صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

a coracle. This suspicion that de Nadaillac knows more of primitive life from study of museum specimens and reading of books than from contact with barbarians, has considerable foundation furnished by other passages of his work.

We may appear to have criticised the book harshly. We have no intention of so doing, and we earnestly desire to give credit for its good points, which are neither few nor unimportant. Three of these we wish particularly to commend: First, the volume is profusely and well illustrated and some at least of the cuts are new. Second, the book abounds in excellent summaries of our present knowledge upon special topics, and is thus very convenient for reference. Among such summaries are those dealing with European prehistoric fortifications, vitrified forts, wounds by stone-age implements, megalithic monuments, the Lake-dwellings not of Switzerland alone but of all Europe, etc.; while it is true that in these occasional illustrative matters are dragged in which are quite out of place, the idea and much of the carrying out of it is excellent. Lastly, to many readers of writings upon Prehistoric Archæology, Santorin and "the towns upon the Hill of Hissarlik" are quite unknown. To such, de Nadaillac's recapitulation of the results of the recent excavations made in those regions by Schliemann and others will be be very welcome and helpful. FREDERICK STARR.

66

A NEW HISTORY OF AMERICA.*

History has become primarily an inquiry into causes. . . . It is better to have a living history at the expense of some mistaken conclusions than a dead narrative containing nothing that can be challenged or disproved." From these words of Mr. Payne, in the opening pages of the first volume of his "History of America," it will be seen that the design of the work is distinctly philosophical. He aims at a new treatment of his subject, which shall set in its right relations the development of this "huge social and political creation," "the last and greatest act in the great historical drama of the world." This is indeed an ambitious design. It must be admitted that America has as yet failed to receive this large treat

*HISTORY OF THE NEW WORLD CALLED AMERICA. By Edward John Payne. Volume I. New York: Macmillan & Co.

ment, this adjustment of her history to worldhistory. But at the same time it must be seen that such a work demands not only profound historical insight and a genius for generalizations, but also an exhaustive acquaintance with the monographic literature bearing on America, and the temperament of an investigator as well as that of a philosopher. If such a history is in truth to be "living history," and not ephemeral, it must be based on much deep delving after facts, lacking which, all lofty philosophical flights will be Dædalian.

The reader will therefore inquire how the author has qualified himself for his task. Mr. Payne is a fellow of the University College, Oxford. He has written valuable works on colonization. In his preface he expresses indebtedness to Bishop Stubbs, and to other English scholars of less note, and to Colonel Church, "the distinguished American engineer." His footnotes are sparing of American authorities. On the side of aboriginal America he appears to have relied on older writers, and to have made little or no use of the rich material to be found in the pages of the American investigators cited by Mr. Fiske, for example, in his recent work on the discovery of America.

Three fundamental conceptions appear in the book: First, American discovery and early colonization are carefully traced back to European movements working for centuries toward this result; it is aimed to exhibit the incidents of American history by the light of contemporary incidents in Europe. Second, the physical conditions of the New World which af fected aboriginal life and discovery are emphasized; his inquiries lead to conclusions "which verify in a remarkable manner the doctrine that the general course of history is ultimately controlled by physical events." Third, the Indian populations receive extended consideration, it being the author's view that American history cannot be treated as a "simple expansion of European enterprise on the virgin soil of the transatlantic continent."

Four periods are noted as marking the history of the New World. First, the discovery and Spanish conquest - the period of romance. Second, the period after the decline of Spanish ascendancy, when the balance of power in America begins to pass from the Latin to the Teutonic nations. Third, the period of the rivalry of France and England, and the victory of the latter. Fourth, the era of independence, after which the new world enters on its destined function of giving to the European race, and

especially to its English member, an effective predominance in the balance of power over the globe." These processes indicate the scope of the author's work.

The present volume is divided into two books, the first dealing with the discovery, and the second with aboriginal America. Mr. Payne finds three ways by which America could be most easily approached from Europe: the Arctic current, flowing past Greenland, and down the American shore; the route of the trade-winds; and the equatorial current.

“These three great physical forces are in fact three roads which the terrestrial system has evolved to lead Europe to America. Anyone acquainted with these three physical facts might safely have predicted such a result, and almost fixed the time of its accomplishment. The first of these highways would be reached as soon as northern adventure reached the coasts of Greenland.

The second of these highways, the grand highway of the trade-winds, would be reached as soon as the

adventurers of the Spanish peninsula, ever exploring

farther and farther seawards in the Atlantic, as well as coastwards around the continent of Africa, had passed the tropic of cancer, and reached the islands of Cape Verde. . . . The third of these highways would be reached soon afterwards. As the adventurers of the Peninsula advanced farther and farther south and west in the southern hemisphere, the great equatorial current, aided by one of those hurricanes that so often follow it, could hardly fail to seize upon some one of them and cast him on the shore of Brazil."

Mr. Payne proceeds to examine each of these processes in detail. The inquiries of the classical geographers into the relations of western Europe to eastern Asia are given a remarkably clear exposition. The reader is made to see how "the greatest fruit of the Renaissance was America."

The northward explorations of the Norsemen are less satisfactorily dealt with. Here Mr. Payne exhibits his weakness in regard to recent investigation. He relies upon Rafn's Antiquities, in its day a noble work, but now only to be used by the aid of writers like Storm, Reeves, etc. The excellence of John Fiske's treatment of this field comes out strongly by comparison. Mr. Payne is laughably precise in fixing the landfall of Leif Ericson in the mouth of Pocasset river, with the assurance that the coasts are so accurately described in the saga "as to leave no doubt of their identity." It would be interesting to know how the author has determined that New England was then occupied by a dwarf species of the Esquimaux race, dwelling in caves. We are also puzzled to hear that Adam of Bremen (who died in the year 1076) wrote in the twelfth century. In the opinion of the author,

Cabot's filiation with the Norse discoveries "may be clearly proved." The proofs he finds in the facts that Cabot went by way of Iceland, and that he applied the name "Newe Isle" or "Newe-founde lande" to his discovery, corresponding to the Nyjaland, applied by Icelanders to America. The belief in a large island lying in the North Atlantic, to the west of Ireland, he thinks clearly arose from the Norse discoveries. He makes the extraordinary assertion, without citing any authority, that "to the Icelander in the time of Cabot the exploits of Biarne and Leif were as well known as those of Anson and Cook are to the modern Englishman." Now, some connection may hereafter be shown between Cabot's voyage and the Norse discoveries; but in view of the naturalness of calling any newly-found land by that name, and in view of the many legends of tis, and of the theories of the plurality of habouter Atlantic islands from the days of Atlanitable lands, it is rash even to conjecture that theNewe Isle "must be related to Norse discoveries. The records of the voyages to find the Island of Brazil indicate that they were undertaken at the instigation of Cabot, rather than by reason of Norse reports; and we have some evidence that it was the fame of the achievements of Columbus which animated Cabot. Whatever be the truth about Cabot's relation to Norse voyages, it is plain that Mr. Payne, in his search for causes and affiliations, is prone to be too absolute in his assertions, and to see connections without proving them. Relying upon Buckle's philosophy of physical causes for historical movements, he might with as much reason explain Cabot's voyage by instancing the same causes that lead to Leif's discovery: the island stepping-stones across the North Atlantic, the ocean currents, and the pathway of the fisheries from the Faroes to Iceland and Newfoundland. If physical causes serve in the one case, why not in the other? It is also odd that while he mentions Columbus's visit to Iceland, he passes it with the statement that it appears to have had no connection with his famous undertaking. This is doubtless correct; but if so much knowledge of Vinland remained in Iceland, and if the sailors to Iceland knew so much of these reports, the question why Columbus 'did not learn of Vinland is at least worthy of some thought.

The author's survey of the character of Columbus is independent and interesting. He says that the great discoverer, by the tone of his thought, is to be classed rather in the Middle

Ages than in the Scientific era, where Humboldt appears to put him.

His ill-directed ambition, his sentimental fidelity to the monarchs who hired him and cheated him of his hire, his love of the show of power and dignity, his intolerance of any theory of his discoveries except his own, indicate a temperament far indeed from that of the philosopher; and the literary work which employed his latter years, treating of the prophecies which he conceived himself to have been instrumental in bringing to pass, evinces a mind wholly under the sway of a gross and narrow theology. . . . A stubbornness which did no credit to his judgment and self-control was the very secret of his successes and failures. Only in his earlier years did that characteristic serve him."

Mr. Payne holds that although the crusading influence affected Columbus, the quest for gold was the main object of his expeditions, and the slave trade went with it. He adopted the ideas of Toscanelli (the Italian student of classical geography), respecting the possibility of reaching India from Spain. His greatness" consisted mainly in his practical capacity as a great sea-captain." He saw that previous attempts to cross the margin of ocean had failed because of a lack of ships and equipment; these he secured, and, seeking India, unwittingly found America. His landfall Payne places on Mariguana; following Varnhagen, and apparently in ignorance of the work of Cronau, which puts it, with more reason, on Watling Island. The succeeding explorations

are traced with a luminous consideration of casual relations, and an admirable arrangement.

ive and useful works on America that has ever appeared. If it is not altogether to be accepted, it will, as the author himself hopes, at least facilitate the task of writing the history of America on broader lines than any other writer has as yet followed.

Sir Joshua's."

FREDERICK J. TURNER.

MORE HOLIDAY PUBLICATIONS. Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons issue in sumptuous form "The Life and Letters of Washington done his work thoroughly and sympathetically, and Allston," by Mr. Jared B. Flagg. Mr. Flagg has has combined biography, anecdote, art talk, and epistolary extract, in due proportion. Allston's life was unusually rich in the incidents and associations which go to the making of readable biography. His career in England as painter and quasi man of letters threw him into the society of the class of people that the world likes to read about Sir Thomas Laurence, Leslie, Haydon, Mulready, Sir George Beaumont, Hazlitt, Lamb, Coleridge, Irving, etc.; and of these associations Mr. Flagg has liberally availed himself. Allston was a great admirer of Sir Joshua Reynolds. One day while at Petworth he was looking at a portrait by Van Dyke, when Lord Egremont, coming up, asked his opinion of it. "Very fine," said he, "and had I not known it to be Van Dyke's I should have supposed it to be one of Sir Joshua's." "Do you mean to compliment Van Dyke or Sir Joshua?" said his Lordship. "Van inferior to Sir Joshua?" said Lord Egremont. Dyke," answered Allston. Then you think him "Yes, I do," said Allston. "So do I," said his Lordship, "though I hardly dare to say so." Perhaps neither critic took into account Reynolds's all too fleeting colors. Mr. Flagg quotes a shrewd, and we may say prophetic, judgment of Allston's on Carlyle's French Revolution": "I do not see any original ideas in it, but I see a great He takes a common deal of original English. thought and belabors it with his Babylonish jargon has made a god of his own intellect, and worships until it appears like something original. The man it with perpetual somersaults." Allston was intimate with Coleridge, and on one occasion received some curious advice from him: "Coleridge told me that he could introduce me to the acquaintance of nearly all the authors in London, but he would not do it, for he would be sorry to have me know them. He told me seriously that he did not know so entirely worthless and despicable a set of men as In spite of an unfortunate tendency to strain the authors by profession in London, and warned the facts in order to show filiations, a depend- The volume is throughout a fine specimen of bookme solemnly to avoid any intercourse with them." ence on older writers, and an apparent ignor- making, and it is enriched with eighteen admirably ance of many valuable investigators of reexecuted full-page plates from Allston's paintings, cent date, it must nevertheless be said that both portraits and historical subjects. There is a Mr. Payne's work is one of the most suggest-portrait of Allston by George W. Flagg.

Perhaps, however, the most original part of the work is the second book, in which the author works out the effect of the physiography and natural products of America upon the aborigines of Mexico and Peru, and shows the causes of the various stages of culture in America, the relation of the Indians to Spanish settlement, and to the character of Spanish colonial life. Two changes, says the author, transformed the society of aboriginal America, as they transform all society; the substitution of an artificial for a natural basis of subsistence, and the establishment of the gods as the principal members of the community. Space forbids any detailed consideration of the interesting way in which this theory is worked out. The student of aboriginal America cannot afford to be ignorant of this work.

-

Comment on the text of Green's "Short History of the English People" is superfluous. The work is a classic and unique in its way; and we are pleased to note that it has at last been supplied with the one element needed to make it relatively perfect suitable illustrations. Messrs. Harper & Brothers have issued the first volume,- a fine royal octavo, gilt top, and untrimmed leaves, of the "New Illustrated Edition"; and we find little to cavil at either as to the quality of the plates or the principle of their selection - which has been determined, says Mrs. Green in her excellent Preface, "by a desire to get at the contemporary view of men and things rather than by canons of art." The plates throughout are strictly interpretative of the life and manners of the English people, tending to inform the student, rather than to appeal to the æsthetic sense. The list of illustrations, with notes, occupies twenty-six pages, and many of the cuts, embracing coins, seals, buildings, ornaments, tools, characteristic incidents of daily life, facsimiles of MSS. and tapestries beautifully printed in the original colors, etc., are here published for the first time. There is an abundance of maps, colored and plain, and mention should be made of the fine frontispiece portrait of the author. Apart from

mere attractiveness, the educative value of the work is, we should say, almost doubled by these plates, and their mnemonic value is a most important element.

66

Messrs. Harper & Brothers' handsome reprint, "The Armies of To-day," a series of authoritative articles on the standing armies, their personnel, equipment, etc., contains matter both of instruction and entertainment. Lord Wolseley's article on the British soldier is especially bright and readable. Cromwell's army of about 80,000 men he thinks was by far the finest in every respect that we know of in modern history," and he offers some pertinent criticism as to the English "system of cold seniority" followed in the promotion of commissioned officers. The ludicrous wardrobe of "Tommy Atkins" comes in for some tart comment, and that of his superiors fares little better: "We must," however, allows the writer, "make the soldier's clothing acceptable to the men who have to wear it, and, strange to say, they like very tightly fitting coats and trousers, to swagger about in with their sweethearts. They like those ridiculous forage-caps stuck on the side of their heads, and which are no protection either from sun or rain. I suppose the house-maid Jill' prefers her soldier 'Jack' in this outlandish costume, for in no other way can I understand why the wearers should like such tawdry and uncomfortable finery. . . . Is there any one outside a lunatic asylum who would go on a walking tour, or shoot in the backwoods or the prairies, trussed and dressed as the British soldier is? This applies to all ranks, for I confess to a feeling that the dressed-up monkey on a barrelorgan bears a strong resemblance to the British general in his meaningless cocked hat and feathers

of the last century, and in his very expensive coat, besmeared both before and behind with gold lace." Lord Wolseley seems to be one of those rare Englishmen who would remove an anomaly simply because it is an anomaly. The volume is handsomely illustrated.

In Mr. Theodore Child's "The Praise of Paris' (Harper), a series of articles gathered from "Harper's Magazine," honors are pretty equally shared between author and illustrators. Mr. Child knew Paris thoroughly, and loved it; and he has given an extremely spirited account of Parisian society in its several phases, besides some historical and much locally descriptive matter. All in all, the book is the best general description of Paris that we have seen. Mr. Child devotes an exhaustive chapter to the duel. "Duels," he says, "between journalists and politicians are so entirely special in their nature and meaning that we may as well speak of them separately. First of all, let us thoroughly comprehend that these duels are simply the result of professional necessities or prejudices, and in nine cases out of ten the adversaries fight merely for the gallery—pour la galerie-and for the sake of public opinion. The journalists and politicians are in a measure the gladiators of Paris, and if they do not prove themselves good gladiators they are liable to be hissed, howled at, worried, and harried, until life becomes unendurable." This curious convention which compels two respectable Christian gentlemen to go out into the fields and shoot at each other like painted savages is thus explained by Henri Rochefort in a note to the author: "Duelling, the absurdity of which is evident, is a product of Catholicism. The believers of former times imagined naively that the victor was in the right, and that the vanquished was in the wrong, because both had undergone the judgment of God... However, this kind of exercise has now entered so profoundly into our habits that, in order to put an end to it, there would be needed nothing less than a new Richelieu to have the two adversaries decapitated." As already intimated, the illustrations in Mr. Child's volume are above the average, M. Lepère's street and architectural views being really artistic in spirit and handling.

The history of Venice, Byron's "sea Cybele" that has so long, and not unjustly, borne in the world's imagination a unique position, and the story of her Doges, captains, painters, and men of letters, can be nowhere so attractively studied as in Mrs. Oliphant's "The Makers of Venice." The work has passed through three editions, besides re-issues, in five years. Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have is

sued for the Holidays an extra-illustrated edition (generally similar to "The Makers of Florence" of last season) of the book, containing thirty "extra" photographic plates of Venetian churches, palaces, etc., besides a fine frontispiece portrait, by O. Lacour, of Leonardo Loredano, and forty-eight woodcuts by Mr. H. R. Holmes. The volume is beautifully bound in wine-colored cloth, stamped in gold

with a cut of the winged lion, and backed with white extra-heavy linen. Unfortunately, there is no index.

Less

From the press of J. B. Lippincott Company come two beautiful sets of books: "Tales from the Dramatists," four volumes, and "Tales from Ten Poets," three volumes. In uniform bindings of pale green cloth, with gilt lettering and decoration on back, and each set boxed neatly, they present a highly attractive external appearance, which is, moreover, fully confirmed on interior acquaintance. The aim of both series is similar, being an attempt on the part of their respective authors to do for certain of the poets and dramatists what Charles and Mary Lamb did for Shakespeare,— namely, to tell in prose the stories of their masterpieces. juvenile in tone than that ever-popular work, readers of all ages will find here an agreeable introduction or reminiscence, as the case may be, of England's world-famed works. The "Tales from the Dramatists" are told by Charles Morris, and include twenty-eight stories, chosen mainly from the more popular plays of the leading dramatists of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, each prefaced by a short biographical sketch of its author, and in most cases by a good portrait also. As a rule, each author is represented by but one play, but two are given from Sheridan, two from George Colman, Jr., and two from Edward Bulwer Lytton. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. issue Sig. Rodolpho Lanciani's "Pagan and Christian Rome," a companion volume and chronological supplement to the Professor's able work, "Ancient Rome in the Light of Modern Discoveries." The work is characterized by the same constructive ingenuity and minute patient research as its predecessor, and possesses, perhaps, for most readers a closer human interest. In

ciani. The volume, like its companion, is a rich one externally, beautifully bound and printed, and thoroughly illustrated.

TheTales from Ten Poets" (Lippincott) are written by Harrison S. Morris, and deal with nineteenth century authors exclusively. Tennyson is represented by two selections selections-Enoch Arden " and 66 The Princess,"-Browning by two"The Ring and the Book" and "The Blot on the 'Scutcheon." The other poets have one each, and are Rossetti, William Morris, Mrs. Browning, Matthew Arnold, Buchanan, Swinburne, Owen Meredith, and George Eliot. In each case the central idea and even the detail of the poem have been preserved as strictly as is consistent with the production of a well-rounded and complete tale in prose. To the genuine poetry-lovers there may seem something of desecration in any process of this nature, but there are others who will feel themselves helped greatly, and their enjoyment of the originals heightened, by seeing what durable foundations lie beneath these great achievements of the poetic art, and by reading the story for its own sake alone.

"The New England Country" (Lee & Shepard), a very prettily bound book, with text and illustrations by Mr. Clifton Johnson, contains over one hundred pictures, mostly photographic prints, of New England life and scenery. The views are well chosen and well reproduced; and the volume should prove a welcome gift to those whose early memories are rooted in the "section" described.

"The Fallow Field " (Lee & Shepard), a poem by Julia C. R. Dorr, with charcoal sketches reproduced in half-tones, by Zulma D. Steele, merits the pleasing setting given it by the publishers. Mrs. Dorr's verses are feeling and musical, and the charquarto, full gilt, in light-green binding, and coal plates are nicely done. The volume is an ob

should find favor with those whose tastes run to this style of publication.

A tasty volume of the marked Holiday type is "Gleams and Echoes" (Lippincott), a series of six short poems by A. R. G., author of "Night Etchings," with six full-page engravings after drawings by more or less familiar artists. Of these plates, one by Mr. H. Bolton Jones and one by Mr. F. B. Schell are noticeably good. While the verses are rather too subjective in tone to lend themselves well to illustration, the book is a rather pleasing one of its class.

Professor Lanciani, the antiquarian zeal of a Monk-long barns is profitably tempered by scientific sobriety; and we rarely note in his pages the kind of overready surmise which, in "The Antiquary," transformed" Aiken Drum's Lang Ladle" into a Roman sacrificing vessel. The present volume covers the first five centuries of the Christian era, and depicts the gradual metamorphosis of the Rome of the Cæsars into the capital city of Christendom. Temples, churches, Pagan cemeteries, the Catacombs, the tombs of Emperors and Popes, are described in detail. We must not believe," the says author, that the transformation of Rome from a Pagan into a Christian city was a sudden and unexpected event, which took the world by surprise. It was the natural result of the work of three centuries, brought to maturity under Constantine by an inevitable reaction against the violence of Diocletian's rule." This period of slow interpenetration of creeds and observances, Christian and pagan, when, as Byron figuratively phrased it,

[ocr errors]

"The apostolic statues climb

To crush the Imperial Urn, whose ashes slept sublime," is readably and clearly set forth by Professor Lan

Our old friend "Sir Roger De Coverley" (Macmillan), makes his appearance this Christmas suitably resplendent in a coat of green and gold. The little volume is finely printed in unusally open type, and the artist, Mr. Hugh Thompson, has caught the humor of the characters perfectly, Will. Wimble, the Chaplain, John Matthews, Tom. Touchy, and the rest of the good Knight's familiars, being rendered with a spirit and felicity that would have satisfied Mr. Spectator himself.

« السابقةمتابعة »