Thomas Bowles

“ Gilchrist be the reviewer of "a certain poet of nature," his praise 404 and blame are equally contemptible."—Mr. Bowles, who has a peculiarly ambiguous style, where it suits him, comes off with a "not to the poet, but the critic," &c. In my humble opinion, the passage referred to both. Had Mr. Bowles really meant fairly, he would have said so from the first—he would have been eagerly transparent.—"A certain poet of nature" is not the style of commendation. It is the very prologue to the most scandalous paragraphs of the newspapers, when
"Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike." ”

“ Gilchrist, or his friend, to greet him with as many from the 'Gilchrisiad';" but so much the better. Mr. Bowles has no reason to "succumb" but to Mr. Bowles. As a poet, the author of "The Missionary" may compete with the foremost of his cotemporaries. Let it be recollected, that all my previous opinions of Mr. Bowles's poetry were written long before the publication of his last and best poem; and that a poet's last poem should be his best, is his highest praise. But, however, he may duly and honourably rank with his living rivals. ”

“ How a favourable review of a deserving poet can "rather injure than promote his cause" is difficult to comprehend. The article denounced is able and amiable, and it has "served" the poet, as far as poetry can be served by judicious and honest criticism.
With the two next paragraphs of Mr. Bowles's pamphlet it is pleasing to concur. His mention of "Pennie," and his former patronage of "Shoel," do him honour. I am not of those who may deny Mr. Bowles to be a benevolent man. I merely assert, that he is not a candid editor. ”

“ Bowles appears, indeed, to be susceptible beyond the privilege of authorship. There is a plaintive dedication to Mr. Gifford, in which he is made responsible for all the articles of the Quarterly. Mr. Southey, it seems, "the most able and eloquent writer in that Review," approves of Mr. Bowles's publication. Now it seems to me the more impartial, that notwithstanding that "the great writer of the Quarterly" entertains opinions opposite to the able article on Spence, nevertheless that essay was permitted to appear. Is a review to be devoted to the opinions of any one man? ”

“ For the gentleman who makes it it is also rather hazardous if he does not succeed, and still more so if he does.
Mr. Bowles appeals to the "Christian reader!" upon this "Gilchristian criticism." Is not this play upon such words "a step beyond decorum" in a clergyman? But I admit the temptation of a pun to be irresistible.
But "a hasty pamphlet was published, in which some personalities respecting Mr. Gilchrist were suffered to appear." If Mr. Bowles will write "hasty pamphlets," why is he so surprised on receiving short answers? ”

“ It is easily disproved if false; and even if proved true, has nothing in it to make a man so very indignant. Mr. Bowles himself appears to be a little ashamed of his "hasty pamphlet;" for he attempts to excuse it by the "great provocation;" that is to say, by Mr. Bowles's supposing that Mr. Gilchrist was the writer of the article in the Quarterly, which he was not. ”

“ How the deuce was I to suppose that the first four asterisks meant 'Campbell' and not 'Pope,' and that the blank signature meant Thomas Moore [39] ? You see what comes of beingPg 192 familiar with parsons. His answers have not yet reached me, but I understand from Hobhouse, thatPg 193 he (H.) is attacked in them. If that be the case, Bowles has broken the truce, (which he himself proclaimed, by the way,) and I must have at him again. ”

“ TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, May 10. 1821.
"I have just got your packet. I am obliged to Mr. Bowles, and Mr. Bowles is obliged to me, for having restored him to good-humour. He is toPg 153 write, and you to publish, what you please,—motto and subject. I desire nothing but fair play for all parties. Of course, after the new tone of Mr. Bowles, you will not publish my defence of Gilchrist: it would be brutal to do so after his urbanity, for it is rather too rough, like his own attack upon Gilchrist. You may tell him what I say there of his Missionary (it is praised, as it deserves) . ”

“ Bowles attributed the critique in the Quarterly to Octavius Gilchrist." All these "reasons" consist of surmises of Mr. Bowles, upon the presumed character of his opponent. "He did not suppose there could exist a man in the kingdom so impudent, &c. &c. except Octavius Gilchrist."—"He did not think there was a man in the kingdom who would pretend ignorance, &c. &c. except Octavius Gilchrist."—"He did not conceive that one man in the kingdom would utter such stupid flippancy, &c. &c. except Octavius Gilchrist."—"He did not think there was one man in the kingdom who, &c. ”

“ His writings on the Pope controversy consist of "A Letter to Thomas Campbell," "Two Letters to Lord Byron," "A Final Appeal to the Public relative to Pope," and (more last words!) , "Lessons in Criticism to William Roscoe, and Farther Lessons to a Quarterly Reviewer." All are exceedingly readable and clever.
It is curious contrasting the spirit of Bowles' prose—his severity—his pugnacity—his irritability, with the mild qualities of his poetry. The leading element in all his poetical works is sentiment,—warm, mellow, tender, and often melancholy sentiment. ”

“ He feared to sacrifice the fine qualities of the small, compact carefully-edited newspaper of the days before the advent of the sensational “yellow” journal. Mr. Bowles' personal life was one of quiet concentration on the interests of the “Republican.” He refused many honors and opportunities in public life and took up few direct responsibilities in the life of his city, although his interest in social and educational problems could always be counted on. He was a director of the Springfield Library Association, succeeding his father in 1878 and resigning in 1902. ”

“ Bowles is familiar with the country and the people, even speaks the language himself a little. He had letters to many of the high officials, and could be of the greatest assistance to your father in many ways, even though he did not stay with the party. ”

“ Now the involuntary movements of our hero had accelerated at every turn, and when finally he parted company with his trusty steed he was going very fast indeed. Falling near the edge of the lists, he found touch, first bounce, in the Royal Box, whence some officious persons rolled him back again into the field of play.
It must not be supposed that poor Sir Bowles was comfortable during these proceedings. The rather ingenious apparatus whereby he had hoped to catch a glimpse of his adversary had got out of order at the first onslaught, and he was in total darkness. ”

“ While with his battalion of the Coldstreams in Canada, as lieutenant-colonel and brevet-colonel, he commanded the troops in the Lower Province during the rebellion of 1838. He retired on half-pay in 1843. In 1845 Bowles, who while on half-pay had been comptroller of the viceregal household in Dublin, was appointed master of the queen's household, in succession to the Hon. O. A. Murray. A good deal of invidious feeling had arisen in connection with the duties of the office, and Bowles's appointment is said to have been made at the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington. ”

“ Mr Bowles has been a poet for good fifty years; and if his genius do not burn quite so bright as it did some lustres bygone—yet we do not say there is any abatement even of its brightness: it shines with a mellower and also with a more cheerful light. Long ago, he was perhaps rather too pensive—too melancholy—too pathetic—too woe-begone—in too great bereavement. ”

“ He also gave a number of years to the board of trade of the city, and was largely rosponsible for Springfield's initiative in the “safe and sane Fourth of July” movement, which later swept over the whole country. Mr. Bowles' home was a quiet center of the city's intellectual life. To strangers he appeared cold and formal, but this was not his demeanor toward those with whom he associated intimately. In extending his friendship he did not consider the “social standing” of the individual, he considered only his character regardless of any other matters. ”

“ He has no profound thought—no powerful pictures of passion—no creative imagination—but over all his poetry lies a sweet autumnal moonlight of pensive and gentle feeling. In his larger poems, he is often diffuse and verbose, and you see more effort than energy. But in his smaller, and especially in his sonnets, and his pieces descriptive of nature, Bowles is always true to his own heart, and therefore always successful. ”

“ CHAPTER XVI THE STRAW-BOSS
It is the philosophy of the poseurs in pessimism that for every happy moment we have in life we pay at a later date a greater price. Of course, any one who ever took a kid to the circus knows better, but there are times when the doctrine seems to hold. When Bowles returned to the round-up, the news of his perfidy had preceded him—he had taken advantage of his position and spent the evening at the big house! ”

“ The same poem is also said to have been the inspirer of Cowley, who found a copy of it accidentally lying on the window of his mother's apartment; and reading and admiring it, he became, as he relates, irrecoverably a poet.
Coleridge speaks of the great influence which the poems of Bowles had in forming his own mind. The works of a past age, says he, seem to a young man to be things of another race; but the writings of a contemporary "possess a reality for him, and inspire an actual friendship as of a man for a man. His very admiration is the wind which fans and feeds his hope. ”

“ Bowles has exercised his faculty upon Man, and has a powerful inborn gift in that line which only requires cultivation to render him a match for any one. His more masculine nature is at present much obscured by that passing cloud which, in conventional language, is called "a hopeless attachment." ”

“ Along the gallery the honeysuckle and the Cherokee climbers were fragrant with the first blossoms of summer, and Bowles was glad to tarry beneath them when Mrs. Lee met him hospitably at the stoop. In the far west the Tortugas were passing through the daily miracle of sunset, and the hush of evening had settled upon all the land.
"Ah, Mrs. Lee," sighed Bowles, as he contemplated with a poet's eye the beauties of nature, "now I understand how you can live here for thirty years and never go back to New York. Such illumination—such color! And from the hill here, it is so much more glorious! ”

“ Time and again Bowles had explained that he was not English, that all gentlemen rose to the trot in the East, and that his people had never dropped an "h" in their lives. Like an old and groundless scandal that lives on denial alone, the tradition still clung to him; and now, as some vagrant fancy turned their will against him, they voiced their disapproval in this ancient gibe.
"It's Hinglish, you know!" they shouted; and once more Bowles was branded as an alien. ”

“ Bowles made itself felt, not only during the warm political discussions of Buchanan's administration, but also during the civil war itself, when his journal had acquired a national reputation. In 1865 he made a journey to the Pacific coast with a large company, and in 1868 travelled as far as Colorado. ”

“ Bowles not only became a feature in Bowling Green society, but indeed considered himself necessary to the dignity of the family he was serving, and in duty bound to fight any coachman who would make the slightest insinuations against it. ”

“ During the controversies affecting slavery and resulting in the Civil War, Bowles supported, in general, the Whig and Republican parties, but in the period of Reconstruction under President Grant his paper represented anti-administration or “Liberal Republican” opinions, while in the disputed election of 1876 it favoured the claims of Tilden, and subsequently became independent in politics. Bowles died at Springfield on the 16th of January 1878. ”

“ I don't know what we should do without Tommy Bowles. The spectacle of his white ducks is to me as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. They talk about an army of men in the basement working machinery that keeps the temperature ten degrees below what it is marked on the Terrace. Also there is, it seems, a ton and a half of ice melting in ventilating chambers at the taxpayers' expense for our comfort. But I don't think ice is in it with Tommy's ducks. ”

“ Bowles replies, that let the sun but shine, and ‘it is poetical per se,’ in which we think him right. His Lordship decompounds the wind into a caput mortuum of poetry, by making it howl through a pig-stye, instead of
‘Roaming the illimitable ocean wide;’ and turns a water-fall, or a clear spring, into a slop-basin, to prove that nature owes its elegance to art. ”

“ Samuel Bowles (4th) was one of ten children. He attended the public schools of Springfield, and then traveled abroad for two years. It was his father's intention that he should succeed him as editor of the “Republican,” and his education was planned with this end in view; his belief being that a newspaper editor should know the world directly, and not merely from books. The travel course was followed by special studies in Yale University (1871-72) and a term at the University of Berlin. Then, having completed his education, Mr. Bowles entered the business office of the “Republican.” ”

“ The only men who can stand the monotony of day-herding are those who are not overburdened with brains, and so have the ability to turn off the thinking-machine entirely until they need it again. Smoking helps, and singing long-drawn songs; but Bowles turned back to Wordsworth, the poet of nature. Stray snatches of poems and sonnets rose in his mind, and he tried to piece out the rest; then he gazed at the quivering mirage, the plain, the straying cattle, and wondered how Wordsworth would see it. ”

“ Bowles's meaning: too late, however, to remove the injurious impression which his hasty reading had occasioned. Generally, Mr. Bowles's more ambitious works may be ranked as superior to the poems of Crowe and Carrington—both of which in their day commanded a certain reputation—and as higher in academical elegance than the verse of Mr. James Montgomery; while they have neither the nerve and occasional nobility of Cowper, nor that intimate mixture of fancy, feeling, lofty contemplations, and simple themes and images which have placed Wordsworth at the head of a school. ”