The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-23

personality in which lay the slumber-
 ing fire of genius. a volcanic energy which was sometimes for long periods
 latent, and when active was some-
 times slightly cratic in its mode of
 working" There is testimony from evt
 cry quarter to the range of his learn- ing, his marvellous memory, his knowl-
 edge of the ultimate problems of thought, his mastery of many lan-
 guages, his loyalty. humanity and af-.
 liability These things are well known
 to those who came in contact with
 Davidson and yet. "as the great al
 ways are, he was a very humble man.
 For himself he coveted earnestly the
 best gifts of culture, but he under
 stood the more excellent way of
 spending and being spent for others" Some men have founded schools of i disciplnes who have afterward ador- cd them, and the wish to be surround
 ed by such groups has been the main-
 spring of their endeavor It was not
 so with Davidson, and perhaps it was
 because he had no system to bequeath, iiV uoSllidS hIiNlt Ilt NlSlltu tO Stt lll-
 troduced into a school, and all-dom-
 inant there, that he was so altruistic ill
 his endeavors. It is not as a doctrin-
 aire philosopher that he will be re-
 membered in Europe and America, but as the helpful comrade who led
 many pupils out of the shallows of
 tradition and the back-water eddics of
 conventional belief who made them
 think for themselves, reverently sitting
 the inheritances they had received
 from others and carefully cross-ex-,
 amining every theory set before them. ;
 One chapter of MT Knights book
 contains Prof. William James rem
 iniscences of Davidson There was
 something rustic about him writes the Harvard teacher, which suggest
 ed to the end his farm-boy origin His
 voice was sweet and its cadence most
 musical, and the extraordinary socia-
 bility of his nature made as many
 friends for him among women as
 among men He had a genius for
 friendship" vet, because of defects
 and excesses which he wore upon his sleeves. if one liked quar- relling he was an easy man to quarrel
 with Tt will do him no honor not
 to be frank about him"
 In a critical review of the book the New York Tribune remarks: David
 son was perfect type of erudite rude : ness. Carlyle minus indigestion. tyr amy lnnocently masquerading as indi- vidualism. lofty altruism aiming at clods and hitting dreamers or curio hunters; one might say without disre- spect, Don Quixote among philoso- phers. After his graduation from
 Aberdeen, the young Scotchman roam- ed Europe from cape to cape. picking up languages with astonishing ease and f1lchng tag ends of lore from ev- . cry new scene, conversation and book. } A passionate classicist, he delved in- to excavations in Greece with Schlie-
 mann and conversed with the Pope in , Latin in the Vatican garden Like f many another European his ardor to- l ward personal freedom, drove him ia 8 America; coming over here. he met l Longfellow, who secured for him an { examinership at Harvard University Positioh iilC tVulu 0Ot - hold long, 90 abhorrent to him was ' even the slightest restraint of insti- tutionalism. The whimsical hostility 1 Davidson bore toward schools a churches and political organization s reflects his inconsistencies and weak.
 nesses more sharply than any other . single trait.
 I His own deepest impulse seems t, q have been to found societies for the {. promotion of intelligent individuaism E but the impulse could not work itself f out save by drafting creeds and pro- S grams and quite unintentionally mak. n ing the founder something of an auto
 crat within his domain Earnestly : striving to teach only by suggestion n and debate Davidson found the Scotch s peasant in himself shouting good ma e tured anathemas. growing. chidins z and sometimes roundly and soundly e cursing people who could not see tn, - world through his spectacles Much a, e some of his followers have wished tt q call him nineteenth century Socrates e the comparison does violence to his il tory. for the evidences Mir. Knigh n has collected from such keen judge
 as William James Hayelock Ellis ant
 Felix Adler show that Davidson was ; ,. medieval dogmatist and zealot dress . cd in the loose. flowing robes of | modern ethical socialist The histor, -' of the New Fellowship in London tn
 New Life Fellowship in New York. tn J. Pennington and Glenmore Schools O l. the Culture-Sciences and the Ne7 d York Settlement for Russian Jews d The Breadwinners' College" all a which were founded by the wanderin l. scholar, reveal an oddly contradictor C. blend of relisionist, philosopher re i- former. bigot. liberalst, and, above al .o strenuous enthusiast
 " MT. Knight supplements anecdote II with extracts from Davidsons philoso Id phical and educational writings. Tn Id student will discover, in these. per in maps, the explanation of the wander rs ing scholars strength and frailties " l. A portrait of Mir. Davidson is th n. frontispiece to Mir Knights book
 m ADVENTURES IN CONFINEMENT d bv David Grayson, published hv Don ', ploday, Page & CO. New York: s1 5o a n Judds. @i"' q l. MT. Grayson's new book is delight ic fully refreshing, and abounds in th as healthful philosophy of happines, IS The articles which make up the boo J. attracted much attention when an l. bearing in the American Magazine an is reminded many of that charmin l. book. "A Journey to Nature" by ..J m P. M.," which made a notable inn nd pression when it was nublisbod h