New-York tribune., 1910-11-30

or anything ne thought tyranny. geHef-
Gus if undiscriminating sympathy with
the oppressed, shine, in fact. on every
page. But enough. Let me only add
that fitting climax to the great poem
comes In the unmatched passage begin
ming:
Oh. that the Desert were my dwelling
place,
and ending with the apostrophe TO the
Ocean. of which it is not too much to
say that no more splendid addition TO
English verse has been made, from
Byron's day to this.
The wild. often unreasoning love Of
liberty which pulsates throughout his
work, and was consecrated in his death,
and the enormous spiritual force which
it and his genius gave him throughout
Europe. made him Social Solvent,
rather than a Regeneration of Society;
Solvent of sitting precedents and of ar
bitrary rule, rather than an Emanci-
pator. Wherever his prodfgiOus lnfu-
ence In that seething time extended, he
unsettled things. but they have been the
helped start tendencies then which.
under wiser guidance, before the end OF
the century. had changed the face or
Great Britain and of Europe
Well, Mr.. President, you have at any
rate chosen a great name. and your own.
for your new chair of English ntera-
ture If the young men you teach from
it are lifted at all to the heights wh1ch
Byron trod with ease, there will be here
a new birth OF letters and a new inspira-
ton for the high cause Of human rlgnts
all round the world. You VIII surely
be careful that these young men are not
Iured to the neither depths in which ne
also so often dwelt. by the baleful lights
corpse lights, indeed-which gleam
from the worst Of his verse. You VIII
not gild his amazing egotism- You VIII
not bid them admire his incessant iter-
alton of his private griefs and thirst Tor
revenge; nor will you let his Intrusion
of these and other unseemly SUBJECTS
upon the world be longer batned In the
glamour which the taste and morals OF
the Regency permitted to hover about MS
nerfect features and romantic story.
Won will not commend his studied pose
as a disdainfuI martyr, or his theatrical
display of his injuries. his misery, the
evil ne has done and the pardon he mas
granted to thoso he wronged-
But when ali this sparkling froth ana
dull. noisone sediment has been re1ecteu'
YOU will still be able to hold up Tor ao-
miratton and instruction a body of noble
English verse hardly surpassed, per-
hans hardly equalled, In the whole cen
tury whose dawn he Illuminated. IL Is
verse. too, wherein the dictum utterly
disappears that it must be without re-
Iation to truth or duty, for IL S1ealh lheS
the wider, more humane truths it' :" 'nci
the world began growing up through the
nineteenth century; 1t is bugle cali 10
duty, and its strong, lasting note Is
Liberty.
Yet. Freedom! yet thy banner. toFn' Out
Streams like the thunderstorm against
the wind; o,5
The ioEdest still the tempest leaves be-
Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the
chopp'd by the axe. looks rough and little
worth, ~ -.
But the sap lasts.-ano stlil tho seeo
sown deep. even in the bosom OF the
So shah a better spring less bitter fruit
bring forth
That spring has come His anticipa-
t,ons have been moro than realized. He
builded better than he knew when he
set the solvent power of his verse TO
weakening old conventions and SO mucn
of the old political and social order. II
we cannot credit him with seeking or
foreseetng the real results, we must
credit him at any rate with brilliant
share in making them possible And SO
It comes that the honor the professor
in YOUR new chair may justly ascribe to
your illustrious son for whom IL Is
named, the pride and gratitude that you
In Nottingham may justly feel for him,
will be heightened when you consider
the difference In the condition Of the
empire. the widening of the bounds of
ordered liberty under law. the difference
in English rights and privileges. in the
English Court and in the fountain of
Honor. in your wellbeing at home and In
vour standing abroad-the enormous dif-
ference between the periods of George
the Fourth and George the Fifth.