Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-07-03


joyed them year in and year out, as We do
the sunshine and the flowers, without stop
ping to think how rare and altogether pre-
cious they are But now that his visit to
England Is made the occasion Tor one long
and continuous ovation to the youthful old |
doctor by our cousins over there, we are |
made suddenly aware what favored people |
we are III possessing rs our very own Wis |
itOr |
- whose wisdom and whose wit,
whose fancy and whose fable
Have won two hemi-phcrCS to sit
Around his breakfast table"
And hastily we take down his delightful
volumes of essay, story and poem and pro-
ceed to read them over again with fresh
avidity aud new pleasure
By the way, am afraid, according to his
own confession while Autocrat of the Break
| fast Table, that DR.. Holmes visit to England
| and all the deserved compliments and feast
| ing he is getting there, will utterly spoil him
| tor the future as critic OF English books.
He saws, in answer to a question from one of
| the - bUarders " as to what detirnlneS the
| opinions of critics and the tone of their crlti-
| Cisms Well, / should say "A set of intlu-
| enCes something like these lst. Relation
| ship politics, religious, social, domestic. "a.
| oysters, in the form OF suppers given TO gen
| temen connected with criticism. | believe
| in the school, the college and the clergy
| but my sovereign logic tor regulating public
| OplnlOn-Wnlch means commonly the Opln-
| lon of hslfa dozen OF the critical gentry-is
| the following MAJOR proposition Oysters
| dW HItUrcl. Minor proposition. The same
| scalloped.' Conclusion That - (here in
| sert entertainers name) is clever, witty,
| wise, brilliant-and the rest"
| THIS is the characteristic way in which he
| justifes such procedure d" No, it isn't ex.
actly bribery. one man has oysters, and an
other epithets. 1t is an exchange ot hospi-
talities one gives spread on linen, and
the other on paper--that is ALL Don't you
think you aud should be apt to do just so
II we were i'll the critical line? | sm sure |
couldn't resist the softening influences of
hospitality. | don't like to dine out, you
| knOw,-l dine so well at our own table, four
landlady looked radiant and the company
| Il so pleasant ruStling movement of salts
faction among the boarders but If | did
partake of "a mans salt, with such additions
as that article oi food requires TO make it
palatable, could never abuse him, and II
had to speak OF him, l suppose ould hang
my set of jingling epithets round him like
string of sleigh bells, Good feeling helps so
ciety to make liars OF most of us-not abso-
| lutte liars, but such careless handlers Of truth
| that Its sharp corners get terribly rounded.
| L love truth As chiefest among the virtues |
| trust il runs in my blood A.; but | would never
be a critic, because l know | could not always
tell it ! might write a criticism OF book
that happened 10 please me that is another
| matter
My opinion is that in this honest con fession
| our genial Autocrat's modeSty has led him to
| give entirely too much credit to the oyster.
| Not oysters, but the native kindliuess of the
| good doctors heart, have kept him, through
all his long literary career, from ever " abus
| ing" hurting or offending anyone by the
| prick of his pen. In all the sparkli scin-
| tilations of light and beauty and truth that
| Srift tKyf. Ia nf 10
works, no one has ever received serious
burn or wound OF any kind. In this he is
representative of the best school OF American
criticism LOngfellow belonged to it, and
Emerson, though its most distinctive expo
nent and exemplar was the late lamented
"genia critic" Edwin i. Whipple. Ii il
the reaction from the fierce aud ferOCiOus
method of the times Of Cooper and Poe.
Being reaction 1t is in danger of going too
far, becoming too "genial," and more kindly
than Just and true. L sometimes think this
danger is manifest in the latest most excel
lent work of the distinguished disciple of
Mr.. Mhipple, Edmund Clarence Sted man =
"Poets of America" Yet who would not
| rather have it so than run the risk OF a return
to the biting bitterness of those days when
criticism was made synonym of vitupera-
ton, misrepresentation and personal slander
and abuse. The principle, at least, is correct
as given by Mr.. Stedman that the only true
criticism is that 50 which applies both knowl-
is penetrative and deXterous, but probes
only to cure which enters into the soul and
purpose OF a work, and considers every fac
tor that makes 1t what 1t is the criticism
which, above all, esteems it a cardinal sin to
suffer a verdict to be tainted by private dis
like, or by partisanship and the instinct OF
battle with an opposing clique or school :"
IN short, just the opposite of the utterly un-
fair reviews that may still be found in papers
like the New York Nation and some other
less ambitious journals.
II is precisely this kindly good humor of
DR.. Holmes that keeps his " penetrative and
dexterous " pen from hurting anyone's feel
ings even while it is probing to the very core
of our social, political, educational or literary
follies aud sins. 1t enables him to give US
| more shrewd and wholesome common sense
and pure and unadulterated truth to the
| page than can be found anywhere in the lit
| erature of our tongue. The combination is
| what gives such pungent racy flavor 10 his
| Breaktast-Table series OF books as to have
made them the most delightful and at the
same time profitable reading for " pick up
| perusal," for filling up the odd moments
| and hours OF our time, that can be found in
the language.
| IN looking over my volumes Of this favor
ite author l find that they are fuller than
| any others OF the marginal signs aud marks
| am IN the habit OF making in my books to
can speciai altentlOn 10 particular Passages,
to express approval or disapproval, and for
| future reference. And by examining further
II appears to me that these marks form a
kind of psychometer, mental diary, from
which l can now, after years, tell pretty
exactly in what mental condition / was at
the various times when they were made.
For example, here is a passage marked
evidently near the close of period of pro-
tracted hard work, probably late in spring,
before vacation or was II the year com
mitted the sin OF not taking vacation? At
any rate 1t Is passage 10 which many busy |
worker will bear sad witness Just at this |
season OF the year sour brains are seventy |
year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them |
up once for all, then closes the case, aud |
gives the key into the hand of the Angel of |
thetsesurrectlon.
"Tic-tac! tictac go the wheels of thought;
our VIII cannot stop them they cannot stop
themselves sleep cannot still them; mad.
ness only makes them go faster death alone
can break into the case, and, seizing the
eVer-swinging pendulum, which we call the
heart, silence at last the clicking of the
terrible escapement we have carried beneath
our wrinkled foreheads.
"lf we could only get at them, as we lie
on our pillows and count the dead beats of
thought after thought and image after image
Earring through the overtired organ viii
nobody block those whpala bat ]