Guardian from London, Greater London, England • Page 22

214 THE GUARDIAN, FEBRUARY 5, 1890. which he describes. The account of the Nihilists, of their absolute devotion to the cause they are fighting for, of their cheerful surrender of property and life, of their obedience, courage, and indifference to danger and to death, is very remarkable, and, so far as it is possible to tell, the writer's statements seem to be in perfect harmony with facts and events in recent history. Apparently absolutely without religion, having abolished all ceremony of marriage, and considering assassination not only pardonable, but meritorious, the Nihilists are enabled, by their devotion to what they believe to be the good of their country, to live sober, temperate, self-denying lives, seemingly free from all crime except such crime as they consider a virtue. This state of things, if it really exists as it is desoribed in this book, may very possibly be due to the fact, asserted by one of the characters, that "illegal people (i.e., Nihilists) don't live more than two years on the average," and thus the fervour of conviction is not left to cool, and no sordid or mean motives have time to creep in and undermine the single-mindedness of the converts.

The book is well written, though a little heavy and lifeless in style the characters are well drawn, and though numerous, have plenty of individuality and distinctness. There are one or two scenes of really thrilling interest, such, for instance, as Andrey's escape from the gendarmes, the light outside the prison, and the final scene of the assassination. Very good, too, is the manner in which Audrey's character is developed till the final point is reached, when he longs for martyrdom. This is described in a very striking passage. Andrey is looking on at the execution of four friends for whose rescue he has made heroic but vain efforts "Neither then nor afterwards could Andrey understand how it came to pass, but in that moment everything was changed in him, as if in that kind pitying look there was some spell.

Anxieties and fears, nay, even indignation, regrets, were forgotten, submerged by something thrilling, vehement, undescribable. It was more than enthusiasm, more than readiness to bear everything. It was a positive thirst for feeling he always deprecated in others, and never suspepted himself to burst forth within him now. To be there, among them, upon that black car of infamy, his shoulders fastened to the wood like those of that woman, bending her radiant brow above the was not punishment; this was not horror it was the fulfilment of an ardent desire, of a dream of supreme happiness." There is an interesting, description, too, of Repin the lawyer, who, though no Nihilist himself, sympathises to some extont with their aims and receives suspected people into his house. Altogether the book is well worth reading, not only because of the interest of its subject, but for itself also.

The Art of Love (4) is not a very happy title to have applied to the signally inartistic novel before xia. The book is clever, and Sir Herbert Maxwell writes smartly, like a man of the world. But the story is a mere chain of episodes without plot, and, as far as we can gather, without point. It spreads over three generations, and father, son, and grandson figure in succession as chief actor. There are many and various love affairs, and each one is of course intended to represent an experiment in the art of love.

The last is the best and purest, but the author has failod to make it the most interesting. The tale is complicated by the hackneyed expedient of an exchange of children. An illegitimate child is put in the place of the legitimate hoir to a baronetcy, and the fraud in real life it certainly would not havo spite of the boys being between five and six years old when the unrecognised mother makes the exchange. The supposed heir dies soon after reaching majority, and then the baffled woman confesses her crime, and the real heir is restored to his rights. The half-brothers are both good fellows, and have always been good friends without suspecting the close relationship in which they stand to one another.

More concentration of purpose and a Bimpler handling of tho situation might have made a thoroughly interesting horo of either of them. But as the book stands it is not easy to care much for anybody in it. The author, by wasting his powers upon a great many unnecessary and some very unpleasant situations, has made it impossible for the reader to follow any thread of the story with full sympathy, or even with entire realisation, and the result is a book inferior in interest to many showing far less talent. The plot of A Conspiracy of Silence (5) turns upon tho terrible question of marriage and hereditary insanity. A.

girl in complete ignorance allows herself to be wooed and won by a man over whom this curse hangs. A friend discovers the sooret before the marriage is consummated, and tries to save her. Bnt instead of speaking straight to the girl ho appeals to the man's sense of honour, and unfortunately the man has no sonse of honour. lie lies to the girl he wants to marry and lies to the friend who would have warned her. The friend's suspicions are aroused, and he speaks to the girl's mother, but the mother being a vulgar-minded woman, cannot give up the prospect of a brilliant marriage for her daughter, and she enters into a conspiracy of silence with the lover.

Up to a certain point the story is well and ably told. But it stops short of the power and significance which are needed to justify the choice of so revolting a theme. Neither Eustace Sotheran nor Charlotte Marsh are very real people to us. We cannot conjure up feeling enough about them to carry us reasonably over tho ghastly absurdity of the Bcenes an which his madness declares itself. George Heigh, the loyal friend, is real enough, and so is Mrs.

Marsh, the silly mother. But they play only secondary parts, and aro, after all, nothing but well-worn types newly dressed up. The great fault of the book is the disproportion of the subject handled to the weight and irepressiveness of the handling. Apart from this it is a good novel, well told, lively, and much more than readable from beginning to end. There is a good deal that is interesting and a great deal that is clever in Mrs.

Aylmer Gowing's novel, An Unruly Spirit (6). But there is also a good deal that is silly and not in very good taste. The scenes of Irish life are the best part of the book, but they do not fit well into the scheme of the story while the episode of Mrs. Oalverley's flirtation with Edgar Penrice, upon the plot really turns, is extremely unpleasant. It is the sort of situation which may be indicated as one of the complications of the legitimate love affairs of a novel, but developed such elaborate fulness it becomes an outrage upon propriety as well as an offence against art.

The proper heroine of the story is Gladys Dare, a young lady who might have been as interesting to the reader as she is to the hero, if the author had not made her a most provoking prig. She is determined to go to Girton, because her dead father wished her to go to Girtou, and nothing will induce her to marry the best of lovers, Edgar Penrice, until she has been to Girton and developed her talents and made a name in literature. The consequence of her refusal to marry when marriage was obviously her duty to her betrothed, (4) The Art of Love; or, New Lessors in Old Love. By SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, M.P., Author of Passages in tho Life of Sir Lucian Elphin," Throe Volumes. Douglas, Edinburgh.

(5) A Conspiracy of Silence. By G. COLMONE, Author of "Concerning Oliver Knox. Two Vols. Swan Sonnenschein.

(G) An Unruly Spirit. By Mrs. AYLMER (SOWING Author of Tho Jewel Reputation," Three Vols, F.V.White. IB that Edgar is betrayed into compromising relations with an nnscrupulous adventuress, and everybody's happiness is wrecked. A very good character is the mother of genial Irishwoman, with abundant mother-wit, vanity, common Bense, and heart.

She hurts her daughter's feelings by making a second marriage, and having become Lady Carranmore, settles with her Irish Viscount on a brokendown estate, and becomes very provincial and slightly vulgar. Unfortunately, the other characters are not up to the mark. The book is inartistic throughout, and the want of harmony in the parts detracts from their merit taken singly. NOTICES. Very few Englishmen know so much about France as Mr.

Philip Gilbert Hamerton. He has lived in the country, drawn its landscapes and buildingB, and studied its inhabitants. When he writes about French and English (Macmillans) he writes about two things both of which he knows. He has earned the right, which few else have, to make A Comparison between them; and his comparison is very fair. He is sufficiently familiar with both countries to have a liking for each, and to be able to see in each the good points aa well as the bad.

His remarks are constantly very acute, and often very surprising. He sees likenesses where no one has seen them before, and brings out differences which have been hitherto unsuspected. But the likenesses predominate. He finds a good deal of human nature in both countries, disguised only by superficial aspects. And the writing is extremely pretty.

If we had space we could give many attractive samples; as it is, we can only refer our readers to the book itself, assuring them that they will find it most pleaBant reading, at once easy and instructive. It is based on a series of articles, which some of them may have road, in the Atlantio Monthly," bnt they are recast and enlarged, so that it is practically a new book. A Doubter's Doubts about Science and Religion. By a Criminal Lawyer. (Kegan is a small volume, which, to compare small things with great, reminds us of Mr.

Balfonr's Defence of Philosophic Doubt," and is perhaps open to the same misunderstanding amongst people who do not read it. The writer is a criminal lawyer, and admits that one who sees much of the shady side of human nature degenerates into a sort of high-class detective." But detectives have thoir use, and so have books like the one before us Let its take the place of Freethinkers and real sceptics, not shams," says the writer. Many people reserve their scepticism for tho sphere in which religion is the teacher, while in tho presence of science thoy are as innocent and simple in their receptivity as the infant class in a Sunday-school." And he proceeds to show that the scientific attempt to account for everything withont God is "a bad case of the confidence Tho author is not alone in his scepticism as to Evolution, nor is he alone in misunderstanding or failing to appreciate the weight of the evidence in its favour. And he strangely mixes up the problem of Evolution with that of the origin of life. But the not result of the inquiry is that an honest scepticism refutes itself.

A convinced doubter makes the beat believer." With an open mind and unwavering confidence the true sceptic acknowledges a personal God, the beneficent Creator of the Throughout the writer is really in earnest, never tired of censuring the jaunty and superficial scepticism of the day," always anxious to distinguish between facts and theories whether in science or religion, and from first to last showing, and not attempting to conceal, that wish to believe," which, if it is not always the forerunner of faith, is at least an indispensable condition of its recovery. Modem Thought and Modem Thinkers. By Joseph F.Charles. (Relfe an unpretending little volume of 130 pages Mr. Joseph Charles trips lightly over a great deal of ground.

It is a question whether an author is wise in attempting to write about so vague a subject as modern thought, but at least Mr. Charles's book is free from many of tho faults of such attempts. He tells us about all the "isms," not even excluding esoteric Buddhism and the results of the Psychical Society. Church history and phases of faith, mental and moral science, evolution (of course) and the problems suggested by it are all treated in turn. Mr.

Charles has read a great many books, and, if it wonld bo too much to say that his judgment is always sound, his conclusions are far more generally trustworthy than is the case with writers who, by reason of the extent of ground they try and cover, are compelled to take much at second-hand. In the main, howover, the volume is an account, almost a catalogue, of other people's views, while the author's own position we can only guess at. And it is sometimes a relief to read a book by one who has no thesis to defend. The author of Sacrifice as set forth in Holy Scripture (Ilodder and Stoughton) has most assuredly selected a noble theme, but whether his treatment of it is quite adequate may be doubted. Perhaps, in troth, no possible treatment could be quite adequate.

There is a backgi'ound of mystery behind the facts of Scripturo which have to do with sacrifice, and, with our limited knowledge of God's dealings with men, we cannot hope to pierce it. What the author, the Kev. J. G. Murphy, D.D.

(who is rather vaguely described as Professor of Hebrew might havo done was to give us a sncoinct account of the views which have been held in the Catholic Church on the subject of sacrifice, especially those which can bo traced to the primitive age. What he has actually done is to put together a series of more or less acute observations on the import of sacrifice, on the Levitical sacrifices, on the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and on the moral effect of sacrifice. Two new volumes in Messrs. Nisbet's excellent series, Men of the Bible," have made their appearance. One of them is his Life and Times, by the Rev.

W. J. Deane, who has already written upon Abraham, Daniel, and David. The other is Canon Eawlinson's account of The Kings of Israel and Judah. Both books aro examples of careful and conscientious workmanship.

Canon Rawlinson has the advantage of being an acknowledged authority on the period of which he treats; but Mr. Deane does not come short of him in thoroughness and perspicuity. As might be expected, the standpoint of both writers is historically conservative. This, however, does not prevent them from making use of the latest information derived from the monuments. On a single point, which he elects to treat at considerable length, Mr.

Deane is not quite the miracle of the stationary sun; for he first marshals with great force all the arguments in favour of one hypothesis, and then, to the surprise of the reader, appears to argue with equal acumen in favour of another. But though Mr. Deane has not made up hiB mind on this confessedly difficult subject, he has clear views on many problems in topography, and has made it a feature in his book. It is a pity that no maps are furnished. The want of them is felt at every step.

And the remark applies also to other volumes of the series. A clever little treatise in defence of the faith is the Rev. J. R. Howatt'a Agnostic Fallacies (Nisbet).

It does not, like some books of the kind, raise a succession of difficulties, and then leave them unsettled. Still less does it misrepresent the position of opponents. But in a courteous, yet critical, temper it examines the standpoint of the Agnostic school, and without much difficulty, not only how unsatisfying, but how unphilosophical, it is. Mr. Howatt does not attempt to deal with atheism or positivism or any other system of lelief or unbelief.

He confines himself to the view which re'ectB aH systems and denies the possibility of knowledge bejond tha range of physical science. His plan is to accumulate evidence for the existence of a God behind nature, which the agnostic neither affirms nor denies, and then to enunciate what ha calls postulates from the great Aids to Reverently Celebrating the Holy Eucharist, by E. (Griffith and is not very easy to say how the compiler of this pamphlet has historical authority for all the minute directions he gives. No clue is afforded to the Bource of his information. He simply claims to be setting forth the general usage of the Western Church." Assuming his cotnpe.

tence to guide, we can find no fault with the reverent thorough! ness which he brings to bear upon his work. As he truly says" Those who profess to despise ritual are nevertheless obliged to adopt a ritual of their own," which may very likely be awkward and distracting. It is not every clergyman who will care to carry out the whole of the compiler's suggestions, or every church where it would be desirable to make the trial; bnt there is no reason why whatever is done, be it much or little should fall short of the highest possible standard of correctnesp' To uphold such a standard is the object of these Aids." A little volume entitled Timber and its Diseases, by H. Marshall Ward (Macmillans) claims in the Preface to he an attempt at a popular exposition of a subject almost unknown in this country," since no account exists in any English work of the recent views as to the mechanism which lifts water to the top of tall trees." This being so. there is evidently a place for a work like this.

The first half or the book deals with the processes and mechanism by which timber trees attain their growth, and then clears the way for a description of the various insidious fashions in which their enemies, chiefly various species of fung? attack them. The chapter devoted to dry rot" is peculiarly interesting, and the whole volume replete with valuable information. But it must be noted that Mr. Marshall Ward presupposes in his readers a certain familiarity with the science or at least, the language of botany. Without this the largest portion of the book is scarcely intelligible.

Mr. Henry Blandford has made good use of the publications of the Indian Meteorological Department in the valuable book entitled The Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon, and Burmah (Macmillans). The first chapter deals with tho scientific causes underlying the ordinary phenomena of weather and climate, and then proceeds to the actual results in various districts of the countries mentioned in the title-page. There is another chapter devoted to the local storms of Indian seas, and appendices giving in figures tho actual statistics of rainfall, and temperature at various centres. The book is exceedingly thorough, and will doubtless fulfil the purpose for which it is written to afford, in a commodious and apprehensible form, such information as is constantly in demand by those engaged in agriculture, sanitation, and the like, and especially in jthe navigation of Indian seas," or by those who wish to follow intelligently the current reports of the weather issued daily at Simla and Calcutta.

There is always a certain feeling that memoirs of the living should hardly be published, but the Empress Eugenie in her retirement is so like a person in another state of existeuce that perhaps it is the loss uncomfortable that her Reader, Madame Carette, should have published a book which has been translated with the title of My Mistress; or, Court Life at the Tuileries (Dean and Son). After all, it is only kindly gossip, which is by no means unpleasant to read, and where we are shown that the lady of many sorrows, whom England is now sheltering, endeared herself much to those around her, and, whatever her influence on politics may have been, was simple in her own habits, and exceedingly kind and charitable, shrinking fx om no personal exertion or danger. This was shown iD her visiting cholera and smallpox cases; and, again, a story is told of her walking down a miserable alley, too narrow for a carriage, to see a poor woman, when a little child was knocked clown by an older boy and robbed of his cake. She flew to the rescue and restored tho cake, but the gamin began to yell in his turn, and she was surrounded by angry women abusing "dames en soie." There is another amusing anecdote of her visit to a lunatic asylum, when a patient, apparently quite sane, assured her that he was only shut up there by his relations because they feared his spending his fortune on a scientific discovery, and entreated her to procure his release. She showed his papers to scientific men, who were struck with their ability, and she was putting everything in train for his freedom when she went to see him again Ah Madame (he said) your Majesty alone can help me.

My relations are determined to keep me here, and have placed the whole Pantheon on the tip of my nose Madame Carette contradicts the rumour so long believed that the Empress never wore the same dress twice. She was, howover, freshly equipped twice a year, and gave her cast-off dresses to her ladies, who made considerable sums by selling them in America, where they were hired out for the evening. The book is, on the whole, translated well, but there are instances of that snare of the translator, the taking the first word in the dictionary most resembling the original. Thus vermeil has misled the translator into giving the Empress such a strange article as a vermilion dressing-case instead of a silver-gilt one! A most loving and bereaved father has written the life of an excellent son in Self-Discipline, or a Memoir of Percy Clabon Clover, by the Rev. Richard Glover (Nisbet).

He was one of those happy souls who go through their course in this world without swerving from the higher pathway, or losing sight of the light, and thus with a continual spring of innocent wit and that his diary is a curious mixture of the highest and deepest thoughts, with his amusement at the governess's indignation at his entering the schoolroom to hear his little sister read that Joan of Arc was a pheasant who lived on champagne. His abilities were high, but his success was marred by liability to violent headaches, and he only took a third-class in consequence. His after-time was chiefly spent in tutorships, though looking forward to ordination, and in his thirty-seoond year he died from the effects of an accident while playing lacrosse, coupled with rheumatio fever. His letters and diaries are interesting, and we cannot wonder at the admiring sentences that his father adds to them. So muoh of his life was occupied by ecclesiastical controversy and so voluminous was the correspondence between Bishop, Prelate, Pope, and King, that Mr.

Hutton has found it hard to select the extracts in his St. Thomas of Canterbury (Nutt. Contemporary Writers so as to give a fair idea of the parts played by the various combatants in the strife, and at the same time to maintain that dramatic interest which makes some volumes of the series for instance, as that on the Crusade of Richard humanly attractive. This one will, therefore, appeal more strongly to students of ecclesiastical law than to the general reader..