The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-06
sessed by the unknown author. The

this Great Unknown be-"
He says the story is nasty" and
states that the uthor' most beloved
ictioaist" is Thomas Hardy. whom she
regards as first Of all noveIists, living
or dead" OF all his books. his cranky
Judge. the Obscure is, the critic
says. her favorite ook." We shall not
desire TO be made acquainted with her
unworthy creation. The Descendant"
It is now published in England that
Hardy is rather revolving from his own
bad books. Tess" the foul. and Jude
he impure. Al n rate. the Ameri-
cans critic states. and We have seen
the same statement more thar once
before. that Hardy is said TO have
abandoned the sex problem craze. a
| silly weakness in one who was master
in the art Of writing wholesome sto-
ries," and for the future Will follow
the line Of his earlier and cleaner
| stories" This will crafty all who adj
mire his great gifts and have read his
less Objectionable stories. His Two on
a Tower is not without signs OF de-
cay as TO moral fibre.
We read Doyle's Uncle Bernac." his
latest. 1t is pronounced his best pro-
duction," and that is saying a great
deal, by the critic OF a big southern
daily. We read il serially as il APP
peared in a leading American monthly.
The critic says il has since been re-
written and heightened by one-third."
Thu changed, we cannot dispute the
Judgment of the aforesaid critic. We
do not see how it could be made as
clever a novel as Micah Clarke"
1t will interest all readers of Justin
McCarthy's History of Our own
Times published some fifteen years
or more Ago., to be Informed that
it has been continued from 1880
to recently, and the new volume
has just been reissued in this country.
1t is an extraordinarily interesting
work. OF the new volume we cannot
speak, but it doubtless maintains the
excellent standard Of merit of the
earlier volumes.
The distinguished historian, Mr..
Lecky, holds to the opinion that now
adays it is necessary to be "resolutely
ignorant of a great number of sub
~jects." That is probably a wise say
ing. There are too many things to
learn to learn them all we'll. In Aha
north, and in other lands, perhaps,
specialism is the vogue. Men confine
their studies to special lines. This has
caused it to be said that where this is
the case there are no really educated
men," MI. Andrew Lang, the gifted
man Of letters. holds that Mr.. Lecky's
objection is not real, for, he " that
'resolute ignorance is tina
any other form of resolution. The nat
ural Incidence Of mankind is its con-
slant and unfailing ally"
Henry James, the novelist and essay
list, is now the London correspondent
of that constant enemy Of the south,
Harper's Weekly. MI. James is an ele-
CANT Writer-one of the foremost of
Americans, past and present, as a mas
ter of style.
We read DuNIaurier's The Martian,'
all but the concluding part. which we
nave not Se6ll, Will pdlilCbit 4ibS -
1t is very like in style to his other two
famous novels, is very queer, but funny
and fresh and tender, and will have a
great run when it is issued in book
form. The advance orders are very
large.
Mr.. Stoddard, the pOet-critic, refers
to the late school of historical novelists,
among which are SO many fictitious
ushers'' who are giving themselves the
airs of the masters" Well taken.
The new English edition of Carlyle's
works is said to be excellent as to style
and amplitude. That most unique work
of genius, The French Revolution
appears in three volumes. Say what
the carpers in this end of the century
may, Carlyle is one of the two or three
greatest intellectual forces of our CEN
fury among the English speaking ma
tions, and he is immensely enjoyable
after you have cultivated him enough
to learn to read him easily. He is very
inspiring and fascinating then.
The late Professor Jewett, of oxford
university (BallioD, was a friend and
admirer of Robert Browning, the man,
but does not appear to have been spe-
cially attracted to Browning, the poet.
He was even severe in his criticism. He
wrote this:
He deepens many things, unveils
and unfolds human nature, but he
deepens them into greater scepticism;
there is no rest in him. He is also very
| extra aga nt. DorEerSp. tO~pSy-turVV. OBJ
Scure; he has art without beauty, and
a grim humor hardly Ineligible. No
where is he really affected by the great
themes Of ~poets-lOve, or ambition, or
enthusiasm. Isolated in the world,
neither epic nor dramatic, but semi
dramatic"
Raleigh city ) per cent. bonds. amount
So. coo, sold for 500 1920.