New-York tribune., 1910-02-19

cause they are good This 10 MT how,
ever. the highest kind of yoodn.ss Int
it wears perfectly we'll and alvavs looks
sleek Landor was then living ,,non a
new estate in Wales, ard wae h,,;dinr
house and his rash telnpcr vros hroal,-
ing oul III squabbles with neighbors and
tenants ana poachers. These rascals.'
he tells Birch, have as great a hatred
OF a Saxon as their runaway forefatbers
had. | never shall cease to u;sb tba+
Julius Cesar had utterly evtor,,tno+ea
the whole race of Britons ~, CON.
vinced they are as irreclaimabIe ae evn-
sies or Malays; they show themselves
en- every occasion hospitibps fcyos >, ue
soon departed for Italy, and it was in
Italy that most of the remaining letters
were written. One of them deals nar,1v
with the proposed education of his frst
born, then a baby:
| smile at Your idea that fonr ~ 6,-o
years hence l shall be deem in ~, NV of
education Ny plan is to have no plan ut
all. L snail teach my son La tin and f.reel
as teach him Italian and English b,,
practice One year is enough for lon
guage. If the mind is never, puzzled hy
grammars which few remember for tho
first nine or ten years. or consult after
ward Facciolati. the purest of modern
Batinsts unless you oppose Renho or
Ruhnkenius banisiles grammar ,,,oo fron3 s', OF
cation ! had fixed my intention before T
read his oration on this subject from oh
serving that all we'll educated parsons
speak grammaticaly without grammar,
and that all learned persons write l.ngran-
natically with it. To swim and fence and
love cleanliness are the three things IN he
taught first. I intend to keep him aIways
among women, that nc may be desirous of
pleasing. and learn cracefulneSs and ease
of manners which few FnElishmen tedtI-
Gated in Englandl can acquire. remen7-
her the grossnesS and responsiveness Of my
own manners. and am conscious Of how
much still retain of those truly British
qualities
There is a good deal Of literary criti-
oism in these 1etters-somc of it pure
gold, some curiously wrong-headed in
characteristically Landorian fashion He
had an extraordinary liking for Southey's
poetry. and for Wordsworth's an admira-
ton more easily understa ndable. After
reading part of the Excursion" he
wrote to Birch that If the whole was
equal to that portion of it he did mot
hesitate to assert that all the produc-
tions of the Augustan age put together
fall greatly short of it." He hears that
Wordsworth is about to make him a.
present of a new poem, and he exclaiIns:
Such a present from w is like a king
dom given by Alexander to Cyrus"
Byron and his verse he apparently
loathed: "Biron (sic) is incapable of con-
tinued and strenuous exertion 4 mind
of his structure is radically weak. It may
present in its changes and movements
some bright phases. but it can do no more
B. has done at thirty all he can do at
forty, as You will see if. indeed, you
should ever read his poems All his
Feelings are of the same tone, all his
characters OF the same cast. Be
tween genuine poetry and that of Bron
there is the same difference as between
roses and altar Of roses. He smells of
the spirit and of the flower; you are
oVerpoWered and not satisfied" And in
a later letter he says: MY opinion is
this. that man of a heart so rotten, and
mind so incompact, was never formed
for more than temporary greatness. IF
he would do this if he would do that
should not be said it IS not his nature
The book he reads oftener than any
other, he tells Birch, is Ciceros Epistles.
1t is the most important of all histories
and the most true-I had almost said the
only true. Certainly one reason why the
anclentS excel us is this-they say invaria-
bly, what delights and instructs without
caring about truth. How elegant is the
language in the whole volume. except in
the letters of NJ. Antonus. What frank
ness and negligence! Here we find the
very words of Cate. Cesar and Brutus
who, together with the great men to whom
they were addressed, We're equal to all the
living creatures united that the world has
ever produced. What q quaterniOn. in
which Cesar is the least, Pity that he
hardly appears. and that more is said OF
him than by him.
In letter written three years after,
Landor says that he has been reading