The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-30
SEVEN GREAT ENGLISH STATESMEN
DR.. Kingsbury Writes of Gladstone, Pitt and Others
DR.. Johnson's Idiosyncracies. Philip Jones
Baey's One Great Work

gives value to the praise which he re-
ceives, and considers the sentence
passed in his favor as the sentence of
discernment." Again he says: THE
modesty of praise gradually wears away;
and, perhaps, the pride of patronage
may be in time so increased that modest
praise will no longer please" OF letter
writing he said some excellent things
for instance: There is indeed, no trans
action which offers stronger temptation
to fallacy and sophistication than epis-
tolary intercourse. Friendship has
no tendency to secure vivacity." He is
most quotable for he is a magazine of
the best "ana." He was an LII D.,
and not an M. D., as some suppose. Two
universities conferred it, Oxford being
one of them.
/ suppose that to this day in many
sections of North Carolina, and prob
ably in all the States, the use of the
willow wand continues in determining
as to the right places to dig wells to
insure abundant water l saw it SO
used about 1888 in Oxford and with sue
cess. 1t is of very old origin, has come
down in fact from Paganism. 1t prevails
more or less in England now. That
celebrated, learned and very gifted
essayist, Thomas De Quincy, wrote
half century OF so since that especially
Tin Somersetshire. and for twenty miles
round Wrington, the birthplace of
Locke" it prevailed. He stated that
nobody sinks for wells without their
advice" meaning the men who practice
the Pagan rabdomancy." He describes
the method. and it is the same 1 saw
used at Oxford, n. c., in 1853. The word
is derived from the Greek rhabdos, a
willow. He says that the people who
use the willow are called "Jowsers,
and from it is probably derived the
slang word to chouse for swindle.' He
tells how, in the far East, there are men
who use the willow to find hidden treas
ureS De Quincy is almost invariably
instructive, and often most charmingly
entertaining. He is a great master of
STYLE and but few men have eQualled
him in it's highest manifestations. In an
essay of his he writes of the defects of
scholarship as to the Greek literature
even in the early part of the last cen
y.
the Bible was made, the knowledge of
the Greek language was very moderate
and even inaccurate-hence many errone-
Gus translations in the James Bible
'Well-matured scholarship" had not
yet come. There are hundreds of Greek
scholars now who arc far better inform
ed, and much more accurately SO than
was the best of the James translators
There has been a great advance in the
aids and models OF Greek scholarship
since that day. De Quincy, who could
have harangucd a Greek mob in that
language before he was twelve years of
age, was very superior scholar in it in
his maturity. In writing OF the defects
of the great Samuel Taylor Coleridge as
to Greek and inaccuracies that are found
in him, he points to the condition Of
Greek scholarship at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. He says Coleridges
carly laurels in that language are not
sufferable, and that whilst he never
was what may be called well-mounted
scholar in any department of verbal
scholarship, he yet displayed some times
a briliiancy of conjectural sagacity, and
a felicity of philosophic investigations
even in this pa.u, such as better scholars
do not often attain, and of kind which
cannot be learned from books" He says
in his day "the state of Greek metrical
composition was of an inferior KIND.
He points to the low condition even at
Cambridge as may be seen in 1.-The sew
eral translations Of Gray's 'Elegy by
three (if not four) of the reverend gen
tlemeu at that time attached to Elton
College. Matthias, no very great scholar
himself in this particular field, made
himself merry in his Pursuits of Liter
ature,' with these Elton translations.'
He cites an example, in Greek, and says
that "swarms of English school boys, at
this day. (probably about 1850 of 1850
them. He says that there has been 1.-The
growth Of new era and a new genera
ticn in this difficult accomplishment.
There was need, there is still need, to
overhaul some of the translations of the
James Bible, while preserving its mar
vellous English wherever it is possible.
The inaccuracies. so misleading some
times. need to be corrected.
I am gratified to see from the New
York Bookman for November that
Dixons The Leopard's Spots continues
to meet with a good sale, but mainly in
the South and West. The Mrs. Stoves
gang of admirers refuse to hear the
other side. They are afraid of truth,
and love to keep their antiquated pre-
JUDGES and deep-seated ignorance as to
Sambo and Dinah warm, by nursing
them" well and unbrokenly. MISS JOIN
sons last novel, Audrey outseiis all
the books of the last three or four
months, and sells far beyond DIXON
book-five or six to one. When 1T is
sad fact that six novels are published
every day, and ten are written, no doubt
to one that is ever printed, it is more
then ever necessary to be very careful
as to what you read. 1t is astonishing
to see. what trashy books fairly intelli
gent and educated people read. and to
the neglect of the best literature of the
World--the great classics in poetry, his
tory biography essays, criticism, fiction,