The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-18
xrW HooKai
CONTINUED frprn ssventA rap..

I-.
Continued from Seventh Pd0e.
Nor are we moved to any unnecessary degree of
enthusiastic interest on learning from the lettor
OF another smart woman that the heat OF a
London summer made the children irritable,
and that Evelyn had a rash. In fact, the one
strong point about this method of book making
lies in its infinite possibilities OF expansion. By
judiciously filing In with q dinner menu or a
laundry bill here and there this kind Of
correspondence could be carried on for
ever. Mrs. VIM. II. Makeway, ormerly OF
Buffalo. 10 not altogether unamusing whom, in
writing to her sister. she says: u sometimes
wonder II some of our grandmothers flor even II
wo didn't have grandfathers We must have had
grandmothersl. II some one Of them-hope not
ttco-didn't mako O woo slip once whom royal
personages woro about OF course, there is no
use Boosting Of royal blood in ones veins whom
It has no business there, but that would
account for certain things. You may 70.
member the old portrait Of mothers mother.
She looked q perfect duchess" This seems rather
hard on Buffalo, which we have always looked
upon as a place where grandmothers and other
unprotected females were fairly safe from tho
p~iratical attentions OF any rowing Lotharios of
royal blood. But, ns we have said, Mr.. Fitch
docs not. we think. profess to DO q conscientious
ceaaoNt oae y 40 AholO ththah aSeN ~Nsf
Makcway and hcr grandmother and tho rest Of
these smart persons are evolved from his own
inner consciousness.
What ia q mystioi And how shall we attain
that blessed state of earthly happiness In which
tho soul of tho poet alone is within us. and I'VE
carry a light within so that wherever we 60 we
cast no shadow. and. walking in the light, we
can have no fearf r. In Message of the Mys-
tics" tAlice B. Stockham & Coz. Mrs. Mary
Hanford Ford. in a series of three volumes and
at considerable length. attempts to tell us, and.
while she succeeds in leaying the subject in a
misty and not unpleasing obscurity. she In
cidentally puts forward one or two interesting
points of SPECULATION. In one volume she
treats of Balzac as a mystic. We know that he
carried a turquoisc.headed cane and wore n coat
with jewellcd buttons so magnificent that when
not In use he always left IL, for safe keeping. at
the bank, but Mrs. Ford traces the mystical and
metaphysical quality of much Of his work.
among other things. to the influence of q vegeta-
rian diet and the drinking Of inordinate Quanti-
ties Of strong black coffee. And this loads her to
an incidental and interesting subject Of specula-
tion. As We read othis discipline, a question al
most instinctively arises, could We establish
forcing schools for genius. and would o cur
riculum founded upon metaphysics and starva-
tion with directions for the drinking Of strong
coffee at intervals create novelists and poets of
q required pattern :" We believe not. And
even Mrs. Ford herself does not appear to
have much faith in the idea. 1T is to
DO feared" she very wisely says, that
the genius and enthusiasm. tho volition
and power to renounce Of q Balzac could not be
obtained by any process Of education or incuba.
tion." Still the experiment might possibly DO
worth n trial. l. should be comparatively easy
to obtain the embryo poets and novelists; the