The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-04-22

Montafgne, the Ffenchman or the SIX
teenth century Una all love who love
letters and great writer's. Next Is the
Gospel Of Matthew. And very strange
the very next Is that overrated poetic
Herbert Spencer Lev es's Life of
Wordsworth. THE Ego:st." by Mere
dith, and Haziitt. His great country
man Scott Is not mentioned. We were
delighted to hear the very acute, dis
eliminating. able English critic. Mr..
Stephen. saying-'I am hopelessly un-
able to appreciate Walt Whitman .
We have read the greatest poetry OF
ancient and modern times n much
OF it many times. and have read LInre
or less Of every English poet from the
earliest time TO the present, and IL
Whitman is a master in that line Of
human inspiration and expression.
then count US put" Of all poetic taste.
insight and Judgment. He is more Of
an ~abominatio.l to US h an attrac-
ton.
Do you know The names OF the chief
est. the greatest Of British contem-
porary literary weeklies, monthIies ard
quarterlies? The leading very able
weeklies are the London Saturday Re
view. Spectator. Academy, Econimist.
Literature, I'M one of two others. The
leading magazines are BlackwooJ.
Cornhill, Chambers Journal, Macmillan,
Nature and a few others. The reviews
are the old Edinburgh, London Quar-
terly, National, F%ortnightly, Nineteenth
Century and After, Contemporary.
Westminster, and perhaps one or two
others. We name only those we arc
most familiar with. and tina we read
more or less Of every month. Recent
ly in the able National Review we
found much qualification in reading an
address delivered at the Edinburgh
Philosophical Institute, on the 18th or
November last, by Hon. H. II. Asuuith,
an able and distinguished member OF
Parliament. 1t was on Biography"
and was most enjoyable to read. He
said many quCt.hle th;ngs. We give a
few of his lacunae:
The interest OF the life depends iar
more on the stature of the man than
on the scale OF his achievements. .
The most splendid genius o: his own
or any other time has left behind h,n,
hardly a single undisputed trace or his
own personality. This refers 20
Shakespeare, u note.) We do no.
know that the greatest teacher OF an
11Ol1fV wrote n cipnlo 1;ao
peare. who died less than three hun
dred years ago., must have written we'll
over ae hundred thousand. (Refers to
Cocra So = The result too offer :.
on Of he most unapoetizing products
the literary kitchen II nauseati-g
OF the literary kitchen-a nauseati1g
(Refers 20 biography E" . Wordsworth,
eak of three of the greatest men
OF his time, Burke, Fox and Pitt, said:
You always vent from Burke with
your mind filed; from Fox with yout
1eellngs excited, n +. ON Pitt with
wonder at his having power to make
tne worse appear the better reason"
70 =. y.
The present King of England never
reads a book, and the British Prime
Minister, Lord Salisbury, reads ONLY
scientific DO ks; so writes the London
correspondent Of the New York Sat-
urday Review.
Mr.. Carnegies book is moderately
praised and quietly criticised by lit.
terary men IN the north. He calls it
The Empire OF Business" and it is
composed Of essays he had preyio.s.u
published from time to time il the
magazines,
The ~Conqueror," by Mrs. Athcrton,
is scored in the New York Saturday
Review by Mr.. Blackwood Of New
York. He thinks it should be SUD-
pressed.
The present Lord Chief Ju.tic. of
England. edits a new volume on the
game called Cricket or course if
Is judicial.
While most leading literary organs
spell the name o; the eminent Russian
author Tolstoy, we notice that the New
York Saturday Review spells it Tolsto,.
which is not correct.
There were 231 histories published
IN the United States in 1901.