The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 19

DA M. AY 8 1909. Jmrm to. the reputation of cither can result from the boo. They were (wo uncommonly Interesting human beings.

The Amount of vitality the story of their private lives still re talni, in spite of bo many bookj on the subject, is surprising. Froude, In his book, published one short from -this batch, and extract from thirty-three others. This Is what Alexander, the nephew, means 'when he talks of the invasion of the holy of holies." In the appendix to the second volume of. "The Earjy Letter of Thomas Carlyle," published oon afterward, Charles Eliot Norton condemned Froude's usa of these letters, while William AUlngharn's lately published Diary has this significant entry: Carlyle's Melancholy book. F.

has manipulated his materials Succinct and effective criticism! Froude had a of rousing antagonism whatever subject he wrote on. It Is a great pity that this Carlyle controversy could not have been begun and finished while he lived. The multitude of words written on the subject are not altogether more significant than Allingham's brief remark. Edward Irving took Carlyle to call on "Welch and her daughters at Haddington In June, 1S2L A few days later the correspondence began. Car lyle bad promised to Bend Jane some books she wanted "to He sent them with a letter.

Bhe responded with a formal note of thanks to Mr. Cars-llle." He wrote again, regretting the formality and the misspelling his name. The correspondence continued more than five years, with generally well-regulated fervor" on his part and isome formality on hers, to begin with; It took them a long while to get as near familiarity as dear Jane's mother, a chronic objector, as became far-sighted, practical woman, objected to the Carlyle was of poor birth, and his manners -bad. lie had yet to make" his shining mark In literature. Jane recog-II ied his force of character, his unusual mental qualities, if not tils genius.

She- was often alarmed by his In January, 1822, shevcalls herself a devoted Friend, but not a Mistress; a Sls but not a "Wife." At that lime "falling in love and" marrying, like other misses," seemed to her she Wrote, "too little romance In my disposition to be In love with you any other man. and too much ever to marry without love." Carlyle's letters are intimate In their are full of the emotions, the aspirations, and the unconscious pedantry of his youth. Ha. sends to her his translations in manuscript. He.

forces his thoughts and his personality upon her." He flatters her ambitions and strives to develop her talent: Ile.recounts all his own literary Impressions and opinions. He praises her "dear, chatty style." Her style in thesa letters. Indeed, is something better than It is full ths individuality of a strong nature. She repeals humor as well as sentiment, apt-, r.ess of Judgment, quick comprehen- elon; she fcaa iha gift of words, and thought; to-express with It A remarkable young woman Jane Welch was. In her twenties, and physically attractive, too, as the portrait In colors which serves as frontispiece of VoL IL shows.

There is ample excuse for the publication of her Bo-called love letters many of them deserve to be called, by the way la he new light they throw on her character. pome of their letters re prodigiously long, but we must remember that the golden age of letter writing Included the twenties ofthe last century. Carlyle's Interest In the development of Jane's mind did not abate- I must' ask about your Itollin," he writes, (she been taking op the "Ancient History,) for I am In great anxiety about It Do you still persist? What volume are you In? I feel for 70U and often ask myself if I am not a barbarian to set a soft, gentle spirit like yourself on such an undorlaking. Yet, what can do? You are miserable without the hope of literary honors before you; and thare la no royal road to attain if In 'February, 1825. they are "half engaged." By October, a year before the marriage, she has thrown all objection to the "winds.

He Is now "my dearetsf They had been engaged some 1 time, her mother had consented, because Jane bad been 111, but had now withdrawn her consent. She had, she watched Carly le's temper and isserved Its effect open Jane. "A pack of damned nonsense," says Jane, the whole of It." Passages from these letters have already been published in Thb Sunday Times, We can best sum up the merit of the book In the words of Its editor. It contains the story of a historic courtship written beautifully, humanly, frankly, fully, Inimitably by two of the best letter writers of the nineteenth century." The two volumes Are uniform with "The New Letters' and Memorials" and other Carlyle book lately brought out by the Bod ley Head, and are of comely appearance and well made-The Illustrations are Mr. IL S.

Craig's new biography of the author of "Sartor Itesartus seems rather pale beside these volumes. But The Making of Carlyle has much to recommend It It may not supplant Froude's biography, but it is founded on the most recent revelations of Carlyle's life, except. Indeed, these love letters, and the story Is clearly and ably told and not at too great length. Although there ars 519 pages, with the Index, the type Is large. It is a critical work as well as a biography, In some way, comprising -a study of Carlyle's writings In relation ta the facts- of his life.

But any competent bl-. cgraphy of an author must have 'that character, and perhaps Mr. Craig would reject the title of critic. After all, the influences -which worked on Carlyle, the incidents of his career, are all tolerably well known and spread forth largely In. print.

What a new book on the subject Is a new charm; It can scarcely have new' facts. Mr. Craig Interests the reader from the first. Ills style is clear 'and nimble, his sympathy is perfect. He makes the reader feel the spirit of the life, at Ecclefecban; the development of Car lye's character at Annan Academy, his friendship with Irving, his years at the university are set forth with no excess of detail, but in a vital way.

-Th sketches? of human character are adequate. The influence of the books he read on the course of Carlyle's early career 'n 'deaTty denoted, Newton's Frinclpla and Gibbon's Decline and Fall seem to have had the greatest Influence. turned him from the kirk and a preacher's life. Fourteen chanters are devoted Carlyle's career before; his marriage; six more complete the record, which ends when Carlyle was "made" by his French Revolution. There is no record of Bis later years: The malting of Carfyle was complete, "The French Revolution" proved him an artiHt of unusual powers, a prophet with a message, the most' brillUrt literary craftsman of the day.

The book indeed possesses a unique chirm which In Irresistible So grand and sublime ia the central motive, to prove the ever watchful gov- ernment of God In human history, that Carlyle's masterpiece possesses the grandeur, the awe, the divine Inspiration of an Isaiah or th Hcrlptures. One must go back far to find a parallel. The motive indeed ia the same and the creed is the same only in the modern Scriptures the Gentile, not the Jw, is thn Chosen People amid whom God is making iiimselt marurest. Readable and eloquent, undoubtedly; Carlyle's French Revolution" lay" Mr. Craig shows in his estimate of it, however, that he is much nearer In spirit and feeling to the era of the making" of Carlyle than to the present day.

Few of us have found traces of inspiration In the book which most of us have read. But Mr. Craig's fitness to, write of Carlyle is manifest 'One most like such a man very much to be able to do Justice to his life and work. OUTCAST FOLK. A somewhat unusual story, which is quite as likely to repel as to attract the average reader.

Is Charles Fort's The Outcast W. Dodge $1.50.) It is a vivid picture of a sordid and unpleasant phase of life, real-latia ln-the-lt -dgrv though- not con cerned with matters where raH sometimes called Immorality. A few months ih tife career of a mall-order company is shown; its office is in a tenement, and the shiftless life of the crowded district is set forth with a great deal of skill, The characters are developed, by means of dialogue almost exclusively therej re scarcely five pages of description in the book, and these passages are the least satisfactory, being written In a deliberately choppy style which Irritates, while It gives impressionistic pictures of the turroundlngs of the protagonists. The dialogue is unusually clever It reads like a transcription from Mt and Is permeated with a certain grim humor, Mr. Fort is, evidently, a new writer; he has power and Insight, but, as yet, scarce, ly sufficient artistic balance to give his study of slum life any real value as literature.

NEW LIGHT CAST UPON OLD EGYPT Prof. Maapero, Director of Annuities in Cairo, Interestingly Interprets the Land of the Pharaohs. A FOREIGN land, like a book in a foreign tongue, needs an interpreter, and the, need Increases -with the age of each. Many a traveler in Egypt feels a longing for more light than is afforded even by the excellent handbook prepared by Prof. Stelndorff for the Baedeker series of guide books.

Questions often arise which demand the mows extended exposition of an expert The limits of space and the necessary restrictions placed upon a guide book prevent detailed treatment such as that which Prof. Stelndorff Is bo eminently qualified to give. It Is with great satisfaction, therefore, that One extends a welcome by-the- Direct or of the Ser vice of Antiquities and of the wonderful museum in 'Cairo, The book consists of forty-two chapters on subjects closely connected with Egyptian antiquities. All of them are not of recent composition for some go back nearly, if not quite, fifteen years, and the latest is about two years old. Some are reviews -and expositions of the works and discoveries of other men, and all are instinct with the- life of a scholar who knows all the phases of his subject and Is one of qualified In the world to instruct earnest Inquirers.

In his preface the author says: I have been trying for "about fifteen years to bring a science supposed to be only comprehensible to experts wlthin theTreaoh 7 of 'ordinary men." It Is only fair to say thst he has' succeeded admirably and that thli book bids fr.ir to hold an honored place among this books useful to the general reader. It is qutte impossible within limited space to give an adequate idea of the wealth and Aarlety of the material here presented. A general stament under a few Inclusive' headings must suffice. The Egyptians themselves were explorers and travelers as well as warriors. Someof the results which they reached are here set down on the basl pf the monumental records, and- with the authors of these accounts werpenfe-trate the upper reaches of the" Nile, and learn what the Egyptians knew "of Syria and the East, and of the great oasis of Jupiter Amnion.

A chapter is devoted also to the revelatlonsmade in the tablets of Tell-el-Amarna, touching Oriental history and the conditions In Palestine and Syria in the century be fore the entry of the children of Israel Into the promised 'A chapter discusses the record which alonf 0 all the multitudes in the hiero glyphic character contains the name-of Another chapter takes ths reader back beyond the limits of the first that of into the archaic, thepre-dynaatlc period, In which the Egyptian culture and writ ing had their mysterious rise. "The called stone' furnishes the text for further remarks on the history of the early dynasties, pot In the form of annals or dry narrative, but by way of suggestion, and to a reading of the results which historical science has made available In astonishing results, of special excavations ara presented ln'a number. of cases. tombs of Thebes are visible on the bill Bide from" afar," but few them are ever visited. Here Is a chapter that ahould-be read by evry traveler who a tent and significance.

Chapters are devoted to the temple of Queen Hatasu" at Delr-ti-Bahari, xto a palace of Pharaoh at Thebes, to two of the tvnbs excavated by Theodore M. Davis lu th Valley "of the Kingd behind the great mountain wall that shuts them off from the Nile Valley, and to the wonderfully beautiful artistic Hathor-cow that Dr. Naville discovered near the temples which he excavated at the foot of the Imposing Theban cliffs. A chapter is devote4 to Coptos where Petrle thinks that the invaders who afterward be came the Egyptians first came to ths NEW LIGHT ON ANCIENT IOTPT. Br O.

U.nwra TrAnfcUlJKl from Ihll FrfflK fe traitoos. York; X. APl)ltOH Co. VM9. Nile, having crossed the narrow desert from the Red Sea, Denderah was a provincial town with a culture of its own and an art rudxr than that of the northern This chap ter, together with one "on the repro duction of Egyptian bas-reliefs," gives the reader an insight into the unsuspected and before unnoticed varieties and exquisite touches of the sculpturrt to be found on the walls of temples and tombs.

Subjects Connected with the religion' of the Egyptians are also touched: Ths Book of the Dcad, the largest and most sacred of their wrltlsgs; an Egyptian book of prophecies; Belief In'lucky and unlucky days, are samples only. Ths story of How- an Egyptian Statesman Became a God "resembles the tales of the growth of a poor boy in our own land to ths position of a merchant prince. Several chapters, treat of the native literature, some of them exceedingly odd. A "philosophical dialo'gus between an Egyptian and his soul" reminds one of some of the sentiments expressed in Ecclesiastes. Love Poetry," A New Egyptian A Coptic these are suggestive titles with correspondingly interesting contents.

Three or four chapters touch on subjects of interest to classical scholars, pointing out a relationship be tween Egypt and Creecc, with Greece the posltfon of borrower It seems ungracious to find the fly In such a pot of ointment, but it Is there In the shape of the French spellings of the names of' Pharaons, person and places which occur In the hleroglphlo texts. A glossary of correspondencies would have been most welcome." Ths French -transcriptions," with the fuller writing of the supplied vowels, serve to obscure names which are fairly familiar to readers. But, in spite of this, the value of the book for an understanding of the subjects enumerated above and qf a multitude of others which Bpace requires us to omit. Is so great that we are bound, to thank the translator for giving these essays an English dress. MR.

QPP OPTIMIST. IF there Is one person in the world that's got a talent for missing things It's Mr. Opp," remarks offlS of the characters In Alice 'Hegan Rice's "new book. "I seen him that', he hadn't just missed gettln' a thousand-dollar Job orjn-ventin' a patent, or beln' hurt when he had took out a accident policy. If he did ketcM train, like enough it wbs goln' the wrong way." And yet poor Mr.

Opp, blundering through life, manages to achieve-something very like heroism in the process. Whether or not Mr. Opp (The Century Company) duplicates the popular success of Mrs. Rtee's "Mrs. Wiggs of thes Cabbage Patch," the author has made a distinct advance over her previous work in literary quality and in consistent de velopment of character.

D. Webster Opp enters upon the scene with a bright new full of shoe brilliant clothes, which he is perpetually eclipsed, and an which would be absurd. were' It not pitiful. In the little, stagnant' Kentucky town he' finds his Miss in dire need of him; and he gives up his career to take care of her. For Miss Klppy, though a grown woman, had had a long illness In her thirteenth year, which left her with the face and mind -of a Utile child.

Opp, as editor, writing that "ye. editor hears the screams of the American and knows that in the unJe- Pveloped oil fields of the county are wealth and prosperity; Mr. Opp, as- promoter, quixotically losing, his all in an unequal fight against predatory, dishonesty; Mr. Opp In love with his Guln-never," is an appealing little figure; He is bomba3tlc, egotistic, rldlculo'us-but he" is also very good and very kind, and one loves him as much for his absurdities as for his uncomplaining sacrifices. The other characters are well drawn, though the case of lUnton, the' writer who becomes bflnd.

Is rather iess convincing than "the "purely humorous figures, such' as pirations toward newspaper work, and Miss' Jim," who announced her. prosperity by appearing ia the plainest of garments In lieu of the frills and furbelows which had fallea to her from wealthy relatives. Mr. Opp's vocabulary la a constant de-v light there were many words which he knew by sight, but with which he had no speaking acquaintance." As he himself might have remarked, had he realised hlmsJf in the least, Nothing just similar to him has previously been published heretofore." Mr. Opp is a truly delightful full ef whimsical humor, and with a dash of pathos and sentiment which is never mawkish or unreal.

Ths illustrations by Leon Gulpon are excellent, really interpreting the characters of the story..