Abstract
MISS NADEN was a writer of considerable freshness and ability, and all who knew her agree that she was also a woman of great charm of character. She did not, however, live long enough to produce anything of first-rate importance, and it was hardly advisable to make her the subject of a special memoir. Mr. Hughes appreciates thoroughly all that was most characteristic of his friend's intellectual and moral nature, but he does not possess the secret of presenting brightly and vividly facts in which he himself happens to be interested. Consequently, he does not succeed in conveying any adequate conception even of qualities which he is never tired of praising. The volume contains, besides Mr. Hughes's sketch, an introduction by Prof. Lapworth, and “additions” by Prof. Tilden and Dr. Lewins. The latter gentleman, who delights in the use of an extraordinary philosophical jargon, thinks it would be impossible to be satisfied with any memoir of Miss Naden “which should ignore the scientific hylo-ideal, or automorphic principle, or synthesis underlying and suffusing her whole intellectual and ethical architectonic.” He proceeds to supply the necessary exposition, his chief difficulty being “the elementary naiveté and simplicity of the concept, or ideal, involved.”
Constance Naden: a Memoir.
By William R. Hughes. (London: Bickers and Son. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers. 1890.)
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 43, 343 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/043343b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/043343b0