New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-05
STORIES ABOUT FARR4R.
"reminiscences of an old Pupil.

From The CornhiQ Magazine.
I can certainly remember one occasion on
which he conveyed TO me a sense OF pure IN
adulterated grandeur. II was one sunday even
Ing when he read in chapel the chapter IN Job
about the horse, with classic rePose aHo q
rich resonance OF voice the like OF which nave
never heard since. His voice was not suited 10
defamation. or emotion, or variety or lntoIa-
ton; but If only the speaker could keep Qulte
calm and speak or read something which rea4Iy
suited il IL was naatchless. And JOB anu
Isaiah suited il His reading Of Job and Isaiah
has produced on me the effect OF some great but
severe piece of music which bears being played
monotonously-say some fugue or bacn-peII--
formed on a perfect instrument Yet II Is OoO
10 associate music with Farrar- For no one eA-
cent Dean Stanley knew less Of music than
Farrar as this thirty-year-old story viii tesuIy;
Dr. Farrar-I am told that when preach TO-
morrow I shall have TO preach on the note OF
the building. and that the note or the oul'G1is
is E fat. What is E fat?
Studiosus Musca-The organlst will play a
short interlude ending on fat
Dr. Farrar-Yes. know that; but how am l
&c transfer the note E fat from the organ to my
voice? And the StuCiosus Musit "a was puzzled
Farrar's industry was positively ureIesS ana
the more so because he did nothing by deputy.
He was ike perpetual motion or Tadlum. Inc
man who was form master, and transacteo d. az
the business OF heaGmaster or great puo4'c
school. preached hundreds Of sermons, ana
crarnned his Life Of Christ with references TO
scholars, pedants, poets and caints during those
five brief years 1871 TO 1876, lived a crowded
life And he seemed to have thought or hoped
that his pupils would prove equally energetic
prise visit to some sixth form studies in A
house, thinking or hoping to find its occupants
like Charity Pecksnif-at work sancta SIM
pcitas, The industrious apprentices were
caught redhanded in the very act OF enjoying
"a brew" Or ought not 10 write brown hand
ed? For in those days a brew consisted of cocoa
and roast potatoes. At the next lesson FarTar
began to narrate the story Of his dlslIIuslon IN
low, mourning voice thus:
Il confidently expected to be able TO point with
pride 10 my sixth form boys absorbed and IN
mersed in study Of some Attic masterpiece,
Presenting Thebes. OF PslOps' line,
Or the tale Of Troy divine"
Then. gradually raising his voice, he con-
tinued:
But what was my Indignation, vexation and
shame when I discovered them greedily engaged
in lavenously devouring the sernese fragments
Of barbaric repast." and those last six words,
uttered fortissirno, with intense vigor, launched
him speech whose sesquipedalian grandllo-
Quence Dr. Middleton might have envied- IN
deed for full Eve minutes he was ike "a bitten
dictionary and at the end Of il his good hunor
was quite restored.
have referred to his all-devouring industry.
That III itself was stimulating and inspiring.
Moreover, he had a fine memory and a sense OF
the picturesque which fed largely on literary
histories and which invested cur studies or
GuizoJ, Duruy, Sismindi and Michelet with
unique charm and fascination. Yet how IN
credible the advice sounded which he used 10
impart TO all and sundry, students and athletes,
dull and clever, when he said goodby TO them
for the HOLIDAYS MY dear boy II you Will take
down from your shelves and read during the
holidays some good book like Gibbons Rome
Milnan's Latin Christianity Grotes Greece
or Mommsen's Rome il viii be so much clear
gain" I can still remember the innocent as
surance with which he hvriad forty-one volumes
Il our devoted heads. and MS curious emphasis
the last four rnOnOsylla bles still rings in my
ears Again his legend beneath our exercises,
"Lege, legei aliquid h8rebit,' a little too
Ike the old proverb, Throw enough mud and
some viii stick" OF course the Philistine, who
is always sensible person, viii at once observe;
How insane 10 preach quantity instead or
quality. width without depth" And, being al
ways prompt and decisive. ne VIII AT once WfIte
of Farrar's powers teacher in the same
way as a trader writes off bad debt And yet,
Mr. Philistine, I can assure you that this ac-
vice, paradoX though ii looked, produced
fruit in the unlikely places; we could not
help remembering il, II for no other reason, lot
the reason that it seemed absurd, and IKE you;
we said, There Is not much light IN II, anu
we smiled; then thought over 1t again, and
said, There is, after all, some true fire in II,
and we went away and worked IL is possible
that our headmaster sent toddlers the tramp
before they could walk, out not ali the sensible,
prompt and decisive persons in the world viii
ever persuade me that zeal has not something
10 DO with knowledge. And, assuredly. Farrar
was q whole hearted. infectious. proselytizing
zealot-
Perhaps Farrar's Influences a zeaIot for
bellies lettres-was increased by the sense We
always had that he formed part Of that literary
world TO which he was so passionately devoted
We did not derive that sense from the oddlty
with which he invariably referred 10 Ruskin,
Stanley, Browning. Tennyson, VI. Arnold and
others as his eminent friends'-an oddly 10
which il would require Dickens's pen to do
justice-far less from his literary ventures; but
partly from the fact that IL true that they
were his friends, and partly from the fact that
VIZ en- at his best and simplest was himself
distinguished man and seemed, as I have said,
at home with big things. and partly from the
quiet way in which he would and then re-
peat some familiar talk with Of that glort-
GUS company. say. with Browning Tennyson;
thus he would tell how Browning told him
how the famous ride from Client to AK had set
pedants diving into old books out that IL really
took place in the nineteenth century in a yacht
on the Mediterranean. and ] remember the fol-
lowing conversation early IN 1875.
Dr. Farrar-I lave just been staying with Ten