Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-09-28
NOTES.

this country for Martha McCulluch VIII
liams's Next to the Ground has ex-
tended to EngIand, and Heinneman, the
London publisher, Is soon to bring out
an English edition of this very charm
ing and wholly sweet and sincere little
work.
From the very time OF its appearance,
Mrs. Williams's book has had remark
able success. 1t came out modestly, and
without the aid OF fulsome advertising.
and yet it never failed TO win instant in
terest and approval wherever it was read.
Among the criticisms of which the author
is most proud is that of r. L. c. White.
writer and poet, and a man of much
spite of his deep and long cherished anti
pathy to all things rural and bucolic, he
found himself unable to lay aside Mrs.
Willians's book which took its inspira-
ton from the very heart OF nature, until
its last page had been turned at o'clock
one morning. Critics and reviewers all
over the country have Joined with en-
thusiasm in a chorus of similar praise,
even careful publications, and chary of
praise, as the New York Sun not hest
tating 70 give it the warmest commenda-
again to Whites 'sSelborne," and oddly
enough, too, when it is known that of
such works this is the one which has
made least appeal to the writer's fancy.
Mrs Williams has told me that of
scores of reviews of the book. that have
been sent her from various papers and
magazines. she has not yet received ono
adverse criticism: and in letter recently
written to her from Oxford by we'll
known magazine writer there. she is as
sured of the interest with which Heinne-
mans edition is being waited for in Eng
land.
Mrs. Williams is a southern woman.
and one who takes great pride in her Vir-
ginia ancestry. and her success is a mat
ter of personal interest and congratula-
ton to all southern people.
Victory Bateman. joint author Of cat
the Stage Door" is an actress of peculiar
charm and talent. and her sincere imper-
sonations and faithful studies and labors
in stock work, together with great sac
riiice which it is known that filial obl-
cations have laid upon her, give a strong
suggestion of autobiography to some Of
the tales in the book. She is now a, men,
Der Of the Boyle Stock Company of Nash
vile, Tenn. Ada, Patterson. the other au-
thor of the book, is a young newspaper
writer Of New York.
Lovers Of "Festus," whose patience in
found a reward in the music of its out
ward form, as well as in the stateiiness
and beauty Of its thought, will feel q
renewal of interest in this almost for
gotten work by the announcement of the
death in Nottingham. England, of its
venerable author. Philip James Bailey
wrote this ambitious poem when but a
boy of 20, and though in after years he
added largely to 1t, increasing Its scene
and scope, he rather obscured its mean
ing than added TO its strength, and no
later edition has ever possessed the full
dramatic strength of the earlier and
briefer volume. Yet with all the over
abundance and ragueneSS Of detail with
which the best known form Of the poem
is burGened. it still remains a creation OF
great beauty of language, as well as of
much loftincss of thought.
Probably the best known Of its lines
are these:
1--WE live in deeds, not years; in thoughts,
not breathS;
In feelings. not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He
most lives
Who thinks most. feels the noblest. acts
the best.
Life's but means unto an end: that end
Beginning. mean and end to all things
God"
But the following passages taken al
most at random from the book show its
thought:
LET each man think himself an act of
God.
His mind a thought, his life a breath of
God;
And let each try, by great thoughts and
good deeds,
To show the most of Heaven he hath in
him.
I'VE live In every age; we think and
And feed upon the coming and the gone
AS much as on the now time. Man is
And he hath one great heart