New-York tribune., 1907-11-08
Literary Wes0s and Cr;1fc;c,

huge smooth stems coated tt @ anoqt upon the
arnica bandapaeu u nave been three days lame, with
of the air the f me scene in the wood the purity
at work afbIa,Gn fbIn giants all around. and the men
boIes joun In,hdffncally hauling those unmanageable
either of "T5'n n a sprain! I have had no proofs of
Study OF Dante %hS . s. An Introduction 10 the
When | look AZ the new EDITION and the EssaysD
here 7 am n,,the a. the proofs of the Essays already
writta W IN many ny ways the important book baVe
with the way the work was ben ae was not SATISFIED
ton (regardng thcy my & trials on the path publca
arc enough 10 provoke a saint ''0-0 VI"
a great weight is taken off his mind he
writes to Mr.. Brown. when at last he receives
copy OF the book in which as he said he
was more interested than he had been in anv
other-"rot in its success-that must take care
OF itself, and really does not rnatter-b,,t IN
What people think of it, for 1 put a great deal
Vi iilysei INTO It,. The result, as is we'll re-
Hlembercd by those who always followed Sv-
monds's career with special solicitude was not
altogether successful. He was ENCOURAGED nv
MS friend. who made him feel that ''the long
ulSclpllne he gave himself in preparing the
DOCK had not been thrown away but his re-
viewers were hard upon him, and we find him
Writing to Henry Sidgwick, Il think made a
mistake IN supposing could do things of that
sort We'll and that I could acquire distinction
py pruning off my personal proclivities toward
certain kinds OF rhetoric" After all. we fear
that he was right in this admission, right in
feeling humbled" by the criticism in 1.-THE
Athen9um," which, when he first read It, put
him in "a nightmarish mood" and led him to
grid at the reviewer.
Symonds was not deep philosophical thinker
He wrote on some high themes in this collection
Of essays-"The Philosophy of Evolution"
Some Principles of Criticism" THE Relation
Of Art to Science and Morality" Realism and
ldealism.' and so on He handled them sug-
gestively but within limits that soon defined
themselves, and the Speculation" which Is also
promised by the title. somehow lacks the scope.
as his conclusions lack the weight, which
expect from a man dealing with lofty issues.
He was a brilliant man OF letters thoughtful.
imaginative. with a hint Of the poetic tenn
perament He could talk engagingly around
such subjects as are here introduced. but his
talk. on this occasion. was not enough "of the
centre" When he was doing such work as he
put into his voluminous study of the Renais-
sance. or into the miscellaneous essays OF an
artistic, biographical purely literary char
acter which he produced with such facility, he
was on firm ground and could render solid
vice to his reader. AS a thinker pure and sim
pie he had neither the insight nor the freshness,
neither the daring nor the certitude, essential to
profitable speculation If these Essays had
been for the good reason that they do not
embody thoughts Of great vitality, which the
world would insist upon enjoying. There is
certainly enough in the book. however to make
1t readable, and to justify its inclusion in the
uniform edition of the authors works. Those
TO whom he has long been friend will be glad
Of this reprint and doubtless others will look
into il with curiosity. and, perhaps, some profit.
There is a passage. by the way, In Mr..
Browns affectionately written preface which we
find rather puzzling. Abiding to Symondss
translation OF the Memoirs of Count Carlo
Gozzi," he says that the book never interested
him" When Symonds writes him saying. Il
don't know what devil has got possession of my
own style and dried its wells up" he makes this
comment: '"The devil think. was boredom with
Gozzi," ETC. To the reader OF Symonds's ver-
sion Of Gozzi this is merely astonishing. for IN
introducing the memoirs he suggests nothing
but the keenest appreciation OF them. He tells
how he tried for years TO get a complete copy or
the work, and altogether leaves the impression
that Gozzi deeply satisfied his passionate in
stinct for biographical literature