The Portland daily press., 1880-09-25
The Literary Calling.

| S'sAASo l oy lOfCilot dLu SoodyiSI, ID
writing for the Nineteenth Century some pa
pers on "the literary calling, g,"-papers that
are received with interest and provoke much
angry comment and sharp and ill-natured,
and sometimes most unjust, criticism. In
these essays, reprinted so far as published,
in the eclectic magazines here, Mr.. Payn dis
cusses authorship as a trade, and gives kind
ly advice to the apprentice to letters and
tells the workman how best to use his tools
and market his wares. He holds that young
people who like books, have mastered the
English language, have something they
want to say, and can say it in pleasing
way, should be encouraged to turn to litera-
ture and try their hands at it. His idea
is, that the boy who has an. inclination to au-
thorship should be put upon the same foot
ing as the boy who has an inclination to
mechanics or TO sea-faI ing life, that his
chances are as good, and that his protectors
and educators should heed and seek to graf
ify mis- ambition. He may not succeed, but
the probabilities are in his favor. Few of
the boys who go to sea become commanders
OF great ships. but the majority are good
sailors and lead lives pleasant to them. Few
mechanics become masters of shops and
take out letters patent for startling inven-
tions, bnt they make good workmen and en-
joy the toll which is not drudgery because it
is congenial occupation. So, few men in
the literary calling may become great au-
thors, but they can do good and honest work
which brings hem pleasure and secures
them competence.
This, in substance. though not in lam
euage, is Mr.. Payn's argument. It is a
good argument, from the dialectic stand
point, but if it has any effect that effect will
be more harmful than helpful. 1t extends
invitation and gives encouragement to the
many who have no real aptitude for the
s'literary calling," but who mistake taste
for reading for call to write. Tie very
people to whom Mr.. Payn's pleasant arti-
cles will most strongly appeal are the people
who should be deprived of the pen
instead of being urged to its use
1t is wholly and emphatically true of the
literary calling, as it is in part true of all
callings, that no man is fit for it unless he
can make his own struggle led on by
strong and passionate love that will not
brook denial and can command loving SER
vice. He who cannot make his own way in
literature should not be led along. The
journey will be unhappy to him and profit
less,-except in way of warning-to all 9th
ary IF ono hoe apvtbjpr uorth Eefop;pr
to, the world will give him ear readily
enough. If he has message to deliver and
strength to preach he will make his audi
ence. The strong god Circumstance, like
heathen deities, may be overcome by the
strength and wit of man; but the man
muet be of heroic strain, and one who
Stands in no need of fostering. Those who
do need fostering are the ones least " orth
preserving. The men we need in literature
are the men who are bound to make them
selves heard. He who has to be assisted to
his voice is not worth listening to, and
wastes his time and abuses our patience.
OF all men he should not be encouraged.
We have. surfeit of him now, and he is
boring us to death.
If by the literary calling Mr.. Payn |
simply means book-making and journalism
his advice is well enough. There is some
demand for drudges in both these lines of
business, and whoever is content to be a
journeyman will find frequent oppor
tunities. If he have real and abiding |
liking for either he will find in |
them much hard work, the enjoyment that |
follows the faithful performance of con-
genial labor, and the usual small pay of |
journeymen. If he be satisfied with that.
well and good; but he should not think
himself "a literary feller' or speak of his
daily labor as ''the literary calling Into |
this error he will be led by an urquestion-
ing and confding reading of Mr.. Payn's
agreeable essays. That gentleman, like
many an argumentative man before him,
bases his reasoning upon a misnterpreta- |
ton of words. He confuses book-writing |
and journalism with literature. These
may. in rare cases, lead up to literature,
but they are certainly not literature, and |
the man who engages in them has not given |
himself to the ''literary calling" They are |
a trade, as Mr.. Payn in effect admits. |
Literature is not