Part 14 (2/2)
Meanwhile I was not only learning, but also practising My teachers with one accord incited ular part of our work in school and pupil-rooreat deal for my own areat many metres; but it was soon borne in upon me--conclusively after I had been beaten for the Prize Poem[50]--that the Muse of Poetry was not mine In prose, I was ave me constant practice, and I ton the School-Prize for an English Essay In writing, I indulged to the fullsound; and my style was ludicrously rhetorical The subject for the Prize Essay in 1872 was ”Parliamentary Oratory: its History and Influence,” and the discourse which I composed on that attractive theme has served me from that day to this as the basis of a popular lecture
The ”Young Lion” of the _Daily Telegraph_ thus ”roared” over her place on Speech Day than it did in the old season; and the essay which was crowned yesterday was notable alike for the theme, the opinions, and the literary pro author bore the historical na the forerunners and the felloorkers of his own ancestors, in describing the rhetorical powers of the elder and the younger Pitt, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Canning and Grey The well-known Constitutional note of Lord Russell was heard in every page, and the sonorous English was such as the Earl hiraduates of that day had been able to copy a Macaulay The essayist has read the prose of that dangerous model until he has ireat rhetorician with a closeness which perilously brought to es of the 'Essays' and the 'History' Mr Russell has caught the trick of cutting up his paragraphs into rolling periods, and short, sharp, and disjointed sentences; but he will go to more subtle and more simple masters of style than Macaulay, when he shall have passed the rhetorical stage of youth”
This prophecy was soon fulfilled, and indeed the process of fulfilun In the Sixth Forh he certainly did not despise fine rhetoric, wrote a beautifully simple style, and constantly instructed us in the difference between eloquence and journalese ”Let us leave _commence_ and _partake_ to the newspapers,” was an admonition often on his lips
Our Co, an exquisite scholar of the Eton type, and the accomplished Henry Nettleshi+p, who detested flaht us to adrace And there was Matthew Arnold living on the Hill, generously encouraging every bud of literary proainst our tendency to ”Middle-class Macaulayese”
At Oxford, the chastening process went on apace Newe was concerned; and I learned to bracket hi ”The Oriel style” Thackeray's Latinized constructions began to fascinate ht it from Ruskin instead of Macaulay
All this ti--in a very hu I wrote in local newspapers and Parish Magazines I published anonymous comments on current topics I contributed secretly to epheave lectures and printed theood exercise; but the odd part of it see back, that I never expected pay, but rather spentwhat I wrote That last infirmity of literary minds I laid aside soon after I left Oxford I rather think that the first money which I made with my pen was payment for a character-study of my uncle, Lord Russell, which I wrote for _The World_; thereby eliciting froe, I hear you have become one of Yates's hired stabbers”
After I entered Parlia for profit, became more frequent I contributed to the _Quarterly_, the _New Quarterly_, the _Nineteenth Century_, the _Fortnightly_, the _Contemporary_, the _Spectator_, and the _Pall Mall_ Yet anotherwhich was inscribed on one's proof-sheet--”The cost of _corrigenda_ will be deducted froe! and what a base econo to find that the society in which I habitually lived, and which I have described in a for law-suit between a duchess and her , and the duchess's incri off into the first, and returning with an effort to the third, was indeed an object-lesson in English co of fashi+on once said to me, in the tone of a man who utters an accepted truth, ”It is so s”--even though those ”things” were the literary triureat house, Books were a prohibited subject, and the word ”Books” was construed with such liberal latitude that it see except Bradshaw Even where people did not thus truculently declare war against literature, they gave it an uncommonly wide berth, and shrank with ill-concealed aversion fro ”Meredith,” said Oscar Wilde, ”is a prose-Browning--and so is Browning” And both those forms of prose were equally eschewed by society
Of course, when one is surveying a whole class, one sees so colour; and here and there one had the pleasure ofin society persons adhton, poet, essayist, pamphleteer, book-lover, and book-collector, as equally at home in the world of society and the world of literature Nothing that was good in books, whether ancient or modern, escaped his curious scrutiny, and at his hospitable table, which reat and small rubbed shoulders with dandies and diplomats and statesmen On the 16th of June, 1863, Matthew Arnold wrote--”On Sunday I dined with Monckton Milnes,[51] and ion and politics, and a Cingalese in full costue Lewes, Herbert Spencer, a sort of pseudo-Shelley called Swinburne, and so on Froude, however, was there, and Browning, and Ruskin”
The h I had admired and liked him in a reverent sort of hen I was a Harrow boy and he was awhen I met him on the more even terhtful of companions; a man of the world entirely free from worldliness, and a man of letters without the faintest trace of pedantry He walked through the world enjoying it and loving it; and yet all the tiher loadstars” of the intellect and the spirit In those days I used to say that, if one could fashi+on oneself, I should wish to be like Matthew Arnold; and the lapse of years has not altered , as he appeared in society, I have already spoken; but here let me add an instance which well illustrates his tact and readiness He once did roup of eager disciples to meet him As soon as dinner was over, one of these enthusiasts led the greathi of _Sordello_ For a space Browning bore the catechis his hand on the questioner's shoulder, he exclaimed, ”But,_you_,” and skipped out of the corner
Lord Tennyson was scarcely ever to be encountered in society; but I was presented to hiarden-party by Mr James Knowles, of the _Nineteenth Century_ He was, is, and alill be, one of the chief divinities of my poetical heaven; but he was more worshi+pful at a distance than at close quarters, and I was determined not to dispel illusion by a too near approach to the shrine J A Froude was a man of letters whom from time to time one encountered in society No one could doubt his cleverness; but it was a cleverness which rather repelled than attracted With his thin lips, his cold s, he always see over the hideous scene in the hall of Fotheringay, or the last agonies of a disembowelled Papist Lord Acton was, or seemed to be, a man of the world first and foreossip, and, as his ”Letters” show, not always a friendly gossip[52] His demeanour was profoundly sphinx-like, and he seemed to enjoy the sense that his hearers were anxious to learn what he was able but unwilling to ie and accomplishments it would, at this time of day, be ridiculous to question; and on the ion and Freedoret that in society he so effectually concealed his higher enthusiasue fa it unwritten
I a of the years when I first knew London socially, and I h those years, as through many before and since, the best representative of culture in society was Mr, now Sir, George Trevelyan--a poet, a scholar to his finger-tips, an enthusiast for all that is best in literature, ancient or raphies in the English language
There is no need to recapitulate Sir George's services to the State, or to criticize his perforh to record ratitude for the unbroken kindness which began when I was a boy at Harrow, and continues to the present hour
I have spoken, so far, of literary men who played a more or less conspicuous part in society; but, as this chapter is dedicated to Literature, I ought to say a word about one or two men of Letters who always avoided society, but hen one sought thehtful co these I should place James Payn
Payn was a man who lived in, for, and by Literature He detested exercise He never travelled He scarcely ever left London He took no holidays If he was forced into the country for a day or two, he used the exile as material for a story or an essay His life was one incessant round of literary activity He had published his first book while he was an Undergraduate at Trinity, and from first to last he wrote more than a hundred volumes _By Proxy_ has been justly admired for the wonderful accuracy of its local colour, and for a e of Chinese character; but the writer drew exclusively froment, he was at his best in the Short Story He practised that difficult art long before it becainally _People, Places, and Things_, but now _Humorous Stories_, is a masterpiece of fun, invention, and observation In 1874, he became ”Reader” to Messrs Smith and Elder, and in that capacity had the happiness of discovering _Vice Versa_, and the less felicitous experience of rejecting _John Inglesant_ as unreadable
It was at this period of his life that I first encountered Payn, and I fell at once under his charm His was not a faultless character, for he was irritable, petulant, and prejudiced He took the strongest dislikes, so them, and was apt to treat opinions which he did not share very cavalierly
But none of these faults could obscure his charht, even the thought, of cruelty set his blood on fire But, though he was intensely humane, he was absolutely free from mawkishness; and a wife-beater, or a child-torturer, or a cattle-enuinely syles of the young and the unbefriended Many an author, once struggling but now triumphant, could attest this trait But his chief charm was his humour It was absolutely natural; bubbled like a fountain, and danced like light Nothing escaped it, and solemnity only stimulated it to further activities He had the pohich Sydney Sentlemen with the most successful ridicule;” and, when he was offended, the ridicule had a remarkably sharp point It was of course, impossible that all the huood So on proper names or personal peculiarities; and sometimes it descended to puns But, for sheer rapidity, I have never known Payn's equal When a casual word annoyed hiive plenty of instances, but to ive a considerable amount of introduction, and that would entirely spoil the sense of flashi+ng rapidity There was no appreciable interval of ti word and the repartee which it provoked
Another great element of charm in Payn was his warhtful world”
While he hated the black and savage and sordid side of existence with a passionate hatred, he enjoyed all its better--which he believed to be its larger--part with an infectious relish Never have I known a more blithe and friendly spirit; never a nature to which Literature and Society--books andjoy He had unstinted admiration for the performances of others, and holly free from jealousy His teht moods and dark, seasons of exaltation and seasons of depression The one succeeded the other with startling rapidity, but the bright moods triumphed, and it was impossible to keep him permanently depressed His health had always been delicate, but illness neither crushed his spirit nor paralysed his pen Once he broke a blood-vessel in the street, and was conveyed hoh he was in soan to compose a narrative of his adventure, and next week it appeared in the _Illustrated London News_
During the last two years of his life he was painfully crippled by arthritic rheuer visit the Reform Club, where for many years he had every day eaten his luncheon and played his rubber Deter that he should not completely lose his favourite, or I should rather say his only, aether to supply him with a rubber in his own house twice a week; and this practice wastestimony to the affection which he inspired In those years I was a pretty frequent visitor, and, on ht amuse him, and I used even to note them down between one visit and another, as a provision for next time One day Payn said, ”A collection of your stories would make a book, and I think Se scarcely worthy of so much honour; but I promised to make a weekly experiment in the _Manchester Guardian_ My _Collections and Recollections_ ran through the year 1897, and appeared in book-form at Easter, 1898 But Payn died on the 25th of the previous March; and the book, which I had hoped to put in his hand, I could only inscribe to his delightful memory
Another remarkable man of letters, wholly remote from the world, was Richard Holt Hutton, for thirty-six years (1861-1897) the honoured Editor of _The Spectator_ Hutton was a ”stickit minister” of the Unitarian persuasion, who had been led,of F D
Maurice, to the acceptance of orthodox Christianity; and who devoted all the rest of his life to the inculcation of what he conceived to be h the medium of a weekly review He lived, a kind of e of Windsor Forest, and could hardly be separated, even for a week's holiday, from his beloved _Spectator_
His output of as enorhout critical and didactic The style was pre-eraceful, disfigured by ”trailing relatives”
and accu the sense of soht that strove to express itself intelligibly As the style, so the substance ”_The Spectator_,” wrote Matthew Arnold in 1865, ”is all very well, but the article has Hutton's fault of seeing so very far into a mill-stone” And, two years later, ”_The Spectator_ has an article in which Hutton shows his strange aptitude for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick” Both were sound criticisms When Hutton addressed himself to a deep topic of abstract speculation, he ”saw so very far into it” that even his most earnest admirers could not follow the visual act When he handled the ht or action hich ordinary men concern themselves, he seemed to miss the most obvious and palpable points He was a philosophical thinker, with a natural bent towards the abstract and the mystical--a Platonist rather than an Aristotelian He saw things invisible to grosser eyes; he heard voices not audible to ordinary ears; and, when he was once fairly launched in speculation on such a theme as Personal Identity or the Idea of God, he ”found no end, in wandering mazes lost”