Evening star., 1934-12-23

land Of geographical fantasy, a land
of youth and fortune and gold" This
quest was never a deep racial urge:
it was an individual motive in a few
adventuring lives. Man the explorer
is of even greater antiquity than man
the agriculturist. Exploration is
among the Oldest of urges, and
curiosity began long before man, with
the monkeys and near-humans like
Pithecanthropus Of Java and the
Heidelberg man. Loot, fame and fun
have been the triple cause of much
exploration. They actuated the nine
here chosen. but the Importance of
what they accomplished went far be-
yond their motives. Among them
they discovered the earth for western
civilization. What western civiliza-
ton has done with it is another mat
ter.
Each Of them blazed a new trail.
Left Ericsson. like many of his sue
cessors. combined religion with loot
and took with him priest to con-
vert the heather Of Greenland. No
immediate results followed his dis
covery of ''Wineland the Good" "
MesSer Marco Polo was the most sin
gle-minded of adventures. His quest
was his life-the quest of the golden
ruler, Kublai Khan: a quest success
full, fulfilled, and yet never ended. "
Columbus and Cabeza de Vaca were
unashamed seekers for gold, but they
discovered a new continent and did
not neglect the glory of God. Magel-
Ian sought gold in the form of spices
and other eastern treasures of trade.
Bering had heard of a mysterious
Cana Land in the North Pacific, and
was tempted also by dreams of lively
trade and huge profits if a northwest
passage were discovered. Mungo
Park, in much later period, followed
his quest inland and explored the
course of the Niger River, but died
In the river without finding the delta
which he sought Richard Burton.
IN the nineteenth century, disguised
as a Persian Moslem, explored Ara
bla, then little known beyond Mecca
and Medinah. Nansen, separated
from Left Ericsson by 900 years
surely without hope of gold, sought
the utmost pole, a mathematical
point. OF all these explorers. Nam
sen is the Paracelsus, in search OF
knowledge. With such material, Mr.
Mitchell could hardly write a dull
book, but he has enhanced his ma
terial with highly colored narrative
style.
r. r.
EDISON. His Life, His Work. His
Genius. BY William Adams
Simonds. Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill Co.
HE name Of Edison Is almos,
synonymous with that of a ma.
g1cian, not only in our own country
but throughout the world, yet to q
large extent at least his genius was
tnat OF hard work. The world into
which ne was born, in l847, was still
pioneer world, a world in which
nearly everything was waiting to be
done Some luck, much work and an
unparalleled inventive imagination
went into the making of Edison. The
inventions that came from his lab
oratories at Menlo Park and Orange
N. j.. justified the name which came
to be applied to him of Wizard" Mr.
Simonds, studying Canadian archives
for his ancestry, visiting the places OF
his childhood and youth, examining
models or duplicates of all his inven-
tions, spending three years at Menlo
Park, much time in Schenectady, and
coming to ''the end of the trail be-
side his grave at West Orange" seems
to have exhausted every resource in
gathering material and impressions
for this biography, and the result is
one which it will be hard for any one
else to equal.
Sweeping aside both the fantastic
legends which have grown up about
Edison and the question of the sin
cerety of his work." the charges that
he stumbled on some of his results.
borrowed or stole others, Mr.. Simonds
has aimed only to discover the real
man and inventor, using the methods
of accepted scholarship His detailed
story, every page of which is full of
interest, shows that Edison was in
evitably part of the pattern of his
period, beginning with the infancy of
American industry and ending with
the toppling and crashing of a labori-
ously built economic structure. But
if he was a part of the pattern, he
was very large figure in its compost
ton. From his first invention at the
age of 81, double telegraph trans
mitter, to the climax of the electric
light, and the conclusion In over 1900
patents, the story is one of the most
remarkable in history. Yet Edison
spoke of his genius as 20 per cent in
spiration and SO per cent perspira-
ton"
This story of Edison is not a dead
story, of the past. Innumerable con-
veniences, many of them things we
have come to think of as necessities OF
our modern life, are Edison-o originated
even if perfected by later develop
ments. Mr.. Simonds' biography has
its news features as. well as deserving
a permanent place on the American
biography shelf. For example, Samuel