Merwin adduces new
mind undoubtedly had, could not well be
which Bret Harte sprang, its systematic proofs of this), and was as honest as a
at ease within the four walls of the home.
mind undoubtedly had, could not well be
which Bret Harte sprang, its systematic proofs of this), and was as honest as a
at ease within the four walls of the home.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
James T.
Fields
justifies itself by the discovery of a good Miss Jewett, whose position of unique distinction among the women writers of America is undisputed, was an
play or a promising playwright. Ruther- admirable letter writer. Her familiar letters to her intimate friends are full of character and charm; dealing as they do
ford and Son' and its author, Miss K. G.
with her daily interests, her reading, her opinions, her friendships and travels, they present a picture of the
writer's life
that will of most profound interest to the thousands of lovers of her books. The letters have been edited by
Sowerby, were discovered at the Court in Mrs. James T. Fields, who, as a life-long friend of Miss Jewett, is peculiarly qualified for the task.
this way, and it was only right that the
Illustrated.
Demy 8vo. 108. ed. net.
to .
-
Orlo Williams
occasional flatness-it does at least come to
"A book that should prove a valuable addition to our knowledge of Charles Lamb and his circle, apart from the
grips with real life, real problems, and
individual interest attaching to its subject. "-Westminster Gazette. Mr. Williams' labours are in portant; for he has
characters. Its theme, the revolt of a brought to light several new points concerning Charles Lainb. "-Daily Mail. “Altogether this is a most interesting and
tyrannical mill-owner's children against his informing collection of letters. ” — Morning Post.
harshness and his sacrifice of his family's
every interest to
Yoshio Markino
of our time, and is alive with the passion
of conflicting wills. Its atmosphere, that Tlustrated by the Author, with 6 Platos in Colour and 20 Black and White Drawings. (68. net. )
of a dreary household in a dreary North- Rarely has more refreshing and penetrating criticism been passed upon the English woman of to-day than, by the
Country town, is wonderfully suggested by a
well-known Japanese artist and writer, Mr. Yoshio Markino, who, as will be seen in this book, deftly analyzes the
character of our countrywomen, and shows us how they appear to the enlightened Eastern mind.
variety of details. No one who desires that
our dramatists should hold a mirror up to
A BOOK FOR EVERY OXFORD MAN.
life can afford to miss seeing this piece at
the Little Theatre, especially as it is acted
Thomas Seccombe, M. A.
.
H. Spencer Scott, M. A.
a future occasion Miss Sowerby Vol. II-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Now Ready.
will consider it advisable to answer a call Vol. I. -HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. Already Published.
for the author in person.
Domy 8vo, 6s, net per volume, sold separately.
THE 'Hippolytus' offers some obscurities "No Oxford man could fail to spend many a pleasant hour dipping into this fat Oxford anthology, crammed with
of interpretation, is painful in theme, and interesting things. No Oxford man should fail to get this second instalment of Messrs. Seccombe and Scott's great
less universal in emotional and intellectual Oxford anthology. ” –Observer.
appeal than the other great plays of Euri.
situations, intense, chaotic, and
adrift,
the dramatist's
Illustrated.
E. Huntington
mind into his work. The only way to
(88. 6d. net. )
appreciate the play is to act it.
Author of The Pulse of Asia. '
This the Poetry Society, in their perform- " It is a most closely studied and suggestive book, and moreover excellently written. . . . We congratulate Mr.
ance
of it at London University, failed to do. Huntington on the most illuminating study of Palestinian geography which has yet appeared. It is a most creditable
By professing to avoid a " theatrical atmo- delightfully readable. No one who contemplates a visit to Palestine ought to omit to study it beforehand. It will add
sphere," they emphasized the amateurishness enormously both to the profit and pleasure of the tour," is the opinion of the Geographical Journal.
of their rendering, affectedness of intonation,
and a simplesse which was very far from
simplicity. Gaucherie and lack of aptness
were tiresomely, pronounced. The actors ANCIENT ROME
net.
had no sense of corporate spirit, but de-
J. Benedict Carter
claimed their parts rather as if they were “It treats succinctly, and with much attractiveness of style, the phases and significance of religious manifestations
at an elocution lesson than a play. Miss and intuitions in early, republican, and imperial Rome, and subsequently gives a lucid sketch of the great struggle
Efza Myers, who was compelled to take
between the Pagan and Christian systems of thought, up to the Arst streaks, the early dawn' of the Holy Roman
Empire. The author intersperses much fertile theory of his own amid the business of chronicling. "-Athenaeum.
Phædra at very short notice, acquitted
herself competently in a difficult part. The
Lion Phillimore
little justice to Prof. Murray's translation.
“She adds a graphic pen and a keen eye not only for detail, but for beauty and significance. "-Times. . . “ Her
freshness of mind, her receptivity, and her vivid instinct for beauty makes her writing individual and attractive. "-
TO CORRESPONDENTS. — C. T. 0. -K. S. H. -C. B. -
Athenaeum. “Mrs. Phillimore's method of doing it and telling it and thinking it, constitutes the charm of this
J. H. M. -J. V. -W. M. -Received.
picturesque book. "- Daily Chronicle.
W. H. H. -All right
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.
C. F. Tucker Brooke
We cannot undertake to reply to inquiries concerning the
appearance of reviews of books.
B. Litt. Oxon. 88. net.
A History of English National Drama to the retirement of Shakespeare.
“It is a scholarly and fascinating work, full of information and exact. "-Scotsman.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
AUTHORS' AGENTS
BELL & Co.
NEW 6- NOVELS
BLACKWOOD & SONS
Una L. Silberrad
CATALOGUES
CONSTABLE
& CO.
(Second Impression. )
EDUCATIONAL
EXHIBITIONS
Mrs. George Wemyss
GRIFFIN & Co.
HARPER & BROS.
INSURANCE COMPANIES
LONGMANS & Co.
Valentina Hawtrey
MACMILLAN & Co.
326, 328
MAGAZINES, &e. . .
MATHEWS
W. E. Norris
MISCELLANEOUS .
MUDIE'S
NASH
PRINTERS
Vincent O'Sullivan
PROVIDENT INSTITUTIONS
SALES BY AUCTION
SCOTT
328
SHIPPING
SITUATIONS VACANT
SITUATIONS WANTED
SOCIETIES . .
TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
325 CONSTABLE &
CO.
LONDON W. C.
.
UNWIN
LTD.
RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
(88. 6d. )
monotonous crescendo of the chorus did IN THE CARPATHIANS (105. 82. )
THE TUDOR DRAMA
::
PAOR
326
351
349
325
348
325
325
327
351
350
328
326
350
326
350
351
326
SUCCESS
A LOST INTEREST
HERITAGE
PAUL'S PARAGON
THE GOOD GIRL
EVERYBODY'S BOY
325
326
Lindsay Bashford
350
325
325
325
352
## p. 357 (#271) ############################################
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
357
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE . .
WITH THE TURKS IN TRIPOLI
359
66
359-360
360
.
361
362
FORTHCOMING BOOKS. .
365
LITERARY GOSSIP
366
SCIENCE :- THE THEORY OF IMMUNITY; CATALOGUE
867-369
369-371
FORMANCES NEXT WEEK
. .
371-372
372
372
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
was
)
to the suspicious mind of the eager and deliverances. Very properly, he does not
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912. ignorant reader, untold possibilities of attempt to piss it by. But he can neither
exposure.
forget it a erwards nor absorb it by
Something of this dubitative atttiude translation into a rational and compre-
towards his subject goes far to spoil the hending vi w of the man. For ourselves,
867 general effect of Mr. Merwin's book,
we regard it as of cardinal significance for
358 tempting us to say of it, as he says of Mr. | the study, not only of Bret Harte's
BOOKS ON CHINA (The New China; China in Trans- Howells's account of a dinner at which character, but also of his literary per-
formation)
Bret Harte was
NEW NOVELS (The Ministry of Poll Poorman; In
a commensal,” that sonality.
Cotton Wool)
it “ somehow leaves an unpleasant im- Such a moral outcome as this seems
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS (The Child of the Dawn; Oxford pression. ” Regarding that account we
Mountaineering Essays; Beauty and Ugliness)
to the present reviewer to have been
certainly agree with him. Indeed, had it probable - indeed, almost inevitable -
NOTES FROX CAMBRIDGE; PEACE,' A PROTEST
not been imparted to the world by an given the case of an organization and
LIST OP New Books . .
honoured man of letters, whose creative early history like Bret Harte's. There
work testifies to an industrious faculty of is abundant evidence to show that his
note-taking, we should frankly refuse to was an organization sensitive almost to
OF 9,842 STARS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS Next believe it. But if humorous exaggerations, vibrancy: with a sensitiveness, however,
WEEK; ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORIES; GOSSIP such as will creep into the matter and not perturbed and obvious, but happy,
form of literary reminiscences of a highly social, dreamlike, and fatalistic in its
FINE ARTS—THE HEROIC AGE; SPRING EXHIBITION
AT MR. MCLEAN'S GALLERIES; WORKS BY Miss
topical” and widely expected kind, record of the moving picture of experience.
MARGARET GERE AND MR. C. M. GERE ; GOSSIP may leave an impression which, besides A being thus preoccupied and habitually
being unpleasant, is not quite fair-so, responsive to the sense of surroundings
MUSIC - BRAHMS'S VOCAL WORKS; GOSSIP; PER-
also, essential injustice may be done by - living in a blend of subjective states
DRAMA-GOSSIP. .
our being too tender about a good man's in which interest was indistinguishable
faults. To touch upon them as some from reverie — was more than half a
thing which one would rather leave alone solitary by organic fate, and was likely
is to create an impression that they were to make but a half-surrender to the
more shameful than they really were. formulated social will, the claim of fixed
They are to be approached bravely, in relations.
LITERATURE
the spirit of the naturalist, with our
Let us say that it was a tragedy-
attention fixed upon the whole man.
the tragedy of temperament - and try
The difficult truth about Bret Harte to bring the consequences under their
The Life of Bret Harte, with some Account
is easily told under two headings. He proper heading. That responsiveness to
in the honourable succession of the sights and sounds of the world, to
of the California Pioneers. By Henry literary and other men deficient in the the intimate human qualities of scenes
Childs Merwin. (Chatto & Windus. )
money sense. "
He did not make much and people, was not the matrix in
money, and he had no talent for the which the domestic virtues grow strong
The only preceding 'Life of Bret Harte' husbanding of what he did make. and rule. He who had absorbed, under
(that by Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, 1903), Having many affinities with the eighteenth the high tension of a richly potential
though written with the advantage of century - and a supreme respect for its adolescence, the whole shifting scene
intimate acquaintance, left ample room literary models-he genially perpetuated of California in the fifties — absorbed it
for an adequate biography by somebody one of its discredited traditions. He did until he had been remade of what he
else. The present work, composed with not regard the character of the debtor with saw — had organic warrant surely, if
the almost equal advantage of non- that just horror which is, we hope and not social excuse, for failing in the end
acquaintance, leaves us still the pensioners believe, common in our more scrupulous to adjust his life to fixed relationships.
of hope. It makes an approximation to age. It is something that Bret Harte We may say that the
the ideal thing, indeed, by its interesting was always meeting or intending to meet had become California, as Bret Harte's
details regarding the family stock from his liabilities (Mr.
Merwin adduces new
mind undoubtedly had, could not well be
which Bret Harte sprang, its systematic proofs of this), and was as honest as a
at ease within the four walls of the home.
account of the social scene of his stories, man habitually embarrassed and good. There is a kind of man, indeed, outside
and its more obvious relation to the humoured about it could be. Yet most the usual run of humanity whose only
world of intellectual and critical dis- people do not love Harold Skimpole and proper home is an inn, or the guest-
his like, and never will.
chamber of a friend, and whose due it is
At the same time, it does even less
than the hasty, anecdotic pages of Mr. Bret Harte. He was somehow, against
There is another difficult truth about to be mourned by strangers.
We cannot here develope this idea in
Pemberton – journalistic, perhaps, but the general trend of his disposition, relation to Bret Harte's works. But it
wholly genial—to bring the reader into deficient in what we may call the family points to the secret of their peculiar power,
the presence of the great writer and make
sense. '
him feel that he knows and likes the man sentially noble - minded, he reveals a have that power because in them realism
Affectionate, generous, and es- their blend of realism and romance. They
Here Bret Harte is the subject of a good curious dying-down of the home affec- was the result of no piecemeal, deliberate
deal of interesting communication, occa-
sional sound criticism, and frequent ex- mission in 1878, leaving wife and children lized, but of a continuous vital process of
tions. He came to Europe on a temporary observations made and subsequently uti.
plicit praise. But he never quite gets in the States;
into the book.
and, though he con- absorption, in which reality was trans-
tributed towards their support throughout muted and laid up in the subconscious
The art of biography has its peculiar his life, he never rejoined them. He being of the man; and because romance
difficulties, no doubt, in dealing with the therefore also suffers disrepute—especially was the inevitable outcome of his attempt
recently dead, and in this case, perhaps, in America—as a fugitive from the home. to give form and limit to the soul-pervading
they were a little accentuated by the Seeing that no word of reproach on either sense of things remembered and forgotten.
manner of living. But of the moderation side has ever been breathed by the persons In other words, his best work is in a
and tact which are supposed to overcome concerned, third parties might reasonably unique degree organic and nutritive be-
them it is possible to have too much. be expected to be silent on the matter. cause the man, the scene, and the life
The detached or lukewarm apologist may But a biographer has to square his ap- had become one. He is—however much
successfully give his friend to the dogs or praisements with his knowledge; and our unfortunate custom of approaching
the devil's advocate, while explicit and this circumstance in the case has evidently him by
by the road of recitation may
avowed reticence generally adumbrates, I had an inhibiting effect on Mr. Merwin's I blind us to his classic status-supreme
course.
## p. 358 (#272) ############################################
358
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
more
a
among our short-story tellers. This is not
twenty Arabs with the sergeant in the fort,
because his stories are artistically perfect With the Turks in Tripoli. By Ernest N. and instead of being “put to flight,” they
stories by Scott and Stevenson, Poe Bennett. With Maps. (Methuen & Co. )
simply remainsd inside the walls and
and Hawthorne, quite equal his in that, A BOOK on the war in Tripoli by a trust- laughed and chatted whilst the ridiculous
and many even in some particular effects worthy observer is much wanted. The gunners on the destroyers were exploding
surpass them
but because their per accounts published in the newspapers,
their shells in the neighbourhood. They
fection is richer, gathers up
often derived from Italian sources, and
never budged an inch from start to finish. "
content, imports more qualities both of censored by the authorities, have seriously The “horsemen ” of the Matin were
life and letters.
of The Luck of Roaring Camp, for dicted. Mr. Montagu's statements in calmly pursuing their journey!
In the few pages conflicted, and have been flatly contra- apparently Mr. Bennett and his friends
made to live, besides the tale that is told ! have been officially denied, but are con- of the Central News at Rome have already
made to live, besides the tale that is told regard to the brutalities of the soldiery
“Correspondents like the representative
There we find no mere formal or linear firmed in this volume. In these circum- slain every Turkish soldier in Tripolitania
perfection-no masterpiece of the vivid
or the sombre, giving the impression of stances Mr. Bennett's narrative of his several times over. ”
an intense but individual and limited personal experiences in the Turkish camp
A statement largely current in the
experience - but
is of no small importance. He has seen Italian press is that there is a bad feeling
perfection which
a great deal, witnessed engagements, and, between the Arabs and the Turks, and
makes the fabric of imagination out of the in spite of the “ barefaced disregard for that the former
are being compelled
against
statistical
total setting of reality.
accuracy which characterizes their will to fight. Such a belief is wholly
both parties to the campaign, he has at variance with the known solidarity of
Nor is this an isolated case. Almost a managed to collect a great many approxi. Islam, as shown in the instant cessation
score of times could the same power of mate estimates of the forces engaged and of hostilities in the Yemen as soon as the
evocation be verified, with differences, the casualties that resulted. His defect Arabs learnt that Turkey was being
among his familiar masterpieces. Thus is his violent partisanship. He is fanatic- attacked by a Christian Power ; and Mr.
* The Idyl of Red Gulch' has an opening ally pro-Turkish in his sympathies, and Bennett entirely discredits the rumour.
stillness and a saturation with the scene his contempt for the Italians is un- He does not like the Arabs of Tripoli,
worthy of Keats. That immediacy and measured. Until an impartial history and he attributes to them such mutilations
sense of a summer day is maintained to of the war is written by a qualified of the dead as have occurred, though
the end of what, when you close the book, military critic, we must withhold our judg- this barbarous custom is unknown to
you confess to be a perfect idyll, though ment; and, meanwhile, we can only take high-class tribes in Arabia itself ; but
the figures in the foreground are but a
Mr. Bennett's opinions, as distinguished he admires their daring and their endur-
drunken miner, a New England school from his definite observation, cum grano ance, and finds that, so far from requiring
marm," and an illegitimate pupil. -the more, since his many interjected to be urged to fight, they are really having
views on the South African War and the the time of their life," feeding as they
Of course, other qualities than this Sudan campaigns indicate a slight lack of never fed before, enjoying exciting little
(though probably derivative from the balance. He, however, makes it clear that skirmishes and delightful slicing of Giaours,
same source) go to the making of Bret the Italians had accomplished exceedingly and enriching themselves with rifles and
Harte as Man of Letters. We have only little in the three months following cartridges and all sorts of Italian loot,
wished to emphasize the one which seems
to lead readily to a central conception of experiences in Tripoli ended in January. Martinis, and are even learning some
their hasty, ultimatum; for his own They are well armed with Mausers and
the man. To the general and uncritical Bevond holding a few towns, the invaders degree of fire-control. They are said to
public he is commended by the obviously had been unable to effect any permanent be coming in crowds to the front, with
sentimental aspect in his stories of women occupation of the interior. Their cruisers the full approval of the powerful Sanusi
and children introduced among a crowd and gunboats sprinkled shells along the organization, and they form the best of
of rough workers, who have little time or coast, often without doing any
more reliefs, for they go back to their villages
chance for romance, and idolize the rare damage than Messrs. Brock's pyrotechnical and look after their flocks and families
exponents of it within their reach. The displays at the Crystal Palace.
and renew their strength, whilst other
Mark Twain in The Innocents at Home ! “At Zouara and elsewhere the Italian contingents take their place in the fighting
and to-day makes the fortune of the warships have again and again shamefully line. As to their power of endurance,
violated the rule that forbids the bombard. our author says :-
cinematograph show, which in its very ment of unfortified towns. . . . It was difficult
crudity of narrative is a good guide to to discover what loss (of life), if any, had
“One Arab walked 28 miles to Azizieh from
what the public wants.
been occasioned by the shell-fire. . . . None the firing line with seven bullets in him. . . .
For the rest, apart from its debilitating slightest degree by the daily alarms. . .
of the Turks seemed to be disturbed in the and after treatment insisted on returning to
the front. "
lack of such a conception, Mr. Merwin's Everybody seemed to have an absolute
. . .
Mr. Bennett only follows general opinion
intelligence (not always equally in force, Bou-Kamesch the coast is littered with in speaking in the highest terms of the
perhaps) and an intimate knowledge of shell splinters and shrapnelbulletsonce him under his improved conditions, the
The more he sees of
the Works and the world to which they about these orieiculous bombardments, which better he realizes that he has “ few equals. "
refer. Nowhere else will the English rarely hit anything in particular and never " Never in all my campaigning experience
reader get, within reasonable limits, such hurt anybody. ”
a full and helpful account of Pioneer
have I met anything like this magnificent
days and ways. The one fault of the
The door of the room would open, and moral on the side of the little battalions. ”
Mohammed would announce Le bateau That man for man they are
“ in every
method of presentation is that it excludes
any clear view of the historic process est arrivé,” as though he were a waiter way superior” to the Italians, is a view
that was
going on through all this announcing “Monsieur est servi. ” Valu- which few, we think, will gainsay.
confusion : does not bring home to the ables would at once be carried for safety writes still more enthusiastically of the
reader the fact that extreme disorder was
into the mosque, and the troops would Turkish officers who have gone through
a phase which and passed, calmly march to the dunes and get into the Harbia College and seen service in
stayed nowhere very long, and was never
shelter-pits. At the second bombard- Thessaly, Crete, and the Yemen—"effi-
a general condition at any time.
ment of Bou-Kamesch, sixty-three shots cient soldiers, keen about their profession,
were fired without knocking an inch of and thoroughly in sympathy with their
Of the pictures in the book, some are mortar off the fort. This was reported men. . . . Kind, courteous, and consider-
interesting and relevant, while others in the Matin
of January 4th as resulting ate. " Most of them spoke French—it
appear to have wandered in for no par. in “ the flight of numbers of men, includ- was only to his dog that one officer
ticular reason.
ing some horsemen. ” There were really “talked Slav. "
He
came
## p. 359 (#273) ############################################
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
359
seems
One of the most striking impressions
he displays much unjust prejudice against
derived from Mr. Bennett's book is the
BOOKS ON CHINA.
the British-Indian troops who took part
extremely prosperous condition of the
in the relief of the Legations in 1900.
Turkish defenders. It is true they were
It is related that a Chinese statesman, in They were at least as well-conducted as
obliged, by the continual bombardments, reply to a British diplomatist, who was
any of the foreign soldiers who shared in
to retire further from the coast, and they urging upon him the necessity of moving that expedition. These are, however,
could not drag their field-guns with them with the times and introducing into slight blemishes in what is the best ac-
(for which, indeed, they had little ammu-
China railways, telegraphs, and other count of modern Peking that has come to
nition); but they are now
instruments of progress, said that China
our notice. It may be added that the
preferred her own traditional civilization, illustrations reproduced from photographs
' beyond the effective range of the naval but, if once she began to innovate, her
guns, and the successful onslaught near
are numerous, and excellent of their kind.
advance would be so rapid as to astonish
Fonduk Bengashir proves how ready they
are to meet any forces the Italian General the world. For forty years, perhaps, Mr. Colquhoun's book is a useful,
can send against them. ”
this had been regarded as a piece of though somewhat dull compilation, bring-
Chinese brag, but the recent inauguration ing the history of recent political changes
The troops are well fed—better, according of the Republic
at Jast to in China down to the latest date practic-
to one who had served in both armies, have justified the prophecy. Political able. It is a reissue, revised and enlarged,
than in the French service and well events' have, indeed, succeeded each of a work first published in 1898. Perhaps
cared for. So far from the war impoverish other with headlong velocity. Mynheer the opinions of the writer on such subjects
ing the land, Mr. Bennett, going inland Borel evidently had not realized the as the missionary question and the diplo-
to Gharian, was astonished to find busy changes since 1900, due to the complete macy of the Western Powers, especially
markets and“ jubilant vendors. ” Trade collapse of the imperial authority, to the of his own country, are less valuable than
was“ booming,” and “ the war is enriching military successes of the Japanese, and the appendixes giving the mileage of
the great mass of the Tripolitans. . . . the enormous development of a free press. railways built and under construction,
whilst inflicting a crushing, expenditure He had dreamt of the Peking of fifty the budget for 1911, and the amount
on the taxpayers of Italy”; and it is years back, and was disconcerted when he of foreign indebtedness. Owing to
costing Turkey next to nothing. If it found himself in a modern hotel crowded what looks like hasty writing and want
goes on, as it may, for years, Mr. Bennett with concession - hunters and
concession - hunters and “ globe- of care in consulting original authori-
thinks it “ will wear Italy out sooner than trotters” of all nations. Macadamized ties, he has fallen into some curious
the Turks and Arabs. ” Moreover, if roads, telephone wires, and the electric errors, such as that which gives the value
Mr. Bennett's account is sober history light, the new buildings of the foreign of the Haikwan tael at 28. 8d. (p. 84), and
for example, the description of the legations, the fortified walls which sur- later on puts it at 38. 4d. The identifica-
affair at Sansur, where he was present, round them, the glass broughams filled tion of Taoism with Japanese Shinto
and where nineteen Turkish regulars put with the families of Chinese officials, (p. 39) is indeed wide of the mark; and
to flight a reconnaissance consisting of Manchu ladies taking afternoon tea in the the account (p. 43) of the clause inter-
“the 50th Infantry Regiment and part hall of the hotel, shocked his finer sensi-polated in the Chinese version of the
of the 73rd, with four squadrons of bilities. When he escaped from these French Convention of 1860 is incorrect.
cavalry and a battery of mule guns
surroundings, and wandered through the Equally inexact is the statement in a
the Italians must have little stomach for streets, he found, nevertheless, much to foot-note as to the Toleration Clause in
the war. Even their aviation, though the satisfy his artistic longings. The pink the German Treaty of 1861, which is
aeroplanes did some service in scouting, walls of the Forbidden City; the yellow, copied from the similar article in the
appears not to have disconcerted the turquoise, and sapphire tiles of the Palace treaties of 1858. It is surprising to find
Arabs, who, throughout, have shown a buildings; the p'ai-lou, or memorial arches, the author representing (p. 148) that the
marvellous fearlessness.
which bestride the main thoroughfares, French envoy Lagrené, in 1844, proceeded
This picture of the conditions of the were an unending delight. So also was the to Peking and signed a treaty between
Tripolitan war up to January last is prospect of the city from the great drum- France and China, the facts being that it
not only extremely vivid, but also tower, looking like a park full of trees, was negotiated and signed at Whampoa,
subversive of the accounts which have amongst which the house are lost and near Canton, and that no foreign envoy
hitherto received some degree of qualified (invisible.
of that period was seen at the capital
credence.
Mynheer Borel has lived many years in before the visit of Mr. Ward, the American
We shall not draw attention to various Southern China, speaks the Fuhkien minister, in 1859. On p. 168 the marble
slips in Arabic names, because the dialect fluently, and has made a profound monument
in the form of a triple
author states that he had no opportunity study of Confucian ethics. He is some- archway, erected to the memory of
to correct his proof-sheets, but we must what of a mystic, a poet, and an artist the German minister murdered in 1900,
enter a caveat against some of his state- endowed with the ear of a musician. is described as a statue. Such mis-
ments about Islam. That Mohammed Not being a concession-hunter, a financier, statements as these ought not to appear
did not exalt the Teacher of Nazareth scope to his sympathies for an interesting revision.
reverenced Christ is true, but he certainly or a diplomatist, he is able to give full in a work that professes to have undergone
far above himself, because He was born and little-understood people. His descrip-
of the Spirit of God. ' Nor, as a matter tion of an afternoon service at the great
of grammar, is “ Christ actually known Lama temple is an admirable piece of
NEW NOVELS.
among Moslems as “Ruach -el - Allah’ | picturesque writing, while his accounts of
(Breath of Allah). ” It should be “Ruh- visits to other temples and to the Summer The Ministry of Poll Poorman. By Lieut. -
Allah"; but the usual name -Mesîh, Palace are delightful reading. The ordi-
“the Messiah. ” It is, however, refreshing nary sinologue excites his contempt, yet This book is fiction with a purpose, which,
to find a war correspondent, whilst writing his proposal for the reform of what he though the literary craftsmanship is hardly
these chapters amidst the grunting of regards as the very inadequate and badly of the first class, has force, vitality,
camels, remembering his Greek, as becomes informed diplomacy of the Western and humour sufficient to differentiate
a Fellow of Hertford :-
Powers is that each should organize a clearly from the genus tract.
" Poll
“For two hours we rode over vast plains service of sinologues to represent it at Poorman” is the Rev. Apollos Burnett,
covered with the graceful asphodel, amid Peking. Towards the end of his book
a manly, straightforward person of gentle
which the angry shade of Achilles stalked
—
Maxpày Bibaca kar á pódedov tepwa ;— The New China; a Traveller's Impressions. holy orders more through the pressure of
and to accentuate the old-time atmosphere, Henri . Translated
clumps of the arum which the Greeks cali (Fisher Unwin. )
circumstances than by reason of strict
Amaryllis formed patches of vivid green China in Transformation. By Archibald R. vocation, yet determines to live as a
against the browns and yellows of the soil. ” Colquhoun. (Harper & Brothers. ) parson uncompromisingly in accordance
## p. 360 (#274) ############################################
360
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
>
with the principles of the Gospel. Like
• The Mountaineer and the Pilgrim,' by
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS.
so many other heroes in books, he is
Mr. H. E. G. Tyndale, contains some of the
delivered at the outset from all complica- We cannot say that Mr. A. C. Benson has best writing in the volume. Mr. Tyndale
tions of kith and kin. On receiving the realized our expectations in the fantasy of does not sigh for the good old days, but
small and poor living of Dabford, he life beyond the veil which
he has entitled says that,
The Child of the Dawn (Smith & Elder).
identifies himself, not with the county Starting with the axiomatic formula of the
in spite of railways and huts, discomforts
abound. .
justifies itself by the discovery of a good Miss Jewett, whose position of unique distinction among the women writers of America is undisputed, was an
play or a promising playwright. Ruther- admirable letter writer. Her familiar letters to her intimate friends are full of character and charm; dealing as they do
ford and Son' and its author, Miss K. G.
with her daily interests, her reading, her opinions, her friendships and travels, they present a picture of the
writer's life
that will of most profound interest to the thousands of lovers of her books. The letters have been edited by
Sowerby, were discovered at the Court in Mrs. James T. Fields, who, as a life-long friend of Miss Jewett, is peculiarly qualified for the task.
this way, and it was only right that the
Illustrated.
Demy 8vo. 108. ed. net.
to .
-
Orlo Williams
occasional flatness-it does at least come to
"A book that should prove a valuable addition to our knowledge of Charles Lamb and his circle, apart from the
grips with real life, real problems, and
individual interest attaching to its subject. "-Westminster Gazette. Mr. Williams' labours are in portant; for he has
characters. Its theme, the revolt of a brought to light several new points concerning Charles Lainb. "-Daily Mail. “Altogether this is a most interesting and
tyrannical mill-owner's children against his informing collection of letters. ” — Morning Post.
harshness and his sacrifice of his family's
every interest to
Yoshio Markino
of our time, and is alive with the passion
of conflicting wills. Its atmosphere, that Tlustrated by the Author, with 6 Platos in Colour and 20 Black and White Drawings. (68. net. )
of a dreary household in a dreary North- Rarely has more refreshing and penetrating criticism been passed upon the English woman of to-day than, by the
Country town, is wonderfully suggested by a
well-known Japanese artist and writer, Mr. Yoshio Markino, who, as will be seen in this book, deftly analyzes the
character of our countrywomen, and shows us how they appear to the enlightened Eastern mind.
variety of details. No one who desires that
our dramatists should hold a mirror up to
A BOOK FOR EVERY OXFORD MAN.
life can afford to miss seeing this piece at
the Little Theatre, especially as it is acted
Thomas Seccombe, M. A.
.
H. Spencer Scott, M. A.
a future occasion Miss Sowerby Vol. II-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Now Ready.
will consider it advisable to answer a call Vol. I. -HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY. Already Published.
for the author in person.
Domy 8vo, 6s, net per volume, sold separately.
THE 'Hippolytus' offers some obscurities "No Oxford man could fail to spend many a pleasant hour dipping into this fat Oxford anthology, crammed with
of interpretation, is painful in theme, and interesting things. No Oxford man should fail to get this second instalment of Messrs. Seccombe and Scott's great
less universal in emotional and intellectual Oxford anthology. ” –Observer.
appeal than the other great plays of Euri.
situations, intense, chaotic, and
adrift,
the dramatist's
Illustrated.
E. Huntington
mind into his work. The only way to
(88. 6d. net. )
appreciate the play is to act it.
Author of The Pulse of Asia. '
This the Poetry Society, in their perform- " It is a most closely studied and suggestive book, and moreover excellently written. . . . We congratulate Mr.
ance
of it at London University, failed to do. Huntington on the most illuminating study of Palestinian geography which has yet appeared. It is a most creditable
By professing to avoid a " theatrical atmo- delightfully readable. No one who contemplates a visit to Palestine ought to omit to study it beforehand. It will add
sphere," they emphasized the amateurishness enormously both to the profit and pleasure of the tour," is the opinion of the Geographical Journal.
of their rendering, affectedness of intonation,
and a simplesse which was very far from
simplicity. Gaucherie and lack of aptness
were tiresomely, pronounced. The actors ANCIENT ROME
net.
had no sense of corporate spirit, but de-
J. Benedict Carter
claimed their parts rather as if they were “It treats succinctly, and with much attractiveness of style, the phases and significance of religious manifestations
at an elocution lesson than a play. Miss and intuitions in early, republican, and imperial Rome, and subsequently gives a lucid sketch of the great struggle
Efza Myers, who was compelled to take
between the Pagan and Christian systems of thought, up to the Arst streaks, the early dawn' of the Holy Roman
Empire. The author intersperses much fertile theory of his own amid the business of chronicling. "-Athenaeum.
Phædra at very short notice, acquitted
herself competently in a difficult part. The
Lion Phillimore
little justice to Prof. Murray's translation.
“She adds a graphic pen and a keen eye not only for detail, but for beauty and significance. "-Times. . . “ Her
freshness of mind, her receptivity, and her vivid instinct for beauty makes her writing individual and attractive. "-
TO CORRESPONDENTS. — C. T. 0. -K. S. H. -C. B. -
Athenaeum. “Mrs. Phillimore's method of doing it and telling it and thinking it, constitutes the charm of this
J. H. M. -J. V. -W. M. -Received.
picturesque book. "- Daily Chronicle.
W. H. H. -All right
No notice can be taken of anonymous communications.
C. F. Tucker Brooke
We cannot undertake to reply to inquiries concerning the
appearance of reviews of books.
B. Litt. Oxon. 88. net.
A History of English National Drama to the retirement of Shakespeare.
“It is a scholarly and fascinating work, full of information and exact. "-Scotsman.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS.
AUTHORS' AGENTS
BELL & Co.
NEW 6- NOVELS
BLACKWOOD & SONS
Una L. Silberrad
CATALOGUES
CONSTABLE
& CO.
(Second Impression. )
EDUCATIONAL
EXHIBITIONS
Mrs. George Wemyss
GRIFFIN & Co.
HARPER & BROS.
INSURANCE COMPANIES
LONGMANS & Co.
Valentina Hawtrey
MACMILLAN & Co.
326, 328
MAGAZINES, &e. . .
MATHEWS
W. E. Norris
MISCELLANEOUS .
MUDIE'S
NASH
PRINTERS
Vincent O'Sullivan
PROVIDENT INSTITUTIONS
SALES BY AUCTION
SCOTT
328
SHIPPING
SITUATIONS VACANT
SITUATIONS WANTED
SOCIETIES . .
TYPE-WRITERS, &c.
325 CONSTABLE &
CO.
LONDON W. C.
.
UNWIN
LTD.
RELIGIOUS LIFE OF
(88. 6d. )
monotonous crescendo of the chorus did IN THE CARPATHIANS (105. 82. )
THE TUDOR DRAMA
::
PAOR
326
351
349
325
348
325
325
327
351
350
328
326
350
326
350
351
326
SUCCESS
A LOST INTEREST
HERITAGE
PAUL'S PARAGON
THE GOOD GIRL
EVERYBODY'S BOY
325
326
Lindsay Bashford
350
325
325
325
352
## p. 357 (#271) ############################################
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
357
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE LIFE OF BRET HARTE . .
WITH THE TURKS IN TRIPOLI
359
66
359-360
360
.
361
362
FORTHCOMING BOOKS. .
365
LITERARY GOSSIP
366
SCIENCE :- THE THEORY OF IMMUNITY; CATALOGUE
867-369
369-371
FORMANCES NEXT WEEK
. .
371-372
372
372
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
was
)
to the suspicious mind of the eager and deliverances. Very properly, he does not
SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912. ignorant reader, untold possibilities of attempt to piss it by. But he can neither
exposure.
forget it a erwards nor absorb it by
Something of this dubitative atttiude translation into a rational and compre-
towards his subject goes far to spoil the hending vi w of the man. For ourselves,
867 general effect of Mr. Merwin's book,
we regard it as of cardinal significance for
358 tempting us to say of it, as he says of Mr. | the study, not only of Bret Harte's
BOOKS ON CHINA (The New China; China in Trans- Howells's account of a dinner at which character, but also of his literary per-
formation)
Bret Harte was
NEW NOVELS (The Ministry of Poll Poorman; In
a commensal,” that sonality.
Cotton Wool)
it “ somehow leaves an unpleasant im- Such a moral outcome as this seems
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS (The Child of the Dawn; Oxford pression. ” Regarding that account we
Mountaineering Essays; Beauty and Ugliness)
to the present reviewer to have been
certainly agree with him. Indeed, had it probable - indeed, almost inevitable -
NOTES FROX CAMBRIDGE; PEACE,' A PROTEST
not been imparted to the world by an given the case of an organization and
LIST OP New Books . .
honoured man of letters, whose creative early history like Bret Harte's. There
work testifies to an industrious faculty of is abundant evidence to show that his
note-taking, we should frankly refuse to was an organization sensitive almost to
OF 9,842 STARS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS Next believe it. But if humorous exaggerations, vibrancy: with a sensitiveness, however,
WEEK; ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORIES; GOSSIP such as will creep into the matter and not perturbed and obvious, but happy,
form of literary reminiscences of a highly social, dreamlike, and fatalistic in its
FINE ARTS—THE HEROIC AGE; SPRING EXHIBITION
AT MR. MCLEAN'S GALLERIES; WORKS BY Miss
topical” and widely expected kind, record of the moving picture of experience.
MARGARET GERE AND MR. C. M. GERE ; GOSSIP may leave an impression which, besides A being thus preoccupied and habitually
being unpleasant, is not quite fair-so, responsive to the sense of surroundings
MUSIC - BRAHMS'S VOCAL WORKS; GOSSIP; PER-
also, essential injustice may be done by - living in a blend of subjective states
DRAMA-GOSSIP. .
our being too tender about a good man's in which interest was indistinguishable
faults. To touch upon them as some from reverie — was more than half a
thing which one would rather leave alone solitary by organic fate, and was likely
is to create an impression that they were to make but a half-surrender to the
more shameful than they really were. formulated social will, the claim of fixed
They are to be approached bravely, in relations.
LITERATURE
the spirit of the naturalist, with our
Let us say that it was a tragedy-
attention fixed upon the whole man.
the tragedy of temperament - and try
The difficult truth about Bret Harte to bring the consequences under their
The Life of Bret Harte, with some Account
is easily told under two headings. He proper heading. That responsiveness to
in the honourable succession of the sights and sounds of the world, to
of the California Pioneers. By Henry literary and other men deficient in the the intimate human qualities of scenes
Childs Merwin. (Chatto & Windus. )
money sense. "
He did not make much and people, was not the matrix in
money, and he had no talent for the which the domestic virtues grow strong
The only preceding 'Life of Bret Harte' husbanding of what he did make. and rule. He who had absorbed, under
(that by Mr. T. Edgar Pemberton, 1903), Having many affinities with the eighteenth the high tension of a richly potential
though written with the advantage of century - and a supreme respect for its adolescence, the whole shifting scene
intimate acquaintance, left ample room literary models-he genially perpetuated of California in the fifties — absorbed it
for an adequate biography by somebody one of its discredited traditions. He did until he had been remade of what he
else. The present work, composed with not regard the character of the debtor with saw — had organic warrant surely, if
the almost equal advantage of non- that just horror which is, we hope and not social excuse, for failing in the end
acquaintance, leaves us still the pensioners believe, common in our more scrupulous to adjust his life to fixed relationships.
of hope. It makes an approximation to age. It is something that Bret Harte We may say that the
the ideal thing, indeed, by its interesting was always meeting or intending to meet had become California, as Bret Harte's
details regarding the family stock from his liabilities (Mr.
Merwin adduces new
mind undoubtedly had, could not well be
which Bret Harte sprang, its systematic proofs of this), and was as honest as a
at ease within the four walls of the home.
account of the social scene of his stories, man habitually embarrassed and good. There is a kind of man, indeed, outside
and its more obvious relation to the humoured about it could be. Yet most the usual run of humanity whose only
world of intellectual and critical dis- people do not love Harold Skimpole and proper home is an inn, or the guest-
his like, and never will.
chamber of a friend, and whose due it is
At the same time, it does even less
than the hasty, anecdotic pages of Mr. Bret Harte. He was somehow, against
There is another difficult truth about to be mourned by strangers.
We cannot here develope this idea in
Pemberton – journalistic, perhaps, but the general trend of his disposition, relation to Bret Harte's works. But it
wholly genial—to bring the reader into deficient in what we may call the family points to the secret of their peculiar power,
the presence of the great writer and make
sense. '
him feel that he knows and likes the man sentially noble - minded, he reveals a have that power because in them realism
Affectionate, generous, and es- their blend of realism and romance. They
Here Bret Harte is the subject of a good curious dying-down of the home affec- was the result of no piecemeal, deliberate
deal of interesting communication, occa-
sional sound criticism, and frequent ex- mission in 1878, leaving wife and children lized, but of a continuous vital process of
tions. He came to Europe on a temporary observations made and subsequently uti.
plicit praise. But he never quite gets in the States;
into the book.
and, though he con- absorption, in which reality was trans-
tributed towards their support throughout muted and laid up in the subconscious
The art of biography has its peculiar his life, he never rejoined them. He being of the man; and because romance
difficulties, no doubt, in dealing with the therefore also suffers disrepute—especially was the inevitable outcome of his attempt
recently dead, and in this case, perhaps, in America—as a fugitive from the home. to give form and limit to the soul-pervading
they were a little accentuated by the Seeing that no word of reproach on either sense of things remembered and forgotten.
manner of living. But of the moderation side has ever been breathed by the persons In other words, his best work is in a
and tact which are supposed to overcome concerned, third parties might reasonably unique degree organic and nutritive be-
them it is possible to have too much. be expected to be silent on the matter. cause the man, the scene, and the life
The detached or lukewarm apologist may But a biographer has to square his ap- had become one. He is—however much
successfully give his friend to the dogs or praisements with his knowledge; and our unfortunate custom of approaching
the devil's advocate, while explicit and this circumstance in the case has evidently him by
by the road of recitation may
avowed reticence generally adumbrates, I had an inhibiting effect on Mr. Merwin's I blind us to his classic status-supreme
course.
## p. 358 (#272) ############################################
358
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
more
a
among our short-story tellers. This is not
twenty Arabs with the sergeant in the fort,
because his stories are artistically perfect With the Turks in Tripoli. By Ernest N. and instead of being “put to flight,” they
stories by Scott and Stevenson, Poe Bennett. With Maps. (Methuen & Co. )
simply remainsd inside the walls and
and Hawthorne, quite equal his in that, A BOOK on the war in Tripoli by a trust- laughed and chatted whilst the ridiculous
and many even in some particular effects worthy observer is much wanted. The gunners on the destroyers were exploding
surpass them
but because their per accounts published in the newspapers,
their shells in the neighbourhood. They
fection is richer, gathers up
often derived from Italian sources, and
never budged an inch from start to finish. "
content, imports more qualities both of censored by the authorities, have seriously The “horsemen ” of the Matin were
life and letters.
of The Luck of Roaring Camp, for dicted. Mr. Montagu's statements in calmly pursuing their journey!
In the few pages conflicted, and have been flatly contra- apparently Mr. Bennett and his friends
made to live, besides the tale that is told ! have been officially denied, but are con- of the Central News at Rome have already
made to live, besides the tale that is told regard to the brutalities of the soldiery
“Correspondents like the representative
There we find no mere formal or linear firmed in this volume. In these circum- slain every Turkish soldier in Tripolitania
perfection-no masterpiece of the vivid
or the sombre, giving the impression of stances Mr. Bennett's narrative of his several times over. ”
an intense but individual and limited personal experiences in the Turkish camp
A statement largely current in the
experience - but
is of no small importance. He has seen Italian press is that there is a bad feeling
perfection which
a great deal, witnessed engagements, and, between the Arabs and the Turks, and
makes the fabric of imagination out of the in spite of the “ barefaced disregard for that the former
are being compelled
against
statistical
total setting of reality.
accuracy which characterizes their will to fight. Such a belief is wholly
both parties to the campaign, he has at variance with the known solidarity of
Nor is this an isolated case. Almost a managed to collect a great many approxi. Islam, as shown in the instant cessation
score of times could the same power of mate estimates of the forces engaged and of hostilities in the Yemen as soon as the
evocation be verified, with differences, the casualties that resulted. His defect Arabs learnt that Turkey was being
among his familiar masterpieces. Thus is his violent partisanship. He is fanatic- attacked by a Christian Power ; and Mr.
* The Idyl of Red Gulch' has an opening ally pro-Turkish in his sympathies, and Bennett entirely discredits the rumour.
stillness and a saturation with the scene his contempt for the Italians is un- He does not like the Arabs of Tripoli,
worthy of Keats. That immediacy and measured. Until an impartial history and he attributes to them such mutilations
sense of a summer day is maintained to of the war is written by a qualified of the dead as have occurred, though
the end of what, when you close the book, military critic, we must withhold our judg- this barbarous custom is unknown to
you confess to be a perfect idyll, though ment; and, meanwhile, we can only take high-class tribes in Arabia itself ; but
the figures in the foreground are but a
Mr. Bennett's opinions, as distinguished he admires their daring and their endur-
drunken miner, a New England school from his definite observation, cum grano ance, and finds that, so far from requiring
marm," and an illegitimate pupil. -the more, since his many interjected to be urged to fight, they are really having
views on the South African War and the the time of their life," feeding as they
Of course, other qualities than this Sudan campaigns indicate a slight lack of never fed before, enjoying exciting little
(though probably derivative from the balance. He, however, makes it clear that skirmishes and delightful slicing of Giaours,
same source) go to the making of Bret the Italians had accomplished exceedingly and enriching themselves with rifles and
Harte as Man of Letters. We have only little in the three months following cartridges and all sorts of Italian loot,
wished to emphasize the one which seems
to lead readily to a central conception of experiences in Tripoli ended in January. Martinis, and are even learning some
their hasty, ultimatum; for his own They are well armed with Mausers and
the man. To the general and uncritical Bevond holding a few towns, the invaders degree of fire-control. They are said to
public he is commended by the obviously had been unable to effect any permanent be coming in crowds to the front, with
sentimental aspect in his stories of women occupation of the interior. Their cruisers the full approval of the powerful Sanusi
and children introduced among a crowd and gunboats sprinkled shells along the organization, and they form the best of
of rough workers, who have little time or coast, often without doing any
more reliefs, for they go back to their villages
chance for romance, and idolize the rare damage than Messrs. Brock's pyrotechnical and look after their flocks and families
exponents of it within their reach. The displays at the Crystal Palace.
and renew their strength, whilst other
Mark Twain in The Innocents at Home ! “At Zouara and elsewhere the Italian contingents take their place in the fighting
and to-day makes the fortune of the warships have again and again shamefully line. As to their power of endurance,
violated the rule that forbids the bombard. our author says :-
cinematograph show, which in its very ment of unfortified towns. . . . It was difficult
crudity of narrative is a good guide to to discover what loss (of life), if any, had
“One Arab walked 28 miles to Azizieh from
what the public wants.
been occasioned by the shell-fire. . . . None the firing line with seven bullets in him. . . .
For the rest, apart from its debilitating slightest degree by the daily alarms. . .
of the Turks seemed to be disturbed in the and after treatment insisted on returning to
the front. "
lack of such a conception, Mr. Merwin's Everybody seemed to have an absolute
. . .
Mr. Bennett only follows general opinion
intelligence (not always equally in force, Bou-Kamesch the coast is littered with in speaking in the highest terms of the
perhaps) and an intimate knowledge of shell splinters and shrapnelbulletsonce him under his improved conditions, the
The more he sees of
the Works and the world to which they about these orieiculous bombardments, which better he realizes that he has “ few equals. "
refer. Nowhere else will the English rarely hit anything in particular and never " Never in all my campaigning experience
reader get, within reasonable limits, such hurt anybody. ”
a full and helpful account of Pioneer
have I met anything like this magnificent
days and ways. The one fault of the
The door of the room would open, and moral on the side of the little battalions. ”
Mohammed would announce Le bateau That man for man they are
“ in every
method of presentation is that it excludes
any clear view of the historic process est arrivé,” as though he were a waiter way superior” to the Italians, is a view
that was
going on through all this announcing “Monsieur est servi. ” Valu- which few, we think, will gainsay.
confusion : does not bring home to the ables would at once be carried for safety writes still more enthusiastically of the
reader the fact that extreme disorder was
into the mosque, and the troops would Turkish officers who have gone through
a phase which and passed, calmly march to the dunes and get into the Harbia College and seen service in
stayed nowhere very long, and was never
shelter-pits. At the second bombard- Thessaly, Crete, and the Yemen—"effi-
a general condition at any time.
ment of Bou-Kamesch, sixty-three shots cient soldiers, keen about their profession,
were fired without knocking an inch of and thoroughly in sympathy with their
Of the pictures in the book, some are mortar off the fort. This was reported men. . . . Kind, courteous, and consider-
interesting and relevant, while others in the Matin
of January 4th as resulting ate. " Most of them spoke French—it
appear to have wandered in for no par. in “ the flight of numbers of men, includ- was only to his dog that one officer
ticular reason.
ing some horsemen. ” There were really “talked Slav. "
He
came
## p. 359 (#273) ############################################
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
359
seems
One of the most striking impressions
he displays much unjust prejudice against
derived from Mr. Bennett's book is the
BOOKS ON CHINA.
the British-Indian troops who took part
extremely prosperous condition of the
in the relief of the Legations in 1900.
Turkish defenders. It is true they were
It is related that a Chinese statesman, in They were at least as well-conducted as
obliged, by the continual bombardments, reply to a British diplomatist, who was
any of the foreign soldiers who shared in
to retire further from the coast, and they urging upon him the necessity of moving that expedition. These are, however,
could not drag their field-guns with them with the times and introducing into slight blemishes in what is the best ac-
(for which, indeed, they had little ammu-
China railways, telegraphs, and other count of modern Peking that has come to
nition); but they are now
instruments of progress, said that China
our notice. It may be added that the
preferred her own traditional civilization, illustrations reproduced from photographs
' beyond the effective range of the naval but, if once she began to innovate, her
guns, and the successful onslaught near
are numerous, and excellent of their kind.
advance would be so rapid as to astonish
Fonduk Bengashir proves how ready they
are to meet any forces the Italian General the world. For forty years, perhaps, Mr. Colquhoun's book is a useful,
can send against them. ”
this had been regarded as a piece of though somewhat dull compilation, bring-
Chinese brag, but the recent inauguration ing the history of recent political changes
The troops are well fed—better, according of the Republic
at Jast to in China down to the latest date practic-
to one who had served in both armies, have justified the prophecy. Political able. It is a reissue, revised and enlarged,
than in the French service and well events' have, indeed, succeeded each of a work first published in 1898. Perhaps
cared for. So far from the war impoverish other with headlong velocity. Mynheer the opinions of the writer on such subjects
ing the land, Mr. Bennett, going inland Borel evidently had not realized the as the missionary question and the diplo-
to Gharian, was astonished to find busy changes since 1900, due to the complete macy of the Western Powers, especially
markets and“ jubilant vendors. ” Trade collapse of the imperial authority, to the of his own country, are less valuable than
was“ booming,” and “ the war is enriching military successes of the Japanese, and the appendixes giving the mileage of
the great mass of the Tripolitans. . . . the enormous development of a free press. railways built and under construction,
whilst inflicting a crushing, expenditure He had dreamt of the Peking of fifty the budget for 1911, and the amount
on the taxpayers of Italy”; and it is years back, and was disconcerted when he of foreign indebtedness. Owing to
costing Turkey next to nothing. If it found himself in a modern hotel crowded what looks like hasty writing and want
goes on, as it may, for years, Mr. Bennett with concession - hunters and
concession - hunters and “ globe- of care in consulting original authori-
thinks it “ will wear Italy out sooner than trotters” of all nations. Macadamized ties, he has fallen into some curious
the Turks and Arabs. ” Moreover, if roads, telephone wires, and the electric errors, such as that which gives the value
Mr. Bennett's account is sober history light, the new buildings of the foreign of the Haikwan tael at 28. 8d. (p. 84), and
for example, the description of the legations, the fortified walls which sur- later on puts it at 38. 4d. The identifica-
affair at Sansur, where he was present, round them, the glass broughams filled tion of Taoism with Japanese Shinto
and where nineteen Turkish regulars put with the families of Chinese officials, (p. 39) is indeed wide of the mark; and
to flight a reconnaissance consisting of Manchu ladies taking afternoon tea in the the account (p. 43) of the clause inter-
“the 50th Infantry Regiment and part hall of the hotel, shocked his finer sensi-polated in the Chinese version of the
of the 73rd, with four squadrons of bilities. When he escaped from these French Convention of 1860 is incorrect.
cavalry and a battery of mule guns
surroundings, and wandered through the Equally inexact is the statement in a
the Italians must have little stomach for streets, he found, nevertheless, much to foot-note as to the Toleration Clause in
the war. Even their aviation, though the satisfy his artistic longings. The pink the German Treaty of 1861, which is
aeroplanes did some service in scouting, walls of the Forbidden City; the yellow, copied from the similar article in the
appears not to have disconcerted the turquoise, and sapphire tiles of the Palace treaties of 1858. It is surprising to find
Arabs, who, throughout, have shown a buildings; the p'ai-lou, or memorial arches, the author representing (p. 148) that the
marvellous fearlessness.
which bestride the main thoroughfares, French envoy Lagrené, in 1844, proceeded
This picture of the conditions of the were an unending delight. So also was the to Peking and signed a treaty between
Tripolitan war up to January last is prospect of the city from the great drum- France and China, the facts being that it
not only extremely vivid, but also tower, looking like a park full of trees, was negotiated and signed at Whampoa,
subversive of the accounts which have amongst which the house are lost and near Canton, and that no foreign envoy
hitherto received some degree of qualified (invisible.
of that period was seen at the capital
credence.
Mynheer Borel has lived many years in before the visit of Mr. Ward, the American
We shall not draw attention to various Southern China, speaks the Fuhkien minister, in 1859. On p. 168 the marble
slips in Arabic names, because the dialect fluently, and has made a profound monument
in the form of a triple
author states that he had no opportunity study of Confucian ethics. He is some- archway, erected to the memory of
to correct his proof-sheets, but we must what of a mystic, a poet, and an artist the German minister murdered in 1900,
enter a caveat against some of his state- endowed with the ear of a musician. is described as a statue. Such mis-
ments about Islam. That Mohammed Not being a concession-hunter, a financier, statements as these ought not to appear
did not exalt the Teacher of Nazareth scope to his sympathies for an interesting revision.
reverenced Christ is true, but he certainly or a diplomatist, he is able to give full in a work that professes to have undergone
far above himself, because He was born and little-understood people. His descrip-
of the Spirit of God. ' Nor, as a matter tion of an afternoon service at the great
of grammar, is “ Christ actually known Lama temple is an admirable piece of
NEW NOVELS.
among Moslems as “Ruach -el - Allah’ | picturesque writing, while his accounts of
(Breath of Allah). ” It should be “Ruh- visits to other temples and to the Summer The Ministry of Poll Poorman. By Lieut. -
Allah"; but the usual name -Mesîh, Palace are delightful reading. The ordi-
“the Messiah. ” It is, however, refreshing nary sinologue excites his contempt, yet This book is fiction with a purpose, which,
to find a war correspondent, whilst writing his proposal for the reform of what he though the literary craftsmanship is hardly
these chapters amidst the grunting of regards as the very inadequate and badly of the first class, has force, vitality,
camels, remembering his Greek, as becomes informed diplomacy of the Western and humour sufficient to differentiate
a Fellow of Hertford :-
Powers is that each should organize a clearly from the genus tract.
" Poll
“For two hours we rode over vast plains service of sinologues to represent it at Poorman” is the Rev. Apollos Burnett,
covered with the graceful asphodel, amid Peking. Towards the end of his book
a manly, straightforward person of gentle
which the angry shade of Achilles stalked
—
Maxpày Bibaca kar á pódedov tepwa ;— The New China; a Traveller's Impressions. holy orders more through the pressure of
and to accentuate the old-time atmosphere, Henri . Translated
clumps of the arum which the Greeks cali (Fisher Unwin. )
circumstances than by reason of strict
Amaryllis formed patches of vivid green China in Transformation. By Archibald R. vocation, yet determines to live as a
against the browns and yellows of the soil. ” Colquhoun. (Harper & Brothers. ) parson uncompromisingly in accordance
## p. 360 (#274) ############################################
360
No. 4405, MARCH 30, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
>
with the principles of the Gospel. Like
• The Mountaineer and the Pilgrim,' by
THIS WEEK'S BOOKS.
so many other heroes in books, he is
Mr. H. E. G. Tyndale, contains some of the
delivered at the outset from all complica- We cannot say that Mr. A. C. Benson has best writing in the volume. Mr. Tyndale
tions of kith and kin. On receiving the realized our expectations in the fantasy of does not sigh for the good old days, but
small and poor living of Dabford, he life beyond the veil which
he has entitled says that,
The Child of the Dawn (Smith & Elder).
identifies himself, not with the county Starting with the axiomatic formula of the
in spite of railways and huts, discomforts
abound. .
