The record-union., 1899-06-18
Literature. and
Literary Workers.

Professor Albert A. Nicholson. head
instructor OF physics in the University
OF Chicago since 1892, who has just
ueen elected an honorary member OF
the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
was born in Strelna, Poland, in 1907.
he has found time to invent several
Important instruments for measuring
iength by light waves. The invention
.hat brought him most fame is an in
.efIerometer, which not only measures
lent waves, but counts the waves. His
Hrs1 notable invention was an instru-
,nent Tor measuring the velocity OF
Hgnt. He measured the standard me-
.er at Paris asst year. He is also the
inventor of spectroscope that has a
msner separating power than any other
instrument in use.
= :
Three works by Geoge Borrow have
nltherto been somewhat neglected. Two
OF these, 1.-The Death of Balder," q
translation from the Danish of
Johannes Ewald, and "Targum, or Me-
tr1cal Translations from Thirty Lam
guages and Dialects were reprinted In
limited edition about ten years ago.
Or the third, translation from the
or the Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Ed
din Effendi,'' few copies of the origi-
nal English edition remain unsold.
Napoleon's little efforts as writer of
romance are pleasantly recalled by
The Saturday Review" His first at
tempt, made in 17SS, is but a fragment,
based ON AN incident in Corsican history.
HnrQca l,o1
subscription for Corsican patriot i'm
INJURED in a debtors prison in I,onflon
Napoleon sketches an imaginary cor
respondence. It ends thus: "Milard a.
Iheodore-You suffer and are unfortu-
nate. Two claims quite sufficient to
ehclt the pity of an Englishman Come
oul oI your dungeon and receive 5000
francs pension for subsistence" Napol-
coi al nus HE was an Anglomaniac
Hianque At this time Paoli was living
ln the best society in London ON a pen
sion from the crown. Is it wonderful
mat 10 every Corsican England was the
land of promise?
We find the love of Corsica and ad-
miration for England united in a much
longer romance written in 1888 or 17S9
1t is headed "Nouvelle Corse" 1t pur-
ports to be written by an English trav-
eler who finds himself on the small ISL
and of Gorgona. His tent is set on fire
at night and he himself narrowly es-
capes destruction. The author Of the
mlschlef was COrsican maiden who
would avenge the wrongs of her couu-
try on the supposed Frenchman. When
her father, a ''vieillard vertueux," ap-
pears on the scene, he conducts the
traveller into the cave he inhabits and
addresses him thus: 'sSois bienyenu.
Anglais. Vous regnez ici La vertu a
lie droit d'etre veneree en- tous lieux."
The English are virtuous, the French
are "hommes brutaux," lies amis des
mechants." The old man swore ION
his altar" never to pardon a French
man. There is no denouement to this
savage little story. The virtuous En-
glishman does not marry the Corsican
girl or do anything except to listen to
the old mans abuse of the French. out
IN spite of the extravaganza of the
language, there is evident sincerity in
every word.
We find two other sketches for nov
els written before this neither of them
founded on Corsican subjects. The first
has an English plot 1t is strange now
the young Bonaparte's fancy plays
round things English! The hero is the
Earl of Essex, who, being along with
les lords Russell ct Sidney animes par
Iamour commun de la patrie conspi-
rerent contre Charles II. ct son frere Ie
Duo d'York." Sidney is described as
I'm de ces patriotes infexibles ou'an-
lme lie genie des Brutus. des Thra seas. >.
This is quite in the approved style of
revolutionary eloquence. The Countess
hears in her sleep cries of "Jeane Bet
zle, chere Jeane," and. later on, scomme
ellie etait au milieu du Pail Mall" hears
some one say, lie Comte dEssex est
mort" She finds her husband assassi-
mated and shuts herself in her house till
lie Due York fut detrone" All this,
though bald enough, even in the origi-
nal, shows that the author had read
English history
His last romantic effusion is remark
able rather from the reflections of the
writer than the subject It is the old
story of the masked prophet which Tom
Moore made use of in '.Lalla Rookh,'