Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-04
THE CRITIC.
Marie BashkIrtsen, an Old But Remarkable
Theological Novel, That is Commented

1
Theological Novel, That is Commented
rOn bV GladstOne-DeadIy Alternating
Currents-salrus ON Fiction, and How
Emin Pashn LOoks-A BeInted Revenge
md Other Stories.
Messrs. Cassell & Company will publish OF
November IL translation of the journal Of
Marie Bashkirtseff. The October Nineteenth
| Century contains comment upon this book
written by no less notable than the Rt. Hon
| w. E Gladstone. Scribner'S and the Atlantic
for November have articles of considerable
length about Marie Bashkirtseff
THE Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff" is not a
new theological novel. nor does it discuss any
of the ecclesiastical or economic questions
which get into SO much recent fiction. 1t is
not even a novel, 1t is simply the diary of a
young girl who died FIVE years ago in Paris.
This diary, Mr.. Gladstone says, "opens a new
chapter in the experiences of human nature. -
Il tell you everything. everything every
thing" Marie Bashkirtseff wrote in her diary;
and when she said "you, " she was thinking of the
whole population of the habitable earth. For
years this young girl set down in this journal of
hers every thought she had. Her love affairs,
her jealousies, her impressions of people, and
books and places, and art her impressions of
herself.
This bright, unusually gifted, pretty Russian
princess wanted to be a phenomenon, a
prodigy. She desired to be seen, to attract at
tention, to produce an effect. Nothing equaled
her self-conceit except the frankness of her
confession of it
Such book can hardly fail to be interesting.
The plainest human life is interesting when we
know it well. Perfectly frank autobiography
will rarely fail of readers. We look with inter
est for Mr. Serrano's translation
In the meantime, however, to read these
three notable reviews is almost as good as to
read the book itself. Between the confessions
of st. Augustine and the confession of Marie
Bashkirtsef what significant difference.
So
Electricity in Relation to the Human Body''
is discussed by DR.. Starr in the November
ScTi6,leT'S Two questions which are debated
in this article are considered at greaterlength
in the North american RevfeW in which
Thomas A. Edison writes OF ''The Dangers of
Electric Lighting" and Harold P Brown COM
ments on "a New instrument of Execution"
Mr.. Edison contradicts the notion that any
added safety is secured by putting the wires
underground. He says that you might as well
put a nitro-glyeerine factory underground with
the idea that by so doing you were securing the
community against explosions His remedy is
to prohibit the use of alternating currents
which, he says, are as unnecessary as they are
dangerous. Mr.. Brown describes an ideal
electrical execution. Hyland G. Kirk, in the
Popular Science Monthly, answers the ques-
tion '1s the Human Body Storage Battery2"
He thinks it is, and gives some curious illus
trations. DIR. Norvin Green. in the North
american, asks an even more interesting ques-
tion which concerns electricity in its relation
to the human pocketbook: "Are Telegraph
Rates Too High?" The answer may be readily
imagined.
The old contention between realism and
nominalism which vexed the philosophical
theorists of the Middle Ages has never been
fought to a finish. Literary theorists have
taken up the old gloves in an endeavor to
settle that old battle, and their war
cnes are in the air to-day. The medieval
names have passed away. The nominalists
of the old folios would call themselves realists
now, and the realists would be romanticists.
The battle is good deal like the fight about
the two sides of the shield. 1t is a contention
in which each side stands for a part of the
truth, and the need, as SO often is the case in
controversy, is simply that each shall acknowl-
edge the position of the other. Why should
analysis oppose synthesis? After ALL as Edgar
Saltus says in the North american, there are
but two classes of fiction-stories which are
well written, and stories which are not" Mr..
Saltus' paper is entitled THE Future of Fic-
tion." Maurice Thompson, who of course
stands for just the opposite school from Mr..
Saltus has paper in the November Forum on
1.-THE Domain of Romance" He holds that the
romantic school, instead of dying in 1880, only
began a new life, and that the great romaneer
is Charles Darwin! 1t is interesting to compare
the two papers.
Emin Pasha, Governor of the Equatorial
Provinces of Africa, wears spectacles and
looks like a schoolmaster; this at least is the
impression given by the picture of him in the
November ScribneT's. Colonel 81. G. Prout,
who describes Emin and his country has but a
sorry anticipation of the future of the Upper |
Nile district. The need there, unless the land |
IS to be given over to barbarism is railroads |
and guns.
AS for guns, however there is more chance of |
their being used this side of the equator |
Sometime there will be war between England |
and some continental power We hope not, |
Out the chances are that way. Now where |
will we be in such a war? OF course, we will be |
Neutral, but what will neutrality mean as re- |
yards our commerce.? English merchants. for |
will hasten to put their shipping |
lnder a neutral flag. 1t would be well if that |
lag might be ours 1t will not be ours, how
ever, because there is law on our statute |
books which forbids the entering upon our reg
stry lists of any foreign made vessel. That is a
aw that needs looking after. This is the gist |
If Prof. Soley's article on American Com
nerce in an nglo-Continental War"
When that condition of universal war has
,ome upon us, by which the Anarchists hope to
the reign of universal peace, when
he world has finally been blown up with
dynamite, and moss has grown upon the ruins
nd as by a natural reaction the "ages of
aith" have come back again, Andrew Lang
would like to wake up in that delightful era.
'rTell them fain would sleep, and then
Be born in other days
hermit in some happy glen
Where some clear river strays.
Nursed in some faith-I know not L
Wherein man might live and die.
''Ah, early would rise to pray,
And early would steal
From chapel, in the dawning gray,
To earn the Fridays meal
A Monk who never dreamed of doubt
I'd catch uneducated trout.
"a priest where woman might not come,
Nor any household care,
A land where newspapers were dumb
From scandal and from scare
That priest I'D be, that land I'D see
Would fortune work my wish for me?',
~
"a Belated Revenge" which comes out as
be complete noveP' of the November Lip
incOtfS, is belated story. The first writer.
)r. Robert Montgomery Bird, began it more
han so years ago, and left it half finished.
asst summer. the Rev. Frederick NJ. Bird. his
on, of South Bethlehem. Pa, took up the
ovel and completed it. The additions, how
yer, made it too long, so it was cut down into
hape to fit the magazine. None of these halts
I hackings, however, are visible in the story.
hitch runs smoothly enough. The scene is
lid in the times before the Revolution. DIR.
nf ncinr,inl - |