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dleton. 9. A sketch of the old conflicts between students and the New Haven populace. 19. The influence of the Sunday newspaper. 11. Parnell's Irish leadership, as affected by the events of the last year. 12. Is it desirable that Yale's intercollegiate athletics should be restricted to a league with Harvard?

Spring Recess. During the Recess (April 17-24), the University Library will be open during the morning hours only, from 9.30 to 1; the Linonian and Brothers Library from 10 to 12 on Wednesday and Saturday. The Treasury will be open from 10 to 1.

No. 87.-WEEK ENDING MAY 4, 1888.

Sunday, April 28.—Public Worship-Battell Chapel, 10.30 a. m. Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D., of New York City. General Religious Meeting -Dwight Hall, 6.30 P. M. Address by the Rev. Dr. Taylor.

Wednesday, May 1.-Last Day for handing in John A. Porter Prize Essays, 105 Grove st. History of Old Testament Prophecy (University Lecture)-Professor Harper. Room B, Cabinet, 5 P. M.

Thursday, May 2.-College Faculty Meeting, 7 Treasury Building, 4 P. M.

Friday, May 3.—History of Old Testament Prophecy (University Lecture)-Professor Harper. Room B, Cabinet, 4 P. M. The Brain (University Lecture)- Professor Williston. Room 11, Medical College, 4 P. M. Berkeley Association (Evening Prayer)-Room 89, Dwight Hall, 6.45 P. M. Lecture Preparatory to Communion Service. Dwight Hall, Political Science Club-Paper by Mr. K. Matsugata, on the Constitution of Japan. 195 Old Chapel, 7.30 P. M.

7.30 P. M.

Berkeley Scholarship-Yale College.-The annual examination for the Berkeley Scholarship, yielding about $55.00 a year to a resident graduate for the three years after graduation, will take place on Monday, May 6. Any members of the senior class who propose to enter the examination must present their names to Mr. Dexter on or before Thursday, May 2. Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships. -Members of the Senior Class in College, or recent graduates in Arts, who wish to be considered as candidates for any Graduate Fellowships or Scholarships which may fall vacant at Commencement, 1889, are requested to communicate with Mr. Dexter before May 15.

Commencement Pieces-Yale College.-Commencement pieces should be handed to Professor Beers on or before Monday, May 27. All members of the Senior Class with a Dissertation appointment, or upwards, are entitled to compete. Special-honor theses, if suitable in subject and form, may be used for Commencement. The pieces should not exceed twelve minutes in speaking. The date for handing in

Theses for Special Honors is postponed to June 1.

Bristed Scholarship-Yale College.-An examination for this Scholarship, which yields over one hundred dollars a year and is tenable until the end of the third year after graduation, will be held on Monday, May 6. Juniors or Sophomores who desire to compete are requested to report their names to Mr. Dexter, at the Library, on or before Thursday, May 2.

CURRENT

LITERATURE.

WHITTIER'S PROSE WORKS,* here collected and published in three handsome duodecimo volumes, have unmistakably the same flavor which has made his verses to be so prized. There is in both the same devotion to Right and Duty, the same sincerity, the same simplicity and clearness of expression. No reader can fail to recognize the author's moral earnestness, whatever may be the subject on which, or whatever the form of language in which, he expresses his views.

But we are inclined to think that what will give lasting value to these " prose works" is that which Mr. Whittier has contributed to the illustration of our early New England history, and especially to the illustration of the spirit which animated our fathers. We cannot but think, also, that in his own life the poet has shown, to a generation that is inclined to criticise unsparingly what it calls the austerity of the Puritans, that one who has ever set before himself ideals as high as any of theirs, and has denounced evil in every guise with a spirit no less uncompromising than theirs, has yet been able in his daily life to manifest a kindliness and a geniality of manner which have called out the love of all. We quote what Mr. Whittier says about the Puritan spirit.

Our age is tolerant of creed and dogma, broader in its sympathies, more keenly sensitive to temporal need, and, practically recognizing the brotherhood of the race, wherever a cry of suffering is heard its response is quick and generous. . . . All the more, however, for this amiable tenderness do we need the counterpoise of a strong sense of justice. With our sympathy for the wrong-doer we need the old Puritan and Quaker hatred of wrong-doing; with our just tolerance of men and opinions a righteous abhorrence of sin. All the more for the sweet humanities and Christian liberalism which, in drawing men nearer to each other, are increasing the sum of social influences for good *Whittier's Prose Works. 3 vols. 12mo. pp. 436, 437, 402. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Boston, 1889.

or evil, we need the bracing atmosphere, healthful, if austere, of the old moralities. . . . The true life of a nation is in its personal morality, and no excellence of constitution and laws can avail much if the people lack purity and integrity. Culture, art, refinement, care for our own comfort and that of others, are all well, but truth, honor, reverence, and fidelity to duty are indispensable."

"The Pilgrims were right in affirming the paramount authority of the law of God. If they erred in seeking that authoritative law, and passed over the Sermon on the Mount for the stern Hebraisms of Moses; if they hesitated in view of the largeness of Christian liberty; if they seemed unwilling to accept the sweetness and light of the good tidings, let us not forget that it was the mistakes of men who feared more than they dared to hope, whose estimate of the exceeding awfulness of sin caused them to dwell upon God's vengeance rather than his compassion; and whose dread of evil was so great that, in shutting their hearts against it, they sometimes shut out the good. It is well for us if we have learned to listen to the sweet persuasion of the Beatitudes, but there are crises in all lives which require also the emphatic "Thou shalt not" of the Decalogue which the founders wrote on the gate posts of the commonwealth."

"Let us then be thankful for the assurances which the last few years have afforded us that

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Now Whittier has himself certainly shown us how "hatred of wrong-doing" and "righteous abhorrence of sin," and denunciations of all oppression as stern as any of the "stern Hebraisms of Moses," may consist with the most lovely exhibition of all the sweet humanities in daily life. And if so, we may ask were not these things as compatible with each other in the seventeenth century as in the nineteenth?

W. L. KINGSLEY.

VAN DYKE'S "SERIOUS ART IN AMERICA."*-Those who are interested in the progress which Art is making in the United States will be pleased to know of a paper which Mr. John C. Van Dyke read before the "Rembrandt Club" of Brooklyn, last

The Increase in the Appreciation of Serious Art in America. A paper read before the Rembrandt Club, Feb. 4th, 1889. By JOHN C. VAN DYKE. 4to, pp. 32.

February. The subject was "the increase in the appreciation of Serious Art in America." As proof of the marked advance which has been made within a few years, he cites the Report of the commissioners who were sent by the United States in 1867 to the Paris Exposition, in which those gentlemen rhapsodize over the work of Gérôme and Meissonier-" two of the cleverest and yet emptiest artists in all Europe"-speak slightingly of Corot, Troyon, and Fromentin, and pass over Rousseau, Daubigny, and Diaz, in absolute silence. He then quotes, by way of contrast, what the commissioners to the second Paris Exposition reported. The last is the exact opposite of the first. But we have no space for the presentation of any full analysis of this interesting paper. We will simply quote what Mr. Van Dyke says, by way of definition and illustration, about "Serious Art."

"It is the picture which speaks the thought and belief of the artist that we distinguish as serious; and it is the picture which shows us merely the surface appearance of things that we call clever."

"The art of Millet, for instance, is serious, because he put his heart in it, with an honesty of belief and steadfastness of purpose that defied poverty, misery, and neglect; because he was possessed of the keen sight of genius and saw beauty in the heavy figure of the peasant, and poetry in his humility of spirit; because he told what he saw in life with the simplicity of a child, with the tender-heartedness of a woman, with the strength of a self-reliant man. Consider that master-piece, 'The Sower.' You may have have been in France and seen the peasantry, but I doubt if you ever saw 'The Sower.' That is the man that MILLET saw-a man of heroic mould, strong of arm, sure of foot, humble of spirit, true to God. Consider in that noble striding figure, and under that slouched hat, how much there is of the heart and soul of Millet, peasant, poet, and painter, and how little there is of that empty external appearance which we see in so many of his imitators.

The art of Meissonier, on the contrary, is simply clever, because he never had a heart and never possessed a soul; or, at least, never showed either the one or the other in his art. His pictures are familiar to us all, and we are attracted to them by their precision of touch, their nicety of finish, their vividness of realization. But what do they realize? A guardsman, a reader, a bravo, a horseman. What do these characters say to us? Do they tell us any deep truth of life, do they suggest an emotion of any kind, do they whisper the faintest zephyr of pictorial poetry? Most assuredly not. One says: 'See now nicely my face is painted!' Another says: 'Look at the charming texture of my clothes! Another cries; Glance at the sheen of my spurs, and note the play of light on my horse's coat!' And what does Meissonier say? What does Meissonier feel? Where is Meissonier? Certainly, not in the picture. We see the tracery of his very clever fingers, but the man

is absent. Cold, calm, glittering, splendid, his work has its admirable parts in line, texture, color, light, but it never made a heart beat quicker; it never caused a tear to flow; it never struck a responsive chord in the hearts of men."

LANDON'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.*-Judge Landon, of New York, who recently served for several years as President ad interim of Union College, has published in this volume fourteen lectures, delivered during that time to the Senior classes. They give a clear and plain account of the rise and growth of the United States, as a government, and treat with special fullness the influence of the judiciary in its development. The author is no hero-worshiper. Heroes, he thinks, are out of place in a constitutional republic. "If we had a Gladstone or a Bismarck at the head of our government, we should be no better off than we are with President Cleveland, or Harrison, or any other fair man of good intelligence.

And So, it may well be that it is even better to have as rulers honest men of moderate ability." What heroes he acknowledges in our history belong to the Federalist school of former generations. "General Jackson," he says, "held about the same relative rank among the statesmen of the age, that the dime novel of our time holds in literature-strong enough to capture an active and untutored imagination." A concluding chapter is given to the discussion of some of the views of Mr. Bryce, in his recent work, especially those in reference to the inferiority of our public men to those occupying similar stations in other countries.

The best part of the book is in its statement and explanation of many of our leading judicial decisions. Among others, he calls attention to that rendered in New York some years ago, as to the title to the bed and waters of the Mohawk river. The legislature authorized the diversion of part of the stream into a canal, and the riparian proprietors demanded compensation. The rule of the Roman law, which gives it in such a case, was fol lowed, and followed largely because New York was first ruled by the Dutch, and Holland based her jurisprudence on the civil law. The decision is aptly quoted to illustrate the dependence of law on history.

SIMEON E. BALDWIN.

*The Constitutional History and Government of the United States. A series of Lectures, by JUDSON S. LANDON, LL.D. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1889.

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