New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-07-11

IT will not linger on this subject for the time
has not yet come for lucid discussion OK these
things" Yes, It has come, but M MAURICE
Maeterlinck is hardly the man TO pro'ioe uS
with the lucid discussion. Nevertheless anu la
snite Of bia fine words of self-suppression, ne
continues to linger and, says Mr. WalKley' VIC
must all recognize the native distinction OF MS
mind, the fastidious decacy OF his taste. MS
abiding and Unsuitable love OF beauty. we
don't see the necessity for recognizing these
things at ALL inasmuch as. to begin with, we 90
not believe them to exist What clamors for rec
ognition in the lucubrations Of M. Maeterlinck
Is the great prmeval fact-heaved up out OK
the age-long and cataclysmic self-communings of
the race and Illuminating our prosaic twilight
with the beamish light Of a vorpel dawn-that
two and two make four The comical thing
about it all is that NJ. Maeterlinck should mag
Inc that we had not heard this before 1t Is fully
sixty years since the Herr Professor Carous H
Won Hammerschwitzyl, Of Posen.i in the Proceed
ings' of the Antiquarian Society Of that CITY, set
forth the conclusive reasons for the evolution.
as he was pleased to describe 1t, Of four from
two and two But NJ. Maeterlinck apparently
does not read Professor Won HammerschwftzyL
He is too busy with Plato and Plotinus with
Jacob Boehme and Claude de Saint-Martin, with
Caglostro-"who is passed over too lightly ne
says-and with other highly important people.
So when, the other day, he stumbled upon the
great truth as he medtated upon the words OF
'the sage I had CHANGED to meet by the sea-
shore, wherein the waves were breaking almost
noiseessIy," he felt constrained to share it with
the world Sitting in shaop they always use
shallops) on the waters Of an unfathomable lake.
with three trained white swans making herring
bone stitches in the azure above him. and
brindled cow grazing amid the toadstools and
| green lilies on the bank. he set about composing
THE Treasure Of the Humble"
81 feel that more pressing offer Of spiritual
| freedom has rarely been made to mankind, he
| says He is not speaking Of his book but OF this
wonderful mathematical disclosure which Is OBJ
| viously calculated to throw a sublime quietude
over the throes Of earth, to bring peace alike to
the fretful infant and to man In his wrath. The
human soul has slept for centuries, this young
decadent goes on. 1t has slept and is awakening.
| Does it not seem though the supreme cry OK
the soul were at last to pierce the dense clouds
! of error that still enselop it in muster" Music
as a matter of dense clouds is good However.
that may pass do not certain pictures by for
eign painters" continues NJ. sMaeterlinck re
veal the sacred majesty Of an invisible presence,
as it never has been revealed before? Are there
| not masterpieces in literature that are illumned
| by flame which differs in its very essence from
the strangest beacon fires that lit up the writ
ings of bygone days? transformation OF
sence-strange and inexplicable-s upon us.
and the reign Of the positive sublime. absolute
| to this day, seems destined to be oyerthrown."
1t is upon this transformation that NJ. Maeter-
linck is fearful to linger. but We will be more
temerarious, and, although it is hard to be lucid
after reading THE Treasure Of the Humble"
we will hope to be understood in stating that this
great transformation consists In our loving one
another silently nowadays rather than with the
| aid Of a brass band, as in days OF old. Here in
| a nutshell, is NJ. Maeterlincks mystical discov-
| cry that two and two make four. Carlyle put it
into his head that between Silence and Loquacity
there could be no choice for reasonable man.
He would perceive at once that Speech is sill
vern. Silence is golden" and he would keep still.
Carlyle made no great ado about this. But it
seems to have overwhelmed NJ. Maeterlinck.
Just to think OF It," he seems to be saying to
himself. IF really love my love shan't tell
her so three hundred times day. shall let my
soul speak to her without the aid Of my lips. Oh.
10Y, oh, wonder! was there ever anything so new,
| so beautiful
We could stand NJ. Maeterlincks restatement
| Of an old proposition. The eternal truths have
most eloquence in them. But 1t Is in the last
degree silly for this Belgian young man to bring
| any OF them forward with the attempt to identify
them with the springs Of such mystical" move
ments as he and his followers have kept going
these last three or four years decent reti-
| cence, the peculiar sentiment attaching to a man
or woman marked by disease for early death. the
reaction of the soul against materialism, these
and subjects like them make the excuse for his
| hook. but not one of his themes does he adorn