Various

“ Had staid old common sense ever had to deal so brazenly with an impulse as to make a man jump into the sea? Damp physically, and with a real bitterness in his heart at such a plain statement of affairs, the world seemed very dark. ”

“ The little path up the cliff had been worn away by the feet of thousands of pilgrims—and that at the risk of their lives. Even the death of four men in one year failed to diminish the ever increasing number. The sand for miles along the shore had been pounded into a hard, even road. The sun never rose that it did not light the path to some figures plodding up the cliff. ”

“ We must not permit a false intelligentsia to become associated with Yale. We cannot allow clever youngsters, fired with the aspiration of a charm for their watch-chains, to hack out verses in the feverish night before a makeup. However few, and however dry, the pages of the Lit. may be, we want them to contain the result of sincere emotion; we want the author to have given the best of his ability toward making his contribution acceptable by any editor. This is the only way a literary magazine can be written. ”

“ Somewhere Hilnardees empties into the Sea—no man knows where nor in how many places. Before that, however, your boat will come to rest on the bank of one of the many branches. There you [297] shall see a vision of your own life—a living symbol of what you yourself are. For Hilnardees is a blessed river, and the hand of the gods is upon it. Many who have pushed out in the current have never returned again to their homes, although rumors of their existence in other parts of the world have later been reported. Such has been the fate of most who have sought the hand of my daughter. ”

“ The light touch! Everything nowadays was written and spoken and even thought of with a light touch. A light touch in connection with the sea! The old sailing vessels—swift clippers around the horn; that was the ocean! ”

“ Victoria is a poetical novel with a strange love for its theme. Formerly Knut Hamsun has been expansive, taking life as a whole for his study; but now he is dealing with love alone, and is therefore able to cast off much of the commonplace in details. He asks, “Ah, what is love?” and gives many conjectures on it. “Love was a music hot as hell which stirs even old men’s hearts to dance. [307] It was like the daisy that opens wide to the coming night, and it was like the anemone that closes at a breath and dies at a touch. It might ruin a man, raise him up again and brand him anew ”

“ It is the man who writes badly, yet for the sheer and indescribable love of writing, who should resent most the prostitution of our literary organizations, for to the “passionate few” creating is serious, joyous business. ”

“ Black Oxen is primarily a woman’s novel. Its theme will always be close to the heart of womankind, and Mrs. Atherton has added a more than feminine touch by leaving the problem unsolved. When, at the end of the book, Mary obeys the call of European duty and closes the taxi door in the face of transcendent love, the reader continues to wonder whether or not rejuvenescence is a good thing. ”

“ We have had enough poets at Yale in the past few years to be able to distinguish them generally from the poetasters, and if a fake slips by now and then, time betrays him and the laurels he has won. Many attain a kind of prominence that is strangely akin to that of a rollerskater who has taken a spill. ”

“ The Miller’s boy is not to have that love fulfilled, the daughter of the castle shall have it snatched away from her by death; the world is an unhappy place full of all beauties. Knut Hamsun the fatalist! ”

“ By the rocky shore of a vast sea there once lived an old philosopher. As long as men could remember, there he had dwelt in a stone castle built far above upon a high cliff. Huge rocks for many miles out prevented all approach to the shore by water. ”

“ He could never get over the size of them. It seemed like magic,—this, building a community that floated so snugly on the water, the four red funnels above adding the emblem of something powerful in its compactness. Yet in spite of their size, the steamers seemed at a distance slim and graceful, essentially ships and obviously made to deal with the exacting ocean. Daniel saw liners with more penetrating eyes than the ordinary casual observer, he was sure. ”

“ Such courage is never without its reward, and they had not gone far when there shone a faint glimmer by the roadside. The light seemed too small at first to be that of a forge, but as they came nearer the slow striking of a hammer echoed through the dark. Reaching the doorway, the knight saw an old man pounding away at his anvil. ”

“ You shall travel eastward seven days, crossing the desert and plunging into a dense forest. At night you shall rest—except for the seventh night, when you shall push on after the fall of the sun. About the twelfth hour you will come to a narrow, rapid stream. The name of this river is Hilnardees, which means in our language ‘many-visioned’. On the west bank you will find a small boat. Push out into the darkness, and without effort you will be swept downstream with the current. It will not be far before you come to a place where the river branches into three parts. In the dark you will not know ”

“ Yet it might be well for those interested in Yale literature to look suspiciously at the number of undergraduates who are Lit. heelers only when it is profitable, who drop out—never to write again—when the competition is crowded, or who begin to write when it is seen that there is to be a vacancy on the Board. ”

“ They are unquestionably with us, accomplishing nothing more than to disgust and alienate those who really desire to write. Unquestionably, such an element is exceedingly bad for Yale, if Yale intends to be any kind of a force in literature. If the Lit. Board and kindred honors are to mean more than a badge placed somewhere on a college boy’s anatomy, we must show the pretender that he is out of place. ”

“ There was only one other human who dwelt in the great castle with the philosopher. This was Endelhan, an old servant who had lived with his master ever since the time—if there were such a [295] time—when a whole day passed without a knock at the stone gate. It was Endelhan who patiently waited upon the other, caring for his slightest comforts. It was Endelhan who met each pilgrim at the gate and led him quietly into his master’s presence. ”

“ Earth gave up her fairest secrets in revealing those priceless gems. Yet such a treasure is small indeed compared to that I now would ask of you. Most mighty King, my father is an old man, and it will not be long before his wide and rich domains are mine. ”

“ Instead, they join the group of “younger litterati” of college, and play the artist as an extra-curriculum means to distinction, bringing down an undeserved indictment upon whatever men there happen to be with music in their hearts, and with something to say. The university [284] which most desires to honor its true artists finds itself rewarding a kindergarten Greenwich Village for sentimentality that will be forgotten before the quickness of time has killed it. ”

“ Action always commands inquiry into the who and the why. Then he presents the necessary description of the character, his situation, and any other details that he deems necessary. And in this last feature Knut Hamsun is a master craftsman. Interest is maintained greatly by the refinement, and consequently the confinement, of description. He is a poet by divine right, some one has said. True. And he is moreover a modern poet, abiding by the same principles that Ezra Pound and his followers recognize: namely, to present instead of to describe ”

“ But too many of these prodigies, because they are one in ten, are convinced that they are endowed with the powers of a poet. They cannot realize that riming is to be outgrown at adolescence, just as other games are. ”

“ Since some grown men continue to write poetry, and no one continues to rollerskate, they put off rollerskating as a childish thing, but they keep puttering away over platitudes “To ——” and to Spring. They have not yet come fully into their manhood. ”

“ Atherton’s treatment of feminine psychology is exceedingly dextrous. But a large part of the story’s merit consists in the cross-section of metropolitan activity at the margin where contemporary artists enjoy social registration. ”

“ Bodenheim will not cheer you up; rather will he wake you up. And for rhymesters who aspire to better verse or don’t know when to quit—here is an eye-opener that should not be passed by too lightly.
J. R. C.
Black Oxen. By Gertrude Atherton. (Boni & Liveright.) The notion of rejuvenation is not a new one, and the theme of sophisticated womanhood reverting to romantic young love is not unprecedented. ”

“ That air—that makes men on steamers feel so ridiculously fit [288] without exercise, enabling them to eat and eat—tea, jam, pastry, steaks, cheeses, and then sit and read all day in one steamer chair and be ravenous again! ”

“ Compare the Nash Six Touring, unit for unit, with any other car of similar price and you will be immediately impressed with its outstanding superiority. In every feature of construction and every phase of performance the Nash Six leads the field. ”