No More Learning

successive photographs of a kinematograph struggle to maintain the gentilities she Cambridge, are equally bold, speculators,
worries, and the threadbare poverty of à A. B. Cook, his literary associates at
seen separately : the individual truth
of each to life cannot be denied, but they soul Siegmund is free, but he has the who is capable of the work of any
was formerly accustomed to. In his and it must be admitted that Dr. Frazer,
never impress one as living, moving things. sensuous, sensitive nature of the poet, two ordinary mortals, and the only
Madame Hohlakov, the lady of little who lives for his imaginative visions, authority of this school thoroughly
faith,” is the most successful, and welcome. while crushed outwardly by the hostile at home alike in anthropology and in
too as affording almost the only humorous
relief that can be said to count for any-
classical archæology, decidedly inclines
pressure of unyielding facts.
towards the same daring style of ex-
thing. On the other hand, there is The story opens with Siegmund's escape planation. The moot point is whether the
a group of schoolboys-gathered about from his household, for a few days of happi" transition from savagery to civilization is
Alyosha, they make the final scene of the ness with Helena, on a long-projected holi- short and sharp, a volcanic upheaval of
book-drawn with an extraordinary live- day by the sea. There is not a touch in the firm land out of the slough ; or whether
liness, subtlety, and sympathy.
narrative of that semi-real superheated it involves a development of infinite
There is but a minimum of scene- passion which, in the middle-class ima- gradations, a slow draining away of the
painting, and altogether the attention
to gination, has usurped the place of passion's waters over an area of secular emergence.
external circumstance is severely and pure and simple ecstasy. Siegmund has On the latter view, to supply the Greece
accurately restricted to that which is the poet's capacity of enjoying things; or Rome of history with a background
directly significant ; yet to have read he sees and responds instinctively to the obtained from a survey of existing peoples
the book is to have lived in that little forces and appearances of life, as a child of low culture is simply to telescope
remote Russian town—to have seen the claps its hands and stretches out its arms the real process of evolution. On the
ways of its people, and learnt its tradi- to anything that pleases it. Helena’s is a other hand, if savages are all ali ke in
tions and customs, and breathed the very relations with her lover suggests deep persist self-centred and custom-bound
more egoistic nature. The picture of her having no proper history, if their way is to
into it, the wider seems to grow the differ- reservations, as of a woman who cannot in a sort of sleep tempered by strang. . and
ence between this life and that of Western lose sense of her own identity even in the violent dreams, then there would be
Europe.
supreme intimacy of love. Perhaps this nothing unscientific in postulating a
It is a trite thing to say that Dostöevsky is the secret of the tragedy that now sudden awakening, and one that would
is a great realist. Yet it may be worth swiftly develops.
carry on into the new life only some
while to notice that his is that mode With unobtrusive art Mr. Lawrence faint and quickly fading trace of the
of realism which works from within out-scatters hints of Siegmund's unstrung | fantasies of the night.


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No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
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some
sense
66
a
66
99
66
Greek philosophy is the work of genius, living and divine substance which Greek
and it is the mark of genius to create philosophy made it its business to explain, Tripoli and Young Italy. By Charles
out of nothing but itself. Yet even in even if it explained it differently according
Lapworth and Helen Zimmern. (Swift
this glorious movement of free thinking, as a scientific or a mystical bias happened
of which the watchword is “Let us follow
& Co. )
to prevail. That confusion of cate-
the argument whithersoever it may lead,” gories" involved in the primitive notion, THERE is an ancient saying in Italy,
one is aware of a tacit prejudice, a sub- in which impersonal and personal, pre-
conscious orientation. There is a datum animistic and animistic, are confounded, carnato,” and our own Elizabethans had
Tudesco Italianato è un diavolo in-
-one that finally takes shape in the must be resolved, and was in large measure much the same opinion of an Italianate
belief in an intelligible, and likewise in resolved, by the brilliant intellect of Englishman, for the spell which Italy
intelligent, world - order. Greece, with its passion for clearly out-
Whence_this something given at the lined forms.
casts upon her lovers is apt to distract
start? In college days of yore one opened
their reason, and so to excite unfavourable
an essay by remarking that “ the Greeks But in one respect at least the primitive comment. Mr. Lapworth has come under
were an artistic nation. ” But, now that community is aware of clear-cut dis- that spell
, but, like rue,“ with a differ-
ence.
the anthropologist is coming into his own, tinctions, namely, in respect to its social
He resents the notion that Italy
is
things have changed. In this particular organization. A plain . yes or no,” a museum of past glories,” and
definite
line of inquiry Prof. John Burnet of
censures the indiscreet extravagance of
this or that," is demanded as
St. Andrews deserves credit for having soon as it is a question whether a given archæology almost as much as he does
taken the decisive first step”; and in individual belongs to such and such an inter- the patronizing pity of “ the gentlemen in
his case, at any rate, no critic dare affirm marrying division. What more natural, haute politique, who generally have their
that speculative brilliancy is not matched then, than that this sense of a social own pet theories. ”
by solidity of erudition. His inspiration to order should project itself outwards so as He is right in demanding a just share
write an early Greek philosophy consisted, to beget the sense of a world-order-of an of appreciation for “Young Italy,"
one may venture to guess, in a sense of the encompassing “divine,” with its wonder the people of to - day, “ palpitating,
anthropological background, even if at working many-sidedness tempered by urgent"; and, although he carps at the
the date of writing it was as yet hardly some sort of inner organization like to a ignorance of other“ superior persons
possible to prove in detail how primitive human clan-system writ large? Such is about Italy as she is, it is a fact to be
fancies underlay the categories that at the genesis attributed to certain primitive regretted that we English, in our enthu
length were won from the void and classifications studied by MM. Durkheim siasm for Italian art and mediæval lite-
formless infinite. " Meanwhile, in the and Mauss in their pioneer essay on the rature, are prone to neglect the study of
course of twenty years or so, anthropology subject. Mr. Cornford, with much clever- the Italy which has been growing up
has made great strides, and not least of ness and originality, endeavours to account since the days of Mazzini. There is
all in the direction of the psychological on these lines for such a separation of even a tendency to regard her as an
analysis of the mentality of savages, is found, for instance, in Hesiod's cos- worth does well to protest. He sees
elements and “elemental provinces” as almost negligible Power, and Mr. Lap-
especially on its magico-religious side.
mogony. Moira is above the gods, and clearly enough that the fiasco in Abys-
The new method that has mainly she represents not merely a necessary, but sinia lay at the bottom of this deprecia-
brought this about is that of a social also a moral distribution of the powers and tion, but, much as he hates that "absurd
psychology The laws of group-con- functions of things. Just so for savages paradox," the Triple Alliance, he does
sciousness, as studied in the light of the world is essentially a moral order not seem to recognize that it is the very
the social grouping itself (the whole line which they endeavour to cope with by fact that Italy belongs, and belongs
of inquiry being on this account often moral means—by ways of converse and of against her dearest inclinations, to a
described-we think, inexactly described sheer conversation. The discovery of political association which is generally
-as "sociological"), yield an explanation those Greek philosophers in whom the considered distasteful to England, that
of primitive beliefs that differs essentially scientific temper predominated over the gives her an air of_humiliation and
from what was taken for granted so long mystical was precisely this—that it is no unnatural coercion in English eyes.
as inquirers worked upon the figment of a
use talking to things if and when they are
The chapters in which, admirably
reflective savage excogitating his religion so constituted as not to hear.
out of his inner consciousness all by him-
seconded by Miss Helen Zimmern, he
self.
We have left ourselves no space in which presents an enthusiastic picture of modern
to review the details of Mr. Cornford's Italy-political, administrative, economic,
Mr. Cornford has taken over his anthro- treatment. It seemed more important and intellectual—will do much to counter-
pology more or less entire from the pages to try to set forth his very novel and act a fundamentally unjust estimate. We
of L'Année Sociologique'; and, since suggestive point of view as a whole. | do not believe it is in accordance with the
economy of labour required some- For the rest, he shows considerable best traditions of Italian art to paint
thing to be taken for granted, he could erudition, and has a fine bold style, if everything “ en couleur de rose, but
hardly have done better. Nay, the school somewhat lacking in subtle touches. He Mr. Lapworth's glowing panegyric of
of Durkheim may be said to have directly does not possess, perhaps, Miss Harrison's all things Italian is a good alterative,
set him upon his quest, since MM. gift of anthropological divination of find and many readers need it. It is well that
Hubert and Mauss, in their well-known ing a way amid old-world half-understood we should reflect upon the thorough
essay on magic, suggest, without working things by sheer force of sympathetic “house-cleaning ” that Italy undertook
the suggestion out, that the Greek púois, intuition. But he attacks the part in the after her abasement at Adowa, with the
as taken together with dúvapis, will be light of the whole, herein differing from remarkable result that last year she was
found to belong to the same circle of ideas that type of scholar who has been likened able to send a large expeditionary force
as the mana of the Pacific—the notion to a myopic ily. ” Hence he has pro-across the sea whilst maintaining her full
which they, as indeed others before them, duced a notable transvaluation of Greek guard on the Austrian frontier, and that
have supposed to underlie both magic philosophy, even if it be one which time she began the campaign with ample funds
and that early type of religion which and research will inevitably modify in for a year's war.
tends to dispense with gods. ” Mr. that universe of Greek letters which But when it is seen that all this recital
Cornford—who makes his argument, as happily remains perpetually instinct with of the regeneration of Italy is written in
it seems to us, obscurer by following Dr. the mana of evolution.
order to prove how justified she was in
Frazer in refusing the name of religion
her seizure of Tripoli ; when evidence is
to these godless rites which nevertheless
produced that this intellectual and pro-
implicate mana, which he rightly renders
gressive people, including the leading
“ the divine” treats púols
Socialists who support Signor Giolitti's
nature of things”-as the presupposed
administration, are unanimous in their
66
66 the
or


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616
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
9
news-
may be
“ whole-hearted” approval of the aggres- other“ pacifists” whom Mr. Lapworth
sion; when it is confidently asserted spaciously derides, will consent to be
JANE AUSTEN FOR SCHOOLS.
that, in consequence of that aggression, satisfied.
“ Italy's prestige is to-day a hundred per
On the other hand, the author has done THE latest edition of “Pride and Pre-
cent higher than it was in September,
wisely to remind his forgetful readers that judice,' being “edited with Introduction,
1911, we begin to distrust the eloquent Italy's claim to Tripoli, in the event of &c. ,"
and similar in form to a reduced
advocate. It is easy to sneer at
any readjustment,' was expressly ad-Pickwick' recently issued for schools,
paper moralists and their só zeal for
mitted by successive British Foreign is, doubtless, also meant for a scholastic
righteousness,” for there was a good deal Ministers, notably by Lords Derby and purpose. What prompted the choice we
of the Pecksniffian air about the outery Salisbury. "North Africa," prophesied cannot imagine, except a general idea that
of injured innocence, and no European Mazzini, will return to Italy. ” Some
Some all books of classic rank ought to appear
Power, including England (though she has of it will, perhaps, in time; but when in some guise or disguise in the school-
not, to speak strictly, assumed the
Mr. Lapworth asks, “What are the room. The present writer has for some
diadem of Cyprus "), has much title to Italians going to do with their new colony years made a close study of Jane Austen ;
cast stones at Italy for “grabbing " or
now they have got it ? ” the words we he ranks, indeed, among the enthusiasts ;
for damaging the integrity of the have italicized seem as prophetic as
but he cannot conceive that her novels
Ottoman Empire. ” But to call Turkey Mazzini's. What have they got ? If we are suitable for the
young.
Her humour is
a “thief " for occupying Tripoli is beside believe Mr. Bennett, whose With the of the sort that appeals to the adult, and
the mark, and to urge that Ahmed Pasha Turks in Tripoli’ we reviewed a few weeks not by any means to every adult. Many
Karamanli was an Arab,” and there-
ago, they have got only just so much as find themselves unmoved by her trivial
fore had apparently a right to the land, is is covered by the range of their naval round of country society, deplore her lack
farcical. If it comes to
of passion, and fail to see the delicate art
bably the Berbers ought to be rein guns.
stated in Tripoli. That Turkish rule Mr. Lapworth draws an alluring picture which smiles
impartially at every one in
in North Africa was “ the negation of of the agricultural wealth of Libya turn, and even goes so far as to make
heroes and heroines ridiculous before they
civil government,” in the words of that under the Romans, records the san-
are safely landed in a felicity often beyond
competent observer Rohlfs, is admitted ; guine anticipations of a capable engineer
their hopes.
but it has not hitherto been held that who thinks Tripoli will rival Argentina,
bad government is a justification for ex- and ends up with an account of that In the society thus inimitably depicted
pulsion by any irresponsible Power, though valuable product, esparto grass. This is, the ideal is that of the comfortable,
we may be coming to that ethical position. indeed, the “last straw” that breaks our common among writers in the eighteenth
That Italy bore with Turkish ill-usage patience.
century. Marriage depends largely on a
with monumental patience be He may well sayit is “ too early yet” to
suitable income ; a living for a clergyman
true, but it is curious that our author speak of railways into the interior, and of opportunities of seeing the well-to-do,
is a livelihood or an occasion for social
adds nothing of importance to the griev- the commerce which may be expected“ it and is given away by a patron as one gives
ances enumerated in the Marchese di the northern routes are made safe”; if
San Giuliano's dispatch to the Italian the Senusi does not make it a Holy War; in fact, to quote the Introduction, "frankly
a dole to a poor relation. Jane Austen is
ambassadors, of which The Times re- if the Tuaregs turn out to be law-abiding and delightfully worldly”; she is the
marked that it “ hardly afforded an ade citizens ; if the caravan routes to Nigeria epicure in everything,” including the choice
quate explanation of such drastic action" and Tunis can be superseded; if the of words; and, to quote an excellent
as the ultimatum and invasion of last 600,000 Italians, who annually consent
September. We do not think that it is to become
phrase preserved by Grant Duff, she is
dagos in America and free from the “ nostalgia of the infinite. "
yet considered adequate by unprejudiced elsewhere for good pay, prefer to toil That these diverse merits are such as can,
persons in this country, and to us in Tripolitan deserts-if, in short, a great or ought to, appeal to young people is
the author's naive surprise at
surprise at the deal comes to pass which at present, in difficult to believe. The likely result is
silence of Italian Ministers is a theme the eyes of " appalling obtuseness,"
for irony.
that the tedium of being a school-task may
appears highly dubious. Mr. Lapworth
writer, was that only 2 appalling obtuse - England have been desirous and able to varied vacuities of Lady Bertram, Mrs.
The truth, according to the present apparently considers that France and spoil for the future what might have been
permanent and delightful possessions—the
ness and inexcusable ignorance” could be push Mohammedanism back into the
Bennet, and Miss Bates, the absurdities
satisfied with the Italian Foreign Minister's desert. ” If they have, our impressions of Mr. Collins and Mr. Rushworth, the
explanation, for there was a much more of Egypt and Tunis are curiously confused. patronizing
meanness of Mrs. Norris, and
potent reason which he could not men- But at all events Italy has not pushed the exposure of a crowd of stately humbugs
tion-viz. , the Panther—the “ fons et Islam very far into the desert yet, and
who stand in awe of their own importance.
origo of so many ills. The German
we must await events before we can share
“ mailed fist,” it would appear, was
our author's engaging optimism. Mean-
Apart from a comparison with Chaucer
of little value and a certain affectation in
about to descend upon Tobruk-the port while the Italians have at least made
which is said to give its possessors the Tripoli a much cleaner town; they have style, the Introduction goes pleasantly
supremacy of the Eastern Mediterranean-scrubbed Arab children bambini now- and soundly enough over the experience
and Italy had to strike “in self-defence and done excellent hygienic work; and of life which went to the making of the
and enter upon what the Socialist leader as to morals, so well are the stringent novels, using Jane Austen's letters to
Labriola termed " a life-and-death struggle ' general orders” observed that you could exhibit her qualities. It is credible that
for our right to the Mediterranean. . .
see the virtuous Italian soldier
set
she is nearest in character to Elizabeth in
to our own sea. " There is even a Dogger- rigidly with eyes averted as the veiled
* Pride and Prejudice,' and Anne Elliot
Bank-like tale of English destroyers figures passed," at whom his admirable in the sadder days when her health was
swiftly stealing by in the night, with Government says he must not stare. This failing: She is not all sweetness, and, as
eyes towards Germany, at the very is evidently the moral application of the Mr. W. H. Helm has pointed out in his
book on ‘Jane Austen and her Country-
moment when the Italian fleet appeared drill-book order, “ eyes right. "
off Tripoli. “Papers will be presented "
House Comedy,' is capable of making a
The book is illustrated by a few scenes
--perhaps—but until they are we prefer in Tripoli and portraits of Italian poli. There are similar hints in ‘Pride and
comic catalogue of her mother's diseases.
not to discuss this much more complete ticians, &c. There is a good map of
justification of the Italian action, but to Tripolitania, but an index is, we regret might occasionally be restrained.
Prejudice of a source of levity which
continue to cultivate "appalling obtuse-
appalling obtuse, to say, missing.
ness. ". There is a good deal to be cleared
Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen.
up before ordinary Englishmen, let alone
Edited, with Introduction, &c. , by K. M.
the Podsnaps and Chadbands” and
Metcalfe. (Frowde. )
66


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No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
617
or
66
95
66
66
Each of the novels is typical of its smiled like anything ” when she was His imperfection of style is not counter-
author, and the editor would have done showing off her marriage ring, there is balanced by any considerable novelty of
better in restricting attention to that not so much of the vernacular in Pride matter or point of view. His treatment
in view, or, at any rate, including more and Prejudice' as in the other books, of Goethe's mother may be taken as an
special comment on its characters. We where we find “ comeatable and “live- example of an attempt to correct the
find no judgment as to Mr. Collins, who, able” (of a house), “ those sort of things," ordinary point of view. He gives some
delightful as he is, seems to us undoubtedly a little hop” for a dance, and “ fishing" reason for refusing to accept the view
a caricature. The change of feeling in for compliments.
that Goethe owed even as much as, for
the heroine and of manners in the hero
There is a point in Jane Austen's style example, Keats or Shelley, to his mother's
is surely worth a note. At his appearance which does not seem to have been generally
conscious
unconscious
influence.
at the ball Darcy was clearly guilty not noticed, and which we think of interest. Amongst other evidence he uses a sup-
only of pride and prejudice, but also of She has a fondness for negative words and pressed passage from · Wilhelm Meister,'
ill-breeding. When the love-scene comes at forms
last between him and the sprightly visitor certain reserve of judgment, give scope for an insipid man. ” Mr. McCabe does
where it is written that Wilhelm's mother
forms of expression which indicate a
had, even in mature years, a passion
to Pemberley, it is not given in conversa-
tion, but in somewhat heavy paraphrase. directness. If she has a favourite ad- not wish us to conclude that this was true
Elizabeth “ immediately, though not very jective, it is “unexceptionable. ”
“Un- of Frau Goethe, but he does say that
fluently, gave him to understand, that
guarded," unreserve, “unfastidious,"
“it is impossible that such a portrait could
her sentiments had undergone so material discompose," " disengaged, not un- have been inserted, even as the wildest
a change, since the period to which he
absurd,' not unpretty,
inconsidera- fiction, among the correct portraits of the
alluded, as to make her receive with grati- tion,” and “innoxious are characteristic other members of the family, if Goethe
tude and pleasure, his present assurances. ”
Such paraphrase, which robs the modern deriving such forms of expression from an
of her language. Are we fanciful in had had any regard for his mother at the
time. ”
reader of an expected delight, is cha- Oxford influence? A page of The Oxford But is it not almost equally possible that
racteristic of Jane Austen.
Magazine to-day will show the don's use the fiction was so wild that it
The text, which is that of the first of the negative, and Jane Austen was the could not have been taken for fact?
edition in three volumes of 1813, has a daughter of an Oxford man who prepared Mr. McCabe does not consider the possi-
page and a half devoted to it. Erratic his sons for the University, while her bility, and this omission may be taken as
spelling and characteristic punctuation mother was the niece of a witty Master of an example of the shortcomings in matter
are noted, but we think something should Balliol.
which combine with his imperfect com-
have been said in detail of the intrusive
mand of English to make the book un-
commas which appear, e. g. , on pp. 210,
satisfactory.
322, and 366, the scene just quoted. Are
they mere nonsense, or do they emphasize
GOETHE.
Prof. Robertson performs a briefer task
the words they follow ?
more blamelessly. As a discreet epitome
When we come to the Appendix, a NOTWITHSTANDING the modern multipli- of fact and opinion his small volume is
foot-note betrays possibly an uneasiness cation of books, there is still, perhaps, a useful manual. Only at one point can
as to the point we began with, the un- room for biographies that are honest
are honest we seriously quarrel with him, and that
suitability of the author for a school compendiums or vivid appreciations. If is where he takes leave to differ from the
book : "What follows is given instead of this is true in the home field, it is yet common opinion, and express his own
the incongruity of ‘Notes, or of Jane's truer in the foreign, and the tendency that “Goethe the artist suffered at the
own aversion, 'Explanations. ' But of modern bookmaking is unlikely to hands of Goethe the philosopher, the
there must be explanations, and they are falsify it for some time to come. Honesty statesman, the scientist. ” He cannot
here supplied in an · Appendix on Jane and vividness, it seems, are not much possibly prove that Goethe would have
Austen and her Time under various in demand or in supply. As has been been the same man without playing these
headings ; four selected scraps of criticism; pointed out by Seeley and Mr. McCabe, parts, even if he believes that the same
and a page after all headed “Notes. ' there
too
few books about man could have refused to play them.
In these subsidiary aids an attempt is Goethe in English literature. ” Certainly Nor can he prove, what he must do
again made to cover the whole field of the there are too few good ones; and, if he is to maintain his opinion, that the
novels, and insufficient attention is paid perhaps, there is no single good one which time occupied by the philosopher, the
to ‘Pride and Prejudice. ' Under 'Games cannot be put by. The cause is no lack statesman, and the scientist" would have
spillikins needs a note, and no mention is of accessible material, but simply the been given either to more fruitful experi-
made of the backgammon Mr. Collins lack of skilled industry and true love of ence or to additional and novel creative
played with Mr. Bennet, a game of letters.
work.
These activities," he says, ap-
interest as it appears steadily in literature
, Mr. McCabe cannot be accused of over- pear, to say the least of it, unfortunate in
from Swift to Scott and Thackeray. Com- crowding the market in his attempt to the greatest poetic genius of the eigh-
parisons with contemporary authors are supply this want. Yet he has not satis- teenth century," as if the genius were a
always illuminating, but we do not find, factorily supplied it by bringing together kind of fountain that might have poured
for instance, how Miss Austen compares a considerable number of facts and forth poetry continually, but for quite
with Mrs. Inch bald in style. The section conjectures about Goethe's career, by unnecessary interruptions.
There are
on · Language' is capable of considerable filling nearly four hundred pages, and by surely other vices than those of the states-
improvement. “Event” in the sense of illustrating them with portraits of Goethe, man, the philosopher, and the “scientist ";
conclusion might have had its parallel his father and mother, and eight ladies. there is, for example, the vice of perpetual
from Tennyson; and “country,” meaning Skilled industry might make a tolerable publication and of living wholly for art.
district, is common now in the numerous and shorter book with very little other To forget these things, and to forget them
books bearing the title of The Hardy foundation than these seventeen chapters. above all in Goethe's presence, is to miss
Country,', &c. Some of the colloquial We can hardly offer them any higher one of his greatest lessons to the modern
phrases of the novels are modern enough, praise. Mr. McCabe's skill does not match world, and in particular to the literary
as the editor explains, but she makes his industry, nor his vividness his skill.
world. True, there have been great men
Lydia exclaim“ O hang it Kitty,” when
of letters who were not statesmen, philo-
it is Mrs. Bennet who says “Oh! hang Goethe, the Man and his Character. By
sophers, or “scientists. " We have had
Kitty! ” and ignores the correct Eliza-
Joseph McCabe. (Eveleigh Nash. ) Shakespeare and Swinburne for instance.
beth's thought that a visit to Brighton Goethe and the Twentieth Century. By J. G.
But too many of our writers have been
would “completely do for us all,” which
Robertson. Cambridge Manuals of just those perpetual fountains which please
is at once up-to-date and effective. Apart
Science and Literature. (Cambridge
Prof. Robertson so much more-in ima-
from Lydia, a flirt who “bowed and University Press. )
gination--than Goethe. Let us not stop
are


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618
No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
our ears to that delightful plashing, nor and there was a crop of false Fredericks.
accustom them so well to it that they But, as Mr. Allshorn remarks, he has
A LITERARY COINCIDENCE,
cannot hear other music, even though it left little visible impression upon the
Egmore, Westgate-on-Sea.
be celebrated by too few books. Goethe history of the world. ' His name is not
stood "in symbolic relation " to his art, universally familiar, he is not one of those May I draw attention to a remarkable
not as the Prometheus bound to a Celtic upon whom popular memory has con-
literary coincidence (if it is nothing more)
or other crag far out of human sight, but ferred the title of “ Great. " In Germany Barham's collected works (Routledge, 1889)
which hitherto has passed unnoticed ? In
as a light-bearer among men, the enemy he accomplished nothing of lasting im-
we find his well-known recipe for a salad :-
of the specialists and the artists, each in portance ; his constructive work was in
Two large potatoes passed through kitchen sieve
his little cave. We cannot ask him, or Sicily, and that work was soon undone. Unwonted softness to the salad give;
Of ardent mustard add a single spoon,
Faust, to redeem us from the virtues | “A few fine coins, a few mouldering
Distrust the condiment which bites so soon ;
praised in this little book.
ruins, a few Italian rhymes, and a Latin But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
treatise are the chief relics that remain of
To add a double quantity of salt;
Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
the Wonder of the world. " Unquestion- And once with vinegar procured from town;
True flavour needs it, and your poet begs
ably he had a singular talent for govern- The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs ;
A ROYAL PERSONALITY.
ment, and, if he had been able to devote Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarco suspected, animate the whole ;
MR. ALLSHORN has been somewhat in himself entirely to the work of developing And lastly, on the flavoured compound toss
A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce;
considerate towards those who under the prosperity of Sicily and Southern
Then though green turtle fail, though venison's tough,
take the task of reviewing his short life Italy, the subsequent history of those And ham and turkey are not boiled enough,
Serenely full, the epicure may say,
of the Emperor Frederick II. He has not countries might have been different. “Fate cannot harm me-I have dined to-day. ”
stated what authorities he has followed, But the struggle with the Popes absorbed
In the memoir of Sydney Smith (who died
nor how far, if at all, he has made an his energies, embarrassed his schemes of only three months before Barham) by his
independent study of the original sources. civil government, and forced him to daughter, Lady Holland, we find him saying:
In one of his rare notes he acknowledges overtax his subjects; and in that struggle “But our forte in the culinary line is our salads :
indebtedness to the work of Kington lies the principal significance of his life. I pique myself on our salads. Saba always dresses
Oliphant, and he quotes from Milman For though he was overcome, his long Taste it, and, if you like it, I will give it you. I
(whose account of Frederick is one of the resistance helped to hasten the decline was not aware how much it had contributed to
best things in his 'Latin Christianity') of the Papal power, which was never my reputation, till I met Lady at Bowood,
who begged to be introduced to me, saying she
and from Freeman's well-known essay again to attain the height it had reached had so long wished to know me. I was of course
We have come to the conclusion that in the pontificate of his early protector highly flattered, till she added, 'For, Mr. Smith,
he has depended mainly on Oliphant, Innocent III.
Innocent III. Oliphant judged that we
I have heard so much of your recipe for salads,
that I was most anxious to obtain it from you. '
and we find that his translations from need not regret the downfall of the Such and so various
are the sources of fame.
some of the documents are taken verb- Hohenstaufens and the victory of Rome.
To make this condiment, your poet begs
ally from Oliphant's pages. Fortunately He thought that “the absorption of all The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled eggs;
Two boiled potatoes passed through kitchen sieve
that scholar, who made admirable use Europe into a revived Augustan Empire Smoothness and softness to the salad give ;
of the ample documentary material col- was an event by no means impossible," and
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole ;
lected in the monumental work of M. that, if this had happened, England might Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon ;
Huillard-Bréholles, is a good guide. But have been drawn into a conflict with
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
his book was published just fifty years “ the civilized world, led by some Suabian To add a double quantity of salt;
Four times the spoon with oil from Lucca crown,
ago, and there is no sign that Mr. Alls-chief, the master of the submissive And twice with vinegar procured from town;
horn has availed himself of the somewhat Papacy”; and he claimed as one of the
And lastly, o'er the flavoured compound toss
A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce.
later work of Schirrmacher (still the causes which saved Europe from this fate Oh! green and glorious! Oh ! herbaceous treat!
'Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;
standard biography), or of the publica- the far-seeing statesmanship of the Back to the world he'ld turn his fleeting soul,
tions of Winkelmann, Ficker, Folz, and Popes. " It seems to us that such a And plunge his fingers in the salud-bowl.
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
many others. Those who have read political union of Europe was for other “Fate cannot harm me--I have dined to-day. "
Oliphant will find little or nothing new reasons impracticable, and was in any Two questions present themselves : Can
in this monograph. But the more nume-
far less actual danger than the two jeux d'esprit, identical, or nearly so,
rous class of readers who have only a the increase of Papal despotism. Mr. | in idea and expression, have come into being
distant acquaintance with Frederick, and Allshorn stands on more solid ground independently? If not, which of the two
wish to improve it, will be grateful for a when he reverses Oliphant's proposition, writers borrowed from the other ?
man never lived with less need than Sydney
vivid, accurate, and well-written narrative and claims, not that the Popes saved
Smith to draw upon others for his wit.
of that emperor's amazingly interesting England from Frederick and his successors, Again, the fact that Barham's version is
career.
but that Frederick saved England from
more condensed, and rather more carefully
Freeman, in the illuminating essay to the Popes, at the time when the oppor finished, may perhaps be regarded as evi-
which we have referred, pronounces that tunity of Roman tyranny was greatest. dence, to an extent, that the original con-
“in sheer genius" Frederick “was the England, he remarks,
ception was Sydney Smith's.
greatest prince who ever wore a crown. " suffered grievously enough at the hands
WILLIAM HOLLOWAY,
Author of The New Dunciad. '
Without endorsing this superlative eulogy, of the Popes under her feeble Kings John
we need not hesitate to recognize him and Henry III. : but if Frederick had not
*** The recipe was discussed in Notes and
as unique and unrivalled in intellectual combated the Papal ambitions with all his
gifts among the rulers of the Middle Ages. of the Papal fury, and resisted the might of suggested that Abraham Hayward was the
power, drawn upon himself the full force Queries at 10 Š. x. 74. One correspondent
Unfortunately he had no contemporary his enemy to the end, then the lot of England writer of the version quoted above from
biographer, and we have to form our idea would have been immeasurably worse.
Barham's works.
of his personality from the stray notices
The perspective of Mr. Allshorn's book
of chroniclers and the aspersions and is well judged. He has had to omit
admissions of his enemies. The wonder much. For instance, he does not touch
which his talents excited among the men
BOOKS AND BOOK-PLATES.
of his day, in all lands, is reflected in the upon the diplomatic relations with the
Emperor John Vatatzes, which bore On Wednesday, May 22nd, and the two follow-
pages of our English historian Matthew directly upon the conflict with Rome. ing days, Messrs. Sotheby sold the library of
Paris. When he died men could hardly But they would have encumbered his
believe that he was dead; he was Anti-story, and it was probably judicious to
the collection of book-plates formed by the late
Mr. C. W. Sherborn, the most important lots being
christ or Messiah ; he would come again ;
pass
them over. A few illustrations,
the following : 111 Book-plates by Mr. E. D.
French, 221. Eyton, Antiquities of Shropshire,
Stupor Mundi : the Life and Times of the volume, but the author has omitted, Nouvelles, 2 vols. , 1762, 251. 108. Daniel and
chiefly portraits, add to the interest of
12 vols. , 1854-60, 231. La Fontaine, Contes et
Ayton, Picturesque Voyage round Great Britain,
King of Sicily and Jerusalem, 1194–1250 except in one case, to say where they come
case
a
The
8 vols in 4, 1814-25, 501. 108. The total of the
By Lionel Allshorn. (Martin Secker. )
from.
sale was 1,6381. 58. Od.
4


## p. 619 (#463) ############################################

No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
619
THE ATHENÆUM
FROM
THE
AND
THE
AND
22
n than
HAVE BEEN SOLD
somewhat slowly, though clearly and easily, and amiable spirit which makes it agreeable
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. and the writer has wisely relegated the reading. It is one of those many poptic
(Notice in those columns does not preclude longer views to notes at the end of the volume.
discussion of difficulties of detail and opposing attempts which are genuinely conceived, but
roview. )
meagrely executed.
Tbeology.
Willoughby (Frederick S. ), THE SEVEN WORDS Rubá'iyyat of 'Umar Khayyam, Second
CROSS
SEVEN
Edition (London, 1868, B. Quaritch),
Blunt (Rev. A. W. F. ), FAITH AND THE NEW
SACRAMENTS, 1/
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TESTAMENT, 2/ net.
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A consideration of the proportionate author's plea for a thorough acceptance of examination into FitzGerald's seoond edition
weight to be attached to the respective the supernatural in the Seven Sacraments of the 'Rubá’iy-yát. ' Each quatrain is
authorities of Church and Bible, of the leads him to indulge in some unrestrained accompanied by a commentary upon the
process by which the New Testament
language. Such a phrase as the "pander- text; and there is an Introduction, besides
reached its present form, and the bearing ing-to-infidelity Deformation Movement extensive bibliographical references.
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The poems in this collection are dull, and
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Law.
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Crumpton (M. Natalie), LEAFLETS FROM
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Elliot Stock
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is at the same time a lawyer, a political Library of Congress : SELECT LIST
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REFERENCES ON THE INITIATIVE, RE-
the early Christian Church.
She seems
FERENDUM, AND RECALL, 150.
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poetry.
Washington, Govt. Printing Office
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There are close upon 800 referenoes in
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Harford, Morley Stevenson, and J. W.
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Contains articles by nearly 150 con-
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