New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-27
GOSSIP AND CRITICISM.

SIP. is extremely amusing. ne loNeS d S'""
story and tells it with glee To Milman he fire.
quently wrote with gayety that is little sur
prjsing. in letters addressed to a reverend gen
tleman. even though the latter might be as
literally minded as Lockharts contributor and
friend To THE Rev. II. Milman.' he writes:
"A friend Of mine witnessed set-to tother
day between two blackguards in Covent Garden
sweet purlieus. and they saluted each other. in
place of the olden endearments, with you
blasted boroughmonger and you damned
bishop Set your house in order. Ever yours,
J. G. L." This to Milman. is exquisite. His
Judgment on Cardinal Manning is interesting.
and the more so because il written so far
back az 1851 when the noted Churchman was
less understood. by great deal than he Is to-
day Manning is. | fancy. on the whole, next
IL not equal to Newman for Importance as
convert; his influence very great in society at
large as well among the younger clergy.
He is a very agreeable and polished gentleman
a fine ascetical coxcomb land tuft-hunter)-the
image of Jesuit Cardinal of the sixteenth CEN
fury. and | expect him to be followed by long
train of ladies' Other criticisms In the corre
srondence are not always so feicious. "All here
rave about a novel, Jane Eyre of which have
read about half l think it more ceverly writ
ten by far than any very recent one, and 1t has
e strong interest but hitherto disagreeable
one 1t must be, If not by man. by very
coarse woman" That last banality is perhaps
atoned for by his genuine appreciation of the
book for its own sake. Elsewhere he writes Il
have finished the adventures Of Miss Jane Eyre.
and think. her far the cleverest that has been
written since Austen and Edgeworth were in
their prime. Worth fifty Troopes and Mar
tineaus rolled into one counterpane, with fifty
IN
but rather a brazen Miss 1t may be added. in
passing that he only responsible for the
unucky article ir the Quarterly" by Miss Rig
by. afterward Lady Eastlake. article Of for
lorn notoriety. in that. having the impression
he did hold of the books coarseness, he was
naturally disnclned to interfere with his con-
trbutor. The sin Of that article. if sin 1t may
be called, was for Lockhart one of omission
rather than of commission.
Why did he not have prescence enough. crti-
clsm enough, to have OWNED Miss Bronte at the
start? The question Is pertinent to Lockhart's
whole history. 1t has been said that he left Ok
ford with the equipment of a mar of letters and
this is true. But his equipment did not include
quick insight into contemporary things when
those things freghted with new flames of
imaginative and poetic inspiration He saw the
poetry in Scott But he completely missed Ten
nyson's true significance when Tennyson arose
lie put certain amount of poetic quality into his
own Spanish Ballads" but for a long time he
was insensble to the Lakers and to Keats. Wher-
ever genius was required of him he failed ex-
ceptng upon the memorable occasion to
which are indebted for the biography of
Scott. The conclusion. then. to be drawn from
Mr. Lang's labor of love. Is that the man he cele-
brates had all the learning and even the apti-
tudes of a man of letters. of such
needed to work on Maya" and the Quarterly"
to rule in the larger provinces of periodical liter
ature, without deserving the epithet in the sense
In which De Quincy deserves it, or Sante- Beuve.
A biography OF him has been needed TO make his
personality more vivid, to make him more SYM
pathetically understood, above all, to detach him
from that role of sombre isolation, of constant
turmoil to which he has been assigned by most
previous writer's There are many side Issues
upon which Mr.. Lang throws light. 1t Is delight
full to read in a letter of Carlyles words that
portray that austere person something of
log-roer himself, bespeakng Lockharts amiable
ance 1t is instructive, too. to read SCOTS let
ters on the journalism of the day, and to see how
he and Lockhart and all their friends regarded
the edltorship of magazine as gentlemanly
occupation. that of daily paper as beneath the
notice OF any man with social standing to lose
But the great service of this biography to the his
tory of letters will lie in Its recovery or TIE real
Lockhart from the confusing vapors which dis
like. Ignorance and sometimes malice have sought
TO fling about him. Mr. Lang shows his hero to
have been q man IF fine mind and fine feeling
every inch scholar and gentleman.