MR. PAYNE'S "LITTLE LEADERS.""

Readers who admire The Dial, and they are many, have long since come to recognize the semi-monthly editorials as perhaps the most distinctly valuable feature of that dignified and influential journal. They have also known that many of these editorials came from the pen of one of the assistant editors, Mr. William Morton Payne, whose signed contributions in the form of reviews had long since attracted attention. When, therefore, the announcement was made some months ago that Mr. Payne's editorials were to be collected and issued by the new Chicago firm that had already published a volume of poems by the senior editor of The Dial, Mr. Francis F. Browne, not a few persons, among them the present writer, were delighted to think that the fate of ephemerality was no longer to hang over a body of criticism as sound and fine in tone as any that has been recently produced in this country or in England.

That Mr. Payne is a critic of delicate and sound taste, who is capable of expressing himself in a style of admirable precision and polish, goes without saying for any constant reader of The Dial, and will go without saying for any person who will carefully peruse the volume under review. But the purpose of a sympathetic appreciation such as this brief article is intended to give, should be rather to attract new readers to an author than to indulge in generalities of praise that will be acceptable to such persons as are already acquainted with his work. It will be proper, therefore, to describe the kind and scope of the essays here gathered under an appropriate and attractive title.

The volume is divided into three parts entitled "Literature and Criticism," "Education," and "In Memoriam," each part being preceded by an original sonnet of much

1 Little Leaders. By William Morton Payne. Chicago, Way & Williams, 1895. 12mo. pp., X., 278.

merit. In the first part we have essays on Ibsen, the literary West, anonymity in literary criticism, and kindred subjects. In the second such topics as the teaching of literature, democracy and education, the use and abuse of dialect, are discussed; while in the third we have critical estimates. of most of the distinguished men in art and science that have died in the past few years-of Tennyson, Taine, Huxley, and their compeers.

Obviously we have here a multiplicity and variety of subjects that might fill a set of octavo volumes instead of this dainty little book; we must not, therefore, expect from Mr. Payne anything like elaborate or exhaustive criticism. He could give us such criticism did the occasion demand, nor could he write with so firm a touch had he not read and thought deeply upon literature and life; but he is too good an artist to mix what are essentially different genres of composition, and his "little leaders" never aspire to be articles du fond. Eight or ten small pages suffice for him to make his point, and he invariably has a point to make. He argues closely and clearly, but always with perfect urbanity and with his eye on the object, to use Wordsworth's admirable phrase. He never leaves the slightest suspicion that he is trifling with his subject or with his readers, that he is talking to hear himself talk, or that he is desirous of airing his wide reading and accurate scholarship. You may not infrequently differ with Mr. Payne, but you do it always with a feeling of profound respect for him. You may sometimes. feel that his attitude toward certain authors and literary cults may be a trifle too deferential, but you are quite sure that you will be spared the crotchets and eccentricities that mar the work of so many contemporary critics. Really it is not saying too much to affirm that in Mr. Payne's work qualities of clearness, precision, sanity, and polish are to be discovered that make one feel that he has given his days and nights to the study of the great French masters of style and criticism, to two of whom he has paid just tribute in his little volume.

Where all is so good it is difficult to select special essays or passages for comment and praise. Perhaps the spirited but urbane paper on "The Literary West" is the most timely of all in view of recent pessimistic utterances as to the future of those portions of the country that have the misfortune to lie a thousand miles away from Harvard College. The West doubtless has much to learn, but it really seems as if it could afford to give the East lessons in healthy optimism and sound patriotism. Certainly if Chicago continues to produce books as good as this of Mr. Payne's, Boston and Cambridge will have to look to their laurels. But after all, even Mr. Payne's essay will probably fail to have much effect in the quarters where it most deserves to be read, for the tendency of elder brothers to look down on younger ones was never yet overcome save by the logic of hard knocks.

Of the essays devoted to education those that touch the teaching of literature call to mind the little book on the subject that Mr. Payne recently edited, and to which he contributed a stimulating preface. It is not certain that the papers of Mr. Payne and his collaborators have done much positive good save to emphasize the need of developing systematic and competent methods of teaching in what is probably the most important department of education; but even this is something for which we may be grateful. Equally lacking in practicality but equally serviceable as suggestion is the essay on an endowed newspaper, while that on the use and abuse of dialect may be recommended to every writer of fiction.

Of the "In Memoriam" essays that on Tennyson appears to be the one in which we get nearest to Mr. Payne himself. His admiration for Tennyson is hearty and contagious and is expressed in the reverent style one should always use in treating of a master spirit. Some of us may, perhaps, feel obliged to accept Mr. Payne's eulogium with qualifications, but we must all acknowledge that he has written nobly and well of a great poet whom it would be a

privilege and pleasure to love and revere as unreservedly as Mr. Payne has found it possible to do. Perhaps the essays on the two scientists, Tyndall and Huxley, while not representing Mr. Payne's heart so well as the paper on Tennyson, represent his critical faculty of saying just the right thing in just the right way even better. Just so, the paper on the late William Frederick Poole seems to be better conceived than that on a far greater man, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Mr. Payne knew the famous librarian well and brings out clearly his admirable qualities as a man as well as his valuable services as a careful historical scholar. But perhaps my partiality for this particular essay is due to a personal experience of Dr. Poole's kind

ness.

In conclusion I cheerfully commend Mr. Payne's book to the consideration of every reader of this REVIEW who cares for good criticism couched in a scholarly style. It would be easy to write more about the volume, but space is wanting and the essays themselves are better than anything I can say of them. They are certainly worthy of preservation and it must be a pleasure to Mr. Browne, to whom they are dedicated, to feel that the journal which he has so long and successfully conducted was instrumental in their production. I trust that it will not be long before Mr. Payne has enough fresh material to fill a second volume, and I hope, too, that he will soon employ his talents upon work which, if it can hardly be better of its kind, will be more far-reaching, and exhaustive.

W. P. TRENT.

A little more than sixty years ago the expectation had become general that historical research would be as characteristic a note of the nineteenth century as philosophical speculation had been of the eighteenth.' It is hardly possible so soon to decide what has been the dominant intellectual characteristic of our century,' but certainly, in the increase of positive historical knowledge, the elaboration of sound historical method, the enlargement of the range of historical evidence, and especially, in the development of the historical way of looking at things, the nineteenth century stands out conspicuous above any century since the renais

To these immense changes no one contributed so much as Leopold von Ranke, the centenary of whose birth was celebrated last December."

It is not my purpose in this article to give a general account of Ranke's life; I have in mind rather a brief consideration of the formative influences of the historian's career as revealed in his autobiographical sketches and letters,

4

1" cette opinion, déjà (i. e. 1824-1830) très répandue, que l'histoire serait le cachet du dix-neuvième siècle, et qu'elle lui donnerait son nom, comme la philosophie avait donné le sien au dix-huitième." Augustin Thierry. Preface to his "Dix ans d'études historiques." 1834.

2 Comte, forty years ago, wrote: “Le siècle actuel sera principalement caracterisé par l'irrévocable prépondérance de l'histoire en philosophie, en politique, et même, en poésie." Politique positive, III, I, cited from Lord Acton's "The Study of History," p. 131.

3 Ranke was born December 21, 1795.

4 As found in "Zur eigenen Lebensgeschichte," von Leopold von Ranke, herausgegeben von Alfred Dove, Leipzig, 1890. All citations, unless otherwise indicated are from this volume.