Evening star., 1931-12-06

TOR serious undertakings the power of
captivation is dangerous thing.
- Charm may do for sirens, but not for
savants. Garnered knowledge Of the
past, in point, is of an insti-
tutional auSterity. Its proper treat
ment savors of ceremonial light approach
to it, grace of greeting, bespeak the man
OF no authority one wanting in either true
learning intellectual conscience. Such, in
sum, the pedant opines, shuffing along, right
now, behind Philip Guedala. holding toward
him an accusatory It" uncrossed, a condemna-
tory 81 undotted, both gathered from that
authors own book. careless fellow, without
question, not every time scrupulous about his
academic p's and q's.
However, that kind Of scholar is passing. In
his place the modern student, Unsuitable as
that old man himself for exact truth, but for
truth in the big, truth fronting upon life A
new conception of the Office of human record
ings. To this new man history is alive. Even
more potent for the current day than in the
confusions and errors of its own particular
moment upon the stage of time. Such, at any
rate, is the theory Yet looking around, one
cannot avoid thrust of dubiety about the
lessons that history is said TO hold
But the business of the moment Is Philip
Guedalla. The pleasure of the moment also
An expansive and welcoming host, this Eng
hshman throwing wide in greeting the doors
OF the eighteenth century itself. Merely max
ing ready Tor the passage, the ultimately tri-
umphant passage. OF a gangling Irish lad
who as yet and for long time to come cuts
no figure at all in the elaborate and involved
pageantry that was, in effect, the eighteenth
century of continental Europe
For good while as print runs. nothing of
Arthur Wesley comes to the fore. Casual
illusions, to be sure, touch upon the young
Irishman over in Dublin, a government clerk
at the army end of affairs making endless
reports and drawing up forms in careful and
workmanly way. stodgy boy if you ask me
His eternal painstaking in picayune matters
distinctly irritating. If he is ever going to
start. why not get on hinselfi
An incubating process is not exactly exciting
80 while the boy is Matching himself out we
greatly prefer going over to France with Philip
GredaIla, where a beautiful society of royal
lords and ladies are minueting the days and
nights long in elaborate patterns of polite inter
course charming panorama of soft pastel
touch and hue. Little episodes tri1ing views
pleno Win the true movement of the whole
to an effect of immediate reality. Under the
silver sounds Of gayety and Joy a disturbing
noise obtrudes an undertone that passes from
mere sound to the beat and rhythm of con-
cert, to the tom-tom of signal and summons
that, in far and primitive places becomes the
battle cry of savage tribes
The Irish youth is moved away from his
armchair soldering and put into active service
Across to continental Europe, where unrest
mas broken into warfare. Over there is another
young fellow, minor officer of artillery sloe-
ging the mud of countryside and town with
his men on the way to minor and indetermi-
nate combats that slowly were gaining sub
stance momentum point. for the overthrow of
world called civilized bilious looking
youth, that Corsican, not too well fed and In
lieu OF food eating himself up with his own
visions, his own ardors
You know the story wellington Napoleon
Waterloo, a French kingdom, empire republic
hnally emergcnt An English-wel something
that is not yet the complete fulhllment of that
Waterloo business
Get into this book. All you know now is
something about duke called Iron" who
licked Napoleon. Something about a place
called Waterloo. The story carries you with
Wellngton INTO India and out again, hero
returning to England. An active soldier
through the deep vicissitudes of France
through more than one menace to England
Itself A man growing old, but never growing
leeoIc, that Irish Arthur Wesley Duke of Wei
hngton, idol of England foster son of Mars
himself. And, dying at-well no matter But
with many years upon him and more of lasting
glory than meager three score and ten could
possibly achieVe-that is, if years were the act
ual toll Of individual life great story
gorgeous because of its vitality its briniance,
its convincing drama
VENICE AND BONAPARTE BY George b
Mcclellan, professor of economic history in
Princeton University. author of THE OIL
garchy Of Venice" Princeton Universn .
Press
THIS monograph makes examination of the
Napoleonic wars at single point, Venice
neutral unarmed state lying between the hos
Tile forces OF Austria and France. hundred
years later another neutral state though an
armed state, stood in between the German
armies and those Of the allies. In both CAGES
permission was asked by the military com
manoers to make peaceful passage across these
neutral zones. In both cases permission was
denied, and denial ignored Venice was marched
over and fought over to its own destruction
Belgium, on the other hand, fought so des-
perately and so persistently that time, I'M
perative need of the allies was gained as Bel
gums prime contribution to the ultimate vic
tory of Western Europe