Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-17
Rev Books
in Review

story of Able Edgeworth, but such
is the fact. Miss Montague's book, at
least, tells all the facts about the
abbe's life. He was descended from
an Anglo-Irish family of good line
age, the same from which the au-
thoress, Maria Edgeworth, came. A
descendant of this family, the Rev.
Robert Edgeworth, became a convert
to Roman Catholicism in 174S. He
left Ireland with his family and
crossed over to France. There he
made a home for his wife and chill
dren in Toulouse. One of this fam
lily was Henry Edgeworth, destined
to be the last earthly comforter of
Monsieur Veto" Henry, educated
in his boyhood at Toulouse, was sent
to Paris, where he was for some time
an attendant at the theological lee
lures at the Sorbonne. Soon there
after he assumed holy orders, living
meanwhile at the Seminary of the
Missions Etrangeres in the Rue du
Bac. His mother and sister took up
their home in the Recollects' Convent,
near the seminary, and did charitable
work among the Irish Catholics, al
ways numerous in Paris. In various
ways Able Edgeworth gained repu-
tation for sanctity in an age when
eccleSiaStics were hypocrites and
worthy associates of the French
noblesse in Fastening the horrors
which were the price the aristocrats
were to pay for ages of oppression
and wrong TO a whole people.
This odor of sanctity obtained for
Able Edgeworth the post of father
confessor to Madame Elizabeth. This
was in 1871, and it was this princess
who brought the able to the atten-
ton of Louis XVI. when the king un-
derstood that mis- fate was sealed.
lie was called to the Temple for his
last ministrations by the king himself
and by the minister of Justice The
revolutionary commissaries. such men
as are described in "Pere Duchesne,"
interrogated the able, and at first
refused to permit the king to hear
mass or to communicate, but in this
crisis the able proved his strength Of
will and gained his purpose. The
commissaries yielded.
For many hours-sixteen, history
says-the Able Edgeworth was per-
mitted to remain in secret with the
son of st. Louis, upon whose devoted
head was being poured the long
stored wrath of an aroused nation.
Then at dawn. when the historic con-
fession was at an end. mass was said
at 8 o'clock the king, accompanied
by the able, took that dreadful ride
to death in the place Louis XIV, in
which so many of his former sub
iects had preceded him. 1t is tho
testimony of all historians that in
this supreme and awful hour the de-
scendant of II long line of kings
proved himself brave man. and he
WAS, above all, sustained. as Louis
XVIII. afterward wrote, by the forti-
tude and inspired attitude of the
Able Edgeworth, who. as the royal
hands were being tied behind Louis's
back by the executioner, Samson him
self, upheld the king by the example
of the Savior of mankind. who
Himself suffered every humiliation
before His shameful death.
AS the head of the king was held
up for the execration of the pitiless
mob the able bethought himself of
his own safety. He looked about, but
none observed him. and he fled. He
remained in France until 1776, part
of the time hiding at Choisy, then
Montigny and Fontainebleau and
finally Boreux. The police pursued
him. but he always escaped. then at
last reaching Portsmouth from ST.
Malo. He was received with honor
in England and Pitt granted him an
audience, while the king offered him
a pension He was also offered the
Ireland.
Finally the able received a letter
from Louis XVIII, who slater wrote
the priests epitaph in a magnificent
Latin style, asking him to join him
in Rlankenburg. This he did. Thence
he followed the royal exile to Mittau
and Warsaw and then back to Nit
tau, where he died in his sixty second
wear, May 81. 1907. These are the
hare facts of the life of the able, but
they tell little of his character, of his
purity of life and soul His memoirs
were published in Paris in 1878.
How Not to Read.
Mr.. Shepherd, of the Bronx.
writes to the editor of the New York
Times a letter about Grays "Elegy."
He begins by quoting a college pro-
fessor as saying that the poem is so
perfect that mot one word could be
subtracted from it and another word
substituted" This statement seemed
excessive to the Bronxite, who there
fore reread the poem with great care
and found two errors in one particu-
lar verse, which goes as follows:
Their name, their years, spelt by the
unlettered muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply;
And many holy text around she strews,
N@~'
The expression their name should
be their names as all the people In
the graveyard did not bear the same
name. The phrase and many noly
text is singular. and the verb teach
is plural, If the poet had said:
And many holy texts around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralst to die,
And many a holy text around she strews,
To teach the rustic moralist to die,
the grammatical form would have
been correct" Back to your muttons.
Mr.. Shepherd; this letter Of yours is
worth quoting precisely because 1t is
a horrible example of how not to read
poetry. You, make a Charles F. Muir
ply of grammar, which is really only
hard working public servant. The
novelist Thackeray teens with SEN
fences which, from a pedant's stand
point, are indefensible. Yet Thack-
cray stands with the author of tom
Jones" at the head of English novel;
lists, and is even some pumpkins" as
a stylist. Shakespeare is full of SOLE
cisms and redundancies condemned in
HilIs Rhetoric" yet that nowise de-
tracts from Shakespeare's supremacy
over the more careful writer's of
later day. Grammar is an excellent
invention; it corresponds to formal
etiquette in social life. The man who
is well born never reads handbooks
of etiquette. and not infrequently
breaks their rules; with the same i'm
punity the poet Breaks the rules Of
grammar. 1t isn't the grammarians
who protest-they know better: it is
the well-meaning. half educated per.
sons who write letters to the New
York Times.-Collier's for February.