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.
literal and figurative significations worthy One of the very few words in th- derived ences between the later and the earlier
of note.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
.
## p. 523 (#393) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
523
CHORTOX COLLINS'S POSTHUMOUS ESSAYS
THE OXFORD DICTIONARY
PAGE
523
524
525
the Dawn)
526-527
527
-.
528–529
536
GOSSIP
537-539
539-541
542-543
544
from nobility of character. This is a pe
one who had read widely and carefully, One might hold, on the contrary, that the
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1912.
who was possessed of an astonishing defect of ‘Paradise Lost' is not that angels
memory, and had the knack of stimulating and Deity are conceived with ignoble
CONTENTS.
popular audiences to his own enthusiasms. anthropomorphism, but that they are not
He was by profession a teacher of litera- anthropomorphic enough. Satan, humanly
ture, and, so far as acquaintance with portrayed, is alone sufficient to ensure the
THE EGO AND HIS OWN
books and knowledge of the facts of litera- immortality of the epic, the interest of
Two POETS OF TO-DAY (The Clouds; The Heralds of ture are concerned, few, if any, popular which would have been enhanced if the
lecturers were better qualified than he. Deity had been endowed with a similar
GLADSTONE AND IRELAND
THREE COUNTIES (Life in a Yorkshire Village ; Shrop-
But we cannot fail to observe that he human-heroic spirit.
shire; Rambles in Somerset ; A Somerset Sketch. always approaches literature with a strong In like manner Wordsworth is con-
Book) . .
ethical bias. He does not ask “ What is sidered, not really as a poet, not as a
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS
580 this book ? ” but “What is the teaching visionary, a seer, a man who perceived,
FORTHCOMING BOOKS . .
LITERARY GOSSIP
of this book ? ' He is not interested in but as å teacher. " The author has an
SCIENCE - PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA; NOTICES OF the mere fact that in this author and in extraordinary habit of dwelling upon
NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT WEEK ;
that we have a unique expression of indi- accidental and unreal resemblances. There
FINE ARTS-AN ARCHITECTURAL ACCOUNT OF SHROP.
viduality; he is mainly interested to is some point in speaking of the Platonism
SHIRE CHURCH ES; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS;
THE ROYAL ACADEMY; THE AUDLEY HARVEY
discover that an author's work favours of Wordsworth ; he bears only a super-
PICTURES; SALES ; GOSSIP
MUSIC-BROWNING AS THE POET OF MUSIC; GOSSIP;
the more generous virtues and springs ficial resemblance to the Stoics. His
PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK
Pantheism has little in common with
DRAMA-GOSSIP . .
543 perfectly legitimate and not unprofitable the materialistic Pantheism of the Stoics.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
way of approaching literature ; but it is And to live according to Nature, as
also a limited one. It is that of the Wordsworth understood it, was wholly
cultured curate who finds in Tennyson different from the ascetic Stoic virtue
and Browning suitable thoughts for the (v karà púowv). The author makes
LITERATURE
weekday sermon. The advantage of a similar barren comparison between
this method of criticism is that it serves
Robert Browning and Bishop Butler. So
to propagate the common virtues ; the far as the formal articles of faith are
disadvantage of it is that it ignores concerned, they belong broadly to the
The Posthumous Essays of John Churton nearly all that is individual, unique, and same theological school; they both believe
Collins. Edited by L. C. Collins. (Dent characteristic in the great authors, con- in the existence of the soul after death,
& Sons. )
centrating attention on those qualities in life as a period of probation, and the
which they shared with their equally progressive development of the soul before
“What is at present the bane of criticism virtuous, but less distinguished fellow- death and after. But whilst Butler is
in this country? It is that practical con-
mortals.
siderations cling to it and stifle it. It
engaged upon the cold, logical analysis
subserves interests not its own. ”
“ It is a provoking and perplexing truth of theological doctrines, Browning, on
When Matthew Arnold wrote these words in relation to criticism [says Prof. Collins] the other hand, is mainly interested in the
he was thinking mainly, perhaps, of that none but an enthusiast can understand passion with which men perceive truths
political and religious considerations ; is the worst,"
an enthusiast, and of all critics an enthusiast and strive after them; and it is just
because he is interested in this passionate
but he would have equally included
human process
that he is a great poet
ethical considerations. Politics and re- This is no more than a half-truth, for
before he is a theologian.
ligion dominated the criticism of the it is the quality of a just critic to be an
Prof. Collins was a whole-hearted ad-
middle - Victorian era ; religion and enthusiast in respect of that which is
morality dominated that of the later worthy of enthusiasm, and to suppress mirer of Tennyson; and at a time when it
Victorian era ; and even to this day the enthusiasm for that which is falsely has become fashionable to give Tennyson
primarily ethical standard—whether it be praised. Prof. Collins was an enthusiast less than his due as a poet, it is pleasant
based on morality or not — is apt to for authors in so far as they were virtuous, to find a critic feeling for the great Vic-
assert itself in estimates of authors. We and for the most part indifferent to them torian the naive enthusiasm which he drew
might, perhaps, take the late Canon so far as they were concerned with non- from his contemporaries. At the same
Ainger as a type of the critic who in the moral interests. He admires Dr. Johnson time, it is following narrow issues to seek
later nineteenth century applied the because he was a “noble example of self- in poetry merely stay and a solace";
ethical test with severity to literature. subjugation, of heroic endurance, of duties to say of Tennyson that he was " a noble
We might notice that even so sound faithfully fulfilled, of honesty, sincerity, teacher,” that he was “as patriotic as
and discriminating a critic in the realm humanity. ” He grudgingly admits that Shakespeare,” that he was “a loyal and
of history as Lord Morley is prone to he was far indeed from being able to devoted son of England. ” This is an
give an emphasis to moral issues which supply us with everything we require in appeal to the gallery which should have
is opposed to the critical disinterestedness the way of guidance and admonition. " no place in a serious work of criticism.
of which Arnold speaks ; it is evident in
He was excellent in all the relations of It is open to any minor bard to be as
his book on Rousseau, still more in his life. He was an affectionate and dutiful patriotic as Shakespeare, and you can be
short Life' of Walpole.
son, a faithful and tender husband. ” Not a devoted son of England without learning
with eulogythe to
the narrow confines allotted to it by domestic virtue : "What he would have bourgeois view of poetry when, having
Matthew Arnold. For the moment we
are concerned with the fact that Prof. been as a father we may judge by his admitted that one of its functions is to
conduct to the children of others. "
please, he declares that its other function
Churton Collins belonged pre-eminently to
is to
the school condemned by the great critic.
This same criterion the Professor brings
“ teach us to solve the three great problems
He is one of those whose dicta lead us to to every author discussed in this volume :
of existence. What do we know-what
imagine that “practical (or moral] ends What will become more and more
must we do—for what may we hope ? "
are the first thing, and the play of mind detractive from Milton's influence as time
the second. " The accounts of his life goes on and the world sweeps more and We submit that this is not the true func-
which have been given since his unhappy
more into the broader day will be the hideous tion of a poet, and that, if he“ teaches
death show him to have been a man of and revolting anthropomorphism of much anything of the
kind, it is in his capacity
amiable and charming disposition, a
like that of the Greeks, sanely, soundly, as teacher, not in his capacity as poet.
stirring lecturer, a generous friend, and nobly symbolic, but often and more than There is nothing, indeed, in life which
a devoted student of literature. He was accidentally un-sane, unsound, not noble. ” may not be the proper subject matter of
>
## p. 524 (#394) ############################################
524
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
reason
“ the
66
as a
poetry, and moral issues must always occupants, acknowledged as aliens, are all looks the better for his holiday. . . . The
have a large and even dominant place in Eastern, viz. , “ thakur," Hindi ; "thamin” more, the merrier. ”
the poet's interests. Nevertheless a poet and thitsi,” Burmese ; Thammuz
Some of the subsections specify and illus--
is concerned primarily with perception, and “Thummim,” Hebrew; thar,
trate three or four groups of nouns which
not with conduct; it is his business to Nepalese ; and the obsolete thoral,'
illuminate life rather than to prescribe from Latin torus. Nobody is very likely certain conditions, or exceptionally. We
are preceded by “the” regularly, under
for it ; to reveal the finer issues, which are to question the propriety of classing these read of its use with names of rivers
unconnected with rules ; in other words, seven vocables as aliens, but we suspect . . . . of mountains, groups of islands, or
to endow life, through the medium of a that many are puzzled by the specimens regions, in the plural ;. . . . of places or
poetic form, with that quality which, for of “naturalized” words given above mountains in the singular, now only when
want of a better word, we call beauty. being classed with familiar modern English felt to be descriptive, as the Land's End
“ As patriotic as Shakespeare"! What words like terminus,' terminal,” and. . . . the Oxford Road, the Jungfrau,. .
a degradation of the poet's excellence! “ tobacco. ”
or when the has come down traditionally,
“ Precious indeed is his [Tennyson's]
Our
political teaching”! Tennyson's political to the few vocables of Oriental origin in the Tyrol. Formerly often used more
for drawing attention as the Lennox, the Merse; excoptionally
is ,
of serious study. It is his poetry that is that there is in this issue an un- widely. " We are not told why
usually large proportion of technical (river) Shannon,” “ the (river) Tay,”
we care about.
It is just this narrow,
and dialectal items, which at the first Lough Ree,”
. ” “Loch Lomond,” are now
“ practical criterion of literature which
makes the Professor select the following glance appear to be in general currency, correct parallels, perhaps because only
some not being clearly distinguishable conjectural reasons for the discrimination
striking and beautiful passage":
from common words until the quotations can be offered; but the mere notice of
Man for the field, and woman for the hearth: have been inspected, e. g. , "thigging ”= such various development of usage is of
Man for the sword, and for the needle she:
begging; "thing,” verb = to plead a interest.
Man with the head, and woman with the heart :
Man to command, and woman to obey;
cause, &c. ; thirling”=a bringing into Whether“ thing," sb. , in its passage from
All else confusion.
subjection; “ thirling "=piercing ; thol- its earliest meanings, “A meeting, as.
We cannot find that this passage is ing"=suffering, enduring. The multi- sembly, esp. a deliberative or judicial
tude of words ultimately or directly assembly, à court, a council,” to that
either striking or beautiful,
is conventional and debatable; as poetry
from Greek, numbering 5 922 in all,'
of " An entity of any kind," has suffered in
it is lacking in charm.
It is scarcely
ensure a superfluity of technical terms, respect of dignity, may be left to the
superior to the worst of the so-called tea- of which fewer than a hundred are current judgment of our readers
, as it is more
in a strict sense. But so long as literary our proper function to observe that this
pot poet. "
But if Churton Collins, as thinker and words, technicalities, and local idioms between the ends of the seventh and
entertainers of the public use foreign change is shown to have been wrought
critic, has little to tell us, we cannot in ever-increasing profusion, lexicographers ninth centuries, the intervening steps
but admire the breadth of his erudition seem only prudent in leaving readers to being “A matter brought before a court.
and the large field of learning through decide from time to time for themselves of law,” &c. ,
which he ranged. His essay on Burke is whether or no any particular word is sake. . . . an affair,
cause, reason, account ;
well worth reading, for such a subject as yet entitled to the designation “ English. ” matter, subject. ” Four of the “entity
affair, business, concern,
this lends itself to his method. His essay
on Shakespearean Theatres is informing, Another salient feature of our th- words sections contain quotations dated before
or about 1000. This article is admirable-
and that on Popular Proverbs is agree is the large number that pertain to
able. From whatever point of view this accidence-article, pronouns, conjunctions, in its fullness, and the novelty and
book may be regarded, it will be found numerals, &c. , with their derivatives, the correctness of its arrangement, which
to contain much information condensed admirable treatment of which might is suggested but not rigidly dominated,
into a small space. It has, too, a useful furnish a substantial contingent to a by, the chronology of sense-development.
index.
bulky philological English grammar. The Sundry errors found in earlier diction-
thoroughness of treatment may be shown aries are exposed, e. g. , “thitling,” given
without plunging into depths of what in some American editions, is a
A New English Dictionary. -Th-Thyzle. illustration of the use of “ three"
our youths call *
shop” by quoting an print for Tithing, cited by Richardson
with from an edition of Milton's Prose Works”;
(Vol. IX. ) By Sir James A. H. Murray. ellipsis of substantive," namely, “ thrimsa," used by Selden (1614), Hume,
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )
and eleven three=1s. 11fd.
Hook in 'Lives of Archbishops,' and
This instalment of our great Dictionary, We should not like to assert that more
Jevons, is an erroneous name for the
which is nearer to a triple than a double valuable accounts of these important Old English trimes or trims, a coin (or
section, brings us to the end of Vol. IX. elements of our language have not been money of account) representing the Roman
There are, however, still two gaps: one published before, but it is safe to say that trēmis,” being the Old English genitive
from
senatory. ” to the last sh- entry, their treatment in previous dictionaries plural; and writers on botanical matters are
to complete Vol
. VIII. ; and the other is not worth mentioning in comparison reproved for taking thrips. ” for plural,
sleep” to the end of the letters with the clear and full display of their and curtailing a single insect, even when
in the first half of Vol. IX. We may history given in this section, as also representing its genus, to. “ thrip. ” The
therefore expect in January, 1913, a might have been said in each case of their common verb
throw"
is not credited.
beginning of the tenth volume, which scattered kindred, such as “ he," " him,” with an early g or h sound, and so con-
will carry the work to the end of the “I,” “ mo,” one,” which have appeared nected with Latin torqueo, but traced to a
alphabet.
in earlier sections. The syllable the," Teutonic root þræ, pre-Teutonic trē-,
There are distinctive features about known to the English reader, when noticed meaning, turn, as originally (with
the portion of the English vocabulary at all, as “ the definite article,” takes up
' twist, curl") thraw meant in Old!
treated in the pages before us. Out of eleven columns which contain three sepa- English.
492 columns, we find not so much as two rate articles, as is correct. The first and Among the host of words and combina-
occupied by words which originated in longest is devoted to the demonstrative tions not hitherto registered in English
languages other than Greek and the Teu- adjective“ (def. article '),” with over dictionaries, the majority being obsolete
tonic group; while except four technical 20 sections comprehending over 40 or dialectal or technical (such as Grote's:
derivatives of modern Latin, thea ” separate sets of quotations, all concerned grecisms“ thalassocracy, thalassocrat,
tea, and the Hindi “ thug ” (with 5 deri- with varieties of current signification; the theors or sacred envoys,
” and James
vatives) and “thuggee,' occupant second, to the obsolete “ba," “ þe," a con- Hinton's
Hinton's "thingal ” for real ”), are
of the small fraction of space just men- / junction, adverb, and relative pronoun ; the new trade terms “thermos (flask) ”
tioned is “ fully naturalized. ” The other the last, to the current adverb seen in “he' and “picture theatre”; Mr. Kipling's.
" mis-
one
6
66
no
## p. 525 (#395) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
525
66
on
as
>>
97
thutter ”=to sound a conch-shell wind of words in this section which are now of America and the Continent have
instrument; and Mr. W. J. C. Muir's only dialectic, it would have been well revived it, and after nearly seventy
needless revival of thewness," pro- to exclude certain dialects from the years we have a translation published
bably intended for a novelty, in " the “ English ” of the above statement; as in this country. This is satisfactory,
:sinewy force of moral thewness. ” The in parts of the South-West the initial though occasionally irritating, as in the
article on
theolepsy ” furnishes a word of the adjective “ thin,” for instance, is frequent use of dashes to mark the point
for the supplementary volume in the like that of the ordinary pronominal of a tapà a poodoklav, and the title is not
phrase neither th. , nor diabolepsy, nor adjective “thine. ” Tyndall's phrase "a particularly luminous, for we lose the
any other lepsy. ” After Chaucer, two thermo-electric pair, or couple" (1863), suggestion of uniqueness which is so
of the three instances of “Theban and Preece and Sivewright's 'Telegraphy' important. 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.
## p. 523 (#393) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
523
CHORTOX COLLINS'S POSTHUMOUS ESSAYS
THE OXFORD DICTIONARY
PAGE
523
524
525
the Dawn)
526-527
527
-.
528–529
536
GOSSIP
537-539
539-541
542-543
544
from nobility of character. This is a pe
one who had read widely and carefully, One might hold, on the contrary, that the
SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1912.
who was possessed of an astonishing defect of ‘Paradise Lost' is not that angels
memory, and had the knack of stimulating and Deity are conceived with ignoble
CONTENTS.
popular audiences to his own enthusiasms. anthropomorphism, but that they are not
He was by profession a teacher of litera- anthropomorphic enough. Satan, humanly
ture, and, so far as acquaintance with portrayed, is alone sufficient to ensure the
THE EGO AND HIS OWN
books and knowledge of the facts of litera- immortality of the epic, the interest of
Two POETS OF TO-DAY (The Clouds; The Heralds of ture are concerned, few, if any, popular which would have been enhanced if the
lecturers were better qualified than he. Deity had been endowed with a similar
GLADSTONE AND IRELAND
THREE COUNTIES (Life in a Yorkshire Village ; Shrop-
But we cannot fail to observe that he human-heroic spirit.
shire; Rambles in Somerset ; A Somerset Sketch. always approaches literature with a strong In like manner Wordsworth is con-
Book) . .
ethical bias. He does not ask “ What is sidered, not really as a poet, not as a
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS
580 this book ? ” but “What is the teaching visionary, a seer, a man who perceived,
FORTHCOMING BOOKS . .
LITERARY GOSSIP
of this book ? ' He is not interested in but as å teacher. " The author has an
SCIENCE - PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA; NOTICES OF the mere fact that in this author and in extraordinary habit of dwelling upon
NEW BOOKS; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT WEEK ;
that we have a unique expression of indi- accidental and unreal resemblances. There
FINE ARTS-AN ARCHITECTURAL ACCOUNT OF SHROP.
viduality; he is mainly interested to is some point in speaking of the Platonism
SHIRE CHURCH ES; NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS;
THE ROYAL ACADEMY; THE AUDLEY HARVEY
discover that an author's work favours of Wordsworth ; he bears only a super-
PICTURES; SALES ; GOSSIP
MUSIC-BROWNING AS THE POET OF MUSIC; GOSSIP;
the more generous virtues and springs ficial resemblance to the Stoics. His
PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK
Pantheism has little in common with
DRAMA-GOSSIP . .
543 perfectly legitimate and not unprofitable the materialistic Pantheism of the Stoics.
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
way of approaching literature ; but it is And to live according to Nature, as
also a limited one. It is that of the Wordsworth understood it, was wholly
cultured curate who finds in Tennyson different from the ascetic Stoic virtue
and Browning suitable thoughts for the (v karà púowv). The author makes
LITERATURE
weekday sermon. The advantage of a similar barren comparison between
this method of criticism is that it serves
Robert Browning and Bishop Butler. So
to propagate the common virtues ; the far as the formal articles of faith are
disadvantage of it is that it ignores concerned, they belong broadly to the
The Posthumous Essays of John Churton nearly all that is individual, unique, and same theological school; they both believe
Collins. Edited by L. C. Collins. (Dent characteristic in the great authors, con- in the existence of the soul after death,
& Sons. )
centrating attention on those qualities in life as a period of probation, and the
which they shared with their equally progressive development of the soul before
“What is at present the bane of criticism virtuous, but less distinguished fellow- death and after. But whilst Butler is
in this country? It is that practical con-
mortals.
siderations cling to it and stifle it. It
engaged upon the cold, logical analysis
subserves interests not its own. ”
“ It is a provoking and perplexing truth of theological doctrines, Browning, on
When Matthew Arnold wrote these words in relation to criticism [says Prof. Collins] the other hand, is mainly interested in the
he was thinking mainly, perhaps, of that none but an enthusiast can understand passion with which men perceive truths
political and religious considerations ; is the worst,"
an enthusiast, and of all critics an enthusiast and strive after them; and it is just
because he is interested in this passionate
but he would have equally included
human process
that he is a great poet
ethical considerations. Politics and re- This is no more than a half-truth, for
before he is a theologian.
ligion dominated the criticism of the it is the quality of a just critic to be an
Prof. Collins was a whole-hearted ad-
middle - Victorian era ; religion and enthusiast in respect of that which is
morality dominated that of the later worthy of enthusiasm, and to suppress mirer of Tennyson; and at a time when it
Victorian era ; and even to this day the enthusiasm for that which is falsely has become fashionable to give Tennyson
primarily ethical standard—whether it be praised. Prof. Collins was an enthusiast less than his due as a poet, it is pleasant
based on morality or not — is apt to for authors in so far as they were virtuous, to find a critic feeling for the great Vic-
assert itself in estimates of authors. We and for the most part indifferent to them torian the naive enthusiasm which he drew
might, perhaps, take the late Canon so far as they were concerned with non- from his contemporaries. At the same
Ainger as a type of the critic who in the moral interests. He admires Dr. Johnson time, it is following narrow issues to seek
later nineteenth century applied the because he was a “noble example of self- in poetry merely stay and a solace";
ethical test with severity to literature. subjugation, of heroic endurance, of duties to say of Tennyson that he was " a noble
We might notice that even so sound faithfully fulfilled, of honesty, sincerity, teacher,” that he was “as patriotic as
and discriminating a critic in the realm humanity. ” He grudgingly admits that Shakespeare,” that he was “a loyal and
of history as Lord Morley is prone to he was far indeed from being able to devoted son of England. ” This is an
give an emphasis to moral issues which supply us with everything we require in appeal to the gallery which should have
is opposed to the critical disinterestedness the way of guidance and admonition. " no place in a serious work of criticism.
of which Arnold speaks ; it is evident in
He was excellent in all the relations of It is open to any minor bard to be as
his book on Rousseau, still more in his life. He was an affectionate and dutiful patriotic as Shakespeare, and you can be
short Life' of Walpole.
son, a faithful and tender husband. ” Not a devoted son of England without learning
with eulogythe to
the narrow confines allotted to it by domestic virtue : "What he would have bourgeois view of poetry when, having
Matthew Arnold. For the moment we
are concerned with the fact that Prof. been as a father we may judge by his admitted that one of its functions is to
conduct to the children of others. "
please, he declares that its other function
Churton Collins belonged pre-eminently to
is to
the school condemned by the great critic.
This same criterion the Professor brings
“ teach us to solve the three great problems
He is one of those whose dicta lead us to to every author discussed in this volume :
of existence. What do we know-what
imagine that “practical (or moral] ends What will become more and more
must we do—for what may we hope ? "
are the first thing, and the play of mind detractive from Milton's influence as time
the second. " The accounts of his life goes on and the world sweeps more and We submit that this is not the true func-
which have been given since his unhappy
more into the broader day will be the hideous tion of a poet, and that, if he“ teaches
death show him to have been a man of and revolting anthropomorphism of much anything of the
kind, it is in his capacity
amiable and charming disposition, a
like that of the Greeks, sanely, soundly, as teacher, not in his capacity as poet.
stirring lecturer, a generous friend, and nobly symbolic, but often and more than There is nothing, indeed, in life which
a devoted student of literature. He was accidentally un-sane, unsound, not noble. ” may not be the proper subject matter of
>
## p. 524 (#394) ############################################
524
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
reason
“ the
66
as a
poetry, and moral issues must always occupants, acknowledged as aliens, are all looks the better for his holiday. . . . The
have a large and even dominant place in Eastern, viz. , “ thakur," Hindi ; "thamin” more, the merrier. ”
the poet's interests. Nevertheless a poet and thitsi,” Burmese ; Thammuz
Some of the subsections specify and illus--
is concerned primarily with perception, and “Thummim,” Hebrew; thar,
trate three or four groups of nouns which
not with conduct; it is his business to Nepalese ; and the obsolete thoral,'
illuminate life rather than to prescribe from Latin torus. Nobody is very likely certain conditions, or exceptionally. We
are preceded by “the” regularly, under
for it ; to reveal the finer issues, which are to question the propriety of classing these read of its use with names of rivers
unconnected with rules ; in other words, seven vocables as aliens, but we suspect . . . . of mountains, groups of islands, or
to endow life, through the medium of a that many are puzzled by the specimens regions, in the plural ;. . . . of places or
poetic form, with that quality which, for of “naturalized” words given above mountains in the singular, now only when
want of a better word, we call beauty. being classed with familiar modern English felt to be descriptive, as the Land's End
“ As patriotic as Shakespeare"! What words like terminus,' terminal,” and. . . . the Oxford Road, the Jungfrau,. .
a degradation of the poet's excellence! “ tobacco. ”
or when the has come down traditionally,
“ Precious indeed is his [Tennyson's]
Our
political teaching”! Tennyson's political to the few vocables of Oriental origin in the Tyrol. Formerly often used more
for drawing attention as the Lennox, the Merse; excoptionally
is ,
of serious study. It is his poetry that is that there is in this issue an un- widely. " We are not told why
usually large proportion of technical (river) Shannon,” “ the (river) Tay,”
we care about.
It is just this narrow,
and dialectal items, which at the first Lough Ree,”
. ” “Loch Lomond,” are now
“ practical criterion of literature which
makes the Professor select the following glance appear to be in general currency, correct parallels, perhaps because only
some not being clearly distinguishable conjectural reasons for the discrimination
striking and beautiful passage":
from common words until the quotations can be offered; but the mere notice of
Man for the field, and woman for the hearth: have been inspected, e. g. , "thigging ”= such various development of usage is of
Man for the sword, and for the needle she:
begging; "thing,” verb = to plead a interest.
Man with the head, and woman with the heart :
Man to command, and woman to obey;
cause, &c. ; thirling”=a bringing into Whether“ thing," sb. , in its passage from
All else confusion.
subjection; “ thirling "=piercing ; thol- its earliest meanings, “A meeting, as.
We cannot find that this passage is ing"=suffering, enduring. The multi- sembly, esp. a deliberative or judicial
tude of words ultimately or directly assembly, à court, a council,” to that
either striking or beautiful,
is conventional and debatable; as poetry
from Greek, numbering 5 922 in all,'
of " An entity of any kind," has suffered in
it is lacking in charm.
It is scarcely
ensure a superfluity of technical terms, respect of dignity, may be left to the
superior to the worst of the so-called tea- of which fewer than a hundred are current judgment of our readers
, as it is more
in a strict sense. But so long as literary our proper function to observe that this
pot poet. "
But if Churton Collins, as thinker and words, technicalities, and local idioms between the ends of the seventh and
entertainers of the public use foreign change is shown to have been wrought
critic, has little to tell us, we cannot in ever-increasing profusion, lexicographers ninth centuries, the intervening steps
but admire the breadth of his erudition seem only prudent in leaving readers to being “A matter brought before a court.
and the large field of learning through decide from time to time for themselves of law,” &c. ,
which he ranged. His essay on Burke is whether or no any particular word is sake. . . . an affair,
cause, reason, account ;
well worth reading, for such a subject as yet entitled to the designation “ English. ” matter, subject. ” Four of the “entity
affair, business, concern,
this lends itself to his method. His essay
on Shakespearean Theatres is informing, Another salient feature of our th- words sections contain quotations dated before
or about 1000. This article is admirable-
and that on Popular Proverbs is agree is the large number that pertain to
able. From whatever point of view this accidence-article, pronouns, conjunctions, in its fullness, and the novelty and
book may be regarded, it will be found numerals, &c. , with their derivatives, the correctness of its arrangement, which
to contain much information condensed admirable treatment of which might is suggested but not rigidly dominated,
into a small space. It has, too, a useful furnish a substantial contingent to a by, the chronology of sense-development.
index.
bulky philological English grammar. The Sundry errors found in earlier diction-
thoroughness of treatment may be shown aries are exposed, e. g. , “thitling,” given
without plunging into depths of what in some American editions, is a
A New English Dictionary. -Th-Thyzle. illustration of the use of “ three"
our youths call *
shop” by quoting an print for Tithing, cited by Richardson
with from an edition of Milton's Prose Works”;
(Vol. IX. ) By Sir James A. H. Murray. ellipsis of substantive," namely, “ thrimsa," used by Selden (1614), Hume,
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )
and eleven three=1s. 11fd.
Hook in 'Lives of Archbishops,' and
This instalment of our great Dictionary, We should not like to assert that more
Jevons, is an erroneous name for the
which is nearer to a triple than a double valuable accounts of these important Old English trimes or trims, a coin (or
section, brings us to the end of Vol. IX. elements of our language have not been money of account) representing the Roman
There are, however, still two gaps: one published before, but it is safe to say that trēmis,” being the Old English genitive
from
senatory. ” to the last sh- entry, their treatment in previous dictionaries plural; and writers on botanical matters are
to complete Vol
. VIII. ; and the other is not worth mentioning in comparison reproved for taking thrips. ” for plural,
sleep” to the end of the letters with the clear and full display of their and curtailing a single insect, even when
in the first half of Vol. IX. We may history given in this section, as also representing its genus, to. “ thrip. ” The
therefore expect in January, 1913, a might have been said in each case of their common verb
throw"
is not credited.
beginning of the tenth volume, which scattered kindred, such as “ he," " him,” with an early g or h sound, and so con-
will carry the work to the end of the “I,” “ mo,” one,” which have appeared nected with Latin torqueo, but traced to a
alphabet.
in earlier sections. The syllable the," Teutonic root þræ, pre-Teutonic trē-,
There are distinctive features about known to the English reader, when noticed meaning, turn, as originally (with
the portion of the English vocabulary at all, as “ the definite article,” takes up
' twist, curl") thraw meant in Old!
treated in the pages before us. Out of eleven columns which contain three sepa- English.
492 columns, we find not so much as two rate articles, as is correct. The first and Among the host of words and combina-
occupied by words which originated in longest is devoted to the demonstrative tions not hitherto registered in English
languages other than Greek and the Teu- adjective“ (def. article '),” with over dictionaries, the majority being obsolete
tonic group; while except four technical 20 sections comprehending over 40 or dialectal or technical (such as Grote's:
derivatives of modern Latin, thea ” separate sets of quotations, all concerned grecisms“ thalassocracy, thalassocrat,
tea, and the Hindi “ thug ” (with 5 deri- with varieties of current signification; the theors or sacred envoys,
” and James
vatives) and “thuggee,' occupant second, to the obsolete “ba," “ þe," a con- Hinton's
Hinton's "thingal ” for real ”), are
of the small fraction of space just men- / junction, adverb, and relative pronoun ; the new trade terms “thermos (flask) ”
tioned is “ fully naturalized. ” The other the last, to the current adverb seen in “he' and “picture theatre”; Mr. Kipling's.
" mis-
one
6
66
no
## p. 525 (#395) ############################################
No. 4411, May 11, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
525
66
on
as
>>
97
thutter ”=to sound a conch-shell wind of words in this section which are now of America and the Continent have
instrument; and Mr. W. J. C. Muir's only dialectic, it would have been well revived it, and after nearly seventy
needless revival of thewness," pro- to exclude certain dialects from the years we have a translation published
bably intended for a novelty, in " the “ English ” of the above statement; as in this country. This is satisfactory,
:sinewy force of moral thewness. ” The in parts of the South-West the initial though occasionally irritating, as in the
article on
theolepsy ” furnishes a word of the adjective “ thin,” for instance, is frequent use of dashes to mark the point
for the supplementary volume in the like that of the ordinary pronominal of a tapà a poodoklav, and the title is not
phrase neither th. , nor diabolepsy, nor adjective “thine. ” Tyndall's phrase "a particularly luminous, for we lose the
any other lepsy. ” After Chaucer, two thermo-electric pair, or couple" (1863), suggestion of uniqueness which is so
of the three instances of “Theban and Preece and Sivewright's 'Telegraphy' important. 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.
