Evening star., 1924-07-06
LIFE OF JESUS. BY Ernest Renan
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

Renan'S Life or Jesus,
comes forward at this mo-
ment to join Papini's Life
of Christ" Together they provide
serious and questioning readers with
body of critical discussion of sur
passing insight and acumen on the
subject under consideration. This.
treatment is bound to be of meal
cuable value to thousands of readers
to whom its appeal will be certain
and lasting. ~Our planet, believe me"
says Renan in his preface, lis toll
ing at some mighty task. Do not
pronounce rashly upon the inutility
of such and such of it's parts; do not
say that it is needful to suppress this
wheelwork, which seems only to
thwart the play of the others. Ma
ture. which has endowed the animal
with an infallible instinct. has put
into humanity nothing deceptive. Re
ligions are false when they attempt
TO prove the infinite, to define it, to
incarnate it; but they are true when
they import into that affirmation are
nothing compared to the value of
the truth which they proclaim. The
simplest of the simple, provided he
practice heart worship, is more en-
lightened as to the reality of things
than the materialist who thinks he
explains everything by chance or by
finite causes.
CREOLE SKETCHES. BY Lafcadio
Hearn. Edited by Charles Wood
ward Hutson. illustrations by the
author Boston: Houghton Milf
fin Company.
The present place of Lafcadio Hearn
in literature gives to his early work
an interest that is to a degree in
dependent of it's essential value. The
ways of success are worth finding out.
one scans eagerly the steps by which
d writer advances to see when, and
where. and why, the permanent lift
sets in. incidentally, Creole Sketches
serves this useful end. 1t shows the
newspaper mah-discouraged with de-
feats too many-trying to get his feet
planted on the levels. and then on the
slow upgrade. To help along, little
pictures of his own making animate
these press sketches Of New Orleans
by.Lafcadio Hearn. Almost instantly
one is reading these, however. not as
models to follow, but evocationS
of the spirit of "the faireSt city of
the south" Quaint local customs.
grotesque attitudes of human nature,
city nuisances, odd and immemorial
corners of the town. politics, book
reviews a hundred touches of Creole
life, washerwomen. landladies, dark
les, queer old men, flower sellers. and
so on, and so on. walk into the book and
sit down for our enjoyment And the
city whispers to him: Rest with me.
] dwell in eternal summer; I dream
in perennial sunshine: l sleep in mag
lead moonlight. / offer thee eternal
sweet breezes and sweet perfumes.
bright fruits, and flowers fairer than
the rainbow. Rest with me. For If
thou leavest me, thou must forever
hn- -i,I iafI
spirit, the quality of life, charm
all here in these street scenes of the
city OF the south. Every city mas
thenl-not just these, of course.
inherently to each. One wonders why
we do not read of these other cities
as we are able here to read of New
Orleans. Nobody is doing it. Certain
1y 1t is not lost art. Why do we
not see something approaching it
monplace?
- BY Grace King, author of Creole
Families of New Orleans etc.
New York: The Macmillan Com
pany.
Grace King has obviously eaten
New Orleans and digested it. She
has also assimiiated it. SO that now
she is New Orleans plus herself. The
next move in the sequence is that of
expression. Naturally, when she ex-
presses herself she expresses New
Orleans. Already she has done this
in study and sketch, in a moving
picture of some high moment. in his
toric summary. And here it is in
romance-the romance of the found
ing of the city by the French colon
lists, of their conflicts with the In
dians, of their periods of quiet in
dustry. The elements that enter into
the beginning years of the settlement
are thrown into form and centered
here upon the fortunes of a lovely
lady, an exile from France, Marie
Alorge-La Dame de Sainte Hermine.
1t is a moving story of homesickness.
of danger from the Indians, or ro-
mantle sucsoor of equally romantie
tragedy move here in quick shifts of
smile and tear. Around the whole
are the favors, not only of colonial
settlement. but those altogether spe-
cia1 f1avors of which this city of the
south is the exclusive and persistent
poSSeSSor.
THE PAINTED WOODS. BY Nevil
Henshaw, author of THE Inher-
itance of Jean Trouve," etc. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs- Merrill Com
~pany.
A romance set in the Louisiana
swamps. And, indeed, this setting,
the landscape here, is fair rival
action depends for its progress and
fuIfillment. Primarily. a love story.
with two suitors for the favor of
girls who would grace any book, or
three, beleyable and satisfying. each.
in both character and role. But hu-
man behaviors under the spell of
love are TO a degree standardized.
One knows about what to expect; But
with this setting, familiarly regulated
matters disappear. The clear fresh
ness of the story rises out of the
Louisiana swamps-out of their as
tonishing beauty of flaming color and
mysterious depths. and small sin
lister things that crawl and loop them
selves into the low-hanging growths
ready to drop and attack. out of the
human modes of drawing support
from this scant field. The Inher-
novel by this author, deals with
Louisiana also, but not with the
swamp area. Apart from this general
kinship of locale, both novels possess
equal substance of good structure,
ofErounded characters who carry on
out of their own natures rather than
out of external interferences on the
part of the author. 1t is to be hoped
that Nevil HenShaw will hold himself
to- this region for more stories of
simple people in not over-written
setting.
~THEDRAL. BY Frances NJ. Cost
Ling author of The Bretons at
Home" etc. illustrated. Boston:
Little, Brown & Co.
The common approach to the ca
thedral is by way of its architecture
Here, however, one is brought to look
upon it as the embodied history Of an
earlier day. as way station in the
pilgrims progress. Here, in stone
and line and lift and spread, is the
story of the people clustered around