New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-02-13
LITERARY NOTES.

d NJ Johnston the author of the clever Southern
story q Old Mark Langston," is q man past middle
who has been Professor of English Literature III
the University at Athens 1t is said that the CHAR
acters in all his stories are taken from me- lhey
are types of bygone times the South which are to
be found nowhere else.
The author of Ginx's Baby" is bringing out
another novel
There is a rumor that Mr. Henry James got some
of the material for his novel, Washington Square,"
from the late Mrs. Catherine Dix.
The measure of Chinese Gordon's popularity in
England may be guessed from the publication Of a
life of bin which is to be sold at penny Tor the
benefit of the poor His is one of the rare cases in
which hero gets the praise and affection he de-
serves.
satrical person writes to The Boston 1faase1pt
asking why IN the march of advanced though"
poetry should still lag behind and why Para
disc Lost" or the Divina COmmedia" should not
be brought down, or up. to the level of our own
times by eliminating the obsolete element of theo
ogy and substituting the science of geology. ento-
mology or even the peculiar human one of odontol-
ogy the practical pursuit of which is well known to
afford scope for the dramatic development OF denre-
citation, terror, entreaty, arbitrary power, agony
and wrath7 ain the meantime" he adds, some of
your readers may be gratied by the sight of poem
which has come into my hands apparently from
those Of the bard of Rydal.i If the manuscript
is genuine of which there seems to me to be some
internal evidence, it may go to prove TO them how
true is the adage, Second thoughts are best" ="
ODE ON MORTALITY
BIZ Wordsworth (ess).
Our birth is but dream and a forgetting.
The Dust that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath elsewhere had its setting,
Aud cOmeth from afar;
Not IN entire forgetfulneSs,
Nor wanting a fur travelling dress,
But trailing tails OF monkeys do We come
From protoplasm our home.
Menagenes lie around our infancy;
We are not what we were prln0rdlaLy.
The Laws of Evolution
Work out much queer confusion.
At length the Man, the soulless child OF clay,
Stands winking at the new light OF the day.
The Rev. Heber New ton has not selected an origi-
nal title for the book which G. Z. Putnans Sons
are bringing out for him. AR. Gerald Massey has
already published A Book OF the Beginnings
great deal of the matter in Tho Unity of
Nature" the Duke of Argylls new book, has al
ready appeared in the shape of articles in the Res
views. These have been to large extent re-wrt-
ten. The leading idea of the work is that the at
tack of Modern Doubt on Christian theology may
be met by the light thrown on the phenomena of the
Universe by the theory of the Unity of Nature.
The leading British reviews and Quarterlies are
all to be regularly reprinted in this country by the
Leonard Scott Publishing Company.
There are only l2S pages of the MS.Autobiography
of Hene, which is to be published Immediately. Soon
after the authors death twentyone other pages re-
latng to his family were burned by his brother.
The autobiography is full of personal recollections
and impressions of the poets youth.
Sampson, Low & Co. say that Mr.. Eugene Sehuy
Ter has entirely rewritten for them his Life of
Peter the Great"
A little book has lately been published in Bel
gium giving an account of the various visits paid
by the Duke of Wellington to Brussels, before and
after the battle of Waterloo. One who saw him
often describes therein his appointment aquiline
nose his rather short legs, and his long body. They
used to say that he looked half eagle, half sheep"
The Imperial Dictionary defends "rclable +" as a
word in good standing in our language.
John Harris, the late excellent Cornish poet, was
poor miner who from boyhood spent his leisure IN
writing verse, which at first scratched upon
broken tiles, written on grocery paper, with nix
made by the poet from the juice of blackberries.
The report that the Harpers intend TO start an
edition of their Young People in England is in
correct.