” He also says
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind.
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v30 - Guide to Systematic Readings
describes the visit to Jeru-
ice); and his account is not only much
salem and the Monastery of St. Saba.
the best anywhere existing, but it makes
This house was named for the founder
of the «Laura," the monastic rule which
a very readable book.
Charles Kingsley uses han furshofexcellent Voingen and Travhile faro SirboJephen
tia. )
the opening Hypa- Mandeville. famous book of
The Laura” still exists where travels was published in French some
the rocky clefts and desert wastes of time between 1357 and 1371.
It was
Asia and Africa offer suitable retreats originally written in English, then trans-
for the ascetic monks.
lated into Latin, then retranslated into
Mr. Curzon devotes some time to the English, that every man of his nation
Jews of Jerusalem, - enough to show might read it. It is said that the author
their prevailing characteristics; and he claimed to be an English knight, living
also notes the interesting fact of his abroad because of a murder committed
rediscovery of the "Apple of Sodom, by him; but little or nothing is known
long supposed to be a creation of fictitious of him. It is thought that it may have
character. It is, he says, a juicy-looking, been written under a feigned name, by
plum-like fruit, which proves to be a Jehan de Burgoigne, a physician of
gall-nut filled with dry, choking dust. Liege. A few interpolated words in an
Part iii. opens with the writer's im- English edition gained for Mandeville
pressions of Corfu and his visit to the credit of being the father of Eng-
Albania, whence he leaves for Meteora, lish prose"); but it is evident from
a grassy plain surrounded by tall peaks mistakes in translation that the English
of rock, where, in apertures like pigeon- version, said to have been made by
holes, the monks have had their dwell- Mandeville, was made by some one who
ings. On top of the rocks are left some did not know the author's meaning.
## p. 468 (#504) ############################################
468
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
The author claims to have traveled for 150,000 francs, which he caused to be
thirty years in Palestine, Egypt, China, invested, principal and interest to be
and other countries; but it is thought divided among such of his heirs as
that if he traveled at all, it was not far- should present themselves at a certain
ther than Palestine, as the other matter rendezvous in Paris, after the lapse of a
is evidently taken from the works of century and a half. Then comes an in-
other travelers. There are some marvel- tensely dramatic description of the es-
ous tales, and it is from this fact that pionage to which the heirs have been
the book is chiefly interesting. He subjected, and the successful machina-
speaks of giants «sixty feet long, a tions of the Jesuits in order to obtain
griffin capable of flying away with a this money. While they succeed by the
yoke of oxen in its talons. There are most reckless acts of persecution and
men with animal's heads, others with no violence in preventing six of the seven
heads, but with eyes and mouth in the heirs from presenting themselves to
breast, others with such large upper lips claim the vastly increased inheritance,
that they cover their whole face from they produce the seventh heir, Gabriel
the sun when they sleep. There are Rennepont - a virtuous young Jesuit
trees bearing wool; and there is a fruit priest, who has already made over his
like a gourd, which when ripe contains worldly goods to his order — to claim
(a beste with flesch and blude and bane, the inheritance. A codicil to the will,
and it is lyke to a lytill lambe with- found in a mysterious manner, postpones
outen wolle. ” He visited the Garden of the day for delivering over the funds,
Transmigrated Souls, drank from the and temporarily defeats these designs.
Fountain of Youth, and located Para- But now, by adopting utterly conscience-
dise; though he says, “Off Paradys can less means, the heads of the Society of
I not speke properly, for I hafe not bene Jesus lead on the six heirs to their
thare; bot als mykill as I hafe herd of deaths before the arrival of the day
wyse men of thase cuntreez, I will tell which has been finally set for the parti-
yow. This book, because of the quaint- tion of the millions. In the end, how-
ness of the English version, and of the ever, by an unforeseen catastrophe, the
subject-matter, will always be read with purposes of the Order are foiled. Ro-
delight; but the claim that Mandeville din, a remarkable character, a little,
is the father of English prose is wholly cadaverous priest of marvelous energy
untenable.
and shrewdness, engineers the cause of
the Jesuits; and by his diplomacy not
Wandering Jew, The, by Eugene alone lures the heirs to their ruin, but
Sue. (1845. ) This curious rambling himself reaches the coveted post of Gen-
episodic romance is written from eral of the Order, though judgment
extreme Protestant point of view, and finally overtakes him also. The story is
introduces the character of Ahasuerus, very diffuse, and the episodes have only
who, according to legend, was a shoe- the slightest relation to each other. It
maker in Jerusalem. The Savior, bear- is melodramatic in the extreme, and the
ing his cross past the house of the arti- style is often bombastic, while the per-
san, asks to be allowed to rest an instant sonages have little resemblance to hu-
on the stone bench at his door.
« Go
man beings in human conditions. But
on! ” replies Ahasuerus. « Thou shalt go when all abatement is made, (The Wan-
on till the end of time, answers the dering Jew) remains one of the famous
Savior - and the Wandering Jew books of the world, for its vigor, its illus-
may never find home, or rest, or even ion, its endless interest of plot and
pause. The scene of this romance is counterplot, and its atmosphere of ro-
laid chiefly in Paris, in 1832. One
hundred and fifty years prior to this
date, Count Rennepont, a descendant of Seraphy by Leopold Sacher-Masoch.
the sister of the Wandering Jew, who is This delightful story by the great
also condemned to wander, professed German novelist, who has been called
conversion to the Catholic faith in order the Galician Turgeneff, was translated
to save his property from confiscation. into English in 1893. As a frame for a
His ruse was discovered, however, and charming tale, the author gives a vivid
the whole estate given to the Jesuits. description of Hungarian life and cus-
But Rennepont succeeded in secreting toms.
We are
introduced to Seraph
an
>>
so
mance.
## p. 469 (#505) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
469
ran
now
Temkin, as he is about to shoot at a
Zincali, The, by George Borrow. This
card held in his mother's hand. She account of the gipsies of Spain ap-
tells him she has educated him with one peared in England in 1842, and quickly
object in view, the revenge of a wrong through three editions. Borrow
done her by a man whose name she evinced in early life a roving disposition
gives — Emilian Theodorowitsch. and linguistic ability. In 1835, at the age
Seraph journeys to the Castle Honoriec, of thirty-two, he undertook to act as the
and gives his name and his mother's to agent of the British and Foreign Bible
Emilian. To his surprise, Emilian says Society in Spain, and accomplished his
he has never heard of Madame Temkin, perilous mission with the devotion of
but insists on Seraph accepting his hos- an apostle and the audacity of a stage
pitality. He remains, and learns from brigand. He was all things to all men,
everybody of the tenderness, generosity, especially to gipsies; and in "The Bible
and nobility of his host. Emilian tells in Spain,' his first book, he relates his
Seraph the story of his life. He had amusing and interesting adventures.
married a woman accustomed to com- (The Zincali) grew out of this journey,
mand and be obeyed. An estrangement and deals with the gipsies alone. The
sprang up between them, and when a charm of the book, which is full of an-
son was born, a handsome nurse came ecdote, lies in its graphic fidelity. The
into the house. His wife became jealous, Spanish gipsy, as described by Mr.
but persisted in keeping the nurse. One Borrow, differs in many respects from
night the nurse began to coquet with the gipsy of romance. His hardihood
Emilian. He upbraided her, whereupon and wretched mode of life ; his virtues,
she fell at his feet and began to weep. his faults; his devotion to family and
He raised her up, and his wife, entering, kindred; and his inveterate dishonesty,
found the nurse in his arms. Taking are faithfully portrayed. The very same
the child, she escaped, and he had never gipsy woman, who, being waylaid and
been able to find a trace of her. An- robbed, is heroic and unconquerable in
other charm of the castle for Seraph is defense of her own virtue, and, stripped
Magdalina, Emilian's adopted daughter, of her property,
makes
her weary
with whom Seraph is in love. Running journey 200 miles on foot with her poor
after her one day, she fees into the children, is absolutely vile in leading
chapel. He finds her hiding in the con-
others into infamy to recoup her
fessional, and kneeling down at the finances. A chapter on gipsies in va-
wicket, he tells her of his love. He is rious lands depicts the universal gipsy,
interrupted by his mother in disguise, the product of the mysterious East. Mr.
who upbraids him for his delay; and Borrow gives many illustrations of his
when he asks her what relationship ex- popularity with the gipsies; one at Nov-
isted between her and Emilian, she gorod, where one sentence spoken by
answers «none, and escapes. Magda- him in Romany brings out a joyful
lina tells him this woman reminds her colony of gipsies in song and loving
of a portrait in an abandoned part of greeting. His love of adventure, of un-
the castle. She leads him there, and conventional human life, and of phil-
he is struck with the familiarity of the ology, went hand in hand and reinforced
He rushes to a clock, pulls a each other.
string, and hears an old familiar tune;
and in the next room finds his mother's ivilization, An Introduction to the
portrait. He thinks of but one way in History of, in England and France,
which his mother could have been Spain, and Scotland, by Henry Thomas
wronged, in spite of Emilian's very sug- Buckle, appeared, the first volume in
gestive story; and going down stairs he 1857, the second in 1861. The book, in
insults Emilian and challenges him to a the light of the author's original plan,
duel, in which Seraph is shot. When he is a Titanic fragment. In itself con-
recovers from his swoon, he finds him- sidered, it is complete, perfect; since the
self again at the castle with Magdalina principle underlying the proposed vast
watching over him. He sends for Emil- scheme is clearly set forth, and illus-
ian, and tells him of the portrait; and trated in the general introduction.
the father clasps his long-lost son in This principle of Magnificent Propor-
his arms. The reconciliation of the hus- tions, as understood and treated by
band and wife ends the story.
Buckle, is that there are laws governing
scenes.
Civi
## p. 470 (#506) ############################################
470
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
the
the progress of nations, and of national story himself, in the form of a journal
civilization, as fixed and inevitable as His relatives wish him to marry a beau-
the laws of the physical universe. He tiful young cousin, Aniela, who loves
endeavored to find bases for the leter- him with a whole-souled affection. Be.
mination of these laws, as the first step ing sure of her love, he is disposed to
in the science of history. The most im- delay his marriage, that he may have
portant of his propositions are that cli- time to analyze his emotions in regard
mate, soil, and food influence the char- to her. While absent in Rome, he
acter of nations; that in Europe mental drifts into an unworthy passion for a
laws are gradually predominating over married woman, a Mrs. Davis; yet, so
physical laws; that human progress is peculiar is his temperament, the thought
due rather to intellectual activity than of Aniela is rarely absent from him. In
to the development of the moral sense; the sultry air of passion, he longs for
that individual effort counts for little in the freshness and fragrance of her
the great onward movements of the race; purity. But even the knowledge that
that religion, wit, literature, are she is soon to be out of his reach does
products and not the causes of civiliza- not steady his nobler purposes. The
tion. In his first volume, after setting fortunes of her family being now at a
forth these propositions Buckle gives to low ebb, Aniela is forced into marriage
them concrete application in the con- with a rich Austrian, Kromitzki, a com-
sideration of English and French his- monplace man incapable of appreciating
tory. In the second volume, he again her fine nature. So soon as she is thus
applies them to the cases of Spain and out of reach, Leon, whose moral nature
Scotland. Although the
progress of goes by contraries, becomes passionately
science has uncovered facts that prove in love with her, and tries with subtle
the weakness of an occasional principle art to make her untrue to her husband;
in the History of Civilization, the work but dear as Leon is to her, Aniela re-
remains one of the greatest popular con- mains faithful to her marriage vows.
tributions of modern times to the new Unlike Leon, she is not (without
aspect of history, as a human document, dogma. ” She clings to her simple belief
to be read by the light of scientific dis- in what is right throughout the long
covery. Its publishing success was sec- struggle. Her delicate organism cannot
ond only to Macaulay's (England. No stand the strain of her spiritual suffer-
book of its time was more influential in ings. The death of her husband is soon
turning the direction of men's thoughts followed by her own death. In her last
to the phenomena of social and political hours she tells Leon, as a little child
science. Its value in deed lay largely might tell him, that she loves him
in its immense field of suggestion. It
“ very, very much. ” The last entry in
opened the way for centuries of scholar-
his journal implies that he will follow
ship in a new field.
her, that they may be one in oblivion,
or in another life to come. The journal
Without Dogma, a novel of modern of Leon Ploskowski reveals the wonder-
Polish high life, by Henryk Sien- ful insight of Sienkiewicz into a certain
kiewicz, was published in an English type of modern character.
The psycho-
translation in 1893. Unlike his histori- logical value of the book is pre-eminent,
cal novels, this book has few characters. presenting as it does a personality
It is the history of a spiritual struggle, essentially the product of nineteenth-
of the battle of a man for his own century conditions, - a personality upon
soul. »
Leon Ploskowski, the hero, which hyper-cultivation has acted as a
young, wealthy, and well-born, is of so subtle poison.
overwrought a temperament that he is
depressed by the, very act of living:
Sin of Joost Avelingh, The, by “Maar-
«Here is a nature so sensitive that it ten Maartens. ). (1890. ) This writer's
photographs every impression, an artistic real name is J. M. W. Van der Poorten
temperament, a highly endowed organ- Schwartz. Although he is a Dutchman,
ism; yet it produces nothing. The se- his stories are all written in English,
cret of this unproductiveness lies per- and afterwards translated into Dutch
haps in a certain tendency to philoso-
for home use. The scene of this is Hol-
phize away every strong emotion that land. Joost is an orphan, shy, morbid,
should lead to action. ) Leon tells his and misunderstood. His uncle, with
## p. 471 (#507) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
471
on
((
whom he lives, forces him to study medi- | New Fiction, The, by Professor H. D.
cine, which he hates, and forbids him to Traill, (1897,) is a collection of a
marry Agatha van Hessel. As Joost is dozen essays on literary matters, ranging
driving him to the notary to change his from Newspaper English) to the trials
will, he dies of apoplexy. Joost inherits of publishers, and including criticisms
his money and marries Agatha. Ten authors from Lucian to Stephen
years later, Arthur van Aeveld, the next Crane. The title essay considers Ste-
heir, meets the servant who sat behind phen Crane and Arthur Morrison as the
the carriage on the night of the Baron's two apostles of modern «realism, as
death, and persuades him to swear that this sees fit to deal with low life; and
Joost murdered his uncle. At the last accuses them of betraying their own
moment, he confesses his perjury. Joost aim, and being guilty of a wild romanti-
is acquitted, and made a member of the cism, in depicting their slums in impossi-
States General. He declares that though bly lurid colors, and life in them as an
not actually a murderer, he is guilty, in unvarying brutality and horror, irrecon-
that he hated his uncle, did nothing to cilable with human nature. (The Po-
help him in his extremity, and drove litical Novel begins with Disraeli, and
straight on in spite of the old man's ends with Mrs. Humphry Ward, of
appeal to him to stop. With his wife's whose work a very discriminating esti-
concurrence, he gives up his money and mate suggests that a lack of humor
political position, becomes clerk to a accounts for the fact that where her
notary, and is happy on a small salary. great capacity and fine art have done so
much, they have not done more. (The
Yesterday, To-day, and Forever. A Novel of Manners,' which began with
poem in twelve books. By Edward the crude performances of Miss Bur-
Henry Bickersteth. (1866. ) A work in ney, and came to its flower in Miss
blank verse, 10,750 lines in length, de- Austen's delicately perfect work, has a
voted to imaginative journeyings after paper to itself. Other essays treat (Mat.
death in Hades, Paradise, and Hell, thew Arnold, Richardson's Novels,'
with a review of creation, the Fall, Pascal's Provincial Letters,' the witty
the empire of darkness, redemption, the (Plays of Lucian,' and (The Future of
war against Satan, the victory over Humor,' in which the author wonders
Satan, the millennial Sabbath, the Last whether the world is growing so serious-
Judgment, and heaven's many mansions. minded that humor will die out, as some
The author, who was made bishop of fine growth disappears from an inhos-
Exeter in 1885, has been in his genera- pitable soil. Professor Traill's work
tion, as his father was in the previous shows perfect fairness, a nice discrimina-
generation, a chief representative in tion, a sympathetic consciousness of an
the Church of England of profoundly author's purpose, and a neat craftsman-
Evangelical, anti-Romanist, and anti- ship. His attitude is always that of de-
liberal, pietism and teaching,-a very tachment, and the pleasure he gives his
emotional and earnest pietism and in- reader seems to be entirely impersonal.
tensely orthodox Low Church teaching. A book so sound and balanced is inter-
The Christian Psalmody, compiled by esting and helpful.
the father in 1832, which went through
seven most
A.
-
Barrie (1889), is a continuation of
school in the Church. The Hymnal
the Auld Licht) series. Its scenes are
Companion, prepared by the son (final confined mainly to the interior of the
revised and enlarged edition, 1876), is little Scotch cot in "Thrums » where
in use in thousands of churches in Eng- lived Hendry and Jess McQumpha, and
land and the colonies. It was to im- their daughter Leeby. In Mr. Barrie's
pressively invoke divine and
eternal
later work, Margaret Ogilvy,' an affec-
auspices for the doctrines and pietism of tionate and artistic picture of his mother,
the Evangelical party, and to feed Ev- we discern that in Jess and Leeby his
angelical faith and enthusiasm, that the mother and sister sat for the portraits.
younger Bickersteth, with Dante and Jess is a quaint figure. A chronic inva-
Milton in view, essayed his ambitious lid, yet throbbing with interest in every-
task, and executed it with very fair suc- body and everything, she sits at the
cess, at least as to teaching and emotion. window of her cottage, and keeps up
popular hymn book of the Evangeliest Window in Thrums, a, by James M.
## p. 472 (#508) ############################################
472
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
with Leeby a running fire of terse and strong savor of Ibsen and of the Karma
often cutting comment upon village hap-cult, a subtle portrayal of character and
penings, and thus holds herself in touch much fine interpretation of nature. The
with the life and gossip which she knows author was already favorably known
only through the window. Barrie's sym- through his longer novel Eline Vere. )
pathetic ability to see how inseparable
are humor and pathos makes his char-
The Revenge of Joseph Noirel, by
acters living and human. Tammas Hag- Victor Cherbuliez. A lively and
gart, the humorist, at much pains to skillful character sketch by this master
understand and dispense the philosophy of literary portraiture; who here, as in
of his own humor; the little christening Jean Teterol's Idea,' takes for his theme
robe which does the honors for the the moral unrest caused by social class
whole village, and which is so tenderly distinctions, but carries the development
revered by Jess because it was made for of his theme to a tragic extreme. The
her own babe, “twenty years dead, but scene is laid at Mon Plaisir, near Ge-
still living for her; the family pride in neva, the villa-home of the well-to-do
Jamie, the son who has gone to London, bourgeois manufacturer, M. Merion,
in whom we may see “Gavin Ogilvy » whose wife has social ambitions of which
(Barrie's own pseudonym); and finally, the daughter Mademoiselle Marguerite is
Jamie's home-coming to find Hendry, made the innocent victim. Given in a
Jess, and Leeby gone to the long home, mariage de convenance to M. le Conte
are absolutely real. And if the reader d'Orins, she finds the unhappiness of a
laughs at the whimsicalities of the vil- union without love intensified into horror
lage folk, it is because he loves them. and dread by the suspicion that her hus-
band has been guilty of a hidden crime.
Footsteps of Fate, Noodlot, by Meanwhile the hero of the story, Joseph
Louis Marie Anne Couperus. Trans- Noirel, is the trusted overseer in the
lation from the Dutch by Clara Bell. works of M. Merion; having been grad-
This story, by one of the latest and ually promoted to this position of re-
youngest novelists of Holland, is power- sponsibility and esteem from that of the
fully told, and is of absorbing if some- starving child of disgraced parents,
what strange and morbid interest. It whom the village crier had rescued and
opens in a villa of suburban London, introduced as an apprentice in the fac-
where a wealthy and idle young Hol- tory. On Mademoiselle Marguerite's
lander is surprised in his bachelor apart- returning from her years of training in
ments by a visit at midnight of a man the convent for the aristocratic life to
in tramp's attire, who seeks shelter and which her mother had destined her,
food in the name of early friendship and Joseph is captivated by her beauty; and
companionship. «Bertie,” the name of after being thrown together by the ac-
the returned prodigal, is taken in by cident of a storm, he becomes the hope-
his large-hearted friend Frank, washed, less victim of a devouring but unre-
clothed, and fed into respectability, and quited love for her. The marriage with
introduced into the club and made his the count having taken place, Joseph be-
intimate companion and peer in society. comes aware of the crime of which the
Wearying at last of an endless round of husband is guilty, and informs Margue-
pleasure, marred at times for Frank by rite, who flees for refuge to Mon Plaisir.
certain survivals of low habits in his The count meanwhile creates the sus-
friend, they, at Bertie's suggestion, go picion that it is a guilty attachment on
off for a tour in Norway, where Frank the part of Marguerite for Joseph which
meets the young lady who will hence- has brought her there, and her parents
forth absorb his affections. Bertie see- indignantly reject her plea for their pro
ing this, and dismayed at the prospect of tection. A word from her would reveal
being again thrown upon the world, all her husband's crime and would cost his
the more unfitted for struggle after his life. Meanwhile Joseph has already re-
unstinted enjoyment of his friend's solved to end his hopeless misery by
wealth, is prompted by his fate) to taking his own life. Marguerite main-
plot for the prevention of the marriage tains her silence, obeys her husband,
of the loving couple; and the story is and leaves her father's house. She asks
occupied with the progress and results Joseph to become the instrument of her
of his evil scheme. There is in it a death before taking his own life, and
## p. 473 (#509) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
473
prodigality is amazing.
” He also says
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind. ”
a
under circumstances that would imply
guilt, while yet she remains innocent, and
the savior of her husband's life and honor.
The narration of this climax of the
story's action is in the highest plane of
dramatic writing, and is a remarkable
exhibition of the author's power of re-
serve, and of his ability to suggest the
bidden reality beneath expressed unreality.
Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs
de la Mer. ) (1866. ) A novel by
Victor Hugo, which possesses double in-
terest: first, in the story; secondly, in
its bold descriptions of the colossal and
secret powers of the elements. In time
it followed after the still more famous
(Les Misérables. The scene is laid in
Germany; and the book is dedicated
to the Isle of Guernsey, severe yet
gentle, my present asylum, my proba-
ble tomb. ) The heroine, Deruchette, is
the niece of Lethierry, who has invented
a steamboat, La Durande, which plies
between Guernsey and St. Malo, and
which is the wonder of the Channel
Islands. His partner, Rantaine, disap-
pears with a large sum of money, and
is succeeded as captain of La Durande
by Clubin. The latter has friends
among the smugglers, and with their
assistance finds Rantaine, who has es-
caped in the guise of a Quaker. Clubin
obtains this booty and determines to
keep it. He plans to wreck La Du-
rande the 'rocks known
as «Les
Hanois," and then to swim ashore and
escape. From this point, the story is
full of the excitement and terror of
the life of the sailor. The descriptions
of the sea, the wind, and the myster-
ies of the ocean-bed, are wonderful.
Among the most striking scenes is the
encounter of Gilliatt, the real hero of
the book, with an octopus which lurks
in a rocky cavern beneath the
Penetrating into the shadows of this
submarine crypt, whose arches are cov-
ered with seaweed and trailing moss,
Gilliatt soon finds himself in the em-
brace of the gigantic and slimy monster,
whose gleaming eyes are fixed upon
him. Of this story George Henry Lewes
said that it had «a certain daring in-
flation about it which cannot be met
elsewhere; and if the splendor is bar-
baric it is undeniably splendid. Page
after page and chapter after chapter
may be mere fireworks which blaze
and pass away; but as fireworks, the
Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgeneff. Tur-
geneff gives in Virgin Soil?
graphic picture of the various moral and
social influences at work in the modern
Nihilistic movement in Russia. The mo-
tive of the story is deep and subtle, and
is developed with masterly skill and re-
finement. The hero Neshdanoff, a young
university student of noble but illegiti-
mate descent and in poor worldly cir-
cumstances, has his sympathies roused
for the depressed peasantry of Russia,
and with romantic ardor enters into the
secret conspiracy for their relief. In the
house of a government official where he
is engaged as tutor, he meets Marianne,
a relation of the family, who is also
secretly an enthusiast in the Nihilistic
cause, and, irresistibly drawn to her, he
elopes with her, and seeks employment
with a machinist and manufacturer, Solo-
mine. The effort to descend to the
level of the peasants, to enter into their
life and to rouse them to a united move-
ment for liberty, is met with a stolid
apathy and lack of intelligence on their
part, that dampens his ardor and makes
his effort seem to him like the merest sen-
timentalism, that can never yield any real
result. This loss of faith in himself and
in his own sincerity impels him to break
his promise of marriage with Marianne,
and, commending her to marry Solo-
mine, the machinist and manufacturer, to
take his own life in despair of finding a
sphere in the world for his genius, -
a mixture of inherited aristocracy and
purely romantic democracy. In Solomine
is depicted the real reformer, the man
without “ideals and elegant phrases,
who, in his honest dealings with those
under him and his recognition of the
true dignity of labor and of neighborly
service, is exerting the redeeming force
that can gradually introduce a new man-
hood into the laboring classes, and so
enable them to appreciate and aspire to
the practical and the heroic elements
of a true freedom. In the marriage of
Solomine and Marianne is seen the union
of reform, as distinguished from the in-
effectual idealism of an aristocracy that
lacks the practical knowledge and the
social mediation of a middle class.
on
sea.
## p. 474 (#510) ############################################
474
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Æne
Æneid, The, the golden branch on the which, like a trumpet-call, roused Savo-
ilex-tree of Latin literature, was the narola to seek the things that are above.
work of Publius Virgilius Maro, who was And this line Dante heard on the lips
born October 15th, 70 B. C. , and died Sep- of the Church Triumphant, at the open-
tember 22d, 19 B. C.
ing of the Paradise of God. ”
The poem is interwoven with pre-
neid, The, an epic by Heinrich von
Christian civilization, with mediæval and
Veldeche, a minnesinger of the
modern thought, as is no other poem of
the ancient world. It is the Bible of the
twelfth century and one of the earliest
German poets. It is distinguished for
later classical literature, as the Iliad is
the elegance of its form and the har-
of the earlier, linked by its very nature
mony of its versification. In this poem,
to the visionary Middle Ages. For in
love (die Minne) is for the first time in-
the Æneid, conflict has become spiritual.
troduced as a theme. The story follows
ized; and the warrior Æneas bears al-
the same line as Virgil's until the hero
ways about him the remoteness of the
comes to Latium. There it pauses to de-
priest, or of one mindful ever of the place
of souls. It is the detachment of the
pict the love of Lavinia for Æneas, and
this is its most original and successful por-
hero from the passion of love, from the
tion. Æneas marries Lavinia, becomes
passion of war, which made him appeal
so powerfully to the mediæval mind, pre-
king, and builds Alba. Gawain Douglas
translated the Æneid into the Scottish
occupied with the Unseen. Only the
dialect in 1513. This vigorous adaptation
creator of Æneas could be Dante's guide
probably suggested to the Earl of Surrey
among the shades. Of him Tennyson
the idea of turning the second and fourth
writes:-
books into blank verse, the earliest exam-
"Light among the vanished ages; star that gild-
ple of blank verse in the language. Dou-
est yet this phantom shore ;
Golden branch among the shadows, kings and
glas takes some strange liberties with his
realms that set to rise no more. ”
author. He changes the sibyl into a nun,
and makes her admonish Æneas to be
The Æneid is in twelve books: the
first six in imitation of the Odyssey; the
sure to say his prayers and tell his beads.
The English translations are numerous;
last six, of the Iliad. The Trojan hero
is led to Italy, where he is to be the
Dryden's, Conington's, and notably Sir
Charles Bowen's, being perhaps the best.
father of a race and of an empire su-
That of William Morris is much admired
preme among nations. On his way thither
also, and in America the versions of C. P.
he tarries at Carthage, whose queen,
Cranch and of Prof. Geo, H. Palmer are
Dido, loves him as with the first love
of a virgin. To her he tells the story of
examples of good scholarship and good
taste. The epic has been often travestied.
Troy. For love of him she slays herself
The first travesty, entitled Eneide de
when the gods lead him from her shores.
Arrived in Italy he seeks the underworld,
Virgilio Travestida,' appeared at Rome in
1633. It was very popular among the friv.
under the protection of the Sibyl of Cu-
olous; but scholars, to whom everything
mæ. He emerges thence to overcome
his enemies. The Æneid was not per-
written by the Mantuan was sacred, were
scandalized. The Eneide Travestie) of
fected at the time of Virgil's death, and
Scarron is a French classic.
his friends Varius and Tucca edited it
at the request of the emperor Augustus,
Angel in the House, The, Coventry
It has since become the heritage of the Patmore's most noted poem, was pub-
world.
lished in four parts between 1854 and
“On this line the poet's own voice fal- 1862. (The Betrothal' appeared in 1854,
tered as he read. At this Augustus and (The Espousals) in 1856, Faithful For-
Octavia melted into passionate weeping. ever) in 1860, and "The Victories of
Here is the verse which Augustine quotes Love) in 1863. The entire poem is idyl-
as typical, in its majestic rhythm, of all lic in form. It is a glorification of do-
the pathos and the glory of pagan art mestic life, of love sheltered in the home,
from which the Christian was bound to and guarded by the gentle and tender
fee. This is the couplet which Fénelon wife. In consequence it has been ex-
could never read without admiring tears. tremely popular in British families of the
This line Filippo Strozzi scrawled on his class it describes, — high-bred gentlefolk,
prison wall, when he slew himself to to whom the household is the centre of
avoid worse ill. These are the words | refining affection.
## p. 475 (#511) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
475
Age of Chivalry, The, or THE LEGENDS
estimate of Greek culture as providen-
OF KING ARTHUR, by Thomas Bul- tially ordained not less than Hebrew,
finch, was published in 1858. More than and to be studied the same as Hebrew.
twenty years after, an enlarged edition In view of the corruption of his own
appeared under the editorship of Edward times, Roger Bacon said: “The ancient
Everett Hale. In Part First, the legends philosophers have spoken so wonderfully
of King Arthur and his knights are con- on virtue and vice, that a Christian man
sidered. Part Second deals with the Ma- may well be astounded at those who
binogion, or ancient prose tales of the were unbelievers thus attaining the sum-
Welsh; Part Third with the knights of mits of morality. On the Christian vir-
English history, King Richard, Robin tues of faith, hope, and charity, we can
Hood, and the Black Prince. From the speak things of which they knew nothing.
time of its first publication the popularity
But in the virtues needed for integrity
of the book has been great. No more
of life, and for human fellowship, we are
sympathetic and fitting introduction could not their equals either in word or deed. )
be found to the legends of chivalry. The
A section of his moral philosophy Roger
book is written in a youthful spirit that
Bacon devotes to the first attempt ever
commends it to the young.
made at the comparative study of the
religions of the world.
Bacon, Roger, his Opus Majus. (A. D. His protests against the intellectual
1267. ) Newly edited and published, prejudices of the time, his forecasts of
with introduction and full English Anal- an age of industry and invention, the
ysis of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges. prominence given to experiment, alike
(2 vols. , 1897. ) An adequate publication, as the test of received opinion and the
after 630 years, of one of the most re- guide to new fields of discovery, render
markable productions of the human mind. comparison with Francis Bacon unavoid-
The work is an exhortation addressed able. In wealth of words, in brilliancy
to Pope Clement, urging him to initiate of imagination, Francis Bacon was im-
a reform of Christian education, in order measurably his superior. But Roger
to establish the ascendency of the Cath- Bacon had the sounder estimate and the
olic Church over all nations and religions firmer grasp of that combination of de-
of the world. Its author wished to see ductive with inductive method which
recognition of all the sciences, since marks the scientific discoverer.
all are parts of one and the same com- The competent editor, whose judg-
plete wisdom. He first gave experiment ments we give, has furnished analyses of
the distinct and supreme place which Bacon's Latin text which enable the
was later revived by Descartes, and car- English ler to gather easily his lead-
ried out in modern science. He formed
ing ideas,
a clear conception of chemistry, in his
day not yet separated from alchemy; Adv
dvancement of Learning, The, by
and of a science of living things, as re-
Francis Bacon, 1605, the original title
sulting with chemistry from physics. being Of the Proficience and Advance-
(The generation of men, and of brutes, ment of Learning, Divine and Human. )
and of plants,” he said, “is from ele- This book, received with great favor by
mental and liquid substances, and is of the court and by scholars, was afterwards
like manner with the generation of in- enlarged and published in Latin with the
animate things. ”
title De Augmentis Scientiarum,' as the
The central theme of his work was first part of a monumental labor, (The
the consolidation of the Catholic faith as Instauration of the Sciences, of which
the supreme agency for the civilization the second part was the still famous
and ennoblement of mankind. For this Novum Organum,' on which Bacon's
end a complete renovation and reorgan- fame as a philosopher rests. The (Advance-
ization of man's intellectual forces was ment of Learning) considers first the ex-
needed. The four principal impediments cellence of knowledge and the best way of
to wisdom were authority, habit, preju- spreading it, what has been already done
dice, and false conceit of knowledge.
to scatter it, and what left undone. The
The last of these, ignorance under the author then proceeds to divide all knowl-
cloak of wisdom, was pronounced the
edge into three kingdoms or inclosures, -
worst and most fata
A striking feature history, poetry, and philosophy: which
of this scheme of instruction was its appeal directly to the three manifestations
## p. 476 (#512) ############################################
476
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of human understanding, memory, imagi- | tory of the Conquest of Mexico,' which
nation, and reason. The smaller third is usually regarded as the author's most
of the book relates to revealed religion. brilliant production. Of the opportuni-
ties this afforded, Prescott himself re-
Astro
stronomy, The Dawn of, by J. Nor- marks: “The natural development of
man Lockyer (1897). A popular study the story is precisely what would
of the temple worship and mythology of be prescribed by the severest rules of
the ancient Egyptians, designed to show art. ” The portrait drawn of Pizarro,
that in the construction of their magnific who is the principal figure in the drama,
cent temples the Egyptians had an eye is that of a man brave, energetic, tem-
to astronomical facts, such as the rising perate, and though avaricious, extrava-
or setting of the sun at a particular time gant; bold in action, yet slow, and at
in the year, or to the rising of certain the same time inflexible of resolution;
stars; and so planned the long axis of a ambitious; exceptionally perfidious. An
great temple as to permit a beam of light effort is made to counterbalance the
to pass at a particular moment the whole tendency to hero-worship and pictur-
length of the central aisle into the Holy esque coloring by the occasional inser-
Place, and there illuminate the image of tion of passages of an opposite character.
the deity,-giving at once an exact note
of time, and a manifestation of the god The Jesuit Relations and Allied
by the illumination, which the people
Documents: Travels and explora-
supposed to be miraculous. Mr. Lockyer's
tions of the Jesuit Missionaries in New
France. (1610-1791. ) The original
clear discovery of these astronomical facts
French, Latin, and Italian texts, with
explains very interestingly the nature of
the gods and goddesses, many of whom
English translations and notes; illus-
are found to be different aspects of the
trated by portraits, maps, and fac-simi-
les.
same object in nature. For both the sci-
Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
ence and the religion of Egypt the work
(Vol. i. , 1896. — Vol. xiv. , 1898. ) A part
is of great value.
of a republication of great magnitude
and importance; the fourteen volumes
,
History of the Conquest of Peru, already issued being a beginning only,
covering the years 1610–38. The en-
by William Hickling Prescott.
tire work consists, as to “The Jesuit Re-
(1847. ) Of the five books into which
this admirable work is divided, the first
lations,' in forty volumes of Jesuit
treats of the wonderful civilization of
annual reports in French, which began
the Incas; the second of the discovery
to appear in Paris in 1632, and came
of Peru; the third of its conquest; the
out year by year to 1673. These begin
fourth of the civil wars of the con-
in the present work with Vol. v. ; and
ten volumes carry (Le Jeune's Relation'
querors; and the fifth of the settlement
into 1638.
of the country.
The first book hardly
The very great value of the
work is that of original materials of the
yields in interest to any of the others,
most interesting character for the his-
describing as it does, on the whole, an
unparalleled state of society. In it some
tory of North America from 1611, the
date of the first landing of Jesuit mis-
of the votaries of modern socialism have
sionaries on the shores of Nova Scotia.
seen confirmation of the practicability
and successful working of their own
The present reproduction of documents
theory; but Prescott's verdict of the sys-
takes them in chronological order. Thus
tem is that it was the most oppressive,
Vols. i. -iv. are devoted to the story of
Acadia from 1610 to 1616, and the open-
though the mildest, of despotisms. ” At
least it
ing pages of the story of Quebec, 1625-
more lenient, more
29.
fined, and based more upon reason as
Then comes (Le Jeune's Relation,
as stated above. The execution of the
contrasted with force, than that
of the Aztecs. He describes it very
work by translators, editors, and print-
ers (at Cleveland, Ohio) is every way
fully: the orders of society, the divisions
of the kingdom, the administration of
admirable; and its completion will make
a monumental addition to our historical
justice, the revenues, religion, educa-
libraries.
tion, agriculture, manners, manufactures,
architecture, etc. From the necessities
Nineveh and its Remains (1849).
of its material, the work is more scat-
of
(1853).
tered in construction than is the (His- By Austen Henry Layard. A highly
was
re-
was
## p. 477 (#513) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
477
was
as
If a
a
interesting narrative of the earliest of the earth; and his clothing was made
the discoveries which have laid open from the skins of beasts, or
of
to historical knowledge the civilization, skins not made at all. The few simple
empire, and culture of Babylonia (and tools or weapons which he contrived
Assyria), back to about 4000 B. C. , and showed one chief material, except wood
which already promise to make known for handles, and that was stone. Horn
history beginning as early as 7000 B. C. and bone came into use for some minor
Layard, in traveling overland from Lon- implements, but stone was the material
don to Ceylon, passed ruins on the mainly employed for tools and weapons.
banks of the Tigris which tradition Manufactures consisted chiefly in making
pointed out as marking the site of Nine- sharp flakes of stone, some with edges
veh; and the desire which he then felt for knives or hatchets, and others with
to make explorations led him to return points for a thrusting tool or weapon.
to the region. He made some secret If fire was known, and the potter's art
diggings in 1845, and in 1846 and 1847 also of molding moist clay into shapes
pushed his excavations to the first great and baking them to hardness, this added
success, that of the discovery of the not only to the comfort but to the im-
ruins of four distinct palaces, one of plements of primitive man; and shells
which, supposed to have been built by perforated and strung made jewelry.
Sardanapalus yielded the remarkable If there was any money it was shell
monuments which are still a chief at- money. Bone and horn served to make
traction of the British Museum. Beside implements such arrow-heads, and
the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which bodkins, man's earliest needles.
had covered the walls of a palace, use like that of paper was known, a flat
there were the gigantic winged human- bone, like shoulder-blade, served.
headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed The first art was with a bodkin, scratch-
deities, which are among the objects of ing on the flat of a bone the outline of
Assyrian religious art. As an opening the head of a favorite horse, or of a
of a story of discovery hardly surpassed reindeer captured for a feast. Burial
in the annals of modern research, the customs arose, and funeral feasts; and
work reported in Layard's books is of there seem to be indications of belief
the greatest interest.
that the dead were not so dead but that
they would need food and tools and
Primitive Man, by. Louis Figuier. other means of life.
Revised Translation with Thirty The name given to this earliest Stone
Scenes of Primitive Life and 233 Fig- Age epoch is that of the Mammoth and
ures of Objects belonging to Prehist Cave-Bear, the conspicuous representa-
Ages. (1870. ) A clear popular manual tives of the gigantic animals of that
of the facts and arguments going to time. It was a time of fearful cold, in
show the very great antiquity of man. one of the ages of ice which played so
It presents the evidence of actual relics large a part in the early history of the
of prehistoric life, with special attention globe.
to those found in France. At the time The second of the Stone Age epochs
of its publication English readers were is called that of the reindeer, because
familiar with the views advocated by this animal existed in great numbers,
Lyell and Lubbock, and knew less of the and with it the horse, various great
results of French research, which cattle, elk, deer, etc. , in place of the
prehistoric archæology very largely rests. mammoth, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-
In the scheme of this startlingly interest- lion, etc. The intense glacial cold of
ing science the history of primitive man- the first epoch was gone.
Forests in-
kind is divided into two great periods or stead of ice clothed the earth. But
ages: (1) The Stone Age, divided into these earlier Stone Age epochs are a
three epochs; and (2) The Age of dark dismal night hard to penetrate. A
Metals, divided into two epochs. The third Stone Age epoch followed, called
story of these ages is the story of primi- the Polished Stone epoch, because of the
tive man. Man first appeared in the great improvement effected in imple-
epoch of those gigantic animals which ments by polishing or smoothing the
became extinct long ages ago, the mam- stone parts.
ice); and his account is not only much
salem and the Monastery of St. Saba.
the best anywhere existing, but it makes
This house was named for the founder
of the «Laura," the monastic rule which
a very readable book.
Charles Kingsley uses han furshofexcellent Voingen and Travhile faro SirboJephen
tia. )
the opening Hypa- Mandeville. famous book of
The Laura” still exists where travels was published in French some
the rocky clefts and desert wastes of time between 1357 and 1371.
It was
Asia and Africa offer suitable retreats originally written in English, then trans-
for the ascetic monks.
lated into Latin, then retranslated into
Mr. Curzon devotes some time to the English, that every man of his nation
Jews of Jerusalem, - enough to show might read it. It is said that the author
their prevailing characteristics; and he claimed to be an English knight, living
also notes the interesting fact of his abroad because of a murder committed
rediscovery of the "Apple of Sodom, by him; but little or nothing is known
long supposed to be a creation of fictitious of him. It is thought that it may have
character. It is, he says, a juicy-looking, been written under a feigned name, by
plum-like fruit, which proves to be a Jehan de Burgoigne, a physician of
gall-nut filled with dry, choking dust. Liege. A few interpolated words in an
Part iii. opens with the writer's im- English edition gained for Mandeville
pressions of Corfu and his visit to the credit of being the father of Eng-
Albania, whence he leaves for Meteora, lish prose"); but it is evident from
a grassy plain surrounded by tall peaks mistakes in translation that the English
of rock, where, in apertures like pigeon- version, said to have been made by
holes, the monks have had their dwell- Mandeville, was made by some one who
ings. On top of the rocks are left some did not know the author's meaning.
## p. 468 (#504) ############################################
468
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
a
The author claims to have traveled for 150,000 francs, which he caused to be
thirty years in Palestine, Egypt, China, invested, principal and interest to be
and other countries; but it is thought divided among such of his heirs as
that if he traveled at all, it was not far- should present themselves at a certain
ther than Palestine, as the other matter rendezvous in Paris, after the lapse of a
is evidently taken from the works of century and a half. Then comes an in-
other travelers. There are some marvel- tensely dramatic description of the es-
ous tales, and it is from this fact that pionage to which the heirs have been
the book is chiefly interesting. He subjected, and the successful machina-
speaks of giants «sixty feet long, a tions of the Jesuits in order to obtain
griffin capable of flying away with a this money. While they succeed by the
yoke of oxen in its talons. There are most reckless acts of persecution and
men with animal's heads, others with no violence in preventing six of the seven
heads, but with eyes and mouth in the heirs from presenting themselves to
breast, others with such large upper lips claim the vastly increased inheritance,
that they cover their whole face from they produce the seventh heir, Gabriel
the sun when they sleep. There are Rennepont - a virtuous young Jesuit
trees bearing wool; and there is a fruit priest, who has already made over his
like a gourd, which when ripe contains worldly goods to his order — to claim
(a beste with flesch and blude and bane, the inheritance. A codicil to the will,
and it is lyke to a lytill lambe with- found in a mysterious manner, postpones
outen wolle. ” He visited the Garden of the day for delivering over the funds,
Transmigrated Souls, drank from the and temporarily defeats these designs.
Fountain of Youth, and located Para- But now, by adopting utterly conscience-
dise; though he says, “Off Paradys can less means, the heads of the Society of
I not speke properly, for I hafe not bene Jesus lead on the six heirs to their
thare; bot als mykill as I hafe herd of deaths before the arrival of the day
wyse men of thase cuntreez, I will tell which has been finally set for the parti-
yow. This book, because of the quaint- tion of the millions. In the end, how-
ness of the English version, and of the ever, by an unforeseen catastrophe, the
subject-matter, will always be read with purposes of the Order are foiled. Ro-
delight; but the claim that Mandeville din, a remarkable character, a little,
is the father of English prose is wholly cadaverous priest of marvelous energy
untenable.
and shrewdness, engineers the cause of
the Jesuits; and by his diplomacy not
Wandering Jew, The, by Eugene alone lures the heirs to their ruin, but
Sue. (1845. ) This curious rambling himself reaches the coveted post of Gen-
episodic romance is written from eral of the Order, though judgment
extreme Protestant point of view, and finally overtakes him also. The story is
introduces the character of Ahasuerus, very diffuse, and the episodes have only
who, according to legend, was a shoe- the slightest relation to each other. It
maker in Jerusalem. The Savior, bear- is melodramatic in the extreme, and the
ing his cross past the house of the arti- style is often bombastic, while the per-
san, asks to be allowed to rest an instant sonages have little resemblance to hu-
on the stone bench at his door.
« Go
man beings in human conditions. But
on! ” replies Ahasuerus. « Thou shalt go when all abatement is made, (The Wan-
on till the end of time, answers the dering Jew) remains one of the famous
Savior - and the Wandering Jew books of the world, for its vigor, its illus-
may never find home, or rest, or even ion, its endless interest of plot and
pause. The scene of this romance is counterplot, and its atmosphere of ro-
laid chiefly in Paris, in 1832. One
hundred and fifty years prior to this
date, Count Rennepont, a descendant of Seraphy by Leopold Sacher-Masoch.
the sister of the Wandering Jew, who is This delightful story by the great
also condemned to wander, professed German novelist, who has been called
conversion to the Catholic faith in order the Galician Turgeneff, was translated
to save his property from confiscation. into English in 1893. As a frame for a
His ruse was discovered, however, and charming tale, the author gives a vivid
the whole estate given to the Jesuits. description of Hungarian life and cus-
But Rennepont succeeded in secreting toms.
We are
introduced to Seraph
an
>>
so
mance.
## p. 469 (#505) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
469
ran
now
Temkin, as he is about to shoot at a
Zincali, The, by George Borrow. This
card held in his mother's hand. She account of the gipsies of Spain ap-
tells him she has educated him with one peared in England in 1842, and quickly
object in view, the revenge of a wrong through three editions. Borrow
done her by a man whose name she evinced in early life a roving disposition
gives — Emilian Theodorowitsch. and linguistic ability. In 1835, at the age
Seraph journeys to the Castle Honoriec, of thirty-two, he undertook to act as the
and gives his name and his mother's to agent of the British and Foreign Bible
Emilian. To his surprise, Emilian says Society in Spain, and accomplished his
he has never heard of Madame Temkin, perilous mission with the devotion of
but insists on Seraph accepting his hos- an apostle and the audacity of a stage
pitality. He remains, and learns from brigand. He was all things to all men,
everybody of the tenderness, generosity, especially to gipsies; and in "The Bible
and nobility of his host. Emilian tells in Spain,' his first book, he relates his
Seraph the story of his life. He had amusing and interesting adventures.
married a woman accustomed to com- (The Zincali) grew out of this journey,
mand and be obeyed. An estrangement and deals with the gipsies alone. The
sprang up between them, and when a charm of the book, which is full of an-
son was born, a handsome nurse came ecdote, lies in its graphic fidelity. The
into the house. His wife became jealous, Spanish gipsy, as described by Mr.
but persisted in keeping the nurse. One Borrow, differs in many respects from
night the nurse began to coquet with the gipsy of romance. His hardihood
Emilian. He upbraided her, whereupon and wretched mode of life ; his virtues,
she fell at his feet and began to weep. his faults; his devotion to family and
He raised her up, and his wife, entering, kindred; and his inveterate dishonesty,
found the nurse in his arms. Taking are faithfully portrayed. The very same
the child, she escaped, and he had never gipsy woman, who, being waylaid and
been able to find a trace of her. An- robbed, is heroic and unconquerable in
other charm of the castle for Seraph is defense of her own virtue, and, stripped
Magdalina, Emilian's adopted daughter, of her property,
makes
her weary
with whom Seraph is in love. Running journey 200 miles on foot with her poor
after her one day, she fees into the children, is absolutely vile in leading
chapel. He finds her hiding in the con-
others into infamy to recoup her
fessional, and kneeling down at the finances. A chapter on gipsies in va-
wicket, he tells her of his love. He is rious lands depicts the universal gipsy,
interrupted by his mother in disguise, the product of the mysterious East. Mr.
who upbraids him for his delay; and Borrow gives many illustrations of his
when he asks her what relationship ex- popularity with the gipsies; one at Nov-
isted between her and Emilian, she gorod, where one sentence spoken by
answers «none, and escapes. Magda- him in Romany brings out a joyful
lina tells him this woman reminds her colony of gipsies in song and loving
of a portrait in an abandoned part of greeting. His love of adventure, of un-
the castle. She leads him there, and conventional human life, and of phil-
he is struck with the familiarity of the ology, went hand in hand and reinforced
He rushes to a clock, pulls a each other.
string, and hears an old familiar tune;
and in the next room finds his mother's ivilization, An Introduction to the
portrait. He thinks of but one way in History of, in England and France,
which his mother could have been Spain, and Scotland, by Henry Thomas
wronged, in spite of Emilian's very sug- Buckle, appeared, the first volume in
gestive story; and going down stairs he 1857, the second in 1861. The book, in
insults Emilian and challenges him to a the light of the author's original plan,
duel, in which Seraph is shot. When he is a Titanic fragment. In itself con-
recovers from his swoon, he finds him- sidered, it is complete, perfect; since the
self again at the castle with Magdalina principle underlying the proposed vast
watching over him. He sends for Emil- scheme is clearly set forth, and illus-
ian, and tells him of the portrait; and trated in the general introduction.
the father clasps his long-lost son in This principle of Magnificent Propor-
his arms. The reconciliation of the hus- tions, as understood and treated by
band and wife ends the story.
Buckle, is that there are laws governing
scenes.
Civi
## p. 470 (#506) ############################################
470
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
the
the progress of nations, and of national story himself, in the form of a journal
civilization, as fixed and inevitable as His relatives wish him to marry a beau-
the laws of the physical universe. He tiful young cousin, Aniela, who loves
endeavored to find bases for the leter- him with a whole-souled affection. Be.
mination of these laws, as the first step ing sure of her love, he is disposed to
in the science of history. The most im- delay his marriage, that he may have
portant of his propositions are that cli- time to analyze his emotions in regard
mate, soil, and food influence the char- to her. While absent in Rome, he
acter of nations; that in Europe mental drifts into an unworthy passion for a
laws are gradually predominating over married woman, a Mrs. Davis; yet, so
physical laws; that human progress is peculiar is his temperament, the thought
due rather to intellectual activity than of Aniela is rarely absent from him. In
to the development of the moral sense; the sultry air of passion, he longs for
that individual effort counts for little in the freshness and fragrance of her
the great onward movements of the race; purity. But even the knowledge that
that religion, wit, literature, are she is soon to be out of his reach does
products and not the causes of civiliza- not steady his nobler purposes. The
tion. In his first volume, after setting fortunes of her family being now at a
forth these propositions Buckle gives to low ebb, Aniela is forced into marriage
them concrete application in the con- with a rich Austrian, Kromitzki, a com-
sideration of English and French his- monplace man incapable of appreciating
tory. In the second volume, he again her fine nature. So soon as she is thus
applies them to the cases of Spain and out of reach, Leon, whose moral nature
Scotland. Although the
progress of goes by contraries, becomes passionately
science has uncovered facts that prove in love with her, and tries with subtle
the weakness of an occasional principle art to make her untrue to her husband;
in the History of Civilization, the work but dear as Leon is to her, Aniela re-
remains one of the greatest popular con- mains faithful to her marriage vows.
tributions of modern times to the new Unlike Leon, she is not (without
aspect of history, as a human document, dogma. ” She clings to her simple belief
to be read by the light of scientific dis- in what is right throughout the long
covery. Its publishing success was sec- struggle. Her delicate organism cannot
ond only to Macaulay's (England. No stand the strain of her spiritual suffer-
book of its time was more influential in ings. The death of her husband is soon
turning the direction of men's thoughts followed by her own death. In her last
to the phenomena of social and political hours she tells Leon, as a little child
science. Its value in deed lay largely might tell him, that she loves him
in its immense field of suggestion. It
“ very, very much. ” The last entry in
opened the way for centuries of scholar-
his journal implies that he will follow
ship in a new field.
her, that they may be one in oblivion,
or in another life to come. The journal
Without Dogma, a novel of modern of Leon Ploskowski reveals the wonder-
Polish high life, by Henryk Sien- ful insight of Sienkiewicz into a certain
kiewicz, was published in an English type of modern character.
The psycho-
translation in 1893. Unlike his histori- logical value of the book is pre-eminent,
cal novels, this book has few characters. presenting as it does a personality
It is the history of a spiritual struggle, essentially the product of nineteenth-
of the battle of a man for his own century conditions, - a personality upon
soul. »
Leon Ploskowski, the hero, which hyper-cultivation has acted as a
young, wealthy, and well-born, is of so subtle poison.
overwrought a temperament that he is
depressed by the, very act of living:
Sin of Joost Avelingh, The, by “Maar-
«Here is a nature so sensitive that it ten Maartens. ). (1890. ) This writer's
photographs every impression, an artistic real name is J. M. W. Van der Poorten
temperament, a highly endowed organ- Schwartz. Although he is a Dutchman,
ism; yet it produces nothing. The se- his stories are all written in English,
cret of this unproductiveness lies per- and afterwards translated into Dutch
haps in a certain tendency to philoso-
for home use. The scene of this is Hol-
phize away every strong emotion that land. Joost is an orphan, shy, morbid,
should lead to action. ) Leon tells his and misunderstood. His uncle, with
## p. 471 (#507) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
471
on
((
whom he lives, forces him to study medi- | New Fiction, The, by Professor H. D.
cine, which he hates, and forbids him to Traill, (1897,) is a collection of a
marry Agatha van Hessel. As Joost is dozen essays on literary matters, ranging
driving him to the notary to change his from Newspaper English) to the trials
will, he dies of apoplexy. Joost inherits of publishers, and including criticisms
his money and marries Agatha. Ten authors from Lucian to Stephen
years later, Arthur van Aeveld, the next Crane. The title essay considers Ste-
heir, meets the servant who sat behind phen Crane and Arthur Morrison as the
the carriage on the night of the Baron's two apostles of modern «realism, as
death, and persuades him to swear that this sees fit to deal with low life; and
Joost murdered his uncle. At the last accuses them of betraying their own
moment, he confesses his perjury. Joost aim, and being guilty of a wild romanti-
is acquitted, and made a member of the cism, in depicting their slums in impossi-
States General. He declares that though bly lurid colors, and life in them as an
not actually a murderer, he is guilty, in unvarying brutality and horror, irrecon-
that he hated his uncle, did nothing to cilable with human nature. (The Po-
help him in his extremity, and drove litical Novel begins with Disraeli, and
straight on in spite of the old man's ends with Mrs. Humphry Ward, of
appeal to him to stop. With his wife's whose work a very discriminating esti-
concurrence, he gives up his money and mate suggests that a lack of humor
political position, becomes clerk to a accounts for the fact that where her
notary, and is happy on a small salary. great capacity and fine art have done so
much, they have not done more. (The
Yesterday, To-day, and Forever. A Novel of Manners,' which began with
poem in twelve books. By Edward the crude performances of Miss Bur-
Henry Bickersteth. (1866. ) A work in ney, and came to its flower in Miss
blank verse, 10,750 lines in length, de- Austen's delicately perfect work, has a
voted to imaginative journeyings after paper to itself. Other essays treat (Mat.
death in Hades, Paradise, and Hell, thew Arnold, Richardson's Novels,'
with a review of creation, the Fall, Pascal's Provincial Letters,' the witty
the empire of darkness, redemption, the (Plays of Lucian,' and (The Future of
war against Satan, the victory over Humor,' in which the author wonders
Satan, the millennial Sabbath, the Last whether the world is growing so serious-
Judgment, and heaven's many mansions. minded that humor will die out, as some
The author, who was made bishop of fine growth disappears from an inhos-
Exeter in 1885, has been in his genera- pitable soil. Professor Traill's work
tion, as his father was in the previous shows perfect fairness, a nice discrimina-
generation, a chief representative in tion, a sympathetic consciousness of an
the Church of England of profoundly author's purpose, and a neat craftsman-
Evangelical, anti-Romanist, and anti- ship. His attitude is always that of de-
liberal, pietism and teaching,-a very tachment, and the pleasure he gives his
emotional and earnest pietism and in- reader seems to be entirely impersonal.
tensely orthodox Low Church teaching. A book so sound and balanced is inter-
The Christian Psalmody, compiled by esting and helpful.
the father in 1832, which went through
seven most
A.
-
Barrie (1889), is a continuation of
school in the Church. The Hymnal
the Auld Licht) series. Its scenes are
Companion, prepared by the son (final confined mainly to the interior of the
revised and enlarged edition, 1876), is little Scotch cot in "Thrums » where
in use in thousands of churches in Eng- lived Hendry and Jess McQumpha, and
land and the colonies. It was to im- their daughter Leeby. In Mr. Barrie's
pressively invoke divine and
eternal
later work, Margaret Ogilvy,' an affec-
auspices for the doctrines and pietism of tionate and artistic picture of his mother,
the Evangelical party, and to feed Ev- we discern that in Jess and Leeby his
angelical faith and enthusiasm, that the mother and sister sat for the portraits.
younger Bickersteth, with Dante and Jess is a quaint figure. A chronic inva-
Milton in view, essayed his ambitious lid, yet throbbing with interest in every-
task, and executed it with very fair suc- body and everything, she sits at the
cess, at least as to teaching and emotion. window of her cottage, and keeps up
popular hymn book of the Evangeliest Window in Thrums, a, by James M.
## p. 472 (#508) ############################################
472
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
with Leeby a running fire of terse and strong savor of Ibsen and of the Karma
often cutting comment upon village hap-cult, a subtle portrayal of character and
penings, and thus holds herself in touch much fine interpretation of nature. The
with the life and gossip which she knows author was already favorably known
only through the window. Barrie's sym- through his longer novel Eline Vere. )
pathetic ability to see how inseparable
are humor and pathos makes his char-
The Revenge of Joseph Noirel, by
acters living and human. Tammas Hag- Victor Cherbuliez. A lively and
gart, the humorist, at much pains to skillful character sketch by this master
understand and dispense the philosophy of literary portraiture; who here, as in
of his own humor; the little christening Jean Teterol's Idea,' takes for his theme
robe which does the honors for the the moral unrest caused by social class
whole village, and which is so tenderly distinctions, but carries the development
revered by Jess because it was made for of his theme to a tragic extreme. The
her own babe, “twenty years dead, but scene is laid at Mon Plaisir, near Ge-
still living for her; the family pride in neva, the villa-home of the well-to-do
Jamie, the son who has gone to London, bourgeois manufacturer, M. Merion,
in whom we may see “Gavin Ogilvy » whose wife has social ambitions of which
(Barrie's own pseudonym); and finally, the daughter Mademoiselle Marguerite is
Jamie's home-coming to find Hendry, made the innocent victim. Given in a
Jess, and Leeby gone to the long home, mariage de convenance to M. le Conte
are absolutely real. And if the reader d'Orins, she finds the unhappiness of a
laughs at the whimsicalities of the vil- union without love intensified into horror
lage folk, it is because he loves them. and dread by the suspicion that her hus-
band has been guilty of a hidden crime.
Footsteps of Fate, Noodlot, by Meanwhile the hero of the story, Joseph
Louis Marie Anne Couperus. Trans- Noirel, is the trusted overseer in the
lation from the Dutch by Clara Bell. works of M. Merion; having been grad-
This story, by one of the latest and ually promoted to this position of re-
youngest novelists of Holland, is power- sponsibility and esteem from that of the
fully told, and is of absorbing if some- starving child of disgraced parents,
what strange and morbid interest. It whom the village crier had rescued and
opens in a villa of suburban London, introduced as an apprentice in the fac-
where a wealthy and idle young Hol- tory. On Mademoiselle Marguerite's
lander is surprised in his bachelor apart- returning from her years of training in
ments by a visit at midnight of a man the convent for the aristocratic life to
in tramp's attire, who seeks shelter and which her mother had destined her,
food in the name of early friendship and Joseph is captivated by her beauty; and
companionship. «Bertie,” the name of after being thrown together by the ac-
the returned prodigal, is taken in by cident of a storm, he becomes the hope-
his large-hearted friend Frank, washed, less victim of a devouring but unre-
clothed, and fed into respectability, and quited love for her. The marriage with
introduced into the club and made his the count having taken place, Joseph be-
intimate companion and peer in society. comes aware of the crime of which the
Wearying at last of an endless round of husband is guilty, and informs Margue-
pleasure, marred at times for Frank by rite, who flees for refuge to Mon Plaisir.
certain survivals of low habits in his The count meanwhile creates the sus-
friend, they, at Bertie's suggestion, go picion that it is a guilty attachment on
off for a tour in Norway, where Frank the part of Marguerite for Joseph which
meets the young lady who will hence- has brought her there, and her parents
forth absorb his affections. Bertie see- indignantly reject her plea for their pro
ing this, and dismayed at the prospect of tection. A word from her would reveal
being again thrown upon the world, all her husband's crime and would cost his
the more unfitted for struggle after his life. Meanwhile Joseph has already re-
unstinted enjoyment of his friend's solved to end his hopeless misery by
wealth, is prompted by his fate) to taking his own life. Marguerite main-
plot for the prevention of the marriage tains her silence, obeys her husband,
of the loving couple; and the story is and leaves her father's house. She asks
occupied with the progress and results Joseph to become the instrument of her
of his evil scheme. There is in it a death before taking his own life, and
## p. 473 (#509) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
473
prodigality is amazing.
” He also says
that the author has given (a poetical
vision of the sea, which is more like
an apocalypse than the vision of a
healthy mind. ”
a
under circumstances that would imply
guilt, while yet she remains innocent, and
the savior of her husband's life and honor.
The narration of this climax of the
story's action is in the highest plane of
dramatic writing, and is a remarkable
exhibition of the author's power of re-
serve, and of his ability to suggest the
bidden reality beneath expressed unreality.
Toilers of the Sea (Les Travailleurs
de la Mer. ) (1866. ) A novel by
Victor Hugo, which possesses double in-
terest: first, in the story; secondly, in
its bold descriptions of the colossal and
secret powers of the elements. In time
it followed after the still more famous
(Les Misérables. The scene is laid in
Germany; and the book is dedicated
to the Isle of Guernsey, severe yet
gentle, my present asylum, my proba-
ble tomb. ) The heroine, Deruchette, is
the niece of Lethierry, who has invented
a steamboat, La Durande, which plies
between Guernsey and St. Malo, and
which is the wonder of the Channel
Islands. His partner, Rantaine, disap-
pears with a large sum of money, and
is succeeded as captain of La Durande
by Clubin. The latter has friends
among the smugglers, and with their
assistance finds Rantaine, who has es-
caped in the guise of a Quaker. Clubin
obtains this booty and determines to
keep it. He plans to wreck La Du-
rande the 'rocks known
as «Les
Hanois," and then to swim ashore and
escape. From this point, the story is
full of the excitement and terror of
the life of the sailor. The descriptions
of the sea, the wind, and the myster-
ies of the ocean-bed, are wonderful.
Among the most striking scenes is the
encounter of Gilliatt, the real hero of
the book, with an octopus which lurks
in a rocky cavern beneath the
Penetrating into the shadows of this
submarine crypt, whose arches are cov-
ered with seaweed and trailing moss,
Gilliatt soon finds himself in the em-
brace of the gigantic and slimy monster,
whose gleaming eyes are fixed upon
him. Of this story George Henry Lewes
said that it had «a certain daring in-
flation about it which cannot be met
elsewhere; and if the splendor is bar-
baric it is undeniably splendid. Page
after page and chapter after chapter
may be mere fireworks which blaze
and pass away; but as fireworks, the
Virgin Soil, by Ivan Turgeneff. Tur-
geneff gives in Virgin Soil?
graphic picture of the various moral and
social influences at work in the modern
Nihilistic movement in Russia. The mo-
tive of the story is deep and subtle, and
is developed with masterly skill and re-
finement. The hero Neshdanoff, a young
university student of noble but illegiti-
mate descent and in poor worldly cir-
cumstances, has his sympathies roused
for the depressed peasantry of Russia,
and with romantic ardor enters into the
secret conspiracy for their relief. In the
house of a government official where he
is engaged as tutor, he meets Marianne,
a relation of the family, who is also
secretly an enthusiast in the Nihilistic
cause, and, irresistibly drawn to her, he
elopes with her, and seeks employment
with a machinist and manufacturer, Solo-
mine. The effort to descend to the
level of the peasants, to enter into their
life and to rouse them to a united move-
ment for liberty, is met with a stolid
apathy and lack of intelligence on their
part, that dampens his ardor and makes
his effort seem to him like the merest sen-
timentalism, that can never yield any real
result. This loss of faith in himself and
in his own sincerity impels him to break
his promise of marriage with Marianne,
and, commending her to marry Solo-
mine, the machinist and manufacturer, to
take his own life in despair of finding a
sphere in the world for his genius, -
a mixture of inherited aristocracy and
purely romantic democracy. In Solomine
is depicted the real reformer, the man
without “ideals and elegant phrases,
who, in his honest dealings with those
under him and his recognition of the
true dignity of labor and of neighborly
service, is exerting the redeeming force
that can gradually introduce a new man-
hood into the laboring classes, and so
enable them to appreciate and aspire to
the practical and the heroic elements
of a true freedom. In the marriage of
Solomine and Marianne is seen the union
of reform, as distinguished from the in-
effectual idealism of an aristocracy that
lacks the practical knowledge and the
social mediation of a middle class.
on
sea.
## p. 474 (#510) ############################################
474
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
Æne
Æneid, The, the golden branch on the which, like a trumpet-call, roused Savo-
ilex-tree of Latin literature, was the narola to seek the things that are above.
work of Publius Virgilius Maro, who was And this line Dante heard on the lips
born October 15th, 70 B. C. , and died Sep- of the Church Triumphant, at the open-
tember 22d, 19 B. C.
ing of the Paradise of God. ”
The poem is interwoven with pre-
neid, The, an epic by Heinrich von
Christian civilization, with mediæval and
Veldeche, a minnesinger of the
modern thought, as is no other poem of
the ancient world. It is the Bible of the
twelfth century and one of the earliest
German poets. It is distinguished for
later classical literature, as the Iliad is
the elegance of its form and the har-
of the earlier, linked by its very nature
mony of its versification. In this poem,
to the visionary Middle Ages. For in
love (die Minne) is for the first time in-
the Æneid, conflict has become spiritual.
troduced as a theme. The story follows
ized; and the warrior Æneas bears al-
the same line as Virgil's until the hero
ways about him the remoteness of the
comes to Latium. There it pauses to de-
priest, or of one mindful ever of the place
of souls. It is the detachment of the
pict the love of Lavinia for Æneas, and
this is its most original and successful por-
hero from the passion of love, from the
tion. Æneas marries Lavinia, becomes
passion of war, which made him appeal
so powerfully to the mediæval mind, pre-
king, and builds Alba. Gawain Douglas
translated the Æneid into the Scottish
occupied with the Unseen. Only the
dialect in 1513. This vigorous adaptation
creator of Æneas could be Dante's guide
probably suggested to the Earl of Surrey
among the shades. Of him Tennyson
the idea of turning the second and fourth
writes:-
books into blank verse, the earliest exam-
"Light among the vanished ages; star that gild-
ple of blank verse in the language. Dou-
est yet this phantom shore ;
Golden branch among the shadows, kings and
glas takes some strange liberties with his
realms that set to rise no more. ”
author. He changes the sibyl into a nun,
and makes her admonish Æneas to be
The Æneid is in twelve books: the
first six in imitation of the Odyssey; the
sure to say his prayers and tell his beads.
The English translations are numerous;
last six, of the Iliad. The Trojan hero
is led to Italy, where he is to be the
Dryden's, Conington's, and notably Sir
Charles Bowen's, being perhaps the best.
father of a race and of an empire su-
That of William Morris is much admired
preme among nations. On his way thither
also, and in America the versions of C. P.
he tarries at Carthage, whose queen,
Cranch and of Prof. Geo, H. Palmer are
Dido, loves him as with the first love
of a virgin. To her he tells the story of
examples of good scholarship and good
taste. The epic has been often travestied.
Troy. For love of him she slays herself
The first travesty, entitled Eneide de
when the gods lead him from her shores.
Arrived in Italy he seeks the underworld,
Virgilio Travestida,' appeared at Rome in
1633. It was very popular among the friv.
under the protection of the Sibyl of Cu-
olous; but scholars, to whom everything
mæ. He emerges thence to overcome
his enemies. The Æneid was not per-
written by the Mantuan was sacred, were
scandalized. The Eneide Travestie) of
fected at the time of Virgil's death, and
Scarron is a French classic.
his friends Varius and Tucca edited it
at the request of the emperor Augustus,
Angel in the House, The, Coventry
It has since become the heritage of the Patmore's most noted poem, was pub-
world.
lished in four parts between 1854 and
“On this line the poet's own voice fal- 1862. (The Betrothal' appeared in 1854,
tered as he read. At this Augustus and (The Espousals) in 1856, Faithful For-
Octavia melted into passionate weeping. ever) in 1860, and "The Victories of
Here is the verse which Augustine quotes Love) in 1863. The entire poem is idyl-
as typical, in its majestic rhythm, of all lic in form. It is a glorification of do-
the pathos and the glory of pagan art mestic life, of love sheltered in the home,
from which the Christian was bound to and guarded by the gentle and tender
fee. This is the couplet which Fénelon wife. In consequence it has been ex-
could never read without admiring tears. tremely popular in British families of the
This line Filippo Strozzi scrawled on his class it describes, — high-bred gentlefolk,
prison wall, when he slew himself to to whom the household is the centre of
avoid worse ill. These are the words | refining affection.
## p. 475 (#511) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
475
Age of Chivalry, The, or THE LEGENDS
estimate of Greek culture as providen-
OF KING ARTHUR, by Thomas Bul- tially ordained not less than Hebrew,
finch, was published in 1858. More than and to be studied the same as Hebrew.
twenty years after, an enlarged edition In view of the corruption of his own
appeared under the editorship of Edward times, Roger Bacon said: “The ancient
Everett Hale. In Part First, the legends philosophers have spoken so wonderfully
of King Arthur and his knights are con- on virtue and vice, that a Christian man
sidered. Part Second deals with the Ma- may well be astounded at those who
binogion, or ancient prose tales of the were unbelievers thus attaining the sum-
Welsh; Part Third with the knights of mits of morality. On the Christian vir-
English history, King Richard, Robin tues of faith, hope, and charity, we can
Hood, and the Black Prince. From the speak things of which they knew nothing.
time of its first publication the popularity
But in the virtues needed for integrity
of the book has been great. No more
of life, and for human fellowship, we are
sympathetic and fitting introduction could not their equals either in word or deed. )
be found to the legends of chivalry. The
A section of his moral philosophy Roger
book is written in a youthful spirit that
Bacon devotes to the first attempt ever
commends it to the young.
made at the comparative study of the
religions of the world.
Bacon, Roger, his Opus Majus. (A. D. His protests against the intellectual
1267. ) Newly edited and published, prejudices of the time, his forecasts of
with introduction and full English Anal- an age of industry and invention, the
ysis of the Latin text, by J. H. Bridges. prominence given to experiment, alike
(2 vols. , 1897. ) An adequate publication, as the test of received opinion and the
after 630 years, of one of the most re- guide to new fields of discovery, render
markable productions of the human mind. comparison with Francis Bacon unavoid-
The work is an exhortation addressed able. In wealth of words, in brilliancy
to Pope Clement, urging him to initiate of imagination, Francis Bacon was im-
a reform of Christian education, in order measurably his superior. But Roger
to establish the ascendency of the Cath- Bacon had the sounder estimate and the
olic Church over all nations and religions firmer grasp of that combination of de-
of the world. Its author wished to see ductive with inductive method which
recognition of all the sciences, since marks the scientific discoverer.
all are parts of one and the same com- The competent editor, whose judg-
plete wisdom. He first gave experiment ments we give, has furnished analyses of
the distinct and supreme place which Bacon's Latin text which enable the
was later revived by Descartes, and car- English ler to gather easily his lead-
ried out in modern science. He formed
ing ideas,
a clear conception of chemistry, in his
day not yet separated from alchemy; Adv
dvancement of Learning, The, by
and of a science of living things, as re-
Francis Bacon, 1605, the original title
sulting with chemistry from physics. being Of the Proficience and Advance-
(The generation of men, and of brutes, ment of Learning, Divine and Human. )
and of plants,” he said, “is from ele- This book, received with great favor by
mental and liquid substances, and is of the court and by scholars, was afterwards
like manner with the generation of in- enlarged and published in Latin with the
animate things. ”
title De Augmentis Scientiarum,' as the
The central theme of his work was first part of a monumental labor, (The
the consolidation of the Catholic faith as Instauration of the Sciences, of which
the supreme agency for the civilization the second part was the still famous
and ennoblement of mankind. For this Novum Organum,' on which Bacon's
end a complete renovation and reorgan- fame as a philosopher rests. The (Advance-
ization of man's intellectual forces was ment of Learning) considers first the ex-
needed. The four principal impediments cellence of knowledge and the best way of
to wisdom were authority, habit, preju- spreading it, what has been already done
dice, and false conceit of knowledge.
to scatter it, and what left undone. The
The last of these, ignorance under the author then proceeds to divide all knowl-
cloak of wisdom, was pronounced the
edge into three kingdoms or inclosures, -
worst and most fata
A striking feature history, poetry, and philosophy: which
of this scheme of instruction was its appeal directly to the three manifestations
## p. 476 (#512) ############################################
476
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
of human understanding, memory, imagi- | tory of the Conquest of Mexico,' which
nation, and reason. The smaller third is usually regarded as the author's most
of the book relates to revealed religion. brilliant production. Of the opportuni-
ties this afforded, Prescott himself re-
Astro
stronomy, The Dawn of, by J. Nor- marks: “The natural development of
man Lockyer (1897). A popular study the story is precisely what would
of the temple worship and mythology of be prescribed by the severest rules of
the ancient Egyptians, designed to show art. ” The portrait drawn of Pizarro,
that in the construction of their magnific who is the principal figure in the drama,
cent temples the Egyptians had an eye is that of a man brave, energetic, tem-
to astronomical facts, such as the rising perate, and though avaricious, extrava-
or setting of the sun at a particular time gant; bold in action, yet slow, and at
in the year, or to the rising of certain the same time inflexible of resolution;
stars; and so planned the long axis of a ambitious; exceptionally perfidious. An
great temple as to permit a beam of light effort is made to counterbalance the
to pass at a particular moment the whole tendency to hero-worship and pictur-
length of the central aisle into the Holy esque coloring by the occasional inser-
Place, and there illuminate the image of tion of passages of an opposite character.
the deity,-giving at once an exact note
of time, and a manifestation of the god The Jesuit Relations and Allied
by the illumination, which the people
Documents: Travels and explora-
supposed to be miraculous. Mr. Lockyer's
tions of the Jesuit Missionaries in New
France. (1610-1791. ) The original
clear discovery of these astronomical facts
French, Latin, and Italian texts, with
explains very interestingly the nature of
the gods and goddesses, many of whom
English translations and notes; illus-
are found to be different aspects of the
trated by portraits, maps, and fac-simi-
les.
same object in nature. For both the sci-
Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
ence and the religion of Egypt the work
(Vol. i. , 1896. — Vol. xiv. , 1898. ) A part
is of great value.
of a republication of great magnitude
and importance; the fourteen volumes
,
History of the Conquest of Peru, already issued being a beginning only,
covering the years 1610–38. The en-
by William Hickling Prescott.
tire work consists, as to “The Jesuit Re-
(1847. ) Of the five books into which
this admirable work is divided, the first
lations,' in forty volumes of Jesuit
treats of the wonderful civilization of
annual reports in French, which began
the Incas; the second of the discovery
to appear in Paris in 1632, and came
of Peru; the third of its conquest; the
out year by year to 1673. These begin
fourth of the civil wars of the con-
in the present work with Vol. v. ; and
ten volumes carry (Le Jeune's Relation'
querors; and the fifth of the settlement
into 1638.
of the country.
The first book hardly
The very great value of the
work is that of original materials of the
yields in interest to any of the others,
most interesting character for the his-
describing as it does, on the whole, an
unparalleled state of society. In it some
tory of North America from 1611, the
date of the first landing of Jesuit mis-
of the votaries of modern socialism have
sionaries on the shores of Nova Scotia.
seen confirmation of the practicability
and successful working of their own
The present reproduction of documents
theory; but Prescott's verdict of the sys-
takes them in chronological order. Thus
tem is that it was the most oppressive,
Vols. i. -iv. are devoted to the story of
Acadia from 1610 to 1616, and the open-
though the mildest, of despotisms. ” At
least it
ing pages of the story of Quebec, 1625-
more lenient, more
29.
fined, and based more upon reason as
Then comes (Le Jeune's Relation,
as stated above. The execution of the
contrasted with force, than that
of the Aztecs. He describes it very
work by translators, editors, and print-
ers (at Cleveland, Ohio) is every way
fully: the orders of society, the divisions
of the kingdom, the administration of
admirable; and its completion will make
a monumental addition to our historical
justice, the revenues, religion, educa-
libraries.
tion, agriculture, manners, manufactures,
architecture, etc. From the necessities
Nineveh and its Remains (1849).
of its material, the work is more scat-
of
(1853).
tered in construction than is the (His- By Austen Henry Layard. A highly
was
re-
was
## p. 477 (#513) ############################################
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
477
was
as
If a
a
interesting narrative of the earliest of the earth; and his clothing was made
the discoveries which have laid open from the skins of beasts, or
of
to historical knowledge the civilization, skins not made at all. The few simple
empire, and culture of Babylonia (and tools or weapons which he contrived
Assyria), back to about 4000 B. C. , and showed one chief material, except wood
which already promise to make known for handles, and that was stone. Horn
history beginning as early as 7000 B. C. and bone came into use for some minor
Layard, in traveling overland from Lon- implements, but stone was the material
don to Ceylon, passed ruins on the mainly employed for tools and weapons.
banks of the Tigris which tradition Manufactures consisted chiefly in making
pointed out as marking the site of Nine- sharp flakes of stone, some with edges
veh; and the desire which he then felt for knives or hatchets, and others with
to make explorations led him to return points for a thrusting tool or weapon.
to the region. He made some secret If fire was known, and the potter's art
diggings in 1845, and in 1846 and 1847 also of molding moist clay into shapes
pushed his excavations to the first great and baking them to hardness, this added
success, that of the discovery of the not only to the comfort but to the im-
ruins of four distinct palaces, one of plements of primitive man; and shells
which, supposed to have been built by perforated and strung made jewelry.
Sardanapalus yielded the remarkable If there was any money it was shell
monuments which are still a chief at- money. Bone and horn served to make
traction of the British Museum. Beside implements such arrow-heads, and
the bas-reliefs and inscriptions which bodkins, man's earliest needles.
had covered the walls of a palace, use like that of paper was known, a flat
there were the gigantic winged human- bone, like shoulder-blade, served.
headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed The first art was with a bodkin, scratch-
deities, which are among the objects of ing on the flat of a bone the outline of
Assyrian religious art. As an opening the head of a favorite horse, or of a
of a story of discovery hardly surpassed reindeer captured for a feast. Burial
in the annals of modern research, the customs arose, and funeral feasts; and
work reported in Layard's books is of there seem to be indications of belief
the greatest interest.
that the dead were not so dead but that
they would need food and tools and
Primitive Man, by. Louis Figuier. other means of life.
Revised Translation with Thirty The name given to this earliest Stone
Scenes of Primitive Life and 233 Fig- Age epoch is that of the Mammoth and
ures of Objects belonging to Prehist Cave-Bear, the conspicuous representa-
Ages. (1870. ) A clear popular manual tives of the gigantic animals of that
of the facts and arguments going to time. It was a time of fearful cold, in
show the very great antiquity of man. one of the ages of ice which played so
It presents the evidence of actual relics large a part in the early history of the
of prehistoric life, with special attention globe.
to those found in France. At the time The second of the Stone Age epochs
of its publication English readers were is called that of the reindeer, because
familiar with the views advocated by this animal existed in great numbers,
Lyell and Lubbock, and knew less of the and with it the horse, various great
results of French research, which cattle, elk, deer, etc. , in place of the
prehistoric archæology very largely rests. mammoth, cave-bear, cave-hyena, cave-
In the scheme of this startlingly interest- lion, etc. The intense glacial cold of
ing science the history of primitive man- the first epoch was gone.
Forests in-
kind is divided into two great periods or stead of ice clothed the earth. But
ages: (1) The Stone Age, divided into these earlier Stone Age epochs are a
three epochs; and (2) The Age of dark dismal night hard to penetrate. A
Metals, divided into two epochs. The third Stone Age epoch followed, called
story of these ages is the story of primi- the Polished Stone epoch, because of the
tive man. Man first appeared in the great improvement effected in imple-
epoch of those gigantic animals which ments by polishing or smoothing the
became extinct long ages ago, the mam- stone parts.
