task which no editor as such could well undertake, for he must in
that case assume responsibility for every word that appears, the
original author being reduced to a mute shade in the background.
On the other hand, if the explanation of the present heterogeneity
of mankind has become more difficult than ever, the description of
it may be improved by incorporating the results of the latest field
work. Hence the questionable pedigree is withdrawn; but the list
of the surviving members of the human family is carefully revised.
A systematic appearance is imparted to the catalogue by dividing
up the groups according to the nature of their hair. This leaves
Keane's classification almost unaltered in its surface appearance,
since his Æthiopians form the woolly-haired division, his Caucasians
the wavy-haired, the only difference being that the Australians who
count as wavy-haired must now come across from the negroids, of whose
characters they otherwise appear to possess a share. As for the
Mongolians and Americans, since both alike are straight-haired, they
need no longer be kept apart. It is a clever feat of substitution,
yet is one that is of little use to the student of the evolutionary
problem. The systematist gets on very well with hair as his differentia
until the question of development is raised. He thereupon finds,
first, that to relate present types to former ones is impossible by
this means, since prehistoric skulls have lost their hair entirely;
secondly, that the interrelations of present types are not made any
clearer, since no one has worked out the effects of cross-breeding
on the hair of the offspring. Thus it is a scandalous fact that
despite the copious interbreeding of whites with woolly-haired negroes
and straight-haired aborigines in America, no trustworthy data are
available from this or any other quarter in regard to the physical
results of such miscegenation. Is waviness of hair a pure or a mixed
form, or sometimes one and sometimes the other? Our authorities do
not seem to know; yet, so long as the matter is left undecided,
relationships based on similarity of hair can have no genetic
significance.
Another consequence of the suppression of the theory of a radical
division of the human stocks brought about by their development in
isolation is that the assignment of a special kind of mentality to
the different races loses most of its point. This never was a very
convincing side of Keane's work, for he seemed to lack the delicacy of
touch needed in order to bring out the subtler shades of meaning in
primitive religion, and hence could hardly do justice to the surest
diagnostic of the mental life. As it is, one is inclined to smile
at the drastic characterisations of peoples that survive, without
the excuse of a genetic explanation, in the revised text. Thus the
former edition summed up the Papuasian as "even more cruel than the
African Negro." This goes out in the present edition; but as we read
immediately below that the Tasmanian, another branch of the stock,
was "far less cruel," we have lingering doubts about the Papuasian
character as regards the habit of "seeing red." Without altogether
denying the possibility of an ethnic psychology, one may ask what
scientific basis is provided for one here. Whether Keane was right or
wrong, he did mean that temperament went with ancestry. But the present
work does not intend us to deduce a man's morality from his hair; so
that the bearing of mental traits on the problem of classification can
no longer be regarded as essential.
In conclusion, it is only fair to state that no pains have been
spared to secure the utmost accuracy in the statement of facts. As
an ethnology the book may be disappointing, because it amounts to an
admission that Keane's original attempt to construct a genealogy of the
human race outran the evidence. On the other hand, as an ethnographic
conspectus it will be very serviceable to the student. The idealist,
too, who is in a hurry to establish a uniform civilisation for all may
here come upon a useful reminder of the actual diversity of mankind,
though he may console himself with the thought that, as Heracleitus
long ago observed, "opposite friction knits the world together."
SCIENCE
SCIENCE AND LIFE. By FREDERICK SODDY. Murray. 10_s._ 6_d._ net.
This is a collection of addresses and articles indicative of the
author's activities as a chemist and as one of the leading figures
of Aberdeen University. A proportion of the addresses may be grouped
together as representing successive expressions of one leading thought,
the social advantages which may accrue from an intelligent application
of the method and results of scientific research to the utilisation of
natural sources of energy. "Scientific research is capable of raising
the general standard of life, without limit, by the solution it affords
of the material and physical problems that prevent progress"--this
is one of Professor Soddy's chief themes. The disadvantage, largely
inherent in a collection of such addresses, delivered to different
types of audience, is that, instead of having before us a clearly
reasoned and cumulative treatment of the problems involved, we take up
the matter afresh, from a slightly different aspect, in each separate
address and run over very much the same ground, at one time as a member
of the Independent Labour Party, at another as a member of the Aberdeen
Chamber of Commerce, and so on.
There is much overlapping, and a certain feeling is aroused that we are
not much further than we were in the preceding address. Nevertheless,
the problems which Professor Soddy handles are of such importance that,
while we regret that he has not judged fit to embody the matter of
several of his separate addresses in one consecutive essay, we believe
that it is right that his opinion should be placed permanently on
record. Besides these addresses on the place of science in society,
we have two popular expositions of the march of science, in which
Professor Soddy has himself made such notable advances--one on the
Evolution of Matter and one on _Radioactive Change_. The views on the
transmutations of the elements, which attracted much attention in the
daily Press, are not, of course, new, but the account is remarkably
clear and affords an excellent summary of the present state of the
science of radioactivity, which can be understood by the average
reader. Elsewhere in the book, both in separate articles and in
addresses, there is much criticism, of more or less parochial interest,
of the administration of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of
Scotland.
A TEXT-BOOK OF HYGIENE FOR TRAINING COLLEGES. By MARGARET AVERY.
Methuen. 7_s._ 6_d._ net.
This little book has apparently been written chiefly to help students
at training colleges through their examinations, and suffers from many
of the usual faults of cram books. The information is scrappy, and
the style so condensed that in many parts the book reads more like a
series of notes than a connected treatise. A more serious fault is that
the scientific information is not always correct--for instance, the
examination of recruits and pensioners during the war has disproved the
common assertion that the cause of short sight is reading small print,
doing fine sewing, and so on, and has tended to show that excessive
physical exertion of certain types, such as lifting heavy weights, is
in many cases the inducing cause. This is a point of importance to
school teachers, as short sight is aggravated by many of the physical
exercises now in vogue. In other cases, the most recent work is not
quoted. But the book is largely redeemed by the very sane way in which
wide social topics, such as temperance and eugenics, are discussed. The
latter subject is handled with a desire to get at the facts, uncoloured
by prejudice, which is to be commended, and Miss Avery seems for the
time to get away from the haunting thought of the examination syllabus.
The book will appeal to all interested in primary school education,
for it contains a good deal of information as to actual conditions in
various centres.
HERSCHEL. By HECTOR MACPHERSON. Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. 2_s._ net.
This short biography is the latest addition to the "Men of Science"
section of the series "Pioneers of Progress" now being published by
the S.P.C.K. It gives an excellent little account of the life of the
older Herschel, and, necessarily, tells us something of his devoted
sister Caroline, probably the first woman to do work of importance
in the exact sciences. A poor German musician, who left--some say
deserted from--the band of the Hanoverian Guards to come to England,
Herschel built up for himself a considerable position in the English
musical world before he turned his attention to the science in every
branch of which he made magnificent advances. His theory of the
stellar system opened a fresh field for observation and speculation;
his studies of Saturn and Mars gave us our first detailed information
about these planets; he discovered Uranus--loyally named "Georgium
Sidus"--and binary stars, and contributed important observations in
every department of observational astronomy then known. His theory of
the sun, if ludicrous in the light of our present knowledge, was the
first attempt at a general treatment of solar problems. Considering
the small size of the book, Mr. Macpherson's treatment is remarkably
comprehensive, and provides a graphic and sympathetic sketch of the
life and works of the great astronomer.
DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Knowledge. No. 1. January,
1920. 6_d._ net. No. 2. February. John Murray.
This new periodical appears under distinguished auspices, the trustees
of the deed by which it is maintained being Sir J. J. Thomson, Sir F.
G. Kenyon, Professor A. C. Seward, and Professor R. S. Conway. The
object is to give a popular presentation of advances made "in the
chief subjects in which investigation is being actively pursued," and
it is announced that the articles will be written in plain, simple
language. An imposing list of writers who have made or promised
contributions assures us that they will be authoritative. The purpose
of the promoters of this journal is worthy of all praise, and the
articles in the first number range over a wide field of interest, and
include _The Secret of Philæ_ (Professor Conway), _The Modern Study of
Dreams_ (Professor T. H. Pear), and _Discovery and Education_, written
by the Master of Balliol, with his usual forcefulness and insight.
While paying tribute to the spirit of the undertaking, we venture, with
some diffidence, to offer the opinion that in many points the paper
might be much improved by more informed editing. In the first place
it does not seem that any clear idea has been formulated as to the
class of reader to whom appeal is to be made; every author appears to
have a different standard of erudition in view. For instance, is it
assumed that to the average reader of the _Times_, say, the vocabulary
of Dr. Slater Price's article on _Smoke Screens at Sea_--chlorinated
hydrocarbons, kieselguhr, thermite, oleum, and so on, offered without a
word of explanation--is plain, simple language? This article might have
been written for professional chemists who want to know what chemicals
have proved suitable for producing smoke screens; that on _Sound
Ranging_, on the other hand, with its forced breeziness, reads as if
intended for a school magazine. The make-up is not very attractive,
not vastly superior to that of the average parish magazine. The
single illustration which adorns the pages is a crude and amateurish
pen-drawing far better omitted, if nothing better could be found. In
short, the paper seems to suffer, at present, from lack of policy as
regards public, and lack of high standards as regards production and
illustration. We have no doubt that experience will rapidly rectify
these minor points, and we sincerely hope that the paper will find its
public and develop its sphere of usefulness.
BOOK-PRODUCTION NOTES
By J. H. MASON
The _Gazette du Bon Ton_, now beginning its third year, is so
extraordinarily clever that it sets one thinking about the
typographical importance of magazines. It is in them that typography
is seen at its liveliest, and it is a pity that after a comet-like
career we frequently lose sight of them. Why do not British publishers
and printers establish an exhibition hall on the lines of that at the
Buchgewerbehaus in Leipzig? The exhibitions should be varied, not
permanent, although there should always be an exhibition connected
with this all-important group of trades. The book-production of one
nation after another, their magazines, their book illustration, their
types and posters, their paper, their colour printing and newspapers
would provide ample material. Printing in its many forms is an almost
omnipresent element of our lives, and for this reason the forms it
takes are more important than the much-canvassed forms of modern
pictorial art. In the series of exhibitions there should be one of
magazines, particular care being taken to include those with a limited
circulation, or those which were experimental and ran only for a
short period. Gordon Craig's _Mask_, the _Neolith_, the _Hobbyhorse_,
the _Manchester Playgoer_, the Russian _Apollon_, the _Imprint_,
the _Game_, are just a few that occur to me as certainly not well
known, and yet they are all suggestive attempts to deal with magazine
typography, format, paper, and illustration.
The _Gazette du Bon Ton_ would certainly be included in such an
exhibition or section of an exhibition. Its two most important features
typographically are its type, a revived old style based on a design of
Nicolas Cochin, and its coloured illustrations. Three sizes of type
are used, in the _Avant-Propos_ a large 18-point, and in the body of
the magazine 14-point and 10-point (I give the nearest equivalents in
British sizes). The 14-point is an excellent choice, both in point of
weight and scale. I should prefer using it all through the magazine
to form a stable background to the very varied illustrations and the
capricious choice of initials and captions. The fine line illustrations
of page 10 are too light to keep the page together as they are meant to
do. The drawings were probably made without being tested by comparison
with the strong line of the type. The illustrations, in black with one
or two flat tints or full colours, give a real colour value that is
never obtained by the three-colour process. Take any book illustrated
by this process and test it by comparison with these _Bon Ton_ colours,
and if the colour sense has not been vitiated by a wrong standard
for coloured letterpress illustrations--such as oil paintings--the
superiority of the flat colour will be obvious. Even the chiaroscuro
block prints are capable of very pleasing effects, a hint of them
appearing in the tail-piece on page 4.
The "_Gazette du Bon Ton_ continuera d'être ... le lieu où les
couturiers et les peintres collaborent pour composer la silhouette de
leur temps." That sentence from the _Avant-Propos_ sums up what I have
to say of the type, the illustration, and the work as a whole. The
large type attracts attention at once, it spreads itself a little--a
shade wide--it slightly emphasises its idiosyncrasies (see the y with
its terminal serif, or the s, or the capital G, they have the very
accent of our own time); it is elegant, but not content with elegance;
it is on a good model, but perfection, the golden mediocrity, is felt
as constraint; it attains--reaches something a little _outré_.
NOTE.--Last month I inadvertently wrote Luckombe for Stower, although
the latter's _Printer's Grammar_ was on my table at the time.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF MODERN AUTHORS
ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES (Poet Laureate)
_Verse_
POEMS. Pickering. 1873.
THE GROWTH OF LOVE. Poem in Twenty-four Sonnets. 1876. [Reprinted with
omissions and additions, 1890.]
CARMEN ELEGIACUM ROBERTI BRIDGES: IMPENSIS EDUARDI BUMPUS. 1877.
POEMS. By the Author of _The Growth of Love_. Bumpus. 1879.
POEMS. By the Author of _The Growth of Love_. 3rd Series. Bumpus. 1880.
PROMETHEUS, THE FIREGIVER. Drama in Verse. Daniel Press. 1883.
[Reprinted by Bell, 1884.]
PLAYS: NERO, PALICIO, ULYSSES, CAPTIVES, ACHILLES, HUMOURS OF THE
COURT, FEAST OF BACCHUS, Second Part of NERO. Bumpus. 1885-94.
EROS AND PSYCHE. Poem in twelve measures. From Apuleius. Bell. 1885.
Again Revised 1894.
THE FEAST OF BACCHUS. A Poem. Privately printed, Oxford. 1889.
THE SHORTER POEMS OF ROBERT BRIDGES. Four books. Bell. 1890. [Frequent
reissues, the later have five books.]
SELECTIONS OF THE SHORTER POEMS OF ROBERT BRIDGES. Contemporary Poets.
1891. (Edited by A. H. Miles.)
ACHILLES IN SCYROS. Reprinted. Bell. 1892.
HUMOURS OF THE COURT. A Comedy and other Poems. Bell and Macmillan.
Copyright for America. 1893.
ODE FOR THE BICENTENARY COMMEMORATION OF HENRY PURCELL AND OTHER POEMS.
_The Shilling Garland._ Elkin Mathews. 1896.
POETICAL WORKS. Smith, Elder. 1898.
HYMNS FROM THE YATTENDON HYMNAL. Daniel's Private Press. 1899.
NOW IN WINTRY DELIGHTS. A Poem with a Note on Prosody. Daniel Press.
1903.
DEMETER, A MASQUE. Clarendon Press. 1905.
AN INVITATION TO THE PAGEANT. Ode. The Oxford Pageant Book. 1907.
POETICAL WORKS, excluding the Eight Dramas. Clarendon Press. 1912.
POEMS WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1913. Privately printed by St. John Hornby.
Ashendene Press. 1914.
IBANT OBSCURI. An experiment in the classical hexameter. Oxford.
Clarendon Press. 1916.
ODE ON THE TERCENTENARY COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE. 1916.
_Prose_
ON THE ELEMENTS OF MILTON'S BLANK VERSE IN _PARADISE LOST_. Clarendon
Press. 1887. (Revised, with additions, 1893.)
ON THE PROSODY OF _PARADISE REGAINED_ AND _SAMSON AGONISTES_. Clarendon
Press. 1889.
JOHN KEATS. A Critical Essay. Privately printed. 1895. [Originally
published as Introduction to the _Muses' Library_ Keats.]
MILTON'S PROSODY AND CLASSICAL METRES IN ENGLISH VERSE. W. J. Stone.
Oxford. 1901.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE AUDIENCE. Vol. 10, Shakespeare's Works. 1907.
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION. English Association.
1910. (Reprinted, with three plates, 1913.)
ESSAY ON KEATS. Revised in _Poetical Works of John Keats_. Hodder and
Stoughton. 1916.
POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS, with Critical Essay. Clarendon Press.
1916.
AN ADDRESS TO THE SWINDON BRANCH OF THE WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL
ASSOCIATION. Clarendon Press. 1918.
THE NECESSITY OF POETRY. An Address. Clarendon Press. 1918.
ON ENGLISH HOMOPHONES. Oxford. 1919. (S.P.E. Tract No. 2.)
He has also edited the Poems of R. W. Dixon, Digby Dolben (with
Memoirs), and Gerard Hopkins.
ALICE MEYNELL
_Verse_
PRELUDES. 1875. H. S. King.
POEMS. 1893. Lane.
OTHER POEMS. 1900. Privately Printed.
LATER POEMS. 1902. (Printed in U.S.A.)
POEMS. Burns & Oates. 1913. [A Collected Edition.]
POEMS ON THE WAR. 1915. Privately Printed.
A FATHER OF WOMEN AND OTHER POEMS. Burns & Oates. 1917.
_Prose_
THE POOR SISTERS OF NAZARETH. 1889. Burns & Oates.
THE RHYTHM OF LIFE AND OTHER ESSAYS. 1893. Lane.
THE COLOUR OF LIFE AND OTHER ESSAYS. 1896. Lane.
THE CHILDREN. 1896. Lane.
LONDON IMPRESSIONS. 1898. Constable.
JOHN RUSKIN. 1899. (Modern English Writers.) Blackwood.
THE SPIRIT OF PLACE AND OTHER ESSAYS. 1899. Lane.
CHILDREN OF THE OLD MASTERS. 1903. Duckworth.
CERES' RUNAWAY AND OTHER ESSAYS. 1909. Constable.
MARY, THE MOTHER OF JESUS. 1912. Medici Society.
ESSAYS. Burns & Oates. 1914. [A "Collected-Selected" edition.]
HEARTS OF CONTROVERSY. Burns & Oates. 1917.
She has also written Introductions to numerous reprints.
She has also selected or edited the following: Poems of _T. G. Hake_;
_Extracts from Samuel Johnson_ (with G. K. Chesterton); _Poems of J. B.
Tabb_; _The Flower of the Mind_.
DRAMA
THE THREE SISTERS (_Tchekhov_) COURT THEATRE
MEDEA (_Euripides_); CANDIDA (_Shaw_) HOLBORN EMPIRE
PYGMALION (_Shaw_) ALDWYCH THEATRE
THE YOUNG VISITERS (_Daisy Ashford_) COURT THEATRE
JOHN FERGUSON (_St. John Ervine_) LYRIC THEATRE, HAMMERSMITH
MINIATURE BALLET--RUSSIAN MINIATURE
THEATRE DUKE OF YORK'S
GRIERSON'S WAY (_H. V. Esmond_) AMBASSADORS
The list of plays which I have selected from those I have seen during
the last month is not without interest. It contains one play which
is not Tchekhov's finest work, but which nevertheless has no rival
among the others on the list, and it was performed for exactly one
afternoon by the Art Theatre under Madame Donnet. The plays next in
merit--Euripides' _Medea_ and Shaw's _Candida_--were given by Mr. Lewis
Casson and Mr. Bruce Winston at _matinées_ at the Holborn Empire for
exactly one week each. Shaw's _Pygmalion_ and Daisy Ashford's _The
Young Visiters_ may be expected to run--the former in proportion to its
merits, the latter in no equality at all, either with its notoriety or
its charm--for a couple of months. At a considerable distance comes
Mr. Ervine's _John Ferguson_, a play which, if considered by the
side of those I have already named, must be ranked very low, but if
considered with all those I have not named--now being played at London
theatres--must be ranked as respectably good, neither very much better
nor very much worse than the average West-End theatrical entertainment.
For _John Ferguson_, like _Tea for Three_ at the Haymarket, is an
entertainment, only it does not make you laugh; it entertains you as a
street accident does--a very bloody street accident. Finally--leaving
out the Russian Miniature Theatre, which is really Ballet--we come to
_Grierson's Way_, the resuscitated by-product of Mr. H. V. Esmond. Here
we come to a play that--if, as our tabulation almost suggests, plays
run in inverse proportion to their merit--should run for ever.
Of Tchekhov's _The Three Sisters_ I shall not attempt to say much. Like
all Tchekhov's plays, it must be extraordinarily difficult to act, and
I did not think that, on the whole, it was acted very well, although
Miss Dorothy Massingham (Irina), Miss Helena Millais (Natasha), Mr.
Tom Nesbitt (Audrey), Mr. Leyton Cancellor (Chebutikin), Mr. William
Armstrong (Kuligin), and others made praiseworthy and not altogether
unsuccessful efforts to present the characters they were playing.
There was also something very plausible and real about Mr. Harcourt
Williams's Vershinin, and Mr. Williams has a great advantage in his
voice. It was the production rather than the acting that was at
fault, but, inadequate as it may have been, it could not prevent the
extraordinary force of the play making itself felt.
There are some people who would call Tchekhov a realist and _The Three
Sisters_ realism, but it is Mr. Ervine in _John Ferguson_ who is the
realist, if by that one means reproducing on the stage as closely
as practicable what might be happening off it, with the action and
language rendered as faithfully as possible. It was probably Mr.
Ervine's knowledge of this fact, and the serious deficiency which it
indicates, that made him introduce the village idiot to talk about
"wee" stars, and give the audience what is always the realist's idea
of a little poetry. As a man of letters, and not a mere theatrical
hack, he knows of the utter barrenness of the photographic reproduction
method in art. He probably knows also that it is not even enough to
select, that the artist must create. Unfortunately this is just what
the mere intellectual, the merely clever man can never do, and when he
is clever enough to know that he must make an attempt at it he produces
something like Mr. Ervine's village idiot, something that is borrowed
and extraneous to the real matter power of the play. The poetry, the
creative power of Tchekhov, on the other hand, is immanent and infuses
the whole conception of _The Three Sisters_. So true is this that when
we saw the play in the auditorium of the Court Theatre we felt that it
was our lives we were watching, our destinies we were seeing played
out; and this in spite of the fact that every detail of the scene was
strange, every custom unfamiliar, and the wealth of local colour such
as to produce a sensuous impression as strong as music.
Nothing extraordinary happens in Tchekhov's play. The characters
meet, talk, fall in love, part, die in the casual way in which we
all do these things--the actual events in Mr. Ervine's play are far
less usual, just as a street accident is an occurrence less frequent
than afternoon tea; but the whole play is an imaginative expression
of the inner feelings of three human beings--the three sisters. It is
extraordinarily imaginative, that is the point I want to make, and
it is useless to ask me why it is imaginative--that is Tchekhov's
secret. You never feel this is what actually happened three hundred
miles from Moscow in the year 1892; you feel, on the contrary, that
this never happened at all, but that it is what goes on inside us,
millions of us, all the years of our lives, although it may never or
very rarely come up to the surface of our consciousness and fill us
with the spiritual agony of _The Three Sisters_. In Mr. Ervine's play,
on the other hand, although, as I have said, the actual events are in
themselves of less common occurrence, we meet with something that we
feel certain must have happened yesterday and will happen to-morrow,
and its significance, somehow, seems to be _nil_. What artistic or
spiritual significance has a collision in the Strand between a taxi-cab
and a lamp-post? Whatever significance it has, it is that kind of
significance that Mr. Ervine's play possesses.