New-York tribune., 1905-08-06


In his earlier days he created that figure of
melancholy, misanthrOpicaI. saturnine Byron,
pitfalls Fools believed him and wise men chaffed
him For in reality he was the sCul of hum1r and
rag" Hobhouse was not perhaps the friend he
0t most b 6e but but Ta nj the friend Who Who
Byron no doubt was melancholy on occasions
subjects over which his melancholy might play.
But that ms was essentially a laughing mind rel
ishinS life and humanity, no one who reads his
most intimate letters, can possibly doubt The
melancholy was not all pose-but it was often a
pose-and it is to be noted that when man &C
so far with him: There is an eminent statesman
who remarkable in earlier years for omni-
a miracle OF conceit, but his closer friends who
made joke of the ponpcsity. knew that he Joined
think the case was much the same with Bylons
nd % @s TO bd soul Sc and di
decline to believe that such an exercise h2 Of Re
thing-or anything of much Importance.
The author of that much discussed hook, An
Englishwoman's Love Letters'-Mr. Laurenca
Housman, to wits about to publish hoVvi
which he calls "All HallOws." Remembering
how much literary excitement was pumped up
over those Letters it would be interesting 10
know if anybody can give them second read
ing.
edition of the works of Rusllin is devoted TO his
strange outpouring in the field of polltica!
economy. 1t beglnS with unto IHlS L'iSt, IL
publication Of which in 1.-The Cornhlh was
stopped by ThackeraY in dismay at the popular
clamor against it. Ruskin thought that tnt"
This Last Was the best book he had ever writ
ten.
In these davs probably nobody except the truly
conscientious student Of literature reads the
poems of James Thomson. There exists, never
theless sufficient regard for his memory TO IN
sure the restoration of the memorial al N! y
burgh Abbey-the ionic temple erected by the
eleventh Earl of Buchan. 1t rs at present III i
state of dilapidation and weednesS, when nov
iuappropIiately celebrates a poet who used J"
eat the sunny sides of peaches on the tree with
out taking his hands from his pockets and cut
the pages of his books with the snuners.
The reader who is TOO snugly intrenched III ms
own castle of Incidence" to hunt up the events
of Thcnson's career is invited TO glance "a th'S
not inadequate paragraph from The i huoN
The author Of '.The Castle Of Indoence" was =
characteristca!ly indoicnt man But he .t[ed ~ ed a
Born in 100 the son of a Scotch minister he cam
nobI@man- ana in 1870 published The Seasons 10y
mndar5 poets Would be glad to do as well
ESPECIALLY as Thomsons euineas had perhaps three
times their present purchasing power; IhSn ne
line, Mhe'9 % % sopbonsba, soPhons6a, or, rrGmpli$
T5aea b6lo5 by P2TodH er io this Thomson got one
little sinecurc post aftCr another; 1nciu4ihi IN .
duties performed by Deputy which brought hlm II
fS06 q year So he settled down snugly To life q
couple of fields. at Kew Lane. Here he wrote The
Castle of Incidence" and some more dramas; b";
unfortunately, taking Il boat one cool night 'd
Hammcrsmith, when heated by walkIng ifoih Lon
don he caught fever. and died IN the f"Tt}-'iSh !
year of his age. The best work on TbouSC1 IS ~
French. Professor Leon Morcls James Th"n's"aI
sa Vie ct Ses QUVTcs which appeared N loj2
The fourth quarto of Shakespeare's Richard
ILL., sold in London the other day, IS believed
to be only the third copy known, the oth"r twn
being in the BOdleian Library and the British
Museum 1t bears in five places the autograph
of William Penn 1t brought SSI1O at ;'IC-
ton and was purchased, il is sUpposcd- for al
American.
DR. Johnson's ideas children's reading arc
worth quotation in this period of educational
uncertainties. We owe their recaptuIa5io1 to
John Longley:
I remember Lady Rothes spoke of the advantage
children now derived from tie little books pub
lished purposcly Tor their instruction Johnson
controverted it, asserting that at an early aSc il
TO attempt planting truth before the mind was
pared to receive it, and that therefore Jack the
Giant Killer, PariSmuS anC ParlsmenuS, and tn!
Seven Champions of Christcndom were filter tcf
them than Mrs. Barbauld Mrs Trimmer lia
did not however, convert his audience. for ns4thct
Lady Rothes my wife changed their mode ot
instruction in consequence.
We are inclined TO think that the great lexi-
cographer. was wiser than Inc mainInas Win
their cherished little booAs