Shorter Notice

\. I I • • I , - - I • . \ ' •' I I ' .-, ·' '. ' I , ' . ·, I-- ~ . ' : .: '\ • L , • . ,._ ·. iI ":.., I tl.., ( i ' I I • ~ l ,' I • I :&~VIEWS -, .' I "I. I ' ,.. I , ' ·The third group' ·of essays~ "People," shows Emerson deal,ing with·what was central-to him-the individual. It consists of twelve out of nineteen chapters _ of Engli;h Traits, the character sketches of Montaig~e, Mar·y 1 l\1oody Emerson, Thoreau, Carlyle, and Burns, arid also ''Historic Notes o(Life..and Letters jn New. England." ' It is fitting that English Traits· appears under ((People" since essentially it is ~ study of the personal force of,English individuals. Emerson's habitual mode of perception, which·led him.to see things in relationships, here is at-its shrewdest and most delightful; hisp,raise of any one aspect. o-fthe English also informs the reader of his silent criticism, and his evaluation of the English silhouettes his evaluation ofthe American, espe~ially of the New England American. Thus in the· 1 individual character sketches too, the r~ader comes to know the ri,ch multiplicities of the unity, Emerson. .· In a fourth section, "Poems," the editor prints' the cream of Emerson's . po~ms, ninetee_n~ in all, ranging from the con'ventional "Conco~d Hymn, to the more,typical tight-lipped verse- which at its best might be mistaken for the g~omic lyrical work of Emily Dickinson. , Van Doren also reprints thirty-eight pages of a continuous section from ' the Journals, running._from January to July, 1856, an extract which shows ' , clearly why _ Eme,rson called his ]ournals his "savings bank." - ·_ ' The concluding section is a ~ampling o(Emerson letters to Carlyle, to :,- .his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, to his wife, and to Margaret Fuller. They are personal, ~anging from the gaiety of Emerson in love to Emerson in the bla'c}(ness of-bereavement. This section also includes a glimpse of Emerson . as an active. citizen in his open letter to Presid~nt Van Buren protes(ing I the enforcing of the Cherokee Treaty. ·· This Reader achieves what Professor Van Doren claims for it: c'The repre'sentative Emerson, the ' influential E~erson) gives wa·y here to the · man who at the moment is the most readable-at the moment, and, one ,may have the faith,- for a long time to come." GoRDON RoPER SHORTER NOTICE· An Album of Dated Syriac Manuscripts. By W. H. P~ Hatch.' Cambridg ~: Harvard University Press [Toronto: Saunders]. 1946. Pp. ix, 47, 200 plates. ($38~00) This w~rk by the Professor Emeritus of New Testament in the Epis~opal Theological School, Cambridge, ~ass., is another of this specialist's inast~rpieces in the field of Syriac and Greek manuscripts of the New _ _ Testament. Dr. Hatch's name has already been made famous by his Greek and· Syriac Miniatures in ]erusalem, Greek Manuscripts of the 'New Testament at Mount Sinai, and his Principal Uncial Manuscript.r of the ·New I -- ~-----~- "_ ;__! I 0 - ~ r . •I. I 0 '·'·...·.- ~ .- ' I ,' ,. t'r ' 'Ir ' •, ' -~:~:·'=. ·... :·: ..' ..·-; - .. J,. .. r.:-... ' 110 .,..-,. . - , ., - ... ) J.. .. .l. "' .\. . .. ·,-: ·•· r. ', . ~ . •'.·/ r # , I -THE UNIVERSITY: OF TORONTO QUARTERLY I~:'I:_. ·. . - . r·· . • >• • \ 1 .,, ' ~ I . I' ' k • I , .. 1-, ... , . r, I •.· ,.., I: f ~' . I J ! ' . I r I - ' I (· I 't •: : I ~ I· I .• I l .- ' . Testament) and this his most recent work will add lustre to his fame, for it· is not only an impo'rtant subject ·hut·also one which .is dis~ussed arid illus~ trated in th~ best'man·ner of th~sexpert's scholarly te·chnique. It is a book for the New Testament textual expert and for every grea,t-technical biblical library iD the world. The two hundred facsimiles with their accompanying· palaeographical description are· preceded by a full introduction dealing with such mat.ters . as writing materials, pens, ink; styles -of writing, forms .of letters, and especially with such important problems as that of dating, and that ·qf, the periods .in the history of Syriac handwriting~ 'The facsimiles, each of which reproduces a page of the original manusc ,ript, show in part or in the whole the actual size of the letters as they were written by the scribes. Thus students .of the...