Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/295

 Reviews and Notes 289 REVIEWS AND NOTES MATTHEW ARNOLD: HOW TO KNOW HIM. By Stuart P. Sherman. Indianapolis. The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1917. 8vo, pp. [x], 326. Portrait. Price, $1.50, net. ALFRED TENNYSON: HOW TO KNOW HIM. By Ray- mond Macdonald Alden. Indianapolis. The Bobbs- Merrill Company. 1917. 8vo, pp. [xvi], 376. Portrait. Price, $1.50, net. It is no easy task to write an introduction to the works of Matthew Arnold. He was a poet, a critic of literature, poli- tics, and society, an expert in elementary education, something of a theologian, and a Biblical expounder. Thus the back- ground of one who qualifies as a critical interpreter of his thought must be many-sided indeed. Professor Sherman has written what we must on the whole regard as a good book. In many respects it assuredly measures up to a high standard of excellence. The author is not pre- vented by any lack of sympathy or understanding from intel- ligently approaching his subject; the arrangement of his material is good; and the proportions of his book are justifiable. On the critical side we shall later point out what seem to us one or two defects. 1 About one-fourth of the book is given to Arnold's poetry. More than any other poet of his time does Arnold reflect the temper of the day the " main movement of mind . . . demo- cratic, scientific, critical, realistic directed, in short, toward the extension of the sway of reason over all things. " Tennyson is further removed from the arena of the intellectual struggle; Browning reflects very little of it. But from Arnold's verse at least something of the main tendency of it could be recon- structed. The limitations of the time appear, perhaps, in the comparison of the two sonnets, "In Harmony with Nature: to a Preacher" and "Quiet Work," in which two apparently incompatible aspects of Nature are presented. With Tennyson, Arnold saw the "cruel" aspect of Nature (cf. "In Memoriam" Ivi. 4, "The Passing of Arthur" 13-15); but he could not or did not reconcile this aspect with that of the quiet, orderly process of Nature, ever working toward something different and 1 A few misprints have been noted: Page 143, 1. 14, read "Hamelin." P. 197, 1. 12, read "Licensed." P. 226, 1. 6 f.b., read, presumably, "mediate." P. 255, 1. 2, read "Pharisaical." P. 326, 1. 1, read "Mrs. Humphry Ward."