Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/52

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. JULY 11,

its public recitation" is suggested. 'A French View of Bernard Shaw,' by M. Augustin Hamon, is a little dull, and M. Hamon quotes from himself rather unnecessarily. One of the maxims thus pre- sented is no more than a commonplace. Lady Lovat's 'Women and the Suffrage' quotes from Shakespeare, Plato, and Gladstone. The last is inane ; the first two are seen in pretty passages ; but the whole article is not so much convincing as sentimental. Nor are all its statements trust- worthy. In * Apollo and Dionysus in English ' Dr. Emil Reich convokes an assembly of wise Greeks, and makes them talk on modern England. The result is striking, and the views put Forward are well worth reading. Sir Harry H. Johnston has an important article on ' The Empire and Anthropology,' which deserves the widest con- sideration. The advance of this new science in company with ethnology is one of the most hopeful movements of to-day.

M. YVES GUYOT opens The Fortnightly with a revised lecture .concerning ' The Influence of English Thought on the French Mind,' a subject to which increasing attention is being paid. The writer's English might have been improved by a candid friend, but his points are well made, and he does not indulge in idle rhetoric. Mr. H. C. Minchin in his ' Glimpses of Dr. Thomas Fuller ' irritates us by dragging in quotations of no particular aptitude. There is little new in this paper. Mr. J. A. R. Marriott in ' The Mistress of Great Tew ' writes much better, but is not precisely a Matthew Arnold. Some such gifts as Arnold's are needed to give glow and colour to familiar history. ' The Restoration of the Unionist Party,' "by Mr. W. G. H. Gritten, is a hopelessly biassed article. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, in a paper well translated into English, is very interesting concern- ing the question ' Why I Revived the Olympic Games.' The suggestions for preserving the dignity of such meetings should not be neglected in this age of vulgar advertisement and newspaper clamour. Mr. Francis Gribble has an able article on Mr. Arthur Symons's views and position as writer and critic.

The National Review is in its usual trenchant form regarding the present Government, opening with ' The Great Haldane Imposture,' by Lord Newton. Lord Desborough writes with sense and authority on 'Olympic Games Then and Now.' The Rev. S. Skelhorn's ' Inside View of the Free Church' is a bitter denunciation of present-day Noncon- formity, including some generalizations which we cannot admit as veracious. Mr. Charles Whibley brings his cleverness to bear on ' Shakespeare and a National Theatre.' ' Mr. Gould's Tennis, by Bisque, is a notable criticism of the play of to-day in detail. The young American's achievement is somewhat discounted by the fact that few players in England can afford to give so much time and practice to the game, having a livelihood or a sense of self-imposed duties to occupy their time. We are well pleased with the Rev. R. L. Gales's paper ' A Word for the Village Public-House.' A writer of such know- ledge and discrimination ought to give us a book on country life. 'American Affairs,' by Mr. A. Maurice Low, deals, of course, with the chances of Mr. Bryan and Mr. Taft for the Presidency. The former has, we learn, lost the aid of Mr. Hearst and Mr. Hearst's formidable newspapers. We are interested to notice that the New York Sun is

praised for " the perfection of its English." Mr. Low is an able writer, but this verdict suggests doubts as to his standards of expression. There is hardly a single newspaper in this country which puts a reasonable curb on the slipshod style of its weakest contributors. A cheaper edition of Mr. Oliver's ' Alexander Hamilton ' is the occasion for a study by Mr. Bernard Holland of that brilliant book.

The Burlington Magazine, in an editorial article on 'The Affairs of the National Gallery,' pleads reasonably for more liberty of action for the Director, who is at present hampered by the Trustees. Mr. Epstein's sculpture in the Strand is defended. The French and English sections of Art at the Franco-British Exhibition are the subject of excellent articles, by Mr. Charles Ricketts and Mr. Robert Ross respectively. The work of the latter is admirable, and illuminated by an incisive wit which makes the best of reading. The frontispiece, ' The Passage of the Ravine ' by Ge"ricault, is a spirited piece of painting well annotated by Prof. Holmes. Mr. Lionel Cust chronicles an important addition to the National Portrait Gallery in a picture of Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII., and the founder of two colleges at Cambridge. The picture, formerly in Viscount Powerscourt's collection, was purchased this year for the nation, and its acquisition is a matter for general congratulation. Sir W. Martin Conway begins an arrangement of ' Diirer's Works in their Order,' which ought to lead to some important dis- cussion, and settlement of disputed questions. An American writer, Mr. Hamilton Field, has an amply illustrated paper on ' The Art of Kiyonaga, a fascinating Japanese artist ; and there are various notes which maintain the high standard of The Burlington as an expert publication.

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