The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-04
:. NEW BOOK NEWS . ,.

results of his discoveries will make up an important group of articieg to be
 published In Harper's Magazine. Pro-
 lessor Duncan is a young man to have attained to so authoritative position as scientist. as he is not yet forty years of age. He was born in Canada. and graduated from the University of To- ronto. Later he studied in Worcester. Massachusetts. and at Columbia Col lege. About four years ago he assun-
 ed the Professorship of Chemistry at
 Washington and Jefferson College. and at once proceeded to organize the de-
 partment. which has grown to a re-
 markable extent under his direction.
 While above everything else a chem
 ist, Professor Duncan is Catholic in
 his reading tastes and knowledge. and
 possesses a gift of clear, popular ex- plantation and breadth of view that
 enable him to synthesize the wonderful discoveries of recent years in science In a way that holds the interest of general readers. and has brought him
 the encomiums of scientists here and
 abroad.
 Maeteriinck in Music-
 | Charles Martin Loefiier's symphonic ] poem, La Mort de TihtagiIes." inspired I by the drama Of Maeteriinck was per. | formed in New York few days ags | by the New York Symphony Orchestra and the occasion moved not a few o i those who heard 1t to reflect upon tn, ! peculiar value of NJ. Maeterlinck'i work as a stimulus for musical expres
 sion, and upon the comparative infrs l quency with which 1t has been mad' | to serve such an end.
 | Consider the aspects of Maeterlinck'i | art which have persuaded the imagina' tions of those two musicians who have l most eloquently reflected him: Loefiiel l in his Ia Mort de Tintagiles." and { fer, the voice of Maeterlinck has beer 1 as the voice of one habituated to the accents of tragic beauty and tragic | fate-one whose imagination is thrall | to those silent arrivals of destiny which yield. for any kindred instinct so unique and poignant an emotion. With what astonishing felicity and vividness he has succeeded in trans muting the essential substance of the drama into a tonal fabric of rich and profound suygestiveness is not now observed for the first time. It's power of communication is great and memo rahle; its justness of representation is as continually surprising as It Ia conn polling. It is mule of sombre and piercing beauty, one of, those subtier masterpieces Of modern art which ex' ert an increasing spell.
 Tn "Pelleas et Melisande," on the oth- CT hand, Claude Debussy has perceived and enforced . quite different aspect of Maeterlinck's genius--that side of his
 art which persuades through the dis
 closure of elemental forces working in
 silence and indirection, and in which
 secret and haunting beauty inhabits
 the shadowy figures who move dimly
 with a kind of shy and wistful pathos,
 through q no less shadowy pageant of
 Erfefs and ecstacies and fatalities;
 where nothing that. Is accessory Is
 without significance. and in which even
 that which is merely contributive pos-
 sesses an influential beauty and mean
 ing within itself. In no other of his
 plays are these qualities so signal as
 In "Peileas ct Meflsandes --the most
 haunting ana pathetic of modern dra-
 mas: and in Debussy's opera.--in which
 Maeteritncixs work becomes q "drame
 Iyrique" in five acts and twelve tab
 leaux.--one cannot but recognize par
 aphrase--partial though 1t may be-
 which is virtually ideal.--Lawrence Gil-
 man, In Harper's Weekly.