these is Wordsworth's "The good old way-". Congressmen employ this in derision, often accompanied by some such epithet as "robber baron", but many of their constituents believe that it is really the foremost of their guiding principles. "The Ship of State", by Longfellow, has frequent sailings, but "Excelsior", used in 1899, disappeared twenty years later. This is certainly due to those who have been conscientiously teaching us that there is no "higher". Emerson's "By the rude bridge that arched the flood" is apparently good for an annual revival, as is Lowell's "Once to every nation comes the moment to decide". Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" has remained for a score of years in the minds of Congressmen, and Coleridge survives from decade to decade through his "The Knight's bones are dust, His soul is with the saints, I trust". The 1899 version reads: "His sword is rust, his body is dust, His soul is with the saints, I trust". In 1919 it becomes : "Whose swords are rust, whose bones are dust, Thus passes the beauty of rhythm that was Coleridge. Among American patriotic poems, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The Bivouac of the Dead" are to be found in the records of both sessions. There is little likelihood of Congressmen forgetting the latter, so long as ex-soldiers are numerous. Mother Irony, with malice prepense, is responsible for one re-appearance, that of Pope's "For forms of government, let fools contend." Twenty years ago it was used by Lentz in defense of Germany. Interpreted as he meant it to be, it would run thus: "Government by the Kaiser is as good as that of the United States, and undoubtedly a little better". In 1919 it was used by Reed to prove that however well the League of Nations might be adapted to a gentlemanly nation like the United States, it would not fit a rowdy little black republic like Liberia, or a decadent people like those of India. One other quotation of 1898-99 should have some present interest. Senator Lodge used it in defense of American expansion, alias imperialism: "One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, Such would be the net result, said Senator Lodge, if America declined to embark on the untried way. Congressmen are average, or super-average, Americans. H. G. Wells says that members of Parliament are not representative of the highest intelligence of the British people. American Congressmen are far above the average of Americans in intelligence and general culture. Perhaps they are not of the highest, though the culture of Senator Hoar and of Senator Lodge is not far from the best that America has produced If we can deduce anything from the use made of poetry by Congressmen, we can say that the average American cares little for new movements in literature, that Whitman is in no sense a poet of democracy, but a man who wrote poems about democracy, that the old hymns, the old patriotic songs, the old favorites, such as Shakespeare and Pope, remain the literary center for the average American just as much as Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln form his political center. FRENCH WORKS IN THE WRENN COLLECTION BY AARON SCHAFFER It is not generally known that the celebrated Wrenn collection now in the library of the University of Texas contains a small group of volumes of interest to students of French literature who are at the same time bibliophiles. These volumes, few in number but each with some individual characteristic, merit being brought to the attention of Romance scholars, as well as of book-lovers generally, throughout the country. A brief mention of each volume will suffice for this purpose. An examination of the five-volume catalogue of the Wrenn collection (compiled by Harold B. Wrenn and edited by Thomas J. Wise) reveals the fact that there are some seventeen works which deserve mention in this connection. These may be divided into four groups, each composed of four works; the remaining volume is "sui generis" and demands special discussion. The first of the four groups is made up of works interesting rather as early specimens of the typographer's art than as literary productions or as historical contributions. They are, in chronological order: I. Jean Bodé: Le Droit des Roys contre le Cardinal Bellarmin et autres Jesuites, Franckenthal, 1511. II. Francois de Cauvigny, Seigneur de Collomby: Discours de l'Autocrité des Roys, Paris 1523. This volume contains a dedication to Louis XIII of France, with the author's signature spelled "Coulomby" (vide page X). III. La Duc de Guise: Mémoires, Cologne, 1569, 2 vol umes. IV. Jean de la Roque: Voyage dans la Palestine, Amsterdam, 1718. The second group is undoubtedly the most interesting of the four. It comprises autographed copies of productions of three of the foremost French writers of the nineteenth century. They are as follows: V. Alexandre Dumas fils: Un Père prodigue (five-act comedy), Paris 1859. This copy was presented to the critic Sainte-Beuve, and bears on the fly-leaf the inscription: "A Monsieur Sainte-Beuve, hommage affectueux-A. Dumas f." VI. Alexandre Dumas fils: L'Etrangère (five-act comedy), Paris, 1877. This copy is number 7 of a special edition of 40 copies (not 49, as the catalogue of the Wrenn collection erroneously states) printed on Holland paper, and is an autograph copy, the fly-leaf bearing the words: "A Moreau Charlon, souvenir affectueux-A. Dumas f." VII. Victor Hugo: L'Année terrible, Paris, 1872. This is an "editio princeps" that was presented by the author to A. M. de Noë, as we are informed by the inscription on the fly-leaf. VIII. Emile Zola: Pot-Bouille, Paris, 1882. This is also a first edition, with an autographed presentation to Edmond de Goncourt, and it is made additionally interesting by the fact that it contains the following statement on the fly-leaf, in the handwriting of Goncourt and above his signature: "Exemplaire remplacé par un papier de Chine et donné à Lucien Vaucour." The third group deserves mention chiefly as being of interest to those who are fond of de luxe editions. The four books that belong to this group, all magnificent specimens of printing and book-binding, are the following: IX. Jean de La Fontaine: Fables, Paris, 1850. This is a de luxe edition in miniature, the type being so small as almost to be illegible, and yet wonderfully clear-cut. X. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre: Paul et Virginie and La XI. Chaumière indienne, Paris, 1838. This is a strikingly handsome volume, with large, bold type and with illustrations by Meissonier, Johannot, and numerous others. Gérard de Nerval: Sylvie, with preface by Ludovic Halévy, Paris, 1886. This is an edition de luxe, the particular volume being number 373 of an edition. of one thousand. XII. Antoine Hamilton: Mémoires du Comte de Grammont, Paris, 1888. This is number 61 of an edition of two hundred copies printed on Japanese vellum. The last group is made up of translations, only the first of which is of more than incidental interest in this connection. The following works are included in this group: XIII. F. Bourdillon: Aucassin et Nicolette, London, 1887. This edition contains the Old French text on the even pages and a modern French version on the odd pages. It is a handsome copy, and is number 36 of an edition of fifty. XIV. Joutel's Journal of La Salle's First Voyage, London, 1714. This is a first edition, and is a translation of the French original that had been published in Paris the preceding year. XV. Charles Huly: The Two Friends, or The Liverpool Merchant (five-act drama from the French of Beau marchais), London, 1800. XVI. François Villon: Poems, translated into English verse, in the original forms, with biographical and critical introduction, by John Payne, London, 1892. There remains but one more work to be discussed. This has been kept for last because it is undoubtedly the gem of the works in the French group, if not even one of the most valuable in the entire Wrenn collection. Its title-page reads: Chateaubriand Vicomte de: Maison de France, so Recueil de Pièces Relatives à la Légitimité et à la |