Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880., Various None [best books to read for beginners .txt] 📗

Cloth; On Her Head Was A

Plush Hat--What They Call A Gainsborough--Trimmed With A Long Graceful

Plume,  Also Of Cream-Color. Although Only Her Back Was Toward Me,  I Knew

By Instinct Exactly What Her Face Was. She Was Dark Of Course,  With A

Low Broad Forehead,  About Which Clustered Little Short Curls; Her Eyes

Were Superb,  At Once Laughing And Melancholy; Her Features Suggested

Rather Pride Than Softness; But Her Smile Was Enchanting,  Open,  Sunny,

Like A Burst Of Light From Behind A Cloud. Nothing Could Be More Real

Than This Vision. At First The Discovery Of This Magnificently-Endowed

Woman Rendered Me Happy: I Used To Walk Past The Shop Half A Dozen

Times A Day To Look At Her. Her Costumes Varied,  But They Always

Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 146

Suggested The Same Dark But Brilliant Lineaments,  The Same Graceful

Movements,  The Same Peculiarly Lovely Tones. She Often Looked Back At Me

Over Her Shoulder,  But Had An Air Of Evading Me. All At Once,  With

Surprise And Delight,  I Remembered That She Might Be Found In actual

Existence,  In Real Flesh And Blood. I Deserted The Image For A Week In

The Hope Of Finding The Reality. I Paced Fifth Avenue; I Went To The

Dry-Goods Stores; I Attended The Theatres. Often I Seemed To See Her

Before Me--The Picturesque Hat,  The Long Plume,  The Rich Mantle And

Dress. At Such Moments While I Pressed Forward My Heart Beat. When The

Cheek Turned Toward Me And The Eyes Lighted Up With Surprise At My

Disappointed Stare,  It Was Easy Enough To See That I Had Made A Mistake.

There Was The Hat,  The Cloak,  The Bewitching Little Frippiness Of Lace

And Net And Ribbon About The Bust. She Had,  However,  Copied The

Masterpiece Without Investing Herself With Its Soul: Her Face Was Vague

And Characterless,  Her Whole Personality Void Of That Eloquent

Womanliness Which Had So Wrought Upon Me. This Experience Was So Many

Times Repeated That I Was Frightfully Tormented By It. The Familiar

Dress Seemed To Reveal With Appalling Truthfulness The Lack Of Those

Qualities Of Heart And Soul Which I Demanded. Those Lovely,  Picturesque

Outlines Suggest Not Only Rounded Cheeks Colored With Girlish Bloom,  But

Something More; And The Graceful Draping Is Not A Meaningless Husk.

 

I Have Gone Back To My Shop-Window Image. She Never Disappoints Me. She

Is As Beautiful,  As Magnificently Endowed,  As Full Of Fascinating Life

And Spirit,  As Ever. I Sometimes Think,  Unless I Find Her Actual

Prototype,  Of Buying That Gainsborough Hat,  That Cloth Mantle And Velvet

Dress,  And Hanging Them Up In My Room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literature Of The Day.

 

 

 

 

     History Of The English People. By John Richard Green. New York:

     Harper & Brothers.

 

Most Readers Interested In english History Have Long Felt The Need Of

Such A Work As This,  In Which The Results Of Recent Research Among

Original Sources And Of The Critical Examination Of Earlier Labors Are

Gathered Up And Summarized In a Narrative At Once Clear And Concise,

Free From Disquisition,  Minuteness Of Detail And Elaborate Descriptions,

Without Being Meagre Or Superficial,  Devoid Of Suggestiveness Or Of

Animation. In calling His Work A _History Of The English People_,  Mr.

Green Has Not Undertaken To Deviate From The Beaten Track,  Devoting His

Attention To Social Development And Leaving Political Affairs In The

Background. What He Has Evidently Had In View Is The Fact That English

History Is In a Special Sense That Of The Rise And Growth Of Free

Institutions,  Exhibiting At Every Stage The Mutual Influence Or Combined

Action Of Different Classes,  Permeated Even When The Crown Or The

Aristocracy Was Most Powerful By A Popular Spirit,  And Contrasting In

This Respect With That Of France And Spain,  In Which During Many

Centuries The Mass Of The People Lost Instead Of Gaining Ground,

Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 147

Representative Bodies Analogous To The English Parliament Were Deprived

Of Their Rights Or Swept Out Of Existence,  And Liberty Was Sacrificed To

National Consolidation And Unity. Whence This Difference Came Need

Hardly Be Pointed Out. The Angles,  Saxons And Jutes Were Neither Freer

Nor More Enterprising Than The Franks And Other Teutonic Families; But

The Fortune Which Carried Them To Britain Saved Them From Inheriting Any

Onerous Share Of The Great Legacy Of The Roman Empire--With The Task Of

Absorbing And Transmitting Its Language And Civilization--Secured Them

Against The Risk Of Being Either Merged In a More Numerous Race Or

Submerged By A New Influx,  And Thus Preserved An Identity And Continuity

Which Link Their Latest Achievements With Their Earliest Exploits,  And

Stamp Their Whole Career With The Same Character.

 

With Such A Subject,  Mr. Green Has Had No Difficulty In So Marking Its

Divisions As To Concentrate Attention On Successive Epochs Without

Dropping The Thread That Runs Through The Whole. The Earlier Portions Of

His Work Are Naturally The Most Instructive And The Fullest Of Interest.

The Last Volume,  Indeed,  Which Covers The Ground From The Revolution To

The Battle Of Waterloo,  Besides Including The Index To The Whole Work,

Gives Far Too Rapid A Survey Of Momentous And Familiar Events To Afford

Profit Or Satisfaction. One Feels That,  While The Style Retains Its

Fluency,  The Tone Has Lost Its Warmth,  And That Much Of The Writing Must

Have Been Perfunctory: The Reading,  At All Events,  Cannot But Be So. But

Scarcely Any One,  However Well Acquainted With The Ground,  Can Follow

Without Pleasure And An Enlargement Of View Mr. Green'S Account Of

"Early England," "England Under Foreign Kings," "The Charter" And "The

Parliament" (From 1307 To 1461),  Which Form The Subjects Of The First

Four Books; While The Next Four,  Occupying The Second And Third Volumes,

And Entitled "The Monarchy," "The Reformation," "Puritan England" And

"The Revolution," Are Marked By A Grasp Of Thought,  A Fine Sense Of

Proportion,  A Thorough Knowledge And Well-Balanced Judgment Of Men And

Events,  And Not Unfrequently A Dramatic Force,  Which Sustain The

Interest Throughout,  And Which Make Them A Valuable Addition,  And

Sometimes A Necessary Corrective,  To The Fuller And More Brilliant

Narratives In Which The Same Periods And Subjects Have Been Separately

Treated.

 

Mr. Green Does Not Appear To Have Gone Deeply Into The Study Of Original

Sources,  But It Is Only In His Incidental Treatment Of Continental

History That His Deficiencies In This Respect Become Palpable. Here He

Is Often Inaccurate,  And Even When His Facts Are Correct His Mode Of

Stating Them Shows That He Is Not Master Of The Whole Field,  And Has

Little Appreciation Of Mingled Motives And Attendant Circumstances. Such

A Sentence As This: "The Restoration Of The Towns On The Somme To

Burgundy,  The Cession Of Normandy To The King'S Brother,  Francis,  The

Hostility Of Brittany,  Not Only Detached The Whole Western Coast From

The Hold Of Lewis,  But Forced Its Possessors To Look For Aid To The

English King Who Lay In Their Rear," Could Not Have Been Written With

Any Clear Ideas Of Either The Political Or The Geographical Relations

Of The Places Mentioned. What Is Meant By The "Western Coast"? Not,

Certainly,  The Towns On The Somme,  Which Lie In The North-East,  Nor

Normandy,  Which Has Indeed A Western Coast Of Its Own,  But Cannot Be

Said To Form Part Of The Western Coast Of France. Nor Does Brittany

Include "The _Whole_ Western Coast," Or Even The Larger Portion Of It,

While It Could Not Have Been "Detached From The Hold Of Lewis," Inasmuch

As He Had Never Held It. As Little Will That Remark Apply To The Other

Volume 26 Title 1 (Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science) Pg 148

Provinces On The Western Coast,  As These Were Still In His Possession.

Who Are Meant,  Therefore,  By The "Possessors" Of This Misty Coast,  And

Why The English King Is Said To Have Lain "In Their Rear," Can Only Be

Conjectured. It Is A Small Blunder That The French King'S Brother Is

Called "Francis" Instead Of Charles,  Since We Must Not Suspect Mr. Green

Of Confounding Him With The Duke Of Brittany,  Who Bore The Former Name.

But The Whole Passage,  In connection With What Follows It,  Indicates

That The Author Has Mixed Up The State Of Affairs At Two Very Close,  But

Very Distinct,  Conjunctures. Many Similar Instances Of Defective

Knowledge Might Be Cited,  Nor Are They Confined To This Early Period.

The Remark,  In Regard To Charles Of Austria (The Emperor Charles V.),

That "The Madness Of His Mother Left Him _Next Heir_ Of Castille" Is

Nonsense: He Was Her Heir In any Case,  While Through Her Madness He

Became Nominally Joint,  And Virtually Sole,  Ruler Of The Kingdom. His

Son Philip Had Not Been "Twice A Widower" When He Married Mary Of

England,  And The Assertion That "He Owed His Victory At Gravelines

Mainly To The Opportune Arrival Of Ten English Ships Of War" Is

Patriotic,  But Foolish. That "Catholicism Alone United The Burgher Of

The Netherlands To The Noble Of Castille,  Or Milanese And Neapolitan To

The Aztec Of Mexico And Peru," Would Be An Incomprehensible Statement

Even If Peru Had Been Inhabited By The Aztecs. Such Errors,  However,

Cannot Seriously Impair The Value Of Mr. Green'S Work. Its Merits,  As

Regards Both Matter And Form,  Are Solid And Varied. The Scale On Which

It Was Planned Adapts It Admirably To The Gap Which It Was Intended To

Fill,  And,  Except In The Latter Portions,  Its Comparative Brevity Of

Treatment Excludes Neither Important Facts Nor Modifying Views. No

Shorter Work Could Give The Reader Any Adequate Knowledge Or Conceptions

In Regard To English History,  And No Longer Work Is Needed To Make Him

Fully Acquainted With Its Essential Features.

 

     White Wings: A Yachting Romance. By William Black. New York: Harper

     & Brothers.--Roy And Viola. By Mrs. Forrester. Philadelphia: J.B.

     Lippincott & Co.--The Wellfields. By Jessie Fothergill.

     (Leisure-Hour Series.) New York: Holt & Co.--Troublesome Daughters.

     By L.B. Walford. (Leisure--Hour Series.) New York: Holt &

     Co.--Brigitta. By Berthold Auerbach. (Leisure--Hour Series.) New

     York: Holt & Co.

 

There Is A Time Appointed To Read Novels--A Time Which Belongs,  Like

That Of Other Good Things,  To Youth,  When The Real And The Ideal Merge

Into Each Other,  And Even The Most Practical Beliefs Turn Upon The

Notion That The World Was Created For Ourselves,  And That The General

System Of Things Is Bound To Furnish Circumstances And Incidents Which

Shall Flatter Our Unsatisfied Desires. It Seems A Pity That It Should

Not Fall To The Lot Of The Critic To Write Down His Impression