Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



4B3 



OBITER DICTA BY WALT WHITMAN. 

 To the October Fcium Horace Trauhel con- 

 tributes a diary of his lime with \\"alt Whitman in 

 Camden in 1888. Much of it deals with current 

 American poHtics, and Whitman deplores Cleveland's 

 giving the British Minister West his passports. It 

 was unworthy of Cleveland, unworthy of all of us ; 

 was little instead of big. He records AValt Whitinan 

 as saying : — 



" I am troubled by the merely nierccn.iry influences tbat seem 

 to be let loose in current legislation : tlie hog let loose, the 

 grablwr, the stealer, the arrogant honourable so and so ; but I 

 still have my faith— in the end my faitli prevails. It has been 

 my ambition for .\mcrica that she should permit, excite, high 

 ideals — enlarged views." 



" As for free trade — it is greatly to be desired, not because 

 it is good for America, but because it is good for the world." 



" I have a great emotional respect for the background people 

 — for the folks who arc not generally included — for the 

 absentees, the forgotten ; the shy nobodies who in the end are 

 best of all." 



" I find myself always coming back to my own point of 

 view." "Which is that?" "Oh! haven't I spoken of it 

 often, vehemently enough ! Of the common man and the 

 common ways ?— that they loo must be inchuled and made 

 much of? " 



" I hale anything whicli looks like a surrender to debased 

 appetites : for instance, now, to-day — the haste nf politicians 

 all around to pander to the Irish vote. It is contemptible — all 

 such hypocrisies are contemptible — to the last degree." 



" I say to the Radicals— the impatient young fellows : w.iit, 

 don't be in loo great a hurry. Your day is near : in the mean- 

 time hold your own ground — defend what you have already 

 won — look, listen, for the summons. It will come, sure : it 

 can't come too soon." 



" What do you think of the Press, any way ? To me it gels 

 worse and worse ; of all the political horrors it is the most 

 horrible horror." 



" Longfellow was the expresser of the common themes- of 

 the little songs of the masses— perhaps will always have some 

 vogue among average readers of English. Such a man is 

 always in order- -could not be dispensed with — maintains a 

 popular conventional pertinency." t 



" My heart turns to Sand : I regard her as the brightest 

 woman ever born." 



".Shakespeare shows undoubted defects: he often uses a 

 hundred words where a dozen would do. It is true that there 

 are many pithy terse sentences everywhere : but there arc 

 countless prolixities ; as for the over-abundance of words more 

 might l;e said — as, for instance, that he was not ignorantly 

 prolific ; that he was like Nature herself— Nature, with her 

 trees, the oceans ; Nature, saying, ' There's lots of this, infini- 

 tudes of it — tliCTcfore, why spare it ? If you ask for ten I give 

 you a hundred, for a hundred I give you a thousand, for a 

 thousand I give you ten thousand.' It may be that we should 

 look at it in that way ; not complain of it ; rather understand 

 its amazing intimations." 



" Grote was lirst-class in that he was among the noblest of 

 men— scholarly, democratic ; democratic — not exactly as we 

 are wonl to play on that term today, but in the sense of the 

 Elizaliethans : defiant of the high-toned flumpishness of the 

 rich tilled superior classes— perhaps even intolerant of it." 



" I like to be simply a man— taken 50 : one of them : not 

 singled out as a profe.-sional." 



Inkj the heart of tubber-land goes the expedition 

 of which Caspar Whitney gives a very interesting 

 account in Ilaiptr'i for October, under the title of 

 "Tracking up the Rio Negro." He shows the rubber 

 headquarters of Brazil. 



THE NOVELS OF MARCELLE TINAYRE. 



Miss Winifred Stephens contributes to the 

 Bookman for October an article on the novels of 

 Madame Marcelle Tinayre, several of which have 

 been translated into English. 



"a new voice IK FRENCH FICTION. 



Marcelle Tinayre's first novel was written when she 

 was eighteen. Though Parisian life, especially life in 

 the Quartier Latin, tiiids a place in her books, she is at 

 her best when relating quiet existence at Tulle, her 

 birthplace, and in the surrounding villages. It was in 

 the Nouvelle Rnnw that her first novel, " Avant 

 r.-\mour," was published in 1897. Before accepting 

 it, Madame Juliette Adam, the editor, sent the 

 manuscript, signed with a masculine pseudonym, to 

 Alphonse Daudet. On returning it, he wrote, "The 

 story reveals inexperience, but you must publish it, 

 for this young man will be someone." This novel 

 was followed in i8g8 by "La Rani^on," and in 1899 

 by " Helle." In 1900 " L'Oiseau d'Orage" brought 

 her high praise from Edmond Rod. But the novel 

 which constitutes her greatest title to f;tme is con- 

 sidered to be " La Maison du Peche," which appeared 

 in 1902. Since then she has produced " La Vie 

 Amoureuse de Francois de Barbazanges," " La 

 Rebelle," " L'Amour Qui Pleure," " Notes d'une 

 Voyageuse en Turquie," " L'Ombre de I'Amour," and 

 recently " La Douceur de Vivre." 



LOVE IN ITSELF. 



'J"he chief theme of Madame Tinayre's novels is 

 stated to be love — love apart from marriage ; and, in 

 her early works, love isolated from duty. This French 

 method of treating love apart from marriage and from 

 duty, according to Miss Stephens, has always been a 

 stumbling-block in the way of the .-\nglo-Saxon who 

 would observe French life and read French novels. 

 French novelists plead that matrimonial love has no 

 story. But in " La Maison du I'echti " Madame 

 Tinayre ceases to isolate love and reverts to the 

 classical method of opposing love to duty. In " La 

 Rebelle " she preaches the gospel of the higher 

 development of woman by the unloosing of the bonds 

 economic, social and religious, which have so long 

 fettered her. Her heroines, while bountifully endowed 

 with feminine charm, are described as strong, virile 

 creatures, pure of heart and sincere, both to others 

 and to themselves. Her book on Turkey describes 

 the early days of the new regime, and the life of 

 women in the harem ; and in her last book she inter- 

 weaves into the plot her imiircssions of Italian life. 

 Her next book, it is expected, will record her im- 

 pressions of England. 



[•'ry's Magazine contains a very sensible article on 

 "How to Judge a Horse," illustrated by diagrams 

 showing the [loiiits of horses, good and bad. There 

 is also an article by Montague Holbein, which many 

 will read with interest, though it is scarcely topical 

 now, on Burgess's swim of the channel. 



