LITERARY GOSSIP

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18545, 21 November 1925, Page 13

LITERARY GOSSIP

—> It is not often that a reviewer of a book of sermons can pay such a tribute as has been earned by Sir James Marchant's "British Preachers": — This i>ook is presented by its experienced editor as "the first of an annual volume of sermons which it is proposed to publish." The collection includes tho work of twonty-ono clergymen of Great Britain. A few of those preachers are famous in religious circles throughout the world as, for example, Dean Inge, of St. Paul's; Reginald J. Campbell, once of the City Temple; and L. P. Jacks, editor of tho "Hibbert Journal'' k * w One thing is conspicuous in these sermons, and that is the absence of theological discussion. The preachers are obviously not interested in creeds, or at leastdo not interpret religon in terms of dogmatic belief. Ono could never tell from theee utterances to what particular sects the speakers belong. It is piety which is presented in theso pages —pioty of the extreme individualistic type, with Christ as the personal standard and His will as the porfect form of truth. At one time it is tho higher reaches of "contact with the Unseen" as explored by Dr. Jacks, at another it is the rigour of Christian ethics as defined by Dr. Gillie, at still another it is the intensely practical problems of "middle age" as analysed by Miss Royden, 'but always it is the wav of life for the single soul witli which tho preachers are concerned. The "Bookman" quotes the following opinion of Ibsen from tho "Letters of Henry James" (volume 1, 212): My dear Julian, —I wish I had your gift of facilo and fascinating rhyme—T would turn it to account to* thank you for your -note and your sympathy. Yes, Ibsen is uglv, common, hard, prosaic, bottomlessly bourgeois —and with his distinction so far in, as it were, so behind doors and beyond vestibules, that one is excusable for not pushing one's way to it. And yet of his art he's a master—and I feel in him, to tho pitch of almost intolerable boredom, the presence and tho insistence of life. On the other hand, his mastery, so bare and loan as it is, wouldn't count nearly so much in any medium in which the. genus was otherwise represented. In our sandy desert, even this translated octopus (excuso the confusion of habitats!!!) sits alone, and isn't kept in his place by relativity.

As you know, (writes Paul Souday from Paris to the "N.Y. Times") we French have an excellent "History of English Literature" in five volumes — one of the important works of Taine, our famous critic, philosopher, and historian. But it appeared in 1864, and thus cannot help being incomplete where the nineteenth century is concerned. M. Juaserand, formerly our Ambassador to Washington, is working on a "Literary History of the English People," which is also quite noteworthy; but as yet only two volumes of it have boen published, and the second goes only to 1625, stopping before Milton. Then there is a French translation of a little "English Literature," by Mr Edmund Gosse, the famous British critic and librarian of the House of Lords; but it is very short, and even a little superficial. The need for a new work on this tremendous subject was making itself felt. It has been supplied by two professors of the Sorbonne, MM; E. and L. Csxamian, and forms part of the .series that includes M. Gustavo Lanson's "French Literature," Rene Pichon s "Latin Literature,'' and Bossert's "German Literature." A "Greek literature" is in preparation. True, we have that of MM. Alfred and Maurice Crowefc —» masterly work, but one that consists of five octavo volumes. The series to.which MM. Legouia and Cazamian have • contributed consists (M. Souday . adds) of what we call manuals —that is, it is_ intended for, college students, and the general public, ratiher than for specialists. Still, many men of letters, Qvon some well-known ones, could read these books with profit, since it m possible to write novels that sell hundreds of thousands of copies without being a scholar or even knowiitg certain elementary facts. The manuals of MM. Lanson, Pichon, Bosaert, Legouis, and Cazamian are much more substantial and, from a literary point ofview,_fftr superior to those of the old school. This new "History of English Literature consists of only one volume, but that contains 1300 solid pages, with lortythree lines to the page. Indeed, Tainb's work is not much lougni.A new Lincoln story attributed to 'John Hay: "I will tell you," said Hay (we quote from the Reminiscences of a .Joseph Bucklin Bishop), "an incident that has never been published about "Lincoln. I was sitting with liim on'one occasion when a man I who had been calling 011 him almost daily for weeks in pursuit of an office was shown in. -tie made his usual request, when Lincoln said: 'lt. is of no use, my friend. You had "better go home. I am not going to give you that place.' At this the man became enraged and in a very insolent tone exclaimed: 'Then, as I understand it, Mr President, you refuse to do me justice?' At this Lincoln's patience, which was as near infinite as anything that I have ever known, gave way. He looked at the man steadily for a half miuute or more, then slowly began to: lift his long figure from its slouching position in the chair. Ho rose without haste, went over to where the man was sitting, took him by the coat collar, carried him. lx>dil.y to the door, threw him :n a. he&p outside, closed the door, and returned to his rliair. The man picked himself up, opened the door and cried: 'I want my papers!' liincoln took a package of paoers from the treble, went to the door and threw them out. again closed it. and returned to his chair. He said not a word, then or afterward. about the incident." There have been nirny pictures of Lincoln ] (adds Mr Bishop). t>ut few more granhic than that, as Hay drew it for me. We never knew (comments an exchange on the above story) or if we did we had forgotten, that the stirring warsong: AYq are coming, Father Abraham, Three hundred thousand more, was first published anonymously in 1862 in the New York "Evening Post," then under the editorship of William Cullen Bryant. Mr Bishop says that for a considerable period the authorship wi* attributed to Mr Bryant, who subsequently gave credit to John &. Gibbon, a Hieksite Quaker and prominent Abolitionist, who was at one timo an editor of the "Anti-Slaverv Standard."