New-York tribune., 1879-03-14

|
| tampering with the currency. Such q con-
! tract would be equivalent to a contract to de-
liver a certain weight of bullion of specified
! fneness, and, as Mr.. Wells shows, is pro-
| tected by the decisions of the Supreme Court
against all legal-tender legislation by Con-
cress. 1t is hardly necessary to show how
STRAIGHTFORWARD such way Of dong business
would be, or what a stability it would give to
commercial transactions. AS Mr.. Wells tersely
saws. If would be honest, constitutional,
"legal and safe.n Why not adopt it
THE DEAD POET AND HIS WORK.
Yesterday the mortal part of Bayard Taylor
reached these shores, to which he had SO
| MANY times returned fresh from wide oOser-
yations in foreign lands, and full OF the
hearty iov of the man who comes back to
| a beloved home Only few months ago ne
was the centre of troop ofrejoicing friends,
as he set sail for most honorable post in the
service of his country; yesterday a noble ship
made its solemn progress up the Bay with him,
and vet without him. The drge was sung, the
orator spoke, and to-day the poets body VIII DE
taken to its last resting-place in the Pennsyi-
wanna home which was his by birth ana ny
| choice.
Again this community and the country are
thus reminded, most sadly, OF the career OF one
whose busy life has become house
! hold word. The list of Bayard laylors
published works, which we print this morning
will show how little of his mortal existence was
wasted. The average merit of his literary
work is much greater than many, estimating
it from its popularity, would suspect; but
those who study this long catalogue, and are
competent to form judgment, Will see that
| Mr.. Taylors course was one OF STEADY pro-
| gress, and that his success must, In great
measure, be attributed to his unwearled as
| siduity. While yet young man he was
! good deal in the public eye, and was praised
quite as much for his promise as for his real
| performance but he does not appear at any
| time to have rested satisfied with his
accomplishment. There is a long inter
val and large difference between the
! little poems which filed his first printed
volume, and the translation of Faust, which
| has elected so much critical approval. From
the beginning to the end he was always
| growing.
When and how he studied, considering how
often and for how long his studies were inter-
rupted by travel, seems to us sometimes
| mystery. He was dissatisfied with bis own
wanderings and as a consequence, with Their
results. 1t irked him to be so often spoken
of as a traveller. He had sometimes
stronger feeling than he cared to express
that il would have been better for him to
have staid and studied moro at home. Ills
youthful anxiety to see the world was, per-
haps, an accidental expression OF his early
intellectual activity and ambition. The sue
cess which attended his first books for some
years gave characteristic bias to his lie.
He fell into habit of coming and gOlng ana
often he was sent away as a correspondent by
his newspaper. 1t is remarkable that under such
unpropitious circumstances he did so much IN
SO MANY departments of literature and did 1t
so well. This could only have come OF a
| native resolution which was his In larger
measure than falls to the lot OF most men.
This manifested itself in the sturdy way in
which he met and mastered the difficulties OF
| his first Journey Always he did whatever he
undertook to do, and impedlments only en-
| couraged him. One result of this resOlute ma
ture is to be found in the long list of his pub
| lished works which we give to-day. COnsld-
| cred merely as a monument of unfllnchng
toll. il would be honorable to the memory OF
| any man; but it is much more. 1t Is cata-
! logue of books, the production OF single
hand, all worth reading, and many of them OF
| frst-rate ability; of unQuestOnable and per-
manent value, dealing as they do with human
life both in its inward and outward expert
ences. and full, as some of them are OF 1.-THE
"best thoughts In the best language" This is
Coleridges definition of poetry and tried by
the test, Mr.. TaylOr's metrical work fultills its
conditions.
We hear literary men, in this country, and
we SUPPOSE that it is so everywhere else, COM
planning that they cannot get along, that they
cannot find work to do that publishers will
not buy their books, or that the public Will
not read them. We commend to them, for
study and example, the sturdy character OF
the distinguished writer whom we have lost
too soon. He certainly had obstacles enough
to surmount, especially in the beginning. II
ever man fought his way up, he did. lie
received no honor, he achieved no success, he
won no reward to which he was not fully enti-
tied He was to be pdt down neither by hard
luck, nor by disappointment, nor by faint
praise, nor by'unjust criticism. lie undertook
no task to which he did not bring his whole
power; and he understood we'll enough Uo
borrow Goethe's words) that "nOthing would
"come TO him in his sleep" Long practice
gave him dexterity, and made expression
easy to him. The time had arrived when he
might fairly hope to do important things
much better than he had ever done them be-
fore. He appeared to have achieved the best
wealth of man of letters-free and unhindered
opportunity. Fate refused him the chance of
showing us how nobly he would have improved
it. When all seemed to have been made
somewhat easy for him, when many hard
lessons had been learned and much invalu-