No More Learning

This the time and this the place undestroyed the evidence of the means
When my patriot arm must deal a
le
blow upon that woman's face.
by which he became so rapidly rich, when
le
the City was railing at him “ as the public
id One is tempted to quote Mr. Rogers defaulter of unaccounted millions,” and
ir indefinitely; indeed, there are a score he was living in constant apprehension of
is of good things to which we would gladly having to disgorge? It does not, some-
a, call attention. Having warned readers how, seem the sort of thing he would have
ts that this version is not a translation done. If a weakness in treatment must
id in the sense that the versions of 'The be pointed out, it is that no idea is given
vs Frogs' and 'The Birds are, we can, by Mr. Riker of Fox's capacity as a writer
2- with a clear conscience, urge all to of dispatches when Secretary of State.
ic read it who care for good literature “ War and Foreign Office Papers (passim),
tor
are interested in political ideas. Public Record Office,” figure in the biblio-
al' They will not be disappointed; only, 'graphy, but they are infrequently cited.
09
a
6
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## p. 35 (#43) ##############################################

No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
35
-
66
"no one
46
Henry Fox's career is a melancholy ambition in Henry Fox's breast. He was Caroline Stephen's outlook, the present
example of a decline in worth and content, thenceforth, to grow rich on the reviewer gets from her the impression of
dignity as the years went on. Up to a pickings of the Pay Office, with but little a “self-made creed," of a point of view
certain point he lay open, though with voice in affairs, except during the autumn which has — not rejected indeed, since
some qualification, to Chesterfield's sar- of 1762, when he was " His Majesty's we cannot reject what we have never
casm that
he had not the least notion Minister in the House of Commons for had — but has failed to grasp the real
or regard for the public good or constitu- the corruption of Parliament and the essence of “the Church"; of that
tion, but he was a creditable specimen extermination of the Whigs and their Church so careful, as Baron von Hügel
”
of the vigorous party man.
He followed dependents. Mr. Riker's estimate of showed, of the respective elements
Walpole faithfully, and cherished his Henry Fox’s venality is, one unfortunate in religion, the institutional, the intel-
memory. Under the laxer direction of word excepted, a just and moderate lectual, and the mystical. Miss Stephen
Henry Pelham he allowed himself much reckoning. He amassed wealth much as pays tribute to the second, and high
greater latitude ; _but as he avowedly his father, old Stephen Fox, whom Evelyn honour to the third, but passes by the
belonged to the Duke of Cumberland's praised without stint, had lined his first. Yet, for many minds, the institu-
,
party, and as ministerial homogeneity pockets before him. The auditing of his tional has been, and still is, the necessary
was far from a recognized principle, his accounts, according to the haphazard casket of the other two.
displays of independence by no means custom of those days, being years in
It is happily true that
amounted to a scandal. They earned for arrear, he played with the balances,
him, it is true, the icy hostility of Hard- investing and selling out with much
can now fail to recognize the
wicke, a timorous politician whom Mr. astuteness ; and he profited by a long existence of a very high degree of goodness
Riker sums up with much insight. Then run of his office while war contracts and great beauty of character and purity of
came the welter of politics whence emerged abounded. In so doing he was following life in many of those who reject all forms of
the powerful Pitt-Newcastle Ministry: precedent, ignoring the fact that Pitt, beliefs underlying them. ”
religious expression, and who deny the
Our author tells the story with much while at the Pay Office, had broken away
documentary detail ; he clears up several from the evil tradition. Mr. Riker But this passage, and the following,
disputed points, and he does substantial inserts a “ perhaps,” but that is surely a
justice to individuals, with the exception mistake. Pitt's disinterestedness stands sincerity, as distinguished from mere correct-
“the more fully the idea of faithfulness or
of Pitt. Later on, when he draws the above all cavil, and it is just because he sincerity, as distinguished from mere correct-
inevitable contrast between the two rivals, elevated political ideals that his rival, who that saves, the more cautious shall we be in
ness of theory, enters into our idea of the faith
he perceives clearly enough why Pitt stuck to the old system, became the best- the use of either words or symbols to repre-
was great and Henry Fox a good deal less hated man in the country.
sent our faith without being quite sure that
than great. But, in commenting on his Mr. Riker does not bring much fresh they do so accurately. "
documents, Mr. Riker allows himself too evidence to bear on the purchase and pro-
short a perspective, and we hear far too scription of the Whigs by means of which
seem to suggest that there is some almost
much about Pitt's arrogance,” his Fox forced through the Peace, but his necessary opposition between a “right
somewhat tyrannical nature," and his account of that comprehensive revenge is faith” and a “good life. ” As a matter
”
* egotism. ” All that may be more or less written with spirit.
of fact, some of the greatest saints of
We agree with him
true, but Pitt's pride was in his country. that “ His Majesty's Minister ” did not
the world are, as again Matthew Arnold
reached the crisis of his career in the of a strong kingship, for directly his The fact is, perhaps, that very many
As Mr. Riker well remarks, Henry Fox regard himself as a conscientious adherent pointed out, to be found in that body
where faith is defined most rigidly.
autumn of 1755, when he became Secre- vengeance was sated he began urging for
tary of State for the Southern Depart- retirement with a peerage. He knew, of people, not markedly original or specu-
lative, have found it easier to profess a
ment, an office he had previously refused. course, that Bute was contemplating a
right faith than to live a consistently
He seemed the ideal man for the post. similar step, and his own health was
beautiful life. So men, watching them,
In the management of the Commons he unequal to the strain which events put have put down their failure to their
was incomparable. He held his own in upon it. What he did not foresee was orthodoxy-an odd cause indeed. In her
clebate, his superior judgment, as he was that, having consigned himself to the strictures on the orthodox, as, e. g. , where
-
thoroughly aware, making up for Pitt's shelf
, his claims would fall on unresponsive she speaks of the Athanasian Creed, Miss
advantage in oratory. The reports of his ears. When Grenville made it one of the
speeches are fragmentary, yet we can
conditions of a continuance in office that Stephen writes as if unaware of the
catch the aptness of his retort on the Holland should be dismissed from the doctrine of the “ soul of the Church. ”
"Cousinhood,” that "the clamours of one Pay Office, the King merely remarked, The longest paper, 'The Vision of
family will never pass for the voice of the “I don't much like turning him out, but Faith, seems to have been delivered to
nation. " After that debate Speaker with all my heart, Mr. Grenville. " His some Cambridge society, and Miss Stephen
Onslow told Fox that, “ if Pitt. . . . did not repeated pleadings for an earldom went speaks of “ that which is crumbling and
provide better matter to make his fine unregarded ; on one occasion he “left passing away. ” In the learned circles of
speeches upon, he would soon grow as
London, much dissatisfied with the Court, Cambridge all things may seem to partake
insignificant as any man in the House. " and the Court with him. ” There is some of the Heraclitean flux. But there is a
But Fox risked all on one throw; he force in Horace Walpole's contention that great world outside curiously ignorant of
must, as Horace Walpole observed, be Holland had well earned promotion in academic arrangements; and there are
“ First Minister
ruined. ” The the peerage, but, after all, George III. signs in that bigger world that the stir
crafty Newcastle took care that he should had summed up the value of his instru- and fret of thought are really sorting out
be isolated in the “ Conciliabulum” or
or ments in corruption not unfairly when he those whom Miss Stephen calls“ believers
inner ring of the Cabinet ; and his repre- said, “We must call in bad men to govern and unbelievers ”; that it is a process
sentations for a more vigorous war policy, bad men. ”
rather of separation than of destruction.
notably in the relief of Minorca, went
The nineteenth century proclaimed loudly
unheeded. He was compelled, in short,
that certain elements in life had gone
to defend failures in public which in the Vision of Faith, and other Essays. . By Of all the eras which most of us mis-
for ever,” but they are with us still.
private he had done his best to prevent.
The ugly feature in his conduct is his
Caroline Émelia Stephen. (Cambridge, understand, our own may surely rank
persistency in drawing the net, as Mr.
Heffer. )
facile princeps.
Riker puts it, about the hapless Byng. MATTHEW ARNOLD, in the Preface to Many readers will turn to the 'Essay
There must have been a spice of cruelty Culture and Anarchy,' used the phrase on Pain. Here again, except in one
'
about him-possibly of cowardice as well. the members of a non-conforming or short passage where it is recognized that
His bitter experience as Newcastle's self - made religious community. ” In the Light of Revelation has shone in
distrusted underling killed the honourable I spite of the insight and fragrance of the darkness,” the sense of " self-made"
-
9
6
>
or
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## p. 36 (#44) ##############################################

36
THE ATHENÆUM
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
theory is uppermost. Miss Stephen poses The Principal of Newnham College con- of Arms, and convicted the novelist, in
the question thus :-
tributes the Introduction. Perhaps it is Clarissa Harlowe, of callingla Viscount's
not impertinent to add that in its distinct- daughter“ Lady Charlotte, which I
*These ask not what God ought to allow,
wonder
brother booksellers of the
your
but how we ought to meet that which is
ness from the outlook of its subject, in its
genteel side of Temple Bar did not inform
allowed; not whether the infliction of pain quiet strength and sincerity, it gives, were
you of. ”. The mistake was duly corrected
can be morally justifiable, but whether the any needed, one more proof of the com-
in vol. iii. of Clarissa. '
email
endurance of it can be made morally profit- bined originality and many-sidedness of We get but few letters written by the Duke
able. "
the members of that distinguished family himself, the great majority being from his
As a matter of fact, surely these are not of whom, without flattery, it may be said correspondents. The collection
is none the
worse for that, since the prettiest epistles
two questions, but different forms of the that to know is to respect them.
are those of his daughter Emilie, the happy,
same answer. If pain be prophylactic- -
sixteen-year-old wife of Lord Kildare ;
if in some cases, as humanity is here and
her more famous sister, Lady Sarah Lennox,
now, it, as it appears, be the only prophy-
might have been their author. Lord March
BIOGRAPHY.
has taken much pains with his editing, and
lactic-is it not its own justification ? We
we hope that the archives of Goodwood will
recall such a book as John Cordelier's IN A Duke and his Friends : the Life and yield further materials for his selection and
' Path of the Eternal Wisdom,' to mention Letters of the Second Duke of Richmond, publication. He may be recommended,
a very recent view; we remember the 2 vols. (Hutchinson & Co. ), the Earl of however, to chasten his style, which is too
lifelong practice of St. Teresa's hardy March gives a lively picture of a great noble- exclamatory.
motto, "Aut pati aut mori,” and we are
man's existence in the eighteenth century.
led to wonder whether it is only by political, though we get an animated account
The social interest takes precedence of the
My Life Story. By Emily, Shareefa of
practice in the Church that men know of the battle of Dettingen and the un. England has furnished foreign lands with
Wazan. (Arnold. )—There is no doubt that
what the Church really holds ; and popularity incurred by George II. through many of their most romantic figures and
whether all other theories are not the wearing a yellow, or Hanoverian, sash careers ; and it is a mistake to suppose that
achievement of those outside.
during the engagement, instead of the true in modern days these extraordinary careers
British red; while “ the 45" is illustrated
It is strange that Miss Stephen, so fond by flurried letters from the Duke of New-
no longer have any place. Less than forty
of young people, in whom the fact appears castle, and the artless effusions of officers Tangier to the Shareef of Wazan, of all holy
years ago an English girl was married in
most patently, and so observant, should at the front. Scotland was to them a
not have noted how we meet here and foreign country where there is nothing revered. In Morocco there has never been
men in the world of Islam possibly the most
there persons who cannot learn through but pride and falsehood,” and Prince Charlie
Ittalyan dog. " The brutal Hawley customs of Islam and Christendom. Even
pain, whose perfection seems to depend an
any compromise between the practices and
on their continued dwelling in life's sun-
undertook to clear the country if Parlia- to-day no Nazarene would be permitted to
ment would give the soldiers & guinea &
light. When she wrote of our over-
set foot in a mosque in Morocco. Forty
day and a pair of shoes for every rebel's
crowded and in many respects corrupt head they brought in. The Duke of Rich-
years ago the barriers were yet more sharply
defined, and that the greatest of all holy
city populations,” she surely saw, though mond, a steady Whig despite his descent
men in the land should then wed a Christian,
she did not say, that these are largely from Charles II. and Louise de Kéroualle, and this without attempting to influence
'the outcome of human selfishness and corresponded not only with the Whig fac-
her beliefs or customs in any way, was
carelessness, sometimes of blank, unfore- totum, Newcastle, but also with Lord Ches- indeed a startling and unprecedented event.
terfield and Lord Hervey, who were wits as
seeing stupidity; not a puzzle, except as
well as Whigs.
Predictions were not wanting at the time
to their removal; but an open shame to disappointingly, about a cook; and though necessarily follow such a step.
Chesterfield, however, writes
that unhappiness, and even tragedy, would
all serious human beings.
Hervey's account of the reception of Gay's
In the story of her life which the
It is in the letters that the reader posthumous opera, 'Achilles, is not without
Shareefa has now published: such predic-
finds the charm, delicacy, and quiet, point, it does not represent him at his best.
tions are to a great extent falsified. " Hers
shrewd humour which won the writer all
The daily concerns of a ducal house form, has been a busy, interesting, and, in
those friends, and made the Porch so agreeable volumes. The Duke's father was
as we have said, the chief subject of these many respects, useful career ; not without
its troubles and difficulties, of course,
sought-out a resort. In them there ap-
none too reputable, but he had an admir- but, upon the whole, happy.
And now,
pears, even more convincingly perhaps able mother, a Brudenell, who watched in these later
years, the Shareefa is
than in the set discourses, the real religion over her boy with constant anxiety. On able, with an unaffected candour-which,
of the writer, and that conspicuously in the inevitable grand tour he was accom- indeed, distinguishes her whole narrative-
those to the elder daughter of Charles panied by his tutor, one Tom Hill, who to say that she has never regretted the step
Darwin. In one of these there is a happy might have stepped out of the pages of she took in marrying Muley. Ali ben Abde-
slam, Shareef of Wazan. This is not to say
sentence precisely hitting a crucial point": / Fielding, so rolficking and obsequious are
Tom remained familiar that such unions are generally desirable, or
“If by a reasonable faith' you mean a
throughout the Duke's life-Richmond's that the average woman in the position in
faith which succeeds in explaining every-
relations with his dependents were, indeed, which Miss Emily Keene found herself in
thing, mine assuredly is not that; and that
of a most praiseworthy kind. He was also 1873 would have been able many years
would appear to me not faith but omnisci-
a staunch and active friend, with all the afterwards to say she did not regret her
ence. "
Whig talent for building up political and marriage. The exact contrary would be
social connexions. His chief virtue, in nearer the truth.
Writing to the same beautifully of death, Lord Hervey's eyes, was that "he made The somewhat onerous task of editing
great expenses in elections. "
To us he these reminiscences has been creditably
appears most meritorious
the good- performed by Mr. S. L. Bensusan. (There
Fancy the midges or the coral insects natured father and host, who bore with
is an unfortunate misprint in the name of
troubling their heads about which or how exemplary meekness the lectures from his Mr. Ion Perdicaris on p. 299, which should
many should live or die; and I doubt uncles, the Brudenells, on his extravagance, be corrected in a subsequent edition. ) Mr.
whether even little birds feel keenly about it. and took keen delight in his woods, his R. B. Cunninghame Graham has contributed
:::. One cannot begin to apply 'when Thou hounds, and his menagerie. The last, by the a preface. The book is in the best sense &
hidest Thy face they are troubled,' much way, was not so unusual a feature in a great human document; its style is admirably
lower than dogs. "
establishment as Lord March seems to simple and unaffected; and its matter is
think : Queen Caroline had two, one in full of vivid interest.
To Lady Farrer she speaks of her love for Kensington Gardens, the other at Kew.
her garden, and conveys the unique To the Duke's credit are two elaborate The Life of Sir Edward FitzGerald Law.
Cambridge environment, that curious quiet hoaxes. Disguised as a highwayman, he compiled and edited by Theodore Morison
which, despite stray motors and “ pro caused Dr. Sherwin, an unpopular canon of and George T. Hutchinson (Blackwood. )
gress,” the little town has managed Chichester, to stand and deliver; and a -Sir Edward Law's career was remarkable,
to preserve in its heart of hearts: the bogus confession in his handwriting, which and fully warrants the labour of Mr. Hutch-
inson in collecting and examining the avail-
sky-seeking poplars, the flat spaces jour-pleasing knowledge of thieves' English. able records, and of Sir Theodore Morison
neying into eternity, the enwrapping | Again, he wrote to Richardson in the name in editing them, & task which he has per-
greyness and greenness. ”
of his friend and butt Cheale, Norroy King'formed with much ability and judgment.
a
she says:
as


## p. 37 (#45) ##############################################

No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
37
THE ATHENÆUM
66
The story is often surprising, for, if ever
of the supreme novelty of his outlook and
there was a rolling stone, Law was one, We are very grateful to Sir Edward H. of the brilliance of his style ; and the little
yet he never failed to gather moss ; and in Seymour for his interesting and suggestive book fulfils the function, not of a mere
the different situations he held his whole volume of reminiscences entitled My Naval compendium, but of a genuine introduction.
energy was employed to make his work Career, and Travels (Smith & Elder), and We start with the idea of change. M. Berg-
acceptable to States whose interests pro- should have been still more so if only whilst son, the modern Heraclitus, posits the reality
foundly differed.
writing it he had, occasionally at least, felt of change. It is not an illusion, as science,
Law was born in Ireland in 1846, but was able to “ let himself go. ” An Admiral of with its timeless formulæ, would try to
descended from a Scottish family connected the Fleet and wearer of the O. M. whomas make out. On the contrary, the illusion is
with banking. Like many successful diplo-
we know from the Navy List-has passed to suppose that it can thus be explained
matists, he had a very mixed education : his 70th birthday, is bound, both by age
first on the Continent, where he acquired and habit, to exercise & close scrutiny on
away. Causal explanations, however valu-
able as means of dealing with the inanimate,
a knowledge of many languages, and what he writes ; but how often, in reading leave the felt reality of change wholly un-
afterwards in Scotland and in England, his book, have we wished that rank, honours, touched. Real duration is perceived at once
where he was prepared for the Army, one and officially trained reticence were sunk for what it truly is in the case of the living.
of his masters being the present Lord Morley. full fathom five, and that we could have Here the time-process is not negligible, since
From the R. M. A. , Woolwich, he passed into
the Engineers, but was transferred to the which tells of the bargee's comment on the ment from self.
more of that boyish appreciation of humour it involves constant self-creation, or develop-
A proof is that such change
Artillery, with which he served three familiar chaff that there was a rat in his is neither actually nor even conceivably
years in India, being invalided home in fore chains. ” Many big books of reminis- reversible.
1872. He resigned his commission at the
cences we have read and wished they were Thus we are led on to examine the idea of
end of that year, thus taking a step which a great deal smaller ; this, in comparison, life. As a whole that has duration, life is
seemed far from promising. “ His only is only a little one, and we think that it & continual creation that is, an active or
assets, we are told,
were his force of might have been made much larger without free adaptation, a process of self-determina-
character and his knowledge of foreign offending our artistic sense.
languages. ”
tion. The analogy which best suggests its
He took these attributes to
Russia, where he remained ten years, and
The book describes in a pleasant though nature is that of the artist, who does not
cursory manner many incidents of the au- create in response to à predetermined
was not very successful in business, though
he acquired much information and made
thor's career in and out of the service notion, but rather creates as he goes along.
adventures of war, of travel, and of ship-Such, then, is the vital impetus, the life-
many friends, Jews as well as princes.
His next employment was at the Congo,
wreck, including the salving of the Howe ; force. The environment in regard to it is
The
whither he was sent by King Leopold on
many experiences and reflections on experi- not so much a control as an occasion.
ences, in which the practical knowledge of physical impression is treated by the life-
the recommendation of Lord Wolseley and
Col. Brackenbury. He did not stay long the theories of the doctrinaire ; above all, its whole store of experience by reacting
the old seaman does not always agree with force as a question which it answers out of
there, and after his return home got a place for the delectation of the lay reader, it is a upon it as its own nature directs.
in a telephone company.
But throughout
all these changes he had kept his name on
quarry of good stories, humorous, profes-
Evolution must now be considered. Indi-
sional, or gruesome, or all three combined-
the Reserve List of the Army, and was
vidual development is seemingly contradicted
justified in what is usually an unfruitful
as, for instance, when speaking of the staff by evolution in the sense of the continuous
of the whaling fleet, in which the surgeons
proceeding; for after fifteen years' silence
process whereby new life is created at the
are usually
he got a letter from the War Office offering
young modical students from
expense of old.
But there can be no con-
him active service with the Sudan expedition.
Edinburgh, who, having, outrun the con- tradiction in reality. Consequently, the
stable, felt safer at sea
He joined, and gained useful experience,
for a while, the life-principle transcends my self and yours,
which he recorded in a memorandum on
writer goes on to tell how one day
& man
even if some sort of individual self is implied
had his leg so smashed that it had to be by the notion of life as self-creation. Life,
Transport Service with the Suakin Field
amputated. '
Force,' but on the abandonment of opera-
The medical opinion of the rather than my life or yours, is the ultimate
tions he was recalled. Simultaneously, how-
fleet agreed in this, but each of “the young fact, namely, this life-force which is single,
Galens
ever, the “regrettable incident at Panjdeh
was anxious that another should non-mechanical, and developing in a direc-
undertake the operation. “I was assured tion, though not towards à predetermined
occurred when the Russians drove the
that it was at last performed with a clasp end.
Afghans from the place, notwithstanding
Yet we can know it for what it is,
knife and the carpenter's saw. What be- inasmuch as it is immanent in our individual
the presence of our Envoy, and complica-
came of the patient I do not know. ” But selves. Meanwhile, the life-force is not one
tions became imminent. Law's knowledge
of Russia was believed to be advantageous,
as an experience, and a suggestion of the tendency, but a sheaf of tendencies, which
When
and he was summoned to London.
gruesome, it would be hard to beat the curt define themselves variously, now as vegetism,
remark that “ at Old Calabar meat was sold
that crisis was over, he went to Manchuria,
now as instinct, now as intelligence. In
with some of the animal's hair on, to show
at his own request, in the interests of the
our own case, though the capacities for all
Amur River Navigation Company.
it had had four legs, and not only two. " these forms lurk in our nature, the last
Some trivial slips in historical references predominates.
The rest of his career is recent enough to
should be corrected before the next edition,
be familiar. His greatest and last appoint-
It remains, then, to speak of intelligence
which must come quickly : such, for instance,
ment was that of Financial Member of the
We must realize its limits. It is the creation
as that Ball gave the celebrated coffin to
Council in India, and early in 1900 he
of life, and therefore cannot grasp the nature
Nelson ; but we wish especially to protest of its creator.
began work in succession to Sir Clinton
As Mr. Solomon well puts
Dawkins. India had greatly changed during against the portrait of the author put before it
, “ We can see the limitations of intelligence
It is surely no fair presentment of the because we are something more than intelli-
the thirty years of Law's absence. Since
distinguished officer.
his first visit
gence. " The understanding intelligence, at
any rate-that is to say, the analyzing and
“ education had been widely extended, and he
was of the opinion that it had been a very doubtful
combining intelligence-deals with parts of
benefit. Nihilism in Russia,' he used to say,
experience cut off and fixed. At its best,
was the result of putting higher education
PHILOSOPHY,
then, it is like a kinematograph, producing
within the reach of quick wits who could learn
anything from books and
an illusion of movement by means of sta-
pass competitive
To read about M. Bergson can never be tionary views. It is inadequate to express
examinations, but who could not assimilate equivalent to reading M. Bergson, and there the real duration and creative self-develop-
knowledge or reason for themselves.
We are is always a danger that, in consulting a
doing our best to make Nihilists of the Indians. '”
ment inherent in life as such. Yet this wo
manual, the reader may be seeking to feel because this we are. Let the scientific
Law's work as a member of Council is acquire conclusions apart from the reason intelligence lord it over the inanimate. Its
described in detail in chapters which might ings that led up to them-, policy barely, inert fictions must not be allowed to inter-
with advantage have been relegated to an
tolerable in science, and absolutely fatal
appendix. He left India in 1905 in broken
concerned. Mr. Joseph creative life that is in us.
between us and the changing, enduring,
pose
philosophy
health, and got a K. C. S. I. , but no pension. Solomon, in Bergson (Constable), has done
This, however, does not appear to have his work so well that whoever studies his
seriously hampered him, for in eighteen pages will be inevitably led on to drink at Dr. Josiah Royce's new book, William
months he acquired 2,5001. a year, and might the fountain-head itself. The treatment is James, and other Essays on the Philosophy
have had more. He did not enjoy this long, suggestive rather than exhaustive. Certain of Life (Macmillan), breaks no now ground,
as, worn out by work, he died in Paris in
cardinal ideas in M. Bergson's philosophy but is none the less valuable for a clearness
1908, and was by his special desire buried at
are adumbrated, for the most part by the of treatment and simplicity of language
Athens. Remarkable tributes to his memory straightforward method of repeating his rare among professed philosophers.
are paid by Mr. J. L. Garvin and M. André
us.
In
most pregnant phrases and tropes. In this the first essay he is concerned less with
Chevrillon, as well as Sir T. Morison.
way there is communicated a sense at once
the truth of Pragmatism
than with
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THE ATHEN ÆUM
No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
No.
S
le
D
le
6
-
ce
le
no
'e The Light that shines in Darkness' is behaviour, strike us as altogether uncalled
at an unfinished play of which the theme is the for, heartless, and in deplorable taste. The
domestic tragedy of the author's own life. public has no business with these private
d Mr. Aylmer Maude in his Preface labours to matters : indeed, we greatly wonder that
y persuade us to see as little as possible of an an eminent surgeon was found willing to
of autobiographical nature in it-in fact, to furnish such data.
le consider Nicholas Sarintsev, who desires, in
On the other hand, we are glad of the
at accordance with his reading of the Gospels, author's account of his visit to Yasnaya
; to give up his estates and live as a peasant, Polyana, for it may well serve to correct the
al and is thwarted by the opposition of his wife, prevalent notion that Tolstoy, if he lived as
as but in a minor degree representing Tolstoy an ascetic within the four walls of his room,
himself. No doubt much must be allowed
was otherwise surrounded by luxury. Plainly,
3t for the exigencies of dramatic art; but the this was not so.
2- problem in the two cases is fundamentally
identical, and, being in itself one of supreme sional awkwardnesses which appear to
The style of the book is easy, with occa-
is interest, it makes the differences in external be due to the writer's familiarity with
ig details
appear of little moment. The
i- opinion that this is in some sort a manifesto French. Thus " the great historian of the
se seems to receive support from the fact that
French monarchy” is, in English, an odd
On p. 323
while the play has all the Tolstoyan ruthless- way of alluding to Saint-Simon.
'gness, accuracy, and peculiar subtlety, it is is a sentence which would imply that Danto
in decidedly more didactic than The Man who lived in Florence after writing the ‘Inferno. '
1-
was Dead. '
h
The editor did well to set beside it the
brief sketch There are no Guilty People':
n where, in an introductory page or two,
1, | Tolstoy gives directly his own view of the
OUR LIBRARY TABLE,
h dilemma in which for thirty years he found
y himself held. Compared with other people's THE whole twenty volumes of “The
y remarks, it makes one feel that his critics Harry Furniss Centenary Edition” of The
and admirers are hardly big enough, or Works of Thackeray (Macmillan) are now out.
d,
simple enough, to find the last word about Mr. Furniss maintains the interest of his pre-
him.
faces to the end, though in the latest volumes
his illustrations are not so numerous as in
e,
We have seldom come across a volume to exhibit his talents for the grotesque. Mr.
the earlier. They are, however, aptly chosen
al which contains so much matter packed into Melville in his part of the introductions is
so small a space as the Life of Count Tolstoy, informative, but expresses
decided
m by Charles Sarolea, also, just issued by opinions ; Mr. Furniss, however, is nothing
bo Messrs. Nelson. The author tells us that if not combative, and, having read a great
r. “ but for Tolstoy's confidence and explicit deal about Thackeray from many quarters,
al
suggestion this book would never have been tells us what he thinks of the writers, and
in written"; and, while he has to acknowledge how he differs from them. His “ obiter
d, indebtedness to many earlier writers, this
dicta
o personal relation, which, if not extensive, sort which excite thought, if not always
are frequent, but generally of the
was evidently highly sympathetic, gives his approval. "Time,” he well says, " is the
al work a distinct note of immediacy and cruellest of all caricaturists,” but when he
“
al.
individuality. The extracts from Tolstoy's
ne
goes on to remark that nobody now reads
own writings are lengthy and numerous.
ot
Disraeli's novels, we have ample evidence
g,
Nevertheless, we think that Dr. Sarolea from our own observation to contradict him.
h succeeds best where he is least required Further, books that nobody reads are not
to be intimate. The significance of that produced in cheap editions, as ‘Sybil,'
gigantic figure upon the European stage ; Vivian Grey,' and their fellows have been.
its attitude towards politics and towards Incidentally Mr. Furniss supplies some
the Church ; its quasi-Oriental character, pungent criticism of black-and-white art,
Russian of the Russians, and profoundly and art critics. We learn that he belongs to
different from the natural man of the West the Titmarsh Club, and cannot appreciate
-all this is clearly, and, within the limits oysters, cheese, or George Cruikshank. For
of the undertaking, adequately set forth. him Charles Keene is the greatest man in
But when it comes to Tolstoy in and by black and white England has produced.
ed
himself we feel that the reality was too big He speaks of the present hideousness in
for the biographer to grasp, and, if it were caricature which has succeeded an age of
of
not for the photographs, we should get but conventional prettiness. His great merit
a vague and confused idea of him from lies in the keen eye and research he has
these pages. This sense of emptiness doubt- brought to the examination of Thackeray's
he
in
less arises in part from the difficulty of doing illustrations, their period—not always that
justice to Tolstoy's spiritual experience; they purport to represent-and the extent
гу
but it may be also in part a result of the to which they may be regarded as the work
al
author's mode of writing: He calls Tolstoy of the novelist himself. He thinks that,
of
the Grand Old Man, the prophet, the when Thackeray drew women, he was more
y,
Master, the giant of Yasnaya Polyana ; and influenced by John Leech than the actual
at
the sentences-all too frequent-in which examples before him.
this sort of thing occurs are correspondingly
is
ANOTHER noteworthy series of twenty
k. jejune. Yet Dr. Sarolea is by no means
books is also completed, the issue of Mr.
extravagantly laudatory:, on the contrary, Stanley Weyman's novels and short stories
2-
he sees, and does not shrink from pointing in the handy small octavos published by
: ;
à out, the considerable defects of his hero.
Messrs. Smith & Elder. All are good reading
Against one chapter we desire to enter from first to last, varied as are the scenes
It the most emphatic protest — that on ‘A and people depicted. The latest, 'The Wild
ss Surgical Operation at Yasnaya Polyana,' Geese,' a story of eighteenth-century Ireland,
given as * Reminiscences of a Russian is as full of vigour and romance as the French
d Surgeon. ' It is sought there to show how memoirs which made Mr. Weyman's reputa
e strangely Tolstoy bore himself at a moment tion. He has laid down his pen before he
- when his wife was in terrible suffering and shows loss of power, or a trace of the sloven-
g serious danger. The details given, with the liness which is apt to be fostered by assured
description and interpretation of Tolstoy's success in any form of art.
a
a
a
de
er
de
n
1s
9


## p. 39 (#47) ##############################################

No. 4394, Jan. 13, 1912
THE ATHENÆUM
39
proves
* Tra-
ing. ” Emily's MS. is virtually without | Quamin (i. e. Saturday), otherwise Daniel
Life in Shakespeare's England. Compiled punctuation, a fact which her editor should Belteshazzar Fielding," from infancy to
by John Dover Wilson. (Cambridge Uni- surely have mentioned. He gives us
manhood, presents
a great variety of
versity Press. )—This is not an anthology in
If you still despair, control,
homely scenes and persons, all of them
the usually accepted sense, though one or
Hush its whispers in your breast;
typical, and as artless as they are effective.
two well-known specimens from the great where the context shows clearly that the
She makes
no
effort at contrasting
masters are, perhaps unnecessarily, admitted.
black with white; the white man hardly
meaning is that if still control despair
you
It is a collection of prose passages from
and hush,” &c. The text of the sixty-seven dercurrent to be noticed in works treating
comes into the book; and the tragic un-
authors of Shakespeare's time, classified so
as to illustrate the poet's life, works, and poems which Mr. Shorter derived from an
edition
of the negro of the Southern States is happily
probable surroundings, and chosen not for
privately printed in America
to be equally corrupt; and we sincerely the readiness to laugh or cry, the childlike
absent from her pages. But the kindliness,
their style, but as illustrations of some
phase of the society of the day. No attempt | hope that, as the MSS. exist, he will under- faith and superstition, the no less childlike
take a revision.
is made to draw on local sources ; and more
villainies, and the general happiness of the
information on country-town life and man-
A Grammar of the Persian Language. By the touch of humour which gives life. There is
West Indian blacks are here depicted with
ners might well have been included, since
on this head much ignorance prevails. Mr.
John T. Platts and George S. A. Ranking.
Wilson's annotations are somewhat scanty ;
(Oxford, Clarendon Press. )—This work is
no description of scenery, yet the author has
divided into two parts, dealing respectively of negro speech is highly comic, but avoids
conveyed the island atmosphere. Her use
we welcome the interesting parallel drawn
between Willis, author of
Part I. is a
Mount bo
with Accidence and Syntax.
the farcical. Such characters
as Nana
and Shakespeare, but no mention is made of revised and enlarged edition of the Persian Dreckett and her
the fact that Overbury came of a family
Grammar' compiled by the late Mr. Platts,
shambling husband ;
cousin Lisbet' and deformed Methuselah;
living in the Stratford neighbourhood. formerly Teacher of Persian in the Uni: | Quasheba and other children, will charm the
The definitions of the glossary are useful, versity of Oxford, and published by Williams reader; and we venture to predict that this
but brief to curtness, toys, trash,” being
in .
,
light, unassuming book will be remembered
hardly an adequate explanation of the hobby- scholarly and thorough, had certain defects
horses in the train of the lord of misrule.
of arrangement which rendered it unsuitable
when many more ambitious works are buried
But such trifles do not lessen the value of
for beginners. In preparing a new edition
in oblivion. The three Anancy stories with
which the book concludes
Col. Ranking has introduced the necessary
& volume which, treating of such themes as
are curious,
books and the theatre, the state of the roads, improvements, which relate principally to compared with the Brer Rabbit tales derived
the classification of the verb and the forma-
from them. They would, however, have
and tales of the sea, will give the student,
without over-much reading, a breath of the
tion of compounds; he has also added a
been better placed in an appendix by them-
selves than in the text, where they produce
atmosphere of Elizabethan daily life. The section on prosody. Mr. Platts intended
passages chosen show a sense of humour on
to complete his Grammar by means of a
a disappointing sense of anticlimax. In fact,
conclusion is the author's weakest point,
the compiler's part as well as a wide acquaint- second part embodying the Syntax, but it
ance with contemporary literature.
seems that he left no written plan or even
though in her fiction she beguiles the reader
vellers' tales” of “parrots which dispute in
outline of the subject. The credit for this
into blind acceptance.
philosophy, and of the Scipodes, a people portion of the work belongs entirely to
The various yearly records of nobility are
who, having but one broad foot apiece, Col.
Ranking, and is all the greater because
cover their bodies therewith from the sun
no European scholar has hitherto produced now out, and being published before the
and rain, are excellent fooling; but better
a systematic exposition of the syntactical end of the year, are not, of course, able to
give the latest honours. Burke's Peerage,
still is Nashe's story of the country justice structure of the Persian language. It is
who unmercifully beat a rustic audience,
true that Persian syntax, compared with
&c. (Harrison), has, however, managed to
include the distinctions conferred at the
thinking that by laughing at a comedy Arabic, is extraordinarily simple and easy.
To mistake the construction of a Persian
Durbar. The volume is full in its details,
played by her Majesty's servants, farmers
and country hinds made light of the Queen's sentence is seldom possible, yet the reader and, where we have tested it for the latest
cloth in his presence.
may often remain in doubt as to the meaning changes, we have found it accurate. The
which it conveys. The elegant simplicity of
inclusion of recently extinct peerages is
Firdausi and Sa'di, and, indeed, of the best a great advantage for reference. Lodge's
The Complete Works of Emily Brontē. -- Persian literature in general, is a deceptive Peerage, &c. (Kelly's Directories), has reached
Vol. II. Prose. With an Introduction by thing, as too many translators can bear its eighty-first edition, and shows signs of
Clement K. Shorter. (Hodder & Stoughton. ) witness. Col. Ranking has made use of the careful revision.
Information concerning
-This volume consists, in the main, of a system adopted by Mr.
E. A. Sonnenschein in baronets and knights is a prominent feature
reprint of 'Wuthering Heights,' but it his well-known series of “Parallel Grammars,"
of the work, and the heraldic insignia have
contains, in addition some forty pages of and he is to be congratulated on having received special attention, though they are
facsimiles from Emily Brontë's note books. worked out a clear and consistent scheme, not guaranteed as in all cases legally
Our readers may remember that in the first of which the only fault is that it occasionally borne. Debrett's Peerage, &c. (Dean), has
volume of this edition, reviewed by us on tends to become too elaborate. Thus we
also managed to include the Durbar honours.
Feb.