The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-16
NEW BOOKS.
Hrtor Ra,Iews or Importaut ana 1ntsrostinH
HeU PubiIcatioue.

prier Re,iews or Important ara Hntsrostihs
New Publications.
.iThe stream of evil and OF good" says the
gentleman who writos under tho name OF Ben
jamin Swift. those two parallels which Always
meet, may perhaps best be represented py d
series OF Plutarchian parallel lines OF scounorols
and OF saints. Ileavo the saints 10 otner peo'
ple." In Jacob Bristol. the central figure OF his
now book. "The Tormontor" tscrlbnersh he
has certainly created a thoroughly COM
ploto and moro than satisfying scoun-
drel. Living in the wilds Of some noun
famous country that, We imagine. must
be Scotland, this extraordinary person not
only aspircd to DO a modern Mephistopholcs ana
Faust in one. but he had eyes that sometimes
looked like mouths and an unpleasant habit or
extracting deadly secrets from his ncighoors
and writing u record OF them In q vellum'oound
volume which no cheerfully described az "a
pathological museum Of specimens OF many
sorts Of spiritual mango" that looked like
mouths might we'll exert an extraordinary In
nuence, and as most OF the men and women
within reach seem to have had a deadly secret,
It is not surprising that the whole neiEhborhood
was in this bad mans power. Tho field of
his maleyolent operations was the village OF
Little Pines, which lies at Loeb Ludd's cold
feet" while Loeb Judd lies at tho feet of the
Great Mountains, somewhere, we imagine, in
that part OF Scotland east Of the sun and west
OF the moon. 1t Is q curious place. and the In
habitants use q dialect that Is, we hope. peculiar
to that locality. We do not know OF any other
place where people call their fathers "foothers."
and say "mim" and "by Jiv," or, even under
pressure Of strong emotion. break into exclnma-
tions such as "Och hoch !" and "Beh, beh T.
But, in spite of ali its mannerlsms and
absurdities, this story of Mr.. swift's is q very
powerful one. The theme is tragic. and ho
treats 1t with sincerity. His plain speak
ing is never cloakod by any of those pre-
fences under cover of which the hypocrit-
teal and sentimental hucksters stand in the
market place and cry their well.spiced
wares, and though he often strains unduly after
originality, he can rise at times to heights far
above the level of the ordinary popular novelist.
Murder Of q peculiarly atrocious kind, lust and
general depravity go to the making Of a story
that is distinctly unpleasant, but there Is life In
It and the reader is hurried on to the final CO.
tastrophe in spite Of himself. It is more closely
knit and less hysterical than the authors first
book, Nancy Noon, and whom he breaks away
from the habit of writing. at times, like Mr..
Meredith in a nightmare. he will DO not only
more effective, but much easier to read.
More than ten years ago Mr.. John La Fargo
began writing al Artists Letters from Japan"
for. the Century magazine, and since then Pierre
Lott. Lafcadio Hearn, Percival Lowell, Basil
Chamberlain, and many others have described
the country. each from his own point Of view.
and a whole army of globe ~trotters have record
ed their more or less valuable Impressions. But.
in their own field, these letters are still without
a rival. and are we'll worthy of republication in
the handsome form in which they are now issued
by tho Century Company. with the artists
ave f1- far,,, and an1or W To E.--o a1-.
bines facility Of expression and a simple
style that does not puzzle the reader with n
parade of those technical terms and catch
phrases 80 dear to the ordinary writer on art
matters. In all his diRressions he is q pleasant
guide to follow; nor does he. even in his most alb
stract speculatiOns, ever cease to be Ineligible.
Many n Western writer has tangled his readers
In the mazes Of a hopeless attempt to expound
the mysteries of Tao, but Mr.. La Fargo is mer-
ciful. and never takes us far enough to lose US,
while his disquisitions on Buddhism are light
ened by that excellent story Of the Omaha re-
porter, who, on being told that the purpose of
tho artists visit to Japan was to find Nirvana.
came back like a fash with the retort, Are you
not rather late in the season T.
But it is from the light they throw upon jap
nnese art, rather even than from the charm OF
their descriptive passages and pleasant digres.
sions, that these letters take their especial
value, and some knowledge Of the influence OF
Buddhism and Chinese history and conventions
is q necessary preliminary to the understanding
Of that art Mr.. Lott gave us an amusing pic
ture of tho little old gentleman of Nagasaki,
who, all his life. had painted storks and given
them, az interesting souvenirs, to the friends of
his wife. To the Frenchman one such picture
was almost q fac-simile Of another, but Mr..
la Fargo, looking with a trained and sym.
=
the work Of the artist who makes even
the smallest piece of bric-a-brac. "a thousand
times, many thousand times. you will have the
same subject. but never the same rendering.
never the same object twice represented. That
is to say, that whenever 1t Ia worth while we
can get at the most valuable and costly part of
the work of art. the humanity that made It, the
love Of something that went with the work. 1t
is this that makes the my stery Of the charm Of
innumerable little pieces of older work, like the
metal work that belongs to the old swords.
any one Of which is superior to anything
that we do. unless In the rare cases
when we bring in the expensive life of a
great master to rival it-some part of the work
left by a Barge, a Cellini. a Pisano." Many per-
sons arc content to sum up Japanese art in
come such generalization as that it is great in
small things and small In great things" but a
writer like Mr.. La Fargo may almost persuade
us that, with his simpler methods, the artist Of
old Japan came nearer to the inner significance
OF things than the exponent of the academic
principle. working from the model in studio
light, and vainly attempting to rival the pho.
tograph.
The publication Of a book entitled "Haw-
thorne's First Diary, with an Account OF Its
Discovery and Loss" by Mr.. Samuel T. Pickard
Houghton, MiHlin s. CO.., may possibly arouse
once more some mild controversy as to the gen.
uIneness or otherwise Of these extracts, which.
in Mr.. Pickard's belief. were copied from a diary
kept by Hawthorne. when. as a boy. he
lived at Raymond. Me. The whole story of
the mysterious diary is q curious one,
and all the circumstances connected with
its supposed existence and its unaccount-
able non.productiOn arc strongly tainted
with suspicion. Mr.. Julian Hawthorne. in his
life OF his father. says that he has been unable
to see in 1t "any trustworthy evidence. either
external or internal. of its being anything else
than a clumsy and leaky fabrication" while
MI Latham In HE Hinn.a-io.I .Io,.L -