The Washington herald., 1907-12-29

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tools peculiar to his own establishment.
The character and style OF printing re-
verts TO the days of early printing In
Italy, and the handmade paper Is a close
! approach TO the fine fabric of the six
| teenth century. The Dove Press has
issued the English Bible in FIVE folio vol
umes, Milton's Paradise Lost" "Emer-
sons Essays" and, among many other
volumes. Mr.. Sanderson's lecture on The
Book Beautiful
The second volume of The Cambridge
History of English Literature" will be
published early I'm 1903 The complete
work will cover the whole course of Eng
/ lish literature from BeOwolf to the end
of the Victorian age. Each chapter viii
be the work OF a writer who is familiar
with and is accepted as an authority on
/ his subject The list Of the contributors
includes American and Continental as
we'll as English scholars. The purpose
of the work is 10 trace the progress of the
of the English language as a vehicle OF
/ English literature. to take note of the
influence OF foreign literature upon Eng
lish literature. and of the influence OF
English upon foreign literature. as well
as 10 give a connected account Of the
I
ment Of English literature.
! In The ProlongatlOn of Human Life. 3"
new volume TO be published early in
the new year. Prof. Metchnikofr expounds
| former book, THE Nature of Man" that
human life is not only unnaturally short
but unnaturally burdened with physical
and mental disabilities The legacies re-
ceived by man from his animal ances-
tors, he argues, are the prime cause Of
many Of the ills OF the human race and
the pessimistic trend OF so many systems
OF philosophy and religion He believes
| that these traits, which were in har-
mOny with the conditions OF the remote
past and are 50 discOrdant in the present
environment, may be counteracted by IA
| tional hygiene He argues that his hope
for the prOlongatiou of human life has
substantial assurance based upon the
certainties OF science.
Mr.. w. c. Brownell, in literary ap-
probation which appears in She January
! Scribner's. says: Hawthorne was 50 ex-
ceptional a writer that he has very gen
orally been esteemed a great one. e
His works never having been supplanted
among us IL Is hardly surprising that
with US they stand where they did And
their style. clear. chaste, and correct, IS
Of the preseTvative order. They form a
| large constituent portion OF our classics
/ our somewhat slender sheaf OF truly
classic production. ' The Scarlet Let
/ ter is, in fact, the Puritan Faust -
Mr Brownell says in conclusion. and its
symbolic and allegorical element. only
/ obtrusive in a detail here and there at
I most, lifts II out Of the ordinary cate
4 CORY Of realistic romance without-since
( nothing Of Importance IS sacrificed 10 it
enfeebling its imaginative reality. The
/ beautiful and profound story is our one
prose masterpiece, and il is as difficult TO
overpraise il as il is 10 avoid pOignantly
regretting that Hawthorne failed 20 rec
ognize It's value and learn the lesson II
might have taught him"
| In an appreciation Of Thackeray. pub
I lished in the current London Book
Monthly, reference is made to the
authors visit 20 this country and how
those who met him admired his talk
and loved him. They pictured him as
big. hearty. and very human They
didn't find him playing the lion the least
/ little bit- and we may hope he didn't
| find Us playing the spread eagle too
much. They pointed out the corner IN
the Century Club where he used 20 sit
exchanging literary chat. or in Yankee
! parlance swapping stories They could
tell you years afterward which had been
| Thackerays favorite char. ana some
had even been so observant Of the least
tries about the great man as 10 know
what particular concoction in club
tumbler had been his favorite night
cap"
Tennyson said Of a strange literary
! coincidence: a Chinese scholar some
/ time ago wrote 10 me saying that in an
unknown untranslated Chinese poem
there We're two whole lines OF mine al
most word for word" Byron. in his
monody on the death of Sheridan. where
he says there will never be another Sher-
idan, the mold being broken Up. employs
word for word, terms in which an an
/ cient Sanscrit document refers 10 the
death Of Maru. Notwithstanding that
Byron could never have seen the docu-
ment. Shakespeare's passage about love
and lightning. in Romeo and Juliet q"
! IL, ?, is almost identical with a quota
ton from 'Malata and Madhava," an
Indian poem by Bhavabut., written nine
centuries before, and not translated up
TO Shakespeare's time.
An observing critic wgiting OF the con-
slant feuds and chickering's in the So
called peaceful country villages. pro-
nounces the placid country life really
welter Of enmities and jealousies' ''As
TO the origins OF these, they are often
too obscure TO be traced he says. but
those that are known seem trivial
enough City people have. he claims,
in the midst of more stirring events
acquired truer sense Of proportion. He
also calls attention TO the fact that
when Mr.. Thomas Hardy had collected
in one narrative a sufficient number Of
narrowing incidents, including BETRAYAL
murder. and sudden death, he laid the
scene of his story among a pastoral folk
and named 1t with a last touch Of his
characteristic irony, Far from the Mad
ding Crowd. "
1t is something startling to read in DR..
John Browns letters the following criti-
cism Of George Eliot: 1T has been
somewhat disgusting. the praise of the
naughty, strongheaded Mrs. George"
OF ''Middlemarch" DR. Brown saws.
There is that taint of sensuality. or
rather of sexuality. which was so Of
fenSive in The Mill on the FIoss'-that
unexpected gratuitous nastiness which
makes you uncomfortable Her views
OF life, OF God, OF all that is deepest and
truest in man. are low. miserable, hope
| less Again he writes: "She is full of
nasty unwomanly knowledge, which she
is always limiting at: she is unwhole-