John Davidson

“ He was fast asleep in his chair, smiling like a child.
'Briscoe,' said Lee, you recognised and submitted to the deus ex machina at once. I would have fought longer, and might yet have conquered. I am sorry the conclusion is so inartistic, so improbable. There is nothing more absurd than reality. Clacher, my fine fellow, you played a bold game; as the attempt of a mad rascal it was very fair. What a lot of mad people there are! How small the world is! Ah!' he cried, as Frank and Muriel entered, 'my good lovers! ”

“ Dempster. I was not aware you were so pious a man,' said Muriel.
A jack-in-the-box when the spring is touched shoots up not more suddenly than Dempster did. Abashed, he could only stammer, 'Eh—ah—I mean well.'
'I do indeed believe you,' said Muriel in a kindly tone. 'My aunt has told me that you were about to honour me with an offer of marriage. I thank you, sir; but I beg you not to put me to the necessity—the very disagreeable necessity—of refusing you.'
Half-an-hour before she could not have taken such a plain-spoken initiative; but the interview with Lee had roused her soul to arms. ”

“ SELECTED POEMS OF JOHN DAVIDSON 12mo
Leather, $1.50 net Cloth, $1.25 net
The Nation—An uncommonly masculine volume.
Chicago Record-Herald—What every admirer of this virile poet desires, a brief summary of his important work from which an adequate conception of his style and versatility can be obtained.
Athenæum—There is urgent need for a collected edition of Mr. Davidson's poems and plays. The volume and variety of his poetry ought to win for it wider acceptance. It is indeed curious that poetry so splendid as Mr. ”

“ Davidson discovered himself when he came to London to write. The movement of the nineties stimulated him towards artistic production, and when that movement was killed by the fall of Wilde, and buried by the Boer War, Davidson again lost himself in the philosophic propaganda of his last years before he was driven to suicide. Philosophy, indeed, with John Davidson, was93 to eat one’s heart with resultant mental indigestion that completely unbalanced the artist in him. ”

“ Dempster, I understand. I have often thought by the way, that you unlucky fellows who inherit your money, can't enjoy it so well as we who have wrought for it.'
Now, if there was one thing Dempster objected to more than another, it was to be hurried about from subject to subject. He had just got his mind focussed to the consideration of Lee's first question, when a new distance intervened, and—he saw men as trees walking. ”

“ Muriel's hand slipped back to her pocket, and she looked straight into her aunt's eyes. Once more she changed her purpose, and left the room with a smile, and an airy nod to Frank.
'Did that girl wink just now, sir?' said Miss Jane.
'I didn't observe.'
The excited lady pulled a chair before Frank, and sat down opposite him. 'Mr. Hay,' she said, 'I wish to be reasonable. I know myself what it is to be young. Indeed, putting other circumstances aside, I can almost sympathise with you in your infatuation for Muriel. She is really a very good-looking girl ”

“ Hámed Damání is quite recovered, and the Sheïkh’s eyes are better: the latter cannot understand how some small pills should make his mouth sore. Patients out of number, and myself out of temper, looking most anxiously for letters from Mr. Willshire, which now must be on the road. Under any circumstances, I cannot expect to get off in less than a month; but only let that be certain, and I shall be satisfied. Hope my letters from England will arrive at the end of this month. I try but in vain to study. The house is a perfect bear-garden ”

“ Muriel uttered a little scream and fell on her knees. She kept her eyes fixed on the whip. It jerked about overhead for a few seconds and fell to the ground. Then she looked at the men. Their arms were locked round each other. They staggered about and knocked against the wall. She heard them breathing hard. She held her own breath. She had scarcely begun to think what would be the upshot when Frank fell with a thud on his back, and Lee stood over him whip in hand.
'You have killed him!' she screamed, starting to her feet, and rushing to her prostrate lover. ”

“ Lee looked at all his auditors severally, thoroughly enjoying the effect of this extraordinary news.
'O dear! dear!' cried Clacher weakly, tedding his hair and fidgeting on his seat. 'Naebody daur harm me, I'm mad.'
'Set your mind at rest, Clacher. Nobody will attempt to harm you.'
'Jane,' he continued, 'it was our unfortunate brother whom we carried upstairs this evening. The woman was his wife.'
Briscoe gasped; but the practical novelist proceeded, smiling, and proud of his ingenuity.
'He has been going by the name of Lee, Maxwell Lee,' he said, staring down Briscoe ”

“ We were off at eight A.M. On the road we were joined by twelve more, making our party, including the Taghakánths and self thirty-six, who were whooping, firing and galloping, to frighten the Haràmis, the road being very dangerous. A beautiful ride of eight hours brought us in sight of this place. Hammó, with twenty horsemen, pushed into the town. On entering it accompanied by Sheïkh Bel Aide, and another person, he rode up towards myself and fired off his gun at my horse’s feet. The whole place was out under arms. I rode up between two files of men with their arms ”

“ I am Robert Chartres.'
Everybody looked at Lee.
He said, 'I don't remember being so intensely interested in my life. How can you possibly hope to succeed in this imposture, Clacher?'
'You're an imposture,' cried Clacher fiercely, staggering a little. 'I'm mad, but I'm no jist a fule, an' naebody daur harm me. Ach!' he hissed, grinding his teeth and shaking his wild hair, enraged at himself for failing to do it 'Englified.' 'I am Robert Chartres,' he shouted, throwing back his head. 'The estate's entailed, and it's mine. I'm bonnie Prince Charlie, too,' he added, more quietly. ”

“ He advanced slowly, but without hesitation, and took the seat Lee had vacated.
Of all those in the room Clacher's face indicated the greatest interest.
'Friends,' said the newcomer, keeping on his bonnet, and shaking back his long grey hair, which hung almost to his shoulders, 'I can trust you. "Nowhere beats the heart so kindly as beneath the tartan plaid." You haven't the tartans on, and that is right, for they might betray you. There's a law against the tartan. ”

“ Who are we that we should depart from the wisdom of our ancestors? Did not the Son of man himself come eating and drinking? Are not the princes and potentates of the earth—our "sovereigns and statesmen"—they who set armies in motion? And do not all manner of priests, whether Protestant or Romanist, fervently thank God when the bloody work has been effectually accomplished? David going out with sling and stone against Goliath of Gath did not require to possess one-twentieth part of the sublime faith of him who undertakes to rout a combined array of publicans and Jingoes. ”

“ If there is a better way, we have no right to fold our hands and content ourselves with the worse. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." To the sincere mind all compromise in such circumstances is impossible. It will not do to say, "Well, no doubt in theory the worship of God is the correct thing; but for all practical purposes the service of Mammon is preferable." Least of all living English politicians could I have conceived of Mr. Joseph Cowen appearing on a public platform with such an impotent formula in his mouth. In the case of others "thrift might follow fawning;" ”

“ Davidson was a man of extensive reading, and possessed a taste for natural science. His moral character, however, more than his intellectual, renders him worthy of notice. “He was one of the most guileless and pure-minded men I ever knew,” writes the friend we have before quoted. ”

“ If she has hers, we both
"Begin the world anew." And best and worst
This Odham died upon my marriage-day.
St. J. What kind of man was he?
Sir T. A wastrel, prime
And perfect; a vocation—genius for it:
A parson's son, of course: acted himself
A while, then fell to dressing unperturbed.
He died of alcohol.—We played a week,—
He, Romeo, I, Mercutio; failed and lost
Three thousand pounds or so. ”

“ Mr. Willshire went to Ben Idris, who will offer no opposition; all therefore goes on well. Got out the tent preparatory to departure. The brother of the Sheïkh of Wád Nún is to accompany me as far as that place. I find some difficulty about money matters, and must therefore send to London. Cohen is not doing so well; he finds I can dispense with his services, and I shall be glad to get rid of him entirely.
Saturday, March 12.—Therm. 66°. Walked with Mr. Willshire to see Reis Múden’s wife, and other patients. The ladies opposite are very merry: made arrangements for the letter to the Sultán. ”

“ Cowen has for twenty years been the proprietor and political director of "The Newcastle Chronicle," one of the most influential journals in provincial England. It has writers, who, for range of political knowledge and absolute fidelity to principle, have no superiors in or out of London. The result was seen at the general election of 1874. "When the Conservative re-action ran high everywhere else, the Northumbrian Liberals smote their Tory opponents hip and thigh all along the line. Twelve Liberals to one Tory were the Durham district returns. ”

“ Constantly he rode his district on the business of his beloved Forest. His beautiful sorrel, Star, with his silver-mounted caparisons, was a familiar figure on all the trails. When a man wanted his first Special Privilege, he wrote the Supervisor. The affair was quite apt to bungle. Then California John saw that man personally. After that there was no more trouble. The countryside dug up the rest of California John's name, and conferred on him the dignity of it. John had heard it scarcely at all for over thirty years. Now he rather liked the sound of "Supervisor Davidson." ”

“ Fight, blood, scalps, they thirsted for, and those they would have.
Perceiving that no pacific measures would avail, Lieutenant Davidson tried the effect of powder and lead. Many of the warriors fell dead, but the savages were so many and so fierce, that the odds were against the troops. In danger of being surrounded and of thus sacrificing the whole of his little army, Davidson decided to retreat down the mountains. Being hotly pursued he was obliged to contest every foot of his way. Trees, rocks, stumps were, as usual, Indian breastworks. ”

“ Davidson is remarkably at home in talks with young men. His words glow with an intense earnestness which demands and obtains attention from his readers."—Sword and Trowel.
4. THE CITY YOUTH. Seventh Thousand. Crown 8vo,
cloth, 3s. 6d.
"A volume well worthy to rank with his previous works on kindred subjects. Dr. Davidson's matter and manner are alike excellent. About the former there is no suspicion of what hasty people might call cant, while the latter is serious but not heavy. Dr. Davidson aims at no impossible standard; he is as sympathetic as he is acute, as kind as he is firm."—Globe. ”

“ He may there gaze and feel what none can feel but those who have seen with their own eyes, what none can feel in its fulness but once in a lifetime,—the thrill of looking for the first time face to face on freedom in its purest and most ancient form. ”

“ It will celebrate the triumph of the pride of life riding to victory roughshod over friend and foe, and the flame-clad glory of the martyr who lives in obloquy and dies in agony for an idea or a dream. Poetry is a statement of the world and of the Universe as the world can know it. ”

“ These are some of the seeds of the new thing I bring, of the new poetry which the world will make, Matter brooding on Matter for centuries to come. Poetry is the flower of what all men are maturing in thought and fancy; I reap a harvest as yet unsown; I come a hundred years before the time—that time foreseen by Wordsworth, "when what is now called science, familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on a form of flesh and blood." ”

“ Coe, the Unitarian minister, and a powerful contingent of Radical working-men, whom he was in the habit of addressing in his chapel on Sunday afternoons on such unhallowed topics as "True Radicalism," "The Rights of Man," the death of Ernest Jones, the Jamaica outrages under Gov. Eyre, &c. As in Galilee, so in Leicester, the common people heard their teacher gladly; but the uncommon folks took a different view of the matter. What amounted to a vote of want of confidence in Mr. Picton 's ministry was passed ”

“ A rumour broke through the thin smoke
Enwreathing Abbey, Tower, and Palace,
The parks, the squares, the thoroughfares,
The million-peopled lanes and alleys,
An ever-muttering prisoned storm,
The heart of London beating warm. ”

“ ANTHONY JOHN MUNDELLA.
"O heavens! what some men do
While some men leave to do!"
THERE is no better example in Parliament of what is called a "self-made man" than Anthony John Mundella, the irrepressible representative of Sheffield Radicalism. ”

“ It is almost sacrilegious to call poetry an art. Without any intermediary of violins, drums, trumpets, oils, palettes, brushes, mallets, chisels, furnaces, scaffolds, and conditioned only by language, the poet can utter that which is: the heart and the brain, the flesh, the bones and the marrow—Matter become subconscious, conscious, and self-conscious—are the orchestra and canvas of the poet's music and vision; marble and bronze, the Parthenon and Notre Dame, are misleading, unstable, and fleeting expressions of man and nature compared with poetry. ”