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.
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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-
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| _ Arthur Williams (Yale ’77), Principal.
Henry L. Rupert, M.A., Registrar.
West 44th St,
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For quality of work in preparation of students for
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Joun S. Wurtt, LL.D., Head Master.
J. CLARK READ, A.M., Registrar.
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FRANK DRISLER, A.M., Principal.
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THE CUTLER SCHOOL,
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Over one hundred and eighty pupils have
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YALE, HARVARD, COLUMBIA Or PRINCETON.
THE CONDON SCHOOL,
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Graduates of this school are now pursuing
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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-
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W. FREELAND, W. C. READIO,
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THE PRINCIPAL OF :
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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—
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e « e Apply to...
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: Dean.
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