Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-03-21

WaS cOnpclIe0
TO earn living doing other things
which failed to satisfy him.
Ills publishers say that his boo,
chailcnges comparison with The Edu-
cation Of Henry Adams. and also that
to those who found The Americaniza.
tion of Edward Box an entirely salts
f' ing book ZIP stream may come as
u stern reminder that there is another
side of the medal
1t should be explained in the first
place for the benefit Of those TO whom
Ludwig Lewisohn il not even a name
and there are many such jus, as there
ar" many who know nothing Of Henry
Adams-that he was born of German
Jewish parents in Berlin. in 1852. that
he came with his family 10 America in
1870. and was graduated from Charles
ton College in South Carolina with the
degree of Il. 4. and NJ. 4. in 1901. at
the age of nineteen. and that he did
post graduate work in Columbia Uni
vcrsity for two years to ft himself as
Il teacher of English literature. He was
unable 10 find any college in which he
could teach. He SAYS he was re-
iected because he Is jew and that
il is almost impossible for a Jew to
lind place on the faculty Of any
American college. As he could not find
plac" t" teach be accepted employ
mont a. contributing editor Of Warner s
Library OF the Worlds Best Liter
ature. Then he was on the editorial
staff of Doubleday. Page & Co. for
Io,. Al A,.
gust in 1905 and for the next five years
he wrote for the magazines. In 1910
a friend secured his appointment as in
structor in German in the University
of Wisconsin. He stayed there a year.
when he went to the Ohio State Cni-
vcrsity as assistant professor of the
German language and literature. He
remained in Ohio until 1918 or 1919.
when there was so much criticism Of
his alleged pro -German sympathies that
he resigned. II" insists now that the
patriotic demonstrations during the
war were reaction from suppressed
sexual emotion. Since 1919 he has been
dramatic critic Of the Nation. a radical
weekly of New York. He has written
several. books and translated IIaupt.
nanns pays from the German. His
first short stories were rejected by the
Atlantic Monthly. but the editor of the
Smart Set accepted them and asked for
more. His first novel did not sell and
his second wa" suppressed by Anthony
Comstock.
Ms book is az crhi6it,on o. The
pcrrersion of 1chat mioht haze been
Stceetly sane nature by a morbid
scnsitiueness about his race.
TT WOULD be folly TO deny that the
L Jews suffer more OF less from the
fact of their race. Tacre are histori-
cal grounds for it. though it cannot be
justified by any arguments that ap-
peal 70 pure reason. Some Jews ac-
cept the sitGation and make the best
Of it, proud Of belonging 70 race
which has preserved its solidarity for
more thousands Of years than any
other race in the Western world
When members OF the Younger races
presume TO look down On them they re-
call the remark .of Disrae.! TO an Eng
lish lord boasting of his ancient family,
that when the British were barbarians
his ancestors We're welcomed at the civ
flied court Of King Solomon. Others
are as sensitive as Mr.. Lewisohn and
permit themselves to be soured, and as
sumo that the whole world is out Of
Joint because they have not been able
to find in it the place which they
sought.
The most notable effect Of this sen.
sitiveness of Mr.. Lewisohn is the de-
ve!opment Of a comolacent egotisin. He
tells Us that when his translation of
n poem By Horace was read in class in
high school the teacher said: That
boy will go far He admits that he
was a remarkably successful teacher,
and he says that when the war broke
out there were only two professors in
the university who kept their heads
himself and another. Now, Henry
Adams. with whose book we are in
vited 10 compare this one. was also a
teacher, and one OF the most successful
teachers Of history Harvard University
ever hdd. but he insisted that as a
teacher he was failure. He had an
IDEAL so high that he could not attain
it, and he abandoned teaching against
the protest Of those in authority, The
Adams book is the story OF the striving
of an earnest man to find key to un.
Jock the riddle OF the life Of man on
earth and n confession OF a bitter dis
appointment over his failure.
lhe LeUisOhH book IL cocksure
condemnation OF the eIishn0 order
0Hd confident assertion OF o6Iity
10 shoic tie tcay TO a better political,
industrial and social system.
TT FORCIBLY reminds one Of what
l. Tolstoy wrote two weeks before his
death-namely, that humility Is the
greatest and most needful virtue To
illustrate his meaning the great Russian
explained that a man is like fraction
in which the denominator indicates his
opinion Of himself. When the denonii-
nator is zero the man has a true sig :
niflcance, bur when the dcnominator is
irfnity the significance Of the man dis +.
appears entirely.
Tolerance Is word the meaning OF
which Mr.. Lewisohn does not seem to
know. William James had it in large
measure. Even in the case OF theories
which he could not ACCEPT, "he be A..