New-York tribune., 1901-11-30
WASHINGTON.
NEW POPULAR BIOGRAPHY.

,roeGE WASHINGTON. BY Norman Hapgood
GEoortaro. pp. xi. 41s- The Macmillan Company.
-,e axiom that every generation wants its
biography OF national hero is pointedly
.rated in the case of Washington. We had
so very long ago. life of him by Pro-
o- woodrow Wilson. Mr.. Paul Leicester
- has published The True George Washing
Now Mr. Norman Hapgood gives US in
=. George Washington volume in which he
,s like his predecessors, to disentangle truth
.-on, tradition, to portray the great leader and
.s-esraan as contemporary readers demand
.,o. he shall be portrayed, hot simply a
..tesman and leader. but a man. This
.b;rd essay, in the more personal vein of biogra-
bv was not perhaps, very much needed. and
~ Bapgood has certainly no striking ideas on
&c e,1biect 10 communicate. But he can hardly
!. blamed for wishing to produce q companion
,lun,e 10 his popular Life Of Lincoln and.
furthermore. whether this work be necessary
o- not il is gratifying that one of our younger
u-riters should show ambition in the more seri-
ous maths Of literary activity. This narrative is
,-su nut together, and IT is interesting The
euthor has Enthusiastically taken pains with his
reading. and he gives us an admirably clear
81 teInent OF the facts, He seeks to find in them
q ratification of the hypothesis roughly outlined
IN his opening paragraph, which runs as fol-
lows.
The for remost man in our history showed his
greatness not in the even current of life. but in
his manner OF meeting important events. The
more reality is felt to be above romance the
higher will he stand. Goodness is universal
rather than peculiar, and the greatness of
Washington had its base ia the power to be
largely and impressively right His eye received
none of those phantoms whose unreal but in
sriring beauty makes the heritage of the poet
Born 20 lead of the most difficult move
Of no only he
were and his life illustrates the sublimity that
truth and strength may reach without beauty
or Imagination. OF how little import is genius
compared with justice; charm, compared with
humanity; the hues of fancy, compared with the
price of bread; how far dearer to the race is
Washington than many genius whose visions
have been the joy Of millions
With this idea of Washington before him, Mr..
Hapgood is unremitting N his solicitude for a
truthful representation Of his hero He has no
Illusions about him. and he endeavors to keep
his reader from having any. Cherry trees and
miracles" he remarks. were invented for 4
hungry public" and in another place he says:
That Washington could not tell a lie we no
longer believe. That he would advertise for
runaway slave if his proceeding were not TO be
known north of Virginia, we know" In his
eeneraizatons from the unquestionahle facts OF
this sort which he has died, however, Mr.
Hapgood is not invariably persuasive. To say
that Washington was not a QulXote is accurate
enough; il is true that his feet were always on
the earth; but TO say that he was not even
beautiful or imaginative SOUL is hardly fair
There may he no trace of the imaginative there,
but if greatness. and singleness Of purpose, and
splendid honesty mean anything, it was beau
tiful soul. Mr.. Hapgood allows the fact that
Washington grew up not only like an aTistocrat
but like pioneer to SO warp mis- judgment
that he can talk of his being homely in text
ure'' a characterization almost phenomenally
infelicitous. But, started by saying, the
public is in no lack of guides TO the exploration
Of washington's life and character; knowledge
of both is constantly filtering through the read
ing of every body; and so it is unlikely that any
one will be unable TO check Mr.. Hapgood on
those points where correction is necessary. To
his credit be it said that such points are COM
paratively few.