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Anthony, abandoned by the Spirit of Science, comes to himself in the desert. Then the Tempter returns under a two-fold aspect: as the Spirit of Fornication and the Spirit of Destruction. The latter urges him to suicide,--the former to indulgence of sense. They inspire him with strong fancies of palingenesis, of the illusion of death, of the continuity of life. The pantheistic temptation intensifies.
THE MONSTERS
Anthony in reveries meditates upon the monstrous symbols painted upon the walls of certain ancient temples. Could he know their meaning he might learn also something of the secret lien between Matter and Thought. Forthwith a phantasmagoria of monsters commence to pa.s.s before his eyes:--the Sphinx and the Chimera, the Blemmyes and Astomi, the Cynocephali and all creatures of mythologic creation. He beholds the fabulous beings of Oriental imagining,--the abnormities described by Pliny and Herodotus,--the fantasticalities to be adopted later by heraldry,--the grotesqueries of future mediaeval illumination made animate;--the goblinries and foulnesses of superst.i.tious fancy,--the Witches' Sabbath of abominations.
METAMORPHOSIS
The mult.i.tude of monsters melts away; the land changes into an Ocean; the creatures of the briny abysses appear. And the waters in turn also change; seaweeds are transformed to herbs, forests of coral give place to forests of trees, polypous life changes to vegetation. Metals crystallize; frosts effloresce, plants become living things, inanimate matter takes animate form, monads vibrate, the pantheism of nature makes itself manifest. Anthony feels a delirious desire to unite himself with the Spirit of Universal Being....
The vision vanishes. The sun arises. The face of Christ is revealed. The temptation has pa.s.sed; Anthony kneels in prayer.
L. H.
VIII
BOOKS ABOUT HEARN
(Nos. 283-284)
No. 283.
1906. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By Elizabeth Bisland. With Ill.u.s.trations. In two volumes. (Publisher's Vignette.) Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company (The Riverside Press, Cambridge), 1906.
8vo., 2 vols., pp. (VIII), 475, 554, black cloth, j.a.panese characters on small red disc, gold lettering, gilt top.
Volume I.
(V-VIII) Preface by E. B.
Contents:--
Introductory Sketch I. Boyhood II. The Artist's Apprentices.h.i.+p III. The Master Workman IV. The Last Stage
Letters
List of Ill.u.s.trations.
Volume II.
List of Ill.u.s.trations.
Letters (continued)
Pages 519-529 Appendix.
Pages 533-554 Index.
Articles and Reviews:-- _Academy, The_, January 26, 1907, vol. 72, p. 88.
_Athenaeum, The_, February 2, 1907, p. 126.
_Current Literature_, January, 1907, vol. 42, p. 49. Dunbar, Olivia Howard, _North American Review_, February 15, 1907, vol. 184, p. 417.
Greenslet, Ferris, _Atlantic Monthly_, February, 1907, vol. 99, p. 261. G.o.dkin, F. W., _The Dial_, December 16, 1906, vol. 41, p. 447. Huneker, James, _New York Times, The_, December 1, 1906, vol. 11, p. 817.
_Nation, The_, November 29, 1906, vol. 83, p. 464.
_New York Evening Post, The_, December 1, 1906.
_New York Tribune, The_, December 5, 1906. Tunison, J. S., _Dayton (Ohio) Journal, The_, December 25, 1906.
No. 284.
1907. LETTERS FROM THE RAVEN, being the Correspondence of Lafcadio Hearn with Henry Watkin, with Introduction and critical comment by the editor, Milton Bronner. (Vignette drawing of the Raven.) New York: Brentano's, 1907.
12mo., pp. 201, half cloth brown. Ornamental black and gold back, gilt top.
Contents:--
Introduction Letters from the Raven Letters to a Lady Letters of Ozias Midwinter
IX
ARTICLES AND CRITICAL REVIEWS ABOUT HEARN
(Nos. 285-388)
ACADEMY, The
No. 285. A review of "Gleanings in Buddha-Fields," November 13, 1897, vol. 52, p. 395.
No. 286. "Koizumi Yak.u.mo--Lafcadio Hearn," by N. C., April 13, 1901, vol. 60, p. 328.
No. 287. Sketch and list of works, October 8, 1904, vol. 67, p. 305.
No. 288. A review of "j.a.pan: an Attempt at Interpretation," by W.
Teignmouth Sh.o.r.e, December 10, 1904, vol. 67, p. 584.
No. 289. A review of "The Romance of the Milky Way," December 2, 1905, vol. 69, p. 1257.
No. 290. A review of "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn,"
