Chapter 37

6–38537.

“This substantial volume of nearly eight hundred pages contains, in indexed or tabular form, an enormous number of facts so arranged as to make it a helpful book of reference.” (Dial.) It includes lists of men prominent in public or private office; it tabulates poems, plays and novels in which historical characters figure; there is a catalogue of public statutes in the United States, a collection of “notable sayings,” an “anniversary calendar,” and a list of “founders of American families and their descendants.”

“There are sins of omission as well as of commission. Yet the volume will be found useful for reference.”

“Mr. Derby’s work is as important as that of an explorer who opens up a new country for industrial and commercial activity. The treasures were there. Mr. Derby has made them available for all.”

Derr, Louis.Photography for students of physics and chemistry. *$1.40. Macmillan.

7–471.

“This book is eminently not for the perusal of the ‘snap-shot camera man,’ unless he be an ardent amateur and profoundly interested in the scientific possibilities and details of his subject.... The book is divided into eighteen chapters dealing with the camera and all its accessories. It includes articles on lenses, photo-chemical action, development and developers, fixing, washing, and drying, intensification and reduction, halation and reversal, printing processes, lantern slides and shutter exposures.”—N. Y. Times.

“He may have suited his book to the needs of his students, but the result to a stranger presents itself as a very uneven treatment of the subject.” C. J.

“The language is simple and the diagrams assist materially in the exposition. The book should have unquestionable value for the class of readers designated in the title—and for others bent individually on experimental investigation.”

De Selincourt, Beryl, and Henderson, May Sturge.Venice. il. **$3.50; ed. de luxe, **$7.50. Dodd.

7–31989.

A generous amount of fresh material has been discovered for this much pictured city. “The illustrations, after the water-colours of Mr. Barratt, who has lived for many years in the city of the lagoons and is familiar with her in all her moods, are real triumphs of reproduction, interpreting with rare fidelity the delicate atmospheric effects that are the chief charm of the originals.” (Int. Studio.)

“They have treated it both from the art and literary point of view with a certain amount of freshness.”

“There are many admirable descriptive touches; and if nothing is set in a new light, that is probably because a city which has been studied and re-studied by so many lovers is familiar now to all the world. Mr. Barratt’s illustrations are exceedingly successful, and add materially to the attractiveness of the book.”

De Selincourt, Hugh.Boy’s marriage. †$1.50. Lane.

“Beverley Teruel, nicknamed Girlie because of his lack of sophistication, shortly after leaving Oxford marries the girl of his father’s choice.” (N. Y. Times.) “Beverley flies into a morbid suspicion of the purity of his perfectly healthy passion. He seeks solace in a platonic affection for a literary woman, finds it difficult to exist without her, disobeys her by rushing to London to see her, and, when severely snubbed, falls an easy victim to the wiles of a woman of the town. During his absence Eva has been making discoveries which impel her towards a whole-hearted bid for her husband’s vanished affection. But it is too late. Innocence has given place to morbidity, and everything ends as, granting the premisses, it must end, miserably.” (Acad.)

“The workmanship of the book, though sensitive, is sometimes feeble. There is a good deal of superfluous detail, and the lines are not always clear. But the choice and development of the theme show courage, humour, and a severe logic which promise well.”

“It is mainly for the promise in the book that we commend it.”

De Selincourt, Hugh.Strongest plume. †$1.50. Lane.

“In ‘The strongest plume’ Mr. de Selincourt tackles in characteristic fashion the problem of the girl who in conventional phrase ‘goes wrong’ before her marriage.... The man to whom she is engaged is a very ordinary, common-place prig, quite incapable of understanding the real nature of the girl who has given herself to him. He is perfectly ready, indeed anxious, to do ‘the right thing’ and marry her as soon as possible, but he is at no pains to disguise his personal feeling that Joan is really a ‘fallen’ woman. She resents his attitude ... comes gradually to the realisation that it has all been a terrible mistake. She comes to see that she has no love for him at all, and that marriage, so far from setting everything right, will only be an added wrong.”—Acad.

“In his study of the girl’s mental development, in the fidelity of his psychological analysis, Mr. de Selincourt almost touches greatness. His delineation bears the unmistakable stamp of truth. It carries conviction.”

“The portraiture is much superior to the knowledge of life displayed. Mr. De Sélincourt’s cynicism is still that of youth, without an adequate basis; but though we find the work immature, we remain confident that he will yet write a fine story.”

“He writes well, and he has a notable gift for the analysis of character. But at present he does not escape dulness; he gives the impression of distinction, and leaves us cold.”

“Its chief characters have been pressed into the service and illustration of a theory, as the reader is constantly made to feel. This compulsion makes them shadowy and ineffectual, and it cannot even be said that they are pleasant shades.”

Deussen, Paul.Outline of the Vedanta system of philosophy according to Shankara; tr. by J. H. Woods and C. B. Runkle. **$1. Grafton press.

6–35998.

The Vedanta philosophy which grew out of the teachings of the Upanishads represents the common belief of nearly all thoughtful Hindus. Following a brief introduction which gives the fundamental idea of the system, Mr. Deussen discusses the Vedanta’s teaching regarding theology, cosmology, psychology, migration of the soul and emancipation.

“The name of Dr. Woods, who has studied the Hindu systems with Deussen at Kiel as well as with native pundits in India, is a sufficient guaranty of the accuracy of the rendering both of German and of Sanskrit technical terms. It will be a convenience, especially to those who give university courses in Hindu philosophy, to have this compendium accessible in English.” Arthur O. Lovejoy.

“It is the best exposition of the chief school of Hindu metaphysics obtainable in brief compass.”

Devine, E. J.Training of Silas. $1.25. Benziger.

7–2759.

A Roman Catholic story which brings a “purse-proud plebeian millionaire to a realization that there is a greater end to be considered than the possession of wealth.”

“It has a strongly didactic purpose, which is gracefully draped in a thin suit of fiction.”

Dewar, Douglas.Bombay ducks: an account of some of the every-day birds and beasts found in a naturalist’s Eldorado. *$5. Lane.

Agr 6–1634.

With less of a scientific smack than the title suggests, Mr. Dewar writes of the birds and small animals of India. Excellent illustrations which are Captain Fayrer’s photographs reproduced on “unglazed and tonal paper give a Japanese effect which is quite unusual and well worthy of imitation.” (Spec.)

“The little essays or articles are pleasantly written, and the descriptions are in essentials correct.”

“The style is piquant and refreshing.” May Estelle Cook.

“Without in any way questioning the ornithological value of Mr. Dewar’s work, it is in the literary side of the volume, the facility of expression, easy narrative style, and genial satire, that the worth of the book lies.”

“Mr. Dewar is a naturalist and a good observer.”

Dewhurst, Frederic Eli.Investment of truth. *$1.25. Univ. of Chicago press.

7–23074.

A posthumous volume of sermons “for unemotional and meditative people, especially those who are a little troubled by religious uncertainty.” (Ind.)

“Dr. Dewhurst was a man of unusual gifts, among which were religious insight and the faculty of clear speech. He was not a noisy prophet, but he could make a chosen text ring with truth from which one could not escape.”

“Mr. Dewhurst’s appeal is to the few, but to these he appeals strongly.”

De Windt, Harry.Through savage Europe; being a narrative of a journey throughout the Balkan states and European Russia. **$3. Lippincott.

7–29080.

This is a vivid account of a journey taken as correspondent to the Westminster gazette through Montenegro, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Southern Russia andthe Caucasus. “He found the remoter districts hotbeds of outlawry and brigandage, where the traveler must needs take his life in his hand. Yet these same Balkans, he avers, can boast of cities which ‘are miniature replicas of London and Paris,’ civilized centers having very little in common with the country as a whole.” (Lit. D.)

“The book is to be commended, but rather to those who have not read recent works dealing with the same subjects than to those who may have had enough of them already.”

“The distinctive merit of this book lies in the fact that the author visited these same countries a generation ago, and consequently is competent to gauge the various lines of progress made in these everchanging hot-beds of European discord.” H. E. Coblentz.

“A pleasant chatty account.”

“A vivacious account of travel and observation.”

“Mr. Harry De Windt has written several very interesting and informing books of travel, but none more attractive than this.”

“A most entertaining volume.”

Dewsnup, Ernest Ritson, ed.Railway organization and working: a series of lectures delivered before the railway classes of the University of Chicago. *$2. Univ. of Chicago press.

6–41297.

A series of twenty-five papers or lectures that were delivered by prominent railway officials bearing upon the traffic, auditing, and operating of the American railway.

“An admirable book in spite of its being a collection.”

“The papers are of high average excellence and the volume constitutes a most welcome addition to the scanty literature dealing with the management of railway traffic.”

“The book should be placed in every reference library used by railway employees; and any young engineer in railway service will find it worth while to read the book, since it will aid him to gain a broader outlook upon the industry in which he is playing a part.”

“The volume contains remarkably few repetitions, considering the manner of its construction, and few of the contributors have failed to observe the limits of their special subjects. I believe everyone interested in railways will enjoy it. And everyone who reads it will profit by it.” Balhasar H. Meyer.

“It will be found of great practical service to students. The treatment of the subject is plain and untechnical.”

Dickins, Frederick Victor.Primitive and mediaeval Japanese texts, Romanized and translated into English. 2 v. *$6.75. Oxford.

7–29200–29201.

The two hundred and sixty-four lays of which the anthology consists are “Japanese proper, not Chino-Japanese.” “They have a character of their own, giving the impression of lovely and delicate workmanship. Mr. Dickins has translated in vol. i, some short mediaeval lays; the Preface to ‘The garner of Japanese verse old and new;’ the Mime of Takasago; and ‘The story of the old bamboo wicker-worker,’ the earliest work of fiction in Japanese or any Ural-Altaic tongue. Volume ii, is not for the general reader but for students of the Japanese language, containing the text of the Lays romanised, and a short grammar, with glossary and index.” (Acad.)

“He has done with splendid success the task which he has set himself.” R. Y. Tyrrell.

“These two volumes, apart from their interest to the general reader, comprise in themselves all that is necessary for very considerable progress in the direct knowledge of the older Japanese literature. They take high rank among scholarly works on Japan, and will be the indispensable companion of the serious student.”

“Altogether, one has in these two volumes a sufficient apparatus for the study of the mind of pre-Mongolian Japan.”

Dickinson, F. A.Big game shooting on the equator; with introd. by Sir C: Norton Eliot. **$4. Lane.

“In brief, the volume is largely a note-book of observations on the various species of game, their habitat, appearance, size, color, habits, and head measurements, jotted down in the curtest and most uninteresting terms imaginable. Should any hunter of big game anticipate a sporting pilgrimage to Africa, however, Captain Dickinson’s book will offer him some additional information on the rarer kinds of game in the East African country.”—Dial.

“It is all written in a straightforward, sensible way, without any attempt at word-painting or fine phrasing. All who are going to East Africa on a hunting trip should read it for the value of its advice, and all who have already enjoyed the experience for the memories it may evoke.”

“Were it not for the excellent illustrations, and for the summaries of the game regulations of the British East African Protectorate and the German East African Protectorate, the book would have but little intrinsic value.” H. E. Coblentz.

“As regards his claim ... of accuracy, a little more care might have laid a better foundation for it. We have mentioned these few blemishes because this book is likely to be largely consulted by intending big game shooters, and because otherwise it is so trustworthy an authority on the subject. To the general public the volume is likely to commend itself highly by its excellent photographs and its breezy, amusing, and interesting style.”

“Capt. Dickinson writes in tabloid style. He wastes no words, and his crisp, short sentences do their duty, and have done, with the clearness and precision of a military command.”

“Nothing could be more useful than some of his recommendations. The style is one of the oddest that we have met with for many days. It is slangy to a degree far beyond what is usual even in smoking-room gossip. The curious thing is that he can write exceedingly well when he tries.”

Dickinson, Goldsworthy Lowes.From king to king. **$1. McClure.

7–12876.

For this American edition the work appearing in England in 1891 has been rewritten and revised. “Aims at presenting ‘The tragedy of the Puritan revolution’ in a series of dramatic scenes or dialogues. ‘The pages that follow,’ writes Mr. Dickinson in his reprinted preface to the first edition, ‘contain an attempt to state, in a concrete form, certain universal aspects of a particular period of history. Thetragedy lies in a conflict of reforming energy with actual men and institutions; and it has been the object of the author to delineate vividly the characters of leading actors in the struggle, their ideals and the distortion of these, as reflected in the current of events.’” (N. Y. Times.)

“All criticism of the work must return to the question of the success of the dramatic dialogue as an essay form. On the whole, one finds himself inclined to decide that the experiment is successful; for the dialogue has enabled our author to realize his hope of effectively setting forth the clash of the individual with a movement. And yet there is a little reserve about one’s commendation of the book as a whole. In the first place, it can appeal only to a much narrower circle than most of Mr. Dickinson’s other productions. In the second place, there are occasional suggestions of the cold literary exercise.” F. B. R. Hellems.

“One of the most satisfactory books of closet drama of the extreme type that we have lately seen.”

Reviewed by Cleveland Palmer.

“There is a wealth of poetic feeling and command of noble diction doubtless hitherto unsuspected in Mr. Dickinson.” Christian Gauss.

Dietzgen, Joseph.Positive outcome of philosophy, tr. by Ernest Untermann. $1. Kerr.

6–38881.

The three principal works of Dietzgen, “The nature of human brain work,” “Letters in logic,” and “The positive outcome of philosophy,” are included in this volume, which brings within the reach of American students the work of one of the greatest writers on socialist philosophy.

Reviewed by Franklin H. Giddings.

Dillon, Edward.Glass.(Connoisseur’s lib.) *$7.50. Putnam.

7–15911.

“The first half a dozen chapters are devoted to primitive and early glass down to the middle ages.... There are also Assyrian cylinders of glass and an Assyrian cone of the beautiful emerald glass. Other chapters tell of medieval treatises on glass, of Saracenic enameled glass, of Venetian glass, whether enameled or otherwise, and that of the renaissance, French, Spanish and Netherlandish. Two chapters are devoted to German, two to English and one to Dutch glass; Persia, India and China together supply material for another chapter; while the final pages are devoted to contemporary glass.”—Ind.

“Mr. Dillon’s book should aid in the improvement of taste. His work is ably written.”

“The book is technical enough to be useful to the student, and full enough of history, romantic suggestion and beautiful illustrations to hold the attention of the untrained person with artistic impulses who is beginning to take an interest in glass.”

“It is a compilation, of course; but it will for a long time hold its place as the best and most authoritative general account of the subject to be found in English, or perhaps in any language.”

“We cannot blame a book or work of art for not being what it does not pretend to be, but a large volume with the general title ‘Glass’ may be called to account if it gives no hint of the interesting things which are being done in our time.”

“The text is written in an interesting style, as by a man intensely interested in his task, and shows exhaustive study and thorough mastery of the subject.”

Dinsmore, Rev. Charles Allen.Atonement in literature and life. **$1.50. Houghton.

6–45133.

“This is a philosophical rather than a literary dissertation on ... the idea of sin, retribution, and reconciliation. Assuming that literature is life in its highest expression, Mr. Dinsmore undertakes to show that it is this idea of offence and subsequent reconciliation which gives their value to some of the great masterpieces of literature—Homer’s Iliad; the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles; the Divina Comedia; Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Richard III., The winter’s tale, Henry VIII., and The tempest; Paradise lost; Adam Bede; The scarlet letter; and some other classics.”—Cath. World.

“The book is written in a style worthy of the subject, and is singularly interesting from its dealing with masters in literature.”

“This study is in fine contrast with the manner in which the people who belong to the ‘art for art’s sake’ school treat the great masterpieces of literature.”

Ditchfield, Rev. Peter H.Parish clerk; with 31 il. *$2.50. Dutton.

7–27625.

A methodical record of the duties, the quaint ways, and the peculiar manners of the race of English parish clerks. This functionary “is studied in his substance and in his accidents, and every trait of character is illustrated and anecdotes drawn from the literature and experience and folklore of centuries. These stories by themselves would make the fortune of an ‘encyclopædia of wit,’ and by bringing them together Mr. Ditchfield has certainly added to the gaiety of the nation.” (Lond. Times.)

“The chapters themselves are badly arranged, repetitions are frequent; the style is jerky and colorless; and anecdotes have been dragged in with little regard to probability. It is little more than a scrap-book.”

“In the chapter that deals with the antiquity of the office and its duties in mediaeval days, Mr. Ditchfield might, with advantage, have exercised just a little more care.”

“The book is a useful addition to the history of English ecclesiastical institutions.”

“A book about parish clerks which, we should think, must be exhaustive.”

“May be commended as a work of curious erudition and as a storehouse of capital anecdotes.”

“It makes a fascinating record, brimful of human nature, not by any means destitute of human failings, nor yet of lovely and gentle traits.” Hildegarde Hawthorne.

“Mr. Ditchfield has much that is entertaining to say about the subject, one which is entirely to his liking. He tells many curious things about the office and many more, still more curious, about the holder of it.”

Ditmars, Raymond Lee.Reptile book. **$4. Doubleday.

7–10051.

“A comprehensive, popularized work on the structure and habits of the turtles, tortoises, crocodilians, lizards, and snakes which inhabit the United States and Northern Mexico.” “But it is more than a popular book, for it is a gold mine of information for the zoologist.”—Ind.

“It is a great book, well planned, clearly written, popular and yet scientific.”

“The text is a notable addition to popular herpetological literature, but we cannot agree with the author that this field is a gap which ‘has steadily remained unchanged.’”

“Mr. Ditmars has done his task excellently. He writes out of a large and intimate knowledge, and in a clear, intelligible style.” Cameron Mann.

Dix, Beulah Marie.Merrylips; il. by Frank T. Merrill. $1.50. Macmillan.

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