New-York tribune., 1922-11-05

live; Fern Forester and Frank Shay.
Roy MacCardell and number of
others, and ! got home very late.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2s
Thomas Caldecot Ch1bb had invited
me to go with him to New Haven to
see the Yale-Arrny football game, but
as slept until noon it was impossible
to make the train, fact I greatly re-
gretted. Went to the Office in
the afternoon and found there the new
series Of Modern Essays: 1s7o-,2o,"
edited by Ernest Rhys and published
by 'Dutton, and / began reading them
and continued to do SO until late to-
night. It is an excellent and diver
sifed selection.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 80
Last night I read "Pre- Raphaelite
and Other Poets," selection of the
lectures Lafcadio Hearn gave at the
University of Toxic. The material has
been collated by Professor John Ers-
kline of Columbia. 1T is my convic-
tion that these studies are the most
thoroughly informative critical writ
ings ever written. A reason for it is
obvious: Hearn, in talking to jan
anese students about the poetry of
Rcssetti, Browning, Swinburne, Mere
dith and Morris, could not presume
upon any knowledge whatever of the
OF & fhot, ,op1,y
tions, their place in the Occidental
scheme of culture, the environmental
conditions out of which their poetry
arose. He was talking about poetry
which differed greatly in manner, in
content, in ideas and in images from
japanese poetry. He had, then, to be
careful to overlook nothing. 10 make
his students understand and appreciate,
for instance, Browning'ss "My Last
Duchess" he had rot only to tell in
simple and painstaking fashion the
story Browning relates, he had to ex-
plain the outlook on life that obtained
during the Renaissance, the peculiar
significance of certain phrases Brown
ing uses which are in character with
that outlook; in other words, Hearn
had to get at the beauty and merits
of the poem in the most thorough
going and satisfactory manner. Most
of us who write about literature to
English audiences presume that our
readers have not only our own edu-
cational background but our own store
| of miscellaneous knowledge. AS re-
suit we touch, too often, only the high
points; we leave out connecting links;
we skimp the job before us. Hearn
added to his natural gifts for criticism
an eagerness to take pains in acting
as an interpreter of beauty.
i Read Christopher Morley's WHERE
THE BLUE BEGINS" to-day and I was
| greatly amused and impressed by it.
This is, think, the best book Morley has
written; it has tenderness and hum or,
satire, sentiment and sense. The char
acters in it are dogs, but they have
the qualities and traits, the aspira-
tions, hopes, limitations and vices of
/ human beings. BY SO conceiving his
fantastic and amusing little tale, Nor
ley is able to get off many quips about
the human race he could not otherwise
score. He would not have been able,
for instance, to write that joyous scene
where MIR. Gissing, as lay reader in
the church, gets an unorthodox load
off his chest and sets the whole con-
gregation at his heels in punitive
wsath. The book reminds one little
of Rabbit" and again, in Mr.. Gis-
sings quest for beauty, Of "Jurgen";
indeed. there are some passages in
Where the Blue Begins which are
almost identical with Jurgen's musings.
/