The San Francisco call., 1904-10-09

past. He styles the whole "Recreatlons
of an Anthologist." The great number
of readers who hold Mr.. Matthews in
familiar address through the varied
and manifold character of his writings
will find this little collection OF
sketches fully satisfying, and a return
to them for those that have already
read them in magazine form will not
be without profit.
In a predatory essay of quaint
humor Mr.. Matthews defines the joys
of the anthologist and the characters
tics that he holds in common with the
collector of tea cups or the hoarder OF
boot heels from off the shoe of fame.
Through all of mans mania for coll
lecting, be it counterfeit coins. can
celed stamps or shoe buttons, the
essayist sees clearly the primitive in
stinct of our fathers Of arboreal dwell
ings, OF the man in the Nth degree,
who hung suspended by his prehen-
sile tail from the boughs of the forest
primeval." So without apology or
reservation he admits a partiality for
the joys of the anthologist-thec col
lector and compiler of literary shoe
buttons, If YOU willard he submits
this brace of essays as a sort Of by
product Of his larger labors.
AS supplementary to an earlier
paper of his on The Ethics of
Plagiarism" and illustrative of the
way in which that charge may be
falsely imputed by too willing critic,
Matthews traces in his first essay the
path of an odd literary conceit down
through the centuries. BY taking
from the pen of Austin Dobson one
of his rondeaus of quaint conception
he shows it's earlier prototype to be
in the French of Voiture, farther back
still in the same tongue, Desmarets,
and finally one of the strange filings
of wit of the old Spaniard, Lope de
Vega. A journey, thus, into the lit
erary rag bag, so to speak. with an
eye to matching the colors for a crazy
quilt.
The essayist's two themes on "Un-
written Books and Seed Corn for
Stories" carry more interest than any,
thing else in the volume. In the first
of these he cites the noted cases of
the intervention Of death between the
inception and the accomplishment of
a writer's task and gives US other less
known instances of authors promises
that have never been fulfilled. Vague
castles in tho air were those Of Rich
ard Brinsley Sheridan. who promised
to write his comedy par excellence,
"Affectation," and did not; of Moliere,
who was ever talking of forthcoming
'LHomme de Cour": Of Victor Hugo,
whose publishers advertised for years
a book which never wrote itself. More
fascinating still is Matthews review
of the plots for stories yet unwrttten,
which writer's have left to the world in
their crammed notebooks. "a person
to catch fire-fiies and try to kindle his
household fire with them" scribbled
Hawthorne in his notebook. A man
is born into the world endowed with
an intellect far superior to those of
his fellows, according to Poe's Mar
ginalia"; suppose he was confined as
an insane person, what would his feel
ings be?
Though he Is in no particularly ar
gumentative mood, the writer does not
make out very good case for Ameri-
can satire. Noting the fact that two
British compilers of English satire did
not see. At to incorporate in their
works any samples of the American
product, Mr.. Matthews goes on to
trace the growth of that form of verse
in this country with illustrative pas
sages. Lowell with his "Bigelow
Papers" would appear to be the only
writer this side of the water meriting
the name of a satirist. Nor in the
domain Of poetic epigram can the
writer find much Of home product that
can pass muster. Uncollected poems
of the late H. C. Bunner. one time
editor Of Puck. with brief comment
by Matthews in the way of elueida-