Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-26
GOSSIP FROM BOOKLAND.

For some time feature of the edito- rials of the Sunday edition of the Herald has been the Herald Sermons" and so lucid and clear cut have they been in the expression of vital truths that they have caused widespread comment They are written by the Rev George H. Hep worth. author of Hiram Golfs Reh- gion" "The Life Beyond" and others.
 Brown Studies" bears the imprint of the past year, and is characterized by the same healthy tone and earnest views. While writing pure little re- fiective love story the autho" manages to write many homely truths. which are forcefully, yet acceptably, put. In these Brown Studies the interest is aroused at once when the hero exclaims:
 ".I have a theory. Walter,' I said, that at some time in middle life man ought to ejaculate himself from his enN1foh- ment by sheer force and spend a lew months in some wilderness, where he can make his own acquaintance, take an Ill, ventory of his intellectual stock, and ma out whether he is good for something CT only good for nothing
 "A very pretty theory!
 "'And a wholesome one,' I insisted: T have been rubbing against my knd until my flesh is tender and paintully seh- sitive, and I am going to winter m the woods with the cartridges ana lhe cioooS and the stars.
 ".You are q bold man, with bold eX- pertinent on hand. If you can i've Wl,h yourself six months you will do mol than most men. It is frlghtlul test oi endurance. .,,,,
 A normal, active being such as thls: with a determination to rusticate ana ruminate over the ways or thlS nluipahI sphere, unattended in a camp l'ltciieu amid unfreuuentcd wilds, is sure TO give nI wholesome adN1GG HUH the heart that will reach out anu uioP in fertile and responsive soil.
 Of this author, the Rev. George H. Henworth. it is said that he is one of the few clerCymen who have made goon newspaper writers. He IS tall erect. vigorous man, and looks as II ne ehJoys the best of health. He is the editor or the Telegram. The great chaIia ne'; VI 'nS1 Brown Studies" is in their graceiui reminiscent style, and no doubt n large share of the authors success Is que lo his thorough knowledge Of human natuIIe and 0 happy knack of adapting hithse.i to each individual mood and fantasy Tn this ready art who will not immedlateIy recall Ik Marvel in his delicious Dream Life" and "Reveries, when he nestles so close to our own consciousness thae one feels life has been entirely Valn II one has not been an old bachelor ana had such luxuries as pipes and wreaths or smoke and dreams, etc.? And even the old farm at Edgewood takes on new beauties and meaning as the reflective mind continues to evolve and discover treasures.
 MT. Hamilton Wright Mabie fig another of these piquant dreamers. and beside My Study Fire" the reader readily be- lieves himself a confidant and friend and listens sympathizes and believes.
 In this little volume MT Mabie. who is the associate editor with Dr. Lyman Ab- bolt of the Outlook, and most cultured lecturer and writer. says:
 Sometimes, beside the lamp at even ing the book closes In the hand because the mind swiftly flies from it to some distant and splendid outlook. or on the solitary walk the man stands stiil with beating heart because the mind has sud denly disclosed another and dlViner land- scape about him.
 Thus it is as we read these delightful literary meditations the mood is con tagious, and we. too, become fanciful, though entirely absorbed.
 Dainter in conception and more airy by far than either of these are the intui- tive perceptions and reflections found among the leaves of a little work called "In Maiden Meditation" by E. V. A. In her charming little preface she says:
 When In Maiden Meditation l began to record the flying thoughts that have come in the midst of dinings and dances I was often puzzled to know the children of my own brain from those of my adopt ed fancy. However, MT. Emerson ranks the quoter of a good thing next to the origina tor"
 After all, why should the reader care? Who among us is wholly original? Was 1t not Goethe who said, "There is noth- ing worth thinking but has been thought before. We must only try to think Il again?" And he further says: 'To say thing that everybody else has said before as quietly as if nobody had ever said It. that is originality.
 And that is just what Miss F. V. A. has done. There may be thoughts ex- pressed that have a familiar ring. but the essays are all so thoughtful and in- irrespective that We are charmed by the phiiosophical meditations. The surface is airy and changeable. Beneath we de- k tect the undercurrent of the power and mystery of woman's heart life-the old theme. "love"--that inspires. If not the most the best of these reflections.
 Even the prince of dreamers, Henri Frederic Amiel, confessed that 'I am always waiting for the woman and the work which shall be capable of taking entire possession of my soul and or be- coming my end and aim.' or course ne failed. though he uttered some of the finest of philosophical truths ever pro duced from mortal brain. It was Amiel who said
 ."The more a man loves the more he suffers. The sum of possible grief for each soul is in proportion to its degree of perfection.
 Spite is anger which is afraid to show itself: 1t is impotent fury conscious of its impotence.
 Look twice if what you want is just conception Look once If what you want Is sense of beauty.
 '"rhe most beautiful poem there is In life--the life which dscerns its own story in the making. in which inspiration and self-consciousness go together - life which knows itself to be the world in little, repetition in miniature of the di- vine universal poem. Yes, be man; that is to say, be nature be spirit, be the image of God, be what is greatest, most beautiful most lofty in all the spheres of being be infinite in will and idea, reproduction of the great whole.'
 This Journal Intime, this monologue. is the most important work this great