New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-24

,nr y, IN, .gavetv and good spirits which he
car hossess In the face Of downright attacks upon
him ne writer. and then he proceeds: ITO be
able 10 feel thus must not have committed
ore,s self on subjects for which one has no voca-
ton but must be on ground where one feels at
home and secure-that is the great secret OF good
humor" II was a secret OF which the possession
gave Arnold deep satisfaction. for good humor
he priced among the most precious gn's
~ ,fe He was exauisitely satircal and pas
sionatelv rond of being so, but he was deter
,,ned in nrint TO be always scrupuously polite;
ond tbere Ia n note Of honest triumph In his
observing apropos OF some testimony To MS
worth that ut shows what comes. IN the emu
OF quietly holding your own way, ana oanterins
the world on the irrationaty OF It's ways without
losing temper with It," Arnold coud certainty
claim to have done this. All through his career
he was more or less engaged In controversies
about school management religious teaching
Homeric criticism and so on, but ne seems 10 nave
hold his own unfaIlingly and, as is shown in these
letters even more than in the familiar volumes
~ his collected works. to have carried with him
tho nest men Of his day. Carlyle, Newman
rroude Clough Stanley, Beaconsfield. Sainte-
porve Roman. Merimee Lord Houghton. Scherer.
these are the men who dscerned the upward
tendency Of his writings and their profound
usefulness There ere many testimonials to their
belief in theae letters for he artlessly pleased
u,.b the good things said about him, with the
s,ons that his influence was working for good'
and no never hestates to write about them to
his people.
He takes an almost naive delight In the good
times that he Lad on his two visits to
America and though on both occasions ne lfts
nm his hands in horror at oui newspapers. ne
seems to have come much closer to our real char-
acter and to have liked It more. than sensitive
readers OF his American criticism have cared 10
believe II is impossible to traverse at length MS
American experiences. but It may be we'll 10 touch
upon a point which is brought out IN MS cor
respondence by the assassination OF Lihcoiii'
What tremendous news this Is he exclaims 10
his wife about Lincoln. All the re-
cent matters have raised America In one esti-
nation | think. and even this ASSASSINATION
brings into their history something oil that oash
OF the tragic romantic and imaginative which IL
has had so little Of Sic semper tyrannis is so
unlike ANYTHING Yankee or English middle class.
both for bad and good" The fault he held against
ne which seemed TO him to justify all his strict
ures and on which many an American reader mas
felt bound to yield him his sympathy, was that
we were not in the high imaginative sense IN
teresting. Interesting. above all Things DE IN
teresting." we seam to hear him adJuring our
saves and his own English audience. We Ike TO
think that we are interesting. We may refuse to
believe that we are not, and remind ourselves
that even great critic like Arnold may be fall
Iihle But the conviction comes back that he
was q great critic. very great one: 1t comes
back as the absorbing pages OF these volumes are
turned, and. granting him that searching for his
int of t.iQ a.
reads with new sympathy, new charity, If you
like all that he has TO say about ourselves anu
the other contemporaries who did not please him
in all things.
He deserved the praise which he gave to Har-
riet Martineau. a writer with whose 'specula-
tong he had not "the slightest sympathy. He.
like her was "a person whose one effort seems to
have been to deal perfectly honestly and sincerely
with himself" Dealing thus with himself. he
could not deal differently with others. One may
trust without reservation in all public and intel
lectual matters the man who could conscien-
tlouslv regard his own position as Arnold regards
his in his reflection on Gladstone's proposal that
he accept a pension from the State. The letter
to John Morley on this subject is one Of the most
suggestive In this collection.
To nv surprise. | have Just had a letter from
your great leader. offering me pension OF t-oo
''as a public recognition Of service to the poetry
and literature Of England" To my further
surprise those about me think | ought 10 &C
cept It, and am told that - thinks the same
have written 10 him, but have not yet got ms
answer. ! write to you. that. whatever his
answer may be l may be fortified by your opn-
ion also for | have an instinct which tells me
that In matters of feeling you and are apt TO
be in sympathy. 1t seems to me that. the fund
available for literary pensions being small. and
literary men being numerous and needy IL
would not look well II a man drawing already
from the public purse an income Of nearly tlOOl
a year took $3.50 year more from the small
nublic fund available for pensions to letters.
science and art. feel this so strongly that |
should have at once refused. II 1t were not for
those about me. OF course, should be glad OF
an addition Of 1850. and If | find everybody think
ing that my scruple Is a vair one, shall at least
consider the matter very carefully though
really | do not feel at present as II could ac-
cept the offer Let me have a line here as soon
as possible. as must send an answer to your
PericleS.