The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-20


living and show their life by being
capable of nourishment; therefore of
change"
In the interval between the fourth
and fifth volumes another great task
had fallen to him; that was the ar
rangement of all the Turner draw
ings belonging to the nation. Gin
seven tin boxes (he says in the lower
rooms of the National Gallery, l
found upwards of $4,000 pieces of
paper drawn upon by Turner. Many
on both sides, some with four, five or
six subjects on each side; some in
chalk which a touch of the finger
would sweep away, some in ink rot
ted into holes, others eaten by mil
dew, some worm eaten, some mouse
eaten, many torn half way through.
Dust of thirty years accumulated up
on ALL" With two assistants he was
at work all the autumn and winter of
1857, every day, all day long and
often far into the night. The task
completed he was left in state of
complete exhaustion. But he had
saved the precious relics, of unspeaka-
BILE value, as showing the complete
unfolding of Turner's great mind,
and no one else living could have
done it. They will be visited by fas-
cinated thousands almost to the last
syllable of recorded time. To rest
himself he started off to Germany
and Switzerland to visit many of the
spots shown in the drawings, in order
to understand them more fully.
He was never afraid of labor, and
was constantly collecting materials
and planning out new enterprises.
This remained the case even to old
age.
At fiftysix he wrote: 81 have now
enough by me for a most interesting
history of 18th century Florentine
art, in six octave volumes; analysis of
the Attic art of the 5th century B. c.
in three volumes; an exhaustive his
tory OF Northern 18th century art, in
10 volumes, life of Turner, with
analysis of modern landscape art, in
four volumes; a life of Zenophon, with
analysis of the general principles of
education, in ten volumes; life of
Walter Scott with analysis of modern
epic art, in seven volumes; a commen-
tary on Hesiod, in nine volumes; and
general description of the geology
and botany of the Alps, in twenty four
volumes" In Proserpine and Deuca-
liam he published some of the mater
ial upon geology and botany, begin
ming to see that the limit of an earthly
life would preclude the doing of some
of the work he longed to do.
1t is much to be regretted that he
was not able to write the life of Scott,
labor of love which doubtless would
have been an enduring monument to
the great Wizard of the North. He
gives, probably, the truest estimate of
the genius of Scott written by any
contemporary. While placing him
at the head of romancers in his best
work, and finding it everywhere ring
ing true, he perceives the deteriora-
ton of his genius in the latter over
worked period of his life, and regards
as almost worthless some of his hur-
ried work. The books he considers
to be of the first rank are the ones
produced before the almost fatal ILL
ness of Scott in 1919.
They consist of Waverley, Guy
Mannering, The Antiquary, Rob Roy.
Old Mortality, and The Heart of
Mid Lothian. The Bride of Lammer-
moor the first written after his recov-
cry, he ranks in the second class, with
Ivanhoe, the Monastery, the Abbott,
Kenilworth and the Pirate. He attrib-
utes the prevailing melancholy and
the fantastic improbability of these
to his broken health. "Three of the
tales are agonizingly tragic, the Alb
bott scarcely less so in its main event,
and Ivanhoe deeply wounded through
all its bright panoply; while even in
Ivanhoe, the most powerful of the
series, the impossible archeries and
axestrokes, the incredibly opportune
appearances of Locksly, the death of
Ulrica, and the resuscitation of
Athelstane, are partly boyish, partly
feverish." Of the others he accepts
Redgauntlet and Nigel. Quentin Dur
ward and Woodstock as sound work
and throws all the others away. The
whole essay from which this estimate
of Scott is taken, called Fiction Fair
and Foul, is of surprising interest,
and many other original conclusions
of the author might be cited. He
considers the very power to imagine
certain characters and incidents as