The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-12

on with the yigor and success of the
dark ages or the early centuries
John Ruskin was beyond doubt one OF
the three or four greatest writers-most
consummate masters OF style, in the last
prolific century OF fine writer's. He had
some vagaries that detracted from his
completeness, was eccentric in taste
somewhat, and full OF prejudice in a
given direction. Among the needless
| books of England and it's literature, ac-
cording to his critical dictum, were Ma
| caulay, Froude, T~hackeray, George Eliot
| Charles Kingsley and Edward Bulwer
Lytton. He r~elegates to the nimbo of
| uselessness also the most famous, per-
haps, certainly the best praised poem in
the nineteenth century. Goethe's Faust"
| The last / have read IN three transla-
| TONS, but / have never been able to
| measure up in my admiration of and
enthusiasm over its merits with the
latter-day critics, or even with some of
thirty and fifty years since. Read in
German it might be otherwise. Strange
to say Ruskin dismisses with his critical
taboo such worldwide famous dramatic
writers-the very greatest Of the Greeks
-Sophocles and Euripides. Why he Gid
rot include also the remaining most il
lustrious of Greek dramatists, Aeschy-
lus, does not appear. Among the "pois-
onous and rubbish" in celebrated works
he would send to the garnet or the
bonfire are Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume.
Grote, Darwin and Locke. l could not
shed tears over the loss of Darwin, and
perhaps one or two others. Ruskin had
only contempt for Grote's History of
Craooo covino that a head c1orE in .
commercial establishment could write
a better one, if he had the vanity to
waste his time on it." He sets aside
Kingsley because his sentiment is
false" and declares that "Hypatia is the
most CHASTITY in Christian tradition, and
should forever have been left in silence
He puts Darwin in limbo most unceri-
moniously. He is severe in reprehend-
ing Gibbon, saying among other things
that primarily, none but the malig-
nant and weak study the decline and
fall of either state or organism" He
even hits hard the most praised of his
torians in English-Gibbon, and because
of his bad style. He declares it lis the
worst English that was ever written by
an educated E~nglishman.' He denies him
imagination, and says he has but lit
tie logic" and 40 wit or picturesque
ness" and declares that his epithets
are malicious without point, sonorous
without weight. and have no office but
to make a fat sentence turgid." He
kicks Voltaire out Of court in the most
positive and direct way. He pronounces
that his work is, in comparison with
good literature, what nitric acid is to
wine, and sulphuretted hydrogen to air.
says there is sitting and stencil in
him - on1 Eho hoe No n1ooo in tho IL
brary of a thoughtful scholar"
The two greatest English poets since
Wordsworth died is beyond doubt Tenny-
son and Browning. Wordsworth outlived
his great contemporaries among the
poets. Tennyson did not begin to write
until Byron, Shelly and Keats were
gone. Coleridge, a great genius, had also
passed away. Miss Wells is a neice of
and has but recently pub |
lished a volume entitled "Glimpses OF
One of her interesting stories
is of the influence her great uncle exert
ed upon his times and country. She tells
of his we'll known song now called Re
Form" written to arouse Great
Britain to prepare for defence or war.
He sent the manuscript to his brother
in-law, Miss Yields father, with this
note: II send you the song in it's last
form. | don't think The Times will put
it in, but you can try if you like. An
other paper will. To be signed It"
The verses We're printed in The London
the next day, May 8, 1859, and
May II the British Government official
~ sanctioned the formation Of a volun-
-eer rifle corps. This was a small in
cident in a great poets career. The
truth is that of all Victorian poets he
the best interpreter of his country
md age, and the most potent factor in
stirring the patriotic ardor of his
,ountrymen. He best knew the thoughts
and necessities Of his people and times,
and best expressed them in his melodi-
U.S., pelucid, exquisite verse. l see it
mentioned that Dean Stubs mot the
great historian of that name, the late
in a recent paper on Robert
Browning says that he had but few Eng
lish characters-only fourteen-among the
-nnumerable list. 1t is noted also that in
out three poems has he any Preference to
The scenery Of an English town or viii
THEODORE BRYANT K~INGSBURY.
Wilmington, N. c., April %, 1903.