The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-30

l noticed ladies weeping; ana tne
read them A man who despised
the greatest poetry-Homer Dante,
Milton and the others, and called ii
contemporary "caterwawling," is not
the man from whom / would take
philosophy, common-sense or inspira-
ton of any kind. Whether in the
otner world h has learned what
poetry really is / would not undertake
to say, but he has probably found the
right answer to Pilates question of
the Lord Jesus What is
Truth ?" When a man is denied all
taste and appreciation of poetry it is
great presumption for him to essay
to pronounce judgment upon It.
Coleridge. a far greater man than
Herbert Spencer, sid that poetry has
been it's own exceeding great reward.
Goldsmith said of it.
Thou guide by which the nobler arts
Thou nurse of every virtue excel"
And Sir William Temple, not poet
wrote this of poetry: But whoever
find themselves wholly insensible to
these charms, would, / think, do well
to keep their own council, for fear of
approaching their own temper. and
bringing the goodness of their natures,
if not of their understanding, into
question"
OF all Northern born men Of letters
the greatest genius / believe is Ma
thaniel Hawthorne. He was certainly
the foremost of all Northern authors
in the fictive field, and is beyond fair
questioning the greatest of all Ameri-
can novelists. His hundredth anniver-
sary has been celebrated, and the Eng
liSh press as well as some of it's prom
inent magazines and reviews had ar
ticles upon the great American. OF
course his genius is not regarded with
as much favor as it was decades ago.
1t is discovered that he had limitations,
and was provincial like nearly all New
England writer's, but he is allowed to
be credited with delicate and subtle
genius which counts for something.
In England among others who praised
Hawthorne, was Mrs. Ward, the noted
novelist. Some one, l do not know
who it is, wrote not long since, and it
is sensible and we'll put: '"The great
ness of his genius becomes more
prominent when we remember the
provinciality of the man. By birth, or
education, or possibly by cultivated
prejudice, he was deprived of that
breadth of view that another man of
his genius would in nearly every case
have attained, but that fact did not
in the slightest degree lessen the great
ness of what he accomplished.
There is movement afoot in Great
Britain to excavate largely at the
buried city of Herculaneum. 1t is un-
derstood that there lie buried amid the
ruins several famous Roman libraries.
Thus far but one villa has been ex-
posed, and is found to contain 1000
papyri. A writer in the New York
Saturday Review" considering this
important find" says that it means
so much that the prospect is enough
to make the brain of a modern Hell
lenist reel. For, Of course, the culture
of Herculaneum was Hellenic 1t was
the Greek authors who were discussed
at dinners and at the bath; statuarv
from Greece adorned the homes of
the patricians; Greek slaves were en-
ployed in preference to all others AS
early as the first century B. c. there
were notable private libraries in Rome.
That of the grammarian Tyrannion
consisted of 10000 rolls. and Atticus,
the friend of Cicero, had a splendid
collection"
An interesting book is George
Meredith. A Study" 1t was written
by Miss Hannah Lynch. an English
woman who died in January, 1904
She was a writer of ability. She wrote
a dozen or so volumes, mostly novels
A new edition Of George Chapman S
plays has appeared, pages AIS, price,
81. The plays included are "All
Fools, Busy D'Ambois," THE Re-
venge of Busy ID Ambois,' 1.-THE Con-
spiracy of Charles, Duke of Byron"
and 1.-THE Tragedy of Charles. Duke of
Byron" But these are only q part of
what Chapman wrote. The editor is
w. L. Phelps, of Yale University, and
he writes in decided d;sparagement nf
the dramatist. [ quote: Chapman s
tragedies indicate the decay of the
drama in their search for the horrible
in their public display of physical an
=nish aid in their free use of gn"sts
The introduction of the supernatural
element greatly mars these two plays
cThe Spanish Tragedy and "Titus
Andronicus") for instead of giving
color and atmosphere as in Macbeth, >
it is here too evidently superfuous
His formlesSneSS and wea knees
as playwright have never been suf.
| fciently estimated; and the infinite
vcrbosity of his plays has. caused mucf
needless suffering to patient readers.
! Wilmington, N. G..