Chapter 53

7–18086.

“Prof. Gummere starts out with a severely critical consideration of just what must be meant by ‘popular’ as applied to ballads and rules out all but about 300 specimens of the genre. While he treats the ballad as a closed account, an outcome of conditions which no longer exist, he admits that there is nothing to prevent the daily production of ballads which in time may become as popular as any in this collection. But he restricts the present study to these remnants of oral tradition, divides them into half a dozen classes, studies their sources, and gives a critical estimate of their worth.”—N. Y. Times.

“The last chapter on the worth of the ballad as poetry, is written ‘con amore,’ but with all that admirable scholarly restraint that marks all of Professor Gummere’s work.”

“Notwithstanding the differences of opinion which we entertain regarding these matters of controversy, we gladly acknowledge the interest of Prof. Gummere’s work, and believe that it will be accepted as beginning auspiciously a series which promises great usefulness.”

“Prof. Gummere writes in an interesting style. He has a cleverness of statement and an ability to use aptly and vividly a very great fund of erudition that will make his book entertaining as well as instructive for the general reader, while the special student will find it a mine of information.”

Gunsaulus, Frank W.Higher ministries of recent English poetry. **$1.25. Revell.

7–23730.

“The four lectures deal with the distinctively Christian element in the writings of Arnold, Tennyson and Browning, the introductory essay treating of the preparatory influence of Shelley, Wordsworth and Coleridge.” (Ind.) Gunsaulus emphasizes the classical stoicism of Matthew Arnold, Tennyson’s portrayal of conscience and the inevitable results of sin, and the religious element in Browning.

“Dr. Gunsaulus’s essays are scholarly and seriously suggestive, and give a broad view of the thought and of the influence of these three masters of the last century.”

“Yet while there is an appreciation of the genius of the poets about whom the author writes, there is also in every lecture a certain amount of bathos and sloppy extravagance.”

“Dr. Gunsaulus does not add anything very new to a well-worn subject. And his own view of poetry seems a somewhat prosaic one.”

“Perhaps the best specimen of Dr. Gunsaulus’s work is his analysis of Tennyson’s greatest poem. ‘The idylls of the king.’”

Gunsaulus, Frank Wakeley.Paths to power; Central church sermons. *$1.25. Revell.

5–33035.

Descriptive note in December, 1905.

“The strength of the book is its weakness. It is too wordy, imaginative, and passionate. Thought is not sufficiently clear and comprehensive to serve as a basis for enduring emotional power. The book is inspirational rather than informing, and its power might have been vastly increased by gripping the intellect more vigorously even at some sacrifice of rhetoric.” E. A. Hamley.

“In the present volume the Chicago pastor impresses one with a sense of asymmetry. He seems to give disproportionate attention to the ‘fall’ of Adam with its alleged consequences, and the fall of Chicago, with its palpable consequences, from the moral ideals of all good citizens.”

Gunter, Archibald.Mr. Barnes, American: a sequel to Mr. Barnes of New York. †$1.50. Dodd.

7–9841.

“Highly dramatic scenes and characters are provided in this volume.... The very ampledramatis personaeinclude Corsican bandits, supra-beautiful maidens, members of the aristocracy, ill-favored ruffians both imported and domestic, and ghosts. Very exciting events transpire and ... slaughter is plethoric.”—Lit. D.

*Gunter, Archibald C.Prince Karl. †$1.25. ’07. Dillingham.

7–33913.

An unsatisfactory novelization of a satisfactory play whose principal characters are “a despotic mother-in-law, an Anglomaniac dude, and a Bostonian girl fresh from Vassar. The hero, Prince Karl, is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde character, only in the novelization the character is accompanied by considerable buffoonery.” (Outlook.)

“The plot is commonplace, and the dialogue has little wit. An unusual but characterless feature is the use of the historical present in the telling of the story.”

“The novelization of the play ‘Prince Karl’ is distinctly unsatisfactory; it is crude, sketchy, and unreal; the faults that effective stage setting and clever acting would render oblivious in an acted drama become very salient in a narrative read in cold blood. There is no originality in either the plot or character portrayal.”

Guthrie, William B.Socialism before the French revolution; a history. **$1.50. Macmillan.

7–22934.

The first comprehensive attempt to meet the need of a record of the history of social reform from the time of More to the French revolution. The author emphasizes especially the fact that social theory is the outgrowth of social conditions and that social strivings and social ideals are by no means confined to the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. His captions are as follows: The beginning of social unrest of England, The social theories of Sir Thomas More, Life and times of Campanella, The socialism of Campanella, Eighteenth century radicalism in France; The social teachings of Morelly, and revolutionary radicals.

“His references to modern socialism are not always happy. There are frequent statements that need the saving grace of qualification; while the tone of some of them is jaunty rather than judicial.”

“If Dr. Guthrie’s work is open to severe criticism it is perhaps because of its conception of the nature of socialism and his assumption that the utopias of the period under discussion are to be taken as socialism.” R. F. Hoxie.

“He makes no effort to write an exhaustive history of early socialism, and the title of his book is therefore not accurately descriptive of its contents. All that he attempts to do, and we are grateful to him for doing this, is to recall to our minds those writings of the past which best illustrate the evolution of socialistic thinking.”

“There are here no hasty generalizations, unwarranted inferences, and strainings of interpretation.”

Guyer, Michael Frederic.Animal micrology; practical exercises in microscopical methods. *$1.75. Univ. of Chicago press.

7–4839.

“The topics discussed in this book are as follows: necessary apparatus; preparation of reagents; general statement of methods; killing, fixing, imbedding, sectioning, staining, and mounting; minute dissections; tooth, bone, and other hard objects; injection of blood and lymph vessels; in toto preparations; blood; bacteria; embryological methods with chick, etc.; and reconstruction from sections.”—School R.

“The crucial test of the value of the work must necessarily consist in the actual experiment of using it in class. We venture to think, however, that the volume will react to this test in a most successful manner.”

“As a textbook it could hardly be improved. The advanced student cannot help but wish that it might have been available when he began his work.”

“Concise, eminently practical and well classified treatment. It will be found useful to a larger number of people than any other book of its kind at present in existence in English.” Irving Hardesty.

Gwatkin, Henry Melville.Knowledge of God and its historical development. 2v. *$3.75. Scribner.

7–2069.

Descriptive note in Annual, 1906.

“In both its apologetic and its historical task this work is conservative and follows in the beaten paths of the traditional methods. On the historical side Professor Gwatkin is more at home, though one cannot escape here the feeling of special pleading which does injustice to many facts and persons of history. Looseness of expression and of thought characterizes his apologetic work.” W. C. Keirstead.

“Is uncommonly readable and convincing, not only by reason of its abundant learning but by reason of its unfailing fairness and its habitual restraint. The argument is never overstated, and the difficulties are never undervalued.” George Hodges.

“The ordinary reader will often be somewhat bewildered by the mass of historical material brought into brief compass. Moreover, throughout the work, the author stops to answer so fully the supposed objections of those who differ from him that one is frequently more impressed by the wealth of possible opinion than by the author’s own position. His work will be full of suggestion to historical students; but because of its objective point of view, it is primarily a book of description, rather than one of interpretation.” Gerald Birney Smith.

“The freshness and charm with which the lecturer has dealt with his subject should procure for them an abundant welcome in a much wider circle. Perhaps the most attractive feature of the book is the earnest and sustained effort which Professor Gwatkin makes to combine the best modern thought upon religion and the philosophy of religion with the substance of the old historical faith.” Robert A. Duff.

Gwynn, Stephen Lucius.Fair hills of Ireland; il. by Hugh Thomson. $2. Macmillan.

7–35041.

Mr. Gwynn states that his book is written in praise of Ireland. And it is such praise as one can give who has a full understanding of “its soil and its people, its mountains and plains, seas and rivers, cities and solitudes, its ways of life and thought, its history and its aspirations, its failures and possibilities, its joy and grief.” Of these he writes: “It is, in fact, obviously intended to play a part in promoting the ‘Irish revival.’” (Outlook.)

“He sings his song of love and war so charmingly, and with such sympathy and intuitive understanding, that it seems ungenerous to complain that his book is not what its title implies. Let us confess that we speedily forgot our sense of disappointment in the glamour of his pages.”

“Is intended to be suggestive and picturesque, and succeeds thoroughly in this aim. We commend it strongly to those who visit Ireland with leisure and in earnest, and are not satisfied with following beaten tracks and hearing stale jokes.”

“It is a book that will appeal to Irishmen in particular and to travellers and lovers of antiquity in general.”

“How he has managed to pack, in a volume of a little over 400 pages, so many delightfully told legends and historic incidents, which give to every landscape a sort of moral personality, is Mr. Gwynn’s secret.”

“There is, however, one drawback to the legends told by Mr. Gwynn. The orthography of the names of the heroes, and even of the heroines, is repulsive, and will always be an obstacle to the wide, acceptance of these historical, semi-historical, and mythical romances.”

“The method of presentation is logical and interesting.”

“Its author wanders too rapidly and disconnectedly from theme to theme, indulges overfreely in allusion, and demands too great a previous knowledge of Irish history, legendary as well as authentic. Nevertheless, the book will be found well worth the pains necessary to read it, and should meet an especial welcome from prospective travelers in Ireland.”

“We do not always accept Mr. Gwynn’s opinions, and we sometimes find ourselves wondering why he has said this or seems not to know that.”

“We can imagine no more instructive and attractive guide to the holy places of Irish history. His style, while singularly free from mannerisms, is always full of light and colour and vivacity. He has humour too, and a high sense of dramatic contrast.”

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