The record-union., 1898-03-06

The recent discovery of several poems
by Bacchylides, 9. famous Greek poet
whose works had hitherto been be
lieved to be hopelessly. lost, has drawn
much attention to the island of keos
the poets native place. This interest
is taken advantage of by Professor j.
Irving Manatt, who contributes to the
March Atlantic a timely and at
tractive account of a recent visit to
Keos, and the appearance and history
Of the isle.
Some of his friends taunted Tenny-
SON that he could never give up to-
bacco. Anybody can do that he said,
if he chooses to do it, When his
friends still continued to doubt and
tease him, Well he said, I shall give
up smoking from tonight The very
same evening I was told he threw his
pipes and tobacco out of the window
of his bedroom The next day he was
most charming, though somewhat SELF
righteous. The second day he became
very moody and captious; the third DAY
no one knew what to do with him. But
after a disturbed night l was told thar
he got out of bed in the morning, Went
quietly into the garden, picked up one
of his. broken pipes, stuffed it with the
remains of the tobacco scattered about,
and then. having had a few puffs, came
to breakfast, all right again. Nothing
was said any more about giving up
tobacco = From Professor Muller's
AUD Lang Syne."
-
Austin Dobson has lately issued a
new and revised edition of his Life of
Hogarth," which not to have read is
to be ignorant Of a delightful piece of
writing. of a kind in which he has no
living. equal, and he has added to this
edition a special preface, one passage
in which will probably surprise those
who think. of Hogarth merely as a ma
tionaI satirist in black and white, and
not at all the great painter that he
is now known to be. The unprece-
dented modern development of the
graphic arts" Mr.. sDobson. says, 'and
the prevalence of a nlilder method in
satire, have, perhaps, somewhat atten-
uared the interest hitherto felt in Ho-
garth as an engraver and a pictorial
nioFalist But the tenacious admirer
cannot fail to have observed with COM
placency that HogaTth's reputation as
a painter has grown, and continues to
grow. 1t is not of great Importance
now that during his lifetime Churchill
called him 'Dauber.' and Wilkes spoke
of his portraits as almost beneath
criticism since they We're simply flow
eTS-of faction. Yet it must be remem-
bered that others OF, his contemporaries
said much the same thing Horace
Walpole. for example, held the coloTinS
of the Sigismunda to be 'wretched, and
he asserted in sober earnest that as a
painter Hogarth had but slender merit
The verdict of the Strawberry Hill vir-
tuoso was echoed by many, long after
the deaths of both artist and critic;
and Hogarth's pictures. dispersed for
the most part in private hands, were
not forthcoming TO plead their own
cause When at last a selection of
them was brought together in 1914 and
1877, it began to dawn upon the specta-
to that second hand report had been
more at fault than usual, and this view
gained ground steadily until the exhibi-
ton of 1862, when the matter ceased
to be even doubtful Since then. as
specimen after specimen has been sub
mitted to an unbiased public at Bur-
lington House and elsewhere. the re-
action has gone on, and though here
and there a jarring voice is still heard.
the practical consensus of critical opin-
ion in England and America, and on
the Continent. is to the effect that, so
far from being an indifferent colorist.
William Hogarth, at his best, was re-
ally a splendid painter. worthy to rank
in all respects with the greatest of his
contemporaries of the brush.''
New York Tribune: 1t has been OBJ
served that the best poetry is unmis-
taxable and that minor verse is also
easily to be identified, but that the dis
tinction between the two is sometimes
rendered difficult TO draw by the ar
rival OF some writer not fairly to be
assigned to either category. The sur
mise may be ventured that this diff
Guilty Is more apparent than real Man
has an ineradicabie fidelity to the
things that have increased his happi-
ness; he is not going to quarrel with
a favorite poem or picture or friend
because he has not found any one of
the three fiawless. But at the bottom
of his heart he knows well enough
whether he Is satisfied by the second
best as much as by the best. In re-
gard 10 poetry the test is always SIM
pie. We have a great body of acknowl-
edged masterpieces, and they are not all
unreaaable classics. either; they range
from the epics which few can appre-
ciate to the lyrics that every body can
understand. The reader who is uncer-
tam as to the proper place of a new
veTsifier has only to put him beside one
OF the masters. The question is soon
decided for him, and he learns that
there is no ambiguous post on Parnas-
sus. Either a man belongs there by
unquestionable right or he belongs
In the outer darkness To quote the
ease of Browning is no answer.
New York Herald: 1t was only the
other day that Princeton College was
enriched by a series of mosaic panels
Illustrating the Homeric story in a mar
Neiously clever way. These panels were
paced in the Alexander Commence
ment Hall. Princetonians on return
ing after the New Years holiday found
another gift for which to be thank
full
a memorial window Of unusual beauty
Is now being placed in the Marquand
1hapei in memory OF Horatio Whitridge
oarrett Mr.. Garrett. 1t will be re-
memDered, was a son OF the late r.
harrison Garrett OF Baltimore. and was
one or the best-known athletes OF
frinceton College prior to his marriage
with Miss Charlotte Pierson of sum
nit. y. J., on October 16. 1895. Shortly
after the wedding, while attending a