The Topeka state journal., 1902-06-14

perior lxnow-al1 plastic in receiving,
destitute Of the power for generating
thought. 1t depends upon the tempera-
nent of the instructor whether the feTni-
nine status is agreeable. A professor at
Harvard told me he would not lecture
before Women's classes because of the
annoyance their assent and personal
ideaIizing gave him. He liked better the
aggressive, controversial, doubling spirit
Of the men students. He had not in
sight enough to see that the W0men's
apparent assent was q part Of the
F,wigWeibliche-he thought them fools,
he told me-and that there was doubtless
as much mental strength and originality
among them as among men. Heaven
says the apothegmatic Mrs. Poyser.
heaven made 'em to match the men,
That constructive ability Of high order
raay exist along with the most yielding
and docile receptivity George Eliot is
witness. Her sensitiveness to giving
pain at al times kept her from con-
troversy and needless opposition
In early years her intellectual activity
found expression in Evangelical faiths
and dogmaS. Her whole nature was es
sentiany religious. Mr.. Stephen dWells
much on this point It was George
EliOt's inbOrn Righteousness that led hes
TO write of Dinah Morris, the Methodist
preacher-the story lay IN the earlier
days of Meth0dism when women were
allowed to minister-to write Dinah's
sermons and prayers with hot tears
as they surged up in her own mind"
she said It is the n0velist's portraiture
Of herself when Maggie Tullfver is af-
fected by passages from the Imitation
of Christ as if by strains of solemn
music. 1t is the author in the dignihed
aspirations of Rom0la; the writer herself
in outreaching of DOrOthea for the nlys-
tie exaltatiOn Of st. Theresa George
Eliot really embodied in her herOineS
from AIilly Barton to GWendoIen Har-
leth her own aspiring haracter-treless
searching Tor an ideal. Her accounts Of
their uplifted spiritual conditions have
always the intensity Of expression, the
flute note or better. vox humana, OF
autObiOgra ply.
Doubtless the novelist's lessons and
experiences along such spiritual and
subjective lines led to the breadth of
her remark The great lesson of life
is tolerance" Each of George Eliot's
novels" says Mr.. Stephen, was the
product of a kind Of spiritual agony
Mr.. stephen traces through each one
of her works this thoughtful woman's
various changes IN mental attitude, her
many successes in artistic excellence,
her divagation along the road Of
psychological analysis, and her ulti-
mately carrying her philosophy and ab-
stract analysis 50 far that characters in
her later works seem rather qualities
with coating of flesh, than the flesh
and blood creatures of her earlier books
whose feelings, thoughts and actions
we delight to follow
In one Of his turnings aside from the
main purpose 10 SkeLcn some minor
phase of the n0veHst's life, the author
speaks soe George Fliot's Sunday after
moons at home: and when he is speak
ing We know that it is all of which he
saw and part Of which he was In
one sentence he says. The ShyneSS
generated by the desire to prove that
your homage is genuine and that you
are so brilliant a person that it is also
worth having, gives one of those pain
ful sensations which is not least among
the minor miseries of life" These few
/ words tell how young man was there,
seeing perhaps bis great Dictionary of
National Biography" in the distance,
and indicate his attitude toward the
quiet and dignifed lady in her arm
chair"
They also recall the time when Harvard
gave Mr.. Stephen a degree-D- c. L or
IL D.-which one is not clear to my mem
ory- The giving Of degrees by colleges and
humorous and amusing to the mind
washed free from previous academic dye.
IS not lar wrong When ne says a qigra is
parmH to wear a Mother Hubbard in
poobllc." 1T follows naturally that If your
friend. VINO IS professor OF Latin at Yale
ton presents" you for an IL D. at the
professor OF ply slological psychology at
the University Of Hesperus. viii ia due
time present his great abilities to the
endowment where You instruct
But this matter Of giving a degree to
A1r. stephen was a different story entirely.
James Russell Lowell Mr.. LowelTs col
lege wished to compliment the English
man. famous for his knowledge and liter
ary skin; master. he is. in letters. It
came commencement day and Souder's
theater was packed. Men who were to be
hOnored We're upon the platform. and
through the somewhat tedious eaercises
they sat in various attitudes of awkward
ness, embarrassment and complacent sat-
isfactiOn. according to their mental dispO-
sition and training Those whose life led
them to pose before man We're calmest.
True literary workers are more at home
in their studies and apart from the psychi-
cal waves of crowds. and men of that
kind take such an occasion hard" Tt
seemed so that day with Mr.. Stephen, or
perhaps his chair was too short for his
long. body, leastwise he sat sprawling, evil
IDENTIFY in lone of those painful sensat tiOns
which is not least among the minor mis-
cries Of life But at last the president
conferred upon him the degree. Genuine
affection and esteem seemed in the ap-
plause which continued long after the re-
clpient had pulled himself together and
bowed his thanks This account may be
permitted since Mr.. Stephen has come to
be almost as familiar an author as the
novelist he here treats
KATE STEPHENS