The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-25
ALifera ry Letter
By RIcHRRD LE GRLLlENNE.

drive heaviness away; thou shalt not do
him good, but hurt myself" For the
following Sunday, that was to be the
Sunday after his burial. he had chosen
these words from the same book: when
the dead is at rest. let his remembrance
rest, and be comfOrted for him when his
spirit is departed from him
As we turn over these notebooks one is
soon struck by two significant features:
the frequency Of Bible quotations. and
the prepondeTance of quotations in Ian
gUages other than English-French. Lat
In. German, Greek. and particularly
French. The self-cOmplacent Anglo
Saxon mind perhaps needs some such re-
minder of how little of the best that is
known and thought in the world is Of
Anelo-SaXon origin. It is humiliating to
think how dependent on the despised
foreigner" is the Anglo-Saxon for his
spiritual and, intellectual imports
Matthew ArnoId's mind. for all his lit
erary discipleship to French masters. was
sOundly English. yet how comparatively
little he relied on English writers for his
spiritual and mental food. page after
page Of these notebooks bear evidence.
Indeed. unless one is something of a
pOlyGlOt. these notebooks are closed to
one, 50 learned was Arnoid's daily diet
When English does occur. it is usually
the noble English of the Bible: "Ye shall
be holy; for !, the Eternal. your God, am
holy" or Righteousness deIivereth from
DEATH Stern simple food always: the
dry bread and water of the prophets,
with an occasional rice pudding
Occasionally one comes upon a jotting
of ArnOld's own, as. for example, these
dicta concerning genius; ''The 3 tokens
of genius; extraordinary understandings
extraordinary conduct ard extraordinary
exertiOn.
The things that improve genius;
proper exertion.- frequent exertion and
successful exertion:
The things that support genius:
prosperity. social acquaintance and APP
plause"
Occasionally amid all the notices Of
marble and iron there is set a sprig of
verse, and now and again we come upon
that twinkle of raillery which he knew
how to use with such deadly effect upon
British philistinism. We can imagine the
chuckle with which he copied down this
gem" from the speech of some forgotten
politician, labelling it "Woolwich Candi-
date: Hope. together with her twin
sisters. Faith and Charity, was known to
the ancients under the name of the
Three GTaces.'
1t WAS his custom to write in the diary
from which these notebooks" are taken.
a list of the books he proposed to read
during the year. and. as he read them.
to strike out the titles. Mrs. WOdehOuSe
prints one or two of these lists. For the
year in which he died. 1888. it will inter
est American readers to know that he
had written down two of Fennimore
COopers novels. THE Pioneer and THE
Spy" and ne had read them both. He
had also intended reaGing "TTistram
Shandy'" Hardy's Hand of Ethelberta''
and Rossetti's Poems" amongst many
others. Robert Elsmere'' is struck off
the list as read. That. OF course was d
family duty One notes. too, as charac-
teristic that WordsWOTth's prelude CXII
to end'D had been read once more.
It is good news that Mr. Bliss Carman
is to edit a literary magazine for Messrs.
L. c. Page q Co; and Professor Wood
berry's journal of Comparative I.itera-
ture," to be published quarterly by
Messrs. Mcclure, Phillips & Co. is sure
of wide welcome by scholars and all
serious lovers of literature.