Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-06

the fine arts. He was one of that circle of
choice spirits in Cambridge that created
which was felt all over the country. and
which included Lowell. Longfellow. Holmes.
Sumner and Agassiz. Professor Norton,s
old-fashioned house. with its valuable IL
brarY and works of art, has always been
a center of talent and refinement.
With James Russell Lowell, Professor
Norton was on terms Of peculiar intimacy.
Review from 1864 to 1855, and he became
the literary executor of the poet. one OF
his most recent works having been the
editing and publishing Of Lowelrs letters
and other papers A strong bond between
Professor Norton and Longfellow was their
common interest in and enthusiasm for
Dante: Professor Norton's translation OF
Dante's Vita Nuova' Is regarded as q
classic. He has been for many years the
president of the Dante Society of America
in Europe as this country. and is generally
regarded as our foremost literary and art
critic Ruskin. Of whom he was an init
mate friend for years. declared that he was
the most cultured man in America Car
lyle was another English writer who was
closely connected with Professor Norton.
They carried ON for years an interestns
lished. and Carlyle's famous journal also
fell to his American friend
Influence He Exerted.
Probably no one has exerted so marked
an influence on Harvard men as Professor
Norton during his tw%enty-three years at the
university. His courses have been among
the largest in college. numbering always
between 400 and 500 men and Elmo Arts g.
or Fin Arts 4" have kindled the literary
enthusiasm and refined the tastes Of thou
sands of men. who have gone out into the
world with a better appreciation OF the best
things Of life because of these lectures.
These courses have been given in alter
nate years. course 3 dealing with the
ancient art of Egypt. Chaldea. Greece and
dating from the fall of Rome to the pres
ent time, much attention being paid to tho
magnificent cathedrals Of the middle ages
varying pertinacity to the old ideas Of a
classic education, laying the emphasis on
the study of the languages; literature and
Imagination and has entered, year after
year, protests against the increasing pre-.
ponderance of scientific and other so-called
There have been SO many things in the
tendency OF modern education and or tho
material tendencies of the times AGAINST
which Professor Norton has felt called upon
to struggle that he has been forced into the
attitude Of an eternal protester-. But the
grievance which has proved most intolera-
Bile to his beauty-loving soul has been tn
Fogg museum at Harvard.
This is the Art building. erected q few
years ago and which Is ugly iy, not no. ,S only yon IN
sensus Of the public. II Is q cruel irony
that has made 1t the duty of the sensitive
art critic to deliver his lectures in this de-
tested building. He has chafed under IL
from the time that he made his first public
and emphatic assertions in regard to 1t az
a blot upon the Harvard grounds to his
later silent but no less impatient endurance
of it's glaring faults.
Not only is 1t bad from an esthetic point
of view, but the acoustic properties OF the
hall in which he delivers his lectures are
SO bad that he talks at a painful disad-
vantage. 1t Is said that it is this circum-
stance more than any other that has in
duced him to resign his position. He will
sisting Of conversational talks on Dante.