The herald., 1894-02-25
tsY sEHYMRR. |

William Doxey, the well-known book
seller OF San Francisco. 1t is. Petrarct
and Other Essays. by Judge Timothy
HI. Rearden. The introduction OF the
reader to the author is given through
the medium oil two biographies
sketches by Warren Olney and Ambrose
Bierce. In speaking OF the death o.
Judge Rearden in his sketch, Mr.. Biercs
says: "In his death California has ex
perienced q loss OF which she is moi
presently conscious, and which is more
likely to be adequately estimated in
another generation than in this. A
lawyer dies, and his practice passes tc
eshers. A Judge falls in harness
another is appointed or elected, and the
business of the court goes on as before
frequently better. But for the vacancy
left By scholar and man Of letters
there are no applicants. To that there
is no successor neither the governor
has the appointing power nor the people
the power to elect. The vacancy is per-
manent, the loss ilreparable something
has gone out OF the better and higher
life OF the community which cannot be
replaced, and the void is the dead man.
best monu ment, invisible but imperish-
able. Other scholars and men of letters
will come forward in the new genera
ton, but of none can it be said that he
carries forward on the same lines the
work OF the vanished hand nor de-
clares exactly those truths OF nature
and art that would have been formu-
lated by the voice that is STILL"
Rearden was one of Bret Harte's lit
erary coadiutors on the old Overland
Monthly, and one of the brightest, with
a sharply accented individuality OF
thought and style. One OF his best and
earliest essays is given in this volume,
Francis Petrarch, the title essay. the
subject OF which was the first and great
est lyric poet of the Italians, the last
and greatest of the troubadours. A
sketchy review ia given containing his
early life, his disappointment in love,
his intimate relations with Boccaccio,
his children and his many deeds OF
kindness, his morbid passion for Laura
and. finally. the last days OF his life. 1t
is great tribute to great man, q man
who stood out from his age as pure and
symmetrical in character as an antique
column left standing amid the ruins OF
his own dear Rome, after Gothic de-
vastations. to mark TRUSTING place for
lovers, and surface wherein to engrave
the date of the regenerate birth of
classical and philosophical learning
In modern Europe out of the mingled
ashes of monkish scribes and gallant
bards of Provence. The authors tribute
TO Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, lie
equally good. He reviews Tennyson's
youth, passed in an English rectory, his
hfa at Cambridge. hia stndy of nature.
compares his work with those OF Pet
rarch's Rhine and Millions Lycidas. He
treats Tennyson as closing poetic gem
eration. He finds him in sympathy
with every great poet from Dante down.
ward. He finds him, as it were, the end
of the renaissance. Tennyson felt the
need of being in full sympathy with the
scholarship of his day and attained it.
From the authors ideas we infer that
Tennyaon's successor must not rest as
he did with Virgil and Theocritus, Dante
and Shakespeare ga his masters and
guides.
He must 90 back to the cradle of the
world, peradventure, to find there not
models but mysterious metaphysical
forces wherewith to WHY his verse.
This new poet who is the Iopas that
comes after the Phemios of Her Majesty
Victoria's court, must, in any event, ss
part of his poetic task, learn to clothe
the present ariditv of science in graceful
garb. He must be a Lucretius to the
Memmii of the next race. How he will
work, what elements he will en-
ploy, what emotions invoke, we of
this age cannot declare, any more than
Coleridge could have foretold the sue
cess and glory of Tennyson.
An interesting little essay is under
the head of Ditmarsch and Klaus Groth,
q Plsttdeutsch chat. The subject of
languages is touched upon and poetical
selections given. A pleasant chat is en-
Works. Ths closing article in essay
form is the discussion, in a sketchy sort
of way, of the subject of ballads, and
incidentally and by way of DEPRESSION
OF lyrics. Ballads and lyrics is consider
ed very broad subject, but the author
has done justice to it from the lyric
form which started more than % centu-
ries ago down to the ballad OF compare
lively modern poetic form. A fitting
close for this mastery volume is his last
bit of work, that noble poem for the last
memorial exercises before his death OF
tuo 0IhAu hiAhy pOSp W "bACA ho Do-
longed. The title OF this poem ia The
Sea The Seal aHd it was written for
the memorial service of the George II.
Thomas post, G. A. R., of San Francisco,
held May 8, 1892. 1t was read on that
occasion by a member of the post. Judge
Rearden being i'll at the time. He died
May 10, 1892. This memorial. 30 pre-
pared for his comrades, was q fitting re-
QUEEN for himself:
"Life's fevered day declines; It's purple twi
Draws lenEth'ning shadows from the broker
TANKS:
And from the columns head viewless chic
is calling:
Guide rig close up your ranks"
For sale by william Doxey, San Francisco
Cal.
One of the latest books from the Arenl
Publishing company of Boston is Al
Apocalypse OF Life, by w. I. Cheney
This book, after years of thought, Wa
finished in 1891, but has just been pub
lished by this well-known firm.
This ID an age of acknowledgements
rialism in thought, in research, in dis
covery, in human life and aspiration ant
even in religion-for modern Christiani
tv has fallen from the gospel OF pur
spiritual life, taught by Christ, to re-
liQion of material ceremony, form an,
ritual. The purpose OF this book is t
give new meaning and new hope to hu
man life; to exalt the purpose. idea
and scope of human life in 90 sacred q