The herald., 1896-10-25

Sfs Whers life n Beneath the S sun IS IS shadow
less"
The torn sails flap the rudder is undone,
The bright hulk rots that our young Wis
ions bore;
That purple island sleeps not meath the
And still we wander on a shadowy shore.
CHRISTINI ROSETTI. From Crit
ical Kit-Kats. Gosse.
She is known to the world and very
happily known, by the brothers. por-
traits of her, and in particular by the
singularly beautiful chalk drawing in
profile dated 1865. think that tasteful
ARRANGEMENT of dress might have made
her appear a noble and even romantic
figure as late as 1870, but as suppose
an ascetic or almost method distic reserve
caused her to clothe herself in style
or with an absence of style, which was
really distressing; her dark hair was
streaked across her olive forehead and
turned up in chignon; her high stiff
dress ended in hard collar and plain
brooch the extraordinary skirt sank
over belated crinoline, and these were
infections hard to bear from the high
priestess of -Raphaelism. When it Is
added that her manner from shyness
was of a portentous solemnity; that she
had no small talk whatever, and that
the common topicssof the day seemed to
be entirely unknown to her, 1t will be
understood that she was considered
highly formidable by the young and the
flighty.
I have seen her sitting alone in the
midst of a noisy drawing room IKE
pillar of cloud, Sibyl whom no one had
the audacity to approach. Yet a kinder
or simpler soul, or one less concentrated
on self, .pc of a .humbler sweetness, never
existed. And to an enthusiast who
broke the bar Of conventional chatter
L. = 4
seemed to open like an unsealed foun-
tain. The heavy lids of her weary-look-
ing, bistred, italian eyes would lift and
display her ardor as she talked Of the
mysteries of poetry and religion.
Since the last use of these columns,
two weeks ago, William Morris, the, vet
eran English poet, has passed away,
as has also Mr.. George du Maurier, two
Of the great names in the world litera-
ture. 1t may be of interest to know that
the whole manuscript of Martian is in
the hands of the publishers, but the
Critic says it understands that the H.
illustrations were not completed.
Speaking of March Hares, by Harold
Frederick, as a sort of literary frolic,
some one asks: .,Do all the earnest nov.
elists have some similar method of re-
1axing, one wonders? Does Mr.. How
ellis ever disport himself in Wonder
land? Has even Mrs. Humphrey Ward
her hours of ease? Assuredly, the habit
ought to be universal, and copies of
March Hares might we'll be distributed
among those authors who are weighed
down by their obligations to the actual,
with the injunction, 'Realists, please
copy"
Within the last few days two memo
riq1S hQUa hnpu ny1h1io1v dodtcutod npo
Is tablet of brass erected to the men,
ory of George William Curtis at Ash
field, Mass. Prof. Charles Eliot Norton
delivered the dedicatory address.
The other is a memorial library build
ing in Philadelphia. The building con-
tains, besides the library and reading
rooms, large hall. 1t is a modest af-
fair, in plain brick, and there are men
and women waiting to equip and run
It in the interest of popular education.
The building cost only $1,000. OF these
two memorials can it be doubted which
Is the better and worthier?
THE AMERICAN, GENTLEMAN IN
..n FICTION.
Our attention has been called to
certain peculiar phase of our national
fiction. 1t is asserted, and with much
apparent pith and force, that no Ameri-
can novel has pictured a high type of
6cHtlcHidil, SUCH DIS eAlSlS III every walk
OF real life, but, on the other hand,
pictures of sordid, selfish and ignorant
Americans abound in our fiction. In
short. but very suggestive, paper by
Mr.. James Lane Allen, in the current
Bookman, some reasons are given for
this. Most novels" he says, "are those
of attack. The main business of the
novelist is to array and to arraign the
vices, the weakness, the wrongs, the
failures of masculine human nature un-
der the conditions of our New World
civilization. 1t is to show that men
who are SO sometimes at the top Of our
national life by reason Of wealth, birth,
descent, education, travel, manners, or
other form of power, should not be at
the top but nearer the bottom. It is
philosophically literature of discon-
tent with the imperfections of the re-
public as embodied in its representative
men. 1t variously exhibits these men
as money-loving, or unscrupulous, or
hard, or shallow, or dull and uninter-
esting, or supercilious, or caddish, or as
touched with European fiunkeyism.
The protest may take on hundred
forms; but always it amounts to saying
either that these representative charac-
ters are not truly American, or that
they are truly American in what is to
be regretted and assailed."
But why should our story writer's al
ways be. assailants? Why not make
CNA 6oAtiSHlcL Ill HCJlOn WnaC our gen.
tlemen are in real life? The balance is
not kept, but simply because 1t is easier
to tear down than to build IN. shall
there be no building up? viii there
never be Scott, or Thackery. who
shall create fine and enduring speci-
mems of American manhood in its f,,I1
form Of civilization? They are eyery-
where else. And why not in fiction?
Messrs. Appleton & Co. are about To
issue some very important and promis-
ing works. Among them may be named
Alterations of Personality, by Alfred
Binet; A History of Life in the United
States by Edward Eggleston. and Genius
and Degeneration by DR.. William
Hirsch. These books will attract un
usual attention. l.l s,,
The Growth Of the French Canadian
Race in America is the subject Of mon
ograph by Professor John Davidson of
the University of New Brunswick, re-
Gently published by the American Acad-
emy of Political and Social Science
In this essay the author examines into
the truth Of the statement of Malthus
that population, when unchecked, goes
on doubling iself every Twenty-Five
years. The French Canadian race is
taken as an example to illustrate this
rule because 1t is an isolated, homo
wayta1rrn 6rs5>r ~ xsrt.foh Il nooaifIo -,