The New York herald., 1921-05-23

y Paris for the express purpose
L \ of Offering his homage to
Chateaubriand and Paul de Kock
whom he considered the cwo most
important living French writer's!
After calling upon the author of the
"Genie du Christionisme' he sought
out the gay fabricator of amusing
tales, now largely forgotten When
the visitor had explained why he came
to France, De Kock asked if he had
seen Chateaubriand Yes. he had.
Then you have begun your dinner
with the roast and ended with cab
bage soup!" Such wit and modesty
amount almost to genius. And one
more story of De Kock. When the
Prussians approached Paris in 1870 he
tried to enlist.
Leave them to me" he said. TN
make them die-laughing!
1t happened that the centenary of
Baudelaire's birth fell near the fiftieth
anniversary of De Rocks death. That
is the only relation possible to dis
cover between them. The French poet
is far closer to Keats, to whose cen
tenary the magazines and newspapers
have given a good deal of space.
Translations OF the young English
poets letters have been published in
La ReUue Hebdomdddire and in Co
moedia. In one of these we read:
"LTmogination est notre possession
la plus duthentiqBe ici-bds. Ce
que Imagination dpprehende comnte
Beaut6 dot etre T6rite."
If you will read the quotations from
Baudelaire given in this letter you will
find that in this conviction at least
the two poets were at one.
I will not say much of the cere-
monies held at Baudelaire's birthplace,
at Is Rue Hautefeuille, where the au-
thorities placed bronze tablet But
it amused me to see NJ. Paul Guichard,
Director of Municipal Police, present
to honor the poet. In Baudelaire's
lifetime the police manifested quite
different sort of interest in his works!
sake of concentration, to Baudelaire
as critic of art. Read and reread
those masterpieces, Aesthetic Curl
osites" and Romantic Art" In his
Intimate notes, as he jotted down his
impressions, he could let himself go
with a brusque severity, somewhat
cruel at times But in his revised
work we never find systematic at
tempt to overthrow a reputation.
That is because Baudelaire gave to a
work Of art, a picture, an UNDIVIDED
love. And IL he varied praise with
blame there was more of the first than
of the second. In any case 1t was all
given without prejudice.
Love OF Beauty for her own sake
made him put aside mediocre things
as unworthy of his attention. He was
willing to point them out II he thought
them harmful, but it was only OF beau-
tiful things that he loved TO speak.
And of them he wrote with a perfect
understanding of the principle in
volved, warmed by q profound passion.
That is what we find I'm the two books
I have named. Note this passage in
a chapter on magination-which he
names "The Queen of the Faculties
written in the course of study Of cur
rent exhibitions:
! "The whole visible universe Is only
collection of images and Of symbols
/ to which Imagination gives place and
n relative value II is a kind of rough
mass which the imagination ought to
assimilate and transform. All the
faculties of the human soul should be
subordinate 10 imagination, which
brings them all simultaneously into
use. Just as a thorough knowledge Of
the dictionary does not necessarily i'm
ply knowledge OF the art OF compost
tion, and as the art Of composition IT.
self does not imply a universal imagi-
nation, so a correct painter may not
be a great painter, but a great painter
is bound to be correct one because
the universal imagination includes
knowledge of all the methods and the
desire to master them"
| Elsewhere he has given another
| treatment OF the same themei
Imagination is not fancy, neither
is It sensitility. although II would be
difficult TO conceive of an imaginative
man who was not sensitive.
Imagination is an almost divine
faculty which perceives instantly. with
out aid from any philosophic methods,
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