The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-12-23
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

u
The first course in the Percy Turnbull
Memorial lectureship of poetry at the
Johns Hopkins University was given in
1891 by Mr.. Edmund Clarence Stedman
on g the nature and elements of poetry
What he did in.that course for English
poetry Prof. r.. G. Jebb, of the Cam
bridge University, has done in the lee
lures delivered at Baltimore last year,
for Greek poetry. These lectures are
now published in book form with the
title The Growth and Influence of CLASH
cal Greek Poetry. (Boston Houghton,
Mif1in & Co.; Portland: Loring, Short
& Harmony Since Jowett's death Prof.
Jebb is indisputably the first .Grecian in
England. Indeed his studies have been
wider than those of the famous Master of
Blliol, who devoted his great energies
and his scholarship particularly to the
elucidation of Plato; for the Regius
Professor has takensall Greek literature
for his province, though the poetry of it
is his chosen field in this latest essay.
70 criticise these lectures would be pre-
sumption, and even praise is perhaps
superfuous. Only description is left to
us. The book contains eight chapters,
the first clearing the way by notable
discussion of the distinctive qualities of
the Greek race as expressed by Homer,
the Hellenic mind as disclosed in the
Had, and the influence of land and
climate on Greek development a dis
cussion prefaced by brief exposition of
the Egyptian. Babylonian and
their relations to the Hellenic mind.
The two succeeding chapters are devoted
to Homer and Hesiod. Greek lyric
poetry and its course of Development
Tyrtaeus, Theognis, Simonides, Sappho
Alcaeus, Stesichorus, Anacreon, Ibycus
Alcman and their peers-form the sub
ject Of the fourth chapter. The fifth is
given to the fight of the Theban eagle;
and through the affinity of Pindar's
spirit to that of the Attic drama the
reader is led up to the study Of the
tragedian and to the wonderful develop
ment of comedy at Athens by Aristoph-
anes-against whom by the way Prof.
Jebb takes up the cudgels for Euripides.
whom it has been so much the fashion
to depreciate. The Attic drama forms
the subject of two chapters. The clos
ing chapter is given toTheocritus and to a
consideration of the enduring claims of
Greek poetry-the author concluding
that "All that is most beautiful and
most instructive. in Greek achievement
is our permanent possession; one which
can be enjoyed without detriment to
these other studies which modern life
demands; one which no lapse of time
can make obsolete and which no n ultipli-
cation of modern interests can make SUI
perfiuous"- I'd to comment on the con-
trast between Hellenism and Hebraism.
Prof. Jebb expresses the wish that this
book be considered one of series to
which other volumes by other writers
may in due course be added-a wish we
fancy in which all scholars will join.
The publication of the latest volumes
of Pierce's Memoirs of Charles Sumner
has revived the controversy over the
Massachusetts, Senator's relations with
President Grant and Secretary Fish in
the matter Of the Alabama claims and
the recall of Motley from the English
ministry. Mr.. Pierce has set forth the
Sumner side of the controversy with
great zeal and considerable acrimony:
and now Mr.. J. c. Bancroft Davis comes
before the public in a defense of the
President and his Secretary of State in
volume which he entities A Chapter