No More Learning

There has been a lack of enterprise and So far we have attempted to dwell on a
organization in the presentation of scholastic few points which seem to deserve the atten-BLAISE DE MONLUC.
opinion. Such an association as that of tion of serious thinkers. We believe that
By A. W. Evans.
the Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools at no time was there a larger body of earnest
ought to be many years older than it is. and disinterested workers in the cause of
MRS. GASKELL.
By E. A. Chadwick.
The report of its proceedings which we pub- education, who fully realize its aim and THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK.
lish emphasizes points of real importance, purpose. There are, however, others to
and records concessions from educational | whom it needs to be said that instruction
By W. H. Helm.
authorities which should clear the air. Differ- ladled out in a hurry is not education. The COWPER.
ences with the Board of Education, which cultivation for market purposes of brute
By Edward Storer.
has lost its strong, but somewhat autocratic brain-power has its uses, public and private, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT.
head, seem in the way of settlement, and but the market advantages of education are
advance has been made towards the solution
By Camilla Jebb. [Feb.
not the criterion of its value to individuals
of the question of pensions. Facts and
or the nation :
SHELLEY
By Roger Ingpen. [Feb.
figures have been produced as a basis for
further reform. The Association of Head
“ Education must not be regarded as a mere JANE AUSTEN.
ladder of advancement and advertisement, as a
Masters was also employed last week in the
means of pushing, in front of others, into an inner
discussion of various problems, and it seems circle, where the good things of life are being given GEORGE ELIOT.
By Lady Margaret Sackville. [Feb. '
a pity that it cannot combine with the Head
away.
Egotism will spoil education as it spoils
Masters' Conference, which holds its meet- religion, and as it spoils ethics. All three lose their
By Viola Meynell. (Feb.
ing at Christmas time. The question of
virtue and medicinal efficiency when selfishness
settles down upon them like a fog. "
Other Volumes in Preparation.
registration and its uses for the Board of
Education was brought forward, and the So wrote one of the wisest of scholars and
notable fact that boys are removed at the
wittiest of judges. In the strange Dinner design than the present series.
Nothing could be much better in form and
very age when secondary education is of Trimalchio
The title is ex
Petronius has sketched for
beginning to bear fruit.
cellent, the selection of authors interesting and
us the manners and desires of the lowest
the workmanship very good. The economist,
The L. C. C. conferences of January 4th-classes of later Rome. In this world, which
whether in money or space is promised a select
6th suggest many pertinent subjects for
bears a striking resemblance to a section
shelf of charming volumes at an alluring price and
criticism and inquiry, one which should
of our own, moves Echion, a rag-dealer, can provide himself with a fair miniature of some
appeal to all being the standard of facility who has the conception of education popular noted writer at the price of a single seat in the
and correctness attained in English. Here
in some quarters to-day. For him Letters pit; without waiting he will obtain twice as.
present results are bad. The jargon of
is a bonanza (we strive to reproduce the much entertainment as the front row could ever
the music - halls must not become the vulgarity of the original), and there is a afford. . . . . . The selections are made with much sym-
language of the people, and English writing time when his son is sufficiently tainted with pathy and no little skill. ”-Nation.
must be improved. The boy or girl who learning, and ought to take to something
Complete Illustrated Catalogue on application.
can write a straightforward letter without that pays.
confusing the issue is a rarity. The Eng-
lish Association has also been discussing
* We hold over an article on 'Bible
HERBERT & DANIEL
English composition, and one speaker went Teaching in Preparatory Schools. '
21, MADDOX STREET, LONDON, W.
9)
-


## p. 88 (#82) ##############################################

88
[SUPPLEMENT, Jan. 20, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
A NEW ENGLISH
ENGLISH HISTORY.
Just Issued.
THE
GROUNDWORK OF
BRITISH HISTORY
BY
GEORGE TOWNSEND WARNER, M. A. ,
Sometime Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge; Master of the Modern Side in Harrow School ; Author of 'A Brief Survey
of British History,' &c.
AND
C. H. K. MARTEN, M. A. ,
Balliol College, Oxford; Assistant Master at Eton College.
With Maps, Time Charts, and full Index.
764 pp. , super-crown 8vo, 6s. Also in Two Parts, 3s. 6d. each.
An English History for Middle and Upper Forms, adapted to the methods of modern teaching
of the subject, has long been called for. Mr. Townsend Warner's “ Brief Survey of British History”
has been found well suited to the needs of Lower Forms, and it is hoped that the present work will
prove equally serviceable for Middle and Upper Forms.
The subject is treated with the breadth that is now required of senior candidates for University
Local and similar examinations, and in full consonance with the views repeatedly put forward in the
circulars of the Historical Association ; though, be it said, the work has in no way been suggested
by these circulars, but is the outcome of the experience of its joint authors, Mr. Warner of Harrow
and Mr. Marten of Eton.
The authors have sought to trace out the main threads of British History, omitting small and
unfruitful details; to treat events in logical sequence by fixing the attention upon one subject at a
time; and to concentrate the mind upon the chief policy or course of action of each age.
Prospectus, giving full particulars, post free on application.
BLACKIE
& SON, Ltd. , 50, Old Bailey, London.
GLASGOW AND BOMBAY.


## p. 93 (#83) ##############################################

No. 4396, JAN. 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
93
Over-
CONTENTS.
CARDINAL NEWMAX
. .
93
94
95
THE MODERN PRISON CURRICULUM
or was
9596
EDWIN
DR.
ROUSE
AND
FREDERICK HANDCOCK . .
96—97
. .
97
102
. .
GOSSIP
105-106
CONCERTS D'AUTREFOIS ;
THE SOLLY STRING
107
. .
THE WATERS OP BIT.
108
TERNESS; GOSSIP
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
108
66
of the man who in his private corre- English-speaking dignitaries of the Catho-
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1912. spondence and conversation could be lic Church whom he failed to conciliate.
gay, humorous, and sometimes Some of Mr. Ward's readers may regret
flowing with high spirits ? Was Newman, that he gives fewer pages to Newman's
PAGE the theologian, the philosopher, the whole life in the Church of England
historian, fated to be sad and dis- than to the distressing episode of his
THE TURCO-ITALIAN WAR AND ITS PROBLEMS
illusioned, whatever his career ?
scheme for founding a Catholic University
OUR LIBRARY TABLE (Couch Fires and Primrose
the pathos of his life due to the fact in Ireland. Mr. Ward, who knows more
Ways ; Hadji Murad, and Other Stories; How to that he, the most English of Englishmen, about the Oxford Movement than any
Write for the Papers; Problems of Boy Life)
the most loyally affectionate son of Ox one else now alive, probably thought that
HERBERT
CLARKE;
ford, of whose genius he was the incarna- Newman himself, in his widely read
THE HEAD MASTERS' ASSOCIATION; GUSTAVUS
tion, was drawn by duty and logic into a writings, had sufficiently told the story
great cosmopolitan association, in which of that part of his life. Perhaps he was
LIST OF NEW BOOKS
LITERARY GOSSIP
England counted for little, and Oxford right. At all events, the chapters on the
SCIENCE-SEA FISHERIES; THE GREAT STAR MAP;
for nothing at all? Mr. Ward does not ill-starred Irish University are of unusual
SOCIETIES ; MEETINGS NEXT WEEK ; GOSSIP 103-104 answer these questions ; but with the interest. When Newman was past fifty,
FINE ARTS-A HISTORY OF FINE ART IN INDIA AND
utmost candour he puts materials into his he, who before he was forty had been the
CEYLON; FRANCISCO GOYA: VAN DYCK AND readers' hands upon which they can base chief leader of thought at Oxford, found
PORTRAIT ENGRAVING ; BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE their conclusions at their will.
himself snubbed, neglected, and mis-
AND SCULPTURE IN ITALY; ALBUM DE POÈMES ;
Perhaps the answer is that Newman
understood by the chief ministers in Ire-
MUSIC-CHARPENTIER'S 'LOU ISE'; LA SOCIÉTÉ DES was primarily neither an Englishman, land of the Church of his adoption, as
nor an Oxford man, nor a Catholic, but the penalty for his self-abnegation in
QUARTET ; HERR BUHLIG'S RECITAL; GOSSIP;
PERFORMANCES NEXT WEEK
a Newmanite—though those three quali- devoting his prime of life to the foundation
ties constantly assert themselves in his of a difficult work in that distressful
DRAMA-THE PROBATIONER ;
nature. When he writes to Pusey in country. Perhaps it was partly his own
1865, “I prefer English habits
fault.
of
belief and devotion,” he does not mean
His strong personality revolted when
that he is harking back to Anglicanism, tomed to be absolute that they usurp the
he wrote: These Bishops are so accus-
he
LITERATURE
pathy for the ways of the old English rights of others and rough-ride over their
Catholics—who did not like Italian forms wishes. ” As Mr. Ward says, he felt that
of devotion, such as Faber favoured. he, the most active intellect in the king-
He probably had in his mind an ideal of dom, was kept in idleness and at the
mercy of those who set no value on his
his own. His strong personality is con-
The Life of John Henry, Cardinal Newman, spicuous in every chapter of these volumes.
work. Newman himself writes: "Fancy
based on his Private Journals and Corre It gave him the mighty
influence which he my skulking about Ireland and acting
spondence. By Wilfrid Ward. 2 vols. exercised over his disciples, and it isolated upon its classes in various districts, I
(Longmans & Co. )
him within the societies to which he being a foreigner. '
NEWMAN has been more fortunate than successively belonged—Oxford and the suggestion the Pope decided to make
Manning, for his life has been written Catholic Church—though to both he had Newman a bishop in partibus, and his
by a judicious and cultivated master
a faithful and perpetual devotion.
friends presented him with episcopal
ornaments. But this honour, signifying the
of English biography. Each work of The discomfort which Newman in his favour of the Holy See, which would have
Mr. Wilfrid Ward's trilogy has a different capacity of an Englishman suffered when given him prestige among the Irish who
characteristic. His volumes to the he was abroad explains in a measure the knew nothing of Oxford, was withheld.
memory of his father were a work of lack of sympathy which he experienced Perhaps it was through Cullen's influence.
creation, for without this unique monu- at Rome. On his journey thither, after This we are not told; but Mr. Ward gives
ment of filial piety W. G. Ward would his conversion, the French cooking at an excellent portrait of the Archbishop of
have been as little known to later gene- Langres made him ill. He could converse Dublin, who died a cardinal the year
rations as are Isaac Williams, Oakeley, only in Latin with the Bishop there and before Newman was tardily admitted to
and other Tractarians. His “Life of Wise- with the Archbishop of Besançon, and so the Sacred College. With regard to
man’ was a work of rehabilitation, pre- had no means of making an impression Newman's scarlet hat we may say inci-
senting to the British public in a new on the French prelates or of receiving dentally that Mr. Ward does away with
guise a personage who hitherto had been from them an impression of that interesting the suggestion made by Mr. Purcell in his
regarded as a half - Irish, half - Spanish period of Gallican history. At Milan he Life of Manning,' that the latter tried to
priest, who wrote an un-English letter stayed five weeks to learn the language. prevent Newman from being made a
from out the Flaminian Gate. ” New- He loved the churches, their services and cardinal.
man, on the contrary, had, even in his traditions; but he and his companions To return to Newman's earlier vicissi.
lifetime, as definite a place in the estima- picked up so little Italian that, “to New- tudes : they were not at an end when he
tion, as definite a figure in the imagination, man's great delight,” St. John,“ express- gave up his work in Ireland as a failure.
of his countrymen as Carlyle or Ruskining in confident Italian " the hope that
His editorship of the review called The
Mr. Ward's task has therefore been more he would meet an Italian friend in the
Rambler met with hostility from the
difficult than in his previous books. He winter (iverno), told him that he hoped bishop. “Dr. Brown, Bishop of Newport,
does not introduce us to a new John Henry they would meet in hell (inferno). If formally delated the article to Rome as
Newman ; but he increases our know- Newman could have conquered his Eng- heretical," is a note of a characteristic
ledge of him, and, with a remarkable lishman's reluctance to speak a Conti- incident of this period. In 1860 he had
faculty of choice, from an overwhelming nental language (as Manning did later), another failure and disappointment. His
mass of material he generally allows his his relations with Pius IX. might have fond project of making a new translation of
hero to tell his sad story in his own vivid been more cordial, and Mr. Ward perhaps the Holy Scriptures had to be abandoned.
words.
would not have had to record that during
“ Another great plan had been projected
That the story is a sad one is apparent his long sojourn at Rome“ the Pope's and great hopes raised. Another year had
even to the cursory reader, and, when one wish to see Newman again and again been wasted. . . . and the ecclesiastical rulers
studies these poignant chapters as they appeared to evaporate.
had seemed absolutely indifferent to the
deserve, the sense of sadness becomes Though Newman's ability to converse reality of his work. ”
more profound. The question arises, Was at ease with Pius IX. might have changed Amid such discouragements it is not
this sadness inherent to the temperament the history of his life, there were many surprising that to the end of his life,


## p. 94 (#84) ##############################################

94
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
>
though unswerving in his loyalty to and
think that the gravity of these recurring
his belief in the Catholic Church, he re- The Turco-Italian War and its Problems, violations may be minimized, if after the
tained an unalterable love for Oxford with Appendices containing the Chief fact the Powers can be called in solemnly
and its associations. Newman had a State Papers bearing on the Subject. By to compound the felony and ratify its
genius for friendship; yet he does not Sir Thomas Barclay. With an Addi-consequences. Such practices are, to our
seem to have made one close intimacy tional Chapter on Moslem Feeling by thinking, an appreciable aggravation of
with any one who was not reared at the Right Hon. Ameer Ali. (Constable the original immorality, and figure among
Oxford. After the great wrench there & Co. )
the chief causes which explain the fre-
were first of all his Oxford friends who EVERYTHING in this world does ultimately quency of these acts of international
went over to Rome. Then as years went involve everything
else, but there prevails brigandage. If after each breach of public
on there were renewals of friendship with
none the less among writers on current law the Powers step in to claim a share of
Oxford men who had remained in the events a tacit agreement to ignore the the spoils, it will be to their interest
English Church. Dean Church was perhaps extreme consequences of this maxim. rather to encourage predatory disturb-
the most intimate of these. With
Pusey Sir Thomas Barclay has observed it in his ances of the status quo than to prevent
his correspondence after a certain time book on the Italian expedition to Tripoli them before they occur. The real Euro-
resumed its affectionate tone. When he with a liberality which some of his readers pean problem, as Lord Morley put it in a
was over eighty, and a cardinal, he
recent debate, is to restore the European
think excessive.
He gives us his own
may
travelled to Oxford to see in his last reflections on the origin, consequences,
Concert. Public law is in suspense—the
illness Mark Pattison, who in matters of and legal bearings of the war in a hundred Powers are in rival camps, which can no
belief had gone far from the path of pages of large print. The rest of the longer agree to sustain and enforce it.
Newman and Pusey. In the same late book is an ample appendix of 142 pages The most valuable section of this work
period his letters to Mr. Wayte and to of small type, in which the laborious is, in our view, the chapter in which
Bishop Percival, successive Presidents of reader will find an assemblage of docu- Sir Thomas Barclay calls attention to
his old College, Trinity, are of the highest ments calculated to spare him the trouble the special obligations of the Powers
interest.
of visiting a reference library. Some of towards Turkey. Comparatively little
To go back to the threshold of his old these documents are relevant and indis- can be based upon the Hague Conventions,
age, Newman, when he was sixty-three, pensable—notably the text of the Italian except the duty which lies on neutrals of
when early success had been followed by ultimatum and the semi-official statements offering their mediation. Mr. Stead made
a period of disappointment, made his of the Italian and the Turkish cases. But a tactical mistake when he urged Turkey
name illustrious in the annals of English for ourselves we could have dispensed, for to demand arbitration. One might as
literature by writing the "Apologia - example, with the entire Treaty of Berlin. well ask our own courts to try the case
“
with a courage which is an example for If the object of the author was to spare for Home Rule as invite the Hague to
all time to men who have through sadness his readers the trouble of consulting the settle the Italian claim to a Turkish
and disillusion passed beyond the tra- original authorities, a selection of the few province. The proper tribunal is the
ditional prime of life. That work has clauses of the treaties which really bear | Concert of the Powers, and the Treaty of
deservedly taken rank as a masterpiece on the Italian adventure would have Paris, which bound any Power, having a
of English style. It is therefore somewhat served his purpose better.
dispute with Turkey which might lead to
curious to find throughout Mr. Ward's The scope of Sir Thomas Barclay's war, to place the other Powers" in a
abundant quotations from Newman work is, after all
, restricted and modest. position to prevent recourse to such an
sentences open to criticism. Thus in He claims no esoteric knowledge of the extremity by their mediating influence,”
letters from Littlemore in 1845 he writes : origin of the war, and, until its secret is its charter. The war can be ended
“ Capes was very flourishing. His wife springs are uncovered, the time to write only by a Conference, unless, indeed, the
is to be received nearly directly," and the indispensable chapter in the diplo- whole basis of tradition and law on which
Of course, however, I only heard the matic history of Europe has not arrived. the Ottoman Empire stands in Europe
favourable reports. " The following, from He states what is widely known—that, in has been shattered by this adventure
another point of criticism, is not a favour-
some form and at some time, all or most and the far less serious Bosnian incident.
able example of Newman's English, written of the Powers had given some formal, but Sir Thomas Barclay does well to call
when he was planning to make the secret assent to the Italian claim to regard attention to the problems connected with
Tripoli as “a legitimate sphere of aspira-
Oratory a place of education :
the open door which will confront us
tion. ” But he does not tell us under what when a settlement approaches.
“I should like St. Wilfrid's to be. . . . a conditions or for what compensations
place where Fathers would wish. . . . to be this assent was given. He also is
An important chapter traces the stealthy
buried (where their relics would be kept) familiar ground when he states that the change in the status of Egypt which this
a gin-bottle or cayenne phial of the Vene- | Italians suspected or professed to suspect war has revealed. In 1897 Egypt was so
Coffin and a double tooth and knuckle-bone Tripoli. But here again he has no evidence Greek consuls withdrew on the outbreak
of St. Aloysius of Birmingham. "
to offer except what is accessible to all of war. The Italian consuls have re-
mained at their posts. Sir Thomas
As a comment on this we quote a rebutting evidence which has been pro- the cession of Tripoli in return for an
newspaper readers, and he ignores the
Barclay's proposals for a peace, based on
passage on style” from of New-
duced on the German side. German
man's University Lectures. Mr. Ward's
quotations from them show what Ireland diplomacy, scanning the world for eligible indemnity of 5,000,0001. , are perhaps
places sun,
as near an approach to equity as we are
lost when it sent him back to the Oratory : sidered Tripoli : "but it is" not improbable likely to reach in the present condition
“Since the thoughts and reasonings of that the temptation had been resisted of Europe. But we should prefer to
an author have a personal character, no on the ground that no part of Tripoli was
see them advanced by any well-meaning
wonder that his style is not only the image suitable for commercial exploitation.
neutral rather than an international
of his subject, but of his mind. That pomp
of language, that felicitousness in the choice properly more deeply concerned with the
Sir Thomas Barclay is naturally and lawyer.
and collocation of words, which to prosaic Violation of public law involved in this compiled a book which will provide the
Sir Thomas Barclay, to sum up, has
writers seems artificial, is nothing else but
the mere habit and way of a lofty intellect. " expedition than with the actual aggression student with a useful collection of all the
itself. But, oddly enough, he neither at- necessary materials for forming a judg-
In a literary journal it is interesting to tempts a full analysis of the causes which ment. We can conceive a more formid-
note that late in life Newman wrote to explain the disruption of the European able indictment, and the theme invites
Dean Church that in his opinion his Concert, nor does he put forward any con- a deeper political analysis than he attempts
Lectures on Catholicism in England' was structive plan for its restoration. His Within its limits his study is careful,
" the best written of all his works. " tone is optimistic, and he appears to dispassionate, and comprehensive.
63
on
one


## p. 95 (#85) ##############################################

No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
95
romance ;
sources.
is. In speaking of our own prisons Dr. Lay Morals before usuariting on - Pain and
he does not know that inmates are not
The Modern Prison Curriculum : a General released on parole under a year, and not
OUR LIBRARY TABLE.
Review of our Penal System. By R. F. generally under fourteen to twenty months,
Quinton. (Macmillan & Co. )
after which they remain for at least six MR. MARRIOTT WATSON's new volume of
The amiable ex-governor of Holloway This is hardly“ quick-change conversion. ” (Kegan Paul), contains some keen apprecia:
months under some sort of supervision. essays, Couch Fires and Primrose Ways
Prison has written another book, which we fail to understand what is meant by tion of the varying aspects and energies of
will no doubt meet with much approval "stern methods of punishment and re-
the country-side, but much else besides.
from British prison officials, and that straint which we hesitate to adopt in this though he can find their counterpart in
does not sentimentalize over his rustics,
large number of persons who like to
take their views ready-made from official is confusing the reformatories with some charm of their life, and look at its causes.
country” (p. 81). Perhaps the author
rather he seeks to define the
The views here expressed are
in some ways enlightened, though still defensible practices are reported to have of Nature, he is thinking of the forces which
thoroughly official, in fact prison-made.
We have at once to thank Dr. Quinton contrary, it might more truly be said
obtained within recent years. On the
are developing the universe.
He is, in fact, a serious thinker as well as
for pointing out clearly that repeated that in our prisons methods are still combination is rare and delightful. Owning
an artist in romance and letters, and the
short sentences for the majority of
allowed that in American reformatories Stevenson as master, he follows him in a
the prison population are
worse than
futile. What he does not seem to see is
have been discarded.
delicate sense of language, and sets his own
that the longer sentences meted out to Quinton's language seems repeatedly to Death and The Unknown God. ' The
not disastrous, as regards any effect in reveal a detachment from facts which is result is largely a gospel of revolt
making the prisoners more useful members remarkable, though unfortunately not that, since the old schemes of life and
restrictions are being broken down, a re-
of society after their discharge. He in- peculiar to himself. For instance, on
dulges in some extraordinary conclusions 2,5 he says that the general effect of fear and without cant may be valuable, if it
from statistics of first offenders—two-
the system of "progressive stages," re- has no pretence to be final. On so large a
thirds of certain local prisoners, and some
missions of sentence, &c. , in our prisons is theme as the destiny of man and his relation
98 per cent of convicts—who are repre-extent in his own hands, and at the same
“ to place each prisoner's fate to a large to Nature, who “ forgives no debt and fears
no grave,” few essayists can hope to satisfy
sented as deterred ” from committing
Mr. Watson
further offences. But there is nothing incentive to reformation of character. ” suggestive, and makes some
time to supply him with the needful their readers.
is certainly
undeniable
offended again if they had been discharged But we have yet to learn that observance points
against the ruling conceptions of
offended again if they had been discharged of prison rules necessarily argues change phrase, he travels hopefully, if he does not
be about as reasonable to say that all of character, or leads to an honest or useful arrive.
the rest of the world is “deterred from
life outside ; for prison conditions differ The volume is a tribute to his versatility,
from outside conditions.
for, besides the studies in literary art
committing crimes. Perhaps some are.
Certain it is that many people manage to
Again, on p. 80 we read that “dis- naturally expected from an accomplished
get through a good deal of dishonesty prisoners -- that power of self-control find excursions into politics, social life,
a ” ,
without going to prison.
Dr. Quinton seems to entertain some
which is so generally missing from their English. drama, and the whimsical, richly
romantic mind of childhood. The most
moral equipment, and which it is the main original and ingenious of these papers is the
vague idea that, when the prisons are
relieved of the burden of mental defectives, object of every good prison system to arrangement of The Return of the Native
inebriates, vagrants, and other petty what our prison system seems not to do, structure by an equal series of scenes in
inculcate. ” · Unfortunately, this is just in nineteen scenes, paralleled in form and
offenders—as of course they should be
though the author considers it to be one • Twelfth Night. ' The novel so arranged
they are going
of the best, if not the best, in the world. would, it is contended, run on Elizabethan
lines as drama, and a new art might so be
“ to fulfil their proper function as places for On the next page Dr. Quinton remarks :-
evolved, free from the conventions which are
the punishment and prevention of crime,
where, too, the inmates may be trained
“ The will of the criminal is, in fact, a weak already being destroyed by our latest play-
in habits of industry and good conduct, and thing which requires to be strengthened, wrights.
fitted for the duties of useful citizenship. and not, as was formerly supposed, a strong The appreciations of Stevenson and Horace
Time, labour, and money spent on passing thing which had to be broken. "
Walpole, cognate spirits in their gaiety, to
hosts of petty offenders through the prison Excellent words; but the writer of them some extent refute exploded views, but both
turnstiles can be diverted with much ad- has for years been the servant of a system
are excellent and animated by a gusto which
vantage to the reformation of the more which cultivates will-power by locking the occasion than the dry light of eminent
is pleasurable in itself, and better suited to
serious type of criminal who is a real danger people up and regulating their actions for critics.
to society.
them in detail for days or years.
But neither our prison authorities nor the A prison doctor must know the
author seem to have any clear idea as absurdity of “5 shillings or '7 days' IN Hadji Murád, and Other Stories, we
have the third volume of Messrs. Nelson's
to how to set about this laudable task. imprisonment”; but he does not seem
Certainly our prison administrators have to have realized that to put a drunkard Hadji Murád, a hero of the Caucasus, in the
not yet evinced any great capacity in this away for three years out
of temptation, Hadji Murád, a hero of the Caucasus, in the
direction. Dr. Quinton repeatedly shows and then suddenly to turn him adrift War, when, with infinite difficulty, Rus-
that his theories are vague on the matter without home or friends, is a very danger- sia was annexing the wild, mountainous
-in fact, quite in the air-yet he speaks ous and cruel thing. Perhaps he has country which separated her from the lately
slightingly of the founders of the great not heard of the Massachusetts Hospital surrendered Georgia, is first shown to us
American reformatory system, who at for Inebriates, containing an out-patient deserting Shamil the Imam, who heads the
least tried to put their theories to the test department under a physician who visits resistance to Russia, and devout Mussulman
of practice—who, indeed, have actually the home of a patient before he is tenta- though he is, taking service with the Giaour.
built up a system which attempts, with tively discharged, secures the co-operation received at once with respectful welcome,
some degree of success, though hampered of his relatives or friends, supervises him yet with suspicion ; and his adhesion to the
by public opinion and the legislature, after discharge, and, when necessary, | Russian side is of sufficient importance to
to do what Dr. Quinton says a prison encourages
him to return for further require a special report of it to the Emperor.
system should do.
hospital treatment.
Hence Tolstoy is able to give us pictures-
Dr. Quinton does not seem to know The book is easy to read, and, if we
more than usually scathing in their restrained
sarcasm-of life among the officers com-
that the Elmira Reformatory is meant cannot agree with all its conclusions, manding in the Caucasus, of a day in the
for first offenders in felony, not for will at least do good in suggesting the life of the Emperor Nicholas I. , and, in
“habituals" or vagrants. Perhaps, also, need for reform.
contrast with these, of the wild, simple


## p. 96 (#86) ##############################################

96
THE ATHENÆ UM
No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
ever did.
re
66
a
existence of the soldiers, and the moun- observation which it has become the fashion regret for the past, the approach of winter
taineers. In this, the last complete story he to exalt and foster can, after all, cover no and the return of spring in the open country,
wrote, his lack of feeling for Christianity more than the range of experience open to especially in the Fens. If he appears to
as such, and his admiration for the straight- every savage. No man can go far intellectu- turn too often to the gloomy aspect
of things,
forward spirituality of the Mohammedan, are ally who has not learnt to seek in books the we must remember that a man who is chained
very evident. The details of the fighting accumulated experience of centuries. We to a ledger when he is all the time longing
are peculiarly ghastly; and, with the scene are probably also doing more for a boy's to be writing poetry does not find it easy to
just fresh in one's mind, one is tempted to call | future happiness when we teach him to take a. cheerful view of life. His aims were
the death of Hadji Murád the most terrible love Wordsworth than when we teach him high, and he knew that, as he wrote in
and beautiful thing in that kind that Tolstoy to handle a plane, or to measure his play: Love and Death,'
It was of this death that I was ground. The new generation in England
Nobly to fail is more than victory
reminded by the crushed thistle in the midst runs a serious risk of lapsing into illiteracy
Over unworthy foes.
of the ploughed field,” he says, at the end, while its elders applaud, under the name of
referring to the prologue, a singularly vivid practical
education,” a mere familiarity But the failure did not quench his practical
common sense ; this is from 'A Ballade of
and delightful picture of lonely fields and with natural objects and tools.
Bards':-
flowers. Hadji Murád fell by the hands of
the Russians, having broken away from them information that give value to this book may
Among the many pages of first-hand
They all write poems that will never pay
to attempt the rescue of his wives and be singled out as particularly remarkable
Because they are better than poems should be.
children left in the Imam's hands. The trans.
Mr. Norman Chamberlain's chapter called Prince, I am one of them, woe is me!
lation of this story strikes us as more than
• The Station Loafer,' a study founded upon Prince, I am one of them, there's the sting!
usually happy. It is by Mr. Aylmer Maude, personal acquaintance with 174 lads accus-
That none may suspect it I write in glee
who also contributes an Introduction.
Nobody listens howe'er they sing.
tomed to hang “round the rattler” in hope
The volume contains seven other stories, of odd jobs. °From it may be learnt how Some of his brother bards may have had
most of which are but fragments, though these lads almost certainly become gamblers, better luck, but it is certain that Clarke's
splendid fragments.
but do not become thieves; why they cannot poems never paid ; nevertheless, in plain
take weekly jobs even if they could get them; prose, it was an exaggeration to say that
how they are harried—without advantage nobody listened, for they all listened to one
How to Write for the Papers : a Guide for to society or to themselves by the police, another, and Clarke's work got into antho-
the Young Author, by Albert E. Bull (Pear. and, receiving short, futile sentences, for logies, such as The Poets and Poetry of
son), is a brief manual for the beginner, offences merely nominal, become familiar the Century,' 'Sonnets of Three Centuries,'
giving hints as to the production of saleable with prison ; how, finally, their lives and ‘A Victorian Anthology,' edited by
matter of all kinds. Much of the advice is almost inevitably shortened by exposure Edmund Clarence Stedman (1896). Prof.
common sense, but none the less needed and under-feeding. The brief study, is Saintsbury, in ‘A History of English
to-day. Mr. Bull points out that suitable keenly interesting and deeply instructive. Prosody, vol. iii. (1910), writes :-
copy
" will find its market without a well. It is upon such knowledge as Mr. Chamber,
known name attached to it, but we think lain has gradually accumulated that social
“I do not know whether Mr. Herbert Edwin
he takes too roseate a view of the chances for reforms ought to be based.
Clarke, who some thirty years ago, when I was
good literary work. “This," as he says,
reviewing practically all the new verse, seemed to
me the best of the new-comers, is alive or dead.
" is the golden age of the Serial,” and
I have seen nothing of his for years. But his
good serial does not often make a good
Songs in Exile' (1879) and 'Storm-Drift' (1882)
novel. ” As for “Novelettes,” “the editor
showed very great facility, within the bounds of
knows his public, and if he wants
your
work, HERBERT EDWIN CLARKE. regular prosody, but with no hamper or timidity.
he may want it also “ twaddley. '
Thus, for instance, this is a very remarkable
HERBERT EDWIN CLARKE, whose death thing
It is pointed out that two Home Notes
was briefly recorded last week, was born on
stories and two reviews in The Athenæum November 21st, 1852, at Chatteris in the
The Professor then quotes the first of the
are different. They are, and, when the Isle of Ely, where his father was agent for fourteen stanzas that make up the poem
writing public realizes such differences, Gurney's Bank. He was educated at Sidcot,
'Failure' ('Storm-Drift'), and goes on to
some time and futile effort will be saved.
Mr. Bull might have recommended to his his parents being Quakers. He came to thing :-
one of the schools of the Society of Friends, show why it is metrically such a remarkable
young aspirant more aids to English. He London and became a clerk in a city office,
mentions some models for style ; but these but his inborn literary instincts could not
Let my head lie quiet here upon your shoulder
Once, once more ;
are for the advanced writer. The beginner be stifled by drudgery.
Dead desires are round us, round us dead hopes moulder-
is commonly lost in a cloud of stupid ver.
bosity which he mistakes for thought.
He published four volumes of
poems
Songs in Exile, and Other Poems' (1879),
Clarke saw this, as he saw everything
Storm-Drift: Poems and Sonnets' 1882), that was written about verse ;
he was
Problems of Boy Life. Edited by J. H. Poems and Sonnets' (1895), 'Tannhäuser, naturally much pleased, and wrote to Mr.
Whitehouse, with an Introduction by the and Other Poems' (1896)and a small Saintsbury to the effect that at last, nearly
Bishop of Hereford. (P. S. King. This unbound paper collection entitled “Rebel thirty years after the lines had appeared,
is a valuable, but not on the whole a well. Tunes,' which appeared between the first a competent critic had observed, understood,
composed volume ; overlapping occurs, and second volumes.
and approved of the metrical effect he had
especially between chaps. ii. and ii. , and
Clarke was a voracious reader, and knew not know whether he was alive or dead.
intended to produce—and this critic did
the sequence of chapters a difficult matter, where to find anything he had read. Having
no doubt-is not such as to make the
but little time for books indoors, he con- Besides the poetry, for which there was
reader's progress entirely smooth.
tracted the dangerous habit of reading in no demand, he also wrote many short and
More than a third of the book is occupied the streets while walking between the office serial stories in Home Chimes during the
by various aspects of the economic problem ; and Stoke Newington, where he lived until editorship of Mr.