Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-21
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Bookl0Cer

| fore finishing the last OF the three
volumes of his Main Currents in
American Thought" The first volume
was The Colonial Mind" 1920 1900;
| the second. THE Romantic Revolution
| in America" 1800-1860. and the third
published in its Incompetence, The
| Beginnings OF Critical Realism in Amer
| ica." l860-l920. Fortunately, no one
| else attempted to complete this volume.
| The first half Prof. harrington had APP
proximateIy finished. and for the last
| half his notes. often very full, are pub
| lished. Main Currents In American
1 Thought" is not merely history Of
American literature. though that is per-
| haps the first purpose. IT discusses
! American theology. economics, politics,
| finance in connection with the leaders
of thought in each period. And, as
| Prof. harrington was q pronounced lib
| eral. it is the development of liberal
| thought in which he was most in
| terested.
Prof Parrington's method both as a
| writer end as a teacher was not hap
| hazard. In the classroom he followed
the Socratic quiz. leading his students
by a careful sequence of questions from
admitted beginnings to conclusions I'M
expected and stimulating. Members OF
his courses had no opportunity for the
preparation of other lessons In his
tldssStS Vi lOI IIeIc WOOl-RdIDeTUl2. Inc
chase for ideas was too absorbing In
each period under consideration Prof.
harrington sought unity. some mderly-
Ing idea which appeared in all the
manifestations Of the age. A germinal
idea he called this. For example the
germinal idsa Of the eighteenth century
was formal proportion. or balance III
literature, social life, art, politics So in
Main Currents in American Thought"
the outline is based on a search for
unity in each period and a greater unity
III the whole development One of his
colleagues, +. H. Eby of the University
or washington. in an appreciation of
Prof. harrington at the beginning OF
The Beginnings of a Critical Realism
In America" gives an example OF his
method OF choosing revealing phrase
or sentence as his topic for a section or
chapter. He says. He had been work
ing on the period that Mark Twain had
labeled the 'Gilded Age" but found the
title Inadequate to his idea and, as re-
suit. his writing did not get on. An
other day some weeks later there was
an obvious satisfaction expressed in his
bearing and an exceptionally pronounced
twinkle In his eye. I have found the
phrase he said. I will call it The
Great Barbecue So part I of book I
Is called THE Gilded Age" and one of
the sections of part Is "Tha Great
Barbecue: How Capitalism and Agra
rianism Fared-the Homestead Act and
Railway Grants. The Shift From Gov
ernmental to Private Control"
Prof, harrington was a Jeffersonian
agarian and his monumental survey of
american thought shows his predisposi-
ton In this direction in his attitude
toward every writer and every impor-
tant political event. Prof Eby says of
him: When he described jefferson
with his aristocratic head set on a
plebeian frame he was unc1nsciously
describing himself, for there was a deep
love OF the soil in harrington. One
saw It, surprisingly, in his hands. They
were thick and sturdy. blunted at the
ENDS as II from too much delving into
the black loan Of his flower garden.
where roses, peonies and crocuses were
cherished companions and the delight
OF his leisure hours. He secretly sus-
Dected the apartment dweller as any
true farmer would, and though there
was twinkle in his eye when he called
New York a Babylon or spoke of its
corrupting influence on scholar and art
ISL. yet there was q meaning implied
more serious than the jest" Similarly,
Prol. harrington suspected Industrial
ism. To him 1t seemed great pity that
the United States ever departed from
the agricultural regime of its begin
nings He does not make due allow
ances, 1t seems, for the changing condi-
tons after the Civil War which made
Industrial growth almost inevitable. His
creed colors his estimates of nearly all
the writer's following the Civil War.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich is the exponent
OF the. genteel" and Boston "Brah-
minism." Mark Twain disappoints him
because a critic of the "Gilded Age"
he was himself swept too much into the
silded stream. The middle border
writer's. Hamlin Garland. Edward Egg
gleston and James Whitcomb Riley, as
we'll as Harold Frederic and Joseph
Kirkland, he grasps by the hand as
companions. They turned to the theme
OF farm life, and dealt with it in a
mordantly realistic vein. 1t was the
first conscious literary reaction to the
subsection of agriculture to capitalistic
exploitation and it was marked by the
bitterness OF Gecaying order" Walt
Whitman receives almost unqualified
eulogy: "A great figure. the greatest
aSsuredly in our literature-yet per-
haps only a great child-Summing up
and transmitting into poetry all the
passionate aspirations of an America
that had passed through the romantic
revolution. the poet of selfhood and the
prophet Of brotherhood, the virile man
and the catholic lover-how shall Walt
Whitman become dumb or cease to
speak to men unless the children of
those who are now half devil and half
God shall prove to be wholly devil
or wholly moreno"
Tha murder at Saraievo, which was
the Immediate cause of-or the excuse
for-the World War. has been made the
subject of novel by Stephen Graham,
in st Vitus Day" Mrs. Graham at
tempts to justify the plot of the radical
Serbian youths. Gavro Princip. Nedlelko
Chabin0vitch and Trefko Grabezh, who
planned and carried out the murder OF
the Archduke Ferdinand, deliberately
counting on their escape from Justice
because of the Austrian law which did
INST permit the execution Of persons
under 90 For this crime, committed
en- st. Vitus day, June %. 1914, the
three boys were imprisoned. and. be-
cause their prison was not as sanitary
as the best modern prisons are expected
to be. they died as a result Of the con-
finement. Mr.. Grahafn'S sympathy Is
for them. not for the murdered arch
duke. If the murder had been the real
cause of the World War. the millions
of lives lost between 1914 and 1918 |
would outweigh all consideration OF the
fate of the three Young murderers.
X X
The recent publication Of Lincoln
the Man" by Edgar Lee Masters. made
the front page of some newspapers, and
extended reviews have also been &C
corded to the book 1t deserves instead
silence and plenty of it. 1t is par
tirlllarlv obnoxious example Of the new.
debunking biography the purpose of
which is to drag Lincoln down from the
exalted place where Americans have
put him. The authors plan seems TO
consist in rakinO I'D petty incidents and