Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-08-05
BOOK REVIEWS.
THE UNIVERSITY MILITANT Ry
Charles Ferguson. New York
Mitchell Kennerley.

~ ruminate in lazy half-scholariy
y fashion upon what has already
been done. The gist of this mat
ter is, that We, having passed through
the critical stages of a reformation, and
now standing, in whole skins, on the
other side. have a distinct something to
do, in the face OF our new and illimitable
possibilities The revolution cited COM
menced with the discovery of America
and the land-hunger of the Elizabethan
age In the management of this over
turning up to the present time govern
ment. religion and-in part-education
have failed ingloriously. 1t does one good
to read what the author dares to say
upon this point. With the remnant of
efficiency left to education. the author
proposes to yeast the whole lump of the
future. The name of the order is
industrialism. The hope of achievement
in industrialism lies in organization based
on a far-seeing intelligence and a close
feeling warmth for humanity. The uni
versity sourced in truth. openness and
the spirit of real democracy. is to be the
instrument of solution. for this immediate
complex The explicit plan is to establish
national university towns, each surround
ed by a self-supporting area of land. To
draw to these limits the very flower of
Industrial effort there shall be supreme
production. invention. competition-with
large and glorious margin OF time for the
things of the spirit. There is much his
tory in this Illuminating exposition his
tory to show just when. and where, and
how earlier institutions bearing upon this
point failed. And more exposition to
show, that Of all the earlier institutions.
the university is the only one that still
holds the breath of life. the only one
upon which the hope of the future may
safely rest. This is scholarly and an
inspired utterance-vivid, we'll supported.
outlooking, with substance for action and
Inspiration for plan. One ought TO quote
every word of it. but, this impracticable.
he Is left to the hope that thousands of
the young-the young both in years and
heart-wil study it and bend their acts
toward its cons ummation.
LECTURES on LITERATURE: Column
bia University Lectures. BY men,
bers of the University Faculty.
New York: The Columbia Univer-
sity Press.
To both the student and the studious
reader this volume from Columbia Uni
versity offers one of the latest and best
outlines of literature. Here is a body of
lectures. each of whose units is the fruit
arly processes and attitudes. and each
presented with the ease of habitude
These lectures. in substance. cover vari-
Gus literatures and literary epochs. They
present oriental, classical and modern
letters. In the first are the Semitic the
Chinese, the Indian and Persian; in the
second the Greek and Latin: in the last
the English, German. Russian and Ro-
nance literatures. Brander Matthews
with The Approaches to Literature"
William +. Trent at the close. projects
the whole into The Cosmopolitan Out
look" j. E. Spingarn completes the Sc
ries with a mastery discussion of liter
airy criticism. in which the ancient dog
mas of this art fall away. His examina-
tion moves along through a succession
OF We have done with'-for instance.
technique separated from art I'VE
have done with old theories Of style
also. and with those fine demarking lines
that set off one kind of invention from
another-comedy from tragedy, epic from
lyric-each invioiate and to be so kept at
all hazard. Under this sane and hopeful
phrase We have done with" a deal Of
lumber sappears from literary criticism
For broad inclusiveness of outlook, for
hlgh authority, for variety of literary
personality, for unity of organization botn
In single lecture and entire body, for a
certain virile modernity OF view and
hold and handling, this volume stands in
one of the high places of worth and use
fulness.
MY LIFE: BY Richard Wagner New
York: podd. Mead & Co. Washing
ton: Brentanos.
If the recorded life of any man is
worth thousand pages of a readers
good time. perhaps such is the life of
Richard Wagner. Certain it is that this
long photographic story is told with
Infinite grace and ease, moving swiftly
from point to point in spirited narrative
ana NlVld description of persons and
places, with abundant humor and gem
uine wit glowing and flashing along the
way But, all said and done, these bulky
volumes OF intimate avowal add propor-
tionately little to what is already known
or the essential Wagner. 1t goes without
SAYING that every circumstance of mind
ana iee!ins that went into the making Of
this great artist is of prime Importance
Ana there are here inEUnerable revela-
tions OF high value. but these are 90
blended with irrelevances sometimes so
overcome by them, that il becomes diff
cult 10 follow the DEVELOPMENT of the
genius through the selfish and childish
egotlsm OF the mere man. We cling to
our illusions about genius. and there Is
a very good fundamental reason WHY We
should. We regret. therefore any over
intimacy with the world on it's part That
Wagner was always out of money, al
ways in debt, and firmly of the opinion
that the world owed him more than II
could pay: that his social relations were
this, that and the other; that he gambed
and drank. as a wild young fellow: that
he was suspicious, jealous and himself
Unfaithful. may. in the evening OF life, be
pleas ant 10 remember and talk about in
certain moods. All that is no concern of
ours. II is the rebel against the conven-
tons OF a great art that draws our de-
voton. II is about him that we are curl
Gus. The or gin of this autobiography is
OF interest. Dictated by Wagner, privately
printed a generation ago in a dozen
copies for intimate friends, pledged to
guard IL against publicity til after the
composers death, II comes as the
Spouse to a whetted curiosity.
THE QUEENS FILLET. BY Canon
Sheehan. ID. author Of "Glenan-
aar," etc New York: Longmans
Green & Co.
Canon Sheehan. best known TO by
the fidelity and grace OF his pictures of
Irish life, now crosses the water into
France to retell the horrible story OF the
French revolution. By means Of the ad-
ventures OF the hero of this tale the au-
thor casts il in the mold OF romance.
However the use Of material the attitude
OF mind and spirit toward the matter in
hand, declare the author. in this case,
historian rather than romancer. The
whole stands faithful TO the facts of his
tory, exact in name and date and cir
CumStance. 1t is as IL the author uses
invention hero he IF