New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-03-22
THE RENAISSANCE.
SOME MODERN FRUITS OF OLD ITALIAN
PAGANISM.

70 times later than the fifteenth century or Its
successor. Yet 1t Is doubtful II the term means
anything to the student 80 much as 1t means
the expansion OF Italian fe art and learning four
hundred years ago. The Renaissance, IN most
mems minds to-day. Is the Italian Renaissance
This Is especially the case with writer's like Mr..
Pater and his followers. They may pretend to
a historical breadth of view, to include Euro
pean culture as we'll Italian within their
scheme of thought. but the thing they seek Is
the inspiration whose source was, and still Is,
in the peninsula. Their methods of search and
the inspiration they have found have been
among the most conspicuous and interesting
things Of Victorian literature. The interpreted
ton of the Italian Renaissance as II runs
through English letters from Roscoe to the
essayists Of the present day, Is phenomenon
by itself A demonstration Of its peculiaritlcs
could not be more happily provided than
through analysis of tie three authors herein
approached--Mr. Pater, Vernon Lee and Mr..
Maurice Hewlett.
Mr. Pater marks the first true arrival OF
modern English criticism at what might be called
the imaginative possession Of Renaissance
thought and feeling. Other men. all his seniors
and some OF them his superiors In scholastic
investig might easily be named. Ruskin
and Symonds England Stendhal and Taine
In France. Burckhardt in Germany, and in
Vulnerable professors In the peninsula itself.
have labored to bring the Renaissance nearer 10
our time and their services have been OF the
greatest value. But In that sphere OF more re-
cent English literature which has seen the
spiritual rehabilitation Of the Italian Renais-
sance in essays compacted OF aesthetic. Intel
Il. TO In
wherein the past has been. to some extent.
actually recreated Walter Pater reached "A stage
OF authoritative insight which succeeding writ
ers have had to accept their point OF de-
parture Vernon Lee sat at his feet and her
books carry the Interpretation into another
phase which Is distinguished by all Of Pater's
defects and few. II any. OF his virtues. MT
Maurice Hewlett. who would appear to be n
Younger writer than either Pater or Vernon
Lee. denotes In his "Earthwork Out OF Tus-
cany" the emergence OF the Renaissance idea
from the obscur.tes OF his predecessors into the
clear daylight OF compete understanding
To understand why il has been necessary TO
wait so long for Mr. Hewletts book II II I'M
portant to recognize The ambiguous CONDITION OF
things which existed In the time OF the Kenais-
sance and which is troublesome to the modern
critic The Italians OF the fifteenth and SIX
tenth cent lres were embarked upon a tide OF
tumultuous personality. "Questa IN sangue
gays Tuscan to-day as he attacks a particu-
larry nourishing piece Of beef. and his ancestors
looked at life as substance to be devoured In
much the same way They wanted life 10 now
literally through their veins, to provide them
with tangible sensations. But just at this point
Of development they discovered the classical
past fell in love with It, and straightway resolved
10. in hair
own persons. This they naturally found TO be
impossible beyond a certain narrow limit so
they bethought themselves Of their art and 1T
erature In them. at least. they would be avatars
OF the Hellenic era; in them they would identify
their own emotions with those Of pagan cviza-
ton. Here was An obvious contradiction They
could not be two things at the same time. They
tried for IT. tried hard but they failed. az men
must always fail who attempt to mix two ele-
mants not organicaly related to one another.
What they achieved in actual works OF art. 1T
erature and social development was OF such
extraordinary character that the world has mar
yelled over II ever since. but their greatest tri-
umphs cannot hide the unnatural temper Of the
time
The Renaissance temper Is that OF a mar
who Is leading, not the natural life OF the
pagan, but the life OF modern who walks
through the world with Plato In one hand and a
pen in the other wherewith to add to litera-
ture contribution Of his own That he should
always insist upon this addition Is the secret OF
the Renaissance and the explanation OF those
difficulties which modern writer's have encoun-
tered In their surveys OF the period. IT Is bad
enough to have 10 deal with age mngng
classical with romantic motives. grating antique
ideals on modern life. But II is bathing In the
extreme when each man has something all his
own to add to the contradictions OF the situation
This puts the critic In Corner and he IL the
unhappier, moreover because ne has the critical
falling, the desire to formulate his conclusions
He wants to put the rivers and OF a civiliza-
ton into cup and get his readers to drink Them
not merely at one gulp but as coming from one
spring. II he were TO Identify that spring with
the human heart. his conclusions would be sound
but he would faIn set 1t aside from all other
springs; ne would have the reader conceive of
the Italian Renaissance an isolated episode in
history fed from sources peculiar to itself. He
can classify his Impressions. 80 he attempts to
classify his painters. his statesmen. his poets
and even whole strata OF society All these
refuse 10 be classified and the critic defeats his
own aim He sets ont to explain the italian
Renaissance and II ne has sympathy and learn
ing. AZ Symonds, for example. had them, he does
a vast deal toward giving an adequate explana-
ton. But his passion for formula. for the ex-
PLANTATION, diverts him from the Interpretation
of things which can never be explained In single
group alone. but must be taken one by one as
we'll Thus we have had to wait long, II must be
repeated for book like Mr.. Hewlett's. a book
wherein the author takes the Renaissance rs he
finds It and reproduces II without the importa-
ton into It's fibre OF theories and explanations
which are OF his own devising.
III.
Mr. Pater might have done what Mr. Hewlett
has done II he had gone about II In the right
way. He was not committed too definitely to
| scheme. lie had certain philosophy OF the