The herald., 1897-10-17

FOREVER AND A DAY
"a Song)
].
/ little know or care
II the blackbird on the bough
II filling all the air
With his soft crescendo now;
For she is gone away,
And when she went she took
The springtime in her look
The peachblow on her cheek,
The laughter from the brook,
The blue from out the May
And what she calls week
10 forever and dayI
It's little that mind
How the blossoms, pink or white.
At every touch Of wind
Fall a-trembliAg with delight;
For in the leafy lane.
Beneath the garden boughs.
And through the silent house
One thing alone seek.
Until she come again
The May Is not the May,
And what she calls a week
Is forever and q day!
Thomas Bailey Aldrich In the Atlantic
Monthly.
The London Spectator, In an editorial
review Of Mr.. Kipring's Recessional.
says: Humble people all over the
United Kingdom and the empire have
during the Jubilee been deeply i'm
pressed with a certain dread lest the
rejoicings should be made am excuse for
boasting and vaingiory, and, that by its
means the peoples heart should be
turned FROM
IyaA
1t So;
10 that perilous laudsation OF material
things which, In the endi to borrow Mil
!orss phrase again
80, ruins Kingdoms and lays cities
fiat
"But to people in general this was
only a vague uneasiness, dumb warn
Ing against the forgetting Of the true
meaning Of the jubilee. Mr.. Kipling
has seized the nations half-formed
thought, and. with poets insight and
a poets passion has brought 1t forth
In conspicuous and coherent words. He
takes the awe-inspiring thought-what
is all this but dust aIsd ashes unless God
is with us till the end? and gives voice
to the nations dread-'Lest we forget
lest we forget!'
'Far-called our navies melt away
On dune and headland sinks the fire
Lo all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations. spare us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget
"'If drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe
Such boasting as the Gentiles use
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Y,ord God Of Hosts be with us vet.
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
Mr.. William Watsonis poem, 1.-The Un-
known God" inspired by Mr.. Kipling's
Professional" appeared in full in Har
per's Weekly of September 4. In it he
points out defect in the latter poem
which seems to have been little noted.
The appeal to the Almighty to spare us
lest we forget. is obviously illogical; for
the people whom the Lord spares, upon
whom he has mercy, and who wax fat
and prosperous, are the very ones who
do forget Him. This point is made In
the following starlza:
"Best by remembering God. say some,
We keep our high imperial lot,
Fortune, 1 fear. hath oftenest come.
When we forgot, when we forgot"
= = 4
MIME. SaTdH GTdHQ OUJeClS " uelIS
classed with Boccacco and Zola, and,
considering the remarks that accom-
panied the classification, I can hardly
blame her. 1t seems that certain Mr..
st. Clair Baddeley has written a book,
called Robert the Wise and His Heirs,
In which ne says: 1.-The lowness Of NOR
ality and the hardness Of character ex-
posed to its influence made it possible
&c.. trI %A ;r+n ,,On n
adroitly turned obliquity, however scan
dalous. A dextrous story teller would
then relate viva voce what Zola or Sarah
Grand will now merely print.
Boccaccio justified his own license pre-
cisely as does the modern Persian poet,
or his feeble English imitator, by declar-
Ing that the style of expression subdues
and crystallizes the improperly. The
tales are not primarily intended as in
centives to immortality, but as means of
humorous entertainment. He did not,
however, hypocritically add, as do his
affected echoers Of today, TO the pure
all things are pure Art for arts sake
etc., and then plunge his readers up to
the cars in filth and finally shed over
them a cleansing dpuche of fashionable
tears"
GLEANINGS IN BUDDHA FIELDS;
Studies Of Hand, and Soul in the Far
East. BY Lafcadio Hearn, author OF
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. Slips.
Mr.. Hearn interprets certain points in
Japanese art and character as perhaps
nobody else can today. The Rebirth of
Katsuzoro, the traslation of an old
Japanese document, is very curious,
dealing with the possibilities Of remem-
bering former births Within the Cir
Gle refers to "the great phantom-w -whirl
Of birth and death to which, by theii
own thoughts and deeds, the ignorant
remain condemned"
The chapter on "Dust" ends with these
most suggestive and significant words:
For it has been written that in what
soever time all human minds accord in
thought and will with the mind Of the
teacher, there shall not remain even one
particle of dust that does not enter into
Buddhahood." But the chapter on
."Nirvana" reads like part of the Light
of Asia" done into prose, not made
clearer even by Mr.. Hearn's diagrams
and certainly not beautiful. Reading this
"Nirvana" one hears underlying 1t the
rhythm of Edwin Arnold's verse:
Veil after veil must lift; but there must be
Veil upon veil behind.
stars sweep and question not This is