away religion must not crumble with them, and perhaps the day will come when those who reproach me, as for a crime, with making this distinction between the imperishable basis of religion and its transient forms will be glad to take refuge from brutal attacks within the very shelter that they have scorned."

Like all men in whose psychical organization feeling has its full share, Renan was a man of moods, although not to so pronounced an extent as Carlyle and Ruskin. Like those English contemporaries a teacher in the highest sense of the term, he is also like them in the fact that his teaching does not present absolute consistency. Then the constant necessity of assuming points of view other than his own, forced upon him by the study of those primitive peoples to whose life and thought he gave the largest share of his attention, developed in him a certain form of the dramatic instinct, evidences of which may be found in his historical work no less than in the philosophical dramas of his later years. Both the facts above noted have been fruitful in misunderstandings, to say nothing of those other misunderstandings that always result from a dulness of perception in matters of the most refined literary art. To seize the exact shade of meaning is often essential to any sort of comprehension of Renan's work, and his irony is at times so delicate that a dull reader will often take it for sober earnest. It has been stated more than once, for example, that the tendency of Renan's teaching is towards a material and even sensual view of life. To one who has really penetrated his meaning and caught the essential spirit of his work as a whole, no judgment could be more grotesquely false than this. We have mentioned Carlyle, and in one point Renan's philosophy of life comes close to that of the Sage of Chelsea. What is the object of life? what its inmost purpose? Both men ask these questions again and again, and the answers of both are not dissimilar. Carlyle tells us many times that we have no right to happiness; that something far higher-namely, blessedness-should be the goal of our endeavor. Renan exclaims, "Il ne s'agit pas d'être heureux, il s'agit d'être parfait," what is this but the same doctrine? Material well-being is indeed with most men a necessary condition for the realization of their higher selves, but it must never be taken as an end. Material ameliorations of the human lot have no ideal value in themselves, but they are the conditions of human dignity and the progress of the individual towards perfection." Again he says: "The wisdom of Poor Richard has always seemed to me a poor enough sort of wisdom." Such a conception of life is simply immoral. "What matters it to have realized, at the close of this brief life, a more or less complete type of external felicity? What really matters is to have thought much and loved much, to have looked with steadfast gaze upon all things, to dare criticise death itself in the dying hour." And then, in one of those eloquent passages of which Renan was as great a master as ever

When

put pen to paper, and that appeal so powerfully to the intellect because they enlist the emotions upon their side, he breaks into this beautiful rhapsody:

"Heroes of the unselfish life, saints, apostles, recluses, cenobites, ascetics of all ages, sublime poets and philosophers whose delight was in having no heritage here below; sages who went through life with the left eye fixed upon earth and the right eye upon heaven; and thou above all, divine Spinoza, who chosest to remain poor and forgotten the better to serve thy thought and adore the Infinite, how much better you understood life than those who take it to be a narrow problem in self interest, the meaningless struggle of ambition or of vanity! It had doubtless been better to make your God less of an abstraction, not set upon heights so dim that to contemplate him strained the vision. God is not alone in the sky, he is near each one of us; he is in the flower pressed by your feet, in the balmy air, in the life that hums and murmurs all about, most of all in your hearts. Yet in your sublime exaltation how much more clearly do I discern the super-sensual needs and instincts of humanity, than in those colorless beings upon whom the ray of the ideal never flashed, and whose lives from their first day to their last, were unfolded, precise and trim, like the leaves of a book of accounts!"

BIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.

the author.

In

Alfred Tennyson was born at Somersby, Lincolnshire, August 6, 1809. His early education was at home and at the village school. While at the Louth Grammar School, he published, in connection with his brother Charles, "Poems by Two Brothers" (1827). In 1828 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1829 he published "Timbuctoo," a prize poem. In 1830 he published a volume of " Poems, Chiefly Lyrical." 1832 a volume of "Poems" was published, the date of the title-page being 1833. In the latter year" The Lover's Tale" was published, and immediately suppressed by In this year also, his friend, Arthur Henry Hallam, died in Vienna, a fact important in connection with "In Memoriam." In 1842 the two-volume edition of the "Poems" appeared. Meanwhile he had left Cambridge without taking a degree, and lived partly at home and partly in London. In 1845 he received a Civil List pension of £200 annually. In 1847 appeared "The Princess," and "In Memoriam" in 1850. In this year also he married, and was made Poet Laureate, succeeding Wordsworth in the office. He now took up a residence at Twickenham. In 1852 he wrote the "Öde on the Death of the Duke of Wellington," and in this year his son Hallam was born. In 1853 he went to live at Farringford, on the Isle of Wight. Here his second son, Lionel, was born in 1854. In 1855 he published "Maud and Other Poems," and received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford University. In 1859 he published the "Idylls of the King" (the first four). In 1861 he revisited the Pyrenees, where he had travelled as a boy with Arthur Hallam. In 1864 he published Enoch Arden," etc. In 1865 and 1868 a baronetcy was offered him, and both times refused. In 1869 he took possession of a new home in Sussex, near Haslemere, and was elected Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Other volumes were published as follows: "The Holy Grail and Other Poems" (1869), "Gareth and Lynette," etc. (1872), "Queen Mary'

(1875), "Harold " (1877), " The Lovers' Tale" (1879), "Ballads and Other Poems" (1880). This latter year he declined the nomination for Lord Rectorship of Glasgow University. In 1883 he accepted an offered peerage, and became Baron of Aldworth and Farringford the year following. In 1884 were published "The Cup and the Falcon " (performed in 1879 and 1881 respectively), and "Becket." Other volumes were as follows: "Tiresias and Other Poems" (1885), "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After," etc. (1886) (this volume included "The Promise of May," previously performed in 1882), "Demeter and Other Poems "(1889), "The Foresters" (1892). He died October 6, 1892, at the age of eighty-three years and three months.

Joseph Ernest Renan was born February 27, 1823, at Treguier, in Brittany. He was first educated by the priests in his native village, then sent (1836) to the Collège de St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, at Paris. In 1839 he studied at Issy, an adjunct of St. Sulpice, and in 1843 entered St. Sulpice itself. Here he studied Hebrew and Syriac. In 1845 he gave up all idea of the priesthood, left the seminary, and taught for three or four years in a Paris school. He obtained a prize for an essay on the Semitic languages in 1848. In 1849 he published "L'Etat des Esprits," and was sent on a mission to Italy by the Academy of Inscriptions. In 1851 he received an appointment in the Bibliothèque Imperiale, and in 1852 published "Averroës et l'Averroïsme." In 1855 he published his "Histoire Général et Système Comparé des Langues Sémitiques," and in 1858 some "Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse." In 1860 he was sent on a mission to Syria, being accompanied by his devoted sister Henriette, who died before returning from the journey. In 1861 he was appointed professor of Hebrew in the Collège de France, but the doors were closed upon him after his first lecture, in 1862. The "Vie de Jésus " appeared in 1863. This was the first volume of "L'Histoire des Origines du Christianisme," the others being as follows: "Les Apôtres " (1866), “St. Paul" (1867)," L'Antechrist" (1873), "Les Evangiles (1877), "L'Église Chrétienne "(1879), "Marc-Aurèle " (1880). In 1870 he was restored to his chair at the Collège de France. His remaining works include: "Mission de Phénicie " (1865-74), "Nouvelles Observations d'Epigraphie Hebraïque" (1867), "La Reforme Intellectuelle et Morale" (1871), "Dialogues et Fragments Philosophiques" (1876), "Spinoza" (1877), "Caliban" (1878), "L'Eau de Jouvence " (1880), "Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse " (1883), "Nouvelles Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse," (1884), "L'Abbesse de Jouarre" (1886). He became a member of the French Academy in 1878. The last great work of his life was a "Histoire du Peuple d'Israël," of which three volumes have been published, and the others are said to be completed in manuscript. He died October 2, 1892.

CHRONICLE AND COMMENT.

Lord Tennyson's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey, October 12. The Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Dean of Westminster, conducted the services. Included in them were two anthems: one by John Frederick Bridge, to the words of "Crossing the Bar"; the other by Lady Tennyson, to some unpublished words of the poet. It was a graceful act on the part of Lord Hallam Tennyson to invite the Minister of the United States to act as one of the pall-bearers at the

funeral of the dead Laureate. Mr. Lincoln was unable to accept the invitation, as he was just about to leave for America; but his place was taken by Mr. Henry White, Secretary of Legation. The people of this country feel that Lord Tennyson belonged to them as well as to those of England, and he is doubtless as sincerely mourned on this side of the water as on the other. long as the people of the two countries have a common language and a common literature, the English nation must mean more to us than any other in the world, and little acts of international courtesy like the one above mentioned serve to strengthen a tie that should remain as sacred as it is natural.

As

Many people seem to be exercised by the question of the vacant laureateship. There is, of course, only one English poet whose name can seriously be considered in that connection. Mr. Swinburne is now as easily the first of living English poets as Lord Tennyson was but a few days since. The mention of such men as Mr. Alfred Austin, Mr. Lewis Morris, Mr. Robert Buchanan, or Sir Edwin Arnold, as possible laureates, is simply amusing. Far better let the office lapse entirely than allow it to settle to the level of Southey, or perhaps of Pye. But with so noble a poet as Mr. Swinburne at hand, and one who has shown so peculiar an aptitude for the sort of occasional poetry required of a laureate, there is no reason why it should not be continued for another life at least. The succession of Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Swinburne, is one to which future centuries, when thrones and laureates alike are no more, may still point with pride when they review the literary annals of the past. Whatever we may think of Mr. personally generous and magnanimous, and he will Gladstone as a politician, he is generally believed to be hardly be prevented from nominating Mr. Swinburne because the latter has applied to him the epithet of "tonguester" and others equally uncomplimentary. But very likely Mr. Swinburne would not accept the appointment if offered. There are things in his literary past that might rise up against him with the persistency of Banquo's ghost.

With display of the sort of enterprise for which our newspaper press is only too notorious, a New York paper, not long ago, surreptitiously obtained a copy of the poem which Miss Harriet Monroe was commissioned to write for the dedicatory exercises of the World's Columbian Exposition, and printed it in full, accompanied by what was stated to be a portrait of the author. The poem, although evidently reproduced from an official copy, was so full of blunders, and in every way so vilely printed, that it bore about the same relation to the original that the alleged portrait bore to the author. It is unfortunate that this really dignified and noble piece of work should have been thus treated, from a literary no less than from an ethical point of view. From the latter, indeed, the proceeding was disgraceful; and should Miss Monroe sue the offending newspaper for violation of copyright, she would have our best wishes for success. The Chicago newspapers acted with much courtesy in the matter, refusing to take advantage of the New York piracy, and unanimously agreeing to defer publication of the poem until after the dedicatory ceremonies.

The magnificent offer made by Mr. Charles T. Yerkes to the University of Chicago is one of the most notable of recent events in the history either of science or of education. Mr. Yerkes agrees to equip the Uni

versity with an observatory, and a larger refracting telescope than any now existing. It is stated that he is prepared to devote half a million dollars to this praiseworthy purpose. An objective no less than forty-five inches in diameter is spoken of, and steps have already been taken to secure the necessary discs. The University is certainly fortunate in its friends, and too much praise cannot well be given to the exhibition of public spirit on the part of its benefactors. We presume it to be the wish of Mr. Yerkes that the new observatory should be erected in or near Chicago, but it is a serious question whether so large a telescope as that proposed would have an efficiency at all proportioned to its cost under the unfavorable atmospheric conditions necessarily attendant upon such a situation. The superiority of the mountain observatory has been so clearly demonstrated during the last few years by the work of the staff at Mt. Hamilton and of Professor Pickering at Arequipa, that we hope both Mr. Yerkes and the institution to which he makes his generous gift will think twice before they commit themselves to the erection of the great instrument in a distinctly unfavorable situation. It would doubtless be gratifying to have the observatory where it could be seen by admiring visitors to the University, but it would not best serve the interests of astronomical science. It is extremely doubtful if an objective of more than twenty inches diameter can be used to advantage in the neighborhood of Chicago; it is certain that more and better work may be done with instruments now existing than could possibly be done with the proposed giant refractor should it be pointed skyward through the troubled medium of a great city's atmosphere. But in any case, the new University will have the credit of possessing the finest instrument in the world, a credit which likewise, for a number of years, attached to the original Chicago University.

General B. F. Butler is now engaged in a lawsuit relating to the publication of his book, and the proceedings have elicited some interesting testimony from the publishers called upon as witnesses. A writer in the New York "Critic" reports the following: "Mr. H. O. Houghton, of the publishing firm of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., declared that nine-tenths of the books published do not realize profits to the publishers. Books published by subscription, he said, have a greater sale than books disposed of to the trade. This point re

minds me that another witness declared it was the ability of the canvassers and the amount of pushing given by the publishers rather than the fame of the author which regulated the number of copies sold. This other witness, Mr. Knight of Brooklyn, the manager of the Methodist Book Concern, testified that his establishment often sold largely books whose authors were unknown. We keep a book carpenter,' he said whose business it is to get up books on subjects we select.'" A survey of current publications usually affords only too abundant evidence of the book carpenter's' industry, but a more euphemistic form of phrase is generally used, both by himself and his publishers, in describing his occupation.

Dr. J. M. Rice's series of articles on the public schools of this country, begun in the October" Forum,” promise to be of much value. Dr. Rice has spent several months in studying the schools of our principal cities, and has relied, not upon reports and official information, but upon actual examination of work done in the class-room. He spent all the school hours of al

most every school day for nearly six months in this sort of observation, and witnessed the methods of some twelve hundred teachers. Perhaps the weightiest statement made by Dr. Rice in this opening article is of the attitude of the public toward the common schools. The citizens of most communities talk a great deal about the excellence of their schools and think them (or say they do) the best in the country; but the pride that thus finds expression is, as a rule, "founded neither upon a knowledge of what is going on in other schools, or even in their own schools, nor upon the slightest knowledge of the science of education." The simple fact is that this notion of our public schools being the best in the world is a superstition having little or no basis of truth, and the sooner the public eyes are opened to the fact that German and French schools are in many ways immeasurably superior to our own, the better it will be for our national well-being. Dr. Rice's work is in the right direction, although we think he places too much stress upon the importance of the superintendent's function in a public school system.

COMMUNICATIONS.

WESTERN INDIFFERENCE TO WESTERN AUTHORS. A REVIEWER'S VIEW.

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)

Your correspondent J. M., in a recent issue, lays the blame for Western indifference to Western authors at the door of "the gentlemen employed upon the daily and weekly press" of this city. I happen to be one of the class referred to; and while I am neither authorized nor qualified to speak for my colleagues, I must repel the accusation of prejudice or timidity in my own case. To me, at least, it makes no difference whether a bad book was written in Boston and a good one in Chicago, or vice versa. Such critical standards as I possess are conscientiously applied to all books alike, whatever their place of origin. Wrong I have often been, no doubt; but consciously unjust, never.

J. M. throws it in our teeth that we praise books which have already received the approval of Eastern reviewers. As I understand it, he does not blame us for praising "Zury," let us say, or "The Chevalier of Pensieri Vani," but only for letting Eastern critics praise them first. Unfortunately, we cannot help ourselves. The two books named, like many other books by Western writers, were published at the East. Now it constantly happens that new books are reviewed in Eastern journals a week before they come into our hands. Some of the best-known Eastern houses make a practice of sending editorial copies of new publications to local Chicago agents for distribution. These books are not forwarded by express, but are shipped as freight by slow routes, and the reviewer often has to apply in vain for copies of works that are actually on sale in New York or Boston. But a "Chicago book," I suppose, is a book that has been published, as well as written, in Chicago. Perhaps the Western reader defers buying a Chicago book until he is reassured as to its moral tone; for some of our publishers are not as careful in that particular as they ought to be. It is certain, too, that but few Chicago books can compete in general attractiveness with the publications of the best Eastern houses. The apparel oft proclaims the book, and in these days of competition our publishers should

see to it that their wares are displayed to the best advantage.

It is happily true that "the West has a literature of its own strong, vigorous, and racy of the soil." But what proportion does that literature bear to the whole mass? Newspaper readers want to keep informed of all that is best in current English literature, wherever published. Now a critic receives, let us say, about 1500 books for review in a given year. Half of them are below mediocrity, and these are dismissed unnoticed. But of the remaining 750, how many are published in Chicago? Fifty is a high estimate, I think. And among the fifty how many are entitled to a half-column review, when but three or four columns a week are allotted to the critic? I will leave the answer to J. M. himself.

For my part, I think J. M. overestimates the influence of reviewers. Our power to work harm, like that of other demons, is vilely restricted, alas! We cannot kill a really good book, even when it comes from Chicago. We can only gnash our teeth in impotent rage, like old Giant Pope in the Valley of Humiliation, while the virtuous pilgrim passes on to fortune, fame, and Vanity Fair. E. J. H.

Chicago, October 3, 1892.

NEGLECTED TRAITS IN THE CHARACTER OF A VIRGINIA STATESMAN.

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)

As a student of American political history, I have been much interested in the lately published Life and Works of George Mason, reviewed in THE DIAL for Sept. 16. It seems to me, however, that two of the

most notable traits of Mason's character were overlooked by your reviewer, and were, indeed, inadequately brought out by the biographer. I refer to the perfect sincerity and logical fearlessness of Mason's character

- qualities in which he was a shining contrast to some of the distinguished men around him, and which cannot be too strongly emphasized in these days of political expediency and insincerity. Mason's convictions were deep and strong, and were always avowed with such frankness, courage, and modesty, as to command respect and win support. One might question the sincerity of Jefferson a theorist in democracy as well as everything else, but never that of Mason. His Virginia Bill of Rights, immortal because it expressed the principles upon which a free government must rest, and dignified the character while increasing the responsibilities of the citizen, takes high rank as a state paper. All power is "vested in and consequently derived from the people." This is the very essence of democracy.

Mason followed his democratic principles to their logical conclusion. He did not believe liberty was for the white man alone. He did not believe that a country fostering slavery could represent the highest form of civilization. His remarks in the Constitutional Convention on this subject have for us great historical interest, and should be read in connection with his life, if one would look into the very soul of the man. Mason opposed the clause in the Bill of Rights permitting the importation of slaves,-"infernal traffic" is what he described it to be. Slavery," said he, "discourage arts and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the emigration of whites, who really enrich and strengthen a country. They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations

cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities." He lamented that some of our Eastern brethren had, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious traffic. As to the States being in possession of the right to import, this was the case with many other rights, now to be properly given up. He held

it essential in every point of view, that the general government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery.

It was fitting that such sentiments should be uttered by the man who drafted the declaration of the rights of the members of society. But Mason was a broadminded statesman. His contention that new States should be admitted on an equality with the original States; that local interests should be intrusted to the States to deal with; that the presidential term should be seven years, and the incumbent ineligible for a second term,—all prove his liberality and statesmanship. WILLIAM HENRY SMITH. 1892.

Lake Forest, Ills., October 7,

LONGFELLOW'S FIRST BOOK.

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)

The writers of school-books are, we shall agree, really an important and influential class of authors. The quality of their work is important, since it affects the minds of our youth in their period of special training. For the most part, they are so far below literature that THE DIAL knows naught of them; even the omnivorous Allibone has neglected them. Their name is legion, and a notable share of them are dullards. or cranks!

I have a copy of what I believe to be Longfellow's first book, written while he was Professor of Modern Languages at Bowdoin. It is a translation and adaptation of L'Homond's “Elements of French Grammar”; it was copyrighted in 1834 by Gray & Bowen; but my copy, of the fourth edition, was published at Hallowell, Me., by Glazier, Masters & Smith, 1837; and the author is described as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles Lettres at Harvard. Longfellow wrote also (in French) a grammar of the Italian language about the same time; I have no copy, but remember it as a thin octavo, which had a companion volume of tales in Italian prose; I think each volume was of less than one hundred pages. Allibone fails to mention any one of these three, and gives as his first book "Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique" a translation from the Spanish, 1833. SAMUEL WILLARD. Chicago, October 5, 1892.

A PROPOSED MEMOIR OF THE LATE
PROF. E. A. FREEMAN.

(To the Editor of THE DIAL.) Mr. Stephens has sent the following paragraph to me, with the request that I submit it for publication in some literary journal in the United States:

A memoir of the late Professor of Modern History at Oxford, Mr. E. A. Freeman, is about to be taken in hand. Friends who may be willing to contribute letters, reminiscences, or other biographical materials, are invited to forward them as soon as possible to the Revd. Prebendary Stephens (Woolbeding Rectory, Midhurst, Sussex), who at the request of Mr. Freeman's family has undertaken to edit the work. JUSTIN WINSOR.

Harvard College Library,
Cambridge, Mass., October 13, 1892.