New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Literary Studies, anecdotes and a
Book on Siend.

series can boast Vivacity indeed is indis-
pensable to Mr. Chesterton. He writes with the
joyousness and the veheIhence of unhridled
youth. Since he has reading and opinions,
with the full courage Of the latter, this makes
him diverting: but we cannot say that it makes
him an authority This book gives US an inter
esting impression rather than an edifying in
depreciation and criticism OF Browning. He
SAYS arresting things. Thus, THE Ring and
the Book strikes him as the great epic of the
age and when ask him why, he declares
that IL is because it is the expression of the
belief 1t might almost be said of the discovery.
that no man ever lived upon this earth without
possessing a point Of view. No one ever lived
who had not a little more to say for himself
than any formal system of justice likely
to say for him. 1t is scarcely necessary to
point out how entirely the application OF this
principle would revoutionize the old heroic epic
in which the poet decided absolutely the moral
relations and moral value of the characters
From this point Mr.. Chesterton has no diff
Guilty in proving Brownings modernity. He
proves a number of other things. But some
how he fails to prove that Browning was quite
the poet that throughout this volume, he takes
him 10 be- We are thrown back. therefore, up
on the mild interest TO be derived from the au-
thor's clever and ninlble way OF talking around
his subject This is one Of his characteristic
passages:
If Browning and George Meredith were each
describing the same act they might both be
obscure; but their obscurities would be entirely
different. Suppose for instance, they We're oe-
ecribing even so rrosaic and material act
as a man being knocked downstairs by another
man, TO whom he had given the lie. Mereolth
description would refer to something Whlcn an
ordinary observer would not see, or at least
could not describe. II might be a sudden sense
of anarchy in the brain of the assaulter, or
stupefaction and stunned serenity in that or
the object of the assault. He might write,
''Wainwood's Men vary in veracity brought
the baronet's arm up He felt the doors OF ms
brain burst and Wainwood a swift rushing
of himself through air accompanied with
clarity as of the annihilated." Meredith, In
other words. would speak queerly, because ne
was describing queer mental experiences But
Browning might simply be describing the ma
terial incident OF the man being knocked down.
stairs. and his description would run;
what then? You lie and doormat below stairs
Takes bump from back
This is not subtlety but merely kind of in
sane swiftness. Browning is not like Meredith.
anxious TO pause and examine the sensations
of the combatants, nor does he become obscure
through this anxiety. He is only so anxious to
get his man to the bottom Of the stairs quickly
that he leaves out about half the story
The author of 1.-THE Faith Of Robert Louis
Stevenson" CFleming H. Revell Company, Mr.
John Kelman, jr., declares in his preface that no
apology is needed for another book concerning
his subject Well, we will not urge him to
composition of these three hundred pages on the
religious aspect of a man into whose character
and affairs too many Investigations have already
been made. If they are TO be justified at ALL it
IS by virtue of the biographical thread on which
the author hangs his lofty observations. Two
of his chapter headings are The Instinct OF
Travel" and THE Man Of Books" and these in
dictate more or less the narrative form to which
he returns again and again. 1T is his close ac-
10, 1lacTnn f
saws of his hero. which has most significance
for us He was literally STEPPED in its thought
and sentiment. for hts nurse read it through TO
him several times. and must have read some
parts of it until he knew them by heart
Stevenson quotes and alludes to ii with fire.
quency. an aptness. and a sympathy that bear
witness to much firsthand knowledge" Notes
like this. or like those on Stevenson's acquaint-
ance with the Pilgrims Progress" will do
but after all, similar notes have been accessible
for some time in the great mass of Stevensoniana
that has accumulated. and Mr.. Kelman's ESQ
teric developments of his theme could easily be
spared His belief in God was so far removed
from any reasoned metaphysical conclusion that
we have described it as a highest form OF a
spirituality which belonged rather TO the Re
ligion of Sentiment than to the Religion of
Dogma. Yet that instructive belief was none the
less part of real knowledge" And so on. and
so on. It is meant to be reverent, but we find
# as intrusive as it is Intellectual. The reader
who wants TO know about Stevensons faith
would better go to Stevenson's works and
whistle his commentators down the wind
Under the title Of 'Votaire: Index to His
Works Genius and Character, with an Appre-
citation" (E1 r DuMont. Mr.. oliver H. G. Leigh
has produced a book which should be decidedly
useful to students of the Frenchman. It has
heen no doubt a labor of love. 1t is a pity,
therefore that Mr.. Leigh cannot be praised for
his "Appreciation." for the head of Voltaire
which he has drawn for frontispiece, basing it
on various historical portraits. This cadaVerous
physognomy may bear certain resemblance TO
the man il is supposed to represent, but 1t has
nothing TO say TO us of his character that is in
the least illuminating. However, no one need
trouble to look at the portrait or the preface
The Index is the thing, and that is a clear and
practical piece of work, for which Mr.. Leigh is
TO be given all credit.
Mr. Alfred H Miles has, in his zone Thousand
and One Anecdotes" CThomas Whittaker). added
one more to the long list of volumes in which
the hurried writer. in need of something hunlor-
Gus or piquant with which to adorn his text,
may find what he wants with the least possible
difficulty. The book contains great quantity
Of good stories. These are made readily avail
able by a table Of contents which divides the
anecdotes on a certain system. Humors of
cross-examination are grouped by themselves.
Anecdotes concerning our language have their
own division; another is given TO printers and
printers errors: there is a special niche for
rogues and vagabonds, with one for beggars.
and there are others embracing, when they
taken altogether a remarkable array of sub