The New York herald., 1922-10-22
Scanning Life Through the Essay

LITERATURE AND LIFE. Things seen |
Heard and Read. BY E. B. Osborn. E. p.
Dutton & Co.
THE TOCSIN OF REVOLT. AND OTHER
ESSAYS. By Brander' Matthews. Charles
Scribner's Sons
ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS. BY James
Agate. George H. Doran Company.
THE SPORTING LIFE, AND OTHER
TRIPLES. BY Robert Lynd. Charles Scrib
ner's Sons.
n KR. E. B. OSBORN is the literary edi-
WI tor of the London Morning Post
and one of the few humanists in
daily newspaper harness who continue
regularly to spin out from themselves sun
shiny little webs Of what have been well
called the permanent and tranquil things
of the mind" In Literature and Life"
volume Of these collected essays, are thirty
such fine, shining fabrics which are good
to read and keep on the shelf for more
than occasional rereading Their special
excellences are like Sam Weller's knowl-
edge of London-"various and peculiar"
He trots out few new words or startling
hypothesis for the morning run around.
but all are worth the attention of the sensi-
BILE and sensitive reader; every hair of
them glisteps and they have no unbecom
ing tricks. Whether he discusses of Epic
Liars or Sea Ladies' (mermaids); of
'"The Greatest Poetry" or "Accidie" Gin
common terms 'the lump" which bears
down at times on all men); of "The I'm
known Muse" or Beer, Noble Beer; of
u,;ot
ress"-always Qong word though it be) he
accounts for himself and more. His equip
ment impulse and competence are all there
and in chord; and his chords are always
resolved-you are not required to carry on
his music for lack of his own notation.
For such "old fashioned writings the
scourged and jaded reader Of much smart
prose is profoundly grateful.
Prof Matthews is fluent in essays and in
all of them there is reasonable yield of
golden grain. In his new volume, THE
Tocsin of Revolt, and Other Essays" he
has bound up such varied material as the
title piece-in which he strokes restless
youth with the absolute but maddening
truth that Nothing is more hopelessly
futile than the attempt to start fresh
his sensible suggestions to Ameucan archi-
tects that they should build houses appar-
emily suitable for Americans to live in
amid American surroundings equally good
advice to Americans about American cook
cry, and divers scraps of wisdom about
Theodore Roosevelt, Moliere, Mark Twain
and the length Of Cleopatra's nose. And
none of his suggestions is wiser or more
gracious than his expression of respect
for the platitude. bringing Walter Bagebot
to witness that "the statesman is likely to
be most useful to the community when be
combines common ideas and uncommon
ability" So did George Washington. so did
Grover Cleveland; and SO, in his day and
generation, does Brander Matthews.
AS a critic OF drama and its variants in
the London Saturday ReUfeic Mr.. Agate
employed a style which is distinctive
enough to be called idiomatic if that word
did not imply use of words in specialized
meanings specially arranged in odd
phrases. This is not quite true though
the effect of reading his clattering-and
sometimes sputtering-prose, now collected.
is a sense of having had rather violent
exercise when you had only undertaken
to go for stroll as if you had intended