Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



593 



THE SECRET OF DICKENS. 



In ■ C<7j'j>//'j for Deceml)er .Mr. .-Vrtliur Waugh 

 exclaims with wonder on tlie fact that a hundred 

 years after his birth Charles Dickens is still immortal. 

 A hundred years after Dr. Johnson's birth Dickens 

 was born, but Johnson was out of date. Mr. Waugh 

 declares that Charles Dickens was essentially a man 

 of his age, but even more emphatically he was the 

 Titan of Hope : — 



We hail, then, in Charles Dickens the yrealest optimist in an 

 age when llie watchwords of Hope were upon every lip, the 

 eloquent ami greal-hearleil spokesman of a glowing era of 

 emancipation. It was a time when the claim of the weak was 

 to be made good against the strong, and, like an indomitalile 

 Titan, he took upon his shoulders the burdens of them all. 

 Above all things, he carried his burden with a smile ; it wasthc 

 essence of his go>pel thai, in the best of all possilile worlds, 

 everyone must go upon liis way rejoicing, wilh a laugh for every 

 little difficulty, as one by one they were overcome. .\nd here, 

 surely, is the secret of his innnortalily, the secret that has kept 

 his memory so green, that his alone of almost all literary centen- 

 aries finds his actual personal influence, his claim upon the real 

 love of his readers, just as \itally alive to-day as it w.is while he 

 still went about among the people, creating his own characters 

 over again in the "garish " yet supremely friendly "lights" 

 of that stage which was never far distant from his heart of 

 hearts. Dickens, first of all, had the golden heart of human 

 sympathy. 



The magazine is made the more attractive by 

 coloured plates representing famous pictures of 

 Dickens's characters — Mr. Micawber, Bob Cralchit 

 and Tiny Tim, Sidney Carton at the guillotine, Dick 

 .Swiveller and the .Marchioness, .Mfred Jingle, the 

 Squire, the two Wcllers, Cap'n Cuttle, Mr. Peggotty. 



In the Scribtier's Christmas number there are four 

 coloured plates by Jessie Wilcox-Smith — Pip and Joe 

 Gargery, Jennie Wren, the little dolls' dressmaker, 

 Oliver's first meeting; wilh the Artful Dodger, Mrs. 

 Kenwigs and the four little Kenwigses. 



modern limes, wliencver ihc "'cliasse" was properly carried 

 out. 



In Germany anil in France the quantity to be found is con- 

 siderably less. The reason for ihis is partly the great popu- 

 larity of the chase in England, which has so greatly enhanced 

 our appreciation of the poetry and music which illustrate 

 hunting, and partly the fact that in both the other countries it 

 is possible, as it is also in America, to go hunting with a gun, a 

 habit which sometimes confuses the issue. 



HUNTING SONGS. 



Orton BRAt>i.t:v, in Baih's for December, writes 

 an interesting paper on hunting songs. He says that 

 the hunting horn was not known in classic times, but 

 was in use on the continent of Europe earlier than 

 the thirteenth century. Then, in place of the horn 

 of the ox, were made horns of metal, later of ivory. 

 The two earliest Enj;lish hunting songs belonged to 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century, " Blow the 

 Horn, Hunter," and "The King's Hunt is up." The 

 air seems more like a dance tune with sporting words 

 than a hunting song. The earliest hunting songs 

 which approached to the ideal hunting song IkIoml'i d 

 to the mitldle of the seventeenth century : — 



A great m.ajorily of hunting songs and dcscripiive picco 

 le taken the horn for their principal colouring. Under the 

 irlh Louis hunting Ijccaiuc in France an exact science, and 

 the "Chasse i^ courrc " was gradually, as it were, crystallised 

 and was only permitted under rigid rules. In conformity wilh 

 these rules, the wild music of the horn-s w.as fettered and made 

 to lake the shape of certain calls and fanfares, to each of which 

 was given a parlicular >ignificalion. Finally, I.ouis XV. and 

 Danipierre, his Midler of the Hunt, selected and composed the 

 aCLL'pir.l •• !,„, , ,1,. , ti 1,-, ■ «!,). I, I. ,v.- i...,-ii playcil, until <|uil.- 



LUTHER'S DEFENCE OF BIGAMY AND FALSEHOOD. 

 In the November Ciiifury Professor A. C. .McGiffert 

 concludes his series of papers on Martin Luther and 

 his work. He refers to Philip of Hesse's plea to 

 Luther for authorisation of his taking a second wife, 

 his first wife being still alive. Luther advised the 

 Prince to marry the second wife : — 



Me was quite aware that he could not suspend the law of the 

 realm in Philip's favour, and make a legal marriage of an 

 illicit relation by any di--pensation he could give. Assuming 

 the lo/e of a father confessor, already familiar to him for nearly 

 thirty years, he simply undertook to relieve the landgrave's 

 burdened conscience by pronouncing his secret union wilh 

 another woman justifiable in the sight of God. In the sight of 

 others, he insisted, the union could be nothing but concubin.ige, 

 and for Philip publicly to treat a concubine as a wife, and lo 

 claim he was legally married to her, would be a wanton defiance 

 of the law of the realm. 



It was, of course, of the very essence of such a relation that 

 it be kept secret, .and when Philip was disposed to let it be 

 publicly known, in order to save the reputation of his new bride, 

 Luther objected strenuously, exhorting him to deny il flatly, 

 if taxed with it, and declaring he would not hesitate to do llie 

 same. 



The proposed denial of the marriage, which seems to throw 

 so sinister a light upon the whole atf.iir, Luther justified some- 

 what sopliistically by an appeal to the traditional maxim of the 

 inviolability of the confessional, requiring the priest, if neces- 

 sary, to tell an untruth rather than divulge its secrets. He 

 justified it also by the more fundamental principle that the 

 supreme ethical motive is regard for our neighbour's good, and 

 it is better to lie than to do him harm. To this principle, 

 taught by not a few ethical teachers of our ow n as well as other 

 age-, he gave categorical and emphatic expression. 



The Professor sums up his estimate of Luther's life 

 by saying that "from every point of view Luther was 

 a prophet. It is the one name which best describes 

 him." 'I'he overwhelming impression left is not of 

 his |)rophetic vision, but the greatness of his [ter- 

 sonality : — 



Full of faults he was, faults of temper ami of la^lc — 

 passionate, domineering, obstinate, prejudiced, violent, vilupe- 

 ralivc, and coarse — but he was a man through and through — a 

 man of heroic mi>uld, courageous, strong, masterful, frank, 

 sincere, and generous, ,is far from petty jealousy and cowardly 

 duplicity as from priggishncss and cant. He was in dea<lly 

 earnest, and yet had the rare and saving gr.acc of humour. 



He adds:— 



The >upri-inc Christian duly w.is declared lo be labour for (he 

 good of one's fellows, instead of concern for the salvation of 

 one's own soul, ami a juslilicalion was thus given to social 

 service, the worlliof which I'hri-lendoni in ..niv •\'^w l.<"^in- 

 ning to realise. 



Everybody s Sivry Mii:;<tziiii: is full of good stories 

 this month, but by far the best is "The Kist 

 o' Whistles," a charming Scotch t.ile by Greta 

 Gilmour, which would bo worthy of a Itarrie. 



