Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/316

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. MARCH 31, im

out of six appear of an edition without notes of Knight's 'Shakespeare.' These contain the come- dies, together with * King John ' as the beginning of the historical plays. ' The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics' gives a capital and representative selection of poems by Poe, Bryant, Aldrich, Lowell, Wendell Holmes, Emerson, and other songsters. The 'Literary Essays' of Macaulay prepare the way for the historical essays and the other writings of that great Whig historian. The reissue of the essays of Froude we are disposed to regard as one of the best contributions to a series^remarkable alike for its prettiness, its cheap- ness, and its worth.

The Voice of the Mountains. Edited by Ernest A. Baker and Francis E. Ross. (Routledge & Sons.) THIS pretty little volume, written by two members of the Climbers' Club, and dedicated to its first president, is welcome. Poems to mountains, like Coleridge's magnificent 'Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni ' and Byron's "Mount Blanc is the monarch of mountains," are well known. A volume devoted entirely to the praise {chiefly poetical) of mountains is, however, so far as we know, a novelty. Such a volume compiled from the poets named, Tennyson, Swinburne, Drayton, Wordsworth, Scott, Clough, Alexander Smith, Matthew Arnold, and others is now given, has a charm all its own, and will need little commendation. It is curious that ' The Naturalist's Poetical Companion,' a delightful work too little known, includes in its ^numerous contents but two poems nominally concerning mountains, though not really so. One of these is, indeed, Burns's ' To a Mountain Daisy,' and another an ode to a ' Moun- tain Rill.'

The Pocket Richard Jeff tries. By Alfred H. Hyatt. >* (Chatto & Windus.)

THIS dainty little volume, destined to be a favourite with nature-worshippers, consists of a series of characteristic passages from the writings of Richard Jefferies. It is beautifully printed and got up, is a pleasing companion, and to the intelligent and sympathetic reader a mine of delight. Such volumes have a charm of their own, and this is one of the best,

Quarterly Review, January, 1906. (Murray.) MR. H. STUART JONES'S excellent paper on 'Art under the Roman Empire ' will remove not a few (prejudices of long standing. It is a common opinion, inherited from our teachers of past genera- tions, that wh le at their best the Greeks carried the highest ideals of art to a perfection never seen elsewhere, the Romans were mostly mere copyists. We need not say that there is a truth hidden in this, but as commonly taught it is mere error or prejudice. Still, though we must admit that for the most part study took the place of inspiration, this was by no means inevitable. For example, there can be nothing more exquisite than some of the Roman reproductions of natural forms which have survived the general wreck. Mr. Schiller writes wisely on Plato and those who went before him. He grasps his subject firmly, and does not wander off into profitless generalities. He further- more possesses an amount of outside knowledge which has been of great service to him. He points out (sarcastically, let us hope) that our faith is not now quite so firm as it once was" that there is no

mental discipline in knowledge acquired without repugnance." This he contrasts with Aristotle's dictum that "all men by nature desire knowledge " a fact which, as we think, cannot be reasonably called in question, though Mr. Schiller regards it as "pathetically optimistic." We have been much pleased by Mr. Sidney T. Irwin's 'Hazlitt and Lamb.' They were men so widely different in almost every aspect of their lives that it would be mere futility to try to draw comparisons between them. Lamb has long since received justice; Hazlitt has suffered, and continues to suffer mainly, it may be, from old-fashioned political prejudices, which are wont to linger long after their causes have become obsolete. Thus it has happened that Hazlitt's life and the literature he produced have remained in shadow. The warmest admirers of Hazlitt will admit, if we mistake not, that his temper was far less attractive than that of his contemporary. ' Originality and Convention in Literature,' by Prof. F. B. Gummere, is a thoughtful paper, but not easily to be comprehended by the careless reader. Some of the conclusions arrived at are, in our opinion, by no means calculated to win acceptance among the very small body of men who have given attention to the study of literature as an art.

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CONSTANT READER ("Slander, meanest spawn of Hell"). Tennyson's 'The Letters,' I. 33.

R. EDGCUMBE ("Voice an opinion "). Discussed at 7 th S. x. 91, 257.

OXON (" I shall pass through this world but once"). See 10 th S. i. 247, 316, 355, 433.

A. ROUKENS, the Hague. Thanks, but anti- cipated ante, p. 137.

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