, 1879-06-21
"First Blows Of tho Civil War;"
Correspondence Of J. s.
Pike.
Roligion and Philosophy
Haeck1e's !" Evolution
Of Man."
Literary Notes---Books Received
=. ..-Sparks of Science.


LlVEkATuKEs
TIIACKERAY.
Shortly utter the appearances Of the t3pTfng
Annual, which, It will be remembered, contained
Nr. Arthur Pendcnnia' carlcst contribution to
:lte.aturc, In the shape of 8 poem called " The
Church Porcl," review OF that volume came
out IN the Fol Hall Gd.e.te, then edited by
Capt. shandon. With tho modcsty Of ono al
yet untTicd In the devious ways Of jouruaIism.
Mt. pcndennts had declined reviewing book Of
which ho was one Of the pscudonymous authors,
and tic task bad fallen to, tho most trucuteut
member Of the editorial staff. "Alr. Dlndycr,
Who Eas man Of vcry considerable talent and
Of race which, be'ievc, Ia quite extinct In the
pfess Of our tinc, had certain notoriety In his
profession, and reputation for savage humor.
l1c su,ashgd and trampled down the poor spring
flowers with no more mercy than bull would
have on parteHe; md, having cut up the vol.
uno 10 hfs hearts, content went and sold It
1t bookstail, and purchased q pint Of
brandy With the proceeds df the volume" Few
'booss have been moro thoroughly exhaust
cd. The Journalistic Auakin 10 which
'Mr. Dludyer belonged perished all too
soon. Hero Is Mr.. Anthony Trollopos
Inadequate ana who!!y unsatisfactory book on
Tlackeray, and there Is no carniyorous pen to
deal With 1t. And. II there were, what critical
ttomarh could nbido pint OF brandy bought
With 75-cent duodtctmo
B. IT 10 hard to Ri7o IN idea Of the emptiness Of
this book; but 1t is less difficult to po!nt ont
.hc marks Of slovcnltucss aud haste that swarm
on every page. Take, for instance, the matter
Of style whiel 1fr. Trollopo himself says, In
commenting ON Thackcray's graccs In that
respect, "should be easy, lucid, and Of course
grammatical" On pago 30 We find TINT
."Thscktray Ind opened his oyster With bis
pen y; and, 80 much In lore with this wclt.wosn
n9uro Of Shakespeare is Mr. Trollopo, that on
psgo 1870 he says OF Dcatr,x: "1ier beauty Il
the sword With which rho must open her oyster.n
.Beatri1 being still Under discussion, paRo 1871
Affords 'us this sentencc: "Dut the consola-
,toa coming from devotion did not 70 far
with auch ono Is her" From these ex-
;ansplss the reader cau 1udge for himself Of the
ease and grammatical .propricty Of Hfr. Troll
.lopo's writing when 10 ventures outside Of &C.
ton. Let Us try his style by the test Of luclty,
In the chapter on Thackcray's lectures We arc
Informed that 1t IL difficult to speak fttinu)v
Of sovoreigu, either Icing or not, long since
gont,"-and 80 1t H.. Thackcray IL quoted In the
sxsuc plneo az saying Of Swift: "He lays his
opinions before you With grave simplicity and
pSlaESt pcALlGsBs' lHeFGupQn hlE. lfotl0pt
remarks "Thfs is quito truo OF him, unl tho
rasult is, that, though ron may depy him s1nceri-
", simplicity, humanity, or good taaie, YOU can
hardly hid fault viii, his language" It may
b. said that Mr. Tsollope uscs simplicity !" in
uarger sense than Thackcray docs, but The
word should have been qualified in some way,
To deny good .astc, without. any oua|i6cut,on
whateycr. to tile possessor Of faultlea. s.ylo Ia
tertaiuly indefeusiblo
But whv pick any longer ak psdd!nr4 The
deficiencies to which attention Aas bcen called
would DO trivial woro they counterbalanced, hy
fresh biographical material or thouohtfn1 cr,H-
eism. Neither ia present In tho sko,ch before
Us. Alter reading ,ts ao1 oaco.. NJ lra.t one.
half Of which aro ouoted fram Thactcrovts
works or from other sonrr.. onc fc.l. ti,nt Ia
bus added nothiut, to lds stoct, NJ information.
Amau llxo Mr.. Trotlone. In f1ealIur win a,,r1, .
subject. .hou,f1 haya anrroochc1 II 40 r,ocs,,,,v
did Tint ot Athcns. forrctt,ni, !. tha .1x,rsry
OF iudoa IN tho v,rerotton ~ ,x,-a,,iras
md the gra,,tnda or n chill u ia Ips. h,. ann.
nothing of The hind. Nh" tool "a r,.a,,t -, ,s
fir and frtcnd,v and vat ~ M ;, ,.ra,. fs,,
no,,co tn !, aaptn,., ~. -, ~ s,a.san ". "