The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-02-11

II do believe that no girl has risen from
the reading Of my pages less modest
than she was before, n that some
may have learnt from them that mod
esty is a charm worth possessing"
That may be one ground Of his reJec-
ton now He is too pure and genuine.
and had a distinctive moral purpose.
Now for Mr.. Stephens Judgment OF
this once famous builder Of fiction. He
writes with his usual perspicacity:
1--WE can see plainly enough what we
must in order to enjoy Troll
lope. We must cease to bother our
selves about art. We must not ask for
exquisite polish OF style. We must be
content with good homespun phrases
which give up all their meaning on the
first reading. We must not desire bril-
liant epigrams suggesting familiarity
with aesthetic doctrines or theories of
the universe. A brilliant modern now
elist is not only clever, but writes for
clever readers He expects us to under
STAN oblique references to e%soteric
theories, and to grasp a situation from
a delicate hint. We are not to be both
cred with matter-of-fact details, but to
have facts sufficiently adumbrated to
enable US to accept the aesthetic i'm
preston. Trollope writes like a thor
ongh man Of business or a lawyer stat
ing a case. We must know exactly the
birth, p~arentage and circumstances OF
all the people concerned"
You can see now in part why he is neg
Iected and avoided Of men and women.
But in view of the great popularity of
such books as David Harum" and
"Eben Holden" and many others that
sell by the hundreds of thousands why
shall not Trollope hav a showing also
and a great sale again? Mr.. Stephen
agrees with the common opinion that
the Barsetshire novels are his best. His
characters were of the simple, prosaic
kind, but the pictures were we'll drawn,
the individualizing good and his books
were regarded as singularly good pre-
sentation of certain conditions in life in
his day and generation. AS a representa-
tive of particular phases Of living in
early days of Victoria, his books are
valuable and entertaining. He had no
genius, n yet the great Nathaniel
Hawthorne liked linn. Mr.. Stephen
NlOSCS Dy SdylI5, ISlSIIliS W dDOul Tic
middle part of the last century:
"Trollope as representing such an
epoch, will supply a soothing if rather
mild stimulant for the imagination,
and it will be admitted that if he was
not among the highest intellects of his
benighted time, he was as sturdy,
wholesome and kindly a human being
as could be desired"
!. \ !.
In the London Macmillan's Magazine
there is a hitherto unpublished poem by
Robert Burns: 1t is genuine and beau
tiful. We would sample it here but for
mutilating the copy. It is worthy of
his fine genius. 1t was found recently
among the papers belonging to the es-
tate of Mrs. Bennington, who died in
1885. The verses were addressed to
Mrs. Cure. who died in 1923. Can any
thing be sweeter and more touching
than the fourth stanza Cbut the six are
delightfully."-:
Was she less sweet than the blossoms
of May?
Oh. was ma her cheek like the rose and
the lily,
And was she less fair than the flow'rs
Of the garden,
Like the Suns waving glance at the
closing o'day?"
- !. =
We note that three American liter
airy publications print it Tolstoy,
which is correct, as we have recently
noted. That great Russian author is
very III.
+ a
It will not begin to Go to trust maya
zines and newspapers as to the worth
of novels. We have been misled in
copying praises of two or three novels
we had not read, relying upon leading
critics. But for this We would be in
cli1ed to believe that in The House
With the Green Shutters" there is a
novel of power and genius even. 1t ap-
pears as by George Douglas, but his
real name is G. B. Brown, late of Bal
liol college. Oxford university. 1t is a
rather gloomy book we suppose, judg-
ing by the opinions in England and this
country, but Of very marked originality
and force. But We have not been~able
to learn if it is clean and pure, which
is very important. The author has a
~strikingly intellectual face. The New
York Bookman begins an article on
"Byrons Works." by saying of the new
and enlarged edition of his Letters
and Journals" in six volumes by Ro-
and E. Prothero CEnglish):
THE six volume of Byron's prose
writings concludes one of the most at
tractive collections of letters and jour-
nails in the language. and one Of the
best edited works that our literature
possesses"
And so have said many literary critics
of the great merit of the Letters" and
of their consummate editing.
Let US copy here a picture of Balzac,
the eminent French fictive writer who
will live by his The Human Comedy"
an endless work almost. He was TWEEN
ty-five or twenty-six, about 1880, when