Wright

“ Wright said, "now, friend—"
Paul remarked, "You're elected."
"I will not be a god."
[50]
6
Mijok released the hands of his deity and sat back on his haunches, foggy-eyed. Wright stroked the great furry head, troubled and amazed. "It won't do," Wright said. "We'll have no gods on this planet. Unless human nature can make itself a little godlike. And no final Armageddon—for that's within too, and always was. Well, he'll learn language fast. As he does, the first thing he must discover is that we're all one flesh." ”

“ It was Wright, coming up behind us. I thought I detected a little, cynical gleam in Mercedes' eyes, and laid my hand defiantly on Bill's arm.
"Are you tired?" I asked him gaily.
He laid his free hand over mine.
"Do men tire of life?" he counter questioned, gallantly, and I knew a swift admiration for his histrionic powers. For his voice went a little deep, quite suddenly, and the hand over mine shook.
"Nice answer," said Wright critically, "quite emotional, but open to argument. ”

“ The death of Wright is a sad commentary on these sad times. He was a genial gentleman, honest, frank, brave, the friend and protector of those who slew him. It is a sad commentary on the ingratitude of man, who in his earlier and lower estate seems fitted to be ruled by fear rather than by love. ”

“ Wright's great learning and his swift and keen intelligence were well fitted for a court of appeal. For real success in a court of first instance he lacked patience, stolidity, and willingness to listen without open disagreement to contentions which appeared to him to be groundless. He always thought quickly and often spoke hastily, not infrequently committing himself thereby to blunders which a man of less ability but more equable temper would easily have avoided. ”

“ Northcliffe, after his meeting with the Wrights at Pau, became one of their most enthusiastic supporters in England.
Long afterward, he publicly made this comment:
“I never knew more simple, unaffected people than Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine. After the Wrights had been in Europe a few weeks they became world heroes, and when they went to Pau their demonstrations were visited by thousands of people from all parts of Europe—by kings and lesser men, but I don’t think the excitement and interest produced by their extraordinary feat had any effect on them at all.” ”

“ Wright has more genius for teaching than any person I have before seen—his method and temper are admirable, and all parties, from assistants, of which there are several, to the youngest child delight in his presence and influence. ”

“ On stopping at Derby a few days since, I was introduced by a friend to view the productions of that great genius Wright, whose astonishing power of expressing artificial lights on canvas, the world has long been acquainted with. His new picture on the Siege of Gibraltar, for composition, force, brilliancy, and prodigious effect of fire, exceeds, in my opinion, all his former labours. To attempt a description of it would be in vain; whoever sees the picture must have such an idea of the action as no poetry can describe. ”

“ During the several days the correspondents were at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights knew they were being observed. From time to time they caught glimpses of men’s heads over the hilltop in the distance. Moreover, they heard each day, from members of a life-saving crew, just how many visitors had come. But they simply thought it was a good joke on the mysterious observers, whoever they were.
Arthur Ruhl, of Collier’s, had met the Wrights in Dayton about a year before. On May 14, before the final flight, he came over to the camp. ”

“ Wright has represented a view of the extensive scenery, combined with the action on the 13th Sept., 1782, in which his design is sublime, and his colouring natural and brilliant beyond description. We never remember to have seen shadows painted so little like substance as those in the foreground, which gain great strength and richness from the prodigious brightness of the grand explosion at a distance ”

“ Poor Wright awaited with some dread the end of school; and many an angry kick and blow he got, though he disarmed malice by the spirit and heroism with which he endured them. The news of his impudence spread like wildfire, and not five boys in the school approved of what he had done, while most of them were furious at his ill-judged threat of informing Mr Gordon. ”

“ He was in the air only one minute and forty-five seconds, but he had made history.
The crowd knew well they had “seen something” and behaved accordingly. In the excited babel of voices one or two phrases could be heard again and again. “Cet homme a conquis l’air!” “Il n’est pas bluffeur!” Yes, truly Wilbur had conquered the air, and he was no bluffer. That American word “bluffer” had been much used during the time that reports from the United States about the Wrights had been stirring controversy in France. ”

“ In 1836 Wright left Cambridge to settle in London. He soon took a house at Brompton, and for nearly forty years plied his pen unceasingly. He recovered from manuscript and printed for the first time many valuable historical and literary records. Much of his work was hastily executed, and errors abound, but his enthusiasm and industry were inexhaustible. At first his efforts were mainly confined to mediæval literature. In 1836 an anthology of ‘Early English Poetry,’ prepared by Wright, was issued in black letter by William Pickering [q. v.] ”

“ I remember you can see into the library from the path round the house!”
He darted out, the butler, protesting, lumbering along behind him.
“Mr. Wright,” he panted as he ran, “you didn’t reelly ought ... If any one should come ...”
But Bruce Wright was already at the window. The butler found him leaning on the sill, peering with an air of frightened curiosity into the empty room.
“The glazier from Stevenish”—Bude’s voice breathed the words hoarsely in Wright’s ear—“is coming to-morrow morning to put the window in. He wouldn’t come to-day, him being a chapel-goer and religious. ”

“ Besides these works, Wright prepared an accurate epitome in English of Dugdale's ‘Monasticon’ (London, 1693, fol.) , in the dedication of which he remarks: ‘Warwickshire has produced two of the most famous and deserving writers in their several ways that England can boast of—a Dugdale and a Shakespeare.’ Wood cites a distich of an elegy written by Wright upon John Goad [q. v.] Hearne, who respected Wright, having corresponded with him upon the subject of Leland, informs us that he wrote strictures upon Wood's ‘Athenæ,’ but never published them. ”

“ A small selection from his pictures was a prominent feature of the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1886. Wright was an able and versatile artist, and the great reputation which he made in his lifetime is fairly sustained at the present day. As a painter of candlelight pieces, especially in those compositions ‘The Orrery,’ ‘The Gladiator,’ and ‘The Air-pump,’ where genre and portrait are combined with dramatic action, he has no rival in the English school ”

“ Wright painted domestic and sentimental subjects in the pleasing but artificial style then popular, and his compositions were largely engraved in the ‘Keepsake,’ ‘Literary Souvenir,’ Heath's ‘Book of Beauty,’ ‘The Drawing-room Scrap Book,’ and ‘The Female Characters of Shakespeare.’ His portraits of Lord Tenterden, Bishop Gray, and Bishop Marsh were engraved for Fisher's ‘National Portrait Gallery.’ Wright died in London on 14 Jan. ”

“ Before the flights, some of the neighbors had been puzzled by reports that the Wrights were working on a flying-machine. One man in business near the Wright shop had become acquainted with an inventor who thought he was about to perfect a perpetual motion machine; and this businessman promptly sent the inventor to the Wrights, assuming that he would find them kindred spirits. John G. Feight, living next door to the Wright home, had remarked, just before the brothers went to Kitty Hawk: “Flying and perpetual motion will come at the same time.” ”

“ Wright had a son, whom he established at Rome as a teacher of languages. His brother, Jeremiah Wright, was also a painter, who assisted in the accessories of the judges' portraits in the Guildhall. A nephew, John Michael Wright, settled in Ireland and practised with some success as a portrait-painter there. ”

“ Slider and his companion are closing in right across my path, almost close together. With a bound I dash between them. Have they got me, or have I escaped them? A shout louder than ever and a “Bravo!” from Wright tell me I am clear of that danger, and have now but their last defence to pass. He is a tall, broad fellow, and a formidable foe to encounter, and waits for me close under their goal. The pace, I feel, is telling on me; the shouting behind sounds nearer, only a few yards divides us now. Shall I double, shall I venture a kick, or shall I charge straight at him? ”

“ Wright. "He hasn't a lazy bone in his body."
"There aren't many of us that have at his age," remarked Mr. Wright. "Are there, Pluto?"
The cat had run to meet him like a dog. For him the scent of Mr. Wright's fishing trousers was as the perfume of Araby; and he followed him to the room in the shed where his friend changed them for habiliments more generally agreeable.
At last Phil returned to the boulder cottage where he found Mrs. Fabian and Kathleen in the wind-break. The latter was working at the table, sorting the moss specimens for her slides. ”

“ Wright's portraits are frequently defective in drawing, and without quality or variety of handling, while their flesh tints are often hard. He is seen at his best in his subjects of artificial light, of which the “Orrery” (1766) , the property of the corporation of Derby, and the “Air-pump” (1768) , in the National Gallery, are excellent examples. His “Old Man and Death” (1774) is also a striking and individual production. An exhibition of Wright's works was brought together at Derby in 1883, and twelve of his pictures were shown in the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1886. ”

“ Wright's most remarkable fire-light effects are The Hermit, The Gladiator, The Indian Widow, The Orrery, and, already mentioned, the Air-Pump. Like Hogarth and Copley, he painted in that solid old English method which insured the preservation of his works. "On the whole it cannot be said that Wright's pictures have added much to the reputation of the British school. As a portrait painter he is hardly in the second rank." ”

“ Because of the persistence of that kind of incredulity, the Wrights did not expect many sightseers, least of all newspapermen, at Kitty Hawk during their preparations for government tests. Therefore they did not think it necessary to keep their plans secret. ”

“ Wright's books. Possibly, it has an added charm because of certain peculiar conditions. It was written in Redlands, California, during the winter of 1909-10, although the notion for the little volume occurred to the author while living in Kansas City. It was one of those times when the longing and will to do a work greater than the physical would permit seemed almost overpowering when, unconsciously coming to his aid, a young woman talking to a company of Christian Endeavorers chanced to remark, “After all, the real kings of earth are seldom crowned.” ”

“ Wright was born in Troy, New York, February 2, 1811, the son of John Wright. His early education was secured at Allen Fish's School in Troy, where he was prepared for admission to the Rensselaer Institute, where he graduated. His education was further completed at Yale College, where he graduated in medicine in 1833. ”

“ Wright to save the life of her father—it was he to be proprietor of Gallon’s—and the lives of those visiting gentlemen, representative of prohibition. Getting wearily up from the poker game in which he was employed, Mr. Wright made ready to go with the little girl.
“You had better come too, Bat,” said Mr. Wright, addressing Mr. Masterson. “I think you can do more with a Dodge mob than I can. They’ve seen more of your shooting.” ”

“ A common argument had been: “God didn’t intend man to fly. If he did, he would have given him a set of wings.”
It was the regret of his life to the Wrights’ friend, “Bill” Tate, that he missed witnessing that first flight. He had decided that “no one but a crazy man would attempt to fly in such a wind,” and made no effort to be there.
After preparing and eating their lunch, and then washing their dishes, Wilbur and Orville set out, about two o’clock that afternoon, to walk over to the Kitty Hawk weather station, four or five miles away, to send a telegram to their father. ”

“ Now that flights had been made, neighbors didn’t doubt the truth of the reports—though one of them had115 his own explanation. Mr. Webbert, father of the man from whom the Wrights rented their shop, said:
“I have known those boys ever since they were small children, and if they say they flew I know they did; but I think there must be special conditions down in North Carolina that would enable them to fly by the power of a motor. There is only one thing that could lift a machine like that in this part of the country—spirit power.” Webbert was a spiritualist. ”

“ The errors you have corrected in the Magazine are considerable, and make the production more valuable.
“RICHD WRIGHT.”
Prefixed to this notice of Wright, by Mr. Philips, was an engraved portrait of the artist by Blake.
JOSEPH WRIGHT. Etched by himself.
Amongst the effects of the late Mr. Geo. Cumberland, who was an intimate friend of Blake’s, was found an etching, evidently the one that served Blake as his copy, on which is written, “Wright, of Derby; etched by himself.” This is the only instance known of Wright having used the etching point. ”