2, “There, on the Trojan
of the Cyclopedia of Education, which Papal exactions and Simon de Montfort's plain?
of the Cyclopedia of Education, which Papal exactions and Simon de Montfort's plain?
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
By Sara A.
Burstall.
(Man- most explicitly religious of the three, a * 2001.
a year, with furnished rooms,
chester University Press. )
character which, again, was modified by coal, gas, and attendance (but no board),
its frank insistence on social distinctions; and a capitation fee for pupils after the
This volume is No. VI. of the “ Educa- Miss Buss at the North London Collegiate first sixty”; and it is stated in
tional Series issued by the University of School, animated by an impatient pity extract from the Report of 1881 that
Manchester. It is a meritorious piece of for girls who were thrust out into the 20,4051. had been paid in salaries since
work—satisfactory as reading for the world without any training to render January, 1874. Ill or well paid, however,
present day, and of assured value for future them capable of holding their own in it, recognized or unrecognized by the heed-
historians of education. It gives us not tried to give them the thoroughness and less general public, the assistant High
merely a record of the origin and early accuracy which would fit them for pro- School mistress of those early relentless
progress of a great school, but also—what is fessional work of the same standard as days went not wholly unrewarded. Her
both more interesting and more important their brothers'. The ideal of the citizens work had a glamour upon it which
an account of the inception of a great of Manchester was at once more philo- nowadays, perhaps, has more or less de-
tradition. High Schools for Girls have, sophical and more fully humane. They parted ; she had mostly the high spirits of
of late years, been subject to unfavour desired that every girl—without respect the pioneer, to whom fatigue is of no
able criticism from more than one side, to social standing or to religious belief- account ; and, if she was often called upon
and it seems certain that their methods, should, so far as it could be done, have for heavy self-sacrifice, she made it simply
and even, to some extent, their ideals, are the chance, not only of acquiring ability and without question, as if embracing a
destined to undergo considerable modifica- to earn her own living, but also, and privilege.
tion. But no criticism, and no modifica- especially, of attaining to culture and Among the many improved details of
tions of the curriculum, can affect our the development of her powers. Nothing present management one
cannot but
admiration for the generous wisdom of in the book is finer than the extracts view with special approval the adoption
those who started them, or for the gal- from divers reports and memorials in of the custom of the Sabbatical term.
lantry, devotedness, and joyous trust in which the Committee had occasion to After ten years' service a mistress has a
themselves and their leaders with which set forth the reasons for the establish-term's leave of absence, with full salary
the women of the seventies and eighties ment of this School. Their plain and and without the expense of providing a
gave themselves to the task that was sober language carries
carries the thrill of substitute, in order that she may recruit
offered to their hands.
enthusiasm in it, and the reader must herself by travel, study, or rest, as occasion
The Report of the Schools Inquiry be dull to whom nothing of that thrill may require. We agree with the writer
Commission, presented to Parliament in is communicated.
in hoping that this custom may come to
July, 1867, included evidence concerning There were sixty pupils to begin with, be more generally followed in High
the state of girls' education, which had and the numbers increased by leaps and Schools. At Manchester it is no doubt
been collected in compliance with a bounds, so that the houses originally facilitated by the fact that the post of
memorial addressed to the Commissioners taken by the Committee were soon found
second mistress is not a permanency,
by Miss Emily Davies, the founder of inadequate for their purpose. At length, but held in turn by one mistress after
Girton, and some other ladies. From the in September, 1881, the School was moved
From the in September, 1881, the School was moved another, so that there is always a certain
attention which this part of the Report to the buildings erected for it in Dover number of women on the staff who are
attracted, the High Schools for Girls may Street, which it still occupies-since that qualified for administrative work, as well
be said to have taken rise, though the day much enlarged and improved. It had as teaching.
foundation of Queen's College (1848), contributed no less than 3,0001. from its Of other improvements made within the
Bedford College (1849), the North London own revenues towards the expenses of new century we may notice the reduction
an
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62
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
as
as
-almost to abolition of all examina- the mid nineteenth century which, if one does that only, than to read it a
tions beyond those which may serve as in some measure, no doubt, owing to his little, and to be told a great deal about its
an entrance to a University career ; the attacks upon it-seems to have given significance, and about the development
appointment, as Medical 'Inspector to way. Our twentieth-century Philistinism and sense of the world from which it
the School, of a woman doctor; and the bears another character. Opportunities issues. ” Such advice will hardly come
ever closer relation into which-through for education are multiplied around us ; amiss to us to-day, who are more prone
the wise and original action of Miss and expert opinion is somewhat more in than ever to impute to children-even to
Burstall—the School has been brought request than of old. But it may be encourage in them the adult's impa-
with Manchester University : “indeed,” doubted whether a real care for education, tience of repetition.
she says, “no other school in England in the full meaning «f the word, has reached In 1872—again in his General Report
shows anything like the same degree of in England anything like the strength and as Inspector—Matthew Arnold drew atten-
intimate connexion with a local Uni- enlightenment which Arnold found in Ger- tion to the desirability of giving some
versity. ”
many in the sixties, while it has certainly instruction in a second language,
The making of the School is seen not issued in any such well-knit and all- an object of reference and comparison,
throughout as the work of a group of embracing organization. Our Universities, to children in elementary schools. Because
persons, and as such has a peculiar in particular Oxford and Cambridge, Latin is the foundation of so much, it is
interest; but for that very reason retain the character of hauts Lycées ; the best language to take ; and he re-
hardly any individual character stands and the amusing account here quoted of the commended that it should be taught, not
out distinctly. The two exceptions to bringing-up of a boy " of distinguished by means of classical authors, but through
this vagueness are the figure of Miss connections, living in a fashionable part selections from the Vulgate — surely a
Elizabeth Day, the first Headmistress, of London,” is still enacted among us felicitous suggestion.
to whom, if to any single person, the without interference. We have not im-
No kind of book provokes to harmless
success of the School is to be most directly proved the status and comfort of our disagreement so readily as a “ Selection,"
ascribed, and, in a yet greater degree of teachers to the level Arnold admired in and in running through this one we did
clearness and attractiveness, that of Dr. Holland ; nor do we in the person of not fail of that stimulating experience.
A. S. Wilkins.
State officials-expend on the choice of Thus we wished there had been fewer
In Appendixes are supplied lists of he observed in France and Germany. Translating Homer, which does not lend
than forty-one quotations from 'On
themselves well in different departments
Not once, but many times, even
itself specially well to this treatment,
of work, and they make a roll of which this volume, are these examples urged and has really no more, if no less, to do
the School may well be proud.
upon us for imitation, in some form or
with education than many another of
We could have done
without the trivial other, and the refrain of all this part of Matthew
Arnold's works. Further, since
We could have done without the trivial Matthew Arnold's counsel would seem to the chronological arrangement affords
verses with which the book begins, and
be “ Trust the State, use the State. ” little or no connexion between consecutive
we note, interspersed amid sound and Yet he clearly perceived—as is sufficiently quotations, we should also have been
interesting writing, patches of a like
triviality, which appears, indeed, also State management of education abroad particularly_glad to have a more nearly
in the choice of some of the photo-
perfect index.
graphs. Moreover, many pages would the good common sense of the people in
was as much a consequence as a cause of
have been the clearer and more vigorous for this matter ; wherein their superiority
a critical revision of their style. But these
over us can still hardly be disputed, how-
blemishes are not sufficient to affect the
NEW NOVELS.
general happy impression which the book past quarter of a century has brought
ever true it is that with them, too, the
leaves on the mind, far less to diminish discovery of errors and modifications of
Carnival. By Compton Mackenzie.
the satisfaction with which one reflects detail.
(Secker. )
on the good work whereof it is a record.
While the general effect of these quota- TAE habitual novel-reader, as he or she
tions is decidedly to chasten, there are peruses volume after volume of contem-
one or two points in which even we were porary fiction, must often inwardly wonder
found to deserve praise. Matthew Arnold what writers are to be the shining lights
Thoughts on Education from Matthew
Arnold.
strongly approved of our pupil-teacher of to-morrow. Of Mr. Compton Mac-
Edited by Leonard Huxley. system-calling it “ the grand merit of our kenzie, when he produced. The Passionate
(Smith, Elder & Co. )
English State system, and its chief title Elopement,' it was possible to say: "Here
HERE is a book which may claim a welcome to public respect”; but what he says of may be one. ” Nay, readers who pondered
from all teachers. It is a selection of it is now so beside the mark that the one sinister chapter must håve felt assur-
some 240 passages, drawn chiefly from passage is interesting as a curiosity rather ance that its author could paint some-
Matthew Arnold's Reports on Elementary than in any other way. On the other thing beyond an eighteenth-century minia-
Schools (1852–82) and the Reports to hand, we should like to draw attention, as ture. Now comes Mr. Mackenzie's second
different bodies on his investigations into a matter of present importance, to his novel, dealing this time with the world
Continental education, but comprising discriminating and cordial appreciation of to-day, and amply fulfils the promise
also extracts from other sources, and from — drawn from his General Report in of his first. Carnival 'is not so complete
a few of his letters. The idea of the volume, 1882—of the work and influence of a work of art as
a work of art as 'The Passionate Elope-
which originated with Mr. Theodore managers in Voluntary Schools.
ment,' but it dives deeper, and its range
Rennert, was excellent; the
Matthew Arnold's views on the relative is wider. Its first and great quality is
because some of the best of its matter significance for culture of natural science originality. This is not to say that it does
is not otherwise easily accessible. The and letters are too well known to need not remind us, in detail, of Mr. de Morgan,
passages are arranged chronologically, con- mention; we merely remark that any one and in design of Mr. Arnold Bennett.
cluding with one taken from the Special who has not yet done so may make The originality of Mr. Mackenzie lies in
Report on Elementary Education in satisfactory acquaintance with them here, his possession of an imagination and a
Germany, Switzerland, and France,' dated His uncompromising belief in the efficacy of vision of life that are as peculiarly his
1886. A great deal of water has run under poetry—the best poetry—comes out in
own as a voice or a laugh, and that reflect
the bridges since 1886; and going over his Reports rather refreshingly.
“None themselves in a style which is that of no
again the counsels, complaints, and ideals but classical poetry should be taken,'
other writer.
which find utterance anew in these pages, he says in 1874 ; we are far too much In the first chapter are presented, in
one wonders how far their author would afraid of restriction and uniformity. ” gradually narrowing circles, London in
be satisfied with the progress we have And in another place he urges that “it is October, Islington, the little house in which
made. There was a root of dullness in l better to read a masterpiece much, even
better to read a masterpiece much, even 'the heroine is to be born, her father, her
more so
## p. (#63) #################################################
No. 4395, JAN. 20, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
63
occa-
mother, and her mother's family—all with wages and prices of provisions so carefully never are heard of again—though, perhaps,
a fluent exactitude; every word is right, and set out by Mrs. Gilman needs adjustment since nobody in the book gets married,
each appears to have come without care. for the English reader.
this merely indicates that yet another
To enshrine exactness of statement in an
While some may regard Diantha's aids sequel is coming. There is a like happy-
atmosphere of sympathetic imagination is to scientific housekeeping as the thin end go-lucky method in the treatment of minor
precisely the achievement towards which of a wedge which will destroy that precious details and the style. It cannot be denied
modern fiction is straining, and here is Mr. fragility known as the sanctity of the that this lack of workmanship proves a
Mackenzie—perhaps just because he is a home, others will regard them as steps weakness; in particular, it makes the
late comer-attaining it at once, and, as along a road which leads to greater sim- outline of the characters vaguer than it
it seems, easily. The whole study of little plicity of living, and in particular of need be. Yet the book is full of charm, of
Jenny's childhood is admirable, her feeding. Apparently Mrs. Gilman believes gentle hilarity and gracefully imagined
evolution into a ballet-dancer at a variety that under the new régime the energies of incident. It succeeds in making the reader
theatre almost as good, and the develop- maternity will be greatly conserved, as believe in most of it—though not in the
ment of her character as inevitable as we take leave of her heroine after four letter which Miss Willows wrote to Mr.
reality itself. Careless must be the reader years of marriage as the happy mother of Wycherly, which really must be a concoe-
who does not now and again sigh over the three children.
tion. Mr. Wycherly takes his wards to
hopeless futility of such teaching as was
Oxford, and the whole scene is laid there,
administered to this little pagan Cockney,
chiefly in a house and garden in Holywell,
who might have become so glorious a The Shadow of Power. By Paul Bertram.
creature. All her London life and her
(John Lane. )
mother's life are true; but her marriage
and her existence in Cornwall strike a dis- THE possibility of Mr. Bertram being a Princess Katharine. By Katharine Tynan.
cord. These last chapters, though there coming romanticist” must be our excuse (Ward, Lock & Co. )
are fine things in them, seem
for dealing at some length with this work.
what to be out of tune, and
It introduces, amid the conflict between HERE is a tale which, if treated in the
sionally-not often-Mr. Mackenzie's vivid Philip II. and William of Orange in the manner that calls itself realistic, would be
As the author
power of realization finds an expression that Low
Countries, plots and counter -plots, tells it, it remains true to life, but becomes
jars a little.
From a
beauty a too emphatic physical detail, outrages ; in fact, all those incidents 'which tender, pathetic, and indeed moving. It
which in a coarser web might pass_un- a cheap press, had it then existed, is the history of a daughter, educated above
her early surroundings, who returns, after
In
noticed, glares out unpleasantly. Thus would have agreed in acclaiming.
several
years of absence, to find her
Carnival' is not faultless, but (which is a addition, we find a heroine who lan-
far better thing) it is alive ; and it bears guishes for love of the hero while saving widowed mother sunk into drink,
slovenli-
that promise of growth that belongs to and protecting the said hero's wife, the ness, and low company, and who devotes
life. Mr. Mackenzie needs but to guard wife who refuses to credit her husband herself to that mother's redemption. The
against the exuberance of his talent and with a single good motive, and lastly the daughter, the “ Princess" of the book's
the temptations that follow upon a swift hero himself, who from a persecutor of title, is perhaps a shade “ too wise and
popularity.
heretics becomes in toleration almost a good for human nature's daily food”,
New Theologian.
but the picture of the mother is both just
Mr. J. Stanley Weyman himself has pro- delightful.
and gentle; and the Irish background is
What Diantha Did. By Charlotte Perkins vided no better material, but we doubt the soft dampness and greenness of the
One seems actually to feel
Gilman. (Fisher Unwin. )
the author's ability to carry the majority
country.
of his readers along with him. This is
THE tradition of the family, in which we mainly because his fiction is so much
are for the most part still living, is the stranger than truth. His preface, relat-
legacy of days when the legal autocrat ing how the story was found in an old CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION.
of the home had vested interests in a group book in a
of related human beings. As he and necessarily to
secret cabinet, adds un-
The Teacher's Encyclopædia (Caxton Pub-
story overlong in lishing Company), of which we recently re-
his wife come to be regarded as its jointly itself, and the little foot-notes' at the viewed the second volume at some length, has
responsible heads, a large demand for bottom of pages serve only to recall a now reached the third of the seven promised
what is at the moment felt to be a dire
perverse ingenuity. Furthermore, though volumes. The present instalment completes
need by a few will be created, and the
we are quite ready to allow of the existence the articles on specific subjects of instruction
disciples of Mrs. Gilman will no longer cry of a character which commits gross
in both primary and secondary schools,
aloud to unresponsive generation brutalities in an age of brutality, while and introduces, besides, valuable contribu-
that the old primitive business of house- holding twentieth-century ideas on the education. Mathematics in the elementary
tions dealing with the social aspects of
work must be set on a business basis. needs of tolerance, we cannot believe in school are treated by Mr. T. P. Nunn, the
In another column we deplore the waste
a sixteenth-century Boswellian autobio-teaching of modern languages by Mr. Francis
involved in the reduction of valuable grapher who carefully reproduces all his Storr, that of classics by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse,
individualities “to a uniform plane of
own ethical sayings, and at the same that of elementary physics and chemistry
received and customary usage. This
time avoids betraying himself in other by Mr. D. S. Macnair, botany, biology, and
protest applies with special force to that
geology by Mr. M. Laurie, and commercial
subjects in schools and institutes by Mr. T. J.
half of the human race whose labour, | ways as an nnmitigated prig.
according to the author,
Millar. Mr. J. Ballinger writes on school
libraries, Mr. S. A. Burstall on co-education,
Is so seldom performed with good will,
Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon on school employment
To say nothing of knowledge and skill. Mr. Wycherly's Wards. By L. Allen bureaux, and Mr. J. Edward Graham on the
Harker. (John Murray. )
child and the law. This last article presents
The book is aimed at the public un-
clear and readable
touched by the sociological book or This sequel to ‘Miss Esperance and Mr. in some 38 pages a
account of the law relating to tho employ-
pamphlet—in fact, so pervasive is the Wycherly' is a story in which it would be ment, protection, and education of children,
propagandist atmosphere that it is diffi- very easy to pick holes. It rambles on and, like Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon's contribution
cult to form any estimate of it under without any sort of construction, just as on school employment bureaux, may be
the heading of fiction. Though the if, one chapter being finished, the author specially commended to the attention of
mirror reflects very clearly a picture hardly knew what she was going to put in educational authorities. A capital list of
of provincial society in the United her next. A whole family, and among
books suitable for young children will be
found in the article on school libraries.
States similar to our own, the servant them a very fascinating little girl, are intro-
Dr. Rouse's views on the teaching of classics
problem is in England not at nearly duced with considerable pomp and circum-
are well known, and his contribution is, as
so acute a stage, and the scale of stance, play a part for a while, and then I usual, provocative and stimulating. Mr.
a
an
>
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THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
acco
1
66
总
79
>
6
SA
Storr, on modern languages, goes most of Provided always that the extracts
are
long, heavy, emphatic, or weighted with
the way with those who practise the direct interesting in themselves, and faithfully meaning. The trochee is very seldom
method, but insists on the necessity of rendered, such “ source-books are bound allowed to do duty for the spondee. A new
composition of other than the free type, to further intelligent study. Miss Johnstone's idea adopted by Mr. Cotterill is to use the
and on the reading of good literature selection can be heartily commended on all proper names ccording to the original
directly the initial or purely oral stage of points. She gives long passages or series Greek quantities.
learning is passed.
of passages relating to important episodes, We offer a few remarks on pages selected
such as the coming of the Friars, the at random. P.
2, “There, on the Trojan
of the Cyclopedia of Education, which Papal exactions and Simon de Montfort's plain? Then why so wroth at the man,
is being edited by Mr. Paul Monroe and quarrel with Henry III. Any young Zeus ? " “Trojan" is the trochaic licence
issued by the Macmillan Company, the student with an elementary, knowledge which the translator seems to use more
second volume has appeared. It advances
of the period will have his horizon widened than he is aware. The ending, man,
from Chu to Fus, and comprises 726 pages. these first-hand accounts, with the many humi bos?
and his imagination stimulated by reading Zeus,” is of the “ ridiculus mus, procumbit
According to the editor, completeness
type, without their excuse.
of treatment is not attempted, but com-
characteristic little touches of gossip, or A rather rapid variation is made from
pleteness of scope is designed ; and the fable that Matthew Paris or Thomas Wykes, Poseidāõn to “ Poseidon. ” The endings
former proposition to some extent disarms for instance, knows how to introduce. the King Earth-shaker,” and “his sham-
criticism. We pointed out in respect of They emphasize the importance
of the bling crook-horned cattle,” are good in-
Vol. I. that it was marked somewhat em-
personal and religious elements in thir- stances of successful spondees. P. 5,
phatically by American perspective and bias, teenth-century history, and show, by fre- “ Eat the possessions of him whose
and the same may be said of Vol. II. , in quent reference to the affrays between whitening bones peradventure Rot in the
regard, not only to the specially American local magnates, how strong were the forces rain on the land or roll in the waves of the
subjects, but also general subjects. Thus of disorder with which Edward I. had to
ocean is a fair sample of the general
* City School Administration is treated
deal. Miss Johnstone includes the more fluency of Mr. Cotterill's verse; p. 237,
entirely from the American point of view. important constitutional documents, such Opposite Telemachus ; and he sat him
On Commercial Education, 16 columns
as the Provisions of Oxford, the newly adown: and a henchman,” a sample of the
are assigned to America, 3 to Germany, and found Parliamentary writ of 1275, the devices used for securing a wealth of short
11 to other countries. England is far Statute of Mortmain, and the writ of 1295 syllables. P. 238, “ to gain all blessings his
behind, a fact which has caused no little for the so-called Model Parliament, soul desireth. ” The fifth foot is the false
uneasiness among English business men. ”
but, wisely, she does not overburden her spondee, which asserts itself too often.
Such is the view of Mr. Joseph F. Johnson, pages with these arid details. Her trans- But, while such small faults can be picked
of New York University, and there is a
lations are accurate and clear, and may be out here and there, we hasten to record our
great deal to justify his assertion. American
read without any sense of effort, though high appreciation of Mr. Cotterill's version.
writers appear to be satisfied with little teachers will have to elucidate the full One may read it page after page with great
short of exhaustive scientific definitions meaning of many technical terms, such as facility, and enjoyment.
which, when worked out, leave the reader
“mediate” or mesne lands, “ aid,' mise,”
not much wiser. We notice the vigorous, and the like. There are a brief appendix
if rather dogmatic style of Mr. A. F. Leach
on authorities and a dated table of contents, We have received three manuals from
in several of the articles dealing with the but no index.
Messrs. Pitman : Household Accounts and
Middle Ages. On many pages the English-
Management, by Helena Head; Mother
man has a chance of seeing himself as
Americans see him, and that is an unequi- German Series. ” Die Judenbuche, by Annette Upper Standards and Evening Schools :
Mr. Henry Frowde sends us in the “Oxford Craft, or Infant Management, by Mrs. Ellis
H. Chadwick ; and Needlework Manuals for
vocal blessing. The Cyclopedia is very von Droste-Hülshoff, edited by Dr. Ernst o. vol. 1. Blouse-making, Vol. II. Skirt-making,
well printed and got-up, and contains a Eckelmann, and Iwan der Schreckliche, by both by Florence Shaw.
0
mass of interesting matter, in most cases Hans Hoffmann, edited by Dr. Charles M.
ably presented.
Poor. The series seems mainly designed
The first is an excellent little treatise
for American readers, as the general editor likely to be of real use to women who
The Story of England (Oxford, Clarendon and the two scholars named above both have the care of a house ; and since the
Press) is evidently the work of a practised belong to the United States. The books Preface tells us that it is adapted to the Pre-
teacher, who knows the value of anecdotes, may, however, be adopted with ad liminary Domestic Course of the Lancashire
popular sayings, scraps of ballads, and the vantage for our own schools, as they offer and Cheshire Institutes, we can but feel
must be sensible and
like in attracting the young pupil's atten- complete stories of more modern date than that this course
tion and enlivening a highly condensed the over-annotated classics of Germany. interesting. It is really rather curious
narrative. Miss Muriel o. Davis shows by The Introductions might be simpler in their how entirely the subject of cheques, and
her apt quotations from Matthew Paris and phrasing. The notes in each case
the proper way of making out receipts, are
other chroniclers that she has studied his adequate, and full of points of grammar,
omitted from the ordinary education of girls.
tory seriously, and her point of view is though occasionally they are a little clumsy book is a tendency to gush, but this is
The greatest fault of the second hand-
distinctly modern and fresh. She gives in expression.
many dates, but contrives on the whole to
happily intermittent. The main portion is
avoid a superfluity of detail. Here and
very good and sensible; but there is a
there we miss a significant fact, such as the lation in the Metre of the Original. By H. B. chapters headed
Homer's Odyssey : a Line-for-Line Trans- curious error in the second of the two
'Infants' Ailments. ' A
murder of Sir Edmund Berry. Godfrey, Cotterill. (Harrap & Co. )—Mr. Cotterill's paragraph appears upon the treatment of
which made people fear the “Popish Plot
.
mumps in infants. Now infants are physio-
or a needed comment, as on the poverty of aim in his translation of the 'Odyssey'
into
At
the Crown under James I. , or the commercial English hexameters has been to reproduce, logically incapable of having mumps.
importance of the Dutch and the Napoleonic and rapidity of the original; to avoid susceptible to the troublesome disorder
as far as possible, the simplicity, directness, what precise period of growth they become
wars.
There are a few tables and sixteen archaic, affected, and “ literary
simple maps which fulfil their purpose and to be literal as far as is consistent with at such different rates ; but it is safe to
diction; cannot be fixed, because children develope
admirably.
natural idiomatic diction. As to the use of say that no child under one year old will
English hexameters, it depends entirely upon require to be treated for mumps. The
Teachers of history will welcome the how the thing is done. When one thinks omission of any suggestion that infant
admirable selection from the authorities of the classical experiments of Harvey mortality is sometimes due to disease
for the thirteenth century in England which and Spenser and Sidney, a phrase like the inherited from fathers is perhaps required
Miss Hilda Johnstone, Assistant Lecturer at
pestilent heresy of the hexameter seems by the public opinion of educational authori-
Manchester University, has arranged and not unnatural. Driven back for a mediumties and of teachers; but it makes the
translated in A Hundred Years of History of translation to the hexameter, Mr. handbook liable to mislead,
from Record and Chronicle, 1216-1327 (Long- Cotterill has done much more than we Concerning the third on our list, we
& Co. ). Stubbs's famous Select expected. True accentual rhythm is the remark that the best handbooks are those
Charters' is invaluable for advanced students fundamental necessity ; but the claims of that give reasons and impart general
with a fair knowledge of Latin, but there quantity must be consulted as much as principles. Only when reasons are under-
is a real need for books like Miss Johnstone's, possible, “the ear alone being the supreme stood do intelligent persons remember
which illustrate the more dramatic and arbiter in all English versification," as instructions, and only when general principles
personal aspects of our mediæval history Worsley judiciously phrases it. Mr. Cot- have been acquired can the instructions be
in the actual words of the chroniclers, and terill takes great pains to fill the places of the applied to fresh cases. Judged by this
which, moreover, give the texts in English classical long syllables with accented (stressed) measure, these little needlework handbooks
for the benefit of those who have no Latin. syllables, which are also (as far as possible) must be said to fail.
are
.
6
?
>
mans
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No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
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are
9
poignant emotion that endows her verse with
Poetry and Drama.
its intrinsic value. She is infected with the
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
restless dissatisfaction of Matthew Arnold's
ENGLISH.
The Grey Stocking, and Other Plays, 46 net.
poetry, but cannot transfigure it, as he did.
Of the three plays printed here, two were
Theology.
But she is convincing. In the poems on the
noticed on their appearance on the stage-- The "submerged tenth " and working-class life
Batiffol (Monseigneur Pierre), The Credibility of Green Elephant (July 8th, 1911) and
we are brought sharply and ruthlessly against
the Gospel : Orpheus' et l'Évangile, trans- * The Grey Stocking (June 6th, 1908). Both
the loss of possibilities, the monotony of
lated by the Rev. G. C. H. Pollen, 4/6 net.
illustrate fashionable society in bright dialogue. despair, and the sense of waste.
A series of lectures in book form, defending The former is rather a disappointing mystery,
the authenticity of the Gospels. The writer while the latter is certainly overloaded with
Old Wife's Tale (The), New Vampt and adorned
with Figures, 2/6 net.
eschews polemical bias, and sifts his testimony as conversation, and weak in action. The third
to oral tradition, internal evidence, and historic play, 'The Double Game,' deals with Russian
A curious blend of the ‘Gammer Gurton's
vraisemblance without theological rancour, and police and plotters at Moscow, as was noted by
Needle' type of old play, and the pastoral
on the whole with scrupulous fairness. He us on its appearance in The English Review.
romance which Greene and Peele used to write.
seems, however, more certain about his con-
It is written mainly in blank verse, interspersed
clusions than his data exactly warrant. He
Cowboy Songs, and other Frontier Ballads,
with prose and jingling incongruous metres
bases the scheme of his lectures on Dr. S.
collected by John A. Lomax, with an Intro- Innumerable devices common to mediæval and
duction by Barrett Wendell, 5/ net.
Reinach's 'Orpheus,' whose militant agnosti-
early Renaissance drama are employed with
cism he sets himself to refute.
We have no intention of denying the merit of fine skill and power of adaptation. Poetic
Chapman (Rev. J. Wilbur), The Problem of the
vigour to these songs. Mr. Lomax may ease feeling, wealth of invention, an airy, frolic-
Work, 5)
his mind on that point. Nor are we unwilling some spirit, with much coarse banter, are the
Dr. Chapman adopts a somewhat Janus-like
to concede the crescendo of sound phrased by distinguishing features of the play. The
attitude towards the problems of Evangelical
him as
sharp, rhythmic yells. ” Indeed, this modern refurbishing which it has received is
doctrine. He oscillates between deference to
impulsive element is so ubiquitous and so fantastically out of place, and contaminates its
the criticisms levelled against it and vindication
forceful as to oust those qualities of beauty simplicity. We prefer the original, mangled
of its efficacy as it stands. Though his tone is
deemed essential to poetic realization. For
as it is, to the garish affectation of its modern
generally conciliatory, his predicament is so
when the cowboy tires of the din of uncouth setting.
obvious as to entrap him into a labyrinth of
rodomontade delivered in his peculiar dialect,
Rossetti (William M. ), The Works of Dante
hesitating and indecisive deductions. His reason-
he seems ready to become sentimentally
ing is too uneasy, and his phraseology too vague,
sophisticated, and to repine and languish with
Gabriel Rossetti, edited with Preface and Notes,
for us to extract substance from his discourse,
the most melting of our civilized lyricists.
9/ net.
We possess
except in the recommendations
a practically complete and
for more
We are not discounting, the ebullience of the
authoritative edition of Rossetti's poems,
ordered methods of church organization.
"Sir Galahads" of the plains, but their
Morgan (Rev. G. Campbell), Sunrise : Behold, He
capacity to make poetry out of it.
thanks to the care and assiduity of his brother.
This new edition has been revised and enlarged.
Cometh! an Introduction to a Study of the Dorant (Herbert), The Age, and Other Poems, Reservations in the printing of poems hitherto
Second Advent.
1/6 net.
unpublished have been deemed necessary,
A collection of three sermons dealing with Mr. Dorant bas fallen into the wrong age, for owing to the poet's fastidious dislike of unfold.
Advent. The author's theme -- that of Mrs.
his gleanings are exactly paralleled by those of ing to the world work which he considered
Besant in the summer of last year-is the second
the normal Augustan who moved in the select unrepresentative of his mature and finished
coming of the Messiah. He details and investi-
hierarchy of Pope's days. The trick of moral- labour. The pieces printed for the first time
gates the Scriptural evidence which furnishes
izing and personifying the abstract; the heroic either fragmentary or juvenilia. The
the groundwork of this speculation, and appeals couplet ; the balanced antithetical style ; the latter are frequently grotesque, and the merit
for a general preparedness to blunt the edge
elegance of phrasing, all are his, and all are of the former is unequal.
of the divine wrath. Dr. Morgan adopts an
Some are beautiful,
flattened and eviscerated.
polished cameos : others stray, fugitive,
arbitrary scale of division, which, though it
Dredan (John M. ), The Poems of John Cleveland,
phosphorescent gleams ;
simplifies the problem of human iniquity,
others clumsy and
entirely fails to recognize the diversities and
annotated and corrected for the First Time,
of no positive value. They are eminently
complexities of human nature itself. The
with Biographical and Historical Introductions,
worth perusal. The print of this edition is so
small as to be fatiguing to the eyes.
“ believing " are to inherit the kingdom ; the
8/6 net.
"rejecting” to be cast out. The " believing
American annotators, editors, compilers, and
Shakespeare, Complete Works, Vols. VII. -IX. ,
are the good ; the "rejecting the bad. Dr. thesis-makers are quaintly prone to resuscitat-
1/ net each.
Morgan is too dogmatic to appeal to many
ing our buried artists, poets, philosophers, and
In the World's Classics, Pocket Edition.
religious thinkers of to-day.
orators of little mark, and dressing them out in Shakespeare, The Tudor : The Tragedy of Mac-
Selwyn (Edward Carus), The Oracles in the New a voluminous panoply of notes, introductions, beth, edited by Arthur C. L. Brown; The
Testament, 10/6 net.
appendixes, and genealogical tables. This Merchant of Venice, edited by Harry Morgan
A new exegesis of the theme commonly known volume is typical of that industrious spirit. We Ayres.
as the “
Argument from Prophecy,” amplified are inundated with information concerning the A neat little edition with brief notes and
into other considerations of the connexion obscure Royalist satirist of the seventeenth glossary. The editors are American scholars.
between the Old and New Testaments. Dr. century, John Cleveland, biographically and Whittier (John Greenleaf), Selections from his
Selwyn treats his subject to exhaustive citation, æsthetically; Like Rochester, he frequently Poems, in 2 parts (combined), with an Introduc-
reinforcing it by what extraneous historical oversteps the borderland of taste, and, like tion by Harold Hodgkin, 1/ net.
material he can collect. He discusses the Cowley, he revels in euphuistic similes and
A reissue in the charming Muses' Library
scope, cause, and manner of points of identity comparisons. His superlative vocabulary for
from the Olive Books, with the introduction
in the light of the Messianic consciousness and the grossegt invective fills the reader with
determination to fulfil the law.
chester University Press. )
character which, again, was modified by coal, gas, and attendance (but no board),
its frank insistence on social distinctions; and a capitation fee for pupils after the
This volume is No. VI. of the “ Educa- Miss Buss at the North London Collegiate first sixty”; and it is stated in
tional Series issued by the University of School, animated by an impatient pity extract from the Report of 1881 that
Manchester. It is a meritorious piece of for girls who were thrust out into the 20,4051. had been paid in salaries since
work—satisfactory as reading for the world without any training to render January, 1874. Ill or well paid, however,
present day, and of assured value for future them capable of holding their own in it, recognized or unrecognized by the heed-
historians of education. It gives us not tried to give them the thoroughness and less general public, the assistant High
merely a record of the origin and early accuracy which would fit them for pro- School mistress of those early relentless
progress of a great school, but also—what is fessional work of the same standard as days went not wholly unrewarded. Her
both more interesting and more important their brothers'. The ideal of the citizens work had a glamour upon it which
an account of the inception of a great of Manchester was at once more philo- nowadays, perhaps, has more or less de-
tradition. High Schools for Girls have, sophical and more fully humane. They parted ; she had mostly the high spirits of
of late years, been subject to unfavour desired that every girl—without respect the pioneer, to whom fatigue is of no
able criticism from more than one side, to social standing or to religious belief- account ; and, if she was often called upon
and it seems certain that their methods, should, so far as it could be done, have for heavy self-sacrifice, she made it simply
and even, to some extent, their ideals, are the chance, not only of acquiring ability and without question, as if embracing a
destined to undergo considerable modifica- to earn her own living, but also, and privilege.
tion. But no criticism, and no modifica- especially, of attaining to culture and Among the many improved details of
tions of the curriculum, can affect our the development of her powers. Nothing present management one
cannot but
admiration for the generous wisdom of in the book is finer than the extracts view with special approval the adoption
those who started them, or for the gal- from divers reports and memorials in of the custom of the Sabbatical term.
lantry, devotedness, and joyous trust in which the Committee had occasion to After ten years' service a mistress has a
themselves and their leaders with which set forth the reasons for the establish-term's leave of absence, with full salary
the women of the seventies and eighties ment of this School. Their plain and and without the expense of providing a
gave themselves to the task that was sober language carries
carries the thrill of substitute, in order that she may recruit
offered to their hands.
enthusiasm in it, and the reader must herself by travel, study, or rest, as occasion
The Report of the Schools Inquiry be dull to whom nothing of that thrill may require. We agree with the writer
Commission, presented to Parliament in is communicated.
in hoping that this custom may come to
July, 1867, included evidence concerning There were sixty pupils to begin with, be more generally followed in High
the state of girls' education, which had and the numbers increased by leaps and Schools. At Manchester it is no doubt
been collected in compliance with a bounds, so that the houses originally facilitated by the fact that the post of
memorial addressed to the Commissioners taken by the Committee were soon found
second mistress is not a permanency,
by Miss Emily Davies, the founder of inadequate for their purpose. At length, but held in turn by one mistress after
Girton, and some other ladies. From the in September, 1881, the School was moved
From the in September, 1881, the School was moved another, so that there is always a certain
attention which this part of the Report to the buildings erected for it in Dover number of women on the staff who are
attracted, the High Schools for Girls may Street, which it still occupies-since that qualified for administrative work, as well
be said to have taken rise, though the day much enlarged and improved. It had as teaching.
foundation of Queen's College (1848), contributed no less than 3,0001. from its Of other improvements made within the
Bedford College (1849), the North London own revenues towards the expenses of new century we may notice the reduction
an
## p. (#62) #################################################
62
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
as
as
-almost to abolition of all examina- the mid nineteenth century which, if one does that only, than to read it a
tions beyond those which may serve as in some measure, no doubt, owing to his little, and to be told a great deal about its
an entrance to a University career ; the attacks upon it-seems to have given significance, and about the development
appointment, as Medical 'Inspector to way. Our twentieth-century Philistinism and sense of the world from which it
the School, of a woman doctor; and the bears another character. Opportunities issues. ” Such advice will hardly come
ever closer relation into which-through for education are multiplied around us ; amiss to us to-day, who are more prone
the wise and original action of Miss and expert opinion is somewhat more in than ever to impute to children-even to
Burstall—the School has been brought request than of old. But it may be encourage in them the adult's impa-
with Manchester University : “indeed,” doubted whether a real care for education, tience of repetition.
she says, “no other school in England in the full meaning «f the word, has reached In 1872—again in his General Report
shows anything like the same degree of in England anything like the strength and as Inspector—Matthew Arnold drew atten-
intimate connexion with a local Uni- enlightenment which Arnold found in Ger- tion to the desirability of giving some
versity. ”
many in the sixties, while it has certainly instruction in a second language,
The making of the School is seen not issued in any such well-knit and all- an object of reference and comparison,
throughout as the work of a group of embracing organization. Our Universities, to children in elementary schools. Because
persons, and as such has a peculiar in particular Oxford and Cambridge, Latin is the foundation of so much, it is
interest; but for that very reason retain the character of hauts Lycées ; the best language to take ; and he re-
hardly any individual character stands and the amusing account here quoted of the commended that it should be taught, not
out distinctly. The two exceptions to bringing-up of a boy " of distinguished by means of classical authors, but through
this vagueness are the figure of Miss connections, living in a fashionable part selections from the Vulgate — surely a
Elizabeth Day, the first Headmistress, of London,” is still enacted among us felicitous suggestion.
to whom, if to any single person, the without interference. We have not im-
No kind of book provokes to harmless
success of the School is to be most directly proved the status and comfort of our disagreement so readily as a “ Selection,"
ascribed, and, in a yet greater degree of teachers to the level Arnold admired in and in running through this one we did
clearness and attractiveness, that of Dr. Holland ; nor do we in the person of not fail of that stimulating experience.
A. S. Wilkins.
State officials-expend on the choice of Thus we wished there had been fewer
In Appendixes are supplied lists of he observed in France and Germany. Translating Homer, which does not lend
than forty-one quotations from 'On
themselves well in different departments
Not once, but many times, even
itself specially well to this treatment,
of work, and they make a roll of which this volume, are these examples urged and has really no more, if no less, to do
the School may well be proud.
upon us for imitation, in some form or
with education than many another of
We could have done
without the trivial other, and the refrain of all this part of Matthew
Arnold's works. Further, since
We could have done without the trivial Matthew Arnold's counsel would seem to the chronological arrangement affords
verses with which the book begins, and
be “ Trust the State, use the State. ” little or no connexion between consecutive
we note, interspersed amid sound and Yet he clearly perceived—as is sufficiently quotations, we should also have been
interesting writing, patches of a like
triviality, which appears, indeed, also State management of education abroad particularly_glad to have a more nearly
in the choice of some of the photo-
perfect index.
graphs. Moreover, many pages would the good common sense of the people in
was as much a consequence as a cause of
have been the clearer and more vigorous for this matter ; wherein their superiority
a critical revision of their style. But these
over us can still hardly be disputed, how-
blemishes are not sufficient to affect the
NEW NOVELS.
general happy impression which the book past quarter of a century has brought
ever true it is that with them, too, the
leaves on the mind, far less to diminish discovery of errors and modifications of
Carnival. By Compton Mackenzie.
the satisfaction with which one reflects detail.
(Secker. )
on the good work whereof it is a record.
While the general effect of these quota- TAE habitual novel-reader, as he or she
tions is decidedly to chasten, there are peruses volume after volume of contem-
one or two points in which even we were porary fiction, must often inwardly wonder
found to deserve praise. Matthew Arnold what writers are to be the shining lights
Thoughts on Education from Matthew
Arnold.
strongly approved of our pupil-teacher of to-morrow. Of Mr. Compton Mac-
Edited by Leonard Huxley. system-calling it “ the grand merit of our kenzie, when he produced. The Passionate
(Smith, Elder & Co. )
English State system, and its chief title Elopement,' it was possible to say: "Here
HERE is a book which may claim a welcome to public respect”; but what he says of may be one. ” Nay, readers who pondered
from all teachers. It is a selection of it is now so beside the mark that the one sinister chapter must håve felt assur-
some 240 passages, drawn chiefly from passage is interesting as a curiosity rather ance that its author could paint some-
Matthew Arnold's Reports on Elementary than in any other way. On the other thing beyond an eighteenth-century minia-
Schools (1852–82) and the Reports to hand, we should like to draw attention, as ture. Now comes Mr. Mackenzie's second
different bodies on his investigations into a matter of present importance, to his novel, dealing this time with the world
Continental education, but comprising discriminating and cordial appreciation of to-day, and amply fulfils the promise
also extracts from other sources, and from — drawn from his General Report in of his first. Carnival 'is not so complete
a few of his letters. The idea of the volume, 1882—of the work and influence of a work of art as
a work of art as 'The Passionate Elope-
which originated with Mr. Theodore managers in Voluntary Schools.
ment,' but it dives deeper, and its range
Rennert, was excellent; the
Matthew Arnold's views on the relative is wider. Its first and great quality is
because some of the best of its matter significance for culture of natural science originality. This is not to say that it does
is not otherwise easily accessible. The and letters are too well known to need not remind us, in detail, of Mr. de Morgan,
passages are arranged chronologically, con- mention; we merely remark that any one and in design of Mr. Arnold Bennett.
cluding with one taken from the Special who has not yet done so may make The originality of Mr. Mackenzie lies in
Report on Elementary Education in satisfactory acquaintance with them here, his possession of an imagination and a
Germany, Switzerland, and France,' dated His uncompromising belief in the efficacy of vision of life that are as peculiarly his
1886. A great deal of water has run under poetry—the best poetry—comes out in
own as a voice or a laugh, and that reflect
the bridges since 1886; and going over his Reports rather refreshingly.
“None themselves in a style which is that of no
again the counsels, complaints, and ideals but classical poetry should be taken,'
other writer.
which find utterance anew in these pages, he says in 1874 ; we are far too much In the first chapter are presented, in
one wonders how far their author would afraid of restriction and uniformity. ” gradually narrowing circles, London in
be satisfied with the progress we have And in another place he urges that “it is October, Islington, the little house in which
made. There was a root of dullness in l better to read a masterpiece much, even
better to read a masterpiece much, even 'the heroine is to be born, her father, her
more so
## p. (#63) #################################################
No. 4395, JAN. 20, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
63
occa-
mother, and her mother's family—all with wages and prices of provisions so carefully never are heard of again—though, perhaps,
a fluent exactitude; every word is right, and set out by Mrs. Gilman needs adjustment since nobody in the book gets married,
each appears to have come without care. for the English reader.
this merely indicates that yet another
To enshrine exactness of statement in an
While some may regard Diantha's aids sequel is coming. There is a like happy-
atmosphere of sympathetic imagination is to scientific housekeeping as the thin end go-lucky method in the treatment of minor
precisely the achievement towards which of a wedge which will destroy that precious details and the style. It cannot be denied
modern fiction is straining, and here is Mr. fragility known as the sanctity of the that this lack of workmanship proves a
Mackenzie—perhaps just because he is a home, others will regard them as steps weakness; in particular, it makes the
late comer-attaining it at once, and, as along a road which leads to greater sim- outline of the characters vaguer than it
it seems, easily. The whole study of little plicity of living, and in particular of need be. Yet the book is full of charm, of
Jenny's childhood is admirable, her feeding. Apparently Mrs. Gilman believes gentle hilarity and gracefully imagined
evolution into a ballet-dancer at a variety that under the new régime the energies of incident. It succeeds in making the reader
theatre almost as good, and the develop- maternity will be greatly conserved, as believe in most of it—though not in the
ment of her character as inevitable as we take leave of her heroine after four letter which Miss Willows wrote to Mr.
reality itself. Careless must be the reader years of marriage as the happy mother of Wycherly, which really must be a concoe-
who does not now and again sigh over the three children.
tion. Mr. Wycherly takes his wards to
hopeless futility of such teaching as was
Oxford, and the whole scene is laid there,
administered to this little pagan Cockney,
chiefly in a house and garden in Holywell,
who might have become so glorious a The Shadow of Power. By Paul Bertram.
creature. All her London life and her
(John Lane. )
mother's life are true; but her marriage
and her existence in Cornwall strike a dis- THE possibility of Mr. Bertram being a Princess Katharine. By Katharine Tynan.
cord. These last chapters, though there coming romanticist” must be our excuse (Ward, Lock & Co. )
are fine things in them, seem
for dealing at some length with this work.
what to be out of tune, and
It introduces, amid the conflict between HERE is a tale which, if treated in the
sionally-not often-Mr. Mackenzie's vivid Philip II. and William of Orange in the manner that calls itself realistic, would be
As the author
power of realization finds an expression that Low
Countries, plots and counter -plots, tells it, it remains true to life, but becomes
jars a little.
From a
beauty a too emphatic physical detail, outrages ; in fact, all those incidents 'which tender, pathetic, and indeed moving. It
which in a coarser web might pass_un- a cheap press, had it then existed, is the history of a daughter, educated above
her early surroundings, who returns, after
In
noticed, glares out unpleasantly. Thus would have agreed in acclaiming.
several
years of absence, to find her
Carnival' is not faultless, but (which is a addition, we find a heroine who lan-
far better thing) it is alive ; and it bears guishes for love of the hero while saving widowed mother sunk into drink,
slovenli-
that promise of growth that belongs to and protecting the said hero's wife, the ness, and low company, and who devotes
life. Mr. Mackenzie needs but to guard wife who refuses to credit her husband herself to that mother's redemption. The
against the exuberance of his talent and with a single good motive, and lastly the daughter, the “ Princess" of the book's
the temptations that follow upon a swift hero himself, who from a persecutor of title, is perhaps a shade “ too wise and
popularity.
heretics becomes in toleration almost a good for human nature's daily food”,
New Theologian.
but the picture of the mother is both just
Mr. J. Stanley Weyman himself has pro- delightful.
and gentle; and the Irish background is
What Diantha Did. By Charlotte Perkins vided no better material, but we doubt the soft dampness and greenness of the
One seems actually to feel
Gilman. (Fisher Unwin. )
the author's ability to carry the majority
country.
of his readers along with him. This is
THE tradition of the family, in which we mainly because his fiction is so much
are for the most part still living, is the stranger than truth. His preface, relat-
legacy of days when the legal autocrat ing how the story was found in an old CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION.
of the home had vested interests in a group book in a
of related human beings. As he and necessarily to
secret cabinet, adds un-
The Teacher's Encyclopædia (Caxton Pub-
story overlong in lishing Company), of which we recently re-
his wife come to be regarded as its jointly itself, and the little foot-notes' at the viewed the second volume at some length, has
responsible heads, a large demand for bottom of pages serve only to recall a now reached the third of the seven promised
what is at the moment felt to be a dire
perverse ingenuity. Furthermore, though volumes. The present instalment completes
need by a few will be created, and the
we are quite ready to allow of the existence the articles on specific subjects of instruction
disciples of Mrs. Gilman will no longer cry of a character which commits gross
in both primary and secondary schools,
aloud to unresponsive generation brutalities in an age of brutality, while and introduces, besides, valuable contribu-
that the old primitive business of house- holding twentieth-century ideas on the education. Mathematics in the elementary
tions dealing with the social aspects of
work must be set on a business basis. needs of tolerance, we cannot believe in school are treated by Mr. T. P. Nunn, the
In another column we deplore the waste
a sixteenth-century Boswellian autobio-teaching of modern languages by Mr. Francis
involved in the reduction of valuable grapher who carefully reproduces all his Storr, that of classics by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse,
individualities “to a uniform plane of
own ethical sayings, and at the same that of elementary physics and chemistry
received and customary usage. This
time avoids betraying himself in other by Mr. D. S. Macnair, botany, biology, and
protest applies with special force to that
geology by Mr. M. Laurie, and commercial
subjects in schools and institutes by Mr. T. J.
half of the human race whose labour, | ways as an nnmitigated prig.
according to the author,
Millar. Mr. J. Ballinger writes on school
libraries, Mr. S. A. Burstall on co-education,
Is so seldom performed with good will,
Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon on school employment
To say nothing of knowledge and skill. Mr. Wycherly's Wards. By L. Allen bureaux, and Mr. J. Edward Graham on the
Harker. (John Murray. )
child and the law. This last article presents
The book is aimed at the public un-
clear and readable
touched by the sociological book or This sequel to ‘Miss Esperance and Mr. in some 38 pages a
account of the law relating to tho employ-
pamphlet—in fact, so pervasive is the Wycherly' is a story in which it would be ment, protection, and education of children,
propagandist atmosphere that it is diffi- very easy to pick holes. It rambles on and, like Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon's contribution
cult to form any estimate of it under without any sort of construction, just as on school employment bureaux, may be
the heading of fiction. Though the if, one chapter being finished, the author specially commended to the attention of
mirror reflects very clearly a picture hardly knew what she was going to put in educational authorities. A capital list of
of provincial society in the United her next. A whole family, and among
books suitable for young children will be
found in the article on school libraries.
States similar to our own, the servant them a very fascinating little girl, are intro-
Dr. Rouse's views on the teaching of classics
problem is in England not at nearly duced with considerable pomp and circum-
are well known, and his contribution is, as
so acute a stage, and the scale of stance, play a part for a while, and then I usual, provocative and stimulating. Mr.
a
an
>
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64
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
acco
1
66
总
79
>
6
SA
Storr, on modern languages, goes most of Provided always that the extracts
are
long, heavy, emphatic, or weighted with
the way with those who practise the direct interesting in themselves, and faithfully meaning. The trochee is very seldom
method, but insists on the necessity of rendered, such “ source-books are bound allowed to do duty for the spondee. A new
composition of other than the free type, to further intelligent study. Miss Johnstone's idea adopted by Mr. Cotterill is to use the
and on the reading of good literature selection can be heartily commended on all proper names ccording to the original
directly the initial or purely oral stage of points. She gives long passages or series Greek quantities.
learning is passed.
of passages relating to important episodes, We offer a few remarks on pages selected
such as the coming of the Friars, the at random. P.
2, “There, on the Trojan
of the Cyclopedia of Education, which Papal exactions and Simon de Montfort's plain? Then why so wroth at the man,
is being edited by Mr. Paul Monroe and quarrel with Henry III. Any young Zeus ? " “Trojan" is the trochaic licence
issued by the Macmillan Company, the student with an elementary, knowledge which the translator seems to use more
second volume has appeared. It advances
of the period will have his horizon widened than he is aware. The ending, man,
from Chu to Fus, and comprises 726 pages. these first-hand accounts, with the many humi bos?
and his imagination stimulated by reading Zeus,” is of the “ ridiculus mus, procumbit
According to the editor, completeness
type, without their excuse.
of treatment is not attempted, but com-
characteristic little touches of gossip, or A rather rapid variation is made from
pleteness of scope is designed ; and the fable that Matthew Paris or Thomas Wykes, Poseidāõn to “ Poseidon. ” The endings
former proposition to some extent disarms for instance, knows how to introduce. the King Earth-shaker,” and “his sham-
criticism. We pointed out in respect of They emphasize the importance
of the bling crook-horned cattle,” are good in-
Vol. I. that it was marked somewhat em-
personal and religious elements in thir- stances of successful spondees. P. 5,
phatically by American perspective and bias, teenth-century history, and show, by fre- “ Eat the possessions of him whose
and the same may be said of Vol. II. , in quent reference to the affrays between whitening bones peradventure Rot in the
regard, not only to the specially American local magnates, how strong were the forces rain on the land or roll in the waves of the
subjects, but also general subjects. Thus of disorder with which Edward I. had to
ocean is a fair sample of the general
* City School Administration is treated
deal. Miss Johnstone includes the more fluency of Mr. Cotterill's verse; p. 237,
entirely from the American point of view. important constitutional documents, such Opposite Telemachus ; and he sat him
On Commercial Education, 16 columns
as the Provisions of Oxford, the newly adown: and a henchman,” a sample of the
are assigned to America, 3 to Germany, and found Parliamentary writ of 1275, the devices used for securing a wealth of short
11 to other countries. England is far Statute of Mortmain, and the writ of 1295 syllables. P. 238, “ to gain all blessings his
behind, a fact which has caused no little for the so-called Model Parliament, soul desireth. ” The fifth foot is the false
uneasiness among English business men. ”
but, wisely, she does not overburden her spondee, which asserts itself too often.
Such is the view of Mr. Joseph F. Johnson, pages with these arid details. Her trans- But, while such small faults can be picked
of New York University, and there is a
lations are accurate and clear, and may be out here and there, we hasten to record our
great deal to justify his assertion. American
read without any sense of effort, though high appreciation of Mr. Cotterill's version.
writers appear to be satisfied with little teachers will have to elucidate the full One may read it page after page with great
short of exhaustive scientific definitions meaning of many technical terms, such as facility, and enjoyment.
which, when worked out, leave the reader
“mediate” or mesne lands, “ aid,' mise,”
not much wiser. We notice the vigorous, and the like. There are a brief appendix
if rather dogmatic style of Mr. A. F. Leach
on authorities and a dated table of contents, We have received three manuals from
in several of the articles dealing with the but no index.
Messrs. Pitman : Household Accounts and
Middle Ages. On many pages the English-
Management, by Helena Head; Mother
man has a chance of seeing himself as
Americans see him, and that is an unequi- German Series. ” Die Judenbuche, by Annette Upper Standards and Evening Schools :
Mr. Henry Frowde sends us in the “Oxford Craft, or Infant Management, by Mrs. Ellis
H. Chadwick ; and Needlework Manuals for
vocal blessing. The Cyclopedia is very von Droste-Hülshoff, edited by Dr. Ernst o. vol. 1. Blouse-making, Vol. II. Skirt-making,
well printed and got-up, and contains a Eckelmann, and Iwan der Schreckliche, by both by Florence Shaw.
0
mass of interesting matter, in most cases Hans Hoffmann, edited by Dr. Charles M.
ably presented.
Poor. The series seems mainly designed
The first is an excellent little treatise
for American readers, as the general editor likely to be of real use to women who
The Story of England (Oxford, Clarendon and the two scholars named above both have the care of a house ; and since the
Press) is evidently the work of a practised belong to the United States. The books Preface tells us that it is adapted to the Pre-
teacher, who knows the value of anecdotes, may, however, be adopted with ad liminary Domestic Course of the Lancashire
popular sayings, scraps of ballads, and the vantage for our own schools, as they offer and Cheshire Institutes, we can but feel
must be sensible and
like in attracting the young pupil's atten- complete stories of more modern date than that this course
tion and enlivening a highly condensed the over-annotated classics of Germany. interesting. It is really rather curious
narrative. Miss Muriel o. Davis shows by The Introductions might be simpler in their how entirely the subject of cheques, and
her apt quotations from Matthew Paris and phrasing. The notes in each case
the proper way of making out receipts, are
other chroniclers that she has studied his adequate, and full of points of grammar,
omitted from the ordinary education of girls.
tory seriously, and her point of view is though occasionally they are a little clumsy book is a tendency to gush, but this is
The greatest fault of the second hand-
distinctly modern and fresh. She gives in expression.
many dates, but contrives on the whole to
happily intermittent. The main portion is
avoid a superfluity of detail. Here and
very good and sensible; but there is a
there we miss a significant fact, such as the lation in the Metre of the Original. By H. B. chapters headed
Homer's Odyssey : a Line-for-Line Trans- curious error in the second of the two
'Infants' Ailments. ' A
murder of Sir Edmund Berry. Godfrey, Cotterill. (Harrap & Co. )—Mr. Cotterill's paragraph appears upon the treatment of
which made people fear the “Popish Plot
.
mumps in infants. Now infants are physio-
or a needed comment, as on the poverty of aim in his translation of the 'Odyssey'
into
At
the Crown under James I. , or the commercial English hexameters has been to reproduce, logically incapable of having mumps.
importance of the Dutch and the Napoleonic and rapidity of the original; to avoid susceptible to the troublesome disorder
as far as possible, the simplicity, directness, what precise period of growth they become
wars.
There are a few tables and sixteen archaic, affected, and “ literary
simple maps which fulfil their purpose and to be literal as far as is consistent with at such different rates ; but it is safe to
diction; cannot be fixed, because children develope
admirably.
natural idiomatic diction. As to the use of say that no child under one year old will
English hexameters, it depends entirely upon require to be treated for mumps. The
Teachers of history will welcome the how the thing is done. When one thinks omission of any suggestion that infant
admirable selection from the authorities of the classical experiments of Harvey mortality is sometimes due to disease
for the thirteenth century in England which and Spenser and Sidney, a phrase like the inherited from fathers is perhaps required
Miss Hilda Johnstone, Assistant Lecturer at
pestilent heresy of the hexameter seems by the public opinion of educational authori-
Manchester University, has arranged and not unnatural. Driven back for a mediumties and of teachers; but it makes the
translated in A Hundred Years of History of translation to the hexameter, Mr. handbook liable to mislead,
from Record and Chronicle, 1216-1327 (Long- Cotterill has done much more than we Concerning the third on our list, we
& Co. ). Stubbs's famous Select expected. True accentual rhythm is the remark that the best handbooks are those
Charters' is invaluable for advanced students fundamental necessity ; but the claims of that give reasons and impart general
with a fair knowledge of Latin, but there quantity must be consulted as much as principles. Only when reasons are under-
is a real need for books like Miss Johnstone's, possible, “the ear alone being the supreme stood do intelligent persons remember
which illustrate the more dramatic and arbiter in all English versification," as instructions, and only when general principles
personal aspects of our mediæval history Worsley judiciously phrases it. Mr. Cot- have been acquired can the instructions be
in the actual words of the chroniclers, and terill takes great pains to fill the places of the applied to fresh cases. Judged by this
which, moreover, give the texts in English classical long syllables with accented (stressed) measure, these little needlework handbooks
for the benefit of those who have no Latin. syllables, which are also (as far as possible) must be said to fail.
are
.
6
?
>
mans
## p. (#65) #################################################
No. 4395, Jan. 20, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
65
are
9
poignant emotion that endows her verse with
Poetry and Drama.
its intrinsic value. She is infected with the
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
restless dissatisfaction of Matthew Arnold's
ENGLISH.
The Grey Stocking, and Other Plays, 46 net.
poetry, but cannot transfigure it, as he did.
Of the three plays printed here, two were
Theology.
But she is convincing. In the poems on the
noticed on their appearance on the stage-- The "submerged tenth " and working-class life
Batiffol (Monseigneur Pierre), The Credibility of Green Elephant (July 8th, 1911) and
we are brought sharply and ruthlessly against
the Gospel : Orpheus' et l'Évangile, trans- * The Grey Stocking (June 6th, 1908). Both
the loss of possibilities, the monotony of
lated by the Rev. G. C. H. Pollen, 4/6 net.
illustrate fashionable society in bright dialogue. despair, and the sense of waste.
A series of lectures in book form, defending The former is rather a disappointing mystery,
the authenticity of the Gospels. The writer while the latter is certainly overloaded with
Old Wife's Tale (The), New Vampt and adorned
with Figures, 2/6 net.
eschews polemical bias, and sifts his testimony as conversation, and weak in action. The third
to oral tradition, internal evidence, and historic play, 'The Double Game,' deals with Russian
A curious blend of the ‘Gammer Gurton's
vraisemblance without theological rancour, and police and plotters at Moscow, as was noted by
Needle' type of old play, and the pastoral
on the whole with scrupulous fairness. He us on its appearance in The English Review.
romance which Greene and Peele used to write.
seems, however, more certain about his con-
It is written mainly in blank verse, interspersed
clusions than his data exactly warrant. He
Cowboy Songs, and other Frontier Ballads,
with prose and jingling incongruous metres
bases the scheme of his lectures on Dr. S.
collected by John A. Lomax, with an Intro- Innumerable devices common to mediæval and
duction by Barrett Wendell, 5/ net.
Reinach's 'Orpheus,' whose militant agnosti-
early Renaissance drama are employed with
cism he sets himself to refute.
We have no intention of denying the merit of fine skill and power of adaptation. Poetic
Chapman (Rev. J. Wilbur), The Problem of the
vigour to these songs. Mr. Lomax may ease feeling, wealth of invention, an airy, frolic-
Work, 5)
his mind on that point. Nor are we unwilling some spirit, with much coarse banter, are the
Dr. Chapman adopts a somewhat Janus-like
to concede the crescendo of sound phrased by distinguishing features of the play. The
attitude towards the problems of Evangelical
him as
sharp, rhythmic yells. ” Indeed, this modern refurbishing which it has received is
doctrine. He oscillates between deference to
impulsive element is so ubiquitous and so fantastically out of place, and contaminates its
the criticisms levelled against it and vindication
forceful as to oust those qualities of beauty simplicity. We prefer the original, mangled
of its efficacy as it stands. Though his tone is
deemed essential to poetic realization. For
as it is, to the garish affectation of its modern
generally conciliatory, his predicament is so
when the cowboy tires of the din of uncouth setting.
obvious as to entrap him into a labyrinth of
rodomontade delivered in his peculiar dialect,
Rossetti (William M. ), The Works of Dante
hesitating and indecisive deductions. His reason-
he seems ready to become sentimentally
ing is too uneasy, and his phraseology too vague,
sophisticated, and to repine and languish with
Gabriel Rossetti, edited with Preface and Notes,
for us to extract substance from his discourse,
the most melting of our civilized lyricists.
9/ net.
We possess
except in the recommendations
a practically complete and
for more
We are not discounting, the ebullience of the
authoritative edition of Rossetti's poems,
ordered methods of church organization.
"Sir Galahads" of the plains, but their
Morgan (Rev. G. Campbell), Sunrise : Behold, He
capacity to make poetry out of it.
thanks to the care and assiduity of his brother.
This new edition has been revised and enlarged.
Cometh! an Introduction to a Study of the Dorant (Herbert), The Age, and Other Poems, Reservations in the printing of poems hitherto
Second Advent.
1/6 net.
unpublished have been deemed necessary,
A collection of three sermons dealing with Mr. Dorant bas fallen into the wrong age, for owing to the poet's fastidious dislike of unfold.
Advent. The author's theme -- that of Mrs.
his gleanings are exactly paralleled by those of ing to the world work which he considered
Besant in the summer of last year-is the second
the normal Augustan who moved in the select unrepresentative of his mature and finished
coming of the Messiah. He details and investi-
hierarchy of Pope's days. The trick of moral- labour. The pieces printed for the first time
gates the Scriptural evidence which furnishes
izing and personifying the abstract; the heroic either fragmentary or juvenilia. The
the groundwork of this speculation, and appeals couplet ; the balanced antithetical style ; the latter are frequently grotesque, and the merit
for a general preparedness to blunt the edge
elegance of phrasing, all are his, and all are of the former is unequal.
of the divine wrath. Dr. Morgan adopts an
Some are beautiful,
flattened and eviscerated.
polished cameos : others stray, fugitive,
arbitrary scale of division, which, though it
Dredan (John M. ), The Poems of John Cleveland,
phosphorescent gleams ;
simplifies the problem of human iniquity,
others clumsy and
entirely fails to recognize the diversities and
annotated and corrected for the First Time,
of no positive value. They are eminently
complexities of human nature itself. The
with Biographical and Historical Introductions,
worth perusal. The print of this edition is so
small as to be fatiguing to the eyes.
“ believing " are to inherit the kingdom ; the
8/6 net.
"rejecting” to be cast out. The " believing
American annotators, editors, compilers, and
Shakespeare, Complete Works, Vols. VII. -IX. ,
are the good ; the "rejecting the bad. Dr. thesis-makers are quaintly prone to resuscitat-
1/ net each.
Morgan is too dogmatic to appeal to many
ing our buried artists, poets, philosophers, and
In the World's Classics, Pocket Edition.
religious thinkers of to-day.
orators of little mark, and dressing them out in Shakespeare, The Tudor : The Tragedy of Mac-
Selwyn (Edward Carus), The Oracles in the New a voluminous panoply of notes, introductions, beth, edited by Arthur C. L. Brown; The
Testament, 10/6 net.
appendixes, and genealogical tables. This Merchant of Venice, edited by Harry Morgan
A new exegesis of the theme commonly known volume is typical of that industrious spirit. We Ayres.
as the “
Argument from Prophecy,” amplified are inundated with information concerning the A neat little edition with brief notes and
into other considerations of the connexion obscure Royalist satirist of the seventeenth glossary. The editors are American scholars.
between the Old and New Testaments. Dr. century, John Cleveland, biographically and Whittier (John Greenleaf), Selections from his
Selwyn treats his subject to exhaustive citation, æsthetically; Like Rochester, he frequently Poems, in 2 parts (combined), with an Introduc-
reinforcing it by what extraneous historical oversteps the borderland of taste, and, like tion by Harold Hodgkin, 1/ net.
material he can collect. He discusses the Cowley, he revels in euphuistic similes and
A reissue in the charming Muses' Library
scope, cause, and manner of points of identity comparisons. His superlative vocabulary for
from the Olive Books, with the introduction
in the light of the Messianic consciousness and the grossegt invective fills the reader with
determination to fulfil the law.
