The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-09

HEhAllj, NUN LA DES
worthians when he calls for edition OF Words
worths entire works. in which the poems shall be
printed in the exact chronological order of their COM
position. accompanied with those annotations which
the poet himself dictated in the latter days of his
life with regard to their origin suggestion and sig
nihcance. Such an arrangement is not only essential
70 right understanding of the poems themselves
but is indispensable to any adequate appreciation of
wordworth's poetical art considered in the sue
cessve phases of its development and in the pecu-
liarity OF its genius.
Uutil such edition shall be published this little
work of Mr.. Calvert in which the salient points of
wordsworths life treated in connection with the
aesthetic study of his typical poems. will lend
full contingent by way Of helping to expcate the
psychology which underles the remarkable produc-
tons Of the great philosophical poet of England Al
though Macaulay could not stand THE Prelude
and blurted out his impatcnce at its 'raptures
about mountains and cstarscts." its ''od
inasy philosophy about the effects of scenery
on the mind" its cold crazy mystical metaphysics
and its endless wlldernesses Of duh. Hat prosaic
declamations;" although Jeffrey greeted ",rhe Ex-
carsion" IN tile Edeaburgh Review with the exclsma-
ton. "This will never do! and opened his mordant
crtiQue of tho white Doc Of Rystone" by mildly
.
poem ever imprinted in quarto volume" although
Byron never ceased to mock ut the amazing quantity
OF lake water which Wordsworth was in the habit OF
mixing with his Hppocrene, and although Shelley
was always in doubt down to the day of his death,
whether Wordsworth was more detestabe for his
pedestrian poetry or for his apostacy from the red
republicanism of the French Revolution Of 1885, the
world has the less come at last 10 recognize in
the bard of Rydal Mount genuine rates whose right
to the poets garland and singing robe has been adj
judged by the irreversible sentence OF public ad-
miraton and public gratitude.
1t Is as much by design by the accident Of con-
temporaneons publication that we aix the notice of
Mr.. Calvert's Geographic and aesthetic study OF
Wordsworth to the more extended review OF Bacon's
life and times portrayed by Mr. Speeding. There
is very important in which Wordsworths
view of nature. considered the source of high
poetical and moral inspiration, may be regarded
as natural complement to Bacons view
of nature, regarded the kingdom which man was
to occupy and subdue under the lead of science.
If Bacon was sent into the world to be- he phrascd
it, the minister and interpreter Of nature for purposes
of human utility and human ameioration in the arts
of practical life it is not too much say that Words
worth was raised up to be, Matthew Arnold has
written,
"a priest to us all
OF the wonder and bloom of the world
Which we see with his eyes and are glad.
And all aesthetic natures are sure, as we'll all
true lovers Of the higher moralities of the human
SOUL will with DR.. Sharp in the opinion that
the spiritual element which exists both in nature and
in man, that element has been interpreted by
Wordsworth. offers to cultivated minds surest
antdote against the exclusively analytic and micro
scopic view Of nature which, at the behest of
chanca theory Of tho universe. has become "tyr-
arino md he az w
is universal disintcgration."
The theory propounded by Wordsworth for the
high Interpretation Of nature in the walks OF poetcal
art hardly less original than the method pro-
pounded by Bacon for the Interpretation Of nature in
the walks Of practical art Poets before Wordsworth
had written about nature, but between the descrip-
tive poetry which gives MS glints Of natural
scenery, or which makes such scenery the back
ground of human passions and actions. whether in
tragic epic verse, and the poetry which finds in
nature the well-head of perennial Castaly and the
source Of perpetual growth in morality as well as
knowledge there is the widest possible interval The
poetry Of antiquity, in the classic ages OF Greece
and Rome however rich it may be in other beauties
of form substance, il utterly destitute Of this
browning grace. Neither in Homer nor Eschylus.
neither in Virgil Ovid is there the slightest trace
Of what Mr.. Ruskin calls "the pathetic faacy"-the
illusion by which the poet fegns that nature sympa
thzes with in his deeper moods Of Joy and sor-
just little do the classic poets bring the in
terpretative power OF fancy to bear on the phe-
nomena Of the visible universe-that power which
kindles In the readers soul a and keener sense
Of the outer world And lacking these phases Of the
philosophical imagination they lacked Of course.
that ultimate phase of the poetica art which is
seen in elegiac strains pressed from the heart Of
sensitive souls by what Wordsworth calls 1.-The
heavy and the weary weight of all this
Ineligible world" This last aspect Of nature may
be clearly seen perhaps. in the poets of modern
doubt" like Matthew Arnold or Clough. and would
seem be begotten by the union of poetical sensi-
bty with the latest forms of scientific necessitaris
ism. The spirit to which refer finds expression.
for instance in such lines the following from Mat
thew Arnold
Know man hath all that Nature hath but more,
And in that more lie all his hopes of good.
Nature is cruel man Is sick OF blood;
Nature is stubborn. man would fain adore;
Nature is tickle, man hath need of rest
Nature forgives no debt and fears grave;
Man would be mild and with safe conscience blest.
This "still sad music of humanity" takes its pre-
ludes from the poetry of wordsworth it strikes the
keynote to many of shcleys profoundest strains and
comes "full dispason" in the poetry of modern
doubt" Lucretius was the descriptive poet of the
philosophical materialism which prevailed in Rome
during his times. but in all that Lucretus wrote we
find no clcar-voiccd echo from Nature Of the moral
and religious problems which haunt the human soul
to-day.
.oRAToRY AND ORATORS
ORAroRY AND ORATORS BY William Matthews,
Ill. d. author Of Getting On in the World"
chicago: .. q. Griggs Co. 1879.
1t is curious fact. attcsted by the history OF all
the highest human arts. chat begin to
write about them 1t Is certain sign that tho arts
themselves have begun to decay. Such is the
sary relation between the critical and the creative
faculty Of the human soul in its highest energies that
the former faculty finds the very conditions Of
in the products Of the latter. II Is not until
Homer has written his "Epos" and Sophocles has
carried the drama 70 its highest development that
Aristotle to cxplicate the nature and laws Of