Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/414

340 NOTES AND QUERIES. different method. Her plan is to illustrate her various subjects Government, clergy and religion, country and town life, medieval women almost exclusively by extracts from her author ; there is little or no comment or evidence from other sources, and no attempt at a definite historical background into relation with which the events of the poem might be brought. Thus we have a statement like the following regarding the secular clergy, each sentence being faithfully referred to a passage of the poem : " Long study alone achieved the coveted titles of ' doctor ' and ' master.' Only the keenest students were likely to persevere in a pursuit which promised little worldly success or fame. The encouragement offered was a promise of greater insight, and ability to use the help pro- vided by the Church. The fate of Lucifer warned the successful student of the reward of ambition. The typical medieval student was lean and of downcast countenance. His paradise was the school (a term which includes also the university) at which friends or parents supported him. There he found ' love and lownesse and lykyng to lerne ' and ' bokes to rede.' The unwilling pupil was despised and his studies were stimulated by the birch." The result, we cannot but think, is trivial and unsatisfactory ; it reads more like a precis than a serious historical study. Paracelsus. By John Maxson Stillman. (The Open Court Publishing Company. 10s. net.) THIS is a careful, pleasantly written and sufficiently substantial account of a character and career which, since Browning has occupied himself with them, have a distinct interest for students of English letters, and which have also a permanent interest for the student of the history of science. Mr. J. M. Stillman has acquainted himself thoroughly with the authorities on the subject, and with the works of Paracelsus, and gives us a clear and well- judging account of the principles by which the imagination of Paracelsus worked, as well as of the nature and scope of the antagonism between him and the orthodox philosophy and medicine of his day. The fantastic element in his thought, his obnoxious- ness to that jealousy of the learned which was notoriously virulent in the sixteenth century, his vagabond course of life and the posthumous misfortunes whereby he has unjustly incurred charges of plagiarism, have made Paracelsus a more picturesque, repellent and enigmatic Egure than he is warranted to have been when the labours of critical biographers -have fixed the truth for us. He played, after all, no incon- siderable part in the development of science, and is worth some study as an example of the advantages and disadvantages of eccentricity. Mention must be made of the numerous and interesting illustrations brought together in this volume. THE substance of the April Quarterly is princi- pally biographical. Perhaps most readers will turn first to Lord Ernie's discussion of the new Byron letters. They will find it a vigorous piece of work, acute both in sympathy and in criticism. Lord Esher, in his 'Studley Royal,' has some generous words in appreciation of the new vitality and the new standard and scope which Mr. Lytton Strachey has brought into biography and it would indeed seem that he himself and ! the other writers in this number have fallen to ' their work with some fresh and lively inspiration. I Beside the account of Lord Ripon and his family and circle we would put the very com- petent discussion of Lady Gwendolen Cecil's ' Life of Lord Salisbury,' by an unnamed writer. Mr. Chauncey Ford revives for us characters of a curious and graceful interest in his paper on the Adams family ; and Sir Frederick Pollock, out of the knowledge derived from a friendship of half a century, gives us a noteworthy study of the many-sided intellect and varied historical and literary work of James Bryce. Bismarck litera- ture has recently been increased by important works on his relations with William II. and the European policy of his last years on these Mr. George Saunders contributes a study. Sir Julian Corbett, in his paper on Napoleon and the British Navy after Trafalgar, revises the usual judgment on the naval operations at that p.eriod in the light of the recent war. Students of modern French literature will find Mr. Garnet Smith's article on the French Drama of Manners well worth reading. STREET NOISES (see ante, p. 300). Has MB. OXENFOBD tried cotton wool ? I once stayed for a few days at a pension in Rome, where I was so distracted by the clamour of a great number of German women all talking at once at the very tops of their voices, that I could not possibly enjoy my meals until I stopped my ears with cotton wool. This had the desired effect. J. T. F. Winterton, Lines. MB. J. C. OXENFOBD, may be referring to the Armstrong-Mallock ear- protectors used during the war. Try any surgical instrument maker for them, say, Millikin and Lawley of the Strand. A. S. E. A. COBBIGENDUM. At ante, p. 47 " ' Castle Daly' and Galway" line 26 from foot of page, for " loughs " read locks. J?ottce to EDITOBIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' " Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lisher " at the Office, Printing House Square, London, E.G. 4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' N. & Q.,' Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. 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