New-York tribune., 1908-03-14
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
Cmrem Talk of Things Present and
to Come.

to Come.
The Life and Letters of George Bancroft,
a biography of eminent interest, will be pub
lshed this month by the Scribners. 1t is the
work of Mr. NJ A. De Wolfe Howe, who has
found in the diaries and letters of the historian
diplomatist an immense quantity of valuable
material
In paper on Ouida in THE Fortnightly" 3Ir.
Z H Cooper advances his opinion that the tales
of the poor Iady's unhappy life during her fnal
years were in way exaggerated, and were
moreover. perfectly inevitable result of her own
heIplessly unbusinessike habits; but that she
did not fee this poverty very keeniy, nor even
quite realize it:
IIe ecstatic love of Italian warmth scent idleness
and freedom was very real. .Ouida's real sympa-
thies.'' one of her friends wrote to me recen1E. G
had sympathy viii ths Youths whoy ras,ti1 9ythic9t
or imagined Of the hT{ st IN se Tea bad
true bond; fed-labor and dogs became latterly
near to the soil the more She seemed repudate
her social views Of earlier lite curious S slderS, 6e
Italian pofois admirably, and ordinary Italian only
s Thst her be OF to eafher from the
proofs Of her books which she u used 10 Isna h his
painful part of her story one may may hint nm IS suGn d
At i--' Tareggio are not quite the Same things
nights spent on bench on the Thames Enlpank, a,
were not SO far as / could ever. understand the
SSe Soe efe soroWu as it, s must
is not a very uncommon one in the literary and
of repcas in Europe with the exception of one one
detail-with the exceptton that is TO say Of The
perty which preceded 1t
ouda's novels were brought out in this ccun-
try by the Lippincotts. and it is recorded that
the first one, Held in Bondage" was almost
failure because it's title supposed to refer
to matters then in controversy. The book, how
ever. had q considerable success when repun-
Iished under the title of Granville de Figne.
It would be interesting TO know if the Lippin-
colts intend to reprint those of Oudas writings
which have permanent value.
Another version of the legend which Shake
soesre founded THE Merchant of Venice has
been translated from the servian by the French
Acadernician, Mr.. Louis Leger- In this, says
The Pail Mali Gazette" "a ne er-do-VeIl Dor
rows from a Jew enough money TO marry the
most beautiful woman in ServIa and 10 1--we
handsomely for seven years under penalty of
having a drachma' weight of his tongue cut off
in the event of non payment The VIE, When
the time comes, wheedles the cad into letting
her take his seat for the day. and delivers juds-
rnent much in the style of Porta- Hence all
ends happily, save for the Jew. who is triun-
phantly mulcted of another seven years pro-
vision by the mock cadi
II is not unreasonable to suppose that Mr.
Winston Churchlls regent interest III politics
has found expression in his forthcoming novel,
Mr. Crewe's Career" The author is quoted as
saying the other day, apropos of politics:
Do You know that the rights and duties of citi.
zenship should be taught in our public schools7
! would also give instruction concerning the or
city wards and country towns and going upward
to the committees which manage national cam;
eTty e IS n9 So"nR only hoBorabe ' but
are T IN the hands Of sesh men Eraiters
and offceseekers. Put them out by educating the
people up 10 their obligations as citizens.
The late Professor Jowett expressed In his
will the hope that the translation of Aristotle's
works, begun by himself. should be proceeded
with as rapidly as possible. In view OF this
wish tae oxford authorizes have resolved to
establish Jowett memorial in the shape of a
series of transations of all the extant works Of
Aristotle. An English version of the ''Parva
Naturalia" has just been published
4 rather greWsome story is told by Lady
Grey. in a recently published book of reminis-
cences concerning the silver plate which Queen
Caroline the wife Of George ". had prepared
in view of her death A blank was left for the
date and on it the Queen had inscribed: De
Queen of England" Lady Grey records that
when the funeral vas held at Brunswick an
emissary of George " forced off the plate, and
what became of it had long been mystery. AS
a natter of fact it passed into the possession
of butler of DR.. Lushngton. and was by his
widow given back to the Lushington family. 1t
is still in existence in the custody of contem-
porary Lushington.
A group of my pamphlets. neat in form and
well printed contains material drawn from the
annual catalogue of the Macmillan Company
In each is to be found complete enumeration
of books a given subject which have been
by this firm. These little Check Lists,
which are rich in suggestive titles. will be
found uncommonly convenient and useful by the
general reader and the student.
The collections of medieval treatses the
and morals OF contemporary English
people which made by DR.. Furnival for
the English Text Society were issued thirty
Years ago under the titles of The Ba bees
Book" and "Queene Elizabethes' Achademy." A
modernized version of these has at last been
made the most interesting portions Of the two
by Miss Edith Rickert.
In his Forthcoming book The study of Stellar
Evolution" Professor c. F. Hale describes the
marvellous changes in this study wrought by
modern improvements in physical instruments
and processes. 1t is truly said that the OBJ
servatory has been transformed from a simple
observing station into great physical labora-
1ory where images of the and stars are
studied with many powerful instruments. and
celestial phenomena are experimentally initiated