The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-29

Wnltmdn Is not We
cannot bear the latter, and we
have not been captivated with
the former, and yet both have great
enthusiasts in devotion among gifted
men Of the English speaking world.
But the Criterion does not iii lie
Galllienne's last book (who does?) he
calls THE Romance of lions Chapel
1t is well fiagellated by III real critics.
One New York weekly calls it brutal
in its conclusion. It Is a bad, vicious,
meretricious book, We from
critical notices we have read.
All the critics We have had access
to agree as to the fact tina Mr.. Ste
phen Phillips, the young poet of Eng
land, now to the front. is a genuine
poet, something solemn and severe, but
inspired and with a message. He is
ane calm, often beautiful in thought
and happy in expression. He lacks
passion, is no Yates, is deficient in inn
~aginative fire, but is a poet born and
not made.
When Homes Scottish tragedy called
Douglass" first appeared, it was
tr~iumphantly asked by an en-
thusiastic loyal Scot, "Whaur's
your Wully Shakespeare noo?" School
boys in the long ago used to declaim
a well-worn speech in Douglas" be-
ginning-'My voice is still for war"
This admiration of the Scot is very
much like that of many other people
- ~,oc Lo,oJ on xorry n,,,f;,;o-
grounds and with very little perception
of the real merits, and genius of au-
thors. To the Scot Douglas was
greater than Hamlet" or Lear" or
"Othello." 1t is so now. Tens of
thousands of people read the novels of
the day and think Hawkins and Doyle
and Crane and Correlli and others
greater than Scott, Thackeray, Dick
ems and George Eliot. Z
Professor Sayce will soon publish a
work on Israel and the Surrounding
Nations" He has already published
a work on EARLY History of the He
brews." He is a famous author in an
tiquities. In his new book he will have
much to say of the Babylonian and
Assyrian life.
We used to read Henry James with
pleasure. To us he has grown involved
in style, with a great elaboration of
commonplace ideas.
Joseph Conrad is pronounced by
competent critics to be the best master
of the sea of all story writer's. His last
book attracts attention and is called
The Niger Of the Narcissus." His
style is not particularly commended.
London Literature" does not praise
much Huysman's 1.-THE Cathedral" 1t
is full of symbolism and mysticism,
and has nothing new or suggestive."
He is still afflicted with "anaemia' and
"morbidity," and has " a fearful hank
ering after the unclean, the loathsome,
the unpleasant" Let him go. His
style is bad also.
"Literature' says of the celebrated
scholar, Person, one of the most bril-
liant Of men,, too, that The was the
martyr of honesty and the slave of
drink
III CctCDi dleu Earl VI bTlSIOi,
made Bishop of Derry, in England,
was a lively specimen of a prelate, but
very spicy and bright in comments.
LITERATURE" reviewing "The Two
Duchesses,' one Of whom was his
daughter, the very charming Elizabeth
Duchess of Devonshire, of whom the
great GibbOn wrote that she was "a
mortal for whom the wisest man, his
tOric or medical, would throw away
two or three worlds, if he had them
in possession" gives this from the
Bishop, saying: 1.-The force and pic
~turesqueness of his language is de-
lightfully unprelatical. The French
army in retreat in 1896 is a collection of
damned, blackguard, differing, plum
dering, %pillaging republicans; a small,
low-lived, ignorant convent of English
BenedictineS at L~ambSheim is possess
ed by a whole sty of grovelling, grunt-
ing, Epicurean hogs drawn out of the
counties of Lancashire, Westmoreland,
and West Riding of York etc. Of the
DucbaSS EIizaheth tho p~aatact Of 500