The

I

T WAS lucky for "a little gray cat" called Agrippina that she crept, some dozen years ago, into the affections of so gifted a mistress as Agnes Repplier. Her fortune it thus was to receive the crown of posthumous fame and to find a snug place beside the immortal pussies who bask in the warmth of literary reminiscence. To her belongs forever the volume inscribed "In Memory of Agrippina"honor enough for any mortal; while to us is given, because of her, this enduring treasure of literature with the inspired name "The Fireside Sphinx."

Miss Repplier has shown throughout her whole lively cluster of volumes an undeviating love for the feline race. She has had no word to say of those marauding traits, those noisy interviews, with which the unsympathetic humorist somewhat awkwardly dallies. These she ignores or, wilfully perhaps, knows not at all. Hers is the gentle tabby who purrs in harmony with the tea kettle or treads in lithe grace across chair and desk to the shoulders of her enamored mistress. That both extremes may be united in one crafty little body does not seem to have occurred to Miss Repplier. If the thought has arisen it has been put away. But to some whose love is less and whose observation is blunted, perhaps by preconception, it has been brought sharply home by many a midnight pang that to our neighbor his cat is a decorous Dr. Jekyll, while to us he shows and utters only the malignancy of Hyde. In this volume of three hundred pages, whose paper and type are as clear as the author's pellucid style, and whose admirable illustrations are the chosen work of Miss Elizabeth Bonsall, an artist devoted to cats, Miss Repplier has given the heaped-up and overflowing measure of her experience,

of her reading and of her store of anecdote. To say this is to say all things, as readers know who have been diverted, stimulated and uplifted year by year with the successive little volumes from "Books and Men" down to "Varia." No one is so industrious throughout the field of letters, no one reads and gleans with wiser thrift or more catholic taste. Miss Repplier is mistress of each subject with which she deals, of its literature, its allusions. all its wandering tendrils of association, and her memory is a vast and exact index to which she may turn at will for the one preordained example, the final and clinching quotation. This is in itself a rare mark of that sort of talent which lies on the borderland of genius; but, when to such gifts is added the unifying quality which caches up and transmutes the quoted opinion or apt anecdote into original dicta, the borderland is crossed and you have in page after page the evidences of a genius for expression which flows from and is the natural offspring of just thinking and sincere and penetrating observation.

Such is "The Fireside Sphinx" in almost greater degree than any of Miss Repplier's previous books. It is, indeed, the only volume devoted to a single subject, with the exception of "Philadelphia, the Place and the People," and this gives it a unity more conducive to sustained research and scholarly exposition. The author has ransacked the annals of the world from legendary Egypt to our own commonplace day for the history. of the cat. She begins with "The Cat of Antiquity" and leaves no fact unmentioned, no illustration unemployed that will divert and pleasurably instruct. From this she passes in orderly survey, always light-hearted, ways stimulating and amusing, brightening the Dark Ages, mitigating the

evil days of pussie's persecution, following him joyously or sadly through the Renaissance; and finally into witchhaunted England, where his troubles were many. The gay narrative then passes to art, and every picture known to the traveler yields its lurking Tabby; then, in an enchanting chapter, to literature, where Miss Repplier throws away the restraints imposed by research, and revels in her love for all the fame

touched cats who have been dear to authors in all golden ages of letters. This is, indeed, a matchless essay, fit to rank with the best of the enduring literature which it celebrates. "Some Cats of France" and "The Cat of To-Day" close an enchanting volume which will do much to win the sceptic and will endear anew "The Fireside Sphinx" to his unquestioning devotee.

HARRISON S. MORRIS.

HE character of Thomas Jefferson is so full of inconsistencies that Mr. Curtis will probably be charged by some with making inaccurate statements. The fact is that his book fully justifies its title of "The True Thomas Jefferson." It presents a picture of Jefferson which will surprise a large number of those who, though they knew the statesman, had but an incomplete understanding of the man. It is not a biography in the formal sense. It is the story of Jefferson's life as it was developed in many various fields of activity. It is the story of a man of extraordinary power and versatility, a man who probably would have won greater renown in science or letters had not politics secured so large a share of his attention.

Jefferson's portrait is not altogether a flattering one. He had red hair, and his eyes were hazel. His grandson tells us that at his death, in his eighty-fourth year, not one of his teeth was defective. His skin was exceedingly sensitive, the sun causing it to blister, and he was frequently troubled by suffusions of blood in the face and neck caused by muscular ex

ertion. In stature he stood six feet two and a half inches, and his physique indicated strength, activity and robust health.

But the somewhat homely appearance of his face did not prevent him from winning favor with the young women of his youthful days, while his tenacity of purpose appears also to have had small result in his earliest

courtships. The first young woman to whom he proposed marriage was asked to wait until he had completed his studies and taken a trip to Europe, and he was much hurt by her refusal and later marriage to another man. Of his opinion of other sweethearts the following verse, said to be in his handwriting, gives a clue:

"Jane Nelson is a neat girl,
Betsy Page is a sweet girl,
Rebecca Burwell is the devil,

If not the devil, she is one of his
imps."

Jefferson's wife was Martha Skelton, a widow famous for her beauty, and fond of admiration and music. Her death was a shocking blow to Jefferson, and it was many years afterward before Monticello, his country home, recovered that air of gaiety which his prodigal hospitality had earned for it

a prodigality which brought him heavily into debt, and made him at one time an object for the charitable bounty of his countrymen.

Yet Jefferson was scrupulously careful of details in the management of his accounts, and Bacon, his superintendent, says, "He knew everything, even what pigs to kill, for he had names for them all, and exactly when and how each field was to be sown and reaped, and what every hand was to do during each day. I reported to Mr. Jefferson every dollar that I received, and just what I paid it out for. The first day of January I gave him a full list of all the servants, stock, and everything on the place, so that he could see exactly what had been the gain or loss." For all this, farming was the one occupation in which Jefferson made an absolute failure.

His habits were regular. Daniel Webster says, "He (Jefferson) rose when he could see the hands of his clock, and then examined his thermometer, as he keeps a regular meteorological diary. He employs himself chiefly in writing until breakfast, which is at nine. From that time till dinner he is in his library, excepting that in fair weather he rides on horseback from seven to fourteen miles. Dines at four, returns to the drawing room at six, when coffee is brought in, and passes the evening in conversation until nine. His habit of retiring at that hour is so strong that it has become essential to his health and comfort. His diet is simple, but he seems restrained only by his taste. His breakfast is tea and coffee, bread always fresh from the oven, of which he does not seem afraid, with sometimes a slight accompaniment of cold meat. He enjoys his dinner well, taking with his meat a large proportion of vegetables. He has a strong preference for the wines of the Continent, of which he has many sorts of excellent quality, having been more than commonly successful in his mode of importing and preserving them."

As a lawyer Jefferson was successful. He began practice in 1767, and during his first year at the bar was employed in sixty-eight cases before the General Court, his fees amounting to £293.45.54d. Almost everbody was in litigation at the time, and Jefferson's keen observation, quick perception and inquisitive nature qualified him for the conduct of legal cases. Perhaps one of the greatest services he performed was the revision of the laws of Virginia, yet his native State is alone in failing to recognize his achieve

ments.

Of the document which made Jefferson's name immortal its writer says: "I drew it; but before I reported it to the committee, I communicated it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, requesting their correction.

Their alterations were two or

three only, and merely verbal. I then wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, unaltered, to Congress. Pickering's observations and Adams's in addition, 'that it contained no new ideas, that it is a commonplace compilation, its sentiments hackneyed in Congress for two years before, and its essence contained in Otis's Pamphlet,' may all be true. Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard Henry Lee charged it as copied from Locke's "Treatise on Civil Government.'

"Otis's Pamphlet I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas from reading or reflection, I do not know. I know only that I turned to neither book nor pamphlet while writing. I did not consider it as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether and to offer no sentiment which had never been expressed before." Jefferson says that he wrote the Declaration of Independence in the house of a Mr. Graff.

"Jeffersonian simplicity," of which so much is said, seems to have had small foundation in fact. While it is true that as President, Jefferson abolished some of those public ceremonies.

which were the occasion for great display, his opposition to that sort of thing does not seem to have been lasting or very sincere. His intention apparently was to counteract the tendency toward extreme ceremony, which had characterized Washington and Adams when in office. His "simplicity" was a pose for a purpose, and while he was President he had a fine coach drawn by four magnificent horses for which he paid $1600 a year, and his coachman and footman were clad in livery similar to that used in Paris and London. In fact, even in his most informal moments Jefferson had a fine sense of dignity and politeness.

In personal habits he appears to have been prudent, if not abstemious. He did not use tobacco in any form. He did import large quantities of wine, and kept a record of every bottle bought and of every bottle consumed. Horse racing he does not seem to have encouraged, fond of horses though he was, but he did enjoy exceedingly any public exhibition or fair. He was an opinionated man, but apparently deliberate, and such theories as he had, while he frequently abandoned them as his view widened, were generally based upon observation and thought. As far as they related to science they were derived from study, and bore fruit in

more than one mechanical contrivance which was noteworthy. He copied many of his letters-and he probably wrote more letters in his own hand than any other public man that ever lived-by the use of a polygraph and by a letterpress both of his own invention. He was a mathematician and astronomer; could reckon latitude and longitude as well as a shipmaster, and calculated the eclipse of 1778 with accuracy. He was able to read and write Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian, and carried to Congress in 1775 a reputation for literary achievement.

Judged by the standards of his day Jefferson was the greatest politician that this country has produced, but, judged by the standards of to-day, according to Mr. Curtis, who produces strong evidence in support of his estimate, Jefferson is not entitled to any such pre-eminent position. He is, however, perhaps the most picturesque character in American history, and this handsome volume is an example of perhaps the most picturesque form of biography. It is full of anecdotes and quotations, and it carries the impress of authority. It will surely be read by as many for its entertainment, as for the serious information it holds. F. C. W.

f it is a praiseworthy act to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, then surely the whole life work of Dr. William Mason, extending over period of sixty years, may be regarded as beneficent in its aims and results. Beneficent as aiding in the formation of a correct and

refined taste in music, and so adding to the sum of human knowledge and of human enjoyment.

The book in which Dr. Mason gives the experiences of a lifetime is entitled "Memoirs of a Musical Life." Unlike many volumes of personal reminiscences which have appeared in the last two or three years, this one is clean and wholesome, characterized by an en

tire absence of cynicism; a kindly spirit breathes throughout its pages, showing a large and liberal nature. When it is said that it was owing to the efforts of Lowell Mason, Dr. William Mason's father, and Mr. George James Webb, with the co-operation of some influential gentlemen, that the Boston Academy of Boston was founded in 1833, it will be at once seen how far back these memoirs reach; and when we are further told that it was here in Boston, on February 10, 1841, took place the first performance in America of a Beethoven symphony, the Fifth, we are able to judge of the progress in musical culture and taste from that time till now. Is it too much to say that this is chiefly due to the two Masons, father and son, more than to any other two men?

In 1849, young Mason, then but twenty years old, went to Europe to pursue his musical studies and perfect his technique. He studied at Leipsic under Moscheles, Hauptmann and Richter, and later at Weimar with Liszt. From this time his notebooks are filled with reminiscences of all those

best known in the musical world

It is

Meyerbeer, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, with those already named. readily perceived that Liszt is the author's chief hero. Unstinted praise is meted out to him-his personality, his manner his music. The old Grand Duke was still living under whose patronage Goethe had made Weimar so famous. "It was perhaps his idea to make Weimar, as famous musically through Liszt as it had been in literature in Goethe's time." A large-handed hospitality was the rule at Altenburg, the home of Liszt; visitors, most of whom were notable, came from all parts to pay their respects to the maestro. Die goldene Zeit was the term affectionately applied by his admirers to this period of his life. Nothing Nothing could be less pedagogical than his manner of instruction. When Mason first played for him, Liszt gently pushed him from the chair, saying, "Don't

play it that way. Play it like this," and sitting down he would bring out the proper accentuation of the passage in such a way as to illustrate most forcibly how it should be played.

In Dr. Mason's opinion Liszt was the greatest pianist of the nineteenth century. He was what the Germans callan Erscheinung, "an epoch-making genius." A comparison is made between his playing and that of Rubinstein, dwelling upon the reserve force and repose in Liszt's manner, and the want of poise in Rubinstein's. Yet Rubinstein was one of Liszt's favorite pupils, although he regarded Tausig a finer performer.

A comparison between Mendelssohn and Schumann brings out in a vivid. manner the difference in the character of the two men as shown in their music -"Schumann's profound, and appealing to us most when we wish to withdraw within the very sanctuary of our own emotions; Mendelssohn's smooth, finished and easily undertsood." Something like this was uttered by Wagner in a conversation with Dr. Mason com

paring Mendelssohn with Beethoven. The music of the one was "always exquisite, fairy-like and fine in character. In Beethoven we get the man of brawn and muscle. He was too in

spired to pay much attention to conventionalities. He went right to the pith of what he had to say, and said it in a robust, decisive, manly, yet tender way."

There are throughout the volume. many discriminating characterizations of Berlioz, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms. Wagner, and others, which let in a flood of light upon many nice points of musical composition and technique. Young musicians, pianists, quick and open to suggestion, might do well to avail themselves of these hints in their own practice. There is much said, too, 'of the correct use of the muscles of the upper arm and the wrists, and the proper mode of fingering, while Thalberg's aphorism is quoted: “Gewöhn