his vices were those of a strong man, who was the embodiment of an age which had no faith in virtue. "He had a large and strong nature, which he worked and directed to his purposes. amiHe was "handsome, joyous and genial," able and pleasant," with "active brain" and "keen intelligence." These qualities in a man who was "profoundly secular" and wholly devoid of conscience, result in a character unsurpassed for capacity of wickedness. And yet" the exceptional infamy that attaches to Alexander VI. is largely due to the fact that he did not add hypocrisy to his other vices. But however much his own times may have forgotten that there was any meaning in the position of Head of the Christian Church, it is impossible for after times to adopt the same forgetfulness." (Vol. iv., p. 44.)

If Alexander VI. was a very bad man, he was also great man, and one who left a strong mark upon the history of his time. He is to be ranked with that group of great sovereigns, contemporaries of his, or nearly so,-Louis XI., Henry VII., Ferdinand the Catholic, whose reigns mark the transition from the disintegration of the middle ages to the compact

absolutism of modern times. The field in which Alexander worked was narrower, and, in this point of view, less conspicuous, and he did not live to finish his work. But he began the work which Julius II. completed, of centralizing the power and administration in the states of the church, and making the papacy for the first time a strong dynastic power. The sovereignty over these territories, first obtained by the great popes of the thirteenth century, was hardly more than a bare feudal suzerainty, until Cardinal Albornoz, in the pontificate of Innocent VI., forced the insubordinate princes to submit themselves to a regular and effective supremacy on the part of the pope, one nevertheless which left the substance of power with themselves. Cæsar Borgia, the son of Alexander VI., took the next step, by removing these intermediate powers, and bringing the territories in question under his own rule. Perhaps it was the intention to found an hereditary dynasty under the shadow of the papal see; Julius II. foiled this plan by ridding himself of the intermediary, and making the pope immediate ruler of his states. This series of events-from a political point of view perhaps the most interesting of the period is very inadequately treated in the volumes before us.

Mr. Creighton shows a thorough mastery of his materials, and a clear and sober judgment. His style is somewhat lacking in vivacity, and is at times diffuse-as is the excellent analysis of the character of Alexander VI., which is spread over many more pages than is necesW. F. ALLEN. sary.

CHARLES READE, NOVELIST.*

The manufacture of novels has become one of the most absorbingly interesting subjects of public study. In these days, whenever a novelist dies his factory is thrown open to inspection, either by an autobiography like Trollope's or a memoir like that before us. Then non-writing readers flock in to the vacant shop and gaze curiously on the complicated machinery, now silent and motionless forever. "Can this be the loom from which rolled that wonderful tapestry that held me spellbound so often and so long?"

The biographer of Charles Reade is the Reverend Compton Reade-his coadjutor, Mr. Charles L. Reade, disclaiming any part in the work save the collation of materials. The memoir suffers terribly by being inevitably contrasted with Trollope's inimitable autobiography. The nature of the work, the subject, and the treatment, are all inferior. A certain naïve silliness on the part of the tory literary blunders are irresistibly funny. chronicler keeps cropping out, and some of his characterizes low-lived blackguardism as "a reptile whose heart is as black as its hands." Then, speaking of Charles Reade's death, he

says:

He

"It came and, by one of those strange coincidences which appeal so forcibly to those whose faith shines brightest, on the afternoon of Good FRIDAY."

Oh forcible feebleness! The "coincidence" of dying on Good Friday!

So.

Trollope's literary methods-so many words per hour and per day-seemed prosaic and mechanical enough; but Reade's are still more The former showed the forced running of machinery, whereby warp and woof were woven together; the latter shows stacks and hoards of raw material, newspaper clippings, facts, pen-and-ink memoranda, and what not, laboriously amassed and classified for years, and at last perhaps "worked in "-more often left unused and forgotten.

Reade seems to have been an egotist first of all; then a man of conventionalized ability, of kind heart, of blinding prejudices, of elastic principles, and, above all, of a pugnacious sensitiveness that was everlastingly getting him into the hottest of hot water. It throws a funny side light on the practical value of "higher mathematics" to note that this Cambridge scholar of "honors" mathematical speaks more than once of losses in his dramatic speculations amounting to over two hundred

per cent.

Magdalen College, Oxford, is one of those

CHARLES READE, D.C.L., Dramatist, Novelist, Journalist. A Memoir, compiled chiefly from his literary remains, by Charles L. Reade and the Rev. Compton Reade. New York: Harper & Brothers.

His election as Demy had been protested against on the ground that the Founder's Statutes enacted that the Demies should be 'poor scholars,' whereas he was the son of a man of ancestry and estate. . The college elevated the Founder's Statutes into a matter of principle, because they wished to manipulate estates to suit their own convenience and enrich themselves individually."

From this charity fund, Reade drew not less than $2,000 a year for the remaining fifty years of his life-$100,000 in all-for which he never rendered one particle of service of any kind, unless we except assistance in defeating parliamentary efforts to abolish the whole thieving job and use the money as the donor had directed. What wonder is it that he shared the disgusting English view of the relation of meum and tuum as far as the rights of debtor and creditor are concerned? A debt is a misfortune and a dun is a bore. If, when I hold another man's money, he asks me for it, he insults me.

"It was impossible for the most self-assertive to take a liberty with him; and when, on an occasion, a tradesman whose bill had remained in abeyance for some years, thought fit to relieve his pent-up feelings, . he repented his temerity."

Again, in the matter of "white lies" he betrays an unpleasant obliquity of mental vision. "Received the visit of Miss a Yankee girl who wants to lecture here-I believe on Dickens. I was weak enough to be decoyed into a promise to hear her lecture privately with a friend or two. Not so weak as to go though."

To get through with Reade's personal characteristics, before reviewing the biographer's account of the production of his plays and novels, it may be well to look at the story of his relations with Mrs. Seymour. His Fellowship would be forfeited by marriage. Mrs. Seymour was an actress at the Haymarket, "above mediocrity," and "well-looking off the stage." Reade moved to her house, and afterward took her to his; introduced her to everybody as his housekeeper; was never separated from her for the remaining nineteen years of her life; mourned her death as a fatal blow to his happiness; called her his "lost darling;" was never really himself after he lost her, and

was buried by her side. The biographer (Rev. Compton Reade) says everything in his power to prove that their relations were purely platonic. He fails signally. It would perhaps be too much to expect that he should quote Reade himself on the point, as the question could never arise-no occasion would be likely to call out an assertion, nor would it be conclusive if it had been made. But it seems to the average reader that some words the reverend gentleman quotes to prove Mrs. Seymour's orthodoxy in creed, indicate latitudinarianism in behavior. They are: "I robbed God of a saint, but not of a believer."

Now for the more important matter-Reade's literary method and its result. He says (p. 285):

"Sometimes I say it must be dangerous to overload fiction with fact. At others I think fiction has succeeded in proportion to the amount of fact in it.” His course tends to show that when he erred it was in the former direction. Probably no fiction-writer who ever lived got together such enormous and unwieldy masses of material. Volumes upon volumes of scrap-books-piles of portfolios of fact and history-the whole so belabored and systematized that the indexes and cross-indexes alone filled thirteen huge tomes written in double columns. His desk was an edifice and his reference books a library. From such a system sprang such novels as might have been expected-fact-laden, wordy, uneven, ill-constructed as works of mere fiction; yet, in their way, great. Great, that is, as factors in the reformation of abuses (as those of prisons and insane asylums), the exposing of social ulcers (as the cruelties of trades unions), the teaching of human history (as effected in "The Cloister and the Hearth"), and, in short, the forwarding of other aims toward which a philanthropic novelist would be likely to direct his efforts. The works sent forth with these worthy purposes are works of art; and their art goes to the extent of making them sufficiently full of human interest to carry the reader's attention and sympathy.

Then there is a different strain of fiction which Reade took up as his first style and to which he reverted after the production of his most ambitious works. "Peg Woffington" and "Christie Johnstone" were among his earliest, sweetest, and best. "Love me little Love me long,' ""Never Too Late to Mend," "White Lies," "Very Hard Cash," "The Cloister and the Hearth," and "Put Yourself in His Place," were his purposeful works. Then followed "Griffith Gaunt," "A Terrible Temptation," and others, which may be taken as a return to his earlier style,-constructed on fancy, not fact. These ten are the most important of his many publications, and they probably place him at or near the head of the second-rate novelists.

Although dealing so largely with fact, Reade fell just short of the glory of realism. He constructed everything that appeared. He lacked the docility which closes the eyes and ears to all prejudice, to all objects that the author might desire to attain, to all external influences whatever, and simply watches what its characters will do and say of their own volition; and then faithfully puts those doings and sayings before the reader, unadorned, undisguised, and unvarnished. Lacking this humble docility, he cannot be placed among the first class of fiction writers, the latest and highest exemplars of literary progress.

His own favorite field was the drama. He always longed to see his fancies embodied on the stage, and spent like water his time, his temper, and his money, in the effort to be a successful dramatist. It seems probable that his dramatic experiments cost him as much, or nearly as much, as his literary labor earned,leaving his living expenses to be paid by his college alms. This may be an overestimate, for he received large sums at the height of his success-$10,000 for "Foul Play," $7,500 for "Griffith Gaunt," and $3,000 for one edition (1,500 copies) of "A Terrible Temptation." But the biographer speaks of "vast losses by theatrical speculation, which he himself set down at an almost fabulous total." Reade's contact with the stage was doubly unfortunate in that he was absurdly sensitive to ridicule. "Punch" travestied "Foul Play" under the name of "Chicken Hazard," and the poor sufferer could not be persuaded to look upon it as good-natured chaff, rather flattering than otherwise. He called it desecration of a work of art. "He was hurt, far more so than when they styled two of his works immoral." Even his too partial biographer repeatedly speaks of him as hysterical" in his expressions when his feelings were touched. Reade would rather rest his hope of immortality on his play "Masks and Faces" than on all his novels together. He was devoted to Ellen Terry and her sister Kate, to Henry Irving, to a dozen or a score of other professionals, and yet he characterizes the theatre as "that den of lubricity."

66

It seems almost incredible that the author of both should put "Masks and Faces" above "The Cloister and the Hearth." The latter work is his book of books. It lingers in the memory whence a thousand other novels have faded away. It has been called "the greatest of historical romances," oftener perhaps than "Henry Esmond" itself. Reade thought that George Eliot was moved to write "Romola" by the success of "Cloister and Hearth;" and he was not fond of that author. He calls her, contemptuously, "Georgy Porgy," and his biographer (churchman always) says of her:

"Charles Reade held her cheap, simply because he realized more acutely than the rest the inherent defect in her art; but it may safely be affirmed that he would have passed her unnoticed but for the venal pæans that deafened his ears and aroused his righteous indignation. Since then much has happened, and George Eliot, her works and ways, may be safely relegated to the judgment of the 20th century.

In "Griffith Gaunt," and still more markedly in "A Terrible Temptation," Reade overstepped the boundaries which separate the fiction of our tongue from the license of continental writers. The main objection made to the first named book at the time of its publication was its deliberate portrayal, with the utmost detail, of the life of the hero as the husband of two women at once; loving them both in different fashions, but to an equal degree; and the final winning of him by one of the women on her bearing him a child. This Reade defended with characteristic fierceness, on the score of dramatic necessityinventing the alliteration "Prurient Prudes " to fit his assailants. Good men accepted his plea of dramatic necessity. Edwin Arnold wrote to him:

I am no

"I found in it Nature. novel-reader, and in morals they call me a Puritan -but I admire and marvel at your exquisite and most healthy story, which teaches the force of a true love over an unspiritual temperament."

But even if we admit his plea on the general issue, what can be said in defence of the particular offence of putting indelicate words into the delicate lips of maidenhood? What motive could there have been save the suggesting of impure thoughts to the reader? "Tis but a straw, but it marks the drift of the current. Here is what the foolish biographer says about our American view of "Griffith Gaunt" and the idiotic lawsuit that Charles Reade based upon it:

"As it happened, the severer censors were found, not in Exeter Hall but in the United States. There was a print, affected by Brother Jonathan, bearing the romantic title The Round Table.' This organ of moral perfection elected to regard Griffith Gaunt' as a snake in the grass, and said as much; or, rather, to be accurate, a good deal more. Charles Reade rejoined with his normal pulverizing fury, and, not content with having crushed his butterfly with a brickbat, had recourse to legal proceedings. Here he was less triumphant. In 'the States' a verdict is said to depend on your ability to procure a judge, and having secured that vantage, to attract the sympathies of a jury. The former of these requirements could be met by the dodgery of your American legal representative, the latter was a physical impossibility."

The calibre of this writer can be fairly gauged by this specimen.

Turning now to "A Terrible Temptation," we come to a tale where the motive is bad, and the thing sought to be brought about is

bad, and consequently the "dramatic necessities are no defence. Reade was appalled at the storm he had raised, and denied the imputation against the virtue of his heroine; but his denial was not received with credence; nor has he been forgiven-nor does he deserve to be so. It is evident that the fiction of our language must be more courageous hereafter than it has been heretofore, or it will lose its proud eminence and must take a retired place in the hemicycle of letters. But its boundaBut its boundaries, though broader, must be just as firmly and unmistakably marked as ever. The glory of English fiction is its purity. Compared with that of France and Russia, it is in many respects timid and conventional, narrow, backward, stilted, and stunted; but it is cleanly. Ours with its failings is better than theirs with its faults.

Reade's experiences are a fit guide and warning to the novelist of to-day; showing as they do the limits of things that may be said. The test of "dramatic necessity" must be strictly construed and rigorously applied. JOSEPH KIRKLAND.

TALKS ABOUT LAW.*

It

It is evidently the ambition of Mr. E. P. Dole, while he disclaims "the delusive pretence of qualifying every man to be his own lawyer," to give valuable information, upon many legal subjects of practical importance, to a large class of readers of general intelligence. Accordingly he presents us with forty-three chapters of popular commentaries, or talks, occupying several hundred pages, upon numerous subjects, pertaining to Procedure, the Domestic Relations, Contracts of various sorts, and the Criminal Code; including dissertations on Bailments, Corporation Law, Commercial Paper, Insurance, etc. will be seen that this is no small ambition. The author aims to "give the non-professional reader, in a simple way, such general information upon this most interesting and important subject as all intelligent persons are expected to have in regard to other subjects;" this because, so far as he knows, "nothing of the kind has ever been published." This is more than Kent or Story ever aimed at. How can it reasonably be expected that non-professional readers can acquire a useful smattering of much of the Law, when erudite professionals find themselves able to become familiar with only some special department or departments, and but few close students of the Law can acquire even a general knowledge of all its branches? The truth is, that in spite of his

TALKS ABOUT LAW. A Popular Statement of what our Law is and how it is Administered. By Edmund P. Dole. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

disclaimer Mr. Dole gives us simply "Every Man his own Lawyer" in a new and more gossipy form. The book covers too much ground to permit all to be well covered. Some of the author's chapters, such as his commentaries on "Land Law," his brief notes on "Insurance," or his argument as to what the law ought to be on the "Divorce Question," are not only readable and interesting, but may prove instructive to the general reader. Limiting himself to a few such topical essays, the author might have furnished us an American book like the English one of Mr. Williams, "Forensic Facts and Fallacies," (noticed in THE DIAL, Oct. 1885). But not all of Mr. Dole's topics are susceptible of such treatment. Take, for instance, the subject of the real estate of Husband and Wife, the rules governing which in the various States differ so widely, and how inaccurate to state it as a universal American modification of the common law, that "neither can give a clear title to real estate without the signature of the other."

There are many subjects chosen by the author, upon which generalization would be seriously misleading. For example, his account of the beginning of a civil suit at common law, by placing a writ for service in the hands of an officer, whose "first act is ordinarily an attachment of the defendant's property or an arrest of his person," would be of little value to a reader of any class in any of the numerous "Code States," so called. The author has "taken great pains to make the work accurate as far as it goes." He affirms of the sovereign right of Eminent Domain, that "in many cases the United States can exercise it only through the agency of State Legislatures;" forgetting that in the Cincinnati Post Office case, in 1875, the United States courts, exercising original jurisdiction of the condemnation proceeding, said of the respective Federal and State Governments, "Neither is under the necessity of applying to the other for permission to exercise its lawful powers." Again, "to speak with entire accuracy," he insists that "no corporation, public or private, can take land in the sense of acquiring a title to it in fee-simple." The fact is, that Tennessee has, through the exercise of eminent domain, given the fee in lands to several railroads, and that the fee is now given in California for public buildings, in Minnesota for State institutions, and in Virginia and West Virginia for various purposes; and doubtless the Government took the fee in the Cincinnati Post Office case. He avers that "as a rule, one who is injured while unnecessarily travelling on Sunday can maintain no action for damages;" a rule peculiar to New England, though not universally followed there, and which was repudiated in New York, in Carroll's case, in 1874, and is generally rejected

outside of New England. The author is talking to a New England audience again when, in discussing the liability of public corporations, he says that cities and towns are not liable for accidents upon free highways or bridges, unless made so by statute; a rule peculiar to his own section. These are such defects as may very naturally pertain to any attempt to accomplish the great task, which this book essays, of instructing the in a many large number of the intricacies of the Law. If such a scheme were practicable, Mr. David Dudley Field would have no occasion or excuse for urging upon the American Legislatures the adoption of his new Civil Code. Unfortunately, there is neither a royal nor an easy road to a familiar acquaintance with the Law. JAMES O. PIERCE.

THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS.*

The two handsome volumes before us are redolent of fresh northern breezes and seem wreathed with the dainty Linnea borealis. From the country parsonage in Småland, where Linnæus was born, the author has followed the course of all his wanderings, and given us as a result not merely a book of travels, though as such it is excellent. We

are shown those northern cities, villages, rivers, forests, waterfalls, churches, people, and lonely wilds, not only as they are to-day, but as Linnæus saw them; and we are given his own remarks and pen-pictures of them. All of this, however, is skilfully made subservient to the predominant motive of telling the story of his life, which stands clearly outlined against the ever-shifting and rich scenic background. The work is not only one of consummate interest but also of approved authority, since it shows careful research among the papers, correspondence, and collections of the great naturalist. Scientific accuracy has been made a chief aim, and hence the work is of double value to the student of natural history.

Very inviting is the appearance of these volumes, with their uncut edges and clear type. The cover presents a graceful design of the trailing plant Linnea borealis, which, with its pairs of nodding roseate bells, was Linnæus's favorite. Two fine maps of Sweden are an admirable feature; but it would have been better to dispense with the six illustrations, in one of which we see the statue of Linnæus through an appalling jungle of flowers. In the landscapes, all the people are counting stamens and petals; while the piece called "Linnæus in Småland" is a libel on both hero

* THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNÆUS. A Chapter in Swedish History. By Mrs. Florence Caddy. In two volumes. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

and landscape. Any good Swede will resent having the world believe that young boys in Småland run about in a garb fit only for a masque or merry-andrew scene.

The plan of the work is fascinating. As this bright writer follows Linnæus in his four tours through Sweden, she shows us many vivid panoramas from Lapland, with its lakes, flowers, and golden summer nights, to southern woodlands where the nightingale dare venture. No chapter is richer than that on Öland and Gothland, with their runic stones, crumbling cloisters, wealth of witchcraft, and rare flora. Too hasty deductions concerning the customs and people are, perhaps, occasionally drawn; but the narrative is all well told. Not once does interest flag; and the two volumes seem too short, so fresh, spicy and enjoyable are they. Not very often does the list of new books give us anything about the far North; and this work will be welcomed both for its biography of a great man and for its pretty glimpses of Swedish life and landscape. It is a fit companion to that charming and romantic work, "The Times of Linnæus," by Prof. Topelius.

Some blemishes mar the pages at intervals. Quotations are so numerous as almost to weary. Browning, Kingsley, Carlyle, we meet continually; while lesser lights flash between. There is a tendency to the use of coined or eccentric expressions; as when we are told of

a

"rare-in-the-world plant." Sometimes we feel the writer has gone out of her way to put in a fact that fitted a quotation from some pigeon-hole. Not much deference is paid to the reader's power of inference, and the footnotes are at times a bore. Exclamation points too often startle one with an uncomfortable accusation of not having fully realized the force of the preceding words; and adjectives like "awfully" and "dreadfully" spoil some otherwise pleasant passages. There seems to be an error in calling Majanthemum bifolium a Lily of the Valley (vol. I., p. 22; vol. II., p. 180); and there are some inaccuracies in the use and spelling of Swedish words. Good taste is violated by repetition of certain rather striking terms. We do not like to have the foundations of the houses spoken of as "Cyclopean" more than once within a few lines; nor to see the Vener always called melancholy; nor to note several similes about the "ink of the country," etc.

The youthful Linnæus was preeminently a flower-loving boy, and to so great an extent that it was feared he would prove naught but a weed in the world. Witness the amusing certificate from the Wexio gymnasium, that embodied what of credentials he had to present on entering the university:

"1727. Youth at school may be compared to shrubs in a garden, which will sometimes, though