New-York tribune., 1903-07-05
ONE NOVELIST ON ANOTHER.
Mrs Humphry Yards Tribute to George
Meredith.
From The London Times.

From The London Times.
An interesting speech on the place of the nov
elist at the present day was delivered on
Wednesday evening by Mrs. HumPhry "aru
as the principal guest at a dinner gwen Dy the
New Vagabonds' Club at the Hotel Cecil Deal
ing with the case of writer's who 90 not at once
assert themselves who have to create thelr au-
dience, she spoke at some length on the Work
and influence of Mr.. George Meredith: 'What
a strange thing is this growth OF tacully' IN the
audience of a writer, artist of any klnd! l
was talking once to M HaleVy' the oeng tl
author of 'CriQuette' and 'Frou-Frou ana ne
pointed out to that it is really something
physical-it amounts to a change IN physlcai
capacity. Take the work. he said, or DeSaS-
the great impressionist artist. 'Degas III my
youth gave one of his famous sketches OF
a dancer 1 brought it home to my wife ana
we quarreIed for days as to which was the head
and which were the feet. Each friend that came
in took sides, and blew up the strife We hung
it up differently three times a week. AT last
suddenlv-We saw! We rushed to it. ITEMS,
mon ami!-there is the head-there are the arms
the toesr So the husband and wife kissed
again with tears Then the friends began to
see And now it has become the jewel and glory
of the house; the instructed and the unnstruct-
ed alike know the correct thing to say ABOUT II;
and nobody, of course, Will ever beheVe that ne
saw anything wrong with it from the beginning.
q have often pondered this little tale in think
ing of those writer's. few and rare, who grow
slowly into their fame-especially in thinking
of that great writer the author or Rlchard
FevereP and DIANA who is still happily among
us to whom still express our debt and
our gratitude. How strange it IS! one opens
a book again after ten or twenty years-and all
is What obscure has become a
mere delightful challenge to the wits; what was
a struggle is now a fascination. The reader has
grown to the writer. And round the writer, the
poet-round George Meredith in his seventy
fifth year-the world has become electric. Kind
airs blow now from all parts His books are
read by the thousand where once they were read
by the score. The middle aged and the old look
upon him with new eyes, and listen to him with
new sympathes. While in the universities we
Shall find if we look close that the young and
generous mindS-the minds that matter-are liv-
ing in his life. thinking in his thoughts. If you
talk to them of national freedom they will quote
YOU 'VittOria,' they will grow particular over
every step of ground in the Valtelline that saw
the flight of Vittoria from the Austrian; II you
talk of love scenes. they will ask you to match
if you can the love scenes in Richard Feverep;
they are the eager champions OF the 'EgolSt and
its rapier play; and in landscape they are held
captive by the Meredithian magic by the noun
tain view from Monte MotterOne, and that Won
derful vision of the dawn lit Alps, they bend
round the Adriatic that Beauchamp and Rene
saw; or they that one has ever caught
the breezy color and beauty of an English COM
mon so finely as the writer of certain pages in
Diana Alack! when this young enthusiast
begins to write there are sometimes drawbacks.
1.-The imitation of the Meredithian manner may
be the sincerest form of hattery. 1t is not
profitable form for our young writer's; 1t may
even react upon the great original. and so the
worshipper may wound his idol But after all,
II is a small price to pay for a new national
fame to be added to the old. For it is not only
the men of high education and poetic leisure
and every year more widely-is now
Broad based upon the peoples will
In the free libraries-the much abused free Ii
brares-in the house of the clerk and the work
this noble art and this high poetry are also
finding out their own-are appealing to that nat
ural and widespread instinct for the things of
fine imagination which is our heritage in Eng
land So both from the intellectual elite and
from the populace the great response seems to
be rising once more that places an English writ
er high above the reach Of failure or forgetful-
ness