They do not seem to us to reach
little more than a directory of certain obscure
settlers who built houses in the nineteenth
WE regret to record the death of Mr.
little more than a directory of certain obscure
settlers who built houses in the nineteenth
WE regret to record the death of Mr.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
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. F. W. Robinson, and con-
there is no final summing-up, but careful his marriage in 1883. Such Latin as he had tributed reviews and poems to The Athenæum
perusal and comparison bring out a core of learnt at school was hardly more than rudi. and to various English and American
facts that lie at the heart of the industrial mentary, but it served as a starting-point, periodicals.
difficulties. We perceive that, while both and he taught himself enough to read the
the labour of boys and the labour of men Latin poets. He also taught himself French, when the literary history of his time comes
More will probably be heard of Clarke
are wanted, the markets for these two sorts and, later, Italian and Spanish, and was
to be written, for he had an extensive
of work are, in the main, divided, and that able to read those languages sufficiently. acquaintance among men and women who
no beaten track runs between them. Some He fulfilled one of the tests of what con.
themselves with books.
occupy
branches of work in which boys are at present stitutes a literary man by always carrying quented the house of Westland Marston
He fre-
engaged are not economically necessary, in his pocket a notebook, which was full of (1819-90), who appointed him executor
and others are wholly undesirable.
scraps of verse written down at odd times.
of his will.
He was
on terms of close
In regard to education, a perilous tendency He had a special knowledge of Napoleon friendship with his
son Philip Bourke
shows itself at various points in this volume and of old bookshe often spent his Satur: Marston (1850–87), on whose premature
(as so often outside it) to undervalue books day afternoons wandering round the second.
death he wrote a monody. Another of his
and literature. It should not be forgotten
hand bookshops and barrows, picking up
more intimate literary friends
that for the great body of children in ele
bargains.
American poetess Louise Chandler Moulton
mentary schools their one and only chance The subjects that recur most frequently (1835-1908), who published two posthumous
of learning to love and understand books in his poems are love, death, friendship, collections of Philip Marston's poems.
comes in their schooltime. That personal | the struggle for fame, disappointment,
H. F. J.
All is o'er.
6
6
was
the
## p. 97 (#87) ##############################################
No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
97
THE ATHENÆUM
a
)
are
Fine Art and Archæology.
DR. ROUSE AND THE
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
Five Years' Explorations at Thebes : a Record
HEAD MASTERS' ASSOCIATION.
of Work done 1907-11, by the Earl of Carnar-
ENGLISH.
Perse School House, Glebe Road, Cambridge.
von and Howard Carter, with Chapters by
F. Ll. Griffith, George Legrain, George Möller,
IN your report of the meeting of the
Percy E. Newberry, and Wilhelm Spiegelberg,
Theology.
Head Masters' Association you say that Arpee (Leon), The Armenian Awakening:
50/ net.
An important and finely illustrated record of
“it was thought that the substitution of History of the Armenian Church, 1820-1860, work done in the Theban Necropolis, 1907-11.
interest for effort was to be deprecated 5/ net.
Mr. Howard Carter was in charge of all the
(p. 85). This sentence is so said as to imply Although this book treats mainly of religious
work, the results of which are discussed by a
that I had advocated the substitution of
matters, it contains more than would appear
body of experts.
interest for effort. On the contrary, I
from its title. The author, rightly thinking Glasgow Archæological Society, Report by the
that a knowledge of the country's political
should no more do that than I should advo.
affairs is necessary in order to understand its
Council, presented November 16th, 1911, for
Session 1910-11.
cate the substitution of good-humour for changes in religion, gives a brief outline of Contains the Treasurer's accounts and list
boot-making. Interest may cause effort, Armenian history from early times. The book, of members.
but it cannot take the place of effort because
which has copious notes and references, was
they belong to different categories. It is
originally published in the United States. Lethaby (W. R. ), Architecture : an Introduction
Cohu (Rev. J. R. ), Through Evolution to the to the History and Theory of the Art of Building,
quite true that some speakers did make that Living God, 3/6 net.
1/ net.
remark, and very familiar it is to me, like The author of this book is one of those divines The greater part of this book, by an expert
so many other objections made because to whom science seems a danger only so long of distinction, is devoted to Egyptian and Greek
people cannot or will not listen to what is as Christianity rejects its conclusions. He architecture, modern styles being dealt with
appeals with sincerity and force to those whose more shortly. The author concludes by an
said. I pointed out the mistake at the
faith is shaken by Darwinism true and false, appeal for 'finer quality of workmanship,
time. What I advocated was the substi- showing the tentative nature of the hypothesis believing that this would lead to more satis-
tution of interest for boredom, in order of evolution, yet seeing in it a confirmation factory results than the perpetuation of the
that effort may be made willingly; and
of the view that there is behind Nature a God caprices of individual architects. With
since effort willingly made is stronger
who is not the God of the pantheists. In supple- numerous illustrations. In the Home Uni-
menting the view of a spiritual principle in versity Library.
than effort unwillingly made, therefore I Nature with discredited natural philosophy, he
expect the pupil to do his work better.
weakens, we think, his position, and the book
Old Sydney, illustrated by Sydney G. Smith,
W. H. D. ROUSE.
leaves us asking ourselves what is the sphere
described by Charles H. Bertie.
of faith in such a system.
We appreciate the fortitude which has spurred
Collins (The Right Rev. William), Hours of
Mr. Smith on to his task, but consider it fore-
Insight, and other Sermons, with an Intro-
doomed to failure. This impression is heightened
ductory Letter by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
by the débris of irrelevant and unimportant
detail with wbich the book is cumbered. In
3/6 net.
GUSTAVUS FREDERICK HANDCOCK. A collection of sermons by the late Bishop
many cases the antiquarian matter amounts to
of Gibraltar.
They do not seem to us to reach
little more than a directory of certain obscure
settlers who built houses in the nineteenth
WE regret to record the death of Mr. any spiritual or literary height beyond the
G. F. Handcock of the Public Record Office.
average. They avoid any but orthodox sub-
century. Few of them seem to have been
and
jects and treatment. The Bishop writes at
town-planning experts. The sketches
For some time before his retirement from
length upon the indispensable nature of the
drawings arouse a mild interest. The edition
that Department in July last, his health
is limited to 250 copies.
Episcopate as in “ the highest conceivable
had been failing, and though his buoyancy degree expedient for the Church " and as the
Romanesque Architecture in France, edited and
of nature long kept him up, the end came
barrier against heresy. " His attitude to- with an Introduction by Dr. Julius Baum, 25/
wards hierarchical governance in the Church net.
in Dublin on Friday, the 19th inst. Mr.
is somewhat brusque and dogmatic. Many These illustrations
numerous
and
Handcock joined the Public Record Office of the sermons are disfigured by sentimentality. beautiful. Particularly striking are the effects
as a junior clerk in 1868, was promoted a Farnell (Lewis R. ), Greece and Babylon : of light and shade, which gain an enhanced
senior clerk in 1887, and an Assistant Comparative Sketch_of Mesopotamian, Ana- value and distinction from the luminosity of
Keeper of the Public Records in 1900.
tolian, and Hellenic Religions, 7/8
the atmosphere and the sharpness of the
An ambitious, but closely reasoned thesis. outlines. Conscientious
Thus he had seen a service of close upon
has been
The author's task has been rendered difficult pended in bringing out the significance of each
forty-three years. He concluded Mr. Sweet- on account of the disproportion of the evidence architectural and sculptural detail. A full
man's Calendar of Documents relating to we possess. Such studies can seldom claim introduction, supplied with diagrams, surveys
Ireland, by a volume extending from 1302
to be final and authoritative, because new the rise and fall of Romanesque art, the charac.
matter is constantly being brought to light.
to 1307. He also compiled three massive
teristics of its infancy, its culmination and
With these reservations, Dr. Farnell's survey decline.
volumes of the Calendar of Patent Rolls,
is compact and highly suggestive. He concludes
Edward II. , from 1307 to 1321. For some that the polytheism of the Euphrates and
Poetry and Drama.
years before his retirement his duties as Western Ægean is morphologically uniform,
Examiner of Office Copies occupied all
but that that of Mesopotamia and Hellas is
Chime of All-Hallows, by L'Espérance, 2/6 net.
his time.
more composite. The index is satisfactory.
To the author the form is all; the thought
Nouum Testamentum Latine, secundum Edi-
a minor quantity. His work, largely of a
Mr. Handcock will be greatly missed by tionem Sancti Hieronymi ad codicum Manu-
mystical order, offers caskets of gems
scriptorum
his colleagues. An Irishman, with all the
fidem recensuerunt Johannes
richly enamelled that we are not tempted to
Wordsworth, S. T. P. , et Henricus Julianus
look within. It is a mosaic patterned with
geniality, wit, and courtesy of his race,
White, A. M. , S. T. P. , Editio Minor, curante
fine taste, but the emotion and intensity are
he was ever ready to give any information Henrico I. White, 2/ net.
lost in the concentration of the making.
or help in his power, not only to those on This small edition, equipped with a select Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, translated by
the staff of the Department, but also to any
apparatus criticus, in which all variations from Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, New Edition Re-
stranger lost in the intricacies of the ancient
the Sixtine and Clementine texts are recorded, vised, 6/ net.
is intended to serve as introductory and pre- The translator has not, in our judgment, made
records. He was keen on the antiquities
liminary to the great edition of the Vulgate a success of his attempt to reproduce the
of his native land, and possessed goodly by the same editors, which is approaching com- hendecasyllabic metre of the original. He
collection of books regarding them. A few pletion. The most important readings of the persistently selects the commonplace word
years ago he was elected a Fellow of the principal manuscripts are included, and the instead of the mot juste. In his preface he
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
text is divided into paragraphs, according to
speaks of a "true photograph of the ori-
He was
the precedent of the 1881 English Revised ginal. ” If the verisimilitude be unimpeachable,
an expert in photography, and Version.
the photograph does not preserve the anima-
took some remarkable copies of Public
tion, the incomparable rhythm and stateliness
Records, as well as many photographs of
of the original.
historic ruins in Ireland. "It may here Willoughby (R. M. P. ), The Legal Estate, 6/ net. Delattre (Floris), English Fairy Poetry, from the
be mentioned that, when Sir Benjamin
a
care
ex-
SO
Lau.
A thesis for a doctorate, and an examination Origins to the Seventeenth Century, 4/ net.
Stone was busy in this Department with a
into the anomalous and antiquated distinctions To trace the influence of the fairy mythology
which postulate priority for the legal over the of the British Isles upon our poetry from
section of those photographic studies which equitable estate. The author claims that the Beowulf to Herrick is no light task. The fairies
have made him famous, Mr. Handcock gave matter has received less consideration than it died when “polite letters” and the heroic
him considerable assistance. It is hard to deserves, and that his excursus is original. couplet came into fashion, and their mythology
believe so cheerful a friend has gone, and
Though rather of the nature of an enumera- is buried deep beneath a pile of ponderous
to several of his old acquaintances in the
tion of the technicalities, confusion, and mal- learning. M. Delattre disinters it with a
Public Record Office, official life will not
adroitness born of the duality of the legal patient and a reverent hand. Written from
and equitable estate, his treatise includes the standpoint of literature rather than of
seem quite the same as it was,
personal propositions judiciously advanced. folk-lore, his book, if somewhat slight, should
It may be characterized as an attempt to fill interest all who care to watch the unravelling
ERNEST G. ATKINSON, in the crevices and interstices of this compli- of a thread from the tangled skein of our
cated subject, and then to look at it in per- poetry. It contains a transcript of the “ De-
spective as a whole. The style is happily scription of the King and Queene of Fayries
divorced from that excessively legal phraseo from the unique copy in the Bodleian Library.
logy which renders many law-books unintelli- Published in 1635, this pamphlet has not hither
gible except to experts.
to been reprinted.
.
## p. 98 (#88) ##############################################
98 . .
No. 4396, JAN. 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
66
a
>
#
Eaton (W. A. ), Lays of London Town, 6d. net.
Music.
Conrad (Joseph), Some Reminiscences, 5/ net.
Mr. Eaton is neither the rhapsodist nor the
Many men can gather the crumbs from a
voyager in strange seas of thought. " He Musical Directory, Annual, and Almanack, 1912, great man's table, and a few can make such
abhors the dyed and coloured mystery. " 3/ net.
literary refuse interesting. Mr. Conrad does
His work is in metrical form, but beyond that
Music in Poetry and Prose, edited by Ada M.
something better than this. “I haven't lived
answers to no approximate poetic standard that
Ingpen, 3/6 net.
through wonderful adventures to be related
we are cognizant of. A Lantern Service,
The anthologist has recruited all sorts and
seriatim," he says. “I haven't known dis-
* Our Vanished Strand,' and ' A Blind Beggar
conditions of poets and prose-writers to her
tinguished people on whom I could pass
are typical titles among his pieces.
standard with a disregard for precedence and
fatuous remarks. I haven't been mixed up
Leigh (Gertrude), Tasso and Eleonora : a Drama
with great or scandalous affairs. ” So he draws
a reckless energy that force our admiration.
with Historical Note, 5/ net.
She is heedless of æsthetic canons, oblivious to
a plain portrait of himself instead. A notice
The author writes a spirited defence of
the awe of great names, quixotic' to excess in
of the book will appear in a later issue.
Tasso's sanity, and follows in outline his
her arrangement, and curiously triumphant. Cooke (John Henry), Ida, or The Mystery of the
imprisonment by Alfonso d'Este and his ill-
There are fewer omissions than we should have
Nun's Grave at Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire :
starred affection for Eleonora d'Este. But
expected, in view of the casual method of an Historical Novel giving a Pictorial Account
the poetic drama itself does not bear the
juxtaposition. Heine is freely presented ; of the Life of the Monks and Nuns in the Dis.
stamp of virile life upon it. It halts lamentably,
but neither the “Lorelei' nor his De Quincey- solved Monastic Institutions of Vale Royal
and never quickens into activity above a jog-
like vision on hearing Paganini's playing is Abbey, Norton Priory, Runcorn, and St.
trot. It is one of those dramas which offer an
included. There is no index of names-an Mary's Nunnery, Chester, in the Times of
impenetrable front to the critic. Like countless
obvious need.
Edward I. , Edward II. , and Edward III.
books of minor verse, Miss Leigh's poem is a
(A. D. 1277 to 1336), with a Translation of the
long, sullen blank wall of mediocrity which
Philosophy.
Chronicle of the Foundation of Vale Royal
paralyzes criticism.
Bosanquet (Bernard), Logic; or, The Morphology
Abbey and the Lives of the First Four Abbots,
written by the Fifth Abbot, and never before
Mackereth (James A. ), In the Wake of the
of Knowledge, Second Edition, 2 vols. , 21/ net.
published, 12/8 net.
Phoenix, 3/6 net.
The twenty-three years which have elapsed
since the publication of the first edition of Prof.
Ditchfield (P. H. ) and Others, The Counties of
Mr. Mackereth creates huge breakers of
sound, and beats and lashes them into tumul-
Bosanquet's classic work have found but little England : their Story and Antiquities, 2 vols. ,
alteration in his views, and the changes in the
21) net.
tuous activity. Expression is torn out of him
second edition are more of the nature of ampli- These two bulky volumes are an abstract of
with painful intensity and abandon, and the
fications than emendations. The most inter- the matter published in the series of “ Memorials
bars of rhyme and metre seem all too frail to
esting additions are a criticism of the Inductive of the Counties of England,” which has been
constrain his stormy outbursts. We quail
Principle as formulated by M. Bergson, and running for some time. The “Memorials
before his thunderous broadsides of language,
chapters on truth and coherence, and the themselves offer selections only of noteworthy
and, as we read him, he suggests a number of
relation of mental states to judgment and matter, and the further compression of their
comparisons-showers of falling meteors, a
reality.
contents into brief articles can hardly be satis-
volcanic upheaval, tameless whirlwind,
factory. Thirty-nine counties are included,
Phaëthon's
chariot, and other stupendous phe Bosanquet (B. ), The Principle of Individuality
and Value : 'the Gifford Lectures for 1911,
and there is a good choice of illustrations.
nomena. We doubt the taste of referring to
Mr. William Watson's verse as weaving "the
10/ net.
English Historical Review, January, 5/
lotus-lie into unctuous rhyme with paltering
A book may be obscure because the author
Mr. W. H. Stevenson's article on ‘ Documents
genius,” even after the events of November is concealing his ignorance from the reader, or
of the Eleventh Century' takes precedence in
25th, 1910.
because he is striving to express thought which
this number. If its interest will be mainly
is truly profound. Mr. Bosanquet's Logic
O'Rahilly (Egan), Poems of, with Introduction,
confined to antiquaries, its erudition is not
was difficult reading for the second reason.
Translation, Notes, and Indexes, together But against his latest work no charge of ob-
elaborated to the detriment of the material
None of the other articles calls for particular
with Original Illustrative_Documents, edited scurity can be made. In it he aspires to say
by the Rev. Patrick S. Dinneen and Tadhg to the critics of absolutism, Mark now, how
mention. They are by specialists, and the
O'Donoghue, Second Edition, Revised and a plain tale shall put you down," and he is
standard of solid scholarship is maintained,
Enlarged, 10/6 net.
There are a large number of reviews-long and
largely successful. To examine the old pro-
short-of historical books, most of them well
The section ‘Poems by other Poets,' which blems by the light of the conception of indi-
occupied forty pages of the first edition, has viduality, as he has done, is to free such thinking
done, if lacking in vitality.
here been excluded. Evidence has also been from the remoteness which provokes reaction Fowler (W. Warde), Rome, 1/ net.
discovered which disproves the authenticity
against it, and, without maintaining that it is The Rome presented in this book is not the
of certain other poems attributed to O'Rahilly.
the best thing in life to study philosophy, he Rome of most text-books, existing for war alone,
These have now been omitted. Some legal
rightly urges that philosophy is the quintessence but the scene of the development of a civiliza-
and testamentary documents which further
of life.
tion. Mr. Warde Fowler, an accomplished
our knowledge both of the poems and of aspects Russell (Hon. Bertrand), The Problems of Philo-
scholar, shows the Rome not only of Sulla,
of local history have been gathered chiefly into sophy, 1/ net.
but also of Catullus, and covers the period from
the appendix. The book has been edited for To one beginning the study of philosophy
the foundation of the city to the death of
the Irish Texts Society.
the greatest difficulty is to see why there is
Marcus Aurelius. The omission of Horace from
such a thing at all. The opening chapter of the pages devoted to literature is probably an
Overy (Donald J. ), Eidola.
this book solves the difficulty clearly, if rather
oversight. Part of the Home University Library.
Mr. Overy “ ululates ” in wailful monotone briefly, in view of the importance of the Galbraith (Vivian H. ), The Abbey of St. Albans
through a goodly number of pages, only diversi- question, and the author then reviews the main
fying his note by an occasional simper or a
from 1300 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries :
problems of thought, fizing them in the student's
breathless descent into banality. Usually he
the Stanhope Essay, 1911, 2/6 net.
mind by frequent references to the works of the
preserves his tonelessness throughout and
great philosophers. To make Idealism stand
This prize essay is a conscientious, if some-
ambles equably along, saying little, and saying or fall by Berkeley's equivocal use of “ideas "
what laborious study. The subject does not
it at length, with emphasis and gusto.
is surely less than justice, and the new Realism
offer many intricacies for the historian. The
Pandemos and Urania :
bulks somewhat large in what is, after all, a
records are copious ; St. Albans was one of the
a Fragment from the
Memoirs of a Soul, by a Not Unknown Modern
handbook for beginners ; but, in spite of this,
most important of the monasteries, but funda-
mental peculiarities of its own are hardly in
Mr. Russell has written a book which deserves
Poet, 1/ net.
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. F. W. Robinson, and con-
there is no final summing-up, but careful his marriage in 1883. Such Latin as he had tributed reviews and poems to The Athenæum
perusal and comparison bring out a core of learnt at school was hardly more than rudi. and to various English and American
facts that lie at the heart of the industrial mentary, but it served as a starting-point, periodicals.
difficulties. We perceive that, while both and he taught himself enough to read the
the labour of boys and the labour of men Latin poets. He also taught himself French, when the literary history of his time comes
More will probably be heard of Clarke
are wanted, the markets for these two sorts and, later, Italian and Spanish, and was
to be written, for he had an extensive
of work are, in the main, divided, and that able to read those languages sufficiently. acquaintance among men and women who
no beaten track runs between them. Some He fulfilled one of the tests of what con.
themselves with books.
occupy
branches of work in which boys are at present stitutes a literary man by always carrying quented the house of Westland Marston
He fre-
engaged are not economically necessary, in his pocket a notebook, which was full of (1819-90), who appointed him executor
and others are wholly undesirable.
scraps of verse written down at odd times.
of his will.
He was
on terms of close
In regard to education, a perilous tendency He had a special knowledge of Napoleon friendship with his
son Philip Bourke
shows itself at various points in this volume and of old bookshe often spent his Satur: Marston (1850–87), on whose premature
(as so often outside it) to undervalue books day afternoons wandering round the second.
death he wrote a monody. Another of his
and literature. It should not be forgotten
hand bookshops and barrows, picking up
more intimate literary friends
that for the great body of children in ele
bargains.
American poetess Louise Chandler Moulton
mentary schools their one and only chance The subjects that recur most frequently (1835-1908), who published two posthumous
of learning to love and understand books in his poems are love, death, friendship, collections of Philip Marston's poems.
comes in their schooltime. That personal | the struggle for fame, disappointment,
H. F. J.
All is o'er.
6
6
was
the
## p. 97 (#87) ##############################################
No. 4396, Jan. 27, 1912
97
THE ATHENÆUM
a
)
are
Fine Art and Archæology.
DR. ROUSE AND THE
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
Five Years' Explorations at Thebes : a Record
HEAD MASTERS' ASSOCIATION.
of Work done 1907-11, by the Earl of Carnar-
ENGLISH.
Perse School House, Glebe Road, Cambridge.
von and Howard Carter, with Chapters by
F. Ll. Griffith, George Legrain, George Möller,
IN your report of the meeting of the
Percy E. Newberry, and Wilhelm Spiegelberg,
Theology.
Head Masters' Association you say that Arpee (Leon), The Armenian Awakening:
50/ net.
An important and finely illustrated record of
“it was thought that the substitution of History of the Armenian Church, 1820-1860, work done in the Theban Necropolis, 1907-11.
interest for effort was to be deprecated 5/ net.
Mr. Howard Carter was in charge of all the
(p. 85). This sentence is so said as to imply Although this book treats mainly of religious
work, the results of which are discussed by a
that I had advocated the substitution of
matters, it contains more than would appear
body of experts.
interest for effort. On the contrary, I
from its title. The author, rightly thinking Glasgow Archæological Society, Report by the
that a knowledge of the country's political
should no more do that than I should advo.
affairs is necessary in order to understand its
Council, presented November 16th, 1911, for
Session 1910-11.
cate the substitution of good-humour for changes in religion, gives a brief outline of Contains the Treasurer's accounts and list
boot-making. Interest may cause effort, Armenian history from early times. The book, of members.
but it cannot take the place of effort because
which has copious notes and references, was
they belong to different categories. It is
originally published in the United States. Lethaby (W. R. ), Architecture : an Introduction
Cohu (Rev. J. R. ), Through Evolution to the to the History and Theory of the Art of Building,
quite true that some speakers did make that Living God, 3/6 net.
1/ net.
remark, and very familiar it is to me, like The author of this book is one of those divines The greater part of this book, by an expert
so many other objections made because to whom science seems a danger only so long of distinction, is devoted to Egyptian and Greek
people cannot or will not listen to what is as Christianity rejects its conclusions. He architecture, modern styles being dealt with
appeals with sincerity and force to those whose more shortly. The author concludes by an
said. I pointed out the mistake at the
faith is shaken by Darwinism true and false, appeal for 'finer quality of workmanship,
time. What I advocated was the substi- showing the tentative nature of the hypothesis believing that this would lead to more satis-
tution of interest for boredom, in order of evolution, yet seeing in it a confirmation factory results than the perpetuation of the
that effort may be made willingly; and
of the view that there is behind Nature a God caprices of individual architects. With
since effort willingly made is stronger
who is not the God of the pantheists. In supple- numerous illustrations. In the Home Uni-
menting the view of a spiritual principle in versity Library.
than effort unwillingly made, therefore I Nature with discredited natural philosophy, he
expect the pupil to do his work better.
weakens, we think, his position, and the book
Old Sydney, illustrated by Sydney G. Smith,
W. H. D. ROUSE.
leaves us asking ourselves what is the sphere
described by Charles H. Bertie.
of faith in such a system.
We appreciate the fortitude which has spurred
Collins (The Right Rev. William), Hours of
Mr. Smith on to his task, but consider it fore-
Insight, and other Sermons, with an Intro-
doomed to failure. This impression is heightened
ductory Letter by the Archbishop of Canterbury,
by the débris of irrelevant and unimportant
detail with wbich the book is cumbered. In
3/6 net.
GUSTAVUS FREDERICK HANDCOCK. A collection of sermons by the late Bishop
many cases the antiquarian matter amounts to
of Gibraltar.
They do not seem to us to reach
little more than a directory of certain obscure
settlers who built houses in the nineteenth
WE regret to record the death of Mr. any spiritual or literary height beyond the
G. F. Handcock of the Public Record Office.
average. They avoid any but orthodox sub-
century. Few of them seem to have been
and
jects and treatment. The Bishop writes at
town-planning experts. The sketches
For some time before his retirement from
length upon the indispensable nature of the
drawings arouse a mild interest. The edition
that Department in July last, his health
is limited to 250 copies.
Episcopate as in “ the highest conceivable
had been failing, and though his buoyancy degree expedient for the Church " and as the
Romanesque Architecture in France, edited and
of nature long kept him up, the end came
barrier against heresy. " His attitude to- with an Introduction by Dr. Julius Baum, 25/
wards hierarchical governance in the Church net.
in Dublin on Friday, the 19th inst. Mr.
is somewhat brusque and dogmatic. Many These illustrations
numerous
and
Handcock joined the Public Record Office of the sermons are disfigured by sentimentality. beautiful. Particularly striking are the effects
as a junior clerk in 1868, was promoted a Farnell (Lewis R. ), Greece and Babylon : of light and shade, which gain an enhanced
senior clerk in 1887, and an Assistant Comparative Sketch_of Mesopotamian, Ana- value and distinction from the luminosity of
Keeper of the Public Records in 1900.
tolian, and Hellenic Religions, 7/8
the atmosphere and the sharpness of the
An ambitious, but closely reasoned thesis. outlines. Conscientious
Thus he had seen a service of close upon
has been
The author's task has been rendered difficult pended in bringing out the significance of each
forty-three years. He concluded Mr. Sweet- on account of the disproportion of the evidence architectural and sculptural detail. A full
man's Calendar of Documents relating to we possess. Such studies can seldom claim introduction, supplied with diagrams, surveys
Ireland, by a volume extending from 1302
to be final and authoritative, because new the rise and fall of Romanesque art, the charac.
matter is constantly being brought to light.
to 1307. He also compiled three massive
teristics of its infancy, its culmination and
With these reservations, Dr. Farnell's survey decline.
volumes of the Calendar of Patent Rolls,
is compact and highly suggestive. He concludes
Edward II. , from 1307 to 1321. For some that the polytheism of the Euphrates and
Poetry and Drama.
years before his retirement his duties as Western Ægean is morphologically uniform,
Examiner of Office Copies occupied all
but that that of Mesopotamia and Hellas is
Chime of All-Hallows, by L'Espérance, 2/6 net.
his time.
more composite. The index is satisfactory.
To the author the form is all; the thought
Nouum Testamentum Latine, secundum Edi-
a minor quantity. His work, largely of a
Mr. Handcock will be greatly missed by tionem Sancti Hieronymi ad codicum Manu-
mystical order, offers caskets of gems
scriptorum
his colleagues. An Irishman, with all the
fidem recensuerunt Johannes
richly enamelled that we are not tempted to
Wordsworth, S. T. P. , et Henricus Julianus
look within. It is a mosaic patterned with
geniality, wit, and courtesy of his race,
White, A. M. , S. T. P. , Editio Minor, curante
fine taste, but the emotion and intensity are
he was ever ready to give any information Henrico I. White, 2/ net.
lost in the concentration of the making.
or help in his power, not only to those on This small edition, equipped with a select Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, translated by
the staff of the Department, but also to any
apparatus criticus, in which all variations from Sir Samuel Walker Griffith, New Edition Re-
stranger lost in the intricacies of the ancient
the Sixtine and Clementine texts are recorded, vised, 6/ net.
is intended to serve as introductory and pre- The translator has not, in our judgment, made
records. He was keen on the antiquities
liminary to the great edition of the Vulgate a success of his attempt to reproduce the
of his native land, and possessed goodly by the same editors, which is approaching com- hendecasyllabic metre of the original. He
collection of books regarding them. A few pletion. The most important readings of the persistently selects the commonplace word
years ago he was elected a Fellow of the principal manuscripts are included, and the instead of the mot juste. In his preface he
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
text is divided into paragraphs, according to
speaks of a "true photograph of the ori-
He was
the precedent of the 1881 English Revised ginal. ” If the verisimilitude be unimpeachable,
an expert in photography, and Version.
the photograph does not preserve the anima-
took some remarkable copies of Public
tion, the incomparable rhythm and stateliness
Records, as well as many photographs of
of the original.
historic ruins in Ireland. "It may here Willoughby (R. M. P. ), The Legal Estate, 6/ net. Delattre (Floris), English Fairy Poetry, from the
be mentioned that, when Sir Benjamin
a
care
ex-
SO
Lau.
A thesis for a doctorate, and an examination Origins to the Seventeenth Century, 4/ net.
Stone was busy in this Department with a
into the anomalous and antiquated distinctions To trace the influence of the fairy mythology
which postulate priority for the legal over the of the British Isles upon our poetry from
section of those photographic studies which equitable estate. The author claims that the Beowulf to Herrick is no light task. The fairies
have made him famous, Mr. Handcock gave matter has received less consideration than it died when “polite letters” and the heroic
him considerable assistance. It is hard to deserves, and that his excursus is original. couplet came into fashion, and their mythology
believe so cheerful a friend has gone, and
Though rather of the nature of an enumera- is buried deep beneath a pile of ponderous
to several of his old acquaintances in the
tion of the technicalities, confusion, and mal- learning. M. Delattre disinters it with a
Public Record Office, official life will not
adroitness born of the duality of the legal patient and a reverent hand. Written from
and equitable estate, his treatise includes the standpoint of literature rather than of
seem quite the same as it was,
personal propositions judiciously advanced. folk-lore, his book, if somewhat slight, should
It may be characterized as an attempt to fill interest all who care to watch the unravelling
ERNEST G. ATKINSON, in the crevices and interstices of this compli- of a thread from the tangled skein of our
cated subject, and then to look at it in per- poetry. It contains a transcript of the “ De-
spective as a whole. The style is happily scription of the King and Queene of Fayries
divorced from that excessively legal phraseo from the unique copy in the Bodleian Library.
logy which renders many law-books unintelli- Published in 1635, this pamphlet has not hither
gible except to experts.
to been reprinted.
.
## p. 98 (#88) ##############################################
98 . .
No. 4396, JAN. 27, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
66
a
>
#
Eaton (W. A. ), Lays of London Town, 6d. net.
Music.
Conrad (Joseph), Some Reminiscences, 5/ net.
Mr. Eaton is neither the rhapsodist nor the
Many men can gather the crumbs from a
voyager in strange seas of thought. " He Musical Directory, Annual, and Almanack, 1912, great man's table, and a few can make such
abhors the dyed and coloured mystery. " 3/ net.
literary refuse interesting. Mr. Conrad does
His work is in metrical form, but beyond that
Music in Poetry and Prose, edited by Ada M.
something better than this. “I haven't lived
answers to no approximate poetic standard that
Ingpen, 3/6 net.
through wonderful adventures to be related
we are cognizant of. A Lantern Service,
The anthologist has recruited all sorts and
seriatim," he says. “I haven't known dis-
* Our Vanished Strand,' and ' A Blind Beggar
conditions of poets and prose-writers to her
tinguished people on whom I could pass
are typical titles among his pieces.
standard with a disregard for precedence and
fatuous remarks. I haven't been mixed up
Leigh (Gertrude), Tasso and Eleonora : a Drama
with great or scandalous affairs. ” So he draws
a reckless energy that force our admiration.
with Historical Note, 5/ net.
She is heedless of æsthetic canons, oblivious to
a plain portrait of himself instead. A notice
The author writes a spirited defence of
the awe of great names, quixotic' to excess in
of the book will appear in a later issue.
Tasso's sanity, and follows in outline his
her arrangement, and curiously triumphant. Cooke (John Henry), Ida, or The Mystery of the
imprisonment by Alfonso d'Este and his ill-
There are fewer omissions than we should have
Nun's Grave at Vale Royal Abbey, Cheshire :
starred affection for Eleonora d'Este. But
expected, in view of the casual method of an Historical Novel giving a Pictorial Account
the poetic drama itself does not bear the
juxtaposition. Heine is freely presented ; of the Life of the Monks and Nuns in the Dis.
stamp of virile life upon it. It halts lamentably,
but neither the “Lorelei' nor his De Quincey- solved Monastic Institutions of Vale Royal
and never quickens into activity above a jog-
like vision on hearing Paganini's playing is Abbey, Norton Priory, Runcorn, and St.
trot. It is one of those dramas which offer an
included. There is no index of names-an Mary's Nunnery, Chester, in the Times of
impenetrable front to the critic. Like countless
obvious need.
Edward I. , Edward II. , and Edward III.
books of minor verse, Miss Leigh's poem is a
(A. D. 1277 to 1336), with a Translation of the
long, sullen blank wall of mediocrity which
Philosophy.
Chronicle of the Foundation of Vale Royal
paralyzes criticism.
Bosanquet (Bernard), Logic; or, The Morphology
Abbey and the Lives of the First Four Abbots,
written by the Fifth Abbot, and never before
Mackereth (James A. ), In the Wake of the
of Knowledge, Second Edition, 2 vols. , 21/ net.
published, 12/8 net.
Phoenix, 3/6 net.
The twenty-three years which have elapsed
since the publication of the first edition of Prof.
Ditchfield (P. H. ) and Others, The Counties of
Mr. Mackereth creates huge breakers of
sound, and beats and lashes them into tumul-
Bosanquet's classic work have found but little England : their Story and Antiquities, 2 vols. ,
alteration in his views, and the changes in the
21) net.
tuous activity. Expression is torn out of him
second edition are more of the nature of ampli- These two bulky volumes are an abstract of
with painful intensity and abandon, and the
fications than emendations. The most inter- the matter published in the series of “ Memorials
bars of rhyme and metre seem all too frail to
esting additions are a criticism of the Inductive of the Counties of England,” which has been
constrain his stormy outbursts. We quail
Principle as formulated by M. Bergson, and running for some time. The “Memorials
before his thunderous broadsides of language,
chapters on truth and coherence, and the themselves offer selections only of noteworthy
and, as we read him, he suggests a number of
relation of mental states to judgment and matter, and the further compression of their
comparisons-showers of falling meteors, a
reality.
contents into brief articles can hardly be satis-
volcanic upheaval, tameless whirlwind,
factory. Thirty-nine counties are included,
Phaëthon's
chariot, and other stupendous phe Bosanquet (B. ), The Principle of Individuality
and Value : 'the Gifford Lectures for 1911,
and there is a good choice of illustrations.
nomena. We doubt the taste of referring to
Mr. William Watson's verse as weaving "the
10/ net.
English Historical Review, January, 5/
lotus-lie into unctuous rhyme with paltering
A book may be obscure because the author
Mr. W. H. Stevenson's article on ‘ Documents
genius,” even after the events of November is concealing his ignorance from the reader, or
of the Eleventh Century' takes precedence in
25th, 1910.
because he is striving to express thought which
this number. If its interest will be mainly
is truly profound. Mr. Bosanquet's Logic
O'Rahilly (Egan), Poems of, with Introduction,
confined to antiquaries, its erudition is not
was difficult reading for the second reason.
Translation, Notes, and Indexes, together But against his latest work no charge of ob-
elaborated to the detriment of the material
None of the other articles calls for particular
with Original Illustrative_Documents, edited scurity can be made. In it he aspires to say
by the Rev. Patrick S. Dinneen and Tadhg to the critics of absolutism, Mark now, how
mention. They are by specialists, and the
O'Donoghue, Second Edition, Revised and a plain tale shall put you down," and he is
standard of solid scholarship is maintained,
Enlarged, 10/6 net.
There are a large number of reviews-long and
largely successful. To examine the old pro-
short-of historical books, most of them well
The section ‘Poems by other Poets,' which blems by the light of the conception of indi-
occupied forty pages of the first edition, has viduality, as he has done, is to free such thinking
done, if lacking in vitality.
here been excluded. Evidence has also been from the remoteness which provokes reaction Fowler (W. Warde), Rome, 1/ net.
discovered which disproves the authenticity
against it, and, without maintaining that it is The Rome presented in this book is not the
of certain other poems attributed to O'Rahilly.
the best thing in life to study philosophy, he Rome of most text-books, existing for war alone,
These have now been omitted. Some legal
rightly urges that philosophy is the quintessence but the scene of the development of a civiliza-
and testamentary documents which further
of life.
tion. Mr. Warde Fowler, an accomplished
our knowledge both of the poems and of aspects Russell (Hon. Bertrand), The Problems of Philo-
scholar, shows the Rome not only of Sulla,
of local history have been gathered chiefly into sophy, 1/ net.
but also of Catullus, and covers the period from
the appendix. The book has been edited for To one beginning the study of philosophy
the foundation of the city to the death of
the Irish Texts Society.
the greatest difficulty is to see why there is
Marcus Aurelius. The omission of Horace from
such a thing at all. The opening chapter of the pages devoted to literature is probably an
Overy (Donald J. ), Eidola.
this book solves the difficulty clearly, if rather
oversight. Part of the Home University Library.
Mr. Overy “ ululates ” in wailful monotone briefly, in view of the importance of the Galbraith (Vivian H. ), The Abbey of St. Albans
through a goodly number of pages, only diversi- question, and the author then reviews the main
fying his note by an occasional simper or a
from 1300 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries :
problems of thought, fizing them in the student's
breathless descent into banality. Usually he
the Stanhope Essay, 1911, 2/6 net.
mind by frequent references to the works of the
preserves his tonelessness throughout and
great philosophers. To make Idealism stand
This prize essay is a conscientious, if some-
ambles equably along, saying little, and saying or fall by Berkeley's equivocal use of “ideas "
what laborious study. The subject does not
it at length, with emphasis and gusto.
is surely less than justice, and the new Realism
offer many intricacies for the historian. The
Pandemos and Urania :
bulks somewhat large in what is, after all, a
records are copious ; St. Albans was one of the
a Fragment from the
Memoirs of a Soul, by a Not Unknown Modern
handbook for beginners ; but, in spite of this,
most important of the monasteries, but funda-
mental peculiarities of its own are hardly in
Mr. Russell has written a book which deserves
Poet, 1/ net.
