6 OLD FRIENDS. We just shake hands at mreting With many that come nigh; We nod the bead in greeting To many that go by — But welcome through the gateway Our few old friends and true; Then arts leap up. and straightway There* open boose for you. Old Friends. There's open house for you! ©he Wftto^&fo gxibunt* SUNDAY, JANTAUY .',. 100 S. In Ibe course of an amusing essay on "Writ ing" which he has contributed to "Harper's." Mr. E. S. Martin shows just the right feeling for the art which he practises with so much . leverness. In one passage especially he treats r f a phase of the subject which is not. perhaps, as well understood as it ought to be by many young authors. The latter very often start in life with an unimpeachable set of principles and with quite an heroic determination to follow the highest ideals of truth and beauty, but some thing is missing from their work, the precious quality of gusto. Speaking of some of the re wards of authorship, Mr. Martin adds. 'And {►■sides all that, writing is interesting work. Writing i.s exceedingly pleasant if you can make it go well enough. It is the practice of as art. and to practise an art with skill is delightful. . • • To do a good piece of work satisfies a certain hunger of the mind." Of coarse the young author will tell you that he rejoices in his work, that he expects you to take th.it for granted, yet this is not by any means the idea to he gathered from the average mod ern page. Seldom indeed does an author "let himself go" and communicate to the reader a siMise of freedom, energy and buoyant interest in the matter in hand. The effect is rather one ot intense solicitude for details of craftsman ship. The result is often very clever writing, but not the kind of writing which spells vital ity and a seus? of delight in the mind of the author. Is it that the author is too often pre occupied with theories of style — and the hope jf tangible reward? The English journals continue to print rather plaintive observations on the decision of the committee which gave the Nobel prize for litera ture to Mr. Kipling. Some critics, like the one 'quoted in The Tribune last Sunday, are espe cially struck by the irony of the incident. Mr. Kipling, they think, is hardly the man to be rewarded as one having produced "the most re markable literary work of an idealist tendency. But what more particularly disturbs the com mentator is not so much the committee's misap prehension of the author chosen (to whom, in deed, no one seems really to grudge the prize) as its strange indifference to the claims of the three veterans in English letters. Mr. Meredith Mr. Swinburne and Mr. Hardy. It is said that 'hi per cent of the Englishmen called upon to take part in the prize-giving voted in favor of Mr. Swinburne. The action of their Continental colleagues in ignoring their view of the matter lias bewildered more than one English observer. It is. no doubt, a little puzzling, but, on the other hand, it is always interesting and even helpful for the countrymen of a distinguished writer to I* • brought face to face with foreign opinion of him. After all. may not this episode serve to remind the blind adorers of Mr. Swinburne— who have got into the habit of calling him the greatest living poet. and. by an easy transition, have come to think of him r.s one of the greatest poets in history— that he is not, whin all is said, absolutely impeccable? No one with any sense of literature could fail to perceive the genius in Mr. Meredith's novels, but because his countrymen can forgive him his eccentricities of style are we to expect a foreigner to forget those same defects? It ought not to be so very diffi cult to understand why the Nobel committee did not share the Swinburnian fervor of its British advisers. I In the opinion of "The DiaT the disposition ■M the American novelist to turn muck raker has had two unfortunate consequences. The fiction />ut forth by our latter-day school of exposure in the first place "presents as a whole a picture of OUT national life that is absolutely ■atypical, however exactly an occasional instance may exemplify it." Furthermore, we are told, "the novelists who thus lend themselves to sensa tionalism are deliberately putting themselves into alliance with the yellow journalism which is oi:r chief national disgrace." To both these charges it might be retorted that the muck rak ing novelist has nevertheless been doing, in his way. some good, but the point ou which we pre fer to dwell is the harm done by this type of :iuthor in helping to open a breach between fic tion and literature. Other causes have con tributed to the making of that breach, notably the rapid pouring forth of stories written to sell. ISut the writer who frames a novel along re formatory lines, simply to catch the favoring gale and satisfy the curiosity of the hour, is especially to be dreaded by those who love fic tion as an art. His book is. indeed, only a book because it happens to be printed between covers. It rarely possesses the qualities that belong to a .work of literature. The novelists who strive to preserve the true character of their art may some day find it necessary to invent a new cate gory for their works, to distinguish themselves by a new name from the writers of •reform" ntoriea. NEW-YORK DAILY TIHBI "M-l SUNDAY, JANTARY 5. 190S- MI LAX. Its Place in the Hwtoty of Old Italian Despotism. A HISTORY OF MILAN UNDER THE tf } A }- V;y(V cilia M. A.iy. Edited by Kdw:ir.l Arm strong With twenty illustrations and a n.ap. Svo. pp. xii. 351. G. P. Putnam's Sons. The social and political conditions in Italy during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance have been traversed by many historians. and every student Is familiar with the manner in which the despots of these days carved out their different principalities. Nevertheless a place has been kept waiting for just such a series as the one on "The States of Italy" which is begun with thus sketch of Milan under the Sforzas. The idea of the series Is to set forth in clear relief the fortunes of a number of typical govern ments, treating each one as a little world, and giving it thereby a kind of personal interest which it is apt to lose, in a measure, if it is con sidered only as forming part and parcel of the broad history of the Peninsula. This essentially human portrayal of a given state is not only justified by the singular independence of this or that tyrannical house: it is bound to leave a deeper impression upon the general reader, stirnulnting his interest and aiding him to ob tain a firmer grasp upon historical developments. Mr. Edward Armstrong and Mr. R. Langton Douglas, the general editors of the new series, have adopted a good plan and they have chosen, in the author of the present volume, a useful contributor. Miss Ady i.s perhaps a little long winded, but her narrative i.s fairly well ar ranged, and in the course of it she brings out precisely what the reader wants to know. She tells him who the Sfcraaa were, how they found Milan and how they left it. It was the opinion of Maehiavelli that if the soldier of fortune was often, as he well knew, a serviceable type, be was also a menace to his employer. How could the successful man at arms, working at his trade for so much cash in hand, be expected to rest content with only a sordid reward? If he had the brains to be a leader of men would he not naturally desire to lead them in politics as well as in war' The Italian comiottitri were, indeed, in many cases soldiers with the aspirations and sometimes with the genius of statesmen, and once started upon a military career they came almost in evitably to desire territorial possessions and political power. The founder of the house of Sforza, as it happened, lived and died a man of the camp, pure and simple, but his son was avid of civil no less than of military authority, and such were the opportunities of the time that he made himself in due course Duke of Milan. The first Sforza got his name through the wit of a commander, who thus signalized bis "great strength and fiery nature," but he was born Mazio Attendolo. lie was of lowly origin, if legend may be believed. "One day," it is said, "when a troop of mercenaries were riding through the flat, marshy country be tween Ravenna and Bologna, they came upon a peasant lad who was cutting wood near his native town of Cotignola. Struck by the boy's appearance, they called out to him to join them. He replied by throwing his axe into the branches of .in adjacent oak: if it stays. I will go.' he cried. The ax.- stuck in the tree and Sforza went forth to found a line of dukes." The story may or may not be true. It hardly matters. The main point is that in the early fifteenth century an unknown youth was able, on embracing the life of a soldier of fortune, to win his way through sheer abil ity to a position of extraordinary weight. I'rinces competed for km services, ami he saw that he was well paid in lands and money. When, crossing a river, he «M drowned in the effort to save ■ favorite page from the swift current. Msda ! -ft his son ft Ml Ml* a well trained aoHliw of tv.-enty-thrc?. m possession at once of a /rood f.P'htirs machine and of a def inite place in the turbulent political system of the period. M ■■-•■ heir was for a time an apparently complaisant servant of Milan and the Vlsconti. Bat presently, in order to retain him, the duke had to bid against Florence with something more than money. He promised Sforza the hand THE CERTOSA OF PAVIA. (.From a photograph.) of his illegitimate daughter. Ittanea Maria, and though after the betrothal he sought to squirm out of the bargain his agreement had inflamed an ambition which nothing could withstand. Francesco Sforza was as patient as he was clever. He made up his mind that his marriage with Bianca Maria would take place and that it would serve as a stepping stone to his estab lishment upon the ducal throne at Milan. Play ing a waiting game and never allowing any favorame chance to slip by him he ultimately had his wish. When Filippo Maria Visconti died and his rule gave place to that of the so called Ambrosian Republic, the man who had married his daughter saw that his day had come. Self-government was the last thing in the world for which the Italians of the Renaissance were prepared. "Instead of providing for the defence of Milan." says Miss Ady, "the Republic passed decrees forbidding barbers to shave on saints' days." The Milanese needed a master, and Sforza hovered around their gates, watching for the psychological moment which would call for FRANCESCO SFORZA. (From the m^Uu! by Soeiundio.) his intervention. It soon came, and by a process which in its sudden picturesque character sug gests pure romance, he was lifted by the anas of a grateful populace to the seat of his wily father-in-law. In that seat he ham himself with wisdom, and. above all things, with discre tion, showing sterling judgment la hid for eign policy and exercising in his home admin istration some severity as regards taxation tot. on the whole, a genuine solicitude for the well being of his subjects. Obviously, the history " Milan under thin r,oldier and his successors Is nothing r.or» nor less than the history of so many personalities. You see the duchy waxing or waning 33 the reigning duke is strong or weak. Franc***), though crafty and cruel. mi occasion require^ after the fashion of the RecaLssar.ee. was aa able ruler. Haleazzo. his son and successor, was not without talent, but extravagant and sinister traits cut short his r-!^n Qms C*. ltazzo, proclaimed duke on the day of hit father's assassination, had every mama to mi> pose that his rights would be respected, bat those right? were destined to be ignored th# moment Lodovico Sforza appeared upon the scene, for the very simple reason that II Moro was the stronger man. That is the history of Milan, and. for that matter, of every other Renaissance principality, in a nutshell. Might made right. In that stew of politics, in that chaos of manners, men could be sure of but one thing— the survival of the fittest. So. as Miss Ady follows the sequence of eve" th? reader is scarcely conscious of those thirg' which ordinarily count in the lives of govem irents; he thinks rather of Milan an the sport of warring Individualities, as a ball tossei about through one fantastic disturbance after another. With the fall of Lodovlco the house of Sforza does not immediately disappear, but it never recovers anything like the splendor which it enjoyed in his day or in that of Fran cesco, and. as time wears on. the state loses its high significance until it counts merely as a pawn in the game of the Hapsburgs. Milanese history contains much that is cS moment to the student of the liberal arts. The Sforzas continued what the Visconti had begun in enriching their domain with sumptuous mon uments. The Certosa of Pavia hi one beautiful souvenir of their architectural pride, and ttsl stately Caste.: > of Milan is another. It '■'■ ■ in Milan that Bramante produced some of the most interesting fruits of his great genius, ar.i it was to the court of II Moro that Leonard? brought hi- marvellous Rifts. The Sforza?. once in the saddle, were quick to exert that beneficent influence upon the artist and t*e man of letters whirl) was the special preroga tive of the Renaissance prince. Yet the thins: that makes this house significant m the stu dent remain-, when all is said, sirrply its illus tration of the tremendous scope of individuality in the era of Italian greatness. This book is the history of a state, but the state was t!se appanage of a family in a sense absolutely pe culiar to the Renaissance. Never before or since has the potentiality at statecraft ars