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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. AUG. 5, me.
descriptions, and translated by M. A. T. de
Mattos, who is an uncommonly good translator.
A more graceful tribute has seldom been paid by
a younger to an elder writer than that of Mr. John
Drinkwater's two sonnets to Mr. Edmund Gosse.
They are authentic, too, as poetry though, as
thought, the first one is youthfully superficial.
'The Dusk of the Gods,' by Mr. "John Lloyd
Balderston, is a lively record of a conversation on
Art with Mr. George Moore. We cannot believe
it to be the ultimate word on the subject : ob-
jections occur at every turn : but having said that
these are the opinions of Mr. George Moore, we
have as good as said that they have the magic
power of a change of light which brings appear-
ances into different and instructive relations and
proportions. Mr. William Archer's paper on ' The
Music-Hail : Past and" Future ' will probably win
the sorrowful agreement of most readers, together
with some scepticism as to the efficacy of the
measures he suggests for arresting the disin-
tegrating process now at work in popular enter-
tainment. Mr. S. R. Littlewood is also something
of a reformer ; his study of ' The Dramatic
Synthesis ' a clever bit of work and largely
convincing goes to correct the late tendency to
emphasize the importance of the theatrical mise-
en-scenc to the depreciation of the actor. Mr.
Edward Clodd's reminiscences of Holman Hunt
including a few welcome letters are worth
having. We suppose it is but just to say as much
for Mr. P. P. Howe's elaborate clearing away of
the mistakes which have been perpetuated on the
subject of the second Mrs. Hazlitt. The articles on
problems of the day Sir Clement Kinloch-
Cooke's ' Reconstruction of the British Empire ' ;
Auditor Tantum on ' Ireland and the Ministerial
Changes ' ; Mr. J. Davenport Whelpley on
- American Perplexities ' ; and Mr. J. Coudurier
-de Chassaigne's ' The Future of Poland ' need no recommendation on our part. Excubitor contributes a vigorous and capable description of the Battle of Jutland ; and Mr. Archibald Hurd in ' Germany Besieged : Memories of 1870-1871 ' is equally competent and worthy of careful con- sideration.
THE August Nineteenth Century contains no paper that does not, at least indirectly, deal with the present state of the world. Th'e most remote are Mr. W. S. Lilly's summary of Mme. Huzard's recent and successful book, ' Le Mystere des Beatitudes ' a novel illustrating the fundamental opposition between the service of Mammon and the service of God ; Mr. Walter Sichel's ' Disraeli and To-day ' ; and the con- cluding instalment of Mr. W. H. Mallock's ' Current Theories of Democracy,' hi which he works his study out to a demonstration of the error contained in the assumption that democracy is a system of government' whereas he would have us regard it as a " principle," and one which has the principle of oligarchy as its necessary complement. A good historical study is Major Sir John Hall's paper on Tilsit. Colonel Willoughby Verner's description of the Gordon Relief Expedition, in which he served with Kitchener, is a good piece of writing, though it does not often bring Kitchener out very clearly before us. Miss Edith Sellers writes with great good sense on the education of working-class girls. The rest of the number is composed of articles on military and political topics.
THE most important article of the August Corn-
hill is a study, by a neutivi 1 diplomat. Tinder the title
' The Imperial Junker.' of the opinions of the
Kaiser and his Welt-politik current before the war
amon '. the leaders of German diplomatic and
industrial activity. The writer, on. the basis of
these opinions, looks forward to a great internal
upheaval in Germany. It may come before, it
may come after the war ; his expectation of it is
more decided than any we have observed in well-
informed quarters before. An unpublishfd poem
by Charlotte Bronte is necessarily a thing of
interest, but it can hardly be said that without a
distinguished signature these particular verses
would attract attention. Mr. Boyd Cable's war-
sketch ' The Old Contemptibles ' is one of his best,
of very meritorious workmanship, with a fine
last word. We very much enjoyed Sir James
Yoxall's ' Rambler's Lichen ' a clever bit of
word-mosaic, the matter being of the order of
things large and peaceful, the manner rather
minutely, sometimes wittily, pointed. We could
not pretend to be impressed by the occurrences
which Sir Laurence Gomme's paper on ' Coinci-
dences ' narrates, but we agree in wishing that
others, to whom perhaps more significant experi-
ences of the same kind have happened, would
follow his example. 'Children's Children' is
good a sketch of the Boers at the present
moment by Major-General MacMunn and so is
Mr. John Travers's ' Call of the West,' an account
of the spirit and the ways in which our Indian
troops set out for the Great War. We must also
mention Mr. E. S. P. Haynes's genial tribute to
the memory of ' Master George Pollock,' whose
appearance, being ninety-four years of age, in the
same number with Major-General MacMunn's old
Boer of ninety-two is itself a sort of " coinci-
dence." Nor must we forget Lieut. R.N.'s
vigorous and unaffected story of an episode in the
North Sea.
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