New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-26
LITERARY CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
Mr. Finley's Splendid Chapter in the History
Of the Making of the Country he Jew
Among the Nations-Elis Future.

ness and repulsive squa,or on the river
fronts Of Mississippi towns and cities
and in the contrast OF them with what
the French undoubtedly would have
made them; but there is no less IN the
suggestion of the practical work which
the French spirit would have accom-
plished for the control of the now un-
speakably disastrous foods. The fact
is that not only have we let one of the
noblest streams in the world become
scene of worse than sordid common
place. but that also we have so neg
iected or misused the finest inland
waterway system In the world as 10
make its tdwindling value for commerce
less than the losses which II intilcts
upon the country in its seasons of un-
bridled floods DR.. Finley dwells upon
these intensely modern and Unitarian
phases of the subject with no less IN
terest and authority than he employs
in dealing with the romance and ad-
venture of two and half centuries
ago; and he gives US the unused and
startling reminder that hitherto the
disastrous foods of the lower Missls-
sippi have proceeded from only one at
a time Of the three great tributary
river systems. If floods in just one OF
be the resu If Red River. Ohio and
Missouri should all three rise to the
brim at once?
In writing upon the many phases OF
this fascinating theme, from Cartier
to the present day, DR.. Finley cor
daily Acknowledges his great indebt-
edness 10 Parkman, whose monumental
works he draws upon and quotes on
almost every page. That was lnevlta-
BILE. No man can write of the history
Of the West and leave out Parkman to
any better purpose than he could write
of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand
and leave out Xenophon. But there is
no mere cribbing from that vast treas
ury Of information and of inspiration,
nor any slavish following Of the great
master whom the author so reverently
esteems. Every chapter is instinct with
virile originality, and every page bears
the unmistakable touch of the authors
individuality. Whether he recalls the
adventures Of La Sale with Parkman,
or studies Lincoln with Hay and Mic
olay, or analyses the statistics Of the
latest government reports, il is always
DR.. Finley himself who is writing, in
terpreting and instructing and inspiring
the reader He has addressed himself
TO the task with sympathy and zeal, and
he has performed it with a thorough
ness, lucidity and an enthralling and
convincing charm which stamp his vol
ume as a classic in the very year Of its
publication. The glowing tribute which
he pays 10 Parkman in his epllogue Is,
Of course. every word deserved by that
greatest of the historians Of America
But in the fulness and the fine discre-
tion Of his appreciation Of that master
there is an unconscious revelation OF
the measure of his own capacity and
fitness TO write also Of that Of which
Parkman wrote. mo man is hero TO
his valet" for the reason that the
valet is incapable of approaching hero
ism. 1t takes hero to know hero.
So it has taken a writer of Parkman's
own spirit to appreciate Parkman, and
to divine so justly the great themes
which Parkman has made immortal.