New-York tribune., 1902-09-05
LONDON NOTES.
THE BRITISH ACADEMY AND PURE
DECENTRALIZATION MILLER OF
CRoMARTY-A NAME TO CON
JURE WITH.
JURE WITH.
London. August %

The coronation has not passed without the
esta blishr1ent of a new literary landmark ID
English. This is the British Academy, to which
a charter has been granted by the King on the
petition OF a number Of distinguished schoiaTS
and public men. The Royal Society, OF Academy
Of Science, received its charter of Incorporation
from Charles II in 1868. and now has member
ship of over five hundred Fellows. The Royal
Academy of Art was founded in 116S. The ne"
Academy is designed for the promotion OF MS
torical, philosophical and pathological studies
and the petitioners, as men eminent IN thoSe
branches of literature. constituted Fellows
and empowered TO increase their number ny
election and to perpetuate the institution. Ihere
have been controversies more or less acTid over
the expediency of Incorporating the new body
with the Royal Society already existing for the
encoura cement of scientific studies, and also
over the exclusion of representatives of pure
literature from the Academy. The Privy Coun-
ell has decided adversely TO any relationship
with the Royal Society. although there is no
apparent reason for discriminating against his
tory. philosophy and philology, as studies con-
Quoted without scientific method; and it has also
prohibited the selection OF representatives Of
poetry. fiction and belies-lettres as Fellows Of
the new organization. Pure Literature Is an
other Cinderella. neglected and unrecognized
among the frepots Of the chimney corner: and
the stately and pompous sisters have gone IL
triumph to the coronation revels.
The new academy starts of with q conscious
ness Of incompleteness as a sectional literary
establishment, but also with assurance OF
internal peace. Historians. philosophers anc
philologists are known by their works, and there
are standards by which their enlinence can be
determined; but pure literature Is q shadowE
realm, as incongrUouS and fantastic as Allces
Wonderland. The Fellows Of the British Acad-
e1ny would speedily have been divided into II
reconcila bic factions if they had been called
upon 10 decide between the claims Of poets and
writers Of doggerel for recognition among them
as representatives OF imaginative literature
The Poet Laureate's Own name miSht have been
blackbaIed ana Mr.. Rudyard Kipling might
have been the candidate Of minority faction
headed by Lord Rosebery. As for the noTelists
Of the day what searching OF hearts would
there have been if any attempt had been made
10 discriminate between the trademarks OF
rnanufa ctlrers of tales and the artistic evidence
Of works Of genius and imagination! The PriVy
Council was wise and discreet in its prohlpl-
tions and limitations. Pure literature may have
gone begging. but the academy is protected
against disruption and allowed a pea -etul tenure
of respectable dulness-
Inverness is a centre OF English fashion IN
August but extremes have been meeting there
this week The centenary Of Hugh Miller
birth has been celebrated in an unpretentious
way at Cromarty. on the Back Isle, where there
is safe anchorage for pleasure craft between
two picturesque irths When the learned stone
mason was born it was obscure hshing
haven where women often waited in vain, as
in Kingsleys ballad. for the return Of their
husbands from sea, or as Hugh Mi ler's mother
did when mis- father perished in tempest The
boy spent his youth in q long, low fshermar's
cottage in Cromarty. with a little schooling from
stern Scotch masters and with many holiday
excursions among the crags and caves OF the
rockbound coast. where his career as a self
taught collector and geoogist began. For sew
erteen years he earned meagre living as a
ouarryman and stone mason. working in the
Highlands and Lowlands al his trade. but never
ceasing to study the rocks with their fossil re
mains and evidences Of creative energies Ke-
turning to Cromarty broken in health and with
morbid premontions Of ea1ly death he began
TO write religious treatists and scientific works
with q remarkably vivid and masculine style.
and it was not long before he was conducting
Free Church journal in Edinburgh and amazing
the geologists of the British Association with
his discoveries in old red sandstone His style
had a freshness and descriptive realism which
aIurchison and Buckland could not rival. for
scientific knowledge had come to him through
his habits of close observation as q stone mason.
His profound religious faith and intimate asso-
citation with Dr. Chalmers increased the inhu-
ence and circulation Of his scientific writings
both in the Unitel Kingdom and in America.
The visitors who went out to Cromarty from
Inverness caught glimpse Of Tarradale the
birthplace of Sir Roderick Murchson. another
great Scotch geoIogist. About the time when
Hugh AIiIler's father drowned in the tenn
pest tossed northern seas. Murchison obtained
q commission in the army. from which ne
tired after eight years service. interesting him
self In geology, exploring the Highlands. ac-
companying LyeIl in a tour through France and
undertaking geological surveys Of Russia and
Great Britain. He was one Of the great
of the British Association. but he frankly
fessed that he felt naked and ashamed when he
compared his own dry-as-dust style with the
pictorial talent and intense realism Of Hugh
Miller. His scientific works are longer read.
and his system of classification has been
Jected by subsequent investigators but
curate was the eye Of the practical stone mason,
and SO complete was mis- mastery of pure Eng
iish that his books still command scientific
recognition and have continued to excite popu-
TAR enthusiasm for geological study, although
nearly fifty years have passed since his tragic
death Cromarty honored itself by neglecting
for day the humors and caprces of wealth
and fashion, and remembering the isherman's
son who worked IN the stone quarries with a
soul above his trade and with eyes ever search
ing for pterodactyls and the mysteries Of
prirneval life in old red sandstone. Preachers
could justly extol his piety. for he was a faith
full Scotch Presbyterian without d trace Of scep-
ticism or doubt; Highlanders could claim him
as loyal clansman who loved local traditions
as ardently as he did fossils; and of sci
soce couI6 render tribute 70 him as one of the