The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-02-18
The EBOOKS0F The WEEK.
Mr.. H. D. TraiIPs Characterization of
Salisbury.
A STATESMAN'S DISADVANTAGES
A Study of Roman fc--Reprinted Car
lyle Lestures-A study of Greek Philos-
opby-Lectures ON Literature Other
Literary Notes.
A British Statesman.

THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. BY III.
ID. TRAIL, ID. q. l.. New York: Harper a.
Brothers
Mr.. Traill's subject is n man who has
been all his life surrounded by disadvant-
ages so tremendous and advantages so
eminent that we know not whether to he
surprised at the commanding position be
has assumed in the world OF statesman
ship. or take it quite AS matter of
course.
with any insight mnst possess whose an
cestors were, as Mr.. Gladstone has grace
fully said of his great rival, statesmen ten
generations ago in England, would be TO
any man powerful incentive TO high EN-
deavor. But the British aristocracy pre-
sents to view so many Marlboroughs and
Clancartys and Savernakes and Queens
berrys whose high lineage has not held
them back from base or silly pursuits, and
the atmosphere of perpetual adulation in
which great lord lives in his ancestral
halls Is SO apt to lull the fortunate man
into idleness or indulgence, that much
credit must be given man like Robert
Cecil, who rises superior TO his surround
ings and without the spur Of necessity or
the whip OF want runs so far and SO fast
in the race of craftsmanship. IL is an
achievement less notable when an untitled
commoner succeeds.
Mr.. Traill has written an appreciative
book, being neither blind 10 his subjects
virtues nor TO his faults. He finds that
Lord Salisbury is too cold TO be popular
aud so disdainful Of demagogic arts that
he runs TO the other extreme and fails TO
enemies where anothers would merely
stir the political atmosphere and he has i'm
one important instance yielded to the
views of those who believe that ''the policy
oil n Conservative party in a democracy Is
TO give larger promissory notes than the
AL Nvl hal hDr wit or xx-tt hon bc
design, not long since recommended of
subsequently, repudiating the signatures. {"
But on the whole, Mr.. Traill writes ap-
provlngly and conservatively of Lord Sal
isbury, and closes by saying that " il is
far more important that he should con-
tinue TO lead the Conservative party on
conservative principles than that he and
his colleagues should remain ministers of
the Crown'-advice which would have
been not at all TO the taste of the immortal
Disraeli, whose brilliant device il was to
''catch the Liberals in bathing and steal
their clothes"
From Pythagoras to the Neo-PIatonists.
A STUDY OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY. BY
ELLEN NJ. MITCHELL, with an introduction
by WILLIAM RoUNsEvILLE ALGER. Chica-
go: ,. G. Griggs * Company
Mrs. Mitchells volume is an outcome Of
the work of two OF the women's clubs with
which the country is dotted and which
apply themselves, usually with success,
TO the study of many things, grave and
gay. Its genesis was in st. Louis and ii is
dedicated TO the Kant Club of Denver, to
which its writer's energies were at a later
date transferred. Its clear, concise chap
ters are devoted to setting forth in lumi-
nous English the rise of philosophy among
the Greeks, the teachings of the Ionic
school, the significance of the Pythagorean
doctrines, the culture of the Sophists, the
sources and characteristics of the Socratic
philosophy, the ethics of Plato, the logic
and metaphysics of Aristotle, the teach
ings of the Stoics and Epicureans and the
aims of Neo-Platonism. Without pre-
tending To be exhaustive or give the fruits
Of original research, il is an excellent sum
mary, intelligently covering its field, and
giving its readers at a glance what it were
much pains TO collect unassisted.