ii s. iv. AUG. 5, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
119
resume, at once concise and sufficiently full, of an
immense subject is no easy task ; but the amount
of co-ordinated knowledge of architecture, of
history and ecclesiastical antiquities, which Dr.
West has managed to pack into this instructive
volume, shows the hand of a master. It is more-
over written in an attractive style which some-
times rises into eloquence.
The comparative merits and demerits of the French and English builders in the point of artistic expression are fully discussed, and the author awards the palm to the French architects, especially for the marvellous elaboration of the western fronts of their cathedrals ; while, on the other hand, the more restrained and sober, and there- fore dignified, beauty of our English minsters contrasts favourably with the often extravagant ornamentation of their Gallic sisters. He declines to give an answer to the question which of the two nations has done the better ; but he more than suggests one in his final alternative : " Whether is it better to aim at a lofty ideal, which, proving beyond our reach, may become a mere dream of Heaven or to be content with a lower one within our grasp, even though it may keep us bound to earth." He had just before summed up our national weakness in these unflattering terms : " In art, as in empire, the English race has ever been the same opportunist, realistic, incapable in material matters of ever forming an ideal much above the Here and Now of daily life."
Among other points of interest Dr. West notes that it was the Roman house, rather than the Basilica, which furnished the ground-plan of the earliest Christian churches, a view which will be new to many. A lavish supply of illustrations mostly original, but in many cases taken from Bloxam's well-known work adds much to the charm of the book.
IN The Cornhlll Magazine Sir Charles Darling has a paraphrase of Villon's Ballad of Ladies of Old Time which is elegant in its way, but too concise in style to be quite satisfactory. The Mar- chesa Peruzzi de' Medici (nee Edith Storey) has a pretty reminiscence of ' Thackeray, my Child- hood's Friend,' which reveals the novelist's tender heart for the young. Mr. Edmund Gosse goes back to his view, as a young man, of ' Two Northern Prelates,' of whom he gives a vivid account ; and Mr. W. D. Howells makes the most of ' The Human Interest of Buxton,' writing with the ease of an accomplished hand. ' Priam's Cellars ' is a fascinating account by Sir A. Quiller- Couch of how he came into the possession of an overgrown and half -forgotten garden. " Q." is here at his best in his own district of Troy. ' Some Soul of Goodness,' by R. O. M., is a capital short story of a gipsy-boy whose black eyes won the favour of a girl. She found out the scheme by which he recovered his dog from a party of rival gipsies, but let him go for the sake of a kiss.
Mr. A. C. Benson has an excellent subject in Charles Kingsley,' and brings out well the vigour and force of the man. But he begins with contrasting his subject and Pepys, as their por- traits gaze at each other in Magdalene College, Cambridge, and says, " The tribe of Pepys exploit the world, but do not advance things a jot." He seems not to have realized that the navy of England rather an important part of the country owes much to Samuel Pepys as an
honest and capable administrator. The story o*
Kingsley suddenly feeling the need for tobacco and
producing a pipe out of a big furze-bush is-
pleasant, but not novel.
In the competition concerning Thackeray the replies are given, and questions are asked about Tennyson by Mr. A. D. Godley.
The Fortnightly opens with an appreciation by " Index " of ' A Business-like King,' and there are,, as usual, several other political articles. ' Some Talks with Mr. Roosevelt,' by Mr. Sydney Brooks, tells us a good deal that is of interest concerning a figure less dominant than heretofore. He says that America as a whole has not lost its interest in Mr. Roosevelt. " The East, and Wall Street especially, still honours him with a quite dis- tinctive hatred, and the New York Press practic- ally boycotts him." He does not hanker to return to the Presidency, and is " still frankly disappointed in Mr. Taft." Mr. Brooks, whose writing is always thoughtful and better balanced than that of the violent partisan, considers Mr^ Wood#ow Wilson, the ex-President of Princeton. University, as the most likely Democratic candi- date next year for the White House. ' Spanish- Novelists of To-day,' by Lily Higgin, and ' Sal- vatore di Giacomo : the Poet of Naples,' by Mrs.- Arthur Harter, are instances of the articles on foreign literature which make The Fortnightly of special interest.
The most noteworthy article in the number for us, however, is ' An Educational Wonder- Worker : Maria Montessori's Method,' by Josephine Tozier. It concerns the teaching of a lady professor in Italy who has worked at a school for feeble-minded children, and more recently at some new infant schools in Rome,, where wonderful results have been attained, by the use chiefly of the sense of touch, which is used as " the great interpreter of vision and guide to accuracy of perception." The ideas and results here put forward suggest that Maria Montessori will make something like a revolution hi education- ' Edward Munch ' is no doubt a remarkable Norwegian artist, but the Count de Soissons writes* concerning him in too excited and lyrical a strain: to carry conviction. ' From Father to Son ' is- a thoughtful commentary on the present state of politics by Mr. T. H. S. Escott, who dwells in- geniously on various good points in the Lords. Prof. R. Y. Tyrrell's ' Samuel Johnson : an Unbiassed Appreciation,' has the grace of all his. writing, but is not, to our mind, a very searching piece of criticism. The Professor notes quite rightly that " the fame of Johnson rests mainly on his talk," and, further, that he is hardly likely to have a rival among the literary men of London to-day, as they reserve their happy phrases for the press. The point of the passage from Con- greve's ' Mourning Bride ' seems to be missed. It is surely that Shakespeare had no such appre- ciation of architectural effect. The criticism of Johnson's imitations of Juvenal does not seem to us altogether fair, and while correcting the popular form hi which one familiar line is quoted, the Professor appears to misquote another. The line
Slow rises worth by poverty oppress' d ends really with " depress' d," and is preceded,, we think, by the weaker line.
