New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-04


Professor Knights "reminiscences of various
distinguished people of his generation are well
worth reading and preservation The book has
its fauits-there is too much William knight in
it, there many passages which are the
merest pressing, and some of its records are too
slight to justify the space devoted to them.
But, though it could have been condensed with
advantage. there ts much that we would be sorry
to lose. The paper CARLYLE. for example, is
so full of entertaining matter that the reader
can afford to disregard what is trivial or egotis-
teal in it, We made to see the man he
was, with the small red apple in his cheek,
which remained till his latest year" and
pouring forth very torrent of talk, with fire
works of the fancy and imagination combined"
This conversational gift. the author believes,
influenced Carlyle's CONTEMPORARIES even more
than did the perusal of his books
Much of his talk. his friend admits. was
marked by injustice, prejudice, one-sidedness.
1t sometimes explosive shallowness. as
when he characterized Darwin. Mill and Spencer
"a magneefcent asses Curously enough,
he seemed to share the tendency of the unedu-
Gated of all races to scorn what was not PER
sOnally interesting to him. Among those he ran
down Macaulay and Hallam, Thackeray
and Jane Austen; and he could not away with
Gladstone and Disraeli. Il don't know that
Dizzy has got a conscience" said he one day.
GLADLY has a conscience, but he just turns it
any way he has a stomach to, and Immediately
thinks it call from God! Hal ha! ha"' He
had the sternness of the Puritan soldier in him,
knight Misunderstanding of the Cromwell he
reverenced. He had uttered on one occasion q
monoogue in praise of Calvinism, when his
companion suggested that there might be an
other side to the question. There is no other
side" said the Scotchman. emphatically. ITS
| do
and there never was a greater hero than Oliver"
The influence of his early religious training was
| strong upon him all his life. There is a story
of his conducting family worship one night. by
his own request in the house of an old friend.
He read aloud one-half the Book of Job, Knight
tells us, till all the domestic servants had fallen
asleep, whereupon he apologized because L had
not read that Eliphaz the Temanite for long
time and he was varra interesting" 1t was
his Puritan host of that evening. by the way,
who is quoted by Professor Knight as asking
Ruskin if he believed Carlyle was safe when
he dies, with all these opinions of his"
OF Tennyson and his talk the author has some
agreeable memories That talk, he says, was
clear as crystal-"not a word was wasted and
every phrase suggestive" He was ready
to remain silent and let others state their posi-
| tions, a great virtue in your genius. He was
an amusing story teller. and liked to extract
| good anecdotes from others as well as to impart
| them. Here are some stories of a visit to Scot
! land, which he recalled for knights benefit:
After he had left an inn in the island of Skye; the
staying III his house? 1t was the poet Tennyson
| He replied: 'IOr-to think o that And sure
THOUGHT he shenteman!' Near Stirling the
| same remark made to the keeper of the hote
ye t. other night?' 'Naa; but he pleasant
| shenteman" at was Tennyson, the poet An
! wha' may he be-" "Oh, he is writer O. verses
sic as ye see i the papers, Moo to think o
that Jeest pooblic writer, an L gled him Ina
Talking of the early efforts of poets. Tenny
son spoke with severity of 'the diseased crav
ing of many persons to have the trif1es of mar
of genius preserved, and of the positive crime
of publishing what poet had himself delber
ately suppressed" He equally right an(
just in his censure of the oily attempts to fine
personal and local meanings in poets lines
| There are curious creatures" he said
"who go about fishing for the people and search
ing for the places which they fancy must hav
given rise to poems. They don't understand
or believe that have any imagination of ou
own to create the people the places. o
course, often describe, but we generally lie
that be known easily enough"
Concerning Robert Browning. ProfesSo
Knight grows almost dithyrambic He cal
/ Of an.