400 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, 1906. 



C4SSELLS MAGAZINE. 



The August number of CaxseM's Magazine opens with 

 an article by Mr. Everard Digby, on Royal Automo- 

 bilists. No royal personage in Europe, lie says, has 

 done more for the motor industry than King Edward. 

 The King of Italy and the Kaiser are also very en- 

 thusiastic about the motor indtistries of their coun- 

 tries. 



Mr. W. T. Stead writes a personal confession with 

 some practical advice which he entitles " My Sys- 

 tem. His system, or no-system, Mr. Stead says, con- 

 sists in doing with all his might " the plain unavoid- 

 able duty which speaks with the imperious authority 

 of a Divine call." He believes there is an Invisible 

 Power concerned in making the best of us " if we com- 

 Vme the mental attitude of absolute readiness to 

 obey the word of command with a passionate deter- 

 mination to do wliatever is given to us to do with our 

 uttermost sti-ength and skill." 



One of the useful pieces of advice given runs: — 



Never put more to your boiler than is necessary to 

 ^nerate tlie maximum head of steam needed for getting 

 the most out rf your engine. What I mean b.v steam ia 

 energy, and tJie fire that generates it may be ambition, 

 discontent, religion, philantliropy, or any other motive. 



Some people keep stoking up their fire till it burns the 

 bottom out of tlieir boiler. They keep thinking so much 

 about what they wish to attain or they wish to escape 

 that it becomes worn, and will in the end destroy the 

 energy which it was intended to generate. 



THE DUTCH REVIEWS. 



The celebration of the tercentenary of Rembrandt's 

 birth has produced a multitude of essays and lectures 

 on the great master, his life and his work, and there 

 are consequently several articles on Rembrandt in the 

 current Dutch reviews. Elsefier gives us one with 

 many good illustrations, reproductions of his works. 



Onzf Ecuic also has an illustrated article on Rem- 

 brandt; it is quite exceptional to find illustrations in 

 this review. Rembi"and't life at Leyden is here dealt 

 with, what he did. his masters and how they influenced 

 him, together with other interesting facts. Lastman 

 influenced him so far as Biblical subjects were con- 

 cerned. Two reproductions are given for comparison. 

 They are of pictures by Lastman and Rembrandt on 

 the same subject. 



De Gids contains two contributions about the pain- 

 ter : the one b.v Josef Israels, whose name is a gtiar- 

 antee that it is well worth reading, is of general 

 interest ; the second concerns the financial troubles of 

 the artist. Like most men of genius, he had a strug- 

 gle with poverty, and the writer wonders how he man- 

 aged.to work so well under the circumstances. Figures 

 are given to show the prices paid to Rembrandt, and 

 there is reason to believe that some of his smaller 

 sketches and drawings fetched sums only equal to 

 twenty shillings of our present currency. 



The same review contains a sketch of the economic 

 and social development of Amsterdam during the six- 

 teenth and the first quarter of the seventeenth cen- 

 tuo'. It is a review of a recently published book, and 

 gives many readable details of the capital of Holland. 

 The history of Amsterdam has been much in evi- 

 dence lately in the literature of the country. 



The essay on Greek beliefs, old and new. leads to 

 the conclusion that the myths of antiquity still largely 

 influence the lives and doings of the Greeks. In some 

 places the Christian elements have gone just below the 

 surface, no deeper, 



Onze Eiuw has a contribution on Mozart. TVe are 

 neglecting Moaart. which is unfair to him and to our- 

 selves. " Everything is Wagner nowadays : Mozart is 

 nobody I" remarks the writer mournfully, and he tells 

 us a great deal about Mozart and his music, probably 

 in the hope of re-awakening popular interest. "The 



Struggle for the Duma" is really a brief history of 

 the fight for constitutional freedom in Russia, and the 

 author goes a long way back in history — three cen- 

 turies at least. 



Ehei-icr's description of the excavations at Argos, 

 illustrated by pictures of vases, statues, examples of 

 decorative work and other things found there, is to be 

 recoiiinieiided for perusal. 



r raycn iks Tijds has a lengthy account of a journey 

 through the ever-famous North-West Passage whicn 

 has ju.=!t been accomplished by a Norwegian named 

 Amundsen in a small ship of 48 tons, the " Gjoa," 

 poorly equipped. It seems incredible that Amundsen 

 should have navigated the North-West Passage in this 

 way; but Amundsen is still exploring, and we shall 

 hear more about him one of these days. 



THE CENTURY MAGAZINE. 



The Century Maqazine for A.ugust publishes articles 

 on the recent catastrophes which have overtaken San 

 Francisco and Italy. Louise Herrick Wall writes the 

 story of the pluck and heroism of the people of the 

 stricken city of San Francisco. 



HEEOIC SAN FKANCISCO. 



Honor, panic, dread, terror, she says, are the words 

 used by the Eastern press to describe the effect of the 

 San Francisco disaster, whereas in truth despair was 

 not to be seen in any face. Early on the morning of 

 April l&th, twenty-four hours after the heaviest 

 shocks, and while the fire was attacking the heart of 

 the city, she walked the whole length of San Fran- 

 cisco and back again, and made a number of detours 

 into the burning city, and she only saw four faces: 

 that showed the trace of tears. 



VESUVIUS IN FURY. 



Mr. William P. Andrews, writing on Vesuvius in 

 Fury, discusses the causes and characteristics of the 

 great eruption in April last. The cause of the erup- 

 tion, according to Dr. Grahlartiz, was local and 

 hydro-meteorological, due to the vapourisation of the 

 sea-water coming in contact with the incandescent 

 mass in the mountain. 





CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. 



In the August number of Chambers's Journal Mr. 

 R. A. Gatty. who writes on Holiday-making at the. 

 Seaside, says the people who complain of being dull 

 are so simply from a lack of interest within them- ■ 

 selves. 



Visitors at the seaside are divided into two classes, 

 the pier acting as the dividing line. On one side yeu 

 find the band, the pierrots, the niggers, and the 

 foolish crowd ; on the other, the few wise people 

 among the rocks and cliffs seeking what is interesting 

 and instructive. The writer laments that so much 

 time at school is devoted to cricket and football, 

 while other hobbies and interests are disregarded. 

 On the seashore there are man.v relics of the past 

 and objects of interest to be found. As an instance. 

 the writer tells how he used to look for firestones. 

 white quartzite i>ebbles. which he rubbed together to 

 make a flash in the dark. This led him to refer the 

 question of this peculiar property in the stones to a 

 geologist. 



The Rev. J. Sharpe has a short article on Tibbie 

 Shiels and the visitors to her cottage inn at St. 

 Mary's Loch at the head of the Vale of Yarrow. 

 Among the literally men who have enjoved the hos- 

 pitality of her roof may be mentioned Sir Walter 

 Scott. James Hogg. Profe.ssor Wilson, Lord Cockburn. 

 Profes-sor Avtoun. and many more. Edward Irving. 

 the famotis preacher, once spent a night in the inn. 

 and in the morning before he left " invoked the 

 Divine blessing on the members of her household. 



