Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1914-03-17
AUTHORS CONTRASTED
MEREDITH AND HARDY
University Extension Course Lecture
at &. Johns College
THE OPTImlST AND PESSIMIST.
Each Has a Place 10 The Literary
World Saws Dr.. Wilkinson ia
Snlendid Lecture.

That the optimist aud the pcssi-
mist each has a place in the liter
ary world. was the keynote Cf the
delightful Lecture given last night
in Mcdowell Hall, ST. Johns Col
lege The lecture was the third in
the course Of the Department of
University Extension. and the lee
turer was Dr. Louis u. Wilkinson.
whose subject was George Mere
diih Contrasted with Thomas Hardy.
Mr. wilkinson is q delightful lee
turer. He delivers his lectures in an
easy, natural style, in the choicest
English and with a mannerism that
is altogether pleasing He prest nts
tn 2 facts. drives home the point at
issue, and leaves his audieuc, e. draw
their lwn inference in summing up
the gist OF the argument. tie pre-
sented the contrasting writer's and
their style of authorship with great
vividness. Hardy, he said, stands for
fame; Meredith for art, while Mere
dith excels in vividness. Hardy is
interesting along the great facts of
human life. He is noted for perspi-
Guilty of style and simplicit.. He
deals with the people an every day
walks of life, while Meredith seeks
10 pry into the psychological
Hardy writes fiction as though g
painful duty, as though be thought
he had an anatomical subject on the
dissecting table and were an anato-
mist. Hardy has the power Of
character zatfon A novclist
does not deserve the name unless
he interests us in character Henry
James cannot be compared 60 him,
said DR. wilkinson He said Mere
dith is writer whose characters
are more real than Dickens char
acters. Dickens portrays q cherac-
tsristic which he personifss as in
Picksnif, while Meredith's charRc-
ters are real Meredith's heroines
are more interesting than his heroes.
He is a suffrsgist He holds that
women are entitled 10 vote He saw
only the beginning OF militancy.
John Bull needs to be sensationally
aroused, said Dr. Wilkinson. You
must box his ears before you can
make him take notice
Meredith bad the sense Of humor
he was not English, but Welsh. he
believed in methods Of violence If
need be. He believed women should
have ample scope, and women and
men should msidtain equal ground.
and the sooner the better We hear
Of the eternal feminine, but never
q -,
place is not only in the home, but in
the world. 1t is not good for man 20
be too much looked up to, intellectually,
/ Dy woman, said Dr. Wilkinson He
| contrasted Hardy's Tess of the
D'Ubervilles" which is the black tiag
of pessimism, with Meredith's opti-
mistic characters Hardy centers
his mind upon the suffering Of the
/ individual, the weakness that has
been curse. Being q pessimist, he
is mostly drawn toward the down
trodden. He is able to distill the es-
sence of the situation in ironic Rlee,
and sinister irony. Hardy is a dis
illusionist, an ironist, a pessimist.
Meredith, the cptimist, thinks il
worth while 10 use mirth with the
neral in view. You may take Hardy
too seriously, but be plays his part
and performs his function. The
pessimist has his place in the world
just as we'll az the optlmist. We
should eliminate the faults Of both.
A large and appreeiative audience, 20
gether with the student body, enjoy
ed the lecture.