New-York tribune., 1903-02-14

m. hoou ne essavs by Carl Hilty, professor Oh
,av i'm tho University of Bern, which has peeh
published in Switzerland and Germany 10 ~
sued here by the Macmillan Coihp'hS.
translation is the work of Professor Feauou, =,
Harvard University The title OF the oooh :"
..Happiness: Essays on the Meaning Oh Aii
The Macmillan Company has added this week
tn IT'S "Cathedral Churches Series 'oiuiiie
on the church at Stratford- -on-Avon. oy faroi0
Baker
The latest contribution to the olscuss
gun in The Tribune three weeks aso' ~ a.,
resemblance between the plot Oh MIS-
novel LADY Roses Daughter" and the aolu"'
-. :, am. de Iespnasse appears in Inc
ps.or uara1d' The opinion of that 5ourhai 10
+ba+ the resembances 'are striking anu eA
+end To so large a number of curious oetail''
small as we'll as great, that IL Is hhpo
ESCAPE the conclusion that MIS- "alu
her story deliberately on the life Oh this ia'ouS
French woman of the eighteenth century. Inc
thing need not be argued: it can De 'aheh ~.
granted" The writer believes that thS' q"
least deserves to be said: That thet transcript
is so exact that there would seem 10 pe Ao
thought or desire for concealment," but ne coh-
tinues follows:
The Questions remain then, whether or not she
was Justified in any case In thus appropriauns
to the uses of fiction the Whoie sloIy W VI 1ias ~
actual historical personage VINO al sun or mo no
through her letters to-day, and Whether OF NO.
supposing she was justified at all, she was JuS'i
fed in taking this story without credlt. .,
On the latter point can unhesltatlheiy
answer No such proceeding would be in di,
rect opposition to the unWrltten canolis u eWet
conduct In literature. The only point nol ye'
decided is whether no Mrs Waro n<s a. a..
wavs intended to insert into the story. on lts
publication in book form PREDATORY no.e ~ au
mtting her indebtedness to the letters ., f
|
blame on this score: and, since PREDATORY notes
to serials unusual. she cannot De henu 70 70
have offended very seriously IN onIItniS "
| make due acknowledgment hitherto. The pooh
will not be out for three or four weeks ..,,u
AS to whether or no Mrs; Waro was ~,rt,e,. "a.nar
! her rights in approprating her hero.ne's career
| bodily from that of a real person, thls pohlI
| admits of argument. Mile de Lespinasse dleo
| in 1776. Her letters, published soon AFTER ner
| death were at the time widely read. Few edl-
| tions followed; the book was never Tor tne
many Two years ago Miss Katharine Prescot
Wormeley translated the letters into English
together with Sainte- Beuve's essay on their
author and various tributes to her, and Messrs,
Hardy Pratt 5a c. ones eTe in ne London the
following month Considering the exigencles OF
magazine publication, it is fair to assume that
| the manuscript of Mrs. Wards story was IN
the hands of the American publishers at Just
about the same time-it began to run IN Har-
per's last April or May. This is the only Eng
| iish translation ever made It is perfectly fair
to assume that Mrs Ward mad no knoWedse OF
it whatever at the time she dispatched her
manuscript to this country.
French editions were few after the beginning
| of the nineteenth century, and we learn on good
authority that in all biity there had been
no edition of the book even in French for forty
years. It was practically, If not completely,
out of print and unobtainabe. True that the
| letters have been highly admired by French
critics: If they were out Of print in France, and
If they and their story and the career or Mile
| land and America, the matter appears IN a
| slightly different light. If Mrs. Ward supposed
that she was so to speak. 'resurrecting BURIED
| literature the position is altered
| For plenty of authors among them, if memory
| serves Mr.. Marion Crawford, have taken stories
| out of old forgotten chronicles and, using them
| as skeletons, have constructed novels without
altering the original framework 1mpropr1ety
does not attach to this proceeding in the small
| est degree. The cases. to be sure, not paral-
lei, since it would be difficult to maintain that
| the letters of Mile de Lespinasse are, or were,
| buried literature or forgotten chronicles; but
they certainly did not exist for England the
| United States when Mrs. Ward wrote her novel.
If, as seems probable Mrs. Wards attitude is
| something like that above suggested there still
| remain two three points in regard to which it
does not appear how she can escape some cen
sure. In the first place, the appropriation was
too extensive, the woman too famous, the affair
| too near our day. Again, Mrs Ward offered her
readers. temporarily, a creation which she
| claimed her own, through not stating the
contrary. Practically nothing in the character
| of Julie LIE Breton is Mrs. Wards her varia-
tions from her model consist in the fact that
| Mile. de Lespinasse has distinction, grace,
! charm, a great soul, friendship with which
would have constituted a liberal education,
| while Mrs Wards heroine merely has distinction
| attributed to her.
| What is going TO be hardest to forgive in the
| whole matter is the debasing of the character
| of Julie. ''One of the famous amoureuses of the
| eighteenth century''-these are Mrs Ward IS
words In describing her model; it seems to af-
ford the key to the whole thing. is it not as
plain day that Mrs. Ward, through her char
| acter. environment, her world, her race, her
| temperament, her whole outlook upon life, is
| constitutonally unable to understand or to ap-
| precfate great passion? Translated into the
| sordid world of late nineteenth century London,
with money behind the motives. Julie is dragged
| a long way down from her niche beside Sappho
| and Helose
economy in the University of Chicago will pub
lish shortly, through the Scribners, the first
of series of books he has projected on ques-
tons Of finance. In this volume, which is called
1.-The Principles of Money" his aim has been to
make "a separate and orderly exposition of the
principles Of money. quite independently of their
countless historical applications" he says
in his preface, to clear the field for further
discussion of practical details such as metallic
money and its history in the United States
paper money here and in foreign countries and
banking.
| George Moore. the day that he finished his
new book, The Untitled Field with a
bicycle accident, breaking his right arm close
to the shoulder. In letter, to his publishers
the ]. B. Lippincott Company, he writes that a
worse break could hardly have happened. The
| result of it will be, he says, that 1 shall have
a stiff for the rest of my life. 1 help
| less for the moment
February % is the date set by the Lothrop