New-York tribune., 1882-02-14

gown, drab comforter wrapped round ana rouho
his neck. and dark blue cap on, for he had coid
| He received his visitors very kindly, but wouiu
untwist his comforter and take OF his cap, and
comb his shaggy mane in honor of the occasion. lie
| looked "thin and aged, and sad as Jeremiah,
though the red was still bright in his cheek, ana 'hc
blue in his eye which seemed to be mole deeply seV
| than ever: there grim expression IN his race
| which looked solemn enough" ms was aoou'
| wear after Mrs. Carlyle's death
| There is a very striking description OF words
| worth in the diary part of which may be quoted:
| He is a man of middle height and not of very
| striking appearance the lower part OF the lace
| retreating little; his eye OF somewhat frencn
dipomatic character. with heavy eyellds. ana none
| of the flashing which connects with poetic
| genius When speaking earnestly. his manner anu
voice become extremely energete; anu lhe pecudaFF az
| his words add considerably 10 their force. lie
evidently loves the munOlogue style OF conversa-
tion but shows great candor IN giving que cOmT,o %
| Grafton TO any remarks which Others may MAKE
| His manner is simple his general appearance that
| of the abstract thinker. whom his subject gradu-
| ally warns into poetry
| There is some report of WordswortIs conversa-
ton in this book, but, is wont to be the case 1t
is not very engaging Miss Fox says rather signiii
| cantly that he "evidently enjoyed patient audi-
encc" Once he spoke disparagngly of books.
| NO book knowledge in the world" he said. can
compensate YOU for loss of health; nothing can
excuse vour trihing with health except duty to
YOUR God or TO your ncIghbor All that is necdful
| is 30 understand your duty to Goo and to your
| neighbor and that you can learn from the Bloie
When he heard of party going to the kisslugen
| baths for health, he said qucrlllously: Why don
| they take their own baths, and not spend Their
| money ahrOadY" Wordsworth did not know that
| John Sterling dead till told of 1t when toid ne
| was good enough to say: That is loss to his
r. 10 A ms
| learning and pety! SO he is gone and BOUicS and
Roq7, left. ,cbo are so much oNer r. What the sur
| yiyal of Bowles and Rogers had to do with the
matter It is difficult to see what Wordsworth evil
IDENTIFY was thinking was: Sterling dead a forty
two years of age while Bowlcs is eighty-two ana
Rogers is eghty-one-and neither OF them To be
spoken of in the samc day as poets with myself OF
even with Sterling" Wordsworth spoke of the
Germans: Kant, Schelling Fichte; fichte,
Schelling, Kant; all this is drcary work and does
not denote progress. However they have much OF
Plato in them. and for this | respect them; the
English. With their devotion to Aristotle, have bat
half the truth; a sourd philosophy must contain
both Plato and Aristotle" Wordsworth evidently
did not much like the Germans He said " Goethe
was amusing himself with fine fancies when his
country was invaded; how unlike Milton. who
only asked himself whether he could best serve
his country as a soldier Statesman, and
decided that lie could fight no better than
others but he might govern them
better" Wordsworth said that Lambs
abuse of the country and his declared deestation OF
il was all affected; he enjoyed it and entered into
its beauties besides Lamb had too kindly nature to
detest anything" He thought there was much talent
hut no genius in the poetry of Hartley Colerldge
and that ne had no originality
or the many remarks of John Sterling which are
;c aof4 4tn tnpC tprT
Sterling thinks of writing essay on Shake
speare as the Son of his Time. which would develop
a GREAT deal of curious matter concerning the
actual life around him which may be gathered from
his plavs He fSes the great inadequacy OF Shake
speares women. Beatrice is very disagreeablc and
unpleasant Juliet goose and Lears two daugh-
ters unnaturaly wicked Here is an interesting
notice of George Borrow, who died only last year:
Catherine Gurney gave us a note to George
Borrow, HIM we called,-a tall ungainiy,
uncc nth man, with great physical strength quick
penetrating eye, confident manner, ana n as
agreeable tone and pronunciation. He was sitting
on one side of the fire. and hs old mother on the
other His spirits ALWAYS sink in wet weather and
to-day was very RAINY, but be was courteous ana
not dspeased to be little onized Tor ms dellcacy
is not of the most susceptible. lie talked about
Spain and the Spaniards the lowest classes OF whom
he saws are the only worth investigating, the
upper and idle class being with exceptions, OF
c6nrsel mean selfish and proud beyond description
They care little for Roman Catholicism anu bear
faint allegiance TO the Pope. They generally lead
proigate lives, until they lose all energy, and then
become slavishly supeTstitOus. He said curious
thing of the EsqulmauX, namely, that thClr IAN
guage is n most complex ana highly artificial one,
calculated to express the most delicate metaphysl
cal subtties yet they have no literature. nor are
there any traces of their ever having had one-a
most curious anomaly: hence he simply argues that
you can i'll Judge of people by their language.
Apupll of Dr. Arnold thus described that great cdu-
Gator to Miss Fox;
tba rtS nf tha HOY
that they dreaded doing anything wrong, lest 1t
should pain him: they looked forward TO his weekly
sermons with as much delight as to a holiday. and.
as they quite private, If any hing remarkable
had taken place IN the week they knew that II
would be noticed on the Sunday. The class-books
they had TO study were rich III marginal notes from
his pencil, which made chem live and become a
pleasure instead of WEAKNESS to flesh and spirit
Nor will this bit of gossip be uninteresting to
American readers:
Mary Ashburnham aliGs Fanny Appleton, was a
near neghbor and friend of thelrs,-a most beautl-
fnl girl whom thirty bold gentlemen sought to
win She came to Europe, and met LOngfelow in
the Black Forest and there transacted the scenes
described in Hyperion" She returned to
America and her father on his death-bed expressed
his wish that of all her suitOTs she should fix her
choice on LOngfellow as the person most worthy of
her and most able to sympathlze with her feelings
After little time she married HIM, settled IN the
country in poetic simplicity, and speaks of herself
a. the happiest woman possible. My friends heard
him read his prize poem at the college SO eTquSitely
that their orator Everett said lie could hardly en-
dure to speak after him.
Walter Savage Landor curously turns up in this
book, "inolcrant of everything as usual" He
said q The only we-drawn figure in existence is a
female by Overlook his picture of Children
brought to Christ; Milton wrote one good line, but
forget it Dante perhaps six. his description of
Francesca Carye's French Revolution is a
wicked book | have worn out one volume III
tossing it on the floor at startling passages" Here
is an amusing anecdote of differing astronomers:
Talked of many OF the astronomers, and the OK |
tremely different way in which they would handle |