The New York herald., 1921-02-20

platitude: at is too soon to make a
correct estimate of his work" When
is 1t time to make such an estimate ?
Fifty years hence, when the magnet
ism of his touch upon human life has
become only a memory? Without
doubt half a century hence those who
take up any of the books of the late
James Gibbons Huneker will realize
that this man lived intensely in the
spirit of his time and that his fervid
literary art recorded the activities OF
letters. painting. the drama, music,
with fidelity and keenest sympathy.
But we of to-day are still vibrating
with the waves of his power.
Those who knew him best some
times made the error Of charging him
with a want of fixed convictions. Such
view of his intellectual output
showed a fundamental misconception
of the man. Huneker was above all
things an explorer. Whenever he
heard of a new territory in the world
of art he went to 1t, camped out in it,
saturated himself with it's atmosphere,
clothed himself in it's garments,
adapted himself to its customs and in
the end gave out his requirements
with all the passion of his burning
mind.
A new god was to him always a
true god He Frustrated himself be-
fore the strange altar and became a
worshipper There was no effort in
the act; 1t was inevitable. He could
no more help 1t than he could help
writing hymns in praise of his newly
discovered deity. For him there was
no tarrying in the fiowery valleys. He
was necessarily scaling the mountains
in search not of the edelweis but OF
some wondrous blossom not heard OF
before. Almost could one hear his
soul chanting Tennyson's lines
"Men my brothers, men the workers,
ever reaping something new;
That which they have done but earnest
of the things that they shall do"
The same trend of mind made him an
eager traveller in the oyways OF letters
and art His reading was omnivorous'
He revelled in Stendahl, and the other
intellectual aristocrats OF his kind. who
fed their inner appetites with style. A
stylist, no matter of what kind or what
nation. had an irresistible witchery Tor
Huneker He confessed TO long and
arduous study of Robert Louis steven
son, TO whose delicate mosaics In
words" his own flamboyant manner
bore no resemblance. He bowed IN
reverence before the works OF Flaubert.
from whom he may have borrowed some
OF those big sonorities which made his
own writing lyric and in some moments
even bardic.
Pursued the New God.
The pursuit of the new god was eager.
II In the end he found the religion OF
this deity hollow or cold, he turned his
back upon the god and faced the latest
singer who seemed 20 him to have de-
xcended from Olympus. The men and
women who made the arts were always
dear TO him. but the arts were dearer.
What attracted him most in the artist
was quality. That explains his long
sustained enthusiasm about Miss Gar
den. She radlated individuality which
appealed to him irresistibly. But no per-
sonality blinded him to the eternal vert-
ties of art No painter or actor or
singer ever shattered his own faith. And
that is why he SO often abandoned GER
tain once adored individualities and
never again mentioned them in his
writings. They had proved false TO ms
ideals. The potency of an individuality
sometimes threw a strange spell upon
his mind. but when the enchantnent
WAS broken Indf DtISOHdlAAs Noo HNhN
to him for all time.
How many new masters of music did
he discover? How many of them lived
with him longer than ten years? Chopin
dwelt with him from the time when he
first began the study of the piano. The
poetic, independent spirit OF the COM
poser. the inexhaustible variety OF his
Imagination, the brilliance OF his deco
rative art. tho voluptuous forms OF his
~
Huneker. But in his later years he went
back to the fountain of modern music.
During one OF his periods of absence
from the field OF music criticism he
wrote to the author OF these lines
when l get n music thirst I go home
and plsy Oh so slowly an invention Of
Bach" That was Characteristic OF the
man. His head may have been among
the stars, but his feet were always on
the ground
As n literary worker Mr.. Huneker
was primarily prose stylist He knew
verse and loved Il. but the technic OF
lyric utterance never interested him ns
did that OF prose. Reference has all
ready been made TO his study Of Steven
son. and those who knew him can well
understand his admiration for ultimate
finish. But spiendor always aroused
him. Hc had the soul Of a Venetian OF
the seventeenth century Aii mat was
most voluptuous IN form and color filled
him with a sort OF divine rapture which
sought utterance In sonorous phrase
ology.
his Comment ON FIsubert.
II we are for the moment astonished
10 learn that he never delved deeply
into the prose writings OF Milton we
easily explain his tendencies by recall
ing his early experiences. Read Chap
ter v. OF "Steeplejaok." You find him
in Paris and Immediately plunged into a
whlrl of painters. from whom emergcs
ono clearly drawn figure. Monet. And
when he begins 20 talk OF French litera
ture there rises tho majestic form OF his