The Washington herald., 1907-01-13


Touche was Dying Ruskin went to her
house 10 bid her farewell She sent word
down to him that she would not see him
unless he loved God more than her.
Ruskin replied that he loved her more
than anything in heaven or on earth, and
gorrowfully left the house. They never
met again.
Prof. Hugo Afunsterberg, Of Harvard,
author OF 'Psyc biology and Life" Amer
lean Traits" sc, has been honored by the
German Emperor witk q Crown Order of
the second class.
It was the first sight Of the Pyramids
on a trip to Egypt that inspired Robert
Hichens with that profound love for the
regions Of the Mediterranean that has
since been such a dominant factor in his
novels, and which transformed him from
witty delineetor of a phase Of London
life which had already inspired oscar
Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, and that school
into an interpreter OF the mystery Of the
East The first result of this inspiration
was The Garden Of Allah" the second,
Just published, is The Call Of the Blood.
a much greater novel. Neither Of these
novels was written until Mr. Kitchens had
stepped himself in the atmosphere OF the
places of which he wrote, which made 1t
amusing for him recently TO hear man
in an Italian railway train, who speak
ing admiringly of Hichens tales of Sicily
added: And it's curious, too, for ] hap
pen to know that the man has never
even visited these places about which he
writes
The late NJ. Ferdinand Brunetiere, edi-
tor the Revue des Deux Mondes, was
well known as one Of the greatest Of mod
/ ern French critics, but this was posi-
ton which he won with the utmost diffi-
Guilty. At one time he was so poor that
he accepted a position as "claquer' at the
Theater Franchise. At this time he was
teaching for a living Then came the war
with Germany. and he abandoned teaching
the young idea how to shoot to shooting
on his own account. and after the war he
had TO continue to fight-the battle against
poverty. II was his old school-fellow.
| Paul Bourget. who gave him his first lift
by introducing him TO the Revue des Deux
/ Mondes. and soon after mastery review
| Of WaltOn's saint Louis ct son Temps
won him universal recognition, and the
battle with poverty was over.
Nothing gives a more clarifying view OF
the art methods OF Ibsen than the vol
ume Of his letters which, translated by
John Nilsen Laurvik and Mary Morrison.
have recently been published in America.
These letters show how seriously Ibsen
took his mission in life. He was 4 pro
found indlvidualist, believing that through
the development Of the powers Of the In
diyidual alone could come salvation. This
is z doctrine that has always been a IA
vorite with literary men, and Robert
Louis Stevenson was one Of its stanchest
advocates. Ibsen believed IN egoism as a
working force and declared that at times
the whole world seemed ike one vast
shipWreck in which the only important
thing seems to be 10 save oneself. He
never wrote unless he felt the mood upon
/ him. so these letters tell US. but some
times he would try and force the mood
as the following extract shows:
/ During the time was writing Brand had on
nv desk glass with scorpion in i. Frcu tiue %
time the little animal was III. Then ] used % give
10 piece Of soft fruit upon which II fell fu71ousiy
and emptiec its poison into it-after which it was
wei again. Docs not something Of the same kind
happen % poetS The laws Of nature regulate the
/ spiritual world also
Gilbert Chesterton seems to be in dan
/ ger Of occupying the center Of the liter
airy stage in London that has been. 80
+ long held by Bernard Shaw The marked
/ (rivolity OF his expressed criticisms on
/ literary idols has led some Of his critics
/ 10 declare that he is successor to Lewis
/ Carroll rather than 10 Matthew Arnold,
/ though it does not seem that any one
] F.TA In Of a 1n~snH ar.s
! cleverness. 20 compare him 70 the
scholarly and painstaking Arnold Il is
pointed out that no matter what subject
Chesterton takes, he writes only OF him
! self. The BoOkman says that the pub
fishers toss him a subject as they might
/ toss a puppy an old shoe: How about
/ Charlemagne or Max BeerbOhm, or the
! genius Of Christianity And of he goes.
/ tail erect and legs entanSled; OF course
/ he gets in his own way, cOntTadicting
/ himself and everybody else, and writes be-
! fore he thinks and grapples fiercely with
/ common sense and denies aNiOmS. But
at least there is a sign Of life about the
/ premises. and the premises, it must be
/ remembered. are the mOnOtonOus fats OF
| modern English criticism. wherein no man
/ ventures to differ from the dead. Read
/ ing Mr.. Chesterton is Ike meeting some
/ body as foolish as ourselves in q dreary
! assemblage Of pedagogues. So far from
taking our breath away, it merely makes
US feel al home
The time has not yet come. perhaps, to
/ sum up the late Mrs. Craigie. the John
! Oliver Hobbies OF literature, but Howells
writing about her in a recent number of
! the North American Review. declares that
she was a Protestant disguised as a
Roman Catholic and "a woman's soul
under the disguise of a mans name" She
! had q more ample public in England than
in America, and this. perhaps, because IN
/ England they understood her better OF
| this phase Of her character. Howells gives
US a characteristic bit Of criticism:
/ They must have noticed something strange in the
favor CT her mind something exotic. something thai
Il II was not French was certainly not English, ana
/ which they could not know, We could, for Amer
| ican. Even Of us not many could know il perhaps
her history could alone make Of her quality
But she lSd elements Of popularity which insured
hex prosperity her high acceptance with the publ,
that likes olives. and with the less limited public
| that likes 10 have 1t thought that II likes them
though IL really prefers baked beans with y-sercg
/ different kinds Of pickles such as Il gets In tho
/ fiction canned at the nate Of thirty thogsand a day
With this simple-heartcd mass as well as with hcl
mere sophisticated following. eIgrcns go very lon.
way, especially episTlrns shout love, and as hay,
ntimated. there is almost no end TO the epigTam,
about love in Mrs. Craigies stcries especially Il
/ the earlier and poorer ones.
!
! One Of the best novels that we have
! come across for some time is The Male
| factor" by E. Philips Oppenheim. who
/ has been prolific Of rafting good stories
His new novel is remarkable. because in
/ it he does what has been done for a lone
/ time with great success by many novel
| ists-use an old theme in a new way
The Malefactor" Is a sort of modern
/ Monte Crist0; the parallel is very strfk-
] 1.