Review of Eevieus, 1/ ii/i3 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



895 



to prison ; but, as in Bunyan's case, 

 goal set him free to think: — 



De Foe remained in Newgate for two 

 years. In tliis space of time, on account 

 of his absence from his tile-factory, he became 

 a ruined man. His family fell into poverty. 

 He occupied his liours in prison by an un- 

 lucrative but absorbing undertaking. From 

 the walls of Newgate he sent out, by his 

 devoted printer, at first once a week,' and 

 then three times a week, a periodical called 

 The Up view. This sheet presented at regu- 

 lar intervals, for the first time in the prTnt 

 of our language, public and domestic topics 

 of general interest. It is impossible to say 

 whether one feels more glory or more shame 

 for journalism in the fact that our first news- 

 paper was written and edited by a man 

 imprisoned in the interest of a just testimony 

 of the truth. 



A FRIEND OF POETS. 



All admirers of Heinrirh Heine will 

 reau with interest the account of Ca- 

 mille Selden, by M. J. Loussert, in the 

 Grande Revue. Very little is known of 

 the early life of the German lady who 

 will always be remembered as a tnend 

 of Heine. After having been a friend 

 of the poet Alfred Meissner, Camille 

 .Selden made the acquaintance of Heine, 

 and for about two years before his death 

 was his friend and consoler in his ter- 

 rible sufferings. Heine called her "La 

 Mouche," and addressed poems to her, 

 and La Mouche, on her part, wrote his 

 letters, corrected his manuscripts, and 

 read German to him. Later, Camille 

 Selden became the friend of Taine. 

 This was the longest and most serious 

 of her friendships, yet it had a sudden 

 ending. Taine abandoning the lady to 

 marry the daughter of an architect. 

 The name of Camille Selden will be 

 known to fame as the author of " The 

 Last Days of Heinrich Heine," but 

 under the same pseudonym she wrote a 

 -novel, "Daniel Valdy : the Story of a 

 Musician," and several other books. She 

 died in 1896 at Rouen, where she had 

 been teacher of German in a girls' 

 school. 



A POET OF THE MODERN. 



Horace B. Samuel contributes an ap- 

 preciation of the Belgian pnet, Emile 

 Verhaeren, to the For/nic^htiy Kevieiv, 

 which is characterised by live phrasing 

 and disrernment of particular iperit. 

 Mr Samuel's introduction is rhalleng 



ing in its superlative praise, for he 

 claims that Verhaeren is: — 



A man who, botli in thought and in tech- 

 nique, is indisputably the most modern and 

 the most massive force in the whole con- 

 temporary European poetry. For Verhaeren 

 is no narrow specialist with an outlook 

 limited to some particular sphere. He is the 

 singer of the whole fulness of modern Euro- 

 pean life as a whole, with its clashes, its 

 complexities, its agonies, and its tensions, its 

 deserted countrysides, and its pullulating met- 

 ropoles, its armaments and its Armageddons, 

 its brothels, cathedrals, laboratories, and 

 Stock Exchanges, its sciences, it^.sen.sualities, 

 its arts, philosophies and aspirations. His 

 muse is no serene nymph piping delicately 

 on some Parnassian slope, but an extremely 

 tumultuous Amazon, at once primeval and 

 ultra-modern, chanting the pjean of battle, 

 steeped in the wine of victory, and suckling 

 the supermen of the future on her universal 

 breasts. No muse in the whole of literature 

 is more highly charged with vitality, and 

 no reader is qualified to enjoy her unless 

 he, too, is charged to the ma"^ximum with 

 " the red tonic liquor of a harsh and formid- 

 ablo reality." 



The poet is nearly sixty years of age. 

 and his work, some of it written in Lon- 

 don, touches every phase of modern ex- 

 istence. Intended for the Church. 

 Literature and Socialism claimed him. 



MAORI LEGENDS IN MUSIC. 



A correspondent writing ni the Mitsi- 

 cal Times draws attention to the com- 

 positions of Mr. Alfred Hill, a New 

 Zealand musician whose Maori Sym- 

 phony has already been performed at 

 the Crystal Palace in London. Mr. Hill 

 has written two string quartettes de- 

 scriptive of Maori legends. Two scenes 

 for bass voice, string quartettes and 

 pianoforte describe a hot, languorous 

 day in New Zealand, and the coming 

 of the cool south wind. We quote the 

 words of the latter : — 



Did you feel it? Was it fancy? List again! 



Tho air is stirring; see the leaves a-rustle, 



Hlown by the faint breeze, 



"Tis the south wind — 



God! how sweet, how fresh, how cool, 



'Tis very life, 'tis life, 'tis life. 



The music of this work is stated to be 

 full of colour. Mr. Hill found that by 

 labelling his themes he got more mean- 

 ing into his music from the players, and 

 a hint to the public set their imagina- 

 tion at work, and roused more interest 

 than when there was no ke\' to the prob- 

 lem. 



