The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-28

oSiAi lie Olu uPc1 lie DGtttT anu
more cultivated minds of the English
reading world, is more read in 1897,
than he vas twenty ago. In the
last few years several new and elegant
ly illustrated editions Of his novels
have been published, and quite recently
two of very marked excellence, each
admirably edited, one by Andrew Lang,
and the other by a man of letters who's
name w do not remember as We write.
Then there are very many cheaper edi-
tons, some SO low in price as almost to
he incredible. Scott is very great.
Lately We read "~Ivanhoe," the great
novel for youth, and one of the ten
best novels for a village library. In
advancing years We found it extremely
relishable, although our fourth read
ing. Recently at spare half hours we
have been reading that classic The
Heart of Midlothian" 1t is a perennial
delight. Its freshness, it's pathos, its
beauty never fades. It is as delightful
in 1897, as it was to us in life's young
spring. Indeed, we appreciate it's in
SCAll2Cll, L Vial lllS lis SILL
plicity and fidelity to nature, it's local
coloring, it's humor, it's art, it's great
human sorrow more han ever before.
h is suggested to us as one Of the
Scott "hero-worshippers," by a remark
Of Professor Mahaffy in the same arti-
Gle quoted from above. Writing of
greatness or finish of style, he con-
ENDS that great men often write very
badly and so much the better for
Them" If We wish the consummate
style in our times we must turn to such
writer's as Pater, Stevenson, among
English authors, and to many of the
French-Maupassant and company
who attach so much more Importance
to art and literary form than to
thought. The Greek professor says
we will find style in Horace and La
Bruyere. We do not decry style in the
least. We love Tennyson and Keats
for their elegance and perfection, but
they had a rich body of thought as we'll
as a splendid garniture of words and
the most finished feIicities Of express
SlOu. DuL we w III ODJeCl " olldhcS-
peare and Scott, the two greatest crea-
tive minds in all English literature from
Chaucer to Swinburne and Dickens
and Tyhackeray and the romancists gen.
orally. Shakespeare and Scott were
too robust, too rich in mental
to daily long in furnishing, in adorn-
ing mere literary clothing. But when
they were at the best how u~napproach-
ed the one, how fascinating the other.
But to come back to Professor Mahaffy.
Considering the careless style he
writes: p
Il should leave out V. Hugo, who GER
tainly aimed at a splendid style, and
should put in Walter Scott, who now
offends the young Scotland of Steven
MIA by the negligences of his die
ton. But he, too, was far too great
for style; he was unfolding such a
wealth Of human nature, galleries of
great portraits, Of ~natiOnalities, vol
umes of history and of legend that he
mad neither time nor care for the graces
of a polished style. Look how his peo-
pie live, just like the people Of Shakes
peare, i'm the hearts of all English
L SpSdhIlS pCoplC, nay, ven III liz
hearts of foreigners, for Scott, owing to
his want Of style, is capable Of transla-
ton! On the other hand, there is
| something sc, personal in an elaborated
| style that the characters are thrown
into the shade by the personality of the
poet, and so Tennyson has not left US
a single character whose name is a
household word, such as Scott and even
far lesser men have created. His imag-
ination has not furnished US with a
great hero"
True and noteworthy that! Tenny-
son was great but not universal. But
whata magic there was after all
in his touch. Read over again and
again as we hav read the "Idylis- of
the King'-as a whole the noblest Eng
lish epic after Paradise Lost"-and
you will see portrayed as never before
Arthur, some of the Knights of the
Table Round, and h fallen Queen,
portrayed with the most exquisite art,
with the nos comsummate power, and
in the most original and charming
blank verse ever written by any Eng