Author: Lady Dilke

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-05-05

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9781718800328

Of literature ancient and modern, Lady Dilke was an excellent judge, being keenly interested in philosophy as well as the history of art. Her books 'The Shrine of Death, and other Stories' (1886), 'The Shrine of Love, and other Stories' (1891), which are now seldom met with, were studies in the difficult vein of the prose fabulist, occasionally vague in sentiment and landscape, but effective in style. She had intended to republish and add to them. She was a great connoisseur of old books, particularly Elzevirs, Aldines, and early works of the Paris and Lyons presses, which she treasured with all the enthusiasm of a collector. "Ah, les livres, ils nous débordent, ils nous étouffent; nous périssons par les livres," was the complaint of Daudet, and so it is with many authors to-day who write masterly monographs, and neglect everything and everybody else. But there are some few rare spirits whose expressive sympathy and help for others lose nothing by their absorption in the study of the specialist, for whom the world is better, whose lives are more effective than their books, finer but less familiar aspects of their endowments. Of such was Lady Dilke. But the benefactions of her life are partly too well known and partly too intimate to admit of notice here. Yet a word concerning our personal debt cannot be withheld. We shall miss sadly the various and frequent attention, the wise counsel, the active help and encouragement, which she bestowed on The Athenæum. All too unready are we to say "Ave atque Vale" to the scholar and friend. Our loss is overwhelming, irreparable, but her gracious memory will keep us from "the sin of the unlit lamp, and the ungirt loin." --The Athenæum