394 



The Review of Reviews. 



October I, 1906. 



MILL AND SPENCER COMPARED. 



Mr. Francis Gribble contributes a ^e^y readable 

 studv of John Stuart Mill to the ForUiiglitly Revinv. 

 His reference to Mills affection for Mrs. Taylor, 

 which is described as one of the most important 

 events in his life, leads him to remark as follows 

 on the different manner in which " two lives were 

 affected by philosophies exceedingly similar in their 

 tone and tendency and limitations": — 



Herbert Spencer was at once tlie deeper and the more 

 interesting thinker. He perceived more clearly than Mill 

 the limit* which the nature of things assigns to logical 

 demonstration. He knew better what he wanted to prove; 

 and he was better able to support his proofs with striking 

 concrete illustrations. He never, while pursuing his 

 a posteriori methods, ran his head against the brick wall of 

 o priori assumptions. Moreover, he built upon a grander 

 scale than Mill, devoting all the best years of an excep- 

 tionally long life to a single great generalisation. In 

 these respects all the advantage is on his side: but the 

 crowning advantage, notwithstanding, rests with Mill. For. 

 when the end came. Mill, looking back upon his work, 

 could feel, not onlv that it was very good, but also that it 

 had been worth while to do it. Herbert Spencer, though he 

 ever ceased to consider his system of philosophy the best 

 system of philosophy that the world had ever seen, died a 

 disappointed and disheartened man. The satisfaction 

 which he felt was purely negative — he was delivered from 

 the haunting obsession of a great aim unachieved. But 

 this haunting obsession was only succeeded by another— 

 that, after all, it had not really been worth while. 



It is a striking contrast, and must not be exclusively 

 attributed to any single cause. One cause may fairly be 

 found in Wordsworth's poetry; for Herbert Spencer's men- 

 tal condition at the end of his days is closely analogous 

 to the mental condition from which Mill declares that 

 ■Wordsworth redeemed him in his youth. A second cause 

 may be sought in Mill's closer contact with practical life, 

 and his mere definite practical aims. 



But the chief cause, after all, of the buoyant optimism 

 which distinguishes him. in spite of a philosophy which 

 hardly justifies it. lies in his remarkable and undeviating 

 attachment to Mrs. Taylor. This, more than anj-thing 

 else, brought him down from the high and barren regions 

 of abstract thought to the level of the human and the 

 concrete; or. perhaps, if that is a better way of putting 

 it, it enabled him to bring a human and concrete element 

 into the region of abstract speculation. 



Mr. Gribble describes Mill's love as '' a mystical 



exaltation in which he could take refuge as in a 



fortress, unassailable by any of the weapons in his 



own or any other argumentative armoury." 



BRYAN AND ROOSEVELT COMPARED. 



In the World s JFork Mr. George Turnbull writes 

 on Mr. Bryan and the Presidency. He considers 

 Mr. Bryan's selection by the Democratic Conven- 

 tion as Presidential candidate to be most probable. 

 Mr. Turnbull thus compares the two foremost figures 

 in the American political world : — - 



.\ very attractive man personally. Mr. Bryan offers an 

 interesting contrast in some respects to the present Presi- 

 dent of the United States, while in other respects the two 

 resemble each other strikingly. They are both men of 

 comprehensive intellectual activity, of great breadth and 

 downrightness of character. They are both strenuous in 

 method, and they represent many' of the best qualities, not 

 only in American public life, but in what we may call 

 English-speaking public life. But in personality the two 

 are very different. Mr. Roosevelt, like Mr. Bryan, is very 

 :^ttractive, and he is certainly more versatile. But Mr. 

 Bryan is an orator. More especially he excels as a cam- 

 paign orator — the expression is an American one and the 

 English equivalent is " electioneering orator " — a man who 

 talks from the hustings. In this respect he has probably 

 no equal, certainly no superior in the United States. Mr. 

 Koosevelt. his best friends will admit, has no special 

 oratorical ability. People are always interested in what 

 lie has to say, and he has a reputation for speaking his 

 mnd. But his voice is poor — it breaks at every other sen- 



tence and runs to a falsetto— his delivery is not good, 

 and his platform manner leaves a great deal to be deeirea. 

 Mr Brvan, on the other hand, has an extremely polished 

 manner, and a full musical voice, with that peculiar quality 

 of magnetism in it which the real orator always posaessee. 

 He sways an audience for the time being— whatever the 

 after result may be. 



Japanese Women. 



In the Forum Adachi Kinnosuke breaks a lance 

 in defence of the honour of Japanese women, and 

 does not hesitate to go full tilt against M. Loti and 

 other Western \\Titers, The writer laughs at the 

 idea, of his countrywomen being the '' mere play- 

 things of men," or being " totally disqualified for 

 intellectual companionship. " He retorts that the 

 book •■ Genji Monogatari, " which occupies in 

 Japanese literature a place similar to Homer in 

 Greek and Shakespeare in English, was the work of 

 Murasaki Shikibu, a Court lady of rank. The 

 writer goes on to say : — 



The brains of Nippon have always been with her women 

 rather than with her men. And what is more humiliating 

 still, is the fact that Xippon women very often outdo their 

 brothers in their own territory. The one in Xippon whose 

 generalship conducted the first successful foreign campaign 

 was the Empress Jingo. Under her victorious banner, the 

 warriors of Nippon marched through Korea on their first 

 foreign campaisn. Tomoe. who fought side by side ''"tb 

 the famous warrior Yoshinaka. was the peer of any of her 

 soldiers. In all the desperate sieges of the feudal days, 

 tlie women of the clans, naginata spearsl in hand, were 

 always conspicuous for their bravery and fighting qualities. 

 I have already cited the case of Hojo Masako. 



Another woman, Kasuganotsubone, was in her 

 time the brain of the government. Three other 

 names are mentioned of women scholars eminently 

 distinguished for their Chinese culture. 



"The Burial of Sir John Moore." 



A Tr.\nsl.\tion from the French. 



In reference to the authorship of " The Burial 

 of Sir John Moore " Mr. Henry N. Hall makes an 

 astonishing statement in the July issue of the New 

 York Critic. 



The author of the poem has hitherto been under- 

 stood to be the Rev. Charles Wolfe, one of those 

 ^\■Titers whose memory is perpetuated by a single 

 work. But, according to Mr. Hall, the great poem 

 is a translation from the French of a poem by Lally- 

 Tollendal, and was written in the following circum- 

 stances : — 



In 1749 a Colonel de Beaumanoir, a native of Brittany, 

 raised a regiment in his neighbourhood, and with it ac- 

 companied Lally-Tollendal's ill-fated expedition to India. 

 The Colonel was killed in defending Pondichery— the last 

 stronghold of the French— against the forces of Coote. He 

 was buried at dead of night by a few faithful followers 

 on the north bastion of the fortress, and the next day 

 the French fleet sailed for Europe with the remnants of 

 tlie garrison. 



Lally-Tollendal was executed in 1766. but a worthy eon 

 made noble efforts to rehabilitate bis father's memory. 

 The ■■ Memoirs " published by his son were widely circu- 

 lated, and must have come into the hands of the reverend 

 gentleman, who. though he stole, did not mar in the 

 stealing. The original French lines of the poem are given 

 in the .\ppendix matter of the book 



