Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/98

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. X. AUG. 2, 1902.

of a second-hand kind, and is derived from conversations upon Lavater and his claims as a physiognomist, which [ heard many years ago at Coombe and during walks in Richmond Park between the author of ' Aylwin ' and my father, who, admittedly a man of intellectual grasp, went even further than Lavater. He affirmed that not only the face, but the entire body, of every man indicated his character, if the observer had the insight for reading it. But, although deeply interested in physiognomy (he pos- sessed the valuable early edition of Lavater's treatise), he was a strong and, I suppose, prejudiced opponent of all kinds of mysticism. A physiognomist who at that time wrote under the name of "Eden Warwick" was much discussed by the author of 'Aylwin' and my father. I wonder, by-the-by, if any one can tell me who " Eden Warwick " was. He was the author of ' Notes on Noses,' a little book whose jocosity seemed to hide a real seriousness of meaning. I have at various times, years before the publication of 'Aylwin,' seen quotations from such a book as ' The Veiled Queen.' I especially remem- ber seeing the motto of the novel 'Aylwin '- " Quoth Ja'afar, bowing low his head : ' Bold is the donkey-driver, O Ka'dee ! and bold the ka'dee who dares say what he will believe, what disbelieve not knowing in any wise the mind of Allah not knowing in any wise his own heart, and what it shall some day suffer ' "

introduced into an article on Westland Mars- ton's collected plays and poems, either in the Athenaeum or the Examiner, twenty -seven years ago. A writer in the Literary World, in some admirable remarks upon this story, is, as far as I know, the only critic who has dwelt upon the extraordinary character of " Philip Aylwin." He says :

" The melancholy, the spiritual isolation, and the passionate love of this master-mystic for his dead wife are so finely rendered that the readers' sym-

Sathies go out at once to this most pathetic and jnely figure It would be difficult for any sensi- tive man or woman to follow Philip Aylwin's story as related by his son without the tribute of aching heart and scalding tears. To our thinking, the man's sanity is more moving, more supremely tragic, than even the madness of Winifred, which is the culminating tragedy of the book."

I must say that I agree with this writer in thinking "Philip Aylwin" to be the most impressive character in the story. The most remarkable feature of the novel, indeed, is that, although "Philip Aylwin" disappears from the scene so early, his opinions, his character, and his dreams are cast so entirely over the book from beginning to end that the novel might have been called 'Philip Aylwin.' I have a special interest in this

character, because I knew the undoubted original of the character with a considerable amount of intimacy. Without the permission of the author of ' Aylwin,' I can only touch on outward traits the deep, spiritual life of this man is beyond me. Although a very near relation, he was not, as has been so often surmised, the author's father. He was a man of extraordinary learning in the academic sense of the word, and possessed still more extraordinary general knowledge. He lived for many years the strangest kind of hermit life, surrounded by his books and old manuscripts. His two great passions were philology and occultism, but he also took great interest in rubbings from brass monuments. He knew more, I think, of those strange writers discussed in Vaughan's ' Hours with the Mystics ' than any other person including, perhaps, Vaughan him- self ; but he managed to combine with his love of mysticism a deep passion for the physical sciences, especially astronomy. He seemed to be learning languages up to almost the last year of his life. His method of learning languages was the opposite of that of George Borrow, that is to say, he made great use of grammars ; and when he died it is said that from four to five hundred treatises on gram- mar were found among his books. He used to express great contempt for Sorrow's method of learning languages from diction- aries only.

I do not think that any one connected with literature with the sole exception of Mr. Swinburne, my father, and Dr. R. G. Latham knew so much of him as I did. His per- sonal appearance was exactly like that of " Philip Aylwin," as described in the novel. Although he never wrote poetry, he trans- lated, I believe, a good deal from the Spanish and Portuguese poets. I remember that he was an extraordinary admirer of Shelley. His knowledge of Shakespeare and the Elizabethan dramatists was a link between him and Mr. Swinburne.

At a time when I was a busy reader at the British Museum Reading-Room, I used fre- quently to see him, and he never seemed to know any cne among the readers except myself, and whenever he spoke to me it was always in a hushed whisper, lest he should disturb the other readers, which in his eyes would have been a heinous offence. For very many years he had been extremely well known to the second-hand booksellers, for he was a constant purchaser of their wares. He was a great pedestrian, and, being very much attached to the north of London, would take long, slow tramps ten miles out in