The record-union., 1897-05-17
SOME FAMOUS MEN.
"reminiscences Of ThaCkeray, Arnold,
RuSkin and TenDySOn. 5
Professor Max Muller Recounts Some
Interesting Anecdotes of His
Friends.

One of my earliest dinners I re-
member at oxford was to meet Thack-
cray. Thackery was then writing 'Es-
mond," and a Mr.. StOddard-a fellow
of ST. Johns College-asked me to meet
him at dinner. We We're only four, and
We We're all very much awed by Thack-
eray's presence, particularly l, not be-
ing able as yet to express myself free
ly in English. We sat silent for some
time, no one ventured to make the first
remark, the soup was over, and there
was a fine John Dore on the table
waiting to be splayed. We were hop
ing for some brilliant sally from Thack-
cray, but nothing came. At last
Thackeray suddenly turned his large
specialized eyes on me and said: Are
you going to eat your own ancestor?
l stared, everybody else stared. AT
last we gave it up, and Thackeray,
looking very grave and learned, said:
Surely you are the son of Dorian Null
ler-the Muller that wrote that awful
~ learned book on the Dorians; and
was not John Dore the ancestor of all
the Dorfans!" There was a general
"Oh, OH" but the ice was broken, and
no one after this horrible pun was
afraid to say anything. All l could tell
Thackeray was that l was not the son
of Otfried Muller who wrote on the
Dorians, but of Wilhelm Muller, the
poet, who wrote Die Homerische
Vorschule." and as to John DOre being
our ancestor how could that be? The
original John Dore, so 1 had been told,
was il Janitore. that is st. Peter and
had no wife-or at least he never ac-
knowledged her in public. Though all
this did not promise well, yet the rest
of our little dinner party was more
successful; it became noisy and even
brilliant.
Thackeray from his treasures of wit
and sarcasm poured out anecdote af-
ter anecdote; he used plenty of vinegar
and cayenne pepper, but there was al
ways a flavor of kindness and good
nature even in his most cutting re-
marks I saw more of him when he
came to oxford to lecture on the -Four
Georges" and when he stood for Par
lament and was defeated by CardWell
and Charles Neate. After one of his
lectures, when L expressed my delight
with his brilliant success, wait, wait, =
he said, 1.-The time viii come when you
will lecture at Oxford" At that time
my English was still very fragmentary,
and there was no idea of my staying in
England, still less of my ever becom-
ing a professor at Oxford.
I watched Clough before the world
knew him. I knew Matthew Arnold
during many years of his early life,
and. having had the honor of examin-
lining Swinburne, I was not surprised
at this marvellous performances in later
years. He was even then a true art
list a commander of legions of words,
who might have become an imperator
at any time. CIough was a most fas-
cinating character, thoroughly genuine,
but so oppressed with the problems of
lift that it was difficult ever to get
a smile out of him, and, if one did. his
round, rudy face, with the deep,
heavy eyes. seemed really to suffer
from the contortions of laughter. He
took life very seriously, and made
greater sacrifices to his convictions
than the world ever suspected. He
was poor. but from conscientious scru-
pies gave up his fellowship. and was
driven at last to go to America to
make himself Independent without Civ
With a little more sunshine above him
and around him he might have grown
10 a very considerable hight. but there
was always a heavy weight on him
that seemed to render every utterance
and every poem struggle.
A VIVID SKETCH OF ARNOLD.
Another poet whom 1 knew at OK
ford as an undergraduate, and whom /
70 = Is and Of
life, was Matthew Arnold. He was
beautiful as a young man, strong and
manly, yet full of dreams and schemes.
His Olympian manners began even at
Oxford: there was no harm in them
they were natural, not put on. The
very sound of his voice and the wave
of his arm were Jovelike. He Crap
pied with the same problems as Clough.
but they never got the better of him,
or, rather. he never got the worst of
them Goethe helped him to soar where
others toiled and sighed and were sink
ing under their self-imposed burdens.
Even though his later life was enough
to dishearten poet, he laughed at his
being Pegasus i'm Joche. Sometimes
at public dinners, when he saw him
self surrounded by his contemporaries,
most or tneHl Judges, DlSHopS anu Illil-
listers. he would groan over the drudg-
cry he had TO go through every day of
his life in examining dirty schoolboys
and schoolgirls. But he saw the fun
of it, and laughed. What a pity it
was that his friends, and he had many
could find no better place for him.
Most of his contemporaries rose to
high positions in church and State; he
remained to the end an examiner OF
elementary schools OF course, it may
be said that. like so many of his lit
erary frierds. he might have written
novels. and thus eked out a living by
potboilers of various kinds. But there
was something noble and refined in him
which restrained his pen from such
work Whatever he gave to the world
was to be perfect. as perfect as he
could make it, and he did not think
that he possessed a talent for novels
His saying, No. Arnold can ever write