y going."

In the rich, weird realm of Omar Khayyam's Persian poem, the Rubaiyat,
Mr. Vedder found the opportunity of his life for translating its thought
into strange, mystic symbolism. Never were artist and poet so blended
in one as in Vedder's wonderful illustrations for this poem. It has
nothing in common with what we ordinarily call an illustrated work. It
is a great treasure of art for all the ages. It is a very fount of
inspiration for painter and poet. An exquisite sonnet suggested by "The
Angel of the Darker Cup" is the following by Louise Chandler Moulton:--

"She bends her lovely head to taste thy draught,
O thou stern Angel of the Darker Cup!
With thee to-night in the dim shades to sup,
Where all they be who from that cup have quaffed.
She had been glad in her own loveliness, and laughed
At Life's strong enemies who lie in wait;
Had kept with golden youth her queenly state,
All unafraid of Sorrow's threat'ning shaft.

"Then human Grief found out her human heart,
And she was fain to go where pain is dumb;
So Thou wert welcome, Angel dread to see,
And she fares onward with thee, willingly,
To dwell where no man loves, no lovers part,--
Thus Grief that is, makes welcome Death to come."

The sonnet, the stanza, and the pictorial interpretation all form one
beautiful trio in poetic and graphic art.

Writing of Mr. Vedder, Mr. W. C. Brownell speaks of the personal force
in a picture and says that with Vedder this personal force is
imagination,--"the imagination of a man whose natural expression is
pictorial, but who is a man as well as a painter; who has lived as well
as painted, who has speculated, pondered, and felt much.... It is this,"
he continues, "that places Vedder in the front rank of the imaginative
painters of the day." Of Mr. Vedder's painting called "The Enemy Sowing
Tares," Mr. Brownell writes:--

"... Here you note a dozen phases of significance. The theme is
unconventional; the man has become the archenemy; the night is
weird and awe-inspiring; the tares represent the foe of the
church--money; they are sown at the foot of the cross--the symbol
of the church.... Mr. Vedder has not passed his life in Rome for
nothing. His attitude is in harmony with the spirit of the Sistine
and the Stanze."

One of the interesting and mystical works of Vedder is "The Soul between
Doubt and Faith,