NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 282, 22 August 1908, Page 12

NOTES.

"M. Maeterlinck is at presont staying in Normandy, where ho is working on the last act of a new drama, to bo entitled 'Marie Magdeleirie,' " says the "Nation." "Despite its Scriptural title, tho characters of the play are philosophical entities rather than historical personages. Doubtloss this trifling fact will not prevent tho censor, who liconsed : Dear Old Charlie,' from prohibiting this production of M. Maeterlinck in . England. Thoso who havo road tlio play describe it as marking an advance upon 'Monna Vanna,' both in- stagccraft and in dramatic power. It will be performed in Paris early in tho winter."

"Evon among_ those poets who_ are most praised for their accurate descriptions- of Natnro, tho differences of degree, and oven of charaoter, in their observation aro curiously marked," writes a "Times" reviewer. "Many of Tennyson's later and minuter touches of description havo an almost microscopic vividness; but thoy aro apt- to seem pieces out off from a freo whole, liko objects displayed under tho miscroscopo, aid might equally well bo described as 'preparations.' Phpsically shortsighted, Tennyson 'went about peering close.' In his lator years, at any rate, when his mind became more reproductive and less imaginative, 'tho detail pleased him moro than tho wider view.' His very mastery of tho descriptive phrase seems sometimes to stamp a kind of personal hall-mark on what : bo doscribes, and to tinge with artistic sophistication his pictures of natural things. Of all ourpoots, probably Matthew Arnold revoals us English Naturo through tho most pellucid medium.' Hardly less preciso than Tennyson, ho is truer to the clear breath of English air; he loves to dwell, like thd sun of our northern skies, tho dows and freshness of the morning."

We raroly moot a woak or dawdling sentonco (says the "Spectator" in a review of John Morley's new volume) and his lovo of aphorisms appears in tho gnomic pregnancy of many of his phrases. Gnomic is indeed tho just epithet. "Nobody has so many biting things to say about the sollishness and duplicity of mankind as one who has made it the whole business of his life to use mankind as the ladder for his own advancement." Or it may take the form of epigram. Guieciardini's ambitious llights aro "not diapasons, but drones." Or of apt simile: "Ho would never have allowed conscience, lilio a barbarian Brennus, to fling its heavy, keenedged sword into .tho.sealo of complex, dim, awkward, and nicely balanced facts." Or more often of a bold historical metaphor: "If Machiavelli had been nt Jerusalem two thousand years, ago, he might have found nobody of any importance in his eyes, save Pontius Pilot and the Roman legionaries." Joined to this quality thcro is a talent for picturesque epithets, which sometimes is a littlo overstrained. Like Macaulay, Lord Morlcy hates an abstraction, and will always havo his concrete example ready. Ho docs not writo "a rascal" but "anybody in tho Rogues' Camp, from Yerres to Jonathan Wild." As a rule, tho picturosqueness is easy and natural. Now and then it is artificial, and wo got a metaphor not quite relevant, as that on p. 291 about Pandora's box. Tho gnomic style rarely pormits of eloquence. Lord Morley prefers to attract tho rea'der by a succession of admirably reasoned points, enlivened by a picturesquo phrasing. He is never rhetorical in the structure of his argumont, though now and then thero may Do a touch of. it in his epithets. But when ho pleasos lie can come very near eloquence. Tho last essay contains several such passages, and there is a page in the chapter on Guicciardini in which tho various conceptions of history aro eloquently expounded. On tho wholo, it is a stylo of high merits, .admirably fitted for the writer's purposo, and its few blemishes are errors on tho side of virtue.

"Is Tolstoy wholly sincere?" is the question asked by a writer in "Munsey's Magazine," and ho goes on to say that the simplicity of tli© man'is "hardly Teal": "His wifo, .who watches over, him as tenderly as if he had never declared marriage to bo vile, sees to it that ho is not deprived of creating comforts. Under his shaggy outer clothing ho wears the finest linen. Though his food be simple, it is of the best, and is cooked with all the skill of a Parisian chef. Becauso of his old ago he doos not detect the kindly' imposition that is Fractised on him. He says: 'I am poor, have scarcely a copeck. I can give nothing to charity.' Literally, ho speaks thotruth; but actually there is a fortune held by thoso whoso pleasure it is to minister to his comfort. Ho oats olf tho cheapost crockery, and says: 'My food is as simple as any peasant's. 1 Ho does not seo that this food consists, of daintily cooked viands, with peaches , and other fruit which, many a rich banker could' 'Scarcely afford when out of season." Men and womon go to see Tolstoy from all parts of tho world. To thoso who listen to him with reverence he has kindly words to say. To others, who argue that his view of life is wrong, he shows a rough impatience. Not long agO i the president of a leading American University visited him for a few hours n and then came away. He was a man of wide learning arid great experience. "What do you think of this American scholar?" was asked of Tolstoy. "He is only a barbarian," returned tho "master." It is easy to mock at the incongruities of Tolstoy's home to-day, but it must, the writer adds, not be forgotten that ho is "terribly sincere."

Tho Rev. Joseph H. Twiohell, of Hartford, Connecticut, has boon givine some reminiscences of the lato Mr. Joel Chandlor Harris, 1 whom ho knew. Mark Twain gavo Mr. Twichell a letter of introduction to "Uncle 'Remus," and lie called at his offico and asked if ho was in:—Tho clerk callcd up to tho editorial department. Harris was in. I sont up Clomens's letter, and after a while a boy ontored tho room. He came riglit up to mo and asked, "Aro you Mr. Twichell?" "Yes," I answered; and I thought he was a lad sent to show mo upstairs. "I'm glad Mr. Harris is in," I said. Ho looked at mo with a c]ucer expression on his face, and then said quietly, "I am Mr. Harris!" Well, I was thunderstruck. Ho looked a mero boy. Ho was below medium height, and of a full person, had rod hair, and was very much "freckled." Ho was an extremely shy, modest, and retiring man—a very shy man —and thid characteristic I observed in him when I met him again. Harris had very little to say for himself, but ho impressed "Mr. Twichell „as "an intcnscl* religious man,"