Review of Revieics, 1/3113. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



55 



achieved." In reph- to a direct question, 

 Mr. Wells wrote : — " I quite agree with 

 ^'ou about its t}'rannous possibilities." 



WOULD JOHN KEATS HAVE BEEN BORX ? 



Race-culture is also the subject of an 

 article in the A /I mi tic Mont lily. Into 

 the mouth of his anti-AIendelian, its 

 author, Simeon Strunsk)', puts the fol- 

 lowing argument : — " Suppose you have 

 )-our Mendelian peas all straightened 

 out so that you know in advance which 

 are coming out from where. Which 

 peas would }ou permit to be brought 



forth, and which would you suppress?" 

 And he went on to show that if Hard- 

 ing had been alive toward the end of 

 the eighteenth centur\', and had been al- 

 lowed to have his own way, he might 

 have prevented a tuberculous child 

 named John Keats from being born. 

 But who would have written the lines 

 on a Grecian Urn? Or Robert Louis 

 Stevenson : Harding might have choked 

 off the disease-laden chromosome that 

 became R.L.S. ; but would he have 

 dared to do so if he had known what 

 the future had in store? 



A GREAT VICTORIAN. 



It was the good fortune of J. P. Col- 

 lins to have twice had long conversa- 

 tions with George Meredith. Both occa- 

 sions were visits to Box Hill, and the 

 notes resulting appear in The North 

 A merican Rev'ieiv. 



Meredith's attitude toward these little 

 receptions of his has often been de- 

 scribed. He made one think of Prome- 

 theus bound. His lower limbs were con- 

 cealed by a rug, as if he were a traveller 

 b}' some train that had caught the secret 

 of perpetual motion. They had not 

 5up])orted him for many years. As he 

 said himself, he was like the prince in 

 the "Arabian Nights," endowed with 

 abundant strength of body and head, 

 but cursed with legs of marble. He laid 

 a bundle of letters down as Mr. Collins 

 entered, naif rose with an effort, and 

 sank back into his eas}--rhair. It was in 

 the forenoon before his daily ride. 

 Sand}', the Aberdeen terrier, was ferret- 

 ing about his heavy arm-chair, and the 

 tiny table at his elbow carried a litter 

 of boxes of matches and cigars, letters, 

 and books — most of them in yellow 

 covers. Newspapers were altogether ab- 

 sent. Beyond, in the corner, was a turn- 

 table bookcase ; around the walls and 

 mantel were prints and photographs. In 

 its ordered informality and the absence 

 of anything superfluous the room was 

 supremely old-fashioned, comfortable, 

 homel}'. 



Speaking of journalism Meredith 

 said : — 



I do not find to-day the fearlessness of journal- 



ism at its best, the journalism of Douglas Oook 

 and Morley and Frederick Greenwood. Do you 

 know Greenwood.' A splendid fellow. He had 

 the power of projecting his mind into the maze 

 of foreigm politics several days ahead of the 

 event or anyone else, and certainly in this I 

 have never known his equal. That method seems 

 to be lost in Fleet Street now — the tradition even. 

 But if onlj- someone would show the way to a 

 Ingher level than commercialism, and set his 

 paper on a platform of authority where it could 

 speak without favour or fear of the results, I 

 am sure i!ie public would value it and follow 

 it, and the result would be well worth the experi- 

 ment. 



HIS MESS.\GE. 



When asked what was the best com- 

 pensation in drudgery he replied : — 



If you mean keeping your soul alive, I would 

 say — make for yourself a quiet, unassuming, cul- 

 tivated, but comfortable domestic atmosphere. 

 Marriage, where there is true love on Iwth sides 

 and a right; choice, is the greatest happiness on 

 earth; there is no other state to equal it. I 

 asked a pliysician the other day — an admirable 

 fellow — how old he was and why he had never 

 married. He said he had never met the occasion 

 or the woman, and I answered that perhaps he 

 had nevep really looked for her. By all means, 

 I would say, marry, but marry carefully and 

 rightlj'. It solves many pi-oblems both for the 

 man and the woma.n; and how are women to 

 develop their best faculties and virtues if you 

 leave them to dwindle intO' spinsterliood? 



Then, secondly, I would say, find out your 

 tastes and refine them; they are the best soil 

 for your ambitions. And when your ambitions 

 stand out clear don't let them perish or be 

 crushed or crowded oatt of you by excess of tax- 

 work. This is important for all j-oung men to 

 remember, especially when opportunity seems re- 

 mote. The gods are slow, but they surely work 

 their way in time. And never be put down or 

 deterred by a failure. You will come to see that 

 failure, after all, is a better and sounder adviser 

 than success. Tliink of Dickens and the way 

 that premature success turned his head until he 

 came to regard himself almost as a sacred person. 



