Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-01-29

burn, excellent gentlemen, worthy writ
ers, all of them. But can we say, with
honest reproach, forgotten poetsY" Is
Fame to be held responsible for not re-
tanning the name of every minstrel who
loiters by and touches his harp lightly
and sings a sweet song as he passes on?
1t is hard fate to give pleasure to those
who listen, because those who are out of
hearing do not turn and applaud.
Many an author may have a tone and
touch which please the ear and taste of
his own day, and which, as characteristic
of time, may be curious to Il later taste,
like the costumes and bonnets of our
great-grandmothers. But Young Amer
lea, saunterng at the club and at New
port, would not willingly wear the boots
of Beau Nash, nor even the cloak of Beau
Brummell. 1t is, indeed, doubtful
whether the great law which provides
that nothing shall be lost is not equally
observable in the realm of literary fame.
Is anything of literature lost that de-
serves remembrance. or, more properly,
can it be lost? 4 fair answer to the
question may be found in the reply to an
other, whether delving in Kettell or in
any other anthology reveals treasures
dropped by fame as precious as those she
carries.
Our newspaper is certainly too swift
in saying that Irving may be classed
| a, ha formotton nntbnrs fI'lLn,1 a NJ
two ways in which an author survives
one, by the constant reading of his works
the other, by his name. Is Milton a for
gotten author? But how much is he
read, compared with the contemporary
singers? Is Plato forgotten? Yet how
many know him except by his name?
Irving thus far holds by both. Time also
wnnows its wheat, blowing away much
chatf, but the golden grain remains.
This is true not only of the whole multi
tude of authors, but of the works of each
author. How many of them really sur
vive only in the anthology: astoria and
CdptdiD BonnecHle and udhomct and
other books of Irving may gradually dis
| uDDpdT. DUl lllt hHUhfFUVThfI anu IttU
Van Wrinkle, and certain other tales and
ESSAYS. have become. so far as we can
foresec, an integral part of our ltera-
allure.
As for Sprague-mild, genial. charm
ing gentleman, who carried his simple
= freshness of nature to the end, and about
: whose venerable head in State Street al
= ways shone the faint halo of early poetic
renown--his literary talent was essential
: ly for day, not for all time. In every
age there will be singers, and delightful
. singers. of the day. On Christmas Eve
= the Easy Chair heard the passing music
: in the street that supplies for us the song
: of the waits. 1t was sweet and melodi-
r Gus. and pensively recalled the days and
= the faces and the voices that are no more
But they were not the same waits that il
2 heard long ago still less were they those
/ that the Easy Chairs of half century
: since heard with musing melancholy
: But the substance of the song. and the
e emotion which it awakened. and the ten
der pathos of association, these were al
g the same both then and now. Spraguc
:. was wait of yesterday, of last year, o
: fifty years ago. Others sing in thC
+ street the song that he sang and singing
k they pass ON, and the sweet strain grow
:. softer. and fainter and fainter. and The
/, echoes answer, ''Dying. dying, dying,
It and it is gone.
Fame does not forget these trOubadourS
1t never knew them. They had tn,
vogue of their day. See how tcnderl,
> Mr.. Stedman speaks of those who arr
= singing for us now. whose names ar
V familiar. who thrill and twitter in tn
is magazines. and in tasteful and delicat
a volumes which seem TO tempt the stream
e of time to suffer such light and graceful
q banks to slip along unnOted to futur
d ages. But the kindly critics tone fore
20 casts the fate of the sparkling and pleas
ing ventures. Moore tells Us of the In
dian maids upon the banks of the Gange
who light tiny taper. and on a frai
p little chip set il afloat upon the river.
If wrinkles and dwindles and flashes an
H. expires. Mr.. Stedman watches the mino
10 poets trimming their tapers. and careful
he ly launching their chips upon the brin
e. ming river. pleasant journey" h
J. cries. cheerily from the shore. a. if h
Is We're speaking to hearty Captain Coo
go going up the side of his great ship. an
I'd shaking out his mighty canvas to circun
u. navigate the globe. pheasant journey
a. cries the CHEEKY critic. But there is
wistful something in his tone that be
G. trays consciousness of the swift eXtin,
al ton of that pretty. perfuned spark.
a But ShakSpearc'S women. and PHI
Y tarch's men, and 1.-THE grand old mas
IN ers." and 1.-THE bards sublime" are II,
W tapers upona river; they are stars in I'll
IN armament. Lincoln and Grant will ne
,p crowd ont Washington and Franklin an