Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-18
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
l. C. NJ.

yielded a juice of magical substance,
true elixir. genuine ichor of the blood,
in the parlance of myth.
Let us, for a moment, take this Incl
dent of recorded revelation out from its
plain purpose of pious instruction and
warning on the sin of disobedience.
And, again. let us pass over the purely
private domestic disturbance which the
matter must have set astir in that first
family.
Instead. suppose we consider merely
the effect of fact upon behavior and
finally upon character. The reaction OF
externals within the potencies of the
dust of Adams rib. a reaction so COM
polling as to transform Eve ultimately
into the great matriarch Of female pro-
test and revolt. A chemistry of the
blood so vital withal as to set up a long
line of clear descent from Eve down to
the present-the daughters OF rebellion.
X x x X
With the passage of time and the
spread of circumstance the forms OF
protest have changed. to be sure. And
its substance has multiplied till today
woman's revolt covers every aspect OF
the common life-industry, domestic
relations, religion, education, politics,
the general social structure. These all
now open wide upon personal freedom
and individual independence for the
female of the species.
The world is aghast at the ire
mendous impact of this army Of revolt,
Moreover. 1t is plainly terrified at the
tender years of these demanding ones,
at their audacity, and, even more, at the
measure of triumph following upon their
quite generally competent zeal.
X X X
And the elders follow these gallant
female marauders in life with lament
ings and ominous forecastings Grown
near of sight themselves. they deny
vision to youth. Grown dull of hearing,
they translate the clarion call of heart
ening adventure into an urgent S o S
Of impending peril Impotent, they fall
back upon the good old days" when all
the paths, though narrow, were ever
straight and plain and safe. Bewil-
dered and failing to understand. these
timid elders miSinterpret the present
and condemn it utterly. They accept
rumor and half truth as the pure gold
of complete veracity, of buttreSsed
authenticity. So engaged, they forget
the days when they, too, were the
despair of parents who honestly be-
lieved that the feet of their offspring
had taken hold on the ways that lead
down to perdition. SO in every age
misunderstanding and misjudgmentS,
half truths and whole COMBINATIONS
have worked disastrously in the world.
Not disastrously to the condemned ones
alone nor even very seriously among
~
projection of any considerable character
stands as distinct loss to the sum of
truth about that most vital and infiu-
entail of all Subjects-the human being.
4 X +
Daughters of Eve" seven of them
march into the open here under the
aegis of Gamaltel Bradford. Famous
women all. To the most they are count
ed infamous. French women, save one
Catherine the Great" She, too, French
in intellectual kinship and spiritual af-
finity. Belonging to the highest period
of French intellectually and brilliance
of artistic achievement. these women
partook in full of the highly refined So
cial life of the days in which they lived
Ninon de Lenclos, Nine. de Maintenon
George Sand, Sarah Bernhardt the most
familiar of these.
Now what can be the business oil
Gamaliel Bradford with these particu-
lar daughters of Eve? Mr. Bradford is
not a moraliSt, bent on reform by way
of awful examples. He is an artist in
stead, dealing in human stuff for the
purposes of imaginative recreations here
and there among outstanding signifl-
cant members of the human tribe. Nov
ing about within his field, he very likely
came upon these women of distinct
achievement-the great actress, nov
elist of recognized power, politician Of
no mean rank, Seemly woman of clea1
intellectually taking part in the highly
developed social life of Paris, another
who for 80 years ruled Russia with 9
kingly hand-Bernhardt. George Sand
Nine. de Maintenon, Ninon de Lenclos
Catherine. Smothered in legend he must
have found these women. Myths ano
make-upS running exclusively to the
tune of their depravity. Yet high
achievement such as these represent i'm
plies work, rigorous effort, persistence
Self-denial, mentality, resistance to Ian
guors and inertia. And so, in every case
no doubt, it became the authors first
purpose to restore something like pro-
portion to a clearly distorted set OF
views and summaries. Understand
nothing like restitution in the mans
mind. Nothing so futile, so out of line
with the general scheme of this austere
historian. Rather to restore to them
the measure of balance without which
the least of men, or women, can exist
at all. Gathering up the entire sum
of fact to be secured about each of
these subjects, Mr.. Bradford sets out
upon the quest of a living personality,
of a genuine character. Old his
tories, forgotten documents, cotempora-
.neous event and atmosphere, the mod
ern seizure of psychological truth and
implication, birth and upbringing, with
their sequence of personal impulse and
derived habit-these provide the ma
terial. And within these does the au-
thor exercise an imaginative artistry OF
sight and insight, exacting as science
itself, to the end that one after another
these women become animate, under
standable. acceptable and deeply inter-
esting. The legends dismissed, or tenn
pered, there remains enough of anthem
tic fact and sane Interpretation to re-
establish one and another of these IA
nous characters as either part of heI
day or as a belieVable product of heI
birth and training. or lack of training
There is no lesson contained in this
study-Save the supreme lesson of &C
cepting nothing less than demonstrated
truth and authenticated fact about any
subject whatever that is under investi-
cation. 1t is in this respect alone that
the book contributes to the present urg-
ing, by implication alone, a better
knowledge of this worrying present be-
fore collapsing in despair over its ma
Ign appearances.
Mr. Bradford had tremendous handi-
cap in this instance, with misunder-
standing bound to wait upon him. Yet
great biographer that he is, he has not
so far achieved a more distinct anc
merited triumph, both as historian and
artist, than that declared by Daughters
of Eve"