New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-01-24

In the recently published journals Of Walter
White we find this record of talk between
Charles Kingsley and Carlyle:
kingsley: How long will this jackassery, TINS
food of books written by people who have noth-
INC TO saw continue? Look at Dickens. man
VIZ might have been Dcfoe if he would but
have restrained his pen. who has degenerated
even since "Nickleby." whose Christmas stories
are gloomy and depressing.
What is the reason? / asked
'Ignorance lie Is one of the most ignorant
OF modern writer's. 40. 80,
CARLYLE: Il find the humor of his "Pickwick"
very melancholy. As for Defoe. he would have
been greater man. but he was such an inconti-
nent felow-always write. write, write on some
petty city matters. But he had wonderful
power Of Imagination. making YOU feel that he
had seen everything he described.
Then sermons were talked Of. and the strict
urcs on books applied to them Il hate the
sound OF my own voice." said X. especially II
l have 10 speak beyond quarter of an hour
IT'S torture to me-
Then !: Then every sunday Is TO you mar
tyrdom?'
1T is; ard Judge Of my feelings when am
obliged 10 listen To somebody else's sermon LOT
thir;y-fvo minutes. Think OF fifteen thousand
clcrCymen having To stand up Sunday after
Sunday with nothing 10 say. All, the ketorma-
tiOn has much 10 answer Tor. turning 10 e.:
You and your Puritans have much to answer
for Those men first started the notion that the
way to heaven vas Ivy infinite jaw; and see what
infinite. jaw has brought us to-" .u. ,,o, u.u,
go on talking with nothing 10 say.
1t Is stated that T.. Chapman once said to
Dickens, Take a pinch of snuff" and handed
him a box containing tl400-about 5000.
"Pickwick' was not popular just al first, hut
wher the sales improved the publishers began
10 make substantial acknowledgements, and al
together paid for the book a. 200 more than
was stipulated for. They could well afford to
do this
paper on Walter Pater in The Academy
OF London contains some passages which VIII
particularly interest writer's:
In one sense Mr. Pater was a brilliantly sue
cessful writer. He has done many things SO
well that one cannot imagine how they could
have been done better But he did not know
where his own strength lay. His patient hunt
for what he called the exact word was in his
case as in that Of Flauber.. doomed 10 futility.
For writer never can convey am but simple
thought fully and .uciGly from his own mind to
that Of another. The meaning he attaches TO
words is cOOred not only by his learning ana
knowledge. but by his previous meditation and
experience And his phrases fall on minds. each
of which has a separate and different body of
perience. which contracts expands modifics
distOrts. their significance. one need not 30
further for examples than to certain shibboleths
of his school. The very word art Wiley
hacked and vulgarized during the last quarter
of century, is applied by nearly every writer
10 his or her own work. Sir Walter Scott very
justly called himself an artist, so did George
Eliot, so do a score of fOurth-rate scribblcrs.
In each case 1t conveys meaning cOlored by
personality; il cannot he absolutely defined: il
cannot. therefore. be employed with such eXacti-
tude as to convey a meaning fully and ucidly
from one mind to another. Distinction. again.
is term which has the same ambiguity. 1t is
constantly employed by critics to indicate
quality Of phrase; with Patcr it describes an
attitude of mind. The writer is truly distin-
guished who looks al life Independently with his
own eyes: ii is but a bastard distinction that
springs from precOsity of phrase Fuller and
larger illustration Of the impOssibility Of convey
ing thought exactly from mind to another
may be found in the history of any creed. The
Gospel of Christ is set forth in clear and simple
words. yet IL we consider the number Of creeds
and seCts. the divisions. arguments and even
battles TO which its Interpretation has given
rise. how obvious must II be that the words had
meaning in the mind OF him who uttered
them; another in the case of those who heard.
Among the novels which are coming out
in England Mr.. Joseph Conrad's Malay ro-
nance entitled The Rescue: Mr. Grant AL
lens oddly named story The Incidental Bish-
OPP: Mr.. David Christie Murray's book Dc
spair's Last Journey" and Mr. Robert Hichenss
THE Londoners."
DR.. Alfred Russell Wallace has been for some
time busy with book. This he intends to
name The Wonderful Century: Its Successes
and Its Failures" He says concerning it: Il
have sketched the material and scientific prog
ress Of the century. and also the progress in
ideas and principles The distinctive feature of
the book is that while / make more of the sue
cesses OF the century than l believe any other