The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-03-10

/ ideals OF the author which causes him
I to treat literature at its highest with
/ something OF the same reverence that
/ the Christian treats religion.
/ In all yo1r songs the bids and trees are heard
/ But through your SIN ginz sounds an uudtrtre-
/ Wiud-nessags through the reads. not suns. bat
/ sighed
I Your heart sings like a silvcr-throsted bird
Your syul- Dmsmberug. sla-kc. makes ITS moan
I Not Tor dead gods. but that the Gins, has died.
/ on the making of verse, its structure.
and its meaning, Dr. Egan has written
much. and always with an intelligence
and clarity Of view that is helpful 10
4 che reader In his The Ghost I'm Ham
/ let" and other essays he finds occasion
/ often 10 touch on this theme so near TO
/ his heart.
Listen 20 this.
Who has not noticed the ease with which in.sri-
gent readers Of Shakespeare acquire the infections Of
his VERSE And when, by practice the mltrlcaI and
rilytlmilI swing 81 his yCTsc has become matter
OF habit, finer appreciation e al verse-fJrms IN
/ English becomes NJ difficult matter
And in the same essay. speaking Of
the value of the high influence of the
masters il letters, he writes. "A man
/ or woman brought up with Hamlet is
not likely to speak OF Marie CoreIIi as
one Of the elect
Like many Catholic writer's Of emf
hence he has won from his religious
training and teaching jewels of imagery
that enrich his ESSAYS and make many
Of his paragraphs shine with rare bril-
liancy The literary value OF the serv-
ices. even Of his own church. which ne
always speaks of with reverence is
not lost on him. and he is broad enough
to set down the truth
The churchill I may be- PERMITTED 10 say s7-7s
especially IN the Teuehrse shown how far dramatc
s1ggGstiTeness may go without dragging Che magma
tidn too near reality. Shakespeare was an uuc1u-
scaous psychologist. and me- applying his genius so
lesser themes. understood admirably the essential
quality Of suggestion
The drama has always appealed TO
DR. Egan as an inviting subject for px-
PLANTATION, interpreta dOn-if YOU viii.
Following his own theory as to the
place Of suggestion. Of psychology,
whether it be unconscious or not. one
can see, perhaps. that this. too. is
legitimate offspring of what is so rich
" dramatic in his church But he
writes of Calderon with as much SYM
patty as of Shakespeare. and with as
catholic an understanding. And so.
too, he discusses Schlegel and Schiller.
Goethe and Lope de Vega, WycherIy
and Congrieve, ard always iIluminat-
ingly.
In most Of what Dr.. EEan says on
literary matters one may follow him
unhesitattngly. but one may sometimes
be allowed TO have literary prc1udfces
In contradiction. For instance, there
will be many 10 doubt this dictum in
regard to Tennyson that If Beckett
and the dramas in which he has fol-
lowed u similar process were lost his
reputation would be the better for Il"
In his essay on The Comparative
Method in Literature" the student Of
letters will find much helpfulness and
service, it is fine guide by which one
may come to understand how books
are related TO one another; how one
period and mode Of thought has sent
its influence down through the ages.
IS DR.. Egan says:
It deepeus pleasure TO know the relations Of
books 20 one another. Il makes the study Of liten-
ulre easier for it softcns that feeling Of dc5pera-
ton which strikes reader when ne enters a
tetrainS library Where shall he begin How shall
he hew a line through this wilderness of books
The EeaeaIcgy Of the book De loves will help him
10 do this, and It's posterity viii further assist IN
the work. To return % Shakespeare: /
once asked friend Of mine, who loved ony few
books. why he kept the maxims Of EpictetUs the
Roman slave so near the plays q Shakespeare who
was more than any Roman patricau. lie simply
turned 10 a line out Of Hamlet: For there is
nothing either good bad. but thinking makes it
So That is from EpictetUs" he said and
the more I study Shakespeare philosophy. the more
find Epictetus- 80 the little volume held its
place beside the many books Of Shakespeare plays
and further examination convinced that It had
reason TO be there.
And. so Dr. Egan's examination
makes Us to see how Emerson has