The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-12-10
Special Correspondence Of the Press.)


Special Correspondence of the Press)
BOSTON, Dec. Z.
The excitement of discussion concerning
Matthew Arnold is still at white heat here.
At the various receptions and other social en-
tertainments one is sure to hear the name of
Matthew Arnold from one or more groups of
people. The prejudice against him which
started perhaps with his first announcement
that he came to this country to make money.
eliminated last Saturday afternoon with the
Emerson lecture. From the very first Mr..
Arnold has shown an utter lack of tact. be-
ileve tnat ms intentions have been good from
the beginning. believe that he is perfectly
sincere and honest and upright even in that
much criticised exploit of delivering two or
three year old magazine essay for enc of his
lectures. But he is a blunderer; and with all
his philosophy and theories of philosophy he ia
certainly lacking in sympathetic perception.
He evinced this lack at the start, and on Sat
urday afternoon it was painfully evident that
the author of that fine sentence, s'sweetness
ana light" with its suggestion Of something
finer still, had not in himself that insight with
which we had credited him.
8 1t was not SO much that he dethroned EN-
erson and brought him down from the high
place we had assigned him, as that he
did not approach him in any way from
his (Emerson's) own standpoint. Opening his
lecture with pleasant reference to the old
Oxford days when he was an undergraduate
and Emerson's voice speaking from three
thousand miles away reached him pure aud
clear, he went on to tell us that Emerson was
mot one of the great men of letters-the
great writer's" and comparing him with
Cicero, Plato, Swift, Voltaire, with Mon
taigne, La Bruyere, Addison, he finds, be-
cause his style is not like any of these, that he
cannot place him upon any high level. He de-
MES too that he is "a philosophy maker" and
sums him up after these various denials as not
"a great poet, great writer, great philos-
ophy maker, but" the friend and alder of those
who would live in the spirit Emerson to
Arnold was and is . moral influence mainly.
He says, "As Wordsworth's poetry is, in nv
judgment, the most important work done in
verse in our language during the century, so
Emersen's essays are the most important
Enerson's temper-his hopeful, serene, beau
tiful temper" that he values his works; the
moral effect of them and not the literary OK.
preston. The height to which he eleyates
Wordsworth, and the comparison he draws,
shows very clearly the plane upon which Mr..
Arnold stands; shows him to be blind and
desf to the poetic, heroic and thoroughly ideal
strain which flowed perpetualIy from Emer-
sons pen.
To give an instance OF the strong feeling
that had set in against Mr.. Arnold | will
quote what certain cultivated Boston man
said to me the week previous to the Emerson
lecture, 81 consider Mr.. Arnold most over
rated man. He has gained reputation upon
a really slight foundation. His expressions
sweetness and light sPhilistines and Philis-
tinism" at once caught the public ear and
called attention to everying that followed. In
another direction, a clever hit at his precise
and unideal ways of approaching things, was
that OF the wit who called him-Matthew
Mates.
Outside of these critical judgments there is
a pleasanter suggestion of genial companion
ship from the people who met him quietly.
These found him modest, and sincere and
simple, and they laugh to scorn the interpre-
tation of some of his so-called snobbish or ar
rogant remarks. cit is only because he is out
spoken and singularly direct and unsuspicious"
explains one of these admirers. The whole
thing resolves itself into the fact have stated,
lack Of tact and perception. There is another
set OF persons perhaps too limited and unim-
portant to speak of in this connection, who
have followed and endorsed Mr.. Arnold with
out Observation-Disclosures persons who always
follow to applaud what they consider author
ity.
There is sharp, well-defned difference In
the bristling fault-fnding against Arnold and
the mixture of admiration and repulsion which
was, and is, felt concerning Monseigneur
Capel. use the word admiration in con-
stricted sense, which / cannot better illustrate
than by quoting the words of very clever
person who met him socially. 81 met the
other day Monseigneur Capel He was very
handsome, perfect elegance of manner beauti-
full voice, quite eloquent, yet distrusted and
disliked him."
1t is relief to turn from the aggressiveness
of this sharp critical atmosphere to the milk
and honey of appreciation that has flowed
about The steps of George w. Gable since he
first put foot upon the little platform of
Chickering Hail. Mr.. Cable also comes be-
fore the public to make money, of course, but
he does not approach the matter in the man
ner of Matthew Arnold, nor indeed in the
spirit of Mr.. Arnold. He does not publish a
card to start with to say that that is the prime
and principal reason of his coming amongst