No More Learning

can republic, on the eve of one of its Colonel Newcome, perhaps the most per-
innumerable revolutions. The hero is fect type of a gentleman to be found in
Robert Clay, a self-made man, an engi- the whole range of fiction, sheds undying
neer, general manager, and resident lustre upon the novel. Ethel Newcome
director of the Valencia Mining Com- is one of the rare women of fiction who
pany in Olancho. Although the novel really live as much in the reader's con-
is full of adventure, it is primarily a sciousness as in the conception of the
study of two types of women, two sis- author. Clive Newcome is also possessed
ters, the daughters of Mr. Langham, of abundant life. His strong and faulty
president of the company.
The elder humanity is the proof of his genuineness.
is a New York society girl of a most All the world knows his story, begin-
finished type, - self-possessed,
— calmly ning with the bravery of boyhood just
critical, with emotions well in check, released from the dim cloisters of Grey
noble, but not noble to the point of Friars. His father, Colonel Newcome,
bad form. Her sister Hope, not yet has come from India to rejoice in him
out, is enthusiastic, generous, sweet. as in a precious possession, and to re-
Robert Clay meets the elder, Alice Lang- new his old associations in London for
ham, at a dinner just before he sails the sake of his son. Clive's career, on
for South America. He has long known which so many hopes are built, is marred


## p. 508 (#544) ############################################

508
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
scene
mere
а
ern
with failures. He loves his cousin Ethel book which aims at presenting to us not
Newcome, but she is hedged from him so much petty details as the large and
by the ambitions of her family. He enduring features of the life of the
himself makes a wretched marriage. Greeks,- enough, certainly, about their
His dreams of success as an artist fade food, their dress, and their houses, but
away. The Colonel loses his fortune, especially “how they reasoned, and felt,
and in his old age becomes a pensioner and loved; why they laughed and why
of Grey Friars. The quiet pathos of his they wept; how they taught and what
death-bed
is unique, even in they learned. The picture, of course, is
Thackeray. With the word “Adsum » mostly Athenian, since only Athenian
upon his lips, the word with which he colors exist for the painting. The result
used to answer the roll-call as a boy at is not only of literary and antiquarian,
school, he passes into peace. Clive and but also of practical value, as showing
Ethel, each free to begin the world how high a civilization was attained by
again, meet at his death-bed. The novel a people that had to contend with a
closes upon their chastened happiness. worthless theology, with slavery, and
No words of praise or criticism, no de- with ignorance of the art of printing.
tailed description, can convey the sense Professor Mahaffy writes in no
of the light and sweetness of "The archæological spirit, but with his eye
Newcomes. '
As novel of English always on the present and the future,
upper and middle class life, it remains as where he refers to the present French
without a rival.
republic, the theory of might being
right, and the case of the Irish. The
Social Life in old Virginia Before
topics treated are: The Greeks of the
the War, by Thomas Nelson Page.
Homeric Age); (The Greeks of the Lyric
This little volume, which in a
way
Age); (The Greeks of the Attic Age);
recalls Washington Irving's (Sketch
(Attic Culture); (Trades and Profes-
Book, is a sympathetic sketch of South-
sions); Entertainments and Conversa-
ante-bellum plantation life, por-
tion’; (The Social Position of Boys in
traying a state of society incredible to
Attic Life); Religious Feeling); and
those who had no experience of it,
Business Habits. )
and probably to-day all but incredible
to those who once knew it best. Be-
History of Spanish Literature, The,
ginning with the great house,” its by George Ticknor. (1849. ) This
grounds, gardens, and outbuildings, the
work was the fruit of twenty years of
personality and life of the mistress, of study and labor. It is divided into three
the master, and of their daughters parts: Part i. , beginning with «The Cid)
and sons, first pass before us. Then and the chronicles, and ending with the
come portraits of those august func-
death of Charles V. ; Part ii. , treating of
tionaries: the carriage driver, the but- the golden age of the drama, the lyric,
ler, and «mammy” the nurse;
and the novel; and Part iii. , making a
the gardeners, the boys about the study of the conditions of the literary
house, the young ladies' own maids,
decadence. The translations used were
and the very furniture, are not forgot-
original; and the book remains an author-
ten. The description embraces both
ity and a classic. Hallam declared that
great house and cabins. The mysteries «It supersedes all others, and will never
of «spending a month two,) of be superseded. ” Translated into many
« spending the day” (i. e. dining), and tongues, its profound learning, its mod-
of Sunday hospitalities, are dissolved; esty, and its forcible style, make it as
the varying seasons,
the fox hunt,
agreeable as it is valuable.
Christmas festivities, the ladies' « “pat-
terns and the gentlemen's politics, –
Spanish Vistas, by George Parsons
Lathrop.
all sides of that complex existence ap-
« C'nless he be extraordi-
narily shrewd,” says the author, “a for-
pear. And the conclusion of the whole
eigner can hardly help arriving in Spain
matter is, that while the social life of
on some kind of a feast-day. ” Perhaps
the Old South had its faults, its
it is that all days in that land of ro-
graces were never equaled. ”
mance seem like red-letter days to one
Social
cial Life in Greece from Homer to who has
from the workaday
Menander, by John Pentland Ma. world and the unshaded vistas of reality.
haffy, is a delightful and instructive Spain, to the general observer, is a field
(
even
or
)
come


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
509
was
hand. ”
«
scarcely more known than Italy was a scholarly though not always impartial
few decades ago; but each year is in- monograph
creasing the number of its tourists,
and each year the interesting peculiari-Madonna's Child, by Alfred Austin.
This romantic poem, which its au-
ties of the people are becoming modi.
fied, at length to entirely disappear; so
thor, the poet-laureate, calls the “first-
born of his serious Muse,) first
the chapters which preserve the actual
published in 1872. The scene is laid at
appearance of the Spain of to-day have
the additional value of a probable future
Spiaggiascura, on the Riviera; and Olym-
reference. There is no attempt to re-
pia, the heroine, “a daughter of the sun-
view political events in the work, only
light and the shrine,) is sacristan of a
little seaside chapel: -
to present a striking and faithful photo-
graph of the essential characteristics of " Sacred to prayer, but quite unknown to
fame,
the country, and catalogue particular
Maria Stella Maris is its hame.
and local features. If one were forced Breaks not a morning but its snow-white altar
to select among a number of delightful With fragrant mountain flowers is newly
pictures, perhaps the chapter on An-
dight;
dalusia and the Alhambra) would be
Comes not a noon but lowly murmured psalter
Again is heard with unpretentious rite. ”
chosen; but to that on (The Lost City)
To this chapel comes a stranger, Godfrid,
the eye turns again and again with ever
renewed interest. The last pages are
and surprises Olympia,
devoted to (Hints to Travelers, and are
" Atiptoe, straining at a snow-white thorn
Whose bloom enticed but still escaped her
useful in supplying certain information
not to be found in the usual guide-book,
He
and condensing this in a very conven-
« deftly broke
ient form.
A loftier bow in lovelier bloom arrayed,”
Of great value to the work are the and gave it to her; and then accompanied
illustrations of Mr. C. S. Reinhart, made her to the chapel, kneeling with her before
after sketches from life. They assist the the Madonna. Later, she finds to her
author with their graphic touches of hu- horror that he is an unbeliever. To her
mor and the fidelity and spirit of the supplications to -
reproduced scenes, -an assistance which
« Bend pride's stiff knee; no longer grace
is gracefully acknowledged in the charm-
withstand,”
ing preface.
his answer is, “I cannot. » With her he
makes a pilgrimage to Milan. She leaves
The Puritan in Holland, England,
him with a priest who has been her ad-
and America, by Douglas Camp-
viser; but the old priest's efforts are in
bell. (1892. ) This. historical survey of vain, and he tells her:
Puritanism in its ethical, social, and
political aspects is strikingly original,
« Through his parched bosom, prayer no longer
flows.
since it seeks to demonstrate, with much By Heaven may yet the miracle be wrought;
strength and clearness, that the debt of But human ways are weak, and words are
the American nation for its most radical
naught. ”
customs and institutions is not to the She decides that they must part, but he
English at all, but to the Dutch. It en- asks: -
deavors to prove that the very essence " Is there no common Eden of the heart,
of Puritanism came originally from Hol- Where each fond bosom is a welcome guest ?
land, leavened the English nation, and
No comprehensive Paradise to hold
All loving souls in one celestial fold ? »
through the English nation, the embry-
onic American nation. Some of the
She answers: —
most common of American institutions, « Leave me, nay, leave me ere it be too late:
. (common lands and common schools,
Better part here, than part at Heaven's gate. ”
the written ballot, municipalities, reli- « Pure but not spared, she passes from our gaze,
gious tolerance, a federal union of States, Victim, not vanquisher, of Love. And he?
the play of national and local govern-
Once more an exile over land and main:
Ah! Life is sad, and scarcely worth the pain ! »
ment, the supremacy of the judiciary,) —
all these came directly from Holland. Yesterdays with Authors, by James
Mr. Campbell's work is most valuable T. Fields. With the exception of
as an introduction to the study of Amer- Miss Mitford's letters and some para-
ican history, or in itself considered as a graphs of other matters, the contents of


## p. 510 (#546) ############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
510
this book first appeared in the Atlantic made to fight as gladiators; among
Monthly, during the year 1871, in a them Lentulus, who in dying accuses
series of papers called (Our Whispering Sextus Fannius of having violated a ves-
Gallery. The Yesterdays) are spent tal virgin. Sextus escapes, however,
with Pope, Thackeray, Hawthorne, Dick- and rejoins his forces.
ens, Wordsworth, and Miss Mitford. The prospects of the rebels' complete
With all but the first of these Mr. Fields success are flattering, until Crixus, one
had a personal acquaintance; with Haw- of their leaders, becomes jealous and
thorne, Thackeray, and Dickens, a warm leads off half the army, which is caught
friendship which lasted until their deaths. in a trap by the prætor Crassus, and
The relation between publisher and annihilated. This disaster might have
author is of a delicate nature, having been avoided had not Prusias yielded
in it elements of mutual interest and to the wily charms of Nævia, the young
enforced intimacy; when to this is added wife of the prefect, until too late to
the tie of kindred minds and personal
support Crixus.
The insurgent army
predilection, the record of it is note- falls back on Capua; but is defeated
worthy. The title is particularly appli- in a terrible battle, in which Spartacus
cable to the subject-matter. The re- is killed and Prusias is captured. He
membrance of the day before is so is brought to trial before Lucius Mani-
potent in the present; yesterday and lius, who in gratitude desires to save
to-day are so allied in sentiment, that him, but when Navia's infidelity is
in reading these charming recollections, made known to him through Sextus, he
conversations, letters, anecdotes of work falls dead; whereupon she kills herself,
and play, one feels that the veil has and Prusias is condemned by the prætor
been withdrawn, and those to whom we to crucifixion. Sextus's crime is also
owe so much entertainment and instruc- disclosed, and he is imprisoned; but is
tion are still with us, not merely por- released when Aristocleia, sister to Ba-
traits in a picture gallery revivified by tiatus, confesses that he is innocent, as
the touch of the artist. The author's she herself has been her brother's tool
recollections of Dickens are exceptionally in order to blackmail Sextus.
interesting. To him is accorded a major Prusias demands and receives per-
portion of the book, as in life was mission to address the people from the
accorded a greater share of time and scaffold. He declares that his sole ob-
affection.
ject was to free the slaves from brutal
and oppressive tyranny; and predicts
Prusias, by Ernst Eckstein. The pe- that gradually more humane laws and
riod of this story is the third Mith- treatment will prevail, and that One will
ridatic war, 73 B. C. ; and the scene come of whom he is only the weak
is in and about Capua, whither Prusias, and erring forerunner,- that He, by
a secret agent of Mithridates, with his renouncing all, will conquer all.
He
nephew Cleon, has come ostensibly as then discloses his true name and sta-
tutor to Caius Fannius, but really to tion,– Darius Prusias, brother of Mith-
stir up a revolt against Rome.
ridates, and with him co-King of Pontus.
The way has been prepared and treas- In proof thereof he shows the royal
accumulated at Brundusium by signet ring, from which he suddenly
Phormio. Prusias, in his journey, is so takes a powerful poison and expires.
fortunate as to save the life of Lucius Awed by his majestic death, the offi-
Manilius, prefect of Capua; and uses cials substitute for the disgraceful burial
this opportunity of official favor to of a criminal, a royal funeral pyre.
further his schemes. Caius, Oscan in This tragic story, somewhat pedantic
feeling, becomes his confederate; but in its treatment, was published in 1883.
Quintilia and Sextus, the latter's mother An excellent English version by Clara
and brother, distrust him.
Bell appeared in 1884.
Spartacus and the gladiators and slaves
of Lentulus Betiatus organized.
Three English Statesmen, by Goldwin
Afer, Prusias's attendant, overhears that
course of lectures de-
his master is suspected. The revolt is livered during his professorship of his-
precipitated suddenly, and grows with tory at Oxford University, on Pym,
alarming strides. The Romans
Cromwell, and Pitt. The clear and
overwhelmed, and those captured are brilliant style of the book, vigorous
ure
are
are


## p. 511 (#547) ############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
511
In his essay
Own
was
and simple, at once enchains the atten-
tion and wins from the reader an ab-
sorbed interest in the author's theories
of politics and politicians. He has the
rare faculty of condensing whole chap-
ters of history into a few words, and of
presenting in one vivid picture the com-
plicated state of nations.
on Pym, he is able in a few pages to
detail the problems and grievances that
had beset the English people, and in-
deed the Continental nations, ever since
the first outbreaks against the absolute
power of the Church.
He recognizes
that the Reformation in England was
by no means accomplished when Henry
VIII. chose for his
ends to
defy the pope; that this upheaval was
precisely the old struggle of the people
against tyranny whether of the Church
or State.
When, after eleven years of
royal government without a Parliament,
Charles I. was forced to call one, Pym
became its leader. It he who
brought to book the great Duke of
Buckingham, he who dared to impeach
Strafford and Laud. The lampooners
spoke a true word in jest when they
called him “King Pym. ” Pym died
early in the great fight; and the soldier.
Cromwell, came the front the
leader of republican England. Mr.
Smith admires Cromwell a genius
and a high-minded man; yet he depre-
cates Carlyle's essay upon him as crass,
undiscriminating worship. The soberer
writer sees Cromwell's faults and de-
plores them. He does not excuse the
execution of the King, or the massacres
in Ireland; but he holds that Cromwell,
to maintain his control over the thou-
sands of reckless fanatics who had made
him their leader, was forced to deeds of
iron. As Protector, he was one of the
strongest and wisest rulers England ever
had. The last and longest paper is that
on Pitt, the great statesman of the
eighteenth century, who was prime min-
ister at twenty-four, and the champion
of free trade, a reformed currency, re-
ligious toleration, colonial emancipation,
abolition of the slave-trade and of slav-
ery. Pitt's espousal of the cause of the
colonies in Parliament especially com-
mends this study of him to American
readers.
)
economic research, of great breadth; but
specially designed to show the wisdom
and justice of free trade among nations.
In the very wide range of subjects dealt
with are found social history, the politics.
of commerce, rules of taxation, and edu-
cational theories now generally accepted;
but the chief burden of the book is free-
dom of trade among all nations. Its
note is international, never considering
how one nation may promote its own
wealth at the expense of other nations.
The work is full of facts, shows wealth
of varied reading, and remarkable sa-
gacity in the use of very imperfect data.
The style of the work is diffuse, and the
arrangement of materials irregular and
loose; more in the manner of a great
study than of a perfectly finished work.
To a very large extent it drew from the
work already done in France by the
economists of the “Encyclopédie » school;
first among whom stood Turgot, whose
(Sur la Formation et la Distribution des
Richesses) supplied Smith with passages
of his first book very closely following
the divisions and arguments of Turgot.
Smith had visited France at the close of
the Seven Years' War, had spent a year
in Paris, and had seen much of the
economists there. He had returned home
in October 1766, and settled in retire-
ment at Kirkcaldy, where he gave ten
years to the production of his book.
Five English editions of the work ap-
peared during its author's life, and it
was translated into many modern lan-
guages. It is at once a great English
classic and a landmark in economical
science. The earlier life of the author
had been that of a professor at the Uni-
versity of Glasgow, where he was given
the chair of logic in 1751, and that of
moral philosophy the next year. In 1759
he published A Theory of the Moral
Sentiments, of which there were six edi-
tions during his life. It was his custom
to give some attention to political econ-
omy in his Glasgow lectures; and he
then drew those inferences on behalf of
freedom of trade which he afterwards
expanded into his (Wealth of Nations. )
In 1763 Smith resigned his chair to take
charge of the education of the son of the
Duke of Buccleugh; and it was on a pen-
sion of £300 a year, given him by the
duke, that he retired to Kirkcaldy. It is
said that Pitt thought well of Smith's
free-trade views, and might in happier
times have adopted a free-trade policy:
to
as
as
Wealth of Nations, An Exquiry into
THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE,
by Adam Smith. (1776. ) A treatise of


## p. 512 (#548) ############################################

512
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
on
Studies of the Gods in Greece, by
ness.
but it was reserved for the school of given to the need which woman in trial
Cobden to induce England to act has for kindly women. Of course, he
them.
finds in the religion at present existing
in Greece survivals of the ancient myths
An ncient Greece, by C. C. Felton. In
these two octavo volumes are con-
and religious rites, or rather new nam-
tained four courses of lectures, of which
ings for the old gods; as when, at the
the first is a review of the history of
site of Old Paphos, the papissa (priest's
the Greek language and Grecian poetry;
wife), on being asked for guidance to
the second course is devoted to life in
the sanctuary of Aphrodite, corrected her
Greece, and gives an account of the
questioner and told him the sanctuary
origin and history of the Hellenes, an
was not of Aphrodite, but of the Golden
Mother of God.
outline of Grecian culture, religion, and
domestic life, houses, furniture, customs,
marriage,
manufacture,
attire, trade,
icero and His Friends, by Gaston
Cicer
Boissier. There is probably no man
agriculture, government, etc. ; the third
is devoted to a history of political con-
of ancient times of whose public and
stitutions and institutions, and to Gre-
private life we know so much as we do
of Cicero's: the sixteen extant books of
cian oratory; the fourth deals with
Greece from the
his Letters to Various Persons, or as
Roman conquest,
through the Byzantine period and Turk-
they are usually styled, his Letters to
ish domination, to our own times.
Friends, and those to his friend Atti-
cus, reveal the man in his littleness
and vanity no less than in his great-
He was a great man and a great
of the Grecian gods are restricted to patriot; but with his incontestable vir-
those divinities whcse sanctuaries have tues he combined almost incredible weak-
been excavated within the last few years nesses of character, - his wheedling let-
in Greece and its islands: namely De- ters to one Lucius Lucellus, a writer of
meter, worshiped at Eleusis and Cnidus; histories, whom he asks to write an ac-
Dionysus in Thrace and in Athens; count of his consulship, is sufficient
other gods specially worshiped at Eleusis; proof of this. From these letters of
Æsculapius at Epidaurus and Athens; Cicero, and also from his forensic ora.
Aphrodite at Paphos; and Apollo in the tions and his philosophical and rhetor-
sanctuary at Delos. The work was ori- ical writings, the author of this book
ginally written in the form of lectures for draws the material for a singularly in-
the Lowell Institute, Boston: the text of teresting account of the great orator's
the lectures constitutes the eight chap- public and private life. It has been the
ters of the book, but to them are added fashion of scholars of late to belittle
scholarly notes and numerous appendices. Cicero; to write him down an egotist, a
The author writes sympathetically of shallow, time-serving politician, a mere
those ancient worships, and finds in phrase-maker. M. Boissier admits that
them all some germ and flower of pur- Cierco was timid, hesitating, irresolute;
est religion. Even amid the desolation he
was by nature man of letters
of the Hellenic lands he recognizes still rather than a statesman. But the mind
the presence of the ancient glories of of the man of letters is often broader,
nature. For him the fountain of Castalia more comprehensive than that of the
has a clearness and an (almost intel- practical statesman; and “it is precisely
lectual sparkle”); and if two friends were this breadth that cramps and thwarts
shortly to be parted forever, he can him when he undertakes the direction
think of no more solemn place for their of public affairs. He redeemed the
last day of fellowship than Apollo's vacillations and timidities of his polit-
Delphi, even as it is to-day. For him ical career by meeting death at the hand
the Ion) of Euripides is “a most sol- of the hired assassin with stoic forti-
emn, sweet, and pious play,” showing tude. In a chapter on Cicero's private
forth the spirit, truth, and noble-hearted life, the question comes up as to the
kindliness that inspired the Delphian ways in which he acquired his very con-
worship of Apollo. ” In the worship of siderable wealth. In accounting for it,
Demeter at Eleusis, a worship rendered the author cites numerous instances of
to her by the women only the author the orator's clients making him their
finds divine sanction,
were, heir for large sums: the law forbade
a
a
as it


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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
513
a
son
me
payment of money to advocates, and
Impressions of London Social Life,
the method of making payment by WITH OTHER PAPERS, by E. S. Nadal,
legacies was invented as
means of (1875,) is a collection of short essays
circumventing the statute, Another suggested to the author by his resi-
way was “borrowing ” money from rich dence in London as a secretary of le-
clients; and many instances are cited gation. From the standpoint of a loyal
of large sums being loaned to Cicero by American, he notes in kindly, not too
wealthy men whom he had defended in critical fashion the differences between
the courts. Besides wealthy clients in life in England and at home. «Lon-
private life, there were towns and prov- don society is far the most perfect
inces whose interests he had defended thing of the kind in the world;) and
in the Senate; and above all, there were in New York, with its lack of social
the rich corporations of the farmers of tradition and its constantly changing
the public revenues whom he had served: elements, Mr. Nadal thinks there can
these interests found a means of recom- never be anything at all like it. He
pensing the advocate liberally. The would admire it still more if it were
domestic life of Cicero was embittered not for the rigid canons of propriety,
by the unhappy marital experiences of which forbid all public expression of
his daughter Tulliola, the extravagances individuality.
The sturdy Englishman,
of his first wife Terentia, and the dis- so fond of asserting his independence,
solute character of his Marcus. is after all curiously sensitive to pub-
But in his household was one faithful lic opinion; and hence his conservatism
servitor, his slave and amanuensis Tiro, and apparent snobbishness. There is a
whom he loved with parental affection. pleasant description of life at Oxford,
In one of his letters to Tiro he writes: which makes that college seem like a
(( You have rendered numberless great genial club; and one where the
services at home, in the forum, at Rome, undergraduate is a person of far less
in my province, in my public and private importance than at Harvard or Cam-
affairs, in my studies and my literary bridge.
work. ” Tiro survived his master many Mr. Nadal touches lightly upon the
years; but to the day of his death he social life at court; the Queen's draw-
labored to perpetuate the fame of Cicero ing-room at Buckingham Palace, and
by writing his life and preparing editions the Prince of Wales's less grand but
of his works. The Friends of Cicero, of pleasanter levees at St. James's Palace.
whom notices are given in the volume, In its genial, homely, cultivated charm,
are Atticus, Cælius, Julius Cæsar, Brutus, he finds English scenery very different
and Octavius.
from American: for «there [England]
man is scarcely conscious of the pres.
Macaulay's Critical and Miscellane- ence of nature; while here nature is
ons Essays were published origi- scarcely conscious of the presence of
nally in the Edinburgh Review; begin-
man. ”
ning with the essay on Milton, in the
August number, 1825, and continuing for Mary Queen of Scots, by James F;
.
, when
This is distinctly and
series ended with the paper on the Earl frankly a polemic history of the unfortu-
of Chatham, in the October number, 1844. nate Queen of Scots, written in contro-
These essays, of which the glory is but version of Froude's account of her life
a little tarnished, run the gamut of great and death in his History of England. '
historical and literary subjects. They Every chapter is headed with a motto
include reviews of current literature, his- telling what a history ought to be, or
torical sketches and portraits, essays in ought not to be, with application to
criticism. They are distinguished by a Froude's theory and practice; or with
certain magnificent cleverness; but they apt quotations from all sources, designed
are lacking in human warmth, and in to show the intellectual and moral in-
the sympathy which rises from the heart competence of Froude as historian of
to the brain. They remain however any events with which his prejudices are
a monument of what might be called concerned. Mr. Meline's work closes
a soldierly English style, with all the with a quotation from Froude's history,
trappings and appurtenances of military in which that historian declares that
rank.
(those who pursue high purposes) –
XXX-33


## p. 514 (#550) ############################################

514
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
man-
-a
((
among them Queen Elizabeth — through magnificent materialism of the Renais-
crooked ways deserve better of
sance overdid itself. The work as a
kind, on the whole, than those who pick whole is a wonderfully sympathetic and
their way in blameless inanity, and if scholarly record of one of the most fas-
innocent of ill are equally innocent of cinating periods of Italian development.
good. Mr. Meline writes a criticism of It is adapted at once to the uses of the
Froude, not a history of Mary Queen of scholar and to the general reader.
Scots. It is much more interesting than
any formal, history, and quite as likely Romola, by George Eliot (1864. ) The
scene historic
Froude's pages are in effect the advo- of the author is laid in Florence at the
cate's plea for Elizabeth. Meline gives end of the fifteenth century, and its
the other side, at the same time expos- great historic figure is Savonarola. The
ing the fallacious arguments of his ad- civic struggle between the Medici and
versary, and his suppression and dis- the French domination, the religious
tortion of evidence. In one chapter, struggle between the dying paganism
Froude's declaration that he knows and the New Christianity, crowd its
more about the history of the sixteenth pages with action.
The story proper
century than about almost anything follows the fortunes of Tito Melema,
else » gives his critic opportunity to ex- Greek, charming, brilliant, false, - his
hibit the historian's (multifarious ignor- fascination of Romola, his marriage, his
ance » of the criminal law of that very moral degradation and death. The in-
period in England. Froude has Mary cidents are many, the local color is rich,
brought up “at the court of Catherine but the emphasis of the book is laid
de Medicis ): Meline shows that there on the character of Tito.
was no court) of Catherine till after The working out of this is a subtle
Mary had left France; besides, Mary showing of the truth, that the depres-
had always shown an invincible dislike sion of the moral tone by long indul-
for Catherine. Froude calls the Queen's gence in selfish sin is certain to cul-
secretary, David Riccio, “youth, minate in some overshadowing act of
and «a wandering musician,” thus gra- baseness. «Tito was experiencing that
tuitously building a foundation for the inexorable law of human souls, that we
scandalous report of illicit relations be- prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by
tween him and Mary; but contemporary the reiterated choice of good or evil that
authorities are quoted as to the emi- gradually determines character. ) This
nence of Riccio as a man of learning, is the key to the book, which is strongly
and as being «old, deformed, and ugly. ” ethical; but which is not the less pro-
And thus statement after statement of foundly interesting as a story. In Flor-
Froude's is examined and contradicted, ence as in Loamshire, the lower classes
in very many cases by the authorities are to the novelist unceasingly pictur-
he himself more or less garbled.
esque; and the talk of the crowd, in the
squares and streets, full of humor and
The
che Renaissance in Italy, the most reality. In Romola) appears her one
comprehensive work of John Ad- attempt (in the case of Savonarola) to
dington Symonds, was published in five show a conscience taking upon itself
volumes, each dealing with a different great and novel responsibilities. Always
phase of the great era of New Life in studies of conscience, her other books
Italy. Vol. i. , (The Age of the Des- depict only its pangs under the sting of
pots, presents the social conditions of
the memory of slighted familiar obliga-
the time, especially as they were em- tions. Her own saying that our deeds
bodied and expressed in the cultured des- determine us as much as we determine
pots of the free cities. In Vol. ii. , (The our deeds,” is the moral lesson of Romola.
Revival of Learning,' the brilliant mun-
dane scholarship of the era is exhaust Studies in Media val Life and Liter:
considered.
and
Tomkins
devoted to Literature and the Fine Arts Laughlin, professor of rhetoric and belles-
as reflecting the spirit of the times. lettres in Yale University. (1894. ) Pub-
Vol. v. treats of the Catholic reaction, lished after the author's untimely death,
the revulsion of feeling, the reversal of and without the revision that he in-
judgment, which followed when the tended giving to these papers, they are,
a
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
515
race.
notwithstanding, among the most delight-
ful of their kind, possessing scholarship,
philosophical grasp, delicate fancy, a
sense of humor, literary feeling and ex-
pression, and beautiful form. The sub-
jects are: (The Mediæval Feeling for
Nature,) (The Memoirs of an Old Ger-
man Gallant, Neidhart von Reuenthal
and his Bavarian Peasants,? (A German
Farmer of the Thirteenth Century,'
"Childhood in Mediæval Literature,' (A
Mediæval Woman. The first essay con-
trasts with the modern feeling for nature
— what Ruskin somewhere calls the
« sentimental love » of it, and von Hum-
boldt the “mysterious analogy between
human emotions and the phenomena of
the world without us ». the medieval
feeling, which in everything saw only
religion. The second essay is on the
trials and tribulations of Ulrich
Lichtenstein; whose thirteenth-century
autobiography is declared to contain
“the most detailed example of that
«mediæval gallantry » which has had
no equal in the world before or since.
The essay is both instructive and amus-
ing. The third and fourth essays are on
the rural life of the Middle Ages. The
fifth, while taking the view that, using
the race a scale. all mediæval folk
were children, gives much curious in-
formation on the status of the young
during the Middle Ages. The mediæ-
val woman) of the last essay is Héloise.
The essay is eloquent and touching, and
shows that the author is able to do what
not all scholars can, — comprehend a
woman's heart, as well as musty medi-
æval chronicles. Abélard is described as
an egoist, but also as one of the most
striking characters of his time. Some of
the author's translations of verse show
the touch of a true poet.
immortality. In other ways he escaped
from the coldness and formalism of the
eighteenth century, only to fall into pits
of dreary sentiment and bathos. Cole-
ridge, Mr. Johnson considers as a many-
sided genius, whose prose and poetry alike
he used for noble purposes. He was a
good logician and a great poet, and he
never mixed the two offices together.
His prose is plain, argumentative prose;
and his poetry is purely an imaginative
product of a high order. (The Ancient
Mariner) is a poem without a fellow
in any tongue. ” Both Coleridge and
Shelley were men apart; their genius
was unlike other men's; they seemed no
logical outcome of English thought and
There have been other poets as
great as Shelley, but never one like
him. He stands as the representative
of the idea of youth. His chivalry, his
hot enmity to injustice, his hatred of
conventionalisms, his failure to under-
stand the necessity of slow painful ef-
forts if society is to be reformed, are the
attitude of a noble, impulsive boy. Haw-
thorne, Mr. Johnson calls the first dis-
tinctly American writer. Irving copied
Addison, and Cooper was a reflection of
Scott. Poe wrote of a life that never
really was in any country. But Haw-
thorne, though he deals with the things
of the soul, is yet entirely American.
The great poet and seer of our land,
far the greatest poet in Mr. Johnson's
opinion, is Emerson. Longfellow is dis-
tinguished for his broad culture, his
beautiful workmanship, and his sweet
and sane views of life, rather than for
lofty and original thought.
von
as
Three Americans and Three English.
men, by Charles F. Johnson, is a
volume of six lectures on six of the great
figures in the literature of the century:
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Haw-
thorne, Emerson, and Longfellow. With
a critical and dispassionate mind, the
essayist attempts to fix the place in
final judgment of each of these men.
Wordsworth he celebrates as the first
democrat in poetry; almost the first Eng-
lish writer of good birth who had not
the point of view of the aristocrat. His
love of nature, and his love of child-
The
"he Romance of a Poor Young Man,
by Octave Feuillet. This very pop-
ular novel, which first appeared in 1857,
is one on which the attacks of the fol.
lowers of the school of naturalism » have
most heavily fallen. They claim that the
plot is exceedingly improbable and melo-
dramatic. Maxime Odiot, Marquis de
Champcey, by the rash speculation of his
father, is left without fortune. Through
the intercession of his old notary, he be-
comes steward of the Château des La-
roque. His intelligence wins the esteem
of all; but leaving all in ignorance of his
noble birth, he confines his intimacy to
an old lady, Mademoiselle Porhoël Goël,
an octogenarian. Marguerite, the daugh-
ter of Laroque, treats him with the
greatest consideration; but he professes
were Wordsworth's two doors to
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516
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
was
marry him.
to
the greatest indifference for her. Finally, standard occurred around Dr. J. H.
through the machinations of Madame Newman's famous No. 90, On the
Aubry and Mademoiselle Hélonin, sus- Thirty-nine articles of the English
picions are raised as to the loyalty of Church,” which aroused the English pub-
Maxime's intentions. Marguerite is made lic. It states that «The English Church
to believe that Maxime seeks to make leaves marriage to the judgment of the
himself the heir of Mademoiselle Porhoël clergy, but the Church has the right to
Goël, and is warned that he may so order them not to marry. ” The strong
compromise her as to oblige her to point with the Tractarians that
Entering the tower of an the Prayer Book was not a Protestant
old ruin one evening, she there finds book, but was framed to include Cath-
Maxime. After conversing with him, she olies; and the leaders determined
seeks to go, and finds the door locked. push this point. Newman, in No. 90,
She believes that Maxime hopes to com- says, with pitiless logic and clear state-
promise her by obliging her to remain ment, that « The Protestant confessions
with him all night in the tower, and were drawn up to include Catholics,
accuses him of treachery. He acknowl- and Catholics will not be excluded.
edges his love for her; but to save her What was economy with the first Re-
honor, leaps from the tower, in spite of formers is a protection to us. What
her attempts to detain him. It is found would have been perplexing to us then
that Marguerite's grandfather had for- is perplexing to them now. We could
merly been the steward of Maxime's not find fault with their words then:
family, and had enriched himself from they cannot now repudiate their mean-
the estate during the Revolutionary ing. ” As an example of skill in dia-
period. Madame Laroque restores the lectics, these Tracts are worth studying.
fortune to Maxime, and he marries Mar- They were the utterances of master-
guerite.
minds dead in earnest. The leaders
were such men 'as Keble, author of
Tract:
racts for the Times. These papers, the Christian Year); Dr. Pusey, Re-
published at Oxford between 1833 gius Professor of Hebrew; Dr. J. H.
and 1841, have become part of English Newman; R. H. Froude; Rev. Isaac
history; for it meant much to the Eng- Williams; and Rev. Hugh Rose, of
lish people, who held that their liber- Cambridge.
ties were concerned with the limitation The Tracts have done much to re-
or extension of ecclesiastical power. The store artistic symbolism as well as ear-
Church, in its reaction against Ro- nestness to the Church; on the other
manism, became, in many instances hand they have alienated the bulk of
negligent in ritual and meaningless in Protestant Dissenters, who are willing
decoration. There were no pictures of to admit the claims of the Tractarians
saints, but memorial busts of sinners; to rule the Church of England, but not
no figures of martyrs, but lions and to rule them. Fellowship with the
unicorns fighting for the crown; and pope was earnestly deprecated by the
Tract 9, on (Shortening the Service, Tractarians, who have done good work
says “the Reformation left us a daily in the Anglican Church since; but New-
service, we have now a weekly serv- man and some others found their way
ice; and they are in a fair way to be- to the Roman communion, and gave
come monthly. The impetus to the some color to Punch's Puseyite hymn :-
Tractarian movement was given partly
« And nightly pitch my moving tent
by the changes contemplated in the
A day's march nearer Rome. ”
Irish episcopate.
The British Parlia-
ment, which was all-sufficient to pass Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a remark-
the Act of Uniformity in 1662, was, in able novel by Thomas Hardy, is an
the minds of the Tractarians, incompe- embodiment in fiction of the Tragedy
tent to modify that act in 1832. The of the Woman, — the world-old story of
so-called Tracts varied from brief her fall, and of her battle with man
sketches, dialogues, etc. , to voluminous to recover her virginity of soul. Te-s,
treatises like those on Baptism and a beautiful village girl, is a lineal de-
(No. 89) «On the Mysticism Attrib- scendant of the ancient D'Urberville
uted to the Early Fathers, which make family. Her far-off gentle blood shows
about a volume each. The fight for the itself in her passionate sensitive nature.
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
517
mere
ure.
By a mere accident she becomes the tram Shandy) reminds us, now of Cer-
prey of a young man of gross instincts, vantes, now of Rabelais, now of Swift;
returning to her home soiled and but it is sui generis nevertheless. Cole-
dismayed. Her child is born and dies. ridge praised especially Sterne's power of
«Her physical blight becomes her mental giving significance to the most evanes-
harvest;” she is lifted above the grop- cent minutiæ in thought, feeling, look,
ing mental state of the people about and gesture. The work has always been
her. This etherealization has fatal re- popular, perhaps never more so than to-
sults. As she was once the victim of day, when the development of realism in
man's vices, she is destined to become English fiction is receiving so much at-
the victim of his conventional virtues. tention.
At a farm far removed from the scene
of her sufferings, she meets Angel | Onephef
Cleopatra's Nights, by
Clare, a gentleman's son. Their mu-
Théophile Gautier. In this charm-
tual love ends in marriage. On their ing short story, published in 1867, in
wedding-day Tess tells Clare of her a collection of Nouvelles,' the author
past. From that hour she ceases to be shows the exhaustive study which he
for him «enskied and sainted,” becom- had made of Egypt and its ancient
ing a
soiled thing which had customs. He introduces Cleopatra to
drifted in its perilous beauty across his his readers as she is being rowed down
path. He leaves her; and her struggle the Nile to her summer palace. In
with her anguish of spirit, with her describing the cause of her ennui to
poverty, and her despair, has a fearful Charmian, Cleopatra graphically pictures
ending: «The President of the Immor- the belittling, crushing effect of the gi-
tals » had finished his sport with her. gantic monuments of her country. She
(Tess) is well-nigh primeval in its treat- bewails the fate of a Queen who can
ment. A novel created apparently by never know if she is loved for herself
inexorable forces of nature, it is joined alone, and longs for some strange advent-
by its strength and pitilessness to the
She has been followed down the
blind powers of the world. Yet it is Nile by Meiamoun, a young man who is
not without sunny spaces, revelations violently infatuated with the Queen, but
of warm nooks of earth hidden from whom she has
noticed. That
the blasts of the tempest.
night she is startled by an arrow which
enters her window bearing a roll of
Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne. papyrus on which is written, "I love
The Life and Opinions of Tristram you. ” She looks from the window and
Shandy, Gent. , is <a heterogeneous sort sees a man swimming across the Nile,
of whimsical humorous memoirs. ) The but her servants are unable to find him.
first volume appeared January ist, 1760, Soon after, Meiamoun dives down into
when Sterne was forty-six. Up to this the subterranean passage which conducts
time he had lived the life of an easy- the waters of the Nile to Cleopatra's
going fox-hunting churchman, utterly bath; and the next morning, as she is
obscure, but this, his first effort, so enjoying her bath, she finds him gazing
amused the public, that he
was per-
at her. She condemns him to death,
suaded to compose further in the same and then pardons him. He begs for
strain; and he published in all nine vol- death, and she yields, but tells him he
umes, the last in January, 1767. The shall first find his most extravagant
work is full of domestic comedy, «char- dream realized: he shall be the lover of
acters of nature,” “the creations of a Cleopatra. «I take thee from nothing-
fine fancy working in an ideal element, ness; I make thee the equal of a god,
and not mere copies or caricatures of and I replunge thee into nothingness. ”
individualities actually observed,” like “It was necessary to make of the life of
those of Dickens. Here live old Uncle Meiamoun a powerful elixir which he
Toby, Corporal Trim, Dr. Slop, and the could drain from a single cup. ” Then
Widow Wadman; and who does not en- follows the description of the feast. After
joy their garrulous gossip, and that of a night of magnificent splendor, a cup
Sterne himself in his frequent whimsical of poison is handed to him. Touched
digressions, so full of keen observation by his beauty and bravery, Cleopatra is
and gentle ridicule? Sterne had evi- about to order him not to drink, when
dently studied the humorists well: (Tris- the heralds announce the arrival of Mark
never
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SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
»
a
seem
Antony. He asks: «What means this
corpse upon the foor? ” “Oh! nothing,”
she answers; – “a poison I was trying,
in order to use it should Augustus make
me prisoner. Will it please you, my
dear, to sit by me and watch the
dancers ? »
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His
SAYINGS. By Joel Chandler Harris.
(1880. ) These quaint and humorous
folk-lore fables are told night after
night to a little boy by an old negro
who has nothing but pleasant memories
of the discipline of slavery, and who
has all the prejudices of caste and pride
of family that were the natural results
of the system.