New-York tribune., 1922-09-10

| Lavisse is dead. He was
a magnificent Picardy peasant, vigor-
GUS of body, clear of brain, with q
penetrating eye, solid style and a
precise and laborious manner Of writ
ing. But he was also very adroit in
the conduct of his fortune, and despite
an obstinacy and partiality persistent
ly evident in his scholastic administra-
tion as well as his historicity, he man
aged always to find himself on the
winning side.
He was patriot and kind Of state
Socialist in the highest meaning of
these words; with little less pru-
dence he would have been the perfect
Jacobin. He was ambitious of glory,
and though his students reminded him
a thousand times that it was his pos
session, he was never certain of it.
Indeed, it may be doubted whether he
obtained it, He was the tutor of the
prince imperial and the friend of the
| Empress Eugene, and by her favor he
became a member of the Academy. On
the other hand, his textbooks ac-
corded perfectly with the aspirations
of the younger school of educational
administrators, and he gained thereby
certain renown. But his name was
never know abroad as one Of the
torches of French civilization; his
fame was even less than that of a
| Pasteur, Fustel de Coulanges or a
CASTOR Paris, to refer only to the
dead. In France itself he exercised q
triple influence as professor, as coun-
selor to the government, and as an
almost official historian.
AS professor he had numberless pu-
pills, who were drawn by his mastery
Of pedagogics, his incontestable talent,
and, it is possible, also by his enor-
nous and occasionally tyrannical in
fluence in the matter of university
appointments. As counselor to the
government he brought to It's service
Jacobin temperament, q Bonapartist
formation and an unconsciously ad-
miring knowledge of Prussian meth
DDS. One of his most cherished ideas
was that the provincial universities of
his country should draw their ac-
tion from Paris, as a prefet of a
| departement takes his orders from the
central government, rather than give
themselves over to original research.
The ninth and final volume of his
"Histoire de France contemporaries"
was published shortly before his
death. and thus the vast, official monu-
ment of which he was the architect
forms an eminently fitting end to his
own career.
Mr., Andre Billy, literary critic of
"LOeuvre," the brightest and most
moderate daily in PaNis, has followed
hundred critics in score of coun-
tries in collecting his hastily (and
+, excellently) written papers, reviewing
| them, and giving them permanent %
| form in volume published under the
title, LA Muse aux B&sicles." Mr..
I, Billy is sensitive and intelligent, he
abhors prolixity and verbosity, he has
ample culture from which to draw ma
terials for the decor of his reviews
and he is nicely reluctant to quote too
much by way Of displaying his erudi-
tion. His brief studies touch wide
variety of books published between
1918 and 1922 and will be of interest
to the American reader as a judicious
guide to French literature during these
years.
Nine. Marcelle Tinayre is very
competent writer of tasteful and ele-
giant French. She is one of the writers
we were permitted to read in our youth
| with the inferior Nine. de Coulevain)
| and habit formed during nearly
twenty years is difficult to break-so
we continue to read. Decidedly, her
last volume is an entertaining one.
"Le Bouclier d'Alexandre" is written
around legend which tells of the birth
of Perseis, of the union of the beauti-
| full Amazon Thalestris, with Alexander,
| Perseis receives from her mother
Alexander's shield with the story that
lover will appear to kill her and