The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1903-01-18
Matthew Arnold ~ ~
~ ~ His Notebooks


The ideal notebooks Of a CREST nan---those
mean which breathe most intimately the spirit
of the note maker and show him to US not merely
in dressing gown and slippers, but, as Il were. in
the buf--were the notebooks left behind him by
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
These were the daily records Of his thoughts
as they came to him in the raw. We can trace
in them through ali It's phases of development the
germ OF the idea that afterward became an essay,
story or novel. Matthew Arnold's note
books, representative selections from which are
just issued by the Macmillan company In a neat
little volume They are not his own thoughts
which he jotted down In his notebook, but such
passages as interested him In his daily readings.
To great extent no doubt they represent him
self, his hopes and fears his Joys and sorrows his
convictions and his doubts Certain favorite quo
tations appear and reappear, and they furnish liv
ing illustrations of many of the principles again
and again insisted upon In his prose writings.
The principle he first laid down In the preface to
his Essays in Criticism" and which he constantly
repeated in form other that il is the bust
ness OF criticism 70 know and make known the
best that is known and thought in the world"
is here shown TO have been his lifelong prae-
tice.
These selected passages in English, French
German, Italian, Latin and Greek manifest the
variety, extent and thoroushness Of his reading
Heliensm transfused with something of the awe
of Zion is the dominant note OF this symposium
as It was the dominant note in his life. No mere
eleverness, above nil fippancy, is tolerated
Every year he put down in his diary list of the
books TO be read in that year. They comprised
the writings of the thinkers the stocs the phil
osophers and the theoogians. His daughter,
Mrs. Eleanor Woodhouse, who supplies the intro.
daeton, quotes this passage from a letter writ
ten to his sister or New Years Day. ASA;
u glad 20 find that in the past year have
at least accomplished more than usual in the way
OF reading the books which At the beginning Of
the year had put down to be read always
do this and ! do not expect 70 read all that
put down, but sometimes / fall much too short
OF what proposed, and this year things have
been great deal better, The Importance OF read
ing, not slight stuff TO get through the time but
the best that has been written, forces itself upon
me more and more every year | live it is living
in good company the best company, and people
are generally quite keen enough, or too keen,
about doing that yet they will not do il in the
simplest and best manner by reading. However.
IL | live to be eighty shall probably be the only
| person left in England who reads anything but
newspapers and scientific publications."
! Yet If this collection Of excerpts illustrates the
exeelleneies OF Arnods mind, it also exhibits It's
limitations. From unaeknowledged source
he quotes this passage.
'The generalties which the American Dec
| laration of Independence was grounded were OF
English growth. We do not such phrases
now because they do suit rs, because expert.
ence shows that they are not true The expert.
enee which shows us that they not true is that
OF nearly two generations spent in practical re-
forms OF unequaled extent and Importance"
| This passage irresisthly reminds Of Rufus
| Choates phrase the gtteriug and sounding
generalities of natural right which make up the
Declaration OF Independence" and of Emerson'i
retort "Glittering generaitiesi Say, rather, bleS
ing ubiquties |"
Very curious also is this quotation from CRr
eudon; "Clcrgymen understand the lcnst and talk
the worst measure of human Affairs of NIL man
kind that read and write
Curious | call II, because Matthew Arnold, tn
son OF a clergyman and the most eminent mem
Der Of family that has been specially dowere,
with the preaching faculties, possessed in him
self the failing that he recognizes as being
clerical one
We can not forget that IN I86I-64 he expected
the South would win in the civil war. The Soutl
had distinction Lee was fine bred man. Lin
coin and Grant were essentially common. II
1870 he similarly predicted success for the
| French. The German Gemenhcit, or common
ness could not he thoaEht, stand up agains
French esprit Distinction is n fnc thing Fspr
is a 6ne thing. But both count for more In liz
erature, lay ecclesiastical, than in human at
fairs.
Arnold copied these excerpts down In his bool
wherever a convenient space offered itself, bu
there is deep, unconscious significance in th'
days chosen for the latest entries,
The passage which be happened to write II
the space under Sunday, April IS, 1888 Is from
Eeclesiasticus. xxxviH: Weep bitterly over thC
dead. as he Is worthy. and then comfort myself
drive heaviness away; thou shalt not do hin
good, but hurt thyself"
That Sunday afternoon he died suddenly.
For the next Sunday, tho Sunday after his
burial he had written these further words from
| Eccesiastious
when the dead 10 at rest let his remembrance
rest and be oomforted for him when his spirit
is departed from him."--NetV Yorh Herald.
----zgls.------