spects. Bills and circulars should 4. Stay, if possible, at home. sent into unlimited be promptly quarantine. 2. Refrain from eating any bacon, fish, kidneys, &c., over which the Public Analyst has not held an inquest, or eggs that have not been sat upon by the Coroner. 3. Keep your mouth closed throughout the meal. On Going to Business. 1. Refuse all change that may be offered you by booking-clerks or ticketcollectors; if you do not care to lose such sums, insist on having newlyminted coins handed you, wrapped up in sterilized cotton-wool. 2. Don't open any carriage door yourself but send for a properly certificated Hospital Nurse to perform this risky operation. 3. If you must go to a refreshment bar, take your own filter, glass ware and crockery with you, also assorted repartees to any comments made by the barmaid. Punch. On Lunching at a Café. 1. Demand an interview with the proprietor and inquire if he has a clean bill of health. 2. Request to be shewn over the kitchen (using, of course, an asceptic respirator), and satisfy yourself that nothing tinned is to be found in the establishment. 3. Having thus filled up the luncheon hour, if necessary at various eatinghouses, postpone your repast until your return to your own asceptic dinnertable, by which time you will have lost such appetite as you may have had. On Taking a Holiday. 1. See that the district you select is thoroughly deodorized, deterged, and denuded of germs against your arrival. 2. Travel thither by balloon, having previously sent your obituary notice to the papers, and 3. Drop into the sea. If this doesn't cure you of any septic tendencies, we fear nothing ever will. Zig-Zag. BOOKS AND AUTHORS. Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. announce for early publication a volume which should throw light upon the interesting problems presented by the awakening of the Far East. The book is entitled "The Spirit of the Orient" and the author is Professor George William Knox, who lived in the East for many years. A. C. McClurg & Co. are to publish this fall "Ridolfo: The Coming of the Dawn," an Italian romance of the fourteenth century, written by Egerton R. Williams, Jr.: a novel of modern society life; "The Day's Journey" by Miss Netta Syrett: and a new story by Randall Parrish "Bob Hampton of Placer," which, like the author's previous romances, finds its theme in American history. The annihilation of Custer's regiment by the Sioux is the climax of this story. Little, Brown & Co. announce for early publication a new Japanese romance by Sidney McCall, "The Dragon Painter": a "Handbook of Polar Discoveries" by General Greeley; a new story for girls by Anna Chapin Ray, "Janet," which has Quebec for a background; a new library edition of Plutarch's Lives, Essays and Miscellanies; a second book of fables by Laura E. Richards; and a romance of old Quebec entitled "In Treaty with Honor," by Mary Catherine Crowley. The Athenæum prints the following curious note: Some ten years ago, on the publication of Mrs. Oliphant's "Life of Laurence Oliphant," interest was stimulated in one of the most extraordinary mystics of modern times, Thomas Lake Harris. By his followers he was regarded as a prophet, almost as a Messiah; by others he was denounced as a charlatan. Soon after the controversy excited by Mrs. Oliphants' volume had subsided Mr. Harris announced that he had discovered the secret of immortality by the inspiration of "The Divine Breath." His religion became one directly associated with the fight against physical death, and some strength was given to his arguments by a sort of rejuvenation which took place in his own body. Mr. Harris, however, died on March 23rd last, a fact which has been kept very secret hitherto. His biographer will probably be Mr. Edwin Markham, the poet, who in the meantime is preparing a volume of selections from Mr. Harris's writings. Other members of the community are arranging for reminiscences and experiences. Mrs. Eva Emery Dye finds new material for a romantic biography in the annals of Oregon, in a volume called from its hero's name, "McDonald of Oregon: A Tale of Two Shores," which A. C. McClurg & Co. are about to publish. The chance casting away of a party of Japanese on the Oregon coast many years ago inspired McDonald, a fully historical personage, to enact a similar drama in his own proper self with the characters and continents reversed. Landing on the shores of Japan he was passed from governor to governor until he reached the capital. There he was permitted to establish a school, and it was actually his pupils who acted as interpreters during the negotiations with Commodore Perry, generally supposed to be the first of Americans to enter Japan. Mrs. Dye has long been aware of the facts in McDonald's unusual career, having obtained them largely from his own lips; but she deferred publication until his papers finally reposed in her hands. It will be remembered that the hero of this new book entered largely into her story of "McLoughlin and Old Oregon," to which this later volume is in a sense a sequel. Commenting with warm appreciation upon the Rev. Samuel McChord Crother's "The Gentle Reader" The Academy remarks: From America we receive more books of such essays or papers than come from all the English publishers. The reason possibly is that, since there are more readers and writers in America than in England, therefore there are more examples of each different kind of book. But the essay, or the occasional paper, is becoming rarer and rarer in England. The essayist labors, of course, under a great disadvantage. Steele, Hazlitt, Stevenson, one or another is sure to be thrown in his teeth by the reviewers, just as it used to be the foolish fashion to tell a minor poet that he was not a Milton. But the novelist labors under the same burden: Fielding, Scott and Thackeray have lived and written; and the thought does not deter the novelist. The dearth of essays is probably due to the prevalence of fiction. The stimulus or the sedative, doctors tell us, must be increased, if it is to preserve its efficacity. The palate enured to chilis finds no flavor in white pepper. And the taste formed on novels, the hottest and strongest kindest of mental food, finds the essay insipid. So far as the interpretation of life goes, we are ready to believe that a novel-a good novelgives more of it than an equally good essay; but we may be permitted a sigh for the disappearance of a peculiarly pleasant form of literary art. SEVENTH SERIES No. 3247 Sept. 29, 1906. FROM BEGINNING CONTENTS. QUARTERLY REVIEW 771 Modern British Art and the Nation By 782 796 H. C. Bailey (To be continued.) 801 FOR SIX DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, THE LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage, to any part of the U.S. or Canada. Postage to foreign countries in U. P. U. is 3 cents per copy or $1.56 per annum. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office or express money order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. Drafts, checks, express, All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. and money orders should be made payable to the order of THE LIVING AGE CO. Single Copies of THE LIVING AGE, 15 cents. LA DERNIERE ROBE DE SOIE. Oh, silken gown, all pink and pretty. Bought, quite a bargain, in the City, Your ill-trained soul full false has played me No Paris gown would have betrayed On dual pathos made insistence. MODERN BRITISH ART AND THE NATION. Between fifty and sixty years ago John Pye, the engraver of Turner, wrote a book which he called "The Patronage of British Art." In this he gave a history of "the rise and progress of art and artists" up to, and during part of, his own time. The word "patronage" is now repugnant to the artist, who prefers to take his stand upon the more healthy basis of demand and supply which rules other branches of work. But, if we substi tute the word "demand" for that of "patronage," we may perhaps with some advantage follow up this enquiry begun by John Pye, and try to take stock of the progress of art in this country up to the present time. We may also try to forecast its probable future from the signs of to-day-signs which, in some respects, do not look very propitious. We English are not perhaps what is called an artistic people, but there is a large leaven among us exceedingly susceptible to artistic impressions. It is to these that we must look for the sustaining force of material support and appreciation without which the individual artist, and still more the artistic profession as a whole, cannot continue to exist. The vital question for British art and artists to-day is whether this national body of art-lovers is increasing or decreasing; whether the art of to-day is maintaining its hold upon the people and increasing its constituency, or whether, on the contrary, it is not in danger of becoming only the cult and shibboleth of a few, and those few themselves out of touch with the large body of their fellow-countrymen. Any one who has watched the progress of British art from this point of view must be impressed by the fact that it does not now excite so wide an interest in England as it did some thirty years ago. If it has not lost, it certainly seems to be losing its grasp of the mind and heart of the people. It is of little avail for the newspaper critics to write up this or that technical excellence, and to tell us that salvation can only be won by "art for art's sake." Even when we are told that so penetrating an eye as Millais saw that "much modern work is technically so good that it requires a very clever fellow to do anything better," there is still the seed of failure in it if it has no national basis in the love and appreciation of the people. Without this it must still be an exotic, and, like all exotics, will fade away and die as soon as the fostering warmth of its Own immediate surroundings happens to fail. By art which has a national basis we mean something which, to a considerable degree, has been evolved from the instincts, sentiments, and beliefs common to all, and which endeavors to answer some of those unspoken questionings inherent in all imaginative natures. Such art should illustrate life in its fullest sense, and those universal truths which belong to human nature, and are not only beautiful in themselves but are essential to it; which fashion does not change, but which remain the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. If art does not to some extent attempt to do this. it cannot be called national or popular, because it will not appeal widely to human nature; and, if it be not national in this sense, its hours are numbered. A people may live, perhaps a somewhat stunted and incompetent life, without art; but art itself cannot live without the people, nor can it develope into its highest and fullest vi |