difficult to find an apt parallel to his style of eloquence among the statesmen and orators of antiquity. But, in the land from which the language and civic usages of America are derived, a contemporary delineation of the manner of Bacon as a public speaker might seem to have been drawn, in anticipation, for the future transatlantic statesman. "There happened in my day," says the famous Ben Jonson, "one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. No man ever spoke more neatly, more pressly, more weightily; or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of its own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and the fear of every man that heard him was that he should make an end." To this attractive portrait of Bacon as a speaker, if we add, with kindred graces of eloquence, the noble integrity, the practised wisdom, and profound constitutional learning of Somers, whose career that of Mr. Madison in so many points resembled, we shall have attained the most perfect idea that comparison can give of the powers and accomplishments of the successful defender of the Constitution before the convention of Virginia.

ESSAYS OF THE FEDERALISTS

From 'Life and Times of James Madison.'

It will be seen from this general review of Mr. Madison's contributions to the "Federalist," and the class of subjects treated of by him, that he had his full share in stamping upon the work that character of wisdom, originality, and depth, which is universally accorded to it, not only as a commentary on the Constitution, but as a dissertation on the principles of free government. Mr. Jefferson, in writing to Mr. Madison from Paris, on the 18th of November, 1788, pronounced it "the best commentary on the principles of government which was ever written." Chancellor Kent, in his great work on American law, speaks of it in these notable terms: "I know not, indeed, of any work on the principles of free government that is to be compared, in instruction and intrinsic value, to the small and unpretending volume of the 'Federalist'; not

even if we resort to Aristotle, Cicero, Machiavel, Montesquieu, Milton, Locke, or Burke. It is equally admirable in the depth of its wisdom, the comprehensiveness of its views, the sagacity of its reflections, and the fearlessness, candor, simplicity, and elegance, with which its truths are uttered and recommended."

It was made by Judge Story the basis of his elaborate and systematic treatise on the Constitution. He styles it "an incomparable commentary," and places it in the same category, even as to authority, with the decisions of the supreme court on questions of constitutional law. To the value of Mr. Madison's contributions to it, the learned judge bears the highest practical testimony, in the numerous textual citations from them which he introduces into the body of his own commentaries. Leaving out the judicial department of the Constitution, which was in some sort the professional domain of Colonel Hamilton, the attentive reader will not fail to observe that this leading treatise on the Constitution recurs far more frequently, for the illustration of its principles, to the numbers of the "Federalist" written by Mr. Madison, than to those of either of the other distinguished contributors. And it is a circumstance not unworthy of remark in this same connection, that, in the only instance in which Chancellor Kent, in his great work, makes special and distinctive mention of particular numbers of the "Federalist"-those, to wit, from No. 52 to 64, which he describes as containing "a profound discussion" of the principles on which the organization of the two Houses of Congress rested-of the fourteen numbers there referred to, nine were written by Mr. Madison, three by Colonel Hamilton, and one by Mr. Jay.

We would be the last to derogate from the just merit of Colonel Hamilton in the distinguished part he bore in this master work of American genius and political science. That merit was far too great to admit any palliation or excuse for the effort made to magnify it at the expense of justice to his associates. In urging the adoption of the Constitution by the people, as he did, through the "Federalist," with extraordinary earnestness and vigor, he was often, it is true, in developing the principles of the system, the advocate of opinions not his He had declared in the convention, as we have seen, that "no man's ideas were more remote from the plan than

his own were known to be; but it was not possible to deliberate between anarchy and convulsion on the one side, and the chance of good to be expected from the plan on the other." The result was, that he threw himself into the struggle for its adoption with all the energy of his character and the vigor of his intellect; and both were displayed in his contributions to the "Federalist” in a bold and striking manner, and with admirable skill and power.

But he was still an advocate. He wrote and spoke, not from his own point of view, but from that of others. The position of Mr. Madison was different. He had been the chief architect in the formation of the Constitution. He was familiar with all the counsels that shaped and controlled every part of its mechanism. He was an earnest believer in the republican theory of government, which Colonel Hamilton was not. From Mr. Madison, therefore, besides his own important contributions, proceeded the ruling inspiration which gave tone and color to the discussions of the "Federalist." The correspondence of Colonel Hamilton himself bears testimony to this. It shows, that, even after Mr. Madison was called away from a personal participation in the work by the necessity of his presence in Virginia, his solicitude watched over it; and he wrote to Colonel Hamilton, making suggestions, with regard to the portion that remained to be executed, which were cordially accepted and acted upon by the latter.

TH

MARILLA WAITE FREEMAN

HE art of Abby Meguire Roach is the most difficult of all arts the transfiguration of the familiar. Her people and situations are of the sort one sees every day. So simple and direct is her handling of them that at first thought one labels it pure realism. More and more, however, as one reads, what seemed so simple shows beneath the surface as subtle and complex; the warp and woof in the pattern of every-day life begin to unfold, and the hand of the idealist appears. That which is at once the purpose and the value of her work stands forth-the illumination of the common lot.

As a writer, Mrs. Roach eludes both classification and comparison. She penetrates human motive and character with the same keen probe that Edith Wharton uses, but she wields her instrument more gently. Her people, less sophisticated, more "common" than Mrs. Wharton's, are also more universal in their types and problems. It has, indeed, been said of Mrs. Roach's characters that they are types rather than individuals. And yet, the ethereal Natalie Palmer, red-blond, G. W. Reno, full-throated Molly-Moll, the vivid and engaging Surprise, and Agnes, the "celestial vampire"-to name a few at random-are persons not easily forgotten. The fact is that for so young a writer ("young" signifying a comparative newness in authorship), and for one with so small a volume of work yet to show, the number of characters she has created and of human histories she has told is a notable achievement. And if, recurringly, it is the "situation" that holds us rather than the individuals that compose it, is not that life-and literature as well? What is Becky Sharp but a type? What else but types did Dickens draw? And what of Sir Willoughby Patterne, the pattern of us all? It is as types, in their common humanity, that people of the imagination have interest and meaning for us. And though, to quote one critic, "Mrs. Roach chooses situations typical of ordinary life, in every one she brings out distinguishing personal elements, and in regard to each she seems to say the last word.”

If comparison is to be attempted, it is with a contemporary English writer, May Sinclair, that Mrs. Roach's affinity is greatest.

Both have treated the problems of the marriage relation with a clear-eyed vision of realities, a sympathetic comprehension of the motives of the human heart, and unafraidness in the presence of fundamental truths, a delicate courageousness of speech, which are beyond praise. If the English writer's canvases are larger, her touch surer, her genius richer, Mrs. Roach is not yet mature, and there is in whatever she does a hopefulness of outlook, a perception of the ultimate significances of life, which give her work a place and power all its own.

As one has wondered of Miss Sinclair, and of the author of 'Jane Eyre' before her, how such genius, such profound intuitive knowledge of life could have developed so early and in so simple an environment, so one regards Abby Meguire Roach. From a short and normal girlhood, and a quietly happy married life of five years, sprang full-fledged her first volume of stories, each of them a heartsearching page out of real life. She had shown a rather unusual record of childish precocity in a "poem" published at nine years, an "epic" in six cantos composed at twelve, and, at thirteen, had collaborated in the writing of a novel that was actually published in a woman's home magazine in Philadelphia. She wrote also the inevitable verses of adolescence, and a few short stories and essays (some of them appearing in leading magazines) after the year at Wellesley College that concluded her schooling. But it was not until five years after her marriage (in 1899, to Mr. Neill Roach of Louisville) that Mrs. Roach appeared unheralded with a whole volume of short stories-most of them being novelettes-which, although the result of the unconscious mental accumulation of years, were actually produced in a few months, with the greatest rapidity. Harper and Brothers issued them first through the magazine, and then in book form, in 1906, under the title 'Some Successful Marriages.'

Other stories of a different kind Mrs. Roach has written, notably two novelettes which appeared in the Century Magazine, "Tents of a Night" and "Manifest Destiny"-companion studies of the girl and the man philanderer; and, in particular, a short love story, "The Dream of the Morning," which, infused as it is with humor and poetry, with charming and delicate sentiment, is an exquisite pastel.

But it was the group of stories of married life that attracted wide attention during their magazine appearance which ranked Mrs. Roach with the most distinctive and distinguished fiction writers of to-day. A few critics spoke of the book as "pathologic"; some regarded the title as ironic; and of course there were not lacking those to throw up the hands of holy horror at the mere mention of