piece so far above the rest of our modern dramatic literaturethere is just a shade of the lurid in certain situations, a slightly over-strained and melodramatic tension-for instance, where Metternich in cold blood exposes Reichstadt to himself before the mirror. In Cyrano, on the other hand, there is nothing of this sort. The emotion is intense throughout, but it is rather exalted and heroic than over-passionate; rather star-fire than earth-flame. Perhaps, however, though we rate the former higher in pure admiration, we may feel a keener sympathy for the latter in that it is more human, and while we burn with enthusiasm for Cyrano, the brilliant, the fascinating, the superb, we may cherish a tenderer fellow-feeling for the helpless Eaglet. 'Arthur C. Ludington. MEMORABILIA YALENSIA. The Football Team Met on December 11th, and unanimously elected Charles Gould, 1902, of Albany, N. Y., to serve as Captain for next year. The Intercollegiate Chess Tournament Was held at the Columbia Grammar School, New York City, on December 27th, 28th, 29th. Columbia won, with Harvard and Princeton tied for second place. Yale's representatives were: E. B. Adams, 1901; C. A. Roberts, 1902; H. C. Russ, 1902; J. F. Sawin, 1904. The Hockey Team On its Christmas trip played games in Pittsburg and in Philadelphia. The Basketball Team On its Christmas trip won four out of the eight games played. In Memoriam. Howard Olcott Mather, 1902, who died at the Hartford Hospital, of appendicitis, on December 12th. BOOK NOTICES. The Mantle of Elija. By Israel Zangwill. New York: Harper and Brothers. In the first chapter of Mr. Zangwill's latest novel we are introduced to a charming young girl of the Marcella stamp, less brilliant perhaps than Mrs. Humphrey Ward's heroine, but also less dictatorial, and consequently, more sympathetic. Allegra is a daughter on an English statesman, born tory, but, by principle, a liberal and become, in the course of events, a radical leader. This modern Elija's mantle of radicalism tends towards falling upon Allegra's shoulders, but it deviates from its proper course partly owing to the pressure of conventionalities, but mainly because of Allegra's own ideas of what a woman's vocation should be. She is by nature a hero-worshipper and longs to be a power behind the throne, the unselfish help-meet of some great and noble man. These views and her romantic power of looking at men and events through the mirror of her own imagination lead her to marry her father's secretary, a man of coarse fibre, narrow education, and no breeding, her inferior in every respect, but possessed of strong vitality, indomitable will, unlimited ambition, and unburdened with scruples. This man, Broser, a widower with three children, fascinates the highly impressionable Allegra by the broadness of his advanced opinions, and especially by the hopes he holds out to her of their working together towards uplifting the masses and generally improving the condition of the English people. However, after a few years of dreary married life with an unloved husband, Allegra finds that Broser had used her father merely as a stepping-stone, herself as a tool, and that his political principles were mere shams, to be set aside as soon as they proved inconvenient. At this stage of Broser and Allegra's married life, the inevitable happens in the person of Raphael Dominick, whose main attraction seems to have been the oppositeness of his nature to that of a disappointing husband. Dominick has a perfect contempt for all those things which are to Broser the very marrow of life. He has no family ties, no connections, no social position, no ambition, not even an occupation; he is satisfied to live, uninterested in life, in a remote neighborhood, and watch the world go by. Above all, he is a poet. It is this last qualification that makes him irresistible. Around and interwoven with this plot and the "Leit-motif" of moths scorching their wings in lamp flames, are many characters, most of which are finely drawn, such as Allegra's gypsy mother, whom the liberal aristocrat Marjorimont loved and married for her great beauty, her courage and the superadded charm of her tender sympathy for dumb beasts and weak or suffering creatures. Another subtle study of character is Professor Pont, the erudite, whom high cultivation would have carried to great heights, but who, lacking common honesty, fell to lowest depths of degradation. "The Mantle of Elija" is one of those few books mainly supported by conversation, which never wearies. It is a suggestive book-full of questionings concerning subjects of vital importance to even superficial thinkers, such as the still unsolved problem of "Masses" versus "Classes"; war and the ever disappearing mirage of universal peace; the futility of individual effort in the general affairs of mankind; high thinking as a detriment to a successful career, etc. But after the long jar and clang of contradictory thoughts one feels inclined to turn aside. from these questions, and exclaim with Dominick, "Why should you upbear the world? Are you Atlas?" And again, “Life has only the meaning you put into it." "Life tends to be simple and sweet, as grass to be green in the sun." We also take pleasure in announcing the receipt of the following: Putnam's, New York. Sanity of Mind. By Davis T. Lincoln. Joy; and other Poems. By Danske Daudridge. Omar Khayyam, "His Rubaiyat," and His Life and Works, with commentary by H. M. Batson and biographical introduction of E. D. Ross. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. Rambles in Colonial Byways. By R. R. Wilson. Marred in Making. By Baroness Von Hutton. McClure and Phillips. An American Engineer in China. By W. B. Parsons. L. C. Page & Co., Boston. A Georgian Actress. By Pauline B. Mackie. Macaulay and Forrest, and Their Contemporaries. Edited by Brander Mathews and Laurence Hutton. Macmillan's. Who Goes There? By B. K. Benson. Brentano's, New York. The Joy of Captain Rebot. By A. P. Valdes. Houghton, Mifflin, New York. Mountain Playmates. By Helen R. Albee. Penelope's Experiences in England and Scotland. Two D. Appleton & Co., New York. In Circling Camps. By J. A. Allsheler. The Boer in War. By Howard C. Hillegas. The Transit of Civilization. By Edward Eggleston. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston. The Masque of Judgment. By Wm. Vaughn Moody. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. The Case and Exceptions. By Frederick T. Hill. Chas. Scribner's, New York. Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts. By A. T. Quilley Couch. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. Twelve Great Artists. By W. H. Downes. The Spiritual Significance. By Lilian Whiting. Dodd, Mead & Co. The Slavery of Our Times. By Count Leo Tolstoy. |