THE LITERARY GUIDE:
A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D A N D R E V I E W OF I N T E L L E C T U A L P R O G R E S S .
No. 123.]
MARCH 1, 1896.
[P r ic e One P en n y .
N E IV PUBLICA TIONS.
L I T E R A R Y C H A T S .
T he first of eleven volumes of the translated works of Friedrich Nietzsche is published by Messrs. H. Henry & Co. (10s. 6d.). It contains the celebrated essays on Wagner and on Anti-Christ. For good or ill, Nietzsche is a rising star in the firmament of modern thought, and the appearance of his works in English is an important event.
M rs. T yndall is making progress with the biography of her husband, the late Professor Tyndall. She has had to sift an enormous quantity of correspondence, some of which is said to be deeply interesting.
M e ssrs. A. & C. B lack will issue, at an early date, Mr. T. Bailey Saunders’s translation of Professor Harnack’s “ Christianity and History,” and “ Studies in Judaism,” by Mr. S. Schechter, of Cambridge University.
T he memoir of the late Professor G. J . Romanes, edited by his wife, is nearly ready for publication. In addition to a lengthy correspondence with Darwin, there will, we understand, be a full statement of the reasons that influenced the scientist’s change of opinion just previous to his death.
T he late Professor Froude’s Oxford lectures (1892-3) on “ The Council of Trent ” (12s. fid.) have been published by Messrs. Longmans.
M r . H er b er t S pencer hopes to have the third volume of his “ Principles of Sociology ” ready by Midsummer. It will include the papers on “ Ecclesiastical Institutions ” that have been appearing in the Contemporary Review.
M e ssr s . Swan Sonnenschein will publish immediately Mr. Leslie Stephen’s “ Ethical Addresses,” in two volumes ; and later on a work on “ Analytical Philosophy,” by G. F. Stout, M.A., editor of Mind.
U nder the title of “ The Origin of the Christian Church ” (is.),-Messrs. W. Stewart and Co. have published what purports to be a candid examination of the material out of which historic Christianity is built.
M r . A rchdall R e id has issued, through Messrs. Chapman & Hall, an interesting work dealing with “ The Present Evolution of Man ” (7s. 6d.). He treats, in an occasionally subversive but wholly scientific method, of some of the burning biological questions of the day.
M e ssr s . Methuen & Co. have published “ The Theory of Knowledge : A Contribution to Some Problems of Logic and Metaphysics,” by L. T. Hobhouse, Fellow of C.C.C., Oxford (2 1s .) ; and “ The Philosophy of Thomas Hill Green,” by W. H. Fairbrother, lecturer in philosophy in Lincoln College, Oxford (3s. 6d.).
T he third and last volume of Miss Haldane and Mr. Francis Simson’s translation of Hegel’s “ Lectures on the History of Philosophy” is issued by Messrs. Kegan Paul.
X.—WITH MR. JOSEPH MAZZINI WHEELER. I f it had not been for the peremptory command of silence enjoined upon visitors to the British Museum Readingroom, I should assuredly have preferred to interview Mr. Wheeler in that Paradise of Bibliophilists. There, amid a great cloud of witnesses, ranged majestically tier above tier, we could have talked on philosophy, history, and all the shining triumphs of the Freethought pen. Mr. Wheeler haunts that temple of learning as devotedly as a Catholic lingers about a favoured shrine. Thence he draws the multitudinous facts with which he astonishes and delights the readers of the Freethinker week by week; and there he discovers and elucidates those secrets of religious history which are so brilliantly exposed in his “ Footsteps of the Past.” The “ Happy Island,” as Matthew Arnold called the Reading-room, not being available, I chatted with Mr. Wheeler in his own library at home.
From a perusal of Mr. Wheeler’s articles and books I should have deemed that he burned incense to poets. But I tofik his word for it when he pointed to a group of verse books— “ Songs of Freedom ” (edited by H. S. Salt); “ Narcissus,” by his Fabian friend, Edward Carpenter, the Thoreau of England; William Morris; Swinburne; and the rest—and told me he had read them all. Perhaps I speak with improper disdain. But Mr. Wheeler’s “ Poets’ Corner ” was nearly the occasion of an angry debate between us. I casually mentioned that I liked Milton better than the over-praised Shakespeare, and Mr. Wheeler, after muttering something about there being “ a flaw somewhere” (as I write phonography, I am sure I do not misreport him), declined to discuss the question further. I fancied that even his dog “ Spot ”—a faithful creature, who, like Lord Nelson, has only one eye—looked at me suspiciously.
A shelf of books relating to Shakespeare included W. J . Birch’s “ Inquiry into the Philosophy and Religion of Shakespeare,” Coleridge’s “ Notes,” Gerald Massey’s “ Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” Hazlitt’s “ Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays,” Bailey’s “ Received Text of Shakespeare,” etc. Seven cities claimed Homer as a native, and more than that number of schools of thought claim the Stratford poet for their own. Birch and Churton Collins and Mr. Wheeler read Freethought in the dialogue and scepticism in the soliloquies. There may, perhaps, lie a significance in the alteration which Mr. Wheeler pointed out to me in the close of “ Hamlet.” The first edition of 1603 ends with the words, “ Farewel, Horatio; heauen receiue my soule,” for which Shakespeare afterwards substituted, “ The rest is silence.”
Of the martyred Bruno Mr. Wheeler possesses a relic in a work dated 15 9 1 , and entitled “ De Compositione Imaginum Liber,” with which is bound up the “ De Triplici Minimo et Mensura.” For such speculations on the nature of ideas and the functions of monads or atoms of life Bruno bore the penalty of death by fire. Another Latin book belonging to the same period is anonymous—“ De Tribus
