The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-02-24
BY HECTOR FULLER.

Hearn. Thank God for the faults of God
as reflected in good men. But Hearns life
arrived at sanity conclusions. He was
celestially organized. Somehow. some
times, he seems TO have got caught in
the upper currents and evolved wings.
His childhood in Europe, his youth. and
young manhood in America, his maturity
in Asia, were alike distinguished by eX
tramOrtal intuitions. America. was ex-
cellent apprentice ground for Hearn. Il
led TO the East by way of the most con-
crete civilization of the modern world.
Yet all is not beautiful that looks like
beauty from a long way off. Hearn got
to Japan and found Japan mortal he
discovered Japan busily ambitious TO alb
sOrb that civilization which he was doing
his best 10 escape He was out Of sym
pathy with many Of the prize effects of
immediate Caucasian history. He drifted
of the sea into some ford. Yet he would
experience humors of self-revolt and
would proclaim the man of affairs king
But his hermit bent would reassert its
primacy. His tentpole was the arbor of
the prophet. Backgrounds, siienccs-these
were his darling retreats lie did not
fruit ia the crowd. America lived too
close to the ground. Hearn tried himself
here as long as any hope was left His
body gave out. His spirit gave out. He
looked across the Pacific. Yes, there was
quiet There was peace.
The publication of a new edition of
George Eliot by the Harpers recalls the
fact that Frederic Harrison. the distin-
guished writer. the authority on jurispru-
dence and history. was a close friend Of
George Eliot 1t was be who gave her
legal advice on matters concerning a Vi
tai part Of Felix Holt" and the opinion
he wrote out for her she used bodily in
that novel Mr.. Harrison was both
pleased and surprised 10 see his own
words used. Thanks 10 George Eliot.
he said, Il have written something that
will live forever in English literature
James Hunekcr has something very
pleasant to say about Anatole France in
d recent number of the North American
Review. one phase of his idea about NJ.
France is: I'm him there is an ccclcsiasti-
cal fond. He forgives because he under
stands. And after his tenderest beucdic-
ton he sometimes smiles; it may be a
smile OF irony. Yet it is seldom cruel. He
is an adroit determinist. yet sets no store
by the logical faculties. Nan is not a
reasoning animal. he says. and human
reason is often a mirage. But 20 label
him with sentimentalism a la Russe-the
Russian pity that stems from Dickens
would shock him into an OutburSt. Con-
CciVe him, then, as a man 20 whom all
emotional extravaganza is foreign. as a
deteSter Of rhetoric. of defamation, OF
the phrase facile, as "a thinker who as
scmbles within the temple of his creations
every extreme In thought, manners. seuti-
ment, and belief yet contrives TO fuse this /
chaos by the force of his sober style !
His is a style more linear than colored, /
more for the ear than the eye; a style so /
pellucid that one views it suspiciously--it /
may conceal in its clear. profound depths
strange secrets. as does some mountain 1
lake in the shine of the sun. Even the /
simplest art may have its wells
In mentioning the rather peculiar ideas !
absorbed and set forth by Mr.. Henry /
James aneut his recent visit to this coun- !
try, after an absence of many years. and I.
more particularly his naive establishment /
at New York City, it may bee interesting /
To quote also what he thought OF our own T.
city lie says;
sye. with national armaticus- bui.ded forms Of
confidence aud energy; but when you have embraced 1
them al, with the implication Of all the Others st 4
10 cJnle. yUu VIII md yourself wondering what 1t Is
-0u oddb miss. You reach ont perhaps /
IN vain for something 10 which Yen may familiarity 4
smpsre your uns8tisied sense. Nou hken &c feT-
'aUs not 50 much 20 meal made saT0rless by the \
ailUre Of some usual. some central dish as 20 a Z
picture. nCminally finished. save where the canvas
shows iu the very middle, WIth al originality a tine
blank space. The field Of American life Is Sc
rare Of the church a billiard table of a center
piece. truth that the myriad little structures at
ended on sundays and Oh the or evenings of 4
hcir sociables proclaim as with the audible sound
d the roaring Of million mice.
Oliver Herford, who is known as q pro-
essional joker, and whose latest effusiJn
S THE Peter Pan Alphabet" was en-
-crtaining four magazine editors at din
ler, when the bell rang and the maid en-
cred with a solitary letter on the tray.
'Ah," said one of the editors. IAN epis-
le"
No" replied HEREFORD, as he tore it
'pen. and showed Il bill, mot an epistle.
. collect"
DIT. Horace Howard Furncss. the emf.
lent Shakespearean scholar. is now at
work seeing through the press the ff-
zenith volume of a new variorum edition
# Shakespeare's works. The play treated
IA this latest volume viii be Antony
md Cleopatra, upon which he has de-
-oted his entire time since the publica-
ion of his edition Of Loves Labour's
-ost.' more than two years ago. The
work is being brought out by the J. b /
dppiacott Company, of Philadelphia
Mr.. Andrew Lang, who always dis
courses intelligently and pleasantly on
my bookish subject. has been talking in
london on bookselling, about which he
links there is something very mysterl-
.us. He says that book purchasers are
comparatively few in England, and that
lew books are too expensive. lie finds
ault with having 20 pay 81 shillings
or a life of Lafcadio Hearn, saying:
'Twenty-four shillings is a good deal
# money. If a man is fond Of books,
nd, unlike most men. can afford to
Xpend 600 a year on books. he must
Re very deeply interested in Mr. Hearn
efore he Tugs out p shllings for a life
f him"
And yet he finds that though books are
expensive, so are motor cars, yachts,
orses, salmon rivers. and such-like.
which rich people do not stint themselves
D, while they grudge half sovereign for
new book. He thinks that strict econ
my in book-buying In ingrained in the
British character. He says: I have
card of d grande dame de par le monde
-ho on being introduced to a friend of
nine, "a novelist, at once asked him TO
i've her his new book. The legend adds
hat he produced four and sixpence. say
lg that he carried not a copy of his
ovel in his pocket but that she now had
he means of procuring 1t. The story may
e merely a parable-with a point" Mr. ,