The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1873-03-25
FORCEN LITERATURE.
rFrom the SATURDAY Review l

From the Saturday Review
Mn, Herbert Spencer maintains that the laws
of every phenomenon throughout the universe
including all spiritual and intellectual as well
stated as corollaries from the primary laws OF
force. By applying the principle OF the conser-
yation OF forces, We discover that the fall OF a
given weight through given distanceis is equiv.
alent to the development OF Q gwen quantity OF
heat In like manner We should discover that
the Same force. when converted into intel'ect.
usl activity, will generate given quantity OF
may compare the merit Of two literary produc-
tions by determining how much force was con-
sumed in their production. II, fr example,
Shakespeare's brain did an amount OF work
equal to ten foOt.pounds in composing the
sollloquy Of 'sHamlet," and Goethe's did an
amount equal to Eve Of the same units in com
DOSING Mgnon's song in wilhelm Melster,
then the merit of the soliloquy is precisely dou-
BILE that OF the song. We lsy no particular
stress on This theory, which has, as some peo-
pie may fancy, rather materialist sound, but
1t may serve az an illustration OF our proposed
principle. To compare the merits OF any two
writere, decide which exhibits the greater
amount Of force, aud as rule you may safely
pronounce him to be the greater. Thus the
quality which chiefly serves to distinguish
talent from genius Is originality. Fhe man
Who rroduces new idea capable OF aermlnat-
ing in the minds Of his readers is 80 far
greater man than he who is merely the channel
for transmitting ideas already expressed by
some original thinker. This ls the one great
quality which distinguishes the few leaders OF
the world nom the great mass OF dealers IN
second-hand opinion; and it is due simply TO
an excess Of power. Anybody can follow
beaten track, but to strike out path for your,
moral force which falls only to the select few.
Wherever 1t is found, We may say that its pos
SCISSOR is by birtbright one Of the immortals,
thorsh circumstances may stifle his powers OF
ntterance; and every one knows what strange
influence he possesses even when hls REMARKS
though original, have been anticipated by
SOMEONE else. A man who speaks from his
own >mnd ls SO far new force, and therefore
affects US in manner essentially different
from the ordinary writer, who can be consider.
ed merely as the surface upon which external
forces have impinged, in order to rebound:
Within the same class, again, tits easy to accept
the theory that the merit Of writer is proper
tional TO his ylgor. Ihe dlmoulty oegies Wv. wnen
We endeavor to compare writings different IN
species as well as in merit. There are some writ
irles in which force shows ITSELF as it were,
naked, and is obviously the secret OF the lntu-
ence which they exert over uS. Such, Tor ex-
ample, is that masculine and nervous prose OF
which we have 30 many masters ID Englisn
literature, and which sometimes looks 30 easy
when it is really 30 difficult. The clear COM
pressed reasoning Of Hobbies. the manly COM
mon sense of Locke, the Incompatible energy
Of Swift, and the comparatively coarse dogma
tizing OF Cobbett, have ell kind Of family, or
rather national, likeness; and, fortunately: we
sre not without some modern examples OF the
same style. On the other hand. the gorgeous
rhetoric OF Burke or Milton or Jeremy Taylor,
is also good 30 far as it is o symptom Of force
takirg Q different direction. The energy which
in one case displays itself by strong grasp OF
. few leading principles, displays itself in the
other by overlaying them with vast variety
of illustrations and applications. To decide
which is the greater, we must wait for that
new calculus OF the future, which will enable
us to estimate the total expenditure of force IN
etthar case.