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No. 4403, MARCH 16, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
301
CONTENTS.
PAGK
301
302
303
THE HILL OF VISION . .
303-304
304-305
305-306
306
306-307
307-308
309
309
NEXT MONTH'S MAGAZINES
LITERARY GOSSIP
312
313
WEEK; THE NORSEMEN AT THE SOUTH POLE;
GOSSIP
. .
GOSSIP
MUSIC
.
WEÉK . .
317-319
MIT SEINEN
PERFORMANCES NEXT
319-320
320
320
SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1912.
American translation has a prefatory note “must keep itself independent of politics
by Prof. Michael Sadler, of which the of all kinds and from participation in political
opening sentence runs thus : This book | agitation, whether this is favourable or
CHANGING VIEWS IN EDUCATION (Education for
will be a landmark in the history of educa- inimical to our views of a State's functions ";
Citizenship; All the Children of All the People ; tion. ” It requires, therefore, a
a little
The Century and the School; A Good Citizen
but there are pages in which so strong a
Catechism for All Children)
courage to confess that Dr. Kerschen-
CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY BRITAIN ::
steiner's prize essay is somewhat dis: political bias on the Doctor's part peeps
out as to arouse some doubts of his own
FICTION (The Matador of the Five Towns; Charity; appointing, while the English version of it
Commoners' Rights; In Accordance with the Evi.
power to maintain so impartial a position.
is more so. Mr. Pressland, the translator, He writes, for instance, of the attitude of
dence; Up to Perrin's; The Shadow of Neeme)
tells us that
TRAVEL (Burgundy; Costumes, Traditions, and Songs
the Social Democrats of Germany as
of Savoy; In the Carpathians; Gun-Running and
the Indian North-West Frontier)
two courses are always open to a trans. distinguished by its want of national
ANTHOLOGIES (In Praise of Oxford ; Das Oxforder lator-he may either endeavour to reproduce and religious feeling and by its class
Buch Deutscher Dichtung; An Anthology of a masterpiece of literature in a version of hatred," while he speaks with the warmest
Imaginative Prose). .
PUBLIC SCHOOLS (Floreat Etona ; Harrow School equal literary merit, or he may attempt to admiration of the upper classes of his
Register)
RECORDS AND CLOSE ROLLS (Close Rolls of Henry
convey, the meaning of an author in the
author's own way. ”
country, and with a whole-hearted ap-
III. ; Cardiff Records)
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (Mary Wollstonecraft; Things
proval of military service. In England
that Matter; The Bengali Language and Litera-
Unfortunately, the second method, which these opinions would make it difficult to
ture ; Social Evolution and Political Theory; The he has adopted, is apt to be disastrous gain that co-operation of industrial organi-
National Insurance Act; Franciscan Essays;
Erskine May's Constitutional History)
when applied to translations from German zations which he desires, and which is,
FREEMASONRY
LIST OF NEW BOOKS ::
into English. The framework of German indeed, necessary for real success.
FORTHCOMING BOOKS
312 composition has a cumbrousness some-
what mitigated in the original by frequent
Mr. Smith has achieved that rare thing,
SCIENCE-CAPT. CARTWRIGHT AND HIS LABRADOR
inflection, but when reproduced in our
a book really alive, the fruit, not of reading
JOURNAL; THE BIRDS OF COLORADO; PHYSICO-
CHEMICAL TABLES; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS NEXT uninflected tongue it is intolerable. Only or lessons learnt, but of direct observation
314-316 by an entire recasting of the mould can and individual thought. In his work as
FINE ARTS—THEMIS; BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND; AUMONIER German be made into acceptable English ; a teacher in the public schools of America
MEMORIAL EXHIBITION; THE ATKINSON SALE;
and Mr. Pressland, having failed to recast, —which, of course, are something alto-
WAGNER'S BRIEFWECHSEL
makes his author appear to write a clumsy gether different from what we, in our
VERLEGERN; GOSSIP;
and muffled tongue-in fact, the transla- inexact English terminology, call“ public
DRAMA-GOSSIP
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
tion is but half made.
schools”
- he has been struck, first,
Shortly put, Dr. Kerschensteiner's desire by the fact that children are born with
is that education shall be prolonged ineradicable differences of specialized
LITERATURE
beyond the years of elementary schooling, capacity, dull in one point and able in
and that its continuation shall delibe another; and, secondly, by the fact that
rately aim at training the youth of the the American schools, to which he con-
civilized world for the duties of citizen- fines his attention, are framed to suit
CHANGING VIEWS IN EDUCATION. ship. Various agencies are to one particular sort of child and produce
THE contemporary educational world has employed, among the foremost of which one particular sort of adult. The result
escaped-or, perhaps it would be more
must stand technical or trade schools is that children of any other sort do not
of
exact to say, is rapidly escaping—from
enlightened kind,
kind, in which get really taught at all, and that conse-
that most dangerous of all conditions, plentiful opportunities are to be afforded quently the United States fail in their
self-satisfaction. Experiments are being
for a share in the management of the acknowledged duty of teaching “ all the
continually suggested, and not infre institution and the associations connected children of all the people. "
quently carried out. In fact, education, to be given on the methods and details variations of special ability are really
with it, while direct instruction is also It is the opinion of Mr. Smith that these
and particularly elementary education,
is in a state of transition, as systems
of the country's government. Into the physical, as, indeed, we know idiocy to be,
founded and conducted by human beings circle of such a school's life other social and that the mind behind the body is
merely impeded and obstructed by ma-
must be to remain healthy. Here, for activities are to be drawn :-
instance, are two books, in each of which
terial obstacles, some of which science
“ The senior division will then be the
the transitional tendency is marked, and meeting place for people's improvement will presently, learn to remove or to cir-
in both of which British teachers may societies, university extensión societies, and cumvent, as it has already circumvented
find valuable matter for thought; and
health lectures, where, in connection with certain defects of sight by spectacles.
another, from which they may discern
the whole scheme of instruction, libraries, That his theory is in many cases sound
how far some writers on education are
reading rooms, and collections of artistic has been proved; but the arguments
or technical importance may be exhibited. "
from recognizing the changes around
to which he proceeds are no less sound if
them, or welcoming the new spirit to Although the words “boy” and “work-based merely upon the fact familiar in
which teachers are responding.
appear everywhere in the descrip- practice to every teacher in every country
tive chapters, Dr. Kerschensteiner desires-that children do present the differences
The name of Dr. Kerschensteiner of to extend the training for citizenship to of faculty which he describes.
Munich carries so much weight in educa-girls, whose further education “must," Individual experience, indeed, tells each
tiopal circles as to demand serious atten-
he says, “ be taken in hand as strenuously of us that we are, as Mr. Smith expresses
tion for any volume that bears it. as the education of boys. "
it, “ long” in one direction, and “ short
Moreover, the English edition of this The sort of training recommended is in some other direction, and that not the
being actually carried out under best teaching in the world, although sup-
Education for Citizenship, By Dr. Georg the author's direction in Munich ; and plemented by our own strenuous efforts,
Kerschensteiner. Translated by A. J.
Pressland. (Commercial Club of Chicago ; cellent trade schools of London. These,
something very like it exists in the ex- could ever have enabled us to excel in
London, Harrap. )
our “short" departments. Perhaps few
All the Children of All the People. By however, touch but a small portion of fail to know in their secret souls
William Hawley Smith. (New York, London's adolescent citizens ;
London's adolescent citizens ; to fulfil that most of their personal unhappiness
the Macmillan Company. )
Dr. Kerschensteiner's ideal, every child has been caused by endeavours — their
The Century and the School, and Other should receive the education reserved at
Educational Essays.
own or other people's - to push them
By Frank Louis
Soldan. (Same publishers. )
present for the happy few. One danger, in directions from which nature bars them.
A Good Citizen Catechism for All Children.
however, lurks behind any universal What family tragedies have we not all
By “Silver Cockle. " (Clowes & Sons. )
training for citizenship—that of party beheld, of which the root was the desire of
The Ethics of School Life. By J. Howard propaganda. Our author, indeed, ex- a parent to mould a child, or of a husband
Moore. (Bell & Sons. )
pressly declares that civic instruction or wife to mould a partner!
an
man
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302
No. 4403, MARCH 16, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
>
each -
Education, as Mr. Smith perceives, and office,” she is further told, “is not that even then—would all of them be found
as leaders of education in this country are of the critic, but of the helper. ” Surely widely different from those of the extreme
happily beginning to perceive, has, for the higher duty of teachers, and the one Protestants of the present day.
generations past, been engaged in the of which they rather need to be reminded, His lectures very properly are not
same singularly injurious endeavour, and, is to preserve independence of mind, and confined to the limits of Britain, but
most unfortunately, has often succeeded not entirely to subordinate their teaching include all the movements of the Western
up to the limit of possibility ; the short and their pupils to the idea of the school Church in which any British bishops or
faculties have not been developed, but or the system.
monks were concerned. Thus the famous
the “ long” ones have often been effectu-
ally stunted.
'A Good Citizen Catechism for Au Synod of Arles was attended by three
Children’ was composed as a counterblast British bishops, who brought båck the
In the second half of his volume Mr. to a Socialist Catechism that had fallen decrees of that Council to their homes.
Smith traces the history of the American under the writer's notice; but it is so
Indeed, for centuries the Church of
schools, framed to impart “a classical
education
lacking in argument, so narrow in out- Southern Gaul stood in very close rela-
render it possible for
and
every child, rich or poor, to go to college. "
look, and so amusingly cocksure that it tions to that of Britain. Even in the case
Certain stages of certain studies occupy adversaries rather than its friends.
will be ammunition in the hands of its of Ireland, there seem to have been
He early groups of Christians before St.
grade”; and pupils who fail in has, doubtless, no intention of being blas- Patrick in the southern provinces; and
any subject remain in the grade, repeating phemous, and does not, probably, recognize the track of this early faith was probably
the whole of their work until the required the enormous presumption of supposing from Marseilles, across the south of France
standard is attained. If that attainment that he knows for certain why God to Bordeaux, or even to Northern Spain,
is continually missed, they drop out of created the human race, and that God from which early communication with
expelled. Such pupils do not get educated designed the precise form of government the south of Ireland seems to have existed
expelled. Such pupils do not get educated and dominion now prevailing in this long before the spread of Christianity.
country. The intellectual calibre of this But, if there was any close intercourse
years are made intolerable to them. They production may be fairly judged by the between Marseilles and Ireland, it would
are not necessarily stupid ; some are very following question and answer
give some colour to the frequent assertions
intelligent, but their intelligence, facing
of the Irish archæologists that Greek was
along a road not travelled by the school, for the defence of your country and Empire
“ To oppose compulsory military service
known and taught in their schools. Dr.
remains untrained and often useless. is therefore wrong in principle and dis- Williams evidently does not believe this,
In all such cases the children have been graceful ?
and goes so far as to cite Pelagius's
sacrificed to the school, a most disastrous “Yes. Every individual should regard knowledge of Greek as evidence that
perversion of a school's true purpose. it as the highest privilege and honour to he had not been educated in Ireland.
The necessary remedy consists, pri- undergo military training and service for In the absence of any clear proof we are
marily, in a changed educational spirit, Our author has evidently no perception conclusion that Pelagius was a Briton.
disposed to agree with him, as well as in the
a desire not to shape which is generally
impossible—but to develope the indi- of a difference between things desirable
He holds justly that, although early
viduality of every child ; and, secondarily,
to do and things desirable to be enforced.
Latin versions of the Bible were current
in so widening methods and curricula Nor does he, we venture to say, realize
compulsory
in England and Wales, the teaching was
as to open to every child subjects of that he has advocated a
"
teaching that the laws of his nature military training and service for girls
. probably in the vernacular, which never
To the advocates of military glory girls loan words from that language. In
fused itself with Latin, though using many
permit him to assimilate. To keep a
child grinding at things for which he are, of course, not individuals.
support of this opinion he might have
has no capacity, or for which his capacity The teaching of morals is required by cited the fact that in the earliest Irish
has not yet come into existence (and the law in the public schools of Illinois. Prof. Latin MSS. there Celtic glosses,
periods at which capacities appear vary Howard Moore has consequently given a showing that explanations were required
extremely in different individuals), is lesson at a technical High School of in the vernacular. The existence and
not only to waste his time and destroy Chicago on ‘The Ethics of School Life. popularity of earlier versions than St.
his happiness; it is also to waste and His twenty pages are full of practical Jerome's Vulgate are known from ample
impair that common stock of intelligence advice, delivered with homely and effective evidence. In Ireland, though the Book
which is the greatest of a nation's vigour.
of Durrow is copied from the Vulgate,
treasures.
there are variants from this version in the
The late Mr. Soldan's essays have been Christianity in Early Britain.
Book of Kells which seem to show that
By the
selected and published since his death by late Hugh Williams. (Oxford, Claren- the writers either had before them, or
“a group of his intimate associates,
don Press. )
remembered, the older versions.
who would have been better advised if It will be a surprise to many of our
Nothing distinguished these early Chris-
they had left the manuscripts, as appar- readers that the Davies Lecture Trust attached to subjects which we cannot
tians more than the vast importance they
ently the author did, in privacy. Evi- Fund should provide the assembly of regard as better than trivial.
Thus the
dently the strong educational influence the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists with so
which Mr. Soldan
is said
to have exercised broad, learned, and
philosophical a course great quarrel
about the fixing of Easter
must have been due to powers other than of lectures as are contained in the volume Church was declared heretical, and worthy
those of a thinker or a writer.
We before us.
The author, who was Pro- of exclusion from the Communion of the
fail to find anything original in the fessor of Church History at the Theo- Saints, seems to us now incomprehensible.
essays, while the deficiencies of style and logical College of Bala, shows himself Even had it been a quarrel about a fixed
even grammar suggest that English was a master of his business. Above all,
not the writer's native tongue.
he treats it strictly as
day in the year and month we might try
an historian, to appreciate it. But we must take the
The essay headed Teachers' Duties being free from the prejudice, common
dwells with dangerous emphasis upon among Protestants of most kinds, that, ages as we find them. Here is a sound
the , full loyalty and unswerving sup- if the unsound accretions and additions passage apropos of Constantius’s ‘ Life of
St. Germanus':-
port owed to "the system of public to the creeds of Anglicans and Catholics
schools of which she is one of the repre- in the course of centuries were but stripped ' Any endeavour to remove,
sentatives," and to the principal who off, what remains would be the doctrine lessen, the supernatural element in a book
represents the authority of the board,” of the primitive Church as it existed in
such as this would be a historical blunder.
The author belongs to his age ; saints and
by every teacher—the teacher, it may be the early centuries of our era. He says
relics are to him naturally accompanied
noted, is always “she” in these pages,
than once that these primitive with many and frequent miracles, and,
and the principal always “he. ' Her Churches-for there were more than one ' without committing an anachronism, we
66
are
or
even
in 1
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THE ATHENÆUM
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6
>
>>
3
are more likely to find the truth we are in This prefatory explanation is necessary,
search of if we approach his work with some not only on account of the rich promise and
FICTION.
amount of sympathy. To whittle away
the miraculous would certainly leave us the comparative neglect of Mr. Stephens's first
The
volume, but also because The Hill of
Matador of the Five Towns. By
poorer ; to rationalize excessively, and by
Arnold Bennett. (Methuen & Co. )
doing so to find a deep recondite meaning, Vision 'marks a curious development of,
frequently turns out to be a grave mistake. and even departure from, the territory This is a collection of twenty-two short
This miraculous element in Christian litera. he had mapped out for himself. His stories—contributions to periodical papers
ture appears early as a component part even expression is now obviously more ripe, -of which five are designated “Tragic,
of contemporary and genuinely historical and has gained in deftness of handling and the rest “Frolic. " By far the best
narratives.
and spontaneity what it has lost in ruth is the one which gives its title to the
The editors have performed their pious lessness, austerity, and grim stalking of book; in fact, we question whether Mr.
labour very well ; but there are a few the truth.
In some
ways it would Arnold Bennett has ever written forty
spots on the sun, which seem to point to seem as if in this volume the poet was
pages more compact of life and imagina-
Dr. Williams's want of care in translating recreating himself, before, like Alastor, tion than these. The diction runs easily
or quoting classical languages. His audi- he girded himself anew for the high places and without affectation, yet it is strong
ence was probably the cause of such a and solitudes of poetic endeavour. But and serried, free from superfluous words:
note as this : “Lucan was the nephew his emotional quality, always poignant the amount of detail included is astonish-
of the philosopher Seneca. Besides other and straining eagerly at freedom, has been ing, but the general effect is kept broad
works he wrote an Epic poem, of which the not so much diluted as deflected into other and simple. The “Matador," à certain
poetic value is small, called 'Pharsalia. '”
modes of poetic realization. Still warm- Jos Myatt, “is the finest full-back in
But presently he says, “ Lucan, in the ing“ both hands before the fire of life," he the League”; and as the central scene
dozen or fewer of lines of his preserved, has, except for rare impulses, ceased—we of the tale we have a football match,
seems to me to be reproducing Cæsar. ” hope, momentarily—to bank it up himself. viewed from the grand stand, with the
This is strange. He mistranslates érì with We feel that other hands, greater and less players looking like red and white dolls,
the genitive" at the hands of,” instead than his, have experienced a kindred and the vast multitude of spectators
of witnessed before the rulers, and so glow before him.
glow before him. In 'A Prelude and A itself
the chief actor.
spoils his quotation. “Quot pæne verba, Song,' for instance, there is a note of "Tragic” though the tale is called, the
tot sententiæ sunt,” is surely not “his fresh, joyous aspiration, a sweet self-humour interwoven with it, the unobtru-
very words, almost, are sentences,” but identification with natural phenomena, siveness of the concentration, give it
rather“ there is a thought in almost every which reminds us vividly of Keats, when rather the character of "pathetic. In
word. ” This is indeed the explanation he tells us how his spirit entered into that Mimi' there is a charming child, who
given of Tertullian's style in the preceding of the sparrow picking from the gravel stands apart among Mr. Arnold Bennett's
words. These are but trifles, as are also a outside his window. Here and there is a children in being shown simply as she is
few patriotic verdicts which magnify the touch of that pellucid melody the cunning-neither as conforming to the carefully
Welsh saints in comparison with the Irish, stops and keys of which are well known calculated exigencies of heredity, nor as
whom the author strangely enough, in one to Mr. W. H. Davies ; here and there a painfully foreshadowing her own later
place opposes to Celtic ! But the whole drop into the soft melancholy of regret, development into the commonplace or
book is full of interest. There are fre- which sounds in “Fair Daffodils, we weep the surprising.
quent lists of important modern authori- to see. . . . ” But Mr. Stephens never Of the Frolic' tales, Jack-at-a-
ties, and we cannot but deeply deplore relapses into the mincing gait, exotic Venture,' 'Under the Clock,' and 'Hot
the loss of such a scholar and thinker to tonality, and spiritual anæmia character- Potatoes' seem to us the merriest, the
the Churches of Wales.
istic of the modern craft of verse.
most skilfully told, and the most worth
We notice that one or two of the shorter, telling. We find two, or perhaps three,
more dramatic poems have been reprinted more which are well enough. The rest are
The Hill of Vision. By James Stephens. from The Nation. The first two stanzas clumsy, far-fetched, and jejune ; and, if
(Dublin, Maunsel & Co. )
of “The Fullness of Time' we cannot they offer us here and there a good epigram,
WHEN Mr. Stephens's first volume- forbear to quote :
a vivid or a grotesque bit of intuition,
* Insurrections '- came into the world,
On a rusty iron throne,
there is plenty of Mr. Arnold Bennett's
its appeal for the most part fell upon chill
Past the furthest star of space,
work in which such excellences as these
I saw Satan sit alone :
and unheeding ears. But the inspiration
may be enjoyed without the expense of
Old and haggard was his face ;
and message contained in it were as a
For his work was done, and he
ennui.
hawk swooping among the chirruping
Rested in eternity.
company of songsters whose puny voices
And to him from out the sun
represent the verse of to-day. That
Came his father and his friend,
Saying, now the work is done
Charity. By R. B. Cunninghame
first volume had poetry in it charged with
Enmity is at an end,
Graham. (Duckworth & Co. )
vitality It cast away the swathings
And he guided Satan to
with which modern minor verse screens
Paradises that he knew.
PERHAPS “ Charity' was selected as the
itself from reality, and swept out upon us The last stanza Mr. Stephens has unfortu- title for this collection of eighteen
a new thing in full panoply of its own. nately retouched in such a way as to sketches, or stories, because Faith
The author's most potent gift was poetic lose the depth and strength of its sim- and 'Hope' had been chosen for the
dramatization, the faculty of presentation plicity. • Nora Criona,' which also ap- volumes which preceded it from the
in condensed tabloids of thought. He peared in the same journal, and 'Danny same pen. At least, it is not easy for
rejoiced in elliptical expression, subtleties Murphy' are in their fashion perfect the reader to discover any other reason.
of transition, and daring strokes of caustic pieces of characterization, conveyed in The book begins with a cruel and
irony that caught up the reader rudely broad, casual, yet secretly intimate poignant tale of a Spanish brothel,
into the mood which engendered them. strokes, the curt, fiercely direct, concrete and the infamy of an Englishman.
Occasionally, he achieved a harmony of style, purged of all excrescence, fusing The author has a tendency to dwell
rhythm almost as rounded and sonorous with and, as it were, exhuming the general upon the brutality of Englishmen in
as the Miltonic. He was an insurgent, effects. But these lightning Aashes, rend their relations with women. In the case
and flung his gage, as the insurgent ing open far, spacious, sombre horizons of Latins, and especially Spaniards,
minority should Aing it, hard and straight of thought, are less numerous than in he is indulgent towards excesses of
in the face of the adversary. His style, Insurrections. More frequently now is various kinds. Indeed, Mr. Cunning-
except where it gathered speed and the spirit of the lyrist speeding after Joy, hame Graham's "sweet reasonable-
volume, was lean and lithe, stripped like Apollo after Daphne-
is apt to be smothered beneath
naked and unabashed, admirably fitted
the brilliance and interest of his style
for its rough and vigorous work,
Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips,
Bidding adieu.
and the agility of his mind. He is a
>
> >
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304
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4403, MARCH 16, 1912
we
man
was
master of atmospheric effects, and, like at large, but also for the intended bride, and
Heine, plays upon all the sympathies even for the despicable little murdered
TRAVEL.
which feel, consciously or the bridegroom. If we are tempted to ex-
reverse, for the rebel. In modern onerate the murderer's deed, we recoil from
THE flow of books of travel shows that
fiction we have no more accomplished his subsequent concealment; and although things have changed since Shelley said that
reviler of the existing order, the the one
an immeasurably there was nothing to be seen in France. A
orthodoxy of the day. He lashes our worthier creature than the other, yet, recent volume, which we have already named
complacence far more effectively than in the matter of falsehood towards the in our "List of New Books,' is Burgundy :
Mr. Gilbert Chesterton has done, and woman, no essential difference existed the Splendid Duchy (Francis Griffiths), by
in the lashing contrives to present us between them. No diligent reader of Mr. Percy. Allen, with many illustrations by
with gem-like cameos of descriptive Mr. Onions will believe that his acute Miss Marjorie Nash. Our author has read
writing reminiscent of Mr. Joseph and ironical mind failed
much, and he writes so well that we wait
to recognize with interest for the volume which he pro-
Conrad in such books as ' Almayer's this, though he gives no indication to mises on the Northern part of the Duchy.
Folly' and 'Romance. He is a lover that effect.
In his present work he deals with South
of the people, but his princely scorn
Burgundy, and his “ list of works consulted ”
is the disdain usually associated with
should be useful to any who propose to
pride of blood and of race, the distinc-
follow in his steps. Throughout the book
tion of which is implicit in his work. Up to Perrin's. By Margaret B. Cross.
By Margaret B. Cross. rities. He takes us to Autun, to Cluny, and
he is careful to give references to his autho-
The present volume furnishes an ex- (Chatto & Windus. )
to Cîteaux, and then on to Berzé-le-Châtel
cellent specimen of it.
WEARIED by the never-ending plots and and Tournus, and to other places of much
charm. He has borrowed freely (with
counter-plots, impossible heroes and lan- acknowledgment) from P. G. Hamerton, and,
guishing
heroines, apparently indispensable in quoting from The Mount,” he reminds
Commoners' Rights. Ву Constance to the majority of modern novels, we is that Mont Blanc may be seen from the
Smedley. (Chatto & Windus. )
read with zest and gratitude Miss Cross's neighbourhood of Dijon. Mr. Allen should,
simple, yet subtly told narrative of life however, have corrected Hamerton, who
We all know the fatal tendency of heroines in a West - Country fishing village. On said that the distance from Beuvray, to
described as charming every person in closing the book we are at once struck by The distance from Dijon is about 135 miles
their own book to fail in charming any- the skilful artistry which prepared us, and from Beuvray it must be much the same
body outside of it. Especially is this unknowingly and unostentatiously, in the —which is a very different thing. We like
misfortune apt to befall intelligent heroines earlier chapters for the cyclonic sequence Mr. Allen's remarks on ancient customs
with minds and views of their own. But of events to follow. As we look back, we and his notes on the patois of Burgundy, and
Miss Smedley's Georgiana, although con-
spicuously intelligent, modern to her of quiet village life the elements of tragedy Church of Brou will turn to the chapter
see underlying the vivacious description we wish he had told us more about that
finger-tips, and even a little“ managing,” gathering in gradual, but ever-increasing near the end, but they will not be satisfied
is so genial, so full of kindness, and so force. When the storm finally bursts, with the illustration of the famous tomb of
free from self-consciousness, that it becomes both literally and metaphorically, the Margaret of Austria. Notes and Queries
impossible not to love her, and almost author lays hold of the facts of life with has often dealt with the mysterious letters
possible to believe in her rapid conquest of real power ; she writes not a word too FERT," but we do not remember if the
the new and exceedingly prejudiced neigh much or too little. There is something explanation of the guide at Brou has been
bours to whom her marriage introduced fine in the idea of an old man, long quoted in our contemporary. The true
her. The weakness of the book-apart past active service, taking his son's place to Mr. Allen, is “ Fide Et Religione Tenemur. ”
from its loose texture- lies in a too cheerful in the lifeboat in order to save the family One version given in Notes and Queries was
optimism that presents as comparatively name from the charge of cowardice, made “Fodere Et Religione Tenemur. ” When
easy the task of diffusing tolerance and all the more damning by a slumbering Mr. Allen is writing or quoting French, we
charity throughout a small rural com- village feud. The picture of the rough, think that he sometimes wearies his reader
munity rigidly divided into social grades, untutored son's hopeless passion for the by too much translation ; for example, on
and bisected laterally by a difference in cultured woman of the world is arresting, P. 29
A finals to the Christian name of
In a few
religious and political creeds. The eight while his elder brother, the central cha: George Sandis, unnecessary.
illustrations by Mr. Maxwell Armfield racter of the book, is a realistic piece of for trivial mistakes, in French as well as in
cases Mr. Allen's printers are responsible
succeed in catching the character of the work. The characterization generally is English. The volume contains a useful sketch
Gloucestershire landscape.
beyond reproach, though one or two
or two map and a full index; and more thought
people are, perhaps, superfluous.
has evidently been given to its preparation
than is the case in the majority of books
of travel.
In Accordance with the Evidence.
Oliver Onions. (Martin Secker. )
The Shadow of Neeme. By Lady Bancroft. Costumes, Traditions, and Songs of Savoy.
(John Murray. )
By Estella Canziani. (Chatto & Windus. )
THOSE readers who ask in circulating
-The author of this sumptuous book is
libraries for “a nice book” will not be A GENTLE benignity of spirit animates this happy in her subject. Whilst volume after
happy with Mr. Onions's remarkable new artless story and makes criticism seem
volume is published yearly upon Brittany
novel. To people who care for style and ungracious. All engaged in it are free and other well-known regions of France,
composition, and appreciate the absence from stain on heart or character, Lady devotees of Jean Jacques. The
Savoy has been left to valetudinarians and
of non-essentials, it will give great satis- Bancroft handles the supernormal skilfully, recalls only Aix-les-Bains and Les Char-
faction, though even among them some and is successful with her rustics. Many mettes. In a momentous book of one of
will be dismayed by certain elements of of the scenes and little touches describing the most momentous years of modern history
the central situation. That the hero of a gestures recall countless comedies, and we find the following entry :-
story should deliberately murder a man, remind us of the author's long association “The 23rd (December, 1789). Pass Saint Jean
and afterwards, without remorse, marry with the footlights. We are puzzled to Maurienne (sic), where there is a bishop, and near
the woman whom his victim had been on know how the leading lady, introduced as
that place we saw what is much better than &
the eve of marrying, may appear at first a tall “good-fellow,” can become a charm- bishop, the prettiest, and indeed the only pretty,
woman we saw in Savoy. "
revolting. But are subsequently ing “Nell Gwynn” later on, or why so
forced to admit, that, granted the much pretty horror is aroused by familiar Despite this fact, Arthur Young made no
characters of the two men, things may slang terms.
halt at the ancient ducal seat, continuing
amid snowclad hills his thirty miles' ride
well have happened thus ; and that
to Aiguebelle. Miss Canziani, as she naively
it was better that they should so happen,
tells us, caught sight, not of a pretty woman,
not only in the interests of the community
but of one wearing an exceptionally pic-
By
name
we


## p. 305 (#235) ############################################

No. 4403, March 16, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
305
à
was
the poor.
Her pages
turesque costume as her train approached
In the Carpathians. By Lion Phillimore.
St. Jean de Maurienne. She decided to (Constable. )-Mrs. Phillimore is slow in
ANTHOLOGIES.
alight, although in ignorance of her where starting. She takes two chapters to get
abouts, and here began these unsophisticated to Cracow, and hardly tells us as much of
In Praise of Oxford : an Anthology in
records of life in the least sophisticated that city as of her drive to the station in Prose and Verse, compiled by Thomas
French province.
London. It is not until we get to the seventh Seccombe and H. Spencer Scott-Life and
Rousseau described the Savoyards as chapter that, at Zakopane, for 251. 108. ,
Manners (Constable), is more successful
than the first volume, which we reviewed on
the best and most hospitable people he knew. she buys the horse and cart in which she
To the quality of hospitality all travellers makes her tour. She had decided to sleep December 10th, 1910. It is devoted to pas-
in Savoy can bear witness, and this lady, in the open air, and she surprises people by sages dealing with life and manners at the
Italian by birth, but English by bringing up, camping-out the first night-not in the University. The system of snippets when
speaks highly of their bonhomie, trustful- wilds, but just outside the hotel where she applied to history and topography seemed
the
ness, and sociability. For hard fare, primitive found herself.