No More Learning

Howells's earlier stories. It relates
tempt at «scientific criticism of those the experience of a pretty Western girl,
«degenerates” not upon the acknowledged Kitty Ellison, who, while traveling on
lists of the criminal classes. The author the St. Lawrence with her cousins Colo-
in his dedication says: “Degenerates are
nel and Mrs. son, has an affaire du
not always criminals, prostitutes, anarch- cæur” with Mr. Miles Arbuton, of Bos-
ists, and pronounced lunatics; they are ton. The latter, an aristocrat of the
often authors and artists. These, how- most conventional type, is thrown much
ever, manifest the same mental char- with Kitty on the steamer, and finally
acteristics, and for the most part the
falls in love with her. Mrs. Ellison, a
same somatic features, as the members rather commonplace but kind-hearted
of the above-mentioned anthropological woman, sprains her ankle, and this miss
family, who satisfy their unhealthy im- fortune delays their party in Quebec.
pulses with the knife of the assassin or During this interval Mr. Arbuton and
the bomb of the dynamiter, instead of Kitty explore the city, -an occupation
with pen and pencil. Some among these affording ple time for the maturing of
degenerates in literature, music, and their friendship. Arbuton at length de-
painting, have in recent years come into clares himself, and Kitty asks for time
extraordinary prominence.
Now to consider his proposal. She feels the
I have undertaken the work of investi- unsuitability of the match; he being of
gating the tendencies of the fashions in distinguished family, rich and cultivated,
art and literature; of proving that they while she is a poor girl, with little to
have their source in the degeneracy of boast of but her own natural charms. She
their authors, and that the enthusiasm finally accepts him, however, when some
of their admirers is for manifestations of of his aristocratic friends appear on the
more or less pronounced moral insanity scene. He ignores Kitty for the time be-
and dementia. ”
ing and leaves her by herself, while be


## p. 3 (#39) ###############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
3
as
Age
does the honors for the new-comers. She thousands as badly off as is he; hence
realizes that he is ashamed of her, and poverty, crime, unrest, and all social
decides to give him up. On his return and moral evils.
she tells him of her decision, and resists The remedy is to nationalize the land,
his entreaties to overlook his conduct. - make it public property; leaving that
The story ends with the departure of the already in use in the possession of those
Ellisons from Quebec, and the reader is holding it, but confiscating the rent and
left in ignorance of the fate of Mr. Miles abolishing all other forms of taxation.
Arbuton. The book contains many
He declares taxation upon anything but
charming descriptions of the picturesque land to be a penalty upon production;
scenery and places about Quebec, and so he would tax that which cannot be
the story is told with delightful airiness produced or increased or diminished,
and charm.
- i. e. , land. This, he claims, would
abolish all speculation in land, would
Progress and Poverty, by Henry throw it open to whomever would use
George. Single taxers hold this, it. Labor, having an opportunity to
the chief work of the author, to be the employ itself, would do so, or to a large
Bible of the new cult. It was written enough extent to increase production;
in the years 1877–79, and the MS. was and
man is a never-satisfied ani-
hawked about the country and refused mal, increased production would bring
by all publishers till the author, a prac- increased exchange; hence prosperity,
tical printer, had the plates made, doing health, wealth, and happiness.
a large part of the composition himself.
ge of Fable, The, or THE BEAUTIES
It was then brought out by Appletons in
OF MYTHOLOGY, by Thomas Bulfinch,
1879. He seeks, in the work, to solve a
was published in 1855, and republished
problem and prescribe a remedy. The
in 1882 under the editorship of Edward
problem is: “Why, in the midst of a
Everett Hale. It has become a standard
marvelous progress, is grinding poverty
work upon mythology, by reason of its
on the increase ? » In the solution he
full and extensive yet delicate treatment
begins with the beginning of political
of the Greek and Roman myths. While
economy, takes issue with accepted au-
especially adapted for young people, it
thority, and claims that the basis law is
not the selfishness of mankind, but that
possesses qualities which commend it
alike to the scholar and to the general
«man seeks to gratify his desires with
reader.
the least exertion. Using this law as
physicists do the law of gravitation, he Bible, The Polychrome. A new trans-
,
proceeds to define anew, capital, rent,
lation of the Scriptures from a re-
interest, wealth, labor, and land. All vised text, by eminent Biblical scholars
that is not labor, or the result of labor, of Europe and America; Professor Paul
is land. Wealth is the product of labor Haupt, Johns Hopkins University, editor,
applied to land.
Interest is that part of
with the assistance in America of Dr.
the result of labor which is paid to cap-
Horace Howard Furness. The special
ital for its use for a time; capital is the scheme of this great work is its use of
fruit of labor, not its employer; rent is color backgrounds upon which to print
the tax taken by the landholder from the various passages by different writers
labor and capital, which must be paid which have been made up into one work,
before capital and labor can divide.
as Isaiah or the Psalms. It is not based
The problem is solved, he declares, on any doubt of inspiration, but on the
when it is found that the constantly in- general conviction of Biblical scholars
creasing rent serves so to restrict the that only good can come from making per-
rewards of capital and labor that wage, fectly clear to the public the full results
the laborer's share of the joint product,
of modern critical research. The Revised
becomes the least sum upon which he Version is considered by the projectors
can subsist and propagate. The laborer of the Polychrome an unsatisfactory com-
would refuse such a wage; but as it is promise, in that it fails to show the re-
the best he can do, he must accept. sults of modern research, either in its
Were the land public property he could text of the original or in its translation.
refuse, and transfer his labor to open In particular it does not show the exact
land and produce for himself. As he facts of the Hebrew originals; where in
cannot do this, he must compete with many cases a book is made up by fitting


## p. 4 (#40) ###############################################

4
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
>>>
together parts of two or three writings,
differing in character, authorship, and
date. The Polychrome device to show
these facts is that of printing what is of
one writer on the white paper, what is of
a second writer on a color impressed on
the page over just space enough for the
passage, and so with a third, or more.
Each has his color, and the reader easily
follows the respective writers. In the
translation a marked change is effected
by the use of modern literary English,
in place of Biblical English, which does
not faithfully show the true meaning. In
the texts followed and the translation
adopted, the general agreement of Bibli-
cal scholars is represented. In the prep-
arations made for its execution, and the
plans for a collaboration of eminent spe-
cialists throughout the world, the work
is perhaps the greatest yet attempted
in the field of Biblical scholarship. Its
translators especially represent the best
scholarship of America, England, and Con-
tinental Europe. The Old Testament
separate issues will be twenty in num-
ber, of which the first three are Judges,
Isaiah, and Psalms. Although a work
of scholarship, it is meant to be, in its
use of clear, every-day, easily intelligible
language, a Bible for the people. The
explanatory notes and historical and crit-
ical introductions to the several sepa-
rate books will meet the demands of the
scholar, student, or preacher. The picto-
rial illustrations from Assyrian, Egyptian,
or other monuments, or from photographs
of scenes, are designed not for art effect
simply, but to help the reader to under-
stand what he reads. A corresponding
Polychrome edition of the Hebrew text,
edited by eminent Hebraists under Pro-
fessor Haupt's direction, is issued in ad-
vance of the English version. Of this,
eleven parts have already appeared, 1893–
97. As to the Hebrew text published in
the Polychrome edition, and from which
the Polychrome translation is made, Pro-
fessor Haupt writes: As to the (original
Hebrew,' it is well known that the Re-
ceived Text of the Old Testament is full
of corruptions. All our Hebrew manu-
scripts of the Old Testament are copies of
one archetype; and this original manu-
script, from which all our copies are de-
rived, seems to have been written under
the reign of the emperor Hadrian (117-
138 A. D. ). We try to restore the original
text by a careful comparison of the
ancient versions, — Septuagint, Vulgate,
Targums, etc. , which in many cases
exhibit a more original text, free from
the corruptions which have crept into the
Hebrew text. )
Daisy Miller, by Henry James, a nov.
elette published in 1878, is one of
his most famous stories. Its heroine
is a young girl from Schenectady, "ad-
mirably pretty, who is traveling about
Europe with her placid mother, and her
dreadful little brother Randolph. Mrs.
Miller never thinks of interfering with
her children, and allows her daughter
to go for moonlight drives with young
men, and her son of ten to sit up eating
candies in hotel parlors till one o'clock,
— with an occasional qualm, indeed, but
with no consciousness of countenancing a
social lapse, her code of etiquette being
that of a rural American town, with no
authority of long descent. From the con-
start incongruity between the Miller social
standards and the Draconian code of be-
havior of the older European communities,
come both the motive and the plot of the
story, which is one of the most skillful
and convincing of the very clever artist
who wrote it. Upon its publication, how-
ever, American
society at home and
abroad was mightily indignant over what
it pronounced Mr. James's base libel on
the American young girl, and American
social training. But when it came to be
read more soberly, the reader perceived
that the subtle painter of manners had
really delineated a charming type of in-
nocence and self-respect, a type so confi-
dent of its own rectitude as to be careless
of external standards. It was seen to be
the environment only that distorted and
misrepresented this type, and that in the
more primitive civilization which pro-
duced it, it would have been without flaw.
In a word, the thoughtful reader discov-
ered that Mr. James's sketch, so far as
it had a bias at all, was a plea for just-
ice to a new manifestation of character,
the product of new conditions, that can
never hope to be understood when meas-
ured by standards wholly outside its ex-
perience. The book is one of the most
brilliant, as it is one of the most subtle
and artistic, of this author's productions.
Blackwood, William, and His Sons,
their Magazine and Friends, by Mrs.
M. O. W. Oliphant. (1897. ) This book,
projected in three volumes, — the last
of which, unhappily, the author did not
live to complete, – is in effect an outline


## p. 5 (#41) ###############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
5.
sketch of English letters for the greater certain incidents, like Blackwood's bring-
part of the eighteenth century. In the ing home to his wife the first copy of
form of a biography of the great Scotch Maga, or the biographer's account
publishing-house, the relations of its part- of her own writing for its pages, almost
ners to the writing world of their time in despair, her first successful serial story,
are detailed with infinite humor and en- the Chronicles of Carlingford,' — touch
joyment. William Blackwood, first of the fountain of tears. Mrs. Oliphant con-
the name, began as a dealer in second- fesses freely the blunders of Maga': its
hand books in Edinburgh; his first pub- mean attack on Coleridge in the first
lication being a catalogue of his own number, its foolish and baseless onslaught
stock, done with so much knowledge and on the “Cockney school represented by
so excellent a classification that it still Leigh Hunt, and its promise of judgment
remains in use. The great London house to come on the Shelleys, the Keatses,
of Murray wanting a Scotch agency, and the Webbes. On the other hand,
the enterprising and determined Black- she shows the friendly connection of
wood secured it, - the first (ten-strike » George Eliot and of Lord Lytton with
in his game of life. His next good for- the house, and its pleasant relations with
tune was the honor of publishing (The many less famous persons whom Black-
Tales of My Landlord, which, though wood introduced to the world. Full of
anonymous, Blackwood confidently as- the most agreeable gossip as they are,
cribed to Scott. Unluckily, he ventured the real value of these volumes lies per-
afterward to find some fault with (The haps not more in the history of the time
Black Dwarf); and the indignant author which they present, than in the impres-
of Waverley repudiated him and all his sion they give of the kindly and helpful
works in a sharp letter, closing I'll be influence of the Blackwoods themselves
cursed but this is the most impudent pro- upon the lives and work of their many
posal that ever was made. ) Blackwood clients.
therefore lost the opportunity of becom-
ing Scott's publisher; but poor Scott Dem
emocracy and Liberty, by W. E. H.
Lecky. (2 vols. , 1896. ) A strong
doubtless lost the assurance of a comfort-
book “dealing with the present aspects
able and tranquil age. Miss Susan Fer-
and tendencies of the political world in
rier, the author of Marriage, (Destiny,'
many different countries, and with spe-
etc. , was one of Blackwood's protégées, as
cial reference to the fact that the most
were so many of the successful writers
remarkable political characteristic of the
of the early century. But all his other
latter part of the nineteenth century has
débuts and successes were eclipsed, Mrs.
Oliphant considers, by the association
unquestionably been the complete dis-
of Wilson, Lockhart, and Blackwood in
placement of the centre of power in free
the founding and editing of Blackwood's
governments,- a profound and far-reach-
ing revolution, over a great part of the
Magazine. Fifteen years earlier, in 1802,
civilized world. ) The work is not one of
Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, and Brougham history, but one of «discussion of contem-
had launched the Edinburgh Review;
whose Latin motto meant, the witty par-
porary questions, some of them lying in
son declared, “We cultivate literature on
the very centre of party controversies,"
and one «expressing strong opinions on
a little oatmeal. ” But the Edinburgh
many much-contested party questions.
literature was always a Whig bloom from
Besides dealing with England, Ireland,
a Whig stalk; Maga,' the Blackwood
America, and much of Europe, it also
venture, on the other hand, was meant
discusses socialism, Sunday and drink
to nurture and develop Tory flowers of
speech. For those were days when poli- questions, marriage and divorce, religious
legislation, woman questions and labor
tics colored opinion to a degree which
liberty, and Catholicism. It is a book of
is now almost incredible. ( When the
able, discussion and strong convictions,
reviewer sits down to criticize, wrote
Lockhart, «his first question is not, Is
by a writer who has many doubts about
modern democratic developments, but too
the book good or bad ? ) but 'Is the writer
a Ministerialist or
competent and too just to be scouted.
an Oppositionist ? ))
From beginning to end of these two Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli
, later
volumes
Earl
tions of the deeds and fortunes of th is one of a series of political portraits
publishing-house are delightful; while under the form of a novel, which for a


## p. 6 (#42) ###############################################

6
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
time attained great popularity among the the easily recognized type of the Pusey-
English people, but for obvious reasons ite of the Tractarian religious movement,
was less interesting to foreigners. (Con- if not a personal portraiture of Cardinal
ingsby' and 'Endymion) are hardly more Newman. Other characters are doubt.
than descriptions of the rival political less drawn from life more or less plainly,
parties in England at the opening of the but none more vividly than Endymion
Reform Bill agitation, and of the Poor himself, in whose career the reader sees
Law and Protection controversies,- outlined very clearly the character and
colored with the pale glimmer of a pas- political fortunes of the author.
sion cooled by shrewdness, and of a ro-
mance carefully trimmed to suit the stiff Curiosities of Literature, by Isaac
. (
conventionalisms of English society,-
erary researches," as the author calls it,
and spiced with revenge on the author's
foes.
comprises three volumes, of which the
first was published anonymously in 1791,
(Endymion) relates the fortunes of a
the second two years later, while the third
youth so named, and his sister Myra;
children of one William Ferrars, who
did not appear until 1817. Repeated edi-
from humble life has won his
tions were called for, and it was translated
way
to
a candidacy for the Speakership of the
into various languages. A sentence from
House of Commons, when suddenly, by a
the preface explains the style and object
of the book. «The design of this work is
change of political sentiment in the bor-
to stimulate the literary curiosity of those,
roughs, the administration is overthrown,
who, with a taste for its tranquil pursuits,
and the ambitious and flattered leader
are impeded in their acquirement. »
finds himself both deserted and bankrupt.
To retrieve their social and political po-
From every field the author has gath-
sition is the steady ambition and never-
ered interesting and recondite facts and
anecdotes on diverse literary and histori-
yielding effort of the son and daughter;
and to Endymion's advancement Myra
cal topics, and has grouped them under
makes every sacrifice that a sister's de-
headings totally without sequence. The
votion can devise. Through personal in-
subjects vary from Cicero's puns to Queen
Elizabeth's lovers, and from metempsy-
fluence as well as his own fascinating
chosis to waxwork figures. For example,
personality and brilliant gifts, Endymion
it is asserted that in the reign of Charles
finds an entry with the winning side;
and being untroubled by any scrupulous
II. the prototype of the steam-engine and
We
motive of consistency to principle, keeps
the telegraph had been invented.
learn the source of the extraordinary
himself at the front in popular favor.
Myra marries the Prime Minister, and
legends of the saints, the true story of
at his death she takes for her husband
the printer Faust, and the Venetian ori-
the king of a small Continental State.
gin of newspapers. In short, the work
is a library of the little known, and is
Endymion crowns her aspirations by
marrying a widow in high station, who
as entertaining as it is instructive.
has long been his admirer, and whose Four Georges, A History of the, in
, .
the narrative. At the close of the story Vols. i. and ii. In this work Mr. McCar-
he sees, by a happy combination of po- thy deals, in his own words, with history
litical influence, the door opened to his in its old — and we suppose its everlasting
own appointment as Premier of England. -fashion: that of telling what happened
The story moves along in the stately in the way of actual fact, telling the story
monotonous measure of English high life, of the time. His manner of writing is
with not even any pronounced villainy the old-fashioned, time-honored one; but
to heighten the uniform color effect of it is very entertaining of its kind. His
the characters and incidents. There is a pictures are clear in color, full, and vivid;
noticeable absence of anything like high the figures that move across the pages
patriotic motive associated with that of are lifelike and complete. Opening with
personal advancement: it is difficult to a shrewd estimate of Queen Anne, and a
conceive of such personages living with- keen glance at the position of affairs at
out some political predilection. Over her death, Vol. i. includes the reign of
all is the subdued glow of an intensely George I. , taking in also that of George
selfish culture and refinement. Nigel, II. down to 1731.
He says: “England
Endymion's student friend at Oxford, is was to him as the State wife, whom for


## p. 7 (#43) ###############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
7
course
>>>
political reasons he was compelled to the destitute may be provided for, the
marry; Hanover, as the sweetheart and temporarily unemployed given work,
mistress of his youth, to whom his affec- etc. ); those for whom such a
tions, such as they were, always clung, seems best being passed on to the self-
and whom he stole out to see at every supporting farm colony,” which in turn
possible chance. He managed England's contributes to English or other colonies
affairs for her like an honest, straight- or to the colony over sea” (yet to be
forward, narrow-minded steward. ) Vol. founded). The result would be a segre-
ii. finishes the reign of George II. , clos- gation of the needy into localities where
ing with his death. The rise of Pitt, the they could be handled, with a draining
lives of Wesley and of Whitefield, the off to unreaped fields, as this process
commotion excited by Walpole's unpop- became desirable, of a part of the great
ular excise bill, Clive's career in India, army of occupation. The book is the
Culloden, the happenings in the literary work of a man in deadly earnest, who
world, all the various interests, charac- feels himself to be an instrument in the
ters, and events of the reign, are consid- hands of God for the rescue of the lost.
ered. George II. , he says, “had still less.
natural capacity than his father. He was
Gull
ulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift's
parsimonious; he was avaricious; he was most famous book, was published
easily put out of temper. His instincts, in 1727. It is one of the most brilliant
feelings, passions, were all purely selfish. and profound of satires, one of the most
Personal courage was perhaps imaginative of stories, and one of the
the only quality becoming a sovereign best models of style. "Gulliver's Travels)
which he possessed. . . . Never was a was given to the world anonymously;
king better served than he; never had so though a few of Swift's friends, including
ignoble a sovereign such men to make Pope, Gay, Boling broke, and Arbuthnot,
his kingdom strong and his reign famous. were in the secret. It became immedi.
He began his term of royalty under the ately popular, and has never lost its
protection of the sturdy figure of Wal- interest for both young and old. «Gul.
pole; he closed it under the protection of liver's Travels, says
Leslie Stephen,
the stately form of Pitt. )
«belongs to a literary genus full of gro-
tesque and anomalous forms. Its form
in Darkest England and the Way Out, is derived from some of the imaginary
by William Booth, general of the travels of which Lucian's (True History)
Salvation Army. This book, whose title - itself a burlesque of some early travel.
is evidently suggested by Stanley's (Dark- ers' tales — is the first example.
But it
est Africa,' treats of the want, misery, has an affinity to such books as Bacon's
and vice, which cling like barnacles to (Atlantis) and More's 'Utopia,' and again
the base of English society, as they do to later philosophical romances like "Can-
to the base of all old civilizations, and dide) and (Rasselas. »» It begins with
which it is so much easier to shut one's Gulliver's account of himself and his set-
eyes upon than to analyze, explain, and ting forth upon the travels. A violent
remedy. General Booth's opportunities storm off Van Diemen's Land drives him,
for knowing whereof he speaks have the one survivor, to Lilliput, where he is
been exceptionally good. The statements examined with curiosity by the tiny folk.
he makes are appalling, but they are They call him the man-mountain,” and
supported by figures and facts. The make rules for his conduct.
With equal
subject of his book is the temporal and curiosity he learns their arts of civiliza-
spiritual rescue of «a population about tion and warfare. His next voyage is to
equal to that of Scotland. Three million Brobdingnag, where he is a Lilliputian
men, women, and children
in comparison to the size of the gigantic
inally free, but really enslaved» — what inhabitants of this strange land, in which
he calls «the submerged tenth. ) The he becomes a court toy. In Brobding-
plan he proposes seems practical and nag, Scott says Swift looked through the
practicable, - one indeed in the execu- other end of the telescope, wishing to
tion of which he has made some pro- show the grossness of mankind as be
gress since the appearance of his book. had shown their pettiness. The next
The plan contemplates the establishment adventure is a voyage to Laputa, where
in the great centres of population of the inhabitants are absorbed in intel-
(<city colonies » (establishments at which lectual and scientific pursuits, and taken
»
nom-


## p. 8 (#44) ###############################################

8
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
(
up with intense speculations, and their to lull to sleep. She has not been long
conduct is most eccentric; this is proba- among the familiar scenes, when Val-
bly a satire upon pedantry. Gulliver next entine's cousin, John Dering, who has
visits Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, and Japan, come to the neighborhood, calls to see
and gives an account of the Struldbrugs, her. His remarkable resemblance to
a famous tribe of men who have gained Barbara's dead husband, in appearance
physical immortality without immortal and speech and manner, is at first a
youth, and find it an awful curse. The source of suffering to her. After a time,
last voyage takes the traveler into the however, this resemblance becomes a
country of the Houyhnhnms, where the consolation. Yet she rebels against her
horses under this name have an ideal new feeling as disloyal to Valentine.
government, - Swift's Utopia, - and are She struggles to keep the identity of the
immensely superior to the Yahoos, the two men distinct. She hates herself
embodiment of bestial mankind. The because she cares for her cousin. Yet
irony and satire may be understood when her love for him grows stronger, as his
one remembers that Swift said: «Upon passion for her becomes more imperious.
the great foundation of misanthropy the She strives to resist it, to be true to the
whole building of my travels is erected ”; dead. Finally she gives herself up to
and the remark that the King of Brob- her love for the living, but her abandon-
dingnag made to Gulliver — «The bulk of ment to her overmastering passion is of
your natives appear to me to be the most short duration. She believes that she is
pernicious race of little odious vermin more bound to the dead than to the liv-
that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon ing, and sends John away at the last,
the face of the earth” — may be accepted that she may be faithful to her first love.
as the opinion of the cynic himself re- (The Quick or the Dead ? ) is morbid
garding mankind. Hazlitt said that in and immature to a high degree; yet as
(Gulliver's Travels) Swift took a view a psychological study of a sensitive wo-
of human nature such as might be taken man's conflicting emotions it is not with-
by a being of another sphere. His out interest and significance. The style
description of Brobdingnagian literature is impressionistic. «In the glimpsing
has been applied to the masterly prose lightning she saw scurrying trees against
of his great book: «Their style is clear, the suave autumn sky, like etchings on
masculine, and smooth, but not florid; bluish paper. ” “A rich purple-blue dusk
for they avoid nothing more than multi- had sunk down over the land, and the
plying unnecessary words, or using vari- gleam of the frozen ice-pond in the far
ous expressions. ”
field shone desolately forth from tangled
patches of orange-colored wild grass. ”
nick or the Dead ? The, a novelette «She threw herself into a drift of crim-
by Amélie Rives, was first pub- son pillows . . . brooding upon the
lished in 1883 in Lippincott's Magazine. broken fire, whose lilac flames palpitated
It attained at once great notoriety in over a bed of gold-veined coals. »
this country and in England, because of
the peculiar treatment of the subject, Ga allegher and Other Stories, by Rich-
the strangeness of its style, and the ard Harding Davis.
The other sto-
flashiness of the title, which has become ries include: A Walk Up the Avenue ;)
one of the best known in fiction. Its My Disreputable Friend, Mr. Raegen);
hysteria, its abundant and bizarre use (The Other Woman”; “There Were Ninety
of adjectives, and its innocent treatment and Nine); (The Cynical Miss Cather-
of passion, betrayed the youth and in- waight); «Van Bibber and the Swan Boat);
experience of the author; yet it is not (Van Bibber's Burglar); and (Van Bibber
without traces of genius. The heroine, as Best Man. ) The most noteworthy of
Barbara Pomfret, is a young widow, the collection are (Gallegher,' the story
whose husband, Valentine, has been of the little newspaper boy who brings
dead two years when the story opens. to the office late at night copy” relating
In the first chapter she is returning to to a famous burglary, after many thrill-
the old Virginia homestead, where she ing adventures; (The Other Woman,
had passed the few months of an abso- which presents an unusual ethical prob
lutely happy married life. There every. lem to an engaged couple; and the trio
thing reminds her of her lost love, of Van Bibber sketches, the hero of
awakening the pain that she had sought which is a unique type of man,- one
Quick


## p. 9 (#45) ###############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
9
years old.
of fortune's favorites, but who, by some
malicious freak of fate, is perpetually
placed in peculiar circumstances, from
which he extricates himself with ease and
self-possession; his coolness under trying
circumstances never failing him, and his
fund of humor being inexhaustible. It is
only between the covers of so well-written
a book as the author's that one can meet
the pariahs and the preferred of society
hobnobbing at their ease, and be sure
that the acquaintance so formed will
bring with it no after-taste of regret.
Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot's
last novel, considered by some crit-
ics her greatest work, has repelled others
by its careful analysis of Jewish charac-
ter. It really has two separate parts,
and two chief figures, each very unlike
the other. Gwendolen Harleth, the hero-
ine, and Daniel Deronda, the hero, first
see each other at Baden, where Gwendo-
len tries her luck at the gaming-table.
When they next meet, Gwendolen is the
fiancée of Henleigh Grandcourt, nephew
of young Deronda's guardian, Sir Hugh
Mallinger. Grandcourt is a finished type
of the selfish man of the world.
He mar-
ries the beautiful, penniless Gwendolen,
less for love than in a fit of obstinacy,
as his confidant Mr. Lush puts it. Gwen-
dolen, as selfish as he, consents to marry
him because only thus can she save her
mother, her stepsisters, and herself, from
the poverty which the sudden loss of their
property is likely to bring them. The
tragedy of her married life is told with
dramatic force and profound insight.
Deronda has been brought up by Sir.
Hugh in ignorance of his parentage.
His fine education and great talents he
is always ready to place at the service
of others. By befriending a Jewish girl,
Mirah Lapidoth, he comes in close con-
tact with several Jewish families, grows
deeply interested in Jewish history and
religion, and when the secret of his birth
is revealed to him is glad to cast in his
lot with theirs. The influence of Deronda
on Gwendolen is very marked, and the
story closes with the prophecy of a lessen-
ing selfishness and egotism on her part.
Gwendolen's mother, Mrs. Davilow; her
uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Gascoigne,
and their children; the wealthy Mr. and
Mrs. Arrowsmith, whose daughter has the
courage to marry the man she loves, a
poor music teacher, one Herr Klesmer,-
are the chief minor characters. Other
people appear, like Lord Brackenshaw
and Mrs. Gadsby; but less care is given
to the portrayal of these than to the
noble Mordecai, the arrulous Cohens,
and the other Jewish types, or even to
Deronda's friend Mrs. Merrick, and her
artist son Hans.
In Daniel Deronda) George Eliot had
three objects in view: 1. To show the
influence of heredity; 2. To show that
ideals and sentiments lie at the basis of
religion; 3. To contrast a social life
founded on tradition that of the Jews)
with mere individualism. As a plea for
the Jews this book not only met the ap-
proval of the thoughtful men of that race,
but also gave the world in general a just
idea of this complex people.
Descent of Man and Selection in
Relation to Sex, The, by Charles
Darwin. The Descent of Man) was
given to the world in 1871, eleven years.
after the appearance of the Origin of
Species, when Darwin was sixty-two
In spite of the opposition
which the theories of the earlier work
had met in some quarters, it had already
given him a place as a leader of scien-
tific thought, not only in England but in
the whole world. "Darwinism » had in
fact become a definite term, and the new
book was received with interest. The
evidences of the descent of man from
some earlier, less-developed form, col-
lected and marshaled by Darwin, consist
of minute inferential proofs of similar-
ity of structure; at certain stages of de-
velopment, between man and the lower
animals. This similarity is especially
marked in the embryonic stages; and
taken with the existence in
of
various rudimentary organs, seems to
imply that he and the lower animals.
come from a common ancestor. From
the evidences thus collected, Darwin
reasons that the early ancestors of man
must have been more or less monkey-
like animals of the great anthropoid
group, and related to the progenitors of
the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, and
the gorilla. They must have been hairy,
with pointed, movable ears, and a mov-
able tail. They probably lived in trees,
and had a thumb-like great toe, ate fruit
chiefly, and made their home in a warm
forest land. Going back still farther,
Darwin shows that the remotest ancestor
of humanity must have been aquatic. As.
a partial proof of this, human lungs are
man


## p. 10 (#46) ##############################################

IO
SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
said to be modified swim-bladders. The from a fin to a fore-limb are the psychi-
general descent is given by Darwin some- cal variations that set in (almost to the
what in this fashion: From the jelly-like exclusion of physical variations) after the
larva to the early fishes, such as the lance- beginnings of intelligence in the human
let, then to the ganoids (as the mudfish), species. The superiority of man lies not
to the newt and other amphibians, then in perfection but in improvableness. The
to the platypus and other mammals such body is becoming a mere vehicle for that
as the kangaroo, and to the insectivorous soul which for a long time was only an
animals such as the shrews and hedge- appendage to it. On scientific grounds
hogs; after this by well-marked stages there is no argument for immortality and
to the lemurs of Madagascar, and then to none against it; but if the work of evolu-
the monkeys, which branch into those of tion does not culminate in immortality,
the Old and the New World, — from the then the universe is indeed reduced to
latter of which man is descended. With- a meaningless riddle.
out entering here into the question as to Mr. Fiske does not believe that in the
whether all the steps were proved, it is far-distant future, when food and shelter
enough to say that the Descent of Man have been placed within the reach of all
was received with enthusiasm by scientific men, disease curbed, and warfare and crime
men, and that its influence was much done away, life will grow stale and un-
greater than that of the (Origin of Spe- | profitable, but on the contrary more and
cies. It had an effect not merely on more absorbingly spiritual.
physical and biological science, but it led
to many new conceptions in ethics and Natural
Selection, Contributions to
the Theory of, by Alfred Russel
religion. In the volumes containing the
Wallace. (1870. )
(Descent of Man' Darwin placed his elab-
A volume of essays,
ten in number, which were first pub-
orate treatise on (Sexual Selection, which
lished in 1855, 1858, 1864, 1867, 1868, and
indeed may be regarded as
a part of
1869. The first and second of these, (On
the theory of man's descent. The theory
the Law which has Regulated the Intro-
of a common origin of man and the
other vertebrates was not new; but he
duction of New Species,' and (On the
was the first to develop a tenable theory
Tendency of Varieties to Depart In-
definitely from the Original Type,' give
as to the process.
an outline theory of the origin of spe-
cies as conceived by Mr. Wallace before
Destiny of Man, The, VIEWED IN THE
he had any notion whatever of the scope
Light of his Origin, by John Fiske.
and nature of Mr. Darwin's labors. One
This argument, originally an address
or two other persons had propounded,
delivered before the Concord School of
as Darwin admits, the principle of nat-
Philosophy, gives the simplest possible
ural selection, but had failed to see its
statement of the general theory — not the
wide and immensely important applica-
particular processes — of evolution, and
tions. Mr. Wallace's essays show that
openly endeavors to reconcile the spirit
he had not only noted the principle, but
and teachings of modern science with
those of the New Testament. While de-
had fully grasped its importance. To
some extent Mr. Wallace's essays, pub-
claring that the brain of an Australian
lished before Mr. Darwin's work
savage is many times further removed
(The Descent of Man,' showed a marked
from Shakespeare's than from an orang
divergence from Darwinian views. In
outang's, he yet shows that evolution, far
from degrading man to the level of the
a later reprint, 1891, of his (Contribu-
beast, makes it evident that man is the
tions,' Mr. Wallace made alterations and
chief object of the Divine care. Man is,
considerable additions. In his Darwin-
after all, the centre of the universe
ism, 1889, Mr. Wallace gave an admir-
though not in the sense that the oppressors
ably clear and effective exposition of
of Bruno and Galileo supposed.
Darwin's views, with much confirmation
And be-
from his own researches.
fore man's reinstatement in his central
and dominant position became possible, the Early History of Mankind, Researches
limited and distorted hypothesis of theo- into, by Edward B. Ty-lor. (1865. )
logians and poets had to be overthrown. A volume of investigation into the ear-
Much stress is laid on the insignificance liest origins of culture, the high charac-
of physical in comparison with psychical ter of which gave the author distinction
phenomena: more amazing than the change as an authority in anthropology. The
on


## p. 11 (#47) ##############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
II
a
same
same author's Primitive Culture: Re-
searches into the Development of Mythol-
ogy, Philosophy, Religion Language,
Art, and Custom,' 1871, carried on the in-
vestigation into other branches of thought
and belief, art and custom. The prob-
lems discussed are those of animism or
spiritism as a universal development in
early culture; the origin of rites and cere-
monies; the extent to which myths play
a part in the early history of mankind;
the early use of numerals and of directly
expressive language; and survivals in
culture which bring old ideas far down
into later periods. The interest of Mr.
Tylor's volumes to the general reader is
not less than their value to the special
student and the scholar; and as pure lit-
erature they hold a high rank.
Mormon, The Book of.
Translated
by Joseph Smith, Jr. Division into
chapters and verses, with references, by
Orson Pratt, Sr. Salt Lake City Edition
of 1888: copyright by Joseph F. Smith,
1879.
The title-page bears also a particular
statement of the character and origin of
the Book,' a part of which runs
follows:-
«An account written by the hand of
Mormon, upon plates taken from the
Plates of Nephi. Wherefore it is an
abridgment of the record of the people
of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites;
written to the Lamanites who are a
remnant of the house of Israel; and also
to Jew and Gentile: written by way of
commandment, and also by the spirit of
prophecy and of revelation.
“An abridgment taken from the Book
of Esther also; which is a record of the
people of Jared: who were scattered at
the time the Lord confounded the lan-
guage of the people when they were
building a tower to get to heaven; which
is to show
that Jesus is the
Christ, the ETERNAL GOD, manifesting
himself unto all nations. »
The scheme of the book is that of the
visions and dreams and prophesyings
of Lehi, who dwelt at Jerusalem all the
days of the reign of Zedekiah; and of
the life and doings of Nephi, son of
Lehi; and of the preaching of Jacob, a
brother of Nephi; and of the events
under Mosiah, king over the Nephites,
and in whose days Alma founded their
church; and of an account by Alma's
son, Alma. of a period of rule by judges;
and of a record by Helaman, grandson
of the last Alma, and by his sons, of
wars and prophecies and changes down
to the coming of Christ; and of a
by a son of Helaman, Nephi, covering
the life of Jesus; and of still another
book of Nephi, continuing the story after
Christ for about three hundred years;
and finally of a book by Mormon him-
self, giving, at the end of a thousand
years from Lebi under Zedekiah, the
final story of the Nephi records and tra-
ditions. These successive books fill 570
of the 632 pages of the Book, and tell
a story of events from 597 B. C. to the
days of Mormon, about 350-400 A. D.
The work concludes with book of
ancient history by Moroni, son of Mor-
mon, and finally with a book of last
words by the
Moroni. In the
scheme thus outlined, use is made of
some of Isaiah's prophecies, freely quoted,
and of a good deal of the life of Jesus
in the Gospels, with changes freely
made. Two formal attestations are given,
in one of which three persons testify
that they had seen metal plates contain-
ing the originals of the entire work, and
knew them to have been translated by
the gift and power of God (out of the
reformed Egyptian”); and in the second
of which eight persons bear witness that
they had seen and hefted” the plates,
«and know of a surety that the said
Smith has got the plates of which we
have spoken. ) A characteristic word of
the spiritual higher teaching of the
book, on its final page, reads as follows:
«Come unto Christ and be perfected in
him, and deny yourselves of all ungod-
liness, and love God with all your might,
mind, and strength. Certain features of
the system later developed are unknown
to the Book.
as
Earthly Paradise, The (1868–70), a
poem by William Morris. One of the
most beautiful of nineteenth-century ro-
mances, it was written, as the author
says, to furnish a doorway into the
world of enchantment, that land beyond
the «utmost purple rim” of earth, for
which many are homesick. Yet The
Earthly Paradise) has about it the mel-
ancholy which pervades the pre-Raphael-
ite literature, and seems the fruit of
unfulfilled desire,- of the state of those
who must create their romance, in an
age unproductive of such food of the
soul. The poem is a collection of the


## p. 12 (#48) ##############################################

I 2
SYNOPSES OF XOTED BOOKS
at
tales of Golden Greece, and of the dim, with masterly skill in the handling of
rich, mediæval time. Certain gentlemen his extraordinary knowledge; a book of
and mariners of Norway having consid- which a conservative authority has said:
ered all that they had heard of the «Since the beginning of literature, few
Earthly Paradise, set sail to find it. books have been written like the first vol-
They come last, world-weary old ume of Marx's Capital. It is premature
men, to a strange Western land, and to to offer any definitive judgment on his
a «strange people,” descendants of the work as a revolutionary thinker and agi-
Greeks, the elders among whom receive tator, because that is still very far from
them graciously. They agree to feast completion. There need, however, be no
together twice a month, and to exchange hesitation in saying that he, incompara-
stories: the Norwegians telling tales of bly more than any other man, has influ-
«the altered world of the Middle Ages; enced the labor movement all over the
the Greeks, of their own bright time civilized world. ” The conservative as-
when men were young in heart. For a pect of Marx's teaching is in the fact
year they tell their tales: in March, that he honestly seeks to understand
Atalanta's Race, and The Man born to what, apart from any man's opinion or
be King; in April, The Doom of King theory, the historical development actu-
Acrisius, and The Proud King; in May, ally is; and that he does not think out
The Story of Cupid and Psyche, and and urge his own ideal programme of
The Writing on the Image; in June, social reform, but strives to understand
The Love of Alcestis, and The Lady of and to make understood what must inev.
the Land; in July, The Son of Cræsus, itably take place.
and The Watching of the Falcon; in
August, Pygmalion and the Image, and Blithedale Romance. The, the third
Ogier the Dane; in September, The
of Nathaniel Hawthorne's romances,
Death of Paris, and The Land East published in 1852, was the outcome of an
of the Sun and West of the Moon; in intimate acquaintance with the members
October, The Story of Accontius and of the Brook Farm Community; and im-
Cydippe, and The Man who Never mortalized the brief attempt of that lit-
Laughed Again; in November, The Story tle group of transcendentalists to realize
of Rhodope, and The Lovers of Gudrun; equality and fraternity in labor. It is
in December, The Golden Apples, and more objective and realistic than Haw-
The Fostering of Aslaug: in January, thorne's other works, and therefore in
Bellerophon at Argos, and The Ring a sense more ordinary. Its central figure
Given to Venus; in February, Bellero- is Zenobia, a beautiful, intellectual, pas-
phon in Lycia, and The Hill of Venus. sionate woman; drawn as to some out.
In these tales the author draws upon lines, perhaps, from Margaret Fuller. At
Greek mythology, upon the (Gesta Ro- the time it opens, she has taken up her
manorum,' the Nibelungenlied, the Ed- abode at Blithedale Farm, the counter-
das; indeed, upon the greatest story- part of Brook Farm. The other mem-
books of the world. He has woven them bers of the community are Hollingsworth,
all together in one beautiful Gothic ta- a self-centred philanthropist; a Yankee
pestry of verse, in which the colors are farmer, Silas Forster, and his wife; Miles
dimmed a little. From his master,” Coverdale, the relater of the story; and
Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet has borrowed Priscilla, who is Zenobia's half-sister,
the three styles of his metre, the heroic, though of this fact Zenobia is ignorant.
sestina, and octosyllabic. The music of (The Blithedale Romance) is a brilliant
the verse is low and sweet, well adapted
instance of Hawthorne's power as a story-
to tales of old, unhappy, far-off things,
teller. No scene in the whole range of
and battles long ago. ”
His Prologue fiction is more realistic than the finding
and Epilogue are especially beautiful. of Zenobia's body in the dead of night;
drawn from the dank stream, a crooked,
Capital, by Karl Marx. English trans- stiff shape, and carried to the farm-house
lation edited by Fred Engels, 1889. where old women in nightcaps jabber
A book of the first importance, by the over it. Nothing could be more in the
founder of international socialism; written manner of Hawthorne than his comment
with marvelous knowledge of economic that if Zenobia could have foreseen her
literature and of the economic develop- appearance after drowning. she would
ment of modern Europe, and not less never have committed the act.


## p. 13 (#49) ##############################################

SYNOPSES OF NOTED BOOKS
13
a
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prome- the ship's side, and disappears in the ice
theus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shel- and mist. The story is one of unrelieved
ley (daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft gloom, but both in its invention and con-
Godwin and wife of the poet Shelley), duct exhibits unquestioned genius. It is
was published in 1817, and many subse- unique in English fiction.
quent editions have appeared. It is a
sombre psychological romance, and has
Ad
dventures of Sherlock Holmes, The,
a morbid power which makes it one of by A. Conan Doyle, consists of twelve
the most remarkable books of its kind sketches, purporting to have been recorded
in English. The story begins with some by Dr. Watson, a friend and coadjutor
letters written by Robert Walton, on of Sherlock Holmes. In each narrative
a voyage to the North Pole, to a sister Holmes figures as a scientific amateur
in England. He tells of falling in with detective of remarkable skill, unraveling
a mysterious and attractive stranger, who the most intricate criminal snarls. En-
has been rescued from peril in the North- slaved to cocaine, eccentric, brusque, he
ern Seas, and over whose life appears nevertheless is a patient and untiring stu-
to hang some mysterious cloud. This dent, having developed his penetrative
stranger, Frankenstein, tells to Walton faculties to an amazing degree.