New-York tribune., 1904-09-25


ha loss omen to criticism. He was not brilliant
correspondent. and there is little that Is quot
able I'm the great mass OF letters his biosrapner
has printed. AS 1t happens. the chief point OF
interest In this book. when once CoweHs emil
nence as q scholar and his engaging personai
traits have been apprehended. lies in the account
Il gives of his friendship with Omar Fitz
Gerald who would probably never have trans
lated his Persian poet IL 1t had not been for
Cowen who gave him the necessary Impetus
In one of his letters Fitz Gerald. writing of his
Cambridge friend. speaks o. him as "the most
learned man there. believe. and the most amia-
BILE and delightful. believe also" Cowell. In
his turn. once described his eulogist In this
wise: HE is n man of real power. one such as
we seldom meet with in the world There IL
something very solid and stately about him,
kind of slumbering giant silent Vesuvius.
1t is only at times that the eruption comes, but
when IT does come 1t overwhelms your They
understood and loved another, and it Is
hardly an exaggeration to say that most of the
bright spots In CoweIl's biography are those
In which their relations recalled The
reader finds himself. rather shamefacedy. look
ing less for light the professor than for light
on the poet.
There is curious hint given OF an unsus-
pected romantic episode in Fitz Gerald's life.
When CoweH announced his engagement to Miss
CharIesworth. Fitz Gerald exclaimed: 1.-The deuce
you arei Why. you have taken my Ladyr' III
his heart was seriously engaged in that quarter
he never allowed the fact to become known. but
remained the most affectionate terms with
the Cowells. When they preparing to go
to Calcutta he fell into veritabIe panic. and
did his best to dissuade them. "I was talking
to DIR. Carlyle Great Toms brother) about
India he writes land he gave me an Ill ac-
mint II Of tha If Trof,
damp and relaxing-and he mentioned the dis
gust OF the frequent sight of Bodies floating
down the Hooghly. etc. which 1 have often
read Of He had other arguments to advance
and even went so far to remind his friend i'm
his usual generous way, that If staying in Eng
land were a question of money he might come to
the rescue He could not bear to meet the
Cowells face to face. Ito say Goodbye that
costs me so much" and sent line OF farewell
instead When the wanderers came back they
found their old friend changed. Very character
stic is the letter In which he himself warns
them OF what TO expect:
All. am afraid you will ind me a torpid and
lncuriOus Man compared TO what you left me and
then was just wearing that way you know. Since
cas- SPEEDING sad the stupid mart Of y Ssirs
seeing none Of the nice People and only reading
Novels.
AS write these last words a Letter from f.
dine; and then read it-aII which Is done and So
now will finish this Note under the Spell OF a few
Glasses OF Sherry.
Sooner or later. in any batch OF Fitz GeraId's
letters. some remarks on Dickens are bound to
come out. The new letters here printed do not
dsappont us I'm this respect. "Oh. how
have been regaling Dickens's Mutual
Frend'r' he exclaims quite absurd / know
but yet the Mighty little Magician In every
Page: as true q Genius as ever lived though not
the highest or completest. He has taken to be
Cariylese. think: not for the better; and in
several respects one he Is not all he was.
but he is Dickens still" or Thackeray he says
that he "is n noble Feliow-Something of a
Great Man" His rather skepticaI attitude
toward certain OF his contemporaries Is anus
ingly disclosed I'm a reference he makes TO an
interchange of thoughts with Speeding You
will see that have taxed him with perverse-
ness about Browning. and have asked him IL he
went on to Morris and Gabriel Dante RossettI
whom The Atheneum' is now crying up as also
does The Pail Mall Budget / dare say Norris
Is the best OF all three: but how can n Man.
especially when not OF the very first Genius
undertake Jason and Medea slpshod through
long Poem?" Cowell has. by the way an alIu-
sion to a well known epistolary trait of Fitz
Geralds He used to say. Il love plenty of
capital letters" These dim souvenirs of "Old
Fitz" are trifing enough. but somehow they are
Wonderfully welcome. After all. when every