Evening star., 1924-09-02
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM

Ai"is suBsests the diSarray and in
consequence of big house on NOV
,hs-in oay. when the belongings of
hall and drawing room, of library
and bed chambers, of kitchen and at
tic and cellar. hob-nob together on
the ground f1oor in democratic dis
regard Of the set rules of class be-
havior. This easily satisfied one sees
only a motley Of shapes and uses
touched off here and there with the
colors Of piled fabrics and painted
canvas, with the sheen of shrouded
silver and crystal, with the CLEAN of
ornaments In jade and jasper and
gold. A place of fascination, though.
Everybody comedies this, even though
lts Vagarious ways more likely than
not lead straight into nowhere. But.
always into a pleasant and beguiling
nowhere
The real appeal OF the Pepys Diary
is not to the majority, not to Mr.
Average Reader. highly diverting
though this one may find the whim-
seal honesty Of Samuel Pepys with
himself in these private daily avow-
ais. II is with the rarer man tina,
the Diary takes on genuine i'm.
portance. This one knows, as we all
DO. that the heart of man is an un-
discovered country of rich hidden re-
sources from Whic h any shred OF
truth brought back is Of supreme mo-
heht. lie sees. too, that here Pepys
mas set up an honest and free com
merce with himself. that he has laid
ASIDE the instructive concealments in
"hIch all men hide, even away from
themselves. This is the Importance
OF the Pepys Diary. that it opens
the way Tor the discovery of a man.
ANA more than one has gone into
the Diary a-hunting for the man.
Lo"ell went. SO did Stevenson and
Ihackeray. So did Walter Scott And
each came out with a part of him
d button from his coat, a ring from
MS hnger. smile, a bright thought.
a laughing phase Not SO much to
Blame for the meagerness of the re-
turns. For since the day Of even the
nearest or these new school of
man quest has riSen-one that X-rays
the mind and traces the blood to its
far sources, and keeps watchfuI
eye upon the shaping environment
Gamalfel Bradford is OF the new
school OF up-to-date equipment and
special training. Therefore, when
ne goes into the Pepys Diary to get
the man of the house it is no gamble
to assume that he will get him. and
that he will deliver him whole. pc
lore doing this-indeed, as prepara-
tion Tor doing it-Mr. Bradford be-
taxes himself back to the time and
piace OF Pepys, since the new
science declares a mans environment
20 be a good percentage of the man
himselr. Two and a half centuries
PACK, just when England, tired OF
plety and eager for play, had traded
cromwell for Charles ii. thereby
opening up a period of gayety and
n6
ana an easy denial of benefits ac-
cruing from the austerities of Pur1-
tanism. 1t is here that he finds
samuel Pepys, a valued official OF
the admiralty, good liver in the
midst OF general good living A sig
hlncant md, this. An adaptable man
OF ready accommodations whose an
petite for pleasure is robust and Keen
or edge. This is the key to Samuel
Pepys-this instinct of self-preser-
Sation. this lust of enjoyment And
with the key in hand, Mr. Bradwell
comes back to the Diary into which
for the past 80 years he has with
studious intent adventured innum-
cradle times.
Within the Diary Mr. Bradford
comes upon Pepys time and time
again with 1.-The lining of his souI
turned outward in open confidence
about himself and about the I'M
mediate world which so engrossed
and delighted him. An average man.
Pepys. average in mind and practi-
Cal sense. Average in morals, too,
ne INDUCED his passions and re-
GREETED the indulgence. made good
resolutions and broke them and made
them again. judged others severely
also, fought the old mad battle with
the hesh and the devil, sometimes
shamefully, sometimes tr1umphantly.
out always humanity. In short, he
was man amazingly like you and
me, and the chief among all the
many interests of his wonderful
Diary is that it reveals him and you
and me with a candor, an unparalIeI-
co. dlrect. sincere clarity. which has
never oeen equa!ed. except perhaps
In the essays of Montaigne."
Throughout the nine-year course of
the great Diary, Mr.. Bradford pursues
Samuel Pepys along the intimate
ways OF that average existence so
llke' our own in it's quality of being
average. And at every turn Pepys
disclosed himself with the abandon of
a child who is yet in ignorance of the
supreme sin of being found out. In
the office, on the street. at home. in
the manifold contacts of social enjoy-
ment, in his regard for money and the
uses to which he put it, in his lean
lnss toward art-painting, letters.
muSic-and in his affection for ar
fists, in the exercise of his own brain
toward one and another of the sur
rounding aspects of life-through all
these does Mr.. Bradford go along
with Pepys. searching. discovering,
checking up. co-ordinating, the sum
of activities that constituted the indi-
vidual. Samuel Pepys. From the
process a live man emerges to give US
greeting on the basis of our common
attitude toward the surprising game
of being alive and getting away with
it. An act of creation which has
made live man-heart. blood. body
and bones. feeling, action and speech
out of the patches and fragments of
clear soul that one man left for the
other mans finding. Some achieve
me mt. A thing to make a man proud.
A thing. too. to make the rest of us
glad since we shall no longer have
to stumble around in the clutter of
the Pepys furniture hunting for the
man that We never should have found
without such an inspired competency
of aid and comfort.
X * X
Let's. for minute, enjoy the
method and manner of Mr.. Bradford
with Pepys, and then his prompt
turnabout toward US for proof and
"UnQuestionably what
did most to wreck the tranquility of
the Pepys domestic establishment was
the husbands extreme sensitiveness
to feminine charm. He is often rep
resented as a most debauched and
vicious general lover, and certainly
the prcmiscuity of his amours is
somewhat astonishing and very rep
rehensible." Here Mr.. Bradford brings
out certain extenuating circum-
quite, one is convinced, as he
would in the case of one of his neigh
bors across the way. Then he goes
nm. stRnf El,oA 70 Iaaly