His high qualities, though im-
inclusion
of strict Churchren it has lost,
Mr.
Mr.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
But many philosophers have
(Beotian) are from Francis's translation (1876) seem to be responsible for pair” been worse translated.
of Horace and Paley's edition of Æschylus's being mentioned in the first paragraph Certainly the task was worth doing,
* Seven against Thebes '; while the third of the article thermo-electric " rather for the value of the thought and for its
is valueless for lack of context, “ To curb than “couple," the term now in vogue, as anticipation of Nietzsche. Stirner, start-
thy spirit with a Theban chain. " Space in p. 14 of C. E. Foster's ‘Practical ing from similar premises, arrives by
would have been usefully economized Pyrometry'; while in the next page we similar methods at a different conclusion.
by a reference to "pinion,” where—to find the common term thermo-electric Both are agreed that God is the devil,
illustrate “the” used emphatically-the pyrometer,” omitted in the ‘N. E. D. ' might is right, and morality is the weapon
quotation for “ Theban "is given, namely, The interest attaching to the develop- of tyrants and the fetter of fools; but
Gray's reference to Pindar “the ment of meaning of the Greek Deodoyía is Stirner refuses to posit a tyrant or super-
Theban eagle” in his Progress of Poesy. ' displayed in an excellent note at the end man to resolve the “dissolute condition
The earliest instance cited of “ throw of the article“ theology,” which is un- of masterless men. ' Nietzsche must
off,” in the sense “cast off, put off ener- fortunately too long to quote and too surely have read his predecessor, and
getically (something put on or assumed, compact to abbreviate. The words certainly one possible parallel of phrasing
as a garment),” is from Dryden (1681); thud,” sb. and vb. , were, it appears, suggests itself : after certain ways of
though an index leads us to Milton originally Scotch and North dialects, thought have been labelled Negroid and
(1667), 'P. L. ,' ü. 362, “ garlands thick meaning primarily “a blast of wind,” Mongoloid quite in the manner of Nietzsche,
thrown off," which comprises a fine ex- to come with a blast or gust,” Douglas, Stirner asks, When will men at last
ample of the adverb "thick”; while, ' Æneis' (1513). For the meaning " dull become “truly Caucasians"? In the light
ib. 391,“ threw down Th’aspiring domina- heavy sound ‘Adam Bede' (1859) of the “good Europeans," this is interest-
tions,' seems to be a unique blend of furnishes the earliest literary quotation. ing. There are, of course, obvious differ-
literal and figurative significations worthy One of the very few words in th- derived ences between the later and the earlier
of note. To the combinations of “ thick from French-of which “ throne,” from writer. The one is explosive and aphor-
(adverb) we should have added “thick-Old French “trone,” is an example istic, the other consecutive. The one is
rammed ” (P. L. ,' vi. 485) to his “ thick- " thyrse" to wit, was apparently only a poet in whom thought sometimes takes
warbled:. . . thick-woven ”; and quotations used after the seventeenth century by fire from its own intensity, and the
for several other expressions, e. g. , "deep-botanists and Longfellow in lieu of the pamphlet becomes a hymn; the other is
throated” (P. L. ,' vi. 586," a flame. . . . commoner thyrsus. " This poet, O. W. strictly pedestrian, despite an occasional
From those deep-throated engines Holmes, and Mr. W. D. Howells are cited spark. So Nietzsche often writes as a
belch'd ”), as the combination is mentioned for the quaint term “thank-you-ma'am" = frenzied prophet; Stirner almost always
under “ throated,” and only Mrs. Brown- A hollow or ridge in a road, which causes as a bourgeois, irritated by a narrow life
ing's “hoarse deep-throated ages" quoted persons passing over it in a vehicle to and dull companions, cherishing a secret
under“ deep. "
bow the head involuntarily, as if in grudge against them, and at length rising
With regard to the verb “throb,” it is acknowledgment of a favour. ” Among up and crying out, “ All things are
not safe to say there is no cognate words derived from
proper
we nothing to me.
word in Teutonic or Romanic. ” Prof. note Thalian,' Thersitean, “ Thes- “ The divine is God's concern, the
Skeat's connexion of the word with Latin pian,' “Thrasonic,” and “Thyestean ” human, man’s ; my concern is solely what
trepidus may not be indisputable, but earliest quotation, Milton, “P. L. ,' x. is mine, unique as I am unique. But
is as far, or farther, from being disproved. 688).
everywhere our author sees his fellow-men
As to the sense relation to sounds mean- A further portion of S by Dr. Craigie is always“ possessed," under the tyranny of
ing“ turn," surely violent pulsation often announced for July 1st.
fixed idea ”—God, social duty, and
accompanies what is vulgarly described
the like. What we do for ourselves we
such turn. ” The explanation
are ashamed of. Then the winds of pas-
under “then” of the phrase “ now and
sion swell, and he begins to generalize.
then” makes the “
The Ego and his own. By Max Stirner. First, he finds that the ancients were pos-
every now and then”
of the 1763 quotation bewildering. The
Translated from the German by S. T. sessed by the idea of the material world.
solution of the difficulty under
Byington. With an Introduction by Now, when the frogs asked for a king,
J. L. Walker. (A. C. Fifield. )
that in this phrase it is a mistake for
Jupiter sent them a log, and they despised
ever,” might well have been referred to By a loose historical generalization, the it; so he sent them a stork, and they
or repeated. An excellent example of Romantics have been called the prophets were eaten. The God of the Christians
“thin” used figuratively, and “thing” of the Ego. Unless Romanticism runs
came to relieve men from the material
applied “to an attribute, quality, or from Aristotle's peyadófugos to Mr. H. G. world, and entering into the house, empty,
property of an actual being or entity,” Wells's 'Rediscovery of the Unique,' the but swept and garnished, proved indeed
occurs in Lamb’s ‘ Essay on the Old generalization may be dismissed as easy,
a sevenfold devil. But after many cen-
Comedy' - “ that thin thing (Lady vulgar, and therefore disgusting. ”
În turies certain good men arose, Liberals
Teazle's reputation). ”
the case of Max Stirner, whose chief as they were called (the name has survived
The admirable article on the sounds work was published before the revolution down to our own times), and attacked
indicated in English by th contains one of 1848, chronology gives it some support, this God, and one of their number who
statement which
to admit of but, in spite of numerous references to had a taste for poetry, as indeed many of
qualification. We read apropos of the contemporaries who no longer interest us,
them had, wrote a song of victory which
Middle English change of þ to 8 in the he shares the wonderful modernness of ended as follows :-
demonstrative group
,the, that,” and the other egoistic philosophers. A genera-
Thou art smitten, thou God, thou art smitten ;
their kindred, and in the pronouns of the tion ago ' Der Einzige und sein Eigentum
thy death is upon thee, O Lord,
second person singular, that “these con- was just old enough to be utterly forgotten; And the love-song of earth as thou diest resounds
stitute the only words in English with probably not a hundred people in England
initial (3). ” Yet, in view of the number / knew it by name. Lately the Anarchists Glory to Man in the highest 1 for Man is the
66
names
66
a
as
a
every,
seems
## p. 526 (#396) ############################################
526
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
con-
The capital M is the rift in the lute.
lishman's Home,' and the novels of Mr.
The Protean one has only assumed a TWO POETS OF TO-DAY. William Le Queux.
fresh disguise; we have cut off a hydra's
England has become “the stagnant
head, and the monster, not a whit per- That Mr. Doughty should have attained fen " where men have “ exchanged swords
turbed, puts out a couple more. “They the poetic renown which is undoubtedly his for ledgers. ” On such foundations this
are rid of the Evil One; evil is left," and in an age which is usually chary of any modern prophet builds his jeremiad de-
Humanity sits on the tyrant's throne, and but surface valuations inclines us to the
picting the horrors of an invasion by the
the ego is once more cheated of its heritage. consolation that English criticism still
Eastlanders,” the burning of homesteads,
Other writers have done all this before retains portions of its sturdiness and
the sacking of towns, the decimation of
and shown how the individual is domi- solidity. To arrive at Mr. Doughty's our countrymen, and a general catastrophe
nated by law, morality, and social life, essential merits as a poet is a feat similar only retrieved by the timely assistance of
but Stirner has an unexpected way of to winning the goal after an obstacle race. our colonists. Such is the epic of this
delivering us from our ghostly enemy; Superficially, he is one of the most un- Rodin of the muse, and on the theme he
or, rather, two ways, one ordinary, the attractive authors now writing. He seems
lavishes—more, squanders—the resources
other most interesting. The first is a
to take a kind of wanton pleasure in inver- of his statuesque mind and peculiar,
union of conscious egoists, which no doubt sion and circumlocution of all kinds. He almost exotic vocabulary.
has attracted the Anarchists. We natur- flings his sentences violently on to the With this “Atlantean load ” he stag-
ally think of a nation of shopkeepers, and page, indifferent, as it were, to the final gers on, a “ weary Titan," over arid and
so forth, but that is not Stirner's view.
order they may assume.
stony tracts of blank verse, and we
A union is to have all the advantages of His infelicities of expression are fre- struggle painfully after him. To stig-
a society without its disadvantages, for a quently distressing. He has a predilec- matize. The Clouds
matize. The Clouds' as a failure would be
society only arises from a dead union, tion for sheer ugliness of sound and abrupt to do its author an injustice. In itself
,
“sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. ' elliptical cacophonies, almost naive in laborious as it is, it possesses a certain
But running through all this there is their revolt against the unchanging laws harsh and bulky impressiveness ;
another and a contradictory strain. of beauty. His occasional recourse to sidered in perspective with his other
Perhaps he feared for his union. In onomatopoic measures, his contortion of works, it is a similar achievement to
any case he shifts his position, and phrase, are repellent to a disciplined ear. that of Wordsworth after 1830. We
having criticized the world from the He is prone to writing Johnsonese, arbi- think that the salient loss here is a
standpoint of a member of a union of trarily sliced up into blank verse. This quality of pungency and incisiveness
egoists, he tells us that he is the measure may appear a sufficiently formidable which was wont in former volumes to
of all things, “not an ego along with indictment, nor may the man who tricks out compel our admiration in spite of artistic
other egos, but the sole ego. ” He there- his verse with dusty rhetoric seem worthy deformities, and almost in spite of our-
fore cares for nothing except as it tends to of any but the scantiest respect. But the selves. Only in the spaciousness of some
his satisfaction. But with an honesty author of ' Adam Cast Forth,'' The Dawn of the allegorical and mythological group-
rare among solipsists, Stirner goes on to in Britain, and the prose masterpiece ings are his force and lustre retained un-
explain the cause of evil. Men think. Wanderings in Arabia' cannot be dis- tarnished. We quote the following as
But for that, all would be well. Imagina- missed in so summary a fashion. Mr. an instance of his tortuous and archaic
tion makes things seem possible, and a Doughty possesses to a singular degree style, and an earnest of what English
standard is formed. Really, everything the perfervidum ingenium that seems to poetry must owe to him. It is a dance
is the only thing it can be.
belong to a rugged and heroic antiquity of elves -
“As this rose is a true rose to begin with,
rather than. our
era. The sub-
this nightingale always a true nightingale, stance and structure of his poetry are And weaving
to and fro of tinkling shanks:
With lifting knee-bows fast those featly tread;
so I am not for the first time a true man instinct with the full-mouthed strenuous- Skipping with swift fetched sole-casts of light feet.
when I fulfil my calling. . . . but I am a true ness of the “ vates ” of pristine memory.
And many a beck, elves carol and tread round:
man from the start,"
Likening the compassed heavens wide starry choirs.
How, then, has he criticized the rest of of finished versifiers would be as incon-
The elegant refinements and subtleties Or else ; where Pipits flute blows merry note :
With pulse of nimble feet;
the world ? He is consistent and he is
critical, which leads to a demand for a
gruous to his elemental and granite-like Scorched sod those beat, they beat;
Tossing from smooth round napes, long bright
cast of thought as Paradise Lost' would elf looks.
thraldom of the ego, and a possibility of be, tinkered into the metrical amenities Whiles thereby standing fayfolk roundsong,
chant:
the opposite. He is indeed possessed,"
of the Augustans; so that the uncouth With goblin laughter, mingling oft their voice.
as other men are, but by the idea of the
and barbarous dissonance of Mr. Last, who, fay-maid, is deemed to have danced
ego. Speech, judgment, belief, demand
best;
it, and if we are to be conscious we cannot | Doughty's verse may be almost regarded And maze of wreathing arms, doth featly thread;
as a suitable medium for the vehemence fays dight with ouch of moonstone, glowing bright.
be rid of "
possession. ” We are driven and massive actuality of his thought.
back upon an instinctive and vegetable He has the defects of his qualities,
life. But “that you ought to become and both are too boisterously in evi- reservation that Mr. William Watson has
It would be rash to assert without
beasts is an exhortation which I certainly dence to be ignored.
cannot give you, as that would be again
fallen into the autumn of his poetic
a task, an ideal. ” Apparently we make The volume before us, unfortunately, inspiration. None the less, that reserva-
up our world on these terms and in this displays some manifestations of declining tion still lies stored, and it is with un-
religious fashion. There is no God, power. The prodigality of his invention measured 'regret that we read his latest
and Bradlaugh is his prophet," was once shows less originality in bursting through volume without that intellectual and
a current saying, and it expresses the into fresh layers of virgin soil, and the imaginative reaction which the high
difficulty fairly well. Even in Stirner blemishes of style are more accentuated. pomps of his verse were wont to evoke.
we occasionally see the fine repetition and His old Spartan fervour, his ferocious His lyre is much softened, even muffled,
the pyrotechnic utterance of the pro- energy as undiminished as before, too and those“ brave translunary things,
phetic mind. His temper is stoical rather often only reach self-realization by means the capture of which led many to think
than prophetic, it is true, but a Stoic of excrescences, diffuseness, and redund that the torch of the poetic inheritance
cannot escape the dilemma either. He ance of phrase. So far as the subject had been handed from Tennyson, Brown-
must think, and actually does, though he matter is concerned, he might be said to ing, and Swinburne to him, echo through
sees that it means being “blind to the have surfeited himself upon a diet of his poetry no more. As in Sable and
immediateness of things. " Then in a Morning Post leading articles, the ‘Eng- Purple,' his theme, roughly fashioned into
moment of revelation he cries : “ One
dramatic form, is concerned with the
must know how to put everything out of The Clouds. By Charles M. Doughty. realities of kingship - perishable if
one's mind, if only that one may be able (Duckworth & Co. )
misdirected into tyranny, durable only
to sleep. " But, though sleep is well, The Heralds of the Dawn. By William where the king's governance is sage, mild,
sleep is not life's crown.
Watson. (John Lane. )
and in communion with the welfare and
own
## p. 527 (#397) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
527
a
were
en-
Volmar, the for all the weakness of the last line - We put a very extreme case, to show
victorious captain of the king's armies, is the line “Thou wert more callous than the unsoundness of his principle, for
assassinated on the very threshold of his the lean-lipped sea,
” and “I am hurt we have no such respect as he has for
triumph by the man whose daughter he with flying splinters of the truth,” are of the votes of the ignorant majority of any
had maltreated. The simmering discon- exceptional potency. The standard of such nation. But in lesser matters the same
tent of the people, fomented by the im- resonance is not maintained. Mr. Wat- thing is true. He speaks of the Dis-
prisonment of their leader Brasidas, finds son's blank verse in this volume seems to establishment and Disendowment of the
explosive vent at the trial of the slayer, relapse from imaginative prowess into State Church as a measure of unmixed
and the king, yielding to the pressure of smoothness, aptness, and an uncalled-for good in allaying bad feelings and remov
events, abdicates in favour of his son, reticence. At times he is almost raffiné-
reticence. At times he is almost raffiné ing injustice. Probably it was on the
the representative of a more enlightened his metrical instinct of too stoical and whole a necessary measure, but not without
régime. Such, in skeleton, is the theme, complacent temper. The primum the gravest drawbacks, and much damage
slender enough in all conscience. Its mobile of imagination droops and appears to the whole country. It is only true in
symbolism is but barely adumbrated, to have passed its full-fledged condition. the sense of the very Low Church Pro-
and the significance of the conception, Perhaps this treatment by comparison, testant that the Disendowed Church
strangely isolated, is not confluent with if not invidious, is a trifle unfair to Mr. has gained in vitality. In breadth and
the broad and stately passage of the verse. Watson.
His high qualities, though im- inclusion of strict Churchren it has lost,
Mr. Watson's play lacks that unity of paired, are distinctly perceptible in his Socially it meant the loss of a class of clergy
design which bears the stamp of inevit- new play. His expression lacks the zest who were all, since the religious revival
ability in art; it is not even a tessellated of discovery ; but it retains its choiceness, of the early nineteenth century, resident
mosaic; it consists rather in a number of the grave ceremony of its harmonies. What gentlemen, living civilized lives, and
detached episodes, somewhat fortuitously full and measured utterance is conveyed spending their incomes among their
strung together. It is a painted description by these lines ! -
Catholic as well as their Protestant neigh
rather than a dramatic play.
bours. The former probably earned three-
How covetable that strictly bounded mind,
No shreds of twilight hanging loose upon it!
fourths of the wages paid by the Protestant
Throughout the perusal of the poem Mine own leans out into the Dark, and so rectors. This loss was never replaced by
we were deterred from an undiluted enjoy-
Hazards its very balance, in hope to catch
The footfall of events ere they arrive,
the appropriation of the fund to education
ment of it by a subconscious suspicion
And from the Dark wins nothing.
or to charity. The local poor all lost
that the blank verse was too plausible to
heavily by the disappearance of the Estab-
reach the richer seams of mental and emo-
lished clergy and their households. The
tional expression. Mr. Watson appears to
local squires also lost their best and most
us to have compromised not with the
world, but with his muse. He has clipped Gladstone and Ireland : the Irish Policy of cultivated neighbours, and
the wings of his verse, checked its feeling
Parliament from 1850 to 1894. By Lord couraged by this and by land legis-
lation to desert their homes and sell
for adventure, and kept it tethered, so to
Eversley. (Methuen & Co. )
speak, in the home pastures. One of his We have before us in this book a very
their places to common farmers. Then
trees were cut down, gardens and avenues
salient characteristics has been, and con candid and able statement, but the neglected, and the country allowed to fall
back a century in civilization. These
achievement in proportion, in the exquisite story is told from the standpoint of a very melancholy facts are not stated as
, ,
fusion of matter and form, has been such who often sees only one side of a question, charge against Liberal legislation in Ire-
place him beside År. Doughty in this and takes no account of practical diffi- land. Some great change was necessary.
a class were idle,
culties or losses which more than counter- The landlords
respect is to provide a rare fillip to the balance theoretical
gaing. His volume is thriftless, and extravagant, and had lost
piquancy of contrast. They are
Apollo and Hephæstus of the modern The moral to be drawn is that the best, were the creditors, who had no regard for
a commentary on the following thesis : control of their estates. The real owners
poetic Parnassus, which is many leagues in fact the only safe, guide for legislation for the sufferings of the
poor. But in the
nearer earth than the cosmogonies of
former ages. Mr. Watson's technique interests and wants, is to be found in the Gladstone undertook in a spirit of large
and craftsmanship can be of surpassing demands of its representatives. ” This justice and charity, it was impossible to
quality. Mr. Doughty is a leviathan in
the workshop of art. Mr. Watson is not
sentence expresses
confident belief distinguish between the honest, but op-
master of numerous stops and keys of in Parliamentary representation, and pressed poor and the idle, drunken,
blank - verse melody. He has the Mar-
assumes that it expresses the will of the worthless tenant who was in arrear owing
whole nation.
lowesque limitations of resource the
It is, moreover, very vague to his own vices, and not to the oppression
Marlowesque sonorousness and style of in the expression separate interests and
in the expression “separate interests and of his landlord. The majority of those
marshalling his lines into dignified bat- wants,” by which we suppose the author ultimately reinstated in their farms were
talions. His blank verse is a pageant, But it would be far truer if it meant struggle had
means“ separate from those of England. " idlers, while those who by a great
honestly paid their rents
scrupulously purged of tawdry and ex-
traneous elements. He is the trained divergent or conflicting interests and got no consideration except that of having
poet, and makes us feel his poetry as a
wants among the Irish people, and if their future rents reduced, and of this
disciplined rapture, the consummation of so, the demands of the majority of its unfairness they often complained very
the ordered, delicate manipulation of the Parliamentary representatives may be bitterly.
These are but a few of the difficulties
capacities of language. In The Heralds anything but safe, and far from just.
of the Dawn' we are apprehensive that The signal defect in the representation of which Lord Eversley, with his Radical
his method has overlapped, even sub-
Ireland was that for a long time it re- optimism, has ignored. He goes even
merged, his purely inspirational ebullience. presented mainly the Protestant and land- further when he tells us that the inter-
The result is division; the captain of holding minority: Now, on the contrary, fering with trial by jury, which has been
words has felled the poet. The fine, of the Catholic majority. Nor is it a case mistake, for the refusal of juries to
it expresses mainly the interests and wants so often practised in Ireland, was a great
puissant outburst of Brasidas,
where any sane statesman can afford to find verdicts would have compelled the
I do defy it
neglect the minority, which is most Government to remedy grievances a
To lay a hand upon me. With a signal
valuable to the country by its wealth, generation sooner than this was effected.
I could call forth a host as from the ground, its intelligence, and its high traditions. There may, of course, be great public cases
Who, if you dared to cast me in yon prison,
Would batter down its walls founded in blood,
But if the majority of its representatives in where a patriot is saved by a patriot jury
Its doors dabbled with blood, its towers that rise Parliament were to vote the exile of from the persecution of the Crown; but
Out of a fen and rank morass of blood,
Unpacified blood, pot to be quieted,
Protestants, Lord Eversley would appar- in Ireland, and in the common affairs
Not to be put to sleep in the earth at all,
ently think it a wise and safe thing to do. of life, juries brought up in opposition to
a
as
a
-
## p. 528 (#398) ############################################
528
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
English law would find a thousand false ifinite varieties of shades between Yes testant, and therefore a heretic whose
verdicts, and refuse to find true ones,
and No. He was able to make a reply such morals could not be sound. But the
without any further effect than the de- that no one could distinguish or disentangle English Nonconformist conscience flared
the facts. Some people [sic] called this
moralization of the people. No murderer casuistry or sophistry. I have heard high up at once, and Gladstone felt compelled
who even pretended that his crime was
agrarian or political would be convicted ;
authorities say that the art of casuistry ought to become its trumpeter. Then the
not to be neglected. Call it by what name
bishops met and followed suit. Here the
prosecutions to maintain lawful rights we may, the use of language in this way is sequence is interesting, and should have
would be balked, and a good part of the at times necessary in the House of Commons been told us. The author never tells us.
business at the country assizes would in the interest of the public or for the clearly what can be inferred from the facts,
consist in tampering with the jurors purpose of perplexing an unscrupulous [? ] even as he states them, that the Nationalist
beforehand. Lord Eversley, with his opponent. "
party drew a distinction between the
notions of English justice and fair play, We with difficulty refrain from writing a accidental murder of Lord F. Cavendish,
does not appreciate the profound differ- commentary on this delightful passage. which they deplored as a calamity, and that
ences which exist in the Irish public. But we shall cite from Lord Eversley's of Mr. Burke, concerning which their omin-
These differences are due, no doubt, to book an instance where it was obviously ous silence spoke volumes. The latter
special causes—in particular the long required. Chap. xviii. is entitled "The crime had even been recommended in
misgovernment by England. But there Kilmainham Negotiations, and in it is a one Irish paper shortly before the event.
are also influences of race and of religion detailed account of the various parleys held He speaks of Sir G. Trevelyan as the
which make it unsafe to argue that what between Gladstone, Forster, and Parnell very strongest of Chief Secretaries, and Sir
is safe and sound in one country is safe through the mediation of Capt. O'Shea. It M. Beach as among the ablest. The usual
and sound in the other. Nor do we for resulted in a change of policy by Gladstone, judgment in Ireland was that the former
one moment think that a stray visit to the resignation of Forster, and the release was a very sensitive gentleman of great
Lord Clanricarde's country, and an inquiry of Parnell. Yet in the next chapter charm, the second a most laborious official
which Mr. Shaw-Lefevre (as he then was) Lord Eversley quotes the words in which with an imperturbable temper.
made, helped him in any way to find out Gladstone announced Parnell's release : But a critic who has lived all through
the truth. The Radical M. P. visiting “ It is an act done without any negotia- the period in Ireland, and known almost
Ireland is surrounded by such a cloud of tion, promise, or engagement whatever. ” | all the men concerned, finds so much to
plausible deceivers that not one in fifty In anybody else such a statement would qualify and question in the details of the
succeeds in penetrating the mist and have been not only a downright lie, but book that no review could possibly
discovering the real facts. In this case also a piece of shameless effrontery, for the contain it. To such a critic the book is
we have excellent evidence that he did negotiations were known to many. But of the highest interest and value, for it
not find them out, so far as they justified had Gladstone been challenged, he would reminds him step by step of all the blunders
or explained the landlord's side. We
no doubt have begun defining negotiations and the very few successes of the English
cannot but regret that he did not accept in so many ways as to evade the censure management of Ireland. The further
the post of Chief Secretary when it was he justly deserved.
he justly deserved. The whole story observation, with which we will conclude,
offered him, for we are confident that, brings to our recollection the very differ is this : Could any one venture to write
if he had made a deeper study of ent judgment of Kinglake, which we a similar volume on the Tory policy during
Irish affairs, he would have found the commend to Lord Eversley's attention: the same period ?
solution not so simple as he now appears Gladstone, Gladstone! That man uses
to consider it. On the other hand, we his conscience not as a guide, but as an
think his severe strictures on Lord accomplice, and it holds the dark lantern
Salisbury's Irish policy largely justified. for him when he is going out to commit a
THREE COUNTIES.
Twenty years of coercion is no real states- burglary. "
man's resource, and the cynical disregard
THE volume ‘ Life in a Yorkshire Village'
Here and there Lord Eversley omits will be of great interest to men of the
of the Irish which Lord Salisbury dis- important facts or important sequences North Country. Carlton-in-Cleveland has
closed more than once, even in public, of events. Thus in giving a sketch of been selected as
showed that he was wholly unfit to deal Parnell's provenance, he absolutely ignores
a type, though there
with the Irish problem. "Lord Eversley his father, so leading the reader to suspect villages in the vicinity. We have no doubt
seems to be little to make it
surpass
other
evidently thinks no better of Mr. Balfour, that he was some objectionable person. that long before the Domesday record
but we cannot discuss living politicians We can supply the missing information, was written Carlton was a quiet cluster of
here.
and gladly do so. John Parnell was a dwellings. Perhaps there may have been
Turning to his personal estimate of most respected squire—the brains-carrier houses there even in the Roman time, and
Gladstone, we cannot but admire his of the county, to use an Irish phrase. He at a still earlier date the valley provided
unstinted delight in, and wonder at, was consulted by all the gentry regarding men with water and wood for fuel. But
the great Liberal leader. And no doubt their private affairs. He played cricket Robert de Brus is the first person of whom
every word he says of Gladstone's amazing for his county, and kept a ground in his Mr. Blakeborough takes notice. He died
personality, his vigour, his earnestness, place for many years. It was this pre- in 1141, and was buried in the Abbey of
his δεινότης, to use a peculiarly apt eminence which induced the relatives of a Gisburne.
Greek word, is very true and loyal, young lord in the county who would large possessions, became the property of
Gisburne. Afterwards Carlton, with other
and will touch a vibrating string in every run the risk of visiting the United States the Meinells. The author carries down
Liberal heart.
to insist on Parnell accompanying the the history of the place to the seven-
But his account of the psychological wealthy youth. Parnell was equal to teenth century, when, as in most other
idiosyncrasies of his hero, though per- the task : he brought his young lord home parts of England, the working-classes
fectly honest, is sometimes comical when safe, but was caught himself in the
he comes to defend them. Here is a wiles which the county dreaded, for he fathers had been in happier days.
were far less prosperous than their fore-
Times
passage :
married an American girl of violent mended, however, during the next cen-
While a supreme master of lucid expo-
anti-English opinions, which she trans-
mitted to her son.
sition, he was also an adept in the use of
There was no feeling
Life in a Yorkshire Village. By J. Fairfax
subtle distinctions, and of phrases, which stronger in both mother and son than Blakeborough. (Stockton-on-Tees, York-
tended to obscure rather than to throw light hatred of England.
shire Publishing Co. )
on the subject under discussion. There are Here is another instance. When the
Shropshire. By John Ernest Auden. “The
occasions when a Minister cannot give a
Parnell-O'Shea scandal became public the Little Guides. ” (Methuen & Co. )
direct answer to an inopportune question Irish Nationalists expressed their con- Rambles in Somerset. By G. W. and J. H.
known Ministers, and even Prime Ministers, tinued support of the leader, in disregard of Wade. (Same publishers. )
who, unable to say either Yes or No, would his private character. In this the Irish
A Somerset Sketch-Book. By H. Hay Wilson.
resort to lies. To Mr. Gladstone there were bishops acquiesced. For he was a Pro- (Dent & Sons. )
66
66
## p. 529 (#399) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
529
waxes
are
6
tury,” says Mr. Blakeborough, who goes term is, we believe, rightly used. As a walk or drive in any particular direc-
on to remark that the villagers were given efforts are now being made to insist that tion. At times this substantial book
to baiting bulls in the early part of the all such mounds are early Norman, it may
a little dull, as in the long-
eighteenth century. It can scarcely be be as well to give Mr. Auden's slightly drawn accounts of the histories of Bath
doubted that they enjoyed this exciting qualifying note -
and Bristol, which are scarcely in accord
diversion long before the date he mentions. The use of 'Saxon as a convenient
with the title of the book. Nor has
From the · Lay of Havelok the Dane,' descriptive epithet is in no way intended to the
the penultimate chapter on Exmoor,
to quote no other authority, it is clear exclude the possibility that some of the entitled 'The Haunt of the Red Deer,'
that bull-baiting was a favourite amuse-
mounds early Norman. Stockaded caught much of the spirit and romance
ment of medieval England. At Carlton mounds were a simple form of defence of that district; in fact, it is too
the diversion probably did not die out Shropshire was debatable ground between prosaic to please the true lover of that
till it was made illegal, which was, we
believe, as late as 1839. Even now the day, the weight of probability inclines to the be frankly acknowledged that the authors
the Saxon and the Welsh, even after Offa's enchanting region. Nevertheless, it must
bull ring may be seen.
view that in this county such earthworks have given us several attractive chap-
Mr. Blakeborough has done well to were mostly erected in pre-Norman times, ters, foremost
among which
stand
collect the folk-lore and traditional cus- when they would be much needed by the those of “The Island Valley of Avilion,'
toms of the parish;
we wish that early West Saxon and Mercian settlers. ”
Across the Mendips,' and 'Quantox-
others would work as hard as he has done. The index might have been better, being land. ' It may be remarked that the
He has ascertained that Carlton has no insufficient for those who desire to know spelling Quantocks on the map is
maypole now, though one was standing where to look for references to such much to be preferred. The authors ought
forty years ago. În North Yorkshire, subjects as screenwork, low-side windows, also to have known better than to give
Sinnington and Slingsby still have their and ancient glass, or for earthworks and the name Hurlstone_Point to the fine
maypoles, and we trust they may con- Roman pavements. The · Leicestershire headland of Porlock Bay, the insertion of
tinue to retain them.
and Rutland' and other members of this the letterl being a mere modern vulgarism,
We are told that as late as ten years series have all these and other important falsifying place - name history. The
ago corn was threshed with the flail by subjects duly inserted in the index, and photographic plates are beautifully repro-
the Carltonians. Though there are pro- emphasized by being printed in italics. duced and particularly well chosen.
bably one or two of the implements Surely the present volume should have Miss Wilson's 'Somerset Sketch-Book
left in the village, they are seldom used, followed the same plan.
is a modest-looking volume of quite a
yet it is pleasant to learn that on hill-side
To ramble in Somerset is a vast under different calibre. It is a series of charm-
farms a mile or two away the old fashion taking, if there is the slightest idea of ing country sketches, chiefly gathered in
still persists.
doing it on any thorough scale. The area the Mendip country, and full to the brim of
Shropshire is the largest of England's of this shire, embracing a great tract of real “Zummerset” village life. Though
inland counties, and has within its bounds diversified country, extending from the there is but little definite topographical
every variety of natural charm. To the Avon to the Exe, is almost sufficient to information, no other county could, one
student of home scenery an extensive provide rambles for a score of years. Much thinks, have produced the different cha-
knowledge of Shropshire is essential. of the central fenland may be destitute of racters and scenes in these twenty and
Nevertheless, not a few cultured English- any particular attraction, but almost odd descriptive tales and pictures of
men, to whom the Lake district, Devon- everywhere else the land is scored with genuine peasant life. The effect of read-
shire and Cornwall, Shakespeare's country, hills and valleys. The fair surroundings ing them one and all, and then reread-
the Peak of Derbyshire, the Yorkshire of Bath, the rocky ravines of the Men ing them, on a somewhat jaded elderly
and Northumbrian coast-line, or the dips, the timber - clad slopes of the critic who knew and loved the sweetness of
quieter joys of Surrey downs and wood. Blackdowns on the southern border, the Somerset, especially the confines of Ex-
lands are quite familiar, have to plead charming combes of the Quantocks, moor, in the days of his youth, was to fill
guilty to a comparative ignorance of and still further west the rolling wastes of him with a burning desire to revisit
Shropshire. Those who know this county Exmoor or the wide vale of Porlock the slumberous old villages wherein
either well or partially can scarcely fail -all these ought to prove full of fascina- such incidents occurred. "The Plough-
to welcome Mr. Auden's little book. We tion for lovers of nature in either its more ing Match,' The Sheep-Shearing,' and
might, perhaps, have had with advantage mellow or its wilder moods. Even in the The Rat-Catcher' are full of delightful
more information about the attractions less winsome fenlands there are the and sympathetic touches ; pathos is aptly
of scenery and mountains, and it is gleaming apple orchards of Glastonbury, blended with humour, and the whole
strange that only trifling incidental refer- the prodigal corn lands of Taunton Dean, sweetened by fragments of the soft rich
ence is made to the old forests of Shrop- and the mysterious mist - laden marshes Zummerset dear to the ears that
shire. Fully half of the county was of Sedgemoor. Here, too, in this know it. When the rat-catcher's favourite
subject to forest jurisdiction under the plain district, prevented from relapsing cripple child lay a-dying, the mother had
Normans, and it has been shown in the into a morass by an elaborately planned a visit from his half-sister, who was both
“Victoria County History of Salop,' system of drainage, there are infinite dairywoman and henwife at the rectory.
vol. i.
(Beotian) are from Francis's translation (1876) seem to be responsible for pair” been worse translated.
of Horace and Paley's edition of Æschylus's being mentioned in the first paragraph Certainly the task was worth doing,
* Seven against Thebes '; while the third of the article thermo-electric " rather for the value of the thought and for its
is valueless for lack of context, “ To curb than “couple," the term now in vogue, as anticipation of Nietzsche. Stirner, start-
thy spirit with a Theban chain. " Space in p. 14 of C. E. Foster's ‘Practical ing from similar premises, arrives by
would have been usefully economized Pyrometry'; while in the next page we similar methods at a different conclusion.
by a reference to "pinion,” where—to find the common term thermo-electric Both are agreed that God is the devil,
illustrate “the” used emphatically-the pyrometer,” omitted in the ‘N. E. D. ' might is right, and morality is the weapon
quotation for “ Theban "is given, namely, The interest attaching to the develop- of tyrants and the fetter of fools; but
Gray's reference to Pindar “the ment of meaning of the Greek Deodoyía is Stirner refuses to posit a tyrant or super-
Theban eagle” in his Progress of Poesy. ' displayed in an excellent note at the end man to resolve the “dissolute condition
The earliest instance cited of “ throw of the article“ theology,” which is un- of masterless men. ' Nietzsche must
off,” in the sense “cast off, put off ener- fortunately too long to quote and too surely have read his predecessor, and
getically (something put on or assumed, compact to abbreviate. The words certainly one possible parallel of phrasing
as a garment),” is from Dryden (1681); thud,” sb. and vb. , were, it appears, suggests itself : after certain ways of
though an index leads us to Milton originally Scotch and North dialects, thought have been labelled Negroid and
(1667), 'P. L. ,' ü. 362, “ garlands thick meaning primarily “a blast of wind,” Mongoloid quite in the manner of Nietzsche,
thrown off," which comprises a fine ex- to come with a blast or gust,” Douglas, Stirner asks, When will men at last
ample of the adverb "thick”; while, ' Æneis' (1513). For the meaning " dull become “truly Caucasians"? In the light
ib. 391,“ threw down Th’aspiring domina- heavy sound ‘Adam Bede' (1859) of the “good Europeans," this is interest-
tions,' seems to be a unique blend of furnishes the earliest literary quotation. ing. There are, of course, obvious differ-
literal and figurative significations worthy One of the very few words in th- derived ences between the later and the earlier
of note. To the combinations of “ thick from French-of which “ throne,” from writer. The one is explosive and aphor-
(adverb) we should have added “thick-Old French “trone,” is an example istic, the other consecutive. The one is
rammed ” (P. L. ,' vi. 485) to his “ thick- " thyrse" to wit, was apparently only a poet in whom thought sometimes takes
warbled:. . . thick-woven ”; and quotations used after the seventeenth century by fire from its own intensity, and the
for several other expressions, e. g. , "deep-botanists and Longfellow in lieu of the pamphlet becomes a hymn; the other is
throated” (P. L. ,' vi. 586," a flame. . . . commoner thyrsus. " This poet, O. W. strictly pedestrian, despite an occasional
From those deep-throated engines Holmes, and Mr. W. D. Howells are cited spark. So Nietzsche often writes as a
belch'd ”), as the combination is mentioned for the quaint term “thank-you-ma'am" = frenzied prophet; Stirner almost always
under “ throated,” and only Mrs. Brown- A hollow or ridge in a road, which causes as a bourgeois, irritated by a narrow life
ing's “hoarse deep-throated ages" quoted persons passing over it in a vehicle to and dull companions, cherishing a secret
under“ deep. "
bow the head involuntarily, as if in grudge against them, and at length rising
With regard to the verb “throb,” it is acknowledgment of a favour. ” Among up and crying out, “ All things are
not safe to say there is no cognate words derived from
proper
we nothing to me.
word in Teutonic or Romanic. ” Prof. note Thalian,' Thersitean, “ Thes- “ The divine is God's concern, the
Skeat's connexion of the word with Latin pian,' “Thrasonic,” and “Thyestean ” human, man’s ; my concern is solely what
trepidus may not be indisputable, but earliest quotation, Milton, “P. L. ,' x. is mine, unique as I am unique. But
is as far, or farther, from being disproved. 688).
everywhere our author sees his fellow-men
As to the sense relation to sounds mean- A further portion of S by Dr. Craigie is always“ possessed," under the tyranny of
ing“ turn," surely violent pulsation often announced for July 1st.
fixed idea ”—God, social duty, and
accompanies what is vulgarly described
the like. What we do for ourselves we
such turn. ” The explanation
are ashamed of. Then the winds of pas-
under “then” of the phrase “ now and
sion swell, and he begins to generalize.
then” makes the “
The Ego and his own. By Max Stirner. First, he finds that the ancients were pos-
every now and then”
of the 1763 quotation bewildering. The
Translated from the German by S. T. sessed by the idea of the material world.
solution of the difficulty under
Byington. With an Introduction by Now, when the frogs asked for a king,
J. L. Walker. (A. C. Fifield. )
that in this phrase it is a mistake for
Jupiter sent them a log, and they despised
ever,” might well have been referred to By a loose historical generalization, the it; so he sent them a stork, and they
or repeated. An excellent example of Romantics have been called the prophets were eaten. The God of the Christians
“thin” used figuratively, and “thing” of the Ego. Unless Romanticism runs
came to relieve men from the material
applied “to an attribute, quality, or from Aristotle's peyadófugos to Mr. H. G. world, and entering into the house, empty,
property of an actual being or entity,” Wells's 'Rediscovery of the Unique,' the but swept and garnished, proved indeed
occurs in Lamb’s ‘ Essay on the Old generalization may be dismissed as easy,
a sevenfold devil. But after many cen-
Comedy' - “ that thin thing (Lady vulgar, and therefore disgusting. ”
În turies certain good men arose, Liberals
Teazle's reputation). ”
the case of Max Stirner, whose chief as they were called (the name has survived
The admirable article on the sounds work was published before the revolution down to our own times), and attacked
indicated in English by th contains one of 1848, chronology gives it some support, this God, and one of their number who
statement which
to admit of but, in spite of numerous references to had a taste for poetry, as indeed many of
qualification. We read apropos of the contemporaries who no longer interest us,
them had, wrote a song of victory which
Middle English change of þ to 8 in the he shares the wonderful modernness of ended as follows :-
demonstrative group
,the, that,” and the other egoistic philosophers. A genera-
Thou art smitten, thou God, thou art smitten ;
their kindred, and in the pronouns of the tion ago ' Der Einzige und sein Eigentum
thy death is upon thee, O Lord,
second person singular, that “these con- was just old enough to be utterly forgotten; And the love-song of earth as thou diest resounds
stitute the only words in English with probably not a hundred people in England
initial (3). ” Yet, in view of the number / knew it by name. Lately the Anarchists Glory to Man in the highest 1 for Man is the
66
names
66
a
as
a
every,
seems
## p. 526 (#396) ############################################
526
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
con-
The capital M is the rift in the lute.
lishman's Home,' and the novels of Mr.
The Protean one has only assumed a TWO POETS OF TO-DAY. William Le Queux.
fresh disguise; we have cut off a hydra's
England has become “the stagnant
head, and the monster, not a whit per- That Mr. Doughty should have attained fen " where men have “ exchanged swords
turbed, puts out a couple more. “They the poetic renown which is undoubtedly his for ledgers. ” On such foundations this
are rid of the Evil One; evil is left," and in an age which is usually chary of any modern prophet builds his jeremiad de-
Humanity sits on the tyrant's throne, and but surface valuations inclines us to the
picting the horrors of an invasion by the
the ego is once more cheated of its heritage. consolation that English criticism still
Eastlanders,” the burning of homesteads,
Other writers have done all this before retains portions of its sturdiness and
the sacking of towns, the decimation of
and shown how the individual is domi- solidity. To arrive at Mr. Doughty's our countrymen, and a general catastrophe
nated by law, morality, and social life, essential merits as a poet is a feat similar only retrieved by the timely assistance of
but Stirner has an unexpected way of to winning the goal after an obstacle race. our colonists. Such is the epic of this
delivering us from our ghostly enemy; Superficially, he is one of the most un- Rodin of the muse, and on the theme he
or, rather, two ways, one ordinary, the attractive authors now writing. He seems
lavishes—more, squanders—the resources
other most interesting. The first is a
to take a kind of wanton pleasure in inver- of his statuesque mind and peculiar,
union of conscious egoists, which no doubt sion and circumlocution of all kinds. He almost exotic vocabulary.
has attracted the Anarchists. We natur- flings his sentences violently on to the With this “Atlantean load ” he stag-
ally think of a nation of shopkeepers, and page, indifferent, as it were, to the final gers on, a “ weary Titan," over arid and
so forth, but that is not Stirner's view.
order they may assume.
stony tracts of blank verse, and we
A union is to have all the advantages of His infelicities of expression are fre- struggle painfully after him. To stig-
a society without its disadvantages, for a quently distressing. He has a predilec- matize. The Clouds
matize. The Clouds' as a failure would be
society only arises from a dead union, tion for sheer ugliness of sound and abrupt to do its author an injustice. In itself
,
“sitting crowned upon the grave thereof. ' elliptical cacophonies, almost naive in laborious as it is, it possesses a certain
But running through all this there is their revolt against the unchanging laws harsh and bulky impressiveness ;
another and a contradictory strain. of beauty. His occasional recourse to sidered in perspective with his other
Perhaps he feared for his union. In onomatopoic measures, his contortion of works, it is a similar achievement to
any case he shifts his position, and phrase, are repellent to a disciplined ear. that of Wordsworth after 1830. We
having criticized the world from the He is prone to writing Johnsonese, arbi- think that the salient loss here is a
standpoint of a member of a union of trarily sliced up into blank verse. This quality of pungency and incisiveness
egoists, he tells us that he is the measure may appear a sufficiently formidable which was wont in former volumes to
of all things, “not an ego along with indictment, nor may the man who tricks out compel our admiration in spite of artistic
other egos, but the sole ego. ” He there- his verse with dusty rhetoric seem worthy deformities, and almost in spite of our-
fore cares for nothing except as it tends to of any but the scantiest respect. But the selves. Only in the spaciousness of some
his satisfaction. But with an honesty author of ' Adam Cast Forth,'' The Dawn of the allegorical and mythological group-
rare among solipsists, Stirner goes on to in Britain, and the prose masterpiece ings are his force and lustre retained un-
explain the cause of evil. Men think. Wanderings in Arabia' cannot be dis- tarnished. We quote the following as
But for that, all would be well. Imagina- missed in so summary a fashion. Mr. an instance of his tortuous and archaic
tion makes things seem possible, and a Doughty possesses to a singular degree style, and an earnest of what English
standard is formed. Really, everything the perfervidum ingenium that seems to poetry must owe to him. It is a dance
is the only thing it can be.
belong to a rugged and heroic antiquity of elves -
“As this rose is a true rose to begin with,
rather than. our
era. The sub-
this nightingale always a true nightingale, stance and structure of his poetry are And weaving
to and fro of tinkling shanks:
With lifting knee-bows fast those featly tread;
so I am not for the first time a true man instinct with the full-mouthed strenuous- Skipping with swift fetched sole-casts of light feet.
when I fulfil my calling. . . . but I am a true ness of the “ vates ” of pristine memory.
And many a beck, elves carol and tread round:
man from the start,"
Likening the compassed heavens wide starry choirs.
How, then, has he criticized the rest of of finished versifiers would be as incon-
The elegant refinements and subtleties Or else ; where Pipits flute blows merry note :
With pulse of nimble feet;
the world ? He is consistent and he is
critical, which leads to a demand for a
gruous to his elemental and granite-like Scorched sod those beat, they beat;
Tossing from smooth round napes, long bright
cast of thought as Paradise Lost' would elf looks.
thraldom of the ego, and a possibility of be, tinkered into the metrical amenities Whiles thereby standing fayfolk roundsong,
chant:
the opposite. He is indeed possessed,"
of the Augustans; so that the uncouth With goblin laughter, mingling oft their voice.
as other men are, but by the idea of the
and barbarous dissonance of Mr. Last, who, fay-maid, is deemed to have danced
ego. Speech, judgment, belief, demand
best;
it, and if we are to be conscious we cannot | Doughty's verse may be almost regarded And maze of wreathing arms, doth featly thread;
as a suitable medium for the vehemence fays dight with ouch of moonstone, glowing bright.
be rid of "
possession. ” We are driven and massive actuality of his thought.
back upon an instinctive and vegetable He has the defects of his qualities,
life. But “that you ought to become and both are too boisterously in evi- reservation that Mr. William Watson has
It would be rash to assert without
beasts is an exhortation which I certainly dence to be ignored.
cannot give you, as that would be again
fallen into the autumn of his poetic
a task, an ideal. ” Apparently we make The volume before us, unfortunately, inspiration. None the less, that reserva-
up our world on these terms and in this displays some manifestations of declining tion still lies stored, and it is with un-
religious fashion. There is no God, power. The prodigality of his invention measured 'regret that we read his latest
and Bradlaugh is his prophet," was once shows less originality in bursting through volume without that intellectual and
a current saying, and it expresses the into fresh layers of virgin soil, and the imaginative reaction which the high
difficulty fairly well. Even in Stirner blemishes of style are more accentuated. pomps of his verse were wont to evoke.
we occasionally see the fine repetition and His old Spartan fervour, his ferocious His lyre is much softened, even muffled,
the pyrotechnic utterance of the pro- energy as undiminished as before, too and those“ brave translunary things,
phetic mind. His temper is stoical rather often only reach self-realization by means the capture of which led many to think
than prophetic, it is true, but a Stoic of excrescences, diffuseness, and redund that the torch of the poetic inheritance
cannot escape the dilemma either. He ance of phrase. So far as the subject had been handed from Tennyson, Brown-
must think, and actually does, though he matter is concerned, he might be said to ing, and Swinburne to him, echo through
sees that it means being “blind to the have surfeited himself upon a diet of his poetry no more. As in Sable and
immediateness of things. " Then in a Morning Post leading articles, the ‘Eng- Purple,' his theme, roughly fashioned into
moment of revelation he cries : “ One
dramatic form, is concerned with the
must know how to put everything out of The Clouds. By Charles M. Doughty. realities of kingship - perishable if
one's mind, if only that one may be able (Duckworth & Co. )
misdirected into tyranny, durable only
to sleep. " But, though sleep is well, The Heralds of the Dawn. By William where the king's governance is sage, mild,
sleep is not life's crown.
Watson. (John Lane. )
and in communion with the welfare and
own
## p. 527 (#397) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
527
a
were
en-
Volmar, the for all the weakness of the last line - We put a very extreme case, to show
victorious captain of the king's armies, is the line “Thou wert more callous than the unsoundness of his principle, for
assassinated on the very threshold of his the lean-lipped sea,
” and “I am hurt we have no such respect as he has for
triumph by the man whose daughter he with flying splinters of the truth,” are of the votes of the ignorant majority of any
had maltreated. The simmering discon- exceptional potency. The standard of such nation. But in lesser matters the same
tent of the people, fomented by the im- resonance is not maintained. Mr. Wat- thing is true. He speaks of the Dis-
prisonment of their leader Brasidas, finds son's blank verse in this volume seems to establishment and Disendowment of the
explosive vent at the trial of the slayer, relapse from imaginative prowess into State Church as a measure of unmixed
and the king, yielding to the pressure of smoothness, aptness, and an uncalled-for good in allaying bad feelings and remov
events, abdicates in favour of his son, reticence. At times he is almost raffiné-
reticence. At times he is almost raffiné ing injustice. Probably it was on the
the representative of a more enlightened his metrical instinct of too stoical and whole a necessary measure, but not without
régime. Such, in skeleton, is the theme, complacent temper. The primum the gravest drawbacks, and much damage
slender enough in all conscience. Its mobile of imagination droops and appears to the whole country. It is only true in
symbolism is but barely adumbrated, to have passed its full-fledged condition. the sense of the very Low Church Pro-
and the significance of the conception, Perhaps this treatment by comparison, testant that the Disendowed Church
strangely isolated, is not confluent with if not invidious, is a trifle unfair to Mr. has gained in vitality. In breadth and
the broad and stately passage of the verse. Watson.
His high qualities, though im- inclusion of strict Churchren it has lost,
Mr. Watson's play lacks that unity of paired, are distinctly perceptible in his Socially it meant the loss of a class of clergy
design which bears the stamp of inevit- new play. His expression lacks the zest who were all, since the religious revival
ability in art; it is not even a tessellated of discovery ; but it retains its choiceness, of the early nineteenth century, resident
mosaic; it consists rather in a number of the grave ceremony of its harmonies. What gentlemen, living civilized lives, and
detached episodes, somewhat fortuitously full and measured utterance is conveyed spending their incomes among their
strung together. It is a painted description by these lines ! -
Catholic as well as their Protestant neigh
rather than a dramatic play.
bours. The former probably earned three-
How covetable that strictly bounded mind,
No shreds of twilight hanging loose upon it!
fourths of the wages paid by the Protestant
Throughout the perusal of the poem Mine own leans out into the Dark, and so rectors. This loss was never replaced by
we were deterred from an undiluted enjoy-
Hazards its very balance, in hope to catch
The footfall of events ere they arrive,
the appropriation of the fund to education
ment of it by a subconscious suspicion
And from the Dark wins nothing.
or to charity. The local poor all lost
that the blank verse was too plausible to
heavily by the disappearance of the Estab-
reach the richer seams of mental and emo-
lished clergy and their households. The
tional expression. Mr. Watson appears to
local squires also lost their best and most
us to have compromised not with the
world, but with his muse. He has clipped Gladstone and Ireland : the Irish Policy of cultivated neighbours, and
the wings of his verse, checked its feeling
Parliament from 1850 to 1894. By Lord couraged by this and by land legis-
lation to desert their homes and sell
for adventure, and kept it tethered, so to
Eversley. (Methuen & Co. )
speak, in the home pastures. One of his We have before us in this book a very
their places to common farmers. Then
trees were cut down, gardens and avenues
salient characteristics has been, and con candid and able statement, but the neglected, and the country allowed to fall
back a century in civilization. These
achievement in proportion, in the exquisite story is told from the standpoint of a very melancholy facts are not stated as
, ,
fusion of matter and form, has been such who often sees only one side of a question, charge against Liberal legislation in Ire-
place him beside År. Doughty in this and takes no account of practical diffi- land. Some great change was necessary.
a class were idle,
culties or losses which more than counter- The landlords
respect is to provide a rare fillip to the balance theoretical
gaing. His volume is thriftless, and extravagant, and had lost
piquancy of contrast. They are
Apollo and Hephæstus of the modern The moral to be drawn is that the best, were the creditors, who had no regard for
a commentary on the following thesis : control of their estates. The real owners
poetic Parnassus, which is many leagues in fact the only safe, guide for legislation for the sufferings of the
poor. But in the
nearer earth than the cosmogonies of
former ages. Mr. Watson's technique interests and wants, is to be found in the Gladstone undertook in a spirit of large
and craftsmanship can be of surpassing demands of its representatives. ” This justice and charity, it was impossible to
quality. Mr. Doughty is a leviathan in
the workshop of art. Mr. Watson is not
sentence expresses
confident belief distinguish between the honest, but op-
master of numerous stops and keys of in Parliamentary representation, and pressed poor and the idle, drunken,
blank - verse melody. He has the Mar-
assumes that it expresses the will of the worthless tenant who was in arrear owing
whole nation.
lowesque limitations of resource the
It is, moreover, very vague to his own vices, and not to the oppression
Marlowesque sonorousness and style of in the expression separate interests and
in the expression “separate interests and of his landlord. The majority of those
marshalling his lines into dignified bat- wants,” by which we suppose the author ultimately reinstated in their farms were
talions. His blank verse is a pageant, But it would be far truer if it meant struggle had
means“ separate from those of England. " idlers, while those who by a great
honestly paid their rents
scrupulously purged of tawdry and ex-
traneous elements. He is the trained divergent or conflicting interests and got no consideration except that of having
poet, and makes us feel his poetry as a
wants among the Irish people, and if their future rents reduced, and of this
disciplined rapture, the consummation of so, the demands of the majority of its unfairness they often complained very
the ordered, delicate manipulation of the Parliamentary representatives may be bitterly.
These are but a few of the difficulties
capacities of language. In The Heralds anything but safe, and far from just.
of the Dawn' we are apprehensive that The signal defect in the representation of which Lord Eversley, with his Radical
his method has overlapped, even sub-
Ireland was that for a long time it re- optimism, has ignored. He goes even
merged, his purely inspirational ebullience. presented mainly the Protestant and land- further when he tells us that the inter-
The result is division; the captain of holding minority: Now, on the contrary, fering with trial by jury, which has been
words has felled the poet. The fine, of the Catholic majority. Nor is it a case mistake, for the refusal of juries to
it expresses mainly the interests and wants so often practised in Ireland, was a great
puissant outburst of Brasidas,
where any sane statesman can afford to find verdicts would have compelled the
I do defy it
neglect the minority, which is most Government to remedy grievances a
To lay a hand upon me. With a signal
valuable to the country by its wealth, generation sooner than this was effected.
I could call forth a host as from the ground, its intelligence, and its high traditions. There may, of course, be great public cases
Who, if you dared to cast me in yon prison,
Would batter down its walls founded in blood,
But if the majority of its representatives in where a patriot is saved by a patriot jury
Its doors dabbled with blood, its towers that rise Parliament were to vote the exile of from the persecution of the Crown; but
Out of a fen and rank morass of blood,
Unpacified blood, pot to be quieted,
Protestants, Lord Eversley would appar- in Ireland, and in the common affairs
Not to be put to sleep in the earth at all,
ently think it a wise and safe thing to do. of life, juries brought up in opposition to
a
as
a
-
## p. 528 (#398) ############################################
528
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
English law would find a thousand false ifinite varieties of shades between Yes testant, and therefore a heretic whose
verdicts, and refuse to find true ones,
and No. He was able to make a reply such morals could not be sound. But the
without any further effect than the de- that no one could distinguish or disentangle English Nonconformist conscience flared
the facts. Some people [sic] called this
moralization of the people. No murderer casuistry or sophistry. I have heard high up at once, and Gladstone felt compelled
who even pretended that his crime was
agrarian or political would be convicted ;
authorities say that the art of casuistry ought to become its trumpeter. Then the
not to be neglected. Call it by what name
bishops met and followed suit. Here the
prosecutions to maintain lawful rights we may, the use of language in this way is sequence is interesting, and should have
would be balked, and a good part of the at times necessary in the House of Commons been told us. The author never tells us.
business at the country assizes would in the interest of the public or for the clearly what can be inferred from the facts,
consist in tampering with the jurors purpose of perplexing an unscrupulous [? ] even as he states them, that the Nationalist
beforehand. Lord Eversley, with his opponent. "
party drew a distinction between the
notions of English justice and fair play, We with difficulty refrain from writing a accidental murder of Lord F. Cavendish,
does not appreciate the profound differ- commentary on this delightful passage. which they deplored as a calamity, and that
ences which exist in the Irish public. But we shall cite from Lord Eversley's of Mr. Burke, concerning which their omin-
These differences are due, no doubt, to book an instance where it was obviously ous silence spoke volumes. The latter
special causes—in particular the long required. Chap. xviii. is entitled "The crime had even been recommended in
misgovernment by England. But there Kilmainham Negotiations, and in it is a one Irish paper shortly before the event.
are also influences of race and of religion detailed account of the various parleys held He speaks of Sir G. Trevelyan as the
which make it unsafe to argue that what between Gladstone, Forster, and Parnell very strongest of Chief Secretaries, and Sir
is safe and sound in one country is safe through the mediation of Capt. O'Shea. It M. Beach as among the ablest. The usual
and sound in the other. Nor do we for resulted in a change of policy by Gladstone, judgment in Ireland was that the former
one moment think that a stray visit to the resignation of Forster, and the release was a very sensitive gentleman of great
Lord Clanricarde's country, and an inquiry of Parnell. Yet in the next chapter charm, the second a most laborious official
which Mr. Shaw-Lefevre (as he then was) Lord Eversley quotes the words in which with an imperturbable temper.
made, helped him in any way to find out Gladstone announced Parnell's release : But a critic who has lived all through
the truth. The Radical M. P. visiting “ It is an act done without any negotia- the period in Ireland, and known almost
Ireland is surrounded by such a cloud of tion, promise, or engagement whatever. ” | all the men concerned, finds so much to
plausible deceivers that not one in fifty In anybody else such a statement would qualify and question in the details of the
succeeds in penetrating the mist and have been not only a downright lie, but book that no review could possibly
discovering the real facts. In this case also a piece of shameless effrontery, for the contain it. To such a critic the book is
we have excellent evidence that he did negotiations were known to many. But of the highest interest and value, for it
not find them out, so far as they justified had Gladstone been challenged, he would reminds him step by step of all the blunders
or explained the landlord's side. We
no doubt have begun defining negotiations and the very few successes of the English
cannot but regret that he did not accept in so many ways as to evade the censure management of Ireland. The further
the post of Chief Secretary when it was he justly deserved.
he justly deserved. The whole story observation, with which we will conclude,
offered him, for we are confident that, brings to our recollection the very differ is this : Could any one venture to write
if he had made a deeper study of ent judgment of Kinglake, which we a similar volume on the Tory policy during
Irish affairs, he would have found the commend to Lord Eversley's attention: the same period ?
solution not so simple as he now appears Gladstone, Gladstone! That man uses
to consider it. On the other hand, we his conscience not as a guide, but as an
think his severe strictures on Lord accomplice, and it holds the dark lantern
Salisbury's Irish policy largely justified. for him when he is going out to commit a
THREE COUNTIES.
Twenty years of coercion is no real states- burglary. "
man's resource, and the cynical disregard
THE volume ‘ Life in a Yorkshire Village'
Here and there Lord Eversley omits will be of great interest to men of the
of the Irish which Lord Salisbury dis- important facts or important sequences North Country. Carlton-in-Cleveland has
closed more than once, even in public, of events. Thus in giving a sketch of been selected as
showed that he was wholly unfit to deal Parnell's provenance, he absolutely ignores
a type, though there
with the Irish problem. "Lord Eversley his father, so leading the reader to suspect villages in the vicinity. We have no doubt
seems to be little to make it
surpass
other
evidently thinks no better of Mr. Balfour, that he was some objectionable person. that long before the Domesday record
but we cannot discuss living politicians We can supply the missing information, was written Carlton was a quiet cluster of
here.
and gladly do so. John Parnell was a dwellings. Perhaps there may have been
Turning to his personal estimate of most respected squire—the brains-carrier houses there even in the Roman time, and
Gladstone, we cannot but admire his of the county, to use an Irish phrase. He at a still earlier date the valley provided
unstinted delight in, and wonder at, was consulted by all the gentry regarding men with water and wood for fuel. But
the great Liberal leader. And no doubt their private affairs. He played cricket Robert de Brus is the first person of whom
every word he says of Gladstone's amazing for his county, and kept a ground in his Mr. Blakeborough takes notice. He died
personality, his vigour, his earnestness, place for many years. It was this pre- in 1141, and was buried in the Abbey of
his δεινότης, to use a peculiarly apt eminence which induced the relatives of a Gisburne.
Greek word, is very true and loyal, young lord in the county who would large possessions, became the property of
Gisburne. Afterwards Carlton, with other
and will touch a vibrating string in every run the risk of visiting the United States the Meinells. The author carries down
Liberal heart.
to insist on Parnell accompanying the the history of the place to the seven-
But his account of the psychological wealthy youth. Parnell was equal to teenth century, when, as in most other
idiosyncrasies of his hero, though per- the task : he brought his young lord home parts of England, the working-classes
fectly honest, is sometimes comical when safe, but was caught himself in the
he comes to defend them. Here is a wiles which the county dreaded, for he fathers had been in happier days.
were far less prosperous than their fore-
Times
passage :
married an American girl of violent mended, however, during the next cen-
While a supreme master of lucid expo-
anti-English opinions, which she trans-
mitted to her son.
sition, he was also an adept in the use of
There was no feeling
Life in a Yorkshire Village. By J. Fairfax
subtle distinctions, and of phrases, which stronger in both mother and son than Blakeborough. (Stockton-on-Tees, York-
tended to obscure rather than to throw light hatred of England.
shire Publishing Co. )
on the subject under discussion. There are Here is another instance. When the
Shropshire. By John Ernest Auden. “The
occasions when a Minister cannot give a
Parnell-O'Shea scandal became public the Little Guides. ” (Methuen & Co. )
direct answer to an inopportune question Irish Nationalists expressed their con- Rambles in Somerset. By G. W. and J. H.
known Ministers, and even Prime Ministers, tinued support of the leader, in disregard of Wade. (Same publishers. )
who, unable to say either Yes or No, would his private character. In this the Irish
A Somerset Sketch-Book. By H. Hay Wilson.
resort to lies. To Mr. Gladstone there were bishops acquiesced. For he was a Pro- (Dent & Sons. )
66
66
## p. 529 (#399) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
529
waxes
are
6
tury,” says Mr. Blakeborough, who goes term is, we believe, rightly used. As a walk or drive in any particular direc-
on to remark that the villagers were given efforts are now being made to insist that tion. At times this substantial book
to baiting bulls in the early part of the all such mounds are early Norman, it may
a little dull, as in the long-
eighteenth century. It can scarcely be be as well to give Mr. Auden's slightly drawn accounts of the histories of Bath
doubted that they enjoyed this exciting qualifying note -
and Bristol, which are scarcely in accord
diversion long before the date he mentions. The use of 'Saxon as a convenient
with the title of the book. Nor has
From the · Lay of Havelok the Dane,' descriptive epithet is in no way intended to the
the penultimate chapter on Exmoor,
to quote no other authority, it is clear exclude the possibility that some of the entitled 'The Haunt of the Red Deer,'
that bull-baiting was a favourite amuse-
mounds early Norman. Stockaded caught much of the spirit and romance
ment of medieval England. At Carlton mounds were a simple form of defence of that district; in fact, it is too
the diversion probably did not die out Shropshire was debatable ground between prosaic to please the true lover of that
till it was made illegal, which was, we
believe, as late as 1839. Even now the day, the weight of probability inclines to the be frankly acknowledged that the authors
the Saxon and the Welsh, even after Offa's enchanting region. Nevertheless, it must
bull ring may be seen.
view that in this county such earthworks have given us several attractive chap-
Mr. Blakeborough has done well to were mostly erected in pre-Norman times, ters, foremost
among which
stand
collect the folk-lore and traditional cus- when they would be much needed by the those of “The Island Valley of Avilion,'
toms of the parish;
we wish that early West Saxon and Mercian settlers. ”
Across the Mendips,' and 'Quantox-
others would work as hard as he has done. The index might have been better, being land. ' It may be remarked that the
He has ascertained that Carlton has no insufficient for those who desire to know spelling Quantocks on the map is
maypole now, though one was standing where to look for references to such much to be preferred. The authors ought
forty years ago. În North Yorkshire, subjects as screenwork, low-side windows, also to have known better than to give
Sinnington and Slingsby still have their and ancient glass, or for earthworks and the name Hurlstone_Point to the fine
maypoles, and we trust they may con- Roman pavements. The · Leicestershire headland of Porlock Bay, the insertion of
tinue to retain them.
and Rutland' and other members of this the letterl being a mere modern vulgarism,
We are told that as late as ten years series have all these and other important falsifying place - name history. The
ago corn was threshed with the flail by subjects duly inserted in the index, and photographic plates are beautifully repro-
the Carltonians. Though there are pro- emphasized by being printed in italics. duced and particularly well chosen.
bably one or two of the implements Surely the present volume should have Miss Wilson's 'Somerset Sketch-Book
left in the village, they are seldom used, followed the same plan.
is a modest-looking volume of quite a
yet it is pleasant to learn that on hill-side
To ramble in Somerset is a vast under different calibre. It is a series of charm-
farms a mile or two away the old fashion taking, if there is the slightest idea of ing country sketches, chiefly gathered in
still persists.
doing it on any thorough scale. The area the Mendip country, and full to the brim of
Shropshire is the largest of England's of this shire, embracing a great tract of real “Zummerset” village life. Though
inland counties, and has within its bounds diversified country, extending from the there is but little definite topographical
every variety of natural charm. To the Avon to the Exe, is almost sufficient to information, no other county could, one
student of home scenery an extensive provide rambles for a score of years. Much thinks, have produced the different cha-
knowledge of Shropshire is essential. of the central fenland may be destitute of racters and scenes in these twenty and
Nevertheless, not a few cultured English- any particular attraction, but almost odd descriptive tales and pictures of
men, to whom the Lake district, Devon- everywhere else the land is scored with genuine peasant life. The effect of read-
shire and Cornwall, Shakespeare's country, hills and valleys. The fair surroundings ing them one and all, and then reread-
the Peak of Derbyshire, the Yorkshire of Bath, the rocky ravines of the Men ing them, on a somewhat jaded elderly
and Northumbrian coast-line, or the dips, the timber - clad slopes of the critic who knew and loved the sweetness of
quieter joys of Surrey downs and wood. Blackdowns on the southern border, the Somerset, especially the confines of Ex-
lands are quite familiar, have to plead charming combes of the Quantocks, moor, in the days of his youth, was to fill
guilty to a comparative ignorance of and still further west the rolling wastes of him with a burning desire to revisit
Shropshire. Those who know this county Exmoor or the wide vale of Porlock the slumberous old villages wherein
either well or partially can scarcely fail -all these ought to prove full of fascina- such incidents occurred. "The Plough-
to welcome Mr. Auden's little book. We tion for lovers of nature in either its more ing Match,' The Sheep-Shearing,' and
might, perhaps, have had with advantage mellow or its wilder moods. Even in the The Rat-Catcher' are full of delightful
more information about the attractions less winsome fenlands there are the and sympathetic touches ; pathos is aptly
of scenery and mountains, and it is gleaming apple orchards of Glastonbury, blended with humour, and the whole
strange that only trifling incidental refer- the prodigal corn lands of Taunton Dean, sweetened by fragments of the soft rich
ence is made to the old forests of Shrop- and the mysterious mist - laden marshes Zummerset dear to the ears that
shire. Fully half of the county was of Sedgemoor. Here, too, in this know it. When the rat-catcher's favourite
subject to forest jurisdiction under the plain district, prevented from relapsing cripple child lay a-dying, the mother had
Normans, and it has been shown in the into a morass by an elaborately planned a visit from his half-sister, who was both
“Victoria County History of Salop,' system of drainage, there are infinite dairywoman and henwife at the rectory.
vol. i.
