The herald., 1897-03-28
THE uNRETURNING.

THE UNRETURNING.
Earth, knowing not eld. in thy youth al
divine,
Though the ages unceasing are evermor'
once more be birth-thrilled. until forth
from thy womb
Throng the myriad forms of the worlds
waking bloom.
For the sweet O. the year. great Earth'
mother is here.
And 10! on the uplands the flowers appear
And blithe is the wing, and the song II Is
glad,
And our yearning hearts only are heavy
and sad.
Earth, mother undying, thy tender arms
So safe in thy bosom the dear things asleep
So strong is thy pulse-beat TO biG them
Know battle and conquest and hunger and
pain,
The insistence of growth, the fair crown OF
the leaf -
The fruit in its ripeness, the rich bending
Earth, this thou canst do, yet our dearer
And return not again from their beds hol-
lowed low.
Our hearts are nigh breaking with bliss
In the midst of the rapture how lonely the
soul,
Comes the bird to the green bough, the bud
to the tree,
But not from the darkness my earrings 10
Margaret E. Sangster in Harpers Maga-
zine.
Do not look upon the books which you
have to read as mere books, as mere
things to be got up for examination,
but take a personal interest in them,
or rather in their authors. Love them If
YOU can, or despise them if you must,
but make them live again. think of them
as your friends, as, to certain extent
like or unlike some people you have
known in your own life; take them as
belonging to the same world in which
YOU live, as fellow workers in the same
great work for which we and they, nay,
the whole human race were placed on
this planet of ours; not merely for
amusement or idleness, but for some
very serious work, and for some very
high purpose.-Max Muller's How to
Work" in the Fortnightly Review.
THE BEST SELLING BOOKS.
The lists would be made up some
what differently today, no doubt, but
three months ago the best selling books
were Kate Carnegie" Sentimental
Tommy" THE Seven Seas" Margaret
Ogilvy," "The Seats of the Mighty,
Days of Aud Lang Syne." To these
would now be added THE Courtship OF
Morrice Buckler," The Sewers, "On
the Face of the Waters" and Quo
vadis." All these are by foreign auth
ors, mainly British.
The six American books selling best
were King Noanett," THAT First At
fair" THE Country of the Pointed
Firs," "The Hon. Peter Stirling
"Marm Lisa and Child World" and
while these latter are excellent volumes,
they do not compare with the great nov
els that come to us from abroad. In
fact, our own literary journals have
to confess this. but do not seem to care
to inquire into the cause of this plain
and lasting difference between the works
of the two nations.
And not only do English books sell
best, because on the whole they are
much greater works, but many of our
American leaders in literature are going
abroad for q market for their wares.
AS a matter of fact, it has come to be-
the general rule that an American
writer when he becomes famous goes
abroad to reside and work. The names
of a few of these will readily occur to
our readers: Henry James, Marion
Crawford, Harold Frederic, Bret Harte,
Mark Twain and John Oliver Hobbies.
We observe, too, that there is less fric-
tion, fewer jealousies and a fairer field
abroad than here. The foundations of
literature are broadly laid there, and the
market has fewer cramping limitations.
No bubble of reputation gives a writer
renown and fortune. Everything in the
line Of success seems to be fairly earned.
We cannot truthfully say that our story
tellers are so patient, so devout in thei"
efforts as the successful British author
is compelled to be; and the result is that
we have no such creations in modern lit
erature-that is, in what we call cur
rent literature.
Nor, if this be admitted, should we
sorrow over it, or quibble over it. We
are all lovers of English literature, at
the best and broadest, and we are young
yet More than this, we are all of one
stock Everything thathas come down
from the great masters of English liter
ature Is ours as much rs it is an Eng
lishrnan's. This heritage il a common,
one, and we must not mistake or under
value it. Whether there ever will be
an American literature, easily compared
with and distinguished from that of our
kindred over the water, we cannot say;
but it is plainly far away now. And over
this we should not mourn. We are
keeping excellent standards and fulfill
ing the required conditions; and We shall
come to our own. Never was anything
more wholesome than the honest dis
cussion of this question now going on
and we fully agree with the Dial in its
conclusion in the matter For one
feature of the critical reconstruction
now in full swing we may all be devout-
ly thankful, and that is the growing
tendency to break down the artificial
barrier between American and Brit
ish' literature, the growing realization
of the fact that, as men essentially of
one blood and one speech, Englishmen
and Americans are at work in the pro-
duction Of a common literature. De-
spite the occasional mouthings of liter
ary jingos upon both sides of the At
lantic, the lesson is now fairly learned
that the standards by which we judge
Tennyson and a Wordsworth must be
the same standards by which we esti-
mate the worth Of Lowell or arsEmer-
son.
SOUTHERN STATESMEN OF THE
OLD REGIME. By William p. Trent.
MA, Professor in the University of
the South One vol 12mo Xv-293 PIP.
(Vol XIII in "Crowell's Library of
Economics and Politics.D Gilt top,
with portraits; 81.
Washington, Jefferson Randolph, CAL
houn, Stephens, Toombs and Jefferson
Davis are the seven statesmen whom
Professor Trent has chosen as represen-
tatives of political conditions now for