New-York tribune., 1905-05-14

Americans of the newly discovered Illus All
dronicus' ouarto and Of the rare early edllolis
of other Shakespeare plays belonging 10 uie
,porfant library "Neyer in the history OF
English book collecting" he said, "hau thlS
country lost suddenly and secretly SUCH
treasure of ShakeSpeariana, although some III
ferior stores of Shakespeariana had suffered the
like experience Before the officers OF any pup
lie institution like the British Museum or the
Bodleian Library, before any private English
collector had any suspicion of their impending
fate those Rowfant volumes crossed the AT
lantic, never, in all probability, to return. All
of which seems to be an unreasonable view or
the matter for MIR. Lee to take, since BRUSH
collectors and Museum trustees could have ac-
auainted themselves with the possibilities or
the market quite as easily as could the Ameri-
can purchasers. Mr.. Lee by the way, In dis
cussing the proposed national monument to
Shakespeare, wisely declared that such monu-
ment would have to find its sole justification in
its symbolic significance. No tribute to the
poet he added, should serve a unitarian end
The monument must be a work of art OF the
worthiest kind. Unless the best artistic results
We're obtainable, the scheme, In his opinion,
would better be let alone.
In "a note to the reader prefixed to "a Mod
ern Utopia" which the Scribners have Just
and establishes an admirable precedent The
book is the third in a series begun by "Antici-
patiOns" which Mr.. Wells originally intended
to be my sole DEPRESSION from my art or trade
Tor what you wild of an imaginative writer 1
wrote that book in order to clear up the muddle
in my own mind about innumerable social and
political questions questions 1 could not keep
out of my work, which it distressed me to
touch upon in a stupid, haphazard way" I'm
NJ
Wells the relief he needed. He says that he
has "a slow, constructive, hestating sort OF
mind" and in order to dispose more effectually
of the mental nuddle aforesaid, he proceeded
TO write Mankind in the Making" The task
did him good "In many matters" he says, 81
had shaped out at last certain personal certi-
tude, upon which 1 feel shall go for the rest
of my days" Nevertheless there were still OBJ
scurities to be cleared up, so "a Modern Utopia
got itself written. Now that it is off the stocks,
we infer that Mr.. Wells will devote himself to
the purely imaginative writer for which, after
all, we believe he was destined from the start.
We shall be glad of his return to his natural
province to the province in which he has found
the inspiration for such inimitable romances
as The Sea-Lady," and for such delightful
work he gave only the other day in his
Twelve Stories and a Dream" But we are
glad, also, that he had the courage to take the
ulllc necessary 1Or the composition OF his So
Geological essays. We can realize how in the
unpacking of all that perilOus stuff from his
bosom, he has spared the annoyance Of en-
countering it in stories which we should be left
to enjoy undisturbed, and has really strength
ened his imaginative faculty by leaving it free
to work along the right lines in the right
place What a boon it would be if many mod
ern authors would follow his example, relieving
their minds in independent essays on subjects
which they now fOolishly introduce into their
fiction.
The reading Of modern girls is subject
which has of late interested Lady Londonderry
and other correspondents of the London "Satur-
day Review" The idea of making a deliberate
appeal to girls with n special series of books
uniformly bound, has been advanced as having
perhaps great potentialities. Whereupon an
unfccling manager of one of the larger publish
ing houses points out that in the first place
ANY enc of the books of which the modern girl
is supposed to be so seriously in need, can be
Obtained from one other of the publishers
catalogues, or upon her applying to the nearest
BOOKSELLER" and, secondly, that open-air life
and habits have distracted modern girls from
the buying of books However habituated they
he reading