New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-12
RECOLLECTIONS OF A READER.
BY CHARLES r. CONGDON.
LADIES OF LEARNING.

GAPrHo AID HER rRAGMENTS-TiiE CLASSICAL AN
NIs pACIKR, AND HKR CLASSICAL HUSBAND
MMK. DACIFRs BANQUET OF THE ANCIENIs--
MES. CATER WHO TRANSLATED ErICTETCs-
1ur INMATES or DR. JoH>sONs HOUSEHOLD
TBr BAs BiEU sOCItTy-rHRALx. HANNAH
MORE AND MHE. DARBLAY.
| do not think that there has ever been much
dispute oil the Rights of Women IN the he-
public Of Letters. A good book has no SEX
Looking back tor very long while, 90 not
remember any instance in which the literary
work of women has not been recognized ana
even rewarded, though the literary work OF men
has not always been sure OF similar fortune
Ages ago. whatever a clever woman oiu,
brought ont the greatest accamatlons. Sappho
snatchcd away the plaudlts and the prizes cNen
from Pindeius, and what healtless critic has
ever charged it on hci beautiful lace we
weep over bel fragments ana wish Illat sney
40 fnl Of passionato combustion and death by
tho fire OF love as hers ISL IheIe is nardiy
dozen of Ines but lurid lGht runs thi0uSh
them ALL and that fire which fosters WINE IL
consumes. Fifty transatos have tried Their
hand at them and all have failed. they nave
been kept mere bits as they are WIN 'he
Hymn TO Venus" all through tie dry as-dust
commentary of the scholastic period, ami have
come down to us as sure evidences OF the
tragedy OF the cliti OF Leucate. The dryeSt ana
dushesl of scholars have warmed over them,
and we, who are not the best OF scholars, READ
them over as Thapsodics, aud do not care q
faIthing for the guesses and CLOSES with when
grave men have illustrated or have not Illus
trated the text
IL is not. considered In q scholarly way, a
great slep from Madame Sappho TO Madame
Annie Lefevre Dacier, the most thoroughly
Greek and Latin woman OF ner tlme' Whioh
time was from 1854 to 1920. French scholars
apart from French politeness, are proud OF mel
"a they have reason TO he. his poor NIUE
Huguenot girl marched up from Saumur 10
Paris and what did She carry with her, even AT
that tender age of eighteen, but commentary
from her own hand upon Callimachus What
lady of The present time will give us a revised
edition of Cailimachus7 In fact, of all who
read this chapter, how many VIII know VINO
Caimachus was at oil Fancy anybody man
or woman coming 10 newborn no. WIN
literary hopes based upon an edition OF Calil-
nacbus | love him because he is supposed to
have been q librarian. aud to have PRESIDED
over no less collection than the Alexandi ian.
There was not much of him lett for the clever
younc Miss ieteyre subsequently DaClel( TO
com,eent upOu-ouly six hymns, seventy three
epiyrams and some fragments OF eieges. a
woman who knew Greek was godsend 10
Paris They made her at once one OF the ccle-
braed editors OF the classical authors pitpafeH
that splendid edition over which the boys OF
mapy succeeding generations in this country
and IN many others were destined TO pore, 10
ponder, and TO groan She hau aIte WARTS
the honor of introducing Homer TO the french
peopc in prose translation but Tremendous
controy erses followed. which, to time Ike
the present, must appear perfectly Ms@rutaDle
il not insane. One hardly KNOWS "hat 10
make of these classical wars which so agltated
the cultivated people of those days. Who Is
kept awake now by the question whether there
was Homer or notf NJ. La Motto saw nj TO
publish a poetical version OF the lhad, whch
he abridged and altered to suit his own TASTE
My Lady Dacer at once advanced upon him IN
most enthusiastic volume, proving the
moderns TO be nobody and the ancients to have
been everybody. There was ne end OF books
encountered ny This controversy. MANY an able
able came to the tore. Mons. Dacler, like
good husband, took a hand in behalf OF his
wife. He WAS librarian OF the Louvre, and II
makes ones brains swim to think how many
books Madame must have taken down and
looked through before the great HOmcnc
battle was over. 1t is pleasing to kno" that she
and La Motto subsequently made up the
quarrel over good dinner. / am AFRAID that
the wits OF that time, without proper reverence
for the ancents, sometimes pOked fun at Mon
sieur and Madame. We can imagine ID Aem,
bert doing 10, for he tells a story OF the learned
man and his lady-hOw they once cooked a dlsh
in concert, by recipe found in Aplclus, and
both sat down and ate of their learned ragout
till they were like TO die. Possibly. tins
was Wha, gave Dr.. Smollett his hint Tor similar
BANQUET in one Of his novels. Dr. johnson said
very good thing apIopOs of Nine. Daciers prose
Homer. III. Robertson remarked TO hun:
Would you. who are master OF the Engusn
language, but try your hand upon a part OF IL y
Co winch the great man responded senSbly ana
sOnorousy Sir, you would not read IL without
tho nleosIjrc of yersen-a iudcious observation
which the experience OF readers has since con-
filmed.
A mention OF Dr. johnson brings US good
way further down in literary history. 1t would
be possible 10 say a few wise and not Few
amusing things of the English literary women
of the last century. 10 be sure, ,they are
mostly forgotten, or are only remembered by
name; bat The readers of odd and old books
come across item and wonder how they should
30 soon have been i'll Oblivion, when their lame
fi...rn 20 far
ences to Mrs Elizabeth Carter in the index to
Bosw clrs Life of johnson Cookers edihoD):
Well. how many of my readers, tins blessed
Sunday morning, know who MIS-. ElZaDeth
Carter VAST The very first mention OF per IN
the immortal biography refers to q confession
which Dr.. JOl nsOn made to her, the pnrport OF
which was that he had a fOndness for Mar
tial." Not very important TACT, the reader
will be likely to think. We have outgrown all
that. To-day man would be looked at III blank
Gnazenent who should venture 70 say i'll any
mixed company whether he liked the eplgrams
of Martial or not. ! am not sure that any
woman would now be particularly admired be-
cause size had translated Epictetus; Most people
would feel moved 10 inquire who Epictctus
was. In tie days of Mrs Elizabeth, and III the
house in which she was born, Eplctetno was sun
somebody That might well be when her
father WAS a Perpetual Curate, and one OF the
SIX preachers in the Cathedral Church of Can
terhury. being on record a. "a very deep and
critical scholar in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
languages Early in life Mis-. Carter deter
ruined to live single, which leads to this re-
farkablc sentence in her biography "When
Hrs Carter was about ten years Of age, she had
the misfortune to lose her mother" The poor
little Mrs. Carter! She devoted herself at once
10 the dead languages, and took snul to Keep
herself awake and in order that she might
study Greek aud Latin all night. No wonder
. that at twenty one she published volume OF
poems with q Greek motto on the title page
No doubt che afterwards asked to be excused
for this bantlng upon the ground that it mas
such little One-only twenty -fouI quaito
pagesl We cannot go into biography, but we
may note "a few pleasant incidents. As early
as 1873. Mrs. Elizabeth made the acquaintance
a tLrD,,1.l1 lLn l.Mons of y Z