The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-05
Literary Notes.


furnish large amount of material to the news
papers. A writer in The London News gives
an account of visit to him, and describes his
personal appearance. "He is tall, stalwart,
very pale, and his first aspect is proud, cold,
stern, and little defiant. But he quickly
thaws aud shows himself the most fascinating
OF cduseurs. He is gay, cordial, vivacious, and
simple, full of anecdote, wit, and laughter He
seems to wear his heart upon his sleeve, and
to hear his conversation is like drinking cham
pagne of fine vintage. He talks freely about
anything and everything"
Mr. Philip Bourke Marston, 10 the London
Academy for January Is, has long review of
Stedman's victorian Poets" He ssys, "The
book is, on the whole, generous and enlightened
and bears the stamp of unfailing honesty We
may not invariably accept Mr.. Stedman as
guide; we can always welcome him as an in
teresting and suggestive companion. He is
genuine lover of poetry; helhas quick discern
ment and wide sympathy, and that faculty to
admire which is not only the critics best gift,
bat, as supplying standard of Judgment, the
very basis of his right to condemn
A curious relic of Cromwell has been found
in London, in the shape of a book by j. III.
Glauber on Philosophical Furnaces" 1t GEN.
tains ''Plau of Batteli," drawn and signed
by O'Cromwell showing the positions of "My-
SELF" the "Enemie," the 'Enemie stronge,"
"LgAt Horses" "Bridge,' ''Passe," etc.; also
so maye ye Lorde hslpe me in mine pious un-
dertakinge; bic ye Most hghe, will cvett you
off roote and Branche." 1t has also the auto
graph signature 30. Cromwell in two places,
one dated 1868, and the following curious man
uscript note relating to j.. Fl. Glauber also in
the autograph of the protector: "Ii sayje Glau-
Der is arrant Knave L doc bethinks NEE hs
speakethe Office wonders whiche cannotte be
accomplished nevertheelesse lit VS. lawful for
Man toe vse endeavouers."
Mr.. Francis Fl. Underwood, referring to our
obligations to English authors, in recent lee
ture on American literature, said, Cooper is
satellite of Scott and reflects him 10 every thing
but his imagination and his romantic charm.
Bryant was the intellectual offspring of Words.
worth, though later he developed clear indi-
viduality of his own. number of poets, of
whom Lowell -as the first rendered their ear
ly homage to Tennyson. Haleck tried the
iaunty airs of Don Juan ia his poem of Fan
n.y. and his Marco Bozzaris,' though full of
original fire, is wholly in Byron's manner,
Tupper, believe, has not been imitated-per-
haps as Punch once remarked, it is because
none but himself could be his parody"
M Henri Gausseron has begun in Notes and
Queries the publication of list of English
words used by French writers, and missing in
Littre's dictionnaire.
An interesting book that belonged to ard
lIs, h. I'll
lately picked up in an English country book.
shop, and came into the possession of J. Payne
Collier This is Mr.. Cooper's Thesaurus Of
Latin writers, which Mr.. Collier thinks he used
for the new Latin dictionary he is known to
have prepared, from which his nephew, Phil
lips, constructed after Milton's death, his
'Speculum Lingu@ Latin@." The Thesaurus
numbers many hundred pages and every one
is patiently underscered in from five to fifty
places, while every citation is traced and its
exact position noted, showing that Millions
extraordinary reading compassed "the Latinity
of some five centuries
Mr., Emerson's "Letters and Social Aims" is
treated with lofty superiority by the Atheoa-
um The final sentences of its review are that
the work is shat of man who looks through
colored spectacles, aud sees nothing except in
their light. To the admirers of mysticism and
rhapsody the new book will be welcome. 1t is
deficient, however, in the common sense which
on the principle, we suppose, of Tacitus,
omne ignotum pro magnifco,' is everywhere
lauded through its pages" 1t will be more
amusing to American readers to read the critics
relegation of Mr.. Emerson to the dead, which
we accordingly quote: He wants that last and
most useful gift of genius, the power to keep
young in soul, and to advance with advancing
years. Modern work ard modern speculation
scarcely reach him. Science, with the dazzling
visions it has of late suggested, has of course,
some attraction for him, and history illustrates
his views ON the future of man; but modern
art finds him cold, distrustful and unsympa-
thetic. and ready to apply old canons and shib-
boleths. He begins to stand, accordingly,
among the men of to-day, figure of the past,
not yet remote enough to be venerable, but un-
sersiceable for present needs, hanging
Quite out of fashion, like rusty mail
In monumental moekery.
Says the Spectator of Walter Savage Landor,
Like Coeridge and Sir Thomas Browne, he
will always find an audience, fit, though few;
and they who have leisure and a love of En-
gish literature for its own sake will often turn
to Landor's works for amusement and edifica-
ton, and will never turn in vain. Crotchety,
impulsve and undisciplined as his intellect
was, the fire of genius burnt within it; and, IL
genius seem too vague a word, our use of it
will be plain to any one who will compare Lam
dor at his best with so great a master of En-
glsh prose as De Quincy at his best, or the
efforts of Coleridge in Shakespearian criticism
with the efforts of William Hazlitt. 1t must
be confessed, however, that the. flashes of Lam
doris genius are as titful as they are vivid, and
that we often pass abruptly from noble thoughts
expressed in noble language, to platitudes and
paradoxes, poured forth with all the clustering
vol1bilty and emphasis Of an exasperated Ma
pier. The truth of the adage, that from the
sublime to the ridiculous there is but STEP
has nowhere, perhaps, been more abundantly
shown than in the works of Walter Savage
Landor."
t. B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia a.
have in press and will soon issue a new work
by Mrs. Catharine A. War6eld, author of The
Household of Bouverie, entitled Monfort Hall,
which will be followed By another By the same
author, entitled Miriam's Memoirs. They will
be issued in uniform style with The Household
OF Bonverie, published by the same firm.
An elaborate and favorable review of Mr.. L.
Q. Stedman's victorian Poe ts' in The Lon
don Academy is concluded as follows: "The
general style of the book is clear and earnest