The evening world., 1920-07-24
TURNING THE PAGES
81
Otis Peabody Swift
Coptisht. 1000 BY The Irchs rub lshIna %
In Ancient Egypt.
Copyright. 1890. b. The Tres Fubl ships 90.
1.-THE New York Evening World.

In Ancient Egypt.
"The night that hung over the sea
was MINDLESS and blissfully silver pure
after the glowing splendor Of the day;
and the great quadrireme glided
evenly and softly, as though upon a
lake, under a wide armament OF stars.
The thin horizon was purely outlined
around the oval sea, and on this wide
world there was nothing but the stars
and the ship.
But the ship resounded with
music There was the constantly re-
peated melodious phrase of the three
hundred rowers, soft and monotone,
In a melancholy minor with ever the
same refrain. ." This music
rose from the lower deck; and har-
monizing with it were the soft stroke
OF the oars, which were Like the legs
Of some graceful sea animal; the ship
itself with her swanlike, raised prov,
suggested an elegant monster swim
ming through the lake calm waters of,
that silvery night world, "A monster
with a>swan's neck and hundreds Of
slender, evenly-moving legs and
winged with two rose yellow sail1
which rose and bellied gently wit5the
ships own motion. but did notbwell,
because the wind lay still" Y
Thus opens the first chapter of THE
Tour" by Louis Couperus, a box
entirely delightful. Publius LuduA'
Sabinus, young nobleman of Rome is
journeylng across the Mediterranean
TO Egypt, hoping TO find there forget
fulness Of an unhappy love. Behind
him the Roman Empire is at Its
height, and the Egypt that he find. is
Egypt dying, "A land of crumhlng'
cities of clay, where old priests pay
10 dead gods in half forgotten Temples.
over the movement of the story haAgs
that heavy pulsslnt sense of the M
pending doom that will come uJons
the land, the far of voice of veneeful
gods that sounds above the stroOhe0
and antistrophe of the Greek Tragedies.
Withal 1t is a pleasant story,
limpidly written and full OF charm
Orchids Of the Jungles...
THE best place TO get orchids for
experiments in cross-fertilizationii is.
Souih America. They have reached
higheES development there. The rar-
est, most wonderful flowers in The
world are founu n the SeAth Amen
can jungles.
ITO the hll-forests of Colombia
you must go for the Odontoglosspm.
| In the jungles OF Ecuador there are
trees which are enveloped with orchid
| blossoms. Did you ever see a red like
that? What are these you ask? Bee.
frog, lizard, butterfly, orchids Notice,
If YOU will that they do not in the
least resemble a flower.
There are orchids that give''ofs
| perfume only at certain hours, and
| different perfume on different days.
And sometimes they initiate scents of
| other flowers, just as hooking biEds
initiate bird voices" From IAN Or
child OF Asia" by Edna Worthley I'm
| derwood, in Asia for August.
sso,,ssz" "A. II
In Defense Of Classieism...
In art, in letters, IN music there
is ever present the person who an
| nounces an utter dihnegard OF the
rules and codes of the classics. -.
the classics being the formulated
standards OF whatever art he may
! Practise. To him THE classic" Is a
! fixed, static, and outworu standard
that constitutes a bond rather than
an ideal.
This is all very we'll II the artist
has in himself the dominant creative I
force that will create new and worthy
standards. But the regrettalble fact
is that the mOdernist is too often a
Juvenile minded person who, In
stead OF forsaking the classes 70
build his own affairs, falls a victim 10
some passing rad of revolutionary
cubdsm or vers ltbre, and ends by be
ing a mere copytst not OF proven
classic'sm, but of immature
eroticism.
In THE Gate OF Appreciation" Car
Teton Noyes gives a new definition
OF clRssicism that may be of both
value and intereSS TO the youthful
| iconOclast:
''Cla ssicism forrnulates rules from
works that have come to be recoR-
nized as beautiful. and It requires
| of the artist Conformity 10 these
rules. BY this standard, which 1t
regards as absolute. il tries new
work and il pretends TO adtudge the
| work good or bad according as 10
meets the requirements. Then a
Titan energies who defies the can
ons, wrecks the old order. and in his
own way, to the despair or scorn OF
his contemporaries, GREAT es a work
>
comes 10 see is beautiful, Every au-
thor says Wordsworth, as far az
he is great and at the same time
original, has the task of creating the
taste by which he is to be enjoyed
Wordsworth in his own generation
was rtdiculed; Millet, when ne ceased
painting nudes for art dealers win
dows and ventured to express him
self, faced starvation. Every artist
Is in some measure an innovation:
for his own age he is rornantiCdst.
But the romanticist for one age be-
comes a classicist for the next; and
his performance On its turn gives
laws for his successor; Richard Straus
deriving in some sense from Wagner,
makes the older man seem a clasEcist
and a conservative. Then a new mind
again is raised up, a new temperament.
with new needs; and these shape their
own adequate new expression. The
cleanest expression says Whitman,
is that which finds no sphere wor-
thV of itself and makes ono