Page:The Dial vol. 15 (July 1 - December 16, 1893).djvu/246

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234
THE DIAL
[Oct. 16,


burst of sentiment not unworthy of that M. de Latour who once found in a Paris bookstall J. J. Rousseau's copy of the "Imitatione Christi."

The first number of the new "Psychological Review" will be published early in 1894, by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. It will be edited by Professor James Mark Baldwin, of Princeton University, with the collaboration of Professors Cattell, Dewey, Donaldson, Fullerton, James, Ladd, and Münsterberg, and of M. Alfred Binet. These names afford a sufficient guarantee of the scientific and progressive character of the new undertaking, and yet they do not indicate too exclusive a leaning to the new psychology of the laboratory. Publication will, we understand, be bi-monthly.

We quote the following editorial note from the London "Literary World." Is it a joke? "Hans Breitmann, besides giving a certain historic 'barty,' has found time for adventures varied enough to make his forthcoming memoirs most interesting. He was one of the Knickerbockers, but abandoned journalism for original literary work. Then he became an educational reformer, and not till comparatively late in life did he find his real vocation as a poet. His poetical works are being prepared for publication in the following order: 'The Book of Songs,' New Poems,' Atta Troll, Germany, and Romancers,' and 'Last Poems.'"

"Popular Astronomy" is the title of a new scientific monthly for which we bespeak a welcome. It is edited by Professor W. W. Payne, of Northfield, Minnesota, who conducted "The Sidereal Messenger" for the ten years of its existence, and who, with the assistance of Professor George E. Hale, has edited "Astronomy and Astro-Physics" for the past two years. The new magazine is designed to interest amateurs and students, and the number just issued contains articles by the best English and American writers, as well as a number of attractive illustrations. The periodical should find a place in every high school and college of the country, as well as in the library of every family of young people.

An "Athenæum" reviewer has the following clearly personal note on Rossetti: "To say that any artist could take a deeper interest in the work of a friend than in his own seems bold, yet it could be said of Rossetti. The mean rivalries of the literary character, that so often make men experienced in the world shrink away from it, found no place in that great heart. To hear him recite in his musical voice the sonnet or lyric of some unknown bard or bardling recite it in such a way as to lend the lines the light and music of his own marvellous genius, while the bard or bardling listened with head bowed low, so that the flush on his cheek and the moisture in his eye should not be seen this was an experience that did indeed make the bardic life 'worth living.'"


THE "WESTERN SCHOOL" OF LITERATURE: AN EASTERN COMMENT.

The Dial is glad to find its recent utterance on the subject of "The Literary West" commended by so excellent an authority as the New York "Evening Post," which says: "There has been of late a general outbreak, in magazines and newspapers, of articles about culture and literature in the West, all of them prophesying, and some of them professing to have discovered, a new literary school in and about Chicago. This is variously described, but the one mark upon which all the critics and prophets agree is that the literature of the West is to be absolutely novel and original. It is to cut loose entirely from forms and standards prevalent in the East and in England, and it is at last to give the genuine American 'a voice.' After all this churning up of foam it is a relief to turn to the words of truth and soberness spoken by the Chicago Dial. With the greatest good sense it remarks:

"'It is time to have done with the notion, forced upon us with wearisome iteration by certain writers, both Eastern and Western, that the West is now developing, or ever will develop, a distinctive literature of its own. The West and the East are peopled by the same sort of men and women, and their work, when it deserves the name of literature at all, has, and will have, the characteristics common to all good writing in the English language. The distinction between East and West will never be other than an artificial one; even now many of the best writers of either section came to it from the other. If the national centre of literary activity follows the westward path of the centre of population, as seems probable, it will carry with it the accepted literary tradition, before which all crude local growths of tradition will be forced to give way. The coming literature of the West may be largely Western in its themes, but it will never be Western in its manner, as certain blatant rhetoricians would persuade us.'

"That states the case in a way to leave nothing to be added, and we could wish that there were more such signs of sanity discernible, East or West."


EMERSON'S FRIENDSHIPS—THE IDEAL AND THE REAL.

"What is so pleasant as these friendships, which make a young world for me again? What so delicious as a just and firm encounter of two, in a thought, in a feeling? How beautiful the approach to us of the steps and forms of the gifted and the true! I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends. I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate."—Emerson, Essay on Friendship.

"A few years ago, shortly after the death of Emerson, an English visitor to the philosophic village of Concord was being shown the Emerson mansion by a native who was not a philosopher. 'This,' said the guide, 'is the garden Mr. Emerson was so fond of tending; this is the path leading to his orchard-walk; this is the window out of which he used to climb when he saw Mr. Alcott walking up to the front door at the opposite side of the house."—English Review.


A RARE COPY OF WALTON'S ANGLER.

A decided rarity in the old-book line has lately been imported to this country, and a gentleman at Cleveland, Ohio, is the fortunate possessor thereof. For over two years the Taylor-Austin Co. of that city have been searching for an early copy of the first edition of Walton's Angler, and have just succeeded in obtaining an unusually perfect copy of the same for their customer. Although the price paid for this rare treasure is not stated, yet a fair idea of its value can be formed from the fact that the two last copies sold in London auction rooms brought £235 and £310 respectively. A short description of this interesting book will not be amiss, as comparatively few persons have been fortunate enough to see a copy.

It was issued in 1653, and the title-page describes it as "The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, being a discourse of Fish and Angling, not unworthy the perusal of most Anglers." The title is followed by a quotation from Scripture, not reproduced in the subsequent editions. Simon Peter said, I go a fishing; and they said, We also wil go with