The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-12-11

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George Eliot.
here. Briefly it was a sense of strength !:
cat-and-mouse plav with his tremendous
power of thought. Stop here q second and
see how suddenly he pauses in full care er
and leaves you 10 project your own soul
forward down his groove of thought or to
grope alone in the dark. This, il seems to
me, is the reason OF So much doubt and
0bscuriiy in the minds Of wouldbe Brown
ing scholars. He disdains details. disdains
little things, and yet a little flower, "the
bright geranium red" and the like. is as
much 10 him, more TO him in truth than to
the best of us.
/ was made president OF the first Brown
ing Club in Oakland. but having OILY this
one idea to advance, and TO advance but
once, presided but once. For my one idea
was not we'll received. Discussion was de-
sired. And discussion is intoierable dissec-
ton. Browning, to my mind. is ST. George
with the dragon under him; ST. Mark with
his foot on the broken back of the Niles
monster. II is enough that the dragon is
down aud under his horses feet at the
mercy OF his sword; enough that the mon
ster Of the Nile is under foot with broken
back. he will not stOop to hack off his
head or Maggie or disseet. Browning is
simply a liGn-throws out his great right
paw, crushing everything TO the ground
under il. and yet looks straight ahead, hit
or miss, caring to look neither TO the right
nor the left, or whether you love him or
hate him or understand him or not. This
HOnlike sense of absolute power is the key
10 all his work. And it is the chief charm
of it too.
And while on this subject let US pause
long enough to ask if there ever was any great
person who did not have one great central
force or point or characteristic. We are
apt TO founder here and get in deeper water
than my brief space will allow ne to sail
over gracefully. But Forward Pierce
the Austrian centerW This batte-cry of
Napoleon must serve as brief Illustration OF
the idea. l doub: if Napoleon ever had
time TO note or know that he owed all TO
this characteristic of his life. But it is none
the less true. l doubt il Browning ever
dreamed, with all mis- gentleness and love,
that he was lion IN strength and won US
all by the very reserve of bis strength.
Nor do / think Dante Gabriel ROssetti ever
had any idea that he owed everything to
his love Of and boundless loyalty 10 beauty,
beauty of form, harmony OF sound, color
all kinds of beauty.
Now have not time or disposition, mind
you, 10 argue these things, only space TO
set them down. begging you to bear them
In memory when we come to run through
the precious page of Rossetti together few
weeks farther on. Browning's character
istic was strength: or rather let us say
Browning's keystone Is strength, for such
great souls are surely with us still Ros-
setti's is loyalty to beauty; George Eliots
IS sincerity, and so On through the list of
has some special color, characteristic. point,
by which to pierce the Austrian center"
George Eliot lived in little, soOty, dingy
house on the east side OF a narrow street
called North Bank, back of Regents Park,
London. when knew her, This graceless
and tortuous street was the north bank Of
canal that here Owed and dipped down
under Regents Park and came TO the surface
ten miles away down the Thames after
having passed under London. The other
side of the canal is called South Bank.
There. stones throw from The Priory,"
the name on the gate post Of the great nov
Plist's home, is the little cottage in which
Napoleon III lived at the time he enlisted
as a policeman in London. And close about
are the old homes OF Sir Thomas Hardy,
Hepwor,h Dixon. Joseph Hatton and other
men Of letters, TO say nothing OF painters,
musicians and so on.
don't know how they came to be grouped
together So but think it was economy of
rent and wish to be by water and woods
mat brought so many gentle people there
at least this was the case with myself AS
soon as l had income 10 warrant il / cast
about Tor house OF my own and gave up
my old rooms close to the British Museum
without ever dreaming that George Eliot
lived in the smoky and gloomy cottage that
set back from the street with NO "a" and
The Priory" on the gate ToSts, ] secured
the still humber and dingier little cottage
across the street, No. 49, and lived there till
Stoddarj and Milford came that way and
told me George Eliot lived not half dozen
doors away. Lady HARDY Mrs Hepwortb
Dixon, Mrs. Joseph Ratton and like heads
OF literary families gave weekly Evenings"
each season here. but / never met George
Eliot at any of these little centers. The
first time ever saw her away from home
was at breakfast given by Lord Houghton
in Belgravia square. 1t was a grand affair."
Gladstone, Prince Napoleon. Louis Blanc
and lot of other famous people present
And George Elliot bad The post of honor at
Houghton's side. was sandwiched in by
the sides OF John Morley and Anthony
Trollope away down about the middle of
the table, and opposite the ugliest man |
ever saw IN my life. He was ugly all
around and all through. And he kept get
ting uglier and uglier as the long, tedious
breakfast wore away. His hair hung in
streaks aud strings about his narrow,
hatchet face. He looked as il he had grown
uD through his strings of hair, for he was
quite bald. he had two terrible big front
teeth that looked as II they might drop out
as he talked and ate and ate and talked
He was greatly petted by the ladies and
gentlemen on either side. but beh aved
toward them like an imp rious, petty ty-
rart Finally he brought his heavy knife
handle down bang On the table with his
right Rand, the blade straight in the air,
and yelled in shrll. wild voice: mol Nal
never saw him in Hamlet.' / never saw
him in anything! / won't see him in any
thing! He can't act and / won't see BIN In
anything u
This was Lewes, George Elects husband.
the impeTious tyrant and critic of the Lon
don Times. The person to " HON he alluded
was none other than the then rising young
actor Henry Irving.
And il y0n could have seen the sweetness
the serene patience and pleasant smile on
the face of her all this time-for the
whole table had stopped to listen-you
would have called her beautiful; and beau
fifn she surely was as compared TO Lewes
But before leaving him ! ought to say that
he had long been, as you al know perhaps,
this same fyrant on the Times, ana had
gradually grcwn TO this insolence. He had
lived too long aud was int0lerant OF the new
actors, authors aud musicians that had
come without his help upon the stage of
Me. OF course he was wondrousiy