New-York tribune., 1909-03-13
Literary Neavs and Criticism

man was unable to endure the silence, and IN
despair actually asked. Does not Wycherley
say that the silence OF wise man Is more pfeJu-
dicial than the speech Of a fool?" SO far from
being wrothy over this naughty query JoWett
heard # kindly and acknowledged ana regIet'eu
his unreadiness in the matter OF taik- Aha'
Cambridge worthy DR.. Whewel was even more
formidable I'm taciturnity than the Master or
BalIiol. At his evening parties no undergraduate
ventured to speak unless he was hrst spoken TO-
Once it is related. youth who was being IN
spected closely and in silence by his near-slgnt-
ed host observed in desperate embarrassment
that the weather was fine Sir" said WheWell'
ARE YOU not aware that 81 you have any com
rnunication TO make TO the Master Of your Col
lege. YOU should make ii through your tutor!
An oxford don very unlike Jowett was the
historian. Freeman. Mr.. TolIemache contrib
utes his own stories TO the many illustrating the
mans uncouthness and he quotes others The
best of all perhaps is of the occasion when he
gave TO a learned society "dogmatic ana COM
bative" address on the early inhabitants 7oL
Britain. 4 dinner followed the address ana
the member who proposed the lecturers health
suaveIv remarked "Our best thanks are due to
Professor Freeman for having so well illustrated
the manners Of our rude forefathers! SUI
another oxford man TO whom our author ue-
votes some pleasant pages was that straise'
delightful person Lewis Carroll" otherwise c
1. Dodgson- He quotes peculiarly interesting
description Of the talk Of the creator Of the
Alice books: "Of his brilliancy there can be
no manner of doubt: but it at the same time
very, difficult 10 define or focus. You ask me
for some of his brilliant flashes l am quite
unable to give you any All he said, all ms
oddities and clever things arose out OF the con-
versation-conversation quite Of an ORDINARY
everyday sort: to explain ii at all you Wouio
want shorthand notes of everything that was
said and even then you would not follow IT,
unless YOU knew the people who were taking
the pecularities Of this man and the DEAFNESS
of that and so on. 1t was Alice, ali KINDS OF
queer turns given TO things. You never knew
where he would taRe you next; and all the
while there seemed 10 be an odd logical sequence
almost impelIing your assent to most unex-
pected conclusions. He had q great fund OF
stories: these again were never told indepen-
dently, they were fshed up from his stores by
somo line dropped down in ordinary talk. He
ALWAYS said he never invented them (and my
own impression is that he did noO but that
they had been read somewhere or told him by
some one He never told stories against people,
was never bitter cruel, never attempted 10
score Off others" Elsewhere Mr.. ToLemache
has discussed the friend of his college days,
Mark Pattison but he does not entirely neglect
him here not forgetting TO quote Pattisons
fronical rejoinder to lady who had been prais-
ing simplicity in literary style You are quite
wrong" he said. IF you merely study sim
pIicitv. people will like your writings but will
forget them. Let your style be snowy and
wordy, and you viii have some chance Of being
reuercb bered." There be those who to-day take
Pattison's irony as a rule oc pen.
Mr.. TolIernache confesses that he may some
times shake the chestnut tree. but his readers
will not quarrel with him on that account He
offers them enough that is fresh to hold their
interest-he IS TO be thanked for a very pleasant
hoo