No More Learning

The conflict of mingled
her friends in a genteel way, until the lives in her blood had ceased. ) Dr.
bank fails, and then she is obliged to Holmes's characteristic wit is shown in
keep a little shop and sell tea. In the end many of the shrewd sayings of the kindly
her long-lost brother Peter comes home old Professor and other characters, and
from India with money enough to enable his delightful enthusiasm makes the book
her to live as becomes a rector's daughter. more interesting than most more formally
The other characters are great-hearted constructed novels.
Captain Brown, who is killed by the
train while saving a child's life; Mr. Hol- Myths
Myths of the New World, The. A
brook, Miss Matty's old lover; the Honor-
Treatise the Symbolism and
able Mrs. Jamieson and her sister-in-law Mythology of the Red Race of America.
Lady Glenmire, who afterwards marries By Daniel G. Brinton. (1868. Revised
Mr. Hoggins the doctor; Miss Betty Barker Edition, 1876. ) A work designed more
and her cow, famous for its suit of gray as a study of natural religion than as a
flannel; Miss Pole and Mrs. Forrester. contribution to science. It is offered to
Some of the chapters in Cranford) tell the general reader rather than to the
of old love affairs and old letters, and inquirer into the antiquities of the Red
others of the society and various inci- Race of America. It discusses the Red
dents of village life. It holds its place man's ideas of God; of the origin of
as one of the best stories of its kind. man; of the nature of the soul and its
Mrs. Gaskell was born in 1810; and destiny; of sacred numbers; and of sym-
(Cranford) was first published in 1853. bols of the bird and the serpent: also
the Red Indian myths of creation, of
Gua
uardian Angel, The, by Oliver Wen- the Deluge, of the last day, of water,
dell Holmes. The author says in fire, and the thunder-storm. The Indian
his preface: «I have attempted to show usage of priesthood is explained, and
the successive evolution of some inherited the Indian contribution to universal re-
qualities in the character of Myrtle Haz- i ligion pointed out. The book is, as it
The story opens in 1859 in the was designed to be, a thoughtful study
New England village of Oxbow. Myrtle, of an interesting problem.
a beautiful orphan of fifteen, born in trop-
ical climes, descended from a line of an-
Birds of America, The, the monu-
cestors of widely varying natures, lives mental work of John James Audu-
with an austere and uncongenial aunt, bon, the great American naturalist, was
who fails utterly to control her turbulent, published first in England between the
glowing impulses. Disguised as a boy years 1827 and 1830. It contained col-
she runs away, is rescued from drowning ored illustrations of 1,065 species of birds.
by Clement Lindsay, a handsome young The text of this remarkable book is de-
sculptor, and brought home by Professor scriptive of the habits and manners of
Gridley. An illness follows which leaves the birds observed by Audubon himself
her for a time hysterical, highly impres- in his long wanderings over the North-
sionable, prone to seeing visions, and American continent. Aside from its sci-
taking strong fancies. Thanks to the entific value, it is most interesting be-
watchful care of Professor Gridley (whom cause written throughout with the same
she afterward calls her “Guardian An- enthusiasm which prompted the original
gel ») she emerges safe from this state, investigations of the author.
ard. »


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
157
very wide.
Bird, The ('L'Oiseau”), by Jules Miche- he becomes a cab-horse, a cart-horse, then
let. In the year 1855 the eminent a cab-horse again, and finally, when he
historian took up the study of natural sci- is utterly broken down by overwork and
ence, as a relief from the too great strain hard treatment, he is bought by a farmer
of continued observation of the course who recognizes his good blood, and nurses
of human events; and in three volumes, him patiently into health again. He is
of which L'Oiseau) is one, he treated then sold to a family of ladies, whose
of non-human nature in a manner sympa- coachman is an old friend, and in whose
thetic and stimulating, but thoroughly stable he passes the rest of his days hap-
imbued with his peculiar ethical and sci- pily. The story is told with simplicity
entific theories. These works partook of and restraint, and without a word of
the exceeding popularity which had met preaching is the best of sermons. Its
his studies in human history; and natur- vogue has been great, and its influence
ally, for they had all the charm of style,
the grace and color and poetic feeling,
which belonged to Michelet, together with
the interest of an entirely novel attitude Agriculture ('Agricultura'), by Teren-
tius Varro. The best work on this
toward the subject presented.
subject that has come down from the an-
(L'Oiseau) is less a treatise on orni- cients. It is divided into three books, pre-
thology than a biography of the bird, ceded by a long preface addressed to Fun-
and as a translator says, “an exposition dania, the author's wife. The first book
of the attractiveness of natural history. ” contains sixty-nine chapters, and treats
It tells the story of bird-life in a de- of agriculture in general: the nature of
lightful, somewhat discursive fashion, as
soils; the places most suitable for a farm;
the story of a being like ourselves. A the attention that ought to be given to
hint of Pantheism, a suggestion of metem- sheepfolds, stables, and cattle-sheds; the
psychosis, a faint foreshadowing of Dar-right kind of casks for wine, oil, etc. ; the
win, infuse the story of the birds as told
necessary domestic animals, including
by Michelet. Through it breathes a ten- the watch-dogs. The author then turns his
der love for nature, a love which strove attention to the cultivation of the vine,
rather to establish a sympathy between of the olive, and of gardens. He desig-
man and his environment than to inform
nates the work of each season, and tells
him concerning it. The author says that when and how seed should be sown, and
he shall try "to reveal the bird as soul,
crops gathered in and preserved. In the
to show that it is a person. The bird, eleven chapters of the second book, Varro
then, a single bird, — that is all my book; speaks of the care and training of beasts,
but the bird in all the variations of its and their profitableness. The third book,
destiny, as it accommodates itself to the consisting of seventeen chapters, is de-
thousand vocations of winged life.
voted to the villaticæ pastiones,- that
What are these? They are your brothers, is, to the care of the poultry-yard, and
embryo souls, — souls especially set apart to hunting, fishing, the keeping of bees,
for certain functions of existence, candi- and the propagation and care of fish.
dates for the more widely harmonic life The book, once a great favorite, now
to which the human soul has attained. ” belongs among the curiosities of litera-
This conception colors the whole treat- ture.
ment of the subject. A translation, with
illustrations by Giacomelli, was published AS
griculture ("L'Agriculture'), a French
in London and New York, 1869, three translation by Clément Mullet of the
years after it first appeared in Paris. Book of Ibn-al-Avvam, written in Arabic,
in the twelfth century. Besides preserv-
Black Beauty, His Grooms and Com. ing a multitude of quotations from lost
panions, by Anna Sewall. This Latin and Greek authors, it gives very
story, written in the form of a horse's auto- | interesting details of the life and domes-
biography, is really a tract on the proper tic economy of the Arabs in Spain. It
treatment of horses. Black Beauty, a enters fully into the administration of
high-bred gentle creature, accustomed to rural property, the interior life of the
kind treatment in a gentleman's stables, household, the treatment of workmen,
has his knees broken by a drunken groom, and the position of the wife. The author
and is so much disfigured that he is sold discusses everything connected with agri-
to the keeper of a livery stable. In turn culture; but is especially instructive on


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158
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
seasons.
aromatic plants, and the different meth- earth there are neither masters nor pu-
ods of distilling perfumes from them. pils, neither justice nor protection. The
We have also an account of the supersti- author begins with general views on
tions that prevailed among the Moors of agriculture and rural economy, and con-
the period in the rural districts.
cludes with a sort of agricultural calendar,
in which he points out the labors to be
Agriculture (L' Agriculture,? ), a didac-
performed according to the order of the
tic poem by Rosset. It is remark-
The work is much consulted
able as being the first georgic poem in
by scholars, who find in it many valuable
the French language. The subjects dwelt
details on important points of Roman civ-
on are fields, vineyards, woods, meadows,
ilization. The style has all the purity
plants, kitchen-gardens, ponds, and Eng-
of the Augustan age.
lish gardens. While it contains some very,
fine descriptive passages, the work on
the whole is cold and monotonous.
Old Story of My Farming (“Ut Mine
Stromtid”), by Fritz Reuter, ap-
peared in Olle Kamellen (1860–64). The
Agriculture and Prices, A History of,
(Stromtid - the best-known novel of
in England from the year after the
the noted Platt-Deutsch humorist -- is
Oxford Parliament (1259) to the com-
mencement of the Continental War (1793).
considered by competent critics to equal
the best productions of our great Eng-
By James E. Thorold Rogers (8 vols. ,
lish humorists, Sterne and Dickens, and
1866-98). A work of immense research
and monumental significance, undertak-
is thoroughly fresh, sound, and hearty
in tone. Its characters are masterpieces
ing to recover aspects of the history of
the people of England which contempo-
of delineation, and have become famil-
iar to readers of many tongues. The
rary records of prices of every kind give
delicious creation of the inspector eme-
the means of knowing. Until this great
work met the want there was a great
ritus, Uncle Zacharias Bräsig, is one of
lack of satisfactory information on prices
the triumphs of modern humor; and it
in mediæval England. It is possible
is not only in the Low German speech
now, through the immense breadth of
that quotations are made from «de lütte
record spread on the printed page by
Mann mit den rötlich Gesicht und de
staatsche rode näs» (the little man with
Professor Rogers, and through his ad-
the reddish face and the stately red
mirable summary of fruits of research,
nose). One of the best portions of the
to study almost every particular of the
lives of the occupants of the soil of Eng-
book is his speech before the Rahnstadt
Reform Club, on the subject, «Whence
land; particulars as to the land, as to
farms and farming, and as to every fact
arises the great poverty in our city ? »
of the daily life of the landlord, the farmer,
Almost equally popular characters are
and the laborer. There is thus recovered
Hawermann, (un sin lutt Dirning ” (his
for history no small portion of the bygone oddity of the Platt-Deutsch lends itself
little maid), and Triddelfitz. The quaint
life of the English people; and with this,
much light is thrown on principles of polit-
peculiarly well to the quality of Reu-
ical and social economy which must be
ter's humor, and the material of his
taken account of, not only by the philan-
story shows by its vivid reality that it
was drawn from the personal experience
thropist, but in all wise governmental
and observation of the author. The
administration.
(Stromtid) was the last and best of Reu-
Agriculture: De Re Rustica,' by Colu- ter's novels founded on life in the Low
mella. It consists of twelve books, German countries.
of which the tenth is in verse and de-
voted to gardens. The work is preceded Lit
ittle Barefoot. From the German of
by an introduction, in which the author Berthold Auerbach. This Black For-
deplores the contempt into which agri- est peasant story relates with rustic sim-
culture has fallen. He sees on all sides plicity how two children, Amrie and her
schools open to teach rhetoric, dancing, brother Danie, are left orphans with
and music. Even mountebanks, cooks, their home broken up; and how, not
and barbers are fashionable, and infa- understanding what death means, they
mous houses in which gambling and all wander back night after night to the
sorts of vices that ruin youth are patron- deserted woodcutter's hut where they
ized; while for the art of fertilizing the lived with their parents, and lifting the


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
159
((
are
a
are
same
latch, call again and again: «Father,
Mother. » They separated, and
brought up as parish orphans, Amrie
living with brown Mariann, an old wo-
man who is called a witch, but who is
kind to her. The dreamy, imaginative
child passes her lonely days on the com-
mon as goose-girl; and to save her earn-
ings for her little brother Danie, goes
without shoes, thus winning the name of
« Little Barefoot. ” An old friend of her
mother, who has married the richest
farmer in the adjoining district, offers to
adopt her; but on Amrie's refusing to
forsake her brother, she hangs a garnet
necklace round the child's neck, and tells
her if she is ever in need of a friend to
come to Farmer Landfried's wife. Am-
rie is promoted to be maid in the family
of the rich peasant Rudel, whose daugh-
ter Rose treats her with scorn; but one
day Rudel's young daughter-in-law takes
pity on the pretty Barefoot, and dresses
her with her own hands for a village
wedding. Here Amrie dances with a
stranger, a handsome youth, who has
ridden to the Feast on a fine white
horse, and who chooses no partner but
her. She has one day of perfect happi-
ness, and is still dreaming of her un-
known partner when she sees him riding
up to Farmer Rudel's door, having been
sent by his parents, the wealthy Land-
frieds, to seek a bride. They wish him
to marry Rudel's Rose; but the youth,
on beholding again his pretty partner,
has eyes only for her, and finding that
Rose treats her cruelly, he comes to the
rescue and carries her off on his white
horse. When they approach his father's
farm to which he is expected to bring a
less humble bride, John's heart fails him;
but the brave Little Barefoot » goes be-
fore him, charms his old father with her
artless sweetness and tact, and showing
his mother the necklace she once gave
her, appeals to the kindness of her dead
mother's friend. So the old people's
hearts are melted, and they give her a
grand wedding: Danie is made head
dairyman on the great farm; and when
Amrie's first child comes, she is christ-
ened Barbara, but is always called by
her father (Little Barefoot. ”
von Wildenort has been placed by her
father, Count Eberhard, a recluse, at
German court. Her beauty and intel-
lectual vivacity attract the King, some-
what wearied by his Queen's lofty and
pious sentiments and her distaste for
court festivities. Early in the story the
Queen gives birth to the Crown Prince,
for whom a wet-nurse is found in the
person of Walpurga, an upright, shrewd
peasant woman, who, for the sake of
her child's future benefit, reluctantly ac-
cepts the position. She is full of quaint
sayings, and her pious nature finds favor
with the Queen. Her naive descriptions
of court life
very entertaining.
From the
mountain district as
Irma, Walpurga acquires some influence
with her, and she quickly detects the
unspoken love of the King for her; but
Irma disregards her friendly warnings.
The Queen is apparently unaware of
their increasing infatuation. Irma, be-
coming restless and unsettled, visits her
father, who solemnly warns her against
the temptations of court life. She is
drawn back irresistibly to court, and the
King reveals his passion for her by kiss-
ing the statue of which she is the model.
Irma, in a sort of ecstasy, submits for
a moment to his caresses. For a time
she lives as though in the clouds. The
Queen's friendship for her increases, and
her Majesty resolutely banishes her oc-
casional suspicions of evil.
Walpurga returns home laden with
gifts and money, and she and her hus-
band, Hansei, buy a farm on the mount-
ain. Irma's father meanwhile receives
anonymous letters, wrongfully represent-
ing her as the King's mistress. The
shock of the accusation mortally pros-
trates him, and Irma is summoned in
haste to his death-bed. Unable to
speak, he traces one word on her fore-
head and expires. She falls unconscious.
Letters of condolence arrive from their
Majesties; the King's inclosure one of
passionate longing; the Queen's so full
of affection and confidence that remorse
seizes Irma. She writes her guilt to
the Queen, and resolves to drown her-
self. In her wanderings she comes un-
espectedly on Walpurga and her family,
on the way to take possession of their
new home. She implores protection from
herself; and in the care of Walpurga and
the grandmother, she lives for a year
« on the heights,) writing a journal of
philosophical and religious rhapsody.
!
On the Heights (Auf der Höhe”) by
Berthold Auerbach, (1865,) is con-
sidered the author's finest work. The
charm of the story is not conveyed in
a synopsis of the plot. Countess Irma


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160
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Tormented by remorse, she grows
makes her debut in Rome and captivates
weaker in body, while her soul becomes both their hearts. The scene of the last
purified of its earthly passion. Gun- chapters is placed in Venice; and here it
ther, her father's friend, absolves her is that Annunziata, a broken-down singer
from his curse; and, her spirit freed, she on a low-class stage, dies in poverty,
passes away in the presence of the King leaving her blessing for her early lover
and Queen, now happily reconciled. and his bride. A visit to the Blue Grotto
closes the brilliant narrative.
Improvisatore, The, by Hans Christian
Andersen. This romance is probably Emile, by Jean Jacques Rousseau, the
,
the best known to English readers of all most famous of pedagogic romances,
the works of Danish literature, and its was composed in 1762. Its immediate
translation by Mary Howitt has become effect was to call down on his head the
itself a classic. The work possesses the denunciations of the Archbishop of Paris,
threefold interest of an autobiography who found him animated by a spirit of
of the author, a graphic description of insubordination and revolt,” and to exile
Italy, and a romance of extremely emo- him for some years from France. Its
tional and passionate type. To those lasting effect was to lay the foundation
English and American tourists who knew of modern pedagogy. Due to the sug-
Rome in the time when the beggar Beppo gestion of a mother who asked advice
still saluted them with his bon giorno as to the training of a child, it was the
on the Piazza de Spagna steps, the story | expansion of his opinions and counsels; the
will serve almost as a narrative of their framework of a story sustaining an elab-
impressions of the ruins, the galleries orate system of elementary education.
and churches of Italy. It is to be Émile, its diminutive hero, is reared apart
classed with its great Italian contempo- from other children under a tutor, by a
rary I Promessi Sposi) of Manzoni, and long series of experiments conducted by
the (Corinne) of Madame de Staël, the the child himself, often with painful con-
national type of genius of the several sequences. Little by little, his childish
authors presenting in these three works understanding comes to comprehend at
a very interesting contrast. All three first-hand the principles of physics, me-
are intensely romantic, -'Corinne,) with chanics, gardening, property, and morals.
the classic reserve of the Latin race; (I At last the loosely woven plot leads to the
Promessi Sposi, with the frank natural- marriage of Émile with Sophie, a girl who
ness of the Italian; the Improvisatore, has been educated in a similar fashion.
with the suppressed warmth of the Teu- Arbitrary, but always ingenious and stim-
ton.
ulating, the experiments introduced are
The story of the Improvisatore) is veritable steps of knowledge. As object-
related by one Antonio, a poor chorister lessons, the altercation with the gardener
boy in Rome, whose voice and quickness and the visit to the mountebank are un-
in improvisation are at once his fortune surpassed in the simplicity with which
in bringing him into the favor and pat- the complex ideas of property and mag-
ronage of the aristocracy of Rome, Na- netism are presented to a developing
ples, and Venice, and the cause of many intelligence. From the hints contained in
heart-breaking alliances and disengage- Émile, Basedow, Pestalozzi, and Froebel
ments with the charming women of vari- drew their inspiration and laid the broad
ous types who come under the spell of foundations of modern elementary educa-
his genius and personal attractions. The tion. Unsystematic, sometimes imprac-
events of the story bring to the reader ticable, full of suggestion, it invests the
a vivid sense of participation in the suc- revolutionary ideas of its author with
cessive scenes of the Roman church fes- his customary literary charm.
tivals: the Pifferari at Christmas, the
Ara Cæli Bambino, and the boy orators Eneyclopédie, The: An Encyclopædia
at Epiphany, the Corso races and the
,
Senza Moccolo of the Carnival, the Mis- character, its significance, and its results,
erere of the Holy Week, and the illumi- was the most startling and striking pro-
nations at Easter. The chief romantic duction of its time,-- an outburst of
interest lies in the rival loves of Antonio ideas, of intellectual audacity, of free-
and of his patrician friend Bernado for a dom, and a great passion for knowledge,
famous Spanish singer, Annunziata, who and of the sympathy of humanity, labor,


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
161
note
and progress. No encyclopædia ever tion of the problems of human aspiration
made compares with it in respect of its and desire. Not only were the sciences
political influence and its commanding pushed to the utmost by Diderot, but he
place in the civil and literary history of made industry, labor, human toil in the
its own century. It grew out of a plan shop, an interest unceasingly cherished.
for a French translation of an early It was an explosion heralding the Revo-
"Chambers's Cyclopædia. Diderot, to
'
lution a quarter of a century later.
whom the glory of the colossal enterprise
belongs, took occasion from this plan to French Society, The History of, dur-
and
a thorough work, summarizing human ory (The History of French Society
knowledge, putting the sciences into the during the Directory,' 1879; and “The
place which tradition had given to re- History of French Society during the
ligion, and aiming at the service of Revolution, 1880), by Edmond and Jules
humanity instead of the service of the de Goncourt, are curious as well as in-
church. The Titans of intelligence and teresting compilations of historical ma-
of literature, says M. Martin's graphic terial. They show the authors' constant
sketch, had developed an excess of energy preoccupation with visual impressions.
and boldness. Voltaire, bringing Locke's The Goncourts were not philosophers,
ideas into France, had changed Christian and they throw no new light upon the
deism into Epicureanism, and prepared causes of events; but they were tireless
the way for Condillac's pushing the philos- in research, and they tell us all the
ophy of sensation to an extreme beyond curious incidental little facts ignored by
Locke; and for Helvetius to press the greater historians. Theirs is probably
moral consequences of the system, justi- the least gloomy study of the Revolution
fying all the vices and all the crimes. ever written.
Under the guillotine they
Buffon, magnificent in knowledge, and in the cake-vender. Believing that
a noble style, had made Nature take the the revolution originated in aristocratic
place of God, and the love of humanity salons, they picture the social life which
do duty as religion. In sequel to such preceded it, and tell us how the lords
moral skepticism or naturalist pantheism and ladies dressed their hair, and what
came Diderot, with audacious repugnance they wore, and how they talked. They
to any limitations upon liberty, and im- show that in spite of fear and blood-
petuous passion for knowledge, for human shed, people feasted, danced, and went
progress. With D'Alembert drawing to- to the theatre as usual. In their study
gether a society of men of science and of of the Directory they show the country
letters, he launched a Prospectus in No- plunged in torpor after its period of ex-
vember 1750, for an Encyclopédie or Dic-
The people are weary of struggle,
tionary of Arts and Sciences, and in of success, of failure, of all things, un-
1751 began with 2 volumes, to finish in til awakened to new energy by a youth
1765 with 17 volumes; then to add il of twenty-eight. Napoleon reconstructs
volumes of plates (1762–72), and 5 vol- society; and in the reaction which fol-
umes of supplements (1776–77); and thus lows, cynicism changes to an eager rush
make, with 2 volumes of Index (1780), 35 for wealth, pleasure, and position. The
volumes (1751-80), with 23,135 pages and Goncourts touch lightly upon the great
3,132 plates. Not only information was political events, and emphasize the gar-
given in these volumes, but opinions of dens and ball-rooms of Paris, - all the
the most radical character, hostile to the places where well-dressed people gather.
church, subversive of religion, intensely They are not interested in masses of
antagonistic towards everything in the society, but delight in portrait-painting.
old order of things. The clergy and the Their histories abound in pictures and
court had fought the work, had even picturesque effects. But in spite of their
broken into it with alterations secretly careful word-searching, they are always
made at the printers', and left no stone more sensitive than intelligent. ) The
unturned to prevent its circulation. Yet result of their labor is finally an
Europe was filled with it, and shaken with meration of noteworthy details, which
the effects of it. It was an immense they have been unable to synthesize.
burst of everything which journalism to- They are not successful in presenting as
day means; a fierce prophecy of changes a logical whole the period of which they
which are still hanging; a wild proclama- treat.
cess.
((
))
enu-
XXXII


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162
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Cons
onsulate and the Empire of France French Revolution, Contemporary
under Napoleon, History of the, American Opinion of, by Charles
(1799-1815), by Louis Adolphe Thiers. Downer Hazen (1897).
An extra volume
The History of the Consulate and Em- in the Johns Hopkins University Studies
pire) fills twenty octavo volumes, and was in Historical and Political Science,-a
published in installments between 1845 volume of three hundred pages, rich in
and 1862. Written from an imperialistic interest to the student of American his-
point of view, it met with unusual success tory. The first part of the work is de-
in France. It was crowned by the Acad- voted to the opinion of the French
emy, and Thiers was given the title of Revolution formed by Americans who
(national historian. ) The French found were in France at the time. These were
in it their own enthusiastic admiration Thomas Jefferson, Gouverneur Morris,
for success, and their own prejudices. and James Monroe. Jefferson and Mor-
Thiers has little regard for the morality ris were eye-witnesses, who held them-
of actions: “You have failed, therefore selves aloof from the conflict about them,
you are wrong," seems to be his maxim. and reported upon it as judicial and
He rejoices in the establishment of ab-clear-sighted spectators. These two tell
solutism and the suppression of liberty; a continuous story from 1784 to 1794,
nor does he see, beyond the glory of a with a change from Jefferson to Morris
victorious campaign, the excesses of war- in 1789. Then comes Monroe, from Au-
fare.
gust 1794 to October 1795.
Literature, philosophy, and art do not The second part of the work gathers
attract him; in the twenty volumes, he from a variety of sources the opinions of
devotes but a scant half-dozen pages to the Revolution which Americans at home
such subjects. He imagines that the Con- formed, the Republicans on one side and
sulate realized the ideal of a perfect gov- the Federalists on the other. These
ernment, and that the misfortunes of the opinions had much to do with American
Empire would have been avoided had Na- politics for considerable time, and al-
poleon continued the tradition of the ear- together they form an interesting chapter
lier time. It is evident, however, that the in our national life.
later policy was but the development of
the earlier. Though admiring every act Citoyenne Jacqueline, by Sarah Tyt-
of unrestrained ambition on the part of his ler. The scene opens in the early
hero, Thiers deplores its consequences. months of the French Revolution, 1792,
At first the Continental system is Napo- in Faye-aux-Jonquilles, a village near
leon's gigantic plan to conquer England Paris; the home of Jacqueline de Faye,
on the sea; later Thiers recognizes that only child of “Monsieur” and “Madame,»
Napoleon's own ports were the chief vic- nobles of the old régime. Jacqueline has
tims of the designed conquest. His inac- inherited the traditional ideas of her
curacy as a historian is shown in his
aristocratic ancestry, and is trained in the
treatment of English affairs. He consulted fantastic etiquette of her age; but dis-
no authentic document in the English plays disquieting symptoms of independ-
language; and in his chapter on the Con- ence, a character sure to lead its pos-
tinental System, he says that England's sessor into strange paths. She is in love
violation of international law by “pa- with her cousin, the Chevalier de Faye,
per » blockades in 1806 furnished Napo- to whom she is betrothed; but owing
leon with just pretext for issuing the Ber- to the changes brought about by the
lin and Milan Decrees, — the exact oppo. Revolution, he transfers his attentions to
site of the facts in the case. Thiers is another cousin, a wealthy and vivacious
proud of his knowledge of military tac- widow, Petronille de Croī. In her anger
tics, and likes to explain how defeat might and despair, Jacqueline takes a step that
have been avoided; but even his descrip- separates her from her order: she marries
tions of battles are inexact, as Charras in a handsome young peasant proprietor.
his History of the Campaign of 1815) The wild days of '93 arrive, and she and
points out. His style is easy; its prolix- her family are deeply involved in the
ity, however, frequently deprives it of turmoils of the time. After they have
clearness and force, by requiring a whole suffered together, and he has sheltered
volume to describe a military action her mother, she comes to love her ple-
which might have been more vividly pre- beian husband. The story moves swiftly
sented in a few pages.
through scenes of conspiracy and blood.


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
163
shed, to close among the green fields of
Jonquilles. It presents a vivid picture
of the days of the Terror; a realistic
portrayal of the inhumanities and self-
sacrifices of that lurid period. The
meetings of Citoyenne Jacqueline with
Charlotte Corday, and with Lydia, daugh-
ter of Laurence Sterne, are interesting
episodes of her Paris life.
name.
Notre-Dame of Paris, by Victor
Hugo, relates a romance growing
up in and around the cathedral of that
More than this, the mighty
building, dating back at least to the
eleventh century, and enriched with
thirteenth-century glass, seems to fill
the author's vision and dominate his
mind from beginning to end; just as it
dominates, from its immemorial island,
the overflowing city for which he wrote.
Among his different conceptions of
Notre-Dame — folding over and fitting
into each other — he brings out most
clearly of all the truth that the cathe-
dral of the Middle Ages was the book
of the people; and that since the dawn
of printing, books have taken the
place of those marvelously involved
and inexhaustible carvings, where the
smoldering passions of the multitude,
their humor and irreligion as well as
their religion and poetic emotion, found
continual expression. Even necromancy
and astrology wreathed themselves in
fantastic figures around the great door-
way of Notre-Dame.
To the reader who loses himself in
the atmosphere thus created, the world
is France, France is Paris, Paris is the
cathedral. He is taken through the
aisles and galleries, out on the roof, up
in the towers, and into every nook and
corner of the church; then lovingly,
faithfully, scrupulously through the
squares or cross-roads of the old city,
along crooked streets that have van-
ished, and thoroughfares still existing,
like Rue Saint-Jacques or Rue Saint-
Denis, which it calls the arteries of
Paris. Thus it may be taken as
fifteenth-century guide-book of the town,
answering all the purposes of a Baede-
ker; not only giving the general topog-
raphy, but touching on nearly every
structure then standing, from the Bastile
to the gibbet of Montfaucon.
To Quasimodo, the deaf and deformed
bell-ringer of the cathedral, «stunted,
limping, blind in one eye,” the great
church is an object of extravagant de-
votion and superstitious awe. Its arch-
deacon alone had pity on him when he
lay, a miserable foundling, at its door;
it is all the home he has ever known,
and he leads a strange existence among
the statues and gargoyles within and
without. Sometimes, when he is skulk-
ing among them, the great interior
seems alive and trembling, like some
huge animal - an elephant, perhaps, but
-
not an unfriendly one. In such passages
the poet romancer gives his wild fancy
full rein.
No less than Faust,' the story is a
phantasmagoria, in which a learned goat
has a rôle of importance, everywhere
accompanying the heroine, Esmeralda,
a beautiful, innocent, and incorruptible
singer and dancer of sixteen summers.
This many-sided book may also be
regarded as an eloquent condemnation
of capital punishment; of all forms of
capital punishment, perhaps, or the
writer would hardly say in 1831 that the
vast resources of the chamber of torture
have been reduced in his day to a
sneaking guillotine that only shows its
head at intervals. Or, quite as fairly,
the book may be regarded as a sermon
against celibacy, since it never loses
sight of the effect of monastic vows on
the ardent though ascetic archdeacon
of the cathedral, Claude Frollo. The
avowed motive of the story is the work-
ings of fate, in whose toils nearly all
the chief characters inextricably
caught. The keynote is given in the
word anágke, the Greek equivalent of
kismet or fate, which the author - if
his introduction is to be taken seriously
- found rudely scrawled on the wall of
a cell in one of the cathedral towers.
Like Walter Scott's Quentin Durward,
and Théodore de Banville's exquisite
play of (Gringoire,' Notre-Dame) con-
tains a searching study of the treacher-
ous but able monarch, Louis XI. , and
his barber Olivier-le-Daim.
are
a
as
French Traits, by W. C. Brownell
(1889), appeared first a series
of essays in Scribner's Magazine. These
essays offer
an unusually astute yet
sympathetic study of the French nation
in everything which makes its members
French, and not German or Italian. The
instinct of the author guides him un-
erringly to the selection of those qualities
which are the most perfect medium of


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164
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
ners.
men.
Cities
national characteristics. He considers
the city. It is to a large extent a story
first the most prominent endowment of of regions unknown to travel, and not
the French people, -- the social instinct. reported upon in any of the guide-books.
This explains their kind of morality, of It is so written, moreover, as to serve
intelligence; their standards of sense and the purpose of those who must travel
sentiment; the peculiarity of their man- only as readers. The author added to
Above all it explains the French his Days) a third work of like character
woman, destined from her cradle to be and interest, on (Cities of Northern and
a woman and not a hybrid. She re- Central Italy,' designed to be a companion
fuses to be separated or to separate to all those parts of Italy which lie be-
herself from
She lives in the tween the Alps and the districts, described
family, as the family lives in the na- in the Days. ) The three works tell the
tion. Four remaining essays treat of present story of the city and of Italy,
the art instinct, of the provincial spirit, whether for the traveler or for the reader.
of democracy, and of New York after
Paris.
ities of Northern and Central Italy,
The author has evidently studied his
by Augustus J. C. Hare. In this
subject at close range.
His treatment
work, consisting of three volumes, not
of it is brilliant, epigrammatic, and at
only the cities but the towns and even
the same time solid.
the villages of Northern and Central Italy
receive the careful and comprehensive
attention of the writer. Entering Italy
Journeys through France, by H.
Taine. (1897. ) This book is one of
by the Cornice Road at Mentone, the
the French critic's earlier works, written
reader is plunged at once into the land
in the form of a diary. In the sixties,
of the citron and myrtle. The district
M. Taine, then an official examiner in
described embraces the whole country
the government schools, traveled about,
from the Alps to the environs of Rome:
up and down France, taking notes as
Genoa, Turin, Milan, Venice, Bologna,
Verona, Padua, and Florence are treated
he went, upon all the features of life in
the provinces: agriculture and landscape,
at length. Nothing of interest has been
market-places and shops, castles and
omitted: cathedrals, palaces, homes and
town-halls, professors and officers, peas-
haunts of great men, the Old Masters
ants and bourgeois, as these existed in
and their works, all have place, while
the years preceding the downfall of the
well-known names of history and legend
have been studied with painstaking care.
Empire. He constantly accompanies his
entertaining descriptions by social
The volumes contain hotel and pension
economic inferences, and neat generali- rates, omnibus and railway fares, and
zations of French life and habits of
catalogues of the exhibits in the various
thinking. Brilliantly written, and full of
galleries, – that of the Pitti Palace being
insight as to the relation of the institu-
particularly noteworthy. Yet they are
tion or the custom examined to the
not guides » merely; for they offer the
idea which it incarnates, the whole vol-
reader not only the excellent comments
ume is
of Mr. Hare, but whole pages of quota-
illustration of M.
Taine's formula of the effects of hered-
tions from famous art critics and histor-
ical authorities, such as Ruskin, Goethe,
ity and environment.
Gautier, Dickens, Symonds, Freeman,
Perkins, Story, and others. The writer's
Days Near Rome, by Augustus J. C.
love for his subject produced a delightful
Hare. (1875. ) A very pleasant and
work.
instructive record of excursions into the
country around Rome. The book is sup- Italian Republies: "THE ORIGIN, Pro-
plementary to the author's Walks in
GRESS, AND FALL OF ITALIAN FREE-
Rome,' which supplies an excellent hand- DOM. ) By J. C. L. de Sismondi. (1832. )
book of the city and environs of Rome. An extremely useful story of Italy from
As that work treated, more fully and the beginning of the twelfth century to
carefully than the usual guide-book, the 1814 A. D. , with an introductory sketch
most interesting aspects of the ancient of the history from 476 A. D. to 1138.
city, and especially the latest discoveries The work was prepared for Lardner's
of the recent explorers, so the Days) Cabinet Cyclopædia, after its author
gives an interesting story of what can be had told the arger story in an elaborate
seen in a variety of journeys away from work extending to sixteen volumes.
or
>
one
more


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
165
to
was
Marco Polo. The record of the ad-
ventures of the Venetian merchant
Marco Polo, as dictated by him to a
fellow-prisoner in Genoa, is one of the
most remarkable books of travel ever
written. Marco Polo was born at Ven-
ice about 1254.
His father, a
man of
noble rank, in 1275 had taken young
Marco with him on a trading expedition
to China and the East. The youth of
twenty entered the service of the Em-
peror of China, and traveled extensively
through the neighboring regions. Re-
turning, later, to Venice, he was cap-
tured in the struggle between that city
and Genoa. It was in the year 1298
that Rusticiano or Rustichello of Pisa
wrote for him the history of his wander-
ings.
The “young bachelor's » experience
made an interesting book. (Ye shall
find therein) (says the prologue) (all
kinds of wonderful things.
Some
things there be indeed therein which he
beheld not; but these he heard from
men of credit and veracity. ”
It is said that a French version of the
book made under his direction.
Though his narrative made a great sen-
sation, it was for many years regarded
as a mass of fabrications and exaggera-
tions, It had an undoubted effect,
however, upon exploration; and later re-
searches have confirmed the truth of
many of the author's descriptions. This
may be taken as a sample of its style: –
“Book iii. , Chap. ii. DESCRIPTION OF
THE ISLAND OF CHIPANGU.
“Chipangu is an Island toward the
east in the high seas, 1500 miles distant
from the continent; and a very great
Island it is.
« The people are white, civilized, and
well-favored. They are idolaters and
are dependent on nobody. And I can
tell you the quantity of gold they have
is endless.
“I will tell you a wonderful thing
about the Palace of the Lord of that
Island. You must know that he hath, a
great palace which is entirely roofed
with gold.
Moreover, all the
pavement of the palace, and the floors
of its chambers, are entirely of gold, in
plates like slabs of stone, a good two
fingers thick,
so that the rich-
ness of this palace is past all bounds
and all belief. "
The work was published in English in
1818. The most valuable edition to the
student is that of Colonel Henry Yule,
in two volumes, London, 1875.
Hernando Cortez, The Life of, by
Arthur Helps, English historian and
essayist, was published in 1871, being
dedicated to Thomas Carlyle.
It is a
clear, simple, scholarly account of the
picturesque conquest of Mexico —a con-
quest by a gallant gentleman and war-
rior, who was no better than his age.
The author seeks neither to extenuate
nor to conceal the doubtful qualities in
the character of Cortez, but accepts him
in the impersonal spirit of the historian.
Columbus Christopher, History of
the Life and Voyages of, by Wash-
ington Irving. This history, published
in three volumes, was written by Irving
in 1828, during his residence in Madrid.
He was at the time an attaché of the
United States legation, having been sum-
moned there by Alexander H. Everett,
then minister to Spain, who desired him
translate Navarrete's Voyages of
Columbus,' which were then in course
of publication. Irving entered upon this
work with much interest, but soon came
to the conclusion that he had before him
rather a mass of rich materials for history
than a history itself; and being inspired
by the picturesque aspect of the subject
and the great facilities at hand, he at
once gave up the work of translation
and set about writing a Life of Colum-
bus) of his own. Having access to the
archives of the Spanish government, to
the royal library of Madrid, to that of
the Jesuits' college of San Isidoro, and
to many valuable private collections, he
found numberless historic documents and
manuscripts to further his work. He
was aided by Don Martin de Navarrete,
and by the Duke of Veraguas, the de-
scendant of Columbus, who submitted
the family archives and treasures to his
inspection. In this way he was enabled
to obtain many interesting and previously
unknown facts concerning Columbus. He
was less than a year in completing his
work, which has been called “the noblest
monument to the memory of Columbus. »
This history, a permanent contribution
to English and American literature, is
clear and animated in narrative, graphic
in its descriptive episodes, and finished
in style. Recent historians have dif-
fered from Irving with regard to the
character and merits of Columbus, and
have produced some evidence calculated
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
to shatter a too exalted ideal of the imposed. The darkest curse brought by
great discoverer; but despite this, his the Inquisition, in Mr. Lea's view, was
valuable work still fills an honored place the application of its unjust and cruel
in all historic libraries.
processes to all criminals, down to the
closing years of the eighteenth century;
Inquisition of the Middle Ages, A and not to criminals only, but to all
History of the, by Henry Charles accused persons.
Lea, 3 vols. , 1888. A work at once com- In his second volume Mr. Lea follows
prehensive in scope, complete in learn- the story of the Inquisition in the sev-
ing, and judicious in thought. It tells eral lands of Christendom. The third
the story of the organized effort against he devotes to special fields of Inquisi-
heresy made by the Christian Church of torial activity. It is a story, not only of
the Middle Ages, or for about three how those whose motives, by the stand-
centuries previous to the Reformation ard of their age, were only good, in-
(1215-1515 A. D. ). For the entire his- flicted the worst wrong and cruelty
tory of this effort Mr. Lea makes two upon their fellow-creatures under a false
periods, that of the old or medieval In- idea of the service of God, but how
quisition, before the Reformation, and ambition and avarice took advantage of
that of the new or reorganized Inquisi- the system. At the best it was a non-
tion coming after the Reformation, ex- strous application of mistaken zeal to
cept in Spain, where Ferdinand and keep men from following their honest
Isabella «founded the New Inquisition. ” thoughts into paths of desirable pro-
This famous institution is not viewed gress. Mr. Lea's masterly treatment of
by Mr. Lea as an organization arbitra- the whole history makes his work an
rily devised and imposed upon the ju- authority second to none.
dicial system of Christendom by any
ambition of the Church of that age or Pepita Ximenez, by Juan Valera.
any special fanaticism. It was a nat- The scene of this vivid story is in
ural development, an almost inevitable Andalusia. Pepita Ximenez, when six-
expression of the forces universally at teen years old, is married to her rich
work in the thirteenth and following uncle, Don Gumersindo, then eighty
centuries. To clearly understand it and years old. At the end of three years,
judge it fairly, Mr. Lea carefully exam- she finds herself a widow, with many
ines the whole field of intellectual and suitors for her hand, among them, Don
spiritual developments, and the condi- Pedro de Vargas. At this time his son
tion of society, in the Middle Ages. He Luis comes to pay him a visit before
makes of chief importance an examina- taking his last vows as a priest. Hav-
tion of the jurisprudence of the period, ing lived always with his uncle, he is
as a means of ascertaining the origin learned in theology and casuistry, but
and development of the inquisitorial little versed in worldly affairs.
The
process: some of the worst features of acquaintance with Pepita arouses senti-
which would have been a blot upon the ments which he had never known; and
history none the less if there had never he soon recognizes that he loves her,
been any quest for heresy; while the and that she returns his affection. Hor-
idea of heresy was one of the deepest rified at his position, both in regard to
seated, not only of the period, but of his profession and to his father, he re-
later generations, and as relentlessly solves never to see Pepita. Visiting the
applied under Protestantism, in
club, he meets Count de Genazahar, a
special instances, as under Catholicism. rejected suitor of Pepita, who speaks
Mr. Lea devotes an entire volume to slightingly of her. He expostulates with
«The Origin and Organization of the him on the sin of slander, but is only
Inquisition, the sad story of how the derided. The expected departure of
giving way in jurisprudence of the old Luis has so affected Pepita that she is
barbarisms was arrested by the use of ill; and her nurse, Antonona, goes to
those made by the Church; and how the Luis and obliges him to come to bid
worst of these barbarisms were given a farewell to her mistress.
He goes at
consecration which kept them in force ten o'clock at night, and is left alone
five hundred years after they might with Pepita. She tries to convince him
have passed away; and in force without that he is ill adapted for a priest. If
the restraints which Roman law had he has allowed himself to be charmed
some


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167
a
by a plain country girl, how much more the house. He grants Mansour's three
are to be feared the beautiful, accom- wishes: 'that Omar shall be healthy and
plished women he will meet in future wealthy, and love no one but himself.
life. Her self-condemnation causes him On Abdallah he lays a charge to seek the
to praise her; and when he leaves her, at four-leaved clover. Omar is reclaimed
two o'clock in the morning, he is obliged at fifteen by his father, and immediately
to confess his own unworthiness. He begins a career of selfish and heartless
learns that Genazahar owes Pepita a greed. To Abdallah a wise Jew explains
large sum of money; and goes to the that the four-leaved clover was a mys-
club, where he finds him gambling. He tic flower, which Eve had hastily snatched
enters the game and finds a chance to on her expulsion from Paradise. One leaf
insult him. In a duel they are both was of copper, one of silver, the third of
wounded, the Count, dangerously.