New-York tribune., 1905-02-19
gbs Neaso'Dorls 0ribarors
ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1905.

About this time, says the literary weather
prophet, look out for new books. The spring
reason in the publishing world is still several
weeks off, but already signs of renewed activity
art to be observed, the list Of new books in
creasing in length every week Fiction, as al
ways, comes first to the front; one could tell
that with ones eyes shut 1t includes on this
occasion several books of more than ordinary
value We may cite especially '1he Garden of
Allah" by Mr. Hichens, which we have recently
reviewed and the late George Gissings "Veran-
Ida" to which we pay attention to-day in an
other column In poetry the salient publication
is the new collected edition of Mr.. SWinburne's
works Several interesting volumes of biography
have thus far appeared, with some good his
torical books, like Mr.. Dills Roman Society
from Nero to Marcus Aurelius' and Mr.. Trevel-
yan's England Under the Stuarts." The print
ing of books about Japan and Russia goes on
apace, but the full tide, where the subject of the
war in the East is concerned, is not to be ex-
pected for another month so. Then volumes
by war correspondents and others seem likely
to be abundant Nothing momentous in any
field has yet been announced, but the outlook is
nevertheless full Of interest
Mr. John Davidson is talking shop" in 1.-The
Outlook" that clever English periodical which
has recently been enlarging its scope and print
ing more articles of a literary nature than hith-
erto. He deals with the personal view in poet
icaI criticism; he discourses with gusto on 1.-The
Poetry of Empire" Incidentally he throws
strange light on poets preferences in the mat
ter of words. He believes, for example, that the
greater the diversity Of individual opinion, the
finer the "trituration" He finds '-the oppug-
nance of dogmas" entirely healthy. He has
identified in a certain sort OF criticism what he
calls a "tabescent' effect or course, MIR. Da-
wilson has every right in the world to use what
ever words he likes, but, with his oppugnance
and trituration and tabescence, we confess that
he strikes us as one of the oldest poets who
have ever unbosomed themselves in prose. We
like him. however, in his praise of the great
poets, whose greatness he believes In empha-
sizing "in an age when poetry OF impotence
poetry of idiocy, Celtic renascence and Infinite
ineptitude posture and pose as the law and the
prophets" Nothing is easier, in his opinion
than to recognize great poetry. He quotes one
of Matthew Arnold's Shakespearian touch
stones
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship boys eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
and then says:
I rose after writing these lines; could not
go on; they took me by the throat The dazzling
adventurousness of the imagery and the per
feet security thereof; the completeness of the
vision, full of the darkness of night: the hum
ming water the diapason of the storm and the
soul of the world in the wet ship boy at rest in
the lap of fate bring the heart into the mouth,
and bend the win upon the noblest love and the
loftieSt deeds.
Mr.. DavidsOn's heart is obviously in the right
place. and we forgive him his oppugnance and
trituration and tabescence
Last week we referred to Mr.. William Roscoe
Thayer's protest in 1.-The North American Re
view against writing biography from a too
scientific point of view. Since then we have
come upon an equally vigorous criticism, in
"BlackWOOd's Magazine of so-called scientific
history Taking his text Professor Firth's
speech at Oxford, which we commented upon
some time ago, the writer upholds the hands
does not deny that the collectors of documentary
evidence fulfil a useful purpose, but he adds,
though it is true that without the hod and
barrow no palace could be built, the man who
carries a hod and shoves the barrow is not an
architect" He maintains moreover, that ii is
absurd to apply the Technology of science to
"a perfectly human study" We are grateful
for that phrase. 1t is, indeed, tendency not
only among scientific historians and biograph-
ers, but among all manner of writer's calling
themselves scholars, to forget the essentially
human element which necessarily inheres in
every kind of literary study. For years a dread
ful professionalism has been naryadino FnoIiSh