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well, it has not been done perfectly. I have noted about seventy-five errors, and it is not likely I have found them all. This is a small number, especially considering the fact, alluded to in the Preface, that a part of the work was done by assistants; the wonder is that, under these circumstances, it is not very much larger. While these errors are for the most part very slight, none of them are failures to record variant spelling. Indeed, I am unable to see why variant spelling in a modern author should be recorded. I am well aware that a final e in Chaucer is important, but it seems to me quite insignificant whether Tennyson writes though or tho', gray or grey, through or thro'. In these cases neither the meaning nor the rhythm nor the rhyme can be in any way affected. But for some reason Mr. Collins's notes contain a host of variant spellings. The fact that he has culled so many might convey the impression that he has gathered them all or nearly all and that we have almost a facsimile of the early texts. This would be a wrong impression. While I have not counted the cases, I do not

think he has given one-fifth of the orthographical variants. But I still do not see why he should have taken the trouble to give any.

Like most books this one has its limitations, but these should not blind us to our obligation to Mr. Collins, for only after several such attempts as his can a definitive text of the poet be made. It is to be hoped that he will some time give us the variant readings of all Tennyson's poems.

ALBERT E. Jack.

BRIEFS ON NEW BOOKS.

A history of Chinese literature.

"This is the first attempt made in any language, including Chinese, to produce a history of Chinese literature." With this striking statement Professor Herbert A. Giles introduces his " History of Chinese Literature" (Appleton), being the tenth volume in the series of "Literatures of the World." Criticism in the sense of correction or dissent is made dumb by such a fact as this; we must place ourselves unreservedly in the hands of the author, and trust implicitly in the accuracy of his scholarship. It is, however, permissible to express an opinion concerning the interest of his subject and of his book, and we may say without hesitation that both interests are great, the latter greater than we had supposed possible, and the former marked by the admirable qualities of the author's style. His manner of writing is such as to compel attention, being lucid, forceful, and penetrated with a shrewd wisdom that

sometimes takes the form of a dry but delightful humor. What could be happier than this conclusion of the argument concerning the origin of the Chinese people? "No one seems to think they can possibly have originated in the fertile plains where they are now found." Or than this comment upon the fabled calendar trees?" But civilization proved unfavorable to their growth, and the species became extinct." One cannot examine this treatise without a feeling of heightened respect for the people with whose writings it deals. Here is a literature that has an unbroken record of twenty-five centuries; here is a civilization that for at least as long a period has known the uses of such things as silk garments, leather shoes, pottery, and umbrellas. These facts belong to a strictly historical chronology, but we are further reminded that the Chinese themselves pretend to account for the world for much longer than that- to be exact, for the space of 2,269,381 years. How pitifully young and raw our Western civilizations and histories must appear when contrasted, not merely with the claims, but with the undisputed facts of Chinese history and civilization. Since Mr. Giles has worked in virgin soil, as far as Western readers and critics are concerned, he has done well to depart from the plan of the series for which his book was written, by

giving a large proportion of his pages to extracts

from the Chinese classics. His translations of these history and a florilegium, and in the latter aspect, passages are so charming that his book is at once a as delightful a book as is often seen.

A new anthology of English verse.

There are two kinds of anthologies, which may be called subjective and objective. In the first kind, the compiler chiefly consults his own tastes and interests, and leaves unconsidered the important question of how far his tastes and interests coincide with those which characterize the enlightened judgment of the race. In the other kind, the compiler has regard to tradition and authority, is careful of his perspective, and subordinates his personal inclinations to the collective verdict of cumulative criticism. For English poetry, Mr. Palgrave's "Golden Treasury" is the perfect bouquet of anthological effort, although in this case, so admirable was the taste of the editor, there seems to have been slight need of any subordination of personal preference to the consensus of critical opinion. Of anthologies on a larger scale, the two of Mr. Stedman are probably the best that have been made, although their restriction to the verse of a single century—and that the latest has rendered certainty of judgment exceedingly difficult. Mr. A. T. QuillerCouch is the latest of English anthologists, and the "Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900 " (Oxford University Press), as edited by him, gives us upwards of a thousand pages of the best of our poetry. Let it be said, however, once for all, that this is one of the subjective anthologies. The editor has put in the things that he likes, and that is the

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whole story. His preface is an implied confession of this method, and goes on to tell us in explicit terms how he has modified his spellings, chosen the readings that he prefers over those which have the best authority, and even excised from famous poems the stanzas that do not appeal to his personal sympathies. All this being admitted, there is little to say, for nothing is more futile than to criticize an anthology compiled upon such a plan. The proper perspective is lacking, the choice is often capricious, and even the texts are not free from rather glaring mistakes. Mr. Quiller-Couch is an excellent novelist and a charming writer in other departments of literature, but he has never given evidence of critical acumen, and his browsings in this field have always been those of an impressionist. An "Oxford" anthology ought to speak with a voice of special authority, but the voice of this book is one of which no intelligent reader need take much heed. It is a book of good poetry; but there are thousands of readers who could have compiled books equally good, and probably scores who could have done better.

A critic as dramatist.

A commonplace of current criticism is the difference between the creative

faculty and the critical. One who had more or less to say on the subject, Matthew Arnold, is himself a fair illustration of the difference. His prose was his best work: his poetry, though of immense charm for many minds, was excellent largely because it recognized its own critical character. Of creative energy Matthew Arnold in his earlier days undoubtedly had a measure, but it was swallowed up in his critical intelligence. Something of the sort, Lowell used to think, was the case with himself. The reverse process is less usual. We do not often find one who has given his mind up to critical problems, develope strong creative power. There are cases, Mr. Henry James, for instance, where a man's mind developes both faculties together. But when a man has been long devoted to thinking out a system of art or literature, he is rarely able at the end of it to display powerful creative force. Thus Ruskin, although he had something of an artist's education, never developed the artist's power. The critical habit seems to limit and constrain. All this is apropos to Mr. G. L. Raymond's "The Aztec God and Other Dramas" (Putnam). Professor Raymond is already well-known by a series of volumes presenting an extensive and careful theory of artistic effort and result. His mind has long been occupied in weighing and considering causes and effects, in the effort to discern the true generalization lurking in myriads of facts. Now with plenty of ideas, he turns to the drama, but here his mind refuses to embody his thought in forms quite different from those which have been familiar to it. His thought, unconsciously to himself doubtless, takes some of the conventional forms which are, in a way, generalizations. Thus his dramas fail to

have vitality, original strength. We must add to that, Mr. Raymond does not seem to have the poet's imagination. What he has to say he says rather plainly without the fulness and richness that we need to give us what we think of as poetic pleasure. Further we must say that he does not seem to us to have a clear idea of the possibilities of the dramatic form the drama, if we recollect rightly, is the one form of art of which his system of æsthetics says little. At any rate, in an age familiar with Swinburne and Stephen Phillips, or even John Davidson and Michael Field, his dramas lack the interest which comes of fresh, original effort given to the solution of old problems.

An eccentric

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Professor William Knight, of Glasphilosopher and gow University, has collected in a his correspondence. comely, moderate-sized volume, entitled "Lord Monboddo and Some of his Contemporaries" (Dutton), the "philosophical correspondence" of this learned and eccentric Scotch judge with certain distinguished men of his time, with whom he was accustomed to discuss his then novel theories of language and the origin of man. Of the forty-seven letters to and from Lord Monboddo given in the volume only two have been previously published, and the collection is undoubtedly of considerable value in so far as it serves to illustrate the philosophical attitude of the writers and of reflective men of their time generally toward the theories discussed. To the correspondence the editor has prefixed a brief biographical sketch of Lord Monboddo, together with a chapter on his philosophical position. Dr. Johnson, it will be remembered, said to Boswell during the famous Tour that he would gladly go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo" who was certainly worth the deviation, although the miles were Scotch ones. Lord Monboddo's views, shocking to his contemporaries, as to man's descent from caudate progenitors of the orang-outang order, do not seem so very eccentric nowadays. The letters in the present volume are elaborate, essay-like productions, such as nobody would think of writing nowadays. Among Lord Monboddo's correspondents were Dugald Stewart, Samuel Horsley, James Harris, Sir William Jones, Sir George Baker. There are several portraits. Now that the much-discussed "An "Englishwoman's Englishwoman's Love-Letters " (Doubleday) are known to be fiction, the book can be read and criticised without the wearisome speculation which has grown around it. Were the letters really written by a woman? How could such intimate letters have been published? What could possibly have been the reason the affair was broken off? Such questions were entirely aside from the literary aspects of the matter, and may now be forgotten. We know that the book is a piece of fiction. We know that it is needless to know why the affair was broken off. The book - aside from the truly pathetic character of

The much-discussed

Love-Letters."

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its last part is chiefly of interest to us as a good example of that preoccupation with the processes of the soul that distinguished the latter part of the nineteenth century. One can hardly do more to appreciate the literary position of the book than to think how Sir Walter Scott would have been outraged by it. Scott never, so far as we remember, dealt with any such case; he would probably never have invented such a brutal story. But the case of the "Bride of Lammermoor" is something of a parallel so far as fulness of joy and fulness of misery are concerned. Scott told the story, but he never sought to examine Lucy Ashton's heart. Examination of the human heart, however, is a thing that the present day rather enjoys. And the chief interest in this book is that it enables us to follow almost from day to day the rise of joy in a woman's breast, and its general turning to absolute misery. Such was the case with many readers who imagined the letters to be genuine; such is the case when we read it as fiction. Its interest is in the painful tracing of heart-failure. For our own part this seems to us not a very excellent amusement. We should prefer, along with the heart-failure, some of the wider relations of life, some of the matters which would constitute something more of a balance according to the usual course of existence. Here probably is the value, such as it is, of the discussion of the reasons for it all. With some reasons the book gains in dignity; with others it rather falls. It was perhaps wise for the author to leave us in the dark.

Israel's hope for the future.

The layman in biblical study has shown slight interest in Messianic prophecy. This has been due (1) to the general obscurity of the subject and (2) to the lack of any adequate popular discussion of the theme. Professor G. S. Goodspeed's "Israel's Messianic Hope" (Macmillan) is intended to dissipate both of these difficulties. It is intended primarily for the reader of the English Bible. For this reason technical questions in criticism and exegesis and Hebrew and Greek words are avoided. But not to neglect the advanced student, the author has provided liberal references to the best new literature on the subject, and has added to the volume a selected bibliography. Now the method of Professor Goodspeed is just that which will appeal to the popular reader. He has adopted, in preference to the so-called "fulfilment " or "theological" method, the historical plan of treatment. That is, he "takes up the ancient Hebrew literature from the point of view of the historical origin and environment of its various writings. The history is studied from the Hebrew side; the ideas are investigated as they grow out of the history, and are modified or conditioned by it. The question asked is, not so much, What did this statement mean to the Christian Church? but, What did it mean to him who first uttered it, and to those by whom it was first heard or read?" This method cannot but

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A popular mushroom book.

Popular interest in mushrooms, for both scientific and practical reasons, has grown considerably of recent years, and the latest contribution to the literature of this subject will be sure to find a receptive audience. Miss Nina L. Marshall is the author of "The Mushroom Book" now before us, which is published by Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. in their nature study series, which already contains books on butterflies, birds, and flowers. The special feature of all these books is that, although they are richly illustrated, they are sold at a very moderate price. The colored plates alone, twenty-four in number, would justify the price set upon the book, to say nothing of the numerous plates in black-andwhite, the still more numerous cuts in the text, and the text itself. The book may be recommended as a safe guide for the identification of species by amateurs who have only a smattering of botanical method. The descriptions are accurate, and not more technical than is absolutely necessary. There are also directions for collecting and preserving specimens, and for cooking them as well-which consideration will perhaps go farther than any other toward finding purchasers for the volume. It offers what is practically an equivalent of Hamilton Gibson's work for a small fraction of its price. We need say no more than this to lovers of mushrooms, whether as articles of food or as objects of scientific study.

Two volumes on medieval towns.

Two volumes come together in the "Medieval Towns" series (DentMacmillan), one dealing with Florence and one with Constantinople. Tho former is done with loving care by Mr. Edmund G. Gardner, who combines the various artistic forces of the Florentine Republic in his pages in such a way as to give it a really fine literary flavor. All the glories of poetry, painting, sculpture, and architecture that made the city splendid to the eye and ear and understanding speak again through his pages, an achievement by no means unique, the city having the gift of inspiring its modern chroniclers to an unusual degree. The history of this flower of the renaissance before the day of Dante is dismissed in a single chapter, and the story of the government carried down to the great Duke Cosimo. This, with a consideration of the Florentine people, suffices for the more formal history, the other portions of the book taking up the geographical divisions of Florence, and combining all their interests in a nar

rative which serves as a guide-book through its particularity, and as an account for instruction and amusement as well. A number of pictures from the hand of Miss Nellie Erichsen are included, and with these are several reproductions of old engravings of the town and its distinctive features. The work on Constantinople has been done by the Rev. William Holden Hutton, and its interest is made classic in a degree. Though not so large a book as the other, it covers more space, the opening chapter alone carrying the story from old Byzantium to the Turks. In the subsequent divisions of the book, dealing, as in the former case, with geographical portions of the ancient seat of empire, the interest is divided between the Christian and Moslem relics, with a natural leaning toward the older Greek rather than the newer Turk, the churches rather than the mosques. A final chapter deals with the pre-Christian life of the city as shown in architectural and other relics, and is by no means the least readable of the seven.

A narrative of American society.

Not a romance, though a tenuous love story rises almost to the surface now and again through the book, not a novel, though there are developments which almost make it one in successive pages, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's "Dr. North and His Friends" (Century Co.) is none the less interesting because it is difficult of classification. In its book form it is considerably larger than in its appearance as a serial, and the increase in size is due mainly to the insertion of a number of anecdotes of men and things, which have all the charm of an acquaintance with the people of whom they speak. It may be surmised, reasonably enough, that they are the very cream of Dr. Mitchell's common-place book. Taken as a whole the story outlines the life of such Americans as all of us would like to be, did cultivation and wealth admit of it, and the pleasant company certainly sets a social ideal to which it would be well for Americans to conform. Yet it is with something of a shock that the reader comes to realize at the close of the narrative that a complete vulgarian has fairly forced the doors of this gentle and cultured society, all his too evident limitations, moral and social, being pardoned him in view of his great wealth, ill-gotten though it is. That Dr. Mitchell is well within the truth in giving such an ending to such an episode does not make it any better reading, and we wish he had contrived to maintain its own ideals throughout the book.

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might, one would think, be almost as brief as the famous chapter on snakes in Iceland. But on Mr. Bullen's showing it seems clear that the name of his Maker is not used by "poor Jack" solely as a profane expletive and to the sorrow of the traditional "cherub who sits up aloft" and "looks out for "his ghostly interests. Mr. Bullen writes simply and earnestly, and his account of the artless piety of some of his erstwhile shipmates, and of their efforts to stem the tide of brutality, profanity, and debauchery by which the sailorman is commonly swept to moral and physical destruction, is touching and interesting. The sailor, for all his outer roughness, and proneness to coarse indulgence, is commonly an emotional man, easily touched by fervent appeal, and far more open than the sophisticated landsman, to the methods of revivalism. That these methods make for good, and even permanent good, in many cases, and are in fact the only methods by which the religious sense of large classes of men can be stirred, is certain. That a most promising and relatively neglected field for their trial is offered in every seaport town seems to us the practical moral of Mr. Bullen's book. We are not going to impugn the conduct or the wisdom of the battalions of Christian missionaries who go abroad annually with the view of persuading men to change their religions; but we do think a larger proportion of them might well halt at the seaboard in the interests of men, nominally Christian, who have in fact no religion at all. Mr. Bullen's book is graphic and well-written, and shows an unfamiliar side of seafaring life and character.

on the garden.

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Where Miss Maud Maryon's "How An enjoyable book the Garden Grew (Longmans) differs from the dozen other recent garden books is in the gentle horticulturist's beginning her narrative with no knowledge whatever of what should or should not be done with plants in order to induce them to grow out of doors. She thus "starts even," as the boys say, with most of her readers, and they are enabled thereby to follow her to the end without losing sight of the garden. A little love story runs through the four chapters, which, beginning with winter, bear the names of the seasons, and there is an old English peasant named Griggs who makes the American doubly grateful for the lack of such human cattle over

here. Several well-drawn illustrations make the volume more desirable; but it is to be read for enjoyment rather than instruction on this side of the great water.

"The Oresteia of Eschylus," transA critical translation of lated and explained by Professor Eschylus. George C. W. Warr, is the first of a series of four volumes which are designed to interest cultivated persons who cannot read the originals in the masterpieces of the classical drama. Thus we have, not only a translation of the great trilogy, but in addition an extensive commentary, intro

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ductory essays on "The Rise of Greek Tragedy " and "The Orestean Trilogy," and a series of illustrations reproducing ancient frescoes, reliefs, and vase-paintings. The translation is a mixture of

verse and prose verse for the dialogue, and prose for the lyrical passages. An appendix gives some

metrical versions from the choruses. The translator's aim has been to steer a middle course between the insipidity of Plumptre and the uncouth literality of Browning. His text is not exactly easy reading, but it is no more difficult than it must be, if anything of the Eschylean spirit is to be preserved. We have received this work in two editions, one from Mr. George Allen of London, and the other from Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co., who supply the trade in this country.

BRIEFER MENTION.

Six volumes have now appeared in the "Warwick Library," each devoted to the illustration of some particular literary form in the history of English letters. Mr. Oliphant Smeaton's "English Satires " (Imported by Scribner) is the new volume of this series, and supplies examples all the way from the author of "Piers Plowman" down to C. S. C. The introduction, as is customary in this collection of volumes, is an elaborate essay upon the history of the form under consideration, and sets forth the gradual declination of the satirical species from its Roman position as one of the cardinal divisions of literary composition to the modern view which holds it to be rather a "quality of style" than one of the prime forms of expression.

We have been reading a good deal about Milton of late years. Besides the volumes in the various series, we have had Professor Corson's learned disquisitions, and Professor Trent's eloquent critical tribute, and now we have also Professor Walter Raleigh's "Milton" (Putnam). Mr. Raleigh always writes with distinction, and is at the same time one of the sanest and most finely-tempered of our living critics. His book is an elaborate essay upon the life of Milton, his circumstances, his intellectual equipment, the technique and machinery of his writings, and his influence upon posterity. It cannot be a work of supererogation to produce as good a book as this upon Milton or any other subject, and we are glad to add it to our collection of critical monographs.

The third volume of the translation of Blok's "History of the People of the Netherlands" (Putnam) covers the period of the war with Spain from 1559 to 1621, comprising all of Volume III. and one-half of Volume IV. of the original. The book leaves evidence of the same scholarly treatment which characterized the preceding volumes, and by its numerous footnotes, and appended bibliography, attests the extended research of its author. The period is a favorite one for historians, and one for which polemics are proverbial, but Mr. Blok has carefully avoided such writing. In this volume there is a greater fulness of political conditions, as compared with social or economic development, than in the previous volumes, but this is justified by the political importance of the epoch, and in no way sacrifices the essential feature, the history of the growth of the people, to which the author pledged himself in the first volume.

ANNOUNCEMENTS OF SPRING BOOKS.

THE DIAL takes pleasure in presenting herewith its annual list of books announced for Spring publication, containing this year more than 750 titles. With a few necessary exceptions, books recently issued which have been already entered in our regular List of New Books are not named in the present list; and all the books here given are presumably new books-new editions not being included unless having new form or matter. The list is compiled from authentic data supplied for this purpose by the publishers themselves, and it is believed presents an accurate survey of the Spring books of 1901.

BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIRS.

The Autobiography of a Journalist, by William J. Stillman, 2 vols., with portraits, $6.-The Life and Times of William Lowndes, by H. H. Ravenel, illus. (Houghton, Mifllin & Co.)

My Autobiography, by Prof. F. Max Müller, with portraits, $2.-Mrs. Gilbert's Reminiscences, illus., $1.50 net. (Charles Scribner's Sons.)

Queen Victoria, 1819-1901, by Richard R. Holmes, M. V. O., new edition, with supplementary chapter, with portrait, $1.50 net.-Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, an historical study, by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, illus.-Some Records of the Later Life of Harriet, Countess Granville, by her granddaughter, the Hon. Mrs. Oldfield, illus.-Swallowfield and Its Owners, by Constance, Lady Russell, illus. in photogravure, etc.-Felix Reville Brunot, 1820-1838, a civilian in the War for the Union, President of the first Board of Indian Commissioners, by Charles Lewis Slattery, illus. in photogravure, etc., $2. (Longmans, Green, & Co.)

Up from Slavery, an autobiography, by Booker T. Washington, with portrait, $1.50 net.-The True Story of Captain John Smith, ny Katharine Pearson Woods, illus., $1.50. (Doubleday, Page & Co.)

The Story of My Life, by Augustus J. C. Hare, 4 vols., Vols. III. and IV., illus. in photogravure, etc., $7.50. (Dodd, Mead & Co.)

A Sailor's Log, recollections of forty years of naval life, by Admiral Robley D. Evans, U. S. N., illus.Great Commanders Series, new vol.: General Meade, by Isaac R. Pennypacker, illus. (D. Appleton & Co.) A Book of Remembrance, by Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, illus., $2.50. (J. B. Lippincott Co.)

The Tribulations of a Princess, by the author of "The Martyrdom of an Empress," illus., $2.50. (Harper & Brothers.)

New Glimpses of Poe, by Prof. James A. Harrison, illus., $1.25 net. (M. F. Mansfield & Co.)

Heroes of the Nations, new vols.: St. Louis (Louis IX. of France), the most Christian king, by Frederick Perry, M. A.; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (17081778), or The Growth and Division of the British Empire, by Walford Davis Green, M. P.; each illus., per vol., $1.50. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)

How They Succeeded, life stories of successful men told by themselves, by Orison Swett Marden, illus., $1.50. (Lothrop Publishing Co.)

Beacon Biographies, new vols.: Father Hecker, by Henry D. Sedgwick, Jr.; Louis Agassiz, by Alice Bache Gould; John Greenleaf Whittier, by Richard Burton; Samuel F. B. Morse, by John Trowbridge; Ralph Waldo Emerson, by Frank B. Sanborn; each with portrait, per vol., 75 cts.-Westminster Blographies, new vols.: George Eliot, by Clara Thomson; Cardinal Newman, by A. R. Waller; each with portrait, per vol., 75 cts. (Small, Maynard & Co.) Foreign Statesmen Series, new vols.: Louis XI., by G. W. Prothero; Ferdinand the Catholic, by E. Armstrong; Mazarin, by Arthur Hassall; Catherine II., by J. B. Bury; Louis XIV., by H. O. Wakeman. (Macmillan Co.)

Life of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, by Millicent Garrett Fawcett, new edition, with introduction by Mrs. Bradley Gilman, illus., $1. (Little, Brown, & Co.) Hero-Patriots of the Nineteenth Century, by Edgar Sanderson, M. A., illus., $1.50. (T. Y. Crowell & Co.)

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