The sun., 1919-03-30

level In some respects as mere In pam
living and high thinking fancy we have,
or used to have, the advantage, and ]
have never seen society on the whole as
good ns / used to meet at the Saturday
Club" Such laudation elected sneering
comment from foreign and other sources
to the effect that Mr.. Lowell and his New
England friends were nothing more or
less than o Boston mutual admiration So
ciety; bot Sir Leslie Stephen, the English
critic and essayist, has well pointed out
the mutual admiration, "when it has
fair excuse, is the best security for form
ing the kind Of soil in which the flower
Of talk grows spontaneously"
In connection with the recent Lowell
centenary celebration it is worthy Of men
ton here that no one in England appears
to have appreciated LoweIl's true char
acter better than Leslie Stephen. He had
seen Lowell in great SORROW and in the
most unreserved domestic intimacy; and
the dominant impression Of the man was
his unmixed kindliness and thorough
wholesomeness Of nature. This foreign
estimate accords With that of an Ameri-
can who knew him from his college days
Edward Everett Hale-and who in
sisted that justice had never been done to
LowelPs unsel6shness and constant gener-
osity. Dr.. Emerson relates an anecdote
Of DR.. Holiness last visit to his brother
poet at Elmwood, where he found Lowell
suffering much pain but reading Rob Roy
rs he supposed for the fortieth time, and
enjoying it just as much as when he read
it first. "When DIR. Holmes went home
he got ont his Rob Roy, but In vain; he
could not get interested and wondered
how his friend could" We doubt whether
there is any other English writer of fiction
whose works will bear rcreading as well
as Scott. Mr.. Charles A. Dana assured
the present writer that he had reread all
the Waveriey novels at least four times!
The sketch of Motley, the historian, in
the present volume is contributed by
Prof. Bliss Perry Of the Atlantic Monthly.
Motley from the beginning was always An
enthusiastic Saturday Club man. The only
time that the club as such ever undertook
to exercise any influence in politics was
In his behalf TO prevent his recall from
the pest Of Minister to England. The
effort was unsuccessful and Motley, who
was an exceedingly sensitive man, never
recovered from the shock Of his removal
In his youth Motley was fellow student
of Bismarck in Germany and they became
lifelong friends. Motley used TO write
letters to Bismarck during our civil war,
beginning 'My dear old Bismarck" After
the Franco-Prussian war he wrote the
apostle OF blood and iron that the more
moderate were the terms Of the conqueror
"the greater would be the confidence in
spired by the future" Prince Bismarck
annotated Moteys letter by writing
damn confidenoep on the margin.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was hardly any
more Of typical club man than Ralph
Waldo Emerson; but he found the social
and intellectual attractions of the Boston
Saturday Club so strong that he doubted
whether London In 1859 could muster SO
good party OF literary men as that which
assembled every month at the marble pal
ace (meaning the Parker House, on
School street Charles Eliot Norton al
ways found Hawthorne interesting at the
club gatherings, there Icing an indiVid-
uahty and originality in his talk which
rendered it exceptionally attractive. He
manifested q decided lack Of sympathy
with Charles Sumner, whose magisterial
tone he dislilled. The only departure
from editorial good taste in the present
volume is the insertion Of letter from
the senior Henry James containing an
Characterization Of Havthorne's
personality. A social club which attains
the true ends should be an association Of
gentlemen who are first Of all friends. In
the history of such club the hsPhazard