Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-11-06

Dkltl.
You relnembcr a few weeks ago ] said
Hougbtop, Miniin n Go. we're about publish
ing a volume OF Edith NJ. Thomss' poetical
prose ak etches under tho title OF "The
Round Year." and I expected II would prove
q rare treat, not only for all lovers OF good
literature, but for all true lovers of nature ~
well. My expectations are moro than full
nlied. Tho book II out now, In that boauti-
fully plain form of binding, ON the heavy
creamy paper, excellent typography, with
generous margins, that arc the uniform char.
acteristics OF everything given us from tho
Riverside Press
LOVE 10 handle such books They are
grateful to every sense OF body and mind.
They invite you 10 pick them up and enJoy
them. When tired and dulled by the days
work In business or Office or study, II In q
good thing TO have Just such an inviting, be-
quilting volume as this lying somewhere
where II will catch the eye. found 1t NO the
last fow days. Every time lay down my
pom or close some heavy thoughtstrainin ng
tome, In the noon hour Of lassltude or after
the exertion Of public speaking or listening
to public speakers, the charming little book
looks up demuteiy at me, and winningly
seems 10 say Come listen q minute to my
| " Running Water Notes." watch with me
"The Rain aud the Fine Weather" stroll
with me "Alopg an Inland Beach," or
hearken To the musical hum of "Ihe Solitary
Bee F." aud l cannot resist the delicate ap-
peal. I pick up the book. ! read Its ex-
auisiteiy tuneiui language and yet more
tuneful thoughts aud 1t reets me and re-
freshes me as only such writing can. For to
hear this gifted author describe the beauties
and inner truths OF outdoor nature IN the
next best thing TO seeing aud hearing nature
herself.
In aotne respects IL Is better. For so dell
cate II her sight and so sensitiVely keen her
hearing that many Of natures most beautiful
moods, aud many of her most ravshtng
sounds, 40 delicate and faint our grosser
senses oft would not perceive them, all are
| clearly heard aud seen aud fully understood
by MisS Thomas, aud then interpreted Tor us
with an artists pen as skiltully ~ any pain.
ter with his brush, or musician with his
magic touch could do, For II ever there was
| one, she ~ a favored priestoss OF nature. Not
Thureau nor Burroughs ever stood in more
intimate communion with nature than she
certainly neither of these caught and eN-
pressed more clearly the subtler, deeper,
most inner heart beatings of the beauteous
goddes than does this her gifted young prizes
tess She is scarcely less thoroughly conyer-
SAINT with " her visible forms than they,
being a remarkably Keen and minute OBJ
server, aud. what IL OF equal importance,
possessed OF that ind eIatigable patience which
is the price of admission To natures myste-
ries while 10 her invisible soul, her ever
changing moods and temper, her vaguely
sweet suggestions and half-concealed intima-
tions, with her quick and quickening spirit
that broathes and throbs deep underneath all
outer forms, she Is tenderly susceptible and
full OF Sympathetic discernment, perhaps not
more so but yet more delicately, more femi-
ninety 10, than her two older brothers in the
mystic craft.
LIKE 30 many OF our best young writers,
Miss Edith NJ. Thomas il "a " discovery" OF
the Atlantic Monthly, on whose pages her
first contribution appeared but few years
ago. II / remember Alright 1t was poem,
one of those strong yet tender poems, like
the penetrating sweetness OF some rare forest
flower, which now bloom in her New
Years Masque and Other POEMS" into
which her publishers year or two ago col
lected her metrical productions-1 use this
word on purpose, for the spirit OF her prose
writings in "The Round Year " IL just as
truly and beautifully poetical as are her
writings in verse. With "A New Years
Masque f" sho at once stepped into the front
rank of American female poets with perhaps
a more distinct individuality about her work
than Characterizes any OF her sisters. i ain
inclined, indeed, to consider her second in
rank AZ an original poet only TO one other
American woman, the late Mrs. Jackson,
whose junior she was by good many years,
having been born in Ohio III lSoL She
surely has great future before her.
Miss THOMAS, by the way, had deep and
real affinity with Mrs. Jackson, for whom
she ever felt the wsrmest affection and most
profound admiration. This il evidenced
ancw In the volnme before me, which Is ded-
icsted " To tho Memory of Helen Hunt Jack
son." in words as true as they are beautiful,
and We may say, as applicable to the writer
AZ to her lanented friend and kindred genius.
Here are the tender lines
"Great heart Of many loves while earth was
Thou didst love nature and her every mood;
Beneath thine eye the fiail flower of the wood
upltfted not in vain Its fieeting sign,
And on Thy hearth the masttroes blaze be
with aiIit sylvan lore, was understood
Seems holuely Natures mother face less good,
Spirit down. gazing from the Fields Divine
oh, let me bring these gathered leaves OF mine.
Aud co1secrate them to thy memory dear
Thoughts pilgrim TO thy mortal 0ody,s shrino'
And trailing mountain heath untouched WIN
sere =!
IN the very first paragraph of the book,
| opening the chapter on " Nature and the Ma
| tive" Miss Thomas gives us the key, rather
| one of the keys, which help us to account for
| her wonderfully familiar and intimate ac
| quaintance with nature " Nature becomes
| genial aud communicative" she says, and
| nothing could be more true, only when rs
| surance is given that you have come to stay,
| to locate and make a focus (or fireside) on
your own account but should 1t appear that
| you are only touching on your way to some
| more distant point she gives the genii OF the
| place explicit orders not to induct you into
| any of their choicer mysteries the mere spy
| IL tolerated, but not encouraged. You come
eager and aggressive, on your specialists er-
| rand, whatever it may he-botany, ornithol-
| ogy, or other ; you may take hence, perforce,
| large number and variety of specimens,
press the flower, embalm the bird ; but a
| dry garden and case OF still-life are poor
| showings for the true natural history of
| flower or bird. This can be obtained only by
| remaining and becoming naturaliZed in that
| queens domnions, of which your specimens
| were loyal subjects" That explains why so
| many, very many, books about nature, and
| especially poems, are such dry and dreary
| reading. They are the mere superficial re-
| ports OF the transient visitor or OF the inquis.
| tive, scientific "spy," in natures realm.
| Correct and accurate enough descriptions OF
what the physical eye aud ear can discover,
but telling us nothing of that which only the
soul can see and the heart understand.
| Plainly Miss Thomas is not like these She
| is true "native" of her good queens do
minions. OF this we need no other proof OF
certificate than this volume, "The Round