New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-05-10
LITERARY NOTES.

~, p.,o, clohs nv four of the minor authors
~. a. Is renorted to be a travesiy. The scene
- la in the next century, and one of the char
ao,ers is a typical strongminded Boston girl, as IL
ia supposed she will appear at that period.
The ,nita, volume of an extensive work will soon
ne given to the public. During the past year OF
two. Mr. Z. G. Stedman and Miss Ellen NJ. in'ch
inson. of The TRIBUNE editorial stan' nave
been collecting material for "A Library OF
American Literature" of which they are the
;oint editors. Their projected work is a compen-
dinm in ten octave volumes, of specimens OF Ameri
can literature from the earliest settlement 10 the
,raseut time The editors aim to give DISTINCTIVE
readable examples from authoritative texts OF the
writings of every class and period; TO form COL
,,;n that shall be to our literature what " Ma
+,onol Gallery is TO national art Longer eA'io''
will he gwen than usual in computations Vi 'no
Kind The work will be published by MeSsrs' W. IL
Dibble & Co., of Cincinnati to whom l's conoeP'Vi
!. dine. will be illustrated with portraits ana sofa
-, snhsor;ntion only. The first two volumes, soon
60 onnear are rich in early and later Colonial Liter
concentrating a more various summary than
hitherto has been collected in handy form.
Raron Tauchnitz says that so far from piratlng
the English books he publishes he gives each author
q navment rs large as is consistent with iaT
nroG4 Macaulay received large sums from TINS
sorrce nc he ought to have DONE indeed, ms MS
tory being the most popular book on the popular
Tauchnitz list.
Counods biographical aud critical study OF
Wagner is nearly ready for publication. Inc ger
man COMPOSERS artistic aims and METHODS MS pi"oo
among musicians and the music OF the future Will
all be discussed in this book.
Mr.. Lowell remarked before the Browning society
the other evening that it had been sara 'hat ploWh
ing had no sense of form, but this question: ucPehu
mon the meaning to be attached 10 tha' "olo
One thing he thought was CERTAIN anu oh"' was
that men who had discussed form most as ioi III
s,onco Goethe. had not always been the most sue
cessfu. in producing examples OF 1t. Cer'alnly nU
one with anv sense of form could call FAUST
other than formless If form meant the use Oh auo-
ouate and harmonious means to produce certain
artistic end then he knew one who had gwen
typer examples of it than the great poet after whO
tbat society took its name. He thought there
was one danger in a Browning Society, which was
that IL might lead them to be partlsahS' anu NC
Thought he had seen symptoms or II. lhey ln'Rh'
be apt to insist upon people admirng the inferior
,ort of the artist with his better work, and this he
Thought would be an evil. Every one WHO re"u
Browning with attention, and who lOVeu hlil ihus'
at the same time admit that he was occasionally
whrled away by the sweep and torrent Oh MS own
abundance But after making these deductions
there was no poet who had given us a greater
variety or who had shown more originality. MI
provning abjded with them. He was not fashion,
nor did he belong to any period OF their lives
What they felt more clearly than anything else was
his strength He was Of all others masculine
virile poet.
The first time that Mr.. Browning has made
speech in public upon the occasion oil Ills leoen'
visit to Edinburgh.
DR. Charles J. B. Williams one OF queen VIC
tora's physicians, has lately published memoirs Oh
his life and work. in which he records some recol-
loctons of John Stuart Mill. "FOr man," ne says.
$50 noted in his writings for profundty OF thought
and grasp of intellect, his usual conversation was
remarkable for its painness and simplicity. haIher
reserved in disposition. he rarely dverged from the
object of his visit which he stated sensby but con-
ciselv and rather required to be drawn out by
questions But he was always an attentive listener
and what is more a confding conformable patient !;
reasonable IN his expectations, and intelllgentIy
acouescent in receiving explanations ana drec-
tions need hardly say that felt 1t pleasure as
well as an honor to possess the confidence OF such
man. the profundlty of whose intellect did not I'M
pair the amiability of his character"
Lord Lytton (Buwer) also DR.. Williams's
natient. and patient not so comfortable the
doctor ruefuly refers to the great performance OF
h,s IMAGINATION over his reasoning faculties.
q When visited MIN, uc says az HA' ANN'N'N"NN -
Park Lane. even on entrance at the outer door
began TO find myself in an atmosphere OF perfume
or rather of perfume mixed with tobacco fulne
On proceeding further through long corridor and
ante-room the fume waxed stronger, and on en-
trance to the presence chamber or diVan, at the
further end through haze of smoke loomed ms
lordships figure, wrapt in an Oriental dressing robe
with colored fez, and half reclined upon an otto
man. Polished in manner and most courteous III adj
dress he charmed me with his talk; but When l
nroceeded to ouestion him and enter into his case
his account of himself was 50 mixed up with
crotchets and fancies that found it hard TO get at
+be simnle truth and ill mole difficult to enghten
him and bring nm round to my way of thinking.
With the ardor and versatility Of genius, he had
studied ali systems of medicine legitimate and IL
legitimate but with strange mixture OF German
scepticism and Oriental credulity almost amounting
TO superstition, he had persevered in no definite
plan of treatment unless his habit of induging in
perpetual smoking could be considered as such"
Mr.. Matthew Arnolds lecture essay on
Emerson is to appear in print in tue May number Of
Macmillan
Seventeen interesting broadsides bearing early
Massachusetts, history have been discovered in an
old unk shop in Boston and have been given to the
Public Library.
SW. Green's Son states that his edition Of For-
bess Gordon is a verbatim reprint of the English
book The firm received a copy of this English
edition on the afternoon of April %, and next day
had their edition ready for the bookseller-all
printed bound and decorated with portrait with
in that short period
Charles Reade left autobiography which
promises to one of the most vigorous straghtfor-
ward and entertaining things of the Kind in itera-
ture 1t is said to contain some lively criticisms on
the books and writers of the time.
Mr.. Edmund Gosses lectures TO be given at the