The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-11-10

man. In plain terms. what business Is
1t OF ours? Because man gives his
thoughts TO us. must we therefore assert
a propriety right to his life as we'll? True,
too mary OF our successful authors are
only too glad to court Inc nutorietY of
which they pretend to complain; but this
is no good reason for the obtaining of
that notoriety. tits an unhealthy thing,
both for authors and public. this defect
its true object. tho book, to its iHegiti-
mate object, the writer; it tends to. pro-
mote puerilc curiosity in the one and un-
bearable conccit and self-coasc.ousIess in
the other. And which of these two
things is the most deplorablc may remain
as an unsettled question.
THE TRUE THOMAS. JEFFERSON BY
William Eleroy Curtis. ]. B. Iipplncott
Company, Philadelphia
Fourth in the list OF the true Dlo-
graphies comes that OF Thomas Jener-
son, written by William Eleroy Curtis.
We have had prectdentedly the true
biographies of George Washington, Ben
jarniu Franklin and William Penn. Ihete
righteousness in the adjectival part of
the title as if no other biographer had
ever tried to tell The truth of these men,
or else of pretcrnaturai knowledge, as
being the only writers who could 0ene-
tratc into the complexities of human ia
ture and show il as it really is, but prob
ably the intention was to give impression
of absolute fairness, untinsed by paIt'-
sanshiJ. OF course. such "a thing is I'M
III,
and the result of this series so far mas
simply been to add some very excellent
Biographies to orr libraries. but nothing
to our knowledge. THE True, Thomas
Jefferson forms no exception to the
rule IT is a well-written biography,
from which We learn nothing new. Inc
comm entS CT the author are not OIL as
great value as are the facts which lie as
sembles. and his very desire to be impair
tial leads him at times into strange in
consistencies.
The fact seems to be that Mr.. Curtis
tried so hard to be perfectly honest that
he left his mind perpetuallE free to tht7
impression of the moment ana never
gained a concrete conception OF the chaI-
acter of the man he set himself TO pic
ture The result is failure OF course:
but the biography. considered simply as
n collection Of facts and apart from It's
comments, is interesting and readable. 1t
throws no new light upon the character
of .. man who was never easily comprc-
lensibie; but it gives us many cetalls Oh
his lie, and SO is Of value. r. IL X.
THE BASTILLE. b.! D. Bingham. James
Pott & Company. New York.
In two s,Imptuous volumes comes to US
the first american edition of The Bas-
tile by Captain the Hon. D. Bingham,
a work first published in England Ill lses'
and hitherto inaccessible 70 American
readers save in English editions. Cap
tin Bingham;s work is founded OIL the
seventeen volumes of the Archives of the
Bastillc. edited by NJ. Ravaisson, who
spent twenty years on the complication
of his work but unfortunately died just
as it approached completion. The hlsto-
~, while solnew hat fragnentary in parts,
is on great interest and value. The story
of the Bastille, which is the story or It's
prisoners. is traced for the four centuries
of its existence until the day When 1t
went down before the fury of the frantic
Parisians A terrible story tits; a: story
of crime undergoing punishments and tor
lures which hardly any crime could justl-
fy. or innocence suffering Incarceration
of the most severe kind. of cruelty seek
ing every means devilish ingenuity could
devise TO wreak revenge for often minor
fault. Sorlbre. suilen, holding IN its
breast Of stone many fearful secrets, the
Bastille stood for centuries visible ana
ever-present thread in the great capital
of France, until it came to represent to
the maddened people the ultimate form
and spirit of tyranny and SO was rent
stone from stone until nothing remained
but a, name Of terror.
- ". H. c.
TIC GIRLS. BY Heloise Edwina Jersey.
Small, Maynard & Company. Boston
This book is not among those which
ar evident signs of having been writ
ten merely TO sell. 1t is plain that Miss
Hersey is earnest in her desire to be OF
assistance to girls III the formation OF
their characters. She addresses terselfto
those who really desire to be worthy
women, and if her audience may be rela-
lively small it will at least be of a type
that can appreciate her efforts in its be-
half She divides her letters into three
series-"About Education: About So
cial Relations'':: and About Personal
Conduct" OF these. the last seems to us
By far the greatest in value as well as