SPECIAL ARTICLE. THE POET'S PROGRESS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20494, 12 March 1932, Page 13

SPECIA L ARTICLE. THE POET'S PROGRESS.

PART TWO.* , f *»ims *OK TBI nut.) V. ,) A " I " RKtoWELI "J It the west !il<! '' lty thc *l"> 08t - r° ,lsisLs 111 ;t lal ' go AinJ a °" blic - ar(lon - very FiSr pU» tcd - 1,1 th ° ",' itlaL °[ 9*^r i]je %est avenue, in the most sheltered spot m the city toiklinga and ground* ot NTfcilegC, the main retreat ami Province s oldest lash*?Je&cv jealously HHord that tbnt loatlnnn of comtad, ,ar as they muy ' fTrtand of our tongue, that was for in the main none 'jadUed t0 ,eac ' l ' UMO 1,111 tIICV 'Urn thc great K«gli*h pnblic are richly .•ml'.wcd and S. wod ela**"'" l And fiJSthem the city shall swell frvT.nd even i« ol lnn " IT that Feed at it, rentro shall Tbifast- Of a different sort, and ut it* precinct, is the I mvcrs.ty I Jiwful P»a«- The mal " fT h<mrn and classrooms enclose a gffTo which a satiny admits featreet. The smallest and ohlVjfe***' ** Big-school alu^ 'Lei and some rnrcntlj done, as •!SfaU sr® faultless in style and STjjrra: but as for th* re*.!, ■frtijt, ala«! they opened their Milfoired the beast fromi with- "&■»««* them. The hall was kr an architect of the eit.A , fEw not if this gifted artist be ISTmake bridges. Behind nil RL» it ft pitying fleId ;, 1)1,1 t ' UHd other grounds they have lE'toto. The whole is enclosed Stafdtm »«d river, except where ffITT the avenue. Throughout Sr«d-#aburbs their house, are JK/moiL but their larger buildTgjifXt J hare said enough now fc'l>*Momeh< | w amazed, I must bw* in this place, whore I «&n»4 where I spent most of my Af tnAM ay eyes, as it were, MtefamiliS but nearly impalpable ■Bin-Art Wat, once the most solid I took what ■Sffift prolt I could bore. I JCJa to- tlie liills ju«t above, as iferJs*#- of tkat view and thoao IffllbWl* •* tp take exercise, of [fralond, So I swam a good MMJ WMt lad been in Lonigrtttiesereise agrees well with M'«f Like that of arms, tta M. >n fashion, it flatftlrMlKWß** and affords him ii» u • m he may; which I *•» Poor at this ■i.wfaa >ft KbaoL whore we were ip Iq HHWi''VM.*l we P> in a raob > Wfk'wtHk «t jia there. So tennis f ufetot «em«« to his taste, or fcta tec Cddwt'i nine to at M, tl M mi»ji *M, likewise of fc fe «J W« Wlydement I ml artnpft wteept.jp :dislike it. fat at task. I to prac- I If man's failure (race, but tho»e that with prae;er. Boxing, I i eoarser aort; iox, is the fasji--0 anted to hardjersons of taste affect any skill to others, but 1 spoke of at e to shine by in our under- > must wait Qfn skill and fondtheir situation' increase. And ? found among lave circles to } took ino to ; for tliis thoir and science, their reading ir taste to » n else, so hardastir, like a i what is oblat about laws, ie everywhere, in the mind, and is vances unwary liistorv behindmd surrounded s are any time. 11 do here, and It on but what elves, and the in in each case attention •ed. For there ivho own both Nevertheless I •tje «nd distininusic and lot; jmt now some j grta.l interest t which also ig accouuts. i ty mother, and re, Vqt so is etw its emotion and weather 1 . and delights < ra«s i# at once a , was, think, t 'hich appeared m here, as m o relate, M»n.v tiicy looked at a" now intheir number > easy matter 1 ed each week, as many no\v »arents. in p o better, and » liy case. But ro to (I^ne^hith a view ot l Thc magnolia o: around, and }j

sunshine ami s «ect atmosphere, 1 -ivrote a go ocl deal of the first part ot this work. ** J r , " vllS P res ently asked to Uinsts College, to dino at Flower's aouse, aa occasion that gave me great pleasure. I was lately at Harrow and when I compare that great sehool'with tins off-shoot of its stock, there, is nbont this, I think, a. lack of solemnity in its secular functions. Thev bare nothing like evening Bill, wbicli I saw in the dusk as I waited for niy friend to answer his name, nor so mamscholars who, being indeed young men of hill stature, bear themselves with' Mu h beauty and grace. But their new hall at Christ's College is finer than any I saw at Harrow, and when hallowed with age will solemnify all. Moreover their chapel, though.very much smaller, i< finer by Jar than the school chyrcb at Harrow, nnd older, I think. It is low and narrow, its proportion perfect, much covered in ivy. and expressing in' sr-one both age and dcnuireness it is riwrmina: tr> see. 137, While I speak of this school, there is another matter, and this has a bearing on that I said about games, how that any found shrinking and loath to take part in their swimming and games with the rest, they used here, the more sturdy and able, to force with violenco and scorn to do what they feared: since with so many so able they had no need to encourage and foster the best and most sensitive to come forward. But these they rather enjoyed to deride, being bevs and "foolish. And this, while it confirms in their weakness those who are shrinking and backword, likewise it hardens ami coarsens those others throughout their lives, as yon may easily see, and prevents them to practise sympathy and the learning of delicacy, that opens all arts, and closes their understanding and fondness of others. And if men in the main are merely brutes, yet it might bo denied them to ha.ve their most wanton vices countenanced in £heir schools, as l>y allowance they are. There is no j other cure for this noxious coarseness | ! hut those boys who are biggest and j skilled and the most admired should befriend nnd encourage those who are shrinking and smaller; for it is not that cruelty they do which continues this pestilent evil throughout their lives, but rather that they might have had otherwise and they l«ck, a tender association ivith fearful natures, but finer than theirs. This alone makes ft source of the finest manners in all civilised countries. By this means the Greeks arose.to thoir greatness. To this I commend you. 138. In the public gardens nearby I was used, when a bay, to hide myself with a hook when I ought to have been at games with the rest, which I loathed to take part in as much as I loved this reading. There was a great fir tree near the path whereby the school passed in the afternoons to cricket, beneath which, on a bod of dry needles and concealed by its boughs and the tall grass about I lay closely hid, but not free from alarm until the last had gone by, when at length I entered that world I loved mora than this. I delighted therein, above all, in the workings of fortune, and, as it ap- « eared to me, tho study of fame. / hatever I read, of love and courage and lasting friendship, induced me to this. In this region I seemed without that present and smaller identity by which otherwise I was burdened and bound. Likewise nature looked magnified, as if in accordance with this, as if nearer my knowledge, until there was nothing about me but appeared to mv eyes in a favouring not a sound thai fell but was lifted" above its present meaning and possessed of futurity. All existence breathed with one purport and burned in one apparition by what I read, So fancy had its firm roots in that provident tree, and a volco in the wistful music its boughs made above me, as if longing to speak; so fame drew its breath {ram the breeze and the swept scent of flowers, and lovo was apparrelled in light. "What deception and art J practised not to bo torn from this pleasure and punished! This is that iinyj in boyhood when the spirit takes flight and surveys its future. Thereafter there is nothing unknown; hut the body must next be up, with its' burden of passions and fears, to make manifest that surmise. Here, l remember, I read ''The Last of the Mohicans," and "Hypatia," and Abbott's "Xife of Napoleon" ; • but tho re3t I forget. The tree is still there> but they have cleared the ground and made gardens about it. Of the ancients I knew very little then, until I came to Euripides ten years later. Mv English master was Mr Montenth, wh<> presided over the classics with that true touch of a dreamy aloofness which drew the grain of his class from the chaff, two or three grains from a gust of rubbish, Thia, I hold is the choicest, the only true teaching, there is, and quite the contrary of that they practise everywhere here, ; He took us through Pope's Opyssey, of which I remember that passage wherein Ulysses is cast up by the sea and found by Nausieaa; for the copy I ugod had a pieture of thie, of Ulysses knee deep in the waves and naked, and Nausieaa and her maids around on the sand. Whenever I looked at this pieture I heard tho noiae'of-'those moving waves and that white body wet with spray. Then I would look put of the 1 window on the side where the gardens were, away from the school, where the ( tops of the trees could be seen on a , sunny day an<l the blue aky above | them. I did well alone at English and drawing, to my father's dismay, aa if these were not indeed all in thetn* selves. There was » special prise for English history and literaturo, called . the Tancred Prize, and this I won, I t think r < whenever I tried; that ia, three f or four times; nor was my father ap* peased by thia ominous feat; for they ? hold here a life is well spent that is I live& in conflict, not in aeeordancc, I with Nature; in which they are right; for spent, indeed, is the state they are in. 5 (To be continued.) I .1 ■■ - ■ . 1