Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-11-27
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

volumes. Houghton, Miffiin a Company,
Boston and New York.
The position Of George Washington in
the annals of American history will al
ways stand pre-eminent for, notwith-
/, standing the controversy that has ragged for
| years on his deeds and character, history
| gives us no one to contest his title, the
| greatest of good men, and the best Of great
| men,"
Mr.. McMaster said General WASH
ington Is known 10 us and PresidentW ASH
ington. But George Washington Is
an unknown man." In the American
statesman series Henry Cabot Lodge
| has devoted two volumes TO tho
study which Mr.. McMaster sug-
gests, that is George Washington as a
man; he has tried TO tear away those
| mythical ideals which have clung SO closely
| to his namc and to portray not the old and
stately man that both Irving and Marshall
| depicted; on the contrary he maintains that
| washirgton's whole life contradicts the
| notion that he was cold of heart and lacking
| in humanity and sympathy. He gives us
a cloar insight into his sentiments and
cbaractcr. The abundant material that the
life of Washington offers to biographer
makes the handling of II In a limited space
very difficult and only a trainod writer
like Mr.. Lodge would be capable Of the
work. He shows us in a striking manner
what troubles Washington had to contend
with, troubles ms much political as military.
He emphasizes his great moral strength
and impressos in tho mind of the reader
that Washington was without doubt the
right man for the special work he had TO
do. In concluding his life of Washington
Mr.. Lodge has evidently completed a
labor of love:
"As bring these volumes to close I
am conscious that they speak, no far as
they speak ALL In tone OF almost un--
brokeN praise of the great man they
attempt TO portray. Ifthis is so, II is be-
cause could come to no other conclusion.
For many years I have studied minutely
the career of Washington, and with every
step the greatness of the man has grown
upon me, for analysis has failed TO discover
tho act of his life which, under tho condi-
tions of the time, could unhesitatingly
pronounce to have been an error. Such
has been my experience, and although my
deductions may be wrong, they at least
have been carefully made. see in WASH
ington great soldier, who fought trying
war 10 a successful end impossible with
out him; a great statesman, who did more
than all men to lay the foundation of q
republic which has endured in prosperity
for more than century. find in him
marvellous Judgment, which was never mt
fault a penetrating vision which beheld
the future of America when IL was dim to
other eyes, great intellectual force, a
will Of iron, an unyielding grasp of facts
ana an unequnlled strength of patriotic
purpose. SEQ In him, too, "a pure and high
minded gentleman of dauntless courage
and stainless honor, simple and stately of
manner, kind and generous of heart. Such
he was in truth The historian and biov-
rapher may fail to do him justice, but the
instinct of mankind will not fail The real
hero needs not books to give him wor-
shippers. George Washington will always
receive the love and reverence of men
because they see embodied in him the
nobest possibilities of humanity"
~*~
Edward Everett Hale notes French in
stitntion that has often been formally de-
| scribed but Is worth forcing on public at
tention. He writes in the New En1land
| Ma Jazine:
Now, If q man go to Paris and have
any sense, he goes across the river, into
bookstore, and they give him, for five
ccnts, little programme which tells him
of a hundred and twenty or moro lectures
which the first men in France are deliver
ing day by day, in one of the great institu-
tions of France. This five cents is all that
tho traveller pays for the right of hearing
any of these lectures They are the leo
lures of men to memo educated men to
| educated men. In this way you NAV hear
Brown-Sequard. or Simon, or Renan, tell
ing the best he knows to-day and which
has made him n leader in his line.
"There is nothing akin to this now in
the United States; you can go into the
Senate chamber, and hear Mr.. Sherman or
Mr.. Hoar; you can go to congress of
archnologists, of phianthropists, of physi-
clans, of engineers, and hear n man talk as
he talks to men. But with the single ex-
ception of Johns Hopkins university. there
is nothing as open as this University of
France to anybody who, any dav. NAV
wish to learn what he can from first rate
authority"
KNIGHT OF FAITH, by Lydia Hoyt
Farmer, author of "Life of La Fayette."
Short History of the French Reyolu-
'"i' S'N' - S' 'S'iNie, new Ork and
Chicago.
The author of "a Knight of Faith, saws
IN the preface: In the realm of fiction
great truths can only be limited, not ham
died" Now it strikes us that Miss Farmer
would do well not to stray into the " realm
OF hclion" at all, but to simply handle
great truths OF which she is very capable
Our readers will recall with pleasure her
"Short History of the French Revolution -
AS must crack the nut to reach the
Kernel, so we are willing to read the rest
ofa Knight of Faith for the sake of tina
great truth which the characters in the
book are made to give utterance to. The
authoress seems almost inspired when she
gives us proof after proof of her perfect
faith. The religion she gives is that "God
Is love, and although she never ignores
the fact that He is judge as well as a
Father, we feel that He is more than a
judge. lie is king, and after Judge has
sentenced king can pardon. The book
must be help TO all who read it carefully,
II appealsto to both head and heart.
-
John Ward, Preacher" is going into its
htty-iirst thousand and appearing in trans
lations in German and Dutch. The A 4io.tic
announces "Sidney" as serial bv Mrs.
Deland, the author of John Ward"
WilkieCollins complained of the difficulty
or imagining place or character which
mad not its original in real life. After he
had described the house in "Armadale (" a
gentleman called upon him and upbraided
M MN Tor putting his residence into print.