Image provided by the Yale Club & Scholarship Foundation of Hartford, Inc.
About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1897)
PROFESSOR TYLER'S BOOK. Literary History of the American Revolution.?’ A new book by Prof. Moses Coit Tyler is something to brighten any literary season. The alumni of Yale have especial reason for gratification in an event of this kind hecause the honors he has won in literature con- tribute to the glory of Alma Mater and to the just pride of her sons. In the field which he has made his own he has achieved eminent distinction. So completely has he developed its pos- sibilities that the work seems to have been done once for all. It is improba- ble that any worthy material has es- caped his ardent search, or that his deliberate critical judgments will need essential revision. As the historian of the literature of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of our National life, his authority will have enduring and trustful recognition. It is twenty years, or more, since his “History of American Literature Dur- ing the Colonial Time’? was published. Its value for instruction and delight was promptly acknowledged and its worth appreciates with the passage of time. In the interval he has indus- triously, amid other occupations, wrought out his purvcse to prepare a history of the literature of the period of the Revolution. This is now com- pleted; one volume is already issued and its companion will be out in the Fall. Whoever is acquainted with the ear- lier work will know what to expect of the later one. While it is in fact a continuation, it is in form and treat- ment distinct, and may be regarded as a separate exposition of the intel- lectual forces that evoked and nur- tured the spirit of National Independ- ence, and of the similar forces em- ployed ta suppress and strangle it. The story of the American Revolution has been told in numberless ways; its patriotic, political, military, economic, religious, social and philosophical phases have not lacked studious con- sideration; but never before has its literature received such particular and illuminating treatment as Professor Tvler has now given to it. The task was not one which would powerfully invite the dilettante or the devotee of art merely for art’s sake. Some persons may question whether there was any writing by Americans in that time of storm and bitterness which rightly can be called literature or merits the condescending: attention of nice practitioners of expression. John Morley says: ‘‘Literature consists of all the books—and they are not so many—where moral truth and human passion are touched with a certain largeness. sanity, and attraction of form.” The definition may be ac- cepted as a fine characterization of literature in its best estate, the vrod- uct of philosophic wisdom and trans- forming imagination. It adorns and glorifies whatever moral truth or hu- man passion it touches. But there !s a literature of life and duty which deals with moral truth and human passion in their concrete shapes, which is marked by concentration upon an immediate problem. by a sternness and fierceness which to the _ indifferent seems like insanity, and sometimes by a rougshness of form which smites the attention. It may not be the literature of all time; but, nevertheless, it may be the real literature of its own time. the awakening and commanding word which burns the conscience, compels the reason, marshals all the energies of dull masses to action. and moves the world forward. And this literature is a prover studv of the literarv ar- tist. as well as of the man of affairs. It is the safe ground and substance of genuine sentiments and_ prosverous imagination’ from which no alluring intuitions should detach his hold. Professor Tyler’s book might be en- titled a history of the development of political thought in the period of the American Revolution. It was a time of earnestness and of changing opin- ions, when men were forced unwilling- Iv to become disloyal to their King. There was no outward sign of daring that had not been anticinated by a violent inward struggle. From James Otis’ arguments on the writs of assist- ‘ ance in 1761 to Jefferson’s Declara- vat of ee in 1776 was a ong way. This is the perio by the first volume. ge Of the men whose writines are con- sidered therein, few have any consid- erable space allotted to them in man- uals of American literature, but some fill a large space in our histories on account of their services in practical statesmanship. In this book we eet a new view of these and one that affords YAIE ALUM bee PME SSA DEB ES TR eager SE Se Rae me nn instruction regarding the natural sources and conditions of their pow- er. The emphasis is laid not on their public actions but on their public writings, and these are analyzed and estimated so wisely and so brilliantly, that what might be expected to he, if never so useful, yet to the general readers, inevitably tiresome, glows with interest and charm. The author’s power of intellectual portraiture makes: these essayists in an old con- troversy almost as apparent to our in- telligence as are the editors and ora- tors of the last political campaign. For an example take this picture of John Adams: “Among the most striking of the literary responses to the news that, in disregard of all appeals from Amerit- ca, the Stamp Act had become a law, was one by a writer of extraordinary vigor in arguments, of extraordinary affluence in invective who chose _ to view the whole problem as having logical and _ historical relations far more extensive than had been com- monly supposed—relations far more serious to mankind in general. than would attach to a Anglo-American politics. This writer was John Adams, then but thirty years old, a rising member of the bar of Massachusetts, already known in that neighborhood for his acuteness, fear- lessness, and restless energy as a thinker, and for a certain truculent and sarcastic splendor in his style of speech. Tio the very end of his life, even his most off-hand writings, such as diaries and domestic letters, reveal in him a trait of sneculative activitv and boldness: they show that his mind teemed and bubbled and sparkled with ideas: that he was all the time build- ing theories of society, sgovernment, religions. literature, education. con- duct; that he was forever. piercins with his virile and dauntless intelli- gence the past, present and future, the qualities and relationshinvs of all be- ings in time and eternity, in heaven, and earth and hell. Moreover his ideas are never cool, never colorless. His brain was not insulated from his heart: nay, his heart and even his conscience voured their warm streams through his brain, and gave to his words a moral and emotional thought- fulness which is at least stimulating, often wholesome and refreshing. This auality makes John Adams’s writings interesting—which. of course, is not always a test of value or of real im- pnressiveness. Jefferson he is the most readable of the. statesmen of the Revolutionary period. While his intellect was ever alert. active, and corruscating, it was not high enough or calm enough to look all around any subject, and to take in the whole case as a serious quest for truth. Never could he have been a great judge or a great his- torian or a supreme statesman, or a supreme thinker. He was bv nature an orator and an advocate; his frank- est discussions of a subject always have the note of partisanship and sophistication.’’ % % * —_—__—__44——____ University Meeting. A meeting of the University was held Tuesday night. June 8, in Alumni Hall to elect the officers of the Base Ball Association for the ensuing year. Frank Hunter Simmons, ’98, of Brook- | lyn. N. Y.. was elected president, Gilbert C. Greenway of Hot Springs Ark., vice-president ; Frederick Heister Brooke, of Birdsboro, Pa.. assistant manager; and Harrv Brookings Wal- lace, ’99, of St. Louis, Mo., secretary and treasurer. RRNA "FaNcaaa ee ee Yale Wins the Shoot. The annual intercollegiate shoot for the trophy offered by Shooting and Fish- ing took place at Wellington, Mass., on Friday morning, May 28. Yale won, the score. being: Yale, 116; Harvard, 113; Princeton, 110; Columbia, 106; University of Pennsylvania, 104. The individual rec- ords of the Yale men were: Jamot Brown, 99, Captain, 28; J. E. Bulkeley, ’99, 25: C.R. Bement, ’97 S., 245°C; B. Schley, °99.9., 3) C. B. Spears, 1900, 18. This ties Yale and Princeton, each having won the shoot twice. Acording to the conditions of the contest, the deciding shoot will take place before May 27, at the grounds of the New Haven Gun Club. - College of Physicians ana Surgeons, BOSTON, MASS. i%th year opens Sept. 21. Near Hospitals. Rebate on tuition for clinical work. Requirements of Ass. Am. Med. Colleges. Co-educational. (Send for catalogue.) AUGUSTUS P. CLARKE, A,M., M.D ean. _ NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL, New Yor«K CIty, “Dwight Method” of instruction. Da School, ib Broadway. Evening School, Cooper Union (for students who cannot attend day sessions). Summer School, 120 Broadway (June—August). LL.B. after two years’ course. Graduate course, one year. Number of students for the past year, 617, of whom 248 were college graduates. The location of the Law School, in the midst of the courts and lawyers’ offices, affords an invaluable opportunity to learn legal practice and the conduct of affairs. GEORGE CHASE, Dzan, 120 Broadway. mere dispute In With the excention of, JOHN A, HALL, Pres, W7 Eo Es ae CAPITAL, $1,000,000. Corner of Wall and Nassau Streets. A Legal Depository for Court and Trust Funds and General Deposits. Liberal Rates of Interest paid on Balances. John I. Waterbury, President. John Kean, Amos T. French, Vice-Presidents, Chas. H. Smith, Sec’y. _W. Pierson Hamilton, Treas. Thomas L. Greene, Auditor. 4 DIRECTORS, 1896: August Belmont. John Kean, Jr. Manhattan Trust Company . W. Cannon. John Howard Latham. ' ie J. Cassatt. John G. Moore, R. J. Cross. E. D. Randolph. Rudulph Eliis. James O. Sheldon, Amos T. French. Samuel Thomas. nN. A. Griswold. Edward Tuck, Wr. Pierson Hamilton. John I. Waterbury. ’ H. L.° Higginson. R. T. Wilson. HOME Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. GEO. E. IDE, President. Wo. M. St. JoHN, Vice President. ELLIS W. GLADWIN, Secretary. | Wn. A. MARSHALL, Actuary. F. W. CHAPIN, Med. Director. EUCENE A. CALLAHAN, General Agent STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 23 Church Street, - - New Haven. THE Massachusetts : Mutual LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Springfield, Mass. Incorporated 1851. H, M, PHILLIPS, Sec. Guaranteed Paid-Up and Casn Surrender Values Endorsed on every Policy. Send your name, date of birth and address to the Company’s office, and there will be shown you a specimen policy with the paid- up and cash surrender values which would appear in a policy issued at your age. ~ All Policies protected by the Massachusetts Non-Forfeiture Law. NEW YORK UNIVERSIT LAW SCHOOL Day and Evening Sessions. Confers LL.B.; also (for graduate courses) LL.M. Tuition $100. No incidental fee. Address for catalogue: Registrar, Univer- sity, Washington Square, New York City. SCHOOLS. DWIGHT SCRUUL ss: The Yale preparatory schoo! of New York. Its graduates have been admitted with high credit to Yale College and Sheffield. Seven- teenth Annual Catalogue on application. | _ Arthur Williams (Yale ’77), Principal. Henry L. Rupert, M.A., Registrar. West 44th St, Berkeley School w=: xs For quality of work in preparation of students for college, attention is invited to the record of BERKELEY SCHOOL graduates upon the Yale University and Shef- field entrance examinations, and their subsequent standing in college. Joun S. Wurtt, LL.D., Head Master. J. CLARK READ, A.M., Registrar. DRISLER SCHOOL, No. 9 East 49th St., New York City. FRANK DRISLER, A.M., Principal. A select school for a limited number of pupils. Resident pupils received. THE CUTLER SCHOOL, No. 20 East 50th St., New York City. Over one hundred and eighty pupils have been prepared for College and Scientific Schools since 1876, and most of these have entered YALE, HARVARD, COLUMBIA Or PRINCETON. THE CONDON SCHOOL, 741 & 748 Fifth Ave. New York City. Between 57th and 58th Streets. 18, 20, 22, 24 Graduates of this school are now pursuing their higher education at COLUMBIA, CORNELL, HARVARD, PRINCETON, UNIVERSITY OF PENN- SYLVANIA, POLYTECHNIC OF TROY, YALE, and at other Colleges. HARVARD SCHOOL, 568 Fifth Ave., New York. Fall Term opens October Ist, 1896, This School has scnt seventy-five boys to Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Princeton dur- ing the past six years. W. FREELAND, W. C. READIO, Principal. Vice-Prin. THE PRINCIPAL OF : MILWAUKEE ACADEMY, A college preparatory school for boys, founded 1864, will dome iva into his family a limited num- ber of BOARDING PUPILS. For catalogue and further information ad- dress Junius Howarp Pratt, Pu.D. (Yale), Principal, 471 Van Buren St., Milwaukee, Wis. COLUMBIA INSTITUTE, 270 West 72d St., corner West End Av., re-opens Sept. 30. Collegiate, preparatory, primary depts., optional military drill, gymnasium, playground; five boarding pupils received: catalogues, EDWIN FOWLER, M.D., A.B., Principal. Yale Law School. o— For circulars and other information e « e Apply to... Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, : Dean. ‘‘The Leading Fire Insurance Company of America.” Z ANS WM. B. CLARK, President. W. H. KING, Secretary. WESTERN BRANCH, 413 Vine Street, Cincinnati, 0. NORTHWESTERN BRANCH, ‘Omaha, Neb. PACIFIC BRANCH, San Francisco, Cal, INLAND MARINE DEPARTMENT, Deere & SPENCER, Incorporated 1819. Charter Perpetual. Cash Capital, $4,000,600.00 Cash Assets, 11,431,184.21 Total Liabilities, ‘© 3,581,196.16 Net Surplus, 3,849,988.05 Losses Paid in 78 Yrs., 79,198,979.38 EF. O. WEEKS, Vice-Pres. A. C. ADAMS, Ass’t Sec’y. HENRY E. REES, Ass’t Sec’y. F. C. BENNETT, General Agent. _ N. E. KEELER, Ass’t General Agent. WM. H. WYMAN, General Agent. W. P. HARFORD, Ass’t General Agent. General Agenta, CHICAGO, ILLS., 145 LaSalle Street, NEW YORK, 52 William Street.
