'"English Books; 1475-1900," by Charles J. Sawyer and F. J. Harvey Darton, seems to be a barefaced attempt to trap people into the rapid ay growing society of book' calicetors, 'At any rate, this most fascinatbook, telling as it does of a most fascinating Robby, has made a willing victim to' the. snare. T want to dash along to Charing We must say, however, that the translation of the title of the work not very satisfying, for the literal translation of the two Chinese characters, "The Centre, the Comnion," conveys a very foggy idea of the message of the book. We have] [long had a suspicion that there was nothing vague about the meaning this title to Confucius' contemporaries, but that it conveyed a very concrete idea to them, suggest jing perhaps some bit of ritual like the Emperor's worship of Heaven Crossroad end. rummage among fat the winter solstice, when he took. position at the centre of the the musty volumes displayed there altar, with all its geometrical and for a little book which T shall boy astronomical symbolism and was, for a song, but for which some one [for the moment in physical contact more surely inoculated with the with Earth and spiritual contact germ of book-collecting than T will Jwith Heaven, out off from the in-offer me a thousand pounds or so fluences of any other environment. writes "W.D.A." in the "Dally Ex-This is only guesswork, of course, press' but we are tempted to believe that The difficulty is that it is hard! some day when modern scholarship to discover which particular tittle, focused upon such matters in dusty volume is going to becom China and archaeology has become it were, your best seller. You science in this country, we shall may have to go on and on search-have a much more satisfactory VEnglish title for this "Chung. ing the bookstalls until you have.
Yung," than our conscientious, enough books to start a stall your-translators give us.
which would probably not be 10 profitable, 'As an ethical principle, however, ft is clear enough from' the text For instance, my appetite is What the title suggests. 'The lesson. whetted by these two authors tell-Jeonveyed is that of the "golden Ang me of books that one hundred mean." The way to be good, happy, worth about four 3nd successful in any walk' of life to avoid extremes, to cultivate On the other hand, they also tell such poise that neither the tugging me that a book need not be old to lof the emotions within, nor the inbe valuable, and that works of livfluence of men without, can force one to deviate from the sane middle. ing authors command good sums.
Bo the task of selection is rendered course.
Mr. King in his preface which, more confusing. the way, is written in chaste and "English Books," however lucid English, seeks to expound and tains much information expand upon the text. At times we value to prospective book collectors. {feel that he in giving us the spirit Its two volumes cover a span of 425 it, but again we sometimes get years of English literature, begin" the impression that he is straining ning with n reference to a volume ft and preaching from it rather than of epigrams under the title of expounding it. "This, however, is no hrestoleros," published in 15 sin, for like all ancient Oriental and written by a humble Dorset, docks this one, as we have pointed vicar, the Rev. Thomas Bastard, out, suggests more than it says and and finishing with Kipling. may suggest different ideas to different minds, so that any competent scholar Is entitled to his own, According to an announcement interpretation of its message as the "New York Times," Mr. John applied to modern life, At any rate Luther Long, the well-known playjwe are independent of Mr. King. wright, has died ina sanatorium at Clifton' Springs (New York). He! because we have the translated text, Iwhich: is indeed so close to. the was taken there two months ago original, sometimes so faithfully' from his home in a Phitadelphia Hiteral, that, like the title, it suffers suburb, Born in 1861, Mr. Long a little for want-of more imagina-wied Jaw in Philadelphia, and tive liberty. after being admitted to the Bar In his pret Mr. King shows at practised there for several years. the outeat that the philosophy of In 1808 he wrote a short story. the ancients whom' Confucius and "Madame Butterfly." David Lehhis grandson profess to quote was ce saw its dramatic possibilities founded. upon' their conception of and the two collaborated and mai the dualism of the universe.
They a play of it (1900). Later Puccini found. in all nature pairs of transformed it into the famous like so. many Asiatic opera of the same name. Tt is tho: igh, unlike many other stated that though well informed on aces, the Chinese conceived of these the customs of Japan Mr. Long. opposites as: being often com-himself never visited the country, plementary rather than antagonobtaining all his information from Into as for instance, light and dark, 4 sister, the widow of a missionary. and female, north and south, celestial and terrestrial.
His best-known play in this coun-in the joint and complementary Batieving try, perhaps, is "The Darling of the fluence of the extremes upon all Gods," also dealing with old Japan, they also believed in a medial which was produced in London by meeting point where the influences the Into Sir Herbert Tree. extremes harmonized and, ethically, they thought that it was at this medial point that man should
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.