The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-19

,rIicants for public favor is the ability to think and think in the right way. Spontaneous mental effort IS certainiy oit- en the most agreeable but behind the en- gazing spontaniety, are the well trained mental processes, the ability to think cIsarIv on any given subject. The sim nIest logical methods are abused in much of the present day fiction; and We are led to believe that the old-time mental drill ing. which was a prominent part Of the common school curriculum, had much 10 do with the development of those won derful logicians which past decades have furnished. Recently we read in an ex- change the alarm that some of our later day educators felt over the proposition to give up the logical training which Is had in the study of mental arithmetic. It has been proposed to abandon this exer- else in the lower grades of our schools. Remark was made of the ludicrousness of saving: "If James gives ten apples to five boys, each boy will have as many apples as five is contained in ten," when the answer may be so easily guessed. The training of the mind to think Is more important than the answer. When letters are substituted and the problem IS thus stated: If A can do piece or work in M days, how much Of 1t can ne do in N days?' The process of mental arithmetic is the only way by which to secure the answer. In regard to the habit of correct thinking, 1t is believed that 't is vastly more important that the child be taught how to think correctly than that he know the names and habits or all the bugs in the world" All process for exciting the thinking powers to active effort, is what is wanted to bring about the thoughtf,ll mind. For 1t is from thoughtful minds that our best literature Is produced. Fresh, original thought IS what we demand. and 1t Is the man that can turn a question around and see it's every side, that is able to furnish the truth that inspires. Prof. Max Muller's Thoughts of
 Success.
 Professor Miller tells us in his Autobi- ography, that he believed that his own success was due to the faith that he had in himself-"even when everything looked gray and dark about me-" He said he felt confident that the public would re- eognize and support that for which ne had worked so hard. and had cared so much for. He argued, Did not Darwin induce the world to take an interest in worms in the fertilization of orchids?" He had no doubt of doing successful work for the world when he asked, And should tie oldest book and~fhe oldest Thoughts of the Aryan world remain des- pissed and neglected? This intellectual giant the founder of the science of com- parative philology. shut himself up alone for years, to think and work,-that he might perfect his monumental work-the vedas. We are not led to believe that it was genius that gave to Muller a Prtvy Conncillar's seat, and "carried him to the summit of scholarship" that gave him the chair of modern English languages in the greatest of English Universities, un- less reflection and endeavor are genius.
 Muller's Ancestry.
 l.. ,.a%,awnI kn xxyiaf1 for SOTnN knOWI- edge of the ancestry of such man. Of his grandfather, he said: My fathers father, whom I never knew, seems not to have been distinguished in any way He was, however. useful tradesman and a respected citizen of Dessau, and, as I see the founder of the first lending H. brary in that small town"
 The Father of Max Muller.
 The father of his son, is the way that Wilhelm Mueller has been known; but since the publication of his Diary and Letters" by Mrs. Georgina Max Muller, he is accredited with having furnished a valuable addition to German literary biography, for, in this diary we get glimpse into a period of German history and especially her literature, which is characterized by ambitious aspiration. We are made familiar with the names of many distinguished Romanists, and in one
  Goethe on his seventy-seventh birthday. Without meaning to write authoritatively, he gives in his letters, glossipy criticism of cotemporary writers; and we have these sido-lights on the work and char acter of many eminent scholars, which we should never know through an ordi- nary biographical history. Along with this interesting historical data, we enjoy Q view of this loVable mans poetic hn orT lie de dictated, simple and sincere; and we un- derstand how the genius of Schubert found a responsive voice for his songs. We have been told that Mueller's poems were as frequently set to music by him as were Heine's, and these songs are as dear to the English speaking people as to the German. Therefore 1t is with rare pleas ure that we read in this fine translation, made by Chicago editors. the love story of this, if not one of the greatest poetical geniuses, at least one of the most thoughtful, and most lovable personally. His diary betrays those sweet confess sions" which were never intended that the public should see, for Louise Hensel. And through this attachment we have a picture of the life of the Hensels, and in- cfdentally of the Mendelssohns-for 1t will be remembered that William Hensel married Fanny Mendelssohn.
 
 of Mueller's appears to us from that of Goethe or Victor Hugo. Goethe tells of the rise and fall'' of each passion of his youth analyses with a seeming indif- Terence, the why's and wherefore's" of each distinctive human fancy; while Hugo's betrays in a rhapsodical way his ecstatic experiences. and the depth of his passionate nature.
 Those of us who are familiar with the work of Charles Wagner, will appreciate the following review of the Better Way
 Augustine BirrelI says in one of his essays-the one on Browning. perhaps that the strength of a rope may be the strength of its weakest part, but a poet is surely to be judged by his finest moments. One should keep that dictum fin mind when reading "The Better Way" for there are weak parts here-dull pages. with scarcely a hint of the noble and exquisite feeling which will suddenly, glorify the words with the turning of a page, but these rarer moments will make the book loved. It is joy to know that simple and strong work like this of Charles Wagner's is being done in city which has won for itself a reputation for weak frivolty and scandalOus lightness.
 The translation rises almost without ex- ception to a sympathetic rendering of the original. Only 1t times one feels that a few passages have been marred, perhaps