New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-09-28

had St John on tho table. lie mas Iohg poo,n!!
on the stocks-nn Italian subject. toid IN u"h
know how many thousand lines. llo cehcd mp MS
boy, who was hard 1T work with tutor Tefllne w
for oxford to shake hands with me.-l llS'y younB
fellow was glad To soc. good rover lors'IIl'l.
and swimmer I'm tho evening ut irocter :, W. u t
Browning again. and Arnold, b"IV I"nE".o"
Milncsl Dante Rossctti. and many others brown
ing professcd 10 remember VI. from h0Ho ~ ""' ="
lively. crowded pleasant party. ..
I,orrv and were to breakfast the next moIhlhg
with Lord lIoughton. When we arrlycd we lounI
our host IN conversation with PLAIN. Tcu-h"'i'i'
farmcr-likc individual whom he introduced 10 rs as
Che Duke of Argyll. The latter SAID to me. " ~" YOU
know that y0H were the cause 0i emmy son 80 49,,
Norwav7 After he read your book Dee could nor I'7V
until he went there himself" Then entered, ~ sue
cosson. Froudc the historian, the lji'h"p OF
Wilbcrforce, Lord Wentworth, the gtahd9ol ~
Byron with Byronc profile Ia NICE VoahE hlII'
whom liked exceedingly, the Bishop OF ~ InEbl''
Ncnablcs the lawyer and publlcist. ana >r " Ii'"l
Stirling Maxwell. author OF the lo'leI lI'o -,
Charles v" II was a charming breakfast; 3hy an
old butler and a page waited. the guests hrIplhS
each other.-thc conversation Mosaic 81 cu' ~,
cordial chat | sat between the Duke ana the
Bishop of oxford. and the latter kept my plate con,
staatly supplied with butter and salt. Iroul' lIlu
of his researches in the Spanish arcl ives and the
Duke discussed Dxon'4 book on America
had 10 .tclr myself away from entrees 10 clnD,
and invitations 10 dinner, aud leave London
might have toated for month or 50 with money
and inclination on the top wave of London society,"
bat after the poets it. would have been descent.
One thing however, does pleasantly tickle my
vanity: | am weak enough 10 fee It, yet frank
sell i9"llng IN England I'D the last t9ur or hN'
years. 1ribncr told me that st. John has been
greatly praised in all the reviews; his stock of the
poem was Immediately sold. and he had ordered q
fresh supply from Boston He considers n one oi
the most successful of recent American books
llottcn ltLe publisher told me the same hing
From the authors had the kiudc,t and most cheer
lng words need not tell you how grateful IS tins
huowl"dgr To me, for You can easily guess H.
We went one night 10 hear Dickens read
David Coppcrned." Sothrrn gave us box for hls
Dundrc1ry another night, and again We din'd
with Annc Ihackcray aad her sister A. !. Is ono OF
the dear ~ and best girls i'm the world II was IKE
old times TO see her again. Sh" gave me fine por
trait of her father. She stands hy ilapnlh Thurs
tom which she says She knows by heart ON the
whole. never had richer eight days than those IN
London. lcmcmher, all this IS private. write to
You Instead of IN journal. Those are things that !
can't publish. yet wish 10 note ~ go along.
"Fau-t' was begun while he was at work upon
"Ihc Picture of st. John.' and the First Part WIS
published in 1870 In writing 10 his mother OF the
immediate and emphatic success of this cxtraorli-
nary translation. lc announced the purpose. which
had already taken definite shape in his mind. TO
write ~ biography of Goethe and Schiller such as
has not yet been writcn' and he added the follow
ny significant sentences: When YOU notice that
am constantly changing. You should also remember
that change is the sign of growth, and that
If ! was now just the man | WAS ten years
ago. ! could never hope to accomplish any
thing more. For my part, my prayer is that shall
ing while live" This is not the place to review
his later poems the purpose of tracing the exact
direction of the changes in his style and mode of
thought But all agree that as he grew older his
poetry assumed a more robust. more stately and
more serious character, and was marked by more
severe and classical finish of FORM
And this leads us to remark upon the merit which
most couspicuousy distinguished all his literary
work from his first boysh TO his latest poem;
which eunobled drudgcry while 1t adorned the songof
genius, and in which perhaps lies the most precious
lesson of his fertile life We mean his grand con-
SccntiousncSs. "Thc restless. tormenting necessity
of giving voice to his individual nature" he wrote
IN lsJl "makes tie author; but to fulfil this
necessity is labor without end. The soul must some
times sweat blood. Nothing great is achieved with
ont the scvercst discipline OF heart and mind moth
ing il we'll done that is done easily" My mind is
now 50 trained by twenty years work. he said IN
1855, " that cannot rest without production, and
my standard of literary art recrdeS just in pro-
portion as | approach It, am all the time kept in
good heart. | know my own DEFICIENCIES. |
and attribute what success have to want of salts
faction in former worlls-thc spur that drives me
onward have never before worked 50 steadily |
and un.riusly with the pen rs last year and shall |
work harder this year than the last. There is no |
lack of material 50 long as the faculty does not |
flag | shall labor finding a JOY IN solid. cousc.cn-
ton, work which | never found in the youthful
glow and ,1uncs, excitement of very unlcycoped |
BRAIN He had the strongest temptation to do
soycaly and hurried work. for Ac never attained an
independent fortune. and for all the drud-cry bee
chose to undertake there WIS ready market. The
building of Ccd4rcrott va, "a strain upon his re
sources. and the cost OF keeping 10 mp was much !
greater than he expected lie wrote to Nr Phillips
I'm 1~13: