Lodge's
The Complete Works of Emily Brontē.
The Complete Works of Emily Brontē.
Athenaeum - London - 1912a
Causal explanations, however valu-
able as means of dealing with the inanimate,
a knowledge of many languages, and what he writes ; but how often, in reading leave the felt reality of change wholly un-
afterwards in Scotland and in England, his book, have we wished that rank, honours, touched. Real duration is perceived at once
where he was prepared for the Army, one and officially trained reticence were sunk for what it truly is in the case of the living.
of his masters being the present Lord Morley. full fathom five, and that we could have Here the time-process is not negligible, since
From the R. M. A. , Woolwich, he passed into
the Engineers, but was transferred to the which tells of the bargee's comment on the ment from self.
more of that boyish appreciation of humour it involves constant self-creation, or develop-
A proof is that such change
Artillery, with which he served three familiar chaff that there was a rat in his is neither actually nor even conceivably
years in India, being invalided home in fore chains. ” Many big books of reminis- reversible.
1872. He resigned his commission at the
cences we have read and wished they were Thus we are led on to examine the idea of
end of that year, thus taking a step which a great deal smaller ; this, in comparison, life. As a whole that has duration, life is
seemed far from promising. “ His only is only a little one, and we think that it & continual creation that is, an active or
assets, we are told,
were his force of might have been made much larger without free adaptation, a process of self-determina-
character and his knowledge of foreign offending our artistic sense.
languages. ”
tion. The analogy which best suggests its
He took these attributes to
Russia, where he remained ten years, and
The book describes in a pleasant though nature is that of the artist, who does not
cursory manner many incidents of the au- create in response to à predetermined
was not very successful in business, though
he acquired much information and made
thor's career in and out of the service notion, but rather creates as he goes along.
adventures of war, of travel, and of ship-Such, then, is the vital impetus, the life-
many friends, Jews as well as princes.
His next employment was at the Congo,
wreck, including the salving of the Howe ; force. The environment in regard to it is
The
whither he was sent by King Leopold on
many experiences and reflections on experi- not so much a control as an occasion.
ences, in which the practical knowledge of physical impression is treated by the life-
the recommendation of Lord Wolseley and
Col. Brackenbury. He did not stay long the theories of the doctrinaire ; above all, its whole store of experience by reacting
the old seaman does not always agree with force as a question which it answers out of
there, and after his return home got a place for the delectation of the lay reader, it is a upon it as its own nature directs.
in a telephone company.
But throughout
all these changes he had kept his name on
quarry of good stories, humorous, profes-
Evolution must now be considered. Indi-
sional, or gruesome, or all three combined-
the Reserve List of the Army, and was
vidual development is seemingly contradicted
justified in what is usually an unfruitful
as, for instance, when speaking of the staff by evolution in the sense of the continuous
of the whaling fleet, in which the surgeons
proceeding; for after fifteen years' silence
process whereby new life is created at the
are usually
he got a letter from the War Office offering
young modical students from
expense of old.
But there can be no con-
him active service with the Sudan expedition.
Edinburgh, who, having, outrun the con- tradiction in reality. Consequently, the
stable, felt safer at sea
He joined, and gained useful experience,
for a while, the life-principle transcends my self and yours,
which he recorded in a memorandum on
writer goes on to tell how one day
& man
even if some sort of individual self is implied
had his leg so smashed that it had to be by the notion of life as self-creation. Life,
Transport Service with the Suakin Field
amputated. '
Force,' but on the abandonment of opera-
The medical opinion of the rather than my life or yours, is the ultimate
tions he was recalled. Simultaneously, how-
fleet agreed in this, but each of “the young fact, namely, this life-force which is single,
Galens
ever, the “regrettable incident at Panjdeh
was anxious that another should non-mechanical, and developing in a direc-
undertake the operation. “I was assured tion, though not towards à predetermined
occurred when the Russians drove the
that it was at last performed with a clasp end.
Afghans from the place, notwithstanding
Yet we can know it for what it is,
knife and the carpenter's saw. What be- inasmuch as it is immanent in our individual
the presence of our Envoy, and complica-
came of the patient I do not know. ” But selves. Meanwhile, the life-force is not one
tions became imminent. Law's knowledge
of Russia was believed to be advantageous,
as an experience, and a suggestion of the tendency, but a sheaf of tendencies, which
When
and he was summoned to London.
gruesome, it would be hard to beat the curt define themselves variously, now as vegetism,
remark that “ at Old Calabar meat was sold
that crisis was over, he went to Manchuria,
now as instinct, now as intelligence. In
with some of the animal's hair on, to show
at his own request, in the interests of the
our own case, though the capacities for all
Amur River Navigation Company.
it had had four legs, and not only two. " these forms lurk in our nature, the last
Some trivial slips in historical references predominates.
The rest of his career is recent enough to
should be corrected before the next edition,
be familiar. His greatest and last appoint-
It remains, then, to speak of intelligence
which must come quickly : such, for instance,
ment was that of Financial Member of the
We must realize its limits. It is the creation
as that Ball gave the celebrated coffin to
Council in India, and early in 1900 he
of life, and therefore cannot grasp the nature
Nelson ; but we wish especially to protest of its creator.
began work in succession to Sir Clinton
As Mr. Solomon well puts
Dawkins. India had greatly changed during against the portrait of the author put before it
, “ We can see the limitations of intelligence
It is surely no fair presentment of the because we are something more than intelli-
the thirty years of Law's absence. Since
distinguished officer.
his first visit
gence. " The understanding intelligence, at
any rate-that is to say, the analyzing and
“ education had been widely extended, and he
was of the opinion that it had been a very doubtful
combining intelligence-deals with parts of
benefit. Nihilism in Russia,' he used to say,
experience cut off and fixed. At its best,
was the result of putting higher education
PHILOSOPHY,
then, it is like a kinematograph, producing
within the reach of quick wits who could learn
anything from books and
an illusion of movement by means of sta-
pass competitive
To read about M. Bergson can never be tionary views. It is inadequate to express
examinations, but who could not assimilate equivalent to reading M. Bergson, and there the real duration and creative self-develop-
knowledge or reason for themselves.
We are is always a danger that, in consulting a
doing our best to make Nihilists of the Indians. '”
ment inherent in life as such. Yet this wo
manual, the reader may be seeking to feel because this we are. Let the scientific
Law's work as a member of Council is acquire conclusions apart from the reason intelligence lord it over the inanimate. Its
described in detail in chapters which might ings that led up to them-, policy barely, inert fictions must not be allowed to inter-
with advantage have been relegated to an
tolerable in science, and absolutely fatal
appendix. He left India in 1905 in broken
concerned. Mr. Joseph creative life that is in us.
between us and the changing, enduring,
pose
philosophy
health, and got a K. C. S. I. , but no pension. Solomon, in Bergson (Constable), has done
This, however, does not appear to have his work so well that whoever studies his
seriously hampered him, for in eighteen pages will be inevitably led on to drink at Dr. Josiah Royce's new book, William
months he acquired 2,5001. a year, and might the fountain-head itself. The treatment is James, and other Essays on the Philosophy
have had more. He did not enjoy this long, suggestive rather than exhaustive. Certain of Life (Macmillan), breaks no now ground,
as, worn out by work, he died in Paris in
cardinal ideas in M. Bergson's philosophy but is none the less valuable for a clearness
1908, and was by his special desire buried at
are adumbrated, for the most part by the of treatment and simplicity of language
Athens. Remarkable tributes to his memory straightforward method of repeating his rare among professed philosophers.
are paid by Mr. J. L. Garvin and M. André
us.
In
most pregnant phrases and tropes. In this the first essay he is concerned less with
Chevrillon, as well as Sir T. Morison.
way there is communicated a sense at once
the truth of Pragmatism
than with
9
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THE ATHEN ÆUM
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
No.
S
le
D
le
6
-
ce
le
no
'e The Light that shines in Darkness' is behaviour, strike us as altogether uncalled
at an unfinished play of which the theme is the for, heartless, and in deplorable taste. The
domestic tragedy of the author's own life. public has no business with these private
d Mr. Aylmer Maude in his Preface labours to matters : indeed, we greatly wonder that
y persuade us to see as little as possible of an an eminent surgeon was found willing to
of autobiographical nature in it-in fact, to furnish such data.
le consider Nicholas Sarintsev, who desires, in
On the other hand, we are glad of the
at accordance with his reading of the Gospels, author's account of his visit to Yasnaya
; to give up his estates and live as a peasant, Polyana, for it may well serve to correct the
al and is thwarted by the opposition of his wife, prevalent notion that Tolstoy, if he lived as
as but in a minor degree representing Tolstoy an ascetic within the four walls of his room,
himself. No doubt much must be allowed
was otherwise surrounded by luxury. Plainly,
3t for the exigencies of dramatic art; but the this was not so.
2- problem in the two cases is fundamentally
identical, and, being in itself one of supreme sional awkwardnesses which appear to
The style of the book is easy, with occa-
is interest, it makes the differences in external be due to the writer's familiarity with
ig details
appear of little moment. The
i- opinion that this is in some sort a manifesto French. Thus " the great historian of the
se seems to receive support from the fact that
French monarchy” is, in English, an odd
On p. 323
while the play has all the Tolstoyan ruthless- way of alluding to Saint-Simon.
'gness, accuracy, and peculiar subtlety, it is is a sentence which would imply that Danto
in decidedly more didactic than The Man who lived in Florence after writing the ‘Inferno. '
1-
was Dead. '
h
The editor did well to set beside it the
brief sketch There are no Guilty People':
n where, in an introductory page or two,
1, | Tolstoy gives directly his own view of the
OUR LIBRARY TABLE,
h dilemma in which for thirty years he found
y himself held. Compared with other people's THE whole twenty volumes of “The
y remarks, it makes one feel that his critics Harry Furniss Centenary Edition” of The
and admirers are hardly big enough, or Works of Thackeray (Macmillan) are now out.
d,
simple enough, to find the last word about Mr. Furniss maintains the interest of his pre-
him.
faces to the end, though in the latest volumes
his illustrations are not so numerous as in
e,
We have seldom come across a volume to exhibit his talents for the grotesque. Mr.
the earlier. They are, however, aptly chosen
al which contains so much matter packed into Melville in his part of the introductions is
so small a space as the Life of Count Tolstoy, informative, but expresses
decided
m by Charles Sarolea, also, just issued by opinions ; Mr. Furniss, however, is nothing
bo Messrs. Nelson. The author tells us that if not combative, and, having read a great
r. “ but for Tolstoy's confidence and explicit deal about Thackeray from many quarters,
al
suggestion this book would never have been tells us what he thinks of the writers, and
in written"; and, while he has to acknowledge how he differs from them. His “ obiter
d, indebtedness to many earlier writers, this
dicta
o personal relation, which, if not extensive, sort which excite thought, if not always
are frequent, but generally of the
was evidently highly sympathetic, gives his approval. "Time,” he well says, " is the
al work a distinct note of immediacy and cruellest of all caricaturists,” but when he
“
al.
individuality. The extracts from Tolstoy's
ne
goes on to remark that nobody now reads
own writings are lengthy and numerous.
ot
Disraeli's novels, we have ample evidence
g,
Nevertheless, we think that Dr. Sarolea from our own observation to contradict him.
h succeeds best where he is least required Further, books that nobody reads are not
to be intimate. The significance of that produced in cheap editions, as ‘Sybil,'
gigantic figure upon the European stage ; Vivian Grey,' and their fellows have been.
its attitude towards politics and towards Incidentally Mr. Furniss supplies some
the Church ; its quasi-Oriental character, pungent criticism of black-and-white art,
Russian of the Russians, and profoundly and art critics. We learn that he belongs to
different from the natural man of the West the Titmarsh Club, and cannot appreciate
-all this is clearly, and, within the limits oysters, cheese, or George Cruikshank. For
of the undertaking, adequately set forth. him Charles Keene is the greatest man in
But when it comes to Tolstoy in and by black and white England has produced.
ed
himself we feel that the reality was too big He speaks of the present hideousness in
for the biographer to grasp, and, if it were caricature which has succeeded an age of
of
not for the photographs, we should get but conventional prettiness. His great merit
a vague and confused idea of him from lies in the keen eye and research he has
these pages. This sense of emptiness doubt- brought to the examination of Thackeray's
he
in
less arises in part from the difficulty of doing illustrations, their period—not always that
justice to Tolstoy's spiritual experience; they purport to represent-and the extent
гу
but it may be also in part a result of the to which they may be regarded as the work
al
author's mode of writing: He calls Tolstoy of the novelist himself. He thinks that,
of
the Grand Old Man, the prophet, the when Thackeray drew women, he was more
y,
Master, the giant of Yasnaya Polyana ; and influenced by John Leech than the actual
at
the sentences-all too frequent-in which examples before him.
this sort of thing occurs are correspondingly
is
ANOTHER noteworthy series of twenty
k. jejune. Yet Dr. Sarolea is by no means
books is also completed, the issue of Mr.
extravagantly laudatory:, on the contrary, Stanley Weyman's novels and short stories
2-
he sees, and does not shrink from pointing in the handy small octavos published by
: ;
à out, the considerable defects of his hero.
Messrs. Smith & Elder. All are good reading
Against one chapter we desire to enter from first to last, varied as are the scenes
It the most emphatic protest — that on ‘A and people depicted. The latest, 'The Wild
ss Surgical Operation at Yasnaya Polyana,' Geese,' a story of eighteenth-century Ireland,
given as * Reminiscences of a Russian is as full of vigour and romance as the French
d Surgeon. ' It is sought there to show how memoirs which made Mr. Weyman's reputa
e strangely Tolstoy bore himself at a moment tion. He has laid down his pen before he
- when his wife was in terrible suffering and shows loss of power, or a trace of the sloven-
g serious danger. The details given, with the liness which is apt to be fostered by assured
description and interpretation of Tolstoy's success in any form of art.
a
a
a
de
er
de
n
1s
9
## p. 39 (#47) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
39
proves
* Tra-
ing. ” Emily's MS. is virtually without | Quamin (i. e. Saturday), otherwise Daniel
Life in Shakespeare's England. Compiled punctuation, a fact which her editor should Belteshazzar Fielding," from infancy to
by John Dover Wilson. (Cambridge Uni- surely have mentioned. He gives us
manhood, presents
a great variety of
versity Press. )—This is not an anthology in
If you still despair, control,
homely scenes and persons, all of them
the usually accepted sense, though one or
Hush its whispers in your breast;
typical, and as artless as they are effective.
two well-known specimens from the great where the context shows clearly that the
She makes
no
effort at contrasting
masters are, perhaps unnecessarily, admitted.
black with white; the white man hardly
meaning is that if still control despair
you
It is a collection of prose passages from
and hush,” &c. The text of the sixty-seven dercurrent to be noticed in works treating
comes into the book; and the tragic un-
authors of Shakespeare's time, classified so
as to illustrate the poet's life, works, and poems which Mr. Shorter derived from an
edition
of the negro of the Southern States is happily
probable surroundings, and chosen not for
privately printed in America
to be equally corrupt; and we sincerely the readiness to laugh or cry, the childlike
absent from her pages. But the kindliness,
their style, but as illustrations of some
phase of the society of the day. No attempt | hope that, as the MSS. exist, he will under- faith and superstition, the no less childlike
take a revision.
is made to draw on local sources ; and more
villainies, and the general happiness of the
information on country-town life and man-
A Grammar of the Persian Language. By the touch of humour which gives life. There is
West Indian blacks are here depicted with
ners might well have been included, since
on this head much ignorance prevails. Mr.
John T. Platts and George S. A. Ranking.
Wilson's annotations are somewhat scanty ;
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )—This work is
no description of scenery, yet the author has
divided into two parts, dealing respectively of negro speech is highly comic, but avoids
conveyed the island atmosphere. Her use
we welcome the interesting parallel drawn
between Willis, author of
Part I. is a
Mount bo
with Accidence and Syntax.
the farcical. Such characters
as Nana
and Shakespeare, but no mention is made of revised and enlarged edition of the Persian Dreckett and her
the fact that Overbury came of a family
Grammar' compiled by the late Mr. Platts,
shambling husband ;
cousin Lisbet' and deformed Methuselah;
living in the Stratford neighbourhood. formerly Teacher of Persian in the Uni: | Quasheba and other children, will charm the
The definitions of the glossary are useful, versity of Oxford, and published by Williams reader; and we venture to predict that this
but brief to curtness, toys, trash,” being
in .
,
light, unassuming book will be remembered
hardly an adequate explanation of the hobby- scholarly and thorough, had certain defects
horses in the train of the lord of misrule.
of arrangement which rendered it unsuitable
when many more ambitious works are buried
But such trifles do not lessen the value of
for beginners. In preparing a new edition
in oblivion. The three Anancy stories with
which the book concludes
Col. Ranking has introduced the necessary
& volume which, treating of such themes as
are curious,
books and the theatre, the state of the roads, improvements, which relate principally to compared with the Brer Rabbit tales derived
the classification of the verb and the forma-
from them. They would, however, have
and tales of the sea, will give the student,
without over-much reading, a breath of the
tion of compounds; he has also added a
been better placed in an appendix by them-
selves than in the text, where they produce
atmosphere of Elizabethan daily life. The section on prosody. Mr. Platts intended
passages chosen show a sense of humour on
to complete his Grammar by means of a
a disappointing sense of anticlimax. In fact,
conclusion is the author's weakest point,
the compiler's part as well as a wide acquaint- second part embodying the Syntax, but it
ance with contemporary literature.
seems that he left no written plan or even
though in her fiction she beguiles the reader
vellers' tales” of “parrots which dispute in
outline of the subject. The credit for this
into blind acceptance.
philosophy, and of the Scipodes, a people portion of the work belongs entirely to
The various yearly records of nobility are
who, having but one broad foot apiece, Col.
Ranking, and is all the greater because
cover their bodies therewith from the sun
no European scholar has hitherto produced now out, and being published before the
and rain, are excellent fooling; but better
a systematic exposition of the syntactical end of the year, are not, of course, able to
give the latest honours. Burke's Peerage,
still is Nashe's story of the country justice structure of the Persian language. It is
who unmercifully beat a rustic audience,
true that Persian syntax, compared with
&c. (Harrison), has, however, managed to
include the distinctions conferred at the
thinking that by laughing at a comedy Arabic, is extraordinarily simple and easy.
To mistake the construction of a Persian
Durbar. The volume is full in its details,
played by her Majesty's servants, farmers
and country hinds made light of the Queen's sentence is seldom possible, yet the reader and, where we have tested it for the latest
cloth in his presence.
may often remain in doubt as to the meaning changes, we have found it accurate. The
which it conveys. The elegant simplicity of
inclusion of recently extinct peerages is
Firdausi and Sa'di, and, indeed, of the best a great advantage for reference.
Lodge's
The Complete Works of Emily Brontē. -- Persian literature in general, is a deceptive Peerage, &c. (Kelly's Directories), has reached
Vol. II. Prose. With an Introduction by thing, as too many translators can bear its eighty-first edition, and shows signs of
Clement K. Shorter. (Hodder & Stoughton. ) witness. Col. Ranking has made use of the careful revision.
Information concerning
-This volume consists, in the main, of a system adopted by Mr.
E. A. Sonnenschein in baronets and knights is a prominent feature
reprint of 'Wuthering Heights,' but it his well-known series of “Parallel Grammars,"
of the work, and the heraldic insignia have
contains, in addition some forty pages of and he is to be congratulated on having received special attention, though they are
facsimiles from Emily Brontë's note books. worked out a clear and consistent scheme, not guaranteed as in all cases legally
Our readers may remember that in the first of which the only fault is that it occasionally borne. Debrett's Peerage, &c. (Dean), has
volume of this edition, reviewed by us on tends to become too elaborate. Thus we
also managed to include the Durbar honours.
Feb. 11th, 1911, Emily's complete poems are told that the cases of the Persian lan- The Preface is interesting in its notes
appeared for the first time. Most of the new guage are nine in number-surely an un- concerning baronets, and includes a para-
matter was of small value, but there were half necessary complication when the so-called graph of practical value as to confusion in
a dozen lyrics at least in which the peculiarly cases are in reality instances of the govern-
titles. Ninety pages have been added to
haunting and subtle music characteristic ment of the uninflected noun by prepositions. this issue, which we have tested and found
of Emily found expression as perfect as in The Persian for " in the house is dar satisfactory in detail.
Kelly's Handbook to
the best of her previously known work. khāna : what is gained by calling this a
the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes
It was therefore with regret that critics locative case, like the Latin domi? A few (Kelly's Directories) has reached its thirty-
observed that the editor of the poems had statements require modification. It cannot eighth edition, and is at once concise and easy
not provided a strictly accurate text. be said of the particle mar that“ in every case
for reference, as it offers one general alpha-
Mr. Shorter, in his Introduction to the its function is to emphasize or particularize betical list of an unusually, wide scope, in-
present volume, deals very lightly with the the noun with which it is connected” (p. 31). cluding, for instance, the higher grades of the
various representations which were made, In the Shāhnāma,' at any rate, mar is often Civil Service, presidents and vice-presidents
and does not consider it necessary to plead prefixed for purely metrical reasons. Simi-
of learned societies, and justices of the peace.
the illegibility of Emily's handwriting as an larly, the statement (p. 48) that " instead of
Yet on comparing the text of the the pronoun of the first person the speaker THE seventeenth volume of Mr. F. A
poems printed for the first time by him with always uses some such word as banda, 'the Crisp's Visitation of England and Wales is
the facsimiles which he provides, we find slave, (your) humble servant,'
. '" does not fully up to the level of its predecessors. . . . It
numerous errors.
A single example will apply to classical Persian literature. Criti- contains the pedigrees of forty-two families,
suffice. On p. 325 of his edition of the poems cisms such as these, however, do not affect including those of Cecil Rhodes, the Earl
we read :-
the value of Col. Ranking's work, which we of Derby, and Viscount Gough. The pedi-
cordially recommend to all students of gree of the Dilke family has special interest
Shed no tears o'er that tomb
For there are angels weeping;
Persian.
to readers of this journal, with which they
Mourn not him whose doom
were so long connected. We observe that
Heaven itself is mourning.
The Story of Quamin. By May Harvey the name of one of the executors of the
Look bow in sable gloom
The clouds are earthward yearning;
Drummond. (Putnam's Sons. )--From the late Sir Charles W. Dilke, Mr. Harry Kynoch
And earth receives them home,
first page of its competent and modest Hudson, is incorrectly spelt on p. 134.
Evon darker clouds returning.
Preface onward, this study of the daily The volume, as usual, contains several
These two stanzas are one in the manuscript, life of black folk in Jamaica is delightful. I beautiful reproductions of portraits and book-
and " yearning” is a misprint for “
sweep. ' The author, while tracing the career of
plates.
excuse.
## p. 40 (#48) ##############################################
40
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4394, JAN. 13, 1912
are
CC
This was notable for a perfect copy of ‘The titioners as Peter of Abano (the reputed
THE BOOK SALES OF (1911.
Myrroure of Our Lady,' 1530, 8vo, £65 magician who fell into the hands of the
(old calf); and Wilson's Rule of Reason,' Inquisition and died the night before his
PART U.
1563, and 'Arte of Rhetorike,' 1567, in one execution, carried away, it was whispered, by
volume, furnishing a fine specimen of English the fiends his magic art had raised), Para-
EVER since 1886 Messrs. Sotheby have binding of the Elizabethan period, £40. celsus, Monardes, Ulrich Hutten, and many
been putting the large collection of manu- The portion of Mr. S. R. Crockett's library others. The library of the late Col. Montagu,
scripts formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps into dispersed at the end of the month, and sold on the 18th, contained a copy of Lady
something like order and reducing the bulk. reported in The Athenæum of June 3rd, Mary Coke's Letters and Journals, pri-
This firm held the fifteenth sale of the series on comprised some very good books, many of vately printed in 4 vols. , 1889-96, and this
April 24th, and four following days, the sum
which were sold in sets.
fetched £34 (as issued); Petrarch's 'Sonnetti,
realized for this instalment being £8,795, On June 12th Messrs. Sotheby sold for Canzoni, e Triomphi,' 1470, folio, £20 (old
and bringing the total thus far to nearly no less than £1,015 Fielding's original re- morocco, three leaves reprinted);
and
£60,000. An extensive list of prices was ceipt for £600 for the copyright of Tom Trials for Adultery, or the History of
given in The Athenæum of May 6th.
Jones' and the agreement between himself Divorces,' with all the plates and portraits,
The first part of the great Hoe Library was and Miller for its publication. These docu- 7 vols. , 1780-81, 8vo, £30 (calf).
sold at New York by the Anderson Auction ments belonged to the Huth Collection, sold The last sales of the season comprised the
Company at the end of April and beginning in part later, and were bought fifty years library of the late Mr. Seton Veitch of Pais-
of May, and to pass it by without recogni- ago for £12. It is worthy of note that the ley, held on July 21st, and the miscellaneous
tion of the masterly way in which the three large volumes, by Messrs. Humphry sales of July 27th and August 1st, all con-
catalogue was drawn up-apparently by Ward and W. Roberts, of 'Pictures in the ducted by Messrs. Sotheby. They
Mr. Beverly Chew, whose name appears to Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's reported in The Athenæum of August 5th.
the 'Foreword '-would be ungracious in Gate and Dover House, London' (150 copies Some good and unusual things sold at
the extreme. Much has been said about the privately printed), brought £90 at the end this time included Sir William Leighton's
furious bidding which took place and the of June. They were gorgeously bound in Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull
enormous prices obtained for many of morocco-super-extra. The Catalogue of the Soule,' 1613, 8vo, which had not been seen
the Hoe books, and, though competition Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelain, in an auction room for nearly a century, £7
must have had most to do with this, printed at New York in 1904, containing 77 (old half boards, title soiled and a leaf torn);
the excellence of the catalogue doubtless coloured plates, fetched £33 (mor. ex. ); Robert Greene's 'Penelope's Webb,' 1601,
contributed not a little to the result. At and on June 28th Messrs. Knight, Frank & 4to, £25 (unbound, title defective); and
this sale a copy on vellum of the so-called Rutley, at a sale of the late Mr. Moberly books, MSS. , &c. , relating to Oscar Wilde.
“Mazarine Bible” fetched the equivalent Bell's effects, obtained £120 for Voltaire's Anything by Wilde, not consisting of late
of £10,000, the largest amount over paid for works, printed at Kehl in 1785-9, and com- reprints, is in great demand.
a book, the sum of £7,100 obtained at Paris plete in 70 volumes. The reason of this
The new season of 1911-12, opened by
in 1909 for ' Les Euvres de Molière,' 6 vols. , unusually high price was that the work was
1773, with Moreau's original drawings bound on large paper, with all the portraits and has so far been almost completely domi-
Messrs. Puttick & Simpson on October 5th,
up,
ranking second. The Huth copy of the plates by Moreau in colours. Beaumarchais nated by the Huth Sale, and the compara-
Mazarin Bible” was bought by Mr. Quaritch established a printing-office at Kehl for the tively few books which have fetched sub-
for £5,800, and it was perhaps better than purpose of producing this edition, bought stantial prices have been so recently referred
that belonging to Mr. Hoe, for priority is Baskerville's types, and expended from first to in The Athenæum that there is no need
given to the unmixed issue on paper, to
to last upwards of three million francs upon to mention them again. It may, just be
which the Huth book belonged, over the it.
copies printed on vellum. Mr. Alfred W. Sir Theodore Martin's library (see Athen- Vol. II. ' (only) of Lamb's Tales from
observed, however, that on October 19th,
Pollard refers to this aspect of the matter in æum, July 8th), extensive and good of its Shakespeare, 1807, 8vo, sold at Messrs.
his Early Illustrated Books' and else- kind, was composed almost entirely of Hodgson's for £71, simply because it was in
where.
standard works of English literature, and, its original grey boards as issued. In May,
collection fetched
The next sale of importance was held at though the
$2,770, 1903, the two volumes so bound, fetched
Messrs. Sotheby's on May 1st and following individual amounts were mostly small.
£110 at Messrs. Sotheby's. Again, on
That the racy books of Pierce Egan and November 17th, Messrs. Hodgson sold for
day. It was dealt with in The Athenoum of
May 13th and was of a miscellaneous charac- his school have not lost their interest is the large sum of £226 Thackeray's Flore
ter, comprising inter alia a number of works apparent from the results of the year’s et Zephyr,' in its original wrappers, and this
on Aeronautics, now fashionable, and of sales ; in fact, it is evident that good copies notwithstanding the fact
that they and
these Blanchard and Jeffries's broadside are held in higher regard than ever.
At a
one of the lithographic illustrations were
Account of a Voyage in the Atmosphere sale on the last day of June, Carey's 'Life
slightly torn. During the last twenty-five
from England to France,' 1785 fetched in Paris, containing 21, coloured plates by years only nine copies of this
“ Ballet
£14 10s.
George Cruikshank, 1822, 8vo, fetched £26 ;
Mythologique have been publicly offered
This sale gave rise to the conclusion that first editions of the three Tours of Dr.
for sale, and of these two were mutilated
presentation copies of books rank high in Syntax;" 1812-20-21, 8vo, £37; Pierce Egan's and one incomplete. The nearest approach
the estimation of collectors, and there is Life in London,' 1821, and the 'Finish,
1830, together 2 vols. , 8vo, £30 ; and West- realized £56 in May, 1892. That, too, was
to this most recent example was that which
every indication that they will in the future
macott's
rank higher still.
English Spy,' 2 vols. , 1825-6,
also £30. All these were fine copies, uncut
in its original cover, and one of the plates
The late Sir Charles Dilke's library, or
was damaged.
and bound either in calf or morocco extra.
rather a selection from it, was sold at Messrs, At the same sale the first edition of 'La
Taking the Book Sales of 1911 as a whole,
Christie's on May 9th, in company with a Divina Commedia' having the Commentary
one cannot say that they have proved
number of other
properties. Blake's of Benvenuto da Imola, 1477, small folio, very remarkable. . If the Huth Sale is left
Songs of Innocence, with 27 coloured brought £66 (original vellum, two leaves
out of the calculation, the average disclosed
plates and that of 'The Schoolboy from repaired), and a little later a set of The is about £2 158. -higher, certainly, than that
Songs of Experience' added, 1789, 8vo, Sporting 'Magazine from the beginning in of the previous year, which stood at about
fetched £250 (mor. ); Keats's ' Lamia,' 1820, 1792 to its conclusion in 1870, together 156
£2 108. , but lower than that of 1909 (£3 108. ),
£50 (boards);
Poems, 1817,, £30 (calf vols. , with Sir Walter Gilbey's privately and much lower than the average for 1907
extra); 'Endymion,' 1818, $v0, £48 (boards); printed index to the engravings, £70 (ht. (about £4. 48. ), which is the highest on
and the ‘Poetical Works' of 1876, with calf). The last 46 volumes were not uni-
. We may gather from this that of
autograph inscription by Lord Houghton to formly bound, and several of the plates were
late an unusually large number of unimpor-
Sir Charles, and the latter's pencil marks missing. Sir Walter Gilbey's set sold for
tant books have been thrown on the market,
and notes, £20 (calf extra). Among the £378 in March, 1910 ; and at a miscellaneous and that appears from other evidence to
miscellanea was a unique set of the Royal sale at Messrs. Sotheby's in July, 1909, as
have been the case. The records of many
Academy Catalogues from 1769 (the date of much as £920 was obtained for what was
years show plainly that books of an ordinary
the first exhibition) to 1834, containing described as the finest set ever offered.
character-those in fact, which are not as
many hundreds of interesting autograph
The extensive and valuable collection of yet mirrored in the glass of fashion-are
letters from the chief artists of the period, medical works formed by the late Dr. cheaper than they were ten or a dozen years
also a large number of original drawings. Frank Payne was sold enºbloc for £2,300, ago, but that the aristocrats of the book-
This collection, in 16 thick quarto volumes, in the comparatively quiet month of July: shelf are much dearer, and are likely to be-
bound in morocco extra, fetched as much as
It consisted mainly of works in English,
£504.
Latin, and German (printed in this country copies are rapidly finding their way into the
Later in the month occurred the sale and abroad during the sixteenth and seven-
great public libraries of the world.
detailed in The Athenaeum of May 27th. teenth centuries) by such celebrated prac-
J. HERBERT SLATER,
## p. 41 (#49) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1911
41
THE ATHENÆUM
scene.
are
upon her as his property, the friend because he if precious article entitled “The Theatre of the
is constitutionally polygamous. Such a sub- Soul,' and Miss Dorothy Nevile Lees writes
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
ject offers dramatic possibilities, but they are with sympathy and enthusiasm upon the
poorly utilized, the author in particular missing * Sacre Rappresentazioni' of Florence. Mr.
the opportunity offered by the collision of John Semar has a note on The New Censor,'
ENGLISH.
the principal dramatis personæ in the closing though, as he does not mention Mr. Redford's
Theology.
The technique is faulty, and bears retirement, it is somewhat out of date.
Mr.
Catholic Who's Who, 1912, 3/6 net.
evidence of immaturity; the plot is loosely Arthur Symons talks about ‘Pantomimes and
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics : Vol. IV.
woven, at least one of the characters being the Poetic Drama' with all his old verve.
irrelevant to the action. Perhaps the best
Confirmation-Drama, 28/ net.
Moore (William), The Fags, and other Poems,
feature of the play is its easy and unpreten- 3/6 net.
tious dialogue.
Law.
Mr. Moore plays delicately with verse in a
Strahan (J. Andrew) and Oldham (Norman H. ).
Church (Hubert), Poems, 3/6 net.
languorous metaphysical atmosphere. His
Mr. Church is an introspective writer.
His poetry is tangled with conceits, and labours too
The Copyright Act, 1911, with Introduction
and Index, 2/6 net.
fondness for abstruse thought often deflects consciously at verbal architecture. He leaves
the poetic impetus into channels of nebulous the impression that his inspiration is to trifle
Fine Art and Archæology.
and obscure speculation. He can hardly be
with fanciful and fugitive blossoms of poesy:
described as a poet, but is rather a dis- He lacks grip and force, and avoids the broad
Builder (The): a Journal for the Architect, ciplined and powerful thinker who expresses
currents of human feeling.
Engineer, and Decorative Artist, 4d.
himself in metrical form.
Pennypacker (Isaac Rusling), Bridle Paths.
able as means of dealing with the inanimate,
a knowledge of many languages, and what he writes ; but how often, in reading leave the felt reality of change wholly un-
afterwards in Scotland and in England, his book, have we wished that rank, honours, touched. Real duration is perceived at once
where he was prepared for the Army, one and officially trained reticence were sunk for what it truly is in the case of the living.
of his masters being the present Lord Morley. full fathom five, and that we could have Here the time-process is not negligible, since
From the R. M. A. , Woolwich, he passed into
the Engineers, but was transferred to the which tells of the bargee's comment on the ment from self.
more of that boyish appreciation of humour it involves constant self-creation, or develop-
A proof is that such change
Artillery, with which he served three familiar chaff that there was a rat in his is neither actually nor even conceivably
years in India, being invalided home in fore chains. ” Many big books of reminis- reversible.
1872. He resigned his commission at the
cences we have read and wished they were Thus we are led on to examine the idea of
end of that year, thus taking a step which a great deal smaller ; this, in comparison, life. As a whole that has duration, life is
seemed far from promising. “ His only is only a little one, and we think that it & continual creation that is, an active or
assets, we are told,
were his force of might have been made much larger without free adaptation, a process of self-determina-
character and his knowledge of foreign offending our artistic sense.
languages. ”
tion. The analogy which best suggests its
He took these attributes to
Russia, where he remained ten years, and
The book describes in a pleasant though nature is that of the artist, who does not
cursory manner many incidents of the au- create in response to à predetermined
was not very successful in business, though
he acquired much information and made
thor's career in and out of the service notion, but rather creates as he goes along.
adventures of war, of travel, and of ship-Such, then, is the vital impetus, the life-
many friends, Jews as well as princes.
His next employment was at the Congo,
wreck, including the salving of the Howe ; force. The environment in regard to it is
The
whither he was sent by King Leopold on
many experiences and reflections on experi- not so much a control as an occasion.
ences, in which the practical knowledge of physical impression is treated by the life-
the recommendation of Lord Wolseley and
Col. Brackenbury. He did not stay long the theories of the doctrinaire ; above all, its whole store of experience by reacting
the old seaman does not always agree with force as a question which it answers out of
there, and after his return home got a place for the delectation of the lay reader, it is a upon it as its own nature directs.
in a telephone company.
But throughout
all these changes he had kept his name on
quarry of good stories, humorous, profes-
Evolution must now be considered. Indi-
sional, or gruesome, or all three combined-
the Reserve List of the Army, and was
vidual development is seemingly contradicted
justified in what is usually an unfruitful
as, for instance, when speaking of the staff by evolution in the sense of the continuous
of the whaling fleet, in which the surgeons
proceeding; for after fifteen years' silence
process whereby new life is created at the
are usually
he got a letter from the War Office offering
young modical students from
expense of old.
But there can be no con-
him active service with the Sudan expedition.
Edinburgh, who, having, outrun the con- tradiction in reality. Consequently, the
stable, felt safer at sea
He joined, and gained useful experience,
for a while, the life-principle transcends my self and yours,
which he recorded in a memorandum on
writer goes on to tell how one day
& man
even if some sort of individual self is implied
had his leg so smashed that it had to be by the notion of life as self-creation. Life,
Transport Service with the Suakin Field
amputated. '
Force,' but on the abandonment of opera-
The medical opinion of the rather than my life or yours, is the ultimate
tions he was recalled. Simultaneously, how-
fleet agreed in this, but each of “the young fact, namely, this life-force which is single,
Galens
ever, the “regrettable incident at Panjdeh
was anxious that another should non-mechanical, and developing in a direc-
undertake the operation. “I was assured tion, though not towards à predetermined
occurred when the Russians drove the
that it was at last performed with a clasp end.
Afghans from the place, notwithstanding
Yet we can know it for what it is,
knife and the carpenter's saw. What be- inasmuch as it is immanent in our individual
the presence of our Envoy, and complica-
came of the patient I do not know. ” But selves. Meanwhile, the life-force is not one
tions became imminent. Law's knowledge
of Russia was believed to be advantageous,
as an experience, and a suggestion of the tendency, but a sheaf of tendencies, which
When
and he was summoned to London.
gruesome, it would be hard to beat the curt define themselves variously, now as vegetism,
remark that “ at Old Calabar meat was sold
that crisis was over, he went to Manchuria,
now as instinct, now as intelligence. In
with some of the animal's hair on, to show
at his own request, in the interests of the
our own case, though the capacities for all
Amur River Navigation Company.
it had had four legs, and not only two. " these forms lurk in our nature, the last
Some trivial slips in historical references predominates.
The rest of his career is recent enough to
should be corrected before the next edition,
be familiar. His greatest and last appoint-
It remains, then, to speak of intelligence
which must come quickly : such, for instance,
ment was that of Financial Member of the
We must realize its limits. It is the creation
as that Ball gave the celebrated coffin to
Council in India, and early in 1900 he
of life, and therefore cannot grasp the nature
Nelson ; but we wish especially to protest of its creator.
began work in succession to Sir Clinton
As Mr. Solomon well puts
Dawkins. India had greatly changed during against the portrait of the author put before it
, “ We can see the limitations of intelligence
It is surely no fair presentment of the because we are something more than intelli-
the thirty years of Law's absence. Since
distinguished officer.
his first visit
gence. " The understanding intelligence, at
any rate-that is to say, the analyzing and
“ education had been widely extended, and he
was of the opinion that it had been a very doubtful
combining intelligence-deals with parts of
benefit. Nihilism in Russia,' he used to say,
experience cut off and fixed. At its best,
was the result of putting higher education
PHILOSOPHY,
then, it is like a kinematograph, producing
within the reach of quick wits who could learn
anything from books and
an illusion of movement by means of sta-
pass competitive
To read about M. Bergson can never be tionary views. It is inadequate to express
examinations, but who could not assimilate equivalent to reading M. Bergson, and there the real duration and creative self-develop-
knowledge or reason for themselves.
We are is always a danger that, in consulting a
doing our best to make Nihilists of the Indians. '”
ment inherent in life as such. Yet this wo
manual, the reader may be seeking to feel because this we are. Let the scientific
Law's work as a member of Council is acquire conclusions apart from the reason intelligence lord it over the inanimate. Its
described in detail in chapters which might ings that led up to them-, policy barely, inert fictions must not be allowed to inter-
with advantage have been relegated to an
tolerable in science, and absolutely fatal
appendix. He left India in 1905 in broken
concerned. Mr. Joseph creative life that is in us.
between us and the changing, enduring,
pose
philosophy
health, and got a K. C. S. I. , but no pension. Solomon, in Bergson (Constable), has done
This, however, does not appear to have his work so well that whoever studies his
seriously hampered him, for in eighteen pages will be inevitably led on to drink at Dr. Josiah Royce's new book, William
months he acquired 2,5001. a year, and might the fountain-head itself. The treatment is James, and other Essays on the Philosophy
have had more. He did not enjoy this long, suggestive rather than exhaustive. Certain of Life (Macmillan), breaks no now ground,
as, worn out by work, he died in Paris in
cardinal ideas in M. Bergson's philosophy but is none the less valuable for a clearness
1908, and was by his special desire buried at
are adumbrated, for the most part by the of treatment and simplicity of language
Athens. Remarkable tributes to his memory straightforward method of repeating his rare among professed philosophers.
are paid by Mr. J. L. Garvin and M. André
us.
In
most pregnant phrases and tropes. In this the first essay he is concerned less with
Chevrillon, as well as Sir T. Morison.
way there is communicated a sense at once
the truth of Pragmatism
than with
9
## p. 38 (#46) ##############################################
THE ATHEN ÆUM
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
No.
S
le
D
le
6
-
ce
le
no
'e The Light that shines in Darkness' is behaviour, strike us as altogether uncalled
at an unfinished play of which the theme is the for, heartless, and in deplorable taste. The
domestic tragedy of the author's own life. public has no business with these private
d Mr. Aylmer Maude in his Preface labours to matters : indeed, we greatly wonder that
y persuade us to see as little as possible of an an eminent surgeon was found willing to
of autobiographical nature in it-in fact, to furnish such data.
le consider Nicholas Sarintsev, who desires, in
On the other hand, we are glad of the
at accordance with his reading of the Gospels, author's account of his visit to Yasnaya
; to give up his estates and live as a peasant, Polyana, for it may well serve to correct the
al and is thwarted by the opposition of his wife, prevalent notion that Tolstoy, if he lived as
as but in a minor degree representing Tolstoy an ascetic within the four walls of his room,
himself. No doubt much must be allowed
was otherwise surrounded by luxury. Plainly,
3t for the exigencies of dramatic art; but the this was not so.
2- problem in the two cases is fundamentally
identical, and, being in itself one of supreme sional awkwardnesses which appear to
The style of the book is easy, with occa-
is interest, it makes the differences in external be due to the writer's familiarity with
ig details
appear of little moment. The
i- opinion that this is in some sort a manifesto French. Thus " the great historian of the
se seems to receive support from the fact that
French monarchy” is, in English, an odd
On p. 323
while the play has all the Tolstoyan ruthless- way of alluding to Saint-Simon.
'gness, accuracy, and peculiar subtlety, it is is a sentence which would imply that Danto
in decidedly more didactic than The Man who lived in Florence after writing the ‘Inferno. '
1-
was Dead. '
h
The editor did well to set beside it the
brief sketch There are no Guilty People':
n where, in an introductory page or two,
1, | Tolstoy gives directly his own view of the
OUR LIBRARY TABLE,
h dilemma in which for thirty years he found
y himself held. Compared with other people's THE whole twenty volumes of “The
y remarks, it makes one feel that his critics Harry Furniss Centenary Edition” of The
and admirers are hardly big enough, or Works of Thackeray (Macmillan) are now out.
d,
simple enough, to find the last word about Mr. Furniss maintains the interest of his pre-
him.
faces to the end, though in the latest volumes
his illustrations are not so numerous as in
e,
We have seldom come across a volume to exhibit his talents for the grotesque. Mr.
the earlier. They are, however, aptly chosen
al which contains so much matter packed into Melville in his part of the introductions is
so small a space as the Life of Count Tolstoy, informative, but expresses
decided
m by Charles Sarolea, also, just issued by opinions ; Mr. Furniss, however, is nothing
bo Messrs. Nelson. The author tells us that if not combative, and, having read a great
r. “ but for Tolstoy's confidence and explicit deal about Thackeray from many quarters,
al
suggestion this book would never have been tells us what he thinks of the writers, and
in written"; and, while he has to acknowledge how he differs from them. His “ obiter
d, indebtedness to many earlier writers, this
dicta
o personal relation, which, if not extensive, sort which excite thought, if not always
are frequent, but generally of the
was evidently highly sympathetic, gives his approval. "Time,” he well says, " is the
al work a distinct note of immediacy and cruellest of all caricaturists,” but when he
“
al.
individuality. The extracts from Tolstoy's
ne
goes on to remark that nobody now reads
own writings are lengthy and numerous.
ot
Disraeli's novels, we have ample evidence
g,
Nevertheless, we think that Dr. Sarolea from our own observation to contradict him.
h succeeds best where he is least required Further, books that nobody reads are not
to be intimate. The significance of that produced in cheap editions, as ‘Sybil,'
gigantic figure upon the European stage ; Vivian Grey,' and their fellows have been.
its attitude towards politics and towards Incidentally Mr. Furniss supplies some
the Church ; its quasi-Oriental character, pungent criticism of black-and-white art,
Russian of the Russians, and profoundly and art critics. We learn that he belongs to
different from the natural man of the West the Titmarsh Club, and cannot appreciate
-all this is clearly, and, within the limits oysters, cheese, or George Cruikshank. For
of the undertaking, adequately set forth. him Charles Keene is the greatest man in
But when it comes to Tolstoy in and by black and white England has produced.
ed
himself we feel that the reality was too big He speaks of the present hideousness in
for the biographer to grasp, and, if it were caricature which has succeeded an age of
of
not for the photographs, we should get but conventional prettiness. His great merit
a vague and confused idea of him from lies in the keen eye and research he has
these pages. This sense of emptiness doubt- brought to the examination of Thackeray's
he
in
less arises in part from the difficulty of doing illustrations, their period—not always that
justice to Tolstoy's spiritual experience; they purport to represent-and the extent
гу
but it may be also in part a result of the to which they may be regarded as the work
al
author's mode of writing: He calls Tolstoy of the novelist himself. He thinks that,
of
the Grand Old Man, the prophet, the when Thackeray drew women, he was more
y,
Master, the giant of Yasnaya Polyana ; and influenced by John Leech than the actual
at
the sentences-all too frequent-in which examples before him.
this sort of thing occurs are correspondingly
is
ANOTHER noteworthy series of twenty
k. jejune. Yet Dr. Sarolea is by no means
books is also completed, the issue of Mr.
extravagantly laudatory:, on the contrary, Stanley Weyman's novels and short stories
2-
he sees, and does not shrink from pointing in the handy small octavos published by
: ;
à out, the considerable defects of his hero.
Messrs. Smith & Elder. All are good reading
Against one chapter we desire to enter from first to last, varied as are the scenes
It the most emphatic protest — that on ‘A and people depicted. The latest, 'The Wild
ss Surgical Operation at Yasnaya Polyana,' Geese,' a story of eighteenth-century Ireland,
given as * Reminiscences of a Russian is as full of vigour and romance as the French
d Surgeon. ' It is sought there to show how memoirs which made Mr. Weyman's reputa
e strangely Tolstoy bore himself at a moment tion. He has laid down his pen before he
- when his wife was in terrible suffering and shows loss of power, or a trace of the sloven-
g serious danger. The details given, with the liness which is apt to be fostered by assured
description and interpretation of Tolstoy's success in any form of art.
a
a
a
de
er
de
n
1s
9
## p. 39 (#47) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
39
proves
* Tra-
ing. ” Emily's MS. is virtually without | Quamin (i. e. Saturday), otherwise Daniel
Life in Shakespeare's England. Compiled punctuation, a fact which her editor should Belteshazzar Fielding," from infancy to
by John Dover Wilson. (Cambridge Uni- surely have mentioned. He gives us
manhood, presents
a great variety of
versity Press. )—This is not an anthology in
If you still despair, control,
homely scenes and persons, all of them
the usually accepted sense, though one or
Hush its whispers in your breast;
typical, and as artless as they are effective.
two well-known specimens from the great where the context shows clearly that the
She makes
no
effort at contrasting
masters are, perhaps unnecessarily, admitted.
black with white; the white man hardly
meaning is that if still control despair
you
It is a collection of prose passages from
and hush,” &c. The text of the sixty-seven dercurrent to be noticed in works treating
comes into the book; and the tragic un-
authors of Shakespeare's time, classified so
as to illustrate the poet's life, works, and poems which Mr. Shorter derived from an
edition
of the negro of the Southern States is happily
probable surroundings, and chosen not for
privately printed in America
to be equally corrupt; and we sincerely the readiness to laugh or cry, the childlike
absent from her pages. But the kindliness,
their style, but as illustrations of some
phase of the society of the day. No attempt | hope that, as the MSS. exist, he will under- faith and superstition, the no less childlike
take a revision.
is made to draw on local sources ; and more
villainies, and the general happiness of the
information on country-town life and man-
A Grammar of the Persian Language. By the touch of humour which gives life. There is
West Indian blacks are here depicted with
ners might well have been included, since
on this head much ignorance prevails. Mr.
John T. Platts and George S. A. Ranking.
Wilson's annotations are somewhat scanty ;
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )—This work is
no description of scenery, yet the author has
divided into two parts, dealing respectively of negro speech is highly comic, but avoids
conveyed the island atmosphere. Her use
we welcome the interesting parallel drawn
between Willis, author of
Part I. is a
Mount bo
with Accidence and Syntax.
the farcical. Such characters
as Nana
and Shakespeare, but no mention is made of revised and enlarged edition of the Persian Dreckett and her
the fact that Overbury came of a family
Grammar' compiled by the late Mr. Platts,
shambling husband ;
cousin Lisbet' and deformed Methuselah;
living in the Stratford neighbourhood. formerly Teacher of Persian in the Uni: | Quasheba and other children, will charm the
The definitions of the glossary are useful, versity of Oxford, and published by Williams reader; and we venture to predict that this
but brief to curtness, toys, trash,” being
in .
,
light, unassuming book will be remembered
hardly an adequate explanation of the hobby- scholarly and thorough, had certain defects
horses in the train of the lord of misrule.
of arrangement which rendered it unsuitable
when many more ambitious works are buried
But such trifles do not lessen the value of
for beginners. In preparing a new edition
in oblivion. The three Anancy stories with
which the book concludes
Col. Ranking has introduced the necessary
& volume which, treating of such themes as
are curious,
books and the theatre, the state of the roads, improvements, which relate principally to compared with the Brer Rabbit tales derived
the classification of the verb and the forma-
from them. They would, however, have
and tales of the sea, will give the student,
without over-much reading, a breath of the
tion of compounds; he has also added a
been better placed in an appendix by them-
selves than in the text, where they produce
atmosphere of Elizabethan daily life. The section on prosody. Mr. Platts intended
passages chosen show a sense of humour on
to complete his Grammar by means of a
a disappointing sense of anticlimax. In fact,
conclusion is the author's weakest point,
the compiler's part as well as a wide acquaint- second part embodying the Syntax, but it
ance with contemporary literature.
seems that he left no written plan or even
though in her fiction she beguiles the reader
vellers' tales” of “parrots which dispute in
outline of the subject. The credit for this
into blind acceptance.
philosophy, and of the Scipodes, a people portion of the work belongs entirely to
The various yearly records of nobility are
who, having but one broad foot apiece, Col.
Ranking, and is all the greater because
cover their bodies therewith from the sun
no European scholar has hitherto produced now out, and being published before the
and rain, are excellent fooling; but better
a systematic exposition of the syntactical end of the year, are not, of course, able to
give the latest honours. Burke's Peerage,
still is Nashe's story of the country justice structure of the Persian language. It is
who unmercifully beat a rustic audience,
true that Persian syntax, compared with
&c. (Harrison), has, however, managed to
include the distinctions conferred at the
thinking that by laughing at a comedy Arabic, is extraordinarily simple and easy.
To mistake the construction of a Persian
Durbar. The volume is full in its details,
played by her Majesty's servants, farmers
and country hinds made light of the Queen's sentence is seldom possible, yet the reader and, where we have tested it for the latest
cloth in his presence.
may often remain in doubt as to the meaning changes, we have found it accurate. The
which it conveys. The elegant simplicity of
inclusion of recently extinct peerages is
Firdausi and Sa'di, and, indeed, of the best a great advantage for reference.
Lodge's
The Complete Works of Emily Brontē. -- Persian literature in general, is a deceptive Peerage, &c. (Kelly's Directories), has reached
Vol. II. Prose. With an Introduction by thing, as too many translators can bear its eighty-first edition, and shows signs of
Clement K. Shorter. (Hodder & Stoughton. ) witness. Col. Ranking has made use of the careful revision.
Information concerning
-This volume consists, in the main, of a system adopted by Mr.
E. A. Sonnenschein in baronets and knights is a prominent feature
reprint of 'Wuthering Heights,' but it his well-known series of “Parallel Grammars,"
of the work, and the heraldic insignia have
contains, in addition some forty pages of and he is to be congratulated on having received special attention, though they are
facsimiles from Emily Brontë's note books. worked out a clear and consistent scheme, not guaranteed as in all cases legally
Our readers may remember that in the first of which the only fault is that it occasionally borne. Debrett's Peerage, &c. (Dean), has
volume of this edition, reviewed by us on tends to become too elaborate. Thus we
also managed to include the Durbar honours.
Feb. 11th, 1911, Emily's complete poems are told that the cases of the Persian lan- The Preface is interesting in its notes
appeared for the first time. Most of the new guage are nine in number-surely an un- concerning baronets, and includes a para-
matter was of small value, but there were half necessary complication when the so-called graph of practical value as to confusion in
a dozen lyrics at least in which the peculiarly cases are in reality instances of the govern-
titles. Ninety pages have been added to
haunting and subtle music characteristic ment of the uninflected noun by prepositions. this issue, which we have tested and found
of Emily found expression as perfect as in The Persian for " in the house is dar satisfactory in detail.
Kelly's Handbook to
the best of her previously known work. khāna : what is gained by calling this a
the Titled, Landed, and Official Classes
It was therefore with regret that critics locative case, like the Latin domi? A few (Kelly's Directories) has reached its thirty-
observed that the editor of the poems had statements require modification. It cannot eighth edition, and is at once concise and easy
not provided a strictly accurate text. be said of the particle mar that“ in every case
for reference, as it offers one general alpha-
Mr. Shorter, in his Introduction to the its function is to emphasize or particularize betical list of an unusually, wide scope, in-
present volume, deals very lightly with the the noun with which it is connected” (p. 31). cluding, for instance, the higher grades of the
various representations which were made, In the Shāhnāma,' at any rate, mar is often Civil Service, presidents and vice-presidents
and does not consider it necessary to plead prefixed for purely metrical reasons. Simi-
of learned societies, and justices of the peace.
the illegibility of Emily's handwriting as an larly, the statement (p. 48) that " instead of
Yet on comparing the text of the the pronoun of the first person the speaker THE seventeenth volume of Mr. F. A
poems printed for the first time by him with always uses some such word as banda, 'the Crisp's Visitation of England and Wales is
the facsimiles which he provides, we find slave, (your) humble servant,'
. '" does not fully up to the level of its predecessors. . . . It
numerous errors.
A single example will apply to classical Persian literature. Criti- contains the pedigrees of forty-two families,
suffice. On p. 325 of his edition of the poems cisms such as these, however, do not affect including those of Cecil Rhodes, the Earl
we read :-
the value of Col. Ranking's work, which we of Derby, and Viscount Gough. The pedi-
cordially recommend to all students of gree of the Dilke family has special interest
Shed no tears o'er that tomb
For there are angels weeping;
Persian.
to readers of this journal, with which they
Mourn not him whose doom
were so long connected. We observe that
Heaven itself is mourning.
The Story of Quamin. By May Harvey the name of one of the executors of the
Look bow in sable gloom
The clouds are earthward yearning;
Drummond. (Putnam's Sons. )--From the late Sir Charles W. Dilke, Mr. Harry Kynoch
And earth receives them home,
first page of its competent and modest Hudson, is incorrectly spelt on p. 134.
Evon darker clouds returning.
Preface onward, this study of the daily The volume, as usual, contains several
These two stanzas are one in the manuscript, life of black folk in Jamaica is delightful. I beautiful reproductions of portraits and book-
and " yearning” is a misprint for “
sweep. ' The author, while tracing the career of
plates.
excuse.
## p. 40 (#48) ##############################################
40
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4394, JAN. 13, 1912
are
CC
This was notable for a perfect copy of ‘The titioners as Peter of Abano (the reputed
THE BOOK SALES OF (1911.
Myrroure of Our Lady,' 1530, 8vo, £65 magician who fell into the hands of the
(old calf); and Wilson's Rule of Reason,' Inquisition and died the night before his
PART U.
1563, and 'Arte of Rhetorike,' 1567, in one execution, carried away, it was whispered, by
volume, furnishing a fine specimen of English the fiends his magic art had raised), Para-
EVER since 1886 Messrs. Sotheby have binding of the Elizabethan period, £40. celsus, Monardes, Ulrich Hutten, and many
been putting the large collection of manu- The portion of Mr. S. R. Crockett's library others. The library of the late Col. Montagu,
scripts formed by Sir Thomas Phillipps into dispersed at the end of the month, and sold on the 18th, contained a copy of Lady
something like order and reducing the bulk. reported in The Athenæum of June 3rd, Mary Coke's Letters and Journals, pri-
This firm held the fifteenth sale of the series on comprised some very good books, many of vately printed in 4 vols. , 1889-96, and this
April 24th, and four following days, the sum
which were sold in sets.
fetched £34 (as issued); Petrarch's 'Sonnetti,
realized for this instalment being £8,795, On June 12th Messrs. Sotheby sold for Canzoni, e Triomphi,' 1470, folio, £20 (old
and bringing the total thus far to nearly no less than £1,015 Fielding's original re- morocco, three leaves reprinted);
and
£60,000. An extensive list of prices was ceipt for £600 for the copyright of Tom Trials for Adultery, or the History of
given in The Athenæum of May 6th.
Jones' and the agreement between himself Divorces,' with all the plates and portraits,
The first part of the great Hoe Library was and Miller for its publication. These docu- 7 vols. , 1780-81, 8vo, £30 (calf).
sold at New York by the Anderson Auction ments belonged to the Huth Collection, sold The last sales of the season comprised the
Company at the end of April and beginning in part later, and were bought fifty years library of the late Mr. Seton Veitch of Pais-
of May, and to pass it by without recogni- ago for £12. It is worthy of note that the ley, held on July 21st, and the miscellaneous
tion of the masterly way in which the three large volumes, by Messrs. Humphry sales of July 27th and August 1st, all con-
catalogue was drawn up-apparently by Ward and W. Roberts, of 'Pictures in the ducted by Messrs. Sotheby. They
Mr. Beverly Chew, whose name appears to Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan at Prince's reported in The Athenæum of August 5th.
the 'Foreword '-would be ungracious in Gate and Dover House, London' (150 copies Some good and unusual things sold at
the extreme. Much has been said about the privately printed), brought £90 at the end this time included Sir William Leighton's
furious bidding which took place and the of June. They were gorgeously bound in Teares or Lamentations of a Sorrowfull
enormous prices obtained for many of morocco-super-extra. The Catalogue of the Soule,' 1613, 8vo, which had not been seen
the Hoe books, and, though competition Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelain, in an auction room for nearly a century, £7
must have had most to do with this, printed at New York in 1904, containing 77 (old half boards, title soiled and a leaf torn);
the excellence of the catalogue doubtless coloured plates, fetched £33 (mor. ex. ); Robert Greene's 'Penelope's Webb,' 1601,
contributed not a little to the result. At and on June 28th Messrs. Knight, Frank & 4to, £25 (unbound, title defective); and
this sale a copy on vellum of the so-called Rutley, at a sale of the late Mr. Moberly books, MSS. , &c. , relating to Oscar Wilde.
“Mazarine Bible” fetched the equivalent Bell's effects, obtained £120 for Voltaire's Anything by Wilde, not consisting of late
of £10,000, the largest amount over paid for works, printed at Kehl in 1785-9, and com- reprints, is in great demand.
a book, the sum of £7,100 obtained at Paris plete in 70 volumes. The reason of this
The new season of 1911-12, opened by
in 1909 for ' Les Euvres de Molière,' 6 vols. , unusually high price was that the work was
1773, with Moreau's original drawings bound on large paper, with all the portraits and has so far been almost completely domi-
Messrs. Puttick & Simpson on October 5th,
up,
ranking second. The Huth copy of the plates by Moreau in colours. Beaumarchais nated by the Huth Sale, and the compara-
Mazarin Bible” was bought by Mr. Quaritch established a printing-office at Kehl for the tively few books which have fetched sub-
for £5,800, and it was perhaps better than purpose of producing this edition, bought stantial prices have been so recently referred
that belonging to Mr. Hoe, for priority is Baskerville's types, and expended from first to in The Athenæum that there is no need
given to the unmixed issue on paper, to
to last upwards of three million francs upon to mention them again. It may, just be
which the Huth book belonged, over the it.
copies printed on vellum. Mr. Alfred W. Sir Theodore Martin's library (see Athen- Vol. II. ' (only) of Lamb's Tales from
observed, however, that on October 19th,
Pollard refers to this aspect of the matter in æum, July 8th), extensive and good of its Shakespeare, 1807, 8vo, sold at Messrs.
his Early Illustrated Books' and else- kind, was composed almost entirely of Hodgson's for £71, simply because it was in
where.
standard works of English literature, and, its original grey boards as issued. In May,
collection fetched
The next sale of importance was held at though the
$2,770, 1903, the two volumes so bound, fetched
Messrs. Sotheby's on May 1st and following individual amounts were mostly small.
£110 at Messrs. Sotheby's. Again, on
That the racy books of Pierce Egan and November 17th, Messrs. Hodgson sold for
day. It was dealt with in The Athenoum of
May 13th and was of a miscellaneous charac- his school have not lost their interest is the large sum of £226 Thackeray's Flore
ter, comprising inter alia a number of works apparent from the results of the year’s et Zephyr,' in its original wrappers, and this
on Aeronautics, now fashionable, and of sales ; in fact, it is evident that good copies notwithstanding the fact
that they and
these Blanchard and Jeffries's broadside are held in higher regard than ever.
At a
one of the lithographic illustrations were
Account of a Voyage in the Atmosphere sale on the last day of June, Carey's 'Life
slightly torn. During the last twenty-five
from England to France,' 1785 fetched in Paris, containing 21, coloured plates by years only nine copies of this
“ Ballet
£14 10s.
George Cruikshank, 1822, 8vo, fetched £26 ;
Mythologique have been publicly offered
This sale gave rise to the conclusion that first editions of the three Tours of Dr.
for sale, and of these two were mutilated
presentation copies of books rank high in Syntax;" 1812-20-21, 8vo, £37; Pierce Egan's and one incomplete. The nearest approach
the estimation of collectors, and there is Life in London,' 1821, and the 'Finish,
1830, together 2 vols. , 8vo, £30 ; and West- realized £56 in May, 1892. That, too, was
to this most recent example was that which
every indication that they will in the future
macott's
rank higher still.
English Spy,' 2 vols. , 1825-6,
also £30. All these were fine copies, uncut
in its original cover, and one of the plates
The late Sir Charles Dilke's library, or
was damaged.
and bound either in calf or morocco extra.
rather a selection from it, was sold at Messrs, At the same sale the first edition of 'La
Taking the Book Sales of 1911 as a whole,
Christie's on May 9th, in company with a Divina Commedia' having the Commentary
one cannot say that they have proved
number of other
properties. Blake's of Benvenuto da Imola, 1477, small folio, very remarkable. . If the Huth Sale is left
Songs of Innocence, with 27 coloured brought £66 (original vellum, two leaves
out of the calculation, the average disclosed
plates and that of 'The Schoolboy from repaired), and a little later a set of The is about £2 158. -higher, certainly, than that
Songs of Experience' added, 1789, 8vo, Sporting 'Magazine from the beginning in of the previous year, which stood at about
fetched £250 (mor. ); Keats's ' Lamia,' 1820, 1792 to its conclusion in 1870, together 156
£2 108. , but lower than that of 1909 (£3 108. ),
£50 (boards);
Poems, 1817,, £30 (calf vols. , with Sir Walter Gilbey's privately and much lower than the average for 1907
extra); 'Endymion,' 1818, $v0, £48 (boards); printed index to the engravings, £70 (ht. (about £4. 48. ), which is the highest on
and the ‘Poetical Works' of 1876, with calf). The last 46 volumes were not uni-
. We may gather from this that of
autograph inscription by Lord Houghton to formly bound, and several of the plates were
late an unusually large number of unimpor-
Sir Charles, and the latter's pencil marks missing. Sir Walter Gilbey's set sold for
tant books have been thrown on the market,
and notes, £20 (calf extra). Among the £378 in March, 1910 ; and at a miscellaneous and that appears from other evidence to
miscellanea was a unique set of the Royal sale at Messrs. Sotheby's in July, 1909, as
have been the case. The records of many
Academy Catalogues from 1769 (the date of much as £920 was obtained for what was
years show plainly that books of an ordinary
the first exhibition) to 1834, containing described as the finest set ever offered.
character-those in fact, which are not as
many hundreds of interesting autograph
The extensive and valuable collection of yet mirrored in the glass of fashion-are
letters from the chief artists of the period, medical works formed by the late Dr. cheaper than they were ten or a dozen years
also a large number of original drawings. Frank Payne was sold enºbloc for £2,300, ago, but that the aristocrats of the book-
This collection, in 16 thick quarto volumes, in the comparatively quiet month of July: shelf are much dearer, and are likely to be-
bound in morocco extra, fetched as much as
It consisted mainly of works in English,
£504.
Latin, and German (printed in this country copies are rapidly finding their way into the
Later in the month occurred the sale and abroad during the sixteenth and seven-
great public libraries of the world.
detailed in The Athenaeum of May 27th. teenth centuries) by such celebrated prac-
J. HERBERT SLATER,
## p. 41 (#49) ##############################################
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1911
41
THE ATHENÆUM
scene.
are
upon her as his property, the friend because he if precious article entitled “The Theatre of the
is constitutionally polygamous. Such a sub- Soul,' and Miss Dorothy Nevile Lees writes
LIST OF NEW BOOKS.
ject offers dramatic possibilities, but they are with sympathy and enthusiasm upon the
poorly utilized, the author in particular missing * Sacre Rappresentazioni' of Florence. Mr.
the opportunity offered by the collision of John Semar has a note on The New Censor,'
ENGLISH.
the principal dramatis personæ in the closing though, as he does not mention Mr. Redford's
Theology.
The technique is faulty, and bears retirement, it is somewhat out of date.
Mr.
Catholic Who's Who, 1912, 3/6 net.
evidence of immaturity; the plot is loosely Arthur Symons talks about ‘Pantomimes and
Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics : Vol. IV.
woven, at least one of the characters being the Poetic Drama' with all his old verve.
irrelevant to the action. Perhaps the best
Confirmation-Drama, 28/ net.
Moore (William), The Fags, and other Poems,
feature of the play is its easy and unpreten- 3/6 net.
tious dialogue.
Law.
Mr. Moore plays delicately with verse in a
Strahan (J. Andrew) and Oldham (Norman H. ).
Church (Hubert), Poems, 3/6 net.
languorous metaphysical atmosphere. His
Mr. Church is an introspective writer.
His poetry is tangled with conceits, and labours too
The Copyright Act, 1911, with Introduction
and Index, 2/6 net.
fondness for abstruse thought often deflects consciously at verbal architecture. He leaves
the poetic impetus into channels of nebulous the impression that his inspiration is to trifle
Fine Art and Archæology.
and obscure speculation. He can hardly be
with fanciful and fugitive blossoms of poesy:
described as a poet, but is rather a dis- He lacks grip and force, and avoids the broad
Builder (The): a Journal for the Architect, ciplined and powerful thinker who expresses
currents of human feeling.
Engineer, and Decorative Artist, 4d.
himself in metrical form.
Pennypacker (Isaac Rusling), Bridle Paths.
