Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/87

 9*8. XL JAN. 24, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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are dealt with at length, and there are valuable chapters on ' Light Railways ' and ' Mountain Rail- ways.' A view of a viaduct on the Miirren funicular railway shows what marvellous triumphs are being accomplished. An interesting and sympathetic life of Renan is by A. Mary F. Robinson, and is accompanied by a portrait. 'Rome' notices some remarkable discoveries made in recent explorations of the Forum, but does not constitute wholly satisfactory reading. To the life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti which appears in vol. xx. is added an admirably competent estimate of his position as a painter by Mr. F. G. Stephens. This is in its way a model, and is accompanied by a reproduction of Rossetti s ' Ecce Ancilla Domini.' Mr. Frederic Harrison is responsible for the life of Ruskin. 'Schools of Painting' is a composite article, the ' British School ' being dealt with by Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who finds that in England " picturesque domesticity is taking the place of theatrical sen- sation." A kindred subject, ' Sculpture,' is also treated, so far as England is concerned, by Mr. Spielmann. The illustrations to British sculpture are numerous, but not particularly satisfactory. Anything but encouraging is what, under the heading of ' Seal,' is said concerning the pelasgic catch. The all-important question of sea power is treated by Vice- Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge. With the development of 'Socialism' Dr. James Bonar is concerned, and with ' Sociology ' Mr. Benjamin Kidd. Other subjects which we can only mention, the importance of which will be at once apparent, are ' Somaliland,' ' South Africa,' ' South Australia,' 'Spain,' and 'Spheres of Influence.' Scarcely a page is there on which the eye can fall that does not offer a fund of information not elsewhere to be obtained.

The French Revolution. By Thomas Carlyle. With Introduction, Notes, and Appendices by John Holland Rose, M.A. 3 vols. (Bell & Sons.) SINCE this book was issued the University of Cambridge has bestowed upon its editor the degree of Litt.D. as recognition of his literary work, and particularly of his recently published ' Life of Napoleon/ for which see 9 th S. ix. 159. That Carlyle's ' French Revolution ' has stepped into the position of a classic masterpiece is abun- dantly evident. Within the last few months it has been reissued in various more or less convenient and attractive forms. The edition now published is, so far as the present generation is concerned, authoritative, definite, final. It is profusely illus- trated with portraits of the principal actors in the drama depicted and with views of the scenes and actions described. The latter appear to consist principally of reductions of the 'Tableaux His- toriques de la Revolution Fran9aise,' first issued in folio, 1791-1804, and subsequently reprinted ; the former, which are the more serviceable, are drawn from various sources, though most of them are from the ' Tableaux Historiquea.' Louis XV., who serves as frontispiece, is by Duplessis, the conservator of the Museum of Versailles. Marie Antoinette is from the famous picture at Versailles by Madame Vigee Lebrun. A superb head of Mirabeau is from a pastel. More important than these things, valuable as these are, are the notes, original and selected, which are now first supplied. It is, of course, too late to enter again into the question of the merits and defects of the work, Written as it was under almost

inconceivable difficulties and with a heart aflame, it took up in this country a position from which it is not likely to be dethroned. The vast majority of English readers draw from it their estimate of the characters and events of the Revolution. In France recognition has naturally been slower and less warm, and the timid and grudging estimate of Philarete Chasles has been accepted by consecutive writers. In late days more enlightened views have prevailed, and a modern French writer upon a subject the interest in which is eternal would read Carlyle along with Michelet, Mignet, Lamartine, and Aulard. Taine, as Dr. Rose points out, writes of Carlyle as the English Michelet. With a still happier employment of phrase, Dr. Rose speaks of Carlyle's 'History' as his "wrathful epic," and refers to the " idyllic oases," which, indeed, it pos- sesses. If there be any English student ignorant of the character of Carlyle's great work, a perusal of Dr. Rose's introduction will give him all the knowledge requisite for an appearance of erudition. The obviously proper thing to do is to re-read the book, a task which is greatly facilitated and encouraged by the explanatory notes. No more than other early historians did Carlyle see how much the excesses of the Revolution were fostered by the weakness of the authorities and the re- actionaries. Napoleon himself sneered at the defenders of the Tuileries. With a regiment or two he would have swept the assailants from the field. The attack on the Bastille almost belongs to comic opera. We heartily commend side by side with Carlyle's work the just published life of Mallet du Pan. None the less, we are profoundly thankful to have this handsome and scholarly edition, which should be on the shelves of every historical student, and even on those of the man of few books. It is in its line trustworthy and exhaustive.

Carmina Mariana: an English Anthology in Verse in Honour of and in Relation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Second Series. Collected and arranged by Orby Shipley, M.A. (Burns & Gates.) IN reviewing (8 th S. vi. 159) the second edition of the first series of the ' Carmina Mariana ' collected by Mr. Orby Shipley we announced the forth- coming appearance of a second series, with a different Latin title. If this is the work then contemplated, reason has been found to change the promised title and to issue the volume with the same name as its predecessor. Very like the first in the nature of its contents is the second series. The two have, moreover, this in common, that a considerable portion of the contents of both are due to those who have no active sympathy with the teaching of Eastern or Western Churches. That Mr. Shipley has cast his net wide is shown in the fact that he has been able to include under the title selected the first three stanzas of 'St. Agnes's Eve,' by Keats, which, though showing some use (natural enough in a work the scene of which is laid in mediseval times) of Catholic sym- bolism and colour, is far away from any suspicion of theological teaching. An ingenious theory put forward in the preface, that modern poets, whether Christian or agnostic, in writing of woman, woman- hood, or the feminine ideal, must have been influ- enced by past tradition, or perhaps intellectually conscious of Catholic teaching, would, if accepted, widely enlarge the borders available for the com- piler. Among the contents are an unpublished