The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-11

find II in the anclents, those whom
we must respect even II we do not
personally like them. That is where
the lecturer-essayist c~ontradicts his
dictum of impressionism. To make
himself quite clear on the grand
or great style he says. pretty trench
antly. Hector and Andromache can
talk to one another of their love, of
their eternal parting, OF their child,
and they can do this In the great
style; but IL they fell into dispute over
the particular sex conventions that
existed in their age. they might be
attractive still, but they would not he
uttering words in the great style"
But a style great enough to hold
Rabelais. Dante, Lamb, Dickens, Pa
ter. Poe and Walt whitman is too
great for comfort or much use.
Rabelais dealt bravely with "the
Cloaca Maxima side of things" which
made Swift crazy. When we read the
defence of the old fellow against a
trumpet up charge of indecency We
would be a P~antagruel. that tears
large as ostrich eggs" might roll down
our checks. Dante Is "the woman's
great poet" his world centres in sex,
his supreme greatness is his union
"in the grand style Of romantic love
and devotional religion, the very
thing that a made his influence
| upon modern art $50 morbid and evil"
Milton is -" a mans poet" 1t is n
little surprising to find him described
as "the incarnation Of the Nietzschean
ideal" ever though he was hard,
cold, contemptuous." To him the
universe was a battle-ground Of oppos-
ing wills. He IL less Of a Christian
than any other European writer since
the Gospel appeared" His Testament
was the Old.
What OF Avon's Bard? THE
Shakespeare OF the popular REVEALS
Is a fantastic caricature. The Shake
speare of the college text books is a
lean scarecrow. But the Shake speare
81 the philosophical mornllsts is a
hobgoblin from whom one fees in dis
may" German masters of the criti-
cal operating table forget hat shake
speare was as profoundly the enemy
Of scholastic pedantry> as he was the
enemy OF puritan expenditures"
Forget the Interpreters read Shake
spearc. and o find "the perfectly
natural man confronting the uni
verse" When you get To the bottom
Of his mind o find absolute
scepticism." In the drama OF unlver-
sal experience he forgets the 'outer.
terror" The author philosophers:
Inflated moods OF false optimistic hope.
praematic solf-deception, are signs o. n
a. ~ 49,
indecent gratitude" OF the pig over his
trough. !, is the little yellow eye of
sanctihed bliss turned up 20 the God sho
must be I'm his Heaven" ~ We are not
so privileged. This never doubling good
will triumph" Is really nothing but tho
inverted prostration OF the hello; slave,
glad to have been allowed 20 get 80
totally drunk.
Shakespeare Is Shameless" in the
art Of his drama. Poetry is the be
all and end all Of the plays. says Mr..
Powys. Those who do not see II quite
SO will siill unanimously indorse the
protest against the wearisome tbut Is
IL not now a happily abatlng nuls-
ance?) study" of the Shakespearian
grammar, history, biology. botany,
geography. psychology, ethics.
Lamb has among his admirers
more uninteresting people than any
great artist has ever had except
Thackeray." Dickens Is a hopeless
conventionalist." Matthew Arnold is
IA greater poet than Tennyson or
Browning" Shelley is IA most rare
and invaluable thinker as well as a
most exquisite poet" Keats Is the
zone poet Of beauty, of beauty alone,
of beauty and nauGht else" a martyr
of beauty. Nietzsche is becoming
accepted the preachers are quoting
him" Poor Fritz In Thomas Hardy
there are two spirits. one infinitely
sorrowful and tender, the other whim-
steal. elfsh and malign." Jude and
Tess. pater gives the taste of every
drop" in life's cup. Dostoievsky
writes what every one has felt hut not
dared TO think, or thought but not
dared to say. all the terrible wh!s-
pers from the ~unspeakable margins"
There is some nonsense in these
pages, and not n little affectation. But
Mr.. l'owys has the courage to say
what he thinks. and TO think some
things that are not part Of dull aca-
demic convention. Even a reader no'
sensitive 10 the fine details of typog-
raphy might find the lack OF proof
reading in Visions and Revlslons" an
noying. DE Ninci." "rythm.' abyss
NAL" "Lionardo,' "portentious' might
be pardoned as oversights. but the
hahitual "neither-or" and the indis-
nutohly Intentional "AIIep" ~ Elunr