THE WORKS OF GEORGE MEREDITH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7819, 11 June 1909, Page 1

THE WORKS OF GEORGE MEREDITH.

The works of George Meredith!, the eminent novelist-poet, who- recently passed away, were interestingly dealt with by Professor ;C. ■ W. -' JSgertbn, M.A./ m his inaugural address: to members of the Auckland Institute on the night of the 7th instant,' when there was a large and appreciative gathering. . . „..,.. Professor Egertori remarked ; that within the last few weeks tho Englishspeaking race had lost the two greatest survivors of the Victorian age — r Swinburne and George Meredith ; and yet,yet, m a sense, the loss was no loss, for they lived to utter their last word to humanity, and had left, behind them completed life.. work. As illustrating Meredith's hope to leave work that would "shine across ' the river of death," the speaker, quoted his lines from the "Thrush m February"—■ . Pull lasting is the song, though, he, The singer, passes ; lasting too, For souls not lent m usury, Tho rapture of the forward.view. ; The fame" of George Meredith's writings, the - speaker said, had' been of gradual development, and like trees of slow development was the more likely to last. Even though he was not among the mighty group which contained Shakespere and Dante, he was certainly among our.great novelists. One test of his greatness was that his works pleased better at each successive reading. The variety of his works was great, his poems, novels, criticisms,' and supernatural tales!all testifying to the fact that he was not only an artist, but a philosopher. Meredith's extraordinary wealth of ideas, the concentration of his imagery, was at times so great as to involve a considerable intellectual effort on the part of the reader—an effort perhaps not always successful, Hej thought m images—the poet's 1 method. | His abhorrence of commonplace led him sometimes to' strained and obscure diction. As, for example, m referring to one of his characters m '^The; Amazing Marriage,"who sustained a sprain: —' 'His leg pronouri'ced-i a; dogged negation to the act of walking." Again, he thus referred to Trafalgar Spuare : —"The stormy square, of |ft& first of seamen." To Meredith lflHit be applied his description of "Imina of the Crossways : " —"She thougjjin flashes —a way with a maker :^g .phrases." Meredith was a loverVofcfche aphorism, and m "The OrdeaV^jf Richard Feverel" ' appeared flipugh ■ the medium of Sir Austin Feser r el (author of "The Pilgrim's Script^-"A selection of original aphorisms';by an anonymous gentleman, who *ft this.bashful manner gave a bruised : J'heart to the world." ■ _ ■' - ■ " Meredith had the, Celtic power of "saying much m little, f one of his characters he said : "She did not utter words. She shed meanings." The description of Clara Middleton m "Egoist" as "a dainty_ rogue m porcelain" was a case m point. Then again that of the romantic poetess Letitia Dale: "She was pretty, her eyelashes were long and dark, her eyes dark blue, and her soul was ready to shoot Hire a rocket out of them at a look \ from Willoughby." She, too, was 1 dashed off m a phrase, "Here comes Letitia Dale with a romantic" tale: on j her, ■ eyelash." -Meredjth kcoii)il ■ 'hit; the j golji, oifc.'his^^ttnirigfnr a" single ■ happy pb>&so^ as no other writer • of < his day,. as, for example, "The admiral showered briny masculine comments on the! bridegroom." "She did not chameleon her pen to the colons of her* audience," was another phrase. Meredith was 1 not altogether m sympathy with > English character: He 'took a pride m his country, and admired the sterling qualities of the English, but criticised their weakpointa, especially those of the aristocracy. The army was epigrammatically described by Colney Durance as "Infant amateurs leading h'eorio louts." England, according to Meredith, was suffering from plethoric wealth. In their remarks on. the Admiralty, Corinthia and her brother, m "The Amazing Marriage," quoted their father's book of maxims : "Four hour's sleep m the day for a man ; six for a woman . . . . and 24 for a lord of the Admiralty." In one of his poems Meredith hinted the same source of weakness — Asleep upon her ancient deeds, She hugs the vision plethora breeds, And counts her manifold increase Of treasure m the fruits of peace. Meredith was primarily an exponent of ideas ; a philosopher first, then an artist. The action of his stories harmonised with the visible emblem of the inner life producing them. Sometimes the philosopher m Meredith obscured the artist, the amount of thought m his works demanding an intellectual effort so great that the general reader, whose aim was merely light amusement, was repelled. How slowly the action m Meredith some- ' times moved to allow for philosophic reflections was illustrated m the opening of "One of Our Conquerors." The first chapter described how Victor fell down and was picked up on London Bridge. The next four chapters told how he had luncheon, and walked home. Ye on reading these chapters a second time, after having read the novel, one realised how they elucidated the action by the description given of Victor's thoughts. Meredith blended realism with romance. He was not a realist of the type of Zola, who described onjy what was sordid and gray m life ; but he described what he had seen and experienced, and he interpreted them by the light of romance. His aversion for false sentiment —which he regarded as a mode of egoism—was indicated to a marked degree. Meredith wrote, "Mean it while you are doing it," m his advocacy of a strenuous life, and he believed that the worst foe to youth's activities was excessive wealth: In one of his poems, "Outerand"! Inner," on the destiny of man, lie'uttered this view unfalteringly (Earth speaks to Man) : Accept, she says; it is not hard In woods; but she m towns •'. Repeats accept ; and have we wept, And have we quailed with fears, Or shrunk, with horrors, sure reward We have, whom knowledge crowns, Who sco m mould a rose unfold The soul through blood and tears. His power of comic perception was great, and he delighted m aiming to excite thoughtful laughter; Meredith had by his influence done much towards the emancipation of woman. Swinbur'no had appropriately said of him, "Always as noble m design ; as often faultless m result,"