New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-24
SOME MEXICAN ESSA VISITS.
PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING. LAUGHING AND
IDLINCi.


IDLING.
THE ART OF LIVING BY Robert be Grant Illus
! ". H. Hyde. l2no PIP 800. " Charies
Scribner's Sons
THE REFLECTIONS OF a MARRIED RI,H0 M AN By BY
ISL CHARTS scribners Sons.
THE OPINIONS OF 4 PHILOSOPHER. BY Robert
Grant The Cameo Edition Emo. PIP. 226.
Charles Scribners Sons.
coUlHMs A AHdT Dfv ERB AND vAR
OTIS ASPECTS OF LIFE, BY Edward Sanford
Martin. lsmo. PIP. 225 81 25 Charles scroners
Sons
LITTLE RIVERS: A BOOK OF ESSAYS IN
PRoFiTABLE IDLENESs. BY Henry van van
Dyke l2mo. PIP. 29i. 81 Charles Scribner sons
The character Of Mr.. Grants conception OF the
| "art" OF living may be readily inferred from the
statement made early in his manual. that the ac-
complshment is impossible on an annual income oil
5000 or less a distinction must be made between
| the art of getting on In the world ana the ART Oh
living in the world. Between these two things there
is all the difference that there is between having
GA tmeal and boiled eggs for breakfast and being
able or wanting take your wife and friends every
night to the opera. The former requires at most
industry. self-denal. regularity; but the AFTER re-
auires in addition to these indispensable qualiues
COOL taste. The art OF living Is. therefore, pri-
marily matter Of taste. 1t is a view OF life
which Will not please the Phllisres any more thah
II VIII please the Socialists; but who is there living
in New-York or for that matter. In any other
great city. but must admit its cogency?
With TO wish t. dogmatize (Mr. Grant never dog
matizes, we may nevertheless risk the observa-
ton that while economy is the tapvoot OF ex-
istence economy may be pracsed In various ways
There is. for instance the economy OF the man VII"
an income OF 81 200 a year. typifed by Mr.. Grant IN
a person by the name OF Rogers and there Is the
economy Of the writer himself and his wife Bar
bara OF the two one may be described as an econ
onv of necessities the other as an economy OF
something approaching to Injuries Rogers Is
probably the happier but his happiness depends less
on his philosophy of life than on his ignorance OF
lifes possibilities. He Is not exactly vulgar, OUT
he is circumscribed Artistca.ly speaking he is an
amiable plchyderm and It is distinctly not 10 men
of Rogerss class that Mr.. Grants little treatise Is
addressed. In writing his graceful pages ne mas
had in mind rather the innocent devoiees OF the
eosbnots-the civilized man and woman of our
cities; the people to whom the problem Of getting
money is less perpeXing than the problem OF spend
ing IT, Such a class certainly exists ana IN the
United States is particularly numerous. ana is des-
tined as our National wealth increases to multi
ply still further over and over again, through
Mr. Grants pages one is reminded. as by the
burthen Of song, that have outived provincial
ism our forefatners kept help we nave SER
wants: our ancestors borrowed books. we BUY tnem'
they drove their own horse. we nave our coachiheh'
ings we look enviously at Sargent and CoFot' the!
attended Lectures for recreation we must have an
opera; their women made their own gowns ours
VOW they are In rags" unless their toilets come
from Worth or Redfern
Is this sign of deterioration? Yes and no.
Mr. Grant thinks decidedly that it is not 1t Is
Just a much a part of progress "a locomotives
and electric lights and cable-cars and LuDin
perfumes. Life is possible without them Dut lie
is more agreeable with them The question Is not OF
a return to primitive customs but Of the acquisi-
ton OF right philosophical modern ideas. Economy
Is still necessary, but its application Is dinerent
The contemporary young man of our cities with
brains and opportunities longer petitions for his
daily bread but for his daily sauces. The necessl-
ties Of existence are provided; his problem-and her
problem tools concerned with the graces, the re-
fnements of life In a word, living has become
as the result of natural and inevitable evolution
an art.
Such is we think. the underlying idea of Mr.
Grants volume this is the kernel of seriousness
which he has ngenously tucked away In shell
OF humor The thesis If we may be permitted the
word is elaborated In a score of chapters dealing
respectively with Income. the Dwelling House Fur
nlshIng and the Commissarat. Education. Occu-
patton the Use OF Time. the Summer Problem
the Case OF Man. the Case Of Woman and the Con-
duct OF Life
Mr. Grants other volumes are to be regarded as
parts Of the same book. and should be read IN the
former. II it must receive a subtitle. might be
called 1.-THE Tanning of Bachelor: the latter. II
subjected to the same ordeal. The DEMONSTRATION
OF Father" Mr.. Grant is the soul OF gcnality
and kindness Only he is given to audacity, to
telling tales out OF school, TO talking In public
about servants and butchers and cand.estick-
makers and plumbers and millinery and babies
I'm word about the thousand and one trihes
which make up two-thirds of the lives OF ordinary
people. but which, for some reason or other are
commonly spoken OF unimportant.
Mr. Grant holds squarely with Thackeray, that
mans ideas of the metaphysical categories have
a pcrverse way OF scu:rying out OF sight In the
face Of real domestic problem. In other words,
Eetaphysics-what is commonly known az philoso-
PHYS something for leisure moments. while
the real business OF life has at least lirstcousinly
relation with tradefok and collectors and your
wfc's new bonnet This veracious philosophical atti-
tude comes not In day. but spreads slowly a
bachelors consciousness like the poison Of
gas We have the wholesome recognition OF the
necessity of sacrhce ind spensabe pre-
requisite OF partnership, even the partnership
jugai the occasional assertion OF the old bachelor
self. as In a mild protest against restraint the per-
petual trag-comedy OF the clash of personality
within the limits prescribed BY abiding love.
The Philosopher. whose opinions Mr.. Grant has
collected In his second volume is Just his Married
Man grown oldera little more married. as the say
Ing Is, and somewhat more securely fatherly: and
as an unavoidable corollary OF this aforementioned
condition. constrained, often against his w.ll TO
pose as exempar before his fam.ly-to I've up
finally to that social position which he has carved
for himself The process Is beset by far
strenuous conscious endeavor than Mas the
with the Married Man. whose role II take
things as they came 10 be no wiser than the day.
in strict conformity 10 the scriptural injunction
that the evil is amply sufficient. The Philosopher.
on the other hand Is led by the natural adjust
mont OF his external conditions. and the conse-
qrent dim'nution OF the number OF points OF fr'c-
ton, TO turn his mind to matters OF relatively
more scholastic characterize The question OF the
new woman ITO humor his wife; to football. out OF
respect for his sons proclivity: and to Christian
Science. to combat an alarming lad" OF his daugh
ter. Winona These subjects. and many othera be-