The
slumberous
haze lifts only
a Mr.
a Mr.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v26 to v30 - Tur to Zor and Index
The outrages attributed
to the Turks, although grewsome read-
ing, furnish a perfect parallel to those
still inflicted upon Armenians. The
book would therefore be useful to a
student of the Armenian question.
Victorian Poets, The, by Edmund Clar-
ence Stedman. (1876. ) A book of
literary and biographical criticism, and,
at the same time, a historical survey of
the course of British poetry for forty
years (1835–75), showing the authors
and works best worth attention, and the
development through them of the prin-
ciples and various ideals of poetic art as
now understood and followed. It forms
a guide-book to 150 authors, their lives,
their productions, their ideas and sym-
pathies, and their poetic methods. The
author had contemplated a survey of
American poetry, with a critical consid-
eration of its problems, difficulties, fail.
ures, and successes; and to prepare him-
self for this, and make sure to himself
correct ideas of the aim and province of
the art of poetry, that he might more
certainly use wisdom and justice in
studying the American field, he under-
took first the thorough critical examina-
tion of the English field, of which the
present volume
the result. The
book, therefore, may be viewed as the
was
## p. 491 (#527) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
491
>
earlier half of a large work, of which
(The Poets of America, published in
1885, is the later half; and this concep-
tion by Mr. Stedman of the unity in
historical development of English and
American culture attests, as the entire
execution of his task everywhere does,
the clearness and breadth of his insight,
and the value of his guidance to the
student of poetry. The distinction, in
fact, of Mr. Stedman, shown in all his
work, and marking a stage in the larger
progress of American culture, is his rank
a scholar and thinker in literature,
broadly conscious of all high ideals, and
thereby superior to the provincial nar-
rowness of uninstructed Americanism.
He thus has no theory of poetry, no
school, to uphold; but favors a generous
eclecticism or universalism in art, and
extends sympathetic appreciation to what-
ever is excellent of its kind.
as the chase of the privateer by a British
frigate, the drilling of Irish rebels by
moonlight, and the prevention by the
coast-guard of the landing of ammuni-
tion. The questions of the relation of
landlord and tenant, of church, education,
industries, and government, are discussed
with great lucidity, and the national char-
acteristics of the Irish are shown: their
love of that which has existed for cen-
turies, their opposition to improvements,
and their instability and lack of cohesion.
That incomprehensible machine, the gov-
ernment, is shown in a part of the story
of which Dublin is the scene; and there
is a description of a riot which is sup-
pressed by the dragoons.
The book carries that interest which is
always felt in a well-told historical story,
and the descriptions of Irish scenery are
vivid.
as
Two Chiefs of Dunboy, The, by James
(1889. ) This is
the only novel written by Froude, whose
book on (The English in Ireland in the
Eighteenth Century) had already estab-
lished him as an authority on Irish mat-
ters.
The scene of the story opens on the
banks of the Loire, near Nantes, France;
where one Blake, a ship-owner and Irish
exile, fits out a vessel as a pirate to prey
upon British shipping, and persuades
Morty Sullivan, one of the chiefs of Dun-
boy and an Irish exile, to take the com-
mand. The chief action of the plot takes
place at or near the village of Castleton
in Bantry Bay, Ireland; where Colonel
Goring, the other chief of Dunboy, an
Englishman, has established a Protestant
settlement for the purpose of working the
copper mines, establishing a fishery, and
protecting the coast from smugglers. The
time is the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Goring is a magistrate, and is
feared and hated by the Irish peasantry.
He is fearless in the discharge of what
he believes to be his duty, in which he
receives but slight support from the gov-
ernment. He is eventually killed treach-
erously by Morty Sullivan and some ac-
complices. Sullivan, who has visited
Ireland for the purpose of estimating the
chances of success in case the French
should land troops, is killed in an attempt
to escape from the government forces.
The story gives opportunity for the rela-
tion of many thrilling adventures, such
Utopia, by Sir Thomas More. This
book, which was written in Latin
in 1615, is the source from which have
been taken many of the socialistic ideas
which are to-day interesting modern
thinkers. At the time it was written,
the author, fearing to acknowledge these
ideas as his own, attributed them to a
mythical person, Raphael Hythloday,
lately returned from America, whither
he had gone with Amerigo Vespucci.
In describing a country which he had
visited, called Utopia (meaning in Greek
(no place »), he calls attention to abuses
then prevalent in England; among
them the punishment of death for theft,
high rent of land, the number of idle
retainers, the decay of husbandry, the
costliness of the necessities of life, and
the licentiousness and greed of the rich,
who, by monopolies, control the markets.
In (Utopia) the government is rep-
resentative. The life is communism. No
man is allowed to be idle; but labor is
abridged, and the hours of toil are as
brief as is consistent with the general
welfare. AN are well educated, and
take interest in the study of good lit-
erature. Such a lessening of labor is
gained by a community of all things,
that none are in need, and there is no
desire to
more than each man
Gold and silver are only used
for vessels of baser use, and for the fet-
ters of bondmen. Happiness is regarded
as the highest good; but that of the
body politic above that of the individ-
ual. Law-breakers are made bondmen.
amass
can use.
## p. 492 (#528) ############################################
492
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
more
There are few laws; for it is not just
that men should be bound by laws more
numerous than can be read, or
complex than may be readily under-
stood. War is abhorred; it being most
just when employed to take vacant land
from people who keep others from pos-
session of it. There are many religions
but no images. They thank God for all
their blessings, and especially for placing
them in that state and religion which
seemeth best; but they pray, if there be
any better state or religion, God will
reveal it unto them.
Many reforms which More suggested
are no longer considered Utopian; among
them, entire freedom in matters of re-
ligion, in support of which he lost his
life.
an interview with Archie, in which she
brings him to a sense of his wrong in
making love to a girl out of his sta-
tion, and he has a stormy meeting with
his sweetheart - at which point the
novel breaks off, all the elements for a
tragedy having been introduced. The
plot as planned by Stevenson involved
the betrayal of the young Kirstie by
Innes, although she is faithful in heart
to Archie, who kills his rival and is
condemned to death by his own father,
the judge. Kirstie's brothers, known as
the “Four Black Brothers, seek to take
vengeance on Archie as the betrayer of
their sister; but on learning the true
state of the case, they rescue him from
prison, and the lovers flee together to
America. Here was splendid material
for dramatic handling, and Stevenson
would have made the most of it. The
novel is written in the finest vein of
romance; and the drawing of such char-
acters as the judge — whose historic pro-
totype is Lord Braxfield — and Kirstie
the elder, is unsurpassed in his fiction.
The Scotch coloring is perfect.
))
Weir
ir of Hermiston, an unfinished ro-
mance by Robert Louis Stevenson,
the last novel he wrote, was published
in 1896. A fragment, it gave promise of
being his best work. An appended edi-
torial note by Sidney Colvin tells how
the plot was to be carried out. Nine
chapters only had been written, the last
on the very day of Stevenson's death.
The whole action passes in Edinburgh
and the lowlands of Scotland; the time
is the early nineteenth century. Weir
is a Lord Justice Clerk, a stern, silent,
masterful man, noteworthy for his im-
placable dealings with criminals; his
wife is a soft, timid, pious creature,
whose death is told in the first chapter.
Their son Archie is of a bookish turn,
high-spirited, sensitive, idealistic, grow-
ing up with little attention from his
father. But gradually Weir comes to
care for his son, who is so revolted by
the father's relish of his function in
hanging a malefactor, that he cries out
against the execution while it is taking
place. This incenses the judge, who
sends him to his moorland country es-
tate of Hermiston to learn to be a laird.
There he falls in with Kirstie Elliot and
wins her love, and is tended by her
aunt Kirstie, a dependent of the Her-
miston house, who cares for Archie (as
she did for his mother) with almost
maternal affection. A visit from Frank
Innes-an Edinburgh schoolmate of Ar-
chie's, and a shallow, vain, but hand-
A Simple Story, by Mrs. Inch bald.
A Simple Story) was written, as.
the preface to the first edition tells us,
under the impulse of necessity in 1791.
It is divided into two parts, and relates
the love affairs of a mother and her
daughter. In the first part, Miss Milner
is left by her father under the guardian-
ship of Mr. Dorriforth, a Catholic priest.
To his displeasure, she leads a life of
great gayety, surrrounded by numerous
suitors, among whom is prominent one
Sir Frederick Lawnley. At the instiga-
tion of another priest, Sandford, who is
irritated by Miss Milner's lack of stable
virtue, Dorriforth removes with his ward
to the country. There he urges her to
declare her true feelings toward Lawn-
ley. In the presence of Sanford she de-
nies all interest in the young man; but
the next day, on hearing that Dorri-
forth had, in a moment of anger, struck
Lawnley for presuming to pursue her,
and had thus exposed himself to the
necessity of a duel, she decides that
her profession of indifference was false.
Still she refuses absolutely to continue
her acquaintance with Lawnley. To
Miss Woodley, her friend, she furnishes
a key to her contradictions by declaring
that she really loves Dorriforth. Miss
Woodley, shocked at such a passion for
fellow- makes trouble; for he
maligns Archie to the country folk,
and seeks to win the younger Kirstie
away from him. Kirstie the elder has
some
## p. 493 (#529) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
493
more
а
VOWS.
car-
a priest, insists on her departure to visit
some friends.
During this visit, Dor-
riforth becomes Lord Elmwood, and
obtains dispensation from his priestly
On hearing, through Miss Wood-
ley, of the true state of his ward's feel-
ings, he declares himself her lover; but
her frivolity and disregard of his
wishes make him break the engage-
ment. Her sorrow at his departure for
Italy, however, is so great that Sand-
ford, convinced of their mutual love,
marries them, and dismisses the
riage which was to take him away.
During the interval between the first
and second parts of the story, Lady
Elmwood, led astray by Sir Frederick,
has been banished with her daughter
from her husband's presence, and his
nephew Rushbrook is adopted as his
heir. At the death of his wife, Elm-
wood consents that his daughter Matilda
and the faithful Woodley may live in
his country house, provided that he
never see his daughter or hear her name.
Rushbrook falls in love with Matilda,
and almost incurs his uncle's extreme
displeasure by his hesitation to
fess the object of his love. At last
Matilda meets her father quite by acci-
dent on the stairs, and is banished to
a farm near by. Here she is consoled
by frequent visits from Sandford, who
intercedes with her father for her as far
as he dares. At length Lord Margrave,
a neighboring peer, attracted by her
beauty, carries her to his house by
force. News is brought to Lord Elm-
wood, who pursues,
rescues, and
stores his daughter to her rightful posi-
tion. Out of gratitude for his compassion
when she was unfortunate, she accepts
Rushbrook's love with the happiest re-
sults.
The characters are inconsistent and
unreal, swayed entirely by passion and
sensibility, of which the story is full;
they are cruel or kind, they weep, faint,
curse, without any apparent motive. At
the end, the author declares that the
object of the tale is to show the value
of “a proper education. ”
it to be
than translation. )
Vathek, ninth Caliph of the race of the
Abassides, is the son of Motassem, and
the grandson of Haroun al Raschid.
Though a Prince Charming, he is yet a
capricious ruler, indulging his desires in
the most extravagant manner and fall-
ing into illness when his will is crossed.
His troubles begin when he meets a
Giaour, who obtains a strange influence
over him; and after leading him into
shocking enormities, induces him to ab-
jure Mohammedanism and call upon the
Prince of the powers of the air. In this
course Vathek is encouraged by the
queen-mother, Carathis, whose incanta-
tions produce the most appalling results.
He sets out to meet the Giaour, to
obtain from him the treasures of the
pre-Adamite Sultans, with other much-
desired gifts. But on his way he meets
and falls in love with the beautiful
young Nouronihar, and spends many
days in wooing her. At last, with the
maiden, he proceeds upon the journey,
and enters the awful Hall of Eblis, filled
with ineffable glories. Here he receives
indeed all that is promised him, but
deprived of any wish to possess it or
capacity to enjoy it; and learns that his
self-seeking and heartless service of his
own appetites has drawn upon him the
punishment of eternal torment and re-
morse; a doom which includes the loss
of “the most precious of the gifts of
heaven,– Hope. ”
con-
re-
Lif
ife of Laurence Oliphant, and of
Alice Oliphant his Wife, The, by
Margaret O. W. Oliphant (1891), one of
the most fascinating and satisfactory
biographies in the English language, has
made luminous and intelligible a char-
acter that might be readily misunder-
stood or misinterpreted. Laurence Oli-
phant, a thorough product of his cen-
tury, combined its most diverse forces:
its scientific spirit and its mysticism, its
brilliant and thoughtful wordliness, and
its passionate idealism. In him the mys-
tical at last predominated, and wrapped
him as in a cloud from the comprehen-
sion of his fellows. His biographer has
traced this spiritual development side by
side with the events of his outward life,
- a life of unusual picturesqueness and
depth of color. His travels in Russia, in
America and Canada, in China, in the
Crimea, and in the Holy Land, form
striking background to that other
Vathek, The History of the Caliph,
by William Beckford. (1786. ) This
imaginative and gorgeous story first ap-
peared in French. « Vathek bears such
marks of originality,” says Lord Byron,
«that those who have visited the East
will have some difficulty in believing
a
## p. 494 (#530) ############################################
494
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
journey towards lands very far off,"
from which he never rested. His spir-
itual pilgrimage and its unearthly goal
gave reason and coherence to his life.
Many of his letters are collected in this
biography, throwing additional light
upon a nature made for the intimacies
of affection, for the revelations of friend-
ship.
more
Nemesis of Faith, The, by James An-
thony Froude. A small book pub-
lished in 1849, but purporting to review
the experience at Oxford in 1843 of a
student of that time, in whose mind
doubts arose which led him to give up
the ministry of religion in the Church
of England. It in fact reflects Mr.
Froude's own experience, so far as re-
lates to the departure of the hero of
the story from orthodoxy of belief, and
his relinquishment of the clerical pro-
fession. The thread of story in the
book is only just enough to enable Mr.
Froude to make an imaginary charac-
ter speak for him; first in a series of
letters, and then in an essay entitled
(Confessions of a Sceptic. The free-
thinking is that of a mind wishful to
live by the ideal truths of the Bible
and the spirit of Christ; but unable to
believe the book any more divine than
Plato or the Koran, or Christ any other
than a human teacher and example.
Both Romanist and English Church
teachings keenly criticized, with
special reference to John Henry New-
man; who was at first a singularly elo-
quent preacher in the university pulpit,
and later convert to Romanism.
«That voice so keen, so preternaturally
sweet, whose every whisper used to
thrill through crowded churches, when
every breath was held to hear; that
calm, gray eye; those features, so stern
and yet so gentle,” — these words pict-
ure Newman as he preached at St.
Mary's, the principal university pulpit.
Mr. Froude makes his story show how
its hero, having been taught a faith
which he could not abide in, lost all
faith, and was carried into a situation
in which moral restraint gave way; and
a most melancholy tragedy was the end.
But as
matter of fact, Mr. Froude
became a Humanist or Broad Church
literary man, married a Roman Catholic
lady, had a brilliant career, and lived
to see Oxford become largely Broad
Church.
Science of Thought, The, by F. Max
Müller. (1887. ) This is work
which may be read as the intellectual
or philosophical autobiography of the
great scholar, wise thinker, and delight-
ful writer, whose name it bears. The
author says that he has written it for
himself and a few near friends; that
some of the views which he presents
date from the days when he heard
lectures at Leipzig and Berlin, and dis-
cussed Veda and Vedanta with Schopen-
bauer, and Eckhart and Tauler with
Bunsen; and that he has worked up the
accumulated materials of
than
thirty years. The views put forth, he
says, are the result of a long life de-
voted to solitary reflection and to the
study of the foremosi thinkers of all
nations. They consist in theories formed
by the combined sciences of language
and thought; or, he says, in the one
theory that reason, intellect, understand-
ing, mind, are only different aspects of
language. The book sets forth the les-
sons of a science of thought founded
upon the science of language. It deais
with thought as only one of the three
sides of human nature, the other two
being the ethical and the æsthetical.
In completing the work, the author sets
down a list of the honors which had
been conferred upon him, and another
of his principal publications; assuming
apparently, in 1887, that he might not
bring out another book. He intimated,
nevertheless, a desire to make another,
on «The Science of Mythology
Florence : Its History – The MEDICI
THE HUMANISTS -- LETTERS — Arts,
by Charles Yriarte. (New edition 1897. )
This is a sympathetic and admirable
monograph on Florence in her palmy
days, when all the cities of Italy did
homage to her, and she was the focus,
the school, and the laboratory of human
genius. ” Its object the author states to
be, to give a general idea of the part
which Florence has played in the intel-
lectual history of modern times; its novel
feature being the chapter on Illustrious
Florentines. The work professes to pre-
sent, not Florence in her entirety, but
merely her essence.
Yet no one
rise from a perusal of its well-written
and comprehensive pages without feeling
new admiration for the City of Flowers;
while on the memory of those who have
strayed within her borders the history
are
a
a
can
## p. 495 (#531) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
495
course
umes.
will lay an almost magical touch. The
introduction contains general considera-
tions and a sketch of the plan of the
work; then follow chapters on History,
(The Medici, (The Renaissance,) (Il-
lustrious Florentines, Etruscan Art,'
(Christian Art,) (Architecture, (Sculpt-
ure, Painting. This work and the
author's (Venice) may be regarded as
companion books.
People of the United States, A His-
TORY OF THE, by John Bach McMas-
ter. An important work in six volumes:
Vol. i. , 1883; Vol. ii. , 1885; Vol. iii. , 1892;
Vol. iv. , 1895. It is, as the title declares,
a history of the people. It describes the
dress, amusements, customs, and literary
canons, of every period of United States
history, from the close of the Revolution
to the Civil War. Politics and institu-
tions are considered only as they affected
the daily life of the people. The great
developments in industrial affairs, the
changes in manners and morals, the rise
and progress of mechanical inventions,
the gradual growth of a more humane
spirit, especially in the treatment of
criminals and of the insane, are all
treated at length. It is a social history:
it aims to give a picture of the life of
the American people as it would seem
to an intelligent traveler at the time,
and to trace the growth of the influences
which built up out of the narrow fringe
of coast settlements the great nation of
the Civil War.
The book is always entertaining, and
is a perfect mine of interesting facts
collected in no other history; but the
author shows much love of
tithesis, and no doubt will reconsider
some of his conclusions.
The
he Winning of the West, by Theo-
dore Roosevelt. Four volumes, each
complete in itself, and together consti-
tuting a study of early American devel-
opments; to be placed by the side of
Parkman's France and England in
North America. It treats what may be
called the sequel to the Revolution; a
period of American advance, the interest
and significance of which are very little
understood. Washington himself prophe-
sied, and almost planned, the future
of the great region beyond the Ohio.
When, at the close of the war, there
was no money to pay the army on its
disbandment, he advised his soldiers to
have an eye to the lands beyond the
Ohio, which would belong not to any
one State but to the Union; and to look
to grants of land for their pay. Out
of this came the New England scheme
for settlement on the other side of the
Ohio. The promoters of this scheme
secured the passage of the Ordinance of
1787, which made the Ohio the dividing
line between lands in which slaves
might be held to labor, and those in
which there should be no slavery, and
which broadly planned for the education
of all children on a basis of equality
and free schools. To an extent without
parallel these actions of a moment fixed
future destiny. How the
of
events from 1769 brought about those
actions, and the progress forward for
twenty years from that moment, is the
subject of Mr. Roosevelt's carefully
planned and admirably executed vol-
The mass of original material to
which Mr. Roosevelt has had access,
casts a flood of new light upon the field
over which he has gone, with the result.
that much of the early history has had
to be entirely rewritten. It is in many
ways a fascinating narrative, and in
every way a most instructive history.
Wide, Wide World, The, by “Eliza-
beth Wetherell» (Susan Warner:
1851). It is a study of girl life, which
reached a sale of over 300,000 copies.
The life of the heroine, Ellen Mont-
gomery, is followed from early childhood
to her marriage, with a fullness of par-
ticulars which leaves nothing to the
reader's imagination. Her parents go-
ing to Europe, she is placed in the
care of Miss Fortune Emerson, a sharp-
tempered relative of her father's. Amid
the sordid surroundings of her
home, her childish nature would have
been entirely dwarfed and blighted had
it not been for the good offices of Alice
Humphreys, a sweet and lovable girl,
who with wise and tender patience de-
velops the germs of Ellen's really excel-
lent character.
At length both Mrs. Montgomery and
Alice Humphreys die; and after some
years, Ellen comes to take up a daugh-
ter's duties in the home of her kind
friend. The scenes and episodes are
those of a homely every-day existence,
which is described with a close fidelity
to detail. Ellen's spiritual life is mi-
nutely unfolded, and the book was long
regarded as one of those which
too
an-
new
are
## p. 496 (#532) ############################################
496
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
“good for the young. ” The criticism alana, an ineffective, dreamy, silence-
of later generation, however, pro- loving soul; and her child, Tempe, an
nounces it mawkish in sentiment and elf of a girl who marries John Drake, a
unreal in conduct. It stands among the neighbor, almost before she is out of
fading fancies of an earlier and less short dresses. He dies soon after, the
exacting literary taste.
young widow going back to Temple
House. By a shipwreck another unusual
Lady of the Aroostook, The, a novel character, Sebastian Ford, is added to
of the present day, by W. D. How-
the Temple House circle. The Spanish
ells, was published in 1879. In its hero-
blood in his veins tinges his least act
ine, Lydia Blood, is drawn the portrait
with romance. He proves his devotion
of a lady of nature's own making. She
to his rescuer, Argus Gates, by defend-
is a New England school-teacher, young,
ing the honor of the woman he loves,
beautiful, and fragile. For the benefit
Virginia Brande, the daughter of a
of the sea voyage she leaves her grand-
wealthy neighbor. The book closes upon
parents on a remote New England farm,
the happiness of Virginia and Argus, a
to visit an aunt and an uncle in Ven-
kind of subdued happiness in accordance
ice. Two of her fellow-passengers on
with the autumnal atmosphere of the
the Aroostook are a Mr. Dunham and
story.
The slumberous haze lifts only
a Mr. Staniford, young gentlemen not
to reveal two or three spirited scenes
at first attracted by a girl who says
connected with Virginia's love-story.
“I want to know. ) Before the voyage is
over, however, Mr. Staniford falls in
love with Lydia, whose high-bred nature Lord Ormont and his Aminta, by
George Meredith. (1894. ) In this
cannot be concealed by her village rus-
novel the author's enigmatical laughter
ticity. In Venice, among fashionable so-
sounds louder than usual; possessing at
phisticated people, she shows in little
the same time a quality which leaves the
nameless ways that she is a lady in the
reader in doubt whether the mirth is at
true sense. The book closes with her
his expense, or at the expense of the
marriage to Staniford.
characters.
(The Lady of the Aroostook) is in
Lord Ormont, a distinguished general,
Howells's earlier manner, its genial real-
is the object of the hero-worship of
ism imparting to it an atmosphere of
two children: Aminta Farrell, called
delicate comedy.
«Browny, and Matey Weyburn. When
Aminta is become a young lady, she
Unclassed, The, by George Gissing,
published in 1896, is a study of the
marries Ormont, no longer a hero, but
mere civilian dismissed from his
lower London life, written with moder-
ation and sincere sympathy with the
country's service, and soured by public
sinful and the poor.
There is no shirk-
neglect. To show the world how he
ing of unpleasant details, but the author
despises its opinion, he refuses openly to
does not throw any glamour over the
acknowledge his marriage to Aminta.
lowest life of the streets. It is rather a
She, of course, is the chief sufferer from
study of conditions than of character,
this perversity of humor. Weyburn
although the personages of the story are
meantime becomes Lord Ormont's secre-
distinctly drawn. In the dénouement it tary, falls in love with his old playmate,
and does not conceal his love. The en-
appears that the unfortunates »
may
climb back to a decent life if social
suing scandal is less tragic than humor-
conditions favor.
Matey and Browny betake them-
selves to the Continent; and contrary to
Temple House, the third and last novel all precepts of morality and decency,
of Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, was “live happily ever afterwards. ” The
published in 1867. The scene is laid in novel is at once sprightly and judiciously
a forgotten, decaying seaport town of sober. It is remarkable for one or two
New England. The plot follows the for- magnificent scenes, scarcely surpassed in
tunes of one family, the inmates of the whole range of fiction.
Nothing
Temple House - a homestead of dignity could be more beautiful and effective as
in the prosperous days of the town, but a study of sky and sea, of light and
now tarnished and forlorn. It shelters air and out-door glory, than the scene
Argus Gates, a retired sea-captain, a where Aminta and Weyburn swim in
lover of solitude; his sister-in-law Rox- the ocean together, creatures for the
a
ous.
## p. 497 (#533) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
497
time being of nature, of love, and of
joy.
Taras Bulba, by Nikolai F. Gogol
.
(1839. ) This is a grewsome story
of Cossack life in the fifteenth century.
Ostap and Andrii, the sons of Taras
Bulba, a Cossack leader, return from
school; and he takes them at once to
the Setch (a large Cossack village) to
present them to his brothers in arms.
There they drink, carouse, and quarrel,
until a new ataman is elected and an
expedition is sent against Kief. Andrii
is taken into the city by the maid of
the Voivod's beautiful daughter, his
sweetheart in student days. The city is
given over to famine; he feeds his love,
and for the sake of her beauty turns
traitor and joins her party. The Voivod
goes out to attack the Cossacks; and
Taras Bulba, in his righteous wrath,
slays his son. His other son, Ostap, is
captured, and he himself is wounded.
On recovering, he bribes a Jew to take
him in disguise to Warsaw, where he
sees Ostap tortured to death. He raises
an army, fights, and spares none, shout-
ing as he burns and slays, “This is a
mass for the soul of Ostap. ) Finally he
is captured, however, thirty men falling
upon him at once. He is bound to a
tree; fagots are placed at the foot of it,
and preparations are made to roast him.
He sees that his Cossacks are lured into
a trap, and shouts a warning; they fly
over the precipice on their horses, and
plunge into the river, across which they
swim and escape. Taras perishes, but
his Cossacks live- to talk of their lost
leader.
Li
ife on the Lagoons, by Horatio F.
Brown. (1890. ) Beginning where
Nature began to hint at Venice, Mr.
Brown describes the peculiar topogra-
phy of the region: the deltaed rivers
flowing into the broad lagoon; the Lidi,
or sandy islands, that separate the la-
goon from the Adriatic, and guard the
city for seven miles inland, from attack
by war-fleet or storm; and the Porti, or
five channels that lead from the lagoon
to the sea. When the reader knows the
natural geography of Venice as if he
had seen it, he may pass on and behold
what man has done with the site, since
six miles of shoals and mud-banks and
intricate winding channels. The de-
scendants of these fugitives were the
earliest Venetians, a hardy, independent
race of fishermen, frugal and hard-work-
ing, little dreaming that their children's
children would be merchant princes,
rulers of the commercial world, or that
the queen
city of the Middle Ages
should rise from their mud-banks. Mr.
Brown gives a concise sketch of the his-
tory of Venice, from its early beginnings
to the end of the Republic in 1797,
when Napoleon was making his new
map of Europe. These preliminaries
gone through (but not to the reader's
relief, for they are very interesting), he
is free to play in the Venice of to-day,
to see all its wonderful sights, and read
its wonderful past as this is written in
the ancient buildings and long-descended
customs. He may behold it all, from the
palace of the Doges to the painted sails
of the bragozzi. The fishing boats, the
gondolas, the ferries, the churches, the
fisheries, the floods, the islands across
the lagoon, the pictures, the palaces, the
processions and regattas, and saints'
days, all have their chapters in this
spirited and happy book," as Stevenson
called it. All the beauty and fascination
of the city, which is like no other city
in the world, have been imprisoned in
its pages; and the fortunate reader,
though he may never have set foot in a
gondola, is privileged to know and love
it all.
Greek Poets, Studies in the, by J. A.
Symonds. (2 vols. , 1873–76. ) One
of the most admirable expositions ever
made for English readers of the finer
elements of Greek culture, the thoughts
and beauties of utterance of the Greek
poets, from Homer and Hesiod, through
the lyrics of various types, to the drama,
Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Ar-
istophanes. Not only has Mr. Symonds
a quick sense of poetic beauties in verse
and expression, but he gleans with rare
insight the notes of thought, of faith, of
sentiment and worship, which are the
indications of culture in the grand story
of Greek song.
In Homer, Hesiod, Pin-
dar, and the four great dramatists, espe-
cially, the field of study is very rich.
>
the Year 45. when the incinhabitantsiof Triumphant Democrachis by Andrew
mainland, fleeing before
the Hun, the scourge of God, took ref-
uge on the unattractive islands, amid
Carnegie. (1886. ) book is an
(attempt to give Americans a better
idea of the great work their country has
XXX-32
## p. 498 (#534) ############################################
498
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
man SO
but an unmixed blessing Two chapters The True Relation, by Captain John
done and is still doing in the world. ” inclines to the philosophy of Descartes;
Mr. Carnegie says that «in population, he is not given to credulity, but in no
in wealth, in annual savings, and in case yields up his loyalty to the faith of
public credit, in freedom from debt, in Islam. He keeps himself in hiding from
agriculture, and in manufactures, Amer- the detectives of Cardinal Richelieu in
ica already leads the world »; and this Paris from 1641 to 1682; and employs
statement he proceeds to prove by an his time in writing lengthy epistles to
overwhelming array of statistics. The the Sultan, to friends in Vienna, to
book is a glorification of democracy; Mahomet, a eunuch exiled in Egypt, and
and admitting frankly the many evils others. Among the personages and
and corruptions in America, asserts that topies commented on are Charles II. of
in no country is the common
England, Philip II. of Spain, the Re-
free, so able to make his way. The ligious War in Germany, «Gustavus,
growth of the West and its enormous King of Swedeland, and in France the
food-producing capacity are treated at course of affairs during the reign of
length. Manufactures, mining, agricul- the house of the Medici. His resources
ture, pauperism and crime, railways and in classical lore are extensive. Alex-
waterways, are all considered in detail, ander the Great comes under his review
with a wealth of statistics to support with sovereigns of later times. To his
every statement. There is a tendency friend the eunuch in Egypt he writes in
to make the American eagle scream a friendly confidence; towards the close of
little louder than is usual nowadays; the long record admitting that he has
but on the whole, most Americans would loved a woman for thirty years, only at
agree heartily with Mr. Carnegie's pride last to be deceived in her and to learn
in American institutions. Mr. Carnegie the folly of earthly love. “Let us there-
is so optimistic that he will not admit fore,” he counsels his friend, «reserve
that even the horde of immigrants pour- our love for the daughters of Paradise ! »
ing in on us from Europe is anything
.
to and , but it
pub-
is evident that the material prosperity lished in London, in 1608. The full title
of the country is the main idea of the is, (A True Relation of such occurrences
book.
and accidents of noate as has hapned in
Virginia since the first planting of that
The Turkish Spy (L'Espion Turc)
"
Collony, which is now resident in the
(Letters Written by one Mahmut, South part thereof, till the last returne
who lived Five-and. Forty Years undis- from thence. Written by Captain Smith,
covered at Paris. Giving an Impartial Coronell of the said Collony, to a wor-
Account to the Divan at Constantinople shipfull friend of his in England. The
of the most Remarkable Transactions of account was also called Newes from
Europe, and covering several Intrigues Virginia. It relates the founding of
and Secrets of the Christian Courts Jamestown, from January ist, 1607, when
(especially that of France) from the three ships sailed from England for Vir-
year 1637 to the year 1683. Written ginia, to May 20th, 1608. Dealings with
originally in Arabic. Translated in Ital- the Indians, especially with the great
ian and from thence into English, by emperour Powhatan,” occupy the greater
John Paul Marana. In 8 vols. London: part of the pamphlet. The style is
1801. )
straightforward, and the whole tone ex-
The contents of this remarkable work ceedingly naive. Captain John Smith
are quite fully described by the above has always been one of the few pictur-
lengthy inscription on the title-page. A esque figures in early colonial history,
romance, really written by Giovanni and the writers of school histories have
Paolo Marana, but pretending to be the always made the most of him; his vera-
confidential communications of a refugee city was unquestioned, until Mr. Charles
Turk, to his friends, – this performance Deane, in the preface to an edition of
is an ingenious and witty comment on (The True Relation,' published in 1880,
the political and social conduct of pointed out that the story of the rescue
Christian Europe during the
of Captain Smith by Pocahontas makes
teenth century,
as viewed by a pre- its first appearance in Smith's (General
tended outsider. The writer himself Historie,' published in 1624, and no such
seven-
## p. 499 (#535) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
499
re-
»
9
romantic incident is hinted at in The In 1843, Past and Present) was
True Relation. ' Mr. Deane charges Cap-garded as forceful, rousing, but not
tain Smith with having magnified his practical. It had, however, a great effect
own share in the doings of the colony; on the young and enthusiastic; and is
and it cannot be denied that all through now looked on as one of the best of Car-
(The True Relation, Captain John lyle's books, and as the expression of a
Smith is the central figure. But making political philosophy which, however vio-
all reasonable allowances for self-conceit lently expressed, was at bottom sensible
and self-glorification, there is no doubt and practical
that the settlers would have starved the
first winter, if John Smith had not had Master Beggars, The, by L. Cope
Cornford (1897), is a romance of
his own energy and all they lacked into
(old heroical days in the latter half
the bargain.
of the sixteenth century. The title is
the nickname applied to the troops of
Past
and Present, by Thomas Carlyle.
men, nobles and outlaws, who wandered
This treatise was published in Eng-
through the Netherlands in rebellion
land in April 1843; in May it was
against the rule of Philip II. , and crying
published in America, prefaced by an
for the suppression of the Inquisition.
appealing notice to publishers, written
Often engaged in heroic or chivalric
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, to the effect
deeds, the Beggars were too frequently
that the book was printed from a manu-
guilty of excesses: rifled churches, burned
script copy sent by the author to his
monasteries, and tortured priests; and
friends, and was published for the bene-
fit of the author. Mr. Emerson some-
by no means confined their outrages to
the clerical profession. The story is a
what optimistically hoped that this fact
vivid presentment of their reckless, vehe-
would incline publishers to respect Mr.
ment life, and their readiness to face
Carlyle's property in his own book. ”
danger or death for a cause, a leader, or
(Past and Present) was written in
a fair lady.
seven weeks, as a respite from the har-
Young Brother Hilarion, dedicated to
assing labor of writing (Cromwell. ? In
God by his noble father, in hope that
1842, the Camden Society had published
the "Chronicles of the Abbey of St. Ed-
his prayers may expiate the sins of
his ancestors, detests monastic life. His
mund's Bury,' written by Joceline de
Brakelonde, at the close of the twelfth
longing for the world is intensified by
meeting the beautiful Jacqueline, the
century. This account of a mediæval
monastery had taken Carlyle's fancy; and
young Countess of Durbuy. She is be-
trayed into the hands of the Beggars,
in Past and Present) he contrasted the
who plan to extort a large ransom for
England of his own day with the Eng-
her return. Hilarion joins her captors,
land of Joceline de Brakelonde. Eng-
swears allegiance to the chief, the fam-
lishmen of his own day he divided into
ous Wild Cat, and resumes his proper
three classes: the laborers, the devotees
name of Seigneur Philip d’Orchimont.
of Mammon, and the disciples of dilet-
tanteism. Between these three classes, he
He proves abundantly both his heroism
said, there was no tie of human brother-
and his love for his lady, in a succession
hood. In the old days the noble was
of startling Dumas-like chances which
the man who fought for the safety of
culminate in a terrible catastrophe; from
society. For the dilettantes and the
which, however, both Jacqueline and
d'Orchimont are saved, with the neces-
Mammonites he preached the “Gospel
of Work. For the uplifting of the class
sary, if improbable, good fortune of
lovers in fiction.
of laborers, for the strengthening of the
Social Classes Owe to Each
what seemed chimerical schemes in 1843 ;
Other, by William Graham Sum-
but before his death some of his schemes ner. This work, published in 1883, was
had been realized. He attacked the written by the professor of political
(laissez faire principle most fiercely; economy in Yale University, and was
he advocated legislative interference in intended to explode the fallacy of re-
labor, sanitary and educational legisla- garding the State as something more
tion, an organized emigration service, than the people of which it is composed.
some system of profit-sharing, and the Every attempt to make the Sta
organization of labor.
a social ill, Mr. Sumner says, is an
tie of human brotherhood, he proposed. What
cure
## p. 500 (#536) ############################################
500
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
men
we
(
In the pros-
attempt to make some people take Europe for so many ages. There is
care of others. It is not at all the nothing in these tales of the heroic
function of the State to make
doings of Odin and Thor, of Volsungs
happy; to say that those who by their and Vikings, that associate with
own labor and industry have acquired Norse stories. The only supernatural
or augmented a fortune shall support beings are the Trolls, a dark, ugly race,
the shiftless and negligent, is to strike ill-disposed to mankind. The favorite
at the liberty of the industrious. Evils story seems to be the adventures of
due to the folly and wickedness of man- some poor youth, who starts out to seek
kind bear their own bitter fruit; State his fortune, and meets with many strange
interference in such cases means simply happenings, but usually ends by win-
making the sober, industrious, and pru- ning a princess and half a kingdom.
dent pay the penalty which should be There are many old friends under dif-
borne by the offender. The type and ferent names: (Cinderella, (The Sleep-
formula of most philanthropic schemes ing Beauty, Tom Thumb); and one
is this: A and B put their heads to- story, East o' the Sun and West o' the
gether to decide what C shall do for D. Moon,' is a combination of the old tale
Poor C, the “forgotten man,” has to of Cupid and Psyche) and Beauty and
pay for the scheme, without having any the Beast. ) The old pagan customs and
voice in the matter. «Class distinc- legends show through the veneer of
tions simply result from the different Christianity, as in "The Master-Smith,'
degrees of success with which men have where the blacksmith, who has angered
availed themselves of the chances which the Devil, goes to make his peace with
were presented to them.
Satan after he has lost his chance of
ecution of these chances, we all owe to heaven, because he does not want to be
each other good-will, mutual respect, houseless after death: he would prefer to
and mutual guarantees of liberty and go to heaven; but as he cannot, he
security. Beyond this nothing can be would prefer hell to a homeless fate.
affirmed as a duty of one group to an- The stories are prefaced by an essay
other in a free State. )
written by Mr. Dasent, in which he
Professor Sumner's book is a useful traces many of them from their San-
antidote to many of the futile and skrit originals through Greek to German
dreamy socialistic schemes now afloat. mythology
A process warranted to regenerate the
world in a day always has its attrac- Men and Letters, by Horace E. Scud-
tions. Professor Sumner, however, is
der. To attempt a critical review,
a more thorough-going supporter of the it is not only necessary to have a knowl.
(laissez faire » doctrine than most econ- edge of a man's work, the mere details
omists of the present day. Besides, of what he has done, and the manner of
he disregards the very dishonest means its performance, but to put oneself en rap-
by which wealth is often attained. His | port with his mental attitude, in sympa-
defense of the capitalist class is not thy with his moral aims, and in harmony
quite reasonable: not all capitalists, we with his intellectual perceptions; in or-
know, the despicable villains de- der that he may be presented in the
scribed by the extreme socialists; but best light to those who either fail to
neither could all of them be regarded grasp the full meaning or comprehens-
as men who have simply made legiti- iveness of his words or to those who
mate use of the chances presented to wait on the threshold for an invitation
them. ” However, Professor Sumner's to enter and enjoy. All this Mr. Scud-
protest against the insidious attacks on der has
has accomplished. The carping
the liberty of the majority, under the note is absent; the faint praise that
specious guise of legislative aid for the damns, superseded by a quiet force of
weak, is straightforward and convincing. convincing eloquence, which is inspired
by a thorough knowledge of the subjects
Popular Tales from
the Norse. he reviews. Whether he is describing
(1858. ) This is a collection of (Emerson's Self); (The Art of Long-
Norse folk-tales, translated by George fellow'; 'Landor as a Classic); or the
Webbe Dasent. The stories in this com- faith in works of Elisha Mulford, Annie
pilation are the Norse versions of the Gilchrist, or Dr. Muhlenberg,-a trio
stories which have been floating all over less well known to the general reader, -
are
## p. 501 (#537) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
501
we
>
we
>
one feels his intense sympathy with lofty
purpose, his suppression of self, his com-
prehension of mental attitudes and sub-
tleties. He seems to have the faculty of
obtaining the true perspective of action,
and of expressing character in a telling
phrase. When he writes of a subject
we have studied or reflected upon, we
are conscious of new methods of illu-
mination; when follow him into
untrodden paths, a magnetism of leader-
ship which induces to further research.
In his essay on (The Shaping of Excel-
sior,'' he describes the methods by which
a poet, even when he has seized upon
the central thought of a poem, has some-
times to drudge painstakingly over its
final form; in American History on the
Stage, the popular awakening to the
dramatic elements of American history,
its limitations and its possibilities; in
(The Future of Shakespeare,' the most
forceful of all, the belief that the future
of art is inextricably bound to the
world's final fiat on the works of the im-
mortal dramatist, – that he is the meas-
uring rod by which shall judge
proportions. ”
Spirit of Laws, The (Esprit des
Lois), by Montesquieu. (1748. )
The work of a French baron, born just
100 years before the French Revolution
of 1789, has the double interest of a sin-
gularly impressive manifestation of mind
and character in the author, and a very
able study of the conditions, political
and social, in France, which were des-
tined to bring the overthrow of the old
order. In 1728, after an election to the
Academy, Montesquieu had entered upon
prolonged European travel, to gratify
his strong interest in the manners,
customs, religion, and government to be
seen in different lands. Meeting with
Lord Chesterfield, he went with him to
England, and spent nearly two years
amid experiences which made him an
ardent admirer of the British Constitu-
tion, monarchy without despotism.
Returning thence to his native La Brède,
near Bordeaux, he gave the next twenty
years to study, the chief fruit of which
was to be the Esprit des Lois. As
early as 1734 he gave some indication
of what he had in view by his (Consid-
erations) upon Roman greatness and
Roman decline. The Esprit des Lois)
appeared in 1748, to become in critical
estimation the most important literary
production of the eighteenth century,
before the Encyclopédie. ' Its purpose
was research of the origin of laws, the
principles on which laws rest, and how
they grow out of these principles. It
was designed to awaken desire for free-
dom, condemnation of despotism, and
hope of political progress; and this effect
it had, modifying the thought of the
century very materially, and raising up
a school of statesmen and political econ-
omists at once intelligent and upright in
the interest of the governed.
The Woodman is a translation by Mrs.
John Simpson of Le Forestier,' a
rustic sketch by M. Quesnay de Beaure-
paire, known as a writer under the pseu-
donym of Jules de Glouvet. ) M. de
Beaurepaire, it will be remembered, is a
statesman of wide reputation. It was
due to his fearless and disinterested ac-
tion while procureur général of France,
that the dangerous Boulanger conspiracy
of 1888 was so successfully handled.
(The Woodman) is a story of one of
those rude, untaught peasants who, as
“franctireurs » in the war of 1870, gave
so many startling proofs of heroism and
matchless devotion to their country.
Jean Renaud, known as “The Poacher,"
grows up in a state of semi-savagery.
to the Turks, although grewsome read-
ing, furnish a perfect parallel to those
still inflicted upon Armenians. The
book would therefore be useful to a
student of the Armenian question.
Victorian Poets, The, by Edmund Clar-
ence Stedman. (1876. ) A book of
literary and biographical criticism, and,
at the same time, a historical survey of
the course of British poetry for forty
years (1835–75), showing the authors
and works best worth attention, and the
development through them of the prin-
ciples and various ideals of poetic art as
now understood and followed. It forms
a guide-book to 150 authors, their lives,
their productions, their ideas and sym-
pathies, and their poetic methods. The
author had contemplated a survey of
American poetry, with a critical consid-
eration of its problems, difficulties, fail.
ures, and successes; and to prepare him-
self for this, and make sure to himself
correct ideas of the aim and province of
the art of poetry, that he might more
certainly use wisdom and justice in
studying the American field, he under-
took first the thorough critical examina-
tion of the English field, of which the
present volume
the result. The
book, therefore, may be viewed as the
was
## p. 491 (#527) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
491
>
earlier half of a large work, of which
(The Poets of America, published in
1885, is the later half; and this concep-
tion by Mr. Stedman of the unity in
historical development of English and
American culture attests, as the entire
execution of his task everywhere does,
the clearness and breadth of his insight,
and the value of his guidance to the
student of poetry. The distinction, in
fact, of Mr. Stedman, shown in all his
work, and marking a stage in the larger
progress of American culture, is his rank
a scholar and thinker in literature,
broadly conscious of all high ideals, and
thereby superior to the provincial nar-
rowness of uninstructed Americanism.
He thus has no theory of poetry, no
school, to uphold; but favors a generous
eclecticism or universalism in art, and
extends sympathetic appreciation to what-
ever is excellent of its kind.
as the chase of the privateer by a British
frigate, the drilling of Irish rebels by
moonlight, and the prevention by the
coast-guard of the landing of ammuni-
tion. The questions of the relation of
landlord and tenant, of church, education,
industries, and government, are discussed
with great lucidity, and the national char-
acteristics of the Irish are shown: their
love of that which has existed for cen-
turies, their opposition to improvements,
and their instability and lack of cohesion.
That incomprehensible machine, the gov-
ernment, is shown in a part of the story
of which Dublin is the scene; and there
is a description of a riot which is sup-
pressed by the dragoons.
The book carries that interest which is
always felt in a well-told historical story,
and the descriptions of Irish scenery are
vivid.
as
Two Chiefs of Dunboy, The, by James
(1889. ) This is
the only novel written by Froude, whose
book on (The English in Ireland in the
Eighteenth Century) had already estab-
lished him as an authority on Irish mat-
ters.
The scene of the story opens on the
banks of the Loire, near Nantes, France;
where one Blake, a ship-owner and Irish
exile, fits out a vessel as a pirate to prey
upon British shipping, and persuades
Morty Sullivan, one of the chiefs of Dun-
boy and an Irish exile, to take the com-
mand. The chief action of the plot takes
place at or near the village of Castleton
in Bantry Bay, Ireland; where Colonel
Goring, the other chief of Dunboy, an
Englishman, has established a Protestant
settlement for the purpose of working the
copper mines, establishing a fishery, and
protecting the coast from smugglers. The
time is the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Goring is a magistrate, and is
feared and hated by the Irish peasantry.
He is fearless in the discharge of what
he believes to be his duty, in which he
receives but slight support from the gov-
ernment. He is eventually killed treach-
erously by Morty Sullivan and some ac-
complices. Sullivan, who has visited
Ireland for the purpose of estimating the
chances of success in case the French
should land troops, is killed in an attempt
to escape from the government forces.
The story gives opportunity for the rela-
tion of many thrilling adventures, such
Utopia, by Sir Thomas More. This
book, which was written in Latin
in 1615, is the source from which have
been taken many of the socialistic ideas
which are to-day interesting modern
thinkers. At the time it was written,
the author, fearing to acknowledge these
ideas as his own, attributed them to a
mythical person, Raphael Hythloday,
lately returned from America, whither
he had gone with Amerigo Vespucci.
In describing a country which he had
visited, called Utopia (meaning in Greek
(no place »), he calls attention to abuses
then prevalent in England; among
them the punishment of death for theft,
high rent of land, the number of idle
retainers, the decay of husbandry, the
costliness of the necessities of life, and
the licentiousness and greed of the rich,
who, by monopolies, control the markets.
In (Utopia) the government is rep-
resentative. The life is communism. No
man is allowed to be idle; but labor is
abridged, and the hours of toil are as
brief as is consistent with the general
welfare. AN are well educated, and
take interest in the study of good lit-
erature. Such a lessening of labor is
gained by a community of all things,
that none are in need, and there is no
desire to
more than each man
Gold and silver are only used
for vessels of baser use, and for the fet-
ters of bondmen. Happiness is regarded
as the highest good; but that of the
body politic above that of the individ-
ual. Law-breakers are made bondmen.
amass
can use.
## p. 492 (#528) ############################################
492
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
more
There are few laws; for it is not just
that men should be bound by laws more
numerous than can be read, or
complex than may be readily under-
stood. War is abhorred; it being most
just when employed to take vacant land
from people who keep others from pos-
session of it. There are many religions
but no images. They thank God for all
their blessings, and especially for placing
them in that state and religion which
seemeth best; but they pray, if there be
any better state or religion, God will
reveal it unto them.
Many reforms which More suggested
are no longer considered Utopian; among
them, entire freedom in matters of re-
ligion, in support of which he lost his
life.
an interview with Archie, in which she
brings him to a sense of his wrong in
making love to a girl out of his sta-
tion, and he has a stormy meeting with
his sweetheart - at which point the
novel breaks off, all the elements for a
tragedy having been introduced. The
plot as planned by Stevenson involved
the betrayal of the young Kirstie by
Innes, although she is faithful in heart
to Archie, who kills his rival and is
condemned to death by his own father,
the judge. Kirstie's brothers, known as
the “Four Black Brothers, seek to take
vengeance on Archie as the betrayer of
their sister; but on learning the true
state of the case, they rescue him from
prison, and the lovers flee together to
America. Here was splendid material
for dramatic handling, and Stevenson
would have made the most of it. The
novel is written in the finest vein of
romance; and the drawing of such char-
acters as the judge — whose historic pro-
totype is Lord Braxfield — and Kirstie
the elder, is unsurpassed in his fiction.
The Scotch coloring is perfect.
))
Weir
ir of Hermiston, an unfinished ro-
mance by Robert Louis Stevenson,
the last novel he wrote, was published
in 1896. A fragment, it gave promise of
being his best work. An appended edi-
torial note by Sidney Colvin tells how
the plot was to be carried out. Nine
chapters only had been written, the last
on the very day of Stevenson's death.
The whole action passes in Edinburgh
and the lowlands of Scotland; the time
is the early nineteenth century. Weir
is a Lord Justice Clerk, a stern, silent,
masterful man, noteworthy for his im-
placable dealings with criminals; his
wife is a soft, timid, pious creature,
whose death is told in the first chapter.
Their son Archie is of a bookish turn,
high-spirited, sensitive, idealistic, grow-
ing up with little attention from his
father. But gradually Weir comes to
care for his son, who is so revolted by
the father's relish of his function in
hanging a malefactor, that he cries out
against the execution while it is taking
place. This incenses the judge, who
sends him to his moorland country es-
tate of Hermiston to learn to be a laird.
There he falls in with Kirstie Elliot and
wins her love, and is tended by her
aunt Kirstie, a dependent of the Her-
miston house, who cares for Archie (as
she did for his mother) with almost
maternal affection. A visit from Frank
Innes-an Edinburgh schoolmate of Ar-
chie's, and a shallow, vain, but hand-
A Simple Story, by Mrs. Inch bald.
A Simple Story) was written, as.
the preface to the first edition tells us,
under the impulse of necessity in 1791.
It is divided into two parts, and relates
the love affairs of a mother and her
daughter. In the first part, Miss Milner
is left by her father under the guardian-
ship of Mr. Dorriforth, a Catholic priest.
To his displeasure, she leads a life of
great gayety, surrrounded by numerous
suitors, among whom is prominent one
Sir Frederick Lawnley. At the instiga-
tion of another priest, Sandford, who is
irritated by Miss Milner's lack of stable
virtue, Dorriforth removes with his ward
to the country. There he urges her to
declare her true feelings toward Lawn-
ley. In the presence of Sanford she de-
nies all interest in the young man; but
the next day, on hearing that Dorri-
forth had, in a moment of anger, struck
Lawnley for presuming to pursue her,
and had thus exposed himself to the
necessity of a duel, she decides that
her profession of indifference was false.
Still she refuses absolutely to continue
her acquaintance with Lawnley. To
Miss Woodley, her friend, she furnishes
a key to her contradictions by declaring
that she really loves Dorriforth. Miss
Woodley, shocked at such a passion for
fellow- makes trouble; for he
maligns Archie to the country folk,
and seeks to win the younger Kirstie
away from him. Kirstie the elder has
some
## p. 493 (#529) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
493
more
а
VOWS.
car-
a priest, insists on her departure to visit
some friends.
During this visit, Dor-
riforth becomes Lord Elmwood, and
obtains dispensation from his priestly
On hearing, through Miss Wood-
ley, of the true state of his ward's feel-
ings, he declares himself her lover; but
her frivolity and disregard of his
wishes make him break the engage-
ment. Her sorrow at his departure for
Italy, however, is so great that Sand-
ford, convinced of their mutual love,
marries them, and dismisses the
riage which was to take him away.
During the interval between the first
and second parts of the story, Lady
Elmwood, led astray by Sir Frederick,
has been banished with her daughter
from her husband's presence, and his
nephew Rushbrook is adopted as his
heir. At the death of his wife, Elm-
wood consents that his daughter Matilda
and the faithful Woodley may live in
his country house, provided that he
never see his daughter or hear her name.
Rushbrook falls in love with Matilda,
and almost incurs his uncle's extreme
displeasure by his hesitation to
fess the object of his love. At last
Matilda meets her father quite by acci-
dent on the stairs, and is banished to
a farm near by. Here she is consoled
by frequent visits from Sandford, who
intercedes with her father for her as far
as he dares. At length Lord Margrave,
a neighboring peer, attracted by her
beauty, carries her to his house by
force. News is brought to Lord Elm-
wood, who pursues,
rescues, and
stores his daughter to her rightful posi-
tion. Out of gratitude for his compassion
when she was unfortunate, she accepts
Rushbrook's love with the happiest re-
sults.
The characters are inconsistent and
unreal, swayed entirely by passion and
sensibility, of which the story is full;
they are cruel or kind, they weep, faint,
curse, without any apparent motive. At
the end, the author declares that the
object of the tale is to show the value
of “a proper education. ”
it to be
than translation. )
Vathek, ninth Caliph of the race of the
Abassides, is the son of Motassem, and
the grandson of Haroun al Raschid.
Though a Prince Charming, he is yet a
capricious ruler, indulging his desires in
the most extravagant manner and fall-
ing into illness when his will is crossed.
His troubles begin when he meets a
Giaour, who obtains a strange influence
over him; and after leading him into
shocking enormities, induces him to ab-
jure Mohammedanism and call upon the
Prince of the powers of the air. In this
course Vathek is encouraged by the
queen-mother, Carathis, whose incanta-
tions produce the most appalling results.
He sets out to meet the Giaour, to
obtain from him the treasures of the
pre-Adamite Sultans, with other much-
desired gifts. But on his way he meets
and falls in love with the beautiful
young Nouronihar, and spends many
days in wooing her. At last, with the
maiden, he proceeds upon the journey,
and enters the awful Hall of Eblis, filled
with ineffable glories. Here he receives
indeed all that is promised him, but
deprived of any wish to possess it or
capacity to enjoy it; and learns that his
self-seeking and heartless service of his
own appetites has drawn upon him the
punishment of eternal torment and re-
morse; a doom which includes the loss
of “the most precious of the gifts of
heaven,– Hope. ”
con-
re-
Lif
ife of Laurence Oliphant, and of
Alice Oliphant his Wife, The, by
Margaret O. W. Oliphant (1891), one of
the most fascinating and satisfactory
biographies in the English language, has
made luminous and intelligible a char-
acter that might be readily misunder-
stood or misinterpreted. Laurence Oli-
phant, a thorough product of his cen-
tury, combined its most diverse forces:
its scientific spirit and its mysticism, its
brilliant and thoughtful wordliness, and
its passionate idealism. In him the mys-
tical at last predominated, and wrapped
him as in a cloud from the comprehen-
sion of his fellows. His biographer has
traced this spiritual development side by
side with the events of his outward life,
- a life of unusual picturesqueness and
depth of color. His travels in Russia, in
America and Canada, in China, in the
Crimea, and in the Holy Land, form
striking background to that other
Vathek, The History of the Caliph,
by William Beckford. (1786. ) This
imaginative and gorgeous story first ap-
peared in French. « Vathek bears such
marks of originality,” says Lord Byron,
«that those who have visited the East
will have some difficulty in believing
a
## p. 494 (#530) ############################################
494
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
journey towards lands very far off,"
from which he never rested. His spir-
itual pilgrimage and its unearthly goal
gave reason and coherence to his life.
Many of his letters are collected in this
biography, throwing additional light
upon a nature made for the intimacies
of affection, for the revelations of friend-
ship.
more
Nemesis of Faith, The, by James An-
thony Froude. A small book pub-
lished in 1849, but purporting to review
the experience at Oxford in 1843 of a
student of that time, in whose mind
doubts arose which led him to give up
the ministry of religion in the Church
of England. It in fact reflects Mr.
Froude's own experience, so far as re-
lates to the departure of the hero of
the story from orthodoxy of belief, and
his relinquishment of the clerical pro-
fession. The thread of story in the
book is only just enough to enable Mr.
Froude to make an imaginary charac-
ter speak for him; first in a series of
letters, and then in an essay entitled
(Confessions of a Sceptic. The free-
thinking is that of a mind wishful to
live by the ideal truths of the Bible
and the spirit of Christ; but unable to
believe the book any more divine than
Plato or the Koran, or Christ any other
than a human teacher and example.
Both Romanist and English Church
teachings keenly criticized, with
special reference to John Henry New-
man; who was at first a singularly elo-
quent preacher in the university pulpit,
and later convert to Romanism.
«That voice so keen, so preternaturally
sweet, whose every whisper used to
thrill through crowded churches, when
every breath was held to hear; that
calm, gray eye; those features, so stern
and yet so gentle,” — these words pict-
ure Newman as he preached at St.
Mary's, the principal university pulpit.
Mr. Froude makes his story show how
its hero, having been taught a faith
which he could not abide in, lost all
faith, and was carried into a situation
in which moral restraint gave way; and
a most melancholy tragedy was the end.
But as
matter of fact, Mr. Froude
became a Humanist or Broad Church
literary man, married a Roman Catholic
lady, had a brilliant career, and lived
to see Oxford become largely Broad
Church.
Science of Thought, The, by F. Max
Müller. (1887. ) This is work
which may be read as the intellectual
or philosophical autobiography of the
great scholar, wise thinker, and delight-
ful writer, whose name it bears. The
author says that he has written it for
himself and a few near friends; that
some of the views which he presents
date from the days when he heard
lectures at Leipzig and Berlin, and dis-
cussed Veda and Vedanta with Schopen-
bauer, and Eckhart and Tauler with
Bunsen; and that he has worked up the
accumulated materials of
than
thirty years. The views put forth, he
says, are the result of a long life de-
voted to solitary reflection and to the
study of the foremosi thinkers of all
nations. They consist in theories formed
by the combined sciences of language
and thought; or, he says, in the one
theory that reason, intellect, understand-
ing, mind, are only different aspects of
language. The book sets forth the les-
sons of a science of thought founded
upon the science of language. It deais
with thought as only one of the three
sides of human nature, the other two
being the ethical and the æsthetical.
In completing the work, the author sets
down a list of the honors which had
been conferred upon him, and another
of his principal publications; assuming
apparently, in 1887, that he might not
bring out another book. He intimated,
nevertheless, a desire to make another,
on «The Science of Mythology
Florence : Its History – The MEDICI
THE HUMANISTS -- LETTERS — Arts,
by Charles Yriarte. (New edition 1897. )
This is a sympathetic and admirable
monograph on Florence in her palmy
days, when all the cities of Italy did
homage to her, and she was the focus,
the school, and the laboratory of human
genius. ” Its object the author states to
be, to give a general idea of the part
which Florence has played in the intel-
lectual history of modern times; its novel
feature being the chapter on Illustrious
Florentines. The work professes to pre-
sent, not Florence in her entirety, but
merely her essence.
Yet no one
rise from a perusal of its well-written
and comprehensive pages without feeling
new admiration for the City of Flowers;
while on the memory of those who have
strayed within her borders the history
are
a
a
can
## p. 495 (#531) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
495
course
umes.
will lay an almost magical touch. The
introduction contains general considera-
tions and a sketch of the plan of the
work; then follow chapters on History,
(The Medici, (The Renaissance,) (Il-
lustrious Florentines, Etruscan Art,'
(Christian Art,) (Architecture, (Sculpt-
ure, Painting. This work and the
author's (Venice) may be regarded as
companion books.
People of the United States, A His-
TORY OF THE, by John Bach McMas-
ter. An important work in six volumes:
Vol. i. , 1883; Vol. ii. , 1885; Vol. iii. , 1892;
Vol. iv. , 1895. It is, as the title declares,
a history of the people. It describes the
dress, amusements, customs, and literary
canons, of every period of United States
history, from the close of the Revolution
to the Civil War. Politics and institu-
tions are considered only as they affected
the daily life of the people. The great
developments in industrial affairs, the
changes in manners and morals, the rise
and progress of mechanical inventions,
the gradual growth of a more humane
spirit, especially in the treatment of
criminals and of the insane, are all
treated at length. It is a social history:
it aims to give a picture of the life of
the American people as it would seem
to an intelligent traveler at the time,
and to trace the growth of the influences
which built up out of the narrow fringe
of coast settlements the great nation of
the Civil War.
The book is always entertaining, and
is a perfect mine of interesting facts
collected in no other history; but the
author shows much love of
tithesis, and no doubt will reconsider
some of his conclusions.
The
he Winning of the West, by Theo-
dore Roosevelt. Four volumes, each
complete in itself, and together consti-
tuting a study of early American devel-
opments; to be placed by the side of
Parkman's France and England in
North America. It treats what may be
called the sequel to the Revolution; a
period of American advance, the interest
and significance of which are very little
understood. Washington himself prophe-
sied, and almost planned, the future
of the great region beyond the Ohio.
When, at the close of the war, there
was no money to pay the army on its
disbandment, he advised his soldiers to
have an eye to the lands beyond the
Ohio, which would belong not to any
one State but to the Union; and to look
to grants of land for their pay. Out
of this came the New England scheme
for settlement on the other side of the
Ohio. The promoters of this scheme
secured the passage of the Ordinance of
1787, which made the Ohio the dividing
line between lands in which slaves
might be held to labor, and those in
which there should be no slavery, and
which broadly planned for the education
of all children on a basis of equality
and free schools. To an extent without
parallel these actions of a moment fixed
future destiny. How the
of
events from 1769 brought about those
actions, and the progress forward for
twenty years from that moment, is the
subject of Mr. Roosevelt's carefully
planned and admirably executed vol-
The mass of original material to
which Mr. Roosevelt has had access,
casts a flood of new light upon the field
over which he has gone, with the result.
that much of the early history has had
to be entirely rewritten. It is in many
ways a fascinating narrative, and in
every way a most instructive history.
Wide, Wide World, The, by “Eliza-
beth Wetherell» (Susan Warner:
1851). It is a study of girl life, which
reached a sale of over 300,000 copies.
The life of the heroine, Ellen Mont-
gomery, is followed from early childhood
to her marriage, with a fullness of par-
ticulars which leaves nothing to the
reader's imagination. Her parents go-
ing to Europe, she is placed in the
care of Miss Fortune Emerson, a sharp-
tempered relative of her father's. Amid
the sordid surroundings of her
home, her childish nature would have
been entirely dwarfed and blighted had
it not been for the good offices of Alice
Humphreys, a sweet and lovable girl,
who with wise and tender patience de-
velops the germs of Ellen's really excel-
lent character.
At length both Mrs. Montgomery and
Alice Humphreys die; and after some
years, Ellen comes to take up a daugh-
ter's duties in the home of her kind
friend. The scenes and episodes are
those of a homely every-day existence,
which is described with a close fidelity
to detail. Ellen's spiritual life is mi-
nutely unfolded, and the book was long
regarded as one of those which
too
an-
new
are
## p. 496 (#532) ############################################
496
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
“good for the young. ” The criticism alana, an ineffective, dreamy, silence-
of later generation, however, pro- loving soul; and her child, Tempe, an
nounces it mawkish in sentiment and elf of a girl who marries John Drake, a
unreal in conduct. It stands among the neighbor, almost before she is out of
fading fancies of an earlier and less short dresses. He dies soon after, the
exacting literary taste.
young widow going back to Temple
House. By a shipwreck another unusual
Lady of the Aroostook, The, a novel character, Sebastian Ford, is added to
of the present day, by W. D. How-
the Temple House circle. The Spanish
ells, was published in 1879. In its hero-
blood in his veins tinges his least act
ine, Lydia Blood, is drawn the portrait
with romance. He proves his devotion
of a lady of nature's own making. She
to his rescuer, Argus Gates, by defend-
is a New England school-teacher, young,
ing the honor of the woman he loves,
beautiful, and fragile. For the benefit
Virginia Brande, the daughter of a
of the sea voyage she leaves her grand-
wealthy neighbor. The book closes upon
parents on a remote New England farm,
the happiness of Virginia and Argus, a
to visit an aunt and an uncle in Ven-
kind of subdued happiness in accordance
ice. Two of her fellow-passengers on
with the autumnal atmosphere of the
the Aroostook are a Mr. Dunham and
story.
The slumberous haze lifts only
a Mr. Staniford, young gentlemen not
to reveal two or three spirited scenes
at first attracted by a girl who says
connected with Virginia's love-story.
“I want to know. ) Before the voyage is
over, however, Mr. Staniford falls in
love with Lydia, whose high-bred nature Lord Ormont and his Aminta, by
George Meredith. (1894. ) In this
cannot be concealed by her village rus-
novel the author's enigmatical laughter
ticity. In Venice, among fashionable so-
sounds louder than usual; possessing at
phisticated people, she shows in little
the same time a quality which leaves the
nameless ways that she is a lady in the
reader in doubt whether the mirth is at
true sense. The book closes with her
his expense, or at the expense of the
marriage to Staniford.
characters.
(The Lady of the Aroostook) is in
Lord Ormont, a distinguished general,
Howells's earlier manner, its genial real-
is the object of the hero-worship of
ism imparting to it an atmosphere of
two children: Aminta Farrell, called
delicate comedy.
«Browny, and Matey Weyburn. When
Aminta is become a young lady, she
Unclassed, The, by George Gissing,
published in 1896, is a study of the
marries Ormont, no longer a hero, but
mere civilian dismissed from his
lower London life, written with moder-
ation and sincere sympathy with the
country's service, and soured by public
sinful and the poor.
There is no shirk-
neglect. To show the world how he
ing of unpleasant details, but the author
despises its opinion, he refuses openly to
does not throw any glamour over the
acknowledge his marriage to Aminta.
lowest life of the streets. It is rather a
She, of course, is the chief sufferer from
study of conditions than of character,
this perversity of humor. Weyburn
although the personages of the story are
meantime becomes Lord Ormont's secre-
distinctly drawn. In the dénouement it tary, falls in love with his old playmate,
and does not conceal his love. The en-
appears that the unfortunates »
may
climb back to a decent life if social
suing scandal is less tragic than humor-
conditions favor.
Matey and Browny betake them-
selves to the Continent; and contrary to
Temple House, the third and last novel all precepts of morality and decency,
of Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, was “live happily ever afterwards. ” The
published in 1867. The scene is laid in novel is at once sprightly and judiciously
a forgotten, decaying seaport town of sober. It is remarkable for one or two
New England. The plot follows the for- magnificent scenes, scarcely surpassed in
tunes of one family, the inmates of the whole range of fiction.
Nothing
Temple House - a homestead of dignity could be more beautiful and effective as
in the prosperous days of the town, but a study of sky and sea, of light and
now tarnished and forlorn. It shelters air and out-door glory, than the scene
Argus Gates, a retired sea-captain, a where Aminta and Weyburn swim in
lover of solitude; his sister-in-law Rox- the ocean together, creatures for the
a
ous.
## p. 497 (#533) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
497
time being of nature, of love, and of
joy.
Taras Bulba, by Nikolai F. Gogol
.
(1839. ) This is a grewsome story
of Cossack life in the fifteenth century.
Ostap and Andrii, the sons of Taras
Bulba, a Cossack leader, return from
school; and he takes them at once to
the Setch (a large Cossack village) to
present them to his brothers in arms.
There they drink, carouse, and quarrel,
until a new ataman is elected and an
expedition is sent against Kief. Andrii
is taken into the city by the maid of
the Voivod's beautiful daughter, his
sweetheart in student days. The city is
given over to famine; he feeds his love,
and for the sake of her beauty turns
traitor and joins her party. The Voivod
goes out to attack the Cossacks; and
Taras Bulba, in his righteous wrath,
slays his son. His other son, Ostap, is
captured, and he himself is wounded.
On recovering, he bribes a Jew to take
him in disguise to Warsaw, where he
sees Ostap tortured to death. He raises
an army, fights, and spares none, shout-
ing as he burns and slays, “This is a
mass for the soul of Ostap. ) Finally he
is captured, however, thirty men falling
upon him at once. He is bound to a
tree; fagots are placed at the foot of it,
and preparations are made to roast him.
He sees that his Cossacks are lured into
a trap, and shouts a warning; they fly
over the precipice on their horses, and
plunge into the river, across which they
swim and escape. Taras perishes, but
his Cossacks live- to talk of their lost
leader.
Li
ife on the Lagoons, by Horatio F.
Brown. (1890. ) Beginning where
Nature began to hint at Venice, Mr.
Brown describes the peculiar topogra-
phy of the region: the deltaed rivers
flowing into the broad lagoon; the Lidi,
or sandy islands, that separate the la-
goon from the Adriatic, and guard the
city for seven miles inland, from attack
by war-fleet or storm; and the Porti, or
five channels that lead from the lagoon
to the sea. When the reader knows the
natural geography of Venice as if he
had seen it, he may pass on and behold
what man has done with the site, since
six miles of shoals and mud-banks and
intricate winding channels. The de-
scendants of these fugitives were the
earliest Venetians, a hardy, independent
race of fishermen, frugal and hard-work-
ing, little dreaming that their children's
children would be merchant princes,
rulers of the commercial world, or that
the queen
city of the Middle Ages
should rise from their mud-banks. Mr.
Brown gives a concise sketch of the his-
tory of Venice, from its early beginnings
to the end of the Republic in 1797,
when Napoleon was making his new
map of Europe. These preliminaries
gone through (but not to the reader's
relief, for they are very interesting), he
is free to play in the Venice of to-day,
to see all its wonderful sights, and read
its wonderful past as this is written in
the ancient buildings and long-descended
customs. He may behold it all, from the
palace of the Doges to the painted sails
of the bragozzi. The fishing boats, the
gondolas, the ferries, the churches, the
fisheries, the floods, the islands across
the lagoon, the pictures, the palaces, the
processions and regattas, and saints'
days, all have their chapters in this
spirited and happy book," as Stevenson
called it. All the beauty and fascination
of the city, which is like no other city
in the world, have been imprisoned in
its pages; and the fortunate reader,
though he may never have set foot in a
gondola, is privileged to know and love
it all.
Greek Poets, Studies in the, by J. A.
Symonds. (2 vols. , 1873–76. ) One
of the most admirable expositions ever
made for English readers of the finer
elements of Greek culture, the thoughts
and beauties of utterance of the Greek
poets, from Homer and Hesiod, through
the lyrics of various types, to the drama,
Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Ar-
istophanes. Not only has Mr. Symonds
a quick sense of poetic beauties in verse
and expression, but he gleans with rare
insight the notes of thought, of faith, of
sentiment and worship, which are the
indications of culture in the grand story
of Greek song.
In Homer, Hesiod, Pin-
dar, and the four great dramatists, espe-
cially, the field of study is very rich.
>
the Year 45. when the incinhabitantsiof Triumphant Democrachis by Andrew
mainland, fleeing before
the Hun, the scourge of God, took ref-
uge on the unattractive islands, amid
Carnegie. (1886. ) book is an
(attempt to give Americans a better
idea of the great work their country has
XXX-32
## p. 498 (#534) ############################################
498
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
man SO
but an unmixed blessing Two chapters The True Relation, by Captain John
done and is still doing in the world. ” inclines to the philosophy of Descartes;
Mr. Carnegie says that «in population, he is not given to credulity, but in no
in wealth, in annual savings, and in case yields up his loyalty to the faith of
public credit, in freedom from debt, in Islam. He keeps himself in hiding from
agriculture, and in manufactures, Amer- the detectives of Cardinal Richelieu in
ica already leads the world »; and this Paris from 1641 to 1682; and employs
statement he proceeds to prove by an his time in writing lengthy epistles to
overwhelming array of statistics. The the Sultan, to friends in Vienna, to
book is a glorification of democracy; Mahomet, a eunuch exiled in Egypt, and
and admitting frankly the many evils others. Among the personages and
and corruptions in America, asserts that topies commented on are Charles II. of
in no country is the common
England, Philip II. of Spain, the Re-
free, so able to make his way. The ligious War in Germany, «Gustavus,
growth of the West and its enormous King of Swedeland, and in France the
food-producing capacity are treated at course of affairs during the reign of
length. Manufactures, mining, agricul- the house of the Medici. His resources
ture, pauperism and crime, railways and in classical lore are extensive. Alex-
waterways, are all considered in detail, ander the Great comes under his review
with a wealth of statistics to support with sovereigns of later times. To his
every statement. There is a tendency friend the eunuch in Egypt he writes in
to make the American eagle scream a friendly confidence; towards the close of
little louder than is usual nowadays; the long record admitting that he has
but on the whole, most Americans would loved a woman for thirty years, only at
agree heartily with Mr. Carnegie's pride last to be deceived in her and to learn
in American institutions. Mr. Carnegie the folly of earthly love. “Let us there-
is so optimistic that he will not admit fore,” he counsels his friend, «reserve
that even the horde of immigrants pour- our love for the daughters of Paradise ! »
ing in on us from Europe is anything
.
to and , but it
pub-
is evident that the material prosperity lished in London, in 1608. The full title
of the country is the main idea of the is, (A True Relation of such occurrences
book.
and accidents of noate as has hapned in
Virginia since the first planting of that
The Turkish Spy (L'Espion Turc)
"
Collony, which is now resident in the
(Letters Written by one Mahmut, South part thereof, till the last returne
who lived Five-and. Forty Years undis- from thence. Written by Captain Smith,
covered at Paris. Giving an Impartial Coronell of the said Collony, to a wor-
Account to the Divan at Constantinople shipfull friend of his in England. The
of the most Remarkable Transactions of account was also called Newes from
Europe, and covering several Intrigues Virginia. It relates the founding of
and Secrets of the Christian Courts Jamestown, from January ist, 1607, when
(especially that of France) from the three ships sailed from England for Vir-
year 1637 to the year 1683. Written ginia, to May 20th, 1608. Dealings with
originally in Arabic. Translated in Ital- the Indians, especially with the great
ian and from thence into English, by emperour Powhatan,” occupy the greater
John Paul Marana. In 8 vols. London: part of the pamphlet. The style is
1801. )
straightforward, and the whole tone ex-
The contents of this remarkable work ceedingly naive. Captain John Smith
are quite fully described by the above has always been one of the few pictur-
lengthy inscription on the title-page. A esque figures in early colonial history,
romance, really written by Giovanni and the writers of school histories have
Paolo Marana, but pretending to be the always made the most of him; his vera-
confidential communications of a refugee city was unquestioned, until Mr. Charles
Turk, to his friends, – this performance Deane, in the preface to an edition of
is an ingenious and witty comment on (The True Relation,' published in 1880,
the political and social conduct of pointed out that the story of the rescue
Christian Europe during the
of Captain Smith by Pocahontas makes
teenth century,
as viewed by a pre- its first appearance in Smith's (General
tended outsider. The writer himself Historie,' published in 1624, and no such
seven-
## p. 499 (#535) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
499
re-
»
9
romantic incident is hinted at in The In 1843, Past and Present) was
True Relation. ' Mr. Deane charges Cap-garded as forceful, rousing, but not
tain Smith with having magnified his practical. It had, however, a great effect
own share in the doings of the colony; on the young and enthusiastic; and is
and it cannot be denied that all through now looked on as one of the best of Car-
(The True Relation, Captain John lyle's books, and as the expression of a
Smith is the central figure. But making political philosophy which, however vio-
all reasonable allowances for self-conceit lently expressed, was at bottom sensible
and self-glorification, there is no doubt and practical
that the settlers would have starved the
first winter, if John Smith had not had Master Beggars, The, by L. Cope
Cornford (1897), is a romance of
his own energy and all they lacked into
(old heroical days in the latter half
the bargain.
of the sixteenth century. The title is
the nickname applied to the troops of
Past
and Present, by Thomas Carlyle.
men, nobles and outlaws, who wandered
This treatise was published in Eng-
through the Netherlands in rebellion
land in April 1843; in May it was
against the rule of Philip II. , and crying
published in America, prefaced by an
for the suppression of the Inquisition.
appealing notice to publishers, written
Often engaged in heroic or chivalric
by Ralph Waldo Emerson, to the effect
deeds, the Beggars were too frequently
that the book was printed from a manu-
guilty of excesses: rifled churches, burned
script copy sent by the author to his
monasteries, and tortured priests; and
friends, and was published for the bene-
fit of the author. Mr. Emerson some-
by no means confined their outrages to
the clerical profession. The story is a
what optimistically hoped that this fact
vivid presentment of their reckless, vehe-
would incline publishers to respect Mr.
ment life, and their readiness to face
Carlyle's property in his own book. ”
danger or death for a cause, a leader, or
(Past and Present) was written in
a fair lady.
seven weeks, as a respite from the har-
Young Brother Hilarion, dedicated to
assing labor of writing (Cromwell. ? In
God by his noble father, in hope that
1842, the Camden Society had published
the "Chronicles of the Abbey of St. Ed-
his prayers may expiate the sins of
his ancestors, detests monastic life. His
mund's Bury,' written by Joceline de
Brakelonde, at the close of the twelfth
longing for the world is intensified by
meeting the beautiful Jacqueline, the
century. This account of a mediæval
monastery had taken Carlyle's fancy; and
young Countess of Durbuy. She is be-
trayed into the hands of the Beggars,
in Past and Present) he contrasted the
who plan to extort a large ransom for
England of his own day with the Eng-
her return. Hilarion joins her captors,
land of Joceline de Brakelonde. Eng-
swears allegiance to the chief, the fam-
lishmen of his own day he divided into
ous Wild Cat, and resumes his proper
three classes: the laborers, the devotees
name of Seigneur Philip d’Orchimont.
of Mammon, and the disciples of dilet-
tanteism. Between these three classes, he
He proves abundantly both his heroism
said, there was no tie of human brother-
and his love for his lady, in a succession
hood. In the old days the noble was
of startling Dumas-like chances which
the man who fought for the safety of
culminate in a terrible catastrophe; from
society. For the dilettantes and the
which, however, both Jacqueline and
d'Orchimont are saved, with the neces-
Mammonites he preached the “Gospel
of Work. For the uplifting of the class
sary, if improbable, good fortune of
lovers in fiction.
of laborers, for the strengthening of the
Social Classes Owe to Each
what seemed chimerical schemes in 1843 ;
Other, by William Graham Sum-
but before his death some of his schemes ner. This work, published in 1883, was
had been realized. He attacked the written by the professor of political
(laissez faire principle most fiercely; economy in Yale University, and was
he advocated legislative interference in intended to explode the fallacy of re-
labor, sanitary and educational legisla- garding the State as something more
tion, an organized emigration service, than the people of which it is composed.
some system of profit-sharing, and the Every attempt to make the Sta
organization of labor.
a social ill, Mr. Sumner says, is an
tie of human brotherhood, he proposed. What
cure
## p. 500 (#536) ############################################
500
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
men
we
(
In the pros-
attempt to make some people take Europe for so many ages. There is
care of others. It is not at all the nothing in these tales of the heroic
function of the State to make
doings of Odin and Thor, of Volsungs
happy; to say that those who by their and Vikings, that associate with
own labor and industry have acquired Norse stories. The only supernatural
or augmented a fortune shall support beings are the Trolls, a dark, ugly race,
the shiftless and negligent, is to strike ill-disposed to mankind. The favorite
at the liberty of the industrious. Evils story seems to be the adventures of
due to the folly and wickedness of man- some poor youth, who starts out to seek
kind bear their own bitter fruit; State his fortune, and meets with many strange
interference in such cases means simply happenings, but usually ends by win-
making the sober, industrious, and pru- ning a princess and half a kingdom.
dent pay the penalty which should be There are many old friends under dif-
borne by the offender. The type and ferent names: (Cinderella, (The Sleep-
formula of most philanthropic schemes ing Beauty, Tom Thumb); and one
is this: A and B put their heads to- story, East o' the Sun and West o' the
gether to decide what C shall do for D. Moon,' is a combination of the old tale
Poor C, the “forgotten man,” has to of Cupid and Psyche) and Beauty and
pay for the scheme, without having any the Beast. ) The old pagan customs and
voice in the matter. «Class distinc- legends show through the veneer of
tions simply result from the different Christianity, as in "The Master-Smith,'
degrees of success with which men have where the blacksmith, who has angered
availed themselves of the chances which the Devil, goes to make his peace with
were presented to them.
Satan after he has lost his chance of
ecution of these chances, we all owe to heaven, because he does not want to be
each other good-will, mutual respect, houseless after death: he would prefer to
and mutual guarantees of liberty and go to heaven; but as he cannot, he
security. Beyond this nothing can be would prefer hell to a homeless fate.
affirmed as a duty of one group to an- The stories are prefaced by an essay
other in a free State. )
written by Mr. Dasent, in which he
Professor Sumner's book is a useful traces many of them from their San-
antidote to many of the futile and skrit originals through Greek to German
dreamy socialistic schemes now afloat. mythology
A process warranted to regenerate the
world in a day always has its attrac- Men and Letters, by Horace E. Scud-
tions. Professor Sumner, however, is
der. To attempt a critical review,
a more thorough-going supporter of the it is not only necessary to have a knowl.
(laissez faire » doctrine than most econ- edge of a man's work, the mere details
omists of the present day. Besides, of what he has done, and the manner of
he disregards the very dishonest means its performance, but to put oneself en rap-
by which wealth is often attained. His | port with his mental attitude, in sympa-
defense of the capitalist class is not thy with his moral aims, and in harmony
quite reasonable: not all capitalists, we with his intellectual perceptions; in or-
know, the despicable villains de- der that he may be presented in the
scribed by the extreme socialists; but best light to those who either fail to
neither could all of them be regarded grasp the full meaning or comprehens-
as men who have simply made legiti- iveness of his words or to those who
mate use of the chances presented to wait on the threshold for an invitation
them. ” However, Professor Sumner's to enter and enjoy. All this Mr. Scud-
protest against the insidious attacks on der has
has accomplished. The carping
the liberty of the majority, under the note is absent; the faint praise that
specious guise of legislative aid for the damns, superseded by a quiet force of
weak, is straightforward and convincing. convincing eloquence, which is inspired
by a thorough knowledge of the subjects
Popular Tales from
the Norse. he reviews. Whether he is describing
(1858. ) This is a collection of (Emerson's Self); (The Art of Long-
Norse folk-tales, translated by George fellow'; 'Landor as a Classic); or the
Webbe Dasent. The stories in this com- faith in works of Elisha Mulford, Annie
pilation are the Norse versions of the Gilchrist, or Dr. Muhlenberg,-a trio
stories which have been floating all over less well known to the general reader, -
are
## p. 501 (#537) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
501
we
>
we
>
one feels his intense sympathy with lofty
purpose, his suppression of self, his com-
prehension of mental attitudes and sub-
tleties. He seems to have the faculty of
obtaining the true perspective of action,
and of expressing character in a telling
phrase. When he writes of a subject
we have studied or reflected upon, we
are conscious of new methods of illu-
mination; when follow him into
untrodden paths, a magnetism of leader-
ship which induces to further research.
In his essay on (The Shaping of Excel-
sior,'' he describes the methods by which
a poet, even when he has seized upon
the central thought of a poem, has some-
times to drudge painstakingly over its
final form; in American History on the
Stage, the popular awakening to the
dramatic elements of American history,
its limitations and its possibilities; in
(The Future of Shakespeare,' the most
forceful of all, the belief that the future
of art is inextricably bound to the
world's final fiat on the works of the im-
mortal dramatist, – that he is the meas-
uring rod by which shall judge
proportions. ”
Spirit of Laws, The (Esprit des
Lois), by Montesquieu. (1748. )
The work of a French baron, born just
100 years before the French Revolution
of 1789, has the double interest of a sin-
gularly impressive manifestation of mind
and character in the author, and a very
able study of the conditions, political
and social, in France, which were des-
tined to bring the overthrow of the old
order. In 1728, after an election to the
Academy, Montesquieu had entered upon
prolonged European travel, to gratify
his strong interest in the manners,
customs, religion, and government to be
seen in different lands. Meeting with
Lord Chesterfield, he went with him to
England, and spent nearly two years
amid experiences which made him an
ardent admirer of the British Constitu-
tion, monarchy without despotism.
Returning thence to his native La Brède,
near Bordeaux, he gave the next twenty
years to study, the chief fruit of which
was to be the Esprit des Lois. As
early as 1734 he gave some indication
of what he had in view by his (Consid-
erations) upon Roman greatness and
Roman decline. The Esprit des Lois)
appeared in 1748, to become in critical
estimation the most important literary
production of the eighteenth century,
before the Encyclopédie. ' Its purpose
was research of the origin of laws, the
principles on which laws rest, and how
they grow out of these principles. It
was designed to awaken desire for free-
dom, condemnation of despotism, and
hope of political progress; and this effect
it had, modifying the thought of the
century very materially, and raising up
a school of statesmen and political econ-
omists at once intelligent and upright in
the interest of the governed.
The Woodman is a translation by Mrs.
John Simpson of Le Forestier,' a
rustic sketch by M. Quesnay de Beaure-
paire, known as a writer under the pseu-
donym of Jules de Glouvet. ) M. de
Beaurepaire, it will be remembered, is a
statesman of wide reputation. It was
due to his fearless and disinterested ac-
tion while procureur général of France,
that the dangerous Boulanger conspiracy
of 1888 was so successfully handled.
(The Woodman) is a story of one of
those rude, untaught peasants who, as
“franctireurs » in the war of 1870, gave
so many startling proofs of heroism and
matchless devotion to their country.
Jean Renaud, known as “The Poacher,"
grows up in a state of semi-savagery.
