SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 1923
THE MIC141CAN DAILY
PArF,
TH.MCHGN AIY AIct-"
rences of men, but a sort of soul- casual student has little or no inti-
geography. mation of the intricacies of the sci-
K SThe bit about Dreiser which was ence which has been more and more
Books and
printed on the front page of this engaging the attention of modern
W rite rs meritorious publication last Sunday, scholars. History really is a new
I{ herds with the goats. It is obviously science. Only within recent years
a headpiece to the collection if taken have we recognized that it is some-
.... .... ., .- ;. together with the dedication, but it is, thing other than a mere narration of
I think, the product of one of his bad events. We have, in other words,
thHbiFor Mr. Anderson is an amateur i mooments. It is Anderson at his been gaining new aspects of the
worst, maudlin, diffuse and heavily meaning of study.'
THE GOATS he doesn't know the business of writ- symbolic-but very much Anderson. Two of the newly acquired aspects
ing as others do. Whether or not this Perhaps the happiest piece of all, in of the study of history are: First, that
"HORSES AND MEN" is fortunate and increases the stature the sense that it is according to the events are in essence the manifesta-
By Sherwood Anderson. of the man of consequence, it is, nev- canons of story-telling the most fin- tion of ideas, and that ideas, far from
B. W. Huebsel, 1923. $2.00. ertheless, disconcerting to the reader ished work, is the first, "I'm a Fool." being transcendent to man's life, are
Whenever a reviewer sits down to whc is schooled in the conventions of tie is at his best when talking about actually expressions of man's physical
do tip a book of short stories I think the writer's trade. Take "The Sad the horses and men of the Ohio race desires, needs, and cravings. Intelli-
he always heaves a weary sigh, for Iorn Blowers" which I would rank tracks. A racing swipe meets and 'gence, both as studied in history, and
instead of one plot and one set of with the capricornous members of the falls in love with a girl and, because as used by ourselves in the study of
characters such as moves through the volume, with its unhalanced and un- he has told her a tall story about his !history, is a purposive function of the
pages of a novel there are more likelyi comfortable mixing of two plots-the family and affairs, he feels he has human animal, and is an instrument
a dozen, all different and all entitled; young man orienting himself in the tshut himself away from her. Feel- of desire.
to equal attention. What to do, butt world and the old man trying to ing thus he is shut away from her- Secondly, we have begun to under-
theorize on the general tone of the squirm out from under the thumb of and that's the story. Tragedy, you stand that history is the by-product of
collection. his wife. The two threads of action see. an effervescence ot mingling masses
In Mr. Anderson's "Horses and do not merge and flow together, one An Ohio Pagan is, far irom expec- of people. The old belief was that it
Men," there are eleven pieces, if you in subordination to the other, as a tation, true to its title. It is the lyric is a record of heroes and their deeds.
include the introducticn and the more practised story teller would tale of an unlearned adolescent boy The new conception is that heroes of
squib on Dreiser. I propose to ouer have them do. in harvest time who has "made him- very minor "events." Merz, in his
a method 01 approach to MIr. Ander- That, is the trouble with Mr. Ander- self a figure of Jesus as a young History of European Thought in the
son and his works-a way to lool, at son-he never learns to tell a story god walking about over the land." 19th Century, skillfully expresses the
,im-a critical angle-a measuring: properly. Ills purpose is different.1 Simple tales, you see; not stories new aspect which the modern his-
stick by which to judge his art--sor When you know this and stop being at all in the proper sense of the torian has attained to as follows:
whsat you will. worried about the absence of plot and word, but as pictures of people from "The vague yearnings of tbsu-
If a platitude will be pardoned, .11 action, and the other physical trap- the inside out they are highly suc- sands who never succeed either in
men are Jekylls and, by the same ings that go with the story as such, ressful. satisfying or expressing them, the
token, Hydes. It is equally true that he becomes immediately intelligible. Jim: Panurge. hundreds of failures which never
all men are seers and in a consider- Rebecca West some time ago in the become known, the numberless de-
ably larger measure fools. Anderson , New Statesman called attention to the A CRITICAL STUDY sires which live only in the hearts
is both of these. But he is by way of fact that he was concerned with what ASof men or are painted only in
being an artist and as such when he she was pleased to call the New Psy- OF HISTORY their living features, the un-
sees deep and when he is foolish he is chology' which seems to the study and counted strivings after solutions
well nigh idiotic. And some of his presentation of the subject of the "ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF RO- of practical problems dictated by
stuff is good and some is very bad. story divorced of its physical setting, MAN HISTORY," by Thomas Spen- ambition or want, the many hours
Too many enthusiasts for the new , or at least without giving the com- eer Jeorme. G. N. Putnam's Sons. spent by laborours of science in
school of writing are prone to accept monplace actions of the characters A certain critic in praising one of unsuccessful attempts to solve
all that flows from the industrious the whole of the stage. Edgar Poe's short stories said that the riddles of nature-all these
pen of Mr. Anderson as genuine bona Mr. Anderson's method is to seek it was as simple as a Greek column, hidden and forgotten efforts form
fide specie. But with Mr. Anderson,'after the essential of the men and simple because so perfect: Only on indeed the bulk of a nation's
perhaps more than with anyone else, women he is engaged in portraying. closer examination does the com- thought of which only a small
the goats should be divided from the It is not a realism achieved by record- position appear. In the same way is fraction comes to the surface, or
sheep with a firm hand. ing the exterior and superficial occur- the study of History simple. The shows itself in the literature,
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science, poetry, art, and practical
achievements of the age."
Thomas Spencer Jerome, has taken
these new aspects of historical re-
search and applied them to the study
of ancient Rome. His book is not a
history, but a criticism of the study
of history. With a high ideal as to
what true history should be, he points
out many, many places in our here-
tofore accepted versions of the story,
where inaccuracies are liable to have
been committed; and with some keen
and clever criticism on his own part
hints at possible rennovations in our
store of "knowledge" which though
radical, would bring us nearer to the
truth. The effect of his book in the
reader's mind is a vivid impression of
the incredibility of historical testi-
mony, an an awful realization of how
little we reall know about Rome and
the Romans.
One of the most interesting of the'
introductory chapters is the one en-
titled "Ancient Rome and Modern
America," in which he repeats the
often quoted dictum that without An-
cient Rome, Modern America would
never have been conceived-at least
as we observe it today.
Mr. Jerome's volume is interesting
reading throughout, even to the lay-
man, and for the student who is as
yet but partially a scholar, it is a
veritable mine of signficant references
for further study. Perhaps the worst
that can be said for the book is that
it contains too many references. The
first few chapters are unsatisfying,
and one is tempted to abandon the
author entirely; because he utters no
interpretations of his own, but insists
on collecting other people's thought.
Further reading, however, rewards
one with energetic criticism, and keen,
fervent appreciation of Roman move-
ments and Roman personalities.
The work of Thomas Spencer "Jer-
ome should be of special interest to
local thinkers since the author in a
Micbigan man , having been born in
Saginaw being' the son of an ex-gove
!
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