PORTRAITS AND SKETCHES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1623, 14 December 1912, Page 9

PORTRAITS AND SKETCHES.

In the graceful preface to an altogether charming volume of "Portraits ana Sketches," Sir. Edmund Gesso describes that sort of: literary portraiture which gives him most pleasure, as being, in a happy phvaso of M. Paul Desjariiins: "La kmematographie d'uneabeiile dans le mystere de la mellification." Others, that is to Bay, may dissect the bee, or analyse tho honey; but his shall be the more humau task of watching tho inseot at its work, building up and filling the cells. It is a suggestive image, but Mr. Gosse's modesty has not permitted him to carry it to its logical completion. Many people of limited sympathy and range might spend ■ agreeable hours in watching the bee at work; but it requires a very special sympathy and a very sensitive insight to read the riddle of the hivo, and to evolve tho Maeterliuokian philosophy of the. insect's life. And Mr. Gosse possesses, in a .degree certainly unsurpassed- among contemporaries, this delicate, persuasive, interpreting touch. Hβ is the Maeterlinck of the literary hive, and whatever he interprets is adorned with the fruit of true observation, lively sympathy, and a broad nnd humano sense of the responsibilities of literature. Humour is always at his elbow and taste at his ear, so that ho refuses instinctively to sacrifice truth upon the altar of friendship, or to court sensation at the expense of prudence. No man could, desire a wiser, estimate than Mr. Gosso is.likely;to pronounce,for him, -and' no one who" reverences sincerity-should expect a friendlier. . /_ The portraits which make up this bright and varied gallery are all portraits of men of letters, who, in Mr. Gosse's own phrase, "were engaged .in keeping bright, and in passing on unquenched, the torch of literary tradition." Some of them are less known than others, but all loved tho - art of tho writer, and about all of them Mr. Gosse has something fresh, stimulating, "and memorable to recprd. Some--times/'as in, the ease of '.'a: first .sight of Teririysoh," ; the'-: iinpression" ;sought y is merely. nVomentary; : ; elusive.; ' Yet- : with what vivid..effect our'.author J 'portrays,himsel.f.^.tlie'shyvyouth',;.'imniTirfUγ as' .a junior assistant,. in-'ifie'BritisK.lMuseum, •in a sort v 'of'uudergr6iina cage,'made''of steel bars arid' "s^erited'irith rptteri; morocco,'-' whence".he...was. suddenly'(haled into the up'peiv air/'to 1 ''bevprcserited:.. to ■Mr.. Tennyson.":'-.i.lt; was like .an'. Hoinerio EUmmoriS;'into;Vthe. presence; of' thV.'Etfds, Tand. the.; Apollo'•pf 7 - English.sing.-looked '..worthyof' th i o/occasion, , ;:.'.;. ~'x. '..'•' , 'i' ','He stood -'f here as, we. approached him, .'very still,' with .slightly ■ drooping .eyelids, and: made,. no movement/ no; gesture'' of ';appfoach. ; "' :V Whon I had; been presented, ■and.had shaken^his>arid;;he.continued to .'consider ■■me"'in a?silence;which' would;have I■' beea,' deeply. disconcerting:; if'•: if, had'-. not, Mm.ehow, , kindly/.arid even, "absurd 'tis it sbunds,",'ra(;h.erVshy." ';>'■':' V '•' 'The great b'ard' spoke'of Norway and of Greek sculpture, "without emphasis, without aft'ectution, as-, though ho were speaking, to himself." And then, says Mr. Gosse, "the gates of heaven were closed, and I went down three flights of stairs to ■my hell of rptten morrocco." How Tennyson would : have'. appreciated this little picture, retained so vividly across the mists of.forty years, and preserving with such unfailing .fidelity^.the colour and sentiment of the! moment! The book is full of such portrait's, unfaded and unforgettable.;.; If: '%;■&» specifically, spiritual portraib':bo;'desii'ed, ; let ,th'e'. etudy • the v wliole ijo|;'Jlie';.aam'irr able' ; article:\uppn Swinbiirnp—iiiiitself .by i;far.-ottte''':m.b'^t : ■;way-ivard>'geriius/that'has'tr'yet seen' the light "*pf prints Here weVmeet him, just ioverrhis'4oth'year;-, •full'.pfj delight in the/simple pleasures, pf'.ap, home, alive sblonK'astiie'Sfariiiiy-circle wascpm■plete/'yet,, directly alpne. with 'his '■' reoiirrent melarichbljy." which seems ' in : "separable.from the ppotic;teinperament.; - '.'. "Wlien:,ho..aiuri w&g?alono ho closed ,up to thejfir.ei'.his grffltltoad -liowccl, kiieos held tight tbgeth'srpand' his tips :pree=ed to.'his chest, , -,in what I call his ."penitential" attitude, and he began a long tale, plaintive and' rather vague, about his 'lpnolines?,; the..sadness of.-.'liis life, tlio suffering he experiences from the -slanders of. others. He said that George Eliot was hounding on her myrmidons to his destruction. I made out that this inferred;.toispme attack in. a, newspaper which , ', he';-Istipppses';? very;. ; grduntllessly, I expect, tbj'b'e ■:ittspired ; ;:by/-. I Gfiqrge- , ;Eliot. Swinburiie';said:^tHati ; aßo' ing'under :: a-::ni6rbid, : . distress'atThiS: isolation, and. that' , heWad Ken ily to review before his' conscience his imaginative life.', in order to prevent himself from sinking'into despair. : This;. is only a mood, to' bo sure, but if there be any people who think so ill of him I only wish they'could see him as.we'see him at these recuperative .intervals.. Whatever he may be elsewhere, in our household not-a kinder, simpler, or more affectionate creature could bo desired as a vWtor. The only fault we'find with him is that his little mournful ways and his fragility drag painfully' upon . our ..sympathy. . '-.- .. In a very different mood is the. owmbuxne of a few years earlier, who came up. to town,. "with dclishttul to organise a dinner in' honour of Lamb s centenary. "He was . magnificent, very grave and important," although, as a matter of fact, no more than a small company, of five sat down to "a mediocre dinner in a Soho tavern." Swinburne, however, "took.upon himself an air of dignity which," presupposed the idea that our little banquet, was,:.symbolically, a large public-affair," ;and .the,;ponverfabon flowed" like' sparkling; , nectar,-' s "imhl \thewaiters turned'- us , out; into '.thp .-stwet.-■ Here wo have Mr.'.Gos&e'.'.in:his.'merry mood of Temmisoince. v but'iiiva niomont of change liis fancy waters, and plumb the character of a friend in a single flashing. passa-ge. His apologia for Joseph Shorthouee is a case in point. It penetrates with wonderful certainty into the very soul, of an essentially sslf-centred character. He believed (says Mr. Gosse) that lie had teen raised up to persuade people that God prefers culture to fanaticism, Ho asserted this,again ami a»am: the formula is -his own. He disliked excess of every kind—tumultuous benevolence, exaggerated faith, fanatical action. He was of opinion that oair English, life, public and private, as. it was'worked but to a 'practical' issue ..forty years ago, was a mistake.' He was an "epicurean quiet'.is't, -who■. believed"; that 'the;-:.-main, object of every man's life \shptdd ; be to ..conquerand secure for'himsolf'peace of mind and a solution of the intellectual difficul-;, ties which have perplexed him. He held' 1 that so far as philanthropy, or active energy of any sort, was incompatible with 'perfect.culture/!itywas wrong, it was unwholesome and .•immoral. ■ In .his; attitude towards;, altruism -;arid'' public ■ pity the author arriving from ■tli'o'opposite"'poiilt;-6f• the eompaTs, was oddly-inMiarmtoy. with '■/ '-Niotasolie," x>f 'whom- he'tad'.Merer.heard, and whom.he would I 'hare : lookedj.upon-. as a: roffian. "But'we : must-not permit ourselves'fur-,, thier. quotation froma book which, invites, to'quotatjoh from: every yzge- ■ .Qiie thing alone rpmairiS'to l>3 said.' Thess iascmatirig'studies ■in-'.'portraiture : .will'> charmevery'true'■'■lover;, rf literature; yet. -the; 'company- that -, will •' read what-, appears "at.firstsight."abook of.essays," however, fit,;.is unfortunately few./. :Outside -its., sheltered limits thereexists a vast public,: by no means'iinappreciativo. or devoid.of : judgment, ;wlip must'be.tempted;by..something 'in the 'way of a.:story.-';.-They:.shy at an■' essav,- 'but rush-' for':.an;-; au.tobio--graphy/ Hovz' v laT.eo...tliat-. public'.is .'to; already, been proved.by the. huge ,populaieuccfSi 'of.''Father- arid..'f?on." ; ..'Arid.;that public is-.'fltill' waitiing. for Mr. "GbssSs, complete' "Reminiscences? , —a work; which will assuredly rank anion? the classics- of its order, and one-which really be persuaded not to withhold'muchlonspr froni,.the,eager audience which is. lookiiig - forward to .welcomo! it.-rLondpn "Daily Telegraph."•'." .■'.'".. ■■. : .'.-.:>' : ; ; ''-\'