Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-17
THE LIBRARY TABLE
Bv the BJOkiOrer


our literary purveyors have ceased 10
find interesting the parent who satis'
fes the child? An outstanding exam
ple in fiction of filial hostility ana
hatred is to he found in Samuel Sut'
ler's WAY of All Flesh" but other
novels and not few biographies re-
veal the same unfortunate psycholosi'
cal situation. Quite the reverse Is the
attitude or Will Durant in his "Transl.
.ton." which lie calls "a sentimental
story Of one mind and one era ana
his publishers call "a mental autopl'
The book IL dedicated 10
2 tender mother and a perfect father
and this notwithstanding the tact
that his father told him he was the
most ungrateful boy any mother ever
had" and gave him three days to get
ont of the house. lie loved ana non
ored his father in spite or TINS Deca use
he had n philosophic mind and knew
that, from one point OF view, MS
father was right. Il was hot oi,'tl :
nor was I lonely. Even in the neat
NJ the event l understood what pase IN
gratitude my apostasy must seem W
narents who had stinted themselves
for wears that | might nave an puui
cation and be a priest. After all
had nPpn tAliNN SNhN'N'
lence or hatred"
y
Dr Durant's affection for has par
ents is one of the most pleasing tth'ts
revealed In the mental autoploS-
raphv." His father, mill worker WHO
could not read French'Canadlan
was happy in his wife, and tnouSi'
he did not dealiZe his children ne
loved them intensely in his silent way:
When | think OF it / marvel that l
cannot recall his giving our mother
the slightest cause for jealousy, much
less for any doubt as TO ms aoSo'u'e
lovaltv 10 her. In short | dote on my
father, I have reason to. for, like my
mother. he denied himself a thousa nd
measures that we children might have
an education. He had received none
himself. he had never had day in
school: and IL within few years OF
our arrival in New Jersey he reached
the position Of superintendent of the
largest department in the new factory
ma ster of 400 men. it was by native
. biIitv and tireless industry, against
the handicap of utter iliteracy. Ihat
was an achievement beside which TINS
paper-scra tching of mine seems niue
Thin" OF his mother he says L
know-because she is yet beautltui III
her white haired 70s-that she was as
nrettv a wife az any man had amohE
the workers IN that town; and Ihat
dear mother Of ours was bound 10
make saint Of one of us, and trleu
her best to inoculate me with every
virtue" Rejecting on her grief over
his aha ndOnment of the religion IN
which she had trained him, he SAYS:
"poor mother. What did 1t matter
which religion we professed. or when
nhilosophv we believed. any more than
which language we spoke or what
clothes we wore? The chromosomes
had more to do with rs than these eX'
ternal and accidental things. what
really mattered was that you were
the tpnderest of mothers. ana mat j.
having none of your faith. could ioNe
YOU and honor you more than TINS pen
can ever say"
The age of Pericles departs from its
classic mausoleum among the RECORDS
OF ancient history and comes to HE
in Gertrude Atherton's novel The
immortal Marriage" Pericles and
Aspa STA are the chief participants in
the romance. and about them circle
Alcibiades, Phidias. AnaxagQras. So.
phocles. Thucydides and SOcrates-all
as alive az if they were twentieth cen
tlrv moderns. The greatest statesman
and the most gifted and clever Woma n
of Greece in it's most brilliant age
naturally found each other. for Greece
was small. The facts that Pericies had
a wife and that he himself had passed
a law requiring Athenians to marry
only Athenians tAspasia was from
MiletuSt prevented their legal mar
riage, but not their Immortal union
which was ended. humanity speaking,
by the death of Pericles at the age of
"a. Some of the dra matte episodes of
the novel are various Athenian polit-
ical intrigueS, the death of the son of
Pericles, and the trial OF Aspa STA for
her life on the charge OF disbelief in
the gods.
As introspective. If not as morbid
mind as that of Marie Bashkirtseff
is revealed in the journal of kathe-
rine Mansfield: 1914-192.," edited by
her husband, J. Middleton hurry. Her
journal was Katherine Mansfield's
confida nte. In 1t she recorded events.
of a most trivial character
If they happened to impress her as
but, even more, she con.
fded to it's pages her thoughts. her
evanescent feelings. reflections on her
own character. reactions to fragments
Of beauty along the daily path, com
mcnts on people and conversations.
day dreams, notes for future stories
or ESSAYS. Introducing one volume
she says: Come my unseen. my un.
known, let us talk together" Illness
and its accompanying melancholy
show through the pages of the journal,
though never distortng the mental
outlook. as in Marie Bashkirtseff's
tortured entries. The last months of
Katherine Mansfield's too short life
were passed at Fontainebleau. where
she died. The journal ends three
months before her death. with final
pathetic wish for health; by health ]
mean the power to live full. adult,
living. breathing life in close contact
with what | love--the earth and the
thereof-th" sea-the sun.
Il Then 7 want to work. At what?
| want so to live that work with my
ha nds and my feeling and my brain
want a garden. a small house. grass
ANNALS hooks, pictures. music. Anf
Out bi lHlS, lHe expression OH l1llS,
want to he writing"
Eight O'Clock Chrpel. a study of
New England college life in the
eighties. by Cornelius Howard Patton
and Walter Taylor Field. indicates by
It's title the fact that early American
colleges were an out grOwth of religion.
The two aut hOrS had personal expert
ance of three New England colleges
during the eiGhties--Amherst. Dart
mouth and Yale. Six others are In
GUIDED in the Bowdoin. Brown.
Tufts. Wesleyan and Will
Hams. Puritan tradition influenced
the early history Of all these colleges.
and several chapters describe the
OF this influence. The
eighties are considered the beginnin"
IF the modern era in college methods
and life. Very interesting are tn"
accounts and estimates given of many
ADMINISTERS tors and teach