The Portland daily press., 1875-04-07
Literary Notes.

Tennyson's ldyls OF the King have just
been translated into Swedish under the tie
title of "KOnung Arthur och hans Riddare"
King Arthur and his Knights.)
A critic in the London Athena aum STYLES the
late Sir Arthur Helps Zone of the most learned
men of his age" He says: "were the only
copy of manuscript at Simancas, 10 Siman-
Cas- he would go; were book inaccessible save
by purchase, he would buy it; were it written
| in a language he did rot know-btter expert
ence had given him an absolute distrust of
translations-he would set to work to study
that language. The world is SO much accus-
toned to associate learning with dullness that
many of Sir Arthur Helps most loving and
constant readers will be as much surprised to
find the former of these qualities attrib uted to
him as they would be the latter. Yet, in the
widest sense of the word, he was one of he
most learned men of his age. He was what
is generally understood by an elegant If not a
great scholar. He had the use and was well
read in the iteratures of four living languages
besides his own. 1t would have been nearly
impossible to begin quotation in any one OF
these which he could not have finished
The London Academy says it is probable that
new book illustrating the career of Lord By
ron in Italy, ,and his relations with the Countess
Guiccoli, may be published at no very distant
date. 1t takes the form of narrative, written
by lady. of a visit which she paid recently to
Ravenna, and to the Guiccioli Palace there,and
of her interviews with the secretary OF the
Guiccioli family, who gave her access to seve-
raj very curious and often amusing documents
bearing upon the loves of Byron and the fair
Italian Countess. These papers include letter
| from the Countess to her husband, confessing
her culpabity in loving Byron; long string
of minute regulations drawn up by the Count
for the moral and social guidance of his wife
after quasi-recoL ciliation between them had
ensued; memorials presented by the Count to
the Roman authorities, deprecating or appeal
ing from the DEGREES of separation and alimony
which the Pope had graHted against him; let
ters from certain Fanny, the F of hoore's
| ''Life" of the poet, who was actively concerned
| as an Intermediary between Byron and the
| Countess, &c. There is also curious anecdote
| throwing light upon recent and somewhat
painful controversy, good deal about Shelley
| and about Byron's daughter Allegra and her
mother The work presents general view of
| the case hostile to Count Guiccioi ond compar-
| One of the last requests of the Countess Guic-
| coli was that all documents relating to her
connection with Byron should be published.
| Who does not recognize the perfect natural
ness and humor of the following description
taken from "Our Village School," in the April
| Overland: "As the stove in winter. 80 in sum-
| mer the water pail, was the Mecca OF number
less pilgrimages; the smaller the boy the lar
ger the amount drank. Should two boys reach
| the pail together, a silent and subdued contest
| for the dipper ensued, it being custom for the
one who obtained possession of it to procrasti-
nate the draught as long as possible by hold
| ing his nozzle in the full vessel long after all
capacity for swallowing had ceased. The
| sDeedy exhaustion of the bucket was always
| aimed IT. as then two boys designated by the
master would enjoy few minutes release
from confinement while filling it at the nearest
well; an operation always protracted to its ut
most length, for every moment lived outside
| the building during school-hours was deemed
| golden"
Somebody reporting for the Tribune an imag-
mary conversation on American poets, quotes
from the Duke" as follows: "James Russell
Lowell has put more rich culture and more
pure natui into his verse in five years than q
| good many popular poets have done in all their
lives Here is what grieves me, friends; see
q man of noble genius almost unacknowledged
by the country he honors; man who works
with the truest literary honesty neglected for
| charatans man who sings the woods and the
fields in tones as exquisitely accurate and
sweet as the gamut of the winds and waters
and wild birds forgotten for artificial jinglers.
No one of eur other American poets approach
es him in spontaneity. He has the finest art
of all-the art of being natural His method
and his thought are large and free and vigor-
Gus, and he is so emphatically the poet of what
is most beautiful and genuine in America that
it makes his countrymen's ingratitude seem to
me peculiarly hard
1t is rather curious that Americans should
go to France for popular exposition of Her
bert Spencer The "Outlne of the Evolution
Philosophy" forthcoming as the fourth vol
ume of the Popular Science Series," Is
nevertheless from the French of Dr. NJ. e.
Cazelles, translated by the Rev. o. B. Froth-
ingham. In making this summary, the author
takes occasion to protest against the identifi-
cation of all Postivsts as of Complies school,
since neither Compte claimed to have originat-
ed the Positive method, nor do the leading
Positivist writer's agree with him in several
important particulars. An appendix, written
by Prof. E. L. Youmans, promises to be quite
as important as the body of the work, since he
gives chronological view of the philosophers
literary labors, as showing the development
of the doctrine of evolution in his mind. ut
was in 1885, he says, 'ss Mr.. Spencer in-
forms me- while writing the article on the
.Nebular Hypothesis that the doctrine Of
evolution presented itself as the basis OF .
general system under which all orders of con-
crete phenomena should be generaized."
valuable table gives chronological bibliograph
of his work.