The Portland daily press., 1881-06-09
The Asthetes.
An Amusing Description OF the New
Fashion in Fools.

Mrs. JULIAN Hawthorne in Harper's Bazar.1
Americans have no doubt, through the me-
dunn of Punch, made vicarious ACQUAINTANCE
with the Intense School, which just now dom
mates section of London society. Mr.. Du
Maurier is an extremely clever caricaturist,
and his caricatures are founded, in this in
stance, upon fact. But the fact itself is not
exactly what the caricature would lead one to
expect; and statement of certain aspects of
the fact, as they have appeared to an observer
on the spot, may have some interest for in
vestigation on the American side of the water.
AS the name of Mr.. Oscar Wilde has been
mentioned in some of the public prints in
London. it may be admissible to say here that
this gentleman is considered to be largely
responsible for many of the aesthetic episodes
and for much of the aesthetic jargon which
Punch has commemorated.
Mr.. Wilde, as he who runs may know, is an
Irishman by parentage, a University man.
and Newdigate gold-medalist-a distinction
bestowed, we understand, for success in class
ic verse. In appearance he is noticeable, if not
striking, being tall and large (thus differing
somewhat from Du Maurier's Postlethw aite).
with straight faxen hair brushed back behind
his ears. and allowed to grow long enough to
reach his collar. His ordinary attire (when
not in dinner dress) is long-skirted black
coat buttoned round his figure, white or yell
low flower in his button hole, white waist,
coat, lavender gloves, and silk hat-we have
n,eUer seen him descend to three-button cut
away coat. His ordinary expression is serene
and blandly supercilious, but in conversation
his smile is ready and affable, and his laugh
frequent and pronounced. Whether his mirth
be the expression of veritable inward hilarity.
or but superficial spasm designed to conceal
inward melancholy, is, of course, best known
to HIMSELF but his philosophy of life, so far as
it can be estimated, does not seem to be an es-
pecially happy one. He is inclined to reject
the idea of an immortal existence after death.
because it would destroy the beauty of pathosl
IF part here from one 1 love-" he would
say, ''and know that the parting is for eternity
as we'll as for time, feel the beauty of pathos:
but if I am to believe that we shall meet here
after, and wander hand in hand through the
Elysian Fields forever, the beauty Of pathos
vanishes at once". His religion, in short
would seem to be the Beautiful in whatever
expressed; it has probably been the religion
of others before him, the difference being that
Mr.. Wilde finds beauty in many things in
which the general sense of mankind has failed
to detect it; and the reverse is also true It is
difficult, however to give an accurate esti-
mate of his beliefs, because he believes in the
beauty of impulse and emotion, and impulse
and emotion sometimes lead him as we'll as
others in contradictory directions.
Thus, at one time he will declare that all
artistic beauty resides in color; at another
time he will see its only embodiment in form.
In other matters Mr.. Wildes ideas are often,
at all events, remarkable. He affirms Mr.
Burne-Jones to be the artist, not of the future.
but of the age; and he explains himself az
meaning that in Mr.. Burne-Jones's pictures
the ruling spirit or idea of the present day is
embodied. If he is met by the objection that
nobody sympathizes with Mr. Burne-Jones's
work except the small clique of critics
among whom Mr.. Wilde is himself the most
eminent, he replies that the same sort of thing
might have been said of Wordsworth of Shell
ley, of Keats, of Turner. George Eliot he
pronounces to have been an altogether over
rated woman, though he admits her to have
been not devoid of certain kind and degree
of merit. Thackeray he abominates, and all
his works. Whatever may be the general
opinion about these and numberless other
similar pronunciamentos of the head of the
aesthetic clan, it is beyond dispute that he has
made himself one of the most talked of per-
sonages in London. Three theatres during
the past season have brought out plays the
rdison d'etre of which is Mr.. Wilde and his
eccentricities. Punch has made an especial
study of him. The World and other society
journals have devoted leading articles to the
discussion of the character which he enacts.
His name is known in all fashionable drawing
rooms, and his face in very many of them.
Those who have not seen him can have no rest
until they have done SO. At the opera or the
play his presence is recognized and comment
ed on by the gallery. Even in Parliament his
contemplating figure is frequently beheld.
though Mr.. Wilde has very little sympathy
with politics. The other day the Prince Of
Wales. requested that Mr.. Wilde might he
presented to him. Il have never vet mad the
pleasure OF meeting you," His Royal High