AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 752, 26 February 1910, Page 9

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

the , good."re'soiu-'il .tion's ;;'6f;tli6'Jfevr^>ar:idlt : away. -The;striking Veight; before/wo. , got .'up,- because it '.was: fast, •■ is '.now for :'.the-.samo -reason . allowed , -:- to, ■:' inn on;:.'to Vthe' half ■ hour.' The, bookmark -. has. come. to rest at page 45;0f-,tho,"Meditations; of- Marcus 'Aurelius;" .'andi.:"<3erinan-witlibut -a 'Master" , will ;,;lie...;face;.dpwn>at;Lesson ~;Y-' ("Prepositions?) vuntil:'it-"is;•;wanted■ for; the i ffien4/,.tp;\whpnil-iyiß3 : -lfaTei'reco'mmcnded , ■:wrmatfV.M's ,; a%b4rfc-foi ,^'insbmma'.-:' v The ■Napoleonic method:ih'asV'be'enVbrought to. 'bear-, upon .bur;,, correspondence,.;which .nevertheless forms an excuse.for not going pu. ; .,wijJi>our .diaryj"which at . any rate' cpuld.ronly .;.bjji ?,a j ;disinal' 'chronicle'' of backsliding.-. A' glance at previous diaris-' tic attempts, does; not stimulate-' the autobiographical ;intention.;-"J r anuary ; B,-18— -Eose at; 5.30. \ Thermometer, 13deg. i li'og. Gold bath. , . .Lit :oilstove;(smblling badly)' Drank tumbler! of- milk ((frozen ■'■ on'top) : ■ : Eead Plato's:-Kejublio 'till- eight. .Walt" ill;park till nine.' Krst'at office.. Busy day; bad- headache.•'■ In evening road Gibbon; then at Political Economy, class. ,Eead- Wordsworth's: 'Excursion,' aud took :u,:colocynth,- ; piU before-going ■ to' bed. Asleep by:'; 11;<' ■;/Ot} sucK ■ things > we retain:- only a.'.- shivering and • unwilling ,1 re- ■ membranes,.-.'": Of --.the::things- that- have tinged-.the; fibres of pur brain—our first love.jaffair,. bur..;firsfc reading;:of .Shelley or Keats, our first intoxication, our passions ;of .friendship,-V,our."struggles., of..belief and scepticism,'bur. various'; and uncpnfessable" "orrata"- : -we -find- no definite account, 'and::can only, guess .at their position-by the concealing mists of sentiinentiv moralising,:: or ,- irrelevant, quota-" .won-which;they:emanated or.drew down. The objective side of- the 'record. ; is.;clear. ■enough; .books, houses, landscapes/.-and. ? r .ei'. ; -people ■:stand'.,-;ont'.- recoghisably, thbugli in. shockingly bad drawing, and-, perspective. ... What -has, bee'n - done best, in; short, .is what .we,could do ! far better now. What.has .been omitted—a true and 'unflinching -record, the more naif the better,- of, passions and emotionsis what -memory and'.imagination willnot only'be: unable to replace,'' but will most:certainly falsify.' . •.-■•• , . Even.'.as., regards-, our:.-. rontemporary .soLves, -literary, 'history.'does-,not give; us much cause to l:e fanguinc-■. aljont: the fidelity of,our., efforts .at: : self-por.traiture. 0r... the-270. examples criticised and-'.'cohi-paved in.Miss:Anna Eobesoii Bui-r's iemarkaUy; informative und acute study of ■_ '-fheiAutobiography'-'.only fivo attain,an ideal standard a5-"oomplete, authoritative psychological records. ,, - All five. arc Italian.; ."The crowning.'jjlory of the Italian.-'autobiograplie'r^is- his- ability '.to .distinguish .between emotion;; sentiment; awl.fact." Novcr : is" the reader in the ■shshtest.'doubt 'as to.' what ; Bonvenuto' Celimiwas doing, as apartfrom what he Kas feeling.;-: The fear,. t affection, and superstition.of Cardan, are carefully differentiated from his acts, from his,accomplishment,", and from his opinions.' In AlfieriV struggle; for .self-control there is no confusion between, what actually happened; what other, people thought, and ..what Alficri . thpught."; The French ir.em6ire: ranks "as a literary .creation rather than .a scientific docuinent"; tho .•author unconsciously, extending the artistic motlwd from stylo;-to suhjeot. •' Miser-■ ■ ably deficient in scenic' wtting, as :a-"i , e'-' oord .of-., pergonal. 'characteristics', it is, 1 spheres above ■ the ayei'ajje : German memoir, in .which fact and seiitiment are .'distinguishable;'.-or .tlie British aiitobipsvaphy;■ which is either a.mevcvlisf of .objective impressions, . like: . Evelyn's Diary; or a. piece of romantic posturin-T, like, the Lives of Lord ■ Herbert of Ohcrbury or Sir. Kencliri Digby; or--an. official' :or fcicutilic statenient in wliicli the man is. .irretrievably lost; in function . or so that "we. cannot somehow, see Jfr. Spencer g-Dinfr'' daily to the Athe'naeuni- Club;. and i'ecl, -inskail, that, liis place of was in a glass

case at the British' Museum." The mania of movement'for its own sake, which'expresses itself in motoring, hunting, niid racing, and : finds 'a-'--pretest in politics, trado combines, and church affairs, prosoul, of, tho average. Briton or American.from ever , clarifying into selfknowledge. The introspective habit which came in with Christianity, has never been acquired in Britain; our religions "memoirs,.- whore!' they '. are -not merely exacted comments on church politics, represents, the .soul in a state of cloudj' turmoil often suggesting that total breaknp,of personality which is insaiiity. Only a...total absence.of colour—tho result, of tho so-called ••improvements" which have made the world's, economic levers, that omo tho .thews of. -heroes -alono could moye.Myorkable by a ' dyspeptic Sabbatarian iu a soft hat and lounge suit— distinguishes (.ho annals of ■ the 1 ' Trust Boss from those of the Assyrian monarch. I went into ■ 'the Laud, of Hunt. Their .-warriors were brave, but my :arm-was stroflg. . I slow 50,000, and took 100,000 .capaye. I occupied' tie'land.'.' "Wβ ei- , tended pur . operations • into Kansas," writes or jiuight have written Mr. Eocke<a, -I , llav ° mt his to* beside methe oil-dealers there, John P. Tarrinian and-Isaiah 55. Maoiane, were high-grade men, aud they took a sensible vieW of the situation-and cahioin. We increased our total capital to'80,000,OOfldol." But where, behind theso. records, are Assur-bani-pal and John D: Uockefellcr? -Who knows? And-who wants to know? - ■ ..<.- The cuttle-fish' habit has become so in--veterate. among us that v though we may present some sort of moral outline-to our triends. and,enemies we present none',, or almost-none, to ourselves. The same.sort 'of,morbid,self-respect, that made the-good-young curate undress in' the dark- hinders us from cultivating our own acquaintance. And when, like Zoroaster, we meet our own image walking, in the garden—of love or-sudden passion, say—or in the Slough of Despond,-where it waits for most of us —or in the -Valley of the Shadow, 1 where it waits for all getaterribld' shock' at -the quivering .reality, that -lias : been lurking, all these years beneath our-Pres-byterian-togs, like a piece of dynamite in a pocket-book. That,we do not discover it sooner is not due altogether to. moral cowardice..- -We'-have lost interest in ourselves. for -rtuch the same ■ reason , as we .have vnever. felt any in John D. Rocke-. feller;, we are only wheels.or fuel in.tho machine of- which, he only holds ignor-i ■antly.-.'oiie of the levers.V Some, day he or someone else will pull a wi'ong lever, and themachine will.go'to pieces, l and we shall find 1 ourselves at-once.-It will be like a resurrection.- Then, perhaps, when the .excitement has died down a little, and ibefdro the callousing and speechifying and, -constitutionising have started again,, t-hero' may be' written.'a-few English autobiographies worthy of a place beside Cardan arid-Alfieri..: : - ' ::,■, ...••..,;•,:.■•■, . .•:,

■ ! Miss Burr;notes ;as "most' suggestive" :the fact thatof her 270 examples only 18 ■are 'by ppqts, 9 and'7;.by playwrights;.: ; whereas • ■ 33.'... arp ••; by. philosophers : and scientists: ■; i?rom ■ this she 'omits to; draw what seems, the. most important , and most' practical .inference— .namely;; the fatuity of'.ferreting, out pcr r sohalia-ctoiicevning. authors, whose lives did. .riot,:inspire "either an:autobiography or a contemporary biography, of great. personal interest. -If'John-Keats did riot care what kiridof porridge he' got, why should, we?. .Why/should we' pine, to '.know how often Shelley-changed 'his 'shirt/ or whether. Shakespeare trimmed 'his ' own beard or got; it; clone My,- a 'barber? - ; The things Brdwhirig. ; Dickens, and' Zola wore really' interested , hi , may bo found , in their books, l'qrtunato "above all, men ; is;\the \ great novelist or poet-, whose books are "at once .his work, his.life,'and' the record of.these —an all-inclusive and imperishable auto-, biography—-W. -'■ P.,: in ,, .'tho? ''Glasgow , Herald.".;.::'://.:; , " ■~..', "'■,.-■■,'; ■■'