New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-06-07
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
\ o1nrasH1oNEp coRREspoNpENT.

s AN OLD FASHIONED CORRESPONDENCE.
,opprspoSpENcE OF HENRY TAYLOR. Edited by
EDWARD DowDEN. lsmo PIP AGO. Long
U mans, Green q Co., i3T
The volume of correspondence here gathered by
Professor Dowden forms fitting supplement 10
the autobiography of Sir Henry Taylor Inc
IMAGINED necessity Of confining the memorials 10
q single volume has compelled the editor as he
states in the preface to set aside as many letters
as he prints and to set aside, which is most TO De
regretted an equal bulk OF correspondence on "a
level with that which is published. The letters
are edited with more than common judgment
Nothing is less satisfactory or effective than the
usual practice Of printing all the letters on one
side of a correspondence and emitting oil those
On the other SIDE The result is very much the same
as that of hearing only one speaker in dialogue
You have 10 guess at half the meaning. and the
strain put upon the attention and the imagination
soon becomes fatiguing Professor Dowden has
not pursued a Custom which is certainly more hon
orcd in the breach than in the observance lie
has printed great many letters from the more
distinguished friends of Sir Henry Taylor, and win
the effect of enhancing the interest and value Oh
tbe book. Also in the table of contents he has
ciyen a sufficient indication of the topic oil every
letter and this is a convenience to the reader
which few editors Of biographical matter are
thoughtful or painstaaling enough to PROVIDE. IL
is satisfying to learn that Sir Henry himself care
fully sorted his letters so that nothing IN the pres
ent volume appears without his sanction. ms IL
worth knowing in period when the ethcs VI
biographical labors have been SO Amazingly Illus
trated in several notorious cases.
The letters of Sir Henry Taylor himself are
pleasant reading, though they are apt to pail upon
a taste formed by perpetual panderng to sensa-
tionalism He was lettcr-writer OF schooi
which is now nearly extinct. lie took the Same
pains with his correspondence as with that por
ton of his literary work which was intended ior
the public. lie cultivated grace and fuency not
let it be said. because he wrote with an eye to
the verdict Of postcrity, but simply because MS
own taste was to be satisfied, and his own sense
of duty He believed that whatever was worth
doing was worth doing WE'LL and on this principle
he acted Here we find him in intimate CORE
spondencc with Wordsworth, Southey Hyde Viii
hcrs Sir James Stephen, J. G. Lockhart, the
Hon. Mrs. Norton Miss Fenwick James SPEEDING
r. B. Macaulay, Aubrey dc We're, Charles Gre
vile, Earl Grey Alfred Tennyson, w. H.
Greg, Dr. John Brown, Sir John Herschel
Mrs Pollock Lord Bachford, w. Il. Gladstone,
Algernon c. Swinburne and other men OF note
The letters of many if not most, of his CORE
spondents are also given, so that the reader can
apprehend the drift of the discussion without
needless research and many CT these secondary
letters so to speak, throw interesting side-hghts
upon character and beliefs. Some Of the strongest
letters are from Aubrey de We're, fer whom Taylor
entertained, and justly, the highest admiration
Wordsworths epistles as usual exhibit that ever
present self-consciousness which was so conspicu-
Gus and grave q defect in the character OF the
poet The vanity which thus crops cut continu-
ally in Wordsworth was indeed q far more infiu-
entail factor in his literary life than his admirers
are generally willing to admit. If there is no
other poet of equal genius who has done half as
much mean and poor work as Wordsworth, the fact
must be attributed mainly to the exaggerated
self-estimate Of the man, an estimate which
fenced him against wholesome criticism, and
maintained him perpetually in the delusion that
all his geese were swans. For Southey Taylor
always kept a warm corner in his heart, and it
Is curious to read the very high estimate the
latter put upon the prose writings of an author
who is hardly read at all to-day, save perhaps
in his Life of Nelson" Few writers who de-
served and obtained the general esteem and APP
probation of their own generation, have sunk
more rapidly into oblivion than the poet of
"Thalaba" and Madoc" This is the less in
telligible when we remember that judges as sound
as Sir Henry Taylor held Southeys prose style
to be of the best in English literature
One reason. no doubt, may be found in the
unlucly choice Of subjects. Years of his most
productive period literally wasted on his
torical work which could never be popular
or, for the majority of students, Interestingly
and he staked his reputation upon a ponderous
performance which he did not live to finish,
but which, finished or unfinished, would never
have preserved his memory or heightened his fame
In Sir Henry's own letters there is much of
permanent interest, and not least pleasant
is his demonstration of readiness to
review his judgments upon contemporaries
ON the appearance of fresh evidence. Thus the
publication of the Life and Letters of Macaulay
completely changed his estimate of the historian,
and he repeatedly regrets having expressed opin-
ions Of him which fuller insight into his char
scter and conduct showed to be less than just,
and in fact superficial. The letters are concerned
with the most various subjects, but all of them
deserve to be read and together they furnish a
vein Of Intellectual intercourse and elevated
thought which says much for the standards main |
tanned in the circle to which they form an intro
ductiop.