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## p. 613 (#457) ############################################

No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
613
4
CONTENTS.
••
614
616
. .
619-623
GOSSIP
625—627
ANCES NEXT WEEK
631
a
is only another form-modified and made is, psychologically, one of the marvels of
SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1912.
bolder by specifically Christian theory- the book, has all unknowingly worked up
of the familiar idea of Ate, and again of the strange, warped creature to the doing
åpapria, not poxonpía, as the proper of that deed ; and on Ivan, when he has
PAGE subject of tragedy; but the interesting realized this, falls a yet heavier doom.
Two REALISTS : RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH (The Brothers
Karamazov; The Trespasser)
613–614 thing about Dostoevsky is that this was
The first words of the book run :
FROM RELIGION TO PHILOSOPHY
revealed to him at least as clearly by his “ Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was
TRIPOLI AND YOUNG ITALY . .
615 actual experience of life and humanity the third son. . . . ” It is for his sake,
JANE AUSTEN FOR SCHOOLS
as by any intuition into the true principles to illustrate him, that the book was
GOETHE (Goethe, the Man and his Character; Goethe
and the Twentieth Century)
617
of art. In regard to this particular written. He presents, as readers of the
A ROYAL PERSONALITY (Stupor Mundi) . .
618 work, the interesting thing is that he has Russian novel are aware, a type by no
A LITERARY COINCIDENCE; BOOKS AND BOOK-PLATES 618 chosen to write in it the tragedy of sin,
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS (Theology-Law-Poetry-
means unique in that literature. He was
Bibliography-History and Biography, 619; Geo-
as it were, double--in small writing, and
one who
graphy and Travel-Folk-lore--Education-Philo- variously, in the careers of the several
logy - School - Books - Juvenile - Fiction, 621;
General 622 ; Pamphlets--Foreign, 023)
“ seemed to accept everything without the
characters of the story, and then also in
LITERARY GOSSIP
624 large letters with the house of Karamazov bitterly: and this was so much so that no
least condemnation, though often grieving
SCIENCE - HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS ; to represent the human being—just as
THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES; NOTICES OF
one could surprise or frighten him even in
New Books; SOCIETIES ; MEETINGS NEXT WEEK ; the city does in Plato's Republic.
his earliest youth. Coming at twenty to
FINE ARTS-MESOPOTAMIAN ARCHEOLOGY ; NOTICES
To take the small writing first: the his father's house, which was a very sink of
OF NEW BOOKS; ITALIAN SCULPTURE AT THE house of Karamazov is akin to the houses filthy debauchery, he. . . . simply withdrew
BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB; THE NEW ENG. of Atreus and Labdacus. With his own but without the slightest sign of contempt or
,
LISH ART CLUB; MINIATURES AT BRUSSELS ;
GOSSIP . .
628–630 sufferings and his observation of suffering
MUSIC-NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS ; GOSSIP; PERFORM-
condemnation. '
as effective compensation for the ad-
DRAMA-NOTICES OF NEw Books; GOSSIP 631—632 vantages the Greek tragedians had over His father in a short while came to love
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
632 him in handling familiar tradition, him with " a real and deep affection such
Dostoevsky has succeeded in imparting as he had never been capable of feeling
to his work the authentic, unaffected for any one before. ” A friend of the
dreadfulness of thing fatal and family said of him :-
LITERATURE
accursed. That the circumstances are
modern and sordid the reader soon feels world whom you might leave alone without
“Here is perhaps the one man in the
to be neither here nor there. The
a penny in the centre of an unknown town
plot in itself must be acknowledged to of a million inhabitants, and he would not
TWO REALISTS: RUSSIAN AND
be hideous. Fyodor Pavlovitch, father come to harm, he would not die of cold
ENGLISH
of the three brothers, is a shameless and hunger, for he would be fed and sheltered
reprobate, and yet further a base, cynical, at once; and if he were not, he would find
a shelter for himself, and it would cost him
HERE is the last of Dostoevsky's works. and undignified buffoon. His sons, by the
no effort or humiliation. And to shelter
It was given to the world unfinished. compassion of friends or kinsfolk, have him would be no burden, but, on the con-
Nietzsche as we have been again and been reared at a distance from him—at trary, would probably be looked on as a
again reminded-declared that Dostoev-
a distance, also, mostly from one another pleasure. "
sky alone had anything to teach him in In one tragical year they all return to the
Alyosha, the sinless and the beloved,
psychology; and here, in spite of incom- neighbourhood of their home. They are
pleteness, we have that psychology in its Dmitri, only son of Fyodor's first wife-a represents in the house of Karamazov that
deepest and fullest expression, as also the dissipated young officer ; Ivan, the " in inviolate centre of the soul. The shadow
most detailed, vivid, and significant of the tellectual,” and Alexey, the young monk of his dark heritage sometimes oppresses
pictures of Russian life Dostoevsky has --children, the last two, of his second him; he eagerly acknowledges his kinship
with his brothers hard beset with
drawn for us. He is, as every one knows, wife. Fyodor has yet a fourth son,
the spokesman, above all, of sufferers and Smerdyakov, born of the misery of an temptations, even with his father. He
criminals—say rather, of sinners, for the innocent imbecile mother, and brought declares himself in like peril with them of
violent wrongdoings of these distracted, up in the house as valet and cook. Dmitri falling. But still he does not fall. True,
passion-ridden men are pictured, not wrangles with his father over a portion the work was never finished. His one
as crimes, against the antagonism of of his mother's inheritance which has been trial—and the understanding of what
injured society, but, as sin, against the withheld from him ; and then the two, is signified by it might serve as a test of a
infinitely patient and relentless antagonism with all the insensate passion of the reader's understanding of the book—is
of God.
Karamazovs, fall in love with the same what befalls after the death of the Starets,
There is an ancient mystical speculation woman-one who in early girlhood has the holy elder at the monastery, whom
Mother Julian of Norwich, for example, been seduced and abandoned, and is even Alyosha had loved, revered, and trusted
now the mistress of another
old man.
bas glimpses of it—according to which
above every other earthly creature.
the soul possesses a hidden inviolable From both, until after the catastrophe, Every one in the book desires Alyosha's
centre, incapable of sin, and never im- she holds herself aloof.
company, and seeks to unburden himself
plicated, howsoever distressed, by sins Fyodor's passion is on a level with to him, instinctively trusting his loving-
committed. It is the recognition-here all the rest of him ; Dmitri's, furious kindness. Alyosha listens to long, agi-
tacit, but there also explicit of some such and lawless as it is, is nevertheless tated discourses, wherein "each sufferer
mystery that constitutes the ultimate love. Their mutual frenzied jealousy says his say, his scheme of the weal and
secret of Dostöevsky's fearful poignancy and the scenes to which it gives rise the woe. ” He, in reply, says very little ;
and truth ; of his power so to handle dire would be nauseating, but for that touch he resists no one's need of him; he
and sinister situations as to evoke pain and of something from afar, brought out becomes one with the person who talks
horror rather than disgust. The most most clearly when Alexey is present. To to him. For practical life this is a weak-
ness ; he is easily made the prey of
tragic victim of the vilest criminal is Ivan no less than to Dmitri Fyodor is a
any
found to be, after all, his own miserable nightmare, an object of loathing Only importunate egoism, and he might have
soul. In itself, indeed, this recognition Alexey does not desire his death. The hindered the murder if he had not in
wretch at length is murdered by Smerdya- this way been held back, against his
The Brothers Karamazov. By Fyodor
but all the circumstances of the intention and vehement desire, from
Dostoevsky. From the Russian by crime point to Dmitri as the murderer, who seeking out Dmitri on that fatal evening.
Constance Garnett. (Heinemann. ) accordingly is tried, convicted, and con- Dmitri, his half-brother, stands for the
The Trespasser. By D. H. Lawrence. demned to Siberia. But it is Ivan who, bodily senses of the house of Karamazov,
(Duckworth & Co. )
in a conversation with Smerdyakov, which I just as Ivan, Alexey's full brother, is its
kov;


## p. 614 (#458) ############################################

1912
a
sun-
22
Both cling to Alexey. At the wards, using the outward phenomena, nerves, of his brain sick with overwrought
beginning of the book the whole family however boldly, only in subservience to tension, of his morbid susceptibility to
go in a body to the monastery to lay the discovery and explication of inward gloomy ideas. When most full of joy
their differences before the Starets in the truth and that, in the book before us, he is accessible to sudden revulsions of
vain hope that he may influence Fyodor and not in this one alone, this truth is disgust at life’s blankness. As the hour
Pavlovitch. At the end of the scene the discovery in the criminal, at least of enforced separation draws near he is
Father Zossima
in the Russian criminal, of the perplexed assailed by
by an accelerating horror.
heart of a child.
“rose suddenly from his seat. Almost
His physical collapse,
collapse, with
manifest in
distracted with anxiety for the elder and Happily for English readers, the trans- stroke hinted, is
in his
every one else, Alyosha succeeded, however, lation here offered of Dostoevsky's master- speech and bearing. He drags him-
in supporting him by the arm. Father
piece is one which does not obscure it. self across London at night to his
Zossima moved towards Dmitri and, reaching It is fluent, and also so to call it- suburban home, where he is greeted
him, sank on his knees before him. . . . dis-
sensitive.
tinctly and deliberately bowed down at
The majority of translations by his wife and children with frigid,
Dmitri's feet till his forehead touched the from the Russian sink à la longue into a
from the Russian sink à la longue into a insulting silence. The fifty pages that
floor.
benumbing monotony, by which attention narrate his homecoming, his reception,
This Father Zossima did, foreseeing what This defect Mrs. Garnett has almost agony,
and enjoyment are blunted and blurred. and the stages of his humiliation, mental
and delirium, are clear and
Dmitri was to suffer suffering so awful entirely avoided, while none the less strong in their psychological intensity,
that he could not but bow down before preserving the characteristic alien atmo- reminding us of the best Russian school.
the man thus set apart.
sphere.
Siegmund hangs himself, and here again
If he cares most for Dmitri, Alexey
the description of the finding of the body
trembles most for Ivan. To Ivan—the
The theme of The Trespasser' is by his wife and a window-cleaner is poetic
agonized and hungry mind every simple – the passion of the married realism of a Dostoevskian order.
thing is permitted ”; he shrinks before
man Siegmund for the enigmatic girl The one artistic blemish of the novel
no conclusion. One night, coming out Helena, its fruition in a few days of in our judgment is that Siegmund,
of his room, he lies in wait and listens to union, and then an enforced separation, at the age of thirty-eight, is credited with
his father, moving about in the house followed by Siegmund's obsession of feeling the ecstatic passiops of youth.
below-listens as a spy; and this, after- suicidal despair and death. Here is a story Certainly "The Trespasser' is not to be
wards, he comes to shudder at as the most in which both poet and psychologist watch classed among popular novels,” but the
disgraceful action he has ever committed. keenly the lover's feverish elation, his discerning reader should treasure it for
For him, theoretically, there exist no fluctuating moods of joy, and the chill those temperamental qualities
which
shames and no sanctities; but it is he who, greying of the daylight, as the shadows characterize original work.
more helplessly than any one else, craves of morbid impulse steal forward swiftly
for Alexey's sympathy, and lays his, and envelope him. The theme as treated
anguish bare to him in the wonderful is curiously individual in tone.
allegory of the Grand Inquisitor. Neither
in the case of Ivan nor in that of Dmitri struck by the author's skill in catching
From the opening chapter we are From Religion to Philosophy: a Study in
is the reader spared anything of the pain shades of social atmosphere. Siegmund,
the Origins of Western Speculation.
and horror they have to go through. It
By F. M. Cornford. (Arnold. )
whose vocation is that of a violinist in a
culminates in the trial, with the long-drawn London theatre, is bound fast in the MR. CORNFORD belongs to the van of
where Dmitri, innocent, yet, by his folly, class environment. He has married, young classical scholars who recognize that
where Dmitri, innocent, yet, by his folly, squalid cares of a suburban lower-middle that altogether progressive group of
turns public opinion against himself.
and penniless, with Beatrice, now a dis anthropology can help them in their
It is curious how far less real and living appointed, embittered woman who is attempted reconstruction
of ancient life
ances may, perhaps, be compared to the dragged down by the weight of family and thought. Miss Harrison and Mr.
successive photographs of a kinematograph struggle to maintain the gentilities she Cambridge, are equally bold, speculators,
worries, and the threadbare poverty of à A. B. Cook, his literary associates at
seen separately : the individual truth
of each to life cannot be denied, but they soul Siegmund is free, but he has the who is capable of the work of any
was formerly accustomed to. In his and it must be admitted that Dr. Frazer,
never impress one as living, moving things. sensuous, sensitive nature of the poet, two ordinary mortals, and the only
Madame Hohlakov, the lady of little who lives for his imaginative visions, authority of this school thoroughly
faith,” is the most successful, and welcome. while crushed outwardly by the hostile at home alike in anthropology and in
too as affording almost the only humorous
relief that can be said to count for any-
classical archæology, decidedly inclines
pressure of unyielding facts.
towards the same daring style of ex-
thing. On the other hand, there is The story opens with Siegmund's escape planation. The moot point is whether the
a group of schoolboys-gathered about from his household, for a few days of happi" transition from savagery to civilization is
Alyosha, they make the final scene of the ness with Helena, on a long-projected holi- short and sharp, a volcanic upheaval of
book-drawn with an extraordinary live- day by the sea. There is not a touch in the firm land out of the slough ; or whether
liness, subtlety, and sympathy.
narrative of that semi-real superheated it involves a development of infinite
There is but a minimum of scene- passion which, in the middle-class ima- gradations, a slow draining away of the
painting, and altogether the attention
to gination, has usurped the place of passion's waters over an area of secular emergence.
external circumstance is severely and pure and simple ecstasy. Siegmund has On the latter view, to supply the Greece
accurately restricted to that which is the poet's capacity of enjoying things; or Rome of history with a background
directly significant ; yet to have read he sees and responds instinctively to the obtained from a survey of existing peoples
the book is to have lived in that little forces and appearances of life, as a child of low culture is simply to telescope
remote Russian town—to have seen the claps its hands and stretches out its arms the real process of evolution. On the
ways of its people, and learnt its tradi- to anything that pleases it. Helena’s is a other hand, if savages are all ali ke in
tions and customs, and breathed the very relations with her lover suggests deep persist self-centred and custom-bound
more egoistic nature. The picture of her having no proper history, if their way is to
into it, the wider seems to grow the differ- reservations, as of a woman who cannot in a sort of sleep tempered by strang. . and
ence between this life and that of Western lose sense of her own identity even in the violent dreams, then there would be
Europe.
supreme intimacy of love. Perhaps this nothing unscientific in postulating a
It is a trite thing to say that Dostöevsky is the secret of the tragedy that now sudden awakening, and one that would
is a great realist. Yet it may be worth swiftly develops.
carry on into the new life only some
while to notice that his is that mode With unobtrusive art Mr. Lawrence faint and quickly fading trace of the
of realism which works from within out-scatters hints of Siegmund's unstrung | fantasies of the night.


## p. 615 (#459) ############################################

No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
615
some
sense
66
a
66
99
66
Greek philosophy is the work of genius, living and divine substance which Greek
and it is the mark of genius to create philosophy made it its business to explain, Tripoli and Young Italy. By Charles
out of nothing but itself. Yet even in even if it explained it differently according
Lapworth and Helen Zimmern. (Swift
this glorious movement of free thinking, as a scientific or a mystical bias happened
of which the watchword is “Let us follow
& Co. )
to prevail. That confusion of cate-
the argument whithersoever it may lead,” gories" involved in the primitive notion, THERE is an ancient saying in Italy,
one is aware of a tacit prejudice, a sub- in which impersonal and personal, pre-
conscious orientation. There is a datum animistic and animistic, are confounded, carnato,” and our own Elizabethans had
Tudesco Italianato è un diavolo in-
-one that finally takes shape in the must be resolved, and was in large measure much the same opinion of an Italianate
belief in an intelligible, and likewise in resolved, by the brilliant intellect of Englishman, for the spell which Italy
intelligent, world - order. Greece, with its passion for clearly out-
Whence_this something given at the lined forms.
casts upon her lovers is apt to distract
start? In college days of yore one opened
their reason, and so to excite unfavourable
an essay by remarking that “ the Greeks But in one respect at least the primitive comment. Mr. Lapworth has come under
were an artistic nation. ” But, now that community is aware of clear-cut dis- that spell
, but, like rue,“ with a differ-
ence.
the anthropologist is coming into his own, tinctions, namely, in respect to its social
He resents the notion that Italy
is
things have changed. In this particular organization. A plain . yes or no,” a museum of past glories,” and
definite
line of inquiry Prof. John Burnet of
censures the indiscreet extravagance of
this or that," is demanded as
St. Andrews deserves credit for having soon as it is a question whether a given archæology almost as much as he does
taken the decisive first step”; and in individual belongs to such and such an inter- the patronizing pity of “ the gentlemen in
his case, at any rate, no critic dare affirm marrying division. What more natural, haute politique, who generally have their
that speculative brilliancy is not matched then, than that this sense of a social own pet theories. ”
by solidity of erudition. His inspiration to order should project itself outwards so as He is right in demanding a just share
write an early Greek philosophy consisted, to beget the sense of a world-order-of an of appreciation for “Young Italy,"
one may venture to guess, in a sense of the encompassing “divine,” with its wonder the people of to - day, “ palpitating,
anthropological background, even if at working many-sidedness tempered by urgent"; and, although he carps at the
the date of writing it was as yet hardly some sort of inner organization like to a ignorance of other“ superior persons
possible to prove in detail how primitive human clan-system writ large? Such is about Italy as she is, it is a fact to be
fancies underlay the categories that at the genesis attributed to certain primitive regretted that we English, in our enthu
length were won from the void and classifications studied by MM. Durkheim siasm for Italian art and mediæval lite-
formless infinite. " Meanwhile, in the and Mauss in their pioneer essay on the rature, are prone to neglect the study of
course of twenty years or so, anthropology subject. Mr. Cornford, with much clever- the Italy which has been growing up
has made great strides, and not least of ness and originality, endeavours to account since the days of Mazzini. There is
all in the direction of the psychological on these lines for such a separation of even a tendency to regard her as an
analysis of the mentality of savages, is found, for instance, in Hesiod's cos- worth does well to protest. He sees
elements and “elemental provinces” as almost negligible Power, and Mr. Lap-
especially on its magico-religious side.
mogony. Moira is above the gods, and clearly enough that the fiasco in Abys-
The new method that has mainly she represents not merely a necessary, but sinia lay at the bottom of this deprecia-
brought this about is that of a social also a moral distribution of the powers and tion, but, much as he hates that "absurd
psychology The laws of group-con- functions of things. Just so for savages paradox," the Triple Alliance, he does
sciousness, as studied in the light of the world is essentially a moral order not seem to recognize that it is the very
the social grouping itself (the whole line which they endeavour to cope with by fact that Italy belongs, and belongs
of inquiry being on this account often moral means—by ways of converse and of against her dearest inclinations, to a
described-we think, inexactly described sheer conversation. The discovery of political association which is generally
-as "sociological"), yield an explanation those Greek philosophers in whom the considered distasteful to England, that
of primitive beliefs that differs essentially scientific temper predominated over the gives her an air of_humiliation and
from what was taken for granted so long mystical was precisely this—that it is no unnatural coercion in English eyes.
as inquirers worked upon the figment of a
use talking to things if and when they are
The chapters in which, admirably
reflective savage excogitating his religion so constituted as not to hear.
out of his inner consciousness all by him-
seconded by Miss Helen Zimmern, he
self.
We have left ourselves no space in which presents an enthusiastic picture of modern
to review the details of Mr. Cornford's Italy-political, administrative, economic,
Mr. Cornford has taken over his anthro- treatment. It seemed more important and intellectual—will do much to counter-
pology more or less entire from the pages to try to set forth his very novel and act a fundamentally unjust estimate. We
of L'Année Sociologique'; and, since suggestive point of view as a whole. | do not believe it is in accordance with the
economy of labour required some- For the rest, he shows considerable best traditions of Italian art to paint
thing to be taken for granted, he could erudition, and has a fine bold style, if everything “ en couleur de rose, but
hardly have done better. Nay, the school somewhat lacking in subtle touches. He Mr. Lapworth's glowing panegyric of
of Durkheim may be said to have directly does not possess, perhaps, Miss Harrison's all things Italian is a good alterative,
set him upon his quest, since MM. gift of anthropological divination of find and many readers need it. It is well that
Hubert and Mauss, in their well-known ing a way amid old-world half-understood we should reflect upon the thorough
essay on magic, suggest, without working things by sheer force of sympathetic “house-cleaning ” that Italy undertook
the suggestion out, that the Greek púois, intuition. But he attacks the part in the after her abasement at Adowa, with the
as taken together with dúvapis, will be light of the whole, herein differing from remarkable result that last year she was
found to belong to the same circle of ideas that type of scholar who has been likened able to send a large expeditionary force
as the mana of the Pacific—the notion to a myopic ily. ” Hence he has pro-across the sea whilst maintaining her full
which they, as indeed others before them, duced a notable transvaluation of Greek guard on the Austrian frontier, and that
have supposed to underlie both magic philosophy, even if it be one which time she began the campaign with ample funds
and that early type of religion which and research will inevitably modify in for a year's war.
tends to dispense with gods. ” Mr. that universe of Greek letters which But when it is seen that all this recital
Cornford—who makes his argument, as happily remains perpetually instinct with of the regeneration of Italy is written in
it seems to us, obscurer by following Dr. the mana of evolution.
order to prove how justified she was in
Frazer in refusing the name of religion
her seizure of Tripoli ; when evidence is
to these godless rites which nevertheless
produced that this intellectual and pro-
implicate mana, which he rightly renders
gressive people, including the leading
“ the divine” treats púols
Socialists who support Signor Giolitti's
nature of things”-as the presupposed
administration, are unanimous in their
66
66 the
or


## p. 616 (#460) ############################################

616
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
9
news-
may be
“ whole-hearted” approval of the aggres- other“ pacifists” whom Mr. Lapworth
sion; when it is confidently asserted spaciously derides, will consent to be
JANE AUSTEN FOR SCHOOLS.
that, in consequence of that aggression, satisfied.
“ Italy's prestige is to-day a hundred per
On the other hand, the author has done THE latest edition of “Pride and Pre-
cent higher than it was in September,
wisely to remind his forgetful readers that judice,' being “edited with Introduction,
1911, we begin to distrust the eloquent Italy's claim to Tripoli, in the event of &c. ,"
and similar in form to a reduced
advocate. It is easy to sneer at
any readjustment,' was expressly ad-Pickwick' recently issued for schools,
paper moralists and their só zeal for
mitted by successive British Foreign is, doubtless, also meant for a scholastic
righteousness,” for there was a good deal Ministers, notably by Lords Derby and purpose. What prompted the choice we
of the Pecksniffian air about the outery Salisbury. "North Africa," prophesied cannot imagine, except a general idea that
of injured innocence, and no European Mazzini, will return to Italy. ” Some
Some all books of classic rank ought to appear
Power, including England (though she has of it will, perhaps, in time; but when in some guise or disguise in the school-
not, to speak strictly, assumed the
Mr. Lapworth asks, “What are the room. The present writer has for some
diadem of Cyprus "), has much title to Italians going to do with their new colony years made a close study of Jane Austen ;
cast stones at Italy for “grabbing " or
now they have got it ? ” the words we he ranks, indeed, among the enthusiasts ;
for damaging the integrity of the have italicized seem as prophetic as
but he cannot conceive that her novels
Ottoman Empire. ” But to call Turkey Mazzini's. What have they got ? If we are suitable for the
young.
Her humour is
a “thief " for occupying Tripoli is beside believe Mr. Bennett, whose With the of the sort that appeals to the adult, and
the mark, and to urge that Ahmed Pasha Turks in Tripoli’ we reviewed a few weeks not by any means to every adult. Many
Karamanli was an Arab,” and there-
ago, they have got only just so much as find themselves unmoved by her trivial
fore had apparently a right to the land, is is covered by the range of their naval round of country society, deplore her lack
farcical. If it comes to
of passion, and fail to see the delicate art
bably the Berbers ought to be rein guns.
stated in Tripoli. That Turkish rule Mr. Lapworth draws an alluring picture which smiles
impartially at every one in
in North Africa was “ the negation of of the agricultural wealth of Libya turn, and even goes so far as to make
heroes and heroines ridiculous before they
civil government,” in the words of that under the Romans, records the san-
are safely landed in a felicity often beyond
competent observer Rohlfs, is admitted ; guine anticipations of a capable engineer
their hopes.
but it has not hitherto been held that who thinks Tripoli will rival Argentina,
bad government is a justification for ex- and ends up with an account of that In the society thus inimitably depicted
pulsion by any irresponsible Power, though valuable product, esparto grass. This is, the ideal is that of the comfortable,
we may be coming to that ethical position. indeed, the “last straw” that breaks our common among writers in the eighteenth
That Italy bore with Turkish ill-usage patience.
century. Marriage depends largely on a
with monumental patience be He may well sayit is “ too early yet” to
suitable income ; a living for a clergyman
true, but it is curious that our author speak of railways into the interior, and of opportunities of seeing the well-to-do,
is a livelihood or an occasion for social
adds nothing of importance to the griev- the commerce which may be expected“ it and is given away by a patron as one gives
ances enumerated in the Marchese di the northern routes are made safe”; if
San Giuliano's dispatch to the Italian the Senusi does not make it a Holy War; in fact, to quote the Introduction, "frankly
a dole to a poor relation. Jane Austen is
ambassadors, of which The Times re- if the Tuaregs turn out to be law-abiding and delightfully worldly”; she is the
marked that it “ hardly afforded an ade citizens ; if the caravan routes to Nigeria epicure in everything,” including the choice
quate explanation of such drastic action" and Tunis can be superseded; if the of words; and, to quote an excellent
as the ultimatum and invasion of last 600,000 Italians, who annually consent
September. We do not think that it is to become
phrase preserved by Grant Duff, she is
dagos in America and free from the “ nostalgia of the infinite. "
yet considered adequate by unprejudiced elsewhere for good pay, prefer to toil That these diverse merits are such as can,
persons in this country, and to us in Tripolitan deserts-if, in short, a great or ought to, appeal to young people is
the author's naive surprise at
surprise at the deal comes to pass which at present, in difficult to believe. The likely result is
silence of Italian Ministers is a theme the eyes of " appalling obtuseness,"
for irony.
that the tedium of being a school-task may
appears highly dubious. Mr. Lapworth
writer, was that only 2 appalling obtuse - England have been desirous and able to varied vacuities of Lady Bertram, Mrs.
The truth, according to the present apparently considers that France and spoil for the future what might have been
permanent and delightful possessions—the
ness and inexcusable ignorance” could be push Mohammedanism back into the
Bennet, and Miss Bates, the absurdities
satisfied with the Italian Foreign Minister's desert. ” If they have, our impressions of Mr. Collins and Mr. Rushworth, the
explanation, for there was a much more of Egypt and Tunis are curiously confused. patronizing
meanness of Mrs. Norris, and
potent reason which he could not men- But at all events Italy has not pushed the exposure of a crowd of stately humbugs
tion-viz. , the Panther—the “ fons et Islam very far into the desert yet, and
who stand in awe of their own importance.
origo of so many ills. The German
we must await events before we can share
“ mailed fist,” it would appear, was
our author's engaging optimism. Mean-
Apart from a comparison with Chaucer
of little value and a certain affectation in
about to descend upon Tobruk-the port while the Italians have at least made
which is said to give its possessors the Tripoli a much cleaner town; they have style, the Introduction goes pleasantly
supremacy of the Eastern Mediterranean-scrubbed Arab children bambini now- and soundly enough over the experience
and Italy had to strike “in self-defence and done excellent hygienic work; and of life which went to the making of the
and enter upon what the Socialist leader as to morals, so well are the stringent novels, using Jane Austen's letters to
Labriola termed " a life-and-death struggle ' general orders” observed that you could exhibit her qualities. It is credible that
for our right to the Mediterranean. . .
see the virtuous Italian soldier
set
she is nearest in character to Elizabeth in
to our own sea. " There is even a Dogger- rigidly with eyes averted as the veiled
* Pride and Prejudice,' and Anne Elliot
Bank-like tale of English destroyers figures passed," at whom his admirable in the sadder days when her health was
swiftly stealing by in the night, with Government says he must not stare. This failing: She is not all sweetness, and, as
eyes towards Germany, at the very is evidently the moral application of the Mr. W. H. Helm has pointed out in his
book on ‘Jane Austen and her Country-
moment when the Italian fleet appeared drill-book order, “ eyes right. "
off Tripoli. “Papers will be presented "
House Comedy,' is capable of making a
The book is illustrated by a few scenes
--perhaps—but until they are we prefer in Tripoli and portraits of Italian poli. There are similar hints in ‘Pride and
comic catalogue of her mother's diseases.
not to discuss this much more complete ticians, &c. There is a good map of
justification of the Italian action, but to Tripolitania, but an index is, we regret might occasionally be restrained.
Prejudice of a source of levity which
continue to cultivate "appalling obtuse-
appalling obtuse, to say, missing.
ness. ". There is a good deal to be cleared
Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen.
up before ordinary Englishmen, let alone
Edited, with Introduction, &c. , by K. M.
the Podsnaps and Chadbands” and
Metcalfe. (Frowde. )
66


## p. 617 (#461) ############################################

No. 4414, JUNE 1, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
617
or
66
95
66
66
Each of the novels is typical of its smiled like anything ” when she was His imperfection of style is not counter-
author, and the editor would have done showing off her marriage ring, there is balanced by any considerable novelty of
better in restricting attention to that not so much of the vernacular in Pride matter or point of view. His treatment
in view, or, at any rate, including more and Prejudice' as in the other books, of Goethe's mother may be taken as an
special comment on its characters. We where we find “ comeatable and “live- example of an attempt to correct the
find no judgment as to Mr. Collins, who, able” (of a house), “ those sort of things," ordinary point of view. He gives some
delightful as he is, seems to us undoubtedly a little hop” for a dance, and “ fishing" reason for refusing to accept the view
a caricature. The change of feeling in for compliments.
that Goethe owed even as much as, for
the heroine and of manners in the hero
There is a point in Jane Austen's style example, Keats or Shelley, to his mother's
is surely worth a note. At his appearance which does not seem to have been generally
conscious
unconscious
influence.
at the ball Darcy was clearly guilty not noticed, and which we think of interest. Amongst other evidence he uses a sup-
only of pride and prejudice, but also of She has a fondness for negative words and pressed passage from · Wilhelm Meister,'
ill-breeding. When the love-scene comes at forms
last between him and the sprightly visitor certain reserve of judgment, give scope for an insipid man. ” Mr. McCabe does
where it is written that Wilhelm's mother
forms of expression which indicate a
had, even in mature years, a passion
to Pemberley, it is not given in conversa-
tion, but in somewhat heavy paraphrase. directness. If she has a favourite ad- not wish us to conclude that this was true
Elizabeth “ immediately, though not very jective, it is “unexceptionable. ”
“Un- of Frau Goethe, but he does say that
fluently, gave him to understand, that
guarded," unreserve, “unfastidious,"
“it is impossible that such a portrait could
her sentiments had undergone so material discompose," " disengaged, not un- have been inserted, even as the wildest
a change, since the period to which he
absurd,' not unpretty,
inconsidera- fiction, among the correct portraits of the
alluded, as to make her receive with grati- tion,” and “innoxious are characteristic other members of the family, if Goethe
tude and pleasure, his present assurances. ”
Such paraphrase, which robs the modern deriving such forms of expression from an
of her language. Are we fanciful in had had any regard for his mother at the
time. ”
reader of an expected delight, is cha- Oxford influence? A page of The Oxford But is it not almost equally possible that
racteristic of Jane Austen.
Magazine to-day will show the don's use the fiction was so wild that it
The text, which is that of the first of the negative, and Jane Austen was the could not have been taken for fact?
edition in three volumes of 1813, has a daughter of an Oxford man who prepared Mr. McCabe does not consider the possi-
page and a half devoted to it. Erratic his sons for the University, while her bility, and this omission may be taken as
spelling and characteristic punctuation mother was the niece of a witty Master of an example of the shortcomings in matter
are noted, but we think something should Balliol.
which combine with his imperfect com-
have been said in detail of the intrusive
mand of English to make the book un-
commas which appear, e. g. , on pp. 210,
satisfactory.
322, and 366, the scene just quoted. Are
they mere nonsense, or do they emphasize
GOETHE.
Prof. Robertson performs a briefer task
the words they follow ?
more blamelessly. As a discreet epitome
When we come to the Appendix, a NOTWITHSTANDING the modern multipli- of fact and opinion his small volume is
foot-note betrays possibly an uneasiness cation of books, there is still, perhaps, a useful manual. Only at one point can
as to the point we began with, the un- room for biographies that are honest
are honest we seriously quarrel with him, and that
suitability of the author for a school compendiums or vivid appreciations. If is where he takes leave to differ from the
book : "What follows is given instead of this is true in the home field, it is yet common opinion, and express his own
the incongruity of ‘Notes, or of Jane's truer in the foreign, and the tendency that “Goethe the artist suffered at the
own aversion, 'Explanations. ' But of modern bookmaking is unlikely to hands of Goethe the philosopher, the
there must be explanations, and they are falsify it for some time to come. Honesty statesman, the scientist. ” He cannot
here supplied in an · Appendix on Jane and vividness, it seems, are not much possibly prove that Goethe would have
Austen and her Time under various in demand or in supply. As has been been the same man without playing these
headings ; four selected scraps of criticism; pointed out by Seeley and Mr. McCabe, parts, even if he believes that the same
and a page after all headed “Notes. ' there
too
few books about man could have refused to play them.
In these subsidiary aids an attempt is Goethe in English literature. ” Certainly Nor can he prove, what he must do
again made to cover the whole field of the there are too few good ones; and, if he is to maintain his opinion, that the
novels, and insufficient attention is paid perhaps, there is no single good one which time occupied by the philosopher, the
to ‘Pride and Prejudice. ' Under 'Games cannot be put by. The cause is no lack statesman, and the scientist" would have
spillikins needs a note, and no mention is of accessible material, but simply the been given either to more fruitful experi-
made of the backgammon Mr. Collins lack of skilled industry and true love of ence or to additional and novel creative
played with Mr. Bennet, a game of letters.
work. These activities," he says, ap-
interest as it appears steadily in literature
, Mr. McCabe cannot be accused of over- pear, to say the least of it, unfortunate in
from Swift to Scott and Thackeray. Com- crowding the market in his attempt to the greatest poetic genius of the eigh-
parisons with contemporary authors are supply this want. Yet he has not satis- teenth century," as if the genius were a
always illuminating, but we do not find, factorily supplied it by bringing together kind of fountain that might have poured
for instance, how Miss Austen compares a considerable number of facts and forth poetry continually, but for quite
with Mrs. Inch bald in style. The section conjectures about Goethe's career, by unnecessary interruptions.
There are
on · Language' is capable of considerable filling nearly four hundred pages, and by surely other vices than those of the states-
improvement. “Event” in the sense of illustrating them with portraits of Goethe, man, the philosopher, and the “scientist ";
conclusion might have had its parallel his father and mother, and eight ladies. there is, for example, the vice of perpetual
from Tennyson; and “country,” meaning Skilled industry might make a tolerable publication and of living wholly for art.
district, is common now in the numerous and shorter book with very little other To forget these things, and to forget them
books bearing the title of The Hardy foundation than these seventeen chapters. above all in Goethe's presence, is to miss
Country,', &c. Some of the colloquial We can hardly offer them any higher one of his greatest lessons to the modern
phrases of the novels are modern enough, praise. Mr. McCabe's skill does not match world, and in particular to the literary
as the editor explains, but she makes his industry, nor his vividness his skill.
world. True, there have been great men
Lydia exclaim“ O hang it Kitty,” when
of letters who were not statesmen, philo-
it is Mrs. Bennet who says “Oh! hang Goethe, the Man and his Character. By
sophers, or “scientists. " We have had
Kitty!