The herald., 1898-09-04
BOOKS AND THEIR MAKERS
of the same tone and quality are these

or the same tone and quality are these
lines:
IN DARKNESS 20. ..,
I have faced life with courage-but not now!
Oh Infinite, In this darkness draw thou near.
Wisdom alone I asked Of thee, but thou
Hast crushed me with the awful gift OF
fear.
Some of the love passages In these noe
turnes are very delicate and sweet, like
these lines, from "A Street Vigll:"
Here she has gone
Until the very stones have taken on
A glory from her passing, and the place
Is tremulous with memory Of her face.
Throughout the score or more OF poems
besides the nocturnes runs the refrain
OF the devout disciple of nature, as in
"The Hermit" and ''The Solitary Woods
man." These poems cannot be pro-
nounced great, but they have an excuse
for being, and will therefore live.
SOME MORE PHILOSOPHY OF
THE HERMETICS. Issued by au-
thority. Published by B. r. Baum
gardt & Co., Los Angeles, and the
Alliance Publishing company, New
York.
When Some Philosophy Of the Her
metics" was issued, several months ago,
1t was reviewed at considerable length
In these columns, and some extracts
from the book given. 1t was frankly
confessed to be too much yelled in mys-
terry to make the doctrine clear, but ad-
mitted to be an exceedingly attractive
book. This new volume is longer than
the former one, and even q better speci-
men of book making, which Is great
praise for our local printers and pub
fishers.
We said Of the first volume:
There are many eloquent passages In the
volume. and the style is terse and simple;
but taken altogether It is not easy to un-
derstand or reconcile. Its plan Is not very
plain and the construction necessarily frag-
mentary. 1t may be the venture of one
person or 1t may be symposium, very like
ly the latter, since 1t would be unusual II
one hand were to pen plain preaching and
paroxysmal rhapsody side by side.
This Is in substance what strikes us as
true OF the present volume, but it is fair
to say the body Of the work is less shroud-
ed In mystery, and on the whole there Is
less rhapsody. The press notices that we
have seen have been on the whole IA
vorable. but 1t does not appear to be easy
to make exact definition of the body of
doctrine at the bottom Of 1t all. 1t seems
to be most in favor with the free religious
or purely philosophical thinkers, and is
not clear to the average reader. It is not
easy to see the advantage Of the stu
diously mysterious style, largely in the
form Of rhapsody. which characterizes
almost every page of the book. DR.. Jor-
dan Of Stanford said Of the first vol
ume:
1t is full of sound wisdom, thrown into a
striking literary form which seems to hide
the commonness OF its common sense"
1t Is book to be encouraged. and 1t ought
to be practical help to many In the con-
duct OF life.
1t is easy to say so much, but even Dr.
Jordan finds something which hides the
commonness Of its common sense. Quot
ing from the prospectus. we learn that:
The authors method is pre-eminently
scientific; data are to him as food and
drink. Empirical from first to last, he ap-
peals directly to reason and the much de-
splsed common sense. He presents to the
reader mirror where, as likely as not, he
views himself for the first time. Some OF
the essays are weird rhapsodies, as myste-
rious as the plant Of the wind and the
singing Of the brook.
The symbol Of the Hermetics Is the
sealed packet-a token OF secrecy that
answers a needed need. In the preface
the author says: "a certain symbolism
in guise OF parable and Illustration, was
used by the great Masters of philosophy
and religion-Jesus and Gautama to say
nothing of the Masters In Egypt-ere
written history began. The symbol con-
denses, and carries great deal of mean
ing along with 1t, that pages cannot ex-
press"
The volume is made up Of short essays,
score or more, written in epigrammatic
style. bold, but yet so mysterious as to
battle the ordinary reader. The first vol
ume. although copyrighted by Judge
Hatch of this city, was generally sup
posed to be the product of several minds,
But we think 1t is now understood that
Judge Hatch Is the author of all the es-
says In both volumes. We said Of the
first volume that it was sure to attract
attention, and the same can be said of
this. But we confess that we cannot de-
fine the exact scope and purpose of the
book, or the body of doctrine as 1t must
lie in the authors mind. We shall try
to give some extracts later.
o & O
~ CAA - WI WEEh. by Annie EllOt
Trumbull. A. s. Barnes & Co.
Here Is very pretty account Of sum-
mer life, being the record and observa-
tions Of party Of four bright people So
journing for week on the sands of Cape
Cod. 1t is. New England through and
through, and, albeit the local color is
so pronounced, 1t will be entertaining
to the dwellers on any sea or shore. The
people were Doris, Doto, Dynamine Kali
lianasa and Nellie. Being brought up
on the almanac which showed no days
Of rest at home, they flew one gray day
to the sands and the stunted trees of the
cape; and the way they tell the story
of weeks stay is very entertaining.
Notes
"The Story Of America" by Hezekiah
Butterworth, published by the Werner
company, has just gone into its fortieth
impression.
The Macmillan company is contem-
plating bringing out an edition de luxe
Of "Tennyson's Life and Works." in
twelve volumes. The edition will be
strictly limited to 1850 copies.
A collection Of tales by Ian Maclaren
will shortly be published by Dodd, Mead