and the right to sublease. Hence it Is probable that the taxes which the Russian au- thorities are now reported to be forc- ing upon Chinese merchants in Harbin may turn out to be only a form of rent. Russia's right to erect a separate mu- nicipal government at Harbin is far more dubious, though even here the question is a complicated one. That ex- plains our government's somewhat cau- tious attitude in the matter. If it is a disappointment that the International Opium Commission at Shanghai has adjourned after more than three weeks' deliberation without hav- ing accomplished anything it set out to do, it is no less discouraging to read that it was the attitude of the British delegates which rendered the efforts of the Commission nugatory. There were at Shanghai representatives of China, the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, and Portugal, and their object was to ar- rive at "definite suggestions of meas- ures which the respective governments may adopt looking to the gradual sup- pression of opium cultivation, traffic, and use within their Eastern posses- sions, thus assisting China in her pur- pose of eradicating the evil in the Em- pire." On England naturally rests the main moral responsibility. Her repre- hensible share in fastening the opium habit on China has never been explain- ed away. On the other hand, England has during the last two years support- ed China in her war against the drug. The British Government has agreed to abolish opium in all forms in Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and Hongkong, while India is to reduce its export of 51,000 chests of opium by 5,100 chests every year for the ten years ending 1917. That would seem to be evidence enough of England's sincere desire to help China; and we find it hard, there- fore, to understand why the attitude of England should have made the Shang- hai Commission a failure.

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212 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 POLITICS AND WEST POINT. Congressman Slayden of Texas has done excellent service in calling the at- tention of Congress and the country to the manner in which the discipline of West Point and the authority of its officials are being steadily undermined by politics. Proof appears in the docu- ments transmitted to Congress by the Secretary of War, Mr. Wright, in re- sponse to a House resolution of Febru- ary 10, asking for information in re- gard to the cadets who have recently been brought to book for deficiencies in conduct or studies. Some of the corre- spondence Mr. Wright declined to give, or forwarded only in part, on the ground that the matter was confidential. The most important discovery is that the two worst offenders are Secretary Wright and the President himself, avow- ed enemy of the politicians. When the question of punishing certain cadets for hazing came up last summer, it was speedily made plain that Secretary Wright was wholly unable to realize the serious nature of the hazing at West Point, or the gravity of overruling the Superintendent of the Academy and his officers. The compromise at that time — the dismissal of two cadets and the sus- pension of the others for eight months — was adopted in spite of the united pro- tests of Col. Scott, the Superintendent, and the Academic Board. As if to show his contempt for their attitude, Mr. Wright even went so far as to inform Congress that he had no objection to the bill introduced with the purpose of reappointing the dismissed cadets — no objection to overriding the laws against hazing, no objection to seeing the haz- ers return in triumph to flout their offi- cers and inform their fellows that it is easy to get round a colonel when you have a Secretary on your side! Bad as that case was, the more re- cent one is even worse. Now it is a clear case of failure in studies and in conduct of two first-class men, Cadets Fletcher of Providence, R. I., and Pen- dleton of South Ballston, Va., and three of the third class, Gonser of Elmira, Holliday of Kirkwood. 111., and Thomp- son of Chattanooga. The Academic Board, after carefully going over their records and giving each one an oppor- tunity to state whether the demerits against him were due to injustice or malice, ordered dismissal from the Academy. Some men are dropped in this way every year; sometimes the derelictions are slight, from the point of view of the civilian, but the number of demerits — 108 end the cadet's career — is usually plain evidence that the cadet is too slack to have in him the material of a good officer. Hitherto, such find- ings of the Academic Board, or of the special board appointed in certain in- stances, have always been final. To the amazement of the entire Academy, as soon as the political friends of the cadets could reach Washington, a recon- sideration was ordered, and the Presi- dent himself on January 4 wrote an autograph letter to the Secretary of War, as follows: There are five young men who have been recommended for dismissal by the Aca- demic Board at West Point for what seems to me insufficient reasons. . . . Cannot the Academic Board be reconvened to consider again its action so far as relates to these men? It seems to me that the needs of the service can be met by some arrange- ment less than discharge. I think it would be an entirely needless hardship to turn these boys out. If necessary, let them each go back one year. The Academic Board pointed out that these cadets were not boys, but men over twenty-two years of age, two of them well into their twenty-fourth year, and that: It has been the practice of the Academic Board heretofore to regard a deficiency in conduct as final, and as one of the most satisfactory proofs thai can be secured of the unfitness of an individual for the mili- tary career. The board then voiced this earnest pro- test against the subordination of the Academy to politics and the undermin- ing of its own influence: The Academic Board, with a long and in- timate experience of the disciplinary me- thods of this institution, and the effects upon the cadets of unusual leniency, re- spectfully asks an earnest consideration of the very serious effect upon the morale of a body of young men who are being educated to high standards of conduct and of honor in seeing the disciplinary stand- ards of the institution set aside in spite of the warnings of experience and the ad- monitions of their superior officers. If the young gentlemen of the corps feel that up- on every occasion when they have brought upon themselves the penalties ,of failure, and when, after the administration of the institution has conscientiously sat in judg- ment upon their status, a reversal can be obtained by an appeal to higher authorities, the administrative authority of the institu- tion is brought into contempt and the pow- erful influences which an impartial opera- tion of the governing mechanism of mili- tary education should bring about is nulli- fied. Unfortunately, however, the board, "in deference to the judgment of the wishes of the President of the United States," recommended "with reluctance that Cadets Fletcher and Pentleton be sus- pended without pay and allowance un- til January 1, 1910," and suggested a similar mitigation of the sentences of the others. The President insisted upon this being done. Why should there be an Academic Board if somebody in Washington is to overrule it? Why should any cadet obey its laws if he has behind him an able Congressman? Will the cadets not read the memorandum prepared for the Sec- retary of War in which the Chief of Staff says?— Herewith will be found requests on be- half of these cadets, as follows: For Cadet Pendleton, from Senator Dan- iels and Representative Glass. For Cadet Fletcher, from Senator Wet- more and Representative Granger. For Cadet Gonser, from Representative Fassett; also verbal request from Repre- sentative Landis. For Cadet Holliday, from Representative McKinney (both verbal and written). Representatives Fassett, McKinney, and Landis called in person to see Gen. Oliver during your absence. Cadet Thompson of Tennessee, who be- longs to the third class, was found de- ficient in mathematics and drawing. There is a request on his behalf from Senator Frazier and Representative Moon. Will not the cadets draw the proper in- ference that these visits were success- ful? Will they ever see, en the other hand, the statement in Theodore Roose- velt's annual message of 1901? — Every promotion and every detail under the War Department must be made solely with regard to the good of the service and to the capacity and merit of the man him- self. No pressure, political, social, or per- sonal, of any kind, will be permitted to ex- ercise the least effect. THE GROWING DREAD OF WAR. The most cheerful news of the fort- night is the report that the Powers signatory to the Treaty of Berlin have practically agreed to impose upon Ser- via a policy of moderation with respect to Austria-Hungary. "To make repre- sentations at Belgrade," is the formal phrase; but, actually, intervention at Belgrade means also intervention at Vienna. If Servia is persuaded to keep the peace by refraining from impossi- ble demands, it follows that Austria will not be allowed to endanger peace by further exasperating the feelings of the Servian people. It is. to be noted that among the Powers that signed the

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March 4, 1909] The Nation 213 Treaty of Berlin is Germany, which hitherto has refused to exercise on its ally pressure of any kind. That Ger- many should now actively intervene means that the end of the Balkan trou- ble is in sight. The agreement be- tween Turkey and Austria concerning Bosnia-Herzegovina was signed at Con- stantinople last week. The difficulties between Turkey and Bulgaria are as good as settled. It - remained for this latest declaration of Europe in favor of peace to scatter definitely the war clouds that have hung over the Conti- nent since October. Now, as at the outbreak of the difficulty, the chief merit of working for harmony is due to the French government. The behavior of Europe during these months of bewilderment and anxiety should give deep satisfaction to all friends of international peace. The idea has been so long dinned into us that Eu- rope is a powder magazine, ready to go off at the slightest flash; the nations have been so continuously pictured as panting to fly at one another's throats; the Near East has been regarded for so many years as the world's peculiar dan- ger spot; and we have been told so often that the slightest political readjustment in that devoted area must sweep ail Eu- rope into a general catastrophe, that we cannot but wonder that the course of Balkan history during the last five months should have been what it is. Ac- cording to our prophets of glory and slaughter, the nations were so eager for war that an insignificant island in the iEgean, a fracas in a Macedonian vil- lage, a dispute between two frontier of- ficials, might be enough to start a gen- eral conflagration. Instead, the Near East has passed through great changes and war has not broken out. The Turk- ish sovereignty in Europe has been ser- iously curtailed, Austria and Bulgaria have seized upon their long-coveted ter- ritory, a section of the Slav population in the Balkans has been thrown into violent commotion — and the result has been that on two important occasions a concert of the Powers has taken its stand squarely on the side of peace, and that the international politics are probably more amicable now than for years. Only one deduction is possible from the facts: Europe is not the lurking place of sanguinary ambition that the Jingo and professional alarmist in I every country would make it out to be. The madness of military and naval com- petition, of course, is there. The in- tensity of nervous, often unreasoning, suspicion is also there. But undeniably in this mad striving after more field batteries and Dreadnoughts, the nations of Europe stagger on with a good deal of sickness at heart. It is easy to find a cynical reason why the Powers should intervene for peace in the Balkans. France traditionally wants peace; Rus- sia is still crippled from its Manchurian adventure; Italy is torn between its Balkan ambitions and its duty to its al- lies, and would rather wait; Great Bri- tain is this, and Germany is that, and so on. True in part; but equally true, and patently true, in the entire course of the Balkan disturbance has been the sincere dread of war that has been a sombre undertone to the daily shifting? and variations of the professional diplo- mats. The old diplomatic language of bluster and covert threat has been heard, but it has sounded as if spoken by men who were repeating the ancient warlike phrases while their minds were working in new habits of peace. For all right-minded men in Eng- land and Germany who view with hor- ror and disgust the stupid game of mu- tual exasperation in which the two leading Powers in Europe are now blind- ly engaged, the settlement of the Bal- kan difficulty cannot come too soon. It will be as a clamp upon the mouths of the preachers of hatred. Englishmen who have been taught to go to sleep trembling at the thought of German in- vasion, Germans who wait daily for news that the British have fallen upon the Kaiser's fleet, should find enlight- enment in the events of these last five months in southeastern Europe. If Ger- many is bent on a trial of strength with England, why has she neglected the Bal- kan opportunity? If England wants to destroy the German fleet, why has she counselled Turkey to peace and labored with France towards the same end? The Jingo, of course, can never be per- manently silenced; but men of common sense of both nations should conclude from the successful weathering of this general European storm that on neither side of the North Sea is the passion for blood so strong as evil report has painted it. And for us, too, there is a lesson in the latest turn in the Balkans. It was brought out forcefully by Mr. Root at the dinner of the Peace Society. When we see how Europe passes safely through severe and infinitely trying complications, we should awake to the full absurdity of the cry that a war with Japan is inevitable and imminent. Eu- rope, a mass of huddled, jostling nation- alities, a conglomeration of age-old ri- valries, jealousies, and hatreds, a complex of units that touch each other at a thousand sensitive points, this Europe which is, in truth, one great armed camp, can yet find the path of peace through myriad difficulties. We, on the other hand, who have grown and thriven within limitless spaces, whose temper should have escaped all the irri- tations that international competition brings with it, no sooner meet a serious international problem than our Hobsons begin to talk as if there were nothing for it but war. Europe, being close- packed elbow to elbow, finds a way out. But the United States and Japan, with nine thousand miles of the Pacific be- tween, are not far enough apart to avoid quarrelling. Never has the clamor of the international blackguards — the word is Mr. Root's — rung so empty. THE NEW HOPE IN INDIA. The Society for the Advancement of India has addressed an open letter to Mr. Roosevelt in which it takes excep- tion to the President's eulogy on the British administration in India deliver- ed last January in the Metropolitan Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church at Washington. The Society for the Advancement of India is a militant anti-British organization, whose motto is "Thorough." Naturally it protests when Mr. Roosevelt says that "in India we encounter the most colossal exam- ple history affords of the successful administration by men of European blood of a thickly populated region on another continent"; or that "the mass of the people have been and are far better off than ever before, and far bet- ter off than they would be now if Eng- lish control were overthrown or with- drawn"; or "that England does not draw a penny from India for English purposes"; or "that the part England has played in India has been to the immeasurable advantage of India." The Society's letter then goes on to state — and forcibly — the case against British

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214. The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 rule in India, in its severest form. The burden of the charge is familiar: India is a slave Empire, subjected, according to the belief of some, to a "worse than Russian despotism"; its inhabitants are taxed to death by an unrepresentative government; there is now neither free- dom of the press nor the right of trial by jury; more than one hundred mil- lion dollars a year goes to England an- nually in the form of pensions, savings from salaries, profits from business en- terprises, interest on English invest- ments, and military expenditure. Crush- ing taxes, insufficient irrigation works, the discouragement of domestic indus- trial development, have made India a land of chronic famine. There were, in the first three-quarters of the nine- teenth century, thirteen famines, with an estimated loss of 6,500,000 lives; there were in the last quarter of the century, eighteen famines, with an es- timated loss ranging from 15,000,000 to 26,000,000 lives. Whether India as it is to-day is Bri- tain's glory or Britain's shame, is a matter, however, less capable of demon- stration, and, on the whole, of less prac- tical importance than the fact that In- dia to-day is Britain's great responsi- bility. The picture evoked by the un- compromising critics of British rule, though it may be true in most of its sad essentials, is yet incomplete, be- cause it leaves out of account the im- mensely difficult nature of the problem with which England has had to deal. On the other hand, England's great ar- gument that she has given India peace and stability does not wear so well as it used to. Of what avail is the boasted" Pax Britannica, if with peace cometh not contentment, or even the certainty of daily bread? Translated into politi- cal terms, the practical impossibility of England's withdrawing from India, or even bestowing full Parliamentary government, faces the other impossibil- ity of refusing any longer to yield the people of India that proper share in the management of their own affairs which their own needs and qualifications and the spirit of the age demand. And for- tunate it is that, after nearly a half- decade of great unrest, the necessary spirit of compromise appears to be es- tablishing itself in India among rulers and subjects alike. The open letter from which we have quoted dismisses Lord Morley's plan of reforms contemptuously: A few more Indian gentlemen would be made advisers of the Government, but they would have no power over taxation or ex- penditure or anything else. Yet "a few more Indian gentlemen" is hardly a fair summary of the new pro- vision that henceforth in the provin- cial legislative councils the non-official element shall constitute an absolute ma- jority. An absolute majority with the right to bring forward "supplementary questions," or to interpellate the gov- ernment as we should call it, ought not to leave the natives without influence, if the Hindu's shrewd genius for poli- tics is what both the critics and sup- porters of the present system admit it to be. Moreover, the objection that it is not the legislative, but the executive councils that wield the real power in India, is specifically met by the provi- sion, under the new plan, for the ad- mission of natives to the executive councils. Note, too, the attitude of con- cession in the last Indian National Con- gress at Madras, where Lord Morley's plan was commended as granting the natives a fair share in the government of their own country, without "placing the ideal of absolute autonomy before undeveloped minds, 'those too young to be wise and too impulsive to be ration- al.' " When the representatives of the soberest native thought in India can speak in this fashion; when, on the oth- er hand, the Tory London Times can ad- mit that "the claim advanced by many sections of the Indian peoples to a larger share in their own affairs is now admitted by most competent authori- ties to be reasonable and just," the ground for a peaceful settlement seems more than clear. The question of complete self-govern- ment for India under a Parliamentary system cannot become an immediate one. England may scarcely be blamed if she waits till the system for Asia has been tested in Persia, in Turkey, and even in China. At the same time every conces- sion made now must lead in that direc- tion. We need not hold with the mem- bers of the Society for the Advance- ment of India that that country is now able to rule itself, in order to dissent from Lord Morley's view that "a Par- liamentary system in India is not the goal to which I, for one, would aspire." The general trend is toward the Parlia- mentary system, which seems bound to come in time. The struggle for rights is a preparation for citizenship, and di- verse ethnic and political elements may be hammered into a nationality by the very sense of a common wrong or need. HUMOR AND STATESMEN. Mr. Taft "had his little joke," we read now and then in the papers. And he takes with infinite good-nature the jests that are made, and the stories that are told, at his expense. He did this in the campaign, and he has done it since. Evidently, he is not a man whom the awful dignity of the Presi- dency will congeal. His hearty enjoy- ment of a good laugh raises, however, the question whether a strong sense of humor is a valuable asset for a pub- lic man, and what are the due limits of its display. Mr. Taft does not, for ex- ample, crack any jokes in his inaugu- ral address. But why not? Why should we think it indiscreet or improper if he did? Lincoln's instinct and Lincoln's ex- ample in this matter are safe guides. Privately, he was a man who "jested with all ease." His stories, his odd and homely sayings, were retailed about the country, giving offence to some, it must be remembered, , but pleasure to most. They showed that we had an approach- able, human President, and the people liked to know that. What they did not know at the time was that Lincoln's humor was often a safety-valve, pre- venting the pressure under which he quivered from becoming too terrible. But in his public addresses, in his com- munications to Congress and the people and the press, Lincoln was never jocose. He was aware that even a humorous democracy wished its public affairs to be discussed with high gravity. Public men who forget this, work their own undoing. A really able man, Proctor Knott, could not live down his unfor- tunate reputation as a humorous speak- er. Depew's jokes palled, long before he himself became a joke. It is, as a rule, the grave and earnest and even ponderous men who go farthest in po- litical life. The late Abram S. Hewitt intended to pay a high compliment to Grover Cleveland, when he said of him "The greatest master of platitudes since George Washington." That was certainly not the only reason of Mr. Cleveland's success, but it is plainly im- possible to think of his doing what he

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March 4, 1909] The Nation. 215 did if he had been merely a jolly man. The duty of not mixing up levity and statesmanship is illustrated afresh in the recently published Life of George Canning. He was a wit as well as a scholar, and his quips at table or in club or in the Anti-Jacobin, gave mer- riment to many. As Minister of the Crown, he could assume the stately manner with the best of them, though there was one occasion when, it has al- ways been said, he let his humor get the better of his instinct for public busi- ness. This was the time when he sent his famous "rhyming dispatch" to the British Minister; In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. This was, it now appears, merely a practical joke on his old friend, the Minister, but Canning sent along on the same day an official dispatch in sober diplomatic form. The Minister wrote back to him privately: I could have slain you ! but I got some fun myself, for I afterwards put the fair de- cypher into Douglas's hands, who read it twice without moving a muscle or to this hour discovering that it was not prose, and returned it to me, declaring that it was "oddly worded, but he had always had a feeling that the despatch must relate to discriminating duties." One law of parsimony, in regard to humor in English public men, has late- ly been brought to attention in connec- tion with Mr. Lloyd-George: it is that a Chancellor of the Exchequer must never publicly jest about finance. But Mr. Lloyd-George has unhappily done this. When some one in the Commons asserted that a certain financial measure would deprive the Exchequer of its "nest egg," the Chancellor gayly replied that, in such an event, he would be obliged to "rob another hen-roost." The horror which this provoked at the time has deepened, if anything, since. To make a joke about taxes at all was bad enough, but to throw it into the form of a threat of confiscation was almost to undermine the throne. Mr. Lloyd- George's difficulties in framing a bud- get, great as they must be just now in any case, have undoubtedly been en- hanced by what was regarded as his ill- timed levity. Englishmen may damn the North Pole, and speak lightly of the Equator, but they must ever be se- vere and solemn In the presence of Fi- nance. The conclusion of the whole matter is very simple. We should pity a public man who had no capacity for fun-mak- ing— who could not take a humorous view of the political pageant, including his own part of it. The statesman who can privately relax, and warm himself by the fire of genial talk, is ordinarily better fitted for his work than the one who keeps himself perpetually tense. But humor overdone or misplaced is fatal to men in great office. Not to judges alone is Bacon's counsel applic- able, that in their public appearances they should be "more learned than witty." RECENT FRENCH FICTION. Paris, February 20. In fiction the publishing season has so far given us no masterpiece. Three of the best written novels have appear- ed in a cheap series (Fayard) at 1.35 francs a volume — an attempt at breaking through the tradition of the 3.50 book. "Le Meilleur Ami" :'s by Rene Boylesve, who for mere prose has for a dozen years been all but the first of living French novelists. His stories are never puritanical, but this one is less cheery than usual. His hero, like Cyrano with Roxane, as best friend, has to listen to the love confidences of the heroine, whom in honor he can love only in silence. "An old story, yet al- ways new, and he to whom it happens gets a broken heart from it," says the motto from Heine. This author has another short novel soon to appear, which is the deepest, lightest, most spec- tacular, and readable exhibition of that phenomenon in which French middle- class society centres — "La Jeune Fille bien 61ev€e." "La Colere," a story of temper, by a new writer, Henri Pagat, is well spoken of. "Les Doigts de f6e," by Marcel Boulenger, in spite of its pop- ular exterior, gives astonishing pictures of that ultra-worldly Tout-Paris which is farthest removed from the people — that for which life is play-actoring to fashion. The author is one of the younger writers who has done most to keep up the high standard of the French language in books of light literature. His hero is unsuited with a wife who goes in too much for fashionable paint- ing and general modernism; her first sister is too sociological to relieve his lot; her second sister, coming up old- fashioned from the provinces, he loves; but the mission of her fairy fingers, which bring a semblance of happiness, is to patch up as best may be the too- modern match. Paul Laccur, a new writer, pleases with "Sceurette" (Perrin) — the story of one who could be happy with any one of three charmers, each of whom is willing; but he decides which one only when it is too late for any. "L'Otage" (Plon), by Henri Buteau, also a coming man, is serious, often tragic, in its study of the would-be emancipated woman held fast by the web of customs, manners, laws, opin- ions of the world into which she was born; the law gives the hostage, the child of free love, into the lawful hus- band's hands, and she finally follows it — a conservative position which the au- thor evidently approves. The society lady who writes under the pseudonym of Claude Ferval, one of whose books was crowned by the French Academy, has a new novel, "Ciel rouge" (Fas- quelle), agitating the same spectre of the community's control over unhappy matrimonies. The prosaic husband kills the poet lover of his wife in a duel; and, for the rest of their natural lives, the two must sit together at their haunted hearth, making a brave show to the world — to save the innocent daugh- ter. Francis de Miomandre received the 1908 prize of the Goncourt Academy for a novel with a title from Keats's "Ecrit sur de l'eau"; he had secured a pub- lisher for it only in Marseilles (H. Falque). It is the diary of a young meridional, who tries to "do literature" with all the young coteries of the day. He has abundant humor, pitiless for those of his own age, and his father is a Marseilles Micawber. The writing is free in style — and in Ideas. The author has hastened to use his success in an equally free and easy novel on Parisians of to-day, "Le Vent et la poussiere" (Calmann-L6vy). Claude Farrere, the pseudonym of a naval lieutenant who carried off the Goncourt prize In 1905, takes for his new novel "La Bataille," the popular form of publication (Fay- ard). Among writers of old standing, Leon de Tinseau publishes "Sur les deux rives" (Calmann-Levy), in which a ruined gentleman transplants his fam- ily from the Old to the New France, which is Canada. After his death his son, with the traditions of his race, re- turns to serve his country as an army officer; but he resigns with heartbreak when he finds the chief services demand- ed of him under the present regime are to combat striking workmen and expel nuns from the homes which they have built up with their own money, but which the state takes from them. The qualities which have so long made this author one of the best sellers among proper people will be aided by this touch of conservative actuality. Georges Ohnet is also sure of his usual sales in the Philistine world for his new novel, "Un Mariage am6ricain" (Ollendorff). Jules Claretie, Academician, administra- tor of the Comedie Franchise, and for nearly half a century writer of unnum- bered books, attacks a youngish prob- lem in his latest novel, "L'Obsession"

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^T^^ir *^ ~3 216 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 (Pierre Lafltte) ; it is the trouble be- tween Moi et V Autre as they alternate in a double personality. Maurice BarrSs pursues the even tenor of his man- hood's ways in "Colette Baudoche" (F. Juven) — the history of a young girl of Metz under German rule. The close, merciless, but not unsympathetic, por- traiture of the Pomeranian professor, who comes to Teutonize Lorraine and finds himself in the end thrall to the refinement of the civilization which France implanted there, might prove instructive even to German minds, whom it is not intended so much to offend as to edify the French. The style has all the perfect limpid adequacy which even this Nationalist author's most Radical enemies acknowledge. With all the still remembered faults of a dilettante youth, Maurice Barr&s, most radical enemies acknowledge, ing a leading influence over cultivated Young France. The literary firm of brothers signing J. H. Rosny has now dissolved, at least enough for a novel, "Marthe Baraquin' (Plon) to appear under the sole signa- ture J. H. Rosny aine. It has all the acrid power of the combined work, which long ago won a public of its own. It is a brutally frank, heart-rending story of a Paris working girl, exposed to all the temptations of the great, wicked city civilized to the point of primitive savagery in its lack of what we once called morals. Perhaps the pathos of it is still moral. S. D. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The Essex Book and Print Club of Salem, Mass., recently organized, has just issued its first publication, a reprint of the first book on Salem, "New England's Planta- tion,'' of which three editions appeared in 1630, all very rare. Besides a photographic reproduction of the first edition, the volume includes a type reprint of the third (which contains considerable additional matter), as well as several other contemporary papers partly printed from manuscripts. The edi- tor has made unusual efforts to trace eX>- isting copies of the three editions, and is able to find ten of the first, of which six are in public libraries and four in private collections; he finds five copies of the sec- ond edition, of which two are in private collections; and seven copies of the third edition, all but one in public libraries. One hundred and seventy-five copies only of the book are printed in the best manner at the Riverside Press. On March 8 and 9, the Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. of New York will sell a collection of Americana, including a long list of American periodicals. Among them are the first twelve numbers of the Harvard Reg- ister, in which Oliver Wendell Holmes's first contributions were printed; and the Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion, Vols. I and II (1841-42), a magazine of which James Russell Lowell was one of the edi- tors, and which contains numerous contri- butions by him. There are books on John Brown, books and pamphlets relating to the South and Southwest, and to the Indians. On March 8 and 9, the Anderson Auction Co. of New York will sell a collection made up partly of books from the libraries of Dr. Martha Bunting and A. G. Browne, jr. Included is the longest series of books, 114 numbers, relating to Africa, offered in any recent sale; upwards of 40 lots on China, and a number of works on the North Amer- ican Indians. Among the latter is a copy of Penhallow's "History of the Wars of New-England, with the Eastern Indians" (1726), with a portion of the title and last leaf in facsimile. The first edition of Beverly's "The History and Present State of Virginia" (1705) in the original calf binding, is another notable item. C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston announce the sale, probably in April or May, of the library of the late Amory L. Hollingsworth of Mattapan, Mass. Mr. Hollisgsworth's collection is one of the largest and best known of those in New England. Ameri- cana, first editions, club publications, books illustrated by Cruikshank, Rowlandson, and Aiken, and books in special bindings are some of the classes to which he gave par- ticular attention. The Lenox branch of the New York Pub- lic Library has on view for the winter and spring months a little selection of books remarkable in the progress of printing. The earliest known book printed with movable metal types is represented by a beautiful copy of the Gutenberg, or Mazarin, Bible, supposed to have been printed by Gutenberg, assisted by Fust at Mentz, 1453-55. There are two leaves from the "Recuyell of the Histories of Troye," printed by William Caxton, probably at Bruges about 1474, the first book printed in the English language. The first complete Bible in English is the Coverdale, 1535. No perfect copy is extant but the exhibition contains one of the library's two excellent copies, both of which have been supplied with facsimile leaves for those missing. The first book printed in America in the English language is the "Bay Psalm Book," 1640. The first book in Roman type, printed by Nicholas Jenson (Venice, 1470), is a beautiful specimen of the printer's art, entitled, "De Praeparatione Evangelica," written by Pamphilus Euse- bius. The first book in Italic type, an imi- tation of Petrarch's manuscripts, is a Vir- gil by Aldus, Venice, 1501. The inventor of stereotyping was William Ged, and the book in which he first employed the new method is entitled "C. Crispi Sal.lusti Belli Catilinarii et Jugurthini Historian," Edin- burgh, 1739. The first monthly magazine published in England was the Gentleman's Journal: or the Monthly Miscellany, Lon- don, January, 169%. Benjamin Franklin established the first monthly magazine in English America, the General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Philadelphia, January, 1741. Correspondence. THE ^NEID TWENTY YEARS AFTER. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: After ten years of forced labor in modern literature, I have at last been able to go back to the ^Eneid. It is twenty years since I left school, cocked and primed for the college entrance examination, and con- fident that what I did not know about the first six books was not worth knowing. All the trick lines had been scanned, the my- thology worked up, and in trochee, dactyl, synecdoche, indirect question and relative clause of characteristic there was no mys- tery for me. Such was my JEneid twenty years ago — a text-book of Latin syntax and prosody — and such it is to the average boy of eighteen, to the shame of our schools be it said! Why don't we all — we who have once drunk of this rich Latin poetry — go back in after years to revel in the stately verse, to tune ourselves afresh to the pitch of its noble lessons? "Quam multas nobis imagines non solum ad intuendum, verum etiam ad imitandum fortissimorum virorum expressas scriptores et Graeci et Latini re- liquerunt!" (Pardon the Latin, Mr. Editor. I know there are still some of your readers who enjoy the flavor of the original.) Last summer, stretched out upon the sand, I read over the first six books — the narrative of the sea voyage of the Trojan exiles — and as I looked out across the bay it was easy to imagine the little ships of .(Eneas scudding through the blue waves of the Mediterranean, the water curling under the prows, and the Nymphs as escort. The last six books have been more appro- priately read these winter evenings before my study fire. For the yEneid is one of those matchless books of which Cicero might have said: "Delectant domi, non im- pediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregri- nantur, rusticantur." Here I have watched those hand-to-hand fights of the Rutulians, Latins, and Trojans for the possession of th.3 fair Italian land; here I have sorrowed for the gallant men on either side who knew not what surrender was, but who, fighting to the last gasp, accepted the decree of Fate: Stat sua culque dies; breve et irreparabile tempus Omnibus est vitae: sed famam extendere factis. Hoc virtutis opus. Great souls they were, and worthy epic ancestors of those mediaeval knights who, when laid low, took communion of the greensward, uttered a last prayer for mercy to the Cross on their sword-hilt, and then — well, then their souls were borne off by the angels to the flowery fields of Paradise. There is a Christian Rome and a Pagan Rome; and there is a Christian Virgil and a Pagan Virgil. But whether we regard him as the wonder-working magician of me- diaeval legend or as the court poet of Au- gustus, it is a joy to find that Virgil was a man with feelings and emotions like our own. Could anything be more exquisitely pathetic than Andromache's tears over the boy Ascanius as he recalls to her by his face and bearing that little son of hers, the cherished replica of her lost Hector: O mini sola mel super Astyanactls Imago, Sic oculos, sic llle manus, sic ora ferebat; Et nunc aequali tecum pubesceret aevo. Yet, I do not recall that any teacher ever directed our attention to such lines as these, where the poet has stamped the image of a mother's heart. The whole of the second, third, and fourth books should be read as a love story. The pageant of Dido's broken heart has been trailed through the world's classrooms for centuries; yet, the ministrations of sister Anna are as solicitous, the tragic grief of Dido is as poignant, and the easy faith- lessness of ^Eneas is as unpardonable as they ever were. For this ^Eneas, as I see

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March 4, 1909] The ]STation. 217 him to-day, is more admirable as a builder of empires than in the guise of a lover. This "Fate business" is a weak argument! You cannot clear your skirts of duty quite so easily nowadays. If the gods had kept their fingers out of it, JEneas would have tarried in Carthage and married Dido. Then, mayhap, Carthage and not Rome would have been the Eternal City. Ah! but in that case we should have had no Virgil and no ^Eneld. And so I put down my book and fall to thinking of all we should have miss- ed if there had been no Rome. A. C. Benson has written nothing more to my fancy than his remarks in "The Schoolmaster": To omit intellectual enjoyment from our programme, to pass over one of the strong- est of boyish faculties, seems to me the kind of mistake that will be regarded some years hence as both pitiable and ludicrous. I thought of these words when I came to the Trojan games in the fifth book. It is counted a hard bit of translation, and an examiner is apt to include a passage from It in his paper. But how easily a boy's Interest could be aroused in the outcome of the "events" as they are run off on sea and land! What fierce contests, what heart- breaking finishes! Would it not be a fairer test of the boy's knowledge and apprecia- tion to ask for his comment upon the con- duct of this classic "meet"? I can fancy that eyes would brighten when they fell upon such a question. So little human in- terest is expected from our Latin teachers. It would be so easy for them to rouse us, if they would give us at times just a little literary appreciation. After the sixth book, it was all new to me. There is a great deal of fighting — too much for one who is sated with mediaeval swashbucklery and tournaments. I am not sure that Virgil can describe a fight any better than the French epic poets. Prob- ably he did not know so much about it at first hand; for if the middle age writers speak with authority about anything, it is about fighting. I like Virgil better when he descends to the intimate details of personal emotions. It may be heresy to say so, but I am a layman, and may speak as I feel. My sympathy for the helpless, the bereaved, the defeated, the slain, is far more intense than my share in the thrill of victory and dominion. There is a wonderful simplicity and domesticity in the picture of "poor Evander" and his little city. Like the Cid's father, Evander laments his inability to de- fend himself: old age has robbed him of his sometime strength; he must place the defence of his honor in the hands of his son, Pallas. The depth of the old man's love for his son is measured by the cling- ing embrace at separation, the prayers to the gods, and the swoon in which the in- terview is ended. I trust it will not sound morbid to say that there is nothing better in the poem than the death scenes and the emotions which are their inevitable accompaniment. No more dignified attitude in the presence of death can be found than the stoic calm of these old warriors as they answer the last summons. Antenor, for example, coelumque Adsplclt, et dulces moriens remlnlscltur Argos. For a parallel, we think of Roland dying at Ronceval and harking back to douce France. Or again, the declaration of Tur- nus, who, according to his lights, like Saint Paul, had fought the good fight and could say without boasting: Descendam, magnorum baud umquam Indignus avorum. In fact, these last six books are full of wisdom for the living as well as of inspira- tion for the dying. Anchises in his prophecy to JEneas, bids him be ever true to the principles of his ancestors: to spare the weak, to hand out lilies, to fight the proud, and to keep within wise limits. What more might Rome not have been, had she heark- ened in her later days to such counsel? And shall not we heed it in our day and genera- tion? For each of us, like ..Eneas, may still be said to be Attollens humeio famamque et fata nepotum. jElneas, at least, never forgot the injunc- tion, for he passed on the words to Ascan- ius: Tu facito, mox cum matura adoleverit aetas, Sis memor et te, animo repetentem exempla tuorum, Et pater Aeneas et avunculus excltet Hector. And so Virgil was able to make this love of country, this stoic defiance of misfor- tune, these multifarious strifes and pas- sions, live on eternally through all the flotsam and jetsam of later literature. He has made good his promise to keep alive by his song the memory of his heroes: SI quid mea carmina possunt. Nulla dies umquam memorl vos eximet aevo. To us, too, the injunction comes, not in a narrow sense to decorate the graves of our defenders, but to cherish warm the lesson of their death: Egregias animas, quae sanguine nobis Hanc patriam peperere suo, decorate supremis Munerlbus. William Wistar Comfort. Haverford College, Pa., Marcb 3. THE HANGING OF ANIMALS ON A GAL- LOWS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Toward the end of Queen Eliza- beth's reign, there was a certain German, Count Miimppelgart, who, being of an in- quiring mind and restless disposition, set forth in 1592 to visit England and its great Queen. He gained his object; and immortality in addition. In him, Charles Knight detected "the Garmaine Duke" ana "the cosen garmombles" of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," in the Quarto of 1602. Halliwell followed up with ardor this con- jecture of Knight, and discovered so many references in the play, all tending to prove that Doctor Caius and Sir Hugh Evans have in mind this Count Miimppelgart (who, in 1593, became the "Duke of Wiirttemberg") that he deems "the way in which [this con- jecture] is unravelled" to be "one of the most curious circumstances, in its way, in Shakespearean criticism." Staunton refuses to follow Knight and Halliwell, but his argument is weakened by his confusing the Dukes of Wirtemberg. He mistook the son for the father. "His Serene Highness, Prince, and Lord, Lord Frederick, Duke of Wiirttemberg and Teckh, Count Miimppelgart, Lord of Heid- enheim, Knight of the two ancient Orders, of St. Michael in France, and of the Garter in England in 1592" (thus is he designated on the title page of his travels), was really a noteworthy man; albeit the persistence with which, for ten years, he pestered Queen Elizabeth to confer the Garter on him, was surely worthy of a better cause.* His as- sumption of that honor in the foregoing list of his titles is a grace snatched beyond the bounds of truth; but, to be perfectly fair, I should add that it is printed in very, very small type, as though to minimize the un- truth. His investiture did not occur till 1604, after Elizabeth's death. In all his travels — he visited Switzerland and Italy, as well as England — he was accompanied by a private secretary, whose duty it was to keep a journal of his lord's wander- ings. During his travels in England, this secretary was Jacob Rathgeb, or Rathge- ben — the Germans of aforetime had an un- comfortable way of declining proper names; in the present instance "Rathgeben" is preceded grammatically by a "von." To the honest Jacob's account of his master's Eng- lish journey, we are almost incalculably in- debted for details of English manners and customs, nowhere else, I believe, to be found. On the return home of the duke, Rathgeb's journal was published as an ac- count of a "bathing-trip" — a stroke of hu- mor so mirthful as to need an explanation. On the return voyage from England, the ship Sambson encountered a storm so fu- rious that all gave themselves up for lost; and small wonder, when the captain, the pilot, and the sailors became so tired that they all threw themselves down on the deck in any corner they could find. Three times his Serene Highness and all the passengers sat up to their waists in water. Herein lies the joke of the title-page; for a day and a night the trip was one prolonged bath. Amid the mass of details in this volume, there is one trifling item which may prove afresh that Shakespeare is always exactly right. On p. 24 recto (my copy is dated 1604, and is, I believe, the second edition) we read as follows: At midday your Highness had dinner at a pleasant little village called Winsello [Winslow], and by night at Bethore [Bed- ford?]. Between these two places there is chiefly a sandy plain or heath where are many wild rabbits, not confined in gardens, but running free, so that fifty or sixty of all colours are seen together, but run quick- ly into their burrows. In such regions they catch wild-cats, polecats, or birds of prey which harm the rabbits. All these, after having been skinned, are hung on a gal- lows, as they do wolves. Here we have an authority for Gratia- no's address to Shylock: Tby currish spirit Gouern'd a Wolfe, who hang'd for humane slaugh- ter, Euen from the gallowes did his fell soule fleet. iv, 4, 141. In Shakespeare's time, then, wolves were hanged on a gallows. We infer from the faithful Jacob that the wolves were hanged for killing rabbits; if this be so, a fortiori, would they be hanged for "human slaugh- ter," which is Gratiano's specific crime. I have just called Jacob "faithful"; I va- ried the adjective from "honest," which I used a few lines above. Can I call him honest when, on p. 64 recto, in his sum- mary of the game in England, he says, •For our knowledge of this portion of his life, we are Indebted to the truly admirable volume by W. B. Rye, "England as Seen by Foreigners," London, 1865, p. Iv.

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218 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 "There are no black wild-boars, nor any wolves, on this island." For a second time Rathgeb confirms Shakespeare: ''There is nothing but roguery to be found in vil- lanous man!" Horace Howard Furness. Wallingford, Pa., February 22. MORE NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I hope that the following excerpts from the note-book of a young student of Shakespeare may prove of interest to Dr. W. J. Rolfe and to other Shakespeare scholars who may have read his letter in your issue of February 18, p. 163. I touch upon only two of the points which he raises. In the passage from "Twelfth Night" (iii, 1, 21): Clown. . . . But, indeed, words are very rascals, since bonds disgraced them. Violet. Thy reason, man? Clown. Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words; and words are grown so false, I am loath to prove reason with them. I favor the meaning "contract" for the word "bond," and would compare "Philas- ter," v, 3, where Dion includes in his curses the following: May they know no language but that gib- berish they prattle to their parcels, unless it be the goatish Latin they write in their bonds : and may they write that false, and lose their debts. As for the old-time practice of hanging animals which had offended against the law, I can cite sundry passages from Shakespeare and his contemporary dram- atists to confirm it. In particular it would appear that sheep-stealing was a crime punishable by hanging, and that the punish- ment was meted out to man and beast alike. Note in "Much Ado About Nothing" (ii, 3, 79): Benedict. An he had been a dog that should have howled thus, they would have hanged him. and Ibid (iii, 3, 60): Verges. You have been always called a merciful man, partner. Dogberry. Truly; I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him. Compare furthermore Ben Jonson's "Ev- ery Man Out of His Humour" (iii, 1) : Puntarvolo. If thou losest my dog, thou shalt die a dog's death ; I will hang thee. and "Philaster" (iv, 1) : Dion. Oh, he's a precious lime-hound; turn him loose upon the pursuit of a lady, and if he lose her, hang him up i' th' slip. and "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife" (v, 4) : Perez. How like a sheepbiting rogue, taken i' the manner. And ready for the halter, dost thou look now! Thou hast a hanging look, thou scurvy thing! Louis N. Feipel. Annapolis, Md., February 20. "WIT, WHITHER WILT?" To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: With regard to Dr. W. J. Rolfe's comment in your issue of February 18 on the phrase, "Wit, whither wilt?" ("As You Like It" iv, i, 168), I would call at- tention to the fact that "The Shirburn Ballads" (Clarendon Press, 1907), pp. 268f., contains a complete ballad beginning: Wit, whither wilt thow? woe is mee! alwajes musinge, fye for shame! Sorrye I am the same to see, that love hath brought t] the out of frame — Out of frame and temper, too; This can Love and faneye doo! Out of frame and temper, too ; This can love and fancy doo ! In my review of the book for the Nation (April 25, 1907, p. 385), I remarked on the confirmation of Malone's impression which this ballad gives. The application of the phrase in the song whose first two lines (in slightly varying forms) Robert Greene and Thom- as Adams have preserved appears to have been different from that which we find in the Shirburn ballad. To be sure, the fragment is too brief to make this cer- tain. It is possible, however, that the phrase having become popular as the be- ginning of one ballad was afterwards used for others. J. Douglas Bruce. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, February 20. SCHOOLGIRLS IN SHAKESPEARE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Dr. W. J. Rolfe, in a letter in your issue of February 18, p. 163, raises a ques- tion as to Shakespeare's allusions to school- girls, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Measure for Measure." May it not be that Shakespeare did not have in mind Eng- lish customs, but rather certain passages in early or classical authors whom he had read either in the original or in transla- tion? For example, in Martial's epigrams, ix, 68, we read : Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister, Invisum pueris virginibusque caput? In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, ix, oc- curs this passage: Ad haec ultima pistoris ilia uxor, sub- jiciens, Quidni ? inquit, novi diligenter, Areten meam condiscipulam memoras. The "Golden Ass" of Apuleius had been translated into English by W. Adlington as early as 1566. Joseph de Perott. Worcester, Mass., February 22. RIGHTS AND LEFTS IN SLIPPERS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the Nation of February 18. Dr. W. J. Rolfe speaks of the eighteenth century editors being mystified toy the reference in "King John" to the tailor. Standing on slippers which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet. That nearsighted Dr. Johnson should say "Shakespeare seems to have confounded his shoes with his gloves" is comprehen- sible; but that men with ordinary vision should "suggest that ancient slippers might possibly be very different from modern ones" or "quote from writers be- tween 1580 and 1797 to prove that shoes in former times were often rights and lefts" seems passing strange, when the marble effigies on old tombs in the cathed- rals so often have such shoes. It first struck my eye in one of the northern ca- thedrals: I noticed that the fashion was not universal, but would vary with the towns, on tombs of the same age. J. C. Neave. Ciucinnati. February 21. THE ANCESTRY OF CHARLEMAGNE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your correspondent, "A. R. W.," asks, in your issue of December 24 last, what grounds I have for the "amazing" as- sertion that Charlemagne's descent, on the paternal side, was Latin. I am happy to oblige him. The family of Ferreolus was a great fam- ily of Senatorial rank in Narbonnese Gaul, under the Roman Empire, and the Ferreo- lus of the fifth century was established at Narbonne itself. His son, Ansbert, was attached to the palace (in what capacity we are not told), and was the father of Arnoald, whose son was the St. Arnulph Bishop of Metz, contemporary of St. Augus- tine, the Apostle of England, and of Greg- ory the Great and one of the chief figures of the end of the sixth century in Gaul. The descent of the Caroliugians from St. Arnulph is common knowledge — his son, An- segius, was the father of Pepin of Heristal, whose son, Charles Martel, was the father of Pepin the Short, and the grandfather of Charlemagne. It is all quite clear and simple. Charlemagne was the representa- tive in the eighth century of the old Roman noble family of Ferreolus, just as Lord Salisbury was the representative in the nineteenth century of the old Tudor noble family of Cecil. For St. Arnulph's descent let me refer "A. R. W." to "Vita Clodulfi," a Carolin- gian document incorporated in the acts of the Benedictine order (II. p. 1044), and published, I think, by Pertz (who comments on it), and certainly by the Bollandists, un- der the date of June 8. This gives us Ar- noald as the father of Arnulph and Ansbert as the father of Arnoald, and is confirmed by manuscripts, Paris 5294, and manuscripts St. Germain 440. The "Vita Firmini" which "A. R. W." will find in the Bollandists under October (Vol. V., p. 640) gives us Ferreolus as the father of Ansbert and his brothers. There are, of course, many con- firmatory documents, such as the three manuscripts, Carolingian genealogies of London, Munich, and Vienna, the "Vita Ferreoli" (Boll: supplement to January 4), the "Vita S. Goerici" (Boll: Sept. 19), manuscripts, Paris, 8303, the Metrical Gen- ealogy, published by Pertz (Scriptores: II.. p. 308-312), etc., etc.; all of which reinforce the filiation of the family. I can quite understand the "amazement" of "A. R. W." In Protestant societies the long transition of the empire from a Pagan to a Catholic polity must be very bewilder- ing, and I look back myself with some amusement to the highly imaginative the- ory of "Period I," which I was taught at Oxford, and at the time devoutly believed: anyhow, Charlemagne's paternal stock was civilized and not barbaric. It is a small point, but quite fixed by this time. H. Belloc. Kings Land, Shipley, Horsham, England, Jan- uary 17. MEMORIAL TO "OUIDA." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It is desired to bring to more gen- eral notice in this country the project of the memorial to "Ouida" (Louise de la Ramee) in her birthplace, Bury St. Ed- munds, Suffolk, England. Funds have been collected in Italy, her home for many

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March 4, 1909] The Nation. 219 years, and in England, and contributions have generously flowed in, but about $500 is still lacking to the sum required for fie proposed memorial, and it is felt that opportunity should be given to those in the United States, who may be interest- ed, to lend their aid. Surely there must be among us many who, even failing in admiration for Ouida as a writer iof fiction, may still feel drawn toward her as an ever active worker in the cause of animal protection, and may care ito aid in perpet- uating the memory of the lover of horses and dogs in the appropriate manner pro- posed; namely, the erection >of a drinking fountain by the roadside for the benefit of all passing beasts. It is to be placed at a much- frequented cross-roads outside the town, and near the cottage where Ouida was born. A number of prominent English men and women have been active in this project; Lord Curzon has written the In- scription. Any one who may feel disposed to help the work, by ever so small a sum, may send contributions direct to the chair- man of the Ouida Memorial Committee, G. Milner-Gibson-Cullum, F. S. A., Hardwick House, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England; or, for convenience, to the undersigned, who will" forward remittances to their des- tination. (Miss) Katherine Renke Coutazzo. Meadville, Pa., February 23. THE TROUBLE WITH THE PH.D. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The editorial, "The Ph.D. Again," in your issue of February 11, provokes a frank expression from one of the group you were discussing. I may say that I am a 'doctor" of some fifteen years' standing of an institution at the very front of the few that you place in the first rank of the universities in this country conferring that degree. From my experience as a student, from my work as teacher since then, and from my continued observation of my com- rades, I think you are justified in using such terms as "disrepute," "scandalous," "grotesquely incompetent," when you are describing the different conditions. Even more heartily do I agree with you in your condemnation of one-half of our theses as valueless. With the aid of my perspective judgment on my own, I am inclined to put the ban as high as 90 per cent. I cannot see any hope from the modi- fications of the course that you mention as having been proposed. I seriously doubt whether the writing of good English can be taught, but if so, it can be done only by actual authors who have command of style. Very few such are in the educa- tional field. They find much better com- pensation or more congenial employment in connection with periodicals or publish- ing houses. Another degree, the "non-re- search," would complicate the case with- out any compensating advantages that I can see. It would be looked on as either above or below the present "doctorate" and hence would be productive of jealousy, envy, antagonism, and with our tendency to extremes, the superior one would soon become the goal for all. One would absorb the distinguishing features of the other, and leave it as formless as the A.M. is now, the final result being a longer course. Nor, to my mind, would much good come from compulsory work in the educational department. Generally, so far as I know, the instructors in pedagogy so-called have not served a solid probation as genuine teachers, but have stepped from the stu- dent's chair to the lecturer's stand with perhaps an intermission of two or three years only. The suggested remedies, as it appears to me, would only ndd to the bot- tom cause of all the trouble. The fundamental fault, in my opinion, is very plain, that the universities do not shape means to ends. As you quote from the Chicago University circular, the bulk of us are teachers — in college and secondary school. We should get guidance for that career, but we do not. We cannot until a different standard is adopted for filling the university chairs. The most of the staff have all trod the same route, that of grad- uation as "doctor," appointment to the lower grade, thence gradual promotion. They have virtually never taught, as lec- turing does not come under that category. They can direct only over the same trail they have followed, and consequently all of us are instructed with the unconscious ex- pectation of the same destiny. So far re- moved is this training from the actualities of life outside, that we naturally delude ourselves into fancying that our poor dull monographs are of worth, or we blunder when we have to take charge of a class- room. As I look behind and around me at the teaching of history, my own subject, in our universities, it seems an unreal at- mosphere in which are constantly exchang- ed such terms as "manuscripts," "docu- ments," "sources," "primary data," "ju- dicial attitude," "exhaustive investigation," "original material," "scientific history," "addition to knowledge," etc., as if we are to ignore human nature when we study the past. If some of us emerge from this fan- tastic wonderland with our heels in the air and our heads downward, are we to blame? I must confess that I had visions of ex- tensive research into dim corners of his- tory and the production of volumes that should "widen the realms of the known.'- My ambition kept me at the task, and I have written enough to get my name in several of the most dignified biographical dictionaries, but my comfortable salary, furnishing food and raiment and the means for summer trips in this country and abroad, has come from daily teaching. For this useful vocation, which is besides both remunerative and enjoyable, I got substan- tially no preparation from my preceptors. On the other hand, I believe I should have failed instead of succeeded if I had not had some helpful experience before going to the university. Among those who were not blessed with this balance wheel, I am never surprised to learn of reckless ex- perimentation with immature pupils. I cannot credit my position to my Ph.D., as the most of my colleagues never went beyond the A.B., thus saving themselves three or four years of hard work, and the attendant expense. But in spite of the loss of time and money for me, I am glad I won the degree, to prove to myself the hollow- ness of it in many instances if nothing more. Besides, unpractical as the environ- ment was I got a breadth and firmness of grasp that I could have hardly obtained otherwise. A general course of reading and study would not impart the fibre and tendon that the striving for a definite goal would. If while leading me along this clear-cut road, my instructors had been able, only incidentally, to show me the main direction and difficulties of the path I was already headed for, I could have progressed in months what it took me years to do. I would not have them give up their high ideals of research, but pay more attention to fitting their students for the life ahead, not in the rigid drill fashion of the normal school but in the comprehensive manner of a great scholar who preserves the attitude of a teacher of embryo teachers. I would not have the structure of the course changed much but I would have the character of the men in charge of it changed radically. H. D. I-cbruary 24. THE SITE OF MEROE. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir : In the issue of the Nation for Feb- ruary 18, p. 179, I find an announcement that Prof. A. H. Sayce of Oxford "has dis- covered the true site of the ancient city of Meroe" ; further that "the ancient remains found and identified [italics mine] by Pro- fessor Sayce are about three miles from Kabushia Station, near Shendi, which is half-way between Khartum and Atbara" ; and finally, that "the identification [italics mine] was made possible by the discovery of the great wall of inner defences, and the remains of the temple of Amon mentioned by Strabo, etc." In the autumn of 1906 the University of Chicago Egyptian Expedition made a com- plete and exhaustive epigraphic survey of the monuments surviving at the place now reported to have been "discovered" and "identified" by Professor Sayce. In my re- port on that work ("The Monuments of Sudanese Nubia," Chicago, 1908, pp. 5-14) at Meroe, the identification of the place as Meroe is accepted as an established fact long known. The energetic Frenchman Cailliaud, who visited the city on his Nile voyage (1819-1822), at once recognized it as Meroe (see his "Voyage a Meroe," texte, II, pp. 146 ff.), and has left us a plan show- ing three temples (ibid, planches, II, 150), one of which is, of course, that seen by Professor Sayce, unless his be a fourth temple, discovered during our work there and mentioned in my report (p. 5). In 1844, Lepsius spent some time at the place, always recognizing it as Meroe (see his "Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopien und der Sinai-Halbinsel"); and its identity has never been questioned. Your correspondent is entirely in error, in stating that the ancient site of the city "had hitherto been placed near the temples of Naga. about twenty-five miles inland from the Nile." It must be supposed that in transmitting the account to or from London, some news- paper correspondent has misunderstood Professor Sayce's report of his visit at Meroe. James Henry Breasted. University of Chicago, February 20. [Our correspondent informs us that the note was based on a Reuter dispatch — Ed. Nation.] THE BASIS OF FAITH. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: May I say a few words upon the subject of your article of January 28 en- titled "No Refuge but in Truth"? Possibly

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220 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 a somewhat different statement of the the- ological problem will help to illustrate the position of at least some of those whom you say you "urge as our spiritual guides to face the truth boldly," and who have at least tried to think out to an issue the deej) problems of life. To such there is no more question about the Bible. The dogma of canonicity, as an d, nriori assumption, is gone forever. Whatever conclusion we may come to as to the position of the Bible in the world's literature, it v. ill be reached as the result of induction and accepted as a corollary of our faith. But to the inquirer the books of the Old and New Testaments stand ab- solutely on a par with any other historic document, to be used under the canons of historic research in the judgment of the events which they narrate, more particu- larly those told in the Gospels. Even Bishop Lightfoot, when he published his monumental work on the Apostolic Fathers, tacitly recognized that for the student of Christianity the line of the canon had ban- ished. What principles do we then contend for? I assume, we contend for two truths, abso- lutely necessary to life: the belief in a loving God, and the belief in immortality. It will help to clarify the situation if we realize that these are the essential truths for which religion stands; that without these "the Christian ideal of character" will not only be "seriously challenged," but will be lost to mankind. This is, of course, denied by some, and here is our first crux. Thomas Huxley was one of those who repudiated this dependence of morality up- on religion. Just after he had lost his child, he wrote to Charles Kingsley that when at the funeral the officiating clergy- man read the sentence, "What advantageth it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die," he could have laughed out. It seemed to him prepos- terous that the dignity of man's life should rest upon his immortality. Eighteen cen- turies separate St. Paul from Huxley. The former would to-day be classed as igno- rant, he knew nothing of science; Huxley stood at the summit of modern intellectual and scientific culture. Yet, not all our admiration for the achievements of modern science can efface the conviction that the apostle saw deeper into the realities of life than the modern scientist. We may safely leave our case for the dependence of morality upon religious belief where St. Paul left it. Were it possible that the belief in God and in a future life should utterly die out among men, what would result? Morality would gradually lose its power. Its place would be taken by cun- ning, craft, subtlety as guiding principles of life, those qualities which give the reins to selfishness, but in a manner preserve appearances. And the end — who can tell what stage above the truths society would find its new equilibrium? The belief in a good God and in a future life are not distinctively Christian arti- cles of faith. What, then, does Christianity claim as its own? As I have said, it is a question of certain events alleged to have occurred. These events constitute a revela- tion. Christianity lis a revealed religion, if it is anything. Its revelation is not a book or code of laws, but a Person. In behalf of this Person an extraordinary claim is made; He made it Himself. This claim presents itself to our reason for its justification. Into the question enter va- rious elements, among which, I make bold to say, miracle has both a legitimate and necessary place. The question, however, is a very personal one, as it touches the most delicate springs of character. We stand here upon sacred ground, and it is unneces- sary in this place to pursue the inquiry fur- ther. It is rather the bearing of revealed religion upon the truths of a loving God and immortality that we wish here to keep in mind. The philosopher may reason him- self into a belief in God and timmortality, but to most of us weak mortals the longing for faith, the desire to believe in the reality of the soul's aspirations, which Nature so often seems to mock at, finds its satisfac- tion only from One who spoke with au- thority. Robert Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra expresses the difference in his match- less way: So the all-great were the all-loving, too. I am writing under the shadow of perhaps the greatest calamity the world has ever known. A nurse who took care of the in- jured in Naples tells me that a man who was brought to them wounded, all of whose relations had been killed, refused to re- ceive comfort. They might save their pains, he told them; as soon as he got out of the hospital he would blow his brains out. Life was too terrible; to believe in a loving God, when such things happened, was impossible. Have not many felt the dis- tressing question calling for an answer? And have not many also thankfully turned from the dark mystery to One who trod this earth 'in bygone years, who spake as never man spake, the doctrine of whose Divinity fashions itself into two words, full of com- fort: He knew. What animates us, then, is the same ideal that has animated prophets and seers since the world began. The struggle for Chris- tianity is the struggle' for the spirituality of life against the allied forces of ma- terialism and superstition. That in this struggle the principle "No refuge but in truth" should prevail will seem to most of us a truism hardly worth wasting many words over. L. Henry Schwab. Rome. February 11. TRAINING FOR CONSULAR SERVICE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: At the suggestion of the Industrial Club of Chicago, Frank O. Lowden of Illi- nois, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has introduced a bill to provide tor a college, under government auspices, for the education of future con- suls. Provision is made for a course of four years, in modern languages, political economy, law, geography, and other branches suitable for aspirants to the ser- vice, who are to be nominated by Congress- men as are cadets at the military and naval colleges. It is said that such a measure meets with the approval of Mr. Root. I sug- gest a scheme which will accomplish the same result, and at infinitely less expense, by simply giving direction to the use of means already in existence. In this country we waste far too much money in the cause of ed- ucation upon brick and mortar and in the duplication of intellectual effort. It would be an easy matter to make it the duty of an officer of the Department of State to study the lists of courses offered by our colleges and universities, to select in the offering of each institution such courses as would afford a proper training for the consular service, and to advise students of such courses. A bulletin could be issued describing the work offered in various col- leges, and the officer I suggest could make periodical visits to seats of learning and give lectures to students, who are always keen to learn of possible occupations; the colleges would readily welcome such public lectures and invite the lecturer to speak before courses which give training suited to the service. His advice might profit- ably be printed in the catalogue or the announcement of courses, and be spread by freshman advisers. He could keep his eye on promising students, who at graduation might be offered situations or invited to take examinations looking to the consular service. Such an officer should be a man of great intelligence, knowledge, and savoir faire, but he could accomplish by his cooperation with the universities a large service to the government and the business interests of the country, and this at a trifling expense. His work might take a far wider scope than the consular service, so that, as in England, many of the picked men of the universities might be called to government occupations. He could select for the consular service, at any rate, a body of picked youth far su- perior to that to be gathered in a college where the candidates were selected by the random methods likely to be employed by Congressmen, who would naturally look on the choice as a bit of welcome or unwel- come patronage. The men he would choose would be proved successes among all our academic youth; their education would cost the government nothing, whereas the stu- dents in a national college would probably get their training at the expense of the state, and this cost would be for both the successful and unsuccessful. Such a preparation as will make useful consular officers is already offered by some of our universities, and could readily be ar- ranged for by others. Harvard, for in- stance, could easily make training for the service a branch of her new School of Busi- ness Administration. There is no need of special legislation to provide for such an office. Section 1753 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and executive orders of President Roose- velt make ample provision. After once the work of proper coordination and coopera- tion had been settled the office might run itself. W. F. Harris. Harvard University, February 19. AMERICAN FREE TRADE LEAGUE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Every day some one dolefully asks why it is that at hearings upon tariff re- vision many speak in support of protection; scarcely any one in opposition. The ques- tion is not hard to answer. Although those who desire high protective duties are the few, yet the interest of each is direct; al though those who are opposed are the many, yet the interest of each is indirect, if not less real. But in the aggregate the

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March 4, 1909] The Nation 221 benefits to be gained from free trade far outweigh the benefits that come from pro- tection. In order that these aggregate in- terests may be represented, organized ac- tion is essential. It is only through or- ganization that the special interests of the few can ever be made to give way to the larger interests of the many; and against organized action they must give way. The American Free Trade League is making an earnest effort to fill the need of such an organization. Will you assist, by the publication of this letter, in calling to the attention of as many of your read- ers as believe in the principles of free trade the fact that the league exists; and in urging them by becoming members to increase its strength, to the end that fu- ture tariff hearings may not be ex parte, and that statistics cited and arguments presented may not be sent broadcast over the United States without a question raised as to their accuracy and worth? Charles F. Lovejoy. Acting Secretary, American Free Trade League. No. 6 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass., February 18. LINCOLN AND THE NEGRO. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The following quotation from your editorial article of February 18, "The Negro Problem in Foreign Eyes," in the opinion of some of your readers does injustice to Lin- coln, whose views on most subjects were much more sane than those of his follow- ers: For Lincoln to see those same poor black creatures who swarmed about him when he reached Richmond after its fall, whose pa- thetic, hysterical joy over their savior from slavery he curbed with such wise and kindly advice — to see these fellow-citizens now set apart in trains, street cars, and all public places, by an iron caste, would appall the greatest apostle of democracy. In his opening speech at the fourth joint debate, Charleston, 111., in 1858, Lincoln says: I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the posi- tion of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. After reading this clearly expressed opinion — which one feels sure is shared by the great majority of us in all parts of the country — one doubts greatly if Lincoln would be "ap- palled" by the sights so feelingly described in your editorial. The extreme ante-bellum views of a few Southerners, and the negro worship which has attached to the Nation the nickname of the "color blind" journal, are equally ob- noxious to the settlement of the momentous race problem which faces this country. L. M. Passano. Boston, February 23. Notes. Lawrence Lewis has made a study of the advertising announcements in the original Spectator, which was one of the earliest magazines to carry them, and has written a book on the subject, which will be pub- lished this spring by Houghton Mifflin Co., under the title of "The Advertisements of the Spectator; being a study of the Litera- ture, History, and Manners of Queen Anne's England as they are reflected therein, as well as an Illustration of the Origins oi the Art of Advertising, with an Appendix of representative Advertisements now for the first time reprinted." Prof. George L. Kittredge furnishes an introduction. G. P. Putnam's Sons announce a volume of essays by Prof. Guglielmo Ferrero, under the title of "Characters and Events of Ro- man History." They are the lectures re- cently given by Professor Ferrero at the Lowell Institute and elsewhere. From the same publishers are to come at an early date "The Negro Problem — Abraham Lin- coln's Solution," by W. P. Pickett; "What Have the Greeks Done for Civilization," by Prof. J. P. Mahaffy, and the "Memoirs of Baron Frenilly. Kipling's new book, "With the Night Mail," to be published soon by Doubleday, Page & Co., has for sub-title, "A story of 2000 a. d., together with extracts from the contemporary magazine in which it appear- ed." The main story tells of the aerial trip in postal packet, "162" from London to Quebec in one night. The accessories are advertisements of airships, rules of the air, and other such matter from a contemporary magazine. Two interesting volumes of memoirs are promised by John Lane Co. : "The Last Journals of Horace Walpole," edited by A. F. Steuart, and "Maria Edgeworth and Her Circle in the Days of Bonaparte and Bour- bon," by Constance Hill, who has written so entertainingly of Fanny Burney's circle. Walter G. Travis is revising his book on "Practical Golf," and Harper & Bros, promise the new edition in time for the spring revival of the game. A sixth series of "Shelburne Essays," by Paul E. More, comes from G. P. Putnam's Sons. In this volume there is a departure from the earlier issues, in so far as the essays, as shown by the sub-title, "Studies of Religious Dualism," are connected in theme, and in fact form the links of a single argument. The subjects are : The Forest Philosophy of India, The Bhagavad Gita, St. Augustine, Pascal, Sir Thomas Browne, Bunyan, Rousseau, Socrates, The Apology, Plato. A "Vest-Pocket Guide to Paris," com- piled by Leonard Williams, is published by Doubleday, Page & Co. This little volume, only 3% inches by 2%, can be carried about without inconvenience and consulted without conspicuousness. The map is in sections arranged on successive pages. The ordinary sightseer will in this small com- pass find all that he needs. In "Some Southern Questions" (G. P. Put- nam's Sons), William Alexander MacCorkle, late Governor of West Virginia, has brought together six public addresses on the race question, the elective franchise, Southern industrial development, and the attitude of Southern thought to the conditions and tendencies of the times. The chief impres- sion made by the book is that whenever Gov. MacCorkle speaks he gives his audi- ence a display of the pyrotechnic oratory for which the South was once famous. It suggests the sparkling gush of a Roman candle, bombs of rhetoric popping forth in quick succession amid a haze of glowing diction. Nearly every page presents an ex- ample. We are asked to contemplate "a broken and impaired Constitution, which has unloosed from its Pandora's box the foul vultures of coming woe, which are al- ways ready to flap their wings above the dying body of a free people." Nevertheless, the South is all right: The will-o'-the-wisp and the glow-worm light our flag at night under the palms of Florida, and by day its folds are touch- ed by the sweet airs ladened with the in- cense of the orange and magnolia. Still, there may be trouble ahead. "Along the shores of the Pacific will boil with fervid heat the great caldron of the world's selfishness and greed." Therefore, it be- hooves us to be careful. In this solemn hour, when you are booted and spurred and ready to face this crisis in your country's life and this epoch in the world's history, I implore you to cher- ish in your inmost heart the true ideals of the republic. Fortunately, we are well equipped for any ordeal, for "here are the most exalted civ- ilization, the purest Christianity, the most advanced science, the most absolute civil freedom which the world ever saw." In- deed, it is well for the world that this should be so, for "under the earth-hunger of to-day justice among the nations can only relume her torch from the shrine of virtue glowing in the heart of the great Republic of the West." Incidentally it ap- pears that Gov. MacCorkle favors "broad political liberty for the negro," while no one can "adhere to absolute social and ra- cial separation" more earnestly than he does. He thinks a large navy desirable and he believes that "Manila can easily be- come, and will become, the distributing centre of the Eastern World." But he thinks the powers which the Federal gov- ernment has assumed in the Interstate Com- merce act are extremely dangerous. Al- though Gov. MacCorkle's oratorical styla may belong to a past age, his political views are decidedly modern. His account of them exhibits him as a Southern im- perialist of the school of Stephen B. El- kins. "Modern Constitutions" (University of Chicago Press) is a collection of the fun- damental laws of twenty-two countries, with historical and bibliographical notes, by Walter Fairleigh Dodd. The work is well done and it supplies conveniences for which students of political institutions will be grateful. In addition to the constitutions of European countries and those of the Federal governments established in the British Empire, the work includes those of Mexico and three South American coun- tries. Japan is the only representative of the Orient, but current events indicate that it will not stand alone in future editions of this work. It is safe to say that the present century will witness a great expan- sion of the area of constitutional law. A second edition has been issued of Prof. Frank M. Anderson's "Constitutions and

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222 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France" (Minneapolis: The H. W. Wilson Co.)- The work covers the pe- riod 1789-1907, and in view of the influence which France has had upon the social and political reconstruction of Europe during the past century, it may be fairly regarded as a key to modern history. The new mat- ter in this edition has been judiciously se- lected. It includes important documents relating to the recent separation of church and state In France. "India through the Ages" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). by Flora Annie Steel, is a pictur- esque sketch of the history of the country from the earliest times to the Great Mu- tiny. It has this attraction that the author, long a resident in the land, is thoroughly imbued with its spirit. Evidently she is also familiar with the early literature of India. While the book is not easy reading — so much is compressed into a single small volume — it will be to many a revelation of ages and people full of interest and ro- mance. The numerous stories of chivalrous and patriotic deeds with which the narra- tive is lightened bring out vividly the per- sonality of Indian men and women of past days worthy to rank with the world's he- roes. Babar, the founder of the Mogul Em- pire, for instance, who was poet, painter, musician, astronomer, who knew "the names and habits of every animal, bird and beast," who left to posterity an autobiography of himself, his thoughts, his acts, his failures, his successes, of high value as an histori- cal record, and who at the same time was a great, warrior when only in his teens — where can his parallel be found in classic or modern history? The chief interest of the history lies naturally in the first two of the three parts into which the work is divided, the ancient and middle ages; the account of the third or modern age is dis- appointing. It is little else than a state- ment of facts in which emphasis is laid more upon the mistakes of the English gov- ernors-general than upon the good they accomplished. But it affords abundant evi- dence that the British rule brought peace to a land which had been for centuries des- olated by wars and massacres. Help in tracing the course of the events narrated is to be found in the seven maps of the country at different periods from 231 B. c. to the present time. "Daybreak in Turkey" (Boston: The Pil- grim Press), by James L. Barton, D.D., is an eminently timely and readable statement of the various causes which have brought about the present conditions in the Otto- man Empire. There is a personal touch throughout which adds much to its interest; for the writer has been engaged in mis- sionary work in Turkey, and for the last fourteen years as foreign secretary of the American Board has been in constant com- munication with intelligent men, natives and foreigners, living in nearly every part of the land. He begins with a brief de- scription of the country, its government, the different races which inhabit it, and their relations to each other. Then follows an account of the work of the American missionaries, the first of whom, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, landed in Smyrna in 1820. They were instructed to keep ever in mind "the two grand inquiries": "What good can be done?" and "By what means?" And the story shows how intelligently and success- fully these inquiries have been answered by these men and their successors. To those who think that the work of the foreign mis- sionary is simply to found an American Protestant church among people utterly un- fitted for such an institution, it will come as a revelation to learn that almost from the very beginning the single aim of the men and women sent out by this society has been the moral and intellectual uplift of Turk, Kurd, and Armenian, mainly by educational means. The concluding chap- ters are upon the diplomatic relations of Turkey with other countries, the standing of missionaries, American rights, general political conditions, and some of the note- worthy incidents connected with the grant- ing of the constitution. While we recog- nize the necessity of giving scant treatment to many subjects in a volume of less than 300 pages, we are surprised that some of the most important features of the Mace- donian question should be ignored and that apparently there is no mention of Servia and the Panslavic movement. In the ac- count of the Sultan there is no reference to the fact that a little band of servitors in the palace exercise an influence over Abdul Hamid greater than that of his ministers. Ten illustrations add to the attractiveness of the book, but its value would have been increased by a map giving the different missionary stations and principal educa- tional institutions as well as the political divisions. "A Short History of Scotland," by P. Hume Brown (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd), is a convenient and readable summary of Professor Brown's larger work in three volumes. This abridgment is ob- viously intended for younger students — preeminently a narrative account told iu the clearest and simplest language, co- piously illustrated, and attractively put to- gether. Like everything else that has pro- ceeded from the pen of the .Historiographer Royal of Scotland, it is a model of accu- racy and sanity. Some readers may take exception to it on the score of propor- tion, grudge the space devoted to mediaeval battles, and to the multitude of familiar though unsubstantiated stories and legends in which Scottish history abounds, and wish instead for a fuller account of the develop- ment of national institutions. Others, turn- ing .to smaller points, may wonder why the three or four pages allotted to Flodden Field omit all reference to the movement which really made the battle decisive, the bold march of Surrey to the North on the eve of the fight, which put the English army between the Scots and their homes. But for our own part, we are not disposed to question the author's judgment in mat- ters of this sort. He not only knows his Scottish history, but also the needs and aspirations of its younger students far better than most of his critics; and we cannot forbear to add a personal expres- sion of opinion that the tendency to return to the "drum and trumpet" style of his- tory, at least in the schools, which char- acterizes this and other very recent works, is unquestionably good, in view of the ex- cesses of the modern craze for the study of constitutional questions and "sources." Prof. Hume Brown's book will probably not find many readers in this country, as those who are interested in Scottish history at all are qualified to study it in works of a more advanced character, but we do not hesitate to predict for this admirable man- ual a long and successful life in Great Brit- ain. Neo-scholasticism, after fifteen years of rapid progress on the Continent, has at last gathered power enough in England to get its "Principles of Logic" written there by George Hayward Joyce, S. J. (Longmans, Green, & Co.). A generation which has forgotten Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas will thumb with dumb wonder this book, which is the thirteenth century speaking, with its own grammar, the words of the twentieth. It accepts as its starting point the scholastic philosophy and its ecclesi- astical factors, God, the world, and the human soul; and, while presenting the tra- ditional logic of this Weltanschauung, It gives a running criticism of its enemies from Descartes to the Oxford humanists of this day hour. Of the two parts of the work, the first lies beyond praise and cen- sure, being a slightly modernized, dogmatic restatement of the orthodox "Logic of Thought." The second part, however, has certain attractions for the student of logic, and perhaps also for the critic of human nature. Here is no longer simple scholasti- cism, but neo-scholasticism, the tardy scion of Doctor Angelicus wrestling with science of the revolt, striving to make its every utterance pendent to Roman metaphysics, and yet hoping to keep in running order its engines of research. The Applied Logic that comes of this cannot be briefly de- scribed ; but it may be imagined from two fundamental positions which the neo-scho- lastic takes. Touching the open-mindedness which the investigator must preserve, Father Joyce puts some religious and sci- entific beliefs beyond liability of correction. "When once absolute certainty has been at- tained," he says, "then the supposition of contradictory evidence becomes an' absurd- ity." It would be cruel to ask Father Joyce how he discovers anything to be absolutely certain; for to that he could make but one answer, without an appeal to faith, and that answer is: "By proving all supposedly con- tradictory evidence absurd." Unfortunately, the writer does not cite a single scientific fact confirming his view. Then there is the second thesis, that no rules can be laid down for the search after truth, all so-called rules being mere common-sense. The early Cartesians reproached the scholastics for dismissing experimental method thus curtly ; but Father Joyce has not changed or improved upon his Thomist predecessors' lame defence, which was that, in an infinitely complex universe, nobody can reckon with all contingencies by form- ula. Writing for beginners, Father Joyce is clear, simple, and lavish with illustra- tions. The student prejudiced against me- diaeval Latin cannot do better than turn to this book for an exposition of the subtlest, most closely knit, most treacherous of Oc- cidental philosophies. And, if he will keep an eye open for sophistries, he will learn much about the art of clear thinking that is not to be picked up in the schools of the renaissance. The usual "helps" of teachers' Bibles contain a good deal of obsolete material, and, owing to the numerous subdivisions, information is often hard to find by those most in need of it. It was a happy thought of the Rev. Jesse Lyman Hurlbut to com- bine in his "Handy Bible Encyclopaedia"

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March 4, 1909J The ISTation. 223 (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company), under one alphabetical arrangement, both concordance and subject dictionary, biographical and geographical material, a dictionary of Biblical antiquities and cus- toms, descriptions of the books of the Bible, and translations and versions. The result is a convenient reference volume, compact in compass, in which the general reader may find readily the location of an important verse, the various passages on a particular subject, or definition and de- scription of an obscure phrase or topic. The work is designed for popular use, but will be found convenient by almost any Biblical student. "The Illustrated Bible Dictionary," edited by the Rev. William C. Piercy (E. P. Dut- ton & Co.), is a cumbersome and heavy volume of nearly a thousand pages, cover- ing the usual ground of dictionaries of the Bible, and treating a large number of titles briefly, with many illustrations. The space allotted to important subjects is altogether too meagre. The point of view is decidedly conservative, and scant courtesy is allowed to critical opinions now generally received. The thirty-first issue of the standard an- nual reference book of Kurschner has been brought out by Dr. Heinrich Klenz, under the title "Kurschners deutscher Literatur-Kalender auf das Jahr 1909." It contains eight portraits of leading writers, and in its two thousand columns prints a wealth of the latest data concerning au- thors and their works. It brings down all the details to the first of last October. The complete works of Wilhelm von Po- lenz, who at the time of his death was one of the most attractive literary figures in the ranks of Young Germany, and who gave evidence of his mature judgment in his last work, the remarkable volume on America, "Das Land der Zukunft," are being pub- lished in eight volumes by F. Fontane & Co., Berlin, with a preface by Prof. Adolf Bartels. A selection from the letters of Schiller's wife, edited by Ludwig Geiger, is being pub- lished under the title "Charlotte von Schil- ler und ihre Freunde" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Beginners in the Russian language and literature will be helped by the new addi- tion to the series known as Sammlung G6- schen, under the special title, "Russische Literatur: Auswahl moderner Prosa und Poesie mit ausfiihrlichen Anmerkungen und Akzentbezeichnung," by Dr. Erich Boehme. The selections are mostly short extracts from Gorky and other modern writers. In- cluded are two manifestoes of the Czar. The explanatory notes, in many cases including literal translations, are very copious. The third volume of the "Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels," written, like the second, by Dr. J. Goldfriedrich, tells the story of the book trade during the classi- cal period of German literature, the period of reprinting (1766-1804). The period Is personified by Philipp Erasmus Reich, the reorganizer of the Weidmannsche Buch- handlung in Leipzig, and the Vienna re- printer, Johann Thomas von Trattner. Other men of the period are Immanuel Breitkopf, the printer and type-founder, inventor of modern music printing, Friedrich Nico- lai in Berlin, J. G. Cotta in Stuttgart, Goe- the's and Schiller's publisher, and others whose names still live in the firms founded by them. The rejuvenation of the German literature, the growing reading habit, and the technical development of printing go hand in hand; literary almanacks and pop- ular calendars abound; we see the begin- nings of the cheap popular literature; the first encyclopaedias are published, cir- culating libraries come in vogue as adjuncts to the bookstores. In a well-condensed and entertaining work (Berlin: Karl Curtius), Joh. Fr. Wilhelm writes flatteringly of "Ameri- kanisches Geschaftsleben," discussing the American workman's world, the prep- aration of the American business man, American managers, their office and factory organization, methods of sale and business monopolies, the superiority claimed for American machinery, and the relation of trusts to socialism. To the author, "busi- ness" is the paramount idea with the ma- jority of Americans, and Americans suc- ceed in business partly because of their greater mobility and the extent to which they move freely from one end of the coun- try to the other, and partly because their methods, for the most part, are superior. No other country, in its public day and evening schools, and its private "business colleges," offers such opportunities for youth to start in business in a practical way, and no other country accomplishes as much through almost perfect systems for dividing lajbor and economizing time and energy in both office and workshop. While the Germans are felicitating them- selves over the lucky agreement reached between Germany and France, the French continue their fun at the expense of Em- peror William. "Le Cesar Allemand devant les siens et devant ses allies" is the title of an illustrated volume, just issued at Paris, containing a hundred cartoons, with French text, reproduced from German, Austrian, and Italian papers. Under the title "H. Taine: Pages Chois- ies," Prof. Victor Giroud of Freiburg in Switzerland, the author of an "Essai sur Taine," which was crowned by the French Academy, is publishing a selection from the writings of Taine. The first part con- tains principally letters; the second, early writings from 1853-1864. The whole is to be completed in five volumes. Among French books which treat of cur- rent literature, we may note a posthumous volume of Albert Sorel, "Notes et por- traits" (Paris: Plon). It contains a lucid study of Maurice Barres, among other con- temporaries; the sober, judicious thought of the author may here be found without fatigue, in a way to inspire confidence in his long historical works, since he so well understood those younger than himself. Jules Bertaut publishes a sort of univer- sity extension course on another interest- ing side of contemporary literature, "La Litterature feminine d'aujourd'hui" (Annales politiques et litteraires). Alphonse Sechg edits yet another anthology, "Les Muses franchises" (Paris: Louis-Michaud), en- tirely devoted to French women poets of this twentieth century — about a score of names, of whom the best known are Mes- dames Daudet, Delarue-Mardrus, Lucie Felix-Faure-Goyau, Rosemonde Gerard (Rostand), F. Gregh, Gerard d'Houville (Henri de Regnicr), Daniel Lesueur, Ca- tulle-Mendes, (Comtesse) Mathieu de No- ailles, H. Vacaresco, Rene Vivien. Those who find pleasure in literature in the mak- ing will like the rather expensive two vol- umes (15 francs, Blaizot), "Lettres de J Barbey d'Aurevilly a Trebutien"; this pre- destined correspondent of geniuses is the Trebutien of Maurice and Eugenie de Guerin. At the instance of the Commissioner of Education, President Hadley of Yale has in- vestigated the facilities for advanced study and research in the offices of the Federal Government, at Washington. His findings, just published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education, clear much of the ground around the proposed national university. It is clear that, were all of Washington's twenty-six Federal libraries, together with all her museums and laboratories, put down on a campus and turned over to a faculty and students, there would be a fair equip- ment for such an institution. Advanced students have long been received in vari- ous bureaus and given every opportunity that does not infringe upon official work. But the undertakings of the Government must first be considered; and, whereas in 1901 there were accommodations for not more than 272 students, to-day less than ICO can be favored. The enormous in- crease of department activities under Pres- ident Roosevelt has crowded the bureaus so that there is no bench, desk, or chair left for the learner. The bureaus cannot be transformed into colleges, un- less Congress doubles their floor-space and equipment. Even if room were provided, two much more serious difficulties remain. President Hadley points out that the pres- ence of students generally reduces the ad- ministrative efficiency of a bureau: The labor of student assistants is, as a rule, neither very efficient nor very easy to handle. An untrained man employed at $ri00 rarely does half as much work for his chief as the trained man at $1,000. The work ct supervising two $500 men takes a great deal more of the time and strength oi the higher official than the work of su- pervising a single $1,000 man. Moreover, only the most advanced investi- gators can work more profitably in a bu- reau than in an ordinary graduate school: Certain bureaus are first-rate training places for some men. The student who has chosen his line of life, and has had his pre- liminary theoretical training, can often spend his last year of study with great ad- vantage in immediate connection with the chiefs under whom he is going to serve; and if his promotion depends upon his suc- cess in doing the work they want, it will furnish a stimulus to him and a help to them. But where these conditions are ab- sent— where the man's promotion does not depend upon the chief under whom he is studying, where his studies are not being turned to a particular form of government service, or where he is deficient in the nec- essary theoretical training — the case is re- versed. By all means let the government of- fices accommodate as many special students as their facilities and appropriations will admit; but let these students get their theoretical training elsewhere if we wish to secure the maximum efficiency and economy from the educational standpoint, as well as from the administrative one. Tn brief, the trend of modern education and government is away from a national university which shall make classrooms of the offices where the nation's business it conducted. Though the United States Forest Service, for example, welcomed ths neophyte for seven years, it found neither

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224 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 our trees nor the neophyte benefited by the arrangement. The announcement in the press dispatch- es that Representative Samuel W. McCall had accepted the presidency of Dartmouth has proved incorrect. In a letter pub- lished February 25 he declines the honor, and says, among other things: The work which I am trying to do was not entered upon by accident, and if I have not pursued it with success it at least is not because my vows were lightly taken. And since I did not lightly take it up I cannot, in what I believe to be a very grave crisis, drop it easily and shift to something else. I may be accomplishing little of value, but I happen to be on the battle line and I should indeed be a sorry soldier nicely to weigh causes and to de- cide at this moment to step out of the ranks. This is not the place for political dis- course, but perhaps I should say to you that the crisis I referred to is in my opin- ion full of peril to our institutions, and how soon the movement is to begin toward sanity and safety I do not know. I am far less concerned by particular theories than by general methods of government — meth- ods which have been carrying us swiftly toward a condition under which limitation upon governmental power would be done away with and favoritism and caprice of an autocrat would take the place of con- stitutional restraint. And some chance barbarian as an autocrat might overturn our temples and do more harm in the di- rection of uncivilizing the country than all our colleges together could possibly re- pair. At the annual meeting of the New Eng- land Association of Teachers of English, to be held March 20. the Committee on Aids in Teaching will report on "A Class-Room Weekly Paper" (W. S. Hinchman, Groton School), "The Use of Specimens in the Class-Room" (P. W. C. Hersey, Harvard), and "Debating Clubs" (W. S. Hinchman). Prof. G. P. Baker of Harvard will give an address on "The Educational Theatre." Ioswich and Woodbridge are to celebrate the centenary of Edward FitzGerald's birth on the 27th and 28th of this month. What will that quiet spirit feel beneath the drums and tramplings of fame? John Boyd Thacher, formerly a member of the New York State Senate, and Mayor of Albany, died in that city February 25, at the age of sixty-one. He was born in Ball- ston and was a graduate of Williams Col- lege. He was a collector of autographs, rare books, and historical manuscripts. His col- lection of autographs, more than 25,000 in ^ number, is said to be one of the most valu- able in this country; and he also had many fifteenth century first editions, as well as manuscripts and papers on the French Revolution. His published works include "The Continent of America: Its Discovery and Its Baptism" (1896); "Charlecote: or the Trial of William Shakespeare" (1896); "Little Speeches," "The Cabotian Discov- ery," "Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains" (3 vols., 1903-4); "Out- lines of the French Revolution Told in Au- tographs" (1905). On February 26 the Rev. Dr. Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, the well-known Presby- terian clergyman, died at his Brooklyn home in his eighty-eighth year. He was a graduate of Princeton College and of the Princeton Theological Seminary, and from 1860 to 1890 was pastor of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in the city where he died. He was prominent in pub- lic life, and, in 1856, helped to organize the Republican party. As a writer, his pen was indefatigable, his contributions to the magazines and newspapers having been cal- culated at more than 4,000. Besides these, he published a number of books: "Stray Arrows," "Cedar Christian," "The Empty Crib," "Wayside Springs," "Right to the Point," "Thought Hives," "God's Light on Dark Clouds," "Pointed Papers," "Heart Life," "From the Nile to Norway," "Newly Enlisted," "The Young Preacher," "How to Be a Pastor," "Stirring the Eagle's Nest," "Christianity in the Home," "Beu- lah-Land," "Mountain-tops with Jesus," "Help and Good Cheer," "Recollections of a Long Life — An Autobiography" (1902), and "Our Christmastides" (1904). George Selwyn Kimball of Bangor, a writer on life in the Maine forests, died March 1 at Waverly, Mass., aged sixty-two. He was author of "Piney Home" (1904), "Jay Gould Harmon" (1905), and "The Lacka- wannas on Moosehead" (1907). The Rev. Daniel March, for many years a Congregational clergyman at Woburn, Mass., died in that city March 2, at the age of ninety-two. He was the author of a num- ber of religious books, including: "Night Scenes in the Bible," "Walks and Homes of Jesus," and "From Dark to Dawn." James A. Le Roy, secretary to William H. Taft in the Philippines, and later American consul at Durango, Mex., from August, 1903, to March, 1907, died February 28, in the military hospital at Fort Bayard, New Mexico. Mr. Le Roy had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the history of the Philippines, and with the present state of affairs there, and contributed many arti- cles on these matters to the Nation. From Pau comes the report of the death of the Marquis de Saint Yves, who was born in Paris in 1842. Under the name of Saint Yves d'Alveydre, he published a number of books, including: "La Mission des Juifs," "La Mission des souverains," "La Mission des ouvriers," "La France vraie," and "Le Poeme de Jeanne d'Arc." A ROMANTIC POET REVIVED. Joseph and His Brethren: A Dramatic Poem. By Charles Wells. With an Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne and a Note on Rossetti and Charles Wells by Theodore Watts- Dunton. The World's Classics. New York: Henry Frowde. If cheapness of form and authority of sponsors can bring a book to its pub- lic, then "Joseph and His Brethren" has at last come to its own. Wells has in- deed been for many years a kind of cult among a certain class of English- men, but in this country he has re- mained practically unknown. His story is peculiar. He was born in 1800. At the Edmonton school he became ac- quainted with Tom Keats, and through him with the poet Keats and the little circle then dreaming mighty things in London. Practical jokes were part of their poetical life, but a jest of Wells's, by which he personated an imaginary lady, "Amena," in love with Tom Keats, went too far. The discovery of the hoax had on the consumptive lad a pitiable effect, and in his elder brother, the poet, aroused immitigable wrath — he did "not think death too bad for the villain." Then, having been "cut by- Keats and his group," Wells determined to let them see that "he too could make a mark in literature." The result was a volume of "Stories after Nature," pub- lished in 1822, and characterized by Mr. Watts-Dunton as "of a fascinating remoteness not to be found . . . elsewhere, save in metrical composi- tion." No copy of this book, we believe, is now known to exist in this country, and only three or four in England. Two years later he brought out his drama — dramatic in form, but not for the stage — of "Joseph and His Breth- ren," which, like his prose, fell utterly dead from the press. After this he wrote a novel, "Gaston de Blondeville," which never found a publisher, and con- siderable verse which he destroyed in manuscript. He lived many years in France, dying in 1879. Most of this information is given by Mr. Watts-Dunton in his really delight- ful "Note" prefixed to this volume, and with it an account of the place held by Wells in the creed of Rossetti and his circle: No young poet at one time dared show his face at 16 Cheyne Walk, or at Madox Brown's great studio in Fitzroy Square, or at Westland Marston's mid- night gatherings by Chalk Farm, or at Lady Duffus Hardy's At Homes, who could not utter the Shibboleth. The so-called Pre-Raphaelite poets, Arthur O'Shaugh- nessy, John Payne, Philip Marston, Theo. Marzials, and Edmund Gosse himself, had to read "Joseph and His Brethren" in or- der to exist. Carefully and anxiously was the copy at the British Museum thumbed by many an aspirant to poetic fame. Mr. Watts-Dunton tells a vivid story of a long conversation about the poem with Rossetti, then living with William Morris at Kelmscott, and his own jour- ney forthwith to the British Museum. Some of the mysterious potency of the hardly-accessible perhaps passed away when the book was reprinted in 1876 with revision from the author's hand. Swinburne heralded the publication with a laudatory essay in the Fortnight- ly Review, which was taken over as an introduction to the new edition, and again serves the same purpose for the volume now before us. Mr. Watts (now Watts-Dunton) called attention to the work in a signed communication to the Athenwum (April 8, 1876), which has been incorporated in the introductory paper on "Rossetti and Charles Wells." But copies of the second edition (1876) are to-day rare in England and can scarcely exist at all in America. The new reprint from the Oxford Press will for many readers afford the first acquaintance with a poem noteworthy for its historical associations and high- ly interesting in Itself.

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March 4, 1909] The ]STation. 225 It is not, of course, necessary to ac- cept the valuation set on Wells's work by the Rossetti group. It belongs to that succession of ambitious epic-dramas including Bailey's "Festus" and Alex- ander Smith's "Life Drama," which by their Elizabethan echoes aroused ex- travagant but short-lived enthusiasms. The Elizabethan notes are clear enough in "Joseph," but, in our judgment, both of its present sponsors have missed the point in emphasizing its Shakespearean quality. "This passage," says Swin- burne, "at least- has the absolute ring of Shakespeare; 'pure fire indeed': Attendant. Then, madam, you would say That there is nothing in the world but love. Phraxanor. Not quite; but I would say the fiery sun Doth not o'ershine the galaxy so tar; Nor doth a torch within a jewell'd mine Amaze the eye beyond this diamond here More than the ruddy offices of love Do glow before the common steps of life And again, quoting the dismissal of Jo- seph by Potiphar's wife after her futile attempt at seduction, he thinks "the quiet, heavy malice of this is as wor- thy of Shakespeare as the elaborate and faultless music of the passage on love which precedes it: Phraxanor. I have a mind You shall at once walk with those honest limbs Into your grave." Not Shakespeare, but the later Eliza- bethans, or Jacobeans, inspired that note. One feels here something close and sultry in the atmosphere; that sec- ond passage particularly has the very gait and mark of Ford ; and, indeed, the passion throughout is Ford's, although it may lack the illicit sting that the au- thor of " 'Tis Pity" so willingly employ- ed. If it should be rejoined that Ford is essentially a dramatist of the cham- ber and closed doors, whereas Wells, as Mr. Watts-Dunton asserts, is one of the true Vagabonds, we can only submit that this critic's predilection for the gypsy world has led him to find far more of this spirit in Wells than is visible to us, and that still Wells's coun- try is not that of Shakespeare, but, let us say, of Beaumont and Fletcher. Swin- burne finds another instance of Shake- spearean reserve in Phraxanor's first intimation to her husband of Joseph's imputed crime: Phraxanor. Will you praise him, my honor'd lord? Potiphar. Why so? Phraxanor. Because he never must be prais'd again. He comes nearer the mark when he adds that "touches like these occur in Webster." There is in Phraxanor's words something oppressive, something that hints of cruelty and gloating over pain, with an indirection suggestive of brooding madness; they might be found in Webster, but again they are rather the speech of Ford. A hundred epithets and brief passages remind us contin- ually that we are in the same world from which Keats drew so much of his inspiration, not because he, and Wells, chose deliberately the successors of Shakespeare for their model, but be- cause the attempt to imitate Shake- speare almost invariably strikes thus to one side of the mark. One feels this in Wells's And fearful soundings in this dragon world, To find them easy footings to their graves; or, And the great city like a vision sails From out the closing doors of the hush'd mind; or, In this immensity Upon the drouthy sands doth silence dwell — And wandering winds are lost in loneli- ness. The whole scene between Joseph and Phraxanor and then between Phraxa- nor and Potiphar is a marvellous re- plica of late Elizabethan work, and the earlier and later events of Joseph's life, developed legitimately from the Bible story, are curiously successful in avoid- ing the tedium that might be ex- pected in such work. At times the visionary poet and the dramatist come together, producing a passage at once splendid and human, as in this speech of Joseph to his father on the envy of his brothers, which may stand as a fair specimen of Wells at his best: They act as if the world. And all the nations wide, and cities wall'd, Were no such things: as if this spot of ours. Our fields, our cattle, were the all in be- ing.— Would they be envious, let them then be great, Envy old cities, ancient neighborhoods, Great men of trust, and iron-crowned kings: For household envy is a household rat; Envy of state a devil of some fear. For me — this Bethel limits not my sight; For in imagination I can see Countries beyond, nurs'd by the wit of man. Wiser in harvest, greater in defence, With state and pomp and majesty serene: E'en in my sleep my mind doth eat strange food, Enough to strengthen one against this hate. With you, my brethren, I was binding sheaves. When mine arose and stood in front of yours. And yours bent grievous low unto the ground: Nay, more (yet think me not irreverent), The sun, and moon, and the eleven stars Sank, and obey'd me; which is sure a sign That I am greater than my sire and ye, However passive in humility; Be it in love, or act, I leave to time. Or Heaven of purpose put this in my view, Or else my mind being troubled of the grief Of your displeasures, vain of some great power, Might fancy this in sleep. I do not know ; But feel resolv'd no more to plague my heart, While you, my brothers, treat me with such scorn. CURRENT FICTION. The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig. By David Graham Phillips. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Mr. Phillips's excursions into polite society are always edifying. He has so obviously and complacently the air of the bull in the china shop that there is no gainsaying him his fun. Joshua Craig is a hero after his own heart. Joshua has a loudly and incessantly voiced con- tempt for fashion, and an instinctive appetite for it. Otherwise, he is an al- together impossible person in most senses. It is one thing to be a bold, rough man from the West, and another to have no sense of decency. Joshua is a boor as well as a bear. He literally, as well as metaphorically, puts his feet on the table of civilization. He is a composite of all the brutal young Lochinvars who have recently come out of the West to reform society as it ef- fetely exists on the Atlantic seaboard. The gilded halls into which he is in- troduced resound with his braggart in- solence. In real life, such a person would be expelled without ceremony; but Josh- ua bears a charmed social life, and his outrageousness seems to strike the good- natured, open-hearted "society people" of Washington as rather quaint and engaging than otherwise. He is also for- tunate in love, for, having selected for his mate a girl of the most exquisite beauty and breeding, he proceeds to give her the handling of a Sal or a Sue, with perfect impunity. Joshua is as free of manner in my lady's cham- ber as in the marble palaces of the great, as relentlessly absorbed in his own affairs, as indifferent to the com- fort of others. But the lady (who has, to be sure, reached a certain age and is anxious to marry) seems attracted rath- er than repelled by the hideous specta- cle. He is not only ungentlemanly — he is grossly insulting, wantonly insult- ing, on every possible occasion before their marriage. Finally, she does half- heartedly run away from him, where- upon he follows her and sees to it that they are married offhand. We are given to understand that this serves her right, and in a sense it does, for she has lit- tle real refinement or sensitiveness of nature. She has the superficial and chief- ly physical fastidiousness of the fine lady who is bathed by her maid in three waters every morning, and spends some two hours over the rest of her toilet. But she is inherently common, natur- ally built to be the Maggie of whatever insistent Josh might come along. Mr. Phillips evidently does not mean to give this impression of her; he tries to rep-

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226 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 resent her as a person of unusual sensi- bility and of very strong will. Above all, perhaps, he is anxious to show that an aristocrat is human for all that. And certainly if we are willing to accept the other allegations with regard to Joshua, there is no reason for sticking at his amazing marriage. We find him assistant to the Attor- ney-General, with that functionary (as well as the President) under his thumb. Both of these powers wish to get rid of him, because he is obstructing their comfortable relations with certain great corporate interests which, for political reasons, they are pretending to oppose. But Joshua will not be got rid of, and by way of compromise the Postmaster- General presently resigns, and Joshua becomes his successor — or rather, is giv- en the appointment; for, in the eleventh hour, he decides not to take it, but to go back to Minnesota and run for Gov- ernor. He has also an offer outstanding to become a corporation lawyer at a huge salary. Indeed, the closing chapters of the story do much to atone for what has gone before. Craig displays a genuine magnanimity in really important mat- ters, and his wife shows herself unex- pectedly capable of responding in kind. Their feeling for each other is seen to deserve the name of love, and they set out for Wayne, Minnesota, with a rea- sonable hope of happiness in ways that count. It is a pretty problem, and if Mr. Phillips had put it less crudely and splashily, his audience would, no doubt, be more likely to dismiss it as a very old one. Miss Fallowfield's Fortune. By Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. Those who found this author's sto- ries of Isabel Carnaby oppressively bril- liant will have no cause for complaint on that score concerning her latest work. In these pages the moralizing spirit is almost as obvious as in the good old days of -the "Wide, Wide World" and "Sandford and Merton," when no subtle coating was thought necessary for the pill of precept. The long arm of coincidence is as visible here as the hand of an operator of marionettes. Charlotte Fallowfleld, beau- tiful, ambitious, and poor, prays for wealth. Her lover immediately inher- its a fortune of a million pounds, and survives only long enough to leave the entire sum to her. She lives on alone with her orphaned niece Dagmar, against a village background of irrel- evant, garrulous, and intensely weari- some supernumeraries, until the arrival of a new rector with his son Claude. After a brief courtship, enlivened by the author's pregnant asides on the evils of jealousy, Miss Fallowfield and the rector are married, and set sail on their wedding-trip. Without revealing the rest of the plot, with its elaborate- ly arranged suspense, we may say that the story, as a whole, lacks impressive- ness and challenges unfavorable com- parison with Besant's handling of a somewhat similar theme in "Beyond the Dreams of Avarice." Three Girls and a Hermit. By Doro- thea Conyers. New York: E. P. Dut- ton & Co. The trio of unsophisticated maidens who sally forth from wild seclusion to seek their fortune in the world, seems much the mode at present in the United Kingdom. Miss Macnaughtan has shown us in "The Three Miss Graemes" Scot- land's meeting of the exigent situation, and we are now given a chance to com- pare their conduct with that of their Irish sisters. The three Miss Considines are by no means such patterns of pro- priety as blossom among the heather. One would compare them rather to the gorse — brilliant, thorny, and hard to train. But after much indiscretion and a bitterness of condemnation that ex- ceeds their deserts, they all find the ful- filment of their hopes and of their needs — kindly and competent protec- tors. The book owes its charm to the pungent portrayal of Irish character, and its unexpected idioms are a source of keen delight to the reader. The Eternal Boy. By Owen Johnson. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. To any one who has heard a group of old schoolmasters revivifying one an- other in vacation by recalling the rascal days of their boyhood, 'it will not be dif- ficult to suggest the note of these Law- renceville stories, celebrating the ubiquitous and inextinguishable Hickey Hicks and his friends. Though most of the escapades are of a mellow antiquity — stealing the clapper of the bell, hang- ing the skeleton in the chapel, arrang- ing a secret prize fight — they are vital- ized by fresh touches of nature, and re- cited with unmistakable gusto. Two or three of them are more broadly con- ceived, especially "The Political Edu- cation of Mr. Baldwin," in which a local campaign suggested by a member of the faculty to instil in the boys ideas of po- litical purity and disinterested useful- ness develops with surprising rapidity every form of bribery and corrupt bar- gaining. This imitation of mature citi- zenship the author appears to relish as much as the minor deviltries. It is an indication of the hearty strenuousness which is the only moral virtue much emphasized by the book. From a peda- gogical point of view the disdainful treatment of the teachers is deplorable; if the "Eternal Boy" falls into the hands of juvenile readers it will amuse without edification. To teachers, how- ever, and other discreet adults it may be commended as an entertaining and per- haps even instructive interpretation of the schoolboy spirit. Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine. Edited by Harriet S. Blaine Beale. 2 vols., pp. 316; 326. New York: Duffield & Co. $4 net. Blaine has had rather too much than too little championship from his fam- ily and connections. Gail Hamilton (Miss Dodge), his wife's cousin, and for years a member of his household, wrote one undiscriminating eulogy; Ed- ward Stanwood, also closely related to his wife, has written a "Life" which is more discriminating, but still mainly apologetic. If one merely dips into these letters of Mrs. Blaine, and goes no fur- ther, one is likely to say at once that they might better have been left unpub- lished. As it happens, those which come first particularly abound in domestic detail, which looks out of place, and even a trifle ludicrous, in print. Se- vere editing would have spared us much of the information we get concern- ing the children's wardrobes. But it might also have robbed us of this, which we should regret to have lost: Mrs. Warren Fisher has another daugh- ter— a great disappointment to her, as they are anxious to have a son and this is the fourth daughter. I am sorry to say that Mr. Fisher seems to be fast losing in the esteem of all good men. But as one goes on, one likes the let- ters better and better — and Mrs. Blaine also. True, the letters do not rise above the level of the talk and corre- spondence of many bright American women. The atmosphere is that of many American homes. But it is a de- cidedly pleasant atmosphere, and Mrs. Blaine talks out of it — usually to her children — without the least affectation or studied cleverness, and with a pleas- ing heartiness and common sense. Of course, one reads chiefly for allu- sions to her husband and his more fa- mous contemporaries; and these, hap- pily, are not made as if with the slight- est expectation of the public's ever see- ing them. They are utterly free, and sometimes very intimate. Garfield, for instance, is frequently "Gaffy." But he does not suffer from this affectionate familiarity. The day of his assassina- tion, Mrs. Blaine was quickly at the White House: I stood with Mrs. McVeagh in the hall when a dozen men bore him above their heads, stretched on a mattress, and as he saw us, and held us with his eye, he kissed his hand to us. I thought I should die. Grant does not fare so well — as witness this: Friday (February 16, 1872), we had our Presidential dinner. Oh, how glad I am to have it over! . . . The President is so heavy in everything but feeding — there he is very light. He talked incessantly about himself.

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March 4, 1909J The JSTation. 227 Arthur fares worse still: All his ambition seems to centre in the social aspect of the situation. Flowers and wine and food, and slow pacing with a lady on his arm, and a quotation from Thack- eray or Dickens, or an old Joe Miller joke, told with an uninterfered-with particular- ity, . . . make up his book of life. It is to Arthur's Administration, by the way, that unofficial Washington — particularly the Washington of teas and dinner-parties — looks back with most re- gret! Naturally, Blaine himself fares best of all. His weaknesses are not spared, but if any testimony to his likeableness were needed, here it is in abundance from the bright companion of all his active years. One remembers, of course, how Macaulay disposed of those defenders of Charles I who would set against his public acts his private vir- tues and amiability; but our human nature refuses to be entirely put down by his sarcasm; and most of us will in- cline to think a little better of Blaine — at any rate, we will vnsh to think bet- ter of him — after reading a passage like this: I miss Mr. Blaine. I cannot bear the or- derly array of my life. I miss the envelopes in the gravy, the bespattered table linen, the uncertainty of the meals, for you know he always starts out on his constitutional when he hears them taking in dinner. I miss his unvarying attention, and as con- stant neglect. When alone with him, I am not my own. When others are in, go as you please is the rule, and the alternation suits me exactly. Or this: Now that I am absolutely mending, your father is in gay spirits. My attack com- pletely broke him up. Had it not been so pathetic, it would have been amusing. He would not go to the Senate, thought him- self sick, broke all his engagements, and excused himself to everybody on the ground that he could not leave me. In my room he sat on my bed or creaked across from corner to corner by the hour, making me feel a guilty wretch to cause him so much misery. Or this: Here your father, who cannot bear to be alone, though he prohibits talking, is devot- ing himself to the most difficult portion of his eulogy [the eulogy on Garfield, after- wards read before Congress], the long sick- ness, with its fatal termination. For the second time this morning, I see him tak- ing from the drawer a fresh pocket hand- kerchief, with which he vainly tries to hide his tears, and this time, wholly over- come, he has beaten a retreat to the blue room. Oh, M., there indeed is a Douglas, tender and true! Or even this, written when the excite- ment over the Mulligan letters was at its height: You confirm what I have always said, that those who know him most, love him best. I dare to say that he is the best man I have ever known. Do not misunder- stand me, I do not say that he is the best man that ever lived, but that of all the men whom I have thoroughly known, he is the best. The last might be the testimonial of any loving wife to the virtue of any af- fectionate husband; but we must take it with Blaine's successful standing of a severe test; for Mrs. Blaine was thor- oughly aware of his remarkably strong tendency to hypochondria — a kind of weakness women find it hard to condone in men. As Mr. Stanwood has pointed out, it grew on Blaine until, near the end, it became almost a positive demen- tia. That state of mind seems, in fact, to have been the chief reason why, in the winter of 1887-8, Blaine took him- self out of the race for the Presidency. There is a useless index, consisting of a list of proper names, with nothing but the pages on which they are referred to. The notes are school-girlish, and not without errors. Napoleon and the Archduke Charles: A History of the Franco-Austrian Cam- paign in the Valley of the Danube in 1809. By F. Loraine Petre. With 8 illustrations and 5 sheets of maps and plans; pp. xiv+413. New York: John Lane Co. $4. This is not Mr. Petre's first appear- ance as a military historian. His vol- umes on Napoleon's campaigns in Po- land and Prussia were favorably receiv- ed and will doubtless remain for a long time the most complete treatment of that subject in English. The present work deals with a topic that "has re- ceived scant notice in England and has been a good deal misunderstood. The misunderstanding has been mainly due to Napoleon's successful misrepresenta- tion of the earlier part [of the cam- paign] as one of his greatest and most successful efforts." This misunder- standing no longer exists for military specialists, for the monographic work of German, French, and Austrian offi- cers, based upon documents in the mili- tary archives of various European coun- tries, has at last made possible a clear comprehension or Napoleon's opera- tions. The most important of these works are by Saski ("Campagne de 1809"), Bonnal ("Manoeuvre de Lands- hut"), Angeli ("Erzherzog Karl als Feldherr"), and Binder-Kriegelstein. The results of these investigations were, however, inaccessible to the public, and even to the many students of military history who do not read German, and it is this want that Mr. Petre has sup- plied. Besides the books mentioned above, he has made use of the correspon- dence of Napoleon and some dozen oth- er works that treat wholly or partly of the campaign of 1809. Mr. Petre also visited the ground itself, studied the battles on the spot, and has given us some excellent photographs. The re- sultant volume, though serviceable to the general reader, will not fully meet the needs of the student who would use it as an introduction to a more de- tailed investigation of the subject; for it contains no bibliography; the foot- notes are incomplete, and often lacking entirely; and some of the maps are poorly made. Clearly, the book is not from the pen of a critically trained his- torian, but it is so much better than anything we previously possessed in English that we should feel grateful for it. Mr. Petre confines his attention almost exclusively to military operations, and barely touches the diplomatic compli- cations that were so serious, especially in the interval between Aspern and Wagram. Such a limitation is, of course, perfectly legitimate. A brief introduc- tion on the origin of the war is follow- ed by chapters on the armies and their leaders, the preparations on both sides, the theatre and the plans of operation. Five chapters are devoted to the cam- paign around Ratisbon, three to the march to Vienna, and five to the battles of Aspern and Wagram. There is lit- tle fine writing; the pages are crowded with facts and figures, and at times the narrative seems in danger of being swamped by details. If the writer does not always draw order from chaos, the fault is not wholly his, for the opera- tions were often lacking in unity. Throughout the campaign, Napoleon was favored by fortune: his opponent generally missed his opportunity and gave the Emperor abundant time to correct mistakes. At first Napoleon dis- played remarkable ability in concen- trating the forces that had been so stupidly scattered by Berthier that the French army was practically at the mercy of the advancing and concentrat- ed Austrians. But in carrying out this operation, Napoleon often acted on in- complete data, and took chances that would have been fatal had he been op- posed to an energetic and well-informed general. Napoleon's whole conception of conditions was optimistic and often false. He counted, for example, on the arrival of Massena at Landshut twen- ty-four hours before Massena reached it; "he never allowed for Charles's ac- tual movement from left to right to the eastward of Davout and then north- wards to Ratisbon." As the Austrians retreated before him to Landshut, he thought that he was driving their whole army into a cul-de-sac to be closed by Massena at the otber end, and It was only in the afternoon of the twenty-sec- ond that he learned that he had been using the bulk of his army to defeat less than a third of the Austrian army, and that Charles had concentrated at Ratisbon. True, 42,000 Austrians were driven through Landshut, but Massena was not there to close the cul-de-sac. Na- poleon blundered seriously in his failure

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228 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 to follow Charles across the Danube and force him to give battle. Had he done so, he would have thrown the Austrian army "into the forests of Bohemia, where it would have disbanded for want of supplies; the Landwehr, which after- wards furnished 60,000 men, would not have formed, our depots of recruits would have dispersed, and in a fort- night Napoleon would have become mas- ter of and disposed of all our resources." Such, at least, was the opinion of the Austrian Griinne, expressed to the Prince de Ligne at the close of the war. Equally destructive of the legend of the brilliant generalship of Napoleon dur- ing this campaign is the description of the battle of Essling. All English ac- counts of this battle attribute Napol- eon's failure to win to the breaking of the bridge of boats over the Danube before reinforcements could cross. Mr. Petre, however, writes; For the defeat of Essling the Emperor had himself to blame. He had certainly been careless in his preparation for the crossing, once more a result of his un- bounded pride and his contempt for the enemy. He had been amply warned of the danger of a sudden rise of the Danube. . . . Yet he trusted his army to a single bridge of boats without any pro- tection by stockades, or by boats cruising about to arrest such floating masses above the bridge. His information about Charles's position seems to have been bad, and to have led him not to expect serious resist- ance immediately after the passage. Even on the morning of Essling, his cavalry had failed to detect the advance of the whole Austrian army. Napoleon was always preaching the advantages of field fortifica- tion, yet he neglected it before Essling. . . . Perhaps Napoleon's escape from still greater disaster at the battle of Ess- ling was due as much to the Austrian fail- ure as to his own efforts. . . . Napoleon had no justification for attributing his de- feat to the breaking of the bridge. The conclusion of the whole matter is that "brilliant as many of Napoleon's manoeuvres had been, the campaign dif- fered widely in the degree of its suc- cess from its predecessors of Austerlitz and Jena." Mr. Petre declares further: Its comparative failure must be attribut- ed largely to Napoleon's preconceived idea of marching on Vienna, irrespective of the enemy's movements, an idea to which he obstinately adhered when Charles retreated through Ratisbon into Bohemia. Had Na- poleon followed him to Cham with the corps of Davout, Massena, and Lannes, it is difficult to doubt that the result must have been the defeat of the Austrian army, with its complete break-up in the Bohemian forest. A Concordance to the English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by Albert S. Cook. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $3.00. This concordance is the first to ap- pear under the auspices of the Concord- ance Society, organized at Yale in De- cember, 1906. Professor Cook has been assisted in gathering the material by several Yale teachers and others, and in the proofreading by professors and teachers at Yale, Columbia, Cornell, and elsewhere; but, unfortunately, the book is marred by omissions, errors, and in- consistencies, due in the main not so much to lack of scholarship and care as to the bad mistake made at the out- set in the selection of Gosse's edition (1884) as the basis for the text and the collation of the manuscripts and early editions. For his text, Gosse follows Dr. W. J. Rolfe, whom he credits in his preface with being "the first to return to the revised text of 1768," in his "Se- lect Poems of Gray" (1876). Gosse, how- ever, copies the one misprint in Dr. Rolfe's first edition (found in many oth- er editions of Gray), of "Not" for "Nor" in line 36 of the "Hymn to Adversity." This has led to the omission of that "Nor" in the concordance. Another strange omission- — the only one we have noted in the text of the poems — is "drooping" in line 107 of the "Elegy." This, however, is the only poem which we have carefully compared with the concordance, and to which we shall con- fine ourself here. The entire body of the standard text of Gray's poetry is so small that it hardly needs a concordance; and the "Elegy," which we all know by heart, is least dependent upon any such aid. But the three extant manuscripts of that poem in the poet's handwriting are less accessible, and are of peculiar interest for their many variw lectiones, which, so to speak, let us into the poet's work- shop and illustrate the gradual elabora- tion of the final text. The Mason (or Fraser) manuscript was probably the earliest, as indicated by its having, in stanza 13, "Cato," "Tully," and "Caesar," the change of which to English names is one of the most interesting and signifi- cant in the poem. Critics have given reasons for believing that the Egerton manuscript was earlier, but this change seems to settle the question. The four stanzas, beginning "The thoughtless World to Majesty may bow" are also pe- culiar to the Mason manuscript. The in- terlineations, marginal readings, and deletions in this manuscript are so nu- merous and complicated that it would not be possible to indicate them clearly in ordinary concordance form, without frequent explanatory notes under the en- tries, or, better, a detailed description in an appendix. But Professor Cook^s plan might have worked much better, if he had not blindly followed Gosse's im- perfect and inaccurate collation of this manuscript. A few out of fifty or more of Gosse's blunders will serve as illus- trations: In line 6 of the "Elegy" ("And all the air," etc.) Gosse says that the Mason manuscript has "Now" for "And." It reads "And now." In stanza 4 "Village" is crossed out, and "Hamlet" written over it. Words thus crossed out might be omitted in a concordance, but Professor Cook is inconsistent in treating them. Here he omits any reference to "Village," as Gosse does; but in stanza 18, where "Burn" (in line 4) is crossed out, and "With" written over it, Gosse gives "Burn" as a manuscript variant ot "With," and so does the concordance. Neither mentions "crown" in the pre- ceding line over "at the"; or "hallow'd" (line 4) with "by" over it, and "kin- dled at" under it. Gray, after first writ- ing: And at the Shrine of Luxury and Pride Burn Incense hallow'd in the Muse's Flame, finally decided on the present reading: Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. The reader will see that in cases like this — which is not a solitary one — the history of the passage could not be made clear in a concordance without special note or explanation. In stanza 8 the manuscript reading is muddled by both Gosse and Cook. The manuscript underlines "useful" and puts "homely" (underlined) in the mar- gin; but they give "rustic" as the man- uscript reading for "useful," though it is really the manuscript word for "home- ly" in the next line. In stanza 12 both ascribe "Reins" for "rod" to the same two manuscripts, but it is in all three. In stanza 13 neither gives "had damp'd," the reading of the Mason, with both "depress'd" and "repress'd" over it. In stanza 27, the Mason reads thus: One morn' we missed him on th' accustomd Hill By the Heath-side & at his fav'rite Tree. "Along the" is written over "By the," "side" is crossed out, "near" put above "at," and the first syllable of "accus- tomd" is crossed out. The only change noted by Gosse and Cook is "I" for "we." In the next stanza, only one of four changes ("yon" for "that") is not- ed by them. These specimens of the defects and errors of Gosse's edition, unluckily reproduced in the concordance, should serve as a warning to the editors of the concordances that are to follow. Let them at the start be sure of their texts and authorities. In the Gray the pub- lishers have done their share of the work admirably, and it is a pity that the book should be so "faultily fault- less." The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. By Sibyl Wilbur. New York: Concord Publishing Co. In telling the life story of Mrs. Eddy, Sibyl Wilbur says that she "plants her- self unreservedly on the methods of St. Mark. St. Mark, I believe, was a scribe

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March 4, 1909] The Nation. 229 who related what he had been able to gather from witnesses in a direct and unvarnished way." She adds that "all statements of fact made in this narra- tive are founded upon reliable evidence, town registers, church books, and court records." Here are two rather differ- ent historical methods; in the main, however, the writer's material is jour- nalistic, and not documentary. This circumstance destroys its value as a presentation of the much controverted facts of Mrs. Eddy's life. The time has passed when, upon this subject, the public will accept patiently anything but sworn testimony. Mrs. Wilbur's book is semi-official, and is clearly in- tended as a counter-blast to the Mil- mine biography, recently published in McClvre's Magazine. That work con- sisted of little more than a collection of documents — private letters, court testimony, extracts from contemporary newspapers, and sworn affidavits of peo- ple who had come personally into con- tact with Mrs. Eddy. Manifestly, any rejoinder, if it is to be made convinc- ing, should adopt the same methods. The fact that Mrs. Wilbur, after spend- ing many months carefully going over the ground, was unable to produce that kind of testimony in rebuttal, seems rather conclusive evidence that it can- not be found. Miss Milmine, for example, publish- ed the affidavit of a certain Horace Wentworth of Stoughton, Mass., in which, with much circumstantial detail, he accuses Mrs. Eddy of attempting to set fire to his mother's house. In reply to this Mrs. Wilbur simply ridicules Horace Wentworth; the fact that Mrs. Eddy's theories as to the unreality of disease aroused in him, as a young man, a spirit of "jocularity" and "mockery," is apparently adduced as a reason for disbelieving his sworn statements. The Quimby controversy is an even more important and significant case in point. Whether Mrs. Eddy obtained her ideas from Quimby is of little importance, so far as the value of these ideas is con- cerned; but inasmuch as Mrs. Eddy vig- orously repudiates any such obligation, the discussion, in its bearing upon her own character, is worth while. The documentary evidence on this point, all printed in the Milmine biography, is ex- tensive. Among other things, there was produced an original letter, written in 1871 and signed by Mrs. Eddy herself, in which she informs her correspondent that her theory "has been practised by one individual who healed me. Dr. Quimby of Portland, Me., an old gentle- man who had made it a research for twenty-five years, starting from the standpoint of magnetism, thence going forward and leaving that behind." Mrs. Wilbur absolutely ignores this pertinent document, which, of course, in itself forever disposes of Mrs. Eddy as the originator of the Christian Science idea. Quimby, as is well known, left ten vol- umes of manuscripts, now in the posses- sion of his son, George A. Quimby, of Belfast, Me. Mrs. Wilbur regards these as negligible, simply because they are not in Quimby's handwriting — his wife, son, and one or two favorite pupils act- ing as his amanuenses. On the same ground she could prove that Milton did not write "Paradise Lost," or Benvenuto Cellini his autobiography. These illus- trations, which could be multiplied in- definitely, show the futility of the pres- ent attempt to explain away the facts of Mrs. Eddy's career. In other details — in the description of Mrs. Eddy's queer nervous temperament, her "seiz- ures," her cradle-rockings, her strange aversion to her own child, her fondness for associating with spiritualists, her colossal egotism — the present book con- firms impressions received from other sources. Before and After Waterloo: Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bish- op of Norwich. Edited by Jane H. Adeane and Maud Grenfel. Pp. 308. New York: D. Appleton & Co. "Before and after Waterloo" is too pretentious a title for fifty letters, some of them mere notes, written during the hurry of travel and never intended for publication. It is safe to assume that no one would have been more amused than the good Bishop of Norwich him- self at this attempt to add extraneous dignity to his hasty jottings of travel. The nature of the volume is character- ized much more truly by the dedication, "Echoes of Past Days at Alderley Rec- tory." Edward Stanley was born in 1780, the son of Sir John Stanley of Alderley in Cheshire. Graduating from Cambridge in 1802, he set out for a "grand tour" of the Continent, and pass- ed the most of a year in Spain. On his return to England, he took orders, and in 1805 he was presented by his father to the living of Alderley, where he remained until his appointment to the bishopric of Norwich in 1837. It was in 1814 and 1816, while rector of Aider- ley, that Stanley made his second and third trips to the Continent. The let- ters are in three groups, corresponding to the three journeys. The first (forty-five pages) contains nine letters, all by Stanley. They are sprightly and interesting, reflecting the point of view of a young man of cul- ture, keen vision, and artistic tastes. But the historian familiar with the pages of Arthur Young will find these first letters rather destitute of new ma- terial. Here and there we encounter an incident recorded with so sure a touch and such appreciation of its im- portance as to fill us with regret that the young man did not follow the exam- ple of Young and keep a journal. One such event was an execution that Stan- ley witnessed at Lyons. The descrip- tion is rendered more vivid by a sketch of the guillotine from his notebook. Af- ter the abdication of Napoleon, Stanley visited France, the Rhine country, Bel- gium, and Holland. He was gone about six weeks, and wrote fourteen letters, which are preceded by a collection of fourteen others written in the same year from London by Lord Sheffield, Lady Maria Stanley, Miss Louisa Clinton, Miss Catherine Fanshawe, and Mrs. Ed- ward Stanley. At this time King Wil- liam of Prussia, Alexander of Russia, and Madame de Stael were the lions of London, and the letters of the ladies, full of incidents relating to these dis- tinguished persons, are well worth read- ing. For this second journey Stanley's letters are longer and meatier, and are supplemented by sixteen full-page sketches, some of them in color. His Paris letters afford illuminating glimpses of the life at the Tuileries and in the salons, with pen-portraits of Louis XVIII, Madame de Stael, Sir Charles Stuart, and the former mar- shals of Napoleon. On the third jour- ney, lasting about a month, Stanley was accompanied by his wife, by his broth- er-in-law, Edward Penrhyn, and Donald Crawford. In this group there are six- teen letters — three by Lord Sheffield (1814 and 1815), six by Stanley, and seven by Mrs. Stanley. With Craw- ford, who had fought at Waterloo, the party explored the field. From Wa- terloo they went to Paris, where they remained about three weeks. The let- ters themselves, containing lively de- scriptions of the movements of the Stanleys, resemble much the letters of modern tourists, with only here and there a bit of fresh information. The text of this third section is illustrated by ten drawings from the sketch-book of Stanley, some of them very clever. There are two excellent portraits of Stanley. The face is so full of "sweet- ness and light" that the editors might well be forgiven for believing that all the world would be as much interested in what he wrote as were those who knew and loved him. Alaska the Great Country. By Ella Hlg- ginson. New York: The Macmillan Co. Hear it all, ye polar bears, Waltz about the pole in pairs. All ye icebergs, make salaam. You belong to Uncle Sam! So sang the mockers forty years ago, sure that in the purchase of Alaska we were badly over-reached. Such miscon- ceptions have long since passed away. Successive travellers record more and more wonderful stories, until now, in Mrs. Higginson's book, we seem to have touched the limit of enthusiasm. She belongs to the class of women- travellers and explorers which includes

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230 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 Lady Brassey, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bish- op, and Miss Peck, the mountain-climb- er. They "dare do all that may become a man" — indeed, they dare do more. It is a robust, impressionable, eupeptic, peaceful-conscienced company, whose overflowing amiability and content with life are reflected in the scenes and peo- ple they contemplate, so that they give us the most favorable pictures. Mrs. Higginson's seas pass from lavender and violet into opal and sapphire; her isl- ands embosomed in the Japan current are emerald in their greenness; gates of ice like pearl guard the entrances to sounds and straits, upon which rook down the diamond stars; all stones known to lapidaries gleam and flash in the earth, sky, and sea. All the sweet things of nature are levied upon heavily for illustrations. The people whom Mrs. Higginson finds in these charming sur- roundings comport well with their en- vironment. Savage and civilized alike showed her their best side. The result is an agreeable book — a record that is sympathetic and vivid — in which the world seems bright, and the souls that inhabit it cheery and likable. We must be pardoned for declaring that we think Mrs. Higginson's admirations are some- times too glowing. Other eyes would find bleak and desolate the landscapes which her effusive enthusiasm trans- figures; and there is much evidence that in the Far Northwest, there is a devil abroad to whom this record does not give half his due. It is thoroughly a woman's book, emotional, pleasant-tem- pered, picturesque, and (shall we say it?) in cool accuracy not Quite care- ful, and in discrimination, not quite keen. Science. "REVOLUTIONIZING THE PRACTICE OF SURGERY." The newspaper dispatches from Chi- cago are telling us wonderful things about "thor-rad-X," which, according to various physicians of that city, is "the most powerful therapeutic agent in the world," and will therefore "revolution- ize the practice of surgery." But within the last forty years, more or less, the newspapers have announced at least for- ty discoveries of the most powerful ther- apeutic agent in the world; and, on pa- per, the practice of medicine has been revolutionized every six months. But we continue to go on in the old way, ad- vancing the boundaries of knowledge inch by inch, inventing a serum for diphtheria now, and later an anti-toxin for cerebro-spinal meningitis. Our bac- teriologists, pathologists, anatomists and surgeons are accomplishing won- derful results, as any one who will re- view the progress of medicine in the last half-century must admit. But we can not abolish disease at a stroke. And, in particular, we are still very ignor- ant of the exact effect of X-rays, ra- dium, and, above all, of this new sub- stance which is supposed to unite their qualities. The Finsen-ray has been em- ployed in healing lupus. X-rays have proved very useful in various kinds of diagnosis, as for dislocated bones. These rays have also cured certain superficial ulcers and affections of the skin, some of which are likewise to be cured by caustics. Radium has been tried with apparent success in several of the super- ficial and less malignant types of can- cer. But it is too soon to tell just what it can accomplish; we have not yet ex- perimented with it long enough. Much less can we pin our faith to "thor-rad- X," the latest of them all. No compe- tent physician would pronounce a can- cer cured because it had for the moment disappeared. The cells may still be lurking dormant in the body, to start into activity again when vitality is tem- porarily lowered, or when a bruise, a strain, or a local irritant may act as an excitant. For some kinds of cancer three or four years must pass before a cure may be regarded as complete. The chief effect of these widely her- alded "discoveries" is to rouse false hopes and lead men to neglect or else to postpone until too late the proper therapeutic measures. Physicians in New York city can point to very recent cases in which patients have refused to un- dergo comparatively simple operations, under the delusion that X-rays or ra- dium would do the work. The treat- ment may have checked temporarily the progress of the malady, but in the mean- time the cells of the cancer have been spreading through the body and form- ing metastases, new centres of disease, which ultimately have proved fatal. There are various serums and treat- ments which may sometimes act as pal- liatives, and possibly cures; but the highest authorities are agreed that the best way to cure a cancer (except, per- haps, these slight and superficial forms to which we have referred) is to make an early diagnosis, and submit to a thorough operation, for the removal of the diseased tract and a considerable portion of the surrounding tissue. Can- cer, they tell us, is at the beginning a local disease. If it can be taken then, the chances of complete extirpation are much greater. What is more, surgical technique in the operations for cancer has improved within the decade, and the probabilities of recovery are therefore larger than ever before. In twenty years, or even ten, an absolute specific for the less virulent forms of sarcoma and car- cinoma may conceivably be found, but to-day the surest protection is still the knife. Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt's plan of building in New York city four model tenement houses for tuberculous families has much to commend it. It is unfortunately true that many tuberculosis patients who are temporarily invigorated and strength- ened by treatment under the supervision of a hospital or some charity, go down hill as soon as the supervision is relaxed and the nourishing food ceases. Then they often return to their former conditions of living, perhaps to some of the thousands of dark interior rooms that still -disgrace the city. For a long time past it has been felt that supervision of the sleeping quarters of the sick was all-important. This has been made possible for the Pres- byterian Hospital ever since April, 1905, owing to the generosity of Mrs. Vander- bilt. Visiting nurses have been sent into the homes to improve the living conditions, and milk and eggs supplied both at the hospital and through the New York Diet Kitchen Association. It has been the aim of the hospital to aid, primarily, incipient or moderately advanced cases where there is a fair prospect of recovery. But as the work has progressed, the nurses and doc- tors have felt the hopelessness of com- bating the disease in foul and germ-rid- den tenements. Hence this new scheme. In Mrs. Vanderbilt's model tenements the fam- ilies in which there are one or more sick will remain until they can safely live else- where without dread of the white scourge. Doubtless there will be some persons who will wish that these tenements had been instituted under some agency more gener- al in its activities than a single hos- pital. If it is asked whether Mrs. Vander- bilt would not have done better to put a million dollars into sanatoria, the an- swer is that there is everywhere a feeling that .the importance of sanatoria has been over-estimated. "Their greatest useful- ness," according to Dr. Shively, through whom Mrs. Vanderbilt will make her in- vestment, "is in the treatment of the well- to-do and middle-class patient." They can never be a very large factor in the treat- ment of the poor. The particular virtue of the tuberculosis tenement is, however, its preventing the break-up of families. If the patient sent away is the mother, the children are usually dispersed in all di- rections, and the same is too often true if the father is compelled to give up his work. In the Vanderbilt tenements, the father or mother can not only stay with the family, be as well treated, and live as hygienically as if in a sanatorium, but can be free from the depressing influence of idleness and exclusive association with other invalids. For the Rural Science Series (the Mac- millan Co.), J. G. Lipman has prepared an attractive volume on "Bacteria in Relation to Country Life." After a rather brief but perhaps sufficient account of the organ- isms and the conditions affecting their growth, a number of subjects are discussed, many of them of great and practical in- terest both to rural and urban readers, such as water, sewage, food preservation, milk and its products, of which a par- ticularly neat account is given. Much space, almost a third of the book, is quite properly given to the relation of bacteria to the soil and to the growth of plants. This part of the subject is very interesting reading and shows clearly bow complex the problems of scientific farming have become

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.^. u>».i: *r\» - March 4, 1909] The IsTation. 231 and how worthy of expensive experimenta- tion. Scarcely less interesting, although exceedingly brief, is the discussion of the sewage problem. Many of the illustrations, made by some photographic process, are beautiful pictures of plant life and struc- ture; a few, particularly those of cultures and apparatus, are quite unclear and in- adequate. Misprints are so rare in the book that one suspects the hand of the printer's devil in "Diseases of Swine," which, as a headline (p. 461), marks the discussion of various bacterial diseases of wine. "Human Foods," t>y Harry Snyder (the Macmillan Co.), despite its purpose of aid- ing students of collegiate rank, smacks of the experiment station, and is a text-book of decidedly elementary quality. The char- acter of the different foods, their composi- tion, preparation, and preservation — all this is exceedingly well described. This part of the book is liberally illustrated by pictures, which, unfortunately, do not al- ways clearly show what the reader is ex- pected to see, and some of them are quite superfluous. The explanation of the nutri- tive value of foods is less satisfactory; in fact, the statements as to what is really meant by nutritive value are far from be- ing clear and explicit. Nor could pupils, otherwise suited to the book, understand the diagrams concerning the dietary stand- ards and the cost of foods without the aid of a patient teacher. A final chapter of laboratory exercises makes no very ser- ious demands on the knowledge or intelli- gence of the student, and an equally light requirement as to the teacher is indicated by the "review questions," 819 in number. This kind of book will hardly increase the respect of intelligent readers for the courses in "domestic science," "nutrition," or "food values," which are beginning to make a pretentious show in the curriculum of many colleges. The seventh International Congress for Applied Chemistry will be held in London from May 27 to June 2. Sir William Ram- say will be chairman of the convention. James W. Moore, professor of mechanics and experimental philosophy at Lafayette College since 1872, died February 28 at the age of sixty-four. He is the author of "The Elements of Natural Philosophy" and numerous papers on physics. Dr. Daniel R. Brower, professor of ner- vous and mental diseases at Rush Medical College, and author of many monographs on insanity, died in Chicago March 1, aged seventy years. Dr. Brower attained dis- tinction in medicine and surgery during the civil war, and later was at the head of a hospital for the insane of West Virginia. A distinguished Orientalist is lost in the death of Lieut. -Col. Sir George King, at the age of sixty-eight. He entered the Bengal Medical Service in 1865, and six years later was appointed to the chair of botany in the Medical College, and to the supervision of the Royal Botanic Garden of Calcutta. His most valuable publica- tion was the "Manual of Cinchona Culti- vation," besides which he wrote a number of monographs on Indian flora. Dr. Julius H. P. J. Thomsen, professor emeritus of the University of Copenhagen, has died in his eighty-fourth year. The four volumes of his "Thermochemische Un- tersuchungen" (1882-86) embody his best- known work. Drama. "A Motley Jest," by Oscar Fay Adams (Boston: Sherman, French & Co.), includes two Shakespearean experiments, which are, perhaps, more entertaining than valuable. The first, called "A Shakespearean Fantasy," is a sort of supplement to the "Tem- pest," in which Prospero with the aid of Ariel transports Ferdinand and Miranda, long since happily married, back to the enchanted island, whieh he peoples tor them, temporarily, with the figures of Shake- speare's stage folk— Romeo and Juliet, the nurse, Mercutio, Falstaff, Lear, Richard II, Henry VI, and others— who discourse briefly in a fashion more or less in accordance with their theatrical moods and character. The burlesque is cleverly done, the general mimicry of manner and matter being often exceedingly apt and ingenious. It is almost needless to say that the resemblance does not extend far below the surface. But the literary exercise is both skilful and divert- ing. The second experiment is an imagin- ary sixth act to "The Merchant of Venice," in which Shylock is Christianized, officially and publicly, and openly proclaims his apos- tasy while secretly hugging his ancient faith and his passion for revenge. This, too, is a clever conceit, but less happy than the other. "A Woman of Impulse," by Louis Ans- pacher, produced in the Herald Square The- atre on Monday evening, exhibits a cer- tain amount of literary skill— in spots- some ingenuity in construction, and con- siderable acquaintance with ancient theat- rical device, but is a singularly unequal and disappointing work, although it is like- ly to be successful. Professing to be a study of what is commonly described as the artistic temperament— often a mere eu- phemism for vanity, selfishness, or immor- ality— it starts off in promising fashion along a vein of genuine, if not very bril- liant, comedy, lapses into sheer foolish- ness— descending even to the depth of a comic curate — passes through a term of sensational melodrama, and, after reaching an effective and fairly logical climax, closes conventionally and feebly with a happy ending. The central figure, that of a fa- mous prima donna, an intensely, wilful, whimsical, passionate, irresponsible, but intrinsically honest and generous-hearted woman, is a good conception; and there are truth and humor in the earlier scenes, which show how her husband's patience is exhausted and his jealousy excited by her irascibility and flightiness. Here a sound foundation seems to be laid for genuine comedy. But all expectations of that kind are destroyed permanently by the plunge into melodrama, which, although it is in- disputably interesting in a theatrical way, with its elaborately calculated complica- tions and its protracted suspense, is too plainly artificial to carry any illusion of reality or to have much actual dramatic value. Moreover, the sensational develop- ments, which are the main strength of the play, have little or nothing to do with the character traits which are supposed to fur- nish the motive power of the action. Nev- ertheless, the repudiation of the husband by the outraged wife— for his indulgence in suspicions which, as a matter of fact, were not altogether unreasonable — was a logical and natural domestic catastrophe, and the piece might well have ended at that point. Miss Kathryn Kidder, as the heroine, displays her capacity as an in- telligent and well-trained actress, both In the lighter and more serious episodes, but her support is inferior. An elaborate scenic production is prom- ised for Shakespeare's "King John," with which Robert Mantell will begin his ap- proaching engagement in the New Amster- dam Theatre on March 8. This is well, but the quality of the cast, of course, is of even more importance than the scenic decora- tions. One reason why this tragedy has been so long absent from the stage is the difficulty of finding competent players for its many important parts. Among them may be noted, in addition to the King himself, Arthur, Hubert, the Bastard Philip, Pan- dulph, Eleanor, and Constance. Philip- Faulconbridge, though a showy, is not a particularly difficult, character, but Con- stance and Hubert both demand special ability. The annual series of dramatic perform- ances at Stratford-on-Avon, beginning on Monday, April 19, will be given by Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Benson and their Shakespearean company. The special birthday revival this year will be "Cymbeline," a play not hith- erto produced by Mr. Benson. Fifteen plays of Shakespeare will be presented, including the histories: "King John," "Richard the Second," "Henry the Fourth" (Part I), "Henry the Fifth," "Henry the Sixth" (Part II), "Richard the Third," and a scene from "Henry the Eighth." The programme will also include four Chester Mystery Plays, "The Belle's Stratagem," by Hannah Cow- ley; "Richelieu," by Lord Lytton; and "A. Midnight Bridal," a play in one act adapted from the story of Halliwell Sutcliffe by Mrs. F. R. Benson and H. O. Nicholson. Among the performers will be: Miss Gene- vieve Ward, who will appear as Volumnia and Queen Margaret; Matheson Lang, Ham- let; Miss Hutin Britton, Ophelia; Henry Ainley, Shylock; Miss Constance Collier, Portia; Forbes-Robertson, and Miss Ger- trude Elliott. The great popular success of the recent revival of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Lon- don Lyceum has encouraged the manage- ment to try a spectacular production of "Hamlet." Matheson Lang will play the Prince, Miss Hutin Britton will be Ophelia; Halliwell Hobbes, Horatio; Eric Mayne, the King; and Frederick Ross, the Ghost. The significant fact about this performance, of course, is that the Lyceum no longer pre- tends to be anything but a money-mak- ing house. It cares a good deal more for cash than it does for art. Like other pure- ly commercial theatres, it seeks to give the public what it wants, and it has de- cided that Shakespeare is likely to prove more profitable than modern melodrama. While on this subject, it may be noted that H. B. Irving's revival of "Hamlet" has been so successful in London that he has found it necessary to give extra perform- ances. His appeal, it need scarcely be add- ed, is to the audience of the old Lyceum, not to that of the new. John Hare informs subscribers to the Henry Irving memorial that Thomas Brock,

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232 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 R.A., has now practically finished the plas- ter model for the statue of the actor, and all that now remains to be done is the cast- ing in bronze. There is every reason to hope that, in the autumn o£ the present year, the statue will be erected on the site arranged for it at the back of the Na- tional Portrait Gallery in Charing Cross Road, London. The German Volks Theater in Vienna has just witnessed another success for Karl Schonherr (whose "Erde" recently won the Schiller prize in dramaturgy). "Das Konigreich," his fairy drama, in four acts, has been very well received. Music. Johannes Brahms: The Herzogenberg Correspondence. Edited by Max Kal- beck. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $3 net. In 1891, six years before his death, Brahms sent to his publisher his last will, in which, among other things, he directed that all letters found in his house after his death should be destroy- ed without reservation. His executor, however, decided that the will had been drawn up in a moment of irritation, and was not to be taken too literally; so the letters that were of public interest were saved. Among these were 140 which Brahms had received from Heinrich von Herzogenberg and his wife. These, with 141 letters written to them by Brahms, make up a volume which quite deserves the compliment of a translation — a task excellently accomplished by Hannah Bryant. Max Kalbeck, the official biog- rapher of Brahms, has added a number of helpful footnotes. Admirers of Brahms may obtain through this vol- ume a more intimate view of his char- acter than from any other book so far issued. Herzogenberg was a German profes- sor, who also composed — like a profes- sor. Brahms was his idol, and his mis- trust of his own natural instincts was so great that it "made him almost a slave to form and technique." He eager- ly courted Brahms's approval, but that master's verdicts were usually either evasive or of oracular ambiguity. "I am sure none of their beauty and deli- cacy escapes me" — "I cannot make up my mind as to the claims of any one above the rest" — are specimens of what Frau Herzogenberg wittily called his "enharmonic ambiguities." She drops hints: Naturally my husband would have been pleased, poor devil, had you been able to say of any one movement: "I like that." You know yourself what a difference that makes. But the inexorable idol was not to be coaxed into flattery. Quite the contrary; the moment came when he exploded: I have been more than usually impressed this time with the great similarity of- our work ! In looking over the chorals, the quartets, and the songs, I was quite agi- tated to find how vividly they recalled all sorts of efforts of my own. May your own agitation, when you have occasion to indulge in a similar retrospect, be of a more pleasing order than mine! Even this bluntness did not disconcert Herzogenberg. "I could read every meaning into your mysterious words — pleasing or painful according to the way I turn them about," he wrote; and Brahms answered, wickedly: "I am glad my last letter shone in two colors — gray for me, sky blue for you." But Brahms by no means had a mo- nopoly of the fun. Frau von Herzogen- berg, though she wept sweet tears over some of Brahms's works, did not hesi- tate to criticise others freely, and there was no "enharmonic ambiguity" about her words. She tells him concerning some of his songs that she does not like them: "The words alone are enough"; concerning others, that they simply re- peat messages better delivered in pre- vious songs; even the famous "Sapphic Ode" does not escape her censure. She chides him repeatedly for his choice of poems: "Oh, how could you think this poem worthy of being composed by you?"; and for using the human voice like an instrument: "Why are you some- times so cruel as to turn poor women into oboes or violins?" Finally, in a long letter (pp. 352-360) she tells Brahms plainly that his truest friends are not those who greet every new vol- ume of his music with rapture before scanning it. "I ask myself," she adds, regarding this same Brahms, "whether he does not sometimes produce things born, not of his heart's blood, but only . . . * of his cleverness, his routine, his supreme skill." And again: I love and admire your music more than ever, but my very admiration leads me to ask why one who has coined and still can coin such gold . . . should be so sparing with it. Brahms was not in the least angered by this frankness. He knew that Frau von Herzogenberg was competent to sit in judgment, being a good pianist and something of a composer herself; and he continued to send her and her hus- band his manuscripts, both songs and piano pieces, for inspection before they were printed. His letters are usually short, and many of them are hardly worth print- ing— less so, certainly, than are hers, which Branms valued for their "in- trinsic qualities of wit and tempera- ment." Occasionally he is witty, too, at his own expense. In one letter he says: The orchestra here play my new sym- phony [in F minor] with crape bands on their sleeves because of its dirge-like effect. It is to be printed with a black edge, too. Geraldine Farrar will be the principal soloist at the Springfield, Mass., Music Festival in May. . . Art. THE COMIC ARTIST. Caran d'Ache has a particularly valid claim on the memory of all good Amer- icans. Wilhelm Busch and he were the two great progenitors of the comic sup- plement. The German artist was much the older man and the pioneer. From him Caran d'Ache borrowed the meth- od of telling a funny story in a succes- sion of pictures, with a minimum of text. This method has been developed to its fullest dreadful possibilities in this country, until we have now the story and the pictorial succession long after the fun has disappeared, in Caran d' Ache's work the idea was always pres- ent to animate the drolleries of his pen- cil. He was not a slavish imitator of Busch. He developed his own concep- tions of what the human figure ought to be in the hands of the caricaturist. There were the skeleton pictures in which a man, like an island, was a certain portion of white space bounded by a single line. There were the clear- cut marionette-like figures, in which the same sharpness of line was prominent. There were, finally, the mere circles and cylinders and sacks and flaccid pud- dings to which a dot here and a stroke there would give an amazingly human aspect. Of American cartoonists, the late F. M. Howarth, with his animated chubby little gingerbread figures, came nearest perhaps to this style of carica- ture. Caran d'Ache did political satire as well as social satire and pure comedy. In his political cartoons there is a good deal of the same mannikin physiology that we find in his comic series. There is also a good deal more lighthearted fun than European artists are accustom- ed to put into their cartoons of states- men and governments. The King of Siam, home once more from his West- ern trip, sleeps and has a nightmare. Endless files of stiff little European sol- diers clamber up and down his bed, tramp right over his royal body, and disappear. European militarism has rarely been so well shown up in both its tragic aspect and its futility. The stroke is much sharper in a cartoon depicting Wilhelm II's troubles after the dismiss- al of Bismarck. The Kaiser is in a trainer's cage surrounded by a pack of unruly, snarling beasts, representing the various members of the German Em- pire. Bismarck, the spectator, remarks, "I left him a circus; he has turned it into a menagerie." But, after all, it is a question whether Caran d'Ache's best work does not fall outside of politics. The French caricaturist declares it a merit that he can be gay without the "brutalities" of the British artist or the vulgarity of the German. As a matter of fact, French caricature, when it turns upon man's non-political failings and er-

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March 4, 1909] The 3STation. 233 rors, can be bitter with an intensity that we seldom find in Anglo-Saxon pic- torial satire of the present day. In Caran d'Ache's work, however — was it because of his partly Russian national- ity?— the real Gallic cynicism is rather uncommon. Typical of him is a serifs of a half-dozen pictures entitled the "Jewish Question." The pessimist is ar- guing that the Jews as a nation worship only money. "Nonsense," says the good- natured man, "when it comes to mo- ney, Jew and non-Jews are alike." And he throws a gold Napoleon into the gut- ter as two men, Jew and Gentile, ap- proach from opposite directions. "Now observe (picture 3) how they will both be fascinated by the coin. Observe (pic- ture 4) how they will both dive for it and come into violent collision. Only (picture 5) the Jew will manage to se- cure the gold piece. That is all." A few examples would show that if Caran d'Ache is partly responsible for the comic supplement, he is not re- sponsible for its blatant vulgarities, its emptiness of any real satiric content, and its infinite innocence of ideas. There is no inherent viciousness in the comic series. It has the very best tradition behind it. Before Caran d'Ache and Wilhelm Busch is Daumier's Robert Ma- caire; and still further back is Hogarth, with his various Progresses. The evil comes when the series is carried for years and years until it is the delecta- tion solely of that dull mind which finds amusement in the mere fact of famil- iarity. The pity appears all the greater when we consider how vast is the influence of the comic artist for weal or woe. When people speak of the power of the caricaturist, the habit is to think of the political cartoon. True, the political cartoon has long been an effective weapon of publicity. The history of modern Europe might be written from its cartoons as A. B. Maurice and Fred- eric Taber Cooper have done for the nineteenth century. But it is still an open question whether the satire that deals with us as men and women is not more permanently effective than the satire that appeals to the political animal primarily. A strong political cartoon may make an election or a min- istry. The comic artist deals with the permanent traits of human nature and the common facts of life, and, in do- ing so, shapes our thought and stan- dards of good or ill, subtly but endur- ingly. The Macmillan Company has about ready for publication tne second volume of Dr. Hofstede de Groot's "Catalogue Raisonne of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters," translated by Edward G. Hawke. Its 650 pages are devoted, to Albert Cuyp and Philips Wouwerman. The scandal over the designing of the new Sing Sing Prison bears good fruit in Senator Wainwright's bill for the creation of a New York State Art Commission. If only there had been such a body of promi- nent representatives of the fine arts sitting with power when a State Capitol was being planned, New York would have been spar- ed monstrosities and millions. But it will be some gain to have future edifices super- vised by a board large and authoritative enough to veto where the State architect might not trust his own solitary judgment or his courage. The men Senator Wain- wright would see chosen would demonstrate that beauty and durability are not extrava- gances, but, in the long run, economies. This idea our country is just beginning to grasp, and the spreading activity of Federal and municipal art commissions is at once the effect and the proof of the new understanding. Simply because the art movement redounds chiefly to the profit and glory of large cities, the States should not withhold assistance. To-day concerned only with offices and hospitals and their adornment, to-morrow a State commission may become an engine in the beautification of village life. John La Farge's Scammon Lectures on the Barbizon Painters— the first series of Scammon Lectures, delivered in 1903 at the Art Institute of Chicago— are at last pub- lished in handsome form by Doubleday, Page & Co. Mr. La Farge was himself a young man in Paris when the battle be- tween the classics and the romantics was still waging, and he has evidently never outgrown a certain partisanship, so that his lectures have an oddly controversial air, as if it were still necessary to defend a cause, still impossible to admire both Delacroix and Ingres. But this very quality or de- fect, which ever it be, gives a personal charm to the book. The facts rehearsed are to be found elsewhere; what interests is the light thrown, incidentally, upon Mr. La Farge himself, his own art, and his at- titude toward the art of others. And if the book is not so important as his "Consider- ations on Painting," yet it was impossible that its author should write anything with- out passages of a still wider interest — pas- sages of sound and illuminating criticism on art in general, and justifying his title, the "Higher Life in Art." Francis Bond, already known to students and lovers of English mediaeval art by his monumental works on English gothic archi- tecture, English cathedrals, and screens and galleries in English churches, has pro- duced in his new volume, "Fonts and Font Covers" (Henry Frowde), a remarkably full and detailed account of extant fonts in English churches. A brief but interest- ing and intelligent resume of the history of the rite of baptism is followed by an historical survey of font-design in England (to which country, as in so many other Eng- lish books, the treatise is restricted in spite of its comprehensive title) and com- plete indexes, covering over 1,100 examples. Some 426 excellent half-tone illustrations accompany the text, and supply for the general reader and the artist the interest which only the archaeologist or specialist is likely to find in the text. The text, in- deed, while a monument of painstaking erudition, and crammed full of detailed in- formation, partakes too much of the na- ture of a descriptive and analytical cat- alogue to possess any special charm or at- tractiveness. As a compendium of informa- tion, and as an admirable collection of historic examples, most suggestive to archi- tect and decorative or ecclesiastical de- signer, this handsome book must be of great value, and must entirely supersede all previous essays in the same field. The American Water Color Society will hold its forty-second annu-il exhibition at the American Fine Arts Building, No. 215 West Fifty-seventh Street, New York city, April 29 to May 3. The jury of selection consists of Carlton T. Chapman, Reynolds Beal, Leonard Ochtman, A. T. Van Laer, George Wharton Edwards, W. G. Schneider, W. H. Lippincott, F. K. M. Rehn, R. M. Shurtleff, Bruce Crane, Francis C. Jones, and Arthur Schneider. The members of the Hanging Committee are Charles Warren Eaton, H. L. Hildebrandt, and Cullen Yates. A retrospective exhibition of the works of John W. Alexander will be held at the National Arts Club, New York city, till March 15. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries here are oil paintings by John F. Carlson at Katz's, March 13; paintings and pastels by Degas, Durand- Ruel's, March 16; paintings of the "1830 School," Schaus's, March 16; etchings, Frank Brangwyn, Wunderlich's, March 20. Last week, the pictures and other works of art collected by the late Henry Graves of Orange, N. J., were sold at auction in New York city by the American Art Asso- ciation. The pictures brought $233,250, and the other objects, $161,195, a total of $394,445. The highest price, $27,000, was paid for Millet's Sheep-Shearing. Among the other important sales were the fol- lowing: Corot, Mill at Ville d'Avray, $13,- 500; Twilight, $6,000. Daubigny, Gray Skies, $5,600; Village by the Oise, $5 000; Green Pasture, $7,500. Diaz, Edge of the Forest, $13,000. Dupre, The Old Oak, $7,- 800; Evening Twilight, $8,700; Return of the Flock, $9,100. Rousseau, Morning on the Oise, $14,500; Forest of Campiegne, $11,000. Van Marcke, Verdant Pastures, $8,- 300. Delacroix, Wounded Tiger, $8,000. Isa- bey, Return from the Hunt, $5,200. Mauve, Flock of Sheep, $13,200. Among the por- celains, the peachblooms, thirty-five pieces in all, averaged over $750 apiece, and one sold as high as $4,100. A sang-de- bauf vase, 17% inches high, brought $8,550. The seat in the French Academie des In- scriptions left vacant by the death of Dr. Hamy has been bestowed on Theodore Reinach, author of a number of historical and archaeological works. He is a brother of Joseph and Salomon Reinach. Emmanuel Poire, better known under his pen name of Caran d'Ache (Russian for "lead pencil"), the famous comic artist and cartoonist, died in Paris, February 26. His native place was Moscow, where his grand- father, an officer of the first Napoleon, was taken prisoner in the Russian campaign, and finally became a subject of the Czar. Emmanuel returned to Paris, and became connected with the Cabaret du Chat Noir, where he soon attracted attention by a series of Napoleonic "Ombres Chinoises." From that time forward his humorous and satiric pencil was constantly employed In social or political illustrations. His car- toons, which held nothing sacred, had a potent political influence in the formation of public opinion. During the Panama scandals, his "Carnet de Cheques," a col-

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234 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 lection of especially biting caricatures, greatly increased his reputation. In later years he did much work for the Figaro and for Le Rire. Ernest-Victor Hareux, the landscape painter, has died, at the age of sixty-one. He was a native of Paris, and a member of the Societe des Artistes Frangais. Finance. THE RISE IN WHEAT. While the attention of financial mar- kets has heen absorbed in the fall of prices of manufacturers' material, a rise in price, more sensational than the de- cline in steel and copper, has been go- ing on in another staple market. Last Friday, wheat sold at the highest fig- ure reached since Joseph Leiter's cele- brated corner of May, 1898. That oper- ation, which brought cash wheat to $1.85 in Chicago and $1.91 in New York was a consequence, first, of Europe's disastrously short crop of 1897; second, of the very scanty supplies in the world's storehouses; and, third, of our Spanish war, which broke out in the "corner month." The spectacular rise in wheat last week was similarly based on a small European crop in 1908, a meagre stock of wheat in the world's granaries, and the persistent mutter- mgs of war in the grain-growing Balkan states. Wheat sold below a dollar as recently as December; its high level of last week, on the Chicago cash market, was $1.26. This is an abnormally rapid advance. A comparison of Chicago prices in recent years may be instructive: High. Low. 1908 $1.11, June. .84%. July. 1907 1.22, Oct. .71, Jan. 1906 94%, May. .69%, Sept. 1905 1.24, Feb. .78%, Sept. 1904 1.22, Dec. .81%, Jan. 1903 93, Sept. .70%, March. 1902 95, Sept. .67%, Oct. 1901 79%, Dec. .63%, July. 1900 87%, June. .61%. Jan. ' 1899 79%, May. .64, Dec. 1898 1.85, May. .62, Oct. Considering in detail the causes of the present price, it should be noticed, first, that the world's wheat yield of 1907 was 325,000,000 bushels less than in 1906 and 212,000,000 less than in 1905, a decline of 7 to 10 per cent.; it was, in fact, smaller than any world's crop since 1901. And in that eight-year period, not only had population been increasing, but individual use of wheat, as of other necessaries, had been in- creasing with the good times in trade and industry. It had been hoped after 1907 that the next year would make good the shortage. But it did not do so; America, Asia, and Australia increased their yield slightly over 1907, but Eu- lope itself produced less than before. These are the European harvests, using Broomhall's estimate for 1908 and our Agricultural Department's for the ear- lier years: Bushels. Bushels. 1908 1,594,000,000 1904.... 1,747,262,000 1907.... 1,616,086,000 1903.... 1,830,526,000 1906 1,826,422,000 1902.... 1,817,602,000 1905 1,803,132,000 1901 1,513,553,000 Such short yields necessarily have their effect on the amount of wheat in granaries, by which the price is largely regulated. In this regard, Europe is better off than after 1897; in August of that year, the "European visible" fell to 38,000,000 bushels, and the European and American combined, to 77,500,000, whereas last August the two figures were respectively 48,700,000 and 73,700,- 000. But even so, Europe's storehouses contained less by 22 per cent, than a year before; and with all the unprece- dentedly rapid rushing of American wheat to market last autumn, this is the Broomhall and Bradstreet compar- ison of stocks on hand as of Febru- ary 1: 1909. 1908. 1907. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. Europe 61,700,000 76,700,000 75,900,000 America .... 75,600,000 67,300,000 80,800,000 Total ....137,300,000 144,000,000 150,700,000 It should be observed that the present relatively large "American visible" is the result of an almost unexampled early clearing-out of farmers' bins to reach the favorable autumn market with the abundant supply of railway cars. One of the most important ques- tions is, How much wheat is left behind in the farmers' hands? The Depart- ment of Agriculture will report on that en March 8. What does this state of supplies, with the abnormal prices resulting from it, signify as to general conditions? There are several aspects to the question. The development is not wholly favorable to this country, for the great rise in price has occurred when home supplies have been so nearly exhausted that we have "not, as in such high-price years as 1897 and 1879, a large surplus to sell to Eu- rope at inviting prices. In a period of hard times, slack employment, and fall- ing wages, wheat at $1.26 a bushel, and flour higher by 25 cents a barrel, whole- sale, than a year ago, mean increased cost of living when the consumer is least able to meet it. The farmer who has any wheat left over is fortunate, especially since he gets these prices at the very time when the price of his wire fences and farm machinery is fall- ing; but the farmer makes up only a part of the American community. Prof. Alfred Manes, with the cooperation of a dozen specialists, has published through Mohr of Tubingen a comprehensive insur- ance • dictionary, a venture which had in the last four decades been undertaken three times by German publishers, but only to end in a failure. The work bears the title "Versicherungs-Lexikon: Ein Nach- schlagewerk fur alle Wissensgebiete der Privat- und Sozial-Versicherung." Natur- ally the work deals chiefly with the in- surance matters of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is published in two solid volumes of 1,682 columns, arranged after the usual manner of an encyclopaedia. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Abbey, Edwin Austin. The Quest of the Holy Grail. Boston: Curtis & Cameron. $5. Adams, Oscar Fay. A Motley Jest: Shake- spearean Diversions. Boston: Sherman, French. $1. Andreades, A. History of the Bank of England. Translated by Christabel Mere- dith. London: P. S. King. Avery, Elroy McKendree. A History of the United States and Its People. Vol. V. Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co. Balch, Thomas Willing. L'Evolution de L'Arbitrage International. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. Bazin, Rene. This, My Son. Translated by Dr. A. S. Rappoport. Scribner. $1.25. Bell, J. J. Whither Thou Goest. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.20 net. Benedict, Clare. A Resemblance, and Oth- er Stories. Putnam. $1.50. Berard, Victor. La Revolution Turque. Paris: Armand Colin. Berthet, filie. Le Douanier de mer. Edit- ed by Robert J. E. Bue. Henry Frowde. Berthon, H. E., and Starkey, V. G. Tables synoptiques de phonologie de l'ancien frangais. Henry Frowde. 85 cents. Black, George F. A Gypsy Bibliography. Liverpool : Gypsy Lore Society. Blackwood, Algernon. Jimbo: A Fantasy. Macmillan. $1.25. Brennan, George H. Bill Truetell: A Story of Theatrical Life. Chicago: A. C. Mc- Clurg. $1.50. Bullen, Frank T. Young Nemesis. Dut- ton. $1.50. Caine, Hall. My Story. Appleton. $2 net. Cambridge History of English Literature. Edited by A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. Vol. III. Renascence and Reformation. Putnam. $2.50 net. Catalogue of Books in the Children's De- partment. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Library. 75 cents. Churchill, Winston Spencer. My African Journey. George H. Doran Co. Coit, Daniel Wadsworth, of Norwich, Con- necticut, 1787-1876. A Memoir. Privately Printed. Crichton-Browne, James. Parsimony in Nutrition. Funk & Wagnalls. 75 cents net. Davidson, John, and Gray, Alexander. The Scottish Staple at Veere. Longmans, Green. $4.50 net. De Vigny, Alfred. Chatterton. Edited by E. Lauvriere. Henry Frowde. Fortescue, J. W. The County Lieutenan- cies and the Army, 1803-1814. Macmillan. $3 net. Fowler, W. Warde. Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero. Macmillan. $2.25 net. Gerstenberg, Alice. A Little World: A Series of College Plays for Girls. Chi- cago: Dramatic Publishing Company. Glyn, Margaret H. Analysis of the Evolu- tion of Musical Form. Longmans, Green. $3.50 net. Guinness, Geraldine. Peru: Its Story, Peo- ple, and Religion. Fleming H. Revell Co. $2.50 net. Hale, Louise Closser. The Actress. Har- per. $1.50. Ham, Roscoe James, and Leonard, Arthur Newton. Brief German Grammar. Ginn. 90 cents. Hebrew Prophets for English Readers. Edited by Francis H. Woods and Francis E. Powell. Vol. I. Henry Frowde. 85 cents. Higginson, Francis. New England's Planta- tion, with the Sea Journal and Other Writings. Salem, Mass. : Essex Book and Print Club. $3.50. Hillquit, Morris. Socialism in Theory and Practice. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Hitchcock, Alfred M. Enlarged Practice- Book in English Composition. Holt. $1.

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March 4, 1909] The Nation 235 Hugo, Victor. Poemes Choisis. 1822-1865. Putnam. $1 net. Jebb, R. C. The Characters of Theo- phrastus. Translated from a revised text. Macmillan. Jordan, David Starr, and Kellogg, Vernon L. The Scientific Aspects of Luther Bur- bank's Work. San Francisco : A. M. Robertson. $1.75 net. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia 1752-1755, 1756-1758. Edited by H. R. Mcllwaine. Richmond, Va. Key, Ellen. The Century of the Child. Put- nam. $1.50 net. Kipling, Rudyard. Puck of Pook's Hill. Doubleday, Page. $1.50. Lang, Andrew. Sir George Mackenzie, King's Advocate, of Rosehaugh, His Life and Times 1636(?)-1691. Longmans, Green. $4.20 net. Lee, Jennette. Simeon Tetlow's Shadow. Century. $1.50. Levering, Julia Henderson. Historic In- diana. Putnam. $3 net. Loisy, Alfred. The Gospel and the Church. Translated by Christopher Home. Scrib- ner. $1 net. Lynde, Francis. The King of Arcadia. Scribner. $1.50. McCarthy, Justin Huntly. The Gorgeous Borgia. Harper. $1.50. MacColl, Alexander. A Working Theology. Scribner. 75 cents net. Macdonald, Duncan Black. The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam. University of Chicago Press. $1.75 net. Mackinlay, M. Sterling. Garcia, the Cen- tenarian, and His Times. Appleton. Maltzahn, Curt von. Naval Warfare. Trans- lated by John Combe Miller. Longmans, Green. Mason, Ruth Little. The Trailers: A Novel. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.20 net. Moore, Justin Hartley. Sayings of Buddha. The Iti-Vuttaka. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Myers, William Starr The Self-Recon- struction of Maryland, 1864-1867. Balti- more : Johns Hopkins Press. Nevill. Ralph, and Jerningham, Charles Edward. Piccadilly to Pall Mall: Man- ners, Morals, and Man. Dutton. $3.50 net. Papers from the Tortugas Laboratory of the Department of Marine Biology. Vol. II. Washington: Carnegie Institution. Paterson, W. E. School Algebra. Part II. Henry Frowde. Perry, George Powell. Wealth from Waste, or Gathering Up the Fragments. Fleming H. Revell Co. 50 cts. net. Pierret, Bmile. Vers la Lumiere et la Beaute. Paris: La Renaissance Fran- chise. Plato's Euthyphro. Edited by St. George Stock. Henry Frowde. 60 cents. Poete, Marcel. L'Enfance de Paris. Lemcke & Buechner. Pratt, James Bissett. What Is Pragmatism? Macmillan. $1.25 net. Ranke, Leopold von. History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations (1494 to 1514). Re- vised translation by G. R. Dennis. Mac- millan. Reinsch, Paul S. The Young Citizen's Reader. Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. Rolfe, W. J. A Satchel Guide for the Va- cation Tourist in Europe. Houghton Mifflin. $1.50 net. Ross, Janet, and Erichsen, Nelly. The Story of Pisa. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Scott, A. Maccallum. Through Finland. Dutton. $1.25 net. Seager, Henry Rogers. Economics: Briefer Course. Holt. Sheldon, Samuel, Mason, Hobart, and Haus- mann, Erich. Alternating-Current Ma- chines: Being the Second Volume of Dy- namo Electric Machinery. D. Van Nos- trand. $2.50 net. Slack, S. B. Early Christianity. London: Archibald Constable. Smith, Geoffrey. A Naturalist in Tas- mania. Frowde. $2.50 net. Stapfer, Paul. Recreations grammaticales et litteraires. Paris: Armand Colin. Stubbs, William. Germany in the Later Middle Ages, 1200-1500. Edited by Ar- thur Hassall. Longmans, Green. $2.25 net. Veatch, Byron E. Men Who Dared. Chi- cago: Homer Harisun & Co. Weyman, Stanley J. The Wild Geese. Dou- bleday, Page. $1.50. Yale Verse. Compiled by Robert Moses and Carl H. P. Thurston. New Haven: Yale Publishing Association. Zoology, Treatise on. Edited by E. Ray Lankester. Part I. Introduction and Pro- tozoa. Macmillan. $5.25 net. Ready this week In the American Nature Series FISH STORIES Alleged and Experienced, with a Little History, Natural and Un- natural By CHARLES F. 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NAVAL WARFARE Its Historical Development from the Age of the Great Geographic Discoveries to the Present Time. By Baron CURT VON MALTZAHN, Vice- Admiral (retired). Translated from the German by John Combb Miller. Crown 8vo. Pp. x-152. $0.75. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK ONE-HALF COMPLETED ! THE NEW FIRST FOLIO SHAKXSPE.ARX Ed. by PORTER-CLARKE. Text of 1623 Full notes and variants. READY: — "Midsommer Night's Dreame," "Love's Labour's Lost." "Comedie of Errors." "Merchant of Venice," "Macbeth," "Julius Caesar," "Ham- let," "King Lear," "Twelfe Night," "As You Like It," "Henry the Fift," "Much Adoe About Nothing," "Romeo and Juliet," "Tempest," "Othello," "Winter's Tale," "Shrew," "Two Gen- tlemen of Verona," "Corlolanus," "Merry Wives," "All's Well," "Measure for Measure." Cloth, 75 cents; limp leather, $1.00 per volume, postpaid. Thomas Y. 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236 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2279 Important Books on Psychical Research In the scientific study of the question of life after death, the present day is a most significant era. For years men of science have deplored the lack of rational interest in this great problem. "How great a scientific scandal it has been," exclaimed Professor William James, "to leave a great mass of human experience to take its chances between vague tradition and credulity on the one hand and dogmatic denial at long range on the oth- er!" The awakening of scientific interest has come at last, however, and, as a glance at the popular magazines for a twelve-month past will show, this scientific interest has in turn aroused a wide-spread and steadily growing response among the people at large. "Psychic Research," said William IS. Gladstone, "is the most important work which is being ddne in the world — by far the most important," and the increasing number of books on the : may be taken as a general recognition of its importance. We call your attention to the following list of valuable works. By JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D. Former Professor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia University, Vice-President of the English Society for Psychical Research, Founder and Secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research. Each volume, 12mo. $1.50 net, or, by mail, $1.G2. Borderland of Psychical Research In this book are covered those points in normal and abnormal Psychology that are vital for the student of Psychical Research to know in order that he may judge the abnormal and the super- normal intelligently. The book contains chapters on Normal Sense-Perception, Interpreting and As- sociating Functions of the Mind, Memory, Disso- ciation and Oblivescence, Illusions, Hallucinations, Pseudo-Spiritistic Phenomena, Subconscious Action and Secondary Personality, Mind and Body, Hypnotism and Therapeutics, Reincarnation, Res- ervations and Morals. "It treats perplexing questions conservatively, and with a view to create an intelligent public in- terest in the baffling problem of psychical research. It is a book none should neglect who is attracted by the recondite mystery to whose solution it looks forward and attempts to clear the way."— The Outlook. "This book's aim is cautious, its method con- servative, and its theme of absorbing interest. It is not a sequel to 'Enigmas of Psychical Re- search' and 'Science and a Future Life,' but, on the contrary, it rather leads up to them." — The Bookman. "The whole discourse is enlivened and made in- teresting reading even for the casual inquirer by numerous illustrations and anecdotes." — Indianap- olis News. Enigmas of Psychical Research An account of the scientific investigation and consideration of such well-established phenomena as crystal-gazing, telepathy, dreams, apparitions, premonitions, clairvoyance, mediumistic phenomena, etc. "Professor Hyslop. be it observed, does not write as one who has fully made up his mind, and is de- termined to make others see with his eyes. On the contrary, he is careful to preserve an attitude of caution, the attitude, in short, of the trained in- vestigator who feels that the end is not yet in sight. Perhaps this, more than anything else, is respon- sible for the praise bis book has elicited." — Literary Digest. "The new work is a treatment of telepathy, apparitions, and similar phenomena. It is probably the finest collection of authenticated experiences in these spheres that we have at our disposal. He has brought together facts which not only make extraordinarily interesting reading, but are dis- couragers of conservative incredulity." — The World To-day. Science and a Future Life > In this volume the author discusses the scientific Investigation of psychic phenomena. "Professor Hyslop discusses the problem of life after death from data accumulated by the Society for Psychical Research. He considers the evidence scientifically, basing his argument upon experiments conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge, the late Professor Henry Sidgwick, Professor James, of Harvard, the late Frederic W. H. Myers, and a number of others, including some valuable experimental work of his own." — Review of Reviews. "His argument is like the charge of a judge to a jury, clear, definite, logical, leaving no doubtful point untouched, and no interrogation unanswered. Altogether the book is one of the most important in its particular branch of literature that have ever yet been given to the public. It is the work of a clear-headed scientist who has arrived at his con- clusions only after years of the most searching in- vestigations, and who has as one of its results presented a more satisfactory argument in favor of a future life than has been wrought out by any theologian for the last century. It should have a multitude of readers." — Boston Transcript. Psychical Research and the Resurrection This volume may be considered as a sequel to Professor Hyslor/s "Science and a Future Life," as it records the more important work that has been accomplished since the death of Dr. Richard Hodgson, the late leader of psychical research in America.' In its pages the author proceeds step by step to show the vital importance to humanity ihat Science leaTe no stone unturned to strengthen the Christian faith. "It is cause for scientific rejoicing that Professor Hyslop has put forth this book." — Journal of Education. "The book is a deeply interesting one — an im- portant contribution to a study which concerns humanity vitally." — Providence Journal. "Useful to those who wish to keep abreast of the progress of psychical research in the United States."— The Outlook. "The book is exceedingly valuable to students of psychical phenomena and to the general reader as well. The incidents related are interesting and the style delightfully simple and effective." — In- dianapolis Xews. By CAMILLE FLAMMARION. Director of the Observatory at Juvisy. Large 12mo, illustrated, price $2.50 net, or, by mail, $2.70. Mysterious Psychic Forces A comprehensive review of the work done by European scientists of international reputation in investigating psychical phe- nomena, written by a scientist of world- wide fame. The volume includes the in- vestigations of Sir William Crookes, Pro- fessor Richet, Professor Morselli, Professor Lombroso, Count de Roches, Professor Porro, Professor Alfred Russell Wallace, Professor Thiory, Dr. Dariex, Victor Sardon, Aksakof, and many others. "Flammarion's work, 'Mysterious Psychic Forces.' is valuable from many points of view; it is a careful compilation of previous researches in psychical mediumship, to which are added invalu- able reports of the author's own experiments with many mediums, the most important being the Italian, Eusapia Paladino. I have also studied this medium for a long time and fiud myself in accord with Flammarion as to the authenticity of the facts."— Professor Enrico Morselli, Chair of Men- tal and JJervons Diseases, University of Genoa. "If you will read his [Flammarion's] latest book ['Mysterious Psychic Forces'] with attention and with candor, you cannot but be impressed with his wide experience and his patient, persistent search for truth. I am persuaded that be has been a genuine pioneer all along. He has examined very critically the scores of psychics who have come under his observation, and his reports are pains- taking and cautious." — From "The Shadow World" by Hamlin Garland, "Such a book, from such a writer, is more than interesting. It is timely. And the reader must admit, whatever his prejudices or presuppositions, that, taking Professor Flammarion's book as an honest record of long and careful scientific study, which it is entitled to be considered, it amply sus- tains the author's conclusions." — Literary Digest. "The book is one of the most interesting that have ever been written on the subject. Those who have the least liking for the subject will find it I entertaining beyond expectation." — Cleveland Plain i Dealer. By HEREWARD CARRLNGTON. Member of the Council of the American Institute for Scientific Research, Member of the Engiisb Society for Psychical Research, etc. Large 12mo, illus'., $2.00 net, by mall, $2.16. The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism A book of incalculable value to psychical re- searchers. Every one knows that, while there is a residuum of the genuine, there is undoubtedly an immense amount of fraud perpetrated on credulous investigators of psychic phenomena. With rare skill and tact Mr. Carrington, who has had many years of experience, shows exactly how the tricks are done. His book is written wholly without prejudice, in a calm, courteous, judicial style, and the facts are presented with precision and order- liness. The latter part of the book is devoted to the consideration of what the author believes to be genuine phenomena. "Mr. Carrington's book on 'The Physical Phe- nomena of Spiritualism' is the most important work ever published on that subject. It gives a com- plete account of the subject, and is invaluable for every one interested in Psychic Research. It is fair to both sides of that much controverted sub- ject."— Professor James H. Hyslop. "He writes from the point of view of one who believes that such phenomena as come within the realms of spiritualism, popularly conceived, do oc- cur, and on that account he is particularly anxious to expose the fraud connected with them, since it is only by so doing that the world can reach the genuine which lies behind." — Boston Transcript. "The paramount impression this writer conveys is that of being a fair and open-minded gentleman of excellent balance and keen intelligence." — New York Times. The Coming Science With an introduction by James H. Hyslop. 12mo, $1.50 net, or, by mail, $1.62. This book fills a place in the literature of psychi- cal research not covered by any other book that has thus far appeared. Its aim is threefold: (1) To form an introduction to the study of the subject, so that any one may feel familiar with the general problems and results without having previously read extensively upon it; (2) to approach the baffling questions from the standpoint of physical science, and point out exactly what the difficulties and ob- jections are to the scientific man; (3) to sum- marize the various explanatory theories that have been advanced from time to time to explain the facts of psychical research. "A helpful introduction to the reading of more elaborate works." — The Outlook. "The great importance of the book lies in its pointing out that materialism must ultimately tri- umph, if no facts can be brought forward to prove it erroneous, and this would mean the destruction of the religious consciousness of the age. It Is of prime importance, therefore, that the 'average reader,' if there is such a thing, should be properly introduced to the problems of 'the coming sci- ence.' " — Boston Transcript. By ROBERT J. THOMPSON. Proofs of Life After Death 12mo, $1.50 net, or, by mail, $1.62. A collation of opinions as to a future life by such eminent scientific men and thinkers as N. S. Shaler, C. Richet, Camille Flammarion, Professor Brunot, Sir William Crookes, Th. Flournoy, Elmer Gates, Winiam James, Dr. Paul Joire, Dr. Lom- broso, Simon Newcomb, Professor Hyslop, Dr. M. J. Savage. Sir Oliver Lodge, Alfred Russell Wallace, Cardinal Gibbons, Andrew Lang, and many others. The book contains many arguments from a scientific standpoint that will interest all who wish evidence other than theological. "Seeking for comfort in a great sorrow, the au- thor made a collection of opinions as to a future life by some of the world's most eminent scientific men and thinkers." — Chicago Record-Herald. "It should find a place on the shelf of every thinker." — Boston Transcript. A special pamphlet, fully describing these books, will be sent free to any address on application. Publishers of the Beacon Biographies SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY (INCORPORATED) Publishers BOSTON Publishers of the Beacon Biographies

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1909. The Week. President Taft's Cabinet — of which the composition has not been a very well-kept secret — contains able men of vhe quietly efficient type. It will be the task of their chief to make of them an harmonious and working body. This can best be done by giving to each of them large powers and discretion in the exercise of their respective duties. The business of the government has grown to be too vast for the threads of it to be kept in the hands of any one man. To l:e a good executive means more than ever not to fret and moil person- ally over work that can best be devolved upon another. Even in Lincoln it was a defect that he — "the old Tycoon," as John Hay called him at the time — took too much upon his own shoulders and left his Cabinet our of his confidence. Some of the resulting jealousies and friction we see revealed in the Gideon Welles Diary, now publishing in the Atlantic. What the President needs from his Cabinet is real advice — not adulation — and hearty cooperation. It is not desirable that Secretaries should be dominated by a powerful and forth- putting President, but simply that they should be kept in touch with his ideas and infused with his spirit. From what we know of Mr. Taft's temper and meth- ods, we are confident that he will mag- nify the functions of his Cabinet, and get more, out of it by giving more to it. One hears uncomfortable whispers about the new Administration begin- ning with "this unfortunate Loeb ap- pointment." It is, obviously, the pay- ment of an ex-President's debt. Nor is it even a new way of paying an old debt. The private secretaries of Presi- dents and Governors always have to be "taken care of." And we must remember that if, in this matter, Mr. Taft yield- ed something, he resisted more. Accord- ing to confident forecasts, a few weeks ago, Mr. Loeb was to be, not merely Collector, but a member of the Cabinet. At that, however, the line was drawn. There may be some wonder that Mr. Loeb did not accept one of those flatter- ing business offers which his vast abili- ties were alleged to have brought him. He may have felt that his talent for public life was too precious to be wasted. Nature sometimes takes legislators by the nose and makes them do what mere argument cannot compel. It was the potato-rot in Ireland, not Cobden's log- ic, which forced the repeal of the corn- laws. If the date for the inauguration of American Presidents, and for the coming in of a new American Congress, is to be changed, it will be stress of weather that does the business. In this climate, no day could be pitched upon when meteorological uncertainties would be greater than on March 4, with the chances more in favor of inclement weather, dangerous for that "old expe- rience" which we seek in judges and statesmen. A vague idea is afloat that there is something sacred about March 4. As a matter of fact, of course, the singling out of that day was a pure accident. The duty of starting the new government devolved upon the Conti- nental Congress. When it met in New York, September 13, 1788, eleven States had ratified the new Constitution. Everybody naturally desired that the stronger form of government should be set up as soon as possible, and accord- ingly it was resolved by the Continental Congress that Presidential electors should be appointed on the first Wed- nesday in January, that the electors should assemble and vote on the first Wednesday in February, and that "the first Wednesday in March next be the time, and the present seat of Congress the place, for commencing proceedings under the said Constitution." That first Wednesday__in. .March happened to be March 4. And the date was not really made use of the first time. No quorum of Congress, necessary to count the electoral vote, was got before April 6. President-elect Washington was in Mount Vernon, and to notify him and bring him back to New York took three weeks, so that he was not inaugurated till April 30. That was the true In- auguration Day of the fathers. That it would be a much more pro- pitious day than March 4 for inaugural ceremonies, every one now admits. To change to April 30, or to any other day, would require, however, a Constitution- al amendment. The reason is not that March 4 is in the Constitution, but that the limitation of the President's term to four years is, and that the transition could not be made without Constitution- al warrant for one President to hold of- fice slightly more than four years — that is, beyond his fixed term. After that, each term would go smoothly as before. It was in this sense that, in 1886, the Senate unanimously passed the bill re- ported from the Judiciary Committee, and assiduously urged by Senator Hoar, to change the expiry of the next Presi- dential term, and of the next Congress, to April 30. The project died in the House, however, not so much from hos- tility as from indifference. It is a similar amendment which it is proposed now to revive. The ideal thing would be to have the new President take office on January 1, and for the Congress, elected at the same time with him, also to begin its work on that date. This would conform to the practice of most of the States, and of other governments; would be busi- ness-like; and would certainly be demo- cratic in the sense that it would put the people's representatives in office to carry out the people's expressed will, before that will had been forgotten. The first of January, of course, would be as bad- ly fitted as the fourth of March for out- door pageants, but the necessary exer- cises could be held indoors. We hope the defeat of the ship-sub- sidy bill means that there will be no attempt to force this legislation through the next Congress. The plan had the support of the President and Mr. Root, but, by a vote of 175 to 172, the bill was voted down. Party lines were broken, and no less than twenty-eight Republicans were against the measure. In the next Congress the Republican majority will be smaller and the need of economy, because of the heavy deficit, more obvious. Hence, advocates of the scheme will face heavier odds than ever. The idea of a. ship subsidy is simply to put the governmert into partnership with certain business interests. In order to stimulate a trade which, from the economical point of view, is waste-

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238 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2280 ful, because unprofitable, the United States is urged to guarantee the profits of some few favored steamship owners. Every one will remember the public uneasiness at the voting of a govern- ment guarantee of profits on the new Philippine railways built by private cap- ital, and every one knows how impos- sible it would be to obtain such a guar- antee for any railway or steamship ven- ture within the United States. But the argument is that as Uncle Sam's pock- ets are capacious and have been hither- to well filled, and as it is pleasant to have American steamships going abroad, therefore every American is to be taxed to support these lines. There is still another side to a proposal of this kind. Whenever the government is ask- ed to aid private business enterprises there is usually jobbery and corruption, however sincere and high-minded those statesmen who support the undertak- ing on grounds of national policy. The country has had one experience of this kind in connection with the Pacific Mail Company. Last week Congress buzzed with rumors of undue influence. Con- gressman Clark, in speaking of the powerful lobby which has been at work for the bill, declared that it bore "all the marks of corruption." Everybody wishes to see the Ameri- can merchant marine restored. But because our shipping is prostrate there is no reason whatever why we should commit an egregious economic blunder. The proper steps are plain enough. Pres- ident Cleveland, years ago, declared: The ancient provisions of our law denying American registry to ships built abroad and owned by Americans appears, in the light of present conditions, not only to be a failure for good at every point, but to be nearer a relic of barbarism than anything that exists under the permission of a stat- ute of the United States. Yet that remains a law of the land. The next step is to reduce the tariff on shipbuilding materials, which now makes a difference, so shipbuilders tes- tify, of 40 per cent, on "every conceiv- able item that goes into the cost of a ship." Far-sighted legislation as to registry and the tariff would do infinite- ly mofe to develop our shipping than any subsidy scheme yet developed. sist chiefly in bringing the statute up to date. It now protects the owner of a musical copyright from unauthor- ized reproductions by mechanical means; and, in general, the definitions given to the various kinds of literary and artistic property are made both sharper and more comprehensive. The final abandonment of the attempt to compel books in foreign languages to be set and printed in this country before copyright can be secured, is also a gain for common sense and international fair dealing. But the continued requirement of manufacture in the United States, as a condition precedent to copyrighting books in English, is a grave blot on our legislation. The Berne Convention puts the foreigner absolutely on the same footing as the native, as regards protec- tion of his literary property. Until we get ready to go the whole way, and sign and live up to this Convention, to which nine-tenths of the leading coun- tries are glad to adhere, we shall justly be classified, in this particular, among the unenlightened and backward na- tions. In the new copyright law, the provi- sions of which we summarize in an- other column, the improvements con- The nullification of Missouri's rail- way rate laws by the United States Dis- trict Court confirms both the fact and the ethics upon which Gov. Hughes bas- ed his veto of the two-cent law. The scanty earnings of the smaller Missouri roads show how impossible it is to fix a flat maximum rate anywhere near the desired average. Judge McPherson's wish for two flat rates, one for strong roads and the other for weak ones, seems a curious compromise between popular sentiment and justice. The wis- est course is, according to the theory on which the New York State Public Service Commission is created, to reg- ulate each particular line in the light of conditions prevailing on its own stretch of track. The proposed new charter for New York city, just laid before the Legisla- ture, is primarily noteworthy because of the things it does not contain. In an era of municipal government by com- mission, of experiments of all kinds, ranging from unexampled participation by the voters to government by an al- most despotic group of three or five men, the New York Charter Commission has not included in its draft a commis- sion, or the initiative, or the recall, or the referendum. It has yielded to no craze for untested devices, but has de- voted itself to reducing our present chaotic form of government to order. The guiding principle has been to cen- tre responsibility upon the Mayor, his executive officers, and the Board of Esti- mate and Apportionment. Lack of this clear-cut responsibility has been at the bottom of some of our chief troubles. It has been impossible, for instance, for the Mayor to control the borough pres- idents, because they are, like himself, elective officials. Yet their failure, in four out of five boroughs, to perform their duties honestly or efficiently would have made it impossible for any Mayor to govern properly. Take the streets, for instance; as responsibility for their condition is now divided among five departments, it is obvious that no one person can be held accountable. Hence the Charter Commission has tried so to simplify the structure of government that each official's duties shall be clear, and the public may know who is at fault, if there is maladministration. The commission has not abolished wholly the legislative branch. If the Board of Estimate is henceforth to be analogous to the executive committee of the directors of a business corpora- tion, it remains in one sense an upper legislative house; while in place of the Aldermen, there is to be a council of thirty-nine members to serve without pay. Their powers are, however, to be strictly limited, for they will only pass ordinances, make the tax levy, and ex- ercise a veto over specific appropriations in the budget. The powers of the Board of Estimate are, on the other hand, to be enormously enlarged. Its executive duties will be coordinated and distrib- uted among seven bureaus: Public Im- provements and Engineering, Supplies, Real Estate, Claims, Publicity and Sta- tistics, Salaries, and Franchises. These are to be headed by seven experts, ap- pointed by the board, which will itself contain, besides the five borough presi- dents, the Mayor, the president of the council, and the Comptroller. The de- sire to concentrate responsibility is also illustrated in the reduction of the Board of Education to fifteen members — still too large a number, however, for the maximum of efficiency. The City Cham- berlain is to be the head of a veritable city bank, containing the Treasury, and

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 239 the bureaus for the collection of taxes, revenues, and licenses. There has been no attempt to regulate the nominations to office as in the case of the new Bos- ton charter, no attempt to destroy the party conventions or to forbid all party nominations. In brief, then, the Char- ter Commission has held fast to old and well-tried methods in administration, but has endeavored to recast the present government, with as few changes as pos- sible, to fit it to existing conditions. Press reports of the trial of the Sugar Trust, ended last week by a jury ver- dict of guilty, hardly have brought out the shocking nature of the charge, and of the evidence to support it. It was a case of plain stealing of the most con- temptible kind. False weights were systematically used in order to defraud the Government, so the jury found, and the verdict of guilty also included the finding that this habitual cheating could not have been carried on without the knowledge of the officers of the corpor- ation. This makes up about the most damning case against a rich company that we have had. Here was no mere question of rebating, or secret trade agreements, but just pilfering, day af- ter day. The fat hand of the Sugar Trust was steadily filching from the Treasury till. For depravity and sneak- ing meanness, this would be hard to beat. As a party that has grown expert in explaining away defeat, the English Liberals will not find it very difficult to explain away the outcome of the bye- election in Glasgow last week. From 1886 to 1906, the seat was held by the same Unionist incumbent. In the tidal wave of the latter year, he was beaten by only 431 votes. Obviously, the recap- ture of so ancient, a stronghold by the Unionists cannot be described as a crushing Liberal defeat. Moreover, the Liberal candidate was badly handicap- ped. He was the renowned T. Gibson Bowles, who, up to 1906, was a Unionist member of independent proclivities, but who was defeated in the last general election, or, as he maintains, assassinat- ed by the Unionist tariff reformers, be- cause of his decided "free-food" views. Mr. Bowles thus had to contend against the particular resentment of the Union- ists and the distrust that is always the portion of a "renegade." The influential Glasgow Herald is against tariff reform, but it supported the Unionist candi- date, because it believed that "free trade is in no danger from anything Mr. Scott Dickson can say." Hence a Union- ist victory, by 7,298 votes against 5,185 in an old Conservative constituency, is not so overwhelming as it seems at first. When the British Old Age pensions bill was before Parliament, Mr. Balfour opposed it on the ground that many persons would not be able to prove their age, particularly in Ireland. How could an Irish dock-laborer working in Liverpool convince any one that he was born in Belfast, seventy years ago, he asked, when it was rotorious that the Irish statistics of 1840 were wholly un- trustworthy, where any existed? In fact, it is the Irish septuagenarians who are swamping the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer. The statistics show there should be only 184,000 persons over sev- enty years of age in Ireland, of whom 32,000 now receiving poor-relief are dis- qualified for pensions. Of the remain- ing 152,000, it would seem as if there ought to be at least a few thousand well enough off to do without pensions, but no less than 177,000 Irish pensions have already been granted. It looks as if many men and women in Ireland had reached the age of seventy in a great hurry. If there is a comic side to this, there is also a tragic one for the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer and the govern- ment. They now confess that their esti- mates of the cost of old age pensions were 80 per cent, out of the way. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer is re- ported as saying: "I cannot tell you now, but you will find I shall get the money for this alleviation of the mis- ery of the poor from people who are well able to pay." In other words, prop- erty is to be taxed so as to break down the incentive to saving for old age. The Parliamentary elections in Italy last Sunday insure a new lease of power for the Giolitti Ministry. Detailed fig- ures are not yet at hand, but if we ac- cept the government's estimate of 350 Ministerialists, against 158 of the Op- position, the Giolitti majority is almost exactly what it was upon the assem- bling of the preceding Parliament, late in 1904. Since the legislative term for the Italian Chamber is five years, the recent dissolution only hastened a general election by a few months. The Premier chose to go to the country rather than risk further debate on his foreign policy. Public opinion in Italy is at a high tension with regard to Austrian aggression in the Balkans, but while an excited Chamber might con- ceivably have voted down the Giolitti Ministry, a Ministerial victory at the polls was inevitable. Giolitti's position in Italy is a good deal like that of Clemenceau and his predecessors in France. Like them, his power rests on a Radical bloc, diverse enough in inter- ests, but united against reaction on the one hand, and revolutionary Socialism on the other. In France a long series of tumultuous and short-lived ministries preceded the victory of Radical concen- tration under Waldeck-Rousseau. In Italy, there was the same chaos of min- istries and combinations until the Radi- cal bloc was formed, under the Zanar- delli Ministry in 1901. An interesting feature of the Italian elections is that the Pope's supporters are said to have taken a more active part than they have done since the be- ginning of United Italy. The Papal inhi- bition against going to the polls was re- moved in seventy-two constituencies, or one-seventh of the whole number voting. The result has been no gain in Rome, where the Anti-Clerical bloc repeated its victories of the preceding year, and a slight gain in the rural districts. In general, it may be questioned whether the Papal non expedit has really kept Catholics out of politics to a very con- siderable extent. The enrolled electors in Germany constitute 20 per cent, of the entire population; in France the ratio is nearly 24; in Italy it is less than 8. At first sight that would indi- cate that an enormous number of Ital- ians boycott the polls. We find, how- ever, that the Italian franchise demands not only the ability to read and write, but a certain degree of additional ele- mentary education; and that in 1901 nearly 44 per cent, of all males over twenty years of age were illiterate. Add the fact that there are considerable property qualifications for the franchise, and it would follow that the number of Italians who refrain from availing them- selves of their electoral rights is not very large.

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240 T li e 1ST a t i o ii . [Vol. 88, No. 2280 THE INAUGURAL. President Taft could not write in the 'Ercles vein if he would, and he has chosen to give his inaugural address an agreeably quiet tone. He summons his fellow-countrymen, not to a deadly com- bat with Apollyon, but to the long work of constructive legislation, steady administration, and industrial recovery. There is no boasting, either for himself or his party, in putting on the armor, but the new President's words breathe of matured convictions and strong com- mon sense, and will fall gratefully upon the ears of a people wearied of vehem- ence. What Mr. Taft has to say about his hopes of tariff revision will be read with the more interest in that Congress is so soon to attack that question. Doubtless, the President will more fully express his views when he sends a mes- sage to the special session on March 15. The mere outline to which he limits himself is along familiar lines. Mr. Taft does not go the whole length of the tariff-reform argument. There is no moral indignation in his reference to the Dingley schedules which he would like to see modified. He appears to be still caught in the bog of "cost of pro- duction at home and abroad." Still, he has the root of the matter in him. He declares that, in the making of a tariff, the "prime motive" must be "taxation and the securing thereby of a revenue." And he makes it clear that, in his opin- ion, the existing duties ought to be re- duced all along the line. This being so, we think we can speak for tariff-reform- ers, who have borne the heat and bur- den of the day, when we say that they will wait patiently for a protectionist Congress and a protectionist President to confess the follies and wrongs of protection, and to set about cutting them away. In what the inaugural has to suggest about enforcement and revision of laws relating to railways and other inter- state corporations, the chief thing is the announced aim — to give to American business "that measure of stability and certainty . . . which is essential to the life and growth of all business." These are the words which will first catch the eye of the thousands all over the country who are striving to restore the former level of industrial activity. Mr. Taft speaks of changes he desires in the anti-Trust law. In view of the recent report of the Senate Judiciary Committee against any modification of that statute, it is hard to see how the new President can hope to bring about an important amendment. But the dis- tinction which he seeks to have made is, not between "good" Trusts and "bad" ones, but between those combinations which are based upon "legitimate eco- nomic reasons" and those "formed with the intent of creating monopolies and artificially controlling prices." Of high significance is President Taft's language about the South, and the status and progress of the negro. One sentence of his, intimating that he will not appoint negroes to a "local of- fice" in any community in which "the race feeling is so widespread" as to in- terfere with the transaction of the pub- lic business by such appointee, will un- doubtedly be hailed by negro-haters in the South. They will read into it a promise to remove all colored Federal officials and to name no more. But they must not too hastily overlook the other things that Mr. Taft says on this subject. He warns against "the pre- tence of race feeling manufactured in the interest of individual political am- bition." By that he will not be de- ceived. Consequently, any Southerner who itches to obtain an office now held by a negro, and who thinks he can get it by showing how the race prejudice in his locality is suddenly terrible, will be likely to have his labor for his pains. And the sober second thought of the South cannot fail to fasten upon the President's emphatic words of sympathy with the negro, and desire to advance his industrial, educational, and political status in every way possible. Mr. Taft proposes to go on in the encouragement of the negroes by "recognizing their dis- tinguished men," in "appointment to of- fice" and otherwise. Moreover, the President stands up stoutly for the war amendments to the Constitution, in- cluding the Fifteenth, and notifies the South that its suffrage laws "must" con- form to that national charter of politi- cal rights for the negro. Hence, we may well believe that, with all his good will and his obvious desire to win the South, President Taft will certainly do as much for the negro as his predeces- sor did. The only passage in the inaugural that glows with inward heat is the one refusing even to consider the legal sanc- tion of boycotting, or the withdrawal from the courts of the power of issuing injunctions against labor unions. "As to that," says the President, "my convic- tions are fixed." Messrs. Gompers and Mitchell will take notice. So will other people. With nothing sensational in his inaugural address, the new President comes before the country with an appeal for reason in all things and justice to all classes of citizens and all parts of the land. We shall, of course, judge him by his acts in the future, not by his words to-day; but that he now stands in a high degree of favor with his fellow-countrymen is plain to every- body. That he may continue to do so to the end of his term is our sincere wish. A PARTING GLANCE AT ROOSEVELT We distrust attempts to sum up Mr. Roosevelt's administration. Several of his subordinates in office have tried to do it, but not even their high impartial- ity is equal to the task. We are too near the events; we are yet too much under the spell of a salient personality, a man of contradictions, in whom good and bad are curiously and inextricably mingled. The most that can be done to-day is to note his chief qualities, and ask what has been their effect upon public af- fairs. When Col. Roosevelt ceased to be Gov- ernor of New York, the Nation said that his two years in office had shown his master-passion to be love of excitement. "It is the clamorous life," we remarked, "which most appeals to him." That opin- ion is confirmed by the eight years which has followed. Now, Walter Bage- hot has a warning passage on the perils of excitable statesmanship. He pointed out in Bolingbroke, what he might have pointed out in Roosevelt, that it is "in- compatible with the calm circumspec- tion and the sound estimate of proba- bility essential to gr^at affairs." Cer- tainly, President Roosevelt has taken no thought for careful adjustment of outlay to income and has consequently been wildly extravagant. He has been an unreflecting and noisy advocate of a big army and navy. Yet as an offset to his blustering talk about preparation for war and his constant encouragement of the military spirit must be set his brilliantly successful efforts to conclude a peace between Russia and Japan — ef- forts that were most appropriately rec-

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 241 ognized in the bestowal of the Nobel Peace Prize. His passion for the sensational has not been confined to his own sensations. He would have everybody set tingling along with him. With an energy that nothing can sap, and an almost fatal eye for what will prove startling, he has given the country a long succession of shocks. And here comes in his wonder- ful talent for advertising. As Tacitus said of Mucianus: "Omnium quae dix- erat, feceratque, arte quadam ostenta- tor" — he has the showman's knack of drawing public attention to everything he says or does. This is Roosevelt the politician, and no more consummate pol- itician ever lived. For knowing when to seize the occasion; for understanding perfectly how to hit popular feeling be- tween wind and water; above all, for ability to impress and handle men, not singly, but by the million, we have not looked upon his like. Mr. Roosevelt's uncommon powers of moving the masses have had their chief display in the field of social agitation. A great upheaval of moral sentiment took place during his administration. He was not the sole cause of it, but he utilized it and furthered it mightily. An account of stewardship of the rich was vigorously demanded. Business dis- honesty was held up to abhorrence. Corporation rottenness was probed. All this, in spite of excesses of denuncia- tion and legislation, was highly salu- tary. It was full time that people who had been mismanaging corporations and exploiting the public were called sharp- ly to book. Yet such acts as Mr. Roose- velt's wresting of Panama from Co- lombia and his appeal to E. H. Harri- man for campaign funds have raised grave doubts whether this eager moral crusader is himself always possessed of clear moral perceptions. The fact re- mains, however, that the quickening of the national conscience, the rousing of a people long dead in trespasses and sins, with such concrete results as the reform of the insurance companies and the restrictions upon predatory pub- lic service corporations, is a service the value of which can scarcely be over- estimated. One defect of Mr. Roosevelt as Presi- dent— on which we have dwelt more than once — was his indifference to con- stitutional and legal methods. He has but a feeble grasp of general principles; he sees only isolated instances. This ex- plains his failure to perceive that ours is a government of divided and limited powers. His tendency was always to ride rough-shod over Congress, to curse the courts when they failed to sustain his policies, and to do what seemed to him best at the moment, regardless of strict legality. It was not merely that he cut red tape. More than once, as in the case of the colored soldiers in- volved in the affair at Brownsville, he coolly ignored the express provisions of our statutes. This same trait was also exhibited in his offhand license for the steel merger, in his frequent trans- gressions of the rules and usages of civil intercourse, his numerous brawls in and with the public press, his fondness for calling men liars. He was impatient of all the restraints which his position should have laid upon him. But as the years pass and enmities are forgotten and wounds heal, it is in- evitable that his eocentricies and acerbi- ties of manner, his recklessness in state- ment, his violence in vituperation, and even his trampling upon legal and ad- ministrative precedents shall fall more and more into the background, while the solid achievements of his seven years in the Presidency shall bulk ever larger. It is on having "done things" that he most prides himself and most confidently challenges the verdict of his- tory. Certainly, the prosecution of the Northern Securities suit has put a defi- nite limit to a consolidation of railways in a few hands through a series of mergers. The value of the railway rate legislation which he secured, after con- vulsing the country and making him- self the idol of the West, cannot yet be reckoned, though the moral effect of the law has doubtless been considerable. No one, however, can gainsay or less- en the credit which Mr. Roosevelt deserves for his pursuit of the pos- tal thieves and the land thieves, for his vigorous prosecution of the rail- ways which gave rebates and the com- panies which received them, for extend- ing the forest reserves, and for push- ing the passage of the Pure Food Law and the Meat Inspection Law. But, above all, the beginning of the irriga- tion project is likely to rank as the legislative landmark of his administra- tion. That was true initiative, the ef- fects of which will bless millions yet unborn. Conceivably this vast under- taking will be his abiding monument when all his other labors are sunk in oblivion. We cannot tell. Said Bis- marck at Friedrichsruhe, after his re- tirement: "The banker, when he has closed out a speculation, can instantly estimate his gains. But the public man is never in that happy position. He is constantly tormented by the doubt lest, in the end, what he has done have harmful consequences." So we must wait years before knowing how to strike the balance of the Roosevelt administra- tion. EXIT PLATT. Of the retiring members of the Unit- ed States Senate, none presents so melancholy a spectacle as Thomas C. Piatt. He returns now to private life, broken in body and mind, almost friendless. No civic organizations are passing resolutions commending the in- telligence and zeal with which he has served his State. He has earned no gratitude — only contempt. The people of New York give a sigh of relief that Piatt has gone out of politics forever. We should not dwell on so unhappy a figure, but for the fact that Mr. Piatt's fate is the direct logical outcome of the policy which for many years he pur- sued with singular skill and tenacity. Here is a man whose sins have found him out. Piatt is an example of the scholar in politics. He was a member of the class of 1853 at Yale, and though he was com- pelled to give up the course because of ill health, his attainments were recog- nized in 1876 by the honorary degree of master of arts; but his case only serves to prove afresh that what is wanted in politics is not so much schol- arship as character. Piatt began his career as officeholder — clerk of Tioga County — in 1859, at the age of twenty- six; he entered Congress in 1873; and he rose to be United States Senator in 1881, when not yet forty-eight. Such rapid advancement was not the result of accident. He had devoted himself to mastery of the game of politics as it was then played in New York. He was hampered by no scruples; he never al- lowed himself to be diverted from his ends by any qualms as to the necessary means. It was a day when politicians confessed their cynicism rather more frankly than is now thought to be dis- creet; and Piatt made no pretence to

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24:2 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 a high-mindedness which he neither possessed nor understood. The value of noisy professions of all the virtues, domestic and public, had not then been so convincingly demonstrated as it has since; and Piatt, with commendable freedom from hypocrisy, set himself quite openly to the task of debauching voters and manipulating legislators. But mere indifference to principle would never have carried him into the United States Senate. His ambitions were backed by an uncommonly keen intellect. Persons who have seen Piatt only in his declining years, since he has been shorn of his power, can hard- ly imagine what a force he was in his prime. In political astuteness his only rival was the Democratic leader — sometimes, it is suspected, Piatt's co- worker— David Bennett Hill. Piatt held the Republican party of this State in the hollow of his hand. It was an adage of his that in quiet times the machine rules; and he built up a machine of ex- traordinary efficiency. He had plenty of money; for at the insurance inves- tigation he told how he used to bleed the big corporations, with the under- standing that he would grant suitable favors in return. This money was most judiciously expended throughout the State. He knew the exact capacities of all his minor leaders, the size of the vote which each could deliver, the rela- tive purchasing power of a dollar in city districts and in rural, the various factional quarrels, the possibilities of. dicker and intrigue, both within the Re- publican ranks and with venal or dis- contented Democrats. New York is a vast chess-board on which to marshal an army of pawns, but Piatt deployed his with consummate tact. He was call- ed the "Easy Boss," because he could drive with a free rein (within the pre- scribed limits) as well as apply the spur. He could take a high-spirited, conscientious, and capable young man, give him his head when he became rest- less under the discipline of the deprav- ed party organization, tempt his ambi- tion, promise him a career of great use- fulness and honor, entangle him in one compromise after another, threaten to bury him in that famous Piatt grave- yard, and finally bind him to the ma- chine, helpless and hopeless. As a cor- rupter of youth, we grant the palm to Piatt, with his amazing smoothness and cleverness. His shrewdness was never more strik- ingly shown than after his disgraceful fall in 1881. With Conkling, he had resigned from the Senate in a quarrel with President Garfield over the patron- age. The two men came back to Al- bany to plot for a reelection; and the hotel corridors were filled with rumors of bribery and scandal. Then Piatt, caught in a nasty scrape, was forced to withdraw, and as one of the newspa- pers then put it, he "stole into the dark- ness." That a man thus thrust out of public life should ever rehabilitate him- self seemed incredible. But he was in- defatigable, and before long he appear- ed at Albany in control of half-a-dozen votes in the Legislature. With this small capital he began trafficking in legislation. He managed his resources dexterously, steadily enlarged his stock of Senators and Assemblymen, added an attractive line of delegates to city, coun- ty, State, and national conventio»s, or- namented his show-window with Con- gressmen, Federal officeholders, and even Governors, and then in 1897 re- turned in triumph to the Senate. But in his twelve years there he has not brought forward any large piece of constructive legislation. His activities have been confined to the field in which he has won all his successes — if we may use that term — office-broking. With his mental equipment, he might have made a record to be proud of; but he deliber- ately narrowed his interests and centred his attention on petty jobs. We need not press the lesson. It is easy to sneer at ideas and the idealists; but in the long run it is the idealist who wins and the gross materialist who goes down in shameful defeat. Piatt and Piatt's influence have wrought no- thing but harm in State and nation. A life so sordid, unilluminated by lofty impulse, unredeemed by anything re- sembling devotion to duty, can secure but one verdict from history; and in this instance Piatt's contemporaries an- ticipate the condemnation of posterity. FRENCH ANTI-CLERICALISM. Last week M. Clemenceau's Minister of Public Instruction appointed the Abbe Loisy professor of the history of religions at the College de France. The choice was significant, both because of the character of the man on whom it fell and the manner in which it was brought about. The authorities of the College de France had recommended M. Loisy; but the Academy of Moral Sciences, which had a voice in the mat- tor, declared in favor of another candi- date by a vote of 19 to 17. Later the Academy reconsidered its action and came to the support )of M. Loisy, who was promptly confirmed by the authorities. There can be little <?oubt that govern- ment pressure had been brought to bear on the Academy. The candidacy of M. Loisy had taken on a political aspect. Rejecting him would be a triumph for the Catholic cause; appointing him would be a striking demonstration of the government's unflagging zeal against Rome. For it must be remem- bered that M. Loisy is the most redoubt- able champion of that dangerous heresy of Modernism which the Church has so recently spewed out of its mouth. As far back as 1893 the Abbe Loisy became suspect, and was removed from his pro- fessorship at the Institut Catholique. In 1903, five of his books were placed on the Index. In 1907, the Papal decree Lamentabili sane exitu stamped as heresy sixty-five propositions drawn largely from the writings of Loisy. The abb6 replied. He was excommunicated, and Rome proclaimed a general war on Modernism in the encyclical Pascendi. Neither the Church nor its enemies, in France, hold the opinion that every- thing was lost and won when Separa- tion was effected some two years ago. The bishops and the faithful, under the lead of Rome, are taking up new posi- tions and are reforming their ranks with an eye to continued resistance. The passionate anti-clericals are pressing on towards victories new. While the nec- essary after-effects of Separation move on apace, while Church property is be- ing laicised and liquidated, and, on the other hand, the Church finances are be- ing reorganized on the basis of volun- tary contributions, the firing line has shifted from Parliament and the courts into the schools. The schoolmasters as a class have a strong liking for the revo- lutionary ideals so plentiful in France of the present day. Trade-unionism, as applied to their own profession, is de- fended. Teachers have been known to lecture their pupils on the folly of pat- riotism quite in accordance with the principles of Gustave Herv6. Naturally, the anti-religious spirit is strong in the average French schoolroom. Text-

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March n, 1909] The Nation. 243 books on the history of France, in which the role played by religion and the Church is neglected or slurred, are pop- ular. In other words, the radical secu- larists have borrowed a page from the book of their opponents. They know what an advantage it is to carry your beliefs into the elementary schools. And the Church is fully conscious of the danger. Helpless, under the present regime, it sees its hopes of the rising generation being swamped by the teach- ers of irreligion, of spiritual and moral, as well as social, anarchy. With the government definitely array- ed against them, the bishops must fight their battles by extra-political means. They must utilize public opinion. Since it would be less than useless for them to work on the schoolmaster or his su- perior, they are trying to work through the parents of the school children, whose future welfare they regard as threaten- ed. The great majority of Frenchmen are, formally at least, still in commu- nion with the old faith. The women are still largely susceptible to priestly influ- ence. If the mothers and fathers of France could be brought to protest against the growing godlessness of the schools, there can be little doubt that they would have to be listened to. But for the success of such a policy, or of any policy that the Church in France may bring forward, it is essential that the Church should show a spirit of par- tial compromise, a certain readiness to recognize the logic of accomplished facts. And especially is it important that its members should act as French- men and not as privates at the absolute behest of Rome. Unfortunately, Rome has shown no desire for compromise, and the Church in France displays no desire or ability to question the orders from Rome. The tendency is the oth- er way. Because the French bishops in their plenary assemblies favored a pol- icy of moderation in the Separation crisis, the plenary assemblies are now abolished and provincial assemblies are substituted. So strong a Catholic organ as Figaro has characterized this change as a scheme for splitting up the French Episcopate in order to prevent the for- mation of a united opinion, within the French Church, in possible opposition to Rome. At the beginning of January, M. Andrieu, the ' archbishop of Mar- seilles, probably the most steadfast op- ponent of compromise with the state, was raised to the dignity of cardinal. It was unmistakably a reward. Under such circumstances, the anti- clerical swing is gaining force. It is war to the hilt, even if it is sometimes war to the point of the ridiculous. The au- thor of a depreciatory life of Joan of Arc is made professor at the Sorbonne and riots follow. The Socialist Mayor of Ivry celebrates "civic baptisms." The new-born are brought in to the strains of the "Marseillaise," listen to a dis- course on liberty and democracy, and depart to the strains of the "Interna- tionale," taking with them a box of candy and a penny savings bank as the gift of the state. The situation is not pleasing to good Catholics. WILLIAM MORRIS. I. Mr. Noyes, himself one of the most serious of the younger English poets, has written a life of William Morris in a tone of almost lyrical enthusiasm*; affording further evidence that the mak- er of "The Earthly Paradise," as the representative of one of the diverging lines from Tennyson's early Victorian compromise, is receiving more serious critical attention. When Morris went up to Oxford in 1853, bearing with him the humors of a strange romantic boyhood in Epping Forest, he was already steep- ed in Tennyson, and it was natural that he should have joined himself to a set of men who were under the same spell. "We all had the feeling," says Canon Dixon, one of that university group, "that after Tennyson no farther devel- opment was possible: that we were at the end of all things in poetry." As a matter of fact, though Tennyson no doubt exercised a strong influence on these ardent seekers after beauty, their course was to be by no means a con- tinuation of the great Cambridge poet's. Morris, too, like Tennyson, made a friendship at the university, which col- ored all the rest of his life. When he took his examination at Oxford, there sat beside him in the Hall of Exeter, a boy from Birmingham, Edward Burne- Jones, the future artist, with whom and three or four others was to be formed the Brotherhood (not to be confused with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), whose eccentric doings are chronicled so entertainingly in Lady Burne- Jones's memoirs of her husband. Both Morris and Burne-Jones were deeply imbued with the enthusiasm left over from the Oxford Movement, and their first aim was to form a conventual society with some vague notion of preserving and "William Morris. By Alfred Noyes. (English Men of Letters.) New York: The Maemlllan Co. 75 cents. disseminating the religious ideas of the past. Meanwhile, their activity took the usual form of publishing a periodical, the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. It succumbed after a few months, like oth- er such ventures; and if a neglectful world was bettered thereby it was not im. mediately, but through the lasting influ- ence of those warm aspirations on the men themselves. And I often think that nothing is more striking, nothing, in- deed, more lamentable, than the absence of these little societies from our Ameri- can universities. How utterly lonely and unhelped is the path of many college men who cherish the long hopes of youth. We have so little sense of the power and comfort of these frank con- spiracies for fame; we seem to be born with a shame of great ambitions, and tremble lest any one should suppose we nourish a plot to conquer the world. And so we go out into life with no recollection of that first buoyant sym- pathy to hearten us against life's sub- duing indifference. We lack the reserve force and the retiring place of such a memory. Well, that is for America, and, perhaps, for England of to-day; not for the Oxford of the Brotherhood. II. Their religious zeal soon waned, if it was not rather factitious from the be- ginning. Morris might be described as a High Churchman and Neo-Catholic when he entered the university, but his religion even then was more a matter of the senses than of morals and creeds. There is a significant note in one of his earliest poems preserved in a letter to a friend: 'Twas in Church on Palm Sunday, Listening what the priest did say Of the kiss that did betray, That the thought did come to me How the olives used to be Growing in Gethsemane; That the thoughts upon me came Of the lantern's steady flame, Of the softly whispered name; Of how kiss and words did sound While the olives stood around, While the robe lay on the ground. One can imagine the scorn with which Newman would Lave regarded this use of the Passion of Christ for aesthetic titillation — he who recoiled with sus- picion even from the allurement of nat- ural scenery. And there was little of the earlier zeal then at Oxford to cor- rect or change this tendency. "The place was languid and indifferent," wrote Burne-Jones; "scarcely anything was left to show that it had passed through , such an excited time as ended with the secession of Newman." In the hollow ritualism that was beginning to crystal- lize from the Oxford Movement our . band of enthusiasts could find satisfac- . tion neither for conscience nor for imag- ination, and they gradually turned from

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244r The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 this mixture to a pure art of the senses. New influences, not of the university, began to take hold upon them. They grew deep in mediaeval things; Poe's poems came across the water to open a realm of shadowy dreams; Ruskin's "re- ligion of beauty" created in them the solemn conscience of art, and through Ruskin's "Edinburgh Lectures" they were drawn to the strongest force that operated upon them — Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It is not easy to account for the extraordinary domination of Ros- setti over almost every one with whom he came into contact. We may call it the mystery of his personality; and this, if analyzed, will probably reduce in large part to the effect of invincible self-knowledge, to his sure instinct of knowing what he admired and what he wanted, while others were waiting for the guidance of some external impulse. And so, as he became better known to these Oxford searchers, he grew to be for a time a kind of high-priest of artis- tic taste. Their first serious incursion into art under the new leadership was that hilarious fiasco, when Morris, who had no training as a painter, and oth- ers who, if they could draw, knew no- thing of frescoing, covered the walls of the Oxford Union with pictures which faded almost immediately into the plas- ter. But there were great days of talk and wild merriment when these friends, now settled in London, came back to Oxford as knights errant of the brush. III. The various interests of the world soon invaded that little ccnacle. draw- ing its members into different paths of success, but the mark of those Oxford days and of their comradeship in the long hopes was never worn away. The precise work of each depended on his peculiar talents. For Morris, the future was determined by an aesthetic irritabil- ity that was not so much the all-elimi- nating impulse of the great artist as an indiscriminate hankering after beau- ty, and by a certain fluidity of tempera- ment. You may sink your plummet into his mind, but you will touch no bottom; there is no solid core; all there is move- ment and flux, save this sense of beauty, which was itself largely a matter of flowing rhythm. The vision of life pass- ed before his eyes in sequence, but with- out consequence; more than almost any other man of his age he had the roman- tic indifference to the law of cause and effect which locks events together into a kind of static system, and the bond- age of logic he never suffered. The mor- al compromise of the age, also, which, as "In Memoriam" shows it, tried to com- bine the old notion of an eternal fiat ■with the new theory of evolution, was no problem to him. If Tennyson some- times escaped from that constraint into the higher logic of the spirit, Morris moved for the most part as if uncon- scious of its existence. There is nothing immoral in his work; but of morality there we do not think at all, save as an- other term to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly. This lack of a fixed centre is a part of the man's character, showing itself in little traits as in his large. There is no repose in his body. He had, says a friend, the "incessant restlessness of a wild creature." He was "fond of talk- ing, which he did in a husky shout," and for emphasis had the "habit of beating his own head." If anything happened to check his impulse, he would fly into a gusty rage, and there are stories abroad of insane exhibitions of temper, such as striking his head against the wall, rolling in paroxysms on the floor, biting through window- frames, lifting coal-scuttles with his teeth, and the like Herculean feats — half inventions of Rossetti's humor, it may be, but characteristic of the man. His impatience of hindrance was like the boiling of a mountain torrent over a boulder. Of death he was notoriously afraid, not from any deficiency of phys- ical courage, but in recoil from its final stay and pause. The same restlessness runs through his artistic life. I am not sure that I can enumerate all the crafts he took up at one time or another, either in rapid succession or together, but weaving, dye- ing, furniture making, paper designing, and printing were among them. So fe- verish was his method, that his great physical strength was worn out at the age of sixty-two (in 1896; it seems al- ready long ago), and he succumbed to the disease, as his family doctor re- ported, of "being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men." Excellent results were obtained in all these arts, even if sometimes, as in much of his printing, the delight in antique forms and the sheer lust of the eye overrode the craftsman's right feel- ing for utility. To these tasks of the hand he brought a magnificent scorn of '.'vagueness, hypocrisy, and cowardice," and his hatred of these sins against joy- ous and beautiful production was the real substitute in him for the moralist's dictates of conscience. One thing is spe- cially noticeable: his successful work was almost purely decorative, depending on fluent line and skilful repetition. He never learned to manage figures, and when animal or bird was necessary to a design, he generally had it drawn in by another hand. A picture, properly speaking, he could never make, chiefly, I believe, because the concentration of sight and the static power of composi- tion were so weak in him. IV. Poetry was but one craft among many for Morris, and he turned off his lines with incredible ease. "That talk of in- spiration is sheer nonsense," he once exclaimed; "I may tell you that flat: there is no such thing; it is a mere mat- ter of craftsmanship. . . . If a chap can't compose an epic poem while he's weaving tapestry, he had better shut up, he'll never do any good at all." And so he composed epics and lyrics and again epics amidst his other occupations, ac- complishing once, it is said, as many as seven hundred lines in a single day. Mr. Noyes, who himself knows something of the poetic pains, stops to calculate this at about one line a minute for twelve hours on end, and is aghast and incred- ulous at such an enfantement. As a matter of fact, Morris's writing ap- proaches more nearly than that of per- haps any other Englishman to the style of the improvisator -e ; it bears the same relation to the verse of other equally famous poets as the work of the arab- esque decorator bears to that of the fig- ure painter. "The poetic upholsterer," Sir Edmund Beckett called him, and Morris was astonished that this "harm- less statement of fact" should have been meant for an insult. Well, let us admit all this, and then add that Morris's verse is superb decor- ation. With all their shortcomings and their emission of the qualities that mark the great style, it is possible that a time may come when "The Earthly Paradise" and "Sigurd the Volsung" will be read more than many a poem that fails in a grander manner. Every one knows the simple and happily conceiv- ed plot of Morris's longest, poem. It is told in the Prologue how certain gen- tlemen and mariners of Norway once, in the Middle Ages, set sail to find the Earthly Paradise, and after long wan- dering came at last to an island in the western sea, where dwelt a Greek peo- ple who still preserved the life and traditions of the ancient world. So throughout a year the elders of the two peoples entertain one another with stories of mediaeval and classical origin, one of each source every month. There is no attempt on the part of the poet to differentiate his style for the two periods; his aim is to waft the reader to "a shadowy isle of bliss" which is neither pagan nor Christian, but the world's refuge of romance. From Chaucer he drew the plan of his poem, and with Chaucer in his Envoi he ranges himself as pupil with master. As a matter of fact, except for their common skill in weaving a story, there are few poets in English from whom Morris differed more than from his avowed model. Chaucer did not hate death as Morris hated it; nor did Mor- ris have any understanding of that broad love of actual life that makes the savor of the "Canterbury Tales." His aim was rather to escape from the real- ities of living, while still shrinking from the contemplation of death or of the eternal things. To me the only really pathetic lines he ever wrote are the

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 24.5 prologue to "November," wherein he expresses this revulsion from the two realities: Look out upon the real world, where the moon, Half-way 'twixt root and crown of these high trees, Turns the dead midnight into dreamy noon Silent and full of wonders, for the breeze Died at the sunset, and no images, No hopes of day, are left in sky or earth — Is it not fair, and of most wondrous worth? Yea, I have looked and seen November there; The ohangeless seal- of change it seemed to be, Fair death of things that, living once, were fair; Bright sign of loneliness too great for me, Strange image of the dread eternity, In whose void patience how can these have part, These outstretched feverish hands, this restless heart? In those lines is something of the grand manner, as you will find it rarely, if anywhere else, in Morris — not the weight of Milton, but let us say the elfin gravity of Spenser in the later stanzas of "The Faerie Queene." V. "Void patience was not in the heart or the hands of our craftsman, and for his refuge from life he turned to the "pageant-maker's imagery." You re- member the story of "The Ring Given to Venus" and the young man, who, to recover the ring and therewith gain his human bride, was forced to stand in a place of wizardry by the sea while a procession of phantoms passed before him: In after times would Laurence say, That though the moonshine, cold and gray, Flooded the lonely earth that night. These creatures in the moon's despite Were colored clear, as though the sun Shone through the earth to light each one. And then his dazzled eyes could see Once more a noiseless company; And his heart failed him at the sight, And he forgot both wrong and right, And nothing thought of his intent; For close before him now there went Fair women clad in ancient guise That hid but little from his eyes More loveliness than earth doth hold Now, when her bones are growing old; But all too swift they went by him, And fluttering gown and ivory limb Went twinkling up the bare hill-side, And lonely there must he abide. Such a scene is a parable of Morris's own life save that, unlike Laurence, he never recovered his ring, and it affords the best criticism of the whole poem of "The Earthly Paradise." Like the dis- tracted youth, the reader seems to be standing by enchanted waters drenched in a magic light, while dream-shadows flit before him, some terrible and some lovely; but the former pass with open mouths that emit no sound and raised hands that never strike, and the latter gleam only for a moment on the hill- side and are gone. The best of the tales, to my taste, are those that use this pageant-like material most frankly — such as "Atalanta's Race," with its daz- zling picture of the maiden running be- fore her suitor to the goal: Then flew her white feet, knowing not a doubt, Though slackening once, she turned her head about; or the "Cupid and Psyche," in which the solid gold of Apuleius seems to have dis- solved into a golden haze, "the waver- ing memory of a lovely dream." One seems to take part in the process .of transmutation by reading together pas- sages of the Latin and of Morris's para- phrase. Thus, Psyche has been carried to the palace of her unseen lover, and the English poem continues: Now went she through the chambers trem- blingly, " And oft in going would she pause and stand, And drop the gathered raiment from her hand, Stilling the beating of her heart for fear As voices whispering low she seemed to hear, But then again the wind it seemed to be Moving the golden hangings doubtfully, Or some bewildered swallow passing close Unto the pane, or some wind-beaten rose. That is all evoked from a single phrase of the Latin: vox quwdam corporis sui nuda. There is an element of magic in these simple words, no doubt, but nothing that corresponds to the tremu- lous uncertainty of the paraphrase, as if an enchanted mist had arisen between the palace and the beholder's eyes. The great fault of "The Earthly Para- dise" is its monotony. Very soon we be- gin to be aware that with all its seem- ing diversity, it is really extraordi- narily poor in ideas. If we say that beauty and death, death and beauty, form almost the whole substance of the poem, it might seem that enough had been granted to furnish forth a library of verse; but Morris uses these topics with the least variety of effect. Death is only the cessation of beauty, and beauty is only the indistinguished blaze of gold and silver, lilies and roses, slen- der hands and white limbs. Nowhere is there any relief or emphasis, but an even, swift flow, which never invites the mind to pause, or reflect, or go back. In all the diffuse imagery of "Cupid and Psyche," for instance, you will not find anything like Apuleius's description of the chariot of Venus: limw tenuantis detrimento conspicuum et ipsius auri damno pretiosum. Those words, which fascinated Pater by the cunning of their paradox, are altogether omitted by Mor- ris. He was not one of those poets "who hoard their moments of felicity," but sowed from the whole sack. And too soon, this entire lack of concentration or hesitation in the mind of the poet results in something perilously like in- difference in the mind of the reader. VI. If my own taste can be trusted there is less of this cloying monotony in Mor- ris's other great poem, "Sigurd the Vol- sung." Already, while composing "The Earthly Paradise," he had become ab- sorbed in Icelandic studies, and one of the later tales, "The Lovers of Gudrun," the finest of all his poems, if we may believe Swinburne, was taken directly from this source. In 1870 Morris, in collaboration with Magnusson, made a translation of the prose Volsunga Saga. Six years later he developed this into the magnificent epic of "Sigurd the Vol- sung," surely one of the high metrical triumphs of the nineteenth century. It is, of course, idle chauvinism to call these legends, as Morris does, "the Great Story of the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the Greeks." Our literature and our ways of thinking do not come to us from the sagas, but from the classics and the renaissance. And it is mere wantonness, as some hot brains have done, to place Morris's work above, or even beside, that of Homer. Apart from the question of artistic form and beauty of expression, it lacks the full human- ity of the Iliad, and its romance, beside that of the Odyssey, is as stammering to perfect speech. In one respect "Sigurd" is like Mor- ris's earlier work. If you read the poem pencil in hand you will find that you have no impulse <o mark the lines for future reference, that you are never tempted to linger and reflect, but are jostled on from page to page. This is partly due to the metrical rhythm, which deserves a word to itself. In the tales of "The Earthly Paradise" Morris used the ordinary ismbic pentameters and tetrameters, but he gave them a new character by lightening the ac- cents, so that in place of the grave marching measure of Milton or the reg- ular rattle of Scott, there is an even, al- most unstressed flow. To such an ex- tent does he carry this that many of the octo-syllabic lines have only three accents, with a huddling together of two or three unaccented syllables, while the pentameters have a trick of loosen- ing into series of four or even three accents with still longer groups of un- accented syllables. Now write two of these three-stressed verses together, and you have the verse of "Sigurd": Then he rose at once to his feet, and smote the harp with his hand, And it rang as if with a cry in the dream of a lonely land; or even more characteristic, as showing the tendency to bunch three light syl- lables at the caesura: But the thought of my heart is unstable, and my hope as the winter drift. Morris himself no doubt believed that

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246 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 he was using a metre equivalent in ef- fect to the Greek hexameter; as a mat- ter of fact, his rhythm, as Mr. Mackail observes, is probably closer to the orig- inal tumbling ballad sing-song out of which the classical dactyls and spon- dees were developed. Only there is still this difference, which Mr. Mackail does not observe: that the absence of a fixed syllabic quantity, such as we may as- sume to have been even more pronounc- ed in Homeric than in later Greek, gives to Morris's measure an unpausing haste and, so to speak, a vague and fitful rest- lessness. VII. But this metrical effect, better than in "The Earthly Paradise," harmonizes with the emotional quality of the poem. As you read on and the magic of the imagery lays hold of the mind, you seem indeed to have been rapt away into the dream of a lonely land. Nothing is quite familiar, nothing quite stable. Before you drives a broken mist, through the rifts of which you catch glimpses of a changing and disconnect- ed panorama — gold-gleaming palaces and gray weather-beaten castles, groups of huntsmen driving the deer in the deep glades, terrible kings frowning for- ward from their thrones, warriors bat- tling within rings of fire, women won- derfully fair calling men to blind dooms. The effect comes, in part, no doubt, from the story itself as Morris found it in the Icelandic saga, but he has shown extraordinary skill in adap- tation. Some of the cruder, more sav- age details he has omitted, and about the others he has thrown an emotional atmosphere almost entirely h's own. Sigurd's fateful arrival at the castle of tie Niblungs, for example, is told in the saga with the utmost simplicity: "Thus he rides until he comes to the hall of King Giuki; there he rides into the burg." That is all ; whereas in the poem all the mystery of the future seems to meet the hero at the gate^ Upriseth the heart of Sigurd, but ever he rideth forth Till he comes to the garth and the gateway built up in the face of the north: Then e'en as a wind from the mountains he heareth the warders' speech, As aloft in the mighty towers they clamor each to each; Then horn to horn blew token, and far and shrill they cried, And he heard, as the fishers hearken the cliff- fowl over the tide: But he rode in under the gate, that was long and dark as a cave Bored out in the isles of the northland by the beat of the restless wave; And the noise of the winds was within it, and the sound of swords unseen, As the night when the host is stirring and the hearts of kings are keen. But no man stayed or hindered, and the dusk place knew his smile, AnC. into the court of the warriors he came forth after a while, And looked aloft to the hall-roof, high up and gray as the cloud. For the sun was wholly perished; and there he crieth aloud. . . . There is, in fact, little feeling of any kind evident in the saga, but a mere recital of stark deeds. When Gudrun kills her two children, the brief scene is snapped off with a "yet for all that, she cuts the throats of them" — it is all in the day's work. Now there is, prop- erly speaking, little more of real hu- manity in Morris than in the Icelandic story. His sense for moral values is of the most rudimentary sort, and the law of cause and effect, which we as- sociate with the moral law, scarcely ex- ists for him. As a consequence, we have small human sympathy with his charac- ters. Yet an emot:'onal quality he does have, and that in a high degree, latent no doubt in the original but developed into something quite his own. From first to last one feels a kind of dim fa- tality brooding over the poem, a strange troubled necessity, such as cannot be found in any other of the great epics. It is not the mystical fate of Virgil, the unknown law that governs men and gods for its own far ends; nor the ap- portioned lot of Homer; nor the blind chance of Lucretius; nor the divine will of Milton. It is the fatality of magic, a web of mist and cloud spun by the Norns; a something inhuman and elfin that sends through the reader a boding thrill as from the night-terrors of his childhood. "The Earthly Paradise" was a lovely and rather cloying fairy tale; "Sigurd" is the menacing fable of a witch. p. e. M. THE NEW COPYRIGHT LAW. To the general surprise, the new copy- right bill passed both houses of Con- gress last week. It consists of one complete and consistent copyright stat- ute, in sixty-four sections. The term of copyright is lengthened. The bill leaves the present first term of twenty- eight years unchanged, but provides for a renewal term of twenty-eight years instead of fourteen, thus making poss- ible a period of protection of fifty-six years from the publication of the work. The bill also provides for the extension of subs'sting copyrights. Copyright may now be secured for all the "writings" of an author, using the Constitutional expression. In enumer- ating and classifying works protected by copyright, the bill is more explicit than the present statutes, and adds the following new designptions: "Lectures, sermons, and addresses, prepared for oral delivery"; "dramatico-musical com- positions"; "plastic works of a scientific or technical character"; "reproductions of a work of art," and "prints and pic- torial illustrations," in lieu of "engrav- ings," "cuts," and "chromos"; and "works of art" instead of the present specific designations, "painting," "draw- ings," "statue," and "statuary." Ex- press provision is made that compil- ations, abridgments, adaptations, ar- rangements, dramatizations, or transla- tions and works republished with new matter shall be classed as new works subject to copyright. As regards a musical work, the bill provides, as does the present law, that the author shall have the sole right to perform the work publicly for profit, but adds the sole right "to make any arrangement or setting of it or of the melody of it in any system of notation or any form of record from which it may be read or reproduced." The composer's control of the reproduction of his music by me- chanical instruments is qualified as fol- lows: (a) to cover only music publish- ed and copyrighted after the act goes into effect; (b) not to include music by a foreign author or composer unless the foreign state or nation of which he is a subject grants to citizens of the Unit- ed States similar rights; (c) whenever the owner of a musical copyright has used or permitted or acquiesced in the use of his work upon parts of instru- ments serving to reproduce mechanical- ly the musical work, any other person may make similar use of the work upon the payment of a royalty of two cents on each part manufactured, notice to be filed in the copyright office of such use or license to use by the copyright pro- prietor. American manufacture is required in the case of a book, not only as regards type-setting in the United States, but "if the text be produced by lithographic or photo-engraving process, then by a process wholly performed within the limits of the United States." The pro- vision is also extended to illustrations within a book, and to separate litho- graphs and photo-engravings, "except where in either case the subjects rep- resented are located in a foreign coun- try and illustrate a scientific work or reproduce a work of art." The printing and binding of the book must also be performed within the United States. Photographs are released from the present requirement that they "shall be printed from negatives made within the United States or from trans- fers made therefrom." The "original I text of a book of foreign origin in a language or languages other than Eng- lish" is also excepted from the require- ments of type-setting in the United States. A new ad interim protection is given books printed abroad in the English language. If one complete copy of such book is deposited in the copyright office not later than thirty days after publication abroad, copyright is granted for a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of the copy. If an authorized edition of the book is produced from type set in the United States during this second thirty days,

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March n, 1909] The Nation 24.7 the full term of copyright is secured. The much discussed provisions pro- hibiting the importation of copyrighted books are considerably modified. The importation of piratical copies of any work copyrighted is prohibited, and the importation of any books, "although au- thorized by the author or proprietor," which have not been produced in accord- ance with the manufacturing provisions, is prohibited. The Act of 1891 permits importation of books in "the case of persons purchasing for use and not for jsale, who import, subject to the duty thereon, not more than two copies of such book at any one time." The new law permits importation, "not more than one copy at one time, for individ- ual use, and not for sale," and adds the proviso that "such privilege of impor- tation shall not extend to a foreign re- print of a book by an American author copyrighted in the United States." The Act of 1891 allows importation in good faith for the use of societies incorporat- ed or established for educational, phil- osophical, literary, or "eligious purposes, or for the encouragement of the fine arts, or for any college, academy, school, or seminary of learning. The new law confines the privilege to incorporated societies or institutions, but adds scien- tific societies and "any State, school, college, university, or free public li- brary"; but while the Act of 1891 per- mits "two copies in any one invoice" to be so imported, the new law provides for "not more than one copy of any such book in one invoice" when "for use and not for sale." In the case of infringement, an in- junction may issue, as now, and dam- ages be recovered as well as all the profits due to the infringement. The minimum damage to be recovered is $250, the same as now awarded, but the maximum is placed at $5,000, only half the maximum enacted by present law for infringements of works of fine arts. In the case of an unauthorized newspa- per reproduction of a copyrighted pho- tograph it is expressly provided that the damages shall not exceed $200, nor be less than $50, and it is further ex- pressly provided that in no case shall the damage be regarded as a penalty. The old law prescribes that the dam- age shall be "for every copy found" in the infringer's possession "or by him sold or exposed for sale," whereas by the act the damages are assessed on "every infringing copy made or sold by or found in the possession of the in- fringer or his agents or employers." The new law is more explicit than the old in regard to the transfer of copy- right. This is declared to be distinct from the property in the material ob- ject copyrighted, and the transfer of the one shall not imply the transfer of the other; but it is provided in express terms that nothing in the act shall be deemed to forbid, prevent, or restrict the transfer of any copy of a work copy- righted, the possession of which has been lawfully obtained. Copyright may not only be assigned, as the present law provides, but "be mortgaged" or be- queathed by will, and when an assign- ment of the copyright in a specified work has been recorded, the assignee may substitute his name for that of the assignor in the statutory notice of copy- right. Foreign assignments must be ac- knowledged before a consular officer or secretary of legation, and all assign- ments shall be recorded in the copy- right office. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. One of the most important sales of the season, to be held by the Anderson Auc- tion Company in this city, March 18 and 19, includes the library of William Her- mann of White Plains. N. Y. A large num- ber of valuable books, some remarkable for their condition, will be offered. Those with colored plates are perhaps the most notable, among them three of Pierce Egan's books, "Life in London" (1821), "Real Life in London " (1821-22), and "The Life of an Actor" (1825), all in the original parts, fine copies, as issued. A Beckett's "Comic History of England" (1846-48), with col- ored plates by John Leech, is in parts, and has inserted five of the original finished drawings in color. "The Annals of Sport- ing" (1822-28), 13 volumes; "The National Sports of Great Britain" (1825); the first, second, and -third editions of the "Me- moirs of the Life of the Late John Mytton," and "The Life of a Sportsman" are im- portant books, with colored plates by Henry Aiken. A complete set of the Scourge (1811-16), 12 vols.; Ireland's "Life of Napoleon" (1828), 4 vols.; Combe's "Life of Napoleon" (1815); "The Humorist" (1819- 20), 4 vols.; Carey's "Life in Paris" (1822), large paper; and -the much rarer book, "Gaiete de Paris" (1825), with the same plates, but with different text by W. H. Ireland, are notable works, with colored plates by George Cruikshank. A set of Grimm's "German Popular Stories" (1823- 26), the first volume being the genuine first edition, and both volumes in the original boards uncut, is generally regarded in this condition as the most desirable of all Cruikshank's illustrated books. "Mornings at Bow Street" and "More Mornings at Bow Street" are both the earliest issue, uncut, with four autograph letters of Cruikshank relating to the books. Brough's "Life of Sir John Falstaff" (1858) has inserted three of Cruikshank's original colored drawings, differing slightly from the etchings as pub- lished. Books with colored plates by Thomas Rowlandson include "The English Dance of Death" (1815-1817) and "The Dance of Life" (1817). Three early Shakespeare quartos "King John" (1622), "Richard III" (1629), and "The Life of Sir John Oldcastle" (1600) ; a Fourth Folio (1685), Suckling's "Fragmenta Aurea" (1646), Ben Jonson's Works (1616- 40), and Milton's "Paradise Regained" (1671) are notable seventeenth century rari- ties. No copy of the first edition of "Rob- inson Crusoe" (1719) seems to have been offered at auction in America since the Foote sale in 1895. The copy here offered does not contain the third volume "Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe" (1820), but that volume, which has not been reprinted in later editions of Robinson Crusoe, is of slight interest to collectors and of small market value. Among the first editions of nineteenth century English authors are sev- eral exceedingly rare and valuable items, the most notable, perhaps, a copy of the first edition of "Waverley" (1814), in the original boards, uncut, but with backs and labels supplied. Jane Austen's "Pride and Preju- dice" (1813), 3 vols., one of the rarest of modern books, is first offered at auction in this country. Among the first editions of Shelley are "Queen Mab" (1813), a presen- tation copy, in the original boards, uncut; and "Epipsychidion" (1821), with the rare half-title and with the autograph of Shelley on the title-page. The Lamb items include "Blank Verse" (1798) ; "The King and Queen of Hearts" (1805), but with the cover dated 1808; and "Beauty and the Beast" (1811). Keats's three books "Poems" (1817), "Endymion" (1818), and "Lamia" (1820), are uniformly bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe and offered as a set. There is also a second copy of "Endymion" in the original boards, uncut. Matthew Arnold's first publication, "Alaric at Rome" (1840), is a presentation copy in flhe original paper cover, a book which has never before appeared in an American auction room. Stephen Phillips's "Orestes and Other Poems," a little pam- phlet in yellow glazed paper-cover, printed for private circulation in 1884, with a missing line supplied in the author's autograph, is also the first copy ever offered at auction here. The Dickens collection is remarkable. Besides a collected set of first editions, 68 vols., uniformly bound in full levant mo- rocco by Zaehnsdorf, we note a copy of "Sketches by Boz" (1839), the first octavo edition, with an original water-color by George Cruikshank, and an A.L.S. of Dick- ens referring to the book ; "Nicholas Nick- leby" (1839), with an A.L.S. of Dickens pointing out an error in the proof; "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1844) with five original draw- ings by "Phiz" inserted; presentation copies of "Dombey and Son" and "Pictures from Italy," as well as several of the novels in parts, and two books from Dickens's libra- ry. Notable Thackeray items are the Gownsman (1830), a little college periodical to which Thackeray was a contributor, sev- enteen numbers, complete in one volume, original boards ; and "The Paris Sketch Book" (1840), "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo" (1846), and "The History of Pendennis" (1850), each contain- ing one or more original drawings by Thackeray. The first editions of American authors include Poe's "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems" (1829), in the original boards, but with trimmed edges (similar to the copy which recently brought $1,200 in Philadelphia); Maria Lowell's "Poems" (1855), presentation copy; Irving's "Chroni- cle of the Conquest of Granada" (1829), with twenty-five lines of the original manu- script inserted; a Whittier leaflet, "In War Time," with autograph corrections; and a fine copy of Thoreau's "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" (1849). The Hawthorne "Love Letters," printed for a Chicago book club, the Society of the Do- fobs, by the courtesy of W. K. Bixby of St. Louis, the owner of the manuscript, is

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24,8 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 the first copy offered at auction. Of sixty- two copies printed two went for copyright, ten were retained by Mr. Bixby, and fifty went to the members of the club. A copy recently changed hands privately at $200. In the list of manuscripts is a folio half- bound blank book belonging to the Thoreau family, first used by Sophia, then by John, and finally by Henry D. Thoreau as a jour- nal. It contains a number of notes about birds around Concord by John and Henry, as well as the first rough draft, 25 pages, of "A Walk to Wachusett." Between the leaves are pressed specimens of grasses and wild flowers with their scientific names on little slips of paper written by Thoreau. One of Charlotte Bronte's manuscripts, "Tales of the Islanders," written in 1829; several Washington letters, a volume con- taining Lincoln autograph letters and docu- ments and letters written to Lincoln, and a similar volume containing specimens of twenty-four Victorian authors, are other interesting items. Among the Americana are Hakluyt's Voy- ages (1599-1600), 3 vols.; Hubbard's "Pres- ent State of New England" (1677); Hop- kins's "Historical Memoirs Relating to the Housatunnuk Indians" (1753); and Hubley's "History of the American Revolution" (1805), Vol. 1, all published. In addition to the association items al- ready noted, may be mentioned a series of twenty-eight volumes from the library of Thomas Jefferson, a book with Hawthorne's autograph and one with Thackeray's em- bossed stamp. Jefferson's library, sold to the government in 1815, formed the nucleus of the present Library of Congress. Books from his library therefore seldom come upon the market. It was not his custom generally to write his autograph in his books, but instead to make a private mark. Where the signature mark I or J occurred at the bottom of the page he would put a manuscript T before the signature let- ter; in the same way on signature T he would put a manuscript J after the signa- ture letter. Most of the books offered in the present sale contain one or more of these private marks. Several also have the autograph of his daughter, but only two or three contain his own autograph signature or notes. The Merwin-Clayton Sales Company of this city will sell on March 16, 17, and 18 a collection of books including a portion of the library of the late Rev. E. P. Roe. There are several volumes of early English poetry, among them John Donne's "Poems" (1634), first edition; William Cartwright's "Comedies, Tragi-Comedies with other Poems" (1651); Charles Cotton's "Poems on Several Occasions" (1689); and John Lilly's "Sixe Court Comedies" (1632). Notable also are a nearly complete series of the first editions of Robert Louis Stevenson; 24 lots relating to "Don Quixote," including several unusual editions; Pierce Egan's "Life in London" (1821), large paper; and publications of the Club of Odd Volumes, Dunlap Society, and Essex House Press. On March 16 and 17, C. F. Libbie & Co., Boston, will sell a collection of books, in- cluding the library of F. J. Mansfield of Burlington, la. Early American almanacs, books on the civil war, and a complete set of the publications of the Maine Historical Society are items of importance. The second portion of the library of Lord Amherst of Hackney will be sold by Sothe- by, Wilkinson & Hodge, London, March 24 to 27. The books printed by Caxton, which would have been included in this portion, are mentioned in their proper places in the catalogue, with the statement that they were sold privately. This collection of Caxton's, as was announced at the time, was purchased en bloc by J. Pierpont Mor- gan. This portion of the Amherst sale in- cludes two copies of the First Folio Shake- speare, neither absolutely perfect, but the two together will make a perfect copy lacking only the title-page. Only one Shakespeare quarto seems to have been owned by Lord Amherst, the Roberts edi- tion of "A Midsomer Night's Dream" (1600). The collection of editions of English Prayer Books is very extensive, and there are no less than nine editions of Henry VHI'a "Primer." Among the early printed books is a copy of Jenson's edition of Pliny's Natural History (Venice, 1472), one of the most beautiful productions of the early Venice press, described as an exceedingly fine copy. Several early English literary manuscripts are notable items; among them is a volume containing English poems by John Northwodde of Bordesley, near Bir- mingham, written in 1386; a manuscript by Thomas Occleve; and two fifteenth century manuscripts by Richard Rolle of Hampole. The current number of the Library, the English quarterly, contains a Bibliography of Milton, by Alfred W. Pollard of the British Museum. The controversial pam- phlets are described, as well as the more interesting and valuable poetical works. In arranging the title-pages of "Paradise Lost," Mr. Pollard agrees with most of the recent writers, and gives precedence to the 1667 edition, with Milton's name in large type, though in the Amherst catalogue a copy of this form is described as second issue. Correspondence. POE'S INDEBTEDNESS TO BYRON. To the Editor of The Nation: Sib : A recent book on Byron's vogue and influence in America dismisses Byron's influence on Poe with less than a page. Poe's editors and biographers have, with few exceptions, made more of the matter, and some of them have held that Poe was fh his earliest volume of poems — the fa- mous little edition printed at Boston in 1827 — pretty completely under the Byronic spell. Prof. G. E. Woodberry, for exam- ple, asserts in his life of Poe that "Tamer- lane" is thoroughly Byronic, and implies that the rest of Poe's first volume was largely modelled after Byron. Two other distinguished editors of Poe, E. C. Sted- man and R. H. Stoddard, have even ven- tured to specify the works of Byron that most influenced two of Poe's poems: Sted- man in one of his essays on Poe proclaim- ed "Tamerlane" a "manifest adumbration of 'The Giaour'"; and Stoddard has pointed out that parts of "Al Aaraaf" evidence an acquaintance with Byron's "The Deformed Transformed." But no student of Poe has taken the trouble to look into the matter of Poe's indebtedness in detail or with any attempt at exhaustiveness. Such an at- tempt must have made it clear that Poe's indebtedness to Byron extended consider- ably farther than has heretofore been held. It is revealed not alone in the volumes of 1827 and 1829, but also in the volume of 1831, and in some of the fugitive poems that appeared even later. Furthermore, it involves not only the reflecting of some Byronic mood or the imitation of Byron's general method and style, but also, in sev- eral cases, the borrowing of Byron's themes and, in a few instances, the appro- priation likewise of his language. "Tamerlane" not only adumbrates "The Giaour," as the critics have pointed out; but it also resembles Byron's "Manfred." For "Manfred" has all the significant mo- tives which "Tamerlane" and "The Giaour" have in common ; and possesses, besides, in its hero, a better prototype of Poe's hero than does "The Giaour." Moreover, there is a rather close parallel both in phrase and in situation between a passage in "Manfred" (iii, 1, 66-78), the prologue to Manfred's confession, and the opening lines of "Tamerlane" (1-12). Besides "Tamer- lane," there are in the volume of 1827 five brief personal lyrics in which Poe sings, in the manner of Byron, of his own joys and sorrows, of his youthful pride and ambitions, and of subsequent disappoint- ment and despair. These are: "Dreams," "A Dream within a Dream," "A Dream," "The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour," and "Stanzas," the last on the list taking its cue from a mystical passage in Byron's "The Island" (Canto ii, Stanza 16), which Poe uses as the motto of his poem. And in the volume of 1829 there is one other lyric in the same strain as these, the piece there called "Preface," but known in the edition of 1845 as "Romance." Still later poems which strike the same notes are "To One in Paradise" (1835) and the sonnet "To Zante" (1837). Sundry other poems in these early volumes deal with themes or situations that put the reader in mind of themes or situations that Byron had also handled. The lines "To " (beginning "I saw thee on thy bridal day"), now usual- ly interpreted as referring to Miss Roy- ster's marriage to Mr. Shelton, will re- mind one of the partial likeness between Poe's love affair with Miss Royster and Byron's with Mary Anne Chaworth, and will recall Byron's numerous verses on his un- happy passion. Two other early poems with the exasperating title "To ," be- ginning, respectively, "The bowers where- at in dreams I see," and "I heed not that my earthly lot," are also_JByronic, the lat- ter of the two presenting a situation anal- ogous to that of Byron's lines, "And Wilt Thou Weep When I am Low?" "The Lake," with its wild setting and its mention of sui- cide, finds a parallel in the situation in "Manfred" (i, 2), where the hero of that drama contemplates suicide amid sim- ilar environments. Another distinctly Byronic piece is the blank-verse descrip- tion of the Coliseum, a subject that Byron had twice dealt with— first in "Manfred," and later in the fourth canto of "Childe Harold." And there is some similarity in context between Poe's fantastic verses "To the River " and Byron's "Stanzas to the Po." But the most interesting examples of Poe's indebtedness to Byron are furnished by two poems not so far mentioned. These are his juvenile production entitled "Spirits of the Dead," and the remarkable dream- fantasy, "The City in the Sea." The first

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 249 exemplifies a sort of borrowing that Poe indulged in, so far as is known with cer- tainty, in only one other of his poems, "Al Aaraaf," in the first part ol which he in- corporated, with slight modifications, se- veral passages culled from "Lalla Rookh." Poe's "Spirits of the Dead" is largely a piece of mosaic, a patchwork made up of words and ideas drawn from a passage in Byron's "Manfred," the memorable incanta- tion at the end of the first scene of the first act. The most striking parallel ap- pears in the following couplets: Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish — Now are visions ne'er to vanish; There are shades which will not vanish, There are thoughts thou canst not banish — the first being lines 19 and 20 of Poe's poem — the other, lines 13 and 14 of Byron's. Other resemblances are less striking, but can hardly be held to be accidental. In the concluding stanza of Poe's "Spirits of the Dead" — The breeze — the breath of God — is still — And the mist upon the hill Shadowy — shadowy — yet unbroken, Is - symbol and a token — ■ there is pretty close agreement, both in thought and in expression, with lines 7 to 10 of Byron's poem: [When] the silent leaves are still In the shadow of the hill. Shall my soul be upon thine With a power and with a sign. There is also some resemblance, though only in thought, between lines 11 and 12 and 15 to 18 of Poe's poem and lines 37 to 40 of Byron's poem. Byron's incantation comprises seventy lines; Poe's lyric, less than thirty. But the two have three rhymes in common, and there are in Poe's poem no less than fourteen lines that find some visible correspondence in Byron's. The indebtedness revealed by "The City in the Sea" is less obvious than that seen in "Spirits of the Dead," but is, I believe, none the less real. In its imagery and in its melody, "The City in the Sea" puts one in mind of Coleridge, and it may well owe something to "Kubla Khan." But for the general situation with which the poem deals, it is my belief that Poe was indebted to Byron's melodramatic lines entitled "Darkness." Byron's concern in "Darkness" is to picture conditions on earth as they will be on the last day of the world's ex- istence. Poe also appears to be concerned with the end of the world — not, however, with terrestrial conditions on that dread day, but with the destruction of death and hell, of which the apostle writes in Revela- tion. In painting his weird picture, Poe probably went for some of his details, as Byron had done before him, to the Scrip- tures, but he appears to have borrowed from Byron's poem two of his most impres- sive situations: the extinction of all light in the heavens, and the utter stillness of the winds accompanied by supreme calm upon the waters everywhere. The first is depicted in Byron's poem in these lines: The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars Did wander darkling in the eternal space, Rayless and pathless. and in Poe's poem in these: No rays from the holy heaven came down On the long night-time of that town. The second situation Byron presents thus: The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still, And nothing stlrr'd within their silent depths; Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropp'd Thoy slept on the abyss without a surge- — The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, The Moon, their mistress, had expired before; The winds were withered in the stagnant air, And the clouds perish'd. The corresponding situation in Poe is pre- sented thus: There open fanes and gaping graves Yawn level with the luminous waves; But not the riches there that lie In each idol's diamond eye — : Not the gaily-jewelled dead Tempt the waters from their bed; For no ripples curl, alas! Along that wilderness of glass — No swellings tell that winds may be Upon some far-off happier sea — No heavings hint that winds have been Ou stas less hideously serene. There are no verbal agreements between the two poems, but the general resem- blance seems to me too close to be traced to accident. Such other resemblances between Byron and Poe as I have stumbled on are less obvious or less noteworthy than those al- ready mentioned; and it may be that most of them are nothing more than coinci- dences. I submit them, however, since their cumulative evidence may be worth something. First in order of time is the line from the concluding section of "Al Aaraaf" : The night that waned and waned and brought no day, which is perhaps a reminiscence of the sixth line of Byron's "Darkness": Morn came and went — and came, and brought no day. In Poe's "Irene" (the earlier form of "The Sleeper") occur these lines: The lady sleeps: oh! may her sleep, As it is lasting, so be deep — No icy worms about her creep; the first two lines of which will recall the following couplet from the incantation in "Manfred," already mentioned as the source of Poe's "Spirits of the Dead": Though thy slumber may be deep, Yet thy spirit shall not sleep. And the third line in the same passage finds a parallel in these lines from "The Giaour" (945-948): It is as if the dead could feel The icy worm around them steal, And shudder as the reptiles creep To revel o'er their rotting sleep. Finally there is some resemblance between the exquisite song of Nesace in the second part of "Al Aaraaf," beginning: 'Neath blue-bell or streamer — Or tufted wild spray That keeps from the dreamer The moonbeams away — and the Stranger's incantation in the first scene of Byron's "The Deformed Transform- ed," which begins with the words: Beautiful shadow Of Thetis's boy! Who sleeps in the meadow Whose grass grows o'er Troy. Stoddard a good many years ago called attention 'to the resemblance between Ne- sace's song and another lyric in "The De- formed Transformed," beginning: The black bands came over The Alps and their snow; but the resemblance to the Stranger's in- I cantation is closer both in movement and in substance. Other instances of Byron's influence doubtless remain to be pointed out, but these are sufficient to warrant certain gen- eral conclusions as to Poe's indebtedness. Witih reference to the period of Byron's- influence, it may be said that Poe waa most under the Byronic spell during the half-dozen years just preceding 1830, and that this spell was not entirely brokea before 1837. With reference to extent, it is safe to say that Byron's influence is reflected in two out of three of the poem* printed before 1840, and hence in almost half of all the poems that Poe wrote. la some cases, this influence is, as always with, the influence of Coleridge, vague and im- palpable, but in others it is both substan- tial and easily perceived. The works of Byron to which Poe owed most appear to- have been "Manfred," "Childe Harold," and "The Giaour." Killis Campbell,. University of Texas, Austin, February 20. GOETHE'S CONVERSATIONS. To the Editor op The Nation; Sir : An entirely new edition of the late Baron von Biedermann's standard collec- tion of all known conversations of Goethe- is now being prepared with the active en- couragement of the leading Goethe schol- ars. In view of the great importance of this work, every effort is being put fortbs to make this final edition as complete and reliable as possible in every respect Hence any one in possession of any additions or- corrections to the first edition is earnestly requested to send them to the general edi- tor, Freiherr F. W. von Biedermann, No. 35 Albrechtstrasse, Steglitz bei Berlin; or to» the undersigned (who is editing the conver- sations recorded in English). The accounts of the following Englishmen and Americans- have already been examined and prepared for the press: G. Bancroft, Albert Bris- bane, G. H. Calvert, J. G. Cogswell, George- Downes, H. E. Dwight, William Emerson,. R. P. Gillies, A. B. Granville, G. H. Lewes, John Murray, Sir Charles Murray, H. C. Robinson (MSS.), W. R. Swifte ("Wilhelm's Wanderings"), Thackeray, George Ticknor, Joseph Wolff (exact date still undeter- mined) ; but there must be many others still unnoticed. Leonard L. Mackall, Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse, 13, Jena, Germany, Feb- ruary 17. SAMUEL PEPYS, 1633-1703. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I enclose a clipping from Catalogue No. 730, issued by the Anderson Auction- Company of New York city: 238. [DEFOE (DANIEL).] Memoirs of the life and adventures of Signor Rozelli at the Hague. * * * Adorned with cur- ious copper-plates. Transl. from the French by Defoe. 2 vols. 12mo. original panelled calf. Name of Richard Usticke on title. Lond. 1724 Rare. Both volumes bear the fine old bookplate of Reginald Pole. Vol. 2 has the initials S. P. on a fly-leaf— query, Samuel Pepys? Was it not Eugene Field who chronicled the discovery by a Chicago bibliophile, ot Dante's autograph on the fly-leaf of a vol- ume of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poems? K. Cincinnati, February 20.

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250 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 ; . THE DESTRUCTION OF BERYTUS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The fate of Berytus (the modern Beirut), a prosperous port of Phoenicia, which was destroyed in 551 a. d. by earth- quake and fire, presents such a parallel to the recent disaster at Messina that the following epigrams from the Greek, tho first two by the contemporary poet, Joannes Barbucallus, are not without modern in- terest. There is pathos in the thought that Poseidon, "the earthshaker," appears on coins of Berytus, and that he, as well as the sea-born Aphrodite, proved to be no re- liable patron saint. Palatine Anthology, ix, 425: Here am I, .that unhappy city — no more a city — lying in ruins, my citizens dead men, alas! most ill- fated of all ! The Fire-god destroyed me ■after the shock of the Earth-shaker. Ah me ! From so much loveliness I am be- come ashes. Yet do ye who pass me by bewail my fate, and shed a tear in honor of Berytus that is no more. Anthology, ix, 426: Where is Aphrodite, guardian of the city, that she may look upon the shelterless haunt of the dead, once the abode of the Graces? A tomb of tomb- less men is the city, under whose ashes we lie, Beroe's many thousands. Inscribe upon a single stone above us, dear mor- tals who survive: "Here lies Berytus, la- mented city, buried above ground." Anthology, ix, 427: Sailor, stay not thy vessel's course for me, nor lower thy sails: dry land is the port you see. I am become one tomb ; to some other place, free from sorrow, shalt thou urge with sounding oar thy advancing bark. Such was the will of Poseidon and the hospitable gods. Fare- well, sea-faring men; farewell to you who tare on land! H. H. Yeames. Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y.. March 1. THE LOVE OF STUDY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: An editorial in the Nation of Feb- ruary 25 revives a faint hope of a return to the love of study, apparently a thing of the past. Our general system of educa- tion well deserves the name "machine made." It is a rush through grades from the singularly unideal kindergarten to the entrance examinations of college, for which youth is practically fitted with the smallest margin of non-requirements. And from col- lege the exit is accomplished, to quote a schoolboy phrase, "on the shave." The great end to be reached by many of %our students seems to be forgetfulness of every- thing learned that does not directly con- tribute to the accumulation of dollars and cents. This is a curious and melancholy state of affairs, difficult to comprehend by a person educated in an old-fashioned way, in a home library where a love of the best in literature and art was developed very early, where learning to read was the delightful means to a still more delightful end, the perusal of poetry and story, history, and those beginnings in science called natural philosophy. It was not a college degree that added lustre to early maturity, but an abiding joy in study, a zest in acquiring knowledge that never dims, but presses middle age to further endeavor, and even vitalizes the sluggish current of the general reading of to-day with a copious admixture -from the living springs of the past. S. M. H. G. Andover, Mass., March 2. THE TRAINING OF AN ARTIST. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your issue of February 25 you publish an article entitled "The Case of the Art School." Mr. Borglum's article in the Craftsman, which furnished you with the text, was supposedly read by people who knew something of the truth of the matter in hand; let them judge for them- selves. The article in the Nation has been read, I imagine, by many who accept your statement as the final word. In justice to the earnest workers who are striving to uplift the public through their teaching in the schools I ask you to publish this protest. Your main cause of complaint is that art schools profess to produce artists, that this is wrong — that their highest aim should be to create artisans. The first is, of course, not the boast of any art school: the divine fire is not in human gift. But will it burn less brilliantly for being guided? It might, perhaps, if it were true that the student worked under "rare and perfunctory criticism." But by what authority do you state that such is the case — or that he is held to "a stupid rou- tine of drawing the human body" "as an inert and bulging mass." If you will in- vestigate modern methods you will find that the sketch and action classes play large parts in the study of the figure. You state that the "road to art is through fine handicraft" — and seem to im- ply that it is the end and aim. None more than art teachers realize that sound crafts- manship is one of the fundamentals; but it is not all. Is Tadema, with all his tech- nical perfection, rated above Watts, whose methods left much to be desired? And you profess that the "only way" is the fifteenth century one of apprenticeship to a great artist. As well state that the only proper way for us to get a classical education would be to sit under Filelfo or an Are- tino, as in the good old renaissance days. If you investigate the modern art school, you will find that the reasoning of all the ages is given the student a& a foundation for his structure: will the divine fire be hurt by such methods? As well say that it is folly for the budding poet to study grammar, or to take a course in compara- tive literature. Where is the wisdom of ordaining that a beginner shall subject himself "to many years of practical servi- tude" under a master? He will, it is true, learn to be of great help to that master (all that Mr. Borglum desires, evidently) —but will he learn any of the great under- lying principles of art? Yes, if the artist be a very great man, and is sympathetic; but in most cases, very decidedly, no. How much better to go to a school where what spark of fire the student may have will be kindled by the enthusiasm of the teachers and the emulation of his fellows; and his- tory and theory and practice given him in such manner that it will be the best stim- ulus! You test the "efficacy of modern art ed- ucation" by the number of former art stu- dents "earning their living by the practice of their art," and announce "an insignifi- cant fraction." But only the born artist will be able so to support himself — and the art school merely professes to give good training to those who come, and not to create artists. And as for the adverse opinions given by "great modern painters" concerning their training, it must be re- membered that in their student days the old systems still obtained. Though you do not credit them with the fact, the modern art schools are probably almost as pro- gressive as you, yourself. Fortunately you acknowledge that "even in the school, we may hope to make competent crafts- men." Do not mislead the public into think- ing that it is useless to try to train the artist also. Investigate before you state that this "so-called training is based on vicious doctrine or sheer pretence" — you may find that the teachers are as sincere and as honorable as you yourself, and, per- haps, as reasonable. Huger Elliott. Director, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence, March 3. [Tt is proper to say that the article in question was contributed by one eminently qualified to speak on the subject. We be- lieve it is true, for example, that the ex- hib'tions of the so-called "Arts and Crafts" in this country disclose a handicraft not equal to that abroad, where manual dex- terity is more exactingly taught. If the modern art school turned out competent work, it would be shown in the competi- tions for a great post-graduate prize, such as the Lazarus Scholarship for Mural Painting. On the contrary, these competi- tive works, as various artists testify, dis- play deficiency both in invention and craftsmanship. It is also significant that our commercial decorative houses prefer European labor, because the European hand is better trained than the American. These are some of the considerations which lead us to believe that our contributor was right.— Ed. The Nation.] POLITICS AND A FEDERAL BANK. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Would not the same factor (poli- tics) that destroyed the second United States Bank, tend to destroy a similar institution to-day? B. H. Hibbard. Iowa State College, Ames, March 5. THE WATER OF THE MIDDLE YUBA. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : There is only one statement in Mr. Edmund A. Whitman's letter in your issue of February 25 that needs an answer. Mr. Whitman says: Mr. Olney reiterates that San Francisco must go to the Tuolumne because the waters of all other streams are already mo- nopolized, and yet he was present at the hearing in Washington when Mr. Engle- bright, the member of Congress in whose district Hetch Hetchy lies, called attention to the Middle Fork of the Yuba River, where one hundred million gallons a day can be had, and where the water is now "used for nothing." Here is the stenographic report of what Mr. Englebright said about the Middle Yuba, pages 376-377 of the Proceedings before the Committee on Public Lands: The Chairman. Is the water now used for irrigation — the lower Yuba? Mr. Englebright. No. The Chairman. Is it utilized for mining? Mr. Englebright. It is used for nothing. The only use is on the North Yuba and the South Yuba. The North Yuba is used for power and some irrigation. The Middle

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March 1 1, 1909 The Nation 251 Yuba is practically unused at all, except •by a single mining company. The Chairman. It is not available for ir- rigation, then? Mr. Englebright. Not at the present time. It would be if canals were constructed. The Chairman. Is there territory adjacent to that which requires irrigation? Mr. Englebright. Yes, there is. It has simply never been built (utilized?) on ac- count of the expense. To the best of my knowledge Mr. Whit- man is the only person that has ever sug- gested the Middle Yuba as a source of wa- ter supply for the cities about San Fran- cisco Bay. I know of no statement being made of the quantity of water that can be obtained from the Middle Yuba. Mr. Mc- Cutcheon, representing the Spring Valley Water Works, before the committee, had said that the Middle and South Forks of the Yuba could be relied on for one hundred •million gallons per day, but it is evident that the South Fork was what he princi- pally had in mind. All people acquainted with the country know that the reservoir sites are on the South Yuba and those have been utilized for fifty years. The largest one is Bowman's Dam. There are two small reservoir sites on the Middle Fork high up in the mountains, viz : Eng- lish Dam and Milton, but their capacity is small and the watershed above them is small. They are about seventy-five miles northeast of the city of Marysville. A glance at the map will show how impossible it is to utilize the waters of that stream. San Francisco had both the South and North Yubas carefully surveyed, and her engineers have rejected both. The pipe line would necessarily be twice the length of the one from Tuolumne River. If cost were not an element to be considered, New York city «ould obtain its water supply from Lake Erie. It is within the power of the United States to make the cost to the bay cities of pro- curing water from the Sierras so great that the supply cannot be obtained in our time. If we are not permitted to take wa- ter from the Hetch Hetchy that water will not be permitted to go to waste, but will be diverted below the line of the National Park and utilized for power purposes, there- by precluding San Francisco from getting that supply, the same as she is now pre- cluded from the other accessible streams of the Sierras. Warren Olnet. San Francisco. March 4. Notes. The spring list of Longmans, Green, & Co. contains a number of attractive titles, among them: "A Pluralistic Universe," the Hibbert Lectures for 1908, by William James; "The Springs of Helicon," a study in the progress of English poetry from Chaucer to Milton, by J. W. Mackail; "Rog- et's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases," recomposed throughout; "Chap- ters on Municipal Administration and Ac- counting," and "Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States," by Frederick A. Cleveland; "The Essentials of Self-Government (England and Wales)," by Ellis T. Powell; "Joseph Cowen's Speeches on the Near Eastern Question," revised by his daughter; "The English Scholarship System, in Its Relation with the Secondary Schools for Boys and Girls," by M. E. Sad- ler; "The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck: a Scandal of the XVIIth Century," by the author of "The Life of Sir Kenelm Digby"; "Visitors to the New World before and after Columbus," by Marion Mulhall; "Ire- land under the Stuarts and during the In- terregnum," by Richard Bagwell; "The Po- litical History of England," Vol. IX, 1702 to 1760, by I. S. Leadam; "Unemployment," by W. H. Beveridge; "The Spirit of Christ in Common Life," by Dr. Charles Bigg; "A Memoir of George Howard Wilkinson," by Dr. A. J. Mason; "History of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist," by Darwell Stone; "The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in Eng- land, 1781-1803," by Bernard Ward; "His- torical Letters and Memoirs of Scottish Catholics," by the Rev. W. Forbes Leith, S.J. W. S. Booth is said to have discovered about two hundred acrostic signatures of Francis Bacon in books, which, with few exceptions, appeared under the names of other men, or with no names at all. Among the authors who are thus robbed of works commonly attributed to them are Spenser, Marlowe, Puttenham, Bodenham, and Shakespeare. His theories are to be pub- lished this spring by Houghton Mifflin Co. in a book entitled "Some Acrostic Signa- tures of Francis Bacon." Many facsimiles will help the reader to test the theory by his own eye. The motto for the volume we have not heard; we should like to sug- gest as appropriate: And many are amazed and many donht. Among the other books promised for this spring by Houghton Mifflin Co. are: "The People at Play," by R. L. Hartt; "Harem- lik," some pages from the life of Turkish women, by Demetra Vaka (Mrs. Kenneth Brown); "Wild Life on the Rockies," by E. A. Mills; "Stickeen," by John Muir; "A Voyage on an Ice-Pan," by W. T. Gren- fell; "My Cranford," by Arthur Gilman; "Remaking the Mississippi," by J. L. Mat- thews; "Human Nature in Politics," by Graham Wallas; "State Insurance," by F. W. Lewis; "Education in the Far East," by C. T. Thwing; "The Life of Edgar Allan Poe," rewritten, by G. E. Woodberry; "The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler"; "The Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor," new edition with in- troduction by Ferris Greenslet; "The Story of New Netherland," by W. E. Griffis; "Our Naval War with France," by G. W. Allen; "Shakespeare and His Critics," by C. F. Johnson; "Studies in Christianity," by B. P. Bowne; "Is Immortality Desirable?" by G. Lowes Dickinson; "The Silver Cu<p," by C. C. Hall; "When Lincoln Died and Other Poems," by E. W. Thomson; and "The Poetical Works of John Dryden," Cambridge poets, edited by G. R. Noyes. Next month Moffat, Yard & Co. promise the publication of William Winter's "Old Friends," reminiscences for the most part not before printed. In May the same house will bring out the complete and final edition of Mr. Winter's "Poems" in one volume. The much talked-of study of Shelley by Francis Thompson in the Dublin Review is to be brought out in book form by Burns & Oates, with an introduction by George Wyndham, who ranks the essay as "the most important contribution to pure Let- ters written in English during the last twenty years." The volume will also con- tain further "Notes on Shelley" by Thomp- son. Methuen & Co. announce a new edition of Prof. Bury's Gibbon, with illustrations and many additional notes. "Puck of Pook's Hill" is reissued by Doubleday, Page & Co. in their uniform edition of Kipling in limp red leather. The plates are apparently those of the edition of 1906, but the margins are narrower and the pictures by Arthur Rackham are omit- ted. The volume is neat and convenient. The triple section of the "New English Dictionary" from Premisal to Prophesier, prepared by Sir James A. H. Murray, re- cords 4,381 words to the "Century's" 1,960 and Johnson's 584, and 20,450 illustrative quotations to the "Century's" 3,062 and Johnson's 1,657. As the prefixes suggest, a large proportion is made up of unim- peachable Greeks and Romans of easily traceable ancestry. So many, however, have developed new senses or widened their ap- plication that the articles in this section are unusually long and entertaining. It is surprising how much poetry and his- tory the deep-going spade of the lexi- cographer has been able to turn up about the roots of such a modern-sounding word as President. It is found in the sense of a secular ruler as early as 1375. In the same century it is also applied to the he^d of a religious house. In 1413 Pilate is spoken of as a "false precydent." Still quainter is this from Crooke's "Body of Man," 1615: "The Nymphes are sayed to bee presedents or dieties of the fountaines." It is interesting to note that in King James's Bible, Acts xxiii, 24, Felix is called a governor, whereas in Wiclif's, 1382, he appears as president. The same change took place in the designation of the chief executive in several of the American States. It was not till 1792 that the President of the State of New Hampshire had to con- tent himself with the title of Governor. One is a little irritated to learn that President, meaning the chairman of a business con- cern, is branded as an Americanism. "In England," says Freeman, 1883, "we never, I think, give it [the title] to the head of a purely commercial body." One misses in this classic assemblage the exotic colors of barbarian visitors, but there are a num- ber of wily monosyllables like Prim, Prink, and Prod which have writhed their way into the language from no one knows just where. The extremely useful Prig is a comparatively recent arrival with a strik- ing career. At its advent in the latter part of the sixteenth century, it was a cant word for tinker. A few years later it was de- fined as thief. Dekker, who discourses am- ply on the rogues of his day in "The Bel- man of London" and "Lanthorne and Can- dlelight," says definitely that Prigging is riding and a Prigger is a horse-thief. But it is a long journey from Prig, a horse- thief, to Prig, "one who cultivates or af- fects a propriety of culture, bearing, or morals." The steps in the process have not yet been made clear. One may conjec- ture that the epithet was transferred from a sleek rogue riding another man's horse to a sleek gentleman riding his own horse, thence to a sleek gentleman without a horse, or, one may conjecture, as the edi- tor suggests, that there were two Prigs

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252 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 entering the language at about the same time. More recent than Prig and of finer lineage is Presentiment, which apparently made its dfibut about 1714, and which seems now to be displacing the older and more solemn Presage and Foreboding. Later still is Preterhuman, the earliest use of which is appropriately credited to Shelley, 1811. At about 1836 our knowing grandfathers began to speak of the Prescientific age. To the age which supervened we are indebted for the excruciating jaw-breaker, Prezyga- pophysis, 1866. Perhaps the most im- pressive recent development recorded is that of the prefix Pro — in a polemical sense — a sense developed within the nineteenth century, but volcanically active in the jour- nalistic press of the last ten years, re- sulting in such choice coinages as Pro- breecher, Pro-liquorite, and Pro-vaccinist. Part ii of Vol. IV of the Publications of the Philippine Bureau of Science, Division of Ethnology (pp. 109-391) is "The History of Sulu," by Hajeeb M. Saleeby. The vol- ume, when completed, will comprise three studies of the Moros. The third part, yet to appear, will be a history of the Moham- medan missionaries who converted the Malays of the South Philippines. The first part, "Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion," appeared in 1906, and was men- tioned in these columns as the most im- portant contribution yet made to the study ot Moro institutions. Dr. Saleeby is a na- tive of Arabia, born of Christian parents, educated and naturalized in the United States. For two years he served as an army surgeon at posts among the Moros of Mindanao, and for four years thereafter under the Philippine civil government as superintendent of schools and a member of the legislative council for the Moro province. His knowledge of Arabic, as well as of Mohammedan customs, and his early acquisition of the principal Moro dialects, gave him an access to these rather diffi- cult races of ours in a degree altogether unique among American administrators. What he says has, therefore, peculiar value. This "History of Sulu" is not, by the na- ture of the subject, a contribution so dis- tinctly new as the Moro "Studies." Much that is new, to the world that reads only European languages, is, however, brought out from the Moro side, as regards Sulu genealogy, early religion, and history. In the main, the history treats the period of Spanish-Moro relations, 1578-1899. Dr. Sa- leeby has not fully explored the Spanish bibliography of the subject, and some of his opinions are open to question; but he has presented in the body of the work and its twenty-four appendices, mostly drawn from the Blair-Robertson series and thf government archives at Manila, much hith- erto unpublished material. Appendix xxiv, we note, is unfortunately credited not to Governor-General Despujols, but to the clerk who attested it. There are four maps and two genealogical diagrams. Lastly, the author's comments on Spanish policy often have great pertinence to-day. For exam- ple: Temporary military commanders were put in command without the necessary prepar- ation for the requirements of the office. . . . Not one of these felt that it was his duty to institute a permanent policy for Sulu, or believed that he was going to stay long enough to carry it through, and that he was going to be held responsible for its conduct, whether it failed or suc- ceeded— p. 261. "Ancient China Simplified" (E. P. Dutton & Co.), by Edward H. Parker, is designed to give an outline of authentic Chinese his- tory from 842 b. c. down to the time of Confucius and to describe the life of the people of those days. It is the result of laborious research in the ancient docu- ments by an accomplished scholar who was for nearly thirty years a resident in the country and is now professor of Chinese at the Victoria University of Manchester. The information given is not in the form of a continuous narrative, but in a series of miscellaneous sketches from which one can gain an idea of what the ancient Chinaman was and the principles and mo- tives which governed him. It was a dif- ficult undertaking; for the early Chinese annals, he assures us, contain little more history than the "generations of Adam" in the fifth chapter of Genesis. The uncouth- ness of the strange names and their sim- ilarity—Tsi, Tsin, Ts'in, Ts'u are the con- stantly recurring names of four of the leading states— also add to the difficulty of making the story intelligible to the Eng- lish reader. Though as a whole the book will appeal only to the special student, there is much of general interest in it. This isolated people, for there is nothing to show that they had any intercourse with the world outside their little empire (now the province of Honan), except with their immediate neighbors, the Tartars, had cus- toms which we connect with an advanced stage of civilization; for example, the in- violability of envoys. Suffragettes were apparently not the product of the twentieth century, for at a great dur- bar of princes in the year 651 b. c. the following command was recorded: "Do not let women meddle with state affairs!" In the numerous anecdotes of distinguished rulers and their companions there is occa- sionally a gleam of humor. A commend- able fact, worthy of record, is that though slaves were numerous they were treated so kindly that there never was a slave revolt. A sketch of the life of Confucius and some account of his literary work are to be found at the close of the volume; and a striking portrait is given of a duke, now living, who is the seventy-sixth in descent from the sage. Assistance in following the historic narrative is rendered by nine maps show- ing the relative positions of the states at different periods, and there is a very full index. "Skotland's Rfmur : Icelandic Ballads on the Gowrie Conspiracy" (Henry Frowde), edited by W. A. Craigie, is an interesting addition to this class of Icelandic texts. The series of six rimur— each in a different metre, as was customary with such poems —gives an account of the famous alleged conspiracy of the Earl of Gowrie against the life of James VI of Scotland (after- wards James I of England) in the year 1600. Their author, as we learn from the unique manuscript in the Arna-Magnasan collection of the University of Copenhagen, was Einar Gudmundsson, who was priest at Stad on Reykjaness (Iceland) in the first half of the seventeenth century. The volume con- tains a sketch of Einar's life from the pen of a living Icelandic antiquarian — Sighvatur Grimsson. The immediate source of the rirrwr seems to have been a Danish prose narrative of the Gowrie conspiracy, which Mr. Craigie reprints in an appendix. The text is not accompanied by translation or glossary. The editor gives us, however, a useful list of poetic terms and kennings employed in the rimur and a considerable number of notes which are valuable as a contribution to Icelandic lexicography. It is to be observed that the introductory stanzas of the different parts of the series, with their moralizing pedantries and com- monplaces, are quite mediaeval in tone — which is not surprising in a man who- wrecked his career by bringing absurd charges of witchcraft against his neighbors. The mythological poems of "The Elder or Poetic Edda," commonly known as Sae- mund's Edda, edited and translated with introduction and notes by Olive Bray and illustrated by "W. G. Collingwood, consti- tutes the second volume of the Viking Club Translation Series (published for the club- by David Nutt). The book is not addressed to students and scholars, but rather to the wider circle of readers who feel an in- terest in Norse mythology; and the critical apparatus is accordingly adapted to the needs of this class. Nevertheless, the editor is familiar with the authoritative literature of her subject and has made good use of the two previous renderings of "The Poetie Edda" into English — especially that which is included in the "Corpus Poeticum Bo- reale." The Icelandic text and the English translation — the latter literal, in the main, and line for line — are printed on pages fac- ing each other, so that it is easy to com- pare them. It is a pity, however, even in a work of this character that the order of the poems as found in the Codex Regius should not be observed, and still more that the order of the stanzas in the individual poems, as in the case of the "Grimnismal," should be sometimes changed. In giving the interpretations that have been proposed for the word "edda," it would have been well to have added the one which until quite recently enjoyed especial favor, name- ly, "poetics." A bibliography at the end gives a list of all important editions of "The Poetic Edda" and the principal books and articles which have contributed to its elucidation. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has- issued a "Catalogue of Books in the Chil- dren's Department," containing 2,500 titles, and intended, so the preface states, for the use of children. The reference is made easy for the child by an author's index, a subject index, and a title index; some of the an- notations are adequate, but the librarian has not yet satisfactorily solved the prob- lem of proper annotation of a work of this kind. It would have been well in a cata- logue of such proportion, to indicate the desirability of reissuing certain volumes now out of print. This policy was attempt- ed by Miss Caroline M. Hewins in "A Se- lected List," when she suggested the repub- lication of Lydia Maria Child's "Flowers- for Children," Harriet Myrtle's "Country Scenes," and Grace Greenwood's "Merrie England." This new catalogue represents, however, on the whole, long and conscien- tious labor. We might ask, in reference to- recent books, where is mention of Norman Duncan's "Adventures of Billy Topsail," Mary Raymond Shippen Andrews's "A Per- fect Tribute," L. Allan Harker's "Con- cerning Paul and Fiametta," and Virginia Gerson's "The Happy Heart Family"? We have looked everywhere for some mention

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 253 of Boutet de Monvel and of that excellent picture book by Guigou and Vimar, "L'll- lustre Dompteur." We are glad to see given the whole Bible and the full edition of Longfellow. Finally, do not our libraries •duplicate work unnecessarily? By co- operation and organization, they might agree on one such catalogue of general au- thority, which could be added to from year to year in "supplements," and wholly re- vised every decade. Pittsburgh has laid the foundation for such unified work. Donald Sage Mackay, whose untimely •death two years ago at the early age of forty- four was a serious loss to the pulpit •of New York city, came of a long line of Tugged Scotch ministers. His father was a Glasgow clergyman, and on his mother's side the clerical ancestry went back to Ae- neas Sage, a picturesque pastor of Rosshire in the early eighteenth century. Educated at the University of Glasgow and at New College, Edinburgh, Dr. Mackay spent the years of his ministry entirely in America. While his love for his adopted country was sincere and deep, he spoke of Ameri- can frailties and failings with discern- ment and power, which gained from the aloofness of which he never fully divested himself. He was a thoughtful student and observer, a keen analyst of character and moral issues, a sympathetic witness to spiritual truth and aspirations. His ser- mons, as gathered in "The Religion of the Threshold" (A. C Armstrong & Son), are well worth preservation. They are vigor- ous, straightforward assertions of earnest moral and religious convictions, free from partisanship, yet ministering to the best progressive manhood of our time. To "The Bible for Home and School," Prof. Shailer Matthews, general editor, may be extended a cordial welcome, if the volume "Acts : the Second Volume of Luke's Work on the Beginnings of Christianity," by George Holley Gilbert (The Macmillan Co.), may be taken as representative of the series. The design is "to place the results of the best modern Biblical criticism at the disposal of the general reader." This purpose is accomplished by a brief in- troduction to the book, discussing date and authorship, literary character, and his- torical trustworthiness, followed by inter- pretative comment on the English text. Professor Gilbert's introduction to Acts is a model of succinct presentation of critical results, without argument except through clear exposition of cogent facts. The com- mentary offers explanation wherever it is really needed and trustworthy informa- tion from other sources. The series should furnish good text- books for elementary study for either class or private use. Much excellent material has been gath- ered by Dom John Chapman, O.S.B., in his "Notes on the Early History of the Vul- gate Gospels" (Henry Frowde). Such a contribution is particularly welcome now that Pope Pius X, as has been announced, has ordered a new edition of the Vulgate, the editorial work being confided to the Benedictine Order. Accepting the results of recent scholars, Dom Chapman inquires ■what lines are to be followed for the res- toration of Jerome's text of the Gospels. The first step, he thinks, will be to re- cover the readings of the codex possessed by Eugipius (first half of the sixth cen- tury), which must be determined by -the witness of the Northumbrian family (the most important member of which is the Codex Amiatinus), with the aid of Codex Fuldensis (sixth century). The later Proba, to whom Eugipius dedicated his principal work, was of the same gens (the Anician) as the earlier Proba. one of the great Roman ladies to whom Jerome was a spir- itual father. This oarlier Proba would probably have had a copy of Jerome's man- uscript which might have descended to her namesake and so have come to the know- ledge of Eugipius This, as the author re- marks, is guesswork, but it is true that the interval of time between the publica- tion of Jerome's Gospels (382) and the be- ginning of the work of Eugipius (ca. 490) was not great. Other points discussed are the relation of the Eugipian text to that of Codex Fuldensis and to the Gallican lit- urgy, the Oapuan mass-books, the Irish text, the "Gospels of St. Augustine," and the Vulgate text of Gregory the Great. Chapman also reproduces his paper on Pris- cillian as the author of the "Monarchian" Prologues; the text of the Prologues it, printed in full, and the attempt made to explain them. His view that Priscillian is their author has been favorably re- ceived, and it must be allowed that his argument for this view is impressive. A new and promising venture in the de- partment of German dialectology is the "Deutsche Dialektgeographie" (Marburg: R. G. Elwert), recently begun by Ferdinand Wrede. These studies will appear at irregular intervals. The first two con- tain papers by Jakob Ramisch entitled "Studien zur niederrheinischen Dialektgeo- graphie," and by the editor on "Die Di- minutiva im Deutschen." C. H. Beck'sche Verlagshandlung of Mu- nich has undertaken the publication in four volumes of a "Deutsche Sagenbuch," edited by Friedrich von der Leven, with the co- operation of F. Ranke and Alexander von Miiller. The purpose is to furnish a com- plete account of the Germanic gods and heroes as portrayed by the literature and folklore down to the Middle Ages. The first volume, with the special title "Die Gotter und Gottersagen der Germanen," by the editor, is devoted to the mythology of the Germans. The other volumes will follow soon. Leonardo Olschki has contributed to the literary history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a book of 124 pages, "G. B. Guarini's Pastor Fido in Deutsch- land" (Leipzig: H. Haessel). In the series of monographs, Wissenschaft und Bildung, edited by Dr. Paul Herre, an interesting new volume is F. Lienhard's "Das klassische Weimar." After an intro- duction about Germany's intellectual mis- sion, the author gives a general review of the revolutionary and philosophical cen- tury, and proceeds to show the influence of Frederick the Great upon the intellectual life of his country, of Rousseau upon Klop- stock and the emotional movement, of Les- sing upon the literature of enlightenment. The relation of Herder to the folk-poetry of all nations is also discussed, and there are chapters on Kant and Schiller, and on Schiller and Goethe. (New York: Imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) The second volume of W. Otto's "Pries- ter und Tempel im hellenistischen Aegyp- ten: Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des Hellenismus" (Leipzig: Teubner) brings to a conclusion this comprehensive work, of which the first volume appeared several years ago. The first volume closed with an account of the revenues of the temples; and the present, excluding a discussion of the religious creeds of the period, treats the social status of the priests, including their morality and education; and, finally, the relation of state and church. Many of the details are drawn from reports of recent discoveries. The index is excellent. Among recent German editions of foreign authors that of Balzac in the Insel-Verlag of Leipzig deserves particular notice. The fourth volume of the Comedie humaine has just appeared, "Verlorene Illusionen." The translator is Hedwig Lachmann, who has hitherto been known chiefly for her excel- lent translations of Swinburne, Wilde, and Poe. A volume of reminiscences by the late Jonas Lie has been brought out by Haupt & Hammon of Leipzig, "Jonas Lies Er- lebnisse." It is a book of 135 pages, con- taining letters, portraits, and illustrations. The translator is Mathilde Mann, long asso- ciated with German versions of Scandi- navian authors. Pupils and colleagues of Professor L. F. A. Wimmer of the University of Copen- hagen, the Nestor of the teachers of Ger- manic philology in that institution, cele- brated his seventieth birthday early in February by publishing a festskrift. The main celebration, however, was connected with his having given to the public the last part (Vol. IV, 2) of his Thesaurus of the Danish Runic Monuments, containing the vocabulary for the previous parts, the first of which was published in 1895. Pro- fessor Wimmer's work comprises in its four volumes (Copenhagen and Chicago: Glydendal Publishing House) 254 inscrip- tions and may, as regards artistic repro- duction, careful reading, and scholarly and ingenious interpretation of the monuments, be regarded as a standard. Bugge's edition of the early runic inscriptions of Norway is still lacking its vocabulary, and the task of giving the several thousand Swed- ish runic monuments to the public, aus- piciously begun in 1906, by the Royal Acad- emy of Literature, History, and Antiqui- ties of Stockholm, will probably occupy many years. In the archives of Innsbruck, Prof. An- dreas Galante recently found a large col- lection of hitherto unknown documents re- lating to the Council of Trent, consisting chiefly of more than a thousand letters addressed to Cardinal Christoph von Madruz, Prince Bishop of Trent (1539-67). The letters came from all parts of Europe, from kings, princes, cardinals, and other high dignitaries in state and church. The Rev. William Wilberforce Rand died in Yonkers, March 3, at the age of ninety- two. He was born in Gorham, Me., was graduated from Bowdoin and the Bangor Theological Seminary, and then became a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. Since 1848 he had been engaged In an edi- torial capacity by the American Tract So- ciety. In addition to the large amount of writing which he did in this way he pub- lished a "Bible Dictionary." Richard Cornelius Barrett, professor of \

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254= The Kation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 civics in the Iowa State College of Agricul- ture and Mechanic Arts, died at Des Moines March 3, at the age of fifty. He had been a county superintendent of schools in Iowa, State superintendent of public in- struction, president of the Iowa State Teachers' Association, and editor of the Iowa Teacher. Hinton Rowan Helper, an early anti-slav- ery agitator and an unceasing advocate ot the project of a railway to connect North and South America, died by his own hand in Washington March 9, at the age of sev- enty-nine. He was born in North Carolina; and thus his "Impending Crisis of the South" (1857), an attack on slavery and an argument that abolition would vastly bene- fit the South, industrially and socially, was the sensation of the day. The book en- joyed enormous sales, and John Sherman's commendation of it was used against him in his unsuccessful candidacy for Speaker of the House in 1859-60. Helper was consul at Buenos Ayres 1862-66. His other books are: "The Three Americas Railway," "No- joque," "The Negroes in Negroland," "The Land of Gold," and "Oddments of Andean Diplomacy." Joseph W. Carr, professor of Germanic languages at the University of Maine, died at Orono March 4. He was thirty-eight years old, a graduate of Harvard, with a Ph.D. from Leipzig. He was president of the American Dialect Society and editor of the American Dialect Notes. Mrs. Frederic Lindsiey Drummond, who wrote under her maiden name, Sara King Wiley, died at East Orange, N. J., March 7, at the age of thirty-seven. Her first book was "Alaska, Yosemite, and the Yel- lowstone" (1898), in which she collaborated with her father, W. H. Wiley. Her other publications are "Poems, Lyrical and Dra- matic," "Cromwell," a play (1900) ; "Al- cestis and Other Poems" (1905), and "The Coming of Philibert" (1907). The death is announced of Albrecht Wag- ner, professor of English at the Univer- sity of Halle, in his sixtieth year. Among his works are "Ueber den Monch von Heils- bronn," "Ueber die deutschen Namen der altestcn Freisinger Urkunden," "Marlowes Tamburlaine," "Shakespeares Macbeth," etc. L OLD LONDON. The Gilds and Companies of London. By George Unwin. [The Antiquary's Books, general editor, J. Charles Cox]. Pp. xvi+397. London: Methuen & Co. 7s. 6d. net. The history of gilds and of trading and industrial companies is a prover- bially thorny subject. Both in England and on the Continent, it has been for the most part the monopoly of the spec- ialist, ordinarily neglected by the aver- age reader and student. Mr. Unwin's book is an attempt to present in a read- able and attractive form the result of the most recent investigation. It lays little claim to originality. The authors from whom Mr. Unwin has drawn most of his material and conclusions are ade- quately indicated in the footnotes, with the possible exception of Professor Keutgen, many of whose theories in his "Aemter und Ziinfte" are reproduced with a faithfulness which would seem to demand fuller acknowledgment than they have received. The book is unhap- pily disfigured by sundry errors and loose statements. "Schanz, Handelsge- schichte," for instance (p. 250 n), is cer- tainly a misleading designation of Schanz's "Englische Handelspolitik ge- gen Ende des Mittelalters," especially in view of the fact that Mr. Tjnwin's book lacks a bibliography; and the opening sentence of Chapter xvii, to the effect that "the simplest account that can be given of the monopolies is that they were a device of the Stuarts for raising money without the consent of Parlia- ment," invites protests from more di- rections than one. But, despite such blemishes, the general verdict on the book must be favorable. It is the work of a scholar and teacher of considerable reputation in his chosen field, who knows the printed literature of his sub- ject au fond; it deserves to be taken ser- iously; it is attractively put together and amply illustrated. In view of the prevailing fashion for historical pageants in England and Can- ada and the strong probability that they will soon be introduced into the United States, the chapter entitled "The Lord Mayor's Show" will probably arouse more interest in the average reader than any other part of Mr. Unwin's book. It contains an admirable descrip- tion of the different processions and celebrations which usually accompanied royal entries into the capital and other state occasions, and in which most of the different gilds bore^ parts reminis- cent of the more glorious episodes of their past. Thus the Fishmongers' ship which sailed up Cheapside in 1292 when Edward I returned from defeat- ing the Scots, and again in 1312 when Queen Isabella bore a prince to Edward II, was a leading feature of the pageant at the Lord Mayor's show in 1616. The pageants, moreover, were for the most part organized and paid for by the dif- ferent gilds, which often exhibited an energy and a lavishness that are astounding. When Sir Thomas Middle- ton, a prominent member of the Grocers' Company since 1582, was in- augurated as Lord Mayor of London in 1613, his gild spent nearly 900 pounds on their show. Included in the account are 500 loaves of sugar, 36 pounds of nutmeg, 24 pounds of dates, and 114 pounds of ginger to be cast abroad to the expectant citizens by those who rode the griffins and camels. Even more remarkable are the originality and in- genuity of the allegorical representa- tions. In this same pageant of 1613, Error is depicted "in ash-colored silk, with an owl on her head, a bat on one shoulder, and a mole on the other, a mist hanging at her eyes, and blank verse in her mouth. With her rides Envy, on a rhinoceros attired in scar- let silk suitable to the bloodiness of her manners, her left pap bare where a snake fastens." Instances of this sort might be indefinitely multiplied, but enough has been done to show that Mr. Unwin's treatment of his subject is such as to make it far more attractive and human than it is usually given credit for being, and perhaps also to induce others to follow in his footsteps. A Survey of London. By John Stow; reprinted from the text of 1603, with introduction and notes by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Pp. c+352; 476. New York: Henry Frowde. $9.25. In view of the amount of enthusiasm recently displayed for the publication of accurate versions of chronicles, mem- oirs, and other records of the past, it is somewhat surprising that John Stow, the most trustworthy and important of English annalists of the sixteenth cen- tury, should have had to wait more than three hundred years for the appearance of a worthy edition of his most famous work. Two hundred years ago Thomas Hearne recommended that Stow's "Sur- vey" be reprinted as a "venerable orig- inal," but John Strype, instead of acting on that wise advice, attempted to im- prove upon it, and in so doing interfer- ed with the original text of Stow in such a way as to make his edition (1720) almost valueless from the point of view of the historian and antiquary of to-day. The editions of Thorns (1842 and 1876) and of Henry Morley (1889 and 1893) leave much to be desired for the purposes of critical scholarship, but Mr. Kingsford has certainly made up for the deficiencies of the past. Within the limits which he has set himself, he has produced an edition of the "Survey" which will remain definitive for many years to come. Those limits are accur- ately described in his preface, where he states it to be his object to follow the advice which Strype neglected, and re- print the "Survey" as a "venerable orig- inal." The aim of his annotations has been "to correct any errors of state- ment or fact which might be found; to- trace as far as possible the sources of Stow's information; to supplement the text with fresh matter from Stow's own collections; to illustrate it, within a rea- sonable compass, by quotations from contemporary writers." But he has re- frained from any attempt to complete Stow's history, or to carry it beyond" his own time. Mr. Kingsford's book begins with an introduction containing an admirable account of the life of Stow and a de- scription of the materials and composi- tion of the "Survey." Then follows a valuable appendix, containing a number of documents bearing on Stow's career, a bibliography, and an account of Stow's-

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March n, 1909J The Nation. 255 notes and manuscripts. The personal- ity of the old antiquary, with his learn- ing, his conservatism, his literary quar- rels, and his constant fear of persecu- tion through suspicion of Popish inclin- ations and suspicious practices, stands vividly forth. No better insight could be desired into the humors and asperi- ties of the intimate life of a typical mid- dle-class Elizabethan household than that afforded by the story of Stow's quarrel with his brother Thomas, and of his mother's consequent alteration of her will. The remainder of the first volume and the first half of the second are occupied with the text of the "Sur- vey" according to the edition of 1603, followed by a list of the variations be- tween that and its predecessor, the edi- tion of 1598. One hundred and fifty pages of notes, a glossary, and a lux- urious triple index of persons, places, and subjects — would that Continental scholars might take the hint! — complete the work. And, finally, we cannot forbear to pay tribute to the splendid liberality of the University of Oxford and of the Claren- don Press in putting forth, year after year, accurate and expensive editions of works of this sort in the interests of scholarship pure and simple, without the hope of pecuniary gain, and often in the face of certain loss. Without their aid, and that of a few other institutions, which, if not equally rich, are fortunate- ly animated by the same ideals, the cause of scholarship in England and in this country would be in a sorry plight. If English and American learning are beginning to take the place they deserve, abreast of that of Germany and France, the credit must be shared by the schol- ars themselves with the institutions through whose munificence a large pro- portion of their works have seen the light. CURRENT FICTION. The Magician. By W. Somerset Maugh- am. New York: Duffield & Co. The Explorer. By W. Somerset Maugh- am. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co. The reputation which Mr. Maugham has so rapidly made as a fashionable playwright will hardly be enhanced by these novels. They show cleverness, but less of a dramatic than of a jour- nalistic sort, quickness to seize the theme of the moment, and facility in turning it to account. Thus "The Ex- plorer" derives from the latest "little war" in Somaliland.and "The Magician" from the curious wave of occultism which has so lately overrun "smart" English society. Its theme, indeed, suggests rather strongly that of E. F. Benson's "Image in the Sand," and the comparison is not to Mr. Maugham's advantage. What Mr. Ben- son treated, if not very powerfully or convincingly, yet with picturesque- ness, humanity, and decent restraint, what in Poe's hands would have be- come beautiful in form, however horri- ble in suggestion, and, brooded on by Hawthorne's imagination, would have taken elusive, haunting shape as a spir- itual drama of profoundest significance — this theme Mr. Maugham handles so realistically, so materially, so hideously, as to excite only loathing and disgust. By choice of details and epithets to arouse a horror that is akin to nausea is not a sign of power; in Mr. Maugh- am's case it merely proves that, in spite of much "tall talk" about famous pictures and quotation from Pater, the writer is wofully lacking in artistic taste. Fortunately, "The Explorer" is quite innocuous and even comparatively pleas- ant. The hero, apart from his African exploits, is a sort of Rochester minus the vices; inviting the heroine, then a mere acquaintance, to take a stroll with him, he marches her across country at the top of her speed for two hours with- out saying one word. This attention Lucy receives with pleasure as a true compliment; it is needless to add that she is an English girl. There is an American in the book, however — a sprightly and mildly witty widow, who carries on a series of "Dolly Dialogues" with an amiable and jocose London bachelor until she finally marries him. Thus the lightest of parlor comedy is neatly sandwiched in between blocks of good old melodrama, the agony being piled up by the time-honored device of binding the hero by a solemn promise never to explain the circumstances that make him appear a scoundrel. Not that Alec Mackenzie has any scruples about breaking a promise as such; Mr. Maugham is much too advanced to al- low a hero of his to be so old-fashioned. There is something peculiarly irritating, for a small matter, in the pains which he takes to explain that Alec's devotion to truth was purely a matter of taste, and his insistence on decency among his subordinates, in Africa, a mere pru- dential measure. "I have nothing to do with morality — every one is free in these things to do as he chooses — but I do know that nothing causes more trou- ble with the natives." Miss Betty of New York. By Ellen Douglas Deland. New York: Har- per & Bros. A story for the young which is real- ly young throughout is the rarest thing in the world of juvenile fiction. "Miss Betty of New York" is in many ways on the right level for boy and girl read- ers. One may not murmur at its pranks, circuses, runaways, and abduc- tions, since they are part of the ac- cepted material of youthful literature, however one may wish that other modes prevailed. One wearies, possibly, of the angelic boy of story who softens the heart of the unjust grandfather; and of the lawless girl who is continually de- fended in her lawlessness by her admir- ing friend, the author. What is more than wearisome is the boy and girl non- sense that creeps in, how sparingly so- ever. Consider the pity of such stuff as this between two twelve-year-old chil- dren: "Do you really like me better than Rachel Amy?" asked Betty. . . . "Why, how funny you are, Betty! I should think you'd know I like Rachel Amy ever and ever so much, but you're a sort of relation. Of course, we think you're the nicest girl we know." . . . "If it's just because I'm a relation " she began. "Oh, you silly!" exclaimed Christopher. "It isn't. It is because you're just Betty. I couldn't possibly like any girl as much as I do you, because — why, because you're Betty Hamilton, and there couldn't possibly be another girl like you." "All right," said Betty, satisfied at last; "then I'll always be very careful of the locket and never lose it and treasure it forever." Quite superfluous embellishment this on a story generally wholesome, barring unreproved heedlessness and eavesdrop- ping and a certain absence of spanking. Rachel Lorian. By Mrs. Henry Dudeney. New York: Duffield & Co. This novel is written throughout in the rhythm of Alfred Jingle, Esquire, of Pickwickian fame. You are jolted, as you read, as if you were riding a runaway horse; and when you have finished, you draw a deep breath and seek relief in a book of German prose. This sen- tence is a not unfair example: "He might marry — any woman — who was clever enough to catch him — in the years that were left." A mere matter of punctuation, but done evidently with the idea that a plentiful sprinkling of dashes gives an air of spontaneity, of unchecked emotion. The impression ac- tually produced is, on the contrary, one of painful affectation. There are other irritating tricks of style that distract attention from the story. Nor is the plot remarkable. A rail- way accident on the honeymoon leaves the heroine with a crippled husband on her hands; she takes care of him for some years with a rather bad grace, and then falls in love with his "poetic" friend. When the husband dies, and she is free to marry her lover, she re- frains because she discovers that an- other woman is "as good as his- wife." In this she is said to "play the prig"; but she retrieves herself by realizing, too late, that her lover's misdeeds were "common little tangles, no more!" and that the tangles did not matter, since his soul was always hers. This dualis- tic philosophy may be poetic (a favorite adjective with the author) ; but what a perplexing world it would be if things

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1253 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No.. 2280 were run on such lines! It is to be hoped that the cleverness of the book — and it is decidedly clever — will not avail to make either its style or its ideas contagious. The Red Mouse. By William Hamilton Osborne: New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. The pretty American "society girl" in a gilt frame on the cover of this book is a fit symbol of the conventionality within. The conventionality of the char- acters alone would not much matter, since the story has a good deal of life; but the conventionality of the point of view is tiresome. It is hard enough to believe that a woman still loves her brutal husband when she knows that be is drinking the very dregs of dissi- pation— especially when the only reason suggested is that "he was still good- looking, and there was an air about bim that few men had." To be asked to admire her for such constancy of heart is quite too much. Still more ir- ritating, however, is the assumption that a woman's code of honor is of ne- •cessity different from that of a man. It is implied, not merely that women are, in fact, less honest than men, but that they are not even to be judged by the •same standards. Not only does the heroine urge her lover, a strenuous re- form politician, to buy political "great- ness" by fair means or foul, but the bero is not at all repelled by her atti- tude. He argues the case out with her, it is true; but her utter failure to grasp bis ideas does not dampen his affec- tion in the least. The Poems of Arthur Christopher Ben- son. New York: John Lane Co. $1.50 net. From his six books of verse, ranging in date from 1892 to 1905, Mr. Benson has selected enough for a single com- fortable volume. He himself, we pre- sume, would not disdain the title of minor poet, if that phrase were spoken with a friendly smile. His work is min- or in the better sense that it is unpre- tentious, and that it is replete with conscious reminiscences. Indeed, it might almost be sufficiently character- ized by calling it a mixture of Tenny- son and Matthew Arnold. This deriva- tive quality is at times annoying, espe- cially in the lyrical poems of nature, of which there are somewhat too many in the volume. Here and there, no doubt, a line or a passage of natural descrip- tion justifies itself by its first-hand viv- idness, as when he speaks of . . . thridding the trackless hill, O'er tumbled cataracts of shapeless stones — but for the most part he does not in this genre rise much above the level of magazine respectability. It is differ- ent in the poems of reflection. Here such echoes are an integral part of the poet's mood and an essential factor of his art. This musing habit of one to whom all things have already been thought and felt and expressed, who sits with- in a magic circle of memories, too weak or too indifferent or too wise to break through the ring into the world of cruder or more immediate emotion — it might seem that such a mood would appeal to few readers; yet we have the undeniable fact that Mr. Benson's prose is widely bought and read. There will be fewer purchasers for his verse, of course; but for those who know, it will have the finer and more enduring fla- vor. If truth must be told, his prose has grown a little stale from repetition, and its aimlessness has become more pronounced from diffusion. On the con- trary, the verse is of little bulk, and, if it also lacks any definite outcome, it has at least just that strong personal note which might have atoned in the prose for the lacking qualities of cre- ative force. There is something astrin- gent in the self-revelation of such a sonnet as "Imagination," with its dis- illusioned close: The rapture fades; the fitful flame flares out, Leaving me sad, and something less than man, Pent in the circle of a rugged isle, A later Prospero, without his smile, Without his large philosophy, without Miranda, and alone with Caliban. That note was impeded in such a book as "Beside the Still Waters" to bring out the ennui which is '.he sure result of stagnant revery. And in like man- ner the shadowy kind of peace there sought — not la pace that Dante asked for in the cloister, but its dream Hke- ness — is nowhere in his prose so well intimated as in such a sonnet as this: Spire, that from half-a-hundred dainty lawns, O'er battlemented wall and privet-fence, Dost brood and muse with mild indiffer- ence, Through golden eves and ragged gusty dawns : — O cloistered court, 0 immemorial towers, O archways, filled from mouldering edge to edge With sober sunshine, O bird-haunted ledge, Say, have ye seen her? Shall she soon be ours? She, whom we seek, most dear when most denied, Seen but by sidelong glances, past us slips, Waves from a window, beckons from a door, Calls from a thicket by the minster-side, Presses a flying finger to her lips, Smiles her sad smile, and passes on be- fore. In those fourteen lines Is the essence of all his books, the undefined emotion that comes from the reading of his prose, here defined by the reality of a personal experience. In the longer poems, "Thomas Gray" and "In the Iron Cage," the same confession be- comes dramatic and just misses great- ness. My Story. By Hall Caine. New York: D. Appleton & Co. $2 net. It is a curious commentary on the lit- erary life that the one chapter of Hall Caine's memoirs to rouse wide discus- sion in England was the account of his income at the beginning of his career. One would never guess, from this dis- cussion of pounds and pence, that the heart of the book was an intimate story of Rossetti's life in that muffled house at No. 16 Cheyne Walk and of his two incursions into the country for health. These memoirs, in fact, are mere- ly the outcome, as Mr. Caine states in his introduction, of a desire to enlarge the little volume of recollections of Ros- setti published immediately after the poet's death. Mr. Caine was a young clerk in Liverpool when he first at- tracted Rossetti's attention by a print- ed lecture in support of the morals of Rossetti's verse — just then a tender point with the author. A brisk correspon- dence ensued, chiefly on literary topics, half of which we shall no doubt have in print some day. For Rossetti's letters are preserved and make a bulk of writ- ing greater than all his published works. Then the younger man went to live with the elder and was at his side through all the trying months until Rossetti's death. There is little that is new in the pic- ture of Rossetti as we now get it. He was ailing in body, suffering from his chloral habit, convinced of a general conspiracy against him, a melancholy recluse, yet still showing on occasions those flashes of intellectual power that so imposed on all his contemporaries. Nothing is more remarkable to one who reads largely in the letters and memoirs of the middle Victorian period now ap- pearing so rapidly, than the dominance of Rossetti over all who came in con- tact with him, and the extent of his in- fluence. It is as another testimony to this force that Mr. Caine's work will owe its chief interest. On some points he is a valuable witness. He denies the rumor that the melancholy death of the poet's wife was the result of bitterness over Rossetti's wild courses, but he says nothing to dispel the belief that this fragile creature simply withered away in the atmosphere of overloaded thought and emotion for which she was totally unfit. It was this, we believe, rather than neglect or knowledge of Rossetti's vain love for another woman, that killed her. When Mr. Caine raises Rossetti "into the place of one of the great tragic figures of literature, one of the great lovers whose lives, as well as their works, speak to the depth of

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March 1 1, 1909] The ISTation 257 their love or the immensity of their re- morse"— we are inclined to think the writer is putting some of his novelist's art to use, and our opinion is confirmed hy such overstrung words as these: Thus, too, the solitude of his [Rossetti's] last years, with its sleepless nights and Its delusions born of indulgence in the drug, was not the result of morbid brood- ing over the insults of adverse critics, but of a deep-seated, if wholly unnecessary, sense as of a curse resting on him and on his work, whereof the malignity of crit- icism was only one of many manifesta- tions. The course of Rossetti's life was too nearly that of the typical ultra-romantic to need explanation by such an hypo- thesis of lasting love and remorse. One error of statement needs correction. Ros- setti did not become acquainted with Burne-Jones and William Morris when he went to Oxford to paint the walls of the Union. He had been living in the closest intimacy with them in London before they undertook together that wild knight-errantry of art. For the rest, Mr. Caine gives some fairly entertaining chapters on Ruskin, Wilkie Collins, Robert Buchanan, and others, and an altogether undue number of letters from these great men in praise of his own works of fiction. Per- haps the most striking minor portrait is that of Henry Irving playing a role in life as on the stage. Testimonium Animcc: or Greek and Ro- man before Jesus Christ; a Series of Essays and Sketches Dealing with the Spiritual Elements in Classical Civilization. By E. C. Sihler. New York: G. E. Stechert & Co., $2.25 net. This is an unpleasant book. After de- voting some thirty-six years to reading the authors of classical antiquity and to following the influence of the classi- cal spirit in modern times, Professor Sihler is seized with a profound melan- choly. Himself convinced of the pre- eminence of the Christian ideal, he notes that academicians exalt ancient litera- ture as something precious and trans- cendent, and never call it pagan. He in- tends, therefore, to give the true story of the Greeks and Romans, "to pre- sent, very largely in the exact words of their most eminent writers, in versions made for this vjork, their views or as- pirations concerning the soul, life, and death, God and the world — in short, whatever we may designate as the spir- itual elements in classic civilization." We can only commend the plan of giving the exact words of the ancients, ive that the versions are at times too crudely literal; it is the interpreta- tion of the evidence that arouses dis- sent. Professor Sihler finds idolatry and sensuality at the heart of Greek culture, while that of Rome, in which litera- ture appears as an exotic, is strongly seasoned with force and fraud. The au- thor has read the ancients with care; his judgments, delivered in a vigorous, eccentric, and not always impeccable English, are his own. Some of his ani- madversions are welcome, particularly the remarks on that curious Teutonic product, the pseudo-Hellenism of the age of Goethe. Nor does he always con- demn: Euripides, Cicero, Seneca, are treated with sympathy. But the au- thor's general estimate of the Greeks, iEschylus above all, is little short of defamatory. Granting, to use his siuile, that the flower of Hellenic culture grows from a filthy swamp, we may gather the flower thankfully, and not, as he does, stir up the swamp. The Ro- mans, on the whole, come off with greater praise, and yet scant justice is done them. If, for instance, Horace, whom Professor Sihler is pleased to call an Epicurean, can share a chapter with Lucretius, Virgil surely contributed enough of the "spiritual element" to deserve more than a few scattering and rather discouraging remarks. Testimonium animw naturaliter Chris- tiana1. Tertullian, despite his fiery ar- raignments of the pagan past, felt that it was sound at the core. If his attitude toward ancient culture is rightly called obscurantist, that of the present book is more vindictive still. The author, though he sets forth some of the mani- festations of classicism in modern times, fails to suggest to us that a genuine Christian humanism has ever appeared in history. From St. Paul, Prudentius, Boethius, from Dante, to whom he de- votes a few perfunctory words, he might have learned what it is ardently to em- brace the faith and yet not less ardent- ly, though with discerning eyes, to gath- er the best of the past. This is possi- bly what he thinks he has done. But the effect is unpleasant. The book is not a brief for Christian humanism; it is rather a kind of Montanist's History of Antiquity adversus politos. Despite its array of first-hand material, it does not truly inform. Lord Haliburton: A Memoir of His Pub- lic Service. By J. B. Atlay. London: Smith, Elder & Co. To Americans, this short memoir of the successful career of a British col- onist, born and bred in Nova Scotia, cannot but be interesting; for Arthur Lawrence Haliburton was personally well known to many American visitors to the old country, to whom he extend- ed a hospitable welcome in Lowndes Square. Moreover, the Haliburtons had been settled in New England before they transplanted themselves to Nova Scotia; while Haliburton's father, fa- miliarly known as "Sam Slick," was, according to Artemas Ward, the founder of the school of American humor. There had been other colonials, before Hali- burton, who had risen to high office, and some also to the peerage; but these were for the most part lawyers who stuck to the law. Such, for example, was John Singleton Copley, a New Eng- lander, born at Boston before the American Revolution, who rose to be Lord High Chancellor of England, and peer of the realm, as Baron Lyndhurst. But it was as an exceptionally capable administrator in one of the great de- partments of state, the War Office, that Haliburton made his solid ability felt; his services, as he rose step by step, being marked by companionship, knight- hood, and the Grand Cross, in the Order of the Bath. Originally intended for the law, Hali- burton was called to the bar of Nova Scotia; but, at the time of the Crimean war, his early inclination for soldiering led him to seize the opportunity of en- tering the commissariat, where he ac- quired experience that proved most use- ful when he joined the staff of the War Office itself. Even hostile critics admit that he greatly improved the services of supply and transport. Here his apti- tude for business, his previous legal training, his clear brain, his untiring industry, and fearless character, joined to a bright and winning manner, caus- ed him to be recognized as a "strong man" — as the life-like portrait in front of the memoir would suggest. Later, Haliburton went to India, and did his work so well that there was an endeavor to keep him by offering him a perma- nent appointment with a high salary; but he preferred to resume his post at the War Office. Of his subsequent career, ending in bis appointment to the high- est permanent office in the department, that of Under-Secretary, an interesting account will be found in this book. The author, J. B. Atlay, whose "Vic- torian Chancellors" is well known, has done his work exceedingly well. At the request of Lady Haliburton, he has con- fined himself to a bare statement of her husband's official services. Science. In science the spring list of Longmans, Green & Co. includes: "The Human Spe- cies," by Dr. Ludwig Hope; "Tables and Diagrams of the Thermal Properties of Saturated and Superheated Steam," by Lionel T. Marks and Dr. H. N. Davis; "The General Character of the Proteins," by Dr. S. B. Schryver; "An Introduction to the Science of Radio-Activity," by C. N. Raffety; "Spinning Tops and Gyroscope Motion," by Harold Crabtree; and "A Text- Book of Experimental Psychology," by Dr. C. S. Myers. Anti-vaccinationists contend that the de- crease in smallpox has been brought about by better sanitation and the proper isola- tion of persons afflicted with the disease.

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258 The Nation. [Vol. 88. No. 2280 That these are factors, no one professes to deny, but that the general immunity from the disease which now exists could be ef- fected without vaccination, competent au- thorities agree to be absurd. It is inter- esting to note the effect of vaccination on some of the tribes in the Philippines, where, until recently, smallpox has been an un- checked scourge, among a people with whom sanitary methods and the isolation of d's- eased persons are practically impossible as yet. A recent paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association on tropical diseases in the Philippines concludes as fellows : In provinces where there were formerly 6,000 cases of the disease, annually, not one death has been reported from this disease in the past year. No case of loss of life on account of vaccination has occurred, nor have any limbs been sacrificed, nor has there been a case of very severe infection resulting from vaccination reported. The disease has been thoroughly kept under control by vaccination alone. Seldom do conditions arise for such a dem- onstration of the efficacy of a method of healing or prevention as this quotation pre- sents. None of the factors which the op- ponents of vaccination assert to be active agents has been in operation in this case, yet the mortality has been reduced from an appalling figure to zero. In connection with the proposal for sta- tions to observe earth movements it is in- teresting to note that the Manila Observa- tory, established by the Jesuits in 1865 pri- marily for meteorological work, has been conducting seismological observations for some thirty years. Just now a meteorologi- cal and geodynamic observatory is being installed at Baguio, the summer capital, 5,- 000 feet above sea-level. During the year ending June 30, 1908, 227 microseismit, movements and 123 perceptible earthquakes were reported from different regions in the Philippine archipelago, but only one earth- quake of any violence occurred, and that caused slight damage. Henry G. Bryant, well known for his own Arctic and other geographical explorations, read an interesting paper, "Notes on an Early American Arctic Expedition," at the International Geographical Congress in Geneva last August. It was published in the January issue of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and is reprinted in pamphlet. The story is of value as showing the enterprise and liberality of the merchants of Philadelphia and other seaports in colonial days. As early as 1742 its public-spirited citizens raised funds to send John Bartram, whom Linnaeus described as "the greatest nat- ural botanist in the world," on an extensive collecting trip to Oswego and Lake Ontario. His fame is largely due to this opportunity. In 1753 the earliest American expedition to make a scientific exploration of the Arctic regions and to discover the Northwest Pas- sage, was planned and sent out from Phil- adelphia, with help from subscribers from Maryland, New York, and Boston. Now that in our own day the Northwest Pas- sage has really been achieved, it is of in- terest to see with what courage it was at- tempted then. The schooner Argo, sixty tons burden, with fifteen aboard, Charles Swaine, master, sailed from Philadelphia on March 4,1753, to discover the Northwest Pas- sage, supposed to lead from Hudson Bay to the Pacific. Her return to Boston on October 21 was followed by a report in the Pennsylvania Gazette of November 17 of the failure to find the Northwest Passage, but the discovery of a fine fishing bank, and the charting of part of the Labrador coast. The return of a second expedition reported even less satisfactory results, for three of the crew, who had gone on land to look for a mine, were killed by the Eskimos. E. S. Balch also gave an account of this early expedition in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, July, 1908. The large atlas, intended to illustrate the development theory, and prepared by Dr. Konrad Guenther of the University of Preiburg-im-B., entitled 'Vom Urtier zum Menschen," has just been completed by the appearance of its seventieth Lieferung (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt). The illustrations are profuse and very good. The University of Heidelberg has re- ceived from an unknown giver the sum ot 130,000 marks, to be used for the establish- ment of a Radiological Institute, which is to be opened by Easter. It will be in charge of the Nobel prize winner of 1905, Prof. Philipp Lenard, the physicist. Dr. Martin H. Boye, a chemist, died at Coopersburg, Pa., March 5, at the age of ninety-seven. He was born in Denmark, and was graduated from the University of Copenhagen, the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen, and (in 1844) from the medi- cal department of the University of Penn- sylvania. But before finishing his course at the University of Pennsylvania he had assisted Dr. Robert Hare in chemical in- vestigations and had been assistant geol- ogist and chemist of the first geological survey of Pennsylvania. He conducted a laboratory for analysis ana Instruction in analytical and practical chemistry, 1842-45, and 1S45-59 he was teacher of chemistry and natural philosophy at the Central High School, Philadelphia. In connection with the late Prof. Henry D. Rogers in 1839 Dr. Boye discovered a new compound of platinum chloride with binoxyde of nitro- gen. Dr. Boye was also joint discoverer of the high explosive, perchloric ether. In 1845 he invented a process of refining oil from cotton seed. Before that the prod- uct was almost black and very thick. Dr. Boye's process produced a bland and color- less oil adapted for cooking and for salad dressing. He was a member of many scien- tific societies and was author of "Pneu- matics, or the Physics of Gases" (1856), "Chemistry, or the Physics of Atoms" (1857), and various articles and memoirs in scientific publications. The death is reported of Dr. James Ham- ilton, emeritus professor of pathology in Aberdeen University, whither he was called from Edinburgh in 1882. He wrote a "Text- book of Pathology," "The Topography of the Brain in Relation to Disease," and "Pathology of Bronchitis." From Paris comes the report of the death, in his sixty-second year, of Victor-Emile Egger, professor of philosophy and psy- chology in the University of Paris, son of the eminent Greek scholar Prof. Lmile Eg- ger (1815-85). Besides "La Parole interieure," which in 1881 roused much discussion, he wrote many articles for the technical jour- nals. Drama. A popular edition of Marlowe, edited by C. F. Tucker Booth and Prof. Walter Ral- eigh, is announced by the Oxford Univer- sity Press, also a similar edition of Ben Jonson, edited by Percy Simpson. A more elaborate edition of Jonson has for some time been in preparation by Prof. C. H. Herford and Mr. Simpson. If the plain truth must be told, there was not much to delight the lover of Shake- speare in the revival of "King John," of- fered by the grace of Robert Mantell and AVilliam A. Brady in the New Amsterdam Theatre on Monday evening. To the one credit must be given for a laborious, more or less consistent, but absolutely unin- spired and often inefficient impersonation, and to the other for liberal if often mis- guided management; but the net result of their labors, so far as any resuscitation of the poetic drama is concerned, was some- thing of a fiasco. For the general public there is provided a stage pageant of more than common splendor, with some lively living pictures, much animated posturing, and a vast amount of vigorous if not par- ticularly enlightened declamation, and these features may keep the representation alive for a season, but the artistic gain is slight. The revival, however, may prove serviceable as a costly demonstration of the practical hopelessness of interpreting Shakespeare satisfactorily — or the romantic and poetic drama, generally, for that mat- ter— until some sort of training school has been established, where actors shall be able to learn something about the proper delivery of verse and appropriate romantic action. "King John" is an admirable acting play, rich in vital personages, and abound- ing in dramatic incident, and yet it missed half of its legitimate effect through the sheer inability of most of the performers, including many of the principals, to com- prehend the characters or speak the lines. Mr. Mantell, by exaggerating the pusillani- mous and treacherous side of John, and neglecting his intellectual and princely qualities, robbed him of both force and in- terest. Although his outbreak of remorse- ful fear, at the supposed murder of Arthur, was theatrically effective, it had too large a measure of melodramatic extravagance to be really impressive. Mr. Mantell realized only part of this subtle and complex char- acter. Of other leading personages, the interpretation was, to say the least, in- adequate. The Philip Faulconbridge was merely boisterous and vulgar; the Hubert — with all its possibilities — hopelessly con- ventional; the Constance, sentimentally fee- ble, without royalty or tragic fire; the Pan- dulph, a comic ranter. The Queen Elinor and a few of the subordinate personages were more satisfactory, but the general re- sult was sadly disappointing. Perhaps the most noticeable feature was the slovenly and unintelligent manner in which all the players, save two or three, spoke their lines, with no apparent understanding of either metre or emphasis. In many in- stances modern pronunciations were given with excruciating results. It is a pity that Mr. Brady, whose generosity in the matter of stage decoration is worthy of cor- dial recognition, did not think it worth _

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March 1 1, 1909 J The Nation. 259 while to engage somebody to look after the more purely literary and artistic side of the production. In the "Munchener Beitrage zur romani- schen und englischen Philologie," edited by H. Breymann and I. Schick (Leipzig: Georg Bohme), two new volumes have appeared. Vol. XLII is a treatise by Dr. Albert Franz on Heywood's "Life and Death of Hector"; Vol. XLIII by Dr. Ludwig Grashey contains an account of Giacinto Andrea Cicognini's life and work, with special reference to his drama, "La Marienne ovvero il maggior mostro del mondo." Charles Hawtrey will be seen al the Lon- don Royalty Theatre, March 20, in a new comedy by the industrious W. Somerset Maugham, "The Noble Spaniard." This is a free adaptation from the French of Grenet Dancourt. The scene is laid in Boulogne fifty years ago. Lucien Guitry, according to the dispatch- es from Paris, is to play the principal role in Rostand's "Chantecler," which will be produced at the Theatre Porte St. Martin, with the opening of the autumn season. M. Guitry, a former associate of Sarah Bernhardt, is one of the most notable French actors of the day. Celeste Venard, famous as an actress during the Second Empire, under the name of "La Mogador," has died in Paris at the age of eighty-five. After her marriage in 1853 to the Comte de Chabrillan she took up authorship and wrote a number of novels. Her memoirs, in five volumes, were ready for publication in 1854, but were suppressed at the time, and did not come out until 1876. Music. Garcia the Centenarian and His Times, By M. Sterling Mackinlay. New York: Appleton & Co. $4 net. It is a singular fact that the greatest teacher of the Italian ~bel canto that ever lived was a Spaniard; but this is only one of many remarkable things about Manuel Garcia. He was the father of two women, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot, who rank among the greatest singers of all time; he taught these and Jenny Lind, Antoinette Sterling, Charles Santley, Johanna Wag- ner, and others who became famous themselves or as teachers of Calve, Eames, Melba, Henschel, Van Rooy, and Scheidemantel ; he invented the laryngoscope, which not only put the study of the voice on a scientific basis, but proved such a boon to medical men that when his hundredth birthday was celebrated, sixteen societies of laryngol- ogists from all parts of the world sent representatives to honor him; and he was one of the very few distinguished men who reached such an advanced age in full possession of tneir mental fac- ulties and with enough physical vigor to go about and make speeches. Garcia was born in 1805, when Wagner and Verdi were schoolboys, Chopin, Mendels- sohn and Schumann not yet in exist- ence; and on March 17, 1906, he cele- brated the entrance into his one hun- dred and second year by taking up a guitar and singing a Spanish song. Such a man's life was surely worth writing, and this task has now been ac- complished by M. Sterling Mackinlay, a son of the famous English contralto, Antoinette Sterling. Both mother and son were pupils of Garcia, but this was nothing surprising in the case of a teacher who repeatedly was able to tell pupils of the time when he taught one of their grandparents. When Miss Ster- ling first went to him for lessons he was so carried away with the beauty of her voice that he neglected his rule of keeping new pupils to exercises, being eager to hear her sing Italian arias; but when she came to a difficult phrase she burst out crying: "You ought not to give me these songs until I have mas- tered the exercise properly." He agreed with her, and assigned her the exercises. Mr. Mackinlay was the last of his pupils who received the full four years' course, and his jottings regarding these lessons constitute the most valuable pages in his book. While the lessons sometimes lasted two hours, Garcia allowed plenty of intervals of rest, during which he told anecdotes about the great singers he had taught or known. A flood of light was let in by his clear explanation of the different parts of the "instru- ment": the lungs for tone emission, the glottis for pitch, the oral cavity for tim- bre and vowel tone, the front of the mouth for consonants. He tried to awak- en the pupil's intelligence, to enable him to criticise his own singing. The chief cause of the lamentable number of fail- ures he diagnosed in these words: If you find a difficulty, do not shirk it. Make up your mind to master it. So many singers give up what they find hard. They think they are better off by leaving it and turning their attention to other things which come more easily. Do not be like them. If a pupil repeated a mistake he had once corrected he would say: "Jenny Lind would have cut her throat sooner than have given me reason to say, 'We corrected that mistake last time.' " A whole chapter is devoted to the lessons of Jenny Lind, who, when she first came to him, had so damaged her voice by injudicious training and over-exertion that he said to her: "It would be use- less to teach you, mademoiselle; you have no voice left." All his pupils loved him for his patience and his courtesy. Amusing anecdotes are told in this book as to how he managed to get rid of undesirable pupils without hurting their feelings. However profitable such pupils might be, he had no use for them, as he wanted to keep his repu- tation as a teacher who could point to results. Valuable pages are contributed to this volume by Hermann Klein, who studied with Garcia some years and subsequent- ly helped him prepare his excellent "Hints on Singing," which was publish- ed in 1895. In his earlier work, the "Method of Teaching Singing," Garcia did much to clear up the confusion be- tween "timbre" and "registers." Apart from the success won by many pupils who followed his method, probably the greatest compliment ever bestowed on Garcia was the request made by Wagner that he should undertake the training of the singers who were to take part in the first Bayreuth festival. Heretofore there has been no uniform complete edition of Wagner's operas, be- cause he had sold them to three publishers. These publishers, Breitkopf & Hartel, Adolph Furstner, and B. Schott's Sonne, have now got together for the purpose of is- suing an edition of the eleven operas from "Rienzi" to "Parsifal." Each is to be sold for six marks ($1.50), but only to subscrib- ers to the whole series. The issue begins in May, and before the end of 1911 all the scores will be in the hands of subscribers. The musical periodical founded by Schu- mann, the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, is no more. A year or two ago it was con- solidated with another moribund, though once influential, periodical, the Musikal- isches Wochenblatt. A few weeks ago the last joint number was printed. The demise was no doubt hastened by the growing pop- ularity of Die Musik and Signale fiir die Musikwelt of Berlin. A feature of the spring opera season at Covent Garden is to be the first production in England of Baron Frederic d'Erlanger's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles." This opera had its first hearing at Naples in 1906, when an eruption of Vesuvius put a sudden end to its career on the second night of its run. It was subsequently staged in Milan. A pre- vious opera by the same composer, "Ines Mendo," was produced at Covent Garden in the jubilee year. Art. RECENT EXCAVATIONS IN ASSUR AND BABYLON. For a number of years the German Orient Society has uninterruptedly car- ried on systematic excavations in two of the most important centres of the an- cient Babylonian-Assyrian civilization; in the south in the city of Babylon, which in the days of Hammurabi (about 2000 b. c.) became the capital of Baby- lonia; and in the north in the city of Assur, the starting point of the politi- cal growth of Assyria, now traced back to a period beyond 2000 b. c. Moreover, Assur, even after it yielded its preroga- tives to Caleh, and later to Nineveh, still retained considerable of its former prestige. The chief feature of these ex- cavations, conducted in the south by

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260 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2280 Prof. Robert Koldewey, and in the north by Walter Andreae, is the system- atic manner in which the work has been carried on, without sensationalism or blare of trumpets. One section after the other of the extensive mounds at both places has been attacked and thorough- ly explored. Indifferent to merely showy results, the explorers have en- deavored to obtain as complete a view as possible of the contour of these two capitals in the various periods, and to make an equally complete study of the different kinds of structures unearthed. A great deal of time was devoted to the mere tracing of walls and to other la- bors that previous explorers, more con- cerned to announce striking results, would have regarded as wasted efforts. Reports of progress have been sent at frequent intervals to the home office of the society in Berlin, and there pub- lished in the form of Mitteilungen. The society has had liberal support from a large membership, and in particular from the German Emperor, who has giv- en several thousand dollars annually, and a Berlin banker, James Simon, whose generosity in aiding archaeologi- cal expeditions has not been limited to the undertakings in Babylon and Assur. The leading spirit of the German Orient Society is Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch, to whom the interest of the German Em- peror is largely due. Professor De- litzsch's lectures on various phases of Babylonian-Assyrian culture, delivered before the German Emperor and repeat- ed in all parts of Germany, have brought the results of Assyriological re- search to the notice of the general pub- lic. In Babylon, where digging was begun in 1899, one of the chief results was the discovery of the sacred procession street — the via sacra — along which the stat- ues of the gods were carried on fes- tivals. It led through the city to the great temple of Marduk, and appears to have been made more particularly for the annual visit which on New Year's day — celebrated at the time of the ver- nal equinox — the god Nebo, whose seat lay at Borsippa, opposite Babylon, paid to the patron deity of Babylon as a kind of homage to the head of the pantheon. This street, which was rais- ed above the level of the houses, was lined with glazed tiles, on which lions were depicted, accompanying the god on his way. Next to the procession street, the elaborate gateway, likewise leading to the temple and known as the gate of Ishtar, was unearthed and so thoroughly explored that its con- struction is now known to us in its smallest details. The walls here were likewise covered with glazed bricks, on which dragons and bulls were depicted, which probably represent the designs referred to in one of the visions of Ezekiel. Large portions likewise of the temple area of Babylon were carefully explored, as well as sections of the royal palaces, though the almost hope- less state of the ruins afforded less opportunity here for definite results. Besides the great temple of Marduk, known as Esagila, "the lofty house," sacred structures dedicated to other deities, notably a temple to the solar deity Ninib (one of the most important gods of the pantheon), and a temple to Nin-Makh, "the great lady" (a designa- tion of the chief goddess Ishtar), were also unearthed and their general char- acter determined. These temples lay within the sacred area around Marduk's sanctuary, and from the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar we know that, group- ed about the chief sanctuary, were spe- cial edifices, chapels as it were, to a large number of gods and goddesses. In other words, Babylon, like other centres in the Euphrates Valley, had an entire sacred quarter, and it is this quarter that Professor Koldewey has to a large extent explored. The general charac- ter of Babylonian temples has now, thanks to the work of the German Orient Society, been clearly determin- ed. Through a central gate one enter- ed a large court open to the air, around which were numerous smaller rooms for the use of the priests, for storage, and for the temple school. This court led to a smaller enclosure, from which one proceeded to the sacred cella, con- taining the statue of the god or god- dess to whom the temple was dedicated. The general resemblance of such a struc- ture to Solomon's Temple leaves no doubt that — whether through direct or indirect copying — the latter was mod- elled after Babylonian examples. It was somewhat of a disappointment that most of the earlier diggings threw light on only the latest period of Baby- lonian history, on the time of the Neo- Babylonian dynasty. This was found- ed in 625 b. c. by Nebopolassar, the fath- er of the famous Nebuchadnezzar, and it lasted only until 539 b. c, when Babylon was taken by Cyrus. The lack of earlier remains was supposed to be due to the sad havoc made by King Sennacherib of Assyria, who, to punish the Babylonians for their frequent re- volts against Assyria, destroyed the city in 689 b. c. In order to make destruction complete, he flooded the city. Happily, however, the latest Mitteilungen tell of the recovery of a considerable num- ber of cuneiform tablets, chiefly busi- ness documents, dated in the reign of the first dynasty of Babylon, the sixth member of which was Hammurabi (about 2000 b. a). These tablets were found in a stratum of the mounds that reached down to the water level, show- ing that the explorers had thus struck the beginnings of the settlement. In part, this oldest settlement was built on an eminence at some height above the water. The ancient wall of the city at the old water level has also been traced for a considerable distance; and among other interesting discoveries, mention should be made of the landing places for small boats, to which stairs led down from the wall itself. To enumerate the many Inscriptions and fragments of monuments found in the course of the excavations would carry us too far. Clay cylinders of va- rious rulers, notably one of Nebopolas- sar, have furnished many new details; a boundary stone dating from the twelfth century contains some import- ant symbols, while terra-cotta stat- uettes representing the goddess Ishtar, in various forms, among others with a child at her breast, are examples of the kind of votive offerings that the wor- shippers deposited in the temples. Of special interest is a stone tablet with reliefs depicting incantation scenes to secure release from the grasp of the demons; while, as a great surprise, a dolorite stele with a Hittite god sculp- tured on it, accompanied by a Hittite inscription, was unearthed during the first year of the excavations in the por- tion of the mound covering the remains of the royal palace and burg. It appears to have been carried to Babylon as a trophy of war. At Assur, the results have been even more gratifying. The work here was not begun till the autumn of 1903, but it has been carried on uninterruptedly up to the present time. The temple of the god Ashur, which was known as the "House of the Great Mountain of Countries," has been found, the zikkurat, or stage-tow- er, which was one of the features of the city, has been explored, and, perhaps most important of all, the temple which was dedicated to two gods, Anu and Adad, and which appears to have been even more sacred than that to Ashur, has been most thoroughly excavated. A separate monograph on this temple, with a complete series of designs and illustrations by Andreae, is now in press. The homage to the two gods is marked by the remains of two stage- towers, one to Anu, "the god of heav- en"; the other to Adad, "the god of storms." Possibly these two stage-tow- ers formed the original portion of the sacred area, and subsequently the tem- ple proper was built with the usual large court, surrounded by a series of rooms. Within the court was a sacred well, and beyond, on the northwest side of the court, was a long room, with the statues of the two gods. Of special in- terest is a portion of the forked light- ning, made of gold, the ordinary sym- bol of Adad. It is a fair presumption that it belonged to the temple statue of the god and was held in one of his hands. The foundation of this tem- ple can now be traced back to the eighteenth century b. c. Another strik- ing result of the excavations was the discovery near the outer wall of the city of a "festival house" (Ut aktti) in hon-

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 261 or of Ashur, erected by Sennacherib. To this sacred edifice, the statue of the god Ashur was carried from his tem- ple at the time of the new year's fes- tival, celebrated, as in Babylon, in the spring. The new year commemorated the triumph over the monster Tiamat, symbolical of primeval chaos and the establishment of order in the universe. This deed was ascribed in Babylonia to Marduk, while in Assyria the distinc- tion was claimed for the god Ashur, who, during the duration of the festival, took up his seat in the special "festival house," surrounded by the statues of the other great gods. An extensive gar- den in front of the structure and an- other in the large court are some of the features meriting special attention. The cella, or "holy of holies," was un- usually large, evidently serving as the assembly place of the gods on the most sacred occasion of the year. A feature of the excavations at Assur is the discovery of many private houses, with vaults in which the members of the family were buried. The dwellings of the living thus became also the abode of the dead. Much light has been shed, both upon the interior arrange- ment of these houses and on the methods of burial. Burial and cremation appear to have existed side by side, and in burial several methods were fol- lowed. The body, somewhat compress- ed, was either forced into a clay sarco- phagus, or it was simply laid on the ground, or it was walled in within clay covers. From the large number of such private houses that were excavated, many of the details of the interior ar- rangement have now become clear. The floors were generally formed of pressed earth, while the courts were, as a rule, paved with pebbles, bits of stones, or bricks. Regular patterns, rosettes and squares, were formed by the combina- tion of the pebbles and little stones. Much care was bestowed on the drain- age, and even the simplest houses had at least a gutter to carry off water and refuse to the street canal. The thresh- holds were made of gypsum slabs, or of brick, and the supports and hinges for the doors were carefully worked out. The streets appear to have been nar- row and irregularly laid out, and, at times, the entrance to the houses lay through an alley, running off from the main street. A feature of the houses was the large court adjoining the main room. The approach to the court was from a kind of corridor, leading direct- ly to the main entrance. In this cor- ridor, there was generally a mortar sunk into the ground, and used for crushing the grain. Traces of stairs going to the roof have also been found. The number of rooms naturally varies. An unusually large house that was unearthed had no less than twen- ty separate apartments, grouped around the central court, including one that served the purpose of a bath-room. The number of inscriptions of all kinds found in the course of excava- tions at Ashur is very large, and many of them are of great historical impor- tance. While only portions of these in- scriptions have been published, the re- sults have already enabled us to carry the history of Assyria back several cen- turies beyond 1800 b. c, which a few years ago represented the limit of our knowledge. The oldest Assyrian priest- ly chief now known to us is Ushpia, the founder of the main temple to the god Ashur. His date can be approximately fixed at 2100 B.C. Besides the work done in Babylon and Ashur, the German Orient Society has also undertaken preliminary ex- cavations at other points in the Euphrates Valley, and has carefully ex- amined a variety of promising sites. Scarcely less important than the re- sults in Babylonia and Assyria is the extension of the society's activities to Egypt and Palestine and to the Hittite settlement in Boghaz-K6i in Cappa- docia (see the Nation of February 27, 1908, p. 189) and neighboring sites. In Egypt the site chosen was Abusir, where most important discoveries were made, chiefly in the temple of the dead in hon- or of King Sahure. In Palestine, the ruins of ancient synagogues in Galilee were thoroughly explored, and last spring the site of the ancient city of Jericho was vigorously attacked and im- portant preliminary results attained (see the Nation of February 4, 1909, p. 125). The rapid growth of the German Orient Society, now numbering more than one thousand members in all parts of the world, is in itself a recognition of the value of the work accomplished, as well as an index of the remarkable interest in archaeological research which, during the last fifty years, has so wide- ly extended our knowledge of the past and fairly revolutionized our views of the earliest civilizations. Mokris Jasteow, jr. University of Pennsylvania. The Rassegna d'Arte for February is de- voted chiefly to the timely matter of Mes- sina. Of pathetic interest is Lorenzo Fiocca's article on the Cathedral and Its restoration, written before the earthquake. Except for the north portal, the decoration of the facade has since been destroyed. Of the interior decoration, the original parts and the restorations were overthrown to- gether. It is possible that the massive blocks of the apses which your correspon- dent saw lying in the piazza, but still bear- ing their mosaics relatively intact, may be reassembled for exhibition In the museum. Dr. G. Frizzoni furnished a very complete and interesting list of noteworthy works of art at Messina. Osvald Siren adds to the list of Lorenzo Monaco's works ten paint- ings previously unknown. One of these, a large fresco in the Archlvio Notarile, Flor- ence, is a substantial addition to our knowledge of this exquisite arti.st. Not often has anything come to our table which has given more pleasure than a se- lection of six colored reproductions from the Medici Series, published by Chatto & Windus of London, and Foster Brothers of Boston. Five of these plates, averaging about 13 in. by 10, give the Head of the Virgin Mary by Luini (Milan: No. 293 Brera Palace), Head of Christ by Da Vinci, Virgin by Lippi (Florence: Uffizi), Fruit- fulness by Rubens, and Portrait of an Unknown Lady by Francesca (Milan: Poldi- Pezzoli). The sixth gives Da Vinci's Last Supper in a plate measuring 16 by 31^. The process, a new method of photo-collotype without screen, reproduces the colors and surface quality of the originals with really extraordinary exactness, particularly in the case of the frescos, where one can almost feel the plaster. They are entirely free from the hard dead look of the old-fash- ioned color prints, and can be heartily recommended for framing. The price of the smaller plates is four and five dollars, that of The Last Supper, ten. "Jacob Jordaens, his Life and Work," by Max Rooses (E. P. Dutton & Co.), is one of those lovingly elaborate studies in an- tiquarianism which we have coiie to ex- pect of the Director of the Plantin Museum. The large folio is abundantly illustrated, and the text is well translated by Elisabeth C. Broers. Readers of Dr. Rooses's stan- dard work on Rubens will be prepared to find the present volume quite as much a contribution to the history of culture as to that of art, narrowly speaking. In fact, there are no more interesting pages than those which describe the roistering, full- blown life of Flanders after the peace. Of this Gargantuan society Jordaens is the best pictorial chronicler. Old Brueghel and Jan Steen, both measurably his superiors, render it less faithfully because with great- er artistic prepossession. We agree with Dr. Rooses that Jordaens, who has usually been treated merely as a somewhat rude echo of Rubens, should be studied for his own sake. He never had the reflective qual- ity that goes to make a great composer, and he never achieved an exquisite tech- nique, but in sheer gusto and fertility few are his equals. One rarely sees so great a painter with so little of the finesse that we regard as the mark of the artist. Yet how refreshing he is in his own range of ex- pression! Of convivial drinking he is the very prophet. Healone could have illustrated Rabelais. No one has imagined liner satyrs. Indeed, his mythologies make the overrated inventions of Bocklin seem puerile. The mantle of Rubens weighed heavy upon him, yet he wore it creditably. The Lest of his big religious pieces represent the Barock of Flanders quite at its best. He was withal an excellent portraitist, and except as a decorator seldom failed utterly. No gift was denied him except that of taste and the patience therein implied. His pictures con- stitute a world — a world not quite shaped, to be sure, but authentic and as vital as it is turbulent. He has added to the relish of life, and perhaps that is after all the main business of art. Dr. Rooses traces this career with discrimination, admitting free- ly the lapses to which this sort of a tem- perament is subject. We would add only that the later drawings of religious sub- jects seem to betray the influence, in com-

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262 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2280 position merely, of that alien and far great- er genius Rembrandt. It is a pity that this interesting and useful book is so badly made. The plates are strewn through the text almost at random, and since there are references neither in one case nor the other, the reader is in constant perplexity where to find an illustration, and often wastes time in looking up illustrations that have not been provided. But the book is such a compendium of information that students will be willing to supply with the pen the references that should have been given by the types. To the series Statte der Kultur: Eine Sammlung kiiustlerisch ausgestatteter Stadte Monographien, edited by Dr. Georg Biermann (Leipzig: Klinkhardt & Bier- mann), six new numbers have recently been added. Dr. E. Kroker, in "Leipzig," treats his subject chiefly from the point of view of history; August Grisebach, "Dant- zig," from the point of view of an artist and an architect; H. Kesser, in "Luzern, der Vierwaldstatter See und der St. Gotthard," depicts the grandeur of Alpine scenery ; Franz Servaes writes his account of 'Vienna" in the form or letters to a friend; O. Grauloff, in "Liibeck," tells the story of this old free city, but denounces the religious realism prevailing there in recent years; and J. A. Lux devotes the bulk of "Altholland" to the architecture and the historic art of the Netherlands, to which account the general editor adds an appendix on "Die Kunst von Altholland." The earlier volumes in this excellent series of monographs deal with Berlin, Rothen- burg on the Tauber, Frankfort on the Main, and Bremen. The Metropolitan Museum is exhibiting among its recent accessions a Permagene fragment which bears all the indications of being the work of a great sculptor. It is part of the trunk, the two thighs, and one foot of a Gaul, the jacket and tight- fitting trousers in no way concealing the vigorous muscles. Among other fragments are a tombstone of a woman in relief, ex- quisite in the simplicity of the folds in the drapery; a replica of the head and shoul- ders of the statue of which the famous Dresden Satyr is a copy; and the torso of a small statue, possibly of Zeus, with admirable modelling in the back. There are also three fine Roman portrait busts, among them one of Augustus in his later years, showing much of that personal beauty for which he was famed. A gold earring in the form of a Siren playing upon a lyre is in almost perfect condi- tion, and is described as "a marvellous production of the Greek goldsmiths' art of the fifth century b. c." Beautiful, too, are a large Greek drinking bowl, two shallow cups with handles, a jug and a wine ladle, all in silver. Paintings by Frank M. Boggs, J. S. Brown, Miss Mary Cassatt, Winsiow Homer, William Sartain, W. El- mer Schofield. F. Ballard Williams, and J. H. Twachtman have been obtained by pur- chase or gift. The Metropolitan has also bought three of the Sorolla pictures which have been shown here. They are the por- trait of Senora de Sorolla in black, the one without the mantilla; the Swimmers, and The Bath, Javea, in which a little girl is on the point of diving into the water. The hew picture gallery of the Vatican is-- to be opened March 18, but permission was accorded last Tuesday for a prelim- inary view. The old Vatican gallery con- tained sixty pictures, but the new collec- tion embraces 300, displayed in seven halls opening on the Belvidere Court. The addi- tional pictures have been brought from the Lateran palace and the private apart- ments of the Vatican. The first hall con- tains a collection of Byzantine pictures; the second is given over to the Tuscan school, headed by Fra Angelico; the third, to examples of the Umbrian school; in the fourth is the gem of the collection, Ra- phael's Transfiguration, which hangs alone on the main wall; the fifth hall is devot- ed to the Venetian school, headed by Titian; the sixth, to examples of the sixth century, and the seventh to pictures by foreign artists. Further details have come concerning the excavations on the Mons Janiculum, in Rome, noted in our issue of February 25, p. 206. Below the level of the court have been laid bare three strata of large oil amphora?, placed in diagonal rows, with their mouths pointing due north. These contain the remains of sacrifices, bones of wild boars and other animals, and human bones. Here are also innumerable smaller jars, earthen and glass. The statue of Bacchus, mentioned in our former report, is a graceful figure cut in Greek marble, its right hand resting on a grape-twined col- umn. It is of good workmanship, and its head and hands clearly show traces of gild- ing. The statue in the Egyptian style rep- resents a goddess, standing with right leg advanced and with arms extended and grasping objects not now in place, but re- ported found. The features and headdress are Egyptian. Over the forehead, the body of a serpent forms a horizontal figure eight and trails down the crown of the head. The goddess wears a short, scant, belted tunic, which seems taken by the breeze, and which brings to mind those worn by Diana. The right leg is broken in two places, and the serpent's, or dragon's,' head is missing, but otherwise the statue is in perfect condition. In spite of the rigidity of the type, the work is admirable. The arms of the small statue supposed to be of Kronos are pressed to the side, the legs close together, and from be- tween the ankles a dragon coils to the left, under the limbs, passing* over below the thighs, and five times around the body and behind the head, and resting its crested head above the image's forehead. At the point of the dragon's tail is an oval, green object, and now scattered on either side are four broken hens' eggs, natural eggs. The oval object is an egg, and one can plainly see the four original significant places in the spaces between the serpent's coils from which they have fallen. The crest of the dragon shows three clefts and traces of gilding. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' gal- leries in this city are landscapes by Car- roll John Halliday, at Powell's, till March 13 ; glass, oil, water-colors, and sketches, John Lafarge, Knoedler's, March 13; pic- tures, Horatio Walker, Montrose's, March 13; paintings, Charles H. Davis. Macbeth's, March 18; pictures, W. B. Tholen, Nog's, March 20; "old masters," Ehrioh's, March 22; paintings, DeWitt Parshall, Bauer-Fol- som's, March 23: seventeenth century etch- ings, Keppel's, April 6. Elijah E. Myers, the architect, died in Detroit March 5. He was born in Phila- delphia in 1832. He designed the capitols of Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah, the Parliament buildings at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an asylum building in the City of Mexico, and courthouses in nearly every State in the Union. He was also a member of the board of examiners of the World's Fair buildings in Chicago in 1893. Alexandre Charpentier, sculptor and artist, chevalier of the Legion of Honor and mem- ber of the Societe Nationale des Beaux- Arts, died in Paris, March 4. Among his more important works are a marble Mere Allaitant, in the Musee de Morlaix; Les Boulangers, plaster bas-relief, In the Place Scipion, Paris; and a Narcisse, in the Luxembourg, Paris. Finance. PROBLEMS OF THE TREASURY. The new Secretary of the Treasury takes office in the face of some peculiar- ly difficult problems. The government's finances, it is true, are in no such tan- gle as that into which they had fallen in the last period of after-panic reac- tion. After 1893 Secretary Carlisle found that, on the one hand, the deficit had drawn on the gold reserve against the legal tenders, and, on the other, no lawful means, except loans, existed for obtaining funds to restore that reserve. The result was that the government had to borrow gold explicitly, with the fur- ther consequences that discrimination between our different forms of currency constantly prevailed, and that public at- tention was converged on the danger of a lapse to the silver standard. That state of things is now prevented by the Gold Standard Act of 1900. The $150,- 000,000 gold reserve is now set definite- ly apart for the redemption of legal tender notes; and although no general power of borrowing money to make good a deficit has been conferred upon the Treasury — the Panama Canal loans be- ing strictly limited to canal construc- tion— a proviso of the Spanish War Rev- enue Act of 1898, not subsequently re- pealed and not restricted to a period of war, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury "to borrow from time to time, at a rate of interest not exceeding 3 per cent, per annum, such sum or sums as, in his judgment, may be necessary to meet public expenditures." That such recourse may become neces- sary has been openly predicted by the financial experts of Congress, and the statements of the Treasury add force to the prediction. The available cash bal- ance, by Monday's report, is $141,600,- 000, of which not quite $72,000,000 is in the form of deposits with the banks. The deficit, for the eight completed months of the fiscal year, has been $86,- 000,000, and, according to the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, will rise to $150,000,000 by the end of

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March 1 1, 1909] The Nation. 263 June. The Treasury's own estimate for the ensuing twelvemonth, on the basis of existing laws, concedes a deficit of $143,000,000; it is therefore easily pos- sible that the government's borrowing powers may before long have to be in- voked for other purposes than the Pan- ama Canal. This is one subject to which Secretary MacVeagh must pres- ently address himself. The still broader question which lies before him and Congress is the read- justment of the revenue. Borrowing to make good a deficit is at best a tem- porary recourse; the American people, fortunately, have never been disposed to accept a situation, such as many Eu- ropean governments have allowed to prevail indefinitely, of annual deficits which are always met through large ad- ditions to the debt. Revision of the tar- iff, if pursued on scientific lines, should make that source of revenue much more productive; but relief through that ex- pedient will be relatively slow, espe- cially in the present period of business depression; and it is probable that in- creased internal taxes will soon be up for discussion. Talk of an inheritance tax, of stamp taxes, and even vague in- timations— without any very feasible suggestions — of an income tax, are al- ready heard at Washington. That the fiscal controversy should have taken this turn is by no means a matter for regret. It is time that peo- ple had distinct and personal evidence of the real meaning of our government's extravagance. So long as the topic of the day was how to dispose of a sur- plus, it was impossible to excite gen- eral indignation over the rapidly mount- ing appropriations. The remark of the late Speaker Reed, in a previous era of extravagance, that "a b:'llion-dollar Con- gress goes with a billion-dollar country," is thought a sufficient answer to pro- tests; larger bills for naval and military outlay are part of the national glory; and thus the spendthrifts have had their way the past half-dozen years at Washington, as also at London and Ber- lin. Now tie shoe begins to pinch; the present concern of European statesmen is to justify their lavish financiering to Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 59 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates a people on whom increased taxes are weighing heavily in hard times; and our own statesmen need not expect to escape a similar reckoning. Just what our extravagance has been of recent years Mr. Tawney of the Ap- propriations Committee showed last week to Congress. In the eight-year period from 1891 to 1898, inclusive, our annual army appropriations averaged $23,825,922; in the similar period from 1903 to the fiscal year just provided for, the average has been $83,014,660. Naval appropriations, which averaged $27,579,- 300 annually in the earlier period, aver- age $102,403,029 for the past eight years. In army appropriations alone, Mr. Tawney pointed out, the total in- crease for the period "exceeds $473,000,- 000, a sum sufficient to cover the whole cost of constructing the Panama Canal," while the total increase for naval pur- poses is "a sum greatly in excess of the total appropriations for the support of the whole government for any fiscal year prior to 1898." Forty per cent, of all our public revenue, outside of pos- tal receipts, is now being spent on no- thing but preparation for war. Facts of this kind, which have so long been brushed aside indifferently by a nation which was enjoying "boom times" and "thinking in hundred millions," will be seriously pondered when the citizen is asked directly to give part of his savings for support of extravagant policies. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Atkinson, William Walker. Mind-Power, or the Law of Dynamic Mentation. Chicago: Progress Co. Bankart, George P. The Art of the Plas- terer: An Account of the Decorative De- velopment of the Craft. Scribner. $10 net. Berry, AV. Grinton. France Since Waterloo. Scribner. $1.50 net. Bode, W. Great Masters of Dutch and Flemish Painting. Translated by Mar- garet L. Clarke. Scribner. $2 net. Bode, Wilhelm. Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance. Scribner. $4 net. Bojer, Johan. The Power of a Lie. Trans- lated by Jessie Muir. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25. Camac, C. N. B. Epoch-Making Contribu- tions to Medicine, Surgery, and the Allied Sciences. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co. $4 net. Coit, Henry Augustus. School Sermons. Moffat, Yard. $1.50 net. Costin. William Wilberforce. Introduction to the Genetic Treatment of the Faith- Consciousness in the Individual. Balti- more: Williams & Wilkins Co. 65 cts. Creelman, James. Why We Love Lincoln. Outing Publishing Co. $1.25 net. Davis, Theodore M. Excavations. The Tomb of Siphtah; The Monkey Tomb and the Gold Tomb. London: Archibald Consta- ble. Duncan, G. Darrow. The Exploration of Egypt and the Old Testament. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50 net. Fielding, Henry. Wise Sayings and Fa- vorite Passages. Cedar Rapids, la.: Torch Press. 50 cents net. Fillebrown, C. B. The A B C of Taxation and other Essays. Doubleday, Page. Forbes. Mrs. A. S. C. Mission Tales in the Days of the Dons. Chicago: McClurg. Fornaro, Carlo de. Diaz, Czar of Mexico: An Arraignment. International Publish- ing Co. French, George. The Art and Science of Advertising. Boston: Sherman, French. $2 net. Frommel, Emil. Mit Ranzel und Wander- stab. Edited by Wilhelm Bernhardt. Bos- ton : D. C. Heath. 35 cents. Glaspell, Susan. The Glory of the Con- quered. Frederick A. Stokes. $1.50. Hazelton, George. The Raven : The Love Story of Edgar Allan Poe. Appleton. $1.50. Holder, Charles Frederick, and Jordan, David Starr. Fish Stories, Alleged and Experienced. Henry Holt. $1.75 net. Holy Bible, A Commentary on the. Edited by J. R. Dummelow. Macmillan. $2.50 net. Huntington, William Reed. Nature and Human Nature : Three Sermons. Grace House. Irwin, Wallace. Letters ot a Japanese Schoolboy. Doubleday, Page. $1.50. Jones, W. H. S. Malaria and Greek His- tory. London: Sherrat & Hughes. Kelly, Florence Finch. The Delafield Affair. Chicago: McClurg. Kipling Birthday Book. Compiled by Jo- seph Finn. Doubleday, Page. Kobenhavns Raadhus. Opfort 1893-1905. Copenhagen: August Bango. Lethaby, W. R. Greek Buildings Repre- sented by Fragments in the British Mu- seum. Scribner. $4.20 net. Lupton, J. H. A Life of John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, and Founder of St. Paul's School. Macmillan. $2.75 net. Martial's Selected Epigrams. Edited by Edwin Post. Ginn. Maud, Constance Elisabeth. A Daughter of France. John Lane. $1.50. Memories of Brown : Traditions and Recol- lections Gathered from Many Sources. Providence: Brown Alumni Magazine Co. Menardos, Simos. The Value of Byzantine and Modern Greek in Hellenic Studies. Henry Frowde. Montaigne, The Essayes of Michael Lord of. Done into English by John Florio. 3 vols. Dutton. $10 net. Nesbit, E. The House With No Address. Doubleday, Page. Oxford Plain Texts: Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Christabel; Keats's Isa- bella and Eve of St. Agnes; Arnold's Soh- rab and Rustum; Byron's Childe Harold, Cantos III and IV; Gray's Elegy and Odes. Henry Frowde. Porter, Sarah Harvey. The Life and Times of Anne Royall. Cedar Rapids, la.: Torch Press. $1.50 net. Prezzolini, Giuseppe. Benedetto Croce. Naples: Riccardo Ricciardi. Prichard, H. A. Kant's Theory of Knowl- edge. Henry Frowde. Publications of the American Jewish His- torical Society. Number 17. Reade, W. H. V. The Moral System of Dante's Inferno. Henry- Frowde. Rice, C. Y. Nirvana Days. Doubleday, Page. Roe, George. Iblis in Paradise: A Story of the Temptation. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co. $1.25. Ryan, P. F. William. Queen Anne and Her Court. 2 vols. Dutton. $6 net. Sanborn, F. B. Hawthorne and His Friends: Reminiscence and Tribute. Cedar Rapids, la.: Torch Press. $3 net. Schofield, Alfred T. Nervousness: A Brief and Popular Review of the Moral Treat- ment of Disordered Nerves. Moffat, Yard. 50 cts net. Strindberg. August. Swanwhite: A Fairy Drama. Translated by Francis J. Ziegler. Philadelphia: Brown Brothers. $1 net. Talman, Herbert Cushing. Ancient Persian Lexicon, and the Texts of the Aehsemen- idan Inscriptions. American Book Co. Thompson, C. Bertrand. The Churches and the Wage Earners: A Study of the Cause and Cure of Their Separation. Scribner. Trevelyan, R. C. Sisyphus: An Operatic Fable. Longmans, Green. $1 50 net. Turquan, Joseph. The Sisters of Napoleon, Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline Bonaparte. Translated and Edited by W. R. H. Trow- bridge. Scribner. $3.75 net. TJrner, Mabel Herbert. The Journal of a Neglected Wife. B. W. Dodge. $1.10 net. Wade-Evans, A. W. Welsh Medieval Law: Being a Text of the Laws of Howel the Good. Henry Frowde. $2.90 net. Wales, Hubert. Hilary Thornton. Boston: Dana Estes. $1.50.

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264 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2280 Alden's Introduction to Poetry By RAYMOND M. ALDEN, Assistant Professor in Stanford University, author of "The Art of Debate" and "English Verse." i2mo, 371 pps. $1.25. A discussion of the theory of poetry arranged for use in connection with a course on Versification. Comprising a sufficient treatment of the technique of the subject for class- room use, this work includes some accounts of the other elements of poetry. It differs from "English Verse" in attempting to state principles with some fullness, instead of merely bringing together the materials for an inductive study, and in including a discussion of the imaginative and spiritual aspects of poetry, instead of limiting itself to verse form. The treatment of the fundamental problems of English rhythm is the most individual portion of the book. Henry Holt & Company cSYca°go Ready this week. TWO BOOKS FOR BOYS C. P. Burton's Bob's Cave Boys A sequel to "The Boys of Bob's Hill," already in its 4th edition. Illustrated. $1.50. A wholesomely exciting account of the further doings of a boys' club in a New England village. H G. Hunting's Witter White- head's Own Story About a lucky splash of whitewash, some stolen silver, and a house that wasn't vacant. Illustrated, $1.25. Has to do with the work and exciting experiences of a wagon boy in a large city depart- ment store. HENRY HOLT & CO., %&■%& Impressions of American Education in 1908 By SARA A. BUBSTALL, M.A. Head Mistress, Manchester High School for Girls, and Lecturer in Education in the University of Manchester. Author of 'English Hish Schools for Girls.' Crown 8vo. 341 pages. $1.25 net. CONTENTS. — General Introduction — American High Schools — Private Schools — Colleges and Uni- versities— Methods of Teaching — The Teaching of History in Schools and Colleges — Home Economies — Commercial Education — Industrial Education — The Place of Women in American Education — Conclusion — Appendix. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK BOOKS — All out of print books supplied, no matter on what subject ; write me, stating books wanted ; I can get you any book ever published ; when in England, call and inspect my stock of 50,000 rare books. BAKER'S GREAT BOOKSHOP, John Bright St., Birmingham, England. Said a prominent business man recently: "I would as quickly enter a man's office drest in overalls as I would send him a letter written on some of the flimsy stationery that is in use to-day." 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The Nation. NEW YOuK, THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1909. The Week. March 15, 1909, deserves to rank among memorable dates. It is the day on which the Republican party set about redeeming the broken promises of thir- ty years. For that length of time, and longer, it has been assuring the country that it would reduce tariff duties in its own way and time, always through "friends" of protection. As the years sped and nothing was done, the faith of many grew dim. But here we are still alive with a Republican Congress called in extraordinary session to reduce the tariff. Wonders will never cease. The reflections of Democrats, however, can- not be other than bitter. Here is their own issue — a winning issue — deliberate- ly thrown away for twelve years, and now their rivals called to power to do what should have been their own tri- umphant task. As the failure of mere party tacticians, their mortification is complete. Abandoning their strong posi- tion, they went off into the unknown un- der a leader who vacillated between financial unsoundness and class hat- reds ; saw themselves defeated time after time; and now have to suffer the hu- miliation of finding their opponents ap- propriating the only issue on which the Democrats have been able to win a vic- tory in twenty-five years. Seldom can the whirligig of politics have brought round a more dramatic revenge. We would not speak as though the work were already done, and a satisfactory tariff enacted by the Republicans. Their labor is all before them, and it will be arduous. Great credit is due President Taft for firmly holding Republicans to their pledges. As was said by Judge Parker in his lecture at Princeton on Saturday, there are signs in abundance that many Republicans never intended an honest revision of the tariff, but the sincerity of Mr. Taft's purpose is not questioned even by his opponents. It is already obvious that the neces- sity of providing revenue is going to be more controlling in the drafting of the coming tariff than was the case with either the Wilson or the Dingley tariff. The point has been reached where the growth of the country cannot be count- ed upon automatically to fill the Treas- ury. In the first place, the sums to be taken out of the Treasury have become increasingly vast. Then, the develop- ment of our manufactures and the fluc- tuations of trade are such that protec- tive duties are less and less to be de- pended upon to produce revenue. Sen- ator Aldrich predicted in 1897 that this would prove to be so, and the Treasury returns have fully borne him out. At the very time when we most need a constant source of revenue — that is, in business depression — tariff duties most miserably fail. Moreover, even excise duties will not be the sure revenue-pro- ducers in the future that they have been in the past. With the strengthening of the temperance and prohibition move- ments, in various parts of the country, the far-sighted legislator will not reckon upon the old large returns from inter- nal-revenue taxes. New taxes will be necessary, and are in contemplation. A Federal inheritance tax has been sug- gested by President Taft. Such a tax is correct in principle, but is open to the objection that it would, in many cases, lead to double taxation, as many States now levy an inheritance tax. It is not strange, then, that Congressmen should be discussing a recourse to various forms of stamp taxes, in order to put the Treasury in funds. The present "war" in the steel trade comes as a complete refutation of an argument — or excuse — of which we have heard much during the past eight years. We mean the tearful protest against reducing the tariff lest the "small producer" be injured. The land has been full of Republicans who would be only too happy to clip the claws of monopoly by taking away its tariff pro- tection, but when they thought of the independent manufacturers, their hearts failed them. They would like to kill Goliath, but they could not do it with- out cutting off David's head. This as- sertion was always inherently absurd. But it is not necessary now to rest the case on general considerations. The ac- tual facts are to-day full under the eye, and yield a practical demonstration of the hollowness of the protectionist con- tention that the tariff must not be touch- ed in a way to lower prices lest the small, independent producer perish on the spot. Exactly how deep is the cut in prices, it is impossible to say. The admitted reductions range from 10 to 20 per cent. Thus the quoted price of steel billets, which was, in 1907, $29.75, and a year ago $28.00, was, on March 10, $23.00. Now, if anybody had ven- tured to propose two years ago a change in the tariff which would result in lowering the price of steel billets nearly 20 per cent., or forcing tin plates down by the large percentages announc- ed last week, he would have been de- nounced as an enemy of the business and a deadly enemy of the small and independent steel-maker. But here we are with those low prices and the tar- iff not altered in a comma. Moreover, the evidence goes to show that the low prices were actually conceded first by the manufacturers outside of the Steel Corporation. Instead of having to main- tain high prices or be ruined, they found that they would be ruined unless they went out and got business at low prices. The calmness with which the public receives news of the acquittal of the Standard Oil Company, in the retrial of the case in which it was fined $29,000,- 000 two years ago, is more important than the acquittal itself. It betokens a new attitude of the public mind. The excitements, the explosions, the vast agitations of the past few years, the peo- ple are preparing to put away like a closed book. It is not that the material for sensation and outcry is lacking; it is only the motive that seems now to be wanting. In this dismissal of the fa- mous prosecution of the Standard Oil Company, so indifferently noted by newspapers and their readers, there is an abundance of good shrieking matter, if powerful politicians could see their advantage in making the welkin ring with it. Merely consider the possibilities. Suppose a Democratic President had been elected; suppose that he had chos- en an Attorney-General known for his long service of corporations; and that within a week after the new Adminis- tration came into power, the most of- fensive corporation in the land had come out of a Federal court with a

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26(3 The Nation. [Vol. $$, No. 2281 clean bill of health — would not the Re- publicans have been calling upon the winds of heaven to blow and crack their cheeks in order faintly to express the outrage? The facts would be just what everybody now knows them to be — namely, -that fundamental legal prin- ciples were violated when the Standard was fined a sum equal to the revenue of the State of New York, and that the re- versal is simply in accordance with the law. Yet all this would have made no difference if the public had been dis- posed to follow an agitator appealing to violent prejudices. But the people are "most unusual calm" about such things just now, and, consequently, so are the politicians and the young lions of the press. The reappointment of Major-Gen. J. Franklin Bell, as chief of staff of the army, has a special interest aside from the personality involved, because of the fact that this is the first time that a President has gone out of office since the position of Chief of Staff was created. Under former conditions, the command- ing general remained the head of the army until his retirement took place a<: the age of sixty-four years. The la^\ creating the Chief of Staff, who can be any one of the generals and does no I have to be senior in rank, requires thac he shall submit his resignation to the new President just as if he were a mem- ber of the Cabinet. The President can then choose another officer if he believes that some one else will be more valuable to him, or more in sympathy with his policy. In this case, Mr. Taft has promptly reappointed Gen. Bell, with whom he has had close acquaintance since Philippine days. Gen. Bell has the respect of the service to a remarkable degree, and is a man of such undoubt- ed ability that his rapid rise from cap- tain to general has never militated against him. He has, however, found desk work so irksome that it was thought that he might retire in favor of some other man at this time. He i* preeminently at his best when in the field, and such criticism as has attached to his service as Chief of Staff relates to a lack of vigor in his decisions and the failure of the General Staff to" real- ize the expectations of its founders. that each case of alleged confiscation may be decided on its individual merits, without jeopardizing the whole mechan- ism of State control. This is seen afresh in the failure of the attempt in Missouri to regulate by statute. The importance of this question, to the pub- lic and corporations alike, appears in the impending struggle at Albany for an amendment clearly empowering the New York Public Service Commission to establish joint rates and through routes over two or more street railways. If reason rules, that struggle cannot last very long. Let the corporations say that the measure imperils their legitimate dividends, and the answer will be that, in so far as they can prove this, the commission will not touch them. The honest corporation has nothing to fear from such government control. Whatever may be the defects of the probation system in its present form, they are generally understood to be due to the experimental stage through which it is passing, and not to inherent weak- nesses. The progress of the past year is evidence. During 1908, the number of cities and counties in New York State supporting probation officers was dou- bled; 26 municipalities, 8 towns and vil- lages, 23 county courts, and the Su preme Court in 6 counties are now giv- ing offenders a fair chance to mend theii ways. We can only take this as testi- mony that the immediate benefits of probation have already made themselves felt in the quick reform of young and occasional wrongdoers, and in the les- sening expense of jails and reforma- tories. It would be a dull eye that could not perceive something of this in the second annual report of the State Proba- tion Commission. Over 10,000 persons were set free under surveillance last year. All had committed offences which, under the old dispensation, would have put them behind the bars. And yet there has been no "crime wave" in the wake of this liberty; on the con- trary, three-quarters of those whose terms ended within the twelvemonth have finished it with credit to them- selves. per cent, increase in wages, the estab- lishment of an eight-hour day, and rec- ognition of the miners' union, are con- cessions which the operators would stoutly resist at the best of times. They are impossible demands in a year of business depression following upon a year of severe panic, with wages set- tling steadily towards a decline, and un- employment widespread. In 1906, in the very heart of flush times, the coal workers, backed by the benevolent in- terest of the President himself, got fewer concessions than they now ask for. In 1906, everybody was well off — apparently — and the miners succeeded in making out so strong a case that the increased cost of production involved in their demands became quite secondary. To-day everybody is not quite so well off. There is a growing tendency to weigh the rights of that almost forgot- ten animal, the consumer, against the rights of the producer; and a possible increase in the price of coal comes home more sharply than it did in 1906. Under the circumstances, it is hard to see why the miners should be disap- pointed when the operators offer a three years' renewal of the existing agree- ment. Possibly, the miners are not so disappointed as they profess to be. Pos- sibly, the advantage of having things stay as they are was in their minds when they asked for higher wages and a shorter day. In railway rate regulation, one of the chief advantages of a commission is The demands of the anthracite mine workers are sound in so far that it never hurts to ask for things you have not the least hope of obtaining. A 10 It is generally believed that the In- come Tax bill passed by the French Chamber last week will be rejected in the Senate. It is stated that the gov- ernment itself has no illusions on the subject; that its real purpose is to cre- ate a popular issue for next year's Par- liamentary elections; and that only a decisive Radical victory in 1910 will serve to drive the bill through the up- per house. But it must not be suppos- ed that conditions in France are anal- ogous to those in Great Britain, where a House of Lords stands in chronic and steadfast opposition to the popular chamber. In England, nothing less than an electoral tidal wave can force the Lords to yield a position on which their hearts are definitely set. The French Senate, of course, constitutes no such rock-bound citadel of conservatism. At the present moment the Clemenceau Ministry can actually count upon a nor- mal majority of between twenty and

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March 18, 1909] The Nation 267 thirty in the Senate — this as a result of the January elections for the renewal of one-third of its members. That body, for the first time in its history, is now Radical; and, though a majority of twenty or thirty in a Chamber of 300 may not seem very impressive upon so contentious a subject, it is apparent that the task of putting the Income Tax bill through the Senate is not extreme- ly difficult, and that its ultimate enact- ment is nearly certain. That the bill has behind it a majority of the French nation, appears even from the fact that Deputies of the extreme Right have vot- ed for it. To explain the popularity of the measure as arising from the desire of the poor to get their fingers into the coffers of the rich, is somewhat crude. A bill which does away with the door and window tax — the name sounds al- most mediaeval — cannot help being pop- ular, and in a legitimate sense. Fur- thermore, according to the Associated Press summary, commercial licenses to the extent of 138,000,000 francs and transfer taxes to the extent of 109,000,- 000 francs are to be abolished or reduc- ed, to the apparent advantage of the trading classes. The strike of the Paris telegraphers and post-office employees is probably not so serious as would be implied by the amount of inconvenience it causes. Pro- fessedly, the strikers' quarrel is a per- sonal one. They complain of oppressive treatment at the hands of the govern- mental chief of their department. Hours and wages do not seem to enter into the dispute, and a way out will probably be found when the govern- ment declares that there has been a misunderstanding somewhere. Yet the strike is symptomatic of the growing difficulties of the state in its capacity as employer of labor. Future Cabinets will confront such troubles again and again, unless the Ministry attempts to decide once for all the status of the govern- ment employee with regard to his right to strike. The attitude of the Clemen- ceau Ministry has been that government employees — in the posts and telegraphs, in the national factories and arsenals, and in the schools — may form unions for the purpose of safeguarding their interests by peaceful means. But the right to strike is denied them under penalty of expulsion from the govern- ment service with the loss of accrued pensions and privileges. That right is what the French schoolmasters, to take the most prominent instance, are con- tending for. Needless to say, they have with them the hearty support of the Socialists. The Japanese have again taught a lesson to Europe and America. This time it is by showing how to retrench when times are bad and expenses heavy. The budget for 1909-1910, which has just passed the Japanese House of Peers, makes a saving of no less than $178,500,000 by the simple expedient of deferring for eleven years public works heretofore undertaken. Doubtless, thifj sum, when details are received by mail, will be found to contain many item1; relating to army and navy. In the chan- celleries of Europe and in our own Con- gress, this policy of the Japanese will, we fear, be taken as another sign of Asiatic inferiority. Our own deficit bids fair to be not less than $130,000,000, and if Congressman Tawney is correct, will go as high as $150,000,000, but nobody suggests any savings. The naval bud- get is higher than ever and may go to $160,000,000 next year. Germany and England are facing big deficits, but there, as with us, the idea is not to economize but to wring more money out of the people by new taxes. In Japan, however, people actually seem to be- lieve that a nation should deal with its finances as would a private citizen with his. The long wrangle in the British Cab- inet over the navy estimates has ended, as expected, in a compromise. But it is doubtful if the compromise will please many people. It increases the naval estimates by $14,116,000, and the total reaches the enormous sum of $175,713,- 500. There is nothing peaceful about this, and not the slightest evidence that the Liberal Ministry is less devoted to Imperialism than were the preceding Conservative Cabinets. More than that, the government announces that in addi- tion to its building programme of four Dreadnoughts and six protected cruis- ers, it will ask authorization to pre- pare in the course of the year for four more large armored ships to be laid down April 1, 1910, "if necessary." The latter phrase undoubtedly refers to the German shipbuilding programme; if progress with the Kaiser's new ships is faster than expected, the four addi- tional vessels will be rapidly built. All this will sicken those Liberals who have hoped that England, under their party, would take the lead in the limitation of armaments. On the other hand, the Jingoes are sure that England's su- premacy at sea will be lost if six Dreadnoughts are not laid down this year. Lord Esher, one of the editors of Queen Victoria's "Letters," gave a lec- ture recently before the Royal Insti- tution, in the course of which he read some further extracts from the Queen's journals and correspondence. None of these was of great significance, but some of the things which the lecturer said about the place which Victoria had helped to make for the English mon- arch, in a Constitutional government, are not without interest. She undoubt- edly did much to vindicate the Sover- eign's right to keep in hand the threads of important foreign negotiations. It appears that only within the last few months, and by accident, have the Queen's letters to Lord John Russell, when he was Foreign Secretary, turned up. They are surprisingly numerous, since during four years she wrote to him with her own hand at least once a day. Both Disraeli and Gladstone were scrupulous in keeping the Queen min- utely informed of all that was going on at the Foreign Office. The former, in particular, addressed elaborate reports to her which, Lord Esher remarks, it is impossible to read without "the con- viction that they were written quite as much for his own enlightenment as for that of the Sovereign." That is, he was thinking out loud to the Queen, en- deavoring to clear his own mind in ref- erence to critical matters. The impress which Victoria made upon the conduct of British foreign affairs will appear in clearer light, Lord Esher asserts, when her correspondence after 1861 comes to be published. With that date, it will be remembered, the letters already printed abruptly stopped. But it is evident that the useful part played by King Edward in recent years, in helping to secure good understandings with France and Spain, and Italy and Russia, and possi- bly even Germany, was made possible by the place, in such matters, which his mother did much to win for the Crown.

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268 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 THE SPEAKER AND THE RULES. If the House of Representatives does not revise the tariff more drastically than it did the rules, no bones will be broken. The truth is that there was a good deal that was factitious and in- sincere, or else ignorant, in the fight to change the rules of the House. To run off on that issue was a convenient way of attacking Speaker Cannon without facing him directly. It was easy to find fault with his management; indeed, a formidable indictment could be drawn of his narrowness and dull withstanding of needed legislation. But to sally forth boldly and pluck the popular "Uncle Joe" by the beard required more cour- age than most of the insurgents pos- sessed. So they took it out in railing at the rules. Of these, however, they se- cured but the slightest modification. They were able to defeat by a bare ma- jority the motion to adopt the old rules intact, but with that their strength was exhausted. They fell short by twenty- four votes of carrying the motion em- bodying their own plans for shearing the Speaker of power. And then the compromise, proposed by a Democrat, and opposed by the rebellious Republi- cans, was easily put through. This leaves the Speaker with all the essential pow- ers of his office untouched. Aside from what is offensive in Mr. Cannon as Speaker, the recent outcry against the rules of the House seems to us largely ill-judged. It is an old story. The Hon. Demosthenes Napoleon Cavour from Podunk enters the Capitol for his first term as Representative, and ex- pects the floor of the House to sag visi- bly when he rises. He proposes to en- lighten the members early and often. In his pocket he has a dozen bills for the salvation of the country, all of which he intends to insist shall be enacted at once. But he finds his young hopes sadly dashed. He cannot witch the House with his eloquence unless he first catches the Speaker's eye, and that organ seems singularly blind. His bills are incontinently sent to committees, from which few travellers ever return. Such things at first perplex the aspir- ing member, and then anger him; and he fs ready to join in a movement to abolish those tyrannical rules which pre- vent his happy thoughts from being written instantly into law. There was plainly something of such raw impatience in this year's insurrec- tion against the rules. But the steadier and more philosophic members of both parties, irrespective of their liking or disliking of Speaker Cannon, are aware that they have to do with an historic po- litical evolution. The rules of the House are not arbitrarily devised green withes wherewith to bind the young Samsons of statesmanship. For each one of them, there is a reason, and it is a reason growing out of the needs of the public business, orderly conducted, and of par- ty government, duly in control of legis- lation. If these too quick despairers, these unbaked theorizers of the cheap magazines, would take the trouble to reach such books as Woodrow Wilson's "Congressional Government," or Miss Follett's able work on "The Speaker of the House of Representatives," they would discover that they are trying to upset in a night an edifice slowly rear- ed out of wisdom learned by experience. Minor changes can, no doubt, be argued for, but to propose rashly to sweep away the main safeguards which the rules of the House erect against the folly of its members, is itself folly. If the next House is Democratic, it will undoubted- ly adopt the existing rules, very much as they are, just as Speaker Crisp, when he succeeded to Speaker Reed, was forc- ed to accept the much-decried Reed rules. It does not necessarily follow that the upheaval in the rfouse has been un- wholesome. We think the reverse. The Speaker has been openly challenged. He has been sharply reminded of the deep feeling against him. This may incline his heart to better ways in the future. He may be led to attempt to organize the House on the basis of intelligence and character, not merely that of se- niority and pliability. It is a just re- proach to the Cannon regime that, un- der it, the ablest and most respected men of the House have not been allow- ed to be its leaders. Routine party hacks and time-servers have been given the seats of authority, and Speaker Can- non himself, through his control of the organization, has put himself again and again athwart the path of desirable leg- islation. To currency reform, he has been an obstruction, not a help. His ideas about the tariff are much like those of a Turk. His conception of the chief function and glory of the House is that it should do nothing. But the re- volt has now come, and may be to even the obtuse and obstinate Speaker as a great light. One aspect of the House insurrection is peculiarly significant at the present moment, for it has its bearing on tar- iff revision. Several of the "insurgents" are low-tariff men. They resent the ex- treme "stand-pattism" which Speaker Cannon has exemplified. He himself is aware of this, for he caused it to be put about that, if these insubordinate Republicans were successful in joining the Democrats to change the rules, the next thing to expect was a union of the same kind to enlarge the free list. But the demonstration has been made. The fact is now known that the prestige of the House organization has been hurt; that a fine brute majority cannot be counted upon to whip through obnox- ious bills, be they tariff measures or any others. This will inevitably make the managers cautious. They will not wish to ride to other rebukes. And the net ef- fect cannot well fail to be a tariff bill, so far as the House is concerned, more in the interest of the public, and less in that of the monopolist, than an un- terrified protectionist Speaker and his lieutenants would draw if left to them- selves. MOPPING BACK THE FLOOD. The small politicians, like Barnes, and the big humbugs, like Depew, who are opposing the Governor's plan of direct nominations, are fond of speaking of it as a crank notion, a new-fangled and fantastic idea that nobody ever dreamed of until Gov. Hughes brought it out. True, they confess to having dimly heard of something of that foolish sort being tried in the woolliest West, or where rolls the Oregon, but as for there being anything like a widespread and swelling popular movement in favor of the new method of making party nomi- nations, why, nothing of the sort could exist, because they knew nothing of its existence. It is an axiom with them that their ignorance marks the bounds of human knowledge. Yet facts have a way of persisting, even in the face of a boss busily trundling his mop to keep back their rising flood; and the truth is that the agitation for direct nomina- tions is steadily gaining force, has al- ready won State after State, and is des- tined to run the same triumphant course as ballot reform and primary reform did before it.

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March 18, 1909] The Nation. 269 So common has been the plaint that Gov. Hughes was forcing a little inven- tion of his own upon the party, that the Citizens Union has done well to compile information for the benefit of the Legislature. This shows that, as Senator Root frankly told the politicians dining around Barnes's mahogany- tree at Albany, the people everywhere have become more and more dissatis- fied with existing methods of party rep- resentation and party control, and are casting about for something better. They are finding it, or think they are — which comes to the same thing politically — in one form or another of the direct primary. The movement to abolish the nominating delegate, because both his election and his action are controlled by the selfish few, has taken on propor- tions that may now truly be called na- tional. Besides those States in which di- rect nominations have been made com- pulsory by law, we have the Southern States, in which the system has been made operative by the voluntary ac- tion of the parties. Exact statistics may be wanting, for much turns upon defi- nition and upon interpretation of law and of practice, but the gross fact is thus summarized by Prof. C. E. Mer- riam in his recent book on "Primary Elections": In brief, about one-third of the States of the Union, containing about one-half of the population of the United States, employ the direct primary system for practically all elective offices. Including the Southern States, where party rules require direct nominations, about one-half the States are using the direct method. We can now see how much sense there is in the charge that a restless and meddling Governor of New York has got up a primary scheme out of his own head to vex the righteous souls of Barnes and Woodruff. They did not know what was going on, but Hughes did, Root did. A boss has no means of finding out what the people are think- ing of; to him, a popular movement always comes like a bolt from the blue. But to intelligent and disinterested men, in touch with their kind, and able to read the signs of the times, the gather- ing force of a new political idea is not such an utter stranger. Gov. Hughes did not contrive the plan of direct nomina- tions. He saw it coming; he studied it; he sought to fit it to the traditions and needs of New York, excluding vari- ous extreme or untried proposals that have been associated with it in a few States; and thus endeavored to live up to his promise of trying to do some- thing, during his term of office, to make party government better. As already suggest 3d, the student of politics will see a striking analogy be- tween the way in which the movement for direct primaries is winning in one State after another, and the manner in which the adoption of the Australian ballot in this country, with the legal regulation of party primaries, slowly gained impetus and finally traversed the land. In those earlier instances, as to-day, the objections and reproaches of the politicians were loud. Why inter- fere with the good old plan of ballots given out at party headquarters, or wonderful "split-tickets," which were so profitably "run out of the boxes" by Johnny O'Brien, and skilled workers of that ilk? Was not the existing sys- tem justified by its results? Had it not brought forward great statesmen — Lin- coln and Grant and Tilden? Had it not produced us? Why, then, all this ridic- ulous fuss about possible corruption here and there, with the absurd pro- posal to import a method of voting from a former penal colony of Great Britain, as if American citizens could not de- vise their own? This is no travesty of the kind of talk which was heard from the Barneses and Gradys and Wood- ruffs of that day. Men of their tendency instinctively withstand reform of any kind. How long will they be safe if an inquisitive people begins asking if its government is all it ought to be? They fought the Australian ballot, tooth and nail, just as they fought the movement to throw legal safeguards around party primaries; but both swept to victory over their prostrate forms. There is no reason to think that the case will be different with the cause of direct nomi- nations. Its chariot wheels will crunch across the necks of politicians, but the great amount of rubber in their com- position will enable them shortly to rise and say they did it! THE HEART OF A CLASS PROBLEM. The late Hinton Rowan Helper's re- markable anti-slavery book, "The Im- pending Crisis of the South," which caused months of turmoil and excite- ment in Congress in 1859 and 1860, was essentially a plea for the "poor white" of the antebellum South, for whom there was no place between the slave-holding aristocracy and the unpaid slaves. For the negro's sufferings and wrongs Help- er cared little. What stirred him so deeply that in his thirtieth year he was able in turn to stir the nation to its depths, was resentment at the degrad- ed condition, social and economic, of his own non-slave-holding class. He per- ceived that free white labor in compe- tition with forced black labor could not only not progress, but that it was scorn- ed by the slave-owning autocracy be- cause labor itself was regarded as fit only for blacks. Hence his tract was an appeal for the freedom of the ne- groes, that the shackles might also be struck from the limbs of the poor whites. What Mr. Helper foresaw for the South in the event of the abolition of slavery all came to pass in his lifetime — the di- versification of industry, the springing up of manufactures, the opening of mines, the development of commerce, the rehabilitation of agriculture, the spread of education. But one thing he did not look for — that the emancipated poor whites would, after taking con- trol of the politics of the South, become extremely bitter against the negro. As this part of the dominant race has risen socially, industrially, and politically, it has sought to depress the blacks whose condition of servitude the poor whites at times and in certain places had al- most envied. Just as ownership of a slave was once the highest sign of so- cial superiority, so the poor whites now seek to mount on the backs of the ne- gro. This fact has been dwelt upon be- fore this. But it has remained for the Rev. Quincy Ewing, like Helper, a Southerner born and bred, to bring out clearly in the current Atlantic Monthly the truth that the basis of the race strife in the South is simply a deter- mination to keep the negro inferior to the white at any cost. Mr. Ewing states the matter thus: How to keep him what he is in relation to the white man ; how to prevent his ever achieving or becoming that which would justify the belief on his part or on the part of other people, that he and the white man stand on common ground. Fifty years ago slavery was held to show that the two races did not stand on common ground; and it was, there- fore, the poor whites that the slave-

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270 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 holders endeavored to keep in their places. As Mr. Helper put it: Poor whites may hear with fear and trembling but not speak. They must be as mum as dumb brutes, and stand in awe of their august superiors, or be crushed with stern rebukes, cruel oppressions, or down- right violence. If they dare to think for themselves, their thoughts must be forever concealed. The expression of any senti- ment at all conflicting with the gospel of slavery, dooms them at once in the com- munity in which they live, and then, wheth- er willing or unwilling, they are obliged to become heroes, martyrs, or exiles. They may thirst for knowledge, but there is no Moses among them to smite it out of the rocks of Horeb. . . . Never were the poorer classes of a people, and those class- es so largely in the majority, and all in- habiting the same country, so basely duped, so adroitly swindled, or so damnably out- raged. To-day in the South, says Mr. Ewing, who has resided all his life in darkest Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in the black belt of Alabama, friction between the races is entirely absent "so long as the negro justifies the white man's opin- ion of him as an inferior; is grateful for privileges, and \ays no claim to rights"; the expression "Good Nigger" means, "everywhere in the South, a real negro from the Southern standpoint"; and the "race problem is the problem how to keep the negro in focus with the traditional standpoint." To-day the South approves of Tuskegee because it turns out artisans; it likes Booker Wash- ington because he seems to be teaching the South's own doctrine that the negro shall remain "a hewer of wood and drawer of water." But it scorns negro universities, like that at Atlanta, or Fisk University in Tennessee, because they are putting "false ideas" into the negroes' heads. No negro, however cor- rect his ideas, however noble his achievements, however brilliant intel- lectually, may cross the line, because, as Mr. Ewing states it, "the logic of the situation requires that to be any sort of black man is to be inferior to any sort of white man." This is the crux of the matter. Volumes may be written about the alleged criminal tendencies of negroes, about their physical repulsive- ness, their cranial structures, or their laziness as laborers, and the economic friction arising from industrial compe- tition. At the end one comes back to Mr. Ewing's masterly analysis. Proof in plenty he offers; it could bp multiplied a thousand times. Prating of race purity as they do, the Louisiana Legislators yet vote down a bill to stop illicit relations between white men and black women: it is a badge of racial inferiority to have the black women the prostitutes of the community. In the parlor-car the appearance of a Wash- ington or a Du Bois is an insult; the black nursemaid in her uniform of ser- vice is welcome and attempts to expel her by legislation have failed. The ne- gro is allowed in the balcony of the- atres, because the place emphasizes his inferiority, but he could not buy a first- class ticket to a ball game, even if he sat in a section apart, for that would be a step toward an alteration of status. So, with rare insight, Mr. Ewing comes to the conclusion that a race problem "arises only when the people of one race are minded to adopt and act upon some policy more or less oppressive or repres- sive in dealing with the people of anoth- er race. In the absence of some such policy there has not been a race prob- lem since the world began." The Cali- fornia hoodlum's jealousy of the suc- cessful Japanese is another case in point. But Mr. Ewing might have gone further and used the word class prob- lem, for it is not merely a race prob- lem. Helper's book would have given him the text; and Helper's words are also a prophecy that under the princi- ples of a democracy this present at tempt to hold a black class in subjec- tion is in the long run likely to be as futile as the effort to suppress the poor white. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS. In Charities and the Commons ap- pears a remarkable study of a year's accidents to workingmen in Pittsburgh. It is from the pen of a careful student of the subject, Miss Crystal Eastman, and deserves widespread attention. Only a year ago, there was opened in this city an exhibition of safety devices, in the hope of lessening the ever-grow- ing number of industrial injuries, so appalling in their total as to make less formidable the terrors of war, and bear- ing so heavily upon the workingman as to suggest the recasting of the Employ- ers' Liability law. But statistics of kill- ed and wounded, even when the aggre- gate equals the losses on a dozen bat- tlefields, no longer stir a people accus- tomed to wholesale deaths, as at St. Pierre or Messina. Hence the public has been slow to comprehend that the field of industry offers as great an op- portunity for life-saving as do the homes of those afflicted with tuberculosis. Then, too, we have lacked precise infor- mation as to the causes of accidents and the responsibility therefor — just such detailed studies as Charities has now furnished. All told, Miss Eastman found 526 men were killed in Allegheny County by in- dustrial accidents in the twelve months from July 1, 1906, to June 30, 1907. Dur- ing the same period it is estimated that 2,000 injured workmen were received in the city's hospitals. How many others were treated in their homes it is im- possible to say. Out of 294 hospital cases analyzed by Miss Eastman, 75 of the injured were discharged as perma- nent wrecks. If this proportion held in 2,000 cases, some 500 men must annual- ly be turned out of the Pittsburgh hos- pitals so crippled as to make the earn- ing of their livelihood almost if not wholly impossible. There is no respite in this recruiting of the army of the in- firm; year by year its ranks are swelled by at least 500 men, with corresponding suffering and misery. Moreover, it is by no means the old or middle-aged who suffer. Analyzing the 526 deaths, Miss Eastman found that 82, or 16 per cent., were of persons under twenty-one, while 42 per cent, were between twenty-one and thirty, 26 per cent, between thirty- one and forty, and only 16 per cent., or 81 cases, over forty. It is really the young men who are being sacrificed. Nor is it true that deaths are almost wholly among the teeming foreign pop- ulation of Pittsburgh; for 228, or 42.5 per cent., of those killed were Ameri- can born. Equally erroneous is the pre- vailing idea that these victims of the steel mills, railways, and factories are of the lowest class of laborers. Only 16 per cent, earned less than $10 a week; while 36 per cent, of them earned be- tween $15 and $20; and 94, or 10 per cent., between $20 and $30 a week. In other words, Pittsburgh, says Miss East- man, "loses more than 500 workmen every year, nearly half of whom are American born, 70 per cent, of whom are workers of skill and training, and 60 per cent, of whom have not yet reached the prime of their working life." So great a loss of power and strength to the community, with the resultant drain for the support of the dependent, surely could not be regard- ed with complacency, even if the waste

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March 18, 1909] The Nation. 271 were unavoidable, due wholly to the character of Pittsburgh's chief indus- tries. Is this the case? When Miss East- man began her work, superintendents, claim agents, and general managers as- sured her that 95 per cent, of all acci- dents were due to the carelessness of those injured. Investigation showed her, however, that only 28.54 per cent, of the 410 deaths, about which accurate infor- mation could be obtained, were due to unavoidable causes, such as two explo- sions, which killed 19 men, and appar- ently could not have been prevented. Taking 132 cases for analysis in which the victims were at fault, we find that in 22 cases "carelessness" was ignor- ance, in 13 cases youth, in 8 cases drunk- enness, and in 4 cases physical weak- ness. Of the other cases considered, 13.65 per cent, were due to fellow work- men, 11.95 per cent, to foremen, and 35.85 per cent, were attributable to the employer's negligence, as indicated by the breaking or falling of scaffolds, chairs, ladders, planks, floors, etc. "Some of these defects," Miss Eastman says, "prove inexcusable neglect," but others are due to the speed and pres- sure of the work; and she reaches a conclusion every one must be reluctant to accept, that "there can be no absolute standard of safety here, for no employ- er can keep his equipment in perfect re- pair every day in the year." As to the results of the accidents, near- ly one-half of the people killed were married men, regularly supporting fam- ilies; three were women, supporting others, and 265 were single men of all ages. Of all the 526 killed only 19 per cent, left no "private economic prob- lem" to be faced. As to the compensa- tion, Miss Eastman has this to say: Thus out of 304 cases of men killed in a year's industrial accidents in Allegheny County, all of whom were contributing to the support of others, and two- thirds of whom were married, 88 of the families left received not one dollar of compensation from the employer; 93 families received noi. more than $100, a sum which would cover reasonable funeral expenses, but would not replace any of the lost income; 62 families received something over this $100, but not more than $500; 81 families received moro than this, some few as much as $3,000, but most of them under $1,000. In other words, 181 families, or 59.5 per cent., were left by the employers to bear the entire income loss, and only 61 families, or 20 per cent., received, in compensation for the death of a regular income provider, more than $500 — a Bum which would approximate one year'3 income of the lowest paid of the workers killed. Taking six men, totally disabled for life, at random, Miss Eastman found that the total loss, based on earnings and expectation of life, was $123,065, and the total compensation only $520. As a result of her study, she feels that her facts would justify legislative interfer- ence for the purpose of reducing the number of preventable accidents and for adjusting more fairly the economic bur- den entailed by them. She does not, however, believe in the employers' lia- bility principle, so vigorously urged of late by Mr. Roosevelt, but suggests a policy of uniform compensation for all industrial accidents, except those due to wilful misconduct. Whether her opinion on this point be accepted or not, it is obvious that the facts she has set forth will call fresh attention to the gravity of the evil, and must lead to a read- justment of many ideas hitherto held as to the best method of attacking the problem. REGENERATING THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. A quiet revolution is stirring in the country school. The institution is strug- gling hard to lose its wild, chaotic va- riety. Only the other day, no two dis- tricts had like text-books, like desks, or like courses, save by pure chance. Many a village read four brands of Ameri- can histories in as many classrooms, and let First Street fill its copybooks with vertical handwriting, while Sec- ond Street slanted its letters, as Heaven ordained. Against such perfect home rule, rebellion has been brewing ever since the large cities proved its waste- fulness. To-day ten States have com- missions searching out the causes of the wretched condition of schools in vil- lages and the countryside; and these commissions are putting the blame upon the bric-a-brac equipment and lack of unified management. At least ten more States have advanced to the point of clearing away these obstructions. Small or poor districts are rapidly being con- solidated. The county is displacing township and hamlet as the education- al unit. Prof. Edward C. Elliott, in a digest of recent school legislation com- piled for the United States Bureau of Education, names another group of ten States which, within the past two years, have created text-book commissions to compel the use of uniform books and to prevent rapid change. But these are only the beginnings. So long as the country school employed its own teacher and taught what the neigh- bors liked, it remained a beggarly, un- certain thing, now losing a good school- ma'am because she would not eat the fried mush where she was requested to board, now getting a miserable peda- gogue because he was the constable's cousin. Professor Elliott's digest, how- ever, shows that in these two matters also small communities are rapidly sur- rendering autonomy. The State is giv- ing the crossroads more money and ex- acting, in return, more power over in- structors and courses. Since October, 1906, no fewer than twenty-six States have materially increased their school funds and adopted more liberal rules of distribution. Minnesota has agreed to furnish each of fifty consolidated rural schools with ten acres of land for build- ings and lessons in agriculture; and pupils are transported from house to school at the State's expense. Ohio, a pioneer in this system of transporta- tion, has centralized schools in 157 townships. Connecticut is not especially radical in offering aid to schools in all her towns having a valuation of less than $1,000,000. Everywhere there is the inclination to bring all save the larg- est communities within the circle of State support. The price of this favor is central supervision, generally through a county official. Seven States have gone further by ordering annual meet- ings of county school officers and mak- ing attendance compulsory, thus insur- ing more active cooperation. With difficulty the city-dweller catches the import of these almost unnoticed changes. But let him recall that two Americans out of every three live in farmhouse or small town; he will then see that the policy of centralization must end in bringing good educational facilities to more than 50,000,000 people who have been more or less deprived of them. For the fact is that, in spite of our excellent urban schools and col- leges, our rural schools have been he- roic without becoming efficient. Amer- ican farmers and villagers have made pathetic sacrifices to educate their chil- dren, but only too often the reward has not measured up to a tithe of the ef- fort. And all because of too much home rule — or rather too little State control,

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272 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 for our communities have not been so vehement in asserting their own local rights as the commonwealths have been in denying their obligations. The folly of independence has, however, had its day. With the extension of good roads and trolley lines, larger and larger areas will bring their pupils together under one roof; and the county high school, an ambitious experiment to-day in the West, will cease to be a dream. Won- der-working, however, need not wait on these rural improvements. By treb- ling its annual school funds many a State can bring about the fairest trans- formations for which country-life com- missions are clumsily striving. Through the regeneration of the country school along lines already laid down, the so- cial life will be quickened. The cry for Federal aid, which must be expected whenever something new is proposed, has, of course, been lustily raised. The Wisconsin Legislature started it when it invited Congress to establish a national school system. And the idea has been taken up by nu- merous educators whose real wish is a much more laudable one — namely, to in- crease the usefulness and power of the Federal Bureau of Education. Every such suggestion, it need hardly be said, is a mere evasion. Few States are too poor to educate all their children prop- erly, and there is probably not one to- day that is spending for rural schools as much as it can and should. ENGLISH NOVELS AND ENGLISH LIFE. Looking back at the leading Victorian novelists, Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, George Eliot, Kingsley, Charles Reade, Mrs. Gaskell, and Meredith, one is struck by the sustained optimistic note of their work, even when they are painting de- pressing or sordid aspects. Thomas Hardy is the only novelist of rank who lays insistent stress on the melancholy and tragic elements inherent in the web of human life. Victorian optim- ism reached its high-water mark in the sixties, but the generation that found expression in the late eighties showed itself conscious that its robust fathers, while attacking manfully the appalling social evils bequeathed from the first half of the nineteenth century, had superadded many of their own making. The cheerfulness of the prosperous middle-class Briton became conventionalized in the novels of Besant and Rice, whose bustling humor and domestic sentimentalism were de- rived no less from the popular example of Dickens than the painful gray real- ism of George Gissing was a logical de- velopment of Dickens's work as social reformer. The middle-class Englishman was, however, as unwilling to accept Gissing's depressing pictures as the up- per-class Englishman was unable to as- similate Meredith's brilliant wit and spiritual nobility; and the two most sig- nificant novels of twenty years back, "Demos" and "One of Our Conquerors," can scarcely be said to have affected the British mind. To-day our middle- class audience, constantly recruited from below, is more accessible to new ideas, but if a George Eliot appeared now among us, she could not look for earnest moral and spiritual support from our enormous villa public, occupied chiefly with social appearances, and po- litically consolidated by fear of the la- bor movement and the spread of Social- ism. Mrs. Humphry Ward, whose novels are as well known in America as here, has inherited the moral Victorian earn- estness of the sixties; but the reason of her wide popularity is probably that the impressive facade of her works gives the public right of entry to the society of our wealthy, fashionable, up- per-middle, official governing class. Written with intellectual breadth and much insight into character, and typical- ly English in the tone of their class bias, these novels betray the internal struggle between the moral purpose of the preacher and the intentions of the artist. Her serious, lofty-minded, and brilliant statesmen heroes, such as Wil- liam Ashe, and her accomplished, high- souled, and patriotic heroines, such as Diana Mallory, are in "truth personifica- tions of an ideal upper-class English- man and Englishwoman. Though proud of the standard of integrity of our pub- lic life, we are uneasily aware that a solemnity of moral purpose has always served us as the cloak to cover our pur- suit of national advantage. And the imposing moral banner that is held aloft in Mrs. Humphry Ward's clever novels is perhaps dangerously pleasing to the middle-class Briton, who is al- ready too prone to ignore the spectacle of our gaunt and sullen industrial sys- tem, and to congratulate the peoples of India and Ireland on the beneficence of our rule. No generation can keep healthy without the stimulus of sharp criticism, and it is some small consola- tion that we have satirists and critics among us as acute as George Bernard Shaw, H. Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, and H. G. Wells. We shall not speak here of Mr. Shaw's and Mr. Chesterton's novels, which are of small importance beside their work in drama and the essay. Mr. Belloc's two satirical nov- els, "Mr. Burden" and "Mr. Clutter- luck's Election," though savagely bitter in their exposure of fresh currents of greed and financial corruption in our po- litical life, have enough truth in them to make Mrs. Humphry Ward's contem- porary pictures seem a little too much like mellowed Victorian tapestries. A new generation is knocking at the door, and while it is clear that we can- not live on the traditions of Victorian liberalism, the indeterminate battle waged between vested interests and so- cial reformers does not seem to bring into being the new party that is want- ed for social reorganization. Imperial- ism and the Federation of the Empire are, no doubt, based on grand ideas, but it is difficult to detect any renovat- ing force for the Englishman at home in tariff reform, and, perhaps, a war with Germany. The American reader must understand that our Victorian lit- erature reflected the energy and the impetus of the new ideas and social forces by which the English people swept from the countryside into the big towns, 1820-1860. A counter move- ment is now growing more and more imperative for the national health, but the forces of landlordism and capital- ism combined have hitherto blocked the way to the reorganization of rural life. This prelude is necessary to explain the real bearing of the finely wrought pic- tures of English society presented to us by John Galsworthy. In "The Country House," this novelist has made an ab- solutely truthful and brilliantly execut- ed study of the old-fashioned landed gentry's life, and the unwritten laws of its pursuits, habits, tastes, prejudices, and ideas. He treats sympathetically all the typical characters he introduces, such as the well meaning and obstinate squire, Mr. Horace Pendyce; the sound and hearty rector, the Rev. Hussell Bar- ter; the exquisite and gracious English lady, Mrs. Pendyce; her son, George Pendyce, the clubman and man of pleasure; Sir James Maiden, "a Justice of the Peace, a Colonel of Yeomanry, a keen Churchman, who is much feared by poachers," etc. In the provincial in- sularity of these country gentlemen's ideas, their relations to the tenant farm- ers and the villagers, who, "with the exception of two bad characters and one atheist, were also believers in the hereditary principle" — you have the key to the caste system of rural Eng- land, and the immense power still wield- ed by the land-owning aristocracy. In "The Island Pharisees," an earlier and less artistic novel, Mr. Galsworthy has analyzed with much subtlety the rul- ing ideas that govern English "good so- ciety," its ideal of "good form," its con- tempt for intellect, its mental self-com- placency, its individuality and kindness of heart, its practical love of comfort, its genius for compromise. The portrait of Antonia, the charming English girl, is a triumph of delicate drawing, and we may here note that our author, in contradistinction to his cool intellec- tual scrutiny of men and women, shows

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March 18, 1909] The Nation. 273 a genius for delineating the rich, com- plex shades of the passion of love. Un- like Mr. Wells, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Chester- ton, and Mr. Belloc, who satirize Eng- lish society from without, Mr. Gals- worthy, born inside it, understands its intimate feelings of social caste, while remaining outside its prejudices and convictions. Again, the special value to us of "A Commentary" is that the au- thor is about the only upper middle- class writer we have who has had the moral courage to disclose the bad con- science of the rich in respect to the ex- ploited under-world of the sweated masses. We say "bad conscience," but it is rather the sub-conscious uneasi- ness of people who refuse to consider unpleasant realities; and in his new novel "Fraternity," Mr. Galsworthy has treated with great subtlety the profound disturbance which invades a typically cultivated, amiable Kensington house- hold when the latter is forcibly brought into personal relations with the life of the London poor. Although there is a humanitarian tendency in all his wort, Mr. Galsworthy is not a propagandist or a preacher, but, as an artist pure and simple, he exposes better than any of our other novelists the practical out- look of the modern Englishman, the soft sentimental spot in his soul, if once his feelings are reached, together with his amazing capacity for protect- ing himself from any inroad of disturb- ing ideas. No other modern writer has so intimately understood and expressed the contradictions of the English tem- perament, in its manner of acting and feeling, or the rich diversity of our in- dividual types, all chained together by the accepted bond of conventional think- ing, yet all separate through the streak of romanticism in the blood. These conflicting qualities appear in "A Man of Property," a story of an unhappy marriage in a typical middle-upper-mid- dle class English family. The social progress and rise to fortune of this family, the Forsytes, is practically the social history of that enormous phal- anx of "the propertied and investing classes," which, embracing both manu- facturers and professional men, is bounded by the landed gentry at the top and the small tradesman at the bottom. In this novel, the nebulous background of London's multitudinous human life is used with much poetical feeling to give depth and perspective to the detailed class study. Next to Thomas Hardy, our most im- portant novelist of country life is Mrs. Mary E. Mann, who deals not with the landed gentry and their conservative in- fluence, but with the social affairs of the parish as viewed by the doctor, the lawyer, the parson, the small residen- tial gentry, and the better class of tradesfolk. Mrs. Mann is one of the few realists we have in latter-day fic- tion, and her art, inspired by great sharpness of vision and a warm and generous heart, forms a connecting link between the spiritual realism of George Eliot and the matter-of-fact realism of Trollope. One of her earliest books, "The Fields of Dulditch," which con- tains extremely powerful sketches of the stagnant, suffering, and brutalized life of the field laborers, would have given the writer a great reputation abroad, had she been a Continental writ- er. Our middle-class reading public, however, only encourages novelists whose idealized or sentimentalized pic- tures please, amuse, or flatter its sus- ceptibilities, and Mrs. Mann, standing isolated, has not received the stimulus or encouragement of being "one of a school." The defects of many Victorian novelists, even of so great a writer as Thomas Hardy, appear in her workman- ship, i. e., a tendency for the plot to hinge too much on coincidence, to be forced, or stage-managed. Her novels, indeed, as with nearly all English fic- tion, rarely embody a general idea; but nobody has painted with so much exacti- tude or with so firm and sharp a touch the cramped and petty horizon of the shrewd country folk of East Anglia. In the best of her stories and sketches, such as "The Sheep and the Goats," "Olivia's Summer," "The Mating of a Dove," "Mrs. Peter Howard," "The Memories of Ronald Love," "A Sheaf of Corn," etc., the author shows a deep knowledge of human nature, a ruthless sincerity, and no little imaginative in- tensity. Her individual note is a pleas- ing feminine malice mingled with a deep sympathy for the fine side of hu- man endeavor. She is, happily, almost entirely devoid of sentimentality, and she inspires the reader with great con- fidence in the soundness of her judg- ments. While speaking of novels of country life we must also mention the remarkable literary quality of a young author, Mrs. Gertrude Bone, whose spir- itual studies of humble peasant life in "Provincial Tales" and "Children's Chil- dren," recall the beauty of drawings by Millet. Three other novelists may also here be mentioned: Mrs. Henry Du- deney for her naturalistic studies of Sussex life, James Prior for his hearty and unconventional pictures of Notting- ham folk, and A. T. Quiller Couch for his humorous character studies of the Cornish people. Since Mrs. Gaskell's death in 1865, the industrial life of our great manufac- turing centres in the north of England has gone almost unchronicled in fic- tion. This is a sign of the significant fact already noted — the instinct of our well-to-do classes not to look back- wards or downwards, in their ambition to climb the social ladder. Two remark- able studies on the delicate subject of "social origins" may be cited here, "An- na of the Five Towns," and "The Old Wives' Tale," by Arnold Bennett, both of which, though delineating life in the Staffordshire pottery towns, are fairly typical of manufacturing England in general. As we have said elsewhere, our modern novelists are, to-day, be- wildered by the comparison of stan- dards, tastes, and ideals in the mod- ern townsman's life, a confusion which is due to the commercialization of our society and the incursion into every class of new swarms of successful peo- ple from lower social levels. Hence a general adulteration of standards, a vul- gar pretentiousness' and plebeian un- easiness to appear not what you are, but something a little better. Mr. Ben- nett's two novels, both admirable works of art, are of special value, because his characters are genuine local prod- ucts of the manufacturing midland towns, where a powerful middle-class, by brains and energy, has pushed its way out of the people, and has risen to so- cial affluence on the backs of the op- eratives. In "Anna of the Five Towns," the old-fashioned, hard-headed peasant forbears are hit off in the person of a shrewd, miserly man of business, who keeps an iron grip on his money and his daughter's life. In "An Old Wives' Tale," we have delineated the life of a generation of pottery trades- folk, a chapel-going, money-worship- ping race, yet not without imagination and romance relieving its hard utili- tarianism of soul. The formidable worldly shrewdness, innate Philistinism, and commercial aptitude of the Brit- ish middle-class is built up on the so- cial foundations of the old-time yeoman and the small farmer, who, as Mr. Ben- nett shows us, have become transmogri- fied into the modern commercial man. None of Mr. Bennett's midland char- acters show any inheritance of gentle breeding in their mental refinement, even in this third generation of manu- facturers, which, through its increasing wealth, is conscious of its social power. In a third novel, "Whom God Hath Joined," Mr. Bennett has made a very clever and penetrating study of the middle-class Briton's attitude to mar- riage and divorce, of the pressure of public opinion in the regulation of his sex relations. The careful picture of the household life of two provincial law- yers, and the analysis of the atmos- phere of the London divorce court, both in general grasp and masterly execu- tion, recall the best novels of Trol- lope. Mr. Bennett has written a series of inferior popular novels to please the public taste, but it is to be hoped that he will work in future on the high ar- tistic level of the three novels we have cited. He has himself satirized in "A Great Man " (a clever but blunt piece of work) the tastes of that vast sec- tion of the Philistine public, that can- not distinguish a rubbishy from a medi- ocre, or a mediocre from a true, work of art, and just as Mr. Galsworthy is

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2'74 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 the only novelist of rank we have whose novels form an effective criticism of the life of the upper-middle class, so Mr. Bennett's work seems to qualify him as the fairest critic and interpreter of the commercial classes. Here we will mention Pett Ridge's humorous and penetrating fiction, especially his nov- el, "Name of Garland," as being the best guide we have to the lower-middle class outlook. We have, of course, no less than America, scores of popular favorites whose work rests on the basis of satis- fying and emphasizing the tastes and outlook of the majority of readers. These novelists, such as A. E. W. Ma- son, Sir Conan Doyle, Stanley 'Wey- man, Sir Gilbert Parker, Anthony Hope, W. J. Locke, Mrs. K. C. Thurston, etc., satisfy the "huge demand" of a public which will not suffer its equanimity to be disturbed by any reversal or negation of current valuations. Certain members of the popular school, such as Anthony Hope in "A Servant of the Public," have, indeed, shown that they are capable of creating a mental atmosphere, and establishing a point of view highly in- dividual, and not a mere popular em- phasized reflection of mental atmos- pheres and standpoints already project- ed by the public mind. But they have not developed this rarer original vision to any degree, and we will therefore pass to four novelists who have some- thing unique in their artistic gift, and a finer quality of mental outlook. The first of these is Leonard Merrick, who, though repeatedly praised by our best critics, seems to have eluded the public's attention. No doubt the quiet subtlety of Mr. Merrick's touch, his unassuming tone, and his restrained, ironical humor are qualities that do not impress the public at large, but one suspects that his pictures of semi-Bohemian life make his circulating-library readers somewhat uneasy. Mr. Merrick does not deal with that sham Bohemianism which is both a pose and an advertisement in certain fourth-rate London literary and artistic circles, but with the genuine Bohemian- ism of unpopular novelists, journalists, and hard-working and hard-up profes- sional folk who are connected actively with the life of the stage. The ups and downs and general vicissitudes of this shabby but interesting world Mr. Mer- rick paints with great exactitude and brilliance; and with the cunning of a true artist he shows us its life in rela- tion to the larger human background of London respectability, both in the gen- teel suburbs, and in the lower-middle- class environment of boarding houses, cheap lodgings, and bar-parlors. Mr. Mer- rick's experience of life is both "exten- sive and peculiar," and his sharp insight Into the weakness and pettiness of ordi- nary human nature is offset by his inti- mate understanding of the pressure and struggle of the workaday world. He Is quite delightful, however, in the way he blends sweet and sour in the literary salad, and one of his novels, "Conrad in Quest of His Youth," is perhaps the most piquant and appetizing dish of fic- tion that our generation will taste. Oth- er works of his to be mentioned are "Whispers about Women," "Cynthia," "The Man Who Was Good," and "The Stage of Fools." His little vignettes of French Bohemian life do not, however, seem to us to spring from that sensitive response to reality which is the artistic basis of his finest work. A younger novelist who has taken the British Philistine in flank, so to speak, is E. M. Forster, whose two books, "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and "The Longest Journey" would have ex- cited the admiration of Matthew Ar- nold. Mr. Forster has had the happy idea of transporting a typical British family into Italy and contrasting its dilettante sstheticism and drab Prot- estant ideas — a bizarre mixture! — with the frank and graceful materialism of the natives. The novel is an extremely clev- er study of national types and the author has followed it up with "The Longest Journey," a book which, bear- ing traces of George Meredith's influ- ence, contains a most spiritual, witty, and elusive philosophy of life. The bland and smug forces of Sawston, a provincial town, are indicted in the novel on the ground that "people live together without love, they work with- out conviction, they seek money with- out requiring it. They die and nothing will have happened either for them- selves or others." The novel, which will puzzle the commonplace mind, should present little difficulty to those who appreciate Meredith. Another story with much the same tendency, but mystical in its pleading for the life of the soul rather than of the senses or the under- standing, is Mrs. Evelyn Underbill's "Lost Word," a book which turns the tables very cleverly on the utilitarian world of "the practical man," who has -created the squalid mess and muddle of our "mean streets" and all the sor- did, tangled hideousness of modern "civ- ilization." The futilities, absurdities, and falsities of our matter-of-fact world are exposed here in a pitiless fashion. And on a different emotional plane Miss May Sinclair's "The Helpmate" and "Kitty Tailleur," novels which are probably as well known in America as in England, are a significant sign that the conven- tional code of our social life cannot pre- vent the infiltration of ideas instinct with social charity and a fine justice, into the head of the thoughtful citizen. In this connection, we must remember that the leading Victorian creative minds, such as Carlyle, Matthew Ar- nold, George Eliot, Meredith, Ruskin, William Morris, and Kingsley spent much of their energy in opposing di- rectly or indirectly the hide-bound Phil- istinism of their day, the greed, cant, vulgarity, lack of "sweetness and light," implicit in the conventional outlook. The cruder vulgarities of Victorian life have disappeared, along with the more crying social evils, and middle-class life suffers now most from the monotony and pettiness of its horizon, from its preoccupation with the small proprieties of social ritual and the keeping up of appearances, and from its lack of gen- erous width and direct contact with first-hand realities. Thus it comes about that the most vital pieces of fiction fall into the class we have been discussing, or into the class of the mildly satirical novel of manners, as the work of Percy White, Paul Neumann, and Archibald Marshall. Our clever young authors show an increasing tendency to be crit- ical of their surroundings. Ford Huef- fer's "An English Girl," a criticism of New York life, and his "Mr. Apollo," a satire on London, are cases in point. William De Morgan's work, in its vig- orous breadth, delightful breeziness, and large optimism, is a striking exception, but not only is the author spiritually a survival of that healthy Victorian circle of which Madox Brown and William Morris were typical forces, but his nov- els are a literary resurrection of the robust mid-Victorian school, which, in its humor, its pathos, and its celebra- tion of the sweetness of domestic life, is far removed from our modern self- consciousness and spiritual narrowness. What has wrought this striking change in fifty years or less? We have already answered the question: the Victorian fund of animal spirits, mental vigor, and optimistic impetus has been used up in two generations of competitive strain in town life. Our outlook, though not pessimistic, is lacking in spiritual conviction. We require a new source of spiritual energy, and from what can this spring but from some new de-. parture in social reorganization, precipi-. tated, perhaps, by some national crisis, or the pressure of economic necessities? Has any novelist among us grasped the general situation and come forward with an answer that embodies a new social creed? One, and one only, of our novel- ists has done this. I speak of H. G. Wells. Americans, I believe, are as much in- clined to underrate Mr. Wells as to over- rate Mrs. Humphry Ward. They pre- fer to see us not as we are, but as we appear against the sentimental back- ground of historical traditions, "the stately homes of England," etc. And one may hazard the guess that America, in the exuberance of her teeming national life, despite the gathering pressure of her own social problems, is still in that stage of youthful expansion which Is always impatient of criticism. What England needs to-day, however, in her writers is spiritual and mental audacity In spite of all the material benefits cob

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March 18, 1909] The Nation. 275 ferred, capitalism, commercialism, and industrialism combined have impressed on the bulk of our population a servi- tude to a narrow, petty, and mean town life that dwarfs and stunts the spirit. We are cramped, congested, and bound hand and foot by a network of "vested interests." Our middle class has en- trenched itself in comfortable surround- ings to enjoy the fruit of its own and other people's labor. Mr. Wells, who is not a pure artist, and who expands his fluent, stimulating ideas with great rapidity, has assailed in "Kips" and "Tono-Bungay," with a cruel humor that is electrifying, the absurdity of British shibboleths and conventions, and the haphazard irrationality of our social organization. In general, one distrusts the programmes of the social reformer as lacking in intellectual breadth, hu- mor, and sympathy with human passion. Mr. Wells, however, unites the artist's zest and joy in life's ceaseless fecundity and diversity, with a cool scrutiny of the man in the street, an attitude that recalls the detachment of a professor examining a test tube. His imagina- tion has been fired by the topsy-turvy spectacle of man's powers over nature being indefinitely increased by science, while his powers over himself have been diminished by the irruption of incal- culable, new forces. What needs put- ting under the laws of science, in short, is modern man himself, and Mr. Wells is the only English novelist who, with large and generous democratic sympa- thies, has perceived that a "civilization" that is guided by the jerry-built ideals of an ignorant democracy and of pluto- cratic cunning, is running counter to the laws of social health. In "Tono- Bungay," his last novel, Mr. Wells has analyzed with an amazing brilliance and force the structural ideas of our modern commercialized society. It is a biassed analysis in some degree, but how fundamentally true is the crit- icism! In this hasty survey I find I have left myself no space in which to speak of a little group of remarkable artists, of whom Joseph Conrad, Cunninghame Graham, W. H. Hudson, and Maurice Hewlett are the chief. I may perhaps recur to them on another occasion. Edward Garnett. Croekham Hill, Kent. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. Robert Hoe has just issued the conclud- ing part of the catalogue of printed books which make up his magnificent library. This portion, describing books in foreign languages printed after 1600, is in four volumes, uniform with the preceding is- sues. One hundred copies were printed at the University Press. Here are described books from the Elzevir, Bodoni, and other seventeenth century Continental presses, as well as the first and later editions of French classics, such as MoliSre, Racine, and Corneille, some of the famous French ' illustrated books, and many modern French works. Mr. Hoe is the possessor of one of the ten known copies of the first and un- authorized edition of Moliere's "Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire," Paris, 1660. Of the ten known copies, three are in New York city. Included in this portion also are a few important American books. Among them are the f rst edition of Cham- plain's first book,"Des Sauvages" (1603), and later editions of Champlain's voyages, 1613, 1619, 1620, and 1632; Sagard's "Histoire de Canada," 1636; and the tnree rarest and most important Dutch books on New York, "Beschryvinghe van Virginia, Nieuw Neder- landt," etc., which contains the first en- graved view of the city of New Amster- dam, and both editions of Vander Donck's "Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlant," 1655 and 1656. The fifteen volumes which make up the whole Hoe catalogue describe 14,030 titles of printed books, without including Mr. Hoe's collection of illuminated man- uscripts unmatched in America. The Society of Iconophiles has just is- sued a descriptive catalogue of the engrav- ings published by the society, from its in- ception in 1894 to 1908. The text has been prepared by Richard Hoe Lawrence. Wil- liam Loring Andrews, the actual founder of the society, has supplied an introduction, interesting, as is everything which comes from his pen; and at the end of the volume is printed an autobiography of the late Ed- win Davis French, prepared by him in 1901 at the request of the society. The book is a quarto, handsomely printed at the Gillis Press, 125 copies on hand-made paper, and 12 copies on Japan paper. The first quarterly part of Vol. VI of Frank Karslake's "Book-Auction Records" has appeared. It covers the period from the beginning of the London season, Octo- ber 1 to December 31, 1908 and contains 3.383 records. The most important sale is that of the first portion of the library of Lord Amherst. The preliminary matter in this part is a series of "Notes on Authors, Booksellers. Printers, and Stationers of the City of Hull, England," prepared by W. G. B Page. On March 24 and 25 the Anderson Auc- tion Co. of this city will sell a portion of the library of John La Farge. Among the books to be offered are publications of the Bibliophile Society, including "Andre's Journal": several books by William Loring Andrews, including "Jean Grolier"; publi- cations of the Grolier Club; a first edition of "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) ; a presenta- tion copy of Samuel Rogers's "Italy" and "Poems" (1830-34) ; the first edition of Ed- ward FitzGerald's "Polonius" (1852), and of "Salaman and Absal" (1856). Correspondence. VARIANT READINGS OF GOLDSMITH'S POEMS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: A reference to Anderson's Biblio- graphy of Goldsmith (1896), in the Nation of October 15, 1908 (p. 357), led me to look up the book; and I was surprised to find the list of editions of the poems (the only part that I examined with any care) some- what incomplete as to those published in Great Britain, and far worse as to American reprints. Of the English editions of "The Travel- ler," one which I found in the Athenaeum Library (Boston) when preparing my "Se- lect Poems of Goldsmith," in 1875, is unique in some respects, and of peculiar interest to the bibliographer. It contains some readings, including one entire couplet, which I have found in no other edition, early or recent, and which seems to have been overlooked by all the editors and critics. The title-page of the quarto vol- ume is as follows: "The Traveller, or, A Prospect of Society. A Poem. By Dr. Gold- smith. The thirteenth edition. London: Printed for the Booksellers in Town and Country." It is undated, and bears no name of publisher or printer. It appears, how- ever, to have been edited with notable care and discrimination, and shows a familiarity with the earlier editions. I was able to compare it with the first, third, and fourth editions in the Athenaeum Library and sun- dry others in the Boston Public and Har- vard Libraries. A noteworthy feature of it is the restoration of not a few readings of the first edition, which do not appear in the other early editions, so far as I have examined them. The following are readings that I noted as only in the first and thir- teenth editions: Line 50: "Creation's tenant, all the world is mine"; now "Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine." Line 124: all this nation (all the nation). Line 126: Men seem (man seems). Line 140: Soon Commerce turn'd on other shores her sail (Commerce on other shores display'd her sail). Line 205: And as a babe (and as a child). Line 222: Nor quench'd by want, nor fan'd [fann'd] by strong desire (unquench'd . . . unfann'd). Line 312: Dull as their lakes that sleep beneath the storm (slumber in the storm). Line 349: As social bonds decay (As na- ture's ties decay). Line 358: And monarchs toil and poets pant for fame (Where kings have toil'd and poets wrote Isic] for fame). Line 416: And the brown Indian takes a deadly aim (marks with murderous aim). Line 421: Casts a fond look where Eng- land's glories shine (long look). In most of these passages the editor evi- dently prefers the earlier reading, which is, perhaps, as good or better, me judice. Some readings seem to be entirely his own. In line 255 he has "So bright a life" for "So blest a life." In 342 (which, with 341, is not in the first edition), he has "All kindred claims that soften life unknown" for "All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown"; and in 357: "Where noble stems [that is, families] transmit the patriot claim," which seems to me better than Goldsmith's "patriot flame," a metaphor that does not go well with "stems." After line 374 we have the couplet to which I have referred above: proportion'd Loads on each; Much on the Low, the Best, as Rank supplies. Should in columnar Diminution rise; While ["Hence" in the standard text], should one Order, etc. As this thirteenth edition must have been published some years after Goldsmith's death, this couplet could hardly have been his, if, indeed, it is quite like him. The metaphor is ingenious, but rather far- fetched, though evidently suggested by the context; for the form of a Greek column, even in the earliest Doric, shows so slight a "diminution" as to be scarcely perceptible to the average eye. The couplet, however, is a curious interpolation on the part of the

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276 The Nation [Vol. 88. No. 2281 editor (if it was his), and interesting as the only noteworthy one he ventures to make. Goldsmith himself made many little changes in successive editions of his poems, but very few of them have been recorded by the editors, critics, and commentators. W. J. Rolpe. Cambridge, Mass., March 1. THE PRONUNCIATION OP THE CLAS- SICS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Is it wise, or necessary, to perpetu- ate longer the custom of teaching the clas- sics with the Roman, or Continental, method of pronunciation? Greek is still a spoken language, and yet it is not the language of Homer, Xenophon, Demosthenes, or Plato; and the student of the preparatory school and college who at- tempts to read his Iliad, or "Anabasis," or "De Corona," or "Gorgias," with the pro- nunciation and accent of Athens to-day, acquires thereby neither culture from an ancient tongue nor fluency in a modern lan- guage; he attains nothing which is real. But Latin has ceased altogether to be a spoken language. The comparatively few who employ it in academic or in ecclesias- tical circles use it not as native speech, and seldom as a means of communication, but more commonly as an artificial mark of erudition, or of sanctity. In either case it is not a vital, fluent tongue. There is, therefore, no present warrant for a standard pronunciation in present or prospective conversational uses. The classics to-day have no appeal to the universal ear, and their opportunities to be heard in speech are daily becoming less and less. Why, then, erect one more barrier in the way of easy acquisition of these highly cultural lan- guages? Why perpetuate longer a custom of less than thirty years' duration, which has naught but a worn-out theory to com- mend it? Why longer prejudice the van- ishing number of novices who hesitate at the threshold of Greek and Latin? It has been proved that though a German and American study the classics according to the same "method," they will still pro- nounce according to racial and national characteristics. English and American scholars have a different twang; and even American pupils from New York and New Orleans will not sound the vowels alike. I had occasion once, when fresh from col- lege and seminary, after eleven years of en- thusiastic and fruitful study of the clas- sics, to essay the difficult task of exchang- ing with a bright, classical German stu- dent some commonplace thoughts about a trunk which had been for several weeks detained in a German custom house. The German's English was as scholastic and as impracticable as was my German at that time. We had both studied Latin, we had been trained in the same "method," and we did not lack for a Latin vocabulary; but we were as unintelligible before each other as a jackdaw and a donkey, until, with the help of a pencil and the back of envelopes, we submitted to the eye what the ear could not understand. But the attempt to pronounce by one common method a language long since dead is worse than useless; it prevents a large part of the cultural ministry of which the language is capable. I ardently believe that there is no means for acquiring lin- guistic taste and skill in any native tongue quite equal to that acquired through the medium of Latin and Greek, the languages from which all our modern speech has been so profusely enriched and adorned. The poise of judgment in the fine discrimi- nation of sense and synonyms, when mak- ing a translation from Latin or Greek, is an incomparable exercise in one's mother tongue, leaving behind the rare crystalliza- tion of taste and refinement, even when the languages themselves are forgotten; and the appreciation of etymological deri- vations is an aesthetic delight as well as an incentive to precision of meaning. But how can etymological derivation be detect- ed by a spoken symbol which departs en- tirely from the standards of the mother tongue? At least the ear is cut off from suggestivemess and reminder. When the eye reads "Cicero," it is immaterial how the word is pronounced. The mind through the eye knows that the Latin "Cicero" is the same, at least in origin, as the Eng- lish "Cicero," judged as words merely; but what ear would ever understand that "Ke- karo" is the same as "Sisero"? The nov- ice, who pronounces "veni, vidi, vici," in the English manner, may by his ear be reminded that "veni" is related to "ad- vent"; that "vidi" may be related to such a word as "evident," or even "vision"; and that "vici" at least is the same as the "vici kid" made into shoes. But what will any mind at first think if the famous phrase be pronounced "wany, weedy, weeky"? There are enough distractions into by-paths and pitfalls for any mind, however watchful and wary, without con- fusing sense by sound and leading off into the mazes of puns and pleasantries! If the Roman or Continental method of pronunciation be used, the mind has the double task of correlating sounds unlike and then detecting derivatives, while the native pronunciation of the ancient speech brings that speech at once into vital lin- guistic relations with the native speech and gives the mind the simple task of making direct comparisons, wherein the recognition of derivatives and relationships lies. Why then should the foreign method be perpetuated, (1.) If it does not give the student acquaintance with a spoken language? (2.) If it cannot be the intelli- gible meeting place of scholars of all lands and all cities? (3.) If it places an added difficulty in the way of acquiring the languages? (4.) If it tends to fix the mind upon external and whimsical relationships to the loss of etymological kinship and derivation? (5.) If it multiplies the mental burden and complicates the psychological operations? What vindication is there for the method? Alfred Williams Anthony. Bates College, Lewiston, Me., March 9. RACE PREJUDICE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In reading the observations on the negro question in the United States by Sir Harry Johnston in the London Times, to which you refer in your editorial of Feb- ruary 18, I was struck with the detached and impartial tone of the writer as well as with his strange inability to appreciate the transparent fact that some millions of people in this country who live with the negro do not, cannot, and will not like him or tolerate him as an equal. There seems to be really no substantial reason why, as rational human beings, they should not like him; they ought to; and, in fact, they are quite absurd in not doing so— at least it so appears to that amiable foreign ob- server. Perhaps the attitude of the South towards the negro has never been better hit off than by John T. Morse, jr., in his "Life of Lincoln," when, describing the Fall of Richmond, he says with a delicious touch of irony (and of the baldest fact): The negroes were intoxicated with joy and the whites with whiskey; the convicts from the penitentiary had broken loose; a mob was breaking into houses and stores and was pillaging madly. Erelong the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, a negro reg- iment, under Colonel C. F. Adams, jr., paraded through the streets, and then the Southern whites hid themselves to shun the repulsive spectacle [italics mine]. In all modern history, I recollect no scene more significant, portentous, perhaps omi- nous, than that of those intelligent white men of affairs hiding behind doors and windows and peeping out upon a regi- ment of former negro plantation hands, clothed, armed, and trained by their op- ponents— complete masters of the situa- tion. /Some of us who felt a savage thrill of exultation at the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment as being a well-merited hu- miliation for the South have, after forty years of reflection and observation, come to see why the negro on horseback is still a "repulsive spectacle" to Southern eyes. One generation of Southern whites has passed and gone, and still the spectacle is to their children just as repulsive as ever. Predic- tions are notoriously incapable of proof or refutation, but it is. safe to assume that, until human nature greatly changes, the white race in this country will never view with equanimity the spectacle of the negro on horseback — logic, reason, justice, and all the virtues in the calendar to the con- trary notwithstanding. Or, to drop the metaphor, there is no evidence to show any disposition on the part of the native whites, or of those Northern people who have come into intimate contact with con- ditions in the South, to allow the negro to make the laws for the locality where he lives with white men or to administer its public affairs. If one may venture to in- terpret the trend of popular thought on the race question, it is that we are willing to accept almost any European white man, because, however unprepossessing he may be on landing on these shores, he and his ancestors have undergone more or less the same social and political evolution as our- selves, and he has good stuff in him some- where; the red man has practically disap- peared; the little brown man is too far away to bother about; the yellow man we fear, admire, and suspect because of his intelligence and industry; but the ave- rage negro — taking him by and large and making a rough average out of the ten million in this country to-day — is neither formidable nor admirable for intelligence or industry. He has now had a half cen- tury of trial on the theory of a political and social equal of the whites; if the ques- tion were now fairly put before the seven- ty million of whites in this country wheth- er or no he has made good or shown any prospects of ever making good, there can

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March 18, 1909] The Nation 277 be no doubt that the popular verdict would be a decided negative. Whether the popular verdict is right or not, I am not discussing here; but I ven- ture to call attention to the substantial unanimity ot that verdict. Sir Harry Johnston dismisses this view of the case as "provincial"; rather an inapt epithu for him to apply to the deliberate conclu- sion of practically a whole nation. E. L. C. Morse;. Chicago, March 1. LINCOLN AND THE NEGRO. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: A few days' ago I read with in- terest your editorial article of February 18, on "The Negro Problem in Foreign Eyes." You will agree with me that it is the truth alone to which we must look to set us free from prejudices and differ- ences, the whole truth, got only by consid- ering the testimony of both sides to our controversy. Perhaps no American could have had a stronger desire to be the well-accepted head of a whole people than Abraham Lincoln. When you put the issue of the "War be- tween the States" (to use a Southern term) on the basis of a war waged by "those who gave their lives for the liberty of the slave," are you not, by implication at least, doing Lincoln an injustice? He professedly waged war "to preserve the Union," which he said was his great purpose to maintain, whether "all free," the more desirable, and in agreement there with highest Southern sentiment; or "all slave," the less desira- ble. I am sure that those biographers of Lincoln who are considered the least favor- able to his memory have taken pains to show that he was no hypocrite, as Dr. Goldwin Smith has laboriously and unwit- tingly made out, in order to reconcile the theory of a war for negro emancipation and the above-mentioned strongly express- ed views of the President. I hold the mem- ory of Lincoln in high regard, and I do not believe I dishonor his memory when I re- mind you of the fact that his Emancipa- tion Proclamation was regarded by him as a necessary or desirable war measure, de- signed to bring the protracted conflict to a speedier close, a result to be desired by patriots; although that particular measure might have resulted in a slave uprising and massacres, after the manner of some of the islands in the West Indies. Violent radicals of the John Brown type might have hoped for this extreme; yet it was averted, not by "lash-torn flesh and mutilated face," but by the close and even affectionate rela- tions between the vast majority of English masters and their African slaves lately re- deemed from the lowest strata of unciviliz- ed existence. Lincoln probably foresaw this. Again, the Emancipation Proclama- tion applied only to those portions of the country without the control of the Union erms ; and Lincoln expressed very forcibly his belief in race supremacy, that, as be- tween the black and the white, there could not be coequal races dwelling together, and that he preferred the control to be in the hands of the white race. Sir Harry Johnston would solve the race question theoretically in the way he pro- poses in London or New York; but would he do differently in practice in Louisi- ana or Georgia? I live in Maryland, and should vote against the locally advocated disfranchisement of negroes, because it is net needed here to uphold Lincoln's view of tue necessity of white supremacy. In the far South, as to the black African, or in California, with reference to the yellow Chinese, it is considered necessary for the race in control of our national and State governments. Matthew Page Andrews. Baltimore, Md., March 0. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The correspondent in your issue of March 4, criticising your editorial of Feb- ruary 18 on the race problem, does, I think, both Lincoln and the Nation an in- justice. Lincoln's sentiments regarding the negro, as disclosed by the citation from the Lincoln-Douglas debate, were certainly not of the higher and nobler kind, and it would seem, superficially at least, that the cor- respondent is right and the Nation wrong in the contention at issue. But, in the light of conditions when Lincoln made the speech and the subsequent developments from the time of Lincoln's death, it is manifestly unfair to assume that Lincoln's views would not have undergone a change. These de- bates took place in 1858, before the notion of negro citizenship had thoroughly dawn- ed upon the great masses of the American commonwealth, and before Lincoln was elected to the Presidency. The negro problem, stated tersely, is this: Shall a man physically, intellectually, and morally the equal of other men be de- nied equal treatment because his skin is black, or because his ancestors had been oppressed? It is unlikely that Lincoln, the emancipator, would have answered the foregoing question in the affirmative. Charles S. Duke. Chicago, March 7. Notes. Besides the works recently mentioned by us in special notes the Oxford University Press has the following titles on its spring list: Hobbes's "Leviathan," edited, with in- troduction, by the late W. G. Pogson Smith; "Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Cen- tury," Vol. Ill, 1685-1700, edited by J. E. Spingarn; "Specimens of Middle English," edited by J. Hall; "Roger Bacon's Works," edited by R. Steele (hitherto unpublished); Dante's "Convlvio," translated by W. W. Jackson (Oxford Library of Translations); "The Forerunners of Dante: a Selection from Italian Poetry before 1,300," edited by A. J. Butler; "The Englishman in Italy: An Anthology," edited by G. H. Wollas- ton; "Aristotle's Poetics," a revised Greek text, with critical introduction, transla- tion, and commentary by I. Bywater; "Pla- to's Theory of Ideas," by J. A. Stewart; "The Cults of the Greek States," Vol. V, by L. R. Farnell; Theophrastus, edited by H. Diels, Euripides, Vol. Ill, edited by Gilbert Murray, and Cicero, "Orations" (another volume), edited by A. C. Clark, these three in the Oxford Classical Texts; "The Ori- gins of Christianity," by the late Charles Bigg, edited by T. B. Strong; "The Sikh Religion, Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors," six vols., by M. A. Macauliffe; "The Aitareya Aranyaka," edited by G. A. B. Keith (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Aryan se- ries); "Law and Custom of the Consti- tution," Vol. I, by Sir W. R. Anson (new edition) ; "Tudor and Stuart Proclama- tions," edited by Robert Steele; "The Rho- dian Sea-law," edited by W. Ashburner; "Historical Essays," by the late Henry Francis Pelham, edited by F. Haverfleld; "The English Factories in India, 1624-1629, A calendar of Documents," by William Fos- ter; "Ionia and the East," lectures by D. G. Hogarth; "A Collection of Pieces in Prose and Verse in the Irish Language," printed in facsimile from the manuscript in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson B. 502), with introduction and notes by Kuno Mey- er; "Gray's Poems," edited by W. Bang; "Memoirs of Shelley," by Thomas Love Peacock (with Shelley's letters to Peacock), edited by H. F. B. Brett Smith; "Shelley's Prose in the Bodleian," edited by A. H. Koszul; "De Quincey's Literary Criticism," edited by Helen Darbishire; "Milton Me- morial Lectures read before the Royal So- ciety of Literature," edited by P. W. Ames; "Poe's Poems and Critical Essays," edited, with life, by R. Brimley Johnson; "Author and Printer," by P. H. Collins (popular edition); "An Illustrated Guide to West- minster Abbey," by Francis Bond; "The Edicts of Asoka," edited by Vincent A. Smith; "Aristotle's Criticisms of Plato," by J. M. Watson; and "The Odyssey," printed in Proctor Greek type. George Allen now announces a final vol- ume of the great Library Edition of Rus- kin's Works, consisting of a Complete Bibliography, a Catalogue of Ruskin's Drawings and MSS., Addenda and Corrigen- da, and a general Index. The Athenwum reports that important letters from J. S. Mill are likely to be giv- en to the public. "The Ancestry of Abraham Lincoln," by J. Henry Lea and J. R. Hutchinson (Hough- ton Mifflin Co.) is an excellent piece of special genealogical investigation. Many points of the family history in the United States were in doubt, and the President characteristically said it was "the short and simple annals of the poor." The Eng- lish line had long baffled investigation. It was known to begin in Hingham, and the name of the emigrant to New England was known, as well as that of his father; be- yond that nothing definite, until by a dis- covery not unlike that which established the Washington line, a chance finding of papers in a chancery suit, solved the prob- lem. This suit left the father of the emi- grant in rather straitened circumstances — probably one of the leading motives of his removal and that of two brothers to New England. The line of descent is then traced to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, affording a good example of the manner in "which New England has spread into the West. The value of this volume rests upon the fact that it is the work of trained investigators, who have carefully weighed their evidence, and who have not hesitated to mark what is doubtful or misleading. The many er- rors of other writers are corrected, and some of these errors were more than cur- ious. While the style is at times pitched in a high key, no unreasonable claims are made. In England the family were "os- tensible yeomen, with a dominant strain of gentle blood in their veins"; in Amer- ica, they were plain pioneers, with fine in-

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278 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 herited traits. The book is handsomely illustrated, and is in every sense worthy of its object. Vols. V and VI of the "Works of James Buchanan" (J. B. Lippincott Co.) cover five years, from 1841 to 1846. In the first period Buchanan was in opposition, a critic in the Senate of Capt. Tyler's administration, and an authority on international ques- tions. In 1845 he entered the cabinet of Polk as Secretary of State, and thus became identified with the Texan policy of his chief. He was still very local in his interests, and had a really better knowledge of what Pennsylvania expected of him than what national concerns required. He was op- posed to a national bank, and fought the policy of distributing among the States the revenue from public lands. He professed to be opposed to a high protection tariff, but incidental protection on the products of his own State could hardly be too high for its prosperity The proposition to frame a horizontal tariff, in which a uniform rate of duty was imposed on all articles, was ridi- culed, and the pauper labor of Europe was introduced as a serious political argument in favor of higher duties. In Texas he saw an ally, for he believed Texas would be another sugar producing State, and in the cause of incidental protection "sugar and iron are indissolubly connected in interest." For Tyler he had a moderate contempt, "a President without a party," and he clearly indicated his growing dislike of Van Buren, who was confidently thought to be the coming man. This opposition to the leader of his party never became open. In the Department of State he encountered some pressing questions. Congress had de- termined that Texas should immediately be annexed, and it remained only to arrange the details, and throw the real burden on other departments, as war with Mexico was inevitable. As for slavery, the negroes would flock to Mexico where there was no racial objection to them, and this would draw off the possible dangers hanging over the country. "Ail Christendom is leagued against the South upon this question of do- mestic slavery" — and Texas was to be the outlet to relieve the pressure! On the Oregon question, much discussion passed between Buchanan and Pakenham, and the important notes on both sides are printed in this volume, though in the equally im- portant and more delicate intercourse with Mexico Slidell's dispatches are omitted. While robbing Mexico of Texas, Buchanan sought to educate the Californians, still foreigners, tc annexation. "It would be dif- ficult," he wrote to Slidell, "to raise a point of honor between the United States and so feeble and degraded a Power as Mexico," and he thought the behavior of the Texans "one of the grandest moral spectacles which has ever been presented to man- kind." Unfortunately, Buchanan was with- out a sense of the humorous, and when he does undertake to be light, the result is heaviness. Mr. Moore includes the foreign affairs paragraphs in Polk's messages, and prints not a little that is trivial and of neither personal nor political consequence. The accuracy of the text is noticeable. A leading fact in the history of South Africa in recent years is the progress of the natives. There have been remarkable economic and social changes among them, as well as the awakening of a wide-spread desire for education, independent churches, and a larger share in the government. This awakening, together with the labor ques- tion, has brought about a new order of things; and perplexing race problems are to be solved. To give information in re- gard to the present conditions and to aid in the adoption by the different colonies of a uniform and progressive policy toward the natiyes, the South African Native Races Committee has published a volume entitled "The South African Natives: Their Progress and Present Condition" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). It is largely a collection of facts derived from the reports of com- missions appointed by some of the colonial governments. The subjects treated are oc- cupations, land tenure, taxation, adminis- tration, legal status, education, and church- es. The chapter on administration was written by Sir Godfrey Lagden, chairman of the Inter-Colonial Commission on Na- tive Affairs of 1903-5. The largest space is given to education, and the general im- pression left is very encouraging, especial- ly from the introduction of manual and agricultural instruction in the schools, the establishment of institutions for the train- ing of teachers, and a college for the high- er education. The Ethiopian movement is described in the chapter on churches, its principal aim being to secure for Africans an independent, self-supporting church. The treatment of the different subjects is re- markably fair and temperate, the difficulty of finding ready solutions for the various problems presented being always acknowl- edged, and helpful suggestions, rather than criticisms, being offered. The work has a value for all who have to deal with a sim- ilar condition of one race ruling another of a lower grade of civilization, but vastly superior in numbers. None can read it without feeling with the committee that prepared it that in South Africa "the out- look is hopeful." Two slender volumes ,give us F. B. San- born's reminiscences of "Bronson Alcott at Alcott House, England, and Fruitlands, New England (1842-1844)," and of "Hawthorne and His Friends." They are put together in a rambling fashion, but reproduce the atmosphere of those transcendental days, as no one else now living can do. The Torch Press of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has printed the books in excellent form. Morris Hillquit's "Socialism in Theory and Practice," just published by the Mac- millan Co., is a fair example of the new tone now getting into the better socialistic books. The note of defiance is less heard, that of persuasion, at times almost of com- promise, is more pronounced. When, for instance, Mr. Hillquit enumerates the tran- sitional measures to be adopted between the present regime and the perfect state, he is on ground of rational debate. The initiative, the referendum, public ownership, etc., are to be accepted or rejected for no a priori reasons, but as each is, or is not, expedient. As a reaction against the ex- treme individualism of the middle nineteenth century, this tendency is wholesome; but like all reactions, apart from any considera- tion of final constitutional changes, their advocacy seems to most judicious minds to run to irrational excess. When Mr. Hill- quit, however, passes from questions of transitional expediency to his socialist ideal, there enters, as always, an entirely different set of questions. Society has passed suc- cessively through slave-holding and feudal- ism, to industrialism, and is now struggling through this stage to socialism. That some change will occur in the near fu- ture is quite possible; but according to the law of analogy, to which the socialist appeals, it would be to a new order of leadership taking the place of the present "captains of industry," not to a uniform equality. And by the same argument, the change in moral standards would be to a new form of more or less suppressed egotism, and not to a state in which there is no motive for selfishness. In one section Mr. Hilquit reflects partic- ularly the common weakness of his school. When he comes to the question of payment for labor, he simply says that "socialists do not offer a cut and dried plan of wealth distribution." Yet it is just here that the real psychological crux oc- curs : what conceivable plan of distribu- tion will maintain a degree of content suffi- cient for the working of any communistic scheme? In May, 1888, a little party, including John Addington Symonds and his daughter Margaret, visited Vescovana, where the Countess Pisani lived and managed what was left of the estate of the ancient Vene- tian family. She was the daughter of Dr. Julius van Millingen, the physician who attended Byron at Missolonghi, and she had married Count Almoro Pisani in 1852. The visit gave rise to an intimate friendship, and this to a charming book by Miss Sy- monds, published in 1893 under the title of "Days Spent on a Doge's Farm," A new edition of this work now comes from the Century Co., revised by the author and embellished with a number of new illus- trations. It is an interesting account of Italian country life and gives a picture of an unusual woman. "The Magic Casement" (E. P. Dutton & Co.) is a taking name for an anthology of fairy poetry, and Alfred Noyes has brought together a good volume of verse from Shakespeare to several substantial writers still alive. There is a common prejudice against the insertion of the editor's own work in such books; it savors somewhat of pushing one's self uninvited into illus- trious company, but it is hard to find fault with a procedure which gives us so elfin a poem as Mr. Noyes's "Sherwood," with its dancing close: Robin! Robin! Robin! All his merry thieves Answer as the bugle-note shivers through the leaves; Galling as he used to call, faint and far away, In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day. "Deutschland unter den Kulturvolkern," by Dr. P. Rohrbach (Berlin: Buchverlag Hilfe), of which the second edition has fol- lowed rapidly on the heels of the first, is a patriotic and yet critical discussion of the political relations of Germany to its neighbors. While pointing out the promi- nent place and even leadership of Germany in international politics, the author freely and frankly dwells on the weaknesses of its foreign policy. It is generally held by Jewish and Chris- tian scholars that the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus, as described in the Gospels, was not in accordance with the Jewish law of the time, and the facts in the case are well set forth by Walter M. Chandler in "The

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March 18, 1909J Tlie Nation. 279 Trial of Jesus from a Lawyer's Stand- point" (New York: The Empire Publishing Company). He has consulted good authori- ties, and his statements of Jewish law may be taken to be correct. As irregular- ities in the trial he mentions among other things: the private examination before An- nas (or Caiaphas), and the facts that the trial was at night and on the eve of a Sabbath, that it was concluded within one day, that, according to one account, Jesus was convicted on his own uncorroborated testimony, and that there was not a unani- mous verdict by the whole Sanhedrin. It thus appears that Jesus was condemned by a Jewish clique, and that neither the Jewish people nor the Sanhedrin as a whole is to be held responsible for his death. To his legal discussion Mr. Chandler has pre- fixed a defence of the authenticity and credibility of the Gospel narratives, but the work would be improved by the omission of this part; the author is not at home in New Testament criticism, and might prop- erly have contented himself with the as- sumption that the Gospel narratives of the trial, though not free from difficulties, may be taken as giving in general a trustwor- thy statement of the facts. The first vol- ume of the work is devoted to the Jewish trial; in the second volume the Roman trial is discussed, the author's conclusion being that Pilate's procedure was legally correct in the first appearance of Jesus before him, but not in the second appear- ance. There are added two chapters on Gr*eco-Roman religion and social life, bringing out mainly the darker side of the religious life, and an appendix gives an English translation of the apocryphal "Acts of Pilate." An edition of all the Gothic literature extant, together with the lexicographical and other aids necessary for the thorough study of this language and its literature has been begun by the publication of the first volume of Wilhelm Streitberg's "Die gotische Bibel." This issue is entitled, "Der gotische Text und seine griechische Vorlage mit Einleitung, Lesarten und Quellen," a volume of more than 500 closely but clearly printed pages (Heidelberg: Winter). It constitutes the latest addition to the series Germanische Bibliothek, edited by W. Streitberg. The editor has endeavored to cover the whole ground in a new and in- dependent study. In view of the approaching four hun- dredth anniversary of the birthday of Cal- vin, the new volume of Dr. Adolf Zahn of Stuttgart, entitled "Studien uber Johannes Calvin," is timely. The special purpose of this well-known conservative theologian is indicated by the subtitle, "Die Urteile katholischer und protestantischer Histori- ker im 19. Jahrhundert uber den Reforma- tor" (Giitersloh: C. Bertelsmann). These views the author, himself a member of the Reformed Church and a close student of Calvin's life and works, as evidenced by a number of publications, criticises and weighs in a fairly objective way. In "Kirche und Gegenwart" Prof. Erich Schaeder of the University of Kiel (Giiters- loh: Bertelsmann), publishes two lengthy lectures in which, from a moderately con- servative point of view, he tries to show how the church can meet the wants of the times. The special topics are "Kirche, heiliger Geist und Geister von heute," and "Die Kirche die zentrale Geistesmacht auch im Kulturleben der Gegenwart." As to the timeliness of this discussion there can be no question, but Professor Schaeder is not willing to yield to modern thought what apparently must be conceded before the church can resume its old prominence. Prof. Johannes Weiss of the University of Heidelberg, in "Die Aufgaben der neu- testamentlichen Wissenschaft in der Gegen- wart" (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ru- precht), gives an exceptionally compre- hensive and clear birdseye view of the status and problems of modern New Tes- tament research. He recognizes progress especially in textual criticism. He is among the critics who take a more con- servative view of the authorship of the fourth gospel; for he maintains that it must be regarded as the work of an eye- witness and suggests that the writer was John the Presbyter of Ephesus. Although there are several good com- mentaries for the study of Kant's "Prole- gomena," yet the new "Kommentar zu Kants 'Prolegomena'; I, Die Grundpro- bleme der Erkenntnistheorie," by Dr. M. Apel (Berlin-Schbneberg: Hilfe) is any- thing but a work of supererogation. This volume of 224 pages is exceptionally clear in explanation of Kant, and is well adapted to make the reader an independent student of his system. The work is also one of the signs of the revived interest in the study of Kant. There certainly can be no lack of detailed data in the recent work of Otto Nirrnheim, who devotes 624 pages to the material alone on the first year of the Bismarckian era, "Das erste Jahr des Ministeriums Bis- marck und die bffentliche Meinung" (Hei- delberg: Winter). The matter, taken chiefly from the public press, is intended to give the student the data for independent re- search. The author draws no conclusions. Unsympathetic as has been the attitude of Dr. Adolf Bartels towards the German moderns, that group which was supposed to have founded the new Heimatskunst met with his approval from the very beginning. It is therefore not surprising that the name of Dr. Bartels should appear on the cover of a little book of 140 pages, entitled "Wil- helm von Polenz," and containing an appre- ciation of the personality and the work of that writer, who was one of the sanest and most mature representatives of his genera- tion in the literature of contemporary Germany (Dresden: E. A. Koch). The interest in Hebbel, evident even from the latest issue of Poet Lore, which con- tains a translation of his "Agnes Bernauer," is still growing and producing studies of his character and his work. Among the most recent are "Der Fall Hebbel : Ein Kiinstlerproblem," by Friedrich Paul (Leip- zig: Xenien-Verlag); "Friedrich Hebbels philosophische Jugendlyrik," by Dr. Paul Zincke, the first book of the Prager deutsche Studien edited by Carl von Kraus and August Sauer (Prague: Carl Bellmann); "Friedrich Hebbel," by Dr. Anna Schapire- Neurath, contained in the series Aus Natur und Geisteswelt (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner) ; and "Hebbelprobleme: Studien," by Dr. Os- kar F. Walzel in the new series of his Un- tersuchungen zur neueren Sprach- und Lit- eraturgeschichte (Leipzig: H. Haessell). A handsome book on Paris is the volume of notes by Karl Scheffler (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Scheffler is the editor of the art magazine Kunst und Kunstler and the author of a number of works on modern art. What he saw in Paris, he saw with an artist's vision, and the record and reflection of these impressions is of distinction. The author must also be given credit for an impartial attitude which is most agreeable. "Le Messianisme chez les Juifs," by M. J. Lagrange (Paris: Victor Lecoffre), cov- ering the period from 150 b. c. to 200 a. d., treats the origin of the teachings of Christ, particularly on eschatological subjects. The author, who has the sources well in hand, opposes the views of Loisy and his school, who insist that the contents of Christ's doc- trines were taken mainly from the Apoca- lyptic literature of the inter-Testament pe- riod. While not denying the influence of this world of thought, Lagrange sees rather in the Old Testament itself the fountain head of what Christ preached. The Studi di Filologia Moderna, a periodi- cal devoted to the study of the modern lit- eratures, has recently been founded by a committee of distinguished Italian scholars, and has been entrusted to the editorship of Prof. Guido Manacorda of the University of Catania. The first two numbers, which have already appeared, indicate a higher level of scholarship than can be claimed for any periodical of the same kind in this country. They contain two Schiller studies by Arturo Farinelli, and numerous other contributions of similar merit, besides more than usually competent reviews, and briefer notices of virtually all works of literary scholarship recently published in Europe and America. Our own Modern Language Association might do well to model its Pub- lications on lines similar to those success- fully followed by this Italian venture. Prof. Ettore Pais, who is now connected with the University of Rome, has begun the publication of Studi Storiei ner I'Antichitd Glassica, a quarterly review devoted to ar- ticles on classical history, archaeology, and culture. Unlike the earlier journal writ- ten by Professor Pais and his pupils, this one has a long list of contributors, among whom are German, French, English, and American classicists. Articles will be printed in other of the important modern languages, as well as Italian. The first number has six monographs and nearly forty pages of critical reviews and notes. Each volume of the Studi will contain at least 550 pages of text. Subscriptions (16 lire per annum) should be sent to the pub- lisher, Enrico Spoerri, Lung' Arno Regio, Pisa; manuscripts and books for review to Prof. Ettore Pais, 76 Via dei Sediari, Rome. The estimates of appropriations for the United States Bureau of Education for the fiscal year ending June 30,1910, as transmit- ted to Congress, included under the general head of salaries estimates for additional employees as follows : Expert in higher education, $4,000; expert in industrial edu- cation, $3,000; expert in the welfare of children, $3,000; editor, $2,000; additional clerks, $12,100. Of the new employees re- quested, Congress made provision for an editor at $2,000; one clerk at $1,200, and one clerk at $1,000. The salary of the com- missioner of education was increased from $4,500 to $5,000, making a total increase in the appropriations for the general work of the bureau of $4,700 over the appropria-

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280 The DSTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 tions for the current fiscal year. The re- quests for a lump sum appropriation of $40,000 for educational investigations ; for an increase of $1,500 in the appropriation for the library; for an increase of $8,000 in the fund for collecting statistics, and of an appropriation of $39,000 for rent, metal shelving, additional furniture, and removal of the bureau to new quarters, did not receive the favorable consideration of Congress. The trustees of the Rhodes Scholarships have decided that henceforth any candidate from the United States shall be eligible who has passed the qualifying examinations in Latin and mathematics, without Greek. Such a candidate, however, must satisfy the Re- sponsions Examiners in Greek before he can offer himself for any examination which presupposes Responsions. Mrs. Francis Ransom Lane (born Elinor Macartney), the novelist, died at Lynch- burg, Va., March 15. She was author of "The Mills of God" (1901), "Nancy Stair" (1904), and "All for the Love of a Lady" (1906). George Thorndike Angell, founder and president of the American Humane Edu- cation Society, died in Boston March 16, at the age of eighty-five. He was editor of Our Dumb Animals, which he founded in 1868. The Rt. Hon. Hugh OaKeley Arnold- Forster, Secretary of State for War, 1903- 1906, died last week. He was born in 1855, son of William Delafield Arnold, and was adopted by the late Rt. Hon. W. E. Forster. At Oxford he secured high rank, and he became a Member of Parliament in 1892. His books are: "How to Solve the Irish Land Question," "The Citizen Reader," "The Laws of Everyday Life," "This World of Ours," "In a Conning Tow- er," "Things New and Old" (7 vols.), "Our Home Army," "A History of England" (1897), "Army Letters" (1898), "The Com- ing of the Kilogram" (1899). "Our Great City" (1901), "The Army in 1906: a Pol- icy and a Vindication" (1906), and "Eng- lish Socialism of To-day" (1908). Frederic-Salomon Rauh. of the Faculte des Lettres in the University of Paris, has died at the age of forty-seven. His pub- lished works include: "Essai sur le fonde- ment metaphysique de la morale," "De .,1a Methode dans la psychologic des senti- ments." "Psychologie appliquee a l'educa- tion" (in collaboration with M. d'Allonnes), and "L'Experience morale." Eginhard von Barfus, one time officer in the Prussian army and author of a number of books of travel and fiction, has died at the age of eighty-three. Among his works are "Durch alle Meere," "Bis in die Wild- nis," "Deutsche Marine am Kongo," "Treue Kameraden," "Im Lande der Buren," and "Auf Samoa." Vice-Admiral Reinhold von Werner has died at Charlottenburg in his eighty-fourth year. Besides his active duties, he wrote several works on naval topics, including "Die preussische Marine," "Erinnerungen und Bilder aus dem Seeleben," "Beriihmte Seeleute," and "Bilder aus der deutschen Seekriegsgeschichte." PROGRESS OF CLASSICAL STUDIES. A History of Classical Scholarship. Vol. II: from the Revival of Learning to the End of the Eighteenth Century (in Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands). Vol. Ill: The Eigh- teenth Century in Germany, and the Nineteenth Century in Europe and the United States of America. By John Edwin Sandys. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3.50 each. With the volumes before us.Dr.iSlapdys has acceptably completed an important undertaking, desired by many since the days of Francis Bacon, "a just history of learning." A history of classical scholarship only partly fulfils Bacon's plan, but it is nevertheless a useful part of the larger undertaking. Dr. Sandys has had no precursor in this at- tempt. Valuable studies of special pe- riods exist, as well as biographical dic- tionaries of scholars. Prof. A. Gudeman some years ago published a useful out- line which has recently appeared revis- ed and augmented in a German transla- tion; but this work suffers from two no- ticeable defects, the neglect of scholarly achievement in the nineteenth century outside of Germany, and the absurdly meagre treatment of the Occidental Mid- dle Ages. On the significance of this period even the brief statement of Dr. Sandys in his final recapitulation (Vol. Ill, p. 471 f.) is more satisfactory than the page or two in Gudeman; the whole story appears in Vol. I, which, issuing in 1903, was given a second edition in 1906. The three volumes together sum up successfully the history of classical scholarship from the sixth century b. c, well-nigh to the present day. Beginning in Vol. II with the Italian renaissance, which period is treated with greater detail in the author's Lane Lectures at Harvard University (1905), the course of scholarship is followed through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Italy, France, the Nether- lands, England, and Germany. In the eighteenth century, however, this order is rightly abandoned, and England, ow- ing to the influence of Richard Bentley on the Dutch scholars, precedes the Netherlands; indeed, England might ap- propriately head the entire list, as Ger- many does in the treatment of the nine- teenth century. The lesser countries are skilfully fitted in, and the work closes with a courteous and even too complimentary review of American scholarship. The great periods are broadly characterized, with due consid- eration of exceptional ptienomena. In the Italian period (fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries) the chief aim of schol- arship is described as the imitation of classical models of style and of life; the French period (sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries) is that of many-sided erudition, accumulation; the English and Dutch period (eighteenth century) is that of criticism; the nineteenth cen- tury, which belongs to the Germans, in- troduces the systematic or encyclopaedic type of classical learning; it is an age of classification. Our main criticism of this work is that history is at times submerged in biography. We sympathize with the enormous difficulties of the task; with so brief a compass and so long an array of names, the external aspect of the work almost perforce suggests a bio- graphical dictionary arranged on the chronological instead of the alphabetical plan. This effect is in part overcome by the divisions into periods already noted, and might be still further diminished by emphasis of the larger movements of which individual achievements are typi- cal. Such movements are not neglected, but they are not set forth prominently in introductory sections; slight rear- rangements of the material offered could be easily and profitably made. Thus the various Italian academies deserve fur- ther description and differentiation; there is no comprehensive treatment of the aims of the Pleiade (which name is lacking in the index) ; the Querelle des anciens et des modernes is tucked into the account of Bentley; and Cambridge Platonism is likewise incidentally in- troduced. Most conspicuous of all is the failure to emphasize the importance of Jesuits and Benedictines in the his- tory of French scholarship, and, partic- ularly, the significance of the contest between them in the age of Mabillon; there is even no mention of Papebroch. Coming, though, to Germany in the nineteenth century, we find, at the first, a better arrangement, with due regard to the principle just explained. Gott- fried Hermann and August Boeckh are confronted in a special chapter, and, as in Bursian and Gudeman, the schools formed by their influences are then de- scribed. Comparative philology, too, de- serves its separate chapter, but a fur- ther experiment at classification im- presses us as unfortunate, namely, the segregation of editors of Greek and edi- tors of Latin classics. This leads not only to curious inclusions — no one would think of Usener as primarily an editor — but to the partition of one name under two categories, as in the case of Mommsen. There is also an at- tempt to group the important nine- teenth-century editions under the names of the ancient authors. Such lists are more appropriately and more adequate- ly treated in other manuals; they neces- sitate here the frequent mention of liv- ing scholars. As to this last point, the writer's practice varies. If Comparetti is introduced because "no account of scholarship in Italy would be complete without him," is that of England com- plete without the mention of Robinson Ellis? Much more satisfactory is the classification suggested in the summary at the end of the work, namely, the

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March 18, 1909] The ]STation. 281 school of Hermann, the school of Boeckh — with not too many names under eith- er— and "independent scholars with a certain affinity" with this latter school. In short, in the third volume, Dr. Sandys deserts somewhat the biographi- cal method which he has followed thus far, and which is the only safe basis for a history of the subject. If he should care to present in a subsequent volume complete accounts of such matters as editions of the classics, the history of the different disciplines, of libraries, of universities and learned institutions, we should be grateful; there are sugges- tions on various topics of this sort in the present work, but nothing like con- sistency in the treatment. But these considerations are of sec- ondary importance. The strength of Dr. Sandys's work is the biographical part. He has succeeded in introducing the reader not merely to a collection of names, dates, and publications, but to a glorious company of scholars. In com- pact and felicitous phrasing, with a touch of wit here and there, he makes his subjects persons whom one is inter- ested to know. He has an instinct for the picturesque and the anecdotal, and contributes several new anecdotes. Here is a story — not one of the new ones — after which the reader is not likely to forget Mabillon and his relations with the eminences of his day: After its publication [that of the "De Re Diplomatiea"], the King desired to see the author, who was accordingly presented by Le Tellier, the Archbishop of Reims, and by his rival, Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux. In introducing Mabillon, Le Tellier said: "Sire, I have the honor ,of presenting to your Majesty the most learned man in your realm." Bossuet, regarding this as a re- flection on his own learning, quietly sup- pressed the proud archbishop by adding, "and the most humble." Such touches as these make the book more than a history of scholarship. The term is interpreted broadly in other matters, too; Dr. Sandys finds room for occasional discussions of literary imi- tation, as the relation between the "Pro- lusiones Academicae" of the Roman Jesuit Strada and Ambrose Philips and Cra- shaw, or the ancient origin of a meta- phor used by Grotius, supposed by one critic to be the only touch of modernity in the latter's verse. This tendency to view the subject largely is not carried too far. Solid information, including a sufficient amount of bibliography, is al- ways presented; various summaries are of help, such as the list of editiones principes and that of important collec- tions of Neo-Latin poetry. With regard to the space assigned to different schol- ars, opinions will differ; for ourselves we regret that Gantrelle is given as much as Usener, Lucian Mueller and Roersch twice as much, while Rohde and Traube are reduced to fine print. Though it seems ungrateful to say it, fine print would be appropriate for many of the American scholars. One most important feature of the book is the inclusion of a large number of portraits, some reproduced from new or inaccessible sources. Facsimiles of autographs occasionally appear, and works of art are der-cribed, such as the tomb of Leonardo Aretino In Santa Croce, or Ghirlandaio's fresco containing portraits of four Humanists of the Flor- entine Academy. Dr. Sandys has been reminded, in pursuing his subject, of the Roman practice of adorning the atrium with the painted masks of ancestors; he has certainly given the reader the same sense of personal communication with illustrious men of the past. In no spirit of captious criticism, but rather as a token of gratitude, we sub- join a few random suggestions on mat- ters of detail, some of which may be of use for a second edition. Vol. II, p. 6, the remark that Ovid was too friv- olous for Petrarch's taste should be qualified, despite Petrarch's own state- ment, by the obvious fact of his imita- tion of Ovid's work; thus one of the models of the "Trionfo d'Amore" is "Amores," i, 2. Ibid.; Petrarch was not only "familiar with the comedies of Terence," but wrote a commentary on them, with an introductory Vita. P. 12: the traditional statement that, "while Petrarch is interested in the spirit of the ancient classics, Boccaccio is ab- sorbed in trivial items of subject-mat- ter," should be applied only to Boc- caccio's later career; the "Ameto," the "Decamerone" show that he could form various suggestions from Latin poetry into literary creations. P. 14: Boccaccio, despite Symonds, did not cease to be a poet after 1361, but wrote both Latin eclogues and Italian sonnets. P. 120: Add to the list of editions of Neo-Latin verse the convenient collection, perhaps by G. Bottari, "Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum," 11 vols., 1719-26, which contains the otherwise well-nigh inaccessible eclogues of Boccaccio. P. 245: Instead of the ferocious portrait of Buchanan from Boissard, we hope that Dr. Sandys may now avail himself of some one of the admirable reproduc- tions in the "Glasgow Quatercentenary Studies" devoted to Buchanan, 1907. Vol. Ill, p. 1: The autograph letter of Leibnitz to Huet on the proposed edi- tion of Martianus Capella is in the pos- session of Harvard College Library (see Nation, February 25, 1909, p. 194). P. 140: Geppert's interest in Plautus is mentioned, but not his still valuable ar- ticle on the text of Terence. CURRENT FICTION. David Bran. By Morley Roberts. Bos- ton: L. C. Page & Co. The giant figure on the cover of this book, clad in fisherman's garb, with tam o'shanter and jersey, standing with folded arms on a rocky cliff under a purple sky, and gazing out dreamily over the sea, is that Natural Man of whose actual existence even Rousseau was skeptical. His soul is at one with storms and darkness and stars and deep waters. By day he draws out tur- bot with a hook. By night he meets according to nature with Lou Trevar- ris, a dark Welsh girl with a deep soul and a terror of child-birth. Anon there is brought into the village of Trescas a white and gold and rosy girl of the North, also with a deep soul, but of an- other sort. And there rises in the deep soul of the hero a mighty love for the fair Kate and a mighty instinct for paternity. He marries her, and she is "fruitful," and brings forth a son, and he is exceeding glad. Yet he does not fall away from the dark girl — not a jot; he feels a mighty love for them both. Neither is Kate estranged, nor Lou: She had given Kate to David. Thus might one wife of some patriarch of the desert bring in another one to give chil- dren when she could not. For there are women who know, and do not uselessly re- pine at the knowledge, that men can love more than one. Gossips of Trescas and the hero's moth- er, a mad old woman who reads the Bible, attempt to make the devil's own time for Lou and David. The strength of David sustains them all: The sense of sin was not in him, for he was strong, drawing his nutriment straight from the earth. Sin is known only to the weak and those who are afraid, and it abides like a curse upon the poor of spirit. These things he knows who lives. And David lived greatly. In the end Nature overrules opposers. Lou and Kate and David at last are al- lowed to live together like sweet chil- dren of the earth, and a "strange and almost wonderful peace" falls upon Trescas. We fear the foregoing exposition may be a trifle confusing to the boys and girls who read English novels in pret- ty red covers. Let us therefore divest the account of its Old Testament phraseology, its Roussellian rapture, and its Nietzschean commentary, and tell the story in quite simple English. In the degenerate fishing village of Trescas lived a sensual and ignorant bully named Bran. After consorting a long time with a low woman of the town, he married a pretty girl of dis- tinctly domestic type, though deficient in intelligence and destitute of moral sense. His old habits, however, reas- serted themselves, and at almost the time of his child's birth he returned, with ineffable brutality, to his mistress. His mother, in a last mad flash of de- cency, tried to murder the evil woman. The attempt failed, and in the end the whole village, Including the mother, sub- sided into its accustomed apathy and moral rottenness. This is a fair sum-

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282 The IsTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 mary of the facts. But Mr. Roberts was shrewd enough to know that he could not make out a case for deprav- ity on mere facts. He saw that if his book was to circulate from public li- braries and penetrate freely to the fire- sides of the dear novel-reading public, it would not do to present this story of nasty acquiescence in adultery in its raw ani- mality and inherent repulsiveness. Ac- cordingly, he suffused the whole scene with an exultant, hypeethral spirit, prated volubly of the large sanity of nature, metamorphosed his bestial fish- erman into a superman and his woman of the town into an earth-spirit, sought out Biblical language to clothe vile thoughts, spoke steadily of disease as health, and represented what was shal- low and muddy as deep and mysterious. The book is one of many of the same stamp, false to civilization, false to life. An Idyll of All Fools' Day. By Jo- sephine Daskam Bacon. New York: Dodd. Mead & Co. The author herself in the dedication characterizes the book as a bit of busy nonsense, and it would be hard to bet- ter this description. The action is con- tinuous and amuses by its very impos- sibility: into its ethical trend — what there is of it — it is perhaps more dis- creet not to inquire. Of course, from the time Mrs. Bacon's youthful Bene- dick and Beatrice exchange hostilities at first glance, one foresees that on the last page the moon will be throwing a needless glory over youth and love and laughter, but the events of the day that works the change are none the less piquantly unexpected for leading to a foregone conclusion. The dainty and spirited pen-and-ink sketches with which R. M. Crosby enlivens so many of the pages, add greatly to the attrac- tiveness of the volume. The Three Brothers. By Eden Phill- potts. New York: The Macmillan Co. ■\ Prom great Trowlesworthy's crown of rosy granite, the world extended to the moor-edge, and thence, by mighty, dim, air- drenched passages of earth and sky, to the horizons of the sea. With this familiar touch of verbal mag- ic, Mr. Phillpotts re-ushers one into his moor-country. He really has the facul- ty of word-painting, if there be such a thing, and his descriptions are never in- vented for their own sake. His moors and tors, however lavishly he may pic- ture them, are always a background or a setting for the human scene: he nev- er presents a landscape without a figure or two to give it point. The story of the three brothers Baskerville is less sombre than most of its predecessors. There is a less sharp contrast between rustic comedy and tragedy, and the spir- it of comedy prevails. The three broth- ers are all well past middle life when the story begins; their differences of temperament have long ago resulted in totally different ways of life. One is a thrifty farmer, huge of frame, an ex- wrestler, proud of his strength, looked up to for his thrift, dull, prejudiced, a remorseless egoist. The second is an innkeeper, brisk, generous, sanguine, much loved and trusted for his good heart and ready hand. The third breeds ponies upon a lonely hillside to which he welcomes no man. He thinks him- self a misanthrope, and tries to make himself independent of the chances of human happiness and unhappiness by attaching himself to his kind as little as possible. And, of course, he is hated and distrusted by all men. It is of this man, Humphrey Baskerville, that the story is chiefly told. Each of the broth- ers in the end appears in his true char- acter. The wrestler-farmer dies a hard and dull and unrepentant self-worship- per; the popular innkeeper ruins him- self and many others by speculations into which he is led by his weak and cheerful nature. It is the savage recluse who by stealth rights the wrongs laid to the door of both his brothers, and is at last discovered for what he is — a great-hearted man, whose oddity and surface harshness have been really due to a quivering sensitiveness. In the treatment of a theme like this, Mr. Phillpotts's sincere method is at its best. How the affair would reek of sentiment in the hands of most of our magazine story-tellers ! The Perfume of the Lady in Black. By Gaston Leroux. New York: Bren- tano's. The present volume is a sequel to that exceptionally clever detective story, "The Mystery of the Yellow Room." We presume that it is no disadvantage in a sequel, from the practical point of view, that it shall send the reader back to the pages of its predecessor. That is what M. Leroux does in the present in- stance, though indirectly. Yet it would have been better to insert a frank rec- ommendation right at the beginning that the earlier work be read as a preparation for the treat to come; for without a previous acquaintance with the two men whose deeds fill the pages of both stories, the reader will find it somewhat difficult to enter into the spir- it of the latter events. "The Perfume of the Lady in Black" can be described as inferior to the "Mystery of the Yel- low Room" and yet remain a tale of mystery and "ratiocination" very far above the average. Its inferiority con- sists in this, that the same device which was employed with simple and direct ingenuity in the earlier book, appears here in a somewhat mechanical and cumbersome setting. Still, the highest judgment a book of this kind can aspire to is that it cannot be laid down till it is finished. That verdict can be justly pronounced in the present case. The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught. By Charles C. Nott. Pp. 321. New York: The Century Co. $2 net. Five days after the meeting of the convention which framed the Constitu- tion of the United States, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, one of the youngest delegates, only thirty years of age, presented what James Madison, the unofficial reporter of the convention, described as "the draft of a federal gov- ernment which he had prepared," and it was referred to the Committee of the Whole. "This draught," says our author, "was not a subject of notice or comment by any speaker or writer of the time." The journals of the conven- tion were sealed up on adjournment and not reopened till they were printed by order of Congress under the super- vision of John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. Several important papers presented to the convention were miss- ing, among them Pinckney's draft; and Adams wrote to him for a copy. He sent a paper which so much resembles the finished Constitution, that, read- ing it without further knowledge, one would "be tempted to speak of the Con- stitution of the United States as the Constitution of Pinckney." After Pinckney's death, however, James Madison, who was regarded as the authority on the proceedings of the convention, discredited Pinckney's alleged draft, pointed out inconsis- tencies between its provisions and Pinckney's known and spoken views in the convention, and declared that Pinckney, at the time he sent it to the Secretary of State, had construct- ed it from memoranda of measures adopted in the course of debate in the convention. Madison suggested that this method had been followed because of Pinckney's defective memory of events which had taken place thirty years before, and endeavored to convey the impression that Pinckney had prob- ably deceived himself into believing the draft he sent to Adams to be the same in effect as his original plan. In his letter transmitting the draft, Pinckney said that some of his opin- ions had undergone a change after the convention met, and this explanation, Judge Nott says, does away with part of Madison's argument. Judge Nott also thinks it a suspicious circumstance that Madison should have allowed the draft printed in 1818 to go unquestioned till 1830, when every member of the con- vention was dead. Judge Nott freely admits that the draft sent to Adams was not the actual draft submitted to the convention, but that it was writ- ten just before it was forwarded in

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March 18, 1909] The Nation 283 1818. Pinckney said in his letter of transmission: I have already Informed you I have sev- eral rough draughts of the constitution I proposed & that they are all substantially the same differing only in words & the arrangement of the articles — at the distance of nearly thirty-two years it is impossible for me now to say which of the 4 or 5 draughts I have was the one but enclosed I send you the one I believe was it — I re- peat however that they are substantially the same differing only in form & unessen- tials. This Judge Nott construes as meaning that Pinckney was simply complying with Adams's request and sending a copy: Either Pinckney gave to the convention a draught substantially like that In the State Department or he fraudulently fabri- cated that draught after the Secretary of State had called upon him for a copy. Madison's argument against the draft is, in Judge Nott's opinion, due to the fact that he was really ignorant of its nature. He never saw it in the conven- tion or afterwards till it appeared in 1818, and cannot qualify as a witness in the case. Judge Nott discusses briefly the drafts of James Wilson in the Committee of Detail, printed by Prof. Andrew C. Mc- Laughlin in the Nation on April 28, 1904, those brought out by J. Frank- lin Jameson in the Report of the Amer- ican Historical Association for 1902, and the Randolph draft given in Meigs's "Growth of the Constitution"; and argues that the basis of all the drafts was Pinckney's, and that the copy of the report of the Committee of Detail given to the printer was Pinckney's draft itself, with interlineations — a fact which, of course, satisfactorily accounts for its disappearance. In the space of a review it is impossible, however, to follow in detail the reasoning by which this conclusion is reached. A book written by a man of Chief Justice Nott's attainments is entitled to respect. He is a learned lawyer, a scholar of parts, and from 1865 until his retirement a few years ago he serv- ed with distinction as judge of the United States Court of Claims. Never- theless, regard for the truth of history compels the statement that his book is not convincing in itself, and is marred by remarkable omissions. It seems al- most incredible that he should have utterly ignored an entry in John Quin- cy Adams's Diary on May 4, 1830, wherein is described the visit paid to Adams by Jared Sparks when the latter was investigating the records of the convention. Sparks, just returned from a week at Montpelier, told Adams that Madison had said that the plan present- ed to the convention was "nothing like the paper now in the book" (the printed journal), and Adams adds: / told Mr. Sparks that Rufus King had spoken to me of C. Pinckney's paper pre- cisely in the same manner as he says Mr. Madison now does; that it was a paper to which no sort o] attention was paid by the convention, except that of referring it to the committee, but when I compiled the Journal of the Convention Charles Pinck- ney himself sent me the plan now in the book as the paper which he had presented to the Convention, and with it he wrote me a letter which obviously held the pre- tension that the whole plan of Constitution was his and that the Convention had done nothing more than to deteriorate his work by altering some of his favorite provisions. Judge Nott has trained his guns on Madison; but here is Rufus King, an enemy as powerful as Madison, unno- ticed in his rear. Moreover, Judge Nott has not fired a single shot at Adams, who evidently believed that Pinckney had foisted a spurious draft upon him. Judge Nott says Madison "had a poor opinion of Pinckney, a very poor opin- ion," and he quotes Madison's letters to Washington and Jefferson soon after the convention closed in which he speaks slightingly of Pinckney; but Judge Nott fails to quote Washington's letter in reply: Mr. C. Pinckney is unwilling ... to lose any fame that can be acquired by the publication of his sentiments. (Washington to Madison, Oct. 22, 1787, Ford's "Writings of Washington," XI, 175.) Evidently, the president of the conven- tion was no more impressed by Pinck- ney than its reporter was. Immediately after the convention ad- journed, Pinckney printed what purport- ed to be a speech delivered by him at the beginning of the session, and Judge Nott relies upon it as helping to sustain the authenticity of the draft; but he ad- mits that the speech was never deliv- ered. The title of the pamphlet contain- ing it was: Observations on the Plan of Government Submitted to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia, on the 28th of May, 1787. By the Hon. Charles Pinckney, Esq., LL.D., Delegate from the State of South Carolina. Delivered at different times in the course of their Discussions. But this is a continuous speech word- ed throughout as if spoken soon after the convention met. It will be hard to convince an unbiassed mind that a man who would print a spurious speech in 1787 would not be capable of construct- ing a spurious draft in 1818. Judge Nott speaks of Mr. Jameson's studies of the Pinckney draft; but though they are the most important that have ever appeared on the subject, he does not pursue Mr. Jameson's discover- ies and conclusions at all. With re- lentless minuteness Jameson discusses everything in print and manuscript bearing upon the draft, and the ques- tion of what it really contained. In twenty-two pages he presents the whole subject with a completeness which Judge Nott fails to attain in his 300. Mr. Jameson traces through the me- dium of Pinckney's speeches his whole connection with the finished Constitu- tion, and thereby partly constructs a Pinckney plan; he takes the Wilson draft used in the Committee of Detail and finds interlineations which he ar- gues must have come from the New Jer- sey and Pinckney plans; and his con- clusion is: As a maker of the Constitution Charles Pinckney evidently deserves to stand high- er than he has stood of late years, and he would have stood a better chance of doing so if in his old age he had not claimed so much. Whether Jameson has not claimed too much for Pinckney may be questioned; but Judge Nott's failure to discuss his paper is the most deplorable of the omissions. The mystery of the disappearance of the original draft is not solvable, because there are so many probable hypotheses, the easiest and simplest of which is that it was burned up by Major Jack- son, the secretary of the convention, along with the other papers which he regarded as useless, and was not pre- served with the journals because it was not a part of them — a fact which Judge Nott fails to notice. The precise ex- tent to which it was used is also a question which can never be answered; but the most reasonable probability is that Rufus King and Madison spoke the literal truth when they said it was not used at all. Pinckney's friends may comfort themselves by accepting Mad- ison's charitable suggestion that Pinck- ney constructed his fictitious draft in the belief that it was a true one; and they need not necessarily embrace the disagreeable alternative which Judge Nott offers to those who cannot accept his argument. The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865. By Eliza Francis An- drews. Pp. 387. New York: D. Ap- pleton & Co. $2.50 net. It is hard to believe that the entries in this diary could have been made un- der the given dates. The days are so filled with talk, action, discomfort, dauntless gayety, and the contemplation of distressing sights, that the nightly records constitute an amazing instance of the force of the diary habit. The result is a crowded but evidently vera- cious picture of life as it had to be lived during the last months of the Con- federacy. The introduction and notes, written by the same hand nearly half a century later, make a sane and interesting com- ment on the work of the vivacious young woman of twenty-four. Miss An- drews's father, Judge Garnett Andrews, was perhaps the most prominent Union- ist in Georgia. Yet her brothers were in the Confederate armies, and she her-

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284 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 self utterly devoted to the Lost Cause. Their home was at Washington, Georgia, where the Confederate government final- ly disbanded, and through which the men of Johnston's and Lee's armies, whose homes were in the lower South, passed by thousands after surrender. But other Georgia towns are visited, and there is a gruesome account of Ander- sonville, accompanied, however, with in- stances of the destitution of the Con- federates themselves hardly less pitia- ble. Miss Andrews has done well to let the passion and partisanship of the diary stand unsoftened: otherwise it would not be the convincing record it is. The excellent spirit of the introduc- tion and notes leaves nothing to be de- sired. The book should take rank as one of the more valuable of the remarkable number of accounts of life in the Con- federacy which have been finding their way into print. Science. The Oxford University Press will publish this spring "The (Ecology of Plants," by E. Warming, translated by Percy Groom; "Elementary Biology," by J. W. Kirkaldy and B. N. Drummond; and "Elements of Non-Euclidean Geometry," by B. J. L. Cool- idge. Mycologia, in continuation of the Jour- nal of Mycology, is now issued bi-monthly by the New York Botanical Garden. It is edited by William Alphonso Murrill, with the following associate editors: Joseph C. Arthur, Howard J. Banker, Giacomo Bre- sadola, Frederic E. Clements, John Dear- ness, Franklin S. Earle, Bruce Fink, Tho- mas H MacBride, Paul Magnus, Narcisse Paitouillard, Lars Romcll, Fred J. Seaver, Cornelius L. Shear. The first issue, mow at hand, contains a good color-plate as well as drawings in black and white. Dr. Thaddeus Asbury Reamy, an author- ity on gynaecology, died at Cincinnati, March 11, in his eightieth year. He was born in Virginia and studied at the Star- ling Medical College of Columbus, Oo In the civil war he served as an army sur- geon, and then after study abroad he set- tled in Cincinnati. There he had been on the staff of various hospitals, and had been professor of materia medica and therapeutics at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, professor of dis- eases of women at Starling Medical Col- lege, professor of gynaecology at the Medi- cal College of Ohio (now the medical de- partment of the University of Cincinnati), and president of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Cincinnati Obstetrical Society, and the American Gynaecological Society. He had been an extensive writer for medical jour- nals and the publications of medical socie- ties, and he had contributed the article on "The Sub-involution of the Uterus and Va- gina" to "The American System of Gynae- cology." Major Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski died March 10 in this city at the age of fifty- nine. He was born in Kurnich, Prussian Poland, and at the age of four came to this country with his parents. He entered the army as a volunteer in 1864. and served till the close of the civil war. From 1872 to 1876 he was professor of military science at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, and from 1883 to 1889 he devoted his time to the perfecting of the pneumatic dynamite tor- pedo gun, which he had invented. He also invented an intrenching tool, a ramrod bay- onet, a telescopic sight for artillery, and a system of range and position finding for sea-coast and artillery firing. Mark Vernon Slingerland, professor of economic entomology at Cornell University, died at Ithaca March 10. He was born at Otto, N. Y., in 1864, and was graduated from Cornell in 1892. He had published many bulletins on injurious insects. Dr. Simon Somerville Laurie, emeritus professor of the institutes and history of education in the University of Edinburgh, has died at the age of seventy-nine. He had published largely on philosophical and educational topics, including: "Constable's Series of Educative Reading Books," "Phil- osophy of Ethics," "Primary Instruction in Relation to Education," "Life and Educa- tional Writings of John Amos Comenius," "Metaphysica Nova et Vetusta," "Ethica," "Mediaeval Education and Rise and Con- stitution of Universities," "Language and Linguistic Method in the School," "Insti- tutes of Education," and "Studies in the History of Educational Opinion." The death is reported, in his sixtieth year, of Dr. Hermann Ebbinghaus, profes- sor of philosophy in the University of Halle, and known especially for his work in experimental psychology. His publica- tions in book form are "Ueber das Gedacht- nis " "Theorie des Farbensehens," "Eine neue Methode zur Priifung geistiger Fahig- keit," "Grundziige der Psychologie," and "Abriss der Psychologie." Drama. "A Shakespeare Word Book" (E. P. Dut- ton & Co.) is a "glossary of archaic forms and varied usages "of words," prepared by John Foster. It is a laborious and comprehensive work, compiled from various annotated editions of the poet, and the notes of such authorities as Nares, Halli- well, Dyce, and Skeat. Upon a cursory comparison with earlier publications, it seems to be both full and accurate. Like many other commentaries of a similar kind, it is likely to reject the obvious and simple meaning in favor of one that is more abstruse or far-fetched, while some of its distinctions of meaning are so slight as to be unimportant or altogether fan- ciful; but its explanations of obsolete words and phrases, its parallel quotations, and copious references will make it very useful to all younger students of the text and to many of more advanced experience. Arno Holz, who during the storm and stress of the eighties collaborated with Johannes Schlaf in that first product of German naturalism, the now historical play, "Familie Selicke," is still one of the most belligerent spirits of his generation. The first of his dramas, with the sub-title "Ber- lin: Wende einer Zeit in Dramen," was "Sozialaristokraten," a satire upon the re- formers and radicals among his colleagues. Now he has published another, "Sonnen- finsterniss" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), in which artists discuss art prob- lems, while the leading psychological mo- tive reminds one of the story of Beatrice Cenci. The almost unmitigated gloom of the play is oppressive, but the work bears the stamp of seriousness and sincerity and proves that the author has lost none of his power in the twenty-five or more years that he has been before the public. Elizabeth Robins's play, "Votes for Wo- men," which had a considerable run in London a year or two ago, and which was produced in Wallack's Theatre on Monday evening, is entitled to respect on account of its serious purpose, its entire sincerity, and its literary skill, but is not particu- larly impressive as drama, or startling as a social and political document. For the one it is lacking in plot and action : for the other in freshness and logical force. It is in the nature of a special plea, and, as i.? apt to be the case in appeals of that sort, advances a special instance as a proof of general conditions. Such arguments as it uses are familiar, and well put, and were received by a very large and sym- pathetic audience with fervent applause. Naturally, the debate was of rather a one- sided character, the feminine champions easily confounding their stage opponents. It is not likely that the piece will make many converts, but there will be general agreement among all intelligent and fair- minded persons that many of the condi- tions imposed upon fallen and helpless wo- men, as described by Vida Levering, are a disgrace to modern civilization, and cry aloud for remedy. In London, this char- acter— that of a pure and noble-hearted woman deceived and cruelly abandoned by a brilliant politician, who, having risen above her own misfortune, devotes the rest of her life to the cause of her more feeble and miserable sisters — was taken by Edith Wynne Matthison, whose emotional elo- quence gave it a significance which Miss Mary Shaw, good actress as she is, was un- able to impart to it here. Moreover, the scene of the woman's rights meeting in Trafalgar Square, where Vida and other women plead their cause and finally prevail over an irreverent mob, had the advantage of being staged by Granville Barker, and proved an extraordinarily effective bit of realism. Here it was only moderately ef- fective, although Miss Grace Griswold con- tributed a very striking bit of acting as a working-woman orator. Miss Shaw and she were the only redeeming elements of an exceedingly feeble cast. The mob itself was fairly well handled, but the represen- tation of the play itself was far from satis- factory. "The Bachelor," the latest comedy of Clyde Fitch, just produced in Maxine El- liott's Theatre, is a slight sketch of no serious dramatic or literary purport, but thoroughly characteristic of its author, in its adroit utilization of the humorous side of every day life, its facile construc- tion, its flashes of cleverness, its per-

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March 18, 1909] The Nation. 285 vasive flippancy, and its essential trivial- ity. It has, however, the distinguishing merit of being consistently amusing and absolutely sweet and wholesome. On this account, if on no other, it would deserve a word of special recognition and com- mendation. Trifling as is the story — the ro- mance of a middle-aged bachelor with a pretty typewriter and the mischief made by her foolish brother — it nevertheless serves to exhibit the fine technical skill of Mr. Fitch as a theatrical craftsman. It is a pity t'hat so much ability should not be employed to better purpose. The leading character is exceedingly well play- ed by Charles Cherry, an admirable light comedian. On March 22, "An Englishman's Home" will be produced at the Criterion Theatre in this city. Beerbohm Tree is soon to make a notable production in London of "The School for Scandal." He tried to secure the coopera- tion of John Hare, but was not successful. He purposes to play Sir Peter himseU. and has engaged Irene Vanbrugh for Lady Teazle. The Lady Sneerwell will be Ellis Jeffreys. Robert Hichens's comedy, "The Real Wo- man," which has just been produced in London, does not seem likely, judging from the current reviews, to create any sensa- tion. It aims at a contrast between the frivolous and the serious life. A lovely woman of fashion, Lady Arden, impelled by the impulse of the moment, leaves a merry supper party after the opera to vis- it an East End slum where an injured boy is dying. In the presence of pain and suf- fering the best womanly part of her is revealed, and an earnest young tenement worker, seeing in her a ministering angel, declares his passion for her. Then he learns that he had been an object of ridi- cule in her intimate set, and had been made the subject of a thoughtless bet. He is deeply wounded and indignant, but soon discovers that Lady Arden has experienced a change of heart, although she is not in love with him, but with his bosom friend, in whose favor he retires. Music. Papers and Proceedings of the Music Teachers' National Association. Third Series. Published by the Association. $1.60. Once a year, the Music Teachers' Na- tional Association meets, and the pa- pers read on these occasions are sub- sequently printed as "Studies in Musical Education, History, and ^Esthetics." The last meeting was at Washington, on the last three days of 1908; twenty-five pa- pers were read, and these, with the "Proceedings," make a volume of 33C> pages. In the opening paper, following the address of welcome, Frederic W. Root refers with justifiable pride to the "wealth of interesting material" contain- ed in the first two volumes of this se- ries. The third is even better; from it one can obtain a clear view of the present condition of musical culture in this country and of the powerful forces which are at work in its behalf. So far as vocal instruction is concern ed, Mr. Root feels gratified that the old vagary of "Italian method" is practi- cally retired; yet the preposterous claims still made about new and revo- lutionary discoveries in voice training show that there is need of further growth of intelligence. In pianoforte teaching, there has been a decided movement from "mere keyboard sport" to a kind of practising and playing which involves the mind as well as the muscles. A quarter of a century ago the only one of Bee- thoven's works which pupils had heard of was the "Moonlight Sonata," as Constantin von Sternberg remarks in his "Report of Piano Conference." He claims for the piano teacher a large share of the improvements since made. The influence of opera and symphony concerts is great and good, as far as it goes; but "it bears no comparison with the influence which the piano teacher exerts." He has taught the par- ents the value of music as well as the children; he has helped to create an audience for good music. One of the best papers in this collec- tion is that on the works of Edward MacDowell, written by one of his Co- lumbia University pupils, W. H. Humis- ton, who is a good writer, as well as a musical scholar. His article is not mere ly a review of the works of the great- est of American composers, but it in- cludes instructive comparisons of re- vised editions with old ones, and throws light on a number of points not dwelt on in previous articles on MacDowell. Few of his admirers know that at one time he wrote a number of pieces — ex- cellent ones, too — under the pseudonym of "Edgar Thorn," to assist a helpless woman who had once worked for his family. Mr. Humiston also prints ar> interesting extract from a letter by Mr. Baltzell, editor of the Musician, to Mrs. MacDowell. Mr. Baltzell, on visiting, a few years ago, his native city, St. Pe- tersburg, was nettled to hear the mas- ters of the new Russian school make light of American music. He thereupon sent for copies of MacDowell's first three sonatas and sent them to the emi- nent composer, Glazounoff. The effect was — as I expected — a com- plete reversal of the previous opinion, and praise was expressed on all sides in a most generous and enthusiastic manner. Another eminent American composer, George W. Chadwick, director of the New England Conservatory in Boston, is a contributor to this volume. In a paper entitled "The Curriculum of a School of Music" he discusses Wagner's plan for an ideal high school of music and its suitability for American con- ditions. This paper contains many val- uable suggestions as to the functions of a true teacher, the need of allowing for individual peculiarities of students, the desirability of suppressing the unfit, and of raising funds for the talented pupils because "it seems to be almost invariably the case that the musically gifted student is without means to pay for his education." Mr. Chadwick agrees with Wagner's fundamental proposition that a music school should be, first of all, a school of singing. Prof. Charles H. Farnsworth contributes a valuable paper on school music in Berlin, Paris, and London. It is worthy of note that one series of music books much used in German schools has on it the name of Lowell Mason, the American pioneer of school music, with that of the German editor. That the American music teachers — some of them, at any rate — are far from being buried in pedantic practices, ob- livious to present tendencies in music, is shown by several papers in which the harmonic innovations of Debussy and Strauss are discussed. David Stan- ley Smith wittily remarks that in exam- ining some recent Debussy songs, he fancied he saw the composer "turning over the leaves of one of those rigid French text-books on harmony and mak- ing a list of all the rules and conven- tions contained therein, with the sole purpose of wantonly breaking these rules." O. G. Sonneck, the indefatigable, ju- dicious chief of the division of music in the Library of Congress, supplies much interesting information on the inside working of that institution. Six per- sons are now engaged in the music di- vision, and it is largely due to the lib- eral, broad-minded attitude of the chief, Herbert Putnam, that that division of the Congressional Library now exceeds the collections in the Lenox in New York, the Newberry in Chicago, and the Boston Public. The Washington Li- brary's collections included, on July 1, 1908. 500,587 volumes, pamphlets, and pieces of music. Our operatic repertory is becoming more and more international. Italian, French, and German opera we have always with us. Paderewski's "Manru" was a sample of Pol- ish opera. A Russian opera, by Tchaikov- sky, is to be launched before the end of the season. A few weeks ago a Bohemian opera, "The Bartered Bride," was success- fully produced at the Metropolitan; and now the Manhattan has provided an oppor- tunity to sample the new Flemish school of composers, who are trying to revive the glory of the Netherlands of a few centuries ago, when that country was the world's musical centre. In 1896 there was produced at Antwerp, under the name of "Herberg- prinses," and in the Flemish language, an opera of which the music was composed by Jan Blockx, to a libretto written by Nestor de Tiere, one of the leaders of the Flemish literary movement. It proved so successful that it was promptly translated into French, and in that version it was heard in a num-

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286 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 ber of cities. It was well worth producing in America, although it cannot be called a masterwork. The power of creating new melodies, which is of paramount importance in opera, is not strongly developed in Blockx, but he has helped himself to some effective national airs, and he is a master of orchestral coloring. The hero of the opera is a young composer who competes for a prize and wins it; but the announce- ment of his victory comes just as he has been stabbed by a rival for the affection of a dissolute woman known as La Princesse d'Auberge — the French title of the opera. There are some fine spectacular effects. The New York Philarmonic Orchestra is to be increased to one hundred players for the two special concerts to be given under the direction of Gustav Mahler, on the eve- nings of March 31 and April 6, at Carnegie Hall. For the first concert, the Schumann "Manfred" overture, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, the "Siegfried Idyll" and the overture to "Tannhauser" are announced. These works have never before been con- ducted in New York by Mr. Mahler. For the concert to take place on April 6 ht will present a Beethoven programme. It will begin with the "Egmont" overture, to be followed by the Ninth Symphony. In addition to the augmented orchestra there will be for the final movement of the sym- phony the Bach Choir of Montclair, com- prising two hundred and fifty voices under the direction of Frank Taft, and a quartet of soloists to include Mrs. Rider-Kelsey, Janet Spencer, and Daniel Beddoe. The opportune discovery of two violin concertos by Joseph Haydn has been made just before the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of his birth. J. G. I. Breitkopf, son of the founder of the Breit- kopf & Hartel firm, had, somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century, put to one side a quantity of manuscript music, and it was among this that the parts of the two works in question were found. In a supplement to a thematic catalogue drawn up by the firm in 1769, the concertos were indicated, but until now were regarded as lost. They were written between 1766 and 1769 for Luigi Tomasini, leader of the prince's band at Esterhaza, and in a cata- logue in Haydn's own hand the one in C is marked as "fatto per il Luigi." Haydn greatly admired this violinist's style of in- terpreting his music. A cheap edition of the works of Brahms, which he himself often begged his publish- ers to issue, is at last to gladden the hearts of his admirers. N. Simrock of Berlin an- nounces that, beginning next month, those of the Brahms compositions that are pub- lished by him and by B. Senff, will be is- sued at about one-half their present price, in a Simrock Volksausgabe, which will also include the copyrighted works of other com- posers, among them Dvorak, Rubinstein, Bruch, Goldmark. Proof of the increasing interest in Ger- many in American music may be seen in the fact that G. Schirmer of this city is is- suing a special catalogue for that country of "Ausgewahlte Compositionen" by Amer- icans, among them Chadwick, Bartlett, De Koven, Hadley, Homer, La Farge, Loefifler, MacDowell, Parker, Shelley, Schindler, Brockway, Huss, Klein, Joseffy, Liebling, and Whiting. Art. THE SPRING ACADEMY. In reporting the National Academy last autumn we pointed out the prevalence of what may be called exhibitionism, or the false values consciously or unconsciously put into a picture destined to attract attention amid a multitude of oth- er pictures, rather than in a private chamber. The exhibition now holding in the Fine Arts Building in West Fif- ty-seventh Street displays less of this militant trait, but still too much of it for our taste. There is less manifesta- tion of explosive force, less exploitation of method, but still, as one glances through the three galleries, one feels the lack of any idea dominating the col- lection as a whole, and individually most of the pictures have the same lack. So often one says, "That is a good bit of painting, but who could possibly want it as a companion in a private room?" If this feeling is analyzed, it will commonly reduce to a perception of the fact that the picture in question is sim- ply a skilful combination of lines and colors without any moral meaning, without any real interpretation of life, and that, lacking these, it has little power of retaining interest. There are exceptions which only em- phasize the general rule. Sargent's full- length portrait of Miss Vanderbilt, be- sides the supreme mastery of the brush which he always shows, has a grace that adds an interpretative value to youth. The hands are rather carelessly done, and the lower part of the figure has no indication of anatomy, but as a whole the picture suggests that refine- ment of the eighteenth-century English painters who refashioned life according to their ideals. Something of this same quality is found in two portrait groups (Nos. 222 and 232) by Lydia F. Emmet and Ellen G. Emmet, of which the lat- ter especially, two young women, is marked by a scheme of translucent col- ors delicately harmonized. As a con- trast with these may be mentioned Irv- ing R. Wiles's near-by figure of Mile. Gerville-Reache as Carmen, a brilliant work in yellow and red possessing al- most every quality except a controlling taste. How clearly the fault here is a lack of idea, not of skill, may be learned from his Quiet Corner, a swift sketch where cleverness is the only quality needed, a "stunner," to use Rossetti's favorite slang. Among the other por- traits we can only stop at H. R. But- ler's Miss M of Los Angeles, some- what strained and unpleasant in face, but notable for the masterly manner in which the gown suggests the figure with- out any illegitimate straining or wrap- ping; in contrast, J. M. Lichtenauer's Portrait of Mrs. Walter Scheftel, where the green drapery is deliberately drawn to suggest the figure, but with ill suc- cess; a Portrait (No. 157), by Cecilia Beaux, piquant in face, but showing a harsh scheme of reds; William H. Hyde's Portrait of Bishop Potter; and a Portrait of Carleton Wiggins, by J. C. Phillips, which has what is almost universally lacking, character in the countenance. Among the figure groups and fancy portraits, two stand out preeminently for their moral values. The Saltus med- al has been well bestowed on George De Forest Brush for his Family Group, consisting of mother with child on her lap and, sitting behind her, a boy. It is in Mr. Brush's usual style, but he has been more than usually successful in in- stilling the very spirit of the family into the design without falling into what has seemed at times almost a sham idealism. The triangular compos- ition of the figures is itself significant of an inner harmony. The other picture we had in mind is the JLemon Girl by Charles W. Hawthorne, notable for the blending of yellow lemons, the dull yellow of the bowl and shawl, and the duller yellow of the girl's face; still more notable for the poetry of poverty, if that phrase will be understood to-day, that envelopes the whole. From these the interpretative value extends in dimin- ishing degrees through W. T. Smedley's Two Dutch Dolls, Charles A. Winter's conscientious but strained Fandora, to such hideous manifestations of unre- flecting realism as John Sloan's Making Faces, such flaunting ugliness as Albert Herter's Mary of Magdala, such pink in- anities as William Cotton's Calypso, and such bar-room photographs as Har- ry W. Watrous's "Some Little Talk." As a transition from human to inani- mate nature we may take the group of paintings that attempt with more or less success to win picturesque effects from the city. Best among these are two bits of New York: one, by C. C. Cooper, giving a glimpse of the train yards at Grand Central Station, with the usual romance of blurring smoke and steam; the other a view of Wash- ington Square, by W. J. Glackens, in which a green 'bus in the foreground makes a pleasant contrast with the bright red houses beyond the Arch. It is scarcely necessary to say that the landscapes in general display the same lack of interpretation, of moral values, if the phrase will be accepted, as the portraits. It is a fair criticism that most of these artists while at work had in mind the making of a picture which by its manifestation of energy or bold method should hold its own in the terrible competition of the galleries. In some cases this descends to sheer bru- tality, as in Charles Rosen's winter scene in which an Old Willow sprawls its boughs across the white background in lines of merely hateful ugliness. The effort to reproduce nature in her crud-

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March 18, 1909] The ISTation. 287 est, most intrusive nakedness is pain- fully evident. It is scarcely conceiv- able that any one should care to own and look constantly at a scene so de- void of human meaning. There are oth- er snow scenes of the same class, though none so exaggerated as this, and there are one or two sea scenes in which a tempestuous mess of colors is de- vised for the same expression of in- human energy. In the same cate- gory, if on a lighter scale, is Helene F. Metcalfe's Villa Torlonia, in which that small and secluded fountain, by means of rather crudely applied col- ors, is made to look almost like a bit of wind-stirred sea. Better every way, but still lacking the final transmutation of art, are a number of landscapes over which we must pass with undue rapid- ity: E. C. Clark's Over the City, in which a burst of sunset from behind a cloud scatters an explosion of light over the sky, a brilliant study; E. W. Red- field's Harbor of Boulogne, large and spacious, but laid off in tiresome hori- zontal strata; Cedar Hill, by the same artist, a fine study of snow in the fore- ground with a long look into the dis- tance, but not exactly comfortable; The Golden Moon, by Paul Dougherty, a view of ocean and rocks bathed In a rich golden light, excellently painted with a bold stroke that does not lapse into mere daubing; The "Valley, by C. F. Ryder, in which height, a difficult ef- fect, is obtained by setting the hill be- hind a row of bare poplar trees, but which is marred by the harshness of the greens; Northern Coast of France, by the same artist, showing a really noble slope of land up to a lighthouse in the far horizon; and W. Ritschel's Lifting Clouds, in which the land, fore- shortened to a narrow strip, still con- veys the look of distance, and by its glinting light leads the eye into a mys- terious distance. But of all the land- scapes the two by Ben Foster, Early Moonrise and Morning After the Rain, conveyed to us the finest impression of the healing charm of nature, seemed to us most capable of bestowing the true quietude of mind and of winning us to comfortable companionship. Early Moonrise obtained the Inness gold med- al, and deserved it; but the Morning After Rain was almost more seduc- tive, with its hillside of pure green and its grayish white curves of cloud. We have necessarily passed by many paint- ings worthy of remark, but to these two landscapes we would point as em- bodying most perfectly the interpreta- tive and, in the broader sense, moral values which as a whole the exhibition lacked. In art the Oxford University has three titles on its spring list: "Decorative De- sign," by A. H. Christie; "The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy," by T. E. Peet; and "Bushman Paintings," reproduced from tracings by Helen Tongue and Dorothy Bleek. From Curtis & Cameron of Boston we receive a portfolio of fifteen photogravures (price $5) of E. A. Abbey's Holy Grail frieze in the Boston Public Library. The pictures come out well in the process, and give a good notion of the romantic charm which has attracted so many sightseers to the originals. These Copley Prints might well be framed for hanging in a library or hall. Twenty-four years ago Copenhagen re- solved to erect a new City Hall. Fifteen prominent European architects competed, and the task fell to Martin Nyrop, who began building in 1892 and was not done until thirteen years later. What he has achieved is told, in word and picture, in the artistic folio published by F. Hen- driksen under the auspices of the muni- cipality. "Kobenhavns Raadhus" (August Bangs) is a worthy literary memorial of one of the most original and most interest- ing modern European structures. The vol- ume describes the architectural details, of design, construction, and expense alike, minutely and with a wealth of superb il- lustrations. It is more useful than many other similar studies because Nyrop has broken with tradition and evolved a new effect, in which classical hints and mod- ern tendencies are admirably fused. Un- conventional without being inchoate or fall- ing into the extremes of novelty, the struc- ture, upon which nearly $1,500,000 has been spent (apart from the approaches and site), well repays the foreigner's attention. Un- fortunately for English readers, the text of the descriptions is in Danish. There is, however, an English index. The excellent collection of colored repro- ductions of old masters that has been pub- lished under the title of Galerien Europas by E. A. Seemann, Leipzig, will in the fu- ture appear in the form of monthly instal- ments. In addition to the four colored plates which each issue will bring, there will also be a descriptive and critical let- terpress, discussing problems of art. The last five instalments are filled with repro- ductions from the paintings in the Altt Pinakothek in Munich. Seven large marble bas-reliefs have been discovered on a farm two miles and a half outside the Porta Maggiore, Rome, between the Via Prenestina and the Tiburtina. They are admirable specimens of Greek or per- haps neo-Attic art, and together form a magnificent circular base over twelve feet in circumference. They represent dancing figures, maenads or Bacchantes, of which illustrations are given in the current number of Notizie degli Scavi. Their discovery at this point, however, has raised the question whether they may not have been carried and secret- ed there, but the president of the Roman Archaeological Society, Prof. Giuseppe Tomassetti, states that in studying the his- tory of the Vicolo Malabarba he had found that an important temple of Bacchus once stood in this neighborhood, impressing its name on the surrounding land, which was known in the years 987, 999, and 1C10 as the fundus Bacculi and Bacculas, as records in the archives of Santa Prassede prove. This statement gives rise to the hope that the statue for which this foundation was de- signed may now be found. At an auction in the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries in this city March 11, Jacob Ma- ris's The Dome, Amsterdam, brought $9,000. Other high prices were: Adolph Schreyer, The Raiding Party, $7,250; B. J. Bloomers, Children on the Beach, $5,200; Ziem, Canal la Giudecca, Venice, $8,000; J. B. C. Corot, Morning in the Valley, $5,000; Marie Die- terle, Cattle at the Pool, $5,000. On' March 12, at a sale of paintings belonging to Cottier & Co. of New York, these prices were paid: Millais, Little Miss Gamp, $6,- 250; Diaz, A Girl and Her Dog, $9,000. At an auction at Christie's, London, Feb- ruary 27, N. Maes's Portrait of an Old Lady, with black dress and white ruff and cuffs, brought £2,152. Following the great success of the ex- hibition of pictures by Sorolla, there will be an exhibition of the paintings of Igna- cio Zuloaga at the museum of the Hispanic Society, March 21 to April 11. There will be a private view March 17 to 20. An exhibition of bronzes by 3arye will be held at the Grolier Club till March 27. Raphael Collin, after a protracted con- test, has been elected to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in place of the late M. Hebert. We have to record the death of two French artists: Raymond Baize, at the age of ninety, a pupil of Ingres, painter of historical subjects; and the Comte du Passage, at the age of seventy, a cavalry officer by profession, who studied sculpture under Mene and Barye, and produced a number of statues, including a successful Jeanne d'Arc. News comes of the death of Madame Henriette Ronner at the age of eighty- seven. She was born at Amsterdam, being the daughter of J. A. Knip, a well known painter of animals and landscapes. Her first work to attract much attention was La Mort d'un Ami, exhibited at Brussels in 1860, a picture of a hawker with a cart drawn by two dogs, one of which lies dead. But her favorite subject was the cat, which she painted in a variety of styles. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. AI Ghazzali, the Confessions of. Trans- lated by Claud Field. Dutton. 40 cts. net. Allen, William H. Civics and Health. Ginn. $1.25. Barrett, Eaton Stannard. The Heroine. Henry Frowde. Blackwood, Algernon. John Silence: Physi- cian Extraordinary. Boston: John W. Luce & Co. Bourgeois. Emile. Le Secret du Regent et la politique de L'Abbe Dubois. Paris: Armand Colin. Bowne, Borden Parker. Studies in Chris- tianity. Houghton Mifflin. $1.50 net. Brown, Alice. The Story of Thyrza. Hough- ton Mifflin. $1.35 net. Burton, Charles Pierce. The Bob's Cave Boys. Henry Holt. Clarke, William Newton. The Christian Doctrine of God. Scribner. $2:50 net. Davis, Charles H. Stanley. Consumption: Its Prevention and Cure Without Medi- cine. E. P. Treat. De Esque, Jean Louis. Betelguese: A Trip Through Hell. Jersey City: Connoisseur's Press. Dickens Dictionary. By Alex. J. Philip. Dutton. $3 net. Dickins, Edith Pratt. The Port o' Dreams, and Other Poems. Putnam. $1 net. Dieudonne, A. Bacterial Food Poisoning: A Concise Exposition of So-called Pto- maine Poisoning. Translated by Charles Frederick Bolduan. E. B. Treat. $1.

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288 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2281 Draper, Andrew S. Addresses and Papers. Albany: New York State Education De- partment. English History Stories, for the Fourth and Fifth Grades. Charles E. Merrill Co. Ferrero, Guglielmo. The Greatness and De- cline of Rome. Vol. V. The Republic of Augustus. Translated by H. J. Chaytor. Putnam. $2.50 net. First Folio Shakespeare: All's Well That Ends Well; Measure for Measure; Merry Wives of Windsor. Thomas Y. Crowell. Foltz, El Bie K. The Federal Civil Service as a Career. Putnam. $1.50 net. Galsworthy, John. Fraternity. Putnam. $1.35 net. Gaskell, Walter Holbrook. The Origin of "Vertebrates. Longmans, Green. $6 net. German Stories. Edited by George M. Baker. Henry Holt. Gilman, Arthur. My Cranford: A Phase of the Quiet Life. Houghton Mifflin. $1.25 net. Guttmann, Oscar. The Manufacture of Ex- plosives: Twenty Years' Progress. Whit- taker & Co. $1.10 net. Haldeman, I. M. Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture. Fleming H. Re- vell. $1.50 net. Henderson, Percy E. A British Officer in the Balkans. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 13.50 net. Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Baptist Church in Providence. Rhode Island. Edited by Henry Melville King. Providence: F. H. Townsend. Hume-Griffith, M. E. fiehind the Veil In Persia and Turkish Arabia. Philadelphia: Lippincott. $3.50 net. Hunting. Henry Gardner. Witter White- head's Own Story. Henry Holt. $1.25. Ibsen, Henrik. Little Eyolf; A. Doll's House. Edited by Henry L. Mencken. Boston: Jihn W. Luce & Co. Jastrow, Morris, jr. Die Religion Babylon- iens und Assyriens. 13 Lieferung. Gies- sen: Alfrel Topelmann. Jchnson, Charles F. Shakespeare and His Crit?cys of Bob's Hill." al- ready in its 5th edition. Illustrated. $1.50. Hunting's Witter Whitehead's Own Story. About a lucky splash of whitewash, some stolen silver, and a house that wasn't vacant. Illustrated. $1.25. Has to do with the work and exciting ex- periences of a wagon boy in a large city de- partment store. Add 8% of "net" prices for carriage. HENRY HOLT & CO,, syTSSft Bandy Volume Classics Used by schools and colleges everywhere, 155 vols., pocket size. List prices, cloth, 35c, per vol. ; limp leather, 75c. per vol. (Special prices to schools and colleges.) SUM) FOR CATALOGUE. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York "(Efje ifflemoins of a Jfatlure." With an Account of the Man and his Manuscript. By DANIEL W. KITTREDGE. Cloth, $1.25 net. U. P. James, Bookseller, CINC11VNAT1. Reading Case for The Nation To receive ihe current numbers in a convenient (temporary) form. Sun- stantlally made, bound in cloth, with The Na- tion stamped on the side In gold. Holds about one volume. Papers easily and neatly adjusted. Sent, postpaid, on re cetpt of 75 cents. The Last Supper By Leonardo da Vinci From the original in the Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan Published in the Med- ici Prints, a series of reproductions in color after the Old Masters, issued by the Medici Society. CATALOGUE ON REQUEST. FOSTER BROTHERS 4 Park Square, Boston SOLE AGENTS IN U. S. FOR THE MEDICI SOCIETY The Musicians Library For all Music Lovers, 45 Handsome Volumes. Special rates to all Li- braries on request. OLIVER DITSON COMPANY DITSON BUILDING, BOSTON, MASS.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH ti, 1909. The Week. It is easy to credit the Washington report that Senator Aldrich has inform- ed the President that it will be very dif- ficult, if not impossible, to get the in- heritance tax through the Senate. This is not because the Senate is the en- trenched defender of wealth, but be* cause it directly represents the States. Now, no less than thirty-three of the States have laws levying an inheritance tax. The rates on inheritances in the direct line vary from one-half of one per cent, to 5 per cent.; and on collat- eral inheritances from 1% per cent, to 15. The amounts collected for the lat- est fiscal year accessible ranged from $200 in North Dakota to $5,435,000 in New York. (We quote from the figures furnished by the State Tax Commis- sioner of Connecticut, to the meeting of the International Tax Association, at Toronto, last year.) It is natural that the States should look with jealousy upon an invasion of their tax preserves by the Federal government. The ob- jection is not only that double taxation would result, but that the fruitfulness of the tax itself would be certain to be impaired. The tendency would increase to make gifts during lifetime, instead of waiting for a legacy to be taxed twice. It is, of course, highly desir- able that Federal taxes should impinge upon those best able to pay them. That is one of Adam Smith's fundamental canons of taxation from which our gov- ernment has too much departed. Wealth ought to be taxed, not poverty. And if the inheritance tax cannot be taken up, the movement for a national income tax will become strong. President Taft has declared that such a tax can be levied in a form to obviate the objections made by the Supreme Court to the income- tax clauses of the Wilson bill. One of the first nominations sent to the Senate after Mr. 'laft's inaugura- tion was that of Z. Lewis Dalby of Vir- ginia, as Indian inspector. The nomina- tion had failed of approval in the last Congress. It was twice confirmed, but then reconsidered, and was thereupon laid aside, pending further inquiry as to the fitness of Mr. Dalby, against whom a number of charges have been made. His name was once more sent to the Senate on Monday. An Indian inspector is a very important official, because he must judge between the Indians on the one hand and the agents on the other. The Indian Rights Association charges Mr. Dalby with brow-beating and curs- ing an Indian witness when the man's evidence was unfavorable to the sheep and cattle interests. Not unnaturally, the Indians have lost confidence in Dal- by. An educated Chippewa Indian charges Inspector Dalby with having shown himself at an inquiry "unscrup- ulous, untruthful, and unreliable" — this at the White Earth agency, Minnesota. Other complaints on file against him come from the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska. The very helplessness of the Indians makes it absolutely neces- sary that only men of the highest char- acter be permitted to come into such vital relations with them. and an ephemeral membership." This was scarcely the intention of the in- surgents. There is no higher parliamentary au- thority in this country than Asher Hinds, so long clerk to the Speaker, and his opinion of the slight changes in the House rules will hardly be chal- lenged. He declares that they leave the Speaker stronger than ever, since they take away none of his essential power, while relieving him of certain irksome responsibilities. These relate chiefly to his consent to the calling up of bills in which particular members are interested. The giving or withholding permission has often been the cause of bitter enmities. Mr. Hinds recalls the political hostility which Speaker Reed incurred in that way. Hereafter, there is to be a "unanimous-consent" day, in which bills that have reached a certain parliamentary stage may be brought be- fore the House, provided nobody objects. That will take the burden from the Speaker, and put it upon the members. They will have to rage at each other, after this, and not at a tyrannical Speak- er, for preventing them from getting their great measures enacted. The check on hasty legislation will remain, but will not lie wholly in the Speaker's hands. As Mr. Hinds puts it, the result will be to tend to make "a perpetual Speaker The Second Public Service Commis- sion at Albany has refused assent to the plan to build the proposed Buffalo, Rochester and Eastern Railroad, from Troy to Buffalo, a line parallel to and competing with the New York Central. For months the commission held hear- ings along the projected route, listening to the evidence of shippers and mer- chants in all the leading cities between Albany and Buffalo. The volume of fault-finding with the New York Cen- tral was astounding. Shippers, it seems, would route their consignments in the most devious ways to escape the in- evitable delays on the Central. The fact was settled beyond all dispute that the conditions inflicted grave injury upon business. Naturally, the New York Cen- tral appeared in opposition, but speed- ily found itself in the difficult situation of having either to admit that its man- agement had been bad but could so be improved as to enable it to handle prop- erly all the traffic offered it, or else to confess that the volume of traffic had passed beyond the limits of its utmost powers as a four-track railway. After hearing the evidence, the commission took months to weigh it and to exam- ine the scheme from all possible points of view. Now the commission has rejected the proposal, not because the new road would parallel an existing line, or, we take it, because the members of the com- mission are satisfied with the traffic ar- rangements between Albany and Buf- falo, but for wholly different reasons. The commission found that one excel- lent defence offered by the New York Central, the inability of the Boston and Maine to care for the business offered to it by the Central, would be a fatal ob- stacle to the new line; for the Boston and Maine would be its only Eastern outlet. An average of 770 cars a day was the utmost that the Boston and Maine could handle in 1907. Yet to earn enough for its fixed charges the new road would have to offer to its Eastern outlet at least as many additional cars per day. Another ground for disapprov-

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290 T li e Xation. [\'ol. 88, No. 2282 ing the application was the under- estimates of the engineers, $85,559,018, as against the $100,000,000 estimated by the commission's engineers. That capi- talization would call for an earning ca- pacity of 548,000 a mile — over $8,000 a mile more than the gross earnings of any road in 1906. Furthermore, the financial responsibility of the backers of the road did not satisfy the commis- sion. Whoever recalls the era of spec- ulative, overcapitalized, parallel rail- ways from 1870 to 1885 must rub his eyes in amazement as he reads of this quashing of a plan because it has the very features which characterized the wild building of that period. The his- tory of American railroading would have been far different had Public Ser- vice Commissions with similar powers been established even so recently as thirty years ago. The conviction of the Coopers for slaying ex-Senator Carniack is highly creditable to Tennessee and to the South, where crimes of precisely this nature have more than once gone un- punished. When the former Lieut.-Gov. Tillman of South Carolina killed N. G. Gonzalez, editor of the Columbia State. without the shadow of an excuse for his crime, he was promptly acquitted. The Cooper jury was apparently just the one that would be expected to let the murderers off, because of its lack of literacy and general intelligence. Its members one would think precisely the persons to sympathize with the feud spirit of the Tennessee and Kentucky mountains. Yet they have bravely vin- dicated the courts by balking the clever attempts of the lawyers to bring about acquittal on the ground of self-de- fence. This conviction, we believe, will be of great value to the entire South, as a precedent Henceforth every pub- lic prosecutor in that section who is compelled to put on trial a bully with the pistol-carrying hafck will be encour- aged by the result of the Cooper trial. This interference with the long-estab- lished prerogative of one gentleman to kill another may mean the breaking up of an old custom, but it is a custom that should have gone decades ago. the government. In all probability they have received pretty definite as- surances that their enemy, M. Simyan, will be got out of the way. Thus an- other victory of the somewhat peculiar Clemenceau brand is added to the French Premier's record. He has set- tled labor troubles before this by stern- ly refusing to yield, next getting the strikers back to their places, and then yielding with grace and dispatch. The Opposition may accuse M. Clemenceau of hastening on the social revolution by compromising with the enemies of so- cial order. But in that talk there is a good deal of humbug. What the Opposi- tion cannot forgive M. Clemenceau is that he should compromise with the'la- bor leaders instead of bringing on a crisis by stern measures, get the Op- position into office, and let them com- promise with the strikers. After all, France is a radical nation at present. It has an overwhelming Parliamentary ma- jority of men who are not afraid to call themselves Radical-Socialists. It has a large out-and-out Socialist party. It has two Socialist members of the Cab- inet. The strike of the postal employees at Paris has been settled in the inevitable way. The strikers are going back to work in reliance upon fair treatment by The Balkan war-clouds melt away as the skies in the North Sea begin to low- er. In this there is food for optimist and pessimist alike. It is too bad that trouble should follow upon trouble. It is fortunate that one difficulty should pass away before another arrives. The outcome in the Balkans is distinctly en- couraging to this extent: if there are forces in Europe working for conflict, there are also powerful forces making for peace. Austria-Hungary comes out of the long quarrel with her coveted pound of flesh, but with nothing added to her reputation. Her warlike inten- tions rould never have been very seri- ous, seeing how very exacting she was while winter made war impossible, and how suddenly she grows placated when spring is on the threshold. Von Aehren- thal and his associates banked upon Eu- rope's present fear of war. In justice it must be admitted that they played a bold game; but "bluff* it was neverthe- less. Yet if Russian diplomacy can now take advantage of the exasperated feel- ings of the Balkan Slavs, Austria may find her way to the .32gean Sea barred more solidly than ever. mors that he was about to give way to the Jingoes and decide upon eight new Dreadnoughts instead of the four he has asked for. Mr. Balfour's resolution of censure is still before the House, and will come up for discussion within the next ten days. If his own party wishes, therefore, to take sides with Mr. Bal- four for eight battleships, it may do so. We cannot, however, see that there is any danger of this, unless the House, like the public, should go stark mad over battleships. Mr. Asquith also spoke out bravely against the anti-German agitation; "the artificial agitation," he called it, "that is now being engineered" and is "unpatriotic, unscrupulous, and misrepresenting the situation." These are the correct adjectives to apply; and the Premier helped to establish his claim to be a leader by stating positive- ly that there is "no friction, no un- friendliness, and no suspicion" between England and Germany. That country is endeavoring to set before the world the facts as to its building programme. It ought speedily to agree with England on a definite limitation, lest both peo- ples go out of their heads. Mr. Asquith has set at rest the ru- The details of the libel suit won by Mr. Lloyd-George, the British Chancel- lor of the Exchequer, make it plain that the proprietors and editors of the offend- ing paper, People, have reason to be grateful that they are not in jail. A sort of English Taum Topics, this news- paper announced that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been guilty of adult- ery, but that, thanks to the efforts of his friends and the expenditure of $100,- 000, the price of peace, the case would be kept out of the divorce court. Natur- ally, Mr. Lloyd-George brought the pa- per to book, and the proprietors, Sir William Armstrong and W. T. Madge, were compelled to admit that "they were unaware of the insertion in their paper of these scandalous libels"; that the last thing they would desire is that their paper should circulate such accusa- tions, for which there was no justifica- tion or foundation. The defendants were let off with a fine of $5,000. The judge praised Mr. Lloyd-George for his extreme moderation in not going fur- ther in the punishment of the offenders. He gave the case an immediate place upon his calendar, not because Mr. Lloyd-George was a man of influence and position, but because anybody plac-

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 291 ed in his position was entitled to imme- diate relief, as the defendants had con- fessed guilt. There would be less libel- ling in this country if our courts moved more promptly and were as keen to see justice done. In Persia, a crisis seems approaching. The greater part of the Empire is In open revolt against the Shah, who would apparently be content to hug his quiet at Teheran if Russia and England would only let him. The loose struc- ture of Oriental states allows life to go on in spite of dismemberment. Moroc- co furnishes a parallel instance of a revolution extending over almost a dozen years, without greatly disturbing the monarch in his capital. The "West, however, is more impatient, and neith- er Britain nor Russia can bt content with Tabriz, Ispahan, and other great cities in a permanent state of revolt. It rasps on the political nerves and hurts trade, besides. So far, winter has ex- ercised the same restraining influence that is ascribed to it in the Balkan im- broglio. With the melting of the snows fighting will take on new life about Tabriz, and even Teheran may not re- main permanently intimidated by the Shah's Cossacks. There is talk of £ convention being summoned by the Shah to draft a new constitution. Foreign influence is undoubtedly behind that move. THE PAYNE TARIFF BILL. By the way in which a tariff bill is received, one may get light upon the theory on which it is drawn. The Payne bill has a mixed reception; the inference is that it was drawn on mixed principles. That is otherwise clear. No man can even read the vast mass of pro- visions in the various schedules, with their minute subdivisions and qualifica- tions, without becoming convinced that no one clear principle runs through the whole. Now it is revenue that is sought; now protection; now a dubious mingling of the two. More than one clause is subject to the suspicion of hav- ing been inserted only as a "joker." Many such will doubtless be discovered as the examination and discussion of the bill goes on. The whole is too much like a mighty maze without a plan. A rigidly and consistently protectionist tariff would be easier to understand. We could both more heartily praise and more readily comprehend a tariff strict- ly for revenue. The Ways and Means Committee has given us neither. Concerning the efficiency of the bill in producing sufficient revenue, its very framers are evidently in grave doubt. The statement put out by the Ways and Means Committee predicts an adequate government income in 1910, only in case the next fiscal year prove "prosperous and the normal conditions of 1906 re- turn." Hope is also expressed that the returns will be larger "on account of the large increase in population," dur- ing the past three years. But nobody seriously expects conditions to become "normal," in the committee's sense, un- til after the next fiscal year is pretty well gone. The committee itself plainly does not, and is not certain that its bill will wipe out the deficit by means of fruitful taxes, for it goes on to pro- vide methods of borrowing money to meet the deficit. Authority to issue Treasury certificates is continued, and the maximum amount of them is pushed up from $100,000,000 to $250,000,000. That is a good-sized anchor to wind- ward. Furthermore, Panama bonds, to the amount of $40,000,000, may be sold and the proceeds used to "reimburse" the Treasury for the money paid in the original purchase of the canal. Once let the principle be recognized of capi- talizing previous expenditures for "per- manent utilities," when revenue fails, and we are treading the path of dan- ger which has thrown the public finances of Germany and Russia into their present disorder. If the Treas- ury is to be "reimbursed" for revenue spent in good faith on the Panama Canal, then why not "reimburse" for fortifica- tions, for post-offices, for river and har- bor improvements, paid for out of the ordinary revenue in years gone by? It is proposed not only to set up a princi- ple new to American public finance, but quietly to override the old and salu- tary principle of paying for the needs of government as we go. This provi- sion is the surest evidence that the Ways and Means Committee is not at all confident of the revenue to be got from the new tariff. Yet to make it yield sufficient revenue was declared by President Taft in his message to be the main object. Whatever may be the defects and the offences of the Payne bill, it still rep- resents, as compared with the McKin- ley and Dingley bills, an enormous ad- vance towards common sense. The idea of cheapness has ceased to be anathema to these latter-day protectionist tariff- makers. They hold out the hope, and have done their work on the theory, that the cost of many of the neces- saries of life may be reduced by reduc- ing taxes. Shoes and clothing, glass, and steel, wood and paper, it is pro- posed to make cheaper. At last, the forgotten consumer is given a thought. After long years of argument, it has been beaten into the heads of high-tar- iff fanatics that low duties mean both more revenue and more trade. And the old idea of universal, all-round protec- tion, every single product getting its just recompense of reward in a perfect- ly equitable tariff, is now admitted to have broken down. The most conspicuous proof of this is the restoration of hides to the free list. They were taxed 15 per cent, ad valorem in the Dingley bill, as a distinct sop to the farmer. He was being heavily taxed for his ploughs and hoes and har- vesters and harness, therefore, in order to conciliate him, concede him the right to tax other people on leather. The duty on hides was explained by the great Lodge in the Senate as a neces- sary part of consistent protectionism. His constituents in Massachusetts might not like it, and he himself was opposed to it per se, but there stood the fact that the blessings of protection must be extended to all, or none would enjoy them long. Manufacturers might desire free raw materials, but could not have them. From all this sophistication, the Payne bill executes a sharp retreat. It would make not only hides free, but iron ore and coal; and the taxes on oth- er raw materials it would cut down. This is the greatest single achievement of the bill. It marks progress. Upon some of the hoariest absurdities and outrages of protection, it plants a heavy foot. Free hides are a kind of sign- board, pointing the way in which the whole bill is headed. That provision alone will do more to stimulate our trade with South America than could the establishment of a score of steamship lines, unprofitable and therefore to be subsidized. The new tariff bill will now be fought over in Congress. It will have to en-

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292 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 dure the assaults of selfishness and in- trigue. Powerful interests will fall upon it in the process of what the Tribune elegantly calls "adjustment, equaliza- tion, and compromise." Others, instruct- ed by the history of the framing of pre- vious tariff bills, would call it grabbing, squeezing, and threatening. In what shape the bill will finally emerge, it is impossible to say. It ought to be freely debated and so amended as to add to its good features and diminish its vices. But, even as it stands to-day, the Payne bill must be confessed to be a more en- lightened and promising measure than any tariff bill ever fathered by the Re- publican party. PUBLICITY FOR PARTIES. If we might believe certain Albany correspondents, the Governor's bill for direct primaries is "doomed." It is to be variously ignored, despised, and re- jected. Neither it nor he has any friends in the Legislature. But this is an old story. All of Gov. Hughes's cap- ital measures have been "doomed" just before they were adopted. His Public Service Commissions rill hadn't a ghost of a show until it suddenly passed tri- umphantly. As for his bill to abolish race-track gambling, the scorn with which the knowing regarded those sim- ple-minded people who thought it might be enacted, was overwhelming. Did we not remember this usual course of im- portant legislation urged by Gov. Hughes, we might think it a waste of time to examine the actual text of the primary bill. As the probability is high, however, that it will pass the Leg- islature either this year or next, it is just as well to ask what it purposes to do. Enormous labor has plainly gone to the preparation of this measure of 135 printed pages. This was made inevita- ble partly by the need of fitting the new scheme into the general election law of the State, of wb'ch the bill is of- fered as an amendment. The scrutiny of details and the recasting of sections and a thousand minute changes in phraseology are enough to account for the delay in perfecting and introducing the bill, to say nothing of thinking out and drafting all the provisions and ap- plications of the new plan. The result is no mere happy-thought legislation, but a serious measure to the prepara- tion of which able lawyers and men skilled in affairs and in politics have given days and nights of toil. It is as far as possible from being a doctrinaire production. There are no sweeping theories going through it unbroken. No unvarying logic shapes its provi- sions. The bill is made flexible, intend- ed to fit varying conditions in varying parts of the State. It admits differences of procedure in Presidential years. The entire plan is not something wholly ex- traneous to our political system and party practices, violently forced upon them, but an expansion and extension of what already exists — all wrought out with the sole object of making party management truly representative of the wishes of the party. Let no off-hand critic get it in his head that he can at a glance point out objections which have not been duly considered and provided for in some part of this bill. It is a document about which politicians may rage, but upon which they will break their teeth. If the bill were to be described in a phrase, one could say that its dominant purpose is to enforce publicity upon par- ties. If the Governor has his way, they will be compelled to come out into the open and do their work where every- body can see. This is the one idea run- ning through the whole measure. We have had a powerful movement for pub- licity in corporations: here we have publicity for parties. To show how great is the change proposed from the old secret methods of "addition, divi- sion, and silence," we will take the pre- scriptions for a political committee set- ting about the work of making nomina- tions. In the first place, every meeting .of a committee for that purpose shall be "open to the public." No more "go- ing into executive session," where the thimble-rigging can be done in the dark. The public can now be present, newspa- pers can report all that takes place. Moreover, the new law provides for a public calling of the roll of the commit- tee, each member of which shall then "arise and declare the name" of his fa- vored candidate. One can understand how terrifying all this transparent pro- cedure will appear to the old practition- ers of the secret arts of politics, but how simple and natural it all seems when once you have gone over to the wholly sound theory that the party is entitled to know what its managers are I doing! The "directness" of this primary plan consists in getting rid of delegates and conventions, and acting instead through committees, whose work and whose per- sonalities are continually coming before the voters of the party for direct ap- proval or condemnation. Nominations for membership in these committees must be made only on petition, and long in advance of the primary. There is to be entire freedom in the nomina- tion as in the election of these men, who are to have party affairs in charge. They hold office for but one year, and they and the candidates for office whom they favor, must come before the Sep- tember primary. About that primary election itself, new safeguards are thrown. There can be no raiding of a Republican primary by Democrats, or vice versa, as in Oregon. Nor can party funds of any description be used in a primary fight. This provision, with the general law governing the expenditure of money in elections, will effectually prevent such a scandal as that attaching to the purchase of a seat in the Senate by Mr. Stephenson of Wisconsin. By the way, the Albany bill does not con- template a primary election for United States Senators. And the argument that the city vote would always swamp the country vote, in the political com- mittee, is met by the provision that each city committeeman shall have one ad- ditional vote for each thousand votes cast for Governor by the party in his unit, while country committeemen are to have an extra vote for every hun- dred votes so cast. Herbert Parsons will also discover that ample provision Is made for fusion movements in munici- pal elections. Sincere objections to the direct primary have been largely met in the bill ; there remain the dishonest pre- tences of politicians who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. But Gov. Hughes has triumph- ed over them before, and we look to see him do it again. THE DECLARATION OF LONDON. The announcement of the conclusions arrived at by the conference of the maritime Powers at London, confirms previous forecasts. Agreement was reached in several disputed matters of naval warfare, and principles were laid down to guide the Hague Tribunal in passing upon any cases that may be brought before it involving the rights

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 293 of neutrals, the definition of contraband, tie effectiveness of blockades, etc. All t<ld, this Declaration of London is in line with the general humane progress that has been made since the famous Declaration of Paris in 1856. To that convention, the United States did not adhere. This was not because it went too far, but because it did not go far enough. This country, as repre- seLted by Secretary Marcy, stood for an absolute rule against the destruction of private property at sea in time of war. How does the case stand now for our own historic contention? The Declara- tion of Paris itself represented a certain advance. It excepted certain classes of private property from capture. Neutral goods were better protected than before, and even an enemy's goods under a neutral flag were safe, unless contra- band of war. Since that time, the prac- tice has grown towards larger exemp- tions, with more ample recognition of ilie principle that the flag covers the goods. Capt. Mahan could write in his "Influence of Sea Power" that "the prin- ciple that the flag covers the cargo is forever secure." But that left enemy's goods in enemy's ships still a legalized prey. At London, attention was fixed less upon the flag than upon the nature of the goods. A fuller definition of contra- band was sought, and was found in a division into articles that are always contraband, articles that are always free, and articles that may sometimes be free and sometimes contraband. In the first class fall, of course, powder, arms, military equipment of all kinds. They may be seized on any vessel at any time. Conditionally contraband are supplies of food, fodder, money, flying- machines, and articles which might be used as munitions of war; the question would have to be determined by a prize court. But for the first time the leading nations of the world have agreed upon a list of articles which shall be at all times and places non-contraband, and which, under no circumstances, not even in a ship flying the enemy's flag, can be seized. This list includes many raw materials of manufacture, together with machinery and chemicals used in agri- culture and the arts. Our State Depart- ment estimates that the export of such absolutely free articles from the United States amounts to $400,000,000 a year, while the conditionally contraband goods among our exports would figure at some $900,000,000 annually. One sees what the new agreement would mean for our trade in time of war. The hon- orable position striven for by the Unit- ed States has not yet been attained, but is more closely approximated. With much skepticism is to be taken the statement from Washington that another triumph for the United States is to be read in Article 47 of the Lon- don convention. This provides that any person belonging to the armed forces of the enemy may be made a prisoner of war on board a neutral vessel, even though there be no reason for seizing the vessel herself. It is said that this is a recognition of the principle under which Capt. Wilkes removed Mason and biidell from the British steamer Trent, during our civil war. It is added that the British representatives at London renounced the doctrine under which the release of Mason and Slidell was de- manded and obtained. This we must think highly doubtful. Mason and Sli- dell were not a part of the "armed forces" of the Confederacy. They were diplomatic agents; and the right of neu- trals to convey them to a neutral port can scarcely be questioned. Lincoln had Mason and Slidell given up on the tech- nical ground that Capt. Wilkes should have brought in the Trent for adjudica- tion of the question in dispute by a prize court; but when Seward came, later, to argue the justice of their seiz- ure, he put it on the ground that they were contraband. It has been generally admitted by American writers on inter- national law that the capture of Mason and Slidell was illegal; and it is hard to believe that the Declaration of Lon- don can have intended to justify it. The mistake probably arises from supposing that Mason and Slidell could be regard- ed as part of the "armed forces" of the enemy. We will not dwell upon the new regu- lations affecting blockade and defining "continuous voyages." Those matters, though hotly debated, are of minor im- portance. The decision respecting them appears to be enligntened. The wnole endeavor of the delegates of the va- rious Powers at London seems to have been honestly to seek to make war less terrible. They could not, however, take any steps to make war impossible, or to lead the nations to disarm; and as long as this was so, their work cannot be thought to go to the main question of the day. Of what use to regulate naval warfare when nothing can be done to stop the insensate jealousies and ha- treds and provocations which are now being used to goad England and Ger- many into war, or at least to heap up burdens on either people almost as grievous as those of war itself? An in- ternational agreement to ground arms is much more needed than one simply to decide how arms may be usea. The real- ly statesmanlike proposal was that made by Campbell-Bannerman to leave off building battleships if Germany would do the same. From tnat to the present fury for Dreadnoughts — dreading not even national bankruptcy — is a painful change. THE FOURTH ESTATE IN RUSSIA. The St. Petersburg Novoe Vremya is the Russian London Times. On March 12, Alexei Suvorin, its founder, owner, and manager, celebrated the fiftieth an- niversary of his entrance on a journalis- tic career. The event took on national importance. An Imperial rescript dealt with the veteran editor's services to his country. Leading members of the Duma joined with members of the Cab- inet in paying homage. The rival news- papers brought forward their tribute handsomely. For M. Suvorin is pre- eminently a type of the editor who rises to be a national force. He has had oth- er interests than his newspaper. He is the owner of a great theatre at St. Pe- tersburg, which he does not run as a money-making institution. He is the publisher of a popular library which has distributed the masterpieces of Russian and foreign literature by the millions at nominal prices. But, though he is quite aware that Russia has much to learn from abroad, Suvorin is, above all things, an intense, almost a violent, patriot. His may be the high-class jin- goism of the London Times, but a jingo he is. That is the predominant charac- teristic of the Novoe Vremya. Generally regarded as a conservative, M. Suvorin claims the merit of having been among the first to voice the nation's desire for liberty in the stormy days that followed the outbreak of the war with Japan: When no one as yet ventured to speak of a constitution, the Novoe Vremya is said to have demanded the convoca-

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294 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 tion of the Zemsky Sobor, the ancient Russian Estates. Only when the Liberal agitation took on, to M. Suvorin's view, the character of a separatist and disin- tegrating movement, when the unity of the Russian Empire and the safety of monarchical institutions with which he believed it bound up were in danger, did he break sharply with the radical progressives. That is the apologist's view. An op- ponent might argue that, as an expert and prudent journalist, M. Suvorin must have scented a change in the air some five years ago, and have taken measures accordingly. Possibly he played safe. It is an interesting fact that, while the Novoe Vremya was Moderate during the short-lived days of freedom which followed the Constitutional Manifesto of October, 1905, a son of M. Suvorin was among the founders of the Radical or- gan, the Russ, whose brief career was made up of almost weekly suppressions and revivals. In any case, the Novoe Vremya has kept its patriotic charac- ter and its influence. It has been prom- inent in the present Balkan crisis in a r61e similar to the one it played in 1876. Then it helped to provoke the upheaval of Slav sentiment which forc- ed the Czar into war with Turkey in be- half of Servia and Montenegro. To-day, M. Suvorin's journal fulminates against Austrian aggression and gives the Czar's ministers cause to be anxious. The out- side world finds it hard to understand that in Russia to-day there should be such a thing as public opinion, capable of being roused by a newspaper, and di- rected against an omnipotent govern- ment. Yet that would seem to be the fact. Within certain limitations, the fourth estate makes its power felt under the worst of despotisms. The power of the press may be ap- praised in two ways. There is its in- fluence on the total mass of a given population, and there is its influence on the class of newspaper readers. Evi- dently, the newspapers are a greater force in our own country where every- body reads them, than they can be in Russia where perhaps three per cent, of the population reads them. But, man for man, it is pretty certain that the Rus- sian newspaper reader is far more sus- ceptible to the journalist's influence than the American. The very fact that free expression is a forbidden art in Russia, makes the free word, when it does reach its audience, all the more potent. The very fact that the printed word in Russia often carries a price on its head, makes the printed word sacred. Whereas the average man in New York reads his two or three papers daily, in Russia a copy of the daily journal is still circulated from hand to hand. But whereas in New York the path of every newspaper is straight from its owner's hands to the gutter or the waste-basket, in countries where newspapers are rare a single copy leaves behind it a lum- inous trail of debate and speculation. We often tend to forget how powerful was journalism in its youth when the lettered classes were the rich classes, and circulation was small. The London Public Advertiser did not circulate by the hundreds of thousands when Ju- nius's letters drove a King and his min- isters to fury. There was no enormous reading class in Paris when the restored Bourbons were baited by the Opposition press. The beginnings of Russian jour- nalism, itself, show a rare instance in the case of Alexander Hertzen. From its London office, Hertzen's Kolokol (the Bell) had to be smuggled into Russia. Yet, passing secretly from hand to hand, read in secret, commented upon in whis- pers, it came to exercise a tremendous influence, which even its comparative- ly large circulation by itself could not account for. Alexander II was said to be a faithful reader of the journal which he would not allow within his domin- ions. At the present time, the liberties granted less than four years ago are mutilated. The censor is busy once more. The Russian journalist is again compelled to practise the arts of halt meaning, insinuation, and innuendo, which made his predecessors of a gen- eration ago marvels of subtle expres- sion. But that is only when a writer would say everything he wants to say. Undoubtedly, the range of the permissi- ble has grown immensely since the early days of even Nicholas II. To write of labor wars, of conspiracies, of consti- tutional liberties, Russian newspapers need no longer confine themselves to telegraphic reports of foreign strikes, conspiracies, and constitutions. They need only print what the radicals in the Duma utter. Not even the full reports of the Duma may be privileged at pres- ent, but, after all, the Russian censor is a stupid fellow. The censorship, like the autocracy in general, is inefficient, spas- modic, allowing to-day what it prohib- ited yesterday, or even allowing in one column what it strikes out from anoth- er. St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1890 had eleven daily papers and twenty weeklies. In 1900 the number had risen to twenty-four dailies and thirty-three weeklies. In all Russia there were then 287 periodical publications. In August, 1905, the number had risen to 1,630, of which St. Petersburg alone had 534. There were fifty daily papers at St. Pe- tersburg and twenty-five at Moscow in those short days of freedom, when the pent-up speech of ages burst out in Russia. This, of course, was inflation. Periodicals were born and died with the rising and setting of the sun. The nu- merical strength of the press must be far smaller now. But much that was gained for freedom of speech in those stormy days has not been lost. SHELF-ROOM AND CULTURE. When President Eliot said that a row of books five feet long, read at the rate of ten minutes a day, would supply a man with a liberal education, he was not dealing in impossibilities. Two books lie on the desk before us. One is 1% inches wide and contains 380 pages, with about 300 words to the page. That would give the proposed "Harvard Li- brary" between 35 and 40 volumes, com- prising some 15,000 pages and 4,500,000 words. It is not too little. Athens succeeded in training her citizens upon a far smaller expenditure of words. As to the time involved, we may assume that 2,000 words may be managed in a ten-minute session by the ordinary reader. This would give us between six and seven years for the entire five- foot journey. But there is no reason to suppose that Dr. Eliot lacks Yankee shrewdness. Let us count on. The second book on our desk is one inch thick and holds 1,272 pages of about 600 words each. The matter it encloses happens to consist of the complete works of William Shakespeare. Here we see our "Harvard Library" grow at once to 60 volumes of some 76,000 pages, and 45,600,000 words. This should satis- fy the more advanced student, who is willing to pursue knowledge for sixty- five years, or at the rate of thirteen years a foot. Finally, Dr. Eliot has not speci- fied the height of his shelf. Take thought, add one-tenth of a cubit to the

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 295 stature of your volume, and there is another gain of 25 per cent, in contents. Without question, the scheme is prac- ticable. "We should have less doubt of the authenticity of Dr. Eliot's scheme if the newspapers a week ago had not re- ported him as favoring the expulsion of the Irish from this country, and if we were sure that the newspapers will not report him next week as favoring a system of modified polygamy. Mere justice to the college professor requires that we take what the papers say about him as prima facie untrue. In the pres- ent instance, however, the first impres- sion goes the other way. We have shown that Dr. Eliot's plan is practicable. We can also find reasons why it should have been formulated. Dr. Eliot stands now at the culmination of his career. Whe- ther he will choose to rest or not, he is at the age when most men pre- fer to rest, to reflect, and to review. When a wise man looks back over his life, he is first struck with the vast mass of chaff out of which he has gar- nered his permanent stock of wisdom. Old age, in the retrospect, recalls some- thing more than deeds done that should not have been done, and words said that should have remained unuttered. It sees labors lost that should never have been begun, friendships that should not have been formed, faiths that should not have been embraced, and, with the others, books that should never have been read. That is why learned old men have been fond of drawing up lists of the world's ten or fifty or one hundred best books. One weak point there is in President Eliot's scheme. It is by no means cer- tain that, in this country at any rate, the most condensed library is likely to prove the most popular. The great mass of us, precisely those who stand in need of a home system of liberal culture, buy books in bulk. Dr. Eliot's original three-foot shelf of books ought in theory to sell more readily than his revised five-foot shelf. But in practice, it often seems easier to sell five feet of books than three, ten feet than five, and twen- ty feet than ten. Take the extraordinary development of the traffic in "standard sets," in so-called editions de luxe, in "libraries" of hundreds of volumes of all kinds. And beside them come the cohorts of English authors less well known, and of the men of strange tongue and distant lineage. There are Trollope, Charles Reade, Jane Austen, Fielding; there are Voltaire, Balzac, George Sand, Flaubert, Maupassant; there are the numberless histories of literature, of science, of art. The pre- dominant tendency is towards more vol- umes with heavier paper, bigger type, and more illustrations. We have, of course, the pocket edition and the In- dia-paper edition. But the pocket edi- tion only provokes to a Shakespeare in forty volumes, and the thin-paper edi- tion seems only to tap new and inex- haustible sources that make our last condition worse than our first. We can call this passion for long and gayly equipped library shelves a pas- sion for furniture and not for books, and yet reruse to be discouraged. What if the young physician buys his forty volumes of Shakespeare as an effective piece of furniture for his reception- room? W'hat if Balzac, dead and turned to gorgeous morocco, is bought as the mechanical piano is bought and the pic- tures in gilt frames? The point is that the books have won a footing. With time to back them, the battle is hence- forth theirs. Like the hidden plague germs, like a subtle malaria, the infec- tion of their presence saps and con- quers— if not the first generation, then the next. A restless hand, on a day of illness, will fall upon one of these vol- umes; a child poring over those strik- ing illustrations, on a day of rain or punishment, will turn to the text; and then suddenly our piece of furniture becomes an enchanted garden, and the "standard set" becomes a world. That is why Dr. Eliot's plan may sin on the ground of undue economy. Once upon a time, it is true, we thought that immortal literature could be carried in small bulk. The author who travelled light was supposed to travel far. Now it is apparent that the more serried the ranks of his volumes, the better is his chance of popularity. That, probably, is part of the reason for Balzac's or Vol- taire's vogue among us, and not a sud- den awakening to the high worth of French literature. Shakespeare is made to assume a merit when he hath it not, by being put into large type and 16mo. They call these pocket editions, but the people who carry about "Hamlet" with them must be very few, after all. These are really wall editions, and no shame attaches to them for being that, or for being as handsome as they can be made. Some day, they will leave the wall and walk abroad throughout the house. "MUCKRAKING" IN THE COLLEGES. At the recent dinner of the Oberlin Alumni Association of New England, President King is reported to have said: I am beginning to think that we are on the verge of an era when there will be tests for efficiency such as this country has never seen. There are only two insti- tutions to which the "muckraker" has not turned his attention — the church and the college. But, mark my words, it is our turn next. There are plenty of colleges which are not doing what they ought to do. There is such a thing as getting money under false pretences. The church, unless our senses deceive us, has been under the harrow for a number of years; and certainly the at- tack on the colleges has already fairly begun. The issues of Science for March 5 and 12, for example, contain four pa- pers discussing the aims and the short- comings of the American college — pa- pers that were read before the Section of Education at the Baltimore meeting of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science. A few months ago Abraham Flexner, in a little book, "The American College," charged that the college suffers from many defects of organization and discipline; and Clar- ence F. Birdseye's "Individual Training in Our Colleges" (1907) has provoked such wide discussion that he is, accord- ing to the publisher's announcement, preparing a new book in which his crit- icism will be further elaborated. These books and articles are evidence of a growing belief that our colleges are, as President King puts it, "not doing what they ought to do." Too many of our youth spend three or four years in comparative idleness, and come out with minds appallingly empty and amazingly undisciplined. Alumni of Harvard or Yale, for instance, will freely confess that they were drilled severely at Exeter or Andover; but that, by the time they had gone through college and entered the law school or medical school, they had almost forgotten how to work. They were forced to acquire again that habit of concentrated application which they had lost in the happy hours of under- graduate ease. College professors them- selves admit the facts. Prof. James H. Tufts of Chicago {Science, March 12) speaks of the "more or less definite feeling" that college work "lacks intel-

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296 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 lectual seriousness." Prof. Josiah Royce of Harvard says flatly (Science, March 12): "I agree with our critics that many college boys do not now work hard enough." Mr. Flexner (Science, March 5) argues that under the elec- tive system the college is tolerant of every form of intellectual capacity, and therefore has the right to demand, as unhappily it does not, "a genuine per- formance at every point. To make op- portunities abundant and standards low is thoroughly immoral." Prof. William North Rice of Wesleyan (Science, March 5) takes as his thesis "A Danger Arising from the Popularization of the College." After noting that "in the olden time it was assumed that every student in college was dedicated to a distinctively intellectual pursuit," he goes on to show that with the influx of students who are not looking forward to scholarly careers, a pressure is "ex- erted upon college faculties to tolerate a lower standard." He adds: The trouble is not simply that some men do not study. That was always the fact. No system ever fulfils its own ideal. . . . But then the men who did not study knew and confessed that they ought to study. Now it is gravely asserted in influential quarters that [as] many students in col- lege . . . are never intending to be scholars, there is no need of their being particularly scholarly even during their school life. Thus it is that influential alumni and alumni clubs want the college to admit boys who are unprepared and "to grad- uate men who have accomplished very little in the line of study." Especially, says Professor Rice, is this plea raised "in behalf of men who are distinguish- ing themselves as athletes during their school and college life, and in behalf of men who are likely to come into posses- sion of considerable money." No one who is familiar with the inner working of our colleges can deny that the condi- tions are as Professor Rice describes them. How, then, can we change them? Pro- fessor Royce would "reject or dismiss" the unfit or the unworthy. But while the colleges are competing for numbers; while Amherst keeps an anxious eye on the registration at Williams; while Brown is proud of a larger attendance this year than last; while Harvard men point with scorn to the smaller enrol- ment at Yale, this talk of rejecting or dismissing the unfit is a counsel of per- fection. The lad who fails to pass his entrance examinations at Harvard or Yale, is gladly received on certificate elsewhere. And once he is in college, anything that may by any stretch of language be described as diligence in study will serve to keep him there. A remedy which is sometimes proposed is to adopt the methods of certain foreign universities in imposing extensive and searching examinations before granting degrees. But this procedure seems to us applicable rather to advanced univer- sity courses than to the college proper. Professor Royce would apply the plan which President Wilson is trying at Princeton — give the boys "more good work to do" and employ "more instruc- tors whose duty it should be to follow them up personally." We have high expectations of the Princeton experiment if it can be gen- erously backed and persisted in through a period of ten years. We shall also look for important results from Clark College in Worcester — an institution which, though very new, avowedly strives to be a Johns Hopkins for un- dergraduates. We hope, moreover, that the rumors are true that under Presi- dent Garfield, Williams will set its am- bition on a small but select group of students. There is no reason why at least one of the older colleges of New England should not have its course as rigorous as that of the best fitting schools — reject both the dull and the indifferent, and make its task the stim- ulation of a picked body of ambitious youth. The sharp discipline would not mean that students could not enjoy am- ple opportunities for athletics, music, and all other forms of legitimate recre- ation, and it would certainly mean that the graduates would soon be as notable for efficiency as are the graduates of the finest secondary and technical schools. The maintenance of such a model college would have a tonic effect on our whole system of education. We come back then to the idea we have so often advanced. Again we say, let col- lege boys have a taste of the policy of Thorough; and as Professor Rice urges, If they do not want to study Greek, they may study French or German or Spanish; they may study applications of science, as well as pure science; if they do not want to study philosophy or advanced mathe- matics, they may study the labor problem, or banking and currency, or commercial geography and commercial law; only let it be understood that whatever they pro- fess to study they must really study. In a college, as in a railroad station, there is no room for loafers. RECENT GERMAN FICTION. Much of the fiction recently publish- ed in Germany bears evidence of serious- ness without that emphatic insistence on purpose which is so often detrimen- tal to artistic quality An example in point is Ludwig Ganghofer's "Wald- rausch" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), a novel in two volumes, neither in theme nor treatment of striking originality, but of refreshing sponta- neity. The narrative opens with a charming woodland idyll. Two little boys set out to explore the mysteries of the woods and of the mountain stream which, when the spring floods swell it, overwhelms man and beast. One of them says that when he grows up he will build a wall around the turbulent wa- ters. As they stroll through the under- brush they meet the aged Waldrausch- er, who gathers the medicinal bear-ber- ry, and all the while sings Schnadahupfl that reflect his reading of life. This chapter is the prelude of the drama that forms the plot of the story, and the centenarian is its chorus. A remark- able creation is this sage and poet of the people, who has a stanza for every problem coming within the range of his observation and whose rhymes sink into the hearts and stir the souls of his lis- teners. The boys carry the memory of their meeting with him into their man- hood. The dream of Brosi comes true, for he chooses engineering as his pro- fession; and the building of the dam and his experiences with the native peasantry and the hated Italian labor- ers enter largely into the tale. There are some strong love episodes, too — the love of Toni for the wild-wood beauty Beda, and the ideal affection springing up between the engineer and the prin- cess as they play together sonatas for the piano and the violin. Nor is the ele- ment of rough and primitive passion wanting, and the humor that relieves the tension of tragic complications. A cheerful acceptance of the inevitable facts of life, a smiling resignation to fate is the lesson to be read between the lines. Two remarkable first books breathe the same wholesome spirit. "Funchal," by Norbert Jacques (Berlin; S. Fisch- er), a native of Luxembourg, but a resi- dent of Switzerland, is a story of un- fulfilled longing. A child born on the island of Madeira is the only survivor of a ship wrecked on a voyage to a north- ern port. A Danish fisherman, already blessed with a numerous family, adopts the boy who at the time of the catas- trophe is only twenty months old. As he grows up, his dark skin, eyes, and hair set him apart in the community of fair-skinned and flaxen-haired Scandi- navians. He is a serious, quiet lad, with the temperament of a dreamer; and even before his foster father shows him a board of the sunken ship with the

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 297 name Funchal upon it, he is haunted by visions of sunny skies and flowery shores against a background of tower- ing mountains. At times an irresistible Wanderlust seizes him, and as he tramps and works his way through the little country, he seeks in its seaports for a ship bound for Funchal. But he never finds one, and as his love for his foster-sister ripens into the desire to make her his wife, he is resigned to re- main in the little Danish fishing-village. As the daughter born to them grows up into a girl of strange beauty, an artist comes as suitor for her hand; but one day the father, mother, and daughter go out in their fishing boat to ply their trade as usual, and never return. The distracted lover erects a block of granite near the shore, on which he has graven the girl's image; but the boys of the village, ignorant of its meaning, pelt it with pebbles, until in time the outlines are obliterated. The charm of this story is its atmosphere and admirable style. The second of these first-stories is distinguished by poetical sentiment and by a noble ethical message — Hans Kyser's "Der Blumenhiob" (Berlin: S. Fischer). The hero is a mod- ern Job, a man persecuted by an ex- traordinary series of misfortunes, yet in his despair never quite blind to the beauty of the world. The home which he had earned for his little family is destroyed by fire. The gifted boy who has been the light of that home is snatched away by sudden death. Crazed by the loss, the wife gives birth to a daughter and dies. The girl proves an idiot, and becomes a sore burden to the bereaved father, who in rescuing her from an approaching train is crip- pled and loses both of his legs. The book would be unendurably dismal were it not for the hero's patient acceptance of his fate. The story shows such great promise that one looks forward with in- terest to the author's volume of verse and his tragedy "Medusa," which the publishers announce as in preparation. Bernhard Kellermann is a compara- tively new arrival. His strong individ- uality announced itself in that delicate fantasy, which could hardly be called a novel, "Yester und Li," and appeared matured and deepened in "Inge," pub- lished about two years ago. Now he has given us "Der Tor" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), of which the hero is a simple vicar in a provincial town, go- ing about, like another Nazarene, doing good to his fellow-beings, forgetful of self. Into the joyless life of a poor consumptive, he sheds a ray of happi- ness. The dormant soul of a miser, he rouses to the consciousness of good to be done, and the conscience of frivolous worldings he stirs until they are fired with the desire to begin life upon a more spiritual plane. Yet this vicar is simple and almost awkward in his man- ner, apparently dull and ignorant, and only in critical moments startling those about him by his clearness of judgment and independence of action. No one in the town escapes the influence of his strong personality. But after all his labors, he falls a victim to a disease contracted in his Samaritan service, and goes to an inglorious and undramatic end. The style is well adapted to the subject, unadorned, yet strangely im- pressive. Marie Eugenie delle Grazie's work as poet and dramatist has so overshadowed her fiction that a novel from her pen comes almost as a surprise. Yet it was her story "Bozi" which, years ago, first brought her wider recognition. Her new work, "Heilige und Menschen" (import- ed by G. E. Stechert & Co.), is a re- markable achievement. The heroine, a member of the old Italian aristocracy, which is divided to-day into friends and foes of the Church, is Alba Chietti, the older of the two daughters of Prince Chietti. He is as faithful an adherent of the Pope as his brother is an en- thusiastic admirer of Haeckel. From books in her uncle's library Alba has derived a knowledge of zoology which is barred from convent schools, and her story of the lizard and casual men- tion of the "Natural History of Crea- tion," strikes the pacific atmosphere of her class-room with the force of a cy- clone. This experience opens the eyes of the girl to many abuses in the school, and makes her a friend of Elena, the illegitimate scion of an old Roman fam- ily, who is continually made to suffer for the sins of her parents. Alba takes Elena home with her during vacation and a love springs up between her brother Flavio and the high-spirited, beautiful girl. Flavio is destined for the church, but his rebellion, strengthened by his love, ripens into open opposi- tion. Thus through a succession of moving incidents, the breach between the two generations widens, until the spiritual estrangement is complete. The characterization of the women is excel- lent, the girl types in the convent school being particularly well presented. The idea that the sins of parents are largely responsible for the sins of the children is the theme of Kurt Aram's "Jugendsiinden" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). It is also a tale of school life, in the rigid and strait-laced household of a worthy pedagogue, the Oberlehrer Sieg, whose own son is the victim of his fath- er's ignorance of the child-soul in that trying period which precedes ma- turity. Into the joyless routine of the boy's life comes the meeting with lit- tle Baroness Thea. The guileless love of a boy and girl barely in their teens is delicately and tenderly depicted. A childless couple become interested in the youthful lovers and save them from a dismal ending of their innocent es- capade into the world. The types by which the school, the bourgeoisie, and the aristocracy are represented bear the stamp of real life. The woman novel with a distinct Ten- denz is still popular in Germany. The "Tagebuch einer anstandigen Frau," by Hedwig Hard (Munich: Albert Langen), has gone through several editions with- in a short time. It is the simple and pathetic record of a rescue from a life of disgrace. The story is concerned with only two people, the redeemed wo- man and the man who has married her. The espionage practised in European cities by landlords, janitors, and police force, more tolerant of sin than of the regenerate sinner, makes of their life a purgatory. Even when salvation comes to them through the protection of an in- fluential philanthropist, one is not quite sure whether the mistakes committed by the legal authorities will not continue to influence public opinion and to breed trouble. The Diary is very unpreten- tious, and has a far more convincing ring than the "Tagebuch einer Ver- lorenen," which may be remotely re- sponsible for this new sociological docu- ment. Else Jerusalem is a Viennese writer whose "Venus am Kreuz" some time ago attracted no little attention. Her new book, "Der heilige Skarabaus" (Berlin: A. Fischer), is the record of the life of a girl born an outcast, who de- velops a remarkable intelligence. In- heriting a fortune, she does not seek admission into the world of respecta- bility, but devotes her money and energy to the rescue of children like herself, for whom she founds a home in the mountains. There is a host of charac- ters not ordinarily met with in fiction, and the author shows great skill in their delineation; the heroine's evolution is amazing in its consistency. The subject matter is unpleasant, but the treatment is dignified. The problem of rehabilitation seems to engage many minds at present, for even Bernardine Schulze-Smidt, who has been a conservative in her long career as novelist, makes it the theme of her new book, "Fliessendes Wasser" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Her heroine, homeless, mother- less, but intelligent and high-spirited, seeks refuge in a pious institution, where she is tortured with moral pre- cepts and Scripture texts. An aristo- cratic patroness sees through the crust of hardness in Rose Diener and gives her the love that the girl has lacked. But finally Rose cannot bear the oppres- sive atmosphere of the place; goes out into the world, becomes a nurse in the Boer war, and in due time dies on the battlefield. There are other interesting characters and incidents, among the lat- ter the discovery that Rose is the prodi- gal daughter of an aristocratic family — a rather well-worn device of fiction. Ernst Zahn is a Swiss writer whose

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298 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 work has given him a prominent place in recent German fiction. "Die da kom- men und gehen" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) is a volume of short stories full of interest. They are rec- ords of lives that come and go, of whose existence the earth bears but a faint impress, lives without complications, yet not without psychological interest. In "Requiem" the eyes of a robust fisher- man are suddenly opened to the delicate beauty of his invalid wife, and when death takes her from him, he continues to live ever after as under the spell of a dream. There is an admirable tender- ness about "Eine Begegnung," and even "Ein kleiner Friihling," stories of pass- ing fancies, of loves barely reaching the threshold of consciousness and passing away without a crisis, leaving nothing but a faint memory. The author is a keen observer of life and reflects his impression with the tact and the discre- tion of an artist. A. von Ende. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The following are the prices paid for a few of the more important items at the Hermann sale, on March 18 and 19, at the rooms of the Anderson Auction Company in this city: Shelley's "Queen Mab" (1813), a presentation copy, original boards, uncut, $875; "Epipsychidion" (1821), with the au- tograph signature of Shelley on the title- page, sewed as issued, uncut, $500; Thacke- ray's "Paris Sketch Book" (1840), with an original drawing by Thackeray inserted, $215; "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo" (1846), with three original drawings by Thackeray inserted, $180; "Pendennis" (1850), with an original draw- ing in colors by Thackeray inserted, $250; Scott's "Waverley" (1814), 3 vols., original boards, uncut, $400; Matthew Arnold's first publication, "Alaric at Rome" (1840), orig- inal paper cover, $345; Charles Lamb's "The King and Queen of Hearts" (1808), $430; FitzGerald's "Rubaiyat of Omar Khay- yam" (1859), uncut, $246; Milton's "Paradise Regained" (1671), $260; Butler's "Hudibras" (1663-1678), first edition, 3 vols., $240; Bur- ton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" (1621), $180; Poe's "Al-Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems," original boards with trimrded edges, $1,460; Grimm's "German Popular Stories" (1823-26), with illustrations by George Cruikshank, original boards, uncut, $540; the Scourge (1811-16), a complete set, 12 vols., with colored plates by Cruikshank, $300; the Annals of Sporting (1822-28), a complete set, 13 vols., with colored plates by Henry Aiken, $420; "Tales of the Isl- anders," an original unpublished manu- script by Charlotte Bronte, $470 (this man- uscript sold in November, 1905, for $120); unpublished manuscript of Bret Harte, fif- teen pages, $120; a collection of fifty-five letters of Robert Southey to Mrs. Hodson, $360; a collection of letters by and to Abra- ham Lincoln, more than 250 items in two folio volumes, $835. On March 29, the Anderson Auction Co. will sell the second part of the library of the late William Harvey. Among books with colored plates by Rowlandson are Bur- ton's "Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy" (1818) ; the three "Tours of Dr. Syntax" (1812-20-21), first editions; "The English Dance of Death" and "The Dance of Life" (1815-17); the "Journal of Senti- mental Travels in the Southern Provinces of Prance" (1821) ; and "Naples and the Campagna Felice" (1815). Brough's "Life of Sir John Falstaff" (1858) and "The Table Book" (1845), in the original parts, are im- portant Cruikshank items. A copy of Stith's "History of Virginia" (London, 1753), re- prints of Indian captivities, publications of the Caxton and Rowfant Clubs, and an orig- inal drawing by John Ruskin, are other notable lots. On March 30 and 31, the same firm will sell the library of L. D. Griggs of Waterbury, Conn., including books on art and a collection of editions of the Book of Common Prayer. On April 1 and 2, the Merwin Clayton Sales Co. of this city will offer the libraries of the Rev. William Laurie and the Rev. Joseph M. Clarke. Early American periodi- cals, pamphlets relating to Yale College, and books on Ireland are important classes represented. On March 30 and 31 and April 1, C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston will sell the library of George Alfred Townsend, better known as "Gath." Books on the civil war and American local history, especially Mary- land, Pennsylvania, and New York, make up a large part of the collection. Among the rarities is a copy of the famous Martyr- Book, "Der Blutige Schau-platz oder Mar- tyrer Spiegel," printed at Ephrata in 1748 and 1749, the largest book printed in Amer- ica before the Revolution. This copy has the frontispiece (slightly damaged) not in all copies. Frederik Muller & Co. of Amsterdam send us the advance sheets of a sale of autographs to be held by them on April 19. Included are documents signed by Charles V, Maria Theresa, Louis XV, etc. Correspondence. THE "LOST LEAF" OF "PIERS THE PLOWMAN." To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Prof. J. M. Manly's notable article, "The Lost Leaf of Piers the Plowman," which appeared something more than three years ago (Modern Philology, III, 359), has reawakened the lively interest of schol- ars in the critical problems presented by Langland's poem. Professor Manly pointed out for the first time the manifest lack of connection in Passus V of the A-text be- tween vv. 222-35, which describe the con- fession of Sloth, and the passage which immediately follows (vv. 236-59). In this fact he found evidence of the disappearance from the author's manuscript of a leaf, con- taining between sixty and eighty lines, in which, he believed, the confession of Sloth was concluded and the figure of Robert the Robber introduced. Moreover, he reminds us that from the company of deadly sins who make their confessions Wrath is omit- ted, and brings this omission into connec- tion with the break at v. 235, by advancing the theory that the confession of Wrath covered the two pages of another lost leaf in the original manuscript, and that the two lost leaves were the halves of a fold- ed sheet, "the next to the innermost of a section or gathering," in the bound volume in which, as he supposes, the author com- mitted his poem to paper. Dr. Henry Bradley, reviewing Profes- sor Manly's article a few months later (Athenwum, April 21, 1906), accepted his view that vv. 236-59 do not properly follow the confession of Sloth, but proposed a different explanation: Professor Manly has failed to perceive that the proper place of lines 236-59 is after line 145, at the end of the confession of Covetousness. In this position they not only fit perfectly, but actually improve the sense. Dr. Bradley's explanation of the mistake which has occurred is, that the author wrote his text on loose sheets instead of in a bound volume, and "that one (or more) of these leaves (containing the confession of Wrath and the end of the confession of Envy) got lost, and that another (contain- ing lines 236-59) was misplaced." This the- ory of the "misplaced sheet," which has the advantage of being simpler than Pro- fessor Manly's "lost leaf," has recently been endorsed by Dr. Furnivall (Forewords to the Offprint of Manly's "Piers the Plow- man," Early English Text Society, Original Series, 135 B (1908), p. iii) and M. Jusserand (Modern Philology, VI, 287). Nevertheless, a still simpler explanation of the difficulty, it seems to me, may be offered. All are agreed, it will be remarked at the outset, that some displacement of the text has occurred immediately following v. 235. The break in the sense at this point was instantly evident as soon as Professor Man- ly pointed it out. The lines which follow are in no wise appropriate to Sloth. But shall we transfer them, as Dr. Bradley would do, to Covetousness? To me, as to Professor Manly, they seem rather to be- long to Robert the Robber. It is nowhere hinted that Covetousness would have found difficulty in making restitution, as is im- plied in vv. 236-8 (I transliterate to mod- ern English characters): ind yit I-chulle yelden ageyn, yif I so muche haue, Al that I wikkedllche won sethe I wit hade. And thauh my lyflode lakke letten I nulle — etc. On the other hand, these phrases fit well with the situation of Robert the Robber, who looked on Rcddite, "And for ther nas not Wher-with he wepte ful sore." Again, the penitent's determination to seek St. Truth "er I seo Rome" (v. 241), may be compared with earlier lines in the poem (A. iv, 111) where "Rome Renners" and "Robbeours" are mentioned together. But perhaps the most serious difficulty in Dr. Bradley's rearrangement of the passage lies in the fact that if vv. 236-59 be trans- ferred to Covetousness the latter would then give utterance to two vows hardly consistent with each other: (1.) I and my wife will wend to Walsingham, And bidde the Rode of Bromholm bringe me out of dette (v. 145) ; (2.) I schal seche seynt Treuthe er I seo Rome (v. 241) Each of the deadly sins (except Envy), it will be noted, closes his confession with a vow. And it might be supposed that Robert the Robber would follow their example in this. But if in vv. 236-41 Covetousness is the speaker, Robert is left without a vow, though there can be no question as to his contrition. This omission, now, will be supplied—

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 299 and most appropriately — if we recognize the troublesome lines 236-41 as forming the conclusion of Robert's prayer, and restore them accordingly to their proper place fol- lowing v. 253. Let us see how the lines read thus placed (the shifted lines being marked by asterisks): Robert ye Robbour on Reddite be lokede, And for ther nas not Wber-with be wepte ful sore. But yit tbe sunfol schrewe seide to bim-seluen; "Crist, that vppon Cnluarie on tbe Cros diyedest, Tho Dismas my brother bi-souyte the of grace, And heddest Merci of that mon for Memento sake, Thi wille worth vppon me as Ich haue wel de- seruet To haue belle for euere yif that hope neore. So re-we on me, Robert, that no Red haue, Ne neuere weene to wynne for Craft that I knowe. Bote for thi muchel Merci mitigaclon I be-seche; Dampne me not on domes day for I dude so llle, •And yit I-chulle yelden ageyn gif I so muche haue, •Al that I wlkkedliche won eethe I wit hade. •And thauh my lyflode lakke letten I nulle •That vcbe mon schal habben bis er Ich henne wende : •And with the Residue and tbe remenaunt (bl tbe Rode of Chester!) •I schal seche seynt Treuthe er I seo Rome!" Ak what fel of this Feloun I con not felre schewe, But wel Ich wot he wepte faste watur with his eiyen, And knouhlecbede his gult to Crist yit eft-sones, That Penitencia is [pike bel schulde polissche newe, And lepe with him ouerlond al his lyf tyme, For he hath leiyen bi latro lucifers brother. A thousent of Men tho throngen to-geders, Weopyng and weylyng for heore wikkede dedes, Criyinge vpward to Crist and to bis clene moder To haue grace to seche seint treuthe: god lene the! so mote! Thus arranged, the whole passage seems to me to fit together perfectly. With the words, "I beo-hote to the Rode" (v. 235), the vow of Sloth comes naturally to its conclusion (for I cannot feel with Prof. Manly that this is an abrupt ending). In the next line Robert is introduced — abrupt- ly, if you will, but in the same fashion that Sloth is introduced at v. 222. His prayer for mercy concludes with a vow which could not be better suited to the situation. The next six lines (254-9) serve to dismiss Robert and thus to clear the stage for the throng of nameless penitents, who, like Robert, will seek St. Truth. Con- sider, on the other hand, how abruptly vv. 260-2 would come in if placed, as Dr. Brad- ley suggests, directly after v. 235. It is unnecessary, then, in the case of this much discussed passage, to assume either a "lost leaf" or a "misplaced sheet." The text as we have it appears to be intact. The whole confusion has arisen through the careless- ness of (the scribe, who introduced vv. 236- 41 at a point 12 lines earlier than they belonged. Nor is this the only blunder of the kind committed by the scribe of the A-text. Professor Manly ("Cambridge History of English Literature," II, 33) has recently pointed out a precisely similar case in Passus VII. Here we find four lines (71-4), which the author plainly intended to follow v. 90, inserted 16 lines ahead of their pro- • per place. Dr. Furnivall, commenting on the misplacement of these lines in Passus VII, explains graphically how the mistake occurred. The four lines were added by the author, "no doubt at the top or bot- tom of the page, with a tick to show where the lines ought to come in." But the scribe "shovd them into a place 16 lines earlier, where they've nothing to do with what came before or after them." This explan- ation is eminently satisfactory, and will apply equally well to the misplaced lines in Passus V. Here also the lines were written in by the author, at the top rather than the bottom of the page, since in both instances the scribe has brought them in earlier than they belong. These two pas- sages taken together are instructive, not only as to the careless habits of the A- scribe, but also as to the method of the author in revising his lines. It -would not be surprising if further scrutiny of the A-texit should result in the discovery of still other misplacements of this sort. For example, in Passus II, vv. 37-9, would cer- tainly fit better if placed after v. 51; and in Passus III, as Skeat has already re- marked, vv. 266-9 "ought to be put lower, having 11. 270-271 above them." One also suspects some misplacement at IV, 64, and at VIII, 77. The absence of Wrath from the congenial company of the deadly sins, which Professor Manly used to confirm his theory of the "lost leaf," is a matter which requires to be considered separately. If we assume that the poem as Langland wrote it includ- ed a confession by Wrath, it is easy to ex- plain its disappearance on the hypothesis of Dr. Bradley, that the poem as it passed from the hands -of the author to the scribe was written on loose sheets, and that one (or more) of them has been lost. [ do not feel certain, however, that the author's text included the confession of Wrath. Langland shows a free hand in his treat- ment of the deadly sins, by varying at pleasure from the stereotyped order in which they stand in the works -of edifica- tion. May he not have felt himself at liberty to omit one of the seven if he felt that it did not suit his purpose? Let it be noted in this connection that in Passus II (vv. 60-74), where the other six sins are marshalled, Wrath is likewise absent. Pro- fessor Manly is mindful of this omission, but assumes that a line in which Wrath was mentioned has dropped out. This would be, to say the least, a singular coinci- dence. In conclusion, I wish to make it clear that the restoration of the passage in Passus V here proposed in no way militates against Professor Manly's view that the re- visions of the poem which we know as the B- and C-texts were not the work of Lang- land. Though it was the theory of the "lost leaf" which led him to reexamine the relation of the revised texts to the original form of the poem, Professor Manly's sub- sequent investigations enable him to base his conclusion on more general grounds. In regard to this larger question of the authorship of the B- and C-texts, however, it will -perhaps be well to reserve final de- cision until Professor Manly presents his evidence in full, as he promises to do shortly. Carleton F. Brown. Bryn Mawr, Pa., March 8. p g _t discover, after writing the above communication, that Mr. Theophilus Hall in the Modern Language Review for Octo- ber, 1908, remarks briefly with reference to the break at V, 236, that "the lines in question are surely part of the confession of 'Robert the Robber,' to which they form a fitting close" (p. 1). To him, therefore, belongs the credit of first pointing out this solution of the passage. That two persons should have arrived at this solution inde- pendently makes it the more conclusive. C. F. B. March 13. A MEMORIAL TO JOHN NEWBERY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : The month of July in the year of 1913 will see the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Newbery, the philan- thropic publisher of St. Paul's Church- yard, whose life I published about thirty years ago under the title of "A Booksell- er of the Last Century." Newbery was immortalized by Goldsmith in his "Vicar of Wakefield," by Dr. Johnson in the Idler, by Washington Irving in "Bracebridge Hall," and by many other writers who have recognized the influence of the first man who published, wrote, edited, and compiled books for "all those little Masters and Misses who are good, or intend to be good." We have travelled a long way since New- bery and Goldsmith cooperated on that famous list of books of which "Goody Two Shoes" and "Tommy Trip" may be taken as among the best examples, but if it were only for the fact that Newbery was the first to give the "Rhymes and Jingles of Mother Goose" to the world in collected form his memory should be kept green by English-speaking children wherever they may be found. Newbery's original collec- tion of Mother Goose's melodies has, more- over, an added interest, for there is no doubt that Goldsmith had a hand in the editing, annotating, and arranging of the first edition, while he was living with and working for John Newbery. Neither in London, at the scene of his labors, over against the north door of St. Paul's Church- yard, nor at Canonbury House, Islington, where he and Goldsmith lived and worked together, nor at his birthplace, Walt- ham St. Lawrence, is there anything of prominence to keep John Newbery's name in remembrance. "Mother Goose" has en- riched countless publishers, who have ban- ished both the name of Goldsmith and Of Newbery from their editions, and has de- lighted children innumerable on both sides of the Atlantic, and the year of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth would be an appropriate one in which to com- memorate in some enduring way the life- work of a man who was, as Goldsmith said, "not only the friend of the children, but the friend of all mankind." This would seem to be the more neces- sary, for a claim to have been the origi- nator of this collection was made about forty years ago on behalf of a Mrs. Goose, or Vergoose, the mother-in-law of one Thomas Fleet, a printer who flourished in Boston, Mass., during the eighteenth cen- tury. The absurdity of this contention was amply demonstrated by H. W. Whitmore, a former city registrar of Boston, in bis preface to a facsimile of Newbery's edi- tion, which he published in 1893; but an- cient superstitions and modern myths alike die hard, and there are thousands in Amer- ica to-day who cling to the idea that Mother Goose was an American . lady, in- stead of a nom de plume borrowed by Newbery from Charles Perrault's "Contes de ma Mere l'Oye," which was published in the seventeenth century, and which had

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300 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 an origin even still more remote, as any one may learn who will read Longfellow's "Ancient French Romances." The Marquis of Northampton, the owner of Canonbury House, where, as a con- temporary poetaster has it, Learned Chambers treasured lore for men, And Newbery there his A B C's for babes, has recently restored it and made of it a museum of North London Antiquities; and a movement is on foot to secure sub- scriptions to raise some enduring monu- ment, either in Canonbury House or else- where, to the memory of the father of chil- dren's books, a most laudable enterprise. And in doing this let us not forget our great American publisher, whose name for- ever deserves to be linked with that of John Newbery. For he reprinted all of the Newbery-Goldsmith books in America as fast as they came out in England, among them the famous "Mother Goose's Melody." Therefore the memorial to John Newbery by grateful English and American chil- dren should in some way enshrine also the name of Isaiah Thomas. Charles Welsh. Wlnthrop, Mass., March 13. MAINTAINING IDEALS OF STUDY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your editorial of February 25 on "Making Scholarship Attractive" you present certain aspects of the subject so convincingly that it seems worth while to call attention to certain other considera- tions which you have overlooked or under- valued. As regards two of the remedieb suggested, you have, I think, quite effec- tively disposed of the arguments used in their support. "Honor days," or by what- ever other name occasions of doing public honor to "high scholars" may be called, will never be effective agencies in stimu- lating a spirit of scholarship that is worthy of the name. There will never be any lack of public honor for anything the com- munity regards as honorable. To put the honors first and expect the scholarship to follow is putting the cart before the horse indeed. Affairs of this kind are purely a worked up demonstration on the part of the government and find no spontaneous support in the feeling of the student body. I recall an occasion of the sort when, as each good boy's name was called by the presiding official, the small company of stu- dents present responded with perfunctory hand-clapping, until at the sound of one name they burst out into a round of per- fectly genuine applause. It was the name of the champion strong man of the col- lege! Equally futile, as you well indicate, would be any organized attempt to make scholar- ship the basis of social distinction. So- cieties of the type you refer to are not charitable institutions, but natural group- ings of men of similar social tastes and habits. A common interest in the higher things of life will draw those who feel this interest together as surely as any other form of attraction, and it may safely be left to take care of itself. In any of the larger colleges the intellectually superior youth do now, in spite of the apparent con- tempt of seriousness, come together in so- cieties of their own, and these are regard- ed by their mates with the kind of respect that serious interest in any worthy thing always commands. Only, young men are still happily far from accepting the of- ficial standards of scholarly accomplish- ment. They have an instinctive sense of the fictitiousness of distinctions won in official ways. They admire and respect a clever man, but they distrust the stamp by which the institution marks its "distin- guished" scholars. The real problem of college administration is to bring about some kind of harmony between this instinc- tive appreciation of good work that exists even in the penal colonies of our parasites and their imitators, and the methods of teaching employed to stimulate such work. It is at this point that I find myself differing from the conclusions of your ar- ticle. You lay the blame of present ills chiefly upon the existence in our larger colleges of courses of instruction in which it is easy for the student to win the cer- tificate of accomplishment with a minimum of intelligence and a shameful absence of work. You connect with these courses the charge of incompetency on the part of the teachers. Now. as a maitter of fact, the most notorious of such courses have been at Harvard, and I think the same would be true elsewhere, in charge of men of the highest scholarly repute and of altogether exceptionally stimulat- ing quality as teachers. Such courses were deliberately planned to furnish to large numbers of students not aiming at special results in the given field of study, glimpses at ithe 'larger aspects of the several sub- jects treated. In the scheme of a great university they have had and always ought to have their honorable place. They were intended to correspond to the so-called "public courses" of the German univer- sities, where hundreds of students not en- rolled in the department concerned come together to hear what men of the highest standing in their several professions have to say about the relations of their subject to learning as a whole or about some aspect of it specially interesting to think- ing people at the time. Such courses were never intended to be used as tests of schol- arship, and it is in their use for this purpose, not in their essential quality, that the real evil consists. Now the remedy you suggest is that the teachers proceed "to keep the undergrad- uates up to the mark." That is easily said, and there is no doubt that it can be done. It would be possible for our colleges to revert frankly to the conditions of a half century ago, to divide their students up into small groups, set them lessons to learn, and maintain an army of useful young men to see to it that they learned them. But we may be perfectly sure that no sooner would this machinery have got into working order than we should begin to hear the same old criticisms over again. The lame and the lazy would simply have a new set of devices to escape the con- sequences of their own action or inaction, and the authorities would have to begin devising new means to meet them. We gave up this way of approach to the prob- lem more than a generation ago, and wa are not going back to it. Whatever is done to meet the very real evils you have pointed out must be done on the basis of the ideas which underlie our present educational conditions. In other words, the principle of liberty with which the present movement in educa- tion began must still be maintained. It has been grotesquely misunderstood and misapplied, and we are suffering from these misunderstandings and misapplica- tions. But in spite of all this, the principle that in higher education the student must be made responsible for his own actions re- mains unshaken. The only question is how this responsibility can be brought home to him wisely, and, in the best sense of the word, safely. I venture to believe that the chief obstacle to a right attitude on the part of students toward their work comes from the wrong aim set before them by the college itself. Formerly the aim of the indif- ferent student was to do a moderate amount of prescribed work in a way to escape dis- grace, and then, after the lapse of a fixed period of residence, to take the degree which was the certificate of such performance. In the desire to escape from that system we have run, or slid, into another equally dan- gerous, if more seductive. We now set before our youth the ideal of accomplishing so many "courses" in as little time as fac- ulties can be persuaded into permitting. In place of units of time we now talk and think in units of acquirement vaguely supposed to correspond to units of instruction. The "course" has come to have an almost mys- tical meaning as a kind of mysterious en- tity independent alike of the quality of the man who "gives" it and of the kind of youth who "takes" it. We hear of "good" courses and "bad" courses, "hard" and "soft" courses, "big" courses and "small," until the college community comes almost to believe that these qualities attach in come occult fashion to a given presentation of a subject without special reference to the personality of the teacher. "Counting courses" has come to be al- most synonymous with getting an educa- tion. In many places the unit is delib- erately made as small as possible. We be- gan with courses representing several hours of classroom work per week through a year. Now a "course" may mean in- struction covering a half or a quarter, or even an eighth of a year. Then we patch these odds and ends together and give a certificate that the youth has "done enough work" to entitle him to membership in the goodly company of educated men. All this degree giving rests upon a system of cred- its differing little from the method of reckoning piece-work in a factory. It has not greatly changed since the days of re- quired studies. It does not vary essential- ly from the method used in grammar schools. It is a device unknown to the higher education of any other civilized country, and would be repudiated anywhere else as unthinkable, in connection with any intellectual ideal. Good teachers have fought against it. Faculties in their high- er moments have tried to infuse into it some degree of reasonableness, to make it bear some relation to the intellectual life. But the business side of college adminis- tration has regularly defeated such effort, and we stand to-day in the grotesque posi- tion of trying to maintain ideals of study for study's sake and then dealing with our students on a commercial basis which makes it possible for them to win all the cer- tificates of accomplishment without ever feeling for a moment the breath of the ideal

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March 25, 1909] The ISTation. 301 we would fain have them live and work by. The remedy I propose is at one stroke to knock the bottom out of all attempts to get or to give something for nothing by giving up all credits on courses as such. It should not be possible for a student to ask "Is this course hard or easy?" Work is hard and loafing is easy, and such in- quiries relate, not to the intrinsic difficul- ties of a subject, but solely to the point whether the given teacher will make it easy for the student to gain credit toward his degree. It is obvious that if no credits were given on courses such questions would disappear at once. In their place would come questions like this: "Is this course one that will best lead me toward the goal of learning I have set before myself?" "Is this course one that an educated man, such as I hope to become, ought to pur- sue?" "Will this course and that and the other, put together, make such a combi- nation as a reasonable man would ap- prove?" Then, as the condition for a degree, we should provide in every department a series of graded tests, consisting of oral and written examinations at considerable in- tervals, and these should be the only tests upon which credit should be given. Under the term "examinations" should be included any form of test, such as ex- tended theses, laboratory reports, draw- ings, charts, or whatever proof of the can- didate's real accomplishment at the time may best serve as a basis for academic recognition. All these tests should be set by departments, not by individuals alone. The subjects of examination should not reg- ularly correspond to any specified courses of instruction. The degree should be giv- en in a subject or definite group of related subjects. For example, to win the degree, the candidate must have passed primary examinations in several subjects, thus se- curing a broad basis of general knowledge and an adequate preparation for further study. Then he must have passed a smaller number of secondary examinations in sub- jects, some of which will be in continua- tion of those pursued for the primaries. Finally, he must have passed one or two final examinations in subjects which he shall have carried from the beginning. It will be seen that this scheme combines some of the advantages and avoids some of the dangers of the German, the English, and the American ideals. It retains the free choice of studies up to a certain point, where a moderate degree of specialization must come in. It frees the teacher from any direct personal responsibility for the standing of the student, but it does not, as in England, put him at the mercy of an examining board in which he has no part. As a member of the department he has a voice in determining the tests, while at the same time, he is subject to the whole- some correction of his immediate col- leagues. The plan retains the American . idea of reasonably frequent examinations and stages of advancement without the present evil of examination by courses. It opens up to faculties the opportunity of illustrating a broad, generous idea of a liberal education without the fatal scrap- piness from which we at present suffer. The plan would not prevent any teacher from using any amount of tests which might seem to him useful for purposes of in- struction or discipline; only, such exami- nation would never be thought of as bear- ing directly upon the student's academic standing. No course would be "hard" be- cause there would be no such thing as "passing in a course." No course would be "easy," because slackness in instruc- tion would be followed by failure in the credit tests. The student would get out of a course much or little to help him in gain- ing the training which alone would enable him to pass successfully the stages lead- ing toward his degree. It is, of course, idle to imagine that un- der this or any other system, the deliber- ately useless student will be greatly im- proved. He will always spend what en- ergy he has in devices to defeat the pur- poses of his own academic existence. Aca- demic systems must be planned with no further reference to him than is necessary to keep him from blocking the ways and to save the college from stultifying itself by certifying to his accomplishment of work it knows he has not done. The worst evil of the present conditions Is that they are teaching, not only the loafer, but the better man as well, to look to fictitious and immediate rewards, instead of working for more real and more remote attainment. X. Cambridge, March 18. INTELLECTUAL DEMOCRACY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your editorial of February 25 on "Making Scholarship Attractive" strikes undoubtedly at the root of the whole mat- ter. There are, to be sure, in college too many "spoiled, lazy boys"; nor can any one rightfully look for a remedy until, as you suggest, "our colleges themselves firmly as- sert the authority of Intellectual interests." And yet true as both these statements are, they are likely to remain unheeded, be- cause they fail to meet specifically the world of complexity that lies below the surface of any large university. Rigorous reform will probably result not from broad gener- alizations, but rather from a careful an- alysis of the various attitudes toward the student held by instructors the land over— obviously a colossal task. The slightest step in this direction, however, would re- veal an alarming array of men who in one way or another are essentially opposed to making on the student more than shock- ingly lax demands; nominally they may stand for high standards of scholarship, but they lapse variously into indulgence. With one class of such men, as I have observed them in two or three universities, I wish here to deal, for though they are relatively few in number their influence is, I am sure, disproportionately harmful. These are they, strangely enough.who desire to make knowledge human and attractive for the student; to be not only teachers but friends too. These are they, also, who all too plainly wag the tail when some "rich parasite" in passing gives them a smile— usually an ulterior smile, looking for future favors. These are they who find it far easier to be friends with the rich than with the poor. With them the student of only ordinary circumstances, or less, gets a square deal; and the student of wealth and social position does not — he gets more. These are they who are indeed enthusiastic about this friendship game. Truly, the little brothers of the rich on any faculty are a mighty foe to the tra- ditional ideals of education. Instead of holding all students up to reputable work, they easily find reasons for making excep- tions, being always scrupulously careful, however, to convince themselves by spe- cious logic — even sophistry — that their rea- sons are cogent. It is largely due to the easing off processes of such men that an instructor is often confronted by a boy who refuses to buckle down to any prescribed task whatsoever — he has been led to be- lieve that really to use his best intelli- gence on such a matter is bourgeois — or who essays without a blush to defend from a low mark a slovenly piece of his own handiwork, brain-work it is not. These men, too, are the kindergartners of the college, who maintain that a student, like a child, should be taught amusingly rather than by requiring him to give any severe atten- tion. Whence, otherwise, those sullen, pampered faces which seem to say, on en- tering the classroom, "Well, now that you've got us here what are you going to do to make us happy?" All students de- serve on occasions, of course, to be treated with the gentlest good humor ; just as all students most of the time need fierce di- rectness, if they are to grow. Teachers might well take the hint in this respect from the treatment accorded by coaches of athletic teams; the result would be more winning wits. The test should always be that a student is really applying his mind to the matter in hand. In this connection I recall the case of a boy who, when asked to write a composition embodying some- thing learned in a college course, replied in a panic, "Oh, I couldn't." He was true to his word. On the other side, let a good round note be blown for these very fellows whom men are trying to spoil. For experience con- vinces me that the majority of them, when- ever they can break loose from the pamp- erer, really delight in mental competition — just as they do in competition at games — and in a rough encounter of intellects. They often have virile, revolutionary ideas which they wish to test on an older, maturer judgment; they ask for no quarter, they de- mand only fair play. How stupid, then, how criminal of an instructor, when ap- proached in this way, to waste time by feeling flattered, or by surreptitiously shifting the conversation to the boy's prom- inent people ! I remember once hearing a captain of a crew rebuke an instructor by saying meekly, "I can talk about some- thing else than rowing." Boys of any brains, no matter what their social posi- tion, are, as a rule, I believe, bored by this sort of attention and at heart give more re- spect to the teacher who maintains in his relations with them a strict intellectual democracy, showing partiality neither to the grind nor to the more leisurely dis- posed, and who, above all else, recognizes and tries to stimulate any eager, active mind. Intellectual democracy, that, it seems to me. should be the rigid ideal of every teacher. In the undergraduate body, of course, there will always be exclusive clubs and the condescension of the great man to the little man. as in society at large. But

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302 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 in the attitude of the instructor what stu- dent really desires to see any respecting of persons! Surely, not until it is weeded out will our colleges discharge the mag- nificent duty with which they are entrust- ed— to guide youths during their most formative years; to give flexibility and reach to their imaginations ; to grant them an opulent chance, which your young men should always have, to see visions ; to en- courage in them mental correctives for the rougher and readier standards of the world outside. Just so long as intellectual de- mocracy continues to be vitiated in the manner I have cited, just so long will this duty remain unfulfilled, and just so long shall we observe rich men's sons learning, even at college, the shifty ways of unfair influence. Harold de Wolf Fuller. Cambridge, Mass., March 12. THE UNDERGRADUATE POINT OP VIEW. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In an editorial of February 25 on low standards of scholarship in the univer- sities, the Nation laid a large part of the blame on the "benevolent gentlemen" whose easy courses are' the sheltering fold of idlers. While the existence of such professors and their damaging effect upon the students who elect their courses are not to be de- nied, yet it seems more likely that they are merely by-products of general condi- tions, rather than prime causes. Of course, they make it far easier for a determined loafer to keep his head above water for the specified four years, but it is too much to say that they produce loafers from new material, or that they exert any influence over those not idly inclined. If there were a general desire among the students to do effective and creditable work in college, and thereby prove their ability to do like- wise in life, these kindly incompetents would lecture to empty seats, and their courses would die of malnutrition. They were called into being, and their continued existence is made possible by the presence of a large percentage of students who wish to coat themselves with the fashionable ve- neer of a college "education" with the least possible annoyance from such obsolete old fogies as Homer, Moliere, or Newton. The difficulty lies much deeper than \he shortcomings of a few professors more charitable than wise, for it springs from the characteristic undergraduate point of view and standard of values. The ludicrous inaccuracy and distortion of student ideas of life and student judgment of men and things are perfectly well known, except in the one place, where such knowledge would be of use — among the students. The undergraduate regards himself as a mature and important personage, who, for reasons of his own, has elected to live for a few years with some hundreds or thou- sands of personages almost "as mature and important as himself, in a community where the conditions of life are as favorable as, and in some cases much more favorable than, those he has been accustomed to. The only drawback to this delightful scheme, with its great freedom from disciplinary restraint, lies in the fact that each of these communities is encumbered by a number of men, called the faculty, who are so far advanced in age, or so biassed in opinion, as to be utterly incapable of comprehending the ambitions of the full-blooded college man. As far as possible, the undergraduate ignores this superannuated body and ap- plies himself with vigor and enthusiasm to the real affairs of life— the making of a team, the election to a club or fraternity, the acquisition of a reputation as a good fellow or a hard drinker, according to his tastes and talents — in short, to becoming a "big man" in some branch or other of the college activities. That expression "big man" nearly every one can remember hav- ing used at the boastful age when one dons his first trousers and scalps his sister's doll as a proof of manliness. "I'm not a baby, I'm a big man." Likewise, the un- dergraduate, "I'm not a callow boy with an unformed mind and a half-formed charac- ter, but I'm a big man with important mat- ters on my mind." Until the Almighty or President Wilson or somebody can make it plain to the stu- dent that what appears to be a big man from the campus point of view is really nothing but a small boy with an inflated ego, the "soft course" professor will still lecture to large and somnolent classes, and the undergraduate will continue to circu- late noisily and violently in a sphere which approximates the .mathematical definition of a point, "that which has position, but no magnitude." Herbert Jones. Princeton, N. J., March 10. WORK FOR TARIFF REFORM. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: After an interval of twelve years, Congress has met to revise the tariff. This rare occasion makes the opportunity for the most effective work of a decade by the Tariff Reform Committee of the Reform Club. The essential conditions surround- ing the present revision are novel. For the first time we have p, vigorous tariff re- duction movement originated by Republi- cans and manufacturers, and spreading in the party of "protection." This movement, quite naturally, is not in accordance with our views in important particulars, and is apparently not yet strong enough to con- trol the revision; but it makes a serious division among the protectionists. In this clash a great deal of damaging truth about "protection" can be brought out and used to widen the breach. This situation per- mits of forcing the discussion of the whole tariff question, in Congress and before the people, practically free from considerations of party. This, in itself, is a long step toward the just settlement of the question. Moreover, the imperative need of a great and prompt increase in the revenue now compels the party of "protection" to recog- nize the insufficiency of any tariff, and to consider various plans for more direct tax- ation, as well as for increasing revenue by reduction in certain rates of duty. This makes the opportunity to show, in Con- gress and out, and likewise without parti- sanship, the advantages of more direct tax- ation over tariff taxation. Under these exceptional circumstances this committee can accomplish, by reason of its experience and connections, and at comparatively small expense, a great deal toward the final breaking down of the pro- tective system, by supplying the most ef- fective facts, figures, arguments, and sug- gestions to members of Congress and news- papers. Persistent and intelligent work on our part now can accomplish in a few months results that ordinarily would be the work of years. We need at once several thousand dollars for carrying on the work which has been already begun. We can supply a large number of country news- papers with convicing information in the interest of the consumer, in plates which they are ready and willing to use, if we can meet the necessary expense, and we ought to carry on this service largely just now. We ask all interested, therefore, to send a liberal contribution, to the fund of the Tariff Reform Committee. Checks should be made payable to the order of Louis Windmuller, treasurer, Reform Club, No. 42 Broadway, New York. Byron W. Holt, Chairman. New York, March 18. POSTPONING INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: So far as I have observed, no men- tion has been made in your columns or elsewhere of a simple solution of the inau- guration question. A Constitutional amend- ment for so small a matter as a date would be almost "much ado about nothing." And yet the people want their pageant: certainly the tradesmen and hotels in Washington would miss it sorely. Why not adopt your plan for your proposed change of date to January 1, without any change of date at all? The President-elect shall take the oath in the Senate chamber without ceremony on March 4; but inau- guration day shall be fixed for the last Wednesday of April or the first Wednes- day of May. This plan would make our inauguration correspond to the coronation of all monar- chical nations. The new President's address on taking the oath, if any be needed, would be to Congress only, and his fuller declaration to the people would come all the better after two months in office. Wolcott Calkins. Newton, Mass., March 12. Notes. The University of Chicago announces the following books as in press: "The Came- ralists," by Albion W. Small; "English Poems: The Elizabethan and Caroline Pe- riods," edited by Walter C. Br.onson; "The Wars of Religion in France: The Hugue- nots, Catherine de' Medici, and Philip the Second, 1559-76," by James Westfall Thomp- son; "Christ and the Eastern Soul," by Charles Cuthbert Hall; "The Teachings of Jesus about the Future," by Henry Burton Sharman; "The Development of the Idea of Atonement," by Ernest D. Burton, John M. P. Smith, and Gerald B. Smith; and "Studies in Galilee," by Ernest W. G. Mas- terman. Sir Leslie Stephen was almost as well known for his walking feats as for his lit- erature, and it is an odd fact that his mountaineering book on "The Playground of Europe" has never been published in this country. Putnams, the regular publishers of Stephen's other work, are now making good this deficiency.

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March 25, 1909] The Nation 303 The recent duel between Messrs. Lang and France will attract attention to the announcement that Prof. Charles Roessler has undertaken to publish by subscription "Jeanne d'Arc; Documentary Evidences of the Heroine and Christian Healer." His work, written in English, is based on inves- tigation of the original documents and is said to throw new light on her story. His address is No. 30 Rue Le Marois, Auteull, Paris. A flood of light was thrown upon the history of Guiana — that vast country lying between the great rivers Amazon and Ori- noco— by investigations made in connection with questions of boundary between Great Britain and Venezuela, and Great Britain and Brazil. In these papers Laurens Storm van Graavesende, the first Directeur-Gen§- ral of the United Colonies of Demerara and Essequibo, loomed large. The letters of this old-time Kruger are soon to be published, in two volumes, by the Hakluyt Society, London. They will be edited by J. A. J. de Villiers of the British Museum, and C. A. Harris of the Colonial, both of whom rendered much help to the British govern- ment in the preparation of its cases for submission to the Arbitration Tribunal at Paris and to the King of Italy, respectively. Published by Mitchell Hughes & Clarke of No. 140 Wardour Street, London, a maga- zine, Caribbeana, has recently appeared ; future issues are to be made quarterly. The proprietor and editor is Vere Langford Oliver (a member of the West Indian branch of the New England family of the same name), who, a few years ago, publish- ed, in three volumes, a genealogical "His- tory of the Isle of Antigua." While family pedigrees fill much space in this magazine, with extracts from registers of births, mar- riages, and deaths, and copies of monu- mental inscriptions, the editor proposes to include legends and folk-lore, grants of land, and other deeds, old letters, book- plates, engravings, and a miscellaneous collection of reliques. The name Washington frequently appears in the first number of Caribbeana, especially on page 10, but there is nothing to connect it with the Vir- ginian branch. Thomas Washington of Nevis, whose will was proved in London in 1719, mentions "my brother Simon of County Westmoreland." Harper & Bros, have a new edition of Trevelyan's "Life and Letters of Lord Ma- caulay," giving the two volumes bound to- gether. The paper Is not all it should be, and the index is quite inadequate for a book abounding in striking opinions on a great variety of men and things. The ad- vantage of the edition is an additional chapter at the end, containing Trevelyan's delightful disquisition on "Macaulay's Mar- ginal Notes" published separately two years ago. Macaulay was one of the great readers to whom the margin of a book is as important as the letterpress, and to have his running comment on Shakespeare and Pope and Warburton and the clas- sics is to be admitted into a curious in- timacy with his ways of thinking. An interesting contribution to our Rev- olutionary history has been made by a Harvard senior, Robert E. Peabody, in an account of the "Naval Career of Cap- tain John Manley of Marblehead," published in the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute. Manley was the commander oi one of the armed vessels which Washington sent out to intercept supplies for the Brit- ish troops in Boston at the time of the siege. There has always been some doubt as to the status of these American vessels, whether they were privateers or "state cruisers." But original documents in the possession of the Beverly Historical Society show that "they wer^ chartered at the Con- tinental expense, but their captains wore captains in the army of the United Colo- nies and their crews were soldiers from the army who still received their pay from the army paymaster." Manley's vessel was the Lee, a fishing schooner manned by fifty men from Col. John Glover's "Amphibious Regi- ment," so called because it was largely com- posed of fishermen and sailors. His great- est exploit was the capture of the Nancy with a cargo of military stores valued at £20,541. This prize was brought into Glou- cester harbor on November 29, 1775, and on December 3 a long, heavily laden, flag-be- decked train of wagons bearing the cargo came rolling into the camp at Cambridge. An officer present writes: To crown the glorious scene there inter- vened one truly ludicrous, which was old Put [Gen. Putnam] mounted on the large mortar which was fixed in its bed for the occasion, with a bottle of rum in his hand, standing parson to christen, while god- father Mifflin gave it the name of "Con- gress." Manley took many other prizes during the war, and at its close in 1783 he was cruising in the West Indies. Being pursued by four British frigates, he unfortunately ran ashore on a sandbar and the British opened a tremendous fire. "For two whole days the American vessel withstood and returned this cannonading," and on the third day Manley succeeded in floating his ship and escaping. He fired thirteen guns as a faie- well defiance, probably the last gunshots of the war. Little has been written about this "father of our navy," and this account is largely the result of the examination of original documents, American archives, and contemporaneous newspapers. The "Historical Catalogue of the Mem- bers of the First Baptist Church in Provi- dence, Rhode Island," compiled and edited by the pastor emeritus, the Rev. Henry Melville King, with the aid of Charles Field Wilcox, is a volume of no little genealog- ical and biographical value. It lists and indexes over 4,000 names of persons who have been members of the church since 1775. There is also a brief outline of the history of this parish, which has played so large a part in the development of the Baptist denomination in America. The vol- ume contains numerous pictures of the building itself, of the ministers, and of oth- ers who have been active in the work of the church. The printing has been done by F. H. Townsend, Providence. "Germany in the Later Middle Ages (1200-1500)," by William Stubbs, edited by Arthur Hassall (Longmans, Green, & Co.), ia a second and final instalment of Dr. Stubbs's lectures on the History of Germany in the Middle Ages. What we had to say about the first volume (Nation, October 22, 1908, p. 388) applies with little change to this. Mr. HassalPs preface, or rather advertise- ment, promises "immense pleasure" to all students of the middle ages from its pe- rusal. If this promise is realized, we can I only say that the English historical student is easily pleased. He will find here a bibliography of a dozen general and more or less relevant books, a rambling narra- tive of events, any amount of "character sketching," and very little else. From an author who is advertised as the English historian most "eminently qualified to un- dertake the task of describing the history of Germany, and indeed of Europe during this period of transition," we might at least expect some little account of the funda- mental changes in the German Constitution which mark the period here treated. There is a shabby summary of the Golden Bull without explanations; but the Kurverein at Rense is not mentioned, the Sachsenspiegel is not referred to, and the whole epoch- making reign of Ludwig the Bavarian is dealt with on the basis of personal motive and with only the slightest indication of its constitutional importance. Worst of all, the really moving forces of German public life in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies, the immense development of cities, the expansion of trade, and the whole east- ward movement of civilization in conse- quence are touched upon only by the way and without bringing out their organic value as factors in the national structure. Equally flimsy is the presentation of what Dr. Stubbs still calls the "reforms of Max- imilian I." Except for one obscure sentence, the delighted English student would cer- tainly be led to imagine that Maximilian was a popular leader in political reforms instead of being compelled, as he was, to grant these reforms as the price of men and money to carry out dynastic ambitions distinctly in opposition to German interests. Altogether, if we were compelled to choose, we should certainly prefer any one of sev- eral historical manuals to this "brilliant" presentation. One is in doubt whether to treat P. F. William Ryan's "Queen Anne and Her Court" (E. P. Dutton & Co.) as history or fiction. The characters and events are his- torical, and the facts except in some minor points are correctly presented; but withal Mr. Ryan suffers his imagination to riot so luxuriantly in pallid cheeks, quivering eye- lids, and palpitating hearts; he knows so precisely the inner feelings of every actor and the stage setting of every act, that one seems to be reading a novel, and no tame one at that. With this method, if it were artistically and frankly carried out, we should have no reason to quarrel; and with all his faults Mr. Ryan does succeed in giving life to the Queen and her courtiers. The scene at St. James's when Abigail Hill was married to Mr. Masham in Arbuthnot's chambers, and the scene at Kensington when the Duchess Sarah thrust herself upon the Queen while Prince George lay dying, are, for instance, effective bits of writing, in a genre midway between history and fiction. But for the most part Mr. Ryan's hysterical English and gushing sentimentality arouse a feeling of opposition in the reader's mind, and make the whole work seem more unreal than necessary. "It is indeed strange," as Joseph Fort Newton remarks in his biography of "David Swing, Poet-Preacher" (Chicago: The Unity Publishing Company), "that so far there has been no adequate record of Swing's life, no serious appraisal of his ministry, no attempt to set him in due or-

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SQ4= The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2282 der among our teachers of faith." He was not, perhaps, a fighter, but one cannot but commend the delicacy of his conscientious scruples. Convinced that he could no long- er hold to the doctrines of the Presbyter- ian Church, he refused to occupy an am- biguous position, to say one thing while he really meant another; and consequently he resigned. It is not without significance that Dr. Patton's victim was always spok- en of as "Professor" Swing, a title which clung to him from his early connection with Miami College. His kinship was with Erasmus, not with John Knox. Mr. New- ton has done well in recounting his life, with sympathetic portrayal of his intellec- tual qualities, but it is difficult to see how Mr. Newton can say that Mr. Swing "was a man of such high and tender humanity, of such unique and persuasive beauty of soul, of personality so opulent, engaging, and lovable, that one finds it difficult to form a deliberate and calm estimate of him." The portrait has been drawn with care, with intelligent analysis of its sub- ject's mental and spiritual qualities, but affection and personal enthusiasm have of- ten pushed the pencil. Richard DeBarry's "The Land of Prom- ise" (Longmans, Green & Co.) has for its sub-title the alluring phrase, "an ac- count of the material and spiritual unity of America." Of all the recent writers who have committed to print their "im- pressions" of the United States, none, cer- tainly, has outdone Mr. DeBarry in high- sounding rhetoric, or rushed with more breathless enthusiasm at the task, weakly imagined by some timid souls to be a rath- er serious one, of determining our exact place in the social, philosophical, and aesthetic universe. Of course, he saw Ni- agara, "a drama of that liquid cosmic energy which sculptures continents" ; and Colorado, "a model of all the freedoms of humanity,'' whatever that may mean; and "the vast Western Shrine of the Infinitudes," commonly referred to as the Rocky Moun- tains; and New York, "the pictorialized embodiment of the newly intercommercial- ized mankind"; and Boston, dedicated to the "unique office of framing and fash- ioning the mythology of the present mind of America." Racing across the country from Chicago to San Francisco and back to New England, he casts sweeping glances at our valleys and plains, wonders at our newspapers, patronizes our schools and col- leges, sniffs the faint aroma of our re- ligions, admires our restless and masterful energy, apologizes for our political fail- ings, and adores our women : in short, does all the things that a well-bred and ready-to-wear tourist is expected to do, and dresses it all up in catchy phrases and sententious generalizations that sparkle like the tinsel armor of the stage war- rior. If there be among us any one so mean, so low, so debased as not to be viv- idly conscious every moment of his wak- ing life that we are the greatest, busiest, finest, and most interesting people on the face of the earth, let him read Mr. De Barry's book. "More Japonico: A Critique of the Ef- fect of an Idea — Communityism — on the Life and History of a People," by James L. De Benneville (Yokohama: The Japan Gazette Press), represents one more of the many recent attempts at an interpretation of Japan. The author, a resident of the Far East, writes with a familiarity with conditions in Japan that gives no lit- tle weight to his statements. But that Japan shows an inherent propensity to ex- tinguish the individual in the communal mass, is not altogether a new theory. In the incessant and carefully designed ef- forts of the Japanese authorities to re- press individualism to the advantage of the family and the state, the writer sees the prolific source of many of the evils that retard the social and moral progress of the nation: The dangers of individualism are stren- uously preached from every official pul- pit. . . . There remain many prejudices in Japanese thinking. The greatest of these is the prejudice against the individual, still found among the mass of the Japan- ese. They can appreciate the material progress of Europe, without seeing that at the root of it lies Europe's individual- ism, and that their own history is stamped by the lack of it. It is contended that the main differences between the East and West are accounted for by the "comparatively recent and greater plasticity" of the latter peoples, and by their "elastic use of the apparatus of thought." More explicitly the theory is that what one finds in the East is mere- ly a distortion or stunting of a perfectly natural process which in the West has had free development for centuries. The Occidental is advised to bear in mind that in his contact with things Japanese he is be- ing transported back to the England and France of the thirteenth century. The au- thor of this volume seems convinced that the wisest course for Japan is to re- verse her present drift toward communal- ism, and to encourage a wholesomely de- veloped individualism capable of leading the nation to accept the highest to which human civilization has attained. He sees some hope of the triumph of this idea; but it is not very pronounced. William Guild Howard's learned treatis. entitled "Ut Pictura Poesis" (reprinted from the Publications of the Modern Lan- guage Association), reminds us how lont, the battle of the books has been raging over Horace's innocent dictum. The ques- tion as to the respective limits of the art., of the poet and the painter, handed down by Aristotle, occupied some of the greatest minds of the renaissance, and resulted in a bulky literature, dogmatic mostly rathe., than aesthetic, whose pretensions finally gave way to the logical processes of Winck- elmann and Lessing. Nevertheless, as Mr. Howard points out, we get a better con- ception of "Laokoon" if we regard it as "the descendant of a long and not ignoble ancestry." It is the purpose of his histori- cal investigation to show in detail how great is the indebtedness, alike of the art- ist and the art critic, to thosewho centuries ago, crude as were their theories, formu- lated practical rules long since adopted by masters in their respective crafts. Much of what, for instance, Leonardo da Vinci laid down in his "Libro di Pittura" as the re- sult of his scientific study of painting, has remained common artistic property, though, as Mr. Howard says, poetry fares as ill in his remarkable parallel between the sister arts as does painting in Lessing's "Lao- koon." Dante and Petrarch, with many less- er lights, confused the terms of poetry and painting, while Dryden's curious "Parallel," though without originality, loomed large as, in Saintsbury's language, "the first writing at any length by a very distinguished Eng- lishman of letters on the subject of picto- rial art." In the eleventh volume of the Harvard Oriental Series, which has just appeared, Prof. C. R. Lanman has introduced a new feature which is likely to awaken the in- terest of Sanskrit scholars. By a free use of the viramii, and other devices he has pre- sented a text separated and subdivided into individual words easily distinguished by the eye, thus lightening materially the la- bor of interpretation. For beginners this is indubitably an excellent plan, and prob- ably older Sanskritists will admit its util- ity, even if it is rather shocking to the reader accustomed to the long unhyphenat- ed compounds of the ordinary text. A pref- ace replete with instructive and amusing examples of texts not furnished with visi- ble aids, even in English, beguiles the read- er to give involuntary assent to the prac- tical advantage of the new system. The work selected for this volume is the col- lection of Hindu tales known as the Pan- chatantra, in the textus ornatior of Pur- nabhadra, which appears here for the first time in the original, edited by Dr. Hertel, who some years ago discovered the oldest recension of the text, known as the Tantrakhyiiyika. The arrangement of the "tale within a tale" is clearly indicated in this edition by different types and waving lines on the margin, so that the various stages of "emboxments" may be easily fol- lowed. No better book for arrangement and for matter could be chosen as a first Sanskrit reader. The fact that it gives a critical text for the first time makes the volume indispensable to the advanced scholar. The brief glossary at the end of the book supplements existing lexicons with a list of over a hundred rare or new words. Of the articles which make up the last number of the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Vol. XLII, Fourth Series. Edinburgh : Neil & Co.) the most considerable are Fred. R. Coles's "Stoue Circles in Perthshire — North Eastern Sec- tion" and the account by James E. Cree of a prehistoric kitchen-midden and su- perimposed mediaeval stonefloor found at Tusculum, North Berwick. William Ban- nerman presents notes on the Newton Stone and the Ogham inscriptions of the Lunnast- ing and Golspie stones, and the Rev. Angus Mackay discusses "Sunderland and Caith- ness in Ancient Geography and Maps." Among the contributions on the mediaeval and modern period, the most interesting are Lord Guthrie's "Mary Stuart and Ros- coff"; "The Churchyards of Prestonpans," by Alan Reid; "Boyamund's Valuation of Ecclesiastical Benefices in the Archdeacon- ry of Lothian (1274-5)," by the Rt. Rev. John Dowden ; "A French Mission to Scot- land in 1543," by William Moir Bryce; and the Rev. James Hewson's "Bands or Cove- nants in Scotland, with a List of Extant Copies of the Scottish Covenants." In "The Administration of Public Edu- cation in the United States" (The Macmillan Co.), Prof. Samuel T. Dutton and David Snedden of Columbia University have done a valuable piece of work; for they have shown the evolution of the organization of public education, its present condition, and

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 305 its tendencies. That public education has grown to enormous dimensions in the Unit- ed States is revealed in the fact that more than one-fifth of all public expenditures during the year 1905-6 were for this pur- pose. Whether value commensurate with this great outlay shall be returned to the country depends no less upon an efficient and wise administration than upon a correct apprehension of the educa- tional process. Indeed, it is probably true that the most important problems to be solved in increasing the efficiency of the schools are those of organization and admin- istration. Hence, the scholarly and very comprehensive volume now before us is a distinct contribution to the literature of education; and it should aid further prog- ress. Two large volumes, "Moral Instruction and Training in Schools" (Longmans, Green, & Co.), present the result of an interna- tional inquiry set on foot in the autumn of 1906 by a number of persons interested in educational work in England. The inquiry itself was extended to the leading countries of Europe, the chief English colonies, Japan, and the United States; and these findings should focus attention upon the subject and obtain for it a more important place In the schools. For though there is no general agreement as to method, all who contribute to the report admit that the opportunities for moral education in the schools are not fully understood or utilized. On the side of moral training the factors of greatest influence are the personality of the teacher; the corporate life of the schools, its building and surroundings, its traditions, its discipline, its organized games; and the curriculum through which in part the personality of the teacher must make itself felt. These elements should be so organized as to develop more directly a good moral character. As to moral in- struction— whether it should be direct or incidental, from what source its materials should be sought, whether or not it should have the sanction of religion — there are many opinions. Most observers in all the countries represented were, however, in ac- cord as to the value of direct ethical in- struction if given at the right time and in the right way. A necessary con- dition of success is agreed to be the prep- aration of the teacher for this most re- sponsible phase of his work. The report is edited for the committee by M. E. Sadler. "Memories of Brown: Traditions and Recollections Gathered from Many Sources" has been published in Providence by the Brown Alumni Magazine Company. The editors are Robert Perkins Brown, '71; Henry Robinson Palmer, '90; Harry Lyman Koopman, the university librarian; and Clarence Saunders Brigham, '99. The vol- ume contains nearly five hundred pages, well indexed, and there are numerous il- lustrations. The interest of the book is primarily for graduates of Brown, for whom the personalia will have a signifi- cance that men of other colleges can hard- ly be expected to discover. Among the names in the list of contributors are those of the late Prof. Albert Harkness, George William Curtis '(who never was graduated), President J. B. Angell of the University of Michigan, the late President E. H. Mi- gill of Swarthmore, Dr. W. W. Keen of Philadelphia, President B. 1. Wheeler of the University of California, and President Faunce. It seems strange that there should have been no complete verse translation of Empedocles in English, but if we have wait- ed for this work it has at last been well done by Dr. William Ellery Leonard ("The Fragments of Empedocles"; Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Co.). The full text is given with the translation, and a sufficient apparatus of notes explains the meaning of the more crabbed passages. In some of the most poetical lines Dr. Leonard has had to encounter the rivalry of Matthew Arnold in his "Empedocles," who was hampered by no such necessity of exact- ness as binds the present translator. Apart from any such unfair test as that, Dr. Leonard has succeeded admirably in repro- ducing something of the oracular tone and swva indignatio of the great poet-phil- osopher. The second fragment may be taken as a fair example: For narrow through their members scattered ways Of knowing lie. And many a vile surprise Blunts soul and keen desire. And having viewed Their little share of life, with briefest fates, Like smoke they are lifted up and flit away, Believing only what each chances on, Hither and thither driven; yet they boast The larger vision of the whole and all. But thuswise never shall these things be seen, Never be beard by men, nor seized by mind ; And thou, since hither now withdrawn apart, Shalt learn — no more than mortal ken may span. We congratulate the author on accomplish- ing well a desirable piece of work. Prof. Edmund Goetze of Dresden has found in the Frankfurt City Library ten specimens of Hans Sachs, which had been regarded as lost. Though mentioned in old bibliographies, they were not known to be in any public library. They consist of pieces printed in Nuremberg, two occupying only two pages each, and the other eight, in booklets of eight or ten pages, illus- trated with wood cuts. Goetze will pub- lish his finds in his twenty-six-volume edi- tion of the works of Hans Sachs. "Zeitiges und Streitiges: Briefe eines Schulmannes an eine Mutter," by Hugo Gruber (Leipzig: Diirr), is an interesting and instructive collection of essays on pedagogical problems, dealing largely with the education of girls and women. The eleventh volume of the Quellenbuch, published by Felix Dahn, under the gen- eral title, Die Konige der Germanen, has now been issued (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel), as "Die Burgunden." The special purpose of this series is indicated by the sub-title, "Das Wesen des altesten Konig- tums der germanischen Stamme und seine Geschichte bis zur Auflosung des karolin- gischen Reiches." One more volume, on the Lombards, is announced to complete this set. Vol. II of the "Geschichte des Fruhjahrs- feldzuges 1813 und seine Vorgeschicnte" (Berlin: E. S. Mittler & Sohn), by Lieuten- ant-General von Caemmerer, will be found helpful to students of the events of Na- poleon's campaign from the end of April to the treaty of peace. There are fifteen sketches and three maps in the work, which is founded on material in government ar- chives. "Aus guter alter Zeit: Berliner Bilder und Erinnerungen," by Alexander Meyer (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt), is one of those charming little volumes of gossipy reminiscence which only an old soldier can produce, and which those whose lives reach back a few decades can best appreciate. Meyer was an echter Berliner, and knew the city long before it became a heap of enormous tenements and flats, with elevated and underground railways. A student of the old university, he has not only seen the changes in Berlin student life which shock the young Eandidat com- ing from the provinces, but he remembers Neander well, and talks of him as if he had met him but yesterday. The volume concludes with a number of reminiscences of Bismarck in his relation to Berlin, not the least amusing of which is the story of the Iron Chancellor entering a book store and promising the proprietor immunity if he would sell a caricature of him that the police had strengst verboten! The newest addition to the series Der alte Orient is Dr. Otto Weber's "Eduard Glasers Forschungen in Siidarabien," in which the archaeological researches of this pioneer and pathfinder in South Arabia are instructively described. A good picture of Glaser accompanies the booklet (Leipzig: Hinrichs). J. C. B. Mohr, Tubingen, announces an important publication in the new work of Prof. Hugo Gressmann, entitled "Altorient- alische Texte und Bilder zum Alten Testa- ment." It is the author's purpose, first, to give a purely objective and scientific pre- sentation of all the extra-Biblical material needed for the interpretation of the Old Testament; and, secondly, by means of ex- planatory notes, to render this material in- telligible to the reader. The texts, chiefly from Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian sources, are translated. Prof. Wilamowitz-Mollendorff has decid- ed to devote the sum of money raised in honor of his sixtieth birthday to publish- ing editions of Basilius and Gregory of Nyssa. The work on the text will be done by Dr. Giorgio Pasquale of Rome. Of the large and critical life of Jerome prepared by Prof. Georg Griitzmacher of the University of Heidelberg, and publish- ed by Trowitzsch & Sohn, Berlin, under the title "Hieronymus: Eine biographische Studie zur alten Kirchengeschichte," the third volume, discussing the life, times, and writings of the great Latin church father from 400 to 420 a. d., has now appeared. In chronological matters the author agrees almost throughout with the recent work of Brochet, "St. Jerome et ses ennemis." Very interesting are Professor Griitzmacher's discussions of Jerome's commentaries on Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Apocalypse, as also the ample use made of the results of the research of Roman Cath- olic scholars. At least one more volume is to follow. "Cavalleria e Umanesimo," the twentieth volume of the complete works of Giosue Carducci, is announced by the publishers, Zanichelli of Bologna. Its contents, wholly reprints of magazine articles and introduc- tions to volumes now out of print, treat of society and literature in the middle ages and renaissance. Its range may be inferred from the titles of its essays: "Gli Aleramici," "Galanterie cavalleresche del secolo XII e XIII," "La Poesia e l'ltalia nella quarta crociata," "Delia Eterinidi

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306 The Nation. [Vol 88, No. 2282 e di Alberto Mussato," "Cino da Pistoia ed altri rimatori del secolo XIV," "Delle Poesie toscane di Messer Angelo Poliziano." William Wirt Howe, an eminent lawyer of New Orleans, and twice president of the American Bar Association, died March 17, at the age of seventy-six. Judge Howe bad delivered lectures on law at Yale, Colum- bia, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. He was the author of a "Muni- cipal History of New Orleans" and of "Stu- dies in the Civil Law." The Rev. John William Jones of Rich- mond, Va., a chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia during the war and chap- lain-general of the United Confederate Vet- erans since the founding of that order, has died in his seventy-second year. He wrote a number of books from his recollection of war days, including: "Personal Reminis- cences," "Anecdotes and Letters of R. E. Lee," "Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Volume," "Christ in the Camp," and "Jef- ferson Davis Memorial Volume." A CLAIMANT TO THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS. Thomas Pownall, M.P., F.R.8.; Gover- nor of Massachusetts Bay, Author of the Letters of Junius. "With a Sup- plement Comparing the Colonies of Kings George III and Edward VII. By Charles A. W. Pownall. London: Henry Stevens, Son & Stiles. It was an excellent idea to bring for- ward a man who played an important, but almost forgotten, part in America during the Seven Years' War and in the Parliamentary battles against Bute and Grafton and North. Pownall was born in 1722, the younger son of John Pownall, who had a good estate at Salt- fleetby on the Lincolnshire coast. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1743, and then went up to London to take advantage of the patronage of his elder brother who was Secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations. He was thus early introduced into colonial affairs, and in 1753 came over to New York as secretary to Sir Danvers Osborne, the new Governor. He quickly made him- self familiar with the political and ma- terial conditions prevailing here, pene- trating shrewdly into the causes of dis- content with the mother country, and foreseeing the nature of the conflict then imminent with the French. In his scheme for a general plan of operations, drawn up by special command of the Duke of Cumberland, he analyzes uner- ringly the difference in the attitude of the Indians towards the English and French. In 1756 he was back in Lon- don consulting with Pitt on the meas- ures necessary for stopping the malad- ministration of the war. The next year he was gazetted "to be Captain-General and Commander-in-Chief of Massachu- setts Bay in New England, in the room of William Shirley, esq." His tenure of that office for three years is a part of American history. He returned to Eng- land in 1760; was appointed in 1761 First Commissary-General to the Eng- lish-Hanoverian army, then serving un- der Prince Ferdinand against the French on the Rhine; entered Parlia- ment in 1767, and served in the opposi- tion for fourteen years without due re- ward. The close of his life was passed in the pleasant pursuits of antiquarian - ism. He died in 1805. These events are related by the pres- ent Mr. Pownall, who belongs to a col- lateral branch of the family, with a knowledge based on a full study of the documents and of Gov. Pownall's pub- lished works. It must be added that he shows no special skill in the art of narration, and that he swells his book to an uncomfortable size by entirely unnecessary excursions into American history. Of the political com- parison of his past hero with his pres- ent hero, Mr. Chamberlain, nothing need here be said. To most readers the heart of the work will be in the two chapters which elaborate an old argument* to prove that Pownall wrote the "Letters of Ju- nius." It may be admitted at once that the circumstantial evidence for this theory is curiously neat. We go with the author in never having been con- vinced that Sir Philip Francis was the man; we even think that he has not stated the case against Francis as strongly as it might be put. There are no doubt many coincidences that point to this authorship, and there is the tes- timony of Mr. Chabot, an expert, to the effect that the handwriting of Junius is that of Francis disguised.f One may be more skeptical of such testimony than is Mr. Pownall, who grants the point, and even if the hand was that of Francis, he may have acted as amanu- ensis for another than Gov. Pownall. Against Francis must be weighed the facts that he was a comparatively poor man when Woodfall offered Junius half the profits from the sale of the collect- ed letters, that he was notoriously grasping in money matters, and was in no respect a man to refuse such an of- fer in the tone of proud independence. There is further the direct statement of Lord Shelburne, in 1805, that he knew "all about the writing and production of those letters," and that the grounds of secrecy were then "removed by death." Francis was living at this date, and, notwithstanding Lord Shel- burne's character for assuming a mys- terious omniscience, it is hard to be- lieve he would have made such a state- ment without some acquaintance with the circumstances. Another argument can be drawn from the letters them- * Junius Discovered. By Frederick Griffin. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. 1854. tGlven in The Handwriting of Junius, by the Hon. Edward Twistleton, London, 1871. Charles Chabot was the expert in the great Roupall and Ticnborne trials selves. Though politically they agree with the opinions of Francis, they have all the tone, especially those of early date, of having proceeded from one of high social position rather than from a needy clerk in the War Office. It is clear, moreover, that their inspiration was not primarily po- litical, but personal, and it does not ap- pear that Francis had any cause for such rancorous hatred of Grafton, Granby, and Bedford as forms the chief animus of the correspondence. Nor is it conceivable that a man of the ex- orbitant vanity known to be character- istic of Francis would have failed to rivet his name to that of Junius by some definite posthumous testimony. That must be plain to any one who has read of Francis in such memoirs of the day as the recently published Journal of Lady Holland. His blustering denial of the connection at one time, together with his attempt to intimate his author- ship to his wife without committing himself to a direct avowal, would be wholly within his character if he han- kered after an honor which he was afraid boldly to assume. Possibly this last argument has lost part of its force since Junius and his identity have ceased to be a stirring ques- tion. It is necessary to go back to the writers of the day and see how tre- mendously Junius loomed up as a pow- er to be hated and feared and admired — to read, for example, Wraxall's ac- count of the effect of the letters on the Duke of Grafton, who for several days after the appearance of the avenger's name in the Public Advertiser would be so disturbed as to be unfit foi the work of his office; or to hear Burke in the House of Commons belittle himself and his friends a? vermin beside this "mighty boar of the forest," whose attack upon the King made his "blood run cold." And the letters themselves, if one will go through them afresh, still have their power upon the mind, although King and court whom they attacked are now, like Junius himself, nominis umbra. They do not impress one exactly as the work of a specially trained writer in the ordinary sense of the word; when they abandon their cue of hatred they often fall pretty flat. One or two tricks of rhetoric they use with monotonous but deadly effect, chiefly that of osten- sibly praising while really condemning. From this they change to a direct and malignant invective, which seems to flow from a sorely wounded and brooding heart. Above all, Junius had the art of moving the imagination by the cover of anonymity. "At present," he says in a private letter to Wilkes, "there is something oracular in the delivery of my opinions. I speak from a recess which no human curiosity can pene- trate, and darkness, we are told, is one source of the sublime." It is this terror

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March 25, 1909J The Nation. 307 of the unknown that speaks in his threat upon the Duke of Bedford: If, from the profoundest contempt, I should ever rise into anger, he should soon find that all I have already said of him was lenity and compassion. It is the same terror that pervades his almost inhuman claim upon the future when torturing the Duke of Grafton: I would pursue him through life, and try the last exertion of my abilities to preserve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it immortal. And it is that again which added to the shuddering indignation of his ene- mies when he coupled the tenure of his influence with that of the Bible. In the end, we must look to the per- sonality of Junius to discover the man, rather than to his political views, which may be attached to a number of differ- ent names. And it is just here that the attribution of the letters to Gov. Pow- nall quite fails. The politics of Junius may have been those of Pownall, there may be some curious circumstantial evi- dence to connect the two, but the dis- appointment of Pownall in his career is 110 adequate cause of such devouring personal bitterness. Nor does the known temperament of Pownall at all fit. In Massachusetts he was rather censured for the levity of his manners, and his many acknowledged writings show no mark of this inveterate malignancy. A comparison of his style, too, is against the theory. His biographer prints two extracts side by side to support his case: JUNIUS. But it has pleased God to give us a Minis- try and a Parliament who are neither to be persuaded by argument nor instructed by expe- rience. POWNALL. This corruption sunk to ignorance, and Inspir- ed with insolence, the nation and Providence gave It leaders and gov- ernors exactly suited to lead It to its Just pun- ishment. The parallel is deadly. The slow style of Pownall is exactly not the language of Junius. If a conjecture on our part — not a new one — will be tolerated, it is that the mighty boar is no other than Lord George Sackville. We cannot here go into all the details that lead us to this view; they may for the most part be found collected in George Coventry's "Critical Enquiry," published in 1825; they were no doubt also in the mind of Woodfall when he admitted that Sack- ville was the only person he had ever suspected. Briefly, however, it may be said that the political views and affilia- tions of Sackville are confirmatory. Though not a professional author, he was famed for his skill with the pen; his known letters are pointed; his speeches are described by contempo- raries in language suitable to the writ- ing of Junius. In particular, we would call attention to his extraordinary speech at the opening of Parliament in January, 1770, with its insistance on the rights of the people: The minds of the people are alarmed, and they have high expectations from the de- liberations of this house. . . . Their all is at stake ; they apprehend that is in danger, and therefore they have a right ["have a right" is a favorite phrase of Junius] to demand security. The pow- erful influence in this House is too visible. The people see it, and dread it. But a snare is now laid to involve our Sovereign in the gulph of his corrupt administration; to draw him in as a party. . . . But the people are in agitation through- out the vthole British Empire. . . . The tone is only heightened, not chang- ed, in the famous letter to the King printed a few days previously, and the somewhat unusual emphasis on the word people points forcibly to the same use throughout the letters and to their brave Dedication to the English Nation. The character of Sackville, as it may be read in contemporary records, suits better than that of any other of the high-placed politicians. His reserve and vigor created about him an atmosphere of suspicion. His motives for writing were such as would forever have pre- vented self-revelation. Nor is it easy, on any other ground than that of remorse, to account for his strange summoning of Mansfield just before his death and for the remarkable scene recorded by Richard Cumberland. "There was a death-like character in his countenance," writes Cumberland, "that visibly af- fected and disturbed Lord Mansfield, in a manner that I did not quite expect, for it [Mansfield's countenance] had more of horror in it than a firm man ought to have shewn, and less, perhaps, of other feelings, than a friend [he was not a friend], invited to a meeting of that nature, must have discovered, had he not been frightened from his pro- priety." Sackville, we read, apologized for any wrong he had done Mansfield in the past, and the great judge departed, as if eager to be released from a pain- ful situation. Above all, Sackville had such a mo- tive for personal rancor against Grafton and Granby and the court as cannot be found in any other statesmen of the day. In 1758 he was appointed lieutenant- general of the British army and sworn as member of the Privy Council. He accompanied the Duke of Marlborough to Germany, and on the death of the Duke at Munster took command of the forces. The next year he was present at the battle of Minden fought by Prince Ferdinand. For reasons not necessary to consider here, he was charged with cowardice by the prince, and by Lieut- Col. Fitzroy, brother to the Duke of Grafton, and his command was turned over to Lord Granby. He returned to England, demanded a court-martial which he obtained with difficulty, was pronounced guilty of disobedience and unfit to serve in any military capacity, and was forbidden the court. Besides this affair, there was with the house of Bedford a family quarrel arising out of the marriage of tbe Dutchess of Bed- ford's sister with Lord John Sack- ville. Junius hated Mansfield for the libel suit against Woodfall, and in De- cember, 1770, Lord George Sackville de- livered a speech on a motion to inquire into the administration of criminal jus- tice, which treats Mansfield in a vein of sarcasm that is aut Junius aut diaoolus — or both. But the charge of cowardice with its intolerable consequences, against which all regular appeal had failed, would be the chief motive of Lord George for assuming the role of concealed justice. For ten years, from 1759 to 1769, the bitterness of that dis- grace rankled in his breast, and then prompted the blind and crushing blow, the more bewildering because the wrath of the personal avenger was disguised in the political rage of the nation. Seeing that long-delayed and fatal stroke, we think of the words of "Mnemon," pre- sumably no other than Junius himself, in regard to the temper of the British people: Their slowness to passion has also an- other advantage. No w\se man will light- ly venture to do them a real injury. Their anger is not suddenly kindled, nor easily extinguished; it is dark and gloomy; it is nourished to a gigantic size and vigor, un- der a silent meditation on their wrongs, until at last it arrives at such a mature and steady vehemence, as becomes terrible indeed. CURRENT FICTION. The Story of Thyrza. By Alice Brown. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. The distinction of Alice Brown's writ- ing has always been preeminently its simplicity; and from that stronghold she has not departed in this book, de- spite the complexity of type that she portrays. An almost austere restraint of style gives the work a peculiar charm, especially shown in the figure of Bar- ton Gorse, which is of singular beauty, and drawn with the delicacy of silver- point. The story in itself is neither new nor pleasant; the impulsive visionary girl, "too avid of earth's bliss,'" and the unscrupulous youth, caught together in the hand of circumstance, and the long years of repentance and expiation, in which not even for the sake of her child will Thyrza shirk her punishment, but like that other whose story her own re- calls, does much to rob her Scarlet Let- ter of its shame by the spirit in which she bears it. The interest of plot, how- ever, is subordinated to that of the char- acters and their reaction upon one an- other. The situations are rich in sug- gestion beyond what is actually devel- oped. The conflict of will between Thyrza and her son Is the concrete rep- resentation of mysticism confr|Bttti|g |f\»<

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308 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 pragmatism; and in the few pregnant pages that describe Thyrza's last vigil beside her one true and unselfish lover, we find in the wisdom that comes to him upon the threshold of death, what is unmistakably the author's own theory of the solvent that shall reconcile the best of both doctrines — the ministering love that walks upon the "paths above the paths." Henry of Navarre. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. This "Romance of August, 1572," is confined to the brief period between the entrance of the merry Gascon into Paris to claim his bride, and the dreadful night of St. Bartholomew. Henry of Navarre and his faithful follower, De Mouhy, enter the city unknown, and not yet expected, and overhear enough in the busy streets to make the King say: You see, my dear De Mouhy, I was not unwise in my fancy to learn something of how the wind blew in this dear Paris, be- fore launching myself in the teeth of a gale. The story closes with Henry and De Mouhy saved from death, and side by side with their respective lady-loves, watching the dawn of a new day from the windows of the Louvre. The never-failing lure of an histori- cal romance is a good deal like that of a play where there are employed "real" horses, "real" automobiles, "real" swim- ming tanks. "Whether this is because of the innate love of truth in the hu- man breast, we need not inquire. But the fact remains that, be the romance good, bad, or indifferent, it acquires dig- nity in the public eye from dealing with "real" names. The present one is much better than bad, and yet not conspic- uously good, being constructed accord- ing to a thoroughly conventional pat- tern. One asks in the historic novel for something less sentimental in style than the inveterate commonplaces here congregated — the perpetual soft-white hands, the lustrous black hair cascad- ing over the shoulders, the laughing gray eyes and smiling blue ones, and the incessant Bearnais smile, bringing together hooked nose and curling chin. In fine, for all the grim and gory topic, the manner is that of pink and white fiction. But the image of the time is vivid, and when all is said, an hour, even an undistinguished hour, in the presence of a colossal event, is better than many another thousand. Catherine's Child. By Mrs. Henry de la Pasture. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Let it be said at the outset for the sake of the apprehensive reader that Mrs. de la Pasture has here curbed her instinct to marry her heroines to men old enough to be their grandfathers. Phil- ippa's choice is merely old enough to have married her mother — barely twice her own age, in fact. Catherine, it will be recalled, made one of the grand- father-matches; and a singularly chilly old prig of a grandfather he was. Phil- ippa, Catherine's child, is, barring her age and sex, just like him. It is, how- ever, Philippa, not Catherine, that the very attractive David, with the usual fatuousness of the story-book lover, aspires to. As he is very much the kind of man Catherine herself should have been allowed to marry in the first place, one feels a little indignant that her creator should bring her so near a chance of happiness, and yet pass her by. But so it is: the chit of a daugh- ter wins the prize, and sweet Catherine (one's indignation shows how real and engaging her sweetness is) is left in her early thirties to be nousekeeper and grandmother for the rest of her life: The belief that belongs to youth, that life must be holding some definite prize in reserve — some wonderful happening that time will presently reveal — gradually died away, and she asked herself, "Is this all?" with the wistfulness of middle age; yet realizing her destiny at last, with a sub- mission to Fate that held more of amuse- ment than regret. The old Lady Sarah, who will be recall- ed as the chief ornament of "Catherine of Calais," is still alive, still irrepressi- ble and shocking to the younger and more proper generation. The terrible old lady seems to be a leading figure just now in our fiction. Lady Sarah has the full piquancy of the role. We doubt- less enjoy as novel from her reverend lips much good-natured cynicism that would sound commonplace enough in the speech of a middle-aged man of the world; yet she has a savor of her own. There is in this book, besides, a de- lightful and touching fragment of a child's diary, which, like Lady Sarah's tirades, reassures one that, however this novelist's humor may lapse in the con- duct of her love-affairs, it undoubtedly exists. The Passing of the Third Floor Back. By Jerome K. Jerome. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. The story in this collection which first draws the attention of the reader is naturally that which gives the volume its name. Dramatized, and staged more or less successfully by Forbes Robert- son during the present London season, it attracted some comment by a sup- posed resemblance to "The Servant in the House." The angel whom Mrs. Pennycherry entertains unawares in her third floor back, is the incarnation of the Better Self from which each person who meets his eyes finds it impossible to escape. It is a fine conception, deli- cately handled, but it is easy to see how its subtle charm might be lost if expanded and fitted with dramatic ma- chinery. Two other stories in the book deserve more than passing notice — "The Phil- osopher's Joke" and "The Love of Ulrich Nebendahl" — both of which are good work in a different vein from that which has hitherto been associated with Mr. Jerome's name. "The Philosopher's Joke," a plunge into the occult, tells us that, were people given a chance to re- peat their lives in the full consciousness of all to which their actions would lead, the old motives would still be strong enough to sway them in the face of foreknown disaster. The comforting conclusion is that- the average man meets his problems as they come, to the best of his ability, and consequently, in retracing his steps, would find it incon- sistent with his ideals of conduct to choose another course, even should ex- pediency dictate such a change. The story of Ulrich Nebendahl, unable to give his whole heart to any woman, and finding his love at last in the village for which he sacrifices his life, strikes that chord of tenderness which Mr. Jerome has shown us by snatches in "Paul Kever." The other stories of the book are of no especial distinction, but these that we have cited will suffice to endear it to those who have wished to go deeper than laughter with this modern master of fooling. Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology. By S. Schechter. Pp. 384. New York: The Macmillan Co. $2.25. Those who expect to find in this vol- ume a broad, systematic, and exhaustive study of rabbinic theology — in other words, a formal work which shall dis- cuss its origin and development on the plan of any elaborate treatise on Chris- tian theology — will be disappointed. As the author modestly states in his pref- ace, he aims at "no philosophical expo- sition of the body of doctrine of the synagogue," but merely at a presenta- tion of rabbinic opinion on a number of theological topics. He has been care- ful, too, to avoid too much interpretation or paraphrase, with its obvious dangers, and prefers wisely to let the rabbis speak their own thoughts, gathered with tireless industry and scholarly exact- ness from a wide domain, and duly classified and arranged. He has writ- ten, then, a kind of source-book, whose preparation required no little sober dis- crimination, due as much to the im- mense mass of evidence that was to be examined and sifted as to frequent di- vergency or conflict of opinion, which often leaves in doubt what was the real authoritative doctrine of Israel. The difficulty is greatly increased by the fact that the literature under treatment stretches over such varied ages and climes. At times, too, it must be con- fessed, a rabbinical text is a crypto- gram, and the riddle is hard to read, with a different meaning according to

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 309 the interpreter's point of view. To a task of this magnitude, the author, who for a few years has been president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, brings broad and thorough erudition, a certain enthusiasm for his subject which, while usually held in check, gives warmth and coloring to an otherwise sterile disquisition, and a style remarkably clear, compact, and pungent. What might become in the hands of one less admirably equipped a mere bundle of fragments, an encyclo- paedic epitome of opinions, of value pure- ly for reference, receives here a ful- ness and completeness to render It a permanent and authoritative contribu- tion in its field, where such workers as Dr. Schechter, who came to New York fresh from his triumphs in Cambridge, England, are deplorably rare. The successive chapters treat, among other topics, God and the World; God and Israel; the Election of Israel; the Kingdom of God, invisible, universal, material; the Law; the Joy of the Law; Holiness and Goodness; Sin as Rebel- lion; Forgiveness and Reconciliation with God; Repentance and Means of Reconciliation. The author cites the opinions of the rabbis on these matters as they have been transmitted in Tal- mud, Midrash, literature, and liturgy; and with "the least modicum of inter- pretation or re-interpretation," shows that "they are equal to the highest aspiration of the religious man of vari- ous modes of thought." It is thus a forceful vindication of the essential hu- manity of the rabbinical schools, all of whose elaborateness and pedantry could not destroy, and did not aim at sup- planting, but at reinforcing, the moral and ethical beauty of psalmist and prophet who constructed the main trunk line of Jewish thought. A rigid critic might dispute whether scattered indi- vidual opinions, of the early rabbis at least, can be rightly called theology, which to-day is more of an exact science. One, too, would like to know more distinctly the extent of rabbinic indebtedness to non-Jewish sources along the lines under treatment. There is ample material for an additional vol- ume which the author indicates his de- sire to write. The value of the book is enhanced by a full and exhaustive in- dex, prepared by Miss Henrietta Szold. Both the cultivated general reader and the theologian will find the work en- lightening in a surprising degree. Die Englander in Indien: Reiseein- driicke. Von Graf Hans von Koenigs- marck. Berlin: Allgemeiner Verein fur deutsche Literatur. From the title, perhaps, one might be led to think that Count von Koenigs- marck had given us a record of Eng- lish possession and rule in India, with some reflections on the wisdom and re- sults of the policy there. The book, however, is rather the summing up of what the author saw of English and na- tive social life during a tour of India when he was repeatedly the guest of Englishmen in high station, and, through them, of native nobility. Crit- icism there is, to be sure, but it is al- most always sympathetic and friendly, as when he praises the English wife, and especially the English woman long associated with Indian service, who, standing by her husband to the last, bears all the inconveniences of travel and the evil effects of climate and plague, in order to cheer and support him whom she promised to love and obey. Here and there, in an amusing anecdote or two, the German Count ap- pears to have received a somewhat less favorable impression of a few Ameri- kanerinnen, who were clearly masters of their husbands; but, of course, these were "typical Western millionaires," flitting across India. As a true Ger- man, the Count draws a line, in his ad- miration of the English, at their cook- ing. "Pepper and Worcestershire sauce," he says, "are relied upon to make up all other deficiencies in the meal." Such a detail as this, however, is quickly for- gotten in the charming atmosphere of the Anglo-Indian home, where the best of English virtues are more zealously preserved because of the vast distance between the mother country and the new domicile. One thing that impress- ed the German favorably was the relig- ious freedom granted by the English to natives, and it is evident that the author regards the rule or management of India by English of the present day as, in general, on a high and liberal plane. He praises, also, English gar- dening and forestry and what it has done for India. In various cities, Count von Koenigsmarck came across colonies of his countrymen, doing well in their energetic pushing of German industrial projects which, "thanks to the enter- prise of his Majesty, the German Em- peror, have become widely and favor- ably known throughout India." The most timely chapter in the book, and one that has some added signifi- cance as coming from a German, is that devoted to "young India," a "people who, whether Mohammedan, Hindu, or Parsee, have studied at English univer- sities, mastered the languages and science of the Western world, travelled in Europe and America, take to the baths every year at Homburg or Carlsbad, and who can accomplish all that the Occi- dent demands of them." Gone are the days when the white race may rule In- dia at the cost of the native, or coop up the native in foul and inferior quar- ters: the vast change that has taken place is in no way better shown than in the occupation to-day by wealthy na- tives of the finest sites and best resi- dences in Indian cities. The native en- joys the protection of the English rule, without half the care or responsibility, and in the end remains, to the core, a native, determined more and more on Home Rule. In the meantime, the Eng- lishman, having given the best years of his life to bringing order out of chaos there, wanders home, broken in health, to die a premature death from work and worry. By way of summary, we may say that the author is a good traveller, who sees, remembers, and reproduces, giving many interesting "snap-shots" rather than lengthy descriptions. The volume contains thirty-four engravings and a map. Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy. By Wallace Irwin. New York: Double- day, Page & Co. Mr. Irwin deserves the credit of re- turning at an opportune moment to a vehicle of satire utilized nearly two hundred years ago by Montesquieu, some years later by Goldsmith, and very re- cently by G. Lowes Dickinson. There is an irresistible piquancy in Oriental com- ment upon Occidental civilization, whe- ther made by a Persian in Paris, a Chi- nese in London, or a Japanese in San Francisco. Mr. Irwin has made one important modification in this satirical genre: Montesquieu's Persian wrote ex- cellent French, and Goldsmith's Chinese, as well as Mr. Dickinson's, wrote excel- lent English, while Mr. Irwin's episto- lographer is capable of only an extreme- ly sophisticated Anglo-Japanese. This innovation, natural enough in our cos- mopolitan society, has had two not al- together happy effects: It has caused the author to indulge in some rather far-fetched "pigeon-Englishing" for the sake of those whose lungs are tickled o' the sere, and it has partly concealed nu- merous diffuse and pointless passages produced when the author's inspiration was low. In general, the schoolboy falls somewhat short of the shrewd and trenchant intelligence displayed by his compatriot, Mr. Dunne's Irish-American. In some of the later letters the Oriental point of view is quite lost sight of, and the poor Japanese becomes the medium of a mere professional jester. The ser- ies starts, however, with the recent race riots in California and British Colum- bia, where the schoolboy's comment is really pertinent: During my residence in Hospital to enjoy brick-bat wound sent there by Labouring Union, I give some large quantities of thought-attention to future life. What bus- iness would be swiftest for making success of it? Waiting on table-board of Mrs. O'Brien, honorable lady, is repulsive to proud Japanese Boy any more do. Which would be better for me : To learn to be Christian Missionary or to study for book- keeping and stenography? Both ways lead to good jobs. My cousin Nogi, who return from British Columbia leaving front teeth

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310 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 with English friends there, say, "Mission- ary jobs are no longer needed for Japan, because our dear country already have rapid fire fleet . . . sufficient to make all Japanese Christians." In something like this vein the com- ment spreads out over race questions, labor questions, sports, fashions, Polar expeditions, Presidential elections, and the rest. For rapid or intermittent reading, it is not a bad book; it will add to the wholesome laughter of the pass- ing hour. Science. "Times of Sunrise and Sunset in the United States," by Prof. Robert W. Willson, is a little book published by the Harvard Cooperative Society, Cambridge. The prob- lem of working out the times of sunrise and sunset is a fairly complex one. The almanacs usually give them for some cen- tral latitude, but their figures are quite in error when applied to places north or south of the assumed place. Furthermore, these figures are usually in local time, and, as one rarely knows the longitude of his own residence place, they are of small value to the ordinary seeker for exact information. Professor Willson has given by means of carefully computed diagrams the times of sunrise and sunset for the whole of the United States at intervals of eight days throughout the year. By a simple inter- polation the reader may get in standard time, to the nearest one or two minutes, the hour of sunrise or sunset for any part of the United States and for any day of the year. The tables are convenient and grac- tical. "Das Pferd und seine Geschichte," by Wilhelm Bolsche, the second volume of his well-known "Tierbuch," traces the evolu- tion of the horse from his wild state until subdued by the Arabians. (Berlin: Georg Sonde.) The great interest shown by Germans in the problem of conquering the air, by one form or another of airship, is evident from the almost daily publication of book or brochure on the subject. The last work to appear is from Dr. R. Wegner von Dallwitz, "Hilfsbuch fur den Luftschift> und Flugmaschinenbau" (Rostock-i.-M.: C. J. E. Volckmann). The forty-four illus- trations are designed as practical helps to those wishing to try for themselves the building of an airship. William Henry Wahl, for more than twenty-five years secretary of the Frank- lin Institute, Philadelphia, died in that city March 23, at the age of sixty. He was born in Philadelphia, was graduated from Dickinson College, and later took the doc- tor's degree at Heidelberg. Returning to America, he taught science in the Episco- pal Academy of Philadelphia, and later at the Central High School there. He had been editor of the Philadelphia Polytechnic Review, associate editor of the New York Engineering and Mining Journal, editor of the New York Manufacturer and Build- er, and of the Journal of the Franklin In- stitute. Among his writings are "Galvano- plastic Manipulations" (1883), "Techno- chemical Receipt Book" (with W. T. Brannt, 1885), "Handbook of Assaying" (translated, with additions, from the Ger- man), Vol. V of the "Iconographic Encyclo- paedia" (treating the constructive arts, 1893), "Historical Sketch of the Franklin Institute" (1894), and "Report on Petro- leums, as to Their Safety and Danger." Drama. Griselda. By Gerbert Hauptmann. Ber- lin: S. Fischer. The nineteenth play by the author of "Die versunkene Glocke" is a great ad- vance over its predecessor, "Kaiser Karls Geisel," and is likely to meet with more popular favor than the fairy-tale, "Und Pippa tanzt." "Griselda," presenting some twenty-two persons, as contrasted with half a dozen in the "Friedens Fest," was staged simultaneously at Berlin and Vienna on March 6, and was, in general, warmly received. If in Vienna especially the audience held its breath for a while, doubting whe- ther to applaud, the coolness was prob- ably due to Hauptmann's boldness of speech rather than to any lameness in the early action. This extreme frank- ness of utterance eclipses anything found in Hauptmann before. As in "Florian Geyer" and "Kaiser Karls Geisel," Hauptmann sometimes turns to German history and tradition, and "Griselda" is founded on the old story of Griseldis, a poor farmer's daughter, whose husband, a count, hav- ing chosen her for her exceptional beauty, puts her devotion to the test by depriving her of her children, and final- ly sending her back "home. At last, when she has borne every trial and in- dignity patiently, the noble count takes her back. This material Hauptmann transforms and remodels so that but lit- tle suggestion of the traditional Gri- seldis is left. He brings before us Markgraf Ulrich, a roystering, untamed heir, and the buxom peasant girl, with whom Ulrich is fascinated at first sight. His decision to marry her follows the attempt of his kin to make him take to wife a lady of the court. Thus far the figures are neither of wood nor of straw, but warm-blood- ed, if not always warm-hearted, crea- tures. Griselda's sudden transformation, however, in the fourth scene, at the wedding, from a peasant girl to a court lady, is fanciful rather than possible; and Ulrich's change of mien, implying an inner regeneration, is a little too celestial. In portraying Griselda as a meek, suffering wife, looking forward to motherhood and doubting the love and fidelity of her husband, Hauptmann holds somewhat to the ancient tradi- tion; but he changes the motive of the count in removing the baby from the mother's reach, in that Ulrich is de- picted as so passionately in love with his wife that, from jealousy alone, he cannot bear to think that even the new- born child may come between him and the object of his affection. So, too, Ul- rich does not drive Griselda from home, but, with soul aflame, she leaves the castle of her own accord and returns, in her peasant dress, to her parents' cottage. An impelling love for her child, however, draws her back, but only as a scrubwoman, to clean the steps of her palace. It is at this moment that her lost child comes into her arms, from a passing nurse, and in her hour of joy, Ulrich reappears, to be told by her, in answer to his question as to what he must do to atone, that he should love her, but less passionately. In the scenes which exhibit persons in the higher walks of life, Hauptmann is less individual and forcible, but in the farmyard of the poor old Helm- brechts, the author of "Die Weber" is at his very best. Nowhere is his language more poetic. The colloquies between the aged parents of Griselda and the visit of the affectionate and bent old man to the bedroom of his daughter, to bring in some magic ointments prepared by the thoughtful Mutter Helmbrecht, show Hauptmann at his highest. The play is marked also by veins of humor. When all has been said in its praise, however, it remains that "Griselda" is not equal to "Die versunkene Glocke," and probably not equal to "Hannele." But at least Hauptmann has not ex- perienced the failure of "Florian Geyer" or stopped at the height attained in "Kaiser Karls Geisel." "The Taming of a Shrew," the old play from which Shakespeare drew the plot of "The Shrew," has been reprinted several times before. The advantages of the new reprint in the Shakespeare Library (Duf- field & Co.) are the neat and handy form of the book, the division of the play into acts, and the modernizing of the spell- ing. In other words, it is issued so as to attract the general reader as well as the special student of Elizabethan drama. The editor, F. S. Boas, furnishes a satisfac- tory introduction, in which he discredits the attribution of the play to Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, or (a theory revived by Prof. Courthope in his "History of English Poet- ry") Shakespeare. The usual appendixes follow the text, including a list of the ex- traordinary plagiarisms from Marlowe. The nature of these alone would disprove the Shakespearean authorship of the play, for our Stratford poet was not in the habit of spoiling what he borrowed. Another volume in the Shakespeare Li- brary presents a more complicated prob- lem. "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" Is one of the three plays whose plots Shakes- peare seems to have invented himself; yet even here, as may be seen in Frank Sidg- wick's compilation of "Sources and Ana- logues," the material was taken in free- handed manner. In his introductory study of the sources, Mr. Sidgwick considers separately the main or sentimental plot of the four lovers, the grotesque plot with L-

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March 25, 1909] The Nation 311 the interlude of "Pyramus and Thisbe," and the fairy plot. The discussion is ex- cellent, although here and there, for ex- ample in the pages on fairy-lore, some of the material may seem too elementary for the scholar, and some of it too minute for the layman. The actual sources reprinted are Golding's translation (1575) of the story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" ; "Robin Good-fellow," from Collier's edition for the Percy So- ciety in 1841; "The Romance of Thomas of Erceldoune," chiefly from the Thornton MS. In Lincoln Cathedral Library; selections from Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft"; "Strange Farlies [marvels]," from Thomas Churchyard's "Handful of Gladsome Verses" (1592) ; "The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Good-fellow,'' from a black-letter broad- side of the seventeenth century; with ex- tracts from Ben Jonson, Drayton, and oth- ers. Dr. Willibald Klatt is the author of a work on MoliSre's relation to the pastoral drama: "Molifires Beziehungen zum Hirten- drama. Mit einer Vorstudie: Haupttypen der Hirtendichtung von Moliere" (Berlin: Mayer & Miiller). Frank Wedekind, an aggressive and tena- cious personality, has succeeded in finding a following in Germany, and has attracted the attention of French critics. After his repulsive "Musik," in which he presented with unnecessary brutality the unscrupulous licentiousness of a vocal teacher and the incredible weakness of a girl-student, he condensed into one act the tragedy of the poet and his muse, "Zensur: Theodizee." His latest play, however, "Oaha" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), is a picture of life in the editorial world of a German magazine, so full of allusions to the Sim- plizissimu8 as to be barely comprehensible to the general reader. There is one thing to be said about "An Englishman's Home," the play by Major Guy Du Maurier, which has been the cause of so much military hysteria in England, and which was produced in the Criterion Theatre on Monday evening, and that is, that, whatever may be thought of its mo- tive or its logic, it is a mighty effective piece of work of its kind. Moreover, it is a 'veritable drama, admirably constructed In accordance with classic principles, and with a strict observance of the unities. The whole story is unfolded in action, the catastrophe is the legitimate result of the premises, and there is the closest correlation between incident and character. And, in addition to all this, the dialogue, although utterly devoid of literary pretence, and often Btudiously silly, is uncommonly good, be- cause of its verity, its conciseness, its sa- tirical significance, and its perfect appro- priateness. Technically it is an astonish- ingly well made piece for a first effort, and incomparably superior in all dramatic es- sentials to the "Trilby" which made the fortune of the author's father. Regarded as a recruiting document and as a plea for the organization of a citizen soldiery for home defence — without reference to the vexed question of the likelihood or prac- ticability of the imaginary invasion — and as a bit of fierce social satire in the mood of Kipling's muddied oafs and flannelled fools, it is a striking achievement. Of course it Is flavored strongly with the professional contempt of the trained for the amateur soldier, but those who are familiar with the quality of the ordinary British volun- teer in the rural districts will realize that the picture drawn of the local Essex forces, if somewhat exaggerated, is by no means destitute of truth. If it be once granted that a sudden invasion of Great Britain is possible, the picture of fussy and com- ical incompetence, with all its disastrous consequences, becomes plausible enough. But the real sting of the piece lies in its merci- less ridicule of that section of the vast mid- dle class of the British population, the great body of smaller commercial men, shop- keepers, clerks, mechanics, and idle youth of all kinds, having no sense of social, indi- vidual, or national responsibilities, or much interest in anything except the music hall, the football field, and prize contests in the yellow journals. There is so much bitter and wholesome truth in all of this that the play acquires a special signifi- cance wholly apart from its merely military sensations. It is not difficult, after seeing it, to understand the stir it made in Lon- don, but it by no means follows that it will attract as much attention here, where it has no local application. The American audi- ence laughed at the exhibition of incapacity which would have made most Englishmen grind their teeth. But the piece is good en- tertainment, taken simply as realistic melo- drama. It is pleasant to think that in the original form Major Du Maurier brought it artistically to a tragic end. The present boastful finish is not only idiotic in itself, but makes nonsense of the whole represen- tation. In this city there is absolutely no excuse for it. E. H. Sothern will begin his engagement at Daly's Theatre in this city, April 29, with a revival of "Richelieu." He will also be seen in "Hamlet," "Lord Dundreary," and "If I Were King." There seems to be no doubt of the fine quality of John Galsworthy's play, "Strife," which has just been produced in London. It is a story of a fierce fight between capital and labor; of a strike in which the em- ployers on the one hand and the men on the other are prevented from making mutual concessions by the unrelenting obstinacy of their respective leaders. Incidentally, the sufferings of the innocent wives and children of the idle workmen are set forth in a series of realistic pictures which are said to be of almost harrowing pathos. An especially strong impression was made by Norman Mc- Kinnel in the character of the rigid old cap- italist, John Anthony. Oscar Asche and Miss Lily Brayton pro- duced their new play, "Count Hannibal," at Bristol, England, last week. The adap- tation of Stanley J. Weyman's novel has been done by Mr. Asche himself, with the assistance of Norreys Connell. Mr. Asche appeared as Count Hannibal Travannes, and Miss Brayton as the fair Huguenot, Clotilde. A. E. W. Mason, who is better known in America as a novelist than as a playwright, has written a new comedy of modern life called "Colonel Smith," which has been ac- cepted by George Alexander for production in London. Mr. Alexander will play the principal male part, with Miss Irene Van- brugh as the heroine. Beerbohm Tree will produce "The School for Scandal" in London April 10. He him- self will play Sir Peter Teazle, Edward Terry will be the Crabtree, Henry Neville the Sir Oliver, Lionel Brough the Moses, Robert Loraine the Charles Surface, and Basil Gill the Joseph. For the part of Lady Sneerwell, Miss Ellis Jeffreys has been engaged, and Miss Marie Lohr will repre- sent Lady Teazle. F. R. Benson's company, in England, has sustained a severe loss in the death of George R. Weir, the oldest and one of the ablest members of the organization. He was born of Scotch and Welsh parents in Glasgow, and began his stage career with Barry Sullivan. For twenty-six years he undertook all the leading comic roles in the Benson company's productions, such as Stephano in "The Tempest," Sir Toby Belch, Autolycus, the First Gravedigger, and the Fool in "King Lear." Music. The Peasant Songs of Great Russia. By Eugenie Lineff. London: David Nutt. Hopi Songs. By Benjamin Ives Gilman. Boston; Houghton Mifflin Co. In the opinion of Eugenie Lineff, the chief strength of the modern Russian music which at present plays so impor- tant a part in the concert halls of two continents, lies in this: that it reflects the life of the people collectively, the masses having helped in creating this music. In other words, the Russian composers, from Glinka, the creator of national opera, through Dargomijsky, Borodin, Seroff, and others, to Rimsky- Korsakoff and Tchaikovsky, wrote works which are full of the echoes of popular melodies. These melodies have been frequently collected and printed in a more or less — generally less — satisfac- tory manner, and they are frequently sung in Russian music halls and some- times in ours. Some years ago, when Eugenie Lineff gave some "lecture-con- certs" in this country, she was frequent- ly asked whether her company sang "genuine folk-songs." She could only reply that they sang according to the best existing collections; but on her re- turn to Russia she determined to make a thorough study of the originals, with the aid of a phonograph. She soon dis- covered that the collections she had fol- lowed were frequently misleading, the songs having been noted down by ear, a process particularly untrustworthy in the case of the Russian songs that are sung in two, three, or four parts. She compares the recording of a song by phonograph to the kinematographic pro- cess, and asserts that the twenty-three songs printed in her volume are the first record of Russian peasant tunes made in this manner. In transcribing them from phonograph to piano some of the exactness of the phonograph had to be sacrificed because the piano has only the "tempered" intervals; but in other respects, apart from tone color, these part songs are as sung by the people —

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312 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 at times, for the singers incessantly vary them in accent and other details in accordance with the district, village, street, and the inspiration of the mo- ment; for these performations are largely improvisations. There are also chapters on the singers of these songs and on the tonality and musical scales. The second half of the volume, containing the musical illustrations, is printed in the Russian language; but, fortunately, the Russians use the same musical notation that we do. If the tonality, the modes, and scales of the older Russian folksongs present puzzles to our ears, far more does the American Indian music of which Mr. Gilman presents specimens in his vol- ume on Hopi songs, which completes an inquiry into Pueblo music begun in 1891 with a study of Zufii melodies. The records upon which these investiga- tions are based were obtained in Ari- zona by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, now of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, at the time in charge of the Hemenway Southwestern Expedition. He first ap- plied the phonograph to the preserva- tion and study of aboriginal folklore. To the lay mind nothing seems simpler than the taking of such phonograph records, but these pages show that the securing of exactness requires the most exacting investigation and adjustment. These records show not only how In- dians make music, they show music it- self in the making. In his treatise on Zufii melodies the author called them examples of a music without scale. "In this archaic stage of the art," he says, "scales are not formed, but forming." For this novel view he now has sought con- firmation in the performances of Hopi singers, which, in his opinion, strength- en the belief that aboriginal American music "is a type apart, whose essential remoteness from the music of Europe and Asia may be symbolized, as it doubt- less was conditioned, by the physical isolation of the Americas. . . . The hearer seems witness to a wholly strange method of musical thought and delivery." Not only is this Indian music appar- ently without scale, but it is otherwise characterized by the freedom which the white race personifies in the Indian. No metes and bounds to invention manifest themselves; such exactness as the music possesses does not lie in the individual intervals, and the melodies may appar- ently be altered by every performer: The song is no fixed scheme in the sing- er's mind, but a composite memory of many free renditions, as a folk-tale in the mind of the narrator, minute exactness al- ternating with wide latitude in the recital. Of particular interest is what Mr. Gil- man has to say about "mutation" in this music; that is, a partial change in the pitch of repeated phrases. While having points of resemblance to both discord and modulation, mutation is a different means of musical effect from those upon which our music is largely based. There are several kinds of muta- tion (see pp. 17 and 217), and with their aid the Indian singer can produce changes of mood comparable to those we attain by passing from the gay major to the sad minor mode. One of the tunes recorded in this volume makes up "a dialogue of moods like Tennyson's 'Two Voices.' " Here is a new thought for our white composers of red music! But they had better make haste, or Debussy will hear of this and get ahead of them by writing an aboriginal American opera. It is just in his line. When Verdi, at the age of eighty, launch- ed a new opera, all the world marvelled at the feat. Musicians extolled the exquisite style of this "Falstaff," but after the first curiosity had been gratified the opera was neglected and all efforts to revive it and make it a regular part of the repertory have failed everywhere. In this city it was sung three times in 1894-5 and three times the following season. Then it was shelved till last Saturday, when it was revived at the Metropolitan under Mr. Toscanini and v/ith an excellent cast. The attitude of the audience indicated that again it will not survive three performances. There is much in the score to interest musicians, but what the public wants in an opera is melo- dy, and melody even Verdi was unable to create at the age of eighty. Wassily Safonoff's successful activity at the head of the New York Philharmonic So- ciety, extending over a period of six sea- sons, will come to an end with the con- certs to be given on Friday afternoon and Saturday evening of this week at Carnegie Hall. Out of compliment to the national- ity of the conductor, a programme consist- ing wholly of the music of Tchaikovsky has been arranged. The "Pathetique" Sym- phony, "Italian Caprice," "Elegy" on string orchestra from the Serenade in C major, and "Slavic March" are the selections. It was the "Pathetique" Symphony with which Mr. Safonoff, at his first appearance with the Philharmonic Society, at once establish- ed himself a favorite with the New York public, and it has ever since remained his strongest and most impressive interpreta- tion. Isaac van Vleck Flagler, organist and composer, died at Auburn, N. Y., March 16, at the age of sixty-one. Among the collec- tions of pieces he composed and edited are: "Five New Collections of Organ Music," "Organists' Treasury," "New Collection of Choir Music," "New Era of Song," and "Songs of Praise and Devotion." Frederick H. Pease, for many years direc- tor of the music department of the State Normal College at Ypsilanti, Mich., died March 22, at the age of sixty-nine. He was born in Farmington, O., and, after study in both America and Europe, he came to Ypsilanti as teacher in 1863. He was au- thor of a number of music books, among them "Pease's Singing. Book," "Choral In- struction Course," and "Choral Song Book." He also composed a number of Dieees of church music. Art. A SHOW OF FAIR WOMEN. London, March 10. The International Society, having hil upon a name for a show that draws the public and still admits of interest- ing work, seems unwilling to give it up, and again this winter, for the second ex- hibition at the new gallery, has arrang- ed a collection of Fair Women. Place has been found not only for pictures of distinction and of use to the student, but for pictures of either hopeless com- monplace or of no use to anybody ex- cept the lover of the sensational. Though many contemporary portraits might have been left out to the advan- tage of the exhibition as a whole, they at least help to emphasize the differ- ence between the methods of the artist who thinks only of the quality of the portrait he is painting, and the methods of the painter who is preoccupied with the effect to be produced on the walls of a gallery. When you see the affecta- tions and poses of the men who strug- gle for recognition to-day, you realize the dignity and reticence of the men who were looked upon as the inde- pendents of the older generation and who were condemned as eccentric. In point of time, the collection goes back to the eighteenth century. Rey nolds and Gainsborough may not rank with the greatest masters of all, bui. they were far more than manufacturers, and the two pictures by which each is now represented are among their most characteristic. Reynolds painted few portraits with greater life and charm than the well-known Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire and Child; Gainsborough painted few of more subtle truth and sympathy than his Mrs. Elliott. It is a pleasure to see these again, but in the present series they are of less imme- diate interest than work of a later date for the simple reason that they have had little influence on the art of to-day. An occasional modern painter in Eng- land may have gone back to the eigh- teenth century; but Courbet, Whistler, and Manet are the artists who, of all others, have had the most vital influ- ence on modern art. By the time that Courbet had become a force in the Paris schools and studios, the Pre-Raphaelite movement in England was on the wane; but this movement was the English out- come of the same defiance of conven- tion and academic ideals that made of Courbet a leader. The exhibition con- tains, however, little more than remind- ers of the Brotherhood: studies in pas- tel for his pictures by Ford Madox Brown; water color, pencil, pen-and-ink drawings by Rossetti; Venus's Mirror by Burne-Jones, a sad and dreary pic- ture as one sees it now. Of the Pre- Raphaelite Millais, there is nothing ex-

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March 25, 1909 The Nation 313 cept his Eve of St. Agnes, though what it is doing in a collection of Fair Wo- men, it is hard to say. His few por- traits of a later period, though of no great importance, are painted with a knowledge and a freshness that make many near canvases look muddy and fumbling, while in one, the portrait of his daughter, there is a bunch of flow- ers so delicate and subtle in handling that, by comparison, the more ambitious details of other painters seem vulgar and crude. For Millais was accomplish- ed technically, if he often fell away from his own high standard. Studies by Leighton, careful but uninspired, early portraits by Watts, of Lady Holland and Ellen Terry as a girl, complete the work of any note by British artists of their generation. It has so little in com- mon with anything else in the gallery that you might think it was there sole- ly to prove how slight was its effect upon the art of England or the art of the world. It is another thing with the contem- poraries of these men in France, who also believed in the return to nature which the Pre-Raphaelites preached, but did not know how to practise. Courbet stood in no need of Primitives, or of anybody, to show him the way to na- ture. He used his own eyes and would have been the last to content himself by substituting a new convention for an old. Only one of his pictures is exhibit- ed, Jeunes Fille cueillant des fleures, but in it you have an example of pure real- ism, of nature studied for herself, and you find that robust quality which only this intimate, intelligent study of na- ture will give. The young girl is solid- ly and vigorously painted, but she stands to one side as if trying to efface her- self, and not distract attention from the mass — the avalanche — of flowers filling the rest of the canvas, put down in all their delicacy and fragility of form, in all their vividness and tenderness of color, but with a breadth that shames the tedious little photographic details of the Pre-Raphaelites. This is really a study of nature, not an inventory; and though the picture is not so typical of Courbet as some of his more famous canvases, it explains what "going to na- ture" and "realism" meant to the school of which he was the prophet. A Whistler hangs beside the Courbet, and a second fills a centre in the same gallery. This is the Symphony in White No. Ill, too often seen of recent years to need description. It has artistic in- terest, apart from its own beauty, as the first picture he exhibited as a Sym- phony, and marks, therefore, his com- plete emancipation from Courbet. The other Whistler is The Gold Girl, the portrait of Connie Gilchrist, who, with her skipping rope, was a music-hall celebrity. I have never thought it one of Whistler's finest compositions, and it was never quite finished. The difficulties for a painter, so dependent on his model, were great, for he wanted to show the dancer in the art of skipping, and suc- ceeded really only in rendering arrested movement. But the lines of the lithe girlish figure are of the utmost grace, the folds of the curtain behind her car- ry out most wonderfully the curves of the rope, while the golds of this cur- tain and the girl's dress, just broken by the effective little touches of red in the handles of the rope, make as beautiful a harmony as he ever created. There is, however, a heaviness in the back- ground, which, together with the failure to suggest action in the figure, just keeps it from being the masterpiece it ought to be. But both these pictures explain the aims and achievement of the painter who was destined to be a stronger influence during the last half- century even than Courbet. There is only one Manet, the portrait of his mother, a half-length, not exhibit- ed. I am told, since 1867. It is an ex- traordinary performance, a piece of real- ism if there ever was one. The mother, elderly but not yet old, is sitting, her hands in her lap. She wears black, her hair is black, and is arranged in tight puffs on either side of her face in the fashion for elderly ladies of her day, and over it is the black cap the French- woman of her age and class is still so likely to wear. Her face is plain, the eyes prominent, the beginning of a black moustache on the upper lip. Thus she was seen in life, thus you see her on canvas, and by the sheer strength of the realism and the vigor of the paint- ing, she is so alive, so abounding in vitality and character, that the near por- traits fade into phantoms. She has the supreme beauty of ugliness that you find in some Rembrandts — not a Fair, but a Real, Woman, whom you would not exchange for a whole gallery full of modern attempts at prettiness or eccen- tricity. I dwell upon these three men because there is no question to me that they have had more effect upon art than any artists of the last century. In the Sculpture Hall, space has been made for a fine show of Alfred Gil- bert's work. The collection is represen- tative, including some of his most dis- tinguished portrait busts, statuettes, part of the tomb for the Duke of Cla- rence, jewelry, and official badges, chains, and seals. In fact, an excellent opportunity is given for the study of the work of the most distinguished Eng- lish sculptor. The effort has also been made to get together a characteristic collection of the work of Charles Con- der, who died shortly before the show opened. Conder had a charming decora- tive sense within certain limits. He could decorate a fan delightfully, his silk panels were dainty, he painted shawls, even dresses with a graceful gaiety. But his charm was chiefly in his color and in the quality he got from the silk upon which so much of his work was done. But most of the pic- tures now exhibited are of figure sub- jects and reveal his weakness as a draughtsman, especially when he at- tempted to draw or paint the nude. N. N. The Ways and Means Committee would have found it hard to explain any smaller liberality than has been displayed in revis- ing the art tariff. Against the present vir- tually prohibitive tax, every hand has been turned save only that of the Philistine who believes that every expensive thing is a luxury, and therefore ought to be discour- aged. Travel and wider familiarity with the great public and private collections of our own country have taught Americans the use of beautiful things and broken the older backwoods philosophy of art, which fitted so neatly into the Republican scheme of protection. We may now hope to be enriched by the wonderful treasures of the eye which Mr. Morgan and other con- noisseurs have stored up in Europe. But even if the greatest American collections abroad are not brought in, tourists will in- crease their purchases, and art dealers' im- ports will increase. Only in modern works will the inflowing current continue to flow shallow, unless Congress yet sees the ab- surdity of taxing contemporary foreign art- ists in the hope of aiding home talent. Ralph Nevill's "French Prints of the Eighteenth Century" (The Macmillan Co.) is a good elementary handbook of the sub- ject and something better; for it is agree- ably written and contains much of anec- dotal interest. A plea for the work of the ecole galante is really needed in English. Lady Dilke did much to reveal the essen- tial seriousness of this apparently frivolous art, but the average Briton, or, for that matter, American, finds it hard to overcome certain racial misgivings. It is not that the Briton objects to the occasional naugh- tiness of the French designers (he gladly collects far naughtier prints made in Eng- land), but he is morally perturbed before a naughtiness that presents itself with such charm and taste. As a matter of fact, the austere collector may readily enough ignore that minority of salacious subjects, and find an enjoyment both keen and innocent in the delightful invention and workmanship of the rest. To depict the society of the waning ancien regime the engravers provided a pe- culiarly appropriate technique — an engrav- ing first fully executed in etching, and al- ways preserving the freshness and infor- mality of the sketch. Then the color print- ers devised difficult methods to reproduce the gouaches of Lavreince and others. In comparison with the French color printing, that of England is puerile. Only that of Ja- pan surpasses it. To all these matters Mr. Nevill is a cicerone, both competent and vivacious. He provides, beside a text of a very informatory sort, a select catalogue of the more important prints, including summary notices as to states, sale prices, etc. Fifty plates add to the usefulness of the book. We could wish that more atten- tion had been paid to the book illustrators, Gravelot, Marillier, and others. From poor or imperfect copies of eighteenth century books, prints quite as meritorious as those I

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314, The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2282 in Mr. Nevill's catalogue may be rescued. But perhaps he assumes that collectors of this thrifty sort need no advice of his. It is well perhaps that we remind ourselvea of the secondary character of these charm- ing prints, taking them only Tor what they are. When we wish to grasp the quintes- sential spirit of eighteenth century France —to feel the fantastic delicacy of its gal- lantry, the convinced audacity of its wan- tonness, the serenity of a domestic life per- sisting nevertheless— we must go beyond the prints to the painting of Watteau. Fra- gonard, and Chardin. As historical docu- ments, true records of the semblance of the times, the prints are of unique importance. No race or period has left a more vivid picture of its walk and conversation. Of the excellent collection of works of sacred art published by the Catholic house of J. J. Kosel of Munich and Kempten, un- der the general title Ars Sacra: Blatter heiliger Kunst, a second set has now ap- peared, called "Gleichnisse des Herrn" (the first series bears the title "Vom Erloser"). The new collection brings twenty illus- trations of Parables of Christ— reproduc- tions, the earliest going back to the cata- combs of Rome, but only five antedating the year 1800. German, Dutch, and English painters are represented. Accordi-7 to the reports that are already coming in from various excavators, the exploring season in Egypt promises to be as successful as heretofore. At Karnak, M. Legrain is continuing his work of res- toration on the great hypostyle hall of Rameses II. It is noteworthy that in effect- ing this work M. Legrain has employed the same methods as the original builders, the fallen pillars having been gradually raised to their positions by inclined planes of earth. He has also discovered to the north of the temple a prehistoric ceme- tery, from which interesting finds are ex- pected. Theodore M. Davis is continu- ing his work at the Biban el Moluk, or Val- ley of the Kings, where he has discovered another tomb, presumably of a king or othe.- royal personage. At Abydos the work for the Egyptian Exploration Fund is going on; the excavators have paid a visit to a predynastic cemetery at Mahasna, and have unearthed there more than sixty untouched burials, which have yielded a rich harvest of predynastic ivories, pottery with painted and sculptured fteu^es of animals, stone and ivory mace-heads, and an incised figure of a lion strongly resembling the prehistoric paintings found at Brassempouy, Mas d'Azil, and elsewhere. At Abydos excava- tions have also been begun on the Omm el- Gaab, or Tombs of the Kings of the first dynasty. They have already yielded some seal:— which form additional proof for the Identification of King Den with the so-called Marneit — and have laid bare two roads bor- dered with pottery. Near by, Prof. John Gar- stang of Liverpool University has opened, on the road leading past the village of El Arabat, a series of tombs which appear to belong to the fifth or sixth dynasty, and which exhibit an interesting mode of burial. The skeleton is found lying on its back with the legs crossed, in the remains of a wooden coffin, on the middle of the lid of which was placed a large inverted shallow pot or pan of red polished ware and of beau- tiful workmanship. The coffin also usually contained a copper mirror, pots, and ala- baster vases, and in one instance a great quantity of small copper implements. The women seem to have been buried in the same way as the men. None of the bones show any signs of mummification. No in- scribed objects have as yet been found. Professor Garstang has also obtained, in the so-called "Fort" at Shuneh, many jar- sealings of King Khasekhmui, a king of the second dynasty, and has discovered a tomb with an inscribed door frame and a table of offerings, the former dating from the twelfth dynasty. At a meeting of the British School, held at Athens in February, Mr. Wace gave an account of the excavations undertaken on the prehistoric site on the hill of Zerelia, near Almyros, in Thessaly. Remains have been found there of eight successive cities, of which the first seven belong to the stone age. A chronologically complete series of pottery could be traced among the remains. The most ancient layers yielded a plentiful supply of decorated red-on-white ware; the later strata are distinguished by the super- ior workmanship of the axe-heads and stone implements. From the thickness of the deposits and from other indications it seems probable that the stone age in north- ern Greece lasted until a comparatively late period, and that the bronze age came in at a much later date than it did in the ^Egean. At the second general meeting of the Hellenic Society, in London, P. N. Ure read a report on recent excavations in the ancient cemetery, at Rhitsona, in Boeotia, a site which has been identified with My- calessus. A large number of graves have been examined which yielded a rich har- vest of vases and figurines belonging most- ly to the sixth century b. c. Though other wares, such as "Proto-Corinthian," Corin- thian, and Geometric, were also repre- sented, the large majority were in the Boe- otian geometric style. Of special Interest was the discovery of a Naucratite vase. The second International Archaeological Congress will be opened at Cairo on April 10. There will be six sections: (1) Pre- classic: The JEgean and Mycenean civiliza- tions; (2) Classic: Greek and Roman archaeology and epigraphy; (3) Papyrology: Manuscripts of classical authors, etc.; (4) Religious archasology: Greek and Roman religion; (5) Byzantine archaeology; (S) Numismatology and geography. Special at- tention will be paid throughout to the re- lations of Egypt with Greece and Rome. After the fading of Sorolla's sunlight in the Hispanic Museum, any paintings shown there could not but appear pale; and this is the first inevitable impression made by the 38 pictures by Ignacio Zuloaga, who fol- lows his fellow-Spaniard. His work is of an entirely different order, in both theme and technique, yet powerful in its way. Almost all these canvases are of the na- ture of portraits, and Zuloaga keeps to the grand artistic canons of Spain in seeking his subjects on every hand — gypsies, bull- fighters, actors, dwarfs, hags, peasant wo men, and great ladies. Everybody is paint- able to him. His leaning, however, seems to be to the eccentric, or the actually repulsive. Deformity, oddity, lined anu weazened visages tempt him often. This makes it possible to produce his bold strokes and strong effects, as in the wrinkled old actor, Zambilli, or the extra- ordinarily vigorous Sorceresses of San Mil- Ian — a masterly, but depressing canvas — but it does not yield the surest proof of his being a really great portraitist. Even his young women usually have unpleasing features, and one is left wondering if he could paint a really beautiful woman, or the soft contours and delicate coloring of a child. The nearest answer which the ex- hibition gives is in the Mile. Breval as Carmen, in which the costume and light are brilliantly handled; yet all doubt is not solved. But these pictures leave no doubt that Zuloaga deserves his fame as a remarkable artist, the inheritor and continuer of the noble tradition of El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. Neither so extensive nor so overwhelming as the "one- man show" of Sorolla, this second collec- tion of contemporary Spanish paintings now brought to the notice of Americans by grace of Archer M. Huntington and the trustees of the Hispanic Museum, is one proof more how far Spain is from being, where Lord Salisbury incontinently put her, among "the dying nations." Prints by Bohemian artists of to-day will be shown at the Lenox Library till March 31. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are paintings and etch- ings by Augustus Koopman, at Cottier & Co.'s, March 31; figure subjects by Ameri- can painters, Macbeth's, April 1; sketches and studies, Frank Fowler, Powell's, April 3 ; annual exhibition of the "Ten American Painters," Montross's, April 7. A number of pictures of the James A. Garland collection were sold at auction at the American Art Galleries in this city March 20. The more important prices were the following: Millet, A Shepherdess, $11,- 300; T. Rousseau, La Ferme, $1,700; Dau- bigny, Morning on the Marne, $14,000; Diaz, L' He d'Amour, $5,200; J. Dupre\ Cattle and Pool, $8,000; Corot, Le Patre, $15,900. Alfred Cornelius Howland, who died at Pasadena, Cal., March 17, at the age of seventy-one, was a New York artist and member of the National Academy of De- sign. He was born in Walpole, N. H. After graduating from the academy at Walpole, he studied art in this country and abroad, at Diisseldorf and at Paris. He became an associate of the Academy in 1872 and a member in 1882. Charles M. Kurtz, director of the Buf- falo Fine Arts Academy, died in that city March 21, at the age of fifty-four. He had been a member of the staff of the New York Tribune, and for nine years editor of the National Academy Notes. He was a director of the art department of the Southern Exposition in Louisville, assistant chief of the department of fine arts of the World's Fair at Chicago, assistant director of fine arts for the United States Commis- sion to the Paris Exposition in 1900, and assistant chief of the department of art, Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Alfred-Nicolas Normand, the famous French architect, doyen of the Academie des Beaux-Arts, has died at the age of eighty- six. His most important works were the H&tel Pompgien in the Avenue Montaigne (1865, now no longer in existence), the re- construction of the VendOme Column after the Commune, and the Hdpital de Saint- Germain-en-Laye. J

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March 25, 1909] The Nation. 315 The death is announced in his seventy- first year of the well-known contributor to the Gazette dcs Beaux-Arts and L' Illustra- tion, Alfred de Lostalot de Bachoue. He also wrote a number of books, including ■*'Les Arts au bois," "La Peinture fran- chise," and "Procedes de gravure." Finance. LONDON'S GOLD RESERVE. On January 14, when money was espe- cially easy on all the principal markets of the world, the Bank of England took the seemingly paradoxical step of rais- ing its official discount rate from 2*& per cent., at which it had stood during the eight preceding months, to 3 per cent. The reason was not that demand for money had substantially increased at London, but that the bank was los- ing gold from its own reserve, in larger quantities than it liked. Most of this gold had gone to Paris. Though London had sent to the French market, during the full year 1906, only $6,000,000 more gold than it had received from Paris, and though the net shipment of 1907 had been only $10,000,000, the English market's loss on French account, in 1908, was no less than $112,000,000. Moreover, the outflow had been increas- ing with the opening of 1909. During the four months up to the middle of January, all of the $51,000,000 gold re- ceived by London from its Transvaal mines had been at once reshipped to Paris. The causes of this persistent move- ment were complex. It has been various- ly ascribed to the large foreign indebt- edness incurred by England during the Boer war of 1899-1902; to the unfavor- able influence, on a great manufacturing state, of the high price of imported raw materials; and, by some London bank- ers, to the fa,ct that reduction in the Bank of England rate to 2% per cent, in 1908, when the Bank of France main- tained its former 3 per cent, level, had placed London at a disadvantage. What- ever the cause or causes, the result had been that, while the three state banks of France, Germany, and Russia had added, all told, $300,000,000 to their gold reserves in the twelve months before the middle of last January — the Bank of France alone having gained $172,000,- 000 — the Bank of England's gold re- serve, on January 14, stood $20,000,000 below that of a year before. The Bank of France, the Bank of Germany, and most of the other great banking insti- tutions of the world, including the New York Associated Banks, held at the time the largest stock of gold in their his- tory; the Bank of England held $90,- 000,000 less than in 1896. The effect of the Bank of England's higher rate was immediate. All gold arrivals from South Africa thencefor- ward went automatically into the Eng- lish bank; and there followed moderate shipments of gold from Paris to Lon- don. During the two months after the bank rate advance of January 14, the Bank of England gold reserve increased $31,500,000. In the four past weeks, the French bank has lost $9,000,000 gold and the English bank has gained $10,- 000,000. A week ago, gold exports began from New York to London; the interesting fact about that movement being that, except for a moderate $4,000,000 ship- ment early in 1907, our market had sent virtually no gold at all to London since 1900, although we had sent to France, in the same period, $232,000,000 and to Germany $47,000,000. We had import- ed gold heavily at intervals in the same period, but most of it — notably our enor- mous engagements in the panic months — came from London. With the arrival of the first consign- ment of our gold at London came, last week, another turn in the situation. During the three or four years past, English bankers have been busy dis- cussing whether the gold reserve under- lying the credit structure of London ought not somehow to be increased. The discussions developed varied plans. Some bankers proposed that the govern- ment itself should accumulate a stock of gold; others, that the Bank of Eng- land should no longer be allowed, as at present, to have £18,450,000 notes out- standing against government securities, but should be required to substi- tute gold; still others, that the joint- stock banks, which at present keep their reserves in the Bank of England, should take measures to keep reserves in their own vaults. Three weeks ago, a commit- tee of the London Chamber of Com- merce reported on the question, but guardedly and vaguely. Last week, it was learned that a large joint-stock bank, the London City and Midland, had taken into its own vaults $1,500,000 gold arrived from New York city — the first recorded instance when any home insti- tution but the Bank of England has taken imported gold for such purposes. More of our gold is expected to be trans- mitted to the same institution. It may be asked why London is wor- rying over its gold reserve. Chiefly for the reason already shown; that, alone among all great banks, its stock in vault is actually less to-day, with all the increasing world's production, than it was in 1896; largely because of ner- vous irritation over such episodes as New York's "raid" on the London gold reserve in the panic of 1907, and the constant drain to France in 1908; partly because of doubt as to what would be done in case of war. People used to talk of the "war chests" in the Banks of France and Germany. An eminent English economist once said that, if England were involved in a serious in- ternational conflict, the Bank of England would stop gold payments, and the gov- ernment take possession of its gold. The curious part of the problem is, that nobody has suggested doubts as to the wisdom of the great joint-stock banks going virtually without a reserve in their own vaults. The 40 to 50 per cent, reserve in the Bank of England, where their reserves are kept, largely explains this view of things; the con- servative methods of London banking afford another explanation. Possibly, however, the joint-stock banks them- selves are now looking a little further forward. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Book Six. Translated by L. H. G. Greenwood. Put- nam. Aristotle's Rhetoric: A Translation by Richard Claverhouse Jebb. Edited by John Edwin Sandys. Putnam. Beethoven's Letters. A Critical Edition with Explanatory Notes by A. C. Ka- lischer. Translated by J. S. Shedlock. Dutton. 2 vols. $7.50 net. Cabell, James Branch. The Cords of Van- ity. Doubleday, Page. $1.50. Child Workers of the Nation. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and So- cial Science. Coast and Geodetic Survey. Principal Facts of the Earth's Magnetism. Washington: Government Printing Office. Cook, Stanley A. The Religion of Ancient Palestine in the Second Millennium, B. c. Chicago : Open Court Publishing Co. Cowen, Benjamin Rush. Abraham Lincoln: An Appreciation. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke Co. $1 net. Cowen, Joseph. Speeches on the Near East- ern Question : Foreign and Imperial Af- fairs : And on the British Empire. Edited by his daughter. Longmans, Green. Deming, Horace E. The Government of American Cities: A Program of Democ- racy. Putnam. $1.50 net. Egan, Maurice Francis. The Wiles of Sex- ton Maginnis. Century. $1.50. Elson, Robert. The Magnate. Brentano's. $1.50. Encyclopedic scientifique. Le Commerce et les commercants. Par Yves Guyot. Paris: O. Doin. Espronceda's Blanca de Borbon. Edited by Philip H. Churchman. New York. Forsslund, Louise. Old Lady Number 31. Century. George Washington: Statement of Richard Parkinson. Lord Baltimore Press. Givens, Robert T. Has It Ever Occurred to You? Givens & Bailey. Harland, Henry. The Royal End: A Ro- mance. Dodd, Mead. $1.50. Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 59 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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316 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2282 Hatfield, Henry Rand. Modern Accounting: Its Principles and Some of Its Problems Appleton. $1.75 net. Jacob, Violet. Irresolute Catherine. Double- day. Page. Karadja, Princess. Towards the Light: A Mystic Poem. Dodd, Mead, 50 cents net. Kenealy, Arabella. The Whips of Time. Boston: Little, Brown. $1.50. Kipling, Rudyard. The Five Nations. Dou- bleday, Page. Kirkham, Stanton Davis. Mexican Trails: A Record of Travel in Mexico, 1904-07. Put- nam. Klein, Charles. The Music Master. Dodd, Mead. $1.50. Labor and Wages. Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science. Lane, Elinor Macartney. Katrine. Harper. $1.50. Lane, J. Russell. The House Between the Trees. Boston: C. M. Clark Publish- ing Co. Lynch, Lawrence L. The Sealed Verdict, or By Whose Hand? Chicago: Laird & Lee. $1. Macdonough, Michael. Irish Life and Character. Thomas Whittaker. $1.50 net Munro, William Bennett. The Government of European Cities. Macmillan. $2.50 net. Noot, J. Lady Dean's Daughter ; or, The Confessions of a Dying Woman. Cochrane Publishing Co. Nyst, Ray. La Caverne. London: David Nutt. Otis, William Bradley. American Verse. 1625-1807. Moffat, Yard. Parodi, D. Traditionalisme et democratic. Paris: Armand Colin. Pages choisies des grands ecrivains. Fon- tenelle. Paris: Armand Colin. Peck, Ellen M. H. Travels in the Far East. Thomas Y. Crowell. Reinach, Salomon. Orpheus: Histoire Ge- nerate des religions. Paris: Alclde Picard. Sangster, Margaret E. Happy School Days. Chicago: Forbes & Co. $1.25. Seton, Ernest Thompson. The Biography of a Silver-Fox, or Domino Reynard of Goldur Town. Century. $1.50. Slack, S. B. Early Christianity. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co. Spanish Anecdotes. Arranged by W. F. Giese and C. D. Cool. Boston: D. C. Heath. 60 cents. Spoth, John Charles. A Knight In Home- spun. Boston: C. M. Clark Publishing Co. Thomas, Rowland. The Little Gods : A Masque of the Far East. Boston: Little Brown. Tolman, William H. Social Engineering: A Record of Things Done by American In- dustrialists. McGraw Publishing Co. Vance, Louis Joseph. The Bronze Bell. Dodd, Mead, $1.50. Voluspa: Done into English out of the Icelandic of the Elder Edda by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. London: David Nutt. Waters, Robert. Culture by Self-Help in a Literary, an Academic or an Oratorical Career. Dodd, Mead. $1.20 "net. Webster, Jean. Much Ado About Peter. Doubleday, Page. Williams, Jesse Lynch. Mr. Cleveland: A Personal Impression. Dodd, Mead. 50 cents net. Zobeltitz, H. de. Le Journal d'une fille d'honneur. Paris: Armand Colin. Just issued in "The American Nature Series." BIRDS OF THE WORLD By FRANK H. KNOWLTON, of the U. S. National Museum, with chapter on the Anatomy of Birds by F. A. LUCAS, Chief Curator, Brooklyn Academy of Arts' and Sciences, and edited by ROBERT RIDGWAY, Curator of Birds, U. S. National Museum. Large 8vo. With 16 colored plates and several hundred text cuts. $7.00 net. Carriage 40 cents. A modern, popular account. The most comprehensive one-volume work on the sub- ject. Following several preliminary chap ters on the general appearance and struc- ture of birds, their migrations, distribution, classification, etc., every known family, both fossil and living, has been passed in review and accorded approximately equal and even treatment. The treatment of the so-called game birds has purposely been made very full. Technical language has been avoided so far as possible, and the main attention given to birds as they appear in their homes, that is — their plumage, habits, songs, nests, eggs and food. Prospectus of Series on request. Henry Holt & Company n4ewyorSk UNEMPLOYMENT: I Messrs. LEMCKE & BUECHNER A Problem of Industry By W. H. BEVERIDGE, formerly Sub- Warden of Toynbee Hall. 8vo, $2.40 net. "It is a book which every one ought to have read who presumes to write or speak on the question of unemployment." ■ — Westminster Gazette. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK Booksellers and Importers 11 East 17th Street Announce to their patrons and friends that they have removed to 30=32 West 27th St. NEW YORK MAGAZINES (including THE NATION) bought by A. S. CLARK, Peekskill, N. Y. How much moral influence would a policeman drest in overalls exert? His badge and uniform are the mediums thru which his power is recognized. And so the vital truths of important messages abandoned to cheap paper are missed because of the poor first im- pression. "Look for the Water Mark is the "uniform" of the messages from the better business houses and they don't reach the waste-basket. Perhaps the importance of using good busi- ness stationery hasn't imprest you yet. To start, let us send you a specimen book of Old Hampshire Bond. Hampshire Paper Company We are the only paper makers in the world making bond paper exclusively South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts The Government of American Cities A Study of Municipal Organization and of the Relation of the City to the State. By Horace E. Deming Chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Municipal League. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net. A compact and illuminating exposition of the fundamental principles upon which city government in the United States must be based if it is to be honest and efficient. The book is the outcome of a study of municipal problems not only in the United States, but in England and on the Conti- nent. The experiences of foreign cities are brought to bear upon America's problems of to-day. Send for Descriptive Circular. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Kk»%Sg OUR LIBRARY SERVICE We have recently supplemented our ser- vice to Libraries, by procuring Out-of-Prlnt and Scarce Books, and by importing English books. Oar Educational Catalogue con- tains a full list of Supplementary Heading, indicating the grade to which each title Is adapted. Oar Clearance Catalogue contains overstock at special prices, and an alpha- betical arrangement by authors of all cheap editions of Recent Popular Fiction and Standard Library 12mos in one list. Our Library Catalogue of 3, SOU approved titles, following A. L. A. lines, li of great convenience to small libraries. Oar Monthly Bulletin notices promptly every new book of importance. These Catalogues are sent on request. Three notable features of our service are: Promptness, thoroughness, and low prices. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. Wholesale Dealers Id the Books of All Publishers 33 East 17th St., New York. TheMusiciansLibrary Forty-five hand- some volumes now ready — mas- terpieces of son; and piano music. Free book let con- taining complete description and table of contents sent on request. WRITE TO-DAY. OLIVER DITSON COMPANY DITSON BUILDING, BOSTON, MASS. BOOKS Not Readily Procurable in the Regular Way generally supplied without difficulty and within a minimum length of time. Out catalog of publica- tions and rarities on request. THE TORCH PKKSS BOOK SHOP, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1909. The Week. President Taft, according to the re- ports from Washington, is opposed to tariff duties on the "necessaries of life"; and with good reason for the taxes on necessaries are what make tariff bills •odious. But the question as to what •are the necessaries is not easy to de- termine. Tea and coffee may fairly be •classed under that head. The case for stockings and gloves is not quite so ■clear; indeed, the argument that high- .priced stockings and gloves are luxuries is not without force. The members -from the rural districts can dwell with •much unction on the virtues of the sim- .ple, strong, and perhaps homely mate- rials worn by the hard-working wife of ■the hard-working farmer. Why should the daughter of a Wall Street million- aire not pay a heavy tax if she insists ■on the finest glove instead of the far warmer and more substantial buckskin mitten? A number of members are urg- ing that the internal revenue tax on beer shall be doubled. Within a year 'both England and Germany have under- taken to derive more revenue from this •source, but have discovered a general teeling that beer is a necessary. In this •country, we are confident, the tax on al- •coholic drinks would meet with less op- position. Probably the people as a TPhole would not object to seeing the tax as heavy as the traffic will bear. For a party so seemingly habituated to anarchy and dissension, the Demo- crats at Washington are taking their latest split rather bitterly. Regulars and insurgents, when they meet, snarl at •each other. Several fist-fights have been narrowly averted. Old friendships have !been broken. Irate Congressmen bid ■one another go to places where the tariff on wool is not an issue of primary in- terest. The gods that hate traitors, •quitters, and mugwumps are being as- siduously invoked. The question is, •how much of this righteous indignation •is sincere, how much is put on for the purpose of giving the people at home •shattering proof of the indignant mem- •ber"s own regularity?* There are diplo- matic enmities, just as there are diplo- matic friendships. Have there not been statesmen who have hewn and stabbed lustily and then written letters saying, "My dear Jones, when can you come up here to lunch with me?" In Gov. Hughes's speech at Buffalo, explaining and urging his primary bill, the arguments are admirably marshalled and the presentation of details is lucid and cogent. The proposed law, like all such measures, is so long and complex that few voters will read through the draft of the act itself; but the Gover- nor's six reasons for believing in direct nominations are statements of princi- ples which every one may grasp: First — Because the party voters consti- tute the party and are entitled to select its candidates. Second — Because it makes much more dif- ficult the selfish control of party machinery. Third — Because in this way, the senti- ment of the party is directly expressed and is not left to be interpreted by those who will ignore it, so far as they dare, in order to achieve their own personal ends. Fourth — Because the candidate will owe his nomination directly to the party voters and will feel a corresponding responsibility and enjoy a corresponding independence. Fifth — Because elected officers will have an opportunity to appeal directly to their constituents and will not be forced, as is too frequently the case, to go contrary to their conscience in order to save their po- litical future. Sixth — Because it will block up some of the avenues by which special interests find their way to administrative favor and gov- ernmental control. Learning from the experience of other States, Gov. Hughes would have the reg- ulations for registration so safeguarded that it will be impossible for the voters of one party to raid the primaries of another. The sections regarding the use of money and the filing of reports of expenditure are also stringent. The placing of the nominee of the party committee at the head of the ballot has provoked criticism. For ourselves, we should prefer an alphabetical arrange- ment of names. But that is a small matter. It is obviously desirable to make the party leaders more responsive to the wishes of their constituents, and we are willing to try any reasonable ex- periment that may bring about such an important result. Assembly, and is now under considera- tion by the Senate Committee on Codes. In its amended form, it is a measure of modest beginnings, but of considerable promise. It would attack the problem of dealing with vagrancy in a new way. Under the operation of such a law, tramps would not only be taken off the streets and roads, but set to work use- fully, and in a fashion which might teach them an occupation. The sponsors of the bill have met various honest ob- jections by freeing their plan of certain features which were too ambitious, for the present, or which seemed to come into collision with some other reforma- tory institutions. As now urged, it pro- vides for the establishment of but a single labor farm for vagrants. We hope for speedy and favorable action by the Legislature. The bill establishing a State farm col- ony has been favorably reported to the The action by the United Mine Work- ers makes a strike in the anthracite re- gion very improbable. The men are to keep at work after April 1, and what- ever differences they have with the mine owners will be taken up locally by district boards. This is a practical re- treat by the miners, but it was inevita- ble in the present state of business. If the men do not have to face a period of idleness made necessary by the slack demand for coal, and the large supplies on hand, they will be lucky. It is prob- able, in any case, that the usual shut- down of the mines will be longer this year than usual. These facts are so well known that it was impossible in the miners' convention at Scranton to work up any real sentiment in favor of a strike. The old leaven of politics showed itself in the resolution calling upon President Taft to appoint a com- mission to arbitrate the differences be- tween the men and their employers. It is not to be supposed that the President will do anything of the kind. Conditions are radically different from those of 1902 — and there is a different President. The hysterical pursuit by a Califor- nia mob of the young woman who de- sired to marry a Japanese is but anoth- er example of the extraordinary misap- prehension on the Pacific Coast in re- gard to the subjects of the Mikado, and of our general intolerance in matters of

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318 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2283: race. Californians of the baser sort naturally cannot get it into their heads that Japan, as Senator Root expressed it at the banquet in his honor on Febru- ary 26, is a "great nation of gentlemen, of soldiers, of scholars and scientists, of statesmen, a nation worthy of challeng- ing and receiving the respect, the hon- or, and the homage of mankind." This latest California outcry is but another illustration of the "bad manners, ar- rogant and provincial assertion of su- periority," of which, as Mr. Root said, we have been far from guiltless. But assuming for the sake of argument that the Japanese in question is not a man of such high social standing as to meet the fastidious taste of the California mob, and that in any event the young woman might have done better by choosing a person of European descent, every American, man or woman, is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- piness. There is nothing immoral in the marriage of Japanese and other races. Many Japanese men have Ger- man and French wives, and Americans have Japanese wives. One of the lead- ing Japanese statesmen has as his wife a member of the highest German aris- tocracy. The marriage of Chinese offi- cers and scholars to European women excites no comment. The news that in the German Reichs- tag the "bloc," comprising the Liberals, Conservatives, and Radicals, has ap- parently dissolved, cannot be said to come as a surprise. When the Reichstag was elected, after the government broke with the Clericals, it did not seem pos- sible that the coalition formed by the Chancellor to give the government ,a majority could last as long as it has. The bait held out to the Liberals was some minor reforms; for this mess of pottage they were to become political bedfellows of their life-long enemies, the Agrarians, the Protectionists, and the most ardent defenders of the special privileges of the wealthy. This mistaken policy has cost the Radicals and Liber- als dear, not only because they have been drawn into support of the obnox- ious anti-Polish legislation, but because their following has rapidly split up. Had the Chancellor been a man of vig- orous initiative and leadership, able to draw up a comprehensive programme of reform, and push it in a masterful manner, his coalition might have con- tinued indefinitely. But his one idea has been to keep his "bloc" in hand by concessions and compromises. He had managed to steer safely even through the troubles created by the Kaiser's in- discreet utterances last autumn. But now the difficulty is irreconcilable differ- ences of opinion regarding the reorgan- ization of Germany's finances. The Con- servatives have not been willing to place new burdens upon the rich by means of inheritance and property taxes, while the Liberals are deterni n- ed that no further favors shall be shown to those classes which are already spe- cially favored. As a result, one scheme after another "has been proposed, only to fall flat; with the result that any- thing like a clear-cut, far-reaching scheme seems out of the question. The Berlin Tageblatt bewails, too, the want of able leadership in the individ- ual parties and the prominence of what it terms "district-club politicians" in the debates of a subject the importance of which to the nation Von Billow has by no means exaggerated. There is, for instance, the Reichstag Committee on Rules. To it was entrusted the patri- otic duty of advising the Reichstag how best to profit by the affair with the Kaiser, how to strengthen the constitu- tional guarantees of the independence of Ministry and Reicfistag from the in- terference of the Crown in foreign af- fairs. The committee had a magnificent opportunity to increase the prestige of the Reichstag and to win for it the right to be consulted in the appoint- ment of the leading Federal officials. The committee might even have begun the fight for a responsible Ministry. But after four months of discussion, the committee has brought forward not a single recommendation worthy of no- tice. Writing in the Deutsche Wirtschafts- Zeitung, Dr. Theodor Barth urges an international alliance of free-traders to give aid and strength to all fighting for the cause. To help free the mar- kets of all the world is the best way, he contends, of furthering free trade in one's own land. The free-trade move- ment, he rightly regards as one of the best means of promoting international peace. He also points out that the free trade arguments from one country's ex- periments ought to be readily available and better understood abroad. With all his suggestions we heartily concur. It has always been a puzzle why the de- fenders of free trade in Great Britain who now find themselves in so danger- ous a position, have not drawn more upon the experience of the United States as a horrible exam- ple. The corruption of our politi- cal life, the dictation of our tariffs by selfish interests, the growth of the trusts, the offspring of protection — all these things afford a very arsenal of arguments for free-traders elsewhere. This Dr. Barth perceives, for he makes clever use of Andrew Carnegie's testi- mony before the Ways and Means Com- mittee. He knows well how insatiable is the appetite of protectionists. In 1879, he fought, as a member of the Bundes- rath, the proposal to put a tariff of 50 pfennigs (12% cents) on rye, because it was a precedent. Bismarck sent word to him that he did not dream of increasing this tax; but it is now, thirty years later, 50 marks, or $12.50 a ton. The final results of the Italian Parlia- mentary elections have been taken as heralding the approach of a Ministry composed of Radicals and Socialists. This view is exaggerated. The second ballotings, it is true, reduced the Gov- ernment's apparent majority. From 350 Deputies in the last Parliament, the Giolitti "bloc" has declined to a little over 300; but that would still give the Government a clear majority of 100 in a Chamber of 508 members. All the small parties did well at the polls, in- cluding the Catholics, whose first show- ing was not at all indicative of their real strength. From seven Deputies, the Catholics have risen to 24. The So- cialists have gone up from 26 to 42, the extreme Radicals from 32 to 42, and the Republicans from 19 to 24. The par- ties of the Extreme Left have thus risen from 77 to 108. The Moderate Liberals, or Constitutional Opposition, as they call themselves, have declined most. They now number between 60 and 70. Now, appreciable as the increase majr be from 77 votes to 108 for the Extreme Left, that gain does not mean a sud- den growth of Socialism, Republican- ism, and Radicalism. In the Parliament that was dissolved in 1904 these three- parties had 106 seats. In that year'a

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April i, 1909] The Nation 319 elections, they sank to 91, and gradual attrition during five years further re- duced them to 77. Thus their 108 votes in the present Parliament places them just about where they were five years ago. The resignation of William O'Brien, who has been one of the most promi- nent Irish members of Parliament dur- ing the last twenty-five years, is indica- tive of the firm hold which the Nation- alist party under John Redmond con- tinues to maintain on Irish affairs. As editor of United Ireland and as a foun- der of the United Irish League, O'Brien has a notably radical history to look back to. About 1903, however, he broke with Redmond and the militant Nation- alists and put forward a policy of "con- ciliation" which, owing to his personal popularity in the southeastern part of the island, and especially in Cork, suc- ceeded in winning over a handful of supporters in Parliament. The Irish People, which he founded in 1898, and stopped publishing in 1903, was re- established in 1905, now to be once more, and permanently, suspended. For some time conservative opinion in Eng- land was inclined to look upon O'Brien's policy of moderation as showing the way to a solution of the Irish question. Possibly, however, this was simply a way of playing off O'Brien's faction against the Nationalists. MR. TAFTS MOVE FOR ECONOMY. Mr. Taft's establishment of a "budget committee" to supervise all department estimates before they are submitted to Congress may prove to be the beginning of a great reform. True, the new com- mittee, of which the Secretary of the Treasury is to be the chairman, lacks the sanction of law, and, unless estab- lished by Congress, may be disbanded by any future President. But no Presi- dent could, we think, object to so ra- tional a plan of systematizing the crude methods by which our national funds are appropriated and expended. Moreover, in this country, as in England, some of the most important customs of govern- ment owe their origin to just such ex- ecutive action; and by the lapse of years have become as fixed and unchangeable as though embodied in our fundamental law. Whether this will be the case with the new budget committee, or not, there could be no better illustration of the quiet efficiency to be expected from Mr. Taft's administration. There has been no ringing of bells, no blowing of trumpets, no heralding of an important change. Mr. Taft's unusual experience as the head of the Philippine govern- ment and the War Department now stands him in good stead. In the Phil- ippines he was compelled to cut his coac according to his cloth; there was no great surplus to fall back upon should expenditures exceed the estimates. Mr. Taft, too, is not impatient of detail; and he is aware that the financial prob- lem is fundamental and underlies all the rest. To ignore it and devote one's energies to something more spectacular than studying the budget, is more ex- citing and often more profitable polit- ically, but sooner or later somebody has to sit down to the reckoning and en- deavor to make both ends meet. This is precisely the hour for such an undertaking. The revision of the tariff, Mr. Taft's conception of it as a reve- nue measure, and the alarming deficit all suggest an attempt to bring appro- priations and disbursements into some sort of coordination. Our folly of legis- lating without regard to probable in- come, has been the wonder of foreign ministers of finance, whose carefully worked out budgets, showing the sources from which the necessary funds may be drawn, must first run the gantlet of Par- liamentary criticism. With us, a Cab- inet head sends in his estimates without the slightest reference to what his brother Cabinet officer across the hall may be doing. The only unvarying principle is to ask for as much as you dare, on the theory that Congress is cer- tain to cut the loaf down. Perhaps three- quarters of what is requested will be granted, perhaps even more than is re- quested. For, after the head of a de- partment has made his plea, a member of a committee may suddenly insist, from purely persona] reasons, that an appropriation be inserted or another in- creased. No less an authority than Speaker Cannon has solemnly protested against this whole procedure. In a speech on March 4, 1897, he declared that the ap- propriations just made were in excess of all legitimate demands, not because of any party action, but because of "con- ditions accruing out of the rules of the House and out of the rules, practice, and so-called courtesies of the Senate, together with the irresponsible manner in which the Executive submits to Con- gress estimates to meet expenditures for the conduct of government." If, he ask- ed, the appropriations were extravagant, how much more so must be the esti- mates, for in not a single instance in many years had Congress granted the amounts desired by the Executive. He continued: It is said . . . that ours is the only government in the civilized world, wherein the administrative branch apparently as- sumes no degree of responsibility to the taxpayers for its demands for the expendi- ture of public money, and that ours is the only government wherein the legislative branch alone exercises the function or duty of check upon public expenditures without any considerable degree of cooperation on the part of the executive. But Mr. Cannon made no practical sug- gestions, save to recommend a reduction from fourteen to ten in the number of appropriation bills and to express the hope that "the incoming President, with his long experience as a distinguished member of the legislative branch of this government, will exact of his Cab- inet councillors some degree of whole- some effort in the direction of intelli- gent recommendation of public expendi- tures, to the end that Congress may not have to strive unaided and alone toward bringing our public expenditures within the sum of our public revenue." But Mr. McKinley's plunge into war afford- ed no opportunity for any such under- taking, even had he been interested in it. It has remained for Mr. Taft, after twelve years, to point the way to re- form. Congress has shown that it is willing to cooperate by providing in the last sundry civil appropriation bill that if the estimates are in excess of the prob- able income, the Secretary of the Treas- ury shall report the results of his addi- tion and subtraction to the President, who may advise Congress what appro- priations to cut and what new taxes to levy or loans to make. The Senate, too, has created a standing committee on ex- penditures of executive departments. Since Mr. Taft is reported to be bent on economical administration, there is hope that his term will be rendered not- able by the establishment of the princi- ple that every dollar of government mo- ney shall bring its full return to the taxpayer. The new "budget committee" alone cannot, of course, accomplish this,

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320 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 228; nor can the wasteful methods of a cen- tury be ended in four years. More rad- ical changes will be needed to accom- plish the result. But Mr. Taft will ren- der great and lastips service to his country if he devotes himself to this task. CANADA AND THE PAYNE BILL. Two conditional offers to Canada in the Payne bill will cause the Laurier government much embarrassment. There was a time when Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Sir Richard Cartwright would eag- erly have welcomed both the minimum schedules of the Payne bill and the of- fer of reciprocity in coal. It was such trade openings as these that Sir Rich- ard Cartwright, the present Minister of Trade and Commerce, had in mind when he made his famous speech at the Na- tional Liberal Convention, at Ottawa, in 1893: It would be well that the people of Can- ada should bear in mind that Canada is by necessity of its position an integral part of this continent of North America, and that we have to all intents and purposes no other neighbor than the United States. From the early seventies until 1896 this was the spirit in which Canadian Liberals regarded the United States. They realized that the currents of trade ran north and south, and must cross and recross the international line to the mutual advantage of both countries; and in those years it was ostens'bly the aim of Canadian Liberals of the school of Laurier and Cartwright to bring about trade relations with the United States similar to those which prevailed from 1854 to 1866, when the Elgin- Marcy treaty was in operation. But this neighborly attitude was abandoned1 after the Liberals had adopted the pol- icy of Sir John Macdonald in 1897; for with their going over to protection came their affiliation with the Canadian Man- ufacturers' Association and with the coal and iron interests of Nova Scotia. These will cause Laurier and Fielding trouble, now that Washington proposes minimum schedules for Canada and reciprocity in coal. For nearly two years Canada has been negotiating with France for trade con- cessions. The Dominion is also weary of the miserable tariff war with Germany, which has been persisted in since 1903. France can have the intermediate tar- iff as soon as the French Senate will accept the commercial treaty that is now pending; and consumers in Can- ada will welcome the day when the in- termediate tariff is also applied to tex- tiles, hardware, and chemicals from Ger- many. But then the worries of the government in regard to the Payne bill will begin, for since the intermediate tariff was enacted in November, 1906, the Canadian Manufacturers' Associa- tion has been in a continual state of ap- prehension lest the intermediate rates, which are about 10 per cent, below the general tariff, should be applied to im- ports from the United States. Under the Payne tariff, if the Canadian inter- mediate tariff is conceded to either France or Germany, the same conces- sion must be made to the United States, or the maximum rates of the Payne bill will go into operation against imports from Canada. Politicians at Ottawa had expected that if any concessions were made to Canada, or if Washington made offers of reciprocity, they would be conditioned on granting to the United States tbe same tariff concessions as Canada makes to England. They have depended upon a demand like this as a ground for re- fusing any proposals of the kind. This ground is now cut from under them by the provision in the Payne bill that no British colony shall be denied the min- imum rates, because of any preference it may make in its tariff to England or to any of its sister colonies. Thus the of- fer of minimum rates and also the offer of reciprocity in coal come in a shape never contemplated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Ottawa politicians. The Laurier government will have to decide between the Canadian Manufacturers' Association and the coal operators of Cape Breton, on the one hand, and, on the other, the general body of consum- ers in Canada. There has long been an understanding between the manufactur- ers of Ontario and Quebec and the coal interests of Cape Breton for mutual pro- tection and support. Before the Canad- ian Tariff Commission of 1905-6, manu- facturers were asked concerning the duty of fifty-three cents a ton on coal. Almost invariably their answer was that they had nothing to say on this aspect of the protective tariff. Canad- ians have paid the duty since 1879 sole- ly for the advantage of three or four mining companies, operating in Cape Breton or on the mainland of Nova Scotia. Originally, the purpose of the duty was to force Cape Breton coal into use in all the vast territory that lies be- tween the Atlantic and Lake Superior; and with this object in view, from 1879 to 1887, the duty was imposed on an- thracite, as well as on bituminous coal. Failure overtook this plan. Nova Scotia coal never came into use far beyond Montreal, although Nova Scotia coal companies do now control the coal trade of the Maritime Provinces and of Que- bec. It costs Ontario and Manitoba about three and a half million dollars a year to give the Nova Scotia com- panies this measure of control of the coal trade of the Dominion; and be- cause the coal operators are convinc- ed they would lose the trade of Que- bec, the Nova Scotia members of the House of Commons are already press- ing the Laurier government for a declaration that it will not accept the offer of reciprocity in coal made in the Payne bill. Both political parties at Ottawa since 1897 have been out- and-out protectionists — the Conserva- tives as a matter of policy and tradi- tion; the Liberals as a matter of po- litical tactics. Judging from past experience, the Laurier government will allow no in- terference with the coal or the iron and steel industry of Cape Breton. These in- dustries, through the tariff and through bounties, cost the Dominion seven or eight million dollars a year; and inter- ests which have been sufficiently power- ful at Ottawa to secure such favors are likely to be strong enough to compel the government to ignore the offer from Washington. A few Ontario and Mani- toba supporters of the government may be inclined to protest. But there is not a corporal's guard of independent Lib- eral members in the House of Com- mons. DEFENCES THAT DESTROY. At this moment four of the leading nations — France, England, Germany, and the United States — are moving heaven and earth to lay new taxes. Ger- many must find $100,000,000 a year more, or make herself again the ser- vant of the lender. The English Chan- cellor of the Exchequer is preparing a budget in which the taxing pow- er is stretched to the utmost in or- der to make income level with outgo. Our own straits are reflected in the re-

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April i, 1909] The Nation. 321 ports from Washington of new schemes every day to raise the revenue. The protectionist tariff bill has to be con- verted, perforce, into one for revenue. In France, the new income tax, which has passed the Chamber and is now be- fore the Senate, and which would levy a charge in some cases as high as 20 per cent, of the annual income, is strik- ing evidence of the way in which mounting public expenditures have driven governments' to their wits' end. It is a world-disease. We are now so accustomed to the thought of burdensome taxes that we do not often stop to think what they really mean. They actually represent a sapping of the comfort and resources of every taxpayer. If we could visual- ize the government in its work of col- lecting taxes, we should be able better to understand the nature of the pro- cess. We should then see an official stepping into a middle-class Lome, and saying: "No, you shall not give your children the clothes or the schooling you intended, for I demand a part of the money which you had set apart for that purpose. Nor shall you be able to care for them in sickness as you would wish, for I cut down your surpliis for emergencies. Your savings for oH age must be transferred in part to m^. I am the one who cripples you in .four daily expenses and your yearly esti- mates." Indisputably, to exact a tax so comprehended is an act of the grossest tyranny and oppression unless the pub- lic necessity be imperative. Sums ex- tracted under the kurbash or by tortuio could be no more cruelly wrung from the subject than are all taxes the justi- fication for which is not as clear as noonday. This, of course, is formally admitted by the tithing-men. They picture the crushing taxes which they are devising as a sacrifice which the individual citi- zen is called upon to make for the com- mon weal. And as they are forced to confess that it is huge outlay for mili- tary purposes, in time of peace, that eats up most of the widow's portion, and cabins and confines the lives of work- ingmen, it is upon the supreme need of providing adequate national defence that they expend their main arguments. This is the story that is now being pour- ed into the ears of agitated people in England. Their island empire is en- dangered, and they must take the last penny out of their purse, if necessary, in order to fill the seas with Dread- noughts. It is a patriotic duty to lay oppressive taxes, and a patriotic duty also to pay them without a murmur. That is also the theme of Washington statesmen, with their appropriations for army and navy increasing two and three-fold, and no limit in sight. It is a fundamental question, they assert, of national defence. In such extreme forms, however, that kind of defence destroys its professed object. It would deliver us from war, but lays upon us in peace burdens almost as great as those of war. Modern wars are soon over; but modern preparations to avert war impose their crushing de- mands upon the citizen continuously and increasingly through long years. Furthermore, the apprehension of war is only heightened by this kind of at- tempt to remove all fear of it. Consider the present plight of England. But a few years ago her navy lords were rejoicing in their latest triumph of construction — a battleship 50 per cent, bigger and more powerful than any before built. As Eng- land could launch Dreadnoughts faster than any other nation, her supremacy and safety were forever established, and war had been put out of the ques- tion by these terrible engines of war. Yet, in a short time, this jubilation was turned into panic. The very advance in English shipbuilding had made the rest of her great fleet antiquated. It was now a case of Dreadnoughts against Dread- noughts, and Germany was able to put them into the water as fast as England. The result was that extraordinary de- bate in Parliament the other day, when Mr. Balfour vied with the Prime Min- ister in depicting the acutely critical situation which the country was facing. It appears now that both disputants were wrong about their facts. They had been misinformed about the German na- val programme. That is now confessed, and the excitement is subsiding. But the incident shows how boasted national de- fences are all the while breaking down, our trust in the latest ships and guns shown to be misplaced, and the finan- cial burdens bound upon the backs of the people made ever more and more grievous. In these very excesses lies a practi- cal hope. Armaments designed to over- whelm others are ruining ourselves. At the present rate, the money-pinch will soon make powerfully for international peace, and for some means of guarantee- ing it less costly and less futile than ar- mor plate and high explosives. The moral and Christian arguments for dis- arming are reinforced to-day as never before by economic reasons. Taxes may do what texts cannot. It will soon be- come impossible for a Finance Minis- ter to propose new ways of taking the substance of the taxpayer, without hav- ing first sought earnestly to bring about an agreement among the nations to limit armaments. The German reply to Campbell-Bannerman's advances was that "no formula" for disarming could be found. Events are bringing a form- ula to view. Sir Edward Grey, speaking in Parliament for the Foreign Office on Monday, gave one phrasing of it: The vastness of the expenditure on arma- ments has become a satire and a reflection on the civilization of the world. If it goes on, it must sooner or later in Europe lead to national bankruptcy. That is, whether expressed in pounds or marks or dollars, the limit to the power of the peoples to pay taxes com- pels the finding of a limit to great arma- ments. PAUPERISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. A Royal Commission, appointed in 1905 to study the working of the Poor Laws and other forms of public relief in Great Britain, has just presented its report. The commission finds that the system of poor-law administration is a failure. But more tragic than the bank- ruptcy of a system is the unchecked growth of the evil with which that sys- tem was intended to cope. Most of us know that poverty in England is chron- ic. Few of us know that poverty has steadily increased during a half-century that saw the total national wealth of England go up by leaps and bounds. There were 24,000 more paupers in the years 1896-1906 than in 1888-96, and 7,000 more than in 1880-88. If we com- pare the period 1896-1906 with 1871-80, we find a decrease of 3.9 per cent, in the total number of paupers. But that is because there has been a decrease of 18 per cent, in the num- ber of dependent children, and 2 per cent, in the number of women. Adult male paupers have increased by no less than 18 per cent. In other words, the old charge that the almshouses were filled as a result of reckless breeding

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322 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 among the very poor, has lost most of its force. The ranks of English destitu- tion are now recruited from among the adults. The increase in pauperism, says our report, is greater during the work- ing years of life than among the very old or very young. For the whole of England and "Wales the number of able- bodied persons in receipt of relief in the period 1896-1906 showed an increase of probably more than 35 per cent, over 1871-80. The English conse'ence, we take it, has grown habituated to pauperism. But the English conscience has not grown used as yet to the non-professional and non-hereditary pauper, to that class which sinks into pauperism not because it won't work, but because it can't. To the problem of the unemployed, the Royal Commission gave earnest consideration. We are no longer in the simple times of 1834, when a commission last wrestled with the Poor Laws; Whilst the moral causes contributing to pauperism and unemployment remain much the same as before, the material influences regulating unemployment and industry have changed both in their character and their scope. Forces have come into operation affecting employment, its regularity, its cessation, and expansion, which are quite beyond local control. There are modifica- tions and developments in our industrial system which canmot be ignored; and their products and wreckage when either out of employment or in distress require a treat- ment more elastic and varied than the sim- ple method which eighty years ago was sufficient to cope with able-bodied pauper- ism in agricultural districts. Upon these modern complications we need merely touch. They are numerous and well-known. There is the evil of casual labor. The stress of machinery and competition calls for skilled men, and uses them up quickly. The work- ers who have not the necessary skill and those who have been squeezed dry by the modern industrial system consti- tute the "stagnant pools of casual labor which are getting larger and still more casual." It is the boast of modern in- dustry that it has found the way to utilize the labor of the untrained man and the child. But it is the curse of the modern industrial system that it uses the untrained man and the child to their own ultimate disadvantage: In modern industry the middle-aged are senile, and the senile are not employed. Skilled men in their prime are at a pre- mium, but many of our boys reach their prime unskilled, and others, degenerates, never reach any prime at all. The man of forty-five who is too old to be kept profitably at the work he could once do well, and the boy who starts as a messenger boy or in some other "blind- alley" occupation, meet as recruits in the army of the casually employed. It is they who, in times of exceptional distress, swamp the relief works insti- tuted for the men of steadier occupa- tion. The casual laborer gets from 55 to 75 per cent, of all aid doled out on such occasions. And the remedies? The commission recognizes how complicated is the prob- lem. Yet it holds, not too optimistical- ly, that much can be done. It suggests measures preventive rather than strict- ly remedial, designed "not so much for the distressed unemployed" as for the purpose of "preventing persons from be- coming distressed unemployed." The commission urges technical and special education and a raising of the age of re- quired attendance at school, in order to keep boys from being sent into the "blind alleys." It lays great stress on the usefulness of public labor exchanges, or employment bureaus, in increasing the mobility of labor; Germany, it is pointed out, has 700 such bureaus, and they find work for 150,000 persons every month. It urges upon employers the duty of regularizing their seasons of production so as to reduce to a mini- mum the large reserve of unemployed labor which modern industry seemingly demands. It discusses the possibilities of insurance against unemployment, of labor colonies, of emigration. We have here, in fact, what has been described as a series of economic essays on the entire subject of unemployment. The problem is immensely difficult. But the question is whether England hitherto has tried to do what can be done towards a solution, what has been seriously attempted in other countries, even where the needs are not so press- ing. Technical education — Germany is trying that. Labor «xchanges — again Germany is the model. Insurance — they have been experimenting with that on a vast scale in the Kaiser's realm. Has it ever occurred to English states- men that Germany is threatening Brit- ish supremacy in other ways than by Dreadnought-building? In England ele- mentary education is still chiefly con- cerned with the struggle between Non- conformist and Anglican ideals. In Eng- land the universities are only beginning I to reach down to the strata below the "gentleman." But how long can a na- tion in the present age of democracy hold its own while clinging to a system involving vast human ignorance and hu- man wastage? Can a growing list of battleships permanently make up for a growing multitude of paupers? EDWARD FITZGERALD. Over in the town of Woodbridge, where the sluggish waters of Suffolk crawl to the sea, they are celebrating this week the centenary of a poet and sage and lover of books. One hopes and believes that there will be nothing gar- ish in the ceremony, that no boastful eulogium will be spoken over the rose- bush, brought from the far-away tomb of his Omar, that grows by his resting- place. Let him quiet consummation have. We feel a personal interest in his memory, and as time goes on he, who was once so loved of Tennyson and Carlyle and Thackeray as Old Fitz (al- ways "old"), grows to be almost the dearest of the Victorian names. Not for what he accomplished, not for his "Rubaiyat," which, if truth be told, has been a little cheapened by overmuch quo- tation and imitation; but for his life and the record of that life in the in- imitable letters. If the locked door of the past were opened for one moment, how many of us out of all the privil- eges of those years would choose an hour's walk with FitzGerald — in Regent Street on that early day, perhaps, when with Tennyson he stopped before two figures of Dante and Goethe, in a shop window, and asked the poet: "What is there in old Dante's face that is missing in Goethe's?" And Tennyson (whose profile then, according to FitzGerald, had a remarkable likeness to Dante's) said: "The Divine." If we had been there we should have heard FitzGer- ald's reply, which he omits in the let- ter written long afterwards to Profes- sor Norton. Or perhaps we would choose rather one of those nights when, in in- describable attire and with his great plaid shawl wrapped about his head, he used to walk alone over the flat mea- dows about Woodbridge, muttering to himself who knows what strange fan- cies suggested by the opaque shad- ows of the moon and by the windmills that reminded him of his hero, Don Quixote. It is for his odd ways and quaint in-

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April i, 1909J The Nation 323 discretions largely that we love the man, but beneath this feeling lies an admiration no less real, if harder to analyze. Many critics have tried to reconcile the paucity of his achieve- ments with his undoubted intellectual powers, and have given reasons for his long isolation from the world. They are wont to build their theories on some supposed weakness of the will or taint of modern indecision. They may be right, but for our part we prefer to re- gard him simply as a philosopher, and to place him in the great company of sages and saints who have deliberately turned their eyes away from what seemed to them the world's folly. It may be a wrong ideal, at least it is one which the world cannot afford to encour- age; yet amid all our bustle and noise there is a certain wholesome check in the thought of such men as Newman in his Oratory, contemplating the mys- teries of religion, or FitzGerald, shut- ting himself off from his famous friends to smile at their anxious ambi- tions. These men, in one way or another, were caught in the net of the present, in the Strom der Welt — Carlyle thunder- ing against its iniquities, Thackeray dallying with its conceits, Tennyson la- boring to build in rhyme a meeting- place for the old faith and the new scientific inquisitiveness. What if they had seen and felt that a few passing years would sweep away all these things, merely to bring in other iniqui- ties, and conceits, and compromises? Would not their hands have been pal- sied, and would not they have sunk into that philosophic silence which Carlyle so noisily proclaimed? Action, such a life as FitzGerald's seems to say, is based on the fallacy of the present: Death seems to rise like a Wall against one whichever way one looks. When I read Boswell and other Memoirs now, what presses on me most is — All these people who talked and acted so busily are gone. It is said that when Talma advanced upon the Stage, his Thought on facing the Au- dience was, that they were all soon to be Nothing. The sense of the present as a fleeting point of time without meaning, rather than any failure of will, was what drove FitzGerald from the crowded activities of London and made him a solitary re- cluse. Such a philosophy carries with it, no doubt, its own penalty; and, flee- ing from the world, he could not alto- gether escape the hounds of ennui: For all which idle ease I think I must be damned. I begin to have dreadful sus- picions that this fruitless way of life Is not looked upon with satisfaction by the open eyes above. One really ought to dip for a little misery; perhaps, however, all this ease is only intended to turn sour by- and-toy. But for all that, it is not fair to say that his life or his mind was morbid. Against such a view the wholesomeness of his reading alone is sufficient evi- dence. There yet remains to be writ- ten a thorough-going treatise on the likes and dislikes of one who pretended "to no genius but to taste." Why did he think "Pendennis" "very stupid"? Why did he set Richardson far above Fielding? Why could he find no inter- est in "Gil Bias"? These are questions not easy to answer in accord with his other tastes; but in general it is clear that he clung to the writers who give a broad, fluid picture of life; with Tenny- son, he loved "those large, still books." It was a part of his abstinence from the present that he could not abide writing harassed with problems; and his distaste is well-known for the poems of Tennyson's own middle period, which dealt with questions of evolution and religion and social disease. It was his pleasure to have Montaigne "drop in to chat with and comfort" him. Scott he heartily enjoyed. He reads "The Pi- rate," and exclaims: With all Its faults of detail, often mere carelessness, what a broad Shakespearean daylight over It all, with no effort . . . They won't beat Sir Walter in a hurry. It was the sprezzatura, as Castiglione called it, that tickled him, the manner of a gentleman in letters who wrote for pleasure and disdained the tricks and toil of professionalism. And so "Don Quixote" was of all books his pe- rennial delight, both for its ease and largeness, and for its philosophy of dis- illusion. Sophocles, too, he read much, especially when at sea with his great skipper, "Posh." Mme. de Sevigne never tired him, and the buman realism of Crabbe appealed to him more than all the airy visions of a romantic like Shel- ley. No, he was not morbid, and there was no taint in his will. Of all the great men of that age, he was distinctly the philosopher. And we, in our busy days, love him for his flight from business. We take his wisdom and his relish of disillusion, with no fear that his bank- ruptcy of idlness will be ours. THE NEW ENGLISH REQUIRE- MENTS FOR COLLEGE. The report of the National Confer- ence on Uniform Entrance Require- ments in English, which met in this city February 22, has now been publish- ed. The prescriptions for reading for the years 1913, 1914, and 1915 show a considerable improvement over those now in force; and, if we look back through a period of ten or fifteen years, the progress may even be called strik- ing. It is easy to criticise our whole scheme of the study of English as arti- ficial and therefore ineffective. The true way to acquire the habit of reading good books is to begin very early in your father's large and well-chosen li- brary. Your habits of speech should, obviously, be formed by imitation of your cultivated parents and schoolmates. In such a happy environment the art of clear writing is easily mastered; it may almost be said to come by nature. But these ideal conditions are exactly what do not exist in America. To-day teach- ers of English are engaged in a desperate struggle against what seems a rising tide of sheer illiteracy. Boys of all nationalities, from every stratum of society, handicapped by all kinds of disadvantages in home-train- ing, are dumped on our schools and col- leges. It is with the aim of imparting a faint tinge of literacy to this raw, unhomogeneous, and intractable mate- rial that our programmes in English are planned. Those who rail most bitterly at the folly of teaching English have yet to suggest any other practicable method of conveying to the children of alien — or, for that matter, native — par- entage, a few hints as to the value and richness of their step-mother tongue. When we remember that, according to a recent investigation, only 45 per cent, of the pupils in the public high schools of New York city are of American par- entage, and that in the grammar schools the proportion is probably small- er still, we may wonder, not that the results of the instruction in English are often grotesque, but that they are, on the whole, so satisfactory. We are glad to see that the new re- quirement lays somewhat more stress on formal grammar: "English grammar should ordinarily be reviewed in the secondary school; and correct spelling and grammatical accuracy should be

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324 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 rigorously exacted in connection with all written work." Further, the exam- ination "may include . . . questions upon grammar." The extension of the kindergarten methods to the upper grades threatened at one time to drive formal grammar from the schools. That admirable discipline was condemned as too dry and unentertaining for high- spirited children who must be amused at all costs. That folly, however, we are apparently outgrowing. The Na- tional Conference also urges that the English teachers should not bear the whole burden of instruction in Eng- lish, and that their work should not be, as it often is, undone by the other teachers: Special instruction In language and com- position should be accompanied by con- certed effort of teachers in all branches to cultivate in the student the habit of using good English in his recitations and various exercises, whether oral or written. It is, however, in the list of books to be read with the notion of getting ac- tual pleasure out of them that the greatest changes have been made. The chief narrative parts of the Old Testa- ment appear for the first time, not as an absolute requirement, but as an alterna- tive. This is one way of contending against the appalling ignorance of the Bible concerning which we hear such loud complaints. The conference shows, further, a praiseworthy tendency to abandon books which — however impor- tant their place in the history of liter- ature, and however interesting, there- fore, to professors of literature — bore the young. Such, for example, are Chaucer's "Prologue," Spenser's "Faerie Queene," and Pope's "Rape of the Lock." De Quincey's "Joan of Arc" and" "English Mail Coach," Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," Emerson's "Es- says," and Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies" — all of them food only for the excep- tionally intelligent child — also go. In their place we have Macaulay's "Clive" and "Hastings," Thackeray's "English Humorists," selections from Lincoln, Parkman's "Oregon Trail," Thoreau's "Walden," Huxley's "Autobiography" and selections from his "Lay Sermons," and Stevenson's "Inland Voyage" and "Travels with a Donkey." Two capital books are added to the roll of Action, "Robinson Crusoe" and Stevenson's "Treasure Island." The problem of cul- tivating a taste for good reading is not, be it noted, so easy as it was even two decades ago. Now books must compete, not only with the yellow journals, but with the scores of yellow magazines that shriek their attractions from every news-stand. The conference is likewise to be commended for clinging to the sound notion that not all reading is to be for mere recreation. There is still a requirement for study, "intended as a natural and logical continuation of the student's earlier reading, with great- er stress laid upon form and style, the exact meaning of words and phrases and the understanding of allusions. For this close reading are provided a play, a group of poems, an oration, and an essay." It may be a pity to make any piece of literature a corpus vile for dis- section, but there seems no other way of accomplishing a result which seems most desirable. And finally the conference urges the plan of writing compositions based on the student's "personal experience, gen- eral knowledge, and studies other than English." A few years ago the subjects for composition in the admission exam- inations were drawn almost wholly from the required reading. The themes thus produced were cut-and-dried, stilted, and generally vague bits of pseudo-criticism, which encourage pupils in the habit of slipshod thinking and hazy expression. The failure of that method has already forced the colleges to allow or require for entrance a composition, say, a de- scription or a narrative, that shall show power of reporting direct observation. The preparatory schools will therefore spend less time and effort in futile lit- tle essays on "George Eliot's Skill in Characterization as Displayed in 'Silas Marner' "; we shall have fewer infant pedants and more boys who can give a plain statement of what they see, hear, or think. OUR DEMOCRATIC AMERICAN COL- LEGES. When Edwin E. Slosson started on his tour of American universities, to collect material for the current series of arti- cles in the Independent, he placed at the head of the list of questions that he purposed to ask, "Does the spirit of democracy prevail in this university?" He soon dropped the question as use- less, because it was answered every- where before he asked it, and always in the same way. The faculty, students, and alumni of each university agreed on the purity of its democracy. James Bryce recently praised this spirit of democracy, and referred to the United States as the nation having the largest proportion of its young men in colleges. That a nation devoted, at least theoret- ically, to democratic ideals and popular education should rejoice in all this is natural. It is equally natural that those whose main business in life re- veals the shortcomings of the American college should ask whether this demo- cratic spirit in higher education is al- together praiseworthy. Let us see what kind of institution we have built in de- votion to democratic ideals. If we are not willing to accept, unchallenged, Prof. Barrett Wendell's conclusion that "college education is to-day chiefly not- able for its ineffectiveness"; if we re- sent the sweeping arraignments by Clar- ence F. Birdseye and by Abraham Flex- ner, yet there are innumerable other critics whose charges we must meet. Condemnation of the college is the or- der of the day. Within two months the Atlantic Monthly, the Educational Re- view, the Dial, the Independent, the New England Magazine, the Columbia University Quarterly, the University Magazine, and Science have published articles which tend to the conclusion that "the college is the least satisfac- tory part of our educational system and has urgent need to justify itself." I. To what is due this "weakening of intellectual stamina observed among undergraduates"? Is it not in part our democratic indulgence toward incom- petency which clears the track of an- noying obstructions in the race for numbers and tuitioD fees? To what inconsistencies it leads our college fac- ulties! "Such and such subjects must be presented for admission," or "four- teen of these points are required of all candidates," our current catalogues de- clare, withholding as a rule the infor- mation most eagerly sought by the pre- vailing type of preparatory schoolboy, namely, how many subjects or points a boy may fail to present and yet be ad- mitted. These boys are ingenious; they are sure to find out how many of the "required" points are required; for their interest is not so much in the pro- fession of the catalogue as in the per- formance of the college. Thus it hap- pens that to a majority of candidates our colleges virtually say: "According to our professed standards, you are not prepared to undertake college work. Al- though the secondary school opportuni- ties are greater than ever before, al- though the wider range of admission subjects makes failure every year less excusable, yet you have failed to present our minimum requirements. Neverthe- less, we admit you, allow you to try to do college work in the same classes with those who are prepared, and, in addi- tion, we require you to make up your deficiencies in secondary school work." This is substantially what Harvard Col-

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April i, 1909] The N"ation. 325 lege said this year to 58 per cent, of the 607 freshmen. At Yale, 57 per cent, of the Incoming class, and at Columbia about the same proportion, were admit- ted with less than the "required" points. Nineteen of the freshmen ad- mitted to the college department of Co- lumbia University were deficient in a full year of preparatory school work. At Princeton, 201 out of 360 were thus admitted with "conditions." And there is no reason to suppose that our strong- est institutions are In this respect the greatest sinners among us. There is only too much concrete evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, if this overlooking of inequalities is not sufficient to satisfy the most democratic of candidates, he always has left the opening for "special students." If he will step in through this back door, he will find himself in the same classes with those who enter by the front door. He will be called a "special student," or a "freshman on trial," or a "provisional candidate for a degree," or a "student on probation"; but he does not# care He is confident that an institution so devoted to demo- cratic ideals as to make his entrance easy will not make his continued resi- dence difficult. Maturity and earnest- ness of purpose, it is true, should admit some candidates who, for good reasons, have not trod the beaten path to the college gates. But there is reason to believe that a majority of the 4,073 "spe- cial students," enrolled last year in the institutions included in the latest report of the Carnegie Foundation, slipped in through the back door merely because they were not qualified to enter the front door, and should have been barred out altogether. As true Americans we are proud of the principle that the higher education should be open to every boy who is pre- pared for it, and who is ready to make the sacrifices it involves. But was it in devotion to this ideal that one New England college admitted this year, without examination, a boy whose school declined to certify him in a sin- gle subject? Was it in devotion to this ideal that another New England col- lege admitted a star half-back with but half a school course to his credit? that another New England college employed on a famous football team three men who had failed in their academy course? that another New England college ac- cepted two candidates in violation of its agreement with the Certificate Board? that another New England college wel- comed, as captain of its baseball team, a boy under discipline by a rival col- lege? that another New England col- lege credited with advanced Latin a full-back who had failed in the second year Latin of his academy? II. Now the immediate effect on the schools of this democratic leniency toward the unfit, which, as President Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation says, easily falls into indiscriminate charity, is to hamper the work of all those teachers who are honestly striv- ing to promote genuine sustained in- tellectual effort; and, at the same time, such leniency makes it easier for lazy and weak-backed teachers to tolerate slip-shod work. The college is further hampered by the extra burdens placed on the unfit. Unless our devices for determining preparation for college are useless, those students most heavily "conditioned" must be, as a class, least fit for college work. Yet on precisely this class we lay the heaviest load. Then, when some students are allow- ed to take six courses, while many are taking only four, it stands to rea- son that the amount of work required in each course must be diminished, to the detriment of college standards, un- less those students taking six courses are conspicuously fit to carry 50 per cent, more work than other students. Quite the contrary is often the case, since those who take extra courses do so to make up entrance conditions or de- ficiencies in college work. According to all logic, students should be allowed to take more than the required number of courses in one year, only on the evi- dence of extraordinary ability. The authorities of some of our State universities, politicians as they are, or partly dependent on politicians, incline to the idea that has long clogged our public high schools — that a period of residence of any sober and faithful child of a taxpayer entitles him to gradua- tion. Nor are the ideals of all our pri- vately endowed colleges illumined by a much brighter light. Jealous of the rapid growth of State institutions (they have grown twice as rapidly as all oth- ers in the past twenty years), our pri- vate colleges incline toward the patent- ly absurd theory that nearly every boy should go to college and stay there. Our public grammar schools, which are obliged to take and to keep all sorts or raw material, have some excuse for the pernicious lock-step, through which bright boys form vicious habits of idling, while dull boys in the same class- es are being dragged along. But private endowed colleges, free from the most harassing drawbacks of public schools, have no excuse for allowing the medi- ocre to set the pace for the rest. III. If I were to define democracy in American college life, I would borrow a phrase from Dean Beutley — "our ill-ad- vised belief in the universal efficacy of college education to make a good piece of furniture out of a poor stick of wood." Accepting this definition, we are safe in declaring that the present wide distribution of scholarships in American colleges — made with an eye to enrolment figures — is truly democrat- ic. Certainly we are not using these trust funds, as best we may, to further Ruskin's aim of education, "to raise the fittest into positions of influence, and to give to every scale of intellect its nat- ural sphere." Every secondary school teacher has been repeatedly surprised, I doubt not, to learn that boys whom he regarded as hardly fit for college have had no difficulty in securing scholar- ships. This must have been at the ex- pense of those better fitted. The best youth the country affords are given half a chance in order that some of the weak- est may have an equal chance. As long as scholarships are used as a means of attracting numbers, there will be insuf- ficient aid for the few students of con- spicuous worth. Then, to atone for this thin spreading of its funds, our democ- racy errs still further in favoring self- supporting students at the expense of intellectual standards. Many faculties, through sympathy for indigent men who are ambitious to secure a liberal education, allow them to remain in col- lege under conditions which render a liberal education impossible. The rest of the students suffer, because the col- lege work must be tempered to those well-intending, but not necessarily clever, boys who are obliged to spend a large part of their time and effort in extraneous occupations. IV. A good deal of nonsense is heard about the superiority of the small college over the large, and the superiority of the city college over the country college. Size and location are relatively insignificant matters, compared with the calibre of the faculty and the standard of work. Large colleges as a class are superior to smalLjfolleges as a class, partly because their administrators and faculties as a body are men of greater insight and courage. Yet it is easy to name a score of small colleges that surpass a score of large universities, and there is an ever- increasing number of parents who stake their sons and daughters on the belief that there are to-day small colleges su- perior to the best of university colleges. Such a belief seems to many as yet un- warranted. But the conviction is grow- ing that a small college with the requi- site insight and courage to become "a Johns Hopkins for undergraduates," the Balliol of America, would soon take first rank among us, and find Its degree the most highly prized in America. Though it were located in the frontier forests of Aroostook County, there would be, every autumn, a beaten path to and from its gateway. Nor need such a college suffer any loss in real democracy. Harvard and Princeton are regarded by some people as too aristocratic, but surely nobody ascribes this alleged defect to the fact

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326 Tlie ISTation [Vol. 88, No. 2283 that Harvard has rejected hundreds of deficient candidates who have been promptly accepted by other colleges, or to the fact that Harvard this year re- cords a loss of forty-fight "special stu- dents." Nor has any one condemned Princeton as too aristocratic because, within the past six years, Princeton has dropped 680 incompetent students. The fact that Harvard and Princeton, alone among the universities and colleges of the East, exhibit a "loss" in enrolment for the past six years may well be con- nected causally rather with tbeir recog- nized gains in efficiency than with their supposed loss in democratic spirit. President Tucker of Dartmouth said, a few years ago, "I do not understand how a college under the natural laws of growth can be reduced, except in viola- tion of some one of the principles of democracy." If this be the only way to reduce a college, let us then violate that principle of democracy — if such it may be called — that refuses to discriminate between the fit and the unfit. Let us then violate that principle of democracy which in practice often seems to declare that every man is b^rn free to enter college and equal to its opportunities. William T. Foster. Brunswick, Me. FRENCH BOOKS ON HISTORY. Paris, March 12. "Les Origines de la reforme," by Pierre Imbart de la Tour, professor at the University of Bordeaux, after a first volume on the political state of the time, treats, in this second volume, of the Church and the crisis of the renais- sance (Hachette). The anarchy pre- vailing in the Church in France, with a secular spirit; the new ideas due to the revelation of classic and Christian antiquity; Leo X and the awakening un- der influences so equivocal as Lefevre d'Etampes and Erasmus, form the mat- ter of this volume. The author's tech- nical training, shown in his early works on the elections of French bishops and on rural parishes, together with his Catholic faith, gives him serious advan- tages in dealing with an age whose ideas, as well as forms of speech, dif- fer so strikingly from those of most historians of the present day. The book is not only new in matter, but well writ- ten in form. "Villeroy," by J. Nouaillac, is a study of that hereditary Secretary of State to Charles IX, Henry III, and Henry IV, from his birth in 1543 to the death of the latter king in 1610 (Champion). During this time Villeroy negotiated the first peace with the Protestants; but, after abandoning the League, he still showed himself favorable to Spain. The restless activity of the man under Marie de Medicis is not included in this vol- ume. "Trois Familiers du Grand CondeV' by Jean Lemoine and Andre Lichtenberger, tells pleasantly how the warrior's last years, passed in royal dis- favor, were amused and edified by a Jesuit, an Oratorian, and an abb6 — all perfect origincmx (Champion). "Les Assemblies du clerge et le Jansenisme," by Abbe J. Bourlon, is a Catholic ac- count of official ecclesiastical proceed- ings, in which weakness of technical knowledge rendered Sainte-Beuve in- competent (Bloud). "Memoires de la cour de Louis XIV," by the Italian fortune-teller, Primi Vis- conti, who won and held the favor of the Grand Monarque in spite of diplo- matic intrigues and the Affair of Poi- sons, is a distinct addition to histori- cal literature (Calmann-Levy). It has been translated from the Italian manu- script and duly provided with introduc- tion, appendix, and notes by Jean Le- moine, librarian of the War Office. It fully bears out what Saint-Simon led us to expect. We see the court through the eyes of one whose success in trade depended on seeing from the inside. "Crepuscule d'Ancien Regime," by the Vicomte de Guichen (Perrin), de- scribes separately various activities of France under the monarchy tottering slowly to its fall, from the bombard- ment of Genoa and the Doge at Ver- sailles (1684-5), Paris society manners and morals under the Regent (1715- 1723), and the end of the Seven Years War, to the dawning of a troubled day with the advent of Franklin (1776). "Le Secret du Regent et la politique de l'abbe Dubois," by Emile Bourgeois, the well-known professor, of diplomatic history, deals with the Triple and Quad- ruple Alliances (1716-1718)— the begin- nings of the secret diplomacy of the eighteenth century (A. Colin). It seems to be the first of a series following up the same subject and made possible by the opening of state archives to investi- gation. "Mile. SallS (1707-1756)," by Emile Dacier, is the life-story of a 1 danseuse of the Opera under Louis XV, which is also not without importance to complete history, and is written from unpublished documents. The Collection historique illustree (Louis Michaud) has for its new volume "La Vie aux galeres," by A. Savine, from the ar- chives and memoirs. After the Bastille, the galleys were the chief terror of the old regime. "Lettres de Belle de Zuylen (Madame de Charriere) a Constant d'Hermanches (1760-1775)," edited by the Neuchatel professor, Philippe Godet, brings us into the intimacy of a person whose sole, but sure, claim to mention in his- tory is her persistent friendships with an important set of historical charac- ters (Plon). They centre in the remark- able career of Benjamin Constant, the Swiss Protestant of English teaching, who did more than any other to indoc- trinate the earliest French Liberals. "La Jeunesse de Benjamin Constant (1767- 1794)," by Gustave Rudler, a doctor of letters who has specialized in the mat- ter, handles from numerous unpublish- ed documents this disciple of the eigh- teenth century, his utilitarianism and pessimism, and his relations with Madame Charriere, his first Egeria. The same author gives us an aid to histori- cal research in a companion small vol- ume, "Bibliographie critique des ceuvres de Benjamin Constant," with many hitherto unpublished documents (A. Colin). As to Madame de Char- riere, she is situated for the general reader in Henry Bordeaux's latest work, "Portraits de femmes et enfants"; among the other portraits are Mile, de Lespinasse (original of "Lady Rose's Daughter" of Mrs. Humphry Ward), and the vivacious Comtesse de Boigne, who tells so many tales of Benjamin Con- stant's political time (Plon). As no- thing is negligible where history be- comes personal, the love letters of Ben- jamin Constant (chosen for their liter- ary perfection in the genre) appear in "Les plus jolies Lettres d'amour," col- lected by Annie de Pene, along with those of Madame Recamier, to whose set he belonged for a time, of Chateau- briand, Diderot, Balzac, and Gambetta. "Claude Fauchet (1744-1794)" is the carefully studied life, in two volumes, of the court preacher who led the at- tack on the Bastille, sabre in hand, who became a bishop under the civil consti- tution of the clergy, and then, when he had been elected a Deputy to the Con- vention, found he had a conscience for- bidding him to go further in the way of revolution. Naturally, he was ac- cused of favoring Charlotte Corday, and, like her, his head was chopped off. The same special publisher of historical works (Champion) has brought out from the same period "Lettres inedites de J. S. Rovere," who was a member of the Conseil des Anciens. The letters were written to his brother, Simeon- Stylite, who was constitutional bishop of Vaucluse, but resigned, and became comfortably mad after the Terror, leav- ing these letters behind him at his death in 1820. Their writer, in spite of the assistance he gave in tumbling down Robespierre, was packed off to Guiana, where he died in 1798. Dr. Victorin Laval of Vaucluse adds an appropriate introduction, epilogue, and notes. "Un Sejour en France de 1792 a 1795" is a new edition of the translation made by Taine of letters of a witness of the Revolutionary Terror (Hachette). "Jour- nal d'une femme de cinquante ans (1778- 1815)" is the second volume of writ- ings left by the Marquise de La Tour du Pin and now published by her great- grandson (Chapelot). Her father-in- law was the minister of Louis XVI who returned from exile to testify in favor of his king and queen, for which

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April i, 1909] The Nation. 327 he was guillotined; and her husband was the companion of Lafayette in America, to which he returned during the Terror in France; but later he re- fused to follow his old leader in al- legiance to the modified Revolution of Louis Philippe. "Deux Jures du Tri- bunal Revolutionnaire," by Alphonse Dunoyer, tells the authentic story of Vilate "le petit-maitre" and Trinchard "l'homme de la Nature" — two of the men who have left Revolutionary justice a hissing and an abomination to all fu- ture generations (Perrin). "La Juri- diction consulaire de Paris pendant la Revolution," by Georges Leclerc, judge of the Tribunal de Commerce, which has taken the place of the old-time "juges- consuls," takes us into the business liti- gations which went on calmly and with multitudinous dossiers while the Terror was cutting off its heads outside. "Napoleon Ier, Empereur des Fran- cais," by Louis Lumet, gives 348 repro- ductions of pictures and engravings of the time, with appropriate text (10 francs, Nillson). "Souvenirs du Cheva- lier de Cussy," published by Count Marc de Germiny, is a considerable first vol- ume of notes left by a "garde du corps," diplomat and consul-general, from 1795 to 1866 (Plon). His life-work came af- ter Napoleon. "Les Rostopchine" is a fairly sensational family chronicle by the present Countess Lydia of that name (Juven). "She fears not to lift the veil from the personages, charac- ters, and intrigues of a famous family — her own. In particular, she reveals to us in her grandmother, the great Cath- erine Rostopchine, a woman of fatality whose influence extended over grave events in the history of Russia, such, for example, as the burning of Moscow, whose causes had remained somewhat mysterious!" The book is in direct con- tradiction to her grandfather's defence of himself; but it shows what the world was like during the Napoleonic epopee. Rostopchine himself wrote significantly (for the whole history of Russia), "I was like an Asiatic drunk with opium!" Stories of less heroic persons, and more deliberately selfish, may be found in "Marie Louise et la cour d'Autriche en- tre les deux abdications (1814-1815)" by Baron de Meneval (Plon). "Le Dernier Effort de la Vendee (1832)," by Vicomte A. de Courson, from unpublished docu- ments, plunges us back into violent, useless heroism for the Duchesse de Ber- ry, wild mother of that tame last heir of the Bourbons, the Comte de Cham- bord, whom his followers dreamed of as Henry V of France down to these late years. The sixth and last volume of "Les In- discretions de l'histoire," by Docteur Cabanes, ranges all through this France, which the Republic and the automobile have left forever in the past, from Louis XI explained by medicine to such ques- tions as — Rousseau, did he commit sui- cide? Napoleon, was he sick at Water- loo? and that subject of ineffable French laughter — Louis XVIII and women. Really valuable is the index to the six volumes (A. Michel). The collection of Enigmes de l'histoire, edited by M. Vit- rac, of the Bibliotheque Nationale, tries to give the finish to two legends in its new volume "La Fin de deux legendes," by Gustave Bord. They are the Affaire Leonard (Marie Antoinette's coiffeur) and the Baron de Batz, dear to Dumas. Another book dipping into many cen- turies is Ernest Dimnet's "Figures de moines" — English Benedictine monks of Douai, where they stuck after the Refor- mation until the Third Republic expell- ed them with the rest this other year; monks of La Trappe, whose founder looked askance at admiring friends of Port-Royal and outlived them in spir- itual progeny, since his rule has monas- teries in the United States, though also barred from France; an abbey in the eighteenth century; Shakespeare s monks; and some real letters from real monks (Perrin). The new order breathes strongly in "P. J. Proudhon (1809-1865)," by Edou- ard Droz, professor of the university faculty of Besangon (Pages Libres). This doctrinaire, who is slowly coming into his own as a world-moving phil- osopher, was the direct inspirer of the Revolution of 1848 (George Sand is the witness) ; and he has been adopted as the father of that anarchist movement, which is destined to blight every success of theoretical Socialism. In this, he was only like Herbert Spencer: both refused to see that their teachings tended whi- ther lawless disciples have led the way. "Le Principe d'equilibre et le Concert Europeen," by Prof. Charles Dupuis shows how the old order has progress- ed from the Peace of Westphalia to Algeciras. S. D. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The third volume of Thomas Lindsley Bradford's "Bibliographers' Manual or American History," M to Q, 1,423 num- bers, has just been published by Stan. V. Henkels & Co. of Philadelphia. Our notices of the two preceding volumes have not been very complimentary, and we are sorry not to be able to speak any more warmly of the third. It describes the his- torical works of Cotton and Increase Mather, and anonymous and general books relating to Massachusetts, New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other States. Some of the latter items will hardly be sought for under the headings where they are inserted; but the index which will form Vol. V will probably make them more accessible. The heading Missouri is par- ticularly full, and the compiler and pub- lisher make acknowledgements to William Clark Breckenridge for most of the Missouri titles. More recent auction records might have been supplied on some titles, for ex- ample the copy of the rare "Relation of Maryland" (1635), which brought £400 on March 15, 1907, is not entered; nor is the Earl of Sheffield's copy of "News from New England" (1676), which brought £118 on November 4, 1907. Some books are eQtered twice even in this volume. The last of the five tracts in folio on King Philip's war, "The War in New England visibly ended" (1677), is entered under "More, Caleb," and again under "New England." Beauohamp Plantagenet's "Description of New Albion" (1648) is entered under the author's name, but the reprint is entered under New Eng- land. Part V of the Henry W. Poor library will be sold by the Anderson Auction Co. in this city on April 5. 6, and 7. The most remarkable section of this part is the col- lection of French books formed by Valen- tine A. Blacque, seventy-two titles, mostly in fine bindings and some with added wa- ter-color drawings by famous artists. After Mr. Poor purchased the collection, he print- ed a few copies of a catalogue of it. Per- haps the most remarkable book of the lot is the first edition of "Les Sauvages de l'Europe" (1760) by Le Suire and Louvel, presented by the latter to Mme. de Pom- padour. Another notable item is the manu- script "Office de la Vierge Marie" by Nich- olas Jarry, calligrapher of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. This manuscript was executed for Anne of Austria, Queen of Louis XIII. It is in a mosaic binding by Trautz-Bau- zonnet, and signed three times by him. An- other important book is a large paper copy of Dorat's "Les Bais- ers" (1770), with illustrations by Eisen and other artists, generally consider- ed the masterpiece of French illustration of the eighteenth century. Among the early English books are "The Whole Works of Samuel Daniel" (1623), with the dedica- tion, lacking in most copies of this edition; the first edition of John Cleveland's "Char- acter of a London Diurnall" (1644); Gow- er's "Confessio Amantis" (1554), and Willy- mat's "Prince's Looking Glass" (1603). In the eighteenth century are first editions of Sheridan's "The Rivals" (1775), Gold- smith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1776), and "The Deserted Village" (1770). There are also first editions of Edward Fitz- Gerald's "Euphranor" (1851), "Six Dramas of Calderon" (1853), "Salaman and Absal" (1857), "Agamemnon" (1876); the first edi- tion of Keats's "Endymion" (1818); a pre- sentation copy of George Meredith's "Poems" (1851), first edition; Dante Ga- briel Rossetti's "Sister Helen" (1857); Rus- kin's "Poems (1850), of which fifty copies only were printed; the first edition of Shel- ley's "St. Irvyne" (1811), "Queen Mab" (1813), "The Cenci" (1819), "Rosalind and Helen" (1819), Prometheus Unbound" (1820), "Hellas" (1822), and "Posthumous Poems" (1824); Swinburne's first book "The Queen-Mother and Rosamond" (1860), with the earliest form of title-page; first edi- tions of Tennyson, John Addington Sy- monds, Andrew Lang, Robert Louis Stev- enson, and other nineteenth-century Eng- lish authors; a practically complete set of the publications of the Hakluyt Society, 152 volumes; and 127 volumes in various languages on the rose, uniformly bound in half rose morocco. Among manuscripts is a document signed by Ferdinand and Isa-

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328 The Nation. [Vol. 88. No. 2283 bella of Spain, Madrid, 1495, and a collec- tion of autographs of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, lacking only four, those of Gwinnett, Hewes, Middleton, and Taylor. As usual there are many book- club publications and books from special presses, some in handsome bindings. On April 7 and 8, the Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. of this city will offer a collection chiefly remarkable for the long series (nearly 250 lots) on Ireland. At a recent auction by C. G. Borner, in Leipzig, when a library said to have been collected in America was disposed of, the following prices were paid for first edi- tions: Goethe's "Faust," 1,110 marks; "Gotz," 705 marks; "Leiden des jungen Werthers," 445 marks; and "Die Rauber" (a soiled copy), 880 marks. A silhouette of Goethe as a youth, believed to be one of the earliest portraits extant, brought 385 marks; and a portrait of Schiller, by Rom- berg, showing the poet as a man, 445 marks. Correspondence. "THE HISTORY OP CARDENIO BY MR. FLETCHER AND SHAKESPEARE." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It seems to me that hardly enough attention has been paid to "Double False- hood," the play which in 1727 Lewis Theo- bald produced both on the stage and in print, asserting that it was a revision of a manuscript play of Shakespeare. Some crit- ics have treated the piece as pure forgery by Theobald. Others — the majority — have recognized an old Elizabethan foundation, but too much worked over to be attributed with certainty to any special author. "Dou- ble Falsehood" is a very close dramatiza- tion of the story of Cardenio in "Don Quixote." Now, in 1613 a play was acted by the King's men, entitled "Cardenno" or "Cardenna," and in 1653 there was entered In the Stationers' Register for Humphrey Moseley a play called "The History of Cardenio" by "Mr. Fletcher and Shake- speare." The question arises whether this play could have formed the basis of Theo- bald's revision. External evidence is lacking, since Theo- bald's manuscripts have disappeared, pos- sibly in the holocaust perpetrated by War- burton's cook. There are, however, some Interesting points of internal evidence. In the first two acts of "Double Falsehood" and in Act iii, scenes 1 and 2, there are evident traces of an Elizabethan hand pro- truding through masses of Theobald; but what Elizabethan hand It Is impossible to say. Beginning with iii, 3, however, there are many lines and passages, likewise half buried under Theobald, which no one inti- mately familiar with the Elizabethan drama should mistake; for they are clearly stamp- ed with the peculiar, the most characteris- tic mannerisms of Fletcher. It is not mere- ly the feminine ending, though that is con- spicuously present. It is the feminine end- ing composed of two words, especially with a redundant "now," or "too," or "yet." It Is the constantly recurring alliteration, the trick of repeating words, leaving them, and returning to them in a way hardly usual even with Fletcher's later imitators. Two passages, taken from many, will illus- trate most of these points. Violante — How his Eyes shake Fire, And measure ev'ry Piece of Youth about me! The Ewes want Water, Sir : Shall I go drive 'em Down to the Cisterns? Shall 1 make haste, Sir? Would I were five Miles from him — How he gripes mel Master — Come, come, all this Is not sufficient, Child, To make a Fool of me. — This Is a fine Hand, A delicate fine Hand, — Never change Colour ; You understand me, — and a Woman's Hand. — iv. 1. Julio — Since she Is not Leonora, she Is heav- •nly. When she speaks next, listen as seriously, As Women do that have their Loves at Sea, What Wind blows ev'ry Morning. — Violante — I cannot get this false Man's Mem- ory Out of my Mind. You Maidens, that shall live To hear my mournful Tale, when I am Ashes, Be wise ; and to an Oath no more give Credit, To Tears, to Vows, (false Both!) or any Thing A Man shall promise, than to Clouds, that now Bear such a pleasing Shape, and now are nothing. For they will cozen, (If They may be cozen'd,) The very Gods they worship. — lv, 2. The cloud figure In the last passage is curiously similar to one in Ordella's fine speech in "Thierry and Theodoret" (iv, 1). And many other resemblances of diction be- tween "Double Falsehood" and Fletcher's acknowledged plays could be pointed out. Now these traces of Fletcher occur con- stantly in certain distinct portions of "Dou- ble Falsehood." In other portions they do not occur at all. If then it is urged that Theobald forged the play, it must be ad- mitted that he did it with a knowledge of the tradition of the Shakespeare-Fletcher authorship and the definite intention of imitating Fletcher. But it is almost certain on external grounds that he could have had no knowledge of that tradition, and in his preface he expressly deprecates the sugges- tion of some critics that there were traces of Fletcher in the play.. It seems probable, therefore, considering the subject and the presence of Fletcher, that the play on which "Double Falsehood" was founded was the old "History of Cardenio." That Shakespeare had any hand in the original play can, of course, hardly be proved. Moseley's attribution to him in 1653 is not very reliable; nor is Theobald's story about his manuscripts. That "Car- denno" or "Cardenna" was originally pro- duced by the King's men in 1613 brings it at least into the period when, if ever, Shakespeare and Fletcher would have been working together. Passages in the por- tion of the play not Fletcher's have to my ear a turn or resonance more resembling Shakespeare than either Beaumont or Mas- singer, the writers most likely to have collaborated with Fletcher. You deal unkindly ; mlsbecomingly, I'm loth to say: For All that waits on you. Is graced and graces. — 1, 2; Such a Vlllany A Writer could not put down in his Scene, Without Taxation of his Auditory For Fiction most enormous. — ill, 1. Finally, the action of "Double False- hood" is much on the familiar lines of the Beaumont and Fletcher and Shakespeare romances. Especially noticeable is it that In the three plays of Shakespeare's last period and in "Pericles" the romantic theme of the restoration of lost children to their parents plays an important part, and in "Cymbeline" it forms the main element of the effective series of climaxes which closes the play. Now in "Double False- hood," Act v, we have the same theme also elaborately worked up in telling cli- maxes and, curiously enough, almost the only extensive deviation from the Cervantlc original is introduced to bring about this result. I shall have, before long, a much fuller discussion of this matter in Modern Lan- guage Notes, and I hope later to reprint "Double Falsehood" in a way to make It more available for study than it is at pres- ent. Gamaliel, Bradford, jr. Wellesley Hills, Mass. SOME PARALLELS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Last month there issued from the press of an American publishing house a book entitled "The Rhetoric of Oratory." In his preface the author says (p. vii) : "There is no modern text-book, so far as the author is aware, which covers the same ground as the present volume." Yet a com- parison of the book with another entitled "Modern American Oratory," copyrighted some eleven years ago by another publish- er, reveals a similarity rather alarming. There is submitted herewith a list — by no means exhaustive — of parallel passages from the two books. It would appear that the later writer has a standard of origi- nality peculiarly his own. This conclusion seems further justified by a comparison of portions of a book by the same author, en- titled "Extempore Speaking" (issued by Ginn & Co. last year), with a well-known little book by Prof. Brander Matthews, "Notes on Speech-Making." Ernest M. Halliday. Urbana, 111., February 16. "Modern American Ora- tory," by Ralph Cur- tis Ringwalt. Henry Holt & Co., 1898. . . . Aristotle says that oratory (or rhetoric, as the whole science of written and spoken dis- course was denominated by the Greeks) Is "the faculty of finding all the means of persuasion on any subject." Clcero.who Is followed by Dr. Blair, defines it as the "art of persuasion"; while Quln- tilian and John Quincy Adams agree in calling It the "art of speaking well." . . . That of Aristotle, since it has to do with but one branch of the subject, what the rhetoricians called in- vention, . . . may be rejected at once. — P. 3. . . . The much-quoted remark of Charles James Fox, when he was told that a speech read well, "Then it must have been a bad speech," is as far from the truth as the popular estimate which ranks Edmund Burke among the world's great orators. — P. 6. . . . We can now ad- vance a step, and turn to the broad divisions into which orations have been "The Rhetoric of Ora- tory," by Edwin Dll Bois Shorter. The Macmillan Co., 1909. . . . Aristotle says that oratory (rhetoric) is "the faculty of find- ing all the means of per- suasion on any subject." Quintilian and John Quincy Adams define it as "the art of speaking well," while Cicero and Dr. Blair agree In call- ing it "the art of per- suasion." But Aris- totle's definition, since it relates primarily to a single branch of rhet- oric, that of Invention, is to-day obviously In- adequate.— P. 2. . . . The importance of the manner of deliv- ery gave rise to Fox's dictum that a good speech never reads well. There may be some truth In this, but the statement is no doubt too sweep- ing. True, there are some noted orators, such as Burke, whose speech- es are more effective as literature than they were when first delivered. — P. 6. The broad divisions into which oratory has been classified have been variously named by dlf-

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April i, 1909] The Nation. 329 classified. Although va- riously named by differ- ent writers, these di- visions— a single addi- tion excepted — have al- ways been Intrinsically the same: they have been based on one of two points of view, eith- er upon the attitude of an audience toward a speech, or upon the pur- pose of the speaker, and usually upon the for- mer. For example, Aris- totle . . . finds three attitudes in an audi- ence, and upon these he bases his divisions of oratory. He says that audiences are either Judges of things lying In the past, as are mem- bers of judicial tribu- nals; or judges of things lying In the future, as are members of assem- blies and deliberative bodies; or critics, as are those who estimate only the ability of a speaker or the power and charm of a speech. Then, from this analysis, he draws the conclusion that there can be but three kinds of speeches — judicial, deliberative, and epi- delctlc, the oration of display. To this divi- sion, the birth of Chris- tianity, and the part played In the spreading of Its doctrine by spok- en discourse, has added a new, a fourth type of oratory; but with this exception, Aristotle's classification Is as val- uable to-day as it was two thousand years ago. We may therefore adopt It, . . . changing a little, although some- what arbitrarily, the no- menclature. . . . We shall then have four great divisions of ora- tory, as follows: (1) de- liberative, the oratory of the assembly; (2) fo- rensic, the oratory of the bar; (3) demonstrative (also called occasional), the oratory of display; and (4) pulpit, the ora- tory of the Christian Church. — P. 7, 8, 9. Although deliberative oratory has been defined as the oratory of the as- sembly, the inference must not be drawn that It is restricted In scope to speeches before legis- lative assemblies; . . . Any speech before a number of people who listen as judges, where the object of the speak- er is to induce his hear- ers to accept or reject a given policy for the future, may be called a lellberative speech. Thus to this class belong not only most congressional efforts, but speeches in conventions, those on the hustings, those In public meetings of many sorts, as well as those before synods and con- ferences.— P. 9. . . . Sedulous in- quirers point to the ha- rangues in the Bible, and to the stormy councils which enliven many pages of Homer as the first examples of deliberative speech. . . . In our own country de- ferent writers since the days of Aristotle, yet these divisions (with one exception) are intrin- sically the same; they have been based upon the viewpoint of either the audience or the speaker, and usually the former. Thus Aristotle bases his division upon three points of view an audience may have. He says that audiences are Judges either of things lying In the future, as are members of delib- erative bodies; or of thing (sic) lying in the past, as are members of judicial tribunals; or of things of the present, as are critics of the presentation of some topic of the moment. He then deduces this clas- sification: (1) Delibera- tive, (2) Judicial, and (3) Epldictlc oratory (to ehow forth, or display). —P. 15. Since the time of Aristotle the rise of Christianity has added another kind of oratory, that of the pul- pit. . . . However, for the purpose of sep- arate consideration, and changing — somewhat ar- bitrarily — Aristotle's nomenclature, we may classify oratory into the following four divi- sions: (1) Deliberative, the oratory of the as- sembly, (2) Forensic, the oratory of the bar, (3) Pulpit, the oratory of the Church, and (4) Demonstrative, the ora- tory of the special oc- casion.— P. 16. While deliberative ora- tory Is usually associat- ed with speeches before legislative assemblies, its scope is not confined to such bodies. Any speech addressed to hearers with the object of in- ducing them to accept or reject a given policy for the future may bo called a deliberative speech. Hence this kind of oratory Includes not only congressional and parliamentary speeches, but also addresses be- fore conventions, synods, conferences, and public meetings of various sorts. — P. 17. . . . Some writers point to the harangues In the Old Testament and to the stormy councils described by Homer as the first examples of de- liberative speech. . . . It lighted the fires which burned into the Refor- llberatlve oratory has had a record of singular power and service. It lighted the fires which burned Into the Revolu- tion. The Constitution is Its product. And It refined the wisdom that solved the great prob- lems of the first half century of our history. —P. 10, 11. The preeminence which has usually been con- ceded to deliberative oratory may be ascribed chiefly to three causes: the comprehensiveness of its purpose, the sub- jects with which it deals, and the character of the audiences to which it is addressed. —P. 11. . . . The great ora- tion has become an un- usual episode In our Sen- ate and House of Repre- sentatives, and it Is fast becoming unusual in the English House of Com- mons. . . . The change Is also due to some ex- tent, perhaps, to the kind of subjects that now occupy legislatures. Small details of admin- istration, tariff sched- ules, currency schemes, do not as a rule afford much chance for emo- tional speaking; . . . —P. 12. . . . Matter which to- day would be regarded as extraneous and wholly irrelevant was made the basis of argument. . . . As one writer has said, Cicero's argument was that "Archias was a Roman citizen, because he was a great Greek poet." — P. 18. The general structure of all forensic speeches, whether they be ancient or modern, or intended for judge or jury, is the same; they consist of three essential parts: a statement of the facts on which the case rests; a statement, drawn from these facts, of the points at issue; and the proof of the issues. — P. 22. The term demonstra- tive, It must be confess- ed, when applied to ora- tory conveys but very little meaning. — P. 24. . . . The subjects of eulogy were not, how- ever, so restricted then as they are now; gods and cities, as well as men, could appropriately be made the themes of praise. — P. 27. ... A man may be- come a statesman with- out being an orator, a lawyer without being an advocate; but he cannot well be a successful min- ister without being a preacher. — P. 45. mation and the French Revolution. . . . And Its history Is Inextrica- bly Interwoven with the history of our own coun- try— the Revolution, the adoption of the Consti- tution, . . . and the great governmental and social problems of the last half century. — P. 17. ... Its preeminence arises from three causes: the comprehensiveness of Its purpose, the subjects with which It deals, and the character of the au- diences addressed. — P. 18. . . . The great oration In the English Parliament or in the American Con- gress Is now an unusual episode. . . . Further, some Influence may be attributed to the char- acter of the questions dealt with at present. These are, as a rule, no longer the larger prob- lems of national policy, but details of adminis- tration, the currency, tariff schedules, . . . — questions that ob- viously do not lend them- selves to emotional speaking. — P. 19, 20. Arguments and appeals were employed which to- day would be regarded as extraneous and whol- ly irrelevant. ... As some one has said, Ci- cero's argument was that "Archias was a Roman citizen because he was a Greek poet." — P. 23. The general structure of a forensic oration, whether ancient or mod- ern, whether delivered to the court or to the jury, consists of these three essential parts: (1) a statement of the facts of the case, (2) a state- ment, deduced from these facts, of the points at issue, and (3) the proof of these issues. — P. 27, 28. It must be confessed that the term "demon- strative," when used to designate a division of oratory, conveys but lit- tle meaning. — P. 35. . . . The subjects for eulogy, however, were not restricted to men, as they usually are to-day, but gods, cities, and even inanimate objects or abstract virtues might be made the themes of praise. — P. 37. ... A man may be a successful lawyer with- out being an advocate, or a statesman without being a deliberative ora- tor, but he cannot well be a minister without being a preacher. — P. 28. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Mr. Halliday takes exception to the statement in the preface of my book, "The Rhetoric of Oratory," to the effect that "there is no modern text-book, so far as the author is aware, which covers the same ground as the present volume." But the statement is true — so far as the author is aware — and it was for this very reason that the preparation of the book was first un- dertaken, some ten years ago. Much would depend, it is true, upon what is meant by "covering the same ground." Every teacher of oratory is, of course, well aware of Mr. Ringwalt's excellent essay, "The Theory of Oratory," contained in his volume, "Modern American Oratory." But his book is not primarily a text on oratory, but a collection of orations for critical study. The sub-title is : "Seven Representative Orations, Edited with Notes, and an Essay on the Theory of Oratory." This essay, or text proper, is contained in 90 of the 329 pages of the whole book. "The Rhetoric of Oratory" is pri- marily a text-book, the text proper being 217 of the 305 pages ; and approximately two-thirds of the latter book treats of topics not dealt with in the former. So, when it is said that the two books do not cover the same ground, this is meant in the sense that a man who goes 90 miles over a given course does not cover the same ground as one who goes 217 miles, or, in the sense that one who cultivates one acre of ground does not cover the same ground as he who cultivates three acres. Another statement in the preface to "The Rhetoric of Oratory" answers, at least in part, the nrima facie case presented in sev- eral of the foregoing parallelisms. The statement referred to reads: The author would not underrate his in- debtedness to some of the modern treatises (cited in the text), but for the most part the present treatise simply aims to adapt ancient precepts to present-day condi- tions. . . . No writer could seriously pretend to any originality as to the principles and theories relative to the science and art of oratory, so elaborately worked out by Aristotle and the other ancient writers, or as to the ap- plication of these theories to present-day conditions. The case before us, then, can raise questions only of form, not of mat- ter; and it is impossible adequately to deal with questions of form without quoting in full what is given above as either a part of a sentence, or as a segregated sentence out of a paragraph, and this method neither time nor space will permit. But, if we take, for example, the first parallel pas- sages above given, it would not appear to me alarming if, in mere statements of facts and theories, similarity in form of state- ment were to be found in several other modern books that might readily be cited. So of the second instance: the quotation of Pox's familiar remark, and the well-recog- nized estimate of Burke as to matter vs. delivery — these matters have been comment- ed upon by numberless writers, with a simi- larity in form of statement not necessarily alarming. So of the third set of parallel passages, relative to the divisions of ora- tory; any one interested may find paral- lel passages in Dr. Blair's "Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres," John Quincy Adams's "Lectures on Rhetoric and Ora- tory," and in numerous later books — and all going back at last to Aristotle's analysis. Now, I have no desire to beg the ques- tion. I owe much to Mr. Ringwalt's es- say, and Mr. Halliday has succeeded in convincing me that I owe more to it than I probably realized when writing those chapters of my book which deal with topics treated of in both books. I am convinced, for example, that in the matter of the dif- ferentiation of oratory from other forms of

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330 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 public speaking (parallel passages in the treatment of which, by the way, might well be added to Mr. Halliday's list), I am In- debted very largely to, and have followed closely, Mr. Ringwalt's analysis. Although his book is cited in a foct-note reference (p. 25), doubtless more specific acknowledgment of the help derived from his essay should have been given. This omission I exceed- ingly regret, and shall at once take steps to correct. The oversight, however, may be explained by the fact that I used Mr. Ringwalt's book some three or four years with my classes; then, wishing to develop the subject along other lines, I used notes, Including quotations and paraphrases from this and other works, ancient and modern, as the basis of informal lectures. These notes were the primary source for reference in the process of composition, while writing my book, and it is quite possible that seg- regated passages may be the result of un- conscious memorizing, or of careless- ness in transcribing what should have been either specifically acknowledged or given as quoted matter. The same remark applies to the other book mentioned by Mr. Halliday — although in the latter instance special acknowledgment is made in the preface of the help derived from Professor Matthews's little book. But, all in all, if the two books in ques- tion be compared and judged as a whole — sentence by sentence, paragraph by para- graph, and chapter by chapter — on such a basis of judgment as this the author of "The Rhetoric of Oratory" is content to rest his case. Edwin Dubois Shurter. University of Texas, February 28. SENTIMENT VERSUS HISTORY IN NORTH CAROLINA. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Some occurrences during the recent session of the North Carolina Legislature throw an amusing side light on the power of sentiment and of family pride to per- petuate historical error when it has been once established, and show the powerless- ness of historical truth when confronted by popular tradition. As is well known, many North Carolin- ians have long claimed, because of the so- called Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen- dence, a priority over the national Declar- ation of July 4, 1776. In 1819 the report was first published that on May 20, 1775, Mecklenburg County, N. C, declared ab- solute independence of Great Britain. The claim was based on the statement of John McKnitt Alexander, who had been secretary of the meeting. His account of the pro- ceedings on that day was written from memory twenty-five years after the event occurred, but was at that time believed to have been copied from the original rec- ords. The claim of Mecklenburg Coun- ty was at once disputed, and in 1830 the State Legislature set gravely to work to establish by law the disputed facts. The survivors of the Mecklenburg meeting of May, 1775, were sought out; the statements of the secretary made from memory in 1800 were shown them, and they were ask- ed if these statements accorded with their own memory of the events. Their an- swers, in the absence of more definite knowledge, tended to confirm the story of the secretary, and the whole was publish- ed with the sanction of the Legislature as the official version of the affair. It is to be observed that there was then no particular question as to the date or the exact language of the document. But in 1847 Dr. Joseph Johnson found the full set of twenty resolutions since known as the Mecklenburg Resolves of May 31, 1775, which differ widely from the Declaration of May 20. From the discovery of the Re- solves of May 31, which are undoubtedly genuine, until the present time, there has been war between the advocates of the Declaration of the 20th and the Resolves of the 31st. Students outside of North Car- olina who are not influenced by local feel- ing have been uniformly against the Dec- laration of the 20th. In fact, so far as I recall, no recognized historical student of the present generation has undertaken their defence. They have looked for their defence to the descendants of the signers and to an aggressive and overbearing pub- lic sentiment in Mecklenburg, which has to an extent permeated the State and given tone to the work of local historians. These have either accepted the 20th with its contradictions, or have neatly strad- dled. Within the last week there has ap- peared in the leading newspaper of the State a communication from one of the descendants, which calls for a suppression of "heresy" in regard to the 20th, and an intimation that if the teachers in the State schools cannot support that date they should resign. But the light of history is dawning, even in North Carolina. In his recent work on the history of North Carolina through the colonial and revolutionary periods, Capt. S. A. Ashe treats this subject in the course of his narrative. To satisfy local public sentiment he gives all the documents on which the advocates of the 20th rely for their defence. Then, after discussing the whole subject with much' detail, he cuts loose from tradition, defies public senti- ment, and arrives at the inevitable conclu- sion that there was but one public meeting in Charlotte in May, 1775, and that the Re- solves of May 31 are the published expres- sion of that meeting. Now for the sequel. A bill was intro- duced at the recent session of the North Carolina Legislature to give the county boards of education authority to purchase this history of North Carolina by Capt. Ashe for the rural school libraries, if they saw fit. The bill, at best, was a mere en- abling act. It passed the Senate. It was re- ferred to the House Committee on Educa- tion. There, the Speaker of the House, who happens to be a Descendant, appeared against it, and was beaten. When it came up on its passage it was opposed by the Speaker, who left his gavel to lobby, and by the Representatives from Mecklenburg. The merits of the book were not discussed. The fitness of Capt. Ashe for his task was not considered. The need of a State history was not thought of. These things availed nothing when placed in the balance against his rejection of this hoary myth. The op- ponents of the bill did not think argument necessary. Their speeches were directed to showing what would follow in the wake of this bill: The date, May 20, is on the State flag and on the State seal; a monument has been erected in Charlotte to commemo- rate this event; the children have been taught this date, and, as one member put it, its authenticity "has been established by the Legislature already as thoroughly as the Legislature can establish anything." Then why not leave good enough alone without questioning its correctness? This impassioned appeal to sustain the 20th, re- gardless of the historical arguments against it, swept the members off their feet, and the bill was defeated by 56 to 39. Verily in the North Carolina historical world "the sun do move." Stephen B. Weeks. Greenboro, N. C, March 23. THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Prof. A. W. Anthony, in your issue of March 18, asks, "Why perpetuate longer •the foreign method if it does not give the student acquaintance with a spoken lan- guage?" The anecdote which so interest- ingly describes the inability of Mr. An- thony and a German student to converse in Latin simply goes to prove the neces- sity of adopting a uniform standard throughout the world. If anecdotes be argument, I know a certain Harvard man who was able pleasantly to spend a long afternoon in an Italian train talking Latin with a native priest. They had no other language in common, and the vast dispar- ity of their native dialects did not prevent the one from comprehending the other, thanks to the American's training in the Roman pronunciation. Professor Anthony complains further that the Roman pronunciation increases the dif- ficulty of learning the language. It would be otiose here to repeat all the arguments in favor of the Roman pronunciation; one is decisive — that on any' other plan we can- not form the faintest idea of the melody and the power of Latin and Greek prose, of the beauty of the poetry of Homer, So- phocles, Catullus, Virgil. Why is it that so many forget that the letters of our al- phabets, ancient or modern, do in all sin- cerity stand for sounds, are but symbols Of the reality and not the reality itself, which is oral? It would be just as absurd for us to attempt to superimpose our sounds upon the symbols of Virgil as it would be for a German, untrained in Eng- lish speech, to judge the music of Swin- burne by his own mangled and guttural travesty of it. The increased ease that Mr. Anthony asserts would follow in the case of a return to the old "English" system would in reality be that ancient enemy of human progress, the ease consequent upon low ideals and still lower attain- ments. But logic deserves our respect, wherever we find it, and I would be the last to deny that there are both logic and courage in Mr. Anthony's position, in spite of the fact that his premises and his conclusions are equally untenable. His logic and his cour- age are both proved by his writing such a delicious reductio ad absurdum of the methods which we employ for the ancient languages in the majority of our American schools. R. K. Hack. Williams College, March 22. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I confess my surprise that your cor- respondent of March 9 speaks of the now

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April i, 1909J The Nation 331 generally adopted pronunciation of Latin as "having naught but a worn-out theory to commend It." It has always seemed to me that our evidence upon this matter, de- scending from antiquity itself, is remark- ably full and convincing, so much so that there is here comparatively little difference of opinion among scholars, which is more than can be said of their views on some other branches of classical philology. • I could tell your correspondent another story, as a counter-blast to his, of an ac- quaintance of mine, who was able success- fully to communicate in spoken Latin with the authorities of the Vatican Library, thanks to his having been trained in the Roman method of pronunciation; but I wish to pass to something more important. Your correspondent appears to argue that, be- cause a student pronounces "vidi" as "wee- dee," he will not be likely to recognize its connection with such a word as "evident." My observation, however, is this, that where the English method of pronunciation is nominally employed, no attempt is ever made to read Latin at all (as, indeed, why should there be?), and consequently a stu- dent's ideas of derivation come to him vis- ually, not vocally. Now, if he employs the Roman method, he gets his derivation vis- ually just as under the other system, and by reading aloud — a process upon which classical teachers are laying increasing stress — he gets at least a fair approxima- tion to Latin as it sounded in its impe- rial days, gets some real impression of the sonorous Ciceronian eloquence as it rang in a Roman's ears, some idea of the "state- liest measure ever moulded by the lips of man." In short, he gets all that the stu- dent under the other system gets, and a great deal more. As one who was brought up under the English method and did not employ the Roman till in his twenties, I desire to record the fact that the classics never meant half as much to me when I merely translated them as they have since I have read them. May I be permitted to call John Milton In his capacity as schoolmaster into court: For their Studies, First they should be- gin with the chief and necessary rules of some good Grammar, either that now us'd, or any better: and while this is doing, their speech is to be fashion'd to a distinct and clear pronuntiation, as near as may be to the Italian, especially in the Vowels. For we Englishmen, being far Northerly, do not open our mouths in the cold air, wide enough to grace a Southern Tongue; but are observ'd by all other Nations to speak exceeding close and inward: So that to smatter Latine with an English mouth, is as ill a hearing as Law-French. William Hardy Alexander. University of Alberta, Stratbcona, Canada, March 25. i To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: For one in the curious state of mind evinced by the writer of a communication in the Nation of March 18 ("The Pronuncia- tion of the Classics") there may be food for reflection in an entertaining passage in Sir Walter Scott's novel, "The Fortunes of Nigel" (Chapter ix), where young Nigel is presented to King James I, who, after Borne conversation with him in Latin, ad- dresses his courtiers as follows: Ye see, my lords, no bad specimen of our Scottish Latinity, with which language we would all our subjects of England were as well embued as this and other youths of honourable birth, in our auld kingdom; also, we keep the genuine and Roman pro- nunciation, like other learned nations on the continent, sae that we hold communing with any scholar in the universe, who can but speak the Latin tongue; whereas ye, our learned subjects of England, have in- troduced into your universities, otherwise most learned, a fashion of pronouncing like unto the "nippit foot and clippit foot" of the bride in the fairy tale, whilk manner of speech (take it not amiss that I be round with you) can be understood by no nation on earth saving yourselves; where- by Latin, quoad Anglos, ceaseth to be communis lingua, the general dragoman, or interpreter, between all the wise men of the earth. It is needless to say that our English cousins, after these centuries of insular absurdity, are now engaged in the process of wholesale reform in the pronunciation of the classical languages and are fast con- forming to the usage of the rest of the world. H. H. Yeames. Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y., March 22. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: May I be permitted, as a teacher of Latin to long-suffering youth, a word of protest against Prof. A. W. Anthony's new statement, in your issue of March 18, of what to many of us is an old heresy? The thing seems plausible enough on the surface: Why teach the Latin pronuncia- iton, or, for that matter, any pronunciation at all? Latin is a dead language (absi't omen!); you can't converse in it; even if you could, few would be so lacking in means of entertainment as to listen. Latin cannot even make out as good a case for itself as Greek, which Professor Anthony admits is a spoken and living language, for- getting perhaps that modern Greek resem- bles more nearly the familiar conversation of the ladies of Abdul Hamid's seraglio than the honey-sweet words we so meticu- lously translate. But all this were as nothing, and little to our purpose, except for three of Professor Anthony's capital charges against the teaching of an approx- imately historical pronunciation, those, namely, of Uselessness in relation to any other study, Etymological Hindrance, and Needless Difficulty. Let me employ a hysteron proteron, and do away with this last Idea. In my own school days, I think it took us about two weeks to master with a certain complete- ness the chapter on pronunciation, and its application. I have this year in process of instruction boys from twelve to fifteen years of age, who have taken Latin since last September; I tested to-day the least ca- pable pupils in the class, and although I found them something uncertain as to ac- centuation, they sounded every vowel admir- ably. Such a condition is not exceptional. Any task, of course, is a difficulty; but a difficulty such as the present seems to me far from useless. Let us suppose we teach the Roman system of pronunciation. Now, if the boys we teach were French or Ger- mans, the Latin syllable might indeed dif- fer so slightly from its equivalent in the pupil's mother tongue as to call the wis- dom of a whole new pronunciation scheme seriously into question. But English-speak- ing boys are accustomed to a far different sounding of letters, especially of vowels; the soft a is infrequent, the e as in ego does not exist at all, and the i as in sine occurs only in words of foreign derivation. Now what is more, these boys, if they are to learn any foreign language at all, must first have grasped these rudimentary differences of pronunciation ; must find them thoroughly familiar. Why throw on the German class a burden the Latin class has always found so light? Professor Anthony further insists that an historical pronunciation tends to obscure etymological derivatives and cognates. Ad- mitted, to a certain extent. But how can we show the much more fundamental rela- tion of certain words, as for instance, vadum and wade, if we pronounce the v with Anglo-Saxon insularity? And as for the funny sounds, the boys soon forget all that. There remains, however, a stronger rea- son than any of Professor Anthony's for the English pronunciation, namely, the aesthetic. We all despise our new theories just a little, and we confess to a desire for the linguistic fleshpots of days gone by. I remember hearing Prof. Barrett Wendell read in Latin St. Matthew's account of the Nativity, commenting as he did so on the absurdity of reading one's Latin in any other way except "as Shakespeare read his." Need I point out that Shakespeare must have pronounced words in -Hon much more nearly the classical way than the modern? And how are we to rhyme heath with Macbeth, unless we broaden it out to the Irishman's hayth, which is, by the way, a pronunciation historically more true, if less elegant, than our own? C. H. Dickerman. Fishkill-on-Hudson, March 19. ANIMALS ON THE GALLOWS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Referring to Dr. Furness's inter- esting letter (Nation, March 4, p. 217) con- cerning the English custom of hanging wolves on gallows, allow me to draw the attention of antiquarians to a most singular Greek bronze recently described and pub- lished by M. Stai's, "Marbres et bronzes du Musee d'Athenes," 1907, p. 266. It repre- sents, according to M. Stai's, a fox hanged on the stem of a tree, somewhat in the atti- tude which Greek art gives to Marsyas hanged by order of Apollo. The provenance, stated with a query, is "Arcadie, au sanc- tuaire de Pan." Now, a wolf-god is well known to have been honored in Arcadia, and what M. Stai's calls a fox may — as far as we can judge from the paltry half-tone engraving — be a wolf. No folklorist need be surprised at finding the image of a slain wolf in the sanctuary of a wolf-god. But I will abstain from any hypothesis; the first thing to do, before even discussing the question, would be to procure a good and large photograph of that queer bronze. Fox or wolf, the animal represented is hanging on gallows, and may thus serve as an illus- tration to the passages adduced by Dr. Fur- ness. Salomon Reinach. Saint Germain, March 16. THE WORK OF THE COUNTRY SCHOOL. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It would be difficult at this mo- ment to specify all the causes that go to make up the present demand for better education in the country districts, to which.

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332 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 you refer in your editorial of March 18; but at least two causes stand forth in plain sight. One is the demand on the part of the farming community for better ■education, and the other is the larger sup- ply of available candidates for the position ■of country teacher. The growing complexity and specializa- tion of modern life has reached even the farmer ; he sees about him the beneficial results of intelligence, training, and in- dustry applied scientifically to farming. Undoubtedly he has seen this for many years, but during the last decade or so he has become prosperous, and is now in a position to make effective such desires. He has subdued the wild forces of nature, he has erected his barns, he has stocked his place with valuable animals, he has bought improved machinery, and he is now study- ing the problem of better education for his children. Hence the widespread call for better country schools. On the other hand, the old days have passed forever in this country when there were abundant opportunities lying open for any young man of energy, but without previous training, to make a comfortable fortune in a few years. The once abundant possibilities of rapid advancement from section hand to president, from errand boy to the head of the firm are now mere rem- iniscences. There has set in a sort of re- action, and occupations once scorned as slow and ill-paid are now carefully con- sidered by young men starting in life. Schoolmastering, which fifty years ago was merely a stepping stone for the ambitious and courageous, is at the present time showing signs of being at least a respec- table trade in which any physically healthy and mentally well-balanced man may gain a decent livelihood. But the teacher had to wait till the barns were all built, the Herefords and Percherons purchased, and the reaper and sulky plough installed. His turn for consideration has now come. Probably the agricultural schools and ex- periment stations have contributed largely to this happy result. The farmer who held the plough or wielded the scythe in mid- summer for more hours than the sun shone, begrudged every dollar paid to his hired •man whose chief asset, after all, was brute strength and endurance; the less strength and endurance, the less valuable. This farmer was loath to pay money to any man who did not work with his two hands in the fields. Naturally religious, he starved the preacher; naturally fond of his children, be sought the cheapest teacher possible; a physically incapacitated man or an imma- ture girl would do. But along came the graduate of the agricultural college or the expert from the experiment station, and showed the farmer how to make a field, ■which he was unable to utilize, blossom with profitable crops; how to get cream from a good Brown Swiss cow, or what prices a good Clydesdale horse would fetch. Half a mile down the road wa3 a young fellow who had been to school and had been trained for agricultural business. The land was of the same quality, but acre for •acre, cow for cow, hog for hog, sheep for sheep, the young fellow, trained in the schools, secured bigger prices; lived in bet- ter style, and stood higher in the com- munity. All this was the result of train- ing and education. The farmer began to respect the man that taught his success- ful competitor; the profession of school teaching began to look up. It remains to be seen what direction this new movement will take; it may prove a curse and it may turn out a blessing. If the aim of every good school is to fit the young for life work, the country school should devote its energies chiefly towards natural, scientific, and agricultural sub- jects. Up to the present, the chief fault of the American schools has been that they have turned out young men and women who instinctively, as the result of such train- ing, sought clerical jobs in large cities. It would be a great blessing if country children were systematically taught to de- spise such occupations; and it would be money well spent if the State would pay the expenses of a committee of mothers from every farming community who should visit large cities and see how young women exist who hold jobs in department and sim- ilar stores, and have to live on perhaps three dollars a week. B. L. C. Morse. Chicago, March 28. THE SOUTH AND THE NEGRO. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: We do not study the South enough by leisurely visits off the beaten track, away from the "Florida Special" and the tourist routes, from which nothing of much value can ever be learned. Our war preju- dices, the old distortion and blindness, are still overwhelming us, although we boast sometimes that we have shaken them off. Of what avail is it to have conquered the South if we enter not into possession of that charming people and their beautiful country? I say this to myself every winter as, re- turning from the quail and snipe regions, I add new experiences" of appreciation. I stopped over this time at Union Springs in Alabama, merely a cotton town far removed from tourist lines. It is situated, with wide, well-shaded streets, on a good- sized hill, or ridge, with extensive views over a very curious region, a sort of mot- tled country of pine forests and red-soiled cotton fields — a paradise for sportsmen and followers 'of the cunning quail, with high- bred dogs wandering about the streets. I sat on the steps of the courthouse with my own dog, and talked with one of the judges. The field sports and their broadening genial influence are perhaps the best equip- ment for the serious task of these South- ern judges, the most serious task that perhaps has ever been given to their race. Union Springs is in the midst of the black belt, and the negroes outnumber the whites ten to one. The white men seemed to me like a band of brothers, united, disciplined, trained through generations, like jovial sol- diers, to hold down the black race. Their Southern qualities, that extreme and ready sociability, that frank directness, seemed the more intensified because they were so desperately united to protect Anglo-Saxon decency and order from being overwhelmed by Africa. The blacks, judging from those I saw, may have been descended from the last slaves imported just before the trade was stopped. They seemed very close to Africa. One of the young men I went to see is a college graduate, and a magistrate, who seems to spend a large part of his time trying negroes for all sorts of misde- meanors. I watched another young man in an office adjoining the court house, with negro after negro, male and female, com- ing before him; they were waiting in groups before the door, and he seemed to be lecturing and explaining to them much of the time. These negroes are not the selected ones that we know, but the great mass of the 10,000,000; the 9,900,000 of the 10,000,000. It will take a long time to lec- ture and explain Anglo-Saxon ideas into the black mass. It will never be done In any time that can be estimated; and yet the Southerner goes on with it day after day, with the greatest patience and good temper; he has been going on with it in that way for generations, and he will go on with it to the end of time, while we theorize and talk about it in the North. I wonder where it will all end. Will the Southerner continue to hold down with one delicately moulded, but iron hand, while he explains and explains and shows great kindness with the other hand; and mean- time the years and decades pass, and in fifty years the present ten millions of ne- groes have grown to twenty millions, and in another fifty years to forty millions, and so on until at last there is a small white population, a desperately united, high- strung band of brothers, holding down an enormous black mass just as in India about one hundred thousand Englishmen hold down three hundred millions of brown Asiatics. If that day ever comes I feel as if there should be painted somewhere in the universe the scene I saw in the court house; the slim young Southerner of race-horse build, all nerve and sensa- tion, the Anglo-Saxon type of the South- ern sun, explaining to black man after black man; and he kept on explaining and explaining through the ages until the black man overwhelmed him with numbers. Sydney G. Fisher. Philadelphia, March 10. LINCOLN AND THE NEGRO. To the Editor oj The Nation: Sir: A correspondent in your issue of March 18 thinks that I have done "both Lin- coln and the Nation" an injustice in my comments on Lincoln's attitude toward the negro. Now as to your correspondent's as- sumption that Lincoln's views might "have undergone a change" in the light of subse- quent developments, it may be replied that in 1862, four years later than the time when he expressed the opinion of my former quo- tation, Lincoln in an address to a deputa- tion of colored men, said: Even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race. . . . The aspiration of men is to enjoy equality with the best when free, but on this broad conti- nent not a single man of your race is made the equal of a single man of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the ban is still upon you. I do not propose to discuss this, but to present it as a fact with which we have to deal. If, in the four intervening years, Lincoln's views had materially changed, could he have had a more fitting opportunity to say so than this? On the contrary, he refuses to discuss the question.

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April i, 1909] The Nation The "notion of negro citizenship" had dawned upon Lincoln in 1864 when he wrote to Governor Hahn: Now you are about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely sug- gest for your private consideration, wheth- er some of the colored people may not be let in — as, for instance, the very intelli- gent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. If Lincoln had lived through the years of Reconstruction, not as he would have made it, but as it really was, can we suppose that that pitiful spectacle would have led him to bestow the franchise, not, as he says, on the "very intelligent" ne- groes, but, as the extremists would almost seem to require, on every colored man be- cause of his color and despite his unfitness? The negro problem is not as your cor- respondent would have it: Shall a man physically, intellectually, and morally the equal of other men be denied equal treatment because his skin is black, or because his ancestors had been oppress- ed? On the contrary, Lincoln's expressed opinion, and the opinion which seems con- stantly gaining adherents through all parts of our country, is that the man whose skin is black— as a race— Is not physically, in- tellectually, or morally the equal of the man whose skin is white. _ L. M. Passano. Boston, March 20. THE CONCENTRATED ESSENCE OF PRO- TECTION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I draw your attention to the fine of $200 imposed upon Mrs. E. J. Lord of Hono- lulu by the Federal government, for the unthinkable misdemeanor of having trav- elled from Honolulu to San Francisco on a foreign steamer, the Tenyo Maru, arriv- ing in port February 16, 1909. The trivial explanation offered by the culprit for this misdeed was that the foreign steamer was better than the government-protected American boat, sailing on the same day. The attention of American citizens every- where should be called to this last crown- ing triumph of that narrow-minded, tariff- protected, graft-infected, political regime, under which the American consumer has groaned these last twelve years. E. J. Roberts. Burlingame, Cal., March 14. WHO WAS CARDELIUS? To the Editor op The Nation: Sir : In a New York office hangs an ex- cellent bit of printing, which reads as fol- lows: THIS OUR NOBLE ART. And this our noble art of Printing is the very Foster Mother of all Learning; for though the few had Books before Guten- berg gave us our Art, not until Printing came could Learning, yes and Wisdom also, knock at every man's door. From the Latin of Cardelius, 1546. Who was Cardelius? Summit, N. J., March 30. B. Notes. UDder the title "Morals in Modern Busi- ness," the Yale University Press has about ready a collection of six papers writ- ten by Edward D. Page, George W. Al- ger, Henry Holt, A. Barton Hepburn, Ed- ward W. Bemis, and James McKeen. The aim of the book is to inquire candidly into the conduct of modern business on what may be termed the moral side. In it, many of the questions of right and wrong, which have arisen as a result of the great changes in the commercial world, are con- sidered and answered by men of expe- rience. The "Memoirs of Mademoiselle George," edited by Paul Cheramy, are to be pub- lished in this country next month by the John McBride Co. Mile. George, who was born in 1787, writes piquantly of Napoleon and the other notables of her day. From the same house is to come "The Revela- tion to the Monk of Evesham Abbey," ren- dered into modern English, by Valerian Paget. Its quaint picture of purgatory and paradise has hitherto remained in the ob- solete English of 700 years ago. Gen. Kuropatkin's "Military Memoirs," translated by Capt. A. B. Lindsay, will be brought out almost immediately by E. P. Dutton & Co. "A Vindication of Warren Hastings," by G. W. Hastings, is to be published by Henry Frowde. The author's object is to prove that "Warren Hastings, the man who made our Indian Empire and preserved it for the Crown, was wholly innocent of the crimes so often and so grievously laid to his charge." The Clarendon Press is about to issue the first volume of "Scripta Minoa: the Written Documents of Minoan Crete," by Arthur J. Evans. This volume deals spe- cially with the earlier pictographic and hieroglyphic script, but with an introduc- tion giving a general view of the pro- gress of the discoveries, the successive types of script and their relation to one another. T. N. Foulis of Edinburgh, announces a complete and authorized translation of Nietzsche's works in eighteen volumes un- der the editorial supervision of Dr. Oscar Levy. "Thoughts Out of Season," "The Birth of Tragedy," "Thus Spake Zara- thustra," "Beyond Good and Evil," and "The Future of Our Educational Institu- tions" will be ready this spring. In the new series of the Publications of the Modern Language Association No. 1 of Vol. XVII, just issued, contains six contri- butions. J. P. Wickersham Crawford pre- sents the text of a Spanish farce of the six- teenth century from a manuscript of the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid; Alfred E. Richards discusses "The English Wagner Book of 1594"; William Guild Howard, "Ut Pictura Poesis," noticed in the Nation of March 25 ; Robert K. Root, "Chaucer's Le- gend of Medea"; John W. Cunliffe, "Brown- ing and the Marathon Race"; and Percy W. Long, "The Purport of Lyly's 'Endimlon'." Mr. Long concludes that the Idea of a per- sonal allegory in "Endimion" is "an as- sumption made without evidence." Part i of Volume II of Orkney and Shet- land Miscellany, January, 1909, offers among other things a study in the "Town- ship and Surnames" of the isles by J. Storer Clouston. Mr. Clouston finds that, while many township names have given rise to family names, a larger number of family names have not thus originated, and that few of the large townships are associated with names. On the other hand, the small townships, being little more than single farms, frequently gave surnames to men who were merely tenants. Thus, John Is- mond's son, who became a tenant at Winksetter in Harray, adopted the name John Winksetter in the following century. The author suggests the problem : whether the origin of the townships is as Norse as their names, or whether they were once Pictish settlements. It may be noted that there are in this country five Orkney and Shetland societies, one in Boston, one in Buffalo, two in Chicago, and one in Port- land, Ore. "Naval Warfare," by Baron Curt von Maltzahn, retired vice-admiral in the Ger- man Navy, is a well printed translation from the original German (Longmans, Green & Co.). The author was for some years professor of strategy and tactics at the Naval Academy in Kiel, and later be- came its head. He is therefore especially competent to treat naval warfare from the German point of view, and what he says is of interest, in presenting the case of those who urge a great navy as necessary to a nation which is largely engaged in com- merce. As might have been expected, he attributes England's industrial supremacy to her sea power, and urges that Germany should aim at equality, if not preponder- ance, upon the ocean: The economic dependence of the Continent on England which existed at the beginning of the last century exists no longer to- day ; it has become transformed into a military dependency. This is because the Continental States are more vulnerable than they were, since they have more to fear from naval warfare, which is the chief weapon in England's hands. As England's rivals, therefore, they must provide them- selves with such a fleet equipment as will correspond with their share in maritime commerce. The motives underlying our Navy Bill characterize such a defensive fleet in these words : "Germany must have a war fleet of such strength that any war in which she were to be engaged would be so dangerous to her adversary — even were that adversary the strongest of all at sea — that his posi- tion as a great Power would be called in question." We can only regard this universal battle- ship mania as a disease which bids fair to wreck more than one people before it shall have run its course. For the indi- vidual who is a prey to hallucinations the trained expert is at hand to minister, but nations in the grip of these terrors are without a much needed international men- tal alienist, and are deaf to all who strive to calm their fears. When these war scares and bugaboos become recognized as fig- ments of the imagination and treated as maladies, this little book will find its true place, for it is a symptom rather than a treatise. "New Light on Ancient Egypt" (D. Ap- pleton & Co.) is the title of a translation of a series of essays by Gaston Maspero, director-general of the Service des An- tiques and director of the Museum in C-iro. The essays are the result of some fifteen years of work in popularizing the

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334 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 results of Egyptological studies by the au- thor and others. The arrangement of the material seems to be rather haphazard, and no plan of sequence is discernible. Bach new chapter takes the reader into a new field, quite without reference to that which precedes or follows. Some of the essays are comparatively recent, while others were penned as much as ten years ago, possibly earlier. In the interval the progress of excavation has changed the appearance of things, but corresponding changes have not been made in the descriptive text. One would never know, for instance, that the temple of Denderah had been dug out and much improved for the purposes of the tourist. There is also another point upon which criticism may be offered, in spite of the note which the author has prepared on the subject — the method of transliterating native names. The usage of English schol- ars is too well fixed to be superseded by the French, particularly when there is so great a difference in the value of the sym- bols in the two alphabets. In an English translation it would seem wiser to abandon the French and adhere to the English forms, particularly when the French presents such monstrosities as Hatshopsouitou, Maiher- piriou, Montouhikhopshouf, Ouaouaitou, and Toutanonkhamanou. About the value of the book for the fuller appreciation and com- prehension of many phases of Egyptian archaeology, history, art, literature, religion, and magic, there cannot be two opinions. If there is a more capable or versatile writer on these subjects it would be hard to name him. The richness of the contents cannot be catalogued here: the interested reader must be referred to the book itself. The translation from the French by Eliza- beth Lee has been made exceedingly well, and one is scarcely conscious of read- ing a version from another language except in the case of words unnecessarily near to the original: "hypogeum" is no better than "tomb"; "syringe" is mistakenly used for "syrinx"; "timbrel" for "sistrum"; "tar" for "bitumen"; "pharmacy" for "pharma- copoeia," "kohol" for "kohl." But these are slight defects which do not really detract seriously from the value of a book that de- serves a place on the shelves of those who are interested in things Egyptian and who desire to extend the field and content of their knowledge. ■> H. Stuart Jones's brief volume, "The Ro- man Empire," in the Story of the Nations Series (G. P. Putnam's Sons), is a sound and sensible summary of Imperial history from Augustus to Romulus Augustulus. Hitherto, those who have wanted a single volume on this period have been obliged to content themselves with the mediocre and antiquated manual of Dean Merivale, and the contrast between the two books makes plain the progress of historical scholarship in the course of a generation. Instead of the traditional paraphrase of the ancient historians, essentially external in character, and dealing mainly with mili- tary exploits and palace intrigues, we now have an account which looks at the empire as a whole, and seeks to understand it in the light of the new evidence derived from inscriptions and papyri, and a broader knowledge of ancient literature and art. Matters dynastic and military still occupy a good deal of space, probably more than they will retain a generation hence, but emphasis is placed rather upon such topics as the development of the Imperial bu- reaucracy, the growth of cosmopolitanism, and the rise and spread of new religions. The conventional characterizations of the Emperors are also revised. The "only man of genius" among them was Hadrian; the administration of Marcus Aurelius "shows little positive achievement"; and the Claudian Caesars, in accordance with the tendency of recent historians, are viewed more favorably than in the pages of Tacitus, whom Mr. Jones rightly regards as "a great artist and a great psychologist," but "not amongst the greatest of historians." The volume has a number of excellent il- lustrations, mostly from photographs of monuments. Paul Maria Baumgarten's inquiry into the method and merit of "Henry Charles Lea's Historical Writings" (New York: J. F. Wagner) will prove a disappointment to those who would welcome a comprehensive and dispassionate criticism of Mr. Lea's books from a competent Catholic scholar. Monsignor Baumgarten has established his standing as an historical investigator by important studies in ecclesiastical institu- tions, and is able to print unpublished documents from the Vatican archives in support of certain of his statements, but he lacks the judicial spirit and has not the enormous and varied learning necessary to one who would meet the American his- torian on his own ground. It is true that he recognizes his opponent's industry, "en- durance, and undisputed results"; and a Catholic is entirely within his rights in attacking the point of view from which Mr. Lea approaches the mediaeval Church, but one who possesses Monsignor Baum- garten's familiarity with the fiscal methods of the Popes of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries should be the last to sneer at "Lea's habit, due to long commercial oc- cupation, to regard everything in the light of dollars and cents." It is entirely proper to point out errors of fact and interpre ■ tation and to use the new materials brought to light by such Catholic scholars as Finke and Goller, but no one is justified in mak- ing charges of falsification without giving full and specific evidence. Like most apolo- gists for the Spanish Inquisition, Monsignor Baumgarten seeks to make the issue one of race rather than of religion, and he tries to strengthen his case by some bitter pages on racial discrimination and lynch law in the United States. An impartial critic of Mr. Lea as an historian would also have tested his work in the less con- troversial field of his "Superstition and Force," instead of dismissing that remark- able book in a single sentence as "loosely connected gleanings." Monsignor Baumgar- ten's brochure was put together from a se- ries of badly composed articles in the Theologische Revue; and the translator's imperfect knowledge of English makes the English version harder reading than the original. The Rev. J. C. Morrice's "Manual of Welsh Literature" (Bangor, Great Britain: Jarvis & Foster) is intended to meet the wants of those who desire acquaintance with the subject, but lack time and op- portunity to study it in detail. In the space of some two hundred pages he dis- cusses the chief bards and prose writers of Wales from the sixth to the eighteenth century. It is fair to say that in some respects he does not satisfy us. His treat- ment of the early period is sketchy, even in a work of this size, and the bards of the twelfth century, a particularly in- teresting group, might well have received more notice. We should have expected him to write of, e. g., the poems of Llywarch Hen in a more critical spirit, and he would certainly have done better to omit such derivations as that of Aneurin from Honorinus. Even so we have no hesitation in recommending his book. It contains much valuable information, and its style is picturesque enough to hold the atten- tion of its readers, and to stimulate them to further research. A new quarterly devoted to German lit- erature, Deutsches Schrifttum, has been be- gun by Prof. Adolph Bartels of Weimar. The Germanisch-romanische Monata- schrift, a philological monthly, recently be- gun under the editorship of Dr. Hein- rioh Schroder of Kiel, in conjunction with Profs. F. Holthausen, W. Meyer-Lubke, V. Michels, and W. Streitberg (Heidelberg: C. Winters Buchhandlung), is intended to meet the wants of advanced students of Germanics, English, and the Romance lan- guages and literatures. Not so much detail of research as critical and instructive discussion of linguistics, poetry, metre, phonetics, dialects, drama, art, eth- nology, palaeography, etc., is to be pre- sented by the leading scholars in the field. A new series, Neue Marchenbucher (Ber- lin: Wedekind & Co.), begins auspiciously with the "Marchenfaden" of Hildegard N> uffer-Slavenhagen, an interesting collec- tion, written by a mother for her children. The work is finely illustrated by Oskar Herrfurth. The "Literarischer Ratgeber 1909," edited by Ferdinand Avenarius, attempts to pass on the latest products of the literary market, entirely independently of the interests of the book trade. It is the joint product of some fifty specialists, all cooperating under the auspices of the Dii- rorbund, an association representing about one hundred and fifty societies, with a to- tal membership of more than two hundred thousand (Munich: G. D. W. Callwey). "Reise eines jungen Deutschen in Frank- reich und England im Jahre 1815" (Leip- zig: Georg Wigand), edited by Georg Brand, is a description of the journey of a young Saxon representing the textile in- terests of his country, which had attained to a remarkably flourishing condition in consequence of the exclusion of British goods from the Continent by Napoleon. The journey is made to the manufacturing dis- tricts of southern France, and after the return of Napoleon from Elba, to England. The traveller, August Bruckner, a young man of eighteen from Mylau, is a keen ob- server and business man, whose vivid ac- count treats more of the industrial matters of his times than of the political. The sketch of Theodor Mommsen publish- ed shortly after his death by his pupil and close friend, Ludo Moritz Hartmann, ap- pears now as a complete biography (Gotha; F. A. Perthes). The original outline sketch came out in "Bettelheims Biographisches Jahrbuch." Hartmann depicts Mommsen not only as a scholar, but also as a prom- inent figure in the public affairs of Ger- many. The volume includes, among other

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April i, 1 909 1 The Nation 335 G» things, a number of Mommsen's political essays. Critical appreciations of Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, acknowledged the great- est woman poet of Germany, never fail to refer to her indebtedness to English poetry, and especially to Byron. The gifted woman has been made the subject of a new study by Dr. Bertha Badt, entitled "Annette von Droste-Hulshoff: Ihre dichterische Ent- wicklung und ihr Verhaltniss zur englischen Literatur." It forms the seventh volume in the new series of the Breslauer Bei- trage zur Literaturgeschichte, edited by Prof. Dr. Max Koch and Gregor Sarraziu (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer). J. C. B. Mohr of Tubingen announces as forthcoming a "Handbuch der Kirchen- geschichte" in two volumes, edited by Prof. Gustav Kriiger of the University of Giessen. The purpose is chiefly to furnish students a thoroughly modern and up-to-date work of reference. The editor will himself write the general introduction and the chronological and statistical tables ; Dr. Edwin Preuschen, in conjunction with Pro- fessor Kriiger, treats the early period ; Prof. Gerhard Ficker of Kiel, the middle ages; Dr. Heinrich Hermelink of Leipzig, the Reformation a-nd Counter-Reformation; and Dr. Horst Stephan of Marburg, the modern period. The first volume is prom- ised for the current year. The fourth part of the "Quellen und Darstellungen aus der Geschichte der Re- formation," edited by Dr. Georg Berbig (Leipzig: Heinsius Nachfolger), has ap- peared with the special title "Leben und Wirken des Tendenzdramatikers der Refor- mationszeit Thomas Naogeorgus," by Dr. Leonard Theobald. This work deals only with the second part of the career of this strange genius; the first, in shorter form, appeared as a doctoral dissertation some months ago. This learned humanist and neo-Latin tragedy writer, whose original name was Kirchmeyer, is best known through his polemical "Regnum Papisti- cum" of 1553. Leading critical problems in connection with the last days of Jesus are made the subject of a close investigation by Johannes Frey, in "Die Probleme der Leidensge- schichte Jesu: Beitrage zur Kritik der Evangelien," Teil I (Leipzig: Deichert Nachfolger). This part deals with the con- cluding chapter of Mark, the decree of the Sanhedrin to put Jesus to death, the read- ings of the Slavic text of Josephus, the be- trayal by Judas, and the anointing in Beth- any. The Slavic Josephus text contains unique readings on the Pilate story. The author is objective, and nowhere shows any prejudice in favor of gospel harmony or apologetics. He openly recognizes difficul- ties and contradictions wherever they are found. It is no exaggeration to say that Dr. Val- frid Palmgren's "Bibliotek och folkupp- fostran" (Stockholm: Norstedt & Soner) is the most complete account of the work of the public libraries of America that ex- ists to-day. The author, who is assist- ant in the Royal Library in Stockholm, and the only woman in the library service of Sweden, was sent to this country by the Swedish government to study and report on the American public libraries. After a gen- eral introduction, and an account of library buildings, in which she touches on the most salient points in library development, the author turns to what is the main pur- pose of the book, a detailed description of the activities of public libraries. The reg- ulations for lending, catalogues, and open shelves, children's departments, cooperation between the library nnd the schools, home and travelling libraries, State commissions, and library training, are described in a lively, lucid style, with due emphasis al- ways on the important things. Several valuable contributions to the study of the foreign factor in the American population have recently appeared. In the February, 1909, issue of Nordmands forbundet (Federation of Norsemen), the Rev. O. Olafsen of Ullensvang, Norway, traces the emigration to America from the province of Hardanger, Norway, from the beginning of the movement there in 1836, when eighteen persons left, down to the present time. From the records of three parishes he gives the total number for each year, and for the earlier period the names, ages, and destinations in America of the immigrants. The article forms a sig- nificant chapter in our pioneer history. Similar investigations for other provinces in the Scandinavian North and for other European countries would be of historical value. A contribution to the study of the Norwegian element in the State of Wis- consin has recently been issued by H. L. Skavlem of Janesville, Wis., under the title: "Scandinavians in the Early Days of Rock County." It gives an account of the settling of that county by Norwegians in 1838-1840, with biographical sketches of the earliest settlers. Vol. XIX of the Revi8ta delle Biblioteche (Guido Biagi of the Laurentian Library, Florence, editor) contains the first of a series of bibliographical bulletins intend- ed as guides in the selection of new books for the Italian sections of foreign libraries. This list consists of 123 entries of titles of books of fiction and of reading books for children, each followed by a short note in English on its character and contents. The Conference for Education in the South will be held at Atlanta April 14-16. In Chicago on February 10 a joint ses- sion was held of the Department of Uni- versities and Colleges, Department of Theo- logical Seminaries, and Department of Churches and Pastors of the Religious Edu- cation Association, with the Interdenom- inational Conference of Church and Guild Workers in State Universities. The follow- ing resolution was adopted : That a Commission of Twelve be ap- pointed, representing endowed institutions of advanced education as well as State uni- versities, for the purpose of formulating an ideal or suggestive course of collegiate study preparatory ttt a course in a theo- logical seminary. The commission, which was appointed last week, is constituted as follows : Dean Shailer Mathews, University of Chicago, chairman; Prof. George A. Coe, Northwest- ern; President Ozora Davis, Chicago Theo- logical Seminary; President R. A. Falconer, University of Toronto ; President W. H. P. Faunce, Brown; President Emory W. Hunt, Denison; President Edmund J. James, Uni- versity of Illinois; Prof. Francis W. Kel- sey, University of Michigan; President Henry C. King, Oberlin; President William Douglas Mackenzie, Hartford Theological Seminary; President George B. Stewart, Auburn Theological Seminary; Chancellor Frank Strong, University of Kansas. It is also announced that the papers presented at Chicago will be published. Prof. Bliss Perry, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, has been appointed Hyde lecturer at the University of Paris for the academic year 1909-10. Professor Perry will discuss American institutions, but the exact na- ture of his subject is not yet announced. James Hulme Canfield, librarian of Co- lumbia University, died in this city March 29, at the age of sixty-two. He was born in Delaware, Ohio, was graduated from Williams, and after practising law for a few years, became professor of history In the State University of Kansas. He was then successively chancellor of the Uni- versity of Nebraska, president of Ohio State University, and (since 1899) librarian of Columbia. He had also been president of the Kansas State Teachers' Associa- tion, the Nebraska State Teachers' Asso- ciation, and the National Educational As- sociation. His books are "Taxation" (1883), "A History of Kansas" (1884), "Local Gov- ernment in Kansas" (1889), and "The Col- lege Student and His Problems" (1902). Charles Burlingame Waite, territorial judge in Utah during the turbulent times with the Mormons, and an author and lin- guist, died in Chicago March 26, at the age of eighty-five. He was the author of "A History of the Christian Religion to the Year a. d. 200," which has been translated into French, German, and Norwegian. Among other books written by him are "A Conspiracy Against the Republic," "Herbert Spencer and His Critics," and "The Com- parative Study of Ten Languages." The Rev. James Eleazer Gilbert, a Meth- odist Episcopal minister and secretary of the American Society for Religious Educa- tion, died at Washington March 26, at the age of sixty-nine. He had been on the staff of the Buffalo Christian Advocate and the Sunday School Standard, and he edited the Journal of Religious Education. His books are: "Biblical Interpretation," "Biblical History," "Life of Christ," "Sacred Peda- gogy," "Man's Spiritual Nature," "Meth- ods of Bible Study," "Preparation for Church Membership," "Religious Experi- ence," "The Spiritual Life," "Biblical Doc- trine," and "American Methodism." The Rev. John Crowell died at East Orange, N. J., March 29, in his ninety-fifth year. He was born in Philadelphia, was graduated from Princeton in the class of 1834, studied at Princeton Theological Sem- inary, and for nearly fifty years was ac- tive in the ministry. He contributed about four hundred articles to the predecessor of the present "International Encyclopaedia," and published also "Republics — Popular Government an Appointment of God" (1871), and "Christ in All the Scriptures." The death of Gustaf af Geijerstam at the comparatively early age of fifty-one re- moves a figure conspicuous in Swedish let- ters for more than a quarter of a century. During the eighties he was one of the lead- ers of the realistic movement, and wrote some works that have retained their hold on the reading public ever since, notably two or three volumes treating of the life of farmers, fishermen, and city laborers. About the middle of the nineties he turned

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336 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 to more psychological problems, and pro- duced two books of a decidedly mystical character. In the years preceding his death he turned to the family novel, which he handled with much success. He was also a dramatic writer of no mean capacity. LIGHT ON AMERICAN HISTORY. Wisconsin: The Americanization of a French Settlement. By Reuben Gold Thwaites. [American Commonwealth Series.] Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. When Sir Charles Lyell took back, bit by bit, in successive editions of his "Principles of Geology," statements he had originally made, until his latest work was in sharp contrast with his first, he was commended for his cour- age and candor. To Dr. Thwaites may be given like praise, in the field of his- tory: he admits that some of his earlier conclusions in regard to the European occupation of the West were not well- based, and careless of a reputation for consistency, tears down what he once laboriously built. Whether he retains or rejects, Dr. Thwaites is likely in his field to go unchallenged; for he is a veteran quite too practical and well- equipped to be lightly encountered. Dr. Thwaites takes for his second title "The Americanization of a French Settlement." The hold of the French upon Wisconsin was long-continued. Be- ginning in the last third of the seven- teenth century, it endured nearly until the beginning of the nineteenth, for our author esteems as negligible the influ- ence of the British during the brief time they were nominally dominant. The French made the region solely a hunting-ground. Scattered in handfuls along the valleys of the Fox and Wis- consin from Green Bay to Prairie du Chien, the great waterway from the St. Lawrence Valley to the Mississippi, they drove the fur trade, neglecting agricul- ture; indeed, they looked askance upon the farmer, for this vast wilderness they wished to preserve and not re2 claim. Our author notes the injury done through this policy to the Indians. Whereas they were to some extent cul- tivators, skilful in basketry, weaving, pottery, and other simple arts, they found it easier to buy from the white traders what they had once manufac- tured, and thus became exclusively hunt- ers— a step backward from civilization. Our author's tenderness for the Indian is shown in his picture of Black Hawk, who, in 1832, made the last stand for his tribe. Eleazer Williams, the once famous hero of the romance "Have We a Bourbon among us?" is regarded by Dr. Thwaites as a self-seeking impostor. Perhaps this is the last word, but we in- cline to a kinder judgment. The state- ly quarter-breed, with his fine Bourbon profile, made a deep impression upon the writer of this notice when a boy in his father's house. Recalling this, we surmise that to a large extent Williams was under an illusion, and not alto- gether dishonest in the belief that in his veins was the blood of the kings of France. Dr. Thwaites omits to mention that Eleazer was probably a descendant of the Rev. John Williams of Deerfleld, Mass., "The Redeemed Captive," car- ried to Canada in 1704, with his fam- ily; his child, or grandchild, married an Indian and was the adventurer's parent. The French having passed, the Anglo- Saxon came, destined, however, to exer- cise only a transient and restrained in- fluence; for Americanization meant for Wisconsin not so much a coming in of New Yorkers and New Englanders, as immigrants from beyond sea, German and Scandinavian. Coeval with the establishment of statehood in Wiscon- sin was the revolution of 1848 and its sequels, during which unrest north and central Europe poured out most abun- dantly their discontented children. For some years Wisconsin was their goal, its area so filling that at one time no other State contained so large or so varied a foreign element, an influx in no way detrimental. During the civil war the service rendered bv Wisconsin soldiers was prompt, constant, and bril- liant, an efficiency due in part to the many officers and men who were train- ed in European fields. Dr. Thwaites quotes Sherman as saying that a Wis- consin regiment was as good as a bri- gade of other troops. The excellence of the population is conspicuous in the field of education. A particular interest is felt in public libraries; schools, pri- mary and secondary, are well-organized and sustained; while the university, which crowns the system, is a beacon- light throughout the country. In gen- eral, among our commonwealths perhaps we can find nowhere better than in Wis- consin the assimilation of widely vary- ing stocks into a noble composite un- der beneficent, overruling American con- ditions. Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the Amer- ican Philosophical Society. Edited by I. Minis Hays. 5 vols. Philadelphia: Printed for the Society. These handsome volumes, issued in connection with ttie celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Franklin, constitute a very fit and notable memorial. They open to the student a unique collection of manuscripts. No American of that day had so long a residence in Europe in such responsible positions. Franklin knew Paris and London almost as well as he knew Philadelphia; and his busi- ness and official relations on both sides of the water made him conversant with the true centres of action in Colonial Assembly, the French court, and in the British Parliament. His own writings gave one phase of these affairs, and we have now a full and adequate summary of his written sources of information. Dr. Hays has wisely included the Franklin papers in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania; the Li- brary of Congress has issued a calendar of Stevens's Franklin manuscripts. It is hardly possible that any further matter of importance will be found, so that the record is now fairly complete. Less than one-third of the first vol- ume of the calendar is occupied with the letters of an earlier date than the American Revolution. It is known that the papers of Franklin left in Phila- delphia at the beginning of the war were scattered and largely destroyed; what remains was but a small part of the original mass. Yet for some reasons these few relics are of the greatest sig- nificance, for they mark the wide repu- tation of the man and the high connec- tions he had formed. His catholic sym- pathies brought him into touch with all kinds of persons, from the widow anx- ious to place her son well in America, to princes wishing to know him and witness his experiments. At home his correspondence ranged from Boston to Savannah, and even to the West Indies; in Europe hardly a country was unrep- resented. His correspondence in the Revolution treats of other matters. It is doubtful if there is any type of adventurer that is not represented many times. What pertained to the legitimate business of his mission, or to the personal and offi- cial relations formed in Paris, consti- tuted but a small part of his task. In- ventions of all descriptions, war-like and other, were offered, from a diving ap- paratus, a recipe for making gunpowder explosive or non-explosive at will, to a rapid-firing arm or a system of tactics. Many men were willing to enter the Continental service, but their demands for rank and pay were extravagant. Priests, bakers, farmers, and writers were only too anxious to have their pas- sage paid and to receive a gift of land, while guardians wished to unload their wards. Emigrants of a good quality, officers of a bad, spies seeking access to the American Minister, and released prisoners who deserved some recom- pense for sufferings endured, all appear- ed. Every conceivable manufacture, from Bibles to stockings, was tendered. Amid all these appeals and demands, Franklin remained calm and judicious, offering assurance that he was the very man for meeting such an emergency. After the Revolution he resumed many of his English connections, and remained the centre of attraction for those seeking fortunes in America or asking endorsement for their writings or inventions. His health and his hab- its of indolence prevented his contln-

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April i, 1909] The Nation. 337 uiug such experiments as had gained him reputation, but his interest in science remained, and it is difficult to decide whether in these later years he is more of a politician than a scientist. If he replied to every letter received — and he has often sketched a reply on the letter itself— much of his best cor- respondence has been lost. In so extensive a catalogue of unusual names it would be too much to look for perfection; but the compiler has erred in the name of Francis Dana, making it F. M. Dana, and in Derford, which he prints Perford. Some minor slips occur, but none misleading. Dr. Hays is to be congratulated upon the com- pletion of this important work, which is made still more useful by a full index. CURRENT FICTION. Araminta. By J. C. Snaith. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. The change from the gloom of "Broke of Covenden" to the cream-bun simplic- ity of this idyllic bit of fooling suggests that the severest of Olympians must oc- casionally unbend his brows and don the motley, even as Mr. Hichens did in "The Londoners." Mr. Snaith's pre- dilection for the large family of daugh- ters as a reservoir of romantic possibil- ity is once more evidenced by the Rev. Aloysius Perry's well-filled quiver. The eldest shaft, a six-foot human reproduc- tion of a Gainsborough portrait, is dis- charged in majestic beauty at London society, and goes to its heart with her first introduction of herself: "My name is Araminta, but they call me Goose because I am rather a Sil-lay." Her suitors are three — George, Duke of Brancaster, Lord Cheriton, and Jim Lascelles, an impecunious painter, who has known her from infancy and who scruples not to bribe her with pastry to give him sittings, and to enforce si- lence in regard to the matter before her guardian by a timely kick on the shin. These elemental methods are as suc- cessful as they always are — in fiction — and Araminta's simple and loyal heart passes wholly into the keeping of Jim. After many serio-comic vicissitudes, the heart is followed by the young lady's beautiful but substantial person; and we leave them happy in the Red House at Widdiford, with a comfortable convic- tion that after she has reared a dozen daughters on strawberries and cream, Goose will still be rather a silly, and at heart the most childish of them all. The Spell. By William Dana Orcutt. New York: Harper & Bros. It is unfortunate that the theme of this well-written story is so limited in its appeal. The potent fascination of the history and literature of the Italian renaissance can hardly move those who have not themselves felt the Spell. The story is of a young scholar deeply in- terested in the art of the humanists, who goes to Florence with his beauti- ful bride, and there is dominated by the touch of the Past. His companion in research is the intimate friend of his wife, a woman sharing his intellectual interests and as sensitive as himself to the peculiar spell that gives the book its title. The wife, a healthy and normal being, not unnaturally fails to compre- hend the entirely mental character of the bond between her husband and her friend, and feels constrained to leave him that her place may be filled by the one with whom he has so much in com- mon. The husband has most salutary difficulty in convincing her that, al- though Inez is very well as a fellow- worker, he wants no other wife than herself; finally, however, he succeeds, and we leave him humbled in spirit and content to adore the humanities in Helen's very charming person. The de- scriptions, especially of the Laurentlan Library, are redolent of actuality, but the psychology of the principal charac- ters is at times tangled to the point of tedium. The Kiss of Helen. By Charles Mar- riott. New York: John Lane Co. At a crisis In the concerns of Mr. Marriott's hero, Paul Trecarell, he be- comes "aware of a subtle change in the atmosphere of public affairs," in Lon- don: It was not merely that certain old ques- tions— such as female suffrage and municipal enterprise — had suddenly become acute, but there was the curious feeling that the race was entering upon a new stage of con- sciousness. It was a feeling difficult to express in words, and it seemed to indi- cate not so much new movements as a larger synthesis of people and ideas — as If the term "animal kingdom" had been wid- ened to include unicorns and hippogriffs. The unlikeliest people were to be found hobnobbing together, and it was beginning to be admitted by quite sober calculators that two and two sometimes made five. . . . These signs, infinitesimal in them- selves, pointed in the mass to a read- justment of values; . . . as if it were at last recognized that men and women were more important than institutions. A feeling not unlike Paul's takes pos- session of the reader of this clever, in- ordinately clever, novel. A new envis- agement of some of the most serious relations of life is proclaimed, the re- lation, more particularly, of woman to man and to the world. In the view of Evan Rees, artist, the "genius of wo- manhood" was something rarer than wifehood or motherhood: Protestantism tried to capture it in the idea of marriage, but the genius of wo- manhood escapes marriage altogether, or dies— you "kill the thing you love" so to speak. Colonel Pixell's view was a foil to this. With him "hearth and home" formed the only thinkable expression of the idea of woman — an idea which the ar- tist found "too useful." But, curiously enough, one opinion is shared by all the characters in the book, by hero, artist, colonel, affianced bride, elderly spin- ster. One and all, they agreed in taking the lightest possible view of what they call "an episode" in the life of Joan, the heroine. This episode consisted in her having lived for three years with a man whose wife was in a lunatic asy- lum. By those others, it was regarded severally as "a blunder that she had come through," something "that no ra- tional person would think twice about," "a dreadful mistake" that "nobody with a spark of feeling would bring up against her now." The lady herself, when it is a question of marrying the hero, whom she professes to love, an- grily exclaims "Haven't you any use for us but to marry us or tread us into the gutter?" And marry him she will not. But not, one may be sure, from any scruples as to episodes. A shining feature of the book is the exceeding freshness and lustre of the conversations. In them, as in narration and in comment, banality has no tin- iest part. The writing is a marvel of easy compactness, no tightness, no squandering, not a line that does not carry the tale forward. The character- ization is brightly vivid. The figures that do but cross the stage are as strong in personality as the chief play- ers— all of an absolute individuality, most of them, moreover, very humanly likable. Aline of the Grand Woods. By Nevil G. Henshaw. New York: Outing Pub- lishing Co. This book is written with a gentle naivete that would perhaps charm in a short story, but palls during the course of 491 pages that contain nothing eith- er startling or impressive except the glossary's translation of Comment ca va? by "How are you going?" The old devices of melodrama are used to gal- vanize the stock characters into activ- ity, even to the outbreak of yellow fever, without which no orthodox portrayal of Louisiana life is complete; and so care- ful of the type the author seems that we hardly need the publisher's thought- ful attention of describing the leading characters on the cover with Shavian comprehensiveness and yet a fine deli- cacy and restraint that is content thus to indicate the villain: "General trou- ble-maker. He has strong predilections for alcohol and wild life." The writer in his last sentence has very happily voiced the feelings of the reader who has persevered so far — "Come, let us go back to the woods, you and I." One is indeed left wondering why one should waste spring days on pages like these

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338 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 when the literature of the running brooks is to be obtained so easily. The ~Web of the Golden Spider. By Fred- erick Orin Bartlett. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co. This book gives the reader a lively hour; from the time when the penni- less hero and heroine take refuge to- gether from the combined severity of the elements and the police, they lead the strenuous life without respite till they are left embracing on the last page, with their emotions, consistently enough, setting "the world about them in a mad riot." The story — a combina- tion of Richard Harding Davis and Rider Haggard, somewhat inferior in style to the originals, dealing with revo- lution and treasure-seeking in a chi- merical South American country — will probably find a welcome with readers of mercurial taste whose ultimatum in book-buying is the newness of the im- print. The Cambridge History of English Lit- erature. Edited by A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller. Vol. Ill: Renascence and Reformation. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons. $2.50 net. The third volume of this work shows an even greater improvement on the second than the second showed on the first. The frequent repetitions and con- tradictions which disfigured the first volume especially have entirely disap- peared and the general execution now promises to fulfil the very high expec- tations which were raised when the plan was first announced. The present vol- ume begins with the English humanists, Linacre and Grocyn, in the closing years of the fifteenth century, and ends with Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," the first books of which appeared in 1594. It does not include, however, the plays which fall within the limits of these dates, since the whole subject of the English drama, from its beginnings down to the closing of the theatres in 1642, is reserved for continuous treat- ment in the fourth and fifth volumes. The major part of the century which the volume thus covers is distinguished by the names of few great writers; but as a period of preparation for the Eliza- bethan age, and indeed for all modern English literature, even the earlier part of the sixteenth century has, of course, high importance, and is consequently by no means deficient in interest. It is, moreover, an advantage of the cooperative method that each contribu- tor brings to his particular task a fresh- ness and energy which it would be diffi- cult, to say the least, for a single au- thor to preserve throughout. This is, of course, more noticeable in the treat- ment of those branches of literature which are least attractive In themselves — for example, in the present volume, the jest-books, pamphlets, and theologi- cal writings of the time, which receive scant attention in the ordinary histor- ies of literature. Indeed, it is a re- markable proof of the virtue of style that no chapters in this volume are su- perior in interest to two which deal with subjects of a most unpromising kind — namely, Charles Whibley's on the Elizabethan Chroniclers and Antiquar- ies and J. Dover Wilson's on the Mar- prelate Controversy. The former is, perhaps, the best-written chapter in the whole volume. Admirable also, in point of style, as in other respects, is the chapter on the Reformation and Renas- cence in Scotland by P. Hume Brown, who has, however, the advantage of a great subject. Worthy of especial men- tion, still further, are the chapters on the "Mirror for Magistrates," by Prof. J. W. Cunliffe of Wisconsin, who sum- marizes clearly the intricate subject of the various editions of that work; on the Elizabethan Sonnet, by Sidney Lee; and on the Elizabethan Prose Fiction, by Prof. J. W. H. Atkins of Aber- ystwyth, who here, as in his earlier con- tributions to this work, exhibits a thor- ough familiarity with the critical lit- erature of his subject. The whole vol- ume, however, maintains a high level of excellence. With regard to W. J. Court- hope's discussion of Spenser, one may remark that there is no use of beating about the bush as to why the "Faerie tjueene" is harder reading than the "Or- lando Furioso." Apart from his bril- liant imagination Ariosto had gifts of humor, suppleness, and vivacity which enabled him to leave "our sage and seri- ous Spenser" far behind in the matter of narrative interest. In his finest pas- sages of description the English poet easily "overgoes," as he hoped he would, the Italian, but it is safe to say that no narrative poet of the very highest order would ever have chosen the Spenserian stanza as his metrical vehicle. As re- gards the facts of Spenser's life, Mr. Courthope does not seem acquainted with tne recent discovery that in 1578 Spenser was in the service of Dr. Young, Bishop of Rochester, who had been the head of his college at Cambridge. This volume, like the previous ones, contains a full and excellent bibliog- raphy. We note some lacunw in the sec- tion devoted to Spenser — for example, the articles of J. B. Fletcher and J. R. Mac Arthur on the relations of the "Faerie Queene" to "Huon of Burdeux." Such publications as R. E. N. Dodge's edition of the "Poetical Works" (Cam- bridge Poets) — the best that has ap- peared— and L. E. Kastner's discussion in the Modern Language Review of Spenser's debt in his "Amoretti" to Desportes may have '■ome out too late to be recorded in the bibliographical list. Letters to Cassite Kings from the Tem- ple Archives of Nippur. Edited by Hugo Radau. [Babylonian Expedi- tion of the University of Pennsylva- nia. Series A. Cuneiform Texts, edit- ed by H. V. Hilprecht, Vol. XVII, Part 1.] 4to, 154 pages, 68 plates, and 12 photographic reproductions. Philadelphia; University of Penn- sylvania. Dr. Radau's volume, which, although bearing the serial number XVII, is ac- ually the ninth of the series, contains 103 letters — mostly fragmentary — of the Cassite period (about 1750 to 1210 B.C.), dealing with the business and other of- ficial affairs of the chief temple at Nip- pur. This collection forms a supple- ment to the two volumes, also on the business affairs of the Nippur temple during the Cassite period, which have been so admirably published by Profes- sor Clay of the University of Pennsyl- vania. The copies are carefully execut- ed, although Dr. Radau unnecessarily complicates the task of the student by frequent overshading and by the su- perfluous endeavor to reproduce every scribal peculiarity, instead of contenting himself, as do the editors of the British Museum series, with adopting as a basis the forms characteristic of each period. To these copies Dr. Radau has added a valuable concordance of proper names, including those of deities, places, rivers, gates, etc. In an elaborate introduction of over 150 pages he discusses such prob- lems as the time of the letters and their general contents; he touches incidental- ly upon the chronological problems and furnishes also specimen translations with detailed comments. Dr. Radau's style is discursive and there are numerous repetitions — one text being discussed in no less than three places — so that the whole intro- duction might with some care have been considerably compressed. Moreover, large portions might have been omit- ted without serious loss, such as the long notes about the supposed "trinitar- ianism" in the Babylonian religion, and the attempt to find an analogy between these letters and the official correspon- dence in the royal library unearthed by Layard and Rassam at Nineveh. In- asmuch as in another publication, "Bel, the Christ of Ancient Times" (1908), Dr. Radau has in detail set forth his vari- ous hypotheses regarding the theological speculations of the ancient Babylonian priests, it was hardly necessary to bring them forward again. It is, however, perhaps worth while to notice that, while in his monograph it is Bel-Mar- duk whom he regards as the precursor of the founder of Christianity, in the introduction of the work before us it is Ninib, the son of Enlil, who is thought to be the "Saviour" and the prototype of "Christ In the Christian Trinity." Needless to say that such speculations rest upon very insecure supports —

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April i, 1909] The ISTation 339 doubtful interpretations of obscure pas- sages in half-understood texts. Nor is he any happier in what he has to say about the "Lushtamar" tablet which played a prominent part in the recent "Nippur Controversy" (requiescat in pace!). The evidence is so overwhelm- ing that the tablet was bought by Mr. Noorian (now of New York), together with sixteen others, on the date appear- ing on the label attached to it, that it is a waste of time to discuss the matter. Equally conclusive is the evidence that the tablet was written at Sippar, and that, being unopened, it never left the place in which it was written, but was kept there probably as a copy. In the introduction, Dr. Radau also attempts to show that these letters form a parallel to those in the "Nineveh li- brary." The letters found at Nineveh are concerned with the administration of the country, with the personal af- fairs of the kings, and in some cases also with religious affairs. They nave noth- ing in common with the letters in Ra- dau's volume which (properly charac- terized in the title as "from the Templo Archives") relate exclusively to the business affairs of a temple, and a par- ticular temple at that. For this reason, alone, it is a priori improbable that they are addressed to Cassite kings, as Dr. Radau would have us believe. No less than thirty pages of the introduction are devoted to prove this thesis, and although not a single Cassite king is mentioned as the recipient, Dr. Radau expends much ingenuity in the endeavor to show that the title "beli" (my lord), which appears in fifty of the letters, re- fers to the king. Since, however, the letters treat of temple affairs and not of political matters, the title is evi- dently that of a high temple official — probably the highest, the importance of whose post would justify the writers In using such a title. The usage is in accord with other evidence. Moreover, in one of the letters, a "king" is referred to, and in a manner clearly to distin- guish him from the "beli." Altogether the introduction, though giving evidence of much study and showing the ingenuity and learning of the author, is marked by hazardous hy- potheses that will not endure a criti- cal test; and it would have been far better if Dr. Radau 'had confined him- self to a summary of the actual data to be gleaned from these letters. From Ruwenzori to the Congo: A Nat- uralist's journey across Africa. By A. F. R. Wollaston. Pp. xxv+315, illustra- tions, maps. New York : E. P. Dutton & Co. $5 net. This is the entertaining account of a journey across Africa by a member of the British Museum expedition sent out in 1905 to make collections of the pecu- liarly rich fauna and flora of the Ru- wenzori region. The book has not a sci- entific aim, however, but is simply a record of the impressions made by Af- rica's hot and hilly roads, winding wa- terways and cloud-girt mountain-sides. There are no thrilling adventures, and much is narrated that is trivial and uninteresting, yet there are many de- scriptions of scenes of enchanting beau- ty and graphic accounts of the natives and occasionally of the big game of the forests. The most interesting part is the account of the uncommonly suc- cessful work of the naturalists on the eastern slopes of the range. Of the fauna alone, they collected 6,000 speci- mens, of which 110 proved to be new species. Their success was apparently largely due to the natives: Hyraxes, gigantic rats, bats, mice, worms, beetles, chameleons, and snakes came pour- ing into Bihunga, when once it was found that there were people mad enough to pay for such follies. The care with which they secured the captive beasts, and the air of mystery and importance with which they produced them, were always a source of amusement. An attempt to make collections on the western slopes in the Free State ter- ritory, completely failed from the hos- tility of the natives to their white rul- ers. The Belgian in command of the district compelled the party against their wishes to take an armed escort, and several instances are given of un- provoked and inexcusable maltreatment of the natives which sufficiently account for the conditions. On reaching British territory, three of the expedition returned home by the Congo; and it is a striking illustration of the progress in Africa in recent years that a journey from ocean to ocean can now be made in less than eighty days. Mr. Wollaston's home route was through the almost unknown region lying di- rectly to the South of Ruwenzori in which are the Mfumbiro volcanoes. The year before, an eruption had taken place which had continued at intervals for several months, causing frightful deso- lation; immense streams of lava cover- ed the plains. At Lake Tanganyika, he turned west and on reaching navigable waters in the Congo Basin, made the remainder of the journoy by canoe and steamboat to the mouth of the river. The impression left by the narrative of his experiences as far as Stanley Falls is of a country being impoverished through misgovernment. As an illustra- tion, he says that the men building a railway from the river to the lake, through a region of extraordinary nat- ural richness, are fed "on preserved beef from America and dried fish from Nor- way!" In the closing chapter, the author indicates briefly the character of the problems which the Belgians have to solve in ruling an immense population in the lowest stages of barbarism. That much good has already been accom- plished must be recognized by all un- prejudiced observers. Several appendices contain among other things notes on the sleeping sick- ness and hints for African travellers. Two excellent maps enable the reader to follow Mr. Wollaston in his wander- ings, and there are fifty-nine remarka- bly beautiful pictures, mostly of scenery. The Characters of Theophrastus : An English translation accompanying a revised text, with introduction and notes by R. C. Jebb, 1870; a new edi- tion, edited by J. E. Sandys. Pp. xvi +229. New York; The Macmillan Co. This new edition, with Greek and English on opposite pages and notes be- low, is especially welcome both because the original edition is out of print and because Dr. Sandys has added valuable new material. His feeling of pietas, however, has perhaps caused him to fol- low Jebb too closely. For example, many scholars would feel that, in a book in- tended for adults, fidelity to the author demands that any expurgations should be indicated and the Greek printed either in the text (as is the case in No. xxi) or below. Jebb's original con- tention that the Greek text is only in- cidental is hardly in place in an elab- orate edition like the present, which, from the reputation of both of its edi- tors, is assured of a place in all li- braries. References in the old edition should have been verified; e. g., on p. 91, notes: "Lucian's Symp, c. 2, Her- mot, c. 2," should be in each case c. 11. (Incidentally, a further reference to Lucian Symp, c. 38, would materially modify Jebb's statement.) There is a misprint on p. 62, note 6: for "brought back slaves" read "brought black slaves." Dr. Sandys has added many refer- ences to works made accessible since 1870. Considering the close connection of Theophrastus and Menander, the- fragments, old and new, of the latter might have been cited even more fre- quently, e. g., on pp. 48 and 49, line 5, a reference to the new "Epitrepontes" seems called for, and on p. 43, notes col. 2, the account of "private arbitrators" might have been expanded (or modi- fied) by a reference to the same play. Again, p. 113, note 18, on women "who answer the hall-door themselves" or who run out into the streets and act like shameless dogs, cf. Menander Fragm, 238 (Meineke) : You're over-stepping, wife, a married wo- man's bounds, The front door passing; for to ladies of good birth The house-door is the limit by convention set. This chasing and this running out into the- , street Your billingsgate still snapping, Rhode, ia for dogs! The new indices are a great addition.

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34:0 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 The English index, however, might have been even fuller to include other names and matters of interest in the notes. Although Jebb's name still stands alone upon the cover, Dr. Sandys has again, in addition to his previous con- tributions to classical scholarship, per- formed a real service in making accessi- ble in such a worthy way an author who is one of the most valuable inter- preters of Greek life and thought. Science. THE SOUTH POLAR RECORD. Lieut. E. H. Shackleton's extraordi- nary success in approaching to within 111 miles of the South Pole, in spite of great hardships and suffering, will take a prominent place in the history of polar exploration. This, not only because he has been farthest south, but because he seems to have added substantially to the world's knowledge of the terra incognita in which he has spent so arduous a year. The journey across the ice of 1,708 miles, occupying 126 days, with- out any accident or fatality, is in itself a remarkable exploit. It was not a march over level, if broken, ice-fields such as Peary has repeatedly made in his dashes toward the North Pole, but It involved the ascent of a glacier forty miles wide and rising to an Alpine height of 10,500 feet. To the perils of polar exploration were thus added those of mountain-climbing. The rarefied air, combined with a temperature of 72 de- grees of frost, made it almost a miracle that the party could progress at all. Yet with this cruel experience behind them, the men were compelled to turn back with an apparently unbroken and inviting plain stretching to the south- ward as far as they could see. The per- fect health of the ship's company speaks volumes for the experience gained by Lieut. Shackleton, who suffered tortures from scurvy on his first Antarctic trip with Capt. Scott in the Discovery. Cu- riously enough, his vessel, the Nimrod, carried practically no vegetables, al- though these have heretofore been deem- ed necessary as an anti-scorbutic. In- stead, the greatest care was taken In packing the meats in cans of triple thickness and doubly painted. Lieut. Shackleton stated before sailing that the food question had been "worked out to the final analysis," and the result has justified his confidence. Indeed, the extraordinarily rich outcome of the whole venture argues strongly not only for the courage of its leader, but for his foresight and the care with which the programme was elaborated in advance. Part of the credit may also be ascrib- ed to the Siberian ponies, which were useful both as a means of locomotion and as sustenance. To the general pub- lic, indeed, the experiment with the ponies and the motor-sledge is of par- ticular interest. That the motor would be of slight value was to be foreseen. On flat ice-surfaces it was of use in establishing depots of provisions; else- where it had to be discarded. Four of the ponies died before the sledge expe- ditions were undertaken; the others seem to have done remarkably well, de- spite the necessity of carrying fodder. But, just as in so many previous cases where dependence has been placed on dogs, the explorers returned dragging heavy weights themselves. Man, some- how or other, outlasts his beasts of bur- den in the Arctic even when they are not used for food. As to the scientific results, in which Lieut. Shackleton has from the first been more interested than in the mere recording of a farthest south, this in- trepid explorer brings back a valuable geological collection, including lime- stone with traces of coal, and a com- plete meteorological record. Eight dis- tinct mountain ranges and more than a hundred mountains were discovered, and many glaciers surveyed and photo- graphed. In addition, the magnetic pole was located, Mount Erebus was ascend- ed, the active crater measured and the old one explored, while important ob- servations of microscopic life and at- mospheric electricity will interest scien- tists for years to come. This is as it should be; a mere venturesome dash to- ward a pole has little or nothing to commend it. It makes excellent news- paper copy and reads well when describ- ed in a book, but has nothing of lasting value to compensate for the risks taken and the money experided. Of course, some time will be needed to "work up" the results of the Shackleton expedi- tion. The construction of an accurate map, alone, must be done slowly and with infinite care. It is only by an elaborate comparison of new records with the old that it is possible to com- prehend exactly the climatic conditions and the movements of sea currents. The news from Lieut. Shackleton will quicken interest in the reports to come from Dr. Charcot, tb French explorer, who started from Punta Arenas on De- cember 17 last, with provisions for two years. Whereas Lieut. Shackleton left his vessel at Erebus Island, where Capt. Scott landed in 1902, Dr. Charcot's ob- jective is Alexander Island, directly south of Terra del Fuego. He thus ap- proaches the pole from another and less known side, with a considerably longer sledge-journey before him. This is Dr. Charcot's second voyage to the Antarc- tic, his first having occupied the years 1903-05, of which he spent the winter of 1904 on the ice. Indeed, Antarctic expeditions have followed thick and fast upon one another's heels since the open- ing of the twentieth century. There was a long period when tv.e search for the South Pole enlisted few recruits. Un- der the leadership of Capt. James Cook human beings first crossed the Antarc- tic Circle on January 17, 1773. For the next twelve decades only three expedi- tions were set on foot. But in the last ten years Borchegrevink, Scott, Drygal- ski„ Nordenskjold, Bruce, and Charcot have carried forward the work, prac- tically without cessation. There has not, however, been a uniform plan of action. H. R. Mill, author of the "Siege of the South Pole," urges with much force a "consultative international com- mittee," which should raise funds, di- vide the field, and keep in service the vessels now in use, instead of securing a new ship with new equipment for each expedition. Several wintering par- ties could thus be maintained. "The price of one battleship would conquer all the secrets of the south," says Mr. Mill. There can be no doubt that it would add much to the sum of human knowledge. Details of the new Krupp antidotes for airships and aeroplanes have now been published. Of course, airships are suppos- ed to be the 'best defences against other airships, but next to them artillery is re- lied upon to bring a flying-machine crash- ing to earth before its occupants are near enough to any large body of troops to drop dynamite upon them. The problem before the Krupps was to devise mobile and immobile guns which can shoot straight up into the air, and which can be shitted readily from side to side for sighting. This they have done with re- markable skill. The gun devised tor use in heavy automobiles or on trains is a marvellous improvement upon the old-fash- ioned mortar. It can be elevated to any extent desired, sighted toy means of mir- rors, and swung on an axis permitting a complete revolution, while the recoil is well cared for. Even more interesting is an adaptation of the present field gun of the German army, which can be raised on a spring, so as to be in the position of a mortar. The whole invention is so sim- ple that the wonder is that it was not long ago brought out for high-angle firing ashore and afloat. Curiously enough, the anti-balloon gun carries with it a return to smoking powder. As an aid to the ar- tillerist, it is intended to fire shells which shall leave a light trail of smoke as they ascend, so that their course may be clear- ly seen and the next shot directed thereby. On the other hand, his own shots, on their return to earth, may kill his own com- rades or innocent bystanders. The return of the shell has caused an animated pro- fessional discussion as to the kind of pro- jectile to be used, whether an exploding shell or a solid shot. Small projectiles, it is agreed, are all that are necessary, and shrapnel has been most effective against captive balloons. But beyond this the ex- perts are at sea for lack of experiments. Balloons are too costly to be shot at, whe- ther captive or free. An abundance of new material on popu- lar cures and superstitions in the medical creeds of the world is being made acces- sible in the new "Vergleichende Volksmedi- zin," of which the first Lieferung has just

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April i, 1909] The Nation 341 appeared, by O. von Hovorka and A. Kron- feld (Stuttgart: Strecker & Schroder). At least two dozen more parts, accompanied by more than 500 illustrations, will follow. The special character of the work is indi- cated by the sub-title, "Eine Darstellung volksmedizinischer Gebrauche, Anschauung- en und Heilsfaktoren des Aberglaubens und der Zaubermedizin." Medicine, anthro- pology, ethnology, philology, are all en- riched by this collection of details and data. As far as possible only first-class sources are employed, and the illustrations are particularly well selected. A mass of scientific data regarding earth- quakes in Italy, and especially regarding Messina, is intelligently presented inDr. Al- bert Zacher's "Im Lande des Erdbebens" (Stuttgart: Julius Hoffmann). Dr. Zacher has made several tours through Italy on foot, a-wheel. and by automobile, since 1905. always giving his attention to vol- canic and other disturbances. He now pre- sents vivid accounts of the disasters in Calabria, 1905, the eruption of Vesuvius in 1906, and the recent earthquakes at Mes- sina and Reggio. Drama. A new comedy, "Sham," by Geraldine Bonner and Elmer Harris, which was pro- duced in Wallack's Theatre, the other eve- ning, is brightly written in spots; has some point, if not much originality, as a social satire; is sound in moral and wholesome in atmosphere; but so weak and slovenly in construction that it assuredly would have collapsed if a less accomplished and viva- cious actress than Miss Henrietta Crosman had been entrusted with the leading char- acter, Katherine Van Riper. All the other personages and most of the incidents are conventional, but this young woman is vital. Reared in extravagant habits and over- taken by poverty, she continues to live luxuriously, largely by means of her wits and the ill-placed confidence of her trades- men. Desperately in debt, her one hope of salvation lies in a rich, but loveless, mar- riage, which she has almost effected when she meets with a breezy Westerner, who captures her heart and opens her eyes to the essential dishonesty of the life she has been leading. Finally, after proving the sincerity of her conversion to a health- ier state of mind, she deserts the false fashionable world for love in a cottage and true happiness. The tale, not being well told, would excite but little interest if it were not for the captivating picture drawn by Miss Crosman of the high-spirited, reckless, spendthrift girl. By her bril- liant interpretation of the complex emo- tions ,of the third act, in which she had the stage largely to herself, she converted what threatened to be a failure into some- thing like a triumph. Hovering constantly on the border line between laughter and tears, in which little touches of semi-hu- morous pathos were emphasized by occa- sional explosions of comic wrath, she kept the audience in high glee and dismissed them in a mood of smiling content. The embodiment was a notable bit of good com- ic acting — buoyant, spontaneous, varied, and natural— admirable alike in its ideal and the vigor and neatness of its technical finish. Miss Crosman is a veritable actress. Beside her the light of most other feminine stars shows very dimly. E. H. Sothern is so industrious and con- scientious an actor, and is possessed by so worthy an ambition, that each new step in his career compels a certain respectful in- terest. Moreover, he is the only compara- tively young actor of any promise on this side of the Atlantic who is devoting him- self to the literary, poetic, and romantic drama. But it is impossible to be very enthusiastic over his impersonation of Richelieu, which was seen for the first time here in Daly's Theatre on Monday evening. Modelled closely upon traditional lines, and fairly accurate in its recognition of famil- iar points, it was an absolutely uninspired performance, rarely rising above the level of mediocrity. Imitative and artificial, it exhibited understanding without power of execution. It lacked imagination, subtlety, intellect, and authority, and, although by no means lacking in vigor, but rather over- abundant in sound and fury, failed to stir the pulses or create illusion. From a pure- ly theatrical point of view it was not in- effective, but it was essentially tricky in its abrupt contrasts, its studied humor, and its all too conscious pathos. In utterance it was monotonous and dreary, the actor's declamation often assuming the character of a chant. The formal phrasing of the piece was a stumbling block, indeed, to all the actors with the exception of the De Mauprat of Frederick Lewis, and the gen- eral representation was sadly deficient in almost all the needful romantic attributes of graceful and spirited action, eloquent speech, and picturesque color. "Riche- lieu," with all its faults, is so good an act- ing play that even the poorest actors can scarcely fail in it completely, but its actual theatrical possibilities were but dimly sug- gested on the present occasion. George Bernard Shaw has written for the London Afternoon Theatre what he de- scribes as "a short dramatic sermon of an exclusively theological character." The City Council of Vienna, which holds in trust all the literary remains of Grill- parzer, has decided to issue a complete and thoroughly critical edition of his works, diaries, and letters. Prof. August Sauer of Prague has been selected to edit the twenty-five volumes, which will make up this set. Johann Wiegand, one of the younger Ger- man dramatists, whose work is free from the repulsive features of much that is called "modern" in German letters, has been known to a small circle of New York playgoers by his one-act play, "The Last Trip"; his drama, "The Victor," in which Catherine of Russia is the central figure; and that powerful plea for universal peace, "The Wages of War," in which he collabo- rated with Wilhelm Scharrelmann. Wie- gand's latest work, "Thalea Bronkema" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), is a tragedy with a semi-historical background, the scene being Friesland at the time when the body of Henry IV was awaiting its burial. The book was enthusiastically re- ceived by Ernst Heilborn, former editor of the defunct Berlin Nation, and the initial performance of the play in Strassburg was decidedly successful. Music. THE NEW PHILHARMONIC ORCHES- TRA. The concert at Carnegie Hall on Sat- urday night marked the end of the last regular season of the Philharmonic So- ciety as it has been known for sixty- seven years. When this society was formed, there were not many orchestral players in New York, and the demand for them was not keen. Their concerts were given on a cooperative basis, the profits — if any — being shared by the players. Since the death of Anton Seidl, under whose regime the receipts reach- ed high-water mark, other factors have come into the reckoning. For several years the society imported famous Eu- ropean conductors, and finally engaged for three years Wassily Safonoff, who had attracted the largest audiences. He demanded, however, a salary six times as great as that paid to Theodore Thom- as and Anton Seidl. The expense of the orchestra was further increased by the competition of the opera. As long as there was only one opera house, and the season short, it was possible for some of the players, and for Mr. Seidl, too, to serve both the Philharmonic and the Metropolitan. But wten an orches- tra was engaged for the Manhattan, and then the Metropolitan secured two or- chestras, in order to play in two cities on the same evening, first-class players were tempted away from the Philhar- monic. Their places were filled as well as possible, and good results have been achieved with the new material. But many music-lovers have long de- sired that New York should have an as- sociation equal in proficiency to the Bos- ton Symphony Orchestra, under one of the greatest European conductors; and the present crisis has seemed an oppor- tune time to secure it. With the ex- ception of the recitals of a few favorite singers and players, all concerts in this city have suffered grievously since the two opera houses began to bid for pop- ular support, and apparently the vener- able Philharmonic can be saved only by becoming a permanent organization of first-class players, giving such care- fully rehearsed and finished concerts that even the opera would fail to lure patrons away. Such an orchestra costs money until it has been put on a pay- ing basis — a single horn-player asked $5,000 for his services! — but, fortunate- ly, the funds have been provided, and the New Philharmonic will be launched next autumn — a band of about one hun- dred carefully selected musicians, who will play under only one man. This man, Gustav Mahler, is one of the most inspiring orchestral leaders of our gen- eration. Heretofore Americans have had hardly any opportunity to estimate his powers except as an operatic leader.

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34,2 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2283 His interpretations of Wagner have aroused warm enthusiasm, and his read- ings of Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, and Smetana are acknowledged on two con- tinents to be the most finished on rec- ord. In Vienna, where he presided for ten years over the Imperial Opera, his activity as conductor of the Philharmon- ic concerts was quite as successful as his labors at the opera. He is also one of the leading composers of the time. The Philharmonic will for the first time have a conductor of whom this can be said. Fortunately, it is not New York alone which will benefit by this new arrange- ment. The subscribers to the Philhar- monic will have their regular groups of eight afternoon and eight evening con- certs; but in addition to these there will be Sunday afternoon concerts, historic and Beethoven cycles, and virtuoso con- certs. Brooklyn and other neighboring cities will be visited, and occasionally a longer flight will be attempted. Mme. Nordica will sing with the Dres- den Philharmonic Orchestra when it makes its American debut at Carnegie Hall Sat- urday evening. April 10. The other solo- ists are Mme. Langendorff, mezzo-soprano; David Bispham, baritone; Albert Spalding violinist; and Germaine Schnitzer, pianist. Art. A Short History of Engraving and Etchings. By A. M. Hind. Pp. 473; 111 illustrations. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $5 net. This useful handbook by a junior cu- rator of the British Museum differs from its many predecessors in the abun- dance of its illustrations and extent of its encyclopaedic features. Besides the usual technical introduction, there is a running history of the art, a list of en- gravers and etchers classified chronolog- ically by nations and schools, and an alphabetical index of names, comprising dates, which includes more than twen- ty-five hundred entries. Bibliographical notes accompany the text, and there is as well a very full bibliography at the end. Naturally, a manual of this com- pass cannot give all the material infor- mation that the collector will need when he comes upon an unfamiliar print; but it will enable him to find promptly what- ever has been written on the subject. Furthermore, Mr. Hind has contrived to write interestingly what is often per- force an enumeration of names and titles, so that the book will not fail to appeal to intelligent readers who are neither collectors nor professed stu- dents. Only prolonged use can test the accuracy of such a work. It endures very well the casual control of dates that your reviewer has been able to give. For his caution in statement and im- partiality of judgment Mr. Hind de- serves all praise. Every writer of a manual :'s under temptation, the strong- er, the more scholarly he is, to play the umpire on disputed points. It is so much more pleasant to settle them than to state frankly the difficulty. To this pernicious tendency Mr. Hind never yields. The reader is not robbed of the mystery that affects many of the great- est names of etching and engraving. Pos- sibly, the space given to British artists is out of proportion to the general scale, but this, considering the public to which the manual is primarily ad- dressed, was inevitable. Of insular pre- judices Mr. Hind is refreshingly free. It is a pleasure to find the over-popular mezzotinters classed merely as capable artisans. A similar catholicity and fine- ness of judgment pervade the book. The author adores none of the ruling idols of the marketplace. Here and there a critical reader will differ from Mr. Hind's rapidly sketched positions. Whether Goya is one of the greatest "virtuosi" of aquatint (p. 253) is fairly open to question. Many will feel with Hamerton that in this me- dium Goya suffers from a heavy-handed- ness which we never find in his paint- ing. Such critics will dwell rather on the inventive than on the technical mer- its of the master. It seems to us also that Daubigny, as etcher, is treated too cavalierly. His too few fine plates sure- ly stand above those of Jacque and be- side those of Rousseau as normative in etched landscape. The American sec- tion and lists are inadequate. The late William Sartain was best known as a stipple engraver; Frank Duveneck had a "startling power of assimilation" (p. 332), not of Whistler's manner, but of Venetian subjects. As a matter of fact, Duveneck's vigorous plates, which were on one occasion very stupidly fathered upon Whistler, were completed before the famous Venetian Set of Whistler was begun. The merits of C. A. Piatt's few prints — he has forsaken etching for a more rewarding art — should have given him a place in the historical text. In the lists might well have appeared the amateur, the late LeRoy Yale, George Senseney for his delicate work in color, and the names at least of Lewis, Sloan, White, Roth, and Wash- burne — young etchers who are produc- tive and of much promise. These, of course, are trifling blemishes in a work that is readable, orderly, and packed with information. We have seen no- thing quite so useful for the average person who is concerned with prints. We can notice only in brief Ludwig Justi's elaborate study of Giorgione (Ber- lin: Julius Bard). It consists of two large and handsomely printed volumes — one of text, the other of documents and plates. The author differs from his many prede- cessors in entertaining a greater respect for traditional attributions, and in scruti- nizing more closely the surface of the ex- tant pictures. Opposite each cut in the second volume is a complete account of restorations and damage — an obvious con- venience, though in the present state of our knowledge such observations are often merely subjective impressions. In general, Herr Justi takes the latitudinarian view of Herbert Cook, believing that Giorgione was a prolific and uneven artist. The Justi list of authentic pictures passes for- ty. He admits all works* of the type of the Glasgow Adulteress and the Beaumont Nativity, here agreeing with Mr. Cook. On such a matter who shall dogmatically play the umpire? Yet as a suggestion it is so difficult to place the great dramatic pic- tures apart from Giorgione — they surpass the capacity of Cariani or Sebastiano del Piombo— that acceptance will seem to many the easier alternative. Herr Justi's theory that these works were begun by Giorgione, but mostly executed by Sebastiano, has much to commend it. Considerable addi- tions are made to the already long list of Giorgionesque pictures. The most interest- ing of his finds is the original (or a copy?) of the picture from which Hollar engraved the self portrait of Giorgione in Armor. The canvas, in a ruined state, is now in the Brunswick Gallery. On the subject of the Pitti Concert, Herr Justi is a tradi- tionalist. It seems to us that he hardly does justice to the reasoning of those who see in this masterpiece a highly Giorgion- esque Titian. The actual painting is, in the central head at least, quite un-Gior- gionesque. We should be inclined to seek a compromise by assuming an invention of Giorgione, finished — as we know the Dres- den Venus was — by Titian. For a pene- trating analysis of the aesthetic qualities of Giorgione Herr Justi deserves gratitude, even from those who, like the present writer, dissent from many of his con- clusions. The collection of documents and plates is most useful, and more complete than anything that has previously appeared. Especially welcome are cuts of Zanetti's en- gravings after the crumbling frescoes of the Fondaca de' Tedeschi. Herr Justi has overlooked the Rubens sketch, represented only by a contemporary etching, of a sleep- ing Venus ascribed to Giorgione. The print is exhibited in the Antwerp Museum, and the reference to it may be found in Max Rooses's Rubens. The first volume of "Aus dem Frankfurter Goethemuseum," edited by O. Heuer (Frank- furt-am-M. : Kunstverlag Hermann Knoe- kel), consists of a collection of fourteen sheets in imperial folio, containing ten portraits, three pictures, and two sketches by Goethe. It is the purpose of the pub- lisher to reproduce the best things in the Goethe Museum. The Giornale d'ltalia prints a report by Dr. Duncan MacKenzie, read before the British School of Archaeology at Rome, which gives the results of his latest explorations in Sardinia. He was accompanied by the director of the school, Dr. Thomas Ashby. Among the more important discoveries were several dolmens ; one similar to that at Birori, hitherto regarded as the only well- preserved dolmen in Sardinia ; another near the village of Austis, with a peculiar pro- longation at the back, forming a transition

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April i, 1909] The Nation. 343 i between the true dolmen and the "tomb of the giants"; and two other more highly developed types, one covered with a slab measuring more than thirteen by seventeen feet, and the other partly cut in a cliff and partly built of stone, yet having the hori- zontal stone slab characteristic of the dol- men. New types of the "tomb of the giants," also, were found, shorter than the ordinary form, and having a curving front, built of several orders of stone blocks. In some cases, the cell was hollowed in a cliff and the characteristic great frontal stone and the front of the tomb itself were cut in the vertical face of the cliff. The rearrangement and enlargement of the Vatican picture gallery has now been completed. For this purpose a corridor was chosen, formerly a carriage storehouse, on the ground floor of the west part of the Vatican, under the library. The gal- leries are lighted by windows opening on the Court of the Belvedere, so that only one wall is available for pictures — a con- venience to the observer. The hanging is a uniform dark sage green stuff, of a slightly watered texture, excellent for the Primitives with their gold backgrounds anu bright enamels, but rather too cold for the Raphaels and the later eclectics. The four halls contain respectively Primitive Tuscan painting, fifteenth century painting of Tuscany and the Marches, Primitive painting of Umbria and the Marches, and masterpieces of Perugino, Raphael, and the School. This adherence to logical associa- tion brings out the qualities of each group in a way that could scarcely be guessed from the old arrangement; and the collec- tion has been much strengthened by add- ing to it the pictures hitherto half hid- den in the Christian Museum of the La- teran as well as the Primitive panels, shown to great disadvantage under glass oases in the Vatican Library. The gallery is now one of the most attractive in Eu- rope. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' gal- leries in this city are paintings by Emil Carlsen, at Bauer-Folsom's, till April 10; old naval prints, K. O'Brien & Co.'s April 24. News of the death of Prof. August Mau on March 6 has just been received here by friends of the scientist. Born at Kiel, Ger- many, in 1840, Dr. Mau spent most of his life in Italy, where, as member of the Ger- man Archaeological Institute in Rome, he was able to carry on important work in connection with the restoration of Pompeii and other ancient cities. On the occa- sion of his sixtieth birthday, a num- ber of his friends on this side of the At- lantic sent him a gift of several thousand dollars. Professor Mau used the money for defraying the expense of having copies made of paintings found on the walls of Pompeian ruins, and these copies were sent to American universities and other institutions. Among his best-known con- tributions to archaeology are "Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeii," "Pompeii in Leben und Kunst," "FUhrer durch Pompeii," and "Pompeianische Bei- trage." He also compiled the catalogue of the German Archaeological Institute; at the time of his death he was at work on the third volume. From Munich, comes the report of the death, in his seventy-first year, of Dr. Al- win Schultz, at one time professor of the history of art in the University of Prague. He wrote largely on his subject, publish- ing among other books the following: "H6- fisches Leben zur Zeit der Minnesanger," "Kunst und Kunstgeschichte," "Allgemeine Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste," "Hausliches Leben im Mittelalter bis in die zweite Halfte des 18ten Jahrhunderts." The death is announced of Prof. Alfred Messel, a distinguished architect of Berlin. He was born in Darmstadt in 1853, and studied his art under Strack at the Berliner Bauakademie. In 1883 he made the first of the trips to foreign countries which so strongly influenced him. Later he became a specialist in the style of the German early Renaissance and the Italian Renais- sance. A volume has been printed describ- ing thirty-six of his Berlin edifices. Finance. The Book of Wheat. By Peter Tracy Dondlinger. New York: Orange Judd Co. $2 net. Mr. Dondlinger describes his book as "an economic history and practical man- ual of the wheat industry," and the scope of treatment warrants the com- prehensive title. Nearly two-thirds of the work is occupied with practical questions such as the nature ana chem- istry of wheat cultivation; the differ- ent varieties of the grain in different countries, and their relative economy, from producer's and consumer's point of view; the cost of production, in this country and elsewhere; the manner and possibility of improvement through fer- tilization, irrigation, and crop rotation, and the diseases and insect pests to which the plant is exposed. These are by no means questions in which the farmer alone is interested. They concern tne great financial and commercial mar- kets vitally, as may be seen from the constant discussions, even on the Stock Exchange, of the progress and prospects of a crop. There are times when Wall Street will be more keenly concerned over rumors of "black rust in the Red River Valley" than over a demonstra- tion by Servia against Austria. Such discussions are likely to be conducted with rather dense ignorance of the un- derlying principles. Like the cotton spec- ulator who "went long" on news that the boll weevil had attacked tne plan- tations, and then button-holed all his friends to ascertain whether the boll weevil was a disease or an animal, the grain market frequently judges of sucn matters at second hand. It would not be the worse off for the information which Mr. Dondlinger's book contains — infor- mation which is clearly and accurately put, and strikingly devoid of confusing technicalities. The last third of the book treats of the production, marketing, and distribu- tion of wheat crops the world over, and of the history of wheat harvests and wheat prices. It need not be said that these are topics full of interest, not only to men of affairs whose plans are af- fected by agricultural prosperity or ad- versity, but to students of economics. Few people who have not given special study to the subject a?e aware how es- sential a part these problems of har- vests and prices have played, even in the great events of history. Taine has clearly shown the important influ- ence of the agricultural blight in France of 1789, in precipitating the French Rev- olution in the particular form which it assumed. It was English and Irish crop failure which made free trade in- evitable for Great Britain; Professor Thorold Rogers has hinted at crop fail- ure in the British Islands as one in- fluence which brought to a head the up- rising of 1642. That a "bumper" wheat crop in the United States, along with European harvest failure, was an essen- tial factor in achieving the success of specie resumption in 1879, was admitted even by John Sherman. What part the similar conditions of 1897 had, in starting the ball of Ameri- can prosperity rolling after the long de- pression, is within the memory of every one. It may indeed be said that the problems of agriculture are at the pres- ent moment among the foremost eco- nomic and financial considerations of the day. It was certainly this country's agricultural prosperity which averted the worst consequences of the panic of 1907, and saved our Wall Street promot- ers and manipulators from the full pen- alty which their excesses had invited. The election of 1908 was the first in our history in which the administration par- ty won in the vote next succeeding a great financial crisis. Had the coun- try's agricultural fortunes turned out in 1908 as they did in 1894 or 1881, it is possible that the result might have been different from what it was. The thirty-three pages devoted by Mr. Dondlinger to the bibliography of wheat deserve special notice; for the inquiring reader; they provide access to a rich and extremely interesting branch of literature. The deep cut in the price of steel struc- tural material which has accompanied the "open market," called forth, last month, the largest volume of orders ever known in that branch of the trade. This is a perfectly logical result of the policy of low prices, adopted by the great steel corporations af- ter a year of unnecessary and unwise de- lay. It is also conclusive refutation of the singular theory of economics set forth by Judge Gary last April, and his statement that *he fact that the demand is less than the supply does not furnish an argument for lowering the price, and that neither through such lowering nor through an ad-

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34:4= The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2283 vance in price when demand exceeds sup- ply, "would the quantity bought and sold be more or less." The obvious fact, after the panic of 1907, in the steel trade as in other industries, was that capacity to con- sume was impaired, that credit was re- stricted, and that the usual buyers not only were abje to postpone such orders as they may have planned, but were bound as a matter of common sense to do so, as long as concessions in price were refused. The whole history of modern trade goes to prove that, at junctures of the sort, the wise producer will find his market again by such immediate and radical revision of prices as will overcome doubt and hesita- tion on the part of the consumer. The dry goods trade, one of the few that is not dominated by a Trust, acted promptly on such lines a year ago; it took more time to teach the new industrial Trusts that they, too, were subject to the old laws. That they have apparently learned the les- son is a happy augury for both producer and consumer. It ought to be possible, now, for these great aggregations of capital to perform their normal economic function of preventing such extreme and prolonged fluctuation of prices, whether up or down, as would demoralize trade. That the Unit- ed States Steel Corporation in great meas- ure fulfilled this useful requirement, by preventing, in the boom of 1906, such ex- tortionate prices as prevailed in the similar periods of 1882 and 1899, is admitted by ev- ery one. It should have used its influence a year ago in favor of a normal cut in prices, instead of foolishly obstructing reasonable readjustment. BOOKS OP THE WEEK. Allison, Young E. The Delicious Vice. Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co. Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College. Vol. LXI, Part ii; Vol. LXVIII, Parts i and iii. Cambridge. Published by the Observatory. Arnold, Matthew. Selected Poems. Henry Frowde. . _ Arreguine, Victor Tardes de Estio. Buenos Aires. Bagwell, Richard. Ireland Under the Stu- arts. 2 vols. Longmans, Green & Co. $10.50. Bailey, L. H. Cyclopedia of American Agri- culture. Vol. IV. Macmillan Co. $5 net. Barr, Amelia E. The Hands of Compulsion. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50. \ Barton, George. Adventures of the World's Greatest Detectives. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co. Berry, John B. N. Some Assurances of Im- mortality. R. F. Fenno & Co. Beveridge, W. H. Unemployment: A Prob- lem of Industry. Longmans, Green & Co. Bowen, Edwin H. Questions at Issue in Our English Speech. Broadway Publish- ing Co. $1. Butler, H. E. Post-Augustan Poetry: From Seneca to Juvenal. Henry Frowde. Calvert, Albert F. Madrid. John Lane Co. $1.50 net. Campbell, F. W. Groves. Apollonius of Tyana. Mitchell Kennerley. $1 net. Carpenter, George Rice. Walt Whitman. Macmillan Co. 75 cents net. Chambers, Robert W. Special Messenger. D. Appleton & Co. $1.50. Chapin, Robert Coit. The Standard of Liv- ing Among Workingmen's Families in New York City. Russell Sage Foundation. Charities Publication Committee. $2. Cholmondeley, Mary. The Hand on the Latch. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.25. Collier, Price. England and the English from an American Point of View. Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. Connolly, James. Socialism Made Easy. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr. Craig, R. S. The Making of Carlyle. J. Lane Co. $4 net. Dale, Alan. The Great Wet Way. Dodd, Mead & Co. $1.50 net. Dante Alighieri. La Divina Commedia. Edited by C. H. Grandgent. Vol. I. Bos- ton: D. C. Heath. $1.25. Delany, Selden P. The Ideal of Christian Worship. Milwaukee: The Young Church- man Company. 40 cents net. Dryden's Poetical Works, edited by G. R. Noyes. Cambridge edition. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Co. $3.00. Forbes, S. A., and R. E. Richardson. The Fishes of Illinois. Urbana: Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. Fort. Charles. The Outcast Manufactures. B. W. Dodge & Co. $1.50. Frazer, J. G. Psyche's Task. Macmillan. 80 cents net. Galtcn, Francis. Memories of My Life. E. P. Dutton & Co. $3.50 net. Griggs, Sutton E. The Race Question in a New Light. Nashville: Orion Pub. Co. Hall, Charles Cuthbert. The Silver Cup. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.25 net. Haywood, Kate Harper. Torchbearers on the King's Highway. Milwaukee: The Young Churchman Company. Hisperica Famina. Edited by Francis John Henry Jenkinson. Putnam. Hugo, Victor. Works: Dramatic Works, 3 vols.; Poems. 2 vols.; History of a Crime, 2 vols.; Napoleon the Little. Boston: Lit- tle, Brown. $8 net. Huneker. James. Egoists. A Book of Su- permen. C. Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. Irish Texts Society: Two Irish Arthurian Romances. Edited and translated by R. A. Stewart Macalister. London: David Nutt. Jam AAVl r*C~ We offer out-of-town pa- |7 If 1L/ ^ trons painstaking and \\i 1 11/ V Intelligent service in all 1 1 IK 1 ^ matters connected with 1 JIH/l r I 1 book - buying. Corre- ,1/vvJLl V^ spondence solicited. Monthly Bulletin of New Books Free E. P. DUTTON & CO. 31 West 23d Street. New York toil

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1909. The Week. Amid the rather dreary round of tar- iff oratory in the House last week, one speech stands out with a kind of pathet- ic distinction. It is the protest made by the resident commissioner of the Philippines, Mr. De Leon, against those features of the Payne bill which deal with Philippine trade. The restrictions upon the right of free entry in this country, proposed in the case of Phil- ippine sugar and tobacco, are a marked falling off from the terms which Mr. Taft long insisted upon. To have as- sented to so much in the way of a com- promise must have been exceedingly distasteful to the President; and now he has the further mortification of hear- ing the official representative of the Filipinos in this country declare the whole plan unjust, and point out that it is unanimously opposed by the people of the islands. Mr. De Leon spoke with great restraint and dignity, yet made it clear that he and his countrymen re- gard the action of the United States in fixing tariffs for the Philippines without consulting the interests and sentiments of the people as sheer exploitation and oppression. And he closed his speech with that same plea for independence which always comes out in the end of any discussion of the Philippines, no matter from what premises one starts. French exporters are badly frightened by Mr. Payne's revised schedules. France is preeminently the country that supplies the rest of the world with its luxuries. Increase your tax on frills, flounces, and furbelows, and there's sure to be a tremendous fluttering in the dove-cotes of Paris. Gloves, feathers, perfumery, and fine plate-glass are al- ready menaced, and as the outcry con- tinues against taxing our necessary cof- fee, tea, beer, and cigarettes, who knows but Mr. Payne will lay a heavy hand on French champagnes? The Parisians, therefore, are quite right in being anx- ious. But they are wrong when, rely- ing on the statement of Hugues Le Roux, they attribute our heavy tariff on French products to any particular feel- ing of hostility for France. M. Le Roux has recently been in this country and carried away a vast Rtock of misinfor- mation on which the French customs authorities would have been wise in clapping a prohibitory duty, specific and not ad valorem. In the first place, the millions of Irish and Germans among us are not, as M. Le Roux believes, re- sponsible for our dislike of the French people, for the simple reason that we do not dislike France; far from it. And, in the second place, even if we did dis- like the French, our protection phil- osophy is not swayed by sentimental likes and dislikes. The protection Mino- taur knows neither friend nor foe. The proof is that he feeds less on the for- eigner than on his fellow-citizen. First and always, the standpatter is for him- self, first in war, first in peace, and first in the pockets of his countrymen. Representative Murdock's resolution, that Congress call on the several States to return the $28,000,000 "deposited" with them by the national government in 1837, is not likely to result in any- thing save a dip into political history by inquiring readers. It is quite true that the money was not an outright gift. When the Congress of 1836, confronted with the unmanageable surplus revenue of "boom times," and willing to play a popular card, decided on such distribu- tion of the accumulated surplus in ex- cess of $5,000,000, it described the oper- ation as a "temporary deposit" — subject, therefore, to recall at the will of Con- gress. But nobody entertained any illu- sions about the nature of the transac- tion. The words "temporary" and "de- posit" were inserted to allay the scru- ples of that strict constructionist, Pres- ident Jackson, and induce him to sign the bill. Most of the States which re- ceived this Federal largess — $28,000,000, as it happened, distributed in the ratio of representation of the several bene- ficiaries in Congress — proceeded at once to spend it; and even in the face of the collapsing Federal revenue and heavy Federal indebtedness, which came with the panic of the ensuing year, Congress passed a resolution intimating that, while it could not pay over the fourth and last instalment of the "distribu- tion," it would not trouble the States for what they had got already. In oth- er words, the episode was closed some- thing more than seventy years ago, and will scarcely be reopened at this time. But the incident is part of a chapter of events which, taken as a whole, has some bearing on present-day affairs. The period 1835-1836 closely resembled the period 1905-1906. It was an era of ex- pansion, of reckless speculation, when everybody was making money on paper and nobody believed that the "boom" would ever end. The national Treas- ury shared in this delusion. Between 1834 and 1836, under the influence of the increasing home consumption and import of foreign goods, annual customs revenue expanded nearly 50 per cent., and public land sales, in response to the wild speculation in the Western States, rose from $4,800,000 to $24,000,000. As a consequence, appropriations commit- tees unloosed the purse-strings. The moderate public debt having been by 1836 extinguished, ordinary expenditures were increased from $17,500,000 in 1835 to $37,200,000 in 1837; the "distribution to the States" was voted, and just then the panic of 1837 swept over the coun- try. In 1836 the surplus revenue was $20,000,000; in 1837, customs revenue was cut to the lowest figure in twenty years, public land sales almost stopped, but appropriation bills continued to run, with the result of a $12,000,000 deficit and a $15,000,000 public debt at the end of the year. We wish we might hope for the reproduction, in the present in- stance, of the further sequel of seventy years ago — which was such reduction in annual public expenditure that it was ten years before the figure of 1837 was again approached. We took the liberty to question, in our issue of March 25, the rather cock- sure statement from Washington in re- spect to one feature of the Declaration of London regarding the laws of mari- time war. It was confidently asserted that England had retreated from the ground she took when she demanded the surrender of Mason and Slidell. The implication was that the search of a neutral vessel, and the forcible remov- al of civilian commissioners, such as Mason and Slidell, were hereafter to be recognized by the laws of naval warfare.

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34,6 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 But examination of the text of the Dec- laration, now at hand, shows that this, as we suspected, is an entire misappre- hension. Article 47 provides, indeed, that individuals may be made prisoners of war when found on a neutral mer- chant vessel, even when there is no ground for capture of the ship, but such individuals must be "embodied in the armed forces of the enemy." Mason and Slidell were not. Thus the myth that the British had abandoned ground which they maintained against us in the civil war, and which our best international lawyers at the time and since admitted to be soundly taken, should at once be withdrawn from circulation. A decision by Justice O'Gorman in the State Supreme Court, upholds the constitutionality of the law restricting to $150,000,000 life insurance written by any company in any one year. The law had been contested on the ground of arbitrary and unequal application of the restrictive provision — chiefly because "industrial" insurance was excepted from it. The court ruled that the Legis- lature had the right to classify insur- ance and to make different provision for such different classes, always assuming the classification to be reasonable. That the separation of industrial insurance from ordinary life policies was reason- able, Justice O'Gorman decides; the two businesses he describes as "quite dis- tinct," and accordingly refuses to set aside the law. To insurance men and the general public alike, it will appear that the case was really based and de- cided on a technicality. To both the ex- ception of industrial insurance is a matter of relative indifference, save as a ground for taking exception to the law's constitutionality. The real objec- tive point of the suit was to overthrow the $150,000,000 limitation in itself, of which the large companies have com- plained ever since the new insurance law of 1906 went upon the statute- books. When the legislative committee was framing its bill, it was confronted by the fact that such limitless accumu- lation of capital, under the hands of a single group of men, was itself a seri- ous problem. The committee reported that the business of certain companies had "grown beyond reasonable limits," and that, "notwithstanding they have long since passed the point where fur- ther enlargement can benefit their pol- icyholders, they have resorted to every effort to obtain new business, regardless of the expense which is reflected in diminishing dividends." That this was regarded as an evil by the companies themselves had been shown by a tenta- tive resolution of the Mutual Life trus- tees, as long ago as 1892, to limit an- nual new business to $100,000,000. Pres- ident McCall of the New York Life thus testified before the Armstrong commit- tee: Q. Is there no time when an insurance company should say it is better, all things considered, to call a halt? A. I think there is a limit to human capacity. Q. And to capacity of human supervi- sion? A. Yes. Q. And to capacity to handle such gigan- tic accumulations? A. Undoubtedly. Q. Have you thought about it enough to reach in your mind as to what that limit should be? A. No. I think it is a very serious question. I think this committee could do a great deal of very good work in that respect, Mr. Hughes. The elections in Michigan on Monday exhibited the Anti-Saloon League's strength, but no less clearly the foolish tactics of its opponents. Only a won- derfully organized and well-supported campaign could drive the saloon out of nineteen or twenty counties where, but a few years ago, scarcely any sen- timent against liquor was visible. Yet not even shrewdness and money could have accomplished so much, if the ene- my had been moderately clever. No- thing could be more puerile, thougn, than the liquor dealers' campaign tricks. They choose as their prize stump-speak- er the author of "Peck's Bad Boy," who gave humorous talks. Then, too, the State was flooded with huge postal cards explaining that the Anti-Saloon League is controlled by Rockefeller, who hopes to use it as a cat's paw to seize the Federal Government. Such wild tales insult the voter's intelligence and make him believe that the saloon- keeper has not a leg to stand on. The regular semi-annual crisis in our relations with Central America seems to be coming to a head. It follows on the regular bi-monthly internal crisis in Central America. This time the quar- rel is with Nicaragua, and, of course, on the immemorial subject of an American citizen's property vs. government con- fiscation. Concerning our rights in the matter there can scarcely be any ques- tion. The Emery claim is not a claim at all, in the sense that it waits for ad- judication. Nicaragua agreed to arbi- trate our government's demands, and, displeased by the outcome, insists that the arbitration be rearbitrated. The or- dinary rules of political consistency or logic scarcely run in Central America, and this country would be at fault if it forgot that infinite patience is necessary in dealing with these weak-willed peo- ples of the tropics. Yet there is a point where compliance must stop. It is bad for the Central Americans them- selves. Zelaya, having defied the United States successfully, finds it quite natur- al to start playing the little Napoleon within Central America. Fortunately, this country is now in a position where it may speak out firmly without giving those restless republics ground for serious recrimination. Our understand- ing with Mexico wards off the charge of selfish motives. To our good offices and Mexico's the Central Americans have ap- pealed before this. Admiral Cervera will long remain in naval history as a striking example of devotion to duty on the part of a man in chief command, without a single illu- sion about the possibility of success. From the moment he sailed from Spain till the final catastrophe at Santiago, there was no time when Cervera did not look forward to fated defeat. His letters and dispatches to the Spanish government made it clear all along that he understood perfectly the deficiencies of his ships, and the certainty that he would be crushed by superior forces. In fact, so cogent was his exposition of the matter that the dilatory officials at Madrid were finally impressed to the point of cabling to him at Martinique that he might return to Spain, if he thought it wise; and only the failure to deliver this message left Cervera to go on his way under his original, instruc- tions. For a man thus feeling himself dedicated to disaster, he displayed a serenity and greatness of soul which even his enemies could not but ad- mire. It must have been harder for him to endure captivity in this coun- try, than it had been to go through the blaze and roar of his hopeless naval bat- tle; but here, too, he bore himself with exquisite nobility. His was truly a rare character, formed in large moulds.

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April 8, 1909] Tlie ISTation 34:7 The Socialists in the Belgian Parlia- ment are conducting an energetic cam- paign against evil conditions in the Con- go. M. Vandervelde's speech of last week, in condemnation of the system of forced labor, continues the attack be- gun some time ago against the gov- ernment's action in the case of the Up- per Congo and Great Lakes Railway Company. This company was organ- ized in 1902 and received a concession of some 4,000,000 hectares of land and forest for ninety-nine years. The gov- ernment shares in the profits were de- rived from exploitation of the land con- cession. On that ground, a royal order was issued last January, declaring that the railway was a public utility which justified the "recruitment" of 2,575 men during the current year. The negroes are recruited by raiding expeditions which destroy the villages and bring the men back in chains. In that condi tion they are set to work on the rail- way, finding probable solace for their sufferings in the thought that the gov- ernment speaks of them as travailleurs salaries, "salaried laborers." Their "con- tracts" run for five years. The nominal pay is 21 centimes (four cents) a day. The Socialists have maintained that the railway is not a "public utility" in the sense that it should be made to justify a system of practical slavery. M. Van- dervelde asked what had become of a number of natives sent to work in cer- tain mines in 1905. "They are not all dead," said the Colonial Minister. The situation is deplorable. Yet there is this important gain: that Congo mis- rule is no longer hidden from the world by Leopold's agents, but is criticised openly in the Parliament of a civilized people. Paris now has a scare of its own. It may not be so big as England's naval scare, or the general Balkan panic re- cently deceased, but domestic insurrec- tion is bad enough. That France is in such imminent danger of a proletarian insurrection as part of the Parisian press would have it, is open to strong doubt. From mere expediency, the workers are bound to keep the peace. The recent vote in the Chambers show- ed an enormous majority in support of the government's refusal to grant state employees the right to strike. The lead- ers of the proletariat are not fools. They must recognize how united the country would be in the face of any move against domestic order. The lead- ers of the workingmen are not even ex- ceptionally hot-headed. Hot-tongued they are, in part, but not much more so than the conservative press, which has fallen into the habit of describing every petty strike, a waiters' strike or the strike of five hundred electricians, as the prelude to social revolution. If it be true that the state employees are affiliating them- selves with the General Confederation of Labor, the situation may be seri- ous. But we have yet to learn whether that report is true. Until very recently these two elements stood in no friendly relations. It seems very doubtful wheth- er the state's employees will rise against the bourgeois, for the simple reason that they are themselves, in great part, bour- geois. THE TARIFF'S FIRST STAGE. It now seems certain that the Payne bill will pass the House this week. Un- der the special rule adopted on Monday there is opportunity for amendments which the Ways and Means Committee may offer, and separate votes on a few schedules are to be permitted; the rest of the bill is to be put through, as all tariff bills are put through the House, under closure. Thus the first step will have been taken, although, in tariffs, it is not usually the first step that costs. The next and more costly step will be taken by the Senate; then will come the struggle in conference between the two houses. After that, the President may have something to say. The final ver- dict will lie with the people. When Lord North saw the India Bill of his day, he described it as "a good receipt to knock up an Administration." In the Payne bill as it stands to-day, there are several vicious features which ought to be enough to knock up the par- ty or the Administration that would father or deliberately retain them. All tariffs have their pet abominations. The McKinley bill outrages were numerous, and we know what a political revolt they provoked. There would probably have been as marked a revolt against the Dingley bill, had not Bryan been there to prevent any Democratic move- ment in opposition to any Republican policy from being effective. Of the Payne bill, two schedules have been singled out for special reprobation. These are the duties on gloves and on stockings. Other items in the bill may be as bad, or worse. We ourselves think the woollen schedules far more perni- cious. But the women of the country, particularly in the West, have risen in protest against greatly increased taxes that are threatened upon articles of which they are the main consumers. In Chicago, over 300,000 women have sign- ed a forcible remonstrance against the higher duties on gloves and hosiery. The movement is spreading from city to city, and invading the rural districts as well. It will be noted that the Iowa Republicans in the House refused to as- sent to the rule, on the express ground that it did not permit a separate vote on the glove and hosiery schedules. These country Representatives, far from the influence or terrorism of importers, evidently fear that political vengeance will be taken on them unless they come to the relief of the aroused women. That these particular taxes, as they now stand in the Payne bill, are wholly indefensible, we think that no one who looks disinterestedly into the facts can question. In these two cases, the Ways and Means Committee apparently fell into the hapless old fashion of allowing manufacturers to make their own un- stifted statements about the conditions of the trade, and write their own clauses in the tariff bill. For example, the Na- tional Association of Hosiery and Un- derwear Manufacturers appeared at the tariff hearings with a request for in- creased duties. Several affidavits were submitted on the subject of labor cost, all of them asserting that "there is no material difference between the wages paid for the same kind of work in the different sections of the United States." How much this is worth may be guessed when we find two manufacturers from the same city swearing, one that he pays 65 cents as labor cost of a dozen pairs of stockings, and the other $1.02 for the same article. Yet with such dis- crepancies and improbabilities glaring at them, the members of the Committee allowed these affiants to make solemn oath regarding the labor cost of stock- ings in Germany, giving figures which have since been officially declared to be false and misleading. And the increase in duties was credulously granted: on the lowest grade, from 68 per cent, to 89; on the second, from 58 to 76; on the next, from 51 to 66; and on the highest

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348 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 grade, from 59 to 70. This in a revision which was to be "downwards"! The question of increased duties on women's gloves is ably discussed in a letter by Senator Culberson in the Washington Post. He shows how the "Ways and Means Committee almost lit- erally complied with every demand made by ex-Congressman Littauer. Lit- tauer was the interested party, yet all his statements were taken as gospel truth, wide of the fact though many of them are easily shown to be. Senator Culberson demonstrates from census bulletins that the assertions of Littauer respecting wages paid were grossly in- accurate. Yet this manufacturer and influential politician was practically al- lowed to write the glove schedules to put money into his own pocket, the duties being advanced on the average not far from 100 per cent. And the dis- patches report Mr. Littauer as being un- commonly active last Monday in the Speaker's room and elsewhere, to pre- vent a separate vote in the House on his precious gloves. No one supposes that the President, representing the national interest, can be satisfied to see these most offensive re- mains of protection in the Payne bill. Doubtless he hopes that they will be stricken out, either in the Senate or in conference. But Mr. Taft should have it distinctly in mind that it may be nec- essary for him to speak out against the extreme forms of selfishness and shame- lessness in the Payne bill, if he really desires to see those curses removed. OFFICE-HOLDERS IN POLITICS. The report of a special committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, on the activity of Federal of- fice-holders in politics, has been taken by some as a whitewashing of the last administration. It is not that, in either intention or effect. The committee, it is true, paid a good deal of attention to the use of government employees in the last Presidential campaign, and it is also the fact that it exonerates Presi- dent Roosevelt from the charge of hav- ing technically violated the civil-service rules. These relate, formally, to the po- litical activities of men in the classified service. It was, however, the unclassi- fied officials — the men holding the high- er Federal offices, postmasters, collec- tors, marshals, and the like — about whose pernicious activity in politics there was scandal last year. On that particular question, the committee has gathered precise evidence bearing out common knowledge; and the chief aim of its report is to show both how great the mischief is and the urgent need of its removal. A comparison of the roll of the Chi- cago Convention with the government Blue Book, establishes the fact that at least one delegate in ten was a Feder- al office-holder. In the Southern dele- gations, the proportion was much high- er: every third man was a government employee. Out of the 22 delegates from Alabama, 16 were office-holders; of the 10 from Florida, 7 were on the Federal salary list. It is easy to say that all this is no novelty; that the Republican party in the South being what it has been for many years, such a lining up of the animals at the crib, to vote at the orders of the master of the crib, is inevitable. Whatever the explanation, the thing is an outrage and a danger. The committee is well within bounds in saying: Any one made familiar with these facts cannot fail to see the menace to free elec- tions and popular nominations in this great office-holding machine, controlling under ordinary circumstances the balance of power in a national convention and sub- ject to possible dictation by the President as the chief executive. Not to so use it implies strength of will to resist great temptation. The abuse goes much deeper than this, however, and the committee of the Civil Service Reform League follows the evil further. It is not simply with a partisan offence that we are dealing, but an attack upon the efficiency of gov- ernment. The unchecked activity in politics of the higher officials robs the people of the services for which they are paid. An official who has to spend so much of his time in looking after the party organization, and in rounding up voters for primaries and "getting the delegates" at any cost, cannot give him- self intelligently to the work of admin- istration. In fact, the majority do not. It is the deliberate assertion of this committee, after due inquiry: Except in the departments at Washing- ton and a few other places, the larger of- fices in the unclassified service might be left vacant, and the service would be as efficiently performed as now. That is, the real work is done by the classified subordinates. Take that col- lector of internal revenue in Kentucky who has been holding his commission for four years, but during three of those years has been away from his office — though faithfully drawing his salary — and it is plain that not he but some- body else is seeing to it that the reve- nue laws are enforced. So it is with the average Presidential postmaster, the surveyors, collectors, and marshals: they habitually neglect their govern- ment work to attend to their political jobs. To employ them and pay them out of public money is, therefore, a gross case of waste and extravagance. The viciousness of the procedure could be no more evident if an old sugges- tion of ours were adopted, and two men appointed to every Federal office — one to attend strictly to its business, and the other to have the party glory and to do the party dirty work. Remedies urged by the committee re- quire both legislation and executive ac- tion. The law of 1883 ought so to be amended that the offices which can be filled only with "the advice and con- sent" of the Senate, may also be placed in the classified service, in which po- litical activity is forbidden. Of course, a resolute President could make such of- ficers keep their hands off the machine, even as it is. Mr. Roosevelt did so in theory; in practice, the results are what the committee sets forth — Federal offi- cers running the party, in many States, and swarming in conventions. It is nat- ural, then, that the committee should call for "a clearer definition and strengthening of the provision of the executive order governing political ac- tivity in the unclassified service." It ought to be made, instead of a dead let- ter, a living determination. In addi- tion, the o»mmittee demands better methods of appointment, especially by promotion from within the service, in- stead of putting at the head of impor- tant- offices proteges of Representatives and Senators, entirely unfamiliar with the duties of the position, and often wholly unfitted for their discharge. It may not have occurred to the mem- bers of this committee that they are furnishing a powerful argument for di- rect primaries. Yet no one can glance at their picture of the way in which conventions are run, stuffed with dum- my delegates dishonestly elected, with- out seeing how great a gain would come from legally guarded primaries, in which the voters could declare directly

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April 8, 1909] The Nation 349 for the men and measures of their choice. If such a system were estab- lished and put honestly into operation, much of the political occupation of oui office-holding Othellos would be gone. Primary reform would thus supplement and aid civil-service reform. THE PRAISE OF ECONOMY. The air is filled just now with talk of economy — strictly theoretical. Every man is willing that every other man should economize. Government officials are setting their faces against extrava- gance, and railroad men like Mr. Harri- man are calling for as great an econ- omy in the administration of public af- fairs as is insisted upon by railway managers. The story goes that the new Secretary of the Treasury is appalled at the evidences of lavish and needless expense which confront him in Wash- ington, and has said: "It ought to be possible to run one respectable govern- ment on what is wasted here." Whether this be true or not, the era of praise of economy has plainly set in. The na- tion's sentiments on that subject are correct and laudable, whatever its prac- tice may be. No Congressional orator gets more applause to-day than the man who denounces a governmental spend- thrift policy, and calls for rigid econ- omy. Yet he does this, knowing in his heart that what the old parliamentarian said is true: "If you want to get a cheer in the House of Commons, make a speech in praise of economy; if you want to rouse opposition and encounter certain defeat, move to effect any par- ticular economy." Chairman Tawney, of the House Com- mittee on Appropriations, admits the alarming increase in public expenditure, but asserts with much truth that "the two primary causes have been, first, the popular and executive demands; and, second, the abnormal and unnecessary* war expenditures in time of peace." The first cause is as much a national obses- sion as the last. It is undoubtedly true that a mighty appeal comes up to Con- gress from the people every year to spend more money. Take the mere mat- ter of pensions. The nation is paying about $160,000,000 a year for that pur- pose, yet for every worthy veteran who •dies, two suspicious or fraudulent claim- ants solicit Congressmen to get them on the roll. Look at the rising flood of pri- vate pension bills, and the method of passing them by wholesale, which has been devised. These measures are all for the benefit of men and women who are not pensionable under the general laws, and whose cases are, therefore, likely to be without desert, when not tainted by fraud. Here would seem to be a splendid place for messieurs the economizers to begin. But nothing of the kind is seen. These wasteful drains on the Treasury are popular. Able-bod- ied men in the backwoods of Maine will speak complacently of the amount they "draw" from Washington. "Abner, he draws $17 a month, and they dew say that Senator Hale has promised to shove him up to $23." With this spirit abroad in the land, one sees how much real popular backing there is for public econ- omy. It is praised in the abstract, but in the concrete nobody wants it. The unhappy significance of the phrase, "forced to economize," is proof enough of the unpopularity of the pro- cess. Gay young squanderers may alter- nate miserliness with high living, and regard it, with Thackeray's Philip, as a kind of joke to live for a time on a few sous a day. But for the father of a family, a man of affairs, to be compelled to cut down expenses is always irksome. He hides the fact, if he can, as he is ashamed to let it be known that he has been living beyond his means. That spirit of the citizens is bound to make itself felt in the government. The big- ger the panic, the bigger the appropria- tions: such appears to have been the motto of Congress. And President Roosevelt hit off perfectly the general taste and standards when he said in his last annual message that the country had, during his Administration, never had to deny itself anything that it want- ed. There is about that a smack of contentment with wealth which is very general. As a nation, we feel that we have much goods laid up for many years, and have need of nothing — of economy, least of all. We speak of this public tendency in order to show how great are the diffi- culties in the way of frugal national finance. The statesman who sets out to establish such a policy goes against the tide, and too often will have to say with the poet that for a long time he strove against the stream, but strove in vain. Success is not possible unless it be remembered that it is policy which makes expenditure. Minor savings cai be effected here and there in routine matters of administration: useless of- fices can be abolished, and idle clerks cumbering the departments can be weed- ed out: but no great and satisfactory re- ductions can be made in governmental outlay except by a change in govern- mental policy. If we were, for example, to alter our military policy, we could easily save $100,000,000 a year. If any one will assure us that such an altered policy is probable, we will tell him whe- ther economies are probable. One other change in the posture of government may make for economy. We mean a divided party control. The his- toric example is the Democratic House, in 1875-79, with a Republican Senate and President. Under the lead of Sam- uel J. Randall, the House put the knife so deep into the budget that savings of from $50,000,000 to $80,000,000 a year were made. The total of the appropria- tions actually sank, instead of showing that steady and ominous rise with which we are painfully familiar. A po- litical motive entered, no doubt, into this economizing. Democrats wanted to prove the truth of their charge that the Republicans were spendthrifts. But po- litical motives always affect political ex- penditures. If we were to have a Demo- cratic House after next year, there can be no doubt that it would set about cut- ting down the appropriations. The ob- ject would be partly to show that the Democrats were more economical than their opponents, and partly to keep Re- publicans in the government service from having so much money to spend. This shows us the reverse side of party responsibility. We are accustomed to cay that it is well to have one party in charge of all branches of the govern- ment, and then demand an accounting of its stewardship. But while that may make for a consistent policy, it does not make for economy. Under undisputed Republican supremacy for the past twelve years, public expenditure has r,one up much more rapidly than would i r.ve been the case had we seen an occa- sional Democratic House to hold the purse-strings. END OF THE BALKAN TROUBLE. Austria has declared herself satisfied with Servia's note of humble submis- sion. The final balance has been struck in a complicated account which began when the Sultan's power went down

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350 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 before the Young Turks last summer. The critical period may be reckoned from the beginning of last October, when almost simultaneously Bulgaria proclaimed her independence and Aus- tria announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During these s:x months Europe has been almost weekly on the verge either of a great war or peaceful solution. But the remarkable feature has been that the most serious danger arose from a phase of the matter which, at the beginning, would have been pronounced the least threatening of all. If hostilities had broken out be- tween Turkey and Bulgaria over the question of suzerainty or indemnity, the reason would apparently have been valid. If Turkey had fallen afoul even of Austria, the same reason would have held, namely, that the new regime in Turkey could better afford to wage an unsuccessful war than to meet the charge that it was sanctioning the dis- memberment of the Ottoman Empire. Yet Turkey's quarrels with Bulgaria and with Austria were settled, involving though they did the surrender of legal rights. After all, Austria had held Bosnia for thirty years, and it was pret- ty well understood that she was to keep it permanently. That she would sur- render the province to any one but Tur- key was absurd. The real menace, it turned out, consisted in what the outsid- er would regard as Servia's rather vague national aspirations. The danger came because the quar- rel between Austria and Servia tended to take on a far broader character. For Austria read Austria and Germany. For Servia read Russia, with her old ally, France, and her new friend, Great Bri- tain. The supposedly historic conflict between Teuton and Slav for the open road to Constantinople was regarded as entering on a new stage. When Servia threatened war, was she really bent on a heroic feat of hara-kiri, or was she counting on the sure assistance of Rus- sia? When Austria made preparations for mobilizing a half-million troops, was she really panic-stricken by the chance of an attack from Servia, or was she making ready against Russia? While winter made campaigning impossible, diplomacy had a free field. Then Servia might be aggressive, Russia might be warm In support of her, and France and England might play the anxious inter- mediaries. The alternations of hope and despair were just the thing to make three or four months pass. Insults and provocations might be exchanged with- out great danger. But when spring came, a season that seems to have an exceptionally stirring effect on the Bal- kan fighting blood, Austria had it in her power to bring the matter to a sharp conclusion. Having a good deal to gain by persistence, and all her pres- tige to lose by backing down, she might speak war and mean it. Then it would be for the anti-Austrian Powers, and especially for Russia, to decide whether Servia's claims were worth the risk of war. Report has it that the question was put sharply to Russia, and that St. Petersburg decided no. The outcome has been a victory for Austrian and German influence, and a diplomatic defeat for the Western Powers and Russia. France and Great Britain were undoubtedly sincere in working for peace in the Balkans. Yet great Powers do not work without the hope of ultimate advantage to them- selves. To check Austrian aspirations, if even in part, would be to add anoth- er victory to those Great Britain and France have been winning recently over German diplomacy. But the Western Powers found Russia but a reed to lean upon. France especially must be discom- fited to have her ally won away from her. This is the second time the French have vainly counted on the Russian al- liance. In 1905 Russia was so help- lessly crippled that the Kaiser might with impunity dictate terms to France in the matter of Delcasse' and Moroc- co. In 1909, Russia is still too weak to be useful if it came to extremes. Frenchmen must now be asking them- selves what this Russian alliance to which they have been clinging as a rock of safety is really worth. Andre Tardieu, in his recent lectures in this country (collected in a volume entitled "France and the Alliances"), tried to show how vital to France's safety was her understanding with Russia. He ar- gues that the security which the Repub- lic has enjoyed for the last fifteen years is based on that chiefly. But the value of an alliance that breaks down in crises may be questioned. The only fact that cannot be questioned is that Russia has profited by the alliance to the ex- tent, Mr. Tardieu estimates, of $2,500,- 000,000 in French money. When the conference to revise the Treaty of Berlin meets, if it does meet, it will find little else to do but to ratify what the Powers have settled upon by direct negotiation. Yet it would be an error to adopt the cynical view that the Balkan crisis has proved that treaties and peace have their only sanction in armies and battleships. It must be re- peated that Austria's title to Bosnia- Herzegovina was far better than Ser- via's, and good as territorial titles go. England rules Egypt under no better claim. That the matter should have been settled without recourse to arms is an unmistakable tribute to the world's growing dread of war. THE BIBLE AS LITERARY MODEL. An English periodical, Sunday at Home, recently sought the opinion of leading scholars and writers concerning "the most magnificent passage in the Bible." Naturally, the prophets, espe- cially Isaiah, ranked highest in the lists. The 40th chapter of Isaiah was a fa- vorite with many: Canon Driver cou- pled it with the 38th and 39th chap- ters of Job. William Watson, too, voted for Isaiah, though he thought David's lament for Jonathan "the most perfect elegy in all literature," and the song of Deborah and Barak "the most superb expression of the intoxication of tri- umph." Indeed, Mr. Watson is a strong admirer of the Bible on its literary side, going so far as to say that "every kind of literary magnificence is supremely exemplified in the Bible." Such tributes to the Bible as literature have long been common. Macaulay's praise of the pas- sage in Romans, beginning, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" is typical. It may be difficult for the critic to clear his judgment of inbred or re- membered emotion, in passing upon the style of the Bible. How much of the response which he finds himself mak- ing to the appeal of certain Biblical passages is due to a calm estimate, and how much to the awe and mystery which were associated with the sacred words in childhood, and still cling to them indissolubly? But making every allowance, there can be no question of the sincerity of those expert in English — authors and teachers and amateurs — who are enthusiastic over the literary glories of the English Bible. Yet these may be admitted and held to the heart without conceding all that is often urg-

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April 8, 1909] The IsTation. 351 ed, even by college teachers, in behalf of the Bible as a model of style. For winged words, for verbal felicity, for phrases that have passed into the life-blood of English literature, we must, of course, go on sending our youth to the Bible. It is doubtless a great quick- ener of the imagination. As an intro- ducer of young minds to majesty of thought and expression, to the sense of mystery, to grandeur of soul, all that is asserted for it by enthusiastic teachers may be readily granted. But when we talk of literary models, we do not mean only those for poets and prophets. We do not expect all our young men and women to learn to write in the grand style. It is the simpler qualities of good composition of which they are most in need, and for those it is a mis- take to commend the Bible so highly and universally as some college authori- ties do. If, for example, we were asked in what kinds of writing it is most de- sirable that the generation now coming upon the stage should acquire skill, we should say in orderly exposition of com- plex matters, in close and sound reason- ing, in accurate description. Yet in none of these things does the Bible excel. It is to put no slight upon the genius of the Hebrews who wrote the Bible to say that their talents did not lie in the directions we have just mentioned. Their work was other and higher, but not that. Yet what can be more impor- tant, to-day, than for a young lawyer or newspaper man, to be able to take a vast and intricate subject, having to do with public business, and tear the heart out of it? What other form of mastery is more necessary than that of condensed and clear explanation of tangled masses of fact? One has but to recall Gov. Hughes's extraordinary powers of that sort in order to see what they signify. Yet the man who took the Bible alone for his literary guide, would get little aid in meeting this most indispensable need of a modern writer. That kind of thing simply is not to be encountered in the Scriptures. To find examples of this ability to marshal facts and compel fig- ures to yield up their meaning, we must go to one of the Indian orations of Burke, or a budget-speech by Gladstone, or the legal argument of a man like the new Secretary of War, Mr. Dickinson, before the Alaska arbitration court. We spoke above of convincing argu- mentation, and minutely correct de- scription, as objects which the instruc- tor in writing should constantly have in mind. Here, too, but small help will come to him from the hills of the Bible. Its forte is not powerful reasoning of the kind that appeals to the modern intellect. The Epistle to the Romans has been said to be logic set on fire with emotion, but, to judge by the number and variety of commentaries, the fire burned up many of the links of the logic. Nor is close observation and ac- curate picturing of either man or na- ture congenial to the spirit of the Bibli- cal writers. They are vague, suggestive, leaving dim outlines to be filled up; they do not have that intense gaze at the fact, and that photographic fidelity in reproducing it in language, which add so much to the best writing to-day. The case is still clearer if we press on to questions of literary structure. There are, of course, splendid passages in the Bible, built up with something better than fine artistry; but, in gener- al, the style — we are not speaking of the words or the thought — is the un- skilled writing of untrained men. The message may be all-important but its outward form is not carefully wrought — not a style, in a word, which anybody should be set to imitate. This is per- fectly natural, and as it should be. It is really no more startling than the fact, so long a scandal to some good souls, that the Greek of the New Testa- ment is not up to Attic standards. The translation of the language of fisher- men and artisans, into however glorious an English verbal dress, could not be, if faithful to the original structure, distin- guished for literary workmanship. Con- sider what long tracts in the New Testa- ment consist of verse after verse, and sentence after sentence, beginning with "and." It is a style perfectly fitting the simple men who first used it; it is not a style which any man seeking lit- erary distinction would dream of se- dulously aping. In many such respects, we think, they are on the wrong track who prescribe the Bible as a complete literary model. GREAT ART AND SMALL SUBJECTS. Italy's recent catastrophe has thus far failed to inspire the poet or the paint- er. A solitary sonnet in pne of the magazines is all the literary tribute America has brought to one of the most tremendous events in history; and in that sonnet the element of inspiration is not conspicuous. When San Francis- co was destroyed three years ago, it seemed that California's poets, many in number and in spirit aspiring, had the subject and the stimulus for the production of an ambitious piece of imaginative art. But San Francisco has been left to the newspaper man and the magazine writer; and her young poets, instead of attempting epics of destruc- tion and rebirth, have emigrated to New York, where they write about the traditional birds, flowers, love, and hu- man brotherhood. We are, to be sure, too near the event. Art, for all its pre- tensions to reality, i? dwarfed when it comes too close to the reality it would commemorate or portray. We should wait a half-century at least after San Francisco and Messina, before we pro- nounce them barren of artistic result. Yet the chances are against us, even after fifty years. Lisbon earthquake has left us only a poem by Voltaire, which is remembered chiefly as a poem that would have been forgotten but for its subject. Pliny's account of Vesuvius is, after all, only an account of Vesuvius. Review earth's great catastrophes — earthquake, fire, flood, invasion, and plague — and see what comparatively slight impress these convulsions have left upon literature and art. We turn to the opposite case. An un- distinguished young gentleman named Edward King dies, and the fruit of his death is "Lycidas." Another young Eng- lishman named Arthur Hallam dies, and the result is "In Memoriam." The dead Duke of Wellington is the subject of a fine ode, but a young and unappreciated poet named Keats is the subject of a much greater poem. Not the battle of Hastings, or Marston Moor, or Trafal- gar, has wakened the poet's fancy as the obscure fight between two bands of border ruffians at Chevy Chase. West- minster Abbey has evoked no such per- manent tribute as the neglected tomb- stones of Gray's old country church- yard. Men have faced death and gone away uninspired, but a journeyman tinker is thrown into a commonplace jail and he writes the "Pilgrim's Prog- ress." What is regarded as the greatest of biographies was composed by Bos- well, about a highly distinguished liter- ary figure but by no means one of the world's greatest men. Two of the world's nature classics were written neither on

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352 The ]N" a t i o n . [Vol. 88, No. 2284 the wrath of the Atlantic storm nor on the glory of the Himalayas, but in a small English garden at Selborne and by an enthusiastic fisherman named Izaak Walton. Let us suppose that, two or three hun- dred years from now, a European poet sets himself to writing a series of trag- edies drawn from the history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centur- ies. Would he choose the fall of Na- poleon? Or the crimes and vicissitudes of the Court of St. Petersburg? Or the misfortunes of the Hapsburgs? If he is a mediocre poet, the chances are that he will; for the mediocre poets at all times have been fond of imposing topics. But if he is a poet who feels within him the power to give greatness to things of comparatively small importance, he might go to none of Europe's ancient imperial houses, but to insignificant and little-known Servia. The struggle that has been going on in that tiny kingdom for nearly a hundred years between the rival houses of Obrepovitch and Kara- georgevitch, the long succession of royal crownings and depositions, of intrigue, and treachery and murder, would supply him with the elements of a tragedy that it would depend only on his own power to raise to the height of universal art. There is a strong likeness between mod- ern Belgrade and ancient Mycenae. The sanguinary struggle between the de- scendants of Kara George and of Milosh, the swineherd, has scarcely less inherent dignity than the blood-guilt and mad- ness that raged in the house of Pelops. Yet what a golden literature has gath- ered about the history of Agamemnon and his children, a small chieftain and his family in an obscure corner of the^ world, at a time when great empires flourished on the Euphrates, on the Nile, and in the Mediterranean. Scarcely more important than Aga- memnon was the Scandinavian monarch who ruled at Elsinore. Scarcely more important was the Scottish chieftain who was not content to be thane of Glamis and Cawdor. Surely, these two, Hamlet's kingdom and Macbeth's, were far below the empire that Julius Caesar ruled. Yet the respective prominence of these three royal persons scarcely meas- ures the respective merit of Shake- speare's three tragedies. A MODERN RADICAL. I. The recent publication of G. Lowes Dickinson's "Justice and Liberty"* con- firms the opinion of those who have read his earlier works that here is a radical thinker to be reckoned with — a man of penetrating mind and a style that is wonderfully flexible, persuasive, and at times eloquent. He is son of the artist, Lowes Dick- inson, who died last year at an advanced age. His education was obtained at Charterhouse and King's College, Cam- bridge, from which he received the bach- elor's degree in 1884. The list of his books is still short: "From King to King : The Tragedy of the Puritan Revo- lution" (1891), "Revolution and Reac- tion in Modern France" (1892), "The Development of Parliament During the Nineteenth Century" (1895), "The Greek View of Life" (1896), "The Meaning of Good: A Dialogue" (1901), "Letters from a Chinese Official; Being an East- ern View of Western Civilization" (1901), "Religion: A Criticism and a Forecast" (1905), "A Modern Sympos- ium" (1905), and "Justice and Liberty." "Is Immortality Desirable," announced for this spring, is presumably in sub- stance the Ingersoll Lecture which he delivers at Harvard this month. I need not discuss at length Mr. Dick- inson as a stylist, for the qualities of his writing, show sufficiently in the ci- tations to be made later. His first book, it may be worth noting, is partly in blank verse. Here Mr. Dickinson ex- hibits his powers no less than his bold- ness in putting into t the mouth of Milton nearly two pages which must be judged as a not unsuccessful ef- fort to shoot with the bow of Ulysses. Quite as daring is the form of three of Mr. Dickinson's books, "The Mean- ing of Good," "A Modern Symposium," and "Justice and Liberty," which are nothing less than Platonic dialogues. There have been countless attempts in all modern European languages to cast dis- cussion into this difficult mould, but tha successes may almost be numbered on one's fingers. In this small list of those who have steered through this strait of Scylla and Charybdis we must place — for present-day readers at least — Mr. Dickinson. The Platonic dialogue seems a pe- culiarly happy medium for Mr. Dick- inson; for his themes, as the titles of these books indicate, are those which engaged Plato. Indeed, Mr. Dickinson has given us not merely "A Modern Symposium," but "A Modern Repub- lic." In current terms and under twen- tieth-century conventions, he analyzes the age-old problems that are fundamen- tal to the conduct of individuals and of states. The conceptions involved in the 'Justice and Liberty : A Political Dialogue. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. 1908. word "good," the relations of man to man, religion, the church, marriage, the rights of property, castes and classes, aristocracy and democracy — these are the subjects of his searching criticism. Nor is it by accident that so keen a ininker has been so interested in the Greek view of life and has drawn his inspiration so largely from Greece. In this place and hour of the triumph of utilitarian studies, we are prone to reckon only that knowledge as fruitful which may quickly be translated into bread and butter. We talk glibly of dis- carding classical culture because it is of no help in running our foundries and building aeroplanes. But then comes a writer like Mr. Dickinson to remind us that man shall not live by foundries alone; that in spite of the visible bulk and apparent efficiency of our machin- ery the force that drives the human race forward is not steam or electricity, but ideas; and that to get ideas we must go back to one of the great perennial fountains. In his mental attitude, as well as in the topics which he discusses, Mr. Dick- inson may also be called a Platonist; that is, he aims at what Matthew Arnold terms "a free play of the mind" on our stock notions and prejudices. He is not afraid to be called a destructive critic; for he perceives that the distinction between destructive and constructive criticism is not real, but verbal; that the first step toward erecting a firm structure on the desired site is to raze the flimsy one. "A sound intellectual foundation," he tells us, cannot be reached "except through criticism, and all criticism Implies and engenders doubt": A man who has never experienced, nay, I will say who is not constantly reiterating, the process of criticism, is a man who has no right to his enthusiasm. For he has won it at the cost of drugging his mind with passion; and that I maintain is a bad and wrong thing. I maintain it to be bad and wrong in itself, and quite apart from any consequences it may produce; for it is a primary duty to seek what is true and es« chew what is false ("A Modern Sympo- sium," p. 63). One need not accept all of Mr. Dickin- son's doctrines; but, accepted or not, they set one to thinking. They help one to see some of the mal-adjustments and inequalities in this best possible of worlds. They reveal glimpses of pro- found principles of government. It is, in short, with the fine spirit of the phil- osopher that Mr. Dickinson approaches his inquiry as to the welfare of the state — the philosopher whom Plato de- scribes as "a believer in the idea" and "a lover of the vision of truth." II. Mr. Dickinson's religious theories may be found in obiter dicta here and there, but summed up most clearly in the little volume "Religion." In his

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April 8, 1909] The Nation. 353 early work, "The Greek View of Life," he drops one or two pregnant phrases which bring us close to the core of his doctrine: "that passion to transcend the limitations of human existence which is at the bottom of the mystic element in all religions" (p. 31); and "this fun- damental dualism ... is the per- petual tragedy of man's existence — . . . the conception of life as a strug- gle between two opposing principles, and the promise of an ultimate redemption by the help of the divine power" (pp. 31, 32). Mr. Dickinson's formal discussion is divided into four chapters: "Ecclesias- ticism," "Revelation," "Religion," and "Faith." By ecclesiasticism he means "religion as embodied in a church"; and by a church, "an organization which claims to be the depository of a truth otherwise inaccessible to the human reason." An ecclesiastical religion is the kind "that people commonly intend when they assert that religion is essen- tial to society." But the "fatal flaw" of ecclesiasticism is this: Just so far as it is calculated to support an existing order, just so far is it com- pelled to perpetuate abuses; for every con- viction that repudiates reason repudiates also criticism, and therefore reformation (pp. 12-15). That is, ecclesiasticism prevents that free play of the mind, which in Mr. Dickinson's view is the one vital thing. Since ecclesiasticism rests on revela- tion, the question arises, "What kind of truth it is that is supposed to be com- municable by revelation and not com- municable by other methods?" Taking first what appear to be historical facts, Mr. Dickinson asks whether there is "a short-cut to those particular pieces of information, such as would certainly be repudiated in the case of any other his- torical events." Intelligent men, he answers, hold that "the truth of the story of the life and death of Christ must stand or fall by the ordinary cri- teria of evidence, then that the whole question is removed from the sphere of revelation to that of history." But when questions of historical fact are handed over to science, there remain still "the most important truths of religion: the existence and nature of God and His relation to the world." Here the difficulty arises that there have been many revealed religions, and many persons have enjoyed what they are convinced are revelations. "So far as the element of subjective certainty is concerned, a religious revelation can- not be distinguished from what would be admitted to be the hallucinations of disease"; and we must therefore "find our criterion of truth and falsehood somewhere else than in subjective cer- tainty." Furthermore: Once it is admitted that religious truth is attainable, if at all, only by the method of science, it must be conceded also that the notion of a church with a revelation of divine truth is as absurd as the notion of a mathematical society with a revelation 01 mathematical truth. Truth, of whatever kind it be, may originate anywhere and be communicable anywhere (p. viii). But still Mr. Dickinson believes that there is a place and work lor religion — "a reaction of the highest imagination of the best men upon life and the world." There are several attitudes which Mr. Dickinson would characterize as religious. For example, a person may "pursue, wherever it flees, the perishing image of Good, imprisoning it in a rule or a policy, impressing it on a fugitive act, . . . always from the conscious- ness of frustration drawing new vigor for the chase, snatching defiance from the sense of defeat, . . . from the very indifference of the universe gath- ering the inspiration to contend with it, and, though at last he be broken, perish- ing unsubdued." Again: Religion is an attitude of the Imagina- tion and the will, not of the intellect. Buc from the Intellect it receives its light; and its discipline will be the more arduous, its insight the more profound, the more can- didly it accepts all that the intellect can communicate (p. 57). The phrase "imagination and the will" brings us to Mr. Dickinson's conception of faith. As to the ultimate mean- ing and purpose of the world and "the place of our ideals in the struc- ture of the universe . . . the intel- lect has as yet been unable with certain- ty to determine anything." But Mr. Dickinson maintains that "in the midst of ignorance" we may legitimately lay hold "of a possibility that may be true," and direct "our feelings and our con- duct in accordance with it." Thus "faith involves a volitional assumption that things, whatever appearances may sug- gest, are really 'worth while.' " If we had positive knowledge there would be no room for faith. On the other hand, we must never allow this faith, this vo- litional assumption, to pervert the pur- suit of truth by "a predetermination that certain beliefs shall not be as- sailed": Faith, in a word, can only be legitimate so long as it occupies a region not yet conquered by knowledge, and so long as It holds itself ready in a moment to yield its place so soon as knowledge arrives. Faith should stand always with the dagger of science pointed at its breast (p. 82). It is because there is the unknown that there is faith: For the impulse to pursue truth is itself a form of faith. We hope that truth is ob- tainable; we desire and will to attain it; we dream its attainment as we go in quest of it. And, but for that dream and that hope and that will we should never start at all. Faith is the sense and call of the open horizon. . . . The frailest thing we know, it is also the least perishable, for it is a tongue of the central fire that burns at the heart of the world (p. 84). III. The religious man, in a passage quot- ed above, is said to pursue "the perish- ing image of Good." It is to the eluci- dation of this ethical ideal that Mr. Dickinson devotes his volume "The Meaning of Good." His aim is rather "to set forth the various points of view than finally to repudiate or endorse them"; and his conclusions are stated, not as a demonstration, but as the hypo- thesis which he thinks the most ten- able. The argument is "that men who reflect do, whatever may be their theoretical opinion, imply, in their ac- tual conduct, a belief in their ideas about Good; but that there seems to be no certainty that such ideas are true." The speakers then debate the propositions that "the criterion of Good is a simple infallible instinct"; that "the criterion is the course of Nature," "the end to which Nature is tending"; that the cri- • terion is current convention; and finally that it is pleasure. It is unnecessary to summarize here the more or less fa- miliar answers to these several conten- tions and the steps by which the idea is developed that "experience is, or may be made, a progressive discovery of Good." The speakers next examine the various activities of life from the point of view of Good. They attempt to analyze the Good we seek in art and in knowledge. The final suggestion is "that in our relation to other persons, where the relation takes the form of love [not, of course, in any narrow, phy- sical sense] we may perhaps find some- thing that comes nearer than any other of our experiences to being absolutely good"; that is, "the best love we know comes nearer than anything else to what we might conceive to be absolutely good." But since love, so conceived, seems rarely, perhaps never, attainable in this life, this conception of Good, if it is to be realized, involves the idea of per- sonal immortality: The last judgment of age, for those who believe that death is the end, will be a doubt, and perhaps more than a doubt, even in the case of those most favored by fortune, whether after all a life has been worth the trouble of living which has unfolded such infinite promise only to bury it fruitless in the grave (p. 201). And here comes again, though in less fully developed form than in "Religion," Mr. Dickinson's appeal to faith. The speaker who represents science rules out immortality as "illegitimate," but the reply to this is that, though there is no scientific proof of immortality, there is also no proof that it is impos- sible; and one may accept it as a "postulate of the will." The book closes, like Plato's Republic, with an apologue of the life that lies beyond these earth-

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354 Tlie Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2284 ly senses. And the lesson of the Vi- sion of Eternity is this: It is in this intricate commerce of souls that we come nearest to apprehending what perhaps we shall never wholly apprehend, but the quest of which alone, as I believe, gives any significance to life, and makes it a thing which a wise and brave man will be able to persuade himself it is right to endure (p. 224). IV. "This intricate commerce of souls," a phrase which occurs on the last page of "The Meaning of Good," may be taken as a sort of clue to Mr. Dickinson's dis- cussion of political and social questions. It is in that commerce that we may seek the Good, which lends significance and value to life. Thus it is that when he sees our political and social relation- ships a source not of affection, but of dissension and hatred, he casts about for such reorganization of society as shall render law A mere superfluous form, and poverty An idle hieroglyph whose sense is perished. But just as in his criticism of our re- ligion and our ethical standards h? finds it easier to detect flag's than to form a coherent scheme of reconstruction, so in this field also he is more successful in attacking the existing order than in presenting a convincing outline for a new heaven and a new earth. "The Greek View of Life" contains the germs of many of the ideas which are worked out in detail in "Letters from a Chinese Official," "A Modern Sympo- sium," and "Justice and Liberty." He saw in Greece, as he sees in our states to-day, "an ordered inequality, political as well as social." Again: It was the underlying question of proper- ty that infused so strong a rancor into the party struggles of Greece. From the very earliest period, in fact, we find it to have been the case that political revolution was prompted by economic causes (p. 87). Such conditions . . . must have irre- sistibly suggested the criticism, which al- ways dogs the idea of the state, and against which its only defence is in a perpetual perfection of itself — the criticism that law after all is only the rule of the strong, and justice the name under which they gloze their usurpation (p. 118). To provide for the excellence of a privi- leged class at the expense of the rest of the community is becoming to us increas- ingly impossible in fact and intolerable in idea (p. 185). The perfection toward which the state must perpetually struggle is to be at- tained by adjusting the rights of proper- ty, by making law an embodiment of equity, justice a reality instead of a name, by abolishing privilege, and thus allaying that rancor which has made history "one long and lamentable tale of antagonism, tumult, carnage, and con- fusion," and which forbids the attain- ment of Good. In "A Modern Symposium" and "Jus- tice and Liberty" one cannot always tell which views are Mr. Dickinson's own. But from the way in which the con- servative dogs get the worst of it, we may infer that in both books Henry Martin, the professor, "a perplexed in- quirer socialistically inclined," fairly represents him. To his first point all intelligent men will assent — that no one can believe in the finality of the pres- ent order. "The history of man has been nothing but a process of transfor- mation." Even "property and the fam- ily" cannot be regarded as "sacred and ultimate facts." The present laws of property are comparatively recent; they are altering before our very eyes. Nor are the regulations as to marriage fix- ed; they are constantly being amended. Mr. Dickinson would press for such changes in all our institutions as would shatter the power of the oligarchy of wealth which, he maintains, now rules the civilized world. His picture of modern society, how- ever true to conditions in England, is too highly colored for America, though the substratum of fact, even for the United States, is firmer than most of our glowing optimists will admit: Modern Society, as I see it, from top to bottom, is a descending hierarchy of oligarchic groups, each with its own pe- culiar privileges, for which it fights and in and by which it lives. Imagine society as a pyramid, ... on each step, crowd- ed together, a fighting, trampling mob of desperate men, bent, every one, above all, on enlarging his own space and making room for his children ("Justice and Liber- ty," pp. 29, 30). Starting from this view of competition, the next conclusion is short and easy: "The law of inheritance and bequest, in the way in which it practically oper- ates, is the great and indeed the only source of our permanent inequalities." Mr. Dickinson also attacks rent as "wealth not earned by the man who re- ceives it"; and he would alter our whole theory of wages: As things are now, all the occupations that are most interesting, stimulating, and delightful, that employ the highest facul- ties, and are the most worth doing for their own sake, are, broadly speaking, the best paid ; while those that are sordid, dreary, mechanical, dehumanising, hardly receive a living wage. . . . But in a society regulated by our principle, is it not clear that exactly the opposite will be the case? (p. 116). And with an equalization of the stand- dards of life would go an equaliza- tion of manners. Anybody, whatever his occupation, would associate with anybody according to propinquity or personal at- traction or whatever it might be. The dock-laborer would come home, put on dress clothes, and sit down to dinner to discuss the latest play or novel with the financier's wife (p. 187). On the steps by which this ideal is to be reached I need not dwell; in essen- tials they are the same as those pre- sented by other advocates of the collec- tivist state. It is, however, only fair to Mr. Dickinson to say that he does not attempt to convince the reader by elab- orating, in the manner of Bellamy's "Looking Backward," a programme of impossible details. He relies on the compelling attractiveness of his general ideal to persuade men to embrace it and slowly to realize it in a reorganized so- ciety; and he points to the progress of the past as prophecy of what may come. At first man was not "industrious, peaceful, intelligent, kindly, helpful," but "a hairy, biped brute, ignorant, cruel, superstitious, split into a thou- sand tribes and hordes, instinctively at feud." And yet this animal, within whom "the tiger and the wolf" still work so fiercely that "the nations heave and crack in the tension of the class conflict," is also "the child of a celestial father," sown into the womb of Nature "a spiritual seed": And history, on one side the record of man's entanglement in matter, on the other is the epic of his self-deliverance. All the facts, the dreadful facts, at which we have timidly hinted . . . are true. . . . But true also is the contest of which they are the symbol; . . . real of all things reallest, the ideal ! Do not conceive it as an idea in somebody's head. No; ideas are traces it leaves, shadows, images, words; itself is the light, the fire, the tongue of which these are creatures. Poetry, philosophy, art, religion, what you will, are but its expressions; they are not It. Thought is a key to unlock its prison, words are a vessel to carry its seed. But it is Reality of Realities, fact of facts, force of forces. It refutes demonstration; it unsettles final- ity; it defies experience. While all men are crying "impossible," it has sped and done. Even in those who deny it, it lies a latent spark; let them beware the con- flagration when the wind of the spirit blows (?p. 226, 227). V. "Justice and Liberty," then, and "A Modern Symposium" are a plea for the ideals of the spirit, and as such they are welcome, whether one believes in Socialism or not. Nothing can be more wholesome than to startle the dulled consciences of those who are much at ease in the Zion of this world. The most unbridled optimists must confess that the machinery of society "works rough- ly": It jerks and jams and sticks, it breaks threads and tears material ; and every shock, every rupture, every retardation or acceleration operates in the substance of human lives. The groans and screams of that engine, as it jars on its ruthless course, come from the tortured lips of men and women (p. 164). It is the agony of the disinherited to which Mr. Dickinson would open our minds — the wounds of those who are de- feated in this long and bloody strife which we call the march of civilization. For gross and palpable as the fallacies of Socialism may appear to us, we must _

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April 8, 1909] The ]STation. 355 admit that, as Mr. Dickinson presents it, it is a spiritual movement, an appeal for the ending of this long warfare, for the establishment of brotherhood be- tween nations, of brotherhood between classes, of brotherhood between men. The Socialists strike our cool rational- ists as impracticable dreamers, but, at least, they dream of heaven. The pity of it is that their splendid aspirations seem always to dash into fragments upon the ineradicable individ- uality of men. The argument against Mr. Dickinson's plan is as old as Aris- totle's comment on Plato's Republic. I would not say that society has not made long advances and that the future has not even larger good in store. The over- throw of so venerable and stoutly de- fended an institution as slavery affords ground of faith for almost any reform that earnest and able men may unite in urging. We may look, indeed, for an era of experimentation in politics and for the growth of a public sentiment (expressed in a code of laws) which shall steadily tend to equalize opportu- nity. Nevertheless, within any period that our minds can grasp, we may still stop far short of the collectivist state. And if we ever attain it, it will not be the paradise that is fondly pic- tured. The French Revolution, despite all the glowing predictions of the radi- cals of that day, did not usher in the millennium. The rapid introduction of machinery in the last century, and the free competition and free trade which Cobden preached have not brought it. We are now in the very chill of reac- tion from those high and delirious fevers. We begin to understand that ingenious mechanical contrivances do not liberate the intellect and purify the heart. Under any system or organiza- tion of society, some men will be mean, sordid, grovelling, and essentially slaves, while others will burst their own shackles and assume the rights of lead- ership. Laws and customs, however, be- neficent, will still fail to touch the profoundest springs of our action; it "is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." And so I can- not but regard as illusory the beautiful hope that new laws for the production and distribution of wealth, the aboli- tion of rent and interest, and a new wage-scale will pluck out by the roots the evils that afflict mankind. The elo- quence of the prophets of the new dis- pensation and the efforts of humanitar- ians may do much to alleviate in gen- eral the lot of the race, but the wheels of society will continue to break and tear the fragile material, and the groans and screams of a wretched humanity will beat upon our ears; for wisdom and folly, virtue and vice, with their in- escapable effects — all the contending forces of good and ill, now triumphant and now defeated, will, as ever, find their arena in the individual soul. L. FRENCH BOOKS ON RELIGION Paris, March 25. "Orpheus" — a single volume on the "general history of religions" from totems to Modernism, by Salomon Rei- nach (A. Picard) — has not escaped crit- icism in France, in spite of, perhaps be- cause of, the author's erudition. It tab- ulates successive religions as so many natural phenomena. In temper it is dis- tinctly Israelite, but without the lofty resentment of Christian persecution shown by James Darmesteter; and it is wanting in the philosophical learning which, with Munk, Adolphe Franck, Isi- dore Weil, and their school, lent so much lustre to Jewish letters in France. The book, particularly in its dispropor- tionate Modernist part, seems intended to meet a narrowly specialized tendency of passing French thought. The treat- ment of St. Francis of Assisi, who, un- til proof of the contrary, should be con- sidered a Roman Catholic, vacillates be- tween that of Voltaire and that of the Protestant clergyman Paul Sabatier. In the present century Monseigneur d'Hulst, local administrator of a theo- logical school, and the Abbe de Broglie, a popular expositor of religion, should not be taken as authorities, scarcely even as signs, of universal Catholic thought, to which they were little known. To confound religious practice in general with mysticism leads to error by neglecting the classic, well-de- fined, and logical distinctions: natural ethics; the ordinary Christian life, in which the will obeys teaching deliber- ately assented to by the intellect as re- vealed— auctoritate Dei revelantis — and ascetics, or the further active "exercise of Christian perfection"; whereas mys- tics pursue extraordinary and supernat- ural ways strange to ordinary Chris- tians, in which they are supposed to be passive under the Divine .illapse — patiuntur divina. The bibliography and index are valuable, but they answer to the point of view of a volume which be- gins with a dedication "to the memory of all the martyrs" and concludes with the ex-Abbe' Loisy. "La Methode comparative dans l'his- toire des religions" (A. Picard) is a small book by Georges Foucart, the un- successful competitor of M. Loisy for the professorship at the College de France. M. Foucart's personal defeat has nothing to do with the grievance of Catholics in the matter. The professor- ship itself was founded for Albert R6- ville, a Protestant clergyman who taught comparative religion after the methods of twenty-five years since; he was followed by his son, Jean Reville, whose death opened the chair to the re- cent election. Two candidates had al- ready been debarred as Catholics from similar professorships: BrunetiSre in favor of the Protestant Abel Lefranc, who is now going to Harvard; and the Dominican Assyriologist Scheil for an unknown pupil. In each case Berthelot, although he had had his refutation of Brunetiere's "bankruptcy of science," published from the Freemason Grand Orient, protested in the interests of science against this religious and po- litical discrimination in the choice of professors for a national and historic in- stitution of higher learning. "Les Modernistes," by the Dominican Pere Maumus, should be read with the Protestant Paul Sabatier's work criticis- ing Pius X for refusing to allow Mod- ernist changes in the faith by which Roman Catholics have so far lived and died. The friar has a reputation for liberalism, earned perhaps by Waldeck- Rousseau's late friendship; he treats the fundamental differences between Mod- ernism and the Church in the compass of 276 pages (Beauchesne). Another Roman Catholic book of handy use is the first volume of the "Traite de phil- osophie scholastique," by E. Blanc, of the Catholic Faculty of Lyons (Vitte). It contains a much-needed vocabulary of scholastic and contemporary philoso- phy; the rest of the volume (logic and metaphysics) may be compared with the Stonyhurst series. Georges Michelet, professor at the Institut Catholique of Toulouse, publishes a considerable vol- ume on "Dieu et l'agnosticisme contem- porain" (Bibliotheque theologique). M. Jugie, an Assumptionist priest, in 150 pages explains a little-known subject — "Histoire du canon de l'Ancien Testa- ment dans l'Eglise Grecque et l'Eglise Russe" (Beauchesne). "Histoire du dogme de la Papaute des origines a la fin du IVe siecle," by Abbe Joseph Tur- mel, appears in the Bibliotheque d'his- toire religieuse (Picard et Fils). From a purely legal point of view, Pierre Galichet, in a thesis for the doctorate of laws, treats "L'Eglise Anglicane et 1'gtat" (Giard); it is an advantage that the subject should be handled by methods foreign to Eng- lish thought and lined up with French legislative principles concerning the re- lations of the state and churches, be- fore and after separation. The Vicomtesse d'AdhSmar, in "Une Religieuse reformatrice (1895-1901)," narrates the life and work of the late Mere Marie du Sacre Coeur, who tried in vain to develop the convent educa- tion of girls in France in the direction of the social needs of the day (Bloud). The suppression of French convent schools has since then turned aside the question to Catholic schools in general; the book has value at a time when the remedy of past defects is likely to in- volve the disappearance of the excellen- cies of the past. "Traditionalisme et democratic," by D. Parodi, judges the more or less Cath- olic movements which are agitating deeply the younger intellects of France: traditionalism and morality, with Brune-

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356 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 tifere; and positivism (more properly Taine-ism), with Paul Bourget; and in- dividualism (regionalism and national- ism), with Maurice Barres (A. Colin). S. D. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The second volume of Thomas J. Wise's admirable "Bibliography of the Writings of Alfred, Lord Tennyson," printed for pri- vate circulation, one hundred copies only, has just been issued, including Parts iii, iv, v, and vi. The first item described in Part iii, pirated or unauthorized issues, is that curious volume, "Poems MDCCCXXX- MDCCCXXXIII," 1862; and extracts are given by Mr. Wise from Tennyson's bill of complaint, filed in Chancery to restrain John Camden Hotten from selling any copies. It has been a disputed question where this book was printed. Hotten's original statement, in a catalogue in which he offered a copy for sale, was that the poems had been "collected with considera- ble care and labour by a gentleman of great literary taste in western Canada," and that the book was printed "at the Backwoods' Press." In his bill of complaint Tenny- son or his attorneys said: The book so sold by the Defendant has no printer's name upon it. It was, no doubt, printed in this country, and not, as suggested in the Defendant's catalogue, at the Backwoods' Press, or in Canada. Mr. Wise has previously stated that the little volume was "compiled, edited, and privately printed, by the late Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, then resident in the Island of Mauritius." He has, however, now return- ed to the older opinion, and in his "Bibliog- raphy" says: This interesting little volume was com- piled and edited by the late Mr. J. Dykes Campbell. From April, 1860, to the sum- mer of 1862, Mr. Campbell resided in Can- ada as the representative of Messrs. Coch- rane & Co., of Glasgow. During his stay In Toronto he caused the book to be pri- vately printed at his own cost. Of the eleven other pirated editions de- scribed, all but two are little pamphlets which were issued from 1867 to 1876 by the late Richard Heme Shepherd. Aside from Dykes Campbell's collection, Mr. Wise makes no account of American or foreign editions, but notices only English printed books. Part iv is devoted to collective editions printed in England from 1870 to 1908; Part v describes one hundred and eleven complete volumes of biography and criticism; Part vi is an alphabetical list of all Tennyson's published and privately printed poems, showing in each case its first appearance, (a) in print, (b) in a volume of Tennyson's poems, (c) in a col- lective edition. As frontispiece the volume contains a portrait of Tennyson (nearly full length, seated), reproduced from a hitherto unpublished photograph taken in April, 1861. On April 12 and 13, the Anderson Auc- tion Co. will sell the library of Dr. G. H. Wynkoop of New York city. Among the important lots are first editions of several of Dickens's novels in parts; the first edi- tion of Charlotte Bronte's "Villette" (1853); a presentation copy from Hawthorne of "Transformation" (London, 1860), under which title "The Marble Faun" was issued in England; and several of William Loring Andrews's books. In the same sale are 66 lots relating to Christian Science, includ- ing several early editions of Mrs. Eddy's "Science and Health." On the evening of April 13, the same firm will offer a collec- tion including several publications of the Bibliophile Society, among them Andre's "Journal"; a copy of Dickens's "Master Humphrey's Clock" (1840-41), in the 88 week- ly parts; and an imperfect Fourth Folio Shakespeare (1685). On April 14 and 15, the same firm will sell a collection of dupli- cates from the New York Public Library. Jonathan Mitchell's "Nehemiah on the Wall in Troublesome Times," an election sermon printed in Cambridge, Mass., 1671, is the rarest book in the collection. Other im- portant titles are: "Historiae Canadiensis" (Paris, 1664), by Franciscus Creuxius; "Joy- full Newes out of the Newfound World" (London, 1580), by Dr. Monardes; "A True and Impartial State of the Province of Pennsylvania" (Philadelphia, 1759); Robert Rogers's "A Concise Account of North America" (1765), and "Journals" (1765); and an uncut copy of Poe's "The Raven and Other Poems" (1845). A copy of Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia, New-Eng- land, and the Summer Isles," with the first issue title, dated 1624, lacking one map, is described as "pp. 97 to 104 missing." These pages, however, are lacking in all copies. On April 13 and 14, the Merwin-Clay- ton Sales Co. of this city will offer the library of Mrs. A. S. Apgar. Included are the first New York edition of Burns's Poems (1788), first editions of Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, books relating to Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and several early American Masonic items. A correspondent of the Athenwum writes that James Boswell's early work, "Doran- do: a Spanish Tale," long sought by book- hunters, has been found in the Sir William Hamilton Collection in the University Li- brary, Glasgow, bound, with other pam- phlets in a duodecimo volume entitled "Mo- rality." The story is a skit on the famous Douglas Cause. Correspondence. HAWTHORNE, CILLEY, AND "FANCY'S SHOW-BOX." To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: In February, 1838, Nathaniel Haw- thorne's classmate, Jonathan Cilley, who, to use his own words, had in those old days been to him "almost as an elder brother," and who at that very time was working to secure him a government position, was challenged to a duel by a fellow Congress- man, Mr. Graves of Kentucky. According to Julian Hawthorne, in his "Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife": He hesitated some time before accepting this challenge, the subject in dispute be- ing unimportant, and his position with re- gard to it being such that the "code of honor" did not necessitate a meeting. At length, however, some one said, "If Haw- thorne was so ready to fight a duel with- out stopping to ask questions, you certain- ly need not hesitate"; for Hawthorne was uniformly quoted by his friends as the trustworthy model of all that becomes a man in matters of honorable and manly behavior. This argument, at all events, put an end to Cilley's doubts; he accepted the challenge, the antagonists met, and Cilley was killed. Naturally, under these circumstances, When Hawthorne was told of this, he felt as if he were almost as much responsible for his friend's death as was the man who shot him. He said little, but the remorse that came upon him was heavy, and did not pass away. . . . "Had I not aimed at my friend's life," was the burden of his meditation, "this other friend might have been still alive." ... He had touched hands with crime; and all the rest was but a question of degrees. Julian Hawthorne continues with these paragraphs : In the first volume of "Twice-Told Tales" there is a short story, or "morality," as the author styles it, which, if read in the light of the foregoing narrative, will be found to have a peculiar interest. In it the question is discussed, whether the soul may contract the stains of guilt, in all their depth and flagrancy, from deeds which may have been plotted and resolved upon, but which phys- ically have never had an existence. The conclusion is reached that "it is not until the crime is accomplished, that guilt clinches its gripe upon the guilty heart and claims it for its own. . . . There is no such thing, in man's nature, as a settled and full resolve, either for good or evil, except at the very moment of execution." Nevertheless, "man must not disclaim nis brotherhood with the guiltiest, since, though his hand be clean, his heart has surely been polluted by the fleeting phan- toms of iniquity. He must feel that, when he shall knock at the gate of Heaven, no semblance of an unspotted life can entitle him to entrance there. Penitence must kneel, and Mercy come from the footstool of the throne, or that golden gate will never open!" Those who wish to obtain more than a superficial glimpse into Hawthorne's heart cannot do better than to ponder every part of this little story, which is comprised with- in scarcely more than a half-dozen pages. It was written about the time of Cilley's unhappy death, and contains more than its due proportion of "sad and awful truths." A careful reading Of this will show that it does not directly state that it was meditation over his connection with his friend's death that led Hawthorne to consider the whole general subject of man's relation to crimes conceived and intended, but not committed, and to embody the results of his consideration in a short story; but that certainly is the implica- tion, and that is what this passage has usually been taken to mean. Elsewhere, in "Hawthorne and his Circle." the son writes: I am wedded to dates and cannot be divorced from them. It must be set down precisely when the events took place. . . . I can no more dispense with dates than I can talk without consonants. Unfortunately, in this passage he certainly is divorced from dates. Had he desired in this instance to be thus commendably ac- curate, he should have introduced the two paragraphs quoted with some such sen- tence as the following: "In the first volume of 'Twice-Told Tales,' which appeared in March, 1837, there is a short story, 'Fancy's Show-box: A Morality,' reprinted from the volume of 'The Token' that appeared in September, 1836, which, if read in the light of the foregoing narrative, will be found to have a peculiar interest, as a remark- able anticipation of what Hawthorne's feel- ings must have been after the death of Cilley over a year and a half later, i. e., on February 24, 1838." Instead, Julian Hawthorne leaves the reader to get the date of the publication of "Twice-Told Tales" from references to It in letters by Goodrich, Russell, and Bridge, _*

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April 8, 1909] The ISTation. 357 printed twenty-five pages earlier in his narrative; fails to give the name of the story to which he refers; omits it entirely from the "list of most of Hawthorne's con- tributions to various periodicals from 1832 to 1838; inclusive," that immediately fol- lows his comments on it; and says that It was written "about the time" that Cilley was killed. Naturally, those who have accepted his assumption of accuracy at its face value have been misled by Julian Hawthorne's statements and their implication. Mrs. Fields, for instance, writes in her "Na- thaniel Hawthorne",: Hawthorne was crushed by the idea that his bad example had misled his friend; and, in the brief tale called "Fancy's Showbox: A Morality," he embodies some- thing of the suffering that was really his. M. Dhaleine, in his "N. Hawthorne, sa vie et son oeuvre," says: Hawthorne se reprocha longtemps d'avoir ete, bien qu'indirectement, cause de la mort de son ami, et de l'avoir encourage, 6ans le savoir, a ce duel fatal, par sa de- marche imprudente. C'est a ces remords, qui le torturerent longtemps, qu'il faut at- tribuer certains passages caracteristiques. Then follows, as an example, an extract from "Fancy's Show-box"; and then M. Dhaleine, using the clue Julian Hawthorne had given him, finds in "The Christmas Banquet," which was first published in 1844, an indication that "la pensee de la mort de Cilley semble avoir encore preoc- cupy Hawthorne." But there is no likeness between the case of Hawthorne, assuming his son's statement of his relation to Cil- ley's determination to accept a challenge to be correct, and that of the "man of nice conscience, who bore a blood-stain in his heart," because he had killed a fellow-creature, "with such a peculiarity of circumstances that he could not abso- lutely determine whether his will had en- tered into the deed or not." Hawthorne was tortured by no such doubt. Moncure D. Conway goes even further astray. In his "Life of Hawthorne," he states: Hawthorne was not like Goethe, whose mother said that he could get rid of any grief by putting it into a poem. When he had embodied his mournful memories in such pieces as "The Haunted Mind," and "Fancy's Show-box," they all the more took up their abode with him. There is a great pain in some of his casual sentences, as where he exclaims: "Would that I had a folio to write, instead of an article of a dozen pages! Then might I exemplify how an influence, beyond our control, lays Its strong hand on every deed which we do, and weaves its consequences into an iron tissue of necessity." When Hawthorne wrote the words just quoted (from "Wakefield"), the ghost of Cilley seemed finally laid, so far as his life was concerned, however it might still baunt his mind. As both the additional stories he cites were published some three years before Cilley's death ("Wakefield" iu the New England Magazine for May, 1835, and "The Haunted Mind" in "The Token" for the same year), Mr. Conway adds to the orig- iginal error two blunders of his own. The remark that Julian Hawthorne makes anent his father's relation to the Cilley- Graves duel, "How small a part of the consequences of a man's deeds can be monopolized by the man himself," is thus Been to be as true in literature as in life. But as no corroborative evidence is giv- en to show that Cilley had ever heard that Nathaniel Hawthorne had challenged a friend, the statement that it was the cit- ing of Hawthorne's example that led him to engage in a duel is at present a mere obiter dictum by Julian Hawthorne. And as he has been shown to be at least careless and inaccurate in the very next paragraphs, it may fairly be doubted whether the only error in his statement is his attributing to Mr. Wise of Virginia the sending of the challenge to Cilley; a blunder from which he would have been saved by a careful reading of his father's account of the affair. Intimate though Hawthorne and Cilley were in college, they did not keep up their friendship after graduation. A letter that the latter wrote on November 17, 1836, shows that he had heard little or nothing from or of the former during the eleven years that had elapsed since they parted. The following summer Hawthorne spent a few weeks in Maine, and on July 28, 1837, he met his old classmate for the first time since 1825. That he found much to criti- cise in his "former friend" is shown by the character-sketch of him in the "Amer- ican Note-Books." Cilley was shot less than seven months later, and nothing has been published to show that he and Haw- thorne met in the interval or to any ex- tent renewed their intimacy. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to see when cr from whom Cilley could have learned a story so little to Hawthorne's credit as that he had been tricked into sending to an unoffending friend a challenge to mor- tal combat "without pausing to make pro- per investigations." Hawthorne, whose amour propre was deeply wounded on find- ing that he had been the duped tool of a heartless, mischief-making coquette, would naturally have used every effort to confine the knowledge of his misplaced confidence and rash act to "the few of his friends who knew anything about it"; and of these Cilley was not in a position to be one. Horatio Bridge, who seems to have been Hawthorne's most, if not his only, con- fidential friend in 1836-1838, who brought about the correspondence between Cilley and Hawthorne in 1836, and whom Haw- thorne went to Maine to visit when he met Cilley in 1837, comes to mind as the one person who might have told Cilley of Hawthorne's melodramatic experience. But he is precisely the one survivor from those early days who, after the publication of "Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife," in 1885, denied that the citing of Hawthorne's example led Cilley to accept Graves's chal- lenge. As Prof. G. E. Woodberry says, "he should have known." Be that as it may, neither in the sketch of Cilley's life that he contributed to the Democratic Review for September, 1838, nor anywhere else in his published works, is there one word to show that Na- thaniel Hawthorne felt any personal re- sponsibility for his friend's death. The question that he asks towards the end of his sketch, "Why, as he was true to the Northern character in all things else, did he swerve from his Northern principles in thi? final scene?" seems to have found no answer in his own heart; and the sketch closes: So like destiny did it appear that he should achieve everything at which he aim- ed, that even now my fancy will not dwell upon his grave, but pictures him still amid the struggles and triumphs of the present and the future. Wm. Dallam Armes. University of California, March 30. JOHN COTTON AND SIR HENRY VANE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the inscription prepared for the recumbent marble statue of John Cotton in the First Church in Boston, he is describ- ed as the "Preceptor and Friend of Vane." Edwin D. Mead, in a paper read before the Massachusetts Historical Society, at its June meeting in 1907, and published in "Proceedings, 1907, 1908," referring to one of Cotton's publications ("Way of the Churches of Christ in New England"), speaks of the "influence of its cardinal views upon Vane, who during his stay in Boston lived for a time under Cotton's roof." It should be stated that Dr. Charles Borgeaud, to whose "Rise of Modern De- mocracy in England and New England" Mr. Mead refers for authority for this state- ment, makes no allusion whatever to any influence, real or supposed, which Cotton had on Vane. We know Vane and his views of religious liberty at the time when he was Cotton's guest, which not only led him to befriend and plead for the rights of Mrs. Hutchin- son, but found expression in his dispute with Gov. Winthrop, and his earnest protests against all laws of exclusion or persecution because of religious differences, as well as in his whole subsequent career; and we know Cotton and his views, which found expression in his numerous publications, as well as in his well-known conduct. Though Cotton was twenty-seven years older than his guest, Vane far outstripped his host in his clearly defined principles of the rights of conscience, and was able to give les- sons to the teacher of the Boston Church. This he undoubtedly did, though the Puritan teacher was unwilling or too old to learn them. It was Cotton who boldly affirmed that "toleration made the world anti-Christian," and should therefore be religiously avoided and prohibited, who approved the banish- ment of Roger Williams, saying afterwards with a heartless facetiousness that "it was not banishment, but enlargement"; who car- ried on the famous published controversy with Williams, in which he showed that he had never learned the alphabet of religious liberty, much less been a preceptor in that branch of knowledge; and who inhumanly justified the persecution of the Rhode Isl- and worthies, Clarke and Holmes, in the fa- mous reply which he and Wilson sent to Saltonstall. Moreover, his conception of de- mocracy appears in the following language: Democracy I do not conceyve that ever God did ordeyne as a fitt government eyther for church or commonwealth. ... As for monarchy and aristocracy, they are both of them clearly approved, and directed in Scripture, yet so as God referreth the sov- ereigntie to himself, and setteth up Theo- cracy in both, as the best form of govern- ment. It should be added that after Vane returned to England, Cotton, who had stood with him in the defence of Mrs. Hutchinson, went back on himself, publicly professed his penitence with many tears, declared that he had been made "her stalking horse," and not only abandoned the poor woman t<*

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358 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 her enemies, but zealously engaged In con- futing her "heresies," and himself deliver- ed the verdict of the church, and "pro- nounced the sentence of admonition with great solemnity, and with much zeal and detestation of her errors and pride of spirit." John S. Barry ("History of Massa- chusetts. First Period," p. 259) says: This was the unkindest cut of all! This blow staggered her! And the unhappy wo- man, baited and worried by her clerical tormentors, "pumped and sifted to get something against her," stigmatized as "the American Jezebel," cast out of the church, spit upon, and defied as it were, scarce knew what she said; and failing to give satisfaction to those whom nothing prob- ably would now have made lenient, was ex- communicated in due form. Brooks Adams, commenting on this distress- ing affair ("The Emancipation of Massa- chusetts," p. 60), says: Vane sailed early in August, and his de- parture cleared the last barrier from the way of vengeance. . . . Cotton hastened to make his peace by a submission, which Rev. Mr. Hubbard of Ipswich describes with unconscious cynicism: "If he were not con- vinced, yet he was persuaded to an amica- ble compliance with the other ministers; . . . . for although it was thought he did still retain his own sense and enjoy his own apprehension in all or most of the things then controverted (as is manifest by some expressions of his since that time published) yet by that means did that rev- erend and worthy minister of the gospel re- cover his former splendour throughout New England." It looks very much as if Cotton's mo- mentary liberalism in joining hands with Vane in the defence of Mrs. Hutchinson was the effect of the young Governor's presence and influence upon him, and that after Vane had departed he fell back in a most humiliating manner, and with ostenta- tious penitence, which must be regretted by every one, into his former narrowness and an intenser opposition to the principle of religious liberty. The facts do not ap- pear to justify the claim that Cotton was in any sense the preceptor of Vane. In those days, and in that community, the younger man, who was of noble family and was generally welcomed with enthusiasm by the Massachusetts colonists on his ar- rival, and in a few short months was elect- ed Governor of the colony, who held ad- vanced views, and possessed withal a strik- ing personality, would inevitably be listen- ed to with respect, and would easily be exalted, in spite of difference in age, to the preceptor's chair. Henry M. King. Providence, March 29. IDEALS OF STUDY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It has occurred to me to add a few suggestions to the admirable letter fron "X" entitled "Maintaining Ideals of Study," in the Nation for March 25. A residence of well-nigh twenty years somewhat within the atmosphere of a great university has given me material for thought in regard to ways and means by which the excellent work which is done there might be strengthened and increased. There are two crying evils of the present system which "X" has fail- ed to note. One of these i3 the fact that the man who has enough money to pay for tutoring can neglect his work, cut a very large proportion of his courses, and yet, at the finals, outrank another man who has attended the courses faithfully and taken copious notes. By a certain diabolic leg- erdemain the accomplished tutor (who is a mind reader as well as a "crammer") usually succeeds in forecasting the matter of the examination so far that he can guar- antee with a few hours of tutoring to pro- duce effects in the examination which could be obtained in the ordinary way only by months of hard work. Every effort is often used to get hold of syllabuses and digests intended only for the use of the instructors, and thus give the student a short cut to the desired passmark. It is really difficult to overstate the astonishing results of skilled tutoring brought to bear on a moderately intelligent man in preparation for a small number of examinations. But the invariable testimony of instructors and students alike is to the effect that knowledge crammed un- der high pressure disappears with alarming rapidity as soon as the examinations are over. It does not seem to leave even the path of low resistance for further knowledge of the same kind that is left by attainments reached in a leisurely manner, even if they become apparently forgotten during the lapse of months and years. Apparently the only means of obviating the evil of tutoring as a "cram" consists in setting a high value, in the adjustment of the student's stand- ing, on his daily work and on hour exami- nations of which no notice is given before- hand. The other difficulty which I have in mind is far more deeply rooted and serious. It depends upon the fact that students of all grades, from the grammar school to the graduate school of the university, are allow- ed by the instructor to think of the subjects studied mainly as so many stepping-stones, first, to the examination and then to gradua- tion. The inherent value of the subjects, in and of themselves, is often not insisted upon by the teacher or professor and therefore not recognized by the student. The obnox- ious course system which "X" so effective- ly denounces has aggravated this evil and with the introduction of free election of studies, now rapidly descending through the high schools and toward the gram- mar schools, it has become an important part of the occupation of every pupil to fig- ure out the easiest path that may lead to a diploma. It is increasingly difficult to meet this condition of mind, and to eradi- cate it in higher institutions of learning, but something can be done in and below the high school by vigorous attacks on the prac- tice of making the examination, and not that for which the examination stands, the real goal of the student. I have known of an instructor who always counted it a mis- demeanor for a student to inquire in class whether such and such kinds of problems would be likely to be set in the final exam- ination,' and this refusal to recognize the legitimacy of questions of the sort, if car- ried through all grades of instruction, would do something to destroy the spirit which leads to the asking of such questions. In- cidentally, something can also be done to encourage study for the sake of the sub- ject itself by allowing it to be understood that all indications of a desire to reach out beyond the absolute reading or laboratory requirements in the given subject will, as far as possible, be weighed by the instructor in estimating the year's work. It is not impossible in literary courses on the one hand, and biological or physical science courses on the other, to credit the student with work done somewhat under his own di- rection and wholly at his own initiative. Y. Cambridge, Mass., April J.. "THE NEW HOPE IN INDIA." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: My attention has been called to an article which appears in your issue of March 4 under the above heading, and in which you quote certain astonishing state- ments made by the Society for the Ad- vancement of India, and, I quite admit, con- trovert a good many of them. It is a hope- less task to follow up every misleading statement made about the Indian adminis- tration, and I will not take up your space with more than one which seems to me to be particularly glaring, viz., the complaint of "crushing taxes and insufficient irriga- tion works." Now, what are the facts? The actual area cropped in British India in 1906- 07 was 214,026,319 acres, of which 32,391,158 acres carried more than one crop, so that it is not unfair to say that 246,417.477 acres represent actually the area under one crop, and of this 36,654,558 acres were artificially irrigated. That is, nearly one-fifth of the total area cultivated, whereas when the late Queen took over the government of the country the area under irrigation was about two and a half million acres. Now, the land revenue of the whole of India at the same time was something under twenty millions sterling, so that the average as- sessment on each acre of crop actually cul- tivated is something under Is. 8d., and it is quite impossible, I think, to estimate the gross produce of the country at less than £1 an acre, so that the "crushing land tax" cannot be more than one-twelfth of the produce, or 8V2 per cent. J. S. Pennington, I. C. S. (retired). East India Association, London, March 25. THE COMFORTING POWER OF NATURE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I trust the writer of the article on Thomas Traherne (see the Nation, Feb. 18) will permit an interested and not ungrateful reader to demur to his conclusion. Surely it is "when the tedium of life rolls in upon us, when the ambition for which we have striven fails, and we are taught the deceitfulness of hope, or is achieved and we find to our dis- may that we have no more capacity of en- joyment than before," it is then that "the restorative beauty of Nature" is most pre- cious in its healing effects. Nay, even "when a great loss by death or evil alienation" — I have a case in mind — "darkens our ways," Nature does not wholly lose her power to calm and soothe. I am far from saying that the mysticism of Vaughan and Traherne and Wordsworth affords a complete philosophy of human life; "the still sad music of humanity" cannot be ignored; but I would venture to affirm that it does contribute to such a philosophy an element at once necessary, vital, and permanent — most truly a doctrina caelestis. For if we do not find God in Nature, where are we to seek Him? Is Nature alien to God, or independent of Him? To say that He (or It) is not there is atheism. And it is

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April 8, 1909] The Nation. 359 not a question of the reality of the external world, but of its value and significance in relation to our mental experience. In the words of Herbert Spencer, "The Power man- ifested throughout the universe distinguish- ed as material, is the same power which in ourselves wells up under the form of con- sciousness." What "greater realities" are there than these? To many serious thinkers It is not "the fabric of the world," but the fabricated systems of the theologians, which may be compared to the sand castles of chil- dren, even now being swept away by the uni- versal tides. G. H. T. Naples, Italy, March 20. Notes. The Forest Press of this city announces for immediate publication "A Book of Hours," by the late Miss Ellen Thompson of Boston. The volume includes "Edward FitzGerald and His Friends in East An- glia," and other literary papers. The centenary of the birth of Horatius Bonar (December 19, 1908) has been cele- brated by the issue of an inexpensive little volume of his hymns, selected and arranged by his son, H. N. Bonar (Henry Frowde). There is a portrait of Dr. Bonar, a sketch of his life, and a brief account of some of the hymns. With the exception of two or three minor alterations, this edition is a reprint of that issued in 1904. To the series known as the Cambridge English Classics (G. P. Putnam's Sons) there has been added "The Authorised Ver- sion of the English Bible, 1611," in five volumes, edited by William Aldis Wright. The first volume contains as a frontispiece a facsimile of the original title-page. Mr. Wright adds a table of seventeen pages showing the variations between the two issues of 1611. The pages are not in the double-column form which makes most Bibles so offensive to the eye, but with the lines running entirely across, as in ordi- nary books. For the benefit of scholars and others who may wish to get the Author- ised Version in puris naturalibus, the old spelling is retained. Of course, there are already on the market plenty of copies in modernized orthography. The American Unitarian Association of Boston is engaged in the preparation of a Centenary Edition of the works of Theo- dore Parker. The series will comprise fifteen volumes, all of which will be pub- lished before the Parker Centenary in 1910. Three volumes have already been noted in these columns. These are now supplemented by three others, "Sermons of Religion," "The Transient and Permanent in Chris- tianity," and "Historic Americans." The latter volume includes Parker's lectures on Franklin, Washington, John Adams, Jef- ferson, John Quincy Adams, and Webster. These addresses exhibit Parker at his best as an orator, and at his worst as a partisan. The lecture on Webster, delivered while Boston was still in mourning for the great statesman, is one of the most striking ex- amples of prejudice in the judgment of a contemporary. The liberal notes at the end of the volume point out Parker's errors in a scholarly and unbiassed manner. On the other hand the "Sermons of Religion" are full of elevated utterance on spiritual themes, adapted to helpful ministry to as- piring souls of all ages. The references to pages in the notes in "Transient and Per- manent in Christianity" contain many er- rors. The volumes are clearly and service- ably printed and reasonable in price. They will help to worthy appreciation of Parker on the centenary of his b'rth. Two more volumes have been issued in the New York Edition (Charles Scribner's Sons) of "The Novels and Tales" of Henry James. Vol. XV contains "The Lesson of the Master." "The Death of the Lion," "The Next Time," "The Figure in the Carpet," and "The Coxon Fund"; Vol. XVI, "The Au- thor of Beltrafflo," "The Middle Years," "Greville Fane," "Broken Wings," "The Tree of Knowledge," "The Abasement of the Northmores," "The Great Good Place," "Four Meetings," "Paste," "Europe," "Miss Gunton of Poughkeepsie," and "Fordham Castle." The prefaces to these volumes, in Mr. James's most prolix and cryptic style, seem rather pumped. Taking himself with great seriousness, he tells the sources of these various tales — where he got the idea from which the story grew. "The Death of the Lion" was written for the Yellow Book: I was invited, and all urgently, to con- tribute to the first number, and was re- galed with the golden truth that my compo- sition might absolutely assume, might shamelessly parade in, its own organic form. It was disclosed to me, wonderfully, that — so golden the air pervading the en- terprise—any projected contribution might conform, not only unchallenged, but by this circumstance itself the more esteemed, to its true intelligible nature. For any idea I might wish to express I might have space, in other words, elegantly to express it — an offered license that, on the spot, opened up the millennium to the "short story." The pieces in Vol. XV "have this in common, that they deal all with the literary life, gathering their motive, in each case, from some noted adventure, some felt embar- rassment, some extreme predicament, of the artist enamoured of perfection, ridden by the idea on paying for his sincerity." In "The Coxon Fund" he treats of "the S. T. Cole- ridge type." In Vol. XVI "Paste" is a trans- position of the terms of Guy de Maupas- sant's "La Parure," the story of the young woman who borrows a pearl necklace and loses it. Supposing it to be genuine, she and her husband ruin their lives in en- deavoring to earn money to replace it. Mr. James makes it "a matter not of a false treasure supposed to be true and precious, but of a real treasure supposed to be false and hollow." "The Book of the Duke of True Lovers," now first translated into English from the Middle French of Christine de Pisan, is an interesting addition to the New Medie- val Library (Duffield & Co.). The narrative verse of the original is rendered into prose by Alice Kemp-Welch; the inter- spersed ballads are happily translated into the original metres by Laurence Binyon and Eric R. D. Maclagan. The translator's preface gives some account of the author, and the history of the manuscripts, but neglects to mention that the French text is readily accessible in the works of Christine de Pisan, edited by Maurice Roy for the Societe des Anciens Textes. Composed at about the end of the century in which Dante's book of love was written, this narrative of romantic passion is told, like the "Vita Nuova," in the first person, and appears to be an unusually intimate record of a heart- searching experience. But to the young French prince earthly love was not, as it was to the Florentine poet, the mysti- cal means of union with L'Amor che muove il sole e I'altre stelle. It was rather an exigent yet joyous discipline preparing the lover for all the fair and brave uses of the world. Abiding in a relationship al- ways perilously near the illicit, it de- manded sleepless vigilance, swift obedience, secrecy, and unfaltering self-restraint. Rec- ognized as the crowning reward of knight- ly conduct, it inspired the courtly and soldierly virtues — gay and easy demeanor, spirited bearing, excellence in manly sports, and dauntless valor in war. "And for that I heard it maintained," begins the Duke of True Lovers, "that a lover is courteous above other folk, and better es- teemed amongst men, I desired to be one." To the theory that the story is a genuine human document and not primarily a work of art color is lent by the fact that it has come down to us in only two manu- scripts long preserved in the private col- lections of the French nobility, that it ends inartistically with the issues still unsettled, and that Christine de Pisan rep- resents herself, in her brief introduction, as merely the literary secretary, for the time being, of some nobleman, not to be divulged, who wishes his memoirs written. "The Chatelaine of Vergi," now published in the New Medieval Library (Duffield & Co.) has flitted down through the ages like the old lover's ghost with whom John Donne longed to talk. Written toward the close of the thirteenth century, this story of the unhappy loves of the Lady of Vergi and her faithful Burgundian knight, perhaps embodying some half-forgotten passion of real life, has been preserved from genera- tion to generation by the piety of the faith- ful, and has exercised a considerable in- fluence in romantic art and literature. That interesting connoisseur of the profane and sacred loves, Marguerite of Navarre, trans- lated it into prose; Bandello rendered her version into Italian; thence it returned to France in the"Histoires tragiques" of Belle- forest, a plunder house of the Elizabethan dramatists; in the eighteenth century it quickened French fiction again; now it ap- pears in a form which will appeal to bib- liophiles, translated into English prose by Alice Kemp-Welch, presented also in the original old French from Raynaud's edition, and supplied with a brief introduction by Dr. Brandin. The impression produced by the archaic and almost dreamy English ren- dering is very different from that produced by the quick canter of the light French verse; but the keynote of the style will seem right to those who know the romance material mainly through the great redac- tion of Malory. The charm of the volume is much enhanced by the quaint, crude il- lustrations of the story, taken from an ivory casket of the fourteenth century, now in the British Museum. And, however one may feel in general about the modern- antique, it is a crusty stickler who will not cry bravo to these brown pigskin covers with their delicate stamped designs and their brass clasps already delightfully green! Prof. William Cleaver Wilkinson's "Some New Literary Valuations" (Funk & Wag-

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360 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 nails Co.) exhibits a ke&n perception of the obvious, a stringent regard for exact and literal expression, a belief in orthodox Christianity, and an almost overmastering passion for grammar. Himself a son of the Muses, as he is at some pains to keep us reminded — indeed, a writer of epics — he sits in the seat of judgment as a poet- critic of the Malherbe family, jealously guarding his own. Of the six writers whom he passes in review only the writers of prose fiction, Howells and Tolstoy, get off with any semblance of whole coats; the poets and critics, Arnold, Stedman, Ten- nyson, and Morley depart in tatters. How- ells, of course, has no fine ear for verse, and he certainly was not born a critic; for does he not admit in "My Literary Passions" that as a boy he passed through a "paroxysm of Alexander Smith"? No born critic would, even as a boy, have passed through a paroxysm of Smith; if the read- er has any doubt, let him turn to the ap- pendix, where he will find a critique on the aforesaid Alexander Smith written by Professor Wilkinson in his youthful days. Still, though Mr. Howells's diction is not always flawless, he has humor so rare and so abundant that his critic knows of no- thing superior "in the world of literature, ancient or modern, domestic or foreign." It may be said, merely in passing, that Professor Wilkinson confesses an "incur- able congenital incapacity for enjoying any- thing literary that is cast in the dramatic form," and that he has never "read any play, not even one of Shakespeare's, with pleasure." To Matthew Arnold two papers are devoted: one proves that he is an en- tirely peevish and whimsical critic and a vicious model in prose; the other shows that his poetry is full of nonsensical fig- ures and of grammatical solecisms that would disgrace a schoolboy. As an exam- ple of the exigent (temper of this critical Rhadamanthus consider the following: Ar- nold says, "It is impossible to put down a book like the history of the French Acad- emy . . . without being led to reflect. . . ." Professor Wilkinson comments thus. "Just why the 'putting down' of a book should exert such a compelling influence is not immediately clear. 'Being led' has no subject," etc. Stedman as a critic general- ly lacked precision and austerity; as a poet he was rather so-so. The professor con- fronts a specimen of Stedman's early verse with a specimen of his own verse and ex- claims with delicious oracular ambiguity: "The difference beitween them!" Lord Mor- ley is an atheist and his books on Voltaire and Diderot are no more than special plead- ing for atheists, and in very wretched style at that. Tennyson was the greatest artist in lyric verse in the world; but he hsd a serious tendency toward "violence" in his use of the language. For instance, he wrote of the "chalice of the grapes of God" where a man of sense would certainly have written "wine." Perhaps Professor Wilkinson is at his happiest where he is tearing to shreds a first rough draft of one of the laureate's poems which by some mischance has got into the hands of the public; if not there, then in the two pages in which be takes Lowell to task for ex- pressing in private his admiration of Dante by an ejaculated "damn," and Howells to task for countenancing and enjoying that expression. With the best intention in the world one cannot find much in R. S. Craig's "Making of Carlyle" (John Lane Co.) to justify the spinning of this account of his early years through 600 pages. The repetition is inces- sant, and the moralizing often flat, even at its first appearance. By far the best part of the book is that which dilates on the strength of the clannish spirit among the Carlyles, and shows how much of the style and ideas of the writer came to him with his Calvinistic inheritance. This is a matter which has never, we believe, been fully exploited, nor does Mr. Craig do more than deal with it in general terms. The chief aim of the book is to defend Carlyle in his matrimonial tragedy (if such it was) at the expense of his wife. It is quite true that many deductions must be made from the story of that marriage as derived by Froude and his followers from Mrs. Car- lyle's letters and conversations, but the in- sistence of Mr. Craig on Mrs. Carlyle's social ambitions is altogether overdone, and in the end wearisome. And, after all, to rewrite the life of Carlyle with this point of his marriage perpetually in view is to mistake lamentably what the real admirers of the sage want to hear. We must ac- count Mr. Craig's volume as among the liaud desiderata. "My Cranford," by Arthur Gilman (Houghton Mifllin Co.), is a slender, dainty volume of ruminations, chiefly upon the present and past of an old-fashioned New England village. It is pleasant to think that there remains even one little town unprofaned by railroad or factory, yet still enjoying a comfortable degree of prosperi- ty, as well as a numerous progeny, a public library not given by Mr. Carnegie, and, most wonderful of all, a single, universal church. If tragedy, or sin, or even vulgarity, ever invades this Arcadia, Mr. Gilman does not see them; his picture is all of pleasantness and peace. Under the title "Psyche's Task" Prof. J. G. Frazer has published (The Macmillan Co.) an expanded version of an evening discourse delivered by him at the Royal Institution. His theme is the soul of good in things superstitious and he declares that the folk-lorist, like Psyche, has to separ- ate the nourishing grain out of the rub- bish heaps of savage custom. He accord- ingly shows how the divinity that doth hedge a king in primitive culture has help- ed to bring about stable government, how the taboo surrounding property left by the owner has given rise to the concept of private property, how the ban on sexual intercourse between certain classes and at certain times has led on to the modern idea of marriage, and how the fear of ghosts has caused men to acquire a respect for human life. These theses are illustrated with that wealth of example with which Dr. Frazer's readers are fa- miliar; and the whole essay is as interest- ing reading as it is instructive and consola- tory doctrine. The Carnegie Institution, under the direc- tion of Prof. J. Franklin Jameson, employ- ed Prof. Charles M. Andrews and Miss Frances G. Davenport to prepare a list of manuscripts in English depositories bearing upon the history of America before 1783. One part of this list now appears dn a portly volume, and includes all collections of importance outside of the Public Records Office. Not only are the British Museum and Bodleian Library covered, but such in- stitutions as the Guild Hall, House of Lords, Lambeth and Fulham Palaces, the Royal Society, and the archives of impor- tant religious bodies. For the first time this wealth of historical material is opened and the means of obtaining access to it dis- played. The compilers note an many cases where the manuscript has been printed (this portion of the undertaking is neces- sarily imperfect), and have even noted cor- rections to be made in the printed text, as in a Clarendon manuscript, where "pre- sented" is corrected to "presum'd." As an illustration of painstaking accuracy this in- stance is interesting, and it may be added that a careful examination of titles shows remarkable freedom from errors in date or name. The list was extended to include material on the West Indies, but the prac- tice of the two compilers in this particu- lar was not uniform. As it is, the volume is an invaluable aid to the investigator, and full proof of the utility of the series plan- ned by Mr. Jameson and entrusted to such capable experts. The volumes on the Pub- lic Record Office will be published at some future time, being held for the new num- bering of the manuscripts in London. The Library of Congress is systematically ob- taining transcripts of this American ma- terial, and the list of what is already ac- cessible in Washington, printed in this vol- ume, shows that good advance has already been made. The use of expert service in the Carnegie Institution to point out what the library should obtain offers a happy illustration of economy and efficiency. In "The District in the XVIIIth Century," A. J. Morrison of Middletown, Va., reprints the descriptions of the proposed Federal district by four English and one French visitor, prior to the actual removal of the government. To create a city of magnifi- cent proportions, out of a country region having little to recommend it, was no small task, and these travellers speak of the plans and not of the accomplishment. Apart from the two or three public buildings, a hotel was the first need. Weld saw the nearly finished building in 1795, and thought it "anything but beautiful." Pri- vate houses were largely built on specula- tion, and the city was composed of avenues leading through deep woods. Nearby was the "handsome" town of Georgetown, and at some distance were seen the "towering steeples" of Alexandria. While the visit- ing Englishmen dwell upon the possible commercial future of the city, central in lo- cation, and on a waterway capable of such improvement as to tap the Western trade, the Frenchman, La Rochefoucauld-Lian- court, was more impressed by the specula- tions of Morris, Law, and Greenleaf in city lots, the jealousies of the different sections, and the prospects of gaining wealth. He, too, thought Alexandria among the finest towns in the United States. The extract from Davis includes, without correction, his absurd account of the first inauguration of Jefferson. In a second pamphlet Mr. Morri- son gives Parkinson's visit to this country to see the Mount Vernon estate. Though the editor questions the judgment of the trained English farmer on the quality of the land, this judgment was not different from that of Washington— not to speak of

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April 8, 1909] The Nation 361 the hopelessness of obtaining a profitable employment of slave labor by English farm methods. Jesse Lynch Williams's "Mr. Cleveland, a Personal Impression," is published by Dodd, Mead & Co., in a small, attractive volume. It gives a pleasant and intimate portrait of the ex-President in his Prince- ton retirement. Sir Arthur Clay has done a good work well in abridging and translating Paul Le- roy Beaulieu's "Collectivism" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). That book has been regarded as the acutest and most searching analysis of the various communistic and socialistic schemes, and in particular, while allowing the waste inevitable under any exaggerat- ed system of competition, it shows with remorseless logic the inability of collec- tivism to meet the laws of supply and de- mand in domestic exchange, and still more emphatically in foreign trade. Most Social- ists, we take it, are such, not because they have any clear understanding of the eco- nomic questions at issue, but because they are led by nersonal envy or humanitarian revolt against the world's injustice to at- tach themselves to the party that avows discontent and professes a constructive rem- edy. To those who talk loosely of Social- ism as at least a tendency in the right di- rection and as the necessary step of prog- ress or evolution, the clear thinking and wide knowledge of Leroy Beaulieu's treatise may be strongly recommended. Such doubt- ing minds will here meet with facts. Victor Hugo comes to us in two forms, very different in bulk and purpose. One is a single volume in the charming green and gold Classiques francais published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. It contains a selection of the lyrical poems in the original, with a critical introduction by L. Aguettant. The other is eight volumes ("Napoleon the Lit- tle," "The History of a Crime," "Poems," "Dramatic Works"), completing the Handy Library edition of the works of Victor Hugo, published by Little, Brown & Co., in twenty-two volumes. The translations are by different hands and naturally vary in merit. But the books are excellent in typography and form, and the price, $1 a volume, brings at least a selection of the more important novels within easy reach. W. J. Rolfe's "Satchel Guide to Europe" has come from Houghton Mifflin Co. in its revised form for 1909. It is an excellently practical little book, as the travellers of many successive years have found. "A British Officer in the Balkans: The Account of a Journey Through Dalmatia, Montenegro, Turkey in Austria, Magyar- land, Bosnia, and Herzegovina," by Major Percy E. Henderson (J. B. Lipplncott Co.), is the careful story of a long trip. At this time, when so many newspaper readers are wondering what is summed up in those two odd names, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the narrative of these wanderings in the region of quaint Austro-Turkish towns and ancient Italian republics, has peculiar interest. Major Henderson made it his business to see everything there was to be seen, and he has set everything down with an ac- curacy that is sometimes almost painful. He has missed no smallest detail; the pat- tern of a woman's dress, the way the work- ers in the Austrian government tobacco factories roll cigarettes, the relative values of hotels — all these items are marshalled for the information of the reader. It Is a sort of revision of Baedeker, indispensable for any one contemplating a trip to the picturesque country which has been the storm-centre of Europe during the past winter. Starting at Fiume, the author pro- gressed down the beautiful Dalmatian coast, stopping at the former free city of Ragusa and at Spalato, where Diocletian built his fairy palace. Then he paid a flying visit to Montenegro, by way of the "Montenegrin Ladder," which zig-zags up the mountain-flank above Cattaro. One can- not resist a feeling of resentment that Major Henderson should have dismissed the historic mountain principality and its in- teresting people and masses of legendary lore, with a bare chapter. The remainder of the volume is devoted to travels in the annexed provinces of Bosnia and Herze- govina and a brief excursion into Hungary. There are numerous illustrations from pho- tographs depicting both life and scenery. G. C. Sansoni of Florence is publishing a little book of the "Rime Disperse di Fran- cesco Petrarca," including all the poems not included in the "Canzoniere," but at- tributed to Petrarch by some manuscript or rare publication. The laborious task of collecting and editing was undertaken by Prof. Angelo Solerti, but after his death was completed by Vittorio Cian. The pro- ceeds from the sale of the book will go to the family of Professor Solerti. A list of 1,000 Italian books, published in cheap editions and intended as a model for people's libraries in small Italian towns, has been compiled by Prof. Ettore Fabiet- ti and A. Locatelli of Milan, and issued as an appendix to Fabietti's "Manuale per le Biblioteche Popolari" (published by the Consorzio delle Biblioteche Popolari, Mi- lan). A selection of 300 volumes adapted to small rural communities is indicated by asterisks. This list is divided into four sections: books for adults; for young peo- ple; books on science, agriculture, indus- try, and art; and reference books for li- brary use. As the entries include the size, date, publisher, and net cost and an occasional bibliographical note, this model catalogue, like the list of the Revista delle Biblioteche (see the Nation, April 1, p. 335), would be suggestive to American li- brarians in supplying the needs of Italian readers. Hermann Esswein, one of the earliest and warmest adherents of August Strindberg, whose sixtieth birthday has given rise to a number of retrospective articles, is the au- thor of a comprehensive study of the life and the work of this most interesting though not always sympathetic Swede. "August Strindberg im Lichte seines Lebens and seiner Werke" is a volume of 212 pages, with 27 illustrations. The publish- er is Georg Miiller, Munich, who also issues the complete works of Strindberg translat- ed into German by Emil Schering. "Griinde und Abgrunde: Praludien zu einer Philosophie des Lebens," by Oscar Ewald (Berlin: Ernst Hofmann & Co.), con- sists of two solid volumes of ethics, based on empirical psychology. The first of Volume I treats of "Das Wesen des Willens" and "Erotik und Geschlechtlichkeit"; Volume II, "Aus dem Leben des Glaubens," "Kiinst- ler und Denker," and "Individuum und Uni- versum." The work aims to discuss all the leading psychological and ethical problems now in the forefront of debate. "Emanuel Geibels Jugendbreife" (Berlin: Karl Curtius) adds considerably to our knowledge of this gifted poet and amiable friend of Freiligrath and Chamisso, es- pecially since none of these letters has been published before. They cover his life from the time when he was a student at Bonn, 1835, to his return from Greece, in 1840. They are full of autobiographical interest With but one or two exceptions all these letters are addressed to Geibel's mother, and this recalls Geibel's characterization of his father as "rich in the matter of friendship, but no writer of letters." Very interesting are the references to Freiligrath, just then becoming known. Two portraits of the poet are given, made in 1834 and 1838. Theodor Kappstein, as editor, has begun the publication of a series. Die deutschen Hochschulen: Illustrierte Monographien (Berlin: Wedekind & Co.), of which two volumes have appeared, each of about two hundred pages. The first is by Fritz Baum- garten, "Freiburg im Breisgau"; and the second by Adolf Stier, "Jena." The his- tory of the different universities will be given largely in the form of biographies of their great teachers. Thus the book of Stier supplements from the personal side such excellent volumes as that of Borkow- sky, brought out on the occasion of the recent centennial anniversary of Jena. The reforms of Joseph the Second of Aus- tria possess never-ending interest for the investigator of modern church history; and the recent work of a Catholic scholar, Hermann Franz, "Studien zur kirchlichen Reform Josephs II" (Freiburg- im-B. : Her- der), has made accessible new data from archives, and has contributed materially to an objective presentation of the subject. Another interesting contribution to the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Calvin, which falls on July 10, is Dr. Peter Paulssen's "Johannes Calvin: Ein Lebens- und Zeitbild aus demReformations- jahrhundert" (Stuttgart: Belser). The au- thor has aimed to draw from primary sources, to use these in accordance with the recognized canons of modern histori- ography, and to depict Calvin in the light of the complete historical background of his activity. The book is one of the most scholarly productions called forth by the anniversary. The Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters (Berlin: Weidmann), published under the auspices of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, has now reached its tenth vol- ume, containing a characteristic collection of sermons, entitled "Der sogenannte St. Georgener Prediger," so-called because the oldest manuscript of these anonymous dis- courses, written about 1300 a. d., is found in the St. George Convent, in the Black Forest. In its day this collection was ex- ceedingly popular, being used for many de- cades in the Benedictine, Dominican, and Carthusian cloisters, as model discourses. The present edition is based also on a Carlsruhe and a Freiburg manuscript. Th. H. Pantenius, a native of the Ger- man provinces of Russia, and author of a number of works of fiction that treat of Russian life, has recently published a pop- ular "Geschichte Russlands von der Ent-

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362 The 1ST at ion. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 stehung des russischen Reiches bis zur Gegenwart" (Leipzig: Voightlander). The volume (less than five hundred pages), •while not evincing special scholarship or research, is based largely on native sources. Unfortunately, only eighty-six pages are devoted to the nineteenth century. The third volume of Alfred Jensen's "Rysk kulturhistoria" (Stockholm: Aktie- bolagetLjus) covers the nineteenth century; Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostojevski, Tolstoy, Gorki, Mereshkovski, and others are passed in review, with emphasis on their significance for the social and politi- cal development of the Russian people. The various literary movements are discussed. Most interesting are perhaps the studies of Dostojevski and Tolstoy. Lovers of Tegner will be interested in Prof. Evert Wrangel's volume, entitled "Den blaogda (Stockholm: Wahlstrom & Widstrand), in which he gives an account of the poet's friendship with Hilda Wijk, wife of a prominent merchant and mem- ber of the Diet for Gothenburg. The friendship for this noble woman seemed to have helped the already aged poet to conquer another, more earthly passion that darkened his later life. The volume contains many hitherto unpublished let- ters of Tegner, for the most part of a pure- ly personal character. At the twelfth annual conference for edu- cation in the South, to be held at Atlanta April 14 to 16, the programme will include the following speakers: Gov. Hoke Smith of Georgia ; Robert C. Ogden, New York, president of the conference; Gifford Pinchot of the Forest Service, Washington, D. C. ; Clarence Ousley, editor of the Fort Worth Record; Charles L. Coon, superintendent of schools, Wilson, N. C. ; Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, United States Commissioner of Edu- cation; Mrs. B. B. Munford, Richmond, Va. ; Dr. John Lee Coulter, University of Min- nesota; Dr. Lillian W. Johnson. Memphis, Tenn. ; Dean Lida Shaw King, Woman's College, Brown University; Dr. A. Caswell Ellis, University of Texas; C. S. Barrett, president of the Farmers' Union, Union City. Ga. ; President Edwin A. Alderman, University of Virginia; and President Charles R. Van Hise, University of Wis- consin. Among the special meetings will be conferences of State superintendents of education for the Southern States, of super- visors of the school improvement work in the Southern States, and of the Southern Association of College Women. Two new members have been elected to the Academie Francaise : in place of Francois Coppee enters Jean Aicard, poet and novelist, and in place of Gaston Boissier the well-known critic of the Revue des Deux Mondes Rene Doumic. William Henry Edwards a naturalist, died at Coalburg, W. Va., April 3. He was born at Hunter, N. Y., in 1822, and twenty years later was graduated from Williams College. Although he was admitted to the bar, he became more interested in the study of butterflies than of law, and in 1846 made a trip up the Amazon. His books are : "Voyage Up the Amazon" (1847), "The But- terflies of North America" (three series, 1879, 1884, 1897). He has also contributed 160 separate papers on lepidoptera to the Canadian Entomologist, and entomological papers to various other journals. From Manila has come the news of the murder of Dr. William Jones by the Ilon- gots at Dumbato, Dr. Jones had been sent out to the Philippines two years ago by the Field Museum of Chicago, and was prose- cuting his anthropological studies at the time of the reported murder. He was one- quarter Indian blood, and had been born among the Sauk and Fox Indians in Okla- homa some thirty years ago. He was edu- cated at Hampton, Va., Andover, Mass., and Harvard. He had already accomplished valuable work for the Field Museum. A veteran in philosophy, Dr. James Hutchinson Stirling of Edinburgh, has died at the age of eighty-eight. Among the long list of his books two have been specially popular, his "Secret of Hegel" (1865) and his translation of Schwegler's "History of Philosophy," the latter of which reached its twelfth edition in 1893. More literary in character are his "Jerrold, Tennyson, Macaulay, with Other Critical Essays" (1868), "Burns in Drama" (1878), "Philoso- phy in the Poets" (1885), and "Thomas Car- lyle's Counsels" (1886). The death is announced, in his seventy- sixth year, of Dr. Herbert Mortimer Luck- ock. Dean of Lichfield, a biblical scholar of Anglican-Catholic beliefs. He w^ote a number of religious books, among them: "After Death, State of the Faithful Dead," "Studies in the History of the Prayer Book," "The Bishops in the Tower," "The Intermediate State," "History of the Church of Scotland," and "The History of Mar- riage." Another biblical scholar who has died Is Dr. Charles Henry Hamilton Wright, born at Dublin in 1836. His specialty was He- brew, and at different times he was exam- iner in that subject at Oxford, University of London, and elsewhere. He published a number of books on the Hebrew Testament, as well as on such themes as "The Inter- mediate State and Prayers for the Dead," and "General Writings of St. Patrick." Report comes of the death of Dr. Rich- ard Mahrenholtz, who was born in Etgers- leben in 1849. He wrote chiefly on French topics, and among his books are "Ge- sehichte der franzoseschen Revolution," "Rousseau," "Jeanne d'Arc," "Fenelon," etc. Dr. Rudolf Gottschall, a prolific and popular writer of verse, fiction, and his- tory, has died at Leipzig, in his eighty- sixth year. His first book of verse, "Lieder der Gegenwart," was published before he was twenty, and, for its liberal tendencies, led to his expulsion from the University of Breslau. He completed his studies at Berlin and Konigsberg, and then devoted himself to literature. Another German author whose death must be recorded is Frieda, Baroness von Biilow, at Jena, in her fifty-second year. She had travelled much in the East and in Africa, and was the first German writer to exploit colonial life in fiction. Her novels include: "Margarete und Ludwig," "Tropenkoler," "Im Lande der Verheiss- ung," "Allein ich will," "Einsame Frauen," and "Wir von heute." FLORIO'S MONTAIGNE. The Essayes of Michael Lord of Mon- taigne. Done into English by John Florio; with an Introduction by Thomas Seccombe. 3 vols. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $10 net. Whatever may be said of Florio's oc- casional inaccuracies, his translation of Montaigne has two undeniable merits. It was accepted at once (the first edi- tion is dated 1603) as an integral part of English literature, preparing the way for a succession of essayists, from Ba- con to Lamb, who have no parallel in any other country; and it succeeded ad- mirably in preserving the spirit of the original. The very form of the sentences and the quaintness of the vocabulary seem to be Montaigne writing in Eng- lish. Except for those who have a com- plete mastery of old French, Florio is the book. We could wish that this new and handsomely printed edition had been more generously, or at least differ- ently, planned. It is hard to see any profit in retaining the spelling and, more especially, the eccentric punctua- tion of the original edition. Montaigne might be speaking for his translator also when he said he meddled neither with orthography nor with curious pointing. '"Where they altogether break the sense," he says, "I little trouble myself therewith; for at least they dis- charge me. But where they will wrest- in and substitute a false sense (as often they do) and wire-draw me to their con- ceits, then they spoil me." Certain it is that the punctuation of Florio, as he was printed, too often wrests-in and ob- scures the meaning. Montaigne, we take it, is an author to be read; the flavor of the old speech, whether French or English, should be preserved, but, to quote Florio's turning of a quotation: A pedant knowledge, I Detest out of all cry. Some notes also should have been pro- vided, no elaborate apparatus, but an indication here and there of the right translation where Florio has gone too far astray, and a little help now and then for the more difficult allusions. How- ever, the main thing is that this great book is again made accessible at a price not unreasonable for the excel- lence of the paper and presswork. The publication is opportune. With the edition municipale of Montaigne ap- pearing at Bordeaux under the able su- pervision of F. Strowski, and with Pierre Villey's learned treatise on the library of Montaigne and the epochs of his thought (see the Nation, July 2, 1908, p. 14), France is making almost a rediscovery of the man whom Sainte- Beuve admired as "le francais le plus sage qui ait jamais exists"; and no doubt we shall catch some echo of all this stirring in our barbarous lands be- yond the sea. Those who desire to read the latest presentation of the matter

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April 8, 1909J The ]STation. 363 will find a thoroughly sensible discus- sion of "Les Epoques de la pensSe de Montaigne," by Victor Giraud, in the Revue des Deux Mondes of February 1. Perhaps some emphasis should be laid on the word "sensible," for in this search after the learned and the new certain other scholars have not entire- ly escaped the danger of forgetting the evident and the right. Thus, M. Strow- ski, led astray, it has seemed to us, by his research into the Stoic revival of the sixteenth century, went altogether too far, in his recent work on "Pascal," in throwing into relief the stoical ele- ments of Montaigne's philosophy. Pascal was right in treating him as a thorough- going Epicurean in his attitude toward life; and Sainte-Beuve was right by the same token. M. Strowski seems to have been misled by the same industry when he called the "Apologie de Raymond Se- bond" "l'expression complete d'une ame vraiment religieuse et sincere." Again, Pascal was right in taking that essay as the very quintessence of skepticism, and by the same token Sainte-Beuve. Brunetiere, with his exaggerated faith in evolutionary methods, looked to these studies of dates to bring about wonder- ful changes in our view of Montaigne. The plain fact is, that, with all respect for the heart-breaking toil of these schol- ars, we cannot see that they have ad- vanced us much in real comprehension of his genius. Knowledge, as Montaigne says, "must be enfeoffed in us and made our own"; it is too often the case that those "whose sufficiency is placed in their sumptuous libraries" miss the learning that springs from an under- standing of human nature. Sainte- Beuve's chapter in the "Port-Royal" is still the truest characterization. And, indeed, the essential chronology of Mon- taigne needs no documentary research. By comparing the earlier essays with those of the third book added to the edi- tion of 1588, the direction of his devel- opment is made perfectly clear. Read the typical chapters of the first book, for example, "That to Philosophie is to Learn How to Die" and "Of the Inequal- ity that is Between Us"; the inspira- tion and purpose of the writer will be quite evident. The model was given by such books as the "Adagia" and the "Apophthegmata" of Erasmus. From 1531 to 1573 the second of these works went through no less than eighty-three editions, forty-nine of which were print- ed at Paris and Lyons, not to mention French translations. Some such concen- tration of the wisdom of the ancient world Montaigne had in his mind; and his earlier essays are often merely a col- lection of quotations out of Horace, Lu- cretius, and a few other Latin writers, with illustrations from history and a running commentary In the vernacular. Of Montaigne himself there is compara- tively little. The success of his first publication and the greater assurance of practice led him to fill the later essays with his own reflections on life and with garrulous confessions of his tastes. It is in the third book we get such a chapter as that "Upon Some Verses of Virgil," which is really a disquisition on the art of love, with extraordinarily frank professions of the writer's own practice. "I believe," he avows, "that which Plato says to be true, that man was made by the gods for them to toy and play withal"; and, further: "Our life consisteth partly in folly and partly in wisdom." And, if any definite theory can be got from the essay, it is that which runs all through the book: In- dulge in folly, but do not forget wis- dom; and let both folly and wisdom contribute to the pleasure of life. Cer- tainly that is the lesson also of the last essay, "Of Experience," which seems to have been meant as a summing up of what Montaigne himself had learnt from the world's school, wherein, as he says, human ignorance is the surest part. There is no change of sentiment here from the essays of the earlier period, but merely change of method. What was first presented as the commonplace of the past, is now recast as the writer's own lesson of experience. Horace and Lucretius were his favorite authors — M. Villey estimates that he quotes each of them about one hundred and fifty times — and evidently contained for him the final wisdom of antiquity. The im- pression of the essays, as a whole, can- not be conveyed better than by calling them the Epistles of Horace translated into modern modes and writ large. A good deal is lost in the transfusion, es- pecially that feeling of finality which goes with brevity, with the saying a thing and stopping; something is added also in exaggerating the fluctuant and epicurean side of Horace; but to those who cannot read the original Latin with ease, and who need to have their pleas- ure diluted, these essays are to mod- ern civilization what the Epistles of Horace were to Paganism as concen- trated and consummated in Rome — the pure wisdom of the man of the world that scarcely changes with the passing of the centuries. In shameless self-exhibition, they no doubt go far beyond their model. Read- ers will differ in their appetite for the kind of personal details that fill the later essays. "II faisait trop d'histoires, parlait trop de soi," says Pascal, and exclaims against "le sot projet qu'il a de se peindre." "Their egotism in no wise disgusts me," says Thackeray, speaking of Montaigne and Howell; "they talk about themselves forever, and don't weary me." But even if one sides with Pascal and thinks it scarce- ly worth while that an author should send his "dearest friends to a stationer's shop" to learn that he eats 90 greedily as sometimes to bite his finger ends, yet it must not be forgotten that the indis- cretions of Montaigne are still of the pagan and Horatian type and not of the romantic and Rousselian. With the lat- ter sort of egotist, the one aim is to make himself out different from the rest of mankind, a being set apart in mor- bid isolation. Montaigne, on the con- trary, shows rather the universal nu- man nature in himself the individual. ' a. am," he says, "but a man of the common stamp." CURRENT FICTION. The Chippendales. By Robert Grant. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Judge Grant has here produced anoth- er of his careful, somewhat laborious studies of American life. He has no brilliancy or adroitness of style. His ef- fectiveness is due rather to the work- ing of a quiet and steady intelligence. He knows what he is driving at, and arrives, as it were, by force of sheer as- siduity. There is hardly a dramatic or quotable passage in the six hundred pages of "The Chippendales"; nor is the leisurely course of the story enlivened by such humorous diversions as Mr. De Morgan beguiles us with. The writer's manner is awkward and prolix; it has no speaking quality, no natural flow of idiom. In choosing to celebrate here the Boston of the eighties and nineties, he has arrived, it may seem, the day after the fair — or rather between fairs. The period is hardly remote enough to stand in picturesque perspective, hardly near enough to supply the best material for the social satirist. It was a time of marked change in the social and moral aspects of the city — whether of decadence or of transition, seems to be the question which chiefly interests Judge Grant. It is edifying to find Boston taken so seriously, chronicled with such elab- oration in this day when many Boston- ians, even, are apologetic or silent in general company. There is a fine ardor in this celebrant's minute fidelity to the topographical fact. When we read that "Sumner proceeded along Dart- mouth Street, and, crossing Huntington Avenue and Boylston Streets, hastened toward his home," or that Mr. Chippen- dale "started to walk down-town, by way of Commonwealth Avenue, the Pub- lic Garden, and Beacon Street," we are left in no doubt of our bearings. The Common is the fetish of the Chippen- dales: the fertility of its English spar- rows, the obsolescence of its gray squirrels, the incursion of the subway, are all burning questions to that Brah- min race. It is in his demure insistence upon these foibles of place that Judge Grant's humor chiefly makes itself felt The Chippendales live either upon the water-side of Beacon Street or upon the sunny side of Commonwealth Avenue — the latter element being regarded rather as backsliders. Against the Chippen-

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364= The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 dales' solid front of principle and pre- judice, their "New England conscience," their sense of caste, have long dashed in vain the forces of vulgar progress. Yet insensibly the conditions of Boston life change. Great fortunes begin to be made, bringing with them new stan- dards of material welfare. The Chip- pendales find their prestige less and less important in the life of the city. The arch-adversary comes, in the late eigh- ties, to be one Hugh Blaisdell, a person who, borne in Maine and educated in a "fresh-water college," arrives in Bos- ton in perfect ignorance of and indiffer- ence to the traditions which rule in the shadow of the State House, and the aura of Harvard. In New York, he would have found himself merely one of many cheerful, clever, unscrupulous apostles of progress as embodied in dollars and cents. He is not without his theories, or rather, perhaps, his pat- ter. He proposes himself as one of the generals of a new industrial army, and we leave him still in the act of swallowing, after having taken into his maw the Chippendales among other minor reptiles. One invincible cham- pion they have, however, in Henry Chip- pendale Sumner. Financially inconsid- erable, he stands for all that is best and much that is most absurd in Bos- ton Brahminism. It is he who secures the expulsion of the Bacchante from the courtyard of the Public Library — by no means on fanatical grounds. He stands for whatever is sound in taste or morals according to his somewhat austere code. In the end he wins the woman whom the victorious Blaisdell would have married. Perhaps the most amusing incident in the course of the narrative is the visit of Henry and his mother to the Art Museum to see a new Rembrandt (presented by Blais- dell). They gaze for some time in si- lence at the "full-faced Dutch burgher" in question. At last: "Artistically it is satisfying," says Mrs. Sumner, "but ethically I feel a lack. Compare a face like that with Emerson's, for instance., It is deficient in soul. I ask the ques- tion— I admit that it is debatable — can any work of art be considered great — satisfying in the highest sense — into which the spiritual quality does not en- ter?" "Ah, mother, mother, I was try- ing to stifle the same thought!" One or two contradictions of detail may be noted. On page 81 it is said that Harrison Chippendale "had no of- fice," while on page 155 we find: "He still maintained a small office where he employed a single clerk." Hugh Blaisdell is said on page 1 to have been born in Maine, but on page 261: "He was cer- tainly a person to be reckoned with in his native city" — meaning Boston. One Immortality. By H. Fielding Hall. New York: The Macmillan Co. Sententious is the word for this book. The author, with little distinctly in mind to say, invents a few named fig- ures and a situation as excuse for the multitudinous and, alas! often plati- tudinous apothegms which for some hundreds of pages flow from his pen. The oracular method — or manner — is al- ways effective with a certain audience. The last generation, with its rather bru- tal sense of humor, has had compara- tively little ear for this kind of thing, in fiction at least. But Mr. Hichens and one or two others have done something lately toward restoring it to favor. Mr. Hall makes good play with it. The mere obviousness of a remark has no ef- fect upon his readiness to shoulder re- sponsibility for it. He says, for exam- ple, "There are things to say, and there are things to feel and never say"; and this truth reminds him of another, "There are times to speak, times to be silent." The persons of his tale have an equal gift of prophecy— which does not mean, of course, that they have opinions. "To ourselves," says Holt, the hero (p. 65), "we are quite simple" — a saying so graciously received by his fair hearer that he is encouraged (p. 69) to pronounce, to her equal satisfac- tion, "No one ever understood himself." Of such an interlocutor we are not sur- prised to hear on occasion that "he wondered why he talked." After all, something in the way of a story may still be fairly expected of a novelist, an account of things that intelligibly hap- pen to human bodies or minds or souls. Else why does he talk? been able to prepare no better apology for a book. With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 a. d., together with Extracts from the Contemporary Magazine in Which It Appeared. By Rudyard Kipling; il- lustrated in color by Frank X. Leyen- decker and H. Reuterdahl. New York : Doubleday, Page & Co. $1. This is the short story which Mc- Clure's Magazine published in 1905. It is . now issued in large type, heavily leaded, and printed on one side of a leaf in order to make a little book. The volume is further padded out with sev- eral pages of articles and advertise- ments, of which the following is a fair example: MAN WANTED— DIG DRIVER for Southern Alps with Saharan summer trips. High levels, high speed, high wages. Apply M. SIDNEY, Hotel San Stefano, Monte Carlo. The story is a good enough one of its kind, a tale of the trip from London to Quebec by dirigible balloon. It is filled with a strange technical jargon, relieved by some remarkably vivid pas- sages of description. Kipling has a wonderful power of visualization. It is a pity that he is so destitute of ideas that in the interval of two years and a half since "Puck of Pook's Hill" he has Walt Whitman. By George Rice Car- penter. [English Men of Letters.] New York: The Macmillan Co. 75 cents net. In no spirit of unkindness, it may be said that Professor Carpenter has been hampered — consciously hampered, no doubt — by the fact that his ground has just been well covered, with enthusiasm by H. B. Binns, and with more sober judgment by Bliss Perry (see the Na- tion, October 11, 1906, p. 306). How he has felt these difficulties can be seen in the section dealing with the subject of Whitman's rhythmical form, which Mr. Perry had treated at considerable length and with great acumen. Without naming his predecessor, Professor Car- penter goes rapidly over the list of writers who had there been given as forerunners of Whitman, rejecting their influence peremptorily — Blake's, for in- stance, because Whitman was not di- rectly familiar with his experiments, missing the part of Blake in bringing about the movement of which Whitman was only one manifestation. The most striking paragraph in Mr. Perry's analy- sis is that in which he quotes Samuel Warren's Lyrical Soliloquy in commem- oration of the Crystal Palace exhibition as a probable influence in determining Whitman's form. Now that poem, call- ed "The Lily and the Bee," was prompt- ly reprinted in America by Harpers, and was reviewed in Harper's Monthly in November, 1851. Whitman at that time was revolving in his mind the scheme which resulted in the "Leaves of Grass" of 1855; he was consciously going over the traditional methods of expression and casting about for a new form; he was a reader of the maga- zines; and it is a fair conjecture that Warren's free rhythms — there are also curious resemblances to the "catalogu- ing" manner — should have encouraged him in his natural bent. To discredit this derivation, Professor Carpenter quotes, from a lecture delivered by Whitman in March of 1851, a score of characteristic verses which afterwards found a place in one of the longer poems. His comment is that '"Whitman's verse- method grew out of impassioned speech." As a matter of fact, Whitman did very little speaking, and these verses are far closer to Emerson, whose influence on Whitman is incontestable, than to "The Lily and the Bee" or the developed style of the "Leaves of Grass." The decisive influence is not yet felt in them. We cannot but believe that Pro- fessor Carpenter's rejection of literary sources (despite his protests, Whitman was in some respects always a bookish man) for a vague theory of "impassion- ed speech," based on a rather fine-spun psychology of language, is due in part

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April 8, 1909] The Kation 365 to the necessity imposed on the later biographer of being different. But it is possible we are bearing too heavily on this inevitable difficulty. As a whole, Professor Carpenter's work is well-proportioned and pleasantly writ- ten. He has been especially successful in fusing together criticism and narra- tive, in showing, that is, how Whitman's rhapsodies are a reflection of his life, and in telling his life by means of com- ment on his rhapsodies. To this end he has rather avoided discursions of a pure- ly literary sort. His chief emphasis lies on the mystical aspect of Whitman's character and message; his most origin- al contribution to the understanding of the "Leaves of Grass" is the attempt to connect the cataloguing habit, over which most critics stumble helplessly, with the process of mystic hypnosis or ecstasy: The habit of muscular repose, the com- plete motor quiescence which was so char- acteristic of him from his boyhood up, af- forded the physical basis. In this state of rapt contemplation the mind, rather drawn out of itself than concentrated within it- self, dwelt in rapid succession upon a mul- titude of outward objects, until, under this swift and dionysiac sequence of parallel, unrelated percepts, there followed the mys- tic experience, the illusion or the verity, of knowledge of the Whole. The most marked characteristic of Whitman's poetic method, that by which he catalogues or inventories objects, without close subordination or or- derly classification, is perhaps but the same process on a smaller scale. The reader's attention reels under the weight of unre- lated particulars until, just as the mind re- fuses to go further in the hopeless task of coordination, it is suddenly suffused, as it were, with a glow of comprehension, and there is born an impression of totality. In regard to the poet's final place in fame, Professor Carpenter is wisely non- committal. Analogues for Whitman's power he finds, not so much in purely literary types, as in the great personali- ties, the religious teachers, who, main- ly through their lives and only inci- dentally through their writings, repre- sent a new attitude toward life and give a new impulse to society. Some vital questions Professor Carpen- ter leaves unanswered, as have all his predecessors. For example, we should like to see Whitman's denial of all dis- tinction, his equal acceptance of all men as right (the glutton, the slobberer, the vile, the saint), his rejection of stan- dards; What blurt is this about virtue and about vice? this way of viewing nature, as Profes- sor Carpenter thinks, sub specie ceter- nitatis — we should like to see this reconciled with the vein of physical Pur- itanism expressed at times in his per- sonal vows: I have this day, this hour, resolved to inaugurate for myself a pure, perfect, sweet, clean-blooded, robust body, by ignoring all drinks but water and milk, and all fat meats, late suppers— a great body, a purged, cleansed, spiritualized, invigorated body. The inconsistency here — which .strikes at the very heart of Whitman's phil- osophy of life — may perhaps be explain- ed away, but until it is so explained much of the "Leaves of Grass" must re- main wild hurtling woras. Documents Relating to the Seigniorial Tenure in Canada, 1598-1854. Edited with a historical introduction and ex- planatory notes, by William Bennett Munro. Toronto: The Champlain So- ciety. This volume of documentary material supplements Professor Munro's "Sei- gniorial System in Canada." The two books contain all that the most exacting student can ask for, on this interesting and significant phase of the history of Canada. The earlier volume offered a clear and scholarly discussion of the establishment, history, and effect of the seigniorial system in Canada; the pres- ent book provides the documentary ma- terial upon which the other was based. It would, however, give a very inade- quate idea of the scope and value of this volume to say merely that it con- tains reprints of documents. The essen- tial documents are here, but they are enriched with an elaborate series of ex- planatory notes, as well as an historical introduction of 116 pages. This equip- ment transforms what would otherwise have been a dry, and often unintelligi- ble, collection, into a clear, comprehen- sive, and thoroughly interesting history of feudalism in Canada. Not the least valuable feature of Pro- fessor Munro's work is its effective dis- position of a number of popular but mistaken ideas as to the origin and in- fluence of the system. Parkman, and other writers following his lead, have taken it for granted that Richelieu first planted the feudal system in Canada, as part of his policy of settling the colony with the landless aristocracy of France. Professor Munro makes it clear that the charter granted to the Marquis de la Roche, more than a quarter-century be- fore Richelieu became Minister of State, gave specific authority not alone for the granting of seigniories in the New World, but for the establishment of the obligation of military service as an in- cident of land tenure. As a matter of fact, three seigniories were granted: two to colonial laymen, and the third to the Jesuit order, previous to the chartering of the Company of New France — or the Company of One Hun- dred Associates, as it is more generally called — in 1627. A more serious error that Professor Munro has exploded is the idea that the seigniorial system in Canada was an absurd and vicious sur- vival of the Middle Ages, without a re- deeming feature; that the century and a half during which France entrenched herself in the valley of the St. Law- rence afforded, in the annals of the New World, "an example of the methods by which a misguided monarchy unsuccess- fully sought to superimpose upon a luck- less colony that senile and decadent seigniorialism which characterized the social organization of the motherland in the two centuries preceding the Rev- olution." One cannot read Professor Munro's masterly introduction without being convinced that, while the evils of paternalism undoubtedly entered into the public and private life of New France, there was another side to the question. The fact has generally been lost sight of that the seigniorial sys- tem in Canada was by no means the same thing as the seigniorial system, at the same period, in France. In the mother-country, the system had gather- ed about it a host of intolerable abuses, leading inevitably to "that terrible retri- bution which the masses of the French people exacted from the governing classes in the outgoing years of the eighteenth century." In New France, on the other hand, the system "went back to the plane which it had occu- pied in the earlier centuries before the curse of absenteeism had sapped its vigor, and before its simple annual dues and its vague services of an hon- orary nature had been turned into agen- cies of extortion and oppression." In Canada, the seignior dwelt among his people, their leader in war and their patron in peace. The ancient personal bond between lord and liegeman was revived. Many of the prerogatives of the seigniors, the oppressiveness of which has so often been dwelt upon, were sometimes claimed, but seldom as- serted. In fact, as Professor Munro says: If one surveys the seigniorial system of Canada as a whole, and in a fair-minded spirit, one cannot escape from the con- clusion that its pressure upon the masses of the people was never really onerous. The obligations of the habitant to his seignior were light, they were fixed with some de- gree of definiteness, and they were never exacted in a manner which could properly be deemed harsh or cruel. . . . There is, indeed, no error more persistent, and at the same time less excusable, than that which regards the Norman habitant of the New World, as having occupied, in the closing decades of the old regime, a position ana- logous to that of the French oensitaire. The documents which take up the larger part of this book are printed in their original form, without transla- tion; that is to say, those belonging to the old regime are in French, those subsequent to the capitulation of Que- bec in English. The French documents include extracts from the charters of the Company of New France and the Company of the West Indies, various royal decrees and arrets, dispatches and memoranda of the colonial governors and intendants, and special reports, such

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366 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 as those of the Intendant Raudot, G6deon de Catalogne, and Hocquart. The English documents embrace ex- tracts from the Articles of Capitulation of Montreal, Murray's Report on the State of Canada under French Admin- istration, various dispatches, reports, and proclamations, and the elaborate report of the commissioners appointed, in 1843, to inquire into the operation of the seigniorial tenure in Lower Canada. The whole is made conveniently accessi- ble by means of a full index. My African Journey. By the Right Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill; with 61 illustrations from photographs and three maps. Pp. xiii+226. New York: George H. Doran Co. In writing this book, Mr. Churchill had two distinct ends in view, to tell of his exploits as a hunter of big game, and to awaken the interest of his coun- trymen "in the wonderful estates they have recently acquired" in northeastern Africa. The purely narrative part fully bears out his assertion that it was "a very de- lightful and Inspiring journey." The railway trip from the Indian Ocean to the Victoria Nyanza was over what is now very familiar ground; but when by rickshaw, bicycle, and canoe, Mr. Churchill went through Uganda to the navigable waters of the Nile, he found, though he had been an extensive travel- ler in tropic lands, that all previous im- pressions were effaced by the indescrib- able magnificence of the forests, in "va- riety of form and color," and in "pro- fusion of brilliant life — plant, bird, in- sect, reptile, beast." At one spot, he watched from the top of an ant-bear hill "the stately and awe-inspiring proces- sion of eleven elephants. ... On the back of every elephant sat at least one beautiful white egret, and some- times three or four, about two feet high." When scrambling along the brinT\ of the Nile just below the Murchison tails, he shot at a crocodile on a rock in mid-stream. The opposite bank ap- peared to be a long line of mud, but at the sound of the shot, it "sprang into hideous life, and my companions and I saw hundreds and hundreds of croco- diles, of all sorts and sizes, rushing madly into the Nile, whose waters along the line of the shore were lashed into a white foam, exactly as if a heavy wave had broken. It could be no exag- geration to say that at least a thousand of these saurians had been disturbed at a single shot." The one important event in his career as a sportsman was the killing a white rhinoceros, a species now almost extinct. But hunting was not the principal ob- ject of this journey of the Under Secre- tary of State for the Colonies. This was to study at first hand the administrative problems of the East Africa and Uganda Protectorates. Much of his time was spent in visiting stations, receiving deputations of natives, and conferring with the British officials. Among the results of these investigations was his strong conviction that the highlands of East Africa— the region proposed for the Jewish colony — is not a white man's country. The attempts of Europeans to colonize it have failed, mainly for cli- matic reasons. On the other hand, he believes it to be an ideal home for the surplus millions of India by whose industry, if all hindrances to their com- ing were removed, immense tracts of practically uninhabited wilderness would speedily become cotton fields and sugar plantations. But in Uganda, there is no question of bringing in colonists — ■ the great needs are capital and railway communication with the markets of the world. Its marvellously rich soil, with inexhaustible water supplies, is especial- ly adapted to the cultivation of cotton, rubber, coffee, sugar, in fact all tropic products. "American upland cotton grown in Uganda actually commands a higher price in the Manchester market than when it is grown In the United States." His advice to his countrymen is to "concentrate upon Uganda!" and his closing chapter is an urgent plea for the building of "the Victoria and Albert Railway" to connect the two great lakes and to be eventually extended to the head of navigation on the Nile. The Government of American Cities. By Horace E. Deming. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $1.50 net. Ten years have passed since the Na- tional Municipal League adopted a pro- gramme of city government which was to become a model for all lovers of home rule and democracy. It was an ambi- tious scheme — some called it "idealis- tic"; it separated city elections from all others, pushed civil service reform to the extreme, forbade special legisla- tion, limited the term of every fran- chise, declared public property inalien- able, prescribed uniform accounting, and — greatest of all — empowered large cit- ies to write their own charters and ad- ministrative codes. In the succeeding decade much has happened to burn the brand of "idealism" more deeply. After Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco had dimmed the lustre of Tweed and Croker, many persons be- gan to say that city government was ir- reparable because of the indifference of its citizens. Democracy had been tried, they said, and found wanting; so a mu- nicipal programme making for com- plete home rule and more democracy was a pretty bubble. In Boston and New York, where more modern char- ters are being sought just now, this pessimism is urged with fresh energy. For these great communities, therefore, Mr. Deming appears at a crucial mo- ment to strip the fundamental princi- ples of home rule of every confusion. His volume is a defence of the National Municipal League's programme; and, in defending, it becomes virtually a his- tory of recent municipal affairs. The author traces, through many a modern instance, the profound change which is swiftly coming over popular conceptions of city government. He shows how, since 1880, the line between politics and administration has been drawn more sharply. He devotes still more attention to the strengthening of the conviction that municipalities must be freed from State control and extra- neous politics. Even a student of civic reforms might pardonably be surprised at Mr. Deming's list of towns which have won partial or complete liberty in recent years. Missouri has allowed home-made charters since 1875, Califor- nia since 1880, Washington since 1889, Minnesota since 1896, Colorado since 1902, Oregon since 1906, Oklahoma since 1907, and Michigan since last Novem- ber. But such records are less welcome than the sharp return to essentials. De- bates over charter revision would be greatly simplified, were Mr. Deming's nine "Pre-Requisites to Self-Government" — a simple summary of the princi- ples enumerated above — posted in the street-cars. His chapter on the dual re lation of the city to the State is even more helpful; and, for New York, at least, a word is spoken in season when he shows that city government is gov- ernment, and not merely bookkeeping, or municipal research or a trusteeship. One can find fault only with Mr. Dem- ing's attempt to turn his book into a proof that cities can prosper solely through democracy — a rather vague term at best. His comparisons of Euro- pean with American local governments, which are intended to cap the proof, seem to rest upon a confusion of home rule with popular government. Many of the English and Continental cities whose success the writer vaunts enjoy home rule, to be sure, and in full meas- ure; but their suffrage systems must deny to them the name of democracies. We would not say that the writer's theory as to democracy may not be sound, but these instances are not con- vincing. Drama. The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Five Acts. By Maurice Maeterlinck. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. The poet, the philosopher, and the nat- uralist all bear their part in "The Blue Bird," the delightful dream-play which is one of the latest productions of the rich and delicate fancy of Maurice Maeterlinck, and which has been put into excellent and at times exceedingly

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April 8, 1909] The Nation. 367 felicitous English by Alexander Teix- eira de Mattos. Written with charming simplicity, and telling a story admir- ably suited to childish interests and un- derstanding, it makes an equally strong appeal to adults by its imaginative sym- bolism, its freshness of humor and ob- servation, and the inventive spirit which animates its parable. It deals with the dream adventures of Tyltil and Mytil, the children of a wood-cutter, who are commissioned by the fairy B€rylune (the very counterpart of an old neigh- bor, Madame Berlingot) to go in quest of the Blue Bird, whose possession will enable man to discover the hidden souls of animals and things, and so deprive them of their last vestige of indepen- dence. The fairy endows the children with a magic diamond, which, on being turned, converts all familiar objects, animate and inanimate, into human per- sonalities. Armed with this talisman, they set out on their quest, under the guidance of Light, with the dog, the cat, bread, sugar, fire, water, and milk as an attendant bodyguard. The cat — obsequious, insinuating, self- ish, and treacherous — is the villain of the piece, ever trying to defeat his young master, while feigning great affection. He is rewarded with frequent caresses, while the dog, Tyltil's devoted slave and indomitable ally, is the constant victim of misapprehension and rebuff. With these companions the children pass through strange experiences. First, they visit their little dead brothers and sis- ters, whom they find with their grand- parents, all unchanged, in the land of memory. They learn that the dead sleep peacefully except when the living think of them; then they exist once again, as of old, in the memories of the sur- vivors. Next the children invade the pal- ace of Night, who, forewarned by the cat, does her best to hinder their search, but is compelled to open all her dark places at the behest of Light. Tyltil finds that the ghosts have been much discouraged since men refused to take them seriously, and that the diseases have been greatly dispir- ited and enfeebled by the discovery of microbes. Her vast silence, Night declares, is now her most potent ter- ror. In one enchanting chamber are en- closed the perfumes of night, the stars and will-o'-the-wisps, fire-flies, nightin- gales' songs and golden dews. There, too, are ti* «?ream gardens of the blue birds, who make the place a paradise, but who, alas! perish in the light of day. Among them is the one Blue Bird of their search, but he escapes on a moon-beam. They hear of the bird next in the forest, where, at the instigation of the cat, the trees and various wild and do- mestic animals, hold a parliament, and resolve to do away with the children, who are rescued only by the desperate valor of the dog. Then they seek the Blue Bird in a graveyard — a scene full of the old weird Maeterlinckian mystery— where Tyltil makes the aston- ishing discovery that there are no dead beneath the gravestones, but that all have been transmuted into new, glor- ious, and luxuriant life. The last and greatest adventure is in the kingdom of the future, a series of vast halls, peopled by the souls who are awaiting their turn to be born. These are in charge of sovereign and lovely figures like unto angels, and Time is the appointed minister who takes them to earth. It is in these later scenes that the poetical imagination and descriptive power of the dramatist are most strikingly displayed. The dialogue between the living and the unborn chil- dren is full of exquisite touches. Tyltil learns that no child soul can go to earth until it has its special mission: a great invention, a new happiness, or, perchance, a great crime. One unborn soul has the secret of prolonging life, another knows the treasures of the moon, others have new processes of cul- tivation; the destiny of one is to ban- ish injustice, and of another to con- quer death. The whole conception is a brilliant bit of invention, full of inspir- ing and poetic thought, but expressed, with wonderful art, in the simplest terms of childhood. In the last scene of all the children, still in their beds in the paternal cottage, awake to be- lieve, for some time at least, in the real- ity of their adventures, to recognize in their neighbor, Madame Berlingot, the fairy of their dreams, and to see in their own pet turtle-dove, the Blue Bird of their hunt, although he is not quite so blue as imagination had painted him. Herein lies one great moral of the fable. It is possible that some of the original charm of this fascinating vision may have been lost in the translation, but enough remains to prove it a master- piece of its kind. Only genius could charge a nursery tale with so much sig- nificance without robbing it of its child- like character. Whether it will ever reach the stage here is doubtful. Only the grosser part of it could survive such an experiment. But it seems a pity that such admirable pantomimic opportuni- ties as it offers — especially in the cat and dog, which are vital studies — should be wholly wasted. With three plays, "Measure for Measure," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," and "All's Well." the excellent First Folio Shake- speare of Messrs. Crowell is half completed. We have so often commended the labors of the editors, Miss Charlotte Porter and Miss Helen A. Clark, that we have nothing new to say in regard to the present vol- umes. By this time the edition must have made a place for itself in every Shake- spearean library. In many respects it is the most convenient reading edition on the mar- ket. Occasionally, it is true, one balks at ' the rather lyrical tone of the introductions, and in the issue of "All's Well," a hu- morist might even find some amusement in the characterization of Helena as a maiden likely to "excite that peculiar disdain felt by the crude young male for the rare, schooled, and refined strength instinctively recognized by him as out of his line, and not 'like a man' . . . It is much the same attitude as that borne by the average man." But then if our humorist smiled, he would be that average man who has no business to meddle with criticism. August Strindberg's "Swanwhite," which has been translated by F. J. Ziegler (Phil- adelphia: Brown Brothers), is a play to see on the stage, rather than to read. It is "a fairy drama," containing bits from many tales, the Wicked Stepmother and Cinderella being most conspicuous. The Strindberg we meet here is he of the later period and at his best; there is mysti- cism, but not mistiness, and the play is altogether beautiful — in Swedish. The trans- lation is not particularly happy; to trans- late "betrakta," for instance, with "con- template," does not betray that close fa- miliarity with both languages which a translator must possess. "Bibliographie der deutschen Biihnen seit 1830" is a valuable collection of data by Robert F. Arnold, author of "Das moderne Drama" (Strassburg: Triibner). A meeting of the general committee of the Shakespeare Memorial, held in London, has practically adopted the report of an executive committee planning what will probably be called the National Shakespeare Theatre. The following are salient points of this report : The objects of a National Shakespeare Theatre, as conceived by your committee, are : To keep the plays of Shakespeare in its repertory ; to revive whatever else is vital in English classical drama; to pre- vent recent plays of great merit from fall- ing into the oblivion to which the present theatrical system is apt to consign them; to produce new plays and to further the development of the modern drama ; to pro- duce translations of representative works of foreign drama, ancient and modern; to stimulate the art of acting through the va- ried opportunities which it will offer to the members of its company. To accomplish these purposes the theatre must be organ- ized upon a true repertory system. It must produce a great variety of plays, and the productions, while simple, must be effi- cient and beautiful. They are of opinion that the sum re- quired to build, equip, and endow a Na- tional Theatre would be about £500,000, and that this amount should be roughly allotted in the following manner: Site, £100,000; building, £100,000; stage and equipment, £50,000; endowment, £250,000. The controlling authority is to be a board of governors, representing the crown, va- rious universities and municipalities, and including the Ambassador of the United States, and representatives of the more im- portant British colonies. It was announced that $350,000 had been promised to the scheme by an anonymous contributor. London is soon to have another new the- atre, to be built by Edward Holies, and devoted to the modern and romantic drama. Mr. Holies has a number of dramas, in- cluding one entitled, "The Queen of She- ba," by Arthur Shirley and Ben Landeck, another by George R. Sims and Mr. Shirley, and a third by Mr. Sims alone. Further, he has a piece named "Father Anthony," by the late Robert Buchanan, and one dealing

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368 Tlie ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 with the career of Garibaldi, by Sutton Vane and Arthur Shirley. Isaac Henderson, who died in Rome April 1, was born in Brooklyn in 1850, and was graduated from Williams College. Immediately after leaving college, Mr. Henderson came to New York as assistant publisher of the New York Evening Post un- der his father; he also did some writing, chiefly musical criticism. In 1888 he went abroad, and in the course of the next few years he wrote several books and plays. One of his novels, "The Prelate," had considerable success, and a play, "Agatha," was produced by Charles Wynd- ham in London in May, 1892, and repeated there and in New York under the title "The Silent Battle." Another of his plays was "The Mummy and the Humming- Bird." Report has reached us of the death, March 10, of the distinguished Shakespear- ean scholar, Frederick Gard Fleay. He was a graduate of King's College, London (1849), and of Trinity College, Cambridge (1853). In 1856 he was ordained, but held no cur- acy, devoting himself instead to educational work. In the study of the Elizabethan drama he obtained valuable results in met- rical criticism, stage history, and other fields. His "Life of Shakespeare," his "Chronicle of the English Stage," and his "Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama" are monuments of learning and courage. Among his numerous other pub- lications are the following: "Almond Blos- soms" (verse, 1857), "Elements of English Grammar" (1859), "Shakespeare Manual" (1876), "Guide to Chaucer and Spenser" (1877), "The Logical English Grammar" (1884), besides editions of various plays. Of recent years he had lived in retirement. Earl Stirling, who was a member of the company that played at Ford's Theatre the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, died in Chicago April 4. He had been stage manager for Augustin Daly and for Daniel Frohman's old Lyceum Theatre in this city. He also was leading juvenile with William J. Florence, Edwin Booth, and Edward Keene. John Millington Synge, the dramatic writer, has died in Dublin at the age of thirty-seven. His publications are: "Riders to the Sea," "In the Shadow of the Glen," "The Well of the Saints," "The Play Boy" of the Western World," and "The Aran Islands." Adolf Ritter von Sonnenthal, whose death is announced from Prague, was one of the greatest actors of modern times, one of the few players endowed with unmistakable genius. He owed nothing to heredity, still less to education. His father, a Hebrew tradesman in Pesth, was ruined in the trou- bles of 1848, and Adolf, who was born in 1834, was compelled to seek a livelihood In a tailor's shop. After three years he went to Vienna, where he visited the Burg Theatre, and at once fell a victim to the fascination of the stage. He appeared first as a voluntary supernumerary, and thus studied the leading players behind the scenes. Soon afterwards he managed to find regular employment, and his first tri- umphs— they were very modest, indeed — were experienced at Temesvar. When, later, Laube, the director at Vienna, gave him a chance, Sonnenthal — chiefly on ac- count of his Hebrew parentage — was hiss- ed off the boards. Next morning Laube, who seems to have been gifted with rare powers of perception, engaged him for three years. Upon his next appearance the public stayed away from the theatre, and for three or four following nights strong an- tagonism toward him was exhibited in ev- ery part of the house. But Laube perse- vered, and young Sonnenthal gradually won his way into public favor, until he had es- tablished himself as Vienna's favorite ac- tor. In 1854 he played Hamlet for the first time, winning an emphatic triumph, and from that time his advance in fame and popularity was rapid. He became a regu- lar member of the Hofburg Theatre in 1856, and in 1881 he celebrated his twenty- fifth anniversary there amid extraordinary popular demonstrations. The Emperor con- ferred upon him the order of the Iron Crown, a mark of distinction to which no actor had ever before attained. It was in 1885 that he made his first visit to the United States, appearing first in the Irving Place Theatre in this city, where he cre- ated a profound impression by the sim- plicity and veracity of his methods, the vividness of his interpretations, and his striking versatility. He paid brief profes- sional visits to us again in 1899 and 1902. Adalbert Matkowsky, one of the best known of modern German actors, died re- cently at Charlottenburg, at the age of fifty. After a few years of preparation he began, at the Court Theatre in Dresden, a long and successful career, which was con- tinued at Hamburg, and, since 1890, at the Royal Theatre in Berlin. He was par- ticularly successful in the great characters of Schiller and Shakespeare. Music. While the number of American singers who are admired for their beautiful voices is fast increasing, both at home and abroad, the American speaking-voice is still the subject of severe criticism by W. D. How- ells, Henry James, and many other less prominent writers. Can the hardness and shrillness of this voice be remedied? In the opinion of Katherine Jewell Everts it can. She has written a book entitled "The Speaking Voice" (Harper & Bros.), in which she explains the principles of correct training. She looks upon the ordinary American voice as being like a piano that is out of tune. She begins by advising the reader to take off ill-fitting corsets. Chil- dren should be taught to take a deep breath when under the influence of excitement: "This breath will cause the throat to open instead of shut, and the tone to grow full, deep, and round, instead of high and harsh." After thus teaching how the tone may be freed and reenforced, the author devotes chapters to changes in pitch, inflection, and tone-color, and finally to the vocal inter- pretation of different forms of literature. The volume has its uses for singers, too, for, as an old German writer observed, we must learn to speak before we can sing, just as we must learn to walk before we can dance. "The common fault of Americans, namely, disagreeable speaking voice and slovenly pronunciation," is also one of the theme3 of "Twelve Lessons in the Fundamentals of Voice Production," by Arthur L. Manchester (Oliver Ditson Co.), which, however, is written more especially for singers. The author has come to the conclusion that teachers make too much use of certain ex- pressions like "open," "covered," "dark," "white," "head tone," "forward," "back," "placing the tone," "nasal," before the stu- dents know what they mean. His aim is to present the essentials of voice production in such a way that the difficulties which discourage so many earnest voice students may be minimized. The attention of pupil3 may be called particularly to his eleventh lesson, in which he comments on the pre- vailing idea that a voice to be good must be loud. Many students expect a teacher to make their voices louder from the start; but a teacher who does that is a charlatan. A good teacher strives to develop first the quality of a voice, leaving its "bigness" to be settled later. About one-half of Mr. Manchester's volume is devoted to the con- trol of breathing, which is half the battle in learning how to sing without fatiguing the voice. The letters exchanged by Liszt and Carl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxony, have been issued in a volume edited by "La Mara" and published by Breitkopf & Har- tel. They are in French. The two men were friends from 1844 to 1886, the year of Liszt's death. The history of Swedish music has been enriched by an unpretentious volume, "Svenska tonsattare under nittonde ar- hundradet," written by Lina Lagerbjelke. It brings together conveniently the data about some of the men who played a part in what is by no means the smallest of Sweden's achievements during the past century. The sketches are concisely and interestingly written, and are accompanied by lists of the compositions; it is signifi- cant to notice that by far the greatest number of these are of a lyrical character. (Stockholm: Wahlstrom & Widstrand.) Lillian Nordica, Germaine Schnitzer, Mme. Langendorff, Albert Spalding, and David Bispham, will be the soloists at the American debut of the Dresden Philhar- monic Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall, Satur- day evening. Boston has lost one of her most promi- nent musicians by the death of Benjamin Johnson Lang, April 4, at the age of seven- ty-one. He was about equally famed as conductor, pianist, teacher, and organist, and he was one of the few surviving genu- ine pupils of Liszt. In 1858 he made his first Boston appearance as a pianist. The following year he was appointed organist of Boston's leading choral society, the Handel and Haydn, in which capacity he served until 1895; he was then conductor of the society for two years. He also conducted the Apollo Club from 1871 to 1901, and pre- sided some years over the Caecilia Club. He composed an oratorio, "David," besides symphonies, overtures, and other works, but these are unimportant. William Castle, for nearly twenty years director of the Chicago Musical College, died in that city April 1, at the age of seventy-two. He was born in England, i-.nd made his dSbut in New York as concert singer in 1861.

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April 8, 1909] The Nation. 369 Art. A Glance at the Grimani Breviary. 5 color plates; 110 in half-tone. Venice: Ferd. Ongania. 20 lire. We come tardily to this handsome and useful publication, but the whole mat- ter needs reconsideration in view of the discovery of a fine work by the "Grimani masters" in the library of J. P. Morgan and of recent research into the illuminator's art generally. The well-known publisher and color-printer Signor Ongania, has done well to make the pictures of this remarkable Breviary accessible at a moderate price, and pos- sibly the editor does well in his brief introduction to give merely the external history and the tradition of Cardinal Grimani's chief treasure. The problems and uncertainties are so many that no summary treatment of them is possible. Here we can indicate only two or three Issues of capital interest. From that in- valuable note-taker called the Anonimo of Morelli, we learn that early in the sixteenth century this Breviary was treasured by the Venetian Cardinal, Do- menico Grimani, who bought it from "Antonio Siciliano." Naturally, it has been assumed that this is the great painter, Antonello da Messina. On the strength of his ownership a few of the miniatures have been attributed to his hand. But we shall see that there were other Sicilian Anthonies, at least four contemporary painters of that name, one of whom, Antonello da Saliba, was pret- ty certainly in Venice towards the end of the century when Cardinal Grimani, born 1461, is likely to have bought the book. Certain of the miniatures sug- gest an eclectic Italian like this obscur- er Antonello. None are of a quality to be by his greater namesake. Besides, Antonello da Messina died when Do- menico Grimani was only eighteen years old, and presumably not yet a wealthy collector. Since the Breviary follows exactly the Franciscan exemplar of Sixtus IV, pub- lished in 1477, it has been assumed that he commissioned the book. Evidently, the inference is hazardous. "We are jus- tified in asserting nothing more than a terminus a quo. The Anonimo declares that the artists were Memling, Gerard of Ghent, and Livinus of Antwerp. The tradition is only a generation later than the work, and there- fore worthy of respect. But no stu- dent of Memling's Shrine of St. Ur- sula will, we think, admit a touch of his hand in this volume. Livinus is merely a name. There is a fourth min- iaturist, whom we feel may possibly be Antonello da Saliba. Gerard van der Meire of Ghent is the only tangible fig- ure. An examination of the pictures themselves shows, however, that these attributions really matter very little. No great artist worked on the Grimani Breviary. We have to do with a com- posite work by several accomplished journeyman illuminators, who presum- ably kept a shop together at Bruges. Several other products of this firm ex- ist. The most notable is a Book of Hours in the Morgan library. Dr. Vladi- mir G. Simkhovitch, who discussed it about two years ago in the Burlington Magazine, attempted to show, unconvinc- ingly to us, that the Morgan copy is the earlier, and afforded models for the Grimani Breviary. In any case, we have to do with an established business, and not with a group of masters espe- cially recruited by a Maecenas like Pope Sixtus. The Grimani Masters drew from many sources, inventing very few of the figure compositions. The finest min- iatures, those traditionally ascribed to Memling, are based in great part on the magnificent compositions of the Lim- bourgs and on the painting of Gerard David. His influence, indeed, is strong throughout the Breviary. One need only compare the Madonna and Saints (pi. 91) and the Nativity (pi. 27) with well- known panels by David at Rouen and Vienna. So constant is this leading that one must suppose either that Gerard David designed for this shop, or that its chief was one of his immediate follow- ers. Still, the Grimani Masters cast a wide net. The portion of the work as- signed to Livinus has a Dutch sugges- tion; the Adam and Eve (pi. 45) is based on a picture by Hugo van der Goes, now at Vienna; everywhere there is borrowing. What light does such a work cast upon the illuminator's art in general? The Grimani Breviary was painted near- ly a generation after the invention of printing. It represents the decline of a charming art. But it does seem to bear out the theory that the miniature paint- er of the Middle Ages was primarily a mere executant, working upon the de- signs of some more famous artist, or borrowing them wherever he might. His originality, then, would lie not in the pictorial but in the purely ornamental part of the work. Now, there is abun- dant evidence that painters of the Mid- dle Ages did occasionally supply de- signs for artisan illuminators. More- over there is only a handful of storied manuscripts which suggest the personal touch of any great artist. It appears that the painter proper who drew or painted on vellum did so very rarely, and only at the bidding of a princely patron. Botticelli, it will be recalled, at precisely the period of the Grimani Brev- iary, executed a Dante for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. For, regarding miniature painting as in the main a copyist art, we have the analogies of ivory carving and early enamelling. Here, too, the interest lies not in in- vention, but in a delicate and difficult process. Evidently, we must revise in a favorable sense our estimate of the painting of the Middle Ages, if minia- ture painting is to be regarded, not as an art complete in itself, but mainly as a mere workshop echo of a finer art of painting that has otherwise vanished. It may seem that we have played the devil's advocate for the famous Breviary in St. Mark's Library. We have no such intention. There are many finer illu- minations, but few manuscripts on the whole more interesting. The ornament- al borders, whether pictorial or decora- tive, are of great variety and beauty. In their profusion of flowers, architec- tural forms, utensils, beasts, birds, men and women at their occupations, they afford a vivacious compendium of life as it appeared to the late Flemish paint- ers. The pictures, too, are a true reper- tory of the painting of the fifteenth cen- tury in the Low Countries. From these illustrations, we might, were all the rest lost, divine, if not the exquisiteness, at least the vitality and comprehensiveness of the art that began with the Lim- bourgs to end with Mabuse. When Cardinal Grimani left this volume to his nephew in trust for the Venetian Republic, the lucky heir begged to be allowed to retain possession of it for his lifetime. And when, in 1593, it was de- livered solemnly to Doge Pasquale Ci- cogna, in full Senate, the republic or- dered that the famous sculptor Alessan- dro Vittoria should do the commemora- tive metal work for the velvet binding. No one who examines the Grimani Breviary, either in its glass case, or more advisedly in Signor Ongania's vol- ume, will find that these enthusiasms were misplaced. Charles H. Sherrill has prepared a com- panion volume to his "Stained Glass Tours in France." England furnishes the title to- the new book, which will be published by John Lane. Students of Leonardo da Vinci are pe- riodically stirred by rumors of a nude Mona Lisa, allied to the drawing at Chantilly and the painting at St. Petersburg. This time the missing masterpiece has turned up In Lombardy. It shows the familiar compo- sition of the Chantilly cartoon, and has a background of flowers. In the Ressegna d'Arte for March, F. Malaguzzi Valerl writes upon this and several other versions of the subject, arriving at the conclusion that all are imitations, and possibly due in the first instance to Bernardino Luinl. Other articles of interest are "On Some Drawings in the Louvre," by Count Carlo Gamba, who deals chiefly with unidentified drawings by Pordenone; and on Antonazo Romano, by Giorgio Bernardini. "Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance," by William Bode (Charles Scribner's Sons), is a beautifully printed quarto with more than ninety well-executed plates. It 18 a translation of Dr. Bode's well-known studies published six years ago, with the addition of two brief essays, on Leonardo da Vinci, Sculptor, and on the Medallist Niccold Fiorentino. Otherwise there are virtually no changes from the German original, ex-

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370 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 cept a swarm of loose and occasionally false renderings by the translator. For the new public an intimation that this is not a comprehensive work, but a collec- tion of essays of varying importance, would have been useful. Again the illustrations, though finely engraved, seem casually chosen. The point of a whole essay, "On Some Youthful Works by Michelangelo," is blunted for want of a print of the Apollo and Marsyas. The book would be all the better for the omission of certain vivaci- ties and polemics, amusing enough when the articles were written, but now irrelevant. Nobody can blame Dr. Bode for wanting to give hard knocks; he certainly has re- ceived them in full measure himself. But one tires of his constant attentions to so easy a victim as Marcel Reymond. When all is said this is a most stimulating book for a student. Few connoisseurs contrive to present their investigations in so read- able a vein, and with so ripe an erudition. Almost everything about Donatello is ad- mirable. The treatment of Luca della Rob- bia is in a manner classic. Short compre- hensive essays like those on boy portraits and putti are delightfully suggestive. In short, few books of essays touch the his- tory and criticism of the Florentine renais- sance at so many vital points. Profession- al students know how to use Dr. Bode's writings. Others should be warned per- haps that many of his conclusions are of a tentative and most disputable sort. What he believes, for example, about the sculp- ture of Leonardo, finds few advocates of weigtht. The three bas-reliefs of the Discordia type have been ascribed by Schubring to Francesco di Giorgio, and by Venturi to Bertoldo, which seems nearer the mark. But is not the ascription of any sculpture to Leonardo merely a subjective affirma- tion? Where there is no accredited work we lack a critical point of departure. In what Dr. Bode writes about the early work of Michael Angelo and the medals of Niccolo few critics fully concur. Still no art historian of recent times has wider knowledge and a more coordinating mind. His reconstructions have always been valu- able even when unconvincing. No one, particularly no novice, will read him with- out profit. We trust that Dr. Bode and his publishers will combine to give this book, in a second edition, definitive and worthy form. "Vermeer de Delft," by Gustave Vanzype (Brussels: G. van Oest & Co.), is an unpre- tentious study of the most exquisite of the Dutch masters, but it is long since we have read any bit of art criticism which seems so orderly, sensitive, and comprehensive. We recommend it cordially to all lovers of the enchanting Vermeer. M. Vanzype has discovered in the Van Gelder collection near Brussels what appears to be a large sketch lor the famous View of Delft at The Hague. Otherwise, the little book follows estab- lished lines, but with rare discretion and enthusiasm. There are numerous good cuts, and a catalogue raisonne, and the price is only that of a French novel. It makes lor modesty to recall that as fine a critic as Fromentin scoured both Netherlands without finding a word to say on Jan Ver- meer. With him the Homeric right of nod- ding cannot have come to an end. "La Sculpture espagnole," by Paul La- lond (Paris: Alcide Picard), is a welcome addition to the brief popular manuals is- sued under the patronage of the Ministry of Fine Arts. M. Lafond writes with au- thority on all matters Spanish, and, if the present volume is at times rather hard reading, it is because it is if anything over- filled with information. Since there is lit- tle material available on the subject this cannot be reckoned a defect. An index of the chief monuments by places, occupying some twenty-five pages, makes this book a valuable supplement to the ordinary guides. No great sculpture was possible in Spain. Our author admits that at the out- set. During the Gothic period, on the whole the best, the sense of nationality was lack- ing. Later the tyranny of the church kept alive the suspicion of the human body and contempt of life, that made any idealistic treatment of the human form impossible. What was left was realism and asceticism. The great sculpture of what we mislead- ingly call renaissance and modern Spain is to really great sculpture as the painting of Ribera and Zurburan is to really great painting. But within her limitations Spain produced much that was poignant and indi- vidual. For religious ecstasy, for the au- thentic ferocity of faith expressed in clay, wood, and marble we must turn to the land of Teresa of Avila. What is lacking is not sincerity (that Spain kept through the his- trionic years of the Baroque), but a certain nobility, which though plainly in the Span- ish character, never was permitted free ex- pression in any but the literary art. This scholarly book opening up a new field may well supply jaded palates with a fresh sen- sation, akin to the Greco craze. Sober read- ers will also find their account in it. For either class, the numerous cuts are too small and badly executed to be of much service. "Aus Kunst und Leben" is the title of a collection of essays, mostly on art, by Dr. P. W. von Keppler (Freiburg-im-B. and St. Louis, Mo.: Herder). Among the varied contents of the volume, the essays on Venice and Venetian art, on Siena, and on the lately discovered mediaeval mural paintings at Burgfelden are perhaps the most interesting. The author, an ardent Catholic, takes the ecclesiastical side of art into special consideration. His style is pic- turesque and agreeable. The book is pro- fusely illustrated. The rebuilding of the Hohkbnigsburg, in- stigated by Emperor William II, has lately caused a great deal of discussion. Bodo Ebhardt, the architect commissioned to carry on the work of restoration, now pub- lishes his report, together with the history of this splendid example of mediasval archi- tecture, "Die Hohkbnigsburg im Elsass: Baugeschichtliche Untersuchung und Be- richt fiber die Wiederherstellung," an issue in the series Deutsche Burgen (Berlin: Wasmuth Co.). The book contains much material about medieval construction, es- pecially interesting to architects. The New York Society of Keramic Arts is holding this week its annual exhibition at the National Arts Club. Among the exhi- bitions at the dealers' galleries in this city are water colors, studies, and portraits, by F. Janin, at Knoedler's, till April 10; old engravings, Ederheimer's; etchings and lithographs by Whistler, Wunderlich's. Walter Florian. who died in New York April 1, was born in this city and entered the Art Students' League, where he later took charge of the men's life class. He also studied in Paris and won the gold medal at "Julian's." Later, he studied sculpture under Saint-Gaudens. Among his well-known portraits are those of the French sculptor Rodin, Gen. Joseph Wheel- er, Carl Schurz, Gen. Cronje, and the grand- children of Chief Justice Fuller. George Herbert McCord, a landscape and marine artist, died in this city April 6, at the age of sixty. He was born here, and after studying under American teachers went abroad. He had received medals at the New Orleans Exposition and the St. Louis Exposition. He was member of several societies of artists and an associate of the National Academy. Francis H. Schell, whose sketches 01" '^ivil war brought him fame, died at German- town, Pa., April 1, at the age of seventy- nine. At the beginning of the civil war Mr. Schell was sent to the front by Frank Leslie's Magazine, and later became chief of the staff of artists for that periodical in the field. He was suppose! to 'lave been the first artist to make use of the balloon to draw pictures of the enemy's encamp- ments. After the war he entered into a partnership with Thomas Hogan, and for thirty years these artists worked together. Mr. Schell was also one of the first illus- trators to draw for photographic processes. From Berlin comes the news of the death of the sculptor Prof. Ferdinand Lepcke at the age of forty-three. He is best known for his Sintflut at Bromberg, and for Der Bildhauer and Wiedersehen in the Berlin National Gallery. The death is announced, at the age of seventy-four, of Madame Sientje Mesdag (nee Van Houten), the wife of the sea- painter, H. W. Mesdag. She was herself a painter of some note, and a number of her pictures are to be seen at the Mesdag Museum, at The Hague. Finance. THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND THE MONEY MARKET. Reduction of the Bank of England's official discount rate, last Thursday, to 2y2 per cent, as against the 3 per cent, at which it had stood during the eleven preceding weeks, was immediately a re- sult of the decline in open market dis- count rates throughout the world. When the 3 per cent, rate was establish- ed, in January, money was lending at 2% per cent, on the Paris market; last week it brought only 1% per cent, and had been as low as 1. Outside the Bank of England, lenders of money in London, who charged 2% per cent, for short loans in January, were last week put- ting out their funds at less than 1%; this week, they have asked only V/z- All this was evidence of the world-wide inactivity of trade and consequent lack of employment for floating capital. With private banks and banking houses of- fering money almost as low as 1% per

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April 8, 1909] The Nation 371 cent, the Bank of England, maintaining 3 per cent, as its own minimum rate, ■was practically out of the market. The bank has certain functions and respon- sibilities, in regulating the foreign ex- changes and protecting its own reserve, which it fully recognizes; but it is also a jovint-stock institution, and must pay at least some regard to the earning of dividends for its shareholders. The reduction in its rate is, therefore, first a witness to the continuance in Europe of the industrial reaction which began with the panic of 1907. But it is something more than this. It is not even a mere passing incident in finance. It is the ending, for the time at any rate, of an extremely interesting finan- cial experiment. In the middle of last January, the Bank's stock of gold, as was noted in the Nation of March 25, was $20,000,000 less than a year before. Not only so, but London, whose net ex- port of gold to Paris had been only $10,- 000,000 in 1907, and $6,000,000 in 1906, had sent $112,000,000 to that market during 1908. Paris had captured, in the four months prior to the middle of last January, all of the $51,000,000 gold shipped to England from its Transvaal mines, and the rate of exchange between London and Paris apparently insured continuance, of the movement. One reason was, that London's open market discount rates had been ruling at 2% per cent., while Paris was bid- ding 2% ; even the Bank of France hold- ing rates at 3 per cent., while the Bank of England fixed only 2%. The London bank resolved on its traditional coup of raising its own rate of discount; this was done on January 14. The first re- sult was a rise of London private dis- count rates to 2% per cent.; the next, a rapid movement of French exchange in London's favor, until, from 25 francs 10% centimes to the pound sterling, the Paris gold-import point, it got up on March 4 to 25.24%, or within y2 centime of the rate under which London's last previous import of gold from Paris had been made. Next came a rush of gold into the Bank of England's reserve. Since the bank rate rose in January, the Bank of England has taken in $26,000,000 gold arrived from the Transvaal, $5,000,000 from Egypt, about $10,000,000 from New \ork, $2,000,000 from Germany, and about $1,000,000 from Paris. Between January 14 and last week Thursday, its total gold reserve had thus increased, as compared with the increase in the sim- ilar period of other years: 1909 .... $50,000,000 1905 .... $33,000,000 1908 ..... 20,000,000 1904 .... 13,000,000 1907 .... 10,000,000 1903 20,000,000 1906 ..:. 35,000,000 1902 1,000,000 If the parallel is carried back further than 1902, it will be found that not in more than a quarter of a century has there been such an increase as this year's in the Bank of England's stock of gold, between the middle of January and the end of March. Several inferences suggest themselves. One is, that the English bank is getting all at once its long-withheld share in the great supply of gold set free by the world's very large production of the period, and the meagre requirements of trade. Another is, that the historic re- course of "raising the bank rate to con- trol the exchanges" has by no means lost its power. For further deductions, we must wait to see what happens, now that the bank rate has come down again. It is noteworthy that, when the bank reduced its rate last week, shipment of gold from New York to London ceased at once, and that, since the reduction, Paris exchange on London has fallen to 25 francs 17% centimes. Tnat is to say, the movement of French exchange in London's favor has retraced exactly one-half of the distance traversed since January. Furthermore, whereas the Bank of England has, since January, taken into its vaults practically all of the weekly gold arrivals from South Af- rica, this week the whole consignment from the Transvaal was reshipped from London to Vienna. It is therefore still a question whether the forces which operated to deplete the bank's reserve, before it advanced its discount rate in January, will not now come into play once more. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. A Kempis, Thomas Hemerken. The So- cialist's Imitation of Christ. P. J. Ken- nedy & Sons. Arreguine, Victor. La Guerra. Amor libre. Buenos Aires. Art Prices Current, 1907-8: A Record of Sale Prices at Christie's. London: Fine Art Trade Journal. Ayscough, John. Dromina. Putnam. $1.50. Boni, Giacomo. Trajan's Column. Henry Frowde. Bruce, H. Addington. The Romance of American Expansion. Moffat, Yard. $1.75 net. Burney, C. F. Israel's Hope of Immortal- ity. Henry Frowde. 85 cents. Butler, Samuel. God the Known and God the Unknown. London: A. C. Fifleld. Cabell, James Branch. The Cords of Van- ity. Doubleday, Page. Calvert, Albert F., and Hartley, C. Gas- quoine El Greco: An Account of His Life and Works. John Lane. $1.50 net. Cambridge English Classics:English Bible. Authorised Version. 5 vols. Putnam. Carter, Charles Frederick. When Railroads Were New. Henry Holt. $2 net. Chamberlin, T. C, and others. The Tidal and Other Problems. Washington: Car- negie Institution. Channing, Edward, and Lansing, Marion Florence. The Story of the Great Lakes. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Chapin, Robert Coit. The Standard of Liv- ing Among Workingmen's Families in New York city. Charities Publication Committee. $2. Chatfield-Taylor, H. C. Fame's Pathway. Duffield. $1.50. Conant, Charles A. A History of Modern Banks of Issue. Putnam. $3. Cooley, Charles Horton. Social Organiza- tion: A Study of the Larger Mind. Scrib- ner. $1.50 net. Davis, Norah. Wallace Rhodes: A Novel. Harper. $1.50. De Land, Fred. Dumb no Longer: Ro- mance of the Telephone. Washington: Volta Bureau. Faxon, Frederick Winthrop. Annual Maga- zine Subject-Index for 1908. Boston: Boston Book Company. $3 net. Fletcher, C. R. L. Historical Portraits: Richard II to Henry Wriothesley, 1400- 1600. Henry Frowde. $2.90. Forbes, Stephen Alfred, and Richardson, Robert Earl. Maps Showing Distribution of Illinois Fishes. Illinois State Labora- tory of Natural History. Fort, Charles. The Outcast Manufacturers. B. W. Dodge. $1.50. France, Anatole. Thai's. A translation by Robert B. Douglas. John Lane. $2. Green, A. O. A Practical Arabic Gram- mar. Part II. Henry Frowde. Griggs, Sutton E. Needs of the South. Nashville: Orion Pub. Co. Harding, Samuel Bannister. Essentials in Mediaeval History. American Book Co. Harvey, George, and Others. On Track and Diamond. Harper. 60 cts. Hoadley, George A. Physical Laboratory Handbook. American Book Co. 50 cents. Jones, Harry C, and Anderson, John A. The Absorption Spectra of Solutions of Certain Salts. Washington: Carnegie In- stitution. Keith, Arthur Berriedale. Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. Appendix to Vol. I. Henry Frowde. King, Gertrude. The Landlubbers. Double- day, Page. King, Henry Churchill. The Laws of Friendship Human and Divine. Macmil- lan. $1.25 net. Kipling, Rudyard. With the Night Mail : A Story of 2000 a. d. Doubleday, Page. $L Knortz, Karl. Der Menschliche Korper in Sage, Brauch, und Sprichwort. Wiirz- burg: Curt Kabitzsch. Lang, A. The Origin of Terms of Human Relationship. Henry Frowde. Lavay, Jerome B. Disputed Handwriting. Chicago: Harvard Book Co. $3. Lincoln, Abraham, and the London Punch. Edited by William S. Walsh. Moffat, Yard. $1 net. Macdonough, Rodney. Life of Commodore Thomas Macdonough. Boston: Fort Hill Press. $2. Markens, Isaac. Abraham Lincoln and the Jews. Isaac Markens, No. 62 Beaver Street. $1. Mason, Caroline Atwater. The Spell of Italy. Boston: L. C. Page. Merry, W. W. Orationes Turn Creweianas Turn Gratulatoriae. Henry Frowde. Mumford, Eben. The Origins of Leadership. University of Chicago Press. National Teacher-Training Institute Text- Books. Book Four: The Sunday-School Teacher's School. American Baptist Publication Society. Maur, Kate V. Saint. The Earth's Bounty. Macmillan. $1.75 net. Norton, Dora Miriam. Freehand Perspec- tive and Sketching. Brooklyn : Published by the author. Novikoff, Madame Olga. Reminiscences and Correspondence. 2 vols. Edited by W. T. Stead. Putnam. $7.50 net. O'Brien, Sara R. English for Foreigners. Houghton Mifflin. 50 cts. Osgood, Irene. Servitude. Boston: Dana Estes. $1.50. Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & GO. No. SO Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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372 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2284 Petrie, W. M. Flinders. Personal Religion In Egypt Before Christianity. Harper. Robinson, Charles Napier. The British Tar in Fact and Fiction. With Introduction by John Leyland. Harper. Rogers, Arthur. Prophecy and Poetry: Studies in Isaiah and Browning. Long- mans, Green. $1.25 net. Russell, Alexander. The Theory of Elec- tric Cables and Networks. D. Van Nos- trand. $3 net. Sabatier, Paul. Les Modernistes: Notes d'histoire religieuse contemporaine. Paris: Librairie Fischbacher. Sawyer, H. C. The Matter with Nervous- ness. San Francisco: Cunningham, Cur- tiss & Welch. Scott, W. Major. Aspects of Christian Mysticism. Dutton. $1 net. Shaw, Adele Marie, and Beckwith, Carme- lita. The Lady of the Dynamos. Henry Holt. $1.50. Smith, William Walter. Religious Educa- tion: A Comprehensive Text Book. Mil- waukee: Young Churchman Co. Soddy, Frederick. The Interpretation of Radium. Putnam. $1.75 net. Solomon, Maurice. Electric Lamps. D. Van Nostrand. $2 net. Stanton, E. Brandon. Grant Vernon. Bos- ton: Roxburgh Publishing Co. $1. Stawell, Mrs. Rodolph. Motor Tours in Wales and the Border Counties. Boston: L. C. Page. Stowell, Ellery C. Le Consul: Fonctions, Immunites, Organisation, Exequatur. Paris : A. Pedone. Tolstoy, Leo. The Teaching of Jesus. Harper. Vedder, Henry C. Church History Hand- books. Book I. The Early Period. Grif- fith & Rowland Press. Watson, J. M. Aristotle's Criticisms of Plato. Henry Frowde. Wilcox, Walter Dwight. The Rockies of Canada. ' Putnam. $5 net. Wynne, May. The Gipsy Count. John Mc- Bride Co. $1.50. Year Book of the United States Brewers' Association: A Review of Recent Liquor Legislation. New York. Just Issued The Fate of Iciodorum By DAVID STARR JORDAN. President of Stanford University. 90c. net. This biting allegory of protectionism, first published in the "Popular Science Monthly," is now reissued in a timely lit- tle book, with a preface, some amend- ments in the text, and notes illustrative of "the fulfilment of prophecy" as made in the first edition. The penetration and humor of the work seem to have made it classic. When Railroads Were New By C. F. CARTER. 16 full-page illustra- tions, 8vo, $2.00 net; by mail, $2.16. "Full of interest. Besides the general chapter on the beginnings, it gives the early history of the Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio, of the Van- derbilt lines, the first Pacific railroad, and of the Canadian Pacific. Very read- able."— N. Y. Sun. Kellogg's Darwinism To-day "Its value cannot be overestimated." — Pres't D. S. Jordan in The Dial. ($2.00 net.) Locy's Biology and Its Makers "This summary will be an in- spiration."— Nation. (Illustrated. $2.75 net.) Just Issued IN THE AMERICAN NATURE SERIES Prospectus on Request. K no wl ton's Birds of the World By F. H. KNOWLTON, of the U. S. Na- tional Museum, with chapter on the Anatomy of Birds, by F. A. LUCAS, Chief Curator, Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences, and edited by ROBERT RIDG- WAY, Curator of Birds, U. S. National Museum. Large 8vo. 16 colored plates and several hundred text cuts. $7.00 net. The most comprehensive one-volume work on the subject. A modern, popular account. "Admirable. ... No better single source from which to begin one's study." — Independent. Holder and Jordan's Fish Stories Alleged and Experienced, with a Little History, Natural and Unnatural. With colored plates and many other illustra- tions. $1.75 net. "A delightful miscellany."— N. Y. Bun. Sternberg's The Life of a Fossil Hunter The autobiography of the oldest and best known explorer in this field. Illus- trated. $1.60 net. "Makes the dead past of five million years ago live again." — The Dial. Eggeling and Ehrenberg's The Fresh Water Aquarium and Its Inhabitants "The best guide to the aquarium." — In- , dependent. (Illustrated. $2.00 net.) A New Author Seems to Be Looming Up The following opinions have been ex- pressed on Bashford's The Pilgrim's March "A really charming narrative. They're all very real, these good people, even the most lightly sketched among them, while Broggers, and lisping Chris, and good old Lomax, and sweet, human Margaret, and brave, brave Betty, these are altogether too nice and wholesomely lovable to shut away with the memory of their story's single reading. There's too much to be learned and enjoyed to think of perusing but once." — Chicago Record-Herald. "Those critics who have asserted that all possible plots have been used will be compelled to retreat. More than one noteworthy figure, carefully finished and consistent and adding to the general merit of a remarkable first novel." — The Living Age. "Extremely clever and charming. 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The Nation. NEW YOU*, THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1909. The Week. The action of the Assembly Judiciary Committee in reporting against the di- rect-primaries bill, makes it probable that the measure is killed for this ses- sion. Presumably, the managers of the machine in both houses will so ma- noeuvre that the Legislature may appear to have given the proposal due consider- ation and then have voted it down. To smother the bill in committee, to burke It without even reporting it — this would afford the Governor only too good an excuse for calling an extra session. But no one need imagine that this apparent defeat has either surprised or disap- pointed the Governor. This is not the first time that the Legislature has balk- ed at his plans and later accepted them. Indeed, every one of the important measures which he has urged has seem- ingly been beaten at the outset; this is the regular programme. But for the Governor, the fight has just begun. He has already spoken in Buffalo and Rochester with great effect. And if the present Legislature does not give us a direct-primaries law, the matter — it is practically certain — will be the dom- inant issue in the autumn campaign. What is necessary is that the question be fairly presented to the voters. The election last November was a compli- cated one, with the Presidential and Congressional candidates, as well as those for State offices, appealing for support. Next autumn, in the State at large, the candidates for Assembly can be singled out and effectively attacked unless they favor the direct primary. In many Assembly districts the issue can be made so clear and simple, by such a formidable campaigner as Gov. Hughes, that this setback can only be regarded as temporary. Norman E. Mack's plan of a national monthly magazine devoted to the inter- ests of the Democratic party has some- thing in its favor. We understand that to be successful a magazine should have variety, snap, and sensation. No other subject is evidently as rich in these po- tentialities as the Democratic party. No other collection of men can be trust- ed to present a more varied series of views on any conceivable topic than a group of Democratic statesmen. The ele- ment of suspense may be provided by bringing a number of Democratic leaders together, and seeing how soon they will begin to knife each other. Interesting reading a national Demo- cratic monthly would probably make, at least for a time. But whether it would at the same time advance the in- terests of the great Democratic party is more doubtful. Mr. Mack must not be carried away by the example of Edi- tor Bryan and Editor La Follette. Bry- an knows what he wants. La Follette knows what he wants. But the Demo- cratic party does not know. A maga- zine standing for high tariff and free trade, public economy and paternalism, States' rights and Federal concentration, can scarcely hope to win a steady public. W. H. Hunter, chief engineer of the Manchester Canal, and one of the ex- perts called in on the Panama plans, gives little credence to the easy prom- ise of a completed canal across the Isth- mus in 1915. Reviewing in the Man- chester Guardian a recent book on the Panama Canal, he points out the fallacy of assuming that the Culebra Cut yields an accurate measure of the time requir- ed to finish the canal. Because the cut will be excavated, at the present rate of progress, in less than six years, it has been argued that the crux of the engi- neering problem will have been sur- mounted. Not so, affirms Mr. Hunter. The great obstacle, and the chief con- sumer of time, is the flight of locks at Gatun. This engineer, like many an- other, has grave doubts about a safe foundation at that location, but waiving those, he says of the projected works that they are "of a sort never conceived of on this planet before": At Gatun the three-step twin locks (each lock is to have a usable length of 1,000 feet and a width of 110 feet) will require the completion of a complicated structure of concrete, granite masonry, and steel which will be nearly three-quarters of a mile in length, with a width of some 330 yards and a height, measured from the foundations of the lower lock to the cop- ing of the upper, of from 55 to 60 yards! Of the time which may be required for the construction of preliminary works no liv- ing man can form even an approximate es- timate, but such work must be completed before the actual building of the locks can even be begun. The locks at Gatun are to be paralleled by works of similar dimen- sions upon the Pacific side (except that the latter will be divided into two groups In- stead of being concentrated into one) — that is to say, that there are twelve locks of the dimensions already named to be built. Let these dimensions be realized, let due allowance be made for the difficul- ties relating to the supply and delivery of the enormous mass of materials, to the provision of the highly skilled labor re- quired, and to the inevitable day-by-day obstructions and delays which must be en- countered in the conduct of such works in such positions as these locks upon the isth- mus, and it will be acknowledged that there is some reason in the suggestion that 1915 as the date for completion should be read even by the most sanguine as meaning 1919 or 1920. This is not the cheery, dirt-flying op- timism which we all like, but it sounds dangerously like the truth. Filipinos are having old suspicions freshened by the open hostility a large section of American residents is show- ing toward public schools in the islands. Dr. David P. Barrows, the Director of Education, says in his latest report, that the government has checked the proper development of primary instruc- tion by refusing funds. The appropria- tions, smaller this year than in 1908, will not even maintain all the schools already open. Filipino radicals, who would expel all American teachers at once, join in these obstructionist tac- tics; but the chief strength of the oppo- sition derives from the white carpet- baggers who wish to keep the natives in ignorance while exploiting their labor. These Americans, says Dr. Barrows, are crying out that "the schools interfere with the availability of labor, train boys away from the fields, and expend large sums which would better be de- voted to industrial and commercial de- velopment." The Manila Times has been campaigning stoutly for the reduc- tion of school funds, on the ground that education should be "more practical." Such arguments, which Dr. Barrows hears on every hand in American quar- ters, bode ill for the men in the insular government who are sincerely working to restore the archipelago to its inhabi- tants.

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374= T h. e N" a t i o n [Vol. 88, No. 2285 Fair answer has never been given to the question whether the American sa- loon can be redeemed. Prohibitionists say it cannot, until good becomes evil and evil good; intelligent liquor dealers are sure that what is possible in Ger- many must be here; but, in the absence of a thorough test, all is conjecture. Neither a model barroom nor a model brewer here and there proves anything. Only concerted action by the liquor in- terests of a whole State or a large city will ever do that; and such a move was never made, with more than the thin- nest show of thoroughness, until the Ohio Brewers' Association secured the passage of the Dean law and joined the Cincinnati Anti-Saloon League and the Municipal Reform League to stamp out dives. It is too early to gauge the suc- cess of that effort; but if they work a year for strict observance as faithfully as they have begun, we shall at least know whether reputable liquor traffic is a contradiction in terms. To renew or to retain a license under the Dean law, a saloonkeeper must swear that he has not violated the statute; the dishonest man is thus exposed to a jail sentence for perjury, and to blackmail by lawless patrons. Charter revision is astir in many parts of the country. In most cases where a new plan of city government has been worked out, it has been model- led after the commission form, originat- ed at Galveston, and developed subse- quently by Des Moines and other cities. The latest instrument embodying that idea is the charter which has been pre- pared for submission to the voters of Colorado Springs on May 11. It pro- poses to concentrate all municipal au- thority in a mayor and four council- men, who will be the only elective offi- cers, each acting as head of one of the five city departments. The mayor is to have the further duty of naming all ap- pointive officers, or employees, subject to a civil service system. In order to eliminate party politics as far as possi- ble, no party name or designation shall he allowed on the ballots. Upon peti- tion of 30 per cent, of the voters, an election must be held for the recall of any elective officer, while the initiative and referendum are provided for upon petition of 15 per cent, of the voters. Bond issues and franchises must be sub- mitted to popular vote. President Jordan of Stanford Univer- sity, in his annual report for the year ending July 31, just issued, comes back to his former recommendations: That the work of the present first and second years be regarded as preparatory to the university, and that the work of these years be designated collectively as the Junior College. . . . That as soon as the work of the Junior College is effectively carried on in Cali- fornia by other agencies, this work shall be no longer given at the university, the date of May, 1914, being taken as a possi- ble date on which such change may take place. He proposes, in short, that Stanford be- come a university in the strict sense of the term, to which no student shall be admitted who has not done nearly as much work as is now required for en- trance to a German university. Such an experiment, as we have said before in discussing President Jordan's plan, would be both interesting and valuable in this country. Most of our university study — of the graduate and professional schools — has been an outgrowth of our college courses. At Harvard, Yale, Co- lumbia, and Cornell, for example, the university departments are, so to speak, superimposed on the college, which is still maintained in full vigor. Johns Hopkins and Clark started as universi- ties, but both have since established un- dergraduate departments, partly, per- haps, to serve as feeders. Neither Johns Hopkins nor Clark, we may add, can command the financial resources of Stan- ford. An institution of such enormous wealth, devoted to higher study, ought to exert a wide and profound influence on our educational system; it ought to find a rich field for its endeavor. And there are on the Pacific Coast a num- ber of colleges well equipped for giving that undergraduate instruction which President Jordan would relegate to oth- er institutions. From this distance no reason appears why Stanford should not, in a few years, take this important step. The existence of the Clemenceau Cab- inet is more seriously menaced by the latest revelations concerning naval mis- management than by any number of impending labor insurrections. The French navy has made a deplorable rec- ord during the last few years. A num- ber of war vessels, including one battle- ship and several cruisers, have been wrecked or damaged by explosion, by collision, and by being run aground. The laborers in the naval arsenals have been in a state of chronic mutiny. On board: ship discipline has been reported as breaking down. The large number of accidents was attributed to the grow- ing habit of opium-smoking among the officers. Not long ago the government forced the retirement of an admiral who openly declared that the fleet was in no condition to meet an enemy. The ships were said to be short of supplies and fittings. To complete the circle, a commission of inquiry is now bringing to light the most astounding instances of peculation on the part of naval con- tractors. Russia, the classic home of official thievery, must look to her laurels, if half what is told concerning the French navy be true. At a time, therefore, when the nations are going mad over naval defence, France seems to be finding out that she has scarcely a navy at all. Similar revelations re- garding the disorganization of the French army in the winter of 1904 forc- ed the resignation of Premier Combes just as he was about to crown his career by passing the Separation Law. The French army to-day is in good condition. That the navy should have been allowed to come to such an evil pass is a grave reflection on M. Clemenceau's adminis- trative ability. The scheme of reforms for India is still in the modelling stage. Probably the most important feature of Lord Morley's plan is the creation of Pro- vincial Executive Councils to which na- tives are to be admitted. Now, since the Executive Council in India is really the ruling body, the step is a far-reaching one, it is still being debated, and its fate is uncertain. As for the Viceroy's Executive Council, Lord Morley only a short time ago was not prepared to go so far as to make one of its six mem- bers a native. That, however, is what he has recently done. The results of this action are bound to be far-reaching. In the first place, the appointment ought practically to solve the problem of the Provincial Councils. Once the Vice- roy's Council has been thrown open, it would be absurd to keep the inferior councils closed. The new appointee is a distinguished Hindu lawyer, Mr. Sin- ha, who succeeds an Englishman as legal member. The London Times says that for the first time since the begin-

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April 15, 1909] The Nation. 375 ning of British rule in India, "the su- preme authority will shortly pass from exclusively British hands." It goes on to emphasize the gravity of the step: A member of the Viceroy's Executive Council is much more than a departmental chief. He is, in a truer sense than the ministers of most European states, a ruler of men, and he should have the intellect and the moral training of a ruler. The largest and the weightiest problems in all branches of government come before him, and the decisions which he and his col- leagues reach not only affect the lives of the 300,000,000 inhabitants of India, but of- ten exercise a powerful influence upon th* policy and the fortunes of the empire. For him there are no State secrets and no confidential documents. He has a right to know and to debate the imperii arcana. The most delicate mysteries of diplomacy, the most carefully guarded of military pre- cautions, are trusted to his faith and to his discretion. In other words, were the Viceroy's Council confronted with the possible danger of another Sepoy rebellion, a na- tive of India would be party to the Brit- ish plans. The impartial judge must, however, conclude that, on the whole, the new arrangement will remove the cause for more rebellions than it will incite. THE SENATE TARIFF. The tariff bill which Mr. Aldrich re- ported to the Senate on Monday is, prop- erly speaking, no tariff bill at all. It is the Payne bill scratched and scored, with a mixture of the Dingley bill mangled. Important schedules are left for later introduction. Like the deform- ed Richard, the Aldrich bill can say that it was sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up. For the speed with which this patch- work was laid before the Senate, rea- sons are given in the report from the Finance Committee, or, rather, from its Republican members. The urgent need of passing a tariff bill at the earliest day possible, in order to end business uncer- tainty, is dwelt upon as justification for asking the Senate to take up and dis- cuss an incomplete measure. This is Bound enough, especially in view of the fact that the Senate may alter the bill out of its original semblance, and also that the final rates are to be written in conference between the two houses. Yet this plausible excuse that the king's bus- iness requireth haste, does not explain the whole procedure. It is plain that, in some of the contested parts of the tariff, the Republicans on the Finance Committee could not agree. Wood pulp, coal, hides, together with the entire pro- vision respecting maximum and mini- mum duties, and the administrative sec- tions, are "left open for further action." What lies behind that specious phrase, everybody knows; good trading mate- rial has been placed in the hands of the log-rollers. What will emerge, after they have got their work done, nobody can tell. Yet final judgment on the Senate bill must be deferred until we do see what comes out of the Senatorial melt- ing-pot. As the Aldrich bill stands, it has some features which are better than the cor- responding ones in the Payne bill. The Senate rejects the 100 per cent, in- creases over the Dingley duties on gloves, and restores the rates as in the existing law. These themselves are too high, even considered as a tax on an imported luxury. Still, the Finance Committee has repelled this grab, and has also resisted the attempt to raise the taxes on hosiery; and for this, due credit must not be withheld. And if it is true, as Senator Aldrich asserts, that the rates in the Senate bill are "lower than in the bill as it passed the House," this fact will appear as the measure is analyzed, and the country will decide whether Republican pledges have been kept. Meanwhile, we are bound to note cer- tain disquieting symptoms. Senator Aid- rich plumes himself on the fact that "the actual number of reductions" is "about three times the number of in- creases." But why any increases at all? The demand of the people, and the de- mand of President Taft, was for reduc- tions. The President has declared that the increases should be "few, if any." But one-third is not a few. These in- creases are blandly explained by Sena- tor Aldrich as in part due to the need of "preserving the symmetry of the schedules." The rueful taxpayer knows all about that symmetry. It is sym- metrical greed, perfectly harmonious di- vision of the plunder, on the principle that if you don't give me my share of the booty, by Heaven, I'll prevent you from getting yours. Furthermore, there is a suspicious change in the Senate bill from ad valorem to specific duties. This is especially the case in the cotton and silk schedules. Now, specific duties are the notorious lurking-places of tariff "jokers," and it will be necessary to sub- mit these new specific duties to close and expert examination in order to dis- cover just who are the manufacturers and campaign contributors that have been getting in their fine work. We think, too, that the country will regard the taking of iron ore off the free list, where the House put it, as not only a backward step, but an ominous one. It gives color to the rumor that the Sen- ate was all along determined to make short work of free hides, free coal, and free wood pulp. It is about those arti- cles that the Senatorial "hog combine" was reported to be forming, and the restoration of iron ore to the dutiable list will cause fears for the worst in the other items, too. Making iron ore free was, as Congressman McCall pointed out, one of the significant and strategic fea- tures of the Payne bill. It meant a de- termination to withdraw a perfectly needless protection from the few great corporations which control practically all the iron-ore deposits in this country. By so much, it implied a purpose to tax wealth, not poverty, at least in the sense that wealth would not be aided by law to heap up its accumulations at the ex- pense of the masses of the people. But this good impression of the Payne bill, Senator Aldrich and his colleagues have at once gone to work to destroy. Tariff legislation has now entered upon its really critical stage. The next few weeks will show whether the Sen- ate can be responsive to public senti- ment, or whether selfish and powerful interests are so firmly entrenched in the upper chamber of Congress that no popular attack can dislodge them. We may be sure that President Taft will not be deceived by any glib assurances that the Aldrich bill is a sufficient ful- filment of party promises, or a measure that will actually relieve the consumer. He will look closely to the facts. If they convince him that the tariff bill, in its final form, is playing fast and loose with the country, he will not hesitate to" say so; and if a treacherous measure is in the end offered for his signature, it will, we are confident, get instead a veto. THE DEMOCRATIC BREAK-UP. Republican tariff-thieves are rejoicing that many Democrats are becoming as one of them. That is the real moral significance of all the talk about South-

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376 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 „ern Democrats having been at last con- certed from the error of their free-trade "ways. Their showing in the House has, in truth, already been bad. It will prob- ably be even worse in the Senate, as opportunity offers. Over thirty South- ern Democrats voted in the House last week against the amendment to make lumber free. One of them was the chair- man of the last Democratic National Convention, which said in its platform: We demand the immediate repeal of the tariff on wood-pulp, print-paper, lumber,, timber, and logs, and that these articles be placed upon the free list. Political recreancy could not well be more unblushing. Looking at it, first, from the point of view of party, we can now see plainly how vain it would have been, in the last Presidential cam- paign, for tariff-reformers to pin their hopes to the election of Mr. Bryan. Him- self never really a soldier in the war against protection, he had come to have a party following so drugged and de- bauched by protective and other social- istic arguments, that it could not be de- pended upon to attack resolutely even the most flagrant iniquities of the high tariff. Two Democratic Representatives were talking last week about the great defection on the tariff within their own party. One of them said that, on that issue, they had lost the Democratic whip, as well as the chairman of their National Convention and a Democratic member of the Ways and Means Com- mittee. "Yes," chimed in his colleague, •"and let us thank God the Democratic Presidential candidate was not also in the House, or he might have voted for a duty on oil." Of course, there have always been some Democrats who called themselves, openly or secretly, protec- tionists. Mr. Randall headed a group which, before Cleveland's day, prevented any revision of the tariff. But after the party has in four Presidential cam- paigns hoisted the banner of a tariff for revenue only, has once carried the coun- try on that issue, and finally forced the Republicans to take it up, it becomes an act of peculiar turpitude for a Represen- tative to say: "I am a Democrat to the core, but I am a protectionist." When you penetrate to that "core," you find a strong desire for a portion of the tariff swag. And the proportion of Dem- ocrats that now confess themselves to be actuated by that desire is large enough to rob their party both of its prestige and its power. The explanation, to be sure, lies at hand. Poor human nature being what it is, the motive for going in for a part of the tariff plunder is obvious. It has been bluntly put by Senator Tillman. "Your whole system," he said to the Re- publican Senators, "is one of stealing; but so long as the stealing is going on, we of the South propose to have our share of the booty." Nor would we too severely blame the Representatives themselves. Behind them stands the mass of their constituents, with itching palms. The fatal lesson has been drill- ed into them that every citizen is en- titled to finger coin from the national Treasury; that the only way to get on in business is to obtain a Federal grant in aid; and that the way to make a fortune is to secure the right to tax your fellows, so that their property may be, under the color of law, transferred to you. With these ideas both preached and practised for more than a genera- tion, and with the "new South" re- proached so long for standing for a prin- ciple, instead of rushing to fill its pock- ets out of the public funds, it is not a political miracle that we see Democrat- ic Representatives from the South un- able to withstand the pressure of self- ishness and greed in their districts. While we must lament this, we cannot deny that it is wholly intelligible. What we cannot easily understand, however, is the jubilation of high-tariff Republicans over Democratic accessions to their band. It is much like the ill- timed rejoicing at England's lurch away from free trade, or the raising of pro- tective barriers in France and Germany. Considered from the narrowest self-in- terest of protection, this is a mistake. Success in that game can be won only when large numbers are "frozen out." Protection made universal, ceases to protect. There must always be some nation, or some class in a nation, un- protected, and hence open to exploita tion, otherwise protection, on its own theory, is a dead failure. Therefore, to have Democrats insisting upon breaking into the grand system of log-rolling and corrupt bargaining which goes to the making of a protective tariff, is really an embarrassment to the high-tariff ex- perts and beneficiaries. It makes their task both more difficult in execution and more dubious in effect. If tariff favors are too widely distributed, with too even a hand, they cease by so much to be favors. And if we pass from pro- tectionist tactics to public morals, what does all this mirth of the high-tariff Re- publicans over Democratic betrayals amount to? Why, merely to saying: "Others have become as bad as we are. They do not believe any l'onger in a fair field and no favor. To our doc- trine of grab and push and squeeze and filch, they have come over. They will strengthen the forces of selfishness and of Socialism. They will fasten so many more blood-suckers upon the Treasury. They will sow envy and hate. They will be recruits to the army of political cor- ruption. Therefore, let us thank God and take courage!" ANGLO-GERMAN DIPLOMACY. If statesmanship in Germany and England has not gone sterile, and di- plomacy become imbecile, some way of making and keeping the peace between those two countries will speedily be found. The present situation of either, as pictured by its own public men, is growing rapidly to be intolerable; while their relations, as expressed in the alarms and jealousies and recrimina- tions over the desperate competition in naval armaments, are daily becoming more bitter and tense. If ever there was a chance for large statesmanship, it is offered to-day on both sides of the North Sea. Consider the plight of both nations, as they themselves confess it. It is, pri- marily, a contest between them of ex- haustion. Each is studying the other to see which will first bleed to death. By heightened and oppressive taxation, each is opening its veins; and the finan- cial doctors are standing by to deter- mine which one will first fall fainting to the ground. Mr. Chiozza Money, the English statistical expert, has been tak- ing stock of British wealth that can be flung into the ship-building game, and gravely assures his countrymen that, if they stand ready to surrender their last penny, they can hold out in the waste- ful competition a year or two longer than Germany. Misery confronts the people of both countries, if the path they are now treading is followed to the end, but both are seemingly prepared so to pursue it. If Bishop Butler were alive, he would find in this Anglo-Ger- man madness fresh prompting and point to his speculation whether it were pos- sible for a whole nation to go crazy. Li*

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April 15, 1909] The Nation. 377 As if to add to the impression of lu- nacy, the very naval experts in the two countries, who have precipitated the trouble, are now confessing that they are not sure even of their own ground. They are straining every nerve to carry out a policy which they have to admit may be entirely mistaken. The British Admiralty has placed all its faith in Dreadnoughts, yet is not sure even of them. That the new monsters have practically made England's preceding splendid fleet of battleships and cruis- ers unavailable for the line of battle, was reluctantly conceded by the First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of Commons the other day. But when pressed for reasons why the government did not, then, order at once eight of the indispensable Dreadnoughts, instead of four, he replied that he was not certain that the best type had yet been found. Thus, as the Dreadnoughts had made the pre-Dreadnoughts antiquated, the post-Dreadnoughts may send the Dread- noughts to the scrap-heap. Moreover, the development of the warship of the air may soon make the battleships of the sea a vain thing for safety. Pending that event, we have now the report that naval expert opinion, in both Germany and England, is veering to the convic- tion that future naval battles will be decided, after all, not by Dreadnoughts, but by torpedo-boats! Thus it seems that, for all the taxpayers know, their money is being wrung from them only to be as truly wasted as if it were cast into the sea. There was a vast amount of bristling military talk when the House of Com- mons debated, on March 29, the vote of censure on the government, but the most sensible thing said came in a question addressed to the Prime Minis- ter. A member, W. P. Byles, asked Mr. Asquith whether the time were not au- spicious for discussing with Germany "the mutual reduction of armaments"; and whether the existing strain did not present "a suitable opportunity for re- newing in more definite form the Brit- ish proposals for an Anglo-German un- derstanding concerning the extent and cost of the naval programmes of the two countries." The Prime Minister re- plied that the government was "prepar- ed either to mak« or to receive" such proposals, but did not wish to urge them "where they are not likely to be wel- come." But the questioner persisted: Would not the Prime Minister "watch out for an opportunity?" "Yes," said Mr. Asquith. "We have been watching for it a long time." There we have the open door to a good understanding. If diplomacy did not exist, it would have to be invented to avail itself of this great chance. Neither the German government nor the Eng- lish can justify itself to its own sub- jects, to say nothing of the deliberate judgment of mankind, if it neglects so plain an opportunity to compose an in- sensate quarrel. Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, spoke in the House with great restraint and fairness. He warned the extremists on either side. If England, on the one hand, attempted to isolate Germany, or if Germany, on the other, sought to "dominate and dic- tate the policy of the Continent," a con- flict would be almost inevitable. But between these two violent extremes, which he believed that the sober peo- ple of either land would not counte- nance, Sir Edward Grey asserted that "there is a wide space in which the two nations can walk together in a perfect- ly friendly way." This sentiment found a speedy echo in Germany. Noteworthy is the fact that the Social-Democrats in the Reichstag have sent greetings to the Labor members of Parliament. This is significant of the way in which the struggling masses in either country re- sent the steps by which militarism is crushing out social reform, and binding burdens grievous to be borne upon the backs of the workingmen. It is for en- lightened statesmanship to give heed. The troublous conditions fairly clamor for those "four men around a table" who, Lord Salisbury used to say, could settle any international question if they were given a free hand. Public-spirited citizens in both these educated and civ- ilized nations cannot stand by consent- ing when the policy of suspicion and hatred is leading straight to financial ruin, if not to a wicked and terrible war. We believe that both German and Eng- lish diplomacy is ready to make an ef- fort for agreement. All it needs is a little vis a tergo. It is for public opin- ion to push on conciliatory statesman- ship to the needed activity. CONVERSATION. Is conversation, like letter-writing, rapidly becoming one of the lost arts? Complaints to that effect are heard even in the classic land of conversation — France. If we may believe Abel Bon- nard, the tribe of those in Parisian so- ciety who deliver a monologue, evident- ly prepared, and call it conversation, is mightily increased; while the num- ber of really good causeurs, able to take the chance word or the accidental sub- ject and play upon it, and make it flut- ter, butterfly-like, from chair to chair at dinner or in salon, is not what it was when Matthew Arnold wrote in praise of the intellectual quality of French social pleasures. In England, it is said that many think it good form to refuse to converse at all. With us, a similar rule has been creeping in — a rule partly of mercy to the listener to fashionable small talk, partly of neces- sity, founded in the mental limitations of the talker — and hired "entertainers" more and more relieve the social tedium. We believe that H. G. Wells reported only one place in America where he found that conversation had been kept alive, and that was at the Round Table in the Congressional Library at Wash- ington. These views, however, we think too pessimistic. The decay of conversation cannot be made out by confining our study of the subject to those who do not converse. Nor are those monopoliz- ing tyrants of the social scene who lec- ture all comers, and will allow no dog to bark in their presence, the best au- thorities on the decline of wit and the waning of repartee. According to Buckle, the conversation of Charles Darwin was very far below the level of his books. But Darwin's own account of the interview was that Buckle talked so incessantly that he himself was not able to utter a word. Yet there have been usurping conversers, <or haranguers, who would have taken Darwin's mute listening, on that occasion, as a signal display of a high gift for conversation. One who gives attentive ear to your pro- longed brilliance can hardly be without talent. If intellectual conversation is, indeed, disappearing from the world, it is cer- tain that we cannot stay its flight by taking thought. Since it is by nature spontaneous and impromptu, any pain- ful going about to make a set labor of it, or a discipline, or to study up in advance for an encounter of congenial spirits, must be fatal. The form may be kept alive by such means, but the

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378 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 spirit is murdered. Nothing can be more deadly than to meet a conversa- tionalist freshly primed, and craftily seeking an opening to discharge his carefully loaded weapon. Dr. Holmes's social ornament who was fluent and surprising on all subjects, down to the letter M, but an ignoramus from there to Z, illustrates the perils of talking not only like an encyclopaedia, but straight out of an encyclopaedia. M. Bonnard writes in the Figaro of an ex- perience of his own. At a certain break- fast which he attended, one of the guests fairly emitted radiance. Throughout the entire meal he kept up his exhibi- tion of knowledge and command of epi- gram, until finally some one asked him in sheer wonder how he managed to sustain his verve so brilliantly. "Oh, well," was the horrible confession, "when I know that I am to spend an hour in witty company, I prepare my- self before coming." This, truly, was to carry secret weapons to a meeting where the honest gentleman goes un- armed. The chief rule of conversation is that it must have no rules. There can be nothing cut-and-dried about it. People meeting by chance, or by appointment, do not solemnly say to each other: "Go to, let us converse," just as they might say: "Let us have a game of bridge." The fine flower of conversation is that it is a continual surprise, a perpetual voyage of discovery, even to those tak- ing part in it. They cannot tell where the give-and-take will carry them. They only know that, once embarked, the wind will blow them where it listeth. It is theirs to yield themselves, not to struggle. If they visibly resent and re- sist the course which improvised con- versation is taking, they at once break the magic spell, and might as well be in a class or listening to a sermon. Yet even the unlimited charter of con- versation contains one restriction. The work must be one of collaboration. The really "great conversers" are not the men who dominate the table or the drawing-room with a flow of eloquence that brooks no interruption, but those who have the art and the grace to con- tribute something of their own while drawing out the best that others have. Macaulay must have been overpower- ing and dazzling at times, but we should prefer being oftenest in the company of men like Hallam, with his mouth "filled with cabbage and contradiction." In this idea of cooperation in conversa- tion, there is, also, comfort for the stupid man. The presence of even a dunce among gens d'esprit sometimes gives to the latter, according to M. Bon- nard, a new sense of mutual understand- ing and complicity, so that they glad- ly pour out their riches more fully than usual before their stolid companion. This thought should give the most de- spondent fresh hope. If conversation depends upon a supply of dull people, it must and shall be preserved. ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. The passing of Swinburne last Satur- day morning will be to many like the closing of the door to another of the chambers of romance. And this may be said in an almost literal sense. For years, the Pines at putney Hill, where Swinburne and Mr. Watts-Dunton have lived together, has been the goal of longing for the more romantic of Eng- land's younger poets. The life of the two men was passed latterly in a kind of fraternal retirement, not even much broken, we believe, by the recent mar- riage of Mr. Watts-Dunton; but their home was the refuge of a great tradi- tion, and their example an inspiration to those who regretted the on-creeping of the grayer reign of prose. Not only was the house stored with the pictures and other tangible relics of Rossetti and those others who maintained the protest of a rebellious Imagination through the mid-Victorian days, but something of the very mental atmos- phere and authority had been carried from the famous house in Cheyne Walk, where they had waited upon Rossetti, to their freer dwelling on Putney Hill. Swinburne was born in social cir- cumstances which permitted him to fol- low from the first his natural bent. His family connections were aristocratic. His mother was a daughter of the Earl of Ashburnham, his father, Charles Henry Swinburne, was an admiral in the Britsh navy, his grandfather a rich north country baronet. He was born in London on tne fifth of April, 1837, and in due course, he was sent to Eton, where he speedily acquired a reputa- tion as an eager but capricious student. He was then, as all through his life, fond of acquatic sports, and became a famous swimmer. But of his boyish days not much is known. From Eton he went to Oxford, entering as a commoner at Balliol in 1856, and before long he be- came a prominent figure in the Union, where he made the friendship of Morris, Burne- Jones, and Rossetti. In later days a magazine writer, referring to his ap- pearance at that time, said: I shall never forget my first meeting with Algernon C. Swinburne, the poet, now fa- mous, then unknown. It was in the rooms of the Oxford Union Society, and I still have before my mind's eye the vision of a slight youth, whose whole appearance indi- cated individuality. His locks were of the tint so dear to the pre-Raphaelites, and rhere was a superfluity of them on his head, with a few struggling hairs on his delicate chin. His complexion was white as a statu- ette, his throat slender as a girl's, his fea- tures refined, his upper lip proud as that of a Scottish chieftain. He is, in fact, Scotch in type of physiognomy, as also in the sup- ple clean limbs, so different from those of wiry, robust Matthew Arnold, or stalwart William Morris. It was impossible to re- move one's gaze from a being so unlike the average men of intellectual humanity. But he reaped no laurels in his uni- versity career, although he was known as a classical scholar of considerable at- tainments. Without taking a degree, he left college and made a Continental tour, in the course of which he encoun- tered Walter Savage Landor. The sim- ilarity of their tastes led to an intimacy which was not without influence on the younger man. Upon his return to Eng- land, he went to live in Chelsea for a while, sharing a home with Rossetti and George Meredith. Already he had ventured into print with three articles and a poem, published in "Undergradu- ate Papers," in 1858. In 1860, he made his first pretentious publication in two plays, "The Queen Mother" and "Rosa- mond," which did not attract much at- tention. Five years later came his "Atalanta in Calydon," which at once gave him a place in literary London. Everywhere it was recognized as a masterpiece of its kind, wonderfully rich in its imagery and in the melody and power of its diction. Some of the critics found fault with the tricks of alliteration and a certain wild exuber- ance of language — flaws which were to become more serious faults in his ma- turer works — but all admitted the bril- liancy and sheer poetic beauty of the achievement. "Atalanta" was followed speedily by "Chastelard," the first of many compositions in which Mary, Queen of Scots, was to figure. Then fol- lowed the first series of "Poems and Bal- lads" (under the title "Laus Veneris") in which Swinburne broke the bonds of all restraint, giving vent to morbid sug- gestions and exposing himself thereby to a series of fierce denunciations. In 1867 he published his "Song of Italy," with its new note of radicalism, which in some of his poems was to swell into a tumult of vituperation, and which, with the improprieties of his "Poems and Ballads," prevented him from being a possible candidate for the Laureateship after the death of Tenny- son. From this date he sent out a rapid succession of dramas and lyrical and nar- rative poems: "Sienna" (1868), "Songs before Sunrise" (1871), "Bothwell" (1874), "Songs of Two Nations" (1875),'

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April 15, 1909] The ISTation. 379 "Erechtheus" (1876), "Poems and Bal- lads, Second Series" (1878), "The Mod- ern Heptalogia" (1880), "Songs of the Springtides" (1880), "Studies in Song" (1880), "Mary Stuart" (1881), "Tris- tram of Lyonesse and Other Poems" (1882), "A Century of Roundels" X1883), "A Midsummer Holiday and Oth- er Poems" (1884), "Marino Faliero" (1885), "Locrine" (1887), "Poems and Ballads, Third Series" (1889), "Sisters" U892), "Astrophel and Other Poems" (1894), "A Tale of Balen" (1896), '■Rosamund" (1899), "The Duke of Gandia" (1908). All these, with the exception of the last named, have been republished by Harper & Bros, in a uni- form edition of eleven volumes, with a dedicatory epistle to Mr. Watts-Dunton. His prose has not yet been added to the uniform edition of his works, and in part has never appeared in book form. It runs parallel with his verse, and, in- deed, began in 1866 with a retort upon his critics under the title of "Notes on Poems and Reviews." There followed: "William Blake, a Critical Essay" t their disciples, such as James Doug- las, the biographer of Mr. Watts-Dunton, is of a kind to make us doubt. The part of Swinburne in this battle of the romantics might be characteriz- ed, not invidiously, as the renascence of sound. When he first took the public with his "Atalanta in Calydon," discern- ing readers knew that here was a music, a riot of rhythmical sound, which for almost two centuries had not been heard in England. It might be describ- ed as a renascence of the harmonies of Milton's and Sir Thomas Browne's prose, moving now to the measured step of verse. Tennyson had perhaps point- ed the way, but he had not found the exultant swing and the impetuous dis- dain that liberated the lines of the younger poet. And if any doubted of the new music, they must have been per- suaded when the next year came the "Poems and Ballads," When, with flame all around him aspirant, Stood flushed, as a harp-player stands, The implacable, beautiful tyrant, Rose-crowned, having death in his hands ; And a sound as the sound of loud water Smote far through the flight of the fires, And mixed with the lightning of slaughter A thunder of lyres. That stanza of "Dolores" might almost be taken as a portrait of the young poet himself, with his lyre of thunder, his new melodies as of the beating of loud water, and, to many it might seem, with his shameless taste for death and the sting of morbid desires. So with his prose. It is probable that those who admire his critical essays do so chiefly on account of the rolling cadences of his language. He was not a man of ideas, nor was his taste ever cer- tain; all things to him were "incompara- ble," incomparably good or incompara- bly bad, with no middle ground what- ever. Readers who look primarily for thought and judgment are for the most part strongly repelled by Swinburne's rhapsodical manner; they may even be bold enough to whisper that all this is sound and fury, signifying nothing. But under the right inspiration, he could at times set a critical emotion, if not a crit- ical idea, to a singing melody of words as magnificent as it was inimitable. Pas- sages of his volume on Blake read like the stumbling prophetic books of the seer translated into a rhythmical ecstasy: At the entrance of the labyrinth we are met by huge mythologic figures, created of fire and cloud. Titans of monstrous form and yet more monstrous name obstruct the ways ; sickness or sleep never formed such savage abstractions, such fierce vanities of vision as these : office and speech they seem at first to have none: but to strike or clutch at the void of air with feeble fingers, to babble with vast lax lips a dialect barren of all but noise, loud and loose as the wind. It would not be easy to express more resonantly the emotion aroused by a first introduction to the mythical figures of Blake, and to his "amazing capacity for such illimitable emptiness of mock-mys- tical babble." The literary sources of Swinburne's mastery of sound are not altogether easy to trace. Evidently it is in part a revival of the large rhythms and poly- phonous words of seventeenth-century English prose; a true renascence, in- deed. But it owed much also to foreign models. The melody of Victor Hugo he thought more sublimely beautiful than any music heard since the morning stars sang together; and he evidently sought to catch some echo of these harmonies in English. For Spanish we do not know that he had any special predilec- tion, yet to our ear his rhythms have more affinity to the sweeping majesty of that language than to his beloved French or to any other modern tongue. In the lyrics of Espronceda's "El Diablo Mundo," in the grave lilt of the opening words, "Boguemos, Boguemos," we have something that suggests very strongly the manner of the later English poet. But withal the sheer delight in pro- longed, reverberant sound was in the man himself. There are stories abroad that show him on a day of storm pac- ing swiftly back and forth in a room, mouthing out poetry to the rhythm of the wind, and raising his voice to a de- fiant shout at the rattle of the thunder. It was his very temper. If a cab-man asked him for more pay, the fellow might be deluged with choruses from the Greek tragedians till he drove away as from a maniac. Above all, he loved the ocean, not so much, apparently, for its radiant and variable beauty, but, like De Quincey, for its lisping and clamorous voices and for its responsive- ness to the free-blowing winds. He loved its rhythmical motion also, and his verse is never more successful than when inspired by the joy of the swim- mer buffeting the waves of the deep sea. He revelled in its salt, estranging charms with a pagan, sensuous delight: I will go back to the great sweet mother. Mother and lover of men, the sea. I will go down to her, I and none other, Close with her, kiss her, and mix her with me. Cling to her, strive with her, hold her fast: O fair white mother, in days long past Born without sister, born without brother, Set free my soul as thy soul is free. O fair green-girdled mother of mine, Sea, that art clothed with the sun and the rain, Thy sweet hard kisses are strong like wine, Thy large embraces are keen like pain. Save me and hide me with all thy waves, Find me one grave of thy thousand graves, Those pure cold populous graves of thine Wrought without hand in a world without stain. Other poets may have accomplished greater things during the lifetime of Swinburne, there may be something to censure in his methods and themes, but he cannot be deprived of the honor of being the greatest master of musical words in the nineteenth century.

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380 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD. Francis Marion Crawford, the novel- ist, died at Sorrento, Italy, April 9, af- ter a long illness. He was born in Italy in 1854, the son of Thomas Crawford, in his day a well-known American sculp- tor, and Louisa Cutler Ward, a sister of Julia Ward Howe. At an early age he showed an aptitude for language and became familiar with French, German, and Italian. When he was twelve he came to this country and began his more formal education at St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H. Three years lat- er he was back again in Italy. By that time he had developed a taste for math- ematics, a taste which ultimately led him to Cambridge University, England. There he is said to have paid more at- tention to athletics than to study. With- out finishing his course at Cambridge, he went to Karlsruhe and Heidelberg, and finally to Italy, where he became much interested in Sanscrit. The pur- suit of Sanscrit took him to India, where for more than a year he edited the Allahabad Indian Herald. By 1880 he was in Italy again, hanging on the outskirts of journalism. Then family affairs drew him to this country, where he found his final vocation. Here he was dividing his time be- tween Boston and New York, with in- cidental study of Sanscrit at Harvard. At a dinner in New York with his uncle, "Sam" Ward, he told the story of a man named Jacobs, who, as agent for an English syndicate, sold what was then supposed to be the biggest diamond in the world to the Nizam of Hyderabad for $240,000. The English government protested, on the ground that a petty ruler should not squander so much mo- ney. Mr. Ward thought the tale a good one, and advised Crawford to make a novel out of it, though the young man had always declared he had no con- structive imagination. The result of the attempt was the highly successful story, "Mr. Isaacs," published in 1882. He followed it up the next year with "Dr. Claudius," and then Thomas Bailey Aldrich got him to write "A Roman Singer" for the Atlantic Monthly. After that he generally composed at least one novel a year, and sometimes two or three in the course of the twelvemonth. Doubtless, he wrote too rapidly, for at the time of his death he seemed to have passed the summit of his literary career. His later books were not so successful as the earlier. The great popularity which his novels long enjoyed was de- served, in the sense that he was an ex- cellent story-teller, and the world will be served with story-telling. No one in his generation excelled him for mastery of movement and sustained interest in his narratives. Then, too, he had trav- elled widely, and he showed an excep- tional faculty for the effective use of local color. It was in picturing Italy, however, that he chiefly excelled, as in the Saracinesca stories. His characters were not always free from convention, but in the main they were human and likeable, showing his power of keen if not penetrating observation. For liter- ary workmanship, or for profound thought, he was never distinguished; but such qualities were not demanded in a writer so facile, so alert, so inter- esting. His chief works are: "To Lee- ward" (1884), "An American Politician" (1884), "Zoroaster" (1885), "A Tale of a Lonely Parish" (1886), "Marzio's Cru- cifix" (1887), "Paul Patoff" (1887), "Saracinesca" (1887), "With the Immor- tals" (1888), "Greifenstein" (1889), "Sanf Ilario" (1889), "A Cigarette Maker's Romance" (1890), "Khaled" (1891), "The Witch of Prague" (1891), "The Three Fates" (1892), "The Chil- dren of the King" (1892), "Don Orsino" (1892), "Marion Darche" (1893), "Pie- tro Ghisleri" (1893), "The Novel— What It Is" (1893), "Katherine Lauder- dale" (1894), "Love in Idleness" (1894), "The Ralstons" (1894), "Constanti- nople" (1895), "Casa Braccio" (1895), "Adam Johnstone's Son" (1895), "Taquisara" (1896), "A Rose of Yester- day" (1897), "Corleone" (1897), "Ave Roma Immortalis" (1898), "Via Crucis" (1899), "In the Palace of the King" (1900), "The Rulers of the South" (1900), "Marietta, a Maid of Venice" (1901), "Cecilia, a Story of Modern Rome" (1902), "The Heart of Rome" (1903), "Whosoever Shall Offend" (1904), "Soprano, a Portrait" (1905), "Venetian Gleanings" (1905), "A Lady of Rome" (1906), "Arethusa" (1907), "The Little City of Hope" (1907), and "Francesca da Rimini," a play (1902). Several of these volumes, it will be noted, are historical or descriptive. His writings on Rome, Venice, and Sicily, though not the work of a trained his- torian, were from the hand of a compe- tent craftsman, who always saw the ro- mantic and fascinating side of his sub- ject. At the time of his death he was engaged on a "History of Rome in the Middle Ages," which was to extend through several volumes. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The remarkable catalogue of the library of the late E. Dwight Church, upon which George Watson Cole has been working for seven years, is nearlng completion. The first portion, Vols. I to V, describing the collection of Americana (unequalled in pri- vate hands) was published in 1907. The second portion, describing other books col- lected by Mr. Church, mainly English lit- erature, will form two additional volumes, the first of which has just been issued, and the second of which -is in the press. Bibliographically and typographically, the catalogue is as notable as the collection which it describes. Collations are full and exact, and the title-pages of more than three hundred important volumes have been reproduced in fac-simile. In the notes, variations in different Issues are pointed out, and references are made to the most important bibliographies and sources of information; and of many im- portant books, other copies are noted in public or private libraries. The issue con- sists of 150 copies on Dutch hand-made pa- per, printed at the University Press. The Americana were arranged chronolog- ically; this second portion is arranged al- phabetically by authors, with a few sub- ject headings. For example, in this first volume, which extends to Kempis, the books on angling, and those illustrated by Be- wick and Cruikshank, are grouped in class- es. Among the older English authors Mr. Church's strongest interest lay in his col- lections of Shakespeare and Spenser. The Shakespeare collection is certainly the fin- est in America, and is surpassed by only four others in England — those of the Brit- ish Museum, of the Bodleian, of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of the Duke of Devonshire. The Shakespeare folios show more variations in title-pages than were ever before brought together in a single library. Mr. Church, it will be remem- bered, purchased the famous "Rowfant" library entire, in order to secure Mr. Lock- er-Lampson's Shakespeare quartos. The Shakespeare collection will be described in the second volume of the English por- tion, and a more particular note about it will be given later. The books on angling 87 lots, include one of the finest sets of the rare first five editions of Walton'i "Complete Angler" ever brought together. The first edition (1653) in the original sheep, is superior in Mr. Church's opinion to the Rowfant copy in similar condition, which brought £1,290 when offered in the Van Antwerp sale in March, 1907. The ser- ies of books illustrated by Thomas Bewick comprises 62 lots; the Cruikshank collec- tion, 66 lots. Among the rarer early Eng- lish books described in this first volume are Bacon's "Essays" (1597), first edition, the only copy in this country; the second edi- tion (1598), of which Richard Hoe and W. A. White possess copies; Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678), first edition, with a unique impression of the frontispiece not found in any other of the six or seven known copies; the equally rare third edi- tion (1679), fourth edition (1680), fifth edi- tion (also 1680), sixth edition (1681), eighth edition (1682), ninth edition (1683); the first edition (1684) and the third edition (1690) of the genuine Second Part, and two editions (1683-84) of the spurious Second Part. The collection of editions of But- ler's "Hudibras," formed by the late C. B. Foote, is one of the most extensive ever brought together. The Kilmarnock Burns (1784), first editions of "Robinson Crusoe" (1719); Fielding's "Tom Jones" (1749), in the original boards, uncut; and Gray's "Elegy" (1751) are other notable books. The series of first editions of Dickens is very extensive, and includes most of the rarities. Very few books in foreign lan- guages are described, the most important being the first (1605), second (1605), and third (1608) Madrid editions of "Don Quix- ote," and the first edition (1615) of Part II of the same book. Mr. Church owned a number of fine vellum manuscripts, and these are described accurately with lists of miniatures, and with beautiful repro-

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April 15, 1909] The IsTation 381 ductions of some of the most interesting pages. On April 19 and 20 the Anderson Auc- tion Co. of this city will sell Part VI of the library of an "Old New York Collec- tor." This portion includes a long series of first editions of the works of John Addington Symonds and publications of the Grolier Club. On April 21 and 22, the same firm will offer the library of I. H. McCortney of Chicago. Among the titles of interest are some scarce pamphlets relating to 'the American Revolution; a nearly complete set of the publications of the Grolier Club, including the "Decree of Star Chamber Concerning Printing" and the "Rubaiyat," the first and second of the club's publica- tions and the scarcest. At the sale of Part V of the Henry W. Poor library by the Anderson Auction Co. on April 5, 6, and 7, some of the volumes of the Valentine Blacque collection brought high prices. The little manuscript by Nich- olas Jarry, in a mosaic binding by Trautz- Bauzonnet, was bid up to $3,350; and "Les Amours pastorales de Daphnis et Chloe," In mosaic binding by one of the Monniers, executed in the latter years of the eigh- teenth century, $950. The first editions of Edward FitzGerald sold low: "Euphranor" (1851), binding in full levant by Zaehnsdorf, only $5; the second edition (1855), said to be rarer than the first, $10.50; "Salaman and Absal" (1857), $30; and "Agamemnon" (1876), $16.50. Other records were: Gold- smith's "Vicar of Wakefield" (1766), bind- ing by Riviere, $450; "The Deserted Vil- lage" (1770), $140; Rossetti's "Sister Helen" (1857), $37.50; Ruskin's "Poems" (1850), $125, a very low price; Shelley's "St. Ir- vyne" (1811), $141; "Queen Mab" (1813), in the original boards, uncut, $5.95, and "The Cenci" (1819), $160; Swinburne's "The Queen- Mother" (1860), with the Pickering title- page, $125; a complete set of the publica- tions of the Hakluyt Society, 152 vols., $742.50; the collection of books on the Rose, 127 vols., uniformly bound, $330; and the collection of autographs of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, lacking four only of being a complete set, $950. Correspondence. CHAPMAN AND THE CLASSICS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The idea that the first, if not the whole, duty of an author is to be original at all costs is distinctly modern. The very word "plagiarism" was unknown to the Elizabethans. It appears for the first time, according to the "New English Dictionary" in Bishop Montague's "Diatribae," publish- ed in 1621, but composed before 1619. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the great writers of the Elizabethan age helped themselves to other men's stories, thoughts, figures, even words and phrases, with a freedom appalling to our perhaps over- scrupulous age. Not only did they see no- thing wrong in such borrowings, they even held them, when cleverly effected, to be a virtue. One of the essential requisites of a poet, writes Ben Jonson in his "Dis- coveries," is "irnitatio, to be able to convert the substance and riches of another poet to his own use." Jonson, as is well known, followed to the full this precept. Dryden said of him that he was a learned plagiary; you track him everywhere in the snow of the ancient classics. In recent times the work of Prof. Felix E. Schelling and M. Castelain has shown that Jonson's so-called "Discoveries" is little else than a com- monplace book of translations and adapta- tions, chiefly from the classics, made with a view, as Charles Crawford has shown, to using this material in his poems and dramas. The forthcoming edition of Jon- son, now in preparation by C. H. Herford and R. Simpson, will probably point out more fully than has yet been done how largely Jonson drew upon his classical read- ing in the composition of his works. In the meantime my studies in the works of Chapman, Jonson's friend, collaborator, and fellow student, have convinced me that Chapman no less than Jonson levied tribute at will upon the ancients. His poems and plays show on every page the influence of his classical studies. The plot of his best comedy, for example, "\11 Fives," is a mere blending, a contaminatio as classical scholars call it, of the "Heau- tontimoroumenos" and the "Adelphi" of Terence. Chapman takes over from Seneca many well-known dramatic devices, the messenger who describes the duel in "Bussy d'Ambois," the ghost who rises to demand vengeance in the "Revenge of Bussy," the Nuntius who plays the part of a Chorus in "Caesar and Pompey." These all lie on the surface; but owing to the lack of a criti- cal and scholarly edition of Chap- man's plays, it has yet to be pointed out how frequent, how varied, and how clever- ly adapted are Chapman's direct borrow- ings from classical writers. This has been done in part by Professor Boas in his excellent edition of the two plays on Bussy in the Belles-Lettres Series; but there are a number of extremely interesting borrow- ings which Professor Boas has not recorded, and for the other tragedies practically nothing has been done. I mention the tragedies rather than the comedies because, so far as I can see at present, these borrow- ings are at once more numerous and more carefully woven into the texture of the verse in the serious plays. In the edition of Chapman on which I am at present engaged I hope to point out at least the greater part of these — no one but a clas- sical scholar of Chapman's own depth and wide extent of reading could hope to find them all. Here it will be sufficient to note some characteristic passages. In quoting from Chapman I shall refer by page to the most accessible edition of his work, that by R. H. Shepherd, published by Chatto & Windus. In the first scene of "Bussy d'Ambois," p. 141, we have a long tirade by Monsieur on the advantages of public life. This speech, passed over without comment by previous editors, is a mere mosaic of phrases from Plutarch's "De Latenter Vi- vendo." A comparison of the English verses and a Latin version of Plutarch will sub- stantiate this assertion. I cite from the Latin, not only because it is easier for the general reader, but because I think it like- ly that Chapman, like most of his contem- poraries, used by choice a Latin, or a par- allel Greek and Latin, text of classical au- thors. Chapman: Callest thou men great in state, motes In the sun? They say so that would have thee freeze in shades, That (like the gross Sicilian gormandlst) Empty their noses in the cates they love, That none may eat but they. Do thou but bring Light to the banquet Fortune sets before thee, And thou wilt loathe lean darkness like thy death. Who would believe thy mettle could let sloth Rust and consume it? If Themistoeles Had liv'd obscur'd thus in th' Athenian state, Xerxes had made both him and it his slaves. If brave Camillus had lurk'd so in Rome, He had not five times been Dictator there. Not four times triumph'd. If Epaminondas (Who liv'd twice twenty years obscur'd in Thebes) Had liv'd so still, he had been still unnam'd, And paid his country nor himself their right; But putting forth his strength he rescued both From imminent ruin; and like buraish'd steel, After long use he shin'd; for as the light Not only serves to show, but render us Mutually profitable, so our lives In acts exemplary not only win Ourselves good names, but do to others give Matter for virtuous deeds by which we live. Plutarch: Philoxenum . . . et Gnathonejn Sicu- lum, obsoniorum nimia cupiditate impul- sos, narium sordes emungere in patinas solitos ferunt, ut, aliis ab edendo deter- ritis, ipsi soli implerentur propositis cibis. Atque sic etiam isti nimio glorias studio re- pleti gloriam apud alios traducunt tan- quam rivales suos, ut ipsi ea absque aemu- 11s possint potiri. — i, 2. Si Themistoeles Atheniensibus ignotus fuisset, non repulissent Grasci Xerxem: si Camillus Romanis, periisset Roma. — iv, 4, Epaminondas quidem ad quadragesimum usque annum obscurus, nihil profuit The- banis: postmodo cognitus et rebus prasfec- tus patriam pessum euntem servavit, Grae- ciamque servitute liberavit. . . . Dum quippe in usu est splendet, aes ut nobile; In otio si jaceat, labescit non modo, ut est apud Sophoclem, domus, sed etiam in- genium viri. — iv, 5. Nimirum sic sentio; sicut lumen non manifestos tantum nos, sed et utiles In- vicem facit; ita notitia non gloriam modo, sed et agendi materiam virtutibus parari. — iv. 4. It will be noticed, of course, that here is no slavish translation, Chapman omits, rearranges, expands, inserts his own ideas; the sentence, "Do thou but bring," etc., has no parallel in Plutarch. Yet on the whole, the parallel is so close as to sug- gest that Chapman wrote these lines with his copy of Plutarch open before him, un- less indeed he kept a commonplace book after the pattern of Jonson's "Discoveries." An entirely different use of the classics appears in "Bussy," ii, 1 (p. 148): Then, as in Arden I have seen an oak Long shook with tempests, and his lofty top Bent to his root, which being at length made loose, (Even groaning with his weight) began to nod This way and that, as loath his curled brows (Which he had oft wrapt in the sky with storms) Should stoop; and yet, his radical fibres burst Stormlike he fell, and hid the fear-cold earth. The origin of this elaborate simile is, I fancy, a well-known passage in Virgil: Ac veluti summis antiquam in montibus ornum Cum ferro accisam crebrisque bipennibus instant Eruere agricolae certatim; ilia usque minatur Et tremefacta comam concusso vertice nutat, Volneribus donee paulatim evicta supremum Congemuit traxitque jugis avolsa ruinam. — Maeid, ii, 626 seq. There is no question of translation here, even of the freest Elizabethan translation. The trees are different, the places in which they grow are different, the reasons of their fall are different. Yet it seems plain that Chapman's simile was inspired by that of Virgil, and even that the English poet's choice of words was suggested by the Latin; compare "groaning with his weight" and "congemuit," "gan to nod" and "nutat," "curled brows" and "comam," "storm-lik»

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38- *j The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2285 he fell" and "traxit . . . ruinam." The "Revenge of Bussy" is even more marked than the preceding play bv its draught upon the classics. It is, in fact, saturated with classical adaptations and reminiscences. Mr. Boas has pointed out the strong influence of Epictetus, several pas- sages from whose "Discourses" are worked into the texture of the play, but there are other borrowings which he has omitted to note. One of the most interesting of these is found in ii, 2 (p. 185), in the speech of Tamyra, beginning "That is so far." The simile which closes this speech is taken over with a few changes from a poem by Chapman himself, entitled "A Good Wo- man." which appeared a year before the publication of "The Revenge," i. e., in 1612. This poem is a paraphrase in heroic coup- lets of parts of Plutarch's "Conjugalia Prae- cepta," an essay which had been already translated by Lily in "Euptmes and His England" (the epistle of Euphues to Phi- lantus, ii, 223, Bond's edition). I give here the Latin of Plutarch (Conjug. Praecept., §14). followed by the rendering in the poem, "A Good Woman." Plutarch: Sed quemadmodum geometrae dicunt lineas et superficies non se ipsis mover!, •sed motus corporum comitari: ita uxor debet non proprias habere affectiones, sed mariti seria, joca, austeritatem vultus, ii- sumque subsequi. Chapman: And as Geometricians approve That lines nor superficies do move Themselves but by their bodies' motion go; So your good woman never strives to grow Strong in her own affections and delights. But to her husband's equal appetites. Earnests and jests, and looks' austerities. Herself in all her subject powers applies. The passage in the play simply rewrites these lines in blank verse. A little further on in this scene (p. 185) we come upon the fable of the wind and the sun. Chapman took this also, not from ^Esop, but from the "Conjugalia Praecepta" (§12), where it is found, along with its application to the husband's treatment of the wife. Another bit of the same treatise which appears in the poem, "A Good Woman," is not intro- duced in this scene, perhaps because Chap- man had already alluded to it in an earlier drama. Plutarch : Qui ad elephantos accedunt, splendidb; qui ad tauros, puniceo vestitu non utuntur. quod his coloribus animalia ista in rabiem vertuntur. — §45. Chapman : And as those that in Elephants delight. Never come near them in weeds rich and bright. Nor bulls approach in scarlet, since those hues Through both those beasts enrag'd affects diffuse. Compare: To bulls we must not show ourselves in red, Nor to the warlike elephant in white. "Byron's Conspiracy," ii, 1 (p. 224). Another instance of Chapman's making double use <,i a loan from the classics oc- curs in the third and fourth acts of this play. A substantial part of the long speech of Clermont (p. 197) beginning "God hath the whole world perfect made and free," and going on to the end of the speech is expanded, as Mr. Boas has shown, from the "Discourses" of Epictetus iv, 7, 6-11. This work, however, was not done for the play, but had already appeared in the shape of a poem in heroic couplets, entitled "Please with thy Place." among the poems appended to Chapman's translation of Petrarch's "Seven Penitential Psalms," 1612. This poem, for some unknown reason, was not included in Shepherd's edition of the 'Minor Poems," and as no copy of the original vol- ume exists at the British Museum, it is only known to the few who have had the curiosity to examine the tiny book at the Bodleian. Only part of the poem appears at this point in the dra- ma, but the frugal author, determined to lose none of it, inserted the latter half in a subsequent speech of Clermont's (p. 200), beginning "That in this one thing all the discipline," and going on to the end of the speech. It is interesting to note that after making a few changes in the first lines of this latter passage to remove the end-rhyme, Chapman, tired of his task, and transferred the remainder, rhyme and all, from the poem to the play. One of the most curious of Chapman's adaptations appears in the second act of "The Revenge" (p. 189), in the long speech by Clermont beginning "So children." The simile beginning "And as the foolish poet," and going on through the speech, attracts attention at once by its phraseology: "parchment ruled with lead," "smoothed with the pumice," "strung with crimson strings." It is evident that Chapman is thinking of an ancient manuscript, not of' a modern book, and the supposition lies on the surface that he is here negotiating an- other loan from the treasury of the classic poets. And, true enough, the whole simile turns out to be a clever adaptation from a poem of Catullus. I print so much of the poem as Chapman seems to have used. Catullus (xxii) : Suffenus Iste, Vare, quem probe nosti, Homost venustus et dicax et urbanus, Idemque longe plurimos facit versos. Puto esse ego 1111 mllia aut decern aut plura Perscripta, nee sic ut fit in pnlimpseston Relata: chartse reg'se, novei libri, Novei umbilici, lora rubra, membrana Derecta plumbo, et pumice omnia aequata. Hcec cum legas tu, bellus ille et urbanus Suffenus unus caprimulgus aut fossor Rursus videtur: tantum abhorret ac mutat. Hoc quid putemus esse? qui modo scurra Aut slquld hae re scitius videbatur, Idem Infacetost lnfacetior rure, Simul poemata attigit, neque idem unquam /Equest beatus ae poema cum scrlbit: Tarn gaudet In se tamque se ipse miratur. Chapman: And as the foolish poet that still writ All his most self-loved verse on paper royal, Or parchment rul'd with lead, smooth'd with the pumice, Bound richly up, and strung with crimson strings; Never so blest as when he writ and read The ape-lov'd issue of his brain, and never But joying in himself, admiring ever; Yet in his works behold him and he show'd Like to a ditcher, so these painted men, All set on out-side, look upon within, And not a peasant's entrails shall you find More foul and measled, nor more starv'd of mind. An examination of the context in which this passage is set, and a comparison of Chap- man's verses with their source, will throw an interesting light upon Chapman's meth- od of composition. Clermont is denouncing in a long tirade the degenerate aristocracy of France, "the breathing sepulchres of noblesse." In order to add weight and dig- nity to the speech, Chapman turns to his classics for apt illustrations. He begins with a quotation from Epictetus, and, con- trary to his practice, actually makes an ac- knowledgment of his source in the mar- gin. He goes on with a curious version of an yEsopian fable (^Esop, No. 184, ed. Teubner), of which I have not been able to find the counterpart elsewhere. Then, passing on to the characteristic attention paid by a decadent generation to exter- nals, he happens to remember some verses by Catullus describing a poet- aster who published his wretched verses in the most beautiful form. Chapman, we may imagine, opens his Catullus to refresh his memory, and, with his eye on the Latin text, composes the verses printed above. Hii opening phrases, "the foolish poet," and "self-lov'd verse," are inspired rather by the general tone of Catullus's poem, than by any particular words; but "paper royal," "parchment rul'd with lead" and "smooth'd with the pumice," are lifted directly from the Latin. Chapman omits the "novei um- bilici" as too hard to fit into English blank verse; but "novei libri" appears as "bound richly up," and "lora rubra" as "strung with crimson strings." Further, the words, "never so blest," "writ," "joying in himself," and "admiring," are all direct- ly suggested by the original. The two and a half Latin lines beginning "hasc cum legas" are condensed into a line and a half in Chapman by the omission of the epithets attached in the original to Suffenus, and the word "caprimulgus." The close of Chap- man's passage differs absolutely from that of the poem. Catullus has his own moral to draw, that each of us is, in one way or another, a Suffenus, each rides a hobby, to his own delight and the derision of others. Chapman strikes a graver tone, and com- pletes his simile by applying it to the con- dition of the French noblesse, "painted men," gay without as the manuscripts of Suffenus, but within foul, sickly, and hun- ger-pinched. Would any modern author dare to treat a classic writer in this fash- ion, to convey not only ideas, but words and whole phrases from him, and yet to handle him with such masterful freedom, omitting, condensing, rearranging, and finally giving an entirely different turn to the borrowed idea? Nothing, I think, could mark more plainly the change of attitude that has taken place than the fact that such a performance as this we have been considering is now wholly impossible. We think at once too much and too little of our classics. T. M. Parrott. Princeton University, April 2. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ANIMALS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It may not be superfluous to call the attention of those who have been interested in Dr. Furness's note in your issue of March 4, on the hanging of wolves, and M. Rein- ach's comment (Nation, April 1), to Mr. Frazer's elaborate note in Vol. II of his edi- tion of Pausanias, p. 370. Mr. Frazer makes special reference to A. Chaboseau, "Proces contre les animaux," and cites many quaint and curious instances. Charles St. Clair Wade. Tufts College, Mass., April 2. THE LATE PROFESSOR CARPENTER. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Will you give me the privilege of adding to more formal expressions of sor- row for the lamented death of Prof.

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April 15, 1909] The Nation. George Rice Carpenter a word of the es- teem in which he has been held by the schoolteachers of the city, and indeed of the whole country? Professor Carpenter's work had interest- ed him in the school teaching of English, the most important and the most unbear- ably difficult of our burdens. We had learned thus to respect him as a leader. He gave to our school work freely for many years the aid of his taste and discretion. Where he directed we found it safe to fol- low. But in our relations we learned still more to value him as a friend. He was a helper not less than a leader. In the exe- cution of our tasks, not less than in the solution of our problems, he bore a hand, always giving generously his sympathy, and ungrudgingly his practical cooperation. If anything worth while has been done to meet the ever-growing necessity of teaching bet- ter English to the school community, no man of us has contributed more effectively to this result than Professor Carpenter did. Of his personal character, as we who were so happy as to be near him have known it, it is now difficult to refrain from speaking, little as he would desire such speech. Manly and strong in all ways, he was one of those who most justify the noble phrase of the English author, which calls upon the "holy and humble men of heart" to bless their Maker. In all his profession there was no better man than he, nor one more humble of heart, and surely we may say, in fraternal farewell, that his short life blessed the world, and Him who gave it. James G. Croswell. New York, April 10. JEFFERSON ON CENTRALIZATION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I enclose you a copy of a letter of Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon. The original is a part of a small collection of Macon papers, belonging to Mrs. Walter K. Martin of Richmond, Va. In Ford's (Federal) edition of Jefferson's "Writ- ings," Vol. XII, p. 206, there is a letter to the same correspondent, dated August 19, 1821. The enclosed is another letter treat- ing the same general subject, and written only one day earlier. I need hardly say that the book which is discussed is John Taylor's "Construction Construed." William E. Dodd. Chicago, March 30. Monticello August 18. 21 Sir: Your favor of the 7th is just now received. The letter to which it refers was written by me with the sole view of recom- mending, to the study of my fellow citizens, a book which I considered as containing more genuine doctrines on the subject of our government, and carry us back more truly to its fundamental principles, than any one which had been written since the adoption of our constitution. As confined to this object I thought, & still think, its language as plain & intelligible as I can make it, but when we see inspired writings made to speak whatever opposite controversialists wish them to say, we can not ourselves expect to find language incapable of similar distor- tion. My expressions were general ; their perversion is in their misapplication to a particular case. To test them truly, they should turn to the book, with whose opinion they profess to coincide. If the book estab- lishes that a state has no right to tax the monied property within its limits, or that it can be called, as a party, to the bar of the Federal judiciary, then they may infer that these are my opinions, if no such doctrines are there, my letter does not authorize their imputation to me. It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression (altho, I do not cause it to be put into a newspaper, nor, like a Priam in armour, offer myself its champion) that the germ of dissolution of our feder- al government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working, like gravity, by night & day, gain- ing a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step, like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the states, & the govern- ment of all become consolidated into one. to this I am opposed; because whenever all government, domestic & foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washing- ton as the centre of all power, it will ren- der powerless the checks provided, of one government on another, & will become as venal & oppressive as the government from which we departed. It will be as in Europe where every man must be either pike or gud- geon, hammer or anvil. Our functionaries and theirs are wares from the same work shop; made of the same material, & by the same hand, if the states look with apathy on this silent descent of their government into the gulph which is to swallow all, we have only to weep over the human charac- ter, formed incontrolable but by a rod of iron ; & the blasphemers of man, as incapa- ble of self government, become his true his- torians. But let me beseech you, sir, not to let this letter get into a newspaper, tran- quility, at my age, is the supreme good of life. I think it a duty, & it is my earnest wish, to take no further part in public af- fairs ; to leave them to the existing gener ation, to whose turn they have fallen, and to resign the remains of a decaying body & mind to their protection. The abuse of con- fidence, by publishing my letters, has cost me more than all other pains, and made me affraid to put pen to paper in a letter of sentiment, if I have done it frankly in answer to your letter, it is in full trust that I shall not be thrown by you into the Arena of a newspaper. I salute you with great respect. Th Jefferson. THE ORIGIN OF THE GUILLOTINE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The reviewer of "The Gay Gordons," Nation, December 31, 1908, p. 653, writes: "The silly, gallant lad who got himself be- headed (.guillotined is surely a curious ana- chronism for 1769) at Brest a3 a spy," etc. The italics are your reviewer's. Was the author guilty of an anachronism in de- scribing one of his characters as guillotined in 1769? I am not so confident on the point. Undoubtedly the word "guillotine" comes from Dr. Guillotin, a member of the Na- tional Assembly in 1789, who proposed that capital punishment consist of beheading by means of a machine (in place of axe or sword). Yet, strange as it may sound, there is no evidence that Guillotin ever invented any such machine, while there is abundant evidence that the method of beheading by means of the "drop" was known long be- fore 1789. First, let me criticise the "Oxford Dic- tionary": "Guillotin, the name of a physi- cian at whose suggestion the instrument was employed in 1789." Guillotin made the suggestion not as physician, but as Deputy; and the instrument subsequently adopted was employed first iu 1792. The maker was one Schmidt of Strassburg. In consequence of the adoption, in 1791, of the new penal code, which prescribed "beheading" as the sole capital punishment, the Minister of Justice, at the request of the magistrates, asked the Assembly for Instructions con- cerning the means to be employed. The Assembly thereupon appointed a commit- tee, and this committee consulted Louis, the secretary of the Academy of Surgery. On March 20, 1792, the committee recom- mended and the Assembly adopted the mode of execution proposed by Louis. This was "the mode adopted in England. The body of the criminal is laid on its stomach be- tween two posts connected at top by a cross-beam, whence a convex hatchet is made to fall suddenly on the patient by the removal of a peg. The back of the hatchet should be strong and heavy enough to per- form the object, like the weight with which piles are driven." Louis seems to have heard of the Halifax drop axe, once in use there, but scarcely a general instrument in England. A similar "drop," known in Scotland as Morton's Maiden, is mentioned by Walter Scott, In "The Abbot," chapter xviii. It is inter- esting to note that Marshal de Montmorenci was beheaded at Toulouse in 1632 by means of such an instrument. In truth there are evidences that the drop machine was known in Germany and Italy. It seems to me quite possible, then, that the gallant young Gordon may have been beheaded in thin fashion at Brest in 1769. Before the Revo- lution, even before the Terror, each prov- ince went its own way. What the action of the Assembly in 1792 accomplished was to generalize the method and the new ma- chine. It should also be noted that Schmidt's machine was first named le petit Louison; but this was almost immediately supplanted by la Guillotine. Why, is a puzzle; for, as I have said, there is no evidence to connect the doctor with the events of 1792. For the above facts I am indebted to an article by Croker, in the Quarterly Review of December, 1843. J. M. Hart. Cornell University, April 8. CORRECT SPEAKING. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : It is a disappointment to me to find that in your article, "The New English Re- quirements for College" (April 1), 110 word is offered on the beauty of spoken English and the growing tendency towards careless articulation and indifferent pronunciation. It is surely true, as you say, that the lit- erary works to be studied and the subjects set for composition should be chosen with the direct purpose of discouraging "pupils in the habit of slipshod thinking and hazy expression." It is also true that the "art of clear writing" ought to be easily mas- tered in the happy environment of cultured parents and schoolmates; but it should be remembered that many thousands of words are spoken to every one word which is written, and the "art of clear writing" should not be extolled to the neglect of pure, clean, distinct speaking. It is a question whether the attendance of boys of all nationalities at our schools and colleges is the handicap which it is made out to be. Such boys are for the most part of the second generation born in this coun- try— and my own experience has been that it is almost impossible to make these boys speak the native language of their parents even in the home circle. They speak the language of the school they attend and that of their classmates in the same school or of their playmates in similar schools. The question is: What is the school language, as to its purity, and who makes it? Sure-

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The Nation [Vol. 88 No. 2285 ly it is not the boys who make it, and if the boys are allowed to grow in garbled pro- nunciation it is not because of any foreign accent, or because of the foreign tongue spoken at home by their parents. The re- sponsibility belongs elsewhere. When teach- ers and professors indulge in mispronun- ciation—or, if that is too severe a word, say that "shading down" which robs a sound of its characteristic definiteness and the language of its characteristic charm — what Is to become of the pupils? The subject of language should be treat- ed as a whoie and the spoken language should have greater consideration propor- tionate to its greater use. In the inter- course between man and man why should not speech be made as pleasing to the ear as the subject under consideration may be fascinating to the mind? Why should our students be allowed to develop speech which seems lacking at once in those ele- ments which constitute culture and re- finement? Phonology — the science of sound in language — is not taught in our schools or colleges. And yet how important this is! By technical phonology the misplace- ment and transposition of vowel sounds and the beggaring of consonantal forms, which go to make up what some writers call the ugliness of English, can not only be easily detected, but can also be easily remedied. As to the incongruities in our careless pro- nunciation, "their name is legion," and you could not fill your pages with an adequate enumeration of them; but perhaps I may be allowed to cite one single example — the simple word "better." In all classes, with but few exceptions, you hear this word pro- nounced more like "bedder." If you will listen for this and other similar words, you will soon be convinced that T is gradually losing its clear definement and is merging into the sound which we represent by the alphabetical character D. This very ex- ample shows how easy is the remedy by the application of the principles of pho- nology. After more than thirty years' study of the subject I can say that it is as easy in the beginning to teach correct speaking as it is to teach the rudiments of any sub- ject taught in our schools. And why not do it? What a boon to lovers of pure language to feel that when, after his college days, the average student takes his place in the world, it might be said of him: "It is good to hear him speak"! Charles Elkin. New York, April 7. Notes. A second impression of "The Letters and Memorials of Wendell Phillips Garrison" will be issued on April 17, under the im- print of Houghton Mifflin Co. John Murray will publish this month a study of "Six Oxford Thinkers," by Alger- non Cecil. It deals with Gibbon, Newman, Church, Froude, Pater, and Lord Morley. Sherman, French & Co. have on their spring list the following books: "The Pass- ing of the Tariff," by Raymond L. Bridg- man; "The Art and Science of Advertising," by George French; 'Religion and Life," chapel addresses by members of the facul- ty of the Meadville Theological Seminary; "Providence and Calamity," by Charles W. Heisley; "Love, Faith, and Endeavor," by Harvey Carson Grumbine; "St. Peter," by Richard Arnold Greene; "Modern Light on Immortality," by Henry Frank; "The Trial of Christ," by John B. Kaye; and "The Vision of New Clairvaux," by Edward Pearson Pressy. The spring list of Cassell & Co. includes the following titles: "Little People," by Richard Whiteing; "George Borrow," by R. A. J. Walling; "Women of All Nations: A Record of their Characteristics, Habits, Manners, Customs, and Influence"; "Quaint Subjects of the King," by John Foster Fraser; and "Faith: The Word and the Thing," by the Right Rev. Handley C. G. Moule. The Dun Emer Press of Dublin will soon have ready a volume of poems by the late J. M. Synge. It is said that many of the poems are conceived in a spirit of tragic irony, as it were the poet's farewell to the world. In a new edition of "The Gate of Death," now issued by Putnams, Arthur C. Benson acknowledges his authorship, which, as a matter of fact, has been pretty generally taken for granted. To the convenient pocket edition of Kip- ling in limp red leather Doubleday, Page & Co. have added three new volumes: "Under the Deodars," "The Five Nations," and "Stalky & Co." This is an attractive form of these works, for the type is large and the paper is not so thin that it crumples. "Travels in the Far East," by Mrs. Ellen M. H. Peck, is noteworthy as the detailed record of the experiences of a member of a personally conduct- ed party in a "round the world" tour. It was mostly over very familiar ground, the novel features being a visit to Java, a voyage up the Yangtse River to Hankow, and thence by rail to Pekin and Mukden in Manchuria, and a trip to the Korean capital. The aim of the writer is purely instructive, and she gives much information in regard to the temples and palaces in India, Java, and Japan. Numerous personal details, relating chiefly to hotels, shopping, and modes of conveyance, though often extremely trivial, serve to lighten the prevailing guide-book character of the narrative. The great at- traction of the work is its wealth of beau- tiful and well-chosen illustrations, 175 in number, which give a graphic representation of nearly every scene or building described in the text, as well as pictures of the varied native life. (Published by the author: 5 Waverly Place, Milwaukee, Wis.) In "Peru: Its Story, People, and Reli- gion," by Geraldine Guinness (F. H. Revell Co.), we have a book which, in spite of its offensive tone of gushing religiosity, con- tains an element of human interest. This lies in the first contact of an ardent young missionary with the varying types which Peru offers. These are rendered with a semblance of life, notwithstanding the ex- clamatory style. The best thing in the volume, however, is the illustrations af- ter photographs, which are numerous, char- acteristic, and reproduced with unusual success. To the photogravures in "Shamrock Land," by Plummer F. Jones (Moffat, Yard & Co.), must be credited its chief attrac- tion. Most of them are good and some are well-nigh brilliant. As for the text, in which Mr. Jones narrates his "Rambles through Ireland," it gives only the Inno- cent impressions of one who writes with an amazing air of being the first discoverer of a country and people that, somehow, have figured in the literature of travel and description. Amiable scraps of history and poetry are pinned to a narrative which is artless else. To turn from this author's Irish castles to R. Barry O'Brien's "Dub- lin Castle and the Irish People" (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co.) is to pass from an ineffectual book to one of pith and moment. What Mr. O'Brien gives us is a condensed historical account of English ad- ministration in Ireland, with all its ma- chinery and personnel, not omitting the ways in which it impinges upon the feelings of Irishmen. The subject is dry, yet the laboriously compiled information is shot through with flashes of national spirit and with stories to the point. It is one way, not least instructive, of recording Eng- land's most conspicuous failure in govern- ment. That, too, is in effect the theme of "Contemporary Ireland," by L. Paul-Du- bois (Baker & Taylor Co.). This is a trans- lation of "L'Irlande contemporaine," that excellent French study which was reviewed in the Nation in 1907 (August 15, p. 142). It is here furnished with an introduction by an Irish M. P., T. M. Kettle, who nat- urally dwells upon the historic relations of France and Ireland, and acknowledges the- capacity of this "sympathetic student," despite now and then "an irritating phrase," to produce "the best book that has been written in recent years on the problems of Ireland." Ever since the publication two years ago- of Layard's "Shirley . Brooks of Pwnch," there has been a renewal of interest in the attitude of that national jester, Lord Punch, toward America during the civil war. It then was for the first time ma'e certainly known that the famous retracta- tion, printed after the death of Lincoln, was written by Tom Taylor, and with this knowledge came the unpleasant informa- tion that there had been strong opposition to any such amends, that indeed Shirley Brooks himself, afterwards editor of the paper, regarded the action as a gratuitous self-humiliation. Now William S. Walsh has brought together the cartoons, com- ments, and poems printed during the war, and calls his little book "Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch" (Moffat, Yard & Co.). It affords a curious glimpse into the humor of a past generation, and has a certain historical interest besides. Mr. Walsh's own running comment on the car- toons and poems will help younger readers to understand the prejudices and passions of the day. The University of Glasgow has publish- ed, as a memorial to Dr. John Young, a "Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Li- brary of the Hunterian Museum." The work was planned and begun by Dr. Young, and on his death in 1902 was completed by a committee. The handsome quarto volume of more than 500 pages is a worthy memorial and points the way for other institutions having like possessions. Unlike a book, a manuscript possesses unique qualities, and no two manuscripts of the same work are exactly alike, as scholars have found to their cost. The description and history of

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April 15, 1909] The ]STation 385 each item cannot be too detailed, and every feature has interest for the expert who is in search of the best possible text. In this respect the present catalogue is a model, even giving diagrams of the leaves of a signature to show what particular portion of a leaf is missing. The Oriental manu- scripts are separately described, and nat- urally the medical treatises are numerous. The Virginia archives were long in such a condition as to forbid examination by students or use by the State officials. For three years, the librarian has been engag- ed in arranging them, and as one of the results a "Calendar of Legislative Peti- tions" coming from the counties from Accomac to Bedford is now issued, prepar- ed by H. J. Eckenrode, archivist. The ar- rangement is by counties, and chronologi- cally under each county an elaborate in- dex of names and subjects offers a con- venient means to trace a particular docu- ment. A glance at the "free negroes" and "slaves" entries will prove the richness of material thus opened to the investigator. Clement Shorter has done a valuable ser- vice in gathering together in a single vol- ume, "Napoleon and His Fellow Travellers" (Cassell & Co.), several first-hand accounts of Napoleon's sayings and doings from his embarkation on the Bellerophon at Roche- fort till his landing from the Northumber- land at St. Helena. He has offered nothing absolument inedit, but it is well to rescue from oblivion the little known accounts of Home, Ross, Smart, Bowerbank, and Bing- ham, and make it possible to compare them with the Warden Letters (here reprinted with notes) and the Glover-Cockburn Nar- ratives. The accounts of all these eye-wit- nesses, written from different, angles of vision and with varying emotions, are of intense human interest and offer valuable material for historical and psychological study. In his introduction the editor takes Lord Rosebery and J. H. Rose to task — the former for his judgments on Las Cases and Gourgaud, the latter for echoing the aver- age British Philistinism in trying to con- done the English government's treatment of the fallen foe. The "Itivuttaka" belongs to the same di- vision of the Pali Canon as the "Dhamma- pada" and the "Jfitakas," and is an inter- esting anthology of the "Sayings of Bud- dha." A translation of this, as of many other volumes of the Pali Text Society, has been a desideratum, which we are glad to see met by Dr. Justin Hartley Moore (The Columbia University Press). The English of the translation is well enough, but a very considerable number of errors of in- terpretation and some of fact compel the judgment that the task was undertaken be- fore the writer was fully prepared for his task. Paul Sabatier has published his recent Jowett Lectures, "Les Modernistes," as an instalment of "Notes d'histoire religieuse contemporaine" (Paris: Fishbacher). One will find here a brief and, needless to say, cordial account of the main champions of the Modernist cause — Loisy, Murri, and others. As necessary documents, the peti- tion of a group of French Catholics to the Pope and translation of the Encyclical Pas- cendi and the Syllabus Lamentabili are add- ed. As a clear and in the main candid record of the French disestablishment and the aims of the Modernists the book is | valuable. It has the persuasiveness and conciliatory spirit of all of M. Sabatier's writing. It seems to us, however, to come short of complete candor in failing to admit the revolutionary implications of Modern- ism. As Heft 4 of the current series Texte und Untersuchungen zui Geschichte der alt- christlichen Literatur, edited by Prof. A. Harnack and C. Schmidt, we have now a new book of sources entitled 'Das Leben des heiligen Symeon Stylites." Prof. Hans Lietzmann of Jena, with the assistance of the members of his seminar for church history, has furnished a critical edition of the Greek sources, while Heinrich Hilgen- feld has added an excellent translation of the Syriac sources, and will later publish this Syriac text itself. The work, which is a model of accurate scholarship, is a Festgabe issued on the occasion of the recent centennial celebration of the Uni- versity of Jena. Original and scholarly investigations in archaeology fill from cover to cover the new fourth annual volume of the Palastinabuch issued by the German Archaeological Insti- tute, in Jerusalem, edited by Prof. G. Dalman (Berlin: E. S. Mittler & Sohn). These investigations are along the Dead Sea, through the East Jordan country, and along the arduous way from the so-called Mount of Moses to the tomb of Moses. Several articles deal with topographical problems in modern Jerusalem, and with the description of modern marriage cus- toms illustrative of Biblical times. "Bosnische Eindriicke," by J. M. Baern- reither, with the subtitle "Eine politische Studie" (Vienna: Manz), Is a timely booklet, far more critical and careful than many of the recent books dealing with the Balkans. The author discusses intelligently such sub- jects as the political life, the government, and the schools of the country. "Griechen und Bulgaren im neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert" is an au- thorized German translation of the work of the Greek author Nikoles Kasisis (Leip- zig: Liebisch). The work is decidedly Hel- lenistic in bias. Martin Richter's "Kultur und Reich der Marotse: Eine historische Studie" (Leip- zig: Voightlander), the latest issue in the series Beitrage zur Kultur- und Universal- geschichte, edited by Prof. K. Lamprecht, is in every way an excellent addition to re- cent Africana. The author is a good ob- server and skilled narrator. His work is divided into two parts, one treating the history of the Marotse people, and the oth- er their culture and civilization. The programme for the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the Univer- sity of Leipzig will cover three days, July 29-31, together with a Vorabcnd with a pub- lic reception especially for visitors from other universities on the 28th. The festivi- ties proper begin with a divine service on the 29th in the Paulinerkirche, followed by addresses of the King and the rector in a public meeting in the New Theatre. The historical pageant takes place on the sec- ond day and an excursion to Meissen as the special guests of his Majesty, on the third. Naturally a Kommers on a grand scale oc- cupies a prominent position on the pro- gramme. The English teachers of language have organized a Joint Committee on Grammati- cal Terminology, "in the hope of framing some simplified and consistent scheme of grammatical nomenclature, tending in the direction of uniformity for all the lan- guages concerned." The committee is mak- ing particular inquiry on the following points: (a) Terms open to practical objections on the score of obscurity or inadequacy in representing the usage of any one partic- ular language considered alone, and (b) Terms which though not giving rise to difficulties within the study of one lan- guage appear nevertheless to be incon- sistent with those used to describe similar things in other languages. George Rice Carpenter, professor of rhe- toric and English composition at Columbia University, died April 8. He was born in 1863, on the coast of Labrador; prepared for college at Phillips Andover Academy, and was graduated from Harvard in 1886. After two years of study abroad, he re- turned to Harvard as instructor in Eng- lish. From 1890 to 1893 he was associate professor of English at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and in the autumn of 1893, he came to Columbia, where he- reorganized the work in composition, in- troduced the most approved methods, and displayed remarkable skill both as a teach- er and administrator. He was author of a. number of text-books, including "Elements-, of Rhetoric," "English Grammar," and "Notes for Teachers of Composition." He had edited a volume of "American Prose," another of "Model English Prose," and Latham's "Letters of Dante"; and he was general editor of Longmans' English Class- ics. But, in spite of his labors as teacher and writer of textbooks, he found time for more purely literary work, as shown in such competent books as his "Life ot Longfellow" (in the Beacon Biographies, 1901), "Life of Whittier" (in the American Men of Letters Series, 1903), and "Walt Whitman," just published in the English. Men of Letters Series, and reviewed in the Nation of April 8. Mrs. Will H. Low (nee Berthe Julienne)- has died at her home in Lawrence Park, Bronxville. She was born in Caen, France, in 1853, and was married to Mr. Low in Paris, in 1875. For several years Mr. and Mrs. Low were much with Robert Louis Stevenson. Later Mrs. Low translated "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" into French, and at the time of her death was engaged on a version of his complete works. She wrote also for the magazines, and compiled -. book on "French Home Cooking, Adapted to American Households." THE POWER OF THE MEDICI. Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Florence in Her Golden Age. By E. L. S. Hors- burgh. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $4.50 net. Lorenzo de' Medici is likely to remain the most attractive of despots. To-day his political activity would cause him to be classified with party bosses, to most of whom he could easily give points. In the nineteenth century he had at least one imitator on a large scale — Napoleon III, who not only suc- cessfully won his way to the throne by

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386 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 a mingling of audacity and guile, but deliberately tried to maintain himself there by a lavish use of display and public amusements, and by the ostenta- tious patronage of arts and literature. Louis Napoleon's problem differed wide- ly from Lorenzo's, and eventually, at the age of sixty-two, he went down into the great gulfs; Lorenzo died in his forty-third year, with his hold on power apparently unshaken. He had shared in the government of Florence since he was twenty, and had been her single and undisputed tyrant since he was twenty-nine. Yet within a few weeks of his death, his despotism melted away. We ask whether, had he lived ten years longer, he would have man- aged to keep his seat, or, like the third Napoleon, he would have been blasted by a coalition of hostile circumstances which he misjudged and could not con- trol. The question cannot be answered, but Mr. Horsburgh furnishes data for those who would speculate upon it. Lorenzo's life has been a favorite theme for historical writers. At least one historian of unusual ability has treated it — William Roscoe, whose biog- raphy, first published in 1795, is still read, and deserves to be. Sixty years later Von Reumont produced a solid work, embodying the then latest inves- tigation of sources. After him, Profes- sor Villari, in his biographies of Sa- vonarola and Machiavelli, and in his Florentine history, had much to say about Lorenzo. In 1895 Edward Arm- strong of Queen's College, Oxford, wrote an excellent brief life, with which Mr. Horsburgh's volume will naturally be compared. Indeed, the reviewer finds himself forced to reply to readers who ask: "We cannot read both Armstrong and Horsburgh; which shall we choose?*" It is safe to reply that either gives a fair survey of Lorenzo's life and times. Armstrong is more compact; Horsburgh more detailed. Both see the main line of historical evolution, and describe it intelligently. Horsburgh pays more attention to the state of Italy, and to Renaissance civilization in gen- eral. Both do justice to the wonderful flowering of Humanism at Lorenzo's court. Both analyze Lorenzo's own poems with much minuteness. In his criticism, as in his historical research, Mr. Horsburgh, who comes after Mr. Armstrong in time, seems to have form- ed his opinions independently. It is in- teresting to see how much influence J. A. Symonds has had on both. To come now directly to Mr. Hors- burgh, we like his introduction, in which, in the course of fifty pages, he gives a clear summary of Italian poli- tics in the fifteenth century. This is in- dispensable, because the reader needs to have such a clue to the incessant, in- tricate, and seemingly purposeless tur- moil of that period. The only common motive was love of power. The law of the jungle prevailed. But Mr. Hors- burgh has succeeded in disentangling the skein of events in Naples, Milan, Rome, Venice, and Florence, so that we see the elements out of which Lorenzo's policy had to be woven. Perhaps he does less than justice to Venice, but that is nat- ural in one who has saturated himself with the Florentine ideals. His account of the rise of the Medici, beginning with Cosimo Pater Patrice, is clear and sat- isfactory. The student of comparative government will find material here for contrasting the way by which a fifteenth century Florentine boss got control of his city and state, and the way by which a modern, say, Tweed or Croker, Piatt or Quay, accomplished a similar result in New York and Pennsylvania four hundred years later. We commend Mr. Horsburgh for correcting a common no- tion that Lorenzo crushed any valid po- litical liberties. By the time he became despot, Florence was a republic in only a Pickwickian sense. Her liberty-loving folk had about as much understanding of true freedom as the French Terror- ists had. Lorenzo's domination meant order, which the upper and well-to-do classes craved. The one dramatic epi- sode of his career, the Conspiracy of the Pazzi, Mr. Horsburgh describes fully. His chapter upon it is the high-water mark of the book, and will suffice to furnish the curious with a gauge of his scope and calibre. Most striking is his so- briety. Equally sober are his descrip- tions of Lorenzo's statesmanship at home and abroad, and or his family life. Like the other biographers, he makes us feel Lorenzo's charm so intimately that we wonder why his own pages do not fascinate us more. Instead of color, in- stead of glow, as might befit the subject, we have a picture done in sepia, life- like, indeed, In its outlines, but not quite living. Nevertheless, the book is interesting, its information has been painstakingly gathered, and is well-presented. Though it does not rank among great biograph- ies, it belongs among the good ones, and that fact, with the perennial charm of its hero, ought to commend it to many readers. Illustrations and genealogical tables add to its usefulness; but we have marked many corrigenda, especial- ly in the Italian proper names. It seems incredible that Mr. Horsburgh, after working as conscientiously as he has done, should never have observed that Machiavelli is spelled with one c, or that the name of his hero is Lorenzo de' Medici (not dei). The Medici Popes (Leo X and Clement VII). By Herbert M. Vaughan. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $4 net. This is, above all else, an amiable book. It is written as nearly without partisan bias as one could ever expect in a work treating of a subject that in- volved religious considerations of any sort. It would be impossible to judge from internal evidence whether the au- thor is a Roman Catholic or not. In his preface he disclaims all intention of go- ing deeply Into the tortuous ways of Medicean politics or of discussing the burning religious questions of the hour. The former promise the book redeems as well, probably, as any moderately ex- tended treatment of a Medicean subject could. The men whose lives are here described were born into a community in which politics was the very breath of life. That they happened to be de- voted to the clerical calling was the merest accident. That profession was far more a political than a religious one. It was assigned to these Medicean youths as a fair division in the spoils of government that belonged by a kind of right of preemption to their house. The Papacy, the crown of religious poll- tics, was as much a legitimate object of Medicean ambition as was the sove- reignty of Florence. In the combina- tion of these two powers, whether in one hand or in the hands of cooperating members of the family, lay the ulti- mate goal of Medicean policy for gener- ations. If it could have been perma- nently attained, the control of all Italy might easily have followed, and a united Italy would have reacted decisively on the fortunes of Germany and of France. It was, therefore, quite in the nature of things that in trying to give a pic- ture of the early lives of Leo X and Clement VII, Mr. Vaughan should have been led into rather more detail of po- litical complications than he perhaps in- tended or was conscious of, and these portions of his narrative will be the least satisfactory to his readers. When he brings his hero — if we may so de- scribe Pope Leo X — into the full en- joyment of his most enjoyable Papacy, he is freer to dwell upon personal quali- ties and characteristic Incidents, and here, we think, will he found the chief value of the book. "God has given us the Papacy: let us enjoy It!" is the key- note of Mr. Vaughan's account of Leo's administration of the headship of the Christian world. The story makes no pretence of originality. It Is frankly in- debted to many modern sources, but It reserves a certain judgment of these which saves it from being a mere com- pilation. The reader gains a sufficiently clear impression of the tumult of af- fairs in which a Medicean Pope In- evitably lived — the conflicting demands of politics, religious and otherwise, of the arts in all their varieties of expres- sion, of "society," if we may use the term to express the manifold personal relations Into which the Pontiff was thrown, of business in the strict sense of the word, of sensuous gratification of every sort, of "sport," quite as we mean it nowadays, and (not to be utter- ly overlooked) of religious observance. Mr. Vaughan is willing to give these

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April 15, 1909J The Nation. 387 Medici their due as regards the seri- [ ousness of their interest in the nobler ideals of the literary and artistic life, but he cannot conceal the impression that this idealism was satisfied with a certain grade of achievement and could not rise to the highest levels. The fa- vorites of the Medicean court were not the greatest geniuses of their day, but rather the typical brilliant talents of that incredibly talented age. After all is said, it was a rotten thing, this Medicean Papacy, and it demonstrated once more that rottenness at the core will penetrate to the remotest circum- ference and poison the life of the whole organism. The question of the religious schism is handled very lightly; but we get some curious glimpses of the lightheadedness with which the whole subject was view- ed by this heathenish pretence of a Christian institution — as, for instance, when the Pope and all his court are thrown into fits of uproarious laughter by the spectacle, on the stage of the Vatican theatre, of a nun selecting a husband from a group of monks, all un- der the patronage of Cupid and his lady mother. The treatment of Clement VII is nat- urally less detailed than that of his more famous cousin, with whose for- tunes, indeed, his own were from the beginning very closely connected. Its central feature is, of course, the sack of Rome in 1527, the events leading up to this, and its effects upon the politics of Europe. A very brief final chapter is given to two other Medicean Popes, Pius IV (1559-1565) and Leo XI (April 1-April 27, 1605). CURRENT FICTION. Maurice Guest. By Henry Handel Rich- ardson. New York: Duffield & Co. This is not a book to be lightly un- dertaken or lightly dismissed. The mere courage of the author in launching upon this world of restless magazine- story readers, avid of sensation and quick solution, a novel of 562 wide, closely-printed pages, challenges re- spectful attention. Mr. Richardson has manifestly chosen Balzac for his mas- ter and has shrunk from no elabora- tion of detail that will go to build up and furnish his environment, from no thrust of the analytic probe that will penetrate the innermost selves of his characters. Season by season, week by week, almost day by day, we live through Maurice Guest's two years in Leipzig, till we know, almost as well as he does, its romantically homely streets, its comfortably sylvan parks, its river gay with skaters, its chattering crowds of music students of all nationalities. So abundant are the details, so frequent and apparently inconsequent the con- versations, so continual the shifting, scattering, and regrouping of the minor characters, that for a while we really do not see the forest for the trees, and not till the clouds gather heavily over the coming end and the lesser actors begin to slip away, leaving Maurice and Louise to play out their tragedy of tem- perament and passion in comparative isolation, do we realize how intimate with them we have all the time been growing and how skilfully and artisti- cally planned has been the long, slow passage from the soaring youthful hopes of the bright April morning with which the story opens, to the chill daybreak which brings an end to suffering beyond all remedy. There is unquestionably much in the book to give more pain than pleasure. The theme itself, the demoralization and destruction of a hopeful young life by a great passion — the fatal, unreasoning, irresistible passion of the mediaeval ro- mances— for a woman who has neither principle nor goodness of heart, who is a mere embodiment of the mystery and power of sex, is all the more distress- ing because of the complete lovable- ness, the loyal, trusting, pure, and ten- der nature of poor Maurice. Some of the realism is not only disagreeably, but unnecessarily, coarse, and the gen- eral picture of student life in Leipzig is not one to encourage the parents and guardians of young persons of either sex who propose to study there. In this realistic picture, by the way, though it has all the air of being done from the life, there is one absurdly false touch. All the American students speak that marvellous "Yankee" lingo which is never heard this side of the footlights of English theatres. A pretty, well- dressed girl, apparently intended for a lady, exclaims on hearing that the river is frozen: Is that so? Oh, gee, that's fine! . . . Say, you people, why don't we fix up a party an' go up it nights? A lady in my board- ing-house done that with some folks she was acquainted with last year. Seems to me we oughtn't to be behind. . . . An' by moonlight, too — but, say, is there a moon? Why, I presume there ought to be. After this sort of thing, it takes all the power and convincing quality of the book as a whole to win back the read- er's confidence. That confidence is re- conquered, however, and the book makes a very serious impression. The Pilgrims' March. By H. H. Bash- ford. New York: Henry Holt & Co. By their fruits shall ye know them. This novel is palpably one of the fruits of the De Morgan tree, and emphasizes, if that were needed, our knowledge of the excellence of the parent stock. For the maker of minor fiction to have a good model means much. For his read- er it means everything. Thus, though irritated, perchance, by a bouffe opeD- ing, and by the use of small, every- day material, and by an excess of the soliloquizing spirit — exaggerated De Morgan echoes all — the reader ul- timately yields to the honesty of the work and the broadly human sympa- thies that animate the pages. A young man possessed of an embryo sculptor-soul goes up to London to en- gage in the tea business. He is lodged with a family of missionary volunteers to whom evangelizing is all and art anathema. He is converted for a time to their ways and works and daughter, but as artist friends and a beautiful model cross his path, he finds his sculp- tor's soul, which eventually, after miry wanderings, triumphs, soaring above a narrow Puritanism on one hand, above unworthy weakness on the other. Good folk full of faults, careless ones full of virtues, flourish naturally and abun- dantly, while the scene swings about in green fields, gospel meetings, and stu- dios. The characters are defined as by a good friend to them all. One feels the human tenderness in this writer's pen and one would be glad that he should write out the matter that is within him without drawing on reminiscence for his manner. A Poor Man's House. By Stephen Rey- nolds. New York: John Lane Co. We cannot tell how much fiction there is in this book. It Is of the type which seems to stand between the sociological commentary and the literary study of "low life." The story-teller, or com- mentator, is an Englishman of, we sup- pose, the upper middle class, indigenous to society in the smaller sense of the term and inclined to learn something of it in the larger. He Is also a novelist seeking copy. He goes down into a lit- tle English fishing village, and takes up his dwelling in a fisherman's shanty. He is startled to find human beings living there, not mere objects of study, but people worth knowing and liking. His ingenuousness at the outset is amaz- ing— perhaps British. One might think the "poor man" with his charms and his virtues had been pretty thoroughly discovered. Mr. Reynolds discovers him all over again, is enchanted with the find, and succeeds in passing on some of his pleasure in it. Going among his fishers as a chiel takin' notes, with a novel in view, he keeps a journal and writes letters. In the end, he finds him- self indisposed to work it all up: I was unwilling to cut about the ma- terial, to modify the characters, in order to meet the exigencies of plot, form, and so on. I felt that the life and the people were so much better than anything I could invent. Besides which, I found myself in possession of conclusions, hot for expres- sion, which could not be incorporated at all into fiction. So he gives us merely an arrangement of the diary-entries and letters, with a

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The N" a t i o n . [Vol. 88, No. 2285 inoral drawn more or less by after- thought. The whole thing strikes one as a real- ly sincere record and commentary. The fisherman and his household, their ways of life, speech, and thought, are pre- sented with equal fidelity and sympathy. The author has what would seem a rather superfine literary manner if it were not overpowered by the candid simplicity of his substance. The house is full of children, scolding, confusion, coarse talk; but he manifestly likes it all. He finds no vulgarity there, no root- ed selfishness. Even the canons of taste cease to seem of primary importance: The poor will read the literature of life's fundamental realities quickly enough, once they know of its existence. What they will not read, what in the struggle for existence they cannot waste time over, is the litera- ture of the et ceteras of life, the decora- tions, the vaporings. Sane minds, like healthy bodies, crave strong meats, and the strong meats of literature are usually the worst cooked. I am inclined to think that the taste of the poor, the uneducated, is on right lines, though undeveloped, whilst the taste of the educated consists of beautifully developed wrongness, an exquisite reces- sion from reality. The author believes, moreover, that the "typical poor man's evolution is pro- ceeding with a gTeat solidity." In other words: The poor have kept essentially what a schoolboy calls the better end of the stick; not because their circumstances are better — materially their lives are often terrible enough — but because they know better how to make the most of what material cir- cumstances they have. Certainly the Widgers, as Mr. Reynolds succeeds in picturing them, are happy enough, good enough, successful enough in matters that count, to furnish ground for the opinion. The Fate of Iciodorum: Being the Story of a City Made Rich by Taxation. By David Starr Jordan. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 90 cents net. This is an amusing little fable of pro- tection. The first draft, says the author, was made at Auvergne in 1883; the first publication was in the Popular Science Monthly in 1888. This issue in book form is peculiarly timely, because the attention of the country is again cen- tred upon the subject, and also because, since "the chronicle was written, most of the events and nearly all the speeches have had their close parallels even in America." The tale, In brief, recounts the pro- cess by which Iciodorum (modern Is- soire) develops its industries by means of an octroi, or tariff. The Mayor con- ceives the happy idea that if all the boots, for example, are made at Issoire, "the boot-money will remain at home. It is as though, so far as the city is con- cerned, Is»oire gets her boots for no- thing." To be sure, the neighboring town of Clermont, with good water-pow- er, nearness to the mountains, and cheaper hides and tanbark, can make boots more cheaply; but the tax cer- tainly succeeds in establishing at Is- soire a flourishing boot-factory. Yet, "strangely enough, the more boots that were produced, the more barefooted chil- dren were seen in the streets. But the money went steadily into the hands of those who used it best, and that is the main element in communal prosperity." The advocate of the octroi also urges a familiar doctrine: The great charm of this tax is that the people will not feel it at all, for it will be paid by outsiders, by those merchants from Clermont and Lyons who send their goods to our town. . . . They pay the octroi, for we shall not buy a single thing of them until the goods are safe inside the city gates. Gradually the tax, which begins with boots, is extended to one article after another, till practically everything is taxed and the whole trade of Issoire is on an artificial basis. The only people who are really profiting by the arrange- ment are certain wealthy citizens; for the government is, in fact, robbing the poor in order to support the enterprises of the rich. As a vehicle of instruction such a fable as this has a manifest value. We do not understand the real structure of the human body till the anatomist has dissected away the fair skin and round- ed muscles and stripped to our view the gaunt skeleton and hideously grin- ning skull. In like manner President Jordan offers us an anatomy of protec- tion. By reducing the problem to its simplest terms, he shows us the repul- sive reality that our Congressional ora- tors have been decking with fine phrases about the prosperity of the laboring man, luxuries for the wage-earner, and defence of the American home against the low standard of living that has made Europe a vast poorhouse. These noble sentiments disguise the crude fact that a body of predatory man- ufacturers— among whom, for example, ex-Representative Lucius N. Littauer, the glove-man, is a conspicuous offender — have been contriving a tariff that takes money from our pockets and puts it into theirs. After reading this book, no man who wishes to get at the funda- mental theory of protection can plead ignorance. Yet it is unhappily true that were ten million copies of this tract distributed among the voters, we might still make very little headway toward free trade; for the practical application of a very plain doctrine is attended by vast diffi- culties. It is easy to call protection theft; it is comparatively easy to make men of even ordinary capacity see at least the main fallacies of the vicious system; but the debates In Congress this last week show how much easier it is to appeal to prejudice and passion, and thus win support for this or that item which is logically and morally as indefensible as burglary. Intellectual belief that the tariff is iniquitous can never withstand the importunate as- saults of the emotions. The one thing which bulks large in men's eyes, shut- ting everything else from view, is the certainty that unless they join the swine, biting, squealing, and trampling in the mire, they and their families must go naked and hungry. Can men be expected to show a stout heart in what appears a hopeless struggle in defence of an abstract theory the real bearings of which they but feebly apprehend? Bartholomew de las Casas: His Life, His Apostolate, and His Writings. By Francis Augustus MacNutt. Pp. xxxviii-f-472. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons, 1909. $3.50 net. Mr. MacNutt's sumptuous edition of the "Letters of Cortes," which appeared last summer, has been followed by the present volume within the space of eight months. Doubtless, the author has been working at both books at the same time. This last, though shorter, is in one sense the more ambitious, for the major part (309 pages) consists, as the title implies, of an original biography, whereas, in the "Letters of Cortes," Mr. MacNutt's work was rather that of edi- tor. Still he has not entirely refrain- ed from the publication of sources in the present book, for the life of Las Casas is followed by an English trans- lation of the most celebrated of all the "Apostle's" works — the short treatise first published in Seville in 1552, under the title of "Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las Indias," which is in effect, a description and arraignment of the conduct of the Spaniards in America during the first half-century of their occupation. Not that the "Rela- cion" has lacked for earlier editions: upwards of two dozen (most of them English translations) appeared in dif- ferent countries before the end of the seventeenth century, and were used with telling effect in tbe Protestant na- tions of Europe, to inculcate hatred and dread of Spain. The title of the English edition of 1689, "Casas's Horrid Mas- sacres, Butcheries, and Cruelties that Hell and Malice Could Invent, Commit- ted by the Spaniards in the West In- dies," is significant; but it also shows, perhaps better than anything else, that there was plenty of room for a new and accurate translation, aimed at an exact rendering of the author's meaning, rath- er than an immediate political purpose. Such a translation, Mr. MacNutt has given and for it he deserves our thanks. The more original part of Mr. Mac- Nutt's volume affords less reason for congratulation. A sane and scholarly

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April 15, 1909J The Nation. 389 biography of Las Casas was badly need- ed, for much new material has been discovered, and many old verdicts have been revised since the appearance of Sir Arthur Helps's life of the "Apostle of the Indies" more than forty years ago But it is obvious from the very outset that Mr. MacNutt has neither the lin- guistic equipment nor historical back- ground to enable him to take the best advantage of his opportunity. His "List of Authorities Consulted" reveals an ominously significant aversion to all books in German, and almost all books of any kind that have appeared within the last fifteen or twenty years. Arm- strong's "Charles the Fifth," Zimmer- mann's "Kolonialpolitik Spaniens," Habler's "Spanien unter den Haps- biirgern," Lannoy and Van der Linden's "L'Expansion coloniale des peuples euro- peens," and Bourne's "Spain in Amer- ica" are some of the most striking omis- sions. The glowing but unconvincing description of Ximenes (pp. 75-7) is apparently based on three French biog- raphies of the Cardinal, none of which is less than two hundred years old. The details of Las Casas's life Mr. MacNutt seems for the most part to know fairly thoroughly, but his attitude towards his hero, whom he frankly describes as "the noblest Spaniard who ever landed in the Western world," is far too favor- able to inspire confidence in the impar- tiality of his judgments. So deeply is he impressed with the importance of emphasizing the greatness of the "Apos- tle's" efforts on behalf of the natives, that he falls into the grave error of judging the evils of the Spanish treat- ment of them solely from the words of their passionate advocate. "Las Casas," as one of the modern historians whom Mr. MacNutt has ignored, has rightly said, "was the Lloyd Garrison of Indian rights; but it is as one-sided to depict the Spanish Indian policy primarily from his pages, as it would be to write a history of the American negro ques- tion exclusively from the files of the Liberator; or, after a century of Amer- ican rule in the Philippines, to judge it solely from the anti-Imperialist tracts of the last few years." The book, like "The Letters of Cortes," is handsomely made and beau- tifully illustrated, though between them the author and publisher might have been expected to detect some of the more obvious misprints (e. g., "Ser- goria" and "Sergovia" for "Segovia," on p. 469). The portraits — Including Charles V, Philip II, Adrian VI, Paul III, Ximenes, Columbus, Sepuloeda, the historian and rival of Las Casas, and others — are for the most part well se- lected, though it was a pity to choose the least admirable of the various Titian likenesses of the Emperor — namely, the Bologna portrait of 1530. Indeed, the book is in many ways so satisfactory that one lays it down with a distinct feeling of regret that lack of thorough and careful study has prevented it from being really good. We trust and be- lieve that these defects may be remedied before the appearance of Mr. MacNutt's "Life of Cortes," now in preparation. Science. The Origin of Vertebrates. By Walter H. Gaskell, University lecturer on physiology, Cambridge, England. Pp. 537; 168 figures, many original and some colored. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. $6 net. It is significant and encouraging that, within fifty years after the publication of "The Origin of Species" there should appear a volume beginning: "It is no longer a debatable question whether or no evolution has taken place; . . . zoologists desire now to find out how it has taken place." The "how" includes two categories of problems, viz., the nature and operation of the laws of heredity and variation, and the exempli- fication of those laws by given species or groups. Within either of the great sub-kingdoms, e. g., the arthropods (in- sects, Crustacea, etc.), or the vertebrates, there is such structural and develop- mental homogeneity that — given a fair- ly complete series of fossil remains — the determination of probable lines of descent usually seems only a question of moderate time. For example, the an- cestry of the modern horse is generally accepted; frogs and toads were prob- ably descended from salamander-like forms, and birds have been aptly char- acterized as "glorified reptiles." But efforts to outline the derivation of the vertebrates themselves from any known arthropod types encounter not merely an obvious lack of correspon- dence in many details, but four more fundamental difficulties which may be stated briefly as follows: (1.) Unlike the arthropod, the vertebrate has a body-axis, represented by the spine in the adult of higher forms, but in certain lower, and in the early stage of all, by a gelatinous rod, the notochord. (2.) Unlike that of the vertebrate, the ar- thropod gullet passes through a ring formed by the brain in front, the first of the series of ganglia behind, and nerve-cords at either side. (3.) Unlike that of the arthropod, the vertebrate central nervous system is tubu- lar. (4.) In the usual attitude of the vast majority of both groups, the central ner- vous system is above the alimentary canal and the heart below it in the vertebrate, while the arthropod central nervous sys- tem is below and the principal blood vessel above. Undismayed by these contradictory con- ditions, during the last twenty years two men have devoted themselves large- ly to the exposition of the "ways and means" of the origin of vertebrates from an arthropod stock. In 1890 Prof. William Patten of Dartmouth pub- lished in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science a paper entitled "On the Origin of Vertebrates from Arachnids," including under the last name not only spiders and scorpions, but shielded and crab-like extinct forms now represented only by the limulus, or king-crab. In that and in subsequent papers Patten points out the structural as well as external resemblances of these ancient arachnids to their contem- poraries, the mailed and earliest known fishes, the very nature of which, in some cases, was for a time problematic. He calls attention to the fact that limu- lus and some other arthropods often swim upon their backs, thereby bringing their main organs into the position, rela- tive to the supporting surface, which prevails among vertebrates. He also em- phasizes the significance of certain cav- ities in the brain of some arthropods. By an interesting coincidence, imme- diately following Patten's paper in the Journal was one by Gaskell, "On the Origin of Vertebrates from a Crus- tacean-like Ancestor." In that, in later papers, and in the present volume, he enlarges upon the similarities of the mailed fishes to trilobites and their kindred, living and extinct, and extends his comparisons to the larval lamprey, which (p. 227) "gives more valuable information as to vertebrate ancestry than all the rest of the vertebrates put together." Naturalists generally regard the re- semblances above referred to as analog- ic and suggestive rather than homo- logic and conclusive, and are indisposed to recognize as connecting links between the arthropods and the vertebrates rela- tively specialized forms comparable with limulus and the mailed fishes. Upon this point, however, Patten and Gaskell constitute a united minority, and we may now consider the distinc- tive views of the latter. He rejects "in- version" as a basis of comparison be- tween the two great groups, and main- tains the validity of a theory formulat- ed by him in 1887 and promulgated in the two following years, that the char- acteristic tubular constitution of the vertebrate central nervous system has resulted from the inclusion of the ali- mentary canal of the arthropod ances- tors within its ganglionic chain, the longer and narrower portion becoming the central canal of the spinal cord and the shorter, wider portion the ventricles of the vertebrate brain. Gaskell's pa- pers were evidently unknown to Pat- ten when his earliest contribution to the subject was submitted, and Gaskell has frankly expressed his disappoint- ment at the general indifference toward what Huxley hospitably greeted as an "earthquake hypothesis." He devotes to it the initial chapter of the present vol- ume, and offers several diagrams (Figs

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390 The USTation [Vol. 88, No. 2285 21, 160, 167), purporting to represent the stages of the engulfment of the arthropod alimentary canal by its ner- vous cord, and the concomitant evolu- tion of a new alimentary canal for the ancestral vertebrate. Your reviewer ap- preciates the labor of gathering real or supposed facts from so many and varied sources, the zeal of argumentation, and the ingenuity of the original hypothesis, and is not — he hopes — influenced unduly by the lack of its public acceptance, so far as he is aware, by any competent morphologist, but he finds himself un- able to characterize it in terms more fit- ting than those applied by its author to an idea that did not commend itself to him (p. 15): "It is not only unheard of in nature, but so improbable as to render impossible the theory which ne- cessitates such a position." But what- ever be the fate of its main thesis, Gaskell's book will stimulate research and discussion respecting an interesting and complex problem, and it may hasten the publication of the volume which Patten has long been preparing. It may also further a reaction from the ex- treme specialization that has been forc- ed upon biologists by the prodigious accumulation of facts and elaboration of ideas during the \ast half-century. There may be devised a cooperative edu- cational scheme that will qualify cer- tain selected minds to deal effectively with large questions demanding inti- mate knowledge and impartial judg- ment respecting data derived from the structure, development, and geologic suc- cession of forms supposed to represent the transition from invertebrates to vertebrates. The illustrations of the present vol- ume are numerous and clear, but not always accurate. Some appear to have been borrowed and even modified with- out specification. There should be a complete list, with acknowledgment of all sources. The admirable summaries of the several chapters deserve to be in larger type. The bibliography is so nearly complete that it is not easy to account for the omission of the title of Patten's critical letter in the American Naturalist for April, 1899. The printing is well done, and, especially considering the numerous technical terms, typo- graphic errors are few. It would be in- teresting and instructive to ascertain how much space might have been saved had the oft-recurring terms "central nervous system" and "alimentary canal" been replaced by neuron and enteron, already familiar in the compound, neur- enteric canal. Among the books on science in the spring list of Cassell & Co. are the following: "The Nature Book," with an introduction on "The Love of Nature," by Walter Crane; "Gardening in the North," by S. Arnott and R. P. Brotherston; "Sweet Peas and How to Grow Them," by H. H. Thomas; "Live Stock," by Primrose McConnell: "Life Histories of Familiar Plants," by John J. Ward; "Little Gardens," by H. H. Tho- mas; "Cassell's A B C of Gardening," by Walter P. Wright; 'Cassell's Cyclopedia of Mechanics," edited by Paul N. Hasluck; "The Handyman's Enquire Within," edited by Paul N. Hasluck; "Cassell's Household Cookery," by Lizzie Heritage; "Estimation of the Renal Function in Urinary Surgery," by J. W. Thomson Walker; "Structural En- gineering," by Prof. A. W. Brightmore; "Outlines of Electrical Engineering," by Harold H. Simmons; "Elementary Dynamo Design," by W. B. Hird; "Popular Electric- ity," by W. Hibbert. "The Baby: His Care and Training," by Marianna Wheeler, will be issued this spring by Harper & Bros. Lieutenant Shackleton's exploit (see the Nation of April 1, p. 340) gives a special significance to the opening article jf the Annates de Qiographie for March on the Antarctic continent by M. Zimmermann. It is a resume of the scientific results of the voyage of the Discovery and it closes with the enthusiastic statement that practically no work has been left for succeeding ex- peditions in that particular region except the collection of species of marine ani- mals. A work has been in serious demand when it reaches a seventh edition, which is the present status of Dr. C. W>. Dulles's "Acci- dents and Emergencies" (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co.), noticed in these columns in former years. That demand was fully justified by the clear and sensi- ble discussion of those unforeseen occur- rences which we call accidents, and this fully illustrated issue has been enlarged and truly revised. Its most novel injunc- tion is the treatment of general freezing by heat, not mere warmth, applied with vigor and care by the hot bath or dry. Of this the author seems assured, and he cites con- firmatory experiments with animals. His well-known skepticism as to hydrophobia leads him to advise against resort to Pas- teur Institutes, on account of bites by pre- sumably rabid animals; but in all other respects the well-indexed little volume may be accepted as a trustworthy compendium of practical information. Dr. Persifor Frazer, a handwriting ex- pert, died at his home in Philadelphia April 7. He was born in that city in 1844, and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the army and navy during the war, and afterwards joined the faculty of his university, teach- ing chemistry and geology until 1882. He wrote various papers on these subjects, but his most important publication was his "Bibliotics" (3 eds., 1894-19011, which, in the opinion of Bertillon, was the first scien- tific treatise on handwriting. Dr. Arthur Gamgee, a distinguished Lon- don physician, died in Paris, March 29, in his sixty-eighth year. He was educated at Edinburgh University, was professor of physiology in Owens College, professor of physiology at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and was active in the investigation of physiological chemistry. He translated and edited Hermann's "Human Physiology" (1875), wrote a "Text-book of the Physio- logical Chemistry of the Animal Body," and contributed to scientific publications many papers on his specialty. Drama. HELENA MODJESKA. Helena Modjeska, the Polish actress, died at Bay City, California, April 8, after an illness of about two months. She was born in Cracow, in 1844, the daughter of Michael Oppido, a musician of fine cultivation, who had a large ac- quaintance among artists. Her early youth, therefore, was passed in a re- fined and inspiring intellectual atmos- phere. Almost from the first she seems to have felt an impulse toward the stage. Two of her half-brothers became actors, and she wished to follow their example, but encountered strong opposi- tion from her mother and her guardian — for her father had died while she was still a child. But when she was in her fifteenth year, the loss of family prop- erty forced her to earn her own living. Soon after her marriage to her guar- dian, Modrzejeweski, she turned to the theatre, appearing under the abbreviat- ed name Modjeska. Her success was immediate, and her husband straight- way organized a travelling company, with which she visited all the principal towns in Galicia. In 1862, while she was still in her 'teens, she secured an engagement for three months in the government theatre at Lemberg. After this she passed through a difficult pe- riod, but she continued to advance in reputation until she was encouraged to lease a theatre, on her own account, in Czernowice, where she played the hero- ines in various standard dramas, with her two half-brothers and a sister in her company. By 1865 she was so pop- ular that she was engaged as leading lady for the theatre at Cracow, and thenceforth her triumph was assured. Her fame soon extended beyond the confines of Poland; offers began to come to her from European managers; and then the younger Dumas invited her to go to Paris, and play the part of Mar- guerite Gautier in his "Dame aux camg- lias," a sufficient proof of the promi- nence to which she had attained. All these offers she steadily refused, in or- der to devote all her energies to the Polish stage. By this time she had become a widow, her first husband hav- ing been many years her senior, and, after a brief interval, she married the Count Bozenta, who was to be her de- voted manager during the remainder of her public life. Leaving Cracow for Warsaw, she began a series of perform- ances in prominent Polish plays, and in the masterpieces of Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, and Moliere, display- ing notable versatility. There she re- mained for seven years, during which she played in nearly three hundred parts, with increasing fame. It was as Adrienne Lecouvreur, that she then achieved her greatest reputation. But her husband incurred the anlr L

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April 15, 1909] T h. e Na't ion/ 391 mosity of the authorities on account of his political writings, and she herself incurred their ill will by resisting to the uttermost the Russian censorship of the Polish theatre. In course of time her health began to give way beneath the pressure of these worries, and in 1876 she resolved to emigrate to Amer- ica, where she finally settled on a ranch near Los Angeles, hoping to found in that neighborhood a Polish colony. A year later she visited San Francisco, where, having won high praise by reci- tations in Polish, she began to study English, with the view of acting upon the American stage. In this enterprise she was encouraged by Edwin Booth, John McCullough, and others, and in due course she made her first appear- ance in California, as Adrienne Lecou- vreur. This was the beginning of her successful American career which was to endure, with but brief interruptions, for thirty years. After a tour of the United States she recrossed the Atlan- tic to play two engagements in London — where she was hailed as one of the greatest actresses of her day — and also to try her fortunes once more in Poland. But soon she found herself excluded, by official decree, from Russian territory, and thereafter practically all her profes- sional work was done in this country. In 1905 she bade farewell to the New York stage. Since then she had appear- ed in different parts of the country, but of late she had spent most of her time on her California ranch. She was generally acknowledged to be one of the most gifted perruimers of her generation. In her prime her per- sonal fascination was of an exceedingly rare kind. Her tall figure was singular- ly graceful, her face, though not of classic beauty, was wonderfully attrac- tive in its intellectual charm and elo- quent mobility, while her gestures were full of animation and significance. Her range of emotional expression was very wide. She could give full utterance to stormy emotion, maintain herself on the heights of tragic dignity, or relax in the gayest mood of refined comedy. All her work was distinguished by exquisite finesse. Her Adrienne Lecouvreur was a magnificent performance, glowing in its sentiment, superb in its scorn, most pitiful in its pathos. As the unfortu- nate Mary Stuart she presented a mov- ing study of gracious womanhood and brokeD majesty. Her Juliet was bewitch- ing in the early love scenes and finely tragic in its despair, although in the potion speech she could not attain to the frenzied horror of Adelaide Neilson -or Stella Colas. Her Rosalind was more nearly the realized ideal of Shake- speare's delightful heroine than any in- terpretation known to modern play- goers. Her embodiment breathed the very spirit of romance and the woods. It had just the right touch of mascu- linity in the masquerade, and yet was irresistibly and indisputably feminine. It had the air of high-breeding, it had buoyancy, courage, tenderness, wit, and grace. Henrietta Crosman comes, per- haps, the next in order, but her Rosa- lind is of less ethereal and poetic tex- ture. Another exquisite embodiment of Madame Modjeska was her Ophelia, which might well be compared with that of Ellen Terry. She played this part on the memorable occasion of the benefit for Lester Wallack; and Edwin Booth, the Hamlet, had to act his best to save himself from eclipse. In England she created a sensation with her Odette, and her admirable work in "Frou-Frou" and "Camille." Her Magda also was elo- quent in its pride, its fierce contempt, and its despair. But it was not in the modern emotional drama or in such sensational pieces as 'Les Chouans" that her best powers were revealed. These found their full scope only in the high- er regions of the poetic drama. She was in later days the sole representa- tive of such Shakespearean women as Imogen and Isabella, and she was the last notable interpreter of Lady Mac- beth, although that was not to be ac- counted among her greatest achieve- ments. Nor must her Viola be forgot- ten, a delightful bit of true Shakespear- ean comedy. Shakespeare was always her chief delight. OUR FOREIGN AND NATIVE ACTORS The death of Helena Modjeska may be said to mark the end of a theatrical era. She was the last surviving mem- ber of the group of great players of for- eign nationality and training who re- peated here in English the triumphs which they won originally in their na- tive tongues. Prominent among them were Adelaide Ristori, Fanny Janau- schek, Daniel E. Bandmann, and Charles Feohter. Tommaso Salvini, who, hap- pily, still lives in retirement, may be added, perhaps, to the company, for al- though he never ventured himself to act in any language but Italian, he played habitually in this country with Eng- lish-speaking support, and so great was his genius that it suffered comparative- ly little from that polyglot arrangement. Among their illustrious contemporaries, who contributed to the glories of the American stage, but adhered to their native speech, may be mentioned Bog- umil Dawison, Seebach, Rossi, Sonnen- thal, Ludwig Barnay, Frederick Haase, and Constant Coquelin — all of whom have joined the great majority — Sarah Bernhardt — who may or who may not be seen here again— and Eleonora Duse. All these performers, and the list might be increased, have acted in this country during the last forty years, and it may be interesting to glance for a moment at the sum of their artistic achievement, as compared with that of their English-speaking contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic. Such a comparison cannot be made very flat- tering to the Anglo-Saxon theatre. What players of the first rank — not to in- sist too particularly upon the word "great" — has it produced since Ma- cready, Phelps, Charles Kean, Edwin Forrest, E. L. Davenport, J. W. Wal- lack, and Charlotte Cushman, ended their careers? The question, it must be remembered, relates only to interpreters of the higher drama, the drama that demands imagination, brains, eloquence, and artistic cultivation. Two or three names suggest themselves instantly. Among them are those of Edwin Booth, Henry Irving, and Ellen Terry. Next in order — but on a distinctly lower level — come Lawrence Barrett, John McCul- lough, and Richard Mansfield. Of these, all but one are already dead. Their most promising successors are Robert Mantell, E. H. Sothern, Julia Marlowe, Forbes Robertson, Oscar Asche, Arthur Bourchier, and Beerbohm Tree, and of these all except Oscar Asche have al- ready reached their meridian. Of com- petent performers in the modern drama — except when it partakes of the ro- mantic— there are many, but their art is lower in degree, although some of them are eminent in their specialties. If the actor be judged by his identifi- cation with the most notable characters in the imaginative drama, Edwin Booth is the greatest English-speaking actor of his period. In Hamlet, Lear, Shylock, and Macbeth, as well as in such roman- tic characters as Richelieu and Bertuc- cio, he attained heights that none of his rivals could approach. Henry Irv- ing, at least his equal in romance and his superior in comedy, was, in tragedy, his inferior. Ellen Terry was supreme in the brilliant comedy of Portia and Beatrice and in the pathos of Ophelia. She was out of her depth in Lady Mac- beth, or even in Juliet. John McCul- lough's highest achievement was his Vir- ginius, though he had inspired moments in Othello and Lear. Barrett was sound and able in many characters, great in none. Mr. Robertson is the most elo- quent, intellectual, and attractive of liv- ing Hamlets, but it would be absurd to compare his impersonation with Booth's. None of the other English players mentioned has accomplished anything very significant. None of them certain- ly has done anything comparable with the Othello of Salvini, or — with the sin- gle exception of Mr. Booth — anything to equal certain passages in the Lear and Macbeth of the Italian actor, who, in grandeur of passion and pure pathos, was without a peer. In his own pecu- liar characters, Niger, Saul, Samson, and Conrad, for instance, he defied rivalry. Ristori's Lady Macbeth, whe- ther in Italian or in English, was prob- ably the greatest, after that of Sarah Siddons, while her Elizabeth, Marie Stuart, Phedre, and Medea were ac-

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392 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 knowledged masterpieces. But in three at least of these great parts — Medea, Marie Stuart, and Lady Macbeth— she was closely pressed by the Bohemian actress, Fanny Janauschek, who scored yet greater triumphs in the heroic char- acter of Briinnhilde, not to speak of her Deborah and her facile descent to Lady Dedlock and the maid Hortense. Of Modjeska's place we have already spok- en. Charles Fechter, upon whom fell the mantle of Lemaitre, exhibited the art of romantic acting in its best estate, and furnished a wonderfully pictur- esque and fascinating Hamlet, which delighted the modern, but enraged con- servative critics. In its prime his Dane was as popular as that of Irving or Booth, and gave more of the lover and prince than either. The gifted but un- manageable Bandmann was excelled in Sbylock by Booth alone; and the Ital- ian Rossi played Romeo with a passion- ate ardor and a tragic intensity that had almost the force of revelation. It would be easy to multiply exam- ples of the invaluable work done on the stage here and in England by for- eign-born actors, in preserving high ar- tistic standards which otherwise might have disappeared. Nothing has been said of the tragic triumphs of Bern- hardt, Duse, or Mounet-Sully, of See- bach, Sonnenthal, Barnay, Frederick Haase, and others. Nor is it necessary. Enough evidence has been adduced to show that, during the last generation, actors of foreign origin have been among the most faithful and potent il- lustrators of that noble dramatic liter- ature which is the priceless heritage of the English race. For the greater part of the third of a century there has been but one native American tragedian of the first rank, Edwin Booth, to main- tain the credit of his country's stage. And he has left no visible successor. The fact is indisputable and humiliat- ing, but by no means inexplicable. For- eign nations have no monopoly of his- trionic genius. But they do have per- manent stock companies — the only prac- tical schools of acting — free and severe competition, and a certain amount of enlightened management. These are points on which we have frequently dwelt; but we cannot emphasize the idea" too often. The foreign actors have opportunities of development which ours do not possess. Here there are no stock companies, no competition, very little enlightened direction, and, consequent- ly, no great players. And, unfortunate- ly, conditions in England do not appear to be much better. "Ernst von Wildenbruch: Ernstes und Heiteres aus seinem Leben," by Dora Dunckei (Berlin: Hermann Paetel), con- veys a very favorable impression of the circumstances under which the lately de- ceased German dramatist grew up. The book also shows the obstacles and bitter disappointment he experienced along with his literary successes. Wildenbruch's father was a diplomat, and the boy's earlier days were passed in Beirut, Athens, and Constantinople. There he felt not only the influence of the classical environment, and the charms of nature, but met persons of distinction. In course of time he be- came familiar with mediaeval Germany; and he was long identified with Berlin, sent there as a school boy, later a bureaucrat, and passing his declining days between the Tiergarten and a summer home he had built at Weimar. Wildenbruch was also a soldier, active in the campaigns of 1866 and 1871. All his works contain evidence of these varied experiences; and yet these favoring conditions did not pre- vent such failures in dramatic essay that Wildenbruch more than once declared he would never write another play. Love for the work, however, and confidence in what he was undertaking, led him ultimately to success, particularly in his "Rabenstein- erin," which promises to become a popular German classic. ■ "The Happy Marriage," the latest play by Clyde Fitch, which was produced with a fair measure of success in the Garrick Theatre Monday evening, is more nearly al- lied to theatrical farce than true comedy. It is superior in character and purpose to many of Mr. Fitch's later productions, al- though by no means free from characteristic defects. Starting from inadmissible prem- ises, and proceeding through unnatural, if frequently humorous, developments, it finally reaches an effective and wholesome ending. Briefly, the story is of a silly, sentimental, jealous, but not essentially disloyal wife, who, in a fit of pique over her husband's apparent neglect and faithless- ness, listens to the traitorous advanies of a rascally young lawyer and agrees to elope with him. As a matter of fact she does actually desert her home to join him at his office. There, through the agency of a fond old nurse, she is confronted by her husband, whose manliness of conduct and tender consideration for her welfare — in vivid contrast with the selfish conduct of her favored lover — convince her of her folly, arouse all her better instincts, and lead to what promises to be a permanent recon- ciliation. In original design the piece is good, but in execution it is often insincere and tricky. Human nature is sacrificed throughout upon the altar of theatrical ef- fect. The conduct of both husband and wife is inconsistent. Neither of them — being what they are represented to be — could be guilty of the behavior attributed to them. In order to "save her face" the wife is en- dowed with an ignorance and simplicity wholly inconceivable in a married woman of her experience. Thus the first two pre- liminary acts, though full of Mr. Fitch's habitual cleverness and sufficiently amus- ing, have no real illusion. But the third act is better and stronger in every way and has genuine dramatic fibre in it, though it puts the husband upon a pinnacle where he does not properly belong. The matri- monial philosophy which it enforces is un- deniably sound, if not especially new. The performance is respectable, but not bril- liant. "The House Next Door," an adaptation from the German by the English dramat- ist, J. Hartley Manners, which is now run- ning, with good prospects of success, in the Gaiety Theatre, is a product of the Semitic question which has so long been vexing Europe, and is written mainly from the Hebrew point of view. The children of two families — the one headed by an im- mensely wealthy and remarkably broad- minded Jew, and the other by a ridiculous old Gentile bigot, the incarnation of rabid prejudice — fall in love with each other. Their union is opposed by both parents, but the Jew soon relents, even after en- during the grossest insult, and finally the hard heart of his Gentile enemy is soft- ened by his magnanimity, and all ends happily. As drama, the piece is almost entirely worthless, being a wholly theatri- cal and artificial bit of special pleading, with only an occasional faint reflection of actual life. But the sentiment at the bot- tom is sound enough, and the play is fre- quently amusing. The piece is welcome, if only for its reintroduction of that ac- complished comedian, J. E. Dodson. His impersonation of the irascible and bigoted old Gentile, is a fine example of highly finished eccentric acting. The dry humor of it is admirable, and its elocution per- fect. It is a treat in these days to hear English spoken with such clarity, point, and crispness. Gerald Lawrence and Miss Fay Davis have just begun their six weeks' Shake- spearean season at the London Court Thea- tre. The plays selected for presentation are "As You Like It," "Romeo and Juliet," "The Merchant of Venice," "Twelfth Night," "Hamlet," and "Much Ado About Nothing." These are to be given without scenery, the stage being draped with tap- estries. Arthur William Gregory, an actor, died April 10 at East Orange, N. J., at the age of sixty-three. Early in his career Mr. Gregory, a native of England, took parts of importance in casts with Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jef- ferson, the elder Sothern, William Florence, Charlotte Cushman, and other noted actors. For many years he was stage manager for Daniel Frohman. Music. Analysis of the Evolution of Musical Form. By Margaret H. Glyn. Long- mans, Green & Co. $3.50 net. It cannot be said that this is an enter- taining book, or one in which it is easy to follow the author's course of reason- ing at all points. She indulges in an abstruse style of ratiocination which re- quires pages to explain what a more concrete and imaginative writer would more fully elucidate in as many para- graphs. Yet it is a stimulating and in- structive book, which must be commend- ed not only to students — and experts— in musical theory and history, but to composers as well. One may not agree with the author that "the educational need of the day is for a truthful intel- lectual presentment of the growth of musical form"; but we must concede that her book goes far toward supplying

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April 15, 1909] The ISTation. 393 such a need, so far as it exists. Its chief value lies in the application of the comparative method. Musical evo- lution in Europe is contrasted with what we know of the development and pres- ent condition of the art in Oriental coun- tries, and in this way new light is thrown on various disputed problems. The writer is not afraid to question gen- erally accepted doctrines, such as the belief that harmony had its origin in the "organum" of the eighth century — an evolutionary stage which can be studied among the Andaman Islanders of our time who sing in three parts, the parts rising and falling simultaneously in consecutive fourths and fifths. When a European or American trav- els in the East he speaks derisively of the chaotic and cacophonous music he hears. A perusal of these pages will convince such a person that in assum- ing this attitude he places himself in the position of an unmusical or semi- musical person who sneers at Beethoven or Wagner, whom he does not under- stand. It is true that the Orient knows not our harmonies, or even our keys and our tonality; but it has a bewilder- ing variety of subtle details of melody that atone for these deficiencies. To understand these, we lack the Asiatic's "microtonal" instinct; that is, the fac- ulty of distinguishing and relishing in- tervals smaller than semi-tones. Not a few European composers and theor- ists, among them Saint-Saens, have held that the next step in our music will be the adoption of such microtones — say, quarter tones; and the East can show us the way. In rhythmic variety, too, the Orientals can teach us much, as well as in irregular, poignant accen- tuation. On this point Liszt wrote elo- quently in his book on Hungarian gypsies; but our author, being an Eng- lishwoman, of course does not mention him, ignorance of Liszt being in Eng- land an essential of good breeding. The Hindu is much more emotional than the Englishman who rules over him, and his microtonal instinct makes him susceptible to delicate and subtle inflections of pitch to which the for- eign invader is deaf. The Hindu is also, in his way, "a more thorough theorist than the European musician." Of Brit- ish music our author speaks with con- tempt. The English musician, she in- forms her readers, "is still in the pre- Darwinian stage." "Vulgarity in music," she says on another page, "is invariably a sign of rhythmic degeneration, and to this cause must be assigned the present condition of English popular music." There is "some music that is attrac- tive to everybody"; but, generally speaking, music is now in the position of literature at the time when a book was as completely a sealed thing to the people as a score is nowadays. It will be seen from foregoing re- marks that the author uses the words "musical form" in the widest sense, in- cluding the most elementary tonal crystallization. She proceeds to consid- er the evolution of the scale, of har- mony, tonality, counterpoint, phrase and stanza, imitation, the cycle, and the con- tinuous style, which was one of Wag- ner's contributions to musical evolu- tion. On all these subjects she offers sug- gestive views, not infrequently so novel that they involve the coining of new words; but there is a glossary which explains them; and there is also an ap- pendix with many illustrations in musi- cal type. Not a few of her statements might be disputed, notably this, that "if we admit poetry as the equal part- ner of music, good results of the com- bination may be obtained, but the fin- est in music will not be reached" — an assertion contradicted by hundreds of songs and the best scenes in Wagner's operas. In anticipation of the one hundredth an- niversary of the birth of Richard Wagner, May 22, 1913, the different houses which publish his writings have united to is- sue a cheap edition of his operas. The first part will appear on Wagner's birth- day this year. Jaroslaw de Zielinski is preparing a con- densed English version of Hoesick's life of Chopin, the first two volumes of which appeared in Polish in 1904. Hoesick sides with those who give February 22, 1810, as the date of Chopin's birth. Last season Wagner was losing ground at the Metropolitan Opera House. Thw season he not only recovered the lost ground, but went ahead of the othar fa- vorites ; his operas were sung 34 times, while Puccini, who came next, had 26 per- formances, and Verdi 24. The most encour- aging thing about this progress is that it came about although the Wagner casts were not so great as in some past seasons; but Mr. Dippel effected such remarkable im- provements in the orchestra, chorus, and stage management that the public crowded to these performances (including five of "Parsifal") as in the golden age of Ger- man opera. Altogether, there were 73 rep- resentations of operas by Italian composers, 45 of German, and 19 of French. A notable success was the Bohemian opera, "The Bar- tered Bride," which was sung six cimes, and will be heard once more, on April 23, when the company returns from its West ern tour, for the benefit of the Legal Aid Society. The other three novelties — "Tiefland," "Le Villi," and "La Wally '— are not likely to be in next year's repertory. Five other novelties had been promised, but while the scenery for them was at hand, the lack of time for rehearsing made it necessary to defer their production. This lack of time was due largely to the ap- pearance of the company not only in Brook- lyn and Philadelphia, but in Baltimore and Washington. The retirement of Sembrich and Eames will be felt as a serious Jisad- vantage next season ; but Nordica has been engaged and there is talk also of induc- ing Calve to come back. The general manager imported from Milan has discov- ered that what fills an opera house in New York is stars and star casts. Caruso did I not sing during the last four weeks of the season except twice. He will have to rest till the autumn. Should the impairment of his voice prove permanent, it would be a grievous disaster to Italian opera. Oscar Hammerstein at the Manhattan gives no operas in German, and the most popular of his productions this season was Richard Strauss's "Salome" in French; it was given ten times. Of four operas that were presented seven times each, one "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," was by a German; me, "Lucia," by an Italian; two, "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame," and "Thais," by French- men. Two of last year's successes, De- bussy's "Pelleas et Melisande" and Char- pentier's "Louise," did not hold their own. A gratifying incident was the successful revival of Verdi's "Otello"; another, tht equally successful production of "Samson et Dalila," by Saint-Saens, whose operas have been too much neglected in this coun- try. "Don Giovanni" was not given, but a brilliant revival of it is to open the next season. The number of performances at the Manhattan was 116 ; at the Metropolitan, 143; total, 259. And this will be greatly exceeded next time. Three American composers will conduct their own works at the concert arranged by David Bispham for the American Music Society at Carnegie Hall, Sunday after- noon, April 18. They are: Arthur Bergh, whose musical setting of Poe's "Raven" will accompany Mr. Bispham s recitation of the poem; Arthur Farwell, whose "Dawn," a phantasy for orchestra, will have its first New York hearing; and George W. Chadwick, who will conduct for the baritone ballad, "Lochinvar," which Mr. Bispham will sing. Franz X. Arens will conduct the People's Symphony Orchestra in two num- bers, the prelude to "The Hamadryad," by William J. McCoy, and "Creole Days," by Harry Rowe Shelley. Miss Augusta Cott- low will play Edward MacDowell's concerto in D minor, opus 23. The concert in its entirety promises to be one of the most interesting of the entire season. Art. Legend in Japanese Art: A Description of Historical Episodes, Legendary Characters, Folk-lore, Myths, Relig- ious Symbolism, Illustrated in the Arts of Old Japan, by Henri L. Joly; with upwards of 700 illustrations, in- cluding 16 full-page reproductions in color. New York; John Lane Co. $25 net. Japanese Sword Chiards. By Okabe- Kakuya, in cooperation with the De- partment of Chinese and Japanese Art. Boston: Published by the Mu- seum of Fine Arts. $1.25. Japanese Wood Engravings: Their His- tory, Technique, and Characteristics. By William Anderson. London: Seeley & Co. 75 cents net. In "Legend in Japanese Art" the de- light of a collection of poems, of an an- thology, and also of a collection of paintings, is all to be had in the form

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394 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 of an encyclopaedia. That such a diffi- cult and beautiful enterprise might be carried out differently, and perhaps more successfully, is possible, but only at the risk of making a still larger col- lection, when this one is almost too bulky for convenience. This book, then, is, for the average Japonizer, a gift of importance. Japanese and Chinese art are, like all others, based on history, legend, religion. With the Japanese, all representations of story and of nature connect with the immeasurable past. We cannot think of Hokusai, for instance, without it. The work of art, then, is a variation upon a theme already accept- ed; the artist has already met his pub- lic half-way. The pages of this book give us stories of delicious folk-lore and fairy tales, and stories from the shad- owy borders of ghostland. Our own art has been thin in helping our childhood; but this volume indicates the richness of information on which the Oriental mind feeds. There is no endeavor to deal with art as such, but merely with the themes illustrated; yet the book will be a treasure-house for any artist sen- sitive to the rendering of these sub- jects as subjects, to the principles of their design, and the wonderful skill of their making. The second book on our list is a cata- logue of a special exhibition of Japanese sword guards, or tsuba. W'ith the cata- logue goes an account of the principal schools and the makers, with illustra- tions, classified and explanatory. The author was assistant professor of metal work at the Imperial School of Tokio, under the late Kano-Natsuo, one of the most noted metal artists of recent times; in 1899 he wrote a series of ar- ticles on metal work based on the ma- terial in the Nippon-Bijitsuin, and for three years he has been in charge of the metal work of the Boston Museum, studying, cataloguing, and putting arti- cles in good condition. The tsuba, from various sources, comprise more than 1,200 examples; and our authors give us lists of all the artists who worked on these fragments of the; sword, with an account of their schools and their characters. The work may be taken as a supplement to the "Jap- anese Legends in Art," before noticed,; wherein many sword guards are display-1 ed with an account of their meaning 1 and story. Here also, with the lists of names, such explanations are given as are necessary to acquaint us with their; place in Japanese history and legend. Thus these sword guards become for us important documents in the story of a civilization. The sword has from the' most remote past and among many peo- ples been a sacred image of power and arbitrament by force, of honor and duty. Never, however, has the worship of the sword gone as far as with the Jap- anese. At a time coeval with our mid- dle ages, the Samurai, the nobles of Japan, embodied this symbolism in their supreme code: The steel taught them the virtue of that self-control which calmly prepares for a mighty struggle. In the unclouded face of the crystalline blade they beheld mirrored the purity and chastity inseparable from true loyalty. The most precious dowry a bride could bring to a Samurai was the honored sword of her ancestors, while many an old Japanese drama is based on the quest and recovery of some lost flame. The sword was part of the Samurai's own personality. Of course (as we would our- selves) people judged his character from that of his weapon. Thus we follow the evolution of the sword as the feudal and Zen notions gain more and more power, and then as they decline under the stress of mod- ern civilization. Along with these sym- bolical matters runs a history of the dec- oration and make-up of the sword, with numerous details to guide the expert and the amateur art student. "Japanese Wood Engravings" is a pocket edition of the well-known book by the late Dr. William Anderson, best known for his "Historical and Descrip- tive Catalogue of the Japanese and Chi- nese Books in the Brirish Museum," which Mr. Joly, in the preface to the great work of his above noticed, char- acterizes as "an inexhaustible mine of information, not only upon schools of painting and their representatives in the collection, but also upon the sub- jects treated by the artists.'' Most of the illustrations of the present work are taken from examples in Dr. An- derson's collection in the British Mu- seum. The larger edition of the book, belonging to the Portfolio Monographs, is naturally a little handsomer, but the loss from reducing the pictures to pock- et size is less than might be expected, and there is now no excuse for the poorest amateur's remaining ignorant of the successive developments of that Japanese form of art, which has taken hold of us, amused us, taught us re- finement to the point of surprise. It is unnecessary to go through the various schools here catalogued. To-day a part of the older work is occasionally almost rivalled, but the modern necessities of commercial life threaten the only thing which is of value in a work of art, that it should be impossible to duplicate. The learned writer takes a dismal view of the future and predicts "the extinc- tion of an art industry to which Japan owes so much; but the end is inevit- able." Cassell & Co. will publish this spring: "Cassell's Royal Academy Pictures and Sculpture, 1909"; and "Cassell's House Dec- oration," edited by Paul N. Hasluck. The Clarendon Press (Henry Frowde) has issued a very interesting volume, "Historical Portraits: Richard II to Henry Wriothes- ley, 1400-1600," the lives by C. R. L. Fletcher, formerly fellow of All Souls and Magdalen Colleges; the portraits chosen by Emery Walker, fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; with an introduction on the history of portraiture in England. The plaD is for a series, coming down to the mid- dle of the nineteenth century. This vol- ume, like all previous works of the kind, begins with Richard II, for the suf- ficient reason that portrait-painting was practically unknown in England before the opening of the fifteenth century. It is in- teresting here to trace the development of the art, from faces that to our eyes seem conventional and without much individual- ity, down to Holbein, who is the dominant artist of the collection. His hand or his influence is marked by many portraits, starting with that of Henry VIII. Many of these pictures are, of course, familiar to visitors at the National Portrait Gal- lery in London and other important Eng- lish collect'ons. The reproductions in pho- togravure are well printed in dark brown ink. The lives are brief but sufficient. Lionello Venturi's "Origini della Pittura Veneziana (1300-1500)" was reviewed in the Nation of October 10, 1907, p. 335. The title-page bore the true but misleading statement that the work had received a prize from the Royal Venetian Institute of Arts and Letters. It received as a matter of fact the second prize, and now we have the first prize essay, "Storia della Pittura Veneziana," Part I, "Le Origini," by Nicola Testi (Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 30 lire). The affair must have been irritating to Signor Testi, and one can hardly blame him for directing a running fire from his foot-notes against Signor Venturi's volume. But one feels, too, that, as is often the case, the man in the right is the real sufferer from the controversy. Signor Testi has merely burdened his al- ready laborious treatise with superfluous controversy. His book is in every way a contrast to its rival. Venturi's work was virtually a big essay, very readable and useful as such, dealing only with main is- sues. Testi's single volume, though of equal bulk, covers half the ground of Venturi's, treating exhaustively the whole history of graphic design in the Veneto. Mosaics and miniatures are constantly considered, as well as the relevant bits of sculpture. Of course, Signor Testi's method is the more truly scientific, but this very thoroughness takes it out of the class of books possible for the general reader. It is a great store- house of facts, and presents in tolerable reproductions many pictures unknown to art history. Students will doubtless find it a happy hunting ground, and to them we must leave it, merely observing that Signor Testi seems to us to have established his main thesis, namely: that the Gothic- Byzantine style at Venice was not one of decadence, but of progress towards more veracious and vivacious methods of com- position and draughtsmanship. This rather surprising view he draws from his study of the mosaics. Prof. Karl Frey of the University of Ber- lin has published a German edition of the letters of Michael Angelo, "Die Briefe des Michelagniolo Buonarroti" (Berlin: Julius Bard). The letters are arranged chrono- logically, and an appendix contains copious notes, selections from the poetry of the ar- tist, and letters addressed to him. This volume will be valuable for everybody in-

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April 15, 1909] The Nation. 395 terested in the civilization of the renais- sance, for not only does it afford an in- sight into the inner life of the artist, but it also gives a faithful picture of his sur- roundings. The language of the translation is very readable — an advantage that merits special mention, considering the difficulties of Michael Angelo's Italian. A second and enlarged edition of Herr- mann Muthesius's "Das englische Haus" (three vols. Berlin: Wasmuth Co.) has just left the press. This work is one of the most comprehensive historical and descrip- tive accounts of the English house. Among the exhibitions in the dealers' galleries in this city are paintings by A. Walkowitz at Haas's, till April 17; por- traits of old masters, Ehrich's, April 19; paintings of eastern Oregon, Childe Has- sam, April 21; and engravings after Wat- teau, Lancret, Pater, Chardin, Boucher, Van Loo, Fragonard, and other artists of the eighteenth century in France, Freder- ick Keppel & Oo.'s, May 4. ,The fifteenth annual architectural exhi- bitioin of the T Square Club and the Phila- delphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects opens at the galleries of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts April 17. From Meulan comes the report of the death of Victor Vignon, the French land- scape painter, at the age of sixty-one. He exhibited at the Salon of the Societe Na- tionale des Beaux-Arts. Anton Hess, professor of plastic art at the Technical Highschool of Munich, has died at the age of seventy. He was himself a sculptor of note, and executed statues for the Rathaus and other public buildings. The death is reported of the well-known picture restorer, Alois Hauser of Berlin, in his seventy-ninth year. Finance. SPECULATION IN HARD TIMES. The recent outburst of excited specu- lation for the rise on the Stock Ex- change points again to the oddity of a phenomenon with which our people be- came familiar in 1908. It is not whol- ly unusual, when finance and industry have reached the low level of after- panic reaction and are gradually ris- ing to normal, for the incidental recov- ery in prices to be rapid for a time; and such recovery would naturally be attended by speculative operations for the rise. It is not even unprecedented for speculators just emerged from a seri- ous panic to make up their minds that nothing of consequence has happened, and that good times are immediately ahead. Such illusions were indulged in even in the year following the panic of 1873, which tradition pictures as a pe- riod, of profound depression. But spec- ulative activities such as were witness- ed in 1908, and have been witnessed this month, are not in line with prece- dent. In the case of the present Stock Ex- change "boom," the first abnormal fact to notice is that the rise began with prices for many active stocks already back at the ante-panic level. Further- more, it is not unfair to say that defi- nite belief in, or anticipation of, imme- diate industrial imprcvement, has play- ed little part. In last year's markets, such faith appeared to exist. Tak- ing its cue, perhaps, from the re- markable Prosperity League, the Stock Exchange asserted in the series of "bull markets" of 1908, and got it- self to believe, that hard times were actually over. In the active specula- tion of last spring, the arrival of large numbers of buyers in the dry goods trade, in response to the cut in prices at the mills, was taken as visible evi- dence of a returning "boom." In the summer, another similar speculation was based on definite assertions from the Middle West that the prospect of a good harvest had started up the mills and caused reemployment of 17,000 idle laborers. A third demonstration, in November, was plainly based on the in- ference that, since election of the Pres- idential candidate favored in financial circles had, in 1900, been followed by great prosperity, therefore results would be similar in 1908. It has not been easy, however, to discover such a process of inference on the present occasion. The signs of trade reaction have been too plainly in view, since the steel market's artificially-held prices gave way in February, to make possible any illusions, such as those of a year ago, to the effect that the "boom times of 1906" were about to be reproduced. Actual events, including the tariff con- troversy, have been of a kind to inspire hesitation rather than enthusiasm. Nev- ertheless, prices for many stocks have not only risen substantially, but have actually — as in the case of United States Steel shares — gone above the highest price in such prosperous periods as 1905 and 1906. How is a movement of this sort, un- der such conditions, to be explained? A common explanation is that industrial reaction has released great sums of ac- tual money from the channels of trade; that this money, accumulating in New York bank reserves, in the form of an abnormally large surplus, has brought money rates to an extremely low figure, and has thus afforded unusual facilities to speculative borrowers. Such a condi- tion certainly does exist; but it existed also in 1894, when the New York sur- plus bank reserve rose to $111,000,000, as against a maximum of $59,200,000 last year. Yet 1894 was marked on the Stock Exchange by inertia, depression, and liquidation. Furthermore, at the present moment and for similar rea- sons, the great European banks are mak- ing a showing quite as remarkable as New York's, and money rates on the European markets are quite as low; yet no such speculation for the rise is seen on the other side of the Atlantic. And if, in fact, it were to be conceded that low money rates must, ipso facto, bring about high prices for speculative stocks, then the converse should logically be true, and the high money rates of an era of real trade activity should pro- duce a falling stock market. But every one knows that nothing of the sort hap- pens. If it did, then the Stock Exchange would certainly have to abdicate its of- fice as the index and prophet of real in- dustrial conditions. The problem, from an economic point of view, is puzzling. What the phe- nomena of the day appear to indi- cate rather clearly is, that sums of capital, quite without precedent in the history of markets, are used in this country for stock speculation pure and simple. Something of the sort was visi- ble in Jay Gould's time; but Gould and his confederates were rarely able to make headway on the stock market when actual conditions pointed the oth- er way. There must, then, be some oth- er underlying difference, economic or psychological. In both regards, there are certain peculiarities of the present period which explain, even if they do not justify, the singular position of the markets. One is, that the American people as a whole have not been reduc- ed to poverty or forced into close re- trenchment, as happened after all our former panics. The prosperity of our agricultural section, as compared with these former periods, is one patent illustration. Evidently, also, the appetite for speculation, in the American com- munity, has not been destroyed by the lesson of 1907. Whether this is or is not a wholesome sign, and exactly what are the probable consequences, are oth- "er questions. "The Meaning of Money," by Hartley Withers (London: Smith, Elder & Co.), is a simple account, in non-technical lan- guage, of the modern mechanism of ex- change. From metallic money, the author passes to such subjects as bills of ex- change, checks, banknotes, the clearing sys- tem, foreign exchange, commercial banking, and the money market. Designed for Eng- lish readers, the volume considers chiefly the English money market, but pays due attention to the various elements affecting the world's exchanges. As a compendium for people untrained in the intricacies of finance, the book merits hearty commen- dation. Its explanations are clear, its il- lustrations striking, and its underlying the- ory extremely sound and sensible. The author's views concerning the gold reserves of Great Britain and the best method of increasing them are worthy of the careful consideration of economists and financiers. American readers may well take to heart the concluding chapter, upon "Other Re- serves," in which Mr. Withers emphasizes the fact that a high cash reserve is of lit- tle avail unless the other assets are such as to command confidence, and that this "confidence" Is a "psychological reserve"

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396 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2285 depending upon the character of bank- ers. "Control of a chain of banks," he re- marks, "by a gambling group, and the use of the banks' credit to further the group's gambling," is a poor basis upon which to build a "psychological reserve." We won- der what country and what particular city our author could have had in mind. BOOKS OP THE WEEK. Alden, Raymond Macdonald. An Introduc- tion to Poetry. For Students of English Literature. Henry Holt. $1.25. Bainbridge, William Seaman. Life's Day: Guide-Posts and Danger-Signals in Health. Frederick A. Stokes. Batson, Mrs. Stephen. The Summer Gar- den of Pleasure. Chicago: A. C. Mc- Clurg. Beary, Harriet R. The Individual Develop- ment of Man. Hartman Publishing House. $1. Betz, Frederick. Till Eulenspiegels Lus- tige Streiche. Boston: D. C. Heath. 30 cents. Brant, John Ira. The New Regime, A. D. 2202. Cochrane Publishing Co. $1. Bryan, J. Ingrain. The Feeling for Na- ture In English Pastoral Poetry. Tokio: Kyo-Bun-Kwan. Browning, Robert. Rabbi Ben Ezra. Port- land, Me.: Thomas B. Mosher. $1 net. Carson, Blanche Mabury. From Cairo to the Cataract. Boston: L. C. Page. Carus, Paul. The Foundations of Mathe • matics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co. Conger, Sarah Pike. Letters from China: with Particular Reference to the Em- press Dowager and the Women of China. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. $2.75 net. Curwood, James Oliver. The Great Lakes; The Vessels That Plough Them; Their Owners; Their Sailors, and Their Car- goes. Putnam. $3.50 net. Cust, Mrs. Henry. Gentlemen Errant. Dut- ton. $4 net. De Tocqueville's Voyage en Amerique. Edited by R. Clyde Ford. Boston: D. C. Heath. 40 cents. Dey, Frederic van Rensselaer. A Gentle- man of Quality. Boston: L. C. Page. Douthit, Jasper. The Autobiography of a Pioneer. Boston: American Unitarian As- sociation. $1.25 net. Dubois, Paul. Self-Control and How to Se- cure It. Funk & Wagnalls. Dulles, Charles W. Accidents and Emer- gencies: A Manual. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co. $1 net. Eliot, George. Scenes of Clerical Life. Henry Frowde. Eickemeyer, Carl. The Giant Killer. New York. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Education: An Es- say. Houghton Mifflin Co. Gallatin, Francis D. An Unfinished Di- vorce, or, Her Better Self. Cochrane Publishing Co. $1.50. Gibbon, Perceval. Salvator. Doubleday, Page. Goethe in Italy: Extracts from Goethe's Italienische Reise. Edited by A. B. Nich- ols. Henry Holt. 35 cts. Gorham. Francis. The Lone Trail at Thir- ty. Boston: Black Lion Publishers. Grattan, Francis W. With Those That Were. Broadway Publishing Co. Greene, Homer. A Lincoln Conscript. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50. Grierson, Francis. The Valley of Shadows. Recollections of the Lincoln Country 1858- 1863. Houghton Mifflin Co. $2 net. Griffis, William Elliot. The Story of New Netherland. Houghton Mifflin. $1.25 net. Halsey, Forrest. Fate and the Butterfly. B. W. Dodge. $1.50. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Harper. $1.25. Harper, George McLean. Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve. Philadelphia: Linpin- cott. $1.50 net. Henderson. Walter George. Norah Conough. Outing Publishing Co. Hilton, Marian A. The Garden of Girls. Tandy-Thomas Co. $1.50. Hogarth, David G. Ionia and the East. Henry Frowde. $1.15. Holdsworth, W. S. A History of English Law. 3 vols. Boston: Little, Brown. Jnggard, William. Index to Book-Prices Current; 1897 to 1906. London: Elliot Stock. James, Henry. Novels and Tales. Vols. XVII and XVIII. Scribner. Jordan, David Starr. The Fate of Icio- dorum: Being the Story of a City Made Rich by Taxation. Henry Holt. Kingsley, Florence Morse. The Glass House. Dodd, Mead. $1.50. Kipling, Rudyard. Stalky & Co. Double- day, Page. $1.50. Lamb, Charles and Mary. Works in Prose and Verse. Edited by Thomas Hutchin- son. Henry Frowde. Lawton, Frederick. The Third French Re- public. Philadelphia: Lippincott. $3.50 net. Loomis, Charles Battell. Just Irish. Bos- ton: Richard G. Badger. Mapes, Victor. Partners Three. Frederick A. Stokes. Mark Twain. Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography. Harper. $1.25 net. McCutcheon, George Barr. The Alterna- tive. Dodd. Mead. $1.25. Means. David MacGregor. The Methods of Taxation Compared with the Established Principles of Justice. ' Dodd, Mead. $2.50 net. Montgomery, H. B. The Empire of the East: A Simple Account of Japan As It Was, Is, and Will Be. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. Morris, John. Organic History of English Words. Part I: Old English. Strassburg: Karl J. Trubner. Myers, Charles S. A Text-Book of Experi- mental Psychology. Longmans, Green. $2.40 net. My Life as a Dissociated Personality. By B. C. A. With an Introduction by Mor- ton Prince. Boston: Richard G. Badger. Pierce, Frederick Erastus. The Collabora- tion of Webster and Dekker. Henry Holt. Pippins and Peaches. By Madame Qui Vive and Penrhyn Stanlaws. Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co. Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Poetical Works. Henry Frowde. Powell, Lyman P. The Emmanuel Move- ment in a New England Town. Putnam. $1.25 net. Reese, Lizette Woodworth. A Branch of May: Poems. Portland, Me.: Thomas B. Mosher. Revelation to the Monk of Evesham Ab- bey. Rendered into Modern English by Valerian Paget. John McBride Co. $1.50 net. Rideout, Henry Milner. Dragon's Blood. Houghton Mifflin. $1.20 net. Roux, Louis A. Lessons in Grammar and Composition, Based on Merimee's Colom- ba. Boston: D. C. Heath. Schiller's Maria Stuart. Edited by John Scholte Nollen. Ginn & Co. 75 cents. Schreiner, Olive. Closer Union: A Letter on the South African Union and the Prin- ciples of Government. London: A. C. Fifield. Seventeenth Universal Congress of Peace. Official Report. London : National Coun- cil of Peace Societies. Shakespeare's Complete Sonnets. Edited by C. M. Walsh. London: T. Fisher Unwin. Sharman, Henry Burton. The Teaching of Jesus About the Future. Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press. $3.26. Sidis, Boris. An Experimental Study of Sleep. Boston: Richard G. Badger. Smith, D. Nichol. The Functions of Criti- cism. Henry Frowde. Stewart, Basil. My Experiences of Cyprus. Dutton. $2 net. Stringer, Arthur. The Gun-Runner: A Novel. B. W. Dodge. $1.50. Swinburne, Algernon Charles. Three Plays of Shakespeare. Harper. Tacitus's Agricola. Edited by Duane Reed Stuart. Macmillan. 40 cts. net. Thomas, Ambrose M. Plain Economic Facts for All People. Cochrane Publish- ing Co. $3. Thomson, Edward William. When Lincoln Died, and Other Poems. Houghton Mif- flin Co. $1.25 net. Wallas, Graham. Htim'an Nature in Poli- tics. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50 net. Waller, Mary E. A Year Out of Life. Ap- pleton. $1.50. Webster, Henry Kitchell. A King in Khaki. Appleton. $1.50. Weller, Charles Frederick. Neglected Neighbors: Stories of Life in the Alleys, Tenements, and Shanties of the National Capital. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co. $1.50 net. Wells, Carolyn. The Rubaiyat of Bridge. Harper. $1. What Is a Picture? Chicago: A. C. Mc- Clurg. Williams, Charles D. A Valid Christianity for To-day. Macmillan. $1.50 net. Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique. Edited by G. H. Mair. Henry Frowde. $1.75. Wollaston, Arthur N. Tales Within Tales: Adapted from the Fables of Pilpai. Dut- ton. $1. D. S. Jordan's The Fate of Iciodorum Being the Story of a City Made Rich by Taxation. By the President of Stanford University. 90 cents' net, by mail 96 cents. "The A B C of protection. After reading this book, no man who wishes to get at the fundamental theory of protection can plead ignorance." — From The Evening Post's leading editorial. (Complete notice on request.) Anderson's History of Common School Education By L. F. ANDERSON, State Normal School, Marquette, Mich, xii + 308 pp. i2mo. $1.25. A history of the development of the common or non-professional school, with a discussion of its nature and function and its relation to other institutions, educa- tional and otherwise. The outline of the growth of the science and art of common school education should aid the teacher in working out elective methods of in- NOW READY. struction and organization. NEW YORK Henry Holt & Company ZmhJSS. The Playground of Europe By LESLIE STEPHEN With 16 Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. $1.50 net "What were the qualities which made Leslie Stephen the first among living Eng- lish critics? This book supplies for any intelligent reader the answer to our ques- tion. His preeminence among the writers of"~his time was not due to any single tal- ent ; it was not due to his mere literary gifts, great though they were. It was due to obvious presence, in every work which he has produced, of four qualities rare in themselves, and hardly ever fouDd In combi- nation— sincerity, Individuality, humor, and the scientific spirit." — N. Y. Evening Post. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK » LONDON.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1909. The Week. The cruellest suggestion yet made re- garding the best way to reconcile the differences between the Payne bill and the Aldrich bill, comes from the White House. Unite the good features of each, and then improve the resulting combin- ation, is the startling proposal of the President. Certain Dingley duties were •cut in the House bill, others in the Sen- ate; agree to accept both sets, and after- wards cut some more. This seems a natural thing to do, but we presume that Mr. Taft is not so innocent of the guile of tariff-making as would appear from his urging this course. It is the toad features of two rival bills upon which agreement is easiest and most •common. The President may not re- member the historic conflict between House and Senate about the duty on •coal. The House had voted 25 cents a ton, the Senate 50. Neither would re- cede. So they compromised on 75 cents a ton! If Macaulay had been well in- formed about the process of framing protective tariffs, he could have laid heavier emphasis on the assertion that government consists of compromise. The Democrats at Washington are ready to compromise everything, beginning with their principles. "During the month, Taft has lost the ■confidence of Roosevelt and of the loyal Roosevelt following." This is the pain- ed announcement which the readers of several Western newspapers found con- fronting them simultaneously on April 5. A special dispatch from Washington to the papers comprised in the Scripps- McRae League, and several others in the Central West, gave the sorrowful de- tails. Under the heading, "Roosevelt's Policies Are in the Ditch for Sure," this Washington spokesman for "the people who loved and followed Roosevelt," ac- cumulates the damning evidence. It has to do chiefly with President Taft's surrounding himself with corporation attorneys. Wall Street, it appears, is once more in control of "the machinery of government that Handles Prosecu- tions." In many other ways, during one short month in office, Taft has made "a studied effort to repudiate the things for which his predecessor stood." And there can be but one result: Yes; the storm is bound to break. The friends of Roosevelt have clung tenaciously to the hope that they might yet remain the friends of Taft. They have held their judgment in abeyance. They have refrained from criticism. They have thought up ex- planations and apologies on their own ac- count. They have even gone in person and voiced their fears and criticisms at the White House. But to no purpose. Taft has made it clear that his alliances are not with Roosevelt's friends. Nor is the disappointment confined to the friends. This veracious and inspired chronicler asserts of his own knowledge that "Roosevelt carried a sad heart away." He had "suffered from the deepest wound known to man" — ingrati- tude. Yet "the former President was game," and "kept up a cheerful front"; but: The friends of Taft will seek in vain for any spoken or written word which puts the endorsement of Roosevelt on the actions of the present occupant of the White House. . . . President Taft and President Roose- velt have said their political farewells. All the Washington correspondents are said to know that the facts are as stated. This outbreak has its amusing as- pects, but we advise nobody to think it merely laughing matter. The readers of the cheap and widely circulated news- papers in which this prediction of im- pending rupture appears, take it, we may be sure, with the utmost serious- ness. It only voices, in fact, what thou- sands and thousands of ardent Roose- veltians, particularly in the West, have been saying under their breath. They are bitterly disappointed in Taft. Why, the man goes ahead exactly as if he did not exist by grace of another. Nothing could appear further from his thoughts than the idea of being simply an obed- ient place-warmer. He even listens com- placently when people acclaim him with cries of eight years in the Presidency. Could anything be more preposterous to the inner circle of Rooseveltian inti- mates? That they confidently reckon upon a restoration in 1912 is an open secret. Any other political forecast they have been in the habit of dismissing with scorn. Until recently, they have I counted upon Taft's willingness to make way gracefully for his distinguish- ed predecessor-successor. But of late their faith has been rudely shaken. The severest jar was given to these ever loyal, ever hopeful, by the appoint- ment of Frank Hitchcock as Postmaster- General. To them it meant only one thing: President Taft was preparing to hold the Southern delegates in the next national convention. This was not only insubordination, but very nearly foul play. It was so well settled that the holding up of Mr. Roosevelt's little fin- ger would bring Southern Republicans trooping to his support, that deliberate- ly to build up a Taft machine in the South is almost treason. It has been felt to be fully such by all that band of idolatrous hangers-on who are only living until "he comes back." They look for Republican defeat in the State and Congressional elections of next year, and then there will be such a loud call for the old invincible leader, that no- thing can prevent his riding in again. That President Taft should venture to have other plans is the really enraging thing. Corporation counsel in the Cab- inet might be condoned, but a search for popularity and for delegates can never be forgiven. If President Taft sticks, in his army appointments, to the policy he has indi- cated by his first selections announced on Saturday, he will do much to re- store happiness to a discontented ser- vice. For the first vacancy as brigadier- general, he chose an excellent officer, Col. Jacob A. Augur, Tenth Cavalry, the senior of his grade, who unfortunately died on Sunday. Next he picked Col. J. G. D. Knight of the Engineers, a most worthy member of that expert corps; and finally Col. Marion P. Maus, Twen- tieth Infantry, whose abilities were long ago recognized and rewarded by Gen. Miles. For the coming vacancy in the rank of major-general, Mr. Taft designates Brig.-Gen. W. H. Carter, again the senior in his grade, excepting Gen. Funston, who for some years past has been regularly and properly jump- ed. Not one of these officers advanced is a Rough Rider, or has been in any way personally affiliated with the pres- ent President. It will also be observed

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398 The Nati on Vol. 88, No. 2286 that Augur, Maus, and Knight are full colonels, not captains or majors, as was so often the case under the last admin- istration. No mere civilian can fully appreciate what a great feeling of relief and encouragement this fact will bring to the army, which asks only that se- nior officers of merit be advanced to the prized positions. Exceptional promotions in war-time for special achievements there will always be. But if there ever comes a time when not a single one of the forty-three line colonels proves fit for a generalcy, it will mean that there is something radically wrong with the whole army. Some of the President's ideas respect- ing diplomatic appointments, as ex- plained in Washington dispatches, are excellent; but some give us pause. Mr. Taft is not looking for rich men as such. He would prefer in an ambassador a long head over a long purse. Nor does the President intend to be in haste about dealing out the diplomatic offices. He would also like to relieve those now filling them acceptably from the haunt- ing fear that their heads may be any day cut off. All this is well; but the disquiet begins when we hear about "obligations inherited from the last ad- ministration," and debts to politicians, and also when we consider some of the appointments already made or offered. These do not seem to argue that the President is exercising as great care and independence in selecting diplomats as he did in choosing his Cabinet, or as he has announced that he will exercise in nominating judges. Yet neither he nor the country can afford to have our rep- resentation abroad made to appear1 a matter of indifference, much less a part of the spoils system. We trust, therefore, that the unpleasant rumors afloat in Washington respecting the in- tentions of the administration, are un- founded. The offer of the Chinese mis- sion to ex-Senator Fulton of Oregon was doubly ill-advised, but it now appears to be probable that China would not re- ceive him, even if he wished to go to the land of those Chinese whom he had violently attacked in his own country. everybody's mind. The dinner was well- timed. The United States has just got through with a little affair of South American politics which only a few years ago would have aroused violent resentment and talk about the dangerous ambitions of those Yankees. Our gov- ernment has taken it upon itself to keep Castro out of Venezuela. To that end it has enlisted the cooperation of every other foreign government in the Carib- bean. Our action is possibly open to criticism from the strictly legalistic point of view. Yet we have been able to send Castro packing back to Europe and to prevent almost certain civil war in Venezuela, because nowadays there is no danger that our motives will be con- strued into a dreadful conspiracy against the liberties of South America. The Brazilian Ambassador welcomed in Secretary Knox the inheritor of the pol- icy of Secretary Root. That policy has its very justification in such an ex- change of views as took place at the dinner. For it would not be an exag- geration to describe John Barrett's state dinner as an informal ratification by the Latin-American diplomats of what we have recently done for South Amer- ican peace. No one mentioned Castro at the din- ner of the Bureau of American Repub- lics last week at Washington; yet Cas- tro must have been in pretty nearly Pike and Daviess Counties, Indiana, do not border on Kentucky; they lie in the second and third tiers back from the Ohio River. Their farmers have prob- ably never seen a real live Night Rider from the tobacco country. But Ken- tucky's recent civil strife has taught afar the art of coercion. Raking fields, burning barns, and torturing defence- less men and women in the dead of •night are easy tricks. It is only neces- sary that a dozen stalwart rascals agree, and the whole countryside is at their mercy. Indiana's new marauders are trying to establish their own schedule of land rentals. If they succeed, and it is by no means impossible, another county's ruffians may attempt to regu- late village taxes, or even the high- school curriculum. The great tobacco war may never be repeated anywhere in the country; but its miniatures will appear, again and again, in such out- bursts of organized crime as Pike and Daviess Counties have been witnessing. And each of these uprisings must re- mind us what a heavy price we are pay- ing for having dealt gently with law- lessness. Had Kentucky stamped out her Night Riders in their first anarchy, Indiana would not now be vexed. Two hundred of the "best citizens" of Ada, Oklahoma, had on Monday the stern civic duty to perform of lynching three citizens of Texas, who were, at home, "popular among the best class of citizens." When best meets best, then comes the tug of the lynching rope. The whole account reads like a wild bur- lesque— a mixture of "Martin Chuzzle- wit," the Police Gazette, and a stage ex- travaganza. We cannot undertake to judge of the local conditions or of the alleged crimes which led to this cul- mination, but regarding the net effect there can be no doubt: it is to make this country seem to foreigners the home of savages, and to cause all our protests against lawlessness in Turkey or inhumanity in Russia to appear like a huge joke. Caesar putting away the crown is nothing to a philanthropist removing his halo. Yet Judge Gary has taken off the one that President Roosevelt con- ferred upon him in November, 1907. At the annual meeting of the United States Steel Corporation, the chairman of the board declared that the account which Mr. Roosevelt had given of the acquisi- tion of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company was "not entirely accurate." In a letter to his Attorney-General, dat- ed November 4, 1907, the President stat- ed that Messrs. Gary and Frick "inform me that, as a mere business transaction^ they do not care to purchase the [Ten- nessee] stock; that under ordinary cir- cumstances, they would not consider purchasing the stock; . . . but they feel that it is immensely to their inter- est, as to the interest of every responsi- ble business man, to try to prevent a panic and general industrial smash-up." There stood revealed the noblest finan- cial altruism, and Messrs. Gary and Frick have been ever since trying to hide their blushes from the country. But the blushing was left off when Judge Gary told his stockholders that "Mr. Roosevelt's interpretation of the situation" was "not quite correct," since, in fact, the Steel Corporation had been negotiating for the Tennessee Company long before the panic, and considered it an excellent purchase. Philanthropy is good, but truth is better. Yet the Steel Corporation officials may find it hard to

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April 22, 1909] The Nation 399 make an incredulous public believe tbat they did not act from purely disinterest- ed motives. President Roosevelt assert- ed that they did, and they cannot con- tradict him without leaving that astute enemy of monopolists in a most embar rassing position. The senior of '09 is now casting about for a niche in the world. If he is stu- dious, he perhaps tries to win a college post. It would be. well for him to re- member, however, that the school of lower grade is no longer a mere wait- ing-room for people in search of better opportunities; it has its own openings. Few college men realize what they might accomplish, were they to train for school management or for high-school teaching. President Eliot spoke in the fulness of wisdom the other evening, when he urged Harvard undergraduates to engage in these lines of work, add- ing that they are "worthy of an accom- plished man of letters or of science, or a gifted administrator." More than 10,- 000 high schools are now open; many of them are as large as universities, more prosperous than some, and more ad- vanced than our fathers' colleges were. Signs are abundant, too, that they will one day become, in popular esteem as well as in fact, the centre of the Ameri- can educational system. But even if this does not happen, they will certainly be numerous and strong enough to re- ward fittingly the man who trains him- self for their work. It is to be hoped that the Assembly will speedily concur with the Senate in passing the bill to prohibit the publish- ing of betting odds in the newspapers. The measure would effectually expose a pet hypocrisy of certain papers, and force them to discontinue its daily ex- hibition. While professing to be against gambling, they encourage it; some even of those who advocated the suppression of public gambling at the race tracks are doing what they can to promote it in the poolrooms. A little legal compul- sion laid upon these inconsistent jour- nalists would do them good. But the public benefit is the main thing, and this would obviously be compassed by the prohibition of these daily hints to • gamblers. They come distinctly under the head of provocations to crime, with the suppression of which the Legisla- ture may properly deal. If Abdul Hamid goes down at last, as the chances stand at the present mo- ment, it will be very appropriately in a welter of bloodshed. The tale of the slaughtered in the eight-day massacre in Asia Minor is mounting to dreadful proportions. Five thousand is estimated to be the number of dead in the vila- yet of Adana. To no other cause can the outbreak at present be assigned than to the ruthless despot on whose head is the blood which has run in Ar- menia, in Bulgaria, and in the streets of Constantinople. It has been said that Europe has had a softer heart for the Sultan than his own subjects. It was largely in deference to European opin- ion that the leaders of last summer's revolution allowed him to keep the throne and life. Short shrift with Abdul Hamid at that time would probably have cost far less blood than has been poured out during the last week; and the tempest of Moslem fanaticism which has been set raging in Asia Minor is not yet checked. The Young Turks have their work made easier by the news from Asia Minor. If a juster scale of values in heroism were prevalent among us, the deaths of the two missionaries at Adana, Turkey, would not pass with so little mention. They were killed "in the line of duty," as naval reports run, but only because the line of their duty, as they conceived it, covered every demand of Christian self-sacrifice. While trying to extin- guish the flames in the house of an old Turkish woman, Daniel Miner Rogers and Mr. Maurer were shot by the blind- ly infuriated mob. It was a death as glorious in spirit as Gen. Gordon's — giv- ing up life to save the feeble and friend- less— and we may be sure that the re- cording angel will not be misled by the absence of newspaper glorification. Since Webster, in a moment of ex- hilaration, undertook to pay the na- tional debt out of his own pocket, no- thing so magnificent has been seen as the offer of L. J. Maxse to the Chancel- lor of the British Exchequer to build a Dreadnought. He is the well-known edi- tor of the National Review, furiously anti-German and tremendously bellicose. It is true that Mr. Maxse forwarded his cheque for only £200. and Dread- noughts cost slightly more; but the point was that this showed, in Mr. Maxse's own words, that "the govern- ment can get all the money they want by a frank appeal to the patriotism of the nation." Mr. Lloyd-George's reply, however, was rather cruel. He admit- ted Mr. Maxse's exalted patriotism, but somewhat questioned his good judg- ment. The Chancellor reminded the edi- tor that "the willingness of the tax- payer to contribute is not, as you ap- pear to think, the proper measure of the burdens to be imposed upon him by the government." It is just as culpa- ble to rush into unnecessary expendi- ture as it is to neglect national defence. In determining the true policy to be fol- lowed, wrote Mr. Lloyd-George, respon- sible statesmen should not be influenced by "journalistic clamor." With this sig- nificant glance at the furibund editor, the Chancellor returned his cheque. Mr. Maxse is, he lets it be known, to "de- vote it to some other patriotic purpose." Possibly, to the campaign fund of the Conservatives. If you can't build eight Dreadnoughts for £200, you can at least help turn out the Liberals. In Germany, the government has re- covered a good deal of lost prestige through its diplomatic success in the Balkan difficulty. It was also helped by England's flurry over German naval development and by the contrast be- tween the angry debates in the British Parliament and the passing of the naval estimates by the Reichstag without de- bate. Yet official and Conservative or- gans are now warning the Germans not to boast as if their own troubles were surmounted. Financial legislation has as yet come to nothing, though the need of covering the huge deficits and pro- viding new revenue is urgent. The fight over that question will go on through the summer. To date, the government has had, as even the Norddeutscher Zei- tung admits, only a series of failures. Still more significant is the present at- titude of the Kreuz Zeitung. It strong- ly advocates seeking an agreement with England regarding "naval con- struction." Germany, it argues, is in no financial position to build and maintain a fleet to cope with England's in war. And it sensibly adds that to endeavor to ar- rive at an understanding with England would be a proof "not of weakness, but of wisdom." Such advances bear out what we said last week about the oppor- tunity of Anglo-German diplomacy.

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400 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 SENATOR ALDRICH'S BUDGET. If the country were to judge Senator Aldrich's speech of Monday solely on the basis of the general principles it propounds, it would in many respects deserve high praise. Unlike most Con- gressional "budget speeches," Mr. Ald- rich's has something to say about ad- justing expenditure to income. That "the rapidity with which our national expenditures have increased within the last three years is a source of anxiety, if not alarm"; that "there are periods . . . when the spirit of extravagance pervades the atmosphere and the public money is scattered right and left, often without reference to the results to be secured"; that the appropriations of the last session were such that nothing can "relieve Congress from responsibility for their unprecedented extravagance"; and that "no excuse whatever can be found for similar legislation in the fu- ture"— these are not new doctrines to careful students of public finance. But it is well that they should be declared thus bluntly on the floor of Congress itself, and from so influential a quarter. The manner in which some of the proposals for direct taxation, with estimates of enormous productiveness, have been thrown out in Congress, might well en- courage Congressional spendthrifts to imagine that, somehow or other, all their drafts on the public purse will be met without difficulty. This easy opti- mism Mr. Aid rich at least is wise enough to avoid. In certain other respects, however, his speech will encounter and will merit severe criticism. One comment will be inevitable — namely, that his indignation over the appropriations for the coming fiscal year is a little belated. Why did we not hear something about the re- sponsibility of Congress, the pervading spirit of extravagance, and the anxiety if not alarm which it inspired, when the appropriation bills were before the Senate, two or three months ago? We recall one or two meekly deprecatory re- marks upon the subject, to which the Senators listened much as they did to the prayer at the opening of the day's proceedings, and that was the end of it. Mr. Aldrich's declaration of Monday, then, that the appropriations "could have been reduced at least $50,000,000 without impairing the efficiency of the public service," and that when the coun- try is confronted with a deficit, it is "the imperative duty of Congress to reduce expenditures and make them conform to actual revenue conditions," sounds curiously like an afterthought. We hope, however, that the afterthought will be pressed on Congress in the future. But when we come to Senator Ald- rich's actual budget of revenue and ex- penditure, under his committee's tariff measure, it is necessary to look at de- tails rather than generalities. Warrant- ed or unwarranted, the appropriations for the twelvemonth beginning with next July are made. It is the present business of a budget committee to make sure that the revenue will meet them, and we are not by any means certain that Senator Aldrich's plans will ac- complish this. To begin with, his estimates are per- vaded with that spirit of happy-go- lucky confidence to which was largely due the very size of the appropriation bills which he condemns. When Mr. Aldrich figures out uie probable yield, under his schedules, he assumes that the import trade will be the same as in 1907, which was "the last year in which the finances and business of this coun- try were in a normal condition." That is to say, a year which ail business men have agreed in pronouncing a period of trade inflation, a year in which econom- ic experts have shown tnat the demands of industry had so far overstrained the facilities of capital and credit as to precipitate worldwide financial trouble, is to be taken as the norm of the country's foreign trade. Now in the history of finance nothing is more fa- miliar than the fact that the tide of ex- cessive imports which invariably pre- cedes a serious panic, does not rise to such a height again for many years. The country's import trade of the fiscal year 1873 was not again approached un- til 1880; not until 1902 did imports reach the volume of 1893. Yet Senator Aldrich calmly looks for customs revenue on the basis of the trade for the twelve- month ending June, 1907. His reason for this assumption is sin- gular: "We can feel the change in the air." But trade movements which gen- tlemen feel in the air or in their bones are not the safest basis for the fiscal plans of a great government. That the import trade last month increased with great rapidity, and with it the customs revenue, is a fact, and the main cause of that increase, reduced stocks of im- ported merchandise, is correctly stated by Mr. Aldrich. When, however, the Sen- ator jumps to his next conclusion, and asserts that "it must be conceded that the era of prosperity which commenced the first part of March is likely to con- tinue uninterruptedly with the enact- ment of wise tariff legislation," he is in- dulging in curious language for a finan- cial expert. This sort of cocksure pre- diction belongs to the Stock Exchange, and not in the halls of legislation. The assertion that "there can be no reasonable question of the sufficiency of the Senate bill to provide adequate rev- enue" is quite of a piece with this child- like assurance. We can scarcely believe that Congress will approach the further consideration of the problem in such a spirit. As to the actual yield under the new schedules, it is impossible to speak definitely until the numerous clauses of the Senate bill which the finance com- mittee has left for further deliberation are filled out. It is right that the ques- tion of avoiding excessive revenue should be as carefully considered as that of avoiding a deficit; and plans for direct taxation ought to be severely scrutinized with a view to escaping both contingencies. Bu.t it is equally neces- sary to avoid the pitfalls of blind and hasty optimism. Senator Daniel's dec- laration for the Opposition that he will "vote first of all to raise revenue," and next "to lift every burden of taxation off the people that can be eliminated with just regard to the conditions in which we legislate," is the only programme that is rational. NAVY-YARD REORGANIZATION. If it will but centre the attention of the new Secretary of the Navy upon the need of radical reorganization, we shall be inclined to thank the nine line officers at League Island for their pamphlet criticisms of the recent changes in navy-yard administration. They are not, it now appears, to face courts-martial for the peculiar method which they took to air their views — a method not, however, altogether un- heard-of in naval annals, for similar acts in the past have brought about im- portant changes. But the need of the , hour is a complete overhauling of our naval manufacturing methods, that mil- lions may be saved and the efficiency of

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April 22, 1909J The Nation. 401 the fleet at the same time increased. We care not who gives the impetus, so long as Mr. Meyer can be made to compre- hend the needs of the service and the magnificent opportunities which lie be- fore him. Mr. Taft, it is said, has im- pressed each member of his Cabinet with his desire to make his govern- ment famous for its efficiency and its economy. But no other departmental head has such plain sailing as Mr. Meyer — if he will but steer by the proper charts. Since Mr. Newberry, despite his brief term of office, was fully aware of the reforms needed, and had grappled with those relating to the navy yards with marked success, many naval officers were disappointed that he was not re- tained by Mr. Taft, and with him the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Satterlee. The officers argued, plausibly enough, that the incoming officials, however skilled in administration, would naturally need some time to become familiar with their duties and to understand the in- numerable currents and cross-currents in the department which have stranded and left helpless more than one civilian head. But since Mr. Meyer was one of the two members of Mr. Roosevelt's Cab- inet reappointed by Mr. Taft, these offi- cers felt that the President must have specially chosen Mr. Meyer for the Augean task of cleaning up the depart- ment, reorganizing the navy yards, and then making the staff lion and the line lamb lie down together in peace. Hence they, too, will not regret the offence of the nine officers at Philadelphia, if it should compel the new Secretary to make plain his endorsement of the New- berry reforms. These are worth recalling. It has long been a scandal that the five man- ufacturing bureaus of the department have had in nearly every yard their own separate plants. Thus, until re- cently, there were at the Brooklyn yard five blacksmith shops, five joiner shops, five carpenter shops, at least three foun- dries, as many paint-shops, etc., etc. It is not necessary to point out the waste this involved or the number of sine- cures it created. Conceived as a whole, any navy yard is but one great plant, not a group of five competitive plants. What private enterprise could exist if it employed five master founders instead of one, five carpenter foremen instead of one, and five head blacksmiths in- stead of one, and so on throughout its force? The absurdity of the thing was at once apparent to Mr. Newberry, and he ordered the consolidation of all these shops and their management by one re- sponsible head, who might be termed the "manufacturing manager" of the yard. Unfortunately, Mr. Newberry limited the officers eligible to this new post to those of the corps of naval constructors — and the fight with the line was on at once. This is just the point that has so stirred the Philadelphia officers. With amazing ignorance of the large savings already made, and of the great profit to the sea-going officers resulting from the new methods, they want a return to the old system; so long as there are sep- arate bureaus in Washington, they want separate establishments at the navy yards, and the whole managed not by a naval constructor, but by a sea-going or line officer. They ignore the fact that the commandant, a sea-going officer, re- mains the superior of that manufactur- ing director (the naval constructor) ; and that the commandant is now, for the first time, a real executive, and not merely a man who signs his name to papers several hundred times a day. They fail to see that, for the first time, the captain of a ship in a navy yard knows what is going to be done to nis vessel; that one gang of laborers of the Bureau of Equipment, ordered to run electric-wire conduits, does not sit down and wait in idleness until another gang comes from the Bureau of Construction shops to drill the necessary holes. More- over, for the first time, the captain of a ship is inspector of the work done on it, and is asked to report any laborers who loaf on their jobs. Ten days were saved in fitting the Chester for sea at Brooklyn as soon as the new system was tried. Now what is needed in Philadelphia is not a court-martial — our naval offi- cers ought to be as free to express their views about things and methods, in the proper way, as are English naval offi- cers, who never hesitate to criticise the Admiralty in the London Times — but a sound lecturing from Mr. Meyer to set them right. He might well aid in clear- ing the atmosphere by modifying Mr. Newberry's restriction of the post of manufacturing director to the Construc- tion Corps and specifying that any of- ficer of any corps could be made di- rector if only he had the necessary abil- ity. Even civilians of merit might be ap- pointed—though this suggestion wrings tears from the nine recalcitrants at Philadelphia. What the public wants is efficient and economical navy yards; what insignia of rank and corps the manufacturing director is to wear it cares not at all. Mr. Meyer will, we trust, make it clear when he comes to Brooklyn, as he now plans to do in the near future, that he is on the side of re- form and economy. If he will but per- fect the workings of the Newberry sys- tem, he will then be free to attack— if he can— the greater question of the un- necessary Senatorial navy yards, and insist that they be closed and millions more saved. THE RURAL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. The Southern Educational Conference, which met last week in Atlanta, devot- ed no little time to the needs and op- portunities of the small rural indus- trial schools, those miniature Hamptons and Tuskegees which are springing up all over the country in surprising num- bers— for example, such institutions as Calhoun at Calhoun, Alabama; Kowal- iga, in the same State, and Okolona, in Mississippi — all of which are doing a most useful work thoroughly deserving of support. Indeed, it is no exaggera- tion to say that collectors for both white and colored schools of this char- acter fairly overrun our Northern cities and almost fall over one another In their quest for funds. Unfortunately, there is no board or fund which deals expressly with schools of this character. When the Southern Education Board began, and was followed by Mr. Rockefeller's princely gifts to the General Education Board, it was thought that the rural industrial schools would be the chief beneficiaries. But the Rockefeller money is now flowing in other directions, large- ly to established universities and col- leges; we have only recently heard of a gift to a small negro school — $5,000 to Kowaliga, to which Mr. Carnegie has added a similar sum. Indeed, Hampton and Tuskegee have both suffered in consequence of the General Board's mil- lions; many contributors appear to think that no further aid from them is needed; and the smaller schools have

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4=02 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 labored under a similar misunderstand- ing. The Southern Education Board devotes itself to educational campaigns in Southern States, and has had great success in improving public-school con- ditions there. The Jeanes Fund aids only the rural one-teacher public school. Thus merely the Slater Fund, with its limited means, interests itself to any ex- tent in the rural industrial school; for the Peabody Fund, which might have been kept intact for this useful pur- pose, is to be distributed, a good part going to a teachers' training school in Tennessee. To our mind, the work of these rural and industrial institutions is of such ;great moment to whites and blacks alike .that no philanthropist could to-day in- vest a large sum more wisely than by endowing a board which should primar- ily interest itself in their development. Many of these country schools, like that at Manassas, Virginia, are the result of genuine self-denial and sacrifice on the part of the colored people; others like Lyman Ward's at Gamp Hill, Alabama, and Miss Martha Berry's at Rome, Geor- gia, represent similar praiseworthy ex- ertions on the part of Southern white leaders. All of the schools are develop- ing in a more or less haphazard way, some with exclusively white teachers, some with mixed faculties, and others with only colored instructors and man- agers. In some, particular stress is giv- en to agricultural training; in others, the manual industries receive especial attention. In few, if any, have the book- learning and hand training been prop- erly coordinated; wnile many are en- tirely without proper systems of book- keeping and accounting. Hardly any insist upon fixed standards for entrance or graduation or make sure that the pu- pil who carries away a certificate is at least a master of the fundamental three R's. "" Each new school for lack of intelli- gent supervision and direction by some central body falls into precisely the er- rors of its predecessors. Some institu- tions, like Okolona, are self-supporting; others do not know how to use their resources to this end. Again, there are several places where two such schools exist with a wasteful and needless dupli- cation of work similar to that at At- lanta, where no less than three weak and struggling institutions are compet- ing for the higher education of the ne- gro. It must be admitted, too, that some of the rural schools that appeal for aid are in no wise entitled to it. There is an impostor named John J. Smallwood, for instance, who lives well on his collections for a school that does not exist, and a "Georgia Nautical School" for negroes is perpetually in be- ing— that its founder may live comfort- ably on the contributions he collects. A board especially charged with the interests of genuine schools of this kind would be in a position to drive out im- postors, to raise scholastic standards, to prescribe a system of bookkeeping, and a form for financial statements, by giv- ing or withholding its approval and gifts, just as the Carnegie pension fund has made numerous colleges raise their entrance examinations in order to qual- ify for pensions for its teachers. By acting as a clearing-house for informa- tion, a central board could be of enor- mous value in placing the experiences of one school at the disposition of oth- ers, and it could intelligently advise as to what is now becoming the most im- portant feature of these small industrial schools — their community extension work. Through allied land companies, through farmers' conferences, mothers' meetings, and teachers' institutes, Ma- nassas, Kowaliga, Calhoun, Utica, and others in every State of the old Confed- eracy are extending +heir influences a thousand-fold — again ' after the manner of Hampton and Tuskegee — by blazing the way to prosperity for poor white and poor black alike, and often break- ing down the barriers of prejudice be- tween the races. Surely, so great a work ought not to be allowed to languish or to develop in haphazard fashion. UNCONSCIOUS PIRATES. It was doubtless what Paley called an "undesigned coincidence," but never- theless it is a striking one, that the government's final attempt to have the courts declare the Standard Oil Com- pany a wicked monopoly and an out- law, should have been made in the same week in which the head of the Stan- dard published his apologia pro vita sua. At St. Louis, the counsel for the De- partment of Justice were calling Mr. Rockefeller a pirate, who for years had flown the black flag, at the very time when he himself was coming before the world in a book simply agush with the milk of human kindness. If he was ever a pirate, he certainly appears in it as a man who could outdo the gentlest Stockton or Gilbert and Sullivan buc- caneer in knitting or any other fireside art. We have no intention of discussing Mr. Rockefeller's "Reminiscences" in de- tail. It is not the place to go for real information about the rise and achieve- ments of the Standard Oil Company. Of all that, he but skims the surface. The interest of his book is not histori- cal nor industrial nor financial, but psychological and moral. We spoke of it as an apologia, but in his mind it is nothing of the kind. He is sublimely unaware that there is anything to be apologized for. He does, indeed, speak with pain and protest of the fact that some of his honored associates have been charged with "grave faults" — to quote his mild-mannered phrase. As regards his own career, however, no reader of his book who had no other sources of information, would dream that the writer felt anything but humble satisfaction and joy in the no- ble example which, by the grace of God, he had been able to set before in- genuous and aspiring American youth. Nor can we regard this as a mere as- sumption of virtue. Only a great liter- ary artist would be able to feign inno- cence so completely, and to sustain it so successfully to the end of the last chapter; but Mr. Rockefeller is an art- less writer. Our inference is that his pages are simply the genuine expression of his real attitude of mind If he is or has been a pirate, he is as unconscious a one as ever drew breath. Such a phenomenon as he and others like him present, throws us back upon our definitions, and forces us to scru- tinize human nature. If a whole sys- tem has been built up on the philosophy of the unconscious, it is only fair to ask if the men whom we call wicked, may not be quite oblivious of their wickedness. As there are glad souls without reproach or blot who do God's will and know it not, so may there not be the other kind, who do the Devil's work and know it not? Granting that a man may be, in actual fact, a devour- er of widows' houses and an oppressor of the poor, we are not to imagine that he begins his day by asking himself: "What villany shall I be able to execute ere set of sun?" He does not look about for a given widow whose property

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April 22, 1909] The Nation. 403 he may take away by nightfall, or gloat over a definite orphan whose pit- tance he thinks he may get into his own pocket before going to bed. If even pickpockets and burglars go about their jobs with an absorbed sense of merely pursuing the business by which they live, we must be prepared to admit a certain degree of the same unconscious- ness, or overlooking, of evil in those who wreck railroads, loot banks, or de stroy the property, of a rival. It is clear, too, that a man whose business practices have made him dis- liked or even execrated, may move through the world pretty nearly ignor- ant of the opinion of his fellow-men. He has few means of finding it out. The newspapers, he may make it a boast, with Mr. Balfour, that he never reads; or, if he does read them, he discovers in them so much that is exaggerated, sensational, or false, that he sees no reason why he should pay any atten- tion to what they say about himself. And even when he is dimly aware of a certain outside hostility, which he easily sets down to misunderstanding or slander, he is able to fall back upon un- failing appreciation and admiration among his intimates — and it is the world in actual touch with us which makes up, for most of us, that external conscience which we so readily trans- form into the voice within. The un- just magnate knows little or nothing, by any outward sign, of his injustice. In his office and in directors' meetings, his dependents fawn upon him and his associates flatter him. His family hangs upon him in affection. In church he is consulted and deferred to, with no one to suggest, as the English lord did to the bishop, that he would do well to indulge in "piety of a less ostentatious character." Wrapped up in his large projects, delighting in the game of mo- ney-making for its own sake, surround- ed by friends, overwhelmed by college presidents with expressions of that grat- itude which consists in the expectation of favors to come — -how can it be won- dered at that such a man, his sensibili- ties which were never delicate grown callous with long absorption in affairs, should be blandly unconscious of what the world thinks him to be or of what he really is? Fortunately, both social laws and the statutes deal with overt acts, not with a state or soul. If we had to be sure that a monopolist had to be acutely con- scious of sin, or a devastator of industry stricken through with remorse, before he could be properly convicted or pun- ished, the worst of the lawless rich could count upon going scot free. A man may smile and be a villain; an in- dustrial pirate may think he has the face of a saint, to go with his devout thoughts. But the law does not under- take to read the hearts of men. If the Federal courts decide that the Standard Oil Company is a piratical organization, the fact that its head is all unwitting of piracy will alter neither the judgment nor the penalty. THE MINOR TONGUES. The New York State Board of Re- gents has just added Biblical Hebrew to its examination list. There is no rea- son why it should not have done so. Our law students and medical students, in- tent on passing off their preliminary "counts," will undoubtedly find it just as easy to forget the Pentateuch and the Song of Songs as they do Caesar's Com- mentaries, the ^Eneid, and the Ana- basis. But in the action of the Re- gents something more than a delicate compliment to our growing Hebrew citi- zenship was probably intended. The He- brew language, as a spoken tongue, may be practically dead. Yet as the lan- guage of the Jewish ritual and the most common branch of elementary education among the orthodox, Hebrew is suffi- ciently familiar to give the ordinary Jewish student a decided advantage over the outsider. And this aside from the tact that many Hebrew words in corrupt form enter into Yiddish, which is still the dialect of a very large part of the Jewish population of New York city. A generation or two hence when the chil- dren of our Italian and Greek immi- grants begin to flock to the colleges, they will have a similar legitimate ad- vantage in their tussle with Caesar and Xenophon. The vitality of Yiddish and, indeed, the struggle of the smaller nations for the preservation of their native lan- guage constitutes one of the most sig- nificant features of contemporary Euro- pean history. Sentiment and practical reasons are both involved. The Poles in East Prussia, the Ruthenians and the Poles in Russia, the Czechs and Ger- mans in Bohemia, the Bulgarians, Greeks, and Serbs in Turkey, the Flem- ings in Belgium, the rival French and German factions in Alsace-Lorraine, are actuated in part by national pride, in part by clear recognition of the fact that a common language is one of the firmest bonds of national existence, but in part also by the desire for material advantage. A Czech or a Greek-speak ing population means that, whoever holds the reins of power, there will be need of a certain number of Czech- speaking or Greek-speaking officials, judges, priests, journalists, and school- teachers. The preservation of its lan- guage thus means to a subject race thb preservation of an irreducible minimum of local self-government and a chance to grow up into something else than tax- paying hewers of wood and drawers of water. At the same time, a language is the most easily defended of all na- tional treasures. Land, liberty, oppor- tunity may all be taken away, but not even German ingenuity has as yet found a perfect device for making a conquered race hold its tongue. And the forbidden speech, so easily defended, is also easily passed on. The Polish landowner in Prussia can never feel sure that his soil will hold the estate after him. But to» drill a child in his father's speech may mean insurance of patriotism for a gen- eration. Thus habit, sentiment, ambition, worldly prudence, are all concerned in the modern strife of tongues. Subject peoples cling to the language they have inherited, as the Poles, the Flemings, and the southern Slavs do; or bring back to life forgotten languages of their own, as the Irish with Gaelic and the Jews in Russia with Hebrew; or at- tempt to purify and ennoble the com- mon vernacular, as the Greeks did in the early nineteenth century, as the Rumanians are doing at the present day, and as the Jews, again, in this country and in Europe are doing with the Yiddish dialect. The Yiddish news- papers in New York city circulate prob- ably a quarter of a million copies. There is a respectable Yiddish litera- ture and a more than respectable Yid- dish drama. Yet of recent years Jewish writers have grown discontented with the medium to which they are bound. Upon a double foundation of German and Hebrew, the Yiddish has piled up treasure-trove from every language with which the race in the course of its chequered history during the last five

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4:04= The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 hundred years has come into contact. Limited in vocabulary and almost de- void of fixed grammatical structure, the dialect would not respond to the uses which ambitious writers wished to im- pose upon it. At the same time, there could be no possibility of throwing it over altogether. Such as it is, Yiddish is the spoken tongue of probably seven or eight million Jews. But more than that, the new spirit of Jewish national- ism, which is one of the most striking consequences of the late Russian revolu- tion, felt the need of a national lan- guage. There was none other practica- ble. So the problem resolved itself into keeping Yiddish and rebuilding .t into an organic and modern tongue. Side by side with the older dialect, this firmer and broader, if less colored, language is now growing up. A magazine written in this reformed Yiddish and published in this city is Dos Naaye Leben; its first four numbers have reached us. A glance at the list of contents shows why its editors have felt the need of a more vigorous and refined medium than the spoken Yid- dish of the street. Very solid food is spread out here for the East Side read- er, food of a quality we are accustomed to associate with the English quarter- lies and with the various Jahrbucher and Mitteilungen on the other side of the North Sea. The proper limitations upon the freedom of the creative artist, the death and resurrection of gods and religions, the Turkish revolution and Zionism, the Hegelian conceptions of 'ogical and historical fact, Jewish na- tionality, and Jewish Socialism — these are a few topics which argue well for cultural standards in the Ghetto, if we are right in supposing that Yiddish magazines, like magazines in a certain better-known language, are edited on the principle of giving the public what it wants. The thought occurs that here is found within the limits of what is, after all, a dialect a good deal of excel- lent thinking and writing that might have found a broader forum than the Yiddish. But that is just what is being done in the other minor tongues, in Gaelic, in Flemish, in Czechish, in the various minute Slav dialects, every one of which can show highly gifted writers sacrificing the chances of a wider fame to the call of patriotism. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF COLLEGIATE COEDUCATION. I. Ten years ago the conspicuous pres- ence of coeducation in our educational system was accepted either as desira- ble or as a necessary evil. Now, al- though statistics show that it still pre- vails, and that the number of women in coeducational institutions far out- numbers those in women's colleges, there is yet a growing tendency to re- open the dispute. It may not be amiss, therefore, to reproduce certain impres- sions which resulted from personal ex- periences, all pleasurable but now clari- fied by distance, in a woman's col- lege, in a coeducational State univer- sity, and in a woman's college affiliat- ed with a university for men. This article, I may add, takes no account of secondary schools or of graduate work. The word "university" is used, accord- ing to a frequent custom, interchangea- bly with "college." Coeducation is the most economical method of giving instruction. Facul- ties, libraries, and laboratories are ex- pensive, and legislatures administering public exchequers, or patrons anxious to make a thrifty use of their own mo- ney, will hesitate long before duplicat- ing them. In the case of legislatures this is especially true, for while private benefactors may solve their doubts or follow their inclination by giving to either sex alone, no State in these days would be allowed to revert from its acquired habit of offering exactly equal advantages, in one form or another, to both sexes. The frugal adherence of State universities to coeducation can- not be justly attacked from the point of view of actual instruction. In spite of all that may be said, experience proves that boys and girls between eigh- teen and twenty-two have about the same kind of mental digestion and need about the same kind of pabulum; that they do not need to be taught the same subjects in different ways; that they can study biology and literature togeth- er; and that they can work in the same intellectual harness without diminish- ing the ambition of the one sex or the health of the other. Aside from the question of economy, a further point in favor of coeducation may be submitted to those who are par- ticularly interested in the education of women. While boys would seem not to be losers by such a system, girls may easily be gainers; for, whatever the rea- son, the faculty of the best State univer- sity is stronger than the faculty of the best woman's college, and the intellec- tual impulse Is potentially greater. II. We say "potentially" because demon- strable facts seriously limit the efficacy of the reasoning. There is a set of ar- guments against coeducation quite oth- er than the superficial ones to which we have briefly referred. Over against these thrift may come to seem but a secon- dary matter. Before passing to details, however, it must be clearly stated that what follows does not relate to that small class of young men and women whose exceptional abilities or natures enable them to use advantageously any outward environment. Here we are concerned with the great majorities, with the students whose minds and characters lack conspicuous originality and whose development is materially affected by outside influences. In the case of most young people there are other forces than teaching and scholar- ship which make for intellectual train- ing, and there are also other things than intellectual training which make for complete development. Here, at both points, the separate college for men or for women has the advantage of the coeducational. There is a necessary stu- dent life, rich in wholesome activities, which, on the one hand, develops the sense of responsibility and communal feeling, and on the other stimulates and widens the imagination, and makes the mind more plastic to the influences of learning and of culture. Of course, as President Woodrow Wilson so admira- bly said in a recent address, student life may anywhere become a non-conducting medium through which intellectual dis- cipline fails of transmission. But where coeducation exists there are additional and special dangers. On the administrative side of this student life probably boys suffer much less than girls in a coeducational uni- versity. In their more strenuous activi- ties, in athletics, and debating, they are as satisfactorily (or as unsatisfactorily) developed as any undergraduates who are entirely quarantined from feminine influences. Girls, on the contrary, al- ways play the secondary role in com- mon affairs, such as class organizations and the like, and their own separate pursuits, however well conducted, are never anything larger than tributary streams to the main current of univer- sity life. They lose, therefore, a certain breadth of experience in spite of their often spacious surroundings. Even in a small woman's college the student life has a more definite end, a finer coher- ence, a truer charm. But college life outside the classroom and the study includes a beneficent idle- ness, as well as microcosmic activities. In the idler hours boys and girls alike suffer from coeducation. This matter is important, not only because of its bear- ing on character, but because of the very intimate connection between the kind of play with which students beguile their free time and the mood and manner in which they approach intellectual disci- pline. In all colleges popularity and social success bulk large. The "all- i

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April 22, 1909] The Nation. 405 round man" and the "all-round girl" bear off the prizes that are most prec- ious in the estimation of their fellows. But usually in the separate colleges "all- roundness" includes many fine qualities and the popular judgment is at fault in its limitations (those of youth) rather than in its standards. In coeducational colleges, however, the standards them- selves are in danger of becoming foolish and jejune, aping those of any frivolous social group, but lacking the compensa- tions to be found in the larger world of men and women. Wherever boys and girls are fellow-students "on good terms," there occurs a particular kind of cleavage between different classes of Btudents. On the one side, in artificial darkness, languish the girls who fail to please the young men, and the young men who bore the girls. On the other side, flutter in artificial light the social- ly eligible. Often the former are un- happy, with the peculiar bitterness of youth. But it is when they are wise beyond their years and philosophically content that a spectator most appreci- ates the commonplaceness of ideas which relegate them to a false wilderness. The elect meantime lead a life of conven- tional gayety. At its best, this life al- most entirely destroys the attractive originality of college recreation, and is as subversive of its real purposes as in- tercollegiate athletics can be. In a re- cent "story by twelve authors," Mr. Howells makes the father of the "co- educated" heroine say to his wife that if their daughter was going to get mar- ried, "he didn't see how she could have a better basis than knowing the fel- low through three or four years of hard work." But the mother, more sympa- thetically aware of the real life of young people, replies that "she guessed if it came to that, they would get to know more of each other's looks than they did of their minds." And with her any one must agree who has watched coed- ucated students with eyes sharpened by affectionate interest. "Hard work" of- ten seems like a needle in the haystack of dances, calls, walks, and drives. A certain kind of girl boasts that by "cramming" in the afternoons, she can keep every evening free for "fun with the boys." A certain kind of young man seems to omit even the cramming, If one may judge by the persistence with which he haunts the reception rooms of the girls' dormitories. Conversations give no indication of a burdensome num- ber of ideas in the minds of the talkers. The absence of pedantry is altogether delightful, but wit is at as low an ebb as In any group more intimate with each other's looks and clothes than with each other's minds. By far the larg- er number of boys and girls of twenty do not "meet on a basis of intellectual sympathy, free from senti- ment." We should not find them near- ly so engaging If they did, nor would they be half so well worth educating. But since they are heirs to human na- ture, when they are jumbled together in the freedom of college life, and unre- stricted by the traditions of ordinary so- cial groups, they are bound, not to stim- ulate each other intellectually, but, like Hippocleides, to "danco away" their fin- er opportunities. At its worst, this student gayety gradually creates standards which extort a harsher epithet than foolish. By no means rarely the students who are re- garded as socially eligible (and it is they who see most of each other) constitute a crowd of heedless young people too in- tent upon the pleasures of the moment to enforce very severe standards. Lack- ing the guidance of their homes, some girls grow indulgent toward lapses, which, in the openness of college life, they cannot fail to perceive. Some boys, meeting with leniency instead of inspir- ation, are not constrained to climb to their highest levels. It must be borne in mind that this is not a question of the obvious dangers which beset any college for men and from which any woman's college is free, but of the insidious dan- gers creeping sub specie boni into the characters of either young men or young women. The harm that is here consid- ered is that of the steady, if slow, in- iringment of the highest standards, the dulling of the sharp edge of spiritual perceptions. On the surface this shows in a certain hardening of manners. In another chapter of the story of the co- educated heroine, Henry James repre- sents her aesthetic older brother as pro- testing that "the poor girl — a perfect lit- tle decorative person, who ought to have iridescent-gray plumage and pink-shod feet to match the rest of her — shouldn't be thrust into any general menagerie- cage, but be kept for the dovecote and the garden, kept where we may still hear her coo. That's what, at college, they'll make her unlearn; she'll learn to roar and snarl with the other ani- mals." It is possible to dismiss with a smile the dovecote and the menagerie, and yet feel regret that in a world so much in need of gentleness even a few young women should lose, or fail to ac- quire, the charm of delicate manners. III. So far the case has been made — fairly, it is hoped — to stand as follows: Coed- ucation is the best means toward the desirable end of economically giving to boys and girls the same instruction; separate education develops the best stu- dent life, and exerts on mind and char- acter the best subtle Influences. It would seem that the verdict might be given according to one's opinions about the necessity for economy and about the reality and power of soclial dangers. But the curious thing about most private conversations on the subject is that rea- eoned arguments, capable of analysis, of proof and disproof, make way for ve- hement statements originating, appar- ently, in that wider reasoning which in- cludes feeling as well as logic. Support- ers of coeducation maintain that the union of the sexes in college as out of college is the way of nature and there- fore the way of freedom and sincer- ity; some of them hold this opinion so intensely as to assert that "their relig- ion would be lost to them were coedu- cation to prove a failure"; others ex- press the same conviction with more philosophic detachment. Opponents of coeducation declare that the presence of both sexes in one college is tasteless and even vulgar, offending the instincts ("always the surest guides") of "manly" men and "ladylike" women. Those who have formed calm opinions after a due weighing of rival claims may listen in amazement to these more passionate sentiments, but lit is through them that the question of coeducation is being re- opened and becoming once more a live issue. At present, it looks as if the oppo- nents were growing unexpectedly pow- erful. They are certainly justified in pointing to indications that some insti- tutions and some branches ot study are likely to suffer under coeducation. Un- dergraduate boys say that they do not want girls about. Girls say that they will not go where there are boys. These young people may not be able to give any reasons for their feelings, but they have it in their power practically to demonstrate them. Already private co- educational colleges have been forced to worry over the effect of the presence of women students on the desired increase in the number of men students. Already those who are interested in the preser- vation of democratic standards have be- gun to fear that girls (perhaps even boys) of a certain type and a certain de- gree of worldly prosperity will turn away from State institutions towards separate colleges, bringing about the same unfortunate but apparently inevit- able social cleavage which now exists in cities between the high schools and private schools. And already in the larg- est State universities, young men are avoiding courses in literature and lan- guage, and girls are giving up courses in history and political economy. In short, in the half logical, half emotional esti- mates of young people and of their el- ders, forces are continuously at work which are scarcely dreamed of in the philosophy of educators. During the last few years they have created a sit- uation sufficiently serious to move presi- dents and trustees and faculties to cer- tain precautionary measures. Some un- iversities have limited the number of women, a device too arbitrary and su- perficial to be anything but temporary. Others have segregated the women in the courses of the first two years, so

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4:06 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 that the same professors teach the same subjects to boys and girls in separate classes. Others have attempted this se- gregation only to be defeated. Such de- feats, however, are probably little more than ripples in the on-rushing tide. More and more the original principles of coeducation are being abandoned by those who are still its stoutest ad- herents. Ten or fifteen years ago the policy of most State universities was to treat its women exactly as it treated its men. Now scarcely one lacks its wo- man dean or advisor, its dormitories with women presiding over them, and its hopes, if not its plans, for some more general building, in which the life of the women students may find a decor- ous centre. The gradual perfection of such measures as these — partial segrega- tion, or the development of a more wholesome student life, or both — may satisfactorily solve the problem that confronts State universities without really changing their form. But a rad- ical transformation is not an impossible event of the future. IV. This brings us to a third form of education not yet discussed. At pres- ent a few women's colleges are affiliat- ed, in varying degrees of legal and prac- tical intimacy, with universities for men. Such colleges would seem to com- bine the advantages of coeducation and of separate education, for they offer the same instruction to both sexes, and at the same time cultivate an entirely distinct student life. At present, how- ever, certain facts militate against their unquestioned success as an educational experimeut. Unless they are as rich as the universities to which they belong, they cannot offer as many elective courses as are offered to the men. And unless they are rich enough to support separate professorships and inaugurate a system of exchange with the univer- sities, they obtain the services of the university professors only by adding an often inadequate sum to the regular salaries. Whether, therefore, they can count upon the older men and the heads of departments depends largely upon the size of the salaries. Unless it is financially necessary, scholars ought not to spend their extra time in teaching rather than in investigation or writing. It is not a question of their loyalty to any college or to either sex, but rather of their prior allegiance to the service of learning. It has already been indicated that the difficulty of obtaining absolutely equal instruction is minimized when the af- filiated college is rich. But two general facts prevent colleges of this kind from receiving very generous support. For one thing, they share the ill fortune (commercially speaking) of all women's colleges in not being able to count on as much or as independent wealth among their graduates as men's col- leges can, or on the same traditions of giving in certain families or certain communities. Furthermore, they meet with special obstacles because they are associated with coeducation, incurring, curiously enough, the dislike of both op- posing camps. Those who prefer co- education will have none of these "half- way measures." Those who object to it fear a measure which is "so far along the road." This latter point of view ex- plains why the majority of the under- graduate boys dislike the affiliated col- lege even if they do not have to meet the girls in any way whatever, and why a large number of girls refuse to go to such colleges. It also explains why many professors object to admitting even advanced and mature young wo- men into their small university elec- tives or their graduate courses. They say frankly that it is no prejudice against the particular applicants, or even against local conditions, but a needed protest against any intrusion of the coeducational idea. In spite of the difficulties now inher- ent in the question of affiliating wo- men's colleges with men's colleges, some of us cannot refrain from cherishing a roseate vision of what may yet come to pass. Possibly, some day a rich State university may be willing to form two distinct undergraduate schools for young men and for young women. In spite of a specious resemblance, this will be very different from the plan now being considered in Minnesota, by which (sig- nificantly enough) "segregation of the sexes" is anticipated as the natural re- sult of buying a new campus and phys- ically separating the professional schools from the "academic college." It is to be hoped that State universities will continue to attract young men who wish a liberal education, and that aca- demic colleges for men and for wo- men will be coessentials. Each col- lege should have not only separate buildings, but also a separate campus. This would involve expense because land would have to be bought and lec- ture halls, laboratories, and small refer- ence libraries would have to be dupli- cated. But the same faculty would teach in each, enlarged only as every faculty has to be enlarged when the number of students necessitates the subdivision of classes. And a large general library could be used as properly by both sexes as any public library. The total ex- pense, therefore, would in no way corn- rare with that of creating a separate university for women. What would be tie advantages? As opposed to coedu- cation, each college would suitably de- velop the morals and manners of its own sex. As opposed to separate educa- tion, girls would share the best instruc- tion within the command of a power- ful university. As opposed to affiliated or "coordinate" education, faculties would be obliged by the terms of their contracts, and enabled by the adjust- ment of their work, to teach the women as well as the men; the students would lose their objections to each other's presence as soon as it was understood that coeducation, instead of subtly en- croaching, had abdicated; and many fathers would take pleasure in perpet- uating their own college traditions in their sons and daughters alike if they were convinced that it would not be at the expense of more important things. If some influential State university would begin the change, probably the fashion would spread as rapidly as States could afford it. And this would react favorably on the experiment of af- filiated colleges in States wher» private- ly endowtd universities hold the place of command occupied in tho West by State universities. Probaolv, however, i1. will be many years before the plain taxpayers of even the richest State will become convinced that so drastic a re- form is necessary. They will content themselves with partial segregation and with women's buildings and deans, and of changes like these we may expect to see many in the next decade. In the meantime, we may congratu- late ourselves that any form of educa- tion Is better and brighter than its ene- mies can imagine, and even more use- ful and persuasive than its friends can hope. In the great game there is more than one way of checkmating the devil. Anne C. E. Allinson. Providence, R. I. Correspondence. ELIZABETHAN REVIVALS IN COLLEGE. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: One of the most convincing signs of the growth and expansion of a genuine in- terest in the drama to-day may be found in the dramatic performances that have become so regular a feature of undergrad- uate life in our colleges. The range is very wide, from the poor imitation of a cheap Broadway "show," with tinkling tunes, "stunts," and college boys masquerading as short-skirted chorus ladies, to original drama of such sincerity and strength as that of "The Promised Land" at Cambridge last autumn. To the student of literature the most interesting performances are, no doubt, the revivals of Elizabethan drama. Such a play intelligently staged and simply, if at times a little crudely, presented, may throw much light upon the stagecraft and dramatic methods of our old playwrights. A notable instance of such a revelation oc- curred at the performances of "Dr. Faus- tus" at Princeton two years ago, when the despised comic scenes proved to be rich in the elements of farcical burlesque, and still capable of attaining the very effects for which they were originally designed, that of relaxing the audience in gales of laughter between the tense strain of the tragic scenes. And an attempt at Har- li

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April 22, 1909] The Kation. vard some years ago to rearrange "The Shoemaker's Holiday" for presentation showed that Dekker — usually thought of as the typical careless genius, who attains his effects by happy chance — had here, at least, displayed a regard for balance and proportion that rendered it almost impos- sible to cut a scene without destroying what must have been a carefully planned symmetry. After all, our old dramatists, from Shakespeare down to the neediest of Henslowe's hacks, were practical play- wrights. They wrote for the stage, not for the closet, and it takes the stage to reveal the strength and persistent vitality of their work. It is, therefore, most encouraging to find an undergraduate organization, formed originally for purely social purposes, de- voting itself to Elizabethan revivals with a continuity and success that have given it a tradition on which tts members look back with just pride. Such is the Harvard Chapter of Delta Upsilon, whose per- formance of Chapman's "All Fools'' I had the pleasure of attending in Cambridge on April 12. Without financial support, limit- ed in the field from which to draw Its ac- tors, aided only by an amateur coach, this fraternity has for eleven years presented, always with credit, at times with marked success, some of the masterpieces — often too little known— of Elizabethan comedy and romance. Beginning with "The Shoe- maker's Holiday" in 1898, the list includes "Fortune by Land and Sea," "The Maid in the Mill," "The Elder Brother," "East- ward Ho," "The Alchemist," "The Silent Woman,'' "The Wise Woman of Hogsden," "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," "Bar- tholomew Fair," and "All Fools" — a record unparalleled, I believe, in this country. As the latest editor of Chapman's comedy I was especially interested in attending the performance of "All Fools," the more so as William Archer had asserted that the praise bestowed upon this play by historians of the drama was extravagantly high, a mere echo of the romantic enthusiasm of Charles Lamb, and that tried by a modern and rational standard the play was so far from being great that it could not even be pro- nounced good. To my delight I found that tried by the standard of actual representa- tion, by intelligent amateur actors, the play gave distinct pleasure to a mixed and highly critical audience, which followed the story with unbroken interest, and burst out from time to time in hearty and spontan- eous applause. Curiously little adaptation was needed, and the adapter, Arthur S. Hills, deserves high credit for the skill with which he per- formed his work. The frank license of Elizabethan speech had at times to be cut out or toned down; the long declamations, half in imitation, half in parody of Lyly, originally written to tickle the fancy of listeners who knew their "Euphues" by heart, were of course struck out, and the play was distinctly the better for the omis- sion. On the other hand, the action was preserved Intact and in its original se- quence of scenes, enlivened here and there by songs and dances which do not appear in the text, but the like of which can hardly have been wanting at a perform- ance by the Children of the Chapel. An occasional bit of business in dumb-show was used to Introduce an act, and a couple of clever "curtains" were provided, notably 4=07 at the end of Act iv, where Gazetta came stealing back over the darkened stage to her empty home and was caught to the arms of the jealous but now repentant hus- band who had driven her away. It is not surprising, after all, that but little altera- tion was needed, for the main action of the play is borrowed, as is well known, from Terence, who drew it in turn from the New Comedy of the Greeks. And the New Comedy, as preserved for us in the adaptations of Plautus and Terence, has been, since the renaissance, the unfailing source and the constant model of much of the best of modern comedy. A recent per- formance at Harvard of the largest frag- ment remaining of Menander's work has shown how deft was the hand of this early master in the construction of simple and effective plot, and in the delineation of type characters which have been stock figures of comedy ever since. As far back as Terence the practice pre- vailed of increasing the amount of action usually by the simple method of boiling down two old plays to make one new one. When such classical scholars as Jonson and Chapman began to adapt Latin comedy to the Elizabethan stage this process was repeated, and two Latin comedies were combined to furnish sufficient action to hold the attention of an Elizabethan audience. Even this was at times insufficient; in "All Fools," for example, we have a "con- tamination," to use the technical term, of the "Heautontimoroumenos" andthe"AdeI- phi," plus a sub-plot of Chapman's own invention, dealing with the humors of a jealous husband and an amorous courtier. As a result, the "intrigue" of "All Fools" Is extremely complicated, "a criss-cross of deception and dupery," as Mr. Archer calls it. Yet the complications which be- wilder the reader become, in the light of actual performance, only an amusing puz- zle to which the clue has been furnished. Whether every member of the audience the other night could have passed a rigid ex- amination in the reconstruction of the plot is, I think, doubtful, but I am sure that the play as it unrolled carried along every spectator, with no trace of that feeling of hesitation and bewilderment which is so fatal to the enjoyment of a comedy of in- trigue. As a measure of Chapman's orig- inality it was interesting to note that the most effective scene, the mock repentance of Valerio and his father's feigned for- giveness, was one for which Chapman found no hint in his sources. Yet it contains a situation directly and legitimately evolved from the original story and by no means merely superimposed upon it. Another interesting feature in Chapman's adaptation of Latin comedy is his trans- formation of the type characters of Terence into embodiments of Elizanethan "hu- mors." Gostanzo Is by no means only the stern parent of Latin comedy; he is a distinct and individual character dominat- ed by the "humor" of senile self-conceit. Valerio is no mere stock figure of the prodigal son, but a young gallant with a strong dash of Elizabethan wit and ro- mance. And the chief merit, I think, of the performance at Harvard lay in the firm grasp of these "humors" by the young actors, and the simplicity and sincerity of their presentation. This was especially true in the case of such minor figures as those of Dariotto and Comelio in the un- derplot, presented respectively by T. S. Kenyon and James A. Eccles. Mr. Ken- yon as the foppish, idly amorous cour- tier, a creature of airs and graces, wandering eyes, and delightfully irrespon- sible legs, was a pure joy, while the really masterful interpretation of the jealous hus- band by Mr. Eccles lifted that figure at once out of the sphere of farce comedy and struck a sombre note of real passion which furnished an admirable undertone to the merry chorus of gulls and jesters which constitutes the main body of the play. It is easy to point out flaws in all ama- teur, perhaps in most professional, per- formances. But it is enough to say that the performance as a whole revealed in Chapman's play a vitality and breadth of comic power unrealized before even by one who has long loved and dutifully studied the work of this noble old poet and play- Wr'ght T. M. PARROTT. Princeton Dnlversity, April 16. A SHAKESPEARE MEMORIAL IN AMER- ICA. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The successful launching in England of a Shakespeare memorial theatre under- taking, with the pledge already of $350,000 of the estimated cost of $2,500,000, recalls to my mind the fact that in a semi-private note I broached the same idea here in America in 1901. The veteran Shakespeare editor, Dr. William J. Rolfe, wrote to me at that time: Your plan for a Shakespeare memorial theatre in Boston is admirable, and it would be an honor to the city to carry it out I sincerely hope that it may com- mend itself to people of culture and wealth and that I may live to see it accomplished. I was unfortunately called away immedi- ately after I had thrown out this idea, and the matter was allowed to lapse. I remember that Mr. Henry T. Clapp wrote me that he did not favor the theatre part of the project. I should have said that a main feature of the plan then (and I would make it the sole feature now! was the concrete embodiment of our strong American enthusiasm for Shakespeare in u small Shakespeare memorial gallery and library building, either on Riverside Drive, say, in New York, or in Fenway Park in Boston. Here could be gathered together not only busts and portraits of Shakespeare himself and Shakespearean ac- tors and actresses of the last three hun- dred years in England, Germany, and Amer- ica, and books on the literature of the Shakespeare stage during that period (the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death occurs in 1916), but also a library of rare and early editions and of all the great modern editions of the plays, and Elizabethan tool- books of all kinds, for consultation and daily use by bona-flde scholars. Such a building need be no larger than Roslyn Chapel, but it would be the pride of Ameri- cans, and an inspiration to thousands of young pilgrims and old, and a stimulus to the study of the prince of poets. The trustees of such a Shakespeare me- morial, after incorporation, would open books for subscription, and I venture to say the response would be as immediate and hearty as it has just been in Eng-

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408 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2286 land. The charging of a small admittance fee to the memorial would soon result In the accumulation of a permanent fund for the enriching of the collections and per- haps for the ultimate addition of an am- phitheatre for the staging of Elizabethan plays. If the Nation will express editorial approval of the project and take the matter off my hands, I will gladly bow myself into retirement and consider this broaching of the Idea to be my part of the undertaking, although I do not wish to shirk any duty and would subscribe what I could afford. I am not sure but a national subscription, made up of contributions from the schools and colleges of each State, would be the best plan. William Sloane Kennedy. Boston, April 14. THE BIBLE AND SHAKESPEARE. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: May I thank you for your editorial of April 8 on "The Bible as Literary Mod- el," and at the same time suggest that a similar warning is even more needed in re- gard to Shakespeare. Many a young writ- er hears that Lincoln's chief study was the Bible and Shakespeare, and fondly hopes that Industrious and constant peru- sal of those two books will assist him more than anything else in the formation of a strong English style. There are even, I believe, living historians of high rank whose chief literary reading is of a similar nature, for a similar purpose. You have well shown the error of this view in regard to the Bible. It is, I think, even more erroneous, so far as Shakespeare is concerned. Every one will probably agree that in high-wrought and passion- ate imaginative expression Shakespeare surpasses all other writers. But it so hap- pens that this is precisely the literary quality that cannot be learned. What can be learned is clear, vigorous, logical ex- position and terse, energetic, unadorned description and narrative. In these points Shakespeare is less strong, partly from the nature of dramatic writing, still more from the very richness of his imagination. When the wheel of Shakespeare idolatry is come full circle — and there are signs that that hour is approaching — these deficiencies in Shakespeare's style will be more generally recognized, and above all we shall see that his influence on your writers is likely ^to be by no means a beneficial one. His great qualities are inimitable, his defects are caught only too easily. In the same way we shall in time come to understand that the slavish following of Shakespeare has, for a century, been one of the chief causes of the prostration of the English drama. As to models, the practical prose writer of to-day will surely learn most about the technique of his art — and this is the only part of it about which he can learn any- thing— from the great authors of the eigh- teenth century, Swift, Addison, and Field- ing, and, if a foreign language is allowable, Voltaire. But is it not best of all to avoid models altogether, to read as widely as possible, and authors as unlike as possible, to turn from Goldsmith to Montaigne, and from Sir Thomas Browne to Anatole France? Contact with such varied minds and styles must necessarily broaden and enrich. And there is but one true recipe for writing with clearness and vigor: to think with clearness and vigor. Let a man penetrate his mind with the grandeur of Sophocles and the speed of Voltaire. Then let him feel human life with passionate love and sympathy. He cannot help writ- ing well — unless he finds something else to do that is still better. Gamaliel Bradford, Jr. Wellesley Hills, Mass., April 13. CLASSICAL STUDY IN THE SOUTH. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: In the Nation of March 18 (pp. 280- 281), the scholarly reviewer of Sandys's "History of Classical Scholarship" says: "And the work closes with a courteous and even too complimentary review of American scholarship." While this is true, we notice in the treatment of this part of the subject some lack of a sense of proportion, and there are some strange omissions. For in- stance, on page 456 of the third volume, a notice of three lines is all that is accorded to Prof. W. W. Goodwin, and the impression is produced that he is the "cracker to the whip" of President C. C. Felton. A Southern reader, naturally a little over- sensitive, looks in vain for recognition here of work done by men and colleges south of Mason and Dixon's line. In view of the influence exerted by the University of Vir- ginia, for example, in the spread of class- ical learning in the South, we had expected to find that in the outline of the work of George Long (p. 430) his connection with this university had been stated and the standard of scholarship there set by him had been recorded to his credit. It would seem proper to record, too, the work of Long's distinguished successor, Dr. Gessner Harrison — that pioneer in America in the field of comparative philology, who did so much to further the scientific study of lan- guage along the line followed by Bopp and Curtius, and who, more than any other man, perhaps, succeeded in raising the standard of education throughout the South. Again, the work of Prof. B. L. Gildersleeve in Latin and in Greek surely entitles him to something more than a passing and Inci- dental reference of three lines, in which he is mentioned merely as the editor of a Journal of Philology (p. 468), if Hayley, for instance, is to have a paragraph and a cap- tion (p. 461). • Perhaps the omission which is most sur- prising is the failure to mention William and Mary College among early American colleges. It is true that this college has, for the longer part of its corporate exist- ence (i. e., since 1693), stood rather for pro- fessional and scientific training than for classical learning; but for a time at least it was the Harvard of Virginia; and the alma mater of Thomas Jefferson and his peers, both in the interest of historical accuracy and because of the real value of the work there accomplished, should receive recognition and respectful mention. Would it not disturb the shade of Sir Edwin Sandys to know that one of his name has failed to recognize the old college, the in- corporation of which, though long delayed, was the direct result of the efforts of the good treasurer of the London Company to promote the spread of learning in the col- ony which he loved so well and served so long? Wm. H. Whiting, jr. Hampden-Sidney, Va., April 12. THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE CLASSICS To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Will you allow me to answer some of the points raised by your correspon- dent in the Nation of March 18 in regard to the pronunciation of the classics? He maintains that it is folly to continue long- er the pretty but useless custom of pro- nouncing Latin by the Continental method, adopted a generation ago in our colleges and schools. His reasoning appears to me to be defective, and his experience is not mine. The first day I ever spent in Rome 1 fell in with a Franciscan friar on the Pincian Hill. As I knew not a word of Italian, and could only shake my head when asked a question, Brother Hippolytus tried Latin on me. He spoke his Latin fluently and "pronounced it exactly as though It were Italian. I had no difficulty whatever in following him, though many minor variations were absolutely new to me. Of course, when I answered with my Continental pronunciation and came to my first hard "g," the good brother was shock- ed. I was telling him that I had read a good deal of Latin, but had never spoken it. Interrupting me with a warning ges- ture and taking a pinch of snuff, he pro- ceeded to give me some fatherly advice: "Non 'leg-ere' utpote Germanici, sed 'le- gere' " (with the soft "g"). I tried my best during the rest of the conversation not to wound Fra Ippolyto's national pride. Heaven only knows what would have happened, if I had sprung Anglicized Latin on him. I have never had to depend upon conversational Latin in Germany, but have had no difficulty whatever in following the German brand of Latin when read to me. Its variations from the standard American system are less than those of the Italian. I cannot understand how a man who really knew his Latin could be completely thrown off by the comparatively slight differences in pronunciation which must necessarily exist in different countries even under a theoretically uniform system. I have even been able to understand' much of modern Greek through the ancient, widely different as the current methods of pronunciation are. But to say that we should go back to the strictly English pro- nunciation, because the Continental fails of absolute perfection, is to advocate un- warranted retrogression. Let me cite another experience of mine. Your correspondent's chief contention in support of the English pronunciation is that the ear can be used as well as the eye in detecting the etymological source of Latin derivatives in the English language. Thus, according to him, the school-boy who hears the word "licentia" in his Cicero, if it is pronounced by the English method, will at once think of "license," and will feel a glow of pleasure which it were a shame to deprive him of by calling the word "lee- ken-tia." Against such a narrow idea of etymological studies I protest, and the personal experience to which I refer is as follows: Not long ago I had occasion to give a Bohemian friend a first lesson iu English. I explained to him that English was a queer and rather deceitful language. It had stolen a lot of useful words from Latin, and then so disguised them that none of the descendants of old mother Lat-

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April 22, 1909] The Nation 409 In could reclaim their property. "Take, for Instance," I said, "the Latin word 'natu- ral in Italian we have 'natura,' in French 'nature,' in German 'Natur' — all square and above board so far; but in English — 'nay- chr'! Yet to see the word 'nature' in print you would not think it had deserted its kin so completely." Now, according t" the theory of your correspondent, we ought to pronounce the Latin "nay-chura," so that the young American will not be mis- led and will feel the "aesthetic delight" which comes from an "appreciation of ety- mological derivations." Give the boys and girls a chance! Don't confound their ideas of the fundamentals of one of the greatest families of modern languages just to make one minor department of classical studies a shade easier of apprehension. And give them credit for a little intelligence! I never found a youngster yet who couldn't grasp the etymological connection between Latin and English, and get pleasure out of It too, In spite of the difference of pro- nunciation. To quote from the article in question: "Why longer prejudice the vanishing num- ber of novices who hesitate at the thresh- old of Greek and Latin?" Any one who is going to be scared away from Latin sim- ply because it is not pronounced like Eng- lish either has reached a stage of intel- lectual timidity which deserves the epi- thet molly-coddle or has sunk into a nar- row provincialism from which he deserves to be aroused by no gentle measures. So much by way of rebuttal. The chief positive argument in favor of the pronun- ciation now used in America your corre- spondent has not mentioned; namely, that we are now pronouncing our Latin es- sentially as the Romans did. I know that this assertion often strikes the layman as chimerical, but the problem is not so diffi- cult as would appear at first sight. The actual statements of ancient grammarians as to how their native tongue was pro- nounced; the transliteration of Latin words into other ancient languages; and above all the science of phonetics, working on the phenomena exhibited by the Romance lan- guages, has established beyond the shad- ow of a doubt the main elements of the pronunciation of classical Latin. (For a clear and concise exposition of the whole matter see the "Appendix" to Prof. C. E. Bennett's "Latin Grammar," publishedsep- arately.) And just think what this means for Latin poetry. Can the poet's cadences be rightly appreciated unless we approxi- mate our pronunciation as far as possible to his own? There is no distinction be- tween dead and living languages here. Vir- gil, Dante, and Goethe are dead, but the ^Bneid, the "Divina Commedia," ana "Faust" are very much alive. Shall the music of poetry be forgotten for the sake of etymology? Is there any more reason for inflicting the inconsistencies of Eng- lish on the ^Eneid rather than on other poems which happen to be "modern"? Personally I do not believe that there is the slightest danger of our returning to the Anglicized Greek and Latin of former days, but an appeal for the old system advanced by one in authoritative position deserves an answer. D. P. L. The American School of Classical Studies Id Rome, April 6. BRYCE ON SANE ATHLETICS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The following letter was refused the courtesies of the Daily Prmcetonian's columns on the ground that It was "rabid" and "dangerous": Ambassador Bryce was recently quoted to the effect that the University of Califor- nia was the only one in the country with sane athletics. If he was correctly quoted, his statement shows a most extraordinary lack of observation. Is it necessarv to call his attention to the fact that Princeton has so often held the intercollegiate base- ball championship of America? Surely he does not think that such a title could ever be won by any but the sanest and most businesslike policy, backed by the enthu- siasm of the entire university. It is to be feared that he has never read the impas- sioned editorials in the Princetonian, en- treating the students in the name of Princeton spirit to turn out and supporl the team, to attend, practice every after- noon, and to uphold the honor of the uni- versity by sitting in rows on the bleachers and giving vent to semi-articulate sounds. It is indeed distressing to feel that so enlightened a thinker as the British Am- bassador can still hold to the worn-out theory that baseball and football are sim- ply games, to be indulged in for purposes of amusement and recreation, and are not serious and essential factors in the stand- ing of a university, the support of which is a solemn purpose of undergraduate life — I had almost said the only solemn purpose, but I remembered the clubs. Yet, if Mr. Bryce was not misquoted, he still clings to these obsolete notions. But let us be lenient with the Ambassa- dor, for there is an element of pathos in this failure of a once robust intellect to keep abreast of the times. Let us not judge too harshly a man who is so far re- moved from the sacred and uplifting atmo- sphere of Princeton spirit. Let us rather pass over in charitable silence these first evidences of the disintegration of a splen- did mind under the influence of approach- ing age; and let us gently remind ourselves that although Mr. Bryce may have known, in his time, a good deal about the Ameri- can Commonwealth, yet he evidently knows as little about the American undergraduate as does a certain gentleman within our gates, scarcely less known and less honor- ed by the crass unthinking world, who has done and is doing his worst to bring Princeton down to the level of a mere edu- cational institution. Herbert Jones. Princeton, April 2. THE AUTHOR OF THE JUNIUS LETTERS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Apropos of a critique in your issue of March 25, on the everlasting question of the authorship of the Junius Letters, let it never be forgotten that Dr. Benjamin Vaughan of Hallowell, Me. (1751-1835), ex- member of the British Parliament, inti- mately acquainted with every writer and politician in London for years, enjoying a vast acquaintance all over Great Britain, as well as in France and Switzerland, stated repeatedly in his life time that he "knew beyond the shadow of a doubt" that the author of the Junius Letters was William Gerard Hamilton. So positive was he of this fact that, if the topic were brought up at his hospitable board at Hal- lowell, he would not listen to it for a mo- ment without rising from his chair and saying: "Please cease to discuss this mat- ter. I know that Hamilton wrote those letters, and it is useless to discuss a truth like that at my table." James A. Spalding. Portland, Me., April 8. THE REMEDY FOR MISGOVERNMENT. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Apropos of Deming's "Government of American Cities" (reviewed in your Is- sue of April 8) and a host of volumes of similar character, dealing with the defects of our municipal governments, suggest- ing remedies, and discussing causes, it has seemed to me for a long time that such books failed adequately to lay bare and emphasize the fundamental defect in our political system. Each city, large or small, undoubtedly has its own peculiar problems, but perhaps a certain typical American city may be cited as a fair, if extreme, example of the evil I have in mind. Let me give a few concrete instances: (1.) The following announcement has been brought to the notice of the perhaps 400,000 voters of that city: The first direct primary for the nomina- tion of party judicial candidates will be held to-morrow. One party candidate for Superior judge and fourteen party candi- dates for Circuit judge are to be chosen. All qualified electors are entitled to vote. Polls open from 6 A. M. to 5 P. M. (2.) I have just taken the trouble to count the number of candidates in a recent elec- tion, and I find it was over four hundred. The number of offices was 106. (3.) Among the offices I note: Secretary of State, Attorney-General, State Treas- urer, University Trustees, State's Attor- ney, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court, Clerk of the Superior Court, Coroner, Circuit Court Judges, County Sur- veyer, County Assessor. Now, unless we are ready to admit that the whole system was intended to be, and, in fact, is, a roaring farce, the only theory on which the above phenomena can be ex- plained is that the average voter, the man in the street, in whose hands the ultimate solution of every civic problem lies, is actually capable of passing on the qualifica- tions of all these candidates, and that he also has a competent knowledge of the scope, duties, and responsibilities of each of the numerous offices. Such a theory Is certainly political idiocy. And it needs hardly to be pointed out that the average man in these days, engrossed in the strug- gle to make a living for himself and family, has neither the time, energy, nor inclina- tion to inform himself on the duties, scope, and functions of 106 public offices, nor to make a suitable investigation into the per- sonal character and mental qualifications of some 400 candidates. If the founders of this republic could come to life again and see what we are doing, they would feel that their worst fears as to the inability of the people to govern themselves were abun- dantly realized in hundreds of American cities. It is useless to rail at such conditions; but it is wholesome to look them squarely in the face. The fault, it is respectfully submitted, lies not so much in the restric- tions which a State Legislature may lay on the activities of a city council; not In the apathy, stupidity, or perverseness of the average citizen; not in the corruption and inefficiency of a low class of public of- ficials; it is ingrained in the vicious sys- tem that throws on the back of the elec- torate burdens which never belonged there and which cannot be borne. One need be neither a shallow, babbling optimist nor a

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-410 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 disillusioned, disgusted pessimist to see that If reform is ever to be achieved In municipal government, the very first step must be to cut down the number of elective offices to about one-tenth of the present number, to concetrate responsibility on that small number, to extend and perfect the merit system, and to arrange that the higher offices shall offer an attractive ca- reer to any self-respecting and intelligent citizen. In economics we have learned, slowly and painfully, that the average human be- ing Is far different from the "economic man" figured by the early economists, and we are realizing now that what our doc- tors and students of political science need most Is a careful social, economic, and psychological study of the habits, attain- ments, and limitations of the average vot- er. In dealing with matters that he under- stands and with men that he knows, the average American citizen may be safely entrusted to do his civic duty manfully and every time; but we persist in ascrib- ing to him various godlike attributes which he never did possess, and which he never professed to possess. He has his limita- tions, he is made of ordinary clay like the rest of us poor, weak, sinful creatures here below, and, whatever else he may be, he Is certainly not omniscient In politi- cal matters — all our political theories and philosophical speculations to the contrary notwithstanding. It Is a platitude worthy of serious re- flection that any government of the people, for the people, and by the people ought to be adapted to that people; it should fit the exigencies of the man in the street and not the man in the clouds. As a rule in Ameri- can cities, ours does not; hence these tears. E. L. C. Morse. Chicago, April 12. Watch (p. 317), the mystery of which he did so much to unravel. H. M. Gloucester, Mass., April 12. FROMENTIN AND VERMEER. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: A contributor (p. 370 of your issue for April 8) says that Fromentin did not find a word to say on Jan Vermeer. This is misleading. It is true that Fromentin did not find space for many words on Vermeer. preoccupied as he was with problems that loomed larger in 1875, but the few words he did say convey no faint praise. Discuss- ing the question whether a just idea of Dutch art can be formed from examples ip the Louvre, without visiting Holland, he remarks that Franz Hals has come to his own but recently, that Jan Steen is well seen only in Holland, and then says ("Les Maltres d'autrefois," p. 224): Van der Meer is almost untouched In France (inedit), and since he follows lines of observation sufficiently rare even in his own country, the journey would not be wasted if devoted entirely to study of this special variety of Dutch art. Aside from these discoveries and some others of little value, there are none of note to be made outside of the Louvre and . . . certain French collections. . . . Adapting himself then to French readers, and confining himself to masters accessi- ble to them in the Louvre, he draws on Metzu, Terburg, and Pierre de Hooch for examples. Formentin died the year af- ter he discovered Vermeer. He had not time to say much more, and' on this voyage of discovery we have his own word for it that his "chief concern" was the Night Notes. Prof. Kenneth McKenzie of Yale Uni- versity announces "A Concordance to the Italian Poems of Francesco Petrarca," to be published by the Oxford University Press, provided a sufficient number of sub- scribers are obtained in advance. The cost is five dollars, and orders may be 3ent to the author at No. 67 Mansfield Street, New Haven, Conn. It is pleasant to hear that a new edition of John Jay Chapman's "Emerson and Other Essays" is to be published immediately by Moffat, Yard & Co. Mr. Chapman's work is too good to be forgotten. The reprints in green and gilt from the Oxford University Press are not only come- ly to the eye, but have been unusually suc- cessful in their choice of subjects. The lat- est volume is "The Heroine" of Eaton Stan- nard Barrett, with an introduction by Prof. Walter Raleigh. We commend to the seek- er after amusement these "adventures of a fair romance reader," which first appeared in 1813. We shouldn't like to subscribe to the judgment of a contemporary who pro- nounced the book "not inferior in wit and humor to 'Tristram Shandy.' and in point of plot and interest infinitely beyond 'Don Quixote,' " but it is a thoroughly amusing take-off on the romantic and gothic taste of the day, after the manner of "Northanger Abbey." Miss Austen was able to write a satire and a regular novel at the same time. That feat was too great for Bar- rett, but he has put togetner a surprisingly ingenious series of adventures. Two more volumes of the New York Edi- tion of Henry James's "Novels and Tales" (Charles Scrlbner's Sons) follow quickly upon the last instalment. The contents are. Vol. XVII: "The Altar of the Dead," "The Beast in the Jungle," "The Birth- place," "The Private Life," "Owen Win- grave," "The Friends of the Friends," "Sir Edmund Orme," "The Real Right Thing," "The Jolly Corner," and "Julia Bride"; Vol. XVIII: "Daisy Miller," "Pandora," "The Patagonia," "The Marriages," "The Real Thing," "Brooksmith," "The Bel- donald Holbein," "The Story in It," "Flick- erbridge," and "Mrs. Medwin." In the prefaces, which for the most part treat mere short stories, Mr. James takes him- self with portentous seriousness. He dwells at interminable length on the de- tails of unimportant matters. More inter- esting than some of his other confessions is his admission that "the ghost-story, as we for convenience call it," has ever been for him "the most possible form of the fairy-tale." "Daisy Miller" was, he tells us, rejected by a Philadelphia editor, probably on the ground that it was "an outrage on American girlhood." "The Real Thing" was suggested by an incident of which Du Maurier told Mr. James, "of a call from a strange and striking couple de- sirous to propose themselves as artist's models for his weekly 'social' illustrations to Punch." These people were "originally, by every sign, of the best condition and estate, but overtaken by reverses even while conforming Impeccably to the stan- dard of superficial 'smartness.' " The fifteenth edition of Baedeker's "Cen- tral Italy and Rome" (Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons) has Just been issued. It contains nineteen maps (five more than the fourteenth edition), and fifty-five plans and views (as compared with fifty-one). Vol IV of Miss Toulmin Smith's edition of Leland's "Itinerary" (London: George Bell & Sons) is made up of a singularly miscellaneous selection from Leland's re- mains, containing portions of the original narrative, passages from the "Collecta- nea," and sundry notes on genealogical and social matters taken from other parts of his writings. No one of the volumes shows more clearly the confused state of Leland's writings as they now exist. Of chief In- terest are the descriptions, frequently elab- orate, of places and conditions in Kent, and the account of the itinerary from Al- berbury In Shropshire through the north- ern counties. The task of editing has been performed with the same high regard for quality and thoroughness that character- ized the earlier volumes, and the maps show the same painstaking regard for de- tails. A fifth volume containing Parts lx to xil will complete the work. "Neglected Neighbors" (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co.), by Charles Frederick Weller, secretary of President Roosevelt's Homes Commission, gives a lively narrative dress to the commission's recent findings as to conditions in Washington. Washing- ton's under-worlds are in the shape of al- leys set in the centre of blocks fringed with clubhouses, apartments, and fashion- able homes. There are some 300 of these alleys, and they shelter fully 16,000 people, or, rather, expose them to filth, disease, and vice. Were Mr. Weller not a veteran char- ity worker of established repute, we should be tempted to suspect that his stories were doctored, and his photographs invented in a gallery. He depicts a sick white woman ly- ing for two weeks in a cold room, about her four dead chickens, and refuse ankle- deep ; or again, a consumptive negro cough- ing his life away in a hole, entirely below the street level, entered through a trap- door. And these are relatively inoffensive samples. Washington building lots were originally made so deep that, as taxes in- creased, owners were obliged to make their back-yards yield revenue. Furthermore, new Federal edifices in recent years have displaced hundreds of dwellings, and the new Union Station, with its approaches, alone wiped out a small village. The clear- ing up that is immediately necessary for the health and morals of the entire com- munity will cost so much that only a small fraction can be fairly charged against the direct beneficiaries. If Congress will not charge the bill to the Federal government, it should at least devise some scheme of loans. No nation can, with good conscience, scatter millions every month for undeserv- ed pensions and useless warships, while the Washington Monument's shadow touches 300 slums. The Carnegie Institution of Washington is making fairly rapid progress with Its index of economic material in documents published by the States of the United States, an undertaking initiated by the late Car- roll D. Wright and his colleagues of the department of economics and sociology.

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April 22, 1909] The USTation <411 Six volumes, indexing the materials of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, hare already been issued, and now a seventh, dealing with California, lies before us. The term economic embraces nearly everything not political and religious; the arrange- ment Is by subject; and the period covered runs from 1789 to 1904. It is designed that the student be able to trace the historical development of each economic subject as it is reflected in the documents of an in- dividual State, as well as to make a com- parative study of that development in the •ountry at large. There can be no question of the value of the index. Though but seven volumes have bee"n issued it has already proved itself of great advantage to workers in this field. The indexing is confined to printed documents only, and therefore does not include all the material that the stu- dent of economic history will need to use. There are doubtless some subjects for which the printed material will be deemed ade- quate, but for others the investigator will hardly confine himself solely to the printed reports of administrative officers, legislative committees, and special commissions and to Governors' messages. At the present rate the work will not be completed for twenty years. "After Waterloo," by Major W. E. Frye (London: William Heinemann) isnot at all a military book. Its author served in Egypt and in India, but left active service in 1814. His only connection with Waterloo is that, chancing to be in Brussels on June 18, he heard the cannon from that safe distance; and four days later when he rode out to the field of battle the sight made him sick. During the years 1815-19 he travelled through France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, noting his impressions which, with quaint conceit, he put in the form of letters to an imaginary correspondent. Af- ter his death at St. Germain-en-Laye in 1853 his manuscript was lost to sight in a cupboard for half a century. It is now published with notes by Salomon Reinach. Frye was a man of some literary attain- ments, and was really familiar with half a dozen languages; he could translate the Edda, quote Ariosto and Voltaire at length, or write a pretty Italian verse to the guide who took him up Vesuvius. He does not, like his contemporaries, Ticknor and Ban- croft, introduce his reader to a host of lit- erary personages; nor has he Arthur; Young's keenness of vision for social con-* ditions. He is often naive, but still this ac-» count of his travels is pleasant readingj Though an Englishman, he was an ardentj partisan of Napoleon, Voltaire, and "divine liberty," and often takes occasion to in- veigh, in Dantesque fashion, against his mother-country "always ready to lend a hand to crush liberty, to perpetuate abuses and to rivet the fetters of monarchical, feudal, and ecclesiastical tyranny." "The Sisters of Napoleon," by W. R. H. Trowbridge (Charles Scribner's Sons), is an entertaining story of the lives of Elisa, Pauline, and Caroline Bonaparte. The friv- olities, intrigues, and ingratitude of these women and their fate after the fall of Na- poleon leave on the reader a depressing ef- fect which is not lightened by the author's cynicism and exaggeration. The book based on the recent popular French studies of Turquan, consists largely of quotations from the well-known memoirs of Madame d'Abrantes, FouchS, and a score of other men and women of the First Empire who wrote volumes of gossip. It is Interesting, but makes no serious contribution to scholarship. The most striking paper In the Proceed- ings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Serial II) is that of Charles Francis Ad- ams, describing the situation in Washington at the first inauguration of Lincoln. Mr. Adams, who was in the city, pictures the general condition of unrest and expectancy, and the precautions taken by Scott to avoid trouble. He gives a quotation from a letter he wrote at the time, in which he expressed a belief that, the inauguration over, mat- ters would become peaceful, a belief soon to be rudely broken. Even Lincoln was more engaged In distributing offices than in fac- ing a great conflict. Dr. E. H. Hall gives a calm and intelligent statement of the ex- isting national pension system, dwelling upon the evil it has produced, and seeking to explain how it came to pass, "a system of paternalism never dreamed of by the civil- ized world before, a system which offers ev- ery possible inducement to mendicancy and conceals every possible inducement to fraud." As Mr. Hall served as chaplain In the civil war his opinion has authority. James Schouler describes Lincoln's only political visit to New England, In 1848, when he was recognized as a "suckerlzed Yankee." An excellent discussion and bird's-eye survey of what has been done and what yet remains to be done for the reform of the higher grades of educational institu- tions is furnished in a small work by Dr. Julius Ziehen, an experienced educator of Frankfurt-am-Main, entitled "Die bisherige Entwicklung und die weiteren Aufgaben der Reform unseres hoheren Schulwesens" (Frankfurt and Berlin: Moritz Diesterweg). The basis and purposes of modern school reform, the proper training of efficient teachers, the pedagogical importance of the personality of the teacher, the value and character of proper school supervision, are among the topics treated. The Literari8Che Echo has published the result of its annual inquiry among libraries and publishers concerning the books most in demand, and the authors that have been most popular during the year ending with October. The books were Sudermann's "Das hohe Lied," Hermann's "Henriette Jacoby" and "Jettchen Gebert," Viebig's "Das Kreuz im Venn," Heer's "Laubgewind," Ernst's "Semper der Jungling," Herzog's "Der Abenteurer," Stilgebauer's"Das Liebesnest," Stratz's "Herzblut," Schnitzler's "Weg ins Freie," Ompteda's "Minne," and Zahn's "Die da kommen und gehen." A volume of letters by the three greatest representatives of the dialect known as Plattdeutsch has just been published: "Briefe von Fritz Reuter, Klaus Groth, und Brinkman, an Eduard Hobein," edited by Prof. Wilhelm Meyer (Berlin: Weidmann- sche Buchhandlung). The recent publication of Franz Ehr- hardt's "Die Philosophie des Spinoza im Lichte der Kritik" (Leipzig: Reisland) is a positive contribution toward the so- lution of one of the intricate problems of the history of philosophy, although not a final settlement of all or even the leading questions involved. In a volume of more than five hundred pages the author dis- cusses the history of Spinoza's doctrine, es- pecially as it has been judged, favorably and unfavorably, in former times and in our own. The older literature on the sub- ject has been thoroughly utilized. Richard Garbe, rector of the University of Tubingen, delivered on the birthday of King Wilhelm II of Wiirtemberg an ad- dress of exceptional interest, which now appears in an enlarged form as "Kaiser Akbar von Indien: Ein Lebens- und Kul- turbild aus dem sechzehnten Jahrhundert" (Leipzig: H. Haessel). The author, a fine Orientalist, largely basing his account on the excellent work of Count de Noer, pub- lished from 1880-85 in Leyden, here gives a picture of the Grand Mogul Akbar. generally regarded as the greatest of Asiatic princes in recent centuries. "Voltaire in seinem Verhaltniss zu Fried- rich dem Grossen und Jean Jacques Rous- seau," by Georg Brandes, has just been published in Berlin by Marquardt & Co. Voltaire's relation to Frederick the Great has been thoroughly discussed by historians and biographers; but the author of this little book is always likely to disclose, even In a time-worn topic, some interesting fea- tures that have escaped his predecessors. Brandes traces briefly the evolution of the peculiar friendship between the French philosopher and the Prussian sovereign and omits no detail of the story so rich in humorous incident. The picture of the famous round table of scholars and wits at which the young king presided in Pots- dam Brandes presents, if not in a new light, at least in a new perspective. He spares neither Voltaire nor Frederick in enumerating evidences of the pettiness which entered into the characters of both. That part of the book which is devoted to the relation of Voltaire to Rousseau bears evidence of sympathetic partiality towards the two iconoclasts of their century. Rous- seau's indebtedness to Voltaire is ably pre- sented. He was inspired by the writings of his already famous contemporary to pay more attention to style and to emulate his art of expression. Through Voltaire also Rousseau had become acquainted with the English thinkers that were to influence him. But Rousseau was by birth a plebeian and by temperament a solitary and con- ceived an invincible dislike for Voltaire's social gifts. The more he became a prac- tical exponent of his contempt for the con- ventions of civilization, the wider grew the breach between them. It is curious to follow the alternating hostilities and amia- bilities in which the profound antagonism between these two individualities found ex- pression. The seven hundredth anniversary of the birth of Saint Elizabeth has been the oc- casion for the publication of what professes to be an objective and scientific story of her life, by Albert Huykens, "Quellenstudien zur Geschichte der heili- gen Elisabeth, Landgrafin zu Thiiringen" (Marburg: Elwert). It is not the indi- viduality of Elizabeth but her character, as representative of the thought of her age, that here is brought into the fore- ground; and since the elimination of tht; mythical from the historical is particularly difficult here, one is not surprised that the Catholic author has not been able to do absolutely satisfactory work. Yet his book

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4:12 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 is doubtless the best among tbe many that the anniversary has produced. Large por- tions of the work appeared originally in Vol. XXVIII of the scholarly Catholic jour- nal, Historisches Jahrbuch der Oorres- Gesellachaft. The last issues of the Old Norse Text Society of Copenhagen (Samfund til Vdgivelse of gammel nordisk Litteratur) are a continuation of the Thldreks Saga edited by H. Bertelson and begun in 1906; and No. 3 of the society's edition of the Volsunga Saga and Rognar Lodbroks Saga, which is being prepared by Magnus Olson. This number contains the critical apparatus to the former saga which has now been is- sued complete. Simultaneous with these appear also the Proceedings of the So- ciety with list of past publications and roll of members. The Samfund was organized in 1879, it has at present a membership of 260 individuals, and libraries, principally In the Scandinavian countries and Germany, but fifteen in the United States. According to a London dispatch there is no trace of John Davidson, the poet, who has been missing from his home at Penzance since March 23, and his family have now given up hope of seeing him alive. Documents found among his papers make it almost certain that he has com- mitted suicide. Mr. Davidson, the son of a Scottish Evangelical Union minister, was born at Barrhead, Renfrewshire, in 1857, and in his thirteenth year was put to work in the chemi- cal department of a sugar factory. When fifteen years old, he went to school again in the capacity of a pupil teacher, and afterward was at Edinburgh Univer- sity for a single session. Until 1890 he earned a subsistence as a teacher in va- rious schools in Scotland, and then made his way to London, supporting himself thereafter by literary work. He began by writing reviews and other articles for the Glasgow Herald, but first attracted critical attention by his poems on various subjects, which were marked by boldness of thought and vigor of expression. His first work of considerable consequence was a chronicle play, "Bruce," published in Scotland. This was followed by a book of poems entitled "Scaramouch In Naxos." After this came two series of "Fleet Street Eclogues," "The Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender," "Godfrida," and other plays, and several volumes of poems, including some of a satirical and political nature. Among his later productions were "The Testament of a Vivisector," "The Testament of an Empire Builder," "The Testament of a Prime Min- ister," "The Triumph of Mammon," and "Mammon and His Message." Not long since he was awarded a pension from the Civil List in recognition of his literary achievements. The death is announced from London of the Rev. Dr. James Harrison Rigg, the well- known Wesleyan Methodist minister. He was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1821, entered the Wesleyan minis- try in 1845, was a member of the first London school board, and was on the Royal Commission of Education, 1886-88. For fif- teen years he edited the London Quarterly Review, and published, also, a number of religious works, including: "Principles of Wesleyan Methodism," "Modern Anglican Theology," "Essays for the Times," "The Churchmanship of John Wesley," "The Liv- ing Wesley," "National Education, English and Foreign," "A Comparative View of Church Organizations," "Dr. Pusey: His Character and Life-Work," "Oxford High Anglicanism^ and Its Chief Leaders," and "Reminiscences, Sixty Years Ago." The death is announced in his ninety-fifth year of Canon Henry Holden, headmaster of Uppingham School from 1847 to 1853 and of Durham Grammar School from 1853 to 1881, rector of South Luffenham, Rutland, from 1881 to 1898. He was co-editor of "Sabrinse Corolla," and wrote "Symbolical Teaching of the Sanctuary" and "Single Sermons to University and to Schoolboys." NOTES ON TEXT BOOKS. EDUCATION. A group of books (intended for texts in normal schools or for private study by teachers) has lately been issued, dealing with the management of schools, with meth- ods of instruction, and with the principles underlying both. "School and Class Man- agement," by Dr. Felix Arnold (The Mac- millan Co.), treats of the relations between teacher and principal and between teacher and child. A subject on which much has been written is here discussed by Dr. Ar- nold with such insight, common sense, and thoroughness that it must command close and interested attention and convey a clear- er conception of some of the important phases of a teacher's conduct and duty. Per- haps the most valuable feature is the em- phasis upon the development of right con- duct. In spite of all that is said about the function of the schools in character build- ing, in practice it is the intellectual training that occupies the chief place in the thought of the teacher. In the rush to meet the encyclopaedic demands of the present curri- culum, ethical training is pushed into a very small corner. Class management has dis- cipline in view and discipline means the en- forcement of more or less arbitrary rules. Gratitude is therefore due Dr. Arnold for making conduct so distinct an object of school training. "Modern Methods for Teachers," by Chas. C. Boyer (J. B. Lippincott Co.), is the lat- est of those attempts to include in a single volume instruction in methods of teaching all the subjects of the elementary curricu- lum. It discusses briefly the nature of ed- ucation, the operations of the mind, and the general principles of instruction; and then, in the light of modern psychology, each of the common subjects, showing its value, the way in which it should be presented, the objects to be attained by study of it. The suggestions offered are in harmony with the best practice of the present time. "Standards in Education," by A. H. Cham- berlain (American Book Co.), is intended primarily as a text for normal schools. The author discusses not only psychology and the general aims of education, but the cur- riculum of the elementary school, the meth- od of its presentation, and the training of teachers. The book is rather a compilation of material on a variety of subjects than a treatment with completeness of any one phase of educational theory or practice. Though there is nothing new in point of view or treatment it has some merits as a text-book. To each chapter are appended an excellent summary, suggestive topics for study, and references by means of which the student may profitably continue his work. Each of the eight brief essays in Prof. Paul H. Hanus's "Beginnings in Industrial Education" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) makes the reader sigh for more of the same kind. Five of the eight give the book its title. They set forth the conditions which have started a country-wide agitation for voca- tional training, and the manner of accom- plishing this reform. Professor Hanus's experience as a member of the Massachu- setts Commission on Industrial Education has stocked him richly with facts, and these he has ordered admirably. There is an excellent account of what Massachu- setts has done in this direction, and an- other about the Fortbildungsschulen in Munich. Three other essays deal with tve professional preparation of high-school teachers, religious instruction in public schools, and Bavarian country schools. Nowhere has the case against the Bible in schools been presented more pointedly and yet with greater calm than here. The literature of the history of education is increased by the addition of three books designed as texts in normal schools and colleges. The first is Graves's "History of Education Before the Middle Ages" (The Macmillan Co.), which contains a compre- hensive account of the history of educa- tion before the rise of the monastic schools. The author follows Thomas Davidson in re- garding education as a part of the process of evolution, but he views it as "conscious evolution" toward more definite ends. The plan is well carried out. Liberal quotations are made from original sources, and a bib- liography is added to each chapter. The book is suitable for college use. For normal schools C. O. Hoyt has prepared "Studies in the History of Modern Education" (Sil- ver, Burdett & Co.), which is well adapted to its purpose. It furnishes sufficient ma- terial for an intensive study of the great reform movements in education from Comenius to the present time; it proposes questions calculated to lead the student to further investigation and to comprehend the process by which modern doctrines and methods have been evolved; and it suggests books for further study. The work is a dis- tinct advance upon most normal school text-books on this subject. Many books have been written about Pestalozzi. To these is now added H. Holman's "Account of the Life and Work of Pestalozzi" (Longmans, Green, & Co.), in which the author aims to present objectively as much of the man as possible. Large quotations are made from the letters and other writings of the great educational reformer. Thus the reader is provided with the data for estimating at its real value the work of Pestalozzi and the influence he has exerted upon education during the last century. HISTORY. Certain well-defined tendencies in his- tory teaching are at once illustrated and stimulated by some recent books for class use. To accompany his "Short History of England," Prof. E. P. Cheyney has com- piled a "Book of Readings in English His- tory" (Ginn & Co.), in which he has brought together some unusually interesting mate- rial. The collection is especially note- worthy for its Illustration of the life of vaiious periods, and contains very few of-

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April 22, 1909] The Nation 413 flcial documents such as statutes, charters, and proclamations. In the same series comes "Readings in Modern European His- tory" (Glnn & Co.), by Profs. J. H. Rob- inson and C. A. Beard, to accompany their "Development of Modern Europe." This collection is largely new though much of the part of the French Revolution and Na- poleonic era has been taken from Professor Robinson's "Readings in European His- tory." Likewise Prof. William MacDonald in his "Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1898" (The Macmil- lan Co.) has brought together and con- densed much of the material in his "Select Charters," "Select Documents," and 'Select Statutes" for the use of classes covering the whole of American history in one year. The rapid development of such publications emphasizes the hold which the method of teaching history not merely by collateral reading, but by selected extracts has at present in our schools. Though it may be doubted whether this will ever be a sub- stitute for real reading, much less en- courage that habit, it is certainly an ad- vance on the older methods. And, apart from their pedagogical value, many of these collections do make interesting reading in spite of their apparently tabloid charac- ter. The spread of American history down- ward in the schools with a consciously pa- triotic as well as pedagogical purpose finds expression in two new books: "Short Amer- ican History by Grades," by Everett Barnes, and "A First Course in American History," by Jeanette R. Hodgdon (D. C. Heath & Co.). Each is to consist of two volumes, one colonial, the other constitu- tional. Each aims at imparting the salient features of American history in simple form for the intermediate grades. Such a movement as this has much to commend It, and its peculiar strength and signifi- cance are well brought out In these vol- umes. The third and last volume of Prof. Charles Seignobos's "History of Civiliza- tion," translated by Miss Wiseman under editorial supervision of Prof. J. A. James (Charles Scribner's Sons), is just at hand. It covers the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to 1888, and is characterized by the same qualities as his previous volumes on ancient and mediaeval civilization. The emphasis is on the social and economic aspects of the period; and, perhaps as il- lustrative of these, an extraordinary amount of personal or biographical detail of the chief personages appears in his pages. The book includes also considerable chapters on the New World and European peoples outside of Europe, together with bibliographical appendices. It forms, on the whole, a readable and useful book. From the Clarendon Press (Henry Frowde) comes a new text-book of the sixteenth century, "The Renaissance and Reforma- tion; A Text-Book of European History. 1494-1610," by Miss Emmeline M. Tanner, a compact and well-printed volume of some three hundred pages, designed for what would perhaps be in the United States late preparatory or early college classes. Miss Tanner has handled a peculiarly com- plex and controversial period with vigor and directness. In spite of the title only about fifty pages are devoted to the period before 1494, the body of the book, as the sub-title reveals, being given to the years between 1494 and 1610, or much the same period covered by Johnson's "Europe in the Sixteenth Century," to which Miss Tan- ner frequently refers. One finds here, as always, the difficulty of being at once con- cise, wholly accurate, and humanly in- teresting, but on the whole, Miss Tanner seems to have solved her problem as well as could be expected. The arrangement and proportion are, generally speaking, good. Each chapter is followed by ques- tions and a brief bibliography, and often accompanied by footnotes and references. The index is good. A full parallel column chronological summary and eight large fold- ing maps make up what, for its period and purpose, is one of the most useful text books of its class which has appeared in recent years. Dr. A. G. Keller, professor of the science of society in Yale University, has issued (Ginn & Co.) a work entitled "Colonization; A Study of the Founding of New Societies," designed as a text-book for the study of colonization in general. The sub-title seems to us a little unfortunate as leading the incautious observer to assume that the work has a socialistic or Utopian character. It is, in fact, a strictly historical produc- tion, treating of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and Scandinavian colonization with a chap- ter devoted to the recent colonizing efforts of Italy and Germany. The history of Eng- lish and French colonization is omitted en- tirely, and nothing is said of the accom- plishments of Russia, Belgium, America, and Japan in the same field. Apparently the author intends that the work shall be used in the classroom, but how far it will meet any particular demand of this kind will depend on the number of lectureships in our colleges and universities devoted to this subject. At present the number is ex- ceedingly small. The work is far too elab- orate to be used as an ordinary text-book, and it would seem as if its most important function would he to enlighten the intelli- gent reader. Its style is not unattractive, its arrangement is good, and its standard of accuracy is high. In the main, it is a compilation from fairly well-known trea- tises, and lays no claim to profundity or originality of thought. Dr. Keller has made almost no attempt to frame conclusions or generalizations, usually confining himself to descriptions and historical narrative. In view of the important service that the work might render to the public at large, it is to be regretted that Dr. Keller has not made his study complete. Had many •of the details here given been omitted, a broader view of colonial experience been given, and systematic deductions been drawn from the evidence presented, the book would have appealed to a much wider body of readers. As it is, however, we can heartily recommend it as an able end scholarly essay upon the subjects which the author has chosen to treat. GREEK AND LATIN. Prof. A.T. Robertson's "Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament" (A. C. Armstrong & Sons) is an attempt to put before senior students the facts of New Testament usage. It thus presupposes a knowledge of ordinary Attic Greek. The author cor- rectly regards New Testament Greek as not a mongrel Attic but an example of the ver- nacular of the day, which In its more colloquial form is shown In the newly discovered papyri, of which much use is made. Professor Robertson accordingly at- tempts to treat the phenomena of New Testament usage as a stage in the evolu- tion of language — and so is perpetually re- ferring to Sanskrit or to more modern languages, as Gothic. Anglo-Saxon, and English. He also dogmatizes vigorously about origins of usage, such as that of pronouns, voices, and the like, where much that he says is very doubtful. In fact the book resembles more a philosophical dis- cussion of general linguistics, illustrated by New Testament Greek. An immense amount of material Is included, which In the hands of a competent student would be valuable as an introduction to more ex- tended study in the same field. The English tendency to put everything within the reach of beginners is well ex- emplified in the edition of the "Euthyphro" of Plato by St. George Stock (Henry Frowde). A brief introduction is followed by a summary of the dialogue, and then the text. The commentary is written for students "who have grammar behind them and philosophy before," but, as a matter of fact it is pitched in a key much higher; for the notes abound in quotations in the Greek from other dialogues of Plato, and occasionally from Aristotle or the Sep- tuagint. The edition ought to be service- able, in aim and scope, but it is entirely different from the American edition by Heidel. Prof. C. L. Brownson of the Col- lege of the City of New York has given us a useful edition of "Selections from Xeno- phon's Hellenica" (American Book Co.). This important work has been less read than it deserves and this edition should be in common use In our colleges. A brief introduction discusses the life, writings, syntax, and style of Xenophon, and the "Hellenica". But as Xenophon's peculiar style cannot be dismissed In two pages, it would have been better to omit this part and make suitable references in the com- mentary. The commentary itself is brief, intended apparently for freshmen; it lacks life and inspiration, but is careful and useful. Some appendices treat more in de- tail problems touched upon in the intro- duction and furnish material for further study by the teacher. There is also a good bibliography in addition to the more or less unnecessary list of disputed readings. The edition of Herodotus, Books vii and viii, by Prof. C. F. Smith and A. G. Laird of the University of Wisconsin (American Book Co.), furnishes the first important study of Herodotus since the late Professor Mer- riam's time. It is a good piece of work, more or less uneven, but showing the re- sults of independent study as well as thor- ough acquaintance with the literature of the subject. Most noteworthy is the chap- ter on the dialect of Herodotus, an inde- pendent investigation by Professor Laird which ought largely to supersede the treat- ment of Stein. There is a bibliography of special works on the syntax of Herodotus, which, however, would seem almost unnec- essary to students of Professor Laird's own work. The notes are brief and designed mainly for students who are reading Herod- otus for the first time, but are sufficient for practical purposes.

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4,14= T.'he Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 The eternal question as to the best be- ginner's book In Latin meets us again In "Latin Lessons," by D. W. Lothman (Ginn & Co.). and R. H. Locke's "Latin Forms and Syntax" (Allen, Lane & Scott). Both works differ from the customary beginner's book and from each other. Mr. Lothman believes that better results would be se- cured by more extensive and more intelli- gent use of the grammar; and he conse- quently refers to three widely used gram- mars for the learning of all forms; but there seems to be no gain other than that of space by referring the student to the grammar for the paradigms only. The Eng- lish-to-Latin part of each lesson has been made brief; in other words, the smallest portion of time and energy is given to the most difficult part of the subject — a view which is widely held in this country and could be well abandoned. A serviceable in- troduction on the principles of English grammar meets a need felt seriously by most teachers. Reading lessons are added from Caesar and Livy. Mr. Locke's book employs the style of the kindergarten to set forth the most intimate secrets of philology. We are told to distinguish be- tween agglutinative, analytic, and synthetic language; we are helped to an appreciation of the ablative singular by the gutturals of the North American Indian; we are intro- duced into the habits of thought of primi- tive peoples. The five declensions are studied together. Prom the outset the words in the reading lesson must be looked up in the general vocabulary at the end of the book. No exercise is given in transla- tion from English into Latin until all the forms have been learned and a review of syntax has begun. The vocabulary Is limited in range, mainly Caesarian. It is impossible to say how successful such a book would be, but it would seem to re- quire a very sympathetic teacher. There have been many Latin prose composition books intended for second or third-year pupils in high schools, but no satisfactory book has as yet been prepared for the last •Wing imposit "High School Course in Latin Composition" (The Macmillan Co.) offers a systematic treatment for the second, third, and fourth years. It is divided into three parts, one for each year; and it contains an extensive summary of the elements of Latin syntax, together with references to the leading grammars. The syntactical exposition is clear and good. In the first part the vo- cabulary is mainly Caesarian; in the second. Ciceronian words are added, and in the third certain words not commonly met with until Virgil. This plan is based upon Pro- fessor Gonzalez Lodge's recent "Vocabu- lary of High School Latin." The earlier exercises consist of detached sentences paralleling in subject matter the work in Cassar and Cicero, and nearly one-half of the last part is devoted to connected exer- cises. A. C. Clark, editor of "Cicero's Orations" in the Oxford Text series, has issued an edition of Cicero's Philippic Orations I, II, III, V, and VII (Henry Frowde) for schools. The notes and introduction are taken al- most entirely from J. R. King's large edi- tion of the whole series of Philippic Ora- tions. Though the book is serviceable, the introductions are too brief and the com- mentary curiously uneven, containing a good deal of textual criticism, which is out of place in such an edition. A welcome addition to the list of college text-books Is Dr. A. P. Ball's "Selected Essays of Seneca" (The Macmillan Co.). This contains the "Ad Polybium de Consolatione," "Ad Ne- ronem de dementia," the "Apocolocynto- sis," and ten letters — chosen to illustrate Seneca's personal connection with the his- tory of his time. An interesting introduc- tion on Seneca, the stoic philosophy, and Seneca's style, leaves us a pleasant Im- pression of a man whose position was often very difficult, but whose influence was al- ways helpful. It might have been well to discuss more fully Seneca's philosophical opinions and explain why the Christian fathers had such a high opinion of his teaching. The commentary is adequate, neither overloaded nor descending to triv- ialities. The inclusion of the "Apocolocyn- tosis" puts into the hands of the student what has been hitherto inaccessible. Prof. O. F. Long has prepared a short book of selections from the first decade of Livy (Scott, Foresman & Co.), designed to show a reaction against the overloaded text- books now in common use. There is a brief introduction with an inadequate chapter on Livy's style; the notes, often little more than translation, are printed at the foot of the page. The book will come into com- parison with Dennison's similar selection much to Its disadvantage, for this one seems adapted to little more than sight translation. For this purpose it might be useful; otherwise it is hard to see a place for it. W. D. Lowe's "Scenes from the Life of Hannibal" (Henry Frowde) is an ele- mentary reading book for students that know little more than the leading forms. The text Is excerpted from Livy, though the order of events and often the text itself has been modified to make it more suitable for beginners. Brief notes, but even these of a more advanced type than those of Long above referred to, are followed by a vo- cabulary and by a series of exercises for translation from English into Latin based more or less closely on the narrative. The book is worth trying in our high schools. MODERN LANGUAGES. "A French Grammar," by H. P. Thieme and J. R. Efflnger (The Macmillan Co.), intends to give only the essentials. But all teachers are not agreed on what these "essentials" should be. Some will find that the sub- junctive is not sufficiently accounted for, and others will complain of the scattered way in which the pronouns are treated. Still this book has excellent features. It is well graded, distributes composition material wisely, and discards the baby reading mat- ter to offer mature, sound, and attractive texts. Too many slips, however, have crept into even the second printing. The editions of the Clarendon Press (Henry Frowde) are annotated with a uni- form competence by professors most of whom are French. We may pass over "Le Douanier de mer" by the popular feuille- tonist, 6lie Berthet, a story of the French coast, obviously edited for English sea-lov- ing pupils; and "Batailles de terre et de mer," by a now forgotten French vice-ad- miral, which can have no interest outside of military and naval academies. But Vigny's "Chatterton," which, in 1834, was one of the triumphs of the Romantic School, is a legitimate and welcome addition to the library of annotated texts. The editor, Prof. E. Lauvrlere, has a solid knowl- edge of both French and English literature. The introduction consists of an essay, In French, of ninety-three pages on the life and work of Alfred de Vigny, while the notes are, from the literary as well as phi- lological point of view, an illuminating commentary on the text. Whether Balzac'u "Le Medecin de campagne" can make the kind of reading which our story-mad un- dergraduates will relish is open to ques- tion. This political and social treatise, of which M. Brunetiere speaks so highly, may seem dull to the readers of "The Three Musketeers." At any rate, the introduction and notes by De V. Payen-Paine are bound to be helpful. It ought to be easy to get out a satisfactory edition of "Le Cid," after all the work done by the commentators from Scudery down to the French school editions. Prof. James D. Bruner's text (American Book .Co.) contains a great wealth of notes and literary comparisons, many of the latter touching on English drama. Instead of the usual biography of Corneille the editor has an acceptable es- say on "The Theory of the Classical Drama in France," in which students will find some essential information. While modern spell- ing is used in the tragedy, some unfortu- nate forms and a misprint have been over- looked in the "Avertissement" and the "Ex- amen." Although our students have all the French tragedy they want, Henri de Born- ier's "La Fille de Roland" (D. C. Heath & Co.) may prove an interesting complement to a study of the "Chanson de Roland." This play was one of the great triumphs of the ComSdie Francaise after the war of 1870 because it expressed, with something of the spark of Corneille, heroic feelings that always stir the French nation. Prof. C. A. Nelson's edition Is adequately presented. Jules Lemaitre's VContes extraits de Myrrha" (D. C. Heath & Co.) show a stud- ied simplicity and a certain charm of style; still there is something constrained about this effort of an avowed skeptic to appear naive in telling puerile stories of country priests and devout peasants. Nothing need be said about the short account 01 his life except that all his plays, the editor notwithstanding, were not produced at the Comedie Francaise. The new text of "Les Miserables" (Henry Holt & Co.) Is welcome, with its clear type and scholarly notes. Instead of the biography of Victor Hugo the editor might better have given us the interesting history of the publication of this epoch-making novel. He would thus have avoided an unfortunate blunder (re- sult of a careless reading of Bire) in nam- ing the ridiculous Pere Loriquet as one of Victor Hugo's teachers. Among the increasing number of Spanish texts mention must be made of J. D. M. Ford's "Selections from Don Quixote" (D. C. Heath & Co.), which contains a rapid survey of the latest critical works on Cer- vantes; G. L. Lincoln's conscientious edi- tion of Valera's "Pepita Jimenez" (Heath); and R. E. Bassett's elaborate treatment of "Pedro Sanchez" (Ginn & Co.), which shows what the combined efforts of an industrious author and painstaking publishers can do to raise the standard of modern language texts. The "Report on the Teaching of English in the United States," by M. Atkinson Wil- liams, lecturer in an English training col- lege (C. W. Bardeen), though an unpre-

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April 22, 1909J The Nation. 415 tentious little volume, contains a good deal of suggestive comment on American meth- ods in primary "and secondary schools. This observer is inclined to think'that our teach- ers give rather too free rein to the in- dividuality of their pupils, and are over- nervous about the danger of imposing their opinions unon the unfolding mind. She was very much bewildered, furthermore, by the prevailing standards for grading written work. She has apparently always been fa- miliar with a truth which is not yet thor- oughly recognized, even in our higher edu- cation, namely, that a high passing grade usually means a low standard of excellence. English pupils, she believes, are less fluent and spontaneous than their American cousins. On the other hand, they are brought up with a greater respect for the proprieties of diction and grammar. Those who distrust the "natural meth- od" of acquiring the elements of their mother tongue should welcome James C. Fernald's "Working Grammar of the Eng- lish Language" (Funk & Wagnall's Co.). The author sets out with a belief that Eng- lish is perhaps the simplest and most per- fect of all languages, and that it needs only a sensibly written grammar to secure gen- eral acceptance of his views. It must be said, however, that in some cases he has simplified his grammar by ignoring some of the awkward facts of the language; his treatment, for example, of the horrible shall-and-will question is beautifully plain as far as it goes, but it quite disregards the difficult complications that arise in de- pendent clauses. Yet, in the main, the book does live up to its title by presenting with tolerable comprehensiveness and with un- usual freedom from pedantry in definition and classification the essentials of English grammar. Dr. Charles A. McMurry's "Special Meth- od in Reading in the Grades" (The Macmil- lan Co.) is written around the popular modern theory that there is a royal road to learning, along which little pilgrims may pass in play. It puts great stress upon oral story-telling as the preliminary to reading, and upon manual training, singing, marching, games, and the various kinder- garten devices for growing wise unawares. It rightly emphasizes the attractiveness and the cultural value of folk-lore and classi- cal myth and story in the reading of child- hood, and it supplies fairly extensive lists of books containing such material. Finally, if insists quite as much upon the necessity of flexibility, energy, and training in the teacher as upon the virtues of the special method. The fact that Dr. McMurry speaks with the enthusiasm of conviction and experience should make this work stim- ulating to primary instructors. There is much good counsel in Grenville Kleiser's "How to Develop Power and Per- sonality in Speaking" (Funk & Wagnalls Co.). The good orator, according to Mr. Kleiser, must not only be a good man, but must also possess a trained mind, culti- vated voice, and fresh, resilient body. Among the precepts for the care of the body, it is refreshing to find that the suc- cessful speaker must expect to take Mr. Dick's celebrated prescription for David Copperfleld "at least once a day." Besides the usual directions and exercises for voice culture, there are many sensible sug- gestions on the development of a vocabu- lary, training of the memory, power in con- versation and extemporaneous speaking, and various other matters. Though the book is designed to be especially helpful to min- isters, its sound and fundamental method should make it generally useful. Of the annual crop of books dealing with the theory and practice of writing, two seem to have some justification for exist- ence. Martha Hale Shackford and Mar- garet Judson, of Wellesley and Vassar re- spectively, have prepared a "Composition Rhetoric-Literature" (Benjamin H. San- born & Co.), designed to serve for a four years' course in secondary schools. This book is to be commended for its definite purpose, its systematic arrangement, and its adaptation to the college-entrance re- quirements. Among its special features, one notes with pleasure that it begins with a thorough review of grammar, that it con- tains a sensible and helpful chapter on let- ter-writing, that its treatment of the prin- ciples and types of poetry is exceptionally full, and that the study of literary mas- terpieces is closely related to practice in writing. The "Composition and Rhetoric" of Charles Swain Thomas, head of the Eng- lish department in the Newton High School, and Prof. W. D. Howe, head of the Eng- lish department in Indiana University (Longmans, Green & Co.), does not, in spite of its 509 pages, cover all the ground cov- ered by the Shackford-Judson book, but it has a particular virtue of its own: it goes go close to the actual problems of the stu- dent, its suggestions are so practical and concrete, that it almost teaches itself. Many other manuals discuss the importance of choosing suitable materials for composi- tion; few are so fertile in specific exam- ples and vital hints. Many rhetorics sup- ply ample materials for the study of prin- ciples; few provide such interesting ma- terial or such definite instructions for op- erating upon it. In "A First German Book" (Henry Holt & Co.), George M. Howe follows the theory "that the best type of exercise is that which aids the student in a thorough assimilation of a well-chosen German text." Most teachers would agree with this statement; but many would disagree with the author as to what constitutes a suitable text for the earliest stages of instruction. The author has chosen three stories by Volkmann, has provided the ear- lier ones with both an inter- linear and smooth translation, and added copious notes, followed by grammatical ma- terial and oral and written exercises. Les- son i, for example, treats forms of the pre- terite of simple verbs, yet the text itself is rich in noun and adjective inflections, the use of prepositions, separable verbs, etc. This material, when taken together with the vocabulary, would certainly seem to make too great demands upon both teach- er and pupil. For some time the oral and written exercises must perforce entail a far too large amount of pure memory work. "German Grammar," by R. J. Ham and A. N. Leonard (Ginn & Co.), is a beginner's book that strikes no new note. We find the modern spirit of foreign language teaching expressed only in the anecdotes which form the basis of the lessons. In other respects the work follows traditional lines. The rules and paradigms with which each lesson begins, though well stated and selected, are out of proportion to the prac- tice given. Moreover, the examples and word-lists are seldom vitally connected with the exercises. This is a weakness in any text-book. The sentences to be translated into and from the foreign language are rather better in quality than usual. A good feature is that only the more common words from the anecdotes are employed in them. Although a far safer book than the one criticised above, and although it is probably adequate for college classes, the grammar is really but another attempt to perfect a model which for secondary school purposes, at least, ought to have been dis- carded years ago. "Modern German Prose," compiled and annotated by A. B. Nichol3 (Henry Holt & Co.), is a chrestomathy of prose for use in advanced college classes. It is compiled much in the spirit of the books of Paszkowski and Henschke, but is superior to them for American students because of the notes, and the greater range and greater attractiveness of the material. The selections are short withoutbeingchop- py; nor are they too difficult or too techni- cal. In fine, it is an excellent compilation. It is a pity, however, that the proof-reading was not more carefully done. Let us hope that the sales will soon warrant a second revised edition. "Mit Ranzel und Wander- stab," by Emil Frommel, with exercises, notes, and vocabulary by W. Bernhardt (D. C. Heath & Co.), is a welcome addition to the all too few texts of the kind in which a love-story is not a part. It is a brightly told account of a walking trip a number of Gymnaslasten took many years ago in the Black Forest. It is wholesome reading, truly German in humor, and it ought espe- cially to interest a class of boys. The exer- cises are in the form of three letters based upon the text. They read well and are sup- plemented by German questions based upon them. The notes and vocabulary seem ade- quate. SCIENCE. There are not too many introductions to psychology which steer the beginner safely between meaningless experiment and ob- scure theory. So Prof. Max Meyer's free, somewhat condensed translation of Eb- binghaus's "Abriss" is welcome. "Psychol- ogy" (D. C. Heath & Co.) has all the mer- its of its excellent original; it is brief, tainted by no fads, conservative, clear, and rich in example. It is not easier to read than the science is to learn. The trans- lator generally remains true to Ebbinghaus and English alike; but the Teuton will out now and then in phrases like "the focal- ness of consciousness." Psychology is re- duced to lowest terms in Prof. Carl E. Sea- shore's "Elementary Experiments in Psy- chology" (Henry Holt & Co.). The author aims to deliver first-year students from complicated, time-consuming instruments, which often serve only to confuse. His manual and its accompanying envelope full of "apparatus" constitute a pocket lab- oratory which is by purport a vestibule to a larger one and to the classroom. Pro- fessor Seashore has chosen experiments which arouse interest and deepen insight. His formal directions are clear, and his comments illuminating. A surprising amount of general psychological informa- tion is sprinkled about. The "Economic Zoology" of Herbert Os- born (the Macmillan Co.) is intended for college students and general readers, de- scribed as an "ever-increasing body of citi- zens," but does not quite fulfil the promise

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416 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 of the title. A rather meagre text is fully illuminated by illustrations, mostly from standard works, although a few are orig- inal, so that a good teacher many find the book useful. In the "First Course in Biol- ogy" (the Macmillan Co.) are brought to- gether with separate paginations a "Plant Biology," by L. H. Bailey, and an "Animal Biology" and a "Human Biology," by W. M. Coleman. The book is declared to be an effort to make elementary instruction in these subjects more "applicable." The re- sult is not very convincing, but in these matters everything depends upon the teacher. In "A Text Book of Experimental Chem- istry (with Descriptive Notes), for Stu- dents of General Inorganic Chemistry" (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co.), Prof. Edwin Lee, of Allegheny College aims to combine experiment and theory in due proportion, to devote more attention than usual to the energy side of the subject, and to introduce the newer theories of equilibrium and dissociation. But the ful- filment of this purpose is disappointing; for the book does not differ in scope and character from several others on the mar- ket, and it has some faults of its own, the chief of which are confusion in arrange- ment and clumsiness of wording. Why should the beginner in chemistry be met on the first page with the question whether matter is merely a product of thought, a manifestation of energy, or a cause of sen- sation? No sufficient explanation is given of what these different definitions mean. They are simply set down with the cau- tious conclusion, "Science seems unable as yet to predicate what matter is." The volume abounds in misprints and inconsist- encies and disregards the ordinary rules of grammar to an extent unusual even in scientific text books. In one chapter "Hy- drascids" and "Oxascids" are discussed and these are duly indexed. Another chapter refers to compounds of strikingly similar formula to the latter as "Oxacids," but this is not indexed, so it seems likely that the first word is merely an allotropic form of the second. Among recent mathematical works from the Cambridge University Press are "A Course in Pure Mathematics," by G. H. Hardy, the second volume of Prof. G. H. Darwin's "Scientific Papers," and "The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements," by T. L. Heath. Of these works (all of which are published in America by G. P. Put- nam's Sons) the first begins with a detail- ed analysis of the linear continuum, and culminates in the theory of the logarithm and the exponential. Designed for flrst- yea'r university students, and intended to be read in connection with the usual text- books of analytical geometry and the calculus, it is chiefly notable for the omis- sion of many of the usual topics, as, for example, the principle of convergence, for extraordinary emphasis on such regulative ideas as infinity and continuity, and for the deliberately prolix and multilateral treatment of them. The nine memoirs con- tained in the second volume of Darwin's "Papers" all deal with questions of tidal friction and its cosmogonic effects. To the mathematical astronomer they are of es- pecial interest as giving the latest and best word of mathematics respecting celestial evolution. No mathematician, unless quite without historical and philosophical sense, can fail to be delighted with Mr. Heath's edition of Euclid. For it is not merely the first and only English translation of the famous "definitive MS." of Heiberg, but in three beautifully printed volumes it brings together in a most masterful ex- position the results of critical inquiry from pre-Euclidean times down to the very latest European researches in the foundations of geometry. It is indeed a work that neither geometrician nor philosopher can afford to ignore. A specially commendable feature of Daniel A. Murray's "Differential and In- tegral Calculus" (Longmans, Green & Co.) — a respect In which most of its rivals are lacking — is the citation, in connection with important or difficult ideas, of standard works dealing with them. To be able to say of a secondary school book of mathe- matics that it is fresh, teachable, and sound is indeed rare, and it is, therefore, a special pleasure to be able to say these things of Prof. E. R. Hedrick's "Algebra for Secondary Schools" (American Book Co.). The subject of physics has gradually in- creased in favor with teachers in the sec- ondary schools. We have now associations of teachers, who hold yearly meetings to discuss proper methods of presenting the subject. Unlike chemistry and botany, phy- sics demands more or less complicated and expensive apparatus, and it is therefore the constant endeavor of writers of text-books to suggest experiments that may be within the means of the ordinary school. Two of the most recent works are "Elements of Physics," by Prof. George A. Hoadley of Swarthmore (American Book Co.), and "Physics for Secondary Schools," by Charles F. Adams of the Detroit Central High School (American Book Co.). One will find it difficult to choose between these treatises. Both are intended for recitation work, and the performance by the student of qualitative experiments. Problems aro given, but they are not connected with quantitative study. Both' treatises have the merit of being compact. The "New Labora- tory Manual of Physics," by S. E. Colemau of the Oakland High School, is what its ti- tle indicates. At the beginning of each class of experiments it gives references to text- books by various authors. One is surprised not to see any reference to the Harvard descriptive list of physical experiments which have had an important influence on the establishment of laboratory courses in secondary schools; yet one finds in Mr. Coleman's experiments suggestions from this list. We may add that there is a grow- ing conviction among college instructors in physics that students preparing for col- lege would be better fitted for the future study of physics if they devoted their time to trigonometry in the preparatory schools rather than to laboratory work. "A Text- Book of Physics," edited by A. Wilmer Duff (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Sons & Co.), is the combined work of Mr. Duff, Karl B. Guthe, William Hallock, E. Percival Lewis, Arthur Goodspeed, A. P. Carman, and R. K. McLung, and it has the merits of such co- operation. It is an excellent reference book for college students and takes the place of Ganot's "Physics," which has been a useful book in the past. "Electricity, Sound, and Light," by Prof. Robert An- drews Milliken of the University of Chicago and John Mills of Western Reserve, is call- ed by the authors a short university course. and it promises to be a useful book in ele- mentary college courses. "Alternating Current Machines," by Sam- uel Sheldon, Hobart Mason, and Erich. Hausman (D. Van Nostrand Co.), is a com- pact elementary treatise on a rapidly grow- ing subject. It is lucid and moderately free from full-page illustrations of dynamos which can be described equally well by small diagrams — much to the profit of the pocket of the student. "Applied Mechanics for Engineers: A Text-Book for Elemen- tary Students" (The Macmillan Co.), by Prof. E. L. Hancock of Purdue University, is a modest but sound work which will be welcomed by students of engineering. MORE CARLYLE LETTERS. The Love Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh. Edited by Alexander Carlyle; with numerous illustrations, two in color. 2 vols. New York: John Lane Co. $8 net. At the end of May, 1821, Edward Irv- ing took Carlyle from Edinburgh out to Haddington to visit Jane Welsh. From that visit, Carlyle, as he wrote to his brother, "came back so full of joy" that he had "done nothing since but dream of it." Four days after his return he sent his first letter to the young heiress, as he regarded her, with directions for her reading and with excited allusions to the "few Elysian hours" they had spent together. It was the beginning of a correspondence which closed with a letter from Carlyle, dated October 9, 1826, a week before their marriage. These love letters between the two, pre- served almost intact, were in the hands of Froude when he wrote the Life, and were interpreted and excerpted by him in a manner that was to bring on an Iliad of woes. In the "Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle," published by Profes- sor Norton in 1886, a few of the letters were printed with the design of correct- ing Froude's misstatements, but the col- lection as a whole he regarded as "too sacred for publication"; and, indeed, Carlyle himself had left an injunction to this effect. Now, after long hesita- tion, Carlyle's nephew, feeling that the sacred trust was long ago violated by Froude, and that the finest service to the dead could be done only in this way, gives to the world the, practically, complete correspondence. So far as mere interest goes, these two thick volumes will be a disappoint- ment to readers who know the writers from Froude and from their other let- ters. There is something in the very genre of love letters that makes for dul- ness, and not even Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh could entirely overcome that tendency. Nor are the reasons for this rule hard to define. Such letters are commonly the product of youth — re- spectively twenty-six and twenty were the ages of our lovers at the beginning — whereas the real epistolary charm is rarely attained before full maturity.

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April 22, 1909] The Nation. 417 Good letters must be personal, yet the writer must at the same time stand apart from himself, so to speak, with a kind of amused or disillusioned in- dulgence in his own egotism; their style must be entirely spontaneous, yet adjusted to the nicest effects. Such a combination no writer is likely to pos- sess until well along toward middle life; for a young man is too serious about his future, an old man too conscious of the waning of his powers. And in love the anti-epistolary faults of youth are all intensified. There have been few thoroughly interesting collections of love letters; those that occur to our memory as exceptions. Swift's and Merimee's, were not written in youth, and were without passion in the ordi- nary sense of the word. Here and there a passage shows Car- lyle's power of caustic portraiture, as when, after seeing Coleridge in Lon- don, he writes of him as "sunk inex- tricably in the depths of putrescent in- dolence"; but these descriptions have been mostly omitted by the editor — un- necessarily, we think. Endless talk of "thee and me" is the burden of the let- ters, as, indeed, was proper and natural. But if the entertainment afforded by these letters is not extraordinary, they have great value of another sort. We will not presume to say that we ful- ly understand the characters of these strange lovers, but at least certain points in their courtship now stand out clearly. Carlyle, it is evident, was smitten by love at first sight in good orthodox fashion. Miss Welsh was daz- zled by his intellect, but for some time scarcely conceived the possibility of mar- rying him. At the very beginning she gives him to understand that there is a social gulf between them, and Car- lyle sends a manly acknowledgment and defence: Once more, then, I entreat tor one word of kindness. Forget the roughness of my exterior, if you think me sound within. Let me write to you with frankness and from the heart, if you would not have me altogether despicable. The Graces cannot live under a sky so gloomy and tempestuous as mine. I lament their absence, since you lament it; but there is no remedy. If nature had meant me for a courtly person, she would have made me richer and more impudent. In this latter point, you think she has been liberal enough. How widely, how cruelly do you mistake me ! Carlyle was to her a schoolmaster, an aid to her absorbing determination to excel in literature. Whether from con- viction or fou flattery — he showed him- self throughout a canny wooer — he ex- pressed unbounded belief in her future. Indeed, for a while their letters are more concerned with her ambitions than his, and he soon feels obliged to send her counsels of moderation. He holds up as examples those who have come to hon- ors late in life. "Will you also let me say," he adds, "that I continue to la- ment this inordinate love of Fame which so agitates you; and which, as I believe, lies at the root of all this mis- chief. I think this feeling unworthy of you: it is far too shallow a principle for a mind like yours." At another time, and the words sound strangely from his pen, he is warning her against over- study and contemplative melancholy and "that sickness of noble hearts, that deep and sad feeling of the nothingness of the world, which is apt to arise from too exclusive a pursuit of things high and spiritual, and too great an isolation from the every-day interests and enjoy- ments of life." And then, as the months pass and neither her proposed transla- tion from the German nor her meditat- ed novel gets on, she becomes less the author and more the woman. "Oh! but I have no genius!" she cries in July of 1823, seeking the encouragement which Carlyle returns with no niggardly hand. The cry is repeated, but with less em- phasis and less insistence until it is lost in the more absorbing struggle against succumbing to the man who all the while is able both to love and to work. This more personal relation between the two is complicated by the fact that Carlyle's letters passed under the eyes of the lady's mother. Perhaps one should say rather "were supposed so to pass," for one suspects that the lady used this pretext to keep the gentleman within bounds of a brotherly and tutor- ial affection. At any rate, those bounds were broad enough, including certain demonstrations that may be claimed by a brother but scarcely by a tutor, and permitting a language of high-wrought passion which could speak almost any- thing but the word marriage. The crisis comes in a letter from Carlyle, dated Pentonville, January 9, 1825, with its di- rect appeal: "Will you go with me, will you be my own forever?" The lady's reply is frank, if disquieting: Think of something else, then; apply your industry to carry it into effect, your talents to gild over the inequality of our births; and then — we will talk of marrying. If all this were realized, I think I should have good sense enough to abate something of my romantic ideal, and to content myself with stopping short on this side idolatry, — at all events. I will marry no one else. This is all the promise I can or will make. To this Carlyle sends a long answer, passing from reproach to submission. "You are such a generous spirit," he says; "but your purposes and feelings are not such." It would not be easy to find elsewhere a letter from a woman like that which follows from Miss Welsh: My heart is capable (I feel it is) of a love to which no deprivation would be a sacrifice — a love which would overleap that reverence for opinion with which education and weakness have begirt my sex, would bear down all the restraints which duty and expediency might throw in the way, and carry every thought and feeling of my be- ing impetuously along with it. But the all- perfect mortal which could inspire me with a love so extravagant, is nowhere to be found, exists nowhere but in the romance of my own imagination! Perhaps it is bet- ter for me as it is. A passion like the torrent in the violence of its course, might perhaps too, like the torrent, leave ruin and desolation behind. In the mean time. I should be very mad, were I to act as If from the influence of such a passion, while my affections are in a state of perfect tran- quillity. I have already explained to you the nature of my love for you; that it is deep and calm, more like the quiet river, which refreshes and beautifies where it flows, than the torrent which bears down and destroys. Yet it is materially different from what one feels for a statue or a pic- ture. But she adds: "Not many months ago, I would have said it was impossible that I should ever be your Wife; at present, I consider this the most prob- able destiny for me." It was a virtual defeat, and, indeed, she herself regarded her words as practically an engagement. The third and fourth acts of the drama simply show the increasing domination of Carlyle's personality over hers. In the end the misgivings were more on his part than on hers. Having surren- dered, she, with a woman's singleness of mind, saw but one thing, her love; whereas the dualism of masculine na- ture shows itself in his occasional sad self-questionings. It is a strange drama of the heart that is set in these letters, and they have the further value of putting to rest a number of doubts that should never have been raised. To say, after reading these confessions, that Miss Welsh never really loved Carlyle, would be stark nonsense. They, moreover, for- ever put away Irving as an important factor in the event. Mr. Craig, we think, would not have written his recently published volume on "The Making of Carlyle" (see the Nation, April 8, p. 360), if he had perused this record. That Miss Welsh was once enamoured of Irv- ing she herself admits in a letter of humble contrition; that she had any re- gard for him after Carlyle came well upon the scene her expressions of amus- ed contempt for him and her attitude toward his wife make inconceivable. More important is the light thrown by these letters on Froude. Undoubtedly that writer erred not only in matters of fact but in comprehension. First of all, the nasty scandal that he left to be scattered to the world after his death is again complete- ly discredited. The letters of Carlyle here printed agree with those writ- ten after his marriage in rendering such an hypothesis perfectly foolish; and in his notes the present editor brings di- rect evidence against it, if such evi- dence be needed. To a certain extent also Froude's exaltation of Mrs. Car- lyle at the expense of her husband be-

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418 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2286 comes less plausible, for, If any such balance must be struck, the man comes through the ordeal of the drama now disclosed with higher honors than the woman. Yet, withal, in its larger aspects Froude's characterization is rather con- firmed than discredited. If his judg- ment was highly peccable, he at least had that literary genius which alone could set Carlyle before us as himself a living genius. He understood also the egotism, the magnificent egotism, of Car- lyle, which is so essential a part of his power. We may henceforth, out of regard for these letters and the other letters published since Froude's work, believe that the married life of the Car- lyles was not so tragic as it was there presented. Twenty years after marriage the wife could write in a letter now in the possession of the editor: "I have grown to love you, the longer the more, till now you are grown to be the whole Universe, God, everything to me"; but it is still true, and these letters do not detract from such an impression, that Carlyle must have been, to use Froude's version of the phrase, "gey ill to live with." Not with impunity shall a wo- man surrender herself to the keeping of one with the intense, brooding, troubled egotism that made the fond of Carlyle's character. Nor was he himself blind to this danger. In a moment of expan- siveness, after Miss Welsh had written her confession of an early love for Irv- ing which she had concealed from Car- lyle, he breaks out into a passionate cry of alarm: You feel grateful to me that I have "forgiven" you? You thank me, and say I treat you generously? Alas, alas! I de- serve no gratitude. What have I done? As- sured you that my affection is still yours, that you are even dearer to me for this painful circumstance. But do you know the worth of that affection? Have you ever seen me and my condition in the naked eye of your reason? You have not: you do not know me. . . . What is my love of you or of any one? A wild peal through the desolate chambers of my soul, forcing perhaps a bitter tear into my eyes, and then giving place to silence and death? You know me not; no living mortal knows me — seems to know me. My heart has been steeped in solitary bitterness, till the life of it is gone: the heaven of two confiding souls that live but for each other encir- cled with glad affection, enlightened by the sun of worldly blessings and suitable activity, is a thing that I contemplate from a far distance, without the hope, some- times even without the wish, of reaching it. Am I not poor and sick and helpless and estranged from all men? I lie upon the thorny couch of pain, my pillow is the iron pillow of despair: I can rest on them in si- lence, but that is all that I can do. Think of it, Jane! I can never make you hap- py. Leave me, then! Why should I de- stroy you? It is but one bold step and it is done. We shall suffer, suffer to the heart; but we shall have obeyed the voice of reason, and time will teach us to en- dure it. These were not the words of an idle romanticism; they sprang from the depths of the man's being, and in them lies the justification of Froude's mag- nificent biography, however we shall be obliged to correct his work in details. After all deductions are made, the real Carlyle is the Carlyle of Froude. CURRENT FICTION. A Prince of Dreamers. By Flora Annie Steel. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. Before this book appeared, one would have said that Mrs. Steel was probably as well qualified to write an historical romance of India as any one living. Her wide acquaintance with modern In- dia she has revealed in several novels of decided depth and power. Her re- cently published history of the country declares her interest in the long evolu- tion of Indian civilization. Yet in spite of her combination of talents, she has fallen to the bottom of the pit which gapes for all historical romancers, and which is most dangerous, unfortunately, to those whose purposes are most seri- ous. The interests of the novelist spoil the "Prince of Dreamers" as history, and the interests of the historian spoil it as fiction. It was perhaps true to fact to make the court of the great sixteenth century Mogul, Jelal-ud-din Mahomed Akbar, as dull as a stagnant pond, even when the heir-apparent was conspiring against the throne. If the book really admitted us to the mysteries of Akbar's dream, we could dispense with external action; but though his interpreter tells us in so many words that he was dream- ing of empire, the man himself remains a kind of graven image, inarticulate and impenetrable to the end. In the last two or three chapters the infinitely tedi- ous plotting and tattle about the pos- session of the King's Luck, a big dia- mond which Akbar wore in his turban, comes to a sharp head, and we enjoy a few minutes of unexpected excitement. If there is any profound significance in the story, we reluctantly assent to the motto from Hafiz on the fly-leaf: "Not every one who readeth the page under- standeth the meaning." Nor — to pass on to less obscure matters — is it always easy to understand the style. The prob- lem of making the characters speak without destroying the illusion was, of course, difficult. But a modicum of sty- listic tact would have felt the vicious dissonance of "messie"rs," "Let her pass an' she will," "A Rajput lives by his sword — would I had it in some wames I wot of." So far as the merely de- scriptive passages go — and they go very far indeed — we will not question the ac- curacy of Mrs. Steel's antiquarianism. It is exactly the antiquarian's love of discoursing in detail on ancient man- ners, costumes, etiquette, games, mor- als, religions, and literatures — it is this antiquarianism, tempered by a love of gorgeous word pictures, that ruins the book. The ill-fated story, symbolic or not, is absolutely smothered to death by description. The Straw. By Rina Ramsay. New York: The Macmillan Co. A slight but fairly diverting book made up of a half-dozen foxhunts and a murder — the treatment is just serious enough to hit off the life of the rather seedy English gentry who follow the hounds, after the custom of their fore- fathers. The characterization of the dowdy, coarse-fibred women and empty- headed men is sketchy but light-hand- ed and clever. The two rascally "Babes" who, subsidized by their aunt, pretend to be engaged in scientific farm- ing, but in reality hang on the skirts of the hunt, are jolly novelties in humor — attached, to be sure, somewhat artifi- cially to the main action. The Straw, the only "nice" woman in the commu- nity, is the pivot of the serious action. She excites the hatred of the faster ele- ment among her associates and the chiv- alry and sympathy of the better sort. She herself is an extremely passive and insignificant creature, standing mute and helpless amid the contending pas- sions which she evokes. Yet though her attempt to save a morally drowning man leads indirectly to his ruin, the influ- ence of the poor girl is in the long run salutary, and her sense of right and wrong becomes the- touchstone to test the other characters. None of these peo- ple, however, is deep or subtle enough to excite any lasting interest. The zest of the book lies in the crisp, racy style, and in the fact that one is kept most of the time in the saddle, galloping furiously after the hounds. Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker. By Marguerite Bryan. New York: Duf- field & Co. This is a thoughtful story of serious purpose and of high-minded endurance, endeavor, and accomplishment. The scene is in England. Of the characters there is, first, the hero, who, having when a little boy tramped the road with his mother and having never forgotten how rough was the way for them both, dreams dreams of becoming a maker of "highroads — not in towns but across countries — roads that will be easy to travel on and will last." Then there is the memory of the mothe», weary and worn, a Socialist who had fled from her husband, preferring poverty and the road to money made by oppressing the poor. Later comes into the story the father himself, still piling up his hard- hearted millions and desiring at last to find his son. Meantime a relative of his, an old lover of the mother, has plucked the boy from the poorhouse and

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April 22, 1909] The Nation 419 is bringing him up in an atmosphere of high thinking and useful doing. The family circle thus opened to include the young Christopher supplies a numerous addition to the list of characters, as well as a new set of problems. These, unrelated to roadmaking or to tainted wealth, are concerned with the irra- tional tempers of two of the group, the treatment of which is a problem in psychology. The marvellous insight and controlling force of Christopher in the case of the young girl lead to obvious results. It is doubly a document, no doubt, but no doubt, also, an interesting story written in a fine spirit. The great- est fault of workmanship is excessive deliberation. A hundred pages less and the weaving would draw together into greater firmness. The reviewer will also ever pray in the interest of the English language, and before the standard dic- tionaries have marked it for their own, that the word "cute" be banished from the pages of serious literature. Old Lady Number 31. By Louise Forss- lund. New York: The Century Co. To write about the aged is difficult; for the sentiments, hopes, and passions of old people have been ground too fine under the wheels of the world. Great, then, is the triumph of one who catches the octogenarian soul as surely as Louise Forsslund has in this story of Abe and Angy Rose. Characters like Old Lady Number 31 and his friends are seldom found between covers. Abe is a senile failure, who sinks all his sav- ings in an unknown gold mine and lives for the next eighteen years on what he can borrow. Angy accepts him for worse, as for better, apologizes full for- ty years without complaint of his short- comings, and whispers not an unkind word even when the auctioneer, fore- closing a mortgage, turns the pair out of their cottage. The story tells how they found lodgings in an Old Ladies' Home, lost them, and then found them again. Miss Forsslund has sacrificed much in the narrative, but always the right things. There is no more plot than in the lives of old people; what little there is ambles along from adventure to ad- venture, a highly respectable, profound- ly trivial picaresque. Crises turn about old armchairs, a canister of tobacco, and an oyster stew. The jests are hoary and unadorned. But with all this there is imported an exquisite honesty finer than mere realism. The Butler's' Story. By Arthur Train. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. This is an interesting contribution to sociological fiction from the point of view of the servant. It must be taken into consideration, however, that the butler is English, and consequently born and bred to a sense of the divine origin of class that is usually absent in Amer- ica. He is a Yellowplush up to date, more strenuous, more serious-minded, more given to moralizing in the inter- vals of melodrama. The book is essen- tially journalism, and flatters the read- er with a sense of astuteness by allow- ing him to recognize through thin dis- guises divers sensations of the day, from the latest exposure of graft to the inno- cent pranks of the inexhaustible author of "The Metropolis." William Lyon Mackenzie. By Charles Lindsey. Toronto: Morang & Co. The important series of historical bi- ographies, The Makers of Canada, is brought to a conclusion by this life of William Lyon Mackenzie, political re- former and leader of the Upper Canad- ian rebellion of 1837. The original in- tention was that Dr. W. D. LeSueur of Ottawa, one of the editors of the series, was to have contributed the volume on Mackenzie. Dr. LeSueur prepared the biography, but through some unfortu- nate differences of opinion between au- thor and publisher as to the character of the work — the merits of which need not be gone into here — Dr. LeSueur's book was withdrawn, and another sub- stituted. Failing Dr. LeSueur's biog- raphy, which, in such scholarly hands, could not have been anything but in- forming, it is fortunate that the pub- lisher had available another life of Mackenzie of more than ordinary merit. Charles Lindsey's "Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie" was first pub- lished as long ago as 1862, and was found to be so full and impartial that it has remained to the present day the only published life of the great Canad- ian. Mr. Lindsey, who died a few months ago at an advanced age, enjoy- ed exceptional opportunities for acquir- ing the essential material for an ac- count of Mackenzie. He had not only at command a mass of documentary ma- terial left by Mackenzie, bearing upon his career in politics and journal- ism, and on the history of the re- bellion, but Lindsey's personal rela- tions with Mackenzie had been excep- tionally intimate. Politically, the two men were wide apart; yet the biograph- er handled his subject so judiciously that even in 1862, when the bitterness of party spirit had not yet been softened by a broader national outlook, the book commended itself to men of all political views. For the present series, Charles Lindsey's work has been carefully edit- ed by his son, G. G S. Lindsey of To- ronto, who has condensed it and added a good deal of new material drawn from family documents. In an introductory chapter he has embodied a clear and well-balanced review of the stormy pe- riod in which Mackenzie's energetic per- sonality filled so large a place. Here Mr. Lindsey has made effective use of Durham's "Report on Canadian Affairs," which furnishes striking testimony as to the intolerable conditions preceding the rebellion of 1837. Mackenzie was born in Dundee, Scot- land, in 1795. After several unsuccess- ful attempts to make a living in his na- tive land, he sailed for Canada in 1820. After his arrival he was engaged for a time in business, but his impetuous tem- perament would not long brook the role of a mere onlooker. Upper Canada was seething with unrest, and, in 1824, Mackenzie threw himself into the fight for responsible government, almost im- mediately taking a leading part among the reformers. He established the Co- lonial Advocate at Queenstown, moving it the following year to York (now To- ronto), and vehemently attacked the Family Compact and the abuses of pow- er for which he held that select group of Tories responsible. Elected to the Legislature in 1828, he became the vir- tual leader of the reform party there, as well as throughout the province. Of the circumstances attending his repeated ex- pulsions from the Legislature by the dominant party, and the obstinacy with which his constituents sent him back with increased majorities; his mission to England; the events leading up to the rebellion, and the rebellion itself; his exile in the United States, and his relations there with Presidents Van Buren and Polk, with Horace Greeley, and others; his return to Canada in 1850 and election to the Legislature the following year; his retirement from politics and later years — of all these matters a very full, impartial, and thor- oughly interesting account is given. Few thoughtful Canadians nowadays will be found to condemn Mackenzie unreserv- edly, in face of all the facts, even in his final resort to armed rebellion. The principles for which he contended, for which he fought and suffered, are those which to-day form the very foundation- stones of the great commonwealths of Canada and Australia, and will be em- bodied in the Constitution of the com- ing commonwealth of South Africa. They are generally accepted by all Eng- lish-speaking peoples. Side Lights on Chinese Life. By the Rev. J. Macgowan; with 12 illustra- tions in color by Montague Smith and 34 other illustrations. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.75 net. Every-Day Japan. Bv Arthur Lloyd; with 8 plates in color and 96 repro- ductions from photographs. New York: Cassell & Co. $4 net. Notwithstanding striking contrasts which appear upon the surface, the Chi- nese and the Japanese are regarded by many persons as substantially one peo- ple, or, if not one, still as closely relat- ed and to be put in the same class. With other persons the question of the su- periority of the one race or the other

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4=20 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 is a topic of unending dispute. To all who are interested in such questions we can commend these two volumes. They are careful, unprejudiced studies by men who have lived long in the lands they describe and who are competent scholars, knowing not only the vernac- ular, but also the literature and history and religion of the people. There is a difference in attitude, it is true, for Mr. Macgowan stands upon the outside of the life which he describes, and Mr. Lloyd identifies himself with the Japanese. To the first the Chinese remain a mystery: The Chinaman's mind is a profound and inexplicable puzzle that many have vainly endeavored to solve. . . . Any one who has ever studied the Chinese character must have come to the conclusion that the instincts and aims of the people of the Chi- nese Empire are distinctly the reverse of those that exist in the minds of the men of the west (p. 1, 2). For example, the Chinaman never dreams of being straightforward, as "a straight line is something which his mind recoils from" and "he prefers an oblique and winding path." "With this as thesis, the author proceeds; but as he writes he disproves it; for, after all, the differences which separate China- man and Englishman are neither insur- mountable nor impenetrable, but are the outcome of differing traditions and differing environments. Mr. Macgowan succeeds in making us understand his Chinamen very well, for he sees that "one secret of the extraordinary power that the Chinese undoubtedly have is the very large amount of genuine hu- man nature with which as a race they are endowed." This is a much better proposition with which to start, and it really dominates the book. The China- man, to make a composite photograph, has humor, delights in wit and in jokes, enjoys life, is usually full of kindness and sympathy and exercises these qual- ities in such a genial way that our hearts go out to him. Yet at times, when passion gets the better of him, he may be hideously cruel. Perhaps this trait is connected with the fact that he lacks nerves, and himself endures pain, labor, discomfort with a disregard which can be accounted for only on the sup- position that he does not suffer as Euro- peans suffer. He has a rare tenacity which holds him fast to his purpose, let what will intervene. He has a strength of physique which make this possible, and he is sober, measured, and never in a hurry. This dogged inflexi- bility, indeed, acts to his hurt, for it represses originality and recoils from innovations. Hence there is an appal- ling monotony — houses, furniture, dec- orations, implements, clothes, litera- ture, everywhere and always upon the same plan, so that one Chinese city may stand as representative of all. Thus it is that, in spite of present efforts pro- gressive ideas will be very slow in pene- trating the length and breadth of the nation, though the result is certain in the end. As a workman, the Chinaman is neither efficient nor thorough; as a farmer he is second to none in skill; as a merchant he is to be wholly trusted in certain dealings and wholly to be doubted in others; as an official he is altogether to be avoided and condemned. He is credulous in some things and a skeptic in others. In short, he is a very human being akin to us all. "With Mr. Lloyd we enter upon a dif- ferent world. He finds nothing essential- ly strange or mysterious in the Japa- nese, though they are a bit reticent and self-contained; but this is "possibly a result of heredity, derived from the bitter experiences of the past," that is, of the feudal times when quick punish- 'ment sometimes preceded examination. In China all towns are alike; in Japan, they differ as English or American towns differ. Over against the Chinese dislike of change is the Japanese read- iness to adopt whatever is good, whe- ther old or new, native or foreign. "Without dwelling on Mr. Lloyd's book, we may summarize his characterization of the Japanese. They are frugal, in- dustrious, practical, generous, high spir- ited, kind to all with whom they come in contact, religious (though this relig- ion is hazy), brave, enduring. But ad- jectives are misplaced when applied to any mass of humanity, and the "Japa- nese cannot be put in a class by them- selves, they are just 'average human'; they have their vices as well as their virtues, their shortcomings as well as their excellences." With that judgment we may end, cer- tain that it expresses the truth of the Chinese as well. As we cannot indict a whole people, neither can we praise it; and as we come to know any race, the disposition to judge the whole disap- pears and the individual takes his true place. "We learn that the differences which seem so great to untrained eyes hre far less important than is the funda- mental unity which makes all races one. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. By Robert William Rogers. Pp. xiv +235. New York; Eaton & Mains. $2. This volume, made up of five lectures delivered at Harvard University, is easy reading and gives, on the whole, a good cursory view of the subject, such as the ordinary intelligent student, not a tech- nical scholar, can grasp. The lectures do not profess to contain any new ma- terial, the result of special research or discovery; but Professor Rogers is a competent Assyriologist, well versed in the literature of the subject, so that in general he presents the conclusions from the latest investigations. The opening lecture, "The Recovery of a Lost Religion," is little more than a condensation of the first part of the first volume of the author's own "History of Babylonia and Assyria." The title of this lecture is rather misleading and the chapter itself scarcely a legitimate part of a volume on religion, being an historical account of excavations and explorations. Another point open to criticism is the illustrations, some twen- ty-six in all. Most of them are repre- sentations of Assyrian tablets, seven of the Creation and four of the Deluge. The ordinary object of photographic re- productions of tablets is to put the orig- inal text before the reader. But from the reproductions in this volume the text could scarcely be made out, nor could the readers for whom such a work is intended read the text, even if it were legible. One or two pictures would have been enough to enable the reader to see what an Assyrian tablet is like, and the author could have used the space thus gained to print valuable il- lustrations of another sort — statues, bas reliefs, monuments, seal cylinders, and the like — showing the gods and demons and the religious and magical acts and practices of Babylonians and Assyrians. On this, the archaelogical side of his theme, the author seems to be weak. Among other illustrations (p. 91) are three tablets containing the name Yahawe (spelled elsewhere "Yahveh," an inexcusable combination of German and English). According to Professor Rog- ers's transliteration, the form of the sacred name known to us in the He- brew Masoretic text was actually discov- ered on Babylonian tablets of 2000 b. c. (Iaa've, or lave). Should not the name, however, rather be read Iau or Iaum, as, in fact, it appears according to Rogers's transliteration on the third tablet? Re- cent discoveries of Aramaic Jewish doc- uments in Egypt and of Hebrew in- scribed bowls at Gezer and Jericho would seem to show that Yahu (Yhw, a trigram, not Yahweh, a tetragram, was the name of the divinity in actual use among the Hebrews until and after the Captivity. This is also the form in which the name occurs in composition in proper names, even in the Masoretic Hebrew text. The form Yahweh, or Yahaweh, seems to be a special differ- entiation adopted later, possibly to pre- vent confusion of the God of Israel with the Yahu, or Yahw, of other kindred people. Professor Rogers lays great emphasis on the similarity and relation of Jew- ish religion, Jewish myths, Jewish psalmody, and much more to the Baby- lonian, but at the same time warns the reader against the mistake which De- litzsch and his school have made in fail- ing to note the still more important dif- ferences between the religious ideas and practices of Israel and those of Baby- lonia. In fact, the author's reiteration of the monotheistic, spiritual, and lofty character of Hebrew thought in contrast

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April 22, 1909] The Nation. 4.21 to the polytheism, materialism, and su- perstition of the Babylonian religion be- comes almost tedious. In dealing with the relation of Hebrew psalmody to the old Babylonian psalms and hymns, he enters what we think is a just protest against the present tendency of Old Tes- tament critics to bring down all Hebrew literature, and especially the psalm lit- erature, to a very late date. In this re- spect, as in others, the book is one of much interest for the student of the Old Testament as well as for the student of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian re- ligion as such. Science. Fish Stories: Alleged and Experienced, with a Little History, Natural and Unnatural. By Charles Frederick Holder and David Starr Jordan. Il- lustrated. New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.75 net. With Rifle in Five Continents. By Paul Niedieck; translated from the Ger- man by H. B. Stanwell. With 32 full- page photographic plates, and 174 il- lustrations in the text. New York: Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. $5 net. The American Nature Series provides, in its fifth branch, for "Diversions from Nature." It is under this neading that the volume of "Fish Stories," by Mr. Holder and President Jordan falls. As a document in the controversy precipi- tated a few years ago by John Bur- roughs, its main importance lies in its demonstration that a genuine scientific equipment does not of itself disqualify one for successful nature-writing, and that even when the exigencies of a good yarn demand that truth be thrown to the winds, the school children of the rising generation need not be fatally led astray, as the manner of some is. The reader who would distinguish the work of the individual authors is re- spectfully referred, in the preface, to "the well-known rules of the Higher Criticism." We shall not stop to solve the problem in detail, but wherever the reader sees anything like "the big dor- sal sail-like fin of the sword-fish, gleam- ing, rippling in the sunlight like some gorgeous fabric set with turquoise, sap- phire, and tourmaline," the hue of Mr. Holder's ink is evident. The attack on the "new school" nature writer which underlies the whole volume is in gen- eral impersonal, but in one chapter, "The Unnatural History of the Sea," the lance is hurled savagely at a definite object, "The Haunters of the Silences," by Charles G. D. Roberts. When the Bquid, with its tiny mouth, is made to swallow basking sharks, sawfish and nwordfish for the delectation of children who are left to suppose mat they are acquiring genuine facts of natural his- tory, Dr. Jordan (we cannot stop to explain the rule of Higher Criticism which guides us in the attribution), thinks it high time for a vigorous pro- test. As an antidote to such tales, he closes the chapter with Holman Day's poetical tale of "The Shag-eyed Shark." But even Homer noas. Many an inno- cent reader of this very volume will lay it down under the impression that a St. Lawrence muskallunge may weign two pounds and three-quarters before it has yet reached the length of twelve inches, in which case, it would be a "diversion from nature" somewhat suggestive of the obnoxious squid, after its dinner of basking sharks and swordfish. As a whole, however, the book is admira- bly done. It is interesting in every part, it teems with scientific fact clearly stated, and its facts and fictions do not overlap in that hazy borderland which marks the work of writers who try to elucidate nature with the equipment merely of the sensational journalist. Mr. Niedieck's volume, recording the experiences of seven years of rifle shoot- ing in most of the big game regions of the earth, naturally grows a little mo- notonous to any reader who is not an enthusiast. In his numtrous accounts of absolute misses, and of wounded ani- mals allowed to escape, one finds ample warrant for accepting the positive side of his story at its face value. He ex- pressly disclaims any credit for scien- tific discovery, though the Berlin Zo- ological Museum seems to have profited to some extent from his collection of trophies, at least in his Alaskan hunt- ing, where some sort of scientific cre- dentials are necessary before trophies are allowed to be removed from the ter- ritory. It makes the intelligent reader a little restless to be solemnly inform- ed that the sinking of a hippopotamus, after it is shot in the water, "is ac- counted for by the fact that his specific gravity is greater than the weight of the water he displaces." Mr. Niedieck follows his bent with no apparent re- gard for expense. We sometimes find a score or two of natives in his employ in various capacities, and for a trip up the White Nile he charters two sail- boats, one of them carrying eight camels and two donkeys. The cheap and easily managed African and Asiatic native as- sistant, however, left him in no mood to appreciate the virtues of such help as he was forced to rely upon in Alaska. The idea of equality, brought in under the rule of the United States, he thinks, has ruined the Indian. The Russian did better, who used the Knout, and where the knout failed converted the Indian to his faith and made him obedient by pic- turing to him the terrors of hell. But now "it has actually come to this, that in this country no one speaks of a gen- tleman— only of a man." One Indian, bearing the suggestive name of Dennis, "definitely disputed my right," he tells us, "to find fault with any of his work or give him any orders whatever. And these are utterly uncivilized creatures, who can neither read nor write nor speak good English, and yet think them- selves our equals because they wear col- lars and ties and cowboy hats which cost twenty-four shillings, and, what is more, are paid sixteen shillings a day, with food provided!" This flagrant case was in British territory, and he thanks heaven that such a state of affairs is wholly unknown in other British colo- nies. "Canada, however, has been great- ly influenced and spoilt by its close proximity to the United States. . . . There are only masters here, no ser- vants." The photographic illustration of the book is in the main excellent and in solid valuj we are disposed to place it well above the text. Coming almost at the same time with the announcement of Lieut. Shackelton's achievement in the Antarctic Circle, the publication (by Georg Reimer, Berlin) of "Die Russische Polarfahrt der Sarja," made in 1900-1902 under the leadership of Baron Eduard von Toll, is of special in- terest. The story is put together by the Baroness Emmy von Toll, from the diary of the intrepid explorer recovered after his- death. The more or less tvissenschaftlich text is brightened up with maps and fifty or more good illustrations from photo- graphs. The narrative is eminently human, with the record of intense physical and mental suffering incidental to such a com- bat with the elements and such a protract- ed separation from home and friends. Ba- ron von Toll first went to the Arctic in the expedition of 1885-87 directed by Dr. A. von Bunge; and in 1893 and 1899 explored for himself the New Siberian Island. The con- cluding chapters of the work sum up the considerable accomplishments of Von Toll, especially in the fields of geology and bot- any, and indicate that a mass of valuable material for several departments of science awaits working up at St. Petersburg. There are interesting references to De Long and Melville, and their work at Bennett Isl- and, but it is odd that the details of the Baron's death are not given. Dr. W. S. Bruce of the Scottish Oceano- graphical Laboratory has organized another Antarctic expedition, to leave England in 1911. The expedition is to be supplementary to the work of the Scottish National Ant- arctic and other recent Antarctic explora- tions, and the plans include extensive oceanographical working in the South At- lantic Ocean and in the Weddell and Biscoe Seas, between 40 degrees and 75 degrees south latitude, the mapping of the coast line ol Antarctica to the east and west of Coat's Land, and an investigation of the interior of Antarctica. It is proposed to have a ship of 250 or 300 tons register, carrying about thirty-six men, including six scientists. The vessel is to be provided with all the most modern equipment for work in depths ex- ceeding 3,000 fathoms, and several motor- sledges, light and easy to handle, as well as ponies and dogs, will be taken. Dr. Bruce, after setting up a winter station at or near Coat's Land, will dismiss the ship,

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4=22 Tlie IsTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2286 which, after landing stores and equipment for three years, and refitting at Cape Town, will proceed to New Zealand. The follow- ing season she will go on to McMurdo Bay or King Edward Land, in order to lay out caches and await the arrival of Dr. Bruce, who intends to attempt to cross the Ant- arctic Continent from Coat's Land to Mc- Murdo Bay. or possibly King Edward Land. The programme includes a circum-Polar bathymetrical survey in high southern lat- itudes. Drama. THE PARIS THEATRE. Paris, April 3. A few of the many plays which have appeared on the Paris stage during the winter deserve notice abroad, whether for the scandal of them or for literary merit. "Le Foyer," by Octave Mirbeau in collaboration with Thadee Natanson, unites both titles to attention in a high degree. Legal proceedings were needed to make the Comedie Frangaise, where it had been incautiously accepted, final- ly resolve to produce it. The police had to intervene to keep order at the first representations; and its subsequent tour through the chief provincial cities has been accompanied by the same succcs de scandale. From the beginning of his •career, Octave Mirbeau has used his very perfect style to flagellate his lit- erary masters and all who stand with them. He must have been unhappy at his highly respectable school, with its religious and conservative traditions When it is not the clergy, it is bourgeois •charity or business success, or, in gen- eral, everything that is looked up to in the respectable world, which he flays with the knotted, nail-studded whiplash of his language. His present hypocrite mses his wife, uses the orphan asylum over whose committee be presides, only to extort money for his own vicious pleas- ures. Of course, the hypocrite is Chris- tian and Clerical; but these two quali- ties so little recommend a man publicly in France of to-day that the play seems an anachronism. Yet its production has been somehow followed by exaggerated, perhaps fabricated, scandals in real life concerning the treatment of children in two Conservative institutions — La Met- traie, where, in accordance with French traditions of parental authority, rich people have placed children refractory to ordinary and more humane schooling, with the countenance of precisely those Senators and Moral Academicians who have done most for the preservation of youth, rich or poor; and Orgeville for vicious, degenerate, and abnormal chil- dren, whom only prisons would other- wise receive, a colony founded by a Paris judge in memory of his father, whom the Commune shot among its hostages. The play, the prosecutions, and the press comments on both give the measure of the hatred against the Old France in the New. Emile Fabre is another Aristophanes in French Athens; but his sombre sa- tire, without being Clerical or Christian, has for its object those who "arrive" in the new order — "Les Vainqueurs," a play aided by the distinguished talent of the actor Gemier at the Theatre Antoine. It follows the line of attack of his four previous pieces: Money is the root of all evil among men and women of to-day. His hero, a sorry one, has succeeded in all his combinations and is a member of Parliament on the point of becoming Minister, the goal of public life in France. Suddenly he is confronted by a shady money transaction of the past, in which, after all, he had played a part only half-consciously; and he averts ruin by sacrificing his wife, only to see his son die as the consequence when victory issues from his dishonor. Though not so strongly written, it is a more powerful play than Mirbeau's; and, without having had the aid of scandal for present success, it is likely to be more enduring in dramatic litera- ture. Two other of the great plays of the season are tinged with this acrid pessi- mism. "Connais-toi!" by Paul Hervieu, has all the qualities which brought this author into the Academy. Concentration of plot and doing away with all useless complication or talk, clearness of speech, and tense dialogue, all strike home the lesson which the hero learns —"Know thyself!" That is, when you set out to make others condone their sister's fault, you may find on the way many such sisters of your own (particu- larly on the French stage). "Le Scan- dale," by Henry Bataille is one of the most effective pieces of the season and perhaps the best written from the point of view of literature— and it is one of the most disagreeable. At the fashion- able watering place of Luchon in the Pyrenees, a young wife, not evil, sim- ply feather-headed, being left alone by her husband, manages to compromise herself heedlessly with one of those high-flying adventurers who infest such places everywhere on the Continent; and the play unrolls the successive epochs of his blackmailing and the attempt of forgiving husband and wife to stand up against the "scandal" of their provin- cial town. Henry Bataille, in poetry and prose, has won recognition as one of the writers who promises most for the future. He is not yet forty — is it al- ready too late for him to escape the obsession of sex? "La Furie" of Jules Bois also entered the Theatre Frangais by the door of a lawsuit, but it turned on a mere ques- tion of contract. Costumes and decora- tions are imitated from the finds in the recent excavations of Crete; and the play is written, with infinite pains, in classical French verse. Yet it has neith- er the repose of Greek tragedy, nor the simplified unity of classic French pupils. Hercules is a citizen come home to teach wife and friends Pacifism and Free Thought. He finds war, within and with- out, and his wife not unwillingly in possession of the tyrant, whom he in- continently strangles; whereupon the fatal Egyptian woman hynotizes him and he slays wife and children. Eurip- ides was doubtless an anti-Clerical, and Seneca would not have faltered at sci- ence; but the Hercules Furens of each of them would have found himself equally a stranger to this modern com- posite photograph. "La Route d'emeraude" is also a play in poetry, with the gay, sounding verse to which we apply other sense adjec- tives like colored and warm and which we expect from Jean Richepin. Only the form is his; the matter is from the romance of Eugene Demolder, one of the chiefs of that Belgian literature which is now beginning to burst its lo- cal bounds. With many a Flemish de- tail, painters and models, gypsies and sea-captains, the hero wanders afar from his father's mill; but he is led back by a murder on his own part and a missed musket-shot intended to kill him on the part of another — and the gypsy model goes sailing away to Spain. It is the life which Richepin loved and which blocked his way to the Academy so long; and it has inspired him with the verse which won him his election at the same time as the appearance of this glorious, adventuresome play. "Beethov- en" at the Odeon is a new kind of verse play by an almost new man, Rene Fau- chois. It takes up the whole love life of the composer, who put at the head of one of his sonatas — Durch Leiden Freude. The succession of heartbreaks — through grief to joy — allows an or- chestra to interlude the piece pleasantly with choice fragments of the hero's mu- sic. Naturally, the verse is not so good as Richepin's nor even as that of Jules Bois. After all this serious or strenuous drama, it is a pleasure to wind up with pure light comedy — as pure as Frencn comedy has been of late years, and ad- mirably light, leaving the hearer with- out that bad taste in the mouth which so mixes sense metaphors with the crit- ics. "L'Ane de Buridan" of Robert de Flers and Gaston de Caillavet, easily the day's masters of unalloyed humor, places the hero undecided between two charmers, like the scholastic ass, dying between equally attractive food and drink; an innocent girl decides him. S. D. The latest contribution to the Shake- speare-Bacon controversy is from the pen of Mark Twain: "Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography" (Harper & Bros.). The subtitle is fairly descriptive; for the volume contains considerable passages of

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April 22, 1909] The Nation -t23 autobiography which are not vital to the argument, but which are sometimes Tather amusing. The humor, however, it must be confessed, is occasionally somewhat forced. Otherwise the case for Bacon is presented clearly and forcibly. The main points are, of course, familiar; very little is actually known of Shakespeare's life, and that lit- tle does not show him as a great writer. The extraordinary acquaintance with the law displayed in his dramas can hardly be explained, while Bacon was a distinguish- ed lawyer, to whom exact knowledge of le- gal terms was almost second nature. These points are elaborated with considerable ingenuity; but even then the book is rather insubstantial — a pamphlet expand- ed by means of large type and thick paper. A notable contribution to the rapidly- growing Menander literature inspired by the recent discovery of extensive remains of four plays is the article "The Iambic Trimeter in Menander," by Prof. John Wil- liams White of Harvard in the April num- ber of Classical Philology. The laws which Menander observed in the construction of this verse are deduced from statistical ex- hibits of the facts furnished by the un- broken verses of the new text, and are dis- cussed with the lucidity which character- izes the work of this scholar. Practically all the rhythmical vices which Menander is shown to have avoided are grimly illus- trated by attempts upon the broken lines perpetrated by his modern restorers, to whom this study will bring welcome, if often humiliating, enlightenment. Music. 1 WHY CONCERTS DO NOT PAY. Rosenthal's advice to another pianist who complained that he was in need of money, "Give fewer concerts," sounds funny, but it also epitomizes the plain truth that too many concerts are given, at least in our large cities. A few ar- tists, like Paderewski, Wullner, Sem- brich, Nordica, Schumann-Heink, Gad- ski, can give recitals here and make money; but most of the others are still dependent on the support of piano man- ufacturers, and women's clubs. In the metropolis, recitals are given chiefly for the press notices, which, after being judiciously pruned, are reprinted in cir- culars. These circulars are necessary for success in the provinces; so, at least the singers and players are informed by their managers. Thus concerts are multiplied, and the supply far exceeds the demand. While there are some con- cert-goers who avoid the opera houses, the vast majority of amusement-seekers prefer the opera, and the greater the number of operatic performances, the more the concert halls are depleted. During the season just closing, no fewer than 259 representations were given at our opera houses; is it a wonder that the concert virtuosi from abroad are beginning to look on New York as no longer belonging to the "dollar-land"? It is a curious situation; the opera sing- ers get rich here, the concert-givers poor. Yet conditions are by no means so hopeless as they would seem. The neg- lect of concerts by the public is, in fact, largely a result of the attitude of the concert-givers toward the public. At the opera houses, the managers offer what people want to hear. In concert halls, audiences — if there are any — have to submit to what the singers and players themselves like, or what they think the public ought to like. Now, what the public does like more than anything else in music, is melody, and this is usually withheld altogether, or served in homoeopathic doses, unless a composer happens to be in special favor with the conductors, like Beethoven or Tchaikov- sky. There is Dvorak, for instance, a composer who bubbles over with lovely melody and piquant rhythms, and whose orchestral coloring is far more beauti- ful than that of Richard Strauss; yet, of his many truly popular works we never hear any except the "New World" Symphony. Rubinstein's music is always loudly applauded when the conductors, once in a long while, condescend to produce any of it. Grieg never fails to arouse enthusiasm, but to judge by our programmes one would think he had never written anything but his first "Peer Gynt" suite. These men are melo- dists par excellence, hence, they are tabooed; tabooed, also, are the melod- ious rhapsodies of Liszt which, at the end of a concert, would stir up the hear- ers and make them eager to come again. In place of such melodious music, what do the orchestral conductors pro- duce? The polyphonic puzzles and meg- atherian "tone-poems" of Richard Strauss, Max Reger, and their imita- tors, and the misty productions of De- bussy, with their elusive tone "wraiths" from which melody is deliberately ex- cluded. It is great fun to conduct and play such things — they show how skill- ed the performers are — hence, they are conducted and played all the time. Fer- dinand Scherber, writing in the Neue Musikzeitung, speaks as if there were a regular conspiracy between contem- porary composers and critics to banish from the concert stage everything that is easily understood and melodious. Mod- ern music, he declares, has become a "sport" for professionals, a thing to interest only a small minority. It has driven to the variety shows thousands who would have gone to the concert halls, had their appetite for melody been gratified. If a list were made of the pieces play- ed by pianists in public, it would prob- ably not exceed one hundred, and most of these are of two kinds, being either sonatas which the pianists think the public ought to be educated up to, or show pieces calculated to display their own digital dexterity. With the excep- tion of a few dozen pieces by Chopin and Schumann, it is seldom that the piayers put on their programmes what might be callea the heart music of a composer. How stupidly indifferent the professional pianists are to the wishes of the people was shown at the time when funds were being col- lected for poor Edward MacDowell on nis sickbed. In all musical circles, throughout the United States, he was being talked about, and everybody was eager to hear specimens of his music; yet what happened? Of the foreign pian- ists, who come over here so eager to make money, Harold Bauer was the only one who paid heed to this natural curi- osity; he played the "Eroica" sonata; beside him there was only Miss Augusta Cottlow. As soon as it became known that she made a specialty of MacDow- ell's music, she received requests for re- citals from all over the country, and she owes her national fame to-day largely to her having thus played what the people — the best people — wanted to hear. The givers of song recitals are even worse than the pianists. Their pro- grammes in general bear out Maurice Renaud's assertion that "musicians do not love masterworks." One won- ders, in looking at the average pro- gramme, what could have induced its maker to bring together such a hodge- podge of mediocrity and inanity. But the explanation is very simple. Vocal- ists seldom consider the intrinsic merit of a song; they seek something which is easy to sing and which brings out the most telling qualities of their own voices. Their one idea is to im- press the public with their own wonder- ful accomplishments; it never occurs to them that the kind of people who are likely to attend a song recital would be infinitely more impressed by the genius of Goethe and Schubert, or Heine and Franz, as united in a song, than by their own vocal feats. They have now had an opportunity to realize that this is true, as shown by Dr. Wullner. He, thank Heaven, had no voice to show off. He simply saturated himself with the great poems and the immor- tal music set to them, and he aroused a frenzy of enthusiasm. He came to give a score of concerts and gave four-score. His concerts paid; he will take back with him a small fortune. "Mozart: Sein Leben und Schaffen," by Dr. Karl Storck (Stuttgart: Greiner & Pfeiffer), is a fairly successful effort to fur- nish the general reader with an analysis of the personal character and of the art of Mozart. The writer finds in the personal- ity of the master the key to his music, and the book is accordingly a close psychologi- cal study. Storck, who is also the editor of the letters of Mozart, of Beethoven, and of Schumann, has probably done his best wo.-k in this new, attractive, and exhaustive work.

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4=24= The Nation. [Vol. 88. No. 2286 Art. Storia delV Arte Italiana. Da Adolfo Venturi. Vol. VI: La Scultura del Quattrocento. Pp. lii+1180; 781 half- tone cuts. Milan: Hoepli. 30 lire. In previous notices of Professor Ven- turis stupendous history, we have found that its qualities and defects lay in a peculiar and interesting attitude of the author. He follows well-travelled roads in the spirit of a pioneer. Where one expects the geographer, one finds the explorer. He undertakes his gigantic task light-heartedly as a constant adven- ture, and so throughout he retains his enthusiasm. He is, moreover, an ex- plorer of taste, and if in his capacity as sentimental traveller he at times exag- gerates the interest of his discoveries, that, too, is thoroughly in character. That he should often discover what has already been charted, that he should judge too qu:'ckly and positively is also Inevitable under the circumstances. Sol- vitur eundo is a shade too much his en- sign. Every page of the present volume testifies to alert and genial investiga- tion, but one suspects that he prints about as quickly as he writes. On page €62, for example, the Riario tomb in Santi Apostoli, Rome, is by an anony- mous imitator of Mino; by page 950 it has become, rightly, we think, a fine work by Andrea Bregno. Such revisions are better made before printing begins. We hasten to add that a procedure which in the volumes on painting is often trying is acceptable in the present volume. Italian sculpture has never had a Cavalcaselle or a Morelli. Since Cicognara, more than a century ago, there has been no such comprehensive survey. We are more inclined, there- fore, to be grateful for what is afforded us than to dwell upon defects. Schol- ars will find in this volume a constant source of suggestion and contention, and they will know how to use it with the necessary reserves. The general reader needs a word of caution, perhaps, that this big tome looks more authoritative than it is. That Professor Venturi should not know the few fine examples of Italian sculpture in America is natural. He is also much inclined to regard as negligi- ble whatever he must take at secpnd hand. Yet the museums of Boston and New York, and the Widener collection, Philadelphia — to mention only obvious examples — would have furnished him necessary items. In the same way, he is too prone to stigmatize as forger:es works which he knows only in photo- graphs. Sometimes one fears he goes on a calculus of probabilities in reject- ing terra-cottas outside of Italy. Who- ever declares all exiled Renaissance ter- ra-cottas in public and private galleries to be forgeries will err only in about one case in four. Is Professor Venturi content with this degree of accuracy? To discuss in detail so extensive a work is, of course, impossible in the lim- its of a review. We may, however, briefly note points that may specially interest both the student of art and the general reader. The life of Bertoldo is one of the best in the book, abound- ing in new material. Professor Ven- turi greatly overpraises that indus- trious Lombard craftsman, Gian An- tonio Amadeo. The triviality of Amadeo is so patent and so generally recognized that we need not argue it. Enough to say that his sculpture is that of a dec- orator, his architectonic sense nil, his decoration rather exuberant than fine. The invention of the lovely frieze of the Portinari Chapel, S. Eustorgio, Milan, seems absolutely beyond his powers. In its execution he may have had some part, as Professor Venturi surmises One must question also the attribution of the terra-cotta Pieta in S. Satiro, Mi- lan, to Amadeo. The usual attribu- tion to Caradosso is far more ac- ceptable, for the work is plainly that of a transitional sculptor imbued with the dawning ideals of the Golden Age. Andrea Bregno, dominant at Rome in Sixtus IV's time; Giorgio da Sebenico, a vigorous Dalmatian sculptor in the Venetian tradition; Giovanni Dalmata — these are examples of interesting ar- tistic personalities now first brought within the popular ken. Even the fair- ly experienced student of Italian sculp- ture will find that to page over this bulky volume is the equivalent of many exploring trips. In such fireside trav- els, the range of which we have bare- ly suggested. Professor Venturi is al- ways the learned and genial, if at times erratic, guide. "Great Masters of Dutch and Flemish Painting." by William Bode (London: Duckworth), is among the more recent Im- portations of the Scribners. It is a trans- lation of the second edition of "Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen." The encyclopae- dic director of the Kaiserfrledrichsmuseum never appears to better advantage than when he writes on the painting of the Netherlands, and these essays on Rem- brandt. Hals, the Genre Painters, The Landscapists, Still Life men, Van Dyck, and Rubens are welcome in an English dress. Since the collection is already standard, it leaves the critic rather little to say. One might find that undue em- phasis is laid upon Rembrandt's realism and his phantasmagoric quality insufficient- ly brought out. Many will feel that the great superiority of Vermeer of Delf, in his class, might have had fuller recogni- tion. On the other hand, many will find it difficult to accept Dr. Bode's very high estimate of Wouvermans. With his many merits, the rather negative color and gen- eralized textures of this artist seem to relegate him to a lower place. On the very disputable matter of Cuyp, Dr. Bode has almost persuaded us to regard golden medi- ocrity as greatness. This essay and that on Brouwer are perhaps the best in the collection. Certainly the keenest and most debatable portion of the book is the at- tempt to identify the early paintings of Van Dyck, particularly those which he ex- ecuted as Rubens's assistant. In general Dr. Bode contrives to be true to humane criticism without being false to connois- seurship. The English version, by Mar- garet L. Clarke, is tolerable, but too often defective in idiom. "Sunday" repeatedly applied as an adjective to landscapes means, of course, "holiday" or "festal." The following sentence illustrates certain not uncommon defects of judgment in the author and of style in his translator: "Amongst the Teutons, art repeatedly reached a maturity which can stand com- parison with the noblest art phases of the Greeks and Italians." But these are venial blemishes in a usually excellent book. About two score good half-tones, several from little known originals, give a special interest to this edition. A. Maccallum Scott's "Through Finland" (E. P. Dutton & Co.) is a somewhat dry, but Instructive reference book and guide for travellers. The illustrations are an important feature and give a good idea of the country. There are chapters on Art and Artists, Architecture, and Legends and Literature. The chapter on the architec- ture of Helsingfors is perhaps the most interesting. The author finds in the build- ing there much that is related to Japa- nese and other Oriental style, sometimes grotesque, but "the expression of a na- tional temperament, undisciplined as yet, without tradition and without experience, but gaining these as it develops." Students of architectural style will be interested in the collection of facades and interiors, which is 'being issued by Nils Wasastjerna, one ' of the leading archi- tects of Helsingfors. Many details sup- port the above quoted verdict of Mr. Scott (Helsingfors: Helios). The National Academy of Design has selected the following jury of selection for the winter exhibition of 1909: J. Carroll Beckwith, Edwin H. Blashfield, Howard Russell Butler, Walter Clark, Charles H Davis, Frederick Dielman, Paul Dougherty, Frank V. Du Mond, Ben Foster, August Franzen, Daniel Chester French, William J. Glackens, Francis C. Jones, F. W. Kost, Will H. Low, Walter L. Palmer, Edward W. Redfield, F. K. M. Rehn, Robert Reid, W. T. Smedley, Henry B. Snell, C. Y. Tur- ner, Henry O. Walker, Harry W. Watrous, J. Carlton Wiggins, Frederick Ballard Wil- liams, and Cullen Yates. The hanging com- mittee is made up of Elliott Daingerfield, J. Alden Weir, and Frederick G. R. Roth. The jury of selection for the annual exhi- bition of March, 1910, consists of Herbert Adams, John W. Alexander, Hugo Ballin, Gifford Beal, Emil Carlsen, F. S. Church, E. Irving Couse, Kenyon Cox, C. C. Curran, C. Warren Eaton, A. L. Groll, Birge Harri- son, Childe Hassam, William H. Howe, Wil- liam Sergeant Kendall, Louis Loeb, Her- man A. MacNeil, J. Francis Murphy, Walter Nettleton, Edward H. Potthast, Henry Prellwitz, Leonard Ochtman, Will S. Robin- son, Edmund C. Tarbell, A. T. Van Laer, Douglas Volk, and Irving R. Wiles. The hanging committee will be Gari Melchers, H. Bolton Jones, and Isidore Konti. The National Academy of Design has elected twelve painters and six sculptors

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April 22, 1909] The Nation 425 as associate members. The painters are Miss Mary Cassatt, Reynolds Beal, Paul Cornoyer, Miss Lydia Field Emmet, George Bellows, Charles Noel Flagg, William J. Hays, George Hitchcock, Arthur Hoeber, Ernest Peixotto, Frederick J. Waugh, and Henry O. Tanner. The sculptors are Do- rado Taft, Robert I. Aiken, Augustus Luke- man, Evelyn B. Longman, Attilio Piccarilli, and Henry M. Shrady. Among the exhibitions in the dealers' galleries in this city are paintings by a group of Boston artists at Macbeth's, till April 29. At an auction o,f the paintings of the late John T. Martin, held in this city last week, the following prices were paid: Vibert, The Canon's Dinner, $6,500; Schrey- er, Wallachian Post, $7,100; Bargue, The Sentinel, $9,600; Diaz, The Bathers, $6,300; Daubigny, Twilight on the Seine, $13,100; Millet, Going to Work, $50,000; Troyon, Animaux a l'abreuvoir, $25,100; Corot, La Charette, $30,000; Breton, TheReapers' Rest, $6,000; Knaus, the Christening, $8,900; Van Marcke, Cattle, $16,500; De Neuville, Charge of Dragoons at Gravelotte, $10,200. Mr. Mar- tin had bought the Millet in 1882 for $14,000. Edward H. Barnard, the landscape paint- er, died April 16 at 'Westerly, Mass., at the age of fifty-three. Mr. Barnard first studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but later became a stu- dent at the Boston Art Museum. He then went to Paris as a pupil of Julian, and each year of his stay abroad he exhibited a pic- ture in the Salon. Returning to America he opened a studio in Boston. The death is announced in Edinburgh of W. Beattie Brown, the landscape artist, at the age of eighty-six. He had exhibited an- nually at the Royal Scottish Academy since 1848. Finance. History of the Bank of England. By A. Andreades; translated by C. Meredith, with a preface by H. S. Foxwell. Lon- don: P. S. King. With all that Englishmen have writ- ten concerning their greatest financial institution, it has remained for a Greek to write in French, and primarily for French readers, the first complete his- tory of the Bank of England. Since the Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 99 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates work had to be done by a foreigner, it is by all means fitting that an English translation should be forthcoming; and Professor Foxwell's appreciative, yet discriminating, introduction adds mate- rially to the value of the volume. Professor Andreades traces briefly the development of banking in England prior to the establishment of the Bank, and then discusses the foundation and organization of that institution. He does full justice to the economic and political conditions leading to the cre- ation of the Bank, but deals very im- perfectly with the interesting and little- known literature upon the subject of banking that appeared in England be- tween 1650 and 1700. The early vicissi- tudes of the Bank are then narrated, as well as its discreditable record during the period of the South Sea Company. He makes it clear that the Bank would have seriously compromised itself if its enemies had not secured the rejection of its proposals, and that it finally avoid- ed disaster "only by breaking its word" and "using methods unworthy of a great establishment." The history of the next seventy years is briefly sketched, and it must be said that the author has not treated ade- quately the relation of the Bank to the development of banking facilities in England. The critical period from 1793 to 1819 is more fully considered, the author, upon the whole, inclining to the traditional view that the policy of the directors was fundamentally unsound and at times positively reckless. It is at this point that Professor Foxwell takes issue with him, pointing out that the real cause of restriction was the "persistent demands" of the government upon the Bank, and that the critics have never given due weight to the practical difficulties of the situation. Discussion of what might have been is usually un- satisfactory; but Professor Foxwell is on secure ground when he shows that even the severest critics admit that, prior to 1808, there was "no substantial ground for complaint" concerning the policy of the Bank; and that thereafter, with the usury law forbidding a higher rate than 5 per cent., the Bank could not control speculation by the modern expedient of raising the rate of interest. Most of the troubles attending restric- tion, Professor Foxwell thinks, were due "to the rap;'d growth and reckless ad- vances of the country banks," the Bank of England being "practically responsi- ble for the solvency of this crowd of small, ill-managed institutions," but not daring to "call them to account, on peril of provoking a general collapse of credit." Some of the policies and many of the arguments of the directors Pro- fessor Foxwell is, of course, obliged to disapprove; but in the main he believes that their action was "guided by sound instinct." In the interest both of his- torical truth and sound economic theory, it is greatly to be hoped that Professor Foxwell will find opportunity to write a thorough account of this most inter- esting chapter of financial history. During the twenty years following resumption, Professor Andreades shows that the policy of the Bank was fre- quently far from prudent, particularly during the crises of 1825-6 and 1837-9. He then considers the Bank Act of 1844 and the discussions ths?< led to its enact- ment. In this part of his field he does little more than give a competent ac- count of main events, and manifests some desire to avoid subjects about which so much controversial ink has been spilled. He notes a growing ten- dency of economists and financiers to accept the conditions created by the Act of 1844, but observes also that Mr. Pal- grave and others believe that it is nec- essary to strengthen the reserve of the Bank, in view of present-day conditions, and give greater elasticity to note is- sues. To this latter opinion Professor Foxwell strongly inclines. The "con- stitution and policy of national banks" he regards as "in some respects the su- preme economic question of the day"; and he believes that "institutions wield- ing national resource? and under the di- rection of men representing general public interests" are imperatively de- manded by the conditions of modern finance. A second and revised edition of "Ameri- can Railway Transportation," by Emory R. Johnson, has recently appeared (see the Nation December 31, 1903, p. 532). The book is unchanged in its plan and scope, the need for a revision being found in the rapid advance which has been made in railway practice and railway regulation since the appearance of the treatise in 1903. Statistics and bibliography have been brought down to date, and the State and interstate legislation of the last few years has been summarized. The book still con- tinues to be the only available comprehen- sive treatment of the railway question in the United States. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Aflalo, F. G. Sunset Playgrounds: Fishing Days and Others in California and Can- ada. Scribner. $2.25 net. Ailen, William H. Civics and Health. Ginn. Baedeker, Karl. Central Italy and Rome. Scribner. $2.25 net. Bell, J. J. Oh! Christina! Fleming H. Re- vell Co. 60 cents net. Bernard, Auguste. Geofroy Tor/, Painter and Engraver: Reformer of Orthography and Typography Under Francois I. Trans- lated by George B. Ives. Houghton Mif- flin Co. Block, Louis James. The World's Triumph: A Play. Philadelphia: Lippincott. $1.25 net. Broughton, Len G. Religion and Health. Fleming H. Revell. 25 cents net. Bryan, James Wallace. The Development of the English Law of Conspiracy. Balti- more : Johns Hopkins Press. Clarke. John H. Vital Economy; or How to Conserve Your Strength. A. Wesscls. 30 cents net. Curties, Henry. A Bride on Trust. Boston: Dana Estes. $1.50. Danby, Frank. Sebastian. Macmillan. $1.50.

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426 T h. e N" a t i o n [Vol. 88, No. 2286 Davis, Charles Belmont. The Lodger Over- head, and Others. Scribner. $1.50. Denison, George T. The Struggle for Im- perial Duty. Macmillan. Dye, John T. Ideals of Democracy: Con- versations in a Smoking Car. Indianapo- lis: Bobbs-Merrill Co. Engineering Index Manual for 1908. Engi- neering Magazine. Fletcher, Giles and Phineas. Poetical Works. Edited by Frederick S. Boas. Vol. II. Putnam. $1.50 net. Fyvie, John. Tragedy Queens of the Geor- gian Era. Dutton. $4 net. Geden, Alfred S. Outlines of Introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Scribner. $3.50 net. George, Mademoiselle. Memoirs. Edited by Paul Cheramy. John McBride Co. $2.50 net. Go'.ng, Charles Buxton. Star-Glow and Song. Harper. $1.20 net. Gummere, Francis B. The Oldest English Epic: Beowulf, etc. Macmillan. $1.10 net. Hall, Charles Cuthbert. Christ and the Eastern Soul. University of Chicago Press. $1.25 net. Jordan, W. G. Biblical Criticism and Mod- ern Thought. Scribner. $3 net. Jourdain, M. Old Lace: A Handbook for Collectors. Scribner. $4.50 net. Kidder, F. E. Building Construction and Superintendence. William T. Comstock. $6. King, Charles. Lanier of the Cavalry : or A Week's Arrest. Philadelphia: Lippin- cott. Library of Southern Literature. Edited by Edwin Anderson Alderman. Joel Chand- ler Harris, and Charles William Kent. Vols. I. and II. New Orleans: Martin & Hoyt Co. Moore, Frank Frankfort. A Georgian Pa- geant. Dutton. $3.50 net. Morgan, G. Campbell. Mountains and Val- leys in the Ministry of Jesus. Fleming H. Revel. Moss, James A. Officers' Manual. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: U. S. Cavalry As- sociation. Myers, Cortland. The Real Holy Spirit. Fleming H. Revell. 50 cents net. Robertson, A. T. Epochs in the Life of Paul. Scribner. $1.25 net. Scott, Robert. The Pauline Epistles: A Critical Study. Scribner. $2 net. Smith, F. Dumont. Book of a Hundred Bears. Chicago: Rand, McNally. 75 cents. Thompson, Francis. Shelley. Scribner. Tichenor, George C. 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HUMPHREY. $1. So- net; lea. $2.50 net. Covers Europe, including Spain. Belgium, and the British Isles, in some 200 poems from about 90 poets. Some thirty, not originally written in English, are given in both the origi- nal and the best available translations. Poems for Travelers Compiled bv MARY It. J. DU BOIS. $1.50 net; lea. $2.50 net. Covers France, Germany. Austria. Switzerland Italy, and Greece in some 300 poems from about 130 poets (nearly one-third of them by Americans). HENRY HOLT & CO LONGMANS, GREEK, & CO., New York BEST facilities for supplying American D/^/^I/'C German English DUUKO Italian French z=^== Spanish Catalogues free. Correspondence solicited. LEMCKE & BUECHNER Established over 50 years. 30=32 West 27th St., New York THE CLEVEREST BOOK OF THE YEAR ANNE OF GREEN GABLES By L. M. MONTGOMERY 34 W. 33d St. I NEW YORK STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW Edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. Volume XXXIII, Number 2. 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Latin Prose Exercises Revised Edition Exercises in prose composition for college classes. By JOHN LEVERETT MOORE, Piofessor of Latin, Vassar College. Cloth. 80 pages. 50 cents. D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL t9, 1909. The Week. When Senator Aldrich got Senator Bailey to admit, on Monday, that an in- come tax exempting all sums helow $5,000 would be class legislation, he wore an air of triumph. Perish the thought that the Republican party should ever commit itself to anything that could be called class legislation! A protective tariff, for example, is always drawn with an eye single to the general good. If anybody could point out in the Aldrich bill one instance of a special favor granted to a woollen or cotton manufacturer from his own State, the Rhode Island Senator would move indig- nantly to strike it out. For he believes, of course, that every schedule seeks to diffuse benefits equally to all the people. That is why the persons directly inter- ested work so hard, and pay out so much money and bribe right and left, in order to get their particular tariff taxes inserted in the bill. They are dying to bestow the blessings of protection upon the common people, and know that the only way to begin is to secure first the privilege of robbing them. It was asserted on Saturday, at the meeting in New York of the Academy of Political Science, that professors of political economy who are also free-trad- ers have long been practically debarred from our colleges. We do not suppose that this was intended literally. In fact, the prejudice of protectionists, in this particular, is not so violent as it was twenty or thirty years ago. They used then to cry out angrily about the teach- ings of men like Professor Sumner of Yale and Professor Perry of Williams, and in the case of the latter, at least, sought to have him removed from his chair. Such a thing they would scarce- ly attempt to-day. Some latter-day types of professors undoubtedly find more favor in the eyes of protectionist trus- tees and endowers. A devotee of "the historical method" who gets himself so bogged in the minutiae of the Hanseatic League that he never flounders out to reach a modern log-rolled tariff; or a teacher who has some metaphysical theory of value in which, as in a fog- bank, he hides all practical details — upon such college men the protection- ists naturally look with the tolerance of contempt. And even over the outspok- en free-traders in our college chairs, they have ceased to get very much ex- cited, since they have learned that self- ishness and greed are auto-intoxicants, and are more powerful with the major- ity than any disinterested and national policy can be. Still, the old danger is there. No one can tell when a student under some sound and honest professor may be in a position to do something to carry out what he has learned. Mr. Taft was a pupil of Professor Sumner's, and has been heard to say, laughingly, that, of course, he had long since out- grown the purely theoretic teachings of that professor, yet that somehow they did have an uncomfortable way of stick- ing in his mind. Senator Stone's advocacy of our with- drawal from the Philippines within the next fifteen years is gratifying proof that this question is not to be allowed to lie undebated because Mr. Taft is so certain that our flag can only be hauled down a century or so hence. No man of sense and weight in either party now rejoices in our conquest of the Philip- pines; they are never discussed, save with a sigh and a regret that Mr. Mc- Kinley could not have read our "man- ifest destiny" otherwise than he did. As for the Filipinos, Senator Stone but told the truth when he said that theirs is "one long prayer for independence." The bribes we have offered of schools and railroads and better municipal and provincial governments affect them lit- tle. The Assembly, which is rapidly los- ing official favor in Manila, because of its differences of opinion with those in the Governor-General's palace, is, at heart, wholly for independence. Now, the question for practical statesmen in Washington is whether the Philip- pine Islands should not be neutralized and then given a definite promise of freedom on a certain date. As Senator Stone justly said, nothing could so in- spire the Filipinos to progress as such a promise. More than that, there could be no better way of making firm friends of them and entering into close trade relations for all time. Adam Smith wrote that the founding of a great em- pire "for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers" was "extremely fit for a nation whose government was influenced by shopkeepers," but for no other. We have attempted by over- lordship, with much hesitancy and a total lack of legislative liberality, to make a trade conquest of the Philip- pines. Why not try the other tack of giving them what they want and earn- ing their eternal friendship? Mr. Carnegie and the Peace Society are quite within their rights and en- tirely practical when they urge the President of the United States to take the lead in exerting his influence on be- half of peace. Nothing in Mr. Roose- velt's Administration redounded more to his credit than his successful efforts to bring about peace between Japan and Russia. Must the present President await a war to work for international concord? Obviously not. The Society is correct in pointing out that the action of Germany and England in building Dreadnoughts contingent upon each oth- er's programmes, is highly unsettling and leading to a veritable craze for Dreadnoughts among all nations — even Spain and Austria. The League for Peace, suggested by the late Prime Min- ister of England, ought to become a reality before the leading nations bank- rupt themselves in their insensate ri- valry. Goldwin Smith's citation of our huge pension bills as a warning to Canada to avoid militarism receives added point from the action of the New York Sen- ate. That worthy body has passed a State pension bill granting ?6 a month to all soldiers who served in New York State organizations, irrespective of the question whether they served well or badly, were brave or cowardly, or are now rich or poor, strong or feeble. To provide the money, the State is to bond itself for two millions of dollars. For- tunately, if the Assembly concurs, this provision necessitates a popular vote at next fall's election. We cannot believe that so preposterous a measure will finally become a law. The Federal Gov- ernment is now giving pensions to

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4=2S The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 every soldier of the Civil War; why must there be double pensioning? The bill must be written down as merely a final attempt to curry favor with the old-soldier vote. But Canada may well take warning from our enormous pen- sion payments that the injury of war lasts for generations after its conclu- sion. Goldwin Smith is right in point- ing out that the burden of the pen- sions rests upon "laboringmen who of- ten have plied more dangerous as well as more beneficent trades." Even that, however, is not so bad as the general demoralization of public sentiment which results from these unchecked raids upon the Treasury and the degra- dation of patriotism by its outright commercialization. Two Southern Senators showed in speeches last week how great are the difficulties before President Taft in his plans to break up the Solid South. Mr. Bailey of Texas urged in the Senate the political and economic reasons which incline the South to remain unbrokenly Democratic. But it was reserved for Senator Tillman, with his terrible but commendable frankness, to set forth at a dinner in New York the one control- ling issue of race hatred. Without minc- ing his words, he declared bluntly what the South had done, and what it intend- ed to do. People in the North, asserted Mr. Tillman, say that the South must "enforce the laws impartially; but we say we will not." The South Carolina Senator went on to explain that the ne- gro had been deliberately disfranchised, the Fourteenth Amendment nullified, and that now the South proposed to "educate the North" to abandon all its worn-out notions about the abolition x of slavery and human equality. It was in the same spirit that Toombs boasted he would crack a slave driver's whip from Bunker Hill Monument. Such ut- terances as those of Tillman will, in- deed, educate the North, if anything can. What shall it profit the Republi- can party to gain a few votes in the South and lose its own soul? Last week's elections in Illinois and South Dakota are hailed as evidence that "the wave of fanaticism" has spent its force. Prohibition was, technically at least, an issue in most of the smaller towns and villages of the common- wealths mentioned. Only fifteen of the thirty-eight more important communi- ties in Illinois expelled the saloon, and the rural districts were but slightly more inclined to no-license. The largest towns, like Joliet, went overwhelmingly "wet." South Dakota divided honors more evenly; but the no-license party only held its own there, the strong mi- nority of the sixty-five balloting towns simply reaffirming earlier Prohibition victories. Contrasted with the Antl-Sa- loon League's Napoleonic marches everywhere else in the Middle West, all this looks like a sharp halt. Undeniably many voters are now pausing to weigh the promises of brewers and distillers, who in Ohio, for example, have joined with the reform clubs and Anti-Saloon League in securing the passage of a drastic excise law that is expected to drive the disreputable liquor dealer out of business. Wisconsin brewers and re- tailers are now asking that licenses be automatically annulled at the third vio- lation of a very strict statute. And oth- er States are being informed that the better element in the liquor trade wants a fair chance to prove that model sa- loons are possible. It is only natural that many voters in Illinois and South Dakota should listen to this request. They are not opposed to beer so much as to the way it is sold; and, if the traffic can be rid of its social and politi- cal infection, they may be inclined to make the trial before wrecking a great industry and depriving drinkers of the glass they think themselves entitled to enjoy. If public schools ought to teach what the public wants, then Massachusetts has just put the finishing touch to the case for vocational training. During the past year the Commission on Indus- trial Education in that State tried to find out how many pupils in city gram- mar schools would, if the opportunity were at hand, at once seek instruction in trades and crafts. It was learned that, of the 49,201 pupils in the four highest grades in the thirty-six largest cities, more than 11,000 expect to leave school during the grammar course or at its end. The parents of such pupils in Law- rence, Lynn, Springfield, and Worcester were then asked personally whether they favored the establishment of a lo- cal industrial school. More than nine in every ten of 6,829 family heads, rep- resenting 9,982 children of industrial school age, answered affirmatively. The commission took special pains to con- sult with workingmen, who are excep- tionally well organized in at least two of the four towns investigated. The answers seem to explode the theory that labor unions are opposed to vocational training. Probably whatever hostility is nowadays shown emanates chiefly from walking delegates and other leaders who see their power menaced by the multiplication of highly-trained laborers whose sympathies and sense of justice may be deeper than those of the union- made apprentice. The specially interesting fact for Americans in the career of Sir Donald Currie, who has just died, is that abolition of the English coastwise navigation laws in 1849 gave the Cunard Company the idea of start- ing its Havre line, and so enabled him to demonstrate his rare organiz- ing ability. Up to that time Great Bri- tain had labored under precisely the same absurd, mediaeval laws as disgrace this country to-day — prohibiting all for- eign vessels from entering the British coastwise trade. So far from injuring British shipping, the abolition of this foolish restriction gave a great impetus to the entire business. Whereas the United States to-day is stolidly afraid to compete with foreigners for our har- bor-to-harbor traffic, the English boldly said to their Dutch and French and Scandinavian neighbors: Come over and take our trade, if you can. Lower the rates, if you please; we shall meet your competition in one way or another, and our merchants will profit thereby. To- day, no one in England would dream of returning to the old laws, and Britannia rules the waves with her merchant ships. On the other hand, if American ship-owners are ever seen in the halls of Congress, it is because they are in search of subsidies which they imagine will take the place of energy, enterprise, and wise legislation. The passing of Abdul Hamid is as un- heroic as his life has been. In his own way, he fought to the last; but his weapons were guile, subornation, pri- vate and wholesale murder, and he ends his reign as a malefactor caught in the act. The new Turkey could not have become really new so long as the tie with an ugly past was preserved in the

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April 29, 1909] The Nation. 4=29 person of the historic Sick Man of Eu- rope, the Unspeakable, the Great Assas- sin, whose sinister figure not only dom- inated the Ottoman Empire, but, to the eye of the world, stood completely for it. The underlying motive of his reign of thirty-three years is said to have been one of fear, fear for his person and fear for his throne. When his elder brother Murad, after a few months of power, went insane, the reform party under Midhat Pasha, without waiting the year required hv law, transferred the Khalifate to Abdul Hamid. Midhat looked upon the change as provisional. There is even said to be extant a letter in which Abdul Hamid pledged himself to abdicate in case of Murad's recovery. But to keep the throne he received con- ditionally, became the great object of the new Sultan's policy. To that end he built up the regime of personal abso- lutism, for a parallel to which we must go back to Tiberius and his govern- ment by delators. His native craft is said to have been displayed in the way he played off the Powers against each other. But how the empire profited thereby is hard to see. Bulgaria, Ru- melia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herze- govina, Cyprus, Egypt, part of Arme- nia— this is a sufficiently high rate of loss for the lapse of a single genera- tion. Abdul Hamid's craft, then, was best displayed in keeping himself in power. The very extreme to which the Sul- tan carried his personal rule turns out to the advantage of the Constitutional regime. In Russia, the Liberal elements had to contend not only against the Czar, but against a court party and a vast sluggish bureaucracy to which the Czar himself was very often a slave. But Abdul Hamid had tamed the Turk- ish bureaucracy. Of a court party there is, of course, no question. In a govern- ment by espionage, it is necessary only to crush the one man who holds all the threads, in order that the whole system shall fall to pieces. Abdul Hamid could plot, but he could not fight. That was shown by the mutiny of two weeks ago. He could bribe his guard to murder their officers. Had the troops run amuck and by a general massacre brought on European intervention, the Sultan's ob- ject would have been won. But Europe was not brought in, Abdul Hamid was left to fight the quarrel out with his sub- jects, and fighting in the open he did not understand. His fate was therefore seal- ed. The evil effects of his reign will long endure under his successor, Mo- hammed Reschad. In Asia Minor, for in- stance, the Sultan's order to slay and burn, once issued, cannot be easily stay- ed. That is why much turmoil is bound to come in the new Turkey, and why the world must be patient with the men who are to undertake one of the greatest housecleanings in history. Foreign intervention in Persia ap- pears imminent. Tabriz, which for many months has been held by the Consti- tutionalists against the Shah, is famine- stricken at last, and the capture of the city cannot be long delayed. Yet Eu- rope knows too well what the seizure of Tabriz by the wild tribesmen mak- ing up the Shah's army will mean. There will be slaughter, and all the more pitiful because it will scarcely lead to the firm reestablishment of the Shah's power. Wars in the unorganized Orient, in Persia as in Morocco, have a painful way of dragging out in an indecisive succession of ups and downs. The south would seem to be even in more complete revolt against the Shah than the north. Should the govern- ment's attention be directed away from Tabriz, the probability is that resistance would blaze out again. Such a condi- tion of anarchy supplies Russia with the opportunity she has been waiting for. Her way has been made clear by the agreement with Great Britain which gives the Czar a free hand in northern Persia. Tabriz got its revolu- tionary alphabet from across the border in the Russian Caucasus, when that re- gion was in active insurrection about three years ago. The revolution in the Caucasus is now dead, but Russia will be only too delighted to step into Persia to help quench the flames that are burn- ing so close to her frontier. The effect of such a step on interna- tion politics might be important. Ger- man diplomacy would be pleased by the move. But not France. French- men have been complaining bitterly of late that the much-vaunted and highly expensive Russian alliance has served them little in time of need. In 1905, when Germany dictated terms to the French government in the matter of Morocco, it was Russia's complete paralysis in Manchuria that furnished the occasion. Germany's recent coup in the matter of Bosnia-Herzegovina was made possible by the fact that Russia is still too weak to face an ultimatum. Frenchmen have been arguing that if Russia is to do her duty by the alliance, she must give up her policy of Asiatic adventure and turn her attention to her own internal condition and to her posi- tion as a European Power. To become mixed up in Persia — we know what a "temporary" occupation usually is — means that Russia will once more di- vert a great part of her military strength to Asia, and leave France more anx ous than ever. The British Premier now heads a Parliamentary committee to find out what basis there is for the naval scare. This step was probably decided upon before Lord Charles Beresford put forth the dark hint that there was dreadful trouble in the navy. British navai dis- cipline seems to aliow officers in high command to speak witn a degree of freedom which in France, a lew months ago, cost a vice-admiral his place in the active service. It is a subject which until recently has generally been re- garded as outside the field of partisan politics. That emphatically is no longer the case. The Unionist party has at- tempted to make capital out of the fright. Bye-elections have been fought on it, and it seems almost to be re- placing tariff reform as the issue on which the Liberals are to be turned out. it is still something of a mystery why Mr. Asquith and his First Lord of the Admiralty first raised the cry of "Fire." in any case, an authoritative pro- nouncement by an investigating com- mittee will be of benefit to England's nerves and to the peace of the world. Alarmist reports concerning the im- minence of social wa>' in France con- tinue. The labor movement, we are told, is apparently merging into anarchism. The republic is declared to be in dan- ger. We need not minimize the serious- ness of the trades-union movement in France, in order to assert that much of this talk about onrushing anarchy is absurd. We must read such reports in the light of the fact that many French- men find it almost impossible to think of the republic as not being in danger. Often the danger has been real, yet re-

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430 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2287 publican institutions have managed to survive. At the very beginning, there was the danger of monarchist reaction. When Bonapartists, Legitimists, and Or- leanists had reduced themselves to a state of deadlock, a new danger to the republic cropped up in clericalism; voila Vennemil Then came Boulangism. Then came anti-Dreyfusism. Then came the Church once more, and its defeat in the Separation Law. Now come the la- bor unions, anti-militarism, and anar- chy. It is no paradox to assert that in this latest danger, the French repub- lic has much cause for satisfaction. For when the alarm turns to the fear of so- cial revolution, it would mean that the old fear of reaction is pretty well gone. And that is quite true. Very few Frenchmen take the Monarchist parties seriously. In the elections, the Royalists and Nationalists have been rapidly ap- proaching the vanishing point. If France is compelled to face serious social and economic problems, it is only what other nations are compelled to do. At least, the republic can take up the problem without fear of being stabbed in the back. It is the practical aspect of the tri- umphs of Count Zeppelin, the Wright brothers, and other daring pilots of the sky, which has held the mind and fired the imagination of most people. But the matter has its interest also for the speculative intellect. The theoretical side is beginning to engage the attention of thoughtful men. The airship raises questions not only of commerce and of war, but of law, both private and in- ternational. As Europe is in advance of the United States in practical experi- ments in aeronautics, so she is in dis- cussion of the changes which the con- quest of the air is certain to bring about in local legislation and also in the law of nations. Last year the first book on this subject was published, "The Air- ship in Domestic Law and under the Law of Nations," by Prof. Friedrich Meili, professor of international private law in the University of Zurich. The author has a suggestive article in the Frankfurter Zeitung of April 9 on the new conceptions of law which the art and practice of aeronautics are bringing in their train. The automobile has af- fected private rights and the police pow- er In many important ways, but it is obvious that the airship will cause many more and more profound modifications. Take, for example, the matter of tres- pass. Under established doctrines, a man's property in the soil extends to the stars overhead. But can he, then, cause the arrest for trespass of an aero- naut passing a half mile over his house or farm? Can he set celestial spring guns, or hire watchmen in captive bal- loons, for the effectual preservation of his especial section of the air from in- truders? One sees that old ideas will have to be altered. Consider also the whole range of queries respecting actual damage caused by dragging anchors or ballast thrown overboard or by an unex- pected and uncontrollable descent. The prospect of litigation over such things seems infinite, and settled legal princi- ples appear inadequate to deal with these cases. Professor Meili's deliberate conclusion is: "As against the airship of the future, the protection afforded by existing laws safeguarding private rights is wholly insufficient." Another long series of legal questions arises in connection with the liability of the owner or operator of an airship. When trade routes through the air are established, and goods and passengers are freely and regularly transported, is the law of common carrier to be ap- plied? In case of accident to any of the airship's crew, is the doctrine of fel- low-servant to prevail? It would seem that a whole new code of laws relating to the rights of passengers and of the personnel on airships will need to be enacted. Our Zurich professor therefore calls for a mixed commission, made up of jurists and aeronauts, to discuss the entire complex subject, and to recom- mend legislation. His own conviction is strong that, in the matter of damages for those wounded or killed on or by flying machines, the liability of the pro- prietor, or owning company, should be made absolute. It is, however, the status and treatment of airships under the law of nations which present the most urgent and puzzling questions. Something was done at the Hague Con- gress to regulate the use of military bal- loons, but that is a case aside. What we are concerned to know is not so much what the laws of war will have to say in the future about the employment and functions of airships, as what may be the international regulations for peaceful intercourse and commerce by means of aerial ships. We can already see how protectionist countries are shuddering at the thought that their tariffs may be made dead letters, and their custom-houses tenantless, by means of airy navies, stealing undetect- ed into the interior. How can we com- pel an airship to come to anchor under a given cloud, or to discharge its freight at the top of a specified tower? Must all our custom-house agents become expert aeronauts, and cruise upon individual aeroplanes in swarms throughout our atmosphere, in order to prevent smug- gling? Or will the very progress and triumphs of the science of aeronautics make the whole system of protection look more obsolete and senseless than ever, so that the nations may come the more readily to abandon it? THE TARIFF MUDDLE. The Senate persists in doing its worst with the tariff bill as it passed the House. Under cover of two or three im- provements— as in the glove and hosiery schedules — Senator Aldrich has been quietly taking away one good feature of the Payne bill after another, introduc- ing new classifications and changing ad valorem to specific duties — that way the tariff "joker" always lies — ripping the cotton schedules and silk schedules to pieces and re-writing them with all kinds of uncertainty and trickery. It is now announced that the Senate Finance Committee has completed the work of knocking out of the House bill all the remaining provisions that looked like keeping the Republican party's pledges. In the first draft of the Aldrich bill, iron ore was taken from the free list; now wood pulp is also to be taken from it, and hides, and coal, and oil. If this process goes on and is consummated, we shall soon be back to the Dingley bill, or worse. Such a measure as the Senate is slowly putting together will in no sense meet the expectations of the country, the promises of the party, or the demands of President Taft. It is already plain that the leading Republican Senators have played the President false. They have pretended to favor and to further his plans for a revision of the tariff downwards, though all the time they were scheming to take care of their manufacturing friends by keeping the protective rates as high as ever, if not higher. It was trustingly said that, this time, Senator Aldrich L

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April 29, 1909] The ISTation. 431 was going to take a "large view" of the tariff; that his main interest was in the •finance bill which he plans to bring in next December, and to which he hopes ■to attach his name as to his monument of statesmanship. Tariff revision he was simply anxious to get done honestly and epeedily, that it might be out of the way of the more important measure next his heart. But it is hard to teach an old -dog new tricks, even if he wants to learn them. For so many years, and •during the framing of so many tariffs, the watchword of schemers and plotters has been "see Aldrich," that the force ■of habit could not be broken. They have been "seeing" him for weeks past, and have been coming away saying with winks to their friends that they had "fixed" it. Senator Hale appears to have been al- most as potent as Aldrich in bedevilling the Payne bill. Apparently it is due to 4iis insistence, and to the log-rolling •combination which he got up, that the decision to take wood pulp off the free list, and to increase the duty on print- ing paper, was reached. The fact that the agreement involved taking hides from the free list, and so sacrificing one great interest of New England, appears not to matter to this New England Sen- ator. Since Mr. Hale thinks that it will hurt Maine to have free wood pulp, he will fight to have it taxed; and he is perfectly willing to make an arrange- ment whereby everything else that is •free shall also be taxed. And Senator Hale has in his hand not only tariff favors to exchange, but legislative fa- vors with which to bargain. As Chair- man of the Committee on Appropria- tions, he has vast power to make or break other Senators. Also at the head of the Steering Committee of the Sen- Ate, and prominent on the Committee on Naval Affairs, he has a great amount of special legislation at his disposal. All these resources he is understood to be ready to use in order to carry his point in tariff matters. With two such men as Hale and Aldrich lending themselves to the underground conspirators, and in- terposing their huge bulk athwart the path of reasonable tariff revision, it is not surprising that the Senate bill is rapidly going from bad to worse. What is to be done? Who will put a hook in the nose of this Senate leviathan? There are signs that the 8tand-pat Senators are presuming too much upon their brute power. Mutter- ings of revolt have been heard from within the Senate Chamber itself. Out- side, there can be no mistaking the sen- timent of the country. Even thorough- going Republican newspapers are say- ing openly that the Senate bill will never do. The day has gone by when a wicked tariff could be enacted in a cor- ner, and no one the wiser. Public feel- ing is now much more sensitive on that subject, and public information more ex- tensive. The embattled ladies of Chi- cago showed what could be done by or- ganized resentment at proposed tariff taxes of an outrageous sort. All over the land, the forgotten consumer is ready to rise in similar protest, if the right leader presents himself. But who is that leader to be? In our opinion, the President will have to take the lead, at one time or another, in one way or another. He is peculiarly the people's representative, in this matter, their directly elect. His pledge was explicit to summon Congress in extraordinary session to lighten the burdens of tariff taxation; and he can- not stand by unconcerned and see Con- gress, or one branch of it, going to work to make those burdens heavier. It will be necessary for Mr. Taft to declare himself. He may choose to make his position clear when the bill goes to con- ference, and may urge the House to stand firm against the greedy demands of the Senate. It may be needful for him to let it be known that he will veto the bill if its more flagrant outrages upon decency and denials of justice are allowed to stand. That would give even Aldrich and Hale pause, and might com- pel them to surrender on pain of seeing leadership in the Senate pass to other hands. Some way out of the muddle must be found. By the Senate bill, the Republican party is threatened not only with failure, but disgrace. We look to the President to show the initiative and vigor needed to avert the catastrophe. HOW WARS ARE MADE. Emile Ollivier, the Minister under whom France went to war with Ger- many in 1870, has now brought his reminiscences, which he has been pub- lishing in the Revue des Deux Mondes, down to "The Preliminaries of the War." The article is especially profitable read- ing, at a time when the tension between Germany and England is almost what it was between Germany and France, thirty-nine years ago. For in these pages of the man who was thought to have entered upon a bloody war with cwur leger, we see how a government that really dreads the sword may be driven into drawing it, and we are shown what is the nature of the force which exercises that fatal compulsion. The fair inference from M. Ollivier's narrative is that it is not statesmen who make wars, in modern times, not sol- diers, not monarchs or Presidents, but hysterical public opinion, an inflamed and foolish national pride, a reckless press. In several respects, the facts which M. Ollivier here sets forth, most of them with documentary evidence, will serve to rectify historical judgment. It has been said that the Emperor Napo- leon wanted war. His Minister shows how numerous and unusual were the steps which he took in seeking to avoid it. Some of these negotiations had been kept a secret to the present day — some of Napoleon's approaches to for- eigners were not known even to his Minister for Foreign Affairs. The com- mon story is that the French went into the war despising the military power of Prussia. Ollivier shows us a Council of State listening to the reports of mar- shals and generals, and never for a mo- ment indulging in tb delusion that the war would be a military promenade to Berlin. It is true that Le Boeuf thought the French army stronger than the Prussian, but never concealed his con- viction that the struggle would be des- perate, unless the French could first mobilize and win early successes; and Chevandier, the officer best informed about the Prussian military organiza- tion, warned the Council that it was vain to count upon anticipating Moltke. Thus with expert opinion divided, the Ministry averse to war, the Corps LSgis- latif well in hand, the Emperor anxious- ly looking for a solution short of an ap- peal to arms, conditions in those early July days of 1870 certainly looked as if peace were possible, even probable. What, so far as the French were con- cerned, brought on the war? What was it that at last frightened Eugenie and made her use her influence over Napo- leon in behalf of war, on the ground that the dynasty would not be safe with- out it? It was, as Ollivier clearly shows, an explosion of public rage. The people

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432 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 were, he writes, much less masters of their passions than were the Ministers, and burst into extravagant demonstra- tion and wild threats. Lord Lyons, writ- ing to his government from Paris, put the case exactly when he said: It is impossible not to perceive that the feelings of the French nation would forbid the government, even if it wished, to ac- quiesce in the accession of a Hohenzollern Prince in Spain. It was even then apparent that the re- sponsible authorities were being swept away by the mob. The Parisian news- papers were more powerful than Minis- ters. Bismarck once declared that the press had never yet made a war by it- self— he said that before our war with Spain! — but at that crisis he knew how to drive the French press to fury, for his own purposes. One of the ways in which he did it, as Busch has revealed, was by sending articles to certain Ger- man newspapers, not supposed to be of- ficially inspired, the aim being express- ly to inflame the French as well as feed the war-spirit at home. In view of this historic instance, the attitude to-day of portions of the English and German press is more ominous than all the Dreadnoughts built or building. This melancholy experience of the French government in 1870 has a par- allel in that of the American govern- ment in 1898. President Pritchett has recently published in the North Ameri- can Review his recollections of repeated conversations with Mr. McKinley, after the war with Spain broke out. Brought into close and confidential relations with the President, Dr. Pritchett often heard him declare that the war was wholly un- necessary. One phrase of McKinley's was that he could have obtained all that we desired of Spain "if they had let me alone." The yelling of the press, the in- sensate clamors of the people and of Congress, the bloodthirsty sermons and prayers of clergymen — it was they that made the war. This is not to excuse Ollivier or Na- poleon, nor to exculpate McKinley. The latter, in admitting that he was driven from his conscientious convictions by a howling mob, passed upon himself the severest condemnation. It is a states- man's business to see to it that he is "let alone" in the path of duty and honor, when fateful issues are at stake. He should not allow crazy people to have their way, except as they advance over his dead body. If President Mc- Kinley had been cast in heroic mould, or had had the courage to face temporary unpopularity, he could have taken that suppressed Easter appeal and promise of the Queen-Regent of Spain in his hands, and gone to the country with it in a way to have stilled the shrieks and prevented the war. But we cannot count upon Providence always providing a popular government with leaders of the stuff to defy the mob; and so long as we are exposed to the danger of weak and timid rulers, we must recognize also the peril of the mob-spirit, fed by and feed- ing irresponsible and conscienceless newspapers. REFORMING NEWSPAPER READ- ERS. The problem of reforming newspapers has been so long discussed, with such meagre results, that it is a relief to hear of the reform of the newspaper reader being undertaken. That is the real home for this kind of charity to begin at. First catch your newspaper reader, and fill him with so deep a disgust at what is trivial and vulgar and sensational and indecent that he will make a pow- erful demand felt for better newspapers, and better newspapers you may have some hope of getting. The trouble is that this demand is, in general, left so feeble and inarticulate. That it exists at all, it sometimes takes an unusually shrewd editor to discover. One such, in a large city of the West, who had been placed in charge of a paper of the shrieking order, looked about him and perceived that there was a large ele- ment of university-trained men in that town who might like to be addressed as reasonable human beings. He urged the proprietors of his newspaper to leave off bellowing, and the result was a very gratifying increase of both pros- perity and influence. Per contra, we know of another newspaper, in a city filled with cultivated people, which re- cently changed owners and lapsed into the yellow variety, with the conse- quence of displeasing and losing a great many readers, to the consternation of the new regime. These instances imply what could be done by means of news- paper patrons, if they could only be reformed. A beginning of the work has been made on a modest scale in England. The English press has not yet fallen to our lowest levels, but is rapidly has- tening that way. The same effects of sensational and childish methods of journalism are observable there as here. Those interested in education and so- cial reform see the need of fortifying people against the intellectual vacuity and the moral disintegration which come from steady and unwinking read- ing of silly or coarse and reckless sheets. Accordingly, a first step has been taken by the Clubs' Industrial As- sociation. This organization, situated in the north of England, has recently formed a "newspaper class" for working girls. The object is to teach them what papers to read and what to avoid, and also what parts of any given newspaper to give chief attention to and what to skim or skip. The idea seems excellent, as driving directly at the great lack in all this business, which is the lack of discrimi- nation. To vast numbers of people, all newspapers look alike. Print is print, in whatever guise it presents itself, and is a thing sacredly to be received. You will see clergymen and benevolent sil- ver-haired ladies turn from reading a religious paper to a perusal of the Dev- il's Own, with no sense of jar or shock. In the universal flux of judgment and jumble of opinions, the power of mak- ing distinctions seems to have been lost. Long habit inures even young girls to displays of newspaper vulgarity which, in any other form, they would tnink repulsive. "It is only those ridic- ulous newspapers," they say. Now, the first aim of education is to seek to give the ability to discriminate, to know what is good and what is evil; and the responsibility of educated readers, who go on patronizing venal or demoraliz- ing newspapers, is much greater than that of the unthinking and ignorant. The latter can, perhaps, be taught to be a little more fastidious, but what of those who already know, and who profess to be select in their taste and associations, yet who act as if they car- ed not how soiled are the papers which they take in their hands? The discrimination which it may be hoped the reformed newspaper reader will exercise, goes further. It will deal not alone with the choice of the journal to read, but with that of what matter in it to read. There is a great amount of newspaper reading which can only be called slavish. People bury them-

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April 29, 1909J The Nation. 433 selves in the pages and devour them from the first headline to the last per- sonal item. An appalling dissipation of ■energy and dulling of the mind cannot fail to befall many in consequence. They exhibit an abject reverence for the printed word that is fairly Arabic; and they pore over the intellect-de- stroying columns with an intentness that is truly marvellous. A man ought to be trained, or to train himself, to look for his own in reading any news- paper. He should chiefly consider, as •Coleridge did in reading the Bible, that •which "finds" him. The proportionate amount of time to be devoted to mere news, to discussion, to literary features, to financial reports, to criticism in art or music or drama — all this is some- thing which intelligent readers ought to be able to work out for themselves. Many of them, we suppose, do so; the others, and the blankly ignorant, may well appeal to the compassionate aid of reformers. President Hadley of Yale was quite right in his recent contention that we •cannot make great progress ill improv- ing the intellectual and moral tone of newspapers, until newspaper readers and patrons are improved. Until they learn to discriminate, journalism will find it easiest to be undiscriminating; until they insist upon measure and rea- son, exaggeration and clamor will con- tinue to rule the columns, and brawling ignorance to give judgment all day long. These English reformers of the newspaper, who take hold of the busi- ness by the right end, are to try to teach people what papers are wonn reading, and how to attain a consistent and useful point of view in reading them. There is neither copyright nor tariff to prevent the use of the same idea in this country, where the need of something of the kind is great. THE PRETENSIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. Much is heard in these times of soci- ology. The proverbial "man in the street," who is supposed to notice no- thing apart from his business and sport- ing interests, save what in some way jostles him and thus intrudes on his attention, has heard of sociology as a science that understands all about so- ciety and its make-up, and that is thus able to say what is fhe correct thing. Even the vaudeville hall has heard of it, as a sociological treatise supplied the phrase "trial marriage," used as a re- frain in the topical song, "No Wedding Bells for Me," with which all the music- halls resounded until it wore itself out. Those who do not stand in a merely im- pressionist attitude to life, and who at- tribute to scholarship the duty of act- ing as a conservator of mental and mor- al values, have also heard of sociology, and are puzzled by it. They find it ap- pearing as a sponsor for schemes of revolutionizing the family, the home, and the state, and they feel both per- turbed at the prospect and perplexed by the difficulty they have in reconciling such projects with the respect they feel for science. Disturbance of this char- acter is augmented by a belief that so- ciology is a new science which is de- rived from Darwinism, and which hence possesses the authority belonging to a doctrine generally accepted as applying to all forms of life and to all institu- tions arising from the modes of life. An impression has been made to the ef- fect that scientific grounds have been established for the opinion that mar- riage, family life, society, and govern- ment are mere accidental cohesions which may now be superseded by more ration- al arrangements upon principles ex- pounded by sociology. Pretensions of this character are certainly made in the name of sociology, and it therefore be- comes a matter of public importance to inquire what this new science is and what basis it has for its claim of au- thority. I. Sociology has no connection with Dar- winism except by an imputed affilia- tion, which on examination is found to possess no better warrant than the ten- dency toward syncretism that always appears when a great scientific or phil- osophical system dominates the country of thought. There is, then, a strong propensity on the part of system-build- ers to bring their own possessions with- in the shelter of its massive parapets and bastions. In this way sociology has been annexed to Darwinism, but it does not belong there. The term was invent- ed by Auguste Comte to designate those branches of "organic physics" which deal with human society. The volume of his "Philosophie positive" that intro- duced the word "sociology" was publish- ed in 1839 — twenty years before the publication of the "Origin of Species." J. S. Mill, who was much influenced by Comte's speculations, started the use of the term in England, employing it in his own writings as early as 1843. Har- riet Martineau's translation of Comte's works was published in 1853. She had great expectations of Comte's system, believing that in it students would find "at least a resting-place for their thought — a rallying-point of their scat- tered speculations — and probably an im- movable basis for their intellectual and moral convictions." Both resting-place and rallying-point are still to seek. Profs. Albion W. Small and George E. Vincent of the University of Chicago, in their manual for the study of soci- ology, expressly warn students not "to regard Comte as an authority in sociol- ogy." They remark that "all that is of permanent value in the six volumes of 'Positive Philosophy,' and in the four later volumes entitled 'System of Posi- tive Polity,' might be reported in a few paragraphs." Darwin made no use of Comte's term- inology, but this of itself is not signifi- cant, since he wrote strictly as a natural- ist and never made the slightest attempt to formulate a system of philosophy. It is significant, however, that the term sociology has never commended itself to Darwinists, even when considering im- plications of the master's views on the origin and nature of humanity. Haeck- el, whose systematic exposition was fol- lowed by Darwin himself with lively in- terest, took a survey of the field claimed by sociology, but he proposed an entire- ly different terminology, which will be found in Table I of his "Evolution of Man," 1874. It may be doubted whether the use of the word sociology as a term designating social science would have survived the impact of Darwinism if Herbert Spencer had not adopted it, which he did as earK- as 1859. In his "Autobiography" he referred to his bor- rowings from Comte rather regretfully: Save in the adoption of the word "altru- ism," which I have defended, and in the adoption of his word "sociology" because there was no other available word (for both which adoptions I have been blamed), the only indebtedness I recognize is the in- debtedness of antagonism. Darwin's "Descent of Man" was pub- lished in 1871, but his views as to the particular causation of the human spe- cies do not appear to have had any ef- fect whatever on Spencer's preconceived ideas of social science. Spencer's "Study of Sociology" was published serially in England and in the United States in 1872, and in book form in 1873. It makes only a passing allusion to Dar- win, and then only with respect to his services in demonstrating the indefinite modifiability of species, elsewhere men- tioned as "one of the cardinal truths which biology yields to sociology." Spen- cer's system was always expounded in- dependently of Darwin's views. It was Spencer's labors that brought sociology into vogue, but he seems to have shared the fate of Comte in that his system is now regarded as defective and inade- quate. Small and Vincent inform the student that "Spencer's sociology ends precisely where sociology proper should begin." II. What, then, is sociology? It is impos- sible to say, save that it deals with social phenomena; but this affords no definition, as the same may be said of history, politics, statistics, and other

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4=34= Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 sciences gathering their data from ob- servation of mankind. In his "Pure Sociology" Prof. Lester F. Ward men- tions twelve definitions of sociology al- ready in existence, and then he proceeds to add another of his own. What claim has any body of knowledge to rank as a science whose students have yet to arrive at some agreement as to what it is or as to how it is to be defined? Soci- ology has not yet established any claim to be accepted as a science. Leslie Stephen, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Social and Political Education League, London, March, 1892, thus summarized the sit- uation: "It may be stated that there is no science of sociology properly scien- tific— merely a heap of vague empirical observations, too flimsy to be useful in strict logical inference." The situation has not improved since then. Writing in 1902, Professor Ward said: I do not claim that sociology has as yet been established as a science. I only main- tain that it is in process of establishment, and this by the same method by which all other sciences are established. Every in- dependent thinker has his system. The latest official bulletin is probably that issued by Professor Small. In an article contributed to the American Journal of Sociology, July, 1908, he says: Whether or not there is, or ever shall be, a science of sociology, there is and will hardly cease to be something which, for lack of a better name, we may call the so- ciological movement. This movement clear- ly vindicates the sociologists. This, of course, suggests the query, What, then, is the sociological move- ment? What vision has it of fresh fields of knowledge that suggests the need of a new science to garner the re- sults of research? We are told that the movement is fundamentally "a declara- tion of faith that tbe closest approach to ultimate organization of knowledge which finite intelligence can ever reach must be a formulation of the relations of all alleged knowledge to the central process of human experience." But has not that been the object of philosophy ever since it originated in ancient Greece? At any rate, it is clear that this movement, this faith, on its own showing, has no right to rank as a science or to set up any claim of au- thority. III. Accepting for the present the plea of confession and avoidance that is offer- ed by the exponents of sociology when its scientific pretensions are challenged, let us consider it as a movement. In this respect, too, on its own showing, it is quite bewildered. It does not know whence it starts, or whither it is go- ing. J. H. W. Stuckenberg, in his "So- ciology, the Science of Human Society" (1903), has to admit that the very na- ture of the subject which sociology pro- poses to treat is yet to be settled. He remarks that "society is the new world which is still waiting for its Columbus"; and, again, that "the nature of society is the profound problem whose solution is the key to all other solutions." Darwin has offered a solution of this problem, namely, that human society was evolv- ed from brute society by stresses re- sulting from the group incidence of nat- ural selection, so that human society was shaped by the life of the commu- nity precisely as bee nature has been shaped by the life of the hive, certain distinctive organs and capacities being developed in the individual, not primar- ily for individual advantage, but for the advantage of the community. Thus Dar- win's theory coincides with Aristotle's doctrine that man is born a political animal. In any period before the for- mation of society, the human species did not exist, but at the most only sim- ian species with potential capacity for humanization under appropriate condi- tions. All theories postulating the ex- istence of natural rights enjoyed by man before he was united with his fel- lows in social and political relations, collapse at once if Darwinism be valid. And yet, on this fundamental point of trenchant importance as regards system and terminology, sociology is distracted. On the one hand, Prof. Franklin H. Gid- dings declares: There is hardly a single fact in the whole range of sociological knowledge that does not support the conclusion that the race was social before it was human, and that its social qualities were the chief means of developing its human nature. On the other hand, Professor Ward re- jects the conclusions of Aristotle and Darwin, holding in express opposition to them both that man was not original- ly a social animal, but "that he was de- scended from an animal that was not even gregarious by instinct, and that human society ... is purely a prod- uct of his reason, and arose by insensi- ble degrees, pari passu, with the devel- opment of his brain." No disagreement could be more radical than this. The Darwinists hold that socialization de- veloped the human brain; the anti-Dar- winists hold that the human brain de- veloped socialization. No wonder, then, that, lacking any base of operations, the movement is nothing more than desul- tory roving in all directions. The unsystematic character of the movement accounts for its marked ten- dency to fall into errors, that might be avoided by recourse to established science. Sir Frederick Pollock, in his "History of the Science of Politics," re- marks that "after Burke it was impos- sible for any one in England to set up the Social Contract again, either in Rousseau's or in Locke's form, for any effectual purpose." But sociologists in America do that very thing. Sociologi- cal discussion of the nature of govern- ment reads like an ardent revival of Rousseau's political philosophy. Pro- fessor Ward, in his "Dynamic Sociol- ogy" (Vol. II, p. 212 et seq.), argues that government was originally a sys- tem of imposture: It is evident that man in a supposed un- restrained state, in which none of his own race have the power to deprive him of any pleasure which he may seek, and be able to secure, would be far happier than in a condition where half of his desires which might otherwise be gratified are forbidden* that gratification by the laws of govern- ment. What is this but Rousseau's state of na- ture? If Darwin be right, in this "unrestrained state" we should not find men at all; perhaps not even animals so closely akin to men as the anthropoid apes. But Professor Ward makes this hypothetical state of nature the basis of his argument: Having arrived at a rational conception, of what kind of a being man was before any society existed — that is, before the es- sential conditions of society, populousnessr existed— we are better able to understand how society and government should have come about. If man was in a state of happiness when there was no government to restrain his- impulses, he was defrauded in some way when government was instituted. Hence Professor Ward concludes that govern- ment is essentially a usurpation: It must have been the emanation of a single brain or of a few concerting minds, the special exercise of a particular kind of cunning or sagacity, whereby certain in- dividuals intent on securing the gratifica- tion of the special passion known as love- of power, devised a plan or scheme of gov- ernment. If this be so, then government is a thing to be got rid of as soon as possi- ble. That is just what Professor Ward holds to be the end of social effort and the blessed consummation of the la- bors of sociologists. What men and wo- men are struggling to attain is "free- dom to do as their desires prompt them,, and to be their own judge of the right- fulness and justness of their actions." Hence robust sociologists contend that we should all be as free to find our af- finities as cats or dogs. Suggestions- of trial marriage are made simply as a temporary palliative of an enslaving in- stitution. The trouble with divorce- laws is not that they are loose, but that there should be any laws at all. Human beings should be free to mate as they please, and separate as they please, like- other animals enjoying their natural freedom. We have here an instance of what iff a striking characteristic of sociology. It gives a hospitable reception to notions examined, discredited, and rejected by established science. After a hard strug- gle political science has got rid of the noxious fallacies generated by French >»!

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April 29, 1909] The 3STatioii. 435 ideology in the eighteenth century. They now reappear as doctrines pro- pounded by sociology, And so, likewise, in other branches of science, sociology appears as an interloper, proclaiming that the work must all be done over again, and so it starts to rake the refuse heap. It is a whimsical situation. Soci- ology admits that it has really no scien- tific credentials, and yet it claims sover- eign authority in the field of science. Prof. Edward A. Ross of the University of Nebraska, in his "Foundations of Sociology," says: "It aspires to no- thing less than the suzerainty of the special social sciences It expects them to surrender their autonomy and be- come dependencies, nay, even provinces of sociology." These remarks are made in discussing the "problem of coming to terms with the special social sc'ences, such as eco- nomics, jurisprudence, and politics," and it is anticipated that "the workers in long-cultivated fields will resist such pretensions." That is very likely — the more so since sociology invites them to turn back to old errors. In America, al- though not to any extent in Europe, so- ciology, considered as a scheme of meth- odology, has made some impression on scholars in established sciences. There was a time in this country (chiefly ow- ing to Spencer's influence) when there was, perhaps, a preponderance of scien- tific opinion to the effect that the scheme was theoretically feasible, and that so- ciology would eventually be established as a comprehensive system of science. I myself held that opinion at one time, and, impelled by it, I read extensively in sociological literature. But I finally concluded that if Darwin was on the right track, sociology was on the wrong track. Political and social phenomena can never be fully interpreted as results of individual activities. The attitude of sociology is precisely like that which a biologist would adopt if he should en- deavor to discover the causes of the formation of tissues by scrutiny of the characteristics of individual cells in- stead of by consideration of the growth and development of the organism that includes the cells and conditions their activities. The true cause of the diffi- culties which the exponents of sociology have in formulating it, is that in real- ity there is no basis for it as a science. All its troubles come from its primal trouble that its fundamental concept is an illusion. Hence it is doomed to er- ror by its nature. In endeavoring to substitute its elaborate ideology for ex- isting scientific system, it is not going forward, but backward. All of the ma- terial with which it attempts to deal, according to the various definitions giv- en of its purpose, is already allotted to better advantage. Take from it what belongs to psychology, history, anthro- pology, ethics, civics, jurisprudence, eco- nomics, statistics and charity adminis- tration, and there is nothing left ot value. So far as sociology differs from established sciences, it is an asylum foi their castaways. In considerations like these one should bear in mind Huxley's wise ob- servation that "there is no greater mis- take than the hasty conclusion that opinions are worthless because they are badly argued." Sociology may be worthless, but the streams of sentiment from which its fogs arise are by no means worthless. Professor Small points out the thing that counts when he says that even if there is no science of so- ciology, there is the sociological move- ment. There is, indeed, a world-wide movement for social reform involving extensive readjustments of public order and of governmental function. Civiliza- tion is apparently engaged in the dan gerous but periodically unavoidable pro- cess of exuviation, when old forms are cast and new forms are shaped. But in Europe this is a political movement, and if in the United States it is regarded as a distinctly sociological movement, American scholarship is at fault. If sociology lacks scientific validity, it can not give safe guidaDce to any movement and its invasion of the political arena is an added peril. Hence it is impossi- ble to follow Professor Small's logic when he holds that the movement "clearly vindicates the sociologists." It may account for the activity of the so- ciologists and for +>>e attention their projects receive, just as the prevalence of disease accounts for the activity of quacks, but it certain'v does not vindi- cate them. Apart frr>tn the general fu- tility of sociology considered as a science, the American brand of the ar- ticle is exposed to especial condemna- tion from the aid and comfort it gives to charlatanry. Instead of inspiring caution, it encourages haste, levity, and sensationalism in dealing with social problems. The official address delivered at Atlantic City, December 28, by the eminent sociologist, Prof. S. N. Patten of the University of Pennsylvania, is open to such charges. Among similar matter, he says: "No argument is good in a book or in a classroom unless it could convince the mil- lion readers of a daily paper and could find place in the campaign-book of a po- litical party." Indeed! Thus sociology commends itself to people who mistake reverie for thought and feeling for judgment; who reach emotional conclu- sions from sentimental assumptions, and who impute to their projects the merit of their motives. We shall be lucky if we get through the present era of Jacobinism in ethics and politics without serious disaster. In the ordinary course of scientific progress error is eliminated by discus- sion and concepts found to be invalid are discarded. If the invalid concept was of vital importance, then the term- inology derived from it is also discard- ed and a new terminology is evolved. The process is illustrated by the way in which chemistry superseded alchemy. A similar fate seems to impend over so- ciology, but until the reconstruction of political science on Darwinian princi- ples, now taking place, advances beyond the present stage of collection and veri- fication of data, and has some generali- zations to propound, sociology has its day. The matter might be left to right itself if sociology preserved the proper scientific habit of reserve as to provi- sional and tentative conclusions. But since it has gone into the forum to harangue the mob, it is the duty of whom it may concern to follow it there and to give notice that it possesses no authority whatever. If anything is urg- ed in the name of sociology the fit re- joinder is that there is no such science. Henry Jones Ford. Princeton, N. J. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. "New England's First Fruits," London, 1643, is usually accounted the first of the tracts on the conversion of the Indians. It was issued anonymously, and efforts to learn the author have met with no success. Worthington C. Ford records his attempt in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and his conclusions have been accepted by capable bibliographers. The first president of Harvard College, Henry Dunster, was among the earliest to believe in teaching religion to the Indians in their native tongue, and in this preceded John Eliot by some years. As the second part of the tract relates to the college, it must have been prepared by Dunster, and his known interest in the Indians points to his authorship of the first part, which relates to their conversion. The third part was prepared in England, and by one who was closely connected with the trial of Mrs. Hutchinson and the antinomi- an troubles. From a comparison of title pages, and an examination of the names of the London printers of New England writ- ings, Mr. Ford concludes that Hugh Peter and Thomas Welde, then agents from Mas- sachusetts in England, were the writers, and that Welde was more immediately re- sponsible for the issue. It is impossible to give the details brought forward in support of this view. The paper will repay study. In a private library in Boston has been found a copy of the first edition of Milton's "Paradise Lost," with a hitherto unknown title-page. As is well known, there are a number of different "bindings of the first edition," the variations occurring in the ti- tle pages. This copy purports to have been "Printed by S. Simmons, and are to be sold by T. Helder, at the Angel in Lit- tle Brittain, 1667." While this title an- swers generally to that described in the Christ's College catalogue as the eighth binding of the first edition, il differs from it ;n the very important matter of date, being two years earlier, and thus falling

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4,36 The Nation [Vol. 88. No. 2287 into the year the poem was first issued. The volume has been in the family for more than fifty years, and bears no evi- dence of being manufactured. As in so many instances, the wire marks of the pa- per of the title are different from those of the paper in the body of the volume. Simmons did print an edition in 1668, but Holder's name is not on that issue. Can another copy of his 1667 imprint be traced? Correspondence. WHEAT CORNERS AND THE PROTEC- TIVE TARIFF. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The recent attacks on Mr. Patten and his associates for bringing about the wheat corner, suggest the inquiry: Why is the wheat corner a bad thing? What harm does it do? That it raises, for a short time, the price of wheat, is clear enough; but what harm is there in that? Exactly the same thing, only for a longer time, is done by the protective tariff. And we all know what a blessing that is! All duties that are protective — as distinguished from those thar are for revenue only — depend, for their ef- ficacy, upon their success in keeping com- modities out of the country, so that United States citizens may thus be driven, as by a club, to buy in this country goods that are either dearer or of poorer quality than those made abroad. In this way the price of the commodity is raised by the tariff. That this raising of prices is a blessing to the community we all know; for such has been the teaching of Republican sages since the existence of their party. To go no farther back than twenty years or so — did not Benjamin Harrison explain to us then that "things can be too cheap." and that "a cheap coat means a cheap man inside of it?" And, if this be true, is it not equally clear that "a cheap loaf means a cheap man outside of it?" Un- doubtedly it does. The second maxim fol- lows irresistibly from the first. For, in these matters, there surely can be no dis- tinction between food and clothing, or be- tween outside and in. But, since this is so, what harm is there in Mr. Patten and his corner, and the consequent dearness of the loaf? What greater calamity can be- fall a community than to be made up of cheap men? (I may parenthetically remark, that, by logical inference from Mr. Har- rison's maxim, we find that, as the air we breathe is, in dollars and cents, worth nothing whatever, it is clear that those who breathe this worthless atmosphere must, of necessity, be equally worthless themselves.) From these dread calamities we have been rescued by those who, in order to provide revenue not for the Treasury but for themselves, have taxed food, clothing, and nearly every necessary of life, and who would undoubtedly tax the air we breathe, if there were any means of get- ting at it. Yet many Republicans in high office are foremost in denouncing Mr. Pat- ten for doing, during the last few days, the very thing that their party has done since its foundation. Mr. Wilson, the Sec- retary of Agriculture, in speaking of the wheat corner, says: "Those who attempt to keep prices up at present rates ex- pect to get their money out of the com- mon people — the consumers." "Out of the common people — the consumers!" Out of whom, then, in the name of Heaven, have the iron men, the wool men, the sugar men, the plate-glass men — and all the other corrupt tariff beneficiaries expected to get — out of whom have they succeeded in getting — their money, for more than forty years? 1 am no defender of Mr. Patten or his methods; but it is only just to say that, in bringing about the wheat corner, he has merely availed himself of his capital, and his superior skill and foresight. He has been guilty of no falsehood or hypoc- risy. He has made no pretence of being actuated by any motive other than that of making money. And, lastly, he has not said that he wants the money merely in order to pay high wages to his employees. From this ancient and hoary lie — so fre- quently uttered by protectionist manufac- turers, so necessary to allure the labor vote to the support of protection — Mr. Patten's record at least stands free. And, so far as is known, he has re- sorted to no corrupt methods. He has not by making enormous campaign contribu- tions, purchased from the government the power to levy a tax upon those "common people, the consumers," who are the ob- jects of the tender solicitude of Secretary Wilson. It is true that there is a heavy tariff on imported wheat, but Mr. Patten is not the cause of that — it was in exist- ence long before he was thought of — it was not imposed at his request. In fact, the wheat tariff was enacted merely to de- lude the farmer, so that, in the event of his complaining of protection on the com- modities he is obliged to purchase, he can be told that his wares, too, are pro- tected. The truth, of course, is that the farmer is not protected at all, as this country is still an exporter of grain. In this fact lies, I think, the explana- tion of the support that has so far been given to the protective tariff — just as in the resentment occasioned by the wheat corner we may see the possible cause of that tariff's future downfall. The colossal and long-continued system of robbery known as protection is rendered possi- ble only by the support it receives from the very victims who suffer the most from its oppression — "the common people — the consumers." They are plundered daily and hourly by taxes upon necessaries of life that are as important as wheat — yet there is, so far, but little evidence of discon- tent. But no tax has so powerful an ef- fect upon the popular mind as the tax on grain. Other necessaries — other food, clothing, and even medicine— may be sub- jected to a tariff with possible impunity; but he who, in the hour of distress, levies a tax upon the staff of life, must reckon with a nation's fury. The mutterlngs of the last few days have shown what may be ex- pected, if this country (mo impossible event), should ever become an importer of grain, and the tax on bread, in some season of panic, thus come into active op- eration. It was under exactly such condi- tions that Great Britain, less than seventy years ago, was driven to the verge of civil war and revolution, when, as Hughes says, "In time, and only just in time, came the repeal of the corn laws." And, according to Herbert Paul ("Modern England," Vol. I, Introduction), "He [Sir Robert Peel] "thus [i. e., by the repeal of the corn laws] saved England from the danger of revolution, then no vague or imaginary peril." The point to be borne in mind is that the whole protective system of Eng- land fell with its corn laws; for when the beneficiaries of those laws were deprived of the right to live at the expense of other people, they naturally refused to allow other people to live any longer at theirs. In this way, the whole protective tariff of England fell to pieces. Should our own wheat tariff ever become effective, and the people, in distress resembling the present, insist on its repeal, the history of the parent stem of the English speaking race may perhaps be repeated on this side of the Atlantic. In this way, the long ex- pected relief may come at last. Daniel Holsman. Philadelphia, April 20. THE "LOST LEAF" OF "PIERS THE PLOWMAN." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the Nation of March 25 Prof. Car- leton F. Brown of Bryn Mawr expresses his disbelief in my attempted solution of the textual difficulty in "Piers Plowman," A. V. 235 ff., and offers what he considers a simpler explanation. Having great respect for Professor Brown's opinion, and being anxious to keep clear of any undue bias in favor of my own suggestion, I have given careful consideration to his proposal; but I find myself wholly unable to accept It. My hypothesis is that lines 236-259 orig- inally followed line 145, so that the promise of restitution of fraudulent gains forms the conclusion of the confession of Covet- ousness. Professor Brown, on the other hand, believes that the emendation re- quired is to make lines 236-241 follow line 253, which ends the confession of Robert the Robber. Now, undoubtedly, it is for the text-cor- rector a simpler operation to transport a block of six lines to a place twelve lines distant than it is to transport a block of twenty-four lines to a place several pages distant. But this is not the sort of sim- plicity that matters. The really simplest hypothesis is that which assigns the sim- plest cause for the actual phenomena. No accident could be more simple than the misplacement of a whole leaf of MS.; and I doubt whether any equally simple cause could have produced a transposition of six lines to another place on the same page. The important question, however, is not whether Professor Brown's explanation i3 simple, but whether it is adequate. I think it fails in three respects. In the first place, it leaves untouched the difficulty that the confession of Covetousness ends with a mere promise to deal honestly in future, without any mention of restitution. This is a very serious deficiency; the author of the B revision saw what was wanted, and proceeded to supply it. Secondly, Professor Brown's theory requires us to suppose that the poet, after having presented the con- fessions of the personifications of the dead- ly sins, ending with that of Sloth, sud- denly introduces a new penitent, whose of- fences, according to the universal mediaeval

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April 29, 1909] The JSTation 437 classification, come under the head of Cov- etousness. My conjecture, if it be in other respects tenable, has the advantage of not Imputing to him this grave fault of method. Thirdly, the whole point of the confession of Robert the Robber is that in his case restitution is impossible, and that unless God will accept his penitence without this condition, his situation is utterly desperate. In line 251 he says that as he knows no trade he cannot hope ever to earn the means of restoring what he has stolen. And yet, according to Professor Brown, only three lines further on he promises restitution! On my view with, regard to the original state of the text (and, I think, on no other) the motive for the introduction of Robert the Robber is perfectly obvious and natu- ral. In the confession of Covetousness, one who has amassed riches by fraud ex- presses his repentance and his resolve to lead an honest life and to compensate those whom he has wronged. He clearly, if his repentance is genuine and if he adheres to his purpose, may reasonably hope for mer- cy. Bu; then it occurs to the poet that a sinner in this kind may, by his neglect to learn any honest trade, have brought him- self into such a condition that restitution is impossible. The case of this greater of- fender needs to be considered, and it is presented in the person of Robert the Rob- ber. (He could not very well call him "Coveityse Number Two"!) The poet leaves his fate doubtful, though the mention of Latro suggests a ground of hope in the example of the penitent thief on the cross. Professor Brown may perhaps reply that the poet brought in Robert the Robber after Sloth because the penitent thief was (as Professor Skeat remarks) "the stock ex- ample of an argument against wanhope, as resulting from sloth." But as nothing whatever has been said in the preceding lines about "wanhope" (i. e., despair) as a consequence of sloth, the harshness of the transition is not greatly mitigated by this explanation. What does seem rather prob- able is that a recollection of the custom- ary association of the story of the penitent thief with discourses on sloth may have been the cause of "Adam Scrivener's" mis- take in arranging the poet's copy-slips. I find myself unable to understand the objections that Professor Brown makes to my theory. The one which he specifies as the most formidable of all is that the promise in line 145 is inconsistent with that in line 241, if the two are assumed to be made by the same person. The inconsis- tency is not perceptible to me; but Pro- fessor Brown has failed to notice that I have suggested that lines 240-241 may be spurious, as they seem to be an echo of VII, 93-94. Professor Brown's confidence in the cor- rectness of his explanation has, he says, been confirmed by the discovery that it had been anticipated by Mr. T. D. Hall. I should not be surprised to learn that it had occurred to many other persons. Any one who had perceived the fact (which Pro- fessor Brown and I have learned from Pro- fessor Manly, but which Mr. Hall seems, much to his credit, to have observed inde- pendently) that lines 236ff. are not the sequel of line 235, might easily see that a less inappropriate place for them could be found on the very same page. It requires closer observation to see that the lines do not, after all, wholly suit the proposed con- text, and that a fitter place for them is to be found some pages back. Professor Brown differs from Professor Manly and myself in thinking that the omission of the confes- sion of Wrath may be due, not to any accident in transmission, but to deliberate intention on the poet's own part. The ques- tion of the abstract probability of this need not, I think, be discussed. But I should like to call attention to one circumstance, that, in my opinion, absolutely forbids the supposition that William himself omitted the confession of Wrath, either intention- ally or by oversight. The confession of Envy, as it stands in the existing form of the A text, is obviously incomplete. It does not include either a profession of penitence (for lines 105-106 are certainly nothing of the sort), or a promise of amendment. The confession can, I think, hardly have been left in this imperfect state by the poet, unless indeed he intended to imply that envy was a sin that was never repented of; and even if he did hold this curious doc- trine, he would presumably have added some words expressly setting it forth. Now in the enumeration of the deadly sins, Envy is normally followed by Wrath, as we see in the B text of "Piers Plowman" and in Chaucer's "Parson's Tale." We are there- fore met by the fact that the manuscripts of the A text omit the conclusion of one confession and the whole of that which might be expected to follow it. Professor Manly's assumption of a "lost leaf" (or leaves) completely accounts for this fact; and I do not see how it can be satisfactorily accounted for in any other way. Henry Bradley. Oxford, April 13. MOTH IN "LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In Moth's name in "Love's Labour's Lost" we have a pun that is a key at once to the diminutive size and to the unusual cleverness of the page. This pun has been obscured to us by the modern pronuncia- tion of the page's name that identifies it with the insect moth. The pronunciation by Shakespeare was "Mote" (see Variorum "Love's Labour's Lost," p. 5, note). This pronunciation leads us by way of the word "Mot" to the solution of the pun. "Mot," now obsolete, from the Italian "motto," was in Shakespeare's day a synonym for "word, . . . jest, frump, scoffe, witty saying," as Plorio informs us in his "Worlde of Wordes," 1598. Cotgrave, 1611, gives the allied French "mot" as "a mot- to, .. . also a quip, cut, nip, frumpe, scoffe, jeast." We have contemporary evidence of this pun in a comedy, "Doctor Dodypoll" (Bul- len, "Old Plays," Vol. III). This comedy, published in 1600, with its "Shakespeare echoes" (Schelling, "Elizabethan Drama," Vol. I, p. 137), has also a page in its dramatis personw, a diminutive "wag" named Moth. It is in the spelling of this name that I find the strongest contempo- rary evidence of the pun. In the first pages of "Dr. Dodypoll" the name is consistent- ly "Moth" (pp. 106, 107, 110, 111), but after twelve pages (after p. 112), "Moth" gives way, in the stage directions, to the full form, "Motto" (pp. 127, 133, 138. 139, 146, 152), and in the assignment of speeches to "Mot" (pp. 112, 138 [2], 140, 146), and to "Mott" (pp. 127, 133 [2]), and "Motto" (p. 138). In the four passages in the text of "Love's Labour's Lost," where Moth's name is used (by Armado [Variorum], I, ii, 72; III, i, 135; and by Costard, I. ii, 152: III, i, 73), the knowledge of the pun adds significance to the words of the speakers. Two speeches that do not contain Moth's name, but that are directed to him, assume new signifi- cance in the light of the pun. One of these involves the single example of Shakespeare's use of "consonant" (V, i, 53). "Quia, quis, thou Consonant?" Holofernes inquires of Moth, with reference in his use of "conso- nant," to the play on words Moth has just made at his expense. It is in its radical sense of "sounding together" that the Pedant uses "consonant" here. "Quis, quis, thou punster?" Holofernes might have ask- ed, if his taste in words had not led him to prefer the ink-horn term "con-sonant." The other passage, where indirect reference is made to the pun in Moth's name, is V, i, 39. Armado and Holofernes have just greeted each other with a pompous inter- change of salutations. Moth and Costard express their opinion of these learned words as follows: Moth — They have beene at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. Costard — O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. / marvel thy mas- ter hath not eaten thee for. a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honor- ificabilitudinitatibus; thou art easier swal- lowed than a flap-dragon. It is interesting to recall in this connec- tion that Epiton, the page in Lyly's "En- dimion" after whom it is thought Moth was modelled (Bond's Lyly, Vol. Ill, pre- face to "Endimion"), is referred to by the other characters of the play as Epi. M. P. Tilley. University of Michigan, April 14. THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In contrast with the intense devo- tion to the Roman method of pronouncing Latin shown in four contributions in your issue of April 1, I beg to call attention to the views of Prof. Charles E. Bennett of Cornell, as stated on pp. 75-77 of "The Teaching of Latin and Greek in the Sec- ondary School" (1901), written by him and a colleague. Prof. George E. Bristol, for the American Teachers' Series (Longmans, Green & Co.). Professor Bennett in refer- ring to the "pronunciation of Latin under the Roman system" says: "As a matter of fact, few teachers and practically no pupils ever do acquire a pronunciation of any exactness." He mentions the "deplor- able ignorance" of the method among 1,200 freshmen and 200 teachers, college pro- fessors, and graduate students, and finally declared the entire movement a "universal failure," a "miserable failure," without any promise of better results. It is impossible for me to reconcile this positive condemnation by this high au- thority with the rosy endorsement of those four gentlemen, one of whom, at least, is emphatic in claiming mastery of the meth- od by the average student. I cannot be- lieve there has been such vast improve- ment in the short space of eight years. It seems plain to me that one side or the oth- er is mistaken. Not being a teacher of

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438 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 Latin myself I have no testimony to offer, but I hope other instructors in that branch will bring additional evidence. It Is of great importance to tens of thousands of present and prospective students. C. Meriwether. Washington, D. C., April 19. "THE BIBLE AS LITERARY MODEL." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the book of Eeclesiastes it is written — and it has ofttimes been quoted with a commendation which does not leave its authority entirely dependent on its oc- currence in Holy Writ — that "there is no new thing under the sun." But the edito- rial in your issue of April 8 makes one sit up and take notice thait in literary criticism this does not hold true. It is a far cry from Shelley to "Mr." Watson in more senses than one, but both arrived at the same opinion in regard to the literary splendor of the Old Testament, Shelley mak- ing the specific, and in his case significant, acknowledgment that he owed a great debt to it as a source of inspiration and a model of style. It is perhaps an even further cry from John Calvin to Canon Driver, but they too seem to have arrived at the same viewpoint on this question if on no other. It may be doubted if the writer of the editorial in question ever read that book once popular in several languages, "The Institutes of the Christian Religion," for just the reason that if he had he could not have called in question the value of a style formed on the Bible for "the orderly exposition of complex matters" and "close and sound reasoning." Its Latinity, of course, was not that of the Augustan age, but the Bible in the brain of the man who thought it out and wrote it down gave a new efficiency to an old and blunted tool; and when the same pen wrote it out in French, a new language just coming to literary use, it gave to it a keenness of edge and adaptation to high utilities which sent it on its shining way as a language of the highest capacity for exact expres- sion. Something the same thing happened to the speech of Englishmen, not only in what John Wyclif did for it, but in the clarification of a tongue overcharged with Latin words and Latin idioms in that great epoch when "England became the people of a book and that book was the Bible." The Parliamentary oratory of the Puritaai pe- riod is marked by the influence of the Bible on thought and speech; lofty concep- tions of man, the commonwealth, and God, and "fine ability to marshal facts." And is it not true that we have always de- clared that the great state papers of our Revolutionary epoch were dignified by "a style formed by Shakespeare and the Bible"? But it is scarcely a point to be argued. Is It not clear, however, that the same reasoning applies to Shakespeare? Let us admit that the style of the New Testament and of Shakespeare "is a style" (I con- cede that they are one and the plural is not demanded) "perfectly fitting the simple men who first used it," and be glad that no higher criticism requires us to replace those "simple men" in the one case by clever forgers of the third century and in the other by the accomplished inventor of cryptograms. It is scarcely a point to be argued, but it does not seem impossible to illustrate it. First by examples: such we find in Genesis in the quest of a wife for Isaac, and the story of Joseph; and in the writings of Luke in the walk to Emmaus, and the arrest and defence of Paul. Secondly, by results: it was but yes- terday we were listening to those who in eulogizing Lincoln told how his style was formed on the Bible, and he who cites Gov. Hughes needs to be sure that he did not form his style as well as his character on the model of Paul's writings. And then there is the Epistle to the Hebrews, not a bad piece of argumentation in itself, open- ing with a rather striking marshalling of facts, and rising in the eleventh chapter to a height not easily surpassed. But still it is easy to concede that in none of these writings is there to be found "a style which any man seeking literary distinction would dream of aping." No, that is not the kind of effort the style or substance of the Bible harmonizes with. Ethelbert D. Warfield. Lafayette College, Easton, Pa., Apr^l 10. [In order that our own position may be wholly clear, we reprint a passage from the editorial in auestion. — Ed. Nation.'] For winged words, for verbal felicity, for phrases that have passed into the life- blood of English literature, we must, of course, go on sending our youth to the Bible. It is doubtless a great quickener of the imagination. As an introducer of young minds to majesty of thought and expression, to the sense of mystery, fo grandeur of soul, all that is asserted for it by enthusiastic teachers may be readily granted. But when we talk of literary models, we do not mean only those for poets and prophets. We do not expect all our young men and women to learn to write in the grand style. It is the simpler qualities of good composition of which they are most in need, and for those it is a mis- take to commend the Bible so highly and universally as some college authorities do. If, for example, we were asked in what kinds of writing it is most desirable that the generation now coming upon the stage should acquire skill, we should say in or- derly exposition of complex matters, in close and sound reasoning, in accurate de- scription. Yet in none of these things does the Bible excel. It is to put no slight upon the genius of the Hebrews who wrote the Bible to say that their talents did not lie in the directions we have just mentioned. Their work was other and higher, but not that. . . . The man who took the Bible alone for his literary guide, would get little aid in meeting this most indispensable need of a modern writer. That kind of thing simply is not to be encountered in the Scriptures. To find examples of this ability to marshal facts and compel figures to yield up their meaning, we must go to one ->f the Indian orations of Burke, or a budget- speech by Gladstone, or the legal argu- ment of a man like the new secretary of war, Mr. Dickinson, before the Alaska Ar- bitration Court. THE SUBJECTS FOR ART. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The article, April 8, on "Great Art and Small Subjects" raises some significant questions that might well test the logic and the imagination of the greatest minds. Two thoughts came to me as I meditated on the article. The great catastrophes of life instead of stimulating the imagination rather deaden >t. The effect upon the mind of such calamities as those of Lisbon and Messina is similar to great physical shock upon the nerves. Physical shock, if it is severe enough, deadens pain and ren- ders feeling less acute. The very magni- tude of these disasters and others which you mention outruns our powers of feeling and imagination. It Is only when these- elements of life are stirred that great art results. The flower has power to stir Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears, while the catastrophe robs man of power to feel at all. The mind is astonished, appalled, overwhelmed, and the imagination cannot even grasp the reality of the situa- tion, to say nothing of endeavoring to clothe it in goodly apparel and cause it to walk before us. The other thought was that great art Is made out of those events and experiences ir. history and life which have to do with what has been done for man rather than what has been done to man. The accidents and the tragedies which have befallen men by force of nature or by the will of man call forth feelings of pity and horror. It is only when something significant in man's progress meets our view that the imagination is stirred. The service of one man for another, like that of Hallam for Tennyson or King for Milton, becomes for us the universal picture of the power of friendship. The high inspiration of flower, or sea, or mountain is passed on by the art- ist to other men in the hope that it too may become a similar power in other live3. Christian ant both in painting and in music reveals the sweep of this truth of the In- spirational and stimulating power of a great service for man. It may be that some day, far distant, we shall know what part the great catas- trophes of the world have played in the service for men, what beneficent part in a kindly order and economy of the world Mes- sina, for example, has had. When that time comes, the mind will have the right estimate and view of the facts, and the imagination will be able to use them in making some great works of art — great in proportion to their significance and present incomprehensibleness. Wilfrid Asa Rowell. Beloit, Wis., April 15. "A HOLY AND HUMBLE MAN OF HEART." GEORGE RICE CARPENTER. He was a brother to his friends, a friend To all in need. He gave himself, as kings Strew gold, in little daily helpful things, Ungrudging, while there yet was life to spend. Humble of heart and holy to the end He lived; for in his soul were Pisgah springs Whereon God's shadow fell, and beck- onings Of hopes which our mortality tran- scend. Hardly we reached to that shy soul of his, So like the tall Alps which he loved, aloof Like them in quietness, high over earth. Yet without scorn he met life as it is,

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April 29, 1909] The Nation. 439 In service putting his high soul to proof, Womanly gentle, lit by cleanly mirth. Jeffebson B. Fletcher. Columbia University. Notes. Beginning next autumn D. Appleton & Co. will be the agents for the publications of the University of Pennsylvania. The following books, not previously an- nounced, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Co. next month: "Military Hy- giene," by Major Percy H. Ashburn, U. S. A.; "Economic Heresies," by Sir Nathaniel Nathan; "Moncure D. Conway, Addresses and Reprints, 1850-1907," and "Charles Edward Garman, a Memorial Volume." The new edition of "The Life and Letters of George Ticknor," announced by this house, has been postponed until the early autumn. One of the best reprints of the excellent Tudor and Stuart Library (Henry Frowde) is Wilson's "Arte of Rhetorique," edited by G. H. Mair, from the editions of 1585, col- lated with the unique copy of the editio princeps of 1560. Mr. Mair. in his intro- duction, discusses various matters connect- ed with the history of English style, and for the most part wisely. He shows how the attempt of Wilson, Cheke, and others "to write as men spoke" was balked by the Latinism of the Elizabethans, and was not made good until the days of Dryden. On another point Mr. Mair, we think, is led astray by his patriotism. He ob- serves : The historians tell us that Euphuism is older than Euphues, but they have failed to notice that the English study of rhetoric provides a much better indication of its origin than do the imagined influences of Italy and Spain. It is very easy to exag- gerate the cosmopolitanism of literary ef- fort; and an English source for this af- fectation is in the nature of things more like- ly than a foreign. Now, the recipe, so to speak, of Euphuism is to be found in "The Arte of Rhetorique." It should seem on the contrary that Wil- son's vigorous protest against the use of "ynkehorn termes" (p. 162) and against the oncoming flood of "French English" and "English Italienated" rather substantiates the notion of foreign influence than makes itself for Euphuism. It would be an in- teresting experiment to use Wilson's work as a text-book in a college class to day. We can imagine such a course, in skilful hands, as extremely valuable and provoca- tive of piquant historical comparisons. The type in this volume, as in all the series, is an exact reproduction of Tudor and Stuart printing. We have noted only one mis- print (p. 71), "greese" (with long s) for "greefe." The Macmillan Co. issues a new edition Of J. H. Lupton's "Life of John Colet," the friend of Erasmus, who, four hundred years ago, founded St. Paul's School. Some of the details of Mr. Lupton's account of the founding have been called in question, since his book was first published in 1887, but as a whole the work presents a scholarly and interesting picture of the great Ox- ford reformer. Still two more volumes, XIX and XX, of the New York Edition of Henry James's "Novels and Tales" (Charles Scribner's Sons) bring us "The Wings of the Dove." In the prolix introduction Mr. James ex- plains the motive: The idea, reduced to its essence, is that of a young person conscious of a great capacity for life, but early stricken and doomed, condemned to die under short re- spite, while also enamoured of the world; aware, moreover, of the condemnation and passionately desiring to "put in" before extinction as many of the finer vibrations as possible, and so achieve, however briefly and brokenly, the sense of having lived. Thus it came about that "the case pre- scribed for its central figure a sick young woman." In 1889 Francis Thompson, author of "The Hound of Heaven," wrote an article on "Shelley," which he offered to the Dublin Review, without success. The essay, found among Thompson's papers at his death, was again offered to the Review by the poet's literary executor, and this time was accepted. It appeared in the issue of July, 1908, and created something of a sensation. George Wyndham, for instance, sent to the editor of the periodical a letter, in which he called it "the most important contribu- tion to pure Letters written in English dur- ing the last twenty years," and this ex- travagant sentence was, for commercial reasons, not withheld from the public. Now the essay, together with Mr. Wyndham's letter and notes by Thompson's friend and patron, Wilfrid Meynell, has been put out in a neat volume by Scribners. It is, in fact, well worth reading and preserving— a piece of lyrical homage to Shelley, more itself in the nature of poetry than criti- cism. "Even in his descriptive passages," he remarks, commenting on Shelley as the mythological poet of nature, "the dream- character of his scenery isnotorious; it isnot the clear, recognizable scenery of Words- worth, but a landscape that hovers athwart the heat and haze arising from his crack- ling fantasies." And again he says that "if Shelley, instead of culling Nature, crossed with its pollen the blossoms of his own soul, that Babylonian garden is his marvel- lous and best apology." Those who admire this kind of metaphorical prose may agree with Mr. Wyndham. Others, while not with- holding admiration, will take a more sober view. No less an authority than Theodore D. Woolsey, is credited with the statement that Francis Miles Finch, author of "The Blue and the Gray," was the only poet that Yale ever produced. However that may be. the poet was not eager to rush into print. For the first time, a year and a half after the author's death, the collection of his main poetic works is offered to the public, under the title "The Blue and the Gray, and Other Verses" (Henry Holt & Co.). The volume contains "Nathan Hale," which is familiar to all the school children of the country, and many pieces which Yale and Cornell have sung for years. It is interesting to know, as is told in the notes, that the famous "Smoking Song" is the oldest of the collection— a college boy performance, written in 1848. "The Blue and the Gray" was composed in 1867, after the author had read a newspaper item tell- ing how the women of Columbus, Miss., had strewn flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and the Northern soldiers. This sentiment of brotherhood stirred the soul of the Ithaca lawyer to write the poem which the Atlantic Monthly published in September of that same year. Strange to say, the noble feelings expressed in this piece were then challenged by many per- sons who refused to forgive and forget. An- drew D. White supplies by way of introduc- tion a "Preliminary Word" giving a vivid account of Judge Finch's life and his ser- vices to Cornell University. An unusually interesting collection of documents dealing with colonial affairs in the western Great Lakes region in the latter half of the eighteenth century la- included in Vol. XVIII of the Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison: Published by the Society), edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. The volumi* concludes the series of documents connect- ed with the French regime in Wisconsin, begun in Vol. XVI of the Collections, with a survey of the years 1743-1760, and covers also the documents of the British regime in the territory comprising the present State between 1760 and 1800. During the half- century and more from 1743 to 1800, Wis- consin was successively under the dominion of three great nations — France, Great Brit- ain, and the United States — and was bor- dered by Spanish Louisiana, the domain of a fourth. The period embraced two extend- ed wars waged to determine the question of sovereignty, and involved three distinct types of administration, the colonial pater- nalism of France, the military rule of Eng- land, and the beginnings of American control. These facts give the present vol- ume a scope and interest that is unusual, and make available for students of West- ern colonial history a series of documents of great value. The Mackinac Register of Marriages, 1725 to 1821, is also included in this volume. Bernard Mallet is his memoir of "Thomas- George Earl of Northbrook" (Longmans. Green, & Co.) has filled a gap in the biog- raphy of Victorian statesmen. George Bar- ing was assuredly not a man of the first rank, but both by his position and his character he was a noble specimen of the great Whig aristocrats of his time, and on at least three occasions he was so inti- mately connected with crises in the history of the British Empire that future historians- cannot afford to overlook his biography. The recent English antipathy to things "made in Germany" must seem strange ta the Barings, if they remember that their first English ancestor went from Bremen in 1717 to Exeter, as apprentice to a firm of clothworkers. But he and his son and grandson showed extraordinary ability at making money; money bought them into Parliament (the second John spent £40,000- on his elections); and in public life, not less than in commerce and banking, their successors have been men of mark. The- German family of Baring is as thoroughly English as the Dutch family of Bentinck. Not the least interesting part of Mr. Mal- let's book is that in which he sketches the Anglicizing process. Northbrook was Vice- roy of India, 1872-76, making a reputation there as a business administrator, and a» a friend of the natives. On his return he exerted a steadying influence during the Afghan flurries, was in Gladstone's Cabinet at the time of the Egyptian troubles, and of Gordon's expedition, and became one of the pioneer Liberal Unionists when Home Rule-

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4=4oO The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2287 split the great Liberal party in twain. As First Lord of the Admiralty he pushed for- ward the naval programmes which, imitated and expanded, now threaten to bankrupt every government with a navy. Mr. Mallet furnishes a sufficient description of Lord Northbrook's private life, showing him to have been stanch in Integrity, sober in counsel, tenacious, and fair. In feature he was Yankee and not English, as the photograph on p. 150 indicates. Historians may regret that Mr. Mallet has not given an ampler account of Northbrook's relations with Gladstone, because it is evident that this might explain, even better than Mr. Morley did in his biography, the gradual elimination of several of his colleagues from the Prime Minister. Even before Home Rule cut them asunder, they were out of touch with their chief. Mr. Mallet writes a plain style, even a trifle stiff at times, but he spares eulogy and evidently purposes to tell the truth. "The Book of the Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno" is a sub- stantial addition to the New Mediaeval Li- brary published by Duffield & Co. Original- ly written in Latin at about the end of the thirteenth century, the work was ren- dered into Italian by Fra Arnaldo in 1510. It is now translated from the Italian into English by Mary G. Steegmann. Algar Tho- rold furnishes an introduction containing a few notes on the author and a rather Paterian appreciation of the saintly ideal. Readers may differ from Mr. Thorold in the degree of their admiration for the "pure and candid soul" of the Blessed Angela, but no student of mediaeval culture can afford to neglect her religious testament, for it is a full and striking account of a typical penitence, conversion, and beatifica- tion undergone by a Tertiary Hermit of the family of St. Francis. When the holy wo- man first began to think of becoming a recluse, she was hampered by the bonds of this world; but in due time, as she says in her pious way, "by God's will there died my mother, who was a great hindrance unto me in following the way of God." Presently, also, her husband and children were providentially removed from her path in answer to her prayer, so that "I had great consolation of their deaths, albeit I did also feel some grief." (The italics are ours, not Angela's.) After this, the Blessed Angela took eighteen distinct psychological steps to the embrace of God. Language is impotent to describe the mysterious bliss of the inner illumination which ensued. The high spiritual life was not, indeed, without its hours of gloom and apathy, but all the pleasures of the world were less than nought in comparison with the terrific ecstacies €r>ioyed by the celestial bride in the mo- ments of divine favor. The insufferably realistic conceptions of the Crucifixion which turn our uninitiated eyes in horror from many a painting of the Middle Ages, have their counterpart and their explana- tion in the record of this fierce woman's meditations and visions. Volume III .of Sir J. W. Redhouse's trans- lation of El-Khazreji's "History of the Resuli Dynasty of Yemen," being volume III, 3, of the Publications of the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial (London: Luzac & Co.), con- tains the translator's annotations. These give a great mass of geographical, histori- cal, biographical, and religious details, and, with an index, will be very useful. The editor, E. G. Browne, announces that the Arabic text, from a manuscript better than that used by Redhouse, will be issued shortly. Among the best works which the centen- nial of Napoleon's conquest of Germany has produced, must be counted Paul Bailleu's "Konigin Luise: Ein Lebensbild" (Leipzig: Giesecke & Devrient), which may possibly be the final and authentic life of this unhappy queen. It shows the same care as the author's other works; it is semi-popular, yet based on good sources, and finely illustrated. Among those who have discussed the re- cent revolutionary movements in Turkey and the Balkans, probably no one is more deserving of a hearing than Dr. Vladan Georgevitch, the Minister-President of the last Obrenovitch and the Servian repre- sentative in Constantinople. His book "Die turkische Revolution und ihre Aus- sichten" (Leipzig: S. Hirzel) brings an abundance of facts that would be known only to those behind the scenes ; and not- withstanding his Bulgarian bias, he de- serves credit for his objective presenta- tion of the subject. Some important volumes have been added to the series Beitrage zur deutschen Litera- turwissenschaft, edited by Dr. Ernst Elster (Marburg: N. G. Elwert). Dr. Wilhelm Sie- bert's work "Heinrich Heines Beziehungen zu E. T. A. Hoffmann" is full of material not only for the literary student, but for any one who is interested in the two men as psychological types. Dr. Otto Draeger, in "Theodor Mundt und seine Beziehungen zum Jungen Deutschland," has chosen that group of German writers, who, during the revolutionary movements of the thirties, were officially labelled "Young Germany." Among them were Karl Gutzkow and Heinrich Laube. Dr. Draeger attempts to define the position of Mundt, whose wife Klara was the voluminous writer of pseudo-historical novels, "Luise Muhlbach." The eleventh book of the series is a study of Theodor Storm's art by Dr. Hans Eichentopf: "Theodor Storms Erzahlungskunst in ihrer Entwicklung." Keats has been made the subject of a little book of seventy pages entitled "Der Sensualismus bei John Keats'' (Heidel- berg: Carl Winter), by Sibylla Geest. In the series "Aus Natur and Geisteswelt" (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner) is a history of German poetry which commends itself to the student for its brevity and conciseness, Heinrich Spiero's "Geschichte der deutschen Lyrik seit Claudius." The collected essays of Betty Paoli, an Austrian writer known chiefly for her lyric verse, have been edited and furnished with a readable introduction by Frau Helene Bettelheim-Gabillon, and published by the Literarische Verein of Vienna. Frau E. C. Dittmar's little volume, "Die Einwanderung gebildeter weiblicher Er- werbsbediirftiger nach den Vereinigten Staaten" (Leipzig: Velhagen & Klassing), is prepared as a guide to Germans who think of emigrating to the United States. Frau Dittmar came to America thirty years ago, and for several years, as a journalist, she looked after the interests of feminine read- ers of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung and answered some sixty to seventy letters a week from all classes seeking advice. Her total experience, therefore, has been pecu- liarly varied and extended. The Speeches ("Reden") of Kaiser Wil- helm II, edited by Dr. H. Penzler (Leipzig: Reclam), have been brought out in three small volumes, covering the period down to 1905. "Ferdinand Christian Baur, der Begriin- der der Tubingen Schule als Theologe, Schriftsteller und Charakter," by G. Fraed- rich, is a "prize" work, published by F. A. Perthes of Gotha. It is an enthusiastic and yet critical account of one of the few the- ological leaders of the nineteenth century who have left a deep impression on thought. The volume also contains analy- ses of the character and work of the three recently deceased pupils of Baur, Adolf Hilgenfeld. Eduard Zeller, and Otto Pflei- derer. The index should have been more extensive. The first volume (1651-1676) of the Cor- respondence of Bossuet, in the edition pub- lished under the patronage of the French Academy by Ch. Urbain and E. Levesque, contains hitherto unpublished letters with notes and appendices (Hachette). "Le Mysticisme catholique et l'ame de Dante" is a small volume by Albert Le- clere, doctor of letters of the University of Berne (Bloud). It is a useful supplement to treatises on the applications of scholas- tic theology in the "Divina Commedia," and has naturally more to do with the poet's own inner life. "Bibliotheques," by Eugene Morel, treats in two considerable volumes, but from the point of view of the general reader, the development of public libraries and book- selling (Mercure de France). The first volume inquires what is read and bought in the two worlds, with special reference to France and Germany, without neglecting Australia and Japan. There is a separate treatment of the Bibliothfeque Nationale of Paris, the British Museum, and the Con- gressional Library of Washington, and briefer mention of other libraries of Eu- rope and elsewhere. The second volume takes up in detail the era of the free li- brary in England and the United States, with views of buildings, etc. The alpha- betical index forms a year-book of 1,000 libraries, showing money spent, number of books, and circulation under general heads of law, medicine, music, theatre, social sciences, commerce, and all the rest. The volumes are sold separately (7.50 francs each). "La Poesie latine," by Frederic Plessis, professor in the University of Paris, ex- tends from Livius Andronicus to Rutilius Numatianus (12 francs, C. Klincksieck). The author is a writer of literary merit, as well as erudition, and was recently within a vote or so of election to the French Academy. Jean Duchesne-Fournet, aided by eight specialists, publishes the results of the "Mission en fithiopie (1901-3)": First vol- ume, journey, economic facts, Abyssinian manuscripts; second, geology, anthropology, and ethnography, insects, and Abyssinian bibliography. The accompanying atlas has sixty-four maps and sketches (60 francs for the entire work, Masson). The fourteenth volume of Archives maro- caines, published by the scientific mission

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April 29, 1909J The Nation 4=4=± appointed by the French government for Morocco, is made up of two theses for the doctorate of letters, which break new and interesting ground — "Judeo-Hellenes et Judeo-Berberes," consisting of investiga- tions into the origins of Jews and Judaism in Africa (272 pages); and "Les Hesbraeo- Pheniciens," an introduction to the history of the origins of Hebrew colonization in Mediterranean countries (206 pages). This book is the work of Nahum Slouschz, who is an assistant at the Academie des In- scriptions et Belles-Lettres (E. Leroux). In the Annates du Musee Guimet, Ray- mond Weill publishes "Les Origines de l'fegypte pharaonique," first part, second and third dynasties (8vo, figures and plates, 20 francs, E. Leroux). The Unione Statistics delle citta italiane has issued a second volume of the "Annuario Statistico" (Florence: Al- fani e Venturi). It is edited by Prof. Ugo Giusti, head of the Flo- rence bureau of statistics, and presents the most important administrative conditions in the chief communes of Italy for the year 1906-1907 in a series of well-arranged, com- parative tables grouped under seventeen headings: meteorology; territory and popu- lation; building activity, including prices of land, rents, and workmen's houses ; streets and parks; water and lighting; mar- kets, public slaughter-houses, and prices of food; census of animals; education; libra- ries and museums; polls, military levies, charities, sanitation; expenditures; taxes; debts and loans; employees and pensions; strikes and labor bureaus ; municipal own- ership of public services; commerce and transportation: lotteries. The tables of mi- gration and emigration, of pensions, and of the administration by the communes of un- usual services are especially important. The municipal ownership of tramways has a logical development in the control of local steamboat service by the city of Venice. Other towns have assumed the distribution of electrical power, own pharmacies, work- men's houses, bakeries, grist mills, and even refrigerating plants. There are interesting details regarding the functions assumed by labor bureaus. The number of towns con- tributing to theatrical entertainments for the people and to orchestras and bands is noticeable. The almost universal lack of town statisticians and inexperience in gath- ering data have made the editor's work dif- ficult, but the frank admission of the un- avoidable deficiencies and limitations of these early volumes disarms criticism. The number of communes cooperating in this volume has increased from sixty-seven to eighty-three. Although the editor admits a large number of errors in the replies of some communes and inadequate explana- tions of marked differences in figures be- tween successive years in others, the results are interesting and significant. The "Annu- ario" is a convenient, light quarto, which contains over three hundred pages, and an index of towns and one of subjects. Charles Warren Stoddard, known as tho "Poet of the South Seas," died at Monte- rey, Cal., April 24, at the age of sixty-five. He was born in Rochester in 1843 and early in life moved to California. For a time he was an actor, but he soon took up news- paper work and spent seven years as trav- elling correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1885 he was appointed to the chair of English literature in the Univer- sity of Notre Dame, Indiana, and remain- ed there for two years. He went to the Catholic University of America in 1889, and there remained till his death. His skill in vivid description was shown at its best in "South Sea Idyls" (1873). William Dean Howells once said: "He produced the light- est, sweetest, wildest, freshest things that ever were written about the life of that summer ocean." Among his published works are: "Poems" (1867), "Mashallah: A Flight Into Egypt" (1881), "The Lepers of Molokai" (1885), "A Troubled Heart" (1885), "Lazy Letters from Low Latitudes" (1894), "The Wonder Workers of Padua" (1896), "A Cruise Under the Crescent from Suez to San Marco" (1898), "Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska" (1899), "In the Foot- prints of the Padres" (1902), "Exits and Entrances" (1903), "For the Pleasure of His Company" (1903), "Father Damien— A Sketch" (1903), "The Island of Tranquil Delights" (1904), "The Confessions of a Reformed Poet" (1907), and "The Dream Lady" (1907). Samuel June Barrows, well-known as a student of penology, and active in many forms of philanthropy, died in this city, April 21. He was born in New York in 1845, and after a primary school education began to earn his own living in a machine shop. Later he practised stenography and worked as a reporter. In 1867 he be- came stenographic secretary to William H. Seward, Secretary of State. After studying at the Harvard Divinity School and the University of Leipzig, he was called to the First Unitarian Church of Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he stayed five years. Then he held the editorship of the Christian Register for sixteen years. He was secre- tary of the American delegation at the International Prison Congress in Paris in 1895, and represented the United States on the International Prison Commission in 1896. In 1900 he was appointed to the office of corresponding secre- tary of the Prison Association of New York. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Prison Association, a member of the International Society of Comparative Criminal Law, and the author of various reports on penology, some of which are "The Prison Systems of the Unit- ed States," "The Reformatory System of the United States," and "Crimes, Penalties, and Misdemeanors," all published by Con- gress. He was also the author of a volume entitled "The Isles and Shrines of Greece," and of various historical monographs. Julia Louisa Matilda Woodruff, widow of the Rev. Curtiss T. Woodruff, died in New York, April 21, at the age of seventy-five. She wrote largely on devotional and other topics, including the following publications: "Shiloh" (1870), "My Winter in Cuba" (1871), "Holden with Cords" (1876), "The Daisy Seekers" (1885), "Life's Sunny Side" (1886), and "Bellevue" (1891). Dr. Whitley Stokes, protessor of physic in Dublin University, and a notable linguis- tic scholar, has died at the age of seventy- nine. He was for a number of years in India, where he was active in codifying the laws, and wrote largely on legal sub- jects. He was, however, best known as a Celtic scholar, being joint editor of the series of "Irische Texte," the "Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus," and the "Archiv fur keltische Lexicographic" From his long list of publications the following may be named: "Irish Glosses" (1860), "Three Irish Glossaries" (1862), "The Creation of the World, a Cornish Mystery" (1863), "Goidelicon" (1872), "Middle-Breton Hours" (1876), "The Calendar of Oengus" (1880), "The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick" (1887), "The Old-Irish Glosses at Wiirzburg and Carlsruhe" (1887), "Urkeltischer Sprach- schatz" (1894), "The Gaelic Marco Polo, Maundevile and Fierabras" (1898), "The Eulogy of St. Columba" (1899), and "Martyrology of Oengus." THE GROWTH OF NATIONALITIES. The Cambridge Modern History. Planned by the late Lord Acton; edited by A. W. Ward, G. W. Prothero, and Stan- ley M. Leathes. Vol. XI: The Growth of Nationalities. New York: The Mac- millan Co. $4. In this great work, which has now reached its eleventh volume, leaving only one more to issue from the press, we note with interest that the number of con- tributors to each volume seems stead- ily to increase, and that among these the number of writers who are neither Englishmen nor Americans also in- creases. The present volume consists of twenty-eight chapters, some of them divided into sections done by different hands. There are twenty-nine contribu- tors, and of these ten belong to one or other of the nations of Continental Eu- rope. This may be taken as a testi- mony either to the sedulous eagerness of the editors to secure the most com- petent men to write, each about his own country, or to deficiency of per- fectly competent English and American scholars; for prima facie and cwteris paribus, an historical scholar who can use English as his own language and does not need to be translated, would as a contributor be preferable to a for- eign scholar. The general quality and character of this volume vary little from the last three or four of its predecessors. All the work is carefully and intelligently done; all conforms to the modern con- ception of scientific history. There is no attempt at those rhetorical embellish- ments which were expected from the historians of a century ago. The style, though generally level, is clear and busi- ness-like; only rarely, as in such a chap- ter as Archibald Ross Colquhoun's on South Africa, does it tend to lapse oc- casionally into the slipshod. In such a book we have no right to look for liter- ary brilliance, which in the case of all but the very best writers would be pretty sure to mean some sacrifice of accuracy and impartiality to literary ef- fect. Nevertheless, the feeling comes into our mind that in these later vol- umes we have rather less of that sort of good writing which consists in clear, short, forcible characterization of events

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4:4=2 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 and persons and tendencies than we had in the earlier volumes; and particularly in those upon the renaissance and the Reformation. It may also be remarked that there is in some of the chapters somewhat less than we could desire of an effort to bring out the broad fea- tures of the period, as apart from the •details. Since the material Is prac- tically infinite, and the details might be expanded to any extent, the function of one who undertakes to condense the narrative must be to select such inci- dents as belong to the main stream, and tended either to accelerate or to retard the movement of that stream. Such a history as this ought to avoid becoming a mere chronicle; every part should be pervaded by the sense that there were governing tendencies, and there should be an effort to place these In a strong light. This criticism, how- ever, is not intended to apply to the ■whole book, but only to some of the less skilful writers. The geographical range of the narra- tive extends in this volume further than in its predecessors, a significant indi- cation of the relations into which Eu- rope began in the nineteenth century to come with countries previously unciv- ilized. There is a chapter on South Af- rica and Australia, another on China and Japan. Thus a new kind of utility in such a history as this is revealed. Even an exceptionally well-informed inan might find some trouble in ascer- taining where he should look for an account of the Afghan war of 1839-42, or of the two Chinese wars of 1841 and 1857, or of the Japanese revolution of 1868. But in this large and well ordered scheme a place is found for all events of any magnitude anywhere, except, per- haps, in Persia, which does not seem to be brought, except by incidental men- tion, within the rays of this histori- cal lamp. A little space might have been gained by the omission of some of the disquisitions on literary history. The chapter on French literature ("Reaction against Romanticism") and that on the Italian literature of the Risorgimento, both of them excellently done by Prof. Emile Bourgeois and Prof. Carlo Segre\ respectively, are doubtless need- ed, because they illustrate the contem- porary movements of French and Italian political life. But for the chapter on English literature, the same reason can- not be advanced, nor does that chapter, although well executed, really add to the knowledge of those who are compe- tent to use the book as a whole, while the section of Chapter xxiv on Scandi- navian literature would have been bet- ter placed in a later volume, where it could have been brought down to in- clude the two most remarkable of Nor- wegian writers, who belong to the gen- eration which is now beginning to pass away. These, however, are minor points. The volume, as a whole, is quite worthy of the series. Nor need we single out special contributors. To praise the work of Dr. A. W. Ward or that of the late Sir Spencer Walpole would be super- fluous. The editors have done well in enlisting for the chapters on India and the Far East such eminent specialists as Sir William Lee Warner and Sir Ernest Satow, and we note with pleasure the appearance in Chapter xv ("Austria, Prussia, and the Germanic Confedera- tion") of Prof. Heinrich Friedjung, the brilliant author of the "Kampf um die Vorherrschaft in Deutschland, 1859- 1866." The general title of this volume, "Growth of Nationalities," fitly de- scribes the period, roughly from 1840 to 1871, which is covered by these 1040 pages. Four stages, or sub-periods, may be distinguished in the movement. There was that of the preparations for and premonitory symptoms of revolu- tion which had begun in Italy and Ger- many, almost immediately after, and which were the natural offspring of, the breakdown of the Napoleonic sys- tem. There was the short and highly exciting period of active revolution, ex- ploding and spluttering all over Europe, which began with the Sicilian insurrec- tions in January, 1848, and the Parisian street rising of February 22, in that year, and virtually closed with the sur- render of Venice in August, 1849, though the old order was not fully reestablish- ed in Germany till 1850, and the re- public did not fall before Louis Na- poleon's coup d'etat in France, De- cember, 1851. The third period may be termed one of reaction, in which never- theless the forces working afresh for or towards revolution soon showed themselves, and continued to gain strength from 1859 onwards. Last came the period of upturn, in which Italy shook off her foreign rulers (1859-60, 1866, 1870), while Germany obtained po- litical unity by the extension of Aus- tria (1866), and the establishment of the new Federal Empire (1870-71). This nationalistic movement was herewith by no means at its end. Moving east- ward, it broke out in the Turkish Em- pire with violence in 1876, and led to the emancipation of Bulgaria in 1878, and, still later, to the emancipation of Crete, while, in the far North, the long dissensions of Norway and Sweden end- ed in 1905, with the separation of those two countries. How far Macedonia and Albania may, in like manner, secure autonomy, and what will be the end of the strife between the various nation- alities in the Austro-Hungarian mon- archy, it remains for the future to show The principle of nationalities has been, in fact, intertwined, through the whole of the last ninety years since the Greek risings against the Sultan be- gan, with the struggle against arbi- trary power. Neither of these parallel movements could have achieved so rapid a triumph as those years have seen but for the help of the other. Each of the nationalities which sought to unite as one people, and get rid of the strang- er, sought also to be free from despotic rule. The passion for liberty so stimu- lated nationalism that men did not al- ways realize that the two aims are not necessarily the same, though the enemy to be vanquished was, in most cases, the same. This appeared in the case of Germany. The Liberal party in Germany was also the national party. In 1848-9, it strove at the same time for a free Germany and a united Germany. But, when a united Germany was at last cre- ated, the work was accomplished by a state and a minister whose policy fell far short of that ideal of liberty which the earlier German patriots had con- ceived; and the spirit of nationalism has been so strong since 1866 and 1870 that far less effort has been made to popularize the government than was ex- pected forty years ago. Nationalism is, in fact, under certain conditions, the ally rather of despotism than of free- dom. A people eager to overcome its foes and assert its predominance may, when the choice between freedom and military strength is set before it, prefer military strength. That is no new phe- nomenon in history. So, too, a people may, in the assertion of its own na- tionalistic aims, be found willing to for- swear in practice its theoretic love of freedom, and either to deliver itself up to a dictator for the sake of securing national unity, or to exercise a tyranny over vassal states, or perhaps over por- tions of its own territory in which men of a different race and speech strive in vain to make good their claim to be con- sidered a nationality and to have at least a measure of autonomy conceded to them. Little reference is made in this vol- ume to the effect on the European strug- gle for free government of the events that were passing in America. Yet that influence was at one time of great mo- ment. The triumph of the Northern States in the civil war profoundly af- fected opinion in Western Europe. The aristocratic Tories in England and the supporters of Louis Napoleon's mon- archy in France thought in 1862 that "the republican bubble had burst," and when slavery vanished, and the North- ern democracy not merely showed its strength but showed also that it could be clement in victory, and that its re- publican institutions emerged unscathed from the furnace of civil war, a great stimulus was given both to the democ- ratizing party in England and to the republican party in France. Incidental- ly, the failure of the French Emperor's expedition to Mexico, which was due to vigorous action taken by the North

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April 29, 1909] The ISTation. 4.4:3 after the defeat of the Confederates, gave a shock to the credit of the Em- pire from which it never recovered. But that was less significant than the moral influence of the triumph won by the Free States in a war on which the at- tention of the world had for four years heen fixed. The present volume brings us to the threshold of that new period in which we are now living, and in which neither freedom nor nationality is the most con- spicuous force directing the march of events. As in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, inter- national as well as civil wars were waged in the name of religion, as in the latter part of the seven- teenth and all through the eighteenth century they sprang, chiefly out of the dynastic ambitions of monarchs, as in the nineteenth century their cause was to be found in the struggle for internal freedom or for national union, so now the sources of discord be- tween states, and still more the springs of political party action within each state, are chiefly economic. Material in- terests rule the world; and they are now the material interests either of whole nations or of large classes and sections, not merely of individuals or privileged groups. Freedom and politi- cal power are now valued very largely as a means by which material benefits can be secured. Modern industry is the child of applied science and the parent of international commerce; and com- merce, which ought to be the pledge of peace, has by no means fulfilled the hopes entertained of it by the optimis- tic economists of fifty years ago. To describe these new forces which in one direction embody themselves in labor unions and socialistic efforts to turn government into an agency for produc- tion and distribution and which, in an- other direction, intensify the jealousy and suspicion of great nations compet- ing for markets, and to show how they have become factors in history more powerful than ever before, will be a chief task — and it is no easy one — of the concluding volume. CURRENT FICTION. Simeon Tetlow's Shadow. By Jennette Lee. New York: The Century Co. If there is anything we do not know about the American financier, his meth- ods, his morals, his domestic habits, it is surely our own fault. Whatever the reformer and the "muckraker" have left unsaid, the playwright and the novelist have undertaken to say. And yet we have not yet had any really ar- resting compelling interpretation of this "man of the hour," any more than of that other timely figure, the political boss. These dominating types have called forth innumerable studies, many of them minutely faith- ful to the fact, but no single great por- traiture. Is the fault with our literary and dramatic artists, or with their theme? Is it possible that these famous magnates of ours, who so distress us and upon whom we so pride ourselves, simply fail to offer any new material for interpretation, or even any old ma- terial of the first order? The captain of industry, the political bully, are not new figures in the world's history: why should we feign surprise at them? Their machinery varies, the scale of their operations varies (at least as regards the number of dollars or human beings affected), but their method, their mor- ale, are as old as the hills. Are we really conscious of a difference, except in bulk, between a Rockefeller and a corner grocer? Do these physical en- largements, these dropsies of great wealth and of the crushing power which great wealth brings, actually enlarge our experience? Perhaps so, as the ex- perience of the myriad toads in a pud- dle might be enlarged (and abbreviat- ed) by the development of Brobding- nagian proportions, with appetite cor- responding, on the part of some score or two of their number. But the prodi- gies would remain toads. Simeon Tetlow is a toad whose mag- nification seems to have been quite arti- ficial, or rather perfectly unreal. He is supposed to be a railroad magnate of colossal bulk — financially: The tiny, shriveled figure gave no hint of the power that ticked carloads of live stock and human beings to their destina- tion and laid its hand upon roads half dead, or dying, or alive and kicking, sweeping them gently into the system, with hardly a gulp. At forty-two he is president of the "R. and Q." road, and a nervous wreck. It is a pity we have not been made ac- quainted with him earlier, so that we might have beheld him in his prime and carried over some actual sense of his power into the spectacle of his weak- ness. One is situated toward him some- what as toward the familiar hero of fic- tion who is said to be uniformly bril- liant and witty, and who lets us hear nothing but commonplace chatter. Simeon Tetlow, in so far as we are giv- en to know him, is the protege' and pup- pet of a marvellous office-boy with a dull face and an intuitive knowledge of how to manage Tetlow's affairs, from his diet to his business. This is not, as the publisher's note too sanguinely sug- gests, "the story of a Man and a Rail- road": it is the story of a boy-hero. and two invalids. Simeon Tetlow is but half a man as we see him, and his rail- road is left a vague generalization in the background. John Bennett is the chief actor, and his feats are as prob- able as those of the heroes of Messrs. Oliver Optic and Henty. It is well enough for us to believe that in Tetlow's condition an honest boy may have come, to supply him with "hands and feet — al- most, it might seem, lungs and a few other useful vital organs"; but brains and will are a different matter. "We must again take exception to the pub- lisher's remark that "the interplay of his slow, sturdy nature with Simeon's vivid one is full of insight and humor and delightful surprise." There is very little humor in the book, though a great deal of pretty and wholesome sentiment. A little strained, perhaps, is the pro- longed suffering of Tetlow under the curse of the old switch-tender, who has been displaced for carelessness; a little obvious the device of the innocent child who brings about the lifting of the curse; but accepted as a novel of senti- ment and not of commercial life, the story may be enjoyed for its fluency and sweetness. The Wild Geese. By Stanley J. Wey- man. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. The announcement is made that this is the last novel to be put forth by Mr. Weyman; and it must be confessed that we are able to endure the thought with some composure. He has borne his part bravely in the heyday and through the decline of the historical romance; and with a score of popular successes to his credit, may now fairly leave what skirmishings remain in the hands of the younger generation. "The "Wild Geese" is — the usual thing, only not quite so much so — a diminished echo of "Under the Red Robe" and "A Gen- tleman of France." It contains, that is, the same elements of love-making, po- litical intrigue, and sword-play, but a notable falling off in spirit and swing." The action takes place in Kerry, in the reign of George the First. It is the darkest hour of Irish Jacobitism. The public observances of the Roman faith are forbidden, and Romanists are shorn of civil and political rights. In spite of conspiracies, duels, and dungeons, it is all a sufficiently amiable sort of thing to happen in a book: the only question is why it should be necessary for it to happen so many times in so many books. A hundred years ago historical romance was yet to be born, in the Waverley novels. The stream grows sadly dilute. Whither Thou Ooest. By J. J. Bell. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. A sweet, simple story, sweetly and simply told, consisting of the old theme with variations, smacking less of the kailyard than one might expect of the author of "Wee Macgreegor." Richard Balmain is drawn to Ruth Lennox, first by her fortune, and then by herself; but the latter emotion fails to convince her after she has been told of the for- mer fact by her aunt, a personage as devoid of the milk of human kindness as Bill Sykes, and infinitely more pes-

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4:44 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 tilent, as she gives the police no excuse for cutting short her misdemeanors. After this revelation, the book is occu- pied by Ruth's gradual realization that, mercenary or not, Dick's wooing has been only too successful, and by the struggle between his love and his pride before he can return to her. Needless to say, love wins the battle, even before Dick learns that Ruth has lost her for- tune, the original cause of all the mis- chief. Some of the minor characters are drawn with vigor and distinction, espe- cially Dick's gentle but strong-spirited mother, and Miss Fitzroy, the suffragist. Much Ado about Peter. By Jean Web- ster. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. Ten light, deft, good-humored sketches of the life circulating about the stables and the kitchen of one of the American landed gentry are here made into a book which a person who has nothing else to do may read without effort, and even with mild amusement. Though the connection of the chapters with one another is by no means close, the rise of Peter from groom to coachman and his courtship of Annie, the maid, fur- nish a kind of unifving interest in the world of cooks, valets, gardeners, and stable-boys. Furthermore, the social and the serving worlds are linked to- gether by an occasional implication that the young gentlemen and ladies who ride the fine horses and wear the fine gowns are not much wiser in the af- fairs of the heart than the men and maids who hold the bridles and do the ironing. The interest of the book lies mainly in the low-comedy characteriza- tion, and in the escapades of the high- spirited, unbridled children which fam- ily life of the character here suggested naturally produces. One cannot help feeling that if Miss Webster had kept Peter and his friends in their places, and had given the children the front of the stage, she might, with a little atten- tion to plot, have written a fresh and continuously entertaining story of child- life. Certainly, if she does not wish her talent to run to seed she should not permit herself to make many more books in this fashion. Publishing vol- umes of sketches is a bad habit to form; it is extremely wasteful of mate- rial, and it betrays a lack of self-re- straint and patient ambition. France of the French. By Edward Har- rison Barker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.50 net. France in the Twentieth Century. By W. L. George. New York: John Lane Co. $1.75 net. France has recently fallen into the march of civilization and put forth a "Who's Who" of her own. Mr. Barker's volume may be best described as an at- tempt to clothe the skeleton structures of "Who's Who" with sufficient flesh for the uses of the average American news- paper office. This the. author has done very successfully. Within some 260 pages he has brought together a sur- prisingly large amount of biographical information covering every field of con- temporary French life. He has given to his sketches the added personal touch that bespeaks first-hand acquain- tance with the material, and makes at- tractive reading. Names like Coppee, Richepin, Rostand, Deroulede, Bourget, Barres, Anatole France, Jules Lemattre, Saint-Saens, Massenel, Delibes, Roux, Berthelot, Clemenceau, Combes, De- schanel, Delcasse, receive their page or half-page of detailed fact and charac- terization. Mr. Barker is not absolute- ly contemporary. He includes the men who have so recently passed away that their names are still the names of the present day. Thus it would appear at first that the best French painters, like the best Indian, are the dead. But Jules Lefebvre, Bonnat, Carolus Duran, Flameng, and Rochegrosse, among the living, are accounted for. The chapters on art, and particularly the one on arch- itecture, are done with more care and intimacy than the rest. As a rule, the record of personal opinion runs sober and just. The chapters on French character, on family life, and on "Lights and Shad- ows" deal in the main with the peren- nial problem of French morality. On that difficult subject much can be writ- ten, and has been written, and, on the whole, to little purpose. In the end it always amounts to this: that the mor- als and conduct of the French people are not quite those of Great Britain and America, but that the French are a very likeable people nevertheless. We regret to see Mr. Barker advance the old argument that Paris is not France, and that Parisian standards are not the national standards. But that is, after all, quite opposite to what the French themselves maintain. Historically, Paris has dominated France. If the cap- ital draws to herself a steady supply of fresh material from the provinces, it is still admitted that Paris shapes this rough matter to her own form with astonishing thoroughness and dispatch. If Hercules can be fairly enough built up from his foot, a nation cannot com- plain if the outside world reconstructs it from its head. Mr. George's "France in the Twen- tieth Century" is an exasperating book. It combines a certain amount of ex- pert knowledge and occasional flashes of real insight with an astounding mass of splendid misinformation. It is writ- ten from the point of view of an ardent Jacobin and admirer of the French peo- ple. But its tone is hyperemotional and its logic is, to say the least, dubious. Rarely has a cart been put so squarely before the horse as when the low state of French personal morals is shown to arise directly from the prevalence of an immoral literature and art. Mr. George's general reflections on politics and so- ciety are gigantic in sweep and childish in effect. As to his facts, he tells us that "all European states have written Constitutions, a copy of which can be purchased by any man for a few pence"; that in France "the Premier is selected by the President from among the men who can command a majority in both houses"; and that the word "bloc" was coined by Waldeck-Rousseau, whereas M. Clemenceau is its universally ac- knowledged father. The author's power of generalization is exemplified in the following pronouncement: The French are a nation of individual- ists; they do not take kindly to group ac- tion. It is for this reason that they do not succeed in team games such as cricket or football; every man in the team plays for himself, and disorder naturally follows. The Springs of Helicon. By J. W. Mackail. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. $1.25. The three essays here brought togeth- er are a revision of lectures delivered at Oxford by the professor of poetry, and they display both the strength and the weakness common to the criticism of the English universities. For weakness, they lack a certain driving power, a cer- tain dynamic use of ideas; they leave one with the feeling that most things here have already been said, although never before, perhaps, quite so well said. For strength, they introduce one into an atmosphere of golden serenity, into a society where all matters of taste are settled, beautifully and forever. In weighing the advantages and disadvan- tages of such a style, we are inclined to place the balance strongly on the positive side. To be more particular, of the three essays, that on Chaucer is, to our taste, the least interesting; the judgments seem to us firmer and more decisive in those on Spenser and Milton. Many pas- sages in the Spenser could be pointed out in which the criticism is flushed with a poetic warmth of imagination. Such, for example, is the description of the portrait of Count Martinengo-Cesar- esco, in the National Gallery, with the application of its motto — ioi Aiax n-ofti, "Oh, I desire too much" — to the out- reaching spirit of the renaissance. Oth- er passages dwell lovingly on subtleties of form and style, as in the long analy- sis of the Spenserian stanza and of its various capabilities and limitations — where the critic is at his best. Others introduce elaborate comparisons, such, for example, as the novel, and some- what strained, parallel of Spenser and Livy, which reminds one almost too forcibly that the author has written his

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April 29, 1909J The Nation. 445 history of Latin literature. Still others show the writer's sensitiveness to the shifting currents of literary inspiration, as when he touches on the changs that takes place toward the end of the sixth book of "The Faerie Queene": It occurs subtly and silently, like dawn overspreading the sky. But it means that the spirit of the poet, and of his art, has changed. The renaissance is tiring of it- self; poetry is returning to life: and with the same movement life is returning to poetry. ... It suggests a return . . . to the pleasant villages and farms, to the opener air, from the enchanted atmosphere, heavy and luminous, of courtly romance. On the whole, Professor Mackail rather underrates the value of Spenser's linked sweetness, apparently under the desire of throwing into higher relief the work of Milton in passing from renaissance to true classical influences, and so bringing English poetry to its own perfection and to its place in the literature of Europe. To the further glorification of his hero he somewhat exaggerates the aloofness of Milton; and nowhere does he better manifest his skill in dressing up old ideas with fresh poetical imagery than in his brief description of the period: The confusion of English politics in the seventeenth century seems reflected in the confusion of English poetry. We cannot bring its progress under any single formula. It is difficult to discriminate between the poetry which represents the continuance of an earlier impulse and that which is a new beginning, a separate movement. We seem to wander in a dimly lighted undergrowth, in a close dungeon of innumerous boughs. When we emerge into daylight, it is to find ourselves in another world. Darkness had slowly fallen on the Elizabethan afterglow; from out of a sky spangled with a con- fused multitude of stars which succeeded it, there comes breaking and flooding in, slowly and inevitably, the Aufklarung, the blanched clearness of a new and modern day. We have no desire to detract from the enthusiastic admiration of Professor Mackail for the great and lonely star of that period between afterglow and dawn, but we think he might have pointed more clearly to the harm suf- fered by English literature from the iso- lation of its greatest and most classical poet. Milton "stands wholly apart; he founded no school; he exercised no ef- fect upon contemporary poets" — to Pro- fessor Mackail as to Wordsworth that loneliness would seem to be an enhance- ment of virtue. But loss is reciprocal, and if the age and ages to come suffered from this neglect, Milton also was led by it into certain astringencies of taste that he would probably have escaped in a more sympathetic society. His ex- treme individualism is not altogether a strength. We cannot take space to linger over the many felicitous paragraphs of this third essay — the merit of Waller, the comparison of Milton's periods with those of Virgil and Dante and Spenser, the delicate, unexpected dramatic sense evinced in the speeches of "Paradise Lost," etc. In one point Professor Mackail's hero-worship has, we think, led him astray. He quotes the well- known statement of Edward Phillips in regard to Milton's estimation of "Para- dise Lost" and "Paradise Regained": It [the later poem] is generally censured to be much inferior to the other, though he could not hear with patience any such thing when related to him. To take these words, says Professor Mackail, as meaning that Milton thought "Paradise Regained" the greater of the two epics, is a "strange and obstinate misapprehension." Milton heard them with impatience, he thinks, because they were true. We submit that the tradi- tional interpretation is more plausible. But, in the end, Professor Mackail's work is rather to be valued for its gen- eral suavity of tone than judged in ac- cordance with the correctness or orig- inality of its separate ideas. Science. THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. Philadelphia, April 26. The annual General Meeting of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest scientific body in the country, was held here April 22-24. The presi- dent, Dr. W. W. Keen of Philadelphia, and vice-presidents, Prof. W. B. Scott of Princeton, and Prof. A. A. Michel- son of Chicago, recent recipient of the Nobel prize, took turns in conducting the sessions. Notable among the for- eign visitors were the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, the British ambassador at Wash- ington, and Prof. Christian Hiilsen, a anember of the Imperial German Archae- ological Institute of Berlin, who has been in charge of the excavations of the Forum in Rome. The following new members were elected: Louis A. Bauer, William Howard Taft, Washington, D. C; Marston Taylor Bogert, Hermon Carey Bumpus, Dr. Alexis Carrel, A. V. Williams Jackson, New York; Edwin Brant Frost, Williams Bay, Wis.; Rob- ert Aimer Harper, Charles Richard Van Hise, Madison, Wis.; William Herbert Hobbs, Victor Clarence Vaughan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Boston; William Romaine Newbold, John Frederick Lewis, Charles Bingham Penrose, Philadelphia; Francis Darwin, Cambridge, England; Hermann Diels, Emil Fischer, Berlin; Friedrich Kohl- rausch, Marburg; W'ilhelm F. Ph. Pfef- fer, Leipzig. The evening of April 23 was devoted to a celebration of the centenary of Charles Darwin, who was a member of the society, as was also his grandfath- er Erasmus Darwin. The British am- bassador spoke as one having authority since when a student in England ne had a personal acquaintance witu Darwin. He gave a number of personal remin- iscences and described the reception ot the "Origin of Species," which was universally discussed not only among the educated classes out by the com- mon people as well. Prof. G. L. Good- ale of Harvard considered "The Influ- ence of Darwin on Natural Science"; and Prof. G. S. Fullerton of Colum- bia, "The Influence of Darwin on the Mental and Moral Sciences." At the suggestion of Ambassador Bryce, the society cabled congratulations to two close friends and collaborators of Dar- win, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Alfred Russel Wallace, both members of the society and still living in Eng- land. Among the scientific papers of gen- eral interest was one by Dr. L. F. Keb- ler on the unsuspected presence of habit-forming agents in beverages and medicines. He called attention to the fact that a large number of soft drinks contain not only a considerable amount of caffein, but, in many instances, small quantities of cocain. Cocain has also been found in agents intended for the treatment of the tobacco habit. The same pernicious drug has been detected in medicine used in the treatment of hay fever, asthma, and in relieving pain resulting from dentition in infancy. Morphine, opium, chloral hydrate, her- oin, and codein singly or combined have also been found in many other medi- cines, particularly those intended for the treatment of epilepsy, rheumatism, asthma, gastric troubles, and ailments of infancy and childhood. Dr. L. A. Bauer of the Carnegie In- stitution of Washington read a sugges- tive paper dealing with the connection between the various manifestations of solar activity (e. g., sun-spots) and the so-called magnetic storms which at times affect compass needles simul- taneously all over the earth, which even interrupt telegraph and cable lines, and which are usually accompanied by fine auroral displays. One of the most severe of these magnetic storms was that of October 30-November 1, 1903, which was violent enough to derange the mariner's compass at certain places by as much as three degrees, and which was said to have caused a temporary suspension of the electric car line in Zurich. The effects of this particular storm lasted for fully two months af- ter its apparent subsidence, the earth's magnetic condition being below normal, until towards the close of the year (1903). Prof. George E. Hale, director of the Carnegie Solar Observatory at Mt. Wilson, Cal., has discovered that sun- spots are centres of violent cyclones.

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4=4:3 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 But however intensely magnetic these •whirling cyclones may be, a simple cal- culation shows that they are far too distant to affect appreciably our most sensitive magnetic instruments. Yet the various curves exhibited indicate in- disputably that some relation exists between solar activity, as evidenced, for example, by sun-spots, calcium floc- culi, solar eruptions, prominences, etc., and the earth's magnetic fluctuations. The variations in the solar and the terrestrial magnetic phenomena follow each other closely. One of the most im- portant of the inferences drawn is, that an increase in sun-spot activity is ac- companied by a decrease in the earth's magnetization, or that the magnetiza- tion superposed on the earth's magnetic field during solar outbreaks is opposite to that of the earth's own field. It ap- pears questionable whether the earth's magnetism ever settles down precisely to its former condition after the oc- currence of a magnetic storm. The facts are not yet sufficient to draw a definite conclusion whether solar activity and magnetic storms stand to each other as cause and effect or whether they are both effects of the same cause. Saturday afternoon was set aside for a "Symposium on Earthquakes," and the following papers were read: "Introduc- tion, Classification, Discussion of Vol- canic Earthquakes; Description, with il- lustrations, of the Charleston, S. C, and Kingston, Jamaica, Disasters," Prof. Edmund O. Hovey, New York; "The Present Status and the Outlook of Seismic Geology," Prof. William H. Hobbs, Ann Arbor; "Conditions Lead- ing to Tectonic Earthquakes, Instru- ments Used in the Study of Earth- quakes, Suggestions for a National Seismological Bureau," Prof. Harry F. Reid, Baltimore. Prof. Reid declared that the work of a national bureau would be very varied. It should col- lect data regarding all felt earthquakes, and make a geological examination, in special cases, of the regions where earthquakes occur. The instrumental records from the whole country should also be collected and studied to throw light on the nature of the earth's in- terior, and to discover the centres of earthquake disturbances in the sur- rounding oceans. This would require the general cooperation of many de- partments of the government. Edwin Swift Balch explained why in his opinion America should re- explore Wilkes Land. Lieut. Charles Wilkes, U. S. N., first announced to the world in 1840 the existence of a great Antarctic continent, along whose shores he sailed for a distance of 1,500 miles, a coast known as Wilkes Land. It has not been visited again. Sir James Clark Ross, Sir Clements R. Markham, and Capt. Robert F. Scott, R. N., no one of whom has been there, declare emphati- cally that Wilkes Land does not exist and should be expurgated from the charts. It should, therefore, be looked on as a patriotic duty for America to verify Wilkes's discovery and get a more careful chart of these shores. Be- sides geographical discoveries, many other branches of science would be benefited by an expedition to the Ant- arctic. None of our museums has speci- mens of the fauna or petrography, etc., of Antarctica, and such collections should be obtained. An expedition to verify Wilkes's discoveries would cost perhaps $100,000; and the best way to start it might be to form an Antarctic committee, composed of representative scientists and explorers. A paper on "J. J. Rousseau, a Pre- cursor of Modern Pragmatism," was read by Prof. Albert Schinz of Bryn Mawr. He said that Rousseau, like mod- ern pragmatists, starts from the as- sumption that an idea in order to be pronounced true must yield results, but •meaning by results, useful results, or still more precisely moral results. Rous- seau, like William James, develops a conception of truth by which he tries to displace the intellectual or rational conception of truth and replace it by a criterion varying according to circum- stances. The "sentimentalism" or "ra- tionalism" which Rousseau opposes to the "materialism" of his time, corre- sponds exactly to the "expedient" or the "humane arbitrariness" which William James opposes to "divine necessity" of modern intellectualism. There is a cur- ious parallelism in the evolution of Rousseau's thought with that of James; and this circumstance will help us to account for their conception of truth and philosophy. The meeting closed on Saturday eve- ning with a dinner at which nearly one hundred members were present. Presi- dent Keen presided as toastmaster and the following toasts were responded to: "The Memory of Franklin," President Francis L. Patton of Princeton; "Our Sister Societies,' the British Ambassa- dor and President Henry S. Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation; "Our Uni- versities," President-elect Lowell of Harvard; "The American Philosophi- cal Society," President Keen. Arthur Wtllis Goodspeed. tions and to other doctrines which seem to have escaped from further reasoning into the realm of accepted traditions among most English writers. The influence of Professor Le Dantec's teaching on the younger scientific men of France ought to result in a different state of things. A posthumous work of Dr. E. T. Hamy treats of "Les Debuts de Lamarck," with discussion of the work of Adanson, Jussieu, Pallas, Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Cuvler, and other naturalists, most of whom were the author's predecessors at the Museum of the classic Jardin des Plantes (3.50 francs, Guilmoto). "La Crise du transformisme," by Felix Le Dantec, continues this biolo- gist's severe criticism of the hypothetical methods of Weismann, and, from the strict- ly mechanical point of view, forms a re- statement of Lamarck's essential theory as distinct from Darwin's. Naturally the book runs counter to De Vries's theory of muta- Drama. Tragedy Queens of the Georgian Era. By George Fyvie. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $4 net. From the great mass of contempo- raneous record — diaries, letters, me- moirs, criticism, etc. — Mr. Fyvie has carefully extracted the various refer- ences to the personal and artistic ca- reers of the most prominent actresses of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century, and put them in consecutive and convenient order. Thus he furnishes in one attractive and, on the whole, instructive book, in- formation hitherto obtainable only in a long course of miscellaneous reading. It was inevitable, perhaps, that it should be somewhat in the nature of a scandalous chronicle. The author starts out with the assertion that his object was biographical rather than critical, and many of his heroines were far more distinguished for their dramatic abili- ties than for their private virtues. Nev- ertheless, it may be doubted whether it is necessary now to rehearse at length the gossip which has been public prop- erty for more than a century. Mr. Fyvie seems to have included Elizabeth Barry in his list — although she does not belong properly to the Georgian era at all — for the sake of dwelling upon her notorious connections with Rochester, Etheredge, and others. The publication of the rejected Otway's despairing ap- peal has more justification. That Bar- ry was one of the chief ornaments of the British stage for a quarter of a cen- tury is unquestionable. Whether Ot- way really experienced all the agony he expressed is less certain. Anne Bracegirdle, who inspired passion in many hearts, counting Congreve, Love- lace, and Nicholas Rowe among her suitors, was much more circumspect in her conduct than most of her fair asso- ciates. She must have been a bewitch- ing comedian, but her name will live, perhaps, in history chiefly on account of her attempted abduction by Hill and Lord Mohun and the trial of the latter by his peers for his share in the mur- der of the unlucky actor, Will Mount- ford. Of the official proceedings in this notorious case Mr. Fyvie gives some in- teresting details. Nance Oldfield, like Peg Woffington, has been made a hero- ine of modern comedy, and her name is therefore more familiar to the general public than those of many of her rivals. She shone both in tragedy and comedy,

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April 29, 1909] The Nation. 4,4=7 and must have exerted a most uncom- mon personal charm, inasmuch as her notoriously irregular mode of life was no bar to her reception in respectable social circles, or at court, which possi- bly is less remarkable. Her popularity and her prudence were proved by the large estate which she left behind her and the valuable art collection which she owned. The acknowledged preeminence of Susannah Arne (Mrs. Cibber), in such diverse parts as Juliet, Constance, and Lady Macbeth, justifies Mr. Fyvie's high estimate of her, but it was scarce- ly worth while to dwell for so long on the sordid story of her wedded life with the infamous Theophilus Cibber, or the endless squabbles between Co- vent Garden and Drury Lane. The quot- ed letters of Garrick and others are, however, illuminative of the pe- riod. The paper on Mrs. Pritchard, who stands second only to Mrs. Siddons, is an excellent one, and full justice is done to Mary Ann Yates and Mrs. Spranger Barry. The stress laid upon the "shrieks" of the latter suggests that her vigor was at least equal to her inspiration. Elizabeth Pope enjoys the distinction of being the last, and one of the best, of Garrick's Cordelias. One of the freshest chapters in the book is that devoted to Mrs. inchbald, an ac- tress of only ordinary capacity, but a woman whose varied ability, generous character, and high courage entitle her to remembrance. Mr. Fyvie's account of Sarah Siddons is full and adequate, but, of course, he has no new information, or estimate, to give concerning her. He would have followed a more dignified course, if he had imitated some of her other biographers in ignoring the wretched Galindo episode, which, at the worst, appears to have been only the result of mistaken confidence in a designing rascal. It certainly ought not to be treated as a significant incident, in a consistently worthy life. Julia Glover and Eliza O'Neill, who complete the list, are of lower artistic rank than most of their companions, but the lat- ter is notable as the original of the *otheringay in Thackeray's "Penden- nis." "The Writing on the Wall," by William J. Hurlbut, which was produced In the Savoy Theatre on Monday evening, has many of the characteristics of "The Fight- ing Hope," by the same author. In spite of its assumption of serious purpose, it is actually an inferior specimen of sensational and ultra-sentimental melodrama. Its vio- lence and insincerity are emphasized by the artificial acting of Miss Olga Nethersole, whose indisputable natural ability is only discernible at rare intervals beneath the mass of her elaborate affectations. Briefly, the theme is the conscienceless greed of slum landlords, with an incidental attack upon the Trinity Church corporation; but the general treatment is so Juvenile and inexpert in its unreasonableness and its platitudinous preachments — not to speak of its essentially undramatic quality — that the excellence of the object counts for little. Miss Nethersole plays the entirely theatri- cal part of a saintly and deeply wronged wife and devoted mother, whose only child is burned to death at a Christmas-tree festival which she has p.-epared for the ten- ants of one of the filthy warrens owned by her husband, whose avarice, in repainting old fire escapes instead of providing new ones, is responsible for the catastrophe. Manifestly there is here the material for an effective drama, and it affords Miss Nether- sole— at the moment of her realization of the child's fate — an opportunity for one of those manifestations of agonized emotion in which she excels. At this crisis she approached the truth of nature more nearly than at any other time, ana was cor- respondingly impressive. Throughout the rest of the play her mannerisms were fatal to all illusion. The only really notable acting fn the representation was that of William Morris as the grasping landlord. His portrayal of a hard, strong man, sud- denly shattered to his foundations by the fear of imminent ruin, disgrace, and pun- ishment, and the loss of all that had made life dear to him, was exceedingly striking and able. Mr. Hurlbut has a sense of the- atrical situation, but has everything co learn about the true principles of dramatic construction. An experimental performance of a some- what adroit translation of Brieux's "Les Hannetons," made by Laurence Irving, was given by Mr. Irving in the Hackett Theatre on Tuesday afternoon, to the evident pleasure of a special audience. The piece is an intimate and veracious study of the daily squabbles of an ill-mated pair, living in illegitimate union, of which the moral seems to be that such voluntary bonds, how- ever lightly assumed, are apt to become intolerable, but unbreakable, fetters. This is, in its way, wholesome teaching, but the main object of the play is amusement, not instruction, and the cynical humor of It all, with the frequent flashes of character- istic Gallic wit, provoked much hearty laughter. But the tale is, in its essence, sordid, unsympathetic, and not well suited for general public entertainment. It was well played, on the whole, by Mr. Irving and his wife, Mabel Hackney, the latter furnishing a lively sketch of a vixenish and jealous temper. Music. OPERATIC MANAGEMENT. The end of Heinrich Conried's trou- bled career suggests the reflection that few positions are so difficult to fill to the satisfaction of everybody as that of an operatic manager. He has to defer to the social element among his patrons as well as to the wishes of the music lovers. He has to deal with a large number of singers of various national- ities, each of whom clamors for special privileges. The unions to which the or- chestral players, the chorus singers, and the stage-hands belong are all likely to harass him in turn, as they did Mr. Con- ried. He has to scour all Europe and America for new singers. He is likely to be stunned on finding that he has wasted a great deal of money on an art- ist who, while popular in Paris, Lon- don, or the cities of Germany, fails to please in New York. He has to arrange his repertory so as not to give the same operas too often on the same day in the week, or to deprive the subscribers of a certain week-day of the opportunity to hear this or that singer in a favorite role. He has to meet the assaults of all his artists, each demanding an advance in emoluments once a year; he is ha- rassed hourly by the bugaboo of "sudden indisposition," which makes it necessary — though sometimes almost impossible — to change the opera at the last mo- ment. In short, uneasy lies his head as if he wore a crown. In addition to these general tasks and tribulations, Mr. Conried had troubles of his own. At one time he was almost paralyzed with fear lest his most profit- able tenor should be ostracised. An- other time a California earthquake upset his plans and changed a big sur- plus into a deficit. An upheaval of a different kind nearly frustrated his plans for "Parsifal," but luckily he won, and put $200,000 into his coffers. On the other hand, he lost the battle for "Sa- lome," from which he had expected sim- ilar results; and this was one of the nails in his coffin. Overwork and other factors helped to undermine his health, and when he was asked to resign it was as much because of his impaired ability to discharge his manifold duties as be- cause of the mistakes he was accused of having made. He had been chosen be- cause of his success in managing theatri- cal and comic-opera companies, and in view of the fact that he knew very little about music or singing, it must be ad- mitted he achieved some remarkable successes. His self-assurance was amaz- ing. At a rehearsal of "Parsifal," when it was pointed out to him that his sub- stitute for bells did not work well, he exclaimed: "Then Wagner composed that badly." He evidently believed with the German comic poet that — Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, Doch weiter kommt man ohne ihr. Operatic management used to be a much less difficult and complicated af- fair in the good old times. Then all a manager had to do was to find a popu- lar prima donna and the problem was solved. When Catalani was remonstrat- ed with for asking so large a sum that it became impossible to employ other artists of talent, her husband exclaim- ed: "Talent! Have you not Mme. Cata- lani? What would you have? If you want an opera company, my wife with four or five puppets is quite sufficient." Matters had already mended somewhat in the days of the doughty Col. Maple-

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4:48 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 son; though Patti asked ?5,000 a per- formance, he found it possible to en- gage a few other capable artists and a respectable orchestra; but he would have stood aghast at the demands now made on managers by operagoers. The subscribers of the Metropolitan to-day not only insist on having the names of the leading sopranos, contraltos, tenors, baritones, and bassos of the world in the prospectus, they want the scenery, the stage management, the chorus, and the orchestra to be as good as at Bay- reuth or Munich. Admittedly, the suc- cess of the season just ended was due largely to the improvements of this kind made by Mr. Gatti-Casazza in the Italian operas, and in the German op- eras by Mr. Dippel who bought up the best players in town and searched all Germany for the best chorus singers. Maurice Grau was the man who com- plicated the managerial functions in an unprecedented manner by abandoning the old plan of singing all operas in Italian. He engaged French singers for the French operas and German singers for the Wagner music dramas. It was a great step in advance, but it was a dangerous policy to pursue, for it made the public and the critics more and more exacting. If the Wagner operas were not done so well as at Bayreuth, Gounod so well as in Paris, Verdi so well as in Milan, the subscribers growl- ed and wanted to know why — in fact, they expected all operas to be better presented here than abroad, and better they generally were, at least so far as tne singing was concerned. When Mr. Conried entered on nis duties he tried to degrade the prima donnas and tenors to a less commanding position, but soon found that this policy was sui- cidal. The best operas, with all-star casts, was what the public demanded, and if the cost was greater, who cared? The growing fastidiousness of the public to which the manager has to cater, is illustrated in the case of Mr. Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House. He knew that such operas as "Pell6as et MSlisande," "Louise," "Thais," "Le Jongleur de Notre Dame" had been successful only in Paris. He concluded that their failure elsewhere had been due to their not having been interpreted in the genuine French spir- it, so he imported a Parisian company, and found that, apparently, these were the very operas New Yorkers had been hungering for. So much has he been impressed by this circumstance that after a two years' trial he has decided to make French opera the mainstay of the next season, relegating Italian op- era to a second place. The latest problem has arisen from the growing competition in the oper- atic world. The leading singers refuse to sign, except for a given number of performances. But Mme. Tetrazzini, for example, draws full houses in only half a dozen operas and Mr. Hammer- stein cannot ask his subscribers to hear her week after week in the same op- eras. Partly for this reason he built his opera house in Philadelphia, and is about to build one in Brooklyn; at these houses he can carry out his con- tracts with the singers without offend- ing the subscribers. It is for the same reason that the Metropolitan Opera Company now performs not only here and in Philadelphia, but in Baltimore and Washington, beside promising aid to Boston. All this entails much ad- ditional work on the management — quite enough to keep two men busy. "Les Chansons de Croisade," by Joseph Bgdier, successor of Gaston Paris, with the collaboration of Pierre Aubry for the tunes, is a work of value in the history of crusaders as well as of music. Professor Bedier's name is enough to justify this unique excursion into a side field of erudi- tion. Only 300 copies have been printed (10 francs, H. Champion). Prof. Romain Rolland, wno is becoming one of the most voluminous as well as com- petent writers on music, publishes "Bee- thoven," with twelve engravings, mainly portraits, in the Editions d'Art, series of Thinkers (5 francs, E. Pelletan). Marcella Sembrich will begin her fare- well concert tour in the United States on October 18 next. She will also visit Mexico and Cuba in the first two months of next year. For his farewell recital at Carnegie Hall Saturday afternoon, May 1, Ossip Gabrilo- witch, the Russian pianist, has arranged a programme of compositions by Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert. Grieg, Josef Hofmann, Schloezer, and Gabrilowitch, the last-men- tioned being the pianist's "Caprice Bur- lesque," opus 3. Gabrilowitch has been in this country the entire season, and his tour has taken him to the Pacific Coast and as far south as Texas. He will sail for Eu- rope the middle of May. Heinrich Conried, former director of the Metropolitan Opera House, died at Meran, Austria, April 27. He was born at Bielltz, Silesia, in 1855, and early made the stage his goal. After acting with some success in Germany, he came to America, and at first managed a small theatre on the Bow- ery. Later he took charge of the old Ger- mania Theatre, then of the Thalia Thea- tre, and finally of the Irving Place Thea- tre. In all these places he maintained good stock companies, which were rein- forced by the importation of distinguished German actors and actresses. He produced in an excellent way the best German plays, both classical and modern. His success in these theatres led to his appointment in 1903 as manager of the Metropolitan. His work as director of this opera house is the thing which has made his name most widely known. Perhaps his greatest achievement was the production of "Parsi- fal." Other novelties which he brought out were "Die Fledermaus," "Der Zig- eunerbaron," "Fedora," "La Damnation de Faust," and "Adriana Lecouvreur." Art. A MUSEUM OF HORRORS. The directors of the Museum of In- dustrial Art at Stuttgart have had the happy thought of exhibiting gross er- rors in taste (Geschmacksverirrungen) . Instead of teaching by examples of what to imitate, the idea is to show the pub- lic and art students what to avoid. With German thoroughness, a catalogue of this display of artistic aberrations has been drawn up by Professor Pa- gaurek, under such various heads as wrong uses of material, fantastic treat- ment, freaks in decoration, and so forth. As the show is one of industrial art, it contains only monstrosities in that sphere: knock-kneed tables and all kinds of misapplied ingenuity in furni- ture, china, and ornaments, with wild extravagances in decoration. The whole is a kind of Dantean circle, about which the student and the apprentice are led in order to frighten them into the paths of artistic righteousness. What German youth most inclined to aesthetic debauch- ery would not be given pause by what is probably the chef d'amvre of the exhibi- tion— an iron stove in the guise of an antique suit of armor! The wicked — or the envious — might say that Teuton- ic taste leads the whole world of art in producing the thing that should not be. A kind of irresistible weakness for the bizarre, for over-ornamentation, for ap- plying the methods of wood-carving to sculpture, seems, indeed, to trouble mod- ern German art. The Empire suffers from a plague of inferior statues— though enriched also by some majestic ones — and if the Kaiser had wished to help out this Stuttgart exhibition, he could have drawn freely upon what is irreverently called his Denkmalmarkt in Berlin. But say what one will, we have in this holding up of a mirror to bad taste a brave attempt to do what other countries may as much need but lack the courage to undertake. If Ger- mans make the artistic blunders, it is Germans also who have the critical de- tachment to assemble them where all may see and read the lesson. Applause for this bold experiment comes from the land of impeccable ar- tistic taste. Miguel Zamacois writes in the Figaro with enthusiastic praise of Professor Pagaurek's innovation, and expresses the ardent hope that Paris, and other large cities in France, may speedily have a "Musee National d'Art Repulsif et Anti-Exemplaire." He ar- gues for this, not merely because of its benefit to art workers. He sees in the plan great possibilities of educating pop- ular taste. It is not alone a question of teaching what not to admire, but of liberating the critical spirit and making discrimination necessary. The deaden- ing thing about the ordinary museum

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April 29, 1909] The Nation 4=4=9 of art is that it lays a heavy hand upon the average visitor, mak- ing him a blind worshipper instead of an open-eyed observer and student. Most art collections have the air of official conservers of public admiration. They are to be viewed with humble thankful- ness and devout awe, it being expected that the critical faculty will be left with the umbrella at the entrance. Some- how to waken the dormant judgment, so that it will not accept without question whatever works of art are held worthy to be put on exhibition — that, according to M. Zamacois, is the great need. To meet it, he would have the Stuttgart experiment widely imitated, and have professorships of the Ugly as well as the Beautiful. His final ideal is a splendid palace of art over the door of which might be inscribed: "Here one may dis- cuss taste." If such galleries could be made nu- merous, they would render museum- visiting a new thing. Instead of the solemn procession of overpowered tour- ists, sighing before every case or pic- ture, "How lovely!" we should see alert people in eager debate, and should now and then catch the refreshing exclama- tion, "What a horror!" Of course, if the invitation were openly given to come and condemn, there might as easily be set up a conventional rejection as the conventional acceptance which we now have. Hence it might be well if the horrors were mixed with the triumphs, stimulating the public by leaving it to find out which is which. At all events, an occasional display of the misapplied and the distorted and the perverted in art would be wholesome. "Van Dyck: Des Meisters Gemalde," ed- ited by Emil Schaeffer (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt), constitutes the thirteenth volume of the excellent and deservedly popular series Klassiker der Kunst in Ge- samtausgaben. The text of Schaeffer, though not inappreciative, regards Van Dyck as vastly overestimated by the gen- eral public. The reproduction of the pic- tures Is excellent. "La Cathgdrale de Chartres," with thir- ty-eight engravings and two plans, by Rene1 Merlet, and "Le Chateau de Coucy," with thirty-six engravings and two plans, by Eu- g&ne Lef&vre-Pontalis, are two new vol- umes In the cheap series of Petites Mon- ographies des grands edifices de la France (2.50 francs per volume, bound in supple cloth, H. Laurens). The previous issues dealt with the Abbey Church of V6zelay, the Chateau of Rambouillet, and the Hotel des Invalides. The editorship of M. Le- fevre-Pontalis, professor at the Bcole des Chartes, is a warrant of competence in art and archaeology; and no useless talk mars the clear explanations. Similar praise may be given to the rival series of Notices his- toriques et archeologiques sur les grands monuments (2.50 francs, D. A. Longuet), which publishes Its second number, "La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame de Paris," with eighteen Inset photo-reproductions and a plan, by Marcel Aubert, archlvUte-paUo- graphe at the Bibliothdque Nationale. The first number was devoted to the Basilica of Saint-Denis. In accuracy and complete- ness, these handbooks constitute a distinct advance beyond the guides of the past. "Les Sforzas et les arts en Milanais (1450-1530)," an octavo book of more than five hundred pages, with engravings by Gustave Clausse, architect and mem- ber of the Royal Fine Art Academies of Italy, is a work of original investigation in art history of the renaissance (E. Le- roux). The British School of Archaeology at Rome will begin in May a systematic study of the prehistoric remains in the island of Malta, whose Governor has granted spe- cial facilities. Here, as in Sardinia, sev- eral new examples of dolmens have been discovered recently, but the most important monuments are the large sanctuaries of Gigantia, Hagiar-Kim and Mnaidra, which seem first to have served as burial places, and then, according to Evans, to have be- come the seat of a form of hero worship. These investigations will be carried on by Dr. T. Ashby, the head of the school, as- sisted by T. E. Peet, while Dr. McKenzie continues the work in Sardinia. At a meeting of the American School of Classical Studies held in Athens last month B. H. Hill spoke of the opera- tions undertaken at Corinth which were devoted to the exploration of four chief centres — the ancient Agora, the fountain of Glauce, the theatre, and the fountain of Peirene. On the Agora site were discov- ered the foundations of a small sanctuary with remains of friezes, architraves, and cornices. At the extreme left was found a colonnade of fifteen Corinthian columns, the capitals of which bore a simplified form of acanthus ornament, with lions' heads, and claws and wings. Fragments of the pedi- ments were also found in quantities, so that it is hoped that a complete restoration will be possible. Near the colonnade a stairway came to light which leads to a large temple situated sixty yards to the west. In the process of draining off the waters of the fountain of Peirene the ex- cavators came upon walls of an aqueduct belonging to the early years of the Chris- tian era. Four more chambers, or reser- voirs, were laid bare, in addition to those unearthed in 1898. These are carved out of the rock and vaulted, and probably date from the period of Periander, who was tyrant of Corinth about 500 b. c. Four statues were unearthed among the early Christian debris. An important discovery is also the finding of the ancient way to Sicyon, which makes possible an accurate orientation of several remains on the site, since Pausanias mentions some buildings in their relation to the Sicyonian road. This evidence confirms the conjectural identification which had already been pro- posed by the excavators with regard to the Doric temple of Apollo, and the fountain of Glauce. At a recent meeting of the German Arch- aeological Institute in Athens, Dr. Dorpfeld gave an account of his discoveries at Leucadia, which he identifies with the Ho- meric Ithaca. Considerable quantities of earthenware, weapons, domestic implements, and smaller objects have been found in the course of the excavations. These show great similarity to the objects discovered at Zerella by Mr. Ware, at Sesklos by M. Tsountas, and in the Second City of Troy. Dr. Dorpfeld thinks them the work of an Achaean civilization in northern and west- ern Greece, contemporary with the My- cenaean age. The character of these re- mains is relatively primitive, both as re- gards their artistic value and their adapta- tion to practical needs ; but this difficulty the excavator tries to explain by the theory that the realm of Odysseus was merely an outlying portion of the Achaean civiliza- tion. At a meeting of the French Archaeological School In Athens, M. Holleaux gave a sum- mary of the explorations at Delos. Within the sacred enclosure, next to the temple of the Delians, which had already been identified, traces of two large edifices have been uncovered. To judge from the site of the remains and from their character, they seem to have belonged to two other temples. The building nearest the Temple of the Delians has been identified as the Temple of the Athenians. A large semi- circular marble base, with sockets for the reception of seven statues, has been dis- covered, indicating that this was the "Tem- ple of the Seven Statues," as the Temple of the Athenians was commonly called. More- over the architectural and sculptural frag- ments, of which a fairly large number have come to light, as well as some Attic In- scriptions, leave no doubt that the edifice was the work of Athenians. The other buildin? to the north of the Temple of the Athenians. M. Holleaux Identi- fies as the "poros temple," mentioned In the inscriptions. Unfortunately, not a sin- gle stone of this building remains above ground. This fact is probably due to the nature of the porous stone, whose loose tex- ture and friability make it easy to quarry for other buildings and less able to with- stand the inclemencies of the weather. The Grolier Club will hold till May 8 an exhibition of the engraved work of the late Edwin Davis French. Among the ex- hibitors at the dealers' galleries in this city are etchings in colors at Brandus's. ' From Bonn the death is reported of Ernst K. aus'm Weerth, for many years director of the Rhenish Provincial Museum. His archaeological works include "Kunstdenk- maler des Mittelalters in den Rheinland- ern," "Bad der romischen Villa zu Allenz," "Mosaikboden von St. Gereon zu Koln," "Waldmalereien des christlichen Mit- telalters zu Koln." Mile. Eugenie Hautier, a pupil of Robert-Fleury and Isabey, has died at the age of eighty-seven. She exhibited fre- quently at the Salon in the sixties, but since then had led a retired life Another French artist whose death is an- nounced is Jean-Henri Zuber at the age of sixty-four. He studied under Gleyre, and became a member of the Society des Artistes Frangais. Four of his pictures are in the Luxembourg. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Adams, Joseph H. Harper's Machinery Book for Boys. Harper. $1.75. A Gentleman from Mississippi: A Novel founded on the play. J. S. Ogilvle Pub- lishing Co.

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450 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2287 American Political Science Association Pro- ceedings. December 28-31, 1908. Balti- more : Waverly Press. Anderson, Lewis F. History of Common School Education: An Outline Sketch. Henry Holt. Andreyev, Leonid. The Seven Who Were Hanged. Translated by Herman Bern- stein. J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Co. $1. Bacheller, Irving. The Hand-Made Gentle- man. Harper. $1.50. Balzac, Honore de. Cesar Birotteau. Edited by Wilhelmine E. Delp. Henry Frowde. Beeching, H. C. William Shakespeare, Player, Playmaker, and Poet. John Lane. $1 net. Bell, Euphemia Young. Beautiful Bermu- da. J. D. & F. R. Bell. Boggess, Arthur Clinton. The Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830. Chicago Historical Society. Bohannon. Hattie Donovan. The Light of Stars. R. F. Fenno. $1 net. Book of Good Cheer. "A Little Bundle of Cheery Thoughts." Edited by Edwin Os- good Grover. Chicago: P. F. Volland. Book of Good Fellowship; "A Plate of Toasts." Edited by Edwin Osgood Grover. Chicago: P. F. Volland. Buxton, Charles Roden. Turkey in Revolu- tion. Scribner. $2.50 net. Carlyie, Thomas. Love Letters of — and Jane Welsh. Edited by Alexander Car- lyie. 2 vols. John Lane. $8 net. Collins, James H. Human Nature in Selling Goods. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus. 50 cts. Copper Handbook: A Manual of the Copper Industry of the World. Vol. VIII. Hough- ton, Mich.: Horace J. Stevens. Cornish, Vaughan. The Panama Canal and Its Makers. Boston: Little, Brown. $1.50 net. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpre- tations of Society. Longmans, Green. Day, Lewis F. Nature and Ornament. I. Nature. The Raw Material of Design. Scribner. $2 net. Dealey, James Quayle. The Development of the State: Its Governmental Organiza- tion and Its Activities. Silver, Burdett. $1.50. Driver, S. R. Modern Research as Illus- trating the Bible. Published for the Brit- ish Academy by Henry Frowde. Estabrook, Alma Martin. The Rule of Three: A Story of Pike's Peak. Boston: Small, Maynard. $1.25. Faith and Works of Christian Science. By the Writer of "Confessio Medici." Mac- millan. $1.25 net. Greenwood, G. G. In re Shakespeare: Beeching v. Greenwood. John Lane. $1 net. Hanks, Charles Stedman. Our Plymouth Forefathers: The Real Founders of Our Republic. Boston: Dana Estes. $1.50. Hays, Helen Ashe. A Little Maryland Gar- den. Putnam, $1.75 net. Hewlett, Maurice. Artemision: Idylls .in.l Songs. Scribner. $1 net. Heazlitt, Clarence Watt. When Skies Are Gray, with a Rift or Two. Verses. Neale Publishing Co. Henderson, Charles Richmond. Social Duties From the Christian Point of View. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. $1.25. Hueffer, Oliver Madox. A Book of Witches. John McBride Co. $2.50 net. Hugo, Victor. Preface du "Cromwell." Edit- ed by Edmond Wahl. Henry Frowde. Hyde, William De Witt. Self-Measurement: A Scale of Human Values. B. W. Huebsch. 50 cts. net James, Henry. The Wings of the Dove. 2 vols. Scribner. James, William. A Pluralistic Universe. Longmans, Green. $1.50 net. Johnson, A. E. Tom Browne, R. I. Mac- millan. $1.50 net. King Who Never Reigned: Being Memoirs Upon Louis XVII by Eckard and Naun- dorff. John McBride Co. $3.50 net. Kuropatkin, General. The Russian Army and the Japanese War. Translated by Capt. A. B. Lindsay. 2 vols. Dutton. Jerrold, Walter. Thomas Hood: His Life and Times. John Lane. $5 net. Lamb Shakespeare for the Young. Macbeth; Romeo & Juliet. Duffleld. $1 net each. La Vie politique dans les deux mondes. Publiee sous la direction d'Achille Vial- late. Deuxieme Annee. Paris: F61ix Alcan. Lee, Sidney. A Life of William Shake- speare. Macmillan. $2.25 net. Lincoln, Joseph C. Our Village. Appleton. $1.5C net. Lloyd, Arthur Selden. Christianity and the Religions. Dutton. 75 cts. net. Long, Charles M. Virginia County Names: Two Hundred and Seventy Years of Vir- ginia History. Neale Publishing Co. $1.50. Lytton, Edward Bulwer. The Lost Tales of Miletus. Sturgis & Walton. Mackaye, Percy. The Playhouse and the Play, and Other Addresses. Macmillan. $1.25 net. Marks, Jeannette, and Moody, Julia. Little Busybodies. Harper. J6 cts. Maurier, Guy du. An Englishman's Home. Harper. $1.25. Merrill's Story Books: Dick Whlttington and Other Stories; Banbury Cross Stories. Selected by Frank W. Howard. Charles E. Merrill Co. Miller, Irving Elgar. The Psychology of Thinking. Macmillan. $1.25 net. Nevin, Theodore W. Ralph Ranscomb, Banker. Neale Publishing Co. Otis, Alexander. Hearts Are Trumps. John McBride. Oxford English Dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray. Vol. VIII. Henry Frowde. $1.25. Political and Economic Organization of Modern Japan. Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh. Remensnyder, Junius B. Mysticism: Psy- chology, History, and Relation to Scrip- ture, Church, and Christian Life. Burling- ton, la.: German Literary Board. 25 cts. Rice, Alice Hegan. Mr. Opp. Century. $1. Robertson, J. G. Milton's Fame on the Continent. Published for the British Academy by Henry Frowde. Royall, William L. Some Reminiscences. Neale Publishing Co. $1.50. Schomer, Abraham S. The Primary Cause of Anti-semitism : An Answer to the Jew- ish Question. Israel Publishing Co. Sismondi, J. C. L. Simonde de. Pavie et le Sac de Rome. Edited by Arthur Wilson- Green. Henry Frowde. Stephen, Leslie. The Playground of Eu- rope. Putnam. $1.50. Stone, Cliff Winfleld. Arithmetical Abilities and Some Factors Determining Them. Published by Teachers College, Columbia University. Terreve, Retsel. A Man Without Principle? Baltimore: Lowenthal-Wolf Co. $1.50. Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Cyrus Hall McCor- mick and the Reaper. Madison: State Historical Society. Tracy, Virginia. Merely Players: Stories ot Stage Life. Century. $1.50. Traube, Ludwig. Vorlesungen und Abhand- lungen. Edited by Franz Boll. Munich. C. H. Beck. Tudor Facsimile Texts: Youth, Nice Wanton, Like Will to Like. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. Voyages of Drake and Gilbert. Select Nar- ratives from the "Principal Navigations" of Hakluyt. Edited by Edward John Payne. Henry Frowde. 60 cents. Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels. Chicago: W. B. Conkey Co. $1.25. Wood, Sumner Gilbert. The Taverns and Turnpikes of Blandford, 1733-1833. Pub- lished by the Author. JUST ISSUED Fifty Years of Darwinism Comprising the eleven addresses in honor of Charles Darwin delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, January, 1909. $2.00 net, by mail $2.16. CONTENTS: Introduction, T. C. Chamberlin, University of Chicago; Fifty Years of Darwinism, Edward B. Poulton, Oxford University; The Theory of Natural Se- lection from the Standpoint of Botany, John M. Coulter, University of Chicago; Iso- lation as a Factor in Organic Evolution, David Starr Jordan, Stanford University; The Cell in Relation to Heredity and Evolution, Edmund B. Wilson, Columbia Uni- versity; The Direct Influence of Environment, Dr. D. T. MacDougal, Carnegie In- stitution of Washington; The Behavior of Unit-Characters in Heredity, W. E. Castle, Harvard University; Mutation, Chas. B. Davenport, Carnegie Institution of Washing- ton; Adaptation, Carl H. Eigenmann, Indiana University; Darwin and Paleontology, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Columbia University; Evolution and Psychology, G. Stanley Hall, Clark University. 'Sooks for Travelers by Clara. C. Perkins The Builders of Spain French Cathedrals and Chateaux The author has a full knowledge of her sub- ject; and the treatment is interesting. While appealing especially to those who have visited Spain. Its elaborate illustrations, historical and architectural comment make this an admirable guide to intelligent sightseeing. A sumptuous and popular work similar to "The Builders of Spain" In scope, appearance, and careful arrangement. "Of genuine artiBtic value. Notable for Its excellent arrangement." — Boston Herald. 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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1909. The Week. Every time a Democratic Senator is caught with protectionist principles on his person, there is great hilarity in Republican ranks. But the country at large fails to catch the full force of the joke. Senator Aldrich and his lieuten- ants take delight in "smoking out" the Democrats, as if the sole duty of a leg- islator were to show that his opponent is no less a fool or a rascal than him- self. It is not Democratic opposition that has forced tariff reform upon the Republican party, but a popular upheav- al that was strong enough to make the Republicans write revision into their last national platform, and their Presi- dential candidate pledge himself sol- emnly. From the Democratic party the country has long ceased to expect either efficiency or common sense. If Senator Aldrich shows the Democrats to be pro- tectionists at heart, he merely proves that the Republican party has infected its rival with a lust for tariff plunder equal to its own. we have some hope, is passing away with other ancient superstitions. It needed only the speech of Senator Scott of West Virginia last week to il- lustrate to the full the intellectual darkness which envelops the mind of the "standpatter." Why alter the Ding- ley act at all? We had great industrial prosperity after 1907, did we not? The Dingley bill was enacted in 1897, was it not? Then the Dingley bill caused the prosperity after 1897. We had hard times between 1893 and 1897, did we not? There was no Dingley law in that period, was there? Then the hard times between 1893 and 1897 were caused by the absence of a Dingley law. This be- ing so, why change the law at all? Why not go on to the end of time, with that heaven-inspired measure showering pros- perity on the American people? We are aware that we do not do full justice to the ad captandum argument, the mis- statement of fact, and the mental in- eptitude displayed by the Senator from West Virginia; but our brief summary will fairly reproduce his logical pro- cesses, and we refer to it here as an illustration of a state of mind which, The time, we may suppose, will come when American schoolboys who read of such arguments being employed in Senatorial debate will smile in- credulously, as they do to-day when told of the similar arguments over the divine right of kings. Sena- tor Scott is interesting chiefly as a relic, and as such he may be worth pre- serving. That his instructive speech should have reached its climax in the exposition of the way in which the Wil- son bill of 1894 caused the panic of 1893, was to be expected. A rude and annoy- ing Senator of the opposing party, who volunteered to accept Mr. Scott's dem- onstration that the Wilson law of 1894 was the cause of the panic of 1893, pro- vided the West Virginia Senator would extend his argument and admit that the Payne tariff bill of 1909 caused the pan- ic of 1907, elicited no response. Yet that invitation may hereafter be accepted, if the Scott type of mind continues to be represented in the Senate. One can at least conceive some oracle, say in 1923, explaining how everything went well until, in October, 1907, on the sudden suspicion that, a year and a half later, protective duties might be revised, the Knickerbocker Trust Company closed its doors, the Westinghouse Electric failed, the New York banks issued Clearing House loan certificates, and the mills began to cut down production and dis- charge their hands. The beleaguered missionaries in Asia Minor could receive no more cheering message than the news of Oscar S. Straus's reappointment as Ambassador to Turkey. Missionaries in that land of terror and bloodshed always speak of the halcyon days of Straus. The lately- deposed Sultan has found it easy enough to pull the wool over the eyes of the average Minister to his court, and Mr. Leishman— the retiring Ambassador —did not satisfy Americans with inter- ests in Turkey, any more than did that curious Minister from Texas whose chief boasts were that he was a rebel who had never surrendered or taken the oath of allegiance, and that he could snuff out a candle at thirty paces four out of five times. Mr. Straus, however, always stuck to his contentions and to the Sul- tan like a leech, and missionaries and teachers everywhere in Turkey looked to him with confidence. The country is to be congratulated that, in this time of upheaval and revolution, it will be represented at Constantinople by a man so admirably fitted for the post. W. W. Rockhill's transfer from Peking to St. Petersburg is another piece of good news, in refreshing contrast to one or two other recent diplomatic ap- pointments. For some time past there has been a feeling that Mr. Rockhill was less interested in our trade relations with China than a man of different training would be. That some one else would go to Peking has been known from the beginning of Mr. Taft's ad- ministration. It would, however, have been a genuine misfortune if a man of Mr. Rockhill's long diplomatic exper- ience and rare knowledge of Oriental languages had been dropped out of the service. At St. Petersburg his linguis- tic attainments and his knowledge of the Far East will still be of great value to him and to the country. J. W. Rid- dle, the present Ambassador to Russia, is another man with a rare talent for languages, who worked his way up after thirteen years of service at Constanti- nople, Cairo, Belgrade, and St. Peters- burg, to an ambassadorship, and his re- tirement would be a cause for earnest protest were it not that the delicate state of his health has made the tender of his resignation something more than the usual courtesy to the incoming Pres- ident. That all the cities along the Mississippi, from New Orleans to St. Paul, are liable to attack and demolition in case of war with a foreign Power is the startling informa tion that is now being disseminated. Not only this but many of the cities on the tributaries of the Mississippi, such as Coun- cil Bluffs and Sioux City on the Missouri, Cincinnati and Louisville on the Ohio, and many others, are in like danger. This is the alarming news being spread from New Orleans to Washington. The Red River thrills with it, the Yazoo Valley is filled with alarm. The Mis- sissippi delta is shuddering daily at the thought of a battleship bombarding its levees. It is fear of the deep wa-

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4=52 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2288 terway which Congress is constructing that is causing this panic in the Missis- sippi Valley, and is leading Milwau- kee's brewers to tremble, lest the war- ships, after passing the New Orleans forts in the best manner of Farragut, should sail on up past Chicago into the Great Lakes, picking up coal and food on the way from unsuspecting river transports. Now, the foregoing is not the plot of a new play entitled "An American's Home on the Mississippi"; it is a genuine statement of a propa- ganda to-day carried on in New Or- leans in order to induce Congress to ap- propriate money "on a great scale" "for a powerful fortified naval base at New Orleans." We have always felt that this big-navy mania, this fear of con- quest to which the Anglo-Saxon nations suddenly fall prey, was a species of madness. After hearing of New Or- leans's fears for St. Paul's safety from naval attack, we are certain that it is nothing else than insanity — but calcu- lated insanity. The story of the Sugar Trust's steal- ings from the government and the res- titution it has been compelled to make, brings out more than the old truth that corporations have no soul. It is also evident that some of our largest cor- porations have no face to blush with. For ten years and more the stealing went on, with the indubitable conniv- ance of officers of the company who were powerful enough to stop the prac- tice if they had so chosen. But here again men who would be horrified at the idea of theft in their private char- acter, found it clever and legitimate to resort to the meanest form of theft, in behalf of the corporation they served. The Constitutionalists in Turkey are determined not to repeat their error of last July. Mistaken clemency or mis- taken caution made them accept a com- promise wich the old order. The cost measured in human lives has been re- vealed during the past three weeks in Asia Minor and elsewhere. The initial error is now being repaired. Abdul Hamid is removed from the scene, and upon those who aided him to stir up mutiny and massacre, stern punishment is being visited. Kipling and his school have popularized an argument against liberty for the greater portion of the human race. It consists in one word: "Oriental." When the East was created, the inhabitants thereof were doomed to servitude in perpetuity. Reaction nat- urally seizes upon the hackneyed argu- ment: "In spite of Constitutions and Parliaments, the Bast will always be the East." This is own cousin to the argu- ment that the iniquities of the Czar's rule are justified by the fact that when you scratch a Russian you find a Tartar. The Young Turk leaders seem to have accepted the charge of being Orientals with a certain grim humor. When Abdul Hamid's chief eunuch was hanged high on Galata Bridge for the people to gaze at, even as Haman was hanged, the de- sire to impress the Oriental mind was evident. When the murderers of a mem- ber of the Turkish Parliament are put to death on the precise spot where their victim fell, we catch a distinct echo of the Cadi of the Arabian Nights, who had transgressors hanged from their own door-posts. But that the Liberal leaders at Constantinople know the na- ture of the people they deal with is not to their disadvantage. British capital, frightened by Mr. Lloyd-George's white apron, cups, and blood basin, is said to be contemplating a flight abroad. The rumor need not be taken seriously. In the first place, capital may be fugitive under hostile circumstances, but it has also the habit of fixity. When the* Stock Exchange transfer tax was enacted in this State, we all remember how Wall Street was going to move across to Jersey City. In the second place, British capital, even if it would run away, scarcely has a place to run to. On its way across the Channel it may run full tilt into French capital migrating from the Paris Bourse, the inevitable outcome, according to the prophets, of the proposed French in- come tax. Should they both seek refuge in Germany, the Minister of Finance will welcome them with a broad smile and a knife behind his back. Capital need not deceive itself. The merry game of battleship-building has become world-wide, and wherever it shall go — Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina — cap- ital will find finance ministers, chancel- lors, grand-viziers, and maghzens wait- ing impatient. Capital cannot run away. It must make up its mind to stay at home and fight. Capital, like labor, must fight against Dreadnought manias, against official incompetence and extravagance, against corporation stealing from the government. All these things must be paid for; and capital pays for them in high taxes as labor pays in high-priced loaves of bread. The birth of a daughter to the Queen of the Netherlands is, of course, an event of political importance. Yet it is a question whether the natural and long- deferred desire of the Dutch has not tended to exaggerate the possible con- sequences of failure of issue to Queen Wilhelmina. Vast German ambitions were supposed to be contingent upon the death of Wilhelmina without a suc- cessor of her body. Holland has been regarded as essential to the Pan-Ger- manic ideal which contemplates a Teu- tonic Empire straight across Europe from the North Sea to the Adriatic. For commerce and war the Dutch harbors would be of tremendous value to Ger- many. Such an ideal, Germans may cherish or not, but the birth of an heir to the Dutch crown need not interfere with the plan, any more than the ab- sence of a direct heir would have great- ly facilitated it. The succession in the Netherlands is definitely regulated. If Wilhelmina had died childless, there were in Germany a number of heirs, second-cousins of Wilhelmina, and their children, to whom the crown would have legally descended. That the accession of a German prince would have brought nearer the danger of absorption by Ger- many by no means follows. It is al- most a natural law for foreign princes to forget their nativity for the interests of the people over whom they are called to rule. Great Britain is not particu- larly Germanophil because the father of Edward VII was a German prince. If the Kaiser or his successors want Hol- land, they will have to take it by per- suasion or by force in very much the same fashion, whether Queen Wilhel- mina's children or her cousins occupy the throne. In the new Italian Chamber there is one Deputy who will gain prominence as a compact and independent Parlia- mentary party of one. He is Don Ro- molo Murri, a priest, whose Radical ac- tivities, chiefly in connection with the National Democratic League, of which he is the founder, have brought upon him the penalty of major excommunica- tion. Don Romolo advocates a sharper j.

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May 6, 1909] The ISTation. 453 separation of Church and state than is now the rule in Italy. The state is to abstain from further interference in the administration of religious funds, and the ecclesiastical properties under its care are to be distributed among as- sociations similar to those contemplated by the French Separation Law. On the other hand, the state is to guarantee freedom of instruction, with the right to pronounce on the scholastic pro- gramme. Feeling has been aroused in Rome by Murri's refusal to lay aside his priestly vestments. No ecclesiastical penalty can deprive an ordained priest of his sacerdotal character, and the Church admits the new Deputy's rignt to retain his priestly garments, while •deploring that he should choose to exer- cise that right. With the strengthened Socialists and Radicals bent on a vig- orous anti-clerical policy, the strength- ened Catholics bound to resist bitterly, .and Don Romolo Murri as an ecclesiasti- cal free lance, Church questions are sure to form an important feature of Parliamentary discussion in the near future. How rapidly nations forget is illus- trated in the case of Portugal, which has experienced during the last half year a succession of ministerial crises. It would be imagined that such a blood- letting as Lisbon witnessed in February, 1908, would sober the country's judg- ment and turn its serious attention to the crying need of reform. The murder of King Carlos and the crown prince was brought about by the King's at- tempt to rule as a dictator. But this in turn had been made almost inevitable by the hopelessly corrupt state of par- liamentary government. Two political parties, almost equally matched, worked steadily together for the looting of the state. The "rotative" system prescribed that as soon as one party had had its chance at the offices and the bribes, it should make way for the other. The dictator Franco tried to break up this system, the King was assassinated, Por- tugal for a time hovered on the verge of republicanism, and then it went back to the hallowed system of cooperative plunder. Once more the party of the Regenerators is engaged in regenerat- ing the private fortunes of its leaders, and the party of the Progressists is making its regular recurrent progress through the pockets of the Portuguese people. No attempt is made to conceal the fact that the good old times are back again. People in Portugal must be very much like people in New York, where Senator Depew is again making after- dinner speeches. TIGHTENING THE TARIFF GRIP. Developments in the Senate have now gone far enough to show what the lead- ers of that body are prepared to do with tariff revision. In a word, they would make the tariff rates higher than be- fore, with the only chance of change in an upward direction; and would so com- plicate and strengthen the administra- tive machinery designed to harry the importer and oppress the consumer, that the last estate of those unhappy citizens shall be worse than the first. This conclusion is the only one that can be drawn from the duties in the Aldrich bill, averaging slightly above tnose of the Dingley bill, and from the other proposals of Mr. Aldrich re- specting a maximum and minimum tar- iff, and his sweeping amendments to the administrative sections of the tariff act. The whole performance must final- ly shatter the confidence, or the hope, which President Taft has cherished that he could "do business" with Senator Aldrich. It is now seen to be true, what an ex-Senator said when told of the inclination of the Administration to trust Aldrich to revise the tariff down- wards: "Aldrich could give Taft all the trumps, and as many other good cards as you please, and still beat him!" That the Rhode Island Senator has all along intended to give the lie to Re- publican campaign pledges of tariff re- vision, has now become abundantly evi- dent. He has made himself the very prophet of the "stand-patters." And as if to destroy any last lingering doubt concerning his attitude come the amendments which he introduced last Friday. In his provisions for maximum and minimum tariff rates, he has com- pletely reversed the position taken by both the McKinley bill and the Ding- ley bill. In them, we had high duties, to be sure, but the promise was held out of getting them reduced in prac- tice, by means of reciprocity agree- ments. To-day, however, the only pos- sibility of alteration is upwards. We may think Aldrich's level of duties high enough in all conscience, but he pro- poses to have them increased by 25 per cent, all around, in tne case of any or all countries which discriminate against our foreign trade. True, this increase is left to the discretion of the Presi- dent, and we may be sure that Mr. Taft would not abuse it: but the maximum tariff is made more of as a threat, than the minimum tariff is as an induce- ment; and in any event, we cannot hope to get a trade arrangement or reciproc- ity treaty which will lighten the bur- den of tariff taxes. Aldrich's figures will be the irreducible minimum, if he can make them so. In the same way, his new Section 3, relating to the methods of collecting tariff taxes, reveals a purpose to make the administrative machinery a still more ready means of injustice. It con- tains, for example, the proviso that the appraisers may, in certain cases, com- pletely disregard invoices and affidavits, and fix as the legal wholesale price abroad "not less than the wholesale price ... in the United States, in the open market, due allowance by de- duction being made for estimated du- ties thereon, cost of transportation, in- surance, and other necessary expenses." Still more threatening than this, is the quiet proposal of Senator Aldrich to create a Court of Customs, consisting of a presiding judge and tour associate judges, at a salary of $10,000 each. To this court shall be taken all appeals from any Board of General Appraisers, and its judgments or decrees "shall be final." That is, recourse to other Fed- eral courts is cut off. Many famous customs suits have been taken to the Supreme Court, and great victories won in the interest of the consumer; but if Senator Aldrich's plan is adopted, a man may have his property taken away from him by this Court of Customs, while his right to appeal to the highest judicial tribunal will be cut off. The intent is obvious. Like all the other tariff schemes, which men such as Senator Aldrich favor, the aim is to tighten the grip of the tariff upon the • consuming public remorselessly. This week's debate and voting in the benate may easily be critical. The game of the high-tariff intriguers is to secure enough votes to pass their bill very much as it is, on the plea that the meas- ure will be altered for the better in conference between the two Houses. It

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4=54: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 is even said that the President has been urged to say nothing at present about the bad features of the Senate bill, in the hope that the conference will insist upon a really honest revision. But we hope that neither he nor any tariff-re- form Senator is credulous enough to be taken in by this. If Aldrich can get his measure through, on wnatever pre- tences, without serious opposition, he will lead the Senate conferrees to an unyielding battle with those from the House. The time to attack and check him is before the bill gets out of the Senate. Hence we welcome the state- ment that a dozen or so of revisionist Republican Senators from the West are to take the floor to expose and denounce the kind of tricky revision which Aid- rich has devised. Only by meeting him openly and resolutely, and by refusing to vote for those exorbitant duties which he would levy, in defiance of party pledges and of all decency, can the hands of the Ways and Means Com- mittee of the House be held up, and tne way made ready for the emerging from conference of a tariff bill such as the country was promised, and strongly aesires. THE "COMMODITIES DECISION." When Senator Elkins, in June, 1906, proposed an amendment to the Hepburn Railway Rate bill, forbidding a railway to transport from State to State any commodity (with certain specified ex- ceptions) manufactured, mined, produc- ed, or owned by such railway, he thus described its purpose. It was: To divorce transportation from produc- tion on the part of the railroads engaged in transporting coal they mined and sold in competition with other shippers, which was a great abuse. This abuse grew into a grievous wrong to independent shippers. I sought to correct this abuse by an amend- ment confining railroads to their legitimate business of transporting freight and pas- sengers, and prohibiting them from en- gaging in the transportation of any com- modity which they might own except for their own use. The West Virginia Senator was un- doubtedly prompted to his action by the independent coal producers of his State. They complained that conditions were most unfair and destructive to their business when the railways, on whose services the independent miner must de- pend to get his product to market, were themselves engaged in competitive coal production, and were favoring them- selves in the matter of transportation. Quite apart from discriminatory rates, the railways would, it was alleged, find it inconvenient to provide the cars which the independent miner needed. Coal produced by the railroads had the right of way. The "commodities clause" was wholly directed towards the mining industry. It would have applied to such iron mines as were then controlled by the Great Northern Railway; but that company has since divested itself of its ore lands through transfer to a separate corporation and a contract with the United States Steel Corporation. Rail- ways are not engaged in or connected with manufacture on any such scale as to make the "commodities clause" a mat- ter of importance in that direction; and they produce on a large scale nothing but the articles referred to, barring tim- ber, which is expressly excepted from the operation of the law. The scope and purpose of the "commod- ities clause," then, are clear, and natural- ly the law was tested in the case of the coal-mining railways. When the govern- ment brought suit in the Federal Cir- cuit Court, almost exactly a year ago, the Attorney-General contended that the prohibition affected coal in which a railway company had any interest, in- cluding coal produced by a company any of whose stock the railway held. Counsel for the railways argued that the "commodities clause" not only forbids transportation under ' such circum- stances, but "absolutely outlaws . . . coal in which the railroad company orig- inally had any such interest, no matter how many times the title to it changes within the State of Pennsylvania." On this assumption the argument proceeded that, since the railways could not divest themselves of their heavily-mortgaged coal property without great pecuniary loss, the effect of the clause was "the taking of the defendant's property, cor- porate rights, and franchises, without due process of law." With this view of the case the Circuit Court concurred, Judge Gray's opinion of last September being that the clause "invades the right of the State by strik- ing down the liberty ... to engage in interstate commerce to the fullest ex- tent as to all harmless articles, whether owned or not owned by the carrier, and deprives of their property these defend- ants, contrary to the letter and the spirit of the fifth amendment to the Constitu- tion." On Monday the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision as to the constitutionality of the "commodi- ties clause." It did so, however, by giv- ing a very different interpretation to its scope. In this respect, the Supreme Court does not follow the argument of the Circuit Court, or that of the gov- ernment, or that of the defence. It de- clares that ownership of stock in a man- ufacturing or mining company does not constitute ownership of the commodities produced, and cites prior decisions of its own to that effect. Therefore, the argument that property owned through stock investment would be taken from the railways without due process of law was irrelevant. As to the question of direct ownership of coal or other com- modities by a railway company, the act merely provides that they shall not be thus owned while in process of transpor- tation. In other words, the railway must in good faith sell products thus owned by it before transporting them — which involves neither hardship nor confisca- tion. Attorney-General Wickersham points out that "the decision does not sustain the full contention of either the gov- ernment or the carriers"; also that "it sustains the principle contended for by the government, that Congress has pow- er to prohibit a carrier from carrying, in competition with other shippers, com- modities which the carrier owns or in which it is interested." Indeed, Mr. Wickersham believes that, under the de- cision, Congress itself has the power, if it sees fit to exercise it, to extend the prohibition to products of companies in which the railway has merely a stock interest. The probability or improbability of such action depends largely, we should say, on how the railways hereafter use the opportunities opened by indirect ownership. It may be made, by un- scrupulous use, a real abuse and a griev- ance to both competing producers and the consuming public; or it may be so exercised as to conform to the principles of equity and fair play. For ourselves, in view of the extent to which power over traffic and prices has been extend- ed in this country, through purchase of stock in one corporation by use of the credit of another, we cannot regard it as unfortunate that this particular weapon is left in the hands of the na- tional legislature. The "industrial amal-

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May 6, 1909] The Nation. 455 gamation craze" of 1899 and 1901, the Northern Securities incident, and the more recent exploits in the field of rail- way corporations by Mr. Harriman, are landmarks which at least impress on the public mind the value of a power re- served in the hands of the people. THE ENGLISH BUDGET. The finance of English Liberalism was confessedly put to its trumps in the bud- get laid before the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last week. The financial record of the party had been better than of the Conserva- tive Ministries immediately preceding. Until the demand for enormous sums for the navy, and the swelling expense of old-age pensions, disturbed the equi- librium of the budget, the Liberals had both remitted taxes and reduced the public debt. During the three years that Mr. Asquith was Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, the national debt was reduced at the rate of $75,000,000 a year. In 1903, the total was $3,800,000,000; it is now $3,480,000,000. This involves a diminution in the yearly interest charges to the amount of nearly $10,- 000,000. That was good financiering. But what the Conservative leaders had all along been hoping was, of course, that the Liberals would be driven into aban- doning the policy of free trade. If only Mr. Balfour could see the Liberals make a beginning of tariff taxation, with in- cidental protection, his cup would run over. But that kind of net is spread in vain before any Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. More sagacious as well as more honorable than our own Democrats, he recognizes party suicide when he sees it, and knows that it is better to fail, tempo- rarily, with a sound policy, than to at- tempt to get on for a time by com- promise, trickery, and self-stultification. The figures for the current year were not so black as they were expected to be. During the last few weeks of the fiscal year, the revenue picked up sur- prisingly. At the same time, expendi- tures were somewhat held down. The net result was a deficit of about $7,500,- 000, much smaller than had until re- cently been thought certain. But it is the budget for 1909-10 that causes the difficulty. How to cover the increased expenditures of nearly $80,000,000 was the problem of the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer. He could not dodge it, after the happy-go-lucky fashion of American public finance — letting the deficit go, and be hanged to it, or issuing bonds to pay current expenses, or putting up Sen- ator Aldrich to guess that there will be money enough. Mr. Lloyd-George had to set it down in black and white, and show just what his new taxes will yield. In an unguarded moment, he once jest- ed about robbing a hen-roost to get the financial eggs he might need. He might well have been reminded of what Mon- taigne says in his essay on "Glory": A man is not always at the top of a breach or at the head of an army. . . . He is often surprised between the hedge and the ditch ; he must run the hazard of his life against a henroost. Various small eggs, the Chancellor of the Exchequer can always put his hand upon through minor taxes. That he has done, here and there, in his budget. But it was all along evident that the main dependence must be placed upon the enlarged scope of old taxes. There are really, in England to-day, few "untap- ped" sources of funds for the Treasury. It is the land; it is inherited wealth; it is the tax on incomes, which alone fur- nish an elastic revenue. Accordingly, the expectation was strong that the Chancellor would be compelled to seek his eggs mainly in those nests; and he has done so. Added taxation of the land, in the shape of heavy levies upon free- hold ground-rents in London and other great cities and a super-tax on large in- comes are the resorts which the Chan- cellor has adopted. This plan has raised, in anticipation, the cry of "confiscation." It might, indeed, be the case that such taxes would bear very heavily, perhaps inequitably, upon the great landlords and the very rich. But there would be a kind of retributive jus- tice in making them shoulder the new burdens, because they have been chiefly responsible for the increase of those burdens. By their insensate talk of war and artificial clamor for Dreadnoughts without end, they have pushed up the naval estimates abnormally, and it is only just that they should be made to foot a good share of the bills. If Lloyd- George could only find a way to make bellicose editors, too, put their hands in their pockets to pay for the folly which they have helped to blow so large, his justice would be fairly poetic. Viewed purely as a measure of finance, the new English budget is capa- ble and business-like. It goes straight to the point of raising the needed mo- ney by the necessary taxes. There is no artful attempt to conceal from the people the burdens which their repre- sentatives have voted that they shall bear. The Chancellor of the Exche- quer simply comes forward remorseless as fate, to say to the House of Com- mons, and to the nation: "Since you have decided to spend such and such sums of money, I will show you how the uttermost farthing is to be got out of you." It is business applied to states- manship. While the German govern- ment has struggled for months in vain to get through the Reichstag a tax-law to make income equal expenditures; while at Washington our system of tax- ation is left to guess-work and intrigue, with hugger-mugger the probable result, the English cling to their old successful way of making a responsible Ministry draw up a budget in which a tax is laid for every penny spent. Whatever else may be said of this, it is efficient finance. Politically, the budget marks for the Liberals a decided lurch in the direction of the Radicals and the Labor party. The very taxes which make the City of London cry out in rage, fill the work- ing classes and the Socialists with glee. To get at accumulated wealth by dis- criminating and depleting taxes, has long been their dream; and Mr. Lloyd- George has now made its realization seem much nearer. When we add that he has provided for labor ex- changes, after the French model, and has outlined a scheme of state insurance of workingmen against lack of employ- ment, we can see how strong a bid is made for the labor vote. With the La- bor party split, as it now is, the Lib- erals may win some votes and retain some seats, as a consequence of their Radical budget. Yet their defeat is written in the stars, next year, or as soon as they step out or are turned out of office. They will have alarmed and alienated so many of their wealthy and middle-class followers that, as the drift of the bye-elections shows almost be- yond a peradventure, the Conservatives will easily come back to power in the next general election. Thereupon, ac- cording to all precedent, all the Socialis- tic legislation of the Liberals will be, not repealed, but retained and extended by the Tories! It was so with the Irish land law, with the Harcourt graduated

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4=63 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 inheritance tax, and there is no reason to doubt that it will be so as well with Lloyd-George's taxes on wealth and fa- vors to labor. Mr. Balfour will be able to reconcile his opposition to them when out of office with his adoption of them when in power. "There were grave ob- jections to these measures, but now that they are enacted, and the people are used to them, and even seem to like them, it is not expedient to expunge them." RESEARCH AND RESULTS. The trustees of the Carnegie Trust, at their annual meeting held in London recently, discussed at some length the results of the effort to encourage orig- inal research in the universities of Scot- land. Mr. Balfour, for example, was amazed to find that the number of fail- ures was so small. It was not an easy task, he declared, to catch the right man, and the number of men worth catching was not very large. He di- vided these eligible persons into two classes: those who had the gift and ambition, but not "the rare and over- mastering" desire which forces one into this career. Such men must be taken early before they are absorbed in the necessary occupations of life. There was also a higher class, "those who seem born for research," to whom the penetration of the secrets of nature and history seems an overwhelming pas- sion, from which they are scarcely to be diverted. To these men, said Mr. Balfour, it was all important, "not for the sake of the men but for the sake of the community, that they should have a chance of devoting their talents to that great work for which God undoubtedly intended them." , Mr. Balfour thus emphasized an idea to which Americans have hitherto paid but little attention. Before the Carnegie Institution of Washington was estab- lished, there was scarcely any organized effort to promote research. A few of our better equipped universities main- tained chairs of research, and a few others tried to afford some leisure to those teachers who displayed special aptitude in this line; but with a grow- ing population pressing hard on our educational resources, most colleges have been forced to lay on their facul- ties too heavy a burden of instruction. An occasional professor has deliberately slighted his classes in order to do work which has seemed more important, but such cases are exceptional. The aver- age professor has stuck doggedly to his assigned tasks and relinquished one am- bition after another, till failing strength has forced upon him the bitter truth that his magnum opus, his monument more enduring than bronze, has been a dream. Such failures contain a large element of the tragic; for, in propor- tion as the aim has been high, so must the consciousness of failure be galling. And this is one reason why every col- lege faculty contains men who carry the scars of the balked and the disappoint- ed. In many instances, doubtless, these men might have come far short of suc- cess even had they been offered an op- portunity to become authors, to edit im- portant historical documents, or to pen- etrate the secrets of nature; but most of them can justly complain that they have never had a fair chance. The effect on our institutions of high- er learning has also been depressing. The tendency has been to stiffen the tra- ditions of intellectual mediocrity which are already too strong, to maintain a faculty which is content merely to go through the motions of teaching with- out actually inspiring our youth. We would not be thought to urge a faculty made up of investigators, for successful investigators may be poor teachers, espe- cially of young undergraduates; but a faculty which contains. few or no men of eager and inquiring mind inevitably stagnates. In far too many of our small colleges, East and West, teachers and students are doing nothing but whirl round in their squirrel-cages, with im- mense outward activity, but no actual progress. We complain that our under- graduates are absorbed in athletics, in social affairs, and in everything but study. Such diversions offer a peculiar- ly strong temptation to youth, and the only way to draw the undergraduate in the other direction is to make study it- self attractive. This is not the same thing as making courses slipshod and easy; quite the contrary. The real meth- od is to rouse ambition, to quicken, to energize; and for this task men of force and ambition are needed, men who, while they discharge their daily duties faithfully, still look forward and aspire to something beyond the routine of the classroom, and thus give their pupils an outlook into the world that lies outside the shaded streets of the college town. We have been using the words "re- search" and "investigation," but they are too narrow in scope. In all fields, much interesting and stimulating work is always to be done that cannot, strictly speaking, extend the boundaries of our knowledge. In the natural sci- ences, there must be constant reorgan-' ization of data, and restatement of principles in the light of new experi- mentation— constant popularizing, not vulgarizing, of the results obtained in our laboratories. This, which was what Huxley undertook, is no dry mechani- cal process, but a challenge to the most ingenious of minds, a sure means of intellectual development. And in his- tory and economics, in philosophy, and literature in all its branches, the same labor awaits the skilled hand. The clas- sics of all tongues must be edited and criticised from the point of view of men and women of to-day, reinterpret- ed in the terms of modern speech. His- tory must be rewritten for every gener- ation. To these important undertakings, America could and would lend far more help, to the great advantage of the cause of education and our higher life generally, if we could entertain a larger conception of the function of a college. THE NEW STAGE OF PRAGMATISM. I. It is one of the difficulties of coping with a philosophy of the flux, that no sooner have you come to grips with it than it flows into another form and eludes your grasp. To read the bold frontal attacks of Messrs. Schinz and Pratt* and then to find that the ad- versary in a simultaneous publication! has already slipped to one side, is to recall the Homeric wrestling match with the wily old man of the sea. No doubt he is Proteus still, and the contest is with the same foe, but the weapons must be changed and the grip altered. The chief concern of Professor Schinz is to lay bare the social milieu out of which Pragmatism has grown, and his conclu- sions touch the problem of democracy and aristocracy. His criticism of Amer- ican life and literature from this point of view is extraordinarily keen. Pro- fessor Pratt is concerned more with the religious outcome of the movement *Anti-Pragmatisme. Par Albert Schinz, Pro- fesseur a 1'UniversitS de Bryn Mawr. Paris: Felix Alean. What is Pragmaiismt By James Bissett Pratt, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Williams Col- lege. New York : The Macmillan Co. fA Pluralistic Universe: Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy. By William James. New York : Long- mans, Green, & Co. u

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May 6, 1909] The ISTation. 457 than with its social meaning. The new philosophy is to him a part of the scien- tific tendency of thought which, in the words of a distinguished biologist, de- scribes the Moral Imperative as a "psychic correlate of a reflective, cere- brospinal, ideo-motor process, the ef- ferent end of which is organized into motor tracts coordinated for a specific action." Whereto Mr. Pratt remarks gravely that this method "has pressed its splendidly useful and illuminating formulae too far, it has attempted to sim- plify too much, and in doing so it has become somewhat narrow, somewhat blind, and somewhat unempirical." And he adds: "To my thinking, the pendu- lum has now swung too far in the anti- intellectualistic direction." Both writ- ers make easy work with the equivoca- tions of Mr. James's last book on "Prag- matism." And indeed it needs no pro- found study to see the weak joints in a logic which undertakes to determine the inmost nature of things by what we regard as pragmatically useful in our own lives, and to prove that truth is actually created by what we think it expedient to believe. There is something like the hilarity of sport in dragging out the inconsis- tencies, if not insincerities, of a phil- osopher who has tried to defend ration- ally a system which is professedly an attack on rationalism. For just that, and nothing more, is Pragmatism. It is easy to show that such a philosopher ought, so far as the correspondence of logic and reality goes, to be a complete skeptic. Well and good. But what will you do if, before the ink is fairly dry on your book, this Proteus of the lec- ture hall is before the world with a re- cantation of his errors and a frank re- treat to just such logical skepticism as you denounced him for not confessing. In one sense, Professor James's Hibbert Lectures are consistent with his past; they are in the right line of develop- ment from that temperamental impetus which by his own theory is the source of every philosophy, however he may have sloughed off various inconsisten- cies to attain this position. As a mat- ter of fact, the word Pragmatism scarce- ly occurs in these lectures, and the at- tempt at their end to tack on a theory of creating, or even discovering, truth by the "practical reason" is purely perfunc- tory. Their central point, their crisis, so to speak, is the magnificent repudia- tion of the whole process of meta- physics: I saw (he says) that philosophy had been on a false scent ever since the days of Soc- rates and Plato, that an intellectual an- swer to the intellectualist's difficulties will never come, and that the real way out of them, far from consisting in the discovery of such an answer, consists in simply clos- ing one's ears to the question. When con- ceptualism summons life to justify itself in conceptual terms, it is like a challenge addressed in a foreign language to some one who is absorbed in his own business; it is irrelevant to him altogether — he may let it lie unnoticed. I went thus through the "inner catastrophe"; ... I had lit- erally come to the end of my conceptual stock-in-trade, I was bankrupt intellectual- istically, and had to change my base. II. To such an inner catastrophe, not un- like one of the conversions he has de- scribed so luminously in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," he was brought after long struggling with the prob- lem of reason and covering hundreds of sheets of paper with memoranda of his self-questioning. As the worldling under the stroke of heaven forswears the world, so now he is "compelled to give up logic, fairly, squarely, and irrevoca- bly." The apostle to him in this agony was the young sage of Paris, Henri Bergson, to whom many others, indeed, in these times of perplexity are turn- ing inquisitive eyes, and to -whom Mr. James devotes one of the most brilliant of his lectures. To that lecture itself, or to G.-H. Luquet's "Idees generates de psychologic" the questioner must be referred who hesitates to plunge into M. Bergson's own uncoordinated works. Mr. James centres his exposition about the hoary and awful paradox which sets Achilles forever approaching and never overtaking a tortoise, since by the time he reaches the tortoise's first starting- point, the tortoise has already got be- yond that starting-point to another, and so on ad infinitum, the interval between the two being endlessly subdivided but never obliterated — just as V2 plus V± plus Vs may be prolonged into an infinite series without equalling unity. The solution is a statement of the absolute divorce between reason and sensuous ex- perience; the one is discrete, the other is concrete and continuous. To analyze actual experience into the terms of the intellect is simply to use words without meaning: You cannot explain [by abstract concepts] what makes any single phenomenon be or go— you merely dot out the path of appear- ances which it traverses. For you cannot make continuous being out of discontinui- ties, and your concepts are discontinuous. The stages into which you analyze a change are states, the change itself goes on between them. It lies along their intervals, inhabits what your definition fails to gather up, and thus eludes conceptual explanation alto- gether. With this sling of metaphysical ne- gation he attacks Mr. Bradley, the cham- pion of monism, or abstract idealism, or pantheism, or whatever you choose to call it; and, believe me, he makes good sport with the doughty Goliath of Ox- ford. I confess that to me monism has always been merely another word for monomania, and I have followed Mr. James's sallies into the madhouse with a kind of gay amusement. The attempt to catch and hold the universe in a syllogism, denying thereby all our con- ' crete experience, all our sense of multi- plicity and change, all our knowledge of evil, denying life itself for an ab- stract unity of the reason, has been one of the tyrannous obsessions of meta- physics. Common sense might protest against monism as a madness, but com- mon sense is apt to shrivel away un- der the frown of a supercilious Rea- son, and Reason declares there shall be no contradiction in the sum of our ex- periences. The only escape is to deny the validity of reason itself as the sole criterion of reality. To this liberation Mr. James has been guided, or has at least been confirmed therein, by the new luminary of Paris, and now proclaims his gratitude. His protest against the whole school of German intellectualism will find an exultant echo in many la- boring breasts. It is in a very literal sense the "psychological moment" for such an authoritative utterance as this: The English mind, thank heaven, and the French mind, are still kept, by their aver- sion to crude technique and barbarism, closer to truth's natural probabilities. Their literatures show fewer obvious falsities and monstrosities than that of Germany. Think of the German literature of aesthetics, with the preposterousness of such an unaesthetic personage as Immanuel Kant enthroned in its centre! Think of German books on Re- ligion sphilosophie, with the heart's battles translated into conceptual jargon and made dialectic. III. Made virtute! we cry, and toss hats into the air. There is no hope in Kant or any of his followers, for, as Mr. James rightly asserts, both wings of modern philosophy rest on intellectualist logic, "the absolutists smashing the world of sense by its means, the em- piricists smashing the absolute — for the absolute, they say, is the quintessence of all logical contradictions. . . . Neither impugns in principle its gen- eral theoretic authority." I, for one, am ready to follow any leader out of the Egypt of Kantian metaphysics, and I would not belittle the honor due to M. Bergson and to Mr. James as the Moses and the Aaron of this exodus. Yet a word of demur must be entered against so extreme a statement as that "ration- alism has never [before] been seriously questioned . . . and Bergson alone has been radical." Such an avowal rouses the suspicion that Mr. James him- self has not really looked beyond the circle drawn by the wizard of Konigs- berg, that he too stands entranced in the illusion of the present. Sometimes as I consider with myself how this illu- sion daily more and more enthralls and impoverishes our mental life by cutting off from it all the rich experience of the past, it is as though we were at sea in a vessel, while a fog was settling upon the water, gradually, as it thick- ened, closing in upon our vision with ever narrower circle, blotting out the far-flashing lights of the horizon and

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458 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2288 the depths of the sky, throwing a pall upon the very waves about us, until we move forward through a sullen obscur- ity, unaware of any other traveller upon that sea, save when through the fog the sound of a threatening alarm beats upon the ear. Mr. James, who has pondered so well Bergson's analysis of the indi- vidual consciousness as a summing up of all the past, should have seen the application of the same definition to the general consciousness of mankind. He should have seen that Bergson's rejec- tion of reason as the arbiter of reality was no new thing, but the old insight re-defined in the terms of modern psy- chology. Had he been more completely freed from the vicious circle of the present, he would have known that in denouncing Platonism as the type and source of rationalistic metaphysics, he had in mind not the Greek Plato, but a Plato viewed through Teutonic spec- tacles. The doctrine of reminiscence, and indeed of ideas themselves if prop- erly understood, should have taught him that Plato's instrument of truth was an intuition far closer to the facts of con- sciousness than is any canon of discrete logic, and at one with the faculty of religious insight wherever and when- ever this is found. The Neo-Platonists developed this method — while denuding it of vitality, making it "thin," as Mr. James would say — in their d'stinction between intelligence («*o0s) and the non-intelligible One or the First Good. Henry More, in his tantalizing obscure rhymes, sought to unite this higher skepticism with Christian theology, as, for instance, in his "L'fe of the Soul" (ii, 98): How then, said Graco, is the spirit known If noi by reason? To this I replied, Only the spirit can the spirit own. But this, said he, is back again to slide And in an idle Circle round to ride. Why so, said I, is not light seen by light? Straight Graculo did skilfully divide All knowledge into sense and reason right. Be 't so, said I, Don Graco, what's this reason's might? If then, said he, the spirit may not be Right reason, surely we must deem it sense. Yes, sense it is, this was my short reply. And Pascal meant the same thing when he declared that "there is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason," and that "the heart has its reasons, which the reason does not know." To this extent the insight of faith is in agreement with the common- sense of the street, in so far as to both the meaning of the world is given by immediate experience rather than by any metaphysical system; and they are both in agreement with the complete skeptic in so far as they all hold their judgment in a state of suspension (ejroxi toward the pretensions of rea son to act as the final arbiter of reality: "The truth is Pyrrhonism," said Pascal. In this contrast to rationalism, saint and man of the world and skeptic are at one; they diverge on other lines. It has seemed worth while to point, in passing, to this kinship of Bergson's psychological superrationalism with the constant attitude of faith, because the aspect of Mr. James's work which most deserves censure is the encouragement afforded therein to the particular van- ity of our age — a smart contempora- neity. He should hp.ve pondered the scope of his own pregnant sentence: "If we do not feel both past and present in one field of feeling, we feel them not at all." IV. With this reserve, we may regard the call from metaphysics to a philosophy of immediate experience as altogether wholesome. Abstract reason is not in its own field a false thing, nor is it without indispensable usefulness in the application of experience to life; never- theless, not through it shall we come into intimate touch with reality, but through life itself; the truth for us is not what we have defined logically, but what we actually feel and will. It does not follow, however, that in accepting heartily this method we must equally accept Mr. James's statement of the rela- tive values of what he reports as ob- tained by the method; we may even suspect that in his evaluation he slips into the very error from which he is so eager to save us. Consciousness, he says, is not discrete, or divided into dis- continuous moments, as it is presented to us by the reason, but is continuous; nor has it any conformity with the static void of monism. Time and change are of its essence, and if we wish to know reality we must "dive back into the flux itself." His cry is like the com- mand of Faust to leave the musty cell and throw one's self into the stream of the world — Hinavs ins Freie! There is a splendid exhilaration in the call. There is grave irony as well as stirring exhortation in Mr. James's personal ap- peal to his audience: If Oxford men could be ignorant of any- thing, it might almost seem that they had remained ignorant of the great empirical movement towards a pluralistic panpsychic view of the universe, into which our own generation has been drawn, and which threatens to short-circuit their methods [of monistic dogmatism] entirely and be- come their religious rival unless they are willing to make themselves its allies. Yet, wedded as they seem to be to the logical machinery and technical apparatus of ab- solutism, I cannot but believe that their fidelity to the religious ideal in general is deeper still. . . . Let empiricism once become associated with religion, as hither- to, through some strange misunderstand- ing, it has been associated with irreligion, and I believe that a new era of religion as well as of philosophy will be ready to begin. That great awakening of a new popular Interest in philosophy, which is so striking a phenomenon at the present day in all countries, Is undoubtedly due in part to religious demands. A pluralistic panpsychic view of the universe. That is to say: as our only knowledge is experience and our ex- perience is an inner consciousness flow- ing with ceaseless change about end- lessly differing sensations presented to it from without, so the truth of the world for us is not monism, but plural- ism. We are du reel dans le reel, but this reality is an infinite group of in- teracting, interpenetrating forces, over which no absolute law can be found to govern. And as these forces, like our states of consciousness, are in a con- stant mutation, so, like ourselves, they may very well be, in part at least, other streams of consciousness, meeting and embracing and repelling one another. How else, indeed, can they have any meaning or reality to us? The universe may thus be panpsychic, and one of the most interesting of Mr. James's lectures is a revival of Fechner's animism, with his vision of the world-soul enveloping and nourishing the souls of men. For the proof of such a theory Mr. James goes to what he deems the facts of ex- perience: In a word, the believer is continuous, to his own consciousness, at any rate, with a wider self from which saving experiences flow in. Those who have such experiences distinctly enough and often enough to live in the light of them remain quite unmoved by criticism, from whatever quarter it may come, be it academic or scientific, or be it merely the voice of logical common sense. They have had their vision and they know- that is enough— that we inhabit an in- visible spiritual environment from which help comes, our soul being mysteriously one with a larger soul whose instruments we are. By such steps the pragmatist, now rath- er choosing to be called the radical em- piricist, arrives at the belief in a deity, who is by no means the static timeless absolute of the monist, with its foreign- ness from all things human, but a mighty God above other gods, "having an environment, being in time, and working out a history just like our- selves." V. It is a seductive theory and has at least that quality of "thickness" which Mr. James, with his genius for phrase- making, contrasts with the "thinness" of idealism. It is charming, but then the dog that trails always at the heels of the pragmatist will have his bark: Is it true? Somehow one cannot be quite at ease in this new Zion, and, reading M. Luquet's analysis of Berg- sonism, I seem to divine where the trou- ble lies. When we enter upon the study of psychology, says that expositor, we must begin by discarding the logic which we used in the sciences. In this field contradictories no longer exclude each other. Every state of conscious-

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May 6, 1909 J The Nation 459 ness is at once an existence and a knowl- edge, the thing known and the knower, a part and the whole. Here identity and change, past and present, are simulta- neous attributes of the same subject. And he continues: Hence we explain at once the existence .and the falseness, at least relative, of the two opposed psychological doctrines called phenomenalism and spiritism. The latter sees in the ego an immutable substance which looks on with indifference at the •unrolling states of consciousness ; the for- mer sees in the ego only a succession, a collection of isolated states of conscious- ness, of which the first has ceased when the second is produced. This truth explains, I surmise, some- thing more than the two present modes of psychology. Is not this irreconcilable dualism of consciousness the source of the two opposing schools of philosophy, "which, ever since Parmenides and Heraclitus set forth the paradox of ab- solute rest and absolute motion, unity and multiplicity, identity and change, have been at each other's throats? Log- ic demands the rejection of a contra- dictory; and as the temperament of a man leads him to dwell on one or the other phase of his inner experience, so, if he is a metaphysician, he forthwith sets out to build a rational theory of the universe on that phase lo the ex- clusion of the other. What, at bottom, 1s this Pluralism of Mr. James, but the same ancient presumption of the reason which he has himself so shrewdly de- nounced. His feeling for flux and change and multiplicity is a reality, a great and desirable reality, set over against the monist's exclusive sense of unity; but is it the whole of reality? How can one recall the innumerable witnesses of religion, or hearken to the self-revela- tion of the poets, how can one look Into the mirror of one's own life, and not perceive that the sense of some- thing immutable and undivided exists in some way side by side with the sense of everlasting flux, that there is within Tis some . . . central peace subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation? Mr. James does, indeed, throw out hints that he has caught the meaning of this ■dualistic reality of experience, but, like other philosophers, he soon cowers at the imperious command of reason, and tries to hide the nature of his own sub- mission to one horn of the dilemma by merriment over the writhing of Mr. Bradley on the other; meanwhile com- mon sense stands like das Weltkind in der Mitte. And if the Pluralism of Mr. James is no true substitute for dualism, but a rejection of the one for the many, so his Panpsychism commits the other er- ror of metaphysics in translating a fact of inner experience into a theory of the universe at large. The comfortable be- lief in these world-souls and commin- gled spirits and finite Jehovahs is even a projection of our consciousness of per- sonal change into the void, just as the monist's absolute abstraction is born of his consciousness of personal unity. No doubt we are not alone in the universe. Forces beat upon us from every side and are as really existent to us as ourselves: their influence upon ourselves we know, but their own secret name and nature we have not yet heard — not from Mr. James, or Mr. Bradley, or another. Until that prophet has ap- peared, I do not see what better thing we can do than to hold our judgment in a state of complete skepticism, or suspension, in regard to the correspond- ence of our inner experience with the world at large, neither affirming nor denying; while we accept honestly the dualism of consciousness as the illogical fact. Reason, I should suppose, may be our guide in determining the relative values to us of our opposed phases of consciousness. The will may be no Will to Believe — for we know — but a power to make of this choice of values the motive of contemplative and prac- tical life. And, if I have read correctly the lesson of the past and of the pres- ent, faith, I dare avow, is something that strikes deeper than the mythol- ogies of religion, or the imaginings of a fevered Pragmatism; it is the voice from our own centre of calm, asserting through all the noise of contradiction: "I am the better self and the higher value, the stronger life and the finer joy." To many who have looked stead- fastly into the meaning of their inner life, that "wider self from which saving experiences flow in" will seem to be in- deed a wider self rather than any en- vironment of ghosts; and they will feel that in this belief they have a firmer as- surance of reality than is offered to them by the new mythology of Prag- matism or Panpsychic Pluralism. They will think that John Woolman uttered the truth of dualism and of religion when he said: "The necessity of an in- ward stillness hath appeared clear to my mind; in true silence strength is re- newed." P. E. M. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. In 1906 the directors of the Virginia State Library made provision for the preparation of a Bibliography of Virginia. The period first taken up was Colonial Virginia and the report of the bibliographer, William Clayton-Torrence, covering the period 1607 to 1754, has just been printed. This is. sent out as a pamphlet with the modest title "A Trial Bibliography," but an examination of the 154 pages, describing 219 books, pam- phlets, and broadsides shows It to be a careful, accurate, and scholarly piece of work, hard to improve upon. The collations are moderately full; copies are located, so far as possible, in several public libraries, and references are given to earlier biblio- graphical works. Reprints are also referred to, and references are made to certain en- tries in the Stationers' Registers which, if ever printed, are not now known to exist. When we consider how many of the known pamphlets exist in one or two or three ex- amples only it would be folly to say that those which have not been found were never printed. The historical, biographical, and bibliographical notes appended to many titles are especially interesting. The "Bib- liography" as now printed ends with 1754. A note at the end says that descriptions of 230 additional titles, bringing the record down to 1776, hadbeen prepared and that by a fire in the printing office the manuscript was destroyed. There Is one early broad- side, important because it is so early, which Mr. Clayton-Torrence seems to have overlooked and of which there is a copy in the British Museum, described as fol- lows in the Fourth Series of William Carew Hazlitt's "Collections and Notes" (1903): Fort the Plantation in Virginia. Or Nova Britannia. London: Printed by John Windet. 1609. A broadside. B.M. An advertisement of an intended and ap- proaching Voyage thither, and an invitation and encouragement to practical emigrants. The late Dr. Alexander Brown discovered a transcript of this document in the Span- ish archives, but was unable to locate a printed copy. On May 12, 13, and 14 the Anderson Auc- tion Co. of this city will sell the library of Mrs. Constance C. Poor of Tuxedo Park. The collection is chiefly notable for books on gardening and botany. Among the older works are Dodoen's "Newe Herball" (1578), Cook's "Manner of Raising, Ordering, and Improving Forest Trees" (1676), Cotton's "Planter's Manual" (1675), Gervase Mark- ham's "Cheape and good Husbandry" (1631), Barnaby Googe's "Art and Trade of Hus- bandry" (1614). Important modern vol- umes are Sowerby's "English Botany," 13 vols.; Michaux's "North American Sylva," 3 vols.; Sargent's "Silva of North America," 3 vols.; Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 1787 to 1867, 93 vols.; and Paxton's Magazine of Botany, 1843 to 1849, 16 vols. A collection of fifteen autograph letters of Carlyle; Chaucer's Works, Kele's undated edition, also Islip's edition of 1602; and the Kelms- cott Press Shakespeare, are other notable lots. On May 11, 12, and 13 the Merwin-Clay- ton Sales Co. of this city will offer the li- braries of Dr. E. C. Williams of Chicago and R. N. Oakman, jr., of Brooklyn. Among the items are the first edition of Pope's translation of the Iliad (1715-20), with au- tograph receipt for the first payment, sign- ed by Pope, inserted; Burns's "Correspon- dence with Clarinda" (1843), first edition; the first portion of the Catalogue of Robert Hoe's library, Early English Books, 5 vols.; and books from the Kelmscott Press. On May 12 and 13 C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston sell the library and autograph col- lection of Franklin Webster Smith of Wash- ington. Extra illustrated copies of Better- ton's "History of the English Stage," and Charles James Fox's "History of the Early Part of the Reign of James the Second"; and a set of the Dunlap Society Publications are worthy of mention. On May 10 and 11 Stan. V. Henkels will sell at Freeman's Auction Rooms in Phila- delphia the library of the late John McAl- lister, Jr., Including a long series of Phil- adelphia directories, American almanacs and magazines, and a large collection of

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4,(60 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 pamphlets extending from colonial times to the civil war. As addenda, to be sold at twelve o'clock Tuesday, are eight New Eng- land pamphlets: Underbill's "Newes from America" (1638), lacking plan; Wood's "New England's Prospect" (1639), lacking map; and six of the very rare tracts by John El- iot telling of the conversion of the New England Indians, with the following titles: "New England's First Fruits" (1643), as usual without the errata leaf; "The Day- Breaking, if not the Sun-Rising of the Gos- pel with the Indians in New England" (1647) ; "The Clear Sunshine of the Gospel breaking forth up on the Indians in New England" (1648) ; "The Glorious Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England" (1649) ; "Strength out of Weakness or a Glorious Manifestation of the Further Progress of the Gospel among the Indians in New England" (1652) ; and "Tears of Repentance; or a Further Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel" (1653). A most remarkable Caxton volume will be included in Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge's sale of May 20 and 21. It is made up of five productions of Caxton's press: (1) "The Mirrour of the Worlde" (1481), (2) "Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers" (1478), (3-4) "Cicero's 'De Senectute' and •De Amicitia' (probably published together, 1481). and (5) "The Boke named Cordyale" (1479). The volume is in old oak boards, probably Caxton's original binding, and the pieces are all perfect and in fine condition. The book was recently discovered in an old Manor House in the North of England. Among other books included in the same sale are "Robinson Crusoe" (1719), 2 vols., first editions; Hakluyt's "Principal Naviga- tions, Voyages, and Discoveries" (1589) ; Quarles's "Emblemes" (1635), first edition; Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia" (1632), with the "True Travels" (1630); and several first editions of Tennyson, presen- tation copies to Sarah Hayword. IN MEMORY OF SWINBURNE. (Vale, vale, in wternum, vale!) I. April whispers — "Canst thou, too, die, Lover of life and lover of mine?" April, queen over earth and sky, Yearns, and her trembling lashes shine: Master in song, good-bye, good-bye, Down to the dim sea-line. II. "This is my singing season," he cried, "April, what sweet new song do you bring?" April came and knelt at his side Breathing a song too great to sing — Death! — and the dark cage-door swung wide: Seaward the soul took wing. III. Sleep, on the breast of thine old-world lover, Sleep, by thy "fair green-girdled" sea! There shall thy soul with the sea-birds hover, Free of the deep as their wings are free, Free; for the grave-flowers only cover This, the dark cage of thee. IV. Thee, the storm-bird, nightingale-souled, Brother of Sappho, the seas reclaim! Age upon age have the great waves rolled Mad with her music.fierce and a-flame; Thee, thee too, shall their glory enfold Lit with thy snow-winged fame. V. Back thro' the years fleets the sea-bird's wing: Sappho, of old time, once, — ah, hark! So did he love her of old and sing! Listen, he flies to her, back thro' the dark! Sappho, of old time, once! — Yea, Spring Calls him home to her, hark! VI. Sappho, long since, in the years far sped, Sappho, I loved thee! Did I not seem Fosterling only of earth? I have fled, Fled to thee, sister. Time is a dream! Shelley is here with us! Death lies dead! Ah, how the bright waves gleam. VII. Wide was the cage-door, idly swinging, April touched me and whispered "Come": Out and away to the great deep winging, Sister, I flashed to thee over the foam; Out to the sea of Eternity, singing "Mother, thy child comes home." VIII. Ah, -but how shall we welcome May Here where the wing of song droops low, Here by the last green swinging spray Brushed by the sea-bird's wings of snow, We that gazed on his glorious way Out where the great winds blow? IX. April whispers — "Canst thou, too, die, Lover of life and lover of mine?" April, conquering earth and shy, Yearns, and her trembling lashes shine: Master in song, good-bye, good-bye, Down to the dim sea-line. Alfred Notes. Ewhurst, Rottingdean, Sussex, England. Correspondence. TENNYSON'S REVISIONS OF HIS POEMS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The publication of the new Evers- ley Edition of Tennyson has called atten- tion to many variant readings of the poems- and reminds me of one that I discovered in the first American (1859) edition of the first four "Idylls of the King" ("Enid," "Vivien," "Elaine," and "Guinevere," as^ they were then entitled), which was print- ed from advance sheets, sent from England. Of two of these ("Enid" and "Vivien") six "trial copies," as the reader may know, had been printed in 1857, with the title, "Enid and Nimue; the True and the False," only one of which is said to have survived — now in the British Museum. There is also a volume of proof-sheets at South Kensington, with the title, "The True and the False; Four Idylls of the King," dated 1859. It contains the poems, which, after further revision, were published in July of that year. In the authorized American- edition (1859) a passage in "Vivien" (lines 148-151) reads thus: She loathed the knights, and ever seem'd to hear Their laughing comment when her name was named. For once, when Arthur, walking all alone, Vexed at a rumor rife about the Queen, Had met her, etc. This reading is found nowhere else, and the poet must have changed it before the London edition of 1859 was printed. There it reads: She hated all the knights, and heard in thought Their lavish comment when her name was named. For once, when Arthur walking all alone, Vext at a rumour rife about the Queen, Had met her, etc. Later the last lines were changed to the present text: Vext at a rumour Issued from herself Of some corruption crept among his knights. Had met her, etc. The 1857 reading was: She hated all the knights because she deem'd They wink'd and jested when her name was named. For once when Arthur, walking all alone And troubled In his heart about the Queen, Had met her, etc. There are a few other slight discrepan- cies between the English and American edi- tions, not recorded by any of the com- mentators, but hardly worth mentioning, here. For the most complete and accurate collation of the English editions (includ- ing the 1857 proofs), the reader may con- sult Prof. Richard Jones's "The Growth o£ the Idylls of the King" (Philadelphia, 1895), in which I have detected very few omissions or inaccuracies. Apropos of the "Idylls," there is a strange omission in the text of all the English editions, not excepting the one just edited by the present Lord Tennyson. In the "Memoir" of his father (Vol. II., p. 129) we are told that in 1891 the poet, "thinking that perhaps he had not made the real humanity of the King sufllciently clear in his epilogue" ("To the Queen"), had inserted "as his last correction" the line, "Ideal manhood closed in real man," after line 37: "New-old, and shadowing: sense at war with soul." The "Memoir" ap- peared in 1897, and I inserted the line in"

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May 6, 1909] The Nation. 461 the next issue of my edition of the "Idylls," and also in the Cambridge Edition of 1898. It is probably through mere oversight that it has not appeared in the English editions printed since 1891. I wonder if any reader has noticed that in one edition of the poems (I think only one, in 1897), Lord Tennyson Included the poem entitled "Kate," first printed in 1833, but suppressed until after the poet's death. Apparently, on second thought, he decided to add nothing to the collected works as last arranged by his father. Morton Luce ("Handbook of Tennyson's Works," 1895), an,d R. H. Shepherd ("Bibliography of Tennyson," 1896; printed for subscribers only), neither of whom is invariably accurate, mention six short poems omitted in the collected editions. I have found three of these, and have added them to the successive issues of the Cambridge Edition; but the others (not referred to in the "Memoir") I have not been able to trace. They are "a stanza in the volume of his poems presented to the Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein by the nurses of England; lines on the chris- tening of the daughter of the Duchess of Fife; and lines to the memory of J. R. Lowell." Can any reader of the Nation help me in finding them? The lines on Lowell were probably reprinted here, but I have hunted for them in vain during the last ten years. It is not generally known that Edward Lear made some two hundred drawings il- lustrating many of Tennyson's earlier poems. No English publisher was willing to incur the expense of reproducing them; but in 1889 a few of them were used in an edition of three poems — "Lines to E. L. on his Travels in Greece," "To a Daisy," and "The Palace of Art"— of which only one hundred numbered copies were published (London: Boussod, Valador & Co.), all sign- ed by the poet, with a special introduction from his pen. Later the entire set was bought by Dana Estes of Boston, and as many of them as could well be used for the purpose were copied by photogravure for the de luxe edition of Tennyson (12 vols., limited to 1,000 copies), which I edited (1895- 98). This edition had been planned several years earlier with the approval of the poet and his son, who assisted in the selection of the illustrations (of which a dozen or more were connected with single poems in some instances), and gave me other valu- able help in the work. These drawings by Lear are not mentioned in the "Memoir" or any other book or article about the Tennysons that I have seen, and I was sur- prised to find no allusion to them in the recent "Letters of Edward Lear." Neither have I met with any mention of the large painting by Leai which hangs in the hall of Tennyson's summer residence at Aid- worth. It illustrates one of the stanzas in "The Palace of Art" which describe tapestry pictures so graphically: One seem'd all dark and red — a tract of sand. And some one pacing there alone, Who paced forever In a glimmering land. Lit with a low large moon. The picture is "all dark and red," with the full moon shining red through the twilight haze of the horizon; a solitary man striding across the foreground, and nothing else ex- cept a towering rock near the left side. The stanza is inscribed on the frame below. The painting was evidently hung in the broad, well-lighted hall, extending from the front to the rear of the mansion, because it was too large for the walls of any room. I am no connoisseur of painting, but the picture interested me greatly, and the more each time I saw it. The fifteen stanzas In the poem describing as many tapestries had always impressed me at remarkable exam- ples of word-painting. Some of them have more of detail than this one — particularly that delineating a volcanic landscape: And one, a foreground black with stones and slags, Beyond, a line of heights, and higher All barr'd with long white cloud the scornful crags, And highest, snow and fire a four-fold view of plain, hill, and moun- tain, ending with the trisyllabic "snow and fire" — active volcanoes towering above the snow-line, painted no less vividly than con- cisely. This poem, as the reader knows, was first printed in the volume of 1832 (published in the winter of that year, but dated 1833), but some of these pictures were much altered in 1842, and some were omit- ted. The two quoted here were then as follows: Some were all dark and red, a glimmering land Lit with a low round moon, Among brown rocks a man upon the sand Went weeping all alone. One seemed a foreground black with stones and slags, Below sunsmitten ley spires Rose striped with long white cloud the scornful crags, Deep-trenched with thunderflres. Throughout the book compound words gen- erally omit the hyphen, as here. Two of the omitted stanzas may be added, as the book is in no American public or college library (Boston and Cambridge not except- ed) that I know of: Or Venus in a snowy shell alone, Deepshadowed in the glassy brine, Moonlike glowed double on the blue, and shone A naked shape divine. Or blue-eyed Kriemhilt from a craggy hold, Athwart the lightgreen rows of vine, Pour'd blazing hoards of Nibelungen gold, Down to the gulfy Rhine. W. J. ROLFE. Cambridge, Mass., April 28. A WORD ABOUT CARDELIUS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your correspondent's query in your issue of April 1 about the writings of Car- delius interests me, and I am glad to be able to inform him of the probable source of the quotation he has seen — though who could have taken the pains to translate even a slight portion of this little-known writer interests me — and I would in turn beg to know how the extract referred to may be obtained. John or Joachim Cardelius was one of the most learned writers of the sixteenth century. He was a native of a small town in Franconia and son of a physician who is reputed never to have taken physic or to have been bled. At the age of ten our writer was graduated by his teacher as knowing more than he did; and thereafter the pupil succeeded to the master's per- quisites. He had a peculiar affection for the classics, was a humanist in everything but his humanity, and wrote a vast quan- tity of Latin verses, dealing chiefly with the delights of learning, of which he was entitled to speak, and of marriage, of which he could have known nothing, since he is reputed never to have entered wed- lock. One of his works best known in his day is on the virtues of garlic, another on the spread of polite literature among the peasant classes, and a third on the dis- eases that affect bookworms. Singly his- works are very rare — raris&ima — as is the collected edition also, printed by Mauretius- and only mentioned, so far as I know, by Euges in his "Icon illustrium Virorum," where our writer is spoken of as follows: Eo provectus est Eruditionls, ut communi Doctorum omnium consensu, peritiorem Linguae Graecae neminem, in Latina vero Lingua disertiores perpaucos, exactiorem autem nullum scriptorem habuerit Germa- nia, slcut plurima ipsius monumenta tes- tantur. Robert Restieaux. New York, April 15. PLAGIARISM. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Prof. T. M. Parrott opens his in- teresting communication in the Nation of April 15 by the somewhat wide generaliza- tion that "the idea that the first, if not the sole, duty of an author is to be original at all costs is distinctly modern. The very word 'plagiarism' was unknown to the Elizabethans." One of Professor Parrott's examples is Jonson. In Jonson's works- (ed. of 1640) is an "Epigram to Proule the Plagiary": Forbeare to tempt me Proule, I will not show A line unto thee, till the world it know; . Or that I have by two good sufficient men, To be the wealthy witnesse of my pen, etc. This seems to show that Jonson knew the thing— when he saw it in another. Quite a little anthology might be adduced, in fact, from Jonson, and other Elizabethans, to- show that — under such conditions — plagiar- ism was one of those airy nothings in- cluded in poetical nomenclature. Antedating the Elizabethans, middle age literature is full of the literary scandals of authors Whom the lore of centuries, plus a hundred fights. Taught no great respect for one another's rights. The lore of centuries indeed. Horace dis- cusses the practice; Plutarch repro- bates an instance of it in Epicurus (?), and Professor Parrott well shows that the Eliz- abethans knew their classics. The Elizabethans, under the mellowing action of time, seem very fine people in their way, but "Victoria has thieves as good." Why Professor Parrott's unde- served slur on the "over-scrupulousness" of modern writers? Were it not invidious to select from such abundance of material, one might well adduce modern authors who* could give spades and trumps to Alcyonius himself, who was accused of having burn- ed the only known copy of Cicero on Glory that his own might not suffer by the dis- covery of his borrowings therefrom. Bunford Samuel. Philadelphia, April 27. GREAT BRITAIN AND GERMANY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: To your explanation (April 15) of the deplorable condition of the Anglo-Ger- man relations, I should like to add a word. It is undoubtedly true that between the

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4=32 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2288 common people of Germany and Great Bri- tain there is little if any widespread hos- tility, but undoubtedly there is consider- able acerbity between the commercial and official classes of those nations. And the •reason is not far to seek. Judging from the tone of British news- paper and magazine articles as well as speeches in Parliament, the British have viewed with complacency, or at least with- out alarm, the growth of the German army and the military supremacy of Germany in Europe. No very serious objections have been urged against German colonial ex- pansion outside of Europe. Birmingham and Manchester have felt the pinch of German •competition pretty keenly, but if the peo- ple of Central and South America prefer ■cheaper German goods, que voulez vousf World commerce is free, and that is part •of the game. "But how about the German navy?" the British public is asking. "What will it be used for?" What is the need of such a tremendous navy? Why such a startling disproportion between the size of the Ger- man navy and the amount of German ocean- borne commerce? So long as the British •navy has been supreme, no restrictions have been laid on foreign commerce ex- cept tariffs by the foreign countries them- selves; but, supposing the German navy -were supreme, would these free-trade con- ditions continue to be open to all competi- tors? Great Britain lives by foreign com- merce^— it is the breath in her nostrils, the blood in her veins, the food in her mouth. She lives by manufacturing for and trad- ing with foreign countries; and it is an absolute prerequisite of her existence that there should be complete security on the ocean for her traffic and commerce. Pres- ent conditions of world-commerce demon- strate that with the British navy supreme all nations, great and small, may traverse the ocean in absolute security and un- hampered in search of markets and trade; hut, judging from Germany's commercial methods and her past economic history, is it certain that such conditions would last if the Germans were supreme at sea? And with changed conditions, what will become of Great Britain's foreign commerce, and, with her foreign commerce restricted or Imperilled, iwhat becomes of Great Britain? We in the United States could manage to worry along pretty comfortably even if all o! our ocean-borne commerce were shut off; but under similar conditions Great Bri- tain would die of inanition in six weeks. These are some of the problems agitating the British public at present. Of course, it may be that the Kaiser is laying down new Dreadnoughts merely in a spirit of facetiousness, and the feverish ac- tivity of German naval ship yards is all a huge joke. If so, the most excruciating part of the joke lies in the fact that it seems as if Germany in 1912 would have more Dreadnoughts in her navy than Great Britain. Add to this that Austria, Ger- many's ally, has taken to building Dread- noughts, that the Russian navy is a minus quantity, that the French navy according to recent revelations is unfit — and the joke becomes positively killing. Meanwhile, Germany placidly assures Great Britain of her earnest desire for peace. According to our humorists Englishmen are slow to see a joke of any sort, and clearly Anglo-Ger- man diplomacy has a large task ahead of itself to convince the British public that there is nothing serious in the present German naval programme. E. L. C. Morse. Chicago, April 19. A CORRECTION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the interests of accuracy kindly allow me to correct an error into which Prof. Arthur W. Goodspeed fell, in his ac- count, in your issue of April 29, of the recent meeting of the American Philosophi- cal Society at Philadelphia. Prof. Christian Hiilsen, secretary of the German Archaeolo- gical Institute in Rome, is credited by many of us as being the greatest among Roman topographers of the present day; but he is a German, and I'ltalia fara da se. The gentleman who "has been In charge of the excavations of the Forum in Rome," as well as of other things, is Commendatore Giacomo Boni, who should not be deprived of any of his well-deserved credit, even in the popular mind. E. T. M. University of Chicago, May 1. Notes. Longmans, Green, & Co. have ready for early publication, "Five Months in the Himalaya," by A. L. Mumm, formerly sec- retary of the Alpine Club; and "The Basis of Ascendancy," by Edgar Gardner Murphy. The Yale Publishing Association has in press "The Journal of an Expedition Across Venezuela and Colombia, 1906-1907," by Dr. Hiram Bingham. The author gives the results of explorations made by him over the route traversed by Bolivar in the celebrated march of 1819 and on the battle- fields of Boyaca and Carabobo. Next autumn A. C. McClurg & Co. will give us two books of political memoirs, one "The Diary of James K. Polk." the other Adlai E. Stevenson's "Something of Men I Have Known." Polk's Diary was used by Professor Garrison in writing the seventeenth volume of "The American Na- tion," and James Schouler also made use of it, but it has never been so well known as its historical value is said to warrant. The April issue of The American Journal of International Law opens with an elab- orate eighty-five page study by Alejan- dro Alvarez, Councillor of the Chilian For- eign Office, "Latin America and Interna- tional Law." He finds during the entire period since allegiance to the European home governments was severed a deter- mination to foster and perpetuate the idea of Latin-American solidarity, how- ever the realization of that determina- tion may have been interrupted by con- tests between certain of the so-called re- publics. The editorial comment sets forth the exact status of our controversy with Venezuela. Due emphasis is laid on the first decision of the Central American Court of Justice, the interposition of that court in the dispute between Honduras on one side and Guatemala and San Salvador on the other, without either of the liti- gants having made a request for such ac- tion, resulting, as the editorial declares, in preventing the outbreak of war. The judgment of the court is given, in a lit- eral translation. The editor also comments on a real diplomatic triumph — that of M. Isvolsky, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Russia, in proposing a mode of solving the Balkan question, which has met the approbation of Bulgaria, and of the signa- tories of the Treaty of Berlin. The de- tails of our remission of a part of China's indemnity for damages growing out of the Boxer troubles of 1900, are also given, and the preliminaries to what is likely to be a final settlement of the Newfoundland fish- eries controversy. The Supplement presents the treaties that affect the Panama Canal. The number is noteworthy as exhibiting triumphs of diplomacy in averting the peril of war. Sturgis & Walton of this city have been brave enough to bring out a new edition, neatly printed and bound, of "The Lost Tales of Miletus," by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. We should be interested to know how many readers can be found to-day for these rhythmical experiments in rhymeles3 stanzas. The poems sound pretty thin when compared with the richer work of William Morris in "The Earthly Paradise." A timely reissue for this season, when the flood of travel to Europe Is beginning, is "The Playground of Europe," by the late Sir Leslie Stephen (G. P. Putnam's Song). The handsome typography and binding are uniform with those of other volumes by Stephen published by the same firm. This book, as many of our readers will remem- ber, is made up of papers on Switzerland and the Alps, most of them written when this enthusiastic Alpinist was a young man. The illustrations are excellent half-tones. A fourth edition of Baedeker's "United States, with Excursions to Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, and Alaska" has just been is- sued (imported by Charles Scribner's Sons). The excursions to Cuba and Porto Rico appear for the first time in this vol- ume. There are thirty-three maps, as com- pared with twenty-five in the third edition, and forty-eight plans, as compared with thirty-five. The handbook on the United States is perhaps not so well known as those volumes of the series which treat European countries, but, like all the rest, it is crammed with useful and interesting information. Largely through the instrumentality of the graduate schools in our greater uni- versities, the history of the United States, especially during the eighteenth century, is being rewritten in monographs on par- ticular periods, districts, or movements. Of such works one of the most important which has recently appeared Is Dr. E. P. Tanner's "Province of New Jersey, 1664- 1738," which forms Volume XXX of the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law. It is a monu- ment of painstaking research. Its 700 pages give us the most minute and scholarly ac- count yet produced of any colony during a similar period. Dr. Tanner seems to have exhausted all printed and accessible manu- script material on the subject, which is pri- marily "an account of the politic&l insti- tutions of New Jersey during the period of her executive union with New York." One wonders, however, whether some light might not have been thrown on certain

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May 6, 1909] The USTation. 463 features of the work by consulting the Journals of the Lords of Trade and Planta- tions, preserved in Philadelphia. The field covered is one of much interest, and no little difficulty, and his careful discussion of the proprietorships and the land systems of East and West Jersey will be welcomed by all who have had to do with those trou- blesome questions. By far the larger part of the study is, of course, devoted to the administrative aspects of the province. He has chapters on the Governors and their powers; the Council, its personnel, its legal position, In administration and in legisla- tion; the General Assembly and the conflict between Executive and Legislature; the Judicial, financial, and militia systems; the Church of England; and concluding chap- ters on the proprietorship under royal rule. The critical apparatus, and the elaborate index, are good. Such work has much to commend it. And not the least of its uses Is that some day, on the basis of these studies, we may come to a better under- standing of those political and administra- tive situations which underlay and led up to the American Revolution. Then we may hope to have adequate histories of that most important event. A formula book of English official his- torical documents is in process of publi- cation by the Cambridge University Press under the editorship of Hubert Hall of the Public Record Office. Mr. Hall originally planned this collection as an appendix to his "Studies in English Official Historical Documents," but as the work increased in bulk, he finally decided to issue it as a separate publication. The first volume, which has now appeared, contains diplo- matic documents, 225 in number, dating from the eighth to the nineteenth centuries. They are classified in groups and in some instances, for example the nine instru- ments illustrating the passage of the Con- necticut charter through the seals, form a continuous series. The documents were transcribed by the seven members of Mr. Hall's seminar in the London School of Economics, Mr. Hall selecting the speci- mens and assuming all the responsibilities of editorship. The work is admirably done and its usefulness is beyond dispute. Th( only previous "Formulare Anglicanum" is that of Thomas Madox issued in 1702. a col- lection almost entirely legal in character and much more limited in scope. Mr. Hall proposes to issue a second volume to con- tain formulas of surveys, inquisitions, ac- counts, and a few selected judicial records. When completed, the work will be a help- ful introduction to the still youthful science of diplomatics. "When Railroads Were New," by Charles Frederick Carter (Henry Holt & Co.), is the outcome of the conviction that no satis- factory account of railway beginnings is available to the general reader. To admit this contention is to overlook the classic writings of Charles Francis Adams and the standard histories of individual systems such as Smalley's "History of the Northern Pacific." Upon all of these the author has evidently drawn in his attempt "to gather the floating fragments of railroad history having a human interest into a coherent narrative." Yet there is not a word of acknowledgment or a bibliographical reference. That he has cultivated his field assiduously is clear from the abundant harvest of new and fugitive material which he has garnered. Amid such an array of matter one expects to find occasional errors in dates and points of fact, but these could be more readily forgiven if the finality of statement, so prevalent through- out the book, were supported by the evi- dence. Such evidence seems called for, when we are told, for example, that Peter Cooper antedated Stephenson in the in- vention of the multitubular boiler and the artificial draught. Yet the author with his keen sense of the humorous and the dramatic, traces in a most entertaining way the struggles of the idealists to overcome the conservatism of capital, the opposi- tion of vested interests, and the prejudices of the blind and the ignorant, and, barring his all too frequent descent into flippancy and slang, presents his material effectively. We follow the pioneer days of the most important seaboard railways, of the "incu- bator" roads of the Middle West, and the romantic construction of the Pacific lines whose completion was celebrated by pro- cessions, feasting, and the driving of golden spikes. Finally we reach the prosaic birth of the Canadian Pacific, brought to life in an undemonstrative business-like fashion — at the completion of which its general manager only remarked, "The last spike will be just as good an iron one as there is between Montreal and Vancouver. Any one who wants to see it driven will have to pay full fare." F. Frankfort Moore comes to the study of the eighteenth century — "A Georgian Pageant" he calls his book (E. P. Dutton & Co.) — as a child of Erin and as novelist. The combination is rather piquant when you consider that his subjects are Fanny Burney, the Thrales, Dr. Johnson, The Gunnings, Goldsmith, Sheridan, the Rev. James Hackman, and others who flutter about that lively company of British and Irish folk. You feel the touch of the novel- ist and dramatist in the very opening scene, which discloses Fanny Burney in Kew Gar- dens pursued by mad King George. The account of that famous adventure is vivid enough in Miss Burney's Diary, but Mr. Moore can tell you Just what gestures she made, and precisely what lines of verse "flashed through her active brain," with the divination which has always been the prerogative of his school. As for the child of Erin, his huge indignation against any one who has smiled at the two Gunning girls or their masterful mother, or hinted fhat they had a brogue, his outcry over noor Boswell's contempt of Goldsmith, his rage with Johnson and Mr. Thrale — a hun- dred little touches throughout the book tell where his heart lies. "Where is there an element of romance in the story of the Gunnings?" he exclaims; "they were by birth entitled to the best, and by beauty to the best of the best. As it was, the one only became the wife of a contemptible duke [two dukes in succession], the other of a ridiculous earl. It may really be said that they threw themselves away." It is not their romance Mr. Frankfort really means to deny, for, as a trained novelist, he is careful to wring the full measure of that element of interest out of their story; his quarrel is with those who, like Walpole, saw anything odd in this capture of Eng- land from Castle Coote, County Roscommon. For Goldsmith the converser, Mr. Frank- fort makes out a strong case ; undoubtedly the sneers of Boswell & Co. were due in part to their priggish inability to under- stand a right Irish humor, but it is hard to believe also that Goldsmith did not at times talk like poor Poll. The evidence is too strong. The curious thing is that Mr. Frankfort stumbles into the very same pitfall when he denounces Johnson's con- versation, failing to catch the note of Brit- ish humor in the doctor's exaggerations. Of all Mr. Frankfort's chapters the truest seems to us to be that on the tragic story of Mr. Hackman and Miss Reay. Here his training enables him to analyze as in- teresting a psychological problem as ever confronted a novelist. He should, however, have given his reasons for accepting the whole of that correspondence as authentic. Altogether his book is more entertaining than the average writing of the kind on the comedy of the eighteenth century. The motley multitude of wonders as- cribed to the "Virgin during the age of faith and fancy is represented in the New Mediaeval Library by a selection mainly from the thirteenth century collection of Gautier de Coinci, translated Into English by Alice Kemp-Welch, under the title, "Of the Tumbler of Our Lady and Other Mira- cles" (Duffleld & Co.). Though these stor- ies are told quite simply and briefly for religious edification only, several of them contain matter which should be attractive to mediaevalizing poets. The first, by the way, was elaborated by Edwin Markham no longer ago than 1907, into an unusually meritorious Christmas poem, called the "Juggler of Touraine." There is a consid- erable diversity in the marvels here re- corded— a knight whose place In a tourna- ment is taken by Our Lady, a violin player to whom the image of the Virgin bows, a monk who dies in an actual odor of sanc- tity, with five celestial roses in his mouth — but these are all, so to speak, conven- tional and orthodox miracles, such as might have happened to any well-regulated de- votee. There is nothing here to illustrate the curious vulgar extension of the Vir- gin's benefactions to an interposition, some times grotesque and profane, in the affairs of bakers and tapsters, the desperate crises of pious thieves, and the predicaments of religious but very worldly sinners. That play of a primitive and untutored credu- lousness which, as in the apocryphal New Testament, credits a divine being with a purposeless and even immoral display of power, is to the general student not the least instructive aspect of popular mediae- val literature. For it was but one step from the credulity of the ignorantly de- vout to the skepticism of the free-thinker who, in derision, fabricated burlesque mir- acles easily mistakable for originals. A future volume in this series might well be devoted to the highly interesting group of ambiguous legends clustering about the Virgin. The Proceedings of the Bostonian Society, just published, contain the annual address of the president, J. F. Hunnewell, on the historical museums of Europe, the most noted of which Is that in Zurich, where in some sixty rooms "over sixteen hundred years of national history are illustrated." The one in Munich is the largest, its near- ly one hundred halls showing the great

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4=34= Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 length and variety of Bavarian history from the rudest to the most civilized ages. S. A. Bent proves satisfactorily and with many interesting facts the mythical char- acter of the commonly accepted story that Mary Chilton was the first passenger of the Mayflower to step upon Plymouth Rock. The portraits of two colonial patriots, James Otis and Samuel Adams, with sketches of their careers, add value and attractiveness to the publication. Alfred P. Schultz's "Race or Mongrel" (L. C. Page & Co.) is one of those curious but well-meant productions which cannot be commended without serious qualifica- tion, yet whose reading is not devoid of stimulus and profit. Upon the foundation of a brief and fragmentary outline of the history of ancient nations is reared the theory that the fall of nations is attributa- ble to promiscuous intermarriage with alien stocks, and that the one sure source of national strength and perdurance is ra- cial purity. What tells in the struggle for survival is not government, or institutions, or education, or religion, but blood. The in- evitable result of indiscriminate racial mix- ture, as Mr. Schultz constantly asseverates and tries everywhere to show, is the pro- duction of a mongrel type containing in it- self no power of development or perpetua- tion, and doomed to extinction. In proof, we are pointed to the history of the Hin- dus, the Greeks, and the Romans, and of the present South American whites, "bas- tards of incompatible races, the descend- ants of two, three, and more cultures that have nothing in common, of races that be- long to different periods of development" (p. 163). On the other hand, the Jews, whom Mr. Schultz apparently thinks of as likely to possess the earth, and the Anglo- Saxons in Europe and America, owe their ascendency and permanence to abstention from intermarriage, save under rigid con- ditions of selection, with alien races. The particular lesson of all this for us is that the United States should rigorously restrict immigration, shun with horror the absorp- tion of alien neighbors like the Mexicans, and see to it that the foreigners who come to us be allowed for a generation the free use of their native language as a safeguard against too rapid assimilation. To show the incompleteness of Mr. Schultz's sur- vey of human progress would be to elabo- rate a treatise on anthropology and soci- ology ; and we cannot but fear that his book, notwithstanding the crude vigor of its language and the undoubted suggestive- ness of its observations, will be classed by students as an extreme and one-sided pre- sentation of an interesting and vital sub- ject. Three volumes of Richard Dehmel's works are issued by S. Fischer of Berlin: "Le- bensblatter," "Betrachtungen fiber Kunst, Gott, und die Welt," and "Der Kindergar- ten." Hitherto Herr Dehmel has content- ed himself with printing his thoughts at random; and it is only in his collected works that one sees how prolific and vigor- ous a writer he is. In his "Lebensblatter," for example — a rather unfortunate title, since Dehmel himself once issued a vol- ume of poems under the same name — there are a dozen good short stories, modern German in spirit, and yet having much of the old-time mystery and magic about them. The best are "Die drei Schwestern," "Der Werwolf," and "Der lachelnde Erbe," all infused with poetic fancy. Dehmel's "Betrachtungen" disclose the thinker, but not the man of such sober, dry thought that no one but an abstract philosopher will read him. He wishes to reorganize men's ideas about beauty, nature, the purity and preservation of language, the moral train- ing of children, public discourse, the relation of personality to art, and the value of art to the masses. He sees the humo' in even the most serious of situations, and knows that if he can make others see it also, he will the more easily convince and convert. In remarkable contrast, as com- ing from the same author, is the volume of stories, poems, and plays designed for the kindergarten world. Here are quaint jin- gles and rhymes, suggesting sometimes Mother Goose, but more often Stevenson or Eugene Field, A particularly charming poem is that which pictures the revolving, starry heavens as "The Great Merry-go- Round." Here also are simple plays, such as little children may easily produce, de- signed to awaken in the expanding mind, perhaps, some of that same curiosity for the stage which Goethe early experienced. How the author of the more serious essays could put and keep himself so effectually in touch with the young would be, perhaps, a mystery if one did not perceive that he finds in child life and children, the begin- ning of human development, a theme of ab- sorbing interest not always vouchsafed to those who have become sobered and bur- dened with prosy affairs. The recent action of the Prussian govern- ment in admitting women to the universi- ties on an equality with the men and the thorough reorganization of the secondary schools for girls in the kingdom are produc- ing fruit in the shape of books treating the historical and the theoretical phases of the problem. One of the best of its kind is that of Dr. B. May, "Die Madchenerziehung in der Geschichte der Padagogik von Plato bis zum 18 Jahrhundert" (Strassburg and Leipzig: Josef Singer). The author confines himself to a discussion of the theories that have been urged in reference to the education of women, but does not take up the practical attempts to realize these ideals. In the Grecian age he deals chiefly with Plato and Aristotle; in the middle ages largely with Jerome and Vincentius ■of Beauvais; in the period of the renais- sance, with the Hispano-Dutch humanist John Louis Vives; in modern times with such men as Erasmus, Luther, and Fenelon. Unfortunately the book closes with the end of the seventeenth century, and hence ig- nores the even more interesting period that begins with the eighteenth. The book has the merit of being a systematic summary of what has so far been found scattered through many works. Under the title, "Religionsgeschichtliche Erklarung des Neuen Testaments," Prof. Carl Clemen of Bonn has published an ex- haustive and thorough study of the de- pendence of early Christianity upon the non-Jewish religions and philosophical systems (Giessen: Alfred Topelmann). He has collected with utmost pains the asser- tions of such dependence from Philo and Celsus to the latest phase of the "Babel und Bibel" controversy, which was brought so prominently to general notice by the lectures of Professor Delitzsch and the theological fulminations of the German Kaiser. With the greatest care he has examined the large number of suggested parallels between early Christian views and expressions and other Oriental reli- gions, cults, and philosophies, determining by careful criticism whether dependence existed, and in which direction and to what extent. Every phase of Christian doctrine and each item in Christian history is com- pared with similar topics in non-Christian literature. His conclusion is that in the preaching of Jesus and the Synoptic Gos- pels direct or indirect influence Is to be found only in particular expressions, met- aphors, and parables. In some of the speeches of the Acts, on the contrary, he asserts direct dependence upon the current Greek philosophy, especially Stoicism. Yet all in all the Christian system is declared to be independent and original, foreign sources having affected only the periphery of Christian literature, not the essence of the faith itself. The result of the most careful comparative study of Christian ori- gins Professor Clemen believes will be an apologetic gain, revealing the non-Chris- tian source of some of the conceptions which have been an incubus on the Chris- tian faith and leaving its essential message in clearer light. The method of the inves- tigation is fair, cautious, and impartial. The student will find an abundance of sal- ient material gathered from widely scat- tered sources. In this field, where vague and general assertions have been abundant and hasty conclusions rife, such thorough criticism was much needed, and the in- terests of sober and unprejudiced truth will be served by wide use of Professor Clemen's study. Of the French works which have been called out by the approaching Calvin cen- tenary in July one of the most important and most able is Prof. C. Doumergue's "Jean Calvin: Les hommes et les choses de son temps (Lausanne; Bridel). The author draws from many sources, from the letters of Calvin especially, but also from other documents. As the subtitle indicates, the work is really a history of the thought and the civilization of the age of Calvin. No- where else is the historical setting of the Geneva reformer more fully described. In- deed, it may be an open question whether Doumergue has not, by the very abundance of materials, crowded the person and the work of Calvin into the background. Of the five volumes that are to constitute this set, the fourth, entitled "Le Programme," and the fifth, "La Lutte et le triomphe," are yet to appear. Those that have been issued are called "La Jeunesse de Calvin," "Les Premiers Essais," "La Ville, la mai- son et la rue de Calvin." Each is hand- somely illustrated. Thus far there has been a little too much special pleading for the hero. It is proposed to establish at Columbia College a library of English literature in memory of Prof. George Rice Carpenter. A nucleus for the memorial already exists in the form of several volumes gathered together by Professor Carpenter for the use of students in English and compara- tive literature. It is expected that a sepa- rate room will be set aside for the col- lection when it has attained sufficient size. A committee has been formed to take charge of the matter, composed of Profs. William T. Brewster, Wilson Farrand, Jef-

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May 6, 1909] The Nation 465 ferson B. Fletcher, G. C. D. Odell, and Ashley H. Thorndike, together with James G. Croswell, Frederick P. Keppel, secre- tary, and John B. Pine, clerk of the board of trustees. The following appointments have oeen made for next year at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome: Guy Blandin Colburn, A.B. (Brown University), Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin), acting profes- sor of Latin in Iowa College, to the fel- lowship of the Archaeological Institute in Classical Archaeology; and Henry H. Arm- strong, professor of Latin in Yankton Col- lege, to be a research associate of the Carnegie Institution in Classical Archaeol- ogy. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, United States gen- eral agent of education in Alaska since 1885, died at Asheville, N. C, May 1. He was born in Minaville, N. Y., in 1834, and after graduation from Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. For some time he engaged in teaching and in mission work among the Indians, and for more than thirty years he had given special attention to Alaska. He introduced the pub- lic school system into that Territory, and he was indefatigable in his efforts to im- prove social and intellectual conditions there. He was author of "Education in Alaska" (1872), "Hand-book on Alaska," "Alaska and Missions on the North Pacific Coast," and since 1886 of annual reports on education in Alaska. Caleb Benjamin Tillinghast, since 1883 State Librarian of Massachusetts, died at Boston April 28. He was born at West Greenwich, R. I., in 1823, and before tak- ing up library work he had tried both school-teaching and journalism. He had been chairman of the Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission and the Com- mittee on Publication of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and treas- urer of the Massachusetts Board of Educa- tion. The Very Rev. John Marshall Lang, prin- cipal of Aberdeen University since 1900, died at Aberdeen May 2, in his seventy-fifth year. He had been moderator of the Church of Scotland. His books are "Heaven and Home," "Life: Is It Worth Living?" "The Last Supper of Our Lord," "Homiletics on St. Luke's Gospel," "Central American Faiths," "The Anglican Church," "The Ex- pansion of the Christian Life," and "The Church and Its Social Mission." The death is reported from Edinburgh, in his eighty-seventh year, of David Lewis, a well-known temperance reformer. He wrote a "History of the Temperance Move- ment in Scotland," "The Drink Problem," "The Drink Traffic in the Nineteenth C =n- tury," and "The Drink Trade." Karl G. F. von Reinhardstoettner, pro- fessor in the Technical High School of Munich, has died at the age of sixty-two. He was an authority on Portuguese, writing a grammar of the language and a history of the literature. Stephen von Kotze, a Berlin writer of marked and humorous individuality, has died at the age of thirty-nine. His works Include "Australische Skizzen," "Ein af- rikanischer Kustenbummel," and "Im euro- paischen Hinterhaus." The death is reported of Paschal Grous- set, a journalist of note and a member of the French Chamber. He was born sixty- four years ago in Corsica. In 1869 he was appointed by Henri Rochefort editor of La Marseillaise, and during the Commune acted as delegate for foreign affairs. After th» establishment of the republic he escaped to England, where he lived until 1881. Under the name of Philippe Daryl he wrote for he Temps on English topics and translated English novels into French. Under another name, Andre Laurie, he published a num- of romances and books of travel. Anthony Jannaris, who was for many years prominent in the political affairs of Crete, died suddenly April 26, on the steamship Majestic, bound to New York. Dr. Jannaris was born in Crete in 1852; from 1883 to 1885 he was headmaster of the Pub- lic Gymnasium of Canea; in 1889 was appointed lecturer in Greek literature at the University of Athens, but he gave up this position in the same year and re- turned home to take part in the insurrec- tion. For his share in this movement he was proscribed by the Sultan and fled to London. The next six years he spent in an investigation of the history of the Greek language, working in the British Museum. Returning to Crete, he was elected a mem- ber of the Cretan Assembly, and in the troubles of 1897 he acted as correspondent of the London Times. After various other vi- cissitudes he became in 1907 inspector-gen- eral of public education in Crete. He wrote numerous books and articles in various re- views. Among his more noteworthy works are grammars and dictionaries of the Greek language, studies of Cretan folklore, criti- cal notes on Longinus, and a translation into English of St. John's Gospel as read by the early Christians. THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS. The Mongols: A History. By Jeremiah Curtin; with a Foreword by Theo- dore Roosevelt. Pp. xxvi+426. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. $3 net. The Mongols in Russia. By Jeremiah Curtin. Pp. xx+448. Boston: Lit- tle, Brown & Co. $3 net. When two years ago the pen dropped from the tired hand of Jeremiah Curtin, the distinguished linguist, ethnologist, and traveller, he left nearly ready for the printer a series of three volumes dealing with that great nomad race of Central Asia that seven centuries ago burst its desert bounds and made the yellow peril such terrible reality to Western civilization. These writings have since been prepared for the press by Mrs. Curtin, his companion and part- ner in all his journeyings and undertak- ings. The first volume came out about a year ago; the second has just appear- ed. The final volume, embodying a per- sonal study of a typical Mongol tribe, the Buriats, is promised for an early date. We learn from Mrs. Curtin that it was the author's intention to include still another volume, on the history of Tamerlane and the Mogul emperors. With this in view, preparations had been made for an additional two years' sojourn in Persia and India, when the illness which proved fatal intervened to prevent the completion of the plan. Before taking up these books in detail, we may note that the term Mongol ap- pears to be of Chinese origin, and is properly applied to a group of closely cognate pastoral tribes centring in Mon- golia between Lake Baikal and the Gobi desert. They are a part of the great Turanian, or Tatar, stock, which in- cludes also the Manchus, Turks, and, with considerable Aryan mixture, the Finns and Magyars. "The Mongols" is really a history of Jinghis Khan, the founder of the short- lived Mongol Empire, and of his imme- diate successors; all that belongs to the earlier period is summarized in a few short paragraphs, whjle the long period of decadence after 1412 is dismissed in some twenty lines. The conquest of Russia is barely mentioned, and Timur- leng (Tamerlane) and the Mogul Em- pire of Delhi have been reserved for another volume. Temudjin, known in history as Jinghis Khan, the son of a petty tribal chief, was born in 1161 on one of the head-streams of the Amur River, in what is now Russian territory. Through cold-blood- ed murders and skilful alliances he managed to secure recognition as Khan, or, lord, of his native tribe, by the time he was forty years old, and four years later, after a series of rapid vic- tories in Mongolia and China, he as- sumed the title of Jinghis, "The Mighty." From that time until his death his one object was the subjection of the known world to his own rule, and this object he systematically prosecuted for over twenty years with almost un- varying success, every conquest being a ruin and desolation, every pledge a treachery, and every victory a stupen- dous massacre of almost unimaginable atrocity. With these nomads every man was a warrior, and the army was sim- ply a group of marching tribes. A sin- gle illustration of Mongol warfare will suffice. At Nishapur (1221) they be- gan by laying waste the whole province of which the city was the capital. The siege was then pressed, with the help of three thousand balistas, three hun- dred catapults, four thousand ladders, and seven hundred machines for throw- ing burning naphtha. The city was finally taken by assault, the daughter of Jinghis leading one of the storming parties. In the ensuing four days of slaughter every living thing — excepting a few hundred skilled artisans reserved for future service — was destroyed, even to the cats and dogs. Every prostrate body was beheaded, and three pyra- mids were built, of men's, women's, and children's heads. Fifteen days were oc- cupied in utterly razing the city, after which barley was sown upon the ruins. At his death in 1227, Jinghis left to his son and successor a greater extent

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46G The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 of empire than had ever before been ruled by one man. Under Kubilai (Ku- bla Khan, 1259-1294) the Mongol Em- pire reached its highest magnificence. After him came swift decay. In 1368, the now degenerate Mongols were driv- en out of China by the founder of the Ming dynasty and later on were made tributary. All of their tribes are now subject either to China or to Russia. Nearly one-half of the second book is taken up with the history of Russia, previous to the first Mongol invasion. This portion is chiefly a wearisome record of the conflicts of rival cities, the history of the Russian state begin- ning in 862, when the citizens of Nov- gorod, weary of anarchy and invasion, invited Rurik, the Norseman, to come and rule over them. As a member of the Hanseatic League, "mighty Novgorod" k se to j.ieatness, but in the end (1478) all the Russian cities were brought under the central authority of Moscow. In 1224 the news came from the south that the terrible warriors of Jinghis had swept across the Ural and were ravaging the territories of the Po- lovtsi Tartars, a remotely kindred peo- ple, who had occupied the Black Sea country nearly two centuries before. In response to the cry of the Polovtsi, "To- morrow they will strike you," the neigh- boring Russian princes marshalled their forces against the enemy, but were to- tally defeated on the banks of the Kalka by the Mongol host under Su- botai and Chepe. The Prince of Kief and two others were crushed to death under a platform of heavy planks upon which their barbarous captors sat and feasted while their victims were in their death tortures. Then the Mongols retired, as suddenly as they had appeared, to the mystery of their own deserts. In 1237, the full Mongol flood came upon Rus- sia. The invasion was led by Batu, grandson of Jinghis Khan. To his de- mand for tribute, the Russian princes gave brave, but injudicious, refusal. One city after another was taken by storm — Riazan, Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir, Tver — their treasures seized, their build-^ ings burned and levelled, their people slaughtered by tens of thousands, and their principal men crucified and flayed alive. Nothing could withstand the fury of the yellow barbarian. The next year Batu built his capital at Sarai, near the mouth of the Volga, and established the famous khanate of the Kiptchak, or Golden Horde— a name chosen from Mongol symbolism — which stretched from Turkestan to the Dnieper and for nearly two centuries dominated the whole of eastern Europe. Batu's reign marks both the summit and the ebb of Mongol power in Eu- rope. "With his death about 1255 be- gins the decay that follows inaction among races bred only to fighting. Within the next century the Mongols exchanged their heathenism for the re- ligion of Mohammed. In the mean- time intestine feuds were wasting their strength, while Russian power was steadily consolidating under the lead- ership of Moscow. In 1380 Dmitri of Moscow, at Kulikovo on the Don, routed a great army led by the Khan Mamai himself. From that time on the Mon- gols, in spite of temporary successes, lost ground, and the last remaining Mongol khanate in Russia was extin- guished with the annexation of the Crimea in 1783. Besides the main story, the second volume affords interesting light upon the origin of the conflict between Rus- sia and Poland, the struggle between Rome and Constantinople for ecclesias- tical supremacy in Eastern Europe, and the Germanizing of the Baltic provinces in the name of Christianity by the Knights of the Cross. Paganism linger- ed in Lithuania down to the close of the fourteenth century. "While the story of the Mongols is new to most readers, and is here vividly told, the style of the narrative, for want of the author's final revision, is some- what too terse and abrupt for easy reading, suggestive rather of annals than of a rounded history. The lack of notes, bibliography, or reference to specific authorities, in both volumes, and the omission of an index to the sec- ond, are serious deficiencies, due also to the fact of the author's untimely death, and not in accord with his usual care- ful custom. It is to be hoped that all these defects will be remedied in the proposed third volume. Each volume is accompanied by a map and portrait of the author. CURRENT FICTION. Fraternity. By John Galsworthy. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. This latest book of Mr. Galsworthy's, like several of its predecessors, seems wilfully to leave the artistic sense of the reader unsatisfied. It has, strictly speaking, no hero or heroine, no climax, and no conclusion. Like "The Island Pharisees," it is seething with the leaven of humanitarianism and is full of unanswered questions. The general interrogation of the work is summariz- ed in three lines from the "Electra" of Euripides printed on the title-page: Brother, brother, on some far shore Hast thou a city, is there a door That knows thy footfall, Wandering One? A sensitive skeptic, outraged by social injustices, haunted by the persistent dream of universal brotherhood, Mr. Galsworthy appears ready with Carlyle and Ruskin in his later period to let the "devil fly away with the fine arts" till that question is answered. Till a new light breaks for suffering human- ity, there is no joy for the artist in painting pictures or writing novels. In- deed, till some solution is found for our social problems, no deep and true book can possibly have a hero, a climax, or a conclusion. Meanwhile, the artist has a great preparatory work to per- form to shatter the complacent ego- tism of the contented, and to send to them in visions of the night a dream of the New Eden. To this extent, then, "Fraternity" is a purpose novel allied in spirit and general intention with many of the novels put forth in the Revolutionary Era of fair hope. But it is distinguished from them by a great difference which makes it faith- fully representative of the sober wis- dom gained by a century of disillusion- ment: though it yearns with the old ar- dor toward the divine idea of Social Justice, it betrays the new and almost tragical uncertainty as to her where- abouts. We have perhaps emphasized rather too much Mr. Galsworthy's sacrifice of art to life. In spite of his desire to make fiction serve a higher master, he has produced a book which, even judged purely on its artistic merits, must rank as one of the most notable of the day. When one compares it with his earlier novels, such as "The Villa Rubein" and "The Island Pharisees," one is astonished at his development in breadth, variety, subtlety, charm, and sympathy. In his recently published "Commentary," a volume of brilliantly suggestive character sketches, we noted his unusual power of symbolizing an entire class or social stratum by one keenly observed, significantly delineat- ed individual. The same power is ex- erted on a larger scale in "Fraternity," and with much more dramatic effect. Here is a whole social world — the fine- grained, unpractical literary man, his brother the man of facts and action, the gross man of wealth and business, the strenuous young physician, the de- crepit butler, the model, the street- sweeper, wives, children, and infants — each member intimately, unmistakably himself or herself, and yet somehow clearly standing for every man and every woman of that stamp. What brotherhood exists in this world, what strivings toward it, what indifference to it, what repulsion from it — such is this study of the novelist. He has not simplified the problem; it is life in its complexity that he envisages — life with its immortal prejudices and its im- mortal egotism. Some of the charac- ters, too. are touched with the fever of fraternal love. But at the end of the book the literary man wears the wan smile of Hamlet. "It is a disease to smile like that!" comments the young physician. "Your prescription," is the retort, "in this case has not been too successful, has it?" And the Laertes of the story can only reply, "I can't help it if people will be d d fools." There

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May 6, 1909] The Nation 4=37 is one old man, however, feeble-minded, lost to his own time, a Maeterlinckian figure, whose prophetic eyes have seen the glory of the New Jerusalem on earth. Stepping into the night, he ut- ters one cry, "Brothers!" A policeman passing on his beat lifts his lantern and peers into the darkness: no one is there. That is one of many touches of grim yet tender irony which lend a pe- culiar fascination to this picture of a segment of modern life. The Actress. By Louise Closser Hale. New York: Harper & Bros. Mrs. Hale has given us in this book that refreshing and unusual thing, a wholesome glimpse of stage-life seen from the inside. The picture she pre- sents is neither framed by the pro- scenium arch nor caught by a surrepti- tious eye at the crack of the stage-door; standing among the hard-working, warm- hearted servants of the public whose labors we applaud so lightly, we realize the drudgery of what seems so spon- taneous. Glamor enough, however, mingles with the grind, to make Rhoda Miller, the heroine, scorn the hum- drum round of domesticity pressed upon her notice by her suitor, Aaron Adams, one of those characters whose strength, tenderness, and general desirability are so obvious in fiction and so easily over- looked in real life. Rhoda goes to Eng- land and scores a tremendous success, which falls far short of filling Aaron's place in her heart; thinking that her deserted swain has found consola- tion, she endeavors in vain to do like- wise— here Mrs. Hale indulges in a deliciously funny stab at the Artistic Temperament in the composer Meurice — and finally collapses in the severe ill- ness that is the last resort of heroines hard pressed by the burdens of their own folly. Of course, Aaron appears to gather her wasted form in his strong arms, and she gladly exchanges the world of make-believe for that of real- ity. The book abounds in clever char- acter-drawing, the descriptions of Eng- lish society being particularly well done. The Girl and the Bill. By Bannister Merwin. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. This story almost exceeds the speed limit. A girl and a five-dollar bill are the leading racers and are never lost to view, but their attendant train of persons and things grows to bewildering length. There are stolen papers, crypto- grams, refrigerator prisons, and hollow Chicago tree trunks. There are sleuth- houndings in Japanese, Portuguese, and American styles. There are interna- tional sluggings, ranging from yellow jiu-jitsu to the good old-fashioned uni- versal monkey-wrench, and the futile but patriotically cow-boyish attempt to throw from a launch a lariat over a gentleman in a neighboring motor-boat. There are an intrepid girl and an en- gaging man, accomplished detectives both. And there are world-important diplomacies. All this and these, with much and many more, are whizzed be- fore the reader as the recorded contents of a day and a quarter — almost less time than it takes to tell it. Out of the whole emerges a very good, readable story, violating probabilities, as it should, but dealing mercifully with sen- sibilities. Uncle Gregory. By George Sandeman. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. This story possesses the peculiar in- terest and fascination that always ac- crue to a book, as to a person, that can suggest depths of significance below what meets the casual glance. If these depths are a baffling puzzle even when their presence is recognized, the inter- est is so much the greater. It may be that Mr. Sandeman is guiltless of sym- bolic intent, and has sought merely to give us the round unvarnished tale of a wealthy Peer Gynt who wished to have only the memory of his shiploads of Bibles preserved for posterity. What- ever the intention of the book, its im- pression is of a strength disproportion- ate to the expressed subject matter, and we feel that there is real weight in the question so often asked by those labor- ing at the elusive biography: "What is the real Uncle Gregory?" They several- ly apprehend him as a grown-up child trying to embody his sister's ideal for him — a saint — a demon — an epitome of the spirit of his time. One can but wish that the author had brought to his cli- max some such sledgehammer force as we feel in Chesterton's "Man Who Was Thursday," a book of somewhat similar effect; but he evades the questions he has raised, and closes the book, as it were, with an interrogation point. The M.P. for Russia: Reminiscences and Correspondence of Madame Olga Novi- koff. Edited by W. T. Stead. 2 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $7.50 net. It is perhaps unjust to say that these volumes disappoint expectations. One knew of Madame Novikoff's reputation, and of the conviction of many of her English and Continental contempo- raries that she was a woman of great ability and of extraordinary charm; yet to say that these are not conveyed by this record may amount to no more than to confess that personality eludes the printed page. But the editing is at least in fault in that it leaves many things obscure that should have been cleared up — for example, the precise na- ture of Madame Novikoff's relations with the Russian government — and in general tends to give the reader an in- tolerable deal of Stead to a pennyworth of Novikoff. The main facts in her ca- reer, however, are put in relief: her ardent and life-long Pan-Slavism; her whole-souled championing of Russia abroad, particularly in England, where she lived for a part of each year for many years; her remarkable mastery of English, and her conquest of many warm friends and admirers among the best of her day in England — Carlyle, Froude, Kinglake, Tyndall, Gladstone. But when we come to the proof in cold type of her uncommon graces and bril- liant wit, it largely vanishes. After all, we have to take it on credit. What so many capable observers experienced in their own persons, cannot have been so mythical or so exaggerated as these pages would make it seem. Madame Novikoff's greatest successes in England were won in those years when Beaconsfield called her by the title now given this book. During the pre- liminaries of the Russo-Turkish war, while it was raging, and throughout its fateful sequels, she was "M.P. for Rus- sia" in the sense that she wrote books and articles and kept up a voluminous correspondence and maintained a salon in London, all for the purpose of cor- recting English prejudices and leading to that better political understanding which seemed to be established after Gladstone's return to power in 1880. Later, she was not so happy. The war with Japan and the following political developments in Russia were terrible blows to her. "Heaven save us from a Constitution," was her cry, and she dreaded a Parliament as devoutly as Froude. Thus the break-up of autocrat- ic Russia seems to leave this autocrat sad and puzzled, at the end of her days. And her proud cry, "The Future is ours," rings pathetically now. From the old public issues treated with such prolixity and vanity by Mr. Stead, the reader turns to the human intercourse here outlined. Kinglake appears at his best in the letters of his that are printed. Froude in his was coldly kind and politically askew. Glad- stone writes as a tremendous man of business. With Disraeli, Madame Novi- koff, naturally, never got into close touch. She has some good stories of his habitual resort to flattery, from the Queen down, in order to gain his ends. She was talking with Gortschakoff af- ter the Congress of Berlin. He said: "I cannot complain of Beaconsfield. He called on me no end of times and was most complimentary. He told me, among other things, that whenever he hears a ton mot, he always says, 'Oh, it is not so good as what was said by Prince Gortschakoff'." Madame Novi- koff frankly rejoined: "Prince, I must tell you that Lord Salisbury said not long ago that Beaconsfield's power lay in his shameless habit of flattering ev- erybody." Gortschakoff protested, but un peu tard, one fears, that he was not

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468 The IN" ation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 easily taken in by flattery. Charles Vil- liers is quoted as authority for another story in the same vein. When the Queen published what Villiers is strangely made to call her "Reminiscences of Life in Scotland," she sent a copy to mem- bers of Parliament: We were evidently expected to offer madrigals and burn incense. . . . We were all in a fix. Dizzy alone never lost cour- age. "This production," he wrote, "can only be compared to Shakespeare, or to the ■Gospels." I remained silent, while he went on, as if speaking to himself. "Yes, it wants a lot of courage for serving such a dish, and an exceptionally robust health to assimilate it!" The Moral System of Dante's Inferno. By W. H. V. Reade. New York: Henry Frowde. $4.15. This is the most exhaustive analysis that has ever been made of Dante's mor- als. For five hundred years critics have discussed why the poet condemns sin- ners to an upper or a lower circle of hell, contrary to the popularly accepted •enormity of their wickedness. To link Brutus and Cassius, who regarded them- selves as martyrs to patriotism, with Judas Iscariot, the supreme embodiment •of treachery among Christians, has seemed a paradox to many a student of Dante. But nobody has been able to maintain that the verdicts in the Divine Comedy were haphazard or arbitrary: for there is no other masterpiece in the world in which every part has been so carefully adjusted to the whole, and where literally every word has been so charged with significance. Mr. Reade's task is to discover the rules which guid- ed Dante's verdicts. He begins, very properly, with an ex- amination of two modern theories which may be regarded as both representative and weighty — those of Witte and of Dr. Edward Moore. Having disposed of these, he goes back to the two great bodies of moral teaching — Aristotle's and Thomas Aquinas's — from which Dante drew directly. With patient elab- oration, he compares their systems piecemeal, virtue by virtue and vice by vice, and so is able to show not only which of his masters Dante followed in each particular case, but also the gener- al attitude towards life of the Greeks and of the supreme Catholic dogmatist. He traces, further, the origin of such of Dante's verdicts as correspond with neither the Aristotelian nor the Thoman model. His fundamental division of sins Into those of Force and those of Fraud, for instance, Dante borrowed from Cicero. The Christian theology natural- ly led to a whole tribe of sins which Paganism took no notice of. Mr Reade's treatise, therefore, may interest also students of comparative morals who are not primarily concerned with Dante. It could scarcely be more careful, thorough, or open-minded. We think it would be well, however, if he had translated his many extracts from St. Thomas, putting the original text in the footnotes. And he might assist the readers of his intricate arguments by summing up briefly and very clearly the points that he has demonstrated, chapter by chapter. Like many learned controversialists, he sometimes seems to forget that most of us read not for the sake of the controversy, but to learn its results. Howbeit, he has produced a work which every exhaustive student of Dante will turn to and which will not need to be undertaken again on so elab- orate a scale. Madrid: An Historical Description and Handbook of the Spanish Capital. By Albert F. Calvert. With 453 illustra- tions. New York: John Lane Co. $1.50 net. Madrid is not a typically Spanish city. The traveller visits it to see the Prado and the Royal Armory, but not to see Spain. In no other great Continental capital, to be sure, may one see ox-carts in fashionable thoroughfares, mule teams in the service of royalty, men wrapped in capas, and women ■ whose street costume includes a fan in the hand and a rose in the hair. These touches, however, are by way of sug- gestion only. One must wait for some day when the city is en fete, when the promise of a great corrida has roused the national passion for the favorite sport and filled the Alcala. with a stream of eager humanity, to realize that at heart Madrid is Spain. In this volume of the Spanish Series, Mr. Calvert proves that, while Madrid cannot com- pete with her older sisters, Segovia, Burgos, Seville, Cordova, Granada, To- ledo, and Avila, in antiquities or local color, the spirit of modern progress which has made her a prosperous capi- tal has not destroyed her charm for even the traveller of the romantic school. One could not ask for a better supplement to the more practical de- tails of the guide-book. The work is accurate, sympathetically just, complete without being tiresome, and profusely illustrated. It contains a chapter of general impressions, a brief history of the city, descriptions of the court, so- ciety, art, literature, and the drama, churches and public buildings, including the Escorial, La Granja, and Alcala; an excellent guide to that marvellous col- lection of arms and armor, so little of which, curiously enough, is of Spanish workmanship, and last but not least two chapters on the bull-fight. For those who wish more detail, spe- cial volumes of the series are devoted to Goya, Velasquez, the Prado, Spanish arms and armor, the Escorial, and the tapestries of the Royal Palace. No oth- er country lends itself to a series of de- scriptive volumes as does Spain, for Spain Is not one, but many, countries; and its people, from the Basque to the Andalusian, many peoples. Travellers will do well to economize space in other directions, if necessary, and include Mr. Calvert's volumes in their outfit. Science. The Home Garden. By Eben E. Rex- ford. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.25 net. The Summer Garden of Pleasure. By Mrs. Stephen Batson. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. $3.50. Works on gardening written by opti- mists are pleasanter to read and much more profitable to use than those which are prepared by the unsuccessful and pes- simistic. Some of the smaller treatises on the art of managing plants appear to have been the outcome of disappoint- ment: the writers having failed to make their gardens pay either in money or pleasure, vent their vexation in the con- struction of delusive books. "The Home Garden" is the sober production of a successful gardener who has reaped fair crops of wholesome and kindly fruits of the earth. How far one can trust the author in estimating the attractiveness of gardening for boys is a doubtful mat- ter. Our experience does not wholly confirm the confidence which is here ex- pressed in the alluring nature of weed- ing with the aid of the latest improved tools. After giving a good account of certain labor-saving appliances, the au- thor proceeds: Nine boys, I venture to say, can be made to take an interest in the garden where the implements I have mentioned are used, where one could be induced to work in it with simply a hoe and spade. Boys, like men, have a horror of pulling weeds, and the writer of this cannot say that he blames them for it, for he can easily re- member the time when he would rather take a whipping than weed the garden for an hour. He very much doubts if he would have a garden now if all the work in it had to be done in the slow, hard, old-fashioned way. This book does not deal at all with the decorative floral features of gardens, but solely with the modest plots of vegetables and small-fruits which can be managed without too much trouble by a person with scanty leisure and good courage. The directions for the management of the soil and most of the plants are plain and sensible, and can- not carry any beginner far out of the way. Moreover, the author wisely calls attention to the disheartening features of gardening which confront the begin- ner after the rosy dawn of the seed-bed has begun to grow gray with the com- ing of blights and insect pests. The ac- tual danger from these enemies is less- ened by the modern methods of spray- ing and by the judicious selection of va-

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May 6, 1909J The Nation. -u;9 rieties of resistant character. The ad- vice to choose from the too enticing cata- logues only the old-established and ap- proved sorts, instead of the newer and untried, is sound and always safe. The author might also have called attention to the desirability of selecting only va- rieties which are suited to the particu- lar latitude and exposure of the garden. Plants which are adapted to Maine may not be so good for southern Pennsyl- vania. The little book is complete, as far as it goes, and does not refer the reader for necessary information to an- other book in the same series. In short, this treatise is a convenient, untechni- cal, but not encyclopaedic, aid to begin- ners. Although it is very small, it ought to have an index. "The Summer Garden of Pleasure" is an English work which endeavors to justify its existence by an apologetic preface. The author tenders counsel to the "amateur who gardens on the level," whatever that may mean, and "who longs after color schemes as ardently as do his brethren with larger powers." To illustrate her views of color distri- bution, the author makes intelligent use of some exceedingly impressionistic paintings by Osmund Pittman. Much of the advice is presented in an uninter- esting manner, but it is all made easily accessible by the device — costly in print- ing, but very useful — of marginal head- ings for the paragraphs. The best part of the book is that which is devoted to the management of the flower garden in the midsummer season, in order to prevent complete banishment of attrac- tive flowers when the shadow of autumn is about to fall. The suggestions are, of course, better adapted to the exigen- cies of the English gardens than to ours, but with a few amendments many of the ideas may be carried out here. There will be considerable difference of opinion as to the artistic effect of some of the combinations depicted in this book, since a few of them appear to have been introduced as examples of what to avoid, but many are quiet and restful enough, even for a Japanese. Longmans, Green, & Co. announce as soon to be published "The Fundamental Principles of Chemistry," by Wilhelm Ost- wald, authorized translation by Harry W. Morse. "Les Phenomenespsychiques et supernor- maux," by Dr. Paul Jolre, treats observa- tion and experimentation in such matter from the point of view of a professor at the Institut Psycho-physiologique of Paris (8vo, 22 figures, Vigot Freres). "Le Cceur humain et les lois de la psychologis positive," by Autoine Baumann, is, like the other books of this author, an excursion where science and philosophy meet (Per- rin). 'Le Rationalisme comme hypothese methodologique," by F. Mauge, is a phil- osophic treatment of theory which under- lies science, in two parts: first, the ration- alist hypothesis and experimental method; second, the conditions and principles of systematizing in the sciences (617 pages, Alcan). The recent publication of the official doc- uments in the case of Galileo has led to the preparation by a Catholic scholar, Dr. A. Muller, S.J., director of the astronomical observatory on the Janiculum in Rome, oi a work of some two hundred pages treat- ing the new phases of this old controversy, "Galileo Galilei und das kopernikanische Weltsystem" (Freiburg-im-B.; Herder). A further work on this matter, by the same author, is in course of publication, "Der Galilei Prozess (1631-1632) nach Ursprung, Verlauf und Folgen." Naturally this mono- graph presents the matter from the point of view of the Catholic Church. "Unsere Kultur" is the title of a readable scientific volume by Prof. Albert Geyer (Giessen: E. Roth), designed to give a rsop- ular view of the development of modern life. The author cannot forget that he is more German than Wcltmensch; he credits Bell with a part in the development of the telephone, but only after the Germans had previously made some progress; aud in ihe history of steam navigation he p.n.sses by unknown Fulton altogether, beginning with the steamboats on the Rhine. 1816, .he Oder, 1825, and the Danube, 1833. Simeon Snell, president of the British Medical Association and one of the leading ophthalmic surgeons of England, died at Sheffield last month. He had been profes- sor of ophthalmology at the University of Sheffield, and had edited the Quarterly Medical Journal. Among his publications are: "The Electro-Magnet and Its Employ- ment in Ophthalmic Surgery," "Miners' Nystagmus," "School Life and Eyesight," "Prevention of Eye Accidents in Certain Trades," and "Eyestrain as a Cause of Headaches." Charles Bell Taylor, an eminent ophthal- mic surgeon, died at Nottingham, England, last month, at the age of eighty. He ob- tained his medical education at the Univer- sity of Edinburgh and Paris. He was the author of "On Diseases of the Eye," which has run through several editions. Drama. The Playhouse and the Play. By Percy MacKaye. New York: The Macmillan Co. $1.25 net. In "The Playhouse and the Play" Percy MacKaye has collected the various essays on the theatre which he has writ- ten during the last two or three years. Most of them have been read before different universities, clubs, or associa- tions, and all have been published in full or in part. It is well that they should be offered in this convenient form, for — and this will be admitted even by those who do not agree with all his conclusions — they are full of in- teresting and pregnant matter. The fol- lowing passage in one of them may be quoted as the common text of all: In theatrical amusement we are con- cerned with public happiness. Real happi- ness means education; real education means happiness. And in regard to our drama there can be no sounder, no more enlight- ening conviction than this truth: that by whatever name we choose to call it, the in- fluence of our theatres is a colossal, a na- tional influence in forming the taste, the moral will, the mental capacity of our people. In common with all other thoughtful students of the theatre and its possibil- ities he laments that so potent an en- gine of civilization should be delivered into the hands of commercial specula- tors, barred from the performance of its highest functions, and often degraded to the basest uses. Comparatively few persons ever stop to think of the actual influence of the theatre, for good or ill, upon public tastes and morals. Mr. MacKaye quotes some facts and figures which throw much illumination on this subject. Be- yond doubt, the influence is enormous, and, as matters now stand, more often mischievous than beneficial, or even in- nocuous. The question is how exist- ing evils are to be remedied and the po- tential benefits of the theatre to be brought into operation. Mr. MacKaye's one solution is endowment. He even makes the rash statement that without endowment no effectual art can live, a dogma that would scarcely bear the test of examination. In his enthusiasm he imagines a civic theatre — apparently some ideal development of the ancient classical prototype — in every considera- ble city, capable of doing a large part of the work that churches, schools, and universities do now; an institution rep- resentative of all that is intellectually and morally best in the community, an unfailing source of incentive and exam- ple. It is a pretty dream, but, like most enthusiasts, Mr. Mackaye, with his soar- ing vision, overlooks the sordid finan- cial, political, and other practical diffi- culties in the way. There is the gravest reason for mis- trusting the possibilty of a sound and enlightened administration of a theatre by public officials. What might be ac- complished by private generosity and altruistic effort is another question, which need not be considered now. Mr. Mackaye is right in his assertion that the theatre will never reveal its high- est powers, until it is run in the public interest and not wholly as a commercial speculation. But it may be pointed out that public interests and private gain are not necessarily or invariably in- compatible. Plenty of money has been made before now in the higher walks of literature, art, and the drama. Mr. Mackaye's dictum that 'the rational aim of theatrical business is to ignore the rational aim of dramatic art" is by no means universally true. Even in this country, over and over again, the best plays have proved the most profitable. A great part of Edwin Booth's fortune was made out of Shakespeare. Mr. Man-

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4=70 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 tell, a far inferior actor, is doing well by following — longo sed intervallo — in his footsteps. In the dramatic business, as in others, it often pays to sup- ply the finest stock, and some dim per- ception of this fact is beginning to dawn, apparently, upon one or two of our managers. Being simply commercial men, they cannot, as Mr. Mackaye points out, be expected to risk their money in what they believe to be a losing venture, but for the same reason, they would readily abandon a policy threatening to be ruinous. The present talk among them of repertory theatres is not without significance. It is the lack of competition, not the want of en- dowment, that is stifling the theatre. Half a dozen really independent the- atres in the hands of duly qualified managers, with artistic impulses and some capital behind them, might do as much towards a theatrical revival as any endowment. The strong interest in everything per- taining to the drama which is noticeable in German letters to-dayis responsible for the attention which is now drawn to Ludwig Tieck's writings on the subject. For it was Tieck, as artistic manager of the theatre of Dresden, and as one of the translators of Shakespeare, to whom is due much of Shakespeare's popularity among the Ger- mans. It was Tieck, too, who, when he J.it- tled in Berlin in the forties, succeeded in having Sophocles's "Antigone" and other classical tragedies performed. The little book which calls attention to his work In behalf of the theatre is Dr. Erich Draca's "Ludwig Tieck's Buhnenreformen" (Berlin: R. Trenkel). Dr. Alfred Schaer is the author of a hook of 127 pages containing an interesting his- torical investigation: "Die dramatische Pearbeitung der Pyramus-Thisbe Sage in Deutschland im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert" (Leipzig: W. Schafer). "The Great John Ganton," an adaptation of Arthur J. Eddy's story of the Chicago stock yards (see the Nation of December 10, 1908, p. 580), by the young English dra- matist, J. Hartley Manners, was produced in the Lyric Theatre on Monday evening. The play may or may not please the gen- eral public — it undoubtedly possesses cer- tain elements of popularity — but is a crude, loquacious, melodramatic, insignificant piece, which may be dismissed with brief notice. Pretending to have a serious ob- ject in the exposure and denunciation of corrupt, tyrannical, and unscrupulous busi- ness methods, and the evils of gambling in Wall Street and elsewhere, it deals mainly in sonorous platitudes and extravagant In- cident, without reaching any definite con- clusion. From first to last it is intensely but not skilfully or effectively theatrical To the solution of current problems it contributes nothing, and it has no value as a picture of life or manners. In the cen- tral figoire of John Ganton himself, incon- sistent as it is in more respects than one, there is a certain amount of vitality, and the character suits the personality of George Fawcett, an experienced actor, who plays it with humor and some emotional force. On him the future of the piece de- pends. The London Play Actors seem to have made a somewhat remarkable find in "Chains," a realistic drama of the English lower middle class, by Elizabeth Baker, who is said to have had no experience of the theatre. Her topic is the awful mo- notony and drudgery of the treadmill ex- istence led by tens and hundreds of thou- sands of men dependent solely upon cleri- cal employment, without hope of progress, rest, or change. Olive Logan, lecturer, actress, and author, died at Banstead, England, April 27, at the age of seventy. She was born in Elmira, N. Y., and after some experience as a lec- turer, went on the stage. She was author of several books, including "Women and Theatres" (1869), and "The Mimic World" (1871) ; she wrote a comedy, "Surf," a dramatization of Wilkie Collins's "Arma- dale," and a metrical translation of Frangois Coppee's "Le Passant," produced in London in 1887. Music. Beethoven's Letters. By Dr. A. A. Ka- lischer; translated with Preface by J. S. Shedlock. 2 vols. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $7.50. When the question of bringing out an edition of Haydn's complete works was being discussed, some years ago, Brahms expressed the opinion that only those things that were really of interest should be printed. Of the others it would be sufficient, he thought, if a dozen copies were made by hand for distribu- tion in the largest libraries where stu- dents might have access to them. One cannot but think that such a plan should be adopted with regard to the printing of letters by famous men. Here we have a collection of Beethoven's in two vol- umes, 925 pages altogether, yet all that was really worth reading could have been easily held in one volume of 400 pages. What earthly use is there in printing notes like this? — "Do tell me if I can speak to you this evening about five o'clock. The matter is pressing." Or this— "His high-born von Smeskall is requested kindly to say where one can speak with him to-morrow." There is a great deal of that sort of thing, and the result is that few even of those who purchase such books have the courage or time to read them through. Beethoven speaks of himself as being "fearfully lazy" as a correspondent. His output of letters certainly was a mere bagatelle as compared with the numer- ous and voluminous epistles of Schu- mann, Wagner, or Liszt. There are al- together 1,220 in these volumes, and most of them are very short, containing, like the two specimens quoted, things that we now usually confide to the tele- phone. That they make up so many pages is explained by the fact that most of them are followed by comments (often longer than the letters) by the German editor and the English trans- lator. Dr. Kalischer declares that he was engaged for a good twenty years on his task; during that time he ex- amined over six hundred autograph let- ters to correct the printed versions, and he found many new ones, some of ex- ceptional length, to add to those which had previously appeared. His notes are accurate, illuminating, helpful, and Mr. Shedlock, who has translated both the comments and the letters admirably, contributes more useful matter. It is with Beethoven's letters as with his compositions: the longer they are, the more they interest us. Being, as he says, lazy as a correspondent, he never sat down to pen a long letter un- less he had something on his heart. It is when he talks to or about his pub- lishers, his spendthrift nephew, his in- corrigible servants, his critics, his grow- ing deafness, that he grows confiding and entertaining — unwittingly, for he never dreamed that any of these letters would be seen in print. Regarding the trouble with his ears, he wrote in 1800: "Please keep as a great secret what I have told you about my hearing; trust no one, whoever it may be, with it." This remained his attitude for years; the malady was slow in developing, but by 1817 it had reached a stage which induced him to write to Nanette Streicher: Now a great request to Streicher; ask him in my name to be kind enough to pre- pare a pianoforte especially adapted to my weak hearing. I want the tone to be as strong as possible. A surprisingly large number of these letters, and not the shortest by any means, are jeremiads about servants. These are always amrsing; they show the great composer from his most hu- man side. "I came here with an im- paired indigestion, and a terrible cold — the former through that archpig the housekeeper, the other from a beast of a kitchenmaid." "Such people," he de- clares in another letter, "cannot be gov- erned by love, but only by fear; I see that now quite clearly"; and in har- mony with this suggestion is his state- ment regarding one servant: "I threw at her my heavy chair which stands by the bed; for that I was at peace the whole day." He finally seeks consola- tion in this philosophical reflection: "We shall not fare better with other ser- vants." His feelings were easily ruf- fled, and he often wrote as if he had been badly treated even by his best friends. With his publishers he had many a tiff. He complains of the en- gravers "who pick us poor composers to death"; of the many errors in the print- ed pages because his frequent requests for proofs had been neglected. He tells the head of the great firm of Breitkopf & Hartel that if he had his wish, said publisher "would have to wander about L

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May 6, 1909] The ISTation. 4=71 in penitential garments made of hair for all the wicked things that he has done to my works." In another mood he writes to the same man: You as a more humane being and a more cultured head than all the other publishers of music ought not to pay poor terms tc the artist, but rather help him on the road to accomplish undisturbed what is in him, and what one expects from him. "As you are neither Jews nor Italians," he writes to another firm, "and I neither of the two, we shall no doubt come to an agreement." The critics fare much worse than the publishers; in fact, they are castigated almost as severely as the servants. In the early period the critics were inclin- ed to make sport of Beethoven's art- work. "Advise your critics," he wrote to a publisher in 1801, "to exercise more care and good sense with regard to the productions of young authors, for many a one may thereby become disspirited who otherwise might have risen to higher things." But the culprits con- tinued to ply their nefarious trade. "In what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us," he writes in 1803; "I am treated infamously." Eight years later he again complained of being "re- viewed in a shameful manner," but look- ed at the matter more calmly: "It may give one a little prick like the sting of a gnat, and then it becomes auite a lit- tle joke. Not forever; that you cannot do." What the critic had said was: In quartet writing the aim should surely not be to commemorate the dead, or to express the feelings of one in despair, but by soft, pleasing play of the imagination to refresh and gladden one's heart. Dr. Kalischer tries hard to prove that the famous letters to the "Immortal Be- loved" were addressed to the Countess Guicciardi; he declares that Thayer's attempt to "palm off the Countess Brunswick as the Immortal Beloved must now be regarded as having totally failed"; but since this was written, La Mara has proved in "Beethovens unsterb- liche Geliebte" (Nation, February 18, p. 177) that Thayer was right. On the other hand, one gains the distinct im- pression from reading Dr. Kalischer's two volumes that the equally famous let- ters to Bettina Brentano are not genu- ine. He himself thinks there were "in- terpolations"; but when read in con- nection with the other Beethoven letters they seem so different in style and thought from all the others that one can- not but suspect that they were altogeth- er the products of that woman's imag- ination. These beautifully printed volumes are adorned with many interesting facsim- iles and portraits. Henry W. Savage asserts that "The Mer- ry Widow" has been an unprecedented pop- ular success. First produced in Vienna, on December 30, 1905, it had had up to the first of April, 1909, 1,503 performances in America, 1,365 in England; total number of performances everywhere, about 18,000. It has been sung in 422 German cities, 135 English, and 154 American cities. It has been translated into thirteen languages and produced in thirty different countries, in- cluding Turkey, Persia, Japan, China, Hin- dustan, and Siberia. New York paid a million dollars to hear it last year; Chicago paid $364,000 in twenty-six weeks; Boston, $250,000 in eighteen weeks this season. More than 3,000,000 copies of the "Merry Widow" waltz have been sold in Europe; and in America the music publishers sold $400,- 000 worth of "Merry Widow" scores and selections in twenty-three months. Up to April 1, 1909, three American companies played to gross receipts of $2,694,000. Art. A Century of Archaeological Discoveries. By A. Michaelis; translated by Bet- tina Kahnweiler. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $4 net. In viewing the collections of Greek and Roman antiquities which almost every important city in Europe now possesses, or in visiting the ancient sites of classic lands, it is sometimes difficult to realize that the work which produced these museum collections and unearthed the remains of these cities has been almost entirely accomplished in the last century. A few exceptions, such as the discovery of Herculaneum and of Pompeii and occasional finds by private individuals, still belong to the preceding period, but most of the ma- terial now at our disposal and the grad- ual building up of a science of archae- ology are entirely due to the labors of the last ten decades. "A Century of Archaeological Discoveries," therefore, gives us practically the whole history of archaeological excavations, from the tentative and fortuitous efforts of earli- er explorers to the carefully planned, systematic excavations of to-day. The picture is necessarily sketchy; yet, con- sidering the size of the volume, it is very comprehensive, because not only have the actual finds been recorded, but the more important discoveries in the examination of the material have been noted, so that the achievements of the scholar as well as those of the explorer have been embodied. Of the record as it stands archaeol- ogists may well be proud. At first the remnants of past civilizations were treasured purely for their artistic value. But gradually their vast importance in shedding light on the history and life of the people by whose hands they were produced was recognized, and a sys- tematic study of the material began. The result is that we have now not only a fairly complete and coordinate pic- ture of the artistic development of these people, but in some cases past history has been actually reconstructed. Thus, thanks to the spade and the critical acumen of the Cretan explorers, we are in possession of more knowledge of the civilization of prehistoric Greece than the Greeks of the classical period had themselves. Moreover, the impor- tance of illustrating and verifying writ- ten history by the material remains now at our disposal is being more and more recognized. A book describing in concise form this evolution of the science of arch- aeology had been much in request, and Professor Michaelis's work, which ap- peared in 1906, entitled "Die archaolog- ischen Entdeckungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts," was welcomed on all sides. The translation into English is a matter for sincere congratulation, be- cause the book is addressed, as the au- thor expressly says, not so much to the professional archaeologist (who would be more likely to understand German), as to all those "who have preserved an interest in and love for ancient art." The subject, indeed, is presented not in a dry and technical manner, such as a great specialist with expert knowledge often uses, but in a fresh, narrative style which combines accuracy and scholarship with the personal element of enthusiasm. We are indebted to Miss Kahnweiler not only for a good transla- tion— as any one who has tried render- ing a German scientific work into Eng- lish will admit — but for the addition of illustrations, such as plans of Olympia, Delphi, the Athenian Acropolis, as well as of the most important sites and mon- uments, which add much to the useful- ness of the volume. There are also sev- eral interpolations; for instance, a brief mention of the recent discoveries of the British School at Sparta, which bring the discussion up to date. The chief criticism is that the work is a little one-sided. Professor Michaelis himself admits that he has devoted most space to the German excavations, main- ly because his facilities have been great- er in that direction. In fact, German investigations — even the more recent ones — have been faithfully recorded here; Dr. Dorpfeld's theories regarding the theatre, the old Athena temple, and the Enneakrounos are all clearly stated. The excavations of the Eng- lishmen Cockrell, Layard, and Newton have also been fully treated; but those of later date, carried on by the British and American Schools, are too cursor- ily mentioned. Crete, too, comes in for a very small share, considering the far- reaching importance of the discoveries there. A few additions would remedy this defect, and it is to be hoped that in a future edition this amendment will be made. From the Fine Art Trade Journal of Lon- don we have received the "Art Prices Cur- rent" for 1907-8. The record is limited to

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472 The 1ST a t i o*n . [Vol. 88, No. 2288 the sales at Christie's, but, as the editor of the volume observes, any other system of inclusion and exclusion would introduce a confusing personal element, while the vol- ume of business at Christie's is so pre- dominantly large as to indicate fully the tendency of prices. In the series of monographs Die Kunst, edited by Dr. Richard Muther (Berlin: Mar- quardt & Co.), the fiftieth volume, just pub- lished, "Das Fest der Elemente," attempts to show not only the use of the so-called elements, fire, water, earth, and air, in landscape gardening and pyrotechnics, but the relations which they bear to man's read- ing of nature. The comparisons between the specimens of this art from the renaissance period and from modern times are interest- ing and suggestive. The author is Dr. Oscar Bie, the editor of the Neue Rundschau. The book is profusely illustrated. "L'Esthfetique des villes," by fimile Magne, treats successively of street decor- ation and movement, of processions, mar- kets, bazaars, fairs, cemeteries, of outer manifestations of water and fire (lights), and of all that goes to the artistic con- stitution of the CitS Future (352 pages, Mercure de France). "Die deutsche Landschaft: Deutsche Charakterlandschaften in farbigen Bildern," by Prof. Ernst Liebermann (Hamburg: Gut- enberg-Verlag), is a work to be completed in eight series of five sheets each, at five marks a series. The first two series have already appeared. This enterprise, which endeavors to offer artistic quality at a low price, deserves to be commended to all lovers of German landscape, and particular- ly to those school and college teachers of German who believe in pictorial aid for quickening the imagination of their stu- dents. If they prefer an artist's individual impressions to the unemotional accuracy of the camera, they will derive pleasure from these successful reproductions, in the rich but subdued original colors, of the paintings of the well-known Munich mas- ter. Of the different pictures, each of which can be bought singly, the following are per- haps the most typical and attractive: Thuringer Landschaft, Buchenwald, Rudels- burg, In den Vorbergen der bayrischen Alpen, and Felder. Least successful is Eifellandschaft. The pictures are uniform in size (six by eight inches), and loosely mounted on black cardboard two inches wider on all sides. They may thus, even without further framing, be effectively dis- played on the walls of the study or class- room. It will be no new observation to those who have followed the recent tendency of this genre of painting to say that in the forty-second annual exhibition of the American Water Color Society, now hold- ing at the Fine Arts Galleries, the old- fashioned thin washes are scarcely to be seen. Ben Foster's Glimpse of the Sea, and H. Bolton Jones's Early Snow, hang- ing together in the Vanderbilt room, stand out conspicuously in this respect, and make one regret that the clean transpar- ency and the light decorative value of the old style have been so generally discard- ed for methods that imitate without equal- ling the heavier and richer effects of oils. There are a few other pictures in this manner, but they are for the most part insignificant. Perhaps, the most strik- ing of these — although it is by no means a pure example — is George Wharton Ed- wards's Springtime in the Village, a large field in clear colors, crossed by two diag- onal paths. In the contest with oils, the new, carefully-worked method is most suc- cussful in the winter scenes. In a number of these— e. g., Charles Mente's Mill Stream, and H. Bolton Jones's Winter, the latter a pastel— the fuzzy texture of snow is represented better than can be done with the hard surface of oils, and the reflected shadows have a softer, less repulsive gleam. Another group, chiefly pastels, imitates well the glowing greens and deep blues of stained glass. Notable among these are Charles Warren Eaton's Cypresses, Reynolds Beal's Middlehope Valley, Gustave Cimiotti's Trooping Clouds, and Frederick Crane's Afterglow. From these, it is an easy transition to such pictures as the Warwick Castle of Gifford Beal, with its large masses of solid, almost unshaded green, and the Lake Como of Charles Warren Eaton, with its heavy mass of ultramarine. For the rest, we can mention only The Village Green of Florence Francis Snell, showing a small group of children in a green com- mon, closed in by two converging lines of red houses; a group of pleasant out-of- floor sketches, by Frederick Freer; a charming little view In a Swiss Town by Emma Lampert Cooper; The Buzzards' Roost of J. C. Nicoll, showing a mound of ruins in a yellowish green field; an ex- excellent lifelike portrait of Enid Yan- dell, the sculptress, by Albert Sterner; and the little Puerto del Sol of Edward Pen- field. Not the least interesting part of the exhibition is the collection of etchings, prints, and drawings in the Central Gal- lery. In technique, the work in this de- partment is even more satisfactory than the brush work; the only drawback to full enjoyment is the monotony of the sub- jects chosen. Here the romantic etchings of Joseph Pennell and Ernest D. Roth stand out with some distinction. The same may be said, for other qualities, of the refined prints of Charles F. W. Mielatz, showing glimpses of New York streets and parks. For pure decorative charm the colored plates of George Senseney have a unique character; they would hang well in boudoir or hall. Altogether the exhibi- tion compares well with its recent pre- decessors, and, if not so impressive as the more pretentious displays of the Academy, is at least free from the loud monstrosi- ties that hurt the eye in the usual col- lection of oils. The chief interest of the summer exhi- bition, just opened at the New Gallery, is in the new departure made by the manage- ment. The objection to the methods of the artists who have taken possession of the New Gallery is the Si>me that was made a year ago (Nation of April 9, 1908, p. 340), when the Allied Artists' Associa- tion was founded: anybody who subscribes has a right to exhibit — a plan which is bound to be fatal to the quality of an ex- hibition as a whole. The important differ- ence between the two groups is that the subscription to the Allied Artists is very small, and gives a chance 10 the young and struggling, while the subscription to the New Gallery is very large, and gives a chance only to those who have arrived either popularly or financially. This year's exhibition Is an excellent proof of the point. At a glance, it may look better than in previous years, simply because fewer pictures are shown and the walls are less crowded. But in the merit of the pictures there is no improvement whatever, and, after the first glance, the absence of any reason for the collection to have been brought together beyond the need of the artist to sell, is but too apparent. Work comes from the Academy, from the Inter- national, from the various other groups and societies, which have their own exhibi- tions at other seasons or in other places. There are a few survivors of the old Burne- Jones period, but they seem only sad wit- nesses of the day and a movement that have passed. There are several members of the Glasgow School that first dawned upon London at the last exhibition of the Grosvenor, and that now, as a school, has ceased to exist almost as completely as the "neo-primitives" of the previous gen- eration. There is no possibility of co- herence in the meeting of all these differ- ent elements, nor is there enough distinc- tion in individual work to make up for the lack. J. J. Shannon and George Henry are probably reserving their best portraits for the Academy; C. H. Shannon had more important work in the last International; the principal landscapes are by Frank Walton, Mark Fisher, and Mr. Peppercorn. who show in half a dozen other galleries. Water color is almost entirely absent, black-and-white holds but a small place. The sculpture is not remarkable. Alto- gether, the exhibition does not promise great things in the future from the new method and management. At the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, the international jury in the annual art competition has announced the following awards: Medal of the first class (gold), with $1,500, to Edmund C. Tarbell, Bos- ton, for his painting Girl Crocheting; med- al of the second class (silver), with $1,- 000, to George Sauter, London, for his painting The Bridal Morning; medal of the third class (bronze), with $500, to Bruce Crane, New York city, for his paint- ing November Hills; honorable mention to Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, Philadel- phia, for her painting, In Rittenhouse Square; to Arnesby Brown, Cornwall, Eng- land, for his painting, The Gate; to E. A. Hornel, Scotland, for his painting Amuse- ment; and to Stanhope A. Forbes, Pen- zance, England, for his painting, The Vil- lage Industry. Among the exhibitions at the dealers' gal- leries in this city are paintings and draw- ings by Max Weber at Haas's, till May 8; and paintings by Chase, Melchers, Hassam, etc., at Montross's, May 8. Theodore Minot Clark, who from 1881 to 1888 was in charge of the department of architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died in Boston April 29 at the age of sixty-four. He was born in Boston, and was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1886. Among his writings are "Rural School Architecture" (1880), "Build- ing Superintendence" (1884), "Architect, Owner, and Builder before the Law" (1894), and "The Care of a House" (1903). We have to report the death of two French artists, Lionel Le Couteux, an etcher of high repute, at the age of sixty- one, and Alfred Robaut, a lithographer and

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May 6, 1909] The Nation 4,73 writer on art subjects at the age of sev- enty-nine. From Venice comes the news of the death of Prof. Franz Wickhoff, the art- writer, at the age of fifty-five. He wrote largely on the literary influences in art, publishing the "Wiener Genesis," "Sachis Restauration der sterbenden Mutter des Aristides," and "Durer Studien." Finance. THE PROBLEM OF THE RAILWAYS. It has been pointed out, as one cause for the stubborn maintenance of the higher price of railway stocks, that the dividends paid by the companies, even during the worst months of last year, were large enough to provide a hand- some margin to the buyer on borrowed money, over and above what he had to pay for interest. Such a stock as Chi- cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, for in- stance, pays 7 per cent, per annum. Its price has lately been about 150, at which the holder would net about 4% per cent. Baltimore and Ohio, paying 6 per cent., and selling around 114, would yield 5% per cent. With call loans obtainable and renewable at 1 or 2 per cent., the margin on such holdings will be 2 to 4 per cent. Even with Reading, whose price of 145 makes its 4 per cent, divi- dend yield barely 2% per cent., there is a surplus over the recent cost of call money in Wall Street. This sort of calculation is not final. The price of money might go up to 6 per cent., which would more than wipe out the margin over dividends. The market value of the stock might go down when the holder wished to sell; it would certainly do so if the money rate should rise. Or the dividend rate it- self might be reduced. All such consid- erations suggest the larger question, What is to happen to these railways and their stocks in the more distant fu- ture? Waiving the possibility of fluc- tuations in the money market, the main issue, after all, relates to railway finance, the maintenance or increase of the dividends. And this in the last analysis must depend on the future movement of traffic. In reply to an inquiry regarding pres- ent conditions, the chief of an important Western railway system has lately had this to say: Our business is not what it should be. The backwardness of the season is large- ly to blame. No disposition is being shown to anticipate good crops. The usual main- stay of the railroads at this time of year, freight made up of manufactured products, reflects only hand-to-mouth buying. This statement will probably sound odd in view of the recent statements as to monthly earnings. A number of im- portant companies published last week their gross receipts for March and the nine months of the current fiscal year. These are the principal changes from a year ago: March 9 months Gross. Gross. Erie +$619,885 —$249,280 Union Pacific + 812,231 +1,031,027 Southern Pacific + 629,845 — 5,217,919 Atlantic Coast Line.. + 322,647 — 235,000 Northwestern + 472,443 + 545,379 Rock Island + 210,125 + 432,308 Southern Ry + 607,423 — 578,948 Atchison + 871,202 — 103,442 Bait. & Ohio + 543,801 — 4,916,803 Kansas City So + 36,219 — 443,707 Here is decided improvement, the gain for March alone, in a number of the companies, equalling or exceeding the whole of the nine months' decrease. But the gain of March was made in comparison with one of the leanest months of the immediate after-panic de- pression. If the March comparisons are made, not with 1908, but with 1907, the result will be somewhat different. These are the changes from the corresponding month of the pre-panic period, two years ago: March 9 months Gross. Gross. Erie —$172,915 —$1,532,707 Union Pacific — 42,556 + 2,853,046 Southern Pacific ... —178,751 —3,081,417 Atl. Coast Line .... + 147,917 — 309,479 Northwestern — 298,042 — 2,880,083 Rock Island — 156,273 + 1,738,344 Southern Ry — 345,373 — 2,582,240 Atchison —160,983 + 713,969 Bait. & Ohio — 683,827 — 7,430,870 Kansas City So. ... — 51,297 — 135,541 We are not, then, so far on the up- grade yet as the comparison with 1908, taken by itself, suggested. How soon the rest of the lost ground is to be re- covered will naturally depend, in the first instance, on the increase in traffic moving over the railways, a matter which, in its turn, hangs on the ques- tion of general trade revival. This sec- ond consideration, again, rests first on the recuperation from the effects of the break-down of credit; but, second, on the outturn of the crops. Wall Street often amuses itself with arguing that a deficient grain crop, sold at unusually high prices, is as much of an industrial blessing as a moderate crop sold at aver- age prices, or a "bumper crop" with prices below the lately prevailing level. However this may be with other inter- ests, it is not so with the railways. A hundred million bushels less produced upon the farms is a hundred million bushels less of freight. For the crop re- sults, we shall have to wait. Another factor in the recent improving earnings, which may or may not be permanent, is the higher freight rates. Since July 1, last year, local and through rates, in the South and West especially, have been increased all the way from 3 to 60 per cent, on coal, iron, steel, lumber, grain and grain products, packing-house prod- ucts, and scores of other commodities. The fixing of these higher rates was just- ly objected to, last year, as uneconomic and unfair to the consumer; but they were made. There are only two obsta- cles in the way of their remaining — compulsory revision under the auspices of the Interstate Commission, and com- petitive rate-cutting by the companies themselves. The increase will also test the force of the prediction, made by shippers' associations when the rates were raised, that the contemplated ad- vance "would retard the return of nor- mal conditions." "Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States," by Frederick A. Cleveland, will be issued soon by Long- mans, Green, & Co. Harper & Bros, have brought out in book form Victor Morawetz's plan for solving the currency problem, "The Banking and Currency Problem In the United States." The views of Mr. Morawetz received so much, and well-deserved, attention when they were first published, that it is un- necessary to review them at length now. His proposal is, in substance, that the na- tional banks be authorized "to issue notes upon their joint credit, and to control the uncovered amount of these notes by the joint action of the Secretary of the Treas- ury and of a managing board, or commit- tee, elected by the banks." That by this, or some similar plan, our currency system could be improved at points where it is most defective, we cannot doubt; our only doubt is as to the desire or ability of Con- gress to enact a rational currency law. Two features of Mr. Morawetz's presenta- tion of his case are worthy of special com- mendation. He appreciates, and clearly ex- plains, the fact that banknotes are in cer- tain essential particulars unlike bank de- posits; principally because by means of notes banks can indirectly increase the proportion which their reserves bear to their demand liabilities. The second note- worthy point is that, unlike many denizens of Manhattan Island, he maintains that the establishment of a central bank is not desirable or practicable in the United States. No one, in fact, has ever stated the reasons more forcibly and succinctly than Mr. Morawetz. "Compilation of Laws Relating to Trust Companies of the United States," published by the Trust Company Section of the Amer- Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & GO. No. 99 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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I 4=74= Tlie ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2288 ican Bankers' nation, is one of the most useful works yet published under the auspices of the American Bankers' Associa- tion. It covers a variety of subjects on which there has been insufficient light, and cites the important statutes of each State bearing upon trust company operation. An index at the end of each State section is a good feature. The compilation was made by Benjamin J. Downer of the New York bar, assisted by Philip S. Babcock, secre- tary of the Trust Company Section of the American Bankers' Association. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Anderson, Ada Woodruff. The Strain of White. Boston: Little, Brown. $1.50. Baedeker, Karl. The United States. Scribner. $4.50 net. Barwell, J. W. Science, the Mind, Revela- tion, the Heart of God. Chicago: Jacobs & Holmes. Bayley, Harold. A New Light on the Re- naissance: Displayed in Contemporary Emblems. Dutton. $4 net. Bithell, Jethro. The Minnesingers. Vol. I. Translations. Longmans, Green. Borodine, Myrrha. La Femme et l'amour au Xlle Siecle, d'apres les Poemes de Chretien de Troyes. Paris: A. Picard. Brebner, Percy. A Royal Ward. Little, Brown. $1.50. Cabot, Oliver. The Man without a Shadow. Appleton. $1.50. Cleveland, Frederick A., and Powell, Fred Wilbur. Railroad Promotion and Capi- talization in the United States. Long- mans, Green. $2 net. Collins, J. Franklin, and Preston, Howard W. Key to New England Trees. Provi- dence: Preston & Rounds Co. 40 cts. Crandall, Charles H. Songs from Sky Mea- dows. Outing Publishing Co. $1 net. Crawford, F. Marion. The White Sister. Macmillan. Darby, Mrs. That Affair in Philadelphia. Broadway Publishing Co. $1. D'Arles, Henri. Le College sur la colline. Paris: F. R. de Rudeval. Davies, Gerald S. Ghirlandaio. Scribner. $4 net. Duncan, Frances. When Mother Lets Us Garden. Moffat, Yard. 75 cts. net. Eckloff, Christian F. Memoirs of a Senate Page (1855-1859). Edited by Percival G. Melbourne. Broadway Publishing Co. $1.50. Field, Claud. Tales of the Caliphs. Dut- ton. $1 net. Fifty Years of Darwinism: Modern Aspects of Evolution. Henry Holt. $2. Flint, G. Elliot. The Short Cut. Romance Press. Ford, Sewell. Cherub Devlne: A Novel. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.50. Foster, George Burman. The Function of Religion in Man's Struggle for Existence. University of Chicago Press. Freer, Eleanor Everest. A Book of Songs, and Other Compositions. Milwaukee: Wm. A. Kaun Music Co. Gerhard, Wm. Paul. Sanitation and Sani- tary Engineering. Published by the Au- thor, 33 Union Square. $1.50. Gillette, Fredericka B. Title Index to the Works of Honore de Balzac. Boston Book Co. 25 cents. Godfrey, Elizabeth. A Sister of Prince Rupert: Elizabeth Princess Palatine and Abbess of Herford. John Lane. $4 net. Golden. George Fuller. My Lady Vaude- ville and Her White Rats. Broadway Publishing Co. Gookin, Frederick William. Our Defective American Banking System. Chicago Lit- erary Club. Guggisberg, Decima Moore and F. G. We Two in West Africa. 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The information as to the interrelation of the freight rates was obtained di- rectly from the traffic vice-presidents and freight traffic managers of the railroads, the traffic experts of great industrial and commercial corporations, of the shippers' organizations of the various cities, and in many communities from individual shippers. Carter's When Railroads Were New By CHARLES F. CARTER. 16 full-page illustrations, $2.00 net, by mail $2.16. "This invaluable account is unique. It gathers the fragments of railroad history, weaving a human interest into a coherent record. A human and personal document, not a dry historical treatise, batch of statistics, or collections of anecdotes." — Balti- more Sun. "Full of interest. Besides the general chapters on the beginnings the author gives the early history of the Erie, the Pennsylvania and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, of the Vanderbilt lines, the first Pacific Railroad, and of the Canadian Pacific . . . Very readable." — New York Sun. McPherson's The Working of the Railroads is in its 4th print- ing. ($1.50 net, by mail $1.63.) The Dial says it i- "the most im- portant contribution to its branch of the subject that has yet been made." HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY, « 3y38r¥ Forty Years of American Finance A Short Financial History of the Govern- ment and People of the United States since the Civil War, 1865-1907. By ALEXANDER DANA NO YES Financial Editor of the N. Y. Eve. fost. Being the Second and Extended Edition of "Thirty Years of American finance. ' Cr. 8vo. $1.50 net. The new hook carries the story of the American financial markets down to 1908, describing and examining such episodes as the industrial revival after 1898, the .rreat boom of 1901, the history of the Pteel Trust, the promoters' mania, the "rich men's panic" of 1903, the "millionaire speculation" of 1905 and 1906, and the panic of 1907. This is the first complete and thorough history that has been pub- lished of this extraordinary, dramatic and interesting chapter in finance. 6. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, KVSIfc UNEMPLOYMENT: A Problem of Industry By W. H. BEVERIDGE, formerly Sub- Warden of Toynbee Hall. 8vo, $2.40 net. "It is a book which every one ought to have read who presumes to write or speak on the question of unemployment."— West- minster Gazette. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., NEW YORK JUST ISSUED. Cloth. $1.50 net. SAINTE-BEUVE By Prof. George U. Harper, Princeton Vnivertity. J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO., Philadelphia.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAT IS, 1909. The Week. Senator Dolliver has been most use- fully applying a little Western blunt- ness and honesty to the tariff debate. His exposure of the way in which the cotton and wool schedules have been dic- tated by the very men who hope to make money out of them, and of the tricks and devices and robberies with which they are stuffed, has been most effective. And the ridicule which he poured upon Senator Aldrich was re- freshing. The nettled Rhode Island Sen- ator retorted, of course, that Senator Dol- liver was only a Democrat in disguise, had private grievances to avenge, and had got his information from wicked importers; but that is only the usual abuse visited upon a Republican who dares to tell the truth about the tariff. What the country wants to know is, not what Mr. Dolliver's motives may be, but whether the facts are as he states them. Is it true, as he says, that the manufacturers who disgusted the Ways and Means Committee with their hog- gish demands, went to Aldrich and got permission from him to write their own clauses in the tariff? Is it the fact that the effect of the Aldrich bill would be to condemn the masses of the people to pay more for poorer clothing? If tariff rapacity is proposing to palm off shoddy and cotton as all wool, it is well that the nation should know it. For Aldrich to insinuate personal grudges and party disloyalty is of no use either to him or his cause or his clients. What has to be done is squarely to meet Senator Dolli- ver's charges. partisan or scientific framing of cus- toms duties. Until Republicans learn new methods of electing a President and carrying Congress, and until a number of their influential leaders pass from the scene, we shall have the tariff kept in politics because the politicians be- lieve it pays to keep it there. Yet an able and honest Tariff Commission could serve as a kind of perpetual blister upon high-tariff backs. It could collect information and exhibit correct infer- ences, showing just how tariff stupidi- ties work and how tariff robberies find their victims. As a means of rousing popular indignation, as well as in- structing public opinion, and possibly even of shaming Congress into doing something to cure demonstrated evils, a Tariff Commission might have a valua- ble function. It is, we think, mainly in this same line of exposure of tariff facts that the most is to be expected from a Tariff Commission, if we ever get one. The New York Chamber of Commerce has gone on record in favor of the commis- sion plan, and business opinion every- where seems to be veering to it. There is a certain promise of usefulness in the project, but let no man delude him- self into thinking that we are going to have the tariff taken out of politics im- mediately, or get anything like a non- Already the Sugar Trust stood before the country as about the most despica- ble thief that ever sneaked and pilfered and lied, but its action in sanctimonious- ly discharging its seven employees who have been indicted for complicity in its frauds upon the government, sounds an even lower depth of meanness. These subordinates must have acted under or- ders. It was not into their pockets that the stealings from the public revenues went, but into the pockets of the rich officers and owners of the Sugar Trust. This was the irrefragable conclusion ar- rived at by both judge and jury, when the test case was tried. Hence for the Trust now virtuously to dismiss from its service mere tools, with the protest that it is "anxious to punish the guilty," while not a word is said or a step tak- en by the chief beneficiaries of the lar- ceny, is to stamp it as not only without a soul, but without ordinary perceptive faculties or common decency. Fashions in battleships change as certainly as the style of women's hats. When Ericsson brought out the Moni- tor a revolution was at hand not only in the change of materials and the use of armor, but in the effort to show no- thing above water, except a "cheese- box on a raft." This style lasted for some years and remains to-day the best. But the English navy reverted to its high sides, iron walls succeed- ing the wooden that made Britannia mistress of the seas — and our own Navy Department imitated the British when it began to rebuild the navy in 1882, and has been imitating it ever since. But now after the world cruise of our fleet, the fashion is changing again. Bow ornaments, some of the boats, and deck- houses are to go. "Much of the mate- rial," it is reported to-day, "which has hitherto made the main deck of a bat- tleship an overcrowded platform has been placed below deck out of sight and range." Thus does the whirligig of time bring its revenges. We may yet live to see the new and monstrous masts that disfigure our craft disappear, and genuine honor paid to Ericsson by re- turning to his plans. In these days of artificial ventilation hundreds of feet underground, there can no longer be the excuse that the monitors cannot be made habitable for their crews. Naval engineering has solved far more diffi- cult problems. And Ericsson's truth, that a fighting ship should show as small an above-water mark as possible, remains irrefutable. "Recall" elections threaten to become epidemic on the Pacific Coast. Not to be outdone by Los Angeles, Estacada, Ore., is about to recall, on petition of 50 per cent, of the voters, both the Mayor and Council. Meanwhile, Los Angeles herself, having got the habit, cannot leave it off. The new Mayor is at log- gerheads with the Civil Service Com- mission, and has called upon its mem- bers to resign. As they have shown less alacrity than Falstaff in sinking, Mayor Alexander has asked the Council to re- move them. In case the Council does not agree, it is proposed to force it to action by "recall" proceedings against recalcitrant members. To this it is re- torted that, if such a course is attempt- ed, the Council will compel a "recall" election on Mayor Alexander himself. At this rate, Los Angeles promises to involve herself in a "recall" carnival which will eclipse tbe Seattle Exposi- tion in magnitude and variety before the summer is over. We bespeak for Gen. Sherman's fam- ily letters in the May Scribner's a wide

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4=73 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2289 reading in the South, where the strong feeling against that General shows few signs of diminishing. Sheridan has been forgiven; Grant is mildly sneered at. But mention of Sherman still opens floodgates of bitterness. He was a pur- loiner of silver; his soldiers spared neither women nor children; he burned towns that had not offended and cities that had surrendered, and he spared not even the convents occupied by women of his own religious faith. Well, Gen. Sherman always admitted that his was a ruthless military hand. What Sheri- dan undertook to do in the Shenandoah yalley, to impoverish it se that a crow flying across it must take his rations on his back, Sherman did wherever he went. He was bound that the South should know war in its worst forms, and thus bring irresistible pressure to bear on the Confederacy. When he cut loose on his March to the Sea, both pol- icy and necessity dictated his sweeping clean the country that he passed over: They no longer call my army "Cowardly Yanks," but have tried to arouse the sym- pathy of the civilized world by stories of the cruel barbarities of my army. The next step in the progress will be, "for God's sake spare us ; we must surrender." When that end is reached we begin to see day- light. . . . Now, the man who wrote this was at heart no barbarian, no hater of the South. He had lived there for years— a fact which gave him not only unusual knowledge of localities, but also of Southern character. He yielded to no one in admiration for the pertinacity and bravery with which the South fought, and he records that sentiment in these letters. He opposed the intro- duction of negro troops into the army because he knew how such action wbuld humiliate the South. He took the best care of the families of three rebel gen- erals, Hardee, McLaws, and G. W. Smith, when they were directly entrust- ed to him, and he complains in Savan- nah that "the women here, as in Mem- phis, are disposed to usurp my time more from curiosity than from business. They had been told of my burning and killing until they expected the veriest monster. . . ." But most striking of all is this passage from a letter of June 26, written in the field near Marietta, Georgia : To realize what war is, one should fol- low our track. . . . Though not con- scious of danger at this moment, I know the country swarms with thousands who would shoot me, and thank their God they had slain a monster; and yet I have been more kindly disposed to the people of the South than any general officer of the whole army. Whatever else may he said about these letters, their frankness and their clear evidence that Sherman entertained no illusions about himself, was to be caught by no political net, and knew ex- actly what were his greatest military achievements, make them exceptionally valuable as historical material. It is certainly a vexing state of af- fairs in Porto Rico which led to Presi- dent Taft's message to Congress Mon- day. The Porto Rican Assembly has re- fused, both in the regular and in an ex- traordinary session, to vote the money necessary to carry on the government of the island. It is not a question of with- holding certain appropriations, or of di- recting how given supplies shall be ex- pended, but of denying the funds abso- lutely necessary to keep the courts and the schools open. This is too much like that childish spirit which has now and again been manifested in Cuba, and which leads a political party, or a pub- lic body, to say that if it can't have its own way, it "won't play with you any more." The Porto Rican Assembly, of course, desired to bring the Council to terms in certain matters in dispute be- tween them. But . it must find some means of doing this other than paralyz- ing the entire government. To attempt that, is not to exercise the power of the purse; it is to act out of spite and reck- lessness. The readiest way of meeting this foolish obstinacy is by some such amendment to the Porto Rican Act as President Taft proposes — namely, to le- galize appropriations on the basis of the preceding year, whenever the As- sembly declines to vote them for a com- ing twelvemonth. That would both meet the case and would be better than Bis- marck's method of making his own mili- tary budget, after the Prussian Parlia- ment had refused to vote it. No more fitting memorial to Dr. Wil- liam T. Bull could be found than the great research fund which is to be rais- ed in his name. But this skilled sur- geon's death under the very disease which he had fought in so many a clinic should be looked upon only as an occa- sion for doing what ought to have been done, had he lived. Less for honor to the departed than out of mercy to suf- ferers living and yet unborn, the cam- paign against hidden and remorseless scourges should be pushed to the last outpost that money, science, and hero- ism can reach. Every day a new cure for cancer or some other malignant dis- ease is heralded, and on the next sur- geons shake their heads, while trusting patients grasp at the empty promise in a last desperation. Every day the keen- est, wisest expert guesses — and gives up. To end the tragedy, the half-million dollars which the memorial committee seeks would be a trifling sum. Even though it does not bring us to the full solution of all the mysteries, it will help to carry us farther on the way. Its in- come will not have to be spent for hos- pitals, instruments, or other accessor- ies, but wholly for investigations under the eyes of our first specialists, many of whom will serve as unpaid advisers. Despite the recent split in the Eng- lish Labor party, a Labor candidate was elected to Parliament last week in the Attercliffe division of Sheffield. This constituency in 1906 returned a Liberal, who had 6,523 votes to 5,736 for his Con- servative rival. In the bye-election just held, there were, four candidates, and a great breaking up of the electorate. The Labor party led the poll with 3,531, next came the Conservatives with 3,380, the Liberals followed with 3,175, while an Independent Conservative had 2,803. If the Conservatives had stood together, it is clear that they would have won the seat; but the really significant thing is the inability of the Liberals and the Laborites to combine, as they did in 1906. Should this divisive force persist in the next general election, the triumph of the Conservatives will be all the more certain. Keir Hardie and three other prominent Labor members of Parlia- ment resigned a few days ago from the National Administrative Council of their party, on the ground that its control was falling into the hands of avowed and extreme Socialists. But so far as Sheffield goes, this breach in the party has not affected its voting power. Mr. Asquith has added Welsh dis- establishment to the list of his burdens. The bill to that purpose which he intro- duced into the House of Commons a few **

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. 477 days ago, has strong backing, of course; so strong, in fact, that the Ministry has been accused of taking up the measure largely for the purpose of stirring up Nonconformist zeal in general support of the government. But opposition is making itself felt. A Royal Commission has been taking testimony on the sub- ject. From the commission's figures, the government argues that an established Church which counts less than 180,000 adherents, as against nearly 600,000 members of other churches, presents a situation analogous to that which com- pelled disestablishment in Ireland. The accuracy of the government's figures has been questioned. However, the prin- cipal argument against the bill is that it calls for disendowment as well as dis- establishment. That is, the Church in Wales is not only to lose its future in- come from the state, but is to be de- prived of its ancient holdings, which are to be used by the state for secular pur- poses. Such a measure would place the Anglican clergy at a decided disadvan- tage's compared with the free churches which have built up endowments for the support of their ministry. The former would have to be provided for afresh. Yet it should not be hard to arrange a compromise. Nonconformists may argue that a disestablished church cannot hold on to property acquired as a state church in the past. But on the sins of the past England has never been hard. Rumors of the approaching fall of the Stolypin Ministry, the dissolution of the third Duma, and the return of the ex- treme reactionaries to power, flow in steadily from St. Petersburg. There have been writers who tried to show that the Czar is not the weak creature he is pop- ularly believed to be. But given the op- portunity, Nicholas II, ruler by the grace of God over one hundred and fifty million Russians, seldom fails to show that he does not know his own mind and his own interests. Otherwise it is im- possible to understand how there can be talk of dismissing the man who in less than three years may be said almost to have saved the Czar's Empire for him by quelling a revolution and inducting the nation into the difficult forms of constitutional practice. The kind of or- der that M. Stolypin has restored is, nat- urally, the old Russian brand, the "or- der" of the scaffold and the knout. But that he has succeeded is attested by the very fact that his enemies, the reaction- aries, should consider themselves suffi- ciently out of the woods to start plot- ting against him. Everything is possi- ble in Russia, where political intrigue, to attain its own ends, stops short of nothing. The Azeff affair has shown the police of St. Petersburg working at the assassination of governors-general and grand dukes, when it suited the inter- ests of the police. The Shah took nearly half a dozen oaths of fealty to the first Persian Con- stitution before he revoked it. There are more substantial guarantees behind the new Constitution which he proclaim- ed last week. Foreign intervention is now a fact. Russia is in occupation of Tabriz, and if England has not been ac- tive, it is because the situation in south- ern Persia, which falls within her sphere of influence, has not become sufficient- ly serious. Unchecked optimism as to the future of Liberalism in Persia is not yet in place. A Constitution up- held by Russian bayonets is reasonably certain to turn out a pretty tame Con- stitution. But, on the other hand, it shows how firmly the principle of politi- cal liberty has taken root even in the benighted Orient, that Russia should find it politic and necessary to urge any kind of Constitution upon the Shah. The heroic stand made by the Nationalists at Tabriz proves that the fatalistic, stub- born temper of the East may be turned to the uses of a good cause as of a bad one, of liberty and progress as of reac- tion. It is easy for Western Europe, from the safe anchorage of Parliamen- tary habit, to sneer or feel discouraged at the pitiful flounderings of the Orient's infant Parliaments. We are apt to for- get that such pangs invariably accom- pany the birth of institutions. The reestablishment of the Constitu- tion in Persia should help the Liberal cause in Turkey. Partisans of the old regime may argue, of course, that the Constitutionalists have brought foreign intervention upon Persia, and will do the same for the Ottcman Empire. But against this is the argument of estab- lished fact. A Constitution there is in Persia; the Shah tried to do away with it on the ground that it was irrecon- cilable with the Moslem faith, and his Moslem subjects rose up against him. This supposed incompatibility of Islam with free institutions is worked pretty hard these days. The Koran stands for absolutism; the Mohammedan believer will die for the Koran; therefore, etc. But the "therefore" does not follow by any means. We must take it for grant- ed that the Moslem, 'ike the Christian and the Jew, is primarily a human be- ing. As such his religion shapes itself to his human needs and aspirations. There is no Sacred Book which has not been "interpreted" in accordance with certain elementary requirements of the practical reason. Give the L'berals in Turkey a free hand for a score of years, and they will bring up a generation that will find in the Koran every sanction for Parliamentary government. It is fair to argue that the Turkish nation may be too ignorant, or too poor, or too much torn up by racial feuds to be fit for Parliamentary government. But to cite the Koran as an insuperable barrier to liberty is absurd. Alfred H. Harrison, the Arctic explor- er, reaffirms in the Nineteenth Century his belief in the success of any Arctic expedition which is willing to sit down on the ice and drift with the leisurely Polar current. He proposes to place on the ice, off Pulen Island, in October of this year, or in 1910, three years' sup- plies, after careful transport down the Mackenzie River, and then to await re- sults. According to calculations based on the voyage of casks placed within the circular drift current, Mr. Harrison feels sure that he will float right across the centre of the Arctic Ocean within easy striking distance of the Pole, and will finally emerge in the neighborhood of Spitzbergen, where additional sup- plies will be awaiting him. The history of Arctic travel convinces him that the ice in itself has never presented any in- surmountable difficulty. Of all those who have made regular ice-journeys, but one party has perished. The real cause of the many disasters has been, not the endeavor to make well-equipped ice-jour- neys, but the attempt to reach land in the summer, when compelled by lack of food. He insists that his party can, when drifting, be made perfectly comforta- ble in Eskimo houses, and that if he gets his provisions safely cached on the ice, the attainment of the Pole and the exploration of the unknown region "are merely a matter of slow and steady ad- vance."

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4o7S Xlie ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 A NEW POLITICAL ALIGNMENT. It was no mere chance that ten Re- publican Senators from the West were found voting with all the Democratic Senators from the South, in a division in the Senate last week. That junction was a temporary sign of permanent and deep-seated political sympathies. It has had many manifestations before, and, unless all signs fail, will have even more striking ones in the future. Sev- eral other Western Republican Senators are restless. Six or seven in addition are reported as ready to unite with Southern Democrats when certain test votes on the tariff are taken. It is a kind of tacit political alliance which cuts across party lines, because the things which these groups of men in different parties have in common draw them to- gether more powerfully than mere tra- ditional partisan names and policies are any longer able to keep them asunder. We may have before our eyes the form- ing of a new alignment which will be critical in our future political history. Any one can see that the West and the South have many interests and ideas in common. Certain divisive questions, like slavery and its sequels, may serve to keep them apart, but when the force of such issues is spent, the natural ten- dency to union asserts itself. Physical- ly, the two sections are close to each other, and the natural lines of communi- cation and trade unite them. The Mis- sissippi still flows from the Northwest to the South. And in recent years, rail- way development has been pushed as notably in lines roughly parallel to the river, as at right angles to it. More- over, the improvement of Southern har- bors, like Galveston and Newport News, has tended to make the great commerce flow as do the rivers. And in addition to this natural and acquired linking of trade, there has been a marked drawing together of West and South in political conceptions, in that instinctive attitude of the masses of the population, which makes up the true driving force in poli- tics. The two regions are alike in be- ing radical politically, and in being more like each other than either is like New England or the East in gen- eral. In 1896, this inherent identity of feel- ing between the South and, the West had a formidable manifestation, and was nearer to proving its political mastery than at the time we liked to think. Mr. Bryan staked his all, in the Presiden- tial campaign of that year, on winning enough Western States from the Repub- licans to make up, with the Southern, an electoral majority. The plan was shrewdly conceived, and was not so far from proving successful. Bryan carried a list of Western States that included Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Ne- braska, Nevada, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. It is fool- ish to dismiss that array as merely "mining camps." The silver question was, of course, the great issue, and was what defeated Bryan; but behind silver, even in that campaign, stood the might- ier political force of class antagonism, a spirit of sectional revolt which was at the same time a spirit of sectional unity. And it is no insignificant circumstance that, to-day, Republican Senators from some of those Bryan States — Nebraska and Kansas, for example — are standing shoulder to shoulder with Southern Democrats. With free silver shelved, the old idem sentire de republica is de- claring itself again. This time, too, the ostensible issue is not the deep and effectual reason for the union. Westerners are snapping party ties on the question of the tariff, partly because they resent its burdens and injustices, but more because they are jealous of New England wealth, and of the capital of New York and the Middle States, which, appear to them to be using Senator Aldrich as an amanu- ensis to write out tariff dictation. The revolt is really that of the radical West and South against the conservative East. It was no casual thing that Western Senators pointed out and denounced the dominance of New England Senators in the Finance Committee of the Senate, and in other powerful committees of that body. There spoke a sectional dis- trust and dislike which may be pro- phetic of a sweeping readjustment of parties, before many years have passed. That it will surely come, we should not think of being so rash as to predict. But its possibility lies open to the gaze of everybody. The breach may not occur over the tariff. Senator Aldrich has such glittering bribes in his hand that he may be able to buy the needed votes. But with the tariff either out of the way or in the way, the tendency we have indicated remains, and will have to be reckoned with. That it has entered into the remote calculations of President Taft, is not at all impossible. His open- ly conciliatory policy towards the South, his announced intention of travelling ex- tensively in the West, his advocacy of the income tax, by which both South and West have long sworn, may be with- out special meaning, yet they are the kind of thing a far-sighted President, looking to his own succession, would be apt to do if he saw, or thought he saw, the forming of a political alliance that would shatter and destroy old party combinations. FINANCE AND RESPONSIBLE MIN- ISTRIES. After months of discussion in the Reichstag, in the press, and by the pub- lic, the German financial muddle is ap- parently worse than ever. A sane and comprehensive plan of rescuing the Em- pire from its embarrassments seems as far off as in December, though the im- patience of the country grows daily. A group of prominent men has petition- ed the Reichstag to do something quick- ly, for the deficit does not stand still while the politicians wrangle. The Chan- cellor and his Finance Minister are wholly unable to find the way out. They are paying the penalty for having con- ceded so much hitherto to certain favor- ed interests, primarily the landowners and the manufacturers. These pamper- ed classes have become so accustomed to believing they own the government that they angrily resent any effort to compel them to bear a larger burden of taxa- tion, the proposed heavy inheritance taxes in particular. In this respect, the situation at Ber- lin is analogous to that at Washington. The protected manufacturers and "stand- pat" politicians are infuriated at the idea of any reduction of the profits made by the beneficiaries of our tariff, and are endeavoring by hook or by crook, by this cleverly concealed joker or that innocent-looking specific duty, to trick both the public and those leaders, like Mr. Taft, who deeire a little mercy for the ultimate consumer. Have they not bought and paid for the Republican party's success, with the understanding that their purses shall be well filled in return? It is precisely the same in Ber- lin. The Prussian Junker, the capital- ists who own thousands of acres of land, the nobles who have reserved for them- selves a great majority of the choicest

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"May 13, 1909] The Nation 479 positions in the army, the navy, and the civil service, are outraged that they should be asked to pay the heaviest taxes. It matters not to them that the enormous deficit is the result of policies they have so long dictated, or that true patriotism would prompt their coming now to the rescue. They have planted their feet like so many stubborn mules, and balked — thus far so successfully that the imperial German nation pre- -eents to the outside world the extraor- dinary spectacle of being unable to reg- ulate its own budget and make its in- come meet its outgo. It is not only Von Biilow's having in -the past bound and delivered himself into the hands of the favored classes -that has made it possible for them to block the way; it is the absence of a re- sponsible party Ministry. When the crisis between the Chancellor, the Kai- ser, and the Reichstag arose last au- 'tumn, the Radicals pointed out that this was the opportunity for the Reichstag ■to refuse to vote supplies, unless it ob- tained the right to decide what Minis- ters should supervise expenditures. But the Reichstag committee to which this Constitutional question was referred .produced nothing. Now, however, Von Bulow himself must see that on his side there would be advantages were he the chosen Prime Minister of a really strong .party. His ill-assorted "block" fails him when he most needs it, so that the belief is growing in Berlin that he must again dissolve the Reichstag and take the 'Chance of further Socialist successes — •or ask the Socialists, whom the Kaiser has branded as traitors, to help him pass the inheritance-tax proposals. So far is he from being master of the "block" that it seems to have mastered "him. And it can only add to his and the country's intense mortification to see how Mr. Lloyd-George is grappling with his problem, across the Channel. In- dubitably, the new English budget is in some aspects Socialistic and revolution- ary; but it has been presented by a Tirile leader, strong in the conscious- ness of a great party behind him — and, most important of all, unhampered by protected industries. He can lay the burden of taxation squarely upon those best able to afford it. The rich landown- ers may wriggle if they please; they bold no mortgage upon Mr. Asquith's Ministry. This lack of direct Parliamentary re- sponsibility in Germany again affords a parallel with our own plight. We have no system of budget-making, no scien- tific effort to present annually estimates of expenditure and of income. In the current tariff debate, Senator Aldrich has met all questions as to how he can pay the increased expenses of govern- ment with a possibly decreased revenue, by the cheerful promise to cut appro- priations. This is one of the good in- tentions with which the road to the financial Inferno of nations is paved. Just twelve years ago, Speaker Reed wrote that Senator Allison agreed with him that "never in our experience has there been such a rush on their part [the public's] for appropriations as now, when income is too small by fifty or sixty millions." Billion-dollar Con- gresses create an appetite that grows with feeding at the government trough, and that is not readily checked even in bad times or by a startling deficit. Reck- less extravagance makes the nation reckless of its credit, and absurdly over- confident that the way out of any diffi- culty can easily be found. "I welcome any discussion," wrote Mr. Reed in the same private letter, "which would create responsible government somewhere." Certainly, there is no re sponsible government anywhere in Ger- many. The Chancellor is chosen by the Emperor; his sympathies may be with any political party, with several, or with none. If the Reichstag rebukes him, and the Kaiser is willing, he tries to bribe a new coalition to give him what he wants. But the day of reckon- ing has come in Von Biilow's present helplessness. The only question is whe- ther he shall dissolve Parliament, or whether he can buy, beg, or compromise his way to some half-hearted, half-way scheme of financial reform. THE FRENCH STATE EMPLOYEES. The Parisian postal and telegraph workers, by organizing themselves as a trade-union which claims, under the law of 1884, the right to strike, bring squarely before the French Cabinet and Parliament a problem which the gov- ernment has hitherto been content to attack through diplomacy and political manipulation, but upon which it now must definitely legislate. The situation in France is serious but as yet there is no cause for the cry of revolution. In the first place, it remains to be shown just how strong the sentiment is behind the labor leaders who have issued this defiance of the government. Dispatches from Paris agree that the state em- ployees are not a unit in seeking a clash. Many oppose the idea of a gen- eral strike. Some are even opposed to the formation of a syndicate or trade- union. "Others believe that a congress representing all classes of employees alone would be qualified to decide the question." From the haste with which the new union was organized and pub- licly announced, it would be almost as correct to say that the French postal clerks and telegraph operators have had a union formed for them, as that they have formed themselves into a union. The project seems to have been launch- ed by a number of leaders who have been deliberately baiting the govern- ment and who have been suspended from the public service. Nevertheless, the question whether the servants of the state shall have the right to hamper or completely block the service of the state has been put and must be answered. The French Cham- ber has been dallying with bills on the subject. It must now get to work in earnest. The question as usually treat- ed has two aspects: the trade-union phase and the revolutionary phase. Shall the state employees be allowed to strike? And shall the state employees be allowed to revolt? The second phase is the more prominent in the public mind. In the campaign which the noted General Confederation of Labor is con- ducting against the government and against the entire social system of the present, the state functionaries have been counted upon to play an important part. But from the practical point of view, this revolutionary aspect may, for the time at least, be put aside. When it comes to revolution, there is no longer any question of right or wrong. If the state employees in France have come to look forward to a general strike as a means of subverting the existing so- cial order, they may prepare for that great event just as well through their present organization into mutual benefit associations as through unions formally endowed with the right to strike. We must take it for granted, therefore, that the impelling cause in the present agi- tation is still predominantly a peaceful

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480 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 one. If the men in the post-offices and telegraph bureaus desire to strike, it is probably for the good old reason of se- curing higher wages, easier hours, and improved conditions of labor. The problem is one that confronts every government that has gone exten- sively into the employment of labor. It confronts the governments of Germany, Austria, Italy, and Russia, as well as of France. All but the first have had the question on their hands in more or less acute form. In Russia, the great rail- way strike of 1905 forced a Constitution from the Czar. In Austria, a few years ago, the imminence of a general strike wrested from the government a grant of universal suffrage. The Italian railways have had years of chronic disorder, in the course of which the theory of the "pacific" strike — the strike which con- sists in doing one's work as dilatorily and as badly as possible — was carried to a high state of perfection. Prussia alone has been untroubled, because in Prussia alone the iron military disci- pline keeps the government service — schools and municipal bureaus, as well as railways and post-offices — free from every kind of revolutionary taint. But neither the historical tradition of France nor the spirit of the French people admits of rigid Prussian discipline. Democratic principles must be allowed free play at the cost of an explosion. How far is the present French gov- ernment willing to go? M. Clemenceau has left no doubt of bis position on the specific question of state employees and the right to strike. In Parliament and out he has rejected the claim as absurd. It would make the servants of the state its masters, and put tremendous pojver ■ into the hands of individuals responsi- ble to no recognized organ of the state. A little more than a week ago, at the unveiling of the Gambetta monument at Nice, M. Clemenceau summed up the case of order and common-sense against the advocates of revolution, philosophi- cal and other: A nation cannot live on philosophy. So- ciety cannot halt in its patn at the com- mand of an individual to make way for the fallible prophets of the future. The present has its rights, and the present means the ordered life of every citizen within the framework of the law. Un- doubtedly, there are in democracies, as in every other form of government, crises of varying duration and intensity. Too many men have been spoiled by a regime of vio- lence for the rational enjoyment of free- dom. Their difficulty is to see that one who would impose respect for his personal liberty on his neighbor must begin by im- posing on himself respect for his neigh- bor's personal liberty. How much worse, then, does the evil grow if the servants of the state, representative of the power of the state, prove false to their primary duty, abandon their posts, and turn against the nation the power which was confided to them for its service ! A society that would tolerate such a condition of things would go down to its destruction in the midst of universal contempt. Issue, therefore, has been clearly joined between the Clemenceau Ministry and the extremists among the labor leaders. The way out seems to lie, as we have said, through legislation which shall specifically prohibit the right to strike, while conceding to public servants an increased share in the shaping of ad- ministrative policy in so far as it con- cerns their own condition. That the unions shall dominate their superiors is out of the question. M. Clemenceau has declared that Ministers must continue responsible to Parliament, and not to their employees. But, after all, in every democracy, a minister, a mayor, or a commissioner is responsible in measure to every subordinate of his who has a vote. In this country, we sometimes hear of bills being passed because the letter-carriers or school-teachers insist. In lieu of this indirect system of self- government among government em- ployees, France might well hit upon some direct form of cooperation between gov- ernment employees and their superiors. HAMMOND LAMONT. With the deepest sorrow and an over- whelming sense of personal loss, we re- cord the death of Hammond Lamont. Such qualities as he possessed make his friends feel that silence and bowed heads are the best form of tribute. Espe- cially under the first shock of his unex- pected and untimely end, cut off, as he was, cruelly in the meridian of his pow- ers and usefulness, are his associates in- clined simply to say: What else in life seems piteous any more, After such pity? Mr. Lamont had an intellect that rang- ed free and wide. His mental vigor was what first impressed men making his ac- quaintance. Penetrating, incisive, clear, and sane, his reason was a fine organ of truth. His favorite studies and larg- est attainments were in English litera- ture, of which he possessed extensive knowledge, kept in order by a judgment of extraordinary balance and clarity. In educational matters, he was thoroughly versed. His writings upon the problems of school and college and university compelled attention; and his advice and assistance were often sought by college authorities. Known by a multitude of university men, he was prized by them all. But Mr. Lamont had also read eag- erly and thought deeply about all the great questions that press upon a mod- ern man with a soul above the clods. In politics, in morals, in that mystery and awe of existence which we call relig- ion, his active mind had sought out fact and built up conviction. And his intel- lectual honesty was so complete, his de- tection of fallacy and delusion so in- stant, his hatred of sham and lies so absolute, that for him the discovery of the truth was the same thing as em- bracing it, his translation of thought into motive and action being instinctive and instantaneous. It would never have been necessary for a Socrates to bid Mr. Lamont "follow the argument." He was always following it to the end, sweet or bitter. It was this intellectual stanch- ness of the man, combined with his firm- fibred character and loyalty to friend- ship, that bound like-minded men to him with hooks of steel. Mr. Lamont was the son of the Rev. Thomas and Caroline D. Lamont. He was born in Monticello, N. Y., in 1864, and prepared for college in Albany. En- tering Harvard with the class of 1886 he was graduated as one of its first scholars, a member of the Phi Beta Kap- pa, and Ivy Orator of his class, besides having made a reputation as a remark- able undergraduate journalist. To news- paper work he naturally turned on grad- uation, spending two years in Albany journalism and two years as a member of the staff of the Seattle Post-Intelli- gencer. When, in 1892, President Eliot visited Seattle, his attention was attract- ed by Mr. Lamont's able reporting of his address in that city and by other evi- dences of unusual ability. Mr. Eliot at once offered him an instructorship in the English department at Harvard, which position he held until called to the department of English at Brown University as associate professor, and, from 1898 on, full professor of rhetoric. He then accepted in 1900 the position of managing editor of the Evening Post, which he held for six years with mark- ed success. His regular contributions

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May 13, 1909] The ISTation. 481 to the editorial page were distinguished by their lucid style, their information, "their original humor, and keen irony. Despite his unsparing journalistic la- bors, he never lost his interest in the subjects in which he had taught. He •edited several well-known college text- books, and published, in 1906, a hook en- titled "English Composition," which is largely used in the high schools of the ■country. Shortly before his death he "had received most flattering offers from Williams College and from one of the best-known Middle Western State uni- versities to return to the professorial -career, and he had, during his connec- tion with the Evening Post, declined fllmilar offers from Brown University and Cornell. On July 1, 1906, with the retirement from the editorship of the Nation of the late Wendell Phillips Garrison, Mr. La- mont succeeded him, and applied him- self to the new duties with his custom- ary vigor and enthusiasm. Readers of ■the Nation need not be told what ad- mirable qualities he imported into this work. Death came on the evening of May 6, as the result of an operation to which in advance no great importance was at- tached. It proved, however, to be so serious that he was unable to rally from the shock. Such consolation as those who mourn him may derive from the thought that his life was filled with militant and honorable striving, they may lay to heart without a single men- tal reserve. But we know not to-day ■what healing there is for those who are •struck down by his remediless loss, and the tragedy of his end. FRENCH FICTION. Paeis, May 1. "Les Unis," by Edouard Rod, is well written, like all the many novels of this distinguished author (Fasquelle). He no longer shows us a world of in- herited Calvinism. The "united ones" •of his story are the daughters (and their consorts) of a fanatical reformer who rejects for them the subjection of conventional marriage and puts in prac- tice the free unions of the good time coming. He is not conscious that his •own rigid moral ideas have their ef- ficiency from that traditional society which he wishes to revolutionize. So, when his sons-in-love and not in-law ■follow their unrestrained selfishness, profiting by the freedom, which he thought was to regenerate the world, only to ruin and destroy his children's happiness, the stroke is appalling. It is impossible not to see in the defeated patriarch the image of the late Elisee Reclus (though, of course, not of his family). He joined with undisputed eminence in science a social fanaticism which made him the chief prophet of the Anarchist movement. No failure of his disciples to come up to his own moral principles (inherited, by the way, from Calvinist generations) could trou- ble the fatuity which made him willing to smash the existing world for some non-existent future dreamed of in his philosophy. M. Rod, in likely examples, shows the outcome of such efforts. The story is of intense interest — and it starts up questions than which none can be timelier. "Le Talion," by Victor Margueritte, like others of the novels of this author and his brother, tells of unhappiness re- s^ltiHg from marriage and from love not legalized and of the revenge which comes from the child (Fasquelle). In the old ideas, marriage was sacred pre- cisely because it protected the lawful child of lawful parents. If the count could be made, how many marriages are there nowadays which do not make for happiness precisely for the same old reason? Why, then, barrow up our feel- ings by imagined exceptions? And, even if the revolution in laws which the Mar- gueritte brothers seem to desire could be brought about, might not what they regard as freedom come to be worse slav- ery, particularly for mother and child? Paul Margueritte, who is no longer writ- ing in collaboration with his brother, publishes a volume o*" stories — "La Lan- terne magique" (Plon) — which raise no such moral questions, although they deal with love in a way not usually open to the young person. "Le Mariage de Mademoiselle Gimel, dactylographe," by Rene Bazin, accom- panied by two short stories, makes up another volume of this writer who so amiably discredits the exclusive mean- ing long attached to French fiction. It will be all the more sympathetic to Americans, inasmuch as it introduces the girl typewriter into French litera- ture (Annales politiques et litteraires). Another view of marriage — more mod- ern, not so Christian, as old-fashioned folk might say — is that exemplified in "Les Anxietes de Therese Lesieure" (Plon), by Etienne Bricon. The bank- er's daughter has never had to face the realities of life; and her mixed ideals are not fulfilled in the dull garrison town where she comes to live as a lieu- tenant's bride. A desperate flirtation — liaison, we used to say — with an aris- tocratic captain does not mend matters. So she begins a correspondence with the sentimental novelist most in fash- ion. He certainly gives very common- sense spiritual direction; but his peni- tent finds out that he needs guidance himself because of some uncomfortable actress who has crossed his vision. Nat- urally, in another's case she sees clearly; and the book, after a first moral alarm, reasons out virtue's excellence in such letters as only French men and women can write. "Le Reste est silence" (Stock), by a new writer, Edmond Jaloux, is notewor- thy from its perfect style and its treat- ment of a new idea in these love sto- ries. It is the child's impressions of un- happy things which go on before him, beyond all his comprehension. He knows only that his mother is beautiful, that his father is brave, but that there are doings of his mother which he must not tell his father. Then the storm breaks before his wondering eyes; and at last the beautiful mother, who has disap- peared, comes back broken and humbled, crying out as she kisses frantically her child what she might have known all along from David's psalm in her prayer- book — "All men are liars!" — but men- tally reserving, the child must think, the lawful husband whose bravery she has taxed so heavily. In violent contrast with this delicate shading of a child's impressions of love and life which he cannot understand, we have two roughly brushed pictures of American love as seen by Frenchmen quite as uncomprehending as the child, and with added prejudices and who- knows-what humiliating memories. "In- civilises" (Juven), bv Harry R. Tre- mont, strikes its keynote in its title. "The author lived long in the United States, where the savory and exact notes which he took enable him to show American women and girls as they are — bold, flirtatious, perverse, and wild." Merci du peu! Xavier Torau-Bayle pub- lishes a more neutral novel, "Une Fran- gaise aux Etats-Unis" (Mathot), which from the nature of things ought to have pathos. "Autour de l'amour," by Gaston Ra- geot, who is a professor and philosopher as well as story-writer, tries in touch- ing examples to prove a startling thesis: Love, which so preoccupies French talk in literature, drama, and life itself, scarcely exists in the modern heart. "We live under the easy rule of adventure and pleasure, which have kill- ed sentiment and even gallantry." Hate, which is a passion quite as much as love, enters into a number of the new novels. "La Fourmiliere" (Flammarion) is by Lucien Alphonse- Daudet, a younger eon of the great novelist, who is fain to write, like all the rest of the family. The "ant-hill" is the native provincial town of a painter, who thinks to find refuge there after great sorrow; but hf. is wounded and stung by village spite until he does away with himself, leaving by will his chateau and lands to the King of Prus- sia to revenge himself on his country-

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4=32 T li e N" a t i o n . [Vol. 88, No. 2289 men. "Soeur Marie-Odile" (Lemerre) is an idyll only shadowed by local hates, with its further dark gloom from dis- appointed love suddenly illumined by final peace in the convent. The author, Charles d'Ollone, must have known from childhood the scenes he portrays; and his poetic feeling will reach those tour- ists who have wandered from the lake of Gerardmer to the forests of Alsace and the mountain shrine of St. Odile. "Les Deux Routes" (Perrin), by Paul Tany, shows how the modest and work- ing artist reaches glory and love at last after many meritorious days, while the other — the arriviste who would trample every one down in his efforts to find a short cut — ends up properly in Bedlam. In "Les Demoiselles de la poste" (Plon), by Paul Bonhomme, we leave the prov- inces and Bohemia for the every-day life of towns. That the joys and sorrows of post-office and telephone girls should be made the subject of a French novel, without any of Zola's un-Naturalism, is a sign of many good things, not the least of which is the advance of French society toward sane democracy. "Le Soldat Bernard" (Fayard), by Paul Acker, is a novel which is not a romance. It is full of urgent timeli- ness— the thrilling conversion to patri- otism of an anti-Militarist during com- pulsory military service, with what he feels during the attacks of striking workmen on soldiers protecting society as it is. S. D. Correspondence. THE "LOST LEAF" OF "PIERS THE PLOWMAN." To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Two recent letters in the Nation (March 25 and April 29) on the text of Passus v of "Piers the Plowman" have re- opened a question to the solution of which I should like to contribute some new ma- terial. As the whole matter now stands the original hypothesis of Prof. J. M. Man- ly of the University of Chicago was criti- cised by Dr. Henry Bradley of Oxford, who presented an alternative theory. This, in turn, was criticised in the Nation by Prof. Carleton F. Brown of Bryn Mawr, who of- fered still another explanation for the con- dition of the text. In his final letter, to the Nation of April 29, Dr. Bradley disposes of Professor Brown's theory, and reverts to his own radical modification of Professor Manly's. I shall try to show that Dr. Bradley's theory is nevertheless unsound, and that Professor Manly's is the most ac- ceptable. Very briefly, the Manly theory, as stated in Modern Philology, January, 1906, is an attempt to account for two gaps or breaks In the text of Passus v of Version A of "Piers the Plowman," one gap after line 106, the other between lines 235 and 236, ac- cording to Skeat's numbering. Seven of the 129 lines between the two breaks are spuri- ous, thus reducing the number to 122. Ac- cording to the theory, these lines occupied the inside two folios (four pages) of a quire, and the breaks before and after were occasioned by the loss of both halves of the leaf next to the innermost. Dr. Bradley, in the London Athenaeum, April 21, 1906, argued that the author wrote his first draft on loose sheets or scraps of paper or parchment. One of these, holding lines 236-259, was shifted from the end of Covetousness (line 145) to its present posi- tion, where it was copied in by the scribe of an archetypal manuscript. Another sheet, containing the end of the account of Envy and all of Wrath, was lost from between lines 106 and 107. At first sight, indeed, this seems a most tempting suggestion, but there are a number of considerations which render its acceptance impossible. For one thing, we have little evidence concerning mediaeval methods of original composition. Did authors then compose on scraps or in books? The manuscript of the Ormulum, which is the only one I know of that is the (probably) first draft in the author's hand, is made up in such a way that the first quire must have been sewed together before being written on. The other quires were folded together and then filled with writing, in accordance with the regu- lar custom of mediaeval copyists in making up manuscripts. Some of the author's changes and additions, however, are on small scraps, which were inserted and sew- ed in later. It therefore seems that the one author whose practice we know compos- ed in a book, and added his afterthoughts on scraps. If Dr. Bradley's "shifted-leaf" argument tries to avail itself of these in- serted scraps, Dr. Bradley must account for the loss of the end of Envy and all of Wrath, as well as for the shift of what seems to him to be the continuation of Covetousness and the sequent Robert the Robber, on the ground that these passages were not in the first draft, but were after- thoughts of the author. Furthermore, as the account of Covetous- ness stands in lines 107-145, it forms a complete discourse, rendering unnecessary any further development or addition. In Passus V every complete account of a sin includes a confession, a repentance, and a vow. Covetousness in his turn confesses several varieties of cheating in trade; swears to cease from "that sin" of "re- gratery" — i. e., "never wickedly to weigh or to use wicked bargaining"; and prom- ises to go with his wife to Walsingham, and to pray the Rood of Bromholm to bring him out of debt. The account thus agrees in structure with all the other complete presentations, and it is therefore unneces- sary to assume that it is incomplete. But Dr. Bradley believes that Covetousness is rich, and therefore ought to make restitu- tion. I find nowhere in the description of this sin in this poem any indication that he is rich. In fact, in his last line he says he will pray the Rood of Bromholm to bring him out of debt, implying that no other expiation is needed, or perhaps pos- sible. Still further, as Professor Brown points out, there is an obvious inconsistency be- tween the vow just paraphrased and the one in line 241, in which whoever is speak- ing says, "I schal seche Seynt Treuthe er I seo Rome." This inconsistency does not appear to be rightly dismissed with the statement that "it is not perceptible," as Dr. Bradley says it is not to him. It has seemed considerable to several unprejudiced persons of recognized judgment with whom I have discussed it. A vow to undertake a conventional mediaeval pilgrimage followed six lines later by a vow to undertake the highly spiritual pilgrimage to the shrine of Truth before seeing Rome — i. e., before- undertaking a conventional mediaeval pil- grimage— both indulged in by the same per- son, would appear to involve almost a con- tradiction. Dr. Bradley himself seems to wish that the second vow were not there, for he suggests that the two lines contain- ing it "may be spurious, as they seem to be an echo of vii, 93-94." This attempt to remove the inconsistency rests upon pure assumption. Lines 241-242 are attested in the critical text by all the evidence. In order to support his owa theory as op- posed to Brown's, Dr. Bradley suggests and replies to a possible argument of" Brown's. It might be contended, he says, that Robert belongs after Sloth, because the penitent thief is "the stock example of' an argument against wanhope, as resulting from sloth." But, replies Dr. Bradley to the hypothetical objection, "In the preced- ing lines nothing has been said about 'wan- hope' (i. e., despair) as a consequence of sloth." He has failed to notice that in line 225, in advising Sloth, Vigilate says, "Be- ware of wanhope, who wishes to betray thee." The hypothetical objection to the Bradley shift is therefore in full force. Dr. Bradley points out the direct incon- sistency involved in Professor Brown's pro- posed transposition of lines 236-241. There is additional, and even stronger, evidence in lines 242-243, where the poet says that Robert looked on Reddite, and, because there was not wherewith, he wept full sore. There is no doubt that lines 236-241 be- long before the confession of Robert the- Robber, and not after it. But it does not seem to me that they are therefore to be understood as being joined more closely in. sense with the end of Covetousness, rather. than with the beginning of Robert. Pro- fessor Manly, in his first article, has al- ready suggested that they are the last part' of the introduction of Robert. In what set- ting then do they probably occur? Only four of the six sins in the A version are developed in extenso. Three of these receive a direct suggestion to repentance, or even as to the form of the vow. Re- pentance urges Envy, Gluttony's wife warns him, and Vigilate, the veil, tells Sloth to say, "I am sorry for my sins," etc. It looks extremely probable therefore that some one may be doing the same thing for Robert, and may be telling him in what words to make his vow. We may tentatively go even further, and attribute lines 236-241 to a speaker named "Reddite," upon whom Robert then looks in line 242. Compare the fact that "Vigilate" and "Reddite" are both Latin imperatives. Therefore, in view of (1) our ignorance of mediaeval methods of composition, (2) the lack of necessity for supposing the ac- count of Covetousness to be incomplete, (3) the inconsistency involved in the shift, (4) the stock appropriateness of the thief's fol- lowing Sloth, and (5) the appositeness of' lines 236-241 as the last part of the intro- duction of Robert the Robber, Dr. Brad- ley's proposal is almost certainly to be re- garded as impossible.

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. None of the later discussions have at- tached true significance to the combination of two gaps in Passus v, one before line 236, and the other after line 106, with which the uncompleted confession of Envy comes to an abrupt close. In his last letter Dr. Bradley uses the break after Envy to coj- trovert Brown's contention that the poet may have intentionally omitted Wrath. In a discussion with me, Prof. W. A. Neilson has pointed to clear evidence that the poet did not intend to leave Envy impenitent, in lines v, 59-60, which begin the account of Envy: "Envy with heavy heart asked for shrift, and, full of, care, began to show his guilt." Professor Manly's theory has the advantage of accounting for both breaks on the same hypothesis, without involving any contradictory shifts of parts of the text. Furthermore, it has the added confirmation of some calculations which he and I orig- inally worked out independently, and to which I later furnished some additional ma- terial during an examination of the manu- scripts of the A version. These calculations involve the number of lines in the poem preceding the first break. Between the two breaks are 122 lines, or an average of 30% per page for four pages. If we divide the number of lines in the poem preceding the first break by 30%, will the answer bring us to the end of the second folio of a quire? For this is nec- essary in order to support our theory of the lost third and sixth folios. In the critical text of version A there are 1,026 lines before the first break. Adding five titles to passus, and six Latin lines, we get a total of 1,037 lines. In mediaeval manuscripts the writing invariably begins at the top of page 1. If v> e suppose two full quires of sixteen pages each plus four oages of a th;rd quire before our first break, the 1,037 lines will fill the thirty-six pages at 28 and 29-36ths lines per page, or 29 lines per page for 29 pages, and 28 lines per page for 7 pages. That is to say, we must accept an average or a little less than 29 lines per page for 36 pages, and then jump to an average of 30% lines for four pages. If we examine almost any middle English manuscript of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, we shall find that such a fluctuation is a common thing. For example, of manuscripts Trin- ity College, Cambridge, R. 3. 14, Harleian 6041, Trinity College, Dublin D. 4. 1, and University College, Oxford (all A-text), each exhibits occasional fluctuations of from three to five lines per page, with a steady average. Consequently, we may adduce tnis strikine piece of confirmatory evidence in favor of Professor Manly's theory: The number of lines in the poem preceding our first break fill two quires of eight folios each and the first two folios of the third quire. Then comes the first break, in- volving the loss of one folio, containing the end of Envy and all of Wrath. Then come the inside two folios containing the 122 lines between the breaks. Then we have a loss of another folio, containing, per- haps, more of Sloth, and the introduction and development of Robert the Robber. Af- ter this break we resume the continuous poem. Thomas A. Knott. University of Chicago, May 1. ENGLISH EXAMINATIONS FOR COL- LEGE. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Our academic halls must soon be overwhelmed by the annual inundation of English examinations— character sketches of Antonio and Bassanio, dissertations on the moral taught by the "Vision of Sir Laun- fal," and comparisons of "Sweet Auburn" and Camelot, of Will Wimble and Benja- min Franklin, of Brutus and the Ancient Mariner. A few dozen candidates out of thousands will discuss such topics as these intelligently, because they are Prodigies; many will misquote or misinterpret opin- ions of text-book editors and instructors, which impressed them particularly (and we all know how often it is the unessential that the pupil remembers) ; a vast majority will flounder around in a sea of facts and fancies, beginning nowhere, ending nowhere; and all this because they can not write on the kind of subject about which they have something to say. At the age when a candidate goes up for college examinations he is far more con- cerned with the living world about him than with the world of books. He can tell you all about what he has heard, or seen, or done, and often tell it very well. He can write vividly and enthusiastically of a school contest, a cruise, a hunting trip, a quaint foreign city he has visited, perhaps of State or national politics. To him the old fisherman he met on the Maine coast last summer is infinitely more vital than Dr. Primrose; and the chances are he can write about the former much more skilfully than about the latter. Yet seldom in a college examination does he have opportunity to tell of what he has himself observed. He is required to write a character sketch, or a criticism of style, or an abstract of a plot, or to describe a scene in a novel. His facts are all second-hand ; and a story about a story, or a description of a description, is rather distantly removed from real life. It is because a candidate is so seldom allowed to write on the sort of subject which he can treat best that to some the entrance examinations may appear to do the greatest injustice to the greatest num- ber. We drill our pupils in narration, de- scription, exposition, and argument; we as- sist them to do original work, to think and observe for themselves, as ihey will always have to do. We teach them that the prin- ciples of composition have a direct, practi- cal bearing on every line they write throughout their lives, in business letters, or essays, or what not; that the real purpose of all their practice is to acquire the power of stating effectively whatever they may wish to say of their daily observations and experiences. And we try to train them ac- cordingly. But the examination says: "Don't tell a story which you really know something about from experience ; don't even tell a story of your own age and gen- eration; but narrate briefly a long narra- tive of Tennyson's about some people who lived, or very likely did not live, about four- teen centuries ago. Don't describe anything you ever saw; but, instead, describe Scott's description of the storming of a castle in a country which you perhaps never visited, and in a period seven hundred years before you were born. To show what you can do in exposition, in an hour's time sift your thoughts, analyze the situation, group your facts, and write a treatise on the differences between life in Camelot at the time of King Arthur and in London at the time of Queen Anne. (Oh, for the inspiration of a Mark Twain and a John Richard Green!) Write c careful analvsis of the character of Lady Macbeth, or Shylock, or Brutus. To be sure, great thinkers have given to the world their opinions of these characters, slowly evolved from long and painstaking study. We allow you one-half hour. What do you think of Poe's style? It is assumed, of course, that you are a competent literary critic." In some such light the examination must appeal to the poor candidate, who has no choice but to struggle with such questions, and pass in his paper as a specimen of the very best writing he can do; and all the time he knows he could do vastly better if he were only given a chance to write on topics within his grasp. But there is no way out of it; that paper, which so misrep- resents his real powers, which almost inev- itably represents his worst, helps decide whether or not he enters college. A careful inspection of entrance exami- nations in English for several years past reveals a large proportion of questions de- manding criticism and analysis of char- acter. Now, intelligent criticism or analy- sis of persons and situations is a pretty sure sign of maturity. And yet a candi- date fresh from a secondary school is ex- pected to show an insight into character and a judgment of persons and things which comparatively few older people pos- sess. Not only does the average examina- tion seem unfair to the candidate in that it gives him little opportunity to ex- hibit his best work; but also, it is in defiance of a cardinal reason for thorough instruction in English composition. I sup- pose, there is no higher aim in the teach- ing of English composition than that stat- ed by President Eliot, as one of the main processes or operations of mind which sys- tematic education should develop in the individual, namely, "the function of mak- ing a correct record of things observed." The usual examination question does not encourage or allow a statement of things observed by the candidate, except indi- rectly, through the eyes or minds of oth- ers. Rather, it encourages or requires him to state what Scott, or Dickens, or Shake- speare observed, or, parrot-like, to repeat scraps of what some critic observed in Scott, or Dickens, or Shakespeare. Not that the college entrance examina- tions would be better, if all questions on reading were omitted; far from it. A part of the examination should test the candi- date's knowledge of literature, and litera- ture should become as much a portion of the pupil's life as possible. But this part of the examination should be primarily a test in literature. A part should be de- voted wholly to a test in composition; on subjects, too, which involve careful obser- vation and which reflect the life and expe- riences of the writer. Many a boy who cannot give an effective picture of Tor- quilstone Castle can write a most vivid description of his home town. The ob- jection may be made that it would be dif- ficult to make out questions for such a test; that they would either not be broad enough to include all candidates, or so broad as to permit the use of composi-

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484r The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 tions previously written with care and memorized. But by allowing a choice of several questions, as at present, and by a little ingenuity in framing them, these dif- ficulties would be easily overcome. Harvard has already taken steps in the direction of allowing a candidate to write on subjects outside his reading in English classics. In recent Harvard entrance pa- pers, beside the usual type of question on books read, are optional questions on school sports, science, popular govern- ment, and history; and in an examination for anticipating freshman English appears the topic for composition, "Describe the most interesting house you know." It is to be hoped that this is only the begin- ning of a movement to test candidates not so much on what somebody else said about something as on what they themselves have to say. George Bancroft Fernald. St. Mark's School, Southborough, Mass., May 3. THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN. To the Elitor of The Nation: Sir: Your readers may perhaps form a more intelligent judgment upon the ques- tion how Latin should be pronounced in schools and colleges, if they bear in mind that the same studies that are pur- sued by some students with a view of be- coming specialists and experts are taken up by others for the sake of intellec- tual discipline, or merely in order to ac- quire serviceable information. All will agree that a student who has only a lim- ited time to spend upon a subject, and who, accordingly, can at best acquire only a superficial acquaintance with it, should take it up in the way that will enable him best. to profit by his study. Thus while the classical scholar must make him- self familiar with all the peculiarities of all the dialects, and with both customary and exceptional usages, men in pursuit only of a good general education had bet- ter move along the lines that will most promptly bring them to some acquaintance with the thought of the ancients and with the literature in which it is expressed. The scientific advantages promised by the Roman pronunciation the English pro- nunciation necessarily foregoes. But al- though the English mode, like that of most modern languages, is full of inconsisten- cies and irregularities, it conforms to the received pronunciation of the Latin words and phrases that form so conspicuous a feature in English speech and literature. These include the many familiar quotations in common use and the technical language of the law courts, hardly less current, as well as the hundreds of proper names of persons, towns, countries, rivers, and moun- tains. Even Greek names are spelled and pronounced, in good society, in spite of Mr. Grote and his somewhat pedantic fol- lowers, as if they were Latin. This pro- nunciation conforms also, in the main, to that of the very large number of English words, constituting from a quarter to a half of the language, that are derived di- rectly from Latin, and to that of our sci- entific nomenclature, in which even the words that are manufactured immediately from Greek materials are regularly re- garded as having come into English through Latin, and, like the classical proper names just mentioned, are made to conform, however arbitrarily, to a Latin spelling and an English pronunciation. Under these circumstances it would seem as if it might be wise to adhere to the traditional pronunciation with elementary classes. The students, comprising a ma- jority of the men and women in both schools and colleges, who take up Latin, as they do algebra or astronomy, because they regard a subject of so much historical im- portance as an essential element in a liber- al education, are content with moderate attainments. It would seem unnecessary to force upon them an exotic orthoepy which they do not need, and which may prove, as it has often been found, a real hindrance. The more historically accurate and strict- ly scientific "Roman" manner of speaking might be reserved for the smaller number who are minded to take up advanced Latin. At that stage of progress, they would quickly and easily acquire it. In these days of electives, the choice of studies, in schools as in colleges, lies mainly with the students, and the more that is done to remove obstacles, the more students will be attracted to these humani- ties, and civilization leavened by their spirit. W. R. W. Milton, Mass., May 1. JOHN COTTON'S INFLUENCE ON VANE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In a letter in the Nation of April 8 upon John Cotton and Sir Henry Vane, Dr. Henry M. King takes exception to a statement of mine in a paper on John Cot- ton read before the Massachusetts Histor- ical Society, to the effect that Vane was influenced by Cotton's views of church government — what was. known as "the New England way." I observed that the in- fluence of those ideas upon Vane and the men of Cromwell's army is brought out in such books as Borgeaud's "Rise of Modern Democracy in Old and New England." Dr. King says that Borgeaud makes no allu- sion to any influence of Cotton on Vane. It is true that he does not specifically name Vane among the English independents influenced by the New England views of church government, as he does not men- tion the men of Cromwell's army specifi- cally influenced by John Cotton. But he devotes half a dozen pages (pp. 82-88) to the- influence altogether of "the New Eng- land way" in shaping the new indepen- dent party in England, in which Vane was prominent, singling out John Cotton and Thomas Hooker for special mention in tracing this influence. The fact of the influence is indisputable; and Cotton was indisputably the most conspicuous and in- fluential exponent of "the New England way," viz., independency. It was as "the New England way" that independency was constantly referred to in England in the period when "the agreement of the people" came into being. J. Wingate Thornton, in his "Historical Relation of New England to the English Commonwealth," says with entire warrant: The polity of the strong men, Goodwin, Owen, Peters, Vane, Milton, Cromwell, and their fellows, to whom under God was con- fided the immediate future of England, was moulded in the freer life and thought ot New England, by their correspondents and fellow workers, Cotton, Williams, and their fellows. This was brought out much more fully, though not more clearly, by Hosmer, in his "Life of Sir Henry Vane," than by Bor- geaud; and in his pages (164-170) those who are interested can study more carefully the reasons for viewing Vane as "a principal channel" of the influence of New England independency to England, and for Thorn- ton's judgment that it was "in Cotton's study" that Vane was trained in the cardi- nal principles of independency. When he came to Boston to live with John Cotton, he was not an independent, and when he went back to England he was. The infer- ence would seem to be simple. "Preceptor" of Vane — viz., preceptor in "the New Eng- land way" — the term applied to Cotton by Mr. Adams in his inscription on the Cot- ton monument, is certainly warranted; as it is also certain that the learner advanced far beyond the teacher. With Mr. King's observations upon the relative merits and influence of Cotton and Vane as concerns toleration, I should not be disposed to take issue; but that subject was not with me under discussion. Edwin D. Mead. Philadelphia, April 28. THE POETS OF YALE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: It would be interesting to know when was made the remark with which you say in your issue of April 29 that Theodore D. Woolsey is credited, "that Francis Miles Finch, author of 'The Blue and the Gray' was the only poet that Yale ever produced." Woolsey could hardly have said so in the later sixties, for by then Stedman had become recognized and so had Sill and Weeks. Perhaps Woolsey did not last long enough to know "Ye Lay of Ye Woodpeckore," and of course he did not know the poems of another living Yalen- sian, of the class of 1890, whose work is arousing much hopeful expectation. A statement as to Yale or any other uni- versity "producing" poets, "must give us pause." If Woolsey wanted to say that so far as the atmosphere of Yale was in- fluenced by the corporation and faculty of his time, it was not favorable to the pro- duction of poets, many who knew it well wou'.d not be apt to differ with him. Sted- man and Sill were both requested by the faculty to remove themselves from the at- mosphere, though Sill was allowed to come back. Weeks's relations with the powers were little, if any, more congenial than those of the other poets. Stedman and Sill both survived to happier days, but I be- lieve that neither of them was ever in- vited to the faculty of Yale, despite the fact that Sill's influence at the University of California was perhaps the most in- spiring educational influence of the time, and is vibrating still. About the same time, Noah Porter was elected to succeed Woolsey, and Gilman was left at the University of California until the Johns Hopkins trustees gave him the recognition for which those of his own alma mater were too blind. A Survivor. New York, May 1. [The remark attributed to the late Presi- dent Woolsey apropos of F. M. Finch was printed in the Ithaca Journal and the Cor- nell Alumni Press, in a note announcing

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. 485 the poems. The responsible author of that note is an old member of the Cornell faculty and a friend of Judge Finch, who has known about the remark "for thirty years," but cannot recall exactly when and where it was made. It might therefore be considered as an oral tradition among the old friends and colleagues of Judge Finch at Cornell. Perhaps the query of "Survivor" will bring more definite infor- mation.— The Reviewer.] BUDDING GENIUS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: What greater reward has the teach- er of English than to discover in some one of his students unmistakable signs of bud- ding genius? Such reward was mine this mornine: after class, when I found scribbled on the back of a freshman theme the fol- lowing soul-effusion, evidently composed under the inspiration of my lecture on "Means of Securing Variety in Sentence Structure" : On heart and soul grave deep and fast This splash sublime, Whose memoried radiance shall outlast The doom of time: And through eternities unseen For light suffice — Because there may not be this green In Paradise. I think that is pretty good for a fresh- man. Addison Macauday Scraggs. Pisgah College, May 3. P. S. A colleague suggests that the stanzas may have been copied. He thinks he recalls having seen "This splash sub- lime," or something like it, In one of the May magazines. But that is absurd. A. M. S. MASTER CARDELIUS. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I am pained indeed to find from your issue of May 6 that the only per- son who cared enough for the memory of the master (for such he is to me) Car- delius to answer the inquiry concerning him, has fallen so grievously into error, and has apparently endeavored to enliven his reply with quips which in their content show the lack of respect and appreciation So lamentably common in these later days. Master Joachim Cardelius flourished, to be sure, in the sixteenth century, but he was neither a native of Franconia nor the son of a physician. Frankenau — the native place of Master Joachim — does not become Franconia by translation or translitera- tion, however much the prejudice of a New Hampshire or French Canadian bring- ing-up may have impelled your informant so to think. Moreover, his father, far from being a physician, was the village barber. It is generally known, of course, that the gentlemen of this profession, now so sadly lowered, combined in the period of Master Joachim surgery of the flesh with regulation and adornment of the skin. The allusion to bleeding — the commonest form of medicinal practice then — may have well led to confusion in reading the pass- age hastily in Zedter, "Gross. Vollstand. Universal Lexikon" (Halle, 1702 and ff.), from whichyourcorrespondentseems tohave compiled his information. This source of information, I may add, is notoriously incorrect. A supplement to it was planned, for which a further and more faithful ac- count of Master Joachim had been written by his disciple Andreas Keinmensch. This supplement, however, ceased publication with the volume ending at Caq, and the learned world has been since left at the mercy of the errors in the earlier edition of Zedter. Keinmensch's manuscript, how- ever, still exists in the archives of his na- tive town, Rothenstein; and it is devoutly to be hoped that your correspondent or some one else may translate it in full or at least make public more of it than I possess in the transcript made by me some forty years past. It is not within my strength nor within my rights to claim further space in these columns to devote to more detailed criticism of your correspon- dent's information, but I cannot close without a word in reference to the absurd statement that Master Joachim wrote a treatise upon garlic. To one who admires and reveres the mental and physical personalities of northern Europeans, a man who devoted himself to such a subject could be little less than anathema, and a pestilent pedant. The word which has been translated as garlic should be ren- dered as sorrel — common or garden sorrel— a herb now much neglected for its savor, but formally highlyesteemedand much used. Harmon Karl. Detroit, Mich., May 8. Notes. At an early date we are to have from the Harpers a book of dramatic verse, by William Dean Howells. It is called "The Mother and the Father." Houghton Mifflin Co. has just completed its Warwickshire edition of the com- plete works of George Eliot, consisting of 25 volumes, illustrated with 169 full-page photogravure pictures from photographs and drawings. Besides the novels, this edition includes George Eliot's Essays and the two-volume biography by Cross. Sir Harry Johnston has arranged with Methuen & Co. to publish a volume on "The Negro in the New World." The work, some chapters of which have already ap- appeared in the London Times, is the result of the author's recent journeys in the United States, West Indies, and Tropical America. Mrs. Piozzi, whose marriage to the Ital- ian singer raised such a tempest in the circle of Dr. Johnson and Fanny Burney, is to have a monument in Tremeirchion Church, where she was buried in 1821. This memorial is due to O. B. Fellowes, whose grandfather was her executor. For the general reader, there is no bet- ter book on the subject than "The Pan- ama Canal, and Its Makers," by Vaughan Cornish (Little, Brown & Co.), not merely because it is the most recent, but be- cause it is the work of a British geog- rapher, who has taken the pains to get the most authoritative information, to supplement and vivify it by personal observations, and to put it into a clear and compact form. The diplomatic his- tory of the enterprise, the rival plans and engineering difficulties, the success in sanitation, the labor question, and the commercial possibilities are all briefly and competently discussed, without the sensationalism and bias that vitiate much of the current literature of the subject. Mr. Cornish is naturally most interested in the geographical aspects of the canal, especially its effects on trade routes and the civilization of the tropics. He em- phasizes the fact that "the Panama Canal will not bring any port in Australia or the East Indies, nor any ice-free port in Asia or Asiatic Islands, nearer to any Euro- pean port." But since the United States is not able to compete in international commerce, owing to the expense of con- structing and operating American tteam- ships. he thinks there are some grounds for the' opinion that the canal is being built with American money for the use of Europe and Japan. He finds the Amer- ican women on the Isthmus looking hap- py though somewhat bored, and the chil- dren, on account of their open-air life, seeming to thrive better than in the cities of the United States. He concludes that modern sanitary science has opened the tropics to the permanent occupation of the white man even as a laborer, but thinks that the Mediterranean races will be superior to the Anglo-Saxon for trop- ical colonization. A volume on "The Christian Minister and his Duties" (imported by Charles Scribner's Sons) bears on its title page the name of the Rev. J. Oswald Dykes, one of the most honored Presbyterian divines of England, now principal emeritus of Westminster Col- lege, Cambridge. For fifty years Principal Dykes has served honorably in the pastoral office, and for twenty years he was a suc- cessful teacher of homiletics and practical theology. His lectures on the usual themes of that department of ministerial education are distinguished by sanity of view and force of utterance, with especial attention to historical treatment. One notes a wise perspective in his counsels, the result of sympathetic and wide study of many forms and ages of Christian activity. Particular attention is paid to the principles and methods of the conduct of public worship in non-liturgical churches. A bird's-eye view of the present en- deavors of Protestant missionaries and missionary organizations is afforded by Edwin Munsell Bliss's "The Missionary Enterprise" (Fleming H. Revell Co.). Af- ter a brief history of early Christian and mediaeval missions, and the first attempts of the Roman Catholics and Protestants, the rapid development of the modern mis- sionary movement in its various phases is traced with care, and the extension of Christianity in the chief missionary fields is outlined. The failing of most concise sketches of this sort is too great abun- dance of detail, owing to the tempta- tion to omit nothing which has a claim to importance. Dr. Bliss has been a life-long student of his subject, and is a trained writer and observer. His skill is exhibited in this volume, in which the large facts and salient principles are brought to due prominence, notwithstanding the extent of field and fact which he covers. His volume will serve to spread intelligence as to the ambitions and purposes which underlie the efforts of the more statesmanlike propo- gandists of the faith, and the substantial

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486 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 and permanent results which missionary effort is assuredly accomplishing. A sincere and gracious tenderness at- tached to all words and deeds of the lato Charles Cuthbert Hall, president of the Union Theological Seminary, and one finds this gentleness in appropriate setting in the posthumous volume of sermons to chil- dren, "The Silver Cup" (Houghton Mif- flin Co.). The discourses appear to have been spoken when Dr. Hall was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn at special afternoon services for children and youth. The book is prefaced by four stanzas of a hymn "Levavi Oculos," which might well find a place In a hymnal for children. The same spirit attended Presi- dent Hall's second series of Barrows Lec- tures on the Haskell foundation of the Uni- versity of Chicago, now published under the title, "Christ and the Eastern Soul" (The University of Chicago Press). With rare tactfulness and grace Dr. Hall undertook to discover "elements of sublimity in the Oriental consciousness"; and while main- taining "the distinctive moral grandeur of the Christian religion," he sought to demonstrate to his Eastern hearers that it is their privilege not only to accept Christianity, but also to aid the West in understanding and realizing it, in a manner in which it has not yet been appreciated or comprehended. He says: The Oriental consciousness has the gifts that the world needs to offset its strenuous externalism and guide it back to the secret place of the Most High. The Contemplative Life, the Presence of the Unseen, the Aspir- ation for Ultimate Being, Reverence for the Sanctions of the Past, are the four gospels with which a Christian East may reevange- lize the West; giving it back the spirit of the first days; cooperating with it to lead the world out of its confusion, grossness, and sin, into the peace and purity of Jesus Christ. A new text-book on methods of pulpit discourse is "The Preacher: His Person, Message, and Method," by Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt of Auburn Theological Seminary (The Macmillan Co.). Dr. Hoyt's counsels are discreet, if not brilliant. His ideals ap- pear in the following sentences: Over against a sensational pulpit, with its worldly standards of immediate and tabu- lated results, is placed a spiritual service tested by spiritual measures and motives. Above the superficial sway of eloquence is exalted an instructive pulpit that comes from the growing knowledge of the Gospel and of life, and results in a stable, bal- anced, and comprehensive Christianity. For nearly a hundred and fifty years the Brick Presbyterian Church has occupied a position of commanding influence in the re- ligious life of the city of New York. The founders of the old church on Beekman Stroet included representatives of the most substantial families of the colonial city, and from that time to the present the Brick Church .has held the allegiance of many of New Yoik's most wortfiy men and women. It has been fortunate in its clergymen. While, perhaps, one would not go to its roll of pastors for the most brilliant pulpit orators, there is not to be found there, with, perhaps, one exception, the name of a single man who has not exerted deep in- fluence upon many individuals. The history of the church, therefore, has an interest far beyond the circle of those who are per- sonally concerned in it. It has been well told, with evident sympathy and personal loyalty, in a dignified volume of over five hundred pages, by the Rev. Shepherd Knapp, for some years one of the assistant min- isters, "A History of the Brick Presby- terian Church in the City of New York" (New York: Published by the trustees of the Brick Presbyterian Church). The for- tunes of the Church of the Covenant, inti- mately connected with those of the Brick Church, are narrated, and, of course, the work in this city of the Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke and Dr. Maltbie D. Babcock. According to the natural prompting of our local circumstances, the work in an- thropology in our country has been mainly done by investigators who were more in- terested in Arizona than in Hellas, in the Zuni than in early Minoan culture. The Committee for Anthropology in the Uni- versity of Oxford has attempted, on the other hand, to rouse interest in their subject by attacking it from the classical point of view. "Anthropology and the Classics" (Henry Frowde) contains six lectures delivered before the University by as many men of distinctly classical learn- ing. Arthur J. Evans describes the dif- fusion of pictography throughout Europe; Andrew Lang, the anthropological elements in Homer; Gilbert Murray, certain of these elements in the non-Homeric epic tradi- tion; F. B. Jevons summarizes many points concerning Graeco-Italian magic in ancient times; J. L. Myres treats of anthropologi- cal details and views in Herodotus; and W. Warde Fowler discusses the ritual of lustratio. The lecture by Mr. Myres is by far the most philosophical of all in its method, and especially in this year of Dar- win celebrations it might open the eyes of our present-day scientists to read Mr. Myres's account of the existence in the early Greek philosophy of a theory of the distinct biological evolution of man from a lower type of animal life. The other lectures of the series are more pictur- esquely objective. It "is amusing to no- tice that this consultation of doctors could not pass without professional disagree- ment, Dr. Lang scoffing with wonted light gayety at the theory of a "Bowdlerized" Homeric tradition of manners and morals, and insisting that the Iliad and the Odyssey are "prehistoric, the flowers of a brief age of Achaean civilization, an age when the society of princes and ladies had a taste •extraordinarily pure and noble," while Dr. Murray thereafter patiently reaffirms his doctrine of expurgation. We should like to believe with Mr. Lang in all the roman- tically white purity and high courtesies of his early Achaean- troubadour courts, but it is hard to do so. Classical scholars will be interested to note that Mr. Warde Fowler has surrendered the belief, set forth in his "Roman Festivals," that the running of the Roman Luperci around the pomerium on each fifteenth of February was a true lustratio urbis. TheVersammlung deutscherPhilologen und Schulmanner holds its fiftieth ("jubilee") meeting at the University of Graz (Aus- tria), September 28-October 1, 1909. The association is, however, older than the num- ber of its approaching session might ap- pear to imply, for during recent years it has met biennially instead of annually. In recognition of this fiftieth meeting, it is proposed to form a fund by voluntary contributions, the income of which is to be used in the furtherance of classical and archasological research in such ways as the association may determine at its September meeting. It is thought that Germans resi- dent in America, and Americans who as student have enjoyed the hospitality of German universities, may be glad to share in this undertaking. Contributions may be sent to Prof. Elmer Truesdell Merrill, at the University of Chicago, who will for- ward the amounts and the names of don- ors to the committee of the association. Two more volumes are needed to com- plete the new sixth edition of "Meyer* Grosses Konversationslexikon." The eigh- teenth volume, Schoneberg—Sternbcdeckung, which has just reached us, shows that in- creasing emphasis is being laid on indus- trial and technical topics, always a strong feature in this work. There are long ar- ticles on the sulphur and soda indus- tries, sixteen pages on stenography, a full account of typewriting machines, and a sur- vey of the most important street railway systems of Europe and the United States. Under this heading we find New York city- described as a Grosstadt of four and a half million inhabitants counting in "the sub- urbs Brooklyn, Jersey City, Hoboken, etc." Brooklyn, of course, holds to New York by closer tfes than the cities across the Hudson, whose people do not count in the four and a half millions. Under "Staten Island," we are told of Fort "Wadson," presumably Wadsworth. The volume is ex- ceptionally rich in colored plates, of which two go with Protective Coloration (Schutz- einrichtungen). The history of Sweden is brought down to 1908. Karl Knortz, the German-American edu- cator, who by numerous books and pam- phlets has interpreted American writers to Germany, is the author of a little book, "Der Pessimismus in der amerikanischen Literatur" (Vienna: Lumen Verlag). Interest in Jean Paul produces at in- tervals some new interpretation of his per- sonality and work. The latest attempt in German is "Jean Pauls JEsthetik," by Dr. Eduard Berend. It is a book of nearly 300 pages in Dr. Franz Muncker's series, Forschungen zur neueren Literaturge- schichte (Berlin: Alexander Duncker). Among the many replies provoked by Prof. Ernst Haeckel's "Weltratsel" and the propaganda of religious monism, one of the most interesting is the recent work of J. Hauri, "Die Weltratsel und ihre Losung" (Berlin: C. Skopnik). The book consists of a series of semi-popular lectures, following closely the topics discussed by Haeckel. Hauri develops a Weltanschauung from the point of view of a Christian idealism. The work will be of service in acquainting the reader with the leading philosophical and religious problems of the times. Whoever has tried to wade through the 1,600 pages of letters and memoranda at- tributed to the wife of Schiller, and edited by E. Urlichs, at Stuttgart, 1860-65, will appreciate the service just rendered by Ludwig Geiger in selecting only the most important of these documents and pub- lishing them (Berlin: Hans Bondy), in one handy volume, entitled "Charlotte von Schiller und ihre Freunde." Geiger has taken only the most readable material and arranged it to illustrate Charlotte's youth and married life, Schiller's death, Goethe, and Charlotte's widowhood ; and he has add-

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May 13, 1909] The Nation 487 ed literary notes. There is a lengthy in- troduction giving a vivid and sympathetic sketch of Charlotte and her famous hus- band at Weimar, and a good index. "Kultnr und Erziehung: Vermischte Be- tractungen," by YVilhelm Minch (Munich: C. H. Reck'sche Veiiagsbuchhandlung), is a volume of essays by the author of an earlier collection of "Vermisohte Auf- satze." Herr Minch raises questions of in- terest to English and American, as well as to German, schoolmasters. He discusses the value of travel, points out the differ- ence between knowledge and education, and the changes in aducational ideals. The fault that he finds with the more cele- brated schools of England is that they serve fait a limited number, and that their courses hold too closely to the civiliza- tion of the Greeks, the Romans, an Dr. Waite was or- dained a minister in the Congregational Church. Civics occupied much of his at- tention, and while editing the American Magazine of Civics he lectured frequently on the subject. He also occupied places on the directorates of many financial con- cerns. Dr. Benjamin Bausman, one of the moot widely known ministers of the Reformed Church in the United States, who was pas- tor of St. Paul's Reformed Church of New York, died May 8, at the age of eighty-five. Dr. Bausman was a trustee of Franklin and Marshall College; was president of the board of managers of Bethany Orphans' Home, and for many years edited various Reformed Church papers. His published works include "Sinai and Zion" (1860), "Wayside Gleanings in Europe" (1878), "Bible Characters" (1893), and "Precept and Practice" (1901). The death is reported in his seventy- fifth year of Dr. Marcus Dods, principal of the United Free Church College, Edin- burgh, since 1907. He contributed articles on religious subjects to "The Encyclopae- dia Britannica" and to various periodicals. His works include: "The Prayer that Teaches to Pray," "The Epistles to the Seven Churches," "Israel's Iron Age," "Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ," "Hand- book on Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi." "Isaac, Jacoto and Joseph," "Handbook on Genesis," "Commentary on Thessalo- nians, "Parables of Our Lord," "Why be Religious?" "How to Become like Christ," and "The Bible, Its Origin and Nature." IRELAND AND THE COLONIES UN- DER THE STUARTS. Ireland Under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum. By Richard Bag- well. 2 vols. New York: Longmans, Green, & Co. $10.50. After three hundred years of contro- versy, the history of Ireland, especially during the sixteenth and seventeentn centuries, has begun to come to its own in the hands of scientific historians. It is a result for which we may well be thankful. Stripped of passion and preju- dice, the account of the English con- quest and colonization is one of the most important and instructive in the modern field. Interesting in itself, it has additional interest in that it is a part of the history of England, and is related to the history of America, it is a grim and terrible story which, more than twenty-five years ago, Mr. Bagwell set himself to tell. In three earlier volumes, "Ireland Under the Tudors " (1885-1890), he recounted the beginnings of the English occupation, and carried the narrative through the reign of Elizabeth. In the present work, he takes up two more chapters, the ex- ploitation under James I and Charles I, the rebellion and subjugation of the Irish under Charles I and Cromwell, ending with the Restoration. Only by plantation did the English conceive that, after the rebellion of the earls, they could make a "civil peo- ple" of their subjects, and secure the substantial fruits of their occupation. During the first half of the seventeenth century, in consequence, that process went on beside the plantation of Amer- ica, and, with allowance for differing conditions, by not dissimilar means, un- til the troubles at home interrupted the movement. Then came the reaping of the whirlwind in the rebellion of 1641, and the long, cruel, and confused con- test, which ran parallel with the civil wars in England. Affected strongly oy them, and influencing English affairs no less powerfully in turn, the Irish strug- gle threatened, at times, to wrest con- trol of the island from King and Par- liament alike. Complicated as affairs were by an almost incomprehensible confusion of interests, royal, parlia- mentary, native Irish and settler, Pa- pal and Continental, not until the stern discipline of parliamentary forces found foothold in Ireland did order begin to emerge from chaos. The policy of Thorough may have been the only so- lution of the difficulty, but it was en- forced at a great price. Before those parliamentary columns, the Irish con- federacy, the gallantry of Ormond, and the silent courage of O'Neill, the dis- united opposition of lesser chiefs, the resistance of the cities, the guerrilla ac- tivities of the broken bands, one by one were beaten down. From Dublin around the coast to Galway, the Cromwellians- slowly and irresistibly crushed out all opposition and completed the conquest of the island beyond all power of the natives to throw it off. It was the tri- umph of organization and union over their opposites, the victory of a nation- over tribes, of an early modern civili- zation over one still largely early mediaeval. Thereafter came the ex- pulsion of those who had taken, part in the rebellion, from the lands east of the Shannon, and the entry of the Commonwealth adventurers to take their place beside the older Englisn and Scotch settlers. In that fifty years, the line of English landlordism was pushed across the isl- and, and the foundations of modern; Irish conditions and History, and no lit- tle English history and politics beside, laid in conquest and confiscation. This is the tale that fills these pages. There is scarcely any similar period or movement which has been the sub- ject of more bitter controversy and recrimination. The English conquest of Ireland was, in many ways, not unlike the Norman conquest of Great Brit- ain five centuries earlier. It differs, of

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488 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2289 course, in details, and in the large matter of transplanting the conquered landholders. But it differs still more in that it took place in the brighter light of modern times, and in that the de- feated race, numerous, able, aggressive, and largely irreconcilable, still resents and resists. Had the English been Cath- olics, or the Irish Protestants, politi- cal, social, and economic antagonisms might not have been embittered be- yond compromise. Had the tribal chiefs been more enlightened and less selfish, they might have made more effectual resistance. Had the people been less loyal to their leaders, the wnole issue might have been otherwise. Yet to state the condition is merely to sum up the result. Divided from England as Ireland is by the sea and by so many causes of •dispute, reconciliation, much less assim- ilation, seems as distant as ever. Here, then, is delicate ground not merely for the politician, but for the historian, and no one realizes this more keenly than Mr. Bagwell himself. "No party," he says truly in his preface, ■"will be pleased with the present work." Yet in those words lies the book's great- est value. With what may be called the moral issues, the adjudication of right and wrong, which to so many means merely rights and wrongs, with the dis- tribution of praise and blame, he has little concern. In so far as possible he lias allowed the actors to reveal them- «elves in their own words and deeds, himself refraining from controversy, al- most from comment. He adduces the evidence. Whatever judgments the reader passes must be his own, what- ever quarrel he has must be with the facts. There are no purple patches in the narrative, however many there may be in the deeds recorded. The story is restrained often almost to the imperson- al colorlessness of a chronicle. The ac- count is developed by piling detail on detail. In the main, this is enough to give interest and direction. In the case of Wentworth's government, for in- stance, the result is vivid and convinc- ing. But in the confusion of the later wars one sometimes longs for more guidance. The critical apparatus is full, and, since a large part of the material upon which Mr. Bagwell's study is based is to be found in print, or in easily accessi- ble manuscripts, one may, without great difficulty, test the accuracy of his state- ments. In the most d'sputed part of his period, that of the Rebellion of 1641, he follows and amplifies Miss Hickson's work, as against its assailants, like Mr. Dunlop. In short, it can no longer be said with truth that there is no ade- quate and scholarly history of Ireland during this period. One may regret the absence of certain maps which would be useful to the reader, and the inade- quacies of the indexes; one may note certain obscurities or omissions in the text; one may wonder at the lack of reference to the work of Continental scholars; yet, when all is said, Mr. Bag- well has enriched the history of Ireland and historical literature generally, and one may well echo his expressed hope that he may be spared to finish his study of the final settlement between the Restoration and Revolution. Acts of the Privy Council of England. Colonial Series. Vol. I; 1613-1680. Edited by W. L. Grant and James Munro, under the general supervision of Almeric W. FitzRoy, Clerk of the Privy Council. London: Wyman & Sons. Among the publications of the Brit- ish government few are likely to be of greater importance for colonial history than the projected series of "Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial," the first vol- ume of which is now issued. When com- pleted, in five volumes, bringing the sub- ject to 1783, the work will take its place beside the Calendars of State Papers and Reports of the Historical Manu- scripts Commission as an essential part of the student's equipment. It will not furnish any great amount of new in- formation regarding the internal his- tory of the colonies, but it will give a point of view and a survey of policy that have never before been attained. During our colonial history executive control was in the hands of the King, his ministers, and advisers. The nature of this control can be learned only from the records of the organs that exer- cised it, viz., the Privy Council, the Sec- retaries of State, the Commissioners of the Treasury, and the Commissioners of the Admiralty. Though it might have seemed desirable in the past to know something of these organs and their work, the fact remains that such knowl- edge has not been possessed by those who have written on colonial history. This neglect may be attributed in part to indifference and in part to the fact that the material has been remote and ^0 a certain extent inaccessible, much of it lying intermixed with other data, partly or wholly irrelevant. The Calendar of the Acts of the Privy Council, edited by Mr. Dasent, closes with 1603, and the British government has decided not to continue it. We are indebted to Mr. FitzRoy for the plan of carrying on the work along colonial lines. Knowing that the records of his office after 1603 were more important for colonial than for domestic or for- eign affairs, he obtained the consent of the Treasury to issue a series of vol- umes containing pertinent portions of the Register. Since the Treasury was unwilling to meet more than the ex- penses of printing and binding, the cost of transcribing and editing had to be defrayed through public and private agencies in England, Scotland, Canada, I and America. Thus the work has some- what the character of an international undertaking. The labor involved may be inferred from the fact that the orig- inal Privy Council Register for the years 1613 to 1783 consists of a hundred large folio volumes, often difficult to handle even with an index. A scrutiny of this first volume leaves a favorable impression of the scope and variety of the work of the Council, and of the amount of time devoted by men of distinction to the difficult task of solving colonial problems. Even Charles II, usually characterized as in- dolent and prone to shirk business, ap- pears in a new light. He was unfailing in attendance and deeply interested in these affairs. Though there are no en- tries here that show the part he took in discussion, yet the fact that he correct- ed with his own hand letters sent to the Governors would indicate that he was more than a passive listener. The King and his Councillors had but one idea before them: to promote the welfare of all colonial and commer- cial undertakings. They encouraged set- tlement, watched the growth of the plantations, and sought to stimulate the production of whatever would be of value to colonies and mother country alike. They settled disputes, adjudicat- ed private claims, and gave relief. Throughout the period here covered the Councillors invariably acted as honor- able men, always hearing fairly and justly both sides of a case, consulting outside boards and individuals, and finding in the end the best remedy that they could. That they were influenced by the accepted doctrines of the period, in controlling colonial industry and commerce and placing definite restric- tions upon freedom of movement and trade, is no cause for criticism. They were but adopting a policy advocated by all statesmen of the time and deem- ed fundamentally important in view of the intense commercial rivalry existing among the maritime states of Europe. England and its incorporated compa- nies must be protected against aliens and private traders, colonial products must be brought to the mother country, and the oaths of allegiance and suprem- acy must be taken. Yet, where possi- ble, rules were relaxed and exceptions made in the interest of colonial trade and the plantations, and in not a few in- stances the Council deemed colonial welfare of greater consequence than the welfare of the people at home. Even the, principles of the Navigation Acts, which can be studied here in their de- velopment, were certainly not in the be- ginning antagonistic to colonial pros- perity, and the acts themselves are seen to be rather a culmination than a cause. From the point of view of modern trade conditions we may feel inclined to find fault with some of the premises, but from the point of view of the seven- teenth century the Englishman would

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. 489 have had the better of the argument. He was working to make England, and not the colonies, independent, and as far as that end was sought he was amply jus- tified in the results. In two or three years all the data will be in the hands of students. We may not anticipate the final judgment, but we believe that the printing of these records will distinctly enhance the repu- tation of the Council as a governing body for the colonies. CURRENT FICTION. The Inner Shrine. New York: Harper & Bros. Anonymity is a card which may be played with considerable effect by the modern editor or publisher, since our present habit of publicity insures against its being played too often. As a serial in Harper's, "The Inner Shrine" has reaped a harvest of curiosity somewhat out of proportion to the actual merit of the performance. "Who wrote it?" is a question of such burning importance to us that we incline to lose sight of the comparatively tame question, "What does it amount to?" It must be said that the commercial or editorial sponsor commonly does what he can to encour- age us in this weakness: he is but hu- man, and he likes his commodities to "go." For example, Harper & Bros, have taken the trouble to affix to ad- vance copies of the present novel, for the eye of the hardened reviewer only, numerous speculations as to its author- ship. A lady from California guesses Mrs. Humphry Ward, whereupon the au- thorities magnanimously admit in black type that Mrs. Ward is NOT the au- thor. Heavily leaded, too, is the pas- sage from that eminent critic, the Bos- ton correspondent of the New Orleans Times-Democrat: "It is quite on the cards that in the early years of the twentieth century we have seen the dawn of a new novelist of unquestioned power. ... Is it Mrs. ?•" and so on. As a matter of fact, "The Inner Shrine" is by no means worth all this pother. It is a cleverly constructed bit of popular fiction, and no more. Its style, in a superficial sense, suggests an amalgam of Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Whar- ton: it has the trick of the sophisticated school. Essentially, it is a rather vul- gar story of a group of persons, none of whom is free from one or other sort of pusillanimity. The flavor is Franco- American: scandal and the fear of scan- dal are the chief motives of the compo- sition. A Frenchman traduces a French- woman, and is called out by her Amer- ican (Parisian- American) husband, who commits suicide under cover of the duel. She has been a heartless coquette, though not technically a guilty woman. She comes to America, and is on the way to a second marriage when the old lie pursues her. Her lover, an aristo- cratic New Yorker of crude perceptions and boorish manner, accepts the slander without question, and casts her off. She is all meekness, rather admires him, Jane-Eyre-like, for his stupid brutality, and, of course, marries him in the end — after the French villain has been put through the necessary paces, and the American Rochester has remembered tq say that word without which no woman in fiction is content to be won. If the free gift and placid reception of insult, base suspicion and slavish fear of one's own set, the manners and morals imput- ed by gossip-mongering journals, really characterize our best cosmopolitan so- ciety, how shall these traits be palatably set forth in fiction unless with the aid of a certain superficial fastidiousness? There are interesting situations in this story, there are even brilliant bits of dialogue, but there is little in its actual content, whether of incident or inter- pretation, to arouse anything approach- ing emotion in the reader who looks upon fiction as a responsible art. Little People. By Richard Whiteing. New York: Cassell & Co. Like "A Poor Man's House," (see the Nation of April 15, p. 387), "Little Peo- ple" is upon the border-line between fiction, and sociological speculation. Mr. "VVhiteing's Little People are the poor in spirit, the obscure, the unsuccessful, the inarticulate who chiefly inhabit this world. He approaches this order, not in a spirit of pity or condescension, but with respect and even a kind of envy. Many of them do not succeed, are not "heard of in the papers," because they are not ruthless enough, or because they are ruled by a natural instinct of quietism. It is the "Ratepayer," who succeeds — which is Mr. Whiteing's term for the Philistine, the "practical" man. A particular Ratepayer figures a good deal in these papers — a person with whom the writer represents himself as having grown up, and whose career ne traces fragmentarily as an awful ex- ample of what the normal idealism of childhood may come to in process of what we call breeding and education. A number of sketches, not quite stories, adorn the casual discourse — episodes in the lives of various "Little Peoplers," which would not be chosen by the or- dinary story-teller as especially prom- ising, but which give point to this tribute to modest and contented inef- fectiveness. Several of them are iron- ical, like the story of the youth who (from philanthropic motives) wisnes to get himself sent to a mad-nouse. He tries various eccentric and outlandish behaviors in vain, but succeeds as soon as it occurs to him that the way to an- tagonize society is to act reasonably. There is the incident, too, of the poor old drudge who is killed by having to undergo a fashionable rest-cure. But it is all very good-natured. If there is any- thing for which tne writer feels con- tempt, it is the stupid self-absorption of the Ratepayer, whom success has taught to believe "in nothing but the right to do as he likes in everything, with lawyer, doctor, and parsou to stand by and save him from the worst." On the other hand, if there is any class which he admires, it is what may ue called the aristocracy among the Little People— those among the natural- ly capable who prefer the life of quiet independence. "This is the true Bo- hemianism, and the only kind that counts, with liberty, not license, for its end and aim. The Bohemianism of the pot-house is a dead thing: it was hin- drance and enslavement, and it had to go. . . . Freedom for the finer im- pulses, that is the thing: and of all these, grossness is the enemy. So also is the cut and dried." If this is not a great book, it is an unusually attractive one by reason of its unaffected gentle- ness and optimism. Hilary Thornton. By Hubert Wales. Bos- ton: Dana Estes & Co. One lays down this book with a sense of distaste, despite its manifestly high ethical intent. It seems to represent the inherent unwholesomeness of mod- ern introspection, focussed upon the un- pleasant possibilities of marriage; it is a congress of Horrible Examples. Not one of its uncomfortable men and "virile" woman (save the mark!) but makes shipwreck of life matrimonially. There is an unpleasant insistence upon the physical, interlarded with wearisome strata of speculative philosophy; on the whole, it seems one of those unfortunate but unavoidable expressions of the mor- bid moments that punctuate the growth of the race as of the individual organ- ism. It is comforting to realize that such states are essentially abnormal, and that despite the outcries of the overstrained nerves of society, sanity and poise continue to hold sway at the heart of things. The Glory of the Conquered. By Susan Glaspell. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co. This "Story of a Great Love" re- minds one that all magnitude is rela- tive, and that every man may whittle his own measuring-stick. Ernestine, who paints very well, marries a famous young bacteriologist, Karl Hubers. They idle away eighteen months honeymoon- ing in Europe — a curious thing for a scientist to do, who is supposed to be on the verge of a great discovery — and then join the faculty of the University of Chicago. After bitter misfortune, Karl dies and Ernestine, who had given up her painting to help him in his in- vestigations, picks up her brush again,

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4:90 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 producing a portrait of the departed which critics praise highly — and there's the end. Now, if this is a great love, every hamlet knows greater ones. Ernes- tine had sacrificed only her art work, a mean thing beside the good name, well- being, and honor which many a woman has given up for another's sake. And there is no visible reason why she should have altogether abandoned even that. Only when measured by its emo- tional intensity can her love be call- ed great; in this dimension it is truly gigantic. Kisses crackle interminably, the air is murmurous with plaints, and freshets of tears descend whenever any- body looks into anybody else's eyes, or the cook burns Karl's flapjacks. Who- ever can appreciate this point of view will find the story well told, even excel- lently told at times; and possibly be so captivated by its lachrymose lights and shadows that she will even overlook the utter superfluity of Georgia, Joe Tank, and some other characters. As Others See Us: A Study of Progress in the United States. By John Gra- ham Brooks. The Macmillan Co. $1.75 net. Mr. Brooks has had the happy thought to collect and classify the opin- ions of the United States and its peo- ple expressed by European travellers during the last hundred years, as a ba- sis for some interesting reflections on the progress of American society. Irri- tating and humiliating, often, as were the observations of Mrs. Trollope, Har- riet Martineau, Dickens, and others, they afford at this distance a good deal of aid in understanding the social life • of the time, in determining wherein we did differ from the accepted standards of Europe, particularly England, and in measuring the distance which we have traversed since the "period of the new- ness." And what was said by these bet- ter known and more widely read critics was repeated, with slight change of jmanner or emphasis, by the scores of less distinguished writers who found us " interesting enough to visit and describe. One cannot but be struck by the con- stant iteration, during the first half of the nineteenth century, of certain damning counts in the dreary indict- ment. That our roads were bad and •our inns intolerable; that our cooking was a menace to healtn and our table manners extraordinary; that the Amer- ican voice, particularly with women, was an instrument of torture never to be forgotten by one who had suffered it; that we were a nation of braggarts and claimed a monopoly of wit and humor; that our scenery was overrated, our culture crude and provincial, the good elements in our society a weak imitation of Europe, our politics hope- lessly corrupt, our newspapers impos- sible, and democracy itself a more than doubtful experiment — such were the de- pressing conclusions which well-nigh every visitor felt compelled to draw af- ter never so brief an acquaintance, if, indeed, he had not already drawn them before starting on his trying and haz- ardous journey. Mr. Brooks, who sur- veys the catalogue of national sins and shortcomings with imperturbable good humor, does not deny that American society has often been vulnerable; but the marshalling of extracts in the pages of his interesting volume is of itself sufficient to show the grotesqueness of much that otherwise sensible people said about us. After the civil war, how- ever, he notes a change. Our achieve- ment in preventing a disruption of the Union and then in restoring peace, and especially the return of the army to civil life and the payment of the war debt, made a profound impression abroad; and those who hitherto had thought our future more than doubtful began to take a new interest in us, and to study us with something more sug- gestive of intelligence and open-mind- edness. The "American voice," to be sure, is still to be dreaded, and our houses are prevailingly over-heated; but comments of this sort, joined to the inevitable descriptions of Niagara and the West, give place more and more to discussions of our progress in educa- tion and public spirit, of the better workings of party politics, and of such national problems as the negro and the trusts. Here, naturally, Mr. Brooks is on more familiar ground, though his comments on some of these recent ob- servers, especially iAr. Bryce and Pro- fessor Miinsterberg, are not the least interesting of his pages.. Mr. Brooks is so frankly an optimist, so skilful in confronting the hostile 01 doubting critic with facts that have been overlooked, and withal possesses so wide a range of social observation, that one rises from a perusal of this volume with a heightened sense of our national soundness and a more cheer- ful confidence in our national future. If he errs at all, it is in the direction of ever-friendliness, but every student who is familiar with the books which Mr. Brooks cites must admit that the provocation is great. The volume is one that should be widely read if for no other reason than that it is delightful reading. An Introduction to the Study of Com- parative Religion. By Frank Byron Jevons. [The Hartford-Lamson Lec- tures on the Religions of the World.] Pp. xxv+283. New York: The Mac- millan Co. $1.50 net. The Hartford-Lamson Lectures of the Hartford Theological Seminary are re- signed to give students intending to be foreign missionaries a knowledge of the religious customs and ideas of the peo- ples to whom they are to go. This is the first foundation of the sort in this coun- try; the purpose is excellent, and the se- lection of Dr. Jevons as the first lec- turer was a happy one — he is well known as an able writer on early re- ligion. His attitude in these lectures toward non-Christian religions is cath- olic: he urges students to recognize what is good in every religion, and to show the superiority and finality of Christianity by pointing out that it gives in perfect form the conceptions that in other faiths are imperfect. The subjects he treats are immortality, mag- ic, fetishism, prayer, sacrifice, morality, Christianity, all of which he discusses with freshness and felicity of exposi- tion. He has dealt with these subjects in former works, and here repeats views expressed by him elsewhere. In several cases he appears to lay undue stress on logical definitions, and his state- ments are not always sell-consistent. Religion he defines as "the worship of the gods of a community by the com- munity for the good of the community," and he accordingly denies that fetishism is religion, on the ground that it is an individual, selfish, anti-social cult. But this definition is arbitrary and narrow — it is based on a certain form of re- ligious worship, and ignores other well- established forms. If religion is a prac- tical relation between man and super- human powers, then fetishism is a re- ligion. The demand of the fetish-wor- shipper, though generally for harm to his enemies, is not always of this character; and when it is so, it is not less religious than a psalmist's prayer for the destruc- tion of a personal foe. Obviously in any religion an individual may put up indi- vidual petitions, "but," Dr. Jevons adds, "we may safely infer that the only pray- ers that the god of the community is expected to hearken to are prayers that are consistent with the interests and welfare of the community." This is by no means the case — a man does not al- ways think of the community when he prays, and he will not pray unless he expects the gods to hear his prayer and answer it favorably. In like manner Jev- ons rules out magic. The much-discuss- ed question of the relation between magic and religion cannot be gone into here; it is a question of definition, but we know that magical procedures have sometimes been approved and adopted by the established religion of a com- munity. In regard to the origin of sac- rifice, Robertson Smith's theory (to which there are serious objections) that it was a sacramental eating of sacred (that is, divine) flesh, whereby the wor- shipper secured communion with the dei- ty and forgiveness of sin, is here ex- pounded. Dr. Jevons, however, extends the meaning of "sacrifice" so as to in- clude worship; Christian sacrifice, he

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. 491 says, is holy living: "that is the sacri- fice Christ showed us the example of; that is the example which the mission- ary devotes himself to follow and to teach." The recent discussions of Hoffding, Hobhouse, and Westermarck, in which morality is declared to be indepen- dent of religion, are vigorously crit- icised by Dr. Jevons. Justice, he rightly says, is a social matter, and an offence against the custom of the community is an offence against the law of the god who is the guardian of the rights of the ■community. On this point there seems to be no necessity for debate; the dis- putants on both sides will, probably, agree that men's ethical codes are de- rived from social intercourse, that the code of a god is always that of his cir- cle of worshippers, and that the god, as superhuman chieftain, enforces this code —that, in a word, religion and morality, though distinct in origin, are always united in human life; the gods, like men, are never without their ethical codes, and so religion may be expected to sup- port and stimulate morality. If God is the moral ideal, the love of God is devo- tion to this ideal, and thus Dr. Jevons's conclusion— that the love of God is the basis and end of society — finds its justi- fication. The Greatness and Decline of Rome. Volume V. The Republic of Augustus. By Guglielmo Ferrero; translated by the Rev. H. J. Chaytor. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ?2.50. In his initial volume, Signor Fer- rero explicitly stated his intention "to ■continue the narrative down to the break-up of the Empire." But with no explanation whatever, the author has forsaken his task when hardly past the threshold, for he introduces the present volume with the statement that it "com- pletes my study of the 'Greatness and Decline of Rome.' " Under the circum- stances, the title should have been al- tered to suit the fact, since not even the first part of its promise has been fulfilled, to say nothing of the sec- ond. The author has a method of expres- sion more widely attractive than is usually attained by writers in this field, as was evidenced by the newspaper pub- licity given to his recent lectures at Harvard, Columbia, and the University ■of Chicago. The rumors, however, that this brilliant sally would prove to have rendered obsolete the patient lifetime labors of earlier scholars on the same ground have never gained credence with those who have given much careful at- tention to the subject. We say "brilliant sally," for patient and exhaustive his- torical investigation in the field of an- cient history is not the task for whicn the author's activities in the past would furnish a suitable equipment, and the readiness with which he has turned back after putting his hand to the plough may well indicate that the fieid is not congenial to his tastes. The work is continually suggestive of an over- powering belief on the author's part that Roman history must have illustrat- ed certain principles of social develop- ment assumed to be active in all races and all times. Within certain limits, this is true enough, but those limits are easily passed. For instance, the prin- ciple that "the average of mankind, un- der average conditions, are neither par- ticularly good nor particularly bad," is rather heavily strained when it is called in to discredit such evidence of Julia's enormities of unchastity as the public revelations by which Augustus himself justified the severity of her pun- ishment. As it happened, Julia was neither of the average of mankind, nor under average conditions, and so with native qualities which should have made her particularly good in various lines of praiseworthy effort, she did become particularly bad under the untoward conditions forced upon her. Julia's for- tunes were, perhaps, of less importance to Roman history in general than the space given to them by the author would indicate. We cite the matter only as one illustration of an unsafe de- pendence upon theoretical assumptions, which must be regarded as seriously af- fecting the trustworthiness of Ferrero's work at many points. Again and again he himself feels the want of any valid documentary support for direct state- ments made in the text, and admits the situation in a footnote, only to build upon this rickety foundation in subse- quent paragraphs as if it were of un- questioned solidity. For example, the as- sertion on page 272 that Augustus "showed his hatred of Tiberius on every occasion" is admitted in a foot- note to be merely a supposedly neces- sary inference of hatred from the fact that the failure of Augustus to recall Tiberius from his semi-exile at Rhodes was contrary to the public interest; but this sweeping inference is followed later, first by the statement that Augustus had for him "nothing but sullen ha- tred," and again that "his animosity had grown more bitter with age." As to Augustus himself, the main the- sis of the book is that the govern- ment of Rome under Augustus was thoroughly republican, not monarchical at all, and that as a matter of fact he had no intention whatever of trying to establish a monarchy. So far from want- ing to nullify the Senate as an effec- tive part of the governmental ma- chinery, he devoted a large portion of his energies during the greater part of the successive terms for which he was chosen as "President" (be careful not to speak of his reign) to one desperate effort after another to restore that body to its former prestige and responsibil ity. In his oft-reiterated insistence on these points, the author hardly seems to realize that he is not breaking new ground, just as he does not realize that he is not original in his attention to the economic factor in his work as a whole. If there is anything new, as compared with the work of various others, it is rather in the extreme to which these points are pushed, and we can only say that these extremes are not adequately supported. The terms republic and mon- archy are, of course, extremely elas- tic. Augustus was at no time a mon- arch if the word be pressed to the point of complete absolutism; but to convey the idea that he was the freely chosen "President" of a republic of the same fundamental type as that of the United States is to go still farther from the truth toward the opposite extreme; and that is just what Signor Ferrero does in the text of this closing volume, and briefly in the preface to the new Amer- ican edition of Vol. I, where his Amer- ican readers are flattered with the state- ment that they are better able to un- derstand Roman history than European readers because of this basic similarity. The application of ancient experience to modern problems is, of course, one of the most useful features of historical study, but it is just the point at which the careful teacher must exercise the most rigid control of his assertions and implications. Quod utinam Ferrerus ipse fecisset, as Quintilian said of another writer whose brilliancy was more con- spicuous than his care. Socialism in Local Government. By W. G. Towler, with introduction by H. M. Jessel. New York: The Macmillan Co. $1.50 net. The author of the book is secretary of the London Municipal Society, organ- ized in 1894 to oppose the "Progressive- Socialist" policies of the County Coun- cil. By municipal Socialism he means, of course, the "municipalization of lo- cal public services," which both the Fabians and the Municipal Society re- gard as the shortest and easiest road to collectivism. His purpose is to demon- strate that "municipal trading is a fail- ure" and "perilous to the welfare of the nation." The origin of municipal trading may perhaps be traced to ordinary "business motives" on the part of municipal au- thorities, but Mr. Towler has no diffi- culty in showing that many of its latest developments are due to the "quiet work of the administrative Socialist." If doubt could have existed, the utterances of responsible leaders of the progressiv- ists and the vaticinations of irrespon- sibles, like Bernard Shaw, establish the fact beyond question. The rapid growth of municipal undertakings, reproductive \(n£ (i. e., commercial) and unreproductive,

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492 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 is shown by the increase of municipal debts in England and Wales from £164,- 879,000 in 1884 to £482,983,000 in 1906. Mr. Towler compares the prices and quality of service under municipal man- agement with those under private, with- out coming to a very definite conclusion (pp. 94-95), except that consumers may be paying in the form of rates a part of the cost of some branches of service, and that since the municipalities do not yet have the field to themselves, they feel in some degree the stimulus of com- petition. This stimulus, however, would be removed if municipalization should ever triumph in all parts of the field. Even as things stand, Mr. Towler finds evidence of unsound business methods, lax administration, and somewhat more actual corruption than is usually sup- posed to exist. Most serious of all are the holding out of bribes to municipal laborers, and some "deterioration in the character and ability of municipal councillors." Upon all these subjects — as upon the financial aspects of munici- palization— there is need of further in- vestigation by some competent author- ity; and for ten years past, Mr. Towler charges, the effort to secure such inves- tigation has met the "desperate and successful resistance" of the municipal traders. Until such inquiry is had, the financial results of municipal trading cannot be precisely determined. Partial inquiries, however, have as- certained that municipal accounting is inadequate, that accounts are not uni- form, and that the returns do not show the true financial position of the un- dertakings. The Return of 1903, the most complete available, shows a small surplus (£378,000) upon all municipal industries; but Mr. Towler maintains that this surplus would disappear if certain expenses paid out of rates had been included, a sufficient allowance had been made for depreciation, and the rents or taxes that might have been received from private companies had been taken into account. Municipal traders are divided in opinion concern- ing the desirability of operating indus- tries at a profit — Bernard Shaw consid- ers such a policy "childish" — but it is tolerably clear that at present the ques- tion has merely theoretical interest. As an alternative policy to municipal- ization, Mr. Towler proposes public reg- ulation of companies operating under properly guarded franchises. In France and Germany he finds precedents for this policy, as well as in the British Gas Acts; and he regrets that, after the establishment of the Local Government Board in 1871, Parliament did not de- velop a model franchise policy which would have secured good service at rea- sonable prices and at the same time of- fered all necessary inducements to pri- vate capital. Certain it is that in this direction, and not in mere criticism of the methods and results of municipal trading, the opponents of municipal So- cialism must seek effective weapons. Egoists: A Book of Supermen. By James Huneker. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. It is a little disappointing to com- pare the brilliant and grandiose vision of the "superman" which haunts the popular imagination with Mr. Huneker's classic representatives of that imposing and preposterous character — the vulgar "little pot-bellied" Stendhal; Flaubert, the "mouther" with the hopeless im- pediment in his expression; Huysmans, "the Schopenhauer of the cook-shops," with his sublime "tragedy of the gastric juices"; Barres, Nietzsche, Stirner, Hel- lo— all, or nearly all, gravely defective, marked in one way or another more or less conspicuously with the stamp of ineffectuality. What comfort is to be got out of them at all must be sought in their "egoism," in which at least there are but few and insignificant shortcom- ings. Indeed, if Mr. Huneker's inten- tion were not of that semi-quizzical sort which delights to baffle conjecture, it would not be unreasonable to suspect a little gentle irony about the lips of his wide and desultory criticism. But however that may be, his crit- icism is patently disembarrassed of pre- judices. Ibsen he esteems a "lofty thinker, moralist, and satirist." If a subject is only "interesting," its quality is of no particular importance. As long as it is not dull, it may be anything, for all he cares — odd, fantastical, un- canny, morbid, lunatic. "The immortal quartet in nineteenth-century fiction" comprises la duchesse Sanseverina, Madame Marneffe, Emma Bovary, and Anna Karenina. Difference, too, is a kind of distinction. And his favorite authors, if they are not all a little mad, are more than a little "different." They are, each in his own way, "the perfect expression of romantic and anti-social individualism." Naturally, among other lumber, he has rid himself of leading ideas and general principles. His criticism is essentially a criticism of surfaces, intersecting by some critical necromancy in points. Travelling as he does without bag- gage, he has great lightness, versatility, and assurance. He is never at a loss, but always ready to alight and be off again in a twinkling. He is not even hampered by the restrictions of com- position, for he has none to speak of. He is nothing if not casual. His best things are invariably by the way. Baudelaire was "a poet of ideal, spleen, and music"; Edmond de Goncourt, a 'sublime old gossip"; Renan, "a cork soul"; Huysmans, "a Hamlet doubting his digestion." In his passage he sets in circulation a little air of irresponsi- bility, which is, no doubt, vastly refresh- ing and exhilarating after the stagna- tion of serious criticism. His charac- terization of Hello is excellent in its kind. He frequently draws blood, but he seldom dissects. He never gets to the bottom of anything, never touches the nerve that galvanizes the whole man. His criticism is a kind of fine spray; he atomizes, rather than anatom- izes, his author. His subject diffuses in the warmth of his hand into an im- palpable vapor, instead of condensing into its more stable elements. You are surprised to find so small a residuum at the end. So of Anatole France: An art, ironical, easy, fugitive, divinely untrammelled, divinely artificial, which, like a pure flame, blazes forth in an un- clouded heaven . . . la gaya scienza; light feet; wit; fire; grace; the dance of the stars; the tremor of southern light; the smooth sea — these Nietzschean phras- es might serve as an epigraph for the work of that, apostle of innocence and experi- ence, Anatole France. Such is the procede. Science. The Life of a Fossil-Hunter. By Charles H. Sternberg; with an intro- duction by Henry Fairfield Osborn. [American Nature Series.] New York: Henry Holt & Co. $1.60 net. Any book for which Professor Osborn of the American Museum of Natural History is willing to stand sponsor by an introduction, is. worthy of attention from readers interested in palaeontology. One therefore takes up this volume with an expectation of good things that is not disappointed. The vast and unique fossil fields of North America, under the inspiring and directing genius of Profs. E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh and their able associates and successors, gave birth to a new occupation — that of the professional fossil-hunter. On the honorable list of the devoted pio- neers of this new vocation, says Pro- fessor Osborn, "is the author of this work, who by his untiring energy has contributed some of the finest speci- mens which now adorn the shelves and cases of the great museums of America and Europe. . . . His is a career full of adventure, of self-sacrifice, wor- thy of lasting record and recognition by all lovers of nature." Mr. Sternberg seems to have had a real "calling" to what became his life-work. Even as a boy, he used to cut out shells from the limestone strata of his native region near Otsego Lake, New York. At the age of seventeen, as an emigrant into the opening frontiers of Kansas, he found that the neighboring hills, topped with red sandstone, contained the im- pressions of fossil leaves like those of our existing forests. He had fallen upon a formation which belongs to the Da- kota group of the cretaceous period. Its

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May 13, 1909] The ]STation 493 sedimentary rocks had been laid down during the close of the "age of reptiles" in a great ocean whose shore lines en- tered Kansas, and, extending northwest- erly to Nebraska and Iowa, passed on to Greenland. This circumstance, recalling the vivid impressions of boyhood, led the youth to determine to make it his business "to collect facts from the crust of the earth, that thus men might learn more of the introduction and succession of life upon the earth." Thenceforth, young Sternberg col- lected and prepared fossil leaves with an enthusiasm and inborn skill that has persisted until now. His first collection was sent to Professor Baird of the Smithsonian Institution, who greatly encouraged him. In 1872, a personal in- terview with the eminent palseobotanist, Dr. Leo Lesquereux, confirmed and di- rected his pursuit. But it was not un- til the winter of 1875-76, while a stu- dent at Kansas State Agricultural Col- lege, that he received the final impulse that launched him upon the career which this book records. An expedition was then and there forming under Pro- fessor Marsh for collecting American fossil vertebrates for Yale University. Sternberg vainly applied for a place on this expedition. Then it occurred to him to write Professor Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- delphia. The response came promptly, enclosing $300 for an outfit, and bidding him go to work. Thus began a con- nection that continued for a number of years, indeed, until early death cut short Professor Cope's remarkable ca- reer. Among the most entertaining pages in the book are those which cov- er the author's relations with that dis- tinguished naturalist. Those were the days of the keen rivalry — at times, per- haps, too hotly pressed — between Marsh and Cope. Scarcely more than a trace of this appears in the "Fossil Hunter"; but the fact gives a special interest to the tale of the adventurous, labor- ious, and expensive methods by which was obtained the wonderful material that fed the high ambitions that fired the scientific contest between these two great captains of palaeontology, whose names and works are illustrious in the annals of American naturalists. The incidents related of Professor Cope, es- pecially during an expedition when he personally shared and directed the work afield, are most interesting, particu- larly to Cope's old friends and asso- ciates. Excursions in search of the fossil re- mains of the extinct animals of the Kansas Chalk, the Loup Fork beds, the Oregon Desert, the John Day River re- gion, and the Permian of Texas, take up the body of the work. One shares, as one reads, the enthusiasm of the author, in his pursuit of the immense creatures of those eras when our present conti- nent was being formed. As the author has given many plates and cuts of fos- sil remains, and a number of admirable restorations, one is better able to un- derstand the reason for this enthusiasm. Certainly, when we reflect that a large part of the civilized world is showing a keen interest in our ex-Presidential Nimrod, as he goes to hunt the large game of Africa, it does not seem irra- tional that we should follow with sym- pathy and appreciation the story of a hunter of the animal forms which in- habited the ancient world; and which as compared with the vertebrates of our era, were as giants to pygmies, and in structure abounded in the highest sig- nificance, as throwing light upon the history of evolution. Moreover, it may be said that, although the author does not pose as an original and scientific investigator, one cannot read his book without getting a good general view of current palaeontology, and of many of its chief promoters, both of the present and of the past. The work of the pub- lishers is entitled to approval, not only for clear typography, but for illustra- tions and general make-up. The urgent demand in China for Western medical and surgical knowledge has led to the recent completion and publication of an English-Chinese Medical Dictionary under the auspices of the China Medical Missionary Association. It contains 15,000 selected terms. This work has made pos- sible for the first time the translation of the best medical text-books into Chinese. At the recent China Centenary Missionary Con- ference a resolution was passed requesting the missionary societies to unite in the support of one or two suitable men for the work of translation. Drama. A GLEAM OF HOPE FOR THE THE- ATRE. It begins to look as if some of the magnates who have acquired the con- trol of most of our theatrical affairs during the last ten or twenty years were becoming conscious of the weak points in their syndicate system and seeking to escape threatened disaster by a re- version, in part at least, to older and sounder methods. Of two facts, patent to all observers, they, as shrewd busi- ness men of their kind, must be fully aware. They must know that all actors and actresses of the first rank in this country have practically disappeared without leaving any successors to take their places, and that there is no cer- tain source to which they can look for capable recruits. Such recruits must be found, or nothing can stop that pro- gressive degeneration of the theatre which has already reduced it almost to the level of the music-halls. Threatened with the total alienation of the more intelligent classes, it is not surprising that an astute manager— suddenly realizing the logical conse- quences of a policy as fatal to artistic training as it is to vital competition — should be quick to see the significance of the movements on both sides of the Atlantic in favor of the old-time stock- company theatre. These are not only indicative of a widespread discontent with the results of syndicate methods, but are suggestive of a coming rivalry which is not to be lightly disregarded. There was not much to be feared from the sporadic experiments of the various independent organizations which have arisen and subsided, at intervals, here and in London. Most of them were rash- ly conceived and unwisely conducted. But some of them, notably those of Messrs. Vedrenne and Barker and of Mr. Otho Stuart, were not only rich in ac- tual achievement, but afforded encour- aging proof of the financial possibility of a literary, artistic, and intellectual theatre. It was the work of these pio- neers that helped to form and develop the public demand that has called the National Shakespearean Memorial The- atre scheme into existence in England — with what ultimate results it remains to be seen — and has now brought about concerted action by a number of influ- ential believers in the theatre for the establishment of a chain of repertory houses, of a high class, in London and the provinces. The director of the new enterprise is Herbert Trench, a fellow of All Souls, Oxford, himself the author of superior plays and an official long engaged in edu- cational affairs. His plan is to buttress the idealistic drama with plays of a more popular character. In alternation with the play of ideas, he will give revivals of the best modern drama, of Shake- spearean pieces, and of the older com- edy, together with selected works of famous foreign dramatists, such, for in- stance, as "The Blue Bird" of Maeter- linck. No plays are to be excluded on account of their character, so long as they are good examples of their spe- cial class. The main object will be enter- tainment upon catholic, but select, lines. The extension of the scheme into the provinces is provided for by the absorp- tion of the Theatrical Organization So- ciety, which has been making the nec- essary preparations in the principal cit- ies and towns for a considerable period. Influential local committees have been appointed, social and financial backing has been secured, and the whole cam- paign seems to have been organized upon a substantial and workmanlike basis. The best laid plans of mice and men are apt to miscarry, and it would be fool- ish to indulge in premature jubilation; but this scheme really does bear the ap-

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4=94: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 pearance of an effective stroke toward the ultimate regeneration of the Eng- lish-speaking stage. There is at least good ground for hoping that within three or four years there will be half-a- dozen or more repertory theatres, to sup- plement the missionary work hitherto carried on by Mr. Benson's repertory company and one or two others. That they will continue to multiply as their superior powers of attraction are more generally recognized need not be doubt- ed, and with their increase in numbers will come the needed supply of all-round actors, and, in due time, that honest and healthful competition which is the soul of all artistic inspiration. With characteristic promptness in fol- lowing a good lead, Charles Frohman has determined to have his own rep- ertory theatres in London and New York. His scheme is excellent of its kind, but does not necessarily thus far involve any wide departure from his former policy. But his con- tracts with Granville Barker, John Gals- worthy, J. M. Barrie, and Bernard Shaw enable him to sketch an attrac- tive programme, and his bid for good one-act plays ought to bear fruit. Ap- parently, he has been doing violence to his own convictions all this long while. He acknowledges that there is a public demand — in London, at all events — for the higher drama, and that there are commercial, as well as artistic, objec- tions to the long run. Such utterances coming from his lips have an heretical sound, but his conversion, if sincere and lasting, is a subject not for mock- ery, but congratulation. He and his allies, with their control of authors, plays, and actors, wield an enormous power for good as well as for mischief, and could, if they chose, establish a chain of repertory theatres which might prove dangerous rivals even to the New The- atre itself. Greater miracles than this have been wrought by the power of the popular will. The English theatre in Germany is now reported to be an accomplished fact. En- gagements have been made and rehearsals have begun. Mme. Meta Illing is the direc- tress. The first performance will be given on May 17 at Wiesbaden, and will form part of the Imperial command dramatic festival given during the German Emperor's visit to that town. The play selected is R. C. Car- ton's comedy, "Mr. Hopkinson." The cast will include Herbert Waring, Miss Fortes- cue, Dawson Milward, Miss Ellen O'Malley, Mr. Sothern, and Frank Stanmore. Nigel Playfair is the producer and general stage manager. After playing in Wiesbaden, the company will proceed to Karlsruhe. Darm- stadt, and Frankfurt, giving a few perform- ances in each of these towns, including two performances of Mr. Shaw's "Candida." There is uncommon unanimity among the London critics concerning the general liter- ary and dramatic feebleness of "The Con- quest," an adaptation by "George Fleming" from Balzac's "La Duchesse de Langeais," which has just been produced in the London Lyric Theatre by Lewis Waller, with himself and Maxine Elliott in the principal char- acters. Nothing of Balzac seems to have been left in the piece except the extrava- gance; and scenes intended to be thrilling provoked innocent laughter. Music. Verily, William Ashton Ellis, Wagner's chief apostle in England, is as far superior to all other index makers as his idol is to all other opera composers. Mr. Ellis is apparently devoting his whole life to the translating of Wagner's prose writings and letters into English, and whereas the Ger- man volumes have no indexes at all, his versions are always followed by pages that are simply invaluable to those who, with- out having time to read everything that Wagner wrote, desire information on this or that point relating to his life and works. The latest achievement of Mr. Ellis is a translation of Wagner's letters to his first wife, Minna, which has been published in two volumes (imported by Charles Scrib- ner's Sons). There is an index of no fewer than forty-two columns. One of these col- umns is taken up with references to Wag- ner's experiences in London, and the most conspicuous entry (25 references) is under "longs to leave." The references to "Lohen- grin" occupy a column, those to "Tristan" another. Minna has three columns, Wagner himself four, subdivided according to top- ics: abode, acrobatics, age, amnesty, ani- mals ("see also Dogs"), birthday, childless, climbing, conductor, conjugal love (45 en- tries), courtship, diet, domesticity, dreams, dress, early to bed, excitability, and twen- ty-five other topics, including health, read- ing, solitude (68 entries), sensitiveness to noise, walks (61entries), productivity. Under money matters we read "see Minna, allow- ance to, and almost every other page." In addition to this illuminating index, Mr. Ellis contributes an introduction of four- teen pages, in which lie discusses various points in the tragic conjugal life of Rich- ard and Minna Wagner, the most ill-mated couple that were ever brought together. "My marriage — not a soul knows what I have suffered through that," he wrote to his sister in 1806. Now all the world can read the story. The fact that Minna pre- served these letters, containing so many lamentations and reproaches, is noted by Mr. Ellis as one of her good traits: It is as though she dimly foresaw the day when herself she might be instrumental in triumphantly clearing her husband's name from calumnies reposing on a false assumption of her "martyrdom." But why are not her own letters to her hus- band given to the world, too? Is it because they are not of any literary interest, Min- na's mind having been of a purely domestic kind, or are there things in them the Bayreuth folk would rather keep suppress- ed? Perhaps they will be issued later on; nearly every year sees a new volume of Wagner letters, ihe latest being collections of those he wrote to the artists who helped him at 3ayreutn, and of those received by his mother, sisters, and nieces. These FamiUenbriefe Mr. Ellis promises to trans- late next if there is a sufficient demand for the letters to Minna to warrant such a step. The letters to Minna need not be further commented on here, as they were reviewed at some length in the Nation ol May 7, 1908, when the German edition ap- peared. Two decades ago it was still customary for expert flute-players to give recitals at which they exhibited their skill. To-day such a recital would not be likely to at- tract either critics or music-lovers — not, at any rate, in musical centres. The cloying richness of modern orchestral works has made the tone of the flute seem too pallid and monotonous to satisfy the ear for a whole evening. In the orchestra itself, on the other hand, the flute plays a more im- portant part than ever, especially in the scores of Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Strauss. For this growing importance the flute is largely indebted to the improvements, tech- nical and tonal, made by the Bavarian court musician, Theobald Boehm. In 1871 Boehm published a little book in which he described these improvements and dis- coursed on the flute and flute-playing in general. He hoped it would be translated into other languages, including English; but this hope has only just been realized. With the consent of Boehm's grandson, Dayton C. Miller has made an English version which he has published in Cincinnati. It contains many useful hints both as regards the exe- cution of florid music (which operatic au- diences still dote on) and the expressive playing of sustained melodies. "Songs Every One Should Know," edited by Clifton Johnson and published by the American Book Co. (Cincinnati), is a col- lection of two hundred favorite songs for school and home, intended to stimulate a love of good music "by the simple charm of the songs themselves." It is a good collection of its kind, and the songs are divided into groups: national hymns, war songs, ballads, Scotch songs, nature songs, college, minstrel, plantation, religious songs, and others. Coarseness and extreme senti- mentality are carefully avoided. After an absence of ten years, the eminent violinist, Willy Burmester, intends to make an American tour in 1910-11. Art. THE ART COLLECTOR: HIS FORTES AND FOIBLES. Morally considered, the art collector is tainted with the fourth deadly sin; pathologically, he is often afflicted by a degree of mania. His distinguished kinsman, the connoisseur, scorns him as a kind of mercenary, or at best a manner of renegade. I shall never for- get the expression with which a great connoisseur — who possesses one of the finest private collections in the Val d'Arno — in speaking of a famous col- league, declared, "Oh, X ! Why, X is merely a collector." The im- plication is, of course, that the one who loves art truly and knows it thorough- ly will find full satisfaction in an en- joyment devoid alike of envy or the thought of possession. He is to adore

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May 13, 1909] The Nation. 495 all beautiful objects witb a Platonic fer- vor to which the idea of acquisition and domestication is repugnant. Before going into this lofty argument, I should perhaps explain the collection of my scornful friend. He would have said: "I see that as I put X in his proper place, you look at my pictures and smile. You have rightly divined that they are of some rarity, of a sort, in fact, for which X and his kind would sell their immortal souls. But I beg you to note that these pictures and bits of sculpture have been bought not at all for their rarity, nor even for their beauty as such, but simply because of their appropriateness as decorations for this particular villa. They repre- sent not my energy as a collector, nor iven my zeal as a connoisseur, but sim- ply my normal activity as a man of taste. In this villa it happens that Italian old masters seem the proper material for decoration. In another house or in another land you might find me employing, again solely for dec- orative purposes, the prints of Japan, the landscapes of the modern impres- sionists, the rugs of the Bast, or the blankets of the Arizona desert. Free me, then, from the reproach implied in that covert leer at my Early Sie- nese." Yes, we must, I think, exclude from the ranks of the true zealots all who in any plausible fashion utilize the objects of art they buy. Excess, the craving to possess what he apparently does not need, is the mark of your true collector. Now these visionaries — at least the true ones — honor each other according to the degree of "eye" that each pos- sesses. By "eye" the collector means a faculty of discerning a fine object quickly and instinctively. And, in fact, the trained eye becomes a magically fine instrument. It detects the frac- tions of a millimetre by which a copy belies its original. In colors it distin- guishes nuances that a moderately train- ed vision will declare non-existent. Nor is the trained collector bound by the evidence of the eye alone. Of certain things he knows the taste or adhesive- ness. His ear grasps the true ring of certain potteries, porcelains, or quali- ties of beaten metal. I know an expert on Japanese pottery who, when a sixth sense tells him that two pots apparent- ly identical come really from different kilns, puts them behind his back and refers the matter from his retina to his finger-tips. Thus alternately challenged and trusted, the eye should become ex- traordinarily expert. A Florentine col- lector once saw in a junk-shop a marble head of beautiful workmanship. Nine- ty-nine amateurs out of a hundred would have said, "What a beautiful copy!" for the same head is exhibited in a famous museum and is reproduced in pasteboard, clay, metal, and stone ad nauseam. But this collector gave the ap- parent copy a second look and a third. He reflected that the example in the museum was itself no original, but a school-piece, and as he gazed the conviction grew that here was the orig- inal. Since it was closing time, and the marble heavy, a bargain was struck for the morrow. After an anxious night, this fortunate amateur returned in a cab to bring home what criticism now ad- mits is a superb Desiderio da Settignano. The incident illustrates capitally the combination of keenness and patience that goes to make the collector's eye. We may divide collectors into those who play the game and those who do not. The wealthy gentleman who gives carte blanche to his dealers and agents is merely a spoil-sport. He makes what should be a matter of adroitness sim- ply an issue of brute force. He robs of all delicacy what from the first glow of discovery to actual possession should be a fine transaction. Not only does he lose the real pleasures of the chase, but he raises up a special clan of syco- phants to part him and his money. A mere handful of such — amassers, let us say — have demoralized the art market. According to the length of their purses, collectors may also be divided into those who seek and those who are sought. Wisdom l;es in making the most of eith- er condition. The seekers unquestion- ably get more pleasure; the sought achieve the more imposing results. The seekers depend chiefly on their own judg- ment, buying preferably of those who know less than themselves; the sought depend upon the judgment of those who know more than themselves, and, naturally, must pay for such vicarious expertise. And, rightly, they pay dear. Let no one who buys of a great dealer imagine that he pays simply the cost of an object plus a generous percentage of profit. No, much-sought amateur, you pay the rent of that palace in Bond Street or Fifth Avenue; you pay the sal- ary of the gentlemanly assistant or partner whose time is at your disposal during your too rare visits; you pay the commissions of an army of agents throughout the world; you pay, alas! too often the cost of securing false "sale records" in classic auction rooms; and, finally, it is only too probable that you pay also a heavy secret commis- sion to the disinterested friend who happened to remark there was an un- commonly fine object in Y 's gallery. By a cheerful acquiescence in the sug- gestions that are daily made to you, you may accumulate old masters as imper- sonally, as genteelly, let me say, as you do railway bonds. But, of course, un- der these circumstances you must not expect bargains. Now, in objects that are out of the fashion — a category including always many of the best things — and if ap- proached in slack times, the great deal- ers will occasionally afford bargains, but in general the economically minded col- lector, who is not necessarily the poor one, must intercept his prey before it reaches the capitals. That it makes all the difference from whom and where you buy, let a recent example attest. A year or two ago a fine Giorgionesque portrait was offered to an American amateur by a famous London dealer. At $60,000 the refusal was granted for a few days only, subject to cable response. The photograph was tempting, but the besought amateur, knowing that the authenticity of the average Giorgione is somewhat less certain than, say, the period of the Book of Job, let the op- portunity pass. A few months after learning of this incident, I had the pleasure of meeting in Florence an English art critic who expatiated upon the beauty of a Giorgione that he had just acquired at the very reasonable price of $15,000. For particulars he re- ferred me to one of the great dealers of Florence. The portrait, as I already suspected, was the one I had heard of in America. Forty-five thousand dol- lars represented the difference between buying it of a London rather than a Florentine dealer. Of course, the pic- ture itself had never left Florence at all, the limited refusal and the rest were merely part of the usual comedy played between the great dealer and his client. On the other hand, if the lucky English collector had had the additional good fortune to make his find in an Italian auction-room or at a small dealer's, he would probably have paid little more than $5,000, while the same purchase made of a wholly ignorant dealer or di- rect from the reduced family who sold this ancestor might have been made for a few hundred francs. With the seek- ers obviously lie all the mystery and romance of the pursuit. The rest sure- ly need not be envied to the sought. One thinks of Consul J. J. Jarves grad- ually getting together that little col- lection of Italian primitives, at New Haven, which, scorned in his lifetime and actually foreclosed for a trifling debt, is now an object of pilgrimage for European amateurs and experts. One recalls the mouse-like activities of the Brothers Dutuit, unearthing here a gorgeous enamel, retrieving there a Rembrandt drawing, fetching out a Gothic ivory from a junkshop. One sighs for those days, and declares that they are forever past. Does not the sage M. Eudel warn us that there are no more finds — "Surtout ne comptez plus sur les trouvailles." Yet only the oth- er day I mildly chid a seeker, him of tie Desiderio, for not having one of his rare pictures photographed for the use of students. He smiled and admit- ted that I was perfectly right, but add- ed pleadingly, "You know a negative costs about twenty francs, and for that one may often get an original." Why, even I who write — but I have promised

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496 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2289 that this essay shall not exceed 4,000 words. For the poor collector, however, the money consideration remains a source of manifold embarrassment, morally and otherwise. How many an enthusiast has justified an extravagant purchase by a flattering prevision of profits accruing to his widow and orphans? Let the recording angel reply. And such hopes are at times justified. There have been instances of men refused by the life in- surance companies who have deliberate- ly adopted the alternative of collecting for investment, and have done so suc- cessfully. Obviously, such persons fall into the class which the French call charitably the marchand-amateur. Note, however, that the merchant comes first. Now, to be a poor yet reasonably suc- cessful collector without becoming a marchand-amateur requires moral tact and resolution. The seeker of the short purse naturally becomes a sort of expert in prices. As he prowls he sees many fine things which he neither covets nor could afford to keep, but which are offered at prices temptingly below their value in the great shops. The tempta- tion is strong to buy and resell. Natur- ally, one profitable transaction of this sort leads to another, and soon the ama- teur is in the attitude of "making the collection pay for itself." The induce- ment is so insidious that I presume there are rather few persistent collec- tors not wealthy who are not in a meas- ure dealers. Now, to deal or not to deal might seem purely a matter of social and business expediency. But the is- sue really lies deeper. The difficulty is that of not letting your left hand know what your right hand does. A morally ambidextrous person may do what he pleases. He keeps the dealer and col- lector apart, and subject to his will one or the other emerges. The feat is too difficult for average humanity. In near- ly every case a prolonged struggle will end in favor of the commercial self. I have followed the course of many collec-, tor-dealers, and I know very few in- stances in which the collection has not averaged down to the level of a shop — a fine shop, perhaps, but still a shop. I blame no man for following the wide road, but I feel more kinship with him who walks scrupulously in the narrow path of strict amateurism. Let me has- ten to add that there are times when everybody must sell. Collections must periodically be weeded out; one may be hard up and sell his pictures as another in similar case his horses; artists will naturally draw into their studios beau- tiful objects which, occasion offering, they properly sell. With these obvious exceptions the line is absolutely sharp. Did you buy a thing to keep? Then you are an amateur, though later your con- venience or necessity dictates a sale. Did you buy it to sell? Then you are a dealer. The safety of the little collector lies in specialization, and there, too, lies his surest satisfaction. To have a well-de- fined specialty immediately simplifies the quest. There are many places where one need never go. Moreover, where nature has provided fair intelligence, one must die very young in order not to die an expert. As I write I think of D , one of the last surviving phil- osophers. Born with the instincts of a man of letters, he declined to give him- self to the gentler pursuit until he had made a little competence at the law. As he followed his disinterested course of writing and travel, his enthusiasm cen- tred upon the antiquities of Greece and Rome. In the engraved gems of that time he found a beautiful epitome of his favorite studies. For ten years study and collecting have gone patiently hand in hand. He possesses some fifty classi- cal gems, many of the best Greek pe- riod, all rare and interesting from ma- terial, subject, or workmanship, and he may have spent a hundred dollars in the process, but I rather doubt it. He knows his subject as well as he loves it. Some day he will write a book on intaglios, and it will be a good one. Meanwhile, if the fancy takes him to visit the site of the Bactrian Empire, he has only to put his collection in his pocket and enjoy it en route. I can- not too highly commend his example, and yet his course is too austere for many of us. Has untrammelled curi- osity no charms? Would I, for example, forego my casual kakemonos, my lg- norantly acquired majolica, some tri- fling accumulation of Greek coins, that handful of Eastern rugs? Could I prune away certain excrescent minor Whist- lers? those bits of ivory cutting from old Italy and Japan? those tarnished Tuscan panels? — in truth, I could and would not. Yet had I stuck to my first love, prints, I should by this time be mentioned respectfully among the initi- ated, my name would be found in the card-catalogues of the great dealers, my decease would be looked forward to with resignation by my junior colleagues. As it is, after twenty years of collecting, and an expenditure shameful in one of my fiscal estate, I have nothing that even courtesy itself could call a collec- tion. In apology, I may plead only the sting of unchartered curiosity, the ad- venturous thrill of buying on half or no knowledge, the joy of an instinctive sympathy that, irrespective of boundar- ies, knows its own when it sees it. And you austerely single-minded amateurs, you experts that surely shall be, I revere if I may not follow you. We have left dangling from the first paragraph the morally important ques- tion, Is collecting merely an habitual con- travention of the tenth commandment? Now, I am far from denying that col- lecting has its pathology, even its crim- inology, if you will. The mere lust of acquisition may take the ugly form of coveting what one neither loves nor understands. This pit is digged for the rich collector. Poor collectors, on the other hand, have at times forgot- ten where enterprise ends and klepto- mania begins. But these excesses are, after all, rare, and for that matter they are merely those that attach to all exag- gerations of legitimate passion. As for the notion that one should love beauti- ful things without desiring them, it seems to me to lie perilously near a sort of pseudo-Platonism, which, wher- ever it recurs, is the enemy of life it- self. As I write, my eye falls upon a Japanese sword-guard. I have seen it a thousand times, but I never fail to feel the same thrill. Out of the disk of blued steel the artisan has worked the soaring form of a bird with upraised wings. It is indicated in skeleton fash- ion by bars extraordinarily energetic, yet suavely modulated. There must have been feeling and intelligence in every touch of the chisel and file that wrought it. Could that same object seen occasionally in a museum show- case afford me any comparable pleas- ure? Is not the education of the eye, like the education of the sentiments, de- pendent upon stable associations that can be many times repeated? Shall I seem merely covetous because I crave besides the casual and adventurous con- tact with beauty in the world, a gratifi- cation which is sure and ever waiting for me? But let me cite rather a cer- tain collector and man of great affairs, who perforce spends his days in adjust- ing business interests that extend from the arctic snows to the tropics. His eve- nings belong generally to his friends, for he possesses in a rare degree the art of companionship. The small hours are his own, and frequently he spends them in painting beautiful copies of his Japanese potteries. It is his homage to the artisans who contrived those strange forms and imagined those gorgeous glazes. In the end he will have a cata- logue illustrated from his own designs. Meanwhile, he knows his potteries as the shepherd knows his flock. What casuist will find the heart to deny him so innocent a pleasure? And he merely represents in a very high degree the sort of priestliness that the true col- lector feels towards his temporary pos- sessions. And this sense ot the high, nay, su- preme value of beautiful things, has its evident uses. That the beauty of art has not largely perished from the earth is due chiefly to the collector. He interposes his sensitiveness between the insensibility of the average man and the always exiled thing of beauty. If we have in a fractional measure the art treasures of the past, it has been be- cause the collector has given them asy- lum. Museums, all manner of overt public activities, derive ultimately from

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May 13, 1909] The USTation. 497 his initiative. It is he who asserts the continuity of art and illustrates its dig- nity. The stewardship of art is mani- fold, but no one has a clearer right to that honorable title. "Private vices, pub- lic virtues," I hear a cynical reader murmur. So be it. I am ready to stand with the latitudinarian Mandeville. The view makes for charity. I only plead that he who covets his neighbor's tea- jar — I assume a desirable one, say, in old brown Kioto — shall be judged less harshly than he who covets his neigh- bor's ox. Frank Jewett Mather. Jr. We have been somewhat remiss in notic- ing the successive numbers of the Burlington Magazine as they appeared, and must now dispose of three numbers at once: those of the quarter from February 15 to April 15 inclusive. Taking them thus together, one is even more impressed by their purely technical and antiquarian interest than when they appeared. They are almost en- tirely devoted to delicate points of con- noisseurship and the exploration of by- ways of art history and criticism. They not only deal little with contemporary or modern art, but rarely with the great mas- ters, containing only three short articles on "The Early Development of Correggio," the discovery of a so-called Leonardo at Milan, and a possible copy after Giorgione, respectively. For modern art there is an account of some interesting portraits by the English Alfred Stevens, some notes on con- temporary portraits in the recent "Fair Women" exhibition, and two articles on the late Charles Conder, whose work, as here renroduced, hardly seems to justify the en- thusiasm of Mr. Ricketts. It is only fair to say that Mr. Conder is described as es- sentially a colorist; therefore his best qualities are probably absent from black and white translation. Art in America Is represented only by Oriental pottery and fourteenth century pictures. The magazine is interesting — essential even — to collec- tors, directors of museums, and the like, but it seems a pity that it should not more often treat in its scholarly manner matter of wider general interest. Finance. A QUESTION OF "WHEAT FAMINE." It appears to be a matter of common agreement, in the grain trade, that the present situation regarding available wheat supplies is one which has rarely arisen in our recent history. The un- usual thing is the abnormal price offer- ed and paid for wheat by millers, at lo- calities where it can scarcely be sup- posed that a speculative corner, in the usual sense at any rate, exists. In its most familiar form, a wheat corner arises from the purchase, by a powerful speculator, of contracts to deliver wheat to him at a stipulated date and in a stipulated market, in quantity greater than the available supply will make pos- sible. Now, the process of cornering the dealers who have contracted for such deliveries will naturally be facilitated to the extent that the corner manipula- tor gets into his own hands the actual wheat on which the contractors had re- lied for their deliveries. In a measure, such a condition existed in "May con- tracts" during Mr. Patten's recent spec- ulations on the Chicago Board of Trade. But there has been, from the first, one unusual circumstance in the present case. A corner such as has just been de- scribed will ordinarily have two results — first, the price of "wheat futures" on the market where the corner exists will be relatively higher than in the country at large, and, secondly, the movement of actual wheat will be in the direction of that market. Now, neither of these exists to-day. Last week's market clos- ed, for instance, with wheat for May de- livery selling at $1.27% per bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. This, it is true, was 22 cents a bushel above the price of a year ago. But the actual cash price for wheat on the New York mar- ket last Saturday was $1.44, or 33% cents higher than a year ago. Not only so, but in the heart of the wheat coun- try itself, millers have been paying such prices as $1.40 and $1.50 per bush- el, purely for wheat to grind. Chicago dispatches tell us that wheat which was sold from Kansas City to Chicago two weeks ago, has since been resold and re-shipped to Kansas City at an advance of 10 cents or more. Within the present month, a fairly large amount of wheat, stored in New York, was actually sent by steamer to Galveston and thence for- warded by rail to markets in the wheat belt. Whatever may be said of Mr. Pat- ten's recent exploit — and operations to force up the price are certainly no more respectable because there are signs of genuine scarcity — it should be plain that a peculiar and striking situation has arisen in the grain trade at large. It need not be inferred, from the con- ditions thus shown to exist in the markets, that we are confronted by anything like exhaustion of wheat sup- plies. When the trade talks of the farm supply of wheat in Kansas or Ne- braska being "used up," the expression is relative. The Agricultural Depart- ment's first March estimate of 143,000,- 000 bushels left on the country's farms from the crop of 1908, is disputed by the trade. The best-known private ex- pert estimated 125,000,000; trade cal- culations ran as low as 100,000,000. But even if the lowest estimate were ac- cepted, deliveries at market since March 1 have hardly reached 25,000,000 bush- els; so that deliveries at the same rate, between now and the July harvest time, would still leave sufficient margin. The stock of wheat in granary in this coun- try is actually some 7,000,000 bushels larger than it was a year ago, although 30,000,000 bushels less than in May, 1907. Europe is worse off for supplies I on hand than we are; its storehouses now hold 21,000,000 bushels less than a year ago, and 34,000,000 less than two years ago. But between now and the harvest, it has the Argentine exports to count on — which, though somewhat dis- appointing in quantity, will probably serve the purpose — or, at a pinch, it may reckon on the habitual makeshift of European consumers, the substitution of rye for wheat flour. In brief, then, the real problem is not the feeding of the bread-consuming world this season, but to what extent the harvests of 1909 will rectify mat- ters. The world's "visible supply" in the spring-time has been lower on other occasions than it is to-day; in May, 1898, for instance, it got down to 111,223,000 bushels, as against 118,800,000 estimated this month; but an increase of 600,000,- 000 bushels, or 27 per cent., in the world's yield of wheat that summer — a result largely brought about by the ac- tual needs of consuming markets and by the high price offered in the preced- ing season — very quickly restored sup- plies to normal. The tendency, this year, will be the same; the doubtful question necessarily remains whether home and foreign weather will favor the wheat-grower as it did eleven years ago. The season did not begin altogether favorably, this year; crops even now are not so far advanced as they should be, here or abroad, and this is perhaps the real explanation of the extraordi- narily high prices asked for wheat, even on the farms. It must not be forgotten that a speculative period, such as the present time unquestionably is, finds ex- pression not only in high bids by pro- fessional speculators for merchandise which they do not own, but in the hold- ing-back of their merchandise for still higher prices by producers who actually possess it. Yet other seasons have start- ed out with as indifferent promise as has 1909, and ended brilliantly. The next month or two will settle the question. Until then, it would be premature to discuss the results of another deficient harvest, coming on the present singular position of supplies. That it would be a calamity, no one is likely to deny; fortunately, it is a far less probable calamity, with the world-wide extension of area under wheat culture during the decade past, than it has been at any previous time. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Allen, Gardner W. Our Naval War with France. Houghton Mifflin. $1.50 net. Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Hered- ity. Putnams. $3.50 net. Bindloss, Harold. Thrice Armed. Frederick A. Stokes Co. Cain, Georges. Walks in Paris. Translated by Alfred Allinson. Macmillan. $2 net. Canning, George, and His Friends: Con- taining Hitherto Unpublished Letters, Jeux d'Esprit, etc. Edited by Capt. Jos- celine Bagot. 2 vols. Dutton. $9 net. Chittenden, "Larry." Bermuda Verses. Put- nam. $1.50 net.

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498 The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2289 Clark, Francis E., and Clark, Harriet A. The Gospel in L<atin Lands. Macmillan. 50 cents net. Courtney, W. L. The Literary Man's Bible: A Selection of Passages from the Old Testament. Thomas Y. Crowell. $l.2o net. Crampton, C. Ward. The Folk Dance Book: For Elementary Schools, Class Room, Playground, and Gymnasium. A. S. Barnes. $1.50. Curtis, William Eleroy. One Irish Summer. Duffleld. $3.50 net. Day, Sarah J. Fresh Fields and Legends Old and New. Putnam. $1.25 net. Department of Education of the City of New York. Ninth Annual Report. De Quincey's Literary Criticism. Edited by H. Darbishire. Henry Frowde. Desnoyers, Louis. Les Mesaventures de Jean-Paul Choppart. Edited by C. Fon- taine. Boston: D. C. Heath, 40 cts. Devine, Edward T. Misery and Its Causes. Macmillan. $1.25 net. Eaton, D. Cady. A Handbook of Modern French Painting. Dodd, Mead. $2 net. Edicts of Asoka. Edited in English, with an Introductory and Commentary, by Vin- cent A. Smith. Henry Frowde. Elementary Reader of French History. Ed- ited by Freeman M. Josselyn and L. Ray- mond Talbot. Ginn & Co. 30 cents. Esenwein, J. Berg. Writing the Short Story: A Practical Handbook. Hinds, Noble & Eldridge. $1. Finot, Jean. The Philosophy of Long Life. Translated by Harry Roberts. John Lane Co. $2.50 net. Fogazzaro's Pereat Rochus and Un' Idea di Ermes Torranza. Edited by Alfonso de Salvio. Boston: D. C. Heath. 40 cts. Gibson's Manual, 1909. Gibson Publishing Co. $5. Gibson, Thomas. Library of Speculation and Investment; Market Letters for 1907; Weekly Letters for 1908, Vols. I and II; Special Market Letters (and Charts); The Increasing Gold Supply; Pitfalls of Speculation; Cycles of Speculation. Gib- son Publishing Co. Glasgow, Ellen. The Romance of a Plain Man. Macmillan. $1.50. Hapgood, Hutchins. An Anarchist Woman. Duffield & Co. $1.25. Hastings, G. W. A Vindication of Warren Hastings. Henry Frowde. Hazard, Daniel L. Observations Made at the Coast and Geodetic Survey Magnetic Observatory at Sitka, Alaska, 1902-1904. Washington: Government Printing Office. Henry, O. Roads of Destiny. Doubleday, Page. Hough, B. Olney. Elementary Lessons in Exporting. Johnston Export Publishing Co. Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vols. XXV and XXVI. Henry Frowde. Jervey, Theodore D. Robert Y. Hayne and His Times. Macmillan. $3 net. Johnston, J. Wastage of Child Life, as Exemplified by Conditions in Lancashire. London: A. C. Fifield. Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know. Edited by Mary E. Burt and W. T. Chapin. Doubleday, Page. $1.20. Lees, Frederic. A Summer in Touraine. Chicago: A. C. McClurg. $2.75 net. Legge, Ronald. The Hawk: A Story of Aerial War. John McBride Co. Lovell, Lucile. The Voices of the Trees. Published by the author. Marden, Orison Swett. Not the Salary But the Opportunity. Thomas Y. Crowell. 10 cents net. Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical His- tory of Doctor Faustus. Sturgis & Wal- ton Co. 45 cts. Meeting, 1908. Baltimore: Waverly Press. Metour, Eugene Paul. In the Wake of the Green Banner. Scribner. $1.50. Mighels, Mrs. Philip Verrill. The Full Glory of Diantha. Chicago: Forbes & Co. $1.50. Nims, Harry D. The Law of Unfair Busi- ness Competition. Baker, Voorhis & Co. Noyes, Alexander Dana. Forty Years of American Finance. Putnam. $1.50 net. O'Neill. Rose. The Lady in the White Veil. Harper. $1.50. Palmer, George Herbert. Self-Cultlvation in English. Thomas Y. Crowell. 10 cents net. Peck, Harry. Thurston. Studies in Several Literatures. Dodd, Mead, $1.20 net. Proceedings of the Second Annual Play- ground Congress, 1908. Playground Asso- ciation of America. Reeves, Alfred G. A Treatise on the Law of Real Estate. 2 vols. Boston: Lit- tle, Brown. Robertson, Harriette Gunn. Mary of Mag- dala. A Tale of the First Century. Saal- field Publishing Co. $1.50. Sedgwick, Arthur George. 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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1909. The Week. That eighteen Democratic Senators •should have voted with Aldrich last Thursday to take iron ore from the free list, and tax it 25 cents a ton, goes far towards answering the question why there is no Democratic party. With drains and principles both out of it. why *hould it pretend to be alive any longer? Free iron ore was one of the cardinal -features of the Wilson bill, as it passed the House in 1894. Two proposals were made, while the schedule was under de- bate in the House, to put a duty on iron •ore, but both were rejected, one by a vote of 136 to 65, the other by 109 to 52. The duty was put back by the Senate, in 1894 as last week; but this was one of the things which President Cleveland had in mind when he denounced the Senate changes as a work of "perfidy and dishonor." Free raw materials in general, and free iron ore in particular, -have been the battle-cry of Democrats for years; but when a bill comes up from a Republican House making iron ■ore free, over half the Democratic Sen- ators join hands with hidebound Repub- lican protectionists to put back the duty. It is not simply a question of iron ore: the whole iron and steel schedule will be affected by the decision to tax the Taw material. The pretence of its being a revenue duty is too pitiful. The en- tire estimated revenue on iron ore, leaving out the Cuban product which •comes in under the reciprocity treaty, is $127,000! That is a pretty thin salve for the conscience of the recreant Dem- ocratic Senators. They might better have frankly said that they voted at the demand of powerful protected inter- ests in their States. After th's, all their talk about wishing to remove tariff bur- dens and about hating monopolies, will only show how fond they are of being laughed at. The force of self-stultifica- tion cannot easily go further. Gov. Stubbs of Kansas for trying to in- duce the President inadvertently to fa- vor him and his partisans in an appoint- ment under the Department of Justice. There is no roaring in his letter; no violent denunciation, no use of the short- er and uglier word, but merely a quiet explanation that Mr. Taft is a catspaw for nobody, and that he is building no political machine for himself or any one else. The offence was that Gov. Stubbs had heralded in Kansas Mr. Taft's as- sent to the appointment of Robert Stone of Topeka as a great victory for him- self. He had caught Senator Curtis and Congressman Anthony napping, and car- ried off a big political plum without their knowledge. Mr. Taft, on discover- ing this, promptly directed the revok- ing of Mr. Stone's appointment until the wishes of the Kansas delegation could be ascertained. Mr. Stone's fate rests now with the Kansas Senators and Con- gressmen, and Gov. Stubbs, who is be- lieved to be a candidate for Senator Curtis's seat, will be careful hereafter not to boast when he turns a successful political trick. I cannot allow myself or the departments ■under me to be made the means of the pro- motion of the political fortunes of one fac- tion or the other in a State as important as Kansas. With these wcrds. Mr. Taft has rebuked The Tennessee jury which fined some convicted night-riders $500 each and sent them to jail for ten days does not merit all the harsh names that are be- ing applied to it. Critics forget that it first found the defendants guilty under the Ku Klux act, thus forcing the judge to pronounce the death sentence, and that the judge, loath to accept this ex- tremity, ordered another decision. The incident seems to confirm what has of- ten been alleged, namely, that public sentiment would long ago have broken up the night-riding epidemic in Tennes- see and Kentucky, if the authorities had not failed in the courage of duty. These twelve jurors of Waverly did as any other honest men would have done, to whom it was proved that the defendants broke into a citizen's house and lashed him nearly to death because he spoke out against night-riders. It was the judge that followed the less illustrious example of the politicians. Backed up by an unequivocal law and by an equally clear verdict, he waived his opportunity to establish a precedent which would ring from the mountains to the Mississippi. Instead, he threatens to patrol Humph- reys County with a regiment — and lets the offenders go with a chicken-thief's punishment. Apparently, reform must begin at the top. It is certainly not pleasant to have the American copyright law described in the German Reichstag as a "crazy pot-pourri of modern ideas and peanut protectionism," but it is still less pleas- ant to be forced to admit that the de- scription is true. Even with the im- provements made by our last codifica- tion of copyright laws, our legislation on the whole subject of international protection of literary and artistic prop- erty remains backward and benighted. vY-e have been unwilling to go to the root of the matter. Under the Berne Convention, to which nearly all civiliz- ed nations except our own adhere, the rights of the foreign author or artist are put absolutely on a par with those of the native. But the United States will not agree to this. By our "manu- facture clause" and other complexities and absurdities, we keep ourselves out- side of the comity of enlightened coun- tries. The German Deputy who spoke the other day of our copyright injus- tices, expressed the hope that Ameri- cans would soon be driven by very shame into acceding to the Berne Con- vention. But he does not know how a protectionist Congress may go on for years naked and unashamed. That the law, properly enforced, can do much to discourage vicious journal- ism, is shown in a recent editorial in Bench and Bar. Commenting upon the publication of letters left by an Albany suicide, a jurist declares that this is un- doubtedly a violation of "literary prop- erty": The right of first publication of any let- ters, even those having no literary merit, resides in the writer. . . . The publica- tion by another without his consent con- stitutes an infringement of such right. The act also violates the New York Penal Code, which, in the opinion of Bench and Bar, applies "as well to the case of letters written by the deceased person as by others to the deceased per- son." Presumably, this is a common- place among attorneys, but the unfortu- nate layman who sees his private af- fairs in screeching headlines some fine

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500 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 morning, knows it only as a moral pre- cept. His ignorance it is that embol- dens the scandal-monger. Were the bas- er journals afraid to print private cor- respondence without authorization, they would soon be made noticeably less of- fensive. The college student has much to an- swer for, but there is one insinuation that he might really be spared. Why does the world go on urging him not to be conceited? This bit of advice is not only stale, but uncalled for. A dis- tinguished State officer, speaking at the recent Cornell dinner, could not keep from shouting out that hoary slander: "My advice to the college graduate would be this: Rid yourself of any idea that a college education gives you a monopoly of knowledge and wisdom. . . . The thing for the college man to avoid is the mistake of assuming, on graduation, that things are all wrong." But, as a matter of fact, the college student who looks upon his diploma as a certificate of eligibility to a ten-thou- sand-dollar job, is to be found only in tradition and the comic weeklies. The average undergraduate does not know much, but we must do him the credit of acknowledging that he is quite aware of the fact. Like Peggotty, Noddy Bof- fin, and Joe Gargery, he will readily ad- mit that wisdom, learning, special abil- ity, and anything else that comes out of books, are not in his line. Every alumnus who, out of a fortune made in soap, gives alma mater a new hall of sciences takes care to impress on the college graduate his striking inferiority to the average office-boy. And as for finding fault with established things, would that more college graduates did- The readiness with which men will step from the tradition of alma mater to the tradition of the broker's office is often very disheartening. would not be so good if the students were left to themselves, but asks: "What of it? The attraction of the game lies in the fact that we are all parti- sans." The best remedy for coaching evils would be to cut down the number of games with competing colleges, and to atolish the gate-money which makes possible high-priced coaches and the oth- er extravagances of which Dr. Nichols complains. Nothing would so quickly decrease the great publicity and noto- riety given to successful athletes, which also grieves Dr. Nichols, as to do away t ith the offensive hippodrome features of the inter-university contests. When undergraduates can make $40,000 or $50,000 by a single game, it is but nat- ural that they should waste it upon "rubbers," trainers, coaches, medical at- tendance, automobiles, lavish supplies of clothes, etc. The cost of living during the training season, the teams expect to receive free of cost. Suppose Harvard were to limit her football schedules to three inter-university contests; the ar- tificial public interest in the team would rapidly decrease. If then, as is the case in games between Oxford and Cambridge, the spectators should have to stand, the Boston newspapers would not find it worth their while to give pages to accounts of the game, and the sport would begin to sink to its proper place in the life of the university. The difficulty with this is. the existence of the costly stadia and grandstands. But Dr. Nichols's unrest is another sign that university public opinion is rapidly com- ing to the point where it will insist upon the use of the surgeon's knife upon these extraneous athletic growths. The sooner this is done, the better for edu- cation. papers say that this was the message in hundreds of letters and in long peti- tions. The Assembly Committee on Pub- lic Health, in spite of its three physi- cian members, was over-awed at the first hearing on the measure, and killed it. If superstition is the match of med- ical science in shaping the educational policy of public schools, then we might as well revert to voodooism. Voodoo- ism at least believes in tuberculosis, and seeks a material remedy. It might even incorporate the correct treatment, too, with its rites. Dr. B. H. Nichols, himself a former Harvard athlete and medical adviser of several Cambridge football teams, in a recent address before the Harvard Med- ial School took strong ground against the coaching of college teams. The pres- ent system he described as "an out- growth of the need, not of avoiding physical injury, but of the necessity of winning." Dr. Nichols is opposed both to the professional and to the grad- uate coaches. He admits that the games Professor Sumner s conjecture, in the Forum, that the civilized world may some day drift back to demonism, is de- pressing. But a belief in witchcraft is trifling compared with the possibilities that the faith-cure craze recently re- vealed in Wisconsin. A bill was intro- duced before the Legislature providing that, in connection with elementary hygiene, public-school pupils be taught how to avoid contagion and the com- moner ailments. Thereupon protests began to pour in from all sorts of rad- ical mind-healers; it would be sinful, they cried, to give children the impres- sion that disease was real. Wisconsin The South has sustained a grievous loss in the death of Bishop Galloway of Mississippi. Not merely an earnest preacher and a platform speaker of un- usual eloquence, he was a man of the highest moral courage ant1 of enlight- ened convictions. As a writer and a church leader, he threw himself whole- heartedly into the cause of Southern education. One of the first to lend his support to what has been known as the Ogden movement, he by no means lim- ited his sympathy to the interests of one race. At Tuskegee and elsewhere he openly proclaimed his belief in the education of the negro. "Not in stat- utes or constitutions," he once declared — "not in legislation, State or national — but in the schoolhouses of the country, is the great problem of American citi- zenship to find its final solution. And in the face of no American child should the door be shut, and from no lit- tle hands should the spelling-book be ruthlessly wrested." The gospel of kindliness and confidence between the races had no more earnest advocate than Bishop Galloway, and he lived up to the doctrines he preached. Both races, not merely in Mississippi, but in the South, have therefore cause to mourn his death as that of a genuine leader of the people, and one of those earnest personalities who more than anything else maintain the power of the church. While the Wright brothers are being toasted for their conquest of the air, somebody ought to take notice of their victor;' over a much lighter element, namely, the atmosphere of sensational- Ism and self-advertising in which our generation moves. Nothing in their achievements is more conspicuous than their steadfast desire to be inconspic-

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 501 uous. They have never confided to any Sunday supplement that their aero- planes would soar to the moon. Press- agents were never invited to their ex- periments, but had to beg for admission like any small boy at a baseball game; and they usually begged in vain. Some said the inventors were only guarding against theft of their ideas; but their indifference toward the wholesale adula- tion that kings and scientists have poured over them spoils that theory. If their experience aloft with fickle winds .^as taught them to shun the more tieacherous gusts of cheap publicity, then may Heaven speed the day of aero- planes. The formal protest of financial Lon- don against Mr. Lloyd-George's budget has been described as an "historic event," and, judged by the apparent unanimity of the adverse judgment, is probably a "wholly unprecedented ac- tion." It is difficult, however, to pass judgment upon this protest without re- calling another expression of financial opinion, filed with the British Ministry as a result of a responsible meeting in "the City" some weeks ago, for the im- mediate construction, not of four Dread- noughts as had been contemplated, but of eight. Now, a Dreadnought is an expensive luxury. The estimated cost of one of them is $10,000,000; four of them would very nearly equal the total appropriation for old-age pensions as defined by the Ministry for the coming year. The meeting at the Guildhall did not instruct the Ministry as to how or whence the extra $40,000,000 was to be procured. A "naval loan" was faintly suggested, but the idea was promptly vetoed by serious financiers, who were well aware that the present low price of British government bonds is a dead- weight on investment markets, and who were under no illusions as to what would be the upshot of cheerfully em- bracing the plan of building extrava- gant armaments on credit. But if "the City" did not solve the problem of rais- ing money for a doubled outlay on arm- ament, the Chancellor of the Exche- quer did. His response in substance was: You people of financial London insist on new Dreadnoughts. Very well, you shall have them; but you shall also pay for them. We do not pretend to say that Mr. Lloyd-George's piling of three-fourths of the new taxation upon incomes, legacies, and the Stock Ex- change is an equitable distribution of a national burden for the general national welfare; but the facts of the matter certainly do lend a good deal less im- pressiveness to last week's protest or' the bankers. For 'the City" to get frightened over mysterious stories of Germany's enormous naval construction plans, to pass resolutions demanding ex- traordinary increase in Great Britain's naval outlay, and then to complain be- cause the bill is so high, is a course somewhat wanting in dignity. From France, it is at present reported that the separation of church and state has so far brought little benefit to the nation. There is a visible decline in the moral tone of the people, an increase of crime, and a growing public restless- ness which may prove dangerous to the state. Even the financial results of the campaign against the church are said to be disappointing. We take it that such reports are strongly partisan. Three years are scarcely enough to test a serious change in the moral condition of an entire people. On the other hand, the last three years have shown many an added reason in explanation of the French anti-clerical temper. Profess as it may that it is no enemy of the re- public, the church in France seemingly lets no opportunity pass to show that an enemy it is. Last Sunday's royalist banquet at Paris is an instance. Why was the feast in honor of the beatifica- tion of Joan of Arc made the occasion for shouting "Vive le roi!" and "A bas la republique!"? After this, what chance is there for the moderate church- men who, here and there, would be working for a reconciliation with the government? The royalist cause in France as a direct issue is dead, but it has vitality enough to make the lot of the French Catholics a hard one in these days of Radical ascendency, which the royalists are doing their best to perpet- uate. There was never any doubt that M Clemenceau would get his vote of ap- proval from the Chamber whenever he wanted it. He manoeuvred skilfully to make that vote as imposing as possible, and succeeded. Had the question of confidence been put a few days earlier, when the postal strike was only a threat, personal motive might have as- serted itself above principle. Clemen- ceau's enemies and rivals would have lined up against him, and his margin of victory might have been narrow. With the strike actually under way, the Dep- uties dared not refuse the government their support on what had become a matter of vital public concern. Not even the most ambitious of Ministerial can- didates would venture to overthrow a Ministry on an issue that would mean his own speedy ruin in turn. If the Clemenceau Cabinet had gone down be- fore the strikers, what government could subsequently hope to maintain its au- thority? On the general vote of con- fidence last Thursday, the Chamber gave Clemenceau a majority of 206; on the motion repudiating the right to strike for public servants, the majority was 385. If the Chamber will now proceed to redeem its promise to settle definite- ly the legal status of government em- ployees, the present crisis will qu ckly cease to be threatening. The resignation of Dr. Paasche, the National Liberal leader, and chairman of the Tax Committee of the Reichstag, looks ominous for Von Bulow's bloc. A vice-president of the Reichstag, and long one of its most influential members, Dr. Paasche resigned because, on a point of procedure, his adherents were voted down by a combination of Conservatives and members of the Centre. As the lat- ter party has been the especial enemy of the bloc, the action of the Conserva- tives is regarded as rank treason and as notice that they will no longer abide by the Bulow arrangement. The Central Committee of the National Liberal party, which is to decide the course of that party in Berlin to-day, is bound to be the more angry because Br. Paasche has been succeeded as cha'rman of the all-important Tax Committee by a mem- ber of the Centre. Radicals and Liber- als, it is expected, will unite in inform- ing the Chancellor that they will no longer cooperate with him if the Cen- tre is to have anything to do with the financial proposals hereafter. Von Bulow thus faces the severest test of h's ca- reer. He must either return to the old coalition of Conservatives and Clericals, and swallow the brave words uttered when he broke with the latter, or de- cide that discretion is the better part of valor and insist on the acceptance of his resignation.

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5Q2 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 THE PEOPLE LOSING A WEAPON. We have already reached the period of tariff recrimination. The two politi- cal parties are charging each other with tne responsibility for making the Aid- rich bill so bad. "You are not keeping your pledges," assert the Democrats, "to make an honest revision of the tariff downwards." "But you were pledged to that more stiffly than we were," retort the Republicans, "yet here you are vot- ing for a duty on iron ore, and for every other tariff tax that you are in- terested in locally." This twitting on the record passes easily into predic- tions about the political consequences. Gov. Johnson of Minnesota declares that, if the party in power does not keep faith with the people, in the mat- ter of tariff revision, "the Middle West is lost to the Republicans four [mean- ing three] years hence." On the other hand, an old Republican leader in Con- gress affirms: "A Democrat who de- nounces the tariff law in the next cam- paign will be in a sorry plight. When a Democrat tells you that he is for a tariff for revenue only, he means that he wants protection for the State or district which he represents." Behind all this stands the figure of Bryan. He is writing letters to his friends in Washington to say that the failure of the Republicans to revise the tariff hon- estly means a Democratic House in 1910 and a Democratic President in 1912. But even if that result seemed written in the book of destiny, Bryan as a candidate would be able to undo all. The trouble goes deep. It is not a mere question of a particular issue, like the tariff or any given election, but of tne whole theory and operation of gov- ernment by party. We have always been taught, and the whole experiment goes upon this basis, that when one party in office becomes unresponsive to the popular will, or visibly corrupt, the thing to do is to turn it out and put in the other. That was the normal pro- cess, as President Taft himself has de- scribed it, when the Democrats under Grover Cleveland ousted the Republi- cans in 1884. The latter had been too long and too unchecked in power, and the country turned from their inefficien- cies and vices to the Opposition party. But that remedy for political ills, that weapon in the hands of the people, we seem to have been losing in recent years. It is not only that the Democratic party has been in the hands of a leader with an unequalled capacity for repel- ling support, and a perfect genius for disaster. That might in time be out- lived; but when we see the practice of the two parties, no matter what their professions, very much alike, and are deprived of the power to get done by one what the other refuses to do, we cannot help feeling that both the pres- ent fact and the future outlook are dis- quieting. Government by party, we sud- denly seem to be finding a broken reed. Consider how the matter stands in the State of New York. A really efficient and public-spirited Opposition party at Albany this past winter could have tak- en advantage of the rupture between the Governor and the machine-politi- cians of his own party, not only to do something worth while in the way of legislation, but to place itself in a fine strategic position for the next State campaign. But what was actually done by the Democratic leaders in the Legis- lature? Why, they entered into secret agreements with the worst of the Re- publicans, and made themselves part and parcel of the thing to be reprobat- ed. The alliance of Raines and Grady could not have been more certain if it had been signed and sealed in a formal document. They were hand in glove throughout the session;' and in the clos- ing days it was hard to tell which was the leader of the Senate, rushing through bad bills and defeating good ones, Raines or Grady. So when the time comes to bring all these matters under debate in a political campaign, the result is sure to be great uncertain- ty and confusion, because we have not a clear alternative of parties before us. Just as on the tariff issue in national politics, the Democrats have so unblush- ingly abandoned their platform and their avowed convictions as to disable themselves from appealing against Re- publican faithlessness, so in New York the Democratic management has shown itself adept in the very evils it de- nounces. Where shall the citizen turn who has been brought up to believe that if the people cannot have their will through one party, they can through the other? Whatever the reply to that question, one notice should be publicly served. It is that a party in power cannot de- pend indefinitely upon immunity, no matter what its sins, so long as it can say, and prove, that the party out of office is just as bad as itself. Angry electors will not forever stand uncer- tain. They will make a choice, even if it prove to be mistaken. The desire to punish a recreant party is often so pow- erful that voters will not be too fastid- ious about the means they employ to do it. Republicans drunk with power have had their disagreeable awakening be- fore now, and may easily have it again if they allow themselves to be dragged after Aldrich's high-tariff chariot. Pres- ident Taft, in endeavoring to hold his party honorably to its pledges, is not simply working at the task in hand of revising the tariff, but is doing some- thing to make government by party re- spectable and feasible. FALLING IN LOVE WITH TAXES. A German professor of economics has hit upon a discovery which had never swum into the ken of finance ministers or legislators — that taxes should be loved, not hated. This University man, Prof. Adolf Wagner, recently addressed a public meeting at Cologne, and sang the praises of fresh taxation. The ef- forts of the government to impose new levies upon the people ought not to be denounced, but hailed with joy. They were a sign of expanding national wealth. Instead of being regarded as burdens, heavier taxes should be thought of as mere bagatelles for a rich people. Professor Wagner had heard a lady in a railway carriage say that her new hat had cost "only $150." There ought to be the same disdainful tone about high taxes. "I have paid to the government only 12 per cent, of all my income." "I have given up to the tax collectors only one-half of my revenue from real estate." If we come really to love being taxed, we should be much happier ourselves, and only think how happy we should make our rulers! Professor Wagner evidently sees no necessary truth in the old maxim of statesmanship, cited by Burke, that it is impossible to tax and to please. If tax- ation is made a form of flattery, the result may be different. Let a Finance Minister preface his schemes for new imposts by saying that his people, as the richest and most patriotic and good-natured people on earth, will pay up, not only without a murmur, but

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May 20, 1909] The ISTation. 503 with expressions of pleasure and grati- tude. This is certainly a new point of view for the tithing-man. Instead of ap- proaching the taxables with sour and vinegar aspect, he ought to come along in jolly fashion, like one doing a favor. In this view of the matter, the English Chancellor of the Exchequer, when in- troducing his recent budget, made a great mistake in speaking as if his func- tion were to give offence, instead of to waken thankfulness: Up to the present we have been consid- ering the naval problem from the point of view of merely spending money. I shall now have to invite hon. members and the country to consider it from the equally essential but less agreeable standpoint of paying for it. Spending is pleasant, pay- ing is irksome; spending is noble, paying is sordid. And it is on me falls the mak- ing of arrangements for the less attractive part of the naval programme. This is far from the glad tone of Pro- fessor Wagner, or from the note struck by our cheerful taxers at Washington. Their description of the proposed pro- tective taxes quite overcrows the at- tempt of the German professor to make the paying of taxes a joy. For if our Senators may be believed, the tariff they have in mind is like the combined bless- ings of nature — like dew and sun and fructifying showers to make fertile the land which, but for protective taxes, would be a sand heap. Are we, then, such curmudgeons that we shall resent giving up a little of our easily earned money — all money is earned easily un- der the protective system — in order to make gladness for thousands? Why, Senator Scott and Senator Oliver can demonstrate that, if you only consent to pay a few cents more for glass, you will fill the shop with the busy hum ot industry, while reducing the bonds of its Senatorial owners to less than 10 cents on the dollar. And Senator Aid- rich can make plain to the meanest un- derstanding that slightly higher taxes on woollen clothing will make it really cheaper — or would, but for the rascal- ly jobbers— while keeping still more thousands of American workingmen steadily employed, and still further im- poverishing the proprietors of the mills. This way of presenting the attractions of taxation has never, we are certain, been dreamed of in the philosophy of Professor Wagner. .Were he privileged to attend one day's Senate debate on the tariff, he could not fail to conclude that taxes were a matter of hilarity. We greatly fear, however, that the jocular view of taxes will have all the fun knocked out of it before it wins a way to acceptance. Stupid people will go on seeing the facts of taxation very much as Adam Smith set them forth. They will not fall in love with the swarm of officers, "whose salaries may eat up the greater part of the produce of the tax"; and will obstinately refuse to regard taxes as anything but a form of "trouble, vexation, and oppression.' It begins to appear that even in Wash- ington the idea of taxes as an evil- necessary, but an evil — is getting the upper hand. Senators, who at first thought the country could be made con- sciously happy by over-taxation, are be- ginning to discover that high taxes are one of those blessings that brighten as they take their flight. Hence the out- look for a real reduction of the tariff is better than it has been. Despite Pro- fessor Wagner, it is difficult to make people fall in love with taxes by adding to them. As Speaker Reed said when it was proposed to enlarge the national territory by annexation; "There is more already than I can really love." SEEING THE PACIFIC SLOPE. One of the advantages resulting from the exhibitions held in ambitious Pa- cific Coast cities — the latest being the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition at Seattle, which begins on the first of June — is that the wondrous sights, combined with reductions in railway fares, tempt thousands to cross the Rocky Mountains for the first time to see whether there is any basis for the cry: "Why go to Europe?" Has not our country scenic features grander even than those that are to be seen on the other side of the At- lantic? Should we not, before going abroad the fifth or tenth time, see something of our native land, so that we can tell inquisitive foreigners about it and aid Karl Baedeker in his efforts to divert part of the European tourist stream to our own shores? When the first transcontinental rail- way was planned, nearly everybody doubted the possibility of its financial success. To-day, there are eight of these lines, with another fast nearing com- pletion, and all will be kept busy this summer with the tourist traffic. The question regarding the most advisable route is easy to answer. On the whole, it is best, at least during May and June, to go by one of the Southern lines, re- turning by one of the Northern. The Southern Pacific presents advantages to those who may contemplate a side-trip to Mexico. The Santa Fe route affords opportunity to visit the Navajo and Moki Indian reservations and the petri- fied forest; but the lion of this line is the Grand Canon of the Colorado River, in Arizona, now reached conveniently by the branch railway from Williams. This stupendous chasm (which is often con- fused with the Grand Canon in Colo- rado, along the Denver and Rio Grande —a wonderful sight, too) is absolutely unique; Europe has nothing even re- motely resembling it. Unique, too, is The Yosemite Valley, with its water- falls descending from dizzy heights, its precipices, its domes and half-domes, its mirror lake, its red snow plants, and a hundred other astonishing spectacles, some of which, as John Muir has re- marked, are so strange that they sur- prise even Indians, horses, and dogs. But before seeing the Yosemite, the tourist who goes by either of the lines named will, of course, spend some days in Los Angeles; he will have a chance to see the olive and orange groves and bathe in the Pacific; to enjoy, at Cata- lina Island, what Frederick G. Aflalo, editor of the Anglers' Library and Eng- land's leading authority on the subject, calls "the finest sea-fishing in the world"; to spend a day and night on top of Mt. Wilson, and after enjoying the varied views which have given this peak the name of the magic mountain, gaze at the stars, in the observatory of the Carnegie Institution, through the largest lens ever made. On the way to San Francisco, should the visitor prefer combined views of ocean and mountains to the Yosemite, he can take the new coast line, which affords an opportunity to visit some of the old Spanish mission houses, and, at Monterey, to enjoy a cactus collection, equal to any wild desert garden of Arizona or Mexico. The new San Fran- cisco is worth seeing; in the words of President Wheeler of the University of California, it is "immeasurably finer from an architectural point of view, and immeasurably more solid and useful from the business point of view, than the old"; and in two more years — five after the disaster — there will be no

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504 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 other external trace of the old city left than the improvement on every hand. Tahoe, loveliest of mountain lakes, makes one of many fine excursions from San Francisco, unless the tourist goes by the Union Pacific and takes it in, with Salt Lake City, on the way. Go- ing north, the snowy summit of Mt. Shasta fascinates the eyes for five hours while the train, on the way to Port- land, encircles it. Crater Lake, one of the unique wonders of Oregon, can this summer, for the first time, be reached conveniently by rail from Weed to Kla- math Falls, thence by boat and stage. Mount Hood is easily ascended, and half-way up is Cloud Cap Inn, where one can stay and study the stupendous glaciers of "our noblest volcano," as A. H. Sylvester of the United States Geo- logical Survey has called it. From Portland, Seattle is reached via Tacoma in a few hours, with the grand- est of snow mountains always in sight, including that "mountain of mountains," Tacoma — or Rainier, as it is now (but should not be) called — the climax of the California-Oregon series of snow peaks. These snow-clad volcanoes de- rive their grandeur from the fact that they are seen at sea-level, full height, whereas the Swiss peaks are shortened by the five or six thousand feet of ele- vation, whence they are usually seen. The Seattle exhibition-grounds will owe much of their attractiveness to Orien- tal, Alaskan, and Indian features After his visit to them, the tourist is ready to return. He may choose the Northern or Union Pacific, and see the Yellow- stone Park, with its waterfalls, canons, and geysers, unlike anything to be seen in Europe; or he may take the Great Northern, stopping off at the Flathead Reserve to see Lakes MacDonald and Ava'anche. "Give a month at least to this precious reserve," is the advice of John Muir; and a month is not too . much for the Yellowstone. If more sncw-mountain scenery is desired, the Canadian Pacific is the road to take, by all means. On this, for nearly two dajs, the tourist has in view, on both sides of the train, one magnificent chain af- ter another, till he is almost bewildered He will then be able to understand the meaning of the confession of Whymper. the great Alpine expert, that there are in British Columbia fifty Switzerlands. Undoubtedly, we miss many of the things that make a summer in Switzer- land alluring. 'We merely suggest that our Pacific Slope is worth seeing, too; and if the traveller has time to extend his trip to Alaska, he will find a series of fjords, framed in by snow peaks, surpassing the Norwegian in grandeur. THE WINNING TYPE OF YACHT. In the perpetual race between differ- ent types of boats for the favor of the yachting public, the gasolene yacht is rapidly distancing all its competitors, steam or sail. Although about as new an invention as the automobile, its num- ber is also legion, its variety endless. Originally placed with much distrust in open launches, the explosion engine has made its way rapidly into larger and larger pleasure craft, until to-day it is a rare exception if a yacht under one hundred feet is provided with coal-us- ing machinery. More than that, the time has already come when the gaso- lene motor is actually driving out of boats steam machinery long and suc- cessfully in use. For instance, it has just become known that Gen. E. A. Mc- Alpin, the purchaser of the steam yacht Sentinel, 108 feet in length, has found it worth his while to remove her boilers and engines, and install compact gaso- lene motors. The gains are obvious. The space saved by the installation of the more compact motive power permits the con- struction of two additional staterooms, and gives increased living room else- where. The new engines not only yield double the power, but weigh consider- ably less; to the gain in speed must be added also the benefit of a reduced en- gine-room crew, one gasolene engineer taking the place of steam engineer and fireman. But the owner profits in still other ways. With the hot boilers taken from the interior of the boat, goes the unpleasant odor of steam and oil. The labor, dirt, and annoyance of taking on coal and water, and discharging ashes, are avoided. The craft is ready for in- stantaneous service; there are no more banked fires, while getting up steam in a hurry is a thing of the past. Gaso- lene boats can reach their maximum speed within five minutes after the own- er comes on board unexpectedly, and there is no fuel consumption except when the boat is actually under way. The saving in fuel thus made is so great as wholly to offset the lower price of steam fuel. One has only to consider the numerous emergencies in which motive power is hastily needed to realize how valuable is this immediate mobility. Had our bat- tleships at Santiago possessed it, the Spanish fleet would have had no chance of escape whatever, and the battle would have been fought directly off the harbor mouth. The same reason has induced the Police Department of New York to replace its steam launches with motor-boats, and it reports a consider- able gain in efficiency. A steam life-boat was an impossibility; the gasolene life- boat is a marked success, for its engine can be brought into action as rapidly as the rocket-gun. Immediate mobility often means an increased margin of safety in a crowded harbor, or in a sudden and dangerous blow, and this is why many owners of sailing craft, who once swore that nothing in the world would make them resort to so unsea- manlike a device, have first shamefaced- ly installed an auxiliary engine and then learned to brag about it. But it is the decrease in the cost of yachts when equipped with motors that is, after all, the most important feature of this marine revolution. People who never dreamed of owning a craft in which they might comfortably voyage from New York to. Bar Harbor, sudden- ly find themselves granted the freedom of the coasts at a comparatively small expenditure. The number of cruising motor-craft between fifty and ninety feet is astonishingly large. Never a week goes by but a new one is an- nounced in the press or in the marine journals. Generally the owner is his own skipper and spends most of his time at the wheel watching his boat log off from twelve miles an lour up- ward. The newer boats are designed with greater and greater regard for sea- worthiness, and ability to undertake deep-water cruising. The amount of living space on such a craft is quite extraordinary when contrasted with the old-time steamer. Thus a typical boat seventy feet in length, just launched, contains one state-room with tour berths and two single state-rooms, to- gether with a bath-room. The main saloon is placed forward, and rises sev- eral feet above the deck; it contains two sofas, readily made up into berths. In the engine room are two thirty- horsepower engines, entirely cut off from the rest of the boat by water- L

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 505 tight bulkheads. On its davits, this yacht carries a small speed-launch, which is capable of eighteen knots. The boat itself has an extreme breadth of fourteen feet and draws only three and one-half feet. From this size down to the little "one- man" cruiser, the variation is infin'te; but the amount of pleasure to be ob- tained depends in no degree upon the size. Wherever one goes, down the Po- tomac, in the remote recesses of Chesa- peake Bay, in Florida waters, or mov- ing noiselessly along the northernmost coast, or the great canals, this form of agile houseboat is ever under way. Its range is astonishing. A fifty-six-foot cruiser, just built at Morris Heights, has a radius of 1,200 miles before it be- comes necessary to think of renewing the fuel; and the cost of this handsome boat is but $8,000. Even the State of New York has caught the contagion and built a superb eighty-foot boat for the head of its Public Works Department, for his cruises on the canals. Every de- partment of the Federal government is rapidly acquiring vessels of this charac- ter. Indeed, so great is the output of these yachts, many of which cost less than an expensive imported automobile, that a prominent designer recently ex- pressed his belief in the total disap- pearance of sailing craft within twenty years. But this is a prophecy of pes- simism. No motive power yet produced can provide the thrills and the joys or the health-tonics of the old-fashioned catboat or the more modern knock- about, to say nothing about the vigorous young seamen they turn out. JOHN KEATS' 8 PORRIDGE. William Watson has brought the charge of blood-guiltiness against the English nation because it let poverty and overwork drive John Davidson to suicide. One of the oldest problems in political economy is thus raised again. What shall we do with this poet's trade, the worst paid of all handicrafts and professions, the trade most in need of government regulation, if ever there was one? No one has ever suggested a minimum wage for poets other than that which is distributed through the poorhouse. No Legislature has passed factory laws for their protection, though as a class they are notoriously more sensitive than women, and more defenceless than children. They are allowed to work at all hours of mid- night and in garrets which the anti- sweatshop law has declared unfit for the manufacture of tobacco and cheap clothing. The well-known irritable tem- per of the tribe makes it impossible for them to organize into unions. In an age of advanced industrial specializa- tion, they cling to the primitive meth- ods and standards of three thousand years ago. They persist in producing things they like, and not what the great public likes. They insist on look- ing forward to the future or back to the past and giving little thought to the all-important present. They will come back again and again to their ancient preoccupation, the soul of man, whereas food and drink are never to be had by looking within, but without, and all about, and pretty sharply at that. Mr. Watson's indictment of the Eng- lish people has recalled a plan once laid before the French Parliament by Alfred de Vigny, author of "Cinq- Mars" and "Chatterton." De Vigny pro- posed that an author who had produced a work of exceptional merit should re- ceive a government pension for five years. At the end of the period, if his work showed improvement over his first effort, his pension should be con- firmed for life. If his work showed no advance, the pension was to be with- drawn. "The scheme," we are told, "was not of a nature to appeal to practical men and it did not pass into law." Of course, the initial absurdity was that De Vigny should have laid a scheme concerning poets before a legislative assembly made up of practical men. A poet himself, De Vigny felt that the divine fire had only to manifest itself to be acknowledged; but the practical man would say: "What percentage would you allow for the moral tone of the poem, and how many poets would you apportion to every department and arrondissement?" De Vigny believed that more than one Chatterton had been sent to his grave by sheer want, but the practical man would argue that some- where he has heard of suffering as a good thing for poets. But what makes the practical man's case invulnerable is the fact that the poet himself, as a rule, does not cry out against poverty. He has accepted it proudly as the badge and certificate of his trade. What the poet needs is apparently not more bread and meat, since such things are to him unimportant, but a stiff up- per lip. It is quite true that he is miser- ably paid; but so is every high service the world receives. In proportion to the value he sets upon his labors, the wages of the poet are no worse than those of the pioneer, the inventor, the philoso- pher, the teacher, and the prophet. Say that the world pays for work inversely as the cube of the value rendered, and you have a pretty safe approximation. We pay our millionaire more than his broker; we pay the broker more than his chauffeur; we pay the chauffeur more than the man in the coal pit; and we pay the miner more than his wife. We pay our lobbyists more than our law- yers; we pay our lawyers more than our judges; and we pay our judges more than the man who serves society by keeping out of court. We pay our college "executives" more than our pro- fessors; we pay our professors more than our scholars; we pay our scholars more than our thinkers, whom we pay mighty little at all. This law is uni- versal. We pay the bad novelist more than the good novelist; we pay the good novelist more than the bad poet; we pay the bad poet more than the good poet; we pay the good poet more than the prophet, whose wages in his own valley are notoriously meagre and un- certain. And if we rise above the proph- et to services more than human, we know very well what the world pays for that. Poor as he is, therefore, the poet has no exceptional cause for complaint. If the necessity of earning his bread holds him tied to an office desk all day, he is not much worse off than the college professor who eats his heart out in a roomful of drones, while the opus of his life keeps retreating before him; not much worse off than the artist who must draw for the fashion magazines and text-books on anatomy; not much worse off than the member of a pro- fession whose traditional fare is locusts and wild honey. Spinoza found time to build up a philosophical system while grinding his lenses, and Kant built up another system while teaching for his bread. Poets are by no means Mr. Rockefeller's sole customers for mid- night oil.

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506 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 GEORGE MEREDITH. The death of the great novelist Tues- day morning, so soon after that of Swinburne, is another sign to show us how completely the Victorian genera- tions have passed away. To those of us whose minds were formed under these masters, it is as if we were sitting in a theatre at the close of the evening, when the actors one after another have spok- en their parts and made their exits, and only Mr. Hardy is left upon the stage, pronouncing his "Dynasts" as a solemn, mystical epilogue on the meaning of the play. Other times, other men. Messrs. Shaw and Wells and Chesterton, like wrangling comedians, are ready to amuse us with their antics before the last curtain falls; but we do not know who are the actors or what the plot is to be of to-morrow's play. By date, Mr. Meredith might almost be reckoned among the mid-Victorians. His "Ordeal of Richard Feverel" came out in 1859, the year of Thackeray's "Virginians," Dickens's "Tale of Two Cities," and George Eliot's "Adam Bede"; but the very setting together of these names shows how entirely in spir- it he belongs to a later generation. He stands rather with Gissing and Hardy, as one of the three who took up the censure of life where the earlier three had left it. To most critics he is the greatest of the late-Victorian novelists, not so poignant as Gissing or so popu- lar as Hardy, but greater in his rela- tion to the age than either. Such a criticism may be right, yet what superb qualities are in the other two that Mere- dith wants! Gissing, in his earlier and more significant novels at least, may be utterly dark and pessimistic, yet his language has always a poise and fluent charm, beside which the sentences of Meredith seem to rasp and jar like un- oiled machinery. And there is, too, in Gissing at his best, in the infinite pathos of "Thyrza," that madonna of the slums, in the bleak yet heroic misery of his "New Grub Street," in the stark hor- rors of poverty, not without glimpses of beautiful magnanimity, of his "Neth- erworld"— there is in him at his best a sense of the underlying waste of civil- ization which, to a strong reader, makes the characters of Meredith seem in comparison to move upon the surface of things. And with all Hardy's lack of assured art, despite the unaccountable amateur- ishness of half his work, he has a wealth of emotion and imagination for which Meredith can give no equivalent. The Dianas and Claras and Vittorlas of Meredith's society are subtle crea- tures, drawn with grave or glancing lights, but none of them reaches so deeply into human nature as Eustacia Vye of "The Return of the Native," with her "Pagan eyes, full of nocturnal mys- teries." There is no inanimate scene in Meredith's world that so deceives us with the sense of possessing a deathless soul as does Egdon Heath of the same novel : Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries. through the crisis of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis — the final overthrow;. ... To know that everything around and under- neath had been from prehistoric times as unaltered as the stars overhead, gave bal- last to the mind adrift on change, and harrassed by the irrepressible New. The great inviolate place had an ancient per- manence which the sea cannot claim. There is no better way to bring out the qualities that distinguish these two contemporaries than to compare such sentences as these of Hardy's with the most famous of Meredith's descriptions — with the boating scene, for example, at the weir in "Richard Feverel," rad- iantly beautiful as that scene is, or with this brief picture from "Sandra Bel- loni": A half circle of high-banked greensward, studded with old park-trees, hung around the roar of the water; distant enough from the white-twisting fall to be mirrored on a smooth heaved surface, while its out- pushing brushwood below dropped under burdens of drowned reed flags that caught the foam. Keen scent of hay, crossing the dark air, met Emilia as she entered the river-meadow. A little more, and she saw the white weir-piles shining, and the gray roller just beginning to glisten to the moon. Eastward on her left, behind a cedar, the moon had cast off a thick cloud, and shone through the cedar-bars with a yellowish hazy softness, making rosy gold of the first passion of the tide, which, writhing and straining on through many lights, grew wide upon the wonderful vel- vet darkness underlying the wooded banks. With the full force of a young soul that leaps from beauty seen to unimagined 'beauty, Emilia stood and watched the picture. Then she sat down, hushed, await- ing her lover. What impresses the imagination in Meredith is the fulness of present life; nature, in complete sympathy with the living heroine, seems like her to leap from beauty seen to unimagined beauty; whereas in Hardy the present is but a moment in immeasurable time, and we are more moved by influences reaching out of an enormous past than by the drama acting before us. It is the contemporaneity of Meredith that forms both his strength and his limitation. A philosopher, thinking of these two con- trasted minds, would be tempted to ex- plain them by the new psychology of M. Bergson, which all the world is talking about just now — and very few are read- ing. Consciousness and reason, says our philosopher, are two different and hos- tile things. Consciousness is an un- broken chain of experience in which the past is continually taken up into the present, held in solution, so to speak, and so passed on to the future. Reason, on the contrary, which has to do only with the activities of the present, breaks up our consciousness or experience into discrete sections. It would be instruc- tive, but a little bewildering perhaps, to follow our philosopher in his applica- tion of this theory to literary criticism. Meredith is the rationalist par excel- lence among writers of fiction; his pow- er is in reason and analysis and point. If, then, M. Bergson is right in making reason the antithesis, even the destruc- tion, of our deeper consciousness, the astonishing agility of his mind in com- parison with Hardy's occasional dulness would go naturally with a certain shal- lowness and an insensibility to the deep- er currents that flow beneath our bus- tling activities. But it is not the Bergsonian philoso- phy that will make or mar the fame of Mr. Meredith, and its intrusion into our loss is almost an impertinence. Just now we are reflecting on his abundant treasures of wit and on his world of liv- ing people, and asking doubtfully who is to carry on the great tradition of let- ters. IMPRESSIONS OF SWINBURNE. London, May 5. The death of Mr. Swinburne deprived our literature not only of our last uni- versally acknowledged poet, but of a scholar immensely learned in the whole range of literature, classical and mod- ern. The son of an ancient and Ja- cobite house in Northumberland, and an Etonian of the least athletic type, Mr. Swinburne resembled Shelley as a born aristocrat, with at least a literary pas- sion for democracy. It is hardly con- ceivable that, as a poet and an Etonian in boyhood, Mr. Swinburne should not have modelled himself, more or less con- sciously, on Shelley.

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 507 I never heard any anecdotes of his school days, but when he came up to Ealliol, he did not amuse himself by "ragging the dons" in Shelley's manner. He lived very quietly, mainly in the so- ciety of Mr. Nichol, a Scottish student, who was later professor of English lit- erature in Glasgow. He did not, like Calverley, leave a lively tradition be- hind him; scouts remembered him as "a very quiet gentleman." He obtained £ university scholarship in modern lan- guages, and, I think, took only a second class in moderations, though his Greek Elegies, in "Atalanta in Calydon," are not only good as Greek verse, but as poetry. He was contemporary with Mr. T. R. Green, the Hegelian philosopher, who was not greatly addicted to the Muse; and he wrote a little, mainly against his bete noire, Napoleon III, in a serial called Undergraduate Papers. When Mr. Swinburne's "Atalanta in Calydon" and "Poems and Ballads" came out in 1865- 1866, they captivated my undergraduate mind; the second volume was more pop- ular with the young than that which I greatly preferred, "Atalanta." Balliol was not a literary college at that time, but Mr. Saintsbury records that "Poems and Ballads" had a succes fou at Mer- ton. "Atalanta in Calydon" could not be ignored. To my taste, this work of his youth, for the merits of its blank verse and the varied music and original meas- ures of the choruses, was his best. One opened it, knowing not even the name of the author, and one was carried away on the strong stream of the tragedy. It might not be Greek in sentiment — "Erechtheus," later, was much more Greek and much less captivating — but it was new poetry and true poetry: immor- tal poetry, I think. The famous "Poems and Ballads" of 1866 really broke the spell, and the reading public, that little flock, careless of the revived Greek tragedy, was much excited about the new volume. A hub- bub of protest arose, not unnaturally, for while it is full of splendid lyrics, it also contains things which then, and now, I was, and am, Puritan enough to regret. The passion of a knight who loves a leprous lady, is not, I think, a subject for art; and Mr. Swinburne's passion was never natural and sincere; it was always declamatory and literary. This is the defect of his poetry, the emotions have a literary origin, and every character is equally copious, vig- orous, and unconvincing. In the dramas it is the verbal music and the rhetoric that please us; Mary Stuart and Mary Beaton (who has an historical alibi, if that matters, and never saw her Queen after 1567) certainly did not express themselves in Mr. Swinburne's way, ex- cept when he does Casket Letter 11 into blank verse. We are not to look for humor in his plays; he very greatly appreciated humor, especially that of Dickens among the moderns, but he was not a humorist. This defect per- mitted him to employ his unequalled vehemence of language in his prose. He greatly esteemed Scott, yet he wrote: This insultingly reckless and savagely stupid example of headlong and brainless insularity is less inexplicable and scarcely more lamentable than the immoral and perverse infatuation which made Scott speak of one of the basest and shamefullest slanders that ever dropped from the lying lips of Byron as a mere sample of his love of mystifying: which may indeed be re- ferred to that of mischief. I have, by research, discovered the first of these sins of Sir Walter. He spoke of a certain Italian in London lit- erary society as a noisy, illogical, ugly bore. It appears that this Italian was "a noble poet," but it does not follow that he was not, socially, an ugly, noisy, illogical bore. The second of Scott's sins was his attributing to Byron's love of mystification and of mischief, his story that Cam Hobhouse wrote a dedi- cation to himself which Byron signed. This tale Byron imposed on Bankes, who told Scott, and what Scott did was to inform Bankes that Byron had gulled him — so as to prevent him from re- peating the fable. Sir Walter took the most charitable view possible of Byron, though Byron had "bet him," as he said, with the public. I really do not think that he appears immoral in this matter, and cannot share the alliterative indig- nation of Mr. Swinburne. His criticism, though so learned, is injured by his flights into the empyrean of praise and his frenzies of blame. Non tanti est, Sir Walter would have said, nothing is worth such "daemo- niaco-seraphic" floods of invective and applause. Byron and all the Bonapartes and Mr. Carlyle infuriated Mr. Swin- burne. "Truth is truth," he says, "though it be a Cariyle or a Gladstone, a Pigott or a Parnell, who affirms it." What is "that famous effusion of pes- simistic lechery which gives us in metri- cal form the moral quintessence of Cal- vin and Bacchus, of Priapus and Car- lyle"? It must be a queer composition, but Mr. Swinburne knew so much that he puzzles the ignorance of an ordinary reader. He seems always to have been young; age put no water to his wine; he was a patriot, though he called himself a re- publican; but other patriots, when he attacked our open enemies, wished that he would "draw it mild"; but that was the one thing which Mr. Swinburne could never do. In his use of language, he knew not limit. It is a puzzle that his vast knowledge of the best literature never taught him limit, never enabled him to see that the rapier of Pascal is a better weapon than the bludgeons of Milton, when controversial, and of John Knox. Suf- Haminandus erat, as Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare, but who could put the drag on Mr. Swinburne? Andrew Lang. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The new "Index to Book-Prices Current" 1897 to 1906, compiled by William Jaggard, and just published by Eliot Stock, is an ad- mirable piece of work, and one whose sale certainly can never recompense its editor for the three years spent upon it. It is a volume of nearly 1,100 pages — more than double the size of the Index to the first ten volumes of the annual, 1887-1896 — con- taining about one hundred thousand entries under authors or titles with cross-refer- ences under important subject headings. The following are new features of the work showing the improvement over the first volume : There is a great increase in the total number of anonymous and pseu- donymous names, to hundreds of which are attached the real names of the authors ; the names of editors, collaborators, composers, translators, and chief artists are indexed; to every entry, except in comparatively few cases where the year cannot be ascer- tained, the date of publication is appended; in numerous cases where the illustrations impart a special market value, the artist's name is indexed also. As Mr. Slater's an- nual record is arranged chronologically and the contents are inaccessible except through the Index appended, this combined Index to ten volumes adds largely to the utility of the series. It is prefaced by a chatty and interesting introduction by Mr. Jaggard, and by a list of Bibliophiles and Bibliopoles, that is of the collectors and owners of the chief libraries dispersed during the first twenty years of the life- time of "Book-Prices Current," 1887-1896. Frank Karslake, editor of "Book-Auction Records," has compiled and published "Notes from Sotheby's," a compilation of 2,032 notes from catalogues of book-sales held at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge's rooms, between 1885 and 1909. Many of these contain bibliographical or literary information not readily accessible else- where ; but some are mere statements of commonplace if not universal information, and as auctioneers are prone to exaggerate the rarity of their goods, some of the state- ments made as to the number of copies are not borne out by the facts. Thus, the note to the first copy offered of Lamb's "King and Queen of Hearts," 1809 (here misprint- ed 1509), sold on March 17, 1902, is given, with the misleading statement that "it is probable that 1809 is a misprint for 1806." In a later sale, June 3, 1902, a copy of an earlier edition dated 1806 was offered, but the note from that catalogue is not includ- ed. Several extremely rare Shelley items which have been sold at Sotheby's, and to which important notes appeared in the cat- alogues are not found here, nor are the four extremely rare Frobisher items sold on March 16, 1907, included. The date of sale and catalogue lot numbers of the items quoted are given but the price ia not. This information might have been included. The volume has as frontispiece a reproduction of a photograph of Sotheby's auction rooms during the first Amherst sale last December, with a key to impor- tant persons in attendance.

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5( )8 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 On May 24 and 25 the Anderson Auction Co. will sell a collection of books including a private library from Oregon. A copy jf the first edition of "The Federalist" (1788) in the original boards, uncut; a first edi- tion of Irving's "History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker" (1809), and Ethan Allen's "Reason the Only Oracle of Man" (17S9), are the more important of the older books. Bancroft's "Poems" (1823); "The Offering for 1829," containing Emerson's first appearance in a book, the first copy to be sold at auction; a broadside poem of James Russell Lowell's (1858), unknown to bibliographers; several presentation copies of Thomas William Pars,ons's poems, and important first editions of Thoreau, Holmes, Whittier, and Bryant also appear. On May 26 and 27 the same firm will sell a collec- tion of autographs and manuscripts, among them being several unpublished poems by H. D. Thoreau. On the evening of May 27 they will hold a sale of engravings, etch- ings, and original drawings. On May 25-28 the Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. .offers the library of the late Andrew Merwin, one of the founders of the com- pany, who had previously served for more than thirty years with Bangs & Co., the old house of book auctioneers. Included are a collection of editions of Homer and books about Homer (59 lots) and a Dante collec- tion (23 Lots). Other notable books are first editions of Thoreau's "Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" (1849) and "Walden" (1854); Whittier's "History of Haverhill" (1832); Emerson's "Poems" (1847), first edition, in the original boards with the label; publications of the Rov- croft Press, books on folk-lore, books on natural history, etc. On May 25 and 26 C. F. Libbie & Co. of Boston will sell the library of the late Prof. James Mills Peirce of Harvard Uni- versity. A most important lot is the auto- graph manuscript of Benjamin Peirce's "History of Harvard University," including considerable material not in the work as printed. Professor Peirce was a friend of some of the leading writers of New Eng- land, and 1* is library includes presentation copies of desirable first editions, among them Lowell's "Class Poem" (1838); Long- fellow's "Hyperion" (1839); Holmes's "Au- tocrat of the Breakfast Table," large paper (1859); "The Guardian Angel" (1867), and' "Uracia" (1846). Correspondence. THE STATE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: President Taft's polit cal pro- gramme, although veiled by half-hearted denials, seems to include an attempt to break up the solid South, and should the undertaking succeed, its chief beneficiary would be the Democratic party. The great- est handicap to the success of real De- mocracy is that the aristocratic, labor-de- spising, and privilege-seeking South is de- pended upon to furnish the bulk of Demo- cratic electoral votes. I speak as a Democrat who wishes to see the party become what it ought to be, and what it must be, either to succeed at the polls or to exist as a strong opposition, viz: a sane and progressive radical party, standing for the same issues in every State in the Union, and not for a different issue in every State. It cannot attain that de- sirable condition now, because every in- telligent voter knows that, despite platform declarations, it cannot carry out any meas- ure of real or radical reform whi'e the Bourbon South dominates its councils. The attitude of Southern Democrats in Con- gress on the tariff question makes < lear as noonday what was sufficiently clear b fore. The hope of Democratic success lies in op- position to special privilege in every form, and particularly in a form so odious as protection; but when the leaders of the dominant faction in the party are engaged in a frank and disgraceful struggle for a share of the protective loot, it is futile to hope that sincere opponents of privi'ege will ally themselves with such an organi- zation. Stripped of non-essentials the chief po- litical issue now, of which the tariff ques- tion is only a phase, hinges upon the un- equal distribution of wealth. There is no escape from this issue, and the man is wil- fully blind who persuades himself that the feeling of unrest which pervades the lower and middle walks of life is a temporary or ephemeral discontent. This feeling is cer- tain to become more and more acute as in- telligent minds inquire more closely into economic conditions which produce over- grown fortunes and squalid poverty side by side. What the ultimate outcome of the discussion of this many-sided issue will be no man can tell ; but that it will cer- tainly result in the withdrawing of every governmental privilege, whereby one rran is permitted to appropriate wealth created by another, without rendering anv re'urn there- for, cannot be doubted by any person fa- miliar with the history of. the Anglo-Saxon people. In such a political struggle as this issue involves, there is no room for two re- actionary parties. The Republican party, by its more abject subserviency to any crooked interest that will contribute to its campaign fund, and by reason of its per- fect organization, has preempted the so- called conservative ground. The Demo- cratic party cannot outbid it for the sup- port of the privileged interests, even if the rank and file of the party would permit such a bid to be made. Moreover, the Western Democrats, in the Roosevelt-Par- ker campaign, showed what their verdict will be when their party managers make what they regard as a bid for the sup- port of monopoly. The Socialist vote in the West is growing because thousands of men who do not believe the visionary non- sense of Debs and his disciples, feel that they have no other ticket to vote. And the Socialist vote will continue to increase until the Democratic party offers a politi- cal abiding place to men sincerely anxious for economic reform. If the Democratic party were to do this, the Socialist party in the West at least would be reduced to a handful of half-cracked extremists, whose ravings would disturb nobody. Not only that, but enormous inroads would be made upon the Republican ranks, and thousands of votes would be secured from men who, while tired of corporate domination of the Republican party, now see no choice be- tween it and the Democratic party. But the Democratic party can hold out no hope to these thousands while South- ern renegade protectionists, who are Re- publicans upon every vital political Issue, except the negro question, are held up as Democratic leaders. So long as this con- dition prevails, the Democratic party can only continue to exist as a sectional par- ty, without principle or conviction, and without the hope of gaining a single re- cruit. Parenthetically, I will say that I sympathize, in a general way, with the Southern attitude toward negro suffrage; but I protest against a condition which makes the Democratic party play second fiddle to Sambo. It is a foolish waste of time to talk about building up a Democratic party In the West, except along radical lines, and under conditions which will eliminate not only Southern leadership, but a consider- able, if disgusting, element of Eastern lead- ership as well. Western Democrats are not only weary of Bourbon control, but I think they have parted company finally and for- ever with Tammany Hall. Your Western Democrat is tired of seeing a blatant, cyni- cal, and corrupt aggregation of political mercenaries coming in force to every na- tional convention, arrogantly demanding platform concessions which will enable them to raise a corruption fund for their local purposes, and then returning home to trade off the national ticket ror a New York Governorship. If the next national convention were to refuse to seat a single delegate from Tammany, on the broad ground that that such delegates are not Democrats, but political outlaws and guer- rillas, it would mean a. million votes to the party in the West and Middle West. Two causes contributed mainly to Mr. Taft's majorities in the West last fall. One was an instinctive distrust of the abil- ity of the heterogeneous mass calling it- self the Democratic party to accomplish anything, if it were successful, and the other was a belief — a mistaken one. I think — that Mr. Taft represented the rad- icalism of Mr. Roosevelt. In saying this I do not wish to be understood as indors- ing the Rooseveltian output of economic error and ignorance; but I say it to em- phasize the fact that the West is definite- ly and permanently committed to radical political action. That radicalism, I hope and believe, can be directed along safe and wholesome lines, if the Democratic party proves sagacious enough to take ad- vantage of its opportunities. Western Senators and Representatives, who are standing out for high protection, particularly on raw materials, are misrep- resenting their constituents; they repre- sent merely the special interests to which they owe a prior allegiance. For example, the Spokane Chamber of Commerce me- morialized Congress for a duty on lumber and lead ore. I am convinced that a ple- biscite would show a majority of the peo- ple of this city of 100,000 or more inhab- itants for free lumber and free lead; and I am morally certain that, were the im- mense farming districts of this section per- mitted to take part in the vote, the major- ity would be overwhelming, particularly for free lumber. A belief that the protec-

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 509 tive idea is fundamentally wrong, and that it is mainly responsible for the enormous cost of living, is growing rapidly all over the West, and several solons are due to learn this when they return from the pres- ent carnival of grab at Washington. This letter is not the place to discuss all the forms which the struggle between democracy and privilege will ultimately take. The first battle will be over the tariff question, because protection is the most conspicuous atrocity within the pres- ent public vision. Upon that issue the Democratic party can win, because it ought to win; but it must first convince intelli- gent men that, in the event of victory, the fruits thereof are not to be surrendered by traitors within the camp. Sectionalism, lack of any definite or co- herent policy, indorsement of wild-eyed economic vagaries like Mr. Bryan's trust- regulation idea, and general political in- capacity have combined to make almost a total wreck of the Democratic party; but enough remains to permit of a reorganiza- tion along broad, national, sane, radical, and progressive lines. Permit a personal word in conclusion. I have voted four times for President- three times for W. J. Bryan and once for Alton B. Parker. I never did believe in free silver, nor do I believe now that the bank guarantee issue contains the essence of saving grace. But as a regular Democrat, a mere worl^er in the ranks. I claim the right to speak as one of the body of men who furnish Democratic votes. James F. Irby. Spokane, Wash., April 29. THE SCIENCE OF SOCIOLOGY: A REPLY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Nothing more truly amazing has appeared of late in the name of science than the article by Prof. Henry Jones Ford on "The Pretensions of Sociology" in your issue of April 29. When a whole class of scientific men, some of whom are as care- ful investigators and thinkers as American scholarship has produced, are attacked in- discriminately, they certainly have a right to demand that prejudice shall not be their judge. In the first place, Mr. Fo.-d does not dis- tinguish between sociology and sociolo- gists; nor does he distinguish these latter from social radicals and revolutionaries. All the plausibility of his argument is due to this confusion of the science and its votaries, together with the fact that he selects Spencer and Ward as typical so- ciologists, although their systems of so- ciological thought were formulated over a quarter of a century ago. There is scarce- ly one in the whole list of "established sciences" which has not in some stage of its development been exploited by quacks and visionaries. This is notably true of political science or philosophy, which pro- duced a whole crop of dangerous radicals from Hobbes to Rousseau. At the present time, there Is scarcely a mental healer in the United States who does not appeal to the science of psychology as the foundation of his art. Yet who would judge the sci- ence of psychology by such quacks? As a matter of fact, very few sociolo- gists of reputed standing endorse the rev- olutionary Ideas which he credits all with possessing. Free love, trial marriage, di- vorce by mutual consent, the contract the- ory of society, and other anarchistic ideas, so far from being endorsed by a majority of sociologists, have, perhaps, been more powerfully combated by them than by any other class of scientific men. A few so- cialists and revolutionaries have put for- ward these ideas in the name of sociology, but not sociologists in the sense of scientific students of society. I challenge Professor Ford to name a single sociologist of stand- ing who contends "that we should all be as free to find our affinities as cats or dogs"; or that "human beings should be free to mate as they please, and separate as they please, like other animals enjoy- ing their natural freedom." Even if the essence of Mr. Ford's criti- cisms holds as against a few individual sociologists of standing (and I admit that it does), still this should in no wise preju- dice the question of the legitimacy of sociology as a science. What, then, is sociology? Sciences are distinguished by their problems, yet only a few sciences can be said to have a distinct field of their own. The same phenomena may be, and are, studied from many different points of view, or with reference to different prob- lems, and different sciences result. Thus human society is the subject-matter of many different sciences, but none of these study it from the same point of view, or with the same problems in mind. Sociological litera- ture from Comte down to the present shows that all sociologistsworthyof the name have had practically the same problems in mind. These problems were set by Comte him- self, viz., problems of the organization or order of society on the one hand, and prob- lems of the progress or evolution of so- ciety on the other. The statement of these problems has been changed often by later sociologists by analyzing or breaking them up, and some have even added extraneous problems to the science; but with all soci- ologists of repute the problems of social evolution, on the one hand, and of social organization on the other, have been cen- tral. That is to say, human interrelations and their changes have occupied the atten- tion of sociologists. Probably most sociologists to-day would say that they are studying the laws or principles of social change, and of social structure and func- tion; or, to put it in still oth°r words, they are investigating the origin, development, structure, and function of the forms of as- sociation. These are not new problems in the his- tory of thought, nor is sociology a new science except in the sense that it proposes to attack these problems by the new methods of positive science. Aristotle, Bodin, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Rousseau, and many others had more or less to say about these problems; but it was Comte's merit that he first definitely proposed to attack them by the methods of natural science, and he saw, too, that they belonged, not to politics, but to a science fundamental to all the special social sciences, which he named sociology. Yet, of course, even if Comte had never lived, there would still be a body of knowledge, or rather of theo- ry, slowly becoming settled, which would correspond to sociology, though it might not have had this name. If there is any other science that has made these problems its main object of research, then the so- ciologist is perfectly willing to surrender his field; but, being interested in these problems, he is not willing to do this un- til he is shown that there exists such a science. Professor Ford implies that po- litical science is able to take care of all the problems with which sociology deals. But I should like to ask him if a theory of society (human interrelations) is not quite different from a theory of the state or government? Most political scientists of the present are careful at the outset to distinguish between society and gov- ernment, and say that their discipline is concerned only with the latter. In the past there have been political thinkers who have held to a contract theory of the state, but not of society. It would seem to be plain without argument, then, that the state is but one of many forms of association with which sociology may deal, but so important a form that it has developed a special science to deal with its many problems. To propose that this special science, political science, should reincorporate into itself so- ciology after the two have been differen- tiated is to propose that the historical process of increasing division of labor among the sciences should be reversed. How, then, do sociologists propose to ap- proach these problems of social change and social organization from the side of positive science? Simply (by the use of the methods and principles of the "es- tablished sciences," especially of biology and psychology. In its more theoretical aspects, sociology is simply the biology and psychology of our social life, or, to be more exact, of the origin, development. Ttructure. and function of the forms of association. Approaching its problems from the point of view of natural science and eschewing metaphysical principles, it could be nothing else. That sociology draws its principles of interpretation from other sciences is nothing strange, for this is true of many sciences. Physiology, for example, is nothing but the physics and chemistry of organic functions. At least this is the view held by conservative phys- iologists. What would be left of political science if one took from it history, psy- chology, jurisprudence, and, I may add, sociology? If it be claimed that the his- torical element and method give to polit- ical science its distinct character, then the same claim can be made for sociology, as Comte himself emphasized. If it be claimed that the subject of which political science treats is a unity and requires a unified science, then again the same claim can be made for sociology. The psycholog- ical and biological aspects of sociologi- cal theory by no means reduce that science to mere psychology and biology, any more than the psychology in economic theory reduces economics to psychology. Social evolution and social organization are uni- fied processes, and a theory of social evo- lution and organization must take into ac- count and harmonize both their psycholog- ical and biological elements. Professor Ford adds to the speciousness of his argument iby carefully selecting so- ciologists that are easy to criticise. He does not mention Tarde, Simmel, Barth. Ratzenhofer, Hobhouse, or Westermarck, but selects particularly Spencer and Ward as typical sociologists. Both of these men in their thinking, were dominated by the

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510 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 traditional English philosophy, with its materialistic empiricism and sensational- ists psychology. Both were at bottom anti-Darwinian in their views of life, and hence in their theories of society. Kearly all that Mr. Ford says in criticism of their sociological doctrines is entirely just so far as it goes, but he forgets to mention their really great services to the scientific study of human society. Mr. Ford has his own sociological the- ories (as every thinking man has), and strongly implies that a correct theory of social evolution can be built simply upon Darwin's teachings. He seems to be un- aware that the "massive parapets and bastions" of Darwinism have recently been shaken to their foundations, and that a theory of society built upon tnem (as many sociologists whom he neglects to mention have attempted) may be no more secure than other theories. The truth is, sociol- ogy and all the other social sciences must wait upon the development of biology and psychology; and these antecedent sciences are, even to-day, in an unsettled condition. How absurd, then, to demand that sociol- ogy shall have a settled body of theory, or else deny to it the name of science! None of the social sciences possesses a settled body of theory; and no one understands so well as the trained sociologist how per- ilous it is to dogmatize on social ques- tions. Probably if psychologists and biolo- gists were to express themselves on the questions of the day, they, too, would ex- press themselves dogmatically, and I be- lieve that about the same proportion of radicals would be found among them. While Mr. Ford is sure that "there is no such science" as sociology, and that "there is no basis for it as a science," still he stands almost alone in his dogmatism upon this matter. If any one is fitted to judge such a question impersonally, it is the workers in the other genera! sciences most closely related to sociology, viz., biology and psychology; and within the last dozen years biologists and psychologists have come to recognize very generally that there is a place for sociology. The lack of a clear field with a well marked boundary for sociology has produced various petty bickerings and jealousies between sociolo- gists and workers in other social sciences. But in the very nature of things, as I have already pointed out, there can be no such clearly defined field for sociology. As a general science it will always be difficult to differentiate it clearly from the special sciences which labor in the same field. In this respect, sociology is not different from other general sciences. Biology cannot be easily differentiated from the special biol- ogical sciences; and but a few years ago some workers in these special sciences re- fused to recognize the existence of a gen- eral science of biology. Now, however, it is quite generally recognized that cer- tain problems, such as the theories of heredity, of variation, of selection, and of organic evolution, cannot be adequately dealt with by the special biological sci- ences. If it is convenient and even neces- sary to recognize a general science funda- mental to all the special biological sci- ences, it is even more necessary, it could easily be shown, on account of the .menace of one-sided views of the social life, to recognize a general science fundamental to all the special social sciences. Sociology, as a scientific endeavor, has had at least two distinct merits: first, it has stood for the natural science view of human society, which, traditionally at least, the special social sciences have not stood for; secondly, it has as a conse- quence emphasized the psychological and biological elements in human social life as primary, rather than the economic and political elements. Sociology has, on the one hand, stood for applying the methods of positive science to the problems of the social life; on the other, for obtaining an all-sided, comprehensive view of the social !ife as opposed to fractional or one-sided views. The scientific importance of this endeavor, it seems to me, cannot be over- estimated. If the right development of the humanistic sciences depends upon getting rid of one-sided views of collective human life; if sociology is simply the name for the larger, completer view of the social life; if, finally, the social sciences can fur- nish man with the means of mastering his social environment, as the physical sciences have furnished him with the means of mastering his physical environment, then it would seem not unreasonable to say that he who opposes sociology as such is unconsciously an enemy of mankind. Charles A. Ellwood. University of Missouri, May 10. HAMMOND LAMONT. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I cannot tell you how deeply I feel the death of Mr. Lamont. During these days since his death no one has lived so vividly in my consciousness. To me — and I think to many other young men who met him— he has always seemed a kind of inextinguishable centre of vitality, com- municating energy to all around him. The virile gusto of his personality, his trench- ant speech, even his qnick, decisive walk had something inexpressibly animating and heartening in them. I can see him dis- tinctly at his desk, bending over his proofs, and with his swift stride going past my door with copy in his hand, and in a dozen different distinct attitudes, and I think that power he had of making his presence felt, of etching his mere physical image on the mind, was the effect of an almost uniquely straightforward will and clean- cutting intelligence. To those, who saw him every day, his death must mean just now an abrupt and tragical termination of his splendid activity, but here in the dis- tance I try to think of him as having pass- ed into the company of the swordsmen in- visible who fight beside us and before us forever. Stuart P. Sherman. Urbana, 111., May 11. [From the many letters which have come to us we print this, as an illustra- tion of the impression made by Mr. La- mont on one who worked beside him in these offices for a brief period. — Ed. The Nation.] THE BIBLE AS LITERARY MODEL. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the discussion of this subject, the Nation (April 8 and 29) and President Warfield seem to be talking at cross pur- poses. Whether the Bible is or is not a good literary model depends on how it is used. If one takes merely its literary form and seeks to imitate it by molding his own ideas into that form, it is a poor model, and your strictures are well deserved. The only objection to them would be that they do not go far enough. They should not stop with the Bible, but should condemn without stint the entire practice of using the Bible, or any other book, for such pur- pose. No literary excellence ever was, or ever will be, attained in any such way. We are too apt to think of style as wholly a matter of form, a quality of expression merely; whereas it is a quality of both form and substance, of both thought and expression; but primarily a quality of thought. It is only clear, vivid, and or- derly thought that can give rise to clear, vivid, and orderly expression. Those who can truthfully be said to have acquired the style of the Bible or of Shakespeare are only those who have ac- quired the ability to think and feel as the Biblical writers and Shakespeare thought and felt. For such thought and such feel- ing, the style of Shakespeare and the Bible is the best of models and the perfection of literary art, precisely because it grows naturally, and, we may say, inevitably, out of those thoughts and those feelings. When we read: Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God— or, Though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me, we feel that these utterances are final. Why? Because they have come throbbing and burning from the depths of the soul, and are instinct with the life that gave them birth. They are a living and breath- ing entity, and their life and their style are one and the same thing. It is evident, therefore, that any attempt to use the Bible as a literary model by a servile im- itation of its stylistic form must necessarily be futile. But there is another and very different way of using the Bible as a literary model. It is to acquaint ourselves intimately, not only with its form, but with its subject matter; to enter into its spirit and see how that spirit, striving for utterance, clothes itself in language of power and beauty; and to become ourselves imbued with the qualities which are there exhibited. Chief among those qualities are clearness, force, directness, simplicity, sincerity, and loyalty to truth and righteousness. Now these qualities are not only the characteristic qualities of the Bible, but they are, also, the cardinal qualities of all literary ex- cellence. Hence in becoming imbued with them, we are acquiring what is indispensa- ble for any superior literary style. When this method of use is followed, there seems to be no room for questioning the value of the Bible, as literary model, and no real disagreement between your views and those of President Warfield. And that there is no such disagreement Is fur- ther shown by the fact, that the misunderstanding of terms is not confined to the word model, but L

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May 20, 1909] The ^NTation 511 extends also to the word liter- ary. Whether the Bible is or is not a good literary model depends not only upon the manner, as we have seen, but also upon the purpose, of its use; that is to say, upon the kind ot literature sought to be thus modelled. For the literature of power, to use De Quincey's distinction, the Bible is the best of models; but for the literature of knowledge it is obviously no model at all. When you say that the Bible is not a good model for the kind of literature which is produced by "taking a vast and intricate subject having to do with public "business, and tearing the heart out of it," or that which consists "in the orderly ex- position of complex matters, in close and sound reasoning, or in accurate descrip- tion," you are evidently dealing with the literature of knowledge, and the truthful- ness of your assertion is manifest. But such writings do not belong to the kind of literature contemplated by those who extol the Bible as a model. With the manner and purpose of its use well understood, there can be little room for difference of opinion relative to the Bible as a literary model. Herbert L. Baker. Detroit, Mich.. May 6. Notes. Beginning with this issue, the Nation will be conducted by Paul Elmer More, for five and one-half years literary editor of the Evening Post, and since July 1, 1906, associate editor of the Nation. Harpers have brought out a two-volume edition of Motley's "History of the United Netherlands," which has hitherto been pub- lished in four volumes. The material is not abridged. Charles Scribner's Sons announce that the (translation of Professor Eucken's "The Problem of Human Life" will probably not be published until autumn. For immediate issue they have ready an important book by Major-Gon. A W. Greely, called "Hand- book of Alaska: Its Resources, Products, and Attractions." Dr. C. W. Seidenadel has completed his study of the language spoken by the Bontoc Igorrote, and his work will be brought out at an early date by the Open Court Pub- lishing Company of Chicago. The entire library of the late Prof. Moritz Heyne of the University of Gottingen has been bought by the University of Illi- nois. It contains about 5,200 volumes on German literature and philology, and is especially rich in valuable editions of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth cen- turies. Dr. Oscar Levy, a German Jew, who lives in England as a prophet, so to speak, in partibus infldelium, preaching Hebraism and Nietzscheanism to the un-ideaed Anglo- Saxon, has at last arranged to bring out a complete and authorized translation of Nietzsche's Works in eighteen volumes. Those who regretted the premature con- clusion of a similar project under the gen- eral editorship of Prof. Alexander Tille will be glad to know that the present un- dertaking depends on no commercial con- tract, and is in consequence likely to pro- ceed to the end. The editor "has not," to use his own words, "entered into any en- gagement with publishers, not even with the present one" (London: T. N. Foulis), "which could hinder his task, bind him down to any text found faulty, or make him consent to omissions or the falsifica- tion or 'sugaring' of the original text to further the sale of the books." Of the four volumes of this edition now before us, one, "Beyond Good and Evil," trans- lated by Helen Zimmern, was published two years ago by the Macmillan Co. as part of the ill-fated project, and is now taken over into the new edition. The three other volume's include "Thoughts Out of Season, Part I," translated by Anthony M. Ludovici: "Thoughts Out of Season, Part II," translated by Adrian Collins; and "The Birth of Tragedy," translated by William A. Haussmann. The rest of the eighteen volumes are promised before the close of 1910. To the undertaking in general we heartily wish success. It is high time that a man whose name is so bruited about the world were made accessible to English readers, and a somewhat cursory inspection of the volumes now issued indicates that the translations are at once faithful and easy. At a later date, when the more im- portant works have appeared, it will be time to discuss the meaning of this Nietz- schean vogue which has swept over the Eu- ropean continent. Meanwhile we would only intimate that Dr. Levy, who furnishes a thoroughly amusing general introduction to the series, might find a second cause for the slowness of the Nietzschean propaganda in England besides the Anglo-Saxon's im- perviousness to ideas against which he rails bitterly. There is also a certain sanity in the English mind which feels instinctively that this boasted philosophy of strength is in reality a product of febrile weakness. The best paragraphs in Dr. Levy's intro- duction are those in which he draws a comparison between Nietzsche and Disraeli, but he leaves out of account the "English, all too English" source of Disraeli's ideas. "Early English Romances of Love" and "Early English Romances of Friendship," done into modernized prose for the New Mediaeval Library by Edith Rickert (Duf- field & Co.), are the first two volumes in a projected series of four illustrative of the old metrical tales in English. The first volume contains "Floris and Blancheflour," "Sir Orfeo,'' "Lay of the Ash," "Launfal Miles," "The Earl of Toulouse," "Sir Degrevant," "The Knight of Courtesy," and "The Squire of Low Degree." The second contains "Amis and Amiloun," "Sir Amadas," "Athelston," "The Tale of Game- lyn," "Roswall and Lillian," and "The Story of Gray-Steel." Each collection is pre- faced by an introduction giving the novice a bird's-eye view of the labyrinthine terri- tory of romance, and some hints of the often trackless wanderings and foregather- ings of Celtic, Classical, and Oriental stories. A handful of concise notes fur- nish necessary information and a guide to original texts and scholarly treatises without detracting from the pleasantly belletristic character of the work. Each volume, furthermore, contains a half-dozen excellent reproductions of the delightful old illustrations, which, together with the an- tique pigskin bindings, give the distinctive tone to this Mediaeval Library and com- mend it to the bibliophile. If there is suf- ficient demand, it is proposed to offer in the third and fourth volumes speci- mens of the narrative of adventure and of the story with a moral. This division of the material to show dif- ferent methods of treating the same theme is somewhat novel and suggestive, and, as the editing of the romances of love and friendship has been accomplished with dis- cretion, it is to be hoped that the requisite encouragement will be forthcoming. It may be objected that any one interested in these dim, chivalric fictions may with slight ef- fort master the difficulties of the original versions — which is true; but there are doubtless many readers who will find quite as much pleasure in Miss Rickert's oldish- flavored prose from which all difficulties have been removed. For on the score of style, as the editor acknowledges, the Eng- lish metrical romances are not to be taken too seriously — "the story's the thing." In this day of more than religious regard for the sanctity of ancient texts, it is both shocking and refreshing to read Miss Rickert's confession that in translating "Amis and Amiloun," spoiled by the Eng- lish poet's conventional repetitions, she has "thought it justifiable to limit the number of times in which he says the same thing." If a desire to allure the old-fashioned gentle reader is not wholly unworthy, we commend the license, and could even bear to see it extended. Indeed, we doubt whe- ther any translator who holds timorously to the prolixity of these "old-wives tales," as the pioneer Ellis called them, will ever gain them as many friends from the laity as he gained with his high-handed abridge- ments and satirical analyses. We do not know who can be the author of "Under Petraia, with Some Saunter- ings" (John Lane Co.). She prudently re- mains anonymous. But any one whose duty it is to examine her banal pages can easily reconstruct her. A British spinster, near- er sixty than fifty, who travels with a pet cat, a pet dog, a "tub," a hot-water bottle, and various "boxes"; who wears the heavy, clanking, gold bracelets which date from the early fashions of the "dear Queen" (Victoria) ; who read Ruskin in her youth, and has never digested him; who reads Pater's "Marius the Epicurian" (sic) now, not to mention J. A. Symonds and a Selwyn Brinton, by whom she sets great store; these and similar familiar charac- teristics the author of "Under Petraia" re- veals to you as you read. She has evi- dently known a minor poet or two. She quotes occasionally a distinguished savant of the British Museum (now dead). It may be that her cousin married a pre- bendary. At any rate, she lets you infer that she has high acquaintances in Church and state. Some imp persuaded her that she has literary talent, and the result Is a volume of dreary commonplaces, nay, in- tolerable, unless you take it as a reve- lation of the point of view, taste, and knowledge of that species which has for half a century packed the cheap pensions of the European continent. This particular specimen has had a villa outside Flor- ence, which warrants her in dropping into bad Italian. But perhaps it is worth while to read a chapter or two of her book in order to learn to what a pitch self-conceit can mount.

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512 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 Books on Italy multiply. The two latest volumes in the Medieval Town Series (The Macmillan Co.) are "Milan," by Ella Noyes, and "Pisa," by Janet Ross. Both are much above the average. Miss Noyes shows here, as in her "Ferrara," an unusual abil- ity to give an historic summary at once accurate, vivid, and interesting. In ac- cordance with the purpose of this series, half of her book is descriptive of the pres- ent city, so that it may serve as a guide- book for strangers who want something more juicy than Baedeker. Milan played so large a part in Italian history from the eleventh century to the sixteenth that Miss Noyes's account of it is more than welcome. Mrs. Ross also is an experienced book- maker, and she does her duty conscien- tiously by Pisa. It is one of the defects of such a series, however, that the volumes must be of uniform length, irrespective of the importance of any particular city or of the amount of material about it. One feels, therefore, that Mrs. Ross has been obliged at times to spread pretty thin. Her three hundred pages devoted to the build- ings and art prove that she has delved as- siduously. Each volume has many illus- trations. We are glad to see that the pen- and-ink drawings in vogue a few years ago, and borrowed from architectural designs, are going out of fashion. But why should books got up with so much taste as these be bound in so pale a blue that the gilt titles are illegible? That the title is meant to be read is a truism which no book-maker ought to need to be told. The peculiar merit of "Daybreak in Ko- rea" (F. H. Revell Co.), by Annie L. A. Baird, is that it is the simple story, by a woman, of her Korean sister's life in its phases of child-wife, widow, and slave. Though the leading character may be fic- titious, yet all the facts and incidents nar- rated have come within the experience of the writer, and give a most vivid impres- sion of the degradation and misery of the heathen peasant woman. The transforming power of Christianity and the happiness which it brings into these gloomy lives are so strikingly portrayed as to make the book a demonstration of the value of mis- sions which cannot be gainsaid. Some in- teresting illustrations add to its attrac- tiveness. Many travellers in foreign lands write de scriptive letters to their stay-at-home friends, but fortunately few of them are published in book form. The local news- paper is their usual depository. Occasion- ally one of them is more venturesome than the rest, and braves the publicity of print. Egypt is a country that lends itself quite readily to this form of exploitation, and a sample has recently appeared, in "From Cairo to the Cataract," by Blanche Mabury Carson (L. C. Page & Co.). Its allitera- tive title is untrue, as the start is made in New York. But the body of the book relates to the subject indicated. It is in the form of original letters, and gives a very good account of many of the things that one sees and experiences on the boat journey up the Nile and back again. One can easily imagine the nimble pencil of the note-taker and the industrious pen of the rehearser of information gathered indis- criminately from observation aud from guide-books and histories. As a lively narrative of the doings and sight-seeing of a wide-awake American girl, the book is a success; and, as that is presumably its object, specific criticism may be spared. The forty-eight full-page pictures, almost all of them excellent, form its most valu- able feature. "The Black Bishop, Samuel Adjai Crow- ther" (London: Hodder & Stoughton), by Jesse Page, is the simple life-story, told mainly by himself, of a West African who was a kidnapped slave when a boy of fif- teen and forty-three years later became the first negro bishop of the Church of England. The one aim of his life was to rescue his countrymen from the slavery of heathenism and to establish a native African church; and to him more than to any other single individual is due the present encouraging condition of the Nigerian provinces. For his labors were not confined to preaching the Gospel, but he did all in his power to encourage the native industries, his special interests being cotton-growing and the de- velopment of the palm oil trade, which he foresaw would in time eliminate the slave traffic with its train of hideous evils. Much information is given, beside the biograph- ical details, about the problems presented by the Nigerian peoples to their white rul- ers and particularly of the extent, influence, and probable future of the Mohammedan invasion. A new edition of the Abbe Loisy's "The Gospel and the Church" appears, with an introduction by the Rev. Newman Smyth (Charles Scribner's Sons). Dr. Smyth, as was evidenced in his "Passing Protestant- ism and Coming Catholicism," is a sym- pathetic, discerning, and thorough student of the entire Modernist movement, and in Ms brief introduction of thirty pages he seeks to commend Loisy as an historian and biblical critic, as a believer and as a Modernist Catholic. He urges that Protes- tants have much to learn from Loisy, es- pecially from his chapter on Catholic wor- ship, concerning which he says : It would be hard to find elsewhere an understanding at once so simple and so pro- found of the spiritual need of symbolism, or a truer historical account of the develop- ment of the worship of the Roman Church. Protestants may find suggestions in this chapter for the possible enrichment, with- out loss of spirituality, of their own devo- tional service. The time is indeed come when neither in Rome nor in Geneva is God to be worshipped; but in many ways, whether by symbols or by spontaneous words, or with symbols enriched by the best life of long ages past, God, who is sprit, is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. In a recent volume from the University of Chicago Press ("The Teaching of Jesus about the Future"), Dr. H. B. Sharman applies in a methodical, even businesslike, fashion Prof. Burton's theory of the lite- rary relation of the Synoptic Gospels to the utterances of Jesus touching "the time subsequent to the final severance of rela- tions between Jesus and his disciples." It is a carefully paragraphed essay in docu- mentary criticism. The historical conclu- sions, though reached independently, are neither novel nor startling. Professor Foley does not like Anselm's doctrine of the atonement, does not like the assumption that this Reformation dog- ma is the Catholic doctrine. The purpose, therefore, of his Bohlen Lectures ("An- selm's Theory of the Atonement," by George C. Foley; Longmans) is not a con- tribution to the study of Anselm's theory, though his exposition may be accepted as trustworthy, but an apologetic for the "earlier and juster views which prevailed in Alexandria and Antioch." While many Christians share with Dr. Foley and the numerous writers quoted in the appen- dix the feeling of repugnance to the Anselmic theory, they might at the same time think that this apologetic is directed against a man of straw. Had the author begun not with the Apostolic Fathers, but with Paul, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and John, and had he given a treatment of the New Testament evidence which revealed a clear understanding not only of Jewish sacrifices, but also of the significance of the sufferings and death of the righteous for the unrighteous, a treatment uninflu- enced by later imperialistic and feudalistic conceptions, he would have furnished the reader with the best apologetic against the Anselmic and other unethical estimates of the value of the death of Christ. A new series of biographic characteriza- tions of those persons who a: critical points in the history of Germany have play- ed leading parts is now being published under the title of Deutsche Charakter- kopfe: Denkmaler deutscher Personlich- keiten aus ihren Schriften (Leipzig: Teub- ner). The editor is Wilhelm Capelle. The recent volumes are "Heinrich Pesialozzi," by Hermann Wolsemann; "Joachim Nettel- beck: Burger zu Kolberg," by Mix Schmitt- Hartlieb; and"Goethes Freundinnen: Briefe zu ihrer Charakteristik," by Gertrud Bau- mer. The persons whose correspondence we find in this last volume are Cornelia Goethe, Susanna Klettenberg, Lotte Buff, Johanna Fahlmer, Lili, Charlotte von Stein, and fully a dozen other women who influenced Goethe. Perhaps the most interesting fea- ture of this series is found in the fact that much of the contents of each volume is the verba ipsissima of the subjects them- selves. It is to be regretted that Christoph von Tiedemann, who died in 1907, was not able to write more than two or three chapters of his "Sechs Jahre Chef der Reichskanzlei unter dem Fiirsten Bismarck" (Leipzig: S. Hirzel.) His son, however, with the aid of much correspondence from the Kanzlei- chef to his wife, has put together some 500 pages of reminiscence which is likely to interest most Germans, and which here and there will attract the foreign student of Bismarck and German politics of his time. There are some pleasant sketches, brief and cameo-like, of the master of Fried- richsruh and his favorite dog Sul- tan, which remind one of Motley's remin- iscences, and some stories of Bismarck's sense of humor. Among the references to individuals of note mention is made of Caprivi, and it is clear that Bismarck but slowly and late came to appreciate the possibilities in that man. Perhaps the most interesting general reading is the narra- tive of the attempts, in 1878, to assassinate the German Emperor, and the reactionary effect that the affair had on the Chancellor. From that time, Bismarck sought to put his iron heel on the threatening Socialist. About one hundred poems comprise the little posthumous volume, "Schein und Sein," from the pen of Wilhelm Busch, just issued by Lothar Joachim, Munich, and em- bellished with a portrait of the poet and an autographic reproduction of his manuscript. So much of the correspondence between Jl

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May 20, 1909] The ISTation. 513 the Humboldts and Goethe has never been found that Ludwig Geiger's collection of practically everything in hand up to date, together with critical notes (Berlin: Hans BondyJ, should be well received. There are 118 letters exchanged between Goethe and Wilhelm and Karoline von Humboldt, and some twenty-one that passed between the poet and Alexander von Humboldt. This in itself is quite an addition to the 102 letters published twenty-one jears after Goethe's death. An interesting fact re- vealed by the correspondence is the infre- quency of writing, notwithstanding that Goethe once proposed to Wilhelm to send a letter once a month ; and more astonish- ing, perhaps, is the infrequency of their personal intercourse. The Humboldts sel- dom came to Weimar, and they stayed but a short time when they did come. In ad- dition to a good index, there are excellent reproductions in photogravure of the fa- miliar Humboldt monuments at Berlin. The educational work of a public library is well illustrated by the thirty-first annual report of Librarian W. E. Foster of the Providence Public Library, just issued Sig- nificant is the fact that works in fourteen different foreign languages have been is- sued during the past year, the demands for books especially in Polish and Danish- Norwegian having greatly increased. An indication of the present trend of thought and interest is to be found in the statement that the largest additions to the library, 1,006 in number, have been books on social and political science. The next largest sub- jects were fiction and general literature. The Aead£mie Francaise has awarded the Grand Prix Goberr (9,000 francs) to Fortu- nat Strowski for his "Histoire du senti- ment rcligieux en France au dix-septieme si£cle." M. Nouaillac receives the balance of the prize (1,000 francs) for his work on 'Villeroy." The Prix Therouanne (4,000 francs) is divided among M. Caudrillier, for his "'La Trehison de Pichegru," and six others. George Meredith died Tuesday morning at his home at Box Hill, near London. The immediate cause of death was heart failure. When he published his brief tribute to Swinburne, a few weks ago, few persons had any idea that it would be followed so quickly by the notice of his own death, although it was known that he had been in delicate health for some time and had already passed his eightieth year. His intellect had been so vigorous to the last that there was no sign of its approaching extinction. Only a few months have passed since he published a poem on Milton, which bore many of the most familiar charac- teristics of his thought and style. Of his early life but little is known except that he was born in Hampshire, on the 12th of February, 1828, and that he passed some of his early adult years in France and Ger- many. The influence of the literature of both countries bore fruit in his own work, but his especial genius was racy of the British soil. It was his original intention to follow the profession of the law, but it was not long before he abandoned his legal studies for the pursuit of letters. In 1849 he published a poem called "Chillianwal- lah" in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, and in 1851 he came before the public with a volume of poems, dedicated to his father- in-law, the novelist, Thomas Love Peacock. Then for several years he was heard of from time to time in various magazines up to 1856, when he printed his first prose work, "The Shaving of Shagpat, an Ara- bian Entertainment." This at once at- tracted attention by its fantastic imagina- tion and the occasional brilliancy of its descriptions. It was followed in 1857 by "Farina" and other tales, and, in 1859, by "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," which was to become one of the most widely known of his works. In 1861 "Evan Har- rington" appeared, a book of a widely dif- ferent character, founded upon the theme, "Can a tailor be a gentleman?" A year later "Modern Love and Poems of the English Roadside" came out and won the appreciation of connoisseurs by their inti- mate familiarity with country life. After this came "Sandra Belloni" (1864), "Rhoda Fleming" (1865), "Vittoria" (1866), "The Adventures of Harry Richmond" (1871), and "Beauchamp's Career" (1875). "The Egoist" appeared in 1879, and set the seal upon Meredith's reputation as a novelist. But this brilliant story, abounding both in the virtues and defects of the novelist, has also proved a bone of contention to the critics. Many there are who regard it as one of the greatest achievements of modern fiction, while others only find it inflated, laborious, and dull. "Diana of the Crossways" fol- lowed in 1885. His later works are: "Bal- lads and Poems of Tragic Life" (1887), "A Reading of Earth" (1888), "One of Our Conquerors" (1891), "Empty Purse" (1892), "Jump to Glory Jane" (1892), "Lord Or- mont and his Aminta" (1894), "The Amaz- ing Marriage" (1895), "The Tale of Chloe," and other stories (1895), "Comedy and the Use of the Comic Spirit" (1897), "Selected Poems" (1900). As a conversationalist Mr. Meredith was supreme, his wide wisdom, his native wit, and his quick perception helping the aptness of his argument and illustration. A writer said of him some years ago: He is a man of infinite polish of manner, and his conversational powers can best be described as charmingly garrulous. His most delightful hero has no more Chester- fieldian manners than has his creator. He is tall, slender to fragility, with a delicate cameo face and nervous alertness. He seems often to be living in a world of which his listener is no part, yet this never shows itself in any rude, apparent oblivion of his or her presence. His voice is one of singular magnetism. In another man it would be an affectation in its drawling tones, but it seems to belong to Meredith. Charles Betts Galloway, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in Mis- sissippi, died May 12, at the age of fifty- nine. He had filled many offices of trust in the church, and at the time of his death was president of the board of trustees of Millsaps College and of Vanderbilt Univer- sity. He was a voluminous writer. His published works include the following ti- tles: "Life of Bishop Linus Parker," "Hand- book of Prohibition," "Open Letters on Prohibition" (controversy with Jefferson Davis), "Methodism, a Child of Providence,'' "A Circuit of the Globe," "Modern Mis- sions— Their Evidential Value," and "Chris- tianity and the American Commonwealth." From London is reported the death of the Rev. William Francis Henry King, best known for his dictionary of "Classical and Foreign Quotations." Mr. King, at first a clergyman of the Church of England, was converted to Catholicism and published a defence of his change in "The Church of My Baptism." Albert Langen, the well-known German publisher and founder of Simpllcissimus, has died at the age of forty. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The Strtiggle for American Indepen- dence. By Sydney George Fisher. 2 vols. Philadelphia- J. B. Lippincott Co. $4 net. A History of the United States and Its People. By Elroy McKendree Avery. Vol. V. Cleveland; The Burrows Bros. Co. $6.25 net. Mr. Fisher's volumes are an elabora- tion and continuation of his "True His- tory of the American Revolution," though so far reconstructed as to be, to all intents and purposes, a new work; while Dr. Avery's volume completes the first third of the great undertaking which he has long had in hand. Both are substantial additions to the modern literature of the Revolution, and al- though written in a popular style, every- where give evidence of extended first- hand use of authorities. The wealth of illustrations which has distinguished Dr. Avery's previous volumes is contin- ued in the present one, and with a skill in selection and perfectness in mechani- cal execution that are beyond praise. Since both writers devote about the same amount of space to the period from 1760 to 1776, with which latter year Dr. Avery's narrative breaks off, a comparison of method and point of view is worth making. Mr. Fisher, as readers of his earlier volume might nat- urally expect, is sure that we have quite misconceived the nature of the Revolution, and that the historians, for various reasons, have failed to tell the whole truth about it. In his opinion, the colonies were not contending for undisputed constitutional rights of Eng- lishmen, nor were they resisting tyran- nical interference and oppression. The Revolution was not the result of "griev- ances," as that term is commonly under- stood, but of a demand on the part of the colonies for a political relationship which, while giving them all the protec- tive benefits of connection with the mother-country, would at the same time leave them practically independent. What Great Britain was aiming at, on the other hand, was a thorough reor- ganization of its system of colonial ad- ministration in the interest of a broad imperial policy, with firm control of colonial affairs. That policy was enter- ed upon, not by ignorant and irresponsi- ble officials anxious only to make mo- ney out of the colonies, but by enlight- ened statesmen who understood, how- ever imperfectly they may have applied, the correct principles of colonial govern- ment.

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514r The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 The weakness of Mr. Fisher's work at this point is its strident and even harsh assertiveness. His position is often quite as extreme as that which he com- bats. Doubtless the demand of the Americans for independence was a logi- cal outcome of political ideas long nur- tured, and not easily compatible with a theory of colonial dependence, yet it hardly follows that, in their reiterated protestations of loyalty to the mother country, they were framing specious and ingenious arguments to keep up ap- pearances. It seems not to be realized by Mr. Fisher that men do not always see the end from the beginning, that the desire to make things hang together is strong wherever there is a developing system of law, and that use and wont are quite as powerful influences as logic in political action. It. is by no means clear, notwithstanding Mr. Fisher's ve- hement contention to the contrary, that representation and taxation were not, in the eighteenth century, conjoined in the constitutional law of England, or that the consent of the colonies was neces- sary to the lawful exercise by Parlia- ment of authority over them. The fa- mous distinction between internal and external taxation, which he thinks never had a leg to stand upon, appealed to Franklin and Otis and to the first Con- tinental Congress; while the English attempts at conciliation did not appear wholly unacceptable until after the dec- laration of independence. Dr. Avery traverses the same ground, but his conclusions, though in the main the same as those of Mr. Fisher, are stat- ed with noticeable moderation and re- straint. His account of the constitution- al dispute is concise and carefully phras- ed; for the most part, he sticks close to his documents, lets events speak for themselves, and avoids exhibiting mo- tives and influences in a more striking light than they appear to have enjoyed at the time. Unfolding the same scheme of imperial development that engages Mr. Fisher, he can at the same time do justice to Bernard and Otis, Samuel Adams and Hutchinson, patriots and loyalists. From the purely literary point of view, this latest volume is his best; the style has greater evenness and dig- nity, and less of trivial digression and straining for popular effect, than in any of his earlier work. To Dr. Avery must be awarded also the credit, no mean one in an historian, of greater carefulness, accuracy, and im- partiality of statement; for Mr. Fisher, in spite of his extended citation of au- thorities, sometimes slips and sometimes appears to use only the facts that sus- tain his contention. Thus, the state- ments of Franklin and Washington, in 1774, to the effect that there was at that time no general desire for independence, are evidently regarded by Mr. Fisher as quite equivocal (Vol. I, pp. 208, 209). Otis's pamphlet, "The Rights of the Brit- ish Colonies Asserted and Proved," which Dr. Avery (p. 49) thinks was in- tended "not to bring about a revolu- tion, but to avert one," Mr. Fisher elects not to discuss. Of the Hutchinson let- ters he gives a ten-line summary, to- gether with the single sentence: "There must be an abridgment of what are call- ed English liberties" (Vol. I, p. 158); whereas Dr. Avery gives a fuller ab- stract and two connected passages. Of the remaining topics covered by both writers, Mr. Fisher gives extended space to the loyalists, rightly holding the treatment of them by the patriot party as second in importance only to the prosecution of the war itself; and his account of the details of military life is both minute and valuable. Speaking generally, Dr. Avery, once the breach with Great Britain has opened, emphasizes the constitutional and po- litical aspects of the struggle, while Mr. Fisher weaves into his narrative a greater wealth of picturesque incident. For the rest, Mr. Fisher's two volumes give a straightforward account of the war, fuller and better proportioned than that of Fiske, and entertainingly, if not well, written. There is less of novelty in the second volume than in the first, doubtless because the later period has been more carefully studied by others; and we merely note a judicious allot- ment of space to foreign affairs, the work of Congress, the campaigns in the South, and the negotiations for peace. In describing battles and military ma- noeuvres, Mr. Fisher has some skill, not- withstanding that his imagination at times threatens to predominate over his tacts. The wider relation of the war to Europe, India, and Canada also re- ceives attention. The two volumes are fairly indexed, but for the index to Mr. Avery's pages we must, unfortunately, wait until the appearance of the final volume. CURRENT FICTION. The White Sister. By F. Marion Craw- ford. New York: The Macmillan Co. It was a happy chance, or instinct, which led Mr. Crawford to return, in what was destined to be his last novel, to the field in which he had been most successful. Nearly half of the three dozen and odd romances which have been laid (according to the point of view) to his credit or discredit as the product of a much smaller number of years, deal with romantic episodes of modern Roman life. It is on this ground that his imagination plays most freely. Whether or not these animated figures are veritable Romans, born to the pur- ple, they are animated, have the breath of life. Many of us followed the devel- opment of the Saracinesca series, num- ber by number, with an interest almost breathless. "Sanf Ilario," "Don Or- sino," "Casa Braccio," are still names to conjure with; and it is with an unde- niable thrill of pleasure that we come upon a venerable member of that sto- ried house playing an important part in "The White Sister." This is a son of Sanf Ilario, Monsignor Saracinesca — the young priest Ippolito of Corleone. The most striking merit of Mr. Craw- ford's work was its directness. His style is simple to ingenuousness, even childishly direct and explicit. He is "the story-teller in the bazaar," de- termined, as his eye rests with kind- ly humor upon his motley audience, that every man jack of them shall know what he is driving at. By choice, he uses monosyllables, and one sentence runs into another with the fluidity of good talk. If he digresses now and then, he apologizes for the liberty like a gentle- man, explaining the connection between the given comment and the story prop- er. To get ahead with the story, to make it intelligible, are his chief aims. He knows what happened: it is his busi- ness to tell it. He knows what happen- ed!— that is the mark of the natural story-teller. It must have been a sur- prise to many of us to learn recently that Crawford, during years of hard journalistic service, believed that he had no natural power of invention. When he did begin to write novels, it was with a rush of energy, a direct vision of the events he wished to record, and an eager flow of speech about them, that gave the effect, at least, of improvisation. This seemed to him the right way, and he does not hesitate to .express his impa- tience of other ways. The "white sis- ter" is a Roman girl who becomes a nun after her lover is reported dead. Says Mr. Crawford: An accomplished psychologist would eas- ily fill a volume with the history of An- gela's soul from the day on which she learned the bad news till the morning when she made her confession and took the final vows of her order in the little convent church. But one great objection to psy- chological analysis in novels seems to be that the writer never gets beyond analyzing what he believes that he himself would have felt if placed in the "situation" he- has invented for his hero or heroine. Thus analyzed, Angela Chiaromonte would not have known herself, any more than those who knew her best would have recognized her. I shall not try to "factorize" the re- sult represented by her state of mind from time to time; still less shall I employ a mathematical process to prove that the ratio of dx to dy is twice x, the change in Angela at any moment of her moraL growth. What has happened must be logi- cal, just because it has happened; if we do not understand the logic, that may or may not be the worse for us, but the facts- remain. Tt must be admitted that the less said about the logic of the events in the present narrative, the better. An- gela becomes Sister Giovanna, a nursing nun, dedicating her life quite as much to the memory of her lover as to the

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 515 service of God. He returns to life, and demands that she break her vows and marry him. She refuses, he kidnaps her, and tries threats as well as argu- ments to bring her to his purpose; but (although she is tempted) in vain. He finally restores her unharmed to the convent, and she determines to join cer- tain of the sisters who have volunteered (practically suicide) for service in a leper settlement far from Rome. The mother superior of the order turns out to be her flesh and blood mother, and is heartbroken at the thought of her sac- rifice. Still, she cannot advise a breach of the sacred vows. But at this moment the lover gets blown up, and refuses to have his life saved by the only possible means, unless the nun consents to peti- tion for a release from the veil. This brings about an apparently final dead- lock, which is, however, rather summar- ily and unexpectedly broken by Mon- signor Saracinesca, who says that "there is a limit beyond which fidelity to an obligation may bring ruin and even death on some one whom the promises did not at first concern." He has (to put it vulgarly) a pull with the Car- dinal Vicar, and can easily arrange the matter: and so it is arranged. The finale is disconcerting. After a considerable struggle, the reader has just made up his mind that, the heroine being really a good deal of a saint, and the hero more or less of a cad, it is just as well that decency and order should not be annihilated to make two such lov- ers happy. Monsignor does not consent that the bonds of the church should be broken in the name of humanity and common sense, yet he permits the church to be bullied by what is vir- tually a threat of suicide. And yet one has somehow the sense that this is what actually happened, and that it was, on the whole, the most human and com- fortable way out of a bad matter. In some such mood we have been in the habit of looking up from our periodical Crawford novel. We can but regret the stilling of a voice so manly, so simple, so debonnaire. Katrine. By Elinor Macartney Lane. New York: Harper & Bros. This posthumous book, graceful and charming as it is, will hardly add per- ceptibly to Mrs. Lane's literary reputa- tion, which must henceforth rest upon "Nancy Stair," as it has done since the publication of that skilful bit of pseudo- history. The story, situations, and per- sons of "Katrine" are all well-worn. She is the beautiful and gifted daughter of a well-born Irishman afflicted with more or less intermittent alcoholism; and she loves and is loved by Francis Ravenel, a young Southerner, whose pride of race forbids him the thought of marriage with her. When he warns her of this, Katrine's love and pride are both out- raged, and she goes abroad, after the death of her father, to forget Frank, and study singing with the great teacher Josef. We have also the familiar spec- tacle of another suitor, twice as worthy as Frank of the girl's heart, but utter- ly unable to obtain it. Of course, Ka- trine's ultimate capitulation at her lov- er's sick-bed has been a foregone con- clusion since their first parting. We must repeat, that if Mrs Lane's name is to live among the modern story-writ- ers, it must be for the sake of Nancy Stair, not for that of Katrine Dulany. The Hands of Compulsion. By Amelia E. Barr. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. The persistent love of a lass of the Isle of Arran for a handsome, unsound- hearted lad, with her bitterly achieved cure, forms the nucleus of this story. But its best entertainment and workman- ship lie in the surrounding circumstance of earth, air, sky, sea, and Scotch hu- manity. Annie's love is provokingly tenacious. The man she loves is exas- peratingly inferior and motivelessly mean. But Annie's walk and talk, and Annie's father, with his Scotch austeri- ties and mortal vanities, and Aunt Sarah's very human eccentricities and searching phrases are full of savor, breathing northern airs. There are oth- er oddly fashioned characters, too, who weave in and out, more or less loosely, producing the effect of a fabric spun out by the yard rather than made into a garment of any particular shape. But it is a book of wholesome reading, breezy out-of-doors, and cosey within. A Canyon Voyage. By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons. $3.50 net. Sunset Playgrounds. By F. G. Aflalo. New York: Chas. Scribner's Sons. $2.25 net. Next to the voyage of Columbus across the unknown seas, perhaps the most amazing feat of daring on record was Major Powell's first expedition down the Colorado River, in 1869; a journey on frail boats through a thou- sand miles of canons created by a tur- bulent, foaming stream which, for long stretches, had carved its way more than a mile below the level of the sur- rounding land and was reported to dis- appear underground at some places. A graphic account of this thrilling ride was written by Powell and published by the government; but unforeseen ob- stacles had prevented the acquisition of the scientific data desired. To se- cure these in the light of the former experiences, Major Powell undertook a second expedition, better equipped, in 1871. Of this exploring party, Mr. Del- lenbaugh became a member, "by great good luck," as he puts it. scores of men being turned away disappointed; and, in the present volume, which is none the less valuable for being so be- lated, the author gives a vivid account of the experiences and hair-breadth es- capes on this second voyage. A synop- sis of the trip was printed in his "Ro- mance of the Colorado River," but the complete story is now told for the first time. Major Powell himself ex- horted him, several years ago, to write this fuller account, and in complying with this request, the author had the privilege of using, not only his own notes, but the diaries of several other members of the party. It was decidedly worth writing, this detailed record; a more absorbing, and at times stirring, story of adventure has not seen the light in a long time, and the author's unadorned, yet vivid, style enables the reader to share all the emotions of the explorers. When they started, at Green River City, Wyoming, not a single settler lived on or near the river for a distance of more than a thousand miles. The whole region was a howling wilderness, peopled here and there by a band of Indians, whose in- tentions might or might not be friendly. The cliffs that walled in the river were unscalable almost the entire way; and what made the situation particularly hazardous — even more so than the voy- age of Columbus — was that once the trip was begun, there was no possibil- ity of returning. For that the river was too swift, the rapids too frequent. There were days when, after Herculean la- bors in lifting boats, climbing over gigantic boulders, tugging, pulling, shoving every minute, only a mile or two of progress was made. There were places where a successful run of the rapids would take two minutes, while a "let-down" would occupy as many hours. But was the run safe to risk? That question confronted them almost constantly, and the decision usually had to be instantaneous. The major was al- ways on the outlook, but because of in- cessant changes in the bed of the stream, his memory of the first trip was not of much service. Once the major exclaimed "By God, boys, we are gone," but they pulled through. An- other time, they were all spilled in the foaming water, and what happened then, it takes the author several pages to tell. These men had big appetites, with little to eat; they slept on sandbanks, glad if they could find a few willow twigs to put under their backs; they had adventures with Indians, Mormons rattlers, scorpions, wolves; they hunt- ed deer and mountain sheep; they heard wonderful echoes and uncanny noises; they came across relics of cave dwellers and the wreckage of luckless boatmen; they saw canon cliffs simulating every known style of architecture; and they took a large number of photographs, .

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516 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 many of which are reproduced in Mr. Dellenbaugh's volume, and make the reader eager to take the next Santa Fe train for Williams, Arizona. The Grand Canon was the one big thing the author of "Sunset Play- grounds" missed, and afterwards every- body told him, "Why, you haven't seen America!" He did, however, see south- ern California, the Yosemite, Tahoe ("the loveliest lake I ever dropped a line in"), San Francisco rising from the ruins, Portland, Seattle, and all the in- teresting things Canadian between Van- couver and Montreal. He is an English- man who travelled seven thousand miles to catch a tuna, and never got sight of one; yet he is anything but sorry he made the trip. He tells his countrymen, as one who has had wide experience, that for all game fishes except salmon "America is without a rival"; and he tells those Britons who have only a month's holiday that, though half of their vacation may go in the round trip, they will get more fish in the remain- ing half than in the whole month at home, while the cost is about the same as the rental of first-class water in Scot- land. Canada offers the largest oppor- tunities, but the fisherman's paradise is Catalina Island, thirty miles off the coast of California. Here Mr. Aflalo had the time of his life, enjoying "the finest sea-fishing in the world." The Ancient Greek Historians. By J. B. Bury. New York: The Macmillan Co. ?2.25. Professor Bury's Harvard lectures on the Greek historians are well suited to their purpose by their lucid and read- able style. But, in substance, they are rather the running commentary of a professional and up-to-date historian than illuminating literary appreciations of the great writers with whom they deal. He is chiefly interested in points of his own overlooked by the Germans, or in the newest geistreiche combina- tion of Wilamowitz, or the latest papy- rus find. But we do not wish to cen- sure the author for not doing some- thing that he has not chosen to do. We merely note, in passing, the tendency to transfer the idea of progress from the physical to the historical sciences, and the consequent failure to distin- guish with sufficient sharpness between the fashions and conjectures of the tem- porary leaders of scholarship, and the abiding body of tradition. This said, it remains only to enumerate the chief topics and suggestions of Professor Bury's interesting volume. The critical and rationalistic spirit of Ion'a evolved history out of the genea- logical, local, and geographical epic. The "father of history" was Hecataeus of Miletus, who, "we may pretty con- fidently assume," was the source of Herodotus to an extent that Herodotus himself does not recognize — but Pro- fessor Sayce does. The last three books of Herodotus were composed first, as R. W. Macan has made clear, probably in the years 456-445, before the travels in Egypt and Babylonia. The account of the Persian wars was, "we may con- jecture," an answer to the challenge of the Ionian Adyo? of Dionysius of Mile- tus, in which the Ionians were shown in a more favorable light and Athens played a less brilliant role. Other- wise what chiefly interests Mr. Bury in Herodotus is his critical spirit — the precise limits of his skepticism. Incidentally the Greek idea of the jeal- ousy of the gods is banished from its last refuge. The ordinary Greek attrib- uted to his gods not only Nemesis to- wards the prosperity of the wicked but jealousy of all human eminence. Plato, followed by Aristotle, protested that "envy has no place in the guise divine." But what of the fifth century writers? It has for some time been the fashion to argue that ^Eschylus outgrew the idea on which the Prometheus is based, and that the chorus of the Agamemnon repudiates it. The late Prof. James Adam, in his "Religious Teachers of Greece," tries to show that Pindar had outgrown it, and now comes Mr. Bury and tells us that "the catastrophe which befalls the Persian expedition is not con- ceived as the work of jealous gods, an- noyed by the conspicuous wealth or suc- cess of mere mortals." Ample justice is done to Thucydides as the founder of political and critical history, and the first practitioner of the archaeological method. No part of the history was published until after the year 404 b.c. When the preface to the fifth book was written, the signifi- cance of the entire war was first re- vealed to the author, and he decided to combine in the artistic unity of the whole his separate studies of the ten years' war, and the Sicilian expedition. An entire chapter is devoted to the speeches with the strange omission in both text and bibliography of all ref- erence to Jebb's masterly essay. The chief new suggestion, if it is one, is that the contorted style, which is not found even in all the speeches, is a hint to the reader that Thucydides is setting forth his own reflections with all the art which he had learned in the school of Gorgias or Antiphon. The application of this criterion yields the conclusion that the "Epitaphios" is not even in substance the utterance of Per- icles, but embodies Thucydides's own psychological study of the Periclean regime and its lofty but impracticable ideal. Even if we concede this, it is surely fanciful to see an oblique sneer at Periclean idealism in the words at- tributed to Cleon in the Mytilene speech Jong after Pericles's death: tyrel aAXo Ti a»v ciros eintly fj tv oil £<o/4€P, which Mr. Bury thinks are the exact Greek equiv- alent of "he is an idealist." A brief chapter on Roman historiog- raphy and some observations on the philosophy and uses of history conclude a volume whose value for all students of the Greek historians is in no wise affect- ed by these minor criticisms which we have thought more profitable than the indiscriminate praise usually awarded to writers of Professor Bury's eminence. The Precinct of Religion in the Culture of Humanity. By C. G. Shaw. New York: The Macmillan Co. ?2 net. Professor Shaw's object is to prove that religion is independent of science and philosophy. In this position he falls in with one direction of cur- rent thought as represented by Edward Caird and other writers. Religion, he holds, is religious consciousness, it is the self-affirmation of the soul, it turns in despair from the imperfections and contradictions of the world to seek sat- isfaction and peace in a divine order that offers an adequate aim for life, and in a divine person who gives reality to the world; "what genuine religious thinking demands is a universal realm in which the supremacy of God and the destiny of man may live in eternal communion" (p. 218). This is merely an elaboration of the definition of religion — religion is faith in an omnipotent righteous ruler of the world. Professor Shaw, however, goes a step farther, and ascribes to religion the power of creat- ing ideas. "The testimony of philoso- phy," he says (p. 56), "seems to be that it is from religion and from religion alone that we have obtained just these three all-important ideas of a personal soul, the unity of the world, and the absoluteness of the world-soul," and he adds: "It is from religion that our philosophy has received its idea of the soul." He should rather say that it is religion that gives these ideas their noblest form. It is in such statements as those just quoted that the logical defect of the work lies. While its spirit is admirable, its learning competent, and its philosophical, social, and his- torical criticism suggestive, it does not clearly distinguish between creation and adoption — it represents religion as orig- inating what it only accepts and de- fines. The soul has always been known to man through his ordinary expe- rience— religion invests it with dignity by making it the friend of the Deity. The unity of the world is a philosophi- cal dogma — religion makes it instinct with spiritual life. Belief in the abso- luteness of the world-soul might exist without religion, but religion tinges it with emotion ana makes it a practical element of life. Religion is not the only form of thought that is dissatisfied with the world — ethics seeks to improve hu- man conduct, Socialism looks to an

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 517 economic reconstruction of society. Re- ligion differs from these not in seek- ing something better than now exists, but in the source to which it looks for betterment. Possibly Professor Shaw has these points in mind, but he does not make them clear. His interesting work would gain in effectiveness by em- phasizing the fact that religion is an attitude of mind, and that its doctrinal content — the soul, the world, God — comes by the ordinary processes of mind. Beliind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwo- man's Eight Years' Residence amongst the Women of the East. By M. E. Hume-Griffith, with Narratives of Ex- periences in both countries by A. Hume-Griffith, M.D. With 37 illustra- tions and a map. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.50 net. Like Dr. Wishard's recently published "Twenty Years in Persia," this work is the record of a physician's intimate per- sonal experience among Persians of all classes. The story is not a new one, nor a very important one, but it has the vital interest which belongs to all faith- ful transcriptions of human life. It is. moreover, a sad story, as that of the physician is likely to be. This should be remembered by the reader; for what the physician sees behind the veil, while true, is not the whole story. Many of the incidents related would seem in- credible to the stranger to Eastern man- ners and customs were they not the narrative of an eye witness. The pitiful hardships of child labor in the carpet- weaving districts, the barbarous prac- tices of Persian medicine and surgery, the cruel punishments of Persian justice, the rapacity and extortion of the mul- lahs, the degraded lot of woman, whose birth is regretted, whose death is un- mourned, and whose life is a literal slavery to the pleasures and necessities of an absolute master — all these are facts, and they, rather than the brighter aspects of life in the East, which are quite as real, form the burden of the narrative. In this respect Mrs. Hume- Griffith's book, for her share in the au- thorship is the larger, compares unfa- vorably with that of Dr. Wishard, who, perhaps because of his longer residence, sees the good and hopeful which exists in the Eastern character. There is no pretension to literary quality or learning, the chapters suc- ceeding each other like a series of let- ters written to friends at home. But they afford interesting pictures which contribute to the general understanding of social conditions in a portion of the East as yet scarcely touched by West- ern influences. The illustrations are more than usually striking, being evi- dently drawn from other sources than the common stock from which the trav- eller ordinarily obtains his supply. Science. A Naturalist in Tasmania. By Geoffrey Smith. New York: Henry Frowde. $2.50. This book is the result of an expedi- tion which was undertaken especially to study the fresh-water life of Tasmania, and for which a grant was made by the British Association for the Advance- ment of Science. The first chapter in- troduces the reader to the early explor- ers, Dutch, French, and English, of the island at the extreme south of Australia. The account of the Tasmanian aborigines is particularly interesting, because, from their low state of culture, they have been regarded as extant survivals of paleolithic man. The" other implements which they used, besides wooden spears and clubs, were roughly chipped stone scrapers, true paleoliths, without any attempt at grinding or polishing of edges. They knew how to make fire by twisting a pointed stick upon dry tin- der in a hollowed-out piece of wood. They had the custom of our Amer- ican aboriginal Indians of burning the forests to clear out the underbrush and to form grassy clearings or meads; and they knew how to entice to feed there- in the kangaroos and other game. They ate shell fish and cray fish, the eggs and flesh of the mutton-bird, or sooty petrel (procellaria); the roots and shoots of ferns, seaweeds, and fungi. They had also so far acquired that especially Southron-American taste which Presi- dent Taft has lately popularized, that they ate opossums ("'possum") and other native marsupials. Little is known of their religious opinions, though they seem to have believed in evil spirits, whether they did in a supreme Being or no; and they probably believed in a fu- ture state. The Quaker missionaries, Backhouse and Walker, when visiting a remnant of the tribes, saw an old wo- man placing together sundry flat stones marked variously with black and red lines. These, she explained, were her country people absent from her. Un- willing to refer to them as dead, she spoke of them as "plenty far away." Thirty years ago this interesting and unfortunate race became extinct. It was the old story of the effect on primi- tive tribes of close contact with the Eu- ropean. Imported diseases, vices, race hostility, and pernicious liquors wrought degeneration, and finally death. The last of the pure-blooded Tasmanians, named Truganini, died in 1876. Her mother was murdered by sailors, her sister was carried off by sealers, she herself was originally kidnapped, and her lover murdered by two sawyers in the government employ. And her com- plete skeleton is now preserved in the museum at Hobart. Following these introductory accounts, the author takes up the story of the fauna and flora of the island. These he describes with considerable fulness, and in a thoroughly scientific, though pop- ular, manner. In other words, he does not burden his narrative with technical terms and details of interest to special- ists alone, but gives the results of his observations of trees and shrubs, birds and wild beasts, fishes, reptiles, and crustaceans, mountains, lakes, rivers, and natural scenery, in a style so plain and graphic that the intelligent lay reader follows him with great pleasure, as well as advantage, and the trained naturalist with equal satisfaction and enjoyment. The book is richly illus- trated by numerous drawings and photo- gravures; and an excellent map of the island presents its geological features and physiography. One rises from the reading of this admirable book feeling that the author has kept faith with one, and has given a good view of Tasmania ?nd its natural characteristics. A School of Forestry has been opened at Oxford, England, in the new Forestry building erected by St. John's College, at a cost of over $50,000, for the use of the university. The event marks an advance in the development of studies in rural econ- omy which will be of great practical bene- fit both in England and India. Rider Hag- gard was one of the speakers at the dinner given in connection with the opening exer-. cises. H. W. Wright's "Birds of the Boston Public Garden" (Houghton Mifflin Co.) is clear evidence of the ever-widening in- terest in birds. Not many years ago pub- lishers brought out only general works on natural history. Then came the day of an- imal and bird books, and now we have em- bodied in a well-made volume the notes of eight seasons, relating only to the migra- tory birds observed in a twenty-four-acre oasis, situated deep within the desert of a city's streets. Naturally, one must be a Bostonian to get full measure of value from these records, but the perseverance and enthusiasm of the author cannot fail to inspire bird-lovers in other cities and places. In the first part of the book Mr. Wright gives a concise description of the Public Garden, and outlines his results. His record day for number of birds during the eight years was May 12, 1908, when 137 individuals of 28 species were observed. Three-quarters of the book is devoted to a list, well annotated, of 116 species of American birds, two introduced species, and two probablv escaped from captivity, all of which were observed within the Bos- ton Public Garden. It constitutes a re- markable record of thorough observation in a very limited area. Drama and Music. Three new volumes bring the issues of the Tudor Facsimile Texts to an imposing number. One of the new volumes is Ul- pian Fulwell's "Like Will to Like," re- printed from a copy of the edition of 1587 in the British Museum. The only other copy of this edition known to exist is one

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518 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 that turned up in the Mostyn sale at Sothe- by's in 1908. The British Museum copy is rather badly smeared, and the reproduction brings out this fault, as it does all others. J. A. Herbert of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, who is comparing all these reprints with great care, says that the stained pages are even a little worse here than in the original. Another volume contains the "Nice Wanton" from a copy of the earliest known edition (in the Brit- ish Museum) of 1560. The Interlude has already been issued in this series, reprinted from the edition of c. 1565. The two re- prints thus offer an interesting field of comparison. Amon~ other things, the cop of 1565, by the excellence of its text, proves the wisdom of the British Museum authori- ses in purchasing the rare books of the ••Irish find" of 1906. Mr. Herbert reports the present reproduction as "generally excel- lent," and the good results of using a hard- er, smoother paper for these reprints will be seen by comparing this volume with the earlier facsimile of the same interlude which was sent to subscribers in 1907. The third volume now issued contains "Youth" in two forms: one from the Lam- beth Palace fragment, of a date not earlier than 1528, and the other from the Waley edition of c. 1557. These two, with the re- print of the Copland edition already issued in the series, comprise all the known im- pressions of this curious and interesting interlude. Here again opportunity is af- forded of making an instructive compari- son of texts. These volumes, like all the earlier issues, are edited by John S. Farm- er, and published by T. C. & E. C. Jack of London. The celebration at Rome of the eightieth birthday of Tommaso Salvini, deferred from New Year's in consequence of the earth- quake, began on the evening of April 29 with a special performance in the Argen- tina of Sebatino Lopez's "Buona Figluola,"1 followed by a recital of Dante's "Death of Count Ugolino," by the actor's son, Gus- tavo Salvini, and the presentation of com- memorative wreaths and parchments by his fellow actors. At the Campdoglio, the following day, Mayor Nathan, in behalf of the city, presented a medal recording Sal- vini's share in the defence of the Roman republic of 1849, and the King conferred on him the order of the down of Italy. A gold medal struck in his honor by Queen Margherita and gifts from Trieste and the chief cities of Italy were announced. In this connection mention should be made of two recent publications, "Vita aneddot- ica di Tommaso Salvini," by Jarro (Giulio Piccini), and "Tragedia e Scena dialettale," liy Antonio Russo Ajello, a study of Sal- vini s art and its influence on the contem- porary Italian stage. H. B. Irving has been talking to the Pen and Palette Club in London on the Shake- speare Memorial Theatre scheme. In ihe course of his remarks he said that any scheme for a national theatre which did not fall into practical hands was foredoomed to failure. The plan, as put forward, was, he said, full of elaborate proposals. For instance, the governing body of the the- atre was to be a council and standing com- mittee composed of representatives of the universities, the Royal Academy, the Coun- ty Council, various municipalities, the high commissioner of the colonies, and a few others. What could such a body have to do with the control of a national theatre? Why should the theatre, as though it were a dangerous lunatic, be considered incap- able of looking after its own affairs? No one could wish more keenly than he did that they might have one day a great na- tional theatre, but let them see that the theatre did not become a prey of faddists and amateurs. Beerbohm Tree will produce in London the Beethoven play, of M. Fauchois, which was so well received at the Paris OdSon. Louis N. Parker will make the English ver- sion for him. Beethoven is shown in his later years, the climax of the second act being reached at the moment when he sud- denly becomes stone deaf. The third and last act ends with his death, an event im- mediately preceded by a vision, in which the dying composer is surrounded by living realizations of his "nine symphonies." "Beethoven" was praised highly by the Parisian critics, and is said to be one of the pieces selected for representation by the New Theatre in this city. Bayreuth is to retain its monopoly of "Parsifal," the association of German op- eratic managers having agreed unanimously not to stage this work as long as the Bay- reuth festivals continue. The Finnish Senate, which has power to award each year prizes varying from $300 to $1,200 to authors and artists, has this year voted an annual life pension of $1,000 to Finland's foremost composer, Jean Sibe- lius. The extraordinary difference between op- eratic conditions in Milan and New York is illustrated by the fact that during the past season the two operas most frequent- ly sung were Spontini's "La Vestale," which had sixteen performances, and Gior- dano's "Andrea Chenier," which had twelve. Giordano's opera failed to please New Yorkers, and if Spontini's old-fashioned opera were revived here, it would probably have a run of one consecutive night. Strauss's "Elektra" was sung only six times. Since no novice finds it more difficult to get a hearing than the young composer of orchestral music, the national competi- tion for a new orchestral suite or a sym- phonic poem, just announced by the Roman Society of Authors, contains the commenda- ble provision that the successful composi- tion shall be performed during the season of 1909-10 at one of the symphony concerts given in the Anfiteatro Corea. As these concerts are supported jointly by the Royal Academy of Saint Cecelia and the city of Rome, it is fitting that the responsibility of these bodies for the advancement of Italian music should be recognized in this way, as well as by the formation of com- petent interpreters — a service they have shown their intention of performing by appointing as director for a single concert each season one of the youngest of Italian musicians, Vittorio Gui. Prof. Julius Hey, the well-known Ger- man music-teacher, has died at Munich in his seventy-seventh year. He had assisted Wagner in bringing out "Tristan und Isolde," the first time in Munich, and had instructed a number of the best Wagnerian singers. Art. THE ROYAL ACADEMY. London, May 1. Innovation of any kind comes as a surprise at the Royal Academy. The fact that two hundred fewer pictures have been hung this year, and that, in consequence, a narrow strip of wall space is left bare below the ceiling, would seem almost a reform, if the re- duction in quantity meant a correspond- ing improvement in quality. But though the little bare strip of wall space is much to be thankful for, the standard, as far as the pictures are concerned, re- mains the same, and the hanging below the strip as unintelligent. It is really extraordinary how faithful the Acad- emy is to its own level of dulness. The truth is that, for art as for lit- erature, the present moment is one of commonplace, and it is inevitable that this should be felt above all in an in- stitution as vowed to commonplace as the Academy. The exhibition at Bur- lington House has never been of artis- tic importance during the twenty-five years I have been going to it regularly every summer, but it is now, if any- thing, more unimportant than ever. That the older Academicians, men like Poynter, Tadema, Dicksee, Fildes, Her- komer, should continue to turn out very much the same pieces of Academic correctness and archaeology and senti- ment and prettiness and commonness, is only natural. But I find that even some of the younger members, whose work, in its freshness, was once a pleasant contrast to the prevailing monotony, have fallen into the Academic fashion of repeating themselves until they, too, are in danger of preferring formula to Nature. There was a time when Mr. Clausen's pictures attracted attention, though they might not be masterpieces, by his unmistakable effort to work out some problem of light or atmosphere. But his problems are becoming stereo- typed. For the Diploma picture which the newly elected Academician must present to the Academy, and which he is now showing, he has painted the "In- terior of an Old Barn," as he has more than once before and under much the same conditions. In another painting he has placed an "Old Reaper" in the landscape and under the sky he has of late years made so familiar; and it is only the master like Corot or Millet who can go on repeating the same sub- ject and the same treatment without growing stale. In a third, "Late Moon- rise" has given him a new theme, but it seems to have bewildered him, as if he had no longer the eye for new prob- lems, and the landscape is filled with a light that never shone except on his 1 small canvas. Mr. Edward Stott, an-

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May 20, 1909] The Nation. 519 other exhibitor who for long claimed and repaid attention, is apparently con- scious of the danger of repetition, but strives to escape it, not by closer and more intimate study of Nature, but by anecdote, which is much more in favor with the Academy's public. At first, he endeavored to put down simply what he saw — Nature in her tranquil moods, a quiet stretch of fields or heath, a low range of hills, a country lane, the peo- ple who belonged there as they came and went on their daily tasks, if they happened to give just the necessary touch of space or color. He invented nothing in the way of subject or detail, seeming to know that the beauty was in the mystery of dawn or dusk, in the harmony of tone or the rhythm of line. But now he must arrange the figures in the landscapes and give them an ar- tificial value, and he brings together a woman and her child, a sheep and its young, and calls his picture "Two Mothers," that it may please the many who revel in sentiment; or else he makes the twilight gather upon The Flight of the Holy Family through a lovely landscape to which they have no real relation and where they only keep you from seeing how tenderly the shadows envelop the hills beyond, how quietly the light fades from the eve- ning sky. And so it is with many other of the younger men, inside and outside the Academy, who keep on painting again and again practically the same picture that has brought them popular success or official recognition. The Academy may have been a warning signal to Mr. Sargent and helped him to his decision to paint no more portraits, though he, better than any painter there, could afford to run tne risk of repetition. However, his portraits recently have shown the strain of years of portrait painting, and cer- tainly there is nothing in the two he exhibits this summer to make one re- gret his decision. In his three-quarters length of the Earl of Wemyss, who stands, his full face looking straight from out the canvas, the figure in the black frock coat is so elongated and the head, with the white hair and white fringe of whiskers and the extreme pallor of the complexion, is so over- emphasized, that the effect is very close upon caricature.. It is much more in- teresting to turn to his large decora- tive design, Israel and the Law, des- tined, I believe, for the Boston Public Library, where I should like to see it before pronouncing any but a very ten- tative opinion. At the Academy, it hangs in the midst of restless portraits and vivid landscapes, whereas it is in- tended to become a part of a definite architectural design, with no paintings near except, perhaps, others in the same decorative scheme. As it is, in its Academic setting, it has dignity and grandeur. A great shrouded, seated figure fills the centre of the composi- tion, the pose vague and confused, but impressive; between the knees, in the shadow of the massive drapery, a boy crouches; and on either side are three other figures, each holding a golden sword. The masses are well balanced, and the figures sculpturesque in feeling. The group, rose and gray in color, the lines following the line of the lunette it fills, is bound together by the long flowing curves of a golden scroll, and set against a background of flat blue with a border of golden Hebrew char- acters placed and spaced so as to yield their full decorative value. There is no other design at the Academy, however large or for whatever purpose, that can compete with this. It would be sub- jected to a more severe comparative test at either Salon, where there are painters who have had the advantage of the same sound technical training, and the benefit of commissions as im- portant, and who are not afraid of hard work. Commissions for mural decora- tion are rare in England, and, as a rule, the Academy is the last place in which such work, when done, is exhibited. At the Royal Academy banquet last night, Sir Edward Poynter referred with satisfaction to the fact that the walls of St. Stephen's Hall at West- minster are to be decorated, but few British artists of to-day have revealed the least fitness for the task. Mr. Abbey, probably still busy for Harrisburg, has nothing this year, though his followers do their best to take his place. But, as a rule, the pic- tures based upon some incident in his- tory or mythology, or inspired by some unwonted flight of the painter's imag- ination, smell so strong of the studio that they scarcely seem worth criticism. The portraits are numerous, but those that call for a second glance are few. Brutality of paint answers for charac- ter in the sitter, discordant detail passes for arrangement. The presentation and official portraits by Academicians and Associates hang in greater numbers than usual. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in robes of state, Indian princes in gor- geous silks and jewels, John Burns and the Duke of Northumberland, a long succession of men, famous or no- torious, stare at you from Academic pomposities on the line, but hardly one deserves as much as a word in passing. J. J. Shannon's most important can- vas is a group of three sisters, Frances, Dinah, and Kathleen, daughters of Francis Tennant, Esq., which, unfortu- nately for himself, invites comparison with Mr. Sargent's grouD of three sis- ters hung in precisely the same centre a very few years ago. Mr. Shannon would do well to find another sitter like Phil May, to serve as tonic after his long surfeit of pretty faces and elegant gowns. George Henry, one of the Glas- gow group, whose portraits have often had the beauty that comes from a sense of pattern, of arrangement, seems bent now on producing fashion-plates, though his delicate rendering of a vase or an ornament in a background is a remin- der that there are things better worth doing, and that he knows how to do them with more distinction. Delicacy of detail and grace of design have al- ways been characteristic of Sir W. Q. Orchardson, and are still; the white gown and cloak in his portrait of Mrs. Moss-Cockle have the harmony of color which belongs to the fashion neither of to-day nor of to-morrow, but to beauty that endures. But the old grasp of character and the old strength of han- dling have weakened. Here and there, I recall other portraits, less pretentious canvases, where the artist appears to have had time and thought for the plac- ing of his subject and the carrying out of an appropriate color scheme, as, for example, Maurice Grieffenhagen's por- trait of his wife, a study in silver and gray, though his pleasure in the har- mony evidently distracted him from the equal pleasure he should have had in the modelling of the face and the draw- ing of the hands. I find it hard to be more enthusiastic about the landscapes. There are the ac- customed Academic machines, large and empty, because, whatever the motive, the size must be made to "tell" in an exhibition; and they monopolize almost all the best places on the line. Land- scapes suffer even more than portraits from the painter's determination to make his picture overpower everything near it on the walls of a gallery. But here again there are occasional excep- tions, and the quietest effects sometimes are those that tell the most. I remem- ber nothing more vividly than Adrian Stokes's Twilight in the Birches, in which the tenderness of the hour and the grace of the trees are expressed with such sympathy that the tall, feathery birches, as they rise in shad- owy lines against the pale gray vague- ness of earth and sky, are sufficient sub- ject in themselves, and, as the painter has understood, need no dragging in of anecdote or sham sentiment. If I re- call a beach, filled with the movement of many figures, by Walter W. Russell, and the Valley of the Wharfe by Ber- tram Priestman, I have exhausted the list of landscapes that appealed to me personally or seemed to me concerned with any problem more serious than the painter's desire to be accepted and hung in a conspicuous place. The sculptor in England has one ad- vantage over the painter: he has more chances of large and important commis- sions, though he does not fare so well as his fellow-artists in France or Amer- ica. However, even in England build- ings are decorated with sculpture, the public man must have his monument,

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520 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 the dead their tombs. But the Academy got rid of the one artist to-day who could carry on nobly the great tradi- tions of sculpture inherited from Al- fred Stevens. They have allowed Al- fred Gilbert to resign, and to live in exile at Bruges. His absence is sadly felt this year in the Sculpture Hall, where there is nothing of special note or distinction. A small marble, Terp- sis, by Havard Thomas, some statuettes by M. Fremiet; a bust, Le Sacristan, by Mr. Lanteri, full of character — and that is all. The Black-and-White Room is not more encouraging. The most distin- guished etchers and draughtsmen pre- fer to show elsewhere, and, except for the prints and drawings of Mr. Short, Mr. Strang, and Mr. Watson, there is lit- tle of merit or importance. The Water- Color Room is a wilderness of medi- ocrity. And the wonder is, after all is said for the exhibition that can be said, how, year after year, at the banquet which princes and ministers of state think it an honor to attend, Academi- cians can go on congratulating them- selves and being congratulated on their success and on the services the Academy renders to art in England. One an- nouncement, however, made last night, and already approved, is of interest. A Royal Commission is appointed for the organization of the British contri- butions to future international exhibi- tions. The consideration of a similar organization at home might prove more profitable to the American artist than all his recent attempts to revise the tar- iff. N. N. At the annual meeting of the National Academy of Design, May 12, Frederick Dielman resigned the presidency, which he has held for ten years. John W. Alexander was elected unanimously to fill the vacant place. The other officers were reelected. Six new academicians were added: Thomas Hastings, architect; Isidor Konti, sculptor; Joseph Pennell, etcher, and Walter Clark A. T. Van Laer, and Frederick Ballard Wil- liams, painters. > The Tiefurth villa of the Duchess Anna Amalie is to be restored to the condition it was in when it was the meeting place, and often the romping place, of Goethe and the great circle of Weimar. Frank Dillon, the English landscape painter, has died at the age of eighty-six. He was a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors, and exhibited frequently in the Academy and elsewhere. From Paris comes the report of the death of J. Otis Minott, the well-known painter of miniatures, at the age of forty-six. He was a native of Orange, N. J. He had painted portraits of many notable Eng- lish people, and at the time of his death was under agreement to make miniatures of King Edward and Queen Alexandra. The last survivor of the Barbizon school, M. Ceramano, a pupil of Charles Jacque, has passed away. He was born in Belgium eighty years ago, and at the time of his death had been living at Barbizon for more than forty years. Louis Henry Dupray, the military paint- er, has died, at the age of sixty-four. He studied under Leon Cogniet and Pils, ob- taining medals in 1872 and 1874. He was a member of the Societe des Artistes Fran- gais. The death is also announced of Madame Leon Bertaux, the sculptor, in her eighty- fourth year. She was a member of the "grand jury" of the Societe des Artistes Francais, and one of the founders of the Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs de Paris. Finance. RAISING PRICES BY DESTRUCTION. It will hardly be denied, even by the people most closely interested in regu- lating the supply of coffee placed on the world's markets, that the Brazilian project of burning up or sinking in the ocean an inconvenient surplus is a startling innovation. Adam Smith, referring in a classic passage to a similar undertaking by the Dutch in their East Indian spiceries, describes it as a "savage policy." In the present in- stance, different people will regard the project differently. Bankers connected with the recent "valorization scheme" will possibly approve the plan as a di- rect short-cut to adjustment of supply and demand. Some who have observed the financial vicissitudes of Brazil and its province of Sao Paulo will doubtless argue that it is better to destroy 10 per cent, of the coffee delivered for export than to impose a 10 per cent, money tax on exporters, with a view to prevent- ing them from exporting. But there will certainly be some voices raised in the comment that to produce an article of usefulness and value, with expendi- ture of care, labor, and capital, and then deliberately destroy it to keep up the price, is an act of economic folly at which even the Middle Ages would have protested. As the London Economist ob- serves of the pending proposition: Economically, it is about as sound as the breaking of plate-glass windows in the in- terests of the glaziers. And yet this extraordinary plan is a not illogical sequel of an attempt by government to regulate the price of its farmers' products. The simple case of the Brazilian state is this: It found its coffee-planters in distress because of wasteful and uneconomical methods of production, and because the large crops of coffee had forced the price to a level which they considered unremunerative. The government thereupon bought up with its own money a good part of the planters' coffee, storing it away for a future market. At this point, a dim analogy to a piece of economic absurd- ity in our own history — Secretary Win- dom's plan of 1890 to help the price of silver by buying it up with the public money and storing it in the Treasury — occurs to mind. We rather wonder that the State of Sao Paulo did not think of copying the Windom scheme and issu- ing treasury notes for the purchased coffee, making the notes available for bank reserves and redeemable, to para- phrase a certain Treasury document of 1890, "on demand, in such quantities of coffee as will equal in value, at the date of presentation, the number of dollars expressed on the face of the notes at the market price of coffee, or in gold at the option of the government, or in coffee at the option of the holder." The Brazilians did not do this; they preferred to go into the coffee business outright, with the purpose of "regulat- ing" the price. Sao Paulo invested $88,400,000 of the public funds in buying something more than 8,000,000 bags of coffee. It bought them with the purpose of selling again, and with the somewhat naive idea that such purchases, from an exceptionally large crop, would put up the price to the figure desired. Any ex- perienced merchant might have pre- dicted what happened, and what will always happen with a huge, unwieldy supply, held on credit and perpetually overhanging the market. Even our sil- ver-purchase scheme, which did not contemplate re-sale of the commodity purchased, forced the regretful comment from President Harrison, within a year, that it had failed "to give the market for silver bullion such support as the law contemplated, and every one knows how the experiment ended." In the later stages of its preposter- ous economic exploit, the credit of Sao Paulo became more or less impaired; collateral was asked for such further loans as the "valorization scheme" re- quired. It put up the coffee itself, at a low valuation, for use as such collat- eral, and taxed the exporters of coffee in a large enough amount to provide for interest and sinking fund. This was well enough for the bankers, but the Brazilian coffee-producers over whom a benevolent government was extending Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 99 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates L

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May 20, 1909] The ISTation. 521 its protection began to ask where they came in. For them, the new tax bur- dens were the one tangible result. The time-worn and soothing explana- tion that the foreigner paid the tax did not somehow seem to be dem- onstrated by their income accounts. Hence, undoubtedly, the new and recent proposal of the Brazilian state to the bankers' committee, that the govern- ment, instead of arbitrarily limiting ex- ports, impose a 10 per cent, ad valorem tax upon exporters, payable, not in money, but in coffee, and that the coffee be destroyed. The pleasing fiction of the taxpaying foreigner is replaced by equally agreeable assurances that, since only the poorer coffee will be thrown away, a gratifying improvement in the average quality of Brazilian coffee ex- ports will ensue. Expedients of this sort never lack arguments based on the general welfare. The bankers appear to contemplate this plan of a coffee holocaust with equanimity; we are not yet informed how the Brazilian people regard it. We are, however, in no doubt whatever as to how intelligent economists will look upon it. It is no new principle in politi- cal economy that the bad results of one step in the direction of unsound finance do not stop with the immediate conse- quences of that single action; other and more venturesome steps must follow, in order to placate somebody who grum- bles because the impossible promises, made in the first instance, have failed of redemption. Where the Brazilian experiment will end, we do not venture to predict. We think, however, that, quite apart from the fortunes of Brazil, this extra- ordinary experiment is a sign of the times. It is not the first illustration of a mental perversity, in the matter of prices, production, and consumption, which has largely pervaded the public mind. Not so many years ago, we in the United States had a cotton conven- tion urging the burning of cotton be- cause the American crop of 1904 was so large that makers of clothing would not pay the prices of "boom years" and "Sully corners." All that prevented the trying of the experiment was that each producer secretly hoped that his neigh- bor's cotton would be selected for de- struction, and his own enhanced in value. It was actually urged on Con- 1 gress, during 1907, that the Gov- ernment should lend its surplus to cotton growers, on the collateral of cot- ton, in order to keep their product off the market and advance the price. High authority in the steel-manufacturing community has declared that even in hard times the consumer will not buy any more at low prices than at high prices, and therefore that prices ought to be kept up at all hazards. It is plain that other people than the Brazilians need to be brought back to the inexor- able principles of sound economics and finance BOOKS OP THE WEEK. Aynard, Joseph. Oxford and Cambridge. Paris : Librairie Renouard. Barrett, Frank W. Z. Mourning for Lin- coln. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co. $1 net. Bates, Frank A. Camping and Camp Cook- ing. Boston : Ball Publishing Co. 75 cents net. Bingham, Hiram. The Journal of an Ex- pedition Across Venezuela and Colombia. New Haven: Yale Publishing Association. Boccaccio. Giovanni. The Decameron. Translated by Edward Hutton. 2 vols. London : David Nutt. Burchill, Georgine, and others. The Pro- gressive Road to Reading. Books One and Two. Silver, Burdett. Caetani, Leone. History of Ibn Miskawayh. London: Luzac & Co. Colby, Frank Moore, Editor. The New International Year Book. Dodd, Mead. Conder, C. R. The City of Jerusalem. Dut- ton. $4 net. Dickinson, G. Lowes. Is Immortality Desir- able? Houghton Mifflin Co. 75 cents net. 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522 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2290 THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCES OF 1899 AND 1907 By HON. JAMES BROWN SCOTT Solicitor for the Department of State and Technical Delegate to the Second Conference. Two volumes. 8vo. Cloth. Price $5.00 Vol. I. The Conferences, 887 pages. Vol. II. Documents, 548 pages. These two substantial volumes furnish the most complete account of the Conferences which has appeared in English, and will undoubtedly be accepted as the definitive account of the work of those two great gatherings. The fact that the author was the Technical Delegate of the United States to the Second Conference and played a conspicuous part in its deliberations adds to the authoritative value of the treatise. ORDERS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS, Baltimore, Md. Busy men seldom consider a proposition unless it appears favorable from the start. Take a letter from a pile of, say, thirty. If it is written on Oil |}M!K«[E MM "Look for the Water Mark" it "looks good," and it comes up for a second reading while its neighbors are on their way to the fifth assistant. Let Old Hampshire bespeak for you the consideration that is your due — in other* words, use a paper that represents you. Let us mail you a specimen book. Hampshire Paper Company We are the only paper makers in the world making bond paper exclusively South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts A Timely Book > THE PASSING OF THE TARIFF By RAYMOND L, BRIDGMAN Author of "World Organization," etc. "A closely reasoned, candid, unim- passioned presentation of its subject. Its spirit is earnest and exalted. It emphasizes the moral side of the ques- tion without neglecting the economic arguments which justify its ethics." WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 91.20 Net; by Mail $1.30. SHERMAN, FRENCH & CO. I'liBLISHERS, BOSTON. THE MUSICIANS LIBRARY SEND FOR FREE BOOKLETS OLIVER DITSON CO., Ditson Bldg., Boston, Mass. OUR LIBRARY SERVICE We have recently supplemented our ser- vice to Libraries, by procuring Out-of-Print and Scarce Books, and by importing English books. Onr Etlncntionnl Catalogue con- tains a full list of Supplementary Reading, indicating the grade to which each title is adapted. Our Clearance Catalogue contains overstock at special prices, and an alpha- betical arrangement by authors of all cheap editions of Recent Popular Fiction and Standard library 12mos in one list. Our Library Catalogue of 3.500 approved titles, following A. L. A. lines, is of great convenience to small libraries. Our Monthly Bulletin notices promptly every new book of importance. These Catalogues are sent on request. Three notable features of onr service are: Promptness, thoroughness, and low prices. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. Wholesale Dealers in the Books of All Publishers «:? East 17th St., New York. Research Work in Washington In libraries and archives for literary work- ers; translating, copying, preparation of bibliographies and revision of manuscripts. References. E. L. STONE, Stoneleigh Court, Washington, D. C. Art. FRUITFULNESS RUBENS PINACOTHEK, MUNICH Published in the Med- ici Prints, a series of reproductions in color after the Old Masters, issued by the Medici Society. CATALOGUE ON REQUEST. FOSTER BROTHERS 4 Park Square, Boston SOLE AGENTS IN U. S. FOR THE MEDICI SOCIETY FREDERIC FAIRCHILD SHERMAN Publisher and Bookseller 42 WEST 39TH ST. NEW YORK CITY PUBLICATIONS THE HOUSE OF REST. A Play. By Mab- garet Doane Gardiner. 111. Postpaid, $1.05 WHEN YESTERDAY WAS YOUNG. Poems by Mildred I. McNeal-Sweeney Postpaid, $1.08 SIMEON SOLOMON, AN' APPRECIATION. By Julia Ellsworth Ford. Illustrated. Postpaid, $3.70 ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, NEW YORK. An Engraving Postpaid, $1.10 KING SOLOMON AND THE FAIR SHU- LAMITE. 17 Photogravures. Postpaid, $1.55 ROSEMARY. A Book of Verse. By Edith Arercrombie-Miller Postpaid, $1.05 The STATESMANSHIP of ANDREW JACKSON As Told In His Writings and Speeches Edited by Francis N. Thorpe, Ph.D., LL.D. THE ONLY COLLECTION ever pub- lished of the writings of Jackson. Introduction, Notes, Chronology, Bib- liography, Index. 538 pp., 8vo, Cloth, $2.50. THE GARDEN OF GIRLS By MARIAN A. HILTON A GOOD STORY for girls. Fully il- lustrated. 360 pp., 12mo, Cloth $1.50. The Tandy-Thomas Company 31-33 East 27th Street, New York City BEST facilities for supplying American D/~M~il/rC German English DUUiVO Italian French ■^^=====^== Spanish Catalogues free. Correspondence solicited. LEMCKE & BUECHNER Established over 50 years. 30-32 West 27th St., New York

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1909. The Week. The spectacle of seventeen Democrat- ic Senators voting against free lumber is one calculated to do an enormous amount of damage to their party. The Democrats in their platform specifically stated that, if they should be given charge of the nation's affairs, free lumber would be one of the first results of their adminis- tration. When the opportunity came on Monday, Senator Bailey and his six- teen associates voted for a tariff on lum- ber, just as if there had never been a Denver convention. Moreover, when chided for his action, Mr. Bailey replied that he would not surrender his "con- science and judgment" to the delegates at Denver, a declaration of independence which, if universally followed, would speedily make party platforms as use- less as a mastodon on Broadway. Com- mendable as independence may be in individuals, fixed convictions are indis- pensable for parties if they would at- tract the votes of men who believe in the sacredness of pledges. Men who look for sincere and honest observance of campaign promises will be much less interested in the Democracy hereafter. That the Democratic party has protec- tion traitors in its ranks, has been known since the days of the Wilson bill. Monday's vote shows clearly how little encouragement the independent tariff-for-revenue men would have re- ceived had Mr. Bryan been elected, and had the tariff bill been in Mr. Bailey's hands for passage in the Senate. The ever-present and ever-attractive sentimentality of the South found ex- pression at Charlotte last Thursday in Mrs. Stonewall Jackson's greeting of President Taft. Next to Lee, no one is more enshrined in the hearts of South- erners than the sturdy general who pa- raded the Virginia Military Institute cadets at the hanging of John Brown, and later fought so magnificently from Bull Run until his death on the field of Chancellorsville at the age of forty. That his widow should, just forty-six years later, welcome an Ohio President so gracefully and warmly as the "great harmonizer of all our hearts," is wel- come proof of the softening passage of the time. Not more so, however, than the recent presentation to the battle- ship Mississippi of a silver service mark- ed with the portrait of Jefferson Davis. But few have protested; no one has waved a really "bloody shirt," as would have been the case had there been such an incident twenty years ago. Where else in history is there a duplicate of this spectacle — this honoring of a de- feated traitor and a rebel in this semi- official, if not official, way, after so short a lapse of time, and this without any change in the national belief that Jefferson Davis's cause was morally wrong and the occasion of a fearful loss to the nation? The Georgia Railroad, five hundred miles long, is at a complete standstill; its negro employees have been dragged from their posts, and the property of the company gravely endangered. Why? Because the Order of Locomotive Fire- men and Engineers has determined that negro firemen shall be forbidden to oc- cupy positions on passenger-train en- gines. It is a race issue pure and sim- ple. To its great credit, the railway has manfully stood by its negro employees. It declined to accept the suggestion of the union, because "the adoption of such stipulations would utterly and complete- ly destroy the reasonable rights of sen- iority in runs which had been acquired by negro firemen by long service, and who had been found worthy of promo- tion simply as firemen by reason of their efficiency and faithfulness." Unfortu- nately for the railway company, there is an anti-negro demagogue in the Gov- ernor's chair at Atlanta. Hoke Smith, leader in negro disfranchisement, is the last man to meet this situation properly. His political ambitions have not been quenched by his failure to secure re- election, and so he tells the railway that it cannot have the protection of troops because he has not enough militia to patrol 500 miles of road! He offers no train guards, and forgets that if he has not troops enough to permit an unof- fending corporation and still more un- offending citizens to continue their law- ful business, he has the United States government to fall back upon. The Gov- ernor, like the labor unions, probably fails to see that, quite aside from the American tradition of fair play to every man who is doing an honest day's work, he is wrong from a strictly business point of view. Triumph of the union's policy spells economic disaster for a section which continually complains that it cannot get trained workers from the negroes in sufficient numbers for its mines, mills, and shops. In the long war against anarchy, few blows have told more than will the Supreme Court's decision against two sheriffs and four other citizens of Ham- ilton County, Tennessee. At last every little semi-barbarous community, North and South, has received notice, from an authority it cannot ignore, that the price of defying law is heavy and will surely be collected. The notice has been served late, but it was bound to come. Lynching, and all that goes with it, be- gan as an impulse. Men were resentful toward sluggish courts and the legal sophistries that allowed criminals to escape justice. But, long ago, the im- pulse became a habit, and then the point of view changed. There was no pre- tence of helping the law along; lynch- ing became merely the hot will of the mob. The Chattanooga outrage in 1905 typified this new sentiment. Because some townsmen thought a negro ought not to be allowed an appeal from local courts, the sheriffs invited a riot and surrendered their prisoner without even feigning resistance. In punishing them for contempt, the Supreme Court opens the way to thoroughgoing reform. The prospect that, within a fortnight, the Supreme Court justices of New York may be conferring to rationalize their procedure, almost makes one think human nature is changing. Lawyers hate change. A few far-sighted jurists, like President Taft and Gov. Hughes and Judge Brewer, preach reforms which will give the poor litigant a faiy chance. But that the ninety-seven lead- ers of the New York bench should even invite one another to contemplate such a move, defies history. One would like to read in their project the death-sen- tence of the legal formalist, whom men long ago found guilty. But between sen-

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524= The ]NTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 tence and execution, many a day will slip by. Some causes of delay and crowded calendars ought to be removed with no difficulty. The double appeal, for instance, is a defenceless imbecility; reversal on immaterial technicalities cannot survive criticism. Other reforms are debatable. When the justices come to instruct the Legislature, however, in the art of drafting statutes which a court can interpret at first reading, thorns will spring up. The amateur statesman deems it his inviolable right to jot down a pet measure as the spirit moves. And we fear he will not yield, even if assured that his cumbrous and confused laws delay and confound the administration of justice even more than do the antiquated court rulings. This year's Peace Conference at Mo- honk took a higher tone than the last one on the folly and peril of great arm- aments. The swift development of the big-navy mania, with its inevitable ac- companiments of suspicion, jealousy, and hate, during the past twelvemonth, fairly compelled this attitude. Never did the argument that great navies are the surest guarantee of peace appear more hollow than in this present year of grace and madness. If something is not done to forestall this wicked craze, an explosion will follow that will shake the world. The Mohonk Conference ap- pealed to President Taft to take the in- itiative in calling an international con- gress to work for general disarmament. Our neutral position certainly would enable us to make such advances with- out exposing ourselves to the charge of selfish motives. Mr. Taft must person- ally sympathize with the objects aimed at by the Mohonk delegates, though it will take time, and be a matter of deli- cacy, to make the necessary diplomatic approaches. But the need of applying reason to a wholly irrational state of affairs is urgent. A move for disarma- ment now would be on a par with Pres- ident Roosevelt's intervention in order to bring about peace between Japan and Russia, and would be as heartily ap- plauded by civilized nations. We great- ly hope, therefore, that President Taft may soon undertake negotiations. One English speaker at Mohonk expressed the desire that the United States gov- ernment might give Germany a good scolding! That is a fine illustration of the precise disease to be cured — a blind antagonism and unwillingness to see that anybody is at fault except foreign- ers. Incredible though it may seem that wages in any occupation have dwindled during the past twenty years, while the cost of living has been rising, Prof. Guido H. Marx demonstrates that this has actually happened in the case of college instructors. His article in Science on "Some Trends in Higher Edu- cation," based on information from Har- vard, Cornell, Wisconsin, California, and Leland Stanford, makes clear that the college professor is much less to be pitied than his colleague of lower rank. Poorly remunerated as the professor still is, his salary has been slowly ap- proaching its proper size; but the in- structor's has dropped so far that, "in purchasing power, the average teacher of 1908 is but 60 to 70 per cent, as well off as was his colleague of twenty years ago." At Johns Hopkins the average in- structor now receives $725 a year, at Brown $734; at most other good col- leges nearly $1,000, and sometimes a lit- tle more. Now, the significant fact in all this wretchedness is that the aver- age instructor is to-day the average col- lege teacher. Professor Marx points out that, twenty-five years ago, there was a full professor for every fifteen or twen- ty students, while now there is only one to every forty to eighty. Instructors and assistants, however, now comprise one-half, or even two-thirds, of many a university's teaching staff. It is easy to explain how the instruc- tor has been brought to this pass. Our colleges have been growing faster than their purses; house must be joined to house and athletic field to athletic field, that the enrolment may measure up as long as any rival's; so, of course, the budget committee's pruning knife has to trim the greenest shoots. But what is the price of such economy? Let each recent alumnus, Professor Marx sug- gests, asks himself how many of his courses brought him into live contact with the distinguished men of his col- lege. Rather, we should say, let him ask how many of his young instructors had lapsed into a stupefying routine under the pressure of outside odd jobs undertaken to make ends meet. Or let him ask how many of them failed to in- spire because they were easy-going young bachelors, with no ideals above a dormitory room, $15 a week, and a long summer loafing. To be well educated, one need not sit at the feet of a Rem- sen, a Norton, or a James; but a teacher is indispensable who can give his best, and whose enthusiasm has not been killed. A full supply of such men our colleges are not furnishing. Nor will they, so long as scholars have to work, until well past thirty, for the wages of a New York street-sweeper. Hopes of many American golfers were dashed last Monday by the putting out of Jerome Travers in the first round of the British amateur championship. The belief had been held, and with good reason, that he was able, if he would only take care of himself, to hold his own with the best English players. How- ever, golf is perhaps supreme among all games in yielding a full supply of ad- versity's sweet milk, philosophy. It is good to win, but if you are beaten you can at least have the satisfaction of moralizing about defeat. Nowhere else is the element of truth more apparent in the cynical French saying about the comfort to be got from the misfortunes of one's friends. If even a master of golf, like Travers, can flub three or four tee-shots out of eighteen, find himself bunkered and trapped without excuse, and miss a critical put of three feet — why, it shows that there is not such a tremendous difference between the best of us and the worst. Chronic duffers will now say that Travers knows how it is himself. And the severe moralists of the game will rind their highest claims sustained. How can you deny after this, they will ask, that golf sum- mons into exercise a man's finest pow- ers and virtues? Let there be but a momentary lapse, nervousness at the first two holes, a wavering eye at the tenth, slackening watchfulness or de- termination at the thirteenth, and you see how fated is disaster. If Travers had won, there would have been much glorying, with praise of the perfection of his style, and many exhortations to go and do likewise; but we are not sure that the sterner practitioners of the game will not find in his speedy defeat material for still more fruitful reproof, correction, and instruction in golf righteousness. Earl Grey has broken a precedent by

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May 27, 1909] The Nation. 525 choosing to fill out his six years as Governor-General of Canada, instead of resigning at the end of the fifth year. This is a frank and manly way of say- ing that Earl Grey likes Canada. It carries the implication that the Cana- dians are fond of their Governor-Gen- eral. On this point there is abundant testimony. Not even the popularity of Lord Dufferin was so great as the strong personal liking for Lord Grey throughout the Dominion. The consti- tutional limitations surrounding the chief executive in the English scheme of government are naturally reinforced in Canada by the fact that their Gov- ernor-General is a stranger imposed on them from without. There was once an inclination among Canadians to look upon their chief executive not only as a figurehead, but as one from whom great interest in the people that he nominally governed was neither neces- sary nor desirable. Lord Grey has re- fused to be the formal figure of a vice- roy. He has travelled about much, mingled with all kinds of people, and evidenced as deep an interest in the future of the Canadian West as the native-born. Concerning the panic about invasion that is now afflicting England, we get little here but the shrieks and alarums of the Opposition, because that makes good news. We scarcely hear of the dogged way in which men like Winston Churchill and War Secretary Haldane are standing up to the hard task of in- stilling common sense into the fevered minds of their countrymen. For in- stance, in all this clamor about Ger- man invasion, the war maniacs have been taking it for granted that the Brit- ish army is an utterly negligible factor. Only a year or two ago the Brit- ish alarmists used to fall into a cold chill over a German raiding party of 5,000 men that might land at any time anywhere and do anything they pleased. But after a while even the humorless Jingo mind awoke to the fact that 5,000 foemen were a pretty small scarecrow to frighten a puissant nation of some forty millions. So the raiding party of 5,000 men jumped all at once to an en- tire German expeditionary corps. Now what are you going to say? Suppose the British fleet is enticed away or held in check while 30,000 Germans land in Yorkshire. What will you do then with- out an army or with this army of yours which even Lord Roberts pronounces a sham? Answers Mr. Haldane: We have an army, and it is not a sham. He stated the other day that England has her expeditionary force — her standing army — which consists now of 167,000 men, "trained to a much higher stan- dard than Continental armies." Behind them is a reserve of 150,000 men, of men who have served their term in the regular army. Behind them are four- teen divisions and fourteen brigades of Territorials; Mr. Haldane admitted that it was not known how much these were worth at the beginning of a war, "but they were worth something." In other words, some 320,000 English regular troops, backed by a militia of probably half a million, ought to cope with the German expeditionary corps that is go- ing to land in Yorkshire. "I am not much concerned," said Mr. Haldane, "about the bolt from the blue." But since when have facts appealed to the Jingo? If he wishes to see German air- ships hovering over the mountain top once crowned by Arthur's Camelot, why, dash 'it, sir, he will see 'em. The failure of the French general strike was inevitable. Without serious preparation, a handful of irresponsible leaders attempted to bring about a con- flict which only the most bitter neces- sity could excuse, and only the most resolute attitude on the part of the en- tire working population of a country could render successful. In Russia, four years ago, it was the whole nation that struck — railway employees, teleg- raphers, clerks, physicians, lawyers, and judges. In Austria, universal suffrage was granted because there, too, it was evident that the mass of the nation was aroused. In France, the occasion was inopportune and the cause was frivolous. It all grew out of the postal strike of a few months ago. That strike was set- tled when the employees received what they assert were assurances that the head of the postal department, the ob noxious M. Simyan, should be got rid of. The government denies that it made such promises. In so many words, of course, no government would make such a promise. Yet there can be little doubt that, if the postal employees had given M. Clemenceau time, M. Simyan would have gone. Had he been sacri- ficed immediately, there would have been clamor in the Chamber that the Ministry had surrendered to the unions. The good will of those unions M. Clem- enceau does not despise, but the safety of his Ministry came first. When, there- fore, the labor leaders began praising him for the dismissal of Simyan, it was evident that they were looking for trou- ble. The outcome shows that they found it. As a result of the conference between Von Biilow and the Kaiser, it is an- nounced that there will be no resigna- tion, and that there is the fullest ac- cord between them on all matters relat- ing to domestic or foreign policy. The Kaiser, as a special mark of favor, has asked Von Biilow to accompany him to the Sangerfest at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Beyond doubt, this public support will strengthen the Chancellor's hands; but it in no wise solves the difficult Parlia- mentary problem before him. The lat- est to voice the demand for a solution of the fiscal dilemma is the Bavarian heir- apparent, Prince Ludwig, who has just come out strongly for the proposed in- heritance tax, and urged the Reichstag, in the name of patriotism, to terminate the existing deadlock. But this appeal to the Conservatives is like asking our Congressmen and Senators to vote on the tariff bill without regard to local interests and special privileges. There is at present little prospect that when the Reichstag meets again, after its brief adjournment, the bloc will be in any softer mood or more united than it is to-day. But the chances seem to be that some compromise will in the end be reached — in no sense a genuine reform of the whole fiscal system, but merely a makeshift. South African union now seems as- sured in the near future. After the proposed Constitution had been dis- cussed by the separate colonies, with some amendments strongly urged, it was referred back to the Convention at Bloemfontein. There it was changed in some particulars — the plan of propor- tional representation, for example, be- ing dropped — and was then signed by all the delegates of all the colonies. Speedy ratification is now looked for. The English Lord High Commissioner, Lord Selborne, made a speech at the public banquet given after the Consti- tutional Convention adjourned, in which

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623 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 229r he said that the whole affair was in the hands of the South Africans themselves. The political bread which they might choose to eat would be home-made. Lord Selborne predicted that when the matter came before the Imperial Par- liament, the only competition between English parties would be to see which could interfere least with the work of the Convention. We may, therefore, count speedily upon having to learn to shape our tongues to the new political designation, Commonwealth of South Africa. A SHORT >W Ate WITH CONSUMERS. ^hen'-Mr^pr^wTeVwa^sued by Mrs. BardeWferHrfeSff ef'^ftftofse^of mar- riage, it occfiffl^a^d'^th^ elder Mr. Wel- ler that the defence ought to concen- trate its efforts on establishing an alibi. Very much akin to Mr. Weller's scheme is the argument lately hit upon by good friends of the tariff. Is it in behalf of the consumer that the demand for a downward revision of the schedules has been advanced? Then deny that he ex- ists. There is no such person known to man. We are all a lot of happy, hap- py producers; and for everything that is taken away from us by the Dingley law, we get back something else, and, precisely as if we were in Ireland, a little more besides. The New York Sun makes merry over the myth of the con- sumer, the rhetorical figure, this pure abstraction that has its origin in the brain of the Cumminses and the Dolli- vers, the Borahs and the Baileys and Beveridges. The Chicago Inter Ocean follows suit, but takes the trouble to reason with the deluded ones. Do the farmer and the mill-hand consume without produc- ing? Does the clerk? Do the lawyer, the minister, the journalist, the actor, the college professor? Which of these fails to profit by prosperity? Which of these, therefore, is the "simon-pure con- sumer" you are looking for? And the Sun and Inter Ocean leave us confound- ed, too dazed to make the point that it is not we, but they, that have drag- ged out this unhappy abstraction of a "simon-pure consumer" whom they have so pitilessly gored. "You protest against the extermination of the cherry-colored South American elephant with a duck- bill and a taste for French water-col- ors? There is no such elephant!" It needs no ideal consumer to ham- mer home the iniquities of tariff plun- der. Outside of Tahiti and our own most exclusive circles, we are all pro- ducers and consumers in part. But it is one thing to show that the average American citizen takes as well as gives; it is another thing to say, The taking and the giving balance perfectly. Q. E. D. In that maladjustment between income by the grace of Dingley and out- go by the grace of Dingley, lies the crux of the problem. Granted that John Smith produces as well as consumes. But what the tariff does to him in his capacity as consumer is very well known. What it does for him in his role of producer is by no means so clear- ly evident. The tailor, the grocer, and the candlestick-maker speak more definite- ly to the point than the compiler of Republican statistics on the increase of the country's savings deposits. Is it the advocate of the rights of the consumer that deals in theory and abstraction, or is it the Inter Ocean, when, finding it "obvious" that Protection showers bless- ings on the "clanging mills, the peaceful farms, and the busy marts of trade," it bends down one cheerful finger after the other: If the mills have less work the lawyer for the mills has fewer cases. If employ- ment Is less varied and plentiful there are fewer people with means to pay the preacher. Missionary contributions decline in hard times. And men who look at news- papers chiefly in search of jobs are not the "regular subscribers" who give the journalist peace of mind. Neither do they come numerously to weep or laugh with the actor. Has a fuller circle of human felicity ever been traced? But if the lawyer on his average mu- nificent income of five or six hundred dollars a year, the college professor who is a little better off, the doctor who is a good deal worse off, the preacher, the missionary, the country teacher, were to protest that somehow or other the whole happy scheme of protection does not quite fall into such perfect adjust- ment, he will be told that his troubles are only temporary. "Ultimately" is here the great answer and panacea. For a man who has had so much fun with the ultimate consumer, your tariff man is very fond of the "ultimate" adjust- ment of earnings and cost under Protec- tion. The price of the mill worker's coat goes up the moment a tax is clapped on clothing, but his wages rise ultimately. The college teacher finds the cost of children's shoes and hats, of eggs and butter and beef, grow from month to month almost; his salary follows ulti- mately— say about the time necessary for the money he has contributed to the Oil Trust to get back to him in the- form of an endowment. The book- keeper, the clerk, the country editor, feel the pinch in the present, but look for solace in the ultimate. The city school teacher sees everything go. up but her salary — rents, clothes, food, recreation. Her salary will go up,. ultimately; as soon, we suppose, as the boys and girls she turns out have become prosperous wage-earners, and by enriching the nation as well as them- selves will make it possible for the city to increase its teachers' pay. Problem: Find the age of our school-teacher when she gets her increase — ultimately. There is no such thing as a consum- er. The Western Senators who are- clamoring for a reduction of duties da so against the desires of their constit- uents, as politicians always do. There is. no such thing as a consumer, but the Republican national platform held out the promise of revision because the is- sue was unpopular with the country, as. political platforms always do. There are no consumers, but Mr. Taft found it necessary to pledge himself and his par- ty to a cutting down of tariff schedules. He did it because he wanted to los& votes after the fashion of all candidates. Strange, is it not, that a powerful po- litical party should have let itself be- frightened by so obvious a myth as the- consumer?' Now, the unscrupulous job- ber who is actually responsible for high prices, he is a real person. The retail dealer who robs the public in turn, he- is a real person. The Protection Sena- tor who would never dream of letting: manufacturers draw up his schedules, for him, he is a real person. But the- consumer? A wraith, sir; a pure ab- straction! How absurd to imagine that we are anything else but a people who< prosper, like the inhabitants of the- Scilly Islands, by taking in each other's, washing! UNKNOWN DIPLOMATS. The recent death of Friedrlch voni Holstein, long in the service of the Ger- man Foreign Office, was barely men- tioned in the cable dispatches to this country; but in Germany, as well as in France and England, the significance of iH

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May 27, 1909] The ISTation. 527 his career was understood. He was one of the men who greatly serve the state without public recognition. The Frank- furter Zeitung goes so far as to say that Herr von Holstein, after Bismarck's retirement, was really "the director [Leiter] of our foreign policy." Yet he was not even an under-secretary! His place was, by preference, in the back- ground. Personally, he was the most retiring and publicity-hating of mor- tals. In an age when everybody is photographed in every possible rela- tion of life, not a single portrait of Von Holstein exists. In a land of uniforms, he did not even own a dress-suit! Such at least is the inference from the story that, when the present Emperor ex- pressed a desire to meet the extraordi- nary man who knew and did so much but was so rarely seen, Von Holstein replied to Prince Biilow, who invited him to dinner to meet the Kaiser: "But I don't believe that I have a dress coat. I will try, however, to get one made in time, and, if I can't, perhaps the Em- peror will take me as I am." This Privy Councillor of the Foreign Office worked in silence and privacy, but he worked with iron industry, and made himself an almost indispensable master of the entire foreign relations of Germany. Prince Hohenlohe once de- scribed him as "the diplomatic chart of the German Foreign Office." Trained under Bismarck, he served that states- man in the Arnim affair, and enjoyed his confidence and respect — until he re- fused to retire along with his chief. Af- ter that, the customary venom from Friedrichsruh was shot at him. But the quiet man stuck to his post, added stead- ily to his vast knowledge, and under successive Chancellors and Foreign Sec- retaries got the threads of German for- eign policy more and more firmly into his own hand. Those who ought to know assert that he was more respon- sible than any other man for the Ger- man seizure of Kiao-chau in China. Von Holstein's real authorship of the policy pursued by Germany in Morocco was so practically avowed that, when it failed, at Algeciras, his official re- tirement soon followed, just as if he had been a responsible Minister. His great attainments were never question- ed, though his judgment might be im- pugned and his methods criticised. He seems to have been a lover of indirec- tion. One of his colleagues once said of him: "If he wanted to get to Madrid from Berlin, he would go round by Jerusalem." This quality in the man gave point to the objection made against him that he was too clever by half — iiberklug. It is a grave fault in any public man, gravest of all in a diplo- mat. The main suggestion of such a life as Von Holstein's is the enormous impor- tance of the permanent officials of any government. They seldom get much of the glory, but they often have the sat- isfaction of doing most of the work. Their superiors come and go, but there they are, year after year, with their hand on the very pulse of the machine. In all departments, such men are to be found, who simply must be retained, even under the spoils system, because without them the public business can- not be done. And as the foreign policy of any country is, or ought to be, the most continuous of all governmental policies, it comes about that these inner- office diplomats, the men who are sel- dom seen and never heard, inevitably acquire great power. Lord Salisbury used to say that the policy of England in India was really dictated, not by the Secretary for India, or by the Viceroy, but by the permanent officials of the India Office. A. L. Lowell's volumes on the "Government of England" bring out strikingly the way in which the old employees of the Colonial Office, or the Foreign Office, come to look with contempt or apprehension or com- placency, as the case may be, upon their temporary chiefs. One secretary coolly wrote of his superior that he was "not more in pupilage than is necessary and natural." It was once declared in Aus- tralia that "the million and a half of Englishmen who inhabit these colonies . . . have been really governed by a person named Rogers." This Rogers was a permanent under-secretary. He calmly wrote of even so competent a Chief Secretary as Lord Granville: "He is very pleasant and friendly, and I think will not meddle!" In our own Department of State, we could not point to any official who has held a position precisely like that of Von Holstein. We have, to be sure, our repositories of precedent and authori- ties on ceremony, like Mr. Adee, but it may be doubted if any one of them ever aspired, or was able, to play such a part in directing foreign policy as did the late Geheimrat of the German For- eign Office. The difference lies partly in our traditions, but more in our cir- cumstances. The isolation of the Unit- ed States, with the comparative sim- plicity of our foreign relations, has not made it necessary for our State Depart- ment to command the services of a man like Von Holstein. He died at seventy-two, after a diplo- matic service of forty-five years. Of the patriotism of such unrecognized ser- vants of the state, there need be no question, but one wonders if they do not sometimes have, as they review their work, what Busch called in Bismarck "an affection of the nerves." Under one such onset the Iron Chancellor said: There is no doubt whatever that I have caused unhappiness to great numbers. But for mfl three great wais would not have taken place, eighty thousand men would not have been killed, and would not now be mourned by parents, brothers, sisters, and widows. Such flashes of insight, or twinges of remorse, must now and then come even to the diplomats behind the diplomats. CHEERFUL DESTROYERS. It is curious to observe how the "wild-eyed" socialist agitator has van- ished from the newspapers. His place has been taken by the "parlor" social- ist who comes of American ancestry, shaves every day, and expresses his views in well-modulated tones and with due regard for the feelings of his audi- ence. When he embraces Socialism, he does not necessarily hurl his gauntlet into the face of society. Ask him, and he will tell you that his quarrel is not with society at all, but with those who keep the social system from being as comfortable as it might be made. That the world can show many pleasant things even now, he won't deny; differ- ing sharply in this respect from his predecessors of a few years ago, to whom even the prospect of nature was spoiled by the utter vileness of man. To- day, some socialists find Palm Beach in February just the quiet sort of place for writing editorials on tuberculosis in the tenements. They will tell you frankly that they like Palm Beach, and that if only the entire American "proletariat" could come to Florida with them, their cup of happiness would be quite full. Their cup of happiness, as a rule, is of fine Dresden. If one should charge the leaders of

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528 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 Socialism with insincerity, it would be falling into the bad manners which so- cialists themselves are fast discarding. The most intelligent socialists, for in- stance, do not attack Mr. Rockefeller or Mr. Carnegie in person. The proper course now is not to hate them, but to be sorry for them. Mr. Rockefeller is as much the victim of the present in- sane social system as the unemployed workman at his gates. Present-day so- cialists accept things as they are to the extent that they can see how essentially weak is man and how powerful are the circumstances that shape him. They can understand why Mr. Rockefeller should like his ease. They can see why he should believe what he believes in. They have come to recognize that men are men first and capitalists, or socialists, afterwards. Hence a decided cheerful- ness of tone about latter-day Socialism, with comprehension of the fact that, even in this poor world as it is, social- ists have a good deal to enjoy and even something to learn. We do not know how socialists amus- ed themselves in earlier days, but the chances are that play was looked upon as somewhat inconsistent with true Marxian zeal. To-day the International Socialist Review of Chicago advertises an artistic pack of socialist playing cards on which John D. Rockefeller is the king of spades. He holds a sword labelled Profit and Interest in one hand and a University in the other. Across his breast runs the spirited verse: I love to oil the college wheels And grease the pulpit stairs Where workmen learn to scorn the strike And trust to Heaven and prayers. The publishers are quite right in de- scribing these cards as "just the thing to break new ground for socialistic propaganda." Shall there be no cakes and ale because Karl Marx once lived, no pinochle and skat and poker? "Get a workingman to read what is on these cards," say the publishers, "and he will be mighty likely to show some signs of intelligent discontent by the time he lays them down." Particularly if the other man holds all the socialist aces. Whether there are socialist playing blocks on the market, we do not know. But there is no reason why socialist children should not build little labor exchanges and cooperative common- wealths on the floor, and improve their spelling at the same time. There is no . telling how far back one could go. Socialist infants might cut their first teeth on a rubber link from the chains that bind the workingmen, and nursery bottles might have blown into the glass, "This is the way capitalism drains the laborer." Going from fancy to fact, we might point out that so austerely spir- itual a socialist as John Spargo has con- descended to write a story-book for chil- dren, which is entertaining as well as instructive. There is a chapter on Rob- ert Owen, and there is another chapter headed "A Little Talk on Karl Marx." The socialist Sunday-schools are firmly established in New York, and their chil- dren's fete at Cooper Union recently was a high-spirited entertainment. It must be these Sunday-schools which make use of the "Socialist Primer," that has greatly stirred up the editor of The Square Deal. Yet one only has to read the citations from the "Socialist Primer," printed in The Square Deal, to see how vain is the fear of its editor. Lesson V has a pic- ture of a heavy representative of the predatory classes spurning a beggar. The text is: Here is a man who begs. Why does he not go to work? He would, but he cannot get a job. Can he not go to work in a shop? No, for a fat man owns the shop. Can he go to work in a mine? No, for a fat man owns the mine. Can he go to work on the land? No, for a fat man owns the land. It is a great scheme! When the thin man can get work, he must work for the fat man. The thin man is poor. Is the fat man poor? The thin man makes the fat man rich. Would you like to be the thin man? Who works for the fat man? Who is a slave? Now, we submit that this is miles away from the pike-staff and the bomb. Are society and the family really in danger of violent disruption at the hands of people whose sense of humor overflows even into their schoolrooms, who buy their children picture books, teach them socialist songs and dances, and are themselves fond of a quiet game of cards? THE "QUARTERLY" CENTENARY. Periodicals have their fata, as well as books, and time has brought about the hundredth year of the continuous ex- istence of the Quarterly Review. Found- ed in 1809, as a Tory counterblast to the Whig Edinburgh, its influence for many years upon English politics and literature was undeniably great. With famous editors and still more famous contributors, it made or marred the for- tunes of many a public man and many a writer. If it has recently sunk from its high estate, this is doubtless due more to the changed habits of reading, and the consequent new conditions of successful publishing, than to any dis- astrous falling off in ability. It is not a little pathetic to see the Quarterly in these latter days endeavoring to assume its old role of arbiter of the fate of nations — as in its violent attacks upon Germany. To use an expression of one of its own founders, George Canning, this irresistibly gives the impression of "the contortions of the Sibyl without its inspiration." As the ups and downs of political par- ties are, after all, of less significance, or, at all events, of less perennial inter- est, than the general intellectual move- ment expressed in letters and science, it is the historic place long held by the Quarterly in literary criticism which most prompts to comment. It early raised many questions of editorial and publishing ethics, or, at least, eti- quette. The first editor, Gifford, was a valiant knight of the blue pencil. In- viting the ablest pens to contribute, he wreaked himself upon their manuscripts in a way to evoke groans from the au- thors. Southey, in particular, was sub- ject to ruthless evisceration by Gifford. It may have been the poet laureate's unhappy experience that Byron had in mind, when he wrote, in "Don Juan," about his intention to — defy All other magazines of art or science, Daily, or monthly, or three monthly, for the reason that — the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Treat a dissenting author very martyrly. But this custom had its reverse. Some writers were permitted in the Quarterly to review their own books! Walter Scott was the best-known fa- vorite, in this way, though his chief mo- tive was to keep up the mystification about his authorship. Yet in his arti- cle about himself there were some pas- sages of extreme laudation. This seems very strange, coming from the man whose "Journal" showed that he took the most hard-headed view of his own productions, receiving extravagant praise with ill grace and private grunts of "Nonsense!" But it is now explain- ed that these highly flattering sentences were inserted in Scott's review by the editor, Gifford. This revelation relieves

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May 27, 1909] The Nation 529 Sir Walter, but the indelicacy of allow- ing a writer to be his own anonymous critic remains without justification. It is said to have been "a not uncommon practice of Gifford's day." The most famous, or notorious, con- tributor to the Quarterly was unques- tionably John Wilson Croker. For years his secret pen was a terror to English- men in all walks of life. Statesmen, great figures in society, poets in particu- lar, suffered from his ambushed at- tacks. It is probably not true that his stupid and brutal review of "Bndymion" — "so savage and Tartarly" — had much if anything to do with hastening the death of Keats; but it was a thoroughly wrong-headed performance, as was also the same critic's sarcastic reception of Tennyson's first poems. The feud which raged between Croker and Macaulay — who deliberately set out to "dust that varlet's jacket" — may very well have served to fix the popular estimate of the former's attainments too low. Yet that there was a certain tang of malice in much that he wrote, seems indis- putable. It is implied in the "one good thing" of Sir Robert Peel which is re- corded in the biography of Kinglake. Standing before the portrait of Croker in the Academy, "Wonderful likeness!" said some one; "it gives the very quiver of the mouth." "Yes," said Peel, "and the arrow coming out of it." If changed mental habits and altered methods of publishing have made all quarterly magazines appear more or less like survivals, even in Great Bri- tain, the reason for their decay or dis- appearance in the United States is still more obvious. Years ago, Lowell wrote, apropos of our then most famous quar- terly, the North American, that it was destined to become extinct in that form — it would, he said, like a me- gatherium, crawl off into a swamp to become a mere fossil. Such was the inevitable tendency of the time. It per- sists to-day. Serious reading of delib- erate writing is at a discount. Even the monthlies find it difficult to maintain a high standard, intellectually. As for the great mass of readers of print, to which our system of free education has given birth, what they desire is, not a magazine that appears once in three months, but a newspaper that is issued once in three minutes. In place of ma- tured judgment, what is in favor is "brawling ignorance all day long." ATHLETICS ON THE DEFENSIVE. Columbia University, in the course of the next few days, will more than wipe out the blot on her 'scutcheon which the elimination of football left there. South Field, the university's play- ground, will have passed through the first stage of a process of reconstruc- tion which aims to make it one of the most elaborate athletic grounds in the country. Probably no other university can vie with Columbia's new field in convenience of location. Franklin Field at Philadelphia is not very far from the campus, but South Field is nearer still, lying literally at the very doors of the college hall and dormitories. New York University has its football field and running track on the campus, but New York University is not situated in the heart of the city, and we take it that the facility with which thousands may come and cheer will continue to be an important consideration with ath- letes. When all the work is done. South Field will have a football field inside a four-lap track, tennis courts, and a grandstand of which the exact dimen- sions have not yet been determined. The class of '99, which celebrates its decennial next month, commenced the rebuilding of South Field in con- junction with the class of '84. The classes of 1900 and '85 will make a beginning on the grandstand. In the swift procession of decennials and quar- ter-centenaries South Field will not have to wait long for its complete equipment. In its splendid gymnasium, its new track and field, and its boathouse but a few minutes away from its doors, Columbia owns a magnificent athletic plant. The interesting question is whe- ther this elaborate and costly apparatus is to be used for the good of the uni- versity community at large, or whether, after a few years of obscuration, the star athlete is once more to seize the centre of the stage at South Field, while the anasmic mass of undergraduates cheer from the grandstand. If Colum- bia persists in her present policy of giv- ing the ordinary man a chance at play as well as at study, she faces unlim- ited possibilities of good. For the freshman and the sophomore, a mini- mum of work on the gymnasium floor is already compulsory. If the require- ment should be extended to the upper classes, and if the scope of the work were widened so as to bring every un- dergraduate out into the open air, and, possibly, on the water, the principal evil of our present ferocious athlet- icism would be in a fair way to disap- pear. For the chief trouble with the cult of the body in our colleges is not so much that a few undergraduates make a religion of athletics, as that the great mass of students do not make it a daily, sensible pursuit. In a way, the two evils are connected. Where every undergraduate played at some game or other, the exceptional athlete would still get his just meed of admira- tion. But there would be absent the senseless hurrahing and celebrating. The cause of the average student against the star athlete gains in strength as physical directors, coaches, and train- ers continue to tell tales out of school. Athleticism as a fine art, or the only art. in life, is somewhat on the defensive.. It is not only that athletics have been accused of not doing enough for the- average undergraduate, but that the star athlete himself does not seem to be- deriving quite all the wonderful advan- tages he was supposed to obtain from an exclusive devotion to play. The genL eral public has the notion, for instance, that athletics do not conduce to longev- ity. Coaches and directors have been called upon rather frequently of late to explain that the death of former college stars was not due to over-exertion. What- ever the merits of this particular ques- tion may be, people have usually passed it over, in view of the many cardinal virtues that football or rowing was sup- posed to inculcate. Courage, resource- fulness, self-restraint, fortitude under defeat, sacrifice of self for the common welfare — these are but a few of the mor- al benefits of an undergraduate course in football. Comes now Dr. Nichols, late of Harvard, and on many essential points begs leave to differ. Sports do not develop physical courage, which, af- ter all, is "one of the commonest traits in the world." The factor of endurance is much exaggerated; there really isn't much pain and exertion involved. Fair play, he says, is not always present in an athletic competition. Of the theory that athletics keep young men out of bad habits, he thinks little. Yes, there are good features. The athlete is train- ed in obedience, in "coordination, and co- operation, in self-restraint now and then." Now, once upon a time, it used to be

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530 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 supposed that books, too, exercised some sort of moral influence. Courses of study used even to be called "disciplines." The much-belauded virtues of the ath- lete have somewhat obscured the fact that perhaps there is as much self-de- nial in saving on one's meals to pay the college fees, as in subjecting one's self to the rigors of the training-table. Per- haps there is as much tenacity in sit- ting up over one's books with a head- ache as in plunging down the field with your cheek laid open. Perhaps there is as much self-restraint involved in giv- ing up a pleasant engagement, in order to cram for an examination, as there is in refraining from slugging the man with the ball. Athletics are a moral agent in so far as they provide an out- let for superfluous energy and satisfy nature's demand for play. But it is hard to see what moral value inheres in a crazy system of athletics which pro- motes muscle-worship among 5 per cent. of our students, and leaves the men of studious tastes and of average or poor physique ashamed to do what they ought to do for themselves and what they would like to do, on the gymnasium floor and in the open air. ART AND ACTUALITY. That Anatole France's "L'lle des Pin- gouins" is one of the wisest and wittiest books of our day most of its readers agree. Many, however, would regard as almost unreadable the considerable por- tion that deals with recent French poli- tics. So sharp a contrast in mood and quality deserves a moment's attention. In the early chapters of the Penguins — an allegory of the origins of civilization — Anatole France asserts himself as a- true successor of Cyrano de Bergerac and Dean Swift, and yet has never been more engagingly himself. Since Rabe- lais, universal satire has not invested itself with equal geniality, yet the smiler, as a true satirist should, wears a knife under his cloak. Not less imag- inative than these legends of the bad Childhood of the race is the final som- bre vision of a great modern city lit- erally bursting from the pressure of the social hatreds it has engendered. It would be hard to say whether our au- thor is more admirable in imaginative retrospect or in prophecy; it is certain enough that he is not admirable at all when he shadows forth his own times. In the middle of this book, the adage to the contrary, you cannot go safely. Why are the Boulanger affair and Dreyfus, why are the vicissitudes of the Waldeck-Rousseau Ministry, worse sub- jects for imaginative prose than the ac- clamation of the first king or the ulti- mate triumph of anarchy? Because, we think, there is both too much and too little in these modern subjects. Too many facts, too little meaning. It is to the tyranny of the fact that M. France has succumbed most lamentably. Long stretches of his book sink to the level of the roman d tilef. Why? Because, we think, he is obsessed by the unescapable actuality of MM. Reinach and Labori, Millerand and Delcasse. Of all the mod- erns, only Boulanger (Chatillon) and Gen. Mercier (Greatauk) appear either impressive or real. And here there seem to be special reasons that favored detachment and perspective. Boulanger was more of a superstition, a casual portent, than an effective personality. He was, in short, that rare occurrence: a ready-made hero of legend. As for Mercier, utter scorn of him seems to have given to our author that calm out of which must grow the finer generaliza- tions of the imagination. What is su- perlative is already legendary, and Mer- cier was nothing if not superlative. That the other moderns should cut but a pale figure was inevitable. Ana- tole France has lived too deeply in their experiences. In his desire to con- demn, to vindicate, or simply to do jus- tice— all motives of a perturbing sort — he misses the serenity of the creative spirit. In his solicitude to represent, he almost forgets to invent. The result is a streak of dull allegory in a fabric elsewhere highly symbolical and imag- inative. How far this partial failure was in the nature of the case, how far due to individual causes, we shall not attempt to decide. Evidently, the per- sonal factor has counted for something. To one occupied with the infancy and decrepitude of an entire civilization, the Dreyfus case need not have loomed so large, nor yet the aberrations of the present Parliamentary regime in France. Here the individual scale seems at fault, if for natural and even laudable reasons. Taking the incident more broadly, it may afford an argument to those who believe in the complete disinterested- ness of art. At least the moral holds that when you would soar in the inter- stellar spaces of legend you must not draw up in your vortex too much du?t from the boulevards or the Bowery. Yet the daily spectacle becomes re- fractory stuff for the artist the moment he works in the spirit of an interpreter. He may record it, travesty it, gossip about it with impunity. Any attitude toward it, save the judicial, seems ac- ceptable to the muses. Nevertheless, the temptation to judge one's own times will probably remain irresistible. The artist who fails before this proof may draw comfort from the thought that for being less of an artist he has been more of a man. With the paradox that art must not too overtly serve its own day and generation we cannot deal now. Has it not troubled the moralists from Plato to Tolstoy — and Anatole France? RECENT GERMAN POETRY. Comparison of some volumes of verse recently published in Germany with those that were coming out about ten years ago has a twofold interest. It proves that the mind of the modern German, then soaring in the heights of the Overman and circling about the ego, has gradually returned to earth, and that contempt for the conventional ve- hicles of poetical expression is no long- er considered a necessary adjunct of in- dividual power. The prophetic grandi- loquence of Zarathustra-Nietzsche, then at its height, has since subsided. The cheering yawp and the swinging stride of Whitman's Muse find no longer so direct and noisy an echo, but there are evidences that some of his wholesome spirit has been assimilated. Eroticism, too, then a theme frankly presented in manifold variations, enters but feebly into the verse of to-day. All these facts are significant. Though incomplete, owing to the re- fusal of Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke to allow the use of their poems, the little anthology compiled by H. Fe- dermann, and entitled "Der Schatzbehal- ter" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.), is fairly successful in the attempt to bring together the most striking figures of that earlier period and a few of the most recent. Liliencron, Dehmel, Holz, Mombert, Dauthendey, Hofmannsthal, Schaukal, Greiner, Vollmoeller, and Ricarda Huch are well represented. The compiler wisely omitted poems by Li- liencron that are already generally fa- miliar, but included "Cincinnatus," the brave and helpful message whereof one cannot too frequently hear. The refusal of Stefan George to be included in this modest anthology does not come as a surprise to any one who has watched his attitude of aristocratic isolation since his name first appeared

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May 27, 1909] The Nation. 531 as editor of the Blatter fur die Eunst. For that admirable magazine of poetry, in which he had the cooperation of Franz Evers, Karl Wolfskehl, Georg Ed- ward, now a professor at the North- western University, and other men since distinguished in various departments of German letters, was designed for pri- vate circulation and for an exclusive taste. George was Germany's prophet of "art for art's sake" at a time when the cry for "vitality" and "truth" made poetry a handmaid of criticism and propaganda. While his idiosyncrasies of typography and punctuation were duly ridiculed, he was respected as one of the few who, in a time that clamored for realistic treatment of the tangible themes of every-day life, went his own way towards a purely artistic ideal. "Der siebente Ring" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) is representative of his art. He has revived archaisms and accepted provincialisms with amaz- ing freedom, yet they never obtrude themselves unpleasantly upon the ear. His style is succinct and pithy, his images are striking, though a bit far- fetched. He rarely attempts the light- er metres, but moves along with a sol- emn uniformity of measure and motion which might be fatiguing, were not the range of his subjects and his moods so large. But he stands aloof from the world's current in a field too exclusively aesthetic. There is some affinity between Stefan George, a translator of Baudelaire, and Rainer Maria Rilke, who has done into German the "Sonnets from the Portuguese," and whose latest verse, "Der neuen Gedichte zweiter Teil," is now published by the Insel-Verlag of Leipzig. He, too, refuses to walk over well-trodden paths and to adapt his step to the measure of the multitude. He has ideas, and when he touches a subject previously written about, al- ways strikes out a new meaning. His plastic touch can visualize a psycholog- ical problem, as in "Der Auszug des ver- lorenen Sohnes," or even a spiritual condition of the people, as in "Gott im Mittelalter." Wolf Graf von Kalckreuth, the son 01 the painter Leopold von Kalckreuth, was known at his rreiratn"5 -.li- as the translator of Baudelaire and Ver- laine. Now a volume of "Gedichte" has been published by the Insel-Verlag and proves him a poet of distinction, though not of marked individuality. The son- net-cycle dedicated to Napoleon con- tains some impressive imagery. Readers familiar with the Young Ger- many of the nineties will greet with a touch of sadness the title-page which reads: "Leuchtende Tage: Neue Ge- dichte," von Ludwig Jacobowski (Egon Fleischel & Co., Berlin). It is proof of the poet's hold upon his people that luese poems should be issued in a third edition eight years after his death. Al- though his social conscience was early awakened and the burden of the poor of all the world rested as heavily upon his shoulders as the burden of his race, Jacobowski did not share the defiant and challenging attitude of his com- rades. His was a soui stunned rather than steeled by suffering, physical and spiritual, and the key of his song was a sombre minor. He won the sympathy of his people by simplicity of senti- ment and by an unstudied form closely approaching the folk-song. Bruno Wille, who had early joined the group of youthful iconoclasts in Berlin that made the modern school, and who later became the founder of the Freie Volksbuhne, offers a selection from pre- viously published volumes, with the ad- dition of some new poems, under the title, "Der heilige Hain" (Eugen Die- derichs, Jena). Above all his fellow- poets, Wille has the sense of nature and the open. He loves the intimate beauty of the pine groves of his Fried- richshagen home, and his walks with his friend Bolsche along the shores of the Miiggelsee, historical as the scene of Hauptmann's "Einsame Menschen," disclose to him ever new sources of de- light and comfort. He is by nature a worshipper and a preacher, and a gleam of humor breaks rarely into his solemn, reflective mood. Of his earlier poems one is pleased to meet again "Der ewige Abe Schiitz," quaint and thoughtful, "Die Silberpappel," and "Wandervogel" ; but misses "Mutter Erde." Caesar Flaischlen, who belongs to the generation of the Harts and the Haupt- manns, of Bolsche and Wille, came into prominence fifteen years ago through his drama, "Martin Lehnhardt," which summarized the individual rights claim- ed by Young Germany. But his attitude has since matured into a philosophical acceptance of things as they are, with an invincible hopefulness for the days to come. He goes toward "the divinity within" with cheerful unconcern for the t astling crowd about him. He insists in the preface to his "Zwischenklange" (Egon Fleischel & Co., Berlin) upon the "Recht auf Zeit," without which the artist must lose his own kingdom. No winter is too long for him; for when the gray days of autumn come, he takes home with him the sunshine and the songs that summer gave, and cherishes the memory until the coming of anoth- er spring. This is the message of the "Stimmungen" and of the group entitled "Von Festtagen und Werktagen." While Flaischlen has gradually devel- oped a form of his own which lends it- self effectively to proverbial verse, the most conspicuous among the late new- comers, Alfons Paquet, seems to have chosen Whitman as his model. His book, "Auf Erden," at first privately printed and now revised and enlarged, is published by Eug^n Diederichs of Jena. It proves him *o be essentially a poet of our day. He is equally at home in the solitudes of nature and in the press of city life. Nothing in the noisy bustle and strenuous struggle jars on him. His business training in London, his economic studies in the universities of Heidelberg, Munich, and Jena, and his travels in Asia and America have taught him to accept features of modern life that revolt his brother poets. He undertakes to interpret our time in verse, as the Dane Jensen does in prose. Even among the women who have re- cently attained some prominence as writers of verse, there can be noticed a distinct deviation from the Frauendich- tung, which had developed in the nine- ties. There are no such extraordinary figures among them as Maria Janitschek and Margarete Beutler, whose finer po- etical qualities were obscured either by visionary symbolism or by their erotic note. Katharina Weise's "Aussaat" (im- ported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) com- pels attention as the work of a girl barely twenty, admitted by Carl Busse into his collection of Neue Deutsche Lyriker. The little book is distinguished by simplicity and sincerity, and shows not a few examples of fine imagery, as in the poem entitled "Heimliche Witt- wen." Ricarda Huch is somewhat dis- appointing in the "Neue Gedichte" (In- sel-Verlag, Leipzig). Still, they show her individual vision and the refine- ment and intensity of feeling that give an intimate charm to all her writings. The sonnets of Rosa Mayreder, "Zwi- schen Himmel und Erde" (Eugen Die- derichs, Jena) , manifest a rare intellec- tual aloofness. She wrestles with ques- tions of conscience and problems of life, analyzes the relation between man and woman, and in one of the sonnets fore- shadows a future not unlike tne third kingdom of Maximos the Mystic in Ib- sen's "Emperor and Galilean." But the most ambitious work is the epic poem, "Die Kinder der Lilith," by Isolde Kurz (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). Bold- ly deviating from tradition, she gives a new meaning to the ancient mytn by making Lilith the heaven-born woman whom the Lord had given to earth-born Adam to keep alive in him the flame of ideal aspiration, while Eve has been created by the jealous Samael, other- wise Lucifer, to accomplish the fall of Adam. But the son to whom Lilith gives birth in heaven after the exile of Adam, falls heir to the mission she was to fulfill. The children of Lilith are the heroes, seers, and poets of the world that carry the torch of the ideal. The safest sign, however, of the slow return to old ideals and old forms is the recent revival of the Ballade. With the exception of Liliencron, Carl Busse, Georg Edward, and a few others who never claimed seriously to be classed among the moderns, the poets of the

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532 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 last decades have shown little liking for the form which was used so richly by Goethe, Burger, Uhland, and Droste- Hiilshof. It is by no means insignificant that two writers looked upon almost as regenerators of the lost art, Lulu von Strauss und Torney and Borries Frei- herr von Munchhausen, spring from the aristocracy of their country. Chivalry, feudalism, am, mediaeval folklore have always been favored as subjects of the Ballade, and it is only natural that poets of noble lineage snould cho se th ! form that best lends itself to the com- memoration of traditions stored up in the family chronicles. Yet, without be- ing an ultra-modernist, one must feel that the endless praise of feudal loy- alty, the loves of pages and princesses and kindred themes of times gone by, are unfruitful anachronisms. The Bal- laden of Lulu von Strauss und Torney have in them more of the spirit of our time than do those of Munchhausen, though the popularity of the latter is by no means undeserved. It is evident from his "Balladen und ritterliche Lied- er" (Egon Fleischel & Co., Berlin) that Munchhausen has mastered the form as has hardly another German poet of the day, even if he has not infused new life into the deeds of Ziska and Bayard, of the Beaumanoirs and the Mont- bijous. These Balladen and the lyrics in the second part of the book show as little relation to the standards set up by the Young Germany of the nineties as if that lively group of heretics had never attempted to "revalue old values." The Old World is, indeed, living at a rapid pace. A. von Ende. Pa. Letters of Holmes, Lowell, Aldrich, Whittier, Halleck, and other American authors are included. On June 3 and 4 they will hold miscellaneous sales. In the sale of the later date is included a collection of book-plates engraved by E. D. French and others, books on book-plates, books from the Daniel and Roycroft Presses, first editions of Whittier and Oscar Wilde, and a series of fourteen first editions of Bran- der Matthews's books, each inscribed in the author's autograph. A descriptive catalogue of the early edi- tions of Shakespeare in the library of Eton College has been compiled by Walter W. Greg and published at the Oxford Univer- sity Press. The collection of quartos in- cludes twenty-two editions of eighteen plays bound in five volumes. Several are imper- fect and others are described as poor cop- ies. Ten, including two of the spurious plays, were printed before the appearance of the first folio in 1623. The first folio in the library is a small and inferior copy, with Ben Jonson's verses and title-page in facsimile. The third folio (with 1664 title) is also inferior, but the second and fourth folios are described as fine copies. The bibliographical descriptions are full and accurate. At the end a Critical Summary gives a list of the plays, which shows their location in the four folios, and, where they appeared earlier in print, notes the dates of the various editions in quarto. It is reported by cable that the recently discovered volume made up of four of Cax- ton's books and bound, probably, in his workshop, described in the Nation for May 6, brought $13,000 at Sotheby's on May 21. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. On June 1 and 2 the Anderson Auction Company of this city will sell a miscel- laneous collection notable chiefly for the large number (135 lots) of books by or re- lating to Oscar Wilde. Included are some very unusual and out-of-the-way editions of some of his books. First editions of Bret Harte, books relating to New York, books on the War of 1812, and Lincolniana are other classes represented. On June 3 they sell the collection of book-plates formed by H. E. Deats of Flemington, N. J. This is one of the most extensive in the country, containing nearly ten thousand specimens. In 1894, Mr. Deats purchased the collection, about 3,500 plates, formed by James Eddy Mauran of Newport, who is said to have been the pioneer book- plate collector in America. The American plates, which are likely to attract the greatest interest, include specimens en- graved by Paul Revere, Nathaniel Hurd, Alexander Anderson, Peter Maverick, and other early engravers, as well as extensive series of the work of the modern favorites, E. D. French, J. Winifred Spenceley, W. F. Hopson, and others. The introduction to the catalogue is by Charles Dexter Al- len. On June 2 the Merwin-Clayton Sales Com- pany of this city will sell the autograph collection of J. E. Spannuth of Pottsville, Correspondence. THE NEW COPYRIGHT LAW. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: I beg leave to enter a respectful protest against your editorial endorsement in your issue of May 20, of the violent and, I am sure, unjust characterization of the new copyright law by a radical German deputy, Dr. Heinrich Muller, as a "crazy potpourri of modern ideas and peanut pro- tectionism." I do not know to what per- nicious "modern ideas" Dr. Muller may re- ^fer,"but he does not inspire confidence in his intelligence when he states that the law was "proposed" by President Roose- velt. I am aware that the Nation has always held protection sentiment responsible for the manufacturing clause in the present law. In the memorable contest of 1891 much confusion existed in the minds of legislators concerning the protection af- forded by the tariff and the protection afforded by the proposed copyright law. If a bill had been introduced to protect the White House by burglar alarms, it would have been opposed in certain quarters as a high tariff measure. The result was thit at the last moment the bill lost a number of votes of friendly Democratic Senators who suspected that somehow they were being de- livered into the camp of the enemy. May I say, very gently, that the Nation con- tributed to this result by its references +o the bill as a protective measure because of the manufacturing clause, and that, in order to counteract this influence, Mr. Godkin was appealed to to write, and did write, a letter saying that the Nation was not op- posed to the passage of the bill? This letter, I may add, proved of substantial value. Nobody ever doubted Mr. Lowell's position as an opponent of a high tariff, and yet he did not on this account waver in his advocacy of the only copyright legis- lation then practicable. It is most unfor- tunate that the subjects of tariff and copy- right should be confused, and particularly that it should not be borne in mind that the influence that has secured and sustained the manufacturing clause is not protection sentiment, but the influence of the labor in- terests of the country in solid support of the International Typographical Union. You are at liberty, if you choose, to call the protective tariff and the manufacturing clause each a concession to a wrong con- ception of the interests of the American laborer, but beyond that, it seems to me, the identification is not reasonable, and only makes more difficult the task of liber- alizing, not to say perfecting, our copyright statute. The fact that the new law was passed with unanimity in both houses was more than a personal triumph for Repre- sentative Currier and Senator Smoot; it in- dicated that in Congress the confusion with the tariff issues has virtually disappeared. Again, I beg to remind you that so far as books in languages other than English are concerned, with one slight exception as to illustrations, the manufacturing clause is repealed by the law just adopted. In 1891 music and art were perfectly pro- tected, as they still will be; but in the mat- ter of books, we then unintentionally, in- deed unwittingly, gave to non-English au- thors a "gold brick." The manufacturing clause kept them from obtaining practical- ly the benefits theoretically offered by the law, so that since its enactment the aver- age of such books entered for copyright has been not more than one a year. This disability was in the interest of nobody, and created for such authors a just grievance, and when the revision was undertaken four years ago the Council of the Authors' League set out to procure its abolition, and this has now been accomplished. In fact, with the slight exception of commercial lithographs aad photo-engravings, the non- English author is in more advantageous po- sition under the new law than the American, who must manufacture here. Dr. Heinrich Muller appears to be biting the hand that feeds him. I am not intending to discuss here the more or less important defects of the law — some of which are real and some imag- inary, and most of which experience will remedy — but to set forth some of its ad- vantages. To include those already men- tioned, they are: (1.) Extension of the time of security from forty-two to fifty-six years for every existing as well as every future copyright —including, of course, all foreign authors, artists, and composers. A liberal provi- sion of vast importance. (2.) Abolition of all manufacturing re- strictions on the original text of books of foreign origin in languages other than English. This is ideality incorporated in law. (3.) Abolition of the manufacturing clause for foreign photographs. (4.) Ad interim term of sixty days for

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May 27, 1909] The Nation. 533 English authors without prejudice to their American rights. This, in some measure, meets the objection that the manufactur- ing clause is particularly hard on an Eng- lish author's first book. (5.) Full recognition of the right to re- uew copyrights in composite works. This important question has been much in doubt. (6.) The requirement of but one copy- right notice for magazines and other com- posite work. This point has never before been legally determined. (7.) First legislative declaration in Amer- ica that the copyright does not go with the sale of a work of art. (8.) Abolition of the requirement of a disfiguring copyright notice on the face of paintings and engravings. (9.) Extension of the number and char- acter of copyrightable articles. (10.) Fair adjustment of the amount of damages, with discrimination between in- tentional and accidental infringement. (11.) Clear definition of legal procedure. (12.) Simple and explicit declarations re- lating to the formalities of copyright. (13.) Unification of the variety of terms first proposed. (14.) A provision, however inadequate, by which musical composers may obtain com- pensation for the use of their works on me- chanical instruments. (15.) The declaration that copyright is not forfeited by accidental errors in the notice. Incomplete as it is, this must be con- fessed to be a remarkable record. Let us remember that it is less than twenty years since the most flagrant piracy of intellectual works flourished in this country without legal hindrance, and that, although the bill does not accomplish all that was desired, it was most important that Congress should go on record in favor of longer and stronger security. It is much to be regretted that when our law-makers have taken such an important step forward their work should not be greeted with ap- preciation. It is said that republics are ungrateful, but there ought to be one ex- ception in the republic of letters, and I am sure that authors and other owners of copyright property in this country do not lack appreciation of the patient, devoted, and laborious efforts of the Joint Com- mittees of Patents to provide a liberal and progressive copyright statute. As for foreign sentiment, that it is not adequately represented by Dr. Muller's speech, will be evident when it is stated that I have received from officials or copy- right authorities of Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Mexico, and Japan, appreciative letters of thanks for the action of the Council of the Authors' League in championing the modification of the manufacturing clause. We were under the impression that the removal of the just grievance of friendly nations, which was a source of exasperation to them, and of shame to us, was a service to the country, as well as to the profession of letters — jus- tice being (in international dealings) as much better than arbitration as arbitration is better than war. Robert Underwood Johnson, Secretary of American (Authors') Copy- right League. New York, May 21. dent points out, it remains true that the United States yet continues apart from the civilized nations which, through the Berne Convention, assure to foreign au- thors and artists perfect equality with native. — Ed. The Nation.] [Allowing for all that our correspon- THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Students of history are familiar with many instances in which the mention of an important event, or of essential details concerning it, will suddenly appear, for the first time, in chroniclers centuries later than its assigned date. The real "source" may be nothing more t'han a late poetic creation, or even a deliberate and mali- cious forgery; yet it is often most diffi- cult to strip off such accretions from the authentic account. A curious illustration of this is, even now, in the air all about us. The craze of the hour is the "Marathon race." The most familiar name among all Greek heroes to-day is — Pheidippides. The Information Bureau of every newspaper is supplying inquirers with spirited accounts of the first battle for freedom against the Persian invaders, followed by the tale of the patriotic sprinter who takes back to Athens the news of victory, and drops dead as he pants out the words: "Rejoice! We win!" Even as a teleological myth, this is hardly a success. At least, it gives no encouragement to defenders of the heart- breaking long run. A brilliant university professor of his- tory asked me the other day for the Greek source of this tale, saying he couldn't find it in Herodotus. To be honest, I express- ed surprise, and at once promised to point out the chapter! And yet, a dozen years ago, in a paper on Robert Browning, it had been asserted that the nineteenth century poet invented the whole incident. The case is such a startling one, that we hope some classical man, within reach of a large library, will verify the state- ment. Pheidippides is authentic enough, and he did make a creditable "cross-coun- try run," over vile roads, to summon aid from Sparta, on the first news of the Per- sians' landing. Herodotus records the leg- endary addition, that the great god Pan stopped the courier in an Arcadian dell, re- proached the Athenian folk for ignoring him in their state cult, but promised them aid when most needed. This pledge was ful- filled by the "Panic" fright which turned the tide on the plain of Marathon. "No more but so." No martyr-messenger was needed: the whole army returned tfhe same day to Athens. An attentive study of Browning's poem, especially when compared with his avowed recasting of the Alcestis legend in "Balaustion"— not to mention William Mor- ris's far more unfilial treatment of the same heroine in "The Earthly Paradise"— will probably convince the critics that no deception was intended. The colophon is offered by Browning himself as a fit though wholly imaginary crown for an neroic life. The spirit of it all is Hellenic and Herodo- tean, though not the letter. But the weight of general belief is so strong, that the present writer is even now afraid he is betraying scandalous ig- norance of some locus classicus. The two Greek words that head the poem Xaipc«r i/iKuMev ! seem to wake a far-away echo in memory. But even if some late Greek gossip, like Athenaeus, did declare (as Browning does), that the use of \a'Pe^ as a greeting dates from this use of it by Pheidippides, that, in any case, is both un- true and absurd. "Every schoolboy knows" that the Homeric heroes hail each other with the bidding, Rejoice. W. C. L. Seranton, Pa., May 17. THE TWO WILLIAM SHIRLEYS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: William Shirley, born in England in 1694, reached this country in 1731, be- came Governor of Massachusetts in 1741, and died at Boston, April 24, 1771. His pub- lic career in America is too well known to need comment. Contemporary with Gov. Shirley was another William Shirley, who wrote several pamphlets and plays, among the latter "Edward the Black Prince," "Electra," and "The Birth of Hercules" (in the British Museum Catalogue amusingly misprinted "The Bath of Hercules"). He died about 1780. Although these two William Shirleys are, as might be expected, carefully differentiat- ed in the British Museum Catalogue, and although there is a notice of each in the "Dictionary of National Biography," yet by American bibliographers, biographers, and historians they have been confused, and the above mentioned plays of the dramatist have been attributed to the Governor. Thus, in the printed "Index to the Catalogue of Books in the Bates Hall" (1866) of the Bos- ton Public Library, and in the printed "Cat- alogue of the Boston Athenaeum," Gov. Shir- ley is made the author of "Edward the Black Prince." Again, in the second edi- tion (1832) of his "American Biographical and Historical Dictionary," William Allen appended to his notice of Gov. Shirley the following sentence, not found in the first edition (1809) of that work: "He pub- lished 'Electra,' a tragedy, and 'Birth of Hercules," a masque, 1765." This state- ment has been repeated by E. B. O'Calla- ghan in "New York Colonial Documents" (1855), VI, 959, note; in Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English Literature" (1870) ; in Drake's "Dictionary of American Biog- raphy" (1872) ; by R. A. Brock in "Dinwid- die Papers" (1883), I, 70, note; in "Apple- ton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography" (1888) ; and in Oscar Fay Adams's "Diction- ary of American authors" (1897). There ia nothing in Allen's work to indicate how he came to be misled in this matter, but per- haps it was through Dr. Robert Watt's "Bibliotheca Britannica," published in 1824, where (II, 853r) two pamphlets by or relating to Gov. Shirley, and one pamphlet and two plays by the dramatist, are all en- tered under the single name of "William Shirley." Finally, attention may be called to a statement in E. P. Shirley's "Stemmata Shirleiana" (1873), where we read of Gov. Shirley that "He was a good classical scholar, and is said to have written several papers in the Spectator" (p. 319). Steele's Spectator ran from March 1, 1711, to De- cember 6, 1712, while Addison's continua- tion ran from June 18 to December 20, 1714. The exact date of Gov. Shirley's birth- December 2, 1694— was first pointed out by

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534 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 Charles K. Bolton of the Boston Athenaeum in the "Publications of the Colonial So- ciety of Massachusetts" (VIII, 243). Is it probable that any papers in the Spectator were written by a youth between seven- teen and twenty years of age? Albert Matthews. Boston, May 17. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: The Nation in this issue (May 20) prints a communication from Spokane on "The State of the Democratic Party," which, as an independent Democrat, I have read, marked, learned, and endeavored to digest. I quite agree with your correspondent that the "Bourbon South" has for years been the bane of the Democratic party, and more than any other element has tended to reduce the electoral vote of the same. Nor can I, as one not "endorsing the Roose- veltian output of economic error and ig- norance," deny what he says concerning "the abject subserviency to any crooked interest that will contribute to its cam- paign fund" of the Republican organization. "The visionary nonsense of Debs and his disciples" never appealed to me, and your correspondent is a Daniel when he says that deprived of those who, by "Southern renegade protectionists" and in general by the "aristocratic, labor-despising, and priv- ilege-seeking South," are compelled to vote with it, the Socialist party "would be re- duced to a handful of half-cracked extrem- ists, whose ravings would disturb nobody." And though "it is a foolish waste of time," I enjoy seeing depicted in true colors that "blatant, cynical, and corrupt aggregation of political mercenaries" which is willing to "trade off the national ticket for a New York Governorship." For the ills of "sectionalism, lack of any definite or coherent policy, endorsement of wild-eyed economic vagaries, like Mr. Bryan's," there seems to be one remedy. Let your correspondent summon all "broad, national, sane, radical, and pro- gressive" Democrats to convene at some central place — such as Spokane — and there nominate some regular Democrat who has voted for Bryan and for Parker, and who, having been a worker in the ranks, will not fail to speak out in the assembly. Let him not wait for the existing organizations of corruption and of folly to convene; but let him do so next year, in the early spring, on the kalends of April. Should he do this, as said the Achaian Warrior, "riV ov ireiaeaBai out." Edwin B. King. Ridgefleld, Conn., May 20. SOCIOLOGY— A REJOINDER. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your issue of last week, Prof. Ellwood made an impressive statement of the high hopes and great expectations of sociology, but all this is nothing to the point. Time was when astrology inspired like interest on similar grounds. In Evelyn's ■"Diary'' political commotions then taking place were ascribed to the influence of the comet of 1618. Astrology sought to fore- cast the range and extent of that kind of influence. Very likely, if some one, in its day, should have ventured to say that it was a humbug, its adherents would have replied by expatiating upon the importance of its aims, and thus it might have been said of astrology, as Professor Ellwood says of sociology now, "Ho who opposes as- trology as such is unconsciously an enemy of mankind." The point at issue is not whether soci- ology means well, but whether it is true. The line of defence which Professor Ell- wood adopts illustrates what I noted as a characteristic of the sociologists, the way they have of imputing to their projects the merit of their motives. The point I tried to drive home is that people ought to be on their guard when anything is urged in the name of sociology, for as matters stand there is no such science. Whether there ever will be a science of sociology is a de- batable proposition, and it is on this that issue is joined. With this statement the case may rest in the columns of the Nation. Those who may be interested in the techni- cal details into which further discussion must enter may consult the Journal of Sociology published by the University of Chicago. I am advised by its editor that the subject will be treated in its columns, with allowance of space for the argument on both sides. Henry Jones Ford. Princeton, N. J., May 24. READINGS IN TENNYSON. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: Besides the British Museum "trial copy" of Tennyson's "Enid and Nimue: The True and the False," referred to by Mr. Rolfe in his interesting letter printed in the Nation of May 5, two more are known. One of these is at South Kensington Mu- seum, bound in with "The True and the False. Four Idylls of the King," and the other is in my possession. I have also a trial copy of "The True and the False," which is earlier than that of the South Kensington. In it appears still another va- riant of the passage, of which Mr. Rolfe quotes four readings. It reads thus: She hated all the knights, and heard In thought Their scornful laughter when her name was named. For once, when Arthur, walking all alone Vert at a rumor rife about the Queen, Had met her, etc. The 'three known copies of "Enid and Nimue: The True and the False" (1857) and the two of "The True and the False. Four Idylls of the King" (1859) are describ- ed by Mr. Thomns J. Wise in "Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century" (18C6) and in his exhaustive "A Bibliog- raphy of Tennyson" (1908). The poem "Kate," which first appeared in "Porms," 1833, is reprinted in "Com- plete Works," 1895, p. 24, and again in "Complete Works," 1900, p. 24. Mr. Rolfe will find in the "Memoir," vol- ume II, p. 383, the following lines inscribed by Tennyson in a copy of his works to be presented by the Royal Guild of Nurses of England to Princess Louise Augusta of Schleswig-Holstein on her marriage: Take, Lady, what your loyal nurses give. Their full God-bless-you with this book of song, And may the life, which heart in heart, you live With him you love, be cloudless and be long! W. H. Arnold. Nutley, N. J., May 14. WHO CARDELIUS WAS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: "B." asked in the Nation of April 1, "Who was Cardelius?" He was answered by Robert Restieaux on May 6, and again by Harmon Karl on May 13. These answers tell us nothing that is true about Cardelius. All the truth about him is told in this letter of mine. Restieaux and Karl are evi- dently scholars; just as evidently they are poets. We could not pardon them for being so eager to tell us what they wrongly thought they had gathered from their books, if they had not told it so well. Once more poetry is justified of her chil- dren. The Cardelius of M. Restieaux, learn- ed in Latin, book-worms, and garlic, and the Cardelius of Herr Karl, beloved of Keinmensch and devoted to sorrel — these are better worth having on our list of au- thors, are better subjects for scholarly con- troversy, and are quite more lovable char- acters than the Cardelius from whom and by whom came the now famous quotation, "And this our noble art of Printing, etc." Cardelius is a child of the imagination; rather, he was born of the union of a printer's composing-stick and a font of 60- point Cheltenham. In our library we have an old Washington hand press and a couple of fonts of large type. With these, manipulated by a small boy, we print signs for our shelves, notes and suggestions to readers and borrowers, and posters descriptive of the many meet- ings and exhibitions held in the library. I have always been slightly typographic, from the days when our village printer's shop was just across the street from home, down through the times when I was all things to the Ashby Avalanche, a splendid hand- wrought Western country weekly which I am afraid you never saw, and on to twenty- years of dealing with books in a library. Being fond of types and of the smell of printer's ink I naturally spend parts of my holidays and of long New Jersey win- ter evenings in playing with our library press. Several months ago I composed a brief thought, a one-line hymn, to the printer's art I so much admire, and set it and printed it on our press. It was long enough for a thought; but it did not com- pose well in 60-point type. I did not care to say more, but for purposes of typo- graphic display I wished more to be said. £nd so, with my stick in my hand, I stood before the case and added words to words. If you know the ways of types, you know that they will not yield a fraction of an inch to carry, within the limits of the measure your composing-stick gives you, the words you have chosen for the thought you wish to express. For the length of line I had selected I found at last a head- ing, "This our noble art," which when set in capitals fitted it exactly. From this 1 went on, adding a word here, dropping one there, changing this phrase and that, shift- ing capitals and small letters, escaping hyphens and other pitfalls, until I had pro- duced from my original humble sentence the Delphic utterance which "B." quoted in his letter. As it came slowly into good typographic form, I found it by chance had taken on a slightly archaic flavor. I nursed this a little. When it was nearly done, I said to myself, "This needs a half line of 30-point at the bottom for a balance, and needs also an author fit to have said this

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May 27, 1909] The Nation 535 thing and well able to have said it in this ■way. Let him be unknown; let him be ■early; if I say he wrote in Latin I shall lave just the length of line in 30-point that I need. What is a good name for a Latin author of early printing days?" — and then came Cardelius. I never heard of him before. I cannot find him in the "books. If it was wrong to invent him, the sin must be laid on the Devil, which has always been in types. Since "B.'s" note appeared, the Inland Printer for May has come to us with this ■one and only sentence of the hitherto un- known Cardelius skilfully written out by foand and elaborately decorated for its frontispiece. This is natural and proper. If the craftsman saw a sentence from Car- delius, of the sixteenth century, quoted somewhere, it was his right to quote it again. I hope the Inland Printer's editor will not think less well either of the style or substance of the quotation when he learns that it came from an amateur in liis own art and not from a wise man of the sixteenth century. Indeed, if the thought and the words are good, where could they appear more appropriately than in the pages of a journal which preaches so ex- cellently as does the Inland Printer the gospel of good printing? J. C. Dana. Newark, N. J., Free Public Library, May 21. HEINE AND THE NEGRO. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In view of recent discussions of our negro problem it may be interesting to •quote a few words from Heine, of whom it has been said: "Throughout his life he stood in the front ranks of those who fought for liberty. . . . This sentiment for lib- erty runs through all his prose writings like a red thread and is simply incontest- able." It was in 1830, if I am not mis- taken, that Heine, alluding to conditions in the New World, expressed the following sentiment: Actual slavery, which has [now] been abolished in most of the North American provinces, does not arouse in me as much indignation as does the brutal treatment to which the free negroes and mulattoes are there subjected. Whoever is even a most remote descendant of a negro . . . must suffer the greatest humiliations — humilia- tions which to us in Europe seem simply monstrous. Even to-day, as I know from personal contact with Europeans, one may some- times hear them confess their inability to comprehend the strong anti-negro senti- ment which still largely obtains in certain sections of our country. C. H. Ibershoff. Cornell University, May 12. A CORRECTION. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: An American correspondent has kindly informed me that my name appears in large type under the head of "Officers, Advisory Board, Faculty and Special Lec- turers" in the catalogue of what calls it- self "La Salle Extension University, De- partment of Business Administration." Will you kindly allow me to state that I have not the slightest connection with this enterprise, the existence of which was quite unknown to me, and that I have given no authorization to anybody to use my name in any such connection. W. T. Ashley. University of Birmingham, England, May 14. THE PLEONASTIC SO. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Even carefully edited publications constantly offend good usage by printing a pleonastic so in sentences like the follow- ing: "The face has patience, a quality so little looked for from Hals." Let me ask your aid in protesting against this offence of good usage. A. H. Rome, May 2, 1909. Notes. Putnams announce for immediate publi- cation the important volume on "Darwin and Modern Science," edited by Prof. A. C. Seward for the Cambridge University Press. This book, commemorative of Darwin'g cen- tenary, contains twenty-nine essays by various eminent philosophers and men of science. James Douglas, who has already publish- ed a monograph on Theodore Watts-Dunton, has for two years been working at a similar study of Swinburne, which will be brought out by Methuen & Co. It will be critical rather than biographical. The official biog- raphy of the poet is to be written by Mr. Watts-Dunton, to whom all of Swinburne's letters and manuscripts have been be- queathed. Miss E. S. Haldane and Mr. G. R. T. Ross have made a complete translation of the philosophical works of Descartes, which will be issued, probably in the autumn, by the Cambridge University Press. Miss Haldane, a sister of the Minister of War, has already published "The Life and Times of Descartes," and a translation of Hegel's "History of Philosophy." Mr. Ross is a member of the faculty of Hartley Univer- sity College, Southampton. Kipling's "Just So Stories" has been is- sued in the excellent limp-leather edition of Doubleday, Page & Co. The type and paper, as in the earlier volumes of this set, are notably good, and the book is in every respect pleasant to handle and read. The form has most of the advantages and none of the disadvantages of the so-called thin-paper editions. A new edition of "Practical Golf," by Walter J. Travis (Harpers), has its main recasting, from the issue of eight years ago, in the chapter on balls. That on hazards might have been overhauled to advantage, in view of recent developments. The 1909 golf rules are given in an appendix. A unique publication of considerable his- torical value and scientific interest is "The Bell Telephone" (American Bell Telephone Company, Boston). It is the deposition ol Prof. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor, made in 1892, in the suit brought by the United States to annul the Bell patents, together with a full report of his cross- examination. The suit, we may add, was practically abandoned by the government, the Bell patents having been sustained by the United States Supreme Court. The value of the book lies in the fact that it is a detailed and well-arranged statement of the inventor's work from the beginning. This was very early in his life, for from childhood, "my attention," he says, "was specially directed to the subject of acous- tics, . and specially to the subject of speech"; and when only a boy he made a speaking machine which was able to artic- ulate a few words. His first professional work was teaching his father's system of "visible speech," and teaching speech to deaf mutes. A portrait of Professor Bell is given, together with reproductions of many of his drawings and pictures of var- ious instruments. A double section of the "New English Dictionary," prepared by Dr. W. A. Craigie, carries forward Volume VIII from Ribal- dric to Romanite. Within these narrow limits, where Johnson's wide-meshed net caught only 216 words, with 764 quotations, the fine seine of the latest lexicographer brings up 3,161 words and 17,677 quotations. The difference is striking, because bar- barian importations and new popular and scientific coinages are comparatively few in this number, whereas the native English element is large. Of course, many of the words familiar to Robin Hood and Robin Goodfellow — whose first appearances in the literary world are here recorded — have been put to unfamiliar uses even since Johnson's time. Yankee ingenuity, for ex- ample, grafting the base of a cradle upon the legs of a chair, made the word Rocker, formerly a symbol of rest, carry also the suggestion of American restlessness. And there is something that reminds us of Johnson's definition of oats in the quota- tions under Rocking-chair — just a faint flavor of national satire. The first is from Mrs. Trollope on "American Manners," 1832: "They . . . sit in a rocking-chair, and sew a great deal"! The second is from Bain, 1855: "The rocking-chair, introduced by the Americans, ... is another mode of gaining pleasure from movement." In revenge it is some comfort to note that a certain clever device for utilizing the last square inch of linen in a hand towel was not 'made in America" by a utilitarian Franklin, but in England, presumably by some mechanical genius now lost in the night of memory. For in the "Early Eng- lish Wills" there is to be found this tender testament, under the date of 1434: "Y bequethe my roller for a towell to Margery Bokeler." Before philological doctors presided at the birth and watched over the growth of English speech, strange corruptions, as every one knows, took place in the forms of many words. Two interesting examples of popular etymologizing are in- cluded in this section. The first is the word Riding, applied to the divisions of a country, as the east, west, and north ridings of Yorkshire. In the earliest forms the word, of Scandinavian origin, meant clearly a three-ing, or one of three divi- sions; but after long association the final t or th of east, west, or north stole the initial consonant of the following word, and, for the popular mind, invested a sim- ple mathematical abstraction with a rich penumbra of equestrian associations. A similar change for the richer was that which converted the Old English Rodion, defined by Lydgate as ".1 whirle wynde blowing nothing softe," into Rodges— and

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536 The ]STation [Vol. 88, No. 2291 later into Roger's blast, a term still heard in parts of England to-day. Another In- Interesting Roger is he of De Coverley, who gave liis name to an old Lancashire tune and dance, and later to Addison's hero. The earliest instance of the word noted is Roger of Coverly, 1685, as the name of a tune. In Heywood's "A Woman Killed with Kindness," 1603 (Act I, scene ii), a play set in the north of England, Rogero ap- pears as the name of a country dance, pop- ular among servants. May not this be Roger of Coverly? At any rate, here is a word that has escaped the fine meshes of the "New English Dictionary." Ameri- cans will be glad to know, however, that their contribution to natural history, the ring-tailed roarer of Kentucky, has not been omitted. But was not the ring-tailed roarer of Pike County, Missouri, even more celebrated? "The Evolution of Modern Germany," by W. H. Dawson (imported by Charles Serib- ner's Sons), is an Englishman's attempt to show his fellow-countrymen the stupendous change which has taken place in the eco- nomic life of Germany in the past fifty years. The author is already well known by excellent books on Lassalle, Bismarck, Socialism, and Protection, some of which have been deemed worthy of translation into German. In this volume, however, he is riding no hobby and propagating no gospel, but giving a sane and mature judg- ment on the causes of Germany's present position. In these days of British sus- ceptibility at German ascendancy it is re- freshing to find such cool objectivity. None of his conclusions are of startling novelty, and most of his data are accessi- ble to the student trained in the use of statistics. But the legislator, the mer- chant, or the teacher, who is not so train- ed and for whom figures have no fascina- tion, cannot find a more satisfactory and stimulating explanation of the increasing severity of German competition in indus- try and commerce. The German manufac- turer outrivals his competitor because he pays lower wages and is content with smaller profits. He runs his plant more hours in the week. He studies more care- fully the needs of those whom he wishes to make his customers; instead of telling them to take what they are offered or nothing, he makes what they want. He does not expect foreigners to be experi in the German language, but addresses them in their own tongue. The Germans were the first to appreciate and apply technical training to industry; it is esti- mated to-day that in the chemical fac- tories of Germany there is on an average one university-trained chemist to every forty workpeople, a ratio of science to labor probably not equalled in any other country. The remarkable increase in population, greater than ever before, and amounting now to a million a year, is explained partly by decrease in emigration and in infantile mortality. The Germans have outgrown the idea that a high in- fant death-rate is a wise provision of Nature to weed out the "unfit"; they think that to regard infants who die from poor artificial feeding or foul air as pre- doomed by necessity, is as sensible as to colndemn as "unfit" the child who is thrown out of the window by a drunken mother, or who is burned in a locked roomf Thus, there have arisen, in the in- terest of the infants and of the nation, dispensaries, hospitals for mothers and infants, a scientific institute for research in "infantile hygiene," and the multifarious crusading activities of the Women's Pa- triotic Society. In addition to these chap- ters on his main theme, the author has a good discussion of the outlook for Social- ism, the Polish question, and the new colonial era under Dernburg's influence. The chapter on the creation of small agri- cultural holdings is of special interest in view of England's recent act of Parliament for the same purpose, to the execution of which the county councils are offering such vigorous objections. Prof. Edward T. Devine's "Misery and Its Causes," the third volume to appear in the Macmillan Company's American Social Progress Series, purposes "to articulate a new social philosophy, pragmatic, economic, and socially adaptable to the existing con- ditions of American life." Stress should fall, however, upon the articulation, rather than upon the novelty of its facts or programmes. To one familiar with or- ganized charity work, the book may let in little fresh light; but it certainly helps clear the air. In recent years, the zeal of our social architects has obscured their plans. They have been remodelling so many things, investigating so many more, and clamoring for such a multitude of costly improvements, that even their well-wishers are talking about tinkers and dreamers. While searching the roots of misery, Pro- fessor Devine allays these fears. Briefly and clearly he marks the current in the welter. The ills that flesh is heir to are few; those that it purchases with ignorance are many. Human nature is not depraved, it simply has not found itself. Character, the strengthening of which is our supreme aim, is to be won in fullest measure, not by removing temptation, but only through education and economic opportunity. These include ten special needs : sound physical heredity, protected childhood, a prolonged working period (say, until well past sixty), freedom from preventable disease, the elimination of professional crime, insurance against all ordinary contingencies of life, elementary schooling adapted to present- day needs, a liberal relief system, a stand- ard of living high enough to secure the elementary necessities, and, finally, religion. Such blessings will not come at the word ; there are too many pipers to pay. But come they must, because "they do not rep- resent the indulgence of altruistic senti- ment. They are investments. Large ex- penditures may be required, but they are required as capital. They take the place of larger expenditures and greater burdens." This philosophy, based on statistics, must be judged by figures. Professor Devine's most convincing chapters analyze the dis- abilities of five thousand families lately as- sisted by the New York Charity Organiza- tion Society; the instances are well se- lected, and are in themselves persuasive, but they leave open one point of attack. In a few generalities he dismisses the cost of reform; and yet this is precisely the crucial question just now. It is all very well to convince us that misery is preventable, and that money spent to avoid it is money in- vested; but even the General Reader, whom the book addresses, is business man enough to know that investments must be regu- lated, first of all, by the number of dollars in purse, and then by the relative urgency of life's many wants. A social philosophy which has not reckoned its budget is an unfinished sentence. In his latest volume, "The Living Word" (Moffat, Yard & Co.), the Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester confesses to enthusiastic admira- tion of Gustav Theodor Fechner, the Leip- zig psychophysicist. He says: It is doubtful if Europe, during the cen- tury of its greatest philosophical activity,, produced a profounder or more fruitful re- ligious thinker. . . . The greater of Fechner's works can be compared only with the sacred books of the nations. They are inspired, and they contain a true revela- tion of God. Dr. Worcester reproduces in popular form the spiritual idealism of Fechner, especial- ly of the "Three Motives of Faith." Aside- from the traditional, practical, and ration- al motives for belief in God, the essay deals chiefly with the grounds for belief in a spiritual interpretation of the universe, and with the basis for faith in immortality. In his little volume, "Aspects of Chris- tian Mysticism" (E. P. Dutton&Co.), the Rev. W. Major Scott professes to offer the reader nothing more than an introduction to the field. For this purpose brief studies of the teaching of some of the famous Christian mystics are presented, beginning with the writings of St. Paul, St. John, and Clement of Alexandria. Then follow short dis- cussions of Dionysius the Areopagite, Master Eckhart, Ruysbroeck, Suso, Tauler, St. Theresa, St. John of the Cross, Jacob Behmen, and Peter Sterry, the Cambridge Platonist. Their teaching is given as far as possible in their own words. In his treatment of mysticism the author is quite uncritical. He fails to recognize, for example, the abnormal element which almost invariably attends the more pro- nounced types of mystic experience, the nervous instability and the depression, often intense and protracted, by which the de- votee purchases the moments of emotional exaltation. There has been a great want of good books in English on the history of Jewish religion in the ages immediately preced- ing the Christian era. Especially have- English readers been unfamiliar with the apocalyptic movement and its important consequences for Hebrew piety. The mon- umental work of Schiirer, "History of the- Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ," translated from an edition going back as far as 1886, has been beyond the reach of the average student. The treatise of Bousset on Judaism in the time of Christ, "Die Religion des Judentums im neute3- tamentlichen Zeitalter," which perhaps has done more than any other book to open the eyes of many to the importance of a knowledge of late Judaism, is still untrans- lated. No scholar of any nation has done more thorough work in this field than Prof. R. H. Charles of Dublin, but his works can not be said to be popular. A good book is now available, scholarly but not too technical, in the Rev. William Fairweath- er's Cunningham Lectures at Edinburgh, on "The Background of the Gospels, or Juda- ism in the Period Between the Old and New Testaments" (Scribner). Mr. Fairweather has been a careful student of the literature of the subject, his historical judgment is prudent, and he shows good sense in hand- _

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May 27, 1909] The Nation 537 ling his facts. One notes constantly the Influence of German authors, yet it is clear that the writer has worked through his subject. After an excellent description of "the fundamental characteristics of Juda- ism," he traces both the fortunes of the nation and the development of Jewish piety through the pre-Maccabean period, the re- volt of the Maccabees, the rise of the Jew- ish parties, the age of Herod, and the pe- riod of the dispersion. Especial attention is paid to the apocalyptic movement and literature. A selection from the works of Julius ■Grosse, one of the most prolific novelists ■and dramatists of the past generation, is published in three volumes by Alexander Duncker of Berlin. Dr. Josef Ettlinger of the Literarische Echo, Hans von Gumppen- berg, Fr. Muncker, and Adolf Bartels are the editors, and the last-named has written the biography. The Deutsche Verlagshaus Bong & Co., in Stuttgart, has recently published new edi- tions with introductions and annotations of the works of Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Adalbert von Chamisso. The editor of the Arnim edition in two volumes is Dr. Monty Jacobs, dramatic critic of the Berliner Tageblatt. The Chamisso in one volume is edited by Dr. Max Sydow. A book which defies classifying and label- ling has come from the pen of Gerh. Ouck- ama Knoop : "Aus den Papieren des Frei- herrn von Skarpl" (Egon Fleischel & Co., Berlin). The author, who is ranked among the cleverest andmostseriousnovelists, now appears in the role of a Juvenal of modern Germany. He begins his random paradox- ical remarks with an attack on the worship of success and on the general lowering of standards. He asserts that there is no longer any distinction in rising, since emi- nence is associated with plebeian qualities. He ridicules the aping of the military pose by judges, clergymen, and merchants, whom military service has keyed up to the Leut- nantston. The mimicry of English customs comes in for a share of censure, for while these are spontaneous with the British, they are studied and factitious with the people of the Continent. The exaggerated luxury of restaurants intended for the accommoda- tion of the multitude is to the Freiherr as much a mark of bad taste as the ocean liner fitted out like a royal palace and filled with a crowd of commonplace tourists. He dis- approves of the attempts to force European culture upon nations having a civilization of their own, asking why Mandarins should play golf and negroes use odol? But his point of view becomes most individual when from generalizations he turns to the char- acterization of some of the figures promi- nent in modern Germany. It is altogether a remarkable book, though its sarcasm may not afford unalloyed pleasure. A book full of valuable information to the general reader and to the tourist am- bitious of making Alpine ascents is "Der Alpinismus und der Deutsch-Oesterreich- isohe Alpenverein," by Dr. A. Dreyer (Ber- lin: Marquardt & Co.). It is a volume of nearly two hundred pages containing the history of the conquest of the Alps by hardy climbers from antiquity to the pres- ent time. The first to make an Alpine ascent was the poet Petrarch, who, in 1336, succeeded with his brother, in scaling the Mont Ventoux near Vaucluse. In June, 1492, the steep and rocky Mont Aiguille, near Grenoble, was scaled by a French- man, with the aid of ropes and ladders. But to English tourists of modern times is given the credit of having been the most daring and successful climbers. The Al- pine Club, founded in 1857, by William Matthews and E. T. Kennedy, and imme- diately joined by John Ball and other well-known Alpinists, i* credited with be- ing the predecessor of the German and Austrian societies, to the work of which the latter part of the book is devoted. In the review of Alpine literature, too. there is a respectable group of books by Eng- lish writers beginning with the Bishop of Salisbury's account of his travels in Swit- zerland in 1685 and 1686. The book is profusely illustrated with views of famous peaks and portraits of popular guides and prominent Alpinists. The Academie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres has announced its annual awards. The Prix Brunet (3,000 fr.) has been divided among Philippe Renouard for his bibliog- raphy of books printed by Josse Badius, M. Briquet for his "Dictionnaire historique" of watermarks on paper, L. Nardin for his monograph on Jacques Foillet, and H. Stein for his "Bibliographie generale des cartu- laires frangais." The Prix Stanislas-Tu- lien (1,500 fr.), for the best book on China, is given to A. Stein for his "Ancien Kho- tan." Miss L. M. Little, well known in Irish literary society, has died at Dublin. She wrote frequently for the magazines and published two books of verse, "Persephone" and "Wild Myrtle." Robert Nisbet Bain, assistant librarian of the British Museum since 1883, has died at the age of fifty-four. He was a special- ist in Scandinavian and Slavonic studies. Among his published works are: "Gustavus III and his Contemporaries," "Hans Chris- tian Andersen: a Biography," "Charles XIl and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire," "The Pupils of Peter the Great, 1697-1740," "The Daughter of Peter the Great: a History of Russian Diplomacy under the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, 1741-62," "Pe- ter III, Emperor of Russia, 1762," "Tales from Gorky, with Biography," "Tales from J6kai, with full Biography," "Scandinavia: the Political History of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, 1513-1900," "The First Ro- manovs, 1613 to 1725: a History of Musco- vite Civilization, and the Rise of the Mod- ern Russian State," and "Slavonic Eu- rope: the Political History of Poland and Russia from 1469 to 1707." STUDIES IN ENGLISH HISTORY. Lollardy and the Reformation in Eng- gland. By James Gairdner. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Co. $6.50 net. In the final chapter of his admirable study of England in the age of Wy- cliffe (1897), G. M. Trevelyan called at- tention to the hitherto unsolved prob- lem of the relation between the relig- ious movement in Wycliffe's time and the formal accomplishment of the Eng- lish Reformation under Henry VIII. Since then Abbot Gasquet in his "Eve of the Reformation" (1900) has made his contribution to the same question from the side of the Roman Church. He took naturally the position that Lollardy had been repudiated by the sound sense of the English people and that the breach with Rome was caused, not by any widespread, latent discontent with the papal system, but by a new wave of religious influence, chiefly Lutheran, combined with the immediate ambitions of a lustful and bloody tyrant. Mr. Gairdner, a veteran in sixteenth century studies, approaches the same subject from a somewhat different point of view, but with results not essentially different. He calls his book an histori- cal survey, and his aim is to present in chronological sequence the various stages of the Reformation process from Wycliffe to the death of Henry VIII. He does not profess to offer new material, but only to take that which all other writers have used and marshal it in such array that it shall tell its story as he thinks it ought to be told. So far as he betrays an attitude toward his sub- ject, it is that of unlimited devotion to the principle of authority as against in- dividual liberty. His particular an- tipathy seems to be directed against the use of the Bible as a source of religious certainty to the individual soul. Even his style, generally dignified and objec- tive, becomes contemptuous and ironi- cal whenever he approaches this side of his subject. Illustrations might be tak- en at random — "with the English Bible, or with the clear elocutionists who reac" it aloud in St. Paul's and other churches, to the disturbance generally of the peaceful, religious atmosphere of a place that was meant for devotion." It is ap- parently an offence to our author that the Bible should be read so that it can. be understood, and such reading appears to him a disturbance of devotion! One can forgive this emasculation of all sense from religious service by so many English clergymen, but to find it formu- lated as a principle by an historical scholar of high repute would be a shock, if one were not accustomed to the at- mosphere of Anglican controversy. Mr. Gairdner takes especial satisfaction in using the phrase "New Learning" for something which seems to him equiva- lent to the literal interpretation of Scripture — as if the attempt to under- stand the Bible and put it into English intelligible to the people were in itself a form of heresy. Even the printing- press as a means of rapidly disseminat- ing false opinions comes in for a mild insinuation of disapproval. We are ask- ed to believe that the English people did not want the Bible in their hands, and yet we are told at length of the dif- ficulties the bishops had in keeping Tyn- dale's translation out of England and of the measures necessary to prevent dis- turbances in churches from the multi- tudes who flocked to hear the Bible read

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538 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 229r by men who could do it well. Cromwell's order to place a Bible in every parish church is explained solely by motives of policy and greed. In his final summing up, the author admits that good comes out of evil, and that Royal supremacy in England is bet ter than Papal supremacy, but he has no word of sympathy for all those pro- cesses of individual inquiry and study by which men from Wycliffe on were coming nearer and nearer to the goal of a true enlightenment in religious mat- ters. For the individual victims of ty- ranny, he has feeling only as a fortu- nate human being for unfortunate ones He regards their fate as the natural consequence of their own folly in hav- ing opinions of their own and daring to defend them, as against that order and authority which is to him apparent • ly the supreme good. His real sympa- thies are reserved for men like More and Fisher, who stood for an authority which seemed to them higher than that of the despot who destroyed them. For Henry VIII, he has only words of exe- cration as a crafty and unscrupulous wretch, defiant of every force in Eng- land that could seem to limit or oppose his own, yet dignified by his defence of order in the midst of threatening anar- chy. "The principle of an Established Church, however at variance with the- ories which pious minds are too easily led to entertain, is one which, when once laid down, can never be set aside" ■ — a remarkable prophecy, when almost every Christian country except Eng- land has already set this principle aside. Again: The political principle of Establishment cannot possibly be annulled, and if we are to have a practical religion, and not a mere chaos of sectarian philosophies, we must face the fact plainly. Here is the clue to the whole book. Ir. hardly need be added that the real problem of the spiritual origins of the English Reformation are as far from so- lution as before. Its solution cannot be even attempted, except by some one who can approach it without any of those partisan antagonisms which vitiate most of the writings of English churchmen about the English Church. William the Conqueror, and the Rule of the Normans. By Frank Merry Sten- ton [Heroes of the Nations Series]. Pp. xi+518. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons. $1.35 net. No period of English mediaeval his- tory has recently been subjected to a more thorough scrutiny by the special- ists than that of the Anglo-Norman kings. Since the first appearance of Stubbs's epoch-making work more than thirty years ago, an enormous amount of fresh material has been discovered (principally in Norman archives), and many old verdicts have been revised. Especially is this the case with the in- stitutional side of the field. The details of Norman feudalism, the intricate prob- lems surrounding the origin of the jury, the precise meaning and significance of the famous ordinance separating the tem- poral and spiritual courts, are far bet- ter understood to-day than ever before; and though it would be going too far to intimate that any of these questions have reached final solution, yet so much progress has been recently made as thoroughly to justify the appearance of a single volume on the greatest of the Norman kings which should summarize and present in convenient and popular form the results of the latest research in this interesting reign. Mr. Stenton's book fills precisely this gap. It is a sane, accurate, and for the most part readable account of the life and work of William the Conqueror, which, while avoiding the pitfall of polemics, yet incorporates the results of the most important recent investigation of French and English scholars, of whom the most prominent is unquestion- ably J. H. Round. It worthily main- tains the high reputation of the series to which it belongs for good printing, ample illustrations, and abundant ta- bles, maps, and an index. It is not bril- liantly written, and several rare oppor- tunities to describe the memorable scenes of a most dramatic reign have been palpably neglected. Much more might have been made, for instance, of the grewsome story of Waltheof's exe- cution and unfinished Pater Noster with- out doing violence to historical accur- acy; and a little inkling of the rude jests and vigorous oaths that passed be- tween William and Philip and led up to the firing of Mantes and the death of the Conqueror, would have done more to make the picture vivid than any num- ber of stock phrases about William's "great strength" and "characteristic im- petuosity." For absorbing narrative and dramatic interest, Sir J. H. Ramsay's Foundations of England" (1898) con- tains unquestionably the best account of the reign, but for the student who de- sires a short cut to the latest develop- ments of the thorny constitutional and ecclesiastical problems of the period, Mr. Stenton's book will prove an in- valuable guide. From such a wealth of material it is difficult to select topics for special dis- cussion. The last three chapters, on "The Church," "Administration," and "Domesday," form the most useful part of the work. Particularly valuable is the clear and discriminating account of the oath on Salisbury Plain in 1086. Mr. Stenton plainly shows that far too much emphasis has been laid on this event as a landmark in the development of English feudalism: Significant as is this clear enunciation of the principle that the King's claim to fealty overrides the lord's claim to service, it should not be taken to imply any rev- olutionary change in the current doctrines of feudal law. It is highly probable that this general oath was demanded with the single purpose of providing against the defection of disloyal knights to Cnut of Denmark in the imminent event of his landing. . . . But apart from this any feudal monarch could have maintained in theory that the facts of subinfeudation should not invalidate his sovereign rights;, the question was merely as to the possi- bility of enforcing the latter. The excep- tional power enjoyed by William and his successors in this respect was due to the intimate relations established between the King and his feudatories by the circum- stances of the conquest; the oath of Salis- bury was a striking incident and little more. The final chapter on Domesday, though possibly a little too technical, is also sane and thorough, and its value is much enhanced by a number of well- selected quotations from contemporary or nearly contemporary chronicles and sources. The last of these, from the "Dialogus Se Scaccario" in Henry II, gives the following significant explana- tion of the name by which the great survey has always been popularly known: This book is called by the natives "Domesdei," that is, by a metaphor, the day of judgment, for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last scrutiny may by- no craft be evaded, so when a dispute arises concerning those matters which are written in this book, it is consulted, and its sentence may not be impugned nor re- fused with safety. CURRENT FICTION. Thais. By Anatole France; translated by Robert B. Douglas. New York: John Lane Co. Mr. Douglas's excellent translation in- troduces to English readers with com- paratively slight impairment of the vir- tues of the original work, a romance written in a field over which Anatole France has unique command. No other writer has realized so completely — so de- liriously, as a follower of Renan might say — certain literary possibilities in ec- clesiastical history and the legends of saints and martyrs. With one or two exceptions, romances in English con- cerned with the lives of the early Chris- tians are to any but juvenile readers ex- tremely insipid. Most of them are also one-sided; it must be confessed that an ulterior religious purpose does not seem entirely favorable to the art of fiction. Cardinal Newman, for example, wrote his pallid and long-forgotten romances in a religious ascetic's horror of pagan- ism and with an eye to furthering the cause of Rome. Kingsley, of course with a vastly more virile art, wrote with a keen detestation of asceticism and a special pleasure in barking at Newman. But Anatole France, perhaps knowing in his own way as much about saints L

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May 27, 1909] The Nation 539 as Newman, and certainly as much about sinners as Kingsley, aspires to write as a "philosophic angel" hovering a little above the earth, participator in nothing, spectator of everything. The belief of Jew absorbs him no more or less than the unbelief of Gentile; both he values for what they offer to the spir- it that is strange or beautiful or intense. The career of Thais, a fair Alexan- drian courtesan of the fourth century, offered unusual attractions to the feast- ing eye of the philosophic angel. (For the history of the Thais story see G. D. Kellogg's letter to the Nation, Febru- ary 25.) It is difficult to say whether he enters with more penetrating and illuminating interest into the life of the Alexandrian beauty and her favorites set in the dazzling luxury of the wicked city, or into the gaunt soul of the sty- lite Paphnutius ringed by the tombs and the desert. From both he preserves a complete emotional detachment. But in the denouement the mask slips a lit- tle from the observant angel, and re- veals something of the lurking cynic. For it is there made perfectly clear that Thais turned to heaven merely from satiety of the flesh, and Paphnutius to hell merely from satiety of the spirit — a conclusion sufficiently devoid of edi- fication. Yet for piquancy of attack, for insight into the psychology of the an- chorite, and for sheer brilliancy of nar- rative art, there is nothing like this in English. The Lady of the Dynamos. By Adele Marie Shaw and Carmelita Beckwith. New York: Henry Holt & Co. A captivating maiden opportunely dwelling in the jungle, a gallant young imported engineer, native customs as a foil for Anglo-Saxon habits — these are almost as staple a product in fiction- stuff to-day as ever were the governess and the earl or the fine lady and the irresistible tyrant. Novels move to and fro like the stock market. There is an ebb in industrials, be it thankfully said, and a decided drop in uncrowned roy- alties and throne-makers. Meantime, love among the lianas and engineering supervised by monkeys are in the ascendant. Before their luxuriance shall grow noisome — experientia docet — it is easy to enjoy the picturesqueness of tropical scenery invaded by the white man bearing thither his burden of elec- tricity and telephone. Landon West was sent by an Ameri- can capitalist to Ceylon to make a pergolated fairyland, as realization, for the old money-maker, of early dreams prompted by impossible pictures in his geography. Happily for the purposes of a plot, the assistant whom West took with him proved to be a jealous trick- ster. Happily, too, the fortune-hunting woman who refused West before he sail- ed from New York felt that she had strong enough lien on him to follow him later to the jungle. Here, meantime, the true and only English girl had been not only helping Landon by her inti- mate knowledge of the lay of the land and of native superstitions, but had been doing deadly work with his healed affections. The situation speaks out loud and clear for itself. There are other characters to carry on the drama, many of them drawn with marked cleverness. There are friends and opponents, natives outraged by careless treatment, rival land interests, dishonest plotters. Add to these birds and butterflies and an interesting list of more than biped actors — friendly ele- phants, furry wanderoos, tame ant-eat- ers— loved of the girl and, like the brown people, interpreted by her sym- pathetic understanding. West is a hero after the heart of young womankind — strong, resourceful, chivalrous. The whole matter is spun and woven with quite a masterly touch; with an evi- dent knowledge of landscape and folk wild and tame; and with a swift, epi- grammatic manner that swings the story along at a truly modern pace. It takes high rank among stories of its genus; its species is made quite its own by many traits of cleverness and wit, and of genuine feeling for beauty of the worlds without and within. Pontycroft. The descriptions of Italian scenery are of Mr. Harland's usual graphic graciousness; and one can but feel that in this last book his own pe- culiar vein of delicate irresponsible charm has fitly passed in music out of sight. The Royal End. By Henry Harland. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. The title of this book is strangely sig- nificant as we realize that the dark Ferrash struck the tent of the Sultan of this pleasant little fancy-land of beautiful women and epigrammatic men before the story was done. Those who have enjoyed Mr. Harland's un- strenuous reclinings beside calm wa- ters of allusive conversation will feel in no mood for criticism of his last work. Slight it may be, like his others; but one cannot help nowadays feeling a tenderness for the author who contents himself with telling a tale not too im- portunate, in the wholesome air and sunshine: it seems one must needs be shallow at times, if only to take breath to grapple once morf with the unsav- ory problems of the underworld. The hero of this story is an Englishman, "the paragon of wit and chivalry," as gently whimsical as Adrian of "The Lady Paramount," and more comely to look upon; in short, a being well wor- thy of the patient devotion secretly cher- ished for him by the American heiress through 336 pages, and revealed only when it becomes necessary to end the story. She is wooed by a crown prince who offers her morganatic marriage, which she rejects with scorn; and when he at last offers her the crown itself, she prefers to find for her sentimental journey the Royal End of love on the honest if undemonstrative heart of Fame's Pathway. By H. C. Chatfield- Taylor. New York: Duffield & Co. This is apparently an attempt to "nov- elize" the first part of Mr. Chatfield- Taylor's Life of Moliere. No doubt num- bers of people will take it up who could not have been induced to open the biog- raphy, and if the object were to get in- formation into them somehow as to cer- tain events in Moliere's early life, it would probably be attained. But the author's chief aim was obviously to pre- sent Moliere in the flesh, and it must be recorded that he has merely suc- ceeded in exhibiting a rather awkwardly stuffed effigy of him. The period chosen — that between his first impulse toward the stage and his discovery that his true vocation lay in the direction of comedy — is rich enough in material; but the biographer has been able to do very lit- tle for the novelist. Everything, of course, connects itself in one way or another with the beautiful Madeleine Bejart: it is she who first attracts Mo- liere to the life of an actor, she who< aids him in the luckless enterprise of the Theatre Illustre, and she who- urges and accompanies him toward his true calling and success. Unfortunately, she is represented by the story-teller as- an assembly of virtues and accomplish- ments rather than a human being. But one could hardly hope to perform a feat of interpretation by means of so arti- ficial a medium as Mr. Chatfield-Taylor here chooses to employ. He writes in the high-flown patchwork style which has become the recognized utensil of the historical romancer: "Angrily she turned on her lord: 'Thanks to thy foot- less intrigues, I was imprisoned with thee at Vincennes as thy accomplice. This present affair is mine own. I need! no accomplices, and I promise a more profitable outcome' " — all upon the high- horse, and only a rocking-horse after all. The Mystical Element in Religion a* Studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and Her Friends. By Baron Friedrich von Hiigel. New York: E. P. Duttoa & Co. $6 net. These large, closely-printed volumes- constitute a fresh store-house of fact and theory, of literary statement and critical discussion in the field of re- ligious mysticism. To most readers, the portion of the work of chief interest will doubtless be the detailed biographi- cal study of St. Catherine and her friends. Foremost among these friends were Ettore Vernazza and his daughter Battista, both of whom share sympa-

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54=0 The ZsTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 thetically Catherine's religious views. The period to which she belongs, the post-mediaeval but pre-Protestant days, when the renaissance had already long been quickening the life of the Italian cities, has strongly attracted the author. As a loyal, but liberal son of the Ro- man Church, he has turned to it for some of the fairest examples of a genu- inely spiritual Catholicism. Such a biography is a contribution to religious psychology. Its value for this purpose is enhanced by an account, as full as the historical sources make pos- sible, of the accompanying psycho- physical conditions, ihe type of mysti- cism developed by Catherine follows in its main features the familiar teaching of Dionysius the Areopagite. This writ- er, purporting to be the convert of St. Paul, but in reality writing about the beginning of the sixth century, and hence commonly known as the pseudo- Dionysius, gave to the world a Chris- tianized version of Neo-Platonism. This work, translated by Erigena in the ninth century, was the channel through which Alexandrian mysticism discharged it- self into the life of the Church. Funda- mental to this Christian mysticism was the view that God transcends the hu- man reason so that he cannot be ade- quately known by processes of thought. It insisted, however, that a true illumi- nation might be received directly by each soul in its inner experience. The result of these positions was that a somewhat lessened emphasis was placed by its followers upon religious dogma and ecclesiastical agency. Popular thought tends to associate with mystic- ism certain quasi-miraculous or spiritis- tic phenomena. Unfortunately, too, Pro- fessor Munsterberg has given counte- nance to this use of the term in his "Psychology and Life." In these vulgar aspects of mysticism Baron von Hugel displays no interest. He values mystic- ism only as he deems it an essential ele- ment in a healthful and sustained relig- ious experience. It is significant also that he denies to mysticism any distinct faculty for the apprehension of reality. Catherine, it is clear, possessed a vigorous intellect as well as a devout spirit. Her statements of religious thought rise quite above the level of conventional phraseology. Her sense of finitude and limitation, her feeling, shared by all the great mystics, that the soul is alien to the earthly life, finds expression in the saying, "I can no longer manage to live on in this life, because I feel as though I were in it like a cork under water." This is a picturesque change from the metaphor of the "fish out of water," a figure of speech appearing in the Upanishads, in the utterances of the ecstatic nun St. Theresa, and in those of Kierkegaard, the Danish reflective mystic of the nine- teenth century. The soundness of the author's view must depend ultimately upon the worth of the mystic experience and habit of mind. The crux of the matter is a ques- tion of values. What worthy end was served by Catherine's intense preoccu- pation with the imagined realities of heaven, hell, and purgatory? Was not the pathological and maladif element in her experience directly fostered by her other worldly interests? And was there not possible for her a more nor- mal and at the same time a more fruit- ful spiritual experience? It is, of course, idle to quarrel with historical condi- tions or to demand that Catherine should wholly transcend her age. She could walk only by the light she had. No spiritual guide was at hand to point out other paths. But it seems possible that a soul of like intense and sensi- tive organization should be trained to an even larger usefulness without car- rying the burden of other worlds than this. For there is an ideal of a genuine- ly spiritual life realized in each fleet- ing moment of time. Such a life would transmute all our human powers into earthly forms of truth, beauty, and love. It might even attain the highest spirituality without "taking thought of the morrow" that shall follow our earthly existence. Surely no fact or ex- perience is made spiritual by projecting it into the future. Whether it is spir- itual or not must depend upon its own intrinsic nature, not upon accidents of space or time. Doubtless the author of these volumes has stated an important principle in in- sisting upon the value of a degree of detachment from the concrete business of daily life. For some natures, such detachment is an imperative need, both mental and physical. Few are strong enough always to abide in the dust and heat. Most need at times to exchange activity for repose, struggle for contem- plation. But it is an easy passage for religious natures from detachment from the par- ticular to a sense of the presence of the universal with its all-enfolding power. When this power is interpreted in spe- cifically religious terms and colored by strong emotion, the moments of de- tachment readily become the occasion of the mystic experience, more or less intense. The form of the experience may vary from the more active ec- stacy of the Occidental type to the "im- mortal calm" of the Oriental. Such states are intensified by repetition; the objectified meanings, long accepted, be- come to the subject the surest, the clearest, and most significant of all per- sonal convictions. There is thus a nat- ural history of mystic states which may well give us pause when we are tempt- ed to assign to them objective valid- ity. But however one may differ from tue author, or however firmly one may be convinced of the subjective and illu- sory character of his theological pre- suppositions, it would be nothing less than provincialism to fail to recognize certain high qualities displayed in the work. It maintains throughout a spirit that is serious, candid, and hospitable to science, a spirit happily far removed from the orthodox jingoism of Mr. Chesterton. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Part VI. Edited by Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt. London: The Egypt Exploration Fund. The product of the excavations for papyri conducted at Oxyrhynchus by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt for the Grasco-Roman Branch of the Egypt Ex- ploration Fund continues to furnish material for publication, though the ex- cavations have been brought to a close. Volume VI lies before us, and Volume VII is promised within a few months. The latter will contain a detailed ac- count of the site and of the excava- tions conducted upon it, with a review of the topographical knowledge derived from the papyri there discovered. The two most important of the liter- ary papyri published in Volume VI are from the remains of the large find of such materials made January 13, 1906. The non-literary documents are chiefly from the campaign of 1897. Preeminent among the new classi- cal texts are the fragments of the "Hypsipyle" of Euripides. These "constitute the most important addi- tion to the remains of Greek trag- edy hitherto made by Egyptian papyri." The identification is indubitable — style, contents, and coincidence of text with citations by ancient authorities all agreeing to put the question beyond doubt. As is the case with so many papyri from the rubbish heaps, the frag- ments, more than two hundred in num- ber, are almost all of small size. One only, presenting an early part of the play, is complete enough to furnish good reading for those who have no taste for this form of dissected puzzles. But even they might well be interested to see the ingenuity with which the scat- tered fragments have been pieced to- gether so as to yield up in great meas- ure their secret of the Euripidean plot. The story of Hypsipyle is told by sev- eral ancient authorities, but the tale according to Euripides appears to intro- duce some new variants, especially in connecting two sons of the heroine by Jason with their mother's adventures in Nemea. An interesting side-point for the student of "sources" in Latin literature is the indication that Sta- tius, who in his "Thebais" has been generally supposed to have followed this lost play of Euripides for his account of Hypsipyle at Nemea, must have fol- lowed instead some other authority. L_

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May 27, 1909] The Nation. 541 The writing of these fragments is not of very early date, belonging to the end of the second century after Christ, or the beginning of the third. The next longest of the literary documents is of about the same date as the Hypsipyle papyrus, but is of little interest to gen- eral readers. It contains considerable portions of a somewhat controversial commentary on the second book of Thucydides by an unknown author who wrote in the early years of the Chris- tian era. Among the few fragments of extant classical authors a page of Sallust's "Catiline," of the fifth century, deserves mention rather because of the rarity of Lat;n classics among the Egyptian papyri, than because it furnishes new readings, though it does tend to sub- stantiate one that has been hitherto but weakly supported. The non-classical documents comprise the usual miscellany of official and per- sonal writing, among which the special student of Egyptian administration will •turn to the former class, while the less strenuous reader will find some human interest in the latter. None of the pri- vate letters are of as picturesque a character as some of those in previous volumes, but their commonplace mixing of business and personalities gives them a certain realistic attraction. Among the ofnc'al documents students of Ro- man antiquities will need to note a Latin declaration of birth (No. 894) made before the Prefect of Egypt at Alexandria, 194-196 a. d. This does not agree with the regulation of Marcus Aurelius, that records of births of Ro- man citizens in the provinces must be returned at the offices of the tabularii publici. Professor Mitteis suggests that by tabularii publici, "the prsefectorial bureau is meant." But it might be more reasonable to suppose, without raising other objections to that interpretation, that, as Egypt was a personal domain of the Emperor, the regulation mention- ed concerning the regular provinces did not apply there. The fragment is palseographically interesting on account of the scarcity of dated specimens of Roman cursive writing. The volume is concluded with the cus- tomary full and varied indexes, followed "by six excellent plates of facsimiles. Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier: A Record of Sixteen Years' Close Intercourse with the Natives of the Indian Marches. By T. L. Pen- nell, M.D.; with an introduction by Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, and 37 illustrations and 2 maps. Pp. xvi + 324. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.50 net. This is the record of a singularly in- teresting and humanizing work among a remarkable people. They live in the narrow strip of mountainous borderland which separates India from Afghanis- tan, but are subject neither to the vice- roy nor the amir. The only control ex- ercised over them is the prevention both of the raids which for ages they have made into the Indian valleys at harvest- time, and of their robbery of the cara- vans in the Himalayan passes. They are being reached, however, by means of hospitals established by the English Church Missionary Society along the frontier, where all patients are treated free of charge. To these institutions come great numbers of the men, women, and children of these wild tribes; and it is the experiences of a doctor who for sixteen years cared for them which are given in this volume. The proceeds of the sales, we may add, will be devot- ed to the building of another hospital. In this book, as Earl Roberts says in his introduction, Dr. Pennell "throws many new and interesting sidelights on the domestic and social, as well as on the moral and religious, aspects of their lives and characters." These pre- sent a strange medley of contradictory qualities, courage blended with stealth, touching fidelity — they make the best soldiers in the native Indian army — with the basest treachery, and high conceptions of honor vindicated by the foulest murders. Dr. Pennell was once the guest of a villager, and h's host showed Mm "holes in h's door and in the wooden panels of the windows which the bullets of his neighbors across the street had penetrated, and said: 'It was behind that hole in the door there that my uncle was shot; that hole in the window was made by the bullet which killed my brother.' Pointing to another Afghan who had coma into the room and seated himself on the bed, he said: 'That is the man who shot my brother.' On my remarking upon the peace and good-will in which they appeared to be living at the present time, he said: 'Yes, we are good friends now, because the debt is even on both sides. I have killed the same number in his family.' " Dr. Pennell's work was not wholly medical or confined to the tribesmen, as is shown by his account of an interest- ing episode in his toilsome life, in which teaching boys was an important part. In 1906 he took the football team of the Mission High School at Bannu on a tour through a great part of north- ern India. He also made a tour as a Christian mendicant, during wh'ch he came into close contact with Eastern ascetics, of whom he gives a most in- teresting and instructive account. His whole book is, in fact, characterized by the comparatively new idea that m's- sionary work should no longer be de- structive, but constructive. He recog- nizes the good that there is in the be- lief in the unity of God and the folly of idolatry of the Mussulman, and the vital truths contained in the Hindu philoso- phies, the source, to use his own words, of "the religious spirit, the ardent faith, the unquestioning devotion, which have been the crown and glory of India for ages." The closing chapters are upon the value of missionary work, especial- ly the medical part — the outpost, as it were — and many encouraging facts are given in the lives of Afghan patients in the hospital or boys in the m ssion school, which show that the practical Christianity taught by kindly deeds is reaching and gradually transforming not only the frontier tribesman, but also the Central Asian. Numerous illus- trations and two maps add to the at- tractiveness of an enlightening work which we can confidently recommend to all students of the problems which In- dia presents, not to the English only, but to the whole civilized world. The Political and Economic Organiza- tion of Modern Japan. By Gregory Wilenkin; translated from the Rus- sian by E. J. Harrison, editor of the Japan Advertiser. Tokio: Kondo Shoten. The busy man desirous of informa- tion, otherwise to be had only by an extended survey of various volumes and unapproachable official documents, on the political and financ'al organization as well as the actual resources, of the Japanese Empire, will find in this new volume a handy compendium. The Eng- lish translation is excellent. The early chapters on the origin of the Japanese, the condition of the country before the Restoration, and the abolition of the feudal system, comprise a brief resume of much that has been already said by other writers; the chapters that imme- diately follow, dealing with national politics and the promulgation of the Constitution, fairly estimate the forces that have gone to the making of mod- ern Japan. The chapter on the rise and progress of political parties is spe- cially interesting, though one might question the author's judgment in vari- ous details. In treating of the economic organiza- tion of Japan the author approaches a subject in which he is apparently more at home than he could be expected to be in exploring the formative motives of Japanese politics. The chapters on the history of currency circulation and the banking system are valuable contribu- tions. A detailed account of the reve- nues includes an interesting discussion of the various taxes, their incidence, and the amounts derived from them over a period of years. Monopolies, railway nationalization, customs duties, foreign trade, with comparative tables of im- ports and exports, shipping, agriculture, mining, marine, and general industry, and the national wealth are all duly considered. As to Japan's military exploits and

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54:2 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 expansion of armaments, M. W' lenkin says: It is only fair to note that in Japan it- self the policy of increased armaments is beginning to encounter powerful opponents; voices are loudly proclaiming that -with the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Al- liance and the establishment of friendly ententes with France and Russia, no for- eign danger threatens Japan, and that she must therefore abstain from any further expansion of armaments, the more so see- ing the means therefor are not in sight. During 190S-9 the government can probably carry out the contemplated programme without a large deficit, thanks to the bal- ance from the War Fund and the payment for the maintenance of the Russian prison- ers, but after 1909 these sources will no longer exist. . . . Existing taxes are al- ready so high that further raising of them would be an intolerable burden on the peo- ple. The author concludes with the follow- ing statement, to which none more read- ily than the Japanese themselves will subscribe: If Japan wishes to retain the position which she occupies among foreign Powers, she must direct all her energies to the de- velopment of the economic forces of the country, to the expansion of her trade and industry, and, above all, confine her- self to a normal budget commensurate with the ordinary revenues of the country. Science. Memories of My Life. By Francis Gal- ton. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Mr. Galton is one of the inner circle Of men who, for the past fifty years, have helped to direct the course of sci- entific investigation in the British Isles. A cousin of Charles Darwin, and con- nected through marriage with the high- er ranks of English intellectuels, he has come into intimate contact with all that is best in English officialdom. Besides this, he has made important contributions to many branches of sci- ence. He began his career by a remark- able journey into the neighborhood of Walfisch Bay, South Africa, and wrote one of the most interesting accounts of savage life in the English language. He was among the pioneers in the more accurate study of meteorological phe- nomena; to him the idea and name of "anti-cyclone" is due. There are those who think that his additions to the doctrine of evolution are as likely to stand the test of time as those of his better known and more illustrious cous- in. Though not a mathematician him- self, he has paved the way for a quan- titative and exact treatment of the problems of heredity and has practically been the founder of the branch of study known as biometrics. In psychology, he has initiated many novel lines of in- vestigation and has helped to mane an- thropometry an established branch of anthropology. He is, perhaps, best known to the public for his sugges- tion of finger prints as the simplest and most accurate means of personal iden- tification, a method now used in all the rogues' galleries of Europe and Amer- ica. A life filled with such variety of in- terests is well worth chronicling, and to some extent this volume sums up modestly, but clearly, his scientific la- bors, and some of his entertaining ex- periences. But the attempt to combine an account of his scientific achieve- ments with the more personal aspects of his career has prevented this book from doing justice to either. In his own books, he is the most lucid of writers, but here he often fails from lack of space to make evident the significance and novelty of his researches. Regard- ing the many notable persons with whom he has been on terms of friendly intimacy, he has little to say that is illuminating. Natural reticence has, ex- cept in a few instances, stayed his hand. Only occasionally we come across an anecdote, like that about Herbert Spen- cer (p. 258): Spencer, during a pause in conversation at dinner at the Athenaeum, said, "You would little think it, but I once wrote a tragedy." Huxley answered promptly, "I know the catastrophe." Spencer declared it was impossible, for he had never spoken about it before then. Huxley insisted. Spencer asked what it was. Huxley replied, "A beautiful theory killed by a nasty, ugly fact." Yet the book throws much light, though somewhat dry, on a remarkable figure. Like Herbert Spencer in his curious Autobiography, Mr. Galton treats his own character and develop- ment as a subject for scientific in- quiry, with some significant results. As is natural with such an authority on heredity, he is much concerned in his first chapter to elucidate family traits. His power of enduring fatigue, shown in his travels and otherwise, he traces back to the Barclay blood, the most dis- tinguished representative of which, Capt. Barclay, was renowned among English sportsmen as the first man to walk one thousand miles in a contin- uous thousand hours. His tendency to asthma comes from the Galtons; and, though he does not draw attention to the fact, his scientific proclivities are obviously derived from his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who, many think, was the most original of the Darwin family. From him probably came Mr. Galton's power of contriving ingenious apparatus for investigating obscure phenomena — a power best exemplified in his well- known method of composite portraiture, but also srown in numerous instruments of precision. Many of these are enum- erated in the 183 books and memoirs, a bibliography of which is given as an appendix of the volume. Perhaps the predominant feature of Mr. Galton's mind is exhibited in his persistent attempts to obtain quantita- tive precision in all the problems he has dealt with; and this tendency can undoubtedly be traced to his training at Cambridge, though during his uni- versity years he was nominally studying medicine. His use of the Gaussian law of probability in his investigations into hereditary genius is the most striking example of this tendency. Like Stanley Jevons, he has a mathematical mind without a mathematician's equipment. Thus he has been able to set professed mathematicians to work on lines of great promise and has founded a whole school of biometric inquirers, headed by Prof. Karl Pierson. Of recent years Mr. Galton has made himself most widely known by a practical application of his views on heredity, to which he has giv- en the name eugenics. He believes that the race of men can be almost indefinite- ly improved by careful selection in mat- ing, so that the laws of hereditary genius shall have the fullest scope. On the other hand, a movement towards re-, striction of the mating of the unfit has already shown itself in legislation and in public opinion. A career of such significance deserves an even more adequate account than that given in these pages. In the well-printed and well-illustrated little volume entitled "The Scientific As- pects of Luther Burbank's Work," by Pres- ident Jordan and Professor Kellogg of Stan- ford University (San Francisco: A. M. Rob- ertson), one naturally looks for the most recent facts bearing upon the achievements of Mr. Burbank. It is therefore a surprise to learn from the introductory notice, page xiv that the two communications here given are reprints of magazine articles first published in the Popular Science Monthly in January, 1905, and October, 1906. Mr. Burbank's scientific reputation has suffered a good deal at the hands of writers who, in his catalogues and his ways of doing things on a large scale, have found excel- lent material for sensational "copy," and it is much to be deplored that his good friends, when they have a chance, do not set him right before the public. It is bare- ly possible that neither President Jordan nor Professor Kellogg revised this reprint- ed matter, else they would not have allow- ed such a statement as this to see the light under the date of 1909 : "Sugar-cane seed is needed." The proof-reader, at least, was not aware of the recent successful experi- ments in the tropics, from Java to our West Indies, which have placed sugar-cane seed within the easy reach of the progressive planter, and established seedlings with con- stantly increasing sugar-content in a great number of the enterprising plantations. Both of these authors are capable of giv- ing the public, lay and professional, a fair statement of Luther Burbank's best work, which shall be up with the times, and cred- itable to all concerned. This little repub- lication leaves much to be desired.

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May 27, 1909] The ISTation* 543 The principal lesson of the Colorado Can- yon, according to Prof. W. M. Davis, in a lec- ture before the Royal Geographical Society, summarized in the Geographical Journal for May, is that it is the work of normal erosion, not a sudden huge fracture; and it may be reasonably described as a young valley. He believes that, if the erosion con- tinues, the plateau will in time be reduced to lowlands by the energetic river. In in- troducing the speaker the president, Major Leonard Darwin, said that he thought Professor Davis has done more than any man on either side of the water to raise the standard of the teaching of geography in the direction of making it a more definite science. This number contains also an article by Professor Oberhummer of Vienna, showing how much geography owed to the artists of the renaissance, especially Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dtirer. It is illustrated by nine of their maps, of which the artistic embellishments are remarkable. Prof. James Major Colson, for the last five years principal of the Dinwiddie Agri- cultural and Industrial Institute, died May 22, at the age of fifty-five. After graduat- ing at Dartmouth College, he received an appointment in the United States Internal Revenue office in Petersburg, Va. Shortly af- ter this appointment he was elected teach- er in the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, now the Virginia Normal and In- dustrial Institute. There he held the chair of natural science for twenty-one yeara. Drama and Music. "The Last of the De Mullins," the com- edy by St. John Hankin, which was pro- duced by the London Stage Society some time ago, has now been published by A. C. Fifleld of London. Like other pieces by the same author it is not lacking in whim- sical humor or satirical point, but it is not the equal in general literary or dra- matic quality of "The Return of the Prodi- gal," "The Charity That Began at Home," or "The Cassilis Engagement." In the main it is a plea, if not exactly for free love, at all events for the free right of motherhood, without any preliminary or subsequent matrimonial contract, on the broad ground that the way of nature is older than social or religious regulations. Mr. Hankin, of course, has invented con- ditions to suit his theories. He has imag- ined a young woman, of high, independent spirit, who revolts against the hollow pre- tence and artificial restrictions of the life Imposed upon her by her father — a faded remnant of the old feudal system — sur- renders herself to a boyish lover, and makes her way to London, where she sup- ports herself and her child, and, with the aid of a convenient legacy — the deus ex machina in this instance — starts a hat shop and maintains herself in wealth and re- spectability. So impregnable is her posi- tion that she rejects with scorn later sug- gestions of marriage with her lover, refus- ing to interfere between him and the bride of his riper choice. This brilliant and hardy heroine, the mouthpiece of Mr. Han- kin's philosophy, pours easy ridicule upon the conventions which she has so success- fully disregarded, but carefully avoids all reference to the economic consequences which would follow upon a general adop- tion of her principles. An adept in the use of specious or superficial argument, she is conspicuously deficient in the common sense of which she is supposed to be a shining example. Wholly apart from any question of morals the play is as mis- chievous as it is foolish in its advocacy of a sexual liberty which would be speedily subversive of all social order. In its satire it is both amusing and effective, but its characterization, except in the case of the heroine, is stale, and its dramatic quality insignificant. It is, indeed, rather a thesis than a play. "The Prisoner of the Bastile," a new version by Norman Forbes of Duinas's "The Man in the Iron ask," which is said to have made a hit at the London Lyceum, is a wild, romantic melodrama, in which his- torical fact seems to have been treated with rather more contempt than usual. The hero is supposed to 00 the eider twlu brother of Louis XIV, and prisoner and usurper are both in love with Louise do la Valliere. The leading parts are doubled by MaUiusou Lang. "Vera" is the name of a play written for Fanrue Ward, by Lee Arthur and Forest Halsey. It is supposed to be illustrative of the "unwritten law" of which too much has been heard lately. The acene is laid in America, and the heroine kills the man who has failed to redeem his promise of marriage. Charles Cartwright is to play the part of a faithful old servant of the homicidal lady. The piece will be seen first in London. Henry Russell, of the new Boston opera house, is the latest manager to defy the big singers: He will, to be sure, open his iiouse with Nordica and Constantino, but, after that the ensemble, not the star, is to be relied on. He may succeed if it is true, as reported, that with the building not yet completed, no new operas promised, no stars featured, already every one of the lifty-eight subscription boxes and every one of the subscription seats in the orchestra and balcony is taken for the three years required, with a long waiting list. AVhile abroad, Mr. Russell intends to hunt for good singers in Russia, being convinced that that country has not been studied to its last possibility by the impresarios. Norreys Connell, who bad been acting as macager of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, has accepted the post of director, in the place of the late J. M. Synge. A new ooe-ac: play by him, "Time," was recently perform- ed. It is an allegorical fantasy, and might be described as a modern morality play. The scene is on a highroad leading to Rome, and there are three characters — an artist, a young girl, and Time. At the same thea- tre there was produced recently a new play by Lord Dunsany, "The Glittering Gate." The action takes place in Purgatory. Tho two characters, who were burglars during their earthly existence, succeed in opening the glittering gate, only to find, to their disappointment, a heaven full of stars. The Theatre of Ireland Society recently produced two new plays in Dublin One "The Sliuiler's Child," by Seumas O'Kelly, is the story of a child deserted by its par ents, and taken from the workhouse to nurse in a farmer's house. In the second piece, "The Gomeril," Rutherford Mayne has produced a humorous study of Ulster life, which owed much of its success to the clever acting of Miss Nora Fitzpatrick as the elderly spinster who was to have provided the Gomeril with a bride. The cpera season of 1908 and 1909 has been disastrous throughout Italy, owing to the lack of good singers. Theatre after theatre has been closed, after playing tj half-empty houses. Strauss's new opera. "Elektra," was received at the Scala, Milan, with a mixture of applause and hissing on the first night, and at the second repre- sentation the house was not half filled Such a failure following that at Berliu and Dresden may reac- on the popularity of "Salome." Isaac Albeniz, the Spanish composer, died May 19 at the age of forty-seven. He was a pupil of Marmontel, Jadassohn, Rei- necke, and Liszt. "The Magic Opal," a comic opera, was brought out in London in 1893. Among his other operas are "Enrico Clifford" and "Pepita Jimenez." He com- posed about two hundred pieces for the pi- ano. He made his home in London for many years. Art. Mediwval Architecture: Its Origins and Development, with Lists of Monu- ments and Bibliographies. By Arthur Kingsley Porter. 2 vols.: I, The Ori- gins; II, Normandy and the He de France. Pp. xviii+482, 499; 289 illus- trations. New York: Baker & Taylor. $15. The intellectual quality of mediaeval European architecture, the strict logic of its evolution, and the poetic beauty of its masterpieces make it a peculiar- ly attractive study to laymen as well as to architects; but it is a singular fact that no one has yet produced a com- prehensive history of the group of styles which we call Romanesque and Gothic. Some scores of writers in English, French, and German have treated par- ticular phases of this architecture or, in brief handbooks, have epitomized certain aspects or divisions of its his- tory and development, but the public is still waiting for a general history of Christian mediaeval architecture by a competent hand. The two handsome volumes by Mr. Porter are apparently the beginning of a monumental series designed to fulfil this comprehensive programme. Otherwise the title is mis- leading. These volumes deal chiefly with French ecclesiastical architecture of the middle ages, although the pre- ludes include an extended discussion of Greek and Roman architecture and a somewhat briefer survey of the basilican and Byzantine styles. The Italian, Eng- lish, and German styles are considered mainly in their relations to the general movement which reached its highest de- velopment in France and French Goth- ic architecture, as if it were the only architecture worthy of extended study

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544 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 since the middle of the twelfth century. The second volume, indeed, deals solely with the architecture of Normandy and the He de France. The chief defects of this ambitious effort to cultivate exhaustively a re- stricted field, lie in the author's strong predilections and antipathies, the lack of balance in his judgments, and, it must be confessed, an apparent de- ficiency in technical training. Roman architecture and renaissance design arouse his fierce hostility; "depraved taste of modern times," "blatancy," "vulgarity," "dreary monotony" are the terms he constantly applies to them; while the Gothic forms are "ravishing," "entrancing," "lovely," and otherwise superlatively pure and excellent. This uncritical partisanship, with not infre- quent slips in the discussion of the technicalities of vaulting and construc- tion, seriously mar a work which, with judicious pruning and revision, would gain in value what it might lose in bulk. Yet in spite of these serious defects, Mr. Porter's work possesses many not- able merits. It is a monument of pains- taking documentary research, and many of its sections are excellent reading. The style is rather loose, but readable and sometimes spirited. The presenta- tion of the historical environment and of the less obvious forces at work in the production of the great architectural ac- tivity of the middle ages, especially in France, is often admirable. Statements of fact are generally accurate, and au- thorities are quoted on matters of con- troversy. The bibliographies at the end of each volume indicate wide acquaint- ance with the authorities, and a scholar- ly habit in classification and citation. They constitute an apparatus of great value to all future students of archi- tecture. But they are less interesting and remarkable than the lists of monu- ments, with more or less extended his- torical and critical notices, which fol- low each chapter. Thus in the Lom- bard list, 92 separate buildings are not- ed, with specific comment on all but a half-dozen or less. In the Norman ljst 413 churches are mentioned, and in the Gothic (pre- flamboyant) list 392, nearly all in both lists with at least a line or two of comment or description, while some have a full page or more of text. Published in a volume apart, these bibli- ographies and lists would alone consti- tute an important work of reference. For this digest of a vast body of infor- mation otherwise only obtainable by digging through hundreds of volumes, many of them rare, students of archi- tecture owe Mr. Porter a real debt, and will easily overlook the occasional dis- play of recondite and unnecessary eru- dition. The illustrations are numerous, and for the most part well chosen, with a fair sprinkling of plans; but there should have been many more sections than are shown, for the section gives the key to the structural design in Gothic architecture. The omission of scales from all the plans and of refer- ence letters employed in the text from several of the diagrams, is also to be regretted. Indexes, tables of contents, and lists of illustrations are full. The printing is excellent. The Plate Collector's Guide: Arranged from Cripps's "Old English Plate." By Percy Macquoid; with numerous illus- trations and plate-marks. New York: Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons. $2.25 net. The Old Royal Plate in the Tower of London, including the Old Silver Com- munion Service of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower. By E. Alfred Jones. Oxford: Fox, Jones & Co, To two classes of American readers authoritative works on old English plate are especially valuable. Many well-to- do people in this country have collec- tions of plate which they have bought with more or less discrimination. Prac- tical silversmiths are doing sufficiently important work here to need the inspir- ation of examples of the best of other times and countries, and, failing orig- inals or such electroplated reproductions as have been provided in some mu- seums, good illustrations have great value. Both collectors and craftsmen will find Mr. Macquoid's abridgment a satisfactory and inexpensive substitute for Cripps's monumental work, which, since its first appearance in 1878, has gone through many editions. Some parenthetical additions have been in- cluded to embody the results of late re- search. The omissions appear in the main to have been judiciously made, though the entire exclusion of the chap- ter dealing with ecclesiastical plate must somewhat impair the value of the book in this country, where the making of articles for ecclesiastical use is among the most promising develop- ments of American arts and crafts. Half- tone illustrations have been extensively used in place of the line drawings in "Old English Plate." Several photo- graphs are from Winchester College plate which was practically unknown before 1903. E. Alfred Jones's book is one of the sumptuous volumes dear to the English country house. It is no perfunctory performance. The author, who has also been responsible for the illustrated cata- logues of the collections of plate owned by J. Pierpont Morgan and by Leopold de Rothschild and of the royal plate col- lections at Windsor Castle and at St. Petersburg, owes to the favor of King Edward VII his privilege of studying the treasures of the Tower which made the present book possible. These ex- traordinary facilities have been well utilized. Mr. Jones's concise, well-writ- ten text is devoted to simple statement of facts. He has no archaeological thesis to maintain. He sets forth what is defi- nitely known about a number of the most serious commissions ever entrust- ed to English metal workers, describing in detail such objects as the Coronation Anointing Spoon, made in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, and by some lucky accident spared the cruci- ble in which Charles I melted down roy- al heirlooms; the Charles II Font and Basin, employed in christening many members of the royal line; the beauti- ful silver gilt maces, made for ser- geants-at-arms in the reigns of Charles II, James II, and William and Mary; and the communion vessels in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula whose cypher the author believes to be that of Queen Charlotte. Mr. Jones's letter- press abounds in illuminating citations of original documents. The extreme floridity, for example, of the objects made for royalty in the first years after the Restoration is explained, of course, by the influx of Dutch artists whom Charles II encouraged to such an extent that in 1664 the London silversmiths petitioned him for protection from their competition. Among the biographical notices is an account of Francis Gar- thorne, who was employed by every monarch from Charles II to George I, and whose initials are found on a paton and communion vessels in Trinity Church, New York, on three vessels at Christ Church, Cambridge, and on a flagon at St. Paul's Church, Newbury- port. The Russian Archaeological Institute has issued a report of the investigations under its care at Salonica during the years 190? and 1908. The quantity and value of the remains discovered in the three churches of St. Demetrios, St. Sophia, and St. Georgi give Salonica an importance second only to Ravenna as a treasury of Byzantine art. The researches made under the control of the Institute by its director, Mr. Upen- sky, were chiefly devoted to the Church of St. Demetrios. The mosaics were overlaid with whitewash at the time of the Turkish Conquest. The Imperial government re- cently decided to carry out some repairs, which resulted in the temporary uncovering of the mosaics. When Mr. Upensky had the opportunity to make his investigations the workmen had already recovered part of the mosaics; but he was able to make de- tailed investigations in the nave, on the north transept, and in the lateral colon- nades. St. Demetrios, the patron saint of Salonica, Is the most prominent figure in the compositions, appearing about a dozen times in various postures In one case he is represented standing in a shell-shaped niche and wearing a white robe bordered with gold and decorated with a large band. Near by ia a group of three persons: In tlie centre is St. Demetrios; on the right stands the Illyrian prefect Leantius, and on the left Bishop Eusebius. Ikons of the Virgin also appear in many places These ars of interest to students, for they re-

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May 27, 1909] The Nation. 545 call the most ancient extant representa- tions of the Holy Mother — such as. for instance, that in the Church of Kitti, near Larnaca in Cyprus. The Panaghia occurs in all groups commemorating miraculous cures achieved by St. Demetrios, although in the corresponding legends there is no mention of the Virgin's intervention. The backgrounds of the groups are landscapes, architectural details, and cultus-objects. On a series of medallions are representations of saints. From the annals of Salonica we know that the Basilica of St. Demetrios was de- stroyed by fire in the seventh century. The mosaics now discovered would thus appear to belong largely to the time of rebuild- ing. But Mr. Upensky gives reasons for as- signing many of the remains to an earlier period, which would indicate that the de- struction of the church was only partial An Inscription gives the date of the res- toration as belonging to the period of Leo the Iconoclast, who reigned in the first half of the eighth century. The characteristic feature of the mosaics is their realism. The scenes are taken from actual 'ife and are devoid of mystic or symbolical significance. The designs are clear and vigorous, and the faces, which are represented in full or three-quarter view, are full of charac- ter. Vs regards technique, blue is the pre- vailing color of the backgrounds; silver Is always used for the nimbus; there is no nacre on the vestments. The mosaic is formed of tiny cubes, much smaller ones bping used for tho faces than for the rest of the composition. The recent investigations made by Dr. Dorpfeld of the German Archaeological In- stitute at Olympia have set beyond doubt the truth of the old legends which ascribed the importance of that city to a time be- fore the Dorian invasion. Excavations around the Metroon and the Treasuries have brought to light remains of small dedicatory temples of prehistoric date. In a black sandy stratum were discovered sherds and other earthenware objects, which in their form and incised decoration show close affinity to the pottery found on neolithic sites. Several notable prices were obtained at the sale of the Cuthbertson pictures at Christie's, May 21. Romney's portrait of Mrs. Blackburne went to Agnews for $26,- 000, his Mrs. Newbury was secured by the Bath Museum for $26,775. Jacques's The Flock was bought by a New York house for $16,000. The Academie des Beaux-Arts, in the section of architecture, has elected Vic- tor-Alexandre-Frederie L.aloux, in place of the late Alfred Normand. The new Aca- demician built the railway stations at Tours and at the Quai d'Orsay. Charles Green Bush, chief cartoonist of the New York World, died May 21 at the age of sixty-six. He was first an illustrator for Harper & Bros., and after a few years went to Paris, where he studied drawing at Rimmel's, and with Bonnat. He drew cartoons for the Herald and Telegram for several years, and in 1897 joined the staff of the World. Among his creations was "Father Knickerbocker." The death is announced from Paris of M. Colomb, the caricaturist known in France as "Moloch." He had been a strong satir- ist of men in office and of politicians, Finance. A CHAPTER IN HIGH FINANCE. The death of Henry H. Rogers has evoked the various comments always suggested by the death of a Wall Street magnate of enormous wealth; they had mostly to do with the financial effects of the event; for Wall Street regards its rich men less as men than as cogs in the wheels of a huge machine. There are, however, other considerations which arise in the thoughtful mind. It is not as an organizer and mana- ger of the Standard Oil Company that Mr. Rogers is likely to be chiefly re- membered— another capitalist will per- sonify that exploit in later history — but as one of the so-called "Standard Oil group" whose spectacular activities were in other fields. John D. Rockefeller, some years ago, went out of his way to declare, in a public interview, that the company was not concerned in Stock Ex- change operations, that there was no "Standard Oil party" in the speculative market; and that the whole allegation was merely based on the fact that Stan- dard Oil directors owned investments in other corporations. This was a some- what specious declaration. The actions of this particular group of capitalists, early in the financial "boom" which began with 1898, gave a wholly new conception of the functions of what had previously been known as "high finance." Borrowed from Europe's markets, this term had long referred to bodies of immensely wealthy capitalists who acted in concert, who dealt with governments when national debts had to be incurred, and who moved their for- tunes into and out of given investments, usually of the highest character, accord- ing as circumstances of the day made the outlook favorable or unfavorable. High finance thus became the epitome of conservatism; it was popularly re- garded with deep respect and with something of awe, for it was known to stand, not only for the soundest finan- cial judgment, but for the most strictly honorable methods. The "promotion period" from 1899 to 1901 in America turned men's heads; it was then that high finance in America began to acquire a very different repu- tation. The story really opened with the Amalgamated Copper flotation of 1899, which was carried out in a way as wide as the poles asunder from European high finance; the methods of unscrupu- lous and irresponsible mine promoters being sedulously followed. This was done distinctly under the names and auspices of the "Standard Oil group," and was something not far from a pub- lic scandal. Events moved swiftly after that. By 1901, an extraordinary situa- tion had arisen. American high finance was divided into two bitterly hostile camps, of which the "Standard Oil group" was one. Both had engaged in sensational promotion schemes, some of which were of a highly questionable character; both were speculating heav- ily on the Stock Exchange. One of them seemed, at the climax of the April stock- jobbing mania of that year, to have lost all sense of restraint or proportion, ap- parently believing that aggregated capi- tal could defy the laws of political econ- omy and create a "new finance" in which the principles of preceding centuries would be abolished. In this period of mental unsettlement, however, the "Standard Oil group" seemed to retain its senses. It avoided the extravagant promoting mania which afflicted the rest of Wall Street, and was possibly for that reason better equipped when it plunged headlong into the cele- brated conflict with its rivals over pos- session of the Northern Pacific. It lost the fight, but it had not entangled itself in a score of other directions as the rival group had done, and in 1903 it had its reward, picking up at bargain prices the securities which the others flung over in their struggles with the "rich men's panic." It was thought, at the time, that even if the old-time traditions of high finance were gone, this issue to the events of 1901 meant that Rogers and his col- leagues of the "Standard Oil group" pos- sessed enough of the ancient attributes of high finance to keep them at least from illusions and excesses. There was, however, no real ground for such infer- ence; the senseless efforts of these capi- talists to fix their own price for copper, through the Amalgamated concern, had shown that they too were subject to the illusions of the day; and the next few years proved that nothing whatever had been learned from the experience of 1903. When 1906 and 1907 arrived, the tables were turned, between the two rival groups of high finance, in a most dramatic way. Rogers and his associates lost their heads exactly as their rivals had done in 1901, tying themselves up in an ill-timed and ill-judged Stock Exchange speculation of enormous pro- portions, based on prodigious home and foreign borrowing, and on utterly reck- less use of the surplus funds of the larg- est corporation which they controlled. Thus entangled, they were caught in the panic of 1907, with results which Wall Street was able dimly to follow, and which gave the last touch of absurdity to theories of the La Follette sort that these capitalists themselves brought on the panic, to serve their selfish purposes. While they were floundering in the stock and money markets, the rival group whose predicament they had used to so profitable a purpose in 1903 was engaged in picking up the similar bar- gains of 1907. Altogether, it is a curious story in the annals not only of the Stock Exchange, but of that high finance, to the popular

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54:6 The ISTatioii. [Vol. 88, No. 2291 idea of which it has given so new a shape. Yet it was typical of the period's financial history. "Thinking in hundred millions" for purposes of promotion and manipulation led naturally to the sequel of fortunes of fifty millions or more, embarked in turbulent Stock Exchange speculation, and subjected to losses in the tens of millions through exhausted margins. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Arctander, John W. The Apostle of Alas- ka. Revell. $1.50 net. Bancroft, Marie and Squire. The Ban- crofts. Dutton. $5 net. Bigg, Charles. The Origins of Christianity. Henry Frowde. Blythe, Samuel G. We Have With Us To- night. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus. 50 cents. Buckland, Frank Merton. Rhymes of the Stream and Forest. Forest and Stream. Carlisch, Rabbi Edward N. The Tew in Literature. Richmond, Va.: Bell Book and Stationery Company. $2 net. Cleveland, Frederick A. Chapters on Mu- nicipal Administration and Accounting. Longmans, Green. $2 n^t Cross, Wilbur L. The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne. Macmillan. $2.50 net. Gerhard, Wm. Paul. The Sanitation, Wa- ter Supply and Sewage Disposal of Coun- try Houses. D. Van Nostrand. $2 net. Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews. Vol. I, from Creation to Jacob. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. $2. Hankin, St. John. The Last of the De Mul- lins. London: A. C. Fifield. Hayes, John Russell. Old Meeting Houses. Philadelphia: Biddle Press. $1. Holcomb, Walt. Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones. Revell. 75 cents net. Howells, W. D. The Mother and the Fa- ther. Harper. $1.20 net. Kennedy, Daniel Edwards. Philip the For- ester: A Romance of the Valley of Gar- dens. Brookline, Mass.: The Queen's Shop. $4.50 net. Kipling, Rudyard. Just So Stories. Dou- bleday. Page. Kirkpatrick, E. A. Genetic Psychology. Macmillan. $1.25 net. Leadam, I. S. The History of England. Vol. IX. Longmans, Green. Lodge, Sir Oliver. The Ether of Space. Harper. Lyon, Milford H. For the Life That Now Is. Revell. 75 cents net. Masten, Vincent Myron. The Crime Prob- lem. Elmira: Star-Gazette Co. Melville, Helen and Lewis. London's Lure. London: George Bell & Sons. $1.25 net. Miiton Memorial Lectures 1908. Edited by Percy W. Ames. Henry Frowde. Mitchell, Margaret J. The Fireless Cook Book. Doubleday, Page. $1.25. Motley, John Lothrop. History of the Netherlands. 2 vols. Harper. Mumm, A. L. Five Months in the Hima- laya. Longmans, Green. Norris, Frank. The Third Circle. John Lane. $1.50. Northrop, George Norton In Itlnere (Poems). London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Patterson, M. W. A History of the Church of England. Longmans, Green. Perkins, Clara Crawford. French Cathedrals and Chateaux. 2 vols. Henry Holt. Saltus, Edgar. Daughters of the Rich. Mitchell Kennerley. $1.25. Scott, James Brown. The Hague Peace Conferences. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. Shadwell, Arthur. Industrial Efficiency. Longmans, Green. Stack, Frederic William. Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, Page. $1.20. Stewart, J. A. Plato's Doctrine of Ideas. Henry Frowde. Stifler, James M. The Fighting Saint. Re- vell. 75 cents net. Toynbee, Paget. Dante in English Litera- ture. 2 vols. Macmillan. $5 net. Ward, Mrs. Humphry. Marriage a la Mode. Doubleday, Page. $1.20. Warren, Maude Radford. Peter-Peter. Har- per. $1.50. Wodehouse, P. G. Love Among the Chick- ens. Circle Publishing Co. $1.50. Wright, Sir A. E. Studies on Immunisa- tion. London: Constable & Co. Notable New Novels Just Ready Walter P. Eaton, who made his rep- utation as dramatic critic of the "Sun" and author of "The American Stage of To-day," is co-author with Blise M. Underbill of The RUNAWAY PLACE The romance of the man out of a job and the mysterious maid from Somewhere who meet in Central Park ("The Runaway Place"), where for a while they are as children who had forgotten to grow up. There is some- thing in it of Kenneth Graham's half wistful, half playful love of vanished childhood days. ($1.25.) One of the publishers' readers wrote of Eva Lathbury's THE LONG GAL- LERY: "Work of a really high or- der . . . the characters are live, the situations intensely interesting and real . . . has somewhat the same charm that Kenneth Graham's stories have, tho from quite a differ- ent viewpoint; and has even a sugges- tion of Kipling's ' They ' and ' The Brushwood Boy.'" ($1.50.) The Boston "Transcript's" com- plete brilliant notice of Holder and Jordan's delightful Fish Stories, or circular of American Nature Series sent on application. An exhaustive treatise which is bound to attract widespread attention. " The Negro Problem Abraham Lincoln's Solution By William P. Pickett COO pages, Sro. With Photogravure Frontis- piece. $2.50 net. Carriage 25 cents. Mr. Pickett states and elaborates Lin- coln's proposed disposition of the negro question by assisted emigration following emancipation. The author, after reviewing the history of the problem, and discussing the present situation of the negro population, boldly argues that the nation's treatment of the black man since the close of the Civil War has been founded upon a mistaken pol- icy. He points out the inadequacy of the currently advocated solutions of the prob- lem, and asserts that we must return to Lincoln's simple and efficacious remedy for the national evils resulting from the negro's presence. . NEW YORK 4 LONDON G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Chapters on Municipal Adminis- tration and Accounting By FREDERICK A. CLEVELAND, Ph.D., of the Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City, Author of "The Bank and the Treasury," etc. Crown 8vo. $2.00 net. *** The reason for this book is the dearth of available literature on the business aspects of government, and the many requests made for the various papers and addresses which the work com- prises. These chapters have a direct historic re- lation to three important movements, viz. : the work of the National Municipal League, the work of the Bureau of Census, and the work of the Bureau of Municipal Research. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., New York By aoRKr HENRY HOLT & CO., &l 33d St. YORK of CORRIE WHO? Maximilian Foster's brilliant new story, the NATION says: "As charming •1 piece of liiiht fiction as one is likely to come across in many a day. It is a story of mystery handled very skilfully. It possesses exceptional charm of style." S1MLL, MAYNARB <f COMPANY ■ BOSTON Newspapers as Historical Sources For the period which covered Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877, I used The Nation to a large extent. Its bound volumes are convenient to handle in one's own library, and its summary of events is useful in itself, and as giving leads to the investigation of other material. Frequently its edi- torials have spoken for the sober sense of the people with amazing success. As a constant reader of The Nation since 1866, I have felt the fascination of Godkin, and have been consciously on guard against it. I tried not to be led away by his incisive statements and sometimes uncharitable judg- ments. But whatever may be thought of his bias, he had an honest mind, and was incapable of knowingly making a false statement; and this, with his other qualities, makes his journal excellent historical material. After considering with great care some friendly criticism, I can truly say that I have no apology to make for the extent to which I used The Nation. — James Ford Rhodes, in The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1909. |L

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The Nation. NEW YORK, TUVRSDAY, JUNE 3, 1909. The Week. The affair of the mislaid document, as Sherlock Holmes might have called it, brings embarrassment even upon the usually imperturbable Aldrich. Accused of having hidden away a valuable re- port on manufactures and wages com- piled by the German Government at the request of our Ambassador at Berlin, the chairman of the Finance Committee assured his fellow-Senators in quick succession that he doubted whether there was such a report, that it was lying about somewhere waiting to be translated, that Germany was presump- tuous in trying to shape our tariff laws for us, that the report was quite useless, anyhow, and that he should be de- lighted to have it printed for the in- struction of the Senate. In the absence of competent translators at Washing- ton, Senator Aldrich must have gone on his own knowledge of the German lan- guage when he concluded that it would only be a waste of the Senate's time to bring the document to its attention. That Mr. Aldrich wished to prevent the report from falling in+o the hands of the insurgents, we hardly believe. What could the Senate leader have feared? He can afford to let the Opposition dis- claim, the press protest, the House grumble, and the President cherish anx- ious doubts, because Aldrich has the one best answer to all — he has the votes. Why, then, should a bookful of statistics more or less bother him? Conflicting press reports have led to a widespread misunderstanding in re- gard to the actual outcome of the Georgia Railway strike. It is not true that the railway has given in on the essential point — the employment of ne- gro firemen. It conceded a number of unimportant points and signed an agree- ment to arbitrate the questions under the Erdman act. The first of these is the important one, for it raises the color issue in three-fold form: Shall all ne- gro firemen be barred from employment on the Georgia Railroad; if employed, what percentage of the total number shall they constitute; and shall they re- tain their present privilege of promo- tion by seniority over white firemen? The railway stood its ground to the end, with admirable frmness, refusing to arbitrate until the arrival of Mr. Knapp of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission, when it yielded to pressure to the extent of consenting to arbitration. The important race question is, there- fore, unanswered. Should the arbitra- tors be swayed by the race issue, the outcome would be serious, for it would become a precedent for limiting the em- ployment of blacks in other directions. It would, therefore, have been better if the strike could have been settled with- out arbitration — but that would have had to come about by the complete sur- render of the union. The railway had absolute justice on its side, and fought admirably for employees of proved worth and of long service whose sole offending is the color of their skins. Gov. Hoke Smith can get little sat- isfaction out of the Southern newspa- pers for his attitude in the Georgia Railroad strike. The New Orleans Times-Democrat, after discussing his attitude, remarks that the "evil of in- competent government seems to be growing in this country, and unless there is soon a change for the better, the most serious disorders must result." It thinks that Gov. Smith had no busi- ness whatever to arbitrate between in- dividuals, but that his sole duty was to enforce the law according to his oath of office. It also accuses men like Hoke Smith of being ready to enforce the law only when there is no personal or po- litical danger in so doing. The Colum- bia, S. C, State avers that "the spirit of the demagogue has for long pervaded high places in Georgia," and adds, "it got lodgment in the State House, and has crowded up alongside of many an editor." It manfully declares that the people of Thomas, Georgia, have no "earthly right" to say whether the rail- way traversing that town shall em- ploy negro or white firemen, or whe- ther those firemen shall be union men or non-union men. Finally, the Macon Telegraph finds it necessary to demand that "the strong arm of the State should protect society against anarchy," and it denies that an "outside and vi- cious element which resorts to violence has any natural, legal, or moral right to imperil life and limb and property." The election of Congressman William Lorimer as United States Senator from Illinois, to succeed Albert J. Hopkins, reflects little credit on the State. The Legislature went through the painful travail of ninety-five roll-calls, extending over more than four months, only to give us in the end this particularly small mouse. The opportunity for con- gratulating the State of Illinois is want- ing, not because a poor candidate has been selected where a good one might have been had, but because the State's politics should be in such a pitiful wel- ter as to make the long-drawn fight an utterly selfish and unprincipled game between politicians of a low order, and the inevitable result the election of one candidate out of a very bad lot. The new Senator was elected by fifty-five Republican and fifty-three Democratic votes. No pretence was made that this bi-partisan arrangement was anything but a bargain. Mr. Lorimer has an- nounced no platform on which he might claim the support of even the Republi- can legislators. The removal of Census Director North was undoubtedly hastened by his hos- tility to his official superior, the Secre- tary of Commerce and Labor. But Mr. North's departure for some other sphere of usefulness became inevitable after the revelation of what loyal service he did for the wool manufacturers during the last tariff revision, whenever Sena- tor Aldrich was ill and the other mem- bers of the Finance Committee did not know what it was all about. One ad- mirable thing about our straightfor- ward President is that he takes no pains to conceal what is meant by the "resignation" of an official against whom just cause of complaint exists. Mr. North's resignation, we are told from the White House, "was based on the ground that, on account of conditions existing and likely to continue, his ad- ministration of the office would prob- ably not be successful." The unfavor- able conditions with which Mr. North would have to contend were presumably that he might turn up some morning to

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548 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 find his office door locked against him by order of the President. Mr. Harriman's interview on the finan- cial and industrial outlook is not the less interesting because pitched in some respects to a note of conservatism. That "the business of the country is now on a very substantial basis" is an assertion with which most people will agree. That Mr. Harrimau "does not think the tariff legislation will be of much importance" to the financial outcome, one way or the other, contrasts oddly with the atti- tude of some other Wall Street oracles. who have for months been asserting that the "trade boom" was merely wait- ing, stop-watch in hand, for the enact- ment of any kind of tariff bill. Mr. Har- riman even goes so far as to pay some attention to our agricultural situation and the doubts surrounding the new crop — a consideration which a good part of Wall Street seems to have dismissed as wholly irrelevant. This, furthermore, is a prediction which will make a good many people open their eyes: "We are building now firmly and soundly. If a tide of speculation sets in rapidly again, and we jump things up thirty or forty stories and then smash, the fall will naturally be greater." Saul is surely among the prophets. But Mr. Harrimau guards carefully against the possibil- ity that there was some connection between the panic of 1907 and the "jumping of things up thirty or forty stories" in the preceding twelvemonth. This Mr. Harriman denies; he would naturally deny it: That panic was directly caused by the extraordinary Landis decision and the gen- eral attitude prevailing at the time against the railroads and corporations generally. No one will be astonished at Mr. Harri- man's tenacity in this belief. It would be superfluous to ask just how the Standard Oil decision, extraordinary as it no doubt was, should have caused the suspension of the Knickerbocker and the run on the other trust companies, or how a court verdict in Indiana dur- ing August should have brought about panic on the Egyptian market in Am-il and on the Japanese market in June. But perhaps this is ancient history. Frankness is contagious. After "The Confessions of a Railway Signalman" it was certain that the railways, too, would take the public into their confi- dence. The Pennsylvania has now promised full publicity regarding every accident. We have not forgotten that the Pennsylvania did not kill a single traveller last year. But should all de- tails about maimed employees, sleeping switchmen, careless yard-bosses, and slaughtered tramps be given out, we should soon have a valuable fund of in- formation with which to shape future industrial legislation. Honestly collect- ed, it will fix responsibility where it be- longs, and tell us whether the harsh things Mr. Fagan says about railway la- bor-unions exceed the truth or fall short of it. Whether the Pennsylvania can live up to its programme is the most in- teresting question. A conspiracy of si- lence is supposed to exist among rail- way employees, for mutual protection against discharge. We cannot but admire the infinite con- cern with which a goodly portion of the American press is watching affairs in Cuba. No fond mother has ever con- jured up so portentous a list of perils about the head of her absent boy as we are descrying in the path of the Gomez Administration. We call that giving the Cubans a fair chance. A few months ago it was still in order to pre- dict a revolution and the collapse of the new Administration. At the present mo- ment, Cuba's budget is bringing on the fall of the republic. President Gomez believes that the budget will balance at about $33,000,000, but we know better. We know that the island's income can- not go above $26,000,000, and that a deficit of $7,000,000 is proof absolute of Cuba's inability to govern herself. No other government on earth is ever both- ered with deficits. We have none. Eng- land has none. Germany has none. Hence the mere prospect of a deficit in Cuba is sufficient reason for wailing over the worthlessness of her people and her government. Should this alarm prove vain, we can still fall back on the chances of a revolution. True, says one critic, "the prospects of success from that kind of a move do not now seem as good as they did at first." But why lose hope? "When the sugar cane is well grown it will take a slight effort to burn a field of cane now and then." Thus if any disgruntled Cuban politician is at a loss how to start up a row and a re- volt, all he has to do is to consult a file of American newspapers. Civilization may slacken his class rush, and even tone down football rules; but the undergraduate will not have his vacations tampered with. "A death-blow to intercollegiate baseball, rowing, and track meets!" is his description of Ithaca's proposed calendar, from which all save three holidays during the year are scratched off. Professors fancy they need a few more weeks to round off their courses, but the undergraduate kindly explains that, under the steady drive from January to June, with never more than one Saturday a week in the grand- stand, his nerves will tear to shreds and "frequent outbreaks of lawlessness and riot" will result. Those shredded nerves are something of a mystery. Up to commencement day you see them, and, on the next, you don't. Mr. A.B. climbs up on his seven-dollar-a-week stool, unmurmuring, and there he drives from Monday morning to Saturday noon, fifty weeks of every fifty-two. Ten years later, his chin is double and his smile as broad as ever. If you ask about the shredded nerves, he winks. It is very strange, and stranger yet when we Lear students at Western universities asking for a year-round session, after the Chi- cago plan. The broad streak of sanity English- men are exhibiting toward Holbein's "Christina of Denmark" augurs well for their recovery from the anti-German de- lirium. Canniness has not yet perished off their island, when art dealers cannot play patriotism for any figure they choose. At noon Tuesday the option on the painting expired, but no indignant loyalist rushed into the broker's office on the very stroke of the hour, franti- cally waving a fistful of £1.000 notes and crying that the American invasion must be checked at any price. At the National Gallery, it is said, visitors talk- ed more about the absurd sum asked for the canvas than about its beauty or the necessity of keeping it at home. Well, indeed, for the cause of art, if mil- lionaire collectors are taking their cue from such sentiments, rather than from the doubts about the Duke of Norfolk's right to sell the masterpiece. Spent for pictures in the measure that their beau- ty appeals to the eye, $305,000 will bring vastly more delight than can a single Holbein portrait. When the Lord Chief Justice of Eng-

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— — — — June 3, 1909] The ISTation. 549 land finds it proper to denounce pub- licly a new British statute, it must be a pretty bad one. This the new patent law, which has been roughly handled by Lord Alverstone, undeniably is. It embodies the protective principle, since it was drawn with a view to compelling foreign owners of English patents to manufacture their products in Great Britain, or lose their rights. To attempt to manufacture work for English labor- ers by this device is as mediaeval as our own American idea of building a tariff wall and excluding foreigners' goods, in order to compel the starting of unnec- essary American factories. One of the first results of this English law was a vigorous effort in our Congress to re- taliate against British patents. Fortu- nately, this came to naught; but the ill- will already provoked by the British ac- tion will not be easily ended. The In- ternational Chemistry Congress, before which Lord Alverstone spoke, took the proper view of the case, and resolved to agitate for a return to the old basis, on which the manufacture of a device in a country having international conven- tions protects the patent rights in al) the other nations. As Lord Alverstone well said, if the present law remains on the statute books, it will result in peo- ple keeping their inventions secret. Why should a Liberal Free Trade Ministry have consented to such a law? Count Zeppelin may spare Mr. Car- negie the necessity of haling Germany and England before an international court on the charge of disturbing the world's peace with battleships. After the Count's astonishing flight from Fried- richshafen to Bitterfeld and return, all of London's bogey-dressers ought to desert the Dreadnought-mad party for the airship-mad. A dirigible balloon that travels nearly 1,000 miles without once having to stop, can well leave Cologne at night and be over the Par- liament towers in the dark of the fol- lowing evening. Let the winds and land- ing difficulties handicap it as they will, nevertheless, it will convince even a Clyde calker, if it should fulfil the prom- ise Count Zeppelin makes for it in Put- nam's by carrying twelve persons 2,500 miles at high altitude without a de- scent. Mr Carnegie might well leave European diplomats to their wiles, and invite the Count to visit him at Skibo, by the overhead route, of course. From Constantinople come rumors of impending trouble. There is discontent with the Young Turks in the capital. The various nationalities, Greeks, Ar- menians, and Albanians, are restless, and in Asia Minor there is danger of anoth- er Moslem outbreak. It is, of course, Impossible, at this distance, to say how much truth there is in the dispatches. But, in any case, before giving our- selves up to the impression which such reports may tend to create, namely, that the Young Turks are not equal to the task they have assumed, it is only fair to compare what the Young Turks have accomplished and have failed to accom- plish with what others in their place would or could have done. Say that Asia Minor is restless, and that it may be necessary to hasten an army there to prevent a renewal of the massacres, say even that the massacres come, and in what way will things be worse than they were before the Young Turks came to power? Before the revolution of last July, Macedonia was a veritable cock- pit in which Bulgarians, Greeks, Ser- vians, and Turks tore at each other and at the helpless peasantry. Ten thousand peaceful folk were slaughtered in Mace- donia during the last five years. With the proclamation of a Constitution, the slaughter in Macedonia ceased. Then came the temporary eclipse of the Young Turk power in April last, and two or three days of Abdul Hamid brought on the slaughter in Asia Minor. The Young Turks took Constantinople, and the massacres ceased. Whatever er- rors the Young Turks in their inexperi- ence may make, whatever mutinies they may still have to deal with, whatever hangings they may still be determined upon, is it conceivable that they will cost Turkey a portion even of the slaughter and the general wretchedness that preceded their triumph, and would accompany their fall? recent municipal elections, between 80 and 90 per cent, of the entire electorate cast their votes. Apparently, Spain has been holding a large store of latent rad- ical opinion. Although a Conservative Ministry is now in power, there were chosen 481 Republicans, Liberals, and Democrats, 253 Conservatives, and over a hundred Radicals of various shades. Madrid elected 12 Republican council- lors, 2 Liberals, 1 Democrat, and 7 Con- servatives, thus giving the Republicans an absolute majority. Valencia chose 15 Republicans, against 10 of all other parties. In Valladolid, 12 Liberals, 6 Republicans, and 3 Conservatives were elected; in La Coruna, 7 Republicans, 3 Liberals, and 3 others; in Cordoba, 10 Republicans, 6 Liberals, and 6 Conserv- atives. The growth of the Republican sentiment seems all the stranger be- cause Alfonso XIII s popularity is ap- parently great. The introduction of compulsory vot- ing in Spain has brought an unprece- dented number of electors to the polls. Parliamentary elections in that country are notoriously manipulated by the par- ty in power, which can fit itself out with any majority it thinks becoming. Such control from above was made eas- ier by the existence of the large body of electors who stayed away from the polls. These have now been brought out into the open, and as a result, in the | In the June Review of Reviews, Ed- ward A. Steiner has a brief but ex- ceedingly interesting article on "How Returning Emigrants are Americaniz- ing Europe." In 1907, for instance, near- ly 800,000 aliens reerossed the ocean. In ordinary years the exodus is much smaller, but still very large. There is not a town or village of any size be- tween Naples and Warsaw, Mr. Steiner believes, that has not its visitor or re- patriated citizen from across the seas. First in importance are the savings brought back by emigrants. They buy land, and often cheaply because large estates are forced upon the market by scarcity of labor. Between 1899 and 1905, peasant holdings in certain dis- tricts of Russian Poland increased 418 per cent. In one Hungarian village the peasants, with American money, have acquired the entire manorial estate, in- cluding a fine castle. But from America come, too, a new spirit and new habits. The slow pace of peasant labor is whipped up under the stimulus of Yankee "hustle." American clothes and haberdashery are entering on wide con- quests. Slav villages catch the glint of patent leather shoes and the glitter of dentist's gold, those two predominant traits of our life that struck Henry James in New York. Finally, we record the advent into the peasant hut of the doctrine of fresh air, and a marked im- provement in the treatment of women.

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5oO The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 MORE TARIFF IMMORALITIES. Monday's tariff debate was as illum- inating as any that the Senate has giv- en us. The schedules had been reached in which the acme of protectionist in- sincerity and hypocrisy always is touch- ed—the duties, namely, on food products. That is the place where the augurs of protection invariably wink at each oth- er as they set about the task of "fooling the farmer." Having got his vote for the grand old party and the grand old humbug of the tariff, they proceed gravely to "protect" his wheat and corn and bacon and beef. This time the farce became too broad for even that skilled comedian, Senator Aldrich; and when the discussion threatened to run on interminably, and some acrimony was developed, he rose and incontinent- ly withdrew his proposals to increase the tariff taxes on food-products. To give cynicism its crown, he then coolly stated that there would be no importa- tions of meats, no matter what the tar- iff duties were; that there had been none to speak of under either the high rates of the McKinley bill or the low rates of the Wilson bill. This unblush- ing confession of the bunco game which has been played upon the agricultural interests of the country for forty years, naturally woke angry protests. Senator Heyburn rose to inform the Rhode Isl- and Senator that if the farmer were once convinced that he was not going to get his share of the protectionist pound of flesh, along with the manufac- turer, there would be political trouble. But Aldrich simply smiled at this threat. He has unlimited confidence in bucolic .simplicity. Headers of the Senate debate wii note, however, that the case for prod- ucts of the farm and orchard was in- stantly altered when it became a ques- tion of setting up a domestic monopoly. Mr. Root's argument against the mon- strous duty on lemons demanded by the California growers was fortified by fact and reason. He showed that the exist- ing protection was more than ample. California lemons can be laid down in New York at sensibly lower prices than the imported article, notwithstanding the cheap ocean freights as against the long haul overland. Yet it was pro- posed in the Aldrich bill to increase the duties 50 per cent. The object could be only to mulct the consumer, and give to the Californians a practical monop- oly of the supply of a common article of food. But this demonstration was of no avail. The higher duty was vot- ed 43 to 28. Aldrich held his men in line for this agricultural duty, despite his indifference to other schedules ot the kind. The reason was, we presume, that he had bought the votes of the Cal- ifornia Senators for the cotton and woollen and steel and iron duties, by promise of a thumping increase on lemons, and stood manfully to his bar- gain. Thus was protection justified of her robber children. The whole incident recalls an historic monument of greed, which was erected for the warning of mankind at the time of the abolition of the slave trade by the English Parliament. In the long and hard struggle which Wilberforce and Macaulay made to do away with that open sore of the world, they were opposed by the contention that it would be bad for commerce; that if some thou- sands of innocent Africans were not ex- posed to the horrors of the Atlantic pas- sage every year, several English trad- ers would lose money. One representa- tive of these unconscious cormorants openly declared in Parliament that the slavers furnished the only market for decayed fish and other putrid food, on which there would be a dead loss if the slave trade were outlawed. This argu- ment is just about on a level with the elevated reasoning to -which the Senate is now accustoming us. Who can doubt that, if Aldrich had to buy a vote or two for his pet manufacturers by a protec- tive duty on rotten fish, he would do it without a blush, and, what is more, lead the whole phalanx of Senators of the party of moral ideals up to the scratch without any of them holding their noses? Such displays as the Senate is daily giving us are enough, one would think, to convince even Mr. Roosevelt that there is such a thing as a moral ques- tion in the tariff. He could never see it; and hence always found it politically inconvenient to come out for tariff re- vision. But if the moralists have noth- ing to say about the performance in the Senate, they ought to hold their tongues about every form of cheating, false pretences, and political chicanery. If they cannot perceive the moral as- pect of the tariff, suppose they try to discover its immoral aspect. Is it noth- ing that men stand up to legislate money into their own pockets? Is there nothing to stir indignation in the sight of Senators bargaining away every day, by the most open of log-rolling methods, the right to tax the whole community? If such a thing as political turpitude and public corruption exists anywhere, here we have it. And we repeat our firm belief that the time is rapidly ap- proaching when President Taft will have to speak for the real sentiments of the whole people. He is reported as still hopeful that the conference com- mittee will give him a reasonably good tariff bill to sign. It is said that he has assurances that the high duties which Senator Aldrich is now moving heaven and earth to get, are intended to be surrendered in conference. Judaeus Apella may believe that, but we know not who else. The Senators are counting upon the President's easy-go- ing good nature and party regularity In our opinion, he should soon take steps publicly to undeceive them, and to let them know that he will have neither part nor lot in what bids fair to be at once a betrayal of the Re- publican party and a gross fraud upon the people. THE SAN FRANCISCO TRIAL. A "skulking blackmailer," a "slander- er," a "briber" — these are some of the feeling descriptions of Rudolph Spreck- els daily appearing in the San Francis- co Globe, in large headlines, coupled with the oft-repeated charge that the entire campaign against Patrick Calhoun, pres- dent of the United Railways, is due to Mr. Spreckels's failure to become the traction magnate of his city. Never do we recall a more sensational trial or one more difficult for the outsider to understand. Indeed, we question whe- ther San Franciscans themselves who are not "on the inside" have a clear perception of all that is going on, or realize fully what everything means. But, if we can judge fairly at this dis- tance, there seems to be a growing un- easiness about the reformers that was not manifest during the Schmitz and Ruef trials. Those were such notori- ous rascals, it was felt, that no substan- tial injustice could be done, even if the prosecution took some extremely short cuts or resorted to highhanded methods. In the case of Patrick Calhoun, the

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June 3, 1909J The Nation. 551 situation is different. For one thing, wealth and position fight on his side, as does corporate influence. Nobody be- lieves that the United Railways of San Francisco has been superior in its mor- ality to the average city transportation company, or that its feelings would have been much outraged if it deemed it wise to pay $200,000 to secure cer- tain favors. But even a railway presi- dent is entitled to justice in court, and the impression is gaining ground that the effort is to "railroad" Mr. Calhoun to prison at any cost, and that the dar- ing procedure of Messrs. Heney and Burns in obtaining evidence — such as entering Mr. Calhoun's office and blow- ing open his private safe, under war- rants of questionable validity — is not justifiable even in the endeavor to free an utterly demoralized city from the toils of scoundrels and blackmailers. For a couple of years San Francisco's destiny has lain in the hands of two men. Rudolph Spreckels has furnished the money — and been characterized pub- licly by Mr. Roosevelt as one of the most patriotic and unselfish of citizens — while James D. Phelan is credited with being the real power behind the throne. These men have decided who should and who should not be Mayor of San Francisco; which men should go to jail and which go free. They have been the despotic tyrants of the city, even if it be believed that they have al- ways been wise and benevolent tyrants. For instance, it has recently been brought out in a letter of the late Chief of Police Biggy, originally appointed to that position by Mr. Spreckels, that, hav- ing been visited by Mr. Spreckels (on November 16, last), he was told to resign because he was "surrounded by crooks" and was an "associate of dive-keepers and brothel keepers." Why should a private citizen have the right to order a police chief to resign, or, for that matter, to appoint him? Is there anything in dem- ocratic government which recognizes such a privilege? But in Biggy's case, the demand was practically an ultima- tum to be obeyed, and he so felt it. The reason is simply that Mr. Spreckels has financed the reform movement. Al- though Mr. Heney is a public official, he has received, according to Mr. Spreck- els's own testimony, $23,828.22 from Spreckels for his office expenses, while $38,400.00 has been paid to Heney's law- partner and associate, and Burns is openly stated to have received no less than $132,446.05 from the Spreckels privy purse. Granting that this is pure civic phil- anthropy, it was again brought out in the examination of Mr. Spreckels him- self that, just prior to the fire, Mr. Phelan and Mr. Spreckels had organized the Municipal Railways with a capital- ization of eleven millions of dollars for the purpose of building underground trolley lines in competition with the United Railways. It is this fact that has led to the many reports that the real motive of Mr. Spreckels for his attack upon Calhoun was a business one, and the allegation that he expects to. receive in return three dollars for every one he is now investing in reform. On the oth- er hand, so far as the trial of Calhoun has gone, Mr. Heney has apparently woven a very strong chain of circum- stantial evidence about him. There was a payment of $200,000 from the United Railways to somebody about the time the bribing was done, but no explana- tory entry was made, and there is the usual profound official ignorance as to what use the money was put to. Now, the Nation has only the feeling which every lover of good government must have — that it would welcome the conviction of Mr. Calhoun if the facts warrant it. The country would then be able to say that at least in one city "the man higher up" was reached; that in San Francisco Mr. Heney could do what Mr. Jerome failed, for one reason or an- other, to accomplish in New York. We should very much prefer to believe that Messrs. Spreckels, Phelan, Heney, and Burns are fighting the people's battle against the worst type of political cor- ruption. But the point which we wish to make to-day is simply that even a re- former cannot turn despot and run the machinery of government himself with- out provoking an immediate reaction. The best kind of reform is that which comes from the people themselves by regular democratic means, and not that which emanates from a handful of men financed by the well-filled purse of a business rival of some of the men ac- cused of wrong. Undoubtedly, we shall be told that this is a counsel of per- fection; that to overthrow such a mon- strous conspiracy as existed in San Francisco every possible means must be resorted to in order to ferret out the criminal; that to be practical in such matters one must not be thia-skinned, but use the power that falls into one's hands. To this we would make the re- ply that it is neither desirable nor prac- tical, when in the midst of so great a prosecution, that the enlightened public sentiment should become suspicious both as to methods and motives. THE LORDS AND THE BUDGET. Mr. Goldwin Smith, whose interest in current politics the years are not able to dim, writes to the Spectator urging the House of Lords to debate, and, if desirable amend, Lloyd-George's budget. He takes the ground that the meas- ure is political. It is not a money-bill, pure and simple, which will pass the Commons and go up to the Lords. It is, incidentally, a scheme of social reform, with a plan for readjusting taxation so as to make its burdens fall chiefly upon certain classes of the community. This being so, Mr. Smith argues, it is as much a part of the duty of the second chamber to examine and pass upon these pioposals, as it was to debate the bill for old-age pensions, or the one to abol- ish plural voting, or to restrict the sale of liquor. It is, in a word, a question of public policy, not merely of finance. This distinction, we fear, is not one that could be successfully upheld. The Lords are not entitled to go behind the form of a bill that comes to them from the Commons, and inquire what are its motives and purpose. If they were, there would be an end of the constitu- tional principle that the power of the purse resides exclusively in the Com- mons. It is settled that the English upper house has no voice in financial matters. The Lords can neither in- crease nor cut down appropriations. For them to attempt to do so now, would be revolutionary. The budget will reach them, as have all preceding budgets, with every technical appearance of a bill to raise revenue. With that, the House of Lords cannot meddle on any pretext that it is not a bona-fide finan- cial measure. Were the Lords to arro- gate any such power to themselves, there would be no limit to the lengths which they might go. The naval esti- mates, for example, they might cut down. They could say that provision for eight Dreadnoughts was political, designed to win votes for the Liberals; or that it was a matter vitally affecting

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552 Tlie ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 the foreign policy of the nation, about ■which both houses of Parliament had a right to express an opinion. Such a con- tention would not, of course, be listened to; but it would have as many legs to stand upon as the claim that an increase in the income tax, or a shifting of the land tax, is political, and therefore with- in the Lords' purview. Once begin let- ting out the waters, and there is no telling where the floods will go. We think, therefore, that the Lords will re- main where the British Constitution has placed them — dammed up so that they cannot touch money-bills. There is, however, much quiet talk in England about their doing what they have the undoubted power, if they have the stomach, to do — namely, throw out the budget and force a dissolution. Some Conservative newspapers have ad- vocated this course, and it has been much canvassed in the clubs and salons frequented by the aggrieved victims of the budget, as they choose to consider themselves. Why not, they ask, make an end of the business at once, and get a speedy verdict of the country on this miserable and despoiling Ministry? This question has been echoed by some Con- servative members of Parliament, but it is significant that none of the leaders of the party have given countenance to the impetuous suggestion. Mr. Balfour has attacked the budget repeatedly, but never has he given an intimation that it might come to grief in "another place" — to use the Parliamentary ex- pression for referring to the Lords. When it has been intended to destroy in the Lords previous Liberal legislation — such as the two education bills, the li- censing bill, etc. — there has been no lack of premonitory speech and action. Mr. Balfour has openly consulted Lord Lansdowne; the latter has begun to talk ominously about the responsibilities of the hereditary legislators. In connec- tion with the budget, however, nothing of this kind has been observed. If the Conservatives really mean to order the House of Lords to refuse to vote it, they are keeping their intention a deep se- cret. It is hard to believe that they have any such intention. The question is not so much one of political power, as of political tactics. By forcing matters, Mr. Balfour would simply risk losing what he is almost certain to gain if he bides his time. The tide is running so powerfully for the Conservatives at present that they may reasonably count upon returning to office at the next gen- eral election. And that trial of strength cannot be long postponed. Within two years it must come; it may easily come in the course of the next twelvemonth. So cool and patient a leader as Balfour is not at all likely to precipitate the struggle. And more than the mere ele- ment of time is involved. The entire issue might be changed if the Lords were to reject the budget on the ground that it bore too heavily on the rich. We should then see a great outburst of in- dignation at the selfishness and arro- gance of the privileged classes; there would be a good chance of the socialists and the Labor Party pooling issues, for the time being, with the Liberals, so that the issue of the election would be a much less sure victory for the Con- servatives than they now appear bound to win. All told, therefore, the proba- bility is that the Lords will make wry faces at the budget, but will swallow it. Mr. Balfour will let it do its work of still further alienating rich and middle- class Liberals; will use vague phrases about undoing its injustices when his party is in office again; and when he actually is once more at the head of the government, will doubtless not re- move a single one of the taxes which are now denounced as confiscatory and socialistic. "SOCIALIZING" RELIGION. The Outlook recently printed two re- markable articles by clergymen strong- ly attacking the education given in theo- logical seminaries. Against it, the grav- amen of the complaint is that the course is too scholastic and antiquated; that candidates for the pulpit do not get an insight into the social problems which will confront them later. The drift of the protest is practically against the old idea of a learned ministry. It is argued that a fairly educated man, "with facility of speech, a knowledge of the English Bible, and a real interest in the welfare of mankind," may be bet- ter fitted to preach than students who have put in three years at Greek and Hebrew, and have wasted a lot of time over people who "have been a long time dead." The seminaries should throw overboard the dead wood in their tradi- tional curriculum, and put their main strength into "sociology, economics, pedagogy, and ethics." The chief aim should be to teach "the social character of religion, and, specifically, the social application of Christianity." In one word, religion should be "socialized." This term is not defined, but its mean- ing, in the mouths of these men and those who think with them, is not hid- den. They want the churches and the ministers to regain touch with the masses; and they believe that this can be done by an active sympathy with the causes and aspirations that to-day lie near the hearts of the masses. Work- mgmen are more and more standing aloof from Protestant churches; to So- cialism many of them are transferring the feeling which they once had for re- ligion: therefore, the thinly veiled ar- gument runs, religion must take on a tinge of Socialism to win them back. The Rev. Charles Stelzle frankly puts the case in a way to show both what he thinks the trouble is to-day, and what the dominant purpose should be to-mor- row: The profound religious spirit which is so evident in the labor movement bids fair either to capture the church or to become the heart of a great religious movement which will rival the church as it is now organized — unless the church herself so enlarges her life and vision as to include this movement. If once this movement of the working people takes on a distinctively religious aspect — and it is quite possible for it to do so — the church will with diffi- culty keep in the procession. Such conceptions and hopes are amia- ble; but the fear caused by the grow- ing alienation of wage-earners from the churches should not blind the lat- ter. Take the great fact of the rela- tion of the Catholic Church to work- ingmen. This is seldom referred to in the laments of Protestants over their slackening hold upon the toilers, yet it is most significant. Here we have a vast religious organization, the very life-blood of which in this country has been the attachment and devotion of the working-classes, but do we find it say- ing that it must move heaven and earth to bring itself up to date and become "socialized"? Nothing of the kind. On the contrary, the weight of Catholic au- thority has been cast against Socialism; and the Pope is as much opposed to "modernity" in labor and political move- ments as in theological. Doubtless, the Catholic Church in the United States loses its power over many immigrant and other workingmen who, by antece- dent faith, ought to be in its com-

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June 3, 1909] The Nation. 553 munion. But making all allowance for such defections, it retains a wonderful hold upon those very masses which, we are now told, can be won over only by petting labor unions and taking up with half-baked doctrines labelled "sociology." If such considerations do not give our too quick religious innovators pause, let them stop to survey some of the prac- tical and definite obstacles which they must surmount. When they demand of the theological seminaries training in economics and solutions of social prob- lems, they are informed that such stud- ies are pre-supposed in the students; the colleges are to furnish them with that equipment. But that is absurd, de- clares the Rev. Mr. Jones. "College courses cannot equip young men with the knowledge of social conditions nec- essary to the ministerial profession." But can seminary courses? We gravely doubt it. Many institutions, it is true, afford their students the opportunity to see the ongoing of organized Christian- ity on a large scale — the institutional church, clubs, classes, missions, settle- ments— and all this is no doubt instruc- tive and humanizing. But formal "socio- logical" teaching, dovetailed into an al- ready crowded and hurried three years' course, would not, in our opinion, be much more successful in the seminaries than it is in the colleges. The most probable result would be the letting loose in pulpits of crude notions about "the social applications of Christianity," together with sadly muddled economics. After all, we come back to the truth that the successful minister is born, not made. By the use of whatever tools, vitalizing even the oldest and mouldiest conventions, he comes to his real work by virtue of qualities which a theologi- cal education can neither give nor take away. If he has the soul to endure as one seeing the invisible, and a heart to throb in unison with all the varied humanity about him; and if to all this he adds the sense of a high mission and the burden of a spiritual message, he need not trouble himself overmuch to become "socialized." He will find his true power and wield it. Into the striv- ing and sorrow of the world, he will be able to bring something of peace and comfort; and will be the better enabled to do it for having braced his mind by hard study and fed his spirit by long meditation while the fire burns, than by taking out a card in all the labor- unions from here to California, or run- ning, now here, now there, after the lat- est sociological fad. MISTAKES ABOUT LEISURE. Among the mistakes about contempo- rary life, perhaps none passes muster so readily as the one about leisure and our leisure class. It is taken as self- evident that what goes by the name of leisure here is either gilded indolence or else something worse. Here and there one finds an idle millionaire "that in trim gardens takes his pleasure," but all the rest, who neither toil nor spin, must be looked for on the sporting page or the police blotter. The average rich man who feigns leisure is generally us- ing it, as Machiavelli's prince did, as a breathing-time to contrive plans for war — to wit, a Wall Street campaign. A. Barton Hepburn, in the June Century, sums up this popular impression and neatly turns it into an apology for the American business man, when he says: America possesses comparatively few old families, . . . reserving sufficient time and strength for the development of the higher ideals of life. . . . Retiring is difficult, largely because there is no invit- ing field for them to enter. We have no leisure class devoted to the general pur- poses of life, whose ranks open invitingly and furnish a proper goal to the business man's ambition. ... A man out of business ... is out of countenance with current events. Now, all this was the simple truth only a few years ago, but society has been changing since then more rapidly than opinions about it. A class "devot- ed to the general purposes of life," after the fashion of Sans Souci and the Paris salons, we cannot boast. The tides of life have set too strongly against it. But leisure and the opportunity to pursue high ideals have not died with it. What has changed is the organization of the leisure class. Like the rest of the world, it has been blown to bits by specialists. Probably this city alone holds as many amateurs of culture as eighteenth-cen- tury France ever did; but they are scat- tered about in art clubs, historical so- cieties, political leagues, scientific cii- cles, and colleges, each taking his leisure chiefly within his own trim garden, be- cause he finds there so much to pluck and smell. Correggio, Anglo-Russian relations, and the nebular theory are no longer served on the same conversation- al menu; there is a table for each. Leisure has undeniably become more strenuous, as a result of this opulence and virtuosity. t To call it loafing is to confess one's ignorance of the joyous labors which even humble intellectual hobbies, say orchids and sociology, af- ford. Indeed, a mind fit to pursue the things of the spirit at all is more likely to lie awake nights than to doze away its days over them. There will always be shopkeepers to see in such zeal only a disguise for indolence, but they can sway none but those who share their re- pugnance toward the ideals of culture. It is doubtful if our leisure class has lost many desirable members because of the tradition that a man out of busi- ness is a pariah. Those whom it does deter would, if the tradition were an- nulled, become the most crotchety of putterers in whatever field of culture they invaded. Like an unhappy rich man whom Mr. Hepburn cites, they would travel feverishly and then weary of every scene; "study" Flemish art, buy some canvases, fall victims to a dealer, and soon sicken of the whole business; and, finally, after having made the round of a half-dozen hobbies, plunge back desperately into the Street. Such men think leisure means idleness, sweetened with something a little more saccharine than vaudeville, and considerably more expensive. They know they could buy idleness with dollars at any time of life, and so they fancy that they could as easily join the true leisure class. But the kingdom of higher ideals must be sought early — best while the dew sti>* lies on life; and the admission fee is "the passionate vision." The business man with this vision need never complain that America has no leisure class, or that its ranks do not "open invitingly," or that it does not "furnish a proper goal for his am- bitions." Every large city will give him companions for his lighter intellectual moods. If he aspires high in science, art, politics, or social reform, at least our great centres teem with like-mind- ed men. And should his attainments rise to the same level, universities will welcome him, dignifying his leisure with a few routine lectures. If, finally, he must keep up the business pace, there are public offices to be filled and political rings to be shattered.

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554 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 GEORGE MEREDITH. I. The refusal of the authorities of West- minster Abbey to allow George Meredith to sleep among the dead whom Eng- land delights to honor was by no means surprising. In spite of the endorsement of the Society of Authors and the Prime Minister, the future of his reputation still remains in a high degree problem- atic. If he had died twenty-five years ago, though the work on which his fame must rest had then been accomplished, it is doubtful whether the general voice would have decreed him this sol- emn tribute. Indeed, from his first ap- pearance in literature down to the time of his death no writer of his power had received less recognition for his virtues or more persistent praise for his faults. George Eliot, Swinburne, Watts-Dunton, and a following of enthusiasts felt his might, and for the most part tried to persuade the world that he was a great literary artist. Others asserted with equal vehemence that he was an inco- herent thinker, making his artificial, choked, and stuttering novels the ve- hicle for a mass of epigram. The so- called man in the street, if he chanced to overhear the discussion, promptly de- cided that it did not concern him, either way. If Meredith attended to the early notices of his books, he must often have sighed as one who watches for the morning. Even so late as 1880 the Westminster Review, traditionally favorable to his reputation, commented upon the recently published "Egoist"— now often considered his weightiest con- tribution to fiction— as follows: Mr. Meredith is, perhaps, our most ar- t.st.c novelist, and, for that very reason by no means popular with mere subscribers to Mudie's. His audience is few, but fit. • • • He is, in a word, what the world would vulgarly call too clever. . This is Mr. Meredith's great fault-he overdoes his cleverness. If he was more simple, he would bo far more effective. "The Egoist" is full of poetry, subtle observation, and sparkling epigram. This review, with its emphasis upo'h the literary artist, is typical, and, unless I am mistaken, is about the quintes- sence of bad criticism. For it has yet to be demonstrated that perfection of art has interfered with the success of any matter whatsoever, even among the subscribers to Mudie's. And those who value Meredith's work most wisely will not extol him for his artistry, but rather deplore his lack of it as one of many obstacles that have stood in the way of his popularity. Furthermore, to say that he "overdoes his cleverness" is to suggest that he consciously strains for effect. If this critic had really been one of that piteous fit audience though few, he would rather have suggested how insuperably difficult it was for Meredith not to be clever, how utterly impossible it was for him to be simple, how entirely regrettable that he did not receive an English academic train- ing. How might not the Oxford cul- ture have disciplined his Celtic lawless- ness and subdued his turn for "natural magic"! Welsh and Irish in ancestry, Meredith was educated at a Moravian school in Germany. In the plastic time of his youth, he, like Browning and Carlyle, was his own master of rhetoric. Like Carlyle, he wrote prose as if Dry- den had never shown the superiority of Charles the Second's English to the flowered and conceited exuberance of the Elizabethans. Like Browning, he wrote verse as if Pope had not died to save us from the sins of the metaphysi- cal school. If Donne, as honest Ben de- clared, for not keeping of accents de- served hanging, so did Meredith. He wanted art. He was not wanting in a perception of the supreme beauty of style — perfect identity of thought and expression. In his essay on the "Idea of Comedy" he showed the keenest crit- ical appreciation of the style of Menan- der and Terence, writing almost with rapture of their "Elysian speech, equa- ble and ever gracious." But two years later, in the prelude of the "Egoist," he was guilty of such sentences as this: Who, says the notable humorist, in al- lusion to this book [Book of Earth], who can studiously travel through sheets of leaves, now capable of a stretch from the Lizard to the last few pulmonary snips and shreds of leagues dancing on their toes for cold, explorers tell us, and catch- ing breath by good luck, like dogs about a table, on the edge of the Pole? II. He wanted art no less as a story- teller than as a stylist. It is true that he undertook a very difficult task. He desired to represent men and women dramatically, revealing the secret springs of their characters in their speech and acts. But for fatally long periods in many of his novels he would allow them neither to speak nor to act. Sometimes, like the messenger of the Senecan tragedy, he reported the great things that were going on behind the scenes. Sometimes with a kind of choric fury he drowned the voices of the ac- tors and assaulted the ears of the audi- ence with a prolonged and often partly enigmatic commentary. Sometimes he translated whole conversations into tele- graphic Meredithese. These methods of telling a story are inartistic, because they deprive the auditor of the legiti- mate and expected pleasure of hearing the ipsissima verba in the critical mo- ment, and the spectator of seeing the decisive gesture with his own eyes. De- fenders of Meredith will say that he was bent on our perceiving the finer meanings of act and speech, and that he could be sure of his purpose by no other method. That is to confess again that he wanted the skill of the supreme literary artist, that his intention was greater than his power. He had himself a subtle sense of the deeper implica- tions of speech, but he did not possess steadily that master instinct which finds a single word to tell all. When Romeo is banished from Verona, the nurse urges Juliet to marry Paris. Then fol- lows this dialogue: Jul. Speak'st thou from thy heart? Nurse. And from my soul, too; else beshrew them both. Jul. Amen! Nurse. What ? Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me mar- vellous much. Go in; and tell my lady I am gone. Having displeas'd my father, to Laurence's cell To make confession and to be absolv'd. What more can one desire? Could forty pages of commentary add anything to that one incomparable Amen? That is what a literary artist does with conver- sation. Shakespeare's plays are sown with such volume-speaking words; in Meredith's novels I do not know where you will find anything approaching it. III. But if Meredith was not a first-rate literary artist, is it possible that he was a first-rate literary genius; or are the two things inseparable?' It would be gratifying to find some substantial ground for the apparently extravagant claims of his friends. One of them, Rob- ert Louis Stevenson, has been convicted before a just judge of uncritically juxta- posing Meredith and Shakespeare in the enthusiasm of his admiration for "Rhoda Fleming."' Looking through Stevenson's letters, however, I have been pleased to observe that he says very lit- tle about Meredith as a literary artist. In Sidney Colvin's two-volume edition under the date of 1879, when "The Ego- ist" was published, there is a single reference as follows: "Chapters viii and ix of Meredith's story are very good, I think." That is all— and he had met the author in 1878, and they had become warm friends. But three years after that not ecstatic comment, he, in a let- ter to W. E. Henley, lists among those worthy of being honored with a dedica- tion, "George Meredith, the only man of genius of my acquaintance." "Talk-' ing of Meredith," he continues signifi- cantly, "I have just re-read for the third and fourth time 'The Egoist.' When I shall have read it the sixth or seventh, I begin to see I shall know about it. . . . I had no idea of the matter — human, red matter — he has con- trived to plug and pack "[the italics are mine] into that strange, admirable book." Finally, with a passing glance at George Eliot, whom he could seldom mention with entire decorum, he con- cludes: "I see more and more that Meredith is built for immortality." A book so plugged and packed with mat- ter that it took four to six readings to extract its meaning certainly did not

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June 3, 1909] The Nation 555 represent Stevenson's ideal in art. The full explanation of his enthusiasm does not appear till 1884, again in a letter to Henley. This time it is as plain as you please: "My view of life is essentially the comic; and the romantically comic." Then, after more comment on Meredith: "The comedy which keeps the beauty and touches the terrors of our life (laughter and tragedy-in-a-good-humor having kissed) that is the last word of moved representation; embracing the greatest number of elements of fate and character." Stevenson mightly fairly call the man a genius who had taught him his literary gospel and shown him a reasonable way of envisaging life. There are numerous indications, some of doubtful value, that the followers of Meredith are shifting to this more stable ground. The select literary clubs, which in the old days used to read the riddle of the Sphinx in "Childe Roland," discov- ered some time ago that Meredith's "Readings of Earth" were less trite and equally difficult. Some of the novels, too, have attracted those curious per- sons who find their chief pleasure in perusing what their friends declare im- possible. Within four or five years as many books have been devoted to the ex- position of Meredith's art and ideas, not all of which are harder to read than the works which they explain. But chiefly we must reckon in the decisive tribute of the younger generation of writers who by imitation and open avowal de- clare their deep indebtedness to him. "At the present moment," says Mrs. Craigie, "all the most worthy English novelists, with the exception of Thomas Hardy, are distinguished disciples of George Meredith." The heterogeneous character of the alleged Meredithians — Stevenson, Du Maurier, Henley, Sara Grand, Anthony Hope, Maurice Hewlett, W. G. Locke, George Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, and many others — is ex- tremely suggestive. It means that to young authors he has not been primar- ily a literary model — those who have caught most of his spirit have least imi- tated his style. It means that if Mere- dith is "built for immortality," he will survive not merely as an epigrammat- ist, or as a subtle poet, or as a psy- chologizing novelist, but as a man with a mine of vital ideas, a constructive crit'c of life, if not an artist, at any rate a genius, one of the spokesmen and master spirits of his time. IV. Herein lies one of his most indubita- ble claims to genius — he solved the problems of our contemporary liter- ature half a century before it existed. Though his exposition was unequal to his insight, and his own coevals missed his points, such of our authors to-day as face the future smiling have found him out. The problems of contempor- ary literature are manifold in appear- ance, but in essence single: How to present a view of life both wise and brave, answering to experience as well as to desire, serviceable in art or the daily walk? Single in essence, in ap- pearance they are manifold: How to give pleasure without corrupting the heart, and how to give wisdom without chilling it? How to bring into play the great passions of men without un- chaining the beast? How to believe in Darwin and the dignity of man? How to believe in the nerves without para- lyzing the nerve of action? How to recognize the weakness of man, and not forget his heroism? How to see his acts, and believe in his intentions? How to renounce his superstitions, and retain his faith? How to rebuke with- out despising him? How to reform so- ciety without rebelling against it? How to smile at its follies without contempt? How to believe that pain is invincible, and that joy is invincible, too? How to believe that evil is fleeing forever before good, but will never be over- taken and slain? How to look back upon a thousand defeats, and yet cling to the fighting hope? If you go through this list of questions, you will not find one which Meredith did not answer. Long before Mr. Shaw broke into mock Mephistophelean laughter, and Mr. Ches- terton discovered his loyalty to the uni- verse, when they — if one can conceive such a thing — were quietly sleeping in their cradles, George Meredith had al- ready bottled their thunder. "Richard Feverel," published in 1859 with "The Virginians," "Adam Bede," "The Tale of Two Cities," and "The Origin of Species," was a repudiation and a prophecy, but was recogniz- ed as neither. The Westminster Re- view, though perceiving in it obser- vation, humor, passion, and tender- ness, declared that the "book of- fers no solution of any of the diffi- culties it lays open to us; the nine- teenth century struggles through it with but faint glimpses of its goal." With interspersed hints in subsequent novels, with critical prefaces, and with poems Meredith tiled to amend the reviewer's error, but not till 1877 when, Aristotle to his own dramatic cycle, he published the "Idea of Comedy," did he finally make clear his message. From that time it began slowly to be evident that he had made his novels, after all, but the vehicles of an impassioned convic- tion. He, like so many earnest men of his century, had sought a way of sal- vation from skepticism, melancholy, ennui, and despair; and he had found a way. Other men had other remedies. For Newman the "one thing needful" was to submit to authority and enter the Roman fold. Carlyle thought the best that could be done for a man was to find him a master, and set him to work. For Mill the key to happiness was free logical discussion in the in- terests of humanity. For the men of science it was the following of truth wherever it leads. Arnold held that none of these things was of importance in comparison with the ability to recog- nize the grand style wherever one found it. To those who have read in- telligently Meredith's "Idea of Comedy" I do not think it will seem an anti- climax to say that he believed the one thing needful, synthesis of all needs, was to instruct men in the proper uses of the comic spirit that they might laugh and be laughed at unto their souls' salvation. For to him the comic spirit is a fine celestial sunlight in the mind, answering to the theological grace of God in the heart, which preserves those into whom it passes from a very evil thing. It is not hostile to prayer, nor to labor, nor to logic, nor to truth, nor to grandeur, but very friendly to them all. It keeps prayer sweet, labor cheerful, logic sane, truth serviceable, and grandeur human. But over every form of animalism, egotism, sentimen- talism, cowardice, and unreason, "it will look humanely malign, and cast an oblique light on them, followed by showers of silvery laughter." For, to quote from the ode to the same bene- ficent spirit, it is the Sword of Common Sense! Our surest gift: the sacred chain Of man to man. Once grasp that idea of comedy and you suddenly find yourself at the cen- tre of a coherent critical system. You open his works anywhere and you find yourself at home in an ordered world. You perceive why the younger genera- tion is turning toward him, and you see the relation in which he stood to his fellows in fiction fifty years ago The definitions by which in the essay the comic spirit is isolated furnish a com- plete critical arsenal. "The sense of the Comic is much blunted by habits of punning and of using humoristic phrase; the trick of employing John- sonian polysyllables to treat of the in- finitely little" — that does not by any means dispose of Dickens, but it casts an "oblique light" upon him. Much more penetrating is this: "Comedy just- ly treated . . . throws no infamous reflection upon life." How that judges the all too frequent passages in the novels of Thackeray like the following: "Oh, Mr. Pendennis! (although this re- mark does not apply to such a smart fel- low as you) if Nature had not made that provision for each sex in the credulity of the other, which sees good qualities where none exist, good looks in donkeys' ears, wit in their numskulls, and music in their bray, there would not have been near so much marrying and giving in marriage as now obtains, and is necessary for the due propagation of the noble race to which we belong." That principle is far reaching; it con-

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556 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 demns in a single breath the whole miasmic marsh-land of naturalism. "It is unwholesome for men and women to see themselves as they are, if they are no better than they should be" — there is the ethical, or, if one prefers, the sanitary, plank in the platform of the new idealism. "The same of an immor- al may be said of realistic exhibitions of a vulgar society" — there is the re- pudiation of wide wastes of the dryas- dust realistic fiction, a much-needed de- nial of the democratic notion that all subjects are fit for art. In some of the poems the Comic Spirit becomes almost truculent in its glee. It is clearly so in pitching upon any theatrical rebel against society; for example, in the verses called "Manfred": Projected from the bilious Childe, This clatterjaw his foot could set On Alps, without a breast beguiled To glow in shedding rascal sweat. Somewhere about his grinder teeth, He mouthed of thoughts that grilled be- neath, And summoned Nature to her feud With bile and buskin Attitude. Meredith arrived a little too late to play Childe Harold or Don Juan; but if he had not been protected by his guar- dian spirit, he might easily have taken a part in that more plaintive and dismal literature of despair represented by nu- merous poems of Matthew Arnold. In the crushed and crabbed verse of Mere- dith's jibe at Arnold's "Bmpedocles," I confess to finding something very tonic, something that Arnold as critic would have himself called tonic: He leaped. With none to hinder, Of ./Etna's fiery scoriae In the next vomit-shower, made he A more peculiar cinder. And this great Doctor, can it be, He left no saner recipe For men at issue with despair? Admiring, even his poet owns, While noting his fine lyric tones, The last of him was heels in air! Each life its critic deed reveals; And him reads Reason at his heels, If heels in air the last of him! VI. But what has comedy to do with tragedy, and how do they become tragi- comedy? Well, in the luminous intoxi- cation of the morning following the symposium, Socrates forced Agathon and Aristophanes, who alone had stayed it out with him till cock-crow, to con- fess not only that tragedy and comedy may be composed by the same person, but also that "the foundations of the tragic and comic arts were essentially the same." Aristodemus, who reported the conclusion of the dispute, was un- fortunately asleep during the discussion. With this, for that reason, unexplained opinion of Socrates, Meredith was ob- viously in accord. To his view, life is neither wholly comedy nor wholly trag- edy, but both at once. In order to dis- tinguish either element one must be able to distinguish both; the comic spir- it, one may almost say, is that which perceives the tragic fault. In order to represent life bravely and wisely, one must see it steadily, and see it whole. Such sight is given only to deep and grave heads. Those endowed with this vision discern that the great girders which bear up the world of man are the discipline of the passions by the mind, loyalty to reason, and faith in civiliza- tion. Whatever forces attempt to weak- en these girders — the cynicism of Don Juan, the despair of Empedocles — the Comic Spirit holds them, to adopt the Caesarian euphemism, in numero hos- tium — puts them to the sword of com- mon sense. The discernment that these great girders are essential to civiliza- tion, and the loyalty which in grave men springs with the discernment, un- derlie every true comedy and every true tragedy. But the struggle which most men undergo in disciplining their pas- sions, learning to walk in the light of reason, and preserving their faith in civilization, is a strange series of ups and downs. Comedy attends to their foolish falls; tragedy to their painful failures; to represent the whole course of the struggle is to write tragi-comedy. Tragi-comedy as the position of equi- poise in life and art— that, in Meredith's time, was a notable discovery. When we attempt to measure his achievement we should not lose sight of the originality, the scope, and the difficulty of his de- feign. He planned to produce thoughtful laughter, an aim which demanded that the characters in his novels, as well as in his audience, should possess some of the culture of the drawing-room. But he planned at the same time to move the great passions which are generally attenuated under intensive cultivation. Since the Restoration they had almost disappeared from the fiction of high life. Wordsworth had been obliged to seek out the great universal impulses in the cottages of Cumberland peasants. The Brontes studied them in mad country squires. George Eliot found them among the yeomen of Warwickshire. Even Thomas Hardy has had to resort to shepherds and dairy-maids — so fugi- tive is our sense of solemn splendor from the roar of cities and civilized men. But what pitiful antagonists of destiny these rural people of Mr. Hardy's make. The intelligence of mor- tals is wholly inactive in the combat. In condemning the ways of God to man this grim artist seems obsessed by the idea that all nature is conspiring to bring a helpless humanity to degra- dation and shame. That is hardly to see life whole. Meredith sought his splendor in another place. His problem was how to make tragedy and comedy meet together in the drawing-room. Com- edy was there to stay; but as for trag- edy, Thackeray, for example, avoided it. Dickens and his public really preferred murder. To his fellows in fiction Mere- dith owed very little. On his serious side nearest akin to George Eliot, he preceded her into the field. Carlyle and Browning and Wordsworth were all his natural allies, but his master was Shake- speare. From him he learned to choose out for the favorite theatre of his play a country-house, where, as in a court, were assembled enough actors of civil- ized life to be visible against the scen- ery. From him he learned to let poor clowns play humble parts, and if any one had to be sent out on a barren heath to send a king who even in madness was a match for the storm. From him he learned to line the back and sides of his stage with the gray and middle ages of wisdom, pedantry, sanctity, craft, and cynicism; and then to release in the foreground young Romeo and Juliet, or Perdita and Florizel, or Ferdinand and Miranda to discover the brave new world under a stinging rain of comment from prudent or disillusioned antiquity; and then, at last, whether to youth and beauty the vista of days opened smiling, or whether some dire mischance closed their fond eyes forever, to intimate that to youth belong the untrodden ways. VII. Meredith's life began and closed on that note. In an age when a general disintegration of ideas was taking place, he showed an extremely keen sense of what was permanent and what transi- tory. He woke early to the necessity and the possibility of a new organic synthesis. Though his creative power and craftsmanship were inferior to his critical faculty, they worked harmon- iously, and, therefore, effectively. Several of his contemporaries possessed separ- ately in a higher degree the intellectual or emotional powers with which he was gifted; but no one of them fused within himself so many and so diverse pow- ers. In "lose touch with distinguished utilitarian and positivist leaders, though he did not subscribe to all their phil- osophical and political doctrines he heartily partook in their sense of stern responsibility to society and in their resolution to make war without truce against the confederated lusts and ego- tisms of the unredeemed animal man. His sonnet to "J. M." is almost Miltonic in its note of militant resolution: Our faith is ours and comes not on a tide: And whether Earth's great offspring, by decree, Must rot if they abjure rapacity, Not argument but effort shall decide. They number many heads in that hard flock: Trim swordsmen they push forth; yet try thy steel. Thou, fighting for poor human kind, wilt feel The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew A chasm sheer into the barrier rock, And bring the army of the faithful through.

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June 3, 1909] I Few, indeed, are the writers of fi who have striven so steadily to 4 and conserve for posterity all the s* ideas afloat in their time. In these , lines from "A Reading of Earth" 1 touch upon the controlling principle all Meredith's work: Thou under stress of the strife, / Shalt hear for sustainment supreme, The cry of the conscience of life: Keep the young generations in hail„ And bequeath them no tumbled houk Stuart P. Sherm Drbana, 111. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The Merwin-Clayton Sales Compaq this city will hold sales four days week. On June 7 they will offer the li of William Grosvenor Allen of New J including books on magic and occult jects, a few items of Americana, etc' June 8, 9, and 10 they will sell the li,| of the late James A. Ferguson, D.I| Hanover, N. J. Books on natural his more especially botany, are num< Other headings in the catalogue are A Astrology, Indians, and New York. On June 8, the Anderson Auction | pany of this city will hold a sale coq ing among other items the first and early editions of Mrs. Eddy's "Scienct Health," a Greek and two Arabic n scripts, maps, and views of New * books on natural history, etc. 1 On June 7, 8, and 9, Stan. V. Hec . in Philadelphia will dispose of the lil.f of the late W. J. Gilbert of St. L Among important works on ornitholog be offered are Audubon's "Birds of Ai. ica," the first octavo edition (1840-44), the Lockwood reissue of the folio wit! plates only (1860); Baird, Cassin and rence's "Birds of North America" (1 Cassin's "Birds of California" (1 Gould's "Birds of Australia" (1837-38). Wilson and Bonaparte's "American thology." Michaux and Nuttall's "« American Sylva" (1871), Redoute's Roses" (1835), Sweet's "CistineaB" (182 and Humboldt and Bonpland's"Monog des Melastomacees" (1823) are imp< or unusual books on botany. A collj of illuminated manuscripts on vellum scribed in a supplemental catalogue taining several reproductions. On June 10 and 11, C. F. Libbie & Boston will sell the remaining port the private library of the late Charf Guild of West Newton, Mass. The '• portion of this library, one of the mo; portant collections of American loca tory ever brought together, was sc 1887. American magazines, about sixt of genealogies, a series of the annu ports of the Geological Survey, and titles of minor Americana make up th'.j of four sessions. 1 On June 9 and 10, Sotheby, Wilkins. Hodge of London will offer a collectio autograph letters and historical docum. including specimens by Burns, Keats autograph sonnet), Lord Bryon, Sir Wa Scott, Dr. Johnson, David Garrick, Volta Jonathan Swift, and others; a series of ! ters from Lord Nelson and Lady Hamili to William Haslewood; and collections

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s [Vol. 88, No. 2292 lity man above God. This posit pre- completely in the present time, plac- science above philosophy, morality i religion; in art producing realism; cience the tendency to identify matter spirit, and to make science itself rather sscopic than telescopic. It all comes the primal inversion in the reason, ighest faculty in man, which is the ause of his whole development. "As thinketh, so is he." And Pragma- 's the climax. do not seem to have improved upon andpoint of Plato, who made ideas the y and phenomena only their image in r, and shadows on a lower plane ; and nade philosophy the highest revelation i highest faculty in man. A Subscriber. bridge, Mass., May 12. \HE WILD GEESE FLY THAT WAY." ije Editor op The Nation: : Although I made a pretty thorough of English birds on English ground years ago, yet my observations did >ver winter weather, and so failed to light on a remark of the wise Fool ear"; "Winter's not gone yet, if the geese fly that way." _ilf-suspected this might be one more ace of Shakespeare's inaccuracy in %\ history. A recent article in the tn Times confirms, however, the in- -tation I made some years ago; name- 'ftie Boston Transcript, March 25, 1903. commentators have not explained the al history of this sentence in "Lear," nigh in England even a reader of speare might not at once remember fact that explains it; namely, that in e winter weather 'a sudden drop in the erature to the north and east will at S'J, up southward winter migrations 3inds of birds, similar to the familiar ? migration. The Fool refers to one >*e winter migrations, showing the nee of severe weather to the north. 1 /ica, we are familiar only with a autumn migration south and a main migration north. But the Fool in. ' in his metaphor points to the fact iLjtead of the birds flying north in it is still so cold that they are ' i south in one of the familiar south- jnnter migrations. I -pdon Times, in the article to j ^ave alluded, speaks of "the winter ^vhich stream across the sky in win- nds from the north," and remarks ■?Vven in the mildest seasons there Vnter immigration into Britain which bably on as large a scale as the more ir movement in spring." And again: e within the last three years the nor- inter movements of the birds which our islands at this season have been iittbu "uy& sudden burst of cold wea- "■\t Christmas time into a vast and .lfaneous migration to the warm south- [into Cornwall, especially]." In his esting article on the subject the Times uy specifies starlings, jackdaws, wood- ;ons, fieldfares, thrushes, plover, etc., as ,Ler migrants. In Shakespeare's day (as ract now), wild geese were and are such 'rants and the clamorous wedgy cara- is of these birds were probably as con- cuous against their skies as they are

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June 3, 1909] The Nation. 559 (or were) against ours in eastern Ani?rica. I say "were," but perhaps should not have done so; for I recently heard the Massa- chusetts State ornithologist assert publicly that the wild geese on the New England coast were holding their own against the pot-hunters, although other game birds are not. Wm. Sloane Kennedy. Belmont, Mass., May 18. THE BIBLE AS LITERARY MODEL. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Most of the recent discussion of the Bible as a "literary model" seems to me to have been not only at "cross pur- poses" (as suggested in a letter to the Nation of May 20), but wholly beside the point. I did not fancy till I read some of the opinions expressed that any one ser- iously supposed that the Bible should be used as a model for literal imitation in composition classes — any more than Chau- cer, Spenser, or Browning; and I do not believe that the conference, in selecting it, had any intention that it should be so used. Surely the list of books "for reading" is designed to serve, not as models for com- position, but as a reasonable list of works by great authors with whom every boy should be generally familiar. It may Jinci- dentally — it must in part — serve the further purpose of inspiration and example in com- position; but certainly few of the boolte on the list — the Bible perhaps least of all — have been put there as models for imita- tion. Indeed, it seems absurd that any. one could, without humorous intent, nave brought forward such a proposition. The omission of the Bible because it is unfitted for classroom use as a "specimen" wluld imply the omission, as well, of at least fifty per cent, of the books on the list. For who ever taught his classes to write Chaucenian English? Did those grave teachers who now question the value of the innovation— did they aforetime drill their pupils to write after the manner of Shakespeare?— 0: of Carlyle? The Bible, like the rest of the books, was put on the list "for reading." IS we can teach our boys to love good boc ks — or at least to understand a few of tl em; and if we at the same time spare ni in- sistence on the true if trite essentials of composition, we may then haply discover in their writings reminiscence of the Bible and of Shakespeare. It is to little punpose that they should lug in pompous quota- tions at every turn, but it is to infinite purpose that they should make the raader feel that they could quote an if they would. In other words, there must be no false faces; if a boy is to write Biblical English, it must first have "gone," as the Germans say, "over into his flesh and blood." That this assimilation results only from intelli- gent, sympathetic reading no one ques- tions. It seems, therefore, delightfully, in- controvertible that a book which has oeen for three centuries the informing power of the best English style, and which kas exercised that power by being read and re-read, should still be read. It is really another question, and one which concerns Individuals, whether one teacher should force his pupils to imitate Biblical style or whether another may hope that his pupils, by learning to know and love thje book, will miraculously absorb some spiri't of it into their compositions. Such Imita- tion has been and such miracles have been; but, whether or not, they do not essentially affect the value of the Bible as a book on a list "for reading." Walter S. Hinchman. Groton, Mass., May 21. THE ORIGINAL MARATHON RUNNER. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : The story to which your correspond- ent W. C. L. refers, containing the epi- graph— xai'p fiKoiixev— of Browning's 'Phei- dippides," dates from the second cen- tury a. d.— at least 600 years, there- fore, after the battle of Marathon. It occurs in Lucian's "Slip of the Tongue in Salutation" ("Pro Lapsu inter Salutan- dum"). Lucian is not ignorant of the Ho- meric use of the word Rejoice in saluta- tion. Indeed, he quotes Iliad ix, 225, and expressly says, "Joy is a very ancient greeting," so that his later statement seems somewhat at variance with this. He tells the story thus, in the translation by H. W. Fowler: The modern use of the word dates back to Philippides, the dispatch-runner. Bringing the news of Marathon, he found the archons seated, in suspense regarding the issue of the battle. "Joy, we win!" he said, and died upon b\is message, breathing his last in the word Joy. It will be observed that the name of the runner is here Philippides, not Pheidip- pides, and indeed the former is the usual spelling — only Herodotus, I believe, and he not quite certainly, being authority for the form Pheidippides. Albert S. Cook. Yale University, May 27. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The query in the Nation of May 27 has doubtless been raised by many, and the story has been absolutely denied in some newspapers. It is, indeed, not given by Herodotus, but by Plutarch ("De Gloria Atheniensium," 3), who says that "most authorities" give the name of the runner as Eucles, but that Heracleides Pontus calls him Thersippus. The Pheidippides story is, of course, a different one. Plutarch says that this Eucles ran "in full armor" (which might exhaust even a present-day athlete) from Marathon to Athens, and breathed forth his life with the words xalP£Te Ka' xa^P°^ev — "Fare well (or "Greeting") we are faring well" — a phrase not easily translated, owing to the double meaning. F. G. Allinson. Brown University, May 27. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: On reading the letter of'W. C. L. in respect to the legend of the Athenian soldier who ran home from Marathon and died as he announced the victory, I turned to the pages of that Rollin whose ancient histories were among the delights of my boyhood sixty years ago, and found in nis Book VI, chapter 1, section 7, iii, the story credited in his note to "Plut. de glor. Athen. p. 347." The Greek exclamation there given is, xa'PeTe! xa-t-po/xtv. I have not a com- plete Plutarch at hand, but it will not be difficult for W. C. L. to ascertain whether the citation of Rollin is correct or not. Theron Wilber Haight. Waukesha, Wis., May 28. THE EMPHATIC SO. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the last nation you printed a timely warning from a correspondent in Rome against the "pleonastic so." It is re- assuring to find that even the monuments and pleasures of the Eternal City cannot suffice to divert a well-regulated mind from the niceties of syntax and etymology. But your correspondent seems to have forgotten that "so" can also be used with perfect pro- priety for emphasis. It is so easy to have one's impression of the Colosseum spoiled by a misplaced comma! X. Cambridge, Mass., May 30. Notes. J. A. Hammerton has written a volume on "George Meredith in Anecdote and Criticism," which will be published this month by Grant Richards of London. B. W. Dodge & Co. announce a transla- tion of the complete works of 6mile Zola. Some of his novels will here appear for the first time in English, not to mention his critical and dramatic work which has been little read in this country. Each volume will contain a preface by some critic of note. About twenty-five volumes of the fiction will be issued first. It is a fact worth noting that since its publication in 1898 more than one million one hundred thousand copies have been sold of "David Harum." Marcel Prevost has been elected a mem- ber of the French Academy in succession to the late Victorien Sardou. Prevost first at- tracted attention by his "Lettres de femmes" in 1892. In other books he dealt with the education and life of young girls. The Academie Franchise has awarded a number of its annual prizes. The Prix de Poesie, on the subject "Le Drapeau," went to three writers, of whom Maurice Couallier received 2,000 francs. The Prix Francois Coppee (1,000 francs) was awarded to Gus- tave Zidler for his "Terre divine." The Prix Santour (3,000 francs) was divided among Theodore Rosset, M. Verier, and M. Onillon. The Prix Langlois went to Pro- fessor Legouis and Georges Duval for translations from the English. The Prix Arehon-Desperouses, for the encouragement of young poets, was bestowed upon Abel Bonnard, Jean Balde, and Mile. Jeanne Nels. A modest little volume which, in the rush of books, may easily be overlooked is "Thvi Two Travellers," by Oarlota Mon- tenegro (Boston: Poet Lore Co.). It is composed of slight sketches, fables, para- bles, motifs, if one may borrow the word of the lace-makers— highly elaborated little moments of human existence, either possi- bly real or purely fabled, which throw light upon one and another of the deeper recesses of the deceitful human heart. This is a form of writing which usually de- generates into the commonplace and the obscure, but in this case there is revealed no slight degree of true poetic insight. The book is one of distinct promise. A Philadelphia imprint upon a Frenc'a book is enough of a rarity to draw attention to "L'fivolution de l'arbitrage internation-

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560 The Nation ■ [Vol. 88, No. 2292 al," by Thomas W. Balch (Allen, Lane et Scott). This Is a reprint of an article con- tributed by the author last year to the Revue de Droit International. One notes •with some surprise, lack ot reference to Prof J. B. Moore's monumental work on the history of arbitration. An echo of the report of the Poor Law Oommission, for which the English govern- ment could not wait before proceeding with its scheme for old-age pensions, comes in the shape of two volumes by way of Mi- nority Report. They are edited by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Longmans, Green, & Co.), and are entitled, respectively, "The Break-up of the Poor Law" and "The Pub- lic Organization of the Labor Market." The evidence is, of course, the same as that embodied in the report of the majority, but it is marshalled differently, and the in- ferences drawn are different. Both sta- tistics and their interpretation are of great value to all who would know how complex are the problems of poverty in an industrial age, and how still more complex is the ques- tion of attempting to relieve it by state action. Prof. Harold C. Goddard of Northwestern University has issued a reprint of his ar- ticle on "Chaucer's Legend of Good Wo- men," which first appeared in the October and January numbers of the Journal of English and German Philology (Urbana, 111.). His main thesis is that Chaucer's poem was intended as a humorous satire on women, and that accordingly none of the tales it contains really illustrates properly the devotion of woman or her martyrdom for love. In our judgment, the author fails to establish his point. Whatever may be said of some of the heroines in other respects, Cleopatra is the only one who •does not fit well into a group of martyrs for love, and there is something to be said on the other side even in her case. It is to be remembered, too, that these were the heroines of the most famous love-stories in the world; it was natural that Chaucer should have been tempted to choose them, even if they had suited his purpose less perfectly than they do. It is not fair to select the occasional humorous lines which one is sure to find in Chaucer, whatever the subject treated, and base a theory on them to which everything else is forced to conform. Even the fact that Chaucer drop- ped his plan after having completed the lives of only ten of these exemplar^ of constancy seems to Professor Goddard intended as a "delicious" joke on women — no more were to be found! A first-rate illustration, we should say, of driving a theory to death. The most interesting part, however, of Professor Goddard's article is his discus- sion of the much-vexed question as to the priority of the two versions of the Pro- logue to the "Legend of Good Women." He is right, we believe, in concluding that the A version was the earlier. We agree with him entirely, when he says: "Excel- lent, when taken by itself, as the A Pro- logue indubitably seems, the B Prologue is so immeasurably superior that the A ver- sion in comparison looks like the mere crude sketch of a prentice hand"; and again, when he says: "It is precisely in its structural qualities, in compactness and unity, that the B version is strikingly su- perior to A." There is, indeed, a radiance and energy about the B version that is absent from the other, and that is due even more to its structural superiority than to the superiority of phrasing which is also manifest at every point. At the same time, we are unable to concur with Professor Goddard in the explanations which he of- fers of the most important changes in the B version. For instance, it seems a counsel of despair when he interprets the substitution of "My lady cometh" for "Al- ceste is here" in the refrain of the ballad, as a joke played by the poet on Cupid to confuse the latter over the identity of Al- ceste and "My Lady." It is much more likely that Cupid, being not very particu- lar, as the whole passage shows, as to the accusations which he rakes up against the poet, wilfully misunderstands the identity of "My lady." On any other theory, the difficulties of the ballad passage seem to us equally great, whether we take A or B as the earlier version. The astonishing thing is that Chaucer should at any time have left in his work such a flagrant in- consistency as this otherwise fine B ver- sion appears to offer. It may be said that he first committed the blunder and then corrected it in A, but he is just as likely to have introduced this contradiction while transferring the ballad from the attendants of Alceste (in A) to himself (in B) for the sake of certain advantages, viz., that it suits better in the mouth of a man than of women and strengthens, moreover, Chau- cer's self-exculpation, while the change in the refrain permits a dramatic suspense before the disclosure of Alceste's identity. As regards the long "book-passage" In A, 11. 254 ff., which is condensed to a few lines in B, Chaucer may well have thought that this minute enumeration of the misfor- tunes suffered by faithful women weakened the dramatic situation, owing to the delay which it causes, and was superfluous, be- sides, inasmuch as the -stories themselves sufficiently illustrated this variety of mis- fortune. We do not ourselves share Pro- fessor Lowes's views as to the priority of B, but in any detailed discussion of the problem of the Prologue, the argu- ments which he has advanced from the relations of the two versions, respec- tively, to the Old French Marguerite poems require a closer refutation than Professor Goddard has attempted. "The Revelation to the Monk of Evesham Abbey in the year of our Lord, 1196, con- cerning the places of Purgatory and Para- dise," rendered into Modern English by Valerian Paget (The John McBride Co.), places more easily than heretofore within the reach of the general reader this well- known specimen of the vast vision litera- ture of the middle ages, the chief Im- portance of which to the modern world is that out of such soil sprang the "Divine Comedy" of Dante. Mr. Paget's rendering, based on Prof. Arber's reprint of the fif- teenth century English version of the vision, reads smoothly and will doubtless satisfy the public to which it is addressed, but the preface shows a woful ignorance of mediaeval literature and even of the history of the book itself. There is no indication that the work was originally written in Latin or that its author has been identified — practically with certainty — with Adam, Abbot of Eynsham, 1213-1228. It may be true tHat the "original MSS.," if thereby is meant the author's autograph, is "no longer extant," but mention should have been made of the fact that at least seven MSS. of the Latin original are in existence, and that this original, having been in- serted besides, in somewhat abbreviated form, in various mediaeval chronicles (Roger of Wendover, etc.), is accessi- ble in more than one volume of the Rolls Series. It is not even correct to speak of the copy of the early print by William de Machlinia in the British Mu- seum (which Professor Arber reprinted) as unique. In his "Westminster and London Printers" (1906) E. G. Duff mentions an- other. Most remarkably of all, however, Mr. Paget reminds the reader that this vision belongs to the same period as "the Morality Play, such as 'Everyman' " — which, of course, is a work of the early sixteenth century — presumably because William de Machlinia printed the English version about the year, 1482. Dr. F. W. Groves Campbell's "Apollonius of Tyana" (New York: Mitchell Kennerley) is a Pateresque appreciation of the first- century sage and mystic revealed to us in the third-century biographical romance of Philostratus. Judged as such it must be pronounced successful in spite of a few exuberances of rhetoric. Avoiding all re- ligious and philological controversy, and omitting the cruder supernaturalisms of his original, Dr. Campbell reproduces skil- fully the impression which Philostratus's narrative might make upon a somewhat consciously sympathetic student of "va- rieties of religious experience." His pur- pose, as we learn from Ernest Oldmeadow's introduction, is to whet the reader's appe- tite for more, and so create a demand for a complete version of the "Life," the only one now extant in English being that pub- lished one hundred years ago by Edward Berwick. The breezy Introduction pre- sents a readable resume of the literature of the subject from Bishop Eusebius to Baur, Zeller, Newman, and Froude. Mr. Oldmeadow seems to have overlooked that curiosity of literature, Treadwell's "Apol- lonius of Tyana," the most entertaining collection of misprints and quiproquos that America has yet produced. Van Manen used to complain that no se- rious efforts had been made to defend the Pauline authorship of Romans. Dr. Robert Scott of Bombay ("The Pauline Epistles," imported by Charles Scribner's Sons) pays no attention to this complaint, but quietly assumes the Pauline authorship of the greater part of the four major epistles and of Philippians. This assumed, he proceeds on the evidence of language and ideas to assign the remaining letters canonically accepted as Pauline to Silas, Timothy, and Luke. Without going into the details of the assignment, we note that he makes Si- las the author of Romans xi, xiii, and xv, Timothy of Romans xiv, and Luke of Ro- mans xvi, 25-27, and of the Pastorals. Dr. Scott is not of those who frankly hold that of two hypotheses in the field of New Tes- tament criticism the more far-fetched is the truer, nor does he write to the end that he may be quoted by his successors as the setter forth of strange opinions. On the contrary, he writes with insight and ability, and he desires to be taken seriously. But -

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June 3, I909] The ]STation. 561 In order that his results may be taken se- riously, it would seem imperative that he should state with distinctness the canons of criticism In accordance with which he accepts as Pauline so much as he does. The second volume of "The New Schaff- Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowl- edge," edited by Dr. Samuel Macauley Jaclr- son, assisted by Charles Colebrook Sher- man and George William Gilmore (Funk & Wagnalls Co.), includes some 1,100 topics between the titles "Basilica" and "Cham- bers." Noteworthy articles are "Baby- Ionia," by Mr. Gilmore, the editor, who fur- nishes the bibliographies, which are excep- tionally complete and valuable; "Bible Texts," a long, careful discussion, the New Testament portion of which is unsigned; "Bible Versions," largely by Prof. Christof Nestle of Wiirtemberg; "Canon of Scrip- ture," by Prof. Theodore Zahn; "Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland," a clear, succinct presentation of an obscure topic by Dr. Heinrich Zimmer of Berlin; and an able archaeological study, "Cemeteries," by Prof. Friedberg of Leipzig. In church history and ecclesiastical biography the excellence of Hauck's "Realencyklopadie," on which the work is founded, is maintained. The articles on modern and living theologians, both scholars and preachers, will be found useful. Not so high praise can be accorded to the treatment of biblical and doctrinal subjects. The encyclopaedia is frankly Protestant, but the endeavor is made to remain non-partisan between the various churches of Protestantism, and between dif- ferent schools of Protestant thought. This is as it should be, since a work of refer- ence is for information, not for argument or for prophecy. One may protest, there- fore, at the statement of Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield in his article on "Calvinism," that "it may be contended that the future as the past of Christianity itself is bound up with the fortunes of Calvinism." The religious ideas of Philo, especially in relation to Christianity, form the subject of the scholarly investigation of Hans Windisch, in "Die Frommigkeit Philos und Ihre Bedeutung fur das Christentum; Eine religionsgeschichtliche Studie" (Leipzig: Hinrichs). Students of Balkan affairs who do not read Italian, but would like a fresh glimpse at the valleys, mountains, and plains of Croatia, Herzegovina, and the neighboring countries, will find good reading in Gino Bertolini's account of an automobile and foot trip, translated by M. Rumbauer, in "Balkan-Bilder: Eine Studien-Reise durch den Hexenkessel von Europa" (Leipzig: Theodor Weicher), a handy volume with some seventy-five engravings from photo- graphs, and a couple of mans. Jacob Solomon, a lawyer and editor, died in New York, May 26, at the age of seventy- one. Twenty-seven years ago he founded the Hebrew Standard, of which he was edi- tor up to the time of his death. He was active in Masonic circles, having been past grand senior deacon of the Grand Lodge, and he founded the True Craftsman's Lodge in 1867. The death is announced at St. Andrew's of H. C. S. Everard, a golfer and writer on golf. He was the author of "The Theory and Practice of Golf" and a "History of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club." From Honolulu comes the report of the death of Starr Hoyt Nichols, at the age of seventy-four. After graduating from Yale in 1854 he entered the ministry, but changed' to the brokerage business in New York, and in later years devoted himself to lit- erature. He wrote "Monte Rosa, the Epic of an Alp" and "The Breath of the World." From Zurich comes the report of the death of Hans Nydegger, the author of a number of stories, chiefly in the Swiss dia- lect. Hermann Osthoff, professor of Indo-Ger- manic philology and Sanskrit at the Uni- versity of Heidelberg, has died at the age of sixty-two. He published a number of books, among which may be named: "Zur Geschichte des Perfects im Indogerman- ischen," "Die neueste Sprachforschung und die Erklarung des indogermanischen Ab- lautes," "Morphologische Untersuchungen," and 'Etymologische Parerga." AN ENGLISH STATESMAN. George Canning and His Friends. Con- taining hitherto unpublished letters, jeux d'esprit, etc. Edited by Capt. Josceline Bagot. 2 vols. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $9 net. No adequate biography of Canning has yet been written. Stapleton's imemoir appeared within three years after his death — too soon. There have been other studies of this statesman, many appreciations of him, but the full and final survey of the man remains to be taken. The editor of these volumes does not pretend to take it. What he gives us is confessedly letters pour servir. He has had the first ac- cess to a mass of Canning's private cor- respondence, to which he has added some letters already published; and these, together with many letters to and from Canning's friends — Sneyd, Hook- ham Frere, Charles Ellis, Bagot, and others — all edited with minute and pious pains, make up the bill of fare. It contains many toothsome morsels. There is here no connected account of Canning's career, much less of the stormy political movements of his day, but the running comment of this corre- spondence, most of it undress, and some of it highly confidential, is as amusing to the general reader as it is instructive to the historical student. From the earliest pages we find the youthful Can- ning revealing the chief qualities which marked his maturity. His wit, his im- petuosity, his talent for making friends and, more Hibernico, his greater talent for making enemies, were as conspicu- ous in the Canning of 1790 as in the Canning of 1827. "Of all the public men," wrote Lyttleton of him in 1816, "that have appeared in our time, there is assuredly not one that ever had so many bitter enemies, public and pri- vate." This was partly the sundering nature of the politics of the day. What rent Fox and Burke apart, could not spare lesser men. Party differences were of a violence rarely seen since; and Canning was a strong partisan, long on the unpopular side. He fought his public battles, too, with Celtic ve- hemence, sparing no opponent when he had a chance to strike home. When Castlereagh challenged him to a duel, in a long letter of which the sting lay in the tail, Canning merely glanced at the peremptory summons, and ex- claimed with an oath: "I had rather fight than read it." At the encounter, he got a bullet in the thigh, but a few days later a friend wrote that he "al- ready jokes upon his wound." Such a combination of virulence and high spirits is nicely fitted to make a public man hated as well as loved. And to it all Canning added the fatal gift of ready wit, with a turn for epigram and an unsilenceable tongue. His flippancy often had a stiletto hidden in it. And as political prudence was unable to re- strain him, so good taste did not always ride him on the curb — witness his- phrase about "the revered and rup- tured Ogden," which was as execrable on private as on public grounds. But telle est la nature des Irlandais. The revulsion which the French Revo- lution provoked in Canning was like that it caused in Burke; but the literary effects were very different in the two men. Burke was driven into his tre- mendous invective, gloomy and almost frantic, though surcharged with elo- quence and a kind of inspired philoso- phy of politics. But the other Irishman, Canning, undertook to raise a laugh at the expense of the demi-gods of France and their English admirers. This was something well-nigh unparalleled in the history of political satire. As a rule, it is the conservatives, the big-wigs, the beati possidentes, who are held up te ridicule. But Canning and his co-jest- ers of the Anti-Jacobin set out to make a joke of the radicals, to lampoon the heroes of the rights of man, to pour sar- casm upon the sacred heads of the cham- pions of the people. The thing was done with infinite zest, with great learn- ing and inventiveness, and with wonder- fully sustained freshness and point; so that one can easily believe the effect of it all to have been considerable. Besides being a nearly unique literary phenom- enon, the Anti-Jacobin was a political power, and played its part in the reac- tion which swung England from Whig to Tory, broke the heart of Fox, and made the rule of Pitt practically abso- lute. To the political fortunes of the lat- ter, Canning tied himself up; and it was as inheritor and continuer of the Pitt tradition in international affairs that he scored his first great success as For- eign Minister — the seizure of the Dan- ish fleet. There was no clear justifica- tion for this in the law of nations, but it blocked the plans of Napoleon and filled him with furious rage, and what

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562 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 more would you have? The expedition to the Low Countries which Canning counted upon to give him equal fame, turned out badly; but he gave due sup- port to Wellington in Portugal and Spain, at a time when few Englishmen had the prescience to see what a stab in the back Napoleon was to get from that quarter. On all these great events, this correspondence throws little new light. The private and official letters of the Foreign Minister were too intent on the thing in hand to have time to explain the large bearings or the political phil- osophy of all. Throughout, one gets an impression that Canning was terribly driven by the public business — as, in- deed, he was — with little margin left for the old practical jokes and overflow of fancy. One of his oldest friends and most faithful correspondents, was Sir Charles Bagot, the first British Minis- ter to be in Washington, after the war of 1812, and later representing England in St. Petersburg and at The Hague. To him, Canning the Foreign Minister maintained a tone of friendly affection, even in official communications, though when once the Minister disregarded the instructions of his chief, he got a rebuke as stern as if no personal ties bound the two men. Yet the communication from the Foreign Office was promptly follow- ed by a private letter, in which Canning wrote to Bagot: I was sorry to have to snub or snouch you, in your old age (the old age of your embassy), for disobedience of your in- structions; but that disobedience . . . might have done a world of mischief. The old Tory peer who, when Adding- ton was Prime Minister, congratulated himself on the fact that "at last they had got a Government without any of those d d men of genius," must have had a hard time of it when Canning was summoned to form a Ministry. The genius for eloquent and daring speech, as for large political combinations, was his; and it would not let the somno- lent in England take their rest. Yet time has vindicated his most cherished policies. His resolute shunning of the Holy Alliance, and of European Con- gresses, bent on bringing the revolted Spanish colonies to heel, undoubtedly had the effect of calling into being a New World to redress the balance of the Old; and Canning's paternity of the Monroe Doctrine has further confirma- tory proof in his letters of the time. On January 9, 1824, he wrote to Bagot of the President's "speech" (i. e., message) that it was in agreement with his own dispatch of the March previous, though there were "important differences." One of them was Monroe's reference to the prohibiting of "further colonizations on the Continents of America." This was "as new to this Government as to that of France." However, Rush, the Amer- ican Minister, assured him that his im- pression was that this part of the Mon- roe Doctrine was "principally, if not specially, directed against the no less extravagant doctrine of the Russian Ukase of 1821. Where one Power pro- claims as a Mare Clausum an ocean of 4,000 miles across, the other may have thought it a fair set-off to prohibit col- onization over the whole coasts of the Continent, with a view to which the Mare Clausum was attempted to be established." Canning's most famous foreign dis- patch is his rhyming one to Bagot: "In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch." It has as long been misprinted as misunderstood. One historian speaks of Canning as "incorrigible," for ven- turing to bewilder his agent abroad in a time of "acute crisis." Another condemns, by implication, the Minister's readiness "to introduce a piece of drol- lery into the most serious affairs." But from the full correspondence, now first published — it appears that the serious affairs were attended to seriously. A formal and grave dispatch was sent to Bagot. Then, having got that off his mind, it occurred to Canning's playful wit to get a rise out of his friend at The Hague. So his rhymes were put into cipher and sent along, care being taken to use a cipher not in possession of Bagot. He at once applied for it, only to find that Canning had, for his puzzle- ment, sent him the same instructions in humorous verse that he had given in sober prose. In the formal dispatch the order was to impose "an additional duty of 20 per cent, upon Netherlands ves- sels and merchandise." This became, in the doubly ciphered rhyme: "So we clap on Dutch bottoms just 20 per cent." When the truth finally got into Bagot's head, he wrote back: ' You have fretted me to fiddlestrings, and I have a great mind not to give you the satisfaction of ever knowing how com- pletely your mystification of me has suc- ceeded. ... I could have slain you! But I got some fun myself, for I afterwards put the fair de-cipher into Douglas's hands, who read it twice without moving a muscle, or to this hour discovering that it was not p"rose, and returned it to me declaring that it was "oddly worded," but he had always had a feeling that the dispatch must relate to discriminating duties. CURRENT FICTION. The Hand-Made Gentleman. By Irving Bacheller. New York: Harper & Bros. This story has something approaching the free panoramic effect of "Huckle- berry Finn." In the earlier chapters, at least, with their boyish adventure, the resemblance is striking. "Cricket's" flight from home under a cloud, and his first experiences thereafter, remind one strongly of the genial Finn and his ex- ploits. Cricket's feat of crossing Niag- ara on the back of a wire-stepper fairly out-Hucks the earlier adventurer. But from that point the story loses its re- freshing casualness, and proceeds by steady march toward a perceptible end which is not unlike the end of other novels. This is perhaps only to say that Mr. Bacheller is more of a novelist than Mr. Clemens. His humor is as gen- uine, though with a leaning toward sen- timent, and the flavor of his people and his scenes is as truly of the soil as Mr. Clemens's or Mr. De Morgan's. It is delightful to find an American novelist now and then who can picture American types without self-consciousness ; as if to say that the Lord might have actually made them to be regarded as finished beings, and not merely as tentative studies which we admit do not quite succeed in being this, or which we as- sure you do succeed in being that. The "hand-made gentleman" himself is, to be sure, highly self-conscious: a wooden-legged peddler bent upon mak- ing himself a gentleman and a million- aire. It is not the desire of the moth for the star, the hopeless struggle of the peasant to become the prince; for with us there is no such forlorn hope. The peddler succeeds. He is, however, rather the least interesting person in the story. Nor are the counterfeit presentments of old Vanderbilt and Mr. Carnegie, excit- ing as it is to meet "real people" in fic- tion, the best that Mr. Bacheller has to offer. Into their company, no doubt, the hand-made gentleman's "Sal" (a "Tono- Bungay" of housewifery) brings us not too obviously by the ears. But the com- mercial anecdotes related in connection with the celebrities, are good newspaper or magazine material, nothing more. The person of whom we do not hear enough, the real hero of the story in no canting sense, is "Pearl." The pres- ence of this gentle, philosophical, unap- plauded figure in the background offers its unspoken ironical commentary on what would otherwise seem to be the too-familiar moral of the book. Old Pearl is far greater in heart and soul than the hand-made gentleman, infinite- ly greater in mind. But he is just a failure: he just does not win the wo- man he loves, his important inventions are just anticipated by others. He be- comes a protege of the hand-made gen- tleman, and takes his wage without bit- terness; a noble figure drawn without a stroke of false sentiment. The House with No Address. By E. Nesbit. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. The author of "The Incomplete Amor- ist" and "The Wouldbegoods" does not know how to be dull, and presumably would make little use of her knowledge if she did. The present story is of a rather nondescript sort — a cross of ro- mantic idyl and tale of horror. The be- ginning is idyllic, and the transition to the gruesome pretty violent. A lovely and lonely English girl of a not uncom- -k

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June 3, 1909] The IsTation. 563 mon type becomes almost the prey of a designing fiddler. In due time she meets the man she can really love. The villain tries to make profit out of the situation; but on the eve of the mar- riage of the lovers it transpires that the villain has been murdered, and the girl twice (the second time knowingly) makes use of the dead man's head in her Salome dance in a London music hall. If by this time the whole affair did not strike one as artificial, a mere experiment in the vein macabre, the episode would be intolerable. To con- found our confusion, the lover, who has hitherto seemed a decent chap, turns poltroon, and another has to be trumped up at short notice to fill out the heroic bill. In the succession of events no in- genuity is spared to put everybody at cross-purposes with everybody else, and in the end the girl gets the right man. A sufficiently lively essay, it will be seen, in the latest style of the blood- and-thunder romance. The author af- fects a familiar and rather facetious manner, and does not hesitate to let drive an apothegm now and then on her own account — most characteristic, perhaps, being the repeated assurance that "life is a rum thing." The proofs of this book have been very carelessly read. "This My Son" (Les Noellets) By Rene Bazin. Translated by Dr. A. S. Rap- poport. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. This is a sombre rather than tragic tale of French peasant life. The trans- lation reflects the simplicity and charm of the French original — a flavor rarely so well caught by an alien hand. The Noellets are a family of small proprie- tors, farmers in their own right, who have for generations toiled and planned in the Vendee. The father of the pres- ent Noellet has at last found it possible to invest their accumulated savings in the purchase of a farm which the im- poverishment of a noble family has placed in the market. The present Noel- let represents a culmination of the pow- ers and ambitions of the race: a sturdy and tireless son of the soil, to whom a good harvest, a good appetite, and a steady surplus at the end of the year are the supreme benefits to be offered by life. To him are born two sons, the elder his physical counterpart, without love for the soil, but with strong intel- lectual and social ambitions. The young- er inherits the ancestral character, but a comparatively feeble physique. In order to escape from farm life and win the education he covets, the elder pre- tends a wish to become a priest. When at the end of five years he tells his parents that he cannot enter the church, they are heart-broken, and in the end he is cast off by the father, who resents implacably the double treachery to him- self and to the soil. This is but the beginning of the havoc wrought by the son's egotism. Study has so injured his eyes as to release him from military service, and his brother, in most re- spects his physical inferior, qualifies in his place, to be quickly broken down by the routine of the barracks. The elder son's ambition results only in his becom- ing a minor Parisian journalist, and his hope of marriage above his class is rudely frustrated. His death at the door of the country girl who has hopelessly but faithfully loved him rids society of a useless mongrel. It is plainly a story with a moral — the moral of fidelity to ancestry and to class; but it has none of the tediousness of the sugar-coated tract, nor has it the melodramatic ob- viousness which is perhaps suggested by a bald rehearsal of its incidents. John Silence. By Algernon Blackwood. Boston: John W. Luce & Co. It is not strange that these weird tales of a "Psychic Doctor" should issue from that hotbed of the occult, Boston. They are a fine growth, if somewhat forced at times. They include stories of witchcraft, devil-worship, and the origin and end of a werewolf; distinctly the most impressive of the volume, however, is "The Nemesis of Fire," which has a touch of that peculiarly gruesome and haunting quality that made "The Turn of the Screw" a thing to shudder at in broad daylight. A mummy which had been placed at the time of its entomb- ment under the protection of a Fire-Ele- mental, is stolen from its tomb and buried in the grounds of an English country-house, after being despoiled of its sacred scarabaeus to make a brooch for the sister of the man who originally disturbed its rest. The revenge of the unseen custodian upon the desecrators of the ancient dead, culminating in the sister's return of the stolen treasure, too late to save herself from the fiery doom, is a story not easily forgotten. John Silence is a sort of spiritual Sherlock Holmes, a novel contribution to the gallery of autocratic specialists in vari- ous lines who tower in the pages of modern fiction. Truly there are giants on the bookstalls in these days; it may be human nature's defiance of the in- creasing stress laid upon the assertion that all men are created equal. The Shores of the Adriatic: The Aus- trian Side; the Kiistenlande, Istria, and Dalmatia. By F. Hamilton Jack- son. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $6 net. Dalmatia, the southernmost crown- land of Cisleithan Austria, is beginning to unfold its charms to increasing num- bers of tourists. In 1875 Freeman could still write: Given such weather as suits fair-weather sailors, there can hardly be any enjoy- ment more thoroughly unmixed than a sail along the coasts of Dalmatia. First of all, there is a freshness about everything. Here is a portion of land which is thor- oughly unhackneyed; the coasts, the islands, the channels of Dalmatia are as yet unin- vaded by the British tourist. No Cook's ticket can be taken for Spalato, no hotel coupon would be of the slightest use at Sebenico. To-day the Austrian Lloyd maintains a regular steamer service between Trieste and the towns of Dalmatia, and Cook's tickets for any of them may be pur- chased in New York, as well as in Lon- don. It cannot be said, however, that the manufacture of good guide-books to that enchanted region has kept pace with the awakening interest in it. In spite of such recent publications as Maude M. Holbach's agreeable, if super- ficial, "Dalmatia, the Land Where East Meets West," Freeman's complaint al- most literally holds good to-day: "The best guide to those parts is still the account written by the Emperor Con- stantine Porphyrogenitus more than nine hundred years back." The English reader may indeed gather from Free- man's own discursive "Sketches from the Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice" much valuable historical in- formation, and from Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's authoritative "Dalmatia and Montenegro," published sixty years ago, a painstaking account of those fea- tures of the daily life of the races of the Eastern shore of the Adriatic which Freeman so consistently ignored; while T. G. Jackson's classic work, "Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria (1887)," re- mains the best English account of the architectural and archaeological treas- ures of the towns of which it treats. Thanks, moreover, to the fact that every Dalmatian town boasts some learned an- tiquary willing to place his local lore at the disposal of foreign students, there exist many treatises on single topics re- lating to Dalmatia, such as Villari's ad- mirable "The Republic of Ragusa," but nevertheless the average English or American tourist must still turn for general information concerning a trip through Dalmatia to the meagre pages of Baedeker or Murray. Nothing in the title of F. Hamilton Jackson's "Shores of the Adriatic" in- dicates that the author appeals to but a limited public. It is a companion vol- ume to his work on the Italian side of the Adriatic and, like it, is chiefly con- cerned with the architectural and decor- ative aspects of his subject. He ac- knowledges his indebtedness to Jack- son's "Dalmatia," and he has drawn on many Italian, French, and German au- thorities (the titles of the works of the last-named are not always correctly spelled). The thread of personal nar- rative is barely discernible in the mass of tediously minute historical detail which alternates with the plans of ba- silicas and the enumeration of the mo- saics, embroideries, chalices, croziers, L

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5Q4. The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 monstrances, plate, and vestments en- shrined within the cathedrals. Paintings and statuary, it is true, are by no means neglected, but it is characteristic of the author's point of view that the list of "craftsmen" in the index includes Bel- lini, Carpaccio, Palma Vecchio, Paolo Veronese, Pordenone, Sansovino, Tinto- retto, and Titian. Nor is any critical attempt made to set the reader right as to the authenticity of the Titians to be found at Verbosca and Ragusa. Of more general interest are the descriptions of the Morlaks, the picturesque Slavic in- habitants of Istria and Dalmatia, but their marriage and religious customs, their folk-lore, proverbs, music, and song, their amusements, superstitions, and vendettas might, with profit to the book, have claimed more space than the author has assigned them. Nor, in gen- eral, can it be said that he has set forth a tithe of the charms possessed by a region which bears the impress of a history of two thousand years, during which Illyrians, Romans, Goths, Byzan- tines, Normans, Venetians, Croats, Serbs, Hungarians, Turks, and Austrians strug- gled for possession. Mr. Jackson, like so many of his predecessors, does indeed full justice to the architectural splendor of Dalmatia's past; he sings the praises of Diocletian's palace at Spalato, of the palace of the rectors of the re- public at Ragusa, as well as of the cathedral of Sebenico, which has been termed "one of the noblest, most strik- ing, most simple, most Christian of all churches"; but Dalmatia, the land of wonderful fjords and noble harbors, of lovely islands famed in literature and naval warfare, of proud, sea-girt cities on frowning cliffs concealing a primi- tive hinterland; the country which bears everywhere the image of the wing- ed lion of Venice, but is destined to wit- ness ere long the disappearance of Ital- ian speech as the culmination of the struggle between its Italian and Slavic elements — this Dalmatia is still to be adequately described. Pictorially, Mr. Jackson's volume is rather attractive. One of the most strik- ing of the full-page photographs exhib- its a group of Albanian horse-dealers at Cattaro, whose countenances do not be- lie the reputation for ferocity enjoyed by these untamed sons of ancient II- lyria. William Godwin und Mary Wollstone- craft. Von Helene Simon. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. Seldom may the author of a work, stamped with the thorough spirit of a model Doctorate Arbeit, be congratulat ed on its literary finish and mechanical and artistic production, as in the case of this first combined biography of these two distinguished and much misunder- stood reformers. The wonder is that no one before this German author, especial- ly that no English writer, has felt the exceptional attraction of their lives and works as something intricately associat- ed together. Separated too early by the untimely death of Mary Wollstonecraft, honored long as separate personalities — as in the National Portrait Gallery, where each has a place, but in widely distinct classifications — they have too often been dissociated by historian and critic, and their aims have been misin- terpreted. Godwin especially, according to Helene Simon, has been wrongly or inadequately characterized. Thus, Karl Diehl, in 1890, aided by Kegan Paul's edition of Godwin's Letters and Jour- nals, recognized in Godwin the founder of the anarchist theory, and to this place Miss Simon assigns him; but Kro- potkin, although he also lived in Eng- land, and Richard Stammler maintain- ed that Proudhon was the father of anarchy. Pierre Ramus and Walter Borgius, on the other hand, would make of Godwin the "theorist of communistic anarchy," while Anton Menger finds in him not only anarchy, but Socialism, and calls him "the first scientific social- ist of modern times." Miss Simon seeks to rescue Godwin from this unholy mix- ture of anarchy, communism, and So- cialism, and insists that his true title is the founder of individualistic or pure anarchy. In this respect, Godwin was quite unlike such reforming con- temporaries as Owen, for he reached di- rectly no practical goal. He was, as biographer, historian, novelist, and dra- matist, a "revolutionist of heads," and a scatterer of seed among other minds. As to Mary Wollstonecraft, although she died when only thirty-eight, she is without doubt the first notable leader in the movement for greater freedom for women; but she was more than an agitator for political rights and her goal was greater than that of the French up- heaval, which also mightily stirred her soul. She sought to ennoble the concep- tion of motherhood, to awaken a greater sense of responsibility among women, and to elevate their position primarily .as human beings rather than as mere women; and so the most of her writ- ings have a pedagogical value for the generation of to-day, and a nobler spirit than that which characterizes the po- lemics of most twentieth-century agita- tors. Both Godwin and Mary Wollstone- craft were misunderstood in their the- ories of marriage. Both, according to Miss Simon, strove to elevate the re- lation of the sexes; and if they erred, it was not through youthful careless- ness, but a deep conviction that what they did was right. The author reviews with care the va- rious steps in the development of both her hero and her heroine, individually and when striving together, and ana- lyzes their respective works, giving, as a welcome aid, an exceptionally good bibliography. Among the most interest- ing and touching chapters is that which pictures the death of Mary, the despair of William, and the runaway match, after the mother's death, and bitter hours of later repentance of their six- teen-year-old daughter Mary with the poet Shelley. Three portraits, two of Mary Wollstonecraft and one of God- win, after the paintings in the National Portrait Gallery, add much to the at- tractiveness of this memorial. Science. RAIL MOTOR CARS. The receiver of the Third Avenue road in New York has ordered an ex- perimental gasolene-electric street-rail- way car for use where the track conduit is impracticable. This action brings up again the question whether it is pos- sible to design a rail motor car, with power entirely self-contained, which will be able to compete effectively with some of the existing means of transpor- tation. Railway managers have long known that there are some kinds of service for which the steam train is not economi- cal. The smallest locomotive it is practicable to build under present conditions of design can haul three or four cars just as well as it can haul one; yet there is an enormous amount of branch-line mileage where one pass- enger car can handle all the business. Moreover, if a single passenger car is adapted to a small steam locomotive, it yet requires a train crew of three, since neither the engineer, the fireman, nor the conductor can be dispensed with. Thousands of miles of branch-lines are traversed every day by passenger trains which do not earn their operating ex- penses. Yet they must be run to ac- commodate the public, and to aid in developing territory. To solve this branch-line problem, many experiments have been tried with rail motor cars. Certain English rail- way managers took the matter up about six years ago, and built small steam motors as fast as the shops could turn them out. The success of the gas- olene road motor car has induced exper- iments with gasolene rail motor cars in many countries; but they have not been very successful, principally because they were much heavier than the ordinary automobile, so that their inertia worked against the mechanical principle of a motor driven by a series of explosions; while there was always apt to be trouble with the gears. As a result, gasolene rail motor cars show excellent running economies when in good work- ing order, but are burdened with more than offsetting shop and repair costs. So far as we know, but one type of this car is in successful commercial use in America. The question really turns on.

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June 3, 1909] The ISTation. 565 the efficient life of the machinery, and to determine this scarcely enough time has elapsed. Yet the Union Pacific has great faith in the experiment; it owned sixteen of these cars at the time of its last annual report, and has been in- creasing the number rapidly. There have been two important re- ports on the general subject of rail motor cars; one by the Rock Island Motive Power Committee in 1904, the other by a special committee appointed in 1907 by the general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad to visit Europe and examine the whole question. The Rock Island committee pointed out the important operating economies to be had by using single motor cars in the place of trains; it listed the three general types in use, and expressed its opinion that a steam-driven com- posite car was the best solution of the problem. Yet the company has not been very active in following out the report of its own committee, although it has recently completed an experimen- tal steam motor car. The report of the Pennsylvania com- mittee, on the other hand, brought out the fact that the managements of the British railways show no enthusiasm over the working of their steam motor cars, although in 1907 the Great West- ern had 84 of these machines operating on 44 lines. English railways are com- pelled to provide fully equipped stations at all regular stops of their steam trains, together with a complete staff of attendants; but in the operation of rail motor cars they are permitted to es- tablish stops called "halts," without feny accommodations or conveniences for passengers except a low platform. Here is a legal, rather than a mechani- cal, reason why these cars may be profitable in England. The Pennsyl- vania committee found that steam motor cars were successful in Germany, although all rail motor cars were con- sidered experimental. Tests have been made in Italy and France with steam motor cars, but the results are not con- clusive. In two countries — England and Ger- many— gasolene-electric cars have been tried, with indifferent success. Yet the gasolene-electric car, in which the gas engine impersonates a miniature power- house, while the electric equipment turns the wheels under the car, has cer- tain mechanical advantages arising from the absence of the gear problem and from the fact that electricity, not being explosive in its action, picks up the inertia of a stationary car more patiently and with less general rack and wear than does gasolene. The dif- ficulty with these cars has been their complexity and costliness, both to build and to maintain, while their working results have been irregular. With five nations engaged, and with fair results already achieved, it may be assumed that the problem will be solved sooner or later. Besides the economy of branch-line working, rail motor cars can perform an important service on main lines in picking up passengers at express stations after the passage of the fast train and distribut- ing them at small cost to local stations; while, by a reversal of this process, the express stations are filled with passen- gers in advance of the through train. On street railways, they can be run without the abomination of the over- head trolley, and also in localities where the underground conduit is im- practicable. As soon as rail-motor cars can be built and operated economically, they will give a new prospect of con- venient and efficient transportation. The Face of the Earth. (Das Antlitz der Erde.) By Edward Suess. Trans- lated by Hertha B. C. Sollas, under the direction of W. J. Sollas. Vol. Ill; pp. viii-400, pi. i-vii, fig. 1-23. New York: Henry Frowde. $5.75 This translation of Edward Suess's great physiographic classic places at the command of English-speaking read- ers and students a mass of recorded fact and discussion not elsewrere accessible. In the preceding volumes the move- ments of the earth's crust, the mountain ranges of the earth, and the abysses of the sea had been descrbed. In the third volume tie "face of the earth" is especially treated, the aim of the author being to detect and empha- size the great structural features. Fold- ing is recognized to be universal, if we draw no distinctions as regards geologic time. We may then look for underly- ing systems in the axial trends and ar- rangements of the elevations. The meth- od of attack is to pass the large con- tinental areas in review. The present volume is chiefly occupied with Asia; only toward the close is Europe reach- ed. The other continents remain for fu- ture treatment. Two great structural features are brought out in especial relief, a vertex from which mountain systems radiate, and an arc which characterizes the curv- ing course of the lines of elevation. For Asia, and to a certain extent for Eu- rope, these are traced with much success, but whether the convex curve can be universally found is a constant ques- tion which arises in the reader's mind. Nevertheless, on the perusal of this vol- ume, as in the reading of the previous volumes, one is profoundly impressed with the range and accuracy of the venerable author's reading. He sums up into one connected whole the many little-known ranges of Asia and the bet- ter-described and studied chains of Eu- rope, so that a large number of scien- tific observations and much recorded knowledge are now easily available, which before were scattered and almost inaccessible. The translation has been acceptably and accurately done. Revisional assist- ance has been given, as a felicitous to- ken of respect to Professor Suess, by the most eminent of the English and Australian geologists. The Annates de Giographie for May con- tains articles descriptive of regions in Al- geria and French West Africa, and also of a chart of Mt. Blanc, which is interesting as being "the first geometric representation on a grand scale of a French mountain mass." Charts of the whole chain of French Alps to Nice, twenty-two in number, are in preparation. There is also a summary of hydrological and meteorological observa- tions in some Norwegian fiords, taken by a French naval vessel, the Bougainville. The editor, L. Gallois, contributes an histori- cal sketch of the part which the Acad- emy of Sciences took from its foundation in 1666 by Colbert in securing a large to- pographical map of France. Dr. Heinrich von Ranke, nephew of the historian and himself a distinguished phy- sician, has died at Munich in his eightieth year. He was appointed professor in the University of Munich in 1874, and wrote largely for the magazines on topics of medicine and archceology. Giovanni Vailati, a native of Crema, Lom- bardy. and a frequent contributor to both Italian and foreign periodicals, including American journals of mathematics and phi- losophy, died in Rome. May 14, at the age of forty-six. After graduating from the University of Turin he' served for several years on the staff of its mathematical de- partment, and afterwards taught in the Istituto Tecnico at Florence. Appointed a member of the Royal Commission for the Reform of Secondary Education, he had devoted his time during the past three years chiefly to problems of school organization and pedagogy. Drama and Music. "Little Eyolf" and "A Doll's House" have been published by John W. Luce & Co., Boston and London, in a new edition to be known as The Players' Ibsen, newly translated into English from the definitive Dano-Norwegian text, and edited, with in- troductions and notes, by Henry L. Menck- en. Each play is well printed, in clear, black type, in a little pocket volume, at- tractive in appearance and convenient for transportation. The editorial matter — which has the merit of brevity — and the notes contain useful information for the general reader, but are less trustworthy in their critical opinions than in their state- ments of fact. Not every student of Ibsen will subscribe to all the estimates placed upon his genius or his influence. In the translation great pains have been taken not only to follow the exact phraseology of the original, but also to reproduce, so far as possible, the more delicate shades of verbal meaning by which Ibsen sought to throw light upon the characters of his personages. To what extent this has been accomplished could only be determined by a close comparison with the original. wh'Ch

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see The Nation. [Vol 88, No. 2292 is scarcely necessary at this time. As a matter of fact, a perfect translation Is im- possible. The spirit and genius of one language cannot be transferred, In bulk, to another. This is particularly true in the case of poetry, and all who wish to appreciate Ibsen justly as a poet must learn his native tongue. But there is no good reason for supposing that his prose works have lost much in the process of their conversion into English. On the contrary, it is generally admitted that he has been particularly happy in his trans- lators. The text of this latest version of "Little Eyolf" does not differ greatly from that of Mr. William Archer, and the changes in it, where they do occur, do not always commend themselves; for speak- ing and acting purposes they are often less effective and less natural. But, after all, these changes are of no great import- ance, and the latest text is good enough for all practical purposes. Its one real superiority lies in the handy form in which it is offered. Discussing a recent performance by the students of the Academy of Dramatic Art in London, a prominent critic writes: It is expected — it might almost be said to be demanded — of the students of such an in- stitution that they should know the gram- mar of their art; and they do so. They know how to speak, how to move, how to stand, and to stand still. But they know more than this — in some cases much more. Hav- ing mastered the grammar, they have been taught to turn their knowledge to artistic effect, for the expression of themselves through their parts. From this it would appear that the insti- tution founded by Beerbohm Tree some years ago, which includes many well-known actors in its corps of instructors, is really doing good work. The same thing could be said truthfully of the Academy in New York. Theoretically, a good school of act- ing ought to be just as effective as a re- pertory theatre in the manufacture of ca- pable actors; but, actually, it is almost al- ways handicapped by the lack of the proper raw material. As a general rule, young men and women possessing the histrionic instinct in any marked degree — although they would probably profit by a little wholesome instruction more than others having no ability of the kind — scorn the idea of school when they can earn a little money in some subordinate capacity, with the chance of working their way up. In the days of the old stock companies they secured a general education easily enough, but in recent years even the best actors have been confined to special lines. Now there seems to be some likelihood that the old school of acting may be restored. William Devereux, author of "William of Navarre," is to write a play for Lewis Waller on the subject of Walter Raleigh. The interest will centre in the discovery of a plot to dethrone Elizabeth in favor of Queen Mary, and the courtship and marriage of the hero will be prominent features. D'Annunzio has written a Punch and Judy act for Naples, called "Tares." But it will probably be given first in Milan, at the Manzoni Theatre, and a company has been especially engaged to appear in it. This play is to be translated into French for the Grand Guignol of Paris. D'Annun- zio says that he never enjoyed himself more than he did while writing this little sketch. Russian opera has been made a special feature of the Monte Carlo season by Raoul Gunsbourg, the enterprising manager. Glinka's "Life for the Czar" and Rubin- stein's "Demon" were mounted by him in turn, and then came Dargomijsky's "Rus- salka." The composer of "Russalka," who died in 1869, may claim with Glinka the distinction of founding the school of "Young Russians" which has included in its ranks Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Moussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakoff. His music is little known outside of Russia, and the success which "Russalka" — originally per- formed in 1856 — seems to have obtained at Monte Carlo is hardly likely to lead to its production elsewhere. Tchaikovsky, it is true, did not rate his compatriot's gifts very highly, but this does not mean much, seeing how perverse were the views he noc infrequently expressed concerning the works of other composers, and that he was unfa- vorably disposed towards the circle to which Dargomijsky belonged. The Chinese have programme music and had it long before we did. Consul-General Clarence E. Gauss at Shanghai has come upon pieces of music entitled "Opening the Hand," "The Maid of the Green Wil- low," "Mother Understands Me Well," "Alone at Home," "Dame Wang," "The Abode of Love," "The Widow's Lament," "Painting Fans," "Breaking the Looking- glass." "Making Verses with a Bird," "The Locust's Fate," "The Seal of Longevity," "The Ladder of Happiness," "The Happy Dream," "The Men Who Fear Their Wives," "The Crockery-mender." The consul also calls attention to the fact that Chinese mu- sic is divided into two classes, ritual and popular. Under the name of ritual music must be comprehended all music performed at court or at religious ceremonies. Under popular music are grouped all theatrical, ballad, professional, and ordinary street sodt music. Dr. John W. Bischoff, .the "blind organist of Washington," died in that city on Sun- day. He had played the organ at the First Congregational Church in Washington for thirty-five years, and his annual concerts have long been musical events of prom- inence. He became blind when he was two years old. Among his many compositions were 'Good Night, Sweet Dreams," "Un- answered," and "Bobolink." Art. THE TWO SALONS. Paris, May 18. The chief impression made by the two Salons this year, as for several years past, is one of disappointment. There seems to remain not even a faint reecho of the strong and healthy move- ment among artists that resulted in the new Salon twenty years ago, nor are there any signs of a new generation "knocking at the door." And yet, to come straight to the big annual exhibi- tions in Paris from the bazaar into which the Royal Academy in London has degenerated, is to be, as always, struck with their workmanlike aspect and atmosphere, as well as with the fact that in France art still has its uses, and the artist a chance to work for a more definite end than the cater- ing to popular taste. There may not be a fortune for the French artist — as there is to-day for the American — in the commission of state or municipality, or other public bodies, but at least there is the opportunity from which many of the world's masterpieces have sprung. At all events some of the most in- teresting, if not the most successful, work at the new Salon is to be found among the huge mural decorations, for it is one of the redeeming features of the poorest Salon that a place should always be made for them. The centre of honor in the room at the top of the stairway in the new Salon is this spring devoted to M. Menard's series of enor- mous panels for the Faculte de Droit at Paris. To my knowledge, he has never before attempted anything on so vast a scale. His subjects are the same as in his smaller canvases — romantic landscapes, with ideal or mythical figures well subordinated to them. The great clouds piled up high in the heav- ens, the wooded hillsides, the tranquil pastures and solemn groves, the men and women in heroic nudity or grace- ful drapery tending their herds or wan- dering in peace, the horsemen who might have ridden straight out of the frieze of the Parthenon, are all arranged with the right feeling for their decora- tive value. They have the charm Menard always brings to his poetic in- terpretation of nature. But mere size can add nothing to this charm; indeed, I am not sure that it does not take something away. Still, experiment will carry the artist further than persever- ance in the old and easy grooves. The methods and conventions of M. Aman-Jean, on the other band, are adapted to decoration, no matter on what scale he works. He may go to na- ture for a motive, but never for models, and he finds a decorative formula even for his portraits. But languor of late has overtaken him, and he scarcely seems to have the vigor, or vitality, to cover so vast a space as his panel for the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. It has already the faded look of an old fresco. ComSdie is his subject. You remember what Watteau would have made of it, and then you look to the pale, formal garden where strolling players move like shadows through a listless perform- ance for the pleasure, apparently, of three wan, weary ladies who have hard- ly the strength left to follow it with their heavy eyes, and you are inclined to see in conception and execution alike only the affectations of the painter. But Aman-Jean understands as well as Puvis de Chavannes the appropriateness of a pale color-scheme to the decoration

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June 3, 1909] The Nation. 567 of a wall of which it becomes a part; he understands, too, that the suggestion of action in the group arranged across his foreground would have destroyed the decorative illusion, and that a less artificial setting would not have yielded lines as rhythmical. Menard's panels may be robust in comparison, but set up in place, Aman- Jean's will probably tell with more effect. His decorative treatment certainly is more in keeping than the pictorial tendency of Gaston La Touche in his rendering of a somewhat similar sub- ject, Theatre de Verdure, which is in- tended as a decoration of a stairway for the Mercier Freres, but which is lit- tle more than a picture that might be hung up in its frame anywhere. The panel by M. Besnard to complete his decoration for the cupola in the Petit Palais, as you see it in the new Salon, with its large nude Venus the centre of a disjointed composition, seems coarse and without structural coherence. But few modern artists have had more experience in decoration than Besnard, and it may very likely be that in the cupola the coarseness will become re- finement and the design take its place as a logical part in the larger scheme. The only other work of the kind that I found of interest was M. Boutet de Mon- vel's series of Projets for his decoration of the basilica at Douremy. For his treatment of these three events in the career of Joan of Arc, he has borrowed the method of the old illuminator, work- ing in pure brilliant color, with the most minute attention to every detail, in the gorgeous ceremonial as in the in- tricate ornament of priestly robes and knightly armor, and yet managing to produce a broad and harmonious effect, and to prove that the artist of to-day may go to the past for inspiration with- out ceasing to be modern. In the old Salon, the big designs amount to little more than the yearly machins manufactured to create a sen- sation and, if possible, make a reclame. One of the best and most scholarly is M. Gervais's Garden of the Hesperides. But while, with an artist like Besnard, you feel that he is absorbed in the ar- tistic problem no matter how success- ful or unsuccessful he may be in his way of solving it, with Gervais, though he too deals with classic legend, you cannot help suspecting that a more im- portant end is the popular success, to be had at the Salon only by a louder and more sensational bid for it than anybody's else. And so, for him the Garden of Hesperides becomes a daz- zling spectacle, violent in light, hot in color, filled with nude figures and flow- ers and many-hued beasts, and birds — a place to be avoided by the poet in search of peace and beauty. From this, you descend to lower depths of sensa- tionalism, until you can go no deeper than a huge interior of Notre Dame painted in theatrical perspective and hung where it can tell almost as well as on the stage, and so catch the eye of all the gaping crowd. A decorative motive runs through much of the smaller work at the new Salon, even through pictures not intend- ed definitely for such an end. It still struggles with the pictorial motive in all La Touche's canvases, though his fantasies begin to border close upon anecdote. It is felt in the four small paintings by Mr. Frieseke, who in them has left the boudoir for the open air. He evokes such cool and pleasant harmonies from so simple a fact in nature as the falling and filtering of sunlight through green leaves upon shady green pools and streams, that I regret the more the failure, as I cannot but think it, of his Femme nue a la Toilette, a large nude realistic study of a not too refined model. But in this, as most always in his work, the detail is rendered with great delicacy. The responsibilities of realism never weigh heavily upon Mr. Morrice. Whether he paints the snow in Canada, the sea in Brittany, the quays in Paris, nature is never for him a problem of planes and atmosphere and light, but exists solely to suggest inexhaustible arrangements of color and line. Mr. Barlow is an- other who sees, or tries to see, in the life around him nothing save harmo- nious and rhythmical combinations, the tone always low, the feeling always ten- der, the charm rarely absent. Chanson Rose he, this year, calls one of his usual gray interiors with the group of quiet, simple figures, and the title is expressive of his aims and methods in all. It is because comparatively few pic- tures appear to have given their paint- ers any pleasure at all that they pro- duce such an effect of general dulness. Take the portraits, for instance; only one or two, here and there, seem to have been anything better than a task to the weary artist. The most brilliant exceptions are M. Boldini's two of wo- men, one of a man and his wife. What- ever may be thought of them, it is as impossible to deny the vivacity with which they are painted as the fact that they are the work of a master of his trade. They are exaggerated in pose and movement; in the impossibly elon- gated figures, in the tight-clinging drap- eries, in the exuberant elegance of silks and satins and furs, in their truth to, or rather caricature of, the fashions of the moment; but they are alive, enormous- ly accomplished, with a technical vigor and dash that no other portrait painter to-day can approach. They seem the more startling because the year other- wise is not remarkable in portraiture. M. Blanch had an interesting sitter in Henry James, but has failed, or so I cannot help thinking, to grasp his character: had it not been for the name in the catalogue, the portrait to me would have been unrecognizable. An- other chance for a strong study of char- acter has been lost by Mr. MacCameron (old Salon), who shows us a very col- orless President in his portrait of Mr. Taft. Indeed, our statesmen fare rather ill at the hands of their painters, Mr. Charles Joseph Bonaparte figuring with as little distinction, or semblance of in- dividuality, on the canvas of Mme. Cecile de Wentworth. Most of the older men — Carolus-Du- ran, Roll, La Gandara — are poorly repre- sented. Even M. Caro-Delvaille has no portrait that can compare with his fine group of a few years ago, now in the Luxembourg, and is much more inter- esting in his study of the nude, Groupe Paien, which, however, is not pagan at all. The figures of the man and woman both are modern in type and treatment, though he seems to have been haunted by memories of Michelangelo and to have sought, by giving them heroic dig- nity, to escape the commonplace of the mere Salon nude to which he conde- scended in his picture of last spring. Zorn, Zuloaga, Sargent, are not repre- sented. But it is a year of absences, and Louis Legrand and Anglada are also among the many who send nothing. Un- fortunately, if the two Spaniards, Zu- loaga and Anglada, who have made the success of modern Spanish art, do not show, the Spanish picture is bigger and more in evidence than ever — especially in the old Salon — so much in evidence that one passes quickly by even the most cleverly painted Spanish gypsy or Spanish peasant, Spanish bull-fighter or Spanish dwarf. In the few years since Zuloaga first took the new Salon by storm, his imitators in new and old have already made a hackneyed story of his subjects. Individuality counts even in a big ex- hibition, and the man who has some- thing to say for himself triumphs in the end. This is why M. Veber seems to have lost nothing of his gayety. Besides, this year he has had the intelligence to refrain from decoration on a large scale and to return to the small can- vas to which his little figures more ap- propriately belong. He has one or two of the tavern scenes that have won him the name of the "modern Breughel," but his caricature, his satire, rather, of the people of to-day is so cruel in its truth that he is really amusing only in his comic versions of old myths or fairy tales. M. Hochard also conquers by sheer force of personality, though neith- er his way of looking at things nor of presenting them qualifies him best for the illustration of Flaubert, which he now undertakes. Walter Gay, by the personal touch he gives to the little in- teriors he loves to paint; Jean Beraud, by sheer literalness in his realism, on as minute a scale, command more at- tention than the painters who sprawl.

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568 Tlie ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 with nothing of their own to say, over colossal expanses of canvas. But the picture that attracted me most by its originality, at least in selection of sub- ject, was Jules Adler's Hauts Fourneaux at Charleroi, exhibited in the old Salon. Here is a painter who has had the eyes to see the picturesqueness, the romance of work, to discover the splen- dor of gaunt, unlovely factories and chimneys when transformed by the magic of the smoke-laden atmosphere. The canvas is large, and evidently the painter has not known what to do with his foreground; the color is leaden, and the smoke is heavy, but, with all its faults, the picture comes as an eloquent reminder that beauty exists in the mod- ern world as in the ancient. I say less of the landscapes because, excellent as many are, the landscape painters are so apt to fall into repe- tition, or mannerism, that one year's picture is very like a copy of last year's. This certainly is the case with M. Lher- mitte, who better than anyone else can give the effects of afternoon light shin- ing on the stream with its lines of washerwomen bending over the bank, or on the field where harvesters are at work; and with M. Billotte who, by sheer sympathy and the tenderness of his scheme of gray, can fill the waste lands of the squalid suburb with poe- try; and, in the old Salon, with Poin telin, whose heath never loses its gen- tle melancholy; and Harpignies, whose composition never loses in stateliness; and Gosselin, whose trees rise with slim unerring grace from the ever-green countryside. M. Le Sidaner, wherever he goes, to London or the French pro- vincial town, to Venice or the Italian lakes, takes the same technique with him, until even the silent hours of the night lose their repose in the restless- ness of his system of dots or touches of color. Now and then a new note is struck, by Charles Warren Eaton, in the old Salon, or by M. Popesco, a Ru- manian, in the new. But, for the rest, there is little to add, unless it is to say that the influence of the Plein-Air school and the Impressionists seem to grow less as time goes on, and Monet, for the moment any way, is not so much the prophet as Corot. One improvement is to be noted at the new Salon. The prints have been brought from the lower rooms, where hardly anybody ever went to look at them, to the balcony upstairs where there is space to hang them so that they can be seen. To tell the truth, how- ever, they do not include very much worth seeing. The huge color etching is now all the fashion, and it is used chiefly for the reproduction of pictures, to which the medium does not lend it- self. But painter after painter, wak- ing up to its success, has rushed in to profit by it, until one can only hope that this fashion, like so many others, will die from its very excess. Mr. Mc- Laughlin's etchings and M. Warsquier's Japanese-like designs in the new Salon, Mr. Wolf's and M. Hoenemann's wood- engravings, and M. Belleroche's litho- graphs, in the old Salon, are among the most interesting prints of any kind that are shown. Among the many drawings in many mediums, I saw nothing that interested me so much as M. Milcendeau's Jour de Marche a Ledesma, a pastel, in which he has managed to forget that any art- ist ever worked in Spain before him, and by depending entirely upon his own impressions has once more given fresh- ness to a stale subject. Of the smaller exhibitions within the large, I need only say that in the new Salon a room has been set apart for the drawings of M. Dagnan-Bouveret, and a wall in the decorative art section devoted to the illustrations and wall- papers of Walter Crane. The French sculptor, like the French painter, enjoys the advantage of definite commissions. He is not reduced to ap- peal with his every work to the capri- cious fancy of the chance customer. The old Salon shows numerous examples of his technical skill and accomplishment, though of his genius there is less con- vincing proof. At the new Salon more space is now spared to sculpture than at first, but not even there does the genius appear in larger numbers with the larger opportunity to exhibit. M. Rodin has nothing save a marble bust of Mme. Elissieff, to which he has giv- en greater charm than he usually seeks in his work, but also a greater degree of finish, with, it seems to me, a conse- quent loss of character. Of the charac- ter which one expects in any portrait, no matter what the medium, I find more in Prince Troubetzkoy's statuette of Baron Henri de Rothschild, standing in what evidently is the pose most natural to him, with no concession to beauty of finish, but, instead, a rugged vigor in the rendering of his heavy and not over graceful form and outlines. Altogether, if the two Salons help to prove the long-suspected truth that the glory of the big exhibition is on the wane, they still succeed in attracting more of the interesting work done to- day than do any others. N. N. There is a growing tendency in certain quarters to regard Aubrey Beardsley as a great master. The latest evidence of this is "Aubrey Beardsley," by Robert Ross (John Lane), in which that artist's slender if real talent is treated with portentous seriousness. At best he had a pretty feel- ing for long lines, and for the spotting of pure blacks. On the other hand, his sense of structure and his knowledge of the fig- ure were nil, and his sentiment had an evident, taint of corruption. He was dis- tinctly fin de siccle, and the new century may hope for an art with robuster qual- ities. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announces the award of its gold medal of honor, the highest award in the power of the institution to bestow upon an artist, to Thomas P. Anschutz. The present recipieut was born in Newport, Ky., October 5, 1851. He was a student in the schools of tha Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, an'l later in Paris, and has been an instructor in the academy schools since 1881. In the last annual exhibition in Philadelphia, where Mr. Anschutz received the Walter Lippincott prize, there were nearly one hundred representative American works by painters who had studied under him. Ludwig Thiersch, an historical painter and for some years professor of painting at the Art School of Athens, has died at Munich in his eighty-fifth year. Among his notable paintings were a number done in the service of the Greek Church in the Byzantine style. The death is announced from Paris of Guillaume Dubufe, the painter, on board a steamship bound for Buenos Ayres. He was born in 1853, the son of the well-known artist, lidouard Dubufe. He was an officer of the Legion of Honor, secretary-treas- urer of the Societe des Beaux-Arts, presi- dent of the Societe des Aquarellistes Fran- gais, and honorary president of the Societe des Decorateurs. M. Dubufe painted the mural decorations for the French build- ing at the St. Louis Exposition. He took the gold medal at the exposition of 1889. Finance. THE QUESTION OF AN "INDUS- TRIAL BOOM." Last week's announcement of a $51,- 000,000 holding company, to own and operate certain dry-goods department stores in New York and other cities, has interested financial markets chiefly as a possible sign of the times. The new corporation does not, and in the nature of the case cannot, aspire to any such trade monopoly as has occasionally been discussed in connection with our great combinations of capital; and the capi- talization in this instance cuts no such spectacular figure as the Steel Corpora- tion and the Northern Securities amal- gamations of 1901, or even the less startling combinations in the steel and copper trades during 1899. Neverthe- less, it is a good while since applications at the rate even of fifty million dollars for outside capital have been witnessed on the market. Large offers of bonds by companies in hign standing have been accepted readily enough, even in the doubtful days of 1908; but that is a fa- miliar incident of the year or two fol- lowing a financial panic. A shock to confidence, a formidable collapse in Stock Exchange speculation, invariably drive the investor into the market for high-grade securities. Uncertain or pes- simistic over the immediate possibilities of engagements on a partnership basis,

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June 3, 1909] The ISTation. 569 he naturally takes refuge in engage- ments as a creditor. But investment in new stock on an extensive scale, and especially the plac- ing with the public of the shares of in- dustrial combinations with enormous capital, point in a somewhat different direction. If the movement were to ex- tend, it would at least indicate a change in the general public's attitude, for cor- poration stock has had a poor market ever since investment demand for that class of security shut down suddenly in the last months of 1906, to the great chagrin of railway managers who had already committed their companies to costly improvement plans. If the public were to show a genuine hunger for new stock of industrial amalgamations, we should presently hear talk of reviv- ing the "flotation craze" of 1899 and 1901. The question whether such a sequel is possible, may be worth considering. That the period which has elapsed since the panic of 1907 has differed in some important respects from the year or two following similar crises in our earlier history, most people are aware. The es- sential novelty in the present after-panic events has been the repeated display of the spirit of speculation, notably on the Stock Exchange. This is usually taken to mean confidence in speedy return to good times, or, at all events, confidence in return of former high values. The ex- istence of such belief does not necessar- ily prove that the expectation is well- founded; it may be, and often has been, premature; but it usually indicates in the public's hands a substantial surplus of available capital, and it is this which would render interesting large new ex- periments in company promotion. Comparison of this period with the "promotion era" of ten years ago, how- ever, will in numerous respects fail to establish a parallel. The existence of a huge fund of ready money in the pub- lic's hands was an important factor in the outcome then; but the appeal to the public's imagination, through the visi- ble trade conditions of the day, was at least equally important. Things were happening in our industrial history which astonished and excited even Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & GO. No. 39 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates conservative observers. We were feed- ing Europe, for one thing; our wheat crops and our wheat exports had sur- passed all precedent, while Europe's har- vests had failed. Gold was pouring into America from abroad in unprecedented quantity. We were invading Europe's markets for manufactured goods, and had piled up an excess of $600,000,000 in merchandise exports over imports, where no previous year had achieved so much of an excess as $300,000,000. Our bankers were lending huge sums of mo- ney to the British government, and buy- ing up control of British steamship lines on a scale which was thought at the time to threaten England's maritime supremacy. This was obvious material for arousing, not only the speculative instinct, but absolute confidence in any sort of incorporated enterprise put out under the auspices of important capi- talists. Behind all this was the fact of the accumulation of capital, during the rigorous personal and business econ- omies practised by the people as a whole for nearly half a dozen years. It can hardly be said that the present period provides a parallel. Favorable considerations certainly exist, and they are for the most part those which ex- isted, and which were pointed out, dur- ing the panic of 1907 itself— notably the sound condition of the currency, as dis- tinguished from other periods of the sort, and the wealth and financial inde- pendence of the agricultural West. But we certainly have not with us the spec- tacular trade phenomena of a decade ago. We are not feeding Europe; our wheat exports are almost the smallest since the civil war, and our wheat crops are not running anywhere near the mag- nitude of 1901. Just now, our monthly excess of merchandise exports over im- ports has almost disappeared; for the year to date, it is the smallest in a doz- en years. We are not importing gold, but have been exporting very heavily. The ventures of 1901 in foreign finance and in maritime acquisition have largely turn out illusion, and we have learn- ed that ambitious experiments with cap- ital, even at home, may go altogether too far. All this does not mean that the coun- try's present position is weak or pre- carious. Except for the more or less doubtful question of our grain crops, it may be that the present state of things is financially more wholesome than that of 1901, and that we are in a way to consolidate our economic strength on a sounder basis than in that feverish speculative era. But conditions of this sort have at least some bearing on the question of another "promotion craze." Conservative people are hoping that our financiers themselves will not lose their heads, as they have done on occasion heretofore, and attempt to force an un- natural movement of speculative infla- tion. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Aitken, Robert. Beyond the Sky Line. B. W. Huebsch. $1.50. Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. Translated into English, 1620. Introduc- tion by Edward Hutton. Vols. Ill and IV. London : David Nutt. Brigham, Louise. Box Furniture: How to Make a Hundred Useful Articles for the Home. The Century Co. Cairns. William B. Selections from Early American Writers. Macmillan. $1.25 net. Davis, Richard Harding. The White Mice. Scribner. Dejeans, Elizabeth. The Winning Chance. Philadelphia: Lippincott. $1.50. De Leon, T. C. Belles, Beaux, and Brains of the 60's. Dillingham. $3 net. Dornis, Jean. Essai sur Leconte de Lisle. Paris: Societe d'fiditions Litteraires et Artistiques. Duckworth, Lawrence. Charter Parties and Bills of Lading. London: Effingham Wil- son. Dunham, Curtis. Gambolling with Galatea: A Bucolic Romance. Houghton Mifflin. $1.15 net. During, Stella M. Love's Privilege. Phil- adelphia: Lippincott. English Nativity Plays, Edited by Samuel B. Hemingway. Yale Studies in English, Vol. XXXVITT. Henry HoU. Ferrero, Guglielmo. Characters and Events of Roman History — from Caesar to Nero. Putnam. $2.50. Finck, Henry T. Grieg and His Music. John Lane. $2.50 net. Hall, Bolton. The Garden Yard: A Hand- book of Intensive Farming. Philadelphia: David McKay. $1. Hartman, George. Tales of Aztlan. Broad- way Pub. Co. $1. Hartt, Rollin Lynde. The People at Play. Houghton Mifflin. $1.50 net. Hocking, William Ernest. Two Extensions of the Use of Graphs in Elementary Logic. Berkeley, Cal. : The University Press. James, James Alton, and Sanford. Albert Hart. American History. Scribner's. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774- 1789. Edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford. Vol. XIII, 1779. Washington: Gov- ernment Printing Office. Kuehnemann, Eugen. Charles W. Eliot. Houehton Mifflin. Lighthall, W. D. The Master of Life. To- ronto: The Musson Book Co., Ltd. $1.50. Love Letters of Famous Poets and Novel- ists. Selected by Lionel Strachey. John McBride Co. $2.50 net. Love Letters of Famous Poets and Novel- ists. Selected by Walter Littlefield. John McBride Co. $2 net. McBride, R. E. The Revellers: Choruses of the Bacchai of Euripides, and The Third Book of Lucretius. Broadway Pub. Co. $1. McComb, Samuel. The Power of Self-Sug- gestion. Moffat, Yard & Co. Mclsaac, Isabel. The Elements of Hy- giene. Macmillan. 60 cents net. Marsh, Richard. The Interrupted Kiss. Cassell & Co. $1.50. Matheson, George. Spiritual Development of St. Paul. Thomas Whittaker. 80 cents net. Mathews, John Mabry. Legislative and Ju- dicial History of the Fifteenth Amend- ment. Baltimore, Md. : The Johns Hop- kins Press. Merwin, Bannister. The Girl and the Bill. Dodd, Mead. $1.20 net. Moffett, Cleveland. The Battle. Dilling- ham. Moore, J. Howard. The New Ethics. Chi- cago: Samuel A. Bloch. $1 net. Miinsterberg, Hugo. The Eternal Values. Houghton Mifflin. $2.50 net. Nascher, I. L. The Wretches of Poverty- ville: A Sociological Study of the Bowery. Chicago: Jos. J. Lanzit. Noble Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Edited by Dana Estes. Bos- ton : Dana Estes & Co. Norris. Frank. The Third Circle. John Lane. $1.50. Overstreet, Harry Allen. The Dialectic of Plotinus. Berkeley, Cal.: University Press. Parsons, Frank. Choosing a Vocation. Houghton Mifflin. $1 net.

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570 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2292 Patten, Simon N. Product and Climax. The Art of Life Series. B. W. Huebsch. 50 cents net. Rosurreotio Christi: An Apology Written from a New Standpoint and Supported by Evidence Some of which is New. London : Kegan Paul, Trench. Truebner & Co. Reynolds, Mrs. Baillie. A False Position. Brentano's. $1.50. Rider, Fremont. Are the Dead Alive? Dodge & Co. $1.75 net. Robinson, James Harvey, and Beard, Charles A. Readings in Modern European His- tory. Vol. II. Europe Since the Con- gress of Vienna. Ginn & Co. Rousseau, Jean- Jacques. Julie, ou La Nouvelle Heloi'se. fidition AbregSe avec preface de Frank A. Hedgcock. Putnams. $1 net. Songs for the Chapel, Arranged for Male Voices. Edited by Charles H. Morse and Ambrose White Vernon. Seribners. Studies in American Social Conditions: The Liquor Problem; The Negro Problem; Immigration ; and The Labor Problem. Edited by Richard Henry Edwards. Mad- ison, Wis. Tompkins, Frederick Charles. Court Ten- nis, Racquets, and Squash. Philadelphia: Lippineott. $1 net. Vachell, Horace Annesley. A Drama in Sunshine. Fenno & Co. $1 net. Vaille, P. A. Modern Golf. Macmillan. $2.35 net. Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler. History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century. 2 vols. Macmillan. $5 net. Walton, George Lincoln. Practical Guide to the Wild Flowers and Fruits. Phila- delphia: Lippineott. $1.50 net. Williams. Herschei. Uncle Bob and Aunt Becky's Exciting Trip. Chicago: Laird & Lee. 75 cents. Wright, Livingston. Down the Road with a Tramp Writer. Boston : The Black Lion. Worth Taking on Vacation READY THIS WEEK Witkowski's GERMAN DRAMA OF THE XIX CENTURY Translated by Prof. L. B. HORNING. This brief but brilliant monograph after a great success on the continent is to be published simultaneously in America and England. Commencing with the close of the Eighteenth Century, it considers Kleist, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Ludwig, Wilden- bruch, Sudermann, Hauptmann, and minor dramatists. Probable price $1 net. J. A. Picton's MAN AND THE BIBLE A review of the place of the Bible in human history, which, while never lacking in reverence, seeks to show that the phenomena of the Bible and its relations to mankind are perfectly consistent with what is known of the process of human evolu- tion. $2 net. OTHER NOTEWORTHY RECENT BOOKS FIOTTON Tlio Runaway Place. By Walteb r. Eaton, ex-dramatic critic of the Kpw York San, Mini Elise M. Undeiihii.l. A romance df Central Park 1.25 Loss Tlian Kin. By Alice Duek Mili.eh, author of "A Modern Obstacle" 1.25 Tin- Long Gallery. By Eva Lathbuky. A romance of "Southern Court" 1.50 The Pilgrim's March. By H. n. Baktt- fokd. A novel of England to-day. 3d print- ing 1.50 The Lady of the Dynamos. By Adei.e M. Shaw and Carmelita Beckwith... 1.50 As The Ha«ne Ortlains. Journal of a Rus- sian Prisoner's Wife in Japan. By Eliza R. ScmMoitE. Stli printing, net 1.50 Witter Whitehead's Own Story. By 11. (t. Hunting. A tale for boys ". . 1.25 The Lack of the Dudley Grahams. By AliICB ('. HAINES. A story for young folk. 1.50 HISTORY. ETC. The Fate of the leiodorum. By Daviii Stark Jordan. A satire on protectionism. «/> m net 90c HISTORY, ETC. The Bnilders of Spain. By Clara Craw ford Perkins, author of "French cathedrals and Chateaux." 2 vols. Svo. 64 illustra- trations. net 5.00 When Railroads Were New. By C. F. Carter. Illustrated. Though intended for adults boys like it. net 2.00 Railroad Freisrht Rates. In relation to the industry and commerce of the United States. By L. G. McPherson. 2nd print- ing. Svo, net 2.25 NATURE BOOKS Fish Stories. By Charles F. Holder and David Starr Jordan. Illustrated. In Ameri- can Nature Series. 2nd printing, net.... 1.75 The Life of a Fossil Hunter. By Charles H. Sternberg, with Introduction by H. F. Osborn. 48 illustrations. In American Nature Series. 2nd printing, net 1.60 Fifty Years of Darwinism. Eleven Ad- dresses in Honor of Charles Darwin delivered before the American Association for The Ad- vancement of Science, net 2.00 HENRY HOLT & COMPANY, 34 WEST 33D ST. NEW YORK THE ART OF LIFE SERIES Edward Howard Griggs, Editor. PRODUCT AND CLIMAX BY SniOIV N. PATTEN (Author of "The New Basis of Civilization"). 50e. net, postpaid 55c. WHAT underlies our industrial discontent, our social unrest? Why is the laborer restless and sullen instead of happy in his task? Why must we create laws providing punishment for 'acts that ought never to occur to right-thinking people? After pondering such questions the author finds wanting a proper balance between action in toil and reaction in enjoyment. He contrasts simple country life in which activity evokes immediate and healthy response with conditions in the city where toil and pleasure are incongruously Joined. To bring about the right relation between work and play with the purpose of making a happier race, is tne author's aim. and, for the diagnosis of the disease and the suggestions for its cure, those who are interested in social and moral bet- terment are invited to read PRODUCT AND CLIMAX At all bookstores or of the publisher, B. W. HUEBSCH. 225 Fifth avenue, New York OUR LIBRARY SERVICE We havp recently supplemented onr ser- vice to Libraries, by procuring Out-of-Prlnt and Scarce Books, and by Importing English books. Onr Edneatlonnl Catalogne con- tains a full list of Supplementary Beading. Indicating the grade to which each title Is adapted. Onr Clearance Catnlojene contains overstock at special prices, and an alpha- betical arrangement by authors of all cheap editions of Recent Popular Fiction and Standard librarv 12mos In one list. Onr I.ihrnrv Cntnlosrne of 3.500 approved titles, following A. L. A. lines. Is of great convenience to small libraries. Onr Monthly Bnlletln notices promptly every new book of importance. These Catalogues are sent on request. Three notable features of our service are: Promptness, thoroughness, and low prices. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. Wholesale Dealers in the Books of All Pobllihers S3 Enst 17th St.. New York. The Musicians Library SEND FOR FREE BOOKLETS Oliver Ditson Co., Ditson Bldg., Boston, Mass. New and Cheaper Edition in One Volume, with a Supplementary Chapter. INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY A Comparative Study of Industrial Life in England, Germany and America. By ARTHUR SHADWELL, M.A., M.D., Au- thor of "Drink, Temperance, and Legis- lation." Crown 8vo, $2.00 net. "The most valuable and suggestive con- tribution to the living question of. interna- tional competition that has yet been writ- ten."— Chamber of Commerce Journal, Lon- don. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO., 91-93 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Letters and Memorials OF Wendell Phillips Garrison Late Editor of The Nation 1865-1906 In one volume, crown 8vo, 300 pages, with photogravure portrait. Price $1.50 net, postpaid Houghton Mifflin Company BOSTON NEW YORK "The readable qualities of the ) \ Historic Highways of America \ C volumes which give them the charm of story- ) I telling are coupled with historical accuracy ) C which makes them the standard works on the V subjects covered." — The Chautauquan. 5 THE ARTHUR H. CLARK CO., Cleveland, Ohio \ I LIBRARY RESEARCH Topics of all kinds and in any language looked up in the Boston and Harvard libraries for schol- ars, writers, and others. Abstracts, copies, trans- lations, and bibliographies made. Proof-reading and revision of manuscript. Highest university and librarv references. MISS M. H. BUCKINGHAM, 96 Chestnut Street. Boston, Mass. "T0N0- BUNGAY " Narrative Lyrics See The Nation for May 13th, 1909.

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The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1909. The Week. It is positively unfeeling in President Taft to glory over the way in which the hot weather is using up Senators. You can hear something very like a chuckle in his reference to the fact that "the heat is a necessary element in working out our Constitutional government." Af- ter his own Philippine experience of tropic temperatures, he seems to think that he will be fresh after all the Sena- tors have withered. As if to make a mock of their sufferings in the Senate chamber, superheated as it is by nature and oratory, the President goes out to play golf, on the theory which all en- thusiastic golfers hold, that the higher the thermometer the lower will be his score. It may be, however, that Mr. Taft is not reckoning accurately upon the capacity of Senators to endure heat without light. Tariff bills have been debated before this throughout the swel- tering days of a Washington summer. The date of enactment of the McKinley bill, October 1, 1890, as of the Wilson bill, August 13, 1894, is rather ominous. Of course, those measures were passed in the long session of Congress, and it might seem that a better argument, as well as a brighter augury, could be drawn from the Dingley bill. It, too, was the work of an extra session, called soon after McKinley's inauguration in 1897; but the tariff of that year was not passed and signed till July 24. Presi- dent Taft will be lucky if he gets a hill to sign — or veto — by that day. Mr. Bryan has often abjured the Presidency more explicitly than he did Monday, when he promised to begin political war upon the liquor interests; but never with such demonstrable evi- dence of good faith. He knows that the Democrats would sooner stand for ex- cluding foreigners than pick a candidate in any wise committed to the prohibi- tion of beer and whiskey. To his sup- port in 1912, Messrs. Conners and Mur- phy could not muster a corporal's guard, even if they would. We take it as plain, therefore, that Mr. Bryan, if his words are not misrpported, has re- luctantly decided to seek his political fortune in a narrower field; and where that field is, one may easily guess. Ne- braska likes the Great Commoner, the initiative and the referendum, and also prohibition. Nebraska will soon be cast- ing about for a Senator. Given this sit- uation and Mr. Bryan's voice, the out- come may be foretold even by so wretched a prophet as Mr. Bryan him- self. Saturday's primary election in Phila- delphia brought out the largest vote ever cast in a primary in that city. The machine candidate for District Attor- ney, Samuel P. Rotan, won his renom- ination by the narrow margin of 5,004 over D. C. Gibboney, the reform candi- date. Gibboney ran on three tickets, and won the nomination of the Demo- cratic and William Penn parties. His total popular vote exceeded Rotan's by 25,100, a circumstance that can hardly be described as other than a severe jolt to the machine. Indeed, there are signs that it nominated Rotan only by des- perate stratagems and the usual vote- stuffing in certain districts; and the Wil- liam Penn party announces that it will contest the election and open the ballot- boxes. This popular uprising against the machine does not mean that Phila- delphia is at last turning against its corrupt rulers as such, but, in the main, indicates the disgust of the public "with the stock-jobbing politicians who ran the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Com- pany for narrow personal ends, regard- less of passengers, trolleymen, and the city, or even the sound business inter- ests of the company itself" — as the Phil- adelphia Press describes it. And there can be no doubt that the Republican ma- chine saved itself only by its surrender to the strikers on Thursday of last week. Had the election come then, or even on Friday, the machine would have gone down to defeat. The public regarded the demands of the strikers as just; they opposed the police, not as police, but as unwilling tools of the bosses, and they quickly saw the politics behind the ob- stinate and weak policy of the company. number of signs that the South is at last waking up to the real meaning of the lynching evil. "If the law is right, mob law is wrong, and must be stopped if there is to be maintained the institu- tion of government in a free country" — so Justice Simpson is reported to have said in pronouncing the court's decision. The Mobile sheriff was shown to have been well warned the day before of the coming lynching; yet he made no prep- arations to resist a mob, and went to his home early. With the Supreme Court about to punish the delinquent Chatta- nooga sheriff and with a Texas county proceeding against its sheriff, obvious- ly the time has come for that class of officers to take notice. Jailors, too, like the one who made ineffective resistance to a mob that lynched a negro in Frank- fort, Kentucky, last week, should also take note and should be supplied with the admirable story of Sheriff Van Pelt of Pensacola, in the current Sunday- School Times. That officer went so far as to try to save a negro criminal last July by firing on his neighbors. He killed two and wounded three personal friends before being overpowered. Yet the public recognized that he was cor- rect in his action by reelecting him sher- iff in November by 1,200 votes. The removal of the sheriff of Mobile County by the Alabama Supreme Court is a great triumph of justice, all the more welcome because it is one of a The proposed national committee on the advancement of the negro, advocated by the Conference which has just met in this city, suggests interesting possi- bilities. There can be no doubt that a great deal more light is needed on this problem than has hitherto been obtain- ed. In New York, the Bureau of Munici- pal Research has much more than justi- fied itself; but if the facts are needed in a city, how much more must they be of use with regard to a race? There is the lynching evil; the facts in every case ought to be given to the public — not the sensational charges of irrespon- sible country newspaper correspondents, nor the first hysterical outbursts of vic- tims, real or feigned. The country ought to know the exact truth as to negro criminality; there are plenty of South- erners, like the Rev. Quincy Ewing, who maintain that it has a wrong impres- sion. Still another suggested field for the national board is that of furnishing legal aid to colored people and of bring-

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572 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 ing to justice those who commit crimes against them. Last week the Wisconsin Legislature finally granted autonomy to Milwaukee. The provisions for the initiative under the new law give malcontents every chance to oust the "ins." Should 5 per cent, of all voters sign a petition calling for a vote on some issue, the Common Council may order a referendum; if 15 per cent, sign, the Council must. There is no denying that this might mean demagoguery. Thus, a majority ring of Aldermen and about 4,000 henchmen could put off until the next regular city election — the prescribed date of the ref- erendum— any legislation which ought to be decided upon at once. The hench- men would send in their 5 per cent, pe- tition, the Aldermen would bow to "pop- ular will," and a foolish or corrupt prac- tice would take a new lease of life. Nev- ertheless, those who have scented radi- calism here do not attempt to show that this risk exceeds the usual one, under old-fashioned, boss-made charters. The system at least' puts the honest citizen on equal terms with the professional politician. Whatever the latter can do, the former can; and so endurance of bad government becomes a greater of- fence than ever. Possibly the liquor war has entered upon a new phase by the act of the United States Brewers' Association bind- ing its members to sell no beer to deal- ers whom any brewer has placed under a ban. But we shall sound no dirge for the Anti-Saloon League until more is known about the ban, and the placing of it. Doubtless, a systematic and general weeding out of undesirable patrons is one of the moves needed to rehabilitate malt liquors, and all who traffic in them. Certainly, the gravest evils of alcohol, direct and indirect, are those of cheap spirituous beverages, "red eye," "black Joe," and less euphonious vari- ants of fusel oil. Those brewers see clearly who have advocated separate licenses for the two classes of beverages, and also the issuing of but one sort of license to each saloon. Even with this arrangement, however, the beer saloon will not vindicate itself so long as the blacklisting of disreputable bars is left to individual brewers, as the Associa- tion seemingly leaves it. Free competi- tion will operate in the future as in the past; each brewer, fighting hard for profits, will turn a lenient eye upon his own bartenders and customers. But once let a national or a State committee sit as moral judge, with power to re- strict the sales of all Association mem- bers, and the "model saloon" would be- come a reality, if it ever can at all. In its timely exploitation of Count Zeppelin's latest achievement, our War Department again displays the press agent's knack of turning current events to profit. But its fleet of dirigibles from Maine to Florida soars a little too high, overshooting wisdom. Doubtless, the Department is asking a reluctant Con- gress for twice as much as it dreams of getting; but such shrewdness is mis- placed in the present case, inasmuch as Congress is wholly destitute of enthusi- asm on the subject of aerial navigation, and is nosing so deeply in the tariff trough, moreover, that it cannot even turn one eye heavenward. And it would, in any case, frown upon this huge, cost- ly scheme of coast defence. Astounding though the progress of aeronautics has been, the science is still in its infancy. The art of landing has yet to be learn- ed. Air currents have not been charted. The most efficient size, shape, and de- gree of rigidity are unsettled points. To build a squadron of dirigibles before our experts have worked out and thor- oughly tested a pattern that improves upon the best of to-day, would benefit neither the aeronaut nor the country. dissolute enemies of society. They do not aim at any wayfarer in particular, but no more does the cowboy who "shoots up" a town. The address of Judge Mulqueen of this city to William Darragh should be posted above the speedometer of every automobile. No chauffeur is quite safe without it. The law under which Dar- ragh is sentenced is neither new nor ob- scure. A chauffeur's intent, like every other man's, can be known only through his voluntary acts; and, thus inferred, Darragh's wild drive up Morningside Avenue was manslaughter, to say the least. The seven years this reckless young man must spend in prison will, we think, impress other speed-maniacs even less than the court's warning that a rich or dissolute man, convicted under like circumstances, will probably be held guilty of murder. The prospect is by no means fanciful. Indeed, public and courts alike have almost reached the point of regarding the "joy ride" as prima-facie evidence that the riders are Mohammed never could have had so much trouble with his apostates and false prophets as does Mrs. Eddy. Sim- ple and monotonous would be Moham- med's answer to a Mahdi who called the reporters to his suite in the hotel and announced that the founder of Islam was either dead or in his dotage. A swish of the scimitar would close the debate. But Mrs. Delia M. Gilbert, the new prophetess of Christian Science in this city, cannot be dispatched so neat- ly. She avers that Mrs. Eddy is dead, or mindless. How can Mrs. Eddy prove herself neither? If her mind is gone, she exists no more, for "mind only is real." Let her swear, in the tongue of angels, that she has a mind; let her don a violet silk gown, drive past a com- mittee of reporters, and wave a glove at them; she may persuade infidels who believe in matter and the senses, but how can all this win back readers of the Sentinel? If they think her off the earth, off she goes, unless her party can think her on it more strongly. We should regret it very much if the report should be confirmed that Canada is to build a navy of her own. Even if it is only a coast-guard fleet, it is sure to be taken up by some of our navy- maniacs as reason for heavier Ameri- can armaments, and there would begin at once that friction and suspicion which are such inevitable accompaniments of the appearance of new war-vessels. The latest example of this is Italy; recent dispatches reported a "perfect naval panic" in government circles and a de- termination to build ships at any cost to maintain control of the Adriatic. Why? Because Austria has suddenly gone in for Dreadnoughts. For years the two nations have been peaceful enough neighbors, so far as naval ques- tions are concerned. But the instant Austria builds Dreadnoughts — purely for defence, of course, and without thought of aggression — Italy must has- ten to impoverish herself by outdoing the Hapsburg building programme. Our relations with Canada, the absence of forts and warships on our northern fron- tier, have been an object lesson in peace and common-sense for the whole world.

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June 10, 1909] The ISTation. 573 Anything which changed those relations and caused doubt and distrust would be a world-misfortune. Lord Rosebery, addressing the Im- perial Press Congress in London last Saturday, spoke with solemn emphasis of his fear of war. Real causes for hos- tilities were absent, but preparation for hostilities was being pushed with fever- ed and frantic haste. To the perspicuous mind, this absorption in getting ready for war makes the outlook most omin- ous. Not for Lord Rosebery is the cheap fallacy that the wild rush into great armaments is along the path of peace. All the talk may be for peace, but if all the action is for war, the chances are tremendouslj in favor of war. The "just man armed" may all too easily become the self-confident bully aching to try his weapons. And when the murderous work begins, the aggressor will look to the big navy, as Macbeth to his dagger: Thou marshall'st me the way that I was go- ing, And such an instrument I was to use. All this was perfectly clear to Lord Rosebery. He declared plainly that fierce competition in guns and ships leads directly to war. Where it would end, short of a general lapse into bar- barism, he could not say. One faint hope he saw if the workingmen of the world should find themselves so stag- gering under the burdens of militarism that they would say: "We will have no more of this madness and this foolery, which is grinding us to powder." Yet Lord Rosebery, with the customary and seemingly frenzied inconsistency of most public men who discuss this ques- tion, was ready to add that England would never draw back; she would "build Dreadnoughts as long as we have a shilling to spend or a man to put into them"; and if that were not enough, as he was afraid it might not be, she would call upon her colonies to save her. Not a word about any possible alternative. If the workingmen do not prevent out- break of war, European statesmen can do nothing. Such is Lord Rosebery's counsel of despair! "While he has preserved his quality as a thoroughly patriotic German, he has also been, under all circumstances, cne of the truest friends that the United States has ever had in Europe; indeed, I should say the foremost friend s'nce Bright, Goldwin Smith, De Gasparin, Laboulaye, and their compeers stood by the Union during our Civil War" — thus wrote Andrew D. White two years ago of Dr. Theodor Barth, whose unexpected death was announced last Thursday. No one was in a better position to value his services to this country than Mr. White, our Ambassauor to the court of Berlin during the trying years of the Spanish-American war and of the Phil- ippine insurrection. Throughout that period Dr. Barth was one of two Ger- man editors who stood up for the Unit- ed States. Not that he believed in either the war with Spain or the conquest of the Philippines; he was too sincere a demo- crat, too loyal to our best American tra- ditions, to approve those undertakings. But, as Mr. White has phrased it, Dr. Barth "could look beneath the surface of American affairs and understand the mass of good existing beneath the scum of evil." And because he was a believer in true democracy, he never for a mo- ment lost faith in republican institu- tions or ceased to advocate the doctrines of Liberalism in his own land. He was indeed, not of Germany alone, but of the world. Those who have drunk such deep draughts of democracy as he, are no longer to be restrained in their sym- pathies or their influence by national boundaries. It is impossible to think of John Bright, of Richard Cobden, or of Gladstone as Englishmen alone, any more than we can claim Lincoln as ex- clusively our own. Such tribunes of the common people are common property wherever the word liberty is heard. The annual meeting between the Czar and the Kaiser is an event of the near future. The usual professions concern- ing the historic friendship between the house of Hohenzollern and the house of Romanoff will be forthcoming. Mean- while, the Russian military authorities are showing their concern over the re- organization of the Empire's defensive plans against Germany. Ever since the disposal of the Balkan question by the Kaiser's alleged threat of an invasion of Poland, Russia has become acutely conscious of the weakness of her west- ern frontier. Gen. Kuropatkin, in his memoirs of the Russo-Japanese war, has laid particular stress upon Russia's need of concentrating her attention on that frontier. He has pointed out that with Russian Poland jutting out like a wedge between German Posen and Austrian Galicia, Poland might be a source of strength or weakness, according as the Russian army was powerful enough to use it as a starting-point of invasion or was compelled to hold it against a double attack from the north and south. To Kuropatkin's eye, the difficulties of the situation outweighed its advantages. When it came to mobilization, Germany, with seventeen lines of railway and twenty tracks running to the Russian frontier, could throw a million men into Poland in a short time. Against Ger- many's seventeen lines of railway, Rus- sia has only five. Austria has e ght lines, with ten tracks, against Russia's four. In case of war, therefore, the Czar's troops would be almost inevitably en the defensive. For the third time, Alfred Deakin has become Premier of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Labor Ministry un- der Andrew Fisher has been defeated by a coalition of the Deakin Protectionists and the Liberals, in accordance with the swing of Australian politics during the iast six years. Protectionists, Liberals, and Laborites are all too weak to rule by themselves, and in consequence Aus- tralia has been in a state sometimes de- scribed as a "triangular anarchy." But though Australian Cabinets have lacked stability, anarchy is an unfair term. Far from being hopelessly at variance, the three parties are sometimes desperate- ly exercised to discover sufficient issues to fight over. Protectionism of some kind or other is accepted by all parties; there is no wide difference of opinion on the question of a White Australia; and there is virtual unanimity on the duty of the Commonwealth to contribute to the defence of the Empire. In what form such aid should be rendered, opin- ions differ. The Fisher Cabinet advo- cated the assumption by Australia of the defence of her own coasts, but this policy, approved by the best element, would seem to have been swamped in the recent outbreak of Dreadnought mania. On this issue, and on the ques- tion of a progressive federal land tax, the Fisher Ministry would seem to have been defeated. "Every man and every institution interested in land valued at more than £5,000," says one dispatch, "is intent on putting the Fisher Minis- try out before the next general elec- tions."

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574 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 229^ METHOD IN SENATORIAL MADNESS It would be a very simple-minded Muse that would respond if called upon to sing the wrath of a tariff -making Senate. There appear to have been, it is true, some sublime exhibitions of celes- tial rage. Senatorial courtesy has taken on the odd form of "You're a liar!" and the exquisitely polite and witty retort has often been heard: "Yah! You're one yourself." There have been terrible "en- counters" with the safe weapon of the tongue, and fearful "collisions" at the convenient distance of the width of the Senate chamber; but the attentive ob- server cannot help feeling that there is someth.ng very theatric about all this. He sees that Aldrich and his obedient followers, at all events, in the very tor- rent, tempest, and, as we may say, whirl- wind of their passion, are able to make it "smooth" in a sense of that word un- known to Shakespeare. "What we mean is that behind the scene of all this petulance and flurry, Senator Aldrich, Senator Hale, and their aides and confederates are quietly per- fecting in secret the bargains by which they hope to make the last tariff state of the American people worse than the first. Significant evidence of this came out the other day. Senator Brown of Ne- braska asked when the Finance Com- mittee was going to report its proposed duty on wood pulp and printing paper. Aldrich replied that the amendment was not quite ready. He could assure the Senate, however, that this schedule would be reported soon, and would con- tain duties somewhat higher than those of the Payne bill, but lower than those of the existing law. Now, why has this schedule been held back all these weeks? Why are the duties on coal and coke — products which the House voted to put on the free list — still held "subject to modification by the Senate"? Obviously, in order that the tariff-traders and log- rollers may have material with which to do their nefarious work. They have kept some of their cards under the ta- ble, to be produced when it is necessary in order to win the game. "While the oratory and the anger have been display- ed in the public sessions of the Senate, the real work of distributing tariff fa- vors and ratifying tariff bargains has been done behind closed doors, in com- mittee rooms, or hotels or clubs. That is the method in all this Senatorial mad- ness. Nowhere is there any pretence that the Senatorial cabal gives a moment's thought to either the interests or the desires of the whole people. The tariff is the private business of Senators. They will attend to that. They talk vaguely, it is true, about consulting the wishes of their constituents, but they mean only that handful of manufacturers or chiefs of corporations who are rich enough to spend weeks in "Washington lobbying, who have financed party campaigns and Senatorial elections in the past, and stand ready to do it again if they are allowed to write the clauses of the tar- iff which mean money in their pockets. A good typical case is that of the New Jersey Senators. They are ever to be found among Aldrich's fine brute major- ity, voting for all the high and higher duties. Yet Messrs. Kean and Briggs know perfectly well that New Jersey is a low-tariff State. It gave its electoral vote to Cleveland three times, largely on that issue. The sentiment even of the Republicans of New Jersey is un- questionably in favor of President Taft's recommendation of a revision down- wards. Yet the two Senators continue to misrepresent their party and affront their State by always counting with Ald- rich's high-tariff cattle. They furnish only one illustration of the way in which a powerful "hog com- bine" in the Senate has been scheming and plotting, and buying and selling votes, in order to defeat the House, thwart the President, and cheat the country. As the success of these Sena- tors becomes more evident, their effron- tery increases. The mask which they discreetly wore for a time, they are now throwing away. At first, they gave out that they were entirely with Mr. Taft. Then when they were found destroying the free list and going for outrageously high duties, they explained that they knew this was not what the President wanted, but that they would see that the conference between the two houses made a tariff to suit him. But now they are saying that, so far as they know, Mr. Taft is well pleased with their out-Ding- leyed bill, and that there is no reason why he should not sign it. Evidently, somebody is deceiving or deceived. As the hero asks in Beaumarchais's play: "Qui trompe-t-on ici?" There are signs in the Washington dispatches that the President is awakening to the double game which certain Senators have been playing with him. The.r protestation that, though they were working tooth and nail to make a very bad bill, they really intended to make it a very good one before they finished, was all along suspicious, and now plainly appears as a mere trick. To meet it, Mr. Taft's friends in Washington are saying that he will soon make his position known publicly — by speech or letter. The time is rapidly coming when he must do so if he would not see the extra session worse than wasted, his hopes dashed, and his promises flouted. INTERNATIONAL BAD MANNERS. We do not know which Germany will regard as more insulting — the attacks upon her by our high-tariff Senators, or their later eulogies of her. Either, we should say, would be pretty hard to put up with. That particular display of bad manners has no great importance in it- self. Foreigners have, by this time, come pretty well to understand the play- ful ways of our Congressmen. And as they are more and more taking up with high tariffs themselves, they see better what a provocation of anger, malice, and all uncharitableness the system of pro- tection is. Trade wars may be the bit- terest of all; and in the matter of offen- sive epithet applied to foreign commer- cial rivals, neither the German nor the English pot can call the American ket- tle black. From laying a prohibitory tax on foreigners' goods to charging him with trickery and deceit, is but a natural and easy step. The evil, however, does not stop with tariffs and taxes. In all the relations between countries, there persists a vast and wholly unreasonable amount of sus- picion, dislike, and latent antagonism. The Prime Minister of England recently confessed that this kind of international exasperation appears to be growing. "We live," said Mr. Asquith, "in a scare-mon- gering age." And the scares, of course, are all concerning the wicked designs of unscrupulous foreigners. Frank Dr. Johnson said that all foreigners seemed to him to be fools. And knaves, we add to-day. They are all the while schem- ing to trick and cozen us; while we, of course, are merely seeking by lawful and honorable means to take our right- ful place in the world — simply to "sit in the sun," as the Germans phrase it. Two statesmen have recently borne striking testimony to the extent and

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June 10, 1909] The Nation. 575 harmfulness of this spirit of interna- tional misunderstanding and animosity. Senator Root's speech at the Peace Din- ner had a passage of manly protest at the ignorant and barbaric attitude of many in this country towards the Jap- anese. And the other day at Mohonk, Ambassador Bryce uttered some forci- ble words about the urgent duty of re- moving "the atmosphere of suspicion" which now seems to envelop all the great Powers of the world. It is com- monly said that reckless and sensation- al newspapers are to blame. Doubtless, they have their share of the guilt to bear, and it is a grievous one, but Mr. Bryce affirmed truly that irresponsible editors vilify foreigners only because they think the public craves such at- tacks. The British Ambassador added: Thus we come back to the people — th it is, to ourselves, the ordinary citizens who are the ultimate masters both of the gov- ernment and of the press. Why do we like to have other nations placed in the wor.st light and their defects exaggerated? Why is it thought patriotic to defy other nations and unpatriotic to indicate any faults in ourselves, any weak points in our own case? The answer to these questions is — "pure ignorance." Bad manners go with defective education. The boor would behave better if he only knew how. And these recurring displays of internation- al ill breeding simply show that ml- lions of people have not emerged from that sunk condition of ignorance when every tribe thought that the men over the river or across the mountain range were natural and inveterate enemies, always lying in wait to burn and kill. To that kind of barbarism, trade jeal- ousies and the mad competition in arm- aments seem to be carrying the world back with a temporary lurch. But it will be only temporary. The means of spreading knowledge are too varied and invincible to permit the darkness to set- tle long upon us. There is no way of laying a protective tariff on ideas. Free t'.Tde in them will go on, and will in the end scatter the anarchs and Old Night. In all this matter, we have to dis criminate between the international bad manners of public men and of pri- vate citizens. If the former are more dangerous, the latter may be more net- tling. Peace may be imperilled by the statesman, but by the traveller com- placency is upset. The amount of ill- will created by English writers about the United States is proverbial. But that, too, is passing away. We are not so thin-skinned to foreign critics as we used to be. If they can teach us any- thing, so much the better; if we can catch them ludicrously tripping, that heightens our joy. The composure with which Ferrero's criticisms have been received, as compared with those of Mrs. Trollope and of Dickens, speaks much for our gain in good nature and in phil- osophic calm. To take in good part even the sharpest pen-thrusts of a for- eigner, is getting to be a world-trait, a form of international good breeding. An American, Price Collier, has, for exam- ple, published recently a book on the English. It is filled with briery com- ment, but the English reviewers seem to write of it good-humoredly. Thus the Westminster Gazette quotes what the author says about the English diet: Meat, meat, meat, and no alleviation. The vegetables are few, and even they, as Heine phrased it, "are boiled in water, and tlnn put upon the table just as God made them." . . . The eternal round of eggs, bacon, sole, beef, mutton, ham, tongue, and chick- en, with potatoes, and cabbage, and cheese, is the familiar diet of the Englishman. Nor does he complain. He wants nothing else. But it immediately adds: Of course, he does not! — especially when, together with his eternal round of eggs, etc., the gods occasionally send him, among his mental food, such books as Mr. Col- lier's. Then he complains less than evjr, but rejoices exceedingly, and reads the book from beginning to end. That is both good sense and good man- ners. If all international pin-pricks could be dealt with in like fashion, the peace of the world would be more se- cure. MAKING SCHOLARSHIP RESPECTA- BLE. President Lowell's address at Colum- bia University last week carries with it the interest that always attaches to the first pronouncement of policy under a new reign. What will the young King do? Will he follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, request his Cabinet to retain their portfolios, and declare his firm adhesion to the treaties and alli- ances entered into by the late monarch? Or will he dissolve Parliament, clap the Minister of Finance into jail under charges of defalcation, hang the chief groom of the bed-chamber, and announce his intention to make a radical change in his country's foreign relations? The latter course has been followed, but only by hot-headed young princes. The wise ruler, upon assuming the crown, will come out for no such open break with the past, however strong his determina- tion to govern in accordance with his own ideas. He will promulgate his com- plete agreement with the policies of his predecessor, but will let it be known that no rough riders, heroes of the bunting-field, and famous halfbacks need apply. He will declare for the strict enforcement of the law, but will draw the line at brass bands. He will assume responsibility for the success or failure of his reign, but will refrain from calling up his ministers on the telephone at 2 A. M. And in the end he may have built up a fairly satisfac- tory policy of his own out of his slight exceptions to the policies of the preced- ing reign. Some such procedure is forecasted in President Lowell's Phi Beta Kappa ad- dress. The development of the elective system is the policy with which Dr. Eliot's name is commonly connected. Of the elective system, Harvard's new pres- ident has drawn up a sharp arraign- ment. It is true that he approaches the subject from a single side, from the point of view of one who believes that it is a powerful function of the univer- sity to foster expert scholarship. Our graduate schools are not a success, if we compare the progress of scholarship in our country either with our advance in material welfare, or specifically with the excellent work done by our profes- sional schools. And the trouble is not that our graduate schools are deficient in the machinery of specialized training, but that they are compelled to work with unpromising material. "The grad- uate school," he says, "can train schol- ars, it cannot create love of scholar- ship." Such love of scholarship should be imbibed and cherished in the college, but is not; and the fault lies in the lack of the stimulus of competition. In the preparatory school we have the stim- ulus of discipline, of a prescribed pro- gramme. In the professional school there is the powerful stimulus of fit- ting one's self for earning one's liveli- hood. But in the college, under the elec- tive system, there is compulsion neither from without nor from within. There is none from within, because the elec- tive system, in breaking up the uniform- ity of undergraduate training, has done away with the stimulus of rivalry

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576 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 which should be quite as effective in the intellectual sphere as in athletics or business. But Dr. Lowell perceives that the elective system cannot be done away with. "No sane man would propose to restore anything resembling a fixed cur- riculum in any of our larger colleges. We must not go backward ; we could not if we would." Remains, therefore, the task of infusing the spirit of emulation into college work by other means. Dr. Lowell thinks it necessary to free the specially gifted student from the drag imposed upon him by a minimum of scholarship fixed in accordance with the needs of the average man, and some- times even the dunce. Some such sys- tem of honor and pass-exam nations as obtains in the English universities would be in line. For the essential point is to endow scholastic proficiency with seme of the outward distinctions that are so effective in rousing the spirit of competition in the heart of youth. At present, exceptional proficiency in a col- lege student is primcu-facie evidence of guilt. He cannot stand high in his stud- ies without being that most dreadful of all college species, a "grind." Let us accept tl is common prejudice as a fact, says Dr. Lowell. Let us devise some system of examinations and rewards that shall be closed to the mere "grind." Just as making the eleven or the eight is a testimonial to extraordinary physical powers, let there be a mark by which we can distinguish our intellectually se- lect. President Lowell's appeal ought to find a wide response. We are not over- sanguine. We do not expect to see honor examinations in mathematics or 'Greek conducted in the Stadium amid the cheers of thirty thousand specta- tors. ->ut we have little doubt that if college presidents were as interested in advertising the scholastic attainments of their honor men as they are in the success of the football team, men with brains would cease to be actually ashamed of the fact. The tyranny of college tradition is notorious, and the tyranny of the athletic tradition is as the iron caste laws of the Brahmins. The serious student and his teacher subscribe to it as meekly as the most devoied of rooters. The man who would rather spend an hour or two with Ste- venson or the Arthurian romances feels trat he is breaking the law which requires his presence at lacrosse prac- tice. The man who is unfortunate enough to get an A in his English and history slinks about with a hangdog look. It does not matter that his lessons cost him almost as little time as they do the captain of the football team. It does not matter that he spends delight- ful hours in the book alcoves with Lecky or the wicked minor Latin poets. No. He gets along well in class; he shows in- terest in his books. Therefore he is a grind, something less than a man. If President Lowell shall succeed in vindicating the claims of the bookman against the athlete, he will have done a memorable service. College tradi- tion grows by sufferance. A sharp dig or two at muscle-worship, a word of praise for efficient brain-work, and the silly tradition will have lost much of its effectiveness. Nor does that mean that brains and sane indulgence in ath- letics are incompatible. It is quite the other way. Because of our present wor- ship of the athlete-hero, the ordinary good scholar is so completely shut off from outdoor play that he feels himself a lamed being and ashamed, ashamed of what he can do as of what he can- not. When college athletics shall have learned to take care of every student, the undergraduate who can run a little, swim a little, and make a fair showing on the diamond, will not be ashamed to make an exceptional showing in the classroom. "IN-BREEDING" IN COLLEGES. Critics of American colleges and uni- ^ ersities have had not a little to say about what they call "in-breeding" in the faculties. By this is meant a ten- dency, actual or fancied, to prefer lo- cal graduates for local appointments. The implication appears to be that in- breeding is, per se, a perilous practice, and that if only the authorities can be brought to see that they are doing the accursed thing, they will stop it forth- with, and return to a healthful and beneficent exogamy. It is possible to object, however, not only to this spe- cies of "reasoning from analogy," but also to the validity of the analogy itself as supporting the position advocated. Logically, the argument bears a strong family resemblance to the kind which once graced the discourses of the old- school political orator, the expounder of modern policy upon the basis of what passed for the experience of Imperial Rome. This sort of "reasoning" comes to jar on the nerves, if one feels obliged to take it seriously; for, after having been cozened a few times by some striking but really empty or misleading parallelism, one discovers that the bulk of this sort of argument is no more than a slurring over of real distinctions. Even allowing analogy its due — for it often has suggestions of high value — - let us consider this one of in-breeding. The parallel is plainly with human con- sanguineous unions, for if it were made to refer to animal or plant-breeding, it would mean little to the non-specialist. It is manifestly an appeal to the folk- prejudice against the union of near kin, a prepossession which, along with other popular beliefs, has been accepted with- out verification. Now, any thinking man realizes that human beings carry about a number of these unverified group- ideas — unverified, because life is too short and the power of the mind too limited to test more than a few of them. But they ought to be identified early in the intellectual life as a spe- cies, and as a probable source of error. As a matter of fact, the analogy, when critically examined, yields, in several of its phases, an exact opposite of the con- clusion which it is cited to support. It is not certain that even human con- sanguineous unions are so disastrous as people have often supposed; in any case, who could maintain that they have had less desirable results than unions from which indiscriminate human mongreis have sprung? But expand the analogy so that it takes in plant and animal- breeding. The only way to procure an animal or plant type that has any spe- cial individuality or value is precisely through isolation; that is, strict in- breeding; the way to lose such a type is to mix up the strains. After a while, to be sure, it is well to introduce some fresh blood; but this must be done with discrimination. Perhaps, if it is desired to get a product that "never was on sea or land," it would be advis- able to mix varieties to the uttermost. Now, if this interpretation of the anal- ogy be applied to a college, the case would stand something like this: if your type seems to you to possess any spe- cial value, keep up a good degree of isolation, introducing fresh blood spar- r- »TJ%..I

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June 10, 1909] The Nation 577 ingly and giving it time to become dif- fused; if you are disgusted with your type, break it all up and start over again, by thoroughly mixing the strain and awaiting variations from which to select a novel breed. The implication in the latter case is that anything is better than what you have, for nobody knows what bizarre forms you may suc- ceed in producing by extensive mixture. In short, seen aright, the analogy (neglecting its vagueness and its amus- ing side) reduces to this: faculty in- breeding may be bad or good, accord- ing to the circumstances. But policy in the matter ought not to be influenced by an unconsciously ignorant assump- tion that all organic in-bieeding is bad. The issue is: Good for what? Bad for what? Some faculty types should not receive perpetuation in their existing form — that is freely granted. Let these out-breed. Other types are peculiarly and characteristically strong. They are impossible, apparently, of duplication, because of that indefinable something that might be called spirit. Let these in-breed as a policy, and out-breed only within the limit of the full preservation of their individuality. Let them out- breed enough to secure constant slight variations from which gradually to im- prove their stock; but let them beware of running to unpredictable mutations and "sports." This argument by analogy is slippery in the extreme, however conscientiously it is used. At all events, educated men should not allow themselves to be taken in by careless reasoning from analogy on the part of others; and they should be properly humiliated if they detect themselves in the fallacy. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. A bibliographical account of the very rare map of Kentucky made by John Filson for his "History," published in 1784, has been prepared by P. Lee Phillips, chief of the map division of the Library of Con- gress, to accompany a facsimile reproduc- tion made from the map recently acquired by the library. The volume, a quarto of twenty-two pages, besides the map, is published by W. H. Lowdermilk & Co. of Washington. They announce that if suf- ficient encouragement is received, similar monographs will be published on other rare American maps, such as Romans's map of Florida (1774) and Hermann's map of Vir- ginia (1673). Of Filson's map with imprint "Philad'a. Engrav'd by Henry D. Pursell, & Printed by T. Rook, for the Author, 1784.", six copies are located by Mr. Phillips, three in public and three in private libraries. The public libraries possessing impressions are Harvard, Public Library of Philadelphia, and Library of Congress. The private col- lections are those of the late E. D. Church and Robert Hoe of this city, and Col. R. T. Durrett of Louisville, Ky. The late E. C. Bigmore of London, an astute and careful student, informed the present writer some years ago that he had seen two genuine impressions of the map in the archives at Salamanca in Spain. At the time we had before us the Kalbfleisch-Pope copy (now Mr. Hoe's), and there is no reason to sup- pose that Mr. Bigmore confused the origi- nal Philadelphia map with either the French reproduction of 1785 or the English one of 1793. The two copies are probably still in Spain. Mr. Phillips has discovered a number of variations between the Library of Congress and Harvard copies, showing that the latter is a later impression taken after some alterations had been made to the plate. "The Library of Rameses the Great," a lecture by Dr. Charles L. Nichols, read April 15, 1908, has just been published by the Club of Odd Volumes of Boston, as a pretty little book, with frontispiece and vignette engraved by Sidney L. Smith. Eighty-seven copies only are printed. Iam- blicus, writing in 325 a. d. of the Egyptian mysteries, said that there were 20,000 books in this famous library, probably papyrus rolls preserved in cylinders. Dr. Nichols refers to several manuscripts in the British Museum and elsewhere, which may have formed a part of it, but nothing definite can be identified. Four pillars only are still standing of this, the oldest of all public libraries. The Merwin-Clayton Sales Company of this city will hold sales on June 14, 15, 16, and 17. Several specimens of early printing, books on the Indians, and early settlements of the West; first editions of James Feni- more Cooper; a book from Longfellow's library, with his autograph, and a twelve- line poem in the autograph of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, are included. The American auction season is about over, and not much of importance will be included in the few remaining sales. The library of Henry B. H. Beaujoy is being dispersed by Christie Manson & Woods in London. The first portion was sold on June 7, 8, 9, and 10, and the second is to be sold on June 15, 16, and 17. "La Mer des Histoires" (Paris, 1488); the first Virgil, with a commentary (Venice, 1475); a fine French manuscript Psalterium (14th Century); Purchas's "Pilgrimes," 5 vols. (1625-26); and the first edition of Walton's "Lives" (1670) are notable books of the second portion. On June 25, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge will sell in London a collection of old books from the library of Col. Cotes. The first collected edition of Beaumont and Fetcher (1647), with "The Wild Goose Chase" (1652) bound in; "The Pilgrimes Progress," eighth edition (1682); Milton's "Paradise Regain- ed," first edition (1671), in the original calf; a fourth folio Shakespeare (1685) ; Warner's "Albion's England," first edition (1586), and the first edition of the Sarum Missal, print- ed in England (1498), are notable books which are offered. Correspondence. WAS JOHN COTTON THE PRECEPTOR OF SIR HENRY VANE, JR.? TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION: Sm: J. Wingate Thornton ("The His- torical Relation of New England to the English Commonwealth"), seeking to es- tablish the influential relation of the Mas- sachusetts Puritans to the leaders of the English Commonwealth, thinks that Vane wrs a principal channel of that influence, and goes so far as to assert that "Vane was trains in Cotton's study." Dr. J. K. Hos- mer ("Life of Sir Henry Vane") says, "This is scarcely too much to say," and gives a beautiful imaginary picture of the relation of the two men, when Vane was Cotton's guest. No evidence of this training and education is brought forward. It seems to be a pure conjecture, without any sub- stantial proof, from the fact of Vane's res- idence in Cotton's home. From what we know of the two men, the probabilities are all against the reasonableness of the con- jecture. We know that Vane could teach Cotton on the subject of religious tolera- tion : why not also on the subject of church independency and polity, of true democracy in church government? In those days the two subjects seemed to be indissolubly con- nected. We have no means of knowing how defi- nite and fully ripened Vane's views were- when he arrived in Boston. Edwin D. Mead says (the Nation, May 13, 1909) : "When he came to Boston to live with John Cotton he was not an Independent, and when he went back to England he was. The inference would seem to be simple," that is, as to the fact of his training under Cot- ton. Perhaps not so simple, after all. It might be replied: neither was Cotton an Independent when Vane came to Boston, and more than that, he never became one, and was hardly qualified to be a sympathetic and successful teacher. So far as we have any knowledge, Vane was an independent in sentiment when he reached New England, and his experience here simply confirmed him in views already accepted, instead of teaching him new and broader views which his supposed teacher never accepted. His "training in Cotton's study" was of the kind that establishes the views which are not taught; that is, a teaching by repulsion. It is made certain by abundant testimony that Vane was an outspoken and fully ripened Independent at once when he returned to England. He was elected to Parliament in 1640, and immediately, says Dr. Ireland, "the leaders of the Independent party in the Commons were the younger Vane and Oliver St. John." Baillie, speaking of the Parliamentary discussions at that time, praises naturally the orators on the Pres- byterian side, that is, those who declaimed in defence of the narrow polity and intol- erance of the Presbyterians, and adds sig- nificantly, "Yet Henry Vane went on vio- lently," on the side of the Independents. It ought not to be necessary to repeat what is so well known and universally ac- knowledged, that Independency in England and Puritanism in Massachusetts Bay were not synonymous. They did not stand for the same things, either in the matter of civil or ecclesiastical polity. Dr. Hosmer says:

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« rj 578 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 The first hint at Independency is perhaps found in Hie writings of Zwingie. [A more accurate statement would be in the pub- lications of the Swiss Anabaptists in the sixteenth century.] It first took form in England, however; then developed fully !n America. [It should be said.it was many years in developing.] While Prelacy was dominant in the time of Elizabeth and James, little congregations of Brownists or Separatists appeared here and there in England, some of which went to Holland. As a proof of the lack of identity between Massachusetts Puritanism and English In- dependency it will be sufficient to quote Dr. Henry M. Dexter, a recognized au- thority, who says ("Congregationalism as Seen in its Literature," p. 463): The early Congregationalism of this coun- try was Barrowism and not Brownism — a Congregationalized Presbyterianism, or a Presbyter ianized Congregationalism — which had its roots in the one system and its branches in the other. This important distinction between the English Independents of that period and American Independents (?) is clearly brought out by J. A. Doyle ("The Puritan Colonies," I, 127): To such an one as Vane life in New England must have been a continuous dis- enchantment. [This is a plain recognition of Vane's advanced position in Independen- cy before he came to New England.] The more cultivated men among the political reformers valued and sympathized with Puritanism. But they valued it in its moral and political aspects, as a means for the regeneration of the individual, as an ally against corrupt courtiers and arbitrary statesmen, rather than a system of theo- logical dogma. To them the Independent system meant one under which self-con- stituted societies, freely brought together by common beliefs and aspirations, might work out the problems of spiritual life. In New England it meant the arbitrary rule of a tyrannical public opinion. Moreover, to men familiar with those theories of human rights which were now asserting themselves, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Massachusetts must have seemed a vio- lation of all sound principles. The same fundamental distinction be- tween Brownism or English Independency and so-called American Independency is recognized and set forth as follows by Prof. Herbert L. Osgood ("American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century"): Not only was it [religious freedom] a fundamental tenet of Robert Browne, but it lay at the basis of true Independency. The Puritans of Massachusetts were in theory Independents, and had they re- mained true to the principle upon which their movement began, they must have welcomed the doctrine with which the name of Roger Williams is identified. But large-, ly under the pressure of political neces- sity, the Massachusetts leaders had from the beginning committed themselves to a limited and Presbyterianized Independency. In order to secure unity and strength they had sacrificed freedom (I, 235). Finally, the tendency toward democracy in ecclesiastical and civil government was counterbalanced by the necessity for the maintenance of order and authority. The more aristocratic phases of this system were reproduced by the Presbyterians of England and Scotland; the more democratic by Robert Browne and his followers, the Separatists. An intermediate position came to be occupied by the Puritans of New England (I, 203). In 1634, the year after Cotton's arrival in Boston, he issued a publication entitled "Questions and Answers Upon Church Gov- ernment." This publication was reissued in 1643. In it Cotton maintained, accord- ing to Dr. Dexter (p. 424), "that Christ has committed government partly to the body of the church, but principally to the Pres- bytery of Ruling Elders." The system of ruling elders was out and out Presbyterian- ism to that extent. Dr. Dexter declares (p. 699): Our historic original New England Con- gregationalism was a purely Presbyterian polity, only that it was applied to, and stopped short with, the local assembly. The system was more and more departed from as the years went by, to the regret of prominent leaders. John Wise writing in 1717 ("A Vindication of the Government of N. E. Churches," p. 88), "pleads for the old New England way, as he understands and advocates it, with Ruling Elders hold- ing their place. Of "The Way of the Churches of Christ in New England," Cotton's publication, which Mr. Mead thinks had influence on Vane, Dr. Dexter says (p. 434): "In this I think of nothing which requires mention as adding to, or especial- ly modifying, the views already propound- ed." The Cambridge Platform distinctly declared, "The term Independent we ap- prove not." Hugh Peters said (1643), "We are much charged with what we own not, viz.: Independency." There were undoubt- ably different shades of belief among the churches. It was a time of transition. Some of the leaders, including Cotton, were charged with inconsistent utterances. It is doubtful if among the early New Eng- land churches of "the standing order" there were any Independent churches in the Eng- lish sense or any Congregational Churches in the modern sense anywhere, excepting in the Plymouth Colony. In its ripest stage for many years it was, to repeat Dr. Dexter's accurate phrase, "Presbyterianized Congregationalism." Dr. E. H. Byington says ("The Puritan in England and New England," p. 108): The present Congregationalism is much nearer that of the Plymouth Church than that of the Cambridge Platform. Under that Platform churches bearing the name Presbyterian, though of the Con- gregational sort, were organized for a cen- tury and more. An illustration is found in Providence, R. I. The First Congre- gational (now Unitarian) Society in Provi- dence, organized as late as 1720, was called Presbyterian. In a discourse on the his- tory of the church, delivered in 1836, by the pastor, Rev. Edward B. Hall, occur these words : The first name given to this Society, Presbyterian, I know not how to explain. It is found in the earliest records and deeds, and was long the popular, if not the only, name. ... It is still better known probably, at least to those in this vicinity, 'than any other name. The land on which the first house of wor. ship was erected, was conveyed in 1723 to "Feoffees in trust for the Presbyterian or Congregational Society in Providence." The terms were employed interchangeably or as mutually descriptive. No fact in history is more incontroverti- ble than that the Independency of England was more advanced, and more consistent than the Congregationalism of New Eng- land. The extent of its diffusion is often underestimated. The Brownists or Separ- atists, and the Baptists were in harmony in their views of religious liberty and of church polity. They were all Independents or Congregationalists. The Independents did not become a political party until near the close of the first third of the seven- teenth century. But they had long been a positive and increasing force to be reckoned with among the religious forces of the Eng- lish people, and were so active and aggres- sive, in spite of bitter and persistent per- secution, that they had not a little to do in bringing about the English Commonwealth. They were strong enough and numerous enough to become the dominant party in England under Cromwell. Fifty-five years had passed between Browne's movement at Norwich, and the emigration of Vane, and Browne's priority is disputed by some Bap- tist historians. A half-century and more is ample time for a harvest, when the soil is ready. It is stated by an opponent that the presses of the Baptists "did groan and sweat under the load of their publications," which scattered everywhere their leavening influence. Green, in his "Short History of the English People," calls attention to the fact that "at the beginning of the seven- teenth century scores of Independent con- gregations existed in England and Wales." Thomas Erskine May ("Constitutional His- tory of England" II, 296) says: "Before the death of Elizabeth (1603) the Indepen- dents had spread themselves widely through the country." Sir Walter Raleigh declared in Parliament, before the close of the six- teenth century, that "he was afraid that there were nearly twenty thousand Brown- ists in England." Evidently "the New England Way," so-called, was not a new way in old England, unless its modifica- tion made it such. Vane had a thousand better qualified teachers at home, and it is safe to say, had learned his lesson well, so that he had little need of Cotton as "preceptor" during his brief experience in Boston. This will easily account for the fact which Mr. Mead, who nevertheless ad- vocates the claim for Cotton, acknowledges, when he says: "It is .also certain that the learner advanced far beyond the [supposedj teacher." At any rate, we must accept Cotton's own testimony as to the position he held, viz., "Democracy J. do not con- ceyve that ever God did ordeyne as a fitt government eyther for church or common- wealth." Henry M. Kino. Providence, E. I., May 14. MAJOR WIRZ AT ANDERSONVILLE. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In support of the contention which has been recently made, that Major Wirz was not responsible for the conditions at Andcrsonville prison, I beg to submit the following evidence of an eye witness, who was clearly speaking with the utmost sin- cerity. Whil: a passenger 00 a train approaching Andcrsonville on last Saturday, I fell into conversation with an elderly man, who evinced great interest in the new monu- ment to Major Wirz. A few questions disclosed the fact that he was for several weeks on guard duty at the prison in the summer of 1864, when conditions were at their worst. In reply to my questions, he said: If they was badly treated, I didn't see it. They drawed their rations just like we drawed ours, and they was the same rations. We was just as much prisoners as thev was, because if we went outside the lines we was court-martialled; and we had to work for our rations.

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mm*a**u^M*m**^**timM June 10, 1909] The Nation. 579 SOCIALISM. Tlo the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Your amusing dissertation (see Nation, May 27) on the parlor Socialist re- calls a hectic warning against Socialism, •entitled "The Coming Peril," which came to my notice a few days ago. Socialism has truly lost much of its ancient barnyard ferocity, and tamed down to a suitable playfulness for the parlor. Its fangs have been drawn, its sting re- moved, and what was once honest, if force- ful, protest, has degenerated into a species of windy discontent with oppression, mo- nopoly, confiscation, etc., as maltreated by- words. Though not disposed to apologize for the injustices of the economic system, I yet fail to see how the good of the cause is served by calling things out of their names. Monopoly and confiscation are relative terms, and applied indiscriminately promise no solution. Specific gravity counts in the economic as in the physical world. Conditions cannot he overcome by theories, nor is virtue at- tained through vociferous condemnation of successful brigandage. W. S. Philadelphia, June 2. THE HANGING OF PLANTS. To the Editor op The Nation: Sir: It may not be too late to submit the following quotation apropos of the re- cent discussion in your correspondence col- umn in regard to the hanging of animals. The passage is found in the work attributed to one Meister Stolle (thirteenth or four- teenth century), reprinted in Von der Hagen's "Minnesinger," vol. Ill, p. 5: A king rode before the house of a good man who dwelt by the forest, and who suf- fered many sorrows without desert. A gar- den lay by the house, in which he had erected a gallows. The king said: "Good man, tell me, why have you erected this?" He said: "Full many a day the tall weeds have destroyed my good crops; these I pull out with my hands and hang them upon the gallows, that they may wither there." B. Q. Morgan. University of Wisconsin, May 26. Notes. After a silence of six years, James Lane Allen has written a new novel, "The Bride of the Mistletoe," which will be issued by the Macmillan Company at an early date. His description of the rations was quite enough to explain illness, but he had no complaint to make, as he said they knew they received the best the authorities could furnish. I submit that evidence of this sort, given hy a man whose speech showed that he was a Southerner, and without the leaot idea that it would ever be printed, should hnve great weight. If prisoners and guards received exactly the same rations, bhero can at least be no truth in the contention that the prisoners were starved. Any sol- dier in any of the Southern armies could explain why medicine was not to be had lor the prisoners. W. D. Hooper. University of Georgia, Athens Ga., May 26. Little, Brown & Co. have ready for imme- diate publication a new work by Admiral A. T. Mahan, entitled "The Harvest With- in: Being Thoughts on the Life of a Chris- tian." This is a striking departure from the topics usually considered by our naval writer. Nathan Haskell Dole has made a trans- lation of Baroness von Suttner's "Me- moiren," which will be brought out by Ginn & Co. The book, in its German form, was noticed in the Nation of February 18. Calmann-Levy announce a new work by Anatole France, to be called "Les Sept Femmes de la Barbe-Bleue, et autres contes merveilleux." The Sturgis & Walton Co. announce what they describe as an important book of travel to be published m the autumn. It is an account of "The Great Wall of China," by Dr. William Edgar Geil. Buxton Forman is editing a volume of letters of Edward John Trelawny. He would be glad to have any letters of Tre- lawny's sent to him for inspection, at No. 46 Marlborough Hill, St. John's Wood, London. "Burdett's Hospitals and Charities" (the Scientific Press) comes to us for ILe year 1909, with its full statistics regarding Eng- lish and Colonial charitable institutions, with a chapter on American hospitals. The expenditure tables have all been remodelled in order to bring them into lin^ with the Revised Uniform System of Account-?. In its own field the book is indispensable. One may fairly ask whether Alexander J. Philip did not faJl between two stools when he refrained from making a Dick- ens encyclopaedia or a Dickens con- cordance out of his "Dickens Dic- tionary" (E. P. Dutton & Co.). The com- piler himself laments the difficulty of sep- arating the characters and places dealt with by the novelist from merely casual allusions. This will probably be felt still more keenly by the reader, who may be counted upon to consult the volume for just those less familiar scenes and persons which Mr. Philip omits. Barring this de- fect, the dictionary is admirably wrought. Under the leading titles appear the chap- ter reference, followed by a brief descrip- tion which, in the case of more important characters, is amplified by a note about the p'ot and setting. When possible, con- jectures are added as to the historical per- sonages who may have served as models. Dickens's own descriptions are closely fol- lowed throughout. The synopses of his works, in the introduction, are not uni- formly good, though doubtless serving well enough what little purpose they have. It is to be hoped that the work will scon grow into a Dickens encyclopaedia, as Mr. Philip plans. Prof. Eugen Kuehnemann of the Univer- sity of Breslau, who was exchange profes- sor at Harvard from 1906 to 1908, has writ- ten for the Deutsche Rundschau a study of ex-President Eliot, which has been trans- lated by Dr. A. W. Boesche of Harvard Uni- versity, and published by Houghton Mifflin Company in a thin volume of eighty-five pages. The writer has tempered his admi- ration for Harvard's great president with a sufficient measure of judgment. He Is interpretative rather than critical, but will undoubtedly give his German public a very adequate idea of what Mr. Eliot stood for and accomplished. To us, naturally, the little essay brings little that is new. If Prof. Eugen Kuehnemann errs anywhere it is in laying somewhat exaggerated empha- sis on President Eliot's devotion to the cause of American democracy. Mr. Eliot's influence on public life has undoubtedly been notable, but, after all, it is something of a commonplace that the speeches of university presidents shall insist upon the close connection between college and coun- try. The German reader is a bit in danger of drawing wrong conclusions concerning the aristocratic tone of the average Amer- ican university other than Harvard. "Civics and Health" (Ginn & Co.), by William H. Allen, secretary of the Bureau of Municipal Research, is not the syste- matic treatise which the title might lead some readers to expect. It is, however, most interesting reading, well calculated to draw attention to the exceedingly varied efforts now making to bring about a gen- eral social betterment by beginning at the bottom. The central theme of the book may be said to be that health is a right which every member of the community may properly claim, and that the most impor- tant element in the health of the community in the broadest sense is the child. The preface, by Prof. W. T. Sedgwick, intimates that the author is a prophet, but of a very practical type, albeit crying in a social wilderness. Much of his message seems to us rather vague, as, perhaps, befits proph- ecy, and some of his views and suggestions, mostly little suited for quotation, will not bear rigid inspection at short range; but the book as a whole can hardly fail to awaken the sympathies of even an apathetic read- er. Now and then he mav feel that he hears too many of the pet phrases of the settlement worker, or he may find the trend of method altogether too socialistic, the system too paternal to be quite accepta- ble; but the more he reads the better he will recognize that the preacher sincerely desires to reduce these evils to the lowest possible limit. It is an unexpected pleas- ure to come upon a thoroughly rational at- titude towards alcohol and tobacco, and the mere expression of such views will create confidence in the writer's position regard- ing other very debatable questions. The book is well printed, and has a number of excellent pictures, whose precise relation to the text is not always obvious. Dodd, Mead & Co. have just issued the "New International Year Book" for 1908. the second in their new series of annual volumes edited by Frank Moore Colby. In 1902 both the "International Year Book" and its senior, "Appleton's Annual," sus- pended publication. Their simultaneous dis- appearance was presumptive evidence that there was no demand for works of that character. Yet it is hard to see why the journalist, the student of contemporary politics, and the large number of college teachers whose interests lie in the yearly progress of the social and natural sciences should fail to recognize the large utility of an annual cyclopaedia, provided it shows tolerable fulness and a high standard of accuracy. If history, for instance, is to go on being written in large part from news- papers, as it has been done by Mr. Schouler and Mr. Rhodes, a reliable annual compen- dium is both a valuable guide and sub-

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580 The ]ST a t i o 11 . [Vol. 88, No. 2295 stitute. The latest "International Year Book" is a handsomely printed volume of 776 large pages. It appears exceptionally strong in gazetteer matter and politics. Perhaps as valuable a feature as any is the summary of events accompanying the sep- arate articles on the States and Territories Local politics and legislation are badly neglected in nearly all books of reference, in spite of the fact that Alexander Johnston in "Lalor's Cyclopaedia" showed what ad- mirable work can be done in that field. In the present volume the State summaries have been intelligently prepared. Here, if anywhere, error by writer or proofreader should be rigidly guarded against. Those we have noticed are of the second kind. Under Louisiana, the difference between 63,000 votes and 12,000 votes should give a majority of about 50,000 and not 40,000 as stated. Under New York, Shearn's vote for Governor is given as 33,994. This was approximately Shearn's vote in New York city; in the State it was over 43,000. Foreign statistics and politics receive very satisfactory treatment. The biography strikes us as comprehensive, but over- condensed. About 1,400 words for Grover Cleveland is not enough; or if that is enough, 800 words for Senator Allison is too much. Campbell-Bannerman and Charles W. Eliot are treated very summar- ily. But as a whole, the book easily dem- onstrates its value as a work of reference. "Woman Through the Ages," by Emil Reich (E. P. Button & Co.), may in- terest those who are in search of facts about women dissociated from the politi- cal, social, and literary movements of their times. The "gallons" of information, pour- ed (to use the author's own figure) into the "pint measures" of two handsomely printed and illustrated volumes, include all types of "western" women from the moth- ers of Egypt and the matrons and commen- dable hciurw of Greece to the "Amazons" of America, in whom is all guile, and who have not yet found their Theseus in the "American male Cinderella." The clearest thread in the maze of biographical and de- scriptive material is the author's theory, already advanced in a previous work, that imperialism affects disadvantageously the position and character of woman. Upon this thread are strung specimens as diverse as the women of Athens, Sparta, Rome, and England. Although first-hand sources have, been drawn upon, readers familiar with other compendia of the history and literature of classical antiquity, the middle ages, and the renaissance, and of France and England in the following centuries, will find little that is new in this book. Dr. Reich's opinions, however, are often sufficiently unprecedented, as when he as- serts (inconsistently with some of his other conclusions) that it was the failure of the Greeks to develop their women which proved their ruin, or that "in the renais- sance the personality of women was as yet nebulous." His knowledge of sculptured beauty is less exact than his observation of the beauties of living women, if we may judge from his failure to distinguish from Pentelic the Parian marble of the Venus of Melos. His literary preferences may be seen from his attributing to Mrs. Brown- ing a "beauteous power of song" and to George Eliot "feeble didacticism and ver- bosity." His moral preferences are not al- ways so well defined, but in general they tend to exalt the mother of the Gracchi above George Sand. The feminism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is al- ways an abomination to him. Since Dr. Reich disclaims having written a "history of woman," we cannot perhaps complain of his special pleading and fitful arguments. But even those who agree with him will find his entire treatment vitiated by a style at once feverish and bloodless. It is not in this way that the "few English- men" at whom his preface is aimed will be disabused of a chinoiserie d'idees about "the r6Ie of woman in social and historical life." Prof. Otto Ritschl has undertaken an ex- ceptionally difficult task in a large history of Protestant theological thought, "Dog- mengeschichte des Protestantismus : Grund- lagen und Grundziige der theologischen Ge- danken- und Lehrbildung in den protes- tantischen Kirchen." Vol. I has the spe- cial title, "Prolegomena: Biblizismus und Traditionalismus in der altprotestantischen Theologie" (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs). The author correctly feels that he is supply- ing a desideratum, as the theology of the early Protestant fathers has been gross- ly neglected in favor of the theology of the middle ages and earlier periods; or, even worse, has been judged from a wrong point of view. Ritschl has undertaken to furnish a purely objective investigation. A new book of unusual interest to stu- dents of German literature is volume xiv of Suphan's edition of Herder, recently published. This scholarly edition has been for years almost complete. The lack of this particular volume, however, has been felt as a serious gap in the series, as it was to contain the second half of the "Ideen," with the introduction and critical apparatus to the whole work. The first half of the "Ideen," volume xiii, appeared in 1887, and scholars were beginning to give up hope of seeing tHe work completed in Suphan's lifetime. His duties as direc- tor of the Goethe and Schiller Archives in Weimar and supervising editor of the Wei- mar edition of Goethe have occupied him to such an extent that it seemed as if he would be unable to complete the Herder. But the editing of Goethe's scientific writ- ings has put him in possession of a rich fund of material bearing on Herder's re- lation to Goethe. The matter of chief im- portance is the manuscript material which Herder left, and which throws new light on the history of the composition of the work. Volume I of the edition, we may add, was published in 1877, and reviewed in the Nation of May 30, 1878. The con- cluding volume will probably appear in 1910. That modern English literature interests the Germans more and more, keeping pace with their study of the current English lan- guage, may be shown by a new and volumi- nous work, "Die englische Literatur im Zeitalter der Kbnigin Victoria," by Dr. Leon Kellner, professor in the University of Czernowitz (Leipzig: Tauchnitz). In the characteristic style of the Forscher who is determined to sweep the forest and thus overlook no tree, bush, fern, or even moss, Kellner begins with a general view of lit- erature at the dawn of the Victorian era, seeks to outline the chief characteristics of English poetry, fiction, history, and drama, as they gradually developed, and treats the leading writers, one by one, beginning with, Dickens, Bulwer, and Mill, and passing through Carlyle and Thackeray to Kipling, Yeats, and Bernard Shaw. About these he groups various persons of great- er or less fame, in England and America, whose lives and work were influenced by the authors especially considered. Thus Emerson and Longfellow, in their relations to Carlyle and Tennyson, are noted. Ger- man criticism, as well as English, is pre- sented in compendious footnotes, though the work, as a whole, is historical rather than critical. Bernard Shaw comes in for a disproportionate discussion, a bias that may be explained by the frequent presentation in Germany of Shaw's plays, and several translations into German of his leading works. The latest addition to the series Der alte Orient, published for the Vorderasiatische Gesellschaft, by J. C. Hinrichs of Leipzig, is an instructive brochure by Dr. Arthur Ungnad, entitled "Die Deutung der Zukunft bei den Babyloniern und Assyrern." It is- exceptionally rich in new material from cuneiform sources. A valuable work on the same general subject, although of an entirely different character, is V. Unruh's "Leben mit den Tieren" (Stuttgart: Franckhsche Verlags- handlung). It is a thorough psychological study of the lower animals, with excellent suggestions as to man's relations to them, and his proper treatment of them in order to develop their most useful qualities through domestication. One of the best studies of America pub- lished in Germany is Dr. Paul Darm- staedter's "Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika: Ihre politische, wirthschaftliche und soziale Entwicklung" (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer). In less than 250 pages the au- thor gives a clear and comprehensive sur- vey of the subject, showing thorough knowl- edge and just appreciation. Students of philology and of history, es- pecially readers of Livy, will be interested in the new work of Wilhelm Soltau, entitled "Die Anfange der romischen Geschicht- schreibung" (Leipzig: H. Haesel). The spe- cial purpose of this book is to show that all vital and individual features in the old- est Roman history are based on literary in- vention, and not like myth and folkfore, on a foundation of facts. The author asserts that no credence can be given to reports ex- cept those written contemporaneously with the events themselves. The details of this rather radical claim are developed on the basis of the oldest records, such as the Ro- man dramas, Ennius's "Annals," etc. The same house has also published an interest- ing biographical work by Dr. O. Th. Schulz of the University of Leipzig, entitled "Der romische Kaiser Caracalla: Genie, Wahn- sinn, oder Verbrechen?" The writer, who is already known as the author of several larg- er works dealing with the Empire, has here given the latest results of psychological and historical study. In general the outcome of his research is more favorable to the- Emperor than had hitherto been his lot at the hands of modern historians. In this re- spect he follows largely the lines of re- search already pointed out by Leopold von Ranke. The work is written sine ira et studio.

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»■ 1 jtf0s,sma^*.*?m*sq June 10, 1909] The Nation 581 The "Weltgeschichte seit der Vblker- wanderung," by Dr. Theodor Lindner of the University of Leipzig, which is to be com- pleted in nine volumes, has now reached the sixth. This volume treats of the Mod- ern European System of States, of Absolut- ism and Mercantilism, of Emancipation and Independent Thought, and of Asia and Af- rica. The work is largely a history of civ- ilization. Published by J. G. Cotta, Nach- folger, in Stuttgart und Berlin. Notwithstanding the attitude of Ger- mans toward the French, Napoleon con- tinues to interest them, as is shown by the regular appearance of German publica- tions. "Napoleons Schriften und Ge- sprache," gathered from French, German, and also English sources, and edited by Hans Landsberg (Berlin: Pan Verlag) is the latest volume in the Napoleon Biblio- thek. The editor claims for the Emperor no considerable literary ability, but believes that many of his forgotten compositions and interviews are worth reprintng. This is at least true with the account of Na- poleon's meeting with Goethe, described by Goethe himself briefly and unsatisfactorily. Some years ago Eduard von Hartmann set himself to the task of writing a ''System der Philosophie im Grundriss," and now he has finished the volume containing the "Grundriss der Religionsphilosophie" (Bad Sachsa im HaTz: Hermann Haacke). The clear style and direct address of the author should commend themselves to the reader weary of wandering in the underbrush of German philosophical discussion. The special value of the fifty-seventh an- nual report of the trustees of the Boston Public Library lies in the fact that it shows down to the minutest details the n. ture and extent of the work of the library force. For instance, to deliver a book to a reader in the central library requires the "ser- vice of six different persons." The intelli- gence needed in some positions is shown by a list of the inquiries for information by school-children, 158 of whom came into the rooms of a single branch one 1 fternoon in December. There are kept on file about 375 newspapers in 20 different languages and "nearly 1,700 different periodicals are in daily use." The depreciation of the value of books is such that of the million vol- umes in the library about 150,000 "are not worth commercially more than ten cents apiece." One cannot read the report with- out being impressed with the great educa- tional value of the library, not to the city alone, but to all the scholars living within fifty miles of Boston. According to recently published statistics of higher education in Europe, the uni- versities there number 135, with 224,740 stu- dents. Of these institutions, Germany has 22, with 50,432 students; France 16, with 32,211 students; Austria and Hungary 13, with 28,918; Great Britain 17, with 21,614; Switzerland 7. with 6,780; Russia 9, with 20,192; Belgium 5, with 6,207; Italy 20 (not counting the one just destroyed at Mes- sina), with 22,794; Spain 9, with 12,180; Sweden 3, with 4,972; Holland 5, with 3,918; Rumania 3, with 5,007; Greece, the Uni- versity of Athens, with 2,600; Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, with 1,607; Portugal, the University of Coimbra, with 1.840; Norway, the University of Chris- tiania, with 1,700; Servia, the Uni- versity of Belgrade, with 700; and Bul- garia, the University of Sofia, with 1,014. The ten universities with the largest bodies of students are: Berlin 14,203, Paris 13,420, Budapest 6,610, Vienna 6,308, Munich 6,109, Moscow 5,790, Naples 4,930, Petersburg 4,651, Leipzig 4,630 and Madrid 4.204. The French Academie des Inscriptions has announced a number of prizes. The Grand Prix Gobert, 10,000 frs., is divided between M. Delachenal for his "Histoire de Charles V," and M. Caillet for his "Histoire de la Commune de Lyon au quin- zieme siecle." The Prix Saintour, 3 000 frs., is divided among four, the chief portion going to the Abbe Roussel for his translation of the Ramayana. The Prix Bordin, 3,000 frs., is also divided, one part going to Edmond Dautte for his "Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du nord." Dr. Theodor Barth, the eminent German publicist, died at Baden Baden unexpect- edly June 2. He was born in Duderstadt. Hanover, July 16, 1849. From his thirteenth to his nineteenth year he studied at the Gymnasium Andrianum, in Hildesheim, and spent the next three years studying law at the universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Berlin, passing his examination as "Doctor juris utriusque," at Leipzig, in 1870. In 1871 and 1872 he was practising law in Bremen, for the next four years was Amts- assessor at Bremerhaven, and from 1876 to 1883 syndic of the Chamber of Commerce in Bremen, bank commissioner of the Ger- man Reichsbank, and general secretary of the Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbriichiger. He represented the three Hanseatic cities, Hamburg, Bremen, and Liibeck, in the committee of the Bundesrat which prepared the protective tariff of 1879. Dr. Barth was a free trader, and all through his career he energetically opposed Bis- marck's protective policy. He entered the Reichstag in 1881 as member for the con- stituency of Gotha, and the rest of his life was devoted to the cause of Liberalism. In 1883 he took up his residence in Berlin, where he founded Die Nation, a weekly pa- per, which existed under his editorship until 1907, when the publication was stop- ped. Die Nation was devoted to politics, political economy, literature, and art, and was the organ of the best writers of the Liberal party. Dr. Barth visited the United States in 1886, 1893, 1896, and 1907. In June, 1907, he received the honorary degree of Ltt.D. from Harvard University. He wrote freely and temperately of American af- fairs, and issued a study of "Amerikan- isches Wirtschaftsleben" in 1887, and a book named "Amerikanische Eindriicke" in 1896. His other writings were mostly contributions to Die Nation and to German, French, and English reviews. Col. Alexander Kelly McClure. an inti- mate friend of Abraham Lincoln, and a well-known figure in journalism, died sud- denly June 6, at his home in Wallingford, Pa. He was born of Scotch-Irish stock in Sherman's Valley, Pa., January 9, 1828. His early life was spent on his father's farm. When fifteen years old, he was ap- prenticed to a tanner, but was dissatisfied, and in 1846 he left. He then drifted into journalism at Mifflin, Pa., and from there went to Chambersburg. From journalism it was an easy step to politics, and as a member of the Republican convention which nominated Lincoln in 1860, he suggested that the Pennsylvania delegates should break away from Simon Cameron of Penn- sylvania, and vote for Lincoln. This was done, and Lincoln's name stampeded the convention. In 1868 he went to Philadel- phia to live, and took up the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar in 1853. He was chairman of the State dele- gation to the nat-cnal convention that in 1872 nominated Horace Greeley for Presi- dent. In 1873, with Frank McLaughlin, he established the Philadelphia Times, with a capital of $50,000. In less than ten years the property was worth more than $1,000,- 000. In 1900 he retired from the editorship of the Times, and, except for articles on polit'cs, from active journalistic work. From Leyden comes the report of the death of Professor de Goeje, the great Ori- entalist. He was seventy-three years old. A GREAT STATE. Historic Indiana. By Julia Henderson Levering. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. $3 net. The historian of Indiana has a pleas- ant field. Mrs. Levering exploits it to excellent advantage, presenting in a handsomely printed and beautifully il- lustrated hook of five hundred pages a series of well-written chapters relating the development of the State through all its stages. As to its natural aspect, few American commonwealths are so attractive as a home for men. Scarce- ly an acre of its area is unavailable for human uses. There are no deserts, no sterile moutain tracts, no irreclaim- able swamps. Its sand and gravel are of value, if in no other way, for the mak- ing of roads: its water-soaked lowlands abound in peat and fertilizing muck; its stone can be turned into masonry for cities; coal, iron, and petroleum abound beneath its surface, while above thousands of square miles of the most fruitful soil respond to the "tickling of the hoe" with such "laughing harvests" as the farmer rarely sees elsewhere. With such an endowment, Indiana is well compensated for her lack of pic- turesqueness; if she has no cataracts or snow-capped ranges, she has some- thing better. The Algonquins of the primeval pe- riod appreciated the advantages of the region, clustering numerously both north and south; and the earliest white explorers found it directly in their path as they pushed from the valley of the St. Lawrence into that of the Mississip- pi. Short portages at the headwaters of the Wabash and the Kankakee, open- ed an easy way for them to the Great River, and the trading posts were among the earliest established. The French knew it well, and their English succes- sors saw here no less a land of prom- ise. No episode of the Revolution is more memorable than the winning upon Indiana soil, by George Rogers Clark, for Virginia and so for the United States, of the great Northwest. Then

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582 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 followed the settlement, at first an im- migration from Virginia and the Caro- linas, across Kentucky into the south- ern area; then an influx from the East across Ohio and by Lake Erie; and last an inpouring of the best Euro- pean elements — a commingling of vari- ous strains into a population now in the twentieth century compact, homo- geneous, and organized according to the best Anglo-Saxon traditions. These men had a great and most honorable part in the civil war; and since then, in the Union which they did so much to preserve and confirm, are conspicuous in all the best elements of American civilization. While in general Mrs. Levering only retells a well-known story, her narra- tive notes a number of matters which, if ever mentioned, have been forgotten or not sufficiently recognized. Will Ken- tucky acquiesce in the statement that the "blue grass," her most famous re- source, the product which beyond all others has made her rich and attractive, is by no means indigenous, but borrow- ed from her northern neighbor? Here we are told that Kentucky soldiers, re- turning home from Tippecanoe, carried with them the seed of what their horses had fattened on in the campaign. It is disquieting to read that in 1811 Indiana, like the Central West in general, was shaken by a terrifying earthquake. Had there been cities built of masonry the catastrophe might have assumed almost Sicilian proportions. The scattered backwoodsmen, indeed, suffered little ex- cept from panic, but rivers were turned from their courses, hills were swallow- ed, and habitable fields transformed into morasses. It is startling to say that for a decade or more in the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century the centre of light and leading in America was not in any Atlantic city, but in the little town of New Harmony on the Wabash. Here came Robert Owen, ac- companied and followed by many of the best scientists, educators, artists, and sociologists of the time. McClure. Le Sueur, Say, Rafinesque, Fanny Wright, and the younger Owens were members of the community, while Audubon, Prince Maximilian, the painter Bod- mer, and many a scientific traveller, went and came, finding at New Har- mony their most congenial atmosphere. Extravagant though the socialism may have beeen into which the enterprise fell, and of which it finally perished, it is well to have the fact brought out that many of our best and most ad- vanced ideas as to schools, industrial methods, social reforms, and, in gener- al, the higher moral and intellectual life, were for the first time in America voiced and put into practice at New Harmony. We have read with particular inter- est Mrs. Levering's portrayal of con- ditions in Indiana during the civil war. The State, though for the most part devotedly loyal, contained a reactionary element which, in 1863 and 1864, be- came powerful and dangerous. One reads with bated breath of the strug- gle in those dark days of Gov. Oliver P. Morton and his supporters against the opposition, bearing in mind what would have happened had the administration failed. The strait was greatest in May and June of 1863, during the despon- dency after Chancellorsville. The Geor- gian soldiers, Longstreet and E. P. Alex- ander, have criticised their great Vir- ginia captain, Lee, because he did not at that time, instead of advancing into Pennsylvania, unite with Bragg in Ten- nessee and advance swiftly to the Ohio. Scarcely a day's journey from Richmond by a good unthreatened rail- way lay the troops of Bragg. Leaving a force in Richmond to face the dis- heartened Federals, Lee, by the middle of May, having combined with Bragg, might have rushed for Cincinnati or Louisville. Grant's hold, just then tight- ening around Vicksburg, could scarcely have been maintained: with fire and sword so threatening their homes, his Western troops would not have kept to their task. On the Federal side at the moment disaffection at the heart was not less a peril than the foe outside. While Vallandigham was a power in Ohio, Voorhees, as earnest and rrob- ably more eloquent and able, was a power in Indiana. Had Lee, after reach- ing the Ohio, which he might have done with small opposition, pushed wlti: his usual swiftness and force for j_>ake Erie, thereby sundering the East from the West, crowds of dispirited men in the Central West would have opposed no hindrance, and many would have help- ed. As one reads Mrs. Levering's ac- count of these gloomy days of the Cop- perhead majority in the Legislature, disloyal secret societies importing arms and drilling by night, a monotonous tale of humiliation coming in meantime from the Federal armies, one can see that the chance for success just be- fore Vicksburg and Gettysburg had be- come very narrow. Had Lee's strategy been only a little better, or Grant and Meade only a little less able in the sum- mer of 1863, the "Lost Cause" might have been that of the Union and not the Confederacy. CURRENT FICTION. The Cords of Vanity. By James Branch Cabell. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. We are prepared for something un- usual by the legend upon the flyleaf: "All rights reserved, including that of translation into all foreign languages, including the Scandinavian"; and we close the book, which is — fortunately — a rather unusual work, with a disposi- tion to ponder upon the singular per- versity of Scandinavians and others, who need a trespass-warning to keep them from so sterile and malodorous a field. One is reminded of the time-hon- ored characterization of this class of fiction as worse than immoral — dull. This high-attenuation of Don Juan is worse than a rake — a cad. It is strange that a practised writer like Mr. Cabell should have used the first person. This narrative, told by an outsider, would be sufficiently cheap and sickly; when the principal character complacently smirks his way through the recital of his own misdeeds, the effect is revolting. In the Epilogue, for example, Gillian Hardress, a past Incident in the career of young Mr. Townsend — he is only twenty-six, but he began early — in her dying de- lirium reveals to her husband the whole ugly story of their entanglement. When she recovers her senses at the last, she lies to shield the real culprit. Town- send hears Hardress's story, and lets him go out to kill an innocent man, Townsend's own close friend, while Townsend himself is left in the pleasant sunny garden, languidly debating whe- ther he need tell his fiancee or no. "For it would make her so unhappy; and never in my life have I been able to endure the contact of unhappiness." The Seven Who Were Hanged. By Leonid Andreyev. Translated from the Russian by Herman Bernstein. New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Co. The chieftainship of Russian letters is an office of precarious tenure. In a coun- try where art bases itself so consistently on the temper and the opinions of the hour it is inevitable that, as temper and theories change, the reputation of the artist should change with them. For some time Andreyev has disputed first place among the younger Russian writ- ers with Gorky. Our translator assures us that Andreyev is more popular now than Gorky or Tolstoy. If that is the fact, it is because Andreyev is so in- tensely preoccupied with the topics of disease, madness, and death which ap- peal particularly to a people that has recently passed from a state of high ex- pectations into the relaxation of defeat and discouragement. It must be noted, however, that Andreyev's predilection for the abnormal and the horrible car- ries with it almost nothing of that de- light in physical depravity which is the hall-mark of the naturalistic school. His concern is entirely with psychical processes. Compared with Gorky's full-blooded people, Andreyev's figures hardly live. They are most often true, but only as the embodiment of true psychological states. He more than suggests Dostoi- evsky in his choice of subjects; he sug- gests Turgenieff in the minuteness of his vision. The girl Musya, arrested with four fellow-terrorists while plot-

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• -n-rn. ?■ mMtMmmtmm^i^l^m J me 10, 1909] T li e ]ST a t i o n . 583 ting the death of a Minister, is being tried for her life. The verdict is pre- determined. Instead of looking at the judges, she watches a bit of blue sky visible through one of the windows of the gloomy courtroom: When the sky had darkened. Musya calm- ly, without lowering her eyes to the ground, turned them to the corner where a small cobweb was quivering from the imperceptible radiations of the steam heat, and thus she remained until the sentence was pronounced. Now, this is a method more adapted to the short story than the novel. What Andreyev tries to do in the present book, is to study the separate souls of five men and two women — the five ter- rorists are reinforced by two common assassins — who are being sentenced to be hanged, who are waiting to be hang- ed, who are being hanged. There are paragraphs and sentences that are so real as to be a torture; but there are long passages in which the pace is forced. The sense of the inevitable is absent. It is very likely that the thought of death may have affected this man in the man- ner described; but it would have been equally natural for him to have been affected in a dozen different ways. It is the case of a highly gifted artist draw- ing up a tentative list of psychological states, and then selecting one as best suited to his purpose. With this pro- viso, we can not deny Andreyev an ex- ceptional talent for seeing the truth. The last chapter, which describes the midnight summons to execution, the ride in the dark, the mustering of the seven victims for the approach to the gallows, their removal two by two, is excruciating reality and high art in its kind. Sebastian. By Frank Danby. New York: The Macmillan Co. If in her earlier novels Mrs. Fran- kan's realism came rather strong upon the palate, making a pretty deliberate appeal to the inquisitive, not to say prurient, mind, she seems now to have taken second thought. "Sebastian" is not in all respects a "pleasant" story, but it is perfectly wholesome. It opens a little ominously, with its novelist- heroine uncongenially married to a plain man. We reflect ruefully that we are once more to have the everlasting "temperament" analyzed, at the expense of all practical virtue and common sense. Once mere we shall find our- selves called upon to admire or tenderly condone faults which would be pro- nounced gross in grosser natures. But nothing of the sort happens. The lady novelist is not a disagreeable idol set up for us to worship, but a rather pa- thetic figure. She is the daughter of a great English stylist whose memory she adores, and possesses a refined little talent of her own, which has its audi- ence. The plain man whom circum- stance has allotted to her loves her de- votedly and unselfishly; but he has no- thing in common with her, least of all love. She becomes a mother, but iC- mains absorbed in the bookish life, and ignorant of all deep experience. In her son she sees only his grandfather; her ambition for him is a manifestation of personal vanity. But he has also some- thing of his father in him. There is a bond between the two which the mother cannot understand, and of which she is meanly jealous. The action progresses toward her enlightenment. Gradually she learns her lesson, sees what it is she has lightly scorned, and what it is she has childishly pursued. She writes her finest novel, but its remarkable suc- cess no longer seems to her the final tri- umph. She has begun to live. There are one or two curious locu- tions in the book, such as: "It struck him, that his mother had stood between him and at what he ought to look." Irresolute Catherine. By Violet Jacob. New York; Doubleday, Page & Co. "Black Heber" this might properly have been called, for it is the stark figure of a man which rescues the tale from its otherwise rather colorless char- acter as a bit of English rustic genre. Catherine is a pale wraith of woman- hood, and the three or four other hu- man figures that count in the narrative, while clearly enough cut, are altogeth- er subsidiary to that of the wild shep- herd-sectary. The theme is the prim- eval one: the vying of two men of dif- ferent character for the favor, or rather for the person, of one woman. The opening scene, with its picture of an open-air baptism in a remote county, is both striking and touching: the luckless Catherine, with so pure an intention, comes so sadly out of it. Sadly, indeed, she comes out of every situation for which her own feeble initiative is in any way responsible. But Black Heber makes a heroine of her by mating her with himself — a very proper hero. The flavor rather than the substance of the tale, gives it unique merit. Indeed, the work as a whole has a restraint, com- pactness, and finish which mark it for a bit of literary art, as distinguished from the amusing catchpenny fiction of the popular book-mart. The Russian Army and the Japanese War. By Gen. Kuropatkin. Translat- ed by Capt. A. B. L'ndsay and edited by Major E. D. Swinton. 2 vols. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $7.50 net. Of the four volumes into which Gen. Kuropatkin has cast his narrative of the war with Japan, only the last has been drawn upon for the material which is now given to the English reader in an excellent translation by one British of- ficer and under the editorial supervi- sion of another. The first three vol- umes of the entire series deal in detail with the three great battles of Liao- Yang, the Sha River, and Mukden. In his final volume, Gen. Kuropatkin pre- sents his apologia in the form of a com- prehensive investigation into the causes that led to Russia's defeat. Books writ- ten by unlucky military commanders for their own vindication make, as a rule, unpleasant reading. They blend denial with recrimination, and after shifting the main responsibility for de- feat on their opponents at home, attri- bute the rest to fortune. Enough has been made known of Gen. Kuropatkin's personality and of his previously ex- pressed views on the Japanese war to prepare the reader for a different sort of defence. The Russian commander-in- chief has more than once admitted that he was unequal to the task imposed upon him. And he strikes the same note of manly frankness in his intro- duction to the present book, when he writes: I have been so intimately connected with the important events in the Far East and have been so largely responsible for the failure of our military operations, that I can hardly hope to take an entirely dispas- sionate and objective view of the men and matters that I shall deal with in the pres- ent work. But the author of these memoirs is something more than a plain, blunt man, devoid of wit or utterance. The first impression, indeed, is that Kuro- patkin was too much of a philosopher and historian to have made a successful general. He begins with a long account of the history of Russian expansion, which at first sight would seem to be going rather far back for an explanation of the war with Japan, but which the wi iter, in fact, turns very cleverly to his own uses. He shows, and his contention is not far from the truth, that in every war of aggression that Russia has wag- ed since the time of Peter the Great, she has begun hostilities with insuffi- cient troops, with poor equipment, and under mediocre command; that she has been compelled to augment her forces and train her officers and men under fire, and that victory came to her only after years of defeat. In no war that Russia fought between Poltava in 1709 and Port Arthur in 1904, has the fleet been of service to her. The implication is obvious. The war with Japan ran its natural course — for Russia. When the General states, with a seeming interest in statistics as such, that Russia's efforts to reach the Black Sea cost her 750,000 lives out of 3,200,000 men put in the field against Turkey, and that the ap- proach to the Baltic cost her 700,000 lives out of 1,800,000 men employed against Sweden, he creates the presump- tion that Russia had no reason to expect such important results as a victory over Japan would have brought, at so com- paratively small an outlay as the fight-

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584. The Nation. [Vol 88, No. 2293 ing had cost her when peace was signed in September, 1905. The conclusion of peace was a mistake, however threat- ening was the internal situation that really forced the Czar's hand. Only af- ter Mukden was the Russ'an army nu- merically strong enough to meet the enemy with a fair chance of success. Had the war gone on after Mukden, the outcome would in all probability have been different from what it was. When we come down to details, Kuro- patkin's explanations are more or less familiar. He was opposed to the war. It was brought on by the foolish policy of Witte, whose insistence on building the Siberian railway through Chinese territory was the beginning of the fatal policy of Manchurian adventure. It was hastened by Viceroy Alexeieff, Privy Councillor Bezobrazoff, and the rest of the camarilla that went light-heartedly at the seizure of Manchuria in the be- lief that Japan would not dare to go to war. Kuropatkin, on the other hand, was so impressed with the possibility of war that he advocated the abandonment of Port Arthur, the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and the concentration of Russian interests in northern Man- churia, where Japan would not dare to antagonize them, and would not care. But Alexeieff, in spite of the Czar's re- peatedly expressed desire for the main- tenance of peace, persisted in his policy of unarmed bluff till the break came. To the Japanese, Kuropatkin concedes pretty nearly all the virtues claimed for them by their admirers. They had prepared for a long time, and thorough- ly; they entered the contest with an in- timate knowledge of the terrain the war must be fought on, with full appre- ciation of the magnitude of the task that confronted them, and with a fanat- ical devotion that made the common soldier an ideal instrument in the hands of their highly-trained commanders. With the Russians it was all the other way. The men with the colors fought well, but the reserves were poor mate- rial as a whole. Many of them had been away from the colors for nearly twenty years, had forgotten their train- ing, and did not even know how to use the new-pattern rifle. They were un- steady under fire, and broke ranks at the least excuse. The commander-in- chief frequently saw a wounded soldier escorted to the rear by ten sound fight- ing men. Partly responsible for this was the wretched auxiliary organization which forced combatants to do the work that should have been done by the med- ical corps. The officers showed lack of training and inability to preserve dis- cipline. But, above all, it was the utter lack of preparation that brought defeat. Rus- sia began the war with a ludicrous con- ception of the actual and potential strength of the enemy. Kuropatkin ad- mits that he himself, in estimating Ja- pan's war strength, had failed to take into account her splendid facilities for developing her second line of battle; and it was the Japanese reserves who took Port Arthur and struck the deci- sive blows at Mukden. The General quotes from a report by a Russian mili- tary attache, who was present at the manoeuvres of the Japanese army short- ly before the war. No less than four- teen capital defects were enumerated by this expert, among them being: a hard and fast, inelastic form of attack inde- pendent of local conditions; the ab- sence of proper flank protection; the absence of a definite object in attack; the disbelief in cold steel; the inclina- tion to avoid enclosed and, particularly, hilly ground; the inclination to use di- rect frontal attacks without turning movements; the tendency to retire too rapidly; the disinclination for night operations. Now, if a military critic were asked to enumerate the technical reasons for Japanese success in the war that followed, he would mention their excellence in precisely those features that the Russian expert found them so deficient in. This specific case symp- tomatizes Russia's general prepared- ness for the war. Thus Kuropatkin illustrates in detail the general principles he lays down at the beginning. Russia should never have engaged in the Manchurian adventure; once engaged, she should have done her best to avoid war; with war unavoid- able she should have prepared; forced into war without adequate preparation, she should have held the field till time and training and her immense resources in men turned the scale in her favor. None of these things she did. Modern Accounting: Its Principles and Some of Its Problems. By Henry Rand Hatfield. New York; D. Appleton & Co. $1.75 net. Within the limits that he has marked out for himself, Professor Hatfield has produced the best treatise on account- ing that has yet appeared in the United States, and it is difficult to find its su- perior in the English language. It is not a book on technical bookkeeping or auditing. Its pages are not filled with accounting forms, or with detailed in- structions as to how to enter this item or that. Such statistical and account- ing details as are found within its pages are designed to illustrate the argument, and all reference to the book- keeping art has been relegated to one brief concluding chapter entitled, Tech- nical Improvements in Accounting Practice. Neither is this a book on the philoso- phy of accounts, which would be likely to carry the reader into endless and often fruitless speculation. It strikes a happy mean between the extremes of the theoretical and the practical, and presents what might be called a com- parative study of accounting practice lather than any dogmatic scheme of the author's own. It is unusually free from newly invented terminology, and employs, in the main, designations that are current in the best accounting and business procedure. The book is quite complete in its dis- cussion of the unsettled problems of the science. Both sides of the case are clearly presented, and usually the author's own opinion concludes the dis- cussion. Only occasionally does he dismiss the subject without comment after the evidence is all in. A char- acteristic feature of the work is the frequent quotation from decisions of English and American courts, from the commercial codes of Germany, France, and Austria, and from the commen- taries of leading jurists. In fact, if one general criticism were to be passed upon the treatise as a whole, it would be that the author shows himself a lit- tle too ready to accept the best current practice and the decisions of the courts as final, instead of basing his conclu- sions upon fundamental financial and economic principles. Yet the book is written as a working manual, and this is possibly a sufficient justification of the method employed. But the impression should not be cre- ated that the author always agrees with the courts or with the account- ants. For example, in one of his best chapters, that on Depreciation, he comes out flatly in opposition to Ameri- can court decisions, and demonstrates in a convincing manner that deprecia- tion is properly an expense, and that profits are not correctly stated until an adequate charge against gross earnings has been made to cover wasting assets. This is significant in view of the hos- tile attitude assumed by the railways toward this identical theory when is- sued in the form of an order by the accounting division of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Furthermore, he urges accountants to transcend the limits under which courts labor, and says in connection with a discussion of profits: For a more perfect rationalization of the legal dicta concerning profits it will prob- ably be necessary to await the day when the growing dignity of the profession of accounting shall cause its principles to per- meate the ranks of bench and bar. As for the accountants, he boldly risks the condemnation of the entire profession by taking the reasonable at- titude that there is no objection, in the case of wasting properties, such as mines, to the distribution of the entire earnings in dividends without any re- serve for depreciation, provided only there are no creditors to be injured. But what impresses one most favor- ably with this book is the high ground it takes with reference to the function

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~ ■ -"ii* in "~-~«-'»- ttrt^NM *v«n "<«»;^ pwji June io, 1909] The Nation. 585 of accounts, and the duty of the ac- countant— a constant reiteration in one form or another of the sound principle that the purpose of accounts is to reveal the truth, not to conceal it. This is the author's guiding principle in all the rul- ings he makes concerning disputed questions of practice. For example, he frowns upon the common practice of charging discount on bonds to construc- tion or capital account; he insists, in the face of weighty accounting and legal authority, that undervaluation of assets, and the establishment thereby of a secret reserve, fall far short of the ideal standard of accounting; that good- will may properly be included in the inventory only at its cost, and that if it costs nothing, it cannot be included at all; that if stock is paid for in prop- erty at an inflated value, the inflation should be clearly shown in the ac- counts. "Conscious misstatement," he says, "which exists all too often in cor- poration finance, which indeed has been characteristic of American finance, is an outrage to the principles of account- ing." The book begins with a lucid treat- ment in two chapters of the principles of double-tentry bookkeeping. Then follows a chapter on the balance sheet, out of which grow the succeeding chap- ters which treat of the individual items of the balance sheet and the problems suggested by them. If any chapters were to be selected for special commen • dation, they would be those on De- preciation, Profits, and Surplus and Re- serves. The Poetical Works of John Dryden. Cambridge Edition. Edited by George R. Noyes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. $3. After Johnson, Malone, Scott, Lowell, Collins, Christie, and Beljame, it should seem that, without the discovery of new material or the possession of extraordi- nary critical powers, an editor of Dry- den can scarcely hope to surpass pre- vious accomplishment except in the mat- ter of bibliographical and textual exact- ness. Herein, at any rate, lies the im- portance of the "Cambridge Dryden," which "seeks to justify its existence" by its volume, by its carefully collated text, by its chronological arrangement, and by its reproduction of many of Scott's notes. The basis of the book is a text which has cost years of labor and which deserves unqualified praise. In the case of the Virgil the textual im- provements are particularly frequent and significant. The chronological ar- rangement is an advantage, although it is necessary to remember, in using the book, that the texts are arranged strict- ly by date of original printing, not by date of the corrected editions which very properly form the basis of the pres- ent text. Scott's notes, although usually omit- ted when inaccurate, are often quoted (p. 521, 1. 20; p. 751, 1. 131, etc.), when they are in nowise distinctive. To many these notes will be most valuable when (as on p. 392, I. 417) they tell most about Scott. His inaccuracies, it may be remarked, have not always been so discreetly dealt with; for instance, Ker ("Essays of John Dryden," 1900,11, 244, 1. 27) relies upon one of Scott's notes, which, in three lines, contains three out- rageous blunders. The editor's own notes reveal an admirably thorough and even knowledge of various sources of illustration. Perhaps they are a trifle less full than usual in their explanations from contemporary events, and rather more helpful when they deal with Dry- den's classical allusions and French sources. The classical allusions, indeed, are over-explained: the reader for whom it is necessary to translate "im- par pugna" or "pondere, non numero," or to explain that "the Stagirite" is Aristotle, or that Leander is "the lover of Hero, drowned in swimming the Hel- lespont," will hardly be able to master the frequent quotations from French critics of the seventeenth century, upon whom, as might be expected from one of his earlier studies, Professor Noyes draws liberally. Most of the notes, however, are judicious as well as learn- ed, and many are really contributory. The bibliographical notes are admir- ably careful. For instance, upon a cer- tain passage in the preface to the "Fa- bles," Ker (II, 261. 1. 21) has the note: James Drake wrote an answer to Col- lier. "The Ancient and Modern Stages Re- viewed, or Mr. Collier's View of the Im- morality and Profaneness of the Stage set in a True Light," 1699. Professor Noyes's note reads: Dr. James Drake wrote in answer to Collier a work called "The Antient and Modern Stages Survey'd; or, Mr. Collier's View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage set in a true light," published anonymously in 1699. In seven po:nts, two of tbem striking, Professor Noyes's quotation of this title is different from Professor Ker's; and in every instance the former is correct. The case is typical of the chief strength of the "Cambridge Dryden" — its enor- mous accumulation of minute improve- ments upon previous editions. The Valley of Shadoivs: Recollections of the Lincoln Country, 1858-1863. By Francis Grierson. Houghton Mifflin Co. $2 net. The author of this fascinating book of reminiscence, known to English readers by his volumes of essays entitled "Mod- ern Mysticism" and "The Celtic Tem- perament," and to music-lovers of a for- mer generation by his extraordinary singing and piano-playing in Paris and other European capitals, was born in England in 1848. When less than a year old, his father, a brother of Gen. B. H. Grierson, the noted Union cavalry officer, emigrated to America, and set- tled on the Illinois frontier; and there the boy, delicately sensitive and keenly observant, grew to manhood. What af- fected him most was not the material development of the country or its growth in population and wealth, but the spiritual and even mystical signifi- cance of the life there led. With a lit- erary charm curiously suggestive of Charles Egbert Craddock and James Lane Allen, he describes for us the rest- less solitude and vastness of the prairies, its tall grass billowing like the sea; the hard, lonely lives of the settlers, buoyed up by neighborly kindnesses and a firm religious faith; the gloomy fore- bodings occasioned by the appearance of a comet; the preaching of the un- learned circuit rider and the emotional outbursts of the campmeeting; and the thrilling experiences of the men and women who, in the fear of God, aided the escape of fugitive slaves. No one who reads his pages will soon forget the figures of the author's mother, reading her prayer-book as the slave-hunters ap- proach the cabin door; or of Kezia Jor- dan, the sweet singer; or of Zack Caver- ly, nicknamed "Socrates"; or of Elihu Gest, the "Load-Bearer"; while the ac- count of the Lincoln-Douglas debate is a piece of description as valuable as it is altogether admirable. Unfortunately, our measure of praise must be lessened by the fact that the book, as a whole, does not hang well together. The thread of incident run- ning through the first two-thirds of the volume gives it somewhat the character of a novel, drawing the reader eagerly on to see how it is to turn out; then the story abruptly ends, and the remain- ing chapters deal for the most part with matters having but slight connection with what has gone before. The three chapters given to Fremont and Irs ex- periences, though interesting in them- selves, have nothing to do with the rest of the book; and the same must be said of the chapter on Gen. Grierson and his raid. It is matter of sincere regret that a work which makes, in large part, so welcome an addition to autobiographi- cal literature should not have been more consistently carried out. Science. The Interpretation of Radium. By Fred- erick Soddy. New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons. $1.75 net. The discovery of radium, with its ex- traordinary property of giving off ener- gy spontaneously, following closely on the discovery of the Roentgen ray and other forms of radiation, has aroused

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586 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 such a keen interest among the general public, that books on these subjects are eagerly welcomed. To find a parallel, we should probably have to go back to the early part of the last century, when the properties of current electricity were discovered, and wide-spread interest in them was soon awakened. The influence on civilization of the harnessing of the electric forces leads us to wonder whe- ther this radiant energy may not, in turn, exert a profound effect on future conditions of life. Books on the marvels of science are common enough, for tne most part written by persons of unbounded imagi- nation and small knowledge, who turn speculation into fact and hypothesis into theory. But this one is not of that sort. Mr. Soddy was for years asso- ciated with Prof. Ernest Rutherford in his important experiments, and with him elaborated the generally received tbeory of radio-activity. He has recent- ly gone to the University of Glasgow, and now publishes the substance of a series of six popular lectures given there. Although the matter has been worked over and expanded, it still bears the impress of the lecture-room, and in consequence suffers somewhat when read in book form. Still the story of the discovery of the radio-active sub- stances, of the rapid development of both our experimental and theoretical knowledge of the subject, with its mo- mentous possibility of the transmuta- tion of the elements and the existence of atomic energy, is well told. Indeed, the account is in such clear and simple terms that any educated person should be able to learn what has so far been done. While approval should be given to this first and most important part of the book, not so much can be said of the latter portion where the broader relations of radio-activity to life and character are discussed. It is perhaps unavoidable that one, so immersed in a new and fascinating study, should feel that its possibilities are unlimited, but it is to be regretted when vague hopes are allowed to extend beyond the private study. Darwin has set us such an example of restraint in this mat- ter, that we have little patience with those who give loose rein to wild spec- ulations. And when we remember that Darwin's theory of natural selection has, for the most part, proved inade- quate, while his doctrine of evolution has stood the test, we can have little doubt that the same fate is in store for the present theory of radio-activity, which supposes a regular and orderly explosion of the atoms of the elements. What if some atoms do explode with tremendous energy, does it follow that we shall be able to make them do so at our pleasure? Or when we have ac- complished this, will the struggle for existence come to an end, as Mr. Soddy seems to believe? Such knowledge, lead- ing "to physical power and dominion over nature," lias, on the contrary, in the past, rather sharpened the struggle. It is with a sensation of the gravest misgiving that we follow the writer, a man who has achieved distinction in the mastery of a difficult subject, when he suggests that the myths and legends 01 our unsophisticated ancestors are the traditions carried down to them from enormously more remote progenitors, who lived in a state of transcendant happiness and power due to a profound knowledge of radio-activity and the ability to explode atoms. "The mystic symbol of matter, known as Ouroboros — the tail devourer," the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, existence in the "Garden of Eden," may mean all this, and the "Fall of Man from the Garden of Eden" may symbolize what we quote: Possibly they [our happy demiurgic pro- genitors] could explore the outer realms of spare, emigrating to more favorable worlds as the superfluous to-day emigrate to more favorable continents. One can see also that such dominance may well have been short- lived. By a single mistake, the relative position? of Nature and man as servant and master would, as now, become reversed, but with infinitely more disastrous conse- quences, so that even the whole world might be plunged back again under the undisputed sway of Nature, to begin once more its up- wr.rd toilsome journey through the ages. The legend of the Fall of Man possibly may indeed be the story of such a past calamity. A knowledge of radio-activity and the atom is apparently a very dangerous thing. It is a pity that a book that is in other respects so good, should be marred by such crudities. Nor should we have dwelt so much on them, if there were not the urgent need of em- phasizing the supreme importance of sobriety of thought in matters of sci- ence. An intelligent man can discount the statements of the made-for-sale books on the wonders of nature, but Mr. Soddy's work bears the stamp of the trained scientific thinker, and he should not permit himself to set so per- nicious an example. Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know. By Frederick William Stack. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. $1.20. In this attractive little volume there is condensed a large amount of infor- mation concerning the more common plants about which children are likely to ask questions. Here are the answers. The descriptions are accurate as well as readable, the nomenclature is free from caprice, and the illustrations are excellent. The general classification is based on color, like that of more than one popular treatise, and therefore makes a bid for all those who care to move in lines of least resistance. Hav- ing decided on the color of the open blossom, one turns to a group of spe- cies generally having this color, and then a desultory search begins. It is just at this point that a good many would find a series of simple keys help- ful, because the grouping under color is not always free from confusion. It seems to us a pity that some bold spirit does not go back to the most satis- factory artificial system yet devised, and allow the seeker to count, stamens and stigmas, just as his grandfather did, and just as the amateur botanist in Ger- many or Switzerland can do to-day with his local botany. There seems to be on all hands a fear lest the restoration of the Linnaean system, as an aid, should be regarded as an unpardonable lapse into errors of the past. But we can say to those who dread this reproach, that Garcke and a host of others in Europe are good company in error, if indeed it be error. It may he necessary to state to all who will regard our suggestion as heretical, that in most of the local and general floras on the Linnaean plan there is also a good presentation of the natural system. The volume which we now have be- fore us was written by one who has studied his plants largely in the field. The descriptions are vivid and clear, and, so far as we have seen, are free from unnecessary prolixity and repe- tition. Here and there the author has used language which seems to us a trifle too strong, as, for instance, on page 268, in his account of poison ivy: Nearly every one is familiar with the un- pleasant effects produced by contact with this treacherous and exceedingly poisonous vine, which has undoubtedly caused more harm to mankind than all other plants to- gether. One suspects that the writer of these lines must have been suffering from in- cautious handling of poison ivy at the time. Furthermore, some of the defini- tions would bear recasting: thus, bract is "a small modified leaf at the base of or upon the flower-stem" (p. 393), whereas the bract of Skunk-cabbage or of Jack-in-the-pulpit may fairly be called pretty large. Again, the definition of stigma carries with it a decided am- biguity— "The tip or side of a pistil, through which the pollen is received, by means of tiny tubes which penetrate the style and convey the minute grains to fertilize the seeds within the ovary." The sentence might well be reconstruct- ed, especially the last clause. But it is hardly right to call attention to the few blemishes in so good and use- ful a hook. It is filled with interesting folklore and old-fashioned herbal hints. The reader will probably be surprised to learn how many of our common plants could be used as domestic reme- dies, especially in view of the fact that so very, few of them are so used. Those to whom the author's medical hints will

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■BE32J ■ ^aTlm 7i Til BJtMaJ^MMfci June 10, 1909] The Nation. 587 come as a surprise, will be grateful that they have escaped so much in the dis- use of the herbs. According to the thirteenth annual re- port of the New York Zoological Society (1908) the society is in a flourishing con- dition, and is extending its operations in many new directions. The membership now numbers 1,673, and a new class of Fellows has been established to include members who are working zoologists. The ele.ih n house and the administration building are the latest additions to the Zoological Park, while a zebra house and eagles' aviary are planned for the near future. The total number of animals on exhibition exceeds that of any other zoological institution. there being 682 mammals, 2,615 birds, anl 1,282 reptiles, a totaf of 4,579 living speci- mens. In the preservation of wild animals the officers of the society have been instru- mental in establishing the reservations for bison in the West, which will probably re- sult in the rescue of these splendid ani- mals from extinction. The society is just entering upon its third field of work, that of zoological research. Among the notabie results have been those from the experi- ments in the effect of the environment upon the plumage of birds carried on by C. Wil- liam Beebe. Other lines of research are at present in full progress. A remarkab'e item in the report of the director of the aquarium is the attendance for 1908, which was 2,536,147. The national collection of heads and horns has received many valu- able accessions, and will find a permanent home in the new administration building. The report of the veterinary shows, that the death-rate among the larger animals has been very low. Pneumonia was the cause of death in twenty cases; gastro-en- teritis in 15; 10 were killed by cage-mates, 9 died from tuberculosis, 8 from distemper, and 6 from rickets. The salient feature of the National Geo- graphic Magazine for May is the "Call of the West," a description of the work done by the government in reclaiming our arid lands through artificial irrigation. It is a wonderful story of progress and achieve- ment which C. J. Blanchard, statistician of the Reclamation Service, tells, the emphasis being laid not so much on the rich crops raised as upon the development of an ideal condition of rural life and upon the fine types of men and women in these new Western homes. The article is profusely il- lustrated, as is the account by G. Shiras 3rd, of Prank M. Chapman's "Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist." Announce- ment is made that the National Geographic Society intends to prosecute geographical exploration and research, and also to award medals, society and special, for meritorious geographic work. The death is announced of Bartholomaus von Carneri, author and critic, in his eighty-eighth year. He was a faithful fol- lower of Darwin. Among his works are: "Moderne Faustrechte," "Demokratie, Na- tionalitat, und Napoleonismus," "Sittlich- keit und Darwinismus," "Gefuhl, Bewusst- sein, Wille," and "Entwicklung und Gltick- seligkeit." From Berlin the death is reported, at the age of sixty-five, of Wilhelm Engel- mann, professor of. physiology in the Uni- versity. He wrote largely on the subject of muscular and nervous anatomy. Drama. Shakespeare and His Critics. By Charles F. Johnson. Boston: Hough- ton Mifflin Co., $1.50 »et. It is not only as a comprehensive re- view of Shakespearian criticism in Eng- lish— a review rapid enough to show the configuration of the whole country without being so cursory as to blur its features — that Prof. Johnson's book is interesting. It is interesting also as a kind of review of English criticism and literary taste in general; for Shake- speare is after all a good deal of a criti- cal touchstone, and in trying nim criti- cism also tries itself. As a matter of fact, the net result of such a development would seem from Prof. Johnson's survey to consist in a settled disposition to regard the char- acters of Shakespeare as independent realities in themselves, and to judge them by an application of the stand- ards and criteria of actual life — ■ in a word, to consider them as historic rather than artistic creatures. Such a consummation may not be an unmixed gain. Dramatically, remarks like the following would seem in one sense to be as much the result of a mental confu- sion as the scholastic objection to the authenticity of the Iliad because Helen calls the roll of the Greeks in the tenth year of the war: But Iago is shown plucking the gull Roderigo in a manner which evinces long practice. How is it possible that he can have robbed his victim for years without the knowledge of his fellow soldiers? Such a man soon earns his reputation, yet Iago is called "honest" by all. Again, how is it possible that Iago's malevolence was not called out till he -was disappointed in his promotion? But whether irrelevant or not, this is the sort of question that has come more and more to be put to Shake- speare in one form or another. It is thoroughly characteristic of Dr. Brad- ley's "Shakespearean Tragedy," which Professor Johnson esteems "the most notable piece of literary criticism that has appeared since the day of Coleridge, Lamb, and Hazlitt." In short, there can be no doubt that the present position of criticism is fairly represented by the author's statement that "Shakespeare's characters are so much like natural products that a certain amount of scien- tific realism is necessary to their inter- pretation." But while this, or something like it, is the upshot of his survey, his volume, though hardly pretending to be more than an outline of other people's opin- ions, is not without significance of its own. Shakespeare, no doubt, is a sub- ject to kindle at moments even the dullest commentators. But unfortun- ately he is as heady as he is inspiring. And it is not the least of Prof. John- son's merits that he should hold the balance of good sense so true, and should apply to each critic so justly his proper corrective. Nor, on the other hand, is there wanting a certain amount of independent criticism, though in ac- cordance with the plan of the book it is necessarily incidental and scattered. Exceptionally consecutive and sugges- tive, however, is his comment on Ham- let, evidently a favorite subject. And although it is a little difficult to agree with his view that Hamlet at thirty "is a man paralyzed by elemental shame" of woman's frailty; it is impossible to dissent from his thoroughly sane con- clusion that Hamlet's "mystery" is his own originality, and has only a specu- lative or analytic, not an artistic, re- ality, disappearing very largely in act- ing or in appreciative reading. "It is impossible to predict how a man of high intellectual qualities and a special- ly developed emotional nature will act in circumstances that try his soul. When he does act, it is impossible to explain why he did what he did. He did it because he was himself." The weakest part of the volume is the treatment of eighteenth-century criti- cism, for whose ideals Professor Johnson has so little sympathy that he misses even the kernel of truth that was in it. Indeed he does the French or classic point of view rather meagre justice. In his sketch of Shakespeare's foreign critics — which is rather incidental to the main issue, to be sure — he dismisses the French, who in the person of men like Stapfer have deserved none so ill of us, in a manner which is hardly less than contemptuous in comparison with his treatment of the Germans. Within his proper English limits, however, his account, without being exhaustive, is thoroughly representative. And while such household names as Rolfe and Hudson are omitted from the roll of liv- ing commentators, it is presumably for the reason that they have declined to see Shakespeare steadily and see him; whole. There was practically a new play at the Empire Theatre in this city Monday night, when Sir Charles Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore interpreted "The Mollusc" with the atmosphere and characterization that made Mr. Davies's comedy such a success in. London. The performance was at once a vindication of the author, a demonstration, by comparison, of the value of finished act- ing and a striking condemnation of that managerial obtuseness that gave this city an "olio" in place of a work of art. The comedy has already been seen here in the rough, and no story of its action is neces- sary. In many aspects it is a gem. In. the first place, there are only four charac- ters and one stage setting, a feat ot

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588 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 dramatic construction almost as rare from the author's point of view as it must be precious to the box-office. With this lim- ited field of energy there are no dull mo- ments, no merely theatrical sensations. The action runs along with the utmost sim- plicity, culminating in a delightfully nat- ural manner at the close of each of the throe acts, and the last act is as entertain- ing as the preceding two. The whole leaves an impression as wholesome and refreshing as the English country garden in which the retired Colorado rancher loved to walk at sunrise — with the charming governess, of course. It was a treat to hear pure English spoken with trained diction by melodious voices. Sir Charles Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore seemed to have dis- covered at least the signposts to Elysian Fields where heroes laugh at age. For, welcomed as Sir Charles was on bespangled Broadway with a crowded house and mul- tiplied calls it must not be forgotten that here is a player who was at the front in days of long ago, when there were men of stature on the boards who had traditions to maintain. The simplicity of his acting and the absence of apparent effort were a lesson much needed to-day. He was modestly im- personal in his little speech at the end of the second act. Miss Mary Moore proved a revelation that made many rub their eyes and ask if they could be mistaken in recall- ing her as the demure comedienne of the old Criterion Theatre more than twenty years ago. As an actress she has matured in her art. It was a charming revelation. The other players were Sam Sothern as the husband, and Miss Lillias Waldegrave as the governess, both of the London company. Mr. Sothern's performance is notable for what he refrains from doing that could so easily be done with disastrous effect by a more self-conscious or less experienced player. Miss Waldegrave is a tall, typical English girl, with a pleasant voice and a sincere method of portrayal. The withdrawal of "The Narrow Path" from the boards of the Hackett Theatre, in this city, is not in itself a matter of much importance. The piece was too dull and silly to be very mischievous, and must, in any case, have fallen into quick oblivion. But the attitude of the owner of the house is especially welcome as an indication of returning managerial common sense. He demanded the removal of the play on the ground that it was a nuisance which would damage his property. This is a point on which the Nation has often insisted. When other theatre-owners and directors fully realize that temporary gains derived from concessions to the coarser appetites of the vulgar will not compensate for the per- manent alienation of the great body of decent supoorters of the theatre, the puri- fication of the stage will be effected prompt- ly. In matters of this kind the pocket is likely to be more sensitive than the con- science. The argument advanced against "The Narrow Path" applies with equal validity to several other realistic pieces of the current season. These may be mak- ing money now, but they will not prove profitable in the long run, as their promot- ers will discover when the reaction that inevitably follows after an intellectual and moral debauch once sets in. EugSne Lintilhac continues his history of the theatre in Prance by a fourth volume on comedy in the eighteenth century (Flam- marion). This author is a member of the French Senate. Music. MUSICIANS AND MANAGERS. The death last week of Henry Wolf- sohn removes from the musical commu- nity of New York one of its most inter- esting and influential figures. The founder, some twenty-five years ago, of the first musical bureau to be establish- ed in this city after the model of for- eign agencies, he had become so power- ful as fairly to dominate, in the eyes of many persons, the concert field, not only in New York, but in the country. To say that almost all programmes of first- class concerts bore his name or were made up through his agency, would be an exaggeration. But the list of "stars" whom he managed, at one time or an- other, contains the bulk of the names most familiar to the concert-going pub- lic. Hundreds of music-lovers who never saw him have drawn from his bureau the artists who entertained their guests. Fritz Kreisler, Schumann-Heink, Josef Hofmann, Mischa Elman, Louise Hom- er, and Corinne Rider-Kelsey are a few of those who have made money through and for Mr. Wolfsohn. And, if rumor is correct, he reaped a wonderfully rich reward for his industry and ability. Not that Mr. Wolfsohn was popular with the artists who came to him. Many would have preferred to give him a wide berth, and hated to pay his commis- sions. These were often superimposed upon those claimed by the German or English agent who had originally lured the musician into his net, so that even a well-established artist might have to pay out 40 per cent, or more of his earnings before receiving anything him- self. But as Mr. Wolfsohn's influence grew it became more and more neces- sary for young and struggling artists to turn to him. What position is there more trying than that of a young musi- cian who arrives in New York without much Continental fame and without having been heralded by skilful advance agents? We have in mind one who had made for herself an excellent place in Berlin. Arriving here practically friendless, so far as persons having large influence were concerned, she turn- ed at once to Wolfsohn. He demanded $5,000 to launch her properly. As this was far beyond what remained of the sum she had left over after her educa- tion, she took the next steamer back to Germany — a land not without its music bureaus, but far more friendly to bud- ding genius. Indeed, in Berlin, advance advertising of a new prodigy seems to hurt the performer about to make his debut. The critics resent being told in advance about his artistic ability; they are there to judge for themselves. So the adver- tisements of first appearances are merely brief notices. Later on, there may be greater publicity, but even then Germans have not reached the stage of advertising musical talent, as one does soap, or patent oats, or the newest auto- mobile. That, said one of Mr. Wolf- sohn's rivals recently, is the way to make sure of success — "It all depends on how much money you want to spend in advertising." But these advertising charges sometimes cover a multitude of sins. There have been cases where the entire sum has been wasted, or even pocketed, by the agent. Another trick of the dishonest manager is to tell the art- ist— when properly reduced to despair by a fruitless search for engagements — that if he pays, let us say, $150, he may appear with some soloist of established repute. The victim sometimes discovers that the $150 never reached the brother- performer, but stuck to the agent's fin- gers. Again, if a society in Waukesha engages an oratorio singer through a bureau, it has no means of knowing whether the $400 check it sends for a well-known soprano reaches the per- former intact, or whether the agent turns over only a half. It is this sort of experience which has led one violinist of international re- nown to fix his price at $150 an appear- ance and to insist upon its being paid to him entire. Whether his manager makes $200 on the side by a higher charge to the orchestra, does not inter- est him. He feels that $150 is reward enough, and does. not care if the mana- ger, and, as occasionally happens, the music committee or leader of the saeng- erfest gets a rake-off as well. For orchestras, too, even the longest estab- lished, have frequently drawn their solo- ists from Wolfsohn — to the despair of young performers who would not or could not meet Wolfsohn's terms, and of others who had no European experi- ence to interest managers in their ca- reers. What, then, is the remedy? Mr. Wolf- sohn's bureau is sure to go on as did ts famous pattern, the Wolf agency in Ber- lin, after the death of its founder; and there will always be struggling artists without the common-sense, or means, or ability, or reputation, to manage them- selves. No better way of bringing art- ists and public together has been sug- gested. A change for the better can only come through the raising of the tone of all the agencies and the checking of the too-powerful by able competition. There is now an effective remedy for the artist-employing class: make sure that your check for the fee agreed on reach- es the artist, even when you hear of him through an agency, and, wherever pos- sible, deal directly with the musician himself.

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--—■----— "-fc>rv ^m—J^^tXf^+mi+mM ' i v*^ -* +*m*m!m***&m June 10, 1909] The ]STation. 589 A notable movement to encourage the production of new opera is just announced in Germany, whereby every three years two prizes of 10,000 marks each and two prizes of 2,500 marks each will be given for the best works by "Young Germans." The contestants will be allowed to offer al- most any kind of a musical composition known as operatic, but each piece must be at least an hour long. All compositions offered will be passed upon by two succes- sive committees of eminent musicians in Germany, among whom is Richard Strauss, and the two first operas to receive the chief prizes will be produced in the Hamburg Theatre, in November, 1910, and in Jan- uary, 1911. Art. "FAIR WOMEN" IN PARIS. London, May 29. It may be because ours Is the Age of Woman, as Edouard Rod makes one of his people say, but certainly it is only necessary to fill a gallery with the portraits of women to draw the crowd. Artists complain of hard times, many exhibitions scarcely pay their way, but 1he International Society in London has tound it worth its while to give a show of "Fair Women" two win- ters running, and this spring in Paris two exhibitions of the kind, following others in previous years, are open at the same moment, both well attended though the price of admission is double that usually asked elsewhere. However, in France, where there is some sense of order and logic, it is not quite enough to get together any chance collection of portraits of women — some reason must be found for it. At the Exposition de Cent Portraits de Femmes in the Salle du Jeu de Paume in the Garden of the Tuileries, all the portraits are of the eighteenth century, fifty by French painters, and fifty by English, so that a comparison may be made. At Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne, the exhibition is of Portraits •de Femmes Sous les Trois Republiques, and the result is that, in both cases, the collection has historic as well as ar- tistic interest. The exhibition in the Garden of the Tuileries is in every way the more in- teresting of the two. The period cov- ered is, as a whole, finer, more care seems to have been taken in the selec- tion of examples and in their arrange- ment, and the comparison between the French and English work is delight- fully suggestive. It would be still more suggestive if the English pictures all reached the same level of excellence. I have heard it said that the recent exhi- bition of English pictures of the same date at Berlin, has discouraged some owners from parting with their treas- ures so soon again. But, however that may be, I have often seen a more splendid series at the Winter Exhibi- tion of old masters in the Royal Acad- emy, and even once in Paris in 1900. The principal British portrait-painters are all represented — Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Hoppner, down to Lawrence and Raeburn. The por- traits are frequently of people famous in their day — Peg Woffington, by Ho- garth; Nelly O'Brien, Kitty Fisher, Ma- ria Walpole (Countess Waldegrave), by Reynolds; royalty by Gainsborough; Lady Hamilton, by Romney; Countess Waldegrave again, by Hoppner. But the work is not always the artist's best, nor does the distinction or fame of the sitter always seem to have been a con- sideration. There are five examples of Hogarth, with whom the series begins chrono- logically, but not one to rival the por- trait of himself in the National Portrait Gallery, or the group of David Garrick and his wife at Windsor Castle, or the wonderful Shrimp Girl in the National Gallery; and only one that gives some idea of his insight into character and his power of rendering it. This is his Sarah Malcolm the murderess, a middle- aged woman, as he shows her, highly respectable in neat cap and quiet grays, with a face so placid in its hard cruelty that her crime seems all the more re- volting. His Peg Woffington has less character, but a charm and a delicacy in the detail of lace and flower that are not usually associated with Hogarth, who, however, is so little known on the Continent that when he is represent- ed there at all it should be at his strong- est. It is the same with Reynolds. There is no painting by him that can rank with his masterpieces. But Reynolds is better known on the Continent than Ho- garth, his six or seven portraits are more representative, and the subjects and methods alike would explain to those who had never seen his work be- fore that he was the fashionable por- trait painter of his day. They are rep- resentative, also, unfortunately, of his very defects, for in two or three, espe- cially the Kitty Fisher, the color has faded until they are mere ghosts of their old rich beauty. Gainsborough was not apt to distinguish himself when he painted royalty, and two of his por- traits here are of Queen Charlotte, less inspiring as sitter even than most roy- alties of her generation. Nor, with one exception, could his other portraits — seven in all — of themselves account for the greatness of his reputation. This exception, however, is a splendid Gains- borough— the half-length Anne, Duchess of Cumberland; the face full of charm and character, and the rose and white of the delicate bodice given with rare skill and subtlety, a piece of color that Nattier and Drouais could never have approached. Romney, probably, was the most un- certain of painters, and nothing in the present collection would suggest that he could, at times, rise to the heights of his fine Mrs. Cawardine and Child. That he had a fancy for sentimental prettiness is seen well enough in the two familiar Lady Hamiltons, one as Euphrosyne, the other at prayer; in both, the sweetness is overdone, but in both at least a semblance of realism that makes them vigorous in compari- son with the dull, wooden portrait of the same beauty, as Sybil, by Mme. Vigee-Lebrun. Hoppner has recently enjoyed a suc- cess in the auction room that his work rarely justifies, certainly not as it is seen in the five portraits selected for Paris. The four by Lawrence fail no less to maintain his fame and popular- ity. The one British painter who tri- umphs, not only by his reputation at home, but by the work now shown, is Raeburn, though even at home he is only beginning to be honored as he should. He had his lapses; he, like the rest, painted an incredible number of portraits, and in some he is almost as feeble as Romney at his feeblest. But when Raeburn forgot the conventions of the day and painted people as he saw them, it is another matter; and not Reynolds, not Gainsborough, ever at- tained the mastery of character and technical skill of the Scotch painter who was "the pupil of Nature," as R. A. M. Stevenson described him, and who, as Louis Stevenson wrote, "looked people shrewdly between their eyes." As it happens, two of his finest portraits are here: his Mrs. James Campbell, the ugly, humorous, shrewd old woman, in the uncompromising cap and fichu and little shawl then in fashion, and his Mrs. Scott-Moncrieff, young and radiant in her beauty, with no need of a theatrical role, or a sentimental pose, to enhance it. The "most amazing" and "the loveliest" of his portraits these two have been pronounced, and in their truth and directness they stand out and seem to live in the midst of the por- traits, both French and British, in which so often life disappears in the conventions of the time. To pass from the room where all these pictures hang into the next, where the French collection is arranged, is to be struck with a contrast as vivid and complete as when one lands in Calais after crossing the channel from Dover. The French group is as representative: Boucher, Greuze, and Fragonard, Nat- tier, Largilliere, Drouais, Mme. Vigee- Lebrun, and a few others of lesser note. The portraits often gain as much in interest from the women who sat for them. Here, the points of resemblance between the two collections come to an end. After the British portraits, the French seem at once more formal and more vivacious. The British painters

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590 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 had their own conventions, inherited, through Kneller and Lely, from Van Dyck; many, with Reynolds, made no secret of their debt to the Italian mas- ters; each brought some chance pic- turesqueness of his own. As a conse- quence there is in the British art of their day much the same variety, bor- dering on disorder, that you find in British architecture or almost all Brit- ish design. The French carried out their conventions more strictly, more academically. Their painting is as cor- rect in its classicism as their poetry, and it must be admitted that in this order there is, at times, a tendency to monotony, even frigidity. The senti- ment of Greuze, in the Jeune Veuve or Jeune Fille en Vestale, for instance, has an almost classic dignity, so un- erring is the knowledge that produced it, when compare'd to the sentiment, born of the emotion of the moment, in any one of Romney's Lady Hamiltons. The animation in the pose and gesture of Largilliere's flamboyant ladies seems to belong less to the individuals than to the period, to be as much the out- come of the style in vogue as were the palaces and gardens and theatres where these ladies practised their arts. The flowers that Nattier's sitters hold and twine into garlands never soiled their slim hands in the picking, for they were of studio growth, to be used again and again, actually the same blossoms ap- pearing and re-appearing, as the same hands appear and reappear in one portrait after another by Van Dyck. Drouais's ladies, in their grace and elaborate artlessness, are no less ruled by formula. Indeed, of all the fifty French portraits, only one has an air of realism, as if nature had been served, not dominated, by convention, and this is a very beautiful Jeune Fille Lisant by Fragonard: a half-length of a girl, seated, holding a book in her hands and leaning back against cushions, the face, pose, and color scheme full of character that belongs to the young girl herself, and not to an entire series. And yet, all these pictures hung to- gether are much more vivacious in et- fect than the British. They reflect the vivacity, the intellect, the wit, the ele- gance of the age in which they were painted, and are, therefore, so much truer to it than portraits where conven- tions are accepted but less rigidly en- forced that they make the simplest work of the British painter seem arti- ficial, and his most conscientious ren- dering of the sitter before him become dull and lifeless. No one portrait stands out with the force of Raeburn's Mrs. James Campbell and Mrs. Scott-Mon- crieff, but the level of accomplishment is higher and more evenly maintained. In the French series the beauty is as much a matter of deliberate design as the architectural stateliness of Paris; in the British series, it is as much a matter of chance as the atmospheric pic- turesqueness of London. A few drawings have been placed in a smaller room, and here, too, I found the same suggestive contrast. At Bagatelle, the idea of the exhibi- tion is more interesting than the exhi- bition itself. Certainly, I have come from it with nothing very definite add- ed to my knowledge of, or interest in, the women of any one of the three Re- publics. This is not wholly because the expressiveness and elegance of the French convention weakened with the first inioads of Republicanism. Neither is it because women of as much note do not figure here as among the hun- dred portraits of the Salle du Jeu de Paume. But the trouble is that the portraits are not as representative and distinguished as they might be, and there are far too few to do justice to the First Republic. The Second and Third cover, between them, a vaster space of time, I know, but for this very reason not one portrait which is not specially typical of it should have been included. As it is, I can only suppose the collection was made in haste, so lit- tle attention has apparently been paid to this first essential. However, the pictures at Bagatelle are a secondary consideration, an excuse for a visit to one of the most enchanting spots in the Bois, with its terraces and gardens all abloom in May, its wide vistas and shady walks, and the many associations that make it the place of all others for a show of the portraits of women. n. N. The advantage of a "one-man" show is that the artist can exhibit work done to please himself which, even if accepted, might be swamped in the large exhibitions of work done to attract the public. Cer- tainly, it is in the quiet of M. Durand- Ruel's galleries, Rue Lafitte, Paris, that Monet's astonishing studies of water lilies can best be seen and enjoyed. There is no other painter to-day, probably, who would attempt such a series, and, if he did, could obtain such extraordinary re- sults. As in Monet's paintings of Hay- stacks and of Rouen Cathedral, the ob- ject is to render the passing effects of light and atmosphere; but a new problem has been added, for Monet, in his later work, has watched and noted these effects in the reflections thrown by sun and cloud and foliage in the water of a little pool or stream. There are forty-eight paint- ings in the series, and they are fairly large. In almost all he shows merely the surface of the water with the lilies afloat upon it, so that it is only by the reflections you know whether the pool is wide or narrow, shaded or open to the sun; whether the sky is clear or clouded; whether it is midday, afternoon, or evening. Occa- sionally he gives also a portion of the wooded banks, but it is then scarce- ly more than a suggestion. The truth of these studies is not more remarkable than the beauty of the color he gets in many of them — lovely arrangements of pale blue and silver, of roses, or sometimes of more vivid golds and scarlets, of strong greens and grays. As in much of his later work, there is no design, no composition. Lilies float, clouds and trees are reflected, with- out any great rhythm of line. But it is needless to criticise him for not doing what he never set out to do. His object was to transfer certain of nature's most subtle effects to his canvas, and in this he has succeeded triumphantly, for, within his limits, Monet has no rival. A new museum, the "Storico-Topografl- co," illustrating the changes which the ap- pearance of Florence has undergone during the centuries, has been opened in the House of Michael Angelo. It fills eleven rooms hitherto closed to the public. The earliest known view of the city is reproduced from a fresco in the Bigallo, dating from the middle of the fourteenth century. Another very early panorama shows the ancient facade of the Pitti palace without the wings, attributed by Brockhaus to the tottega of Francesco Rosselli, now preserved in Ber- lin, while another is from Schedel's "Cronica," published in Nuremberg in 1493. A series of water-colors of the ancient gates and walls by Antonio Bargioni has been permanently lent by the Laurentian library. There is also a view of the chap- ter houses in the piazza of the Duomo, in which the famous sarcophagi of Guido Cavalcanti, now in the court of the Riccardi palace, are represented in their original places. But the scope and varied interest of this collection are better indicated by its classification. Different rooms are de- voted to plans, maps, and panoramas ; walls and gates; the Arno and its bridges; pi- azzas and loggias; public buildings, palaces, towers, and streets; the Mercato Vecchio; churches and shrines ; festivals and cere- monies; suburbs and gardens. Nor is the collection lacking in artistic interest. There are, for instance, such characteristic orig- inal designs as the interior of Santo Spirito, by Gerolamo Genga, before the baldacchino was erected in the choir. Joseph Pennell's hand appears in two pen-and-ink drawings, and one charcoal. Corrado Ricei, to whom the museum owes its inception, justly claims that the collection is necessary for understanding the history of the city, helpful in the restoration of buildings alter- ed during the centuries, and of interest to every author or artist who wishes to re- call the past. The excellent descriptive catalogue containing over 1,300 entries, an index of subjects, and one of artists, is in itself a work of value. Prof. Flinders Petrie, in a lecture at Uni- versity College, London, May 20, gave an interesting account of his work at Memphis and Thebes during the past season. The chief discovery at Memphis was the palace of King Apries — the Pharaoh Hophra of the Bible — who was contemporary with Jere- miah. This palace was of impressive scale, about 400 feet long and half as wide. The middle court was over 100 feet square, with painted stone columns over forty feet high. A still larger court extended on the north side, in which lie capitals of co'umns which must have been about fifty feet high. The approach to the palace led up through a large mass of buildings, to a platform at a height of about sixty feet above the plain. The roofing of the halls was by cedar beams. Pieces of these were found, one of them with an inscription carved on it.

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— ^^aUbMM -it June 10, 1909] The Nation. 591 Among the ruins were also discovered a large number of scales and plates of iron and bronze, which originally belonged to scale armor. The scales are sometimes quite thin, under half an inch long, some- times stout ribbed plates two inches long. Some good bronze figures of gods and sacred animals were also unearthed. But what gives an idea of the magnificence of the palace is a fitting of a palanquin, of solid silver, a pound in weight, decorated with a bust of the goddess Hathor. The workmanship is of great beauty, though it served merely as an attachment for a strap to a wooden beam. It was found buried in a hole in the floor of a hall used for a workshop. As this is a unique specimen it will remain in the Cairo Museum. In sev- eral places traces of still older buildings than the Apries palace were brought to light, such as the ruins of a large gate- way of the Twelfth Dynasty. This was twenty feet high, and the greater part of six scenes which decorated it can still be put together. The sculpture is in low re- lief of much delicacy. The temple of King Proteus, Merenptah, which was dis- covered last year, has been partly cleared. It appears that, according to his usual habit, the King took his building materials from older works. Thus the capitals of columns found here are apparently of the Fifth Dynasty, like those seen in reliefs of that period. Before Memphis was dry enough to work, two months were spent at Thebes, where the ruins on top of the mountain were ex- plored. They were found to be a chapel for the apotheosis of King Sankh-ka-ra, of the Eleventh Dynasty; it contained the pieces of the cenotaph and the Osiris statue of the King. Two of the desert valleys were ex- haustively searched for concealed burials, and one untouched group was found. The coffin was covered only by about a foot of earth and stones. Around it were offerings of furniture, food, vases, and personal orna- ments. On the mummy were a gold collar of four rows of rings, four gold bangles, earrings, and a girdle of electrum. This is one of the most complete burials known. Other interesting discoveries at Thebes were the clearing of a new temple site, two fine stone figures, and an untouched burial of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The Pope has appointed Prof. Luigi Canevaghi, in place of the late Ludovico Seitz, director of the new Pinacoteca, and curator of the other paintings of the pontifical palaces. Professor Canevaghi's work at Milan, especially his restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, has been highly praised by competent judges, and his appointment to this responsible position is favorably received. The fund for establishing an Italian School of Archaeology at Athens, started a year ago by a few scholars in Florence, is now considered sufficient to permit opening next autumn. A villa has been rented. It is expected that the field work of the school will be limited for the present to supplementing the Italian excavations of the last two or three seasons in Crete. The prizes of the Salon des Artistes Fran- cais have been announced: The Prix Lefebvre-Glaize (900 frs.) fell to Clovis Cazes; the Prix Rosa Bonheur (1,500 frs.) to Charles Fouqueray. No first medal was awarded in painting. In sculpture the five first medals were taken by Louis Couvers, A. Terroir, G. Verez, Roger-Bloche, and P. Roussel. In architecture the first medal went to Tony Gamier. Frangois Emile Michel has died at the age of eighty. He began his studies under Migette, an instructor of his native town, Metz, and afterwards worKed at Paris, ob- taining medals at the Salons of 1868, 1889, and 1900. Two of his pictures are in the Luxembourg. He also wrote much on art topics, including books on Rubens and Rembrandt and "fitudes sur l'histoire de 1'art." From Munich is reported the death at the age of forty of Ferdinand von Recnicek, best known for his satirical drawings in Simplicissimus. Finance. THE RISE IN STEEL STOCK. A speculation for the rise, unusually violent and accompanied by transactions of uncommon magnitude, sprang up on the Stock Exchange two weeks or so ago. On two days of last week, the dealings were 1,400,000 and 1,600,000 shares, respectively, whereas a "mil- lion-share market" had been a rarity during many months. The higher of these two totals, that of last Friday, represented the largest daily record reached since November 13 last year — the culminating day of the "after-elec- tion bull market," at the time when speculators, great and small, were rush- ing into the market to participate in the "boom" which they had come to be- lieve must inevitably follow Mr. Taft's election. They had some serious disappoint- ments before them; prices broke again at the close of the year, industrial un- settlement returned, a war of price-cut- ting broke out in the steel trade. Then came the upward turn, reaching at least its temporary climax last week. On this occasion it was not, as in last November's outlook, the speculating public which ran riot in the market. Wall Street had no illusions on the subject in the present case; the Stock Exchange commotion was the outcome of aggressive operations by a group of powerful millionaires. But their spec- ulative plans were facilitated by the fact that the share-holding public apparent- ly would not sell, and, within a little more than a week, such advance in prices had been scored as 6 points in Union Pacific stock, 7 in Chicago, Mil- waukee and St. Paul, 6 in Amalgamated Copper and New York Central, 12 in Southern Pacific — most of them running close to, or exceeding, the top prices of 1906. Early in the movement, however, the speculative lead was taken by the com- mon stock of the United States Steel Corporation. On Thursday of last week, this stock sold at 69%. A week before it had closed at 61%; two weeks before, at 58%; a month before, at 56%. Until last Friday, it had reached a "new high record price" for its whole history on each successive business day since May 18. Its highest record, prior to that date, was the 58% touched on November 13, last year, the culminating day of the "after-election boom." Its highest price in the immensely prosperous steel trade year 1906 was 50%; its highest in another year of great earnings, 1905, was 43%; its top notch in the memor- able speculation of April, 1901, was 55, and that was high record until last No- vember. In 1901, the stock was paying twice as much in dividends as it pays to-day; in 1906, it reported net earnings 40 per cent, larger than what its state- ment for the first quarter of 1909 indi- cated. At present prices and the pres- ent dividend rate, the stock yields 2% per cent, to the investor. This is not all of the checkered his- tory of the stock. After the price had risen to 55 in the famous three-million- share day of the April market of 1901, it dropped to 24 on the equally famous 9th of May. The public again resumed its buying. There followed the extra- ordinary plan of 1902 to turn $200,000,- 000 of the preferred stock into mortgage bonds, the litigation and injunctions, the 20-point break in the price of the new bonds "when issued," the abandonment of the conversion plan at the demand of large inside interests, the collapse of the company's earnings, the suspension of common stock dividends, and the fall of "Steel common's" price to 8% in May, 1904. This series of events was such as might quite conceivably have shattered the faith of an outside invest- ing public. Yet we have the longer sequel before us. How is this season's extraordinary rise to be accounted for? There are four prevalent explanations which have been current on Wall Street, and which may be repeated as Wall Street habit- ually sets them forth. First, the steel trade is bound forthwith to reach a status of activity and profits never ap- proached in history. Secondly, the stock has been indirectly listed on the Paris Bourse, and the rich French public will pay even higher than present prices, if it can get the shares. Thirdly, the American public and the American spec- ulators have gone crazy over an idea and an illusion, and have lost all sense of values. Or, fourthly, the company's policy of the past five years will be re- versed; it will be bonded for such expen- ditures as have hitherto been paid from earnings, and the surplus will be thrown into dividends, at some high rate, for the common stock. Such basis as the first argument maj*|: jO nS'ij^d have, would apply equally to most other" " ftUBLiO stocks on the Wall Street list; it does

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592 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2293 not, taken by itself, explain the rise in "Steel." Furthermore, the remarkable fact must be taken into account that the products of the company are still selling 25 per cent, below last year's prices, and that the business of the cor- poration is barely three-fourths of its showing in the active pre-panic period. The "listing" on the Paris Bourse was an unusual achievement; the Steel shares were refused admission in 1901, and no one seems quite to understand what the assent on the present occasion means. It may mean that the French investor is determined to speculate in the stock, or that the Paris banks which handle his savings have resolved to make him do so. The French investor is a good deal of a mystery; yet he is rather noted for desiring a sure thing, with whose conditions and surround- ings he is acquainted, and he does not know America. The American public's imaginative impulses can be appealed to with effect; it is not certain just how much of a part its beliefs or credulity may have played. As to reversal of the policy of fiscal conservatism fixed on the property since its perilous experiences of 1903, that must be left to conjecture, however per- plexed or reluctant it may be. Strange events certainly marked the first three years of the Steel Corporation's history, and the era of strange events may not have been ended in Wall Street, espe- cially when some change is suspected to have occurred in the dominant influ- ence in the company's finances, since the panic of 1907 and perhaps as a result of it. The statement of this array of possible factors in the case gives keen edge to interest in the part which the stock of this company, after all -its vicissitudes of the past eight years, may yet be made to play as a pawn in the hands of the great speculators. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Annual Report of the Superintendent of Banks for the Year 1908. Albany, N. Y.: J. B. Lyon Co., State Printers. Armstrong, Edward C. Syntax of the French Verb. Henry Holt. Ayres, Leonard P. Laggards in Our Schools. New York : Charities Publica- tion Committee. Baedeker, Karl. Northern France. Scrib- ners. Baterden, J. R. Timber. D. Van Nostrand & Co. $2.00. Baumbach, Rudolf. Das Habichtsfraulein: Eine Dorfgeschichte aus dem Thuringer Wald. Henry Holt. Beranger, P. J. de. CEuvres inedites. Paris: H. Daragon. Berry, C. P. A Treatise on the Law Re- lating to Automobiles. Chicago: Callag- han & Co. Beruete y Moret, A. de. The School of Madrid. Scribners. Butler, Ellis Parker. Mike Flannery on Duty and Off. Doubleday, Page. Calisch, Edward N. The Jew in English Literature. Richmond, Va. : Bell Book and Stationery Co. Clegg, T. B. Joan of the Hills. John Lane Co. $1.50. Eaton, Walter Prichard, and Underhill, Elise Morris. The Runaway Place: A May Idyl of Manhattan. Henry Holt. Evinson, Elmer. An Amateur Performance. Broadway Publishing Co. $1. FitzSimon, Vincent A. The Christ of Prom- ise in Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, etc. Dillingham. Gibson, R. E. Lee. A Miracle of St. Cuth- bert, and Sonnets. Louisville, Ky. : John P. Morton & Co. Goodrich, Arthur. The Lady Without Jewels. Appleton. $1.50. Gruse, Edward. The Spirit of the Woods. Broadway Publishing Co. $1. Hackett, Frank Warren. Deck and Field. Addresses Before the United States Na- val War College. Washington: W. H. Lowdermilk & Co. Historical Records and Studies. Vol. V, Part ii. United States Catholic Historical Society. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774- 1789. Vols. XIV and XV. Washington: Government Printing Office. Kipling, Rudyard. The Naulahka: A Story of West and East. Doubleday, Page. Landsberg, Grace F. A, B, C of Philosophy. R. F. Fenno & Co. 75 cents. Les Masques Anglais: fi'tude sur les Ballets et la Vie de Cour en Angleterre (1512- 1640). Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie. Michelson, Miriam. Michael Thwaites's Wife. Doubleday, Page. $1.50. Miller, Alice Duer. Less Than Kin. Henry Holt. Mind Over Body: Letters to a Friend— A Christian Scientist. Boston: James H. West Co. $1. Miltoun, Francis. Italian Highways and Byways from a Motor Car. Boston: L. C. Page & Co. $3. Morgan, Anna. The Art of Speech and De- portment. Chicago: A. C. McCIurg & Co. $1.50 net. Munby, Alan E. Introduction to the Chemistry and Physics of Building Ma- terials. D. Van Nostrand Company. $2 net. Old Testament Narratives. Edited by George Henry Nettleton. Henry Holt. Osborn, Chase S. The Andean Land (South America). 2 vols. Chicago: A. C. Mc- CIurg. $5 net. Parker, Lottie Blair. Homespun. Henry Holt. Pickett, William P. The Negro Problem: Abraham Lincoln's Solution. Putnams. Pratt, Lucy. Ezekiel. Doubleday, Page. Punnett, R. C. Mendelism. Wilshire Book Co. 50 cents. Reinsch Paul S. Readings on American Federal Government. Ginn & Co. $2.75. Sanborn, F. B. Recollections of Seventy Years. 2 vols. Boston : The Gorham Press. Selected Readings, compiled by Anna Mor- gan. Chicago: A. C. McCIurg & Co. $1.50 net. Selincourt, Basil de. William Blake. Scrib- ners. Seward, A. C. Darwin and Modern Science. Putnams. $5 net. Smith, Col. Nicholas. Grant, the Man of Mystery. Milwaukee: The Young Church- man Co. $1.50 net. Smith, Edwin Burritt. Essays and Address- es. Chicago: McCIurg & Co. Some Essentials in Musical Definitions for Music Students. Collected and Edited by M. F. KacConnell. Ditson. Spanish Tales for Beginners. Edited by Elijah Clarence Hills. Henry Holt. Sparrow, W. Shaw. Hints on House Fur- nishing. John Lane. $2.50 net. The Works of James Buchanan. Collected and Edited by John Bassett Moore. Vol. VII. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Tudor Facsimile Texts: The Pardoner and the Frere; The Play of the Weather; John John the Husband; A Play of Love. London: T. C. & E. C. Jack. White, Buchanan. The Rural School-Teach- er. Broadway Publishing Co. $1. Wiley, Kate. Pet Marjorie and Sir Walter Scott: The Story of Marjorie Fleming. Cochrane Publishing Co. Year Book of the Pennsylvania Society, 1909. Edited by Barr Ferree. The Penn- sylvania Society. Ready This Week Johnston's The French Revolution, A Short History By R. M. JOHNSTON, Assistant Professor of History in Harvard University. [ 227 pp. and index. $1.25 net. \ A brilliant and readable treatment of the main outlines of the Revolution. The 1 narrative merges into that of the author's "Napoleon." (See below.) Johnston's Napoleon, A Short Biography The publishers have added to their list this work which the Nation said was "scholarly, readable, and acute," and of which the Boston Transcript said: "It is 1 difficult to speak with moderation of a work so pleasant to read, so lucid, so skilful." '$1.25 net. Just Issued Witkowski's German Drama of the XIX Century Translated by Prof. L. B. HORNING. $1.00. This brief but brilliant monograph after a great success on the continent is published simultaneously in America and England. It considers Kleist, Grillparzer, Hebbel, Ludwig, Wildenbruch, Sudermann, Hauptmann, and minor dramatists. J. A. Picton's Man and the Bible A review of the place of the Bible in human history, which, while never lacking in reverence, seeks to show that the phenomena of the Bible and its relations to mankind are perfectly consistent with what is known of the process of human evolu- tion. $2 net. HENRY HOLT & COMPANY, 34n^ty3orkst Narrative Lyrics See The Nation for May 13th, 1909. SAMPLE COPIES OF The Nation will be sent to any address for three weeks WITHOUT CHARGE ADDRESS THE NATION 20 Vesey Street NEW YORK CITY

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mm mi' t ->- ■ "~iri±'fti*am***h Uh The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909. The Week. We may well believe that President Taft has directed his Attorney General to make a thorough investigation of the Sugar Trust, with a view to criminal prosecution. The failure of the previous Administration to act in the premises had a bad look at the time, and appears even more a case of dereliction in the light of the event. The explanations which the former Attorney-General gave to the press, are themselves in need of explanation. Mr. Bonaparte declares that only "statements" were laid before him by Mr. Earle, not "evidence." But does he expect a complainant to prepare the whole case? What is the Department of Justice for, why are there Federal dis- trict attorneys and grand juries and a secret service, if not to run down the evidence of crime and bring the guilty to trial? That sort of work was done with great pains against the Standard Oil Company and timber thieves and the Beef Trust. Why was immunity given to the Sugar Trust? Perhaps, be- cause it was in the category of the po- litically "good." With brass buttons and epaulets becoming more plenty, with constant talk of fighting and inventions of new weapons, this coun- try must watch to prevent its people drift- ing into dreams of empire that can only lead to disaster. Many wars are simply caused by the political ambitions of men and the love of military action, and we must be careful not to use our great and growing prosperity as an excuse for build- ing new navies and increasing standing armies beyond the point where they are still a mere guard. . . . These timely and excellent words of warning Justice David J. Brewer spoke last Saturday at Atlantic City, before the New Jersey Bar Association. His ad- dress was a plea for united action among the nations to put an end to war. He dwelt strongly upon the fact that "Amer- ica is the logical nation to bring about universal peace throughout the world." There is no other so wonderfully situ- ated to take the leadership. We wish that this highly honored Supreme Court Justice could influence Mr. Taft to take this overshadowing question under con- sideration. The Peace Congress in Chi- cago, the Arbitration Conference at Lake Mohonk, the local Peace Society, are but a few of the public bodies which have recently besought Mr. Taft to take the leadership in promoting international concord. Never was there a better time than the present; never was it more desirable to stop the growing drift to militarism in this country, and never was a greater opportunity offered to any statesman to achieve immortality than that which beckons across the oceans to William H. Taft. The Massachusetts Legislature has passed an interesting old-age pension bill affecting the Boston and Maine Rail- road, at the request of both the company and its employees. So enlightened an action on the part of a great corpora- tion deserves widespread recognition. The proposed pensions are to be sup- plied by equal contributions from em- ployer and employees, the former to make up any deficiency if the joint pay- ment falls short of $200, the minimum sum. The company has promised to make an additional contribution to meet the needs of those already advanced in years, and provision is made by which regular pensions may be eked out with annuities voluntarily purchased by em- ployees. The pension system itself is to be managed by a board of trustees in which the railway and its employees are equally represented, and it cannot be put into operation until adopted by a vote of two-thirds of the employees. Once established, the scheme creates le- gal rights binding practically all of the 27,000 employees as well as the railway, while the State aids by supervising the system and exempting from all taxa- tion the funds which are to be guarded by both the insurance commissioner and the State actuary. The great advantage of this whole scheme is that it secures obligatory contributions both from the railway and the employees by democrat- ic methods; and it becomes of especial importance in view of the belief that it may be extended to include accident in- surance and sick benefits. Indeed, there are some who think that it may be fol- lowed before long by a general law un- der which other public service and pri- vate corporations may put into opera- tion a cooperative old-age pension sys- tem. We are all firm advocates of economy, and look with horror upon governmen- tal extravagance, yet if a single appro- priation or salary in which we or any of our friends have a personal interest is reduced by one penny, we cry to heaven about penuriousness and injus- tice. Witness the present experience of Collector Loeb in New York. After con- sultation with the authorities at Wash- ington, he has been -reclassifying cus- tom-house employees, and cutting down the salaries of many of them. But is this hailed as wise and economical ad- ministration? Well, hardly. The rush of protesting politicians and party lead- ers to the Collector's office is something terrific. He has lowered the pay of my man! At once the party appears en- dangered, grave doubts are entertained about the municipal election, and it looks as though there would be a Dem- ocratic House a year from now, with President Taft rebuked and embar- rassed. All because Inspector John Smith has been made a weigher, and had his salary cut $10 a week. Such are the pains of political economizing — the truly dismal science. We may be sure that there will be the same politi- cal wailing over the proposed abolition of a useless bureau in the Interior De- partment, at a saving of $100,000, and the new system of paying employees in navy yards, by which there will be an economy of $125,000. All such reforms mean officers out of a job, and offi- cers out of a job mean the ruin of the party. Everybody hurrahs for economy, but who touches a hair of yon gray salary, dies like a dog. Judge George Gray's manly Indepen- dence was never displayed to better advantage than when he spoke out at Scranton last week on the "cowardly and un-American" boycott by the labor union. He was sitting as arbitrator between the traction company and its employees, and was told that certain merchants dared not put their names to a statement about prices, lest they should be boycotted. This roused the judge's indignation. He said that if the facts were so, they ought to be proclaimed to

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594 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 the country to the discredit of the la- bor unions. As for himself, he declared that he would die in his tracks before he would submit to a boycotting labor union. This is the kind of sturdy ut- terance which once passed as thorough- ly American and patriotic. If it has seemed to be going out of fashion, this is probably because many find it so much easier to yell for the flag, and a big navy, and to talk about licking all creation, than to show any fight when labor leaders or corrupt politicians threaten to injure their private business. While the New York Presbytery held its theological examination behind clos- ed doors, there seems to be little doubt that the young men whom it voted to license to preach, though it had refused to do so on a former occasion, hold views much at variance with current Presby- terian orthodoxy. It appears to be cer- tain, for example, that they do not ac- cept the historical doctrine of the fall of man, or of the virgin-birth. We shall soon know, for it is inconceivable that these things can be left hidden in a cor- ner. The Presbytery will have to make a report of its procedure to the higher judicatories of the church; if it does not, it will be called to book by either the Synod or the General Assembly. That was the course taken to bring Pro- fessor Briggs to trial. He had no diffi- culty with his own Presbytery in New York. It was the church at large which finally lost patience with the tolerance accorded his opinions, and insisted on settling the question whether they could lawfully be held within the Presbyterian Church. It was settled, for the time, by the withdrawal of Professor Briggs. But his heresies, if such they were, could not be compared in gravity with those now imputed to these young men. They apparently stand ready to throw over a good part of the dogma based on the supernatural. This is their in- dividual right; and, of course, one way in which the churches grow more lib- eral, and toleration for new views is gained, is by having ministers, or can- didates for the ministry, frankly state their convictions and ask if there is room for them in the church. But the process must be open. The Presbytery may have been wise to sit in secret, but it must know that all the facts are bound to come out. The New York Presby- tery has long been suspected of being theologically lax. The Western Presby- terians have been accustomed to account for this on the theory of the deceitful- ness of riches. Clergymen who are wealthy, or who have rich wives, or who are in contact with luxurious parishion- ers, cannot be expected to be severely orthodox. All the more reason, then, why the country hammerers of heretics will demand from the New York Pres- bytery the reasons for its latest tolera- tion of error. great, or nearly as great, as that earn- ed for Germany by Zeppelin with the dirigible balloon. The well-earned honors paid to Wil- bur and Orville Wright in the White House by President Taft are in refresh- ing contrast to the lack of governmental interest in their work at its inception. It is true, that the President acted for the Aero Club in making the presenta- tions, and not directly for the govern- ment. But it is not too much to hope that such a ceremony may lead to more frequent official recognition of men who confer honor upon their country by dis- coveries in the realm of science. We are of those benighted persons who believe that achievements of this kind are more to the renown of this Republic than the possession of a hundred battleships, or than a dozen world-cruises of our lat- est sea-monsters. This is not because the aeroplane or the dirigible balloon is thought to be a new and more for- midable engine of war., If that were its only usefulness, the sole reason for its existence, we should take very little in- terest in it. Neither Germany nor the United States nor any other country can hope for a monopoly of aerial Dread- noughts. As soon as a step forward is taken in one land, it will be followed in another. England's naval position, her statesmen say, is worse for the inven- tion of the sea-Dreadnought than it was before. It is as impossible to hide or to patent new ideas in naval construc- tion, as it is in airships. The inventor Hubert Latham, who is now experiment- ing with a monoplane in Paris, may have taken some of his ideas from the Wright experiments; he may devise something vastly superior to their aero- plane, for which, it is said, they have already booked no less than 200 orders. The real reason, then, for the White House ceremony is not that the Wrights have furnished us with a new weapon, but that they have won for the United States in a field of science an honor as The case against the comic supple- ment was forcibly restated last week by Mr. Percival Chubb, before the Public School Kindergarten Association. The luridly tinted Sunday "kid" is without question one of the most potent factors for vulgarity in our national life. Just bow the process of vulgarization runs was suggested by the speaker when he complained of "always the same vio- lences of color, form, and interpreta- tion." It is not alone in its violence, but in the eternal sameness of subject and treatment that the pernicious influ- ence of the comic supplement lies. Conceive, for instance, the state of a mind that will go on year after year drawing delight from the adventures of Happy Hooligan or the Katzenjammer Kids. Change, growth, are the necessary conditions of life. The child's mind, especially, must expand or die. But here are children's minds clamped down to a dreadful monotony. The contents of the picture have long ceased to at- tract. It is the mere familiar aspect of the horrible reds and blues that stirs a kind of galvanized laughter. An essen- tially quick-minded and humorous peo- ple, we are bludgeoned into accepting the stupid and the stale, as humorous. The cheap vaudeville performer has only to rip out, "I love my wife, but, oh, you kid," and his audience dissolves in laughter. It's the old grouse in the gunroom raised to the nth power of vul- garity. Almost a decade ago, Dr. Edward Everett Hale wrote his "Memories of a Hundred Years," and if his death last Thursday still found him considerably short of the centenarian's score, yet he was indeed to most of us a link with what begins to seem a remote past. He belonged to the epigones, so to speak, to the generation that succeeded the great New England writers, standing between them and the men of to-day. His reputation, no doubt, has suffered somewhat from this intermediary char- acter. Compared with the work of Hawthorne and Poe, his stories lack in- dividuality, and the classical mark of writing that comes from an age com- plete in itself and set apart by distinct ideals. At the same time they miss the

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* ■ ryrnHWi mmm** June 17, 1909] The Nation 595 emphasis and the intimacy that make the appeal of our newest fiction. Yet if he lacks the modern tone, it must not be forgotten that he did as much as any other American writer to mould the short story to its present form, taking it out of the poetical field in which Hawthorne and Poe worked, and giving to it some of its commonest ideas. His "Man Without a Country," coming at the beginning of the civil war, was a strong incentive to patriot- ism; it has been, too, the source of much later-day jingoism. In another di- rection his "Ten Times One Is Ten" has given an impulse to a vast deal of humanitarian fiction of a sentimental sort. Probably these stories are only a name to most of those who are reading the magazines of to-day, and the writer himself had begun to be a name. His death is a sign to tell us how rapidly our heroic age is slipping into the past. In withdrawing aid from George Washington University, the Carnegie Foundation helps along the panic through which, as Clarence P. Birds- eye has said, the American college must pass for its regeneration. To lose a gift already in hand is a terrible misfor- tune. Academic benefactions have al- ways been clinched by all the methods known to high finance, mortmain, and diplomacy. The most highly approv- ed have been used by the George Wash- ington University in its efforts to se- cure pensions for its professors. Pa- per prosperity and paper scholarship it could show in abundance. Its produc- tive endowment was $219,832.96, if you would only reckon it in the desired manner. And it had over 1,000 "regu- lar" students, provided you acquiesced in the college bookkeeper's standard of "regularity." But now it is going to lose its pensions, because $219,832.96 looks like $123,500, from a Fifth Avenue office; and because the only real en- trance requirement seems to be the can- didate's ability to pay an entrance fee. It is not the money loss that hurts; the professors will bear this, anyhow. No, it is the publicity. Not all its pensions will leave so deep an impress as the Carnegie Foundation's airing of the ways of college administrators. The Washington institution will not suffer alone. Dozens of other pretentious minor establishments are probably play- ing fast and loose with their books. Mr. Balfour said nothing new when he declared the other day that the fate of the British Empire would have to be fought out in European waters, if it depended on one naval battle. On that supposition the British fleet was reor- ganized five years ago, and on that sup- position the war-mongers have been busy ever since. But Mr. Balfour's for- mal statement of opinion suggests one reflection: how poor a prophet Rudyard Kipling has turned out to be. It is not Great Britain's far-flung battle line that needs divine protection now, but a bat- tle-line concentrated within the close confines of the North Sea. In response to no far calls will Britain's navy melt away; for Australia or Canada or South Africa may in case of war shift for themselves, and not much harm done, but watch must be kept over Heligo- land. Year after year the uncrowned poet of British imperialism went on chanting the adventures of Tommy At- kins among the lower breeds, as if be- tween these two the fate of empire was finally to be decided. But India now is not England's greatest fear, and the Bear with whom Kipling counselled England to make no truce, is become part of England's hope. England and Germany facing each other across the North Sea feel very acutely that the white man's burden is still — himself. The finance bill, which passed its sec- ond reading in the House of Commons last Thursday, is the technical meas- ure for putting the budget into legal form. The long fight will come, of course, on the third reading. It will probably not be over before September, possibly later. But the new taxes are already being levied. This is one of the peculiarities — we may say, excellen- cies— of the English financial system. As soon as the budget has passed the report stage, it becomes operative. Only so can the Chancellor of the Exchequer balance his books. Of course, if the finance bill embodying his taxes were later to fail of passing Parliament, the taxes actually collected would have to be repaid. But consider what chaos would follow if the House of Lords were, say next November, to throw out the finance bill. The new taxes would have been paid for nearly nine months, and, supposing that they could be in all cases returned, neither the existing gov- ernment, nor any that might be formed. could pay its way through the fiscal year. Herein lies a convincing reason for believing that the Lords will not attempt to reject the finance bill. If they would like to do it on political grounds, they would be deterred by co- gent financial considerations. It is in- teresting to note that the offic al action of the Conservative party was confined to moving that the finance bill be "read a second time upon this day six months." This is the ordinary form of a motion to reject. But both in 1907 and 1908 a Conservative amendment was offered to the finance bill to "broaden the basis of taxation" — that is, to introduce protec- tive taxes. It is at least significant that, this year, with a general election almost certain to come next, Mr. Bal- four has not cared to invite a discus- sion of taxes on food. The question of Crete which now turns up to plague Europe and the Young Turks, is all the more complicat- ed because both claimants to King Minos's ancient island, Greece and Tur- key, can cite legal and moral justifica- tion. After nearly three-quarters of a century of almost continuous revolution, Crete received autonomous government in 1898, under a High Commissioner wto is now designated by the King of Greece, and under the protection of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Rus- sia. It was understood that the island was held in trust for Greece, and that annexation would take place as soon as order had been reestablished and the in- ternal administration was reorganized. With the new Constitution of February, 1907, the work of reconstruction was completed, and in May, 1908. the Pow- ers announced their intention to with- draw from the island. Evacuation was to be completed by the last day of July, 1909. Still, Crete was impatient; on October 7 last the Chamber voted for annexation to Greece, but, acting on the protest of the Turkish government, the protecting Powers promised to take up the question of Cretan independence with the Porte, if peace was maintained on the island. If the Powers had car- ried out their intention of evacuating Crete, a dangerous situation between Turkey and Greece would have imme- diately resulted. Recognition of this fact has induced the protecting nations to announce a prolongation of their stewardship.

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596 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 INTER-PARTY ALLIANCES. Senator Aldrich loses no occasion to taunt the Western Republican Senators who will not follow his lead, upon the fact that they are acting with Demo- crats. They use tariff arguments such as have been common in Democratic mouths; they vote on the Senate roll- calls with Democrats; they are just now enter.' ng into' a hard-and-fast agreement with the Democratic minority to stand together on the income-tax. How could the proof of party treason be stronger? Was there ever an alliance which so well deserved the name of "unholy"? Of course, Aldrich does not refer to the fact that certain Democrats are found voting with him. The alliance works two ways; but we presume that the Rhode Island Senator would be able to make out a sharp difference. When Democrats forsake their party princi- ples in order to side with the Republi- can leader, it is only a tribute to his skill and noble patriotism. When Re- publicans, however, repudiate the benefi- cent dictation of an Aldrich, they de- clare themselves at once traitors to their party and enemies of the republic. The confusion of ideas on this whole subject rises partly from the fact that certain forms of combination between parties are unquestionably abhorrent and t armful. When men strike hands across the party fence to do the behest of politicians, to compass a union for plunder, to band together for the thwart- ing of good legislation, the grounds for suspicion and for denunciation are good. It was an inter-party alliance of this kind that opposed and harried Gov. Hughes at every step, last winter. Raines and Grady could not have been' deeper in each other's confidence, or I ave played more deftly into each oth- er's hands, if they had been party broth- ers instead of sworn enemies. But they became friends — just as Herod and Pilate did — out of a common enmity to the good. Such Tammany-Republican agreements have not a word to be said for them. They are based upon no con- viction except that the spoils ought to be got for the worst men. In that re- spect, they are not unlike that other joining of forces between two parties which we have lately seen in Illinois. The Republican majority in the Legis- lature had long been deadlocked on the question of electing a United States Sen- ator. Finally, enough Democrats aban- doned their principles to vote for a high- lariff Republican Senator, who was be- sides a politician of low type, and the trick was done. No one can defend such inter-party junctions. They have bad faith and midnight bargaining stamped upon them. Yet the odium which prop- erly rests upon such transactions ought not to be visited, as Aldrich would visit it, upon the kind of party cleavage now visible at Washington. In the first place, no one can accuse those Republican Senators who have broken with the party organization in the Senate, of selfish or unworthy mo- tives. They have nothing to gain ex- cept the approval of their constituents and their own consciences. All the sor- did temptations are, for these Senators, in the other pan of the scales. They could have made their own terms with Aldrich and Hale. Anything in the way of recognition and promotion, or the right to legislate for their own pockets, they could doubtless have had if they had agreed meekly to follow the direc- tions of the Finance Committee. But they have preferred to make their pro- test against a blind and ruthless lead- ership. The fact that this causes them to vote often with Democratic Senators is no indication whatever of an "un- holy" alliance. The Democrats are, in this case, both standing by their party professions and doing the legitimate work of the Opposition. With them the dissident Republicans align them- selves temporarily, because in no other way can they so emphatically express their sense of outrage at the foolish and obstinate leadership of their own party in the Senate. Now, such an exhibition as that does not at all call for the hurling of Aid- rich's epithets. The provocation ought, rather, to be considered, and the thing aimed at taken duly into the account. What we are seeing is only the historic process by which, under our system of party government, the majority is op- posed and checked when it is rushing into wild extremes. Members of the ma- jority, with clearer insight or cleaner conscience than the party leaders of the moment, break way. What happens then? Why, the bad leadership is dis- credited, as Aldrich's is before the coun- try to-day. The Republican Tribune of New York reminds him that "the ver- dict of an almost united Republican press is against him." In such a plight, there is nothing to do but to make des- perate bargains with a corrupt minority, or to prepare to capitulate. There are signs that Aldrich has done both. He has paid a few Democratic Senators their tariff price. Yet so long as the greater part of the minority cleave to their integrity, the tacit alliance be- tween them and the rebelling Republi- cans is one purely on the basis of prin- ciple, and for the public interest. It is not an understanding, or working agree- ment, based upon the weakness or the treachery of the minority, as was the Grady-Raines combination at Albany. What we have is simply honorable men standing up, at great personal cost, for their convictions. That being so, this inter-party alliance will command re- spect, and is bound to have important political consequences, even though the heathen in the Senate rage and imagine vain things. The time may yet come when these Republ can Senators who withstand the madness of party leader- ship, will be held in as high honor, and will be judged to have done as great a public service, as those other Republi- can Senators who broke with their par- ty to prevent the impeachment of Presi- dent Johnson. A TRUST HALTERED. If any thing could further injure the standing of the Sugar Trust, after the revelation of its despicable thievery from the government by falsification of weights, it would be its confession last week in the matter of the Pennsylva- nia Sugar Refining Company's suit for damages. That concern had asked for thirty millions of dollars for injury done to it in plain contravention of the Sherman Anti-Trust law; it had already begun an action in New Jersey which was to be argued on appeal this week. The Trust contended that a case had not been made out for submission to a jury; that no damages had been proved, and that the adverse decision in New Jersey was a bar to this suit. These contentions found no favor with the judge, and the Trust then decided to set- tle. The final terms have not yet been announced, but are stated to be $2,000,- 000, besides the cancelling of the loan and the returning of the securities. There can be no question that in this case settlement is confession of guilt, as Webster argued of suicide. The closing of the Pennsylvania

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gw, .,-: '---"•' m*m June 17, 1909] The Nation. 597 Sugar Refinery by the Trust is as inter- esting a story of corporation trickery as has seen the light of day. Built in 1903 by Adolph Segal, the Philadelphia real-estate operator, it was at the time of its completion a model refinery, mod- ern in every respect, and superior to any plant possessed by the Trust. Segal had erected it for the express purpose of competing with the Trust, and that he was in position to do so successfully appears from the great interest taken by the Havemeyer concern in the new rival. Segal himself is a remarkable character. Coming to this land twenty- five years ago an almost penniless im- migrant, he quickly amassed a fortune, and aided materially the development of Philadelphia by his successful real estate speculations. In the course of time, however, Segal became too much involved, and came to grief financially with the sensational failure in 1906 of the Real Estate Trust Company of Phil- adelphia, now a party to the suit against the Sugar Trust. The president of the Trust Company committed suicide, and Segal, with two officers of the company, was indicted on forty-one counts for fraud and conspiracy. Not until two years later was Segal able to obtain jus- tice and prove that he was guiltless of any wrongdoing. The receiver of the Trust Company, George H. Earle, jr., now its president, aided him to obtain this exoneration. At the time when he first found him- self in financial straits and needed a loan of $1,250,000 on his new refinery, he received an offer of accommodation from Gustav E. Kissel. Segal, not be- ing aware that Kissel was an agent of the Sugar Trust, accepted the offer, to which was attached the condition that, during the pendency of the loan, the holder of the seven millions of collater- al— mostly securities of the new refinery — should name the directors. He had tied up $2,600,000 of stock out of $5,- 000,000 in a voting trust, and he was in great need of the additional money. Mr. Kissel and three clerks of the Trust were elected directors, only to show at once the meaning of the whole trick. Instead of representing unaffiliated capital, Mr. Kissel was there to do the bidding of the Trust. Its orders were to shut down the plant, and its four dummy directors did its bidding; from that day to this no labor has been em- ployed in the Segal refinery. Its mag- nificent machinery has lain idle; its buildings have stood silent and empty. But the Trust had been successful in its aim. At a cost of only $1,250,000 it end- ed all fear of trouble in that quarter, and the failure of the Real Estate Trust Company, with the consequent injury to Segal's reputation and the ensu:ng legal complications, helped to continue this satisfactory state of affairs. But there are still courts in the Unit- ed States, as the Trust has now learned. The much-discussed Sherman Anti-Trust law again proved its value, for it made possible a successful action, and prop- erly defined the base scheme which trap- ped Segal as an illegal combination in restraint of trade. The outcome thus becomes of national importance; a most powerful concern built up and fortified by grace of the Republican party and its protective tariff — it was Mr. H. O. Havemeyer himself who dubbed the tar- iff "the mother of Trusts" — is yet amen- able to the laws, by a procedure regu- larly brought without the aid or inter- ference of the government. Not even the ablest legal talent to be obtained could avert the collapse in court, or pre- vent the Trust's paying heavy damages — its stockholders have had the pleasure of seeing four millions of dollars, or, if the Segal loan is also cancelled, $5,250,- 000, paid out of the treasury within two or three months to cover the wrongdo- ing of its officers, high and low. We have dwelt upon this case because it is typical of the kind of business im- morality which made the public accept Lawson's combinations of fact and fic- tion as unvarnished truths, gave rise to the recent bitter outburst against large corporations, and created for Mr. Roose- velt the opportunity, of which he so readily and skilfully took advantage, to make himself the champion of the people against corporation dishonesty. We con- fess to being extremely tired of hearing corporation managers blame politi- cians for the hard times they have been going through. The responsibility is theirs, and theirs alone. So long as the history of the Standard Oil exists, so long as this story of the Sugar Trust remains a written record, the public will believe that the crusaders of the last few years had the right on their side, however crude and mistaken their meth- ods. But we feel almost like apologiz- ing to the Standard Oil for connecting it with the Sugar Trust in any way. Can any other concern have sunk to quite such depths of baseness? It cheat- ed, like the lowest greengrocer, with fraudulent scales; it knocked out a com- petitor by a low trick. It merits and wiil receive the contempt of the country. ROBBING BY LAW. Gratifying indignation has been dis- played by even the high-tariff press at a tricky and thieving Sugar Trust. Cheating the Treasury by false weights, and so, in effect, filching money from every citizen, has been virtuously de- nounced. But while this robbery against the law has provoked wrath and scorn, open preparations to rob by means of the law stir these protectionist censors to no anger. Yet what is the real differ- ence? How much worse is the moral standing of the man who steals from the public by lying scales, than that of the man who gets his hands into the pockets of his fellows by virtue of the tariff? For our part, we prefer the avowed burglary to sneak-thievery mas- querading as patriotism. If a powerful corporation, by dint of political bribery and secret influence, is allowed a "dif- ferential," or some other form of special favor, by statute, enabling it to mulct consumers to the tune of $40,000,000 or $50,000,000 a year, we have rather less respect for it, and for the process by which it enriches itself, than for the acknowledged pickpocket or "second- story man." Names cannot cover up facts or alter morals. If it is disreputable to hire a weigher to falsify records, it is just as disreputable to "see Aldrich" and get your tariff duties "fixed" so that you can lawfully collect tribute from all your countrymen. The latter method is being pursued at Washington amid general applause; but when an unlucky Trust is caught doing practically the same thing lawlessly, we all rise up in horror. But cheating and oppression are what they are, even if legalized. The moral quality of a transaction is not changed by the fact that the unfair ap- propriation of another man's property may be authorized by act of Congress, and may be called our glorious Ameri- can system of protection. There have been exposures in Con- gress of the knavery of the sugar sched- ules, really as crushing in their way- as the revelations before Judge Holt in court, yet no one gets excited about

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598 The ]STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 them. They are simply the time-hon- ored ways of cheating the people and calling it protecting infant industries. There is, to the discerning mind, just as much material for moral indignation in the taxes proposed in the woollen schedules, now under debate in the Senate, as in any disclosure of Trust stealing and tyranny ever made. Note, for example, how coolly a discriminat- ing tax is defended which will wipe out a certain class of woollen manufacture. What is the difference between this and shutting up a sugar refinery by finan- cial manipulation? When Mr. Whitman obtained his famous rates on "tops and dress goods," in the tariff of 1897, and got them by subterranean and abhorrent means, in what did his conduct differ from any other form of tapping the Treasury till and robbing the public? It was not, indeed, against the law, but no legalization of fraud can do any- thing except make it doubly disgrace- ful. Not only fraud but heartlessness is written all over the proposed woollen duties. This was glaringly put in evi- dence during the hearings before the Ways and Means Committee. It was shown that the duties on wool and wool- len goods compel the American working- man to pay a needless tax of 35 to 50 per cent, on the clothes he wears, or else to be hoodwinked into buying a coat made of shoddy which' will fall in pieces the first time he is caught out in a hard rainstorm. It was proved, more- over, that a great proportion of the peo- ple who believe that they are wearing woollen shirts in winter are really wear- ing garments mostly cotton. Thereupon up spake Representative Crumpacker, a mighty defender of the noble American system of protecting the workingman: "What is the difference if they don't know it?" He might just as well have asked: "What is the difference if the government doesn't know that the Sugar Trust is stealing $2,000,000 in unpaid duties?-" The veriest ditcher in England is treated with more decency than our cherished laboring classes. When Reuben Shillabeer crawls out of the water and asks David Bowden for a dry wool shirt, he knows that he will not get a thing nine-tenths cotton. Pro- tection against the weather, protection against pneumonia and tuberculosis — these things go for nothing with our un- feeling protectionist Congressmen. Clap on the prohibitory duties and let the poor go in patches or in cotton — provid- ed "they don't know it"! Well, they are beginning to "know it" as they never did before. There has been a more thorough showing up in Congress of the essential greed and dis- honesty of a protective tariff than we have seen for many a year. The work of the Western Republican Senators who are in revolt against Aldrich, has been of immense value. They have had their constituents and their State news- papers behind them, and the knowledge about tariff iniquities which has been spread abroad in speeches and biting editorial comment and mordant car- toons, has carried new light and pro- voked new heat. The fundamental na- ture of the protectionist demand is now better understood than at any former time. That demand is simply that Con- gress issue to favored individuals or corporations a license to tax — that is, to rob by law. Wealth heaped up by tariff privileges is, indeed, as was de- clared by Prime Minister Asquith the other day in Parliament, the really of- fensive "unearned increment." What- ever may be done with the unearned in- crement in land, the only thing to do with the unearned increment got through protective taxes is to abolish it. Instead of laws to facilitate disguis- ed robbery, it is time that we had some to extinguish it. SCIENCE AND CULTURE. The scientist is disappointing some of our humanists, who think him the implacable foe of culture. They have L>ccn ranking him but little lower than the crass utilitarian, the pseudo-educa- tor bent on making business colleges out of our high schools. But the scien- iist will not keep step in that file. Pres- ident Maclaurin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology made it clear, .he other day, in his inaugural address. Science and culture, he affirmed, must go hand in hand, "science being studied and taught in such a way as to make for that broad and liberal outlook in the world that is the mark of a really cultured man." Here is the humanist's ideal, at least; and if it still leaves un- determined the question whether science alone can effect this kind of culture, we must bear in mind that it was spoken to engineers in a school where the lathes leave scant time for Theocritus. Hon ring a plea to such an audience for "an ideal broad enough to form the Lasis for a sane criticism of life," the humanist should forgive President Mac- laurin's very mild thrust at tradition that followed. He did not really turn the phalanxes of science against Greek and Latin, when he said a man need not pursue the "so-called useless studies" for mental discipline and culture, "if he can gain these excellent things in studies that are useful to his calling." Surely, this heavily conditioned remark need make nobody fear for the classics or any of the humanities; they have still the chance to prove their usefulness in training the mind for technical stud- ies. And if President Maclaurin did not choose to say that the classics lay the surest foundation for general culture and even for special technical studies, many of his colleagues in science have done it for him. Thirty-five of them have sent to Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, some significant estimates of the value of Greek and Latin to the nature-student. Their opinions, which Dr. Wiley publishes in the current School Review, do much more than sup- port his conclusion that, even in the laboratory, "there is a decided opinion to the effect that a knowledge of the classics is more or less indispensable to one who claims to be a man of culture and education." If these views are at all representative, they disclose a ma- jority sentiment favorable to the tongues of Homer and Horace as "a basis for scientific study and activity." Only seven of the thirty-five deliver an un- qualified verdict of "worthless." Two charitably say that all knowledge has some value. Three others think that the languages do not offer a fair return for the time spent in mastering them. Over against these, an even score rate Latin as "valuable" or "essential," while sixteen say the same of Greek. Only fifteen, however, can name some service which the classical languages alone ren- der the scientist; the other five cham- pions apparently suspect that French or German, or, perhaps, mathematics, furnishes, when properly taught, the same useful information and discipline. "What effect," asks Dr. Wiley, "will a fair knowledge of them have upon the pleasures which may be enjoyed?1" Five reply that the classics contribute no spe- cial pleasure, five others that modern

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fiSSL '- -tr. (tM nfirriirnfiiin **■«**« June 17, 1909J The Nation. 599 languages are more delightful, while fif- teen give strong praise. These verdicts leave the humanist lit- tle reason to fear lest wisdom and joy die in a test-tube. Of all ways to cul- ture, the classical tongues are those at which men of modern research are most inclined to look askance. But, as a mat- ter of fact, the outcry against languages, literature, and history is not what it was a few years ago. It may be quite as loud as then, and we fancy it is per- haps shriller; but only because it has been taken up by many self-appointed educational authorities and over-zealous champions of vocational training. The deeper voices are leaving the chorus. When they were struggling for recogni- tion, men of science said many strong things which, having gained their place within the academic fold and having come to face the problem of training young men, they have learned to repent. Culture is not the bogey that it seemed when it stood in their way. If they will not say to-day with Baur, the distin- guished chemist: "Give me a student who has been taught his Latin gram- mar, and I will answer for his chemis- try," they will at least stand on the plat- form just laid down by Attorney-Gener- al Wickersham for Lehigh University graduates. With him they perceive that our masters of scientific technique have not been taking the rank they should in our social and political life, because they have locked their doors against the ideals, the imaginations, and even the vicissitudes of mankind; because, in a word, they have sometimes forgotten that the heart of education is still the knowledge of man and not of things. If those masters themselves see this, our humanist need not shudder over Dart- mouth choosing a physicist for presi- dent. THE COUNTRY CHURCH. Interest in the country-life movement has recently borne fruit, particularly as concerns the country church. Chris- tian forces have been stirred to activity in the work of its regeneration. Theirs is no mean task; for the problem of the rural church is, in a measure, that of the community. It must impress the population flowing into our great cen- tres, and it must also aid in making •country life attractive for its own sake. Said the Outlook recently: "In influenc- ing the development of country life, no other institution has the opportunity of the country church." Greatest progress has been made where perplexity is most acute. Though Western rural churches know the path of difficulty, staid New England faces peculiar complications. Long-standing denominational strife, old family preju- dices, alien invaders upon historic farms, and all the frictions of New Eng- land village life must be overcome. This spring, in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire careful investiga- tion has been completed under varied auspices into rural life, with special reference to the churches. In the New England Country Church Association we have a real move to solve the prob- lem. Organized last August, this body has certain large objectives. Its avow- ed aim is "the social and economic im- provement of the rural community through the agency of the rural church." It includes some of New England's best informed students of rural life, in its president, Professor Carver of Harvard, President Butterfield of Massachusetts Agricultural College, Dr. Wilbert L. An- derson, and others. With hopes of a unified Christianity and a peculiarly trained and adequately paid ministry, this new organization has started upon a campaign of education. At the first public sessions in Boston recently, Professor Peabody declared that the problem was not to improve the country by measures imitative of city conditions, but to make the former desirable in itself. President Eliot un- folded a possible remedy for the dis- couraged churches in his plan of endow- ment, administered under a capable in- terdenominational commission. These two features, however, endowment and commission, have yet to be worked out; they present no small problem of their own. As a whole, the conference dis- played a decided tendency to look upon sectarianism as the basic weakness of the country church, and to find that of the community as a whole in economic conditions. The day has long since passed in which the country pastor was the vil- lage autocrat, and when the leading men in his church were the leaders in the town. The country pastorate has come to be regarded as "a convenient labora- tory for the clerical novice or an asy- lum for the decrepit." The recent grad- uate from the seminary and the veteran pastor who must remain in harness even in declining years, will seek these lesser parishes. No wonder, then, that the Country Ch.urch Association should take up the cause of the country pastor. Last month, under its auspices, a four days' "institute" was held at St. Johnsbury, Vt., attended by representatives of six denominations: Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal, Methodist, Universalist, and Unitarian. The speakers included offi- cials from Harvard, Yale, and all the leading seminaries of the section. This and a similar gathering at Hartford in- dicate a realization of the necessity for progress and adaptiveness, even in the smallest communities. These facts, however interesting, may seem to make little demand upon the average city dweller, but he has his place in the problem. Particularly is this true in the vacation days. In the change to cottage and colony, as distin- guished from hotel life, has come an in- creasing tendency on the part of sum- mer visitors to enter somewhat into the interests about them. In many country, hill, and seashore towns of New Eng- land the local church looks forward to the summer season as a time of special prosperity. For these vacation weeks the church rejoices in new faces and enlarged resources. Pews in the old white meeting-house long unused are occupied on Sunday by well-groomed city folk. Social events, the music, the collection-box, all witness to an unusual presence. Yet when the generous guests depart, comes the real test to the lit- tle churches. Only a small group is left to frequent these weather-beaten edifices. If the summer friendships could only be continued, it would mean encouragement in the rural routine. The summer visitor has here a real op- portunity, not only in practical brother- hood, but in the solution of a national problem. RECENT GERMAN FICTION. We have become accustomed to look every year for a new volume from the veteran Paul Heyse. Age does not seem to impair his amazing productiveness, nor a certain youthful idealism. Com- pared with the spirit of his work, that of his young contemporaries appears like senile cynicism. "Die Geburt der Venus" (imported by G. E. Stechert & Co.) is a fair illustration of what seems to be his creed, as it is that of Bjdrnson's Parson Sang: the will to be-

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600 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 lieve in what is best in mankind. Oth- ers have given us pictures of studio life that may fill the uninitiated with vague horror. Heyse chooses to present the clean rather than the seamy side. There will, of course, be no lack of crit- ics and readers so sophisticated as to doubt the nobility of his hero and his heroine. Yet it is far more likely that an artist model could pose for the birth of Venus without loss of personal dig- nity than that a young woman deliber- ately seeking experiences in the mael- strom Of modern Berlin could issue from them in stainless purity, as the crea- tors of that much-favored type would have us believe. Yet the new novel of Heyse has its modern features. The sis- ter of his hero is a thoroughly contem- porary Backfisch, chafing under re- straint, and eager to experiment. The question whether ignorance or knowl- edge of the realities of life is a better safeguard of virtue is touched upon, but the author wisely refrains from offering an answer. There are discussions of problems in art, of morals and religion, but they never interrupt the course of the narrative. The tragic end of the hero relieves the author from venturing upon the well-trodden field of marriage between artist and model. But, though he can be pardoned for making some of his characters faded reproductions of his early favorites, it does seem un- pardonable that Heyse should share the chauvinism of his compatriots in mak- ing the villain and adventuress of his story foreigners. The woman portrayed by Anna Reich- ert in her novel, "Der Roman der Mari- anne Vanmeer" (Egon Fleischel & Co., Berlin), is a genuine type of an unset- tled transition period. She is a char- acter deflected from the line of her nat- ural development through an unfortu- nate early experience, and doomed to stray on devious by-paths, until by re- nunciation she arrives at self-realiza- tion in art. A highly complex individ- uality is this Marianne, who, with a vague longing for the fulness of emo- tional life, couples a cold-blooded curK osity and self-analysis. The record of her experiences is as pathetic as it is repulsive. Set in the frame of modern Berlin, her story acquaints the reader with many fads and freaks affected by a prosperous and sophisticated nation whose natural rationalism has been re- inforced by the materialistic tendencies of the age. As a direct transcription of such phases of real life, the book has a place in the history of the morals and manners of the German metropolis. Hanns von Zobeltitz's "Der heilige Sebastian" (Egon Fleischel & Co.) is the story of a mesalliance, which did not greatly tax his inventive powers. The high-minded young nobleman is as familiar a figure in fiction as the fas- cinating though vulgar variety actress whom he marries, in spite of his fam- ily's opposition. By way of contrast, the author introduces the ideal affec- tion which another woman cherishes for the hero; but the reader who be- lieves that the just should be rewarded and the unjust punished in the world of books, is disappointed to learn that the whole-souled Marga dies of consump- tion before the ill-assorted couple are legally freed. Paul Oskar Hbcker's story, "Die ver- botene Frucht" (Egon Fleischel & Co.), is a deviation from the type of fiction which he usually cultivates, and which in Germany is ambitiously styled Krim- inalroman. There is no crime in this novel to be tracked down by the detec- tive. But does not Emerson say that society resembles police in citizens' clothes? Society has prying eyes, and the compromising situation in which the impulsive heroine places herself by her sympathy for the scapegrace of her husband's family is sufficient to rouse that body of private detectives to fever- ish activity. They forge a chain of cir- cumstantial evidence most disastrous for her reputation. One is reminded of Echegaray's "Galeotto," as the two peo- ple whose names gossip has coupled in the time of their trouble become dear to each other. When long after her di- vorce the heroine d'scovers that nothing can convince the world of her inno- cence, she opens a letter from her sup- posed lover that she had not intended to read, and the end of the story might lead our Mrs. Grundy to pronounce an emphatic "I told you so." In their preference for pathological subjects, German authors are rapidly exhaust;ng the ordinary ills of flesh and soul. Now. a newcomer among them has hit upon a disease' which supersti- tion was wont to invest with miracu- lous powers, and which has long baf- fled medical science. Josef Zytlaun's "Krescenz Biihler" (S. Fischer. Berlin) is a sufferer from catalepsy. As a deli- cate child she witnessed a brutal scene that left her nerves unstrung, and a fall from a hayloft has made her an invalid. In her rural home among strangers she becomes the object of mor- b'd curiosity. The efforts of the doc- tor and the priest of the village to un- ravel the secret of her illness are inter- esting. Her apparent death and subse- quent revival are treated with a certain element of mysticism, but the author has avoided the field of miracles. There is a delicate hint that the invalid, in her vegetative condition, may be pos- sessed of second sight, but lacks the power to express her visions. The au- thor suggests admirably the transcen- dental atmosphere which envelops his heroine, and makes the robust peasants feel at her death as if they had been delivered from an invisible burden. It is a relief to turn to a story which presents life under normal conditions. Alfred Bock has the reputation of being one of Germany's best writers of pro- vincial fiction. His new book, "Die Pariser" (Egon Fleischel & Co.), is the story of a peaceful vendetta. The usury of the burgomaster has forced a part of the population of a Hessian village to emigrate. They seek their fortune in Paris, and when by hard work and frugality they have saved considerable sums, they vow to return and have ven- geance on the man who had ruined them. The scheme succeeds, but when the man dies, they do not hesitate to- show that their hatred has been ab- sorbed by the native kindness of their hearts. There is a delightful love-idyl interwoven with the main plot. Richard Huldschiner's "Starkenberg" (Egon Fleischel & Co.) is a story of mediaeval life, full of the brutality and superstitions of a period when the Old World was swept by the scourge of pes- tilence. ' Huldschiner handles his ma- terial with the poet's imaginative in- sight and with great dramatic power. Whatever his sources for this story of brotherly feud, of the kidnapping of an innocent girl, and the ravages of the epidemic, he conveys the impression that he has lent a living voice to the old chronicles. Georg von der Gabelentz does not accomplish this end in his novel of Italian history, "Um eine Krone" (Egon Fleischel & Co.). We witness the outward manifestations of" the will of the royal Joana of Naples and that forerunner of the Borgias, Du- razzo. but we get scarcely a glimpse into their real character. A story of immediate interest to the foreign immigrant in America is "Das grosse Tor," by Wilhelm Cremer (im- ported by G. E. Stechert & Co.). The hero comes to this country unprepared for its life of strenuous labor, ignorant of the language, and undecided in his plans. His life in the steerage is paint- ed with a bold realism. His experiences on landing in New York are those of the average newcomer, and are recorded with sincerity. But the inferences which the hero draws from the impres- sions gathered, mainly on the Bowery, are commonplace and incorrect, though they may express the sentiments of many hundreds of foreigners, who, when they have barely passed the big gate of the New World, are ready to formulate their opinions of America and Ameri- cans in terms of bitter disapproval. The hero returns to Germany after a brief stay, one more in the ranks of the type which Kiirnberger portrayed in his "Amerikamude." The redeeming fea- ture of the story is the heroine, who re- mains, and is one of those foreign immi- grants whom one would not like to miss in this conglomerate of nations. The consummate art of Thomas Mann has set its stamp upon every one of the stories contained in the sixth volume of Fischer's Bibliothek Zeitgenossischer Romane. "Der kleine Herr Friede-

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db£_ l^ftPTXf *T*^-wrT>'W to Church, who resold part of it to Dodd, Mead & Co." The fact is that these book- sellers purchased the library entire and sold it entire to the late Mr. Church, who selected the Shakespeares and such other books as he cared to retain, leaving the rest with them to be sold for his account. As a contribution to that fascinating sub- ject, the history of book-co'.lecting, this "Census of Caxtons" is one of the most interesting books ever written. Correspondence. A NEW PARTY. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: The editorial, "The People Losing a Weapon," in the issue of the Nation for May 20, clearly sets forth the unfortunate condition of our politics resulting from the practical disintegration of the Democratic party and the consequent loss to our po- litical life of a true opposition. It is evident to one who studies the signs that one of those upheavals that from time to time disturb the orderly course of events is imminent. This is presaged by the pres- ent state of affairs political, of which the most suggestive features are: (1.) The apparently unassailable position of the Republican party. (2.) The apparently hopelessly impotent condition of the Democratic party. (3.) The abandonment by the Democratic party of its principles and its adoption of principles which it has been supposed to be opposing. (4.) The fact that political and economic

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6QO i^ The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 lines are not drawn the same as party lines, and the existence of radical factions in both parties that are much closer to each other than they are to the conservative faction in their own party, and (5.) The existence of conservative fac- tions in each party which, while having less resemblance to each other than the radical wings have, are more sympathetic toward each other than to the other fac- tion of their own party. What is more probable than that a new political alignment will take place based on conservative and radical lines? This seems to be the natural division of parties. A little examination of conditions will show that a new party, or a reorganization of the Democratic party, can be made along such lines that will put new vigor into our political life. I expect this movement to arise within the radical faction of the Democratic party, meaning those who believe in progressive legislation based on the old principles of Democratic faith, and not faddists, social- ists, or mere opportunists, whose only idea is to regain or retain office. The cardinal Democratic principles which must be con- sidered for the new party are: Strict Construction of the Constitution. States' Rights. Economy and Efficiency in Government. A Low Tariff, and What may be termed broadly as Opposi- tion to all Special Privileges. (1.) The first of these principles has ceased to be sufficiently alive to cause dis- sension. But as it affects the policy of in- ternal improvements, "imperialism," ex- tension of Federal power, and some simi- lar questions, it still has vitality. (2.) States' rights under the old guise of State sovereignty has ceased to live, except in the hearts of a few irreconcilables. But as representing local self-government in opposition to extension of Federal control, it should be a cardinal principle of any new party that rises from the ashes of the Dem- ocracy. (3.) Economy and efficiency of govern- ment are strictly in accord with Democratic principles, are not opposed to Republican principles, and will be a mighty factor :t consistently upheld. It means a small and efficient army, all of whose members, offi- cers as well as soldiers, are expected to attend to their strictly military duties; a small and effective navy; abandonment of expensive and useless outlying possessions; civil service reform carried to its ultimate bounds; a careful watch on our expendi- tures in a thousand and one ways such as those above outlined and in pension bills, river and harbor hills, and building can- als. (4.) A tariff for revenue is the true Democratic doctrine, but the protective principle has hec.ome so firmly established of late years, owing to the lack of an effec- tive opposition, that it would unquestion- ably be more expedient to advocate a sub- stantial reduction of tariff duties rather than an abandonment of the protective principle. (5.) And the last tenet will command a very large support as the feeling is grow- ing stronger every year that there are too many special privileges recognized and even protected by the government. The new par- ty must oppose all forms of privilege. It must represent the people, not the common people or the uncommon people. The Repub- lican party represents the rich, and there is growing up a Labor party and a party of the jrolttariat. The new par:y must take all the American people for its clientele. Direct primary elections and perhaps other similar or even more advanced meth- ods, will doubtless appeal to the new party, since to develop its greatest strength it must keep close to the people. If the above lines are followed it is be- lieved by the writer that a live party can be created, which will create en- thusiasm, attract adherents, and which will have a long and successful career, because it will be based on living principles. It will reanimate all politics by creating an effective opposition ; it will cause its op- ponents to see the need of reforms that they have heretofore opposed; it will be the means of forcing its opponents to do many things it cannot itself accomplish. There is nothing in the policy outlined above that would prevent progressive Re- publicans from supporting the party that adopts it. Indeed, it is nearer to the prin- ciples of those Republicans than is the pol- icy of the Republican party itself. Wm. P. Malbuen. Denver, Col., May 26. A RETREAT FROM MARATHON. To the Editor of The Nation: Sib: Xotpere. Ni/core! Tbe whjle theory of pure Browningesque invention for the Marathon run falls breathless, as is clearly shown by the replies to my letter printed in the Nation of May 27. Among the works of reference to be cor- rected or completed to this effect are ap- parently all the Browning hand books. See at least G. W. Cooke's, p. 290 ("This part of the poem is probably original"), where Mrs. Orr and Symons are cited as if in agreement. If the old Pauly Reallexikon knew anything of all this, the Smiths failed to "lift" it into English, and so excellent a school manual as Liibker was silent, down to 1882. The essay mentioned in my pre- vious letter is reprinted in the "Boston Browning Book," and the present retraction covers the same error there (p. 386.). It may still be worth noting, that only a probable surmise as yet identifies Philip- pides, the runner of Marathon so named first by Lucian, with Pheidippides. the courier to Sparta. The fatal run itself was apparently believed in as early as 300 b. c. (Heracleides Ponticus apud Plu- tarch), and there may be an earlier passage still to offer. The multiplicity of names may be partly because Philippides or Phei- dippides looks like a mere patronymic (from which Nepos drops the ending) rather than a true individual name. Until further evi- dence is offered, Lucian, a very late author, is the first who in any way suggests that the two runners were the same person. But as for Herodotus the argumentum ex silcntio still seems safer than usual. If, sixty years after the battle, any such tale had been current, surely the chronicler would have heard it from his Athenian friends, and used it to gild his rather meagre record of the first Persian invasion. The late appearance of so picturesque a story stamps it as probably a poetic or mythic invention. Browning apparently added the artistic and ethical link — uniting the two incidents. Pan promised the runner "A worthy reward . . . release from the racer's toil." But tbe god's prophetic word is as usual ill-under- stood. Not ease, long life, "children close to my knees," was meant, but instant death on the crest of supreme achievement. Hero- dotus puts into Solon's mouth a similar tale of C'.eobis and Biton, which seems to have influenced Browning powerfully. This is not properly a proof of a melan- choly view of life. The early martial lyric also emphasizes the fitness of heroic death in youth for fatherland and honor's sake. Not that life is less, but victory more pre- cious; and a supreme success is so rare that man may well be content with one such day, or even fear to mar its glory, as Miltiades so soon did, if he lives on. Yet even the Herodotean Solon had given the first prize of happiness not to the dutiful and short- lived youths, but to the patriarch Tellos, borne by sons and son's sons to a hero's grave. And the prize must be worth the price. Once Pheidippides runs to save Athens, and again to bring exultation, before the dread- ed night descends, to myriads of affrighted hearts, though his own should burst. But— priSiv ayav. For an ordinary test of speed the stadion was severe enough, and eight or ten furlongs was already a long- distance race. To send striplings or even young lads, on a nine-league race as a mere amusement, is most un-Hellenic. So much may still be maintained; our deadly "Mar- athon race" has no classical origin nor modern justification. W. C. Lawton. Seranton, Pa., June 7. MR. BURBANK'S WORK. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In the issue of the Nation for May 27 mention is made of Jordan and Kellogg's "Scientific Aspects of Luther Burbank's Work," and the reviewer wonders that so unsatisfactory a S'tory had been put forth, and asks why the real case is not more clearly stated. The fact is, as Messrs. Jordan and Kel- logg so well know, there is no "science" or "scientific aspect" to Mr. Burbank'"' work. They have made the best story that could be made in the case. Until the news- paper writers got hold of some of Burbank's accomplishments and exploited them re • poiter-like, neither Burbank nor any one for him had ever claimed he had anything to do with science. He was merely a se- lecter of what seemed to him best, and that was all. He would sow 100 or 1,000,000 seeds of a given sort, and when they grew he would select 1 or 10 or 50 of the plants that looked the best and most robust, and would then bring them into flower or fruit so as to get an article that was superior to the original. He called this cultivation "edu- cating the plant," and had no idea that he was more than a simple selecter. (I am not referring to his hybrids; he did hy- bridize, as many others have, and by that means got crosses as hundreds of other people have done.) The newspaper reports took up the selective part of the work and on that have given him fictitious rep- utation. Mr. Burbank in the beginning was not to blame for this, as it was not only done without his consent but in despite of his protests. Now, however, he may be •

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^./^ ■*-._».- ^■-^i*.-^^.,-^^^^.^. mm June 17, 1909J T h. e !NT ation. 603 to blame in so far as he has not publicly repudiated the error. He has suffered in the eyes of scientists for apparently en- dorsing what he and they know to be a fraud. Jacob Thompson. Chicago. June 1. ONE PHASE OF IMPERIALISM. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : At a meeting of the Twentieth Cen- tury Club of Boston, May 29, the subject of discussion appears to have been the Ha- waiian Islands. Mr. Gorham D. Gilman, according to a report in the Boston morn- ing papers of Monday, May 31, said: The most serious question now is, whe- ther the Hawaiian people are capable of self-government. It is doubtful if a leg- islature composed of them would be able to enact proper laws at present; but I be- lieve this problem can be worked out in time. The Rev. C. F. Dole, the chief speaker of the evening, touched upon one phase of the Hawaiian question, being thus re- ported: A serious difficulty noted by Dr. Dole was that concerning the liquor law. It had worked well for one year, but an attempt to change it in favor of the saloons was made in the Legislature last winter by white men. The Hawaiian native members of the House, however, stood together against the change, and it was defeated. Are the white men in Hawaii yet fit for self-government? Alexander F. Chamberlain. Clark University, Worcester, Mass., June 4. Notes. A fourth volume has been added to the works of George Eliot in The AVorld's Classics (Henry Frowde), containing "Scenes of Clerical Life." The excellent two-volume edition of the works of Charles and Mary Lamb, edited for the Oxford Press by Thomas Hutchin- son, has now been issued within a single pair of covers, printed on thin paper. The type is clear and the general form agree- able. B. W. Huebsch has secured the Ameri- can rights of Sudermann's novel "Das hohe Lied," and will publish a translation of it in ihe autumn, under the title of "The Song of Songs." Some time this summer the Scribners Will bring out "Chateaubriand and His Court of Women," by Francis Gribble, a companion volume to his studies of Rous- seau and George Sand. Next month A. C. McClurg & Co. will publish a life of the inventor of the Har- vester, under the title "Cyrus Hall Mc- Cormick, His Life and Work," written by Herbert N. Casson. Grant Richards of London has ready a •volume of "New Poems," by Madison Jawein of Kentucky. Mr. Cawein's poetry 'is probably better known in England than It is in this country. We are to have, in the autumn, another library of selections from the great prose •writers, to be called "The Best of the World's Classics." The editor-in-chief is Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, and the work will be published in ten volumes, by Funk & Wagnalls Company. Houghton Mifflin Company announces two historical works for publication next autumn, which promise to be interesting: "The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan," by Walter Sichel, based on a large amount of new material; and "The Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth, Told in Contemporary Letters," by Frank A. Mumby. Lemcke & Buechner announce a new Propylaen-Ausgabe of Goethe's Samtliche Werke to be completed in forty volumes of about 500 pages each, to be issued at the rate of seven volumes a year. All that Goethe meant to be printed will be included, together with a representative selection from his letters and diaries. The text, based on the Weimar edition, will be edit- ed by competent scholars and arranged in chronological order. The Arthur H. Clark Co. of Cleveland, O., announces for autumn publication a ten- volume series entitled "Documentary His- tory of American Industrial Society," upon which the American Bureau of Industrial Research and the Carnegie Institution of Washington have been engaged for a num- ber of years. The series will comprise a Preface by Prof. Richard T. Ely; an In- troduction by Prof. John B. Clark; Vols. I-II, "Plantation and Frontier," by Prof. Ulrich B. Phillips; Vols. III-IV, "Labor Conspiracy Cases, 1806-1842," by Prof. John R. Commons and Prof. Eugene A. Gilmore; Vols. V-VI, "Labor Movement, 1820-1840," by Prof. Commons and Helen R. Sumner, Ph.D.; Vols. VII-VIII, "Labor Movement, 1840-1860," by Professor Commons; Vols. IX-X, "Labor Movement, 1860-1880," by Professor Commons and Dr. John B. An- drews. Volume X will also include an ex- haustive Analytical Index. The "Concordance to Wordsworth," which has been in preparation for the Concord- ance Society, is now virtually finished, though as yet no definite steps have been taken to secure its publication. The work has been done under the direction of Prof. Lane Cooper of Cornell University, with the help of over forty collaborators. The text is based upon that of Hutchinson's Oxford Wordsworth, supplemented by the editions of Nowell Smith and Knight. For the most part, the quotations have not been transcribed, but cut out and mounted from the printed page. This ought to insure a high degree of exactness in such matters as punctuation and the use of capital let- ters. Only the commonest words, particles and the like, have been omitted. In all, there are about 200,000 entries. It may surprise some persons to learn that in Wordsworth's poetry the references to man, and similarly to mind, are consider- ably more numerous than those to nature. The Bibliographical Society will meet at Bretton Woods, N. H., July 3. Its pro- gramme is as follows: "Address of the President," William Coolidge Lane, libra- rian of Harvard University; "Some Bib- liographical Puzzles in Elizabethan Quarto Plays," Prof. George P. Baker, Harvard University; "English Dictionaries before Webster," Percy W. Long, Springfield, Mass.; "Calendaring of Manuscripts," Worthington C. Ford, Massachusetts His- torical Society; "Bibliographical Progress in Italy," A. Fanti, Library of Congress. No. 4,000 of the Tauchnitz Edition is set apart in that series as a Memorial Volume, and is devoted to "American Literature." It has been prepared by Theodore Stanton in collaboration with members of the fac- ulty of Cornell University, it is appropri- ately dedicated to Mr. Roosevelt, and an American edition has been issued by G. P. Putnam's Sons. As the title indicates, it is a "Manual," and, although some compe- tent criticism is to be found in its pages, it will doubtless be chiefly used for pur- poses of occasional reference. Even for a book of its kind, it is exceptionally lav- ish in names, titles, and dates, which seem to be given with commendable accuracy. There is also a full index. The only pur- chaser who, we should think, might have a right to complain of the volume is a would- be student of our literary evolution. After Mr. Stanton has condensed in five sections the volumes on colonial and revolutionary literature by the late Moses Coit Tyler, the Cornell collaborators take up the nine- teenth century in six sections, beginning with the historians and ending with the journalists. Thus one reads of Parkman before hearing of Cooper, and Henry James, jr., precedes his father — except in the in- dex. Even within the sections themselves one's sense for chronology is oscasionally shocked. For example, the treatment of Lanier as a poet precedes that of Long- fellow. This seems to be due to some re- spect for the points of the compass, but not even those irreproachable guides are consistently followed. Such matters of ar- rangement do not, however, greatly dis- turb some readers, and they do not de- tract, thanks to the index, from the con- siderable value of the book as a work ot reference. It should be added that a pos- itive announcement is made in these pages that Henry Adams wrote the novel "De- mocracy," and that the late John Hay wrote "The Bread-Winners." Mrs. Caroline Atwater Mason has pro- duced in "The Spell of Italy" (L. C. Page & Co.) an entertaining book. It is more than the travel notes of an enthusiastic foreigner; for Mrs. Mason had evidently prepared herself by reading to see and en- joy much. She stayed long enough in the chief places to get more than a hasty im- pression of them; she made interesting ac- quaintances from whom she drew informa- tion about present conditions; and she has a level head. Her book may be recom- mended to readers who desire something less impersonal than Baedeker, and less prolix than most of the histories. They will find told here briefly, for instance, the story of St. Francis and of St. Catherine of Siena, and of many more. A large number of well-chosen half-tones help the reader to visualize the text. Oliver Maddox Hueffer has compiled a chatty collection of anecdotes about witches and the superstitions connected with them, which he entitles "The Book of Witches" (John McBride Co.). It has no pretensions to thoroughness, and is disfigured by a superficial introduction on tho possible re- vival of witchcraft, mixing up "Leo Taxil's" inventions about the revival of Satanism in Paris with the much more significant sur- vivals of belief in witches among the peas- ant-folk of to-day. The arrangement of the book is confusing. History and analysis have been mixed up in haphazard order. f*

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eo4= The ISTation. [Vol. 88. No. 2294 while tho rather pretentious bibliography includes works of fiction and Blackstone's commentaries, yet omits Soldan, the stand- ard book on tho subject. Altogether, the book cannot be commended for any thor- oughness of treatment, but is fairly read- able and amusing. The need of an annual bibliography in which shall be registered all books and ar- ticles, of any value or importance, relating to American history and published in a given year, has been acutely felt by many investigators. Yet the effort to provide such a bibliography has met with many dis- couragements. Continental countries have little difficulty in providing such an appar- atus for the use of students and readers, but publishers in America seem to feel that such an undertaking is likely to be most conspicuous on the wrong side of the bal- ance sheet. Even the American Library Association and the Carnegie Institution of Washington failed to continue a work of this character which each had begun. There- fore, it has been left to private cooperation, a very uncertain form of support and only rarely permanent, to take up the matter. Six individuals and ten historical societies raised a fund sufficient to guarantee the publication of annual volumes for five years, from 1907 to 1911, inclusive. The first volume under the new management has al- ready appeared, covering the output for 1906, and the second volume is announced for immediate publication. The chief edi- tor is Miss Grace Gardiner Griffen, who has done her work admirably. The entries, nearly 3,500 in number, cover books, pamphlets, and articles in periodicals, and are frequently accompanied by notes and comments. There is ample room for a pub- lication of this kind, and it should receive adequate popular support. ("Writings on American History," 1906, the Macmillan Co.). Rather more than half of William P. Pickett's "The Negro Problem: Abraham Lincoln's Solution" (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is taken up with a preliminary survey of the condition of the negro in the United States. Aside from its merits as an orderly and not too vehement presentation of facts and arguments, this part of the book may be dismissed without comment, further than to say that it expounds frankly, and without novelty, the radical Southern view of the negro as hopelessly inferior to the white, incapable of assimilation or even* of satisfactory adjustment, and as the baleful source of political, social, and economic disturbance. For most of the numerous "solutions" thus far proposed, including that of industrial education, Mr. Pickett has but little respect, since, to his think- ing, their main premises are erroneous. The remedy which he extracts from Lin- coln's writings, and to the exposition and defence of which he consecrates more than two hundred and fifty solid pages, is colon- ization, preferably in South or Central America, San Domingo, or Africa, at the expense and under the protection of the United State*. When a writer has thor- oughly convinced himself, that the deportation of some ten millions of persons, at a cost to the nation of several hundred millions of dollars — Mr. Pickett proposes an initial appropriation of a hun- dred million as a "flyer" — is within the bounds of practicability, argument contra is obviously useless. What can be added to the century of discussion that has already been wasted? We venture only the remark that the American Colonization So- ciety, though long in a state of innocuous desuetude, is still in existence and might well, perhaps, be consulted. A commission connected with the Munici- pal Archives of Bordeaux is the patron of the new monumental edition of "Les Es- sais de Michel de Montaigne" (Paris, H. Champion). The editor is Prof. F. Strow- ski of the university faculty, famous for his great work on Pascal. The second vol- ume of the Essays (668 pages, 25 francs) has appeared. In handy editions of extracts from volu- minous elder writers, of whom everybody should know something, we have "Pages choisies" of Fontenelle (Armand Colin), and "Helvetius" in the "Plus belles pages" collection (Mercure de France), both prop- erly edited with introduction, notes, and bibliography. Doris Gunnell, an Englishwoman, nas done original work in her doctor's thesis at the Sorbonne — "Stendhal et l'Angle- terre" (322 pages, Charles Bosse). The book chronicles all that can be ascertained, mainly from Stendhal's copious notes and letters, concerning his visits and friends, Byron and Brougham, Lady Morgan, and Miss Clarke and Sutton Sharpe, with his own curious views on people, politics, taste, and defects. Auguste Filon, in his new edition of "Merimee et ses amis," publishes a bibliog- raphy of his hero's complete work, drawn up by the late Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul and revised by F. Chambon, li- brarian of the University of Paris. That inexhaustible author, Remy de Gourmont, publishes a third series of his "Promenades litteraires," with Huysmans (personal recollections), Chateaubriand, Brunetiere, the Romantics, and others back to the Liberties and "Cyrano de Bergerac (Mercure de France). Count Joseph de Mailath, introduced by Professor Rene Henry of the Ecole des Sciences politiques, publishes "La Hongrie rurale. sociale, et politique" (Alcan). The veteran Pacifist, FrSderic Passy, in his ad- vanced old age, finds energy to prepare the notes and documents of yet another volume, "Pour la Paix" (Fasquelle). Two handbooks of great value to studeurs of French contemporary history are among the new publications. "Elements et notions politiques de droit" is by Henri Michel, a Paris magistrate; he treats of the judicial organization of France, procedure, the jury, civil law, marriage and divorce, contracts, notarial acts, etc. (A. Colin). "L'Admin- istration de la France" (Perrin), by Henri Chardon of the Conseil d'Etat, explains "functionaries" — in the public services, thoie attached to government, and 800,000 others — with the general regulation of the different administrations, and the necessity of a ra- tional and democratic organization of all such services. The present year, with its postmen's strike, has shown how burning such question} are in France of to-day. In "La Caverne," Ray Nyst, whom we take to be a Belgian scholar, has set out to depict, in a form approaching fiction, the beginnings of human society on the Eu- ropean continent. He has gone about his task conscientiously. His title page in- forms us that we are about to read the "picturesque story of a human family of twenty-nine persons, girls and boys, big and small, during the epoch of luxuriant tertiary forests and mild seasons in Cen- tral Europe." A formidable piece of scien- tific apparatus in the form of a critical in- troduction prepares us for the narrative proper, which is largely a re-statement of the facts in concrete and somewhat im- aginative detail. For an amateur novelist M. Nyst does very well indeed. By emphasizing the close ties that bind his primitive man to brute creation, he suc- ceeds only the more in concentrating our attention upon the process of human growth that went on in cavern and tree- top. Something of the ancient sacred pity and wonder is stirred in us when our writer represents the she-bear and the hu- man female so apparently close together, yet called by mysterious forces to such vastly separated destinies. What Becker did for the ancient world in "Gallus" and "Charicles," M. Nyst has done effectively for Eoanthropos. (London: David Nutt.). Not since the publication of Haym's touching story of his long, hard struggle through poverty and revolution, up to his position of honor and influence at Halle, has there appeared in Germany a work of biographical interest equ il to that of Fried- rich Paulsen's "Aus meinem Leben" (Jena: Eugen Diedrichs). Unfortunately, it is but a fragment of the entire autobiography planned by the famous Berlin professor, covering only the period from birth through his first years as a docent. Two things make the work unusually valuable: the try- ing experiences of Paulsen, himself later a leading authority on German universities, with the formation of the higher education- al system, and the frank and delightful narrative of a life begun in a peasant's cottage and continued, for a while, amid lowly but healthful country surroundings. There is no disposition to hide or tone down the past; Paulsen rejoices in his homely origin, and finds naive pleasure in telling his readers all about it. "I grew up in a genuine peasant cottage," he says, "was taken into the school by an excellent teacher, and prospered in a light-hearted community and society." He describes his parents and grandparents, of good old Fris- ian stock, recalls the memories of early childhood, the games and companions and the first school he attended, and in two or three chapters gives a picture of the house- keeping of that time, with the work outside and within the peasant's cottage. All these reminiscences of the more personal side of Paulsen's life are made doubly interest- ing by the illustrations of his birthplace and home, with portraits of his parents in their Frisian garb, and of Paulsen himself as a boy, as a docent in 1877, and as he appeared near the end of his life. Paulsen was a good observer, and had a vein of rich hu- mor ; he deplored many of the changes go- ing on in society to-day, and evidently wished, in this work, to raise up a monu- ment to a past that is steadily fading away. The Rev. Edward Everett Hale died on Thursday of last week at his home in Rox- bury, Mass. He was born in Boston, where the Parker House now stands, on April 3, 1822. His grandfather, Enoch Hale, was * brother of Capt. Nathan Hale of tragic Revolutionary fame. His father, Nathan ^

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•^rrv. ^HSl ar» *• .-w - ^ ^'^ -^ ' ^-'* -> ^1 ll' Tl iY nriiurg. June 17, 1909] The Nation. 605 Hale, was a man of liberal education, and great public spirit; a civil engineer, and also the editor and proprietor of the Bos- ton Advertiser. The story of Edward's childhood, youth, and early training is told in his "New England Boyhood." Something must certainly be deducted from his de- preciation of both the Boston Latin School and Harvard College as he found them from 1831 to 1839, but his account of them is interesting, and one that will serve to give the laudator temporis acti needful pause. For all marking systems and ex- aminations he had great contempt. Clear- ly he was apt at learning", and, though not a Franklin-Medal boy at the Latin School, he entered Harvard without conditions midway of his fourteenth year. A distaste for regular studies and conventional methods which is strongly reflected in his "New England Boyhood," prevailed against his entering the Divinity School. From 1839 until 1846 he enjoyed a varied ex- perience of work and study. In 1846 he became a minister of the Second Unitarian Church, in Worcester. Mass., then newly organized and called the Church of the Unity. He remained in Worcester ten years, and in 1856 accepted the charge of the South Congregational Church in Bos- ton, and held it for the remainder of his life, availing himself of the services of an assistant minister from 1886 onward. Early in his ministry he took a high rank in the Unitarian fellowship. His pres- ence was commanding; his guttural voice extremely powerful and impressive, with a wide range from the most gentle to the harshest notes; his sermons ethical in their substance, and vivid in their style. The theological differences among Uni- tarians had little interest for him ex- cept as endangering "the unity of the spir- it," and his chosen part was to manifest a liberality which included both extremes. He was Dr. Bellows's right-hand man in the formation of the National Unitarian Con- ference in 1865, and was the first secre- tary of that organization, and more than once the president of its council, retiring finally in 1893, when the long controversy concerning the theological terms of the constitution came to an end. Neither to repudiate Christianity nor to define it was the position to which he held throughout the long debate. To the public at large Dr. Hale was bet- ter known as a writer of general interest than as a clergyman. From first to last he published nearly fifty books of different kinds — volumes of sermons, novels, social, and historical works. In the realm of fiction his success was much greater with the short story than with the elaborate novel. Two of his shorter stories stand out from all others, "The Man Without a Country" and "My Double, and ' How He Undid Me." The former was probably the most popular short story written in Amer- ica. It first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of December, 1863, and gave effec- • tive expression to the patriotic temper of the time, but some have thought that it goes near to teaching the doctrine, "Our country, right or wrong." Many at first imagined the story to be a veritable his- tory, and several who had known the hero endeavored to set £he author right in some of his details. "My Double, and How He Undid Me" was merely a piece of excellent fooling. Of books midway between stories and novels Dr. Hale's "Ten Times One Is Ten" (1870) and "In His Name" (1874), have been the most widely road. The for- mer showed how fast a social benefit might spread if every individual should help ten others, or ally himself with them, and the ten do as they had been done by. He was one of the preachers of Harvard and one of its Board of Overseers. He was at one time editor of the Christian Exam- iner, and he originated and edited the Old and New Magazine much to his own finan- cial detriment, and that of those associated with him in the enterprise. He became chaplain of the Senate December 14, 1903. The selection was made at the instance of Senator Hoar, who had been his lifelong personal friend. During the greater time of his term of office Dr. Hale used Senator Frye's committee room as an office. As long as he was able to do so, Dr. Hale made it a practice to visit the Senators at their seats, and he was personally known to all of them. Moses King, publisher and author of "King's Handbook of the United States," "King's Handbook of New York," and a dozen other similar publications, died in New York, June 12, at the age of fifty-six. He was born in London and came to Amer- ica at the age of five years. George Webb Appleton, the dramatist and novelist, died on Saturday at his home in Highgate, London. He was born in New Jersey in 1845. He travelled extensively in Europe, was newspaper correspondent in Paris and Rome, and founded the lecture bureau system in England. "The Blue Dia- mond Mystery," a novel, and the plays "The Co-respondent" and "Zana" are among the better known of his productions. Dr. Benjamin Lawton Wiggins, vice-chan- cellor of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn., died at his home there Monday. Dr. Wiggins was born in Sand Ridge, S. C, in 1861, and received his pri- mary school education at the oid Porter Academy in Charleston. After leaving there he went to the University of the South, where he was graduated with the degree of master of arts in 1882. After a post-grad- uate course of two years at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Wiggins returned to the University of the South, taking the posi- tion of associate professor of Greek, and later becoming full professor. In 1893 hi was elected vice-chancellor of the institu- tion. He was active in the affairs of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Associa- tion in securing safeguards against profes- sionalism and in purifying student ath- letics. The death is announced in his seventy- first year of George Robert Elsmie, at one time assistant commissioner in the Punjab, judge in the Chief Court, 1878-85, and finan- cial commissioner, 1887-93. He published a number of books, including: "Epitome of Cabul Correspondence" (1864), "Notes on Peshawar Crime" (1884), "Lumsden of the Guides" (1899), "Field-Marshal Sir Donald Stewart" (1903), and "Anne Shepherd of Elsmie" (1904). From Sydney comes news of the death of the Rev. Dr. James Egan Moulton, the well- known Methodist apostle to Tonga, brother of Dr. R. G. Moulton, professor of English literature at Chicago University, of the late Rev. Dr. William Fiddian Moulton, one of the revisers of the Bible, and of Sir J. Fletcher Moulton, late lord justice of appeal. His great work was the transla- tion of the Bible into the Tongan language. He was born near Newcastle. England, on January 14. 1841, was educated at Kings- wood, and went to Tonga about 1864. The translation of the Bible occupied him some twenty-five years. He also compiled a hymnal in Tongan, and provided a volumi- nous literature in translations and original works. Dr. Moulton left Tonga in 1889, and went to Sydney, where he was for a long time president of Newington College. Dr. Karl Lohmeyer, professor of history at the University of Kbnigsberg, has died, at the age of sixty-six. He was a notable- example of success in life, despite a phys- ical handicap, as he was born without arms. Among his publications are "Ge- schichte von Ost- und Westpreussen," "Herzog Albrecht von Preussen," and "Ge- schichte des Buchdrucks und des Buch- handwerks im Herzogtum Preussen." From Munich comes the report of the death of the Catholic historian, Johannes Nepomuk Sepp, at the great age of ninety- two. He has to his credit a long list of works in German, Oriental, and religious history, but was known to the wider public for his opposition to the influence of the famous Lola Montez in the Bavarian uni- versity in the time of Ludwig I. THE WESTWARD PATH. The Romance of American Expansion, By H. Addington Bruce. New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. $1.75 net. This book, the chapters of which were originally contributions to the Outlook, is, as might be expected, buoyant, vig- orous, and optimistic. Mr. Bruce is well-satisfied with what we have done and very cheerful over our prospects, and to read him is an encouragement to hope; but his work shows lacks and lapses which disappoint, and we cannot altogether trust his guidance. First, it is odd that, in treating the Romance of American Expansion, he makes no mention of what is the most picturesque circumstance connected with it, namely, that it is but an incident in a vast ethnic movement, beginning far back in prehistoric times, and having for its theatre the Eastern as well as the Western hemispheres. Fifty years ago, Max Miiller and his fellow-scholars talked with great confidence of a. pri- meval race, the Aryans, living among the highlands of central Asia, whose language it had been so far possible to recover that we could know with some definiteness the material civiliza- tion they had attained and the features of their intellectual and spiritual life. This primitive hive-swarming sent its multitudes southward into India, and also westward in successive swarms into Europe; at last, Greek, Latin, Celt, Teu- ton, and Slav, becoming fixed each in its European habitat, and his- tory now beginning, the impulse west- ward, active since the days of the early

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606 T h. e USTation [Vol. 88, No. 2294 world, drives the Aryans across the At- lantic, to repeat in America the rude displacement of aboriginal tribes, a pro- cess going on throughout the entire long march from the original home at the feet of the Himalayas. While schol- ars at present talk with much less con- fidence than once of Aryan origins and relationships, dismissing as quite un- ascertained the position of the first Aryan home and holding as most shad- owy all speculations as to early Aryan culture and migration, nevertheless the evidence is good of a migratory move- ment originating in the remotest past, in general a pouring westward, of which the European overflow into America beginning with Columbus is only a con- tinuation. The march of Aryan em- pire has in later days been quickened by the subjugation of natural forces; it is, however, but a repeating of what has gone before — Latin, Teuton, Celt, and Slav, now under Anglo-Saxon leadership and organization, advancing to the possession of the continent, and later to the islands of the sea. This mighty prelude to American expansion is full of romance, and more. The story of it needs to be borne in mind in order to understand the inevitableness of the advance. It has been gathering momen- tum— as the result of an unrest that has prevailed since remote antiquity. Mr. Bruce should certainly have found room for some mention of this as making American expansion properly intelligi- ble. In Mr. Bruce's preface we find the statement: "From beginning to end there is little to regret and much to ad- mire in the story of American expan- sion." As regards what we have come to possess, we think the country gener- ally is well satisfied to have the gains made within North America securely in our hands; but will the national con- science allow the claim that in making these gains we have done little to re- gret? In our treatment of the Indians has there been no century of dishonor? or are we ready to accept the comforta- ble doctrine that the superior race may rightfully sweep away the inferior race, that what we have done has been done on other continents by our forebears from time immemorial, and that for the blackness of darkness we are substitut- ing sweetness and light? It has been ■confidently asserted that the number of Indians has scarcely diminished since the coming of the whites, that however great their sufferings at the hands of the whites, the tribes inflicted upon each other far greater sufferings; that sparse handfuls of savage humanity, roaming over but by no means occupying a ter- ritory, had no rights which civilized newcomers were bound to respect. But oan we rest quite easy in this view? Coming to the acquisition of Louisi- ana, Mr. Bruce maintains the usual American conception. The central fig- ure in the transaction was, in his opin- ion, Jefferson, a "nationalistic" states- man in a large sense. He declares it wrong to suppose that Jefferson's "share in the purchase was purely fortuitous, and that in acting as he did he merely pursued a policy of opportunism, found- ed upon what he perceived to be the will of the people. On the contrary, the Louisiana Purchase meant to him the realization of a long and ardently cher- ished desire." A more correct view of the acquisition of Louisiana is that it came about through French statesman- ship; the initiative was with Napoleon, Jefferson and his negotiators being sec- ondary figures in the transaction. So far from having labored for such an ac- quisition, no American, except possibly Livingston, had dreamed of it as a thing possible or desirable at that time. "There is nothing to show," says Mr. Bruce, speaking of the offer of Louisi- ana by Napoleon, "that it had been an- ticipated and that Monroe and Livings- ton carried secret instructions authoriz- ing them to accept it." There is nothing to show, he might just as truly have said, that Jefferson or any other man had anything but vague ideas of a na- tional expansion in some remote future and over territory quite undefined; or that Jefferson had at the moment any thought except of the mouth of the Mis- sissippi and the country to the east. As a matter of fact, Jefferson, in his inter- course with the travellers Ledyard, Michaux, and Lewis, before 1803, thought of nothing more than scientific and commercial advantages; and when the news came of what Napoleon had led his envoys into, he was confounded and distressed, feeling that the Consti- tution sanctioned no such transaction, that a population was about to be turn- ed over to the United States without being consulted, in violation of democrat- ic right, and that, in general, calamity, rather than benefit, would very possi- bly result from it to the country at large. If ever in American affairs an event has been fortuitous, such was the acquisition of Louisiana; if ever an American statesman has played the role of an opportunist, that did Jefferson in 1803. When Thiers, in the "History of the Consulate and the Empire," considers the alienation of Louisiana from France, he remarks: "The United States are in- debted for their birth and for their greatness to the long struggle between France and England." We are not con- cerned here to inquire whether or not the fact that she had France for an enemy made it impossible for England to subdue the Thirteen Colonies. Who- ever ponders a book like Charlemagne Tower's "French Alliance" will see rea- son in the claim that without the French soldiers, fleets, and money, we never could have succeeded. As to the greatness of the United States, however, the doubling of our area by the west- ern half of the Mississippi Valley was a Napoleonic coup, by which we profit- ed, but in bringing about which we had no hand. To exalt Jefferson into a prominent place in the affair is, to use an adjective of Mr. Bruce's, a "rashfull" proceeding. Rashfull means, if it means anything, to be full of rash, and the rash we encounter here is an eruption of the American self-sufficiency that re- fuses to see how far our fate has been shaped on foreign shores, and by states- men and potentates not of our own blood. As to subsequent annexations, it is mainly at the expense of Spain, leav- ing out Hawaii and Alaska, that we have reaped advantage. Are we prepar- ed to accept Mr. Bruce's statement that there is little in our methods which to- day we need to recall with regret? The claim of Spain to Mexico was based upon the robber expedition of Cortez directed against a people not savage, but which had made some steps toward culture. To Spain had succeeded a nominal republic whose right to inherit vast outlying regions was slender, in- deed. Whether or not Texas might fair- ly be included in the Louisiana Pur- chase is not easy to decide; and as to the missions and their vague appanages in New Mexico and California, the Mex- ican right to possession becomes, under cool examination, attenuated to the last degree. We believe that Mr. Bruce might make out a plausible case, though many will feel that America has shown here colossal rapacity. At any rate, few will question that, however se- cured, it is for the general welfare of the world that Texas, California, and the territory of the Gadsden Pur- chase are now part of the American Union. Houston and the Austins will probably stand as worthy figures in the American Pantheon. The name of Fre- mont fell into sad discredit under the tests of the civil war; we should be glad that his earlier career, on which his rise into importance was based, is set forth in this book in the favorable light which it deserves; and we ought not to begrudge to James K. Polk the good word which Mr. Bruce now and then accords him, where the general tone toward him has been that of oblo- quy. No one now speaks contemptuously of Alaska, regrets its incorporation, or finds fault with Seward for accomplish- ing it. The voices that denounce the annexation of Hawaii grow fainter as the years pass, however sore the na- tion's best conscience may still be over the deed. As to the Philippines, we are still in the thick of embarrass- ment and controversy. As Louisiana fell to the administration of Jefferson unde3ired and unlooked for, so the isl- and empire of Spain dropped upon Mc- Kinley as a complete surprise. What statesman dreamed that a consequence

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a' -"' "-- '-«*■ '■"? iiir* V June 17, 1909J The Nation. 607 of interference in behalf of oppressed Cuba would be this bringing of our white elephant of the Orient into the fold! American expansion has its origin in far antiquity; its surprises are but repe- titions of surprises that startled gener- ations in the aeons that are mute; there will be surprises in the future, for the venerable disquiet that has impelled the westward movement is still unwasted. Whither? Let us repose in the wisdom of Mr. Dooley: "We don't know, Hin- nessy, where we're goin'. But we're on the way." CURRENT FICTION. The Third Circle. By Frank Norris. New York: John Lane Co. However skeptical some of us may have been as to the absolute excellence of the late Frank Norris's young achievement, few can have doubted that he was on the way to excellence. There was a confident ardor about him that seemed almost a guarantee of success. "I am going to make you people sit up," he said to a friend at the very be- ginning of his career. The friend thought the remark in rather bad taste, but in due time found himself "sitting up." Norris was thinking in trilogies when death cut him off. His precocity was still manifesting itself, he was push- ing a little ahead of his powers. "The Pit" and "The Octopus" must stand, af- ter all, as astonishing exercises rather than as portions of an unfinished mas- terpiece, but there is no mistaking the power in them, or the promise. The stories here collected are, says Mr. Irwin in his spirited introduction, "the longest and most important of his prentice products. . . . They are an incomparable study in the way a genius takes to find himself." This is putting it strong: the claim is scarcely borne out by the contents of the volume. They seem rather to show how a reporter with a realistic bent may become a writer of brilliant magazine stories. We do not gather that these exhibits are here reprinted in chronological order. As they stand, they display not so much growth as versatility. They are ex- tremely clever, and, with three or four exceptions, patently "magazinable." The list of copyrights printed at the begin- ning of the book shows in what different markets Norris succeeded in placing his work. But it is the three or four ex- ceptions which to our mind are most individual and striking. Three of them were, we gather from Mr. Irwin, writ- ten before the rest, and stand first in the book. The horror of the incident nar- rated in "The Third Circle" is intensi- fied by the grim and pithy manner of its telling. The writer has no notion of commenting or enlarging upon his facts; it is enough to present them. "The House with the Blinds" and "Lit- tle Dramas of the Curbstone" are not properly stories at all, but sketches of certain chance-seen episodes of city life, each of them with its mystery over the solution of which the artist is per- fectly non-committal. These vivid bits of romantic realism appeared in the San Francisco Wave, when Norris was sub- editor thereof — before the East had heard him and summoned him in its peremptory way to stand and deliver the fruits of his fresh talent. He succeeded in transplanting that talent without destroying it; but we cannot help thinking that much of the matter in the present volume is reli- quian of a temporary surrender, or semi-surrender. It would be interesting to know when the story called "Dying Fires" was written. Here we read of a Californian sub-editor, with a genius for comprehending the life about him, who writes a novel which has life and na- ture in it. An Eastern publisher accepts it, and the young Californian is pres- ently called to the editorial staff of the publisher's magazine. He comes to New York, and falls in with a set of third- rate "authors," who, with their preten- sions and affectations, so confuse, mis- lead, and altogether bedevil the young fellow that he turns from life to phrases. His second novel is as feeble as it is sophisticated. After a time he realizes his mistake, goes back to the Sierras, and "with such sapped and broken strength as New Bohemia had left him, strove to wrest some wreckage from the dying fire." But the last spark is quenched, and "there remains only a little heap of bitter ashes." Happily, there was no such end of the matter for Norris: his torch burned brighter, and he bore it with steadier hand, to the last. The Mystery of Miss Motte. By Caro- line Atwater Mason. Boston: L. C. Page & Co. The plan and scope of this little story are rather out of the usual. A girl with a touch of Parsee blood in her veins, figuring as amanuensis to an American clergyman, is not met every day, and is naturally predestined to mystery. Yet after all, the mystery lies more with the nature, acts, and testamentary dis- positions of her forebears than with her- self, and admits of satisfactory solution in the end. She herself is a nice, spirit- ed girl, Oriental in little else besides her love for India and her susceptibility to the perfume of jasmine. In survey- ing the thickly peopled scene of the story, the reader is aware, a little un- comfortably, of the author's determina- tion to make original characters at all hazards. The two really noteworthy fig- ures are those of the clergymen, the rector and his curate; the religious epicure and the mystic; the man who is in a large sense a religion "promot- er," sincere but cynical, and his junior, to whom religion is still "a reality, a passion, a life." The two are thorough- ly alive as men and as representatives of contrasted currents of thought, which at the last bid fair to unite in one clari- fied stream. That both men are in love with the mysterious Miss Motte gives human zest to their spiritual contests, and affords a chance for one of them to turn defeat into moral victory. The Bronze Bell. By Louis Joseph Vance. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. There are stories which one reads with full consciousness of how silly they are, but with the determination to see the absurd thing through. So far as the author is concerned, that is, undoubt- edly, quite satisfactory. Mr. Vance's lat- est yarn harks back to the early Rider Haggard. A mysterious dark-faced gen- tleman, on a lonely sandbar off the south shore of Long Island, is sought out by creepy Babu messengers, who present him with the traditional token of a huge emerald in whose depths flash baleful shafts of light, etc. From Long Island we move on to Calcutta and Rajputana, and straight into the heart of dark bazaars, Indian palaces inhab- ited by wondrously beautiful, olive-skin- ned fiends in woman's form, subterra- nean water-passages, cobras, gates of swords, and mystic oaths. The hero and the heroine are, of course, Anglo-Saxon. Through the direst adventures, they keep immaculate the beautiful clothes in which Mr. Harrison Fisher has set off their magnificent physique. Persons of mature years will sit up to read Mr. Vance's story and prove how the heart of man never grows old. Oh! Christina! By J. J. Bell. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. The publishers confidently blazon forth this little story as "the laughing hit of the year." We suppose such a claim would have to be substantiated on a basis of number of copies sold, and we should say that unless the author of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage-Patch" ex- erts herself to some purpose, the proph- ecy may very likely come true. Chris- tina is a feminine version of "Wee Mac- greegor," with the precocious wit and the uncanny canniness of the Glasgow street arab. After a harum-scarum childhood, fate or her creator puts her in charge (the phrase may be left am- biguous) of a maiden aunt who keeps a toy-shop in the village of "Kilmabeg." The contrast in age, training, and tem- perament between these two furnishes the fun. It is good fun, and has the ad- vantage of being obvious enough for that child-like audience, the Best-Buy- ing public. Miss Purvis, the aunt, is like the serious and literal-minded interlocu- tor who sets off the rollicking humorist of a double turn in vaudeville. Her lines are restricted chiefly to "Really,

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608 The USTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 Christina!" and "You are a very strange girl." She is three times as much sur- prised and shocked at everything Chris- tina says or does as the audience can possibly be expected to be. But, in a •way, she is necessary. Her simplicity gives the cue, keeps the ball of Chris- tina's impishness busily rolling. Chris- tina and her nonsense are likely to be much laughed at and quickly forgotten, "which is, of course, laying more to her credit than to her discredit. An Anarchist Woman. By Hutchins Hapgood. New York: Duffield & Co. $1.25. This is a book belonging to the same general order as Mr. Hapgood's "Auto- biography of a Thief" and "The Spirit of Labor." It is a report of "low" life tinged with almost morbid sympathy. Mr. Hapgood is a Defoe who adores his Colonel Jack and his Moll Flanders. The very fact that other people are not likely to adore them, are even likely to find them contemptible objects, prepos- sesses him strongly in their favor. "When we are more accustomed to so- cial thought," he says, "we shall not regard those who radically differ from us, as mad dogs or malevolent idiots." Per contra, we shall perceive that mad dogs and malevolent idiots are merely beings who differ from us, and probably for the better. Mr. Hapgood's chief fault is lack of humor, and the effect of it in this in- stance is rather appalling. He is under- taking to study "the natural history of the anarchist " and chooses two persons as his exemplars. One is a woman who, when he met her at twenty-three, "had more completely translated her life into terms of thought than any other woman of my acquaintance." She had led a most dissolute life, in which drink and promiscuous relations with men played the chief parts. Then she met Terry, in the eyes of the world a drunken loafer, but really "a perfect type of the ideal- ist. We shall see," promises the chrqn- icler, "how in the midst of what the world calls immorality and sordidness, this quality in him was ever present." Marie becomes his mistress on terms which bind her to nothing; in fact, she maintains the utmost liberty of morals, and at one time deliberately takes to the street. But this is where Terry's idealism comes in: he considers prosti- tution better than marriage, and infinite- ly better than work. After a time she comes back to him. They are a cheer- ful pair. Mr. Hapgood's story is largely made up of letters to him, from one or the other of these two. They are ex- tremely frank letters, but they have lit- tle beside frankness to recommend them. By her own testimony, the girl gives full play to her natural instinct for gross dissipation, and it is too evi- dent that the man is a drunken loafer who worships his own image. He has the Irish fondness for eloquence, and is always spreading the eagle: To exchange the rack-rented but limitless fields of Irish landlordism for the rickety and equally rack-rented tenements, with the checkerboard streets, where all must keep moving, is only adding sordidness to spare sadness. This is the kind of thing Mr. Hapgood calls "poetic." Terry, who is a good mechanic, thinks it a disgrace to work, but he is quite willing to live at the expense of hard-working friends, and once takes a job as barkeeper with a clear conscience on the ground that it is more graft than work, since the care- lessness of his employer makes it easy for him to steal a large part of the tak- ings. Under the tutelage of this moral- ist and thinker, Marie begins to develop her own profound intellectual powers. If it were not for a growing habit of throwing things at each other, they might still be helping each other on- ward and upward. But they are no longer together. Marie has lapsed into virtue and housework, and Terry, with the aid of cigarettes, whiskey, hashish, and despair of regenerating mankind, is near his logical end. We have no rea- son to doubt that these are real persons, but it is hard to understand Mr. Hap- good. A Sister of Prince Rupert. Elizabeth Princess Palatine and Abbess of Her- ford. By Elizabeth Godfrey. New York: John Lane Co. $4 net. Sometimes there meets us in the pages of history a personality that appeals to us, not by splendor or achievement, not by po- litical importance, but in virtue of an inti- mate and familiar charm, or by some strange potency of self-revelation whereby we know him in his tastes and his idiosyn- crasies as we know those we meet in every- day life, not as we image from afar the occupants of thrones or the dwellers in the distant arena of statecraft. We quote the opening sentence of this •book for a double purpose. It is, in the first place, -a specimen of the untrained, if not execrable, taste into which the writers of biography seem to be yearly sinking deeper and deeper. The pres- ent biographer, as a matter of fact, writes for the most part in a simple, if not very refined, style, yet from sheer lack of literary discipline she can begin her work with a sentence that would bring a blush to a self-respecting sopho- more. The lamentable fact is that the great mass of popular biographies turn- ed out by the presses— and the genre is one of peculiar difficulties— are written by amateur penmen who have not ac- quired the first principles of composi- tion. So much to relieve the spleen of a reviewer who reads biographical works by choice and is too often deceiv- ed in his expectations of pleasure. The sentence is quoted also because, despite its foolish exaggeration, it indi- cates the real interest of the pages that follow. There was no "strange potency of self-revelation" about the Princess Elizabeth, but she was a charming, piquant person, and a writer of letters that admit us to formal acquaintance at least with an extraordinary circle of people. As the child of King James's ill- fated daughter, who, as Howell relates, was "called the Queen of Bohemia, and for her winning, princely comportment, the Queen of Hearts," she was born to a place in romance. The effort to recon- struct the child's life at the great palace of Heidelberg, where she was born, and during the disastrous expedition of her lather into Bohemia, is a little too ap- parent. Our real knowledge of her be- gins with the school days at Leyden, and is taken from the Memoirs of her sister Sophie, afterward mother of George I, and from the correspondence among the members of the large fam- ily. Even here the reader is perhaps fretted at times by the effort to realize the child's state of mind from insuffi- cient material. For these conjectures we should prefer to have fuller extracts from the letters that passed between Elizabeth and Descartes at The Hague, and a more ample account of the phil- osophy which played so important a part in the princess's life, and which, in its ethical aspects, was so largely de- veloped under her influence. The chap- ter entitled "The Consolations of Phil- osophy" is fairly well written: the pas- sages from the letters are wisely select- ed and agreeably translated; they fail only in being too few. "I have always," writes Elizabeth to her Mentor, "been in a condition which renders my life very useless to those whom I love, but I seek to preserve it with far more ease since I have had the happiness of knowing you, because you have shown me the means of living far more happily than I had done before." That lesson of phil- osophic calm is one of the oases in his- tory, and we should love to linger over it, even if the journey through the rest of the princess's life, with her restored brother at Heidelberg, and as abbess at the Protestant nunnery of Herford, were proportionately hastened. It cannot be denied that this biography has many of the crudities that mark this kind of writing to-day, but it is based on good knowledge of the sources, is, in general, despite its lapses, simply written, and has to its great advantage a thoroughly entertaining subject which is not much known to the ordinary Eng- lish reader. The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vols. XXV-XXVI, Index, Atlas. New Edi- tion. Published under the authority of His Majesty's Secretary of State for India in Council. New York: Henry Frowde. The two concluding volumes of the

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wmmmL^ >> u j.:ik _»■ St ■ »l ■ i « ' ■HWMFXMfiV June 17, 1909] The Nation. 609 new edition of the Gazetteer, just pub- lished, fully maintain the unique excel- lence of tlrls monumental work. The Index, Vol. XXV, is not merely a list of references, hut is a carefully prepar- ed digest of the facts contained in the Gazetteer, and is accordingly of inesti- mable value to the student of any In- dian subject. Under cotton, for in- stance, will he found, first, references to general statements as to its production, then alphabetical lists of places where it is cultivated and where there are ginning and pressing factories, followed by references to the manufacture from earliest times and to the location of two hundred and more mills. To the histor- ical and biographical references dates are frequently added. It is interesting to note that the largest space is devoted to the enumeration of the places con- ta'ning noted temples, and the next larg- est to tl.e stations of the sixty-five Prot- estant missions, the American alone oc- cupying nearly half of the five pages given to them. Of course, in a work of this magnitude omissions are inevitable, but we are surprised that we can find no mention of the famous Guides of the Indian army, especially when there is a reference to the nurse of Shah Jahan. Tie Atlas, Vol. XXVI, which can be purchased separately, contains sixty- four excellent maps, nearly half of which are general, showing among oth- er things the surface features, density of population, the distribution of the different races, languages, and religions, the various products, military and po- litical divisions, and railways. In addi- tion to maps of the provinces, there are plans of thirteen cities. The only error we have detected is tl at Bostan, a town near Quetta, is print- ed on map 47 Boston. It is correctly spelled on map 35 and in the index. Science. The Earth's Bounty. By Kate V. St. Maur. New York: The Macmillan Co. $1.75 net. This is a practical book, a reminder (and one is occasionally needed) that women can write upon plants and ani- mals without dissolving in sentiment. If Mrs. St. Maur's first book, "A Self- Supporting Home," sent, as has been asserted, more families to the country than any other book except "The Fat of the Land," then "The Earth's Bounty" should break the record of that amusing bit of fiction. For Mrs. St Maur shows that, even without the ap- parently unlimited capital of the gentle- man who lived on the fat of his acres, it is possible to thrive upon a farm. The book is a supplement to "A Self- Supporting Home,'-' but except for a final "itinerary" of the year's work, the plan is different and better. In succes- sive chapters Mrs. St. Maur takes up various farm topics, and treats each one thoroughly. The subjects come somewhat at haphazard — one would expect, perhaps, the chapters to be in groups covering animals, birds, and farming proper — but in this case the order is doubtless the natural one, as Mrs. St. Maur confesses that the various departments of her industry were fre- quently begun as the result of an acci- dent. Her fortune led her to ventures as widely different as angora goats and apples, silos and toy dogs, but whether she is managing a violet house or mak- ing a manure pit her processes and conclusions seem sensible, and her profit reasonable. She reports no failures. Her fondness for animals led her into adopting household pets, which after- ward proved the nucleus of a flock, a herd, or a stud. From Rachel, bought "because without a cow a country home is incomplete," came a steady trade in butter. From a driving-mare, bought because she was cheap, and the temp- tation great, rose the beginnings of a small but good business in colts. Com- mon goats, acquired for the purpose of clearing brush, led to a mixed trade in milk and cheese, and finally to a flock of angoras which, besides being effi- cient in sprout-land, produced saleable kids and the best mohair. Finally when Jack, wounded and half-strangled, hurled himself through a window and across Mrs. Maur's knees in the middle of a thunder storm, her dog kennel was begun. We shall expect, in her next book, to hear of her trade in squirrels and opossums. Hens appear to be with her a deliberate choice, but quail and wild duck she keeps because she cannot hold her hand from something new. The lover of pets is not always the lover of inanimate nature, but Mrs. St. Maur seems almost to make pets of her trees, and it would not be difficult to imagine her sitting up nights with her violets. With both she has been suc- cessful. And when she reaches the sub- jects of rotations, silage, and manures, though denied the possibility of sym- pathy with her subject, she nevertheless manages to find the important problems, and to present them for examination. It is doubtless possible to find fault with Mrs. St. Maur's facts, or with her advice. The Massachusetts farmer, for instance, will marvel greatly at her advice for asparagus, and will inquire if she has never heard of deep setting of one-year roots in loam of ordinary depth. She advises the shallow plant- ing of seed, or the setting of two-year roots, in deeply prepared earth. Her methods here seem to be truly old- fashioned and foreign; few farmers in America can afford, even for the home garden, trenches or the hand-labor of cultivating shallow-set plants. Tested similarly, some few other of her recom- mendations may fail. But in general she is up-to-date, and the spirit of her book is modern, in that she is experi- mental. She is, besides, practical. At times her style savors of a farmer's bulletin; in fact, she quotes largely from experiment-station reports, often without quotation marks, so that it is sometimes a problem whether she is speaking or some one else. Without pretending to a literary style, Mrs. St. Maur is able to get at the gist of the matter in hand, and to state it clearly. The farmer, as well as the man or woman who hopes for profit in pets, can gain much from this book. T. Mellard Reade, a distinguished archi- tect and surveyor of Liverpool, has died, at the age of seventy-seven. Mr. Reade was interested in physical geology and wrote several books on the subject, including "The Origin of Mountain Ranges," "The Evolution of Earth-Structure," and "Chem- ical Denudation in Relation to Geological Time." From Berlin comes the report of the death, at the age of sixty-six, of Dr. Adolf Pinner, professor of chemistry in the Uni- versity of that place. He wrote on both organic and inorganic chemistry. Among his books are "Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie," "Lehrbuch der anorganisehen Chemie," and "Gesetze der Naturerschei- nungen." Drama. THE BACON ACROSTIC. Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon. By W. S. Booth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Mr. Booth's book has already made its converts, so painstaking, ingenious, and beguiling is it. He does not at- tempt in any sense to treat the whole Baconian theory, accepting, rather, most of the conclusions and evidence of Greenwood and Begley. He divides his royal octavo volume of some six hun- dred and twenty pages into two parts. The first part, after some preliminary treatment of Elizabethan cryptography, considers "The Uses of Ciphers," "An- onymity and Pseudonymity," "Meth- od," and "Practical Specimens of Acros- tical Signatures." In Part Two, in some fifteen chapters, he deciphers the sig- natures of Francis and Anthony Bacon in works originally published anonym- ously, or over the names of other men. Here he treats, with facsimile pages or titles from quartos and folios, the ap- pearance of a Bacon cipher in poems and plays of Shakespeare, in "Tambur- laine," the "Jew of Malta," some poems which have usually been assigned to Ed- mund Spenser, and in other material which he believes needs reassignment on the basis of his cipher. The Appen- dix concerns itself with "Further Re- marks on False Names and Pen Names," "The Use of Acrostics in Ancient

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610 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 Times," "The Spelling of Francis Ba- con's Names and Titles," and "Some Books on Ciphering and Deciphering." This is the most thorough discussion we have yet had of concealed signatures in the work usually assigned to Shake- speare. Nevertheless, the argument breaks down; first, as to method, and, secondly, when tested by the printing customs of the Elizabethan age, by com- mon human experience, and by facts in the history of the Elizabethan drama. There are grave dangers in Mr. Booth's logical method, both general and special. He is too fond of statements like the following: In each case [of the ciphers or acrostics which he has discovered] the acrostic is of secondary importance, and was put into the composition after it was written, and, so far as we can judge, for the purposes of identification, or for a personal satis- faction. Thus the writing was done free from all restraint, and with little thought of the name which was to be inserted, af- ter its completion, or when it came to be printed (p. 43). The words "In each case" and the final sentence absolutely beg the ques- tion, for Mr. Booth adduces no proof to show that the acrostic came or must come from reworking. Even if he retort that it makes little difference to him whether the acrostic was introduced into the original writing or later, this is not properly cautious statement for one who is trying to lay a logical foundation for a complicated theory of supposed large significance. When Mr. Booth adds (p. 44), "There is no need to suppose the poet himself inserted all the signa- tures. Any one of several competent servants could have done it for him," he enters upon three-fold assertion, for we need to know that there was reason for Bacon to wish to insert a cipher; that "servants" would be competent; and thirdly, that Bacon was likely to let them do such work for him. Mr. Booth believes so firmly in his conclu- sions that more than once he lays down premises which beg the entire question. Again, when Mr. Booth in the chapter on Method gives the rules of the game we are to play with him, one is im- pressed by the extreme freedom he al- lows himself. He states some rule, only to admit in text, or footnote, or practice later, that he permits himself exceptions when necessary. For in- stance, he makes much of starting from the first right hand or left hand word in a poem, if it begin or end with B or N or O, and of landing on a similarly placed word in the last line, distin- guished initially by one of these letters. Yet he allows himself great freedom in starting from words or letters in head- ings, signatures, or words in the second or the next to last line. Moreover, when he asserts that "for acrostic pur- poses, the abbreviated names of char- acters are not used in the acrostic spell- ing, except in certain very few well de- fined instances, to which I have called attention in their places" (p. 42), and, "for acrostic purposes, the stage direc- tions are not used," adding in a foot- note "with the few exceptions noted in their places," he leaves a reader won- dering how he is to distinguish excep- tions. Just here Mr. Booth's theories break down. He shows clearly enough that two kinds of cipher were common: first, those intended to display the in- genuity of the writer, such as the spell- ing of the name "Volpone" by the initial letters of the Argument prefixed to that play (p. 77); secondly, carefully concealed ciphers used as a means of communication between two per- sons holding a key. He then asks that we should believe a cipher was carefully concealed in the so-called Shakespeare plays, and other manu- scripts and printed matter, by Bacon and his friends, when the people for whom the message was meant held no key, and the method could be discovered only after three centuries. Moreover, what is characteristic of nearly all the ciphers illustrated by him, except his own, is their simplicity and regularity. They follow the initial or final letters of each line; they are formed on the letters running from the first of the first line to perhaps the fifteenth of the last line; or they take the initial letter of every other word, etc. In his own cipher, Mr. Booth in the first place allows himself great freedom in his spelling of Bacon's name; it may read Francis Bacon, Fran Bacon, Franciscus Bacon with one or two f's, Francisco Bacono, and in many other combina- tions; and one may read either both names backward, or one name forward and the other backward, etc., etc. Though his favorite method is to start with the initial word in the first or last line, and work backward or forward moving from right to left in an orderly sequence, by initial letters or as if the words were strung on a string, yet he allows himself great freedom both as to his point of beginning, and his method of search. Now he uses only initial letters; now he uses all the letters; now he goes but once round a set of verses, and again he makes a second journey. The fact is, that when one takes a group of such common letters as occur in the name of Francis Bacon, and searches with great freedom of movement in a page of manuscript or text, allowing one's self much liberty in spelling the name in question, it is more difficult not to find acrostics than to find them. This is proved true by the acrostics of all kinds discovered, s:nce the appearance of Mr. Booth's book, by eager contributors to the press. The very latitude on which Mr. Booth prides himself in his acrostic system seems likely to be its ruin. Probably it will soon be shown by this cipher that Bacon set his mark on most of our literature. In another respect the book is oddly unsatisfactory. On page 42 Mr. Booth quotes two lines from "Antony and Cleopatra" and comments thus: Ant. Favours? By lone that thunders. What art thou Thid. One that but performes. (Fellow? The word which is carried over belongs to the line on which it stands typographically; and in reading for the acrostic it must be read with that line. Now, the acrostics were inserted either in the original manuscript or in proof. If they were inserted in the manuscript, this regulation just quoted would again and again have rendered them null. Any one who has collated Elizabethan or Jacobean plays knows that nothing is more erratic than the division of the lines. Not only is verse set as prose, and prose as verse, but in successive editions the lines will be spaced so d'f- ferently that, in each, different words, or groups of words, will be dropped below the line. No author could possibly fore- see just where this would happen, yet when his lines were broken up by the printer, the cipher would, by the ruling of Mr. Booth, inevitably disappear. But let us look for a moment at this whole question of inserting ciphers in manuscript plays. A play was sold to a dramatic company. Very often it never came to publication, and the author had no reason to suppose it would come. In other words, it was not at all sure the play would ever be printed, or would ever go beyond the hands of the com- pany. Why, then, ■ trouble about a cipher, especially one which is so free in its movement that it has been overlook- ed for some three hundred years? Again, why trouble with a cipher, unless one place it on almost every page, when the mere vagaries of the printer may completely destroy that cipher? We have evidence enough that surreptitious and unauthorized publication of plays was exceedingly common. Nor have we good proof, except in rare cases like Ben Jon- son's, that the dramatists supervised the printing of their plays. We have direct proof to the contrary in some cases. Indeed, surreptitious publi- cations involved another chance of error. Plays were often taken down in the theatre by hacks sent by the publishers. This is held by some stu- dents to be in part the history of the First Quarto "Hamlet." The copious errors such a process might produce would play havoc with a cipher. In- deed, when dealing with the two quar- tos of "Hamlet," Mr. Booth is forced, because the cipher in the first has dis- appeared in the second, to find a new cipher in Q2, and to argue that Bacon or some "servant" inserted it when the second quarto was going through the press. But there is another chance that a printer might destroy a cipher, or several ciphers. The present reviewer has seen, among five differing issues of:

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-Il-i^ mm — iHTfi HHI^^^ _> j«»^, ■o^/^fr-^g^ L June 17, 1909] The Nation. 611 the same edition of a play of Barnabe Barnes, one in which parts were more correct than the other issues, yet other parts were as corrupt as the worst. In this the printer corrected or not as he pleased, or the binder picked up at ran- dom corrected and uncorrected sheets. In such copies, containing both errors in plenty and unauthorized corrections, what would become of ciphers which the author desired to be inserted by "ser- vants" in the proof? Is it in accord with ordinary human experience that these ciphers were in- serted by "servants"? Does Mr. Booth show that it is wholly easy in dramatic composition to substitute one word for another and yet keep the full desired effect? Does he believe that "servants" — a word badly in need of definition as used in this book — would be competent for such skilful editing? Is the dramat- ist or author usually complacent under such tampering with his MSS.? A theory must conform to the usual and probable in human conduct, and this theory strains one's accepted idea of one's fel- lows. For Mr. Booth it is enough to illus- trate his findings in cipher and to state his conclusions. He does not often consider to what extent his cipher is offset by the body of known or sup- posed fact in regard to authors, plays, or poems considered. When, for in- stance, he asks us, on the basis of the cipher, to accept "Tamburlaine" and the "Jew of Malta" as Bacon's, a stu- dent of the Elizabethan drama revolts. Surely Marlowe's mighty line, gen- eral spirit, and individual technical methods are recognizable, and should more than offset finding by this free- ly moving system Bacon's name in some title page or series of lines. If we grant that Bacon was Marlowe, that Bacon was Shakespeare, and that Bacon was also the Bacon of the "Essays" and scientific work, what refuge is there for us, facing these three distinct personali- ties, except in Dr. Morton Prince and his theories of the multiple personality! The purpose of the book is serious, its method is painstaking, and it aims to be judicial, but can a theory which proves too much, and which calls for belief in an extraordinary manifesta- tion of multiple personality, be taken with entire seriousness? Music. Jacob Gordin, the Yiddish playwright, died in Brooklyn, June 11, after a long ill- ness. He was born in 1853, at Mivgorod, .Poltava, Russia. He came to this country in 1891, and until then had never written a play. His first drama, "Siberia," composed for Jacob P. Adler in 1892, met with no success; but by perseverance and talent he succeeded in making himself a power in the East Side, and in raising the Yiddish the- atre to honor. His strongest play, "God, Man. and the Devil," modelled on the Faust idea, has been translated into classic Ger- man and performed in Europe. Grieg and His Music. By Henry T. Finck. New York: John Lane Co. $2.50. No reader of this journal needs to be told that Mr. Finck is a fervent admir- er of Edvard Grieg, or that, as a critic, he has the courage of his opinions. This book — an amplification of a for- mer volume which appeared in the se- ries of Living Masters of Music — is practically a new work, and may be briefly described as an enthusiastic ap- preciation of the Norwegian Master, as composer, executant, conductor, and man. To musicians it will be welcome and valuable on account of its compre- hensive analytical studies of different phases of Grieg's genius, while the gen- eral reader will find much to interest him in the biographcal and descriptive passages, which are uncommonly rich in personal anecdote, in the observation possible only to intimate friendship, and to the revelations of private corre- spondence. Mr. Finck has been par- ticularly fortunate in being able to quote the letters of the composer to Dr. Ront- gen and Mr. Frants Beyer. By means of these, and other similar documents, he projects a vital image of his subject, and his work will take its place at once as a standard authority. Remotely, Grieg was of Scottish an- cestry on the paternal side, but, prac- tically, the Scandinavian blood in his veins was free from foreign taint. To all intents and purposes he was a prod- uct of that Norseland of whose spirit and characteristics he was to become so inspired an interpreter. One of the commonest of the charges preferred against him by his critical detractors is that he was an imitator, that he borrow- ed his melodies chiefly from the Nor- wegian folk-songs, with which he was necessarily familiar. As a matter of fact, his borrowings from this source were so rare as to be wholly insignifi- cant, compared with the bulk of his orig- inal output. Moreover, he took nothing that he did not transform and glorify. He himself is authority for the state- ment that of all his songs only one, "Solvejg's Lied," is based on a theme not of his own creation. Of the fertility of his invention the proof is abundant and indisputable. On no point is Mr. Finck more emphatic than he is in de- fending Grieg from the accusation of plagiarism, and his position may be pro- nounced impregnable. So strenuous a defence, perhaps, was scarcely neces- sary. Genius has always assumed, and is generally allowed, the right of ap- propriating what material it chooses, but only on condition of improving it. The genius of Grieg, coming to him by legitimate inheritance, manifested it- self almost from infancy, and was devel- oped in an ideally congenial atmosphere. His mother, a great pianist, a worship- per of Beethoven, Mozart, and Weber, and an appreciative student of Chopin, was also a conscientious teacher, and applied the needed stimulus to her imag- inative lad, who often preferred indo- lent dreaming to the rigors of prac- tice. It was Ole Bull who first recog- nized the lateDt power in his boyish improvisations and persuaded his par- ents to send him to Leipzig. There, too, in the beginning, he exhibited the way- wardness of a soul conscious of inspira- tion but uncertain of its tendency. Rigid courses of instruction were irksome to him, and he found his chief happiness in abandoning himself to flights of musi- cal fancy. But when he once perceived the necessity of discipline, he worked so assiduously that he suffered nervous and physical collapse. An attack of pleurisy followed, which left him but one serviceable lung, and doomed him to lifelong delicacy. Nevertheless, in his final examinations, he won honors both as a composer and as an instru- mentalist. In the critical days that followed, Ole Bull and the short-lived Rikard Nor- draak gave him invaluable encourage- ment to follow the bent of his individual genius and to break through the shackles of classical tradition. Thus it came about that the Euterpe Society was founded for the production of works of young northern composers, and that, as long ago as 1866, he was able to give a concert in Christiania, with a pro- gramme of Norwegian music only, Nor- draak, Kjerulf, and himself being the composers. The success of the experi- ment exceeded all expectation, and from that time on his star was in the ascendant. By 1874 his fame and popularity had so increased that the government awarded him a pension, upon which he retired to Bergen to work upon the "Peer Gynt" music, by which he is, per- haps, best known to the world at large. He undertook the task at the suggestion of Ibsen himself, and his success in ac- complishing it is all the more remarka- ble, when the embarrassing theatrical conditions imposed upon him are taken into consideration. It is not necessary to discuss here the extraordinary felic- ity of this achievement upon which Mr. Finck enlarges with characteristic fer- vor, but we may point out that it has done more to popularize the name of Ibsen than the play itself. That it has been largely instrumental also in spreading abroad the fame of Grieg, and in attracting public attention to his other works, is unquestionable. Thirty years ago his reputation as composer, conductor, and pianist had been firmly established in all musical centres, and since then his popularity has been growing steadily over all the civilized world. His orchestral and chamber mu- sic, his piano pieces, and his songs, in

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612 The IsTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2294 which his genius often finds its most characteristic national expression, have extorted the enthusiastic admiration of the most eminent connoisseurs. Mr. Finck, after an elaborate survey of all his works, vocal and instrumental, as- signs him unhesitatingly to the first "rank Of composers, on the ground that none of the great masters has contrib- uted more unique and charming melo- dic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas in the same number of pages, and none nas succeeded better in expressing his thoughts in the most fitting manner." Much space in this substantial volume is devoted to Grieg's personality — in which mental vigor and physical weak- ness were in perpetual conflict — to his manner of work, his characteristics as a pianist and conductor, his domestic habits, and his artistic views. The book is a full and satisfying one, whether considered in its critical or biographical aspect, and certainly does full justice to its subject. Art. The Acropolis of Athens. By Martin L d'Ooge. New York: The Macmillan Company. A history of the Athenian Acropolis from the earliest historic period down to our times presents many difficulties to the conscientious writer who pro- poses to deal with the subject at all adequately. The importance of the va- rious buildings gathered on the Acropo- lis, their chequered career, and above all the conflicting theories regarding them held by modern archaeologists, make a clear exposition not an easy matter. A successful handling of the material, as given in Professor d'Ooge's volume, is therefore the more to be appreciated, especially since a book of the kind has been much in request, not only by the archaeological student, but by every intelligent visitor to Athens. "Ancient Athens," by E. A. Gardner, "Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens," by Jane B. Harrison, and J. G. Frazer's "Pausanias," Vol. II, are the English books which have somewhat supplied the need hitherto. But the last two deal with the subject from a spe- cific aspect, as their titles imply, and the first is only a handbook which does not profess to treat exhaustively any of the problems involved. Professor d'Ooge's book, on the other hand, takes up the subject systematically, views it from its varied aspects, historical, re- ligious, and artistic, and patiently sets forth all the information we possess concerning it — material that has been gathered from many books and ar- ticles. Moreover, the whole presents a readable, though perhaps rather matter- of-fact, account. In a work of this sort, we do not expect much original mat- ter. Professor d'Ooge, though he has studied both the actual monuments and their literature carefully, is not one of the investigators whose discoveries make up our present knowledge. At the same time, be does not blindly follow any one authority, but gives a clear, dispassionate statement of the case, crit- icising the weak points in various the- ories and then selecting the most prob- able solution of the question in hand. It is in this open-mindedness and wide acquaintance of the subject that the chief value of the book lies. The material comprises not only the buildings on the summit of the Acropo- lis, but all the ruins discovered on its slopes, such as the various caves, the Pelargicon, the Asclepieum, the sanctu- ary and theatre of Dionysus, etc., as well as the more important sculptural works that have come to light during the excavations on these sites. The or- der adopted is mainly but not entirely historical; for instance, to avoid con- fusion, the buildings on the southern slope are dealt with consecutively in one chapter. The appendix on the Pe- largicon and that on the old temple of Athena, which gives a full account of the widely divergent views held on this subject, will be welcomed by every stu- dent. Such a consecutive history of the Acropolis cannot fail to impress us with the varied changes which have befallen the site, and the manner in which fate again and again brought about, first the circumstances which created the splendor of its buildings and then the catastrophes which destroyed them. But, though the hill has suf- fered many visitations, it has, at least, been spared that of the incompetent ex- cavator. During the systematic excava- tions carried on between 1885 and 1889, the whole surface of the Acropolis was carefully dug up down to the bedrock, and every inch of soil was turned over and examined, so that the minutest fragment was not allowed to escape. The " result is that all the data attainable have been brought safely into our pos- session, to be illumined by such investi- gators as Dorpfeld, Furtwangler, Wie- gand, and others. Indeed, the patient "detective" work of discovering clues, of building up a chain of evidence, and thus reconstructing the monuments of the past has rarely been done so bril- liantly and so successfully as on the Acropolis hill. To the importance of this detailed work Professor d'Ooge gives due prominence. The least successful part of the book is that which deals with the sculptural remains. It does not show the same careful study, the information being clearly taken from general books. Thus, in many instances, the author is con- tent to quote freely from Gardner's "Handbook of Greek Sculpture." This lack of first-hand knowledge comes out in some curious mistakes, such as as- signing the originals of the Naples group of tyrannicides to Ant«nor in- stead of Kritios and Nesiotes, in whose favor the discovery of the dated vase fragment representing the group (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) has finally decided the question of au- thorship. There is a very rich series of illustra- tions consisting both of plates and cuts in the text. Their selection and variety show that the author has spared no pains to add to the clearness of his text. His system, however, of putting notes and references at the end of the volume, instead of at the foot of each page, is cumbrous. The Burlington Magazine for May is a number of unusually varied contents, con- taining several articles which should attract a wider circle of readers than that habitual- ly appealed to by this publication. The first of these is on the newly discovered David with the Head of Goliath by Rem- brandt, by no means a great picture, but very interesting as being, apparently, the earliest of that master's compositions of many figures. The date, as now read, is 1627, the year of the Money Changer of Berlin and the St. Paul of Stuttgart, hith- erto the earliest known paintings by Rem- brandt, each of which represents a single figure only. Another recent discovery, the Settala Leonardo, is disposed of in an il- lustrated article which reproduces three of the ten variants known to exist of this Leonardesque motive — a nude Gioconda — of which the presumable original is a cartoon at Chantilly. The ffew discovery is quite the poorest of the three, and the flowery back- ground is unmistakably Flemish. The note of contemporaneity is struck by Prof. C. J. Holmes in an article on "Two Modern Pic- tures," in which he calls attention to the element of personality subtly pervading a good landscape by Harpignies and rather aggressively announced in A. E. John's Woman Smiling. Americans will be espe- cially interested in Kenyon Cox's attempt to characterize the work of that admirable artist J. Alden Weir, and in the editorial "Thoughts on the American Tariff." The editor considers the retention of a duty on works of art less than twenty years old as "a sop to American painters," and grave- ly assures these gentlemen that they arc making a mistake because American col- lectors will, in any case, only buy pictures by artists of great reputation, which they will buy, duty or no duty, the payment of the duty rather serving to keep such pic- tures in America, "since they cannot be re- exported without loss until the twenty-year limit is passed." Therefore our painters will "escape general competition only at the cost of having to face competition with the picked work of Europe." All this may be true, but it entirely fails in com- prehension of the attitude of American artists. Our best artists are not seeking to avoid competition, and are not in favor of the twenty-year limitation. All they ask is a fair field and no favor, and the doing away with the presumption in favor of im- ported work, because of the duty paid upon it. If foreign work is good, they wish to learn from it; if it is bad, they wish the ■ it

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'-r.y LLJ-S i? X X4** TTHttf'tggjr-TfrTrgC June 17, 1909] The Nation. 613 public to learn how bad it is. They are profoundly convinced that the more good pictures people buy the more they will want, and, as they intend to go on produc- ing good pictures themselves, they would willingly see Europe despoiled in our favor of the best contemporary work as it is already being despoiled of the old. The excavations at Sparta, carried on by the director and students of the British School of Archaeology in Athens, have again yielded important results. In excavating the "Menelaon," the reputed tomb of Men- elaos and Helen, there have been found re- mains of the Mycenaean age, such as bricks coated with plaster, on which in some cases are traces of fresco painting, and fragments of Mycenaean pottery of a local type, which were unearthed both below the monument and in an adjoining building. Similar re- mains were found near by. The impor- tance of these discoveries lies in the fact that they are the first Mycenaean remnants that have come lo light in Sparta and it is possible that the site may prove to be that of the Mycenaean Sparta. The monument called the Menelaon, which is built of large conglomerate blocks, ap- pears to date from the fifth century b. c. At the foot of a slope, a little below it, a number of bronze and lead votive offer- ings, apparently of the seventh century, have been found, including beads, axes, fibula?, and plaques, as well as a large number of terra-cottas, some of exception- al workmanship. The pottery found in the immediate neighborhood of the monu- ment ranges from Mycenaean in the lowest stratum to about 400 b. c. The complete excavation of the whole site will be re- served for next year. The results of other excavations in Greek lands this season are also now com- ing in. In digging at Triphylla, near the village of Kakovatos, domed tombs were discovered of the Mycenaean age, unfortun- ately quite ruined and despoiled except for the foundations and some objects which help to certify their early date. The ex- cavations at Pergamos, carried on by the German school for the last thirty years, have been chiefly concentrated on the large gymnasium and the neighboring area. This gymnasium is shown to have been the largest building of the kind so far known to us from antiquity. To the east of it baths have been unearthed comprising eight rooms; to the west a temple which was apparently originally of the Doric style, but was afterwards converted into Ionic; above on a terrace were discovered two sanctuaries, one dedicated to Hera, the other to Demeter. Finance. LENDING TO CHINA. According to London dispatches and interviews with our own State Depart- ment, our foreign legations have insisted that an American syndicate be allowed to participate in a $27,500,000 loan to the so-called Hankow-Sze-Chuen Railway in China. As stated in these advices, the Chinese government, as far back as 1904, had expressed to our Minister at Peking its willingness that, in case the contemplated enterprise could not be financed with Chinese capital, American capital should participate. A few days ago, certain English, German, and French banking houses signed an agree- ment for a "tripartite participation" in the loan; the present diplomatic demon- stration appears to amount to a de- mand for the right of American partici- pation. There are several points of view from which this incident may be regarded. The first is clearly political. The much- worn maxim that "trade follows the flag" has of recent years given place to another maxim, whose truth has as yet been imperfectly tested, that "trade fol- lows the lending of money." In one sense, the second maxim is confirmed by experience. Certainly, England's ex- port of merchandise to new foreign fields has in the past gone hand in hand with its exports in the form of capital for investment in the same fields. Not to mention the British colonies, the case of Argentina and Egypt is much in point. But in these admit- ted instances, there was some doubt whether export trade or investment capital went first. The familiar English plan of building up trade in a foreign locality, sending out younger sons of a mercantile house to represent on the spot the home establishment, and thus establishing a British colony at Buenos Ayres or Alexandria, would of itself lead to, rather than follow in, the path of investment in railway and industrial enterprises. This is not the consideration on which the more modern reasoning is based. During the fifteen years or so in which the so-called "colonial expan- sion movement" has been active among all the European Powers, two other principles seem to have been the basis of action of investment markets — one, that the good-will of a foreign state could be surely gained by providing funds for its public or private enter- prises; the other, that existence of such investments in a country like Egypt or China would give a certain right to political intervention by the govern- ment whose markets put up the neces- sary funds. It is in China that this mingling of diplomacy and finance has from the first assumed the most extraordinary form. Disastrously beaten by Japan in the war of 1894, and with most of its public rev- enues already pledged as security for earlier loans, the Chinese government had to face the problem of paying a war indemnity of 200,000,000 taels, or, rough- ly, $130,000,000. One might have pic- tured unfortunate China going, hat in hand, to the various market-places to negotiate a loan. Not at all. A scram- ble occurred among all the important European Powers to secure the prior right to lend the money. England was China's old acquaintance; Germany was her new acquaintance; Russia would not only lend part, but would guarantee per- sonally the whole of the loan. Through- out 1895. these assurances that Codlin's your friend, not Short, were urged on the government at Peking — which, in the end, succeeded in raising $80,000,000 on terms which Japan, in the days of her military success and well-organized finance of ten years later, was not able to command. Even the London Econo- mist could not help describing the epi- sode as "somewhat ludicrous"; although it talked very gravely of the political is- sues in the case. Apparently, we are seeing now an- other and a similar international com- petition. The case, purely from a finan- cial point of view, is all the more sin- gular from the fact that a Chinese rail- way loan, even granting its entire soundness, offers no greater induce- ments than many excellent bond invest- ments already on the markets. The popular notion that enormous interest rates are paid is erroneous. The $80,- 000.000 Chinese loan of 1896 paid 5 per cent., its issue price was 98%, and it has lately sold in London around 104. The more recent Hankow-Shanghai rail- way loan paid interest at 5 per cent, and sold at 99. The question is not of the wisdom of offering such a price; the point is, that investment finance has apparently acted with a curious mixture of motives in the matter. This conclusion is the more difficult to escape when we come to our own diplomatic demand that American cap- ital be allowed to participate. American capital has of recent years been im- pressed with the fact that it has a good deal to do in financing its own invest- ment interests. In 1906, our markets were declared to have borrowed $500,- 000,000 European capital for the pur- pose, and, even so, our new railway bond proposals failed to find a market. Only two weeks ago, it was announced as a timely and welcome achievement that we had obtained the assent of the Paris Bourse to an effort at interesting French capital in our one-half-billion dollars United States Steel stock — the apparent Financial. Letters of Credit International of Deposit. BROWN BROTHERS & CO. No. 99 Wall Street, New York Buy and sell bills of exchange and make ca- ble transfers of money on all foreign points; also make collections, and issue Commercial and Travellers' Credits available in all parts of the world. Cheques. Certificates

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314= The Kation. [Vol. 88, No. 22941 purpose being to get foreign capital to take part of it off our hands. It is quite true that m 1901 we got in the way of talking about "overflowing capital," and of New York as the money centre of the world. We invested in British consols and German treasury bonds; not to mention the handsome contributions made by our markets to the Japanese war loans. But these very investment undertakings have demon- strated the real nature of the situation. The American allotments of the British Exchequer loans have practically all been re-sold to London; so have the German bonds; so, in very large meas- ure, have been the Japanese issues. This is not because of doubt about any of these investments; but, in the main, because American capital can do better at home, or in immediately contiguous states which naturally depend upon our markets. But if tne lending to China is — as the State Department's interven- tion seems to indicate — primarily a dip- lomatic move, it opens up interesting considerations as to the longer future of both finance and diplomacy. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Balmer, Edwin. Waylaid by Wireless. Bos- ton : Small, Maynard & Co. $1.50. Collins, F. Howard. Authors' and Printers' Dictionary. Henry Frowde. Deutsche Gedichte zum Auswendiglernen. Edited by W. P. Chalmers. Crowell & Co. 40 cents net. Du Cerceau, Jacques Androuet. French Chateaux and Gardens in the XVI Cen- tury. Scribners. Dumas, Alexandra. Memoirs, translated by E. M. Waller. Vol. VI. Macmillan. $1.75 net. Dunning, James Edmund. The Master Builders. Appleton. Eden, F. S. School History of the County Palatine of Durham. London: Oxford University Press. First Lessons in French. By P. Bauderet and Pr. Reinhard. Adapted for school use by Grace Sandwith. Crowell & Co 50 cents net. Foster, William. The English Factories in India. Henry Frowde. Friedlander, Ludwig. Roman Life and Man- ners under the Early Empire. Vol. II. Translated by J. H. Freese and Leonard A. Magnus. Dutton & Co. Galsworthy, John. Plays: The Silver Box. Joy, Strife. Putnams. $1.35 net. Griffin. Grace Gardner. Writings on Amer- ican History, 1907: A Bibliography of Books and Articles on United States anl Canadian History. Macmillan Co. Harker, Alfred. The Natural History of Igneous Rocks. Macmillan. $3 net. James. Henry. The Ambassadors. 2 vols. Scribners. Krtiger, Gustav. The Papacy. Putnams. $1.50 net. Kuhn, Walt. A Little Bird Told Me. Life Pub. Co. Levi, Hedwig. Easy German Stories. Crow- ell & Co. 40 cents net. Maartens. Maarten. Brothers All: More Stories of Dutch Peasant Life. Appleton. Maude, Col. F. N. The Jena Campaign 1806. Macmillan. $1.60 net. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes. Edited Era Albertus Curtis Clark. Henry Frowde. Nascher. I. L. The Wretches ,of Poverty- ville: A Sociological Study of the Bowery. Chicago: Jos. J. Lanzit. Norton, Roy. The Toll of the Sea. Apple- ton. Oakley, E. Clarence. Dyke's Corners. Bos- ton: Richard G. Badger. Packard, Winthrop. Wild Pastures. Bos- ton: Small, Maynard & Co. $1.20 net. Perry, Ralph Barton. The Moral Economy. Scribners. $1.25 net. Poebel, Arno. The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Edit- ed by H. V. Hilprecht. Vol. VI, Part II. Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl- vania. Reichenbach, Mathilde. Das Rothkappchen: A Play in five scenes. Crowell & Co. 25. cents net. Report of the Commissioner of Education for Year Ended June 30. 1908. Vol. II.. Washington: Government Printing Office. Rye, Edgar. The Quirt and the Spur: Van- ishing Shadows of the Texas Frontier.. Chicago: W. B. Conkey Co. Shakespeare. William. Descrintive Cata- logue of Early Editions in the Library of Eton College. Henry Frowde. Thucydides: Histories: Book lv. Edited by T. R. Mills. Henry Frowde. Warming, Eng. Cacology of Plants. Henry Frowde. Waterton, Charles. Wandering in South America, Tho Northwest of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816. 1820. and 1824. Sturgis & Walton Co. Weston, Jessie L. The Legend of Sir Perce- val: Studies upon its Origin, Development, and Position in the Arthurian Cycle. Vol. II. London: David Nutt. The French Revolution A Short History Napoleon, A Short Biography By R. M. JOHNSTON, Assistant Pro- fessor of History in Harvard Uni- versity. Each $1.25 net. Scholarly, readable, and brief books which disentangle main outlines from the mass of details and set events in their proper proportion and relation. HENRY HOLT & CO , 3N4E^lk Now Ready, Vol. III. France in 1874-1877 CONTEMPORARY FRANCE lly GABRIEL HWOTAUX Four volumes, each covering a complete and definite period. Each volume complete in itself and sold separately. Svo.With Portraits, eaeli $3.75 net PREVIOUSLY ISSUED. Vol. I. France in 1870-1873. Vol. II. France in 1S73-1S75. To be published this fall. Vol. IV. France in 1877-1882. (Completing the work). The history of Contemporary Europe is for the first time definitely focussed in this important work. It contains new docu- ments and new explanations of diplomatic problems, and is indeed a record of the in- ner diplomacy of the Great Powers of Eu- rope during the twelve most eventful years. Send for descriptive circular. G.P. PUTNAM'S S0NS,2N7w .23 St. YORK STALKS ABROAD Being Some Record o] the Sport Obtained During a Two Tears' Tour Round the World. By H. FRANK WALLACE. With numerous Illustrations by the .Authorfrcm Photographs. 8vo. $3.50 net. "This is one of the most pleas»j,t Iiooks of sporfl published during recent years, .full of- the' joy or the outdoor life, yet with many shrewd observa- tions and criticisms of lasting value." — Country Life. ,. LONGMANS, GREEN, S. CO., ftW YORK THE YASNA OF THE AVESTA in continuous treatment upon the plan initiated in the FIVE ZARATHUSHTRIAN GATHAS, by L. H. Mills, Professor of Zend (Avesta) Philology, in the Uni- versity of Oxford, A STUDY OF YASNA I., with the Avesta, Pahlavi, Sanskrit, and Persian Texts. The Pahlavi is given In the original character and in transliteration, the Pahlavi and Sanskrit being translated into English here, the Avesta in S.B.E., XXXI., 1887; the Persian is itself an interlinear transla- tion of the Pahlavi. The Avesta Text is re-contractional with copious notes. The Pahlavi is re-edited from the Zeitschrift of the German Oriental Society with all the MSS. collated Bd. Lvii.. Heft IV., 1903; the English translation of the Pahlavi is re-edited from^the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for October, 1904; Neryosangh's Sanskrit is re-edited from Spiegel with the additional collation of five MSS., and for the first time translated. The Persian is from the Munich MSS. already partly edited in the Gathas. An Appendix contains the accented Sanskrit Equivalents of the Avesta Text by the Author, issued upon the plan adopted by him with Yasna XXVIII. In Roth's Festgruss, 1894, and with Yasna XLIV. in the Acts of the Eleventh Congress of Orientalists held in Paris, 1897. Four photographic plates of MSS., with other illustrative matter, are added, pp. 163, to be had of F. A. Brockhaus, in Leipzig, 12s. 6d. ; Yasna I. is especially valuable as it deals with the chief important questions of all the non-gathic Yasna. Also a Dictionary of the Gathic Language of the Zend Avesta, being VOL. III. of the Gathas, pp. 623-821, Leipzig 1903, price 12s. 6d., with 120 addi- tional pages soon ready, pp. 320-622-940, 1909, £1. A few copies of ZARATHUSHTRA, PHILO, AND ACHAEMENIDS AND ISRAEL, pp. 460+xxx, Brockhaus, 1905-06, are still to be had of the leading booksellers in Oxford at 12s. 6d. "He treats his subject thoroughly and exhaustively . . . deep and patient thought. . . ." J. J. Modi, Head Priest of the Parsis, Colaba. Bombay, in the Parsi of Bombay, 1895. "A wealth of learning and thought." the Nation, N. Y., Aug. 30. 1896. Also AVESTA ESCHATOLOGY compared with DANIEL and REVE- LATION, by L. H. Mills, 1908. to be had of Kegan Paul, Trench. Trubner and Co. The XXXIst Vol. of the SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST, the YASNA. VISPARAD, AFRINAGAN AND GAH, pp. 400+xlvii, 1887 ("same Author), is still to be had at 12s. 6d. ; as is the ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT OF THE YASNA. collotyped in an unsur- passed manner in the actual size and colour of the Original. 770 photographs with Introductory Note by L. H. Mills, Ten guineas. This is the main document f>l the above-mentioned works — for the presence of the original of it in the Bodleian Mr. Mills is responsible, 1893. "Professor Mills' name stands foremost in the ranks of those who hnve explored the field of Avesrie literature." — The Rcrst Gnftar, Bombay, April 18th, 1909. "Beyond question our lending authority now living, on the Gathas." — The Nation (N. Y.), Aug. 30th. lflOfi (Dr. Gray). (Ear- lier, of the Gathas) Das Ergebniss einer erstaun lichen Arbeit sehr m.nnnigfnlfiger Art — unser Verstilndniss der Gathas miichtig gefb'rdert. — Gott. Gelehr. Ann.. Mai 13. 1893. "Insbeson- ders von Mills, der diese schwierlgen Gedichte In griindliehster Weise behandelt hat." — Preussi- sches Jahrbueb (18971. Prof. Just! (Lexicographer). "Tons ceux qui s'occupent de 1'interpretntlon des Gathas rendmnt hommage a l'immense labeur scientifiqne de M. Mills. . . . son livre reste nn instrument indispensable pour l'£tude." — Professor .Tames Darmesteter, Revue Critique, 18th Sep- tembre, 1893. "Alles was fiir die Erkliirung der Gathas nothwendig 1st." — (so Dr. West in J.R.A.S.) "Immer wird es die Grundlage bllden. auf der sich .iede weitere Forschung aufbauen muss. . . . einen, hervorragenden Dienst." — Zritficltrift der deu'RClien M.O., ISnf! (the late) R. Pisehel (first S.ihskritist of Germany). A new edition has been inquired for. and a renewed Government subven- tion is expected from an antiquated engagement. A few copies are still to be had, upon excep- tional request, and for Libraries, at £3. Buockhat/s.

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- * - • -•-*■'■■«" ^ - -j - ■--- i frn m^A r/*«-> y^tfZr (ifc ^Vf., The Nation. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 2i, 1909. The Week. Congress seems destined to round out its character as a body that neither was born to issues nor achieved issues, but had issues thrust upon it. Congress is chiefly being called upon to do things which it does not particularly care for, but which it is willing to take as the lesser evil. A Republican Congress has taken up tariff revision because of the possibility that there might be a Demo- cratic House if it did not do something. To avert the peril of too much tariff re- vision, the idea of an income tax was brought forward. To avert the danger of an income tax, Mr. Aldrich has laid hold of the corporation tax. Tariff, in- come tax, corporation tax bear the vice of their origin. Tariff revision extort- ed from the Republican party under the threat of punishment at the polls has become in Congress a travesty of revi- sion. The income tax brought forward in the past by those who had not the heart to wrestle with the tariff earnest- ly, is in danger of being abandoned as soon as an easier alternative presents itself. The corporation tax brought for- ward as an eleventh-hour remedy bears on its face the strong suspicion of being a temporary stratagem. Attorney-General 'W'ickersham dis- plays great temerity in actually setting the machinery of justice in operation against the Sugar Trust. Mr. Earle of Philadelphia, and his counsel, have been subpoenaed to appear before a Fed- eral grand jury, and bring with them all the evidence they have that the Sugar Trust had entered into a crimi- nal conspiracy. But this evidence is pre- cisely the same as that which Mr. Bona- parte, when Attorney-General, declared to be entirely insufficient to make out a case. True, Mr. Bonaparte had never seen the evidence, while Mr. Wicker- sham apparently has; but any Attorney- General who is able to decide by the light of his own inner consciousness that an indictment will not lie, must be so great a lawyer that his successor might well tremble at the thought of differing with him. Meanwhile, the sugar weighers are asking that their trial be deferred until autumn, on the ground that popular anger against the Sugar Trust is dan- gerously hot just now. The earlier they appear in court, the calmer may the verdict on them be. It is not as if the whole truth were out and waiting only for judgment. Only a few opening chapters of the sickening story of cor- poration thievery have been deciphered; the rest President Taft and the Attor- ney-General will surely grub out. Their discoveries about the leading criminals can scarcely whitewash the seven little mercenaries. Should one of the men higher up turn State's evidence — an event not altogether unlikely — what fuel might then be added to the fires of indignation! Big knave and little knave would probably fare alike. It is a highly commendable move to try to keep open the door of diplomatic preferment to capable American citizens who do not happen to be rich. Of re- cent years, the expenditure required to support the social status of an ambas- sadorship abroad has made the official salary seem exceedingly meagre. The American Embassy Association, whose object is the correction of this anomaly, is therefore engaged in a good cause. One can not, however, quite escape envy- ing E. Clarence Jones, the president of this organization, his pleasant task of making a "personal investigation" of the way our diplomats are housed abroad, the cost of living in foreign capitals, and the allowances made by other governments to their diplomats. It is possible that Mr. Jones, after hav- ing been feted at such unpretentious establishments as that on Park Lane, London, may at least alter the wording of his propaganda, and abandon the idea of finding "more fitting abodes" for our diplomatic representatives. The abodes are "fitting" enough, if the salary were commensurate. Meanwhile Fred- erick A. Delano, president of the Wa- bash Railroad, announces his intention of sticking to railroading rather than take the Chinese mission. It is a bit odd to hear that he regards railroading as affording "no schooling in diplomacy." He must be a man with unusual defini- tions. The business-like proceedings of the Direct Primary Association at Albany last week augur well for the early suc- cess of the movement in this State. The interest in some effective plan for giv- ing political initiative to the party rank and file is too pervasive and emphatic to tolerate much longer the boss sys- tem of nomination. The Association is alive to the practical necessities of its propaganda, and shrewdly proposes to interrogate every candidate for the As- sembly upon his attitude toward this question. Equally sagacious is the As- sociation's project to organize in every county of the State a local league to for- ward this legislation. Gov. Hughes's letter to the Association disposes of the objection, if the machine dares longer to raise it, that direct primaries signify the abandonment of the party system. Its advocates intend that party leader- ship shall be a real and responsible lead- ership, not a subterranean manipula- tion of those who hold power without just title to power. It must cause search- ings of heart to some of the advocates of the old regime to canvass the names upon the Association's roster of officers, so unquestioned has been their stanch party loyalty in the past, and so un- assailable is their representative char- acter. The advisory council is headed by Oscar M. Straus. It is all very well to scout at a lot of unpractical idealists, but when the practical men of affairs of unimpeachable standing in party coun- cils declare their abhorrence of the pres- ent workings of the nominating ma- chine, even the hidebound spoilsman may well think it good politics to "pan- der to the moral element." With the enactment of the bill pro- hibiting race-track gambling in Florida, the year's campaign in State Legisla- tures came to an end. This movement has had the backing of no general or- ganization whatever. Following the pas- sage of Gov. Hughes's measure in New York, the idea has been taken up on individual initiative elsewhere. In Louisiana, the Locke bill went through with an incident recalling the dramatic action of Senator Foelker in this State. At Baton Rouge, a Senator so ill that he was hardly able to stand turned the tide in favor of the measure. In Cali-

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616 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 fornia and Washington the race-track interests, seemingly strong at first, crumbled at the test; while Texas fell in line soon after. When it is recalled that knowing persons predicted Gov. Hughes's defeat last autumn solely on account of his anti-gambling campaign, there is food for study in the fact not only that he was elected, but that five States have followed with legislation patterned after his. The trial of Patrick Calhoun in San Francisco came to have a national in- terest, and it is a national disappoint- ment that the jury could not reach a verdict. That a defendant whose case in court had occupied nearly five months could be neither convicted nor acquitted in the end, is, as the pre- siding judge remarked, a deplorable event which should lead Americans everywhere to look to their methods of criminal prosecution. This San Fran- cisco trial was, to be sure, hedged about by unusual difficulties. Public feeling had been inflamed; there were the sharpest differences of opinion in the community, making the selection of an impartial and competent jury almost impossible; and the whole contest had too much resolved itself into a battle between powerful interests. The long weeks spent in sifting the talesmen showed how general was the belief that getting the jury "right" was more im- portant than the presentation of evi- dence. But over and above all this, was the ominous fact that, as Judge Lawlor said, the criminal statutes and judicial decisions of California had been made an intricate maze of subtleties and un- certainties, directly inviting such a fias- co as has now followed. The lesson is cne that should be taken to heart in all the States. Until our criminal pro- cedure is simplified and purified, there is little chance of convicting a rich and resourceful man "higher up," or even of making sure that, in ordinary cases, there shall not be a miscarriage of jus- tice. The new Secretary of Commerce and Labor, who had already shown his qual- ity in dealing with the Director of the Census, has now applied a cold douche of common sense to a group of labor leaders. These worthy gentlemen have demanded the abolition of the "division of information," in the Bureau of Im- migration. Their complaint was that 11 had been far too serviceable to in- tending and actual immigrants. Espe- cially did they object to its aiding new- comers to find work. This was to take bread from the children's mouths and give it unto dogs — that is, to make it appear that workingmen could get along without unions. Unexpressed was the charge that immigrants had been told where men were wanted to take the place of strikers, this being, of course, the unpardonable sin. But Secretary JNagel has refused to accept the reason- ing of Gompers and Mitchell, Chief Stone, and Commissioner-General Keefe. To their urgent representations, he re- plies that he will not make the change they desire; that he believes in giving immigrants all the assistance possible; and that, in fact, the distribution of these new workers has been made with great care, most of them having been (sent out to farms and other places where there was a "snortage ui lauui. But that phrase will only heighten Sec- retary Nagel's offence, in the eyes of trades unionists. He seeks to relieve a shortage of labor. They would make it chronic. And the fact that the Sec- retary has both reason and humanity on his side, will not alter their opinion of his decision. The social rebefs trade-mark and countersign is the straight line, which, being the shortest distance between two points, symbolizes all his aspirations. He sees a broker wolf devouring a lamb; the beast must be strangled on the spot. A drunkard jostles him; the saloon must go. Children are not be- ing taught to earn their bread; close the mediaeval schools and colleges! If our rebel makes a business of his rebel- lion, he again drives in a straight line across our civilization. There is in this directness an intellectual vigor, as well as an unwavering honesty, which forces admiration. It outdoes Nature's own blind gropings toward a better order; no gunner ever drives so true to his mark, for even can- non-balls move in a curve. Neverthe- less, a straight line has its serious dis- advantages, one among which our un- compromising reformers have, we fear, overlooked to their own eventual grief. This one the geometer points out when he declares that the line meets itself at infinity. In terms of reform this means that, if you push straight on to the limit in any direction, you will land in the very region you fled. We see the working of this law often- est nowadays in the remodelling of our social institutions. The Socialist, hat- ing capital and classes, prays to be rul- ed by despots in an aristocracy whose leaders have more substantial power than mere stocks or bonds could ever bestow. From Chicago comes Correct Thinking, a new magazine devoted to the immediate enthronement of uncom- promising common sense in school, church, and town hall. It demands that we employ a teacher for every ten pu- pils, evict all preachers, close every court and law school, and ostracize phy- sicians— to say nothing of expunging from literature all ideas that occurred to anybody before Darwin wrote. If common sense, moving in a straight line, brings up there, one understands why it is that the most successful re- former often moves in a circle. In the statistical debate over the rela- tive growth of Eastern and Western col- leges only one striking fact has appear- ed; that is the slight advance the lat- ter have made over the former. So slight is it that, figuring one way you see it, and, figuring another way, you don't. All things considered, the situa- tion must mildly disappoint the West. Foreign educators have been extolling its universities above the cis-Appalach- ian; one English critic rating Wiscon- sin as the first of the land. Home edu- cators have shown the same preference. Particularly the great State universities of the Mississippi Valley now offer the undergraduate every fancy course, every patent rowing machine, and every so- cial delight known to the most effete East. Only in their graduate schools do their bids fall short; but, in compen- sation, they are catching more utilitar- ians than does the East with their lec- tures on cheese-making and hog cholera. At the same time, "atmosphere" has been slowly gathering about the West- ern campus, local pride has added an ell to its girth, and the whole country- side has grown mightily in self-suffi- ciency. Finally, West has outstripped East in the rate of increasing popula- tion. We might expect, then, to see the star of our educational empire taking

Page 630

■-%.- *'-'sW^^U.Jl,9 * W. Ml ^^^^j«^i ii^i June 24, 1909] The ISTation. 617 its way toward the sunset at a meteor's speed. But it is not; and the only rea- son is that tradition and sentiment still overrule college boomers. A five-foot shelf of books very fre- quently does represent a wide and lofty culture — for the friends of the owner of the shelf. To be the owner of only five feet of books means only too often that the other fifteen or twenty feet are in the parcelled possession of people who wanted a particular volume merely for a day or two, or for a tedious rail- way trip, or only to read to a sick friend. Lists have been drawn up of tne hundred best books and the hun- dred worst books. But neither Sir John uubbock nor Lord Acton nor Dr. Eliot has really met the point. The hundred best books are the books our friends lug away or send back with fingermarks on the margin. The hundred worst books are the books they leave us. We say this with all due consciousness of the fact that humanity shows itself at its very lowest in the man who locks his book-case and makes it a principle not to lend. Some golden mean must be found between being miserly and being ruined. Might not some enterprising publisher put on the market a library of a hundred selected books intended ex- clusively for being given away? The effect abroad of the English wave of war hysteria, has not been exactly flattering to English pride. The world in general has wondered. German news- papers have made jokes about the im- perturbable Briton. But perhaps the most unwelcome comment has come from the side of France. Some of the most serious French newspapers are now asking what value the Anglo- French entente can have, if England is in such a blue funk about her military helplessness. The readiness of Great Britain to come to the aid of France, in case of war, has been understood to be a part of the agreement between the two nations. Mr. Strachey writes inci- dentally in his recent book of "the knowledge that we should stand by France in case of any attack upon her by Germany." But the Paris Temps has been reading the confessions made for sentimental or partisan effect at the recent Press Conference, and discovers that a British expeditionary force would not probably exceed three or four di- visions. But that will never do, de- clares the Temps, for an offensive al- liance. If England is not able to launch sixteen or eighteen divisions, she had better keep out of the coil of Conti- nental politics, and be once more peace- able John Bull at home in his tight little island. It's a different Von Biilow who hand- ed out cuffs and compliments last week, from the man who less than a year ago seemed in imminent peril of being ground to fragments between an in- furiated Reichstag and a disconsolate Emperor. But the habit of loyalty is very strong in Germany, and after the Kaiser's diplomatic coup in the matter of the Balkans, William II and his man are firm in the saddle again. From the indifferent way in which Von Biilow has taken to speaking of his possible retire- ment from office, it may be gathered, first, that such an event would not quite overwhelm him, and, secondly, that such an event is not very probable before the adjustment of the difficult financial question. And when a man isn't afraid, and, in any case, doesn't care, he is emi- nently in the mood to have a little fun with his enemies. Von Biilow has been Chancellor since 1900 — longer by five years than Caprivi, and by three years than Prince Hohenlohe. Ruling a Reichstag must be pleasant, but taking orders from the Kaiser is rather wear- ing, and the Chancellor's health is not what it used to be. If, after giving Ger- many a great navy, he should succeed in finding the money to pay for it, he might leave office with an enviable rec- ord. , The Federation of American Zionists has gone through its twelfth annual convention with no signs of wavering from its original aim, the establishment of a Jewish national state in Palestine. All over the world the Zionist party, in a strict sense, has held firm to the old programme. By contrast, the party led by Israel Zangwill has wandered pretty nearly over all the five continents and the seven seas without fixing upon any one location for more than a couple of months. Believing that any region which is fit for colonization would make a suitable second Palestine, they have found nothing that suits. The latest field of inquiry has been Mesopotamia, about which much talk is still under way. But already it is becoming evident that the economic difficulties of ihe project are enormous. Before the land can be oc- cupied, it must be largely created anew by a vast system of irrigation. The Mesopotamian project is chiefly inter- esting because it shows that in the long run Mr. Zangwill and his followers here have been forced to perceive that senti- ment is a very important factor indeed in Zionism. Mesopotamia is Biblical soil, and the distance to Holy Land is short. But the Zionists who have held fast to Palestine have their difficulties. That region, too, is not at present a land with milk and money blest. If it is to support a much larger population than it counts at present, large stretches of desert and waste must be reclaimed. The task that thus confronts the archi- tects of a new Jewish state is a double one. They must make farmers out of the Jews, and they must make a land for them to cultivate. What has taken years and large expense on the fertile soil of Argentina, will call for greater labors still in the sun-baked terri- tories about the Jordan. No doubt, the Chinese railway loan, in which so many Powers are determin- ed to have a part, is a serious affair, with important commercial and inter- national relations, but the various steps taken in the matter seem irresistibly comic. The rush of the nations up to be- wildered China with the announcement that she really must borrow some mon- ey from each of them, scarcely appears like a scene from real life; and the sud- den awakening of the United States to the fact that this country, too, had a right to force some of its hard-earned dollars upon the Chinese, looked strangely artificial in a thrifty and close-fisted Uncle Sam. Now comes one more touch of the comic spirit in the pathetic appeal of England that, having kept out of the loan so long, we keep out altogether. Admitting our right, un- (den the convention with China, the English Foreign Office begs us not to insist upon it, and thereby imperil an agreement which has been long and dif- ficult in the drafting. To complete the humorous aspect of the whole trans- action, the Washington dispatches say that our Government is more deter- mined than ever to go ahead. We should like to oblige England, but a loan is thicker than water.

Page 631

618 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 THE CORPORATION TAX. Mr. Taft's quiet message to Congress last week deserves quiet study. The wrathful explosions which it has pro- voked in certain quarters are disturb- ing to the calm inquiry which ought to he made into the political and financial and social aspects of the measure which the President recommends. Beginning with the first, it is obvious that Mr. Taft has made this public intervention in the tariff debate, mainly to come to the help of Aldrich against the mighty. It is, primarily, a political move. Tax- ation is secondary. The Republican or- ganization in the Senate was in danger of disruption. Aldrich and his phalanx had discovered that they would be out- voted on the amendment providing for an income tax. In their despair, they appealed to the White House, and the message is the result. Its immediate political effect will doubtless be what was designed. The income-tax amendment will be beaten. When the President declares against enacting it at present, and urges the passage of a Constitutional amendment giving Congress, what it has not now, the undoubted power to levy an income tax of the broadest kind, party pressure is certain to bring over enough waver- ing Republican Senators to give Aldrich a narrow but sufficient majority. In- deed, the Washington dispatches make it clear that this result has already been secured. The inter-party alliance for the income tax confesses itself beaten. It will continue to fight, but acknowl- edges that the other side will win. Yet this does not mean that the whole tar- iff controversy will now come to a speedy end. Instead of cutting short the debate, we think it will be found that President Taft's message has great- ly prolonged it. The new topic will pre- cipitate new Senatorial longueurs and fury. On the merits both of the propos- ed corporation tax and of the income tax, many a Senator will desire to speak nine times the space that measures day and night to mortal men. The Demo- crats will wish to make party capital by showing that the new President is as skilled as the former in stealing their clothes — for he is now recommending what the Denver platform advocated, while his own party passed it over in silence. Hence we fear that Mr. Taft's plans to get away to his summer home by July 10 will be interfered with. He may go, or he may come, but the Sen- ate debate will flow on. In favor of a corporation tax as a fiscal measure, there is much to be said. It is a direct tax upon wealth. More- over, it is a tax which cannot, except in very small part, be shifted to the con- sumer. This is challenged in the state- ment put out by the rump of the insur- gent Republican Senators. They say: "It is well known that corporations, especially the larger ones, can in most instances shift the burden of the tax to the public by imposing upon the people increased charges and prices." But these amateur economists can scarcely have looked at the scientific discussions of the incidence and shifting of taxation, nor studied the actual facts of business. A tax on net earnings which exceed or- dinary savings bank interest is one of the few taxes which are tardily if ever shifted. The case would be different if the tax were on gross earnings or gross product or on dividends or capital. But to tax net receipts is to tax a surplus. It does not heighten the cost of produc- tion, so that, under competitive condi- tions, no corporation could in conse- quence exact more for its goods or ser- vices. Even a monopoly could not do so, for even a monopoly would probably find that steady prices and large busi- ness would be more profitable than in- creased prices and lower gross returns. The tax on parlor-car tickets, during the Spanish war, was paid by the cor- porations. It is pretty safe to conclude that nearly every corporation would in like manner pay a tax on its net income. Considered merely as a means of rais- ing revenue from those who can best afford to contribute, the corporation tax if it affected all securities alike, must rank high among those which come nearest meeting the canons of just taxation. This fact, however, does not do away with the unhappy impression caused by this eleventh-hour throwing of the cor- poration tax into the Senatorial witches' caldron. Urged in the name of revenue, there is no certainty what the resulting revenue will be, nor whether it will be needed. Senator Aldrich has stoutly de- clared that it will not be; yet now he is meekly accepting an additional tax to raise indefinite millions. The Presi- dent says: "I am informed that a 2 per cent, tax of this character would bring into the Treasury not less than $25,000,- 000." He does not state who informed him. No detailed estimates are offered. But it seems plain that the figures giv- en to Mr. Taft put the returns from the tax far too low. The net earnings of the railways for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907, were $833,000,000, thus alone yielding a revenue under the pro- posed tax of more than $16,000,000. It is hard to believe that the same tax on all the other corporations would not bring in a total largely outrunning the President's estimate. In any event, we have here one more hap-hazard experi- ment in taxation, vaguely undertaken, in a way that can only add to our na- tional reputation for financial hugger- mugger. Nor does it appear that the remoter consequences have been so carefully studied as they should have been. It is not certain that some corporations could not safely contest the constitutional- ity of the tax. Any of them whose earnings came in whole, or in part, from land, could apparently claim exemption under the decision of the Supreme Court that to tax the revenue from land, is to tax the land itself, thus making it a direct tax such as is forbidden to Con- gress, without apportionment. Even the choice of the corporation tax, therefore, may be, no less than would be the vot- ing of an income tax, the "enacting of a lawsuit." And when we add the com- plexities and dubieties sure to arise from putting a swarm of Federal inspec- tors and bookkeepers into the offices of all corporations, great and small, we see reason enough for regretting the time and manner of bringing this vast project before a fatigued and fretted Congress. NEGOTIATING A TARIFF. A political philosopher of sufficient experience and detachment of view could readily find in the present activi- ties of Congress an analogy to what biologists call reversion to type. Prior to the adoption of the Constitution, our national Congresses had been virtually nothing more than advisory conventions or diplomatic assemblies of sovereign colonies. The Constitution contemplat- ed the creation of a national Legisla- ture. What has resulted is an essential- ly diplomatic body whose statutes in their making bear more resemblance to the negotiating of a treaty than to the framing of a law. As a result, the na-

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J.^ , *.-- —^^- m—M- », m , -g.xi^^ ^y/' ^ / >_■%, -1 June 24, 1909] The Nation. 619 tion as a whole is represented in reality by the Chief Executive, not by Con- gress. It falls to him to impose upon provincial leaders the power of national opinion. By virtue of his office, and of his practically direct election thereto, he alone is the recognized Attorney of the People. It is true that the framers of the Con- stitution foresaw divergent local inter- ests that would conflict in the arena of Federal legislation. But they had been mindful of the equality of the States in assigning two Senators to each and every commonwealth. And a lower house, constituted upon the basis of pop- ulation, was supposed to guarantee di- rectly an adequate reflection of popular sentiment. The Fathers did not, in all probability, enter very deeply into the philosophic distinction between the del- egate and the representative, between the man who simply counted numerical- ly as the index of local sentiment, and the man who undertook the responsibil- ity of determining what was for the in- terest of his constituents. But having secured, as they supposed, a Federal Legislature, they seem to have had no misgivings that it might degenerate into an essentially non-representative body. There never have failed to be clash- ings of petty local interests in Congress. But the issues of the Civil War and the subsequent problems of reconstruction had a solidifying effect that erased most regional differences. In 1861 the M. C. was for the Union and the war, or was a "copperhead." Up to 1876 the recon- . struction acts and the war amendments to the Constitution kept party affilia- tions intact. With the subsidence of these issues, a new set of interests be- gan to manifest themselves. These were essentially pecuniary, not political. But as they were to be served by the con- trol of the tax machinery, these inter- ests found it convenient to mask, so long as they could, in partisan disguises. It is true that, on a relatively small scale, national economy, and sometimes even national solvency, had been en- dangered by what Congressmen now re- gard as the rather primitive process of "log-rolling." Localities have been able in the past to secure costly public build- ings and disbursements for harbors and rivers by an alliance of representatives who conspired to promote their mutual inroads on the Treasury. But the growth of the Speaker's power converted this individualistic system of cooperative robbery into a method of collective "con- version" (as the wise call it), which re- quired the party sanction. The real trellis-work upon which the parasitic form of degenerate legis'ation has climb- ed is found in the rules of the Senate. The right of unlimited debate means, at the limit, the right of individual veto of legislation. Of course, this right has to be exercised under such limitations as may be imposed by human capacity to keep talking. There is the equally efficacious check of not offending oppo- nents overmuch. But in the last resort, as Senator Tillman has demonstrated, a determined, persistent, and aggressive individual Senator can foist an appro- priation upon a general bill by simply holding up supplies for the entire gov- ernment. It is this situation which makes the tariff legislation of the United States to all intents and purposes a treaty be- tween the great industrial interests whose ambassadors, under the title of Senators, raise or lower rates of duty in contemptuous disregard of the inter ests of the entire body of consumers. Senator Lodge has even declared the consumer to be only "a myth." At all events, the consumer's influence upon the great schedules of taxation is purely mythical. The Senate rules are prac- tically those of international law. The equal sovereignty of all nations, alias Senators, is the cornerstone of all peace- ful negotiation. A pertinent illustration is furnished in Senator Bulkeley's recent interven- tion in tariff-making, not in his capac- ity as Senator from Connecticut, but as envoy extraordinary and minister pleni- potentiary of the tobacco-growers. The action of the Concert of the Powers in Crete, for example, is not different in kind, but is presumably more laudable in character and intent, than the Bis- marckian way in which Baron Aldrich is seeking to secure the maximum bene- fit for the protected interests. With a tariff policy such as we have long pur- sued, this perversion of the essential character of Congress is inevitable. It will not be until the people as a whole recognize the unmistakable usurpation of Constitutional function for sordid in- terests, that we can expect to recover a national Legislature imbued with real concern for national interests. THE REAL STRENGTH OF BRITISH EMPIRE. THE English opinion, it is reported, looks upon the meeting between Kaiser and Czar with equanimity. England nowa- days is so disinclined to look upon any- thing with equanimity that her refusal to shape a new scare out of the periodi- cal meeting between the two Emperors, may be taken as a sign of returning common sense in Albion. It would have been so easy to show how the inter- view in the Gulf of Finland was anoth- er staggering heart-blow at the Em- pire; how William IPs purpose was to win Russia away from her friendly un- derstanding with Great Britain; how Russia would be incited to antagonize British interests in Persia and persuad- ed to join hands with Japan against her present ally; how the dominions be- yond the seas would thus be put in mor- tal peril as a preparation for Armaged- don in the North Sea; how anything and everything else a nation's panic fostered by a yellow press can render conceivable, is bound to come. But in- stead the English nation has chosen to believe that the Imperial interview will actually assure the peace of Europe. The ruin of the Empire is perceptibly no nearer than it was on the afternoon be- fore the interview, though, of course, it is much more imminent than before Lord Rosebery and Mr. Balfour deliv- ered their speeches at the Imperial Press Conference. After all, it is pos- sible that Parliament will close and Englishmen will enter the grouse sea- son in a fairly composed state of mind- Throughout her present sharp attack of nerves, nothing has been more strik- ing than Great Britain's omission to find encouragement in any reserves of moral strength she might honestly claim to possess. She has weighed her chances against Germany's in terms exclusively of reeking tube and iron shard. When men have predicted the dismemberment of the Empire and the destruction of London by a German army corps, it seemingly has occurred to no one to in- quire whether the British Empire and the German Empire do not embody cer- tain diverse ideals which might have some influence in throwing victory to one side or the other. Moral issues, we admit, have no interest for the experts who balance broadside against broad- side and battalion against battalion, and love to forecast the fate of battles by

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620 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 . the narrowest of arithmetical margins. Yet it is these same experts who, after the event, explain away their sad mis- calculations by that despised moral fac- tor. It was the superior moral weight of the Japanese cause that, by common confession, contributed as much as any- thing to the defeat of Russia. It was the moral superiority of the Boer cause that gave it two years of victory against tremendous odds. It ma) have been the needle gun and Moltke's genius that brought about the downfall of France, but Germany's moral right to make her- self into a united nation played a suf- ficiently important part. Men and guns are not everything if they are arrayed against the trend of civilization and the spirit of the age. When the British fire-eaters picture Germany as pouncing upon the Empire and seizing it for herself, it is pertinent to ask whether Germany's strength is such as to make her a fit ruler of depen- dencies. We may go further and ask if even that fear of a great Germanic empire in all Europe, can be anything but an empty fear. To exaggerate the power of the German army is only to in- dicate the limitations of German expan- sion. Prussian militarism may be justi- fied in the eyes of most Germans to- day by the unity, the prestige, and the assurance of peace it has brought them. To the extent that the Prussian army has worked towards such ends, it has been a moral agent. But Prussian mili- tarism will not retain its effectiveness when it sets out to conquer and keep down foreign nationalities. By so much as the Prussian element in the Hohen- zollern dominions dwindles to a minor- ity, by so much will it become more dif-v ficult to maintain a Hohenzollern em- pire that shall be at the same time a great hive of industry and an armed camp. All over Europe and the world the current runs away from war-lord and autocracy to democracy and self- government, and Hohenzollern ideals cannot in the end make head against it. English rule, with all that can be cited against it in India and Egypt, still carries with it the fundamental princi- ple of democracy. England is still the mother of parliaments and the inspira- tion for oppressed nationalities. Her Empire is mainly based on self-govern- ment; and even in India, where the problem is so immensely difficult, the English instinct for progress with pru- dence is now manifesting itself. Would it be foolhardy in an English statesman to declare that until Germany had thor- oughly learned the lesson of democracy and the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, the British Empire has, in the long run, nothing to fear? It is hard to imagine Canada, Australia, or South Africa overrun by German troops. But even if we imagine the conquest as effected, it is quite impossible to think of Germany ruling these colonies. The process of sergeant's drill is not the right preparation for world-empire. The spirit of German government and ad- ministration must grow more supple and more modern before the war-lord can look toward domination over non- Germanic Europe, or dominions beyond the seas. Not all the moral weight is on the side of Great Britain. The German na- tion has discipline, loyalty, laborious- ness, enterprise, and method. British statesmen have conceded the Germans the palm for efficiency. Germany has no such internal sores as England's pauper- ism to weaken her. Her laborers work harder and fare worse than the English, but they have a greater assurance of immunity from starvation, or the poor- house, in their old age. We may enu- merate every fine quality that has con- tributed to Germany's leading place among the nations, and yet question whether expansion along undemocratic lines can go much further than it has gone with her. THE TASK OF PRESIDENT AN- GELAS SUCCESSOR. A recent visitor to the United States is' reported as remarking that we Amer- icans are no less excited over the choice of a president for one of our univer- sities than over that of the President for the nation. The election of Presi- dent Eliot's successor, which occasion- ed the remark, is safely over. Presi- dent Angell's successor is still to be ap- pointed— another appointment involving much more than local interest. Indeed, it is scarcely too much to say that in educational importance — which with us almost spells national importance — this choice is second only to that of the pres- ident of Harvard. In each case, the new president takes direction of a univer- sity grown great under his predecessor; in each case his problem is, not to de- stroy, or even to recast, but to restrain the excesses and to develop the strength of a valuable type of education. The incoming administration at Harvard promises changes of this progressive kind: the encouragement of scholarship by outward as well as inward sanctions, and the more philosophic control of the elective system. The successor of Presi- dent Angell will have a task of great delicacy if he is to do likewise for the <ine type of education represented by the State universities of the West. Under President Angell, the Univer- sity of Michigan grew, as it were, to manhood. And as a young man "feels his life in every limb," without as yet feeling the need of conscious control from the centres of brain and heart and will, so this university has come to live a life instinctive and peripheral rather than deliberate and central. There is room for doubt as to how far power should be concentrated in the hands of a university president; there can be no doubt that actual conditions at Ann Ar- bor call for change. Power Las slipped from the president's hands, upward into the hands of the regents, sideways or downward into the hands of the deans. The regents have come to interfere in faculty appointments, promotions, and dismissals, and in the regulation of stu- dent activities; the deans, each in- trenched in his own school or "depart- ment," have grown to be virtually au- tonomous. At the faculty meetings of schools other than the college proper — the "literary department" — the presi- dent has been of late not so much a con- trolling force as an honored guest. The presidency has thus shrunk to the Headship of the College. Other "de- partments" of the university, each un- der its dean, have been walled oif, each in its corner of the campus. The whole has been subject to irresponsible inter- ference from without. This system has not been altogether justified of its chil- dren. Upon the wire-pulling, the "see- ing" of high personages, the undigni- fied procedure of university politics, in some cases barely stopping short of scandal, it is better not to enlarge. More important educationally is the fact that this system has compelled the univer- sity to leave unused much of the spon- taneous energy of its teachers. More than one scholar, for instance, whose ap- pointment has happened to land him in a "department" where only preparatory drill-work is done in his subject, has

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•■ A • ±**L«r*T^ r Q -ng -c «^7>^ &>'£&*£. June 24, 1909] The Nation. 621 not been permitted to offer advanced courses in another "department." There has been, we believe, no marshalling of the forces from the whole university — such as has recently been effected in certain studies at Harvard and Colum- bia. On the whole, there has been a scattering and a waste of energy, a fail- ure to give employment to enthusiasm. Who shall say that the student has not suffered, as well as- the teacher? Hope appears in at least two direc- tions. Michigan has so far foregone a large and costly graduate school. Many of its teachers, probably a majority, de- spite the promotion and consideration that have been made the rewards of "re- search," have given their best energies to "mere teaching." A president who, like Dr. Angell, should be himself a man of broad ideas in education, who should map out the whole province, who should allot to research and to teach- ing each its proper field, and who at the same time should offer a new Lehrfrei- heit transcending department walls — would gain at once, we venture to pre- dict, the enthusiastic support both of the "productive scholars" and of the teachers. Under such a president we might behold once more — despite the enormous numbers and the enormous "plant" of our larger colleges — a univer- sity whose basis would lie in the con- tact between a teacher and a student: "a boy at one end of a log and Mark Hopkins at the other." Again, there is hope in the very growth which has brought about pres- ent conditions. The University of Mich- igan, unlike many a university in the West and the South — and, for that mat- ter, the East — need make no concession or compromise for the sake of numbers. It has always at its doors an eager throng, waiting to enter and ready to work. The pose, too common at East- ern colleges, that study is rather dis- creditable— something to avoid if you can, to dissemble if you must — is re- freshingly absent from student life at Ann Arbor. On such a body of learn- ers as a foundation, the natural super- structure is a high standard of teach- ing, a free and flexible organization, and a rational, a central yet widespread, conception of what all this educational activity is about. After all, deans and regents are "almost human." Jealous of power as they may be, the more public- spirited of them cannot but acknowl- edge the better way; and the others must follow. The delicacy of his task will not appal the new president if he possesses anything like President An- gell's tact and insight. He will per- ceive that for the material and the spir- itual bases which make possible the changes he finds necessary, thanks are due to President Angell. At the same time he will realize that the opportunity is his own to make of the University of Michigan a leader among our State in- stitutions. ON STUDYING SEVERAL LITERA- TURES. A Columbia professor has written a book which he calls "Studies in Several Literatures." It is rather too earnestly named. The author chats about Greek, Latin, Russian, French, English, and American writers; but the fifteen papers in his volume are in no wise reminis- cent of the lamp, nor are they addressed to pondering readers. Neither is it quite accurate to speak of the "studies" as in several literatures. They are all in one. The writer is a faithful friend to the modern man with but one litera- ture, and not very much of that. The aspects of foreign literatures which at- tract him, modern or ancient, are those which are most closely parallel to the tnost familiar aspects of contemporary life — and contemporary life in America. Thackeray is little read outside of Eng- land, he thinks, because, to enjoy him, we must know English life and Lon- don life." We enjoy Longfellow, because he always writes of women like a na- tive-born American — as, witness the arch-Americanism of his "Trust her not, she's fooling thee." The professor seems to have forgotten for the moment that the line is a literal translation of "Ver- trau ihr nicfct, sie narret dich," in the old German folksong. If he had thought of the fact, it would only have strength- ened his conviction that all interesting people are exactly like ourselves. For he points out with pleasure that the let- ters of the Athenian Alciphron reveal a sister to the inconsequential and slangy miss who lives just around the corner. He declares that Nausicaa is as "sweet as though we had just met her playing tennis." If she is no sweet- er than so, we are tempted to ask, why learn Greek — especially if one has access to a tennis-court? If Mr. Carnegie had been fortunate enough to hit upon some of the passages in which Homer or Virgil anticipated the ideas of the Twentieth-Century American, he would not have deemed hoar antiquity so dull and profitless. He would have learned that there were paint and powder in the days of Peri- cles, political rings in Rome, and mo- nopolistic enterprises on the banks of the Tiber. In reading that Caesar com- bined interests in finance, libraries, and the general improvement of the state, his bosom might have felt the fraternal throb. If he had tarried long enough to discover that even the Homeric Greeks washed their linen, that Plutarch's coun- trymen used bait for catching fish, and the guests of Petronius sometimes suf- fered from indigestion, he, too, might have cried, "Why, this is life! This stuff is immortal!" At any rate, such seems to be the prevailing fashion among his- torians, critics, and novelists, of inter- esting us in our foreign neighbors, liv- ing and dead. They would end the feud between the ancients and the mod- erns by the simple process of proving there were no ancients. Or, rather, they would consign the differences of the an- cients to the grave-digging "classicist, the antiquarian, the philologist," and consecrate their resemblances to immor- tality along with our own imperishable transcripts of life. For, as our profes- sor declares in his praise of Zola: The centuries of dreaminess have gone by perhaps forever, and to-day man looks with keen, unclouded vision into the verities of his existence, asking no one to prophesy smooth things, but banishing illusions, un- covering nakedness, and facing with a cer- tain hard composure, born of cynicism, the ghastly facts that render human life so terrible. That final insight into the facts of life is exactly what philosophers from Plato to William James have yearned for; and now at last they have it, or at least "man" has it, which, we sup- pose, means Tom, Dick, and Harry have it. If such be the case, man may well leave the cemetery of dreams to the lit- erary sextons and go about his great task of uncovering nakedness. Embrace the sovereign assurance that 1909 is the measure of all things, and the study of several literatures will be much sim- plified. Discard from the literature of the world everything which does not prove that we have gained the ultimate conception of things, and the problem

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622 The HN~ation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 of universal culture will be solved. In tact, it is not clear what profit there is in going abroad in time or space at all, if we may safely ignore everything but what we have seen or heard at home. If everything of durable value for the spirit is represented in our modern life and translated into the terms of the hour, why read anything but the news- paper? Such reading will furnish us our heart's desire of the "ghastly facts that render human life so terrible," and those are the facts most worth holding in the keen unclouded vision of the modern man. We cannot be humble in these days; for we possess the truth for which former generations travailed. The finality of our vision is what exalts our pride. We do not think that the ulti- mate insight of which we are the unique possessors is exhilarating; on the con- trary, it leaves us breathless, thunder- blasted. Yet, after all, this thought, as we look back over the waste "centuries of dreaminess," sustains us: We are the people; we have banished illusions. No doubt it is instructive to read Euripides in the light of Shaw, Proper- tius in the light of Alfred de Musset, and the New Testament in the light of M. B. Eddy. But there are some pretty magnificent things in heaven and earth which cannot be' illuminated by such modern tapers. Milton reads best in his own light; so does Virgil; so do So- phocles and Homer. They refuse to be dragged into the light of our common day. They refuse to reveal themselves to the unclouded vision of the man with one literature. They must be sought out where they may be found and read under the light of the inextinguishable dream which the composed cynic at the centre of his Ptolemaic universe thinks he has banished. The illusion that "man" has banished illusions is the rampant egotism of the hour. The right study of several literatures does not end in a proud assurance that we have fixed the sense of life for all time but in a humble conviction that in ten thou- sand years our notion of the verities of existence will be as obsolete as Homer's or Professor Peck's. SAINTE-BEUVE. I. Professor Harper has the distinction of writing the first book on Sainte- Beuve in English.* He gives evidence *Charles-.i.ugustin Sainte-Beuve. By C. M. Har- pr- Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott Co. $1.50 net. of long and careful study of Sainte- Beuve himself, and of most that has been written about him, but should have reserved space for a more systematic discussion of Sainte-Beuve's ideas and his place in criticism. As it is, his work strikes one as a rather loosely written biography, mainly devoted to Sainte- Beuve's youth, or at least to the period before 1848. Professor Harper would no doubt justify this emphasis on biog- raphy by the example of Sainte-Beuve himself; but he has also been unduly in- fluenced, perhaps, by recent French writers on Sainte-Beuve — notably M. Leon Seche— and their tendency toward somewhat petty and prying personal de- tails. Sainte-Beuve is being made the vic- tim of his own method. His biograph- ers are following with a vengeance his advice to examine the seamy side as well as the right side of the tapestry, and to eschew the academic bust. It has become almost the fashion of late in interpreting Sainte-Beuve's behavior to look for the mean, and even the Machiavellian motive. Examples in Pro- fessor Harper's book are his assertion that Sainte-Beuve deliberately used the incident of the hundred francs and the smoking chimney in 1848 to attract at- tention to himself; his insinuation that even in his small acts of charity Sainte- Beuve was merely draping himself for posterity. As a matter of fact, Sainte- Beuve joined a genuine kindliness to a very great irritability. In determining points of this kind, Professor Harper should have given at least as much weight to the testimony of the men who came closest to Saintq-Beuve toward the end — Taine, Renan, Scherer, Jules Trou- bat — as he has to the spiteful allusions in the Journal of the Goncourts. It is true, as Professor Harper says, that Sainte-Beuve's life was pitched low; but this lack of elevation in him should in- terest us mainly in so far as it images a philosophy. In other words, biog- raphy in a subject of this kind should Be put into the service of ideas, if it is not to degenerate into gossip. The side of Sainte-Beuve's life that was pitched lowest has perhaps been made too much of by the biographers, for the simple reason that Sainte-Beuve kept it so completely out of his writings. He is in this respect at the very opposite pole from writers like Herrick, who boasted, as Martial had boasted before him, that, though his "muse was jocund, his life was chaste." But there is a larger aspect to the subject that should not be passed over in silence; and this appears in Sainte-Beuve's strange claim that he had attained to wisdom "like Solomon and Epicurus," through pleasure. Wis- dom worthy of the name must be, it should seem, positive rather than nega- tive— an insight and not a mere disillu- sion. In one passage Sainte-Beuve ac- tually asserts that the truest vision of life is that attained sous le jour tx'ili du lendemain des pJaisirs, or as the American comic writer has expressed it, in "the cold gray dawn of the morning after." II. There is also a larger aspect to what seems the most purely personal of Sainte- Beuve's feuds and animosities. It is only by seizing on this larger aspect, as recent students have on the whole fail- ed to do, that we can raise the dis- cussion of Sainte-Beuve's attitude to- ward his contemporaries from the re- gion of gossip into the region of ideas. The point of departure for any such discussion should be Sainte-Beuve's own words: Parties and sects have a deadly grudge against any one who, having passed through them, has refused to bind himself to them irrevocably. I have given no one the right to say "He is one of us." I have certainly had my vices and weaknesses, but it is for what is good in me, for my love of in- tegrity and truth and my independence of judgment, that I have irritated so many people in my life and aroused so much wrath. To take a concrete instance, Sainte- Beuve, in breaking away from Lamen- nais and his group, incurred the wrath of the ultra-democrats. Lamennais seems to Professor Harper a sort ot saint of democracy. As for Sainte- Beuve's later utterances on Lamennais, says Professor Harper, there is scarce- ly a single one of "them which is not a "shadow on his own memory." But for the impartial observer, Lamennais is simply a fanatic who suddenly aban- dons one violent extreme, leap-frogs over the heads of his moderate friends, as Sainte-Beuve puts it, and lands in an opposite but equally violent extreme. Why was it becoming increasingly diffi- cult for Sainte-Beuve in the years from 1835 to 1840 to espouse the humanitar- ian enthusiasms of a man like Lamen- nais, his faith in the regeneration of so- ciety through the principle of brotherly love? If Professor Harper had found the right answer to this question, he would not have been so puzzled by Sainte-Beuve's assertion that the article on La Rochefoucauld (written in 1840) marks an epoch in his inner life. Sainte- Beuve had simply come to feel with La Rochefoucauld that when in ordinary human nature, human nature that has not accepted allegiance to something higher than itself, there is a conflict be- tween egoistic and altruistic motives, it is the egoistic motives that will pre- vail. Criticism comes to consist more and more for Sainte-Beuve in searching out this triumphant self-love under the thousand specious disguises that it is wont to assume. In his last article on La Rochefoucauld (1863), Sainte- Beuve speaks of the "subtilized and quintessentiated ego" he often detects

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^nao^^ ung ^«-^-^y^ June 24, 1909] The Nation. 623 even in utterances and points of view that seem most sublime and impersonal. Man, the everlasting prisoner of his self-love, "cuts and carves everything he encounters on his own pattern." He con- tinues: And I myself, first of all, I, who am writ- ing this, if I force myself to love what I am not, or even the contrary of what I am, it is not through detachment from the ego; it is perhaps because I take pride in being nothing in particular, and like myself better apparently, under this brok- en, fugitive, and multiple form, than under any other. No, no, honest folk, La Rochefoucauld, rightly understood, is not so easy to refute as you suppose. Passages of this kind should make clear why Sainte-Beuve was at best but a half-hearted humanitarian; why he did not feel sure, like Professor Har- per and so many other educated per- sons of the present time who are drift- ing more or less consciously toward Socialism, that "in the Revolutionary doctrines of equality and fraternity there is an ideal, a religion, capable of filling the soul and occupying the en- ergy of society"; why he looked so doubtfully on the attempt of man to set up his own image for worship in the sanctuary left vacant by la grande absence de Dieu. Professor Harper says that Sainte-Beuve "strangely avoids Moliere." In reality,- Sainte-Beuve has written better things about Moliere than has any other nineteenth century critic; and in one of the best of his Moliere passages, he tells us that to "love Moliere is to make sure of not falling into a smug and limitless ad- miration for a humanity that idolizes itself, and forgets of what stuff it is made and that it is always, try as it may, only puny human nature." This humanitarian infatuation and the con- ception of progress that goes with it has especially impaired Professor Har- per's treatment of "Port Royal." Appar- ently neither the Port Royalists them- selves nor Sainte-Beuve could hope so long ago to arrive at any clear notion of Christianity. "It was no doubt easier in 1840, than it is now," says Professor Harper, "to overlook the advantages and even the existence of what might be called the religion of Jesus." What a pity Pascal came too soon to be a true Christian! III. As in Sainte-Beuve's relations to La- mennais, so in his relations to other contemporaries — Chateaubriand, Hugo, Balzac — there is a larger aspect that must be emphasized if we are to rise above the level of gossip. The romanti- cists also bore Sainte-Beuve a deadly grudge for having refused to bind him- self to them irrevocably, and ascribed to mere jealousy and rancor opinions that really contained a serious judg- ment. What concerns us, after all, is not the degree of indelicacy Sainte- Beuve displayed in the time and mode of his attack on Chateaubriand, but the truth or falsity of the attack itself: the charge, namely, that Chateaubriand was the first great writer of the de- cadence, the writer who changed the capital of French prose from Rome to Byzantium, who substituted for a liter- ature of thought a literature of images and sensations. Like Goethe, Sainte- Beuve, as he grew older, tended more and more to side with the Olympians against the Titans. It is as a humanist that he protests against the violence and excess of Hugo's romanticism, against the violence and excess of the naturalism of Balzac. Later, under the compliments he lavishes on his friend and admirer Taine, one can distinguish the same note of protest against the de- humanizing tendencies of an excessive naturalism. This protest did not keep Taine from asserting shortly after Sainte-Beuve's death that Sainte-Beuve was a thorough-going naturalist, as complete and consistent in his method as Taine himself, only somewhat less systematic; and of course Sainte-Beuve writes that his ambition was to be a naturaliste des esprits, and in the third volume of the "Nouveaux Lundis" he outlines a naturalistic method that tends toward scientific determinism; but in practice this naturalism is al- ways tempered by humanism. Nothing is more essential in the study of Sainte- Beuve than to bring out the interplay, not to say the conflict, between his naturalistic method and his humanistic standards. No previous critic carried into his work so keen a sense of rela- tivity. With an almost unparalleled fineness of shading and feeling for the nuance, Sainte-Beuve establishes the relation between a work and its author, between the author in turn and his family, race, and age; and then be- tween the age and the preceding age, and so on in widening circles; but he does not take the last step and look on the living individual, especially the su- perior individual, as a mere link in the chain of phenomena. Just as in "Port Royal" there is a point where he pauses and refuses to apply his naturalistic dissection to the ultimate raptures of religion. The role of Sainte-Beuve's humanism in tempering his naturalism may per- haps best be studied if we compare him with Taine in his treatment of a par- ticular topic, such as the theory of the "master faculty." Of course, Sainte- Beuve differs most obviously from Taine in loving to particularize rather than to generalize, to deal with men singly rather than "in zones and layers," to feel life in its infinite complexity rather than to impose upon it logical formulae. Yet Sainte-Beuve for once comes near being dogmatic in his assertion that man is determined in his aptitudes, not by any choice of his own, but by na- ture. Thus of Horace Vernet he writes: Everything on both his father's and mother's side had contributed to make of him a man of the brush — involuntarily and irresistibly a painter; his hand, delicate, slender, long, and elegant, was born ready formed and fitted to paint, as the foot of the Arab horse is to run. Piron, again, he describes as a "pure piece of organized matter, an admira- ble automaton formed and set up by nature to launch sallies and epigrams." "Somebody has said: La Fontaine grew fables, Tallemant bore anecdotes, Pe- trarch distilled sonnets, Piron sneezed epigrams. Sneeze was Piron's own word. Well, you can't hold back a sneeze." In- deed, man is so little a free agent, there is a "strange fatality that puts such a deep and distinct mark upon him from birth and childhood," that, according to Sainte-Beuve, only two hypotheses are logically possible. One may note in passing that Sainte-Beuve overlooks a third hypothesis: that embodied in the Oriental doctrine of Karma, and recent- ly discussed by Mr. G. Lowes Dickinson in his address on immortality, without any giving of credit. If we are relig- ious, says Sainte-Beuve, we should be- lieve that man is supernaturally deter- mined, that is, accept in some form the doctrine of divine grace or predes- tination. If we are not religious, we should admit that man is determined by nature. "But, after all," Sainte- Beuve concludes, "most minds are neith- er religious nor the contrary. They float around in the intermediary space, and shrink from consequences; they re- main at the half-way house in every- thing. This is what is called common sense — that is to say, the average de- gree of illusion." IV. As a matter of fact, Sainte-Beuve re- fused to be impaled on the horns of his own dilemma. He left it for Taine to rise superior to the average degree of illusion known as common-sense and as- sert that the "human spirit is construct- ed as mathematically as a watch" (the master faculty being, of course, the main-spring that imparts a "fatal and irresistible movement" to all the rest). For, if Sainte-Beuve as a naturalist be- lieved in the master faculty, as a hu- manist he demanded the balanced fac- ulty, the faculty that is kept under con- trol and tempered by its opposite. He was ready enough to grant that a Piron was a mere machine for making epi- grams, but not that the really great writerc of the world have been nothing more than "sublime automatons and monomaniacs of genius." The contrast is striking between the "gentle" and humane Shakespeare of Sainte-Beuve and the Shakespeare of Taine, who is a mere unchained force of nature, the "most immoderate of all violators of language." Skeptical as he was of man's power to put a check upon himself, and

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(y>24: The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 yet believing as a humanist that art re- quires restraint, Sainte-Beuve was led to exalt a critic like Boileau, who was a visible principle of authority, and sup- plied a Moliere and a La Fontaine with the curb that they might not have found in themselves. It was through the lack of an outer curb of this kind that the writers of his own time, notably Hugo and Balzac, seemed to Sainte- Beuve to have fallen into Titanic unre- straint, or, as he expresses it, to have become "drunk with their own wine." At bottom, in his attitude toward the master faculty, toward what he calls the "battle between the naturalistic and Christian moralists," Sainte-Beuve re- mains, as in other respects, a skeptic: The irreligious excess consists in the ne- gation of free will and in a sort of predes- tination, but purely physical and material. . . . How many contrasts and oppositions! Before this sea of human opinions, as on the brink of an ocean, I wonder at the ebb and flow. Who will tell me the law of it all? Sainte-Beuve saw all that was implied in the weakening of traditional stan- dards in literature and religion, he saw the approach of the "great confusion"; at the same time he was too clear-sight- ed really to warm up to the new relig- ions that were being offered as substi- tutes for the disciplines of the past. The underlying method' in all these nineteenth century attempts at religion — whether it be the religion of Passion, or the religion of Beauty, or the relig- ion of Science, or the religion of Hu- manity— is always the same: to take some element of human nature that is immensely important, indeed, but still secondary, and then try to exalt it to the supreme and central place. We must realize the completeness of Sainte- Beuve's detachment from every form of faith, new or old, if we are to penetrate to the last desolate depth of his inner life {jusqv'au fond dcsole du gouffre intcrieur). "The only unity I am am- bitious of," he writes, "is that of com- prehending everything." But mere com- prehension is not in itself a principle of unity at all, but rather of dispersion. In aiming at nothing beyond compre- hension, Sainte-Beuve was destined to become, as some one called him, the Wandering Jew of the intellectual world. Naturally enough, he complains in his letters of suffering from the "ab- sence of fixed pole and centre," and seeks an escape from the "void that mined his breast" in unremitting toil. V. It is evidently as a naturaliste des esprits, and not as a humanist, that Sainte-Beuve has been influential. For his successors he has been above all, as some one says, a great doctor of rela- tivity. "He has, even more than Sainte- Beuve, from whom we are all sprung," writes Anatole France of M. Lamaitre, "the sense of the relative." With the growth of this sense of the relative, masculine judgment and the feeling for standards have tended to weaken and disappear. Sainte-Beuve himself is more concerned in arriving at horizon- tality, if we may be allowed the word, than in determining altitudes. There is an element of truth in the saying that in Sainte-Beuve all men are six feet tall. He exercises that instinct for literary portrait-painting, the incompar- able gift for psychological biography that is his own master faculty, with at least as much complacency on second- rate as on first-rate writers. He says it is a part of his method to study the faults of the master enlarged and exaggerated in the disciples. Now, the fault of Sainte-Beuve that his own dis- ciples have exaggerated is the tendency to abound in biographical small-talk, and at the same time lose sight of the eternal values. The moment would therefore seem opportune to exalt Sainte-Beuve's individual achievement, but to react against his influence and method. What is most needed just now is not a great doctor of relativity, but rather a critic who, without being at all rigid or reactionary, can yet carry into his work the sense of standards that are set above individual caprice and the flux of phenomena; who can, in short, op- pose a genuine humanism to the pseudo- humanism of the pragmatists. The world has been giving a large share of its attention of late to M. Bergson and his philosophy of vital impulse (clan vital). A critic of the kind we have de- scribed might be counted on to proclaim a philosophy, not of vital impulse, but of vital unity and vital restraint — re- straint felt as an inn.er living law, and not merely as a dead and mechanical outer rule. We may venture the para- dox that criticism would derive more benefit at present from a second Boileau than from another Sainte-Beuve; from a critic concerned, above all, with mak- ing keen and crisp discriminations be- tween different degrees of merit or de- merit. In other words, the age offers an opening for satire; but it must be constructive satire, satire that implies standards, and is "purified," as Boileau claims of his own, "by a ray of good sense." Nothing could be more inspirit- ing than some twentieth-century equiva- lent for those first satires of Boileau, when the bad authors went down before his epigrams like the suitors before the shafts of Odysseus. In the meanwhile, Sainte-Beuve will come to be looked on more and more, in Anatole France's phrase, as the uni- versal doctor,, the Saint Thomas Aqui- nas of the nineteenth century; not as the greatest man of the century, but pos- sibly as the most representative, the one who embodied most completely its aspiration toward horizontality, its magnificent widening out of knowledge and sympathy, and, some would add, its lack of adequate central aim. If Pro- fessor Harper's book, in spite of con- siderable psychological finesse and grasp on ideas, is inadequate, it is in part because the subject is one of the most difficult and complex in modern literature. If the book is readable after all, it is because Sainte-Beuve, though one of the most difficult of subjects, is also one of the most fascinating. Irvino Babbitt. NEWS FOR BIBLIOPHILES. The appearance of Vol. VII of the "Cata- logue of Books in the Library of the late E. D. Church," edited by George Watson Cole, marks the completion of the most im- portant catalogue of a library of its size which has ever appeared in this or (so far as we know) any other country. The title page of almost every book is reproduced in facsimile, and, except in the case of the very largest books, the reproduction is the size of the original. The colla- tions are full, and copious references are made to other bibliographical works. A general sketch of the author's writings in many cases precedes the descriptions of the books. The most important portion of this vol- ume, and the glory of the library, is the Shakespeare collection. The ninety-one numbers filling 206 pages of the Catalogue, with ninety-one facsimiles, forms what is, as far as it goes, the best bibliography of the early editions of Shakespeare yet pre- pared. All early editions of the poems and plays, even though they are not in the li- brary, are mentioned in the comment, though not fully described. Mr. Cole has submitted check lists to the owners or cus- todians of all the important Shakespeare collections here or abroad, and, with three notable exceptions, his queries have been answered fully and freely. In a table he exhibits the relative richness of various libraries in editions before 1700, showing the issues before 1623 separately, and showing also the number of duplicates. In editions before 1623, the date of the first folio, the Bodleian Library possesses eighty- three different books, the British Museum eighty, and the Capell collection in the University of Cambridge sixty-seven. These are the three great public collec- tions in England. The most important pri- vate collection is the Duke of Devonshire's with sixty-one different books before 1623. Then comes the Church collection, the fifth in order of completeness, with fifty-four different editions, followed by the Huth collection in England, with forty-three early editions, and William Augustus White's collection in Brooklyn, with forty. If editions up to 1700 are included, Mr, White's collection stands third, with 100 different editions, being surpassed only by the British Museum, with 169, and the Bodleian Library, with 156. The Church collection of the four folios with the va- rious imprints is the most complete known, surpassing those of the British Museum and the Lenox collection. The early editions of "Venus and Adon- is" and "The Rape of Lucrece" are so> rare that one early edition of either would make any library notable. Unfortunately Mr. Church never had the opportunity t»

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June 24, 1909] The Nation. 625 secure any one of the earlier editions of the "Venus and Adonis." Of the thirteen known copies of the eight editions issued before 1623 not one is to be found in America. Robert Hoe has the ninth (1627), Marsden J. Perry has the twelfth (1636), and William Augustus White and H. C. Fol- ger. jr., each have the thirteenth (1675). Of "Lucrece" Mr. Church was fortunate enough to secure the Locker-Lampson copies of the first edition (1594) and the fifth edition (1616). The library contains also the sixth edition (1624) and the eighth (1655). Mr. Church's copy of the first edi- tion of the "Sonnets" (1609) is doubtless the finest known, having been George Daniel's, and bought at his sale in 1861 by Almon W. Griswold. An earlier owner was Xarcissus Luttrell, whose initials and "pretium IS." are on the title page. The Spenser collection in the Church li- brary is the most complete in this country, including, as it does, the first edition of "The Shepheardes Calender" (1579), the Gott copy, imperfect, but the only one in America. For the first time (so far as we know) accurate leaf by leaf collations of the first editions of the Waverley novels are given. These books contain an unusual number of half titles, and in almost all bound copies some leaves are lacking. These collations will therefore prove most useful. The Milton, Lamb, Thackeray, and Lever collections are other notable series describ- ed in the present volume. Correspondence. SHAKESPEAREAN NOTES. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir : The letters that appeared recently in the Nation, and those that I have re- ceived from correspondents in this country and abroad, prove that there is abundant literary matter on the subject of mediaeval trial and execution of animals. Professor Dowden writes that he has somewhere a French book on trials of animals, but can- not at the time lay his hands upon it; and Prof. Byron Rees of Williams College refers me to William Jones's "Cred- ulities Past and Present" (1880). To what I said (see the Nation of February 18) of Baring-Gould's "Curiosities of Old- en Times" (1896) I might have add- ed that he cites authorities in Latin, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian on this and kindred topics, in his interest- ing and amusing chapter on "Queer Cul- prits" (pp. 57-73) ; illustrating the trial and execution of cocks, assumed to be in league with the devil, for laying eggs from which were hatched basilisks, or terrible winged serpents — mentioned six times in Shakespeare ("Winter's Tale," i. 2, 388; "Henry V." v. 2, 17, etc.), and four times as the synonymous cockatrice ("Lucrece," 540; "Twelfth Night," iii, 4, 215, etc.); and not unknown in poetical and rhetorical zo- ology (in Pope, Southey, Carlyle, et al.) down to the present day. These old writers also tell us of the ecclesiastical proceed- ings against snails, flies, mice, ants, cater- pillars, etc. Some of the legal questions raised in these trials by Bartholomew de Chasseneux, a noted lawyer of the six- teenth century, and other eminent author- ities of those and earlier times, were al- most as profoundly ridiculous as certain that are urged to impede the course of justice in our day; as, for instance, wheth- er ants and other insects could be legal- ly cited to appear before the court, and whether, in default of their so doing, the prosecution could lawfully be carried on. Chasseneux satisfied himself that this was in strict accordance with law, adducing sundry examples and precedents. He as- serted, indeed, that a priest once excom- municated an orchard, to which children resorted to steal and eat apples when they ought to have been at church, and the penitent trees produced no fruit until the inhibition was removed! The same erudite functionary, in 1510, was appointed by the authorities of Autun to be advocate for the rats when tried for their devastation of the harvests in Burgundy ; and when the rodents, after due summons, failed to ap- pear on a fixed day, he pleaded that they had been delayed because the roads were infested with cats, and the trial was ad- journed to another date. In 1487, snails were sentenced to excommunication at Macon, as caterpillars were in 1585 at Valence; and in the sixteenth century a Spanish bishop ordered all rats and mice to leave his diocese, whereupon they be- took themselves to an island which he sur- rendered to their occupancy. Even as late as the eighteenth century similar proceed- ings were taken against caterpillars by a grand vicar of Pont-du-Chateau, in Au- vergne. A case even more curious than that of the condemned apple trees is recorded in Benoit's "Histoire de l'fidit de Nantes." A Protestant chapel at La Rochelle was de- molished by church authority in 1685. The bell was whipped for having served the heretics, and was then buried. Later it was disinterred for Catholic use, was catechized, compelled to recant, and promise never again to relapse into sin, after which it was duly baptized and given to the parish of St. Bartholomew. When hundreds of facts like these had been recorded in print for centuries, it is remarkable that all the editors of Shake- speare appear to have overlooked them, and that Dr. Furness, in his encyclopaedic edi- tion of "The Merchant of Venice," could find no note on Gratiano's hanging of the wolf, except the absurdly irrelevant one by Steevens, to which the most accomplished scholar and critic of our day could add nothing but the suggestion that the passage might be an "actor's addition" to the play. He amply makes amends now for this in- justice to the dramatist by his extreme;-' interesting letter concerning Count Miimp- delgart (in the Nation for March 4), with the quotation from "the honest Jacob's" journal of his master's travels in England. It is to be noted, however, that the an- imals there mentioned as being "hung on a gallows as they do wolves" were not tried and executed by hanging, but were killed without judge or jury, and "skinned" be- fore being thus exposed, apparently as a warning to their predatory kindred, or, per- haps, in clownish imitation of the judicial trial and punishment to which domestic an- imals guilty of similar offences were sub- jected. So far as I can find, wild beasts were never accorded the right of trial. The only law for them was that of the mod- ern Judge Lynch. If Grat:ano's wolf was "hanged for human slaughter," such was the case with him. and Shakespeare gives us no hint to the contrary. I suspect, In- deed, that the reference to hanging is pure- ly rhetorical, as all those quoted by Pro- fessor Feipel, in the same number of the Nation, certainly arc. Shakespeare em- phasizes the Pythagorean allusion to the wolf by adding what Dr. Furness at first suspected to be an interpolation: Shylock's "currish spirit" was not the "fell soul" of an ordinary wolf, but of one that had been guilty of "human slaughter," such as the Jew meditates, and had been hanged for it, as the Jew deserves to be. It is quite in Shakespeare's manner to intensify a figurative expression by thus "piling it on," so to speak; as— to take the first example that occurs to me — in "Lear" (iv. 7, 36), where Cordelia, referring to the turning of her father out of doors in the storm, says — not simply, "I would not have treated a dog so!" but — Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire! By the way, all the passages cited by Professor Feipel allude to the dog, and those from Shakespeare illustrate his many contemptuous references to the animal, '.\hieh have led more than one good critic to assert that the dramatist never has a good word for the dog. An article that I cut from a literary journal ten or more years ago remarks : Nearly everybody loves or at least ad- mires a dog; but Shakespeare, if one may judge by his writings, does neither. Dogs are treated by him with contempt; not a word has he to throw to them but words of obloquy and shame. . . . This start- ling fact is called to mind by Sir Henry Holland's "Recollections of Past Life," when he states that "Lord Nugent, the greatest Shakespearean of the day, af- firmed at a dinner that there was not in all Shakespeare's plays a single passage commending, directly or indirectly, the moral qualities of the dog." Thinking this to be impossible, the literary physician accepted a wager which Lord Nugent offered him on the subject with the concession of a year to make the research. Even with the aid of several friends, he failed to find any such passage; and at the end of the year Sir Henry paid the guinea which he had lost. The writer adds that no Concordance was then in existence, or the question might have been settled in a quarter of an hour. He himself looks up the word dog, and finds that it "occurs 174 times; hound, 31; greyhound, 13; spaniel, 8; mastiff, 5; cur, 45, and a few others bring the number up to about 300. True enough, they are gen- erally mentioned with contempt, never with commendation." If Lord Nugent was "the greatest Shake- spearean of the day" (who ever heard of him as such?), he should not have needed a concordance to find out that the dramat- ist loved dogs and has paid them many a tribute. See, for instance, the descrip- tion of hounds by Theseus in "A Midsum- mer Night's Dream" (iv, i, 108-132), and the talk of the hunters about their dogs in "The Taming of the Shrew" (ind. i, 16-29), both too long for quotation here. In the "Merry Wives" (i, i, 96-104), Page defends his "fallow grayhound" against the criticisms of Slender, and Shallow takes bis part. In "Macbeth" (iii, i, 92—101), when the 1st Murderer says, "We are men, my liege," Macbeth replies in sub- stance (I need not quote the ten lines) ?j

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The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 that there are dogs and dogs, as there are men and men, good, bad, and indif- ferent, but "the valued file" — the list that distinguishes them according to their nat- ural gifts or qualities — gives to each "the particular addition" (title or denomina- tion) he deserves; the "house-keeper" (watch dog), and "hunter" being superior to the "common cry of curs," etc. Launce's praise of his dog Crab — a poor thing but his own — the only brute beast in the plays that fairly might be counted as one of the dramatis personal — -could only 'have been written by a man who loved dogs himself. In all these passages, to say nothing of minor references to dogs in the plays and poems, Shakespeare speaks in a way for himself, as he certain- ly does not in the many contemptuous al- lusions to them that he puts into the mouths of his characters. It is the Chris- tians in the play, not he, who again and again call Shylock "dog," but it is he, personally in a significant sense, that makes the Jew turn the metaphor against the Christians in "Hath a dog money?" and "Since I am a dog, beware my fangs!" The vulgar figurative illusions to the dog are often absurd enough— like "as dank as a dog" (to which the Carrier, in "I Henry. IV," ii, 1, 9, compares the "peas and beans" in the stable), a simile which has comically bothered 'some of the critics, who have soberly suggested "bog" and "dock" in place of "dog." Taylor, the Water Poet, in his "Dogge of Wars," with more sense of humor, makes fun of these canine comparisons: Many pretty ridiculous aspersions are cast upon Dogges, so that it would make a Dogge laugh to heare and understand them As I have heard a man say, I am as hot as a Dogge, or as cold as a Dogge I sweate like a Dogge (when a Dogge never sweates), as drunke as a Dogge hee swore like a Dogge, and one told a man once that his Wife was not to be believ'd for she would lye like a Dogge etc Cambridge, June 17. W. J. Rolfe. A LATER BACONIAN. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: Mr. W. S. Booth, in his ingenious book on "Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Baeon," gives a neat illustration of the exact character of these so-called signatures. "It is," he says, "as if a log of wood were found in the way of an ex- press train two miles out of Boston. This might be regarded as an accident. But a similar log found in a corresponding place two miles out of every important station between Boston and New York would, by many observers, be regarded as evidence of intention." In the light of Mr. Booth's own illustration, other observers might ask: "Are these logs really on the track? or are they mere sleepers, part of the road- bed? Is not the real evidence of intention in Mr. Booth's peculiar methods for seeing peculiarities in the normal position of things? If he calls attention to one of these sleepers two miles out of every sta- tion, it is surely a harmless amusement, a sort of traveller's whist. Let each sleeper count fifty like the black cat on the door- step, but remember a log is not really a black cat. Now we can mark and count sleepers with a certain amount of readi- ness ourselves." Let us take the most popular poem in the English language, a poem probably writ- ten by Thomas Gray, called "An Elegy in a Country Churchyard." There are, it is true, suspicious circumstances about its composition, for Gray kept it in his port- folio many years before sending it to be printed. It is said he was polishing it. On the contrary, there is every evidence in the poem itself that he must have been engaged in inserting a multifarious acros- tic. Why should Gray do this? In order to assign the poem to Francisco Bacono, to Francis Bacon, to Fran Bacon, to F. Bacon, to Bacon, or to Nocab. For Gray uses all these acrobatic signatures just as Mr. Booth and Bacon do, and he uses them all in a single significant stanza, a stanza of evident double atteinte. The way to find this stanza is to hunt through the poem for one where the first line begins with F, and the last line be- gins with N. There are four lines in a stanza, and you may be able to spell Fran- cis Bacon or any of the above mentioned aliases, by starting with the F and reading to the right on the first line, backward to the left on the second, and so on, weaving in and out through the stanza until you land pat on the N. Of course, the chances are that you will complete the name be- fore you reach the N, for it is composed of common letters. But if so, then spell only on terminal letters of words, or else only on initial letters, and you will find that where Bacon or one of his "servants," like Gray, is at work, you can strike that N every time. As you hunt through the poem for such a stanza, note that five stanzas begin pro- pitiously with capital F's, but that only one of these has the last line beginning with N. The fact is significant. Rivet your attention, then, on this stanza till' the full force and hidden meaning of the first and last lines sink in on you: For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'-er resign'd. Left the warm precincts of the chearful day. Nor cast one longing ling' ring look behind? The first line looks suspicious. "Dumb Forgetfulness!" and a capital F in the mid- dle of a line! Personification? Personifi- cation of Francis, then, you may be sure. The last line is even more suspicious. "Look behind!" Also remark the foot of the page of this old edition we are using. You see a detached "B," a printer's sign, a"nd next to it the word "For," placed there to show what word begins the next page, as in so many old books. But may they not well mean something else here, this B F in capitals? this "B For"? Keep this in mind. Meanwhile observe the stan- za Itself. FoR who. to dumb forgetfulness A prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resigN'd, Left the warm preCInctS of the chearful day, NOr CAst one longing ling' ring look Behind? First note how the letters have been RELIEFED, and then: (1) Spelling on all letters from F in For, spell FRANCIS BA- CON to N in Nor, by taking the next re- quired letter as you read along the first line to the right and backward along the second line to the left, and so on. Now, I haven't the patience to make a reliefed draft for each of the eleven acros- tics in this same stanza, but they follow thus: (2) Start with the F of For, and spelling only on initial letters, go to the right, and spell F. BACON to that N in Nor. (3) Similarly spell FRAN BACON, using only terminal letters (the first and last letters), and weaving back and forth through the stanza thrice — thus (if you are painfully stupid and can't see it by your- self), FoR A Nor Being A Chearful One Nor — those are the words where the secret letters lie, in order; that is, where they lie in order to tell the truth. (4) Next see how NOCAB stares at you from the last line alone — Bacon often spelled his name back- wards. Of course this is very convenient, but a mere bagatelle to what is coming. (5) What is the most significant phrase in the whole stanza? "Dumb Forgetfulness," without a doubt! Remember that B F which I spoke of, at the foot of the page? Clear- ly, a signal to the wary; for "dumb For- getfulness" is the only place in the stanza where B and F come together. Propitious, then, for Bacon might be left to dumb for- getfulness did not the acrostic here speak for him. Start with the B of dumb (significant for being itself a silent letter), and spelling on terminal letters, go to the left, and spell BACON to the N of Nor. (6) Start with the B of dumb, and spelling on terminal letters, go to the right, and spell BACON to the N of Nor. (7) Start with the F of Forgetfulness, and spelling on terminal letters, go to the left, and spell F. BACON to the N of Nor. (8) Start with the F of Forgetfulness, and spelling on terminal letters, go to the right, and spell F. BACON to the N of Nor. Note the perfect symmetry of these last four acrostics. (9) Now start with the B of dumb, and spelling on all letters, go to the right, and spell BACONBACON, thus twice over, to the N of Nor. (10) Start with the F of Forgetfulness, and spelling on all letters, go to the right, and spell FRANCIS BACON to the N of Nor.' (11) And, finally, start with the F of Forgetfulness, and spelling on all letters, go to the left, and, weaving through the stanza thrice, down and up and down again, spell FRANCISCO BACONO to the O in the key-word Nor. Other acrostics may be read from the iso- lated B and F, at the foot of the page, through an intervening stanza, on initial letters of words, to the key-word. On the whole, it seems to be a more multifarious and significant acrostic than any which Mr. Booth has been able to discover in Shake- speare. For Baconians the question now arises: Did not Bacon really write the famous Elegy? v R. A. Rice. Cambridge, Mass., June 10. JACKSON AT THE EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. To the Editor of The Nation: Sir: In your issue of May 27, referring to Mrs. Stonewall Jackson's greeting of President Taft as the "harmonizer of all our hearts," you say: iNext to Lee, no one is more enshrined in the hearts of Southerners than the sturdy general who paraded the Virginia Military Institute Cadets at the hanging of John Brown, and later fought so magnifi- cently from Bull Run until his death, on the field of Chancellorsville, at the age of forty. By such readers as are accustomed to rely upon the Nation for uncolored state-

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628 Tlie Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 in quest of sweetness and light. There is no apparent reason why those who liked the spoken lectures should not enjoy them in book form. "The People at Play," by Rollin Lynde Hartt (Houghton, Mifflin Co.), is a fairly comprehensive account of the ways in Which men, women, and children of the cities with from ten to twenty-five cents in their pockets amuse themselves. There are treatises on the burlesque, the dime museum, the amusement park, the melo- drama, society, the biograph-show, the "Muses in the Back Street," and baseball. The author's copious illustrations, inside the cover and out, portray the humors of popular gayety from the bill-board to the grand-stand. The spirit of the work, Mr. Hartt informs us, is that of the student of comparative ethics. From a first-hand acquaintance with the proletariat he has come to the conclusion that we (the well- washed and educated class) look too super- ciliously upon the recreations of the poor. When we try to refine their taste we should begin by recognizing its soundness in many essentials. The melodrama, for example, is really the "Ten Commandments in red fire." The residents in the back streets have a liking for color and vigor in the field of art; it is usually a mistake to hang a Botti- celli over the kitchen sink. There are a good many suggestive hints of this charac- ter thrown out in passing; but on the whole the book does not carry a very deep philo- sophical keel. Its chief value lies in its record of things which few writers have thought worthy of record. It is, therefore, to be regretted that the author has steadily handled his material with kid gloves. With some apprehension addressing a very polite audience, he has sought to elevate his sub- ject by stiltifying his style. Speaking, for instance, of the possible "passing" of the biograph, he writes, "That eventuality is not unforeseen, especially by our clair- voyant moralists, who storm the Legis- lature with demands for restrictions upon celluloid liberties." Such Henry Jacobean periphrasis — to parody our author — is ill- calculated to communicate to the higher classes any very intimate or quickening sense of the recreative activities of the lowly. I. L. Nascher, M.D., certainly knows the Bowery, as it was before the sight-seeing automobile made of it a well-managed side show. Its rum-shops, opium dens, daiJce halls, and their blasted habitues he can call by names and by history. Nothing that is diseased, repulsive, or criminal in that region has escaped his eye. But not all thorough knowledge is scientific or useful. We see neither fairness nor clear purpose in the sub-title, "a sociological study," with which Dr. Nascher describes his book, "The Wretches of Povertyville" (Chicago: Jos. J. Lanzit). His information is useful only to the police and social workers, all of whom already possess it ten times over. For everybody else it is either revolting or viciously attractive. The "Practical Measures" suggested in the closing chapter are loosely thought out. They suggest a smattering knowledge of criminology blend- ed with a great deal of shrewd but one- sided observation. "The Third French Republic' (Lippin- cott) scarcely justifies Frederick Lawton's claim that it represents the result of a long personal experience of French life. Even under the most favorable interpreta- tion the work never rises above ordinary journalistic standards. The author's plan involves more than a review of political history; there are several chapters on literature, science, art, education, and the Mutualist or friendly society movement. In spite of this ambitious scheme the work lacks proportion, and bears evidence of hasty writing and superficial knowledge. Superior to the rest of the book are the chapters which notice various phases of the literary movement in France. But even here Mr. Lawton's criticism is not always trustworthy, nor is his reading wide. M. Muntz is set down as an historian of Tus- cany, but no mention is made of his im- portant contributions to the study of Ital- ian art. It is surprising also to find Lavisse's "History of France" criticised as partisan. No one who has seen the book could fail to observe that it is a series of monographs. One would like to know just what portions Mr. Lawton thinks are un-: satisfactory, or whether he holds that none of the distinguished writers who con- tributed to Lavisse has reached his own standards of historic excellence. The chap- ters on the successive governments and Presidents of the third Republic contain many mistakes of detail. There is, too, a singular inability to appreciate the es- sential elements in French constitutional development. Little or no attention is given to the genesis, growth, and decline of var- ious French political parties. Even the account of the composition of the French Senate is not correct. In place of re- liable information on important questions there are innumerable anecdotes about pub- lic men; their epigrammatic sayings are re- peated, and the book is burdened with trivial items of personal gossip. In fol- lowing out his method of lumping together without discrimination, the subordinate and the main details of recent French history, Mr. Lawton manages t8 cover a great deal of ground, and his book does embody some useful material that might be left un- noticed by a more careful historian. But this way of writing history produces curious and unexpected results. The reader gets an account of the Charity Bazaar fire, but is left in almost complete ignorance of some important factors in the struggle be- tween the state and the church which led •up to the Separation Act. Dr. William Elliot Griffis is a veteran bookmaker, and upon all that relates to Dutch history and institutions is an unques- tioned authority. In many of his earlier writings he betrayed a strong Dutch bias, and, since the death of Douglas Campbell, has been the chief exponent of Dutch in- fluence in American history. In his latest work ("The Story of New Netherland," Houghton Mifflin Co.) he is less concerned with the Dutch as the authors of our insti- tutional being, and more with the effort to rescue this worthy people from the grasp of Diedrich Knickerbocker. In this task he has succeeded, and his book has value for old and young alike. He carries the sub- ject beyond 1664, devoting nearly half his book to the later history of the Dutch in America. The defects of the work are pat- ent: excessive stress is everywhere laid on the place of the Dutch in American life; dislike is manifested toward all things British; and ignorance of other phases of colonial history is unfortunately all too evident. To speak of the Navigation Acts as the cause of the Revolution is to ignore facts; to call life in the South before the war a "belated feudalism" is to admit an historical anachronism ; to say that the Angles and Saxons were Dutch before they were English is to employ a catch-penny phrase that is meaningless to historian and philologist alike. It is a pity that so good . a book is marred by these amateurish touches. "Toujours perdrix!" exclaimed the French gourmand. "Toujours Touraine!" one is in- clined to reply, as book after book on the favorite tourist section of France issues from the press. The latest, "A Summer in Touraine," by Frederic Lees (A. C. Mc- Clurg), is one of the most attractive. Mr. Lees is not a pictorial writer, and occa- sionally he trips up in his syntax, but he tells his story without affectation, and he strikes a fair balance between description and history. Prospective tourists, espe- cially if they be motorists, can learn from, him how to reach one chateau after an- other, and what to look for, inside and out. Then the past is conjured up, and gives- that bowing acquaintance, which seems to be so much coveted with the great barons of medieval France, with royal and other mistresses, and with the modern nobility (or Parisian plutocrats) who own or oc- cupy these historic places. The hundred illustrations are truly, admirable, not ex- cepting the dozen colored plates by Max- well Armfield, which, with their Boutet de Monvel tints, suggest the tone in landscape and sky of the Elysium of the Loire. The book should be a delight to Tourainists on their travels, and a pleasure to dip into af- terwards. The curator of the Musee Carnavalet, i. e., the man who, by profession, ought to know most about historic Paris, is just the guide intelligent tourists were looking for; nor does George Cain disappoint them. In the twenty-six chapters of this book ("Walks in Paris," translated by Alfred Al- linson; the Macmillan Co.), all the spots of the city that have any association with heroes of history and romance are passed in review, so that, behind the Haussman- ized Paris of to-day, we can evoke the Paris of Philippe Auguste, Charles V, Henri IV, Louis XIV, and Napoleon. The ancient and the modern mingle at will in these chatty pages, all the way from the thirteenth cen- tury down to the reign of M. Fallieres. Thus one street, the narrow rue Visconti, on the left bank, brings back to memory the duels of the Pre aux Clercs, the meet- ings of the persecuted Huguenots, the so- journ of Racine, the death of Adrienne Le- couvreur, the brilliant career of the act- ress Clairon, the unfortunate printing house of Balzac, and the abode of one of the numerous men who attempted to kill Louis- Philippe. All streets are not so rich in historical associations. But be it the Rue de Sevres with its Abbaye-aux-Bois graced by Mme. Recamier, the mysterious and quiet streets around St. Sulpice, the romantic Place des Vosges, the Boulevard du Tem- ple, the Bastille, or the Place Vendome, there does not seem to be a commonplace- looking thoroughfare, crossed a hundred times a day by indifferent feet, that may not evoke some dramatic incident of his- tory, or have some association with a man I

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J^V>.^S3.^,V June 24, 1909] The Nation. 629 of letters. M. Cain knows the Paris of to-day as well as the Paris of former times, and tourists who are accused of seeking in Paris resorts that they would dare visit in their own country will take delight in fol- lowing their guide in the rue des Innocents and around the rue Maubert and the Halles, where cutthroats and "Apaches" hold their headquarters. The value of the book is enhanced by ten maps and plans of old Paris, and by more than a hundred well- chosen pictures. The translator was ob- viously interested in his translation and tries to supplement in his notes the infor- mation of the text. Prof. Lawrence H. Mills, the eminent Zend scholar of the University of Oxford, is about to issue, in his seventy-third year, a continuation of the study of the Avesta Yasna, which he began nearly two decades ago in his monumental edition of the Ga- thas, the earliest portion of the Yasna, This work is now practically in the bind- er's hands. It will contain not only a re- constructional edition of the Avesta text with copious notes, but also the Pahlavi or Middle Persian commentary (both in the original character and in transliteration) with full translation, the Sanskrit version of Neryosangh newly collated from five manuscripts and translated for the first time, and a Parsi-Persian version already used in part by Professor Mills in his edi- tion of the Gathas. There will also be an appendix containing the accented Sanskrit equivalent of the Avesta text, as well as four photographic plates of Avesta. Pah- lavi, and Sanskrit manuscripts, and other illustrative material. The work will main- tain the same high standard as that set by the same editor's Gathas, which has long been out of print and of which a reissue is urgently needed. Professor Mills is also continuing his work on the "Dictionary of the Gathic Language," of which 120 pages will soon be issued; and a number of his lectures at Oxford have -recently been translated into Italian by a Turin barris- ter, their appearance in print being prom- ised in the near future. The Papal Commissione per la Revisions della Volgata has recently published a re- port of the present status and purposes of their work, the document appearing in sev- eral languages, issued by the Tipographia Pontificia dell' Instituto Pio IX. In this official utterance the Catholic savants 'n charge of the work state explicitly that "the business of the commission is merely to restore the text of Jerome in a critical way, that it is not to prepare a new text, and that the testing of Jerome's text as to Us correctness will be left to another com- mission to be appointed at a later time." The work is to be done in the International St. Anselmo College of the Benedictines on the Aventine in Rome. Of this building the report gives two fine pictures, to which are added a number of other illustrations, chief- ly of manuscripts. Fifteen collaborates are at work in different countries examin- ing the Vulgate manuscripts, and a cata- logue of all of the European documents on the Jerome version is in preparation. It is estimated that the cost of the work will be about 25,000 francs per annum, and that from eight to ten years will see its com- pletion. The commission believes that the 250,000 francs needed should be readily given by Catholics, and the primus elenchus con- tribuentium is headed by the Holy Father himself with a subscription of 12,000 francs. So far the total subscriptions have been 44,- 900 francs and the expenses 20,000. The re- port is unfortunately not free from vexa- tious errata. The approaching i.uater-centennial of Calvin's birth, which is to be celebrated in Geneva on July 10 with academic and ec- clesiastical impressiveness, has led the pro- fessor of ecclesiastical history at the Uni- versity of Berne, Dr. Fritz Barth, to a reconsideration of the famous Servetus case. The outcome of these studies, which has just appeared under the title "Calvin und Servet'' (A. Francke, Berne), is a pamphlet of more than ordinary interest. It presents minutely the events and transactions which brought about the arrest and trial of the daring free-thinker, who had deserved a better fate than being put to death by the man who should have been his protector. Pro- fessor Barth shows conclusively that Cal- vin sacrificed Servetus for reasons of state. Calvin's own faith in the doctrine of Trin- ity had openly been called in question by the French theologian Caroli. Melancthon, Capito, and other leaders of German Pro- testantism had expressed alarm at his free utterances concerning the Nicaean creed. The council of the city of Berne had made protestations on that subject to the Gene- vese government. It seemed a matter of high political importance that the Calvin- istic wing of the Reformed Church should declare in no uncertain sounds its soli- darity with the other adherents of or- ganized Protestantism in upholding the one fundamental doctrine in which there was no dividing line between the Protestant and the Catholic Churches. This could be accomplished by making a scapegoat of an indiscreet enthusiast and ardent radical like Servetus. And not for a moment did Calvin shrink from improving this opportu- nity, even though doing so implied the vio- lation of the most fundamental laws of honorable conduct. This thesis Professor Barth states with great lucidity. Unaffected and simple in style — remind- ing one at times of Frenssen's "Peter Moor" — and very sincere and touching in senti- ment are the autobiographic records of a trained nurse given in "Dornenpfade der Barmherzigkeit: Aus Schwester Gerda's Tagebuch," edited by Sister Henriette Arendt, a well-known nurse of Berlin, and published at Stuttgart by the Deutsch Ver- lags-Anstalt. The difference is, however, that while "Peter Moor" may be only real- istic fiction, based on fact, these leaver from a nurse's diary were actually written by a young woman, who had no thought of ever printing them. The object in now giving them to the public is merely to warn many from entering on a difficult career, and to arouse those who, directly or indirectly, are responsible for much of the experience of the average overworksd and unappreciated nurse. That the book will affect most readers there is little doubt, for it is largely a series of shadow pic- tures of depressing realism. Nor are the incidents German or local for the most part, but pr.obably such as may happen any day in any large city of the New World. Even the absence of literary touch in parts of the volume, due to the youth of the writ- er or the conditions of the midnight watch whon, beside some dying patient, the notes were jotted down, adds to the force of this tragedy of a humble life. The "Tagebuch des Grafen P.-L. Rbder- er," minister and councillor under Napo- leon, by Gen. von Pfaff (Berlin: Karl Sigis- mund), is a work, whose interest is much increased by a compendious introduction and notes from French archives by Maurice Vitrac. Perhaps the chief value of this work is that it brings forth new matter, of a gossipy value, from private diaries. The "Grundfragen der Homerkritik," by Paul Cauer, which has been brought out in a second edition by S. Hirzel of Leip- zig, has been so entirely changed and enlarged that it is practically a new work. It discusses critically all the Homeric problems of the times under the three heads of Textkritik und Spraehwissen- schaft, Zur Analyse des Inhalts, and Der Dichter und sein Werk. Dana Estes, publisher, traveller, and writer of note, died suddenly in Brookline, Mass., on Wednesday of last week, at the age of sixty-nine. He was born in Gorham, Me. In 1859 he went to Boston and enter- ed the book trade. At the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Estes enlisted in the Union, army, and served until the second battle of Bull Run, where he was wounded three times. Being disabled for further service, he returned to Boston and reentered the book business. He was a member of va- rious firms until 1898, when he organized the house of Dana Estes & Co. Only a few months ago Mr. Estes returned from a trip through the African jungle now being trav- ersed by Mr. Roosevelt. He was the first American to penetrate the Nile country to Uganda and the Congo State. He was a member of the Bostonian Society, the- American Association for the Advancement of Science, and other societies. He organ- ized the International Copyright Associa- tion and was its first secretary. Prof. Frederick de Martens, formerly pro- fessor of international law in the Univer- sity of St. Petersburg, a permanent mem ber of the Council of the Ministry of For- eign Affairs, and one of the most distin- guished jurists of his day, died on Sunday of this week. Professor de Martens was born in the Russian Baltic provinces in 1845. He studied law at the Universities of St. Petersburg, Vienna, Heidelberg, and Leipzig. He was attached to the person of the chancellor of the Russian Empire, Prince Gortchakoff, for special missions in 1876. The diplomatic congresses which he attended as Russia's representative includ- ed important gatherings at Brussels, Paris, The Hague, Geneva, and Vienna. He is known best to the American public, perhaps, through having served as one of the Russian delegates at the peace negotiations between Russia and Japan in this country in 1905. He was also prominent in the public mind here through serving at the peace confer- ences of The Hague. At the conference of 1899 he was the second Russian plenipoten- tiary, and he was chosen president of the Second Commission. Since 1874 he had beea selected several times by European and American Powers as an international ar- bitrator. He was president of the Court of Arbitration in Paris in 1899 which consid- ered the differences between Great Britain- and Venezuela. He also served as arbitra-

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630 The 3STation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 tor bet wren France and England; England and Holland, and the United States and Mi \ico. When he died he was a member of the Permanent International Court of Ar- bitration at The Hague. In 1906 he repre- sented his country at the Geneva Confer- ence for the revision of the Geneva Con- vention of 1867. He attended the Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907 for th6 third time. He wrote many books. One, "De Martens on International Law," has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Persian, Servian, and other lan- guages. Other works are: "La paix et la guerre," "On Consular Jurisdiction in the East," "Recueil des traites et conventions conclus par la Russie avec les Puissances etrangeres," and "Le Conflit entre la Russie •et la Chine." BRUCKNER'S RUSSIAN LITERA- TURE. A Literary History of Russia. By A. Bruckner, Professor of Slavonic Lan- guages and Literature in the Univer- sity of Berlin. Edited by Ellis H. Minns; translated by H. Havelock. New York: Imported by Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $4 This volume is beyond all question the best — and the most unreadable — ac- count of Russian literature accessible in English. Of former attempts, that of Miss Hapgood is a primer, compiled from Russian critical authorities; that of "Waliszewski is a light, hasty sketch, clever and superficial; that of Kropot- kin, though full of excellent criticism, is rather a panegyric on the liberation movement, as expressed in Russian writ- ers, than a treatment of the national literature in all its aspects. Professor Bruckner has a wider acquaintance with his subject, and a more catholic sympa- thy, than any of his predecessors. His point of view is that of a professional student of literature. Though he does not strive for an impossible freedom from personal bias, his own political views never blind him to the merits of writers who belong to opposite parties. Unfortunately, this valuable work is clothed in a style that will frighten away any but determined students of literature. In German, though at times he rises to a sombre eloquence, Profes- sor Bruckner usually writes in lumber- ing, involved, often obscure sentences, sometimes marred by Polonisms. To these sentences Mr. Havelock usually ad- heres with bulldog tenacity, producing a result that is tenfold worse than the original. An English reader can hardly expect a translation from contorted Ger- man periods to be light and graceful; he may, however, demand a plain, straightforward, idiomatic rendering that shall not continually distract his attention from the subject of which it treats. Instead of this, Mr. Havelock gives us uncouth diction like the follow- ing: The most respectable performances still remain those of Tolstoy. Count Alexey of the name, the youthful playmate of Alex- ander II, subsequently for many years Master of the Hunt — sport was his ruling passion — grew up from his early youth among impressions, of beautiful scenery in Little Russia, of Art during Italian jour- neys— with the inevitable visit to Weimar and Goethe, whose majestic language im- pressed the boy — of literature, a love for and cultivation of which he found among his nearest relatives, into an admirer of Pushkin, and a contemner of modern didac- tic literature (p. 493). [The misprint of a comma instead of a period after Tolst6y has made a bad matter much worse.] On the other hand, absolute errors in translation are infrequent. The ver- sions from Russian poets, which have been made by Mr. Minns directly from the Russian, are accurate and simple, though of small literary merit. The in- dex is careless and unsatisfactory. Of early Russian literature Professor Bruckner gives but the briefest sketch (89 out of 545 pages), beginning his fuller treatment with the reign of Cath- erine the Great. One may regret this choice, and still more his neglect of the remarkable folk-lore of Russia. Most readers would gladly sacrifice many pages of discussion of minor writers of the eighteenth, and even of the nine- teenth century, in exchange for an am- pler account of the early chronicles, of the apocryphal legends, of the "Tale of the Raid of Igor," and, above all, of the Russian popular ballads. As a Pole, Professor Bruckner may be prejudiced against Russian mediaeval culture, dom- inated as it is by Eastern Orthodoxy. Be this as it may, he has acted with his eyes open, deliberately sacrificing the earlier periods in order to give a more adequate account of the origin and de- velopment of modern Russian literature. He must be judged by his success in car- rying out his own plan, the reasons for which he well states in his opening par- agraph : The history of Russian literature must claim full attention in a special degree. Not _ by its age, for it is the youngest of ■>the great literatures ; not by its perfec- tion, for it often foregoes assthetic effects; but certainly by its peculiar character, the high humanity of its content, its natural- ness and sincerity, its soaring idealism, the depth and pathos of its effects, and lastly, the significance it claims in the mental life of the nation. To Englishmen or French- men, Germans or Italians, polite literature is only one form for the expression of na- tional feeling and thought: to the intelli- gent Russian, without a free press, with- out the liberty of assembly, without the right to free expression of opinion, litera- ture became the last refuge of hia freedom of thought, the only means of propagating higher ideas. He expected and demanded of his country's literature not merely sesthetic recreation: he placed it at the ser- vice of everything noble and good, of his aspirations, of the enlightening and emanci- pation of the spirit. Hence the striking partiality, nay unfairness, displayed by the Russians towards the most perfect works of their own literature where they did not answer to the aims or the expectations of their party or their day. A purely sesthetic handling of the subject would not gain it full acceptance. Accordingly, Professor Bruckner adopts primarily the sociological point of view. He makes us understand the great con- troversy between the Slavophiles and the Westerners, so important for any proper appreciation of the novels of Dostoevsky and Turgenev. He gives an idea, somewhat fragmentary, to be sure, of the radical and materialistic move- ment of the sixties, and notes the part played in it by different writers. He shows how Ostrovsky's dramas form a protest against the ignorance and bru- tality of the Russian merchant class, displaying, in Dobroliibov's phrase, a veritable "kingdom of darkness." He explains how the "poets of pure art," Maikov, Tyutchev, and others, were val- ued only by a small number of expert judges, while the bitterness and indig- nation of Nekrasov's verse-pamphlets made him the idol of all young men. In this way the author makes his literary history a running commentary on the social aspirations and speculations of the Russian educated public. Yet, unlike many Russian critics, Professor Bruckner does not allow him- self to be dominated by one method of attack. He is caretul to give an esti- mate of the merits of each writer as an artist, and to make us feel at every step that Russian literature is a part of European literature, and follows the same general course of development. He is perhaps at his best in his general criticism of periods or movements, such as this of the romantic poets: Whoever, leaving the exotic and mystical blooms of German, French, and English ro- manticism, approaches the Russian, re- mains disappointed. The longing for the flcur blcue, the fantastic ride into wonder- land, allegories heavy with meaning, pan- theistic or social dreams, mystical trans- ports, are all essentially alien to Russian literature as to the Russian temperament. Both are by nature very sober, clinging to the clod of reality, and do not roam among the stars. Sound sense — how rich Pushkin was in it! — a mind tinged with skepticism, for the Russian only laughs at German en- thusiasm and exaggeration; a very mode- rate feeling for nature, for only men in- terest the Russian — his landscapes are much too lacking in variety and charm; a direct aversion for abstractions, for hith- erto Russia has produced no noteworthy philosopher, though it has theologians and moralists. Such conditions, I say, are most unfavorable to the flourishing of flowers of romance. How soon Pushkin came to his senses, how few Russian poems there are that move in the flaunting garb of ro- manticism, with all its lilies and stars! At this day we see that the re-birth of poetry, symbolical, dependent, or philo- sophical, is in Russia a most difficult mat- ter, and reaps rather cheap ridicule than serious consideration (p. 211).

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■*-" J ■-* g ^ '-^ - > -" ^ ^>' *■*• •**- June 24, 1909] The Nation. 631 Yet here the author, in giving an ex- cellent verdict upon Russian poetry, be- trays himself into too broad a general- ization upon Russian literature as a whole. His own analysis (pp. 423, 424) of Chernyshevsky's novel (or, to use Bruckner's word, his phantasia), "What Is to Be Done?" which had more influ- ence than any other one book upon young Russians of the sixties, proves that he realizes that "social dreams" are by no means absent from Russian literature. Indeed, Utopian speculation is almost as characteristic of the Rus- sian temperament as is realistic satire. To explain why it has never found ex- pression in Russian poetry is a prob- lem that, though in itself not difficult, has unfortunately not attracted Profes- sor Bruckner's attention. The critic's aesthetic judgments, though not specially individual or pene- trating, are nearly always sound and judicious. His general estimate of Pushkin, for example, is the best with which the present writer is acquainted: Pushkin founded a school; even in the older writers, who were once his teachers, one sees his influence. It is essentially one of form; not wealth of ideas, but the mas- tery of "Pushkin's verse," which has become simply an aesthetic definition, is aimed at, mostly to no purpose, by his successors. The indescribable music of verse, its full sensuousuess, plasticity, too, with nothing blurred or indistinct, are coupled with gen- uine and deep feeling, sincere melancholy, and lively whims; if he lacks the passion- ate glow of love as of hate, yet in his cre- ations he always achieves that balance which he so painfully missed in life. He gives quite the impression of a classical poet, and especially in his later work one forgets his romantic antecedents, and throughout it is the perfection of his form which begets these illusions. It seems to us a natural expression, as if it had been born with the matter or Lhe idea; but be- hind the apparent ease and absence of ef- fort lurks conscientious, untiring work, polishing and shaping, above all shorten- ing and compressing of the diction, which now drapes the body like a heavy rustling dress of state, now floats about like a loose wrapping (p. 206). In his opinions on the great Russian novelists Professor Bruckner will not always command the assent of Anglo- Saxon readers, brought up in a world of commerce and industry, with its em- phasis on the strenuous life. The aver- age American reader of Russian fiction will heartily applaud his praises of Tol- stoy's artistic genius; but may demur, whether justly or no need not be ar- gued here, at his description of the great novelist as "physical and moral strength incarnate." Reading further, he will be inclined to vigorous protest when he finds that the critic reserves his most glowing enthusiasm for the diseased, epileptic Dostoevsky. After a compre- hensive analysis of that writer's work, he concludes: As long as metaphysical questions — ques- tions of good and evil or of the darker side of the human spirit — are raised, so long will Dostoevsky be read. He is one of the few in the world's literature who can never be forgotten: he leaves behind him the profoundest impressions, which can never be effaced, and he stirs the innermost fibres of ,our spirit. . . . Perhaps there are in the world's literature figures of greater talent, or, rather, more repute; a warmer, more feeling heart there certain- ly never was. Not in "Faust," but rather in "Crime and Punishment," does the "whole woe of mankind" take hold of us (p. 416). The critic is right only if sentiment, Chauvinism, and pathological psychol- ogy are the sole — or the most essential — materials of a novelist's art. Of minor defects in Professor Bruck- ner's work nothing need be said here. Professor Veselovsky, in a review of the German edition (Archiv fiir Slavische Philologie, xxviii, 128), has pointed out various errors in matters of fact, none of which will trouble the general reader. The book as a whole may be recommended almost without reserve as the one thorough, comprehensive, and scholarly account of Russian literature in any of the languages of Western Eu- rope. CURRENT FICTION. The Planter. By Herman Whitaker. New York: Harper & Bros. There are moments in the reading of this powerful story of the rubber indus- try in Mexico, when, like the Abolition- ists who demanded "free sugar" of their grocers, one is tempted to forswear for- ever the use of any article made of rubber. No tale of ante-bellum slavery days could disclose greater horrors than this narrative of tropical labor, con- temporaneous, we may suppose from its allusions. The worst treated slaves of the darkest South endured no more cruelty than that here shown as visited upon the contract laborers of Mexico. The masters varied in their ways of meeting the situation. Thus the Amer- ican Ewing took his wife with him, established a domestic hearth, and treated his riff-raff laborers as well as he could. The Englishman fell into the usages of the country as he found them, and did his small-souled best from that point of view. The Austrian Jew added to the highly available, ready-made bad, something that was still worse, in the shape of devilish in- ventions of his own. To this group of planter neighbors is added, presently, David Mann, a Maine boy, with Puri- tan ideals and the aspirations of a re- former. From a narrowly orthodox mother and a successful lumberman father he derives the qualities that make him a good fighter for his own morals and for his people's improvement — a young David against Goliaths of rascal rubber companies at home and barbari- ties on the plantations. The story leads him through terrible predicaments, though not unaided by friendly sym- pathy from his American neighbors and from the best Mexican attitude, personi- fied in a charming girl. She shares his longings to secure freedom for his slaves and justice for all his workers, whether jail scourings or captive In- dians. The book ends with the begin- ning of a better day for masters and servants up and down the river. The spell of the tropics, the feel of the jungle, the pride of the planter, the problems of race, have an eloquent show- ing. One must accept the Roman in a story of Rome. Otherwise it would be easy to object not only to the luxuriant length of the novel — five hundred and thirty-odd pages— but to excess of tropi- cal epithet and description, and of the tropically explicit. The characters are defined with more than usual force. It is unquestionably a book of great pow- er, stamping in its sharp-bitten impres- sions with mighty blows. Marriage a La Mode. By Mrs. Humphry Ward. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.' A book dealing indignantly with the untoward possibilities of American di- vorce is not what we should have ex- pected from Mrs. Ward. We have so long been accustomed to receive from her some treatment of what might be called the grandinsular theme — the great world of little England — that it is surprising at first thought to find her concerning herself with our relatively trifling affairs. But we are presently reassured by the discovery that the par- amount consideration is still the same. She inveighs against American divorce, not as a mere transatlantic monster which the world may behold preying upon the misguided inhabitants of that part of the globe, but as a foe which (thanks to the now prevalent habit of international marriages) threatens the peace and integrity of the British fire- side. There is a note of panic, conse- quently, in her performance. She is afraid: no wonder her voice reaches an unaccustomed pitch; no wonder the hor- rid instance she cites is a bit strained. The disconcerting thing to the Ameri- can reader is that she apparently re- gards her Daphne as in some sense typi- cal of our womankind. Poor Daphne has great wealth, much physical charm, and an immeasurable egoism. Her ac- complishments are hollow, her connois- seurship a sham, her manners a game which she is able to play while things go to please her. But she is capable of browbeating a husband, riding rough- shod over the sensibilities of a mother- in-law, and, if you please, outbidding a duchess to her face for the possession of a costly knick-knack. The young Englishman whose fireside she blasts is not unduly idealized by his h

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(332 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 creator. "Roger Barnes's good looks had been from his childhood upward the distinguishing and remarkable fea- ture about him." He has, besides, good blood, good breeding, and good humor to recommend him. He has been reared under the advantages of a seeming-solid English wealth which has unexpectedly vanished, shortly before we begin to hear about him, with the death of his father. His mother, who believes in the divine right of the British elect to in- herit the earth, presently dispatches him to America "to make," as he in- genuously puts it, "some friends over here who might be useful to me. . . . In this country there are always open- ings— things turning up — chances — you can't get at home." He seems really in- nocent as to the purpose of his mission, and, after some delay, the mother is constrained to put the fact in black and white: he is to marry some rich Amer- ican. That is his chance, the only chance, indeed, really open to a person of his kind of distinction. He does not like the notion, but he does not loathe it, and when the rich American presents herself, he loses no time in securing her. After a somewhat prolonged ■ honey- moon abroad, they wing homeward at last to the ancestral domain of the Barneses, or, rather, of the Trescoes, for ""Heston Park" has belonged to the fam- ily of Lady Barnes. There Daphne, by virtue of her wealth and habit of pow- er, at once takes command. She makes matters very disagreeable for her suffi- ciently disagreeable mother-in-law, her husband, and various friends of theirs — especially a former and unconfessed flame of the handsome Roger. This person is a siren of vulgar motive, but always mindful of the laws of her caste: it is Daphne who makes herself out a bounder, or its feminine equivalent Hence the divorce, and the ensuing ca- lamities. The story has its striking episodes: the opening scene at Mount Vernon, the closing scene on the Isle of Wight. As a whole, it lacks poise and dignity. It is not quite amiable, its note of pertur- bation, of grievance, is too plainly audi- ble. In Gen. Hobson, Roger's uncle, Mrs. Ward holds up the irascible Brit- isher for our amusement, and the Ad- mirable Crichton of the story is an American officer. Nevertheless, the pic- ture as a whole falls short of good hu- mor. We must hope that the Canadian story, which is promised as the second fruit of her recent journey westward, will inspire in Mrs. Ward a gentler and juster strain of interpretation. A Year Out of Life. By Mary E. Wal- ler. New York: D. Appleton & Co. From the author of "The Wood-Carv- er of 'Lympus" one looks, and not in vain, for originality of plan and grace of manner; for a deep-reaching insight equally into the constancies and vagar- ies of human nature, which makes at times for vagueness; and for a stead- fast faith in the beneficence of the "something not ourselves." In portray- ing the encounter of girl-nature with man-nature, of emotional fastidiousness with the unconscious involuntary pas- sion for converting experience into suc- cess, the author plays on so many strings that the reader is left pondering over the indeterminateness — not of the story, for that ends conclusively — but of the ways and motives of life itself. An American girl living in Germany enters into correspondence with a Ger- man novel-writer in relation to making translations of his books. She falls greatly in love with his letters, and somewhat less in love with the man himself later on. Naturally, she does not at once discriminate between the two sentiments. He, on the other hand, is compact of German sentiment and German practicality, and contrives to be fascinating, insistent, brusque, ten- der, and cruel, each at the moment best calculated to torment a girl's feelings. There is no tragedy, but there is a pal- pable ache. Your true novel-lover will almost regret the triumph of wisdom over sentiment as he reads on, fancy- ing that he is about to slide along the well-worn ways of "The First Violin" into a cheerful international alliance. The Origins of the British Colonial Sys- tem, 1578-1660. By George Louis Beer. New York: The Macmillan Co. $3 net. In 1893. Mr. Beer, then of Columbia University, published as his doctor's thesis an essay of one hundred and fifty pages on the commercial policy of Eng- land toward the American colonies. This essay, though brief and in many ways inadequate, was then and is now the' only study in existence of this important phase of colonial history, if we leave out of account such works as Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce." Aware of the incompleteness of his for- mer treatment, Mr. Beer has now re- turned to the subject, and after spend- ing two years among the documents in English archives has begun the issue of a series of volumes dealing with the period from 1578 to 1765. The first volume, really the last of the series, since it concerns British policy from 1754 to 1765, appeared in 1907, and now the second volume, which is really the first, treating the origins of British policy, is before us. In method Mr. Beer's work leaves little to be desired. His research has been exhaustive, his point of view is that of the scientific historian, his grasp of the larger aspects of world-history is firm and comprehensive. He sees the colonies as factors in the growth and ex- pansion of the British empire, and he approaches them from the standpoint of the past. He makes it clear that the origins of British colonial policy are to be sought in the customs and prac- tices of mediaeval life, and that it was a composite of principles and methods that were partly feudal and partly com- mercial— representative of the fief, the staple, and the monopolistic trading company. In forming her policy Eng- land invented nothing new. She took from what she had and applied the old ideas to new conditions. She was obliged to face the competition of other growing monarchies in the seventeenth century, and viewed her colonies as aids to that end. She kept them en- tirely within her control, since it would have been contrary to her interest to permit her strength to be weakened by the emigration of men who would set up communities of their own and trade with whomsoever they pleased. Eng- land had no surplus population; she promoted the founding of colonies in order to obtain products which could not be supplied at home and for which she had been obliged to pay foreign &nd competing countries in coin. The decay of foreign trade made it necessary to find new sources of supply under the flag. To have allowed these supplies to be diverted to other countries would have aided her rivals and defeated her purpose in encouraging colonial settle- ment. From 1578 to 1660 the English gov- ernment was engaged in defining her at- titude toward colonial trade. England endeavored to restrict this trade to her- self, to exclude foreigners from any com- mercial relations with her possessions, and to confine the carrying trade to British and colonial vessels. That the colonies might supply her with every- thing that she needed, she sought to induce them to produce those staples that she could not raise at home — spices, corn, wine, silk, cotton, salt, flax, hemp, indigo, wood, madder, pitch, tar, tur- pentine, and the like; and the persis- tent refusal of the colonists to do so is one of the most striking features of our early history. The southern col- onies at first would raise nothing but tobacco, while the northern colonies spent no time on silk and spices, and little time on naval stores. In truth, as Mr. Beer most admirably shows, it was tobacco that shaped England's policy before 1640. There was something grim- ly ironical in this fact, since tobacco was deemed by the Englishman of that day an obnoxious weed, and colonies "built wholly on smoke" were as little desired then as would be colonies to- day whose output was only opium. Mr. Beer also proves that all the chief features of the later navigation acts were in full operation under the early Stuarts, although not embodied in stat- utory form. This conclusion las never been demonstrated before, and :s the most important contribution made in

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ar .*■ i^-^y,* «-yu> > s ^ ^v^ June 24, 1909J The Nation. 633 this volume. He further shows that the policy of restriction was accompanied by a policy of colonial favoritism, in that the production of tobacco was for- bidden in England, and the importation of the tobacco of Spanish America was limited by means of a heavier customs duty than that on the tobacco from Vir- ginia and Maryland. It was manifestly to England's interest to do all that she could to encourage the colonies and to build up their trade. If the colonies were restricted to the English market, they at least enjoyed a monopoly of that market, and so were assured an oppor- tunity to sell their staple products. These were the main purposes that Eng- land set before herself in shaping her relations with the colonies, and these purposes underwent few changes in lat- er years. Unfortunately, this policy took no account of the possible develop- ment of the colonies in the direction of greater independence in their economic needs and interests. Mr. Beer's style lacks grace and charm of presentation, and his treatment is rendered heavy by excessive detail and by a lack of clearness of exposition. His book would have been more readable if he had introduced more summaries and generalizations to show the bearing of his facts and statistics. He has, how- ever, performed a very important work, and future volumes will be awaited with interest. The Empire of the East: A Simple Ac- count of Japan as It Was, Is, and Will Be. With nineteen illustrations. By H. B. Montgomery. Chicago: A. C McClurg & Co. $2.50 net. Drugging a Nation: The Story of China and the Opium Curse. By Samuel Merwin. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. $1 net. Sidelights on Chinese Life. By the Rev. J. MacGowan. With twelve illustra- tions in color, by Montague Smith. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. $3.75 net. Letters from China. With particular ref- erence to the Empress Dowager and the Women of China. By Sarah P. Conger. Chicago: A. C. McClurg Co. $2.75 net. The present crop of books on Japan falls far short of the average of other years, but this, Mr. Montgomery seems to think, is of advantage in understand- ing the country and people. Too many hasty visitors and perfunctory penmen have looked only on the outside. He has set out to tell the story from the ihside, giving little attention to politics or statistics. He deals rather with ethics, art, religion, the Constitution, the home life of the people, the army and navy, and the financial position of the country, with glances at literature and the drama. We miss, however, the firmness of touch and accuracy of per- spective belonging to the long resident. He persists in calling the Ainu "Ainos," thus perpetrating a double solecism. The Japanese term of contempt, "Aino," sug- gests semi-bestial origins, and to give an English plural to a Japanese word is undesirable. Furthermore, his sub- jective notions about the sure outcome of the native and foreign scholarship of the last decade or two darken rather than illuminate the subject. He shows very clearly that he has not mastered the results of the archaeology and philol- ogy of Munro or Batchelor. The gen- eral style of the work is commonplace, and it cannot be said that Mr. Mont- gomery has added greatly to our knowl- edge of the people or country. Never- theless, we have here the clear impres- sions of a keen observer and straight- forward narrator, and the text shows warmth of heart and an honest sym- pathy with an aspiring people. The il- lustrations, both in taste and execution, are unusually fine, being, as a rule, by native artists, or copied from ther prints. The concluding two chapters make a bold, if not rash, forecast of the future. He thinks "the world is des- tined to see a nation, not only morally, but mentally, great." The coming Ja- pan will have "a pronounced, a well-de- fined character, and an intellectual greatness superior to that of ancient Greece and Rome, because restrained and illumined by the predominance and potency of moral characteristics which those great, nations did not possess." An unusually frank statement of facts, made after a searching investiga- tion into both the literature of the sub- ject and actual conditions in China, may be found in the book of Mr. Merwin, a journalist who went to China to study the subject of opium in all its relations to the human consumer. His pages fur- nish vivid pictures of the steady de- terioration of Chinese physique and British morality. He gives all the in- formation needed to show that the Chi- nese are sincere in their desire to get rid of what they believe to be a curse. The recent negative results, if not posi- tive failure, of the international opium conference furnish a startling com- mentary upon the author's predictions. He discriminates between the aroused moral sentiments of Great Britain's people, and the diplomatic adroitness of budget-makers in London. "The Brit- ish government is yielding to a tremen- dous popular clamor at home, but no- thing more." If the Rev. J. MacGowan be kin or descendant of the Rev. Dr. David J. MacGowan, who, a generation ago, fur- nished us with so many delightful tit- bits of information concerning nature and life in China, then this author has come well into his inheritance. He has drawn lively pictures of the Chinese way of thinking, working, dressing, eat- ing, and playing. Evidently, it is the average man, rather than the scholar, whom he describes as having a turbid mind, as given over to oblique meth- ods, having no love of truth in the ab- stract, and as being in general a bundle of contradictions. Nevertheless, all alien judgments must be taken with gener- ous reservation. Throughout, the tone of criticism, verging at times on the cynical, prevails over the sympathetic and truly interpretative. The author spares no realism in his description of Chinese houses and city streets, and in his judgments of the wife, who, "after a few weeks of married life,, loses the trim, neat appearance she had as a young girl. She drops naturally into the slattern ways of the women who are her neighbors." In spite of the ab- sence of soap and bathtubs, the Chi- nese are a laughter-loving race, fond of jokes, and too gay to grieve over pov- erty. His chapter on Shady Professions in Chinese Life is decidedly amusing. He describes the story-teller, popularly called the Narrator of Ancient Things, who is the historian of the common peo- ple, supplying the place of books and libraries. The story-teller is also re- sponsible for firing the blood and heat- ing the passions of the mob, by pictur- ing the great deeds of the past. Anoth- er chapter, on the Seamy Side of Chi- nese Life, furnishes the clearest argu- ment we have yet seen against the use of opium. He shows that there is no such thing as temperance in opium, as there is in the use of intoxicating liquors, for after six months of indulgence, the devo- tee can no longer call his life his own. He cannot let a single day pass without taking the amount of opium smoke nec- essary to relieve his agony of oppres- sion. There are a dozen handsome illus- trations in color, rich and striking, but there is no index. Not least in the literature relating to the Far East is the contribution of wo- men in recent years. Fully as valua- ble as Mrs. Fraser's "Letters from Ja- pan" are Mrs. Conger's "Letters from China." They take us into the Chinese court, showing how Manchu and Chi- nese ladies of high rank think and feel. Mrs. Conger not only enjoyed many a private conversation with the Empress Dowager and secured the painting of her picture by Miss Carl, but she also had the Manchu princesses and Chinese ladies of rank in her home and at her table as unhurried guests. Rigidly ob- serving Chinese etiquette in all its im- perative forms, she was all the more able to win concessions along lines where advance was possible. Once out of their bigotry and reserve, these gen- uine daughters of Eve showed a real and a winsome humanity. One feels that, judged by her own standards of light and knowledge, the late Empress Dowager was another Queen Elizabeth in her devotion to what she believed to v&

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634 The Nation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 be the good of her people. Certainly, the vulgar notions and most foreign representations of this forceful woman are caricatures. Mrs. Conger arrived in Peking in 1898, and remained seven years. Her narrative of the Boxer out- break and of life within the legation grounds during the siege is clear and vigorous; her richly illustrated and well-indexed book is vivid and fascinat- ing, and as a whole is likely to hold its own as a permanent contribution to our knowledge, not only of China, but of the less known half of it, the Chinese wo- man. England and the English from the American Point of View. By Price Collier. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons. $1.50 net. It would be rather hard to write on such a topic as Mr. Collier's out of rea- sonably full knowledge, and be uninter- esting— unless, indeed, one should at- tempt thoroughness and get too pains- taking, or else dip too deeply into phil- osophy. Mr. Collier evidently knows his England pretty well, and he has not tried either to be encyclopaedic or to produce a rival to Emerson's "English Traits." He is, moreover, decidedly con- temporaneous. His historical excursions are too brief, and too superficial, to af- fect the quality of his book. The Eng- land he discusses is the England one will find if one goes across this summer. Most Americans should therefore find the book rather readable — and not less so because it has no particular distinc- tion or profundity. To Mr. Collier's general view of the state and prospects of English civiliza- tion the German terror gives consider- able interest. The military and naval situation is one of the things he does not treat. But on the broad question of England's rivalry and competition with other modern nations he does give his opinion, and so pointedly that it commands more attention than anything else in the book. This, for instance, is rather strong language: Personally. I believe we stand at the parting of the ways, and that the student of England and the English is looking on to- day at the first indications of the decay of, in many respects, the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. The sun that never sets is setting. Nothing but a tremendous, almost miraculous, wrench can turn our stout, red-cheeked, honest, sport-loving John Bull away from his habits of cen- turies, to compete with his virile body against the nervous intelligence of a scien- tific age. . . . Though one may praise, and praise honestly, the game he has play- ed, and the manly way, upon the whole, he has played it, this need not interfere in the least with the conviction that he is being caught up with — which means, of course, ere long left behind — in the far more scien- tific game that Germany, Japan, and Amer- ica are playing. Mr. Collier probably does not believe, as one might infer he does, that the English have nothing but stout bodies to oppose to the intelligence of other peoples. Here, as throughout the book, his phrasing is far from happy, and he indulges in great looseness of expres- sion. In a whole chapter given over to the query, "Are the English dull?" he finds it at least debatable. His theory would seem to be, not precisely that the English are falling behind from sheer lack of intelligence, but that their pro- nounced racial characteristics and ten- dencies, which have enabled them to hold their own so well in past competi- tions, do not meet the demands of the competition they are facing to-day. It is hardly a new reflection; but we do not remember to have seen it advanced by any other writer quite so confidently as by this one. It is not, however, the main conten- tion of the book. In fact, there is no main contention. It is merely observa- tion and criticism, various in tone and topic, but bringing out rather clearly an impression of England and the Eng- lish as a whole, a mass. There is less of gossip and anecdote than one expects. The specific instance is usually lacking, and there is much carelessness in state- ment. But we think the general im- pression would probably strike the aver- age American who has been to England as fairly correct. Particular observa- tions would also commend themselves — as that England is decidedly a man's country, the women distinctly subordi- nating themselves to their husbands and fathers and brothers, and demand- ing for themselves far less than their American sisters; that It is also a land of tips, the usage prevailing in far high- er walks of life than with us; that the men in England, so far from being as a rule morose and surly in their inter- course with one another, are rather more cheerful and boyish than Americans; that the reading habit is less common and widespread than on this side, al- though the scholar class may surpass ours in thoroughness; and that the density of the lowest-class English ex- ceeds any conception the untravelled American can possibly have of it. The Philosophy of Long Life. By Jean Finot. Translated from the French by Harry Roberts. New York: John Lane Co. $2.50 net. The French people, no less than their dashing journalist who gives us this book, evidently agree with H. G. Wells that self-deception is the anaesthetic of life. They have bought out fourteen editions of "The Philosophy of Long Life." and their reviewers have lauded it profusely as a death-bed consolation. M. Finot is the smiling philosopher who has dispelled the terrors of old age and dissolution by invoking against them the "rigorous" teachings of modern science. It shatters one's inherited faith in French astuteness to discover that the chapters thus extolled are, in real- ity, neither philosophical nor scientific nor yet brighteners of life. M. Finot first shows that some people live longer than others; that temperance and out-of-door life better one's chances of filling out a century; and that pub- lic hygiene, assisted by medical re- search, is slowly lengthening the aver- age span. His proofs are a strange jum- ble of newspaper clippings, old wives' tales, and even less trustworthy legends. Roger Bacon's nonacentenarian and Niemens of Cugua, the 370-year-old Ben- galese, are cited along with the longev- ity cases from contemporary insurance records. The tales of extreme age among our Southern negroes are ac- cepted as confidingly as Metchnikoff's masterly studies. And, at the end, we are left with nothing richer than the oft-repeated hope of the Pasteur Insti- tute, that old age may prove to be a dis- ease whose onslaught can be postponed. Turning to the mystery of death, M. Finot puts a guess in the place of every wanting fact. His attempt to take away its imaginary sting results in a gro- tesque play upon Claude Bernard's hack- neyed thought that life is death and death life: The laugh which makes our faces beam, the thought which wrinkles our forehead . . . are always accompanied by a death of the cells. On the other hand, death is the begin- ning of a new life: The body still lives under ground. Its life, though of a different nature, does not cease to be life in the biological sense. . . . Putrefaction is a modification of the molecular balance of a substance. And this decomposing matter itself is animate; has not "the new physics," with its evolution of atoms, proved Hy- lozoism? In short, M. Finot glosses over the difference between the two states by dwelling on their chemical resemblances and by pretending that the wearing out of a living cell (catabolism) is identical with the suspension of the cell's func- tion (death). His "gospel of love and kindness" finds its deepest solace in the joy of the worms over man's last dis- comfiture. A more hideous caricature- of optimism was never drawn. Its al- leged popularity is only fresh evidence of the blight cast by pseudo-science on many minds. Science. Artificial and Natural Flight. By Sir- Hiram Maxim. New York: The Mac- millan Co. $1.75 net. Sir Hiram Maxim is one of the most distinguished of the more recent pio- neers in aviation. Like Ader, Kress, and Langley, he failed to produce the first. I

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jtjg - i^rt^g^ ^s ,or> t x ^ft June 24, 1909] The Nation 635 Dr. A. T. Schofield, who has already written at length on functional nerve dis- eases, seeks in "Nervousness," a little book of eighty pages (Moffat, Yard & Co.), to encourage the moral treatment of such troubles. He aims apparently at the lay- man, although many physicians might well heed the lesson. The doctrine of the sub- conscious mind and that the troubles of the neurasthenic or the neuromimetlc are really practical flying machine because he undertook too much at once, i. e., to build a full fledged dynamic flyer, carrying a man, before he thoroughly knew how it was to be managed and to preserve its balance in the turmoils of the wind. He did, however, greatly ad- vance the art and furnished important data to others. He now gives a resume of his work in this little book of 165 pages, so that a more accurate title would be: "My Experiments in Artifi- cial Flight." Sir Hiram is a very in- genious and able engineer, intensely practical and scornful of theories. The reader will frequently be amused with his flings at the mathematicians who undertake to solve the problem of flight by formulae based upon insufficient data. He believes in experiment and observa- tion and gives some interesting remarks upon air currents and the flight of sail- ing birds as well as kites, and also a chapter on balloons, the day of which he believes to be past. Sir Hiram began his principal experi- ments in 1889. He first ascertained the efficiency of aeroplanes, screws, con- densers, etc., and the resistance of va- rious shapes attached to a rotating arm or "whirling table," and then built from his own designs a very large aero- plane flyer, weighing some 8,000 pounds, with 4,000 or more square feet of sus- taining surfaces, carrying three men and equipped with driving screws, con- denser, and a compound steam engine (363 horse-power) of marvellous light- ness. This was tested many times in captive flight to ascertain its general behavior. It finally burst through its retaining track, entering upon free flight for a few hundred feet, but prov- ing so unstable in the wind that it soon fell and was broken on alighting. It has not been rebuilt, for various rea- sons, but we hope Sir Hiram will find leisure to carry out the suggestions which he offers in his chapter, "Hints as to the Building of Flying Ma- chines." The greater part of the book appears to have been written early in 1908, for doubts are expressed as to the reported performances of the Wright brothers, while credence is given them in the ap- pendix. Mr. Maxim holds that all ma- chines that have met with any success have been made on the same general lines, which do not differ greatly from those of the large machine which he made at Baldwyn's Park many years ago. by no means imaginary diseases, although due to the imagination, is the basis of his argument. In the matter of treatment Dr. Schofield holds that some form of sug- gestion acting on the unconscious mind is the true therapy, drugs being commonly of little or no value. For hypnotism in this connection he has only condemnation. The personality of the physician seems to him the important thing and he looks fa- vorably upon the "Emmanuel Movement." Little is said of diagnosis, already else- where fully treated by him, but somewhat more emphasis might well be laid on the importance of carefully determining that the disease really is functional, a work which cannot be undertaken by a layman, however good his intentions. The fact that quacks— not the blatant quacks that seek to persuade people to be ill, but well meaning, even pious quacks— are success- ful practitioners of medicine seems to es- cape the author's attention. And what of the possibility that an unconscious mind may act on another unconscious mind in a beneficial manner? From Neustadt comes the report of the death of Dr. Georg von Neumayer, at the age of eighty-two. As early as 1857 he came to the conclusion that Melbourne was the best place for physical observation, and established a station there which was afterward taken over by the British govern- ment. In 1864 he returned to Germany, and in 1872 was made head of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty. Among his publications are: "Magnetical, Meteorolog- ical, and Nautical Observations," "Discus- sion of Magnetic and Meteorological Ob- servations Made in Melbourne, 1857-64," "Anleitung zu wissenschaftlichen Beobach- tungen auf Reisen," and "Die Beobachtung- en der deutsehen Stationen 1m System der internationalen Polart'orschung." Drama. The Bancrofts: Recollections of Sixty Years. By M. and S. Bancroft. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. $5. These reminiscences of Squire Ban- croft and his wife, Marie Wilton, al- though, like most theatrical autobiog- raphies, they contain much that is su- perfluous and trivial, and bear the fa- miliar marks of that naive egoism which seems to be the inevitable con- sequence of life before the footlights, make pleasant reading, and really con- stitute a valuable record. Few stage per- formers of modern times have had more reputable or more successful careers; few have contributed more to the honor of their profession; few have more thoroughly deserved the rewards which fortune showered upon them. Unendow- ed with the supreme gift of genius, both fought their way to the front rank by dint of hard work, aided by sound nat- ural intelligence, and, when once united in matrimony and management, they faithfully strove together for the best artistic results. Marie Wilton's earliest experience was in the legitimate. She was Fleance to the Macbeth of Macready. Later she played Arthur to the Constance of Miss Glyn, a pupil of Charles Kemble and a tragic actress of rare intuition and power. After that she drifted into the company of the Bristol Theatre, then famous under the rule of Chute, a capa- ble man and exacting teacher. Kate and Ellen Terry, Madge Robertson, Henriet- ta Hodson, Charles Coghlan, and many another notable performer were grad- uates of his school. Soon she made so marked a hit as the boy in "Belphegor" that Charles Dillon took her to London, where she at once attracted attention, especially as Perdita in a burlesque of "The Winter's Tale" by William Brough. Her next triumph was as a boy in one of Byron's extravaganzas, and so she reached the Strand Theatre, of which she was one of the leading at- tractions in boys' parts for years. Dick- ens, no mean judge, was almost extrav- agant in her praise. But she never got more than $45 a week in those days, public favorite as she was. As for Brancroft, he too learned his trade in a severe apprenticeship in the provinces. In four years he played 350 parts, of every imaginable description. Much of his experience was gained in Birmingham, Dublin, and Liverpool, and it was in the last named city that he first met Marie Wilton, who induced him to go to London. There he soon became a member of the company which his future wife and H. J. Byron or- ganized for the now famous experiment with the despised old Queen's Theatre, then contemptuously called the dust- hole. Marie Wilton's capital was $5,000, of which only $750 remained when the dilapidated structure had been trans- formed into the dainty Prince of Wales's Theatre. It is unnecessary now to rehearse the details of that famous campaign, of which the whole world knows the history. But it is worth while to glance at some of the results. Doubtless the Bancrofts owed much to Tom Robertson's plays, which — what- ever their defects, according to some of the canons of latter-day criticism — unquestionably opened up what was at that time a new and rich dramatic field. But it must not be forgotten that they gave Robertson his chance and backed him with all the resources of a most liberal and enlightened pol- icy. Illustrious French critics admitted that their representations were worthy of the best Parisian stage. They did actually found a new school, and wrought something like a revolution in the degenerate early Victorian Theatre. The public appreciation of their «work was instant and permanent, and their profits, for that period, were enor- mous. But from the first they shared their prosperity with their company. To meet their increasing expenses they

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636 The ISTation. [Vol. 88, No. 2295 were obliged to raise the prices of ad- mission. They were the first managers in London to charge $2.50 for an or- chestra stall. The value of their system, that of the ideal stock company, was manifested in the most striking way, when the Rob- ertson series of comedies was at last exhausted. A common criticism was that they could excel only in "teacup and saucer comedy," but one of their most brilliant successes was in "The School for Scandal," and from this they proceeded, in due course, with equally good results, to "The Rivals," "Money," "Diplomacy" — in which Marie Wilton, the former burlesquer, proved herself fully equal to the difficult part of Zicka, (and many other memorable achieve- ments. They were able to return to dignified ease after twenty years of almost un- precedented prosperity. They aband- oned management, Mr. Bancroft says. simply because they saw that it would be impossible to keep their company up to its high level in the face of the commercial competition of the star and syndicate system. Undoubtedly Mr. Bancroft was a manager of extraordi- nary capacity and astuteness. It was he who suggested to Harry Irving, in the Bateman days, that a policy similar to that which he had observed at the Prince of Wales's would pay at the Lyceum. But, he adds, "spending is one thing and waste another." In this rapid sketch many interest- ing incidents in the notable careers of Sir Squire and Lady Bancroft, as they are now known, have been necessarily omitted. They are worthy pillars of the modern stage, and their book is full of interesting and often pregnant mat- ter. We regret to report the death at Llan- dridnod Wells, Wales, of the well-known dramatic author, St. John Hankin. Mr. Hankin was born in 1869. His first liter- ary work was done for the Saturday Re- view. Since then he has written largely for the Times and Punch. His publications are as follows: "Mr. Punch's Dramatic Sequels" (1901), "The Two Mr. Wetherbys" (1902), "Lost Masterpieces" (1904), "The Return of the Prodigal" (1905), "The Char- ity That Began at Home" (1906), "The Cas- silis Engagement" (1907), and translation of "Les Trois Filles de M. Dupont," by Brieux, for presentation before the Stage Society, 1905. Art. The most interesting thing in the June Burlington is the frontispiece — a photo- gravure reproduction of a portrait of a lady, supposed to be Margaret Wyatt, Lady Lee, attributed to Holbein. The only rea- son for doubt in the attribution seems to be an "unusual redness of tone," which is, of course, invisible ill the reproduction. Perhaps the drawing of the arms and hands is a little below Holbein's best standard, but the perfection of spacing within the frame, the beautiful arrangement of dark and light masses, the delicate and masterly drawing of the head, and its subtlety of modelling are surely above the attainments of any contemporary. One has only to look at the other illustrations of the article on "Some Portraits of Tudor Times" to see the gulf which separates their authors from a great painter like Holbein. As the edi- tor remarks in a foot-note: If we do not accept the attribution to Holbein, we must apparently presume the existence of some other remarkable master, of whom no precisely similar example is known. It is easier to believe that Holbein, for once, painted in an unusually red tone than that some other, and quite unknown, mas- ter was capable of this exquisite work. Oth- er interesting illustrations are of a digni- fied portrait of an elderly lady (Comtesse de Verrue?) supposed to be an early work of Watteau, and of two pictures by Wilson Steer which, together with a third by the same artist, have been given by Mrs. Li- onel Phillips to Johannesburg as the found- ation of an art gallery for that city. As well as one may judge by black-and-white translations, the pictures go some way to- ward justifying the profuse, not to say ex- travagant, praise of the writer of the ac- companying article. The landscape, Corfe Castle, shows the same mingling of the in- fluences of Constable and Monet which marks the example recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum, but has a fine sweep of line and a largeness of composi- tion; the figure piece, The Balcony, looks not unworthy of comparison with our own Tarbell's treatment of similar subjects of gt nrc. George P. Bankart, "architect and crafts- man." as he denominates himself on the. title-page of his work on "The Art of the Plasterer" (imported by *Scribners), has vindicated his right to this designation by the skill, taste, and erudition displayed in this handsome book. He has furthermore rendered a real service to architects and decorators on both sides of the ocean by setting before them, through actual ex- amples, the possibilities of a beautiful, but sadly neglected, form of decorative art. While chiefly concerned with English ex- amples, which he illustrates and describes in surprising number and variety, the au- thor has given a concise but admirably handled sketch of the history of decora- tion in stucco and plaster, particularly o£ the ancient Roman and the renaissance Italian developments of the art; and the treatment of British plaster work, from the middle ages down to the present time, is also historical in arrangement. But while Mr. Bankart displays the fruits o£ wide and careful historical research, he writes throughout in the spirit of the artist and craftsman, and with intimate knowl- edge of the works he describes. The tech- nical side of the subject is not ignored, but it is not obtruded, and might well have received somewhat more prominence. The illustrations are numerous and of a re- markably high average quality, mostly photographic, but with a sufficient number of plans, sections, and details interspersed. American architects and decorators would do well to make the acquaintance of this book. There is no reason why the art it treats of should not be revived in our own modern work. It should be, moreover, in- teresting to study what examples remain of our own eighteenth-century plaster work before it wholly disappears. There is a good index. From A. C. McClurg & Co. of Chicago comes an anonymous essay of fifty pages called "What Is a Picture?" followed by twelve pages of art aphorisms, which turn out to be a collection of what the author considers the most pregnant sentences of the essay, divorced from their context, and rearranged in a new disorder. There is nothing in the aphorisms or in the essay that needed to be printed. A. M. Robertson of San Francisco pub- lishes a thin volume of letters and notes on painting by Arthur Atkins, a young artist, who died in 1899 at the age of twen- ty-six. The little book also contains a por- trait and half a dozen reproductions of 'andscape sketches in a vein apparently reminiscent of Whistler. The work is a memorial of friendship, and one can be- lieve that the subject was a man of promise, but there is little in picture or text to qnppal to a wide public. The necessity for more stringent laws for the protection against theft of Italian works of art exposed in public places is made evident by the report of a Parliamentary committee which has just published a list of generally successful robberies made dur- ing the past five years in Tuscany alone. This list includes no less than fifty-five towns, reporting from one to twelve cases. Churches, especially their exteriors, and street shrines seem most to invite aggres- sion. While paintings, bronzes, church sil- ver, and marble bas-reliefs have had their attractions, Delia Robbias and other terra- cottas most frequently tempt these purvey- ors to collectors. In one instance a modern copy was substituted for the original mar- bb bas-relief. The death is announced of Eugene Bour- geois, the French decorative artist. He is well known for his work on the Orleans and Invalides stations in Paris, and also for small pictures of scenes in Normandy and Brittany. Edward John Gregory, R.A., president ot the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors, died at Great Marlow, Eng., June 22. He was born in 1850, and learned his art at the South Kensington Museum. "Boul- ter's Lock" at Maidenhead on the Thames was the most popular o£ his paintings. Finance. THE REPORT ON THE EXCHANGES. The wisdom of Gov. Hughes, in refer- ring to a committee of private citizens the question of reform legislation for financial and commercial exchanges in this State, is as fully vindicated in the result as was his similar expedient re- garding reform of the trust-company laws. The popular indictment, out of which rose the investigation of the exchanges, was partly based on close and intimate 1

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'-*■ lit liW >-i^:>^wv>^/aA<V June 24, 1909] The Nation. 637 knowledge of Stock Exchange proced- ure; partly, on complete ignorance of the mechanism of exchanges. It is quite certain that a good part of the com- plaint against the Stock Exchange, in particular, was a complaint against spec- ulation itself. The evils of speculation By the ignorant and credulous portion of the community were manifest. It was on the Stock Exchange that this speculation was principally carried out. Therefore, let the Stock Exchange be regulated so as to put an end to specu- lation. Along with this more or less vague demand came a very different criticism, based on assertions that part of the actual daily transactions on the Stock Exchange, whereby volume of bus- iness is determined and movement of prices regulated, was in reality a col- lusive and deceptive business, in which the same people, acting indirectly both as buyers and sellers, were using the Exchange to mislead its legitimate in- vestment customers. With the first of these demands the White committee deals effectively and conclusively. It does not deny that ignorant speculation is an evil. Even as to outsiders with capital, expe- rience, and knowledge of business con- ditions, the committee states, as a re- sult of its long and thorough hearings that on the average, with commissions and interest charges always running against them, and with good luck and bad luck necessarily alternating, spec- ulation on borrowed money pretty sure- ly ends in "forcing them out of the Street." As to the inexperienced specu- lators, "almost without exception they eventually lose." Nevertheless, to inter- vene by law with a sweeping prohibi- tion will hardly meet the situation. "Trading on margin" has been freely and indiscriminately denounced. But the committee points out that "purchas- ing securities on margin is as legiti- mate a transaction as a purchase of any other property in which part payment is deferred." This conclusion is, in princi- ple, hardly open to dispute, unless the buying of real estate with a 60 per cent, mortgage on it is also to be proscribed. The committee recommends, however, that no purchase of stocks ought to be allowed on less than a 20 per cent, margin of cash payment; a provision which would at least do away with the most seductive temptation and surest guarantee of loss to the ignorant specu- lator. Another of the more hap-hazard de- mands for reform has taken the shape of proposed abolition of "short selling." it has been seriously argued that some- thing ethically wrong is involved in selling what one does not at the time . possess, and that "short sales" are a species of conspiracy to destroy legiti- mate values. The committee shows with great clearness, not only that the entering on a contract to deliver here- after what the contractor does not at the moment own is a perfectly normal and proper undertaking, common to all business, but that, on the Stock Ex- change particularly, it is the strongest restraining influence against fictitious and unwarranted marking-up of prices. By far the most difficult part of the committee's labors had to do with al- leged improper and illegitimate manipu- lation of prices, under the shelter of the Stock Exchange. This is a question which deeply affects the interests, not only of the general public, but of the Stock Exchange itself. It is an evil which, if it exists, is bound to grow to especially dangerous proportions at times when powerful capitalists and in- stitutions are engaged in the work of fostering "bull movements." To tempt the outside public in, a semblance of violent activity and a show of already advancing prices are notoriously the readiest means, and it has been freely alleged that both these achievements have been accomplished without the awkward necessity of buying from some one else, and paying for, the mass of se- curities involved. If in this matter the committee's find- ings and recommendations are less con- clusive, that is because the matter was peculiarly complicated. Manipulation with a view to creating a market for new securities, the committee holds, "when not accompanied by 'matched or- ders,' is unobjectionable per se," and "has certain advantages" in establish- ing regular quotations at which inves- tors, at the very start, may buy and sell. But manipulation "in order to draw in the public as buyers and unload upon them the holdings of the operators, or to depress the prices and induce the public to sell," is declared to be an un- mixed evil. The remedy, however, is exceedingly difficult to find, save in the discipline of the Stock Exchange itself. Such is the necessary machinery of the Exchange, that distribution, even of "matched orders," may be arranged bj an outside party, through the medium of brokers wholly innocent of complic- ity. The committee, therefore, lays the duty of restraint and reform squarely at the door of the Stock Exchange au- thorities themselves. "Instances of con- tinuous manipulation," it concludes, "are patent to every experienced observ- er, and could without difficulty be dis- couraged, if not prevented, by prompt action on the part of the Exchange au- thorities." This is a finding which places definite public responsibility on the shoulders of the institution. Space is lacking to take up the nu- merous further recommendations of the report— some of them highly important — regarding not only the Stock Ex- change, but the other similar organiza- tions in other markets. What is review- ed above is the part of the committee's task which has chiefly occupied the pub- lic mind. The report as a whole is wor- thy the careful study and consideration of every business man. BOOKS OF THE WEEK. Abbey, George. The Balance of Nature: A Practical Manual of Animal Foes and Friends. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net. American Bar Association: Report of the Thirty-first annual meeting. Baltimore: The Lord Baltimore Press. Auvergne, Edmund B. d'. Lola Montez : An Adventuress of the Forties. John Lane Co. $4 net. Bagot, Richard. Anthony Cuthbert Bren- tano's. Bailey, John C. The Claims of French Poetry: Nine Studies in the Greater French Poets. New York: Mitchell Ken- nerley. $2.50 net. Barber, Edwin Atlee. The Pottery and Por- celain of the United States: An Historical Review of American Ceramic Art from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. (Third Edition.) Putnams. Belleli, L. An Independent Examination of the Assuan and Elephantine Aramaic Papyri. London: Luzac & Co. Blom, Ada. The Biography of a New York Hotel Scrub. New York: Ada Blom. 25 cents. Bradley, A. C. Oxford Lectures on Poetry. Macmillan. $3 net. Browning, Captain. Auction Bridge and How to Play It. Dutton & Co. 75 cents. Carotti, Dr. G. A History of Art. Vol. II (Part I). Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. Collier, James. Sir George Grey, Gover- nor, High Commissioner, and Premier : an Historical Biography. London : Whitcombe and Tombs. Count Liitzow. The Life and Times of Master John Hus. Dutton & Co. $4 net. Davis, Foxcroft. The Whirl : A Romance of Washington Society. Dodd, Mead. $1.50. Day. Sarah J. Mayflowers to Mistletoe: A Year with the Flower Folk. (Second Edi- tion.) Putnams. Ditchfield, P. H. The Old-Time Parson. Second edition. Dutton & Co. $2.50 net. Eliot, Charles W. Education for Efficiency and the New Definition of the Cultivated Man. Houghton Mifflin. 35 cents. Francis, John Collins. Notes by the Way. With Memoirs of Joseph Knight, F.S.A. London: G. Fisher Unwin. Frizell, William G. Out of the Way Places. Dayton: United Brethren Publishing House. $1.20 net. Fulton, Robert I., and Trueblood, Thomas C. Essentials of Public Speaking. Ginn & Co. 90 cents. Green, Olive. How to Cook Vegetables. Put- nams. Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason. Adrift on an Ice-Pan. Houghton Mifflin. 75 cents net. Hall, Arthur Graham, and Frink, Fred Goodrich. Trigonometry. Henry Holt & Co. $1.40. Hall, Bolton. Life and Love and Peace. New York: Arcadia Press. Hoogvliet, Dr. J. M. Elements of Dutch. (Seventh Edition.) The Hague: Martincs Nijhoff. Hughes. James L. Teaching to Read. Barnes & Co. 50 cents. Jewett, John Howard. Friends of the Hunted. Dodge Publishing Co. $1. Knight, E. F. The Awakening of Turkey. Philadelphia: Lippincott Co. Kottas, Dr. Karl. Thomas Randolph : Sein Leben und Seine Werke. Wien: Wilhelm Braumiiller. Law. Frederick Houk. Ad Miriam. Put- nams. Lester, Oliver Clarence. The Integrals of Mechanics. Ginn & Co 80 cents. Letts, W. M. Diana Dethroned. John Lane Co. $1.50. Lewis. Lawrence. The Advertisements of The Spectator: Being a study of the Lit- erature. History and Manners of Queen Anne's England, as well as an Illustration of the Origins of the Art of Advertising. Houghton Mifflin Co $2 net. Lucy, Henry W. Sixty Years in the Wilder- ness. Dutton & Co. $3 net. Lyman. William Denison. The Columbia River: Its Historv. its Myths, its Scenery, its Commerce. Putnams. s

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(viS The Nation [Vol. 88, No. 2295 Mackail, J. W. Swinburne: A Lecture Delivered Before the University on April L909. Henry Frowde. Oester'en, Prledrich Werner van. Amies Kalabrlep. Wien : Verlag Lumen. Pemberton, Max. The Show Girl. Poiiu !. 1 phia: John C. Winston Co. $1.50. Pickering, William H. A Search lor a Planet Beyond Neptune. Annals of the astronomical observatory of Harvard illege; Vol. LXI, Partii. Cambridge, .tlass. I'iiion, J. Allanson. Man and the Bible: A Review of the Place of the Bible in Human History. Henry Holt & Co. $2. P erce, William. An Historical Introduc- i in tin- Marprelate Tracts: A hapter in the Evolution of Religious and Civil ' Liberty in England. Dutton & 0. $3 net. ^ion and Life: Chapel Addresses by >l>ers of the Faculty of the Meadville Theological School. Boston: Sherman, neh & Co. $1.10 net. -. Joseph Thompson. S; ain of To-day: - Narrative Guide to the Country of the Dons. The Grafton Press. Smith, Goldwin. No Refuge but in Truth. (Second Edition. Enlarged.) Putnams. Sophocles. The Trachinian Maidens. Trans- lated into English verse by Hugo Sharp- ley. London: David Nutt. Stanard, Mary Newton. The Dreamer: a Romantic Rendering of the Life-story of Edgar Allan Poe. Richmond, Va. : Bell Book & Stationery Co. Synge, John M. Poems and Translations. Churchtown. Dundrum, Cuala Press. Taxation of Corporations. Report on the System of Taxing in New England. Part I. Washington: Government Printing Office. The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler: With a Supplementary Memoir by His "Wife. Houghton Miffiin. $4 net. The History of the Seal of the United States. Washington: Government Printing Office. The Rise and Progress of the British Ex- plosives Industry. Macmillan. $5.25 net. The Smokeless Combustion of Coal in Boiler Plants. Washington: Government Print- ing Office. The Statesman's Year-Book. Forty-sixth Annual Publication. Macmillan. $3 net. The Water-Colours of J. M. W. Turner. Text by W. G. Rawlinson and A. G. Fin- berg. John Lane Co. $3 net. Thorold, Algar. Six Masters in Disillusion. Dutton & Co. $1.50 net. Thwing, Charles F. Education in the Far East. Houghton Mifflin Co. $1.50 net. Tower, Walter Sheldon. The Story of Oil. Appleton & Co. Trenholme, Rev. Edward Craig. The Story of lona. Edinburgh: David Douglas. Verrier, Paul. Essai sur les Principes de la Metrique Anglaise. Two parts. Paris: Librairie Universitaire. Wenzlaff, Gustav Gottlieb. The Mental Man: an outline of the Fundamentals of Psychology. Merrill Co. $1.10. Winslow, Helen M. A Woman for Mayor: a Novel of To-day. Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co. $1.50. Witkowski, Dr. Georg. The German Drama of the Nineteenth Century: Authorized translation from the second German edi- tion by L. E. Horning. Henry Holt & Co. Wood, H. G. Ideal Metrology in Nature, Art, Religion, and History. Dorchester, Mass.. H. G. Wood.

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