telvetflW finds Homer superior to Virgil, regard-
V-as of what the bigots may tell him; Montaigne
•rings his hunwoua thought to bear upon ques
tions saturat.d in the gravity of a thousand
pedants; and 1 ryden. not unmindful of the an
cients, nevertl less opens his mind freely to the
moderns. In short, criticism, as it moves on
toward the wld. r views and infinitely more In
dependent conditions of modern times, profits in
learning caution and measure from the very
formula which un another side delay it.
Through the eff. ts of a born leader here and
there it apriroa»;,~s the plane on which indi
viduality comes i; to its own, and the rule of
thumb, having Bent 4 its purpose, is put in its
place as a matter ■ :' course. Professor Saints
bury makes this plan: D his exhibition of facts,
if not in hie accbinpanj i-ig argument. We wish
that, In illustration <>: the entertainment and
instruction which nev-it) • 'ess reside in that ar
gument, we might quot< :i number of his scat
tered sayings. But we i.. .- instead, from his
preface, a passage which n. • only states a point
well demonstrated i:. the pr sent volume, but
gives us a foretaste of what we are to expect
m the next one. which will bring this monu
mental and indispensable work to a close:
The fact Is, that the positive lue and Im
portance of English criticism ii-»-lf are far
gTeaier than has been usually allowed. Owing
very mainly to the not unintelligible or inex
cusable, but unfortunate. Initiative ..f Mr. Mat
thew Arnold, it has become a fashion to speak
of this branch of our national literature, if not
even of the function of the national genius
which it expresses, with bated breath, and with
humble acknowledgment of the superiority of
Gorman, and still more of French, critics. This
superiority. I •-.•->■ without the slightest fear. Is
* fond thing Inly Invented. English criticism
was rather late, and for a long time rather In
termittent; nor did it fail, after the manner of
the nation, to derive fresh Impulses and new
departures in the sixteenth century from Ital
ian, in the seventeenth and again in the nine
teenth century from French, and at the end of
the eighteenth from German. But it is not true
that in so much as one of these cases it was con
tented slavishly to imitate; and it Is not true
that, with the doubtful exception of Bainte-
Beuve. foreign countries have had any critics
greater than our own, while they have, even
l'Ut together, hardly so many great ones. In
everything but mere superficial consistency
Dryden is a head and shoulders above
Boileau as a critic; Coleridge a head and
shoulders and a body above the hl< gels, whom
he followed. Long be!'., re Bainte-Beuve, Haz
litt had shown a genius for real criticism; as dis-
Ungulshed from barren formula making, which
no critic has surpassed. And Mr. Arnold him-
Ftif. with less range, equity and irei ss than
Sainte-Beuve, has a Oner literary taste and
touch. As for that general superiority of French
criticism of which we have beard so much, the
unerring voice of actual history will tell us that
:t never existed at all, except^ perhaps, for a
generation before IGGO, and a • ration before
l>«y». the latter being the j.eriod which called
forth, but misled, Mr. Arnold's admiration.
A XI SB MILL SOXO.
BY Z. TOPEUTUa
Ruddy cheeked was I at twenty.
With Gckle whims and dreams a-plenty;
N-". r was bird more fr.-e and Joyous—
Naught in youth can long annoy us.
Grind away! Gone that day!
T!j. n my glance was frank ad gay
Ruddy cheeked was I at twenty.
Fickle dreams hud I a-plenty.-
Then cani« autumn, sere and yellow,
The bird was grown a sober fellow.
Chastened in hi* song and duller,
liair and cheeks hall roM-ed of color,
Grind away! Change the lay!
Formerly my skies were gay;
Then came autumn, ser<=- and yellow.
Kob«_-r grew the jaunty fellow.
Sorrow's snows kept gently falling.
Love lit eyes. l<-ng gone, recalling.
Mother, at the millstone crooning,
Moves 'my heart to old attuning.
Grind away" Gone that day]
Once rr.y song was free and gay.
Hut now my ditiy, rising, falling,
Breaks for love long past recalling.
EARLIEST BOOKS lot: CHILDREN.
From The London Globe.
The earliest books for children were Bchool
books pure and .Minple. The titles of some of
\\n m suggest entertainment and refreshment;
but the arid p.-i^.-s belie the promise. For in
"l;lliCe> an old Latin grammar, published in
II»70, had for sab-title, "A delystous Byrupe
newly Claryfled for Yonge Scholars 111 1 thurste for
in* Bwete Lycore of Latin Speche"; but the
"Lycore" is a very turgid, confused flow of
pedantry. It probably never occurred to any
<>n- but the inventor of this title to associate
Mich farts as "BalbUfl was building a wall" and
The like with "Syrupe." A different style is
suggested by the name of another schoolbook
written by one ESisba Coles In lt>7r« "Nolens
Vnl'ns, or you shall le; r tl Latin, whether you
will or no" — a title which suggests a vigorous
application of th<» birch. Very uninviting, very
dry.'jsduFt were ti e schoolboy of long ago.
Ti,.> first attempt, and that indirect, to provide
children with reading for recreation Is doubt-
U-E* to be found in chapbook literature. The
l«>')klets which In the eighteenth century—
th.- chapbook was in greatest demand — Irere
largely sold by hawkers and pedlers all over the
«o-jr;try •*•••!-•_' intended chiefly for adults, but
many of the subjects .'•■• such as children de
light in, and one may be perfectly sure that the
Jiiii*- ones who could read pored over the badly
l-ririt'-d. shockingly Illustrated, little pamphlets
■rtti- ii th'-y could lay hands on them.
A FCXXY DERIVATION:
I'iiyin The London Morning Post.
Th* Inhabitants of the nursery have been
h«-ard to derive "pickled cucumber" from "King:
J« T«-rjiiali." They any "King Jeremiah, Jeremiah
Kins, Jeremylcing; Jerkins, gherkin, pickled cu
«-.jn.)»i " We have never regarded the deriva
lion as sound, or even plausible. Hut since
reading the following- reply in "Notes and
Queries'* to a correspondent who wanted to
know the origin of the place named "Bungay"
v. '■ have come to the conclusion that there may
be more in th» pickled cucumber derivation than
we bad hitherto supposed: "Bungay and Wav
*-m-y are etymologically the same. Root Is
V. ■ l«h afon, river; thus afon, avon, avona,
a vena. Waverney; waverney, ▼emey, yoney,
%<>r£ey f bougey, totgay, Bungay."
MEW-YORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT.
TWO ENGRAVERS.
SOME REPRODUCTIVE AND SOME ORIGI
NAL. WORK.
Tt\t tV,v 1S " MASTERS EXiJRAVED BY
TIM(-!H\ POLE. With Historicai \. • h5h 5
Jonn ( . Van Dyke and Commi i( hy th< En
prav.-r. I{,.ya! Octavo, pp X ] Th« Cen
tury Company.
ILU-STKATIuNS OP THE BOOK OF FOB ■■
rwents one Plates rnvt-nted and Kngravcd by
Blake, Folio, pp. 22. r, P Putnam's
Ever Blnce the art of the wood engraver began
to be pushed out of the field of modern illustra
tion by photographic i -esses, appreciation <>f
the new regime has been mingled with regrets
for the old. Such work upon the w J block as
irvived has l n received In manj quar
ters with special warmth. The Editor and pub
lisher of "The Century Magazine," for example,
have Inspired positive gratitud- for their cour
continuing to print Mr. Timothj Cole's
• ngravings after the old masters long after the
VVIIKN Till-: MOUNIX(J si".\i:s sam; hi-,i: i n ii; '
iFi ii. 1 1 ■ engraving ■ • '•■' II ..-.. i ■ .k. >
"process .' h I ■• »mcd t., l- In full j
sion of ih' field nearly everywhere else. It is
with no small disappointment, therefore, that
we h:;\ <• observed the gradual declension of Mr.
Cole's art. Technicallj be is no doubt as skil
ful to-day aa he ever was, but art is not mad" 1
of technique alone; a great deal depends upon
what the ;irti:-i does with it. In the collection
of engravings by Mr. Col -. aftei the old Ei
painters, which his publishers now Issue, there
is ri'Jt :i block \\l.i<)i is technically poor, but
there ;uc few, if any, of them which are ex
actly v. l.ai thej ought to !••• reproductions of
l ami
Soiuf fifteen or twents masters are Illus
trated in this volume, and it is scarcely an ex
aggeration to Bay that the engraver has mad<
most of them look aJil.". W•• do not mean by
this that he has confused the .st}i<s of, bay,
Hogarth and Reynolds, but ;h;»t he has re
duced the Btyles of all his men to the terms of
his own, hanging between us and the pictures
in question a kind of veil, through which the
uninitiated could hardly l>< expected to pierce.
The frontispiece, after Gainsborough's "Honora
ble Mrs. Graham," is unquestionably a beauti
ful piece of black an.l white .\.irk; it is subtle
in ton<», and in the landscape i>.> X:•K :• : < . Mid there
is even a hint of the painter's peculiar "note."
Hut in th-i treatment of the figure, which Is,
after all, the main thing, there is not so mu< li
as a bint of that feathery touch and that ilui'i
tone fur which ijainsborouKh is remarkable.
Hogarth fares a little b-tter in the detail that
Mr. Cole gives from one of his satires, but the
engraving her© of his portrait of himself Is a
very doubtful equivalent for the original, and
natters are worse when we come to "The
Shrimp Girt." That fascinating sketch hi the
.National Gallery Is one of Hogarth's chief titles
' f ame, and particularly because il shows how
" ni<ll abilit y he had as a pun,,,- u,v and
simple when he cared to us, It, All its breadth
has disappear*-.] ,„„).■, Mr Coles hand ung. the
•nimitable brio wh | cn Inak , s lhjs a itltins
worthy of association with a study by Hals ia
diluted until there us nothing left but a tepid
suggestion of a brilliant original similarly, the
vigor in Sir Joshua's "h,,, ; Fieathfleld" is
■ !lmi " lsll<1 "ntU it almo,t disappears. The
lovely .1. pths of Gains! ugh's -Mrs Sheridan
and Mi---. Ti. k- ii ■ a,, made merely dull and
the beauty of his "Mrs. Siddons" | H likewia
derstated. Richard Wilson's delicately lumi
nous landscapes take on a heaviness in Mr.
''"*• engravin rs that this master at his worst
n. .. :■ possess, d, and the mi, tuous quality of the
Constables reproduced here has given place to a
thin prettii ; tone which t.. those who know
the mast t, musl be po Itively exasperating.
What has become of the brillianc* of Lawrence,
in hi.-- "Duke of V • we wonder?
When Is the savor of Morlana? Where Is the
nee of Turn< r? In every rase the qual
itj for which we look Is hidden behind that veil
tf which v. <• have referred. !t . ■ • .ant to
make th< s.» remarks. We yield t" none In ad
miration of Mr. i Bui If the en
i;nr."r baa a duty '<> himself, he has, In repro
ductive uorli »t :u.;. rate, a duty t.> hi.s origi
nals, and thai <Ju';. Mr Col< . in: no longer
willing •.<. discharge.
Ji v. .. .. good ■ publish In facsimile
th<- engravings produced bj William Blake sev
enty-five > • a! s :i-" In Illu! i ration of the Hook of
.).>!• Hivhlj Interesting aa they are in point of
technique, thej are <>i still greater value as de
signs. Blake was a born mystic, with an un
tutored imagination. Much of his work is mere
ly ln< ohen nt, and ihere are plates in this book
which put a heavy strain upon the powers «if
lerpreter. But Ihoy show, <n the whole,
considerable mastery of form, and in one of
them, the \\<il known design of the morning
Mars, be achieved his masterpiece. Though the
seri< S 1 as a curious, rather than a strictly artia
ii. Interest, ;t is a very famous one; it Is of deep
significance to everj special student of Ulake,
and this reprint is ...■.daily to be commended.
I • \i;l.) HtX'ORlHi or JAPA V.
l ■i. The Ai hena urn.
Dr. Murakami, «.f Tokio, ha« left England on
his way home, much delighted with the results
«.f his three years' search in the archives of the
Continent and Kngland for material illustrating
the early relations between those places and
Japan. His late visit t.. Seville, Bltnancus and
Madrid gave him Koine very valuable docu
ments, including one detailed account of the
Japanese court and country in K!Ui) by a Span
iard who was then wrecked un the coast and
had to remain in the island for a year before
he could pet home. Several earl} Japanese let
ters to Europeans wen- also found by I>r. Mura
kami. He hopes to print hi- report 10 his gov
ernment in English as well as in Japanese.
riCTION.
THREE NOVELS AND EOME SHORT
STORIES.
ERB." Bj w. Pett Ridge. 12mo. h :-.-■ V.
Appli tun & to
LOVE WITH HONOI'R. v.y Charles Man ttt
L2mo, pp. 337. John Lane.
JAN \AX ELSELO. IVing- an Account <.f H:s
Adventures During the K. iar. of His Most
..li.' Majesty Philip 11, King <>t Spain. B
bert and Marion Coleridge. Umo, pp 41< '. »
Macmlllan Company.
JOHN GAYTHER'a GARDEN AND Till- STO
RIES TOLD THEREIN. By Frank U. St... k,
ton. Illustrated. Liiiio, pp. 3u>. c'harli - S rlt
ner's Sons.
Mr. Ridge's new novel of life among the j«....i<r
Classes of London has merits which do not ;.t
once appear, but which in due course make their
effect and place the book in a creditable position.
Herbert Harms, the hero, known to hi.s fellow
workers in the district of Berniondsey as "Erl "
is an honest youth with a certain gift of sp< i •:.
It is his business to drive a van for one of the
great carrying companies, but It is his pleasure
to harangue his companions, and every one else
who is willing to listen, on the woes of labor
and the cruelties of capital. His pleasur- ■
true, consists to a great extent merely ir: bear
ing the sound of his own voice, but he is nei • r
theless sincere in the advocacy of what h- be
lieves to be really necessary reforms. Thi al
thor gives us perhaps a little too much of the
diction of his van men, and his "local color"
seems here and there to have been laid on w ita
a trowel. We could well spare, too, the account
of the parly given in the servants' hall ol a
mansion In Katon Square. This adds nothing to
the movement of the story, and the bnmon f
the scene, as we suppose Mr. Ridge would . ;.ll
them, are as tiresome as they are irrelevant,
But on.-c the reader has made up his mm.l :o
endure the crudities In this book he cannot i .t
be Interested in the portrait it contains ol ..n
English workman bitten with an enthusiast!, .>r
agitation and strikes. It Is drawn with adm r
able. candor and impartiality; the things thai
are good and the things that, if not ad, ar< it
all events sadly Ignorant and feeble, in tki
course of a rebellious employe, are set fortsj
with the vitality to be expected of an authoa
who has observed his subject at first band, and
has no other object than the telling of ta«
truth. We have in this novel a vivid page fum
a part of modern life that is too often exploited
with sentimentality or with melodramatk
pose, and it should do something to tncreaw v .-
I mding of difficult types and still •
difficult problems. Moreover, "Erb" la an ;<i< us
ing Btory.
The opening Bentencea !:; Marriott's "Low
With !!■ r.uur" give an Idea, only too c\- :^r >*t
wh.it is to be expected throughout the b<v>B.
"The double t • :■:■ ii room afflicted on<- ai a
i ude of counsellors. It was m ; o
bit on a single object and say, 'Here be la thsj
la the room of that man.' There was nothing
Incriminating, bo to t-p^ak; and no sooner had
one Btarted on a trail nut'i;- st>d by th< si
and porti lios leaning in a corner than on< > <-•
br ught up suddenly by the bookcase o\er tn*
mantelpl cc, where the number of works on
finance and political economy placed to*
poetry bouka at a singular disadvantage Theta
wa.s a .-vrta:!! security in the picture at th< I •
of either bed; one held to that and. follow Ing the
method of Ooethe's genuine scholar, warilj oe
veloped the unknown." We know at onc< «a
the author means us to know, that »t ur. to
be presented with a case of two roommate.- I ..v
lng different temperaments and tastes We
know, also, what he is probably unawai. of
proclaiming, that everything in the book ia ko
iUS to be hopelessly clever. We are not <ji.^.tp
pointed. "Love with Honour" Is too clever by
half. The author started, we gather, with a
fairly Interesting plot und with honest Intest
; s, if not with much knowledge of humaa
nature, where hi.s characters were concerned
But be Ki\..i from beginning to end tb< impres
sion of caring a good deal less about what be
has to say than abuut the way In which b< says
It. The result is disastrous. The plot is .. i leea
shambling thing, now Involving a heavj s trail
upon probability and now lapsing Into .sh.-er
bonelessness. The hero, a photographer' i as
sistant, turns his back upon his trade in ordet
to try hi.s fortune as a kind of superior vaga
bond. His action Is natural enough, but be U.>c»
not himself, on the whole, ring true, and <\< ry
body else in the book is equally artificial. Mr.
Marriott gives us not human beings, with clearly
marked individualities, but puppets duly labell< ■:.
He is fond of dragging in the "precious" epithet,
i.tu* of hi.s favorite phrases popping In and out
of the text in a manner that ia at once fanny
and disgusting. On one page he alludes to "the
ritual nf rising and going to bed"; on another,
where a smoker's preparation of his pipe is de
scribed, he tells us that "there seemed ".Iso a
customary ritual to be observed," and again in
a later chapter we i"md a fastidious gentleman
playing the host "with an Cild World ritua' '
The repetition i.s bad enough. But to use the
word at all as Mr. Marri.it t uses it ia to chow
that anxiety for effect and that inability to get
it with genuine art by which, in liction particu
larly, we are annoyed and bored. A more arti
ficial volume than this has not «.uuitt our way
for a long time.
"Jan Van Elselo" is artificial enough, esj.t
:.s dialogue, but the book is saved by
its romantic atmosphere. The handsome young
uuyc, in the service of the Prince of Orantre.
11