PROSE MELODY.*
MR. PEARSALL Smell has clearly published his prose anthology in the belief that it will resemble in function the particle of sand which occasionally invades the mouth of an oyster. The grain is both the shaper and the prime cause of the pearl with which the oyster presently surrounds it. The anthology as it stands is now anything but representative. That is certainly intended to be its principal merit, for it is on this ground exceedingly provocative and stimulating. Not only are (with about four exceptions) the famous passages of the more generally acknowledged masters excluded, but whole schools of style are left out. The selections from the Bible are entirely admirable, and show afresh how great a debt all English literature owes to the passionate and sonorous measures of the Old Testament and the melodies of the New. The passages from Jeremy Taylor and Dr. Donne are excellently chosen, and Mr. Pearsall Smith is to be congratulated upon his phrase from Traherne and upon having recollected that Chaucer was not only the first English poet. Indeed, much of the prose written by poets in this book will delight and surprise most of Mr. Pearsall Smith's readers. As for the moderns, we are grateful for those whom he has included, but where is Mr. Chesterton and why is there not more of Mr. Conrad ? Why are we given so much Milton and so little Swift ? Where is Pope's dedication of "The Rape of the Lock " ? Where is Jane Austen, and where Disraeli ? Why are we given nothing from " 011ala " or Stevenson's fables, and why is there no " Junius " and nothing from James I.?
We shall not allow Mr. Pearsall Smith's plea that his book • A Treasury of Efigsb Prole. Edited by Logan Pearsall Smith. London: Constable. M.) is octavo, not elephant folio. Before he has time to utter a word we will point out to him that we propose an exchange. He has a. great deal of Lamb, a great deal of Milton, a great deal of Emerson. Let him omit two of the extracts which are owned by each of these Dives, and, if he will allow us to help shape the pearl of his second edition, we recommend that he include at least one such passage as this (it is 'from Mansfield Park) to represent the crystalline manner—the-style which he has most particularly neglected :— " She could think of nothing but Mansfield, its beloved inmates, its happy ways. Everything where she now was was in full contrast to it. The elegance, -propriety, regularity, harmony, and perhaps, above all, the peace and tranquillity of Mansfield, were brought to her remembrance every hour of the day, by the prevalence of everything opposite to them here. The living in Incessant noise was, to a frame and temper delicate and nervous like Fanny's, an evil which no superadded elegance or harmony could have entirely atoned for. It was the greatest misery of all. At Mansfield, no sounds of contention, no raised voice, no abrupt burst, no tread of violence, was ever heard ; all proceeded in a regular course of cheerful orderliness ; everybody had their due importance ; everybody's feelings were consulted. If -tenderness could be ever supposed wanting, good sense and good breeding supplied its place ; and as to the little irritations, sometimes introduced by aunt Norris, they were short, they were trifling, they were as a drop of water to the ocean, compared with the ceaseless tumult of her present abode. Here, everybody was noisy, every voice was loud (excepting, perhaps, her mother's, which resembled the soft monotony of Lady Bertram's only worn into fretfulness). Whatever was wanted was halloo' I for, and the servants halloo'd out their excuses from the kitchen. The doors were in constant banging, the stairs were never at rest, nothing was done without a clatter, nobody sat still, and nobody could command attention when they spoke."
Another writer of limpid English who, though not wholly omitted, is only allowed one short extract is Stevenson. We miss his imaginative yet austere mood. This passage from " 011ala " would serve to illustrate it :—
" I had been about ten days in the resideneia, when there sprang up a high and harsh wind, carrying clouds of dust. It came out of malarious lowlands and over several snowy sierras. The nerves of those on whom it blew were strung and jangled ; their eyes smarted with the dust ; their legs ached under the burthen of their body ; and the touch of one hand upon another grew to be odious. The wind, besides, came down the gullies of the hills and stormed about the house with a great, hollow buzzing and whistling that was wearisome to the ear and dis- mally depressing to the mind. it did not so much blow in gusts as with the steady sweep of a waterfall, so that there was no remission of discomfort while it blew. But higher up on the mountain it was probably of a more variable strength, with accesses of fury ; for there came down at times a far-off wailing, infinitely grievous to hear ; and at times, on one of the high shelves or terraces, there would start up, and then disperse, a tower of dust, like the smoke of an explosion."
We again ask a place for Pope's little-known dedication, and for one of Dryden's high-spirited and flamboyant essays on the art of flattery. Greatest of all, " Junius " thunders upon the door of Mr. Pearsall Smith's Treasury, and demands hearing for a bar or two of the ponderous music of the letters :— " Whenever the spirit of distributing prebends and bishoprics shall have departed from you, you will find that learned seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium of an installation, and, what in troth it ought to be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. The venerable tutors of the University will no longer distress your modesty by proposing you for a pattern to their pupils. The learned dullness of declamation will be silent ; and even the venal Muse, though happiest in fiction, will forget your virtues."
We dare hope that in the cases of these neglected masters Mr. Pearsall Smith will hear our petition. But there remains one wish which it will unfortunately be vain to express. Alas that all the editions which his friends may wish to Mr. Pearsall Smith's collection can never bring to it one of the many passages from Trivia which are so well worthy a place in it I
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