Volume I Part 26 (1/2)

I won't be away till June Then I'll have some queer books in my satchel, and we'll talk the book over I fear it is no use to discuss it beforehand, as I shall be overwhelmed ork Another volume of the Tal Chinese hymns By the way, in Spencer's last voluination I have had only tilance at it Your Creole music lecture cannot fail to be extremely curious; wish I could _hear_ and see it The ood assort from Gottschalk?--I hope you did: the Bamboula used to drive the Parisians wild

Thanks for the musical transcription I'm afraid the project won't pan out, however Trubner & Co of London uarantee the American sale of 100 copies--that means pay in advance I would not perhaps have objected, if they had et them to come down to about 5s per copy they did not write nis Fatuus of Success, and withdrew into the Immensities and the Eternities, even as the rhinoceros withdraweth into the recesses of the jungle And I gave myself up to the meditation of the Vedas and of the Puranas and of the Upanishads, and of the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead,--until the azines and of publishers faded out of my mind, even as the vision of demons

Yours very truly, L HEARN

TO W D O'CONNOR

NEW ORLEANS, May, 1884

MY DEAR O'CONNOR,--I did not get time until to-day to drop you a line; and just at present I a The Foul Fiend Routine I wish I could escape frorip; and nevertheless he has done er and s of my earlier ambition with the sharp scissors of revision It is true that I now regret my inability to achieve literary independence; but had I obtained a market for my wares in other years, I should certainly have been so ashamed of them by this time, that I should fly to some desert island These meditations follow upon the incineration of several hundred pages of absurdities written some years back, and just committed to the holy purification of fire

I a the fantastic ideas about love which you so thoroughly exploded in your letter; they ”drew you out,”

and I wanted to hear your views I suppose, however, that the ed in by every nation at a certain period of existence--perhaps the Senescent Epoch, as Draper calls it What a curious article ht be written upon ”The A of that sort; dwelling especially upon the extravagant passionateness of Indian, Persian, and Arabic belles-lettres,--and their offshoots! Not to bore you further with theories, however, I herewith submit another specimen of excess from the posthumous poetry of Gautier It has been compared to those Florentine statuettes, which are kept in shagreen cases, and only exhibited, whisperingly, by antiquaries to each other

There is real marmorean beauty in the lines,--their sculpturesqueness saves them from lewdness I think theances of the Gita-Govinda

June 29

You see how busy I have been And my brain seems so full of dust and hot sun and feverish vapours that it is hard to write at all I a the Koran There are two English translations besides Sale's--one in Trubner's Oriental Series, and one in Max Muller's ”Sacred Books of the East” (Macmillan's beautiful edition) Sale's is chiefly objectionable because the _suras_ are not versified: the chapters not having been so divided in early ti in it The French have two superb versions: Kazimirski and La Beaume Kazimirski is popular and cheap; the other is an analytical Koran of 800 4to pp with concordance, and designed for the use of the Governeria I have it It is unrivalled

My book is out; and you will receive a copy soon If you ever have ti in it you like It is not a gorgeous production,--only an experiends of Islae faiths in a series of books My next effort will be altogether Arabesque--treating of Mosleraphical curiosities--eschewing such subjects as the pilgrie to the _ribath_ (ments of the broken _aidana_ of Mahomet are kissed by the faithful

I'm sorry to say I know little of Bacon except his Essays Those surprised and pleased lish; but soon found the ideas far beyond the century in which they were penned You will be shocked, I fear, to know that I alish literature,--of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries Not having studied it e, I now find life too short to study it,--except for style When I want to clear ,--I pour a little quaint English into radually precipitated But I think ain order to succeed: so I have pledged e, the Exotic, the Monstrous It quite suits my temperament For example, my memories of early Roreatly interest ustan era, and great ht with those writers who tell us how Hadrian almost realized that impossible dream of modern aesthetes, the resurrection of Greek art The history ofabout; but I know the Eddas and the Sagas, and the chronicles of the Heis and Berserks,--because these were rand The history of Russia pleaseth me not at all, with the exception of such extraordinary episodes as the Dihis Khan, and the nomad chiefs who led 1,500,000 horsemen to battle Enormous and lurid facts are certainly worthy of enerally receive What De Quincey told us in his ”Flight of a Tartar Tribe” previous writers thought fit to ain

I don't knohether I shall be able to go North as I hoped--I have so much private study before me But I do really hope to see you soet down to our Exposition?

Did you ever read Syenius of Greek art are simply divine Ior not being ephemeral I feel fearful we are But Symonds says what I would have liked to say, so much better, that I would like to let hiold

Very truly your friend, LAFCADIO HEARN

TO HE KREHBIEL

NEW ORLEANS, June, 1884

DEAR KREHBIEL,--I'et sos, and have discovered an essay upon just the subject of subjects that interests Us:--the effect of physiological influences upon the history of nations, and ”the physiological character of races in their relation to historical events” Wouldn't it be fine if we could write a scientific essay on Polynesian ical peculiarities of the island-races? Nothing would give me soand stupefying preface to some treatise of yours upon exotic music--a preface nevertheless strictly scientific and correct By the way, have you any information about Eskimo ular songs with a _double-refrain_,--but no ive us some melodies?

I am especially interested just now in Arabic subjects; but as I a the songs of the bayaderes They are very strange, and sometimes very pretty--sweetly pretty Maisonneuve promised to publish soot it yet I have found curious titles in Trubner's collection; but I's of Southern India,” etc

I want you to tell o there soon The vacations are beginning Don't fail to keep me posted as to your movements How did you like the sonorous cry of the bel-balancierexcusable

Yours affectionately, L HEARN