New-York tribune., 1882-02-14
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MIQS FNX'S DIARY.


This volume is valuable addition to that depart
mcnt of English literature in which 1t is most deh-
cieut. Miss Fox met q great number of people,
moro or less distinguished, and she is good re-
porter of their sayings and doings. Her editor
who does not seem TO have a superiuity OF literary
taste. says that she was born into tnls tough
worldp at Falmouth IN 1919, and that She was OF
fine old QUAKER lineage" Her father, who had a
turn for science. the inventor of the Denector
Dipping Needle" which has since been used in all
the Arctic expeditions When he died the Royal
Society took complimentary notice OF the event.
Caroline continued as she was born. member oil
the Society of Friends mixing no more perhaps
with the world than was then and still is common
with certain class of English Quakers. she seems
TO have gone through the usual religious exper
ences of Quaker youth. attaining serenity at last
She was carefully educated at home, and tie scope
of her studies may be inferred from Che Tact that
she was fond in her girlhoOd of the metaphysical
speculations of Coleridge. She made several trips
10 the Continent, and frequently visited London
where she saw the best literary people. She died
in 1871. During all these years she kept the diary
which furnishes the pages of this book. She is at
once piquant and good-natured, always bright ana
sharp and graphic. The diary begins March 10,
1885
At the meeting of the British Association in Bristol
In 1886. Miss Fox saw Tom Moore, looking like a
little Cupid with Quizzing glass in constant notion
DR.. Buckand there, and told her that he al
ways felt very nervous in addressing large assem-
bles. till lie had once made them laugh, and then
he was entirely at case Lady George Murray I'D
Miss Fox thai when Byron had written his we'll
known Farewell" to his wife, he wrapped it up
in a number of unpaid bills threw it into the
room where she was sitting, and then rushed out oil
the house. There is an interesting account OF
Co1or lo,. vho oil
worth was "a most unpleasant companion IN a
tour from his terrible fear of being cheated"
Hartley is described very choice IN his use OF
language. and L" his recognition OF the perpetual
poetry in nature was very Inspiring and nsplrlt-
ing" When he asked about Wordsworths
daughter had she inherited any of her fathers
genius lie answered Would you have the disease
Of genius to descend like scrofulaW He is de-
scrbed as a little, round, hgh-shouldeTed man,
shrunk into a little black coat the features OF is
face moulded by habit into an expression OF pleas
Antry and an appreciation of the eXquslteiy ludi-
erous." There are other things respecting this
geographic phenomenon, which are valuable IN the
learth of genial information concerning hm-in-
formation, we mean. not colored by the narrow
views of those by whom his fife twas surrounded.
rbey made much of his death. and Wordsworth
was greatly affected in the churchyard when he
WAS buried. We are told in this book of his
shumble and prayerful" demise, and that his
brother Derwent with him for three weeks
before and supporting that weak but humble and
loving spirit through its last conflicts with the
mowers Of the world" There is a charming account
Of this wondrously gifted but most unfortunate
mana story of the day when Miss Fox and her
fri.nds Goated about WiuGermere with Hartley
Coleridge, and he "sparkIed away famously."
He spoke" Miss Fox tells us of his father being
cola pi,rgf ed ms
and some man who not celebrated: the latter
, were leather breeches and S. T. COleridge had the
delight of observing him taking notes of their con-
yersaton with PIN the crcases of the leather"
Hartley spoke of the trials of school-keeplng but
acknowledged that keeping the boys in order
passed his powers" He said. and it Is worth
noting: The clever boys generally the best;
the stupid ones take ,rcfuge in cunning" Then he
talked funnily of the necessity of every woman
having two names, one for youth and one for
mature age" lie read from his writings to
the party in the evenng-the poems with more
understanding aud feeling than rhythmic har
mony.D Wordsworth said his great want was one
inherited from his father-a want of will; the
amazing effort 10 was TO him to CiN anything was
iDdoscTi Tibable"
Washington Irving was described TO the
alarist as quiet retiring. matter-oi-fact, agree
able person." There is good story of Malibran,
the singer When she at Venice she did not
like the sombre regulation causing the gondoas to
be painted black. and had hers painted green. To
m official rcmOnstrance she answered. Then
won't sing" This sufficient, and the singers
renaola kept its verdant coat. There is good
sccouut of John Sterling. with whom Miss Fox was
Intimate in this book, but nothing very quotable
John Stuart Mill offered construct for her
tlmauac of odors that scent the air to be arranged
rhronologically according to the months, beginning
with the laurel and ending with the lime" lie SAID
one day in melancholy tone: ! never was boy
never played at cricket it Is better TO let nature
have her own way"
There no little about Thomas Carlyle in this
volume. Miss Fox attended the lectures on Heroes,
and makes good report of that on the Hero as Man
pf Letters Carlyle spoke like tremendously
convinced OF what he utters, and who had much
very much-in hilr that was quite unutterable
quite unfit to be uttered to the initiated ear and
when the Englishman's of beauty or truth
exhibited itself in vOcferous cheers, he would i'm
patiently, almost contemptuously, wave his hand,
AZ if that were not the sort of homage which Truth
demanded" Carlyle is said never to have got over
the feeling that people had given money to hear
him, and were possibly calculating whether what
they heard was worth the price they paid for 1t.
Mrs. CARLYLE said of him as a lecturer: " 1t is so
dreadful for him to try to unite the characters of
the prophet and the mOuntebank; he has keeDly
felt it," Sterling said that Carlyle's low view of
the world proceeded partly from bad stomach"
Once Carlyle inyeighing against the quackery and
speciosity of the times, said When look at this
| determine TO cast all tolerance TO the winds"
Sterling quietly remarked: any dear fellow, had
no idea you had any to cast" Carlyle was little
nstonished one day when man informed him with
deep gratitude that his works had converted him
from Ouakerisrn in which he had been brought up,
10 Benthamism, and from that TO Roman Catholi-
cism Once Carlyle said: We'll. | can't wish
satan ANYTHING worse than 10 try to digest TO all