The New York Herald Newspaper, December 9, 1878, Page 6

6 LITERATURE. Instructive Review of Lord Bacon's Remarkable Career. —---—— A WASTED LIFE, as How Shame Overtook the “Brightest, | Greatest, Meanest of Men.” —~+—-—-" NTENCE OF THE LORDs. Bright Thoughts on the Life f Wordsworth. LIFE AND ‘TIMES OF BACON. Aw Accounz oy Taz Lire aND con. Extracted from the Edition of his Oc Writings by James Spedding. (2 vols., pp. v7.) Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1878. | ‘This work-on the Mfe aud times of Lord Bacon, comprised im two well filled and well digested volumes, is the abridgment of a much larger work which appeared in England under the editorsbip of Mr. Spedding between the years 1861 and 1874, The philosophical}, literary and professional works of Ba- ton may be said to have been first published in a shape worthy of their excellence and historic re- nown, when between the years 1857 and 1859 three English scholars, Messrs. Spedding, Ellis and Heath, NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1878—WITH SUPPLEMENT. iu the history of England, discharging all his duties with 9 single eye to the good of his country, ani- mated by Ligh purposes for “the glory of the Creator and the relief of man’s estate,” and yet, from a cer- tain coarseness in the fibre of his nature rather than from” moral obliquity or with anything like con- scious depravity, yielding to the evils of the time so tor as to receive gratuitios from the suitors in his court. The asomaly becomes conceivable and not nunatural in the analysis of Mir, Spedding, and while nothing in Bacon's career is here set down in malice, as nothing is extenuated, we are able to construe to ourwelves the consistent patiern of a flesh-and-blood man who fell beiow the decencies of his place and the high level of his own moval and intellectual na- ture, not because he was thoroughly base, but be- cause he lacked that “chastity of honor which feels a stain like a wound.” It is acurious fuct, as serving in part to explain the obscurity which has brooded over sowe of the dark points in Bacon's evil destiny, that it is not until within the last eight years that we have been in a position to read the minds of the men who sat in judgment on the Chancellor when ar- vaigned before the House of Peers by the Commons, ‘Tho publication by the Camden Society, in the year 1370, of Elsing’s “Notes of the Debates” had during @ part of the session, gives us some new insight into this stage of the proceedings, and if we do not learn frou it to thins any more highly of Bacon we may at lcast learn from it to think a little less highly of the judges by whom he was condemued, That Lord Bacon was justly condemnzed on the charges upon which he was impeached we do not dispute. To dispute the fact would be to dispute the frank confession of Bacon himself. For it shoukl be remembered that he was not convicted on and after the trial, but on his own ‘‘confoesion and humble submission” in pleading guilty, seriatim, to “a reat deal of corruption and neglect,’ as evi- denced by the twenty-eight specifications which wero adduced against him. To the committee of twelve sent to acquaint him with the reception of his ‘full and ingenuous confession,” and to ask him whether he admitted the genuineness of his signature attached to it, and whether he would stand to it or not, he re- divided among themselves a critical recension of 80 much of Bacon’s writings as gould be properly tlassified under these heads. After this task had deen successfully completed in seven copious vol- ames, which were reprixted in this country with Mr. Spedding’s “sanction and aid,” in fifteen vol- ames of reduced size, it still remained to edit the “occasional writings’’ of the great Chancellor and philosopher—that is to say, his letters, speeches, tracts, state papers, memorials, &c, Taking this part of the work under his exclusive control, Mr. Bpedding has not only collected and set forth ‘these writings in their chronological order; but has also accompanied them with biographical and historical commentaries, which make them @ history of Bacon’s times as exhaustive, and almost as voluminous, too, as the endless work of Professor Masson on the “Lite and Times of Mil- ton.” The Boston publishers of the present work, having recently gathered into two volumes the most essential of Bacon’s philosophical writings, have judged that a large body of American readers would like to possess in manageable shape, a biography of Bacon which should “present the result of the most thorough criticism, and inquiry, and include so much of contemporary history as is needed to give the life its proper setting.” It is on this theory that the task of condensing Mr. Spedding’s seven voluines into two has been undertaken by an American editor twhose name is ngt given), with Mr. Spedding’s sanc- tion, and what is much more to the American read- er's purpose, with the beneflt of Mr. Spedding’s revision, The text of Mr. Spedding remains in these volumes unaltered. It is only the arrangement and scope of his edition which have been modified by the conipiler. With all our natural prejudices against such rijacimentt «na compends, we are obliged to admit that the work of the editor hus been faithfully and skilfnlly performed, ‘The life of Bagon is here told with a minuteness of detail that is abundantly ade- quate to portray a full length likeness of the man in all his s and in all his relations, while for the fidelity of the portraiture the reader has the best possible guarantee in the un- equalled research and praiseworthy candor which Mr. Spedding has brought to the appreciation of a great name and the exposition of a momentous chap- ter in the history not only of England but of the civil- ized world. Of books which treat on the life and character of Bacon there is no lack in English litera- ture. Kawley and Mallet and Basil Montagu and Lord Campbell and Lord Macauley among the dead; Mr. Hepworth Dixon, Mr. Gardiner and others among the living have essayed, some with passionate objur- gation and some with passionate eulogy, to tell the story of a career which, for blended light and shadow, is aimost without example in the annals of biogra- phy. Shakespeare has limned for all time the face and figure of another Lor@ Chancellor who, before Bacon, Lad “sounded all the depths and shoals of honor;" only to stumble and fall, like Bacon, in “the ways of glory,” but the clouds which obscured the brightness of Woolsey have come to seem mild and bencficent in our eyes as compared with the disas- trous lustre which still waits on the name and fame of his great successor. Heine in one of his vivid stan- zas has bewailed the wretched fate of the princes and popes whom Dante has damned in his “inferno.” For all such criminals after the poet has passed sen- tence upon them in his “awful triple rhymes” there is, says Heine, no Redeemer, seeing, as we do, that time does but seal the brand of that eternal shame which it is the prerogative of genius to stamp on the brow of its victims. In like manner it cannot be doubted that the reputation of Bacon will suffer for- ever from the terse and epigrammatic line in which the English poet has struck him off, in profile, as “the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.” ‘The antithesis is sharp, as sharp as the “lethal arrow” about which Virgil pings; but for this very reason it still continues to stick in the side of Bacon, and we suppose will ever comtinue to stick there, doing his fame to death in the eyes of all who, for one reason or another, shall be inclined to accept the compendious doom of Pope as the solemn, irreversible award of authentic history. Yet perhaps in all the mixed chronicle of human glory and human shame there is no man whom it is loss easy to dismiss with o single satiric touch appended to two superlatives. The colonsal figure of Bacon still rises before us like the image seen in vision of the Hebrew prophet—its P head of fine gold, its breast of silver, ite legs of fron and its fect part of ison and part of clay, We can but wonder how it came to pass that mire and dirt should have been mixed with the lower nature of a man 60 resplendent for the beanty and strength of the element which composed his higher parts. A modern German writer has given us an interesting book on what he calls the “enigmatical, men” of history; but, surely, there never was such a riddle as the character of Beacon, if the popular conception Sf it is assumed to be just and trae. That a man so wise conld be so foolish; that aman so bright could be so stupid; that 4 man so mean could be #0 magnificent as Bacon ts commonly represented to have been presenta & problem which callx for something more than the perfunctory treatment it has tov commouly reevived at the hands of the biographer and historiap. The sntithemis in the fortunes of Dar great, when we consider the teached and the depth te ‘h be fell; but when we have penetrated to the “true inwardness” of the wan we Mhail find that tho antithesis in his charac n was inexpressibly height to whieh he ter is ae great ax it seems t And it is for thy reason that the biography of Mv. Spedding has a value in our eyes beyond that of any similar work. It wives the facts in Bacon's life and character with an ensemble and & naturalness which make jim an “intelligible form,” with the elements in his nature unequally mixed, it may be, but still not so unequally mixed as it is common to suppose, Most of those who have written about Bacon would seem to leave upon the reader's imiind the image either of @ “fauitiess monster,” of a titer of fauitiness, or, worse than ull, of a inoustor #o strangely compounded of both as to be an impossible ercation, The narrative of Mr. Basil Monteyn and of Mr, Hepworth Dixon reads like a Puge torn from the Bollandist “Lives of the Saints.” Lord Campbell, a in his of ‘Lives of the rd Uhancellors,” is nothing if not eritieal. In Macaulay's brilliant sketch we have the likeness of a strange and Gnearthly beivg who “is half swine’s hoof, half eagle's wing.” B ding we discer m the portraiture of Mr. Sped- the picture of a man endowed with great inteliectial gifts, playing a great part on the high stage of Dritieh politics at » most critical period turned for answer, “My , it is my act, my hand, my heart.” I beseech your Lordships, be merciful to abroken reed.” Writing to the Earl of Bucking- ham a few days after his conviction, he said:—I ac- knowledge the sentence just, and, for reformation’s sake, fit,” while adding that he conceived himself to be “the justest Chancellor that had been in the five changes since Sir Nicolas Bacon’s time.’” To his fried and biographer, Rawley, he said, “I was the fustest judge that was in England these fifty years; but it was the jnstest censure in Parliament that was these two hundred years.” In turning from the conduct of Bacon as a man, to consider his rank a8 a philosopher in'the intellectual world, we need say but little. By the consenting voice of that world he holds a foremost place among the choice and master spirits of humanity—among men like Moses, and Plato, and Aristotle, and Jesus of Nazareth (divinest of men, because more than man), and Augustine, and Justinian, and Greg- ory the Great, and Charlemagne, and Lu- ther—men who have organized the advanced and» progressive thonght of the human raco in réligion, philosophy, law and polity’ not only during their own days, but in all the com- ing generations of humanity. The two elements which most distinctively color and differentiate the civilization of modern times as contrasted with the civilization of antiquity, illustrated in Greece and Rome, are the Christian religion and modern science, and it is no irreverence to say that the Teacher of Galilee was not more decidedly the founder of the former than the expositor of the inductive philos- opbhy was the harbinger of the latter. It is quite true that Bacon was not the first expositor of the in- ductive process‘of reasoning. That process is very clearly unfolded in the posterior analytics of Aris- totle; but about the process considered as a fruitful method of research into the mysteries of nature the Greek philosopher has not a word to say. It is for want of discriminating between the inductive pro- cess (common to all men) and the inductive method (aa first formulated by Bacon) that Macaulay in his brilliant essay has been tempted to disparage the historical and philosophical value of the “Novum Organum.”” 2 ‘There issomething sublime in the early vision which Bacon had of the great work he was calledto perform for the world by initiating a new method of research. The vision dawned upon him while yet a student, fifteen years old, in the University of Cambridge, and from that day to the day of his destn the vision never forsook him.’ Nurtured by his pious mother in a rig- orous Puritanism, and bred by his father in the at- mosphere of Queen Elizabeth's Court, he could not fail to cheriah # lively interest in the cause of the re- formed religion and in the welfare of Kingland at that crisis in British history; but ever blended with these two objects was this third grand ideai—that the for- tunes of the whole human race might be redeemed from the barren logomachies of the Aristotelian phi- losophy and placed in the way of a never ending im- provement by an amended theory of knowledge anda wiser application of human industry. We can dis- tinetly trace in the pages of Mr. Spedding how the “Great Instauration” grew beneath the hand of its author: how its plan was definitely settled in the year 1605; how, four years later, the ‘‘Redargutio Philoso™ phiarum,”’ “‘the most perfect piece, pérhaps, for form and execution that Bacon left behind him,” had re, ceived its finishing touches; how all that ever was done of the ““Novam Organuim” appeared on the 12th of October, 1620, and how, at last, he was surprised by death with the great work still on his hands. In the thirty-first year of his age he wrote to the Lord ‘Treasurer Burghley that he *‘had taken all knowledge to be his province.” Twelve years later, committing his thoughts to a sheet of paper by way of “medi- tation,’’ he wrote that he believed himeclf born for the service of mankind, and setting himself to con- sider in what way mankind might be best served, he “found none so great as the discovery of new arts, endowments and commodities for the bettering of man's life.” Was it any wonder that a man, sus- “tained by such an unfaltering trust in the high des- tiny to which he had been appointed by Providence, should have pierced through the clouds in which his sun was doomed to sot aud should have sought by auticipation the auroral dawn of the fame which was awaiting him ? And hence it was in clear presage of his philosophical renown that when he came to write his last will and testament, after bequeathing his soul to God and his body to an “obscure burial,’’ he be- queathed bis name “to the next ages and to foreign nations.” There are many other points in these volumes upon which we had proposed to comment, but we Mave already greatly exceeded our limits. We can- not, howaver, forbear to advert to the traces of euphuism everywhere visible in the letters of Bacon. Professor Henry Morley has well said of that lt- erary affectation, which was 0 fashionable- with the wits of Bacon's day, that it “gave strength to the strong and weakness to the weak.” To the reader who has not wade a atudy of the enphuistic cult which provatled so widely in Europe during the tat- ter haif of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the soventeenth century? we faucy that some of Bacon's lettors will neem to have been couched fp the ex- travaganey of a pedantic diction, but when it ts re mnombered that the estilo cw'to, ax the Spaniards called it, was then the baige of a leman aud acholar, we can see why itshould have been affected by Bacon, especially when writing to James I. that pedant among princes and prince sinong pedants, We should not omit to say, in closing, that these volumes are os rich in ijlus- trations of Bacon’s times as they are fail in the memorials of hie life. The pietorial career and sensational character of the Earl of ®asex; the roman- tic heroism and tragical end of Sir Walter Raleigh; the high parts played by that spoiled chia of for- tune, the Duke of Buckingham, are all here told, not simply in their points of contact with the live of Bacon, but also wit an amplitude of historical sur- vey and a sharpness of critical insight which, for us a% lonst, have shed much valuable light on some ob- scure places in the annals of James I. We may in- stance eapocially Mr, Spedding’s elucidation of the much mooted questions yvaised by the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh, an elteidetion which to most readers wiil be as novel as it is laminows. A BLOGRAPHIC STODY oF WornsworTH. Worpewourn, A Biographic Asthetic Study. By George A. Calvert, Boston: Loe & Shepard, 1878, Principal Shairp, the anthor of that charming Kittle treatise the “Poetic Interpretation of Nature,” does*but express the aspiration of ail geuuine Worde- worthians when he calls for an edition of Words worth's entire works, in which the poems shall be printed in the exact chronological order of their com- position, accompanied with those annotations which the poet himself dictated in the latter days of his life, with regard to their origin, suggestion and sig- nificance, Such an arrangement is not only essential to aright understanding of the poems themselves, but is indispensable to any adequate appreciation of Wordworth's poetical art considered in the suc- cessive phases of its development and in the pecu- liarity of its genius, Until such an edition shall be published this little work of Mr, Calvert, in which the salient points of Wordsworth’s life are treated in connection with the wathetic study of his typical poems, will lend a use- ful contingent by way of helping to explicate the psychology which underlies the remarkable produc- tions of the great philosophical poet of England. Al- though Macaulay could not stand “fhe Prelude,” and blurted out bis impationce at its “vaptures about mountsins aud cataracts," its “old flimsy philosophy about the effecia of scenery on the mind,” its “old crazy mystical metaphysics,” and its “endless wildernesses of dull, flat, prosaic declamations;" although Jeffrey grected ‘fhe Ex- cursion” tu the Euenburgh Review with the exclama- tion, “This will never d and opened his mordant critique of the “White Doo of Rylstone” by mildly conceding to it the ‘merit of being the very worst poem ever imprinted in @ quarto volume;” although Byron never cused to mock at the amaxing quantity of lake water which Wordsworth was in the habit of mixing with his Hippocrene, and although Shelley was always in dowbt, down to the day of his death, whether Wordsworth was more detestuble for his pedestrian poetry or for his apostacy from the red republicanism of the French Revolution of 1789, the world has none the less come at last to recognize in the bard of Rydal Mount a genuine tates whose right to the poet’s garland and singing xobe bas boen ad- judged by the irreversible sentenve of public ad- miration and public gratitude. iy It is as much by design as by the accident of con- temporaneons publication that we affix the notice of Mr. Calvert's “‘biographic and wathetic study” of Wordsworth to the more extended review of Bacon's life and times as portrayed by Mr. Spedding. There isa very important sense in which Wordsworth's view of nature, considered as the source of high Poetical and moral inspiration, may be rggarded as @ natural complement to Bacon's view of nature, regarded as the kingdom which man was to occupy and subdue under the lead of science. If Bacon was sent into the world to be, as he phrased it, the minister and interpreter of nature for purposes of human utility and human amelioration in the arts of practical life, it is not too much to say that Words- worth was raised up to be, as Matthew Arnold has written, —® priest to us all, Of the wonder and bloom of the world, Which we see with his eyes and are glad. And all wsthetic natures, we are sure, as well as all true lovers of the higher moralities of tage human soul, wifl concur with Dr. Shairp in the opinion that the spiritual element which exists both in nature and in man, as that element has been interpreted by Wordsworth, offers to cultivated minds our surest -antidote against the exclusively analytic aud micro- scopic view of nature which, at the behest of a me- chanical theory of the universe, has become so “‘tyr- annous over present thought, and the end of which is universal disintegration.” The theory propounded by Wordsworth for the high interpretation of nature in the walks of poetical art was hardly Jess original than the method pro- pounded by Bacon for the interpretation of nature in the walks of practical art. Poets before Wordsworth had written about nature, but between the descrip- tive poetry which gives us glints of natural scenery, or which makes such scenery the back- ground of human passions and actions, whether in tragic or epic verse, and the poetry which finds in nature the well-bead of a perennial Castaly and the source of a perpetual growth in morality as well as knowledge, there is the widest possible interval. The poetry of antiquity, in the classic ages of Greece and Kome, however rich it may be in other beauties of form or substance, ie utterly destitute of this crowning grace. Neither in Homer nor Zachylus, neither in Virgil nor Ovid, is there the slightest trace of what Mr. Ruskin calls “the pathotic fallacy”—the illusion by which the poet feigns that nature sympa- thizes with man in his deeper moeds of joy and sor- row. | Just as little do the classic poets bring the in- terpretative power of fancy to bear on the phe- nomens of the visible universe—that power which kindles in the reader’s soul a new and keener sense of the onter world. And lacking these phases of, the philosophical imagination they lacked, of. course, that ultimate phase of the same poetical art which is seen in elegiac strains pressed from the heart of s@nsitive souls by what Wordsworth calls ‘‘the heavy and the weary weight of all this un- intelligible world.” This last aspect of nature may be most clearly seen, perhape, in the ‘poeta of modern doubt,” like Matthew Arnold or Clough, and would seem to be begotten by the union of poetical sensi- bility with the latest forme of scientific necessitarian- ism. The spirit to which we refer finds expression, for instance, in such lines as the following from Mat- thew Arnold :— Know, man hath all that Nature hath, but more, + And in that more lie all his hopes of good. Nature is cruel, man is sick of blood; Nature is stubborn, man would tain adore; Nature is fickle, man hath need of rest; Nature pees no debt and fears no grave; Man would be mild and with safe conscience blest. ‘This “still sad music of humanity” takes its pre- Tudes from the poetry of Wordsworth; it strikes the keynote to many of Shelley's protoundest strains and comes to a “full diapason”’ in the poetry of ‘modern doubt.” Lucretius was the descriptive poet of the philosophical materialism which prevailed in Rome during his times, but in all that Lucretius wrote we find no clear-voiced echo from Nature of the moral and religious problems which hauut the human soul to-day. “ORATORY AND onsToRs,” Oxxrony anp Onatons. By William Matthéws, LL. D., wut “Getting On in the World.” Chicago: 8. C. Griggs & Co, 1879. It isa curious fact, attested by the ‘history of all the highest human arts, ¢hat as soon as men begin to write about them it is # certain sign that tho arts themselves have begun to decay. Such is the neces- sary relation between the critical and the creative facnity of the human soul in its highest energies that the former faculty finds the very conditions of ita ex- istence in the products of the latter. It is not until Homer has written his “Epos” and Sophocles, has carried the drame to its highest development that Aristotle comes to explicate the nature and laws of epic and tragic poetry. It is not until the orators ha “fulmined over Greece” that rhetorical teachers, from Gorgias to Theophrastus, open their sehools to instruct the ingenuous youth of Atnens in the art of oratory. It in not until the eloquence of Cicero has become a tradition in the Roman Forum that Quintilian appears with @ book of Institutes in his hand designed to teach the first principles of the art which needed not “the rhetorician’s rules,” while aw yet the forces of a strong civil and political life were fluent in the body politic of Rome, It is fit- ting, therefore, that Dr. Matthews, after remarking on the power and place of the orator in the history of the world, should raise and discuss the question whether oratory deserves, in this present age, to be numbered among the “Lost Arts.” Outside of the Fine Arta, Which, in their genesis and development, may be said to obey laws peculiar to themselves, it is @ favor- ite theory of onra that there are very few, if any, arts which deserve to be characterized as “lost.” What we call “lost aris” are not so much arts which have been lost from an incapacity to master them, as arts which haye been superseded in the progress of society. The rvival of the fittest’ is a doctrine which holds equally trne in the artistic and in the animal world. the face of the earth would reappear if the human race should relapse into the physical, intellectual or moral conditions which gave to those arts their motive and natural environment. Sunt sed tempore abeunt, in the striking phrase of Cicero, Aud this would seem to be very much the opinion ot Dr. Matthews in the interesting and instructive work before us. He indorses the saying of wnother, that if the ancient oratory were in demand now, it would wake from the sleep of 2,00v years without the aid of the rhetorician. “The truth ie,” he adds, “it is to the very superiority of ovr civilization to that of the ancients that the revolution in oratory and the apparent diminution of its influence are owing,” iugomuch that, instead of lamenting, we should ‘The arte which have perished from rather rejoice that “we live no longer on that voleanie soil which in former ayes produced . fiery orators in such sbundance.” ‘The justice of this observation cannot be doubted, Every change in the constituents, implements and agencies of a civilization works a change in its centre ot gravity. The modern journalist stands in the bovts of the ancient concionator. If Demosthenes were alive to-day he would find his bema in the me- tropolitan newspaper of the widest influence, and in- stead of shaking the Arsenul with his thunderous oratory would seek, with much “expense of Palladian oil,” to pen a terse and well-considered editorial leader upon some topic of high concern that might chance to be uppermost in the public thought. Doubtiess, as Dr. Matthews argues, the ‘fourth estate of the na- tion” can never do the entire work of the oratory, but the work of the public speaker is greatly modified by the power of the press. In proportion as knowledge becomes intensive its possessors resent the arts of the orator as an insult to their understandiugs. “In proportion as knowledge becomes extensive the orator must despair of moving the masses by appeals ad- dressed to popular passions. Clearness and precision of statements take the place of “rabble-charming words’ which once may have had, as Dr. South says, “a sort of wildfire wrapped uy in them,” but which areemptied of all power to charm the cooler judg- ments and more prosaic natures of this modern age. The reason why that most bril- liant of modern. advocates, the late Rufus Choate, failed to make on his times an impression equal to an extraordinary talent and unequalled forensic ability must be sought in the fact that he never fully comprehended the oratorical temper of the epoch in which he was living. He appeared among us like one born out of due time. He was a Hyperides come again, but he wi Hyperides without an excitehle Athenian populace before which to sway the wand of his enchanting eloquence, and without a Court of Areopagus before which it was always safe to display the arts of the special pleader. Honce the credibility of the tradition that when, once upon a time, he was flashing the corruscations of his Asiatic eloquence in the face of Judge Shaw, that ornament of the bench, impatient of the pyrotechnic display, put a sudden extinguisher on the rocket-like oratory of the great advocate by interposing the petulent ejaculation, “All very tine, Mr. Choate, but what in heaven has it to do with this case?” , ‘Turning from these general considerations on the power and influence of, the oratory, as also on the re- Jation of the orator to different phases and states of civilization, Dr. Matthews proceeded to discuss the qualifications of the orator; his trials; his helps; the teats of eloquence; the use of personalities in debate; the several classes of political orators (Eng- lish, Irish and American); forensic orators and pul- pit orators, closing his treatise with a plea for oratori- cal culture. Under each of these heads he has written on the principle laid down by Hume, that ‘criticism is nearly useless unless the critic quote innumerable examples.” Hence each chapter of his work swarms with illustrative anecdotes culled from every field of histoty, and is almost tesaellated with apt quotations from the walks of literature and art. In making these selections Dr. Matthews shows that he is guided by a taste which is as delicate and just as the range of his reading {s liberal and wide. That in levying contribu- tions from so many sources he should sometimes slip up inaccuracies of statement ought not to be a matter of surprise to the most critical reader. It is rather a matter of surprise that such slips of the mind and pen are sofow. But it is a mistake to speak of Mrs. Seaton (towhom one of the best of Webster's criticisms is said to have been addressed) as Webster's “landlady at Washington.” Always a leader in Washington society from the position held in it by her husband and because she adorned by her own virtues, Mrs, Seaton was at the period indi- cated by Dr. Matthews: the wife of tne Mayor of Washington. We believe it is »solecism in speech to use ‘novitiate’ as synonymous with “novice,” yet such is the dialect of Dr. Matthews in describing “the agony of a confused novitate’ who moved the sympathy of Kennedy in his “Life of William Wirt.” Mr. W. R. Greg, the author of “The Creed of Christendom,” is treated by Dr. Matthews to a super- flous “g’’ at the end of his patronymic; which, as it is, would seem to be abundantly supplied with that let-. ter. But Dr. Matthows, who everywhere shows his classical culture, will remind us that such slight blemishes are covered by a familiar dictum of Horace in the “Art Poetica.”” HOLIDAY BOOKS—WHAT THE PUBLISHERS ARE DOING FOR CHRISTMAS—-LITERBATURE FOR OLD AND YOUNG, ‘The days of gorgeously bound Christmas annuals are past, The ‘Fountain of Pearls,” “‘Book of Beauty” and other highly colored and elaborately illustrated volumes that lay upon our grandparents’ centre tables are no more, In their place the pub- lishers give us elegantly gotten up volumes to be sure, but volumes whose contents we may peruse with profit as well as pleasure. A year or s0 ago Harpers gave us Doré’s “Ancient Mariner;” Apple-. tons, Le Croix’s “The Eighteenth Centu Serib- ner & Welford, “Spain, India and Italy,” all expen- sive and elegant books, prepared especially for the holiday trade. This year, however, there will be very few new Christmas books for grown folks, while the field of children’s books is more extensively covered than usual. The publishers eithér beliove that the times will not admit of a great outlay in the matter of costly. books or that the taste for such volumes is dying out. As a rule they will satisfy themselves with ropublications of the holiday books of former years, though a number of houses will follow the old custom and give something new for tho holidays. Harper & Brothers offer mm new holiday book, but they call attention to Miss Jennie J. Young's ‘Cera. mic Art’ as. @ volume handsome enongh for a holiday present and point with pride to their editions of etandard authors. Charles Carleton Coffin’s story of “Liberty” is sufMiciently attractive to please any boy and Miss Virgipia W. Jobnson’s ‘Catskill Fairies” will hever cease to interest the girls, Mr. Prime's “Pottery and Porcelain of all Times and Nations,”’a useful and beautiful book; “Contemporary Art in Europe,” and that delightful collection of “Songs of Our Youth,” edited by Mra, Muloch-Craik, will be welcome visitors to many stockings. D. Appleton & Co.'s moat elaborate holiday book is “American Painters,” a volume containing biograph- ieal sketches of fifty American artists, with eighty- three examples of their works. The Turner Gallery, containing 120 engravings from the works of J. M. W. Turner, a rare and beautiful collection; “Pottery and Porcelain, from Early Times Down to the Phila delphia Exhibition,” by Charles Wyllys Elliot; “Poet and Paiuter, or Goms of Art and Song,’’ containing ninety-nine steel engravings, aud the complete poet- ical works of William Cullen Bryant, a book fuil of new interest, are volumes to attract the lovers of the beautiful in art and poetry, while those looking for more solid reading will find it in “Tent Work in Pal- estine” and Geikie’s “Life and Words of Christ,” with twelve engravings ou steel. Scribmer & Welford have made handsome provision for the holidays in “‘Switzcrland, its Mountains wad Valleys.” Between four and five hundred engravings illustrate this volume, which will prove equally at- tractive to those who have visited the “playground of Europe” and those who propose to do so, The descriptions are grouped around certain central points. The people, as well as the grand seenory of this country are depieted by the artist’s pencil, and the letterpress is in keeping With the subjects, This volume is a fitting companion to “India” and “Spain,” which preceded it. A holiday edition of Miss Mitford's “Our Village,” profusely illustrated; Goothe’s “Faust,” translated by Miss Swanivick and illustrated by Retzsch, and Jacquemart’s “History of Furniture” are among the books offered by this firm, A Christmas brochure called “The Round Table An- nnal,” with contributions by Violet Fane, Whyte Melville, Buraand and other popular authors, but whose chief attraction are four graceful sketches by Georges Pilokett, representing the reigning London beautics—Mrs, Langtrey, Countess Dudley, Mrs. Corn- wallis West aud the Marchioness of Ormonde—as the four scasons, is imported by Seribner & Welford. Charles Scribner's Sous have made no especial holi- day book, unless we except “The Poet and His Master,” which will be ready very soon. Clarence Cook's “The House Beautiful” still holds its own and will be found as attractive this year as it was last, Seribner & Co, offer handsomely bound volumes of Servbner’s Monthly and St. Nicholas, G. P. Putnam's Sons have prepared a beautifal edi- tion of Bryant's most famous poem, “Thanatopsis,” with an esvecial view to the holiday trade, It is Ulustrated with designs drawn and engraved by Will- iam Linton, who illustrated the companion volume, “The Flood of Years. “Thanatopsis” may be had eather bound with “he Flood of Years” or séparately. “Thanatopsis” was written when Mr. Bryant was sev- enteen years of age, the latter poem when he was sev- enty-nine. “Apple Blossoms,” published by this firm, is pretty enough for a Christmas present. The au- thors are two little girls, who began to make verses at the age of four years, and who are yet in their teens, J. W. Bouton has not published any holiday books, but he has imported a great muny, and offers volumes of L'Artand The Portfolio and rare books of etchings, besides William Blake’s works and extra illustrated books, OUT OF TOWN. Houghton, Osgood & Co, have nothing so fine as “The Hanging of the Crane” or ‘‘Mubel Martin’ this year, but they offer “Lhe Schoolboy,” Dr, 0. W. Holmes’ poem read at the centenary of Phillips’ Acad- emy, Andoyer, Mass., June 10, 1878, Dr, Holines has written few better poems than this, It is full of humor and genuine feeling. ‘The illustrations are by J. Appleton Brown, Wand, Merrill, Sheppard and Hitchcock. Bayard Taylor’s new poem, “Prince Denkalion,” and Mra, Celia Thaxter’s “Drift Weed” are appropriate holiday books, though not published with that intention. Roberts Brothers offer their last year's list, and a Very attractive one it is, for the approaching holidays, Mrs, Jameson's ‘‘Memoirs”’ will be likely to find holi- day buyers, for it 1s a most entertaining book, and readers do not care for fancy bindings. Henry T. Coates, of Philadelphia, offers the “Fireside Encyclo- pedia of Poetry,” a volume, a comprehensive collec- tion of the poetry of the English language. All the pocms are arranged under headings according to sub- jects, which adds to the value of the material. CHILDREN’S BOOKS. And now we come to the children’s books, They are plentiful this year, and firms that have hesitated to tempt the old folks hold out the strongest induce- ments to the children, From Houghton, Osgood & Co. we have a handsome volume of “Mother Goose's Melodies,” in which the biography of this famous old lady is given. The writer says that she was fot a myth, and gives Boston’ as her birthplace. The illustragions are by that rising young artist Alfred Kappes, and are iliuminated on gold after the manner of English toy books. Our old favorite receives kind treatment at Mr. Kappes’ hands, and the children are sure to be delighted with all they find here, This same firm publish T. B, Aldrich’s translation of M. de la Bédelliere’s charming story of ‘Mother Michel,” under the title “Story of a Cat.” Thedrawings are by L. Y. Hopkins, and are very amusing, particularly the one on the back of the cover. Scribner & Welford import “Aunt Louise’s Golden Gift,” an elegant yolume with il!ustrations in colors on gold. It is for very young children, and contains such nursery songs as “Little Dame Crump,” “Hush a By, Baby,” “Childhood's Delight’? and “Tottie’s Rhymes.” Messrs. Macmillan & Co. announce Mra. Molesworth's new story, “Grandmother, Dear,’’ with eight illustra- tions by Walter Crane. From George Routledge & Sons’ wo have received “Every Boy's Annual," a capital book for boys just entering upon their teens, full of boy life and bustle, and “Every Girl’s Annual,” a bright book for girls of the same age. These two volumes are made up’ from Every Boy's Magazine and Every Girl's Magazine. The prince of baby books is the “Baby's Bouquet,”’ illustrated and arranged by Walter Crane in his usual delightful manner. Mr. Crane is at his best in this exquisite little volume. “Polly, Put the Kettle On,” and other old-time tunes are given in English, French and Ger- man. Another Waitér Crane toy book is the “Children’s Musical Cinderella,” told in familiar words to familiar tunes. “Ihe House that Jack Built’’ is comically illustrated by R. Caldecott, as is also “The History of John Gilpin’s Famous Ride to Ware.” “Uncle Joe's Stories’? is a collection of tales for boys and girls of ten and twelve years of age, redolent of fairies and other of childhood mys- teries. E.P. Dutton & Co., whose publications are among the best for children, send us “Little Neigh bors,” by Emily Huntington Miller, a book to delight boys and girls (the latter particularly) between the ages of six and ten, and even older. “‘Aunt Sophy’s Boys and Girls” will reach about the same audience, Both are profusely illustrated and prettily bound. ‘Carl's Firat Days’: and “Christmas in the Country” are two gay covered books of easy reading for the little ones. They are written in words of ‘short syllables and contsin simple and homelike stories. ‘“H. H.” has left her poot’s corner long cnough to write a book that all boys and girls will read with delight. It is called «‘Nelly’s Bil- ver Mine,” and is published by Roberts Bros. D. Lothrop & Co., of Boston, have published a unique little volume called the ‘Children’s Almenac,”’ the calendar reaching over five years. Each month is represented by an original poem from the pens of Longfellow, Whittier, Aldrich, Celia Thax- iter, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, Edgar Fawcett, John James Piatt, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and others. Ac- companying these poems are twelve drawings on wood, by Miss Humphrey, and four chromo-litho- graphs by Miss Lathbury; “Little Stay-at-Home,” by L. Clarkson, published by F. W. Robinson, illus- trated by bright colored pictures. The “Rag Fair,” by the same author and publisher, is prettily bound and profusely illustrated. BOOKS RECEIVED, NEW Artist Biographies. Allston. Houghton, Osgood & Co., publishers. Honts Diitingnans Now York, Uncle Tom's ¢ Lite Among the Lowiy: By Har riot hor Stowe, with Illustrations and a opaatar ite ae iat eet at thework’ Hiengh: i coant of tha work’ Hengh: toe Oagood E Co. publishete Berton. O-'T Diliinghain, Osgood Now York. Change, The Whisper of tho ton. J.B. Li spincott ‘& Co., publishers, Philadelphia. Christmas Evorgreens, A collection of poetry for the holidays, inclading gems from Longfellow, Bryant, Gold- smith, Gray, Montgomery, Eliza Cook and others. Selected and arranged yy, ag ‘gine With iNustrations. W. J. Johnston, publisher, yw York. je and Buildiugs of the Centennial Exhibition, |. Editod nor. J.B. Lip: UAC Dodd, Mend & Co., Spb inx, By William Leigh- at he D. Applot sit Richa .Applovan rnishing Cl i th pane an by Haward’ Young Cox. With: iifusret ther io from original designs and aucian Fifth edition, id mented ww desi d illustrations. Gand don. publighors, X Jouve, New York. Jona, Lover of my Soul, Hy Charles Worley, Design by Kober: Lewis, Eagraved by W. J. Dava. D. Lothrop ¥ ‘Stobe claestes of Baby and. Versified by Clara Doty Bates. D, trop, & Co., publishers. its. lated from the French of Paul Feval wi jor L: Sadlicr. D. & J. Sadler & Co., publishers, New oa ide to Cooking School Toss Book, and Housekeepers Guid okory and Kitehen ay Juliet Corson. Or- auge Juad Company yw York, JUST WHAT SHE WANTED. ‘Mary Finn," called Judge Wandell, tn the Essex Markét Police Court yesterday. In response an old lady, wearing a tattered calico dress hanging loosely from her shoulders and an old faded shew! drawn over her head, shuiled up to the ratling. “Drunk aud unable to take care of yourself,” said the Judge. ‘Yes, Your Honor,” croaked the prisoner, “I know ‘Drunk all day,” ‘es, Your Honor, drunk all day,”” guess 1 will have to send you up on the Island, li right, Judge; thank you. That's jnst what I want,” said the old lady, highly elated, us she made way for the next, HE LOVED HER. “Ah, let her go, Sure she say’s she’s sorry,” said McCloskey, in the Fifty-seventh Street Court yester- day. His Koad was well bandaged, and his wife had, ins drunken fit the night before, used a half-dozen pieces of crockery on it, “You forgive her?” asked the Court, in amaze ment. “Ido, For what's the use of locking the old lady up? She's sorry, and that's the end of it.” “She was drank ?" «she was that, “And beat you ? «he did, in troth,” “You forgive her, after all?’* “Now, Judge, will you look at her? The tears is coinin’ and rollin’ down her face. against her when she’s that way?” “Ther you love her?” “Love her?’ asked MeCloskey. “Sure of course I do. She's iy wife, the mother of our children, and as good a woman as lives if she'd rear atkae . McCloskey, will you keep from liquor if I ,' she answered, wept, take her home,” id the Court to McCloskey, which he did, hushing her sobs and siloncing her thanks, Could 1 say aught a ey ee HARLEM'S SENSATION. ° The Alleged Forced Marriage of Miss Jessie Hunt. FLIGHT OF THE BRIDEGROOM An Appeal Made to the Courts by the Unwilling Bride. Not @ little excitement was created in Harlem circles yesterday by the announcement of the mar- riage of Miss Jessie T. Hunt, of Lexington avenie and 108th street, to Mr. David H. Risbey, of 112th street, near Second avenue, Under ordinary circum stances the marriage would not excite any interest or comment beyond their own circle of acquaintances; but the story of the way in which the young man ia alleged to have secured his bride, as told in yester- day’s Henaip, at once aroused public interest, The young lady yesterday morning made affidavit in the Harlem Police Court that she married the {man she did not love under duress and because she had no elternative but to give her hand or her life, and on her complaint & warrant was issued and placed in the hands of Detective Clarke, who had not up to four o'clock se- cured his man, A-color of truth was given to thia charge also by the disappearance early in the morn- ing of Mr. Risbey from his home witlfout acquainting his mother where he was going or how long he would. be away. If he does not get back soon his milk route will suffer, and if he does he will suffer. Mr. Risbey will bo twenty-two years of age next February, and Miss Huut, will be twenty-one @ month later, so that they were and are legally responsible for their acta aud ought to have well considered the outcome, ‘There are discrepancies, if not flat contradictions, in the stories told by the friends and relatives of the “bigh contracting parties” yesterday to the Henatp representative. REY. MR, VIRGIN'S JUSTIFICATION, ‘Tho Rey. Samuel H. Virgin, pastor of the Congrega- tional Church of Harlem, was first visited, He resic in East 124th street, near Third avenue, He it wae who-united the young people in marriage; but he ‘was not able to make the two hearts beat ag one. He showed the Hznatp ro) tative the record of the marriage, a duplicate of wnich he had given the bride- ene There is nothing in the handwriting of Mr. ishey to indicate excitement, and Mr, Virgin saw no evidenca in the countenances or actions of either that they were unduly excited. He noticed that the eyes of the hited lady looked red, and after he had per formed the marriage ceremony and was offerin, ag! for the young couple Mrs. Virgin tioticed th: iss Hunt used her pocket handkerchief to wi away a tear; but as the minister's eyes were close he could not have noticed this. There is a slight ine dication of nervousness in the lady’s handwritin; where she signed her name on the e record, But Mr. Virgin accounted for this by saying that the siguature was wade with his gold pen, and as ladtes are not used to gold pens she did not handle it casily. He had seen similar indications in the pen- manship of other ladies who have appeared fore him for marriage. In this case the persons were strangers to him. He had no reason to suspect duress or force on the part of the man nor unwilling consent on the part of the woman. Indeed, had Miss Hunt desired to escape, he says she could have done 80 from his house: for while he took Mr. Risbey into his study Miss Hunt remained in the parlor with a closed folded door be- tween them and the front door only a few feet from her and Third avenue, less than fifty feet away. Mr. Risbey was detained by the minister at least three minutes answering the usual questions, and not being able to tell the given name of Mrs. Hunt, he ef to Jessie to ascertain. She promptly gave the required information and afterward signed the record. as stated. HASTE WITH THE WEDDING. But, moreover, Mr. Virgin received the impression that there was nothing out of the ordinary run of marriages, from the fact that when he put the usual question, “Wilt thou, Jessie, take this man,” &c., and before he had finished the question, she answered it in tho: affirmative, He did not: notice it at the time as anything remarkable, because persons seeking mar- riage don’t carry prayer books with them and do not hae know when the question ends. But when his attention was after- ward called to Miss Hunt's statement that she had not responded he remembered that she had, and out of time too, But when he bad finished the question she bent her head, but gave no audible response. * And as indication of haste in the ceremony as well as of affection between the young couple . Virgin says that before he had quite finished his ser the young husband kissed bride and she returned it just as willingly and affectionately, And when they were going away from his house Mr. Risbe: handed him acrumplcdenvelope, on opening whic! subsequently a note was found which said simply that the writer would see Mr. Virgin again in afew days. Now, this fact does not indicate undue haste in the preparation, and Mr. Virgiu had no reason to suppose he had been in any sense or manner imposed upon. Both versons ‘lared that this was their, first murriage, but when the min- ister asked if either knew any obstacle in the way of their present union neither responded. But this is common occurrence and excited no suspicion, It had been stated that Mr. Risbey was married before and, while Mr. Virgin knew nothing about this, he ex- plained to them that a marriage contracted contrary to the law of God would not be sustained by the law of the State, MBS. RISBEX’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE CASE. The writer called on Mrs. Risbey at her residence, in 112th street, near Second avenue. Her son, as stated elxewhere, was absent, and could not be seen. ‘The lady herself was in mourning attire, having buried her husband only three months ago, and this publication has added to her deep sorrow. She was not inclined at first to say a word on the subject, but after a little conversation she consented to say a few things. Of course her information was circumstantial and second hand. While Miss Hunt was giving a mu- sic lesson to her little girl Mrs. Risbey was in the base- mut, and her two sons, David and one younger, were up stairs, When the lesson was finished David came down to the parlor and spoke with Jessie, and as Mrs, Ris! was afterward informed, he merely reminded her her re od vows of affection to him, and insisted that the marriage should take place then or never. Her reply was:—‘Well, go up stairs and put your hat and coat on, and I will go with you any- where.” The con ion was carried on in an ordinary tone. Had it been otherwise, Mra. Risbey down stairs would have heard it through the heater or her son up stairs would have heurd it there. Be- sides, there could not have been such a scene between the young people in her parlor as Jessie's friends describe without ha the attention of soma members of the houschold. Moreover, before they left the house Mrs. Risbey had gone up stairs and was dusting the’ banister and steps wi her son pened her going to his room for his overcoat and at. If Jewsie was in such dread gs she alleges she was she could have escaped while David was up stairs or she could have called for protection. But she did neither and walked out the door with him, his mother remarking that they were going to take a walk. Mra, Risbey ran down to her basement window and bade her son not be long away. He wi not long absent, and some time after is return in‘ the afternoon he called his mother aside and told her 6f his marriage. Sho doubted at first, but when he placed the certificate be- fore her she could no lounger doubt, She, however, tting married secretly, knowing as well as Jessie's parents were op- posed idestine marriage d that there was na occasion for either of them thus to go off and wed. VIEWS. ‘There are two ats, father and son, and, toe ther with Mrs, Hunt, they were found at their resi« Soave in Lexington avenue, near 108th street, They seemed to know the writer's errand, but when the object of the visit was stated Mr, Hunt, Jr., put on an air of supreme importance and begged his fathor to say no more about it, that what had been lished was correct. Mr, Hunt, Sr., stated that his daughter, Jessie, wax at that time up stai very sick with ‘nervous prostration; but that she bad becn able to go to the court in the morning to make affidavit to her complaint, She still adheres to her version of the threats to take her life, and expresses her determination not to live with Dave Risbey. She does not account for her quiet walk along First avenue, @ distance of twelve blocks, to the minister's house, when she might have followed Second ot Third avennes, wi were nearer, The time was between and ten o'clock in the fac Mae are apt to be about the streets, dogs account for her inability to escape from Mrs. Rishey's house, or rather, —— her brother accounted for it by saying that Daye was too f aay for her, But there are only sixty feet between . Risbey’s house and Second avenue, which is a business street, with store doors inviting entrance all the time and @ crowd ready to be g at any hour, There | ‘was no explanation of her failure to escape from the _ minister's house or to place herself under his protece | tion there if she di fed bodily harm or death by | 1 nine violence at the hands of the man she wedded, But @ general e: tion of her terror was given in tha — statement that she rode down to Fifty-third street, to _ her father’s place of business, und then went inta hysterfenl fainting fits, and in that enfeebled condi« tion, after visiting Police Headquarters, she was con« veyed home in the evening. ‘The friends of Mr, Risbey have a theory that Jessie was willing enough to marry him, but that she feared to let ter parents know that she had wedded pri« vately, She, therefore, it is said, requested him to ‘koep the marriage secret for a month, but resolved on publishing the fact to her friends and his, and on the strengtn of that resolve went to Lex- ington ayonue as stated. But inasmuch as some other young men of Harlem who have ying attentions to her would be disap. gery e worried over the matter and regretted er act almost as soon as it was completed, They strenuously deny the threats against her life, but her brother as stoutly asserts that he has repeatedly drawn charges from Dave's pistol to prevent shoot! that Dave Risbey has more than once followe: Jessie on the street, threatening to shoot unless she gave up Ler new beeus, . { i | |