The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-01

he is Full Of PROMISE" worth the win
ming and near at hand. Catullus him
self had introduced them, (which would
add piquancy to her letting the din of
| the Forum succeed the babbling OF He'll
CONAN streams" And tho naughty
1 Cicero--how furious, how impotent he
would bel so she wrote: Does Cp-
Illus know that Clodla's roses are love-
Hest at dusk, when the first stars alone
keep watch?"
Catullus found them in the garden in
the moonlight. His old pure love for
her died, but after q week Of delirium
he recognized the scorching Of a new
/ FIRE. lie went to her. And the story
ends: He had blamed Death for his
separation from his brother. But what
Death had been powerless to accom-
| plish his own choice Of evil had brought
, about. Between him and his brother
| there now walked the Estranger-Life."
The story will surely enlarge the COM
mon idea OF Catullus and measures up
we'll with "the main purpose Of these
Roman sketches" to show that "the
men and women Of ancient Rome were
! like ourselves" Ourselves are not oil
| that they should be or that we would
| ,,,,.t, .h.,,, 90 r.. ana in ma rticular sor,e
,,,ndarn noets have lived arrange lives
| !. nj ,vritten very rama rkal,lo lines. But
the n,eces are not all 40 tragic; the
story Of Ovid's exile In finely told. A
Dialogue between Horace and Mmcenas
IL delightful. albeit lacking in dramatic
| unity inasmuch as the spirit Of recorded
/ history rrins slyly back Of the mask
Of counterfeit prophecy in some OF the
talk, The authors style, drawing not
only "the essential facts" but some of
the phraseology from the writings OF
| the Roman authors themselves, appears
| in this: zone Of the choicest Greek
wines in the hosts famous cellar had
been brought in. There WAS enough
snow on Soracte, MRcenas had said
laughingly. to justify tho Oldest Chan,
| II Horace could forgo his Italian num-
bers and his home brewed Sabine Tor
| one night"
| Mrs. Atkinson declares dual purpose.
The first element. suggesting Roman
conditions "as they may have affected
or appeared to men of letters In sue
cessive epochs. has In a sense been
achieved. OF the half dozen sketches
three fall In the Augustan age, one just
antedates the death OF Cesar. another Is
Of Trajan's time and the last deals with
Tho period when Hadrian attempted a
renaissance Of Greek art in Athens and
creative Roman literature had come to
an end" They are classically correct In
fact, and where fact is missing they dc
not wrench the probabilities; but the
author Is concerned with facts and dates
only Incidentally for framework pur-
poses. The prime consideration Is OF the
human spirit of the time, involving the
second element OF purpose. TO cast the
facts into an imaginative form which
II IL hoped may help rather to reveal
than cloak their significance for those
who believe that the roads from Rome
lead Into the highway Of human life.
No translation OF the familiar facts Into
modern Technology can make the
Roman personality any clearer to the
modern world than Il already Is; nc
dramatization or the personal relations
or Roman authors with M@cenas car
IRE any bur the romantic mind. The
author eris IN STRIVING TO blend the
Classic OH ana the romantic water. From
the CLASSIC point OF view she presents 9
bad idea executed with tantaliz!ng ex
ceIehce OF technique FROM the 70
mantle point or view her imaginary
portraits are a collection Of stories o.
Roman lie entirely too good to miss.
, huoup'etiy human nature 1900
: years ago, fadic;tl and conservative
J prands alike was very similar to hu
man nature to-day: but why level ava,
the vitality characteristic differences o
thought ami manner? Our quarrel /,
) precisely with that which the author
appears 10 hold dearest. the aim at "in
/ depreciation" OF Roman character; N,
pure story element, subordinate in hei