The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-03-25

like the Bible, The Pilgrims Progress, Robinson
| CruSoe. Tho works Of the founders and the ora
tors are in too many cases accessible only in ex-
| pensive editions But most single monuments
and often collected editions of the master works
OF English literature can lie had cheap. They
constitute the best possible department for in
strucrion in English. Immense numbers OF new
| works. especially novels sold, hut principal
~ among the class that reads for amusement and
from habit The best literature is still the most
popular literature.
Nv Page complains that the magazines are
dull and badly written. lie must he regarded
a. an expert in the subject. but it seems 10 US
that the trouble, ii there is any trouble with
the magazines, is due 10 the fact that they are
largely written by people who have nothing to
say although often they say it correctly enough.
The newspapers collectively form an immense
force compared with which the magazines most
widely circulated are insignificant. Some OF
the newspapers are written well and some i'll,
but they have high standard. on the whole,
and in what they write themselves and in what
they report OF the sayings and doings OF the
world they supply an English education of eN-
eelent quality and amount. They make mis-
takes in English, but not many considering the
circumstances under which they have to az
pear, and not many compared with writer's who
have more time Newspaper English is often
eered at by some of our friends fhe professors,
but it is excellent in its general characteristics,
its clearness in making its point, its straight
forward movement to its end And the errors
in it are usually mechanical and not due To the
ignorance of the writer
Mr.. Pages plan OF a school OF writing is JIM
teresting. Much can be done bv systematic in
struction i'll English. The influence OF Prof.
Edward ITrel Charming upon his pupils at Har-
ward showed that. But successful noyelists, sue
cessful essayists, may have gift for instruc-
tion; and If success is judged by commercial
standards, they may be awkward and inaccurate
writers, full Of solecism or of afectation. A man
in whom the impulse of creation is strong may
be unable TO create anything TO justify the I'M
pulse. We should say that the best way 10 learn
to write is 10 read, but the instinct the natural
feeling of style, the grace and easiness cannot DC
taught to all men, perhaps not to many men.
cold correctness may be forced INTO an uhWlil-
ing subject but nature frownS at the process
Still, it would be good 10 see the st-Sraduate
school of writing The founder would get fun for
his fortune and the successful essaNlstS ana novel,
lists would have fine chance OF glory
Mr. Edwin Emerson, .Ir., who won, perhaps,
the unique distinction among war correspondents
Of reporting the Spanish American war at ms
his own initiative and at his own cost, has IL
that his constant companion was the late sam
uel Pepys deceased Mr.. Pepys, who has not lost
his trick of contiding his thought to paper, mas
requested Mr. Emerson to transcribe his impress
sion in legible, material print This he has
done in Pepys Ghost: His Wanderings in
Greater Gotham and His Adventure in the Span
ish War Richard G. Badger Co
Ii is some years since Mr.. James Jeffrey
Roche caught the public ear with the keen
wit of his poem the Vase. The work OF more
recent years, headed by the verses which give
the title, he has gathered in small volume
called the Vase. and Other Bric-a Brac. Rich
ard G.. Badger x Co.
BENJAMIN and Charlotte Martin have NOR
tised the scattered Stones OF Paris in History and
Letters into an ineligible structure. The past
is reconstructed; we meet and fall with me IN
fuences that shaped Cornelle, Racine, Moliere,
Bossuet and La Rochefouchauld. and that brought
about the latter reaction OF Hugo and the ro-
hanticists of the thirties. Illustrations by
Messrs Fulleylove and Delafontaine, and the
ANONYMOUS contributions OF the camera are
great aid Charles Scribners' Sons.
"THE ANGLO-BOEH CONFLICT, ITS HIS
TORY AND CAUSES" is small book of 1875
pages by Allcyne Ireland The book brings the
history of the troubles in South Africa down
to the outbreak of hostilities, beginning with
the year 1852. The author has spent twelve years
in studying British methods of colonization, and
writes with much original observation. The
book is published by Small. Maynard & Co.. of
Boston. Price, IS cents.