Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-07
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookiOVsr

the Second" Mr.. Belloc saws In his
preface: II trust that In doing so cat
ltempting just interpretation / have
exaggerated neither his vices, rlor--es is
the temptation in face of our academic
text books-his virtues: neither his ca
pacities, which were great and remark
able. nor his deficiencies which were
startlingly pronounced and, combined
with certain high moral qualities, led
TO his ruin" James the Second, who
was born October IL. 1888, at st. James
Palace OF Westminster. and died in exile
In the Palace of st. German, near
Paris. was the son of Charles I, who
was executed January 80, 1649, by order
OF self-constituted court Of justice
acting for the Rump Parliament. The
mother OF James II was Henrietta Ma
ria. daughter Of Henry w of France.
He was born to revolution. for before
he was 8 years old the Battle of
Edgehill took place. the first battle of
the civil war which ended in his fathers
death. The boy James was In the
royal camp at Edgehill. From that time
until his death his life was spent in
turmoil OF revolution. restoration. and
exile. But this life was, Mr.. Belloc says,
| Illuminated by religious doctrine long
established in better days and growing
In intensity as he approaches death:
and death he meets with a holiness and
a remuneration that should exalt his
memory"
! OF the achievements Of James II, Mr..
Belloc puts first that he was the maker
OF the British Navy. though some writers
attribute this to Henry VIII. 1t was
due to his efforts when ne was Duke of
York that "a regular list of ships, suffi-
Gent dock yards. standing personnel
came into being" Upon the restoration
Of Charles II to the throne James, his
brother, took over the active work OF
the admiralty. Among the virtues of
James was immense industry. He
worked and he made others work, and
| that in day when work was not the
fashion. For whole hours together the
! pen was never out of his hand, and In
the intervals he was visiting the ships
and docks, examining details. suggesting
reforms, calling for accounts, checking
| figures Of material" Another virtue not
common in his age which he possessed
was financial honesty With this went
both thrift and generosity. AS King he
| refused to secure money in the Gus
tomary ways. He might further have
| sold places, honours, policies. He might
have conflscated largely: Heaven knows
! he had excuse enough! He might have
coined colonial concessions. He might
have raised great commercial loans. He
did none Of these things, and in dis
daining them he was, perhaps. tc
blame" The virtue of courage, both
physical and moral, belonged to James.
He was forever trying his chance, in
battle, In policy. Risk attracted him
and excited his initiative" When, in
his thirties. he became a Catholic he at
first wished to keep the fact secret as a
matter Of policy in a country so def
nitely Protestant, but when he was told
| that the church could not permit Sc
crecy he obeyed and acknowledged the
religion of his choice openly. James II
! was a Nationalist Il mean by this
| word 'Nationalism' what today is some
times rather wrongly called patriotism:
not only devotion to ones own country,
but an ineradicable contempt for all
that is not of ones own country: re-
ferrlng OF everything foreign to ones
own national habit" His thoroughly
English spirit appeared when he ad-
mtred and sympathiZed with the Eng
lish troops sent against him in his exile
The son of French mother, even when
he was living at the French court, he
made no effort to speak French per-
fectly, but boasted OF his English accent
/ Among the faults or weaknesses of
James II Mr.. Belloc puts his inability 10
! understand other people To this failing
was due his lack of judgment He had
very little humor, no wit He imputed
to other men his own emotions.
He foresaw no probable consequence of
| one mans ambitions fears and appe-
| tites-still less the combination of such
! In many and various men. He never
shrank from an encounter, and so long
as its elements were plain he grasped
them at once. But let them be tortuous
or concealed and he missed them al
together" This obtuseness-or, as some
called 1t. stupidity-cauSed him often to
! fail when his other qualities would have
brought success had they been coupled
with better understanding. Allied to
this Mr.. Belloc finds his inability really
to love any one. He was a sensualist,
whose many mistresses scandalized even
a absolute age. but his affairs were
/ quite abnormally deprived of tender
ness" He was never under woman's
control, yet he paid difference TO par
| ticular Enthusiastically to that Of his
first wife-for the strength of their
vision and for a certain faculty of COM
radeship about them. But love he had
not known and never knew. Love
is perhaps an experience less common in
life than in print. At any rate James
missed it-and, in the lack of 1t, some
thing arid in his soul continued I'M
relieved to the end" Mr.. Belloc's in
| depreciation Of James II is colored
throughout by his own political and re-
| ligious beliefs, but perhaps in that he
ID not different from many historians.
! To him Villa III of England was
merely an intriguing usurper, not a
constitutional monarch-James II was
the legitimate King. even after 1888, and
his son should have reigned as James
| III.
: Opposition to the various book clubs
: furnishing books monthly to subscribe
ers seems to be growing. There is one
which probably meets the disapproval
! Of children's librarians. whether or not
| they are vociferous about their opin-
ions-the Children's Book Club, Inc.
Children's librarians study so con-
scientiously all books for children ad-
not only ethical values, but also style
and educational quality. that they are
likely to be skeptical when the COM
mercial element enters int the choice
Of books for children. The Children's
| Book Club, Inc, advertises on its
editorial board nationally known edu-
cators"-M. v. O'Shea. professor OF
education, University of Wisconsin:
Mabel Louise Robinson, instructor at
| NOluinOid OniVcrsiVy' EAHa N. NcoA' III
rector of elementary education, San
Antonio, Tex, and John S. Terry, edi-
tor of school department OF English,
New York University.
| Il
Ruskin. in his "Praeterita," COM
ments on his preference for being left
to himself, for self-dependence. He
says: I'm the beginning Of the Carlyle
Emerson correspondence, edited with
| too little comment by my dear friend
| Charles Norton, fnd at page 10 this
to me entirely disputable and. to my
thought, so far as undisputed, much