New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-11-08
III

This passage brings us to the interesting ques-
ton to which reference made at the outset,
the question of producing history with almost as
much reliance upon pictures upon prose. Let
the reader consider carefully the details OF the
passage quoted and the details of that full page
drawing which is supposed to be in harmony
with it, Napoleon in Society at Vaence. 1ISj.
This wonderful production shows Partisan
group where Professor Sloane meant II TO be
provincial. Nay. IL Is neither provincial nor
Partisan, but such rocco and artificial Knot OF
figures a clever artist will fabricate out OF
plentiful supply of chic and wardrobe OF cos
TUNES initiated from the last century Worst OF
all. the eager youth whom Professor Sloane in
PRODUCES is replaced in the illustration by an
Image OF wooden stiffness and absolutely no
facial character. We cannot take the comforta-
BILE view that reader will be deceived by the
picture. Experience has shown for years that
the illustrator has a tremendous hold upon his
public. In fiction it Is admissible. In historical
works we believe ne should be restrained. 1t Is
Impossible to refuse admiration to the enterprise
and skill which have secured Professor Sloane
a pictorial accompaniment that Is often brilliant.
but one must acknowledge that much Of the
brancy Is Of the most speclOus kind. The
gorgeous reproductions in colors OF military
paintings once conspicuous in the Salon seem
irrelevant and drawings like that melodramatic
one which exhibits "Bonaparte Pawning His
Watch strike the judicous eye sentimen tal
TO the point Of Stiffness. The principle underly-
ing them all Is partially sound. but in the last
resort 1t gives us pause.
The incisve sketches of Tacltus. the facile and
discursve talk OF Pausanias, anticipated the In
stinct Of the modern historian to hold the read
er through a vivid statement Of what he has to
say through an appeal to the eye as well as to
the mind. and It Is not improbable that the
ancient writer's would have looked favOrably
upon such aids to descriptive prose as Professor
Sloane has enjoyed. Fancy the great Athcnian
guidebook with pictures drawn on the spot un-
der the eye of its author! Pausanias would
have thought himself lucky. Herodotus would
have perhaps envied the establishment which
the brush the pencil. the camera and the print
ing press can now give to Macauay. Yet the
fact that the latter. one of the most popular
historians Of the century. has not yet been pro-
duced In an adequately illustrated edition. Is It.
self a reminder Of how recent invention Is
such an edition How recent and how ambg-
uous! This tardy employment Of art the
handmaiden of historical literature has been
due partly TO the slow development Of repro
ductive processes Still! more has 1t been caused
by the persistence Of a great literary tradition
beside which the method illustrated by the pres
ent work is observed to take not altogether
commanding position. No matter how personal.
how intimate how conversational the historian
might be--and in the time Of the Renaissance
especially the historians Of Italy proved that
they could be minute to the point Of garrulty-
there does not seem to have been any one until
the time Of Carlyle who was willing to forget
that the historical gait was meant to be more
or less formal. With that formality there has
gone naturally, the indispOsiton to rely much.
II at ALL upon the interpretative ministrations
Of art We do not ignore the wOodcuts and en-
cravings upon metal which crept into many a
history written In the fifteenth sixteenth and
Immediately succeeding centuries They were
sometimes elaborate. and have seen many
q musty volume which was interviewed with
quaint representations Of cities and people. But
historical Illustration in any sense Of the term
that can commend respect Is a purely modern
affair. 1t Is not merely modern. 1t is product
Of yesterday or. at furthest. Of the day before.
Gibbon Is no less remote from 1t than Pliny. and
when this Is said 1t Is not alone the practical
side Of the question that Is touched upon. but
that temperamental side to which allusion has
just been made. Men did not want illustrations
quite as they want them low, and II they wanted
them at all 1t was with entirely different at
titude toward them that they wrote their books.
Men like VILLAIN or Matarazzo or Froissart or
Holinshed would not have known how to move
among such pictures were got together for
the recent new edition OF Green's Short History
of the English People: and coming to Professor
Sloanc's volumes they would have been puzzled
by his easy acceptance of such a panorama run
ming through his text Once they had made his
point Of view their own. once the thing had
touched their Imagination. II Is probable. has