The Washington herald., 1908-03-29
WITH THE AUTHORS,

The London Athenaeum. concluding a
favorable notice of One Hundred Great
Poems. edited by Richard James Cross.
brother-in-law OF George Eliot. says:
But we cannot call Horace Smiths .Ad-
dress 10 a Mummy a great poem. or
Longfellow's Psalm of Life or Henry
Sidgwick's Goethe and Frederika.' which
is pretty enough, and new TO US. This
sighting reference 10 the revered
Psalm OF Life" which most of our
school children are obliged 10 memorize,
will rather astonIsh Americans. Mr..
Cross little book. just published here by
Henry Holt & Co, has already gone into
a second edition.
The memoirs of the Right Rev. William
Carpenter Bompas. D. D.. first Bishop
of Athabasca Qs7D. is published this
month by E. P. Dutton & Co.. under the
title. An Apostle Of the North" by H
A Cody. The book is filled with descrip-
tions Of Indian life and OF the primitive
conditions that encountered the traveller
in the region of the SeIkirks and Macken-
zie River a quarter of century ago
The Century Company does not tell why
The Fonr-Pools Mystery" which it
publishes this month is issued anonym-
ously 1t is said that the author has
written several other tales. but OF en-
tirely different vein. For one OF these is
claimed a popular success -Four Pools
is a stock farm in the Shenandoah Val
ley, and the tale deals with it's days Of
mystery and tragedy.
A rev edition Of Charles A Conants
Modem Banks OF Issue will be publish
ed this month by G. P. Putnam's Sons
This edition will contain a chapter, not
originally in the book. treating of the
crisis Of 1907 and the relations that can
be established between IL and industrial
and economic tendencies that in part al
least explain II.
The Barrier" Rex Beach's first novel
siEce The Spoilers" viii be issued by
Harper & Brothers before the end Of the
present month.
In the April number Of Scribner's Mag
azine will begin a serial novel by Richard
Harding Davis entitled Vera, the Me-
dium." Its scenes are laid III New York.
and among its characters are WELL
known lawyer and an aged millionaire.
who has none too close grasp upon his
fortunes when he is confronted with femi-
nine beauty and fascination.
The following frank specimen of liter
airy criticism is taken from the E.eroria
Gazette, the editor Of which writes as
follows:
This department was inveigled into
blowing itself for a book by a Maynard
Barbour. and. after reading about half OF
II, threw the volume at a passing cat Il
starts out Ike good yarn. the hero Is
an athletic young fastener, who goes
20 the mining country on an errand that
promises a good deal OF adventure and
excitement. No sooner does he reach his
destination. however. than he falls sick
OF mountain fever, and for days and
weeks together is tossing In delIrium.
while the doctors and nurses stand
around and say that he has but one
chance in a hundred. II was al this point
that the book went catward What is
the sense Of dragging sickness and suf-
fering into a story that is supposed to
entertain? The Tommyrot editor has
never been able to enjoy a book Of that
sort. He has tried a dozen times TO wade
through Hugos Les Miserables." which.
by almost universal consent. is one of the
masterpieces OF literature. II is a most
depressing MASTERPIECES A man could
sit in tomb. with ghosts combing his
hair. and write something more cheerful.
What good does II do 10 everlastiugly
harp upon human suffering and misery?
One humOrist who drives the gloom from
the face Of a despondent reader. is worth
more than all the morbidly analytical
writer's who ever lived.
One by one are literary regulations
overthrown. Thomas De Quincy. the
greatest Of English opium eaters. as he
was one OF the greatest OF English essay
lists. was. il We are 10 put credence in the
Investigations Of a French scientist. a
prevaricator and an exaggerator when
he wrote his famous Confessions" He
may have taken small doses Of opium
and other drugs. Dr. Guerrier acknowl-
edges. but he was a veritable Munchau-
sen in his accounts of his exploits as an
absorbent of narcotics The use OF
opium" says the learned and skepticaI
Frenchman. in large doses and during a
long period quickly produces great weak
ness and premature old age Now, De
Quincy lived until he was seventy-five.
At seventy he still covered with light step
ten miles or SO on foot A friend reports
that he climbed the hillsides like a squir-
rel Opium also destroys the memory.
That Of De Quincy remained perfect un-
til his death. We have sought 10 show -
continues Dr. Guerrier that the opio-
phagia Of Thomas De Quincy lies in the
realm OF legend. While a number of the
symptoms described by De Quincy are
exact. an equal number are wholly false.
! He gave no evidence Of certain effects of
4 opium poisoning. which he himself de-
scribes. 1t is almost impossible. not TO
put IL in stronger language. that De Quin-
cey should have taken the doses of opium
and laudanum of which he speaks and
during the time of which he speaks. If
| he took any opium al all, II must have
been but very little.
The Life of Henrik Ibsen." by Ed
mund Gosse. which Charles Scribner'
Sons published recently. has now been
brought out in new edition uniform
with the complete set Of Ibsen's works
edited by William Archer. This life
makes the twelfth volume in the set
and with the admirable biographical and
critical intrOductiOns. with which Mr.
Archer has prefaced each play in this
edition. makes most complete and we'll
rounded account of Ibsen's life and
works Mr.. Gosse's life was written
with the idea and intention that II
should be read in conjunction with Mr.
Areher's edition. and It forms a most ad-
mirable supplement 10 il
Messrs. D. C. Heath & CO.. publishers,
/ Boston, have in press for immediate issue
/ in "Heath's Modern Language Series. -