540 



The Review of Reviews. 



Ffii.ix faure's death. 

 The sudden death of Fchx Faurc, a few hours after 

 she had been with him, remains for Madame Steinheil 

 a mystery. Whatever the real reason, the Anti- 

 Dreyfusards accuse her of being the cause of the 

 President's death, hinting that she was in the pay of 

 I he Dreyfusards. But at that time, with opinions 

 overheated, everyone was accused. The death of the 

 President and the undercurrent of accusation produced 

 a marked change in Madame Steinheil's position. The 

 salon was no longer crowded, and the " ordeal was 

 worse when I went to other houses. When I entered 

 a crowded drawing-room all eyes were turned on me 

 and a sudden hush fell, wrapping me as in a cloak " : — 



Why was I so anxious to return to my old position among 

 the men and women of Paris? . . . Because my reputation 

 was at stalxe. Whether I lil<e it or not, whether the task was 

 feasible or almost impossible, I had to battle and to conquer. 

 And I did conquer. Calumny, the most elusive and dangerous 

 enemy that a woman may have to face, was routed . . . and 

 some six months after the death of President Faure my re- 



ceptions were more largely attended than ever. I had tested 

 all those who claimed to be my friends and found they were 

 sincere. In official circles my influence had not waned, and I 

 was able to render services to many as in the past. 



TO BE PITIED OR TO BE ENVIED. 



But the glory had departed, and until the coming 

 of the cause ccliiire Madame Steinheil's social path led 

 rather to sordid obscurity than to public applause. 

 A wonderful woman, who has produced a remarkable 

 book, but a book which must have been a hundred 

 times more enthralling before, necessarily, many of the 

 most interesting passages were sub-edited. Even now, 

 however, it is a unique human document which makes 

 us forgive the fact that it is also a pamphlet against 

 the present methods of French law. For though in 

 prison so long, she was never under sentence : she was 

 eventually acquitted. But what of Madame Steinheil 

 in her English home, never able to forget all the 

 details, even the most minute, of her past life — is she 

 to be pitied or envied ? 



THE BROWNING CENTENARY. 



In the Fortnightly Review Alfred Noyes contributes 

 a poem of twelve stanzas, " For the Centenary of 

 Robert Browning, May 7th, 191 2." Addressing the 

 poet as " Singer of hope for all the world," he adjures 

 him to come back to England, for " God is not in His 

 heaven to-dav, and with thv country naught is 

 right " :- ' 



But thou, whose thought, profound and pure, 



Moved like one intricate world, sublime 

 With wheeling systems, through the obscure 

 Unfalhomed si<ics of Life and Time. 



Across the Dark didst flash the Light. 



Back to its primal Fount above 



No facile flatterers of the hour 



Dare mock the splendour of thy full hope, 



Whose mailclad words in rugged power. 

 Marched up, not down, the Avernian slope. 



No shallow hearts dare find thy faith 

 Shallow 1 Deep, deeper than the sea, 



Abides the Love that stormed llirough Death, 

 And laid hold on Kternity. 



Browning and Wordsworth. 

 Also in the Fortnightly Revieiv Mr. H. ('. Minchin 

 compares Browning and Wordsworth. He laments 

 that partisanship should have made l^rowning pick 

 Wordsworth as a model for " The Lost Leader." He 

 quotes Browning's remark that he could not get 

 enthusiasm enough to cross the room if at the other 

 end of it were Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. 

 In later life Wordsworth's poetry meant more to him. 

 To Professor Knight he wrote that he treasured as 

 precious every poem written about the first forty years 



of Wordsworth's life. Both Wordsworth and Browning 

 sought to show " the correspondencv of the universe 

 to Deity " ; both unflinchinglv upheld the doctrine of 

 immortality. Both had a dislike of making public 

 speeches : — 



The love of liberty ; the will to defend it, by whatever 

 individuals or combinations it be assailed ; the desire to help 

 others by teaching them to help themselves ; these time-worn 

 principles were among those which we believe to have been 

 most deeply prized by the social and political consciences alike 

 of William Wordsworth and of Robert Browning. 



A Literary Treasure. 



In the Cornhill for May M. A. Phillips describes a 

 literary treasure— a slim, calf-bound volume of Brown- 

 ing's own copy of the first edition of " Pauline, a 

 Fragment of a Confession," presented by him " To 

 my true friend, John Forster." On almost every page 

 are notes in pencil by both John Stuart Mill and John 

 Forster, and corrections and notes by Browning himself, 

 which are in ink. It is indeed interesting to note the 

 commendations and criticisms of John Stuart Mill, 

 and Browning's rejoinder. John Stuart Mill writes at 

 the end that " with considerable poetic powers, this 

 writer seems to me pos.sesst-d with a more intense and 

 morbid self-consciousness than I ever knew in any 

 sane human being. I should think it a sincere con- 

 fession, though of a most unlovable state, if the Pauline 

 were not evidently a mere phantom. ... A mind in 

 that state can only be regenerated by some new passion, 

 and I know not what to wish him but that he may 

 meet with a real Pauline." 



