Messrs. R. Osgood & Co. in advertising Miss SARAH ORME JEWETT'S book,
_Strangers and Wayfarers_, quotes an extract from one of Mr. RUSSEL
LOWELL'S letters, which runs thus:--
"I remember once at a dinner of the Royal Academy, wishing there
might be a toast in honour of the Little Masters, such as TENNIEL, DU
MAURIER, and their fellows."
He "wished" it, but was the wish a silent one, or did it find
expression in a speech? No matter: there are the Old Masters and the
Young Masters, there are the Middle-Aged Masters; there are the Great
Masters; and, according to Mr. RUSSELL LOWELL, there are "the Little
Masters," without any middle term at all. "The Little Masters," like
children in the nursery of Art, not admitted to dinner, but who come
in afterwards for dessert. May they come in for their just deserts,
as no doubt they will some day. Well, according to this Lowelly
estimation of merit, these would be the Lesser Masters, and after them
the No Masters at all, except perhaps the Toast-Masters. But why
not follow a kind of public school classification which divides one
form--of course all the artists belong to the very best form, and,
like Sir FREDERICK the President, show the very best form--into
several compartments, so that we should have in one form say, the
Fifth, Upper Fifth, Middle Fifth, subdivided into Upper and Lower
Middle, then Lower Fifth, with a similar subdivision? Orders of merit
to be worn in the button-hole could then be distributed, and a new
Order of the "B.P.", not "British Public," but "Brush and Pencil,"
could be instituted, to be entitled fully, "_The Masters of the Black
and White Art_."
[Illustration: "(STAN)-HOPE TOLD A FLATTERING TALE."
_Mr. Punch_ (_to War Secretary_). "VERY WELL ON ACCOUNT; BUT WHEN
IS HE TO HAVE HIS REWARD IN FULL, LIKE HIS BROTHERS OF THE COMBATANT
BRANCH?"]
In the _Fortnightly_, besides an article on the prevailing epidemic,
by Sir MORRELL MACKENZIE, M.D., which finishes with much the sort
of general advice that was given by _Mr. Justice Starleigh_ to _Sam
Weller_, to the effect that "You had better be careful, Sir," whoever
you are, who read this short, but generally interesting paper. There
is an anonymous paper on an imaginary election at the Royal Academy,
noticeable only for an excellent imitation of Mr. GEORGE MEREDITH'S
style. The Novelist is supposed to look in casually, and, finding an
election imminent, he offers sage words of counsel, and then begs to
be allowed to "float out of their orbit by a bowshot." It seems to me
that the paper was written for the sake of this one short paragraph,
which, as a close parody, is inimitable. _A Modern Idyll_, by the
Editor, Mr. FRANK HARRIS, is, as far as this deponent is concerned,
like the Rule of Three in the ancient Nursery Rhyme, for it "bothers
me," and, though written with considerable dramatic power, yet it
seems rather the foundation for a novel which the Author felt either
disinclined to continue, or unable to finish. ALTER HEGO (_in the
Office of the B. de B.-W._)
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