The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-02

Mir. Bacheiler has chosen an earlier time for the setting ot his romance Verxillies than have any other of the writers of stories of the Christ. Tho scene of his novel Is laid first at Rome. Rome then the city of "effeminate men masculine women, cheerful cynics, in fidei priests. wealthy people with no credit, patricians, honoring yet despis- ing the gods batting and yet living Oa the populace."
 In the opening chapters the author describes concisely and well that re- publican empire where immense wealth of the few produces immense discontent of the many. History repeats itself ana this state of i'll balanced conditions ts seen when each nation reaches over blown civilization. 'To such an ex- treme had luxury been carried that nothing was too sacred, nothing too costly to be enjoyed. Digestion had be- come a science, courtship an art, sieep . nightmare, comfort an accomplish ment, and the very act of living an industry. Almost one might say that thetg gods lived only in the imagination of the ignorant and the Jests or tns learned"
 MT. Bacheiler also depicts we'll the republican emperor of Rome ana the Herod of Jerusalem. .stl,
  .'one might have seen him there any day-a. rather delicate figure with shin ing blue eyes and hair now turning gray. He flung his lightning with un- erring aim across the great purple sea into Arabia, Africa. and Spain. and northward to the German ocean and eastward to the land of the Goth2. The genius of this remarkable man had outdone the imagination of present and
 (Aa tzo lf that Of his illustrious uncle, gave to Augustus a power greater than human hands had yet wielded"
 Of the King of Judea in contrast to the Emperor of Rome he writes: The character of Herod and Augustus were as far apart as their capitals. Ex- tremes of temperament were in thesa two. The Roman was cold, calm, of unfailing prudence; the Jew hot-blood- ed, reckless and moved by a word into startling and frank ferocity. The one was keen and delicate, the other blunt and robust. The Emperor was fox the King a lion."
 Mir. Bacheller dwells on the intrigues and murders of those of Hcrod's house. hold. These have made subject mat terSfor many a romancer, many poet .
 The heroine Ania is but a clustering of contradictory characteristics. She is sensual and full of vanity, yet she excites in Vergilius a love like that of Sih Galahad might feel, and presto! without a note of warning change we find her suddenly ready to be 0 martyr to love, going to seek Vergilius in Judea whither the Emperor has sent him on a mission of secrecy.
 The author puts no new life in the old tales.
 His picturing of the people of pro- fane and sacred history fall very far short of all preconceived ideas of them and his every climax approaches the ludicrous.
 Lady Lucia challenging the young men to tilt. of compliments to her daughter Ania: 70 men. who have forrotten the love of women these days. look at herw could have scarcely been possible even in Rome of that day of her degradation. Herod, the young Or. in his plots against Vergil.us Is un- pardonably clumsy
 The meeting of Zacharias and the hoy John, the shepherds singing ElorV 10 God, the sight of the Child in the manager are all in the story. But there is none of the old uplifting exalted sprint that makes the heart burn within us" at the telling. The char acters of sacred history appear entire ly unhalved. and utterly unnatural. The trend of the story is the power of love human love teaching divine love. The author so states his theorem: ''Ver- reIius and Ania had crossed the boun- dary of barbaric evolution under the leadership of love-" But the demon stration is by no means clear and sat isfying. The book is a disappoint- ment to the immense circle of admirers won by MT. Bacheller's former novels