New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-03-22

| around his table and in the midst OF the pah-
ouet deluged them with roses SO Mr. fa'e'
| brings his heroes Of the Renaissance together
only his rain OF verbal rose leaves begins Win
! the feast and he who comes to look upon Do'-
ticel,i or Raphael is at loss to Identify the
| familiar faces. They are half hid IN MOWERS
The blue sky Of Italy is overhead. there Is an
italian SAVIOR to the scene there hints OF gilt
tering marble. lovely carvings and tapestrieu
| walls but the human figures flung amid tnis
| riot of sensuous beauty as elusive as mus'
| have been the faces Of those Roman nooies
whelmed In the storm Of imperial roses
Mr. Pater never got beyond this specious phase
! Of literary creation. In all his work tnere 10
| the same sense OF muffied heartbeats, OF lie
half smothered in the felicities OF his style Inc
| second posthumOus volume of his essays which
Mr. Shadwe has put together. embraces early
| and late compositions but from the nrst u
! the last his productions are wrapped In KIM
! Of opalescence which means something more
| than mere rhetoric 1t is the expression OF MS
| whole temperament of his fastidious taste. or
his epicurean fondness for delicate shades OF
tone and meaning of his neo-pagan sensuous-
| ness. For 1t Is in his re-echong OF the Renais-
sance strain that Pa.er is most himself HIS
| sympathies were classical, and there were
British threads In him Joined to these but IN
his work, whether It be Plato or Botticelli whom
| he Is discussing there Is the same Renaissance
| flavor the same completely Of feeling. the same
| fusion of romantic impulses with Attic tastes
| He differs from an old italian, however, In the
| character Of what he produces There was
certain freshness about the life Of the Renais-
sance. things we're new, sensations were quick
In coming. there was a keen edge to the cpl
| cureanism Of the time. Pater's sensations are
| as vague In essence as they are blurred IN
| his expression of them Lucidlty OF feeiins
! leaves him as ucidity Of style leaves him In
| the volume of Miscellaneous Studies" there
arc essays on Pascal. Merimee, Raphael
! painters in the North Of Italy like Romanino
| Morctto da Brescia and GaudenZi0 Ferrari
| Drenched In the Renaissance spirit, tingIing
| softly 10 his gentle fnger-tips with the sympa'
| thies and fine intellectual curiosities OF tha'
| time OF fermentation. he seems very incarna-
| ton of epicurean thought. the very companion
| Of the men whom ne discussed And as he
talks his comrades vanish. The volume OF
| miscellaneous Studies is full Of his rare
| charm, but In substance It Is thin.
III
Pate-'s difficulty was that In dealing with
| human beings who happened to have passionate
| taste for things OF art and literature. he SYM
| pathized 80 much with that taste as to dehuman-
| lie the men themselves. He thought too little
Of them and too much OF their intellectual inter-
| ests too much Of what they did with their pens
| brushes and chisels Vernon Lee repeats his
| error and makes It more destructive OF clear I'M
| Outstanding. She Is 80 preoccupied with what
| she would seem Ia consider the beauties OF the
Renaissance that she torgets the life in which
they were rooted II she remembers the latter she
remembers 1t as something behind piece OF
oil
| first object OF her study. Thus she says OF GER
tain carved lilies and roses and craven Glove
| pnks I'm Italy that they have given her "a pleas
ure more subtle than that derived from any bed
OF real lilies or pot Of real Glove pnks or bush OF
| real roses" What train OF thought has been set
| IN she asks by this imaginary color and per-
| fume? ut would be hard TO say. Something
| too vague 10 be perceived except as whole I'M
preston of pleasure; a Ealseen vision. doubtless
OF the real flowers OF the places where they
grow: perhaps even a faint "reminiscences dust
OF broken and pounded fragments. OF stories and
songs into which roses enter, or Iiles or Glove
| pnks."
This indeterminGte train OF thought. this dust
| OF broken and pounded fragments, OF stories ana
songs" is what Vernon Lee zsrreads over the
Picturesque pages II her bdak<r1ges afIittrr with
an efremnacy Of the uncomfortable alike to
this new volume OF hers throw no light on the
subiects she attacks. she Is unfrutful in her
| survev OF THE Imaginative Art of the Rennis-
sance in her account Of Tuscan Sculpture
WHY? Because she has looked upon these things
with eyes so accustomed to the lights OF literature
and art that she wanders almost helpless through
the crowded roads OF history. Her Italy IL an
affair of the mind exclusively. not an aHair or
mind bone and sinew working together. 1t Is
bookish Italy avishly garlanded with roses from
Mr. Paters garden, but since the petals are
faded in the transition even this falls to make 1t
| an attractive land. One leaves II quickly. The
| plains are dull and dusty and there Is no air
"
| Mr. Hewlett changes all this To read his book
| is 10 breathe air--the air OF Italy. "Earthwork
| Out OF Tuscany" the book is called. and never
was volume better named. They are impress
s,ons that Mr. Hewlett offers. but they emphasize
| tho mint indicated above. They not set In
| order and made to prove a theory. Mfr. Hewlett
took italy as ne found It, lot him II was. without
any effort on his part. the Italy OF the Renais-
sance he saw its life. he felt its motives he got
the grain and blood Of the time into his being, and
| his book shows the result. 1t Is no exaggeration
| to say that 1t succeeds where Its most eminent
predecessors have failed. The author Of this
work kno VS. his authorities. as Mr.. Pater knew
| them. as Vernon Lee knows them He has read
| tie same books the same pictures and
| landscapes. lived over again the same golden
epoch In which they have preferred to travel. the
| epoch Of Botticelli and La Bella Simonetta. the
| time OF all times In the south. Yet they
| have been foreigners In this enchanted land.
Pater naturalized allen, but an plien still. Mr..
| Hewlett is an Englishman with On Italian soul.
and he interprets his spiritual country with
| fidelity that extends even TO somewhat rocco
style OF dction. He has his little affectatons of