New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-08
THE PASSING or OSC4P.

A recent cable dispatch announced the marriage OF
Oscar Wilde, and so chronicled the close OF come
tary career whereof suggestions may be
cleaned Oscar Wilde derives his interest less from
the possession of originality or talent, to say
nothing of genius, than from tho fact that he typ-
fed tendencies which common to half the world.
He was laughed at and not maciously, but reason
ably yet those who laughed at him felt that what
exposed him to rldicule was his courageous cham
ponshp of convictions the like of which thousands
of bright Young men have in their time enter
tanned but which they were either too sensible. too
conservative or too difdent to advocate publicly.
Most boys discover while in college that tho world
is out of Joint Oscar Wilde however, conceived
that he was born to set it right and cOnceiving
he undertook the task in good faith and simplicity.
II is one of the most bcnehccnt ordinances of nat
ure that young men should almost intuitlvely
acquire the belief that for them has beon reserved
the solution Of the worlds deepest secrets. For
them the Veil of Isis is always to be lifted BY
them the Lost Word is always to DO redlscoyered
And so 1t is that while they are being slowly init-
ated their courage is kept up and by the time it
has dawned upon them that they may after all be
everyday young men," and not prodigies. they
are ready to settle quietly down in their proper
places and do their work modestly thencefor-
ward
"
young men, and he had larger enthusiasm. He
thought it was given to him to institute reforms of
various social kinds. lie was to improve the dress
of his SEX He was to disseminate lOftier conccp-
lions of Art. He seems to have imagined at
one time that he might found a new school Of
Poetry. Now in none of these aspirations was there
aught despicablo. Even a dress reform may be
thoroughly estimable, while praise is due the stu
dent of Art who devOtes lis energies to popularizng
ingenious ideas of the Beautiful and even when,
as in Oscar Wildcs case the genius wanting
which could alone have given seriousness to such
enterprises the ambition to elevate the world was
certainly not an ignoble one.
Yet the world laughed at him. and in due time he
acknowledged the business of the worlds good
uatured ridicue by abandoning those personal
eccen. rcities which have been thought to dstin-
Suish the modern school Of Maudle and Postle-
tbwate. He shore away his llyacinthinc locks.
He Invested himself of his peculiar neither garments.
He returned to society clothed and in his right
mind and now he has sealed his faith, as it were,
and given hostages to Fortune, by entering the
solemn bonds Of matrimony. From that to wearing
broad -brimmed hats, riding fourteen stone. and
cultivating double chin and waistcOat protuber-
ance. is but n step The brief and at no tlmo
doubtful struggle is thus peacefully and happily
ended. Oscar Wilde has not converted the world.
The world has asSimilated him.
Just so It assimilates millions of young people
who every year spring into active life trimming
over with enthusiasm and fine resolves and splendid
aims and q broad and catholic humanitariauism.
Most of them yield very easily to tho silent but
masterful influences with which the hoary old
veteran surrounds them. A few. like Oscar Wilde.
too confident in themselves, attempt to remodel
things singe-handed. Then the world laughs
at them and absorb5 them, and If they are too
strongly intrenched In their egotism they become
cranks" and waste all their forces, and If they
have a saving remnant OF common sense they recOg-
nize til futility Of the contest like Oscar Wilde.
and seek for some practical outlet for their energies
and capacities. Only Ithe rare Genius the eftlo
rescence of an age. rises superior to his generation,
like Goethe aud while refusing to assmilate with
it, lifts it by the power of his inspiration toward
his own higher level, and improsses upon it the
truths and the interpretations he has discovered for
and by himself Yet Oscars career is a typo ,of the
tendencies of Youth. and such 1t is not void of
instruction and profit.