The Portland daily press., 1878-07-06
J,iterary N0tes.

Literary Notes.
Authors who wish their nonas de plume to be
correctly known should send them to Miss
Anna L. Ward of Bloomfield, N. j., who al
ready has the longest list ever gathered ard is
going to publish them in book form.
The Studies in Verse, published recently un-
der the pseudonym of "Charles Quiet" were
written by Charles H. Noyes of Warren, Pa.
Pseudonym is used here in its literal sense, for
Noyes could not be Quiet
The libraries Of Berlin and Munich have re-
fused to buy the original manuscripts of Schil-
Ter and Gp.he's correspondence, which were
offered to them for 1000 thalers To save the
collection from being broken up or bought BY
foreigners, the publishing frm of Gotta In
Stuttgart has secured it,
The late Mrs Sarah Helen Whitman shortly
before her last illness had prepared her poems
for the press, intending to publish them imme-
diately. She appointed literary executor,
and it is probable that the book will soon ap-
pear, as well as another one containing selec-
tioDs from her prose writings, among which
will he Poe and his Critics.
The Failure of Universal Suffrage Is to be
the title of an article by Francis Parkman in
the July number of the North American Re-
view. Wendell Phillips will contribute to the
same number paper on The Social and Polit:-
cal Outlook, in which he will discuss at length
the money question, the relations between
capital and labor, and the prospects of party
organizations.
A short story in Cornhill, by Henry James,
jr., entitled Daisy Miller is commended by the
Academy "to all who own the fascination of
the lovelier and more winning of the travelled
Americans" The Spectators comment is am
biguous. 1t says the author sis wasting OBJ.
servation of the keenest kind, and delicate
sense of humor on q very thin story, which
might easily have been developed into some
thing charming, and which, even as it is, is the
most attractive sketch of manners that has ap-
psared this year or two. We cannot imagine
anything better of the sou6tet kind of literary
food and 1t is the specially of the Cornhill res
taurant just now that its soufists are so sx-
ceedingly good. Magazine life is apt to be so
monotonous, and sketch like this, though
there is nothing 10 it, relieves the monotony,
and relieves it with pleasantness which all
who have any taste for literary gourmandise
will at once acknowledge"
few weeks before his death, writes thus, in a
letter printed in the Burlington Hswkeye, of
the opinions the poet expressed concerning 9TH
er poets: "In talking of literary matters Mr.
Bryant is very modest, and would not talk of
himself or his works except to answer direct
question, which of course did not often but
him. was curious to know what he thought
of the late school of English poetry which is so
popular now-the school of S winburne, Rossetti
and William Morris-called, L am surs don't
know why, The Pre-Rsphalite'. He said
that it seemed to him that Rossetti, although
he wrote very beautifully, fell below the proper
standard of morality; his poems have sensuous
tone, which often falls into sensaality, aud again
some of them are almost unintelligible, aud a
man ought, above all things, to write 50 as to
be understood. OF Swinburne.he said he knew
almost nothing. He did not read him, because
his works, most of them, are simply indecent.
OF William Morris, he spoke very highly, say.
ing that ne wrote exquisitaly, and that his
moral tone is unexceptionabe. He gave much
praise to Wordsworth, and Browning he sd-
mires, only he said that he is sometimes unin-
teliigible. In speaking of Mrs. Browning he
said he thought it great pity that at the end
of her life she should have written those politi-
cal poems, if We may call them such, and that
they are unworthy of her genius and show care
less and hasty work. In speaking of modern
scholarship and our American colleges, Mr.
Bryant deDlored the growing neglect of the
classics, the basis of every true education, and
spoke of the elective system which allows a
mere boy to pick and reject to suit his Uniformed
and too often mistaken ideas. For all this he
thinks the standard of scholarship has mnch
improved in the last half century. / asked Mr..
Bryant if he could command himself to poetical
composition as sit down to writs letter. He
said No; certainly not He could not force
himself into composition"
How Victor Hugo appeared before the liter
ary congress at Paris is described by Mr.. SMALL
ey in his last letter to the. Tribune. When Vic
tor Hugo rose to speak, the five years of added
age fell easily off his shoulders. He stood
straight and square. The eyes, which had been
half-masked beneath dropping lids, began to
dilate and glow. The fires which you thought
extinguished blazad up; the Hugo who stood
before you was the Hugo of "Hernani," of
sizes Orientales," fresh, vigorous, alert, in all
the impershable youthfulness of genius The
first word he uttered rang through the vast am
pitheatre, grave. sonorous aud powerful. There
was not trace of effort. Feom beginning to
end the note first struck was mai tanned, but
never monotonous. 1 called him an orator
just now, but orator he is not, 10 the large
sense of word too often and too carelessly
used. His spsech was written, every word,
and read from manuscript aad what man.
uscript Sheets of paper two feet square. COW
cred with writing SO large and free that you
could almost read it from the balcony, fifty
feet off; full of corrections. of erasures done
as if with painters brush, or with the pen Of
a giant, as he is. Two caadelabra, each of
six lights, stood on either side of him. He put
them together on his right, added two large
lamps from table in front, and finally sent to
borrow a third from the secretary, who sat
hard by, aud thenceforward was in darkness.
He held his manuscript close under this clus-
ter of lights. When he wishsd to use bis
right hand for gesture, he dropped the paper
on the table or transferred it to his left. He
never parted company with it for two seconds
IN succession. Orator or not, no speaker ever
felt more strongly what he was saying or made
it felt more strongly BY his audience. He
read slowly, with singular distinctness and
purity of articulation, and Victor Hugo's is
style which gains rather than loses by spoken
delivery. Read, the recurrence of sntithesis is
too frequent, the ornament sometimes overdene.