New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-23

four OF which are from designs by Blake never DC.
fore reproduced. and two are from inc Grave.
These were executed for Mr.. Horace Scudders art-
Gle ON Blake in Scrbner; and the Messrs. scrl'i'i
nolit,lv lent the blocks Tho remaining additional
Illustrations include newly discovered design 10
Hamlet from n COPY of the Second Folio SHAKE
speare. containing also several other Designs w
Blake. now belonging to Mr.. Macmillan ano'ne,
plate from the Jerusalem, the fhilhps portrait VI
Blake. views of Blakes cottage and OF MS worh-
room and deatb-room in Fountain Court; finally,
tho "lnventions to the Book OF Joo' ny III" ITO"
nboto-;ntaolio process Mr.. James Smethahs
rssav on Hlake is reprinted from The Quarterly;
which the Blakests consider good essay.
AItooether this second edition seems preferable TO
tho first Ing neople who want to know all that can
M, known about Blake. Tie impressions worked
from oronal blocks can hardly be as good as in the
frat edition and the collector will probably, 1or
that and other good reasons, want ooh editions;
inst as the Rnskin collector has always fouhd IL
essential to his happiness to possess Doth the irS'
and second editions OF the "scVen Lamps" "
which he must now, l suppose, ada the lately pun
lished third also. Ii remains 10 Dc saiu thaO tu''
,fe 10 issued with muslin covers, stamped with
fairy design OF Blake's own" in gold to my nina
an unartistic and wholly undesirable form OF
Communications In Difference to the antieipateu
preiudices of the fastidious. the publishers nave
been good enough to bind up number Oh COPIES
plainly; which / recommend to all buyers III
preference to the other and moro common issue.
Past Hours" by Adelaide kemDle Sartoris Y
vols Bentley) is a disappointing book. The title
and its announcement of new book by the gifted
and regretted author of "A Week in French
Country House, led her admirers to expect a col
lection Of memoirs or "reminiscences The present
notification is nothing of the kind. 1t is not even
new. With the exception Of Judith" which Is
but fragment, these two volumes contain nothing
but reprints of pieces which had been published by
Mrs Sartoris in her lifetime. One is glad to nave
ANYTHING OF Mrs Sartoris in permanent form. but
such thanks as are duo to her daughter, Mrs. Cor
don for collecting them, would have been more
cordial had the work of editing been better done.
The dates of these various short Stories essays and
bits of verse; and tho place where they originally
appeared should have been given. Mrs. Gordon has
not troubled herself to give any OF this documentary
and needful Information nor to explain the absence
of il. She does apologize for publishing Judith"
in 40 incomplete state and gives, what Is more
interesting. some account of what her mother
meant to mako Of the heroine and the story.
Judith was to have been q great and noble char
acter led asray by the very qualities that cnnobed
it. Pure but passionate, gueless, sensitive vehe-
govern society thrown at an early age in the midst
of entirely unsympathetc surroundings ;"-then,
moro sinned against than SHINING, through her
own large hear tedness and mistaken generosity she
falls into deep error. which brings with II sorrow,
desertlon and bitterness" etc. etc. What is all
this but the type and tale OF which modern fiction
is full 1t might stand for preface to any one OF
twenty of Georges Sands novels and OF many lesser
writers than Georges Sand. But Adelaide Sartoris Is
very far indeed from beng Georges Sand. There
is little in Judith" these other slight sketches
to hint at the possession OF any real power rs a
novelist. Her powers were OF different kind.
The "Weck in French Country House" is
slight performance but full of clcverncss and
charm Such as it is. Mrs. Sartoris's literary fame
rests on il ; and these two volumes VIII not eHat or
enlarge her place in literature.
They say that by the bedside of George Eliot
was found after her death an open copy of the
LIMITATION of Christ" which is supposed TO have
been the last book in which she read Surprise has
been expressed that "a frce-thInkcr should be en-
gagged with hook Of dcyout meditatiOns. There
il nothing surprising III il. Nobody can have read
George Eliot without discovering that there was q
strong religious side to her nature. But there is
complement TO the Imitation incident. That
book one, il appears. which she read labitu-
ally or frequently. But the last book she bought,
AMI the last now book she had begun upon, was Mr..
frederick POllOck's SpnOLa; His Life aud IhOs-
nnhvD gOodly octave published by MeSsrs. keran
Paul 4 Co.. which, was found after her death half
cnt open with her paper KNIFE mar king the page
SHE had reached. II ~ now some weeks since this
admirable monograph appeared. and IT has by
general consent OF reviewers and readers taken
its pace as the most complete and critical account
of Splnoza to lie had i'll English. Mr.. Frederick
Pollock is one OF the most thorough and accurate
of men his style making up III precision what il
wants in pnIely popular qualities. That multi
firious entity known AS the general reader will
find ihat he read Mr.. Pollock with satlsfIctiom
often with pleasure in his sharp definite way
puttng things. and always without more fatigue
or demand on his own faculties than the nature Of
the subject requires. As j mentioned George Eliot
in connection with this book IL may be interesting
to note Mr. Pollocks remark in the lntroduction To
the effect that the chapter on Spnola III Lewoss
History of Philosophy is good for the biograph-
cal part. but To the philosophy cxcites an in
terest which it hardly does enough to satisfy. Mr..
Pollock, rs you see, knows how to express his
opinion OF the entire inadequacy OF LewcSs work
in polite way. 1t is noteworthy. also. that he
speaks of Mr.. Froude's essay Spinoza in The
Hestminsier Gerier, 1861. reprinted III the Short
Stunics First Series. as having remained the best
genera view III English. q. W. ;,
PRINCETON COLLEGE NOTES.
AcCEssIONs TO THE FACCLTY-soCIAL PHILOSOPHY